Detail of the project ed. 2016

casas-mor­­tu­ar­ias-de-alhan­­dra-mor­­tu­ary-hous­es-alhan­­dra / Pedro Matos Gameiro arqui­tec­to, lda

Design­er	Pedro Matos Gameiro
Loca­tion	Alhan­dra, Portugal
Design Team	Pedro Matos Gameiro (coor­di­na­tor) João Maria Trindade, Car­los Cre­spo, Gonça­lo Pinheiro
Year	2008
Pho­to credits	FG+SG Fer­nan­do Guerra

Pho­to external

Project descrip­tion

In the most remark­able place between Lis­boa and Vila Fran­ca de Xira, ris­es the promon­to­ry of Alhan­dra, hal­lowed by a Church and a ceme­tery. This place, a ter­race over an increas­ing­ly larg­er Tejo riv­er, dom­i­nates the sur­round­ings. In front of the Church we can find a irreg­u­lar­al­ly shaped square.
The mor­tu­ary hous­es’ design seeks to rede­fine the square, reen­forc­ing its mean­ings, pro­vid­ing it with inten­cional and cer­e­mo­ni­al purpose.
From the game of death we can recall the con­fined paths between the graves and the peren­ni­al and vol­u­met­ric char­ac­ter­is­tics of it substance.
The quar­ries, in its essence, allow us to imag­ine this build­ing as an enor­mous fur­rowed stone block, shaped like it was extract­ed from the ground, show­ing it’s scars and wounds, breaks and folds used to orga­nize the light­ing, to define bench­es, or to let the light in the chambers.
We orga­nize the space in each cham­ber, through a wood­en con­tin­u­ous ele­ment that becomes the pave­ment, a lon­gi­tu­di­nal bench and the door.
The gates are an exact copy of the ceme­tery gate, to insure secu­ri­ty and to con­nect the two moments.

Illus­tra­tive project report
Down­load report

Pho­to internal

Tech­ni­cal drawings

BACK TO PROJECTS PAGE