ARCHITECTURE: Aires Mateus _______________________________________________ ADDRESS: Rua Cândido dos Reis, Sines _______________________________________________ CITY: Sines _______________________________________________ DATE: 1999-2005 _______________________________________________ VISIT: Inside - Outside _______________________________________________ MORE DETAILS: This equipment marks the entrance in the historical centre. The interpretation the architects made of the program inverts the proposal that seemed to be the most natural: the exhibition rooms are dislocated to level -1, to the floor below street level, placing the remaining program in the solid and heavy volumes that emerge at the surface. Digging the land, the volumes are connected transversely below street level and are organized vertically from this level, intercalated by courtyards. This programmatic response places the street that crosses the building as an integrated part of it, a fact reinforced by the choice of Lioz stone as the material to cover both vertical façades and pavements of exterior spaces. The organic unity and the minimalist or constructive depuration, elevate this work to a platform of excellence in the detail resolution that forces an attentive and meticulous contemplative visit, giving sense to Mies van der Rohe’s phrase: “God is in the details”. _______________________________________________
