PLARQ was established in Coimbra in 1981 , in the center of Portugal.Today we consist in a team of 18 architects, and we work interactively with
the best engineers, designers and other specialists, accordingly to the
program of each building we are developing.PLARQ beyond its
practice in Portugal has always worked abroad, both on its own, as well
as in partnerships with foreigner architectural practices.This
Worldwide presence gives PLARQ a good Knowledge and experience not only
in design but also in terms of investment groups and building
contractors.We are established in Coimbra, Madrid, Rio de Janeiro and S. Paulo, and we are always
looking forward to create new chances of having new opportunities
through-out the world.PLARQ has in its curriculum several types of
building programs, in a wide range that starts in Housing, and goes
through Services, Industry, Health, Education, Tourism and Leisure,
Sports and also Urban Planning. This multifunctional know-how permits
us to develop more complex programs such as master plans and integrate
different type of buildings and programs, understanding how they can
work together and their influence in urban environment at its different
stages, from local to world wide.We know time is precious so we are
technologically prepared to answer our clients and help them to show-up
as leaders on presenting an idea where guaranties like build ability,
cost control, building quality and time chronograms, are critical
criteria for our design and aims to achieve with rigor.We also
believe that functional concepts and image quality are essential for
the success of design and site integration, so that new buildings can
become real urban references, secure, functional and pleasant to use.
Therefore PLARQ studies and presents all the studies in
three-dimensional models, trying always to achieve a more realistic and
perceptible solution.In Health we are building especially
private health buildings, like Ideal Med, A 30000 square meter
buillding, in Coimbra one of the most important Health Centers in
Europe. We also consult other Private Health Operators, as well as
design Public Health Centers.Designing hotels, gave us the
opportunity of being finishing the building of the last Oceanic front
Hotel in Portugal, in 40000 square meter building, with 160 apart hotel
units and a Conference Center with 1000 people capacity ball room an 16
business rooms, to be explored by Holliday-Inn. Our latest
experiences in planning and design are based especially in world scale
events, like EURO 2004 and the preparation of 2014 Fifa foot-ball world
cup. This experience permits us to be up to date with the latest
ideas of space and organization and world sport federations’ requests.These last years PLARQ has been developing and materializing a new concept around Sports Centers.This
concept has necessarily to do with some kind of great event, which on
one hand justifies all the investment and on the other hand naturally
promotes it, just as what happened in Portugal with Euro 2004, and is
nowadays, happening in Brazil with 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics.
And the concept has to do with some lines of thought which are:•
Understanding Sport is, nowadays, one of the most powerful ways to
attract people. This idea, backed-up by a great event, creates the
justification for large scale State and private investment, in all the
infrastructures necessary for those events, like stadiums, pavilions,
roads, hotels, hospitals, etc. This scale of building justifies the
design of master plans, in which, at a first stage, program is the most
important component, with the sport venue (or sport complex) at its
heart, showing up as a catalyzer of Private investments and urban
dynamics.• The Sports venues like Stadiums ought to be thought
based on multifunctional parameters, which should always be crossed
with all the regulative and security requirements in order to create
buildings which pay for themselves and become easy to manage, and full
of valences serving the community. Using the example of Coimbra
Stadium, we are in the presence of a big building, based, not only, in
all the requirements of football and athletics, but also based in the
idea that we should create a peace of architecture where almost any
kind of event such like music concerts (as the Rolling Stones , U2, and
George Michael), fairs, expositions, etc, can happen, and where areas
can assume other programs beyond sports and leisure, as commerce,
museums or offices. In Coimbra we are in the presence of the
redevelopment of an existing urban area, where the stadium (30000 to
55000 capacity) is the center of a more vast program where appears a
multifunctional arena for 5000 people, two swimming pools, one
aparthotel (200 flats), a commercial mall (60000 m2) and underground
parking (3500 capacity), mainly fruit of private investment,
coordinated with State and local Municipality. Meanwhile with the use
of the Coimbra Stadium we’ve designed for EURO 2004, we’ve managed to
prove our ideas of multifunctional space and secure, functional and
profitable for their managers.• Presently, we are already applying
this formula in Porto Alegre (Rio Grande do Sul – Brazil) with a 3
billion investment operation, in which the heart of a brand new 3 ha
urban area is de Grêmio Arena, already starting being built. PLARQ
has created the concept, from green field to the idea of creating the
potential to the club of receiving a free stadium as the pay back of a
real estate business.With almost 60.000 capacity, this stadium
pretends to be one of the 2014 world cup venues. Around it, is being
planned a Conference and congress Center, Hotels, a Mall and Housing,
creating a whole brand new urban Center. Just a mile from the
international airport of Porto Alegre, side by side with the road ways,
this site appeared just perfect to create a multifunctional urban
center, with exhibition and conference center, hotels, a commercial
mall, parking and a big housing condominium.The Arena itself pretends to be able to function 364 days a year. We
designed the space thinking of sport and other events, but also to be
rentable, using as much space as possible, under tiers for retail,
offices, and other profitable activities, creating another item of the
whole business.