Cerro d’Águia: the house that stands up

The project

The second house on the hillside in Albufeira: two sand-rendered volumes with the pool between them and planting on every parapet. In licensing.

What we were responsible for

The second of the two houses on the same hillside, and the opposite argument to its neighbour. Where that one lies down along the slope in white and dry stone, this one stands up in two sand-rendered volumes with a pool set between them, and every parapet is planted so the building greens as it rises. The plan opens to the south in a double-height living room, with the dining room and the bedrooms turned to the same view; the entrance is a courtyard cut between the two volumes, so the car and the front door share one shaded space instead of a driveway. It was commissioned at the same time as its neighbour and under the same design contract, engineering included.

Who built it

WALLNUT was responsible for the design. No construction contract has been awarded — and the work can go to site with us, under a single contract.

What this does not include

It sits in the same licensing process as the house next door, and nothing here is built either.

Verified facts

Volumes above ground
2 with the pool set between them
Living room ceiling
2 storeys, glazed to the south
Planted parapets
— every one of them: the building greens as it rises
The entrance is
1 courtyard between the volumes — car and front door in the same shade
On the same hillside as
1 the second house, published separately
Status
— in licensing; nothing built

Images

The house seen head on across the pool: two sand-rendered volumes stepping forward on either side of a glazed centre, planting spilling from every parapet, and a dry-stone wall retaining the pool terrace. — Two volumes, and the pool in the gap between them.

The pool terrace along the flank of the house, loungers in a row on pale paving, cypresses and olive against the render, and the upper floor overhanging in shade. — The upper floor overhangs far enough to shade the terrace at midday.

The entrance: a covered opening cut between two rendered volumes with a car standing under it, planting hanging from the parapet above and the house visible straight through to the garden beyond. — No driveway. The car stops inside the building.

The entrance courtyard from the garden side, framed by a mature tree, with lawn running up to the threshold and the interior lit beyond the opening. — The same opening from the other side: it is a room, not a gap.

A double-height living room: two low sofas facing each other across a rug, a woven pendant hanging in the void, full-height glazing on three sides and the sea on the horizon. — Two storeys of glass, and the sea sitting at the height of the first floor.

The dining room: a long timber table for fourteen with rush-seated chairs, three woven pendants above it, and a wall of glazing onto planting behind. — Fourteen at the table, in a room with one solid wall.

A bedroom with a low bed against a plain wall, a woven pendant to one side, and a sliding glazed door framing two cypresses and the sea. — Every bedroom gets the same horizon as the living room.

Other work

A house lifted so the view stays whole — Vilamoura
Five-bedroom house with a pool
Cerro d’Águia: a house on dry-stone terraces
Private house
Loja Hagra: a showroom built around seven shipping containers
Retail and showroom

Reading note

On this page, 7 renders of the design. None of it is a photograph: there is nothing yet to photograph. The furniture and art in the renders show the design intent; they are not a specification. We do not publish the client. No costs, prices or margins are published.

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