Aerial view at sunset of a low stone courtyard house set into wooded hills

Casa do Vale

2026

A single-storey house built around a
courtyard, where stone, water and an old
olive tree become the center of daily life.

Location
Aljezur, Algarve, Portugal
Year
2026
Site
5,800 m²
Building
385 m²
Program
3 bedrooms + guest suite
Status
Concept design

The Concept

Casa do Vale began with an olive tree that had stood on the site for generations. Rather than clear the ground around it, the house wraps a courtyard around the tree, turning its back to the dry summer wind and opening inward to shade, water and filtered light. Every principal room looks onto the courtyard, and each has a second view out across the valley.

Low sun breaking through the canopy of a large olive tree over a stone wall
Entrance passage with timber gates opening onto a courtyard and an olive tree
Living room facing an inner courtyard with a pool and a mature olive tree
Dining room with a long timber table and glass walls opening to the hills at dusk
Kitchen with a long timber island, pendant lights and glazing onto the hills
Bedroom with a full-height window framing the wooded valley
Bathroom with a stone bath facing a small walled garden
The long stone house seen across dry scrub and olive trees at sunset
Section drawing through the house showing the courtyard, pool and olive tree
Pencil sketches of the courtyard, olive tree and stone wall details
Olive leaf shadows falling across pale stone paving
Dappled leaf shadows across a plaster wall and a stone-lined covered walkway

The Result

From the hills, the house reads as a single low line of stone, almost part of the terraced landscape. Inside, thick walls keep the rooms cool through the Algarve summer, timber and lime plaster soften the light, and the courtyard sets the rhythm of the day: morning coffee in the shade of the olive, evenings beside the still water of the pool.

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