{"id":672606,"date":"2026-11-02T11:30:13","date_gmt":"2026-11-02T11:30:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/672606\/"},"modified":"2026-11-02T11:30:13","modified_gmt":"2026-11-02T11:30:13","slug":"cork-forms-walls-of-pavilion-dedicated-to-silence-at-casa-no-tempo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/672606\/","title":{"rendered":"Cork forms walls of pavilion dedicated to silence at Casa No Tempo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Antwerp-based studio Corkinho<\/a> has unveiled its latest \u201cstill room\u201d, a pavilion with walls of solid cork<\/a>, which is installed in the grounds of a vacation villa designed by Manuel Aires Mateus.<\/p>\n

The still room is a space dedicated to silent and introspective activities, such as reading, yoga, tea ceremonies or meditation.<\/p>\n

Corkinho<\/a> installed it in the grounds of Casa No Tempo<\/a>, a former farmhouse in southern Portugal, which architect Aires Mateus<\/a> converted into a holiday home in 2014 for hospitality entrepreneur Jo\u00e3o Rodrigues.<\/p>\n

\"Cork<\/p>\n

Lead designer C\u00e9dric Etienne devised the building\u2019s innovative structure, which is fully demountable, with the help of architect and master carpenter Gon\u00e7alo Madeira Marrote of Madeiguincho<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The floor slab is a timber deck, built over a foundation of removable concrete blocks.<\/p>\n

Above this, solid blocks of cork are stacked up like giant bricks to form the building\u2019s walls and secured with metal rods that thread through milled channels.<\/p>\n

The pavilion is topped by a timber roof, described by Etienne as \u201clike a hat with four screws\u201d, which helps to weigh down the cork blocks.<\/p>\n

\"C\u00e9dric<\/p>\n

\u201cI wanted it to be zero waste and carbon-neutral,\u201d the designer told Dezeen.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we need to dismantle it, we can place it somewhere else. There is no glue and no screws,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s like the Japanese way of building teahouses, with total respect of the local materials and no harm to the land.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Still<\/p>\n

As the name suggests, Corkinho is a studio that specialises in objects and spaces built from cork.<\/p>\n

The studio first launched the still room concept in 2020<\/a>, when it moved its office into the former Noorderpershuis power station in Antwerp and transformed one of the rooms into a silent sanctuary.<\/p>\n

Etienne defines a still room as any space where you can pause your mind and be still.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a place where you disconnect from noise and distractions and invite a deeper sense of presence,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"Ceramics<\/p>\n

After consulting with various hotel brands<\/a> keen to adopt the concept, Etienne pitched the idea to Rodrigues and his company, Silent Living<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The company has five properties, all designed by Aires Mateus and all with a focus on slow living.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had been to Casa No Tempo many times, so I knew the place like an inner home,\u201d the designer said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Casa<\/p>\n

\n Read:\n <\/p>\n

Manuel Aires Mateus revives a Portuguese farmhouse to create Casa no Tempo<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIt felt so aligned in terms of feeling and senses, so I thought it could be a really beautiful challenge to move the concept forward in this place,\u201d he continued.<\/p>\n

The room can be used by guests staying at the villa, but it can also accommodate curated programmes.<\/p>\n

Etienne has been hosting four-day silent retreats, allowing groups of designers and hospitality professionals to learn more about the still room concept.<\/p>\n

\"Still<\/p>\n

The cork blocks, supplied by locally based company Sofalca<\/a>, were heat-treated to improve their durability. The material gives the building impressive sensorial and thermal qualities, Etienne said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll the technical properties of cork \u2013 the acoustics, the scent, the softness \u2013 all become architectural conditions,\u201d he stated.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou really feel like you\u2019re coming into a womb. Even when it\u2019s 40 degrees outside, the temperature inside is around 22 or 23.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other pavilions recently featured in Dezeen include a wildlife pavilion informed by rippling water<\/a> and a jigsaw-like pavilion made of mass-timber scrap<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Share<\/p>\n

\n Photography by
\n Merc\u00eas Tomaz Gomes
\n <\/a>\n <\/p>\n

Read more<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Antwerp-based studio Corkinho has unveiled its latest \u201cstill room\u201d, a pavilion with walls of solid cork, which is…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":672607,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[307,304,305,306,46,284917,308,284916,93,61,60,6756,2888],"class_list":["post-672606","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-cork","tag-corkinho","tag-design","tag-design-for-disassembly","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-pavilions","tag-portugal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672606","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=672606"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/672606\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/672607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=672606"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=672606"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=672606"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}