A home with real surrealism

Located in Vagos, Portugal, this house, designed by the Frari Network architectural firm, faces one of the town’s most important thoroughfares, the EN109 national road. Since it is designed for residential use, this architectural work materializes in a uniform body which, through its shape and layout, is protected from the noise of the area.

Suspended between heaven and earth, the dwelling is a boundary between reality and the interior. Designed by the Frari Network architectural firm in Vagos, Portugal, it features a green transitional and protective zone, notably on its perpendicular facade, which shields it from road traffic. With its curved shape, the building resists the wind at porch level and ensures greater depth of the exterior part on the axis of the building, onto which all rooms open via the gallery on the first floor or a shared balcony on the top floor, providing a uniform facade and allowing the volume to extend beyond its boundaries in a homogeneous manner. Large windows stand out from the unmistakable white body of the upper section, in a play where structural balance and materiality combine to lighten a volume of enormous dimensions. The simple, solid piece is positioned as a critical response to interventions on land adjacent to national highways, with the aim of taking advantage of outdoor spaces and making such streets habitable. Two challenges met. It’s like living beyond time for intensive moments, respecting the harmony of nature outside and the place inside with all its intimacy.