Date: 2004/2005

Location: Aroeira, Portugal

Area: 4920 sqm

Client: Eng.^o Manuel Rodrigues

Project coordinators:
João Ferreira Nunes

Project collaborators:
Margarida Quelhas, Ana Paiva, Joana Barreto

The garden appears as a continuation of the various volumes which constitute the projected building. Similar to the building, it is organized in a geometrical language, with different areas, to which correspond different treatments and different functions.

These areas form a pattern, which is closely attached to the building and which in the whole constitutes the space of the garden, in the sense that it is the most formal, humanized, cared for space, with a clear and visible border between the garden itself and the rest of the area of the lot, which should be preserved.
In this garden one can find various resting areas, passage areas, contemplation areas, leisure areas, framing areas.
In their majority these are permeable areas, which can be divided in predominantly green areas, predominantly inactive areas or yet mixed areas.
In the green areas one can see three layers of vegetation: herbaceous, bushy and trees; proposing areas which will be more or less densely planted, according to their function concerning the use of the space.
In the inactive areas, we propose basically two types of materials, stone and wood, the latter being the most used material. The idea is to recycle, using pine-tree trunks, maintaining their vertical orientation with different heights, to obtain areas with different functions; in the mixed areas, the conjugation of an inactive, wood and green elements, a bush, to form strips with double function, framing and staying areas.