From Hermès windows to boutique hotels: Joana Astolfi’s journey designing distinctive Portuguese spaces
Lisbon artist–designer Joana Astolfi brings colour, craft and playful detail to Portugal’s most inspiring spaces, including her latest project, Casa Amarela, a sunny Alentejo guesthouse shaped by her multidisciplinary studio’s imaginative vision.
When Lisbon-based artist, designer and architect Joana Astolfi established her namesake studio in 2007, some clients were sceptical about her multidisciplinary approach. “A few weren’t very open-minded,” she says today. “They wanted me to choose between disciplines.”
Luckily, Astolfi refused to do so. The daughter of a Brazilian architect father and a Portuguese artist mother has instead spent her career championing colour and playfulness in some of the city’s best-loved hospitality spaces. In 2011, Astolfi designed Cantinho do Avillez restaurant for Portuguese chef José Avillez and, three years later, she worked on her first of many vitrines for Hermès in Portugal (she would go on to dream up similar projects across the globe).
Astolfi’s newest design is Casa Amarela (“Yellow House”) in Beja, southern Alentejo. For the town’s first contemporary guesthouse of nine suites, she takes her cues from the façade’s original butter-coloured bricks, which gave the property its name.
The sunny conceit doesn’t stop at the front door. Astolfi filled the living-room shelves with cheerful yellow and orange objects. The guest rooms, meanwhile, feature burnt-orange wardrobes and mustard-coloured cupboards, with ochre stained windows in the bathrooms. Outside, chequered ceramic tiles line the swimming pool, surrounded by terracotta bricks.
From Casa Amarela’s interior design to its lighting, everything is executed by Astolfi’s team of 20, which includes architects, designers, artists, carpenters, metallurgists and technicians. The baseline for the interior is sober, featuring oak, granite and micro cement. Bespoke wooden, upholstered and wicker bedheads add texture. “Creativity is never tiring if you enjoy what you do,” says Astolfi.
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Joana Astolfi’s CV
1993: Begins studying at Cardiff University
2002: Joins Fabrica
2007: Founds Studio Astolfi. Over the next 18 years, it grows to include 20 collaborators
2011: Designs Cantinho do Avillez in Lisbon
2014: Studio Astolfi is entrusted with Hermès’s Portuguese window displays, as well as, occasionally, the company’s shops in Paris and Barcelona
2018: Works with Portuguese furniture brand De La Espada on a collection’s launch at Stockholm Design Week
2025: Studio Astolfi brings to life Casa Amarela, a contemporary hotel in Beja, Portugal
Comment
Designing hospitality spaces isn’t so different from designing spaces for yourself. Follow your instincts and pursue your personal vision.
