Largo Camões (second scheme)
Alcácer do Sal, Portugal
2024–2020
The site faces the main square of the medieval town of Alcácer do Sal, 80 km
south-west of Lisbon. Shaped as an elongated ‘V’ facing the Sado river, the square, with its cafes and restaurants, is the civic centre of the community, running parallel to the town’s commercial street and from where the riverfront promenade starts. Replacing a former 17th-century building, demolished due to its imminent collapse, the prominent and now vacant corner plot mediates the relationship between the riverfront and the inner commercial street, while also crowning the square.
This second scheme, following the failure of the previous one, was submitted and approved in 2020, and started from the premise of matching the volume of the previously demolished historical building. With approximately the same built-up area split into a ground-floor garage and two apartment units — one of which is a duplex — the new volume consists of two raised storeys plus an attic prism with a terracotta-tiled gable roof. A non-covered section of the roof allows for a terrace with a small pool. On the second floor, much like in the first scheme, a corner loggia is posited as a compositional hinge. Below this loggia, and given the plot’s chamfered corner, the volume protrudes at a right angle, descending into a soft curve. The same vernacular inspiration permeates the façade composition and the various seemingly aleatory details, including ‘unplanned’ windows, cove-like arched porches and the belly-shaped iron window guards.

Ground- to second-level floor plan

Axonometric perspectives
North, east and south elevations

Illustration towards east

Illustration towards west

Illustration of south riverfront elevation
Location: Largo Camões 1, Alcácer do Sal, Portugal
Client: Habitat Invest
Associate architects: João Cravo
Scope of services: Architecture
Project brief: Apartment building
Footprint: 200 sq. m
Gross floor area: 558 sq. m
Project status: 2020 – 2025 (estimated completion)
Illustration and rendering: Promontorio