The holiday retreat designed by Correia Ragazzi Arquitectos is build out of an existing ruin in the riverbank and overhangs the river, offering spectacular views.
The project of this house foresees both to reconstruct and augment a ruin into a weekend retreat at a plot with extraordinary morphological characteristics, within Cavado River and its tributary. The plot, of 4.060m2, is located in a protected natural area and has for conditions a concrete construction and the preservation of all trees. The constructive capacity was given by the existing ruin.
As a half-buried house in its relation to the main access it appears diminished; on the other hand, from the river it appears as a glass frame dissimulated on the vegetation. The relation established by the house and ruin defines both the access and the scale of the intervention, transforming the ruin into a constant presence from the inside of the house such as any other landscape element.