The terrain has a completely dominant character in the Algarve mountain range. The few buildings that exist refer precisely to the presence of people, and form an invisible network across the landscape. These two houses are clearly artificial in relation to nature, functioning like geodetic survey markers in the vast horizon.
The houses are different but share a similar regular geometry, and this creates a dynamic tension which ensures unity. Each of these “inverted ruins” has a very austere form, completed by just a series of voids on the façades.
The ground floor functions as a communal living and meeting space. In contrast, the bedrooms are very intimate spaces like monastic cells. Each has its own terrace, a space for mental stretching and unwinding that is open to the distant landscape and the sky. Concrete platforms provide the transition between the interiors of the houses and the undulating landscape, the exterior living areas being distinguished by the swimming pools.
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