Machado Costa

Herdade das Servas Wine Hotel emerged from the transformation of an old agricultural complex, deeply rooted in the landscape of southern Alentejo. The existing architecture—characterized by horizontal volumes, thick walls, arches, vaults, buttresses, terraces, and threshing floors—serves as the starting point for a project that seeks to preserve the identity and authenticity of the site.

The project transforms the complex into a low-density tourist resort through a restrained intervention, in which contemporary architecture integrates with the materials and scale of the pre-existing structures. Traditional materials and techniques are reinterpreted in light of new requirements for comfort, performance, and sustainability.

Environmental self-sufficiency is one of the project’s guiding principles. Passive strategies, on-site energy production, and autonomous water management systems significantly reduce dependence on conventional infrastructure, combining comfort and efficiency with a deliberately discreet architectural presence.

More than just the restoration of the buildings, the project proposes the regeneration of a vast landscape. The reintroduction of species and ecosystems native to this territory seeks to reestablish its natural identity and strengthen the relationship between architecture and place.

Herdade das Servas is thus conceived as an experience of inhabiting the landscape—where heritage, nature, and contemporary architecture converge in an expression of luxury grounded in authenticity, silence, and a connection to the land.