Marked by a strong natural component, the Portuguese studio Visioarq has designed the MG Coudelaria Riding School and Stables set on a traditional farm in the Minho region of northern Portugal. 

Intending to frame the new building with the environment, the project seeks that the natural elements do not lose prominence and the importance they deserve, on the contrary, that they grow over time, and continue to surround and integrate the new architecture.
In the project by Visioarq, the structural elements are the protagonists of the building, and everything else is developed from them. The pinewood skeleton is the basis of the form, which allows control over natural lighting and ventilation, providing optimal comfort for users.

With a very own identity, simplicity and functionality, guide and articulate these spaces where contact with the protagonists of the equestrian world is done in a markedly sensory way.
 

Description of project by Visioarq

Nature’s exuberant presence throughout Minho was a structuring axis for the conceptual development of these stables. The project, in a traditional Minho property, is marked by a strong natural component in the region where the expression of vegetation, natural and with human intervention, is visually predominant.

In this context, Visioarq's intervention had, as its main premise, the framing of the new building with the environmental surroundings. Natural pine wood was the main material used, a natural solution not only for the outer and inner coverings, but also for the structure of the buildings to be created.

The structural elements are clearly the building’s protagonists, and everything else develops from them. The skeleton is the base of the form and everything else takes on a secondary reading. With this hierarchy, it is somehow intended that the natural elements do not lose the protagonism and importance they deserve, growing over time, involving and integrating more and more the proposed building. The use of wood on the façade and spans, with more or fewer openings, also allowed, in functional terms, an important control over the natural lighting and ventilation, providing the desired comfort to this space.

Options regarding details have not been forgotten, with all the hardware and accessories to be designed originally for these riding arenas, materializing the simplicity and desired functionality for a space with its very distinctive identity, where contact with the protagonists of the equestrian world is made in a markedly sensory way.

To dilute as much as possible each built structure’s weight in the surroundings, two distinct buildings were created in functional terms that, although physically and visually separated, are functionally very close. The Stables on the one hand, and the Covered Riding Arena on the other, are both complemented by an Electric Guide and an Outdoor Riding Arena. This fragmentation solution was intended for each unit to be discovered little by little and at different times, as the property is covered, enhancing the element of surprise with the creation of several distinct moments.

These two main buildings are also complemented by a Mares Paddock, a smaller structure supported by a round pen, responding in an integrated way to the requested functional program.

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Architects
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Design team
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Nuno Poiarez, Pedro Afonso, Vicente Gouveia.
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Collaborators
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Landscape design.- VISIOARQ Arquitectos.
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Client
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Builder
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Area
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1,150 sqm.
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Dates
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2019.
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Location
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Vila Nova de Famalicão, Portugal.
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Photography
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Maria João Gala.
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Visioarq is a studio founded in 1998 by Nuno Bordalo PoiarezPedro Afonso, and Vicente Gouveia. The studio follows a path that reflects their vision of a distinctive architecture: an original conceptual quality that skillfully balances aesthetics and function.
 
Relying on technology, innovation, integration and sustainability, Visioarq’s architecture challenges the logic of materials through a language of precision and detail, which is also reflected in its organisational attitude, design and the type of projects it develops.
 
Based in Portugal, Visioarq operates globally by means of local teams and has a respectable portfolio in various sectors, especially in the high-end Residential, Tourism and Health segments, in Europe, Africa, and Asia.
 
Qualified to meet all architectural challenges, the company also boasts a wide range of competencies – Architecture, Interior Design, Urban Design, and Design – combined in a mix that perfectly balances the impossible and whose merit has already been awarded many prizes and has been published in works of reference.
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Published on: January 6, 2022
Cite: "A surprising sensorial approach to nature and wood. MG Coudelaria by Visioarq" METALOCUS. Accessed
<http://www.metalocus.es/en/news/a-surprising-sensorial-approach-nature-and-wood-mg-coudelaria-visioarq> ISSN 1139-6415
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