G.O.P.
CAMILO
CAMILO REBELO
Camilo Rebelo was born in Porto. He studied at the German College and graduated from the Faculty of Architecture University of Porto in 1996. He collaborated with Eduardo Souto Moura and with Herzog & de Meuron.
In 2000 he founded is Architectural Studio in Oporto and since then he has created about hundred projects. His area of research has mostly been concerned with the relationship between architecture and nature, linking artificial and natural with in protected areas and classified landscape.
He taught at the Faculty of Architecture University of Porto, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de la University of Navarra, and the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio. Since 2014 has a research Studio - Architecture and Landscape - at Politecnico di Milano.
His work has been recognised through several national and international awards including the Bauwelt Award, Baku UIA Award and Douro Valley Award, as well as nominations for Secil Award, BSI Swiss Prize and EU Mies Award. Ktima Villa was chosen by BBC2 to feature in a documentary called The World’s Most Extraordinary Homes (Underground)
RUI CHAFES
Rui Chafes (1966) works mainly with iron and steel. After graduating in Sculpture at Lisbon’s Faculdade de Belas-Artes, he studied with Gerhard Merz at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf from 1990 to 1992, where he also translated the Novalis’ Fragments from German into Portuguese.
He participated at the the São Paulo Biennale on 2004 (with Vera Mantero) and at the Venice Biennale in 1995 and 2013. In 2018 he exhibited several large-scale sculptures in the city of Bamberg, Germany, and made a dialogue-exhibition with Alberto Giacometti at the Fondation Gulbenkian a Paris, France. In addition, several of his sculptures are on permanent display in public spaces in Portugal and abroad, including a large-scale permanent sculpture in the Fondazione Centro Giacometti, in Stampa, Switzerland.
In 2004 he was awarded the Robert-Jacobsen Sculpture Prize by the Stiftung Würth in Germany. In 2015 he received the Pessoa Prize, awarded by Jornal Expresso. In 2022 he received the AICA prize
G.O.P
GOP is an engineering design firm that dedicates to the elaboration of studies and projects in all aspects of engineering. Its aim is to offer a complete service and of high quality to its clients.
With 50 years of experience, the effort and dedication to the project contribute to the only result positive: the materialization of dreams and goals of those who idealize the project. This attitude has allowed GOP to participate in projects that mark the history of contemporary architecture and engineering in Portugal and in the rest of the World.
CAMILO REBELO RUI CHAFES
G.O.P.
GRÂNDOLA, PORTUGAL
The interest of a project is measured by its ambition.
This project in Alentejo designed by Camilo Rebelo seeks an atemporal condition. Atemporal because it transforms the territory by redefining its orography, manipulating the topography, giving it meaning through the introduction of a geometry that makes it perceptible, while also producing cuts and fissures that “show the interior of the Earth.”
It merges with the landscape, not in a mimetic order, but like fortresses, aqueducts, or bastions have done throughout history. Materials that lose their detail, becoming abstract, enhance each landscape. Atemporal also in its construction, a heavy structure compressing matter, layering material upon material in horizontal layers, breathing weight and reality. Matter and constructive technique, beautiful in their ancestral, archaic, manual sense, contrasting with delicate details that, in their contrast, gain value, accentuating the large mass that frames them.
The houses, the construction, beyond any program it may house, is a physical permanence in the landscape, serving as a foundational structure for human possession of a territory. A possession that is also cultural, evocative of history, reminding us of great, eternal constructions—gravitic landmarks of a timeless era, weaving a story about the land.
A construction that awaits becoming a ruin, evoking in its simplicity the romantic condition of being everything, containing all possibilities, our dreams, and our memories.
MANUEL AIRES MATEUS
PROMISE I
2015 - 2018
Fragment, site and time, are the dimensions that compose this project concept in the natural landscape from the serra de Grândola in the Alentejo region.
The fragments constitute themselves as different programs and independent structures, which realm is complementary and disperse, allowing the user to experience time and space in the natural landscape.
The fragments pin the landscape and give it a new meaning.
The concept is based on an approach of a constant dialog between architecture and nature, where our two halves’, human and animal, aim to find the right balance.
Promise cottage, was the first to be built, in order to serve as a 1:1 prototype to test different techniques concerning integration, construction, climatization and materiality. This secondary house, closes up a path, and pins the road that runs the property limit. The exterior concrete, like “taipa”, is the chosen material, that makes these fragments belong to this site. The concrete was manufactured like local traditional compacted earth construction “taipa”, extracting its similar qualities like the soil’s colour, texture, porosity and is going throughout time to desegregate allowing nature within its own rhythm to take over.
We should point out its highly efficient climatization concept, which is based on an air cushion that is generated in between a double concrete layer system. This air cushion, which is naturally ventilated, surrounds all the inner spaces from the bottom to the celling, separating it from exterior weather conditions, and promoting a continuous balance of the inner temperature and humidity level.
These architectural and structural characteristics are highly efficient concerning the local temperatures, which have variations in between 5 and 35 degrees during the year.
CAMILO REBELO
PROMISE II
2015 - 2021
Promise project was an order from a client full of restlessness – O.J. – who’s vision was to generate a structure which would be able to provoke experiences that will question our souls.
Promise process was a ten-year permanent question mark in which our collective and individual consciousness was elevated in order to achieve the unknown. Promise raises several questions which streamed out of contemporary themes: Art/ Architecture, Archaic/ modern and Natural/ artificial.
Art and Architecture were since the first thought a common field of work. Art had the ability to split surfaces, unveil dimensions and raise questions about the unknown. Architecture was always a dream of protection and celebration, both individual and communal, but it can be a silent shelter in a world of noise as well. Promise is a building coming out of a sculpture and a sculpture being born inside the heart of a building. Each form comes from other forms, each sculpture gives another meaning to the space, transforms it into another experience. Architecture and art are made for people. There is no other reason for making art or architecture than to offer the deepest and most subtle experience of space, memory, and vision to people.
Fragment, site and time, are dimensions that compose the project concept in the natural landscape in Serra de Grândola. The fragments constitute themselves as programs and independent structures, whose realm is complementary and disperse, allowing the user to experience differentially time and space in the natural landscape.
The site is the first geologic accident in the serra de Grândola viewed from the coast, and in this sense it’s a waving topography that allows in certain moments panoramic overviews from the surrounding area.
The fragments pin the landscape and give it a new meaning. The underground garage takes the machines away from our senses, and from there on, by foot, we walk towards the main house, which is partially underground and, without an explicit entrance, allows a free approach towards the inside space. The secondary house closes up a pad, and pins the road that runs the propriety limit.
The concrete, like “taipa”, is the chosen material, that makes these fragments belong to this site. The concrete has the soil’s colour, a slow breathing porous surface that is going throughout time to desegregate, allowing nature within its own rhythm to take over.
Structural and thermic concept are elaborated as one and based on an air cushion that is generated between a double concrete layer system. The air cushion, which is naturally ventilated, surrounds all the inner spaces from the bottom to the celling, separating it from exterior weather conditions and promoting a continuous balance of the inner temperature and humidity level throughout the seasons.
CAMILO REBELO
PROMISE WAS CHOSEN FOR AN APPLE CAMPAIGN. ON SEPTEMBER 12TH, 2025, SOME PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE HOUSE WERE DISPLAYED DURING TIM COOK’S KEYNOTE FOR THE LAUNCH OF THE IPHONE 17.
FEATURED WORK
PROMISE
GRÂNDOLA, PORTUGAL
2015 - 2018
Client Oliver Jacout
Architecture
Camilo Rebelo Associates
Co-authors
Cristina Chicau
Patrício Guedes
Coordination
Camilo Rebelo Associates
Collaborators
Catarina Machado
Rui Roncha
Carlota Amorim
Mariana Barreira
Sara Ruas
Project Partner and Sculpture
Rui Chafes
Collaborators
Carlos Venâncio
Paulo Vera
Mário João Silva Lopes
Project Partner and Engineering
G.O.P. Gabinete de Organização
e Projetos Lda.
Jorge Nunes da Silva
Raquel Dias
Alexandre Martins
Raul Bessa
Raquel Fernandes
Octávio Inácio
General Contractor
Matriz - Sociedade de Construções Lda.
Fernando Dias and Filipe Queiroz
Principal in charge Filipe Queiroz
Construction/ Concrete
SECIL Ângela Nunes
Construction/ Installations
Politérmica Lda. Vítor Matias
Construction/ Electricity
A.M. Montagens Elétricas Lda.
Carlos Moreira
Construction/Marble
Mármores e Granitos A. Sousa
Construction/Woodwork
S.P.S.S. José Simões and Pedro Simões
Construction/Metalwork (PROMISE I)
Ebinox Lda.
Ricardo Fernandes
Construction/ Metalwork (PROMISE II)
PapiroMatriz Lda.
Gilberto Fernandes
Construction/ Water tank
W.P.S. Paulo Fernandes
Construction/ Kitchen
A.G.S. Design Mário Ferreira
Design years 12.2012 - 09.2018
Construction years 04.2015 - 12.2021
Total floor area 1036 m2
Site area 38,9 ha
Location
Monte Novo da Guarita Grândola, Portugal
Program Privat Villa
Structural system Double Concrete layer
Major Materials
Concrete and marble
Images © Nuno Pinto Photographer pages 02-03, 08, 10, 12-13, 16-17, 18-19, 20, 22-23, 25, 36, 40-41, 44-45, 48-49, 50, 52-53, 54, 57, 58-59, 61, 62, 63, 65, 66-67, 69, 70, 72-73 and 76-77
© Camilo Rebelo Architect pages 04, 26, 29, 31, 32-33, 34-35, 38-39, 78 and dust jacket
PUBLICATION
DATA INFORMATION
COLLECTION LONG BOOKS
VOLUME LB 36
TITLE
CAMILO REBELO Promise
ISBN 978-989-36284-5-4
PUBLICATION DATE
November 2025
EDITOR AND GENERAL MANAGER
Ana Leal
EDITORIAL TEAM
Ana Leal, architect
Filipa Figueiredo Ferreira, designer
João Soares, architect
Inês Rompante, designer
PRINTING
Graficamares
LEGAL DEPOSIT
480255/21
RUN NUMBER
1000 numbered copies
PUBLISHER AND OWNER AMAG publisher
VAT NUMBER 513 818 367
CONTACTS hello@amagpublisher.com www.amagpublisher.com /1000
LONG BOOKS COLLECTION
LB 01 DAVID ADJAYE mole house
LB 02 NICHOLAS BURNS guimarães chapel
LB 03 DAVID ADJAYE the webster
LB 04 CARVALHO ARAÚJO casa na caniçada
LB 05 ANDRÉ CAMPOS | JOANA MENDES centro coordenador de transportes
LB 06 ANDRÉ CAMPOS | JOANA MENDES PEDRO GUEDES DE OLIVEIRA fábrica em barcelos
LB 07 DAVID ADJAYE winter park library & events center
LB 08 DAVID ADJAYE 130 william tower
LB 09 BRANDENBERGER KLOTER ARCHITECTS community hall laufenburg
LB 10 BRANDENBERGER KLOTER ARCHITECTS
school pfeffingen
LB 11 BRANDENBERGER KLOTER ARCHITECTS
double kindergarten rüti
LB 12 BRANDENBERGER KLOTER ARCHITECTS
school aarwangen
LB 13 BRANDENBERGER KLOTER ARCHITECTS
school birrwil
LB 14 ANGELO CANDALEPAS the castle
LB 15 PAUL MURDOCH ARCHITECTS
flight 93 national memorial
LB 16 ÁLVARO SIZA monte da lapa volume l
LB 17 SO – IL amant
LB 18 AFF spore initiative
LB 19 LYNCH ARCHITECTS n2
LB 20 VIANA DE LIMA casa das marinhas
LB 21 SPASM parikrama house
LB 22 JOSEP FERRANDO social center
LB 23 SJB 19 waterloo Street
LB 24 KENGO KUMA cam
LB 25 TOMOAKI UNO terabe guest house
LB 26 AM2 Arquitectos | ARENAS & ASOCIADOS | NOARQ halo
LB 27 LYNCH ARCHITECTS westminster coroner’s court
LB 28 CHRIST & GANTENBEIN swiss national museum
LB 29 CAMILO REBELO côa museum
LB 30 CAMILO REBELO ovo
LB 31 CAMILO REBELO mim
LB 32 NICOLA BAVIERA apartment house urdorf
LB 33 VINCENT VAN DUYSEN casa m
LB 34 EDUARDO SOUTO MOURA vatican chapel
LB 35 EDUARDO SOUTO MOURA casa em braga
LB 36 CAMILO REBELO promise, is the thirty-sixth title from LONG BOOKS COLLECTION.
AMAG LONG BOOKS COLLECTION brings together a unique selection of projects that establish new paradigms in architecture.
With a contemporary and timeless conceptual graphic language, the 1000 numbered copies of each title document work with different scales and formal contexts that extend the boundaries of architectural expression.
This title has the special support from:
