Intervention in a pre-existing building, with a design by J. Cruz Lima dating from 1950, built under a private promotion scheme. An extensive period of absolute inactivity and abandonment accelerated the process of degradation of its structure, with weak constructive characteristics. In this context, the intervention on the building was guided by the observance of the aspects that made it a reference value in the city of Santo Tirso: its image and its function.
The strategy for a project has to integrate other conditions, ensuring the general sustainability of the options, such as the conformity of the building and its programs with the new regulatory and legislative provisions in force. The concept is based on the design of a building within the building; new container inside the preexisting hull. This conceptual principle is central to the intervention and articulates in a single gesture the architectural and structural premises, with those of a programmatic and strategic order. The idea of a scenic container, structurally autonomous from the pre-existing building, able to accommodate the diversity of the performing arts, “stage” of various models of scenic and recreational use, also houses all the infrastructure and support technology adequate to regulatory conditions and the new formats of the show.
From an architectural point of view, this concept is suitable for preserving the structural and linguistic integrity of the existing building, ensuring its constructive rehabilitation, architectural language, presence and urban scale in a qualified manner.
