Second Skin, Figueira da Foz Portugal Building, New Portuguese Architecture, Development in Portugal

Second Skin in Figueira da Foz

23 Mar 2022

Architecture: danielmsantos

Location: Figueira da Foz, Portugal

Second Skin Portugal

Photos by Ivo Tavares Studio

Second Skin, Portugal

With a close relation to the Mondego river, the building Second Skin rehabilitated by the architecture and engineering office danielmsantos, evokes memories of the belle époque in elegant Figueira da Foz and gives it a new, bolder and irreverent core.

Second Skin Figueira da Foz

Two centuries after being brought up, a new challenge comes to this riverside building that was once a manor house and hosted Municipalized Services. Pedro Daniel Santos, the architect of this rehabilitation project, embraced the adventure of preserving the character, beauty, history and brand of the building, adapting it, modernizing it, empowering it to live new stories. A new History.

Second Skin Figueira da Foz

This reinterpretation resorts to a bold language that confronts the existing without, with that, overlapping it. Thus, a new building that preserves the past and assumes the future emerges, introducing a new reality and philosophy, as a reaction to new social and urban paradigms.

Second Skin Portugal Second Skin Figueira da Foz

Copper stands as the link between the existing and the new, enveloping the entire building, sometimes adding a touch of contemporaneity with bold and angular shapes, others incorporating its essence, assuming itself as a whole, which extends, wraps and involves.

Second Skin Figueira da Foz Portugal Second Skin Figueira da Foz Portugal

Cantilevered over the patio, the “bubble”, as it is affectionately called the most visible part of the new intervention, not only gives a new (and irreverent) front to the building, standing out and showing itself as the focus of the street, as it is the new welcoming element of the building, assuming the functions of reception and main office.

Second Skin Portugal

The space use paradigm was rationalized and maximized, having achieved greater accessibility, being able to receive people with reduced mobility, with direct access to the building now taking place through the east patio, by elevator or staircase. In addition to providing a space for parking vehicles with an electric charging station and a technical area/engine room, the patio is now the main entrance to the building, promoting the way the building is acceded.

Second Skin Figueira da Foz Portugal

The new relationship between the building and the street was greatly benefited: there is no longer a disfigured gable and another prominent element was created, a new heart, which gives new life to the building that supports it.

Second Skin Figueira da Foz Portugal

For an adequate use of the 2nd floor, a slight increase in the rooftop was carried out in the peripheral areas (the ridge kept the same level), so that, in addition to rationalizing the use of the existing space with the use of the attic of the roof between the roof windows, the interconnection between the old and the new was promoted by giving a contemporary look to the building without interfering with the urban landscape around it.

Second Skin Figueira da Foz

At the interior level, the intervention adapted the building to the new use concept. Despite being profound, with a new organization of the interior areas and the creation of new valences, the rehabilitation sought to be minimalist, in a subtle fusion between the contemporary, the usability and the preservation of the timeless character of the building.

Second Skin Portugal

The original aspects and construction techniques, sometimes exuberant, sometimes handcrafted, now gain a new stage with the conservation and recovery of the impressive plaster ceilings that adorn the entire 1st floor, the marble-effect paintings in the corridors or the partition, now a feature wall in one of the sanitary facilities.

Figueira da Foz architecture design by danielmsantos

The palette of interior tones was intentionally chosen to simultaneously create an environment conducive to work and highlight the eclectic collection of art and furniture that punctuates the various spaces of the building. The building, which already had a close relationship with light, now gains a whole new luminosity, achieved not only by subtle features, but also with the imposing spans of the new intervention and the choice of materials and colors.

Portugal design by danielmsantos

Figueira da Foz design by danielmsantos

Second Skin in Figueira da Foz, Portugal – Building Information

Architecture Office: danielmsantos, eng + arq – www.danielmsantos.pt

Project name: Second skin
Main Architect: Pedro Daniel Santos
E-mail: pedro@danielmsantos.pt
Facebook: www.facebook.com/danielmsantos.eng.arq
Instagram: www.instagram.com/danielmsantos.eng.arq

Second Skin Portugal Second Skin Figueira da Foz

Location: Figueira da Foz
Year of conclusion: 2021
Total area: 1320 sqm

Second Skin Portugal

Architectural photographer: Ivo Tavares Studio – https://www.ivotavares.net/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/ivotavaresstudio
Instagram: www.instagram.com/ivotavaresstudio

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Second Skin, Figueira da Foz Portugal images / information received 230322 from danielmsantos

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