The site is the Quitundo Pond in Angola. The competition aimed to promote sustainability within the Architectural masterplan and add value to the tourism sector of the region. By saying so, the proposal resulted in a 4-star resort hotel where creativity and Nature instinctively combined themselves forming a strategy that easily interprets the territory and makes it possible for the visitor to have a full reading of the lagoon and immediate landscape.

The proposal is therefore presented as a programmatic set of housing cells, common areas and a training center headed by a continuous path that occasionally allows a peripheral vision of its surroundings. The Quitundo Resort Hotel also emphasises the relationship between Nature and the living space all the way through placing different types of built environments-from public to private spaces, in a wide range of areas within the suggested site to allow a system of neutral views.

The room typologies were essentially based on removing mass from an initial volume, consequently leading to the creation of different light perspectives, terraces and outdoor living spaces. The Water element between volumes mitigates the temperature in the summer, also creating a set of light reflections into the room façades and interior.


architect: Gonçalo Pacheco  |  collaborator: Catarina Loureiro, Jorge Soares Mendes, Ricardo Gomes Almeida  |  client: Unknown  |  status: Competition (2015)  |  clasification: 2 rang  |  location: Quitundo, Angola  |  climate: Hot, Tropical  |  material: concrete  |  environment: Mountain  |  visualizer: Studio  |  scale: 10.000 m2 large  |  types: hotel, residence, residential  |  views: 3.313