The Quinta de Santo António Hotel & Winery is a rare opportunity to write a page into the extraordinary millennial history of the Douro river in Portugal. Both the monumental landscape, part of the Alto Douro UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the ancestral Port Wine production demand for elegant, responsible and subtle architectural solutions.
One of the most relevant features of the Alto Douro Vinhateiro (ADV) landscape is its socalcos, the narrow and sinuous terraces where vineyard threads sit, built over centuries of evolving vernacular knowledge of wine production. It seems only right that the architectonic language proposed should be in harmony with these socalcos and indeed a fluid interpretation of this surrounding landscape.
The new hotel and winery in Quinta de Santo António is located in a plateau just below the small 18th century chapel of Santo António, sitting at the high ground of the complex. The hotel is a fragmented building, made up of several volumes, most of which are disposed around a courtyard. This solution creates a spatial centre to the ensemble, evoking the intimacy of Portuguese monasteries’ cloisters, with the presence of elements such as the running water and its sound, the breeze, shadow and the seasonal scents of trees and fruits.
Pursuing values such as sustainability, durability as well as respect for and integration in the cultural heritage of the ADV region, the selection of materials and construction systems was defined by attentive study of vernacular architecture and a determined preference for natural materials, abundant in the region.
Our design is the result of a careful reading of all the natural and built elements that make up this extraordinary landscape, striving to create a contemporary and harmonious building, capable of doing justice to its environmental, cultural and human heritage.

Team:
Sérgio Rebelo, La-Salete Carvalho, Tiago Carvalho, Nuno Borges, Joana Portela, Ricardo Gouveia, Lourenço Barreto, Catarina Araújo, Bruna Campos e Fátima Séneca.

Collaborators:
Thornton Tomassetti - Structural and Sustainability: Scott Lomax, Gunnar Hubbard, James Richardson and Colin Schless. Still Urban Design - Landscape Design: Sofia Pera. Eduardo Aires Studio - Graphic Design: Eduardo Aires, Dário Cannatà. Oenologist: Luís Seabra.

Project Management: Jorge Mendes Leal

Local Engineering: Pormin - José Guedes

Client: Quinta de Santo António de Adorigo, Tabuaço – Joaquim Fernandes e Filomena Fernandes