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.

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.

Starting from the premise of making the most of the existing buildings, with a controlled investment, the objective of this intervention is to create commercial and service spaces that primarily serve the regular users of the main Metro lines, as well as the new pedestrian crossing that will allow, for the first time, a qualified access to the Industrial Area of Ramalde, Porto.

On a regular terrain, with longitudinal occupation, it was opted for an intervention contained in the existing buildings, focusing on the burden of intervention in the outer area, creating a space for sharing, inviting occupation and experience, thus reinventing the memory of the space itself. As a result of the need for union between the Metro station and the Industrial Area of Porto, it was decided to create a covered access that would cross the entire lot.

The initial design proposal for his manufacturer of faucets (CIFIAL) began with the structural conception of neutrality and constructive efficiency. This became a mode of operation for the entire project. The single volume tries to integrate all the needs and demands of the production areas and social areas, optimising the accesses and minimizing the distribution circuits.

Situated in a partially completed industrial estate, it didn’t seem necessary to establish references to the context, nor to the prefabricated units still existing on the site. They were not a factor capable of inspiring any kind of architectural or referential starting point. There is no evident relationship between the interior and exterior of the project, and this separation superimposes the autonomy of the place.

The building works like a compact, single volume, continuous and never ending, without place yet sensitive to the events that occur at the accesses, the loading-bays, the entrances, the exits, and conscious and almost weary of the expressive machines and communication links. Without “creative” drawing architecture is created, where its identity denies anonymity and results from a direct and permanent confrontation between content and contender. In response to this confrontation, the volume expresses itself as continuous, while the machines, the infrastructures, the vacuum cleaners, the technical places, become symbolic in theirs permanence. Therefore the place becomes specific to the whole program thar justifies its design.

The entrance is set in a corner of the volume, almost breaking its formal unit, but emphasizing its location in a volume without references. The accesses and layout of interior space are organized according to the production method. Next to the main entrance, there are two service entrances and discharges and one transportation hanger. Inside, the building is divided along a longitudinal axis, separating the production and administrative zones. The latter is organised into three different blocks: reception, administration, and personnel. The corridor that joins them actually unites them. The structure is a steel portal frame, supporting the roof and outer corrugated metallic cladding; the administrative zones inside are constructed from reinforced concrete with brick cladding.