Date
2024

Area
Interventioned Area: 14 190 Sqm
Implantation Area: 3 499 Sqm

Team
José Martinez | João Graça | Inês Lopes | Marcelo Dantas | Cristina Vieira | Aleksandra Bos

Description
Following the assumptions of the urban study, we aimed for the full landscape integration of the new buildings, minimzing their inevitable visual impact on the scenery. This involved finding structural and material solutions that define a discreet presence, characterized by horizontality and the material qualities of basalt stone combined with concrete.

Establishing transitional spaces between interior and exterior on the south-facing facade creates an abstract composition of light and shadow, filtered by the surrounding landscape intervention. To the north, the system of ramps and walkways framed by walls, embankments, and hedges replicates, in scale and design, the topographical control actions in the construction of Faial Island's landscape. 

This landscape intervention also seeks to complete the stitching of the new built ensemble with its surroundings, drawing references from the humanization of the original landscape that are transported into the design of the new retaining walls, hedges that compartmentalize and hierarchize the levels of outdoor space between public, semi-public and private and the careful characterization of the new public spaces.