O Castro Art Village · Ribeira Sacra, Galicia, Spain 

Supported by Culture Moves Europe · Creative Europe · European Union

Open Call: Architect in Residence

Eight stone houses. Two hectares of forest. A village that time left behind.

O Castro de Mourelos is an abandoned rural settlement in the Ribeira Sacra region of Galicia; one of the most biologically and culturally dense landscapes in northwestern Spain. The stone houses stand in varying states of ruin. The forest grows around and through them. The place holds memory in its walls, its moss, its silence.

We are inviting one architect to come and think with us.

The proposition

This is not a commission to rebuild. It is an invitation to look, to measure, to imagine, and to produce a spatial intervention study that asks: what could this place become, without erasing what it has been?

Working alongside filmmaker and artistic director Davoud Gerami, the principle architect Oscar López Alba from Ola Estudio, and in close dialogue with the other resident artists, you will develop a research-based architectural proposal for the site. The work may engage with questions of ruin, history, tradition, habitation, or ecological repair. We strongly encourage the use of reclaimed and native materials as the basis for any proposed interventions.

Your outcome will be a documented spatial intervention proposal; drawings, models, notes, or any format native to your practice that will remain as part of O Castro’s permanent research archive and inform the future of the site.

The residency

30 days at O Castro Art Village during October 2026.

October in the Ribeira Sacra is a particular kind of beautiful. The forest turns, the light drops lower, the mornings carry mist off the river valleys. The landscape you will be working with is at its most alive and most melancholic at once.

You will live in a climate-controlled geodesic dome with a full bathroom, surrounded by forest. Meals are prepared and shared collectively in our communal kitchen. We eat well and work well. You will have time and space to move through the site at your own pace, walk the forest, attend film screenings, engage with local communities in the neighbouring village, and exchange ideas with the other residents.

A mentor will accompany your process throughout the stay. 

Who we are looking for

An architect with a genuine curiosity about vernacular construction, ruins, landscape, or the adaptive futures of abandoned rural spaces. You do not need to work at a particular scale or within a particular style. What matters is that this place speaks to your practice, and that you are ready to let it do so.

• You must be a legal resident of a European country other than Spain.
  
• You must be available to stay and work at O Castro for the full 30 days, uninterrupted.
  

What you will receive

• A travel allowance of €400 per round-trip (€800 for distances of 5,000 km or above).
  
• A daily allowance of €30 for each day of the residency, for food, local transport, and personal expenses.
  
• Accommodation in a furnished geodesic dome on site (Private or shared depending on availability).
  
• Mentorship and full integration into the life of O Castro.
  
• Accessibility top-ups available upon request.

To apply

Send the following to info@ocastroartvillage.com before midnight of 5 July, 2026:

• A short letter of interest (max. 400 words) explaining why this residency and this site (in English)
  
• A portfolio or documentation of recent work (PDF or link, max. 10 pages or 10 minutes, in English)
  
• A brief CV or biography (in English)
  
• One proof that you are legally residing/live in one of the 41 Creative Europe countries: Including your full name and address. Such as:
  • ID Card or passport
  • Work/House/Insurance contract
  • Gas/electricity/water bill
  • Bank statement
    
• Proof for accessibility support (if applicable)