Houses on the Sand / Aires Mateus

Houses on the Sand / Aires Mateus - Exterior PhotographyHouses on the Sand / Aires Mateus - Interior Photography, Bedroom, Windows, Chair, BeamHouses on the Sand / Aires Mateus - Interior Photography, Dining room, Table, Chair, BeamHouses on the Sand / Aires Mateus - Exterior PhotographyHouses on the Sand / Aires Mateus - More Images+ 29

Comporta, Portugal
  • Architects: Aires Mateus
  • Area Area of this architecture project Area:  180
  • Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2010
  • Photographs
    Photographs:Nelson Garrido
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Houses on the Sand / Aires Mateus - Exterior Photography
© Nelson Garrido

Text description provided by the architects. This project is a response to very specific conditions. Its basis is the recovery of existing wood-masonry buildings, providing the complex with a homogeneous unity under a sloping roof. 

Houses on the Sand / Aires Mateus - Exterior Photography
© Nelson Garrido
Houses on the Sand / Aires Mateus - Exterior Photography
© Nelson Garrido

The design begins with the existing material conditions, depending on their inhabitation potential.

Houses on the Sand / Aires Mateus - Interior Photography
© Nelson Garrido
Houses on the Sand / Aires Mateus - Image 30 of 34
Plan and section
Houses on the Sand / Aires Mateus - Interior Photography, Dining room, Table, Chair, Beam
© Nelson Garrido

The brief suggests the renovation of the masonry buildings, adapting them for use as individual rooms, while one of the two wooden volumes is converted into a two-bedroom pavilion and the other is the pavilion for common areas.

Houses on the Sand / Aires Mateus - Interior Photography, Bedroom, Windows, Chair, Beam
© Nelson Garrido

The street entrance emerges through the sandy ground, which is used as a basis for all the constructions. This treated material is spread as paving inside the community pavilion, qualifying the domestic conditions with a sense of natural comfort. The textural continuity of powerful material like sand changes the scale of the interior spaces, making the act of inhabitation a unique poetic experience, fitting for the sort of experience sought for this place.

Houses on the Sand / Aires Mateus - Exterior Photography
© Nelson Garrido

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About this office
Cite: "Houses on the Sand / Aires Mateus" [Casas na Areia / Aires Mateus] 17 Mar 2011. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/969460/houses-on-the-sand-aires-mateus> ISSN 0719-8884

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