Santa Casa da Misericórdia’s Elderly Care Centre by Nuno Piedade Alexandre

29/01/2019. [Ponte de Sor] Portugal
metalocus, ANDREA GONZÁLEZ

Portuguese practice lead by Nuno Piedade Alexandre architect has completed an elderly care centre in Ponte de Sor, Portugal. The building was beginning in 2015 and was completed in 2018, is a large volume of dark color, articulated by large prisms with windows that contrasts with its surroundings of white houses.

Santa Casa da Misericórdia’s Elderly Care Centre by Nuno Piedade Alexandre. Photograph by João Morgado

Santa Casa da Misericórdia’s Elderly Care Centre by Nuno Piedade Alexandre. Photograph by João Morgado

Ground floor plan. Santa Casa da Misericórdia’s Elderly Care Centre by Nuno Piedade Alexandre.

First floor plan. Santa Casa da Misericórdia’s Elderly Care Centre by Nuno Piedade Alexandre.

Second floor plan. Santa Casa da Misericórdia’s Elderly Care Centre by Nuno Piedade Alexandre.

Roof plan. Santa Casa da Misericórdia’s Elderly Care Centre by Nuno Piedade Alexandre.

Section C. Santa Casa da Misericórdia’s Elderly Care Centre by Nuno Piedade Alexandre.

Section E. Santa Casa da Misericórdia’s Elderly Care Centre by Nuno Piedade Alexandre.

Section H. Santa Casa da Misericórdia’s Elderly Care Centre by Nuno Piedade Alexandre.

Elevations. Santa Casa da Misericórdia’s Elderly Care Centre by Nuno Piedade Alexandre.

Santa Casa da Misericórdia’s Elderly Care Centre by Nuno Piedade Alexandre. Photograph by João Morgado

The building is differentiated with its distorted volumes to meet patients' needs with maximum comfort. The project, a health care residence has been designed for elderly people, is located in Avenida Manuel Pires Filipe, it program has 10 double rooms and 4 individual rooms, all of them equipped with their own private facilities.

"In resume, the project results from a functional program, a concept of living experience and use, and the relation of the building with the surrounding urban grid."

Nuno Piedade Alexandre.

Description of project by Nuno Piedade Alexandre

With it’s beginning in 2015, this building has only been completed in 2018. It’s about a health care residence for elderly people, with 10 double rooms and 4 individual rooms, all of them equipped with their own private facilities.

The building main aim was that of nurturing the necessity of extra bedrooms on the main existing building having therefore functionally some connections and circulations been established between the two.

The proposed volume grows from the usage of the available area of the plot, and from the necessity of the connection to the existing building in order to set up the minimum space needed for the functional areas actually work. The concept bases itself on this principal and in the search for a very particular experience mainly focused on its users. The volume dematerializes itself through the projection of the rooms outwards, distorting main facade in the search for a special sculptural moment that can speak for itself and be kind of singular, also in the way that every patient should be.

The attention to the patients and its users has always been the main aim for the building, being the capture of the most area of outside landscape possible it’s biggest representation. The transformation of an interior room height from 2,7 meters to an exterior facade opening of 3,5/4,5 meters height brought inside in some way a light that was before unavailable. The geometric complexity that therefore results defines and marks the buildings image that which when introducing an expression of vertical elements had the aim of establish a relation with the surrounding tree mass and to distinguish itself in the urban landscape of the street where it stands. In resume, the project results from a functional program, a concept of living experience and use, and the relation of the building with the surrounding urban grid.