MycoRestore

A Colquida, Lda is a family owned company that runs the “Cerdeira – Home for Creativity”. It’s aim is to bring the village of Cerdeira in Serra da Lousã back to life, protect the architecture and cultural landscape as a place of learning and sharing know-how with creative and ecological approach for people from different cultures and knowledge.

After eight years of intense rebuilding activities, preserving the architecture and environment with ecological materials and local builders, we are now able to provide high quality ecological accommodation, studio space for arts and craft courses, artists in residency and so on. The company currently employs 10 workers.

The cultural landscape is a concern, several hundered of heritage walls have to be rebuild to support the soil for small scale agriculture. The surounding forest, needs to be cleaned and preserved. There is an invasion of acacia mimosa and eucalyptus in our area that belongs to Rede Natura 2000. Forest fire prevention is also an priority. We promote cultural events and art&craft courses (ex. Greenwood with acacia mimosa, ceramic wood firings in our Sasukenei- Smokeless Kiln). Our aim is to give value to local resources, stimulate a sustainable economic development in a place that has been abandoned in the ’70s for economic reasons.

Cerdeira – Home for Creativity has been active members in the Shist Villages Network and work closely with the Câmara Municipal da Lousã, Conselho Directivo dos Baldios de Candal, Cerdeira e Catarredor (Ass. managing public forest area around our three villages), Lousitânea, (Ass. for cultural and ecological preservation), & Adxtur, Agência para o desenvolvimento turístico das Aldeias do Xisto (agency for touristic development of the Shist Villages).