Oporto has been suffering radical cultural and social changes in the last ten years, leading to a large revitalization dynamic that has expanded beyond the city center. Driven by this movement, we were invited to refurbish an abandoned XIX century bourgeois house and convert it into a set of 5 apartments.
Built in 1881, in Vermoim – Vila Nova de Famalicão, the Igreja Velha Palace was for many decades the mansion of an important farm, baroque style with two castellated towers and an attached chapel, the neo-gothic style S. Francisco de Assis chapel.
With the introduction of many additions and volumetries that deprived the complex of its features, this project came across many challenges regarding the constructive and functional aspects.
We propose a building with a unique image for the campus. A building that breaks the existing gray monotony – referring not only about the pictorial issue of the Campus, but also about the “global crisis without end” – and that, at the same time, is able to captivate.
Project: IBS – Institute of Science and Innovation for Bio-Sustainability
Location: Minho University, Azurém Campus, Guimarães, Portugal
Photography: Joao Morgado
Client: Minho University
Collaborators: Carine Pimenta, Catarina Campos, João Pereira de Sousa, Pedro Resende
3ds: Gil Soares
Engineering: Isabel Teles (structure), João Cunha (waters), António Pelaez (termic/energy), Susana Sousa (acoustic), Fernando Ferreira (electricity), Carlos Mirra (security plan)
Specifications, measurements and budgets: DIMSCALE
Built in the 80’s, this apartment was in dire need of refurbishment. Both its infrastructures and organization were dated, so the intention was to make the most of its potentialities while bringing its living experience to contemporary standards.
With just over 400 ft2 (40 m2) of surface, this small apartment by the sea was unwelcoming due to a choice of darker materials, 30 years of intense use and a not particularly qualified compartmentation (though in tune with its time).
This was our first commission together and with such a challenging site. A privileged place in its relationship with the D.Luís I bridge facing Porto´s Ribeira, in a unique landscape that leads us where the Douro crosses the horizon.
The object, the chapel, is a handmade wooden box construction inside a huge18th century stone building, the Seminary of St. Tiago, in the center of Braga, Portugal. Into the renovated two levels space that encloses the Chapel comes some daylight that is very controlled and delicately used by the architects. The space around the chapel is quite dark, so the object appears transparent. The natural light is filtered through its walls, made by thin, horizontal, wooden bars, and gives the architectural body a luminous appearance.
The extension of the Lisbon Oceanarium is a complex challenge. It beholds an intervention in a consolidated and dynamic public space. One of the aims is to bring together the relationship between the existing Building, that has a strong presence in the architectural imaginary of the Lisbon citizens, a space currently being qualified as an Architectural heritage.
The neighborhood of Caselas, Lisbon, was built in 1949 and designed by architect Antonio Couto Martins.
With a regular and orthogonal organization this neighborhood is characterized by the adaptation of its urban fabric to some pre-existing elements, such as the Church, which served as a reference to its main axes.
The new Sotheby’s Real Estate Headquarters at Carvoeiro, Algarve, is on an existent building characterized by both local and traditional construction technics as well as materials. In order to save and recuperate the building having in mind the new program, we have decided to conduct some internal demolitions as the building was not well preserved. Said demolitions, at a spatial configuration level, will allow to recover the building and make the necessary adjustments to the contemporary needs, mainly in terms of energy efficiency.
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