Technical Description

The present technical description refers to Miguel Torga Space, which, among other activities, is meant to study and divulge the poetic and literary work of Miguel Torga.

Share walls (characteristic elements of this zone) draw the limits of the building and define its image.
The building is implanted south of an old fairground and has two entrances, one for the public (east) and one for service (west), defined by divergent walls. Direct entry is also possible to the cafeteria (west), through a great glass pane, allowing autonomous exploitation.
Using the slope of the terrain, walls were extended to north/east, configuring the fairground. 18 trees modulate this space that serves as a fairground and, most days, works as support parking to the Cultural Centre.



The building has two floors (a ground floor and one floor below ground), an implantation area of approximately 1315m², an exterior area for parking/fair of approximately 3115m² and a variable height of the walls that outline it, between 1 metre (parking/fair) and 5.5 metres (building).

in programmatic terms the building is organised as follows:
Through the main entrance and a windbreak (7.5m²) one accesses the first exhibition space (310.2m²) with a proportion of 1 to 2. This space, that operates as a big entrance space and simultaneously exhibition, proves access to the reception and space to use the Internet (14.6m²), to the bookshop near the entrance (38.0m²) and the study room (28.3m²). through the reception one accesses the administrative area of the building formed by a corridor that distributes to two offices (19m² each), a meeting room (18.9m²) and sanitary installations with cabinet for dressing room (8.1m²). A patio turned east/north helps illuminate and ventilate the bookshop, the administrative area and study room, also giving access to a technical area and patio for the chiller.
this first exhibition space has continuity in a second space with equivalent function (194.5m²), with a proportion of 1 to 1. Through this space one accesses the sanitary installations for the public (men 13.6m2, women 15.1m² and conditioned mobility 5.1m²), to the flat auditorium (138.4m²) and respective production unit (8.3m²), a corridor for private access, the bar (33.4m²) and cafeteria (43.7m²) and the exterior esplanade (63.0m²). The flat auditorium (110 people) is equipped with mobile furniture (stage and chairs) of easy transportation and storage to quickly transform it in to an exhibition room, extending the predecessors. The projector, projection screen and speakers are embedded in the ceiling.
the cafeteria has 30 seats and direct access to the exterior esplanade (63.0m²) with 32 seats. The bar has 12 seats. In the walls mirrors were placed to reflect the landscape. A counter/bar of marble, duly equipped (21.2m²), serves these two spaces. Through the counter/bar one accesses a service pantry equipped for that purpose (16.2m²).
Through the service de (11.8m²) one directly accesses a space for garbage (2m²), a technical area for the generator/emergency group (5.7m²) and two halls. The first (5.0m²) gives access to a sanitary installation with dressing room/shower for workers (10.5m²) and to the bar. The second (17.2m²) serves as emergency exit from the auditorium, access to the dressing room corridor (men 15.0m² and women 15.0m²) (direct connection to the second exhibition space) and as single access to the basement by stairs and a goods lift.
In the basement, a hall (12.7m²) gives access to the machine room of the goods lift (3.4m²), a small storage room (1.2m²) and a wide corridor (32.5m²) with space to assemble shelves or cabinets with special storage characteristics. This corridor gives access to a warehouse (77.2m²) and two technical spaces (38.5m² each) that hose the two main UTAS (air treatment units) and the other technical equipment. A patio crosses the building vertically, serving as a ventilation and natural lighting element for these technical spaces and the workshop (8m²).
Constructively the building is formed by a reinforced concrete structure coated externally with shale backbones from Foz-Côa. The interior structural walls are of concrete and the partitions of brick masonry; on this system the finishes were set. The rook is coated with a layer of shale cobblestone.

In terms of finishes the building is formed by:
exhibition rooms – wooden pavement “afizelia, double-plate gypsum board walls and false acoustic ceilings;
bar, bookshop, and study room - wooden pavement “afizelia, walls of tinned plaster and false acoustic ceilings;
offices - wooden pavement “afizelia, walls of tinned plaster and false ceilings.
auditorium - wooden pavement “afizelia”, double-plate gypsum board walls and false acoustic ceilings.
Sanitary installations and dressing rooms - self-levelling pavement, walls of tile and false gypsum board ceilings.
service/support spaces, as technical zones, loading and unloading zone, warehouses, circulation - self-levelling pavement, walls of tinned plaster, ceilings coated with fine sanded plaster and at times false ceiling of gypsum board.
technical patios - pavement of screed, walls coated with sanded plaster with insulation.
Doors are of wood to lacquer and when necessary flame arrestor or fire door. Cabinets and as shelves are of lacquered Mdf.
in the bar and reception counters are of Estremoz marble first choice.
Outside, casings are of iron in the main entrance, and aluminium in the administrative zone, bookshop, study room and bar/cafeteria. With the exception of the main entrance all exterior spans are equipped internally with sunscreen blinds, automatically and remotely controlled.

All exhibition spaces, auditorium, cafeteria, study room, bookshop, offices and meeting room have a height of 3 metres. Other areas vary between 3 metres and 2.20 metres

Exhibition spaces and the auditorium are equipped with a continuous lighting rack that reflects light indirectly for the whole wall, embedded in the ceiling at approximately 1.5 metres from the wall. An electric rack follows the whole lighting rack allowing application at any point and when necessary of lamps for occasional direct lighting. There are pavement boxes with plugs in all exhibition spaces near the walls and at the centre of the room allowing flexibility in assembling exhibitions.
the two exhibition spaces, cafeteria and auditorium are equipped with speakers, located in the ceiling, invisible in the auditorium
In the reception there are controls of the sound system, lighting for practically all spaces and video-surveillance system.
The building has 3 emergency exits, the first at the main door, the second through the glass pane of the second exhibition space (with access to the exterior esplanade) and the third in the service door.

Biography – Eduardo Souto de Moura

Eduardo Souto de Moura was born in Oporto (Portugal) on July 25^th 1952.
He graduated in Architecture in the Higher School of Arts of Oporto in 1980.
He collaborated with architect Noé Dinis in 1974.
He collaborated with architect Álvaro Siza Vieira from 1975 to 1979.
He collaborated with architect Fernandes de Sá from 1979 to 1980.
From 1981 to 1991 he worked as an Assistant Professor of the Architecture course of FAUP.
He began activity as a liberal professional in 1980.
Fellow Professor in Paris-Belleville, Harvard, Dublin, Zurich and Lausanne.
He received several awards and took part in different Seminaries and Conferences in Portugal and overseas. In 2011 he received the Pritzker Prize and in 2013 the Wolf Prize.