The house

Up on Alfama, near the Monastery of St Vincent de Fora and the National Pantheon, there is a little square, which marks a pause in the steep slope leading down to the river.

The intervention, designed by architect Pedro Matos Gameiro, involved the rehabilitation of one of the buildings on the edge of the neighbourhood, a rare example of a medieval building in an area dominated by buildings raised since the earthquake of 1755.

It was a simple residence, resulting from the fragmentation of a larger palace complex that still stood at the time of the intervention. Over the years, the occupation of this small building gradually led to the construction of new walls that defined interior subdivisions, giving rise to a house served by two courtyards. The house was extended and altered, and the courtyards were gradually occupied.

This intervention sought to clarify the internal logic of the complex, reinforcing its meaning. If the courtyards determine the organisation, the spaces between them form the focus of the programme.

The operation resulted in four outdoor spaces, interspersed with narrow sheltered areas. The whole complex, with its stripped-back appearance, suggests a ruin; evokes restraint, through its relationship with nature and the sparseness of monastic cells; and also evokes pleasure, in the way the courtyards can be used as outdoor rooms, stripped of any immediate function. One of these outdoor rooms is filled with water, closing a cycle that is perpetuated in the labyrinth of connections.