VODAFONE BUILDING, BARBOSA & GUIMARÃES
PAULA SANTOS, HOUSE IN OVAR
REISER + UMEMOTO, 0-14 TOWER
SOUZA OLIVEIRA, LISBON STONE BLOCK
WOODS BAGOT, QATAR SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY PARK
SSH, URC KIPCKO TOWER
ARX, CODFISH AQUARIUM / MARITIME MUSEUM OF ÍLHAVO
ARCHJS, JASSIM AL SHEHAB ARCHITECTS, FIGS RESTAURANTS
ARCHJS, JASSIM AL SHEHAB ARCHITECTS, POLISH NAIL SPA
AGI ARCHITECTS, ALI MOHAMMED T. AL-GHANIM CLINIC
RICHARD SERRA, EAST-WEST/ WEST-EAST
ÁLVARO SIZA, SANTO TIRSO FIRE STATION
ARCADE
ARCADE
LUÍS REBELO DE ANDRADE & DIOGO AGUIAR, PEDRAS SALGADAS RESORT
MASSIVE ORDER, STREET HOUSE
ZAHA HADID, SHEIKH ZAYED BRIDGE
SHANGHAI
APPLE SHANGHAI STORE
SOM, SKIDMORE, OWINGS & MERRILL LLP, CAYAN TOWER
VENICE
Cheia de Graça Chapel is inserted in the Imaculada Chapel, in Braga.
The project focused on the restoration of the Imaculada Chapel and the high-choir, transforming it into a reserved space for the inhabitants of de Seminary – the Cheia de Graça Chapel. The total ceiling height of the intervening space and the outer walls of the room were taken advantage of, leaving the existing “skin” of stone that manifests around the chapels in a sculptural away
The Chapel erected in wood, from the support structure to the planes conferring the space composed of several pieces of wood, fitted together, creating a balanced structure that manifests as a forest at the entrance of the sacred space. Its canopy creates a space dedicated to the inhabitants of the Seminary and its trunks a filter between the profane space and the sacred space, allowing the visitor to surrender to the space, surrender to the dimension of senses.
A concrete vault surrounds the chapels, imposing itself simple, light and suspended in space, defying its own materiallism. The openings in the dome that extend through its concrete walls create moments of openness, filtering the sunlight and granting a «quiet» accuracy and greater dignity to the structural elements of the roof. The vault creates, along with the remaining elements, a space of absolute “restless silence” remitting to introspection.
This concrete dome has a thickness of 12cm and it is supported by a steel structure almost imperceptible to the observer, allowing it to appear suspended.
The space is also endowed with an acoustic superior quality, its composition of acoustic sandwich panel on the roof and the elongated form of the dome allow for better performance. This brings another level of spatial interpretation, allowing space to be manifested by sound, creating a dialogue between space and the user. Because of this vault, Cheia de Graça Chapel assumes a circular form favoring the meeting, privacy and introspection to the inhabitants of the Seminary.
In the background, a marble slit rises, backlit naturally, transporting the viewer to another physical and spiritual dimension.
Thus, by its composition and scale was given to this space a level of superior intelligibility and a spiritual dimension, allowing the dialogue between space, the individual and the divine.
Text by Cerejeira Fontes Architects
Nelson Garrido will be present in 15th International Architecture Exhibition “La Biennale di Venezia” with his own project “Home Less” about Time – Space – Existence, organised by the GlobalArtAffairs Foundation, to take place from 28 May to 27 November 2016.
“Home Less” is a project that explores spaces that were left abandoned through time, questioning their existence.
I’ve been photographing spaces like that because they were abandoned or unfinished, make us look at them and question their existence or even their right to occupy a space in the city. Walking on these ruins I felt like If they were unreal, as if time had stopped. I often saw animals, like hares, walking around. Wild plants using windows to invade the interiors, like children when they climb to enter
Usually I refer that this project started about 25 years ago. There was a time when I travelled a lot to a little village in the interior of Portugal. I always passed by a place where an abandoned house kept standing on the top of a small hill meters above the
street. This unexpected scenario always intrigued me and I always wanted to photograph it, but I never found the proper way until 4 years ago. This project goes beyond the revelation of ruins; it intends to provide an experience of places.
These constructions – which could be thousands of others – are life projects, sometimes unfinished, abandoned, dark places in a desolated territory, that embraces them as wounds, and that are rotting and transforming the cities. With the beginning of the real estate crises, construction of new houses almost stopped and a lot of constructions were left unfinished. Other, which were actually completed, were never occupied or sold.
In these buildings, there’s a light that reminds us the difference between what reality is and what it should be, and that is no more than a metaphor of the lives interrupted.
The human element is present in the simulacrum, in the light that is life and, at the same time, paradoxically, that inhabits the unoccupied.
Can this light represent the existence?
Is this a game between reality and simulation?
Available SOON!