Other Habitational Contexts

The project is associated with the adaptation of housing spaces to the new needs and ways of the temporary contemporary inhabiting. The exercise also sought, though not at the same level of development, to frame within the question of places regeration without disregarding the consequences in the options pursued in the different scales of the project.

The starting point of the project was the valorization of the Peninsula, located in the natural environment of the Aveiro estuary, being a moment between two realities and separated by the same, it is intended to rethink this territory as a space that gathers the everyday life of its surrondings: the naval activity, the estuary, the city and the university. Due to the loss of interest in naval and industrial activity in the territory, it’s propose a public space that lies between the city and the estuary, valuing it as a privileged environment creating harmony between the share of scientific and cultural knowledge and leisure. The campus is an extension of the University and is proposed as a territorial landmark. It integrates an housing complex, with two residences, and an institute for guest teachers, researchers and collaborators. It functions as a gateway to the territory due to its location that allows the complex to take advantege of the natural environment and that its users can walk through space and access its surroundings. For the project of the housing complex i understood that the appropriation is the mechanism taken by the user to make the living space as part of himself, but this relationship also has the capacity to transform and influence his experience. Each user is unique and for architecture to be able to relate to each one of them in a consequent way, it is necessary to create processes that can influence the daily life in a relevant way. The patio house was the model chosen as it allows the intrinsic relation between the house and its user and not only gives a variety of relations and sensations towards the user but also a greater complexity and dynamics of the housing spaces. Taking this as the main element of the housing project, it was possible to create a relationship between the two residences while maintaining the diferent characteristics of their users. The way to intervene in this territory is based on the interpretation of its memory and natural landscape in order to bring together the character of the existing and the proposed structures and the valorization of the image of the Aveiro estuary.