Design & Oficios is a project organized by Associação de Designer do Sul in partnership with the São Brás de Alportel Municipality, and with the support of Direcção Regional de Cultura do Algarve.

The project works in a Creative Residency format, which occurs annually. Until the present, three editions were conducted, with the participation of more than twenty designers and artisans. The Residency attempts to be an experimental laboratory to develop projects in sustained design, eco-design and/or contemporary craftsmanship.

We try to promote local materials from Algarve’s hillside, of natural origin and with environmentally friendly characteristics, as is the case of clay, cork oak, wood, palm leaves, cumbungi, esparto, cane and natural fibre tissues, as well as transmission of knowledge and associated craft and machine techniques to transform and utilize these materials.

Along those three editions 30 pieces were created, combining different materials, techniques, concepts, and approaches that demonstrate the many possibilities that arise when combining Design with craftsmanship and innovation with tradition!