Date: 2004/2006
Location: Carcavelos, Portugal 
Area: 23.000 sqm
Client: ESUC, Câmara Municipal de Cascais
Conception/Construction Competition 1st Prize
Project Coordinators:
João Ferreira Nunes, Carlos Ribas
Project Collaborators:
Marta Jorge, Sílvia Basílio, Ana Marques, Mafalda Silva, Mariana Sargo
Architecture:
Iñaki Zoilo
Speciality:
Eng. Miguel de Andrade
Eng. Alexandra de Rosa
Eng. Cristiano Pereira
Photography:
Fernando Guerra
The actual limits of the area result from the dynamic of appropriation, consolidated by the recent constitution of a public garden and by several structures, memories of a most cultured past. The design of the public garden develops a complex network of peripheral pathways that join, in a fairly unclear way, three fundamental elements: a large lawn, a lake and a pine-wood with a hill and a small tower on its peak. Over this structure emerges a group of isolated situations, materially and functionally disconnected: the tennis courts with their container/office, a kiosk, a pigeon-house, the different pavements with their adaptations and very noticeably the un-ruled use of vegetation.
The proposal points out towards the re-structuring of the area, acknowledging the identified sub-units, with its determinant value. The functional organization of the proposal establishes different and autonomous nucleus with diverse uses, closely related with each other. The clearing remains as a large lawn area, allowing a heavy, free and informal use. It will be limited by a new constructed hedge which will enclose the playground for the older children. This hedge enhances the perception of a diffuse limit.