MONFORTE, PORTUGAL 2009 

The built core of the Torre de Palma estate has its main value in the way it defines its location in the landscape.
A system of walls surrounds the different parts of the property, distinguishing and ranking the parcels assigned to the various crops and uses, agricultural and housing.
This walled system constitutes the structure from which the various constructions of the complex are also established, reinforcing the idea of ??a sheltered space enclosed in the landscape.
The central location of the tower and the house - the only outstanding elements of this surrounding structure - emphasizes their importance and dominance over the remaining spaces, already suggested at a first glance by the verticality of the tower, imposed on the flatness of the terrain.

A more detailed analysis of the topography allows us to perceive that the various enclosures formed by the walls are complemented and follow the logic of the divisions formed by the masses of vegetation, coinciding with the water lines.
This other, natural system also forms spaces of different character, which are essentially distinguished by the greater or lesser presence of water in the soil.

Understanding the structure of the landscape and the existing set makes it possible to integrate the new spaces and constructions within the logic that determined the current set.
The intervention proposes to demolish some of the dissonant constructions, reinforcing the historical value of the others that are intended to be recovered and framing the future buildings in the structure of walled enclosures, in order to avoid confronting in an overly direct way an admittedly contemporary language with the traditional aspect of the constructions.