Raw finishes and "as found" materials informed by brutalist architecture are used throughout this home, which Portuguese studio Atelier Local has created on a nature reserve near Porto.
Called House in Ancede, the house sits on the site of a former stone ruin that it was required to roughly match in terms of its footprint and volume.
A mismatch between the documentation of the site and the built reality allowed Atelier Local to expand the footprint of the building slightly, using the existing stones to rebuild retaining walls and make space for a bathroom and staircase.
Atelier Local has created House in Ancede
"The house is a reconstruction of sorts," said the studio's co-founders Maria Rebelo and João Paupério. "Its proportions, the slope of the roof as well as the basis for the facade's composition was set from the beginning," they told Dezeen. "In a way, we might say that the house was found as a ready-made and re-designed 'as found', to [refer] to Alison and Peter Smithson?s famous expression," they continued.
It takes cues from brutalist architecture
Stepping down the sloping site, the dwelling looks out towards a nearby woodland and the River Duoro through large rectangular and circular windows, with aluminium frames finished in a bright shade of red.
The living areas and bedrooms are organised across three floors, each finished with exposed materials and minimalist fittings. These were informed by descriptions of an old bru...