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Thesis Project

Sculptures Museum in Portugal

Guincho/Cascais, Lisbon

Arch. Manuel Aires Mateus

2002-2003

DPL

Location

Prof.

Period

the aim of this project was to take to the extreme, by radicalising them, the features of isolation and self-referentiality stemming from the setting, which is deserted and devoid of any frame of reference on a human scale. the museum is positioned on the sea, identifiable as the most powerful creating force in the locality, with the appearance of a massive rock whose interior is hollowed out. on the one hand this enhances the introversion of the exhibition spaces, but on the other it is attained by a strong opposition of artifice to nature, making perceptible the effort and tension that accompany and distinguish mankind's cultural advance. this effort is physically supported by the wall/dyke, which creates a great roofless exhibition space inside the rock, separating it from the setting, surreally calm and unmoving. its dimensions and form are such that they negate any notion of scale and relationship with the exterior, except through the sky – devoid of dimensions – framed by the walls.
so abstracted, this space becomes an artifice of a privileged encounter with the human creation. the access area, service spaces and a circuit of small exhibition rooms are separate, 'hollowed out' in the walls, from where one has a direct perception of the condition of opposition and limit through the vibrations, but also with openings and glimpses of both the exterior and the inner space.