Duarte found this plot in 2013 through the parish council of Colares, which had been trying to sell it for eleven years. It is 1,240 m² of sand and rock below the village of Azenhas do Mar, the last level ground before the beach.

Nobody had built on it because the ground moves. We spent the first year drilling: nine boreholes, the deepest to 14 metres, until we found the rock shelf the house now stands on. The foundations cost more than the concrete above them.

Concrete that can take the salt

Atelier Brás Pato drew three stacked volumes, each turned a few degrees toward the swell. The walls are concrete cast against pine boards, with no render and no paint to fail in the spray. The window frames are bronze, which darkens instead of pitting.

The house was sold in 2018, before the last pour. The owners let us photograph it the spring after they moved in.