CASA BRANCA design

(collective) rural repair

Alentejo, Portugal

A sleepy village in rural Portugal is rediscovering its own advantages: since 2022, BASEhabitat has been working with the ‘Estação Cooperativa’ initiative to reactivate existing buildings in Casa Branca. As a cultural actor, the cooperative interacts with the local population, initiates artistic and cultural projects and searches for future models of sustainable social use in a former railway workers settlement. Our first steps where focussing on buildings that can be renovated quickly and used immediately.
But what opportunities offer those empty buildings of the Portuguese railway company, which have been increasingly left to decay over the decades?
For a plot of land with four structurally impaired properties in the village centre, a conversion or new design as artist residences was sought that would further enable versatile residential use in the long term. Ten students from the University of Art and Design Linz developed a wide variety of designs in rammed earth construction – from mixed age-appropriate housing to cluster flats with several combined units.