LANDSCAPE & ARCHITECTURE IN PERFECT HARMONY
Pocinho Rowing Centre, Portugal
- Architects: Alvaro Andrade, spacialAr-Te, Portugal
- Project time frame: 2007–2014
- Type of building: Public building
- Product: Knauf Exterior Wall with AQUAPANEL® Technology Inside
- Application area: 8,000 m2
The plan of Portuguese architect Alvaro Andrade was to design a building that blends perfectly in the surrounding landscape of the Douro Valley, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The multi-level, multi-faceted construction seems to flow with the hillside, with some levels dug in the ground and some stretching along it. The Pocinho Rowing Centre is an Olympic facility, built for competitive sports – so the building material should also demonstrate the same degree of resilience, flexibility, and strength.
That is why the architect relied heavily on Knauf Exterior Wall with AQUAPANEL® Technology Inside. The AQUAPANEL® system solution offered the perfect combination of resilience, flexibility, and easy handling to construct walls comprising about 8,000 m2. This allowed the unusual, orthogonal shapes of the visible building parts to be easily built, saving time and effort. Opened in 2014, the Pocinho Rowing Centre was already nominated for the European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture – Mies van der Rohe Award in 2015. It is simply an exceptional project that blends clever design on a small environmental footprint.