The Tower
Architect: STILL urban design
Location: Monção, Portugal | View Map
Project Year: 2018
Category: Heritages
从一开始，这个地点就向我们灌输了一个明确的意图：与这个地方、风景以及附近的环境（山堡）和遥远的环境（维诺维德葡萄园提供的景观）合作。从某种意义上说，这件作品在其建筑、生产和象征性的演变过程中，宣称这是人类占领这片土地的祖先，这一点势在必行。人类一直认为有必要用门希尔、十字架或塔楼来标点地平线和标记自己的领土。这篇文章是对这一意图的当代重新诠释。从远处可以看到与垂直度相关的圆，它的外部形状和颜色与周围环境融为一体。只有在散步中，人们才能体验到这一内部的启示，充满活力，向天空敞开，光线充足，最后攀登到葡萄园景观、山谷和蒙克阿诺山脉之间的顶部。这件作品呈管状，竖立，由预制的模块化混凝土环构成，允许它从外部思考，从内部体验。在建设性和图像层面上，其目的是建立与这些山堡建筑的正式联系，这些山堡建筑是圆形的，通常放置在景观的高处。在它的象征性维度，这种形式寻求建立一种联系在地球和精神元素。圆是“完全”的形式-没有开始或结束-因此，它与永恒和神圣联系在一起；它是天堂与地球连接的象征，因此它反映了精神领域和物质领域之间的联系。
Right from the outset, the site instilled us with a clear intention: to work with the place, the landscape and both the nearby context – the hill fort – and the faraway context – the landscape provided by the vineyards of vinho verde. It became imperative that the piece claimed, in some way, that ancestry of man's occupation of the territory in its architectural, productive and symbolic evolution. Man has always felt the need to punctuate the horizon and mark his territory using menhirs, crosses or towers. This piece is a contemporary reinterpretation of that intention. The circle allied to verticality can be seen from afar, integrated in its surroundings by its external shape and color. Only in the walk can one experience this revelation of the interior, vibrant, open to the sky, full of light, and ending with a climb to the top between the vineyard landscape, the valleys and the mountains of Monção. The piece has a tubular shape, erect, made up of prefabricated modular concrete rings, allowing its contemplation from the outside and its experience from the inside. At a constructive and iconographic level, the intention was to establish a formal connection with these hill fort constructions – which are round– placed, more often than not, in high places in the landscape. In its symbolic dimension, this form seeks to establish a connection between earthly and spiritual elements. The circle is the “total” form – without beginning or end – and, thus, is associated with eternity and the divine; it is a symbol of heaven in its connection to earth, and therefore it reflects the link between the spiritual and the material realms.
This project was a collaboration with the artist Miguel Seabra.
