PUBLIC BUILDINGS

CREATIVITY SQUARE IN ÓBIDOS

Óbidos . 2018

Design year
2018
Construction year
2021 - 2022
Location
Óbidos, Portugal
Team
Jorge Sousa Santos, Marcos Barradas, Filipe Fernandes
Engineering
ASL, António Lessa, Ricardo Dória Duarte
Client
Câmara Municipal de Óbidos

Gallery

About the project

An urban regeneration project integrated within a set of three interventions promoted by the Municipality of Óbidos, aimed at territorial requalification through anchor buildings and new programmes of collective use: the Praça da Criatividade, in the Arrifes area adjoining the walls of Óbidos; and the community centre and auditorium in A-da-Gorda; and the co-work and cultural centre in Gaeiras.

The prominence of the intervention site and the necessary care in articulating the project with the walls of Óbidos and the Aqueduto da Usseira were fundamental conditions in the definition of the proposal, acting as decisive physical and historical references for its placement and configuration.

The intervention is structured through the construction of two buildings and an urban system that connects two distinct topographic levels, integrating stairs, lift, amphitheatre and continuous public routes.

The building known as Creative Box is conceived as a multifunctional programme intended to operate as a food court, opening onto the square along its southern and western edges. Its roof is defined by a metal superstructure composed of a system of triangulated beams, allowing for a main span of 21 metres and cantilevers of 8 metres to the north and south.

The support building, known as Armazém das Ideias, accommodates an exhibition gallery and a restaurant. Its formal configuration articulates with the surrounding urban infrastructures — the amphitheatre, stairs and lift — creating a continuous sequence of movement in which interior and exterior merge. The rhythm of the pillars that define the loggias constitutes a direct reference to the aqueduct and operates as a device for articulating access routes between public space and the building.

The urban intervention is completed by a large exterior amphitheatre, which makes use of the eight-metre cantilever formed by the southern façade of the Creative Box. This amphitheatre functions as a spatial and visual device, orienting the public space towards the Óbidos floodplain to the south and the rear elevation of the walled town to the west.