The Lisbon Smile Clinic

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Intervening in an existing building is always a challenge. This intervention in particular, in a modernist building next to one of the main arteries of Lisbon, presents the natural challenges of the adequacy of the proposed program, keeping always in mind the integration and respect for the existing architecture. The proposal is a medical clinic, which aims to transmit the feeling of a hotel to its users. Our raw materials are two floors under a monumental gallery of a High-rise building of the early sixties. Two stories facade with great plate glass windows, in the image of the large American Department Stores of the early 20th century. The design of the facade is preserved, replacing only the already degraded frames and those that distorted the original design of the building. Inside, you can feel the cadence of the monumental structure of concrete columns and beams. This cadence helps us articulate space. The organization of offices, circulations and waiting rooms happens naturally under this rhythmic note. The colour palette is also given by the place. Ochre tones with brass notes mark the passages and the noble spaces of the intervention. The remaining white surfaces work as a canvas to highlight those components. Everything develops around the main staircase, hinged space of the entire intervention. The reception area and the waiting rooms develop naturally around this element. Translucent screens mark the separation between these spaces, giving them various levels of privacy. A large corridor that accesses the offices, intercepts this central core in a luminous zigzag.