Vilar de Mouros House

In Vilar de Mouros, within a dense woodland near the Coura River, the forest became the starting point for an architecture that emerges from the site and blends into the landscape. The intention was to create a secluded retreat, where nature and the surrounding environment would shape the experience of living.

To achieve this, the house adapts to the existing trees, carefully navigating between their trunks and canopies. At the same time, it preserves the old stone walls that define the terrain, maintaining a tangible connection to the site’s history.

An Architecture That Grows with the Forest

Like a tree, the house rises vertically in search of sunlight. Each level therefore offers a different perspective of the surrounding landscape.

At ground level, expansive glazing opens the house towards the garden and swimming pool, at the height of the tree trunks. On the first floor, clad in timber, the two bedrooms frame views of the woodland among the treetops.

Finally, the roof becomes a terrace, an elevated observation point overlooking the landscape and the night sky. Here, natural light and the distant horizon evoke a sense of openness and infinity.

Materiality and Integration into the Landscape

The façade, clad in timber sourced from sustainably managed forests, establishes a natural chromatic relationship with its surroundings. As a result, the house blends discreetly into the woodland, almost disappearing among the trees.

More than a home, it becomes a place from which to quietly observe the rhythms of the forest and the changing seasons.

Rather than an object placed upon the land, the house proposes a way of inhabiting the forest, attuned to light, time and silence.