比什波村博物馆丨葡萄牙丨Spaceworkers

Architecture studio Spaceworkers has completed the Vila do Bispo Museum in Portugal, adding a red-concrete volume to a pair of repurposed granaries.

Located in the town of Vila do Bispo, the project involved converting the existing granaries into exhibition space and extending them with a volume to house technical, administrative and social functions.

Spaceworkers described the new and old buildings as "contiguous ships", which are united by a red-concrete base and connected internally by a large opening.

Spaceworkers has completed the Vila do Bispo Museum in Portugal

"We were not interested in imposing a completely autonomous object on the site, but in working with what was already there," the studio told Dezeen.

"The new volume was conceived almost as a natural extension of the existing ensemble," it added.

"Its form echoes the logic of the preexisting warehouse structures, so it belongs to the whole rather than standing apart from it."

A red-concrete volume was added to a pair of repurposed granaries

In reference to the existing granaries, the new volume has a pitched form with carved-out openings. Meanwhile, its red-toned shade was chosen to appear in total contrast to the site's existing grey-coloured volumes, the studio explained.

"The pigmented red concrete gives the new volume a strong and unmistakable character," the studio said.

"The red tone was also a way of establishing a subtle connection with the landscape of this part of the Algarve, where the cliffs often appear in warm ochre, rust and reddish hues," it added.

Recesses in the building's form create an enclosed roof terrace along with a sheltered entrance at ground level that serves as a new access point to the venue.

"The intervention is not only about adding programme, but about redefining how the ensemble is entered, understood and inhabited," the studio said.

The ground level opens up to a shop

The ground floor of the museum opens up to a central gift shop. Beyond this is a cafe at the rear, where seating space is wrapped by full-height sliding doors that lead out to a terrace.

A stepped opening links the new and old buildings together, guiding visitors into the double-height space of the renewed granaries, which contain 680 square metres of exhibition space.

Board-marked concrete is left exposed throughout the social spaces

In contrast to the board-marked, red-concrete walls of the social spaces, the exhibition space has black-coloured surfaces.

It is overlooked by a second-floor terrace, off which meeting rooms and an auditorium are positioned.

The exhibition area is held within the repurposed granaries

Other adaptive reuse projects recently featured on Dezeen include the Shoemakers Museum in Somerset, which involved the conversion of a manor house and barn, and Fenix Museum of Migration, which occupies an old warehouse in Rotterdam.

The photography is by Fernando Guerra.