On Portugal’s Alentejo coast, near Melides, a new residential project called Apaulinha is testing a different model for low-density living: nine houses, 12.5 hectares of cork-oak forest, and no repeated design.
Designed by Policronica Studio with Julien Labrousse and Ambre Babzoe Marazzi, the domain comprises eight new houses and one original farmhouse, each occupying more than a hectare of land. Rather than working from a single template, the architects treated every plot’s topography, light and vegetation as the starting point for an independent design, so no two houses share a floor plan, orientation or material palette.
What unites them is a shared architectural language: natural stone, timber, deep overhangs for shade, cross-ventilation, and openings framed toward a specific view or courtyard rather than maximised for glazing’s sake. It is an approach closer to the rural architecture of the Alentejo than to the glass-walled villas that dominate international property listings, favouring proportion and light over spectacle.
Between the houses, a sequence of shared spaces is scattered across the domain rather than concentrated in a single clubhouse: a central lake, a thermal room with a timber sauna and cold-plunge bath, a restrained movement room, a court, a children’s studio, and a partly buried night room and bar called The Shelter. None compete with the houses for attention; each exists to make encounters between neighbours possible without making them obligatory.
At the centre of the domain, The Common Ground functions as a quiet arrival point: concierge support, a long communal table, a fire in the evening, described by its architects as neither a lobby nor a clubhouse but a shared interior where the life of Apaulinha gathers. A dedicated team also manages rentals, housekeeping and arrival preparation, positioning ownership somewhere between a private house and a well-run hotel.
Construction on Apaulinha is scheduled to begin in October 2026, with completion targeted for 2028. The project is continuing an approach Policronica previously tested at the Elysee Montmartre Hotel in Paris, winner of ArchDaily’s 2025 Building of the Year award in the Hospitality Architecture category.
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