Welcome to One Night In, our series exploring the best places to rest.
In 2021, while under lockdown in Los Angeles, I dreamed of a trip to Faro, Portugal. Through my work as an editor, I met hoteliers Christophe and Angélique de Oliveira. They emailed me photos of Faro, the city they had moved to, and introduced me to Tropical Modernism, an architectural style that blends the principles of European Modernism with an approach that responds to hot and humid climates. I was entranced by the Wes Anderson-like colors, the cobogos (breeze blocks), and the columns that resemble Le Corbusier’s Villa Savoye. They told me that the city has more than 500 nearly intact Modernist buildings, most of them designed by Manuel Gomes da Costa, a 20th-century Portuguese architect known for his work in the Algarve. They also told me that they were creating a Modernist Weekend in Faro, inspired by the annual event in Palm Springs. I replied that if it happened, I would participate.
In November 2022, I took part in Faro's first Modernist Weekend with 150 other participants. I was invited back to the event last year and was ecstatic to return when I heard that the recently renovated Althaus Hotel, designed by Gomes da Costa, would be hosting me. This time, the weekend evolved, with 450 design lovers jumping at the chance to walk the streets of the city, Faro's modernist 5th Avenue, Avenida 5 de Oubro, and the Gomes da Costa-designed waterfront housing estates. I packed my best period outfit and headed for Faro.
Thursday
3pm: Land at Faro International Airport and get an Uber to Rua de Berlim, a bright, pastel-coloured street lined with stately villas built between 1959 and 1969. About half of the villas are the work of Gomes da Costa. Originally, the buildings were designed with flat roofs according to modernist principles, but Faro City Hall refused permission, so the architect relented and made the roofs sloped. The villas were commissioned by Algarvean immigrants who left the area in the 1920s for Latin America, where they made their fortune, before returning to Faro in the 1950s. In 2023, one of them was converted into the 21-room Alto House hotel by local architect João Coutinho.
Before the trip, I spoke with Coutinho over Zoom. He told me he had considered naming the hotel “Taxi,” after Portuguese taxis from the '60s and '70s. Why? These taxis are emblematic of Portugal's pre-revolutionary modernist period, and their colors, bottle green and black, were what he wanted to use in the design. Coutinho ultimately went for the word “Alto,” which Portuguese people use to identify taxis. The word also means “high,” which is fitting since the hotel sits high above the Algarve capital. My room's private balcony overlooks the city, the sea, and the mountains.
Portuguese architect Manuel Gomes da Costa originally designed the modernist building that would become the 21-room Alto House.
6pm: Take a 15-minute Uber to Fabrica da Cerveja, a former castle-turned-brewery that will serve as the old town's art center for the Faro Modernist Weekend's art exhibition, Modernist Explorations, which features works directly inspired by Faro. I stumble along cobbled streets surrounded by walls built in Roman times and later reinforced by the Moors. In the dim light, Fabrica's peeling ochre façade, built between 1930 and 1940, is eerily beautiful. Inside, architecture and art lovers sip cocktails while a DJ spins tunes. I marvel at the colorful Faro-inspired art by British artist Richard Walker, Dutch artist Sander Paterski, and French photographer Michel Figuet.
8:30pm: Exhausted from the journey, I return to the Alto House for a shower and some sleep. I take an Uber down to the streetlit, tree-lined avenue that fronts the park, and open the gate to Alto's little white picket fence. I feel like I've come home, and like I need to bring the mail home too. The empty, Lynchian front desk with its billowing velvet skirts gives me pause. I climb three floors, and the dark terrazzo walls and smoked-glass bedside bubble lamps greet my weary eyes. I fall asleep, wrapped in cool, crisp sheets.
Accommodation at the Althaus Hotel.
Friday
9AM: Having slept off my jet lag, I wake up hungry. I descend to the hotel's first floor and am delighted to find a breakfast of sliced avocado, rye crisps, and vegan yogurt waiting for me; I'd told the staff I'm vegan before my trip (the breakfast buffet is included in all bookings). A few other guests scattered for Modernist Weekend discuss the day's tour over cheese, meat, bread, and melon. I sip my cappuccino and try to keep my brain awake by translating the Portuguese on the local news on the TV (I'm fluent in Spanish, but I'm amazed at the similarities). An open back door lets in the breeze from the adjacent patio, which is surrounded by rose quartz-colored stone floors, bistro tables, and low white walls lined with vintage mirrors.
Where Althaus guests enjoy breakfast.
10AM: I share an Uber with a German journalist to the Aeromar Hotel, also designed by Gomes da Costa. Here, I meet artist Richard Walker, who lives nearby, for an hour-and-a-half-hour “From Bauhaus to Beach Houses” walking tour. Walker takes me by boat to a sandbar between the Atlantic Ocean and the Rio Formosa, where we see a blue-and-white house that the owner believes was designed by Loulé-born architect Manuel Laginha. With so many diagonal lines, it looks like a Russian Constructivist poster; Walker likens it to a spaceship.
A stop on artist Richard Walker's “From Bauhaus to Beach House” walking tour.
2PM: After a stroll to the pharmacy and sandwiches in the bustling Faro Municipal Market, we arrive at our Faro Vision tour, also guided by Walker. As we wander through the city, we admire the details—we love the colorful, graphic azulejos, the butterfly-shaped door handles, and the Z-shaped staircase in the open apartment lobby, designed by Gomes da Costa.
6.30pm: The Legacy of Modernism: Past or Present? I'm back at Fábrica da Cerveja for the conference. I'm excited because Czech architecture editor, writer and photographer Adam Štef, who I've been following on Instagram for a while, will be giving a presentation about the modernist architecture he's photographed around the world. His presence here means that the fascination with Faro is reaching the right people. Carlos Oliveira Santos, author of several books on the work of Brazilian architect Oscar Niemeyer, will speak about the anti-modernist vows of Roman Catholic priests and how modernists like Niemeyer tried to improve people's lives through design. In fact, Niemeyer and Brazilian modernist architecture were a major inspiration for Gomes da Costa.
8pm: I meet up with Christophe, Angelique and some of their friends at Tertulia Algarvia, where the kitchen thankfully cooks me a vegan cataplana (Portugal's answer to the Moroccan tajine) and it's soon time for another sound sleep.
Saturday
The rooftop of the Althaus.
9am: I grab some avocado and potato chips and head out onto the flat rooftop of Alto House. A low white trim frames the sloping terracotta roof, with a bright minaret at one corner. I lean back in one of the mustard-coloured perforated patio chairs and work on my sci-fi novel in the bright sun. At one point, I hear a church or school bell ring beautifully in the distance over the countryside, and a flock of seabirds fluttering in a southwesterly direction.
10 AM: Join Christophe on a modernist architecture tour. We're entranced by the city's modernist masterpieces, designed by Gomes da Costa, particularly Casa Gago, which stands on pilotis on a corner lot and is covered in a second skin of cobogó for shade (Faro has more than 300 days of sunshine a year); Edifício Sol, a seven-storey residential building adorned with gold sunburst azulejos; and the Levera da Silva building, which flaunts Bauhaus-inspired colours and geometric patterns.
Rebelo da Silva is a stop on the Modernist Architecture Tour organized by Cristof de Oliveira.
4:30pm: A 10-minute Uber ride brings me to the open house at Casa 1923, a former Jesuit school converted into a home for a wealthy family. When Faro architect Vania Brito Fernández found it abandoned and for sale, its ornate Art Nouveau façade still gleaming with a single tile remaining, but the interior was in disrepair. She bought it, and her all-female firm, PAr architecture studio, has transformed the home into a mixed-use gem with an organic vegetable garden and rooftop pool.
The 1923 house was abandoned when it was discovered by architect Vânia Brito Fernandes of PAr architecture studio, whose restoration led to the house being shortlisted for the Archello Prize.
6PM: Back at my Alt House room, I take a disco-timed photo of myself in front of the vintage taxi-colored curtains. I take an Uber to the Aeromar Hotel. When I arrive, I see Richard posing as “DJ Dickie” in leopard-print bell-bottoms. Next to the fireplace is a faded lifeguard with the word “bem-vindo” (welcome). The B-52's “Rock Lobster” is playing. It's time to dance.
The Z-shaped staircase is a hallmark of the architect Manuel Gomes da Costa.
12.30am: I grab the Alto House's original dark wood banister with its elegant whitewashed vertical bars and climb the stairs to my room to wash away the night's sweat and shine. With Baccarat's “Yes Sir, I Can Boogie” blaring in my head, I slip into my comfy bed, hoping to return to Faro every November.
Top photo by Aymeric Warmé-Janville
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