
Our Story
Promise is a collaborative project created but the award winning architectural firm Atelier 111 and one of Portugals most accomplished sculptors Rui Chafes.
The Cottage House is the smallest of the four parts of the project and the first one to be completed. It is composed by an entrance porch, a living/kitchen area, two bedrooms, a bathroom, a storeroom and an informal terrace. With building materials consisting of concrete, marble and brass.
The Property is situated in 50 acres of pristine private land in Grandola,Portugal. The land mostly constituting of olive and cork trees and is an hour away from Lisbon airport.
Rui Chafes
Sculptor
“Promise" started with a dream, the dream of bringing a space to the world that belongs to the world, not the a single person. In that matter, Olivier's point of view was always very clear and lucid, without any kind of craving or material attachment: he always wanted "Promise" to be a gift to the world, to the others, to the ones who recognise the beauty of Form and the beauty of Non-Form. We can see it as a high form of generosity as well as a high form of future vision and absolute trust. It is a gift to the ones who can pass through the world without wanting to leave traces, like birds in the sky. He is building "Promise" as we are building "Promise" at the same time as we are dreaming "Promise" as a house without beginning neither an end. It will be not a "work in progress" but much more an unfinished state of mind, where each wall, each spot of light, each room is part of an immaterial and continuous trust in Beauty and Dream. That is why is called "Promise". No one will ever finish it, because it has never began. We all hope that this unnameable project will offer people the desire of freedom and conscience of the greatness and ephemere beauty of our lives. Without wanting to own what it is impossible to own. It is the shadow of a brief permanence, always moving in time, back and forward. My sculptures are just a small part of this infinite building, some small details that pull our eyes and attention to the great and universal impermanence. They are scars and wounds, small and ephemeral, trying to be present in the context of the great and solid Camilo Rebelo's architecture. My sculpture are just shadows and small scars in the world, like unborn and undead presences.”
Camilo Rebelo
Lead architect