The plot was a clearing in the pine wood above Fonte da Telha: 2,150 m² with eleven maritime pines that the licence said we could not touch. We treated them as the brief.

Mónica Leal drew one long house, one room deep, that bends twice to pass between the trunks. Every room has pines on both sides. The footings sit on micro-piles so that no trench cuts a root; the nearest trunk is 2.1 metres from the wall.

Cladding that turns grey

The frame is cross-laminated timber and the cladding is untreated maritime pine from Alcácer do Sal, left to weather. It was honey-coloured in 2021. The west side is silver now; the east side will take another four years.

Sold in 2021 to a family who had rented in Aroeira for ten years. All eleven pines are still standing.