The town of Alvega, Portugal is located on the banks of the Tejo River. Following a public competition, ateliermob was selected to design a canoeing station on a beach along the river. The building, which contains storage facilities, changing rooms, a cafeteria and a dock, had to be designed to withstand regular winter flooding as well as minimize soil degradation.

From the architects:

The building is divided into three parts, separated by circulation lanes, which result from the different programs. To the east, the largest body is the storage space of the vessels and storage compartments, relating directly to the dock area (which already existed in the northeast end of the intervention area). The middle body agglutinates the sanitary facilities and changing rooms. Finally, to the west, in the smaller scale body, is located the cafeteria. These three bodies are installed on a concrete platform supported on pillars, which extends north and west, giving rise to an esplanade that was constituted for community support, the function already done in the place.

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The proposed structure sought to improve the site, characterizing it as a renewed space for leisure and meeting for the local community, in addition to the associated nautical activities. Thus, the impacts were minimized, significantly reducing soil impermeabilization and movement of land, and maintaining the vegetation characteristics, safeguarding the natural landscape.

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