Monday 11 January 2021
It is almost dawn. the sky is lilac with orange streaks above the horizon. The lake water is turning from indigo to silver and the air is still and cool. Then the sun emerges from behind the hilltops. Within minutes, the floor and walls of the veranda are awash in warm light and the perfectly round opening in its roof is framing a vibrant blue sky. It’s the start of another beautiful day at Casa na Terra in Portugal’s eastern Alentejo.
Entrance stairs
Sanda Vuckovic
This part of the country, which borders the Spanish deserts of Extremadura, is famed for its fortress towns and pretty villages of white-and-cobalt cottages. But Casa na Terra conforms to no vernacular. A bunker, almost buried in the ground and barely visible even from up close, it is an alien structure in this land. The house belongs to and was designed by Portuguese architect Manuel Aires Mateus. ‘While we were working, while it was still a shell, local people never thought of it as a ho