Concrete and Slate for the Wine Hotel in Vieira de Campos

16/05/2012 – The Quinta do Vallado Wine Hotel by Francisco Vieira de Campos follows the same balanced strategy used for the winery: expanding the estate’s facilities while integrating carefully into the landscape, so that the overall solution has minimal impact. The theme of wine runs through the project in a contemporary architectural language.

Given the strength of the surrounding landscape, whose natural character gives the region its identity, the hotel project focuses on inserting a new volume into the terrain. A long, sinuous schist wall follows the hillside and defines the building’s relationship with the landscape.

The design is modern, clear and restrained, both spatially and formally. The spaces are organized according to use, light, views and, above all, a sense of well-being.

The construction materials, concrete and slate, establish the geometry of the project and emphasize the sensory qualities of its surfaces. Together they become both the synthesis and the theme of the new hotel.

Jean Baudrillard, the French philosopher and sociologist, defined architecture as “a mixture of nostalgia and extreme anticipation.” For Vieira de Campos, that idea becomes a renewed commitment to capture what is unique and cannot be transferred from one architectural situation to another.