Building In Lagoa das Furnas / Aires Mateus

Building In Lagoa das Furnas / Aires Mateus - ForestBuilding In Lagoa das Furnas / Aires Mateus - Waterfront, GardenBuilding In Lagoa das Furnas / Aires Mateus - Facade, Windows, BeamBuilding In Lagoa das Furnas / Aires Mateus - ForestBuilding In Lagoa das Furnas / Aires Mateus - More Images+ 35

Povoação, Portugal
  • Architects: Aires Mateus
  • Area Area of this architecture project Area:  1130
  • Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2010

Text description provided by the architects. 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. Therefore the buildings are archetypal volumes, simple and compact, clad with the local basaltic stone.

Building In Lagoa das Furnas / Aires Mateus - Facade, Windows, Beam
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

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. 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.

Building In Lagoa das Furnas / Aires Mateus - Beam
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

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. 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.

Building In Lagoa das Furnas / Aires Mateus - Image 19 of 40
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

Accommodation for researchers

The building for temporary accommodation is a compact volume of four fields compartmentalised into four units. 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 / Aires Mateus - Forest
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG

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Project location

Address:Lagoa das Furnas, Portugal

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Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.
About this office
Cite: "Building In Lagoa das Furnas / Aires Mateus" 21 Mar 2011. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/119676/building-in-lagoa-das-furnas-aires-mateus> ISSN 0719-8884

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