Architecture Wednesday: Embracing House

This extremely rustic remodel lies in the village of Malveira da Serra in Portugal.

When the artist-architect Pedro Quintela found the home it was mainly the ruins of a u-shaped home around an enclosed small courtyard. He asked a neighbor who owned property and found him that same day and purchased the home.

The cleaning phase was crucial and gave the architect the chance to become more acquainted with the house, and the opportunity to discover past relics which he reintroduced with a new life in the new house. Still, while he loved the old home, he took everything down except for the original stone walls.

And then he moved into the unfinished space, living in it while he decided what room went where, and for what purpose each space was intended.

In order to respect and preserve the identity of the original construction, the architect used only local materials, such as pine and granite from the nearby Sintra hillsides, as well as some of the site’s original materials; he treated it as though he was rebuilding a puzzle.

And the puzzle was completed after two years, resulting in a clean space with rustic ceilings and floors, stone walls, and boulder walls.

It truly is a work of art and architecture.

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