The suburban landscape of Guimarães, Portugal, is a heterogeneous and fragmented built environment, which is the result of the economic and social instability of the Vale do Ave region.
Martins Architecture Office responds to this condition by designing an enormous metal shell containing coloured volumes with complex’s offices and facilities.
The outer envelope becomes a new technological and aseptic context, in which buildings recall local vernacular architecture.
In stark contrast to the architectural language of their shell, the home-like structures are covered with rough plaster and face a productive and completely artificial landscape.