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Duarte Pape: House in Vale da Abelha

In a village in northwestern Portugal, a single family house effectively combines vernacular traits with contemporary strokes, culminating in a striking wood façade.

Portuguese architect Duarte Pape has recently completed a single family house in Mação, northwestern Portugal. The project renovates and amplifies a pre-existing vernacular structure, giving it a decidedly contemporary nature.

The pre-existing construction, distributed over two floors, harbours the private areas of the house — bedrooms and bathrooms —, and the renovation sought to give way to traditional construction techniques, allowing a humble architectural vocabulary to shine through.

Duarte Pape, House in Vale da Abelha, Mação, Portugal 2012

The new volume harbours the house's living spaces, as well as the kitchen and all transition areas. Here, a contemporary architectural language seeks the best possible landscape framework and orientation, seeking to maximise sunlight exposure, and allowing a close relationship between interior and exterior spaces.

Pape has chosen wood as the main façade material, seeking to attain a minimal visual impact and a successful integration with the surroundings.

Duarte Pape: House in Vale da Abelha
Architect: Duarte Pape
Location: Mação, Portugal
Engineering: Eng. Francisco Domingos
Area: 200 square metres
Completion: 2012
Photography: Francisco Nogueira

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Duarte Pape: House in Vale da Abelha

In a village in northwestern Portugal, a single family house effectively combines vernacular traits with contemporary strokes, culminating in a striking wood façade.

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