Luís Rebelo de Andrade

Luís Rebelo de Andrade graduated in Architecture from the Lisbon Faculty of Fine Arts in 1986. Before definitively engaging in architecture he aspired to be a sculptor, and his passion for sculpture gave him a unique and distinctive understanding of architecture’s role in the natural and built environment. In 1989 he founded his own practice, and from early on his work achieved recognition in Portugal. Since then he has performed a large number of projects both in his country and abroad, with designs that have been recognised and honoured with awards on several occasions. Among his many projects in Portugal we may highlight the Hotel Six Senses, at which over more than 30 years he has turned a former farmstead into an internationally prestigious hotel complex through the addition and transformation of various volumes connecting the original structures, and by embellishing and restoring the ensemble. Also noteworthy is Quinta do Pinho, where he has extensively recomposed and restored an old dwelling with the accretion of elements (stairs, porches and openings) and volumes in keeping with the local architectural language. Equally notable is his work at Hotel Rural Casa dos Viscondes da Várzea, whose restoration has given a former winegrowers’ mansion a new life as a hotel. All these projects in the Douro valley are exemplars of how to blend new traditional designs with existing constructions following local models and making use of natural materials from the environs. All of these projects are highly sensitive towards the environment of which they are part, to the extent that it is hard to distinguish between what already existed and what has been added, removed or transformed. Moreover, among his extensive work in Lisbon, we may note projects such as the restoration of the Church of São José dos Carpinteiros, the refurbishment of the Falcarreira Palace or the renovation of his own studio, a former warehouse and winepress that has been exquisitely converted into a workspace and meeting place.