Set among the pines of Birre, in Cascais, Casa Torre is organized on two levels — one slightly above street level, one slightly below — composed so that the house reads as a single-storey volume. From the street it appears as a closed monolith suspended above the ground, an image immediately deconstructed by its luminous interior.

The entry sequence begins with a bridge that spans the sunken garage court and rises gently from the sidewalk to the upper level, where the hall marks the social entrance at the very center of the house. From here the plan unfolds into two volumes: a private wing with the bedrooms, and a social wing holding the living, dining and kitchen areas. Between them, a generous courtyard grants each wing independence and privacy, draws daylight deep into every room, and extends downward as an outdoor living space connecting to the gardens and pool on the lower level, where a second, everyday entrance sits beside the covered parking.

The material palette reinforces the duality between opacity and light: white brick walls face the street, while glass-brick planes and full-height glazing dissolve the house toward the gardens — opaque by day, glowing like a lantern at dusk.