Carcavelos Health Center is a fifth prize proposal by OFFICE x Sara Maduro Raffaele Sarubbo for Cascais Municipality in 2019. It is located in Cascais Portugal in an urban setting. Its scale is medium with a surface of 1.920 sqm a budget of 2.400.000 € and a ratio of 1.250 €/sqm. Key materials are concrete and metal.

In the territorial analysis is possible to understand that the area has a strategic position among the projects that will constitute investments in the next years: at west the new parking connected with the transportation network of Cascais and with the complex of the Factory Legrand, at north the land of Quinta do Barão, that preserve the architectural heritage of the Quinta and forms an important reserve of an unbuilt area of the parish and with a great potential in the connection:

Legrand – Pólo de Saúde – Quinta do Barão – Quinta dos Ingleses – Polo Universitário da Universidade Nova de Lisboa.

For this reasons the architectural and landscape proposal for the health center consider the project as an opportunity to sew up the territory, making the building an urban element that establish connections, able to serve the users and constitute a public space of reference for residences of the surrounding area.

Structure and facade

The design of the building obeys at a regular structural grid, that allows to create a structure made of pillars, beams and slabs in prefabricated concrete, contributing to the reduction of the cost of the building.

The solution for the facade is a ventilated facade, composed of 1 panel of aluminium as external upholstery – air gap – and two sandwich panels of 7 cm that gives thermal strenght of the wall, significantly contributing to the acoustic and thermal isolation.

Light and natural ventilation

The design of the facade was made for having a homogeneous reading of the building, adapting itself to different situations. On the ground floor the elements are arranged in an inclined manner, using at the best the natural light through their orientation, maintaining privacy within the spaces that in this case have more connection with the external public space. In the upper floor, where there is no visual contact with the outside, the elements are situated in the direction of the building.

Roof

The decision to use a garden roof has advantages not only in terms of visual impact on the surrounding s landscape, but it also has great benefit:

At thermal level, at water level, retention of water increases, filtering and avoiding treatments, providing a system for collecting and storing the water coming from the cover, use for the irrigation of external spaces, roof included.
At an acoustic level, the soil and the plants highly block the sound frequencies, increasing the acoustic comfort inside. This function is very important in the close proximity.

2457-OFX-PT-2019 — Posted in 2019 — Explore more projects on health center and healthcare — Climate: temperate and mediterranean — Coordinates: 38.696599, -9.334588 — Team: Sara Maduro, Raffaele Sarubbo — Collaborator: Luca Covello, Sara Taiana — Views: 5.022