APPACDM IN TROFA WILL BE REQUALIFIED

APPACDM in Trofa – Portuguese Association of Parents and Friends of the Mentally Handicapped Citizen will be the target of a deep intervention, which aims the requalification and rehabilitation of the current building for the valency of Residential Home for the institution users. The project was designed by the architectural firm ad quadratum arquitectos.

The intervention foresees, in a judicious way, a set of demolitions and constructuons, for the purpose of at the configuration of efficient, safe, and adequate spaces to the desired social answer, adapting the preexistent edification to the social answer of Residential Home for citizens with disabilities, fulfilling the best practices of accessibility, foreseen in the Decree Law nº 163/2006, of the 8th of August.

«It is the purpose of the project to establish as conditions the full integration and respect for the users of this building. The building that serves as the basis for the intervention is presented as a “skeleton” susceptible to reconditioning ( in some parameters, profound) and a small expansion, adapting it to the functional, regulatory and legally very conditioned organization of this type of buildings, where the configuration of efficient, safe and accessible epaces prevails”, says the architect responsible for the project, José António Lopes, CEO of Ad Quadratum Arquitetos.

ONE BUILDING. ONE SPACE FOR EVERYONE.

The site is largely occupied by a three-story building ( firts floor and two stories) and several terraces, which is practically empty and unoccupied, with obvious signs of degradation and damage due to construction deficiencies and lack of maintenance.

A small area of expansion and the occasional recomposition of facades complete the scope of t5he intervention that also covers the qualification of the outdoor spaces, immediately adjacent to the building. “As a result of the reconfiguration of the facades, small areas of demolition will also be carried out, always without structural affectation, and the exterior arrangements surrounding the set of buildings proposed here aim essentially at providing conditions for full public enjoyment by users or technical and auxiliary staff”, says José António Lopes.

The intervention will endow the building with a new functioning organization, presenting a whole set of optimized systems for its operationalization, standing out:  

• The prior demolition of structures unsuitable for the use and users of the building;
• The standardized conception of the accommodation units, in order to standardize procedures and ensure equal conditions of comfort and service;
• The optimized organization of circuits and technical and service spaces, enabling their management by need and valence;
• The refunctionalization of all the infrastruture networks and the provision of the necessary ones for operationalization of the services and use of the building, considering rhe high level of demand to ehich they are submitted;
• The provision of safety conditions – active and passive- at various levels, including fire rish and universal accessibility;
• And the reconditioning of usable outdoor spaces, providing them with a rational use appropriate to the use by the various publics.

The interior spaces of the nrw building of the APPACDM of Trofa will be distributed in absolute compliance with the regulatory framework and applicable law, namely Ordinance nº 59/2015 of March 2: reception, management and administrative services, facilities for professionals, social and activity spaces, sanitary facilities, cafeteria, housing, kitchen, laundry and support services.

«The building will continue to present itself, although qualified, with the same degree of urban prominence, due to its implantation and the topography of the surroundings, which remain unchanged with this intervention”, ensures architect José António Lopes.

Considering the characteristics of the intention, it is expected that the intervention to be carried out in due time – the process is already licensed – will be done in a single phase.

«COMPLYING WITH ACCESSIBILITY RULES IS EVERYONE’S DUTY»

A country accessible for all is na intention and a practice at the architecture office Ad Quadratum Arquitectos, which considers that complying with the accessibility rules foreseen in the Decree Law is everyone’s duty.

Accessibility for all is a theme that architect José António Lopes has been debating since his professionalo practice of about 30 years, in order to draw society’s attention to its importance.

«It cannot be said often enough that accessibility and reduced mobility issues are not a concern anly for the disabled.  Children or elderly people, people with accidents or debilitating diseases, those carrying luggage or a baby carriage, all, as far as their mobility is concerned, should be considered as “ people with reduced mobility”, for who the built environment presents difficulties to interaction, whether in terms of physical accessibility, orientation, or access to information”, considers José António Lopes, pointing out that «There is na alarmingly high and growing number of citizens for which spaces, buildings, products and services provided by the city present a high degree of inadequacy to their needs, whether permanent or temporary. We need to rerhink accessibility!».

In the framing of the best practices and the legal and regulatory framework of reference, namely the Decree- Law 163/2006 of August 8, the architecture office Ad Quadratum Arquitetos ensures, in all its projects, the use and accessible usufruct of the main spaces pf habitation, whether interior or exterior, thus assuring its full use and that ir can be done by users with mobility conditions.

«A building, a space, a public equipment, a product or a service called “ inclusive” or “ for All”, necessarily ensures a wider range of users, greater frequency of use, convenience of interactions and, in a more radically economic logic, a widening of the target market, of profit margins and of the reputation or public image of the product, service, institution or the city as a whole”, notes José António Lopes.