Recover, restore, and reuse. That was the mantra employed by Portugal-based architecture team Ezzo, led by César Machado Moreira, in designing Paço De Pombeiro, a twentieth-century rural hotel in Felgueiras, Portugal. The hotel is located on 24-acres of farmland which are primarily used as vineyards, and had existing sixteenth-century buildings. The architects wanted to revive the old structure, so they designed the hotel to complement and enhance the characteristics of the existing structures — and provide space and amenities for up to 22 guests and an outdoor swimming pool.
Adapting pre-existing spaces and creating new building infrastructure, Moreira was able to maintain the existing building’s original identity and character despite the changes needed to facilitate its new identity as a hotel. Concrete towers are located at the entrance of each room, defining the new space of each room, while being reminiscent of the form of the battlements of the main building. The new rooms are carefully positioned in a singular volume in lower elevation and perpendicular to the main building, offering guests privacy, while also maintaining a direct relationship with the surrounding landscape.
Moreira also strategically placed the hotel’s foundation where past structures once stood to blend the new building into the surrounding landscape. Drawing on the tension between past and present, solid and void, he creates a cohesive landscape in which the buildings are in constant dialogue with each other.
+ Ezzo
Via ArchDaily
Photos by João Ferrand
