The site under study is part of the Serrinha Urbanization Plan, Rebordosa, where the City Council plans to build a multi-purpose exhibition park to publicize the city’s business activities in order to make business dynamics more competitive and that the City Hall intends to provide support and continuity in a strategic vision, with a broad influence beyond the territorial limits of the municipality of Paredes.

The Project defines an architectural solution with a vision of a building that, in addition to the strictly functional sense of a multipurpose business exhibition park, enables symbolic communication capable of being an important reference in communication and in adhering to environmental quality concerns, landscape and urban integration of the municipality of Paredes, in a contemporary perspective.

With the conception of this Project, it is intended to obtain a functional space that structures and values ​​an entire business area that the plan envisages and that is intended to be in fact the driving force of the high potential that this Municipality has been showing posible.

It’s important to understand that planet Earth subsists thanks to a “healthy” balance between all its components in a mechanism that has been called the life cycle and that is at the origin of all ecosystems. It is urgent to ensure that the natural cycle at the origin of life is preserved.

The bioclimatic component has proved to be the basis of this work, with the building being designed in a healthy balance and with a construction that fits into a climate context promoting comfort conditions and minimising energy consumption. 

A bioclimatic building doesn’t have to involve extra expenses as it doesn’t need complicated technological devices and with these construction options we obtain a considerable reduction of CO2 emission, in the obtaining of raw material, its manufacture, transport and maintenance. Nevertheless, the fact that all the material to be replaced can be recycled or recyclable – in short the energy consumption in the construction process and the building during its lifetime is minimised.

The areas of intervention DEX focus mainly on creating environments or spaces governed by the principles of sustainability and innovation.

Our interventions seek to create systems that interrelate the countryside and humanized in constant search for a symbiosis between the parties and ensuring the creation of cohesive and harmonious spaces.

DEX conducts studies and projects within the landscape architecture and urban planning. The scope of work areas is ensured by the active participation of a multitude of professionals who respond efficiently to customer needs and ensuring the quality and performance of the services in full respect for the environment.

The landscape is subject to several transformations and has numerous features that will instill a unique character. DEX want to be a pioneer in terms of environmental and urban regeneration and a precursor to actions that ensure the continuous improvement of standards of care and quality at both the countryside and the built environment.

We serve the landscape, we serve the human being!

The Moby II project has two distinct technical-scientific objectives, the first of which is related to the development of new constituent modules for the transport of the initial Moby model. The aim was to adapt the initial model to the metrics, size, proportion and geometry suitable for transport. This adaptation leads to the redesign of all Moby modules, thus presenting Moby II with a clear innovation when compared to Moby.

The second technical-scientific objective that this project sought to resolve is related to cost control, where new materials were analysed in order to make Moby II more competitive. This research on materials, finishes, equipment and design, enables the presentation to the market of a Moby II with significant added value in terms of price, quality, design and adaptation to the needs of different regions of the world. This objective has clearly been achieved through a very significant reduction in production costs.

The intervention presents itself as an opportunity to encourage urban revitalisation, as a sign of change and a motto for the start of a wider operation.

The conception of this space as a regeneration generating pole and centre of attractiveness and connection between areas with relevant potential foresees the restructuring of this area with a unifying green structure and the creation of a prominent housing unit in the region.

The realization of a housing structure under a continuous green system will enable the structuring of the territory and the reinforcement of social and urban cohesion, as well as the implementation of notorious urban dynamics, important for the development of the city.

In this sense, this project has a scale, which in itself surpasses the domain of the intervention area, resulting from a global, differentiating and unique vision in the region.

The intervention strategy contemplates:

– Housing. It is planned to build three residential buildings, with a maximum of 12 floors, in a volumetric set of 8 and 12 and a total of approximately 334 dwellings, the design of which should be as flexible as possible and can be adapted to the socio-cultural economic situation of the market, allowing for functional versatility so as to become a reference element in the current context and evolution of the city of Luanda.

– Trade and services. The three buildings are expected to be occupied on the ground floor, in contact with the green space, and the mezzanine floor, with commerce and services, providing the whole enterprise with great dynamics, attractiveness and versatility in terms of occupation proposals. The solution includes a total of 12 spaces, all with one mezzanine floor, and diversified areas.

– Green Zone. It is proposed the creation of a surrounding area of predominant green, singular and unique, with high environmental and landscape quality and differentiation. It works as a platform that shapes the terrain. The limits of the land will have walls 60cm high and up to 2m in green fence. The use of native species is privileged. All the exterior green space to be and leisure will be the target of a more specific landscape study.

– Parking space. Below the green platform, which is the privileged belvedere overlooking the sea, the various levels of parking are distributed below and already underground to support the whole development, as well as the users of the beach and all the green space that is intended as a reference. This underground car park is subdivided in three platforms of two floors below ground each, thus covering the whole intervention area.

The solution for the “Parque Urbano do Paço de Giela” that we propose, comprises the autonomous but articulated development of 4 different structuring axes:

1 – Valorisation and integration of the Palace and adjacent buildings in the Urban Park, through the design of road and pedestrian routes and the recovery of the design of landscape arrangements and tree species that, guarantee its connection with the whole Urban Park, restoring to it the singularity and nobility once lost. Through the definition of a series of routes (paths), where the valorisation of the water theme becomes evident.

2 – Environmental Knowledge and Interpretation, called “Himalaya Park”. This park will allow, on the one hand, to make known the important work of the visionary countryman Father Himalaya, (man of science, pioneer of ecology in Portugal) and, on the other hand, to develop and promote the taste and respect for the environment in its most diverse forms. 

3 – Cultural and leisure events in the open air, will integrate the “Praça do Sol” and the ” Anfiteatro do Vento”. In this project area, activities in the areas of music, theatre, dance, the new circus and others can be developed. 

4 – Tourism and leisure, integrating the “Hotel da Giela” and the “Espaço do Garrano”, where through this lodging unit and its location it will be possible to take the best advantage of the landscape, as well as to offer a series of leisure services such as spa, swimming pool, tennis court and restaurant where it will be possible to show the best of the region’s gastronomy. On the other hand, to make known to the visitors the theme of the Garrano horse and allow the contact with the species.

From the morphology and topography of the terrain we can see the apparent (un)organisation of this territory, loaded with different architectures, different units, different times, scales, symbols and organisations.

Now a new building is requested, with new functions with new rationalities and above all with specific objectives to be fulfilled: connecting, rationalizing and phasing seem to be the watchwords for its design and to which we add identity, flexibility and the capacity to associate and transform itself, in the present and in the future. 

The new central building named presents itself as a welcoming and connecting space, an element that structures the existing building giving it a functional, formal and articulating unit with all the different adjacent units and services. It is therefore an essential link in a whole chain of activities and services that integrate the whole of what today the thought of a hospital unit is. To this extent, the building seeks to highlight this variety, presenting itself as something that adapts and transforms, a living cell open to regeneration and permanent alteration, suggesting movement and differentiation.