The Dr. Júlio Martins School, designed by architect Januário Godinho and built in the 1950s in the city of Chaves, follows the standard blueprint for industrial schools of the time. It is a building organised in three blocks set in a U-shape around a large central courtyard. The buildings are laid out according to the brief, taking into account their content and the respective scale relationship with the terrain. The largest 3-storey volume accommodates the classrooms, the smallest 2-storey volume houses the gymnasium, and the perpendicular volume connecting the other two contains the workshops, marked by their shed roof. The design retains the building’s characteristics and language, even when the plan is considerably altered. It includes a number of new features to upgrade its function (accesses, infrastructure), and these are fitted so as not to be noticed as an intervention, which is further underpinned by the choice of facing materials and the preservation of the scale of the rebuilt spaces, inspired by images of other buildings of the same period and the criteria found in the original drawings.
project:
school in chaves
client:
parque escolar, s.a.
location:
chaves, portugal
date:
2009 - 2013
building area:
8 640 m2
architecture:
nuno brandão costa
collaborators:
andré eduardo tavares,
filipa júlio,
joanna katherine guimarães,
luísa moura,
marta reis,
nuno castro
structural engineer:
antónio pimentel adão da fonseca
(adf consultores)
hydraulic engineer:
ana isabel vale (abprojectos)
electrical engineer:
maria da luz santiago (rs associados)
mechanical engineer:
raul bessa (get)
landscaping:
rita guedes
photographs:
arménio teixeira