Pousadela is a Northern Portuguese village farm formed of several small granite buildings surrounded by extensive vineyards and a mixed forest. Its distinctive location and views and the untouched architectural composition defines a vernacular setting of unique value. The proposed expansion of the farm to accommodate a high-end eco-hotel aimsforemost to preserve the authenticity of the site and its ancient culture, while augmenting the environmental and architectural value through the insertion of new buildings in carefully chosen points of the site.

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The topography of Pousadela has an inclination of over 250m which was made inhabitable through terraces foragricultural use and in which buildings are nestled in. This created a landscape with a considerable biological andenvironmental diversity, including along vineyards and the mixed forest of oaks, lime, pines and bamboo a rich orchard; humid areas with ancient ferns along awater line; and a rich ecosystem of herbs and bushes that are gradually rewilding lower portions of the farm.

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The concept for the extensionof Pousadela is based on a clustered dispersion of buildings that make use of theecotones between vineyards and forest.

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By keeping a functionaldistance to the facilities in the old village, the newly proposed buildings ondifferent locations of the farm make sure that the old building cluster is keptintact.

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The proposal follows a netzero agenda, with new buildings having a minimal impact on the landscape, whiletaking advantage of the biodiversity of ecological edge conditions. Allbuildings are proposed to use local materials, including timber, stone and soilthat is extracted from the farm.

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Credits:

Team:  Marcos Cruz / Brenda Parker in collaboration with Jorge Sodré Albuquerque, Porto

Collaboration: Susana Silva, Pedro Oliveira, Ayele Franceschini

Hotel management consultancy: Sofia Lima

Structural engineering: Francisco Bernardo / A400 Porto

Landscape architecture: Nuno Viterbo Abrunhosa

Financial consultancy: António Pinheiro / António Martins

Marketing consultancy: José Ventura

Client: Paulo Amado and Rita Amado

Year: 2022-24