The design strategy for the new Financial Department of The Municipality of Cascais was quite simple. A set of several departments should be distributed trough a large floor located in an existent building. The existent space was characterized by two long and dark corridors located in the middle of the space. Those corridors, almost without natural light, were the only access to a set of several compartments without connections between them.

Trough a set o several incisions in the existent walls the strategy tried to dissolve the enclosure of the space, allowing as much as possible the appearance of cross perspectives in the space. The existent walls were used to locate as much as possible space for cupboards.

The assemblage of cupboards hides the walls and creates a set of several volumes with different sizes. The relation between the volumes also varies suggesting a random and free emplacement in the space. Those sets of tensioned volumes allows to demarcate the several departments.

Using thin and continuous lines of light organized trough some different geometrical arrangements, the ceiling was taught as a drawing surface to characterize the space. The glass partitions were textured by panels of random hatched stripes in order to emphasize the limits of different departments as textured veil membranes floating in the space.

Designed by Jorge Mealha Arquitecto
Photography: João Morgado

http://www.arthitectural.com/jorge-mealha-arquitecto-cmc/