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Architects: António Portugal e Manuel Maria Reis
- Area: 3100 m²
- Year: 2013
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Photographs: Luis Ferreira Alves
Text description provided by the architects. The School Centre is part of a transitional area between the agricultural plan developed on the banks of the Ria de Aveiro (found here at its southern end) and the pine forest that grows extensively and fixes this whole area of ancient sand dunes.
The building defines three parallel volumes separated by outdoor leisure areas, where the programme is clearly distributed from a central element of distribution, with teaching spaces in the East and common areas in the West. The teaching spaces are distributed among two main volumes, with the set of rooms of Preschool Education on the first floor (with one floor) and the classrooms of the Elementary School in the second volume, on two floors. The third volume includes the gym.
Its image results from the desired functional and constructive clarity: the projection of the paving slabs and the roof (on the South side) guarantees the energy efficiency of the building and reinforces the horizontality that underlines the small undulation of the terrain, contrasts with the vertical feature of the trees enhance the character of the surroundings; accompanying the rhythm of these same trees, the elevations between the slabs are defined by transparent fixed elements (glass) and opaque elements (modified pine wood) that create the different solutions of the wall, ventilation and access.
