Casa da Ilha

Casa da Ilha stands on the Rua dos Bacalhoeiros, on an island that was for four centuries the beating heart of Portugal's eastern empire and is now a UNESCO-listed town that time mostly left alone. The building is a typical island mansion — a long, single-storey block of lime-washed stone, shuttered windows, and a courtyard full of shade.

It had been abandoned long enough that parts of the roof had gone, and the sea air had done what sea air always does. The clients wanted a guesthouse; the building wanted something more patient.

The restoration was conducted on the island's terms. Stone was re-laid by the same masons who maintain the fort and the churches. The walls were re-rendered in the same shell-lime plaster that has covered them since the eighteenth century, and the original deep-blue window shutters were reproduced rather than replaced.

The layout barely changed. The great reception rooms became guest rooms; the old service courtyard became the dining patio. The only new structure is a raised timber deck over the roof, open to the sea breeze, added as the one modern concession — a viewing platform the building had earned.

Casa da Ilha is not a museum, and it was not a museum before. It is a house of the island, restored by the island, and finally doing work again.