Gateira is a hamlet placed on a beautiful hill planted with vineyards, pines and olive trees with splendid views over the southern tip of Serra da Estrela, the highest point in mainland Portugal.

© Nelson Garrido

Architects: Camarim Arquitectos

Location: Gateira, 3230, Portugal

Architect In Charge: Camarim

Design Team: Vasco Correia, Patrícia Sousa

Area: 403.0 sqm

Project Year: 2014

Photographs: Nelson Garrido

Collaborators: Tiago Garrido, Jonas Grinevicius, Christoph Schwander

Site Area: 2143 m2

© Nelson Garrido

From the architect. Gateira is a hamlet placed on a beautiful hill planted with vineyards, pines and olive trees with splendid views over the southern tip of Serra da Estrela, the highest point in mainland Portugal.
© Nelson Garrido

The clients - a British couple - wanted a second home to give them space, open air and silence, in contrast to their life in London. The first question: how to design on such a dramatic landscape, with an unusual balance between nature, agriculture and traditional architecture" Our strategy was to interfere as little as possible: one enters the house in the upper part of the plot, through a wall that evokes the region?s traditional slate buildings, and descends onto the house?s core ? a social spac...