Amora is organized by an extensive and diverse road network, which segments and delineates urban areas that results in, formal and informal processes of urbanization over the present centuries.

Set within a morphology predominantly characterized by flat, sandy valleys, arranged along an arc south of the Tejo River and disposed radially from south to north towards the river, this landscape has progressively been occupied along preferential axes, such as ridge lines and valley lines.

The site of the new Cultural Center results from a fragmentation of the landscape and a transformation of its socio-economic fabric, primarily residential surrounded by services and commercial areas.

Via architecture, the building resolves the different levels generated by the site morphology though its entrances of its two above-ground floors to the public space and library on the north side, while concealing the theatre’s infrastructure and technical facilities on the southern located at lower elevations.

The landscape project is grounded in a need for stabilization: reshaping the terrain to establish continuity between the surrounding streets and the proposed building, controlling erosion, and creating the necessary conditions for the proper development of the existing trees to be preserved.

Amora, Portugal | Public | Under Construction | Cultural Center | 7.085 m² | Photography by Bárbara Monteiro | Architecture by Contemporânea Lda