Cultural House of Pinhel by depA

Rehabilitation carried out by depA of Palacio del Viejo Obispo in Pihnel's city, a building of eighteen century, in which stands out the sensibility which the study faces this type of interventions.

The study depA has been the manager of rehabilitating Palacio del Viejo Obispo in Pihnel's city, a building that suffered countless changes in the last decades, in which the study has tried to return to the building the original matrix, the have served for it of immaculate white interiors and a small glass intervention courtyard building.

Description of the project by depA

The creation of Pinhel's Cultural House allowed the rehabilitation of the city's old Bishop's Palace, a building of the eighteenth century, that had undergone countless changes during the last decades to accommodate several different programs, such as Military and Police Headquarters, School and Student Residence. The project proposal reinterprets the evolutionary history of the building and attempts to constitute another important step in its long history. Without any prejudice or fear, the proposal balances between the assurance of permanence of the original matrix of the building and the injection of a new dignity in its disfigured and misfited interior layouts.

Thus, and still considering the need for a low budget intervention and a short period for the construction work, the project contained two phases: the first - named subtraction - extracted all superfluous elements, leaving only those which were useful to the spaces were intended to create. Simultaneously, all scars and textures of the subtraction were left untouchable. Exploring and highlighting the idea of palimpsest that represents the interior of the building itself, those textural surfaces were unified through color, thus ensuring dignity and comfort to accommodate the new programmatic features. With this "cleansing", a second intervention phase started – named addition - where new materials were introduced and finishings were executed, restoring the original nobility of the building.

Text.- depA.

CREDITS. TECHNICAL SHEET.-

Architects.- depA.
Collaborators.- Luís Oliveira, Edgar Brito, NCREP.
Dates.- Project.- January/March 2014. Construction.- June/August 2014.
Budget.- 284,000 €.
Intervention Area.- 1040 sqm (interiors) + 306 sqm (courtyard).
Client.- Câmara Municipal de Pinhel.
Museology.- Glorybox.
Location.- Pinhel, Portugal.

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Access. Cultural House of Pinhel by depA. Photograph © José Campos.

Cultural House of Pinhel by depA. Photograph © José Campos.

Courtyard and intervention. Cultural House of Pinhel by depA. Photograph © José Campos.

Stairs. Cultural House of Pinhel by depA. Photograph © José Campos.

Corner detail. Cultural House of Pinhel by depA. Photograph © José Campos.

Detail of the scars of the building. Cultural House of Pinhel by depA. Photograph © José Campos.

Inside vision. Cultural House of Pinhel by depA. Photograph © José Campos.

Table. Cultural House of Pinhel by depA. Photograph © José Campos.

Exhibition view. Cultural House of Pinhel by depA. Photograph © José Campos.

Casa Cultural de Pinhel por depA. Fotografía © José Campos.

Meeting room. Cultural House of Pinhel by depA. Photograph © José Campos.

Inside image. Cultural House of Pinhel by depA. Photograph © José Campos.

Cultural House of Pinhel by depA. Photograph © José Campos. Click above to see larger.rafía © José Campos.

Facade at nightfall. Cultural House of Pinhel by depA. Photograph © José Campos.

Courtyard image. Cultural House of Pinhel by depA. Photograph © José Campos.

Plan of project. Cultural House of Pinhel by depA. Click above to see larger.

Section. Cultural House of Pinhel by depA. Click above to see larger.

Axonometric view of a detail. Cultural House of Pinhel by depA. Click above to see larger.

1887 plan and 1994 plan. Cultural House of Pinhel by depA. Click above to see larger.

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More information

Carlos Azevedo, Carlos M. Guimarães, Luís Sobral, João Crisóstomo. depA

The depA collective was created in Porto in 2009. It is now run by Carlos Azevedo, João Crisóstomo and Luís Sobral and its staff covers the areas of architecture and the social sciences.

depA is focused on researching architectural practice through active listening on the idiosyncrasies of each project. There is a specific commitment to the dimension of time in the interventions: ranging from the interpretation of existing structures and architectural heritage to the open and progressive reintegration of spatial systems.

Some examples are the Casa da Cultura de Pinhel (Pinhel House of Culture), winner of the prize for best museum practice and an honourable mention by the Portuguese Association of Museology (2016), Casa do Rosário (Rosário House), winner of the Concreta Under 40 award (2017), honourable mention in the Nuno Teotónio Pereira prize in 2019 and honourable mention in the João de Almada Prize in 2019 and the Pavilhão do Lago (Lake Pavilion), winner of the FAD awards, in 2018.

Alongside this depA seeks to keep its practices and investigations relevant by taking part in competitions, which are special moments for wide-ranging and compelling research. Among them is the first prize achieved for the design of the Santiago Ydañez Museum of Contemporary Art (2010), in Jaén, Spain; the second place in the public tender for the renewal of Quinta de Baixo (2014), in Porto, and the first place for the design of the Mechanized Pedestrian Paths(2017), in collaboration with Pablo Pita architects, which will connect the riverside area of Porto to the upper town.

The collective has also designed more artistically focused projects that challenge the approach to architectural techniques, as well as being catalysts to a more pluralistic and cross-disciplinary conceptualisation. It was invited to design the set of the Fórum do Futuro (Forum of the Future) in 2018 and, that same year, Pavilhão do Lago (Lake Pavilion), built at Serralves Park as part of the 32nd São Paulo Bienalle - ‘Incerteza Viva’ (Living Uncertainty), was selected to be exhibited at the 16th International Architecture Exhibition, as part of the 2018 Biennale di Venezia, while Sulco (2019) is part of the Desencaminharte project, which recognises and values artistic production in the Alto Minho region of Portugal. Alongside these projects, depA has also worked with Daniel Steegman, Lais Myrrha and Dayana Lucas, in close collaboration for the production of their projects.

In 2019, depA was awarded the tender for the curatorship of the Portuguese representation at the 17th International Architecture Exhibition at La Biennale di Venezia, in 2020, with the In Conflict project.