Melgaço Sports School

Project Description

Located on the outskirts of the ancient village of Melgaço, on the northern border between Portugal and Spain, the new Sports University Building offers a serene and integrated learning atmosphere within the dynamic nature of a sports campus.

Based on a simple and clearly articulated geometric composition, the design strategy was a direct response to the challenges created by an imposing topography, a limited budget and the desire to achieve a balanced integration with the surrounding landscape.

The design followed a dialectic strategy by clearly distinguishing the social and administrative areas of the program, concentrated on the anchored concrete volume, from the main educational areas located on the lighter upper white volume. This dialectic strategy not only allowed an evident reduction of the scale of the building but was also decisive in defining its formal expression.

Pedro Reis