With designs in progress, ongoing implementations, and technical visits in between, it’s true that social media and blogs can sometimes take a back seat at Terracrua Design.
At Terracrua Design, we approach each day the same way we approach landscapes: by understanding what needs to happen first, so that everything falls into the right order.
Forms, emails, contacts… But first, we start with technical visits! We’ve made around a dozen visits since the end of the summer/beginning of fall, which have shown us that the need for soil hydration is a widespread and conscious concern. We’ve visited a red fruit greenhouse in Southwest Alentejo that’s concerned with reducing its own impact on this problematic area, as well as properties in Colos, Santiago do Cacém, Aljezur, and Lameiros, where solutions involve reforestation and redefining access points to guide water.
Other visits and solutions, such as in Melides, involve recreating and rethinking small properties where the goal is self-sufficiency and family farming. During these visits, we always have the opportunity to listen and understand what our clients are yearning for, their dreams for their land, observe what the land itself is asking for, exchange and share ideas, and weave it all together into guidelines for the future.
Whether these visits lead to design planning or not, we always have a sense of accomplishment: a thorough preliminary study done in team, closer contact with the client, and a handful of solutions.
As a result of these visits and meetings, we currently have six projects in the design phase ranging from 6 to 9000 hectares, and from our district of Beja to the African continent. We couldn’t be more motivated! Although the overall objectives of our vision are well-defined and cut across any and all projects we have in our hands, the specifics of each one are what truly drive us. We seek solutions to each problem, and our entire team is working with focus on each of these projects. Future agricultural productions, communal lands, rethought territories, and who knows, even forests, are being designed as we write! We promise to be more active on the blog and social media to share each one of them with you as soon as they’re delivered.
From paper to soil, we’re coordinating the implementation of four projects. This is the materialization of everything that’s been thought out, structured, discussed, and decided together. While keylines are marked in the Regenerative Landscapes project, a strong and motivated team has devoted themselves to digging and planting the surrounding area of the Cucumbi Hotel in the Montemor-o-Novo area. After planting the terraces at the beginning of the year, we’ve now returned to plant one of the ponds, add hedges, restructure gardens… It was about three intense weeks that give us an unparalleled pleasure as we see everything taking shape. And that rain, showing that well-made access points can easily lead water to the ponds, was the icing on the cake.
We’re back at it with GPS marking on a property in Viana do Alentejo, and closer to “home” we’re also continuing with the implementation of a future local accommodation that has undergone a complete transformation, showing us that even smaller areas can and should be thought out and give rise to small paradises!
In recent months, we also had the opportunity to organize our own space and sow seeds into the soil with the opening of our office in Relíquias. It’s a space where our team has all the necessary equipment for in-person weeks, and where we’re always available to welcome you!
As soon as we return from our second trip to Angola…
