Page 79 - AIT0422_E-Paper

Entwurf • Design Covo Interiores, PT-Vila Nova de Paiva
Bauherr • Client MGS Group, PT-Viseu
Standort • Location PT-Viseu
Nutzfläche • Floor space 130 m 2
Fotos • Photos José Campos, PT-Porto
Mehr Infos auf Seite • More info on page 142

MGS GROUP OFFICES

IN VISEU

Under the name of Covo Interiores, José and Mario
Morgado establish integral interior concepts. Recently,
for the offices of a Portuguese real-estate company on
the ground floor of a former residential building. The
brothers transfer the external shape of buildings onto
the interior; pent-, saddle- and barrel roofs as features
of their work are clearly visible. A gimmick of forms?

S omething new is being created there. Customized furniture consi-
sting of MDF- and solid-wood panels that, painted black, exhibi-
ted like a work of art and coloured white, placed flush with the wall
is designed as a component of the interior shell. It shows that, prior
to working independently, José Morgado had been working as a furni-
ture designer. Knowing about his time on a study visit to Finland, one
also feels to notice trends of Scandinavian design, in a noble black
that is untypical of the Escola do Porto. The start of the sequence of
offices is an open coworking space separated from the reception by
an almost ceiling-high cabinets. This is where, together with their
business partners from the building industry, the employees of the
MGS Group are working on joint projects, seated at a covered desk
construction that imitates a row of gabled houses. Despite, or just be-
cause of this bold striking gesture: an eye-catcher! The monochrome
and monolithic appearance of the flat, purely white wall-, ceiling- and
floor surfaces has strong parallels to the buildings by the Lisbon ar-
chitect Aires Mateus. It remains to be proven whether the floor might
perhaps look better with a heterogenous material – when deciding in
favour of the homogeneous look, however, a matte instead of a highly
polished epoxy-resin floor would have been consistent. Very close to
the architectural model by Mateus – such as the extension building for
the faculty of architecture in Tournai or the community centre in Grân-
dola – is also the saddle-roof shaped negative space which produces
1 Empfang • Reception a passage to the conference room and laterally borders the executive
2 Co-Working-Space • Coworking space
3 Korridor • Hall office as well as the sanitary rooms. This volume subtraction empha-
4 WC • Restroom
5 Chefbüro • CEO office sizes the heavy and massive look of the actually light-weight room
6 Konferenzzimmer • Meeting room shell. As does the sideboard in the executive office on which the desk
7 Tiefgarage • Underground carpark
rests on one side. As an additive extension of the lower window re-
veal, this piece of furniture in a subtle way makes the impression of a
deep frame typical of Portugal. With the curtains drawn, the comple-
tely colourless interior looks somewhat too lifeless and sterile. All the
Grundriss • Floor plan more important is the visual connection to the outside, to nature.

AIT 4.2022 • 079