Location: ARRÁBIDA, Portugal.

Architect: NIC BRUNSDON.

The Arrábida Retreat is a wellness and global leadership center located in the Natural Park of Arrabida, Portugal. It is a place for connectivity to nature, oneself, and working groups. The center comprises a Kitchen/Reception Hub, Learning Studio, and 15 Accommodation units. Each accommodation unit is designed as an individual learning space for retreat, deep thought, and respite. The rooms are designed to sit in quiet contrast to the landscape but never compete with it. The harsh local light is softened by a veil of operable screens that trim the space to the immediate environment and allow a multitude of dispositions. The bathroom in the accommodation units faces north and is augmented by a private garden planted with native lavender. The kitchen hub is the main public space for the project, housing the reception, kitchen, and communal meeting spaces. A learning center supplements this, creating a space for congregation and flexible learning. There is a consistent material palette across the site, with public buildings coded in white and private black accommodation units. Each building is clad in a perforated metal veil sheet, operable to block or allow light and winds, making each building as responsive to the local conditions and engaged with natural heating and cooling practices as possible. The veiled metal operable screens became an important design strategy to provide occupants with times of quiet solitude and joyous expanse. The construction is subtle and delicate with the earth, needing to be disassembled at the conclusion of the resort’s occupation of the site. Therefore, light steel frames were chosen for construction efficiencies, future disassembly, and their hard-weariness.