Limenochora | E13 winner

“O que há mais na terra, é paisagem. Por muito que do resto lhe falte, a paisagem sempre sobrou, abundância que só por milagre infatigável se explica, porquanto a paisagem é sem dúvida anterior ao homem, e apesar disso, de tanto existir, não se acabou ainda”

(J.Saramago, Levantado do chão)

If there is anything of which Azenha do Mar owns plenty, that is landscape. The proposed development of this village is guided by landscape, where most of its unexpressed potential lies. The fishing seaport is implemented with facilities related to the sea which become part of the cliff profile. At the edge towards the countryside new activities relink the urban tissue to the fields. These new poles will trigger the socio-economic growth of Azenha as a self-standing community, based on a clever and sustainable use of disposable resources: fishing, agriculture, renewable energy and tourism.

Micro-scale actions on existing housing and new adaptable houses turn the existing uncompleted allotment into a new relationship system, where the sense of community is enhanced by small shared spaces and functions inside blocks. The new promenade looking at the sea becomes part of the Rota Vicentina, thus generating a continuity between Azenha and its landscape. This connection, together with the rediscovery of traditional self-construction techniques and materials, will rebuild the identity of this small place. Our main goal was to reconciliate the individual needs of privacy with the collective necessities of a community. The proposed housed typology comes from the traditional portoguese house: one storey pitched roof building. But beyond this archetypal image emerges an innovative reinterpretation of existing housing modes in Azenha. The traditional portuguese house adapted to the specific needs of modern society. We believe that the idea of house in a place like Azenha has to be tighltly connected to productive activites. At the same time the rapidly and unpredictably changing needs of such a small community can be met only through buildings which result adaptable in their configuration and flexible in their uses. In order to reach this adaptability, the house services and facilities are designed as an autonomous core that could adapt to different layouts of the living spaces, whose divisions are realized with light, prefabricated and movable systems. Differently from what happens in the existing houses, the layout is not only rigidly normalized by standards but founded on the idea of variety of spaces. The use of colours, economical and traditional materials, recognizable elements like the tall chimneys help the construction of a shared community identity. The same principles guide the design of those facilities which will contribute to the sustainable development of Azenha: multipurpose spaces, adaptable to different common uses, from production to social and cultural activities.