Fernando Guerra

Category: Bond
Citation

The Centro de Artes Nadir Afonso, a cultural center and exhibition space, pays homage to the native artist of Boticas, and mediates a challenging urban and topographic site within the medieval town. The building is split into two dominant volumes set against and within a steep hill. The concrete-and-glass profile of the cultural center addresses an adjacent highway and the city hall, while the primary galleries are nestled into a cut in the landscape, topped by a green roof park whose geometrically abstract shapes refer to the artist’s work. The open plan exhibition spaces receive natural light from a gap between the structure and the site’s rustic stone retaining walls. Afonso practiced architecture with Le Corbusier and Oscar Niemeyer, and New York–based Louise Braverman, Architect’s design for the 20,000-square-foot complex recalls the fluid and evocative concrete forms of these 20th century masters.

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Centro de Artes Nadir Alfonso, designed by Louise Braverman, Architect.
Fernando Guerra Centro de Artes Nadir Alfonso, designed by Louise Braverman, Architect.
Museum entrance.
Fernando Guerra Museum entrance.
View into the museum lobby and the gallery spaces.
Fernando Guerra View into the museum lobby and the gallery spaces.
Fernando Guerra
View to the green roof from the adjacent hillside.
Fernando Guerra View to the green roof from the adjacent hillside.
Courtesy Louise Braverman Architect
Courtesy Louise Braverman Architect