12-14,
AML
Capuchos Monastery
This design is intended as an appeal, a call for awareness of our collective accountability, now augmented by the deep crisis we are living through and the historic experiences of other examples that must serve as warnings – for when we lose irreplaceable social, cultural and natural assets we all feel a sense of collective impoverishment. Indeed, we have the view of the Serra da Arrábida hills and the patent signs of its development by humans before our very eyes. The immeasurable value of this landscape exists and is huge. It is up to us, the generation that beholds it, to guarantee its continued existence – if possible, in an enhanced and ennobled state, as an asset that will not disappear. The conceptual proposal for this phase, ‘sow the fertile soil of this land’, validates all that pre-exists, maintaining a close relationship with the territory as an integral part of a unique landscape. The idea is for the complex to retain its integrity as a ruin that will remain in that state for many years, before gradually no longer being a ruin, and re-emerging, without any disruption, as a complete building, but one with the delicateness of full integration. The enchantment of the period as a ruin in this context will, we hope, be temporary. However, the perception of that past will be able to linger on, in a sophisticated way, without re ecting the reality. From the chromatic integration to the architectural intervention itself, the solutions can be many. What is important, perhaps for a considerable time from now, is to de ne the guidelines for the following phases.
