The Chalet Lourdes, built in the 1930s – by an author unidentified by the team – is a project that breaks with the architectural canons of the houses of the Estoril Coast of the time, fundamentally based on the idealization of the Portuguese house by Raul Lino. Its formal expression incorporates the cultural environment of the European currents of the early decades of the twentieth century, such as the simplification of forms, the prevalence of abstract volumes, and flat roofs, characteristic of the International Style.

The house consists of two volumes attached on a large plot and in a garden which, due to its size, had a predominant character.

Half a century later, in 1974, the house has new owners and undergoes a first transformation, authored by the architect Virgílio Leal da Costa. This project promotes changes in the interior compartmentation, opening of voids, and the construction of a swimming pool. In the descriptive memory of this project, Virgílio Leal da Costa writes: “Presenting the construction with a positive aesthetic level given by an extremely simple composition of great clarity of volumes and sobriety of architectural lines, although susceptible to improvement, it was intended to highlight these aspects, valuing them. For this purpose, the few interventions on the facades were made with the same spirit of simplicity.”

In 2022, again half a century later, the house changes owners once more.

Following this palimpsest environment, of continuously building upon the built, the rehabilitation project seeks once again to fit within the assumptions of the 1930 project, while simultaneously revisiting the writings of 1974 by Virgílio Leal da Costa, of “highlighting the qualities of the original project, valuing it.”

The new intervention was based on the premise, according to the objectives of the new inhabitants, to bring the social area closer to the garden, increase the interior area of the house, and provide contemporary livability and comfort conditions.

The 2022 project expands the house with a new white cuboid volume that attaches to the pre-existing volumes, establishing a formal continuity with them. This volume contains all the social areas of the house, such as: living room with double height ceiling, dining area, and mezzanine/lounge. The original building is dedicated to the private areas of kitchen, work, and bedrooms.

In order to establish a privileged relationship between the house and the garden, the social areas – which in the original project were located on the first floor – are moved to the ground floor. As a mediation between the interior space of the house and the garden, a pergola/porch is built, serving as a covered outdoor living room. The entire garden underwent intervention, and the pool, which previously had been contiguous to the house, is now integrated into it.