Looking inside: Caseiros House

SAMF Architects reinterpreted the original Portugese farmhouse with their design of Caseiros House. The house is composed of a simple volumes set and the white walls and terra-cotta tiled roofing create a visual connection between the house and the traditional agricultural buildings nearby. The entrance is set back inside a porch, framing the view over the river Douro. You can see the landscape served as starting point for the design of the house.

Also the inside spaces coincide with the outside form. The architects went for the simplest possible division of rooms and avoided circulation spaces. The materials used are the ones already existing in the traditional farmhouse: ceramic roof tiles, stone walls, wooden trellis and white stucco. Everything is into balance and in perfect harmony. However, the architects explain ‘the design also relates to the modern tradition, providing an openness of interpretation, with a subtle reworking of details which tend to give a more abstract and ambiguous character to the whole.’

The frugally furnished interior comes with blue cabinets that continues the palette of the exterior of the farmhouse and incorporates entrances to the two bedrooms in the slightly smaller second volume. Traditional painted tiles popular in the region are replaced by geometric tiles to become a more modern interpretation. The marble countertop in the kitchen adds a natural detail.

A typical gatehouse is relatively small, but the architects tried to offset this by creating rooms with steep ceilings that accentuate spaciousness.

Pictures by José Campos