Excessive on a ridge above Portugal’s Atlantic coast, Casa Plaj seems nearly imagined: a crimson geometry in a inexperienced expanse, elemental but exact. Designed by Lisbon-based extrastudio for a younger household, the vacation home is each retreat and experiment – constructed slowly, iteratively, in excessive attunement to wind, mild and time. Its creation captures a portrait of structure as course of: shaped by way of trade, grounded within the textures of place, and open to evolution.
The primary conversations round Casa Plaj started throughout a household vacation. Whereas travelling in Switzerland, Caldeira Ferrão obtained an e-mail from Anna and Paul, a Munich-based couple all in favour of commissioning a vacation home. In response, he steered assembly in Bregenz, on the Peter Zumthor-designed Kunsthaus. Looking back, the timing felt serendipitous, coming simply earlier than the primary pandemic-induced lockdowns of 2020. The temporary was to design a vacation home the household may return to for lengthy stays – in summer time and in winter, with the opportunity of renting it out sometimes in between. Solely the footprint was mounted; the remainder was open.
It will definitely discovered type by way of extrastudio’s reside design course of, which started in 2022. Its distinctive crimson tone – achieved with pigmented lime mortar – was impressed by an sudden second.
The transition from home to pool was rethought halfway. What had been a clean nook – “a lifeless finish and a black finish” – turned one thing extra. A window was added, then coloured glass. “Once you enter the pool, we needed there to be a component not solely of shock, however of one thing that you just’d by no means seen earlier than.” They selected crimson. It casts a heat, altered view of the surface world. “You’ve by no means seen the outside world by way of crimson.” Even in winter, it provides a way of brightness and escape. “Only a small story, a small element, but additionally lovely.” Different elements shifted too – the timber, inside textures, the gate – turning leftover areas into a part of the entire.
Inside, supplies have been stored pure and unembellished, chosen to anchor the home by way of altering seasons and, as Caldeira Ferrão places it, “transfer away from each day life.” In summer time, the area opens vast; in winter, it attracts in. Flooring are polished concrete; partitions are hand-plastered in an imperfect end. “The entire home is plastered with a base coat that’s not good. There’s a number of guide enter into it.” Oak veneer, washed in mushy gray, retains the exactly crafted joinery pared again. Silver travertine defines key thresholds, whereas the kitchen island is minimize from Mármore Verde Serpa – a uncommon Portuguese marble with shifting tones of gray, blue, inexperienced and white. Mild is launched rigorously. The east-facing visitor bed room receives morning solar solely briefly, so a sequence of oculi was designed to filter mild by way of the lounge and loo. “These shapes are simply the cones of sunshine,” says Caldeira Ferrão. “It’s very discreet; only a means to enhance the standard.”
The home permits for motion and retreat. The terraces are steady – if the wind picks up on one aspect, you progress to the opposite. All people can discover their very own nook. “It provides you this sense of risk and of freedom. You all the time have choices.” The kitchen is the middle of all of it, and Anna’s favourite area. “It’s not day-after-day which you can principally prepare dinner on the ocean.” The room opens in three instructions and is completely symmetrical. “It’s very tall, round ten meters.” Each window is pocketed, sliding totally into the partitions. “There are not any traces of glass anymore.” From the excessive rear window, daylight filters in from above, drawing the attention to the complete quantity of the area.
Supply: Inside Zine
