Christian Neuner Architecture
Christian Neuner Architecture is an architectural studio based in Lagos, Portugal, specialising in ecological, bioclimatic and health-consci…
Passive Solar Design
Homes that work with the sun instead of fighting it: the Mediterranean design of Arcadia Portugal in the Algarve and natural-construction studios like Debarro Arquitectura in the Alentejo. Comfort from orientation, mass and shade, not machinery.
Projects in this focus
Debarro Arquitectura
Debarro Arquitectura is an interdisciplinary bio-architecture studio operating in Portugal and Argentina, offering architectural design, nat…
Arcaya
Arcaya is a prime sustainable residential village set on 70 hectares of protected forest landscape in Vilamoura's Golden Triangle, Algarve, …
Arcadia Portugal
Arcadia Portugal is a sustainable living and eco-construction project based in São Bartolomeu de Messines, Algarve, exploring earthen buildi…
Passive solar design in Portugal
The Portuguese climate problem is not the winter; it is a summer that will cook a badly oriented house from June to September. Passive design answers it with the cheapest tools available: which way the building faces, how thick the walls are, where the shade falls in August and where it does not in January.
Arcadia Portugal builds on these principles near São Bartolomeu de Messines. Debarro Arquitectura works as a bio-architecture studio out of Tomar. Christian Neuner designs ecological houses from Lagos, and Bétula Studios shows the result as rural accommodation in the Montesinho park.
Getting this right at the drawing stage costs nothing and saves a lifetime of air conditioning. See also eco-building techniques, energy efficiency and natural materials. Dated activities from these projects are listed in our events calendar.