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This project is based on the adaptation of a number of buildings in the historic centre of Torres Vedras so as to accommodate an innovative arts centre dedicated to music, performance, new media and the visual arts. The ambitions of the young institution, as well as the willingness to integrate and rehabilitate the urban ensemble – including a small housing scheme complete with its own street – determined that the Transforma headquarters should play on the ambiguity between public and private. While a cafeteria in the lower floor potentially expands onto the adjacent plaza through the main entrance, a newly minted urban pathway extends the existing alley to connect different levels of the city. Offering diverse spatial experiences, including the possibility of public passage, this path gives access to the multipurpose, kidney shaped auditorium that constitutes the central core of the arts organization. In general, public facades are minimally transformed, while new internal “organs” push against the old walls as a set of volumes and capsules linked to new functions and uses. Different colours are used to characterize these capsules as a basic process to claim their presence and exceptional character.

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