Comments on: Custoias Civic Centre / Guilherme Machado

By: john obrien

john obrien — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:35:10 +0000

spend some time looking at donald judd and you just might be able to see the beauty in this building.

By: Arman

Arman — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 19:00:02 +0000

A great example on how to make an appealling small public building with very few elements, in a very difficult and unappealling site. Still, there could have been a little more effort on furnishing, especially that “espaco polivalente” room: those seats/sofas and tables designed by Álvaro Siza look out of place (they aren’t especially good-looking anyway), and if that wasn’t enough, they’re really uncomfortable and really expensive. More could have been accomplished with less. It’s not perfect, but it’s good enough to stand out of most. Nowadays, that’s excellent.

By: Kaud

Kaud — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 18:24:22 +0000

well, probably the building does not looks like
very attractive such as civic center ( the main hall is quite boring, right), but the coloured staircase is well done, may be some cheap arrangement, but who knows the clients requirements??please don’t argue the way students love to do, i mean without thinking about costs and committments…as the architecture was just a paper and imagination thing.An other interesting issue is the exterior treatment , for sure not the most imaginative ever seen, but the orange lights coming out from the interiors are just backlighting the facade in a very charming way.

By: gcarlo

gcarlo — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 01:17:56 +0000

It does not reinforce the street line, but well done exterior work.

By: orlopesdesa

orlopesdesa — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 09:58:34 +0000

There are a lot of ignorent architects who can’t understand architecture and context. Thats a thing Portuguese and spanish tried to explain to the world in the last decades, that the building cannot be detached from its surroundings, that its the place that shapes de form of the architecture. Thats why, a lot of you simply copy the reviews, because you don’t undersatnd that architecture is not only the form. Sorry my english.

By: papier.carbone

papier.carbone — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 19:10:56 +0000

wow, this is the most boring interior setting I’ve ever seen

By: OH.Architecture

OH.Architecture — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 07:31:00 +0000

We think this building deals very well with the urban fabric of a Portuguese coastal town

By: inaki garai

inaki garai — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 17:00:14 +0000

hello from spain, i think you are cruel with the design, we must understand portugesse culture. they have been brave to decide to open WINDOWS and not a glass curtian wall,
this is something we, modern architects,have forgotten to design

By: JUST COOL Design Blog

JUST COOL Design Blog — Sat, 30 Aug 2008 12:27:41 +0000

i agree, this is pretty ugly, unimaginative and incohesive design. maybe they tried to make up for the boring generic structural design outside with the loud hideous interior colors inside – it doesnt float my boat – sorry, its a thumbs down for me…

By: Jan

Jan — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 20:44:31 +0000

This is a new building?? Sorry, but it looks like a 1960s bus terminal to me. I don’t see any real communication between the inside and the outside. Especially the leisure room in the large photo above doesn’t appeal to me at all, it hasn’t got any human proportions, with only some small windows and the bare naked ventilation tubes under the ceiling. Sorry, it just doesn’t fit for a room where people of different ages, background etc. might want to meet.

The previously featured Bow Wow buildung or so many other great buildings featured on this site give good examples how to build houses and public spaces that communicate with their environment and really make you want to spend time in/on there.