Danna Tavira – Portuguese Design Houses

Danna Tavira – Portuguese Design Houses is a hospitality project conceived as a contemporary expression of Portugal. Located in the historic centre of Tavira, the project brings together three independent houses within a carefully restored urban ensemble, combining the memory of the traditional Algarve dwelling with the precision and restraint of contemporary Portuguese architecture.

Designed by Manuel Aires Mateus Studio, the houses are shaped by light, white volumes, deep thresholds, patios, terraces and a garden with a swimming pool. Their high ceilings reinterpret the geometry of Tavira’s traditional four-pitched and scissor roofs, creating interiors that feel both monumental and intimate. The architecture preserves the character of the original streetscape while introducing a new spatial clarity, where interior and exterior life flow naturally into one another.

The interior design was curated by Carlos Coelho as a living portrait of Portuguese design culture. Furniture, objects, art and craft were selected for their ability to reveal material intelligence, authorship and a sense of place. Portuguese pieces coexist with carefully chosen international designs, not as decoration, but as part of a coherent narrative in which architecture, landscape and everyday life are inseparable. The landscape design by Maurice Levy extends this approach through Mediterranean planting, mineral surfaces and informal areas for rest and conviviality.

Within this context, the SAIL poufs and SAIL square poufs by Héctor Serrano for GANDIABLASCO were chosen for their sculptural informality and tactile presence. Inspired by the organic forms of nautical sails, their soft, shifting silhouettes establish a subtle dialogue with the ascending geometry of Tavira’s traditional roofs. Upholstered in a terracotta-toned outdoor fabric, the pieces echo the warm colour of the handmade brick floors and the earth of the garden. Their ability to move naturally between indoor and outdoor spaces reinforces one of the central ideas of Danna Tavira: a house without rigid boundaries, where architecture is completed by use, light and human presence.