Obras de Terra
Obras de Terra is a one-person consultancy in Portugal specialising in natural building, building pathology diagnosis and geoenvironmental h…
Eco-building Techniques
Builders and teachers working with earth, straw, lime and timber across Portugal. Learn the techniques at a workshop or hire the people who master them.
Projects in this focus
Ecopassive Houses
Ecopassive Houses is a Portuguese website dedicated to passive and ecological construction, offering guidance, articles and resources on sus…
MF Casas de Madeira
MF Casas de Madeira is a Portuguese manufacturer of prefabricated timber houses, offering turnkey construction with certified Nordic pine an…
Residual Studio
Residual Studio is a Lisbon-based architecture, design and research atelier focused exclusively on sustainability and circular economy, crea…
Ananda Earth Atelier
Founded by the architect Katharina, Ananda Earth Atelier is a creative and educational project. It runs online mentoring programmes and in-p…
Terrapalha
Terrapalha is a natural building architecture studio founded in 2008 by architect Catarina Pinto. Based in Sintra and on the Alentejo coast,…
Eco-building techniques in Portugal
Earth, straw, lime and timber are not new here, most old Portuguese village houses are some combination of stone, earth mortar and lime render. What is new is doing it deliberately, to modern standards, and getting it signed off.
The builders and teachers listed under this focus work in those materials across the country, and some teach as well as build. That matters, because the constraint on natural building in Portugal is rarely the material and usually the availability of someone who knows how to use it.
Workshops are the normal entry point, and several run over a weekend. The natural materials, superadobe and cob, and renovation and retrofitting focuses cover the specific methods. Dated activities from these projects are listed in our events calendar.