My house has four corners

19 May 2011

The house designed by architect Manuel Aires Mateus stands on the plot in the small Portuguese town of Leiria as if it were a huge white wooden building block. The house’s two large openings, namely a broad gate on the gable-side and a large shaft both gleam in warm light. The cube is white, naked and smooth. Nothing to disturb the eye, no car. Almost as if unimpressed by any conventions, the oeuvre asserts its stringency – four walls and a pointed roof, the archetype of a house. Not a single window to disturb the shape. There’s nothing, other than the entrance, offering a view from the inside out. Daylight reaches the rooms only via light shafts that are located either at the height of the ground or cut through the house. The inhabitants are thus prevented from seeing afar.

www.airesmateus.com

Photos: FG + SG | Architectural Photography

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