Outeiro I (Special Rehousing Program)

View from the west facade and front garden.

Project details

• Project Name: Outeiro I (Special Rehousing Program)
• Location of Site: Maia, Portugal
• Design Team: Authors: Francisco Portugal e Gomes, Joao Álvaro Rocha; Contribution: Ana Sousa da Costa, architect, Jorge Pereira Esteves, architect, Pedro Tiago Pimentel, practice architect
• Project Type: Social Housing
• Client: Camara Municipal da Maia
• Contractor/s: Lucio da Silva Azevedo & Filhos, Lda
• Site Area: 3 086 m2
• Built-up Area: 1788 m2
• Cost of Construction: 501 670 €
• Date of completion: Project: 1996; Construction: 1997-1999

Words from the architect

The demand was to conceive severals housing complexes in an moderate scale, for the national Special Rehousing Program - P.E.R., in the city of Maia, integrated in the urban and sub-urban territory.

View from the east and north facades.

The land where the housing complex lies is situated inside a low density allotment, in an area close to the centre of the city, a location that confirms the unmistakable dullness of an urban grid lacking any urban design strategy. This is enough to understand the difficulties to be faced in the project.

The choice of the location and the design are the result of an unavoidable compromise between the building scale characterizing the close surroundings; such compromise should not be detrimental to any spaces of collective use that the project is going to generate.

View from the west facade, detail .

The complex is placed on the side opposite the entranceway to the allotment, and is directly related to the existing Telephone Exchange building; its location contributes to the "regulation" of the land's inners limits.

View from the west facade, detail.

The choice to use the same material (brick) of the Telephone Exchange building goes beyond a mere effort of approximation: it is an expression of the will to "regulate", and a way to establish an identity. Such identity is emphasized by the unique and coherent image resulting from the austerity, and the rigour of the complex design.

View from the west facade, and theTelephone Exchange building.

The conceptual basics of the building is founded on the idea that a portion of urban territory should be internally articulated, capable of generating a collective and balanced occupation of open space, whereby the relation between the parts and this space should provide the necessary hierarchy.

Credits

• Text: Courtesy of the architect
• Photographs: Luís Oliveira Santos and Francisco Portugal e Gomes