House for the elderly people, by Aires Mateus, 2008-2010 - in Alcácer do Sal, Portugal
The façade is reminiscent of a checkerboard, with its white surface punctured at intervals by recesses to shade its glazing.
The long building meanders over the site, rising and falling with the topography of the landscape.
A surrounding landscaped garden reaches up to the roof of at some parts, giving access to the top of the building.
House in Alenquer, by Aires Mateus, 2001 - in Alenquer, Portugal
Santo Tirso Call Center, by Aires Mateus, 2009 - in Santo Tirso, Portugal
Sines Center for the Arts (Centro de Artes em Sines), by Aires Mateus, 2005 - in Sines, Portugal
The building is situated at the start of the main street linking the town to the sea and marking the traditional entrance to the historic nucleus. The Centre subsumes diverse activities capable of generating an exceptional building: exhibition rooms, a library, cinema-cum-theatre and a documentation centre. The wide-raging program calls for the whole plot to be occupied, enveloping the street below mean ground level and adapting its exterior volumetry to the monumental scale of the castle walls.
House in Aroeira, by Aires Mateus, 2007-2010 - in Aroeira, Portugal
Due to the absence of fences, the hexagonal shape of the plot is not clear and the ground blends with the surrounding pinewoods. The house occupies the maximal area of construction, concentric to the six-sided plot. Disposed round a courtyard to which every space converges, its peculiar form finds a precise boundary in the outline of a canopy. Service areas provide geometry and stability to the main spaces.
Casa Barreira Antunes (House in Melides), by Aires Mateus, 2000 - in Alentejo, Portugal
The program includes four houses and a water tank. The water tank will be a square of whitewashed plaster where a pool is found and a line draws the shower. The placement of the several houses will be decided by each owner. The first house is a square. The living room is disposed around a courtyard that provides indirect lighting. Secondary compartments inhabit the interior of thick walls that form the central living room. These areas, compressed by a lifted ground and a lowered ceiling, become spaces which group to limit and define the “exterior volume,” emphasizing it as the main space of the house.
Casa em Azeitão (House in Azeitão), by Aires Mateus, 2001-2003 - in Setúbal, Portugal
Building in Lagoa das Furnas ( Investigator’s Dormitories), by Aires Mateus, 2008-2010 - in Lagoa das Furnas, São Miguel Island, Azores Islands, Portugal
The building for temporary accommodation is a compact volume of four fields compartmentalised into four units. The building is cut in each of the four facades by a wooden threshold that enables the penetration of light and access to each of the accommodation units. There is an established hierarchy of heights between the four spaces related to the solar orientation of each unit. The exterior wall of the building is structural where the necessary infrastructures and services run as oppose to the light interior timber walls.
