ORIZZONT Flats / RVdM Arquitectos

Text description provided by the architects. ORIZZONT BUILDING – Aveiro Until recently the city of Aveiro was turned back to the water landscape. The salt pans and the Ria de Aveiro were understood, especially until the 1980s, as spaces that were affected by industrial production. For the production of salt, the collection of ‘moliço’ and the careless use of its channels as wastewater conductors of the region’s industry. Everything has changed, however, for the better. The building is now positioned in a privileged location facing the Ria, on the western edge of the city.

The urbanization plan ‘Polis Aveiro’ has decided to qualify the waterfront of the city and define the volume and position of this building. Its volumetric rises from the ground to free public space and anticipate eye contact with the canals. There are three housing floors with a white concrete structure that supports the wood volumes that seeks the light and the landscape. Spatially, the interior is resolved from two vertical circulations that distribute the apartments in pairs.

Functionally, the building is organized in three layers: The ground floor defines an antechamber for the dwellings. The apartment floors organize common spaces to the sunny south/west, and the bedrooms face the opposite quieter quadrant. The basement floor offers a complementary program with a condominium room and patio facing the heated swimming pool.