Ameixeira

A Cool, Contained, Contemporary Dwelling in the Alentejo

A natural palette and broad central patio characterize this architectural villa intentionally designed to turn inwards, creating a deeply intimate home that blends harmoniously into its rural surroundings. Wooden beams and shaded natural pergolas spread outwards from the home in select places, creating pathways towards the pool and forest, out and away from the otherwise cool, contained, contemporary rural dwelling.

Earth-toned, brut and boxy, this villa for rent in Portugal elevates the standard rural home to sophisticated new levels. Designed around a central courtyard with a tiled dining area, the modern hacienda was built to turn inwards, with all its rooms leading towards or into the spare central patio. The patio space serves as a cool, intimate oasis at the heart of the home. There’s a tiled and shaded dining area furnished for lounging in total privacy and a single gnarled olive tree proudly anchoring it at the center. The simple lines and sturdy volumes found in more traditional Portuguese agricultural dwellings remain apparent here, but this home offers a contemporary and strikingly bold new take on the typical. It’s an all-modern rural house that blends harmoniously into its wooded surroundings only a short distance from the Atlantic Ocean.

Built into its naturally sloping lot, the home is entered through a long, low, fortress-like wall devoid of windows or openings that opens across a hallway/foyer into the pebbled and tiled central courtyard. Lining all sides of the courtyard are the home’s living spaces. Common areas, such as the open-plan, glass-walled living, dining and kitchen areas, the latter with a kitchen island on one end, a wide fireplace on the other, fill one wide, rectilinear volume of the home designed around the courtyard. Three bed and bathroom suites, plus two additional bedrooms with a shared double bath fill the remaining spaces off the main hall to complete the square design that surrounds the patio.

Outdoor spaces were also created with intention, drawing residents away from the intimate heart of the home and ultimately out to a pool set in a natural amphitheater below the house. Shaded seating areas extend outside the glass walls of the villa’s communal areas and are landscaped with local grasses and shrubs, with wooden beamed pathways to the pool.

Around

This villa for rent in Portugal is located in the picturesque Alentejo region, set on the Sado estuary and its fertile river valley. The Alentejo has long been an agricultural center, a place of abundant fruit-bearing trees, rice paddies, and colorful stands of twisting cork oak trees harvested and regenerating their bark over time. 

The area is famously surrounded by nature preserves and known for its abundant bird and animal life. Perhaps most highly regarded in the area is the unspoiled Atlantic coast. Soaring sand dunes outside of the creative hub town of Melides are a major draw, and the town of Comporta with its galleries, boutiques and exclusive designer resorts is also an easy drive away, offering nightlife and restaurants and cafes. 

Along the Atlantic shore north and south of the home, miles of unspoiled beaches with their backdrops of earthy, tawny cliffs and pine forests await.

Location

Melides, Portugal. Nearest airport: Lisbon (70 miles).

Best time to visit

May to October