Recycling to accommodate. Gonçalo Byrne: rhythmics of life

Built from the 1940s onward and evenly distributed throughout the country, Portugal’s pousadas respond to the desire to guide the development of tourism by promoting a region’s unique characteristics, protecting local cultures, and safeguarding the historical and artistic patrimony. Initially small, welcoming, yet inexpensive hotels occupying buildings which evoked the diversity of local building traditions, Pousadas gradually evolved into increasingly exclusive dwellings. Following a break in the late 1950s, which revealed the influence of surveys conducted on the country’s regional architecture, in the 70s Alcino Soutinho and Fernando Tavora, as well as Eduardo Souto Moura, Joao Luis Carrilho da Graca, and Alvaro Siza, inaugurated an accelerating trend of entrusting the design of Pousadas to famed Portuguese architects. A series of proposals and reflections emerged to address the restoration and reuse of historical buildings dedicated to hospitality purposes. The experiences of Goncalo Byrne follow this pattern. The Pousadas de Portugal company commissioned him to design a series of hotels within buildings of recognised national historical value. The present contribution analyses three of these: the Pousada Estoi in Faro (2003-2009), Pousada de Viseu (2005-2009), and Pousada de Cascais (2008-2012). The three projects dealt with a common theme, both from an operational point of view and that of the relationship with pre-existing historical structures. The very different contexts of the three projects, however, call for a comparative reflection on how to transform local heritage from a tourism perspective, beginning with the promotion of the relationship between architecture and space.