1-The Place of the Portuguese Villa -...

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The Place of the Portuguese Villa in the Outskirts of Lisbon 1

“In a certain sense, every man who elects a Place from his environment to settle down and

live becomes a creator of expressive space. He gives meaning to his environment, by

assimilating it with certain purposes and, at the same time, he adapts to the conditions it

offers to him.”

Christian Norberg-Schulz, Existencia,Espacio y Arquitectura, Ed. Blume, Barcelona, 1975, p. 12.

In his discourse about “existential space”, Norberg-Schulz defines “architectonic

space” as “putting to practice the existential space of man”,2 and clearly approaches the

first step to the creation of an architectonic space. The first conceptual act of architecture

is precisely the choice of a place in a certain territory in order to build there a living space

– by capturing the essence of the chosen territory and its multiple relationships – and by

imposing it his existencial needs, man progressively develops space for himself.

The aprehensión of existence, the need to impose it certain functional objectives and

living experiences, that step by step, will conquer the chosen space, efectively contribute

to the emotion of the “Place”. It might not yet be more than a mental creation, but it

already reflects the existence and character of the man who wants to build it, his will and

his interpretation of the place that, gathered to the need to acomplish a crucial objective,

“inhabiting” a specific habitat, originates a structured programme of action, which acts a

functional support to the architectural space.

The Place shows up, here, as the synthesis, with an architectural space shape, built

and thought by man, by inside and outside, with no rigid limits and broadly specialized

functions, which grant him the fruition and inhabiting of the space which compose and

structure it – in this case-study the Portuguese Villa.

The chosen place reveals its own “character” and structures himself morphologicaly

and topographicaly. Its topography is shaped by sloping, concave and convex surfaces

and structured by valley lines (talwegs) or ridge-ways. Its relationships with the views can

be made in a expansional or restricted way and the sunlight sustains life and identifies the

passing of time through the place.

Also crucial are the communication lines which can be pathways or communicating

valley lines (brooks and rivers), connecting the Place with others nearby. The location of

these places along the territory, with the choice of strategic spots for its implementation,

which establish special relationships in between, also contributes to create the “human

1 “O Lugar da Quinta de Recreio na Periferia de Lisboa”, in Arte e Teoria – Art Theory Masters Magazine, published at Faculdade de Belas-Artes da Universidade de Lisboa, nr. 9, 2007, pps. 79-91.

2 Christian Norberg-Schulz, Existencia, Espacio y Arquitectura, Ed. Blume, Barcelona, 1975, p.12.

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dominion” over large unhabitated areas, existing nearby urban agglomerations, in this

case Lisbon.

Economically supported by certain agricultural breeds (fruits and vegetables) beyond

leisure functions, Portuguese Villas must be located not only close to fine communication

routes but also must be served by adequate water resources.

The location near Lisbon is a corner stone for the living experience of Villeggiatura –

people seek in these places contemplative fruition of nature, influenced by the Italian

renaissance humanism imported to our culture, and also expect to find the privilege of the

city lifestyle, namely its culture.

Following the choice of the place, intentional and conceptual, aiming to

architectonically craft a programme possessing a determined functional structure but also

expression of its own existence, it uprises the need to build the Place, physically and

architectonically. The space to create will shape a specific cultural context, rooted in its

builder as in those who are going to use it and the fashion in which is thought reflects the

philosophical thinking of its time or at least, it is indirectly influenced by it.

The first approach to the elaboration of the architectural space in Portuguese Villa

has, on one hand a very practical side, in what concerns the assimilation of elements

around the place, its natural landscape, and on the other, a more abstract character, in

which the building of the place to put into project will be based on topological and/or

geometrical models.

The topological arrangement, in the beginning of the Place’s building process,

doesn´t refer to distances, angles and areas, but refers to proximity relations enclosed

(interior or exterior) and with continuity, showing always before the imposition of shape

and dimensions. Its most elementary order is based on the proximity relation and the

spaces developed in structured groups characterized by continuity and enclosure.3

Since we don’t know the authors who conceived these Portuguese Villas and

knowing already, with a few rare exceptions – Quinta das Torres and Quinta da Bacalhoa

(Azeitão) -, that the intervention of architects was used only in some architecture

components of the house – chapel, gates – and, in many cases, in the gardens, in this

investigation it is not going to be made a systematic analysis of its architecture. The

object of study is its relation with the Place, so it is going to be interpreted examples from

the elementar properties of existential and architectonic space, which was theorized by C.

Norberg-Schulz in “Existencia, Espacio y Arquitectura”4. These consist in “centers” or

“places” (closeness), “directions”, or “paths” (continuity) and “areas” or “regions” (closure).

3 Idem, ibidem, p.20.

4 Christian Norberg-Schulz, Existencia, Espacio y Arquitectura, Ed. Blume, Barcelona, 1975.

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- Center and Place

The notion of center is related with the spontaneous perception in which the man is

subjectively centered on the apprehension of space that surrounds him and so creates

strategies of spatial organization surrounding himself. This one is related with others

externally located and which serve as reference points in the surrounding territory.

“Since the remotest times, the center represents the known in contrast with the

unknown to man and the frightening world surrounding him. It is the point from

where man claims his place as a thinking being in spatiality, the spot where he

lives in space.” 5

The reflex of that centrality is reveled, along history, in the act of architectural space

creation and concretely on the complex creation idealized and built by himself. Those

creations of man are related intimately with the surrounding natural territory (not

controlled by man) – in this particular case, the Portuguese Villas of the XVII e XVIII

century, located in the periphery of Lisbon.

By creating these spaces that polarize the territory, places are also created as points

of standing, arriving and departing to other places, farther or nearer, and after them it is

made an appropriation of space and the surrounding environment. The Place that is

shown here with a well defined limit is characterized by having its own interior in contrast

with the exterior that surrounds him. This contrast forms its centrality. This is naturally

structured by an architectural and centralized form or simply by the concentration of

constructed masses.

In Portuguese Villa, this centrality claims its place by means of its own architectural

structure and the hierarchy of its volumetric components that, intuitively or not, explore

the proximity relations of centralization and closure. According to Norberg-Schulz, these

are the features that define a concrete existential concept, the concept of “Place”.

The creation of the Place starts with the building of an inhabiting space, the house of

the owner of the Portuguese Villa, that in most of the cases is the center of a small

agglomeration. This includes built spaces connected to agricultural production and the

workers’ residential spaces.

The appearance of an agglomerate in a society, a Christian one, for this instance,

gives origin to a space of cult - the chapel or a small church – included in the volume of

the house (or palace) or located nearby.

The center of the Place is directly related with this religious space and in most cases

the chapel and the space in front (churchyard) define them, centralizing it social and

spiritually in this human node.

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The chapel of Portuguese Villa and the exterior space that serves it – public yard or

churchyard – are open to the population and are near a public road or particular path that

gives them access. Here the place assumes its function of arriving or going and its

verticality confirmed by the religious space character (the chapel), the relations interior-

exterior and sacred/profane, the opposition of the regular and geometrical composition of

architectonic space, the lack of precision on the limitation of the public yard and the

natural surroundings, mark even more the character of centrality of the Place.

The Quinta do Calhariz (located in Sesimbra) besides having a well defined and

structured axial structure, very strong on the composition of the palace and gardens, still

have its center on the posterior part of the Palace. Here we can find the chapel integrated

in an architectonic structure that, by it´s composition, shows that we are seeing the first

space where the Place (Portuguese Villa) appeared. In front of this there exists a yard of

public access, delimitated by low walls, near the path that gives access to the house. It is

visually opened to the landscape and its in direct relation with the other religious “focus”

situated on the Serra da Arrábida - Ermida de El Carmen.

Fig.1 – Quinta do Calhariz (House plan)

Fig.2 – Quinta do Calhariz (perspective

of the main access)

In Quinta do Correio-Mor (Loures) we can find the same features of structured

composition by a symmetry axel, that irrigates an “honour yard” defined by the plant in “U”

of the palace. The center of the Place is also associated to a chapel, in this case attached

to one of the arms of the palace. This part of the building also corresponded to a pre-

existing house, with an access that could be made by a rectilinear path that ended in a

small yard in front of the chapel.

In the main buildings of these two farms, the axial organization, which settles the

facade that confront the garden and the courtyard of honor, structurally defines the center

of the main entrance of the house, together with the entrance room. Besides the strong

geometrical centrality suggested by the relation of several regulator axis that organize the

composition of the different parts that were built, the existential center of place will always

5 Idem, ibidem, p.22.

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be connected to the pre-existence that was integrated, but not subordinated to the new

geometrical order. It maintains its own architectural features, under a certain functional

autonomy.

The symbolic verticality associated to the religious cult, and here architectonically

expressed in its spaces and volumetric composition, confirm in the two cases the

centrality of place.

Fig.3 – Quinta do Calhariz (posterior view /chapel)

Fig.4 – Quinta do Correio-Mor

(lateral view/chapel)

At the Quinta do Correio-Mor, the belfry of the chapel assumes a vertical axis that

imposes itself in a parallel fashion to that of the symmetric axis of the main facade of the

palace. This duality helps to emphasize the centrality of Place, understood as a whole,

and the elevation and the symbolic character of the first perceptively projects us to that

side of the palace. Besides that, the center of the Place was dislocated to the geometrical

center of the Palace in which the architectonic structure in “U”, associated to a strong

social representativeness that becomes the hierarchical centre of the Place. The

existential place has now a marginal position. It is known by its symbolic character e by its

relative architectural autonomy.

Fig.5 – Quinta Correio-Mor (Main view)

Fig.6 – Quinta de Manique

At Quinta de Manique (Alcabideche), existed a remodelation of the main building

(house of the owner) that provoque exactly the opposite. The change of its main entrance

to the chapel’s entrance plan and the existence of the entrance yard, which also extends

the frontal public square frontal to it, reinforce, also here, volumetrically and spatially, the

centralizing character of the Place.

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There also exist other Portuguese Villas in which the chapel occupied, since its

origin, the centre of the house, in which the centrality is confirmed by its verticality and

volume that characterize it, as well as its existence as a composition axis defined by the

entrance of the public square and by the chapel. It is the case of Quinta da Madre de

Deus (Várzea, Sintra) and Quinta do Barruncho (Póvoa de St.º Adrião). In these, the

public square is substituted by the entrance path of the house that is limited by high walls

that surround the main door. There are windows that allow us to visualize this space and

the outside.

Fig.7 – Quinta da Madre de Deus

Fig.8 – Quinta do Barruncho

At Quinta do Torneiro (Porto Salvo), the chapel is the exact center of the house,

assuming a model verticality, not only by its architectural composition, but by its internal

space. The access to the main building, which include the chapel, is made by a entrace

yards totally closed to the exterior and opened to the Portuguese Villa. It has a gate

located in one the lateral walls.

At Quinta da Conceição (Aldeia de Irmãos), it is the house that assumes the

centrality of the Place. It is expressed by the vertical affirmation of the belfry of the chapel

– the highest volume in the composition of the Portuguese Villa – in the point of

interception of the two composition axis of the architecture. Here, the yard of entrance

doesn’t relate directly to the chapel. It is integrated in the volume of the house, with

access through a little terrace. Curiously this is not located in the center of the

composition, beneath the belfry – where we can find the entrance room of the house – but

is on the lateral side to this one and has a simple entrance. The access to the main

entrance of the house can be made, not only by rectilineal axis regulated yard that ends

in the vertice of the belfry, but also by an organic path, through the wood, that encounters

the main facade of the house and its entrance.

In any of this cases the centrality is clearly confirmed and apprehended through any

point of the Portuguese Villa.

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Fig.9 – Quinta do Torneiro

Fig.10 – Quinta da Conceição

In other Portuguese Villas, the centrality is not so formally evident, but are still the

verticality and the symbolic character of the chapel, such as its architectonic

characterization, in its all, that identify the Place. In the case of Quinta das Carrafochas

(A-das-Lebres, Loures), it has an extense public square in front of the house, separated

by a street, with a chapel located in one end of the building. The centrality of the Place is

confirmed by the entrance yard of the house, which is seen also in other examples.

At Quinta de N. Sra. da Conceição (Barcarena), the chapel, center of the Place, is

located in an axial way relatively to the gate entrance at the Portuguese Villa and the

access is made by a small courtyard. All the other constructed volumes and the access to

the entrance of the house is made from the back.

Fig.11 – Quinta das Carrafochas

Fig.12 – Quinta de N. Srª da Conceição

The centrality of the Place created from a space restriction that originates an

intentional opposition between interior-exterior, from a geometrical and rational order, is a

theme largely approached in the renascence architecture. The Quinta das Torres

(Azeitão) is a clear example of this identification of Place.

Here, we do not find the verticality of the religious space and its central character, but

a conceptual rationality in which the use of regular geometric forms, symmetric axis and

the seeking of the metric order which creates rhythms and proportional forms will create

another type of centrality of Place

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Confirming the intellectual and rational power of man over nature, in instead of a

symbolic order, of religious character, expressed on previous cases, determines that not

only the organization of Place is made rationally, but also its relation with the

surroundings. Apart from the centralized yard of Quinta das Torres, there are two square

axis that structure the building and that extend into the outskirts, ruling lakes, gardens,

viewpoints and leisure houses.

At Quinta da Bacalhoa (Vila Fresca de Azeitão) all the space is structured – house,

gardens, farming areas – by a geometrical composition. At the center of the Place there

are the Palace and “Formal Garden”, group planimetrically organized by a square inside

another in which the volume of the Palace in “L” delimitates the garden which opens

himself towards the lake. However, and in spite of the square being a centralized form,

the center of spatial radiance is precisely one of the vertices where it is identifed the

verticality of Place, at the circular tower there located and that visually rules all the Villa.

Fig.13 – Quinta das Torres

Fig.14 – Quinta da Bacalhoa

One of the villas that gathers some of the features studied on the previously referred

examples is Quinta da Ribafria (Lourel, Sintra). In this case we also noticed the existence

of a chapel in the building, directly related to the entrance yard and a strong axiality

expressed in the design of the gardens. But it is precisely on the verticality confirmed by

the tower and it´s position of domain in all the territory of the farm, that we can find the

centrality of the Place. On this Villa it is possible to find what we have seen at Q. da

Bacalhoa – from a square plan that aggregates several spaces of the building, it is

possible to point out in one of its vertices a vertical mass with the shape of a tower, that

takes off the spatial centrality of the geometric square.

Fig.15 – Quinta da Ribafria

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- Direction, Way and Path

The Place, as studied in the previous cases, expresses a clear interior-exterior

relation that always contain directions acquired of the place of origin and others that came

from the constructive action of man. Moreover, the vertical direction, symbolically

confirmed by the main house, existential center of Place, shows the capacity of man to

affirm itself over nature.

The tower coming from the medieval home is symbolicaly related with the victory and

ascending way, in opposition to the earthly existence – secret dimension of space6. The

verticality will be the first direction of Place and the one that has the most symbolic

character, even as the own affirmation of the centrality of the Place.

In Nature we find directions that indicate symbolic and qualitative differences. While

verticality transcends the physical/real world, the horizontal directions are related to the

action of man. The cardinal points as an abstract orientation determine, by itself, the

structure of the world.

“The nature also determines the spatial existential directions of man in a more

concrete sense” 7 All the landscape contains determined directions not only by the

topography, but also by the morphology and structure of the territory – valley lines or

ridge-ways, valleys, hillsides more or less declined, surfaces more or less irregular, more

or less arborized, more or less desert – even by proximity or distance relations to other

places. These are some of the most important elements that determined the choice of the

place where man is going impose himself by constructing in a natural support.

On the major Portuguese Villas that were referred, the main building – house or

palace – has a longitudinal configuration and implants himself in a parallel level curve of a

hillside. Its posterior facade and the hillside that is frontal create an exterior space

sheltered with characteristics of an sheltered yard. The other facade visually dominates

the involving landscape and, in most cases, it is viewed from far. As an example we show

here, the Q. da Subserra (V. Franca de Xira).

Fig.16 – Quinta da Subserra

6 Idem, ibidem, p.25.

7 Idem, ibidem, p.26.

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The house can also implant itself perpendicular to the level curves, as it is the case of

Q. do Torneiro (Porto Salvo).

Others Portuguese Villas structured themselves from ridge-way and this line can

afirme itself as a regulated axis of the spaces of the villa - Q. da Conceição (Aldeia de

Irmãos) – or, be associated to a communication path coincident to the ridge-way having a

linear ocupation gerated by the adding of several constructed buildings, essentialy

structured from the vertical plan that unites all its facades in one only that confronts the

street layout - Q. das Carrafochas (A-das- Lebres, Loures).

Having a valley line as a structuring direction, we find Q. de N. Srª da Conceição

(Barcarena), which house is also composed by the linear grouping of several volumes,

but in here confronted with a small river (Ribeira de Barcarena), and the Q. de Pintéus

(Loures), in which the house is parallel to the small river, in a situation of marked slope

located in its gardens, in ledges, between both. Q. de Manique (Alcabideche) finds itself

in a similar situation, but in this case, the slope is inferior, and that permit the existence of

gardens and production fields near the house.

Fig.17 – Quinta de Pintéus

Fig.18 – Quinta do Calhariz

“The path has a double movement – the departure and the return – these divide the space into two zones or concentric regions – one interior and another exterior – the interior, the small one, is where encounter the house and the exterior is the most vast and in which we

return”. 8

Because they are found in very particular places, and since there is not good access,

most Portuguese Villas create their own paths. These are apparently not ruled

geometrically but obeys to relations of topographical order and join several different spots

of the territory, accomplishing the major distance between them with the minimum of

space, the maximum security and economy. They were raised with the condition imposed

by the territory, without declaring geometrical orders on its route, assuming a rectilinear

character only with the immediate proximity of Place. Here are created tension relations

between the natural and what is built, and it is confirmed the scale of importance of the

Villa on the act of approaching and arrival to its entrance. These features are essentially

8 Idem, ibidem, p.25.

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found at the Quinta do Calhariz (Sesimbra), in Quinta. da Conceição (Aldeia de Irmãos)

and at the Quina da Ribafria (Várzea, Sintra).

“Perceptively all way is characterized by its continuity. Such as place is determined by proximity of its defined elements, and eventually by its fence or limit, the way is conceived as a

linear succession.” 9

In certain cases the path assumes the character of organized axis of the elements

that accompanied him, reinforcing, above all, its orientation and way. At the entrance

courtyard (yards of honor), respectively, houses of the Quinta do Calhariz and Quinta do

Correio-Mor Villa, the sense of deepness caused by the axis and the context of the main

door of the house by symmetric volumes determined its central importance on the

architectural composition of the building. The door is the vanishing point of a space that is

perceptively conic and in depth.

The organizing axis doesn’t always aims to achieve a terminal point or finishing line,

in most cases it is not necessary the materialization of a real movement but it represents,

before, a symbolic direction that unites and makes relation with a certain numbers of

elements between them to form all wide. It is going to have, an ordered, abstract and

physical role without letting assume the most important directions of Place.

The gardens, structurally in relation with the house, assume, in many cases, the axis

of the planimetric composition of this one, or create its own axis through a symmetric

view. This one can create a path that follows him until it is not identified as it, while the

axis extends itself to the infinite. This relation of man domain of the nature through

geometry and ordinating axis on the space composition, came from the concept of

baroque garden, is one of the main features of the Quinta do Calhariz (Sesimbra).

- Surronding Area as Region

“In certain way the regions are places, because they are defined by its enclousure

and by the proximity and resemblance of the elements that compose them”.10 The region

has a unifier function of the spaces dominated by man, and in them we find places and

paths as predominate and structured elements, defined usually by natural directions. It is

influenced not only by physical and functional factors, but also by cultural and social

factors, as affirmative, guidance and evolution forces. It can have a huge character, when

interpreted at a context of regional context or at a more localized context, directly

relationed with a particular place and it can be confused with it.

9 Idem, ibidem, p.27.

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“Since the most remote times it is known that different places as different characters That

difference of character it is sometimes so strong that is sufficient to determined he basic

properties of the exterior images of the majority of the people that are present, making them

feel what they have experienced and that they belong to the same place. [...] the existential

place cannot be understand only by the necessities of man, but only as a result of its

interaction and mutual influence with the environment that surrounds him. This one has to be

understand and accepted.” 11

The region, in a vast sense, includes several sub-regions associated to specific

places, appears on the presented study and in what refers to the architectonic order of

spaces of the Portuguese Villa, best defined in some particular examples. Cultural

factors are more important in some cases, as direct reflex in the building types and in its

architectural quality and, in other cases, is it own topography and the functional needs of

implanting a specific program that determine the common characteristics.

Azeitão is the studied area that has shown more homogenity in the approach of the

place and spatial relation with the surroundings common to their villas. The way as we

can arrive to them, the conceptual rationality and the repetition of constructive elements

from each other and the vanguard affirmation and erudition at the time of its building.

In Azeitão we can find similarities, in conceptual and organic structure of the villas as

on the architectonic programme and in the strong relation of these one with the

landscape. It is clear the intense the relationship that, in its villas, the lateral facade of the

house establishes with the garden. It is however, in the Quinta do Calhariz and in the

Palace of Duques de Aveiro that we can find more resemblances. While the first has two

big terraces that make the transition between he house and the formal garden, the

second has a porticated balcony ("Loggia") along the façade, also decorated with tile, and

in front of where it is supposed to have existed, a geometric formal garden (classic

garden).

The water mirror, that has a vast architectonic expression in Quinta da Bacalhoa and

in Quinta das Torres, assumes in Quinta dos Duques de Aveiro and in Quinta do Calhariz

a more romantic character, by its implantation outside of a well defined geometry,

marking the transition between gardens – Nature controlled by man – and natural

landscape.

10

Idem, ibidem, p.27. 11

Idem, ibidem, p.33.

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Fig.19 – Quinta dos Duques de Aveiro

Fig.20 – Quinta do Calhariz

The author who conceived these notable examples of domestic architecture in

Azeitão is unknown, but the participation of man with architectonic formation don´t leave

any doubts (architects and military engineers). The knowledge of architecture treatises,

combined with architectural intensions of great sensibility and esthetic value, expressed

by character and particular identity of these cases and by its perfect integration in

particular contexts, are the most important factors. Sérlio will be, maybe, the major font,

mainly about Bacalhoa, in Torres and also in Calhariz, such as Vignola, as we can verify

on the main entrance portal of the Palace dos Duques de Aveiro, between other

elements of detail. The most common found in architecture treaties that we can see on

the different cases is the use of he Tuscan order – theory and geometric support for the

design of elegant columns that define “Loggias” (Torres, Bacalhoa, Duques de Aveiro),

or framed portals (Duques de Aveiro, Calhariz), being also used on the small temple of

circular plant that exists in the lake of Quinta das Torres and in the small backyard of the

Quinta do Calhariz.

The ashlar, the cornices, the eaves, the small windows that define mezzanine on the

noble grounds (Torres, Duques de Aveiro, Calhariz), as well as doors where the design

and expressivity of stereotomy is clearly serlian (Bacalhoa, Torres, Calhariz), are other

elements that include themselves on the architecture of different cases.

What are these constants due to?

There are several factors of great importance beong the intervention of the architect,

that rarely must have the responsibility of the entire building architecture and might have

collaborated in different tasks: the builder that might have been common, and that the

constructive habits leave always marks that can involve part of the buildings, the

knowledge acquired on the field and transmitted for the next intervention; the regionalism

found on some constructive elements – walls, pavements, roofs, eaves, etc..

Posterior to the construction of Quinta do Calhariz, the Quinta da Conceição,

besides inherit big part of the composition elements of façade already refered, has

strong relations of environmental and structural character with the former. Both are

ordered into perpendicular axis, with the constructed masses assuming a strong

implantation and dialogue with the surroundings. Both took advantage from different

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perspectives about the landscape and use water as scenographical effects – water

mirrors implanted on the landscape. This relations are even more self-evident if we

compare the main facade of the house of Quinta Conceição with the posterior facade of

the Quinta Calhariz, in which the structuring of the two forward volumes that involve

other central (belongs to the chapel) and the program of façade with rhythms and

implantation of similar openings, evidence very similar proportions. These coincidences

make believe that Quinta da Conceição might have been inspired by Quinta do Calhariz,

being probable that, even here, there has been the construction heritance.

Fig.21 – Quinta da Conceição

Fig.22 – Quinta do Calhariz

In a narrower field, the region (or sub-region) is the space that includes all the

Portuguese Villa and its Place. In it we have a clear distinction between interior and

exterior, spaces that were, in most of the cases, completely walled and had controlled

access, with a clear limit that separates the interior region of the outside, only interrupted

by the gate of the villa – entrance of Place - that symbolic represents the transition

between the organic nature and a space ordinated by man. Here, the relation inside-

outside makes clear the act of inhabiting – “To be inside is the main and primordial

affirmation inherent at the concept of Place, is being at a different place as the exterior”12

– This limited region, to be internal has to have some features: to be walled, to have or

not a geometrical order in this formal structure and have an entrance that introduces a

direction. The limited form reinforces the centrality that symbolizes the need to belong a

Place, as the longitudinal movement, related with the door and the path that gives

access, express a certain opening to the world.

As the surrounding landscape might be interpreted as a bottom plan, with its own

structure, indicating paths, opening views and creating various environments in a

spontaneous way according to the solar variation, the interior landscape at the limit of

the villa can be more or less organized and geometrical, melting artificial ways that were

built, with the natural ones. Its structure can be a geometric grid that defines paths,

gutters (irrigation system), gardens or walls that support vegetable gardens and grove,

12

Idem, ibidem, p.39.

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but never affronts the natural order that surrounds, even that because the major

existence area on the “interior region” is composed by a wild forest at the image of the

exteriors.

The Quinta do Calhariz is the most complete example at the relation house/palace

with the difference areas of its space, with clear communication between its parts that

are organized by a general axis of composition. At this example, we can also interpret

the search of an absolute domain, apparently limited in space, with the prolonging of axis

until the infinite that has by origin the main building of the villa – Place in which man

dominates the natural space that surrounds him.

– Bibliography

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Amílcar de Gil e Pires, Assistant Professor of Faculdade de Arquitectura, Universidade Técnica de Lisboa