Ecohouse with earth walls in Montijo

The house from the architectural studio Blaanc, whose walls are formed of layers of compacted land, is located in the middle of the vineyard in Montijo, in Portugal.

Country house in the Portuguese vineyard

The Vineyard House, called one-story building, consists of three interconnected blocks separating living quarters, bedrooms and a home office.

The house consists of three blocks

Стены двух блоков сложены из кирпича, третий же построен из спрессованной земли. Этот материал снова получил право на жизнь благодаря новому проекту команды архитекторов в составе специалистов Herzog & de Meuron и Татьяны Бильбао.

The walls of the two blocks are painted white

One of the blocks is built of rammed earth

The house is 319 square meters in size and is designed by Blaanc, an architectural studio with branches in Lisbon, Perth and Rio de Janeiro for a family vineyard located on the edge of a forest where cork oaks grow. 

"In the serenity and tranquility of the terrain one-storey building organically fits. It tries not to stand out against the backdrop of the landscape, combining with the natural elements that form this atmosphere of tranquility, "the architects tell.

The building is almost merged with the landscape

In a rectangular block with earth walls there is a dining room, a kitchen and a lower level living room. A long terrace with a sunlit trellised canopy runs along the block and serves as a widening of the living space.

For the construction of the residential part of the building, compressed land was used

The terrace visually expands the living space

The terraced walls of the terrace, combined with a canopy of slats, allow you to achieve a cool inside the house in the summer and a comfortable temperature in the winter.

A shelter from the shelves helps to maintain a comfortable temperature in the house

"The presence of walls from the rammed earth gives the house an added value - both ecological and aesthetic," the architects explain. "The idea was to combine traditions and modernity through the use of their advantages."

Creating a design at home, designers sought to combine tradition and modernity

For the construction of a house, land with a high content of sand was taken at the site and adjacent territories. To form stable walls, it was mechanically squeezed with wooden formwork.

In order to impart a structural density between the layers of compacted earth, layers of the glass mesh are laid. Two supports and doorways made of glued wood also serve to further strengthen and fix the elements.

The earthwork walls are reinforced with a glass net

The pressed earth is visible in some parts of the interior and exterior. Outside, it is protected by a canopy of laminated wooden beams.

In some parts of the interior, the earthquake walls are left in the natural state

To protect the surface of the earthen walls, they are coated with a coating of a mixture of liquid glass and casein, a complex protein obtained when milk is curdled.

To protect the natural material, the walls of the house were covered with a special mixture

The remaining two blocks use concrete structures and plaster brickwork. The walls are painted white to match existing buildings on the site.

The other two blocks are constructed using concrete structures

In the L-shaped block there are six bedrooms with bathrooms. They connect to the living room through a corridor and a small block in which the office is located.

White walls - the basis of the interior of the building

The windows of the bedrooms face two patios, located between these blocks.

The patio between the building blocks

The windows of the bedrooms face the patio

Do you like the naturalness, organically combined with comfort? If your answer is "yes", then rather put it on!

Plan

Sections