The extension to the Viriato factory facilities is developed like a new façade that reinvents the image of the whole industrial complex, incorporating new functions within a compact, rational footprint: Open-space working areas on the first floor and meeting rooms on the second floor; on the ground floor, the accesses and a public reception area. The building has its back parallel to the existing building, creating a strong tension for its physical proximity, and the building is raised above the ground to allow for a covered parking area, and places the main façade parallel to the road, generating a triangular shape for the cantilevered volume. Its composition is based on a classical criterion, providing a portico with a base corresponding to the two slab supports in exposed concrete, a shaft corresponding to the main beam, bridging the free 25m span, and a capital, corresponding to the horizontal opening that provides light to the offices, surmounted by a metal beam, the capping cornice for the whole composition. The symmetry of this principle is distorted by the triangular movement of the volume and the opening of a large window at the end, which lightens the building cantilever. The main façade thus gains considerable prominence as if it were an added layer to the original volume.
project:
"móveis viriato" administrative building and show-room
(1st prize, private competition)
secil award 2008
client:
móveis viriato, s.a.
location:
terronhas industrial area,
recarei, rebordosa, paredes, portugal
date:
2005 - 2007
building area:
775 m2
architecture:
nuno brandão costa
collaborators:
marta reis,
inês pimentel
structural engineer:
(gesbau, engenharia & gestão, lda.),
marta gameiro (gravidade, engenheiros, lda.)
hydraulic engineer:
(gesbau, engenharia & gestão, lda.)
electrical engineer:
maria da luz santiago
(rs & associados)
mechanical engineer:
raul bessa (get)
lettering design:
miguel palmeiro
photographs:
arménio teixeira