Hotel Sintra Mar de Ar

Sintra, Portugal

2020

The hotel is to be located on a large plot on the edge of the historical centre of Sintra. The project comprises the renovation of an existing 1940s villa fronting the street, an old garage with beautiful stone stonework and new construction up to a total of 30 guestrooms and suites, while meeting a series of municipal and environmental constrains in relation to setbacks, datum and non-edificandi area, besides keeping the site’s monumental stone pines.

The villa was designed by Norte Júnior (1878-1962), one of the most influential and prolific Portuguese architects of the early 20th-century and coincidentally living in Sintra since 1905, where he carried out various projects, including the local Casino. Contemporary of Ventura Terra, Nicola Bigaglia and Álvaro Machado, his architecture — like that of his peers —, was strongly influenced by the eclectic romanticism of the Parisian Beaux-Arts; academy and city where he correspondingly studied and lived. This small 3-storey building is based on a transition language between the end of Art Deco and the beginning of Modernism. Its quasi-symmetrical composition, arguably ‘mannerist’, with its main West-facing façade, formed by a loggia topped by a curved pediment and balconies on the North side.  In terms of materials, in addition to specific panels of white-and-blue tiles with floral compositions, the stonework around this loggia has rustic finish. Adding to this, is the curious detail of the roof being covered in green-glazed tiles.

Besides the renovation of the Villa to accommodate the main public areas and amenities of the hotel, there are two distinct nucleuses. One is titled “Town”, which is inspired by the classic agglutination of archetypal volume successively intertwined — as can been in the Sintra’s monumental structures such as the Palace of Pena or the Royal Palace — and another, which we termed “Aldeia”, and which is derived from the informality of the vernacular architecture of the small white villages of the region. In the first case, the “Town” allows an enclosed connection of the guestrooms and the multipurpose room to the Villa, while the “Aldeia” is based on a concept of independent bungalows, cascading in organic clusters downhill and negotiating the incline with small stairs and terraces.

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Location: Sintra (greater Lisbon), Portugal
Scope of Services: Architecture, landscape architecture and interior design
Owner: SHA Group
Operators: M’AR De AR Hotels
Project Brief: 5-star 30-keys boutique hotel and Spa
Gross Floor Area: 2,247 sq. m (1,630 sq. m hotel extension); 195 sq. m (parking and technical areas); 2,883 sq. m Landscape (765 sq. m private landscape and 2,118 sq. m public landscape)
Plot Area: 6,663 sq. m
Project Status: 2020 (competition – 1st-prize)