Arroios Market

This project, a precursor of the first modern markets in the country—such as those of Alvalade and Bom Sucesso—implies, in the surrounding urban design and buildings, a concentric spatial organisation. Innovation was related to functional, infrastructural, constructive and spatial issues, many of them forgotten by changes in food consumption. The most relevant of these is still the exploration of the possibility of applying reinforced concrete to large-scale structures, namely standard variable-height porticos, which, with a smaller amount and size of structural supports than in masonry construction, allows more available area, wider and more fluid spaces, and larger openings. Several reasons led to changes to the original project, namely the closure of the underground slaughterhouse and the modification of the central courtyard. However, we can still see how the volumetric scaling of the building, through the sizing of the porticos, allows the light to enter from all solar orientations as well as abundant natural ventilation.