Eco construction to sense Mother Earth

At A Quinta we are fortunate to have many different building materials available. We have a thick layer of clay, a small eucalyptus forest for wood, locally grown bamboo grasses known as canas and many slate stones in the earth. Plenty of materials to make something very pretty.

Traditionally the houses in the Alentejo region are made out of rammed earth construction methods called taipa. The foundation is made with slate stones up to around half a meter in height and continued with rammed earth walls. With a mix of clay, sand and stones the around 30cm thick walls are build up layer by layer and last for ever if the rain doesn't get to it. But you find plenty of old ruins with roofs which have collapsed a long time ago and the walls still standing strong. 

We cover our rammed earth walls with a cob mix, which is ideal for plastering and creating delightful art work. Cob differs per region and the mix has to be created accordingly by doing tests. Our mixture works best with 50% cob and 50% sand. The beautiful thing of working with cob is that anyone can do it. From children, who love playing with mud anyway, to their grandparents. You can bring a community together and creating something unique. Made by all.

The treehouse is another pride and joy of A Quinta. It is a fairly large structure consisting of a main living area, a separate bedroom and two balconies. The whole structure is built without harming the tree in any way. No nails or screws have been used to fix the structure to the tree, allowing the tree freedom and continued growth. Other examples of our eco buildings are the reciprocal eucalyptus roof, wall art, the rocket stove, earthship style houses and many more to discover.