TORRES VEDRAS, PORTUGAL 2016 (with SITE SPECIFIC arquitectura/ PLCO arquitectos) V.A.S.S.C.O consórcio de arquitectura 

The former 'Casa Hipólito' remains one of the most representative examples of a period in the history of Torres Vedras in which the emergence and expansion of some industrial facilities gave this urban fabric a very particular physiognomy, articulating buildings of very different scales and functions in a curious hybridity between production, habitation, and devotion.
The proposed building's essential strategy is to promote the greatest possible fluidity in the relationship with the urban environment and with the daily life of the city. The basement design seeks to reconstruct the limits of the old block, completing the façade plan in the adjacent streets and recovering the memory of the square that marked the beginning of access to the Castle, through the Jewish quarter. The existence of several entrances at opposite points of the complex allows the block to continue to be used as a pedestrian crossing in the city, with the atrium being the center of gravity where all possible routes converge. It is an inverted block that goes through the interior rather than along its periphery. That shortens distances in the city. That creates shortcuts towards culture.
A terrace/garden is designed on the basement that has the volumes of the museum, library and auditorium, with access from the lower atrium, where the vegetation allows the new constructions to mediate with the neighboring buildings. Its high elevation and the tensioned arrangement of the volumes build new visual frameworks on the Castle, and establish close relationships with the surroundings.
Between reflection and light, between industry and culture, the volumes continue the surrounding urban morphology.