_PATRÍCIA — ROSA ET AL Townhouse is a doorway as much as a house, a place you can call home, a refuge for those who are looking for inspiration. The spirit is about being open, open-minded, inclusive, welcoming, fresh thinking, alternative and thinking outside of the box. It is integrity, fun, dynamism and imagination. Of course creativity is quite relevant.

_EMANUEL – Part of our inspiration was our passion for traveling. Patricia and I have been travelers since we were young. We started travelling with our parents to these large resorts in the ’80s and then to smaller boutique hotels as we got older. And we noticed that it was the kind of service we enjoyed the most. For us, the idea was always to receive guests just as we were receiving friends in our own house.

_EMANUEL – We were always travelers, first with our folks in the 80s and 90s in well-known brand hotels and resorts around the world, and then by ourselves or with friends to smaller and independent hotels with a signature. Hospitality became a part of our lifestyle, firstly when receiving friends in Portugal and when we were living abroad, and then in a professional setting at ROSA ET AL Townhouse, as the perfect inaugural project in Porto for our larger hospitality project, BED & BRUNCH COLLECTION.

_PATRÍCIA – Finding ROSA ET AL Townhouse was an unpredictable chance, we were visiting Porto when we were living in London, looking at some properties for investment in the city, but with no ideas whatsoever about Rosa, when we stumbled with this property in ruins that from the outset seemed perfect to a particular hospitality project that reflected our lifestyle. 

_PATRÍCIA – We always lived in Porto, not exactly in the city, we lived with our folks 20 km south of Porto, but with college and university, Porto became our city. Porto has the perfect mix of things, river and sea, history and contemporary, city and nature, culture and beach, gastronomy and wine. It is a vibrant city, highly creative, with loads of historical background but still on the verge of what is new and hip in Portugal and Europe.

_PATRÍCIA – The first thing is that we are not very visible from the outside, we look just like a traditional townhouse in Porto. ROSA ET AL Townhouse Suites are a very different niche, based on exclusive tailor-made services ranging from a luxurious in-room spa to private city tours. Above all, the Townhouse is very relaxed and offers a feeling of being at home and not in a hotel.
We try to establish from the beginning through an exchange with our guests’ what they’re expecting for their holiday in Porto. From that point onwards, we offer a totally tailor-made experience. It all depends on the guests’ wishes. Not everyone establishes this email-based exchange prior to their trip, but most people do. It’s interesting to know what certain guests want to discover on their holidays prior to their arrival or during their stay when we have time to share with them some thoughts on the best ways to enjoy the townhouse, the neighborhood and finally the city of Porto and the wider region of northern Portugal.

_EMANUEL – Indeed, that is the motto of the house. Once you cross our door, we give you a world of calm and slowness. Calming your mind and body from the hectic world. Of course, we live surrounded by technology and it is (or it seems) impossible to actually disconnect, but we are good at creating that illusion and for that reason creating memorable times and experiences for our in-house guests.

_PATRÍCIA – We do believe that slowing and calming our daily life is the ultimate luxury. Like the building is stripped to its essentials, so all the clutter was taken away to give attention to details, in architectural terms but also in the relation with other people, namely with our guests and among our guests.

_EMANUEL – It is more than an architectural project. It reflects part of my lifestyle and part of Patricia's lifestyle. So it is part of our life as brothers and friends.

_EMANUEL – The awards and this particular exhibition you mention recognized excellency in architectural practice in terms of strategy, design, execution to its final function. The overall theme of 'Quiet is the new loud' was an 'umbrella' to gather a series of projects by Portuguese architects that were designing and building off-radar, in an unpretentious way, with brilliant results, usually applying local knowledge, traditions and materials to new contemporary forms and structures. In a way, being loud while being almost silent, which is also a sort of a motto of the Architectural School of Porto, with its attention to the notion of place and detail.

_PATRÍCIA – One of our latest additions is an apartment within the UNESCO HERITAGE limit, near Praça da Batalha and we are managing a new one which we added to our Bed & Brunch Collection overall project for Porto in terms of accommodations structures. Our love for textile and art has led us to open EARLYMADE, a concept store and an art platform. There are also some food-wise projects as ROSA also became locally known for its brunch culture. We opened a specialty coffee shop and restaurant called Early Cedofeita. Then, there is a series of international projects that we are developing in other cities, but that’s a long-term plan for the future.