The “Hotel da Vila” is a small hotel, located in Ponta do Sol, a village on the southwest coast of the Island of Madeira. It stands on the sunny sea front of the village, with magnificent views of the Atlantic Ocean. It has fifteen double bedrooms.

The building was almost complete when the nearby “Estalagem da Ponta do Sol” a member of the “Design Hotels™” decided to manage it. Using local materials and craftsmanship, the architects created the ground floor café/ bar, the reception areas and designed most of the hotel furniture, including the rooms. Wood and stones from the surrounding mountains were used to make some of the objects and furniture.

Working on a very tight budget, the design was kept simple and raw, using inexpensive materials such as the mixture of blue Portuguese tiles in the kitchen or the front desk made of re-used wood.

Taking inspiration from the rural culture and its ingenuity, objects like the floor and table lamps, the plastic and wheat straw bed head pillows or the naked ceiling lamps of the restaurant, reveal an unexpected and humorous wit.

The building’s interior is completely clad in black and white, including the furniture in the guests’ rooms which is mostly white. The table and floor lamps were custom made in painted and natural wood, and even the white TV matches the room colour.

Upon crossing the ‘cartoon like’ hotel front door, a glass desk with two wooden stools welcomes the guests. On the left hand side a door invites them to have a drink at the bar/restaurant, in an area which highly contrasts with the hotel’s white interior. It has a wood covered ceiling and wall with two windows facing the blue tiled kitchen. The other wall is an irregular pleated surface which opens to an outside terrace where coffee or meals can be enjoyed in the shadow of old palm trees. In this restaurant locals and tourists mingle and relax, have drinks and listen to music during the warm evenings of the island.