Notes From The Architect: The city of Funchal gathers a whole structure of articulated museological spaces in its urban matrix, which creates a network of a way to read the city through a route connected to its expansion, without the existence of any space destined for contemporary art. The construction of this Arts Centre comes from decentralised politics causing the unexpected possibility to create an exhibiting space outside the limits of the capital. It associates itself to the dynamic of an existing House of Culture in the district of Calheta, called “Casa das Mudas”.
Notes From The Architect:Given this specificity, it was unsettling to understand how a window or a door could be designed for a building of this scale and complexity in a rural environment, or how to create a room for exhibits that could simultaneously provide great spatial flexibility, when works of art are more and more unpredictable, and adding the question of being located on an ultra-remote island, that sometimes restricts the design of an architectural element to the size of the container. Considerably high mountains orographically define the district where the Arts Centre was built, with its urban area in the deepest valley. By implanting itself on the lineal peak of one of these mountains, that ends abruptly with the sea, it seeks to resign the “mountainous mass”, acting as topography. Its interiority and complexity is only revealed when you are close to the building.
All Images © FG + SG Fernando Guerra
Text by Paulo David
via ultimasreportagens and archdaily
Arts Centre – Casa Das Mudas by Paulo David
