Designed by CVDB Arquitectos, with Tiago Filipe Santos, the proposal for the Refurbishment of the Old Railway Station of Mora, Portugal is focused in the pragmatic definition of uses. These aim to bring to life the existing buildings, activate their use, clarify the functional and distributive relations between spaces, and promote new built areas that incorporate a contemporary presence through the iconographic approach of the facades.More images and architects’ description after the break.
The Old Railway Station in Mora it’s an iconic building that belongs to the National Railway Heritage, a building that is deeply founded in the memory of the local inhabitants and all of those that through time passed by, a building that is worth to preserve and activate, giving it new functions that bring the living dynamic that is once had.
The “Estação Imagem” (Space of Production, Promotion and Exhibition of Photography) is conceived in a linear way. The two main existing buildings are refurbished, one new building is proposed and the old Railway Station Waiting Platform is reinterpreted as a linking element between the three buildings.
These proposed areas respond to the direct need of large exhibition areas, spaces which are not possible in the existing buildings due to their dimensional constraints. The symbiosis of the existing buildings with the contemporary intervention is clearly underlined with no superimpositions, in an harmonic process that clarifies time and reinforces the historical value of the buildings as a whole. The past is not frozen or musealized, but is lived and projected as future in a diachronic dialogue that reaches a single unity, functionally operational and serving the community of Mora and the expected visitors.
The contemporary approach and tectonic of the new built area incorporates an intriguing iconographic pattern that creatively evokes the world of Photography as a basic theme for Estação Imagem. This theme runs through the project as a referential element that is founded in a re-interpretation of the photographic diaphragm.
The photographic diaphragm acts as an iris, allowing the accurate control of light and depth of field, though a complex and dynamic mechanism of superimposed blades. This technique is applied as a façade system in a non-dynamic manner, setting light levels for the interior spaces, through the variation of the diaphragm diameters (analogy in relation to the different sizes of cameras and lenses), light admission, for light and shade control according to the interior spaces functions.
Architects: CVDB Arquitectos + Tiago Filipe Santos Location: Mora, Portugal Team: Cristina Veríssimo, Diogo Burnay, Tiago Filipe Santos, Rodolfo Reis, Joana Barrelas, Hugo Nascimento, Eliza Borkowska, Magdalena Czapluk, Elizabeta Vito Landscape Architects: Bound, ARquitectura Paisagista Engineering: Projectual Client: Mora Town Hall Status: International Public Competition, 1st Prize Construction Built Area: 1,200 m² Landscape Area: 1,100 m² Estimated Construction Cost: 1,200,000 €
