Douglas Works
Town-HomesBarreira, Portugal2023
The Town-Homes proposal envisions a miniature village that thoughtfully addresses the complexities of aging—balancing independence with support, privacy with community, and rest with activity. Three L-shaped apartment blocks form the project’s framework, opening onto shared amenities that enrich daily life: a communal dining hall, gathering areas, and nurses’ rooms for care and wellness. At the site’s southeast corner, a chapel and library serve as cultural and spiritual anchors, while a central plaza—threaded with accessible walkways—creates a welcoming heart that fosters chance encounters, ease of navigation, and a true sense of community.

Each apartment is modest yet adaptable, featuring accessible layouts, en suite restrooms, and carefully designed thresholds that soften transitions between private living and shared spaces. Passive design strategies enhance comfort and resilience: limestone walls provide thermal mass, cross-ventilation brings natural airflow, and native landscaping shades, cools, and grounds the project in its local ecology.

A material palette of limestone masonry, timber framing, and clay tile roofing ties the architecture to regional traditions while projecting warmth, durability, and dignity. Together, these elements create more than housing—they propose a textured, enduring environment for aging in place, where residents can live fully, independently, and in community.

Client: Competition Entry
Program: Retirement Housing 
Area: 1207 m² / 13000 sf
Status: Shortlisted Entry 
Services: Architecture, Interior Design
Collaborators: Taylor Halamka, Melissa Naranjo Barrientos 

© 2025 Douglas Works, PLLC
All rights reserved.
339.674.7599hello@douglas.works