Office in Silves

Silves is a medieval city, in the west side of the Algarve, that still conserves its traditional character and its architectural references to a past history. Geographically situated in the Barrocal, the area in between the coastline and the mountains that goes from east to west of this south region, its a place of harsh warm climate in the summer, which needs a certain type of architecture to control that issue.

This project has an extraordinary simple programme, its an infra-structure designed to be an office, therefor it has only a small toilet in the ground floor and another one in the mezzanine, where the more privileged working area is.

Made entirely in apparent concrete, presents it self as a compact volume, perforated in certain specific moments, like a piece of a castle walls, relates conceptually with the landscape context in order to became part of it.

The thick walls and small openings suggest immediately a strategy to solve problems of intense natural sun light and strong heat, revealing an intention of reuse a traditional construction type, built with modern technology and modern materials.

On the inside, the light spreads through the white walls and ceiling creating the perfect indirect light for a working space.