Valerio Olgiati is a famous Swiss architect who since 2009 also runs the Kenzō Tange chair at Harvard University in Cambridge, USA. Villa Além stands out among the forest in the rural Alentejo region in Portugal; this name is not accidental, given that in Portuguese além means “beyond”, making “Villa Além” the appropriate name for a structure that attempts to transcend the traditional concepts of accommodation.
The villa is distinguished by the management of an introverted space, characterized by a central swimming pool and a minimal garden. The reinforced concrete walls overlook the inner courtyard, receiving ample and evocative lighting.
The project is based on the idea of an environment perfectly in harmony with the surrounding landscape, both closed and open. As the architect explains:
“It is disconnected in every respect. There is only the vast empty landscape around us”.
From Villa Além emerges a sense of solitude, of independence and at the same time of meditation and calm, for a space that reconciles the mind with the body, as well as architecture with the surrounding landscape.
