Villa Forneo by Arquitectos Anónimos is a project proposed on the existing Roman ruins in Belmonte – Portugal. The architectural design was intended to create an organic building that to challenge the rigid formal arrangement of the spaces.

The building results from the accumulation of silhouettes that configure a multidirectional volume rather rigid conception of “cardus decumanus” releasing itself from any intention, suggestion or perception of the Roman ruin and their interpretation.

Arquitectos Anónimos

Villa Forneo, image courtesy of Arquitectos Anónimos

+ Project description courtesy of Arquitectos Anónimos

Architectural concept

Museum for the Roman ruins of Villa Fornea.

The guideline approach provides a method in which the process of morphogenesis (form-finding) is not submitted to programmatic functionalist pressures and only concern of the constraints of classical architecture, such as the thought of the designer, the issues of construction budget, environmental, social, programmatic, etc.

Villa Forneo, image courtesy of Arquitectos Anónimos

In this sense the strategy of form-finding produces an unpredictable formal outcome, where the geometry is induced by the process of exploitation, without restrictions or allegiance to circumstantial factors. It is an antidote against preconceived results. A limited universe was defined, a virtual box (33×33m) connected with the roman ruins. Within this physical container, only by following and recording the behavior of the curvature of the polypropylene tapes when compressed or loose, possible geometries emerge. A series of fixed points added as tolerant of contact with the soil structure were used to control and set limits to the natural configuration caused by the resistance of the material.

The building results from the accumulation of silhouettes that configure a multidirectional volume rather rigid conception of “cardus decumanus” releasing itself from any intention, suggestion or perception of the Roman ruin and their interpretation.

+ Project credits / data

Name of the project: VILLA FORNEA
City: Belmonte – Portugal.
Promoter: Município de Belmonte.
Concept: Arquitectos Anónimos®
Design team: Arquitectos Anónimos® with Hugo Reis and Nicolau Ribas.
Built-up area: 640m2
Start of planning: 2009

+ All images and drawings courtesy of Arquitectos Anónimos