Presenters Piers Taylor and Caroline Quentin travel to Portugal to find another four extraordinary homes. It’s a country with a reputation for great design and craftsmanship but also modesty.
Their first house is located in the Portuguese Riviera, an upmarket area west of Lisbon. From the road Wall House gives little away, but crossing a contemporary drawbridge Piers and Caroline discover a huge, breathtaking luxury home. Whole walls of glass and wood open up, blurring the lines between interior and exterior. And it has two swimming pools, one on ground level and the second one crossing it from above. Caroline says it is “one of the biggest privileges of my life to be in a house like this.”
Casa Na Gateira, the second house, is owned by British ex-pats Neil and Shirley. Built in Penela, the rural heart of Portugal, it looks like a farm building outside but once through the front door it reveals itself as a truly contemporary home. The architects decided not to interfere with the landscape, creating a brilliant ‘snake’ design that hugs the ground and steps down the terraces.
House number three is known as Dune House. Built within a pine forest near the Atlantic Coast, 120 tonnes of sand were excavated from the site to create two artificial sand dunes that partially submerge the house on two sides. The house is also an eccentric crooked cross –shape or, as Piers says, a “hyperbolic paraboloid.” Andre the owner says it’s like a “letter from some unknown alphabet!”
Casa Gerês, is hidden in a mountainous and forested National Park. Piers and Caroline walk down into the beautiful landscaped gardens, and get their first view of a stunning, giant house, anchored into the hillside and bedrock. Piers describes it as “monolithic.” Inside, enormous windows access the views and Caroline finds a massive master bedroom with outdoor hot tub.
They finish their tour by a blazing fire on the terrace as the sun drops over the dramatic landscape Show less