MINHO UNIVERSITY-S SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE, GUIMARÃES (1996)

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The Azurém campus, designed by the architect Bartolomeu Costa Cabral, located northwest of the historic centre of Guimarães - classified by UNESCO as a world heritage site - imposes its presence over a territory still with rural characteristics. The site set for the School of Architecture on a hillside discreetly overlooking the campus and with a privileged view of the surrounding landscape, the Penha Hill and the Castle, kept untouched paths, retaining land granite walls, alignments of trees and an admirable oak forest.

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The shape of the building, satisfying the assumptions of the campus growth plan, at the same time take full advantage of the topography of the slope and its characterizing features: the classrooms, placed along the ridge line, are organized as points of a route towards the centennial oak forest; the amphitheatres wing, coated in granite stone, reassembles fragments of existing walls, setting the path outside the school; the shell shaped square of the school, defined by the wing containing the reception administrative spaces, extends the central square into the plan and draw it into a courtyard at the site where once there was a clearing.

 

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Design Team:

Architecture: José Neves and Francisco Freire  

Collaborators: Ana Vicente; Paulo Barreto (models)

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Awards:

3rd Prize in the Design Competition Limited by Pre-Qualification for the Minho University’s School of Architecture

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Publications:

Edifício da Escola de Arquitectura da Universidade do Minho, in Jornal Arquitectos, nº 168/169, 1996, p. 61

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