Cultural House of Pinhel

Cultural House of Pinhel
© José Campos

Cultural House of Pinhel

Depa Architects

ARCHITECTS
Depa

CONSULTANTS
Ncrep, Luís Oliveira, Edgar Brito

MUSEOLOGY
Glorybox

PHOTOGRAPHS
Jose Campos

AREA
1040 M²

YEAR
2014

LOCATION
Pinhel, Portugal

CATEGORY
Museum

Text description provided by architect.

The creation of Pinhel's Cultural House allowed the rehabilitation of the city's old Bishop's Palace, a building of the eighteenth century, that had undergone countless changes during the last decades to accommodate several different programs, such as Military and Police Headquarters, School and Student Residence.

Cultural House of Pinhel
© José Campos
Cultural House of Pinhel
© José Campos

The project proposal reinterprets the evolutionary history of the building and attempts to constitute another important step in its long history.

Without any prejudice or fear, the proposal balances between the assurance of permanence of the original matrix of the building and the injection of a new dignity in its disfigured and misfited interior layouts.

Cultural House of Pinhel
© José Campos
Cultural House of Pinhel
© José Campos
Cultural House of Pinhel
© José Campos

Thus, and still considering the need for a low budget intervention and a short period for the construction work, the project contained two phases.

The first - named subtraction - extracted all superfluous elements, leaving only those which were useful to the spaces were intended to create.

Simultaneously, all scars and textures of the subtraction were left untouchable.

Cultural House of Pinhel
© José Campos
Cultural House of Pinhel
© José Campos

Exploring and highlighting the idea of palimpsest that represents the interior of the building itself, those textural surfaces were unified through color, thus ensuring dignity and comfort to accommodate the new programmatic features.

With this "cleansing", a second intervention phase started – named addition - where new materials were introduced and finishings were executed, restoring the original nobility of the building.

Cultural House of Pinhel
© José Campos


Cultural House of Pinhel
© José Campos
Cultural House of Pinhel
© José Campos


Cultural House of Pinhel
© José Campos
Cultural House of Pinhel
© José Campos
Cultural House of Pinhel
© José Campos
Cultural House of Pinhel
© José Campos
Cultural House of Pinhel
© José Campos
Cultural House of Pinhel
© José Campos


Cultural House of Pinhel
Floor Plan
Cultural House of Pinhel
Floor Plan


Cultural House of Pinhel
Section
Cultural House of Pinhel
Detail