Apaulinha: Nine Architect-Designed Homes Across the Alentejo Landscape

In the rural territory of Grândola, close to Melides and Portugal’s Atlantic coast, Apaulinha proposes a different model for contemporary residential development. Rather than repeating a single villa type across a conventional subdivision, the project disperses eight new architect-designed homes and one existing farmhouse across twelve hectares of cork-oak landscape.

Conceived by Policrónica Studio, Julien Labrousse and Ambre Babzoe Marazzi, the ensemble is imagined as a domestic archipelago. Each residence is autonomous, with its own plan, silhouette, orientation and relationship to the terrain. Yet the houses share a common architectural language based on proportion, natural light, cross-ventilation and a continuous transition between interior rooms, shaded terraces and the surrounding vegetation.

Distance is treated as a design material. Each home occupies more than one hectare, allowing the landscape to remain visually continuous between buildings. Architecture appears intermittently through cork oaks, grasses and low planting instead of forming streets or repetitive façades. The objective is not to isolate nine objects, but to preserve the feeling of inhabiting one large natural domain.

This low-density structure also changes the role of shared amenities. Apaulinha avoids the dominant clubhouse commonly associated with luxury developments. Its collective programme is distributed across the site as a sequence of small destinations: a lake for swimming and informal gatherings; a timber sauna and cold bath; a movement and fitness room; a court; a children’s studio; and The Shelter, a partly buried bar and night room concealed within the land.

These spaces create opportunities for encounter without turning daily life into compulsory community. Owners can remain within the privacy of their house, walk through the landscape, meet by the lake, exercise, or gather underground after sunset. The project therefore sits between the independence of a private home and the ease of a small hospitality environment.

The architecture is developed through Policrónica’s multidisciplinary practice, which connects design, engineering, fabrication and construction. Selected joinery, lighting, furniture and architectural components are intended to be produced through the studio’s workshop in Rio Maior, continuing the integrated approach used for Can cendra Ibiza, Etosoto Formentera, the Élysée Montmartre Hotel in Paris, and Palácio do Grilo in Lisbon.

The nine homes are not presented as variations of a commercial catalogue. Their differences are part of the identity of the domain. One may be organised around a protected courtyard, another along a long horizontal view, while another uses a more compact volume to create shade and intimacy. This diversity allows future owners to select a spatial character rather than simply a floor area.

The masterplan is equally important. Existing trees and topographical conditions guide the placement of buildings, while paths and views connect the domain without creating a suburban hierarchy of front and back. The project is experienced as a landscape first and as a collection of houses second.

Material restraint reinforces the relationship with the site. Mineral surfaces, timber elements and muted interiors are intended to receive changing daylight rather than compete with it. The landscape is not treated as decoration added after construction;

For visitors searching for contemporary architecture or new houses near Melides and Comporta, Apaulinha offers a precise alternative to the conventional resort: nine distinct homes, a shared landscape and a limited infrastructure designed around freedom of use. Construction is scheduled to begin in October 2026, with completion planned for 2028.