Architects: Matos Gameiro ArquitectosLocation: Alhandra, Portugal
Architects In Charge: Pedro
Matos Gameiro, João Maria Trindade, Carlos Crespo
Structural Engineering: Paulo
Cardoso
Project Year: 2008
From thearchitect. In
the most remarkable place between Lisboa and Vila Franca de Xira, rises the
promontory of Alhandra, hallowed by a Church and a cemetery. This place, a
terrace over an increasingly larger Tejo river, dominates the surroundings. In
front of the Church we can find a irregularally shaped square. The mortuary
houses’ design seeks to redefine the square, reenforcing its meanings,
providing it with intencional and ceremonial purpose. From the game of death we
can recall the confined paths between the graves and the perennial and
volumetric characteristics of it substance. The quarries, in its essence, allow
us to imagine this building as an enormous furrowed stone block, shaped like it
was extracted from the ground, showing it’s scars and wounds, breaks and folds
used to organize the lighting, to define benches, or to let the light in the
chambers. We organize the space in each chamber, through a wooden continuous
element that becomes the pavement, a longitudinal bench and the door. The gates
are an exact copy of the cemetery gate, to insure security and to connect the
two moments.
