Entre Portas — Pinhel, Portugal

An interior view of the Entre Portas restaurants. Floors, walls, and ceilings are all in gray concrete syle. The bar brown color is on the far wall, and we see bottles of drinks behind it. The tables and chairs are all in light wood.
(Image credit: TBC)

Entre Portas, may not be Porto-based architectural practice DepA’s first project in Pinhel, in the rolling hills of northwestern Portugal, but it is one of its most intriguing. A restaurant and café occupying a renovated traditional tile-roofed home, the open-plan space is larger within than it appears from without, for not only have internal walls and ceilings been removed but the bedrock has been excavated in order to add space.

Divided into an upper restaurant and lower café bar level, where it is not coated in a thick, marshmallowy layer of white render, the minimal interior is dominated by almost brutal concrete walls, partially clad in so seamless a fashion that the blonde wood reads as a continuation of the formwork patterns left in the concrete during construction.

In places, most notably the bathrooms, the bedrock is left exposed, as if to prevent the light, airy interior from floating away.

An interior view of the two-floor Entre Portas restaurant. Floors, walls, and ceilings are all in gray concrete style. The bar brown color is on the far wall, and we see bottles of drinks behind it. The tables and chairs are all in light wood. To the left, there are wooden stairs that lead to the second floor.

(Image credit: TBC)

An interior view of the two-floor Entre Portas restaurant. The entrance is to the left. Floors, walls, and ceilings are all in gray concrete syle. The tables and chairs are all in light wood. To the right, there are wooden stairs that lead to the second floor.

(Image credit: TBC)

Exterior view of the Entre Portas restaurant. White, two-floor building, with brown doors and window panes. A tree is next to the sidewalk.

(Image credit: TBC)

ADDRESS

Largo Ministro Duarte Pacheco,13

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Middle East Editor