Cork Oak House in Portugal / Hugo Pereira Arquitetos

© Ivo Tavares Studio

The Cork Oak House is a single-family property on a plot of extraordinary morphological characteristics; with approximately 12 thousand square meters, the land is located in a natural protection area due to several cork oak trees. The implantation of the house allowed the maintenance of all the existing trees.

Cork Oak House in Portugal Technical Information

• Architects: Hugo Pereira Arquitetos
• Principals: Hugo Pereira and Diogo Jordão
• Location: Celorico de Basto, Portugal
• Topics: Concrete, Portuguese Houses
• Area: 330 m²
• Year of conclusion: 2020
• Photographs: © Ivo Tavares Studio

The development of this project took into account the strong relationship with nature, making it an integral part of the house and a key element in the enhancement of interior spatiality.

– Hugo Pererira Architects

Cork Oak House in Portugal Photographs

© Ivo Tavares Studio

© Ivo Tavares Studio

© Ivo Tavares Studio

© Ivo Tavares Studio

© Ivo Tavares Studio

© Ivo Tavares Studio

© Ivo Tavares Studio

© Ivo Tavares Studio

© Ivo Tavares Studio

Text by the Architects

The lightness of this construction is accentuated by the details and environments related to each other. The mixture of green of the various trees and shrubs, a constant presence in the house’s space.

The choice of construction elements was defined, taking into account the visual impression caused and the surroundings’ framing. The outside of the house is all built-in concrete with the traditional process using pine wood boards and the stereotomy designed according to the surfaces’ scale and the whole set. The slope on the façades suggests the land’s continuity, disguising the house in the ground and nature by choosing the color, whose tonality highlights the surroundings’ green.

The concrete walls remain inside the house, contrasting with the glass walls that allow abundant natural light, from east to west, and the nature that abounds on the outside, whether as large trees or shrubs that flavor the environment and attract magnificent species of insects.

Inside the house, there are big and bright spaces; the kitchen opens into the dining and living room. On the perpendicular are the three suites, and on the upper floor, a wide and panoramic space. The floor is covered in black tiles, continuing the external patios, both on the roof and the ground floor.

The dark tint of the pavement contrasts with the wood of two key elements: the flowing, suspended furniture that runs through the kitchen, dining room, and living room and whose asymmetry is similar to the house and the furniture in the corridor, also suspending, that starts a tone end and “tearing” the door to the master suite. The existing furniture pieces and decorative elements were carefully chosen and framed in the house’s architecture.

The house’s access is by a Portuguese granite road that goes around the cork oak trees and ends into the asymmetrical flap of a great volumetry that gives grandiosity to its entrance. The lighting was strategically placed less aggressively and artificially.

With salt and crystalline water, the narrow pool is a space of excellence for contemplating nature with the birds chirping as background noise.

Cork Oak House in Portugal Image Gallery

About Hugo Pereira Arquitetos

Established in 2009 and based in Celorico de Basto, Portugal, the studio offers architecture, interior design, and urban planning expertise. The team is youth, professional, and passionately involved in all projects, from inception to completion, developing integrated solutions of the highest quality in a constant search for new ways and answers.

Works from Hugo Pereira Arquitetos 

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