- Interior
Casa Meco is a beautiful house in the coastal village of Aldeia do Meco in Portugal with an impressive, open living space as its beating heart. The Portuguese design studio Atelier Rua realised here a fine piece of architecture where geometry leads the design with an even more beautiful interior.
Casa Meco was designed as a holiday home for a retired couple. It has the shape of a perfect square and the four concrete facades look more or less the same. When you enter the triangular plot – where there is also a swimming pool – the architecture and light colour on the outside immediately gives a beautiful view, but also the interior of this house is stunning. In the corners of the house, outside terraces have been 'cut out'. At the four corners are also the private spaces such as the bedrooms, so that the common room is in the middle and overlooks the beautiful landscape. Each bedroom has its own bathroom and with the terraces in each corner also a private patio. These corners and spaces are seen as clusters where family and friends can retreat for some privacy when they come to visit.
Atelier Rua plays with openness and geometry in Casa Meco
The very large and open living room is the heart of the house. A kitchen and dining area are part of this central living space. That is exactly what the owners wanted. They didn't want doors, but a plan that was as open as possible, Paulo Borralho of Atelier Rue told Dezeen in an interview. ‘They wanted a house that would promote the independence of each bedroom and that the communal areas could be used as spaces to come together.’ The living space has a floor and ceiling of visible concrete, yet there is a warm and homely atmosphere thanks to soft and sober materials and colours such as wood, rattan, ceramics, beige and green. No less than three sides of the room are made of glass panels and because the interior is shrouded in a neutral and natural palette of colours and materials, you can enjoy the peace and quiet and the beautiful views of the garden and surroundings even more.
Just as the large, open, central living space is the beating heart of Casa Meco, geometry is the basis and central aspect in the architecture of this impressive and beautiful holiday home. 
Courtesy of Atelier Rua
Photographer: Francisco Nogueira