How can a building integrate the place where it stands?
How can a human construction be made as if sculpted by the action of natural elements?

Located in a village in Paredes, with Tâmega river as a backdrop, Casa da Levada blends into the rural landscape where it is situated, featuring a design that integrates architecture with the surrounding nature.

The conceptual approach emulates the action of water on the soil. This water finds its way, carving grooves on the ground that opens cracks and creates new forms.

This architecture evokes the idea of a built natural environment, an architecture that arises from the very material of which the site is made. The shape of the house is moulded by the terrain, creating a visual and physical continuity between the building and the natural environment. This raw aesthetic is reinforced by the reduced palette of natural materials and colors.

The pedestrian path to the house appears as a paved groove over the green surface of the land. A tectonic fault that separates the volumes of the house dedicated to social spaces and private spaces, leading to the central courtyard. The house develops around the courtyard, embracing it. Like a ruined and incomplete Vitruvian patio, it creates an outdoor space for gathering, where horizontal overhangs intuit the unrealized geometry and frame the surrounding landscape.
The ruin theme resonates throughout the entire building. Corner windows dissimulate inside the walls, leaving an appearance of simple geometric forms with no perceivable function attached. Interior and exterior spaces form a liveable experiential continuum.

The internal social spaces follow this principle of fluid use, with integrated living, dining and kitchen areas. The natural wood furniture is functional with an artisanal touch that makes sense in this rural location.

Sustainability was a guiding principle in all technical and material choices, aligning the building with its natural surroundings and reducing its environmental footprint. The exterior walls are clad in cork panels, whose stereotomy was taken to account to the house’s geometry and proportions. Cork is a renewable, carbon-negative material with excellent thermal insulation performance. Over time, it weathers naturally without the need for maintenance, gradually acquiring a tone and texture similar to the region’s yellow granite. This aging process enhances its visual integration with the landscape and surrounding built heritage.

The lower part of the exterior walls (panelling) is finished in locally sourced granite, offering both visual continuity and functional protection against rising damp and mechanical impact. In the courtyard, granite from the site’s ruin was reused, with the stone layout (stereotomy) designed to maximize recovery and minimize material waste.

A green roof extends the natural terrain over the building, reinforcing the connection to the landscape while improving thermal comfort inside. This planted layer contributes to temperature regulation by reducing heat gains in summer and heat loss in winter, as well as buffering rainwater and supporting biodiversity.

The project emphasizes passive strategies for temperature regulation and air ventilation as a first step toward ensuring comfort and energy efficiency. Glazing was carefully oriented and protected with external shading devices—such as solar louvers and shutters—to optimize thermal solar gains in winter and mitigate overheating in summer. A strategically positioned skylight with controlled opening enables cross ventilation, allowing warm air to escape naturally and drawing in cooler air through lower shaded openings. This promotes natural airflow, reduces reliance on mechanical cooling, improves indoor air quality, and enhances thermal comfort during milder seasons.

Complementing these passive measures, the interior climate is actively regulated by a water-based radiant floor system powered by a heat pump, providing both heating and cooling. The ceramic floor finish enhances the system’s efficiency by enabling faster and more effective thermal transfer. Additionally, a Controlled Mechanical Ventilation (CMV) system with a heat exchanger ensures continuous air renewal with minimal thermal losses.