The project for the Industry Memory Center (CMI) in São João da Madeira presents itself as a new concept that transforms the way Industrial Tourism is understood and presented and how the existing architectural heritage is valued, without any ruptures or contradictions. The configuration of the plot and the pre-existing buildings set the guidelines for the development of the project: a careful and punctual intervention is proposed, mainly in terms of restoration and rehabilitation, highlighting the historical value of the Quinta do Rei da Farinha Palace building. The intervention aims to preserve as much as possible of the building’s architectural qualities, having carried out a rigorous and exhaustive survey of the physical and morphological characteristics of the existing building, seeking to analyze and act upon them.

The proposed new construction adheres to the existing building, complementing it, in an act of valorization of the pre-existence without ever failing to represent the mark of contemporary architecture and the transformative nature of the intervention. In addition to the functional and aesthetic benefits, this approach also makes it possible to carry out an unobtrusive intervention in the Palacete, thus elevating it to the status of an integral part of the exhibition itself: the Palacete is also, in itself, a museum piece, an exhibition element and a historical testimony to the city itself.

It is an unusual structure: something in the middle of a new urban park and  enormous broadsides with a world of imaginative objects.

Between land-art and architectural design, we propose a sensual space, new spatial experiences for the emotional fields. This crystal landmark associates crystal clear sound as the motive for the design and as the structural and image base for the creation of the form. The mother earth is the theme, the essential base of creation. The rupture, the birth of a form that comes from within, as it happens with music.

The strategy of the Crystal Park is an idea of uncovering the land with buildings and volumes. We want to fuse construction and nature into one mass! In a way, it will give men the desire to return back to the earth, and essence within nature’s geometry. The pure geometry of nature coincides with a firm structural base for architecture and construction.

The structure is based on fractals and “simple mathematical systems” studied by the CNLL team and the Mathematical Research Group of Oporto University, and is derived from the molecular structure of crystal quartz. The crystal quartz can vibrate and oscilate of a regular form and have an internal molecular structure in spiral. The quartz goblets have only sonorous properties, they produce a sinusoidal wave of pure sound that expands up to one kilometre of distance and that it can take some minutes to extinguish itself.

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.

A zone for events is proposed, through the construction of a new building, to be located in the central area of the complex, which should contain the necessary functions for the spaces for events, meetings and actions related to the cultural and social dynamisation of the estate. This new building, with a contemporary character, seeks its inspiration in a sheet of paper that symbolically covers the whole building and characterizes it.

The two remaining areas, corresponding to the wine production and administrative area, which, although not developed in this competition, find space for expansion and future developments.

The programmatic distribution of the new building seeks to maximise the usefulness of each space. It is suggested the creation of: a meeting area; a kitchen area, containing all the spaces necessary for the proper functioning in case of events; a lounge area, to house the most diverse occasions and activities; and also sanitary facilities for access from the outside, thus solving this problem in cases of outdoor events. In parallel, this distribution, in a longitudinal and sequential direction, allows an easy articulation of the service spaces (kitchen and outdoor I.S.) when there is a need for outdoor events.

Based on the local logic of opposition and contrasts, the facade of the adjacent building facing Rua da Ribeira Nova is restored, which will now receive the spaces for coffee/restaurant, multipurpose room and distribution atrium.

Over this “base”, with a heavy and massive character with a “filled” Past, a new volume, made of glass, light and mirrored, of immaterial character, reflects Lisbon, the Present and the Future and assumes the ideal of oppositions present in the project. This volume, which will welcome the formation rooms, is a “body”, clear, fluid and crystalline, that “sometimes it is seen, sometimes it evaporates”, and also embodies a reference to the water element that is at the origin of the collective memory of that place and the Baths of São Paulo.

In the coverage of this volume, a wide living space is projected, a belvedere facing the Dom Luís Garden and the Tejo River, exploring the privileged views of this place and, in a way, opening the Order of Architects to the public, in a democratic and clear way, enabling the enjoyment of this space to the passer-by, the tourist, the citizen.

Finally, “floating” over the “body of glass”, almost in unbalance, a new volume is presented, called the “Black Box”. This element allows, urbanly, to finish the drawer and to give it the appropriate scale and proportion. However, it is assumed as an essential part of the solution: it is an open and unfinished space, a “Black Box”, a unique space, destined for the ever new and disruptive use by OA member architects, either for the realization of installations, art exhibits, or even for the promotion of architectural and urbanistic actions to the visitors of the panoramic terrace.

The LOOP Housing Complex is a project whose spaces are transformed into a concept, a new way of being and living, where the city is connected to the landscape, the house joins the vineyards, the residents to the visitors, where the interior expands to the outside, considering that the living is not only restricted to the private space of the house but also extends to collective life.

Regardless of the needs of occupation of this “LOOP” of housing and of the inner courtyard, which will be further specified, the intervention is understood as a whole, where the public and leisure space is the protagonist that, in spite of this, does not cease to be in agreement with the other parts. The galleries, besides being elements of circulation and access to the dwellings, running through the building and connecting all levels, are presented as one of the keys to the intervention, complementing the circulation and access spaces with places of passage, gardens and paths with visual amplitude and spatial attractiveness to create spaces for the conviviality of the residents.

The Centro de Interpretação Ambiental do Rio Vez (Environmental Interpretive Centre of the Vez River) bears witness to a strategic vision for the sustainable development of the Arcos de Valdevez Municipality to add value to the town’s natural resources and heritage. This is an iconic building, a clear investment by the municipality in ecological and innovative environmental tourism, with scientific backing. In this sense it tries to create an identity and become a driving force for various companies, visits and research, thus connecting the municipality to different international research centres.

More than a building, this project seeks to be a public meeting space, of reference to the population and its visitors, and as such to reflect a respect for nature. Therefore, the project is articulated with the river and maintains a relationship of proximity and reciprocity with it. It combines the idea of innovation and the idea of interaction with the landscape; technology in dialogue with nature in a process of mutual respect for history, traditions and the present that the architecture attempts to embody.

The project is set in a place where the river gets close to the urban agglomeration. The river is included in the design of an outdoor plaza at the end of the town’s main avenue, which becomes a unique and welcoming place to meet and contemplate the surroundings, the river, its people and inimitable landscape. This is the true heritage that this project wants to protect and share. 

We were thinking of an open space of contrasts, in a hybrid and perhaps contradictory process, where theatre, cinema, conferences, readings, exhibitions and installations could be some of the components of a more universal and heterogeneous cultural language which we would like to view as the concept for the project behind the work, in spite of… the politics, the crises, the good and the bad will or in other words the constraints that some projects, and this one in particular, go through.

So we said: “Already very constrained by a tight budget combined with an ever present idea of restoring and preserving some memory imposed by this auditorium, the solution required some inventiveness from the outset. The project soon sought to convey an idea of culture, meeting and experimentation, and consequently, tried to resolve a number of needs that ensured an improvement of spatial and technical conditions. This would encourage the accommodation and creation of various modes of expression, mirroring the range of values of communication and knowing that modern life has produced.” 

Today, everything seems to be closer to the initial idea. Porto built a Theatre. Its own. 

The whole of the building is hybridly broken, decontextualized between stagnant references and drawings from other times that have lost their justification and only remain as if forgotten. 

The intervention sought to correct certain urban anomalies, to unite rather than to separate, to realise the city giving it continuity. In this sense, we sought to create a widely public space: the square with various equipments, and with free space for the meeting of people and the two meshes (or parts of the city) that are to be rehabilitated. 

The FACE (Art and Culture Forum of Espinho) is a building that seeks to integrate a complexity of demands given the diversity of functions that the programme establishes. Part of a pre-existing building, once one of the most important Portuguese canning factories that we try to maintain and recover with an intervention close to the restoration and it is destined to a municipal museum that is the link for the different requested training spaces. 

The project respects the traditional typology, form and construction process. A building for several schools: one for higher education, a multimedia school, a school for animation cinema and, finally, an exhibition gallery and auditorium space that is intended to be shared and open to the community.