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“Like some distance of the main construction to give more
openness or more freedom. Also again to be able to walk
around and not be completely surrounded,” says Maria Ana.
“You can be in the house without seeing the pool or you can
be in the house looking at the pool. You feel the people
there bathing and having their own privacy; they are not
exposed as if it was in the middle and it is not really
the centre,” says Ricardo.
“And you can feel also the landscape better while you are
inside the water. A nice feeling of being really involved
in the surrounds,” says Maria Ana.
“And traditionally, Alentejo region is one of the poorest
areas of Portugal... it’s very vast plains, very hot here in
the summer, and they were doing agriculture, people were
very humble; we felt this should go into the project,” says
Ricardo. “It’s not a pool house, it is just a property that
happens to have the pool, which is very very different. And
the clients were in the same frequency in tune with us,
because they are very... simple people, very intelligent
people... very open to project ideas, and very bold... they
never told us, but they expressed it without verbalising it
is that ‘we don’t want to stand out, we just want to stay
calm, have a nice property, people will enjoy it without
standing out.’”
