Photos: MSB Architectos.
The English Landscape painter John Constable would usually paint with a plethora of different greens, but one thing that helped to pull his paintings from the ordinary, was a clever and cunning touch of red! The red, often depicted as an item of clothing on a peasant figure, need not be particularly bright, but just sufficient to contrast with the greens like a dash of pepper contrasts with the sweet and sour flavours of strawberries.
On the lush, green island of Madeira, MSB Architects have applied the same principle as Constable did, enhancing an entire landscape with its brightly coloured building. Read more
With its living façade this lovely house site proudly if mysteriously somewhere in the city Lisbon, Portugal. With its long thin rooftop pool it evokes the early work of Koolhaas at Villa Dall’ Ava but the language of this building is far more polished. Read more
Photos: JoséCampos.
An old ruined house, that was divided into three small floors, has been transformed with a simple and elegant conversion from a ramshackle property into a beautiful family home. Located in Matosinhos, Portugal it was designed by Rui Cerqueira Barros.
From the street, the house reads as two distinct volumes. The old house in what appears like a grey render and a new timber-clad thin volume to the side. The tall proportion to this volume is exaggerated by what looks like a tall thin front door. The door, which is actually half the height it appears to be, counters what would otherwise be the mundanity of the squarish garage door. This play with proportion raises the house from the ordinary into a house with a touch of style. Read more
Photos: FG + SG.
Enclosing a large cork oak tree the three courtyard house by Miguel Marcelino is a product of a sunny climate and a perceptive view of nature. Located in Vila Nova de Santo Estêvão, Benavente, Portugal its defining feature is the way it uses a series of courtyards as outdoor rooms that also act as intermediate spaces to the landscape beyond. Read more
Images: And-Ré
More than a formal / plastic exercise, And-Ré the architects of this proposal for a biomedical research centre for the Combra University in Portugal, argue that the apparently folding forms of the façade are a creative response to intense environmental criteria and high performance functional requirements. Read more
