15/6/2020 Center for Interpretation of The Battle of Atoleiros / Gonçalo Byrne Arquitectos + Oficina Ideias em Linha | ArchDaily

Center for Interpretation of The Battle of Atoleiros / Gonçalo

Byrne Arquitectos + Oficina Ideias em Linha

6 years ago Share

CULTURAL CENTER • FRONTEIRA, PORTUGAL
Architects: Gonçalo Byrne Arquitectos, Lda, Oficina Ideias em Linha – Arquitectura e Design, Lda
Area:  935 m²
Year:  2012

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The Center for Interpretation of the Battle of Atoleiros, in Fronteira, is a cultural equipment intendedSave
to
raise social awareness on the several perspectives over theSIGNbattle occurred on April 6th
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1384, and its
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15/6/2020 Center for Interpretation of The Battle of Atoleiros / Gonçalo Byrne Arquitectos + Oficina Ideias em Linha | ArchDaily

importance in the context of the dynastic disputes between the kingdoms of Portugal and Castela, by the
end of the XIVth Century.

Given the impossibility on plotting the Interpretation Centre on-site, in the battlefield area, the City
Council approved its plot in the town core, on a location with high visibility and inserted in an urban park
system that simulates and evokes the old battlefield.During the visit to the Interpretation Centre, visitors
will experience different visual perspectives of the battle field, but also about the history, through its
protagonists and authors, led by the hand of the painter Martins Barata.

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15/6/2020 Center for Interpretation of The Battle of Atoleiros / Gonçalo Byrne Arquitectos + Oficina Ideias em Linha | ArchDaily

A large bench, at the end of the exhibition circuit, presents urban park in all its dimensions, rehearsing
another exhibition discourse, this made of vegetables and inert elements, a sculptural dimension that
simulates the plains and the imagination refers to the Battle of Atoleiros.

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Materials

The body of the building recalls the tactility of the traditional medieval construction, presenting rough
textured surfaces, achieved by the use of pigmented concrete with raw and irregular expression, very
close to the primal textures achieved by human hand. This texture is enhanced by interposing lines of
schist slabs in the horizontal joints of the building.

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15/6/2020 Center for Interpretation of The Battle of Atoleiros / Gonçalo Byrne Arquitectos + Oficina Ideias em Linha | ArchDaily

As a whole, the building generates a gravitational presence; almost an earth sculpture dyed in its own
tonalities, evoking time in the spontaneous patina patterns, resembling a stained vertical battlefield,
between a small and a larger body, like the two armies in conflict.

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15/6/2020 Center for Interpretation of The Battle of Atoleiros / Gonçalo Byrne Arquitectos + Oficina Ideias em Linha | ArchDaily

Structure

The combined use of concrete walls and a structure formed by a concrete column / beam / slab system,
allowed maximal area exploitation and the display of generous exhibition areas.

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15/6/2020 Center for Interpretation of The Battle of Atoleiros / Gonçalo Byrne Arquitectos + Oficina Ideias em Linha | ArchDaily

Through the completion of consoles the structure had acquired more complexity, allowing lateral glazing
and motivating an open relationship between inner and outside areas, between exhibition and urban
park.

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Environment

Portuguese southern landscape has a golden / reddish tone. The reddish wash of the building tries to
emulate those colors and patterns, therefore reinforcing a sense of belonging.

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Color and textures are also enhanced by the usage of the same pitch used on the urban park paving
system, serving as an essential framework for the Interpretation Center, yet reinterpreting the battlefield
original landscape.

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Project location
Address: Fronteira, Portugal

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Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.

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Gonçalo Byrne Arquitectos, Lda.

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Oficina Ideias em linha – Arquitectura e Design, Lda.

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