The Detailed Design was commissioned by KfW Bank and carried out by the consortium INROS LACKNER and CES Consulting Engineers Salzgitter. Urban Infrastructure measures were identified as a proposed exhibition centre, a new market, a restaurant & events building, and a commercial centre at the botanical gardens. The two latter buildings were also to be major points of entry to the green space.  As the buildings were to have large elements of timber construction, given my experience in timber, I was invited to tender on the provision of architectural services with a focus on timber detailing, as part of a professional team including a conceptual design architect, landscape architects and engineers. We were appointed as sub-consultants to CES Consulting Engineers Salzgitter, led by architectural team leader, Jose Callado.

The work of our team was focused on the restaurant and the botanical gardens building.

The restaurant building site is on the corner of Av. Daniel Napatima and Rau da Beira Baixa and is a major entrance point to the park, by means of a cycling and pedestrian lane. It also sits as a junction or interface between the park and the built up urban environment. As a gateway to the park the building seeks to bridge the divide between urban and natural context.

The Botanical Gardens Building also serves as a main entrance point to the park, across from the historic Casa dos Bicos. The site runs along the river, with views across the park The Botanical Garden Buildings have two main nodes at either end: the Entrance, Café and Info Centre to the North and the Events Building to the East.  The commercial units between these form an open courtyard configuration, bounded by built structures on three sides and the river on the fourth.

On completion of the detail design, architectural services for the implementation of the project were tendered separately and awarded to a locally based team, so we were unfortunately not involved in the project beyond the design and detailing stage.