Public Space in Pedroso

This public space project has presented a set of simplified elements, all expressed and embedded at the ground level, privileging the relationship with the monastery (visual and volumetric). The design was the result of the usual walking and crossing patterns between the surrounding places and streets (maintaining the crossing flows but also creating opportunities to stop). In the center an empty space (the public square) was created through an oval shape with a larger and a closer area, providing different appropriations and usage of space. Additionally, to avoid specific urban furniture and its consequent rigid use and place definition, the entire perimeter was made by using a continuous concrete bench. This allows people to sit anywhere they wish, facing the square or the green areas, and the 80cm width of the bench enable people to lie down or stretch their arms back. 

The proposed approach for the ‘monument’ liberates the square space. The ‘monument’ is visible, but detached from its rigidity and authoritative presence. No physical boundary or hierarchy was established between the public space and the ‘monument’. It is at the same time a place to play, a place to sit, a place to cross and a place of memory without being a self-contained object detached from daily life, or a place to return only on specific moments. Instead of exalting monumentality, the ‘monument-line’ was contained in the pavement, symbolically crossing the place, but representing (and remembering) a conflict that had victims on both sides. What was exalted was the public space as a place available to all occurrences.

Landscape/Garden: It was pretended to extend the green area from the monastery. This was achieved by using mostly species of the north of Portugal distributed over a meadow. The implemented species included: Acer monspessalanum, Arbutus unedo, Corylus avellana, Crataegus monogyna, Erica arborea, Erica carnea, Myrtus communis, Prunos cerasifera, Prunus lusitanica, Phillyrea angustifolia, Quercus robur, Rhamnus alaternus, Taxus baccata, and Thymus vulgaris.  

Team: Miguel Costa + Meireles de Pinho
in collaboration with: Joana Magalhães                                    
Winner: “Ideas competition for the surrounding area of the Monastery of Pedroso” VNG
Location: Pedroso VNG, Portugal. 2017