Jean pierre porcher

The INLIMA Hotel & SPA is located at the entrance of the village of Ponte de Lima, Portugal's oldest town, characterized by its medieval architecture, its Roman bridge and the natural surroundings overlooking the Lima river. Connected to one of the town's public gardens, that becomes once a week a marketplace, the hotel benefits from the rooms' terraces and the reception and restoration areas of a magnificent panoramic view over the Lima river and its Roman bridge as well as of the wide avenue of plane trees that shades the architectonic ensemble of the convent of Santo António. The building is materialized by a white concrete volume, closed on the west and open on the east, balanced on a wedge of copper and glass, placed on a monolithic... More

Another slope was disembowelled by the mechanical diggers. This house was built in a residual plot as an excuse to preserve a centenary cork-tree. The concept was to fit the house in the slope as if it was born from it. Using gabions we were able to protect the cork-tree remaining routes. By means of planting autochthonous species we created a garden to landscape scale that shall heal the wound. More

To adapt this old farmhouse to a dwelling-house the only necessary intervention was to demolish the partition walls. The house’s social areas were placed in the existing volume. Only a wooden “little box” was set to screen the kitchen area. To host the bedrooms a box unattached to the ground, coated with z - shaped corten steel profiles, was created. In a singular way, the conjunct reminds the traditional rural assemblage of the threshing-floor, granary and farmhouse, as well as a text by Alberto Campo Baeza on boxes: “Caixas, Caixinhas e Caixotes” More