Nomalides – Eco Village
Nature, Community, Bliss
Nomalides restores the balance between leisure and work with wellbeing and healthy living. The freedom for many to work remotely offers new possibilities to combine work and leisure and live partly abroad. Nomalides offers eighteen dune houses and four-star hospitality services. Nomalides sets a new standard in sustainable hospitality through inspiring design, food and events. Discover an inspirational European alternative for recharge-journeys to the other side of the globe.
We can be nomads again
Nomalides is a home for people who want to experience the healing forces of nature and good company. Its dune villas offer peace and tranquility whilst the center area, guestrooms and artist in residence space can host soul mates to hang-out or collaborate with.
Nomalides is located near Comporta at the vast coast of Alentejo at only a 75 minute journey from Lisbon airport. The village is situated in a mature pine, cork and eucalyptus forest at the south-side of the Melides Lagoa. Only a 15 minute e-bike ride away are the historic village of Melides and the most breathtaking virgin beaches of the Iberian Peninsula.
The dune houses
The dune houses are carefully designed by MKA with the hot Alentejo summers and windy Atlantic winters in mind. A large veranda and cantilevering roof provide a natural cool air flow and connect interior and exterior fluently. A traditional white plastered chimney acts as a stairs to a roof terrace where you can sleep under the stars and look over pine forests. The villas come in different types and offer one or two large suites with a fold-out guest bed and a spacious living and dining area, kitchen and storage room and cabinets.
The outdoor kitchen, shower, sitting area and dining extend the interior into the landscape. The chosen materials and shapes reflect the characteristics of the typical cabana architecture found around the rice fields of the Lagoas. The design also builds on the renowned MKA Dune houses on the island of Terschelling (The Netherlands) and are inspired by modular houses by the architect Jean Prouve but also link to Frank Loyd Wright and Japanese traditional timber homes.
The villas are positioned and oriented to optimally respond to the elements, the sloping topography, offering great views over and under the trees. The sloping terrain allows the higher located villas to have roof terraces overlooking the forests stretching to the horizon far beyond the Lagoa. Other villas, located in the lower parts, benefit from the shade and offer views on old cork and pine trees.
The villas are equipped with natural ventilation and cooling systems inspired by ancient desert and mediterranean building methods, using an earth-pipe combined with a solar-chimney. Every villa is equipped with a water reservoir that serves as a dipping pool as well as fire protection.
Four star accommodation
The Melides Eco Village offers four-star hospitality services for villas and guest rooms. It has an art-space, yoga space, co-working & co-living facilities, a bar/cafe, a small self-service grocery shop with bakery and a professional kitchen.
The incubator workshop and the artist-in-residence space are located on the first floor of the communal building with a connecting spiral staircase to a rooftop viewing platform. Next to it is a circular firewater reservoir. This can also be used as an infinity pool with a view. Nomalides will present unique art, food, spiritual, yoga and performance events and workshops throughout the year to attract and connect creative minds.
Eco Village
The villas are made of prefabricated timber modules and elements partly constructed offside and assembled onsite to minimise transportation and building time and footprint to the natural habitat. Timber is the building material of the future. It stores carbon dioxide (embodied carbon), it is light, sound absorbing and it generates a comfortable interior climate. Timber regulates humidity and has a natural moderating effect on heat and cold. And moreover; it smells fantastic.
Business model
The business model and operational services allow the owners to use their properties as a first or second home privately or rent out during parts of the year to the hotel. In some periods the villas can only be used by the owners to secure utmost tranquility, intimacy, and privacy.
