new kid on the block

Without the restrictions of time or budget, yes you heard me right. Ernesto Pereira created a beach home for two in the coastal town of Mindelo, Portugal. The house, referred to as the SilverWoodHouse, is also Pereira’s debut architectural project. The space he shaped is open and bright and takes into consideration not only the natural surroundings of the house, but also the house’s inhabitants.

Surrounded as a child by carpenters and masons, Ernesto Pereira grew up with an understanding of construction. This led him to eventually create his own home, learning by way of making mistakes. The couple, Marisa and Rui, who now reside in the SilverWoodHouse, found Pereira by walking past his home and simply inquiring. The project for the SilverWoodHouse began as the remodeling of a previous structure, one that Ernesto describes as “a soulless house of typical construction”. Without any budget limit or deadline, Pereira set out to create Marisa and Rui’s personalized home.

Blocked off from the street by a starkly geometric solid white fence, the majority of the house is covered inside and out by worn wood laid diagonally. Covered in the same detail, the doors to the house are perfectly camouflaged amongst their backdrop.

The interior design is bright and open, with much of the light filtering in from the outside. The rest of the light in the home comes from a few sparse long and thin fluorescents encased inside of equally long wooden boxes laid about the ceiling. Keeping the theme of the beach tones alive, most of the interior is covered either in light sandy shades of wood or blank walls of white.

The continuity of the beach theme obviously plays a roll not only in the architecture, but also in the landscaping. Each plant, carefully laid about the property resides inside a rocky sandbox. These sandboxes act as a reminder of the kind of wild shrubbery that grows naturally out of sand dunes.

I’m betting we will be seeing a lot more from Ernesto Pereira!

Photography by Joao Morgado