In contrast with the urban commotion and day-to-day stress, we feel the evermore frequent and acute need to reconnect with nature, to discover a calm and positive rhythm of life. Portuguese practice and-re architecture recently opened the White Wolf Hotel in Penafiel, Portugal. Completed in 2013 and recently open to the public, White Wolf Hotel is a series of buildings intimately related with the surrounding rich natural environment. The built architecture objects, profoundly integrated in the natural environment, provide holistic and spiritual experiences of calm, intimacy, meditation and retreat. The conception and execution of this project proved challenging for the team of architects, not only on a professional level, but in human terms as well, forcing them to reevaluate their perspective on a style of living that is beneficial to body and mind in equal measure.
Designed by AND-RÉ architecture, the White Wolf Hotel is a place where the visitor is involved in the positive thinking spirit and embraces the related humanistic values, far away from the stress paradigms of contemporary lives. A place where one can feel the time slowly passing by, were it can hear the wind caressing whisper and spend long days enjoying the birds sing in the surrounding forest trees and the water running in the creek that crosses the site. The upper bedroom floors provide a more private and cosy spaces, with controlled natural lighting, opening to the exterior in generous skylights above the bed, allowing star watching before sleep.
All resulting spaces transmit a positive energy to their inhabitants – whether they are short or long term guests (the houses can be rented over long periods of time) – and help them perceive the flow of time in a natural manner, free from stress and external pressures, exploring and enjoying the surrounding woods. The buildings dive in the ground, in a unification process that enhances the relation of proximity between the user and the site, between man and nature. The buildings provide two distinct inner environments/atmospheres, related with night and day periods. The lower floors, dedicated to common daily uses, are totally permeable to light, promoting bright spaces and an awakened atmosphere.