COMPETITION: MONTE D'OIRO WINE HOTEL - "CLIENT'S FAVOURITE" PRIZE

Chapel's Tale

Encircled Time

The new Monte-d’Oiro-Hotel-Complex is conceived as a passage between the Front Chapel’s Facade and its secret Backside-Cupola. It starts as a single Entrance and leads one through a sequence of fascinating spaces to tell a vibrant story of the perfect terroir and local vernacular. Everything that makes the Monte d’Oiro wine so special can be lived in a single circular volume with multiple views of the valley outside and the winery inside. This narrative is sequenced to slow down the time, starting with a panoramic and lively bar setting, followed by circular journey with even wider perspectives and ending with the still space filled with saltwater and dramatic halo-skylight.

Clear Address

Upon arrival a visitor appears in a stunning courtyard with a central historic façade of the chapel. The following hotel-complex, starts on the hill, and disappears around the corner gradually ascending. The intrigued visitor is welcome, and invited by this momentum to enter the immediately recognizable main address of the hotel.

A Chapel’s Tale

The thoughts on urban intervention start with a typological question. The context is a mixture of a homogenous linear structure and heterogeneous traditional Portuguese village typology. The Old Distilleries transformation into a chapel creates an appealing typological precedent. The classical Chapel Type is usually freestanding, a secondary building or a building as a part of a bigger ensemble. It is never a central piece, but rather a part of a bigger whole. In this Project - the Chapel is probably the most outstanding building in the settlement becoming a landmark. It leads the Architectural Ensemble. Thus any intervention on the site must not overpower the chapel and be considerate of this condition. This Typological transformation is a starting point for the urban intervention. The new MDHC is thus perceived as a third (back) extension of the Chapel. In its ideal state it is a long Block with linear structure and spatial sequence. Considering all the given conditions (context, program, site etc.) it becomes a wrapped block enclosing the space and creating a set of courtyards.

The new building is a natural extension of the chapel - a stretching Mirage, using the same elements and typology. Contemporary interpretation of these elements suggests an adaptation and transformation of the language to the present condition. The architecture serves in this case as a sort of framing to the fragile existing architectural landscape, revealing its Beauty and empowering the spatial multilevel experience. The Building serves as a boundary and at the same time as a theatre - encircling the inner space and providing for the optical departure.

Landscape Preservation

The context serves as a protagonist while the projects uses what is to be found on site. Instead of a tabula rasa the projects takes the route of a careful and considerate intervention. Some pieces like the huge rectangular platform, the promenade with a staircase (1) including such artefacts as a monument with a horse-head (2) or a wall piece with azulejo (3) are worth saving and reintegrating. The natural stone wall of the demolished central building (4) serves as a boundary for the new events space in front of the big conference Hall and is supported by the new Staircase connecting the Conference and Events area with the Main Courtyard. The new building reduces the intervention on site to the minimum increasing the projects sustainability. That is why a thin block of merely 9,40 meters wide slices precisely through the sites tissue creating a perfectly measured spatial set for the future cultural life of the winery.

Material Concept

The local terroir consisting of clay-limestone soils is the inspiration source for the material concept of the Project. Due to continuity and uniformity of the structure a single material is chosen to be used throughout the project: rammed concrete for the walls and reinforced concrete for the slabs and joists. The lightly Rose colour representing the local soil dried in the Atlantic winds and the wine (white + red = rose) is achieved with the supplement of the locally sourced sand remaining from the extraction of Rosal limestone in Codaçal, Porto de Mós. The same Rosal Limestone is used throughout the Project in interior for different surfaces – tables in rooms, bar stands etc. Occasional use of Azulejo (see rendering room) or plain pink tiles (Spa) promotes a subtle variation. The floors inside are covered with pink Terrazzo and outside including some bigger interiors like the large Conference/Exhibition Hall are covered with polished concrete for better durability.

Sustainability

The Facade is designed with passive solar concept in mind. The smaller Windows are facing the South as a direct reference to the old winery Buildings. The big glazing (the Spa, the Lobby Bar, Conference/Event) are facing towards the North/West. The deep Loggias of the Hotel Rooms and the closed sanitary cells are arranged along the Facades and allow no direct sunlight. This way the Rooms stay cool during the Day. The thermal capacity of rammed concrete promote the extended effect of storing the heat during the hot days and giving it up during the colder nights, providing for sustainable thermal design with no need of air-conditioning. The Curved Elements along the southern Facade serve also as passive solar shading in top Floor Master Suites, Restaurant and Conference/Event room.

Legend

33 - Fruit tree Graden | 34 - Parking Garage | 35 - Delivery Route Hotel | 36 - Laundry

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