16.8.2022

Almada Housing – PLOT A – Honourable Mention

Located on the south bank of the Tagus River, Almada is a city with a privileged geographical position, taking into account the relationship it establishes with the territory and the surrounding water resources.

GALILEU

Collective living increasingly permeates everyone’s daily lives. The reduction of meeting places in cities and the lack of outdoor space in houses make it increasingly important that the new building be positioned between the built and the natural. Thus emerges the Galileu, who builds the natural and decomposes the built.

ALMADA

Located on the south bank of the Tagus River, Almada is a city with a privileged geographical position, taking into account the relationship it establishes with the territory and the surrounding water resources. Bordered by river and sea, it functions as a hinge area between the Tagus River/river mouth (to the north) and the Atlantic Ocean (to the west). Its rugged morphology elevates it to an extensive viewpoint over the city of Lisbon. Between the 1940s and 1970s, associated with the naval, weaving or milling industries, there is an increase in population and a large migratory flow due to the search for better employment and housing conditions, having become one of the most populous municipalities in Portugal, with about 118,000 inhabitants. The proximity to the city of Lisbon and the construction of the bridge over the Tagus in 1966 – which facilitated mobility between shores – was another relevant factor for the growth of Almada as a ‘dormitory town’ that offers other living conditions that compete with the capital. Currently, in the field of housing, the municipality of Almada presents a range of strategies that aim to enhance the rehabilitation of municipal housing, the supply of affordable rental housing and other urbanistic measures of sustainability in the access to housing.

CONTEXT

The intervention area is located in Quinta do Facho, in Monte da Caparica, inserted in a lot with a spectral surroundings. The surrounding area has a diverse and pluriforme character being composed of both slender and long built volumes, which develop along the roads, as well as punctual and discrete bodies. The plot is urbanly framed in one of the main connection roads of this area of Almada, the Avenida Timor Lorosae, which is infrastructed by a qualified public transport network, namely a subway line that connects the land to intervene in an advantageous position with regard to urban mobility. In addition to these valences, the plot has in its proximity a varied offer of services, educational spaces and sports complexes. In Almada’s urban morphology it is evident that growth in the peripheries is directly related to population migration and the consequent construction of housing and commercial complexes. In order to mitigate/dilute the discrepancy between the peripheries and the city center, the proposal should ensure the creation of alternative programs and spaces that encompass local communities, without segregating them from each other. The affordable rental program allows for the support of low-income social groups, improving the city’s housing standards. Thus, the redesign requested in this competition should not be reduced to simply adding a built volume in the designated area, but should contribute as a gesture that will contaminate the whole context, who occupies it in the present and who will integrate it in the future.

ASSUMPTION AND PRESUMPTION

Galileu asked himself: what if this is not the absolute truth? The individual when exposed to a situation usually acts involutarily, looking for the most immediate answers, using the acquired knowledge that comes from the format to which he was exposed. The exercise carried out in the development of this idea contest was precisely the act of becoming aware that we need to reflect on the assumptions to which we are all exposed. Thus, from the reflection on the elongated green lot in Monte da Caparica emerged several doubts, several hypotheses and only one solution. The present proposal – Galileu – results from the search for the best appropriation of the land to intervene aiming at the objectives that proved to be the most relevant for the context, namely, the creation of quality public space for the surrounding community, the optimization of the inhabited space (interior and exterior) and the integration of sustainable solutions. The idealization of the implantation of two towers is, therefore, not arbitrary, but justified by architectural principles that aim to achieve concrete and ambitious goals based on a qualitative and quantitative measurable structure. To mathematize architecture is not to neglect its essence, but to scale its possibilities.

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THE AGORA

Designing the public space before the private space proved to be one of the proposal’s greatest designs. The block, initially closed in on itself, manifested a disqualified block interior that was all about being rear, not promoting the event. The formal gesture of tearing and opening the block was motivated by the will to connect this neglected interstitial space with the street and fostering several spatial and visual connections with the other limits of the surrounding urban context. The potential of the existing green blanket led to the heuristic discovery that it would be necessary to loosen the horizontal plane and grow the volume vertically. Galileo is thus composed by the formalization of two vertical volumes, which we can call pivots, that serve as a kneecap between the external spaces created and the interior built space. The proposal of the public space is unpretentious and sensitive to the existing terrain. The topography thus remains virtually untouched and virgin. Only a few platforms are created to allow access to the building and to promote a meeting point for the neighborhood. The intention is to create a space for leisure, permanence, and collective enjoyment for the families that will integrate the community of this housing context, but also to enhance new connections with the adjacent neighborhoods. A space for everyone, free, wide, and permeable.

SPACIAL RATIONALISM

The formal rationality of the proposal materializes one of the main objectives: the optimization of space. From the basic geometry of the square comes a reticular orthogonal metric that intends, rather than limit, to regulate the spatial conception. The domain of unity thus intends to quantify the dimensions, the area, and the shape of spaces. Measurement results in optimization. The geometrically square central core accentuates this moment as the structural “pillar” of the proposal. Here the vertical accesses are concentrated, creating a composition of three regular elements – two elevator shafts and an enclosed staircase – that both try to take off and intend to embrace the formal regularity of the plan. Around this center, a belt is drawn with a double function. On the one hand, it has a more practical and effective function, concentrating the building’s infrastructural needs. On the other, it results in the filter that dilutes the public-private boundary, providing more privacy to the dwellings. Adjacent to this “ring” are expanded spaces for permanence, conviviality, and seclusion of the dwellings. In addition to the concentric identity of the proposed plan, it also highlights the formal language of a cross. This configuration results from the most beneficial design of the interior spaces, namely the placement of the social spaces of the typologies in the vertices of the square. The location of the social areas favors the interior and exterior spaces, allowing for greater sun shading, greater spatial transversality, more open and diverse views, and also enhances the crossventilation of the apartments.

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CO-CREATE/CO-RESPONSIBILITY A FACADE

Where there is a sense of identity, there is community. It is on this premise that the conception of the proposed façade is based: a vertical plan composed of elements that irregularly punctuate the built volume. Here we do not previligate the rule, we emphasize the diversity and plurality of the way of appropriation of the mechanisms offered. A participative garden of the condominium in which there is no spokesperson or protagonist, but where there is the opportunity for each dweller to feel that he or she is part of the one. The reflection of the individual and personal expression and occupation of the parts make the whole an inconstant, changing, and dynamic cloth. Each inhabitant has the freedom to manipulate his or her own small garden. The negatives of different sizes embedded in the inverted beam house the terracotta pots of various scales. The maintenance of the plant population of the proposed façade is thus left to the inhabitant community of the towers. The green concept created for Galileo also reinforces the environmental awareness of the proposal, revealing the sensitivity of the design options conceived for the inhabited space.

LANDSCAPE DESIGN

The proposal for the outdoor spaces was developed having as a general concept the sustainability of the proposal from various points of view: social, environmental and economic. Thus, it bets on the creation of environmentally qualified spaces, which respond positively and actively to social needs. From the environmental point of view, the proposal is developed as a climate mitigation strategy, with ecological and environmental principles, where several ecosystem services are promoted in green spaces, through natural-based solutions. The urban forest, important to mitigate the “heat island”, retain carbon and minimize the effects of particulate pollution on human health, consists of a multi-stratum framing edge, with native / adapted species, planted in high density. The flowered meadows promote biodiversity, with less water consumption. In the building we bet on green roofs and facades, enhancing the presence of vegetation near people, influencing their dwelling. In short, we propose connectivity between green spaces, promoting ecological corridors with the urban environment. In terms of drainage, the project adopts solutions framed in urban systems of sustainable drainage, including solutions such as drainage strips, bio-valets, and a retention basin. From a social point of view, green spaces are essential for the promotion of a culture of sharing, meeting and social living, and can promote physical and psychological well-being of its users. The proposal bets on pedestrian circulation, promoting several squares for meeting and staying, at the ground-floor level of the buildings, which will enhance the meeting between neighbors, allow children to ride bicycles, or young people to socialize actively / passively. Several programs, from sports to children’s playground, are designed to enhance the use of outdoor spaces. The pedestrian circulation between the high levels and the lower areas, are ensured by stairs.

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ENGINEERING PROJECT

With the entry into force of the REH (Regulation of Energy Performance of Residential Buildings, DL 101-D/2020, of December 7) and with the start of operation of the SCE (National System of Energy Certification and Indoor Air Quality in Buildings, DL 78/2006), it is intended to impose rules of efficiency on HVAC systems to improve their effective energy performance and ensure the means to maintain good indoor air quality, both at the project level, at the installation level, and during operation, through proper maintenance. The proposed HVAC project seeks to favor centralized systems as a way to take advantage of economies of scale, and more energyefficient solutions, including those using renewable energy-based systems, whenever economically feasible. The building will be certified by the National System for Energy and Indoor Air Quality Certification of Buildings (SCE), intending to obtain an energy rating of good quality, so that all efforts will be made to optimize the operation of systems and minimize any energy losses, both at the project level and through careful implementation of the installation and assembly of its equipment.

ADOPTED BIO-CLIMATIC SOLUTIONS

The thermal inertia of the buildings in question are characterized by a heavy thermal inertia. The attenuation of heat gains depends on the thermal mass of the building, i.e. the ability of the building’s envelope to store thermal energy, “heat”, which leads to a decrease in peak values of cooling loads and a mismatch between outside and inside temperatures. A building with a strong thermal inertia allows that in the summer season the heat peaks, coming from the outside envelope, can be out of phase with the peak occupancy of the building, being retained in the envelope itself and only released into the building at the end of the day. In this way a high thermal inertia, combined with a natural night ventilation, allows the removal of all the load on the building during the night. The air circulation contributes to the decrease of the indoor temperature and also to the removal of the sensible heat stored in the thermal mass, The openings should be placed in the south quadrant and in opposite locations to allow cross ventilation in order to reconcile the heating and cooling strategies. This type of solution allows for a high reduction in energy consumption for cooling, since it prevents most of the solar gains from immediately increasing the temperature of the interior spaces, thus reducing air conditioning consumption.

SOLAR PROTECTION/GLAZED AREAS

The proposed building will also be equipped with an external solar protection system, in the glazed areas, with an external shading screen, in order to reduce direct radiation into the interior of the building, thus avoiding an excessive increase of energy for cooling. The combination of the glazed spans with external solar protection still allows a good natural lighting of the interior spaces, drastically reducing the electricity consumption with lighting, and on the other hand avoiding unnecessary solar and internal gains in the cooling season. The strategically located glazed windows allow for good capture of solar gains in the heating season, resulting in a very interesting passive heating of the building.

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