During the Napoleonic Wars (1808-1814) part of the church and the sacristy were burned.

In the 19th century the temple was rebuilt and expanded with a new side chapel located to the south. During this period the new bell tower was also built as well as the rectory, which was a large building located next to the bell tower and connected to it by a raised bridge.

Amid the Spanish Civil War, specifically on July 21st, 1936, the church and rectory were looted and burned and from that moment on, the church was left badly damaged, roofless and abandoned.

In 2022, archaeological excavations were carried out that discovered the walls of the original church, as well as some tombs in the area.

At the beginning of the project, the church consisted of the central nave, a side chapel on the north side and the bell tower located in the southwest corner.

The central nave, 15 m long and 7’7 m wide, has stone block walls arranged in rows. It has a semicircular apse without windows or ornaments and a high altar paved with ceramic pieces. The front wall has the main door, which dates from 1824, and a high circular window. The building has been roofless since it was destroyed during the Civil War.

The side chapel is covered by a barrel vault and communicates with the central nave through a wide arch.

The bell tower is an empty square-based tower, 4 m on each side and about 15’7 m high, crowned with a hipped roof.

The aim of the project is to adapt the space to hold indoor cultural and religious events but maintaining its function as a public space open to the villagers.

The architectural proposal consists of three distinct interventions:

+Building structural consolidation
+Creation of a glass roof over the main nave
+Creation of a staircase inside the bell tower

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After determining the function, we focused on three things when choosing the venue: first, mountains, buildings, and farmland landscape, all of which are horizontally spread out along the east-west direction of the Qu River, and we hoped that the venue would have the same qualities; second, the venue should be close to the farmland, which is naturally in line with the theme of food; and third, the venue should have existing buildings that could be transformed; Third, there shall be existing structures on site that may be renovated. Fortunately, we discovered a field walk parallel to the Qu River, with a derelict farm warehouse along the road. On the west side, the warehouse’s wall confronts the main arrival path, while on the south side, the Qu River waterfront is separated by woodland and a new town road. To the north lies a considerable expanse of farmland, over which the field road winds, with rolling hills visible on both sides.

The Warehouse – The reconfigured warehouse primarily serves indoor dining and meal preparation. However, it is also suitable for exhibitions, gatherings, resting, and seminars, with people coming and going in various settings. The building is a typical example of a field, embodying the memories of previously intensive farming labor. Therefore, we did not make many alterations to the overall shape, except adding a new main entrance; the other original holes and old doors and windows were also kept. The new metal roof, which eliminates the leaks in the original roof, is cantilevered outwards on the west side of the building, creating a grey space beneath the eaves that emphasizes the main entry.

The small house’s original roof was no longer functional, and the existing walls were too weak to sustain the new roofing system. To protect the walls from future damage, we installed a new steel and timber structural system on the outside of the ancient house’s facade, with columns gently removed from the existing walls to support the beams and roof independently. We kept the original roof beams to create a memory of the ancient walls without breaking their existing tie stability. The old external structural system visually connects with the long table regarding proportionality.

Because of the new apertures on the west side of the wall and the higher wall’s poor stability, new glued timber ring beams were added to hoop the upper half of the wall, increasing the overall strength of the old building. A natural rock about 2m5 in diameter was discovered near the riverbank in Tingtangxu Village and transported to the spot, where it was attached and stabilized with a slender tie rod to the overhanging beam.

18 – The warehouse is already there, and the long table adds the finishing touch. This 18-meter-long flat surface serves as a conduit for connecting with the local population along the 4-meter-wide field road. Continuing the restaurant’s purpose, the long table extends across the landscape, creating a more natural and public setting. The 18m length takes the scale experience to the extreme, hosting more anticipated gatherings and sharing on an anti-everyday scale. The slightly lower height also allows the long table to directly perceive the body, resulting in a large wooden surface for sitting and lying. Amid the vast site’s grass and trees, we hope this table will take on a new pose, possibly floating, gently caressing the earth it sits on, as if distinct from reality, moving between the mundane and the imaginative.

The consistent span of the construction of the long table space on the overall sense of aggregation has a more substantial impact on the suspension of the way to lessen this separation while also ensuring the continuity of the roof. The lightweight tie bar, if present, indirectly limits space while also occasionally assisting toddlers in climbing up and down. The enclosure and implicit divides above the long table shape how people use the table daily.

From 18 to 42 – To further formally, structurally, and experientially broaden the table’s borders, we stretched the 18-meter-long table to become a 42-meter-long public system. People can meet, picnic, sit, nap, swing, and admire the beauty here, and the field path transitions from a passing space to a place to remain, with more possibilities emerging as time goes on.

The wooden system on both sides of the long table complements the stability of the large-span steel structure in the center and meets the resting needs of villagers and visitors. The swing cloth hanging under the roof is an unexpected favorite, and the 42m public interface, like the shadow cast by the farmhouse in the field under the slanting sun, describes each other in detail. We connect and respond to the two structures at the main entrance to form an integrated expression. The farmhouse serves as an introduction that opens up the situation, which was here before we came. It eventually returns to its origins on the ground and carries the root of all logic.

Mountain & River – Environmental factors determine the overall roof form. As we consider the implicit geometric correspondence and the mimetic relationship between natural geography and artificial things, the long table along the road mirrors the unfolding of the water and mountains, attempting to connect and visualize the delights of the scenery here.

The roof of the promenade is sloped in a one-way profile: to the north, the mountains and fields are elevated to provide a view of the landscape; to the south, the gable end is depressed to block out visual clutter in the direction of the driveway; and to the west, it meets the direction of pedestrian arrival while creating a sense of serenity and peace within the site. The sloping roof follows the formal relationship of the sloping roof of the warehouse while at the same time slightly lowering its stance, implicitly acknowledging the subordination of its ‘furniture’ objects to the main ‘building.’ It is only then that we realize that the final appropriate scale of the project comes from the measurements drawn in the silence of the farmhouse so that we will be manageable and quiet.

While the warehouse’s roofing material was chosen for practical reasons, using a soft tarpaulin on the main body of the long table and the public gallery makes the roofing less solid. The roofing changes in response to the weather and time of day, morphing into a conversation with nature rather than a static landscape that stands alone. The roofing materials are less permanent, but this is quite rustic, retaining the impermanent and unpredictability of the original. The material will gradually age and even disintegrate with the dawn, sunset, and seasons, and the countryside’s texture reflects this natural turnover and non-permanence. The structural body of the steel and wood skeleton will last slightly longer, adding a layer of temporal dimension.

With People – In our view, the relationship between the Long Table and the local area should be more abstract than it requires deliberate interpretation, and it should be more concrete that it limits many possibilities. Especially as outsiders, our understanding of the local context is not profound. Creating a fixed-function, ostentatious intervention with an overly confident approach often results in presumptuous actions that are, in fact, irrelevant and offensive. We intend to leave a localized collective imaginary space, and it is ultimately up to the people to decide how it is filled and written. We have progressively shifted our focus from the extraordinary to the everyday. During the residency and later operation, some villagers expressed their excessive preference for the long table, even with a hint of defense; we were also pleased to see the residents come to the venue to use the extended table following their understanding and exciting interactions occurred one after the other. The relationship between the locals and the locals grew stronger.

With Time – Tingtangxu Village in the Long Table has a fertile field of thousands of miles. Although the water of the Qu River flows year-round, rice, rapeseed flowers, and other food crops are still cultivated in the spring and autumn cycles. Longyou’s rich grain and rice products are also rooted in the profound farming tradition here, which is still indispensable in daily abundance in our lives today. After the project was launched, we came and went to the site many times, during which the golden rapeseed flowers turned into green rice paddies. After the harvest, it was another scene. Other vegetation changed with the seasons and was very rich, and the long table interestingly reflected each other, making it a useful companion.

In the process of thinking about culture, geography, and daily life, we gradually began to reflect on how design can respond to the joint imagination of abstract and figurative, everyday and extraordinary, and then look forward to a discursive intervention to touch upon the topic of rural construction in the current context and to pull the trigger of more different groups of people and their co-operation. Time has become increasingly important in this process. The labor at dawn and the lights at sunset make the construction closer to materiality, rubbing marks of time.
Text provided by the architects.

The house is arranged on a single level, organized around relaxation and enjoyment. Social and contemplative spaces were prioritized, such as large rooms open to the landscape and areas with hammocks that invite moments of pause and connection with nature. The goal of Toronjos is clear: to enjoy and preserve the natural landscape.

The commitment to sustainability is evident in every aspect of the project. Local materials and regional labor were used, reducing the carbon footprint and strengthening the site’s identity. The structure combines adobe and wooden beams, which were left exposed to add warmth. The floor was handcrafted with adobe produced on-site, and the walls are finished with an adobe plaster that harmonizes with the surrounding color palette.

Toronjos is, essentially, architecture that doesn’t dominate. It blends seamlessly with the landscape, enhancing it and becoming a natural extension of it. The building doesn’t seek to stand out, but rather to disappear among the vegetation, water, and earth, embodying a way of living in harmony with the environment.

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The first decision was to incorporate the old garage as an internal area of the house. The area previously intended for cars was transformed into the access garden, with various species of plants. The structure of this space is made of garapeira wood, wrapped in corrugated alveolar polycarbonate, fixed with aluminum frame sets, providing a space of multiple sensations.

In this same area is the staircase leading to the bedroom floor. The transition from the social area to the intimate area is made through an intermediate space, with a mix of solid garapeira wood flooring and perforated metal sheet, which allows you to see the garden on the lower floor and the front door, as well as being permeated by natural ventilation.

The bedroom wing is organized by a central wood frame structure that supports the entire technical area of the house, as well as defining the two bathrooms of the smaller bedrooms and the wardrobe of the master bedroom. The bathroom of this master bedroom occupies the roof of the old laundry room, expanding the area of the house. It is fully lit by the double polycarbonate facade.

The annex is an extension of the grassy area. Completely open, it was constructed with more weather-resistant materials, using masonry and exposed reinforced concrete. Its roof is a garden, improving the microclimate of the area and beautifying the view from the bedrooms and the building attached to the back of the house.

Finally, the exterior part of the house and its relationship with the street: the possibility of seeing a city where houses have no walls. Of course, we are aware of the privileged situation of being in a village, but it still allows us to dream of a less individual and imprisoned future.

Text provided by the architects.

The construction methodology commenced with concrete over pour dry placed footings. A footing was placed at every grid intersection to allow flexibility in the timber member sizes. The timber joists and beams were procured from second-hand marketplaces and left rough, meaning there was no embodied carbon associated with transport and re-milling. After the structure had been erected, the prefabricated doors, windows, and facade panels were inserted.

The finishes internally and externally were driven by transforming local waste materials into high-quality, fit-for-purpose surfaces. The external render was developed in collaboration with the renderer to create a mix that was textural, thin, suitable for outdoors, and incorporated high percentages of waste. We salvaged and crushed the marble locally.

Internally, the timber lining boards were sourced from tallowwood flooring in a Sydney home slated for demolition. The floorboards were carefully lifted by a deconstruction specialist. Carpenters then refinished the boards so they could be installed as wall lining. The lights were made from the off-cuts of these lining boards. The joinery is designed as a loose piece of furniture so that it can be removed with minimal impact should the client’s needs change, and easily reused elsewhere. The piece is made using leftover single sheets of veneer.

Whilst some of the salvaged materials may have come at a lower upfront cost, the reality of the project’s cost/value outcome is that it would have been more cost-effective to build using standard construction methodologies and virgin materials. Our construction industry’s infrastructure is geared for a linear building process. Due to this, designing with salvaged materials generally takes more time, which increases the labour cost beyond the savings realised in the cost of materials.

Text provided by the architects.

Progressing into the interior of the building, the spaces begin to fit together, enclosing themselves to the surroundings, between environments and spaces that invite silence and introspection. Central to the spatial organization – the atrium/waiting room – functions as a lounge space, but also as a distribution area between the public program (restrooms, kitchenette, and chapels) and the service program (storage, technical areas, and area dedicated to the worship leader).

In the chapels, the light traverses the space differently throughout the day, every day of the year. The door-opening system and the proposed furniture allow for the maximum number of seated users and, with the union of the two chapels, differentiated ceremonies.

Just as in local vernacular constructions, it can be asserted that the new building will always be a consequence of the place, seeking to activate and promote, in parallel, the small local economies through the use of the existing stone on-site, wood, and the use of white color in contrast to schist, in order to preserve the collective constructive memory, contributing to the maintenance of the construction culture of Alentejo and, specifically, of Barrancos, allowing the new building to “be built with the landscape.”

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The plot, located in a suburban neighborhood, has a rectangular area of 923.34 m2 bordered on the north-east by industrial buildings, on the northwest by Anselm Clavé street and on the south-east and south-west by green spaces and communal areas of a neighboring apartment building. The ground floor defines an interior passage that communicates the street and the park providing connectivity and integration between the two urban areas all the while dividing the space into two enclosed spaces for commercial and public use. Its shape follows the nature of its surroundings for better integration and its hard-based finishes facilitate accessibility and maintenance. In turn, the façades are defined by balconies that occupy the maximum surface allowed by local regulations, which limit their presence to the 50% of the façade.

By strictly following a fan-like shape, the project extends the exterior surface of the apartments to the maximum allowed, defining large outdoor spaces.

Text provided by the architects.

Life takes place between the outlines of the objects. Cooking and eating, bathing and doing laundry―everything fills in the string of voids with clusters of household items. The family of objects appears to have looked for and found their places within the structure, as if settled in response to its form. Amongst and between them, the two cats slink about and wind from an open window weaves through, as light from outside swallows everything together. Both life and nature are in tension with the architecture. They exist together and sometimes connect, but never blend. The architecture triggers life and life strengthens the architecture. The goal was to create that kind of relationship in this house.

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Inside, the pavilion is divided into two distinct areas: a secluded workspace and a cozy corner for relaxation. Birch plywood, the material at the heart of the design, ties the structure to its natural surroundings. Together with a cork-lined ceiling, it creates a warm, inviting atmosphere and enhances acoustics, making the space ideal for quiet contemplation or music appreciation. South-facing openings invite light and warmth, while the curved walls embrace the trees, deepening the connection to the garden.

A defining moment in the design process came when the pavilion’s beams aligned with the birch trees, forming a striking fan-like silhouette. This alignment crystallized the pavilion’s purpose—a thoughtful integration of structure, light, and nature. As a result, this small “music box” within the garden feels perfectly at home, offering a space of quiet focus and harmonious connection to its surroundings.

Text provided by the architects.