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Article from issue 5/2000 »Flat Roofs«

House in Moledo, Portugal

documentation p. 831 - 833
Architect Souto de Moura, Eduardo | Structural Engineer Cardosa, José Adriano |

Drafts
Horizontal Sections 1:20
Section/Plan 1:250
Vertical Sections 1:20

Set on a rocky hillside in Portugal, the house is scarcely visible from the valley below. To achieve such a natural synthesis of architecture and landscape, the building not only had to be planned with the utmost care; it was necessary to modify the hillside as well, painstakingly reshaping the terraces over a period of six years. Broad areas of glazing in the west face afford a view to the Atlantic in the distance. In contrast, the glazed east face at the rear of the house is separated by only a narrow space from the wall of rock, which forms a visual closure to the rooms on this side. The sole element that is clearly legible as an independent object is the flat roof, on which the chimney stacks and lantern lights are laid out like cubic sculptures.