Platform of Arts and Creativity by Pitágoras

Fotografía de José Campos.

The program provided a clear concept and defined the objectives intended to achieve with this infrastructure, listing a series of skills and spaces that constitute the functional program for both the new and the existing buildings, as well as the adjacent plots of land. For this purpose three major program areas were defined:

-Art Center, which houses a permanent collection, in this case, the Collection of José Guimarães, a temporary exhibition area, a multipurpose space for additional activities, performances, and shows, in addition to a series of complementary services.
-Creative Labs (business support offices) for the reception and installation of activities related to creative industries, allowing the development of business projects.
-Workshops to Support Emerging Creativity, consisting of workspaces and creative vocation for young creators in various areas, hoping to develop projects on a temporary basis.

Finally, the intent is to recover the existing building on the eastern side, trying to promote the installation of additional commercial activities that could enhance the creation of a space with a broad scope in regard to multidisciplinary cultural activities.

Fotografía de José Campos.

The whole structure, according to the program would complement the existing equipment in the city, as well as those which are under development within the European Capital of Culture.

When interpreting the program, we aimed to allow for the possibility of each one of its components to function independently and simultaneously, creating access to each of the various services and support areas, as well as to the outdoor square and garden.

We opted for a methodology of intervention that involves the rehabilitation of the existing building to the east, keeping the materials and textures, but redoing the entire inside at level 0. For the building at the north, and for reasons previously mentioned, the façade towards the Avenue, which characterizes the building, is renovated, but its interior and façade facing the square were objects of an almost complete demolition and redesign. Although it is intended to maintain the scale and the existing formal relations, we propose a new solution for the building that promotes a strong relationship with the square and emphasizes the relationship of this structure with outer space.

The new building takes a radically different language, by contrast with its surroundings, both from the standpoint of their language and image, discrete, repetitive, as well as by the succession of volumes, full and empty, marked by the juxtaposition of contrasting surfaces. The coatings, a grid of metal profiles in brass and glass surfaces chromatised on ventilated façades, accentuate a range of textures that is intended to display, more dense and opaque in the majority of faces in the case of the metal structure, and transparent when it covertly comes to glass surfaces that intentionally conceal the few openings that the building comprises.

This series of volumes and dissonant elements, which result from the decomposition of the initial volume, originated from the need to create a variety of different spaces in the exhibition area, creating a tension evident in the volume of the building and the relationship with the space of the square, making it the main feature of its design.

Fotografía de João Morgado.

For the square, we formulated a proposal with a drawing significantly more aseptic and a coating with large concrete slabs, as a counterpart to the surrounding buildings, characterized as a large reception and a multifunctional meeting area, translated into a physical platform, summing its vocation as public space by nature.

It will be an area purposely underfitted, with the preservation of the large trees to the east, by introducing some elements of vegetation along the north building but leaving most of the free space allowing for the development of numerous spontaneous or organized activities, in the scope of the Platform or not. The urban furniture used in the square comprises moveable elements, allowing for a more versatile use.