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Renovation of the Moorish Barracks
Renovation of the Moorish Barracks
Macao
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Renovation of the Moorish Barracks
Macao
STATUS
Built
YEAR
2003
Moorish Barracks dates from the 1800s and is part of an inventory submitted for Macau’s candidature as a UNESCO World Heritage site.
Macau has a healthy and creative relationship with building preservation that is not simply conservationist. It also has a long tradition of using heritage buildings as headquarters for its public services instead of transforming its entire heritage into museums.
The building was originally a one-storey prism set on very steep terrain with two patios and a private house on top. Over time, many changes had been made to the original structure: two more private houses were added on the roof; the patios were completely filled up with additions; and the entire area against the retaining wall was repurposed for storage through the creation of temporary shelters.
The design brief focused on three main issues. The first one being the redesign of the interior of the building to host the Port Authority; the second one was the preservation works of the original architecture of the building; the third one was the design of three separate people’s flow: the office staff, the users and the tourists.
Our final design tested a different interpretation of interstitial growth by replacing the areas that were encroaching on the patios with a double-storey structure that was to be inserted inside the original building. This actually managed to fulfill the square metreage requested by the client and restore the building to its original strcuture. It is the first example in our practice of organizing the volumetric and programmatic mass of a project in a way that frees up a void space.
The two double-storey, steel, L-shaped volumes that we designed in the two main halls of the building made use of the high headroom of the ground floor, thus transforming the exercise of organizing the mass from a two-dimensional to a three-dimensional operation. The private offices are located on the ground floor of the new glass and steel insertion and the archives are located on the first floor of the new volume.
The design of Moorish Barracks can be comprehended as a contribution to heritage conservation, as well as a confirmation of the fact that due to the limited amount of space available here in Macau the design of mass and void need to be concurrent and that the design of the void has become a necessity in this dense and informal city.
Macau has a healthy and creative relationship with building preservation that is not simply conservationist. It also has a long tradition of using heritage buildings as headquarters for its public services instead of transforming its entire heritage into museums.
The building was originally a one-storey prism set on very steep terrain with two patios and a private house on top. Over time, many changes had been made to the original structure: two more private houses were added on the roof; the patios were completely filled up with additions; and the entire area against the retaining wall was repurposed for storage through the creation of temporary shelters.
The design brief focused on three main issues. The first one being the redesign of the interior of the building to host the Port Authority; the second one was the preservation works of the original architecture of the building; the third one was the design of three separate people’s flow: the office staff, the users and the tourists.
Our final design tested a different interpretation of interstitial growth by replacing the areas that were encroaching on the patios with a double-storey structure that was to be inserted inside the original building. This actually managed to fulfill the square metreage requested by the client and restore the building to its original strcuture. It is the first example in our practice of organizing the volumetric and programmatic mass of a project in a way that frees up a void space.
The two double-storey, steel, L-shaped volumes that we designed in the two main halls of the building made use of the high headroom of the ground floor, thus transforming the exercise of organizing the mass from a two-dimensional to a three-dimensional operation. The private offices are located on the ground floor of the new glass and steel insertion and the archives are located on the first floor of the new volume.
The design of Moorish Barracks can be comprehended as a contribution to heritage conservation, as well as a confirmation of the fact that due to the limited amount of space available here in Macau the design of mass and void need to be concurrent and that the design of the void has become a necessity in this dense and informal city.
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