Casa Do Mar
Melides, Portugal
Concept
In Portugal's coastal Alentejo region, the "sobreiro," or cork oak, has been harvested for the past 300 years.
The arid, rural landscape is dotted with traditional farmhouses used by cork farmers for generations. Simple in form, their plastered walls are topped with gabled tile roofs.
In adapting these barn structures, Casa do Mar forms a modern ode to Portugal's agricultural heritage set alongside wild sand dunes and pine forest.
A courtyard with local Moleanos limestone cobbles stretches from a low stone wall toward the entry. On three sides, structures with hand-troweled textured plaster walls and traditional tiled roofs sit perpendicular to one another. Casa do Mar's facade conjures images of the region's centuries-old barn architecture. Inside, modern forms and finishes are revealed — expansive glass walls, poured concrete floors, and streamlined wood screens and trellises.
Long corridors leading to floor-to-ceiling windows cleave the rectilinear volumes that make up Casa do Mar. These apertures, inspired by the narrow stone walkways of Portugal's medieval towns, form visual extensions into the landscape, where native plantings further place the house into context. Set back from the west-facing Atlantic coast, time is marked by the passage of sunlight and shadow and the gradual shift of the tide on the shoreline just below.
Services
Architecture, Interior Design
Team
Contacto Atlantico (Architect & Engineer of Record) NicoleHollis (Interior design) RegensDesign (Architectural Lighting) Contacto Atlantico (Landscape Architect)