Set on a sloped site within a golf course, this residence responds to a seven-meter elevation change that defines its spatial layout.
Project Name: Alcoutins House
Studio Name: Paulo Martins Arquitectura
Year: 2021/2024
Gross Area: 375 m2
Photography credit: Ivo Tavares
The upper level hosts the main entrance, while the lowest floor accommodates the garage and technical areas, offering direct access to the green. The private quarters are arranged on the intermediate level.
Designed to embrace the landscape while ensuring privacy from adjacent lots, the house features a lateral terrace with a pool and several balconies. These elements express the architectural concept—fluid, open spaces with blurred boundaries, echoing the clients’ desire for a lifestyle that feels freer and more connected to its surroundings.
At the top, the roof draws inspiration from Portuguese vernacular architecture, lush tropical vegetation, and a laid-back way of life. It takes the form of a folded surface with gabled profiles, finished in zinc externally and walnut wood internally. Carefully positioned openings in the roof’s structure create poetic, filtered glimpses of the sky through timber slats.
The social areas occupy the entry-level floor and flow naturally onto the main terrace through a wide recessed opening.
On the level below, bedrooms and suites are arranged to benefit from a more discreet access, heightening the visual and emotional experience of the views across the golf course.
A carefully curated material palette—white plaster and ipê wood on the exterior, microcement and walnut on the interior—reinforces the harmony between the architecture, its ambiance, and the surrounding landscape.
