Foreword

Vale de Moses is a world-class yoga retreat located in the breathtaking, forested mountains of central Portugal. Originally a farm, the abandoned property was purchased by a British family during a year-long tour of Europe. Over the last five years, the farm’s stone cottages and terraced forest gardens were carefully restored, and the retreat now annually welcomes 500 guests from around the world, who visit Vale de Moses to reconnect with nature, practice yoga, eat nourishing vegetarian meals and take part in various meditation practices.

The Yoga House on a Cliff Competition was organized in tandem with the Vale de Moses landowners, seeking designs for a new hillside building overlooking the valley that would increase capacity for the number of yoga participants the retreat can accommodate. The project is organized as part of Bee Breeders Small Scale Architecture competition series and in partnership with ARCHHIVE BOOKS – winning projects will be featured in the second edition of their publication What is Small-Scale Architecture?

Given its natural setting and meditative purpose, the future yoga house is meant to inspire guests while connecting them with the surrounding mountains and forests. The competition brief requested that, in addition to a central yoga space, the house includes: storage space for mats and other yoga equipment; showers and toilets; a small kitchen area for teas and coffee. All grey water produced from bathrooms is to be used to irrigate the surrounding gardens. The new building must also produce its own energy.

The jury evaluated the received entries for their attention to the environment, and it selected winning submissions on the basis of architectural promise, cost-effectiveness, low maintenance level, and ability to protect inhabitants from the elements.

Bee Breeders collaborated with an excellent jury panel for this event, which included several Portugal-based designers, artists, architects and journalists: Joana Astolfi, an artist, architect, and designer who leads Studio Astolfi in Lisbon; Tiziano Borghini, a partner at GMAA–GM Architectes Associés, a team of thirty architects based in Geneva, Paris and Rhône-Alpes; Diogo Burnay,  co-founding partner of Lisbon-based CVDB arquitectos and chief curator of the Lisbon Architecture Triennale 2022; Tiago Krusse, a professional journalist, manager of the K Innovative Diffuser – a digital media group that publishes Design Magazine, Design Magazine Brasil, and architectura MAGAZINE; Nuno Pimenta, who runs a transdisciplinary practice in Porto, with a portfolio that spans temporary architecture, installation, public art, exhibition design and performance; Martinho Pita, a creative with a studio based in Lisbon; and Cristina Verissimo, co-founding partner of Lisbon-based CVDB arquitectos and chief curator of the Lisbon Architecture Triennale 2022.

Bee Breeders, Vale de Moses, and the competition jury panel would like to thank each of the participants for their outstanding proposals.

Missed the registration deadline?
Enter the next Vale de Moses competition – Sleeping Pods on a Cliff (beebreeders.com/architecturecompetitions/sleepingpods)

 

COMPETITION ORGANISERS
Yoga House 
on a Cliff Yoga House 
on a Cliff
Official partner
Yoga House 
on a Cliff

1st Prize Winner +
Client Favorite

Project name

FRAME

The main reason we choose to participate in competitions comes from the need of expression and artistic freedom that is often limited in everyday work. The possibility to choose among a huge variety of subject matters, places and cultures stimulates our own creativity, and at the same time allows us to explore and experiment with new tools and architectural concepts.

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Authors Vittorio Falaschi, Emmanuele Bortone, Maddalena Nanni, Uberto Carignani
Country Italy

2nd Prize Winner

Project name

YYY HOUSE

Authors Heen sae Noh, Jin woo Kim
Country South Korea

3rd Prize Winner

Project name

SHELTERING SKY

The participation in architecture competitions gives us the opportunity to share our voice in architecture through drawings and design, hoping to resonate with a certain audience. It is also an engaging way to maintain the excitement, creative freedom, and professional motivation for the development of individual extracurricular design projects and collaborations.

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Authors Cheung Lun Jeremy Son, Amanda Dolgā
Country United Kingdom

BB STUDENT AWARD

Project name

CHAKRASANA

This competition allowed me to apply the skills I acquired during my studies and the knowledge I gained from personal research to a real building task. It was highly instructive to design a building in the framework of structural, practical, and environmental boundaries.

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University ETH Zürich
Author Jan Nicolas Zimmermann
Country Switzerland
+72 points Buildner University Rankings

BB GREEN AWARD

Project name

About the essential in the place

In our particular case, architecture competitions allow us to reflect and explore our theoretical concepts about design, as well as to understand and perfect our creative process.

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Authors Bernardo Aguilar León, Eder Eulogio Lescano, Lorenzo Barghini
Country Peru

Honorable Mentions

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Project name

Yoga Shala on a Cliff

Authors Kayen Montes, Carola Terreni
Country Argentina
Project name

Moses Samadhi House

Authors Rafael Cruz, Gabriel Molina, Sebastián García, Sebastián Moreno
Country Colombia
Project name

LOTUS HOUSE

Project name

Nature's Passage

Company MVVSTUDIO
Authors Monika Angelevska, Zoran Petrovski, Kostantin Trpenoski
Country Macedonia
Project name

Sanctuary of Vale de Moses

Authors Raphaël Luchs, Amos Bok, Florian Mahieu
Country Belgium
Project name

SOCALCO

Author Joe Bruschy
Country Portugal

Shortlisted projects

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inner peace

Oskar Kamecki

Poland

Among the pines

Raphael Brossette

Corentin Girard

Corentin Foissey

France

Spaces in nature

Simon Ottrand

Bauhaus Universität Weimar

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
Germany

Engawa

Marie Arnaud

Daniel Van der vyver

France

Pier in the trees

Samuel Nekola

Czech Republic

FLUX HOUSE

Anton Kalambet

Illya Rastvorov

Ukraine

Sanctuary of Vale de Moses

Raphaël Luchs

Amos Bok

Florian Mahieu

Belgium

Tri-Shala

Santiago Barbieri

Argentina

FRAME

Vittorio Falaschi

Emmanuele Bortone

Maddalena Nanni

Uberto Carignani

Italy

LOTUS HOUSE

João Varela

Ana Isabel Santos

Paulo Dias

Portugal

THE PATH CENTER

Miguel ángel Ruiz de temiño

Guillermo Ráfales

Spain

Forest Corridor

Edwin O'brien

United States

About the essential in the place

Bernardo Aguilar León

Eder Eulogio Lescano

Lorenzo Barghini

Peru

Yoga House

Janis Vilcins

Jan Hajek

United Kingdom

MANTRA

Guillaume Rey

Matteo Ricchi

Switzerland

Yoga terrace

Taha Bouizargan

Christel Ollivier-henry

France

Raiz Para Coroa

David Burlock

Lucas Mcdowell

Canada

Hatha

Adrián Álvarez gonzález

Spain

Earth, Wind & Sun

Pavel Nasonov

Ekaterina Shomesova

Russian Federation

Celeiro de Ioga

Minji Kim

James Frolow

Australia

Yoga Shala on a Cliff

Kayen Montes

Carola Terreni

Argentina

PASSING THROUGH

Maria Łomiak

Natalia Rajchel

Stanisław Dawidziuk

Warsaw University of Technology

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
Poland

Nature's Passage

Monika Angelevska

Zoran Petrovski

Kostantin Trpenoski

MVVSTUDIO

Macedonia

YYY HOUSE

Heen sae Noh

Jin woo Kim

South Korea

Yoga Retreat

Ana catarina Silva

Faculdade de Arquitetura da Universidade do Porto

+22 points Buildner University Rankings!
Portugal

IM:balance

Joey Teh

Andre Lim

Singapore

PRANA HOUSE

Raphael Mitsueda

Douglas Vicentini

Brazil

STONE

Marie Parez

Raphaël Contesso

France

SOCALCO

Joe Bruschy

Portugal

Kaivalya

Pallavi Patil

Sanjay Sangepu

India

Cenário do Jardim

Alvaro Guerra

Ambar Calvo

Mónica Henríquez

Diana Vázquez

Panama

Butterfly yoga retreat

Federico Fattori

Elena Cerisola

Italy

SHELTERING SKY

Cheung Lun Jeremy Son

Amanda Dolgā

United Kingdom

Bridge to meditation

Maria Turcu

Mihai Mitrica

Romania

RINNE

Daniel Dao

Diya Hu

HoNam Wong

United States

CHAKRASANA

Jan Nicolas Zimmermann

Switzerland

Arborlith

Giulia Jemec

Jonas Vonk

Switzerland

Moses Samadhi House

Rafael Cruz

Gabriel Molina

Sebastián García

Sebastián Moreno

Colombia

VESPER YOGA HOUSE

Giovanni Lenci

Italy

THE 3 LITTLE YOGINS

Julia Chapron

Clément Rongier

France