N10-II Indoor

Atelier COMOCO has been building a work of great consistency based on experimentation and mastery of construction processes, of which the N10-II Indoor is an example. It is an industrial hall, located in the industrial area of Ponte de Eiras, in northern Coimbra, where there are 2 indoor soccer fields, party area and respective support facilities.

The equipment that the COMOCO collective designed contains the reception, changing rooms and party area. It is an object defined in a restrained and effective gesture, which delimits and organizes the functional program. Because of the way in which it moves away from the entrance and faces the pre-existence laterally, the interstitial space gains a new and surprising spatial intentionality.

This ship is accessed through a door treated like a box, which projects from the inside out, announcing the rhythm of the inner box. The ramp that extends the base on which the new intervention rests and the modeling of the steel cladding formalize the porch, unambiguously marking, but without monumentality, the entrance. The confrontation between scales resulting from this new object, a horizontal box that is positioned perpendicularly to the longitudinal axis of the naves of the industrial hall, creates a resolvable tension between the two. In this pre-existing space available to be intervened, which points out directions and perspective axes, the proposal seeks to counter the evidence, or rather, the expected, without creating a rupture. Thus, the box results from a slender wooden porch structure, which draws with absolute rigor a metric that is repeated over the entire length and width. This rhythm is accentuated both by the grid of the MDF roof and by the perimeter extension of the shadow of the pillars, through the covering in the same material. With this sequential rhythm, it is possible to create a scenic game between full and empty. Scenic because it resorts to the use of light, but above all shade, thus managing to create the illusion of mass where there are only intersections of planes. It is then possible to perceive at first reading the roof grid as if it were a caisson roof, but immediately this illusion is shattered when crossed because the walls and ceilings of the ship are shown. The dramatic use of shade then allows for a surprising reading of the space.

This conceptual and constructive rigor gains new semantic possibilities, due to the way in which the plans that define and close the programs are used, marking the entrances, distribution corridors and the “room” where the parties take place. The use of raw, unfinished materials, together with the assumption of connecting and sliding door hardware, seeks a stripping of finishes, seeks the truth of the materials. This option is also revealed in the base of the box, where the crimped concrete presents a stereotomy resulting from the arcaded structure and the grid of the roof.

This work is intelligent and highly effective, due to its ability to construct a conceptually and constructively rigorous space, embedded in a composition matrix of classical tradition, but also because of the surprising composition of the planes, which together with the shade accentuate their depth and allow the construction of material density.

Désirée Pedro
December 2013

Ciclo Pintado de Fresco

«Pintado de Fresco» is a series of Design and Architecture exhibitions taking place in the headquarters building of the Círculo de Artes Plásticas de Coimbra.

Aimed at the production and dissemination of contemporary art, CAPC's program has, brought to spaces, the themes of architecture and design.

These disciplines have contributed intensively to the debate about contemporary cultural production, which is why their regular inclusion in CAPC's program is considered fundamental.

In recent years, a large number of applications for national and international competitions submitted by young Portuguese designers and architects have been awarded prizes. This momentary brilliance is often not reflected in the continued public recognition of these authors, leaving this information among their peers. This cycle is intended to give public visibility and enhance the discussion that these projects and others carried out in the silence of the studio, editions and works arouse. As a project especially aimed at Design, Architecture and Artistic Studies students - the dominant audience for artistic enjoyment in Coimbra - Pintado de Fresco seeks to expand the field of reflection of the CAPC exhibitions.

This cycle inaugurates a core of project disciplines — architecture and design — at the CAPC. This cycle is a co-production of the CAPC, the Department of Architecture of the Faculty of Science and Technology of the University of Coimbra — DARQ — and the Degree in Design and Multimedia, a course taught by DARQ and the Department of Computer Engineering of the same Faculty.