Casa Plaj: A Home Suspended in Nature

In Lourinhã, a municipality where the Portuguese countryside meets the Atlantic Ocean, Casa Plaj is a vacation house designed by extrastudio.

Casa Plaj: An elemental form that defies gravity

The typical design freedom of a vacation home gives architects a chance to experiment with innovative shapes and ideas. Extrastudio set out to create a dwelling with an elemental form, inspired by the typical features of the local historic buildings. The main challenge, though, was to integrate the house into its natural setting without compromising its visual and functional balance.

The most striking aspect about this project is its relationship with its sloping site. Rather than anchoring itself to the slope, Casa Plaj appears to float above it. Four load-bearing walls support a cross-shaped platform on which the house rests, touching the slope at a single point to allow entry, while all other faces have terraces that appear suspended in the air, extending the interiors outside. A feature of every room is therefore its views over the surrounding landscape.

Monochromatic, well-lit interiors

Arranged on a single level, the kitchen, dining room, and living room share a generous space that opens symmetrically to the north, east, and west, while the three bedrooms face south.

The project compensates for its 120 m² of floor space by fully exploiting the volume’s height to create an unexpected sense of spaciousness. A large skylight in the living room accentuates this perception of verticality, while a series of oculi – precisely positioned using 3-D modeling – allows natural light to traverse the house, illuminating even the darker zones. For four months of the year, a shaft of sunlight crosses each room before sunset, reaching peak intensity at the summer and winter solstices. The windows recede entirely into the walls, transforming the house into a large outdoor room.

The interiors are essentially monochrome, with gray plastered walls left rough to enhance their materiality. As a counterpoint to the understated color palette are touches of color and texture. During construction, new oculi and niches were added, a steel door at the stairwell was replaced with red glass, and Iranian silver travertine and bluish-green marble were selected to complement the interior walls. The exterior, initially conceived as gray, acquired color to establish a dialogue with the environment.

Experiencing silence

Outside, a long swimming pool stretches among wild pines, parallel to the sea. Great sensitivity was shown toward the landscape, with all existing trees retained and rows of fruit trees planted on the slopes, reflecting the area’s agricultural character.

After completion, the clients invited the architects to stay in the house: “The only sounds were the waves breaking on the shore and voices from the other side of the valley,” they said. “At night, there were sounds of birds we’d never heard before, while frogs in a nearby stream kept us company.”

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