Public Space

Project: useless but/therefore essential

Architect: Federico Strada

Client: ARKxSITE

Status: Competition 2020

Location: Algarve, Portugal

Materials: brick, timber

Visualizer: Federico Strada

Scale: 70mq

Type: public space, religious

The platform of international architecture competitions ARKxSITE proposed the design of a panoramic point. The location is interesting: between ocean and land, on the Portuguese coast of the Algarve region. My intention is to enhance the place and amaze the visitor. First of all, I chose to place my intervention next to a ruined wall, belonging to a military structure in operation in the World War II.

The project consists of basic elements: a brick wall and a wooden roof. The wall welcomes the visitor and is articulated in such a way as to make him perceive the entrance to an important place, showing him little by little. The roof instead, in addition to protecting from atmospheric agents, has the task of framing a portion of the landscape in order to meditate.

In my opinion, architecture in order to be good architecture, must not steal the scene, but enhance the context and the emotions it confers. As an architect, what attracts me are clarity and rigor, linearity, apparent ease and simplicity as an end.