Casal Saloio – Museum of Rurality by Miguel Marcelino

The Casal Saloio – Museum of Rurality in São Domingos de Rana, Portugal, designed by Miguel Marcelino, is a remarkable architectural project that preserves cultural memory while adapting an ancient rural dwelling for contemporary use. This transformation balances heritage conservation, sustainable architecture, and modern design, offering a space that narrates the history of rural life in the region.

Historical Background

The Casal Saloio de Outeiro de Polima is one of the few surviving examples documenting the earliest rural settlements in this territory. Originally a humble rural house, it underwent multiple phases of growth and transformation over centuries.

At its core, it began as a single compartment. Over time, various additions were made, including:

• An annex room and side wing
• A traditional stone oven
• Corral spaces for animals
• A second floor
• Structural buttresses to stabilize the building

This organic and informal construction process reflected the needs of generations, showing how rural architecture evolved through necessity, resourcefulness, and adaptation.

Architectural Restoration and Design

Miguel Marcelino’s intervention consolidates the rural house in its last recognizable configuration, preserving the broken and uneven geometry that tells the story of its layered evolution. Instead of erasing irregularities, the project highlights them, ensuring that the building remains a living archive of rural memory.

The new architectural expansion introduces two intersecting volumes in an L-shape, forming a courtyard that dialogues with the historic structure. These contemporary additions respect the original scale and proportions, maintaining the spirit of successive rural expansions while inserting a 21st-century layer of architecture.

The design respects the vernacular character of the original dwelling, while the new elements reinterpret rural simplicity with modern construction methods and materials.

Interior Spaces and Museum Identity

Inside, the Museum of Rurality showcases both architectural authenticity and exhibition functionality. Wooden beams, stone textures, and traditional rural detailing remain visible, enhancing the museum’s narrative of continuity and transformation.

The geometry and circulation allow visitors to read the historical layers of construction, engaging with the house not only as a museum but also as an artifact in itself.

Architectural Significance

Casal Saloio – Museum of Rurality stands as a model of adaptive reuse architecture, where preservation and modern design work hand in hand. The project highlights how architecture can safeguard intangible heritage—such as ways of living, building, and inhabiting—while adapting to contemporary needs.

It is not only a museum but also a cultural landmark that reflects Portugal’s rural identity and demonstrates the potential of architecture as a tool for memory, education, and community engagement.

All the photographs are works of Archive Miguel Marcelino (photo by Lourenço T. Abreu), Archive Miguel Marcelino