In Portugal, the extension of a rural building as a brutalist flirt

Filipe Pina + David Bilo’s Casa NaMora reinterprets the frugal and authentic flavor of rural architecture, in a balanced relationship between natural context and essential but appealing geometries.

Filipe Pina + David Bilo, Casa NaMora, Gonçalo, Guarda, Portugal 2022. Photo Ivo Tavares Studio Filipe Pina + David Bilo, Casa NaMora, Gonçalo, Guarda, Portugal 2022. Photo Ivo Tavares Studio

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Chiara Testoni
23 August 2022
Gonçalo, Guarda, Portugal
Filipe Pina + David Bilo
320 sqm
residential
2022

NaMora in Portuguese has two meanings: on the one hand it indicates the location of the intervention, "in Mora" ("Na Mora"), from the name of the site where the property is located; on the other it means "flirt" ("namora"). It is around this play on words that architects Filipe Pina and David Bilo have designed, in the small village of Gonçalo at the foot of the Serra da Estrela, the extension of a rural dwelling with which the new construction dialogues "flirting" amiably, in harmony with the surrounding landscape. The pre-existing building is a granite construction with a double brick pitch dating back to the mid-20th century and located within an 18-hectare agricultural property with which two new bodies of the building relate, lying in the irregular orography of the terrain.

Filipe Pina + David Bilo, Casa NaMora, Gonçalo, Guarda, Portugal 2022. Photo Ivo Tavares Studio

The essential and rigorous volumes with gabled roofs evoke the silhouette of the original body immediately adjacent; the historic building houses the traditional functions of the farm (the warehouse, technical area, services and kitchen) while the new part of the dwelling includes the living room, bedrooms, suite and outdoor recreational space. The choice of rough and natural materials lends a straightforward and functional aura to the architecture, which renounces any rhetorical and decorative surrender to embrace a bare language with a "brutalist" flavour: the rough cement surfaces of the elevations and roofing and the local stone of the basement dialogue with the granite masonry of the rural building, creating a vibrant colour and texture palette.

Filipe Pina + David Bilo, Casa NaMora, Gonçalo, Guarda, Portugal 2022. Photo Ivo Tavares Studio

The interiors are characterised by an essential appearance: white plastered walls, austere exposed concrete surfaces and soft natural wood finishes give the rooms a simple yet refined aura. Large windows open the view to the outdoor landscape where the open-air relaxation area, with a pool of water reflecting the sky at its centre, "flirts" with the surrounding dense pine forest.

Filipe Pina + David Bilo, Casa NaMora, Gonçalo, Guarda, Portugal 2022. Photo Ivo Tavares Studio

Casa NaMora
Filipe Pina + David Bilo
Filipe Pina, David Bilo, Diana Cruz
MPS
Gonçalo, Guarda, Portogallo

Filipe Pina + David Bilo, Casa NaMora, Gonçalo, Guarda, Portugal 2022. Photo Ivo Tavares Studio

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In Portugal, the extension of a rural building as a brutalist flirt

Filipe Pina + David Bilo’s Casa NaMora reinterprets the frugal and authentic flavor of rural architecture, in a balanced relationship between natural context and essential but appealing geometries.

View Article details

Sections

Specials

Magazine

In Portugal, the extension of a rural building as a brutalist flirt

Filipe Pina + David Bilo’s Casa NaMora reinterprets the frugal and authentic flavor of rural architecture, in a balanced relationship between natural context and essential but appealing geometries.

View Article details

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