OPEN LIVING: Portuguese countryside residence

Located within the rather traditional Portuguese village of Comporta, Lisbon-based architecture firm Fragmentos has designed and constructed a five-bedroom family home that spotlights low, minimal volumes and open living known as Comporta 10 House.

Easy life

This five-bedroom home is designed within the interplay between various living volumes, not only encouraging an elegant transition between indoor and out, but additionally allowing for a range of orientations as seen from central living and sleeping spaces, resulting in a plot which is fully useable in a range of weather conditions. The various volumes envelop an outdoor courtyard and swimming pool and succeed in feeling both connected to each other while allowing guests to retain privacy.

In designing Comporta 10 House, the architects included references to the traditional Comporta Style, creating a family space which simultaneously feels fresh, open, contemporary and timeless. The materials strongly reference their surroundings, while the architects’ choice of finishing the façades as simple white blocks as seen from the outskirts of the plot allow for the local vegetation and white sand dunes to take centre stage.

A division

The home is roughly broken up into two main areas, the left side housing the common areas – an open, continuous living, dining and kitchen space – while the right side consists of the five bedrooms and bathrooms. The left core of the residence focuses on creating a space which feels connected to the outdoors, the architecture reinforced by the choice of large spans and sliding glass doors that open out into the exterior living spaces.

The right core of the home, housing the more private spaces, is defined not by large open voids, but in the creation of smaller courtyards and nooks, allowing each family member or visitor to have a space within the plot which feels as if their own.