Riverside Building

MJARC Architects was invited to renovate a building that has been a feature of Santa Comba Dão’s landscape for over 20 years. Located on the hillside of the river Dão, the pre-existing building had only its structure and had not been completed. In this sense, the main aim of the rehabilitation was to reuse and revitalize the existing structure, avoiding demolition and starting again. Due to its privileged location, the aim was also to reduce the building’s mass, opening it up to the landscape.

The residential building, with 4 floors above ground, consists of 28 apartments of types T2 and T3. The old apartments have been changed, adapting them to new functions, and the balconies were reconfigured through cutting. In this way, it was possible to maintain more than 90% of the original structure, including beams, columns and slabs, and 75% of the original core, resulting in a built-in carbon saving, which is in line with the sustainable construction practices that guided the project.

The building’s façade was clad in bamboo wood from responsible forests with international LEED, BREEAM and FSC certifications. This choice underlines the commitment to sustainability and environmental responsibility. In addition, the building’s zinc roof creates shading zones in the terrace areas, reinforcing the horizontality of the structure. On the one hand, the original structure was reused and, on the other, the building was given a contemporary image in which the interior and exterior spaces enhance the natural beauty of the region, offering panoramic views of the surrounding area.

In the same vein, gardens and access routes to the building were created with landscaped areas where the road and parking lot were previously located.

The project team and the developers achieved their initial ambitious goal: to reuse the existing building as much as possible and to set a new, high-quality standard in the adaptive reuse of the building. Through sustainable rehabilitation, a space that was obsolete and strongly marked the landscape is now integrated into it.