10CCV - Casa Cabo de Vila, 2015 - Rui Dinis | Paredes, Portugal

Architects: Henrique Marques / Rui Dinis 

Client: Private

Project team: Sérgio Rocha / Rui Rodrigues / Rui Miguel 

Landscape Architects: IMUNU 

Photographer: FG+SG  - Fernando Guerra

Cabo de vila is a residential project for a young couple that wanted a house that doesn't look like a regular house. 

When first reviewing the plot for the house, the approach to the location became the source of inspiration for the project. 

The intention was for a shape that can fill the void left by the valley and, at the same time, for this new shape to embrace and reflect the surrounding green areas giving its users a special perspective on the landscape. 

The proposed volume materializes its shape through two concrete slabs with concave sides, allowing a light glass and wood wall to unroll between them, which —in a positive and negative game— lets the interior of the house communicate with the exterior. 

Inside, the house reflects the way of living of its owners. The central courtyard welcomes anyone who enters the house and organizes all the common spaces around it like a no-end space. 

Here, there are no barriers between the different spaces, only an organic geometry that establishes hierarchies between them and allows mutual visual contact. 

The private spaces of the house are hidden behind a curtain wall that surrounds the courtyard as well as the garage and the service areas. 

Like in the common areas, the main bedroom is a fluid space without doors, where the hierarchy of the relations between the closet the bathroom, and the sleeping area shapes the space. 

With raw materials inside and outside, the house establishes a perfect connection with the landscape.