Architect Louise Braverman from New York has designed
the new Centro de Artes Nadir Afonso, a sustainable art
museum slated to be built in 2010 in the northern
Portuguese town of Boticas. The museum will exhibit the
artwork of the renowned living Portuguese artist, Nadir
Afonso. Formerly a practicing architect who early in his
career worked for Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer, Nadir
Afonso has been both making art and writing about
aesthetics for decades. His foundation will donate 80 works
of art to the center.
The museum is divided into two distinct but connected
parts, an urbane cultural structure and a park covered
below-grade exhibition hall. The urban face of the building
consists of an above grade double height entry hall with a
second story balcony providing entrance to the auditorium
that together with a multipurpose space, gift shop and
office contribute to the civic stature of this growing
portuguese town. A large ceramic tile mural created by
Nadir Afonso will itnroduce pedestrians to the work of the
artist. The below grade exhibition space, carved out of the
natural granite ledge hillside and covered with a slope,
sustainable planted green roof park, functions as a
connection to the town.
The design of the Centro de Artes Nadir Afonso is
integrally intertwined with the urban development of the
town of Boticas for it will create a cultural extension of the
emerging town center. Strategically located at the
intersection of newly built national highways, the museum
is poised to become a global destination that will expose
the art of Nadir Afonso, to a much larger audience as well
as serve as a cultural and economic engine for the local
economy and surrounding region.
