The Green Man Hotel, potentially the worlds greenest and healthiest.

Living a healthy balanced life in harmony with nature at The Odeleite River Valley Eco Centre

The main hotel complex will have a comprehensive communal infrastructure with pool and sunbathing area with bar and restaurant facilities as well as an indoor area set aside to encourage community interaction, it will also support a full diversity of leisure activities, pony trekking, nature walks, bird watching, mountain biking as well as on site fishing, sailing or boating on the adjacent rivers.

Quality of life is the ultimate goal of this unique development and also to create the greenest, most eco-friendly, climate change friendly hotel complex not just in this beautiful unspoiled area of the Algarve, not just in the whole of Europe but potentially the greenest and most sustainable hotel development anywhere in the world, a tourist development that we are sure will be of great benefit not just to the Castro Marim and the Eastern Algarve region, but the whole of Portugal as well.

Natural and organic construction materials will be used throughout, mainly locally sourced hemp shiv with a lime binder a composite building material cast round a load bearing timber frame, making a monolithic thermally efficient structure that will be 100% carbon negative, this centuries old building technique has been gaining approval over the last 30 years as a modern day alternative building method in the race to overcome the damage to the natural environment from too much fossil fuel consumption, these hemp lime buildings can last for well over 100 years and are also 100% recyclable at end of life.

 

This development will have an eco friendly carbon negative footprint, a low environmental impact, very low energy consumption, low heating and cooling requirements,  hotel furniture and fittings, curtains and carpets will be sourced from renewable materials, creating the most eco friendly, most sustainable and  healthiest living environment anywhere on the planet.

Using this type of green construction and a compact hotel layout we aim to minimise any environmental problems, working within the existing land levels as much as possible, minimising the excavation and  in-filling required for the lightweight foundations, low visual impact is another main goal in the unique design for the main two storey structure, which when viewed from the public access some 300 metres away will appear to be single storey, to achieve this we will be utilising the natural ground contours to construct the lower storey below the existing natural ground level of the main square.

In terms of sustainability the use of renewable organic living materials for construction is a key factor in the development of a carbon negative building, this lightweight hemp lime construction is now becoming more mainstream in the fight against climate change, it has many advantages over traditional building methods, creating  a breathable structure for healthy living that is not only earthquake proof but also has a high level of fire resistance, is damp and mould proof as well as rodent and termite proof.

The main hotel configuration will include a number of ground floor units suitable for less able or wheelchair bound guests and will be laid out around a traditional village square, with the upper level accommodation units also bordering the square which will have pools and fountains and stone patterned walkways, shaded benches and tables provided for the residents and guests to take coffee or drinks outside the dining area and chat the evening away putting the world to rights as part of that old fashioned ritual.

The whole complex will be solar powered from our own solar farm and storage facility using the very latest solar panel technology,  back up wind turbines will fill in on dull days, the location and sizing will be finalised during the detailed planning stage when the solar panel output figures are available from the manufacturers to align with the overall energy requirements of the hotel complex.

This solar powered renewable energy system will also have the latest battery style storage system incorporated as back up for night use and for dull days, a low energy LED direct current lighting system will be installed taking advantage of the latest research and developments in this field, our aim is to minimise the overall energy requirements utilising the thermally efficient building structure.

The solar energy system will be of sufficient size to be able to provide charging facilities for hybrid electric vehicles which we intend to use for transit to and from the airport as well as for day long excursions to some of the well known tourist attractions in Portugal, also for local trips to the historic towns of Castro Marim and Alcoutim as well as Vila Real de Santo António and on to the lovely beaches at Monte Gordo, this beneficial use of our low cost electricity will be reducing our fossil fuel footprint even further.