The Royal Building of Mafra incorporates two of the most impressive “sound factories” ever conceived: the two largest historic carillons in Europe (including the gigantic automatons associated with them) and the unique ensemble of six organs of the Basilica.
Following the concept of the original exhibition of the Music Museum, Fábricas de Sons inaugurated in 1994, the proposal for the National Museum of Music (now in the National Palace of Mafra) will likewise adopt an organological classification, understanding instruments as “machines” that produce sound.
With the underlying concept of the exhibition Fábricas de Sons, this proposal is not merely a simple classification by typologies, but rather a pedagogical approach that illustrates how different instruments function. The proposed museum route is therefore organized from the perspective of sound production, beginning with the most complex machines, in which human participation is more indirect.
Visitors first encounter keyboard instruments, then progressively move through instruments that require the performer’s direct action in producing sound and concludes with a voice resembling a human instrument.
1 / 3Scenario A
Programmatic
Entry and exit via the planned vertical access points, with a connection to the museum circuit of the National Palace of Mafra at ground-floor level; emergency exits limited to the existing vertical access points, where applicable, with direct access to the exterior.
Throughout the entire visit, the architectural structure of the building remains constantly present. Only at the end, since the voice is not an instrument that can be “seen”, visitors are immersed in a black box where they experience multiple examples of vocal technique (opera, jazz, fado, etc.), the true hallmark of vocal expression in Mafra until its extinction in 1834, the plainchant.
Mafra, Portugal | Competition | 1.953 m2 | Renders by Andrei Brinza | Collaboration with Contemporânea Lda