Portugal-based design studio TRAMA Arquitetos' new work, Vilarinha House, occupies a former 19th-century single-family house in poor condition and lacking architectural features. So no one ever intended to maintain or restore the building, however, its high elevation makes it stand out.

The new building was placed by TRAMA Arquitetos at the same height as the original building, with a view of the sky stretching down to the sea from the second floor. For the architecture studio, the most difficult aspect of completing the scheme was the shape of the land, which is trapezoidal, narrow and tapered in configuration.

As the House must be integrated with the surrounding vegetation, Vilarinha House emerges as a void and filling volume, along a vertical axis that seeks to deconstruct the complex, while its main feature lies in its materiality.

TRAMA Arquitetos always intended to explore nature and more primitive materials in order to better integrate the house with its natural surroundings. To do this, they chose to use the plasticity of concrete, giving it a yellow ochre paint, combined with slats of wood and copper.

The scheme is inserted into an urban plot with more rural traces, and among all the adjacent compositions, something stands out: in the west, there are the Outlines of the trees of Parque da Cidade, which enter the sea; In the east, a cluster of pine trees recreates a small forest; In the north, there is a community garden, and in the south, a group of old oak trees. As a result, all openings are designed to take advantage of the peculiarities of the terrain. The result is a house that is unique and in harmony with its environment, while ignoring the form and function of the building.