Portugal, the beauty of simplicity

Beyond good Architecture, there is a lot more to discover in Portugal. This promotional video, that received several awards and nominations for best tourism film, shows a country distinguished by the  landscape and monumental diversity, by culture, modernity and by the many experiences it provides.

With about one month of existance, our blog has received nearly 2.000 visits from coutries all around the world. Today we share these Portugal's images with those countries, which we salute:

United States of America, Spain, Germany, Italy, United Kingdom, Norway, Ucrania, India, Angola, Brazil, United Arab Emirates, Russia, Catar, Chile, Australia, Serbia and Colombia.

Portuguese Architecture in the world - where to?

Ibêre Camargo Foundation, Porto Alegre, Brazil - Álvaro Siza Vieira

Portuguese Architecture has been following the economic panorama of the country. The economic recession brought an unprecedented crisis in the Real Estate sector, bringing down contractors, consultancy companies, construction materials suppliers, engineering offices and finally, architects. 

Several Architecture offices are now closing doors, leaving their former professionals without work. Newly graduated architects leave colleges without any perspectives in the national market. A whole sector is stagnated, and "there is no work" is the most heard sentence. The near future does not show better perspectives - the national market recovery is not on sight.

With almost nothing to build in Portugal, the reasonable option is to search for work beyond borders. From around the world are starting to rise some signals that send one message to the Portuguese architects: Portuguese Architecture is a brand that means quality, design and rigor. A recent news (published on Público newspaper) talks about the rising role of Portuguese Architecture in China. Nuno Lobo, working for several years in chinese offices, says that were always Siza Vieira and Souto de Moura's books on these offices' shelves. "There is a recognition of Portuguese Architecture, mainly after the Pritzker Prize assigned to Souto de Moura", says the Portuguese architect. This recognition happens at the time as China is making huge investments on Construction, making up one of the greatest opportunities for Portuguese architects. 

Saraiva & Associados is the only Portuguese Architecture office in Beijing. Its director, Nuno Batista, says that the Portuguese architect is associated with rigor and innovate ideas and designs. For this reason, there is rising number of Portuguese architects in this country, that faces a 7% economic annual growing.

Meanwhile, the Portuguese Government chose 2013 to be the "Year of Portuguese Architecture". With several divulgation initiatives, were elected the following target markets: Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Spain, Guinea-Bissau, Ireland, Morocco, Mozambique, United Kingdom and Serbia. 

The markets choice made by this initiative motivate several doubts about its pertinence. Some of these countries are facing an even worst economic crisis (when compared to Portugal) - Spain registers an unemployment rate of 26,6% and a large scale crisis in Construction sector. Other countries, like the United Kingdom, have their own architectural background, making it difficult to affirm the Portuguese Architecture in a context like this one.

It would seem more reasonable to bet on emergent markets: apart from China (and Brazil, that is on the initiative list), there are other markets in frank expansion such as the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Azerbeijan, Chile and Colombia. These initiatives should be directed to countries with urbanization processes ongoing and with no tradition in Architecture.

In this way, Portuguese architects have in their hands the possibility of demonstrating their value worlwide, leveraging this "brand" that is the Portuguese Architecture.

Welcome Arantxa!

Today is the first day of Arantxa Arano in DIMSCALE! Coming from Spain, Arantxa will be working with us through an international internship. With a degree in Building Engineering, she has also Training in Thermal Engineering and work experience as site manager assistant.

Arantxa will be helping us on managing several work on sight projects, such as Arrebita!Porto and Rua do Alecrim apartment rehabilitation, being also qualified to develop some work on Quantity Surveying and Financial Project Management areas. Currently we have several projects on hold, on which Arantxa could be an added-value to the DIMSCALE team. She will help us also on our international expansion strategy, highlighting the Spanish language countries.

It will be very important for us that Arantxa receives good inputs from this first experience with us - in this way we'll make sure that she learns a lot about Project Management, Financial Project Management and Quantity Surveying. Also it will be important that this internship can be as rich as possible for her regarding the cultural and social aspects.

We are sure that this will be a very good experience for both Arantxa and DIMSCALE. We will continue to divulge her internship experience on our blog.

Welcome Arantxa!

ARCHITECTURE REFERENCES - Dental Clinic in Lisbon, Pedra Silva Architects

Dental Clinic in Lisbon
Lisbon, Portugal
Pedra Silva Architects, Portugal

Project Area: 149 sq m
Year: 2011
Photos: João Morgado

This project refers to a dental clinic located in Lisbon, and is undersigned by the Portuguese office Pedra Silva Arquitects. Having won last year's Archdaily competition for Best Building in Interiors category, Pedra Silva Architects are again in competition, this year with this particular project. Dental Clinic in Lisbon can be voted to be one of the nominees in Healthcare category, in this link. Follows the project's descriptive as written by Pedra Silva Architects:

"Why do healthcare spaces have to be cold spaces?
This has been the underlying question since the beginning of our proposal. In fact there are several activities that go on in a clinical space, some regarding actual medical treatments and others related with social and reception areas. 

Although one might consider the treatment areas to be central in a dental clinic, this project aims to reinforce the social and humane side of healthcare facilities, by proposing two distinct and opposite environments: the clinic space and the social space. The first is a rigorous, hygienic and professional space, mainly in white materials, that aspires to provide confidence and serenity to the patient. The second is a space for meeting, relaxing and comfort, a way to distance the patient from the clinical mindset.

The premise of spatial and functional duality was obtained through the introduction of a curved organic volume that runs through the entire space, and closes a new interior space. This allows for a full/empty, dark/light and firmness/relax interpretaion. The void space around the internal volume functions as reception area and waiting room. The organic volume houses all the medical facilities.

To reinforce the duality between the two spaces, the outside of the organic volume is clad with mirrored mosaics that generate a multitude of light reflections framed by a dark background, that results in a unexpected and sophisticated environment. Although this space holds several adjacent uses like reception, assistance, waiting area and circulation, it’s perceived as a whole.

The inside clinical area takes the outside volume’s organic nature and forms all the necessary facilities around a simple central distribution corridor. As a way to enlarge the interior space perception, most of the partitions were built in transparent glass. This reinforces the project’s inside/outside motto."

source: www.archdaily.com/228114/dental-clinic-in-lisbon-pedra-silva-architects

ARCHITECTURE REFERENCES - Paraty House, Marcio Kogan

Paraty House
Paraty, RJ, Brazil
Marcio Kogan, Brazil

Site Area: 50,000 sq m
Project Area: 840 sq m
Year: 2008-2009
Photos: Nelson Kon

"Paraty House’s two reinforced concrete boxes, sit atop each other, connected on the mountainside of one of the islands of the colonial city of Paraty and Angra dos Reis (between São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro), like two modern prisms between the large colossal stones of the Brazilian coast.

The building projects outward from the mountain, almost onto the beach, in an 8m cantilever. The house finds balance in the topography of the land, creating an extensive open doorway and living space in the practically untouched nature. Paraty House features a furniture collection showcasing 20thcentury design, including works by many well-known artists.

The residents arrive by boat. After stepping out onto the sand a metallic bridge positioned over a crystal-lined reflecting pool leads to a set of stairs connecting to the lower volume. This volume contains the living room, kitchen and service area. The continual internal area has a 27m span and huge glass windows to take advantage of the view of the sea. The same entrance stairs also lead to the upper volume that houses the bedrooms. In the front part of the house, retractile panels of eucalyptus sticks protect the bedrooms from the sun. The areas that face the mountain have small internal patios with zenithal lighting, and use exposed reinforced concrete, which grants a striking texture to the walls. The entire top of the house is covered with terraces, used as observation decks for the residents, and as a garden for sculptures, medicinal plants and edible herbs."

 text source: www.contemporist.com

First Skype meeting with Arrebita!Porto new team

Yesterday we had the first Skype meeting with the fourth team of Arrebita!Porto, that will be in Porto to work on the project until March. Being all of them architects, they will be responsible to conclude the last details of the project and to initiate the construction on sight phase.

We made an introduction of what is our work in this project: to make sure that all the options meet a rational cost scenario, to quantify all the project, to give conultancy on constructive solutions and processes and to support the project raising the partners necessary for the construction materials, leveraging DIMSCALE's privileged contacts in this area.

The team started their participation by working on some details on CABA (the interior modular unit that will centralize facilities as kitchen, bathroom, laundry and storage). The team wants to give transparency to the ceiling of CABA, in order to leverage either the natural light and the artificial light present on the floors. Also, the team wants to give more visibility (from CABA's interior) to the wood beams on the master ceiling. They proposed a glass structure for this ceiling, knowing beforehand that maybe it would not be the best solution regarding the cost. It was discussed a solution with policarbonate panels, a cheaper and visually good solution.

The talk led to a discussion about fundamental aspects about CABA's appearance, such as the possibility of both walls and ceiling be in policarbonate. This option would have to be validated by the partners in charge of accoustics and energy efficiency. Also it was discussed more solutions to give CABA an unique design: the placing of a "skin" was one of them. This "skin" would be applied over a very simple structure, giving CABA the possibility of being personalized without any limits. DIMSCALE gave some ideas for its materiality, such as cloth, plastic or hessian, given the low cost of apllication and maintenance of this solutions. The team was challenged to come up with other new materials for this idea, so it's time to let the creatives work! 

After, it was made the current situation about new partners raising for the materials and constructive solutions needed.

This meeting was a very good starting point, and the team seems to be completely up to date with the project, so there is no doubt that they will develop great work in this period!

Download our Presentation!

Click the image to download our Presentation.

ARCHITECTURE MIDDLE EAST - Burj Khalifa

   

BURJ KHALIFA

Skidmore, Owings and Merrill 

Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Hotel, residential, corporate offices
Height: 818 m / 2.684 ft
Floor count: 164
Floor area: 334.000 sq m / 3.595.100 sq ft

"Burj Khalifa is a supertall skyscraper currently under construction in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. When it is completed in late 2008, it is predicted to be the tallest man-made structure in the world, as well as the tallest building by any measure. Scheduled for occupancy in September 2009, the building is part of a 2 km² (0.8 sq mi) development called 'Downtown Burj Dubai' and is located at the "First Interchange" (aka "Defence Roundabout") along Sheikh Zayed Road at Doha Street.

The building is being built mainly by a South Korean company Samsung, along with the Belgian company Besix and the UAE company Arabtec. It was designed by American Adrian Smith before he left Skidmore, Owings and Merrill LLP (SOM) of Chicago to start his own independent practice, Adrian Smith + Gordon Gill Architecture in October 2006. However, SOM continues to lead the architectural, structural engineering and mechanical engineering of Burj Khalifa. The total budget for the Burj Khalifa project is about $4.1 billion US and for the entire new 'Downtown Burj Dubai', $20 billion US."

source: www.dubai-architecture.info

 

The fourth team of Arrebita!Porto arrives

The fourth team wrote its first post on Arrebita's blog. Check out the first impressions of Madalena (Portugal), Sarah (France), Flavio (Italy), Ruth (Belgium) and Antonio (Spain). Access their blog here.

Welcome all! Hope to meet you very soon!

Our work at Arrebita!Porto

Arrebita! Porto is a social project that aims to combat the abandonment of the city center of Oporto, through rehabilitation at zero cost. The project is based on a collaborative system among young international architects and engineers, suppliers of materials and equipment and teachers of universities and technical schools.

DIMSCALE is a partner since the initial stage of the project and is responsible for the Financial Project Management. We have worked directly with the various teams of international architects and engineers who have passed through the project. Although this is a collaborative project that relies on partnerships and donations of goods and services, the optimization and the control of the costs assume great importance to obtain reference values in this area, with a view of replicating this model
in other cities. We have also provided support in the area of consultancy solutions and construction processes as a way to bring the project to the solutions that best fit its needs and architectural concept, always safeguarding the aspect of cost control. All work has been developed based on international standards SMM (Standard Method of Measurement for Building Elements).

This is also a case study on how we have worked with the teams that have been through the project – there was constant monitoring of all phases of the project from the Preliminary Study, which has allowed the collection of a lot of important information that made possible the search for the best technical solutions and more financially advantageous. This work has implications in the short term and long term, particularly in terms of sustainability and profitability of the building.

The project is about to enter the construction on sight phase. Continue to follow our blog to keep in touch with the Arrebita's last news.