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Architects: RBD.APP- Arquitectos
- Area: 1200 m²
- Year: 2014
- Photographs: Fernando Guerra | FG+SG
Text description provided by the architects. The Museum is the outcome of competitions that took place in 1997 (architectural rehabilitation), in 2002 (museum program accomplishment) and in 2014 (a new rehabilitation). The rehabilitation of the warehouse and the carpentry of the Belém Palace took advantage of the potential of the space, introducing an appropriate scale to its new function.
The Museum configures a white box coated with Tassos marble on the floor and walls, that constitutes an anonymous homogeneous receptacle, ready to receive the pieces to expose. Their organization frees the space, in order not to have loose display cases, referring these as a whole assembly with the walls.
The multiplicity of points of view stems from the articulation of the different areas and of their fluidity; it structures routes and suggests sensations through environments that are created by materialities, pieces and by the vibrations of the surface under the changing light of the Portuguese flag’s chromatic immanence. Also, once looking to the pieces inside the display cases, one can notice that the optic fibber allows you to see the light and not the lighting projectors.
The rehabilitation of the Museum, to commemorate its ten years of existence, proposes a new image relative to the expository structure related with the predicted future expansion. It was taken into account the sustainability of the project choosing the principles of reduce (quantity of materials), reuse (materials and systems), recycle (display cases) and renew (the use of materials selecting them from renewable resources without damaging the balance of the environment).
The use of existent materials and display cases with new functions and adaptations promotes the economic sustainability of the exhibition. There was a need to communicate with the public and inform them of its existence, content and activities. So we have created three translucent trees with interior lighting in the yard to suggest a protected path of the sun and rain, welcoming those who come from the entrance area to the Museum exhibition.
