Interviews

Eric Castaldo is the architect of the planned project to build a cable car from Monchique to the 776-metre-high peak of Picota in the range of the same name. He has been living in Portugal for 44 years. He is French by birth and his wife is Portuguese. They have two children. He has had his own office in the village since 2000. This is where he does the architectural work that has made his name outside the country. His most important clients are Pestana, Oceânico and Vale do Lobo. ECO123 talked to him in his studio. Is it a …

Monchique is one of the municipalities in the country that has suffered most from depopulation and, in the last 40 years, its population has fallen by half, to around 5,000 at present. To reverse the trend towards depopulation and ensure the town’s sustainability in the coming decades, this Algarve municipality is focusing on incentives to retain and increase the local population, with support for the construction and reconstruction of buildings, exemption from municipal taxes and tariffs, and complimentary projects and technical support for people wishing to settle in the municipality, along with other initiatives. But will these measures be sufficient …

and decarbonising transport 2016 was the hottest year since records started being kept of the planet’s temperature in the nineteenth century. Governments now seem to be facing the problem head on at an international level, and, following the agreements established in COP 21, COP 22 in Marrakesh has accelerated the implementation of those processes by the countries involved. José Mendes, State Secretary to the Minister for the Environment, told ECO 123 what is being done in Portugal, and in different parts of the world, in an attempt to slow down global warming. In addition to electrifying the transport system, producing …

Rolf Disch, who was born in 1944, is an architect. He lives and works in Freiburg, Germany. Disch became well known thanks to his special architectural achievements in the field of solar house construction. In 2003, he won the Global Energy Award for this. He is the inventor and designer of the energy-plus houses. In 2009, he won the Utopia Award. Characteristic of his renovated and newly-built houses, housing schemes and office buildings is the fact that they are CO2-neutral and architecturally unique. They produce more energy than they consume. ECO123 visited this pioneer in the cabin of his “sunship”. …

Käthe Tag | It is never too late to learn Born in Germany in 1938, and a nature-lover, Käthe Tag today lives in the southern Alentejo as a German among Portuguese. Her four children Sylvia, Oliver, Svea and Ines visit her regularly. At the beginning of the 1960s, she lived in Paris and London to learn French and English. After the early death of her husband in 1981, she started several types of medical training and later opened her own practice for biological medicine in the south of Germany. But at some stage she began to find it too cold …

Marcelino Vicente | The Hermit from Barbelote Next spring, after the end of winter, there will be a moment that’s well worth celebrating. On 30 March, Marcelino Zé Vicente will turn 80 years of age. For 67 years, he has lived in Barbelote, a small historic village, now in ruins, close to Foia, the highest point in the Serra de Monchique. For the last ten years, he has lived alone in a small house built of local stone. In 1949, when his parents bought the plot of land and moved up into the hills with their children, they also took …

Zé Pedro Mira | Shoemaker‘s Apprentice José Pedro Luís Mira Nunes (aged 23) was raised in a family of artisans. His creative side was stimulated from a very early age through handicraft, drawing and painting and, although his educational background was in Science, he always dedicated his spare time to creative activities, based mainly on what nature had to offer. His family have been engaged in the art of making shoes by hand in Monchique since the nineteenth century. Everything started with his great-great-grandfather, José Francisco, who handed the trade on to his son, José Andrés Mira, his great-grandfather, who …

Madan Thapa Magar | Emigrant The country of Nepal is 800 km long and 180 km wide, covering 147,181 square kilometres. Its land area is 50% bigger than Portugal. It is home to 27 million people, two and a half times as many as in Portugal. In the north, the country borders Tibet, in the south India. Southern Nepal, known as the Terai, consists of river landscapes, jungles and vast areas of agricultural land, and is densely populated. Most rural villages and small towns are located in the water-rich south. Agriculture and small industries dominate the economic picture. The north …

Carlos Bernardes | ECO Mayor Torres Vedras is on the coast, 50 km north of Lisbon, and it is in a strategic location for taking advantage of renewable energy. With 57 wind turbines in twelve different farms, this municipality is self-sufficient in energy and its policy of sustainability means that it has received a number of European environmental and sustainability certifications. Carlos Bernardes, aged 48, has been in the local authority for 20 years, and, after being the councillor in charge of the environment for ten years, he became President of the Council at the end of last year, after …

Vedanta Saraswati | Yoga A yoga teacher since she was 19, British citizen Vedanta Saraswati always wanted to be able to offer retreats. She decided to look around Europe to see if there was anything she could afford. To run a venue for this, you need fresh air and quietness surrounded by nature. So she came over from England to Spain and Portugal in the summer of 2005 and had no idea what she was looking for. A series of pictures went through her mind. One of them was of soft rolling mountains. Near Monchique, she found what she was …