COOL BLUE

IN HARMONY WITH ITS ARID LANDSCAPE, THIS MINIMALISTIC PORTUGUESE HOME COMBINES AMPLE VOLUMES WITH A PARED-BACK LAYOUT IN A QUEST FOR SIMPLICITY AND NATURAL COOLNESS.

- 

ABOUT 120 KILOMETRES SOUTH OF LISBON in the municipality of Grândola, Casa Azul – or Blue House – emerges quietly from the sun-drenched terrain of Portugal's Alentejo region.

This vast, sparsely populated area between the Tagus River and the Algarve covers nearly a third of the country's surface, and is famed for its rolling hills, olive groves, cork forests and golden light.

Alentejo is a land where the natural and built environments are in deep conversation – and Casa Azul, designed by Lisbon-based firm Bak Gordon, exemplifies this dialogue.

Grândola's dry, arid landscape, rich in ancestral agricultural traditions and cork oak trees, provides the perfect setting for a house that is at once contemporary and rooted in local history.

It's here that four friends purchased adjoining plots of land with the vision of creating a shared retreat – a holiday home that feels as though it belongs to the terrain. Enter Ricardo Bak Gordon, the founder of Bak Gordon, who designed a home that feels less like an architectural intervention and more like a natural continuation of the land itself.

Casa Azul almost disappears into the horizon. If it weren't for the reflective water tank that doubles as a pool and mirrors the surrounding cork trees and sky, the house might go unnoticed.