SITE LANDMARK
This is a projet proposal for an international competition to develop ideas for the design of a contemporary Site Landmark located on a site promontory in Sagres, Algarve, Portugal.
The formal concept is a 9 by 9 meters square, that divides in three parts to form the principal pavilion welcoming the elements of the program. Then, those three forms derived from the square are duplicated and spread on the site to create the observation pavilions.
Thinking like resting and looking out points, they are markers in the landscape and have a dialogue with the local patrimony, with the earth, the sea and the sky. Concerning the materiality, all the pavilions have a concrete base, which engages the wooden structure and that anchored the project in the earth.
This concrete base deploys and thickens creating some seats in the thickness of the facade, or some furnitures inside. The walls and the roof are in carbonized wood, chosen for is resistance in time, is elegance and is lightness. The continuity of the material between walls and roof assert the massive side of the edifice and underline his geometry.
The multi-purpose space of the principal pavilion composes in two parts that, when they are opened, provide a generous space between the inside and the outside. The third part of the square hosts the restroom. The outside spaces, serving of the circulation between the carbonized wood blocks, create visual corridors through the observation pavilions and continue to guide the visitors. We have whished preserve the existent paths because of their sinuous forms, evoking some kinds of veins, irrigating the territory.
Some new paths are also creating to guide the users until the three observation pavilions. Those pavilions, also in carbonized wood and concrete, are resting spaces and places to contemplate the surrounding patrimony. Using framing and different types of openings, each pavilion aims to highlight a particular element in the site (the fortresses, the lighthouse, the sea).
A work with the signage is creating to inform the visitors of the story of Sagres.