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Castle of Santa Maria da Feira
Francisco Barata
Collaborators
Eurico Salgado, Helder Casal Ribeiro
Technical Consultancy
Eng. José Sá, Eng. Rodrigues Gomes and associated, Eng. Manuel Campos
Client
Castle Committee; IPPAR
Alameda de Roberto Vaz de Oliveira
4405-696 Santa Maria da Feira,
Portogallo
From the initial ambitious objective of including, in the design, the entire monumental complex, the intervention was resolved in two themes: a work of adaptation and continuity regarding the access road, entrance, ramp, and the main square; and a work of conservation and reuse of the keep.
If, in the first case, traditional materials are used, following the original traces and adapting them to current accessibility requirements, in the intervention in the keep, the existing elements coexist with new materials and technologies to solve and accommodate the new programme.
The main interventions in the keep included the restoration of the cellars - found in an archaeological campaign during the works - intended to house a small exhibition space, restrooms, a warehouse and the service access. The insertion of the elevator in the depth of one of the perimeter walls, so as not to interfere with the existing spatiality, allowed the connection to the two upper floors, following the same logic of integrating the staircase between the first and the ground floor.
The insertion of a balcony 4.20 meters from the ground floor allowed to reach a window on the west front that the 1940 restorations had left inaccessible. The same poetics of intervention in the old is conducted, here, on the scale of detail, where the historical opening system found in similar military fortresses is reproduced, without the design renouncing to assume its contemporaneity.
Francisco Barata
Original Use Military
New Use Cultural
Build Date [1991 — 2006]
Preexistance
Military Fortress
[11th-20th centuries]
[11th-20th centuries]