Three Courtyards House by Miguel Marcelino

Portuguese architect Miguel Marcelino has completed a rural family house with red concrete walls and three separate terraces.

Located in Benavente, near Lisbon, the building is named Three Courtyards House in reference to the three differently sized patios positioned at the north and south ends of the house. "This was the way I found to solve the problem of having the best oriented sun on the south side and the best views on the north side," Miguel Marcelino told Dezeen.

The largest terrace is to the north and features a stepped surface with a sunken swimming pool. Meanwhile, the southern end features a courtyard with a cork oak tree, plus a smaller yard with high walls.

"One could be quiet at the large inner enclosed courtyard with the sun and the big cork oak," said the architect. "And, in the vertical courtyard facing the framed view to the lake with the sun reflected on the outer wall, be embraced and protected by the house in a cold and harsh side like the north one," he added.

The architect used fair-faced concrete for the walls and structure of the building, washed with an acid-based etching solution to add texture. "This finishing, raw and earthy, was chosen because in such a landscape I thought that it would be better that this house had the feel like it would come out of the ground, more rooted and anchored to this place," he said.

The house has two storeys, with a living room and kitchen on the ground floor and bedrooms and bathrooms upstairs.

We've featured a few Portuguese residences on Dezeen recently, including a concrete house in Moreira and a townhouse covered in plants in Lisbon.

Photography is by Fernando Guerra.

Here's some more information from Miguel Marcelino:

Three Courtyards House

The plot is located in the middle of a ìmontadoî landscape, being the best views to the north with a lake and the skyline punctuated by cork oak trees.

The house is organized in a compact volume of two floors, complemented by three courtyards all different in size and features.

A first large courtyard, enclosed, intimate, situates on the south side, embracing a big existing cork oak.

Next to the back entrance there is another smaller patio, for service.

The third courtyard works as a key element in the relationship between home and the north side.

It is a slim space with a large horizontal opening that frames the landscape and it has an atmosphere of a "inner space outdoors", the light is soft, by reflection on the outer wall that receives direct sunlight.

This vertical courtyard communicates with a staircase that leads to an open terrace, the last element of the sequence of spaces, patios and atmospheres that go from more introspective and private to more open and outside.