The building is located in an area of difficult geological, topographical and accessibility conditions. The choice of this location, near the city park, the outdoor swimming pools, the sports hall and schools, aims to create a center of educational activities capable of producing a momentum for the consolidation and upgrading of the urban environment of this part of the city. For the viability of the land, it was necessary to design a new route that by continuing the existing fabric, will fix part of the urban expansion around the existing core.

The first sketches, as opposed to a distortion of the slopes by the existing construction, pointed to the need to create a building integrated, simple, monolithic, 'snapped' to the slope and totally oriented to the landscape. Developing the project on this concept, the design showed two possible "compositions" - the axis of access and entry to the building that, dipping trough the ramp or the stairs, still offers a perspective of a rural landscape; and the axis of the valley, parallel to the slope that opens on a vast landscape, seen through the building from the access square and trough the pool’s main building.

To minimize the building volume and make economies on the construction and equipment maintenance, the program initially developed for the application for funding has been reduced to a single floor for public access with reception, administration, bar, benches, showers and pools - a learning pool with 12.50 m x 6,00 m and one for swimming with 25.03 m x 12.50 m, the middle upper floor is reserved for air treatment and the middle ground floor is for water treatment, maintenance, stock and technical sites.

Outside the matter is more basic: painted concrete, corten steel and glass. The volume of concrete and the skylights that bring light to the changing rooms are painted white. To strengthen and enhance the building, a dark joint of corten steel covers the technical floor and connects the building to the ground.

Inside, to the exception of the reception spaces that are in marble, all revetments are in porcelain tiles, all accessories are in stainless steel and some honey-colored paneling, in phenolic resin, to heighten the whiteness of the environment. Everything is neutral intended to enhance the size of the Douro landscape.