![Alcantara Wastewater Treatment Plant Refurbishment / Aires Mateus, Frederico Valsassina, João Nunes - Exterior Photography](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/52e6/3b18/e8e4/4e1f/4000/01aa/newsletter/02.jpg?1390820097)
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Architects: Aires Mateus, Frederico Valsassina Arquitectos, João Nunes
- Year: 2011
Text description provided by the architects. In Alcantara Wastewater Treatment Plant’s modernization project, some environmental preservation reasons imposed the creation of a green roof. Furthermore, the program foresaw two service buildings: one for monitoring the Plant, and a second one to house the public company headquarter.
![Alcantara Wastewater Treatment Plant Refurbishment / Aires Mateus, Frederico Valsassina, João Nunes - Exterior Photography](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/52e6/3b19/e8e4/4e99/0600/01dd/medium_jpg/01.jpg?1390820099)
In this project, the different programs overlap: the plant is covered with a “thick habitable roof” which houses the facilities, corridors and other services. In a territorial scale, the green roof extends the natural hills of Alcantara Valley, reducing the damage the road infrastructures cause to the area.
![Alcantara Wastewater Treatment Plant Refurbishment / Aires Mateus, Frederico Valsassina, João Nunes - Image 7 of 13](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/52e6/3b52/e8e4/4e08/1d00/01a7/newsletter/04.jpg?1390820167)
Within the roof the building integrates itself. By shaping the topography, habitability conditions are generated. The administrative areas are defined by a limiting wall, a glass plane and scattered volumes with secondary functions; those elements separate the internal corridors from the workspaces.
![Alcantara Wastewater Treatment Plant Refurbishment / Aires Mateus, Frederico Valsassina, João Nunes - Image 9 of 13](https://images.adsttc.com/media/images/52e6/4429/e8e4/4e1f/4000/01ac/newsletter/DGerais-Planta_Piso_01.jpg?1390822415)