Aires Mateus

Aires Mateus Architects. Casa em Leiria, Portugal, 2010We get sent portfolios of photographs by Fernando Guerro for use in publications.  The one that came in yesterday is a house in Leiria, Portugal, by Aires Mateus Architects of Lisbon. 

One would think, from these portfolios, that Portugal is a splendid oasis of minimalism, and indeed, many of the projects photographed by Guerro are startling in their purity. 

It is quite hard to find information about the projects: their visual presence is often all I can get.  This one is a courtyard house, uncompromised by any acknowledgement of context.  There is a square pool outside the limits of the house, and a flat spill of paving stones at the entrance.  The interior has been photographed empty: just acres of blonde wood and white plaster.   This is a white world for a temperate country.  I look out the window at a -31° winter white here in a blonde wood and white plaster house that never gets really warm, and think about heat.

Aires Mateus. Case em Leiria, stairwell.