A house in the terraced hills of the Douro seems to grow out of the ground

Casa Jeronimo is a small building surrounded by the terraced vineyards of the Douro region, an architecture that seems to arise from the landscape. It relates to the ruins of an ancient farmhouse, of which only old stone walls remain, and to the soil, reorganized by massive retaining works. These production-oriented structures are the raison d'être of the house: elements to which the new volume constantly refers by detaching, getting closer, or integrating.

The result is a relationship between old and new that enriches the spaces of the house and its connections with the open space. This way, the sense of belonging to a place inherited from the labor of farmer-builders who have shaped the cultural landscape of the Douro Valley for centuries is re-established. The interstitial space between the old stone walls and the new volumes becomes the driving force of a relationship between interior and exterior, responding to the cycles of the seasons and offering ever-changing lights, time, and atmospheres.

As one gets closer, the volume, from seeming to be an integral part of the ground, goes on to acquire a certain linguistic abstraction and formal autonomy, with the pink pigmented concrete creating a chromatic harmony with the context. The house, a holiday home, is built on two levels, housing respectively a very transparent living area on the lower level and a sleeping area on the upper level, characterised by a more sculptural bookcase. Sections show how this interplay between stereotomic heaviness and transparent lightness merges into a single organism, of which the retaining walls of the surrounding terraces become a component, making this new house an artefact that blends with the landscape of wine production.