Dunas Nazaré House

A house in Vale Furado, Nazaré — a house of the dunes, anchored in the Atlantic landscape and the low coastal light.

Information

Casa Dunas Nazaré — sala e cozinha em open space com lareira suspensa e vista de mar

Year:

2026

Category:

Single-family dwelling

Location:

Vale Furado, Alcobaça

Area:

73 m²

Status:

Preliminary information request

Description

Reconstruction of a ruin on a dune plateau overlooking the sea, at Vale Furado — a self-sufficient house that draws on the landscape without altering it.

Low-impact architecture: it retains the footprint of the pre-existing structure, uses permeable materials and produces its own energy.

Intervention

The site is a coastal plateau above Praia de Vale Furado, some 67 metres above the sea, within a system of dunes and wild pine woodland. The nearest house lies more than 800 metres away — a place of great isolation and silence.

The house rebuilds a ruin predating 1951, retaining its footprint exactly. A single floor, a T2 layout, with the spaces arranged around large glazed openings that extend the view over the dunes and the sea.

The intervention does not increase the impermeable surface: the outdoor paths are of white gravel over compacted earth, preserving the soil and the dune system.

Designed to live off-grid: solar and wind power with batteries, rainwater harvesting, self-contained sanitation that protects the aquifers, and satellite connections. Sustainable, understated and independent architecture. Currently at the preliminary information request stage (the preliminary consultation with the council before the final design).