Matos Gameiro Arquitectos

Mortuary Houses In Alhandra

Mortuary Houses In Alhandra
© Fernando Guerra I FG+SG

MORTUARY HOUSES IN ALHANDRA

Matos Gameiro Arquitectos

HYDRAULICS
Pedro Romano

STRUCTURAL ENGINEERING
Paulo Cardoso

ELECTRICITY AND COMMUNICATIONS
António Trindade

COLLABORATORS
Gonçalo Pinheiro, José Maria Cumbre

GENERAL CONTRACTOR
J. Lima Gomes Lda.

ARCHITECTS IN CHARGE
Pedro Matos Gameiro, João Maria Trindade e Carlos Crespo

CATEGORY
Religious Architecture, Burial

LOCATION
Alhandra, Portugal

YEAR
2008

Mortuary Houses In Alhandra
© Fernando Guerra I FG+SG
Mortuary Houses In Alhandra
© Fernando Guerra I FG+SG

Text description provided by architect.

In the most remarkable place between Lisboa and Vila Franca de Xira, rises the promontory of Alhandra, hallowed by a Church and a cemetery.

Mortuary Houses In Alhandra
© Fernando Guerra I FG+SG
Mortuary Houses In Alhandra
© Fernando Guerra I FG+SG

This place, a terrace over an increasingly larger Tejo river, dominates the surroundings. In front of the Church we can find a irregularally shaped square.

The mortuary houses’ design seeks to redefine the square, reenforcing its meanings, providing it with intencional and ceremonial purpose.

Mortuary Houses In Alhandra
© Fernando Guerra I FG+SG
Mortuary Houses In Alhandra
© Fernando Guerra I FG+SG

From the game of death we can recall the confined paths between the graves and the perennial and volumetric characteristics of it substance.

The quarries, in its essence, allow us to imagine this building as an enormous furrowed stone block, shaped like it was extracted from the ground, showing it’s scars and wounds, breaks and folds used to organize the lighting, to define benches, or to let the light in the chambers.

Mortuary Houses In Alhandra
© Fernando Guerra I FG+SG
Mortuary Houses In Alhandra
© Fernando Guerra I FG+SG
Mortuary Houses In Alhandra
© Fernando Guerra I FG+SG

We organize the space in each chamber, through a wooden continuous element that becomes the pavement, a longitudinal bench and the door.

The gates are an exact copy of the cemetery gate, to insure security and to connect the two moments.


Mortuary Houses In Alhandra
Location and Schematic Section
Mortuary Houses In Alhandra
Site Plan
Mortuary Houses In Alhandra
East Elevation & Sections

Matos Gameiro Arquitectos
T +351 218 124761
Matos Gameiro Arquitectos
R. Antero de Figueiredo 2, 1700-041 Lisboa, Portugal