Casa CR — A Single-Level Retreat by SO Arquitetura & Design
Casa CR stands on the rugged edge of Lagoa, Portugal, where basalt rock meets Atlantic light. Conceived by SO Arquitetura & Design, the single-level house answers a couple’s late-life wish to start over with clarity and calm. The residence draws on the client’s aviation past and on the island’s tough terrain, translating both into a low, winglike volume that opens wide to garden, courtyard, and horizon.
A low concrete canopy projects toward the garden while the Atlantic wind brushes across basalt boulders and dry vegetation. Under this winglike roofline, glass slips between interior and exterior, so the house reads as a continuous, horizontal band of life rather than a closed object.
Casa CR is a single-level house on the southern coast of São Miguel Island, in Lagoa, Portugal, designed by SO Arquitetura & Design for a couple in their eighties. The project translates the client’s history as a former Air Force pilot into a quiet metaphor, with the roof conceived as a large wing hovering over the landscape. Organization stays direct and fluid, privileging clarity of movement, framed views, and a sense of easy daily use.
A concrete canopy extends over fully glazed façades, creating a deep threshold between interior rooms and the garden. Life unfolds on one plane, without stairs or abrupt shifts, making every route straightforward and legible for aging residents (and guests who move at different paces). At the center, a tropical courtyard draws light and air into the plan, setting up a rhythm where each room relates not only to the distant horizon but also to this sheltered core.
Wing Plan On Basalt
The house settles among basalt boulders and irregular topography, yet the main volume stays level, like a quiet bar floating above the terrain. Rather than carving aggressively into the site, the plan slides between rocks and brush, letting the canopy cast shade while the ground stays rough and natural. This horizontal gesture reinforces the wing metaphor and keeps circulation simple: move along a linear spine, with rooms branching subtly toward either courtyard or coastline.
Courtyard As Pivot
At the heart of Casa CR, a tropical courtyard anchors orientation and movement. From almost any point, residents can look inward to foliage, outward to the garden, and further to the horizon, so the house never feels enclosed. The courtyard brings cross ventilation and soft daylight into the plan, turning paths between rooms into short strolls accompanied by shifting shadows and glimpses of green.
Continuous Daily Flow
Interiors lined with wood bring warmth to the concrete and glass shell, wrapping circulation routes in a calm, tactile surface. Rooms connect in a clear sequence, so moving from bedroom to living area to garden reads as one continuous gesture rather than a series of thresholds. Visual transparency reinforces this: from a chair, from a bed, or from the kitchen, the eye tracks outward to the courtyard and beyond to the landscape.
Light, Matter, Air
Casa CR reduces living to essentials—matter, light, and air arranged for unhurried days. The plan avoids unnecessary corners and ornamental moves, instead trusting the long canopy, the glazed façades, and the central court to choreograph experience. As the couple moves through their single-level home, they follow simple paths brushed by daylight and breeze, always with basalt, vegetation, and sea-edged sky in view.
In late afternoon, shadows from the canopy stretch over the garden while the interior wood deepens in tone. The house holds steady as the wing above the coast, giving its residents a clear, grounded way to inhabit this stretch of São Miguel for the decades still ahead.
Photography by Ivo Tavares
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