Exposed concrete, pink marble and a rooftop pool revive an old Lisbon home

As seen in the September Style Special of Wallpaper* (W*246)

Leopold Banchini’s eclectic
Leopold Banchini’s eclectic house design in Lisbon.
(Image credit: Leopold Banchini Architects, Dylan Perrenoud)
By Harriet Thorpe
last updated

Casa do Monte is a house cloaked in romantic narratives. Designed by Leopold Banchini Architects, selected for the Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory 2019, with architect Daniel Zamarbide, the family home is set on a site caught in the steep wake of the hilltop chapel Nossa Senhora do Monte, established by Augustinians in 1147. It was also a location for a Wallpaper* fashion shoot by photographer Julien T Hamon and styled by Wallpaper* fashion director Isabelle Kountoure for the September 2019 issue (W*246).

The nondescript doorway to the house is reached only by a passage of narrow steps, winding past venerable neighbours deferring to rubble. And while the historic façade has been quietly preserved, inside, the space was totally demolished and re-carved from scratch.

Blue spiral staircase

(Image credit: press)

Re-materialised with concrete, the walls have been left raw and exposed, changing the atmosphere of the house from something domestic into a pure and stylistic architectural shell for living.

Simplicity and raw materials define the interior programme. Slabs of solid stone divide the space and open up storage solutions, while sweeping light fabric curtains glide over the architecture to add a warm intimacy to the exposed materials. The interventions in pink marble from the nearby Estremoz quarry, green azulejos tiles, and local carpentry sharpen the space with Banchini’s trademark eclecticism – also seen at the Casa CCFF in Geneva.

A blue metal staircase spirals through the layers up to the final chapter. On the rooftop a rectangular pool has been carved out of a flat plane of Portuguese white stone, punctured by three umbrella pines and wrapped up in the Lisbon panorama.

Featuring fashion shoot

Wallpaper* Style Special – September 2019 issue (W*246) – featuring fashion shoot by photographer Julien T Hamon and styled by Isabelle Kountoure at the Casa do Monte in Lisbon

(Image credit: press)

Graffiti passage way in Lisbon


(Image credit: press)

Concrete double height interior

(Image credit: press)

Pink marble walls at dusk

(Image credit: press)

Blue spiral staircase


(Image credit: press)

Rooftop swimming pool in lisbon

(Image credit: press)

Blue spiral staircase from below


(Image credit: press)

Pink marble bathroom

(Image credit: press)

Outside courtyard with green tiles

(Image credit: press)

INFORMATION
leopoldbanchini.com

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Harriet Thorpe

Harriet Thorpe is a writer, journalist and editor covering architecture, design and culture, with particular interest in sustainability, 20th-century architecture and community. After studying History of Art at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) and Journalism at City University in London, she developed her interest in architecture working at Wallpaper* magazine and today contributes to Wallpaper*, The World of Interiors and Icon magazine, amongst other titles. She is author of The Sustainable City (2022, Hoxton Mini Press), a book about sustainable architecture in London, and the Modern Cambridge Map (2023, Blue Crow Media), a map of 20th-century architecture in Cambridge, the city where she grew up.

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