From Bauhaus to Beach House — Guided Tour · Faro Island (1h30)

Faro Island has a modernist story most visitors never see. Artist and architectural tour leader Richard Walker opens it up.From Bauhaus to Beach House — Guided Tour 1h30 · Friday 6 November · 13h30 Meeting point : Ave Nascente 13, Faro Island Please arrive 5 minutes before the start. Wear comfortable shoes and bring water.

Faro Island is not what most people expect.

Behind the beach bars and holiday apartments lies a quiet architectural story — one of modernist ambition, coastal adaptation, and a design language that stretches from the Bauhaus workshops of 1919 to the sun-bleached facades of this small Atlantic island.

Join artist and architectural tour leader Richard Walker for a 90-minute walk through one of the Algarve's most unexpected modernist landscapes. Drawing on his experience leading tours for the 20th Century Society in England and his years as a part-time Faro Island resident, Walker brings an artist's eye and a scholar's rigour to a coastline most visitors never look at twice.

The tour takes its title from Tom Wolfe's 1981 critique of modernist architecture — From Bauhaus to Our House — and explores how the ideals of the Bauhaus school, the Case Study Houses project, and the innovations of mid-century architects like Richard Neutra found their way to this stretch of the Portuguese coast.

Along the way, you will discover:

The beach houses of Faro Island — ranging from updated vernacular forms to structures that would not look out of place in Palm Springs, Cape Cod or the Florida Keys, all shaped by the modernist principles of functionality, simplicity, and the primacy of light and space.

Cubist themes with Moorish influences — flat roofs, whitewashed volumes and the occasional minaret, where Atlantic modernism meets the memory of the south.

The Aeromar Hotel — built in the 1970s and still carrying much of its original design DNA, a rare survivor of the modernist beach architecture that once defined this coastline.

The work of Manuel Gomes da Costa — the Algarve's most celebrated modernist architect, whose influence extends even here, to the island's edge.

With special guest Chris de Oliveira, co-founder of The Modernist Faro and The Modernist Weekend — the walk becomes a conversation between two people who have spent years looking at these buildings and asking why they matter.

Friday 6 November · 13h30 · Meeting point : Ave Nascente 13, Faro Island · Duration : 1h30 · 20€

Getting there

By car or taxi — approximately 10 minutes from Faro city centre via the causeway. Limited free parking available on the island. Uber and Bolt are available in Faro.

By bus — Bus line 16 (Próximo) runs from Faro city centre to Praia de Faro, departing approximately every hour. Journey time : 25 minutes. Tickets from €2.70, purchased from the driver.

By boat — Ferry from Portas do Mar, near Faro Old Town. Journey time approximately 15-20 minutes.

Faro → Praia de Faro : 10h00 · 11h10 · 12h20 · 14h20 · 15h30 Praia de Faro → Faro : 10h30 · 11h40 · 12h50 · 14h50 · 16h10 (last return)

For the 13h30 tour, we recommend taking the 12h20 boat from Faro. Return with the 15h30 or 16h10 boat after the tour.

!!!About The Modernist Weekend

The Modernist Weekend is an independent event organised by The Modernist Faro, rooted in a commitment to architectural knowledge and heritage conservation.

All proceeds go directly towards the event and raising awareness of the Algarve's modernist heritage.

The Modernist Faro — themodernist.pt

Photos credit : Aymeric Warmé-Janville