Public vote winner for small building of the year: João Mendes Ribeiro has created an elegant refuge under the auspices of a chestnut tree in northern Portugal.

The project is located in Valeflor, a country landscape in the north of Portugal densely occupied by chestnut and oak trees.

The first visit to the site revealed a large chestnut tree that became the emblem for the development of the project. The design of the building relates to the terrain in the most harmonious way possible, without affecting the chestnut roots.

The structure is based around the tree and is characterised by large windows that bear witness to changes in season and weather throughout the year. It acts as a counterpoint to the idyllic image of the landscape as a fixed frame of time, instead taking into account the unstable and the unpredictable to express an architecture in close symbiosis with its natural setting.

Architect: João Mendes Ribeiro

Project: Chestnut House

Read more: João Mendes Ribeiro