Edifício Náutico

FG+SG fotografia de arquitectura

• Architects

THE DESIGN
The Edifício Náutico, designed by the Rebelo de Andrade Studio, arose from the redevelopment of the former Hotel Nau, a forgotten urban skeleton at the entrance to Cascais. More than a simple architectural exercise, this project represents an urban gesture that transforms the block's heritage, creates a new public space, and redefines the town's entrance.

Guided by a deep sensitivity to the place and its maritime history, the design of the building frees itself from the limits of the plot, creating strategic distances that open up the architecture to the city. On the ground floor, an open and permeable square extends out to the public, designed with porticos with undulating lines that reinterpret the typical arcades of Cascais in an allusion to the movement of the sea. The materiality - glass, wood, ceramics, and sheet metal - reinforces this connection with the surroundings, restoring a contemporary and poetic rhythm to the urban space.

photo_credit FG+SG fotografia de arquitectura — FG+SG fotografia de arquitectura

The building's façade includes 856 blue ceramic shutters, each measuring 4 meters in height, totaling 29,104 pieces, contributing to a dynamic, lively, and ever-changing expression. This ceramic skin is not only aesthetic but also functional, enabling sun control, providing privacy, and paying tribute to the Portuguese tradition of tiles, reflecting the region's cultural legacy.

More than housing or commerce, the Edifício Náutico proposes a new centrality for Cascais. It is a building that is a city, that is a sea, that is history, and that is present—fusing heritage and contemporaneity with a unique architectural language.

THE BEGINNING

Located next to the railway station and in line with the sea, the Edifício Náutico occupies a strategic and symbolic place at the entrance to the town of Cascais. The project was born out of a challenge launched by Cascais Town Hall, which sought to breathe new life into an abandoned structure - the former Hotel Nau - and transform an urban void into an architectural landmark that would match the town's identity.

Conceived as an extension of urban life, the Edifício Náutico repositions the block, creating a new relationship between the built and public spaces. Its location makes it possible to design a square on the ground floor while the residential towers rise lightly, defining a new rhythm and architectural language in the urban fabric.

The project emphasizes the integration of the landscape and the daily experience of those who live there or pass by. The interior courtyard, the flowerbeds with native species, and the use of ceramics as an element of architectural expression and memory reveal the care taken to create a building that respects the place's history, climate, and culture.

Inspired by Cascais' maritime vocation, the Edifício Náutico translates this identity into form, color, and materiality. The color blue - chosen not only because of its connection to the sea but also because of its importance in the history of Portuguese ceramics - is here a symbol of belonging, elegance, and modernity.