Search
On a ridge above Portugal’s Atlantic coast, a lime-pigmented gable holds long views and shelter. Wraparound terraces, pocketing sliders, and a red-glass pool window shape daily life inside a calm, hand-worked interior.
Atalaia de Cima, Portugal. A compact gabled house sits on a ridge the color of coastal clay, its lime-pigmented skin taking on the evening blush of the hill. Extrastudio’s Casa Plaj is drawn as one clear figure set on a concrete plinth, facing a shallow valley and the Atlantic. The brief was simple—somewhere a young family could return to for long stays—and the answer keeps the outline archetypal while tuning everything else to wind, sun, and the slow rhythm of days.
A recessed porch to the road is screened by a perforated lattice; the remaining sides open to continuous terraces so you can move to the leeward edge when the breeze turns. Large sliders pocket into thick walls, clearing the corners and keeping the horizon unbroken. A tall ceiling pitches toward the view; a circular opening throws an ellipse of daylight that tracks across the floor like a quiet clock. Bedrooms and baths branch to the protected side, each with a door to the wraparound walk so circulation is effortless—inside to out, room to terrace, back again.
Surfaces are direct and worked by hand: base-coat plaster with a fine irregular grain, polished concrete underfoot, silver travertine marking thresholds. Joinery in soft-grey oak holds storage close to the walls. In the kitchen, Mármore Verde Serpa—green-grey Portuguese marble—runs from counter to splash with the sink carved from the same slab. During construction a few precise edits sharpened the whole: the mortar tone set after a late visit when the ridge went pink; a single pane of red glass added by the pool to tilt winter light warm. Daily life follows these choices—cooking with the valley in frame, shifting terraces as the wind changes, watching the lattice scatter dots across stone in the afternoon.
Photography by Clemens Poloczek.
