Docomomo International became aware of the “rehabilitation” works that Hotel Quinta do Sol, an icon of the modern architecture in Madeira, is being subject, due to which the identity of the building will get lost if nothing happens against them.
“Designed by the Portuguese architect Raúl Chorão Ramalho, the first drawings for the Hotel date from 1965, however the project suffered several changes in the following years, namely: the transformation in aparthotel, which even having moved until the execution phase was not built; changes on the swimming pool area and annexes in 1975; and the extension of the restaurant in 1976. It was finally inaugurated in 1976.
With six floors to the east side and seven floors to the west side, the hotel has 120 bedrooms and 10 suites, having been designed according to the criteria of a four stars’ hotel. Built in a lush green area, it is located on the ridge line of the small hill overlooking the west, of the deep and densely wooded valley of Ribeiro Seco, and with the exuberant vegetation of Quinta Magnólia behind it.
The modulation of the facades with “bow-window” windows, creates a light-shadow contrast, that together with the green color of the lattices contributes for the integration of the hotel in the surrounding vegetation, creating simultaneously a dynamic plasticity. The volumetric impact of the building on the surroundings is also mitigated by the apparent structural “bone” in exposed reinforced concrete, that being recessed from the facades allowed the creation of total fenestrations, protected by traditional Madeiran sunshades, which are used here up to exhaustion. Moreover, exposed concrete beams are used to separate the floors, what combined with the numerous sunshades, gives the hotel a certain sculptural expressiveness. On the ground floor walls, gray and colored regional stonework is used. Made by different concrete slabs, the roof creates living and pleasant terraces for contact with the surrounding nature.
To the west a more purist and abstract elongated rectangular volume stands out, also with apparent structure in exposed reinforced concrete, supported by two pillars, and attached to the second floor of the main volume. Corresponding to the restaurant, the walls of this volume are dematerialized by full spans, being only the west one protected by a “sunshade” of vertical plumbs, which, constituting a modern layer, dialogues with the traditional lattices.
The common interior spaces are marked by a great decorative containment, being only “heated” by the warm color of the wood – a material often present in Chorão Ramalho’s projects – and by materials of easy conservation. Pointed out have to be the interior pillars with raised side faces, a very common detail in the architect’s work.
After the inauguration in 1976, Chorão Ramalho planned the extension of the Tea Room in 1983 and the refurbishment of the bar in 1985.
Innovative in its architecture, Hotel Quinta do Sol is marked by an erudite grammar, acculturated and updated without giving in to mimetic, nostalgic, “kitsch” or pseudo-traditionalist languages, constituting a mark of Modern Movement in Madeira, in an almost critical opposition to the modern icon of the island, the Casino Complex, which was also under construction at that time, characterized by a more orthodox and abstract language, based on the models and values of the International Style.
Nowadays, Hotel Quinta do Sol is being “restored” by chipping the exposed concrete, and afterwards plastering and painting it. With these ongoing “rehabilitation” works, one of the basal values of the buildings gets lost: the texture of the structural elements in exposed reinforced concrete, with the design of the wood veins, already darkened with the patina of time. The contrast between the apparent reinforced concrete, the smooth white surfaces, the sunshades, and the gray and colored regional stonework will disappear.
The promoter of the intervention, with no sensibility and misguided, de-characterized the hotel, vulgarizing it, without respecting Chorão Ramalho’s project. Consequently, it also lost its touristic and cultural added value, as the hotel was already considered an icon of modern architecture in Madeira, just like the Casino Park Hotel, a building designed by the modern architects Óscar Niemeyer and Alfredo Viana de Lima.
Fortunately, the pressure from the civil society and the Regional Section of the Order of Architects, resulted in the embargo of the work by the Funchal City Council, since the city had granted it a license for works of little relevance, which turned out not being the case, the works were much more extensive and intrusive.
As just through the classification are available legal instruments for protecting Modern Movement heritage, awareness for cases like this is required.”
Docomomo International will raise awareness and appeal for a more sensible intervention in Modern Movement buildings.
