Elderly Day Centre | CVDB ARQUITECTOS

The Elderly Day Centre is located on the southern front of the main square of Cartaxo, Portugal. It presents itself to the street as an opaque body consisting of white concrete walls, and to the city main square as a large transparent glass facade. It proposes a strong relationship with one of the most distinguished public parks of the city, towards which the main room and the esplanade face. The main space is wide open allowing for the sun to shine through in the morning whereas in the afternoon, the light is filtered through a metal canopy.
The transparency attained by the large glass façade enables the building to dematerialize itself and to blend within the landscape.
The high ceiling of the glazed space in contrast to the smaller spaces contained by the concrete walls has a public quality and a diversity of scales that evoke multiple memories and experiences.
The white concrete walls were pre-fabricated and then put into place. Their massive presence contrasts with the vertical proportion of the glass wall on the northern side. The entrance is located between two walls and protected by the metal roof of the building.