Chapéu Virado House | Nuno Ladeiro

The house Chapéu Virado in Cascais, not created by a notorious author, belongs to an extremely rich period of Portuguese Architecture, in which confronted two realities, the architectural modernity on one hand and on the other, the tradition represented by the architect Raul Lino, very famous Portuguese architect in the middle of the XX century.
The house, now restored, exhibits in its facade the name “Chapéu Virado” (Turned Hat), a tribute to the former owner born in Brazil, and living for several years now in Portugal. The new owner who acquired the house lived in Cascais, town near Lisboan, and realized that it was a construction of value. The house showed an austere facade, but at the same time a modern one. The high state of abandonment did not discourage him, quite the opposite; it enthused and led him to search someone who could help recover the house and the garden, adapting them to the new needs.
The rehabilitation project sought to take advantage of the architectural characteristics, understanding them as a fair complement to a generation of Portuguese architects, from where they belong, among others, Januário Godinho, his master Rogério de Azevedo and Keil do Amaral. This period in sixties was a decisive turning point in Portuguese architecture.
The architects of this generation performed beautiful work and brought to conflict two distinct but reconcilable realities; the tradition and the modernity. This difficult balance of modernity in continuity, with a tradition of Estado Novo (authoritarian political regime called “New State”), based on the controversy of Portuguese House and the values assigned (not very successfully) to the thinking of Raul Lino, was not always consensual.
It was the transition of a romantic, decorative and fairy mentality, toward an organized and universal logic, that emphasized the expressive character of the material and the uniqueness of the techniques, which identified the space as premise and the place as substance.
The understanding and the appreciation of the work led to the restore of the stones traditionally bush-hammered, to the introduction of blue-gray pavements of Cascais well polished, to the preservation of the tradition by adapting it to the new reality. The multiplicity of attitudes and principles implicit in a very personal logic were fundamental in the details. It was draw news styles in the pavements, but always according to the logic of continuity and never rupture.
The facade was also rehabilitated, the balustrades redesigned, the excesses introduced by the time were removed and it was restored the image of the original work.
For an inattentive look, it can be missed the vanguard of rupture that characterizes this architect, clearly from the sixties, but the balance between tradition and modernity is the trace that better explains the rightness and the timelessness of this anonymous architectural design.
They are designs from a different time, when everything was thought out, measured, matured, designed, followed… and where every part or element fit in all, without abdicating their own personality.
The rehabilitation of the house Chapéu Virado was a thorough project. New frontals and patterns for new stone compositions were designed, the garden was also redesigned, the vegetation was carefully chosen and the trees were also arranged, transforming them into genuine works of art.