The project’s brief requested the conservation and valorization of Castelo Novo’s Castle and its surroundings. Moreover, it suggested also the creation of a space where people and visitors could enjoy it as a place of permanence. To answer these demands, the design solution created a “body” without a rigid boundary, organic, working independently of the existing structures but using them as a support. The construction was designed as a continuous abstract object, non-identifiable with a unique and specific purpose. The object changes with the characteristics of the site. While in the church’s square it acts as a volume defining the limits, in the interior of the Castle’s walls, its shape is transformed into a pavement layer with ramps and stairs creating a pedestrian pathway which is suspended from the ground by a metallic structure. This solution allows the visitors to admire the archeological findings without damaging them. The pathway finishes in the castle’s Main Tower where a “steel box” was inserted in its interior containing a multimedia room. This box allows also the creation of a platform where visitors can enjoy a panoramic view of the landscape. All the construction was made using lightweight metal structures which can allow a clear distinction of the new object from the existing structures and, at the same time, the reversibility of the operation.

Client: Fundão Municipality

Architecture: Luís Miguel Correia, Nelson Mota, Susana Constantino with Vanda Maldonado

Engineering: Direcção-Geral dos Edifícios e Monumentos Nacionais (DGEMN)

Building Contractor: General Contractor: STAP – Reparação, Consolidação e Modificação de Estruturas, S.A. Landscape: Serrasqueiro e Filhos, lda

Photography: Finished: FG+SG – Fotografia de Arquitectura