Well this is not an SU project (it´s an hand and pen+corel), but even so I would like to share with you.
Project is from 2003, and construction started November 2003, ended in August 2004.
In this threat I will show you the cronology of the construction...

Project
Competition for a Local power administrative building (we call Junta de Freguesia, similar to a paroch, but nothing to do with religion, well it´s something smaller than the city hall...) and it will have an internet acess room.

Location
Portugal - Alentejo - Castro Verde - Casével.

Type of Project
Public building

Design Parameters
Competition requirements
Ruins walls to be integrated on new building, maintain the arch.
The functional areas to be included are:
- Reception desk/ administrative area;
- Internet room;
- Bathrooms (1 fem + 1 mas/handicaped);
- Meeting area/exibition area;
- 2 offices.
The ruins belong to an XVIII century church... destroyed by fire during XIX century. The ruins were an chiken and ducks cage!???, everithing covered with metal net.

Design Approach
Mainly the approach was maintain the existing shell (1.1m wide walls made of a very pour masonary) and arch, valorizing it in the interior.
Demolishing the remains of the existing elevation, creating a fresh and contemporaneos skin on front elevation, meanwhile integrating it with the surronding buildings and shapes, breaking the original centered elevation, and providing some protection and light from outside area for the new entrance.
Laterla facade, to road, we maintained the massive wall, and kept the existing window.

Interior meant to be light, so we create an entrance/ reception area with double floor, showing the visitor all the elements of the remain buiding.
What is new is new...what is old remains old...

The rest you see by yourselves... I hope you enjoy.. awaiting your comments ;)

The existing ruins...

First floor...

2nd floor...

Tranv. seccion...

Long. seccion

Frontal elevation...

Now, already during construction, Builders were cleaning the building, removing detrits and the non approved elements (only at this stage I finnaly see the building!!!!)

We discovered several recessed areas and one closed circular window, that in the midle of the construction we decided to leave it open.

Tranv. seccion...

Interesting Eaves Gutter Detail
Is this your invention or is it typical local vernacular?

The concrete stage...Start building the frontal elevation, and the concrete ring beam, that lik all the walls together, and the arch too.
some lime plaster is applied to cavity on the walls to make it uniform...
Already have some light height brick work on elevation.

In this image we can see the traditional tiled edge of portuguese roofs...
Already see the metalic structure for the mezzanine (2nd floor) - The stress of the weight from that is directioned to the mettalic structure, leaving intact the original walls. In this moment and according to our survey the planned rotated stairs,that entered a bitt into the wall at 2 level was abandonned due to strutural issues. It will be paralel to wall....
Again, structural issue, the original brick work was to be maitened, but because of his fisic properties, the damages and the mix with compact sand rocks, make us and the building engineer to reinforce the 2 vertical columns with new brick work and a filling with lime mortar.
Already in place the roof structure....

The job is almost done...
the outside and interior plaster is done...
A detail of that round window...

Well the building is finnished, so..let's see how it looks...!
This is the men/handicaped WC.

The ladies bathroom...

The double ceiling, reception/administative area and the corridor

Again the corridor-at the end the bathroom area.
in the left after the window is the internet room (the window is for surveilance...you guys know how teenagers and childs are...!!)

Detail of architectural lights in arch - (from SIMES)

Now let's go up... to the mezzanine

Now we are at the meeting/ exibition area... if you notice there is only one door to the offices area..well owner decide that the to plannde offices were too small. So have a big one..... :)

At last, The big openning day....
:D

Good work Pedro.
Parabens.

RED... seccion detail is my one conception... but don´t have a patent... :D :D ...however I'm shure I'm not the only one to use this type of solution.


Jcruiz, :not worth

Pedro

You have many reasons to feel very proud of this project, we are all the more glad that you took the time to share it with us.

Enhorabuena!

Saludos

Juan

There are some great details in this project and overall an elegant solution. I do wish that we could see more of the ruins in the finished project, but I also understand the difficulties of that. Nice building! :cheers:

Pedro

You have many reasons to feel very proud of this project, we are all the more glad that you took the time to share it with us.

Enhorabuena!

Saludos

Juan

Gracias Juan...

I'm always very critic to my work... With some of the changes during construction, some floor design did't match as supposed...
The ceiling got terrible...the civil eng. increase the density of metal work, some of the pilars in the mezzanine. He puts some in the edge, facing the reception, stairs, that area should be a cantilevered...
The furniture was already bought (before we even start the plans)...well a lot´s of things went wrong...but it seems that everibody was happy and liked the new building.

Gracias Juan...

I'm always very critic to my work... With some of the changes during construction, some floor design did't match as supposed...
The ceiling got terrible...the civil eng. increase the density of metal work, some of the pilars in the mezzanine. He puts some in the edge, facing the reception, stairs, that area should be a cantilevered...
The furniture was already bought (before we even start the plans)...well a lot´s of things went wrong...but it seems that everibody was happy and liked the new building.

Pedro, I know how you feel. I was about to ask for the same details you're talking about and agree that it could have looked better. Nonetheless, you did an excellent job and an excellent presentation in here! Thank you for that! I hope, and I'm sure, that the people of Casével are proud of this project. This is by far the best reward an architect can have. :cheers:

Really nice work Pedro!!!
I love the proportion of the walls...(I like very thick walls in general)
please, show us more photos.

my only critic is the roof, I'd use something that looks heavy..this metal structure looks very light if you compare it with the arch and the walls


Fernando

Thanks All...
Just for curiosity, did you know tha the curved beam was shaped "by hand"... yes... and some heat... It seems that the nearest bending machine is about 100Km from here, so they did it "by hand" :eek:

Fernando, you are right, I had put some IEP beams instead of this small RHS ones from engineeering....

There are some great details in this project and overall an elegant solution. I do wish that we could see more of the ruins in the finished project, but I also understand the difficulties of that. Nice building! :cheers:

At first I thought the same, but in reality there is not much to see. Not only because the masonry was poor, but also in that region that type of construction is usually plastered and not doing so would have brought conditioning problems. Am I right?

I also imagine that you had big weight limitations for the roof right?

Nonetheless even though the outside looks a little bit plain, the inside looks really neat and high quality.
Congratulations!

Congratulations Pedro! Parabens!
I agree with caca ¡n that these are not ruins to be preserved as such, but rather to be "recycled" (as we call it here) for a new use. :cheers: :cheers:

Beautiful project!

Good job Pedro!...as some guys already sayd...some details could be better,but we all know that in a job there is always some compromise...many thanks for sharing an interesting work of you!


Federico

Yes Cacapis you are right, plastered is the typical solution in this particulary area, in this case this was an unusual masonry (made with remains of poor briks, a rock made of quartz and compact sand and some xist, all put together with a mixture of clay soil and lime) The walls must be plasterd with a protective skin, in this case we used a limestone plaster. intead of doing a limestone paint, I decided to use a very good alternative (compatible with lime plaster, and heavy masonry, that makes the wall breath, but is waterproof) a silica paint system.

The roof - reduce weight to the maximum....

The outside plain.... well vernacular architecture from south Portugal (Alentejo and Algarve) still have mourish and roman inspiration, and is caracterized to have small fenestration, compared to the walls surface.
This are images I took from the 3rd volume of the book "Arquitectura Popular Portuguesa", made in 1960, this book is about a study that Ordem dos Arquitectos made on vernacular and traditional architecture, so the country was being developed and many things were starting disappearing....

some inspiration, some references.... the references of the modern/ contemporay Portuguese architecture...

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...

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thanks for sharing the building. great work. i think you have maded some very nice decisions andi like the lighter roof nevertheless have you got any other work? some very good ideas here.

ouesty

Some more details of the existing ruins...
You can see the front elevation and the nets... If you look carefull you'l see some eggs too... :D :D
Detail of the window and cornice...

more photos of the recessed areas and closed doors...
At the upper left you can se a remain of a fresco.

a site overview after everithing cleaned... We star building from this stage

Detail of roof...

Just found some pics from last february...showing the other side of the entrance

very nice job Pedro and beautiful village :not worth

Detail of architectural lights in arch - (from SIMES)


I love the detail around the arch on the mezzanine. It's such a nice way to share that structure with the space below. Beautiful project!!! :not worth

wow, congratulations man a very well done job, i like it, many thanks for sharing a very good technical plans also...again <gooood job.
:cool: :not worth :cheers:

Thanks you all, for you remarks, opinions... I´m flattered... :)

Very interesting! What happened to the old walls?

Hi Pedro,
I would like to learn a little bit more about your project.
ie The history of the building,
The attitude towards restoration / conservation in your area,

In restoring the building what thought did you give to making the building “more itself”, rather than adapting it to the new use?

Did you conserve any history of – or make reference to - the buildings previous use? – Church? Chicken coup?
Regards,
Chris

Ps I see you have cracked the big 1000 mark Congrats!

wow- pedro - congratulations - I came to this thread as there was a new post and I'm glad I did.

You must be very proud! great project, great execution - beautiful!

Me too. great thread (thanks for the details and construction pictures) :craqueur: and good project.

I agree with Imasayer/others that its a shame you rendered the old stone walls completely, I'm sure it would have been possible to leave an area unrendred? I also don't like the windows set flush (see this post (http://www.pushpullbar.com/forums/showpost.php?p=19807&postcount=20)) to the outer skin of the building, on 1m deep walls I think that thickness should be expressed. Last quibble... on that same image its clear your flag poles are not tall enough ;)

Thanks again. ANy more projects you could show us?