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A house built on sand, deliberately — Comporta

179.Comporta · House on sand, in pine woods · Comporta, Alentejo coast · 2023-07

The project

On this coast the ground is the first engineering problem, so the dossier and the photographs both start with the excavation and the raft rather than with a plan. Above it, one low volume in white render and vertical timber. We were the engineers and the builders under one contract; the architecture is Etienne Lardinois’s.

What we were responsible for

Sand is not a foundation and pine roots are not a garden: on this coast the ground itself is the first engineering problem, and it is settled before anything above it is worth drawing. The dossier starts there — with the survey, the excavation and the raft — and the photographs start there too, with rebar being tied by hand and a concrete pour that ran into the evening because a raft does not wait for daylight. Above it the house is one low volume in white render and vertical timber, with the pool set forward of it and a timber deck running the length of the south face. Inside, the one piece that carries the plan is the stair: steel stringers with timber treads, open, so the double-height space reads as one room rather than as a landing with rooms off it. We were the engineers and the builders under one contract, on an architectural design by Etienne Lardinois.

Who built it

WALLNUT was responsible for both the design and the construction, under a single contract: one team answered for the drawings, the site and the handover.

What this does not include

The architecture is not ours: the design is Etienne Lardinois’s, and our commission was the engineering and the construction. The client is not named and neither is the plot. No cost, price or margin figure appears here: those are confidential. Nothing on this page is a render — every image is a photograph taken on site by us, and the ones from the structural phase were taken by the people doing the work, not by a photographer.

Verified facts

  • What the date beside ‘Built’ is
    2023-07 the drone flight that shows the house finished, not a handover date — that one is not published here
  • Photographs in our record of this site
    696 plus 526 more filed by construction stage
  • Aerial stills of the finished house
    53 with the raw files kept alongside them
  • From the first photograph to the last
    33 months, 2020-11 to 2023-07
  • Design-and-build contracts with this practice
    2 this house and one in Oeiras
  • What the ground is
    1 sand, which is why the dossier opens with the excavation and not the plan

Images

Hands tying reinforcement bars over yellow formwork, with a worker in a hard hat beyond.
The reinforcement, tied by hand. On sand the raft is the building: everything above it is only as good as this.
A concrete pour at dusk, with a pump arm overhead and four workers in high-visibility clothing on the deck.
The pour ran into the evening. A raft is one pour or it is a joint, and a joint in sand is a decision nobody wants to defend later.
Two workers in hard hats and high-visibility vests standing on a reinforcement mesh, with pine trees behind them.
Our people, on our slab. This is the difference between a page that says «one team, one contract» and a page that shows it.
An interior with a steel and timber open stair installed, exposed concrete ceiling and full-height glazing onto the landscape.
The stair in, the ceiling still raw. It goes in early because it is structure before it is a stair, and everything after it is finished around it.
The finished stair: timber treads on steel stringers, open, against a white wall.
The same stair finished. Open, so the double height stays one room instead of becoming a landing with rooms off it.
A courtyard between a white rendered volume and a wall of vertical timber cladding, with large sliding glazing and sand underfoot.
White render against vertical timber, and the sand still where the garden will be. The two materials do the whole elevation between them.
A pool with a timber deck along one side, low pines and open sky beyond.
The pool sits forward of the house so that from inside the water reads against the pines and not against a wall.
A finished pool and timber deck with outdoor furniture, seen past the eaves of the house.
Deck, pool and planting finished. This is the last state we photographed from the ground.
A timber deck running along a white rendered wall, with sandy ground and new planting beside it.
The deck runs the length of the south face. On sand a deck is also how you stop the ground arriving indoors.
A large sliding glazed door in a dark frame, opening onto trees.
The sliding door, from inside. The frame is dark on purpose: against white render a pale frame draws itself instead of the view.

More of our work

Every project here is written up the same way: what we were responsible for, what we were not, and the measurements behind both.
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