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PROMONTORIO . Merge Architects

Located in Church Street, in the hearth of Harvard Square, next to the university’s famous yard, the plot occupies what remains today of the former Harvard Square Theatre (HST). The latter, opened in 1926 with a single 1,900-seats’ theatre with a 40-feet screen, was subsequently partitioned into various small screens, gradually declining until it was closed in2012. During the many decades in operation, the Harvard Square Theatre hosted all kinds of notable venues, from Jean Luc Godard and Woody Allen movie premieres, to Sonic Youth and Grateful Dead concerts, leaving a relevant cultural memory in both the City of Cambridge community and the many generations of students that visited the building. Continue reading PROMONTORIO . Merge

PROMONTORIO . photos: © João Guimarães

The deep plot is located in one of Lisbon’s most rich and intriguing historical districts which includes a mélange of 18th- and 19th-century buildings in addition to some relevant city landmarks. Designed and built as part of the Marquis of Pombal masterplan following the 1755 earthquake, the Amoreiras garden is marked by the impressive arches of the 18th- century Aguas Livres aqueduct which ends at the vast reservoir Mãe d’Água. Continue reading PROMONTORIO

Office Promontorio

This small 4-storey building is located in the main square of the medieval town of Alcacer do Sal, in the vicinity of Comporta. Shaped as an ‘L’ opened to the Sado river with its cafes and restaurants, the square is the informal centre of the community from which springs the riverfront promenade and the parallel commercial street. Continue reading Office Promontorio

Promontorio . photos: © João Carmo Simões

Located on the Lisbon riverfront, between the 17th-century Convent of Grilo and the ongoing Beato Creative Hub, which hosts many of the start-up companies springing from the Web Summit, this old wine and olive oil warehouse has been converted into a co-working space that, without losing its historical character, is flexible and friendly. The 3-storey building has two street frontages, respectively towards North, on Grilo street, and towards South, on Manutenção street. Toward West, it is adjacent to other warehousing facilities, while towards East, it has its own courtyard and borders a vacant plot. Continue reading Promontorio

Promontorio

In the beginning of the 1980’s, architect and theorist Peter Eisenman coined the concept of “Cities of Artificial Excavation” in the context of a design competition for the 1987 IBA (Internationale Bauausstellung Berlin). The concept that would in fact characterize the work of the American architect between 1978 and 1988 was both a response to the superficial recovery of history by postmodernism and an operative device for radical design. In a way, it proposed a framework for assertively acknowledging the condition of the end of history, assuming its fictional dimension. “Artificial excavation” was the ability to invent an archaeology as a kind of abstract memorial density achieved by a reversed process. This comes to mind when considering the public installation completed by the Portuguese office Promontorio at the Belem Cultural Centre, in Lisbon. The programme A Square in Summer has been implemented by architect and curator in residence André Tavares of the Centre’s architecture space, Garagem Sul, as a way to activate public interest for this cultural institution with ephemeral interventions by architects. This year’s installation “Open-Sky Architecture” by Promontorio, is made up of a double colonnade structure that defines two smaller courtyards within the Centre’s main square. The installation is singlehandedly devised in piled-up blocks of recycled cork agglomerate, as per the sponsor’s pre-condition, and comprises a relatively open programme consisting of an open-air auditorium for the screening of a film cycle during Lisbon’s hot summer evenings. Under such tight material and budget constraints, Promontorio’s project is tremendously sharp and intentional.
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