Portuguese architect Filipe Saraiva chose black concrete panels for the walls of his family home, which is designed to look like a child's interpretation of a house.
Built on a rectangle of land that slopes southwards down to the street, the house is surrounded by farmland and overlooks the Castle of Ourém.

The difference in height between the highest point and the lowest point of the house is approximately 4.5 metres.
"When we ask a child, anywhere in the world to draw a house, all of them invariably present us with a simplistic representation consisting of five lines, a rectangle and two squares," explained Filipe Saraiva of Filipe Saraiva Arquitectos, who built the house for his family.

"This archetype is usually defined by a polygon of regular geometric shape, generally well proportioned and with balanced dimensions, with which we all identify." Using this simple geometric shape as a starting point, Saraiva stretched the pentagonal form across the site, cladding it in prefabricated black concrete panels to blend in with the landscape.

The southern gable of the house, which overlooks the street, is entirely glazed and leads out onto a timber pergola that extends out from the house.
Cantilevered over the garden, the pergola can also be accessed by a series of stepping stones from the garden. Meanwhile, the northern gable end of the house functions as a garage.

"This form has become the concept of this project with which I tried to be, throu...