House for a Tractor

Tomar, Portugal

Here, the confluence of the Tagus and Zêzere rivers announces the delta. Land and water intermingle in a landscape founded on uncertainty: a silty, unstable terrain where vegetation beaten down by the floods does not recover. In the Ribatejo region, Lusitano horses and herds of fighting bulls inhabit the river’s expanded floodplain. Vast, indistinct expanses are punctuated by small white structures of elementary form — a compromise between land and water.

For an agricultural building near Tomar, Pedro Machado Costa revisits the typology of the espigueiro, the traditional granary for maize and grain: a small volume detached from the farm buildings, marking the landscape with a concise gesture.

With no greater ambition than to be useful, these small stone structures raised above the ground were often given a particular treatment, a sentimental gesture that elevates them beyond their function and gives them an unexpected emotional quality. The same can be said of this contemporary agricultural building, the architect’s first work.

By translating the object into the contemporary anonymity of the box, Machado Costa avoids a literal reproduction of the espigueiro while allowing the programme to occupy the volume more freely. From tradition, he retains elements such as the perforated walls, constructed here in brick rather than wood or stone, filtering the interior with a delicate, lace-like half-light. In doing so, the building approaches the essential character of this architecture of labour: its modesty.