Padre António Vieira Secondary School

This school, conceived in 1959 as an all boys’ school, is located on the fringe of the Alvalade district, using compositional volumic contrasts to resolve its layout on irregular terrain. The H-shaped configuration made it possible to concentrate the school administration offices and other services as well as the access to the other school areas in the central body. The classrooms are located in the southern wing. The exterior morphology is marked by alternation between brick surfaces and concrete structural elements and by the elevation of the building off the ground on pillars. The original architect’s three school designs for Alvalade, all from the early 1950s, feature modernist-inspired solutions and seek to apply the basic principles of the Athens Charter, for example in creating more intimate green spaces and in the close relationship between the exterior and interior. Part of the Parque Escolar secondary school modernisation programme, the new intervention provided for restoration of the existing elements, the construction of three new blocks and a roof over the games field. The new structures are very much in line with the project’s respect for what already existed, thus preserving the school’s original image.