This is a project for a family owned pharmacy on the Portuguese upper northern coast, namely in Viana do Castelo, a small town growing parallel to the sea.

Our clients’ proposal was to design and build the project on record time as for what is normal in Portugal (five months for designing, legal authorization and construction), reusing a common building with no extraordinary architectural characteristics. They were concerned about having an image that would speak for itself, outstanding this ‘plain’ language from the exterior but without expending large financial investment due to the actual economic crisis.

The old pharmacy was located on a small building in a ‘cul-de-sac’. This old construction located on the city outskirts, near two major motorways, had just like its surrounding buildings, no architectural references that would attract customers into the shop.

Our goal was therefore to create a trendy space with a strong appealing image, giving special focus to store indoor display, keeping it low budget.

The first issue to resolve was to create this new identity for the building, with a unique language together with the existing building.

It is a two floor building, being the ground-floor the only space with public access (sales area, counselling area, private counselling space, a small office, storage area and sanitary equipment). First floor is dedicated to private functions such as big storage area, laboratory and a delivery checking area.

The exhibition ‘vitrines’ next to ground-floor windows were designed in a way that allows different distributions as they can be easily moved and their order changed, altering the relation between interior and exterior accordingly to the owners’ mood.

Both the counter and the ceiling were designed using the international symbol for pharmacies – a cross. Turning the cross symbol into white gives the shop a timeless touch. On the counter, bulky volumes assume this cross shape and transform themselves into elegant help desks. On the ceiling, a simple plasterboard was cut into different sizes crosses from where light emerges in an exquisite manner.
Keeping the entire space white enlarges the area either by giving it more luminosity but also by allowing a bigger contrast with the colourful products on the shelves.

The exterior signalisation of the shop was conceived to identify the building as a pharmacy which was accomplished in a simple but yet efficient way by having a large opaque box on the fist floor, with a large green cross. There are two doors to accede the pharmacy, one for public customers and one for providers. Inside doors are covered in mirror to reflect light and create visual continuity between spaces.

All the rooms have natural lighting except the bathroom. The ground-floor receives a large amount of light through a glass façade and the first floor gets some natural illumination through some skylights that emphasize vertical accesses within both floors.

The construction was made using common current materials to fulfil the client requirement of keeping the entire project low-budget. The structure is in reinforced concrete, masonry walls and simple concrete floor. Both ceiling and interior walls were built in painted plastered board. Floors were covered with vinyl except the marble stone stairs.