Aires Mateus and Associates

Building In Lagoa das Furnas

Building In Lagoa das Furnas
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Building In Lagoa das Furnas
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

BUILDING IN LAGOA DAS FURNAS

Aires Mateus

ARCHITECTS
Aires Mateus

AREA
1130 m²

YEAR
2010

LOCATION
Povoação, Portugal

CATEGORY
Pavilion

RESUME

The project intends to evoke the architectural landscape of the Azores, drawing upon the form and material that embed the collective memory of this island and archipelago, that have become, with time, a second nature of this place.

Building In Lagoa das Furnas
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Building In Lagoa das Furnas
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

Therefore the buildings are archetypal volumes, simple and compact, clad with the local basaltic stone.

THE FURNAS MONITORING AND INVESTIGATION CENTRE

This building asserts itself as the largest of the group to build around the lagoon.

Being the most exceptional building, the Furnas Monitoring and Investigation Centre draws on an intermediate space between exterior and interior – the courtyard.

Building In Lagoa das Furnas
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Building In Lagoa das Furnas
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Building In Lagoa das Furnas
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

This element results from a subtraction to the volume, cutting it from within the central zone (the vertex of the four roof fields) to the exterior limit of a facade thus enabling access to the interior.

This internal courtyard also becomes the point where the main internal compartments are revealed.

These spaces, truncated by the subtraction that defines the courtyard maintain all relations between interior/exterior.

Building In Lagoa das Furnas
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Building In Lagoa das Furnas
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Building In Lagoa das Furnas
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

The building was therefore conceived as a sculpture, as a block of raw matter that is intentionally cut into to capture light and the lagoon itself.

The building for temporary accommodation is a compact volume of four fields compartmentalised into four units.

Building In Lagoa das Furnas
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Building In Lagoa das Furnas
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

ACCOMMODATION FOR RESEARCHERS

The building is cut in each of the four facades by a wooden threshold that enables the penetration of light and access to each of the accommodation units.

There is an established hierarchy of heights between the four spaces related to the solar orientation of each unit. The exterior wall of the building is structural where the necessary infrastructures and services run as oppose to the light interior timber walls.

Building In Lagoa das Furnas
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG


Building In Lagoa das Furnas
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Building In Lagoa das Furnas
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Building In Lagoa das Furnas
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Building In Lagoa das Furnas
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Building In Lagoa das Furnas
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Building In Lagoa das Furnas
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Building In Lagoa das Furnas
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Building In Lagoa das Furnas
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Building In Lagoa das Furnas
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Building In Lagoa das Furnas
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Building In Lagoa das Furnas
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Building In Lagoa das Furnas
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Building In Lagoa das Furnas
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Building In Lagoa das Furnas
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Building In Lagoa das Furnas
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Building In Lagoa das Furnas
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Building In Lagoa das Furnas
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Building In Lagoa das Furnas
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Building In Lagoa das Furnas
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Building In Lagoa das Furnas
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG


Building In Lagoa das Furnas
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Building In Lagoa das Furnas
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Building In Lagoa das Furnas
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Building In Lagoa das Furnas
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Building In Lagoa das Furnas
Plan
Building In Lagoa das Furnas
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Building In Lagoa das Furnas
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Aires Mateus and Associates
T +351 213 815650
Aires Mateus and Associates
R. Cecílio de Sousa 52, 1200-102 Lisboa, Portugal