Obidos is a small historic town in central Portugal surrounded by forests and agricultural land. For the construction of a nearby technological park, a site “in an open field” was chosen, where materials for the construction of a large highway were previously stored. At the same time, the customers wanted to receive not only the main building of the park, but also the "piazza".
Architects turned to historical examples of such squares, but they are all defined by the urban environment - the buildings that surround them with different functions. The countryside near Obidos could not provide anything of the kind, so Meaglia and his colleagues found other, local samples. The first of them is terreiro, "yard" - the village square, where festivals, fairs, concerts, etc. are held. It can be surrounded by buildings, but often it is not formally limited space. The cloister cloister became the second prototype. The architects considered the location of the public space in the center of the complex to be a good decision: employees of the technopark resident companies will communicate more often, exchanging ideas if their paths cross in the courtyard.
Also, the surrounding monasteries and large farms "offered" a variant of the optimal interaction of the new building with the landscape: the horizontally elongated "strip" building minimally violates the beauty of the landscape.
As a result, the “piazza” has become a courtyard where the pavement gives way to grass in places, creating a “natural” effect. The L-shaped volume of the first floor was sunk into the ground, and a hill enclosing the courtyard was poured out of the soil removed during the construction. The main volume of the building is a square "frame" with six "anchor" points.
At the bottom of the building are common areas: the Fablab multifunctional hall, a small dining room, shops and main technical areas. The "frame" houses the offices of the resident companies. All spaces of the technopark are planned according to a single module and therefore can easily change configuration if the needs of residents change.
The lower part of the building is made of rough concrete and corten steel with a small amount of wood: these “heavy” materials emphasize the earthy, “telluric” character of this area. The office part, on the other hand, seems light and light: this impression is created by white steel trusses and perforated panels, as well as glazing.
