Year: 2007

Client: THR, ILM, Urbigenesis, Herdade de Pegos Claros

Sector: Tourism

Place: Palmela, Portugal

Challenge: To collaborate with the team of THR, ILM, and Urbigénesis and realize the project management of a re-dynamization plan and the conceptual architectural design of a property of 530 Ha located in the wine route of Portugal, in order to achieve its integration as a wine tourism destination in the country’s National Interest Plan.

Results: To start, we created a design charrette for the development of the visual documents of the concept and program of the project through the co-creation between a multidisciplinary team of experts and the client for the generation, through three days of intensive design of a master plan with the visual representation of the initial distribution of the program. The process allowed us to find design and programming solutions agreed upon at all times by the client, saving significant time and facilitating exponentially the preparation of the strategic marketing plan documents and the feasibility study of the project with the main objective of repositioning this wine destination and creating an attractive and competitive point of reference, in short, “a treasure to discover” in the wine route of Portugal.

The Architectural master plan consisted of a landscape intervention with a density of 0.3% that took advantage of existing natural resources such as wildflower meadows, a lake surrounded by vineyards, and extensions of cork trees. The program included three village-type clusters (typical rural Portuguese village), a wine and spa hotel immersed in the vineyards, inspired by local architecture, designed an oriented to maximize daylight and natural ventilation. Situated in the heart of the project a village center with a hotel school, apartments, and single-family homes, in addition to commercial premises with organic products produced by local families in the “Farm Park” – a farm destined to the production of honey, soaps, and other organic products.

The final result was a proposal incorporating both wine tourism and sustainability that created a beautiful space in which everything smells of nature, tastes of wine and honey, and provides a healthy quality of life.

Methods: InnoThink, Design Charrete, Design Thinking, Master planning, Conceptual Design, Landscaping, Destination marketing,