Vasco Burnay restores a traditional house in the Alentejo with the delicacy of someone who knows that preserving is also an act of creation

In the sunlit fields of the Alentejo, beyond the urban perimeter of Estremoz (Portugal), the young practice Vasco Burnay Arquitectura approaches the restoration of a traditional house with the delicacy of someone who knows that preserving is also creating. The Monte do Divor project represents a modest yet expressive intervention, in which light, landscape, constructive memory and inhabitation are integrated into the architectural design.

The house stands in a scattered rural environment, surrounded by small-scale buildings that punctuate the landscape. The original volume, typical of the area, had a rectangular floor plan, a gabled roof running along its main axis, and two prominent chimneys rising as symbols of an ancient domestic life.

Strategy of the intervention

The proposal is grounded in a careful reading of the existing structure: its outward presence, its interior partitions, its spatial memory. The low, elongated volume with its gabled roof and vertical chimneys is preserved in its entirety, maintaining the original silhouette without altering the scale or overall volumetry.

The changes are concentrated inside: the redistribution of partitions, the adaptation of existing openings, and the introduction of new ones to improve ventilation and natural light. The internal layout already revealed an organisation in three spatial nuclei—marked by common walls, variations in ceiling colour or shape, or in the flooring materials. Building on this pre-existing division, the intervention simply reorganises the functions without altering the structure: private areas are located in the western nucleus, the main social space unfolds to the east, and the central zone resolves the connective programme. 

Light, openness and landscape

One of the most significant gestures occurs in the social area: the largest existing opening is enlarged, and a new one is introduced on the eastern gable, creating a stronger interior–exterior permeability and allowing light and air to flow freely.

On the north façade, the two large openings form the project’s most contemporary gesture. Yet their placement, scale and materiality are designed to harmonise with the original elevation. By contrast, on the south façade, the new opening respects the rhythm and (dis)order of the existing windows, resulting from the repositioning of a previous aperture.

The house connects with the surrounding landscape through two porches that extend toward the outdoor areas and link, via a compacted earth path, to the access–parking zone and the leisure area with a swimming pool. This continuity between interior and exterior reinforces the feeling of integration with the site. 

Sustainability, memory and temporality

The intervention favours the longevity of traditional building systems from the region, technological moderation and a materiality that resists obsolescence. As the architects explain, “every effort has been made to preserve the original object, without burdening it with technological infrastructure or contaminating it with next-generation materials.”

In a landscape where vernacular architecture is often absorbed without reflection, Vasco Burnay’s proposal reminds us that continuity can be understood as a radical act. And that inhabiting—on its domestic, everyday, intimate scale—is as relevant as the grand architectural gesture. This house is proof of that: a familiar, respected volume, precisely reconfigured, humbly open to the landscape, and placed at the service of those who live in it. In its discretion lies its strength.

This project stands as an example of an architecture that listens to place, to history and to light. And responds without ostentation, with the sensitivity of someone who understands that to build is also to preserve, and that to inhabit is to prolong the legacy of a landscape.

Project: Monte do Divor.
Architecture: Vasco Burnay Arquitectura.
Lead architect: Vasco Burnay.
Location: Estremoz (Portugal).
Completion : 2024.
Built area: 200 m².
Construction: H&S – Engenharia e Construção, Lda + Climalentejo, Lda.
Engineering: Urpendium – Engenharia e Urbanismo.
Interior design: Claudia Monchique.
Photography: Ivo Tavares Studio.

Vasco Burnay Arquitectura

From Lisbon, young architect Vasco Burnay cultivates a quiet, precise architecture deeply rooted in the territory. Trained at the Escola António Arroio and the Universidade Lusíada de Lisboa, he completed a master’s degree at the Escola Superior Artística do Porto before beginning his own path in 2019. During several years working in different studios, he developed a critical and sensitive eye, observing the diverse ways of living and building across Portugal.

His practice, Vasco Burnay Arquitectura, was founded on the conviction that a project should emerge from the place and the people who inhabit it, rather than from a style or a signature. Each work approaches the landscape with respect, exploring local materials and natural light as sources of identity and measure. Together with architects Sérgio Estêvão and Filipa Lebre, the studio has built a rigorous and serene practice, attentive to detail and to the human scale.

The architecture of Vasco Burnay seems to speak in a low voice. It is a young practice, yet one whose maturity is revealed through restraint. In contrast to the urgency of noise and spectacle, his work defends pause, precision, and a dialogue with time. An emerging voice in Portuguese architecture that continues to grow, without ever losing the intimate, quiet tone that makes it distinctive.

Project by Vasco Burnay