L’And Vineyards Resort

The project is the outcome of an invitation in 2005 of a family-based wine-making and agro-business company to master plan an innovative resort concept that would combine the rural experience of wine and olive oil production, with the amenities of leisure destination.

With 66 hectares, the site is in the vicinity of the whitewashed town of Montemor-o-Novo, in the Alentejo, near the UNESCO-listed city of Évora. Located on a gentle valley facing South and overlooking the skyline of the town’s medieval castle, the master plan was devised in a system of clustered villas and terraced row-houses reminiscent of the former agricultural compounds of the Alentejo, known as “montes”, which literally means “mounts” or “hills” in English; an etymological reference to their topographic condition. In addition, a small lake cools the air and is used for leisure activities besides serving as a sustainable water-retaining basin for agriculture.

The 9 hectares’ vineyard is planted in the most fertile part of land along the borders of the valley that structures the main spine of the plan while olive groves are planted around the house clusters in a joint assessment by landscape architects Joao Nunes and Inaki Zoilo of Proap together with the owner and winemaker Paulo Laureano.

Besides designing the master plan, the hotel, the apartments and a nucleus of villas, Promontorio was invited to curate the invitation to four other studios to design the remaining nucleuses of villas, namely: Peter Märkli, of Zurich, Sergison Bates, of London, Carrilho da Graça, of Lisbon, and José Paulo dos Santos, from Porto.  Other than a common respect for the landscape, the approaches of each studio reveal a wealth of different design experiences, despite working with the same programme parameters and cluster boundaries. The Lisbon studio Diogo Seixas Lopes and Patricia Barbas served as local architects to Peter Märkli and designed the site sales office and showroom building. For its innovative approach to tourism, landscape and design, this master plan has received wide international acclaim and many aspects of its programme have served as benchmark for other tourism projects.