Bloco Carnide
This housing programme was developed by a cooperative for a site located in the historical district of Carnide, on the administrative boundary of Lisbon. Along with the vacant site, the row of historical houses that remains from what was formerly Vila Rosa, was also renovated as part of this residential cooperative. Situated in a small historical centre, the plot confines with the backyards and annexes of the old nucleus of Carnide, listed in the Portuguese heritage institute.
The ensemble comprises the new block with 24 apartments, the renovation of the old houses of the Pregoeiro Passageway, and a small shop to be rented for local commerce. The surroundings are a mix of different periods and the corresponding urban politics; from the 18th-century fabric of small palaces and farming hamlets to the fierce 1970s suburban expansion that followed. The new building, given its location and volume, is devised as a protective shield for the historical nucleus against its dense and disqualified surroundings. The conceived L-shaped configuration guarantees a tolerant urban arrangement, both in its relation with historical surrounding and the resulting courtyard, where public space is not only granted an agreeable scale but also a mediating role in its relation with the interstitial spaces of the old and the new.
The concept of the new block is based on the idea of monolithism and repetition. The monumentality that emanates from the compositional system of the façades suggests the representational transposition of the load and bearing running across the building with its mineral skeleton resting on a heavy stereotomic plinth.
Thus, far from a literal representation of structure, the aim is to create a tactile and visual representation capable of generating a solid and stable urban type-form. This configuration evidently suggests a remission to heavyweight tectonics in the sense that the fragile tympanums of the modules —conceived as aluminium -porte-fenêtre-, steel handrails and wood panelling shutters - are visually supported by a powerful skeleton of precast concrete elements. Meanwhile, a phenomenon of randomness springs from the different positions in which prospective users will leave the shutters, one that is also indicative of the unrestrained and physical presence of dwelling.
