Hospitality Design - November 2015 - 47

PERSPECTIVES

MEMOI∏

1. From left:
Champalimaud
managing partner Ed
Bakos, principals Jon
Kastl and Winston Kong,
and founder Alexandra
Champalimaud.

A WONDERFUL LIFE

My training in classical design was
completed at the Fundação Ricardo do Espírito
Santo Silva in Lisbon, a priceless institution
The cultural journey of Alexandra Champalimaud
devoted to the preservation and enhancement
of the artistic and artisan techniques of the
18th and previous centuries. Aside from my
I was blessed with a beautiful childhood in a
academic studies, this fed my creative instincts
lovely home, garden, and farm in Cascais, the
as I learned from dedicated craftspeople
seaside town just west of Lisbon, Portugal. I
who had faithfully continued the specialty
was the youngest of five children raised by an
of their forebears for generations. I was
elegant, cultured, young widow. My mother
allowed the privilege of thinking in shapes,
took me everywhere, but I also accompanied
colors, proportions, and materials. Working
her through the daily ritual of supervising the
with artisans is something I still strongly
workings of a large house of a prosperous family
encourage in my young colleagues today. The
that entertained beautifully. My mother's house
human quality produces a powerful emotional
was the gathering place for the most remarkable
resonance.
of guests and friends.
At 19, I married a dashing paramedic in the
Our journeys through Europe to school
Portuguese army and soon followed his unit to
in England and Switzerland were magical-
northern Mozambique where he was fighting
mother driving much too fast in her racing
Portugal's last colonial war. Through family
green Jaguar convertible with a tan interior.
connections, we were allowed to occupy an
I was enriched by a classical education in
abandoned but gracious ambassadorial house.
European culture, art, architecture, and the
I naturally channeled my mother and became
decorative arts all by the age of 12. Growing up
the hostess of a beleaguered community, gamely
in Portugal added a layer of Moorish, Islamic,
working with our local staff to create edible
geometric design influenced by baroque
dinners of condensed milk and whatever could
architecture.
be found in a war-torn outpost. We had fun, and

resourcefulness and determination were added
to my gilded early repertoire.
This proved to come in handy. I returned
to Lisbon to give birth to my eldest son, Lopo.
In 1974, when Lopo was 2, word came during
dinner to gather a small bag of belongings and
leave, son in hand. The Carnation Revolution
had engulfed Portugal, and my husband's family
was no longer welcome. Mercifully, by the
standards of revolutions, ours was bloodless. But
a revolution changes you. When you leave your
home in the middle of the night, thinking you
might never return, you begin to see things more
clearly.
My classical training in design qualified me
for a visa to emigrate to Canada. I relied on a
sensible bank manager in a blue blazer and club
tie to advise me on which was the best design
firm in town. Starting at the bottom as a junior
designer I found my stride, met clients who
have become lifelong friends, and over the next
few years was allowed to design residences and
offices for Montreal's elite. The city treated me
very well.
By 1981, my second son, Anthony, was born
and my husband returned to Portugal. So I
struck off to form my own firm. To my surprise,

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