© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
- Architects: AND-RÉ
- Location: 3750 Agueda, Portugal
- Area: 4500.0 m2
- Project Year: 2017
- Photographs: Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
- Client: Águeda Municipality
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Text description provided by the architects. The design of the CAA / Águeda Arts Center responds to the challenge of creating a solution well adapted to the context (not only physical but also cultural, economic and political) while creating a world-class cultural platform. A rational approach to the program was translated into a system designed to maximize functionality.
Ground Floor Plan
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Section
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
The building, with 4,500sqm, consists in three dynamic physical forces, which house and organize the three major valences of the indoor program – an auditorium with 600 seats, exhibition hall, and concert-cafe – spreading out from a central distribution core. In addition to the main program, the building also houses a studio room, bookstore/shop, conservation, administration/production, among many other support spaces.
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
The exterior architectural image is characterized by a volume of exposed concrete that embraces the terrain and creates a new public square that qualifies the city. The volume seems to levitate on a transparent glass mass, permeable and inviting to the public.
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
The architecture that formalizes the building is stripped of iconic artificiality, without losing the institutional relevance that the equipment deserves. It tries to reach a fusion between the pragmatic technique of execution and context response, and the poetical of space, which takes the visitor on a journey marked by the body built as a receptacle and generator of culture.
© Fernando Guerra | FG+SG