Karolina Rorat and Ewa Maniak, students of the Faculty of Architecture at the Warsaw University of Technology (‘PW’), won second place in the international competition “Portugal Olive Guest House”. They also received the Buildner Student Award for their project.

The competition was organised by the Buildner platform in collaboration with the Verde family, landowners in Portugal who produce oil using traditional methods. Participants were asked to design a guesthouse on one of their properties, centred around a multifunctional space functioning as an olive oil tasting room.

The ‘Olive Hearth’ guesthouse conceived by the PW students is located on a hill overlooking the panorama of the valley below. It takes the form of a ‘twisted’ windmill blending into the landscape. The successive planes of the building follow the course of the topography and the movement in the building reflects the experience of coming down the hill.