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do mal o menos

do mal o menos

Coimbra, PT

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João Mendes Ribeiro - Casa da Escrita

By domalomenos
Jul 15, '11 4:31 AM EST
Night view from the garden. © 2011 – do mal o menos
Night view from the garden. © 2011 – do mal o menos

Recently awarded the Diogo Castilho 2011 Architectural Prize, the Casa da Escrita – former Casa do Arco and residence of the poet João Cochofel – is located in the old upper part of Coimbra and is inserted in a dense urban set of predominantly residential narrow winding streets.

The program asked for the contemporary reuse of the building, adaptating it to new functions, reconciling patrimonial and symbolic values with the present demands for comfort and flexibility embodied in the "emptying" and simplification of the living spaces.

Moreover, all the furnish of Casa da Escrita was carefully selected in order to provide the adequacy of the new spaces to a new functional program and to a wide audience, without setting aside the reference to the original space and the house’s atmosphere of comfort and intimacy.
The house is now an open archive, writing workshop and temporary residence for writers supporting a broad set of different activities and interactions between literary writing and other artistic creations.