Pa.te.os

Set within an 80-hectare wine and farming estate on the coast of the Alentejo, reached by a two-kilometre off-road track that leaves the main road behind, Pa.te.os sits five minutes from the fishing village of Melides and twenty from Comporta, in a preserved stretch of southern Portugal bordered by a turquoise lagoon and one of the longest uninterrupted beaches in Europe, a little over an hour from Lisbon and a world away from mass tourism.

Designed by Portuguese architect Manuel Aires Mateus, Pa.te.os is a quartet of contemporary houses whose name derives from the Portuguese word for patio, each built around a private courtyard at its heart, with monolithic concrete forms, large geometric openings framing the surrounding land and sky, and interiors of warm wood, neutral tones, and suspended wood-burning stoves. The four houses range from House 3, a single ensuite bedroom of eighty-five square metres, to House 2, a three-bedroom of two hundred and eight, and can be booked individually or together as an exclusive buyout of the whole estate.