Sao Domingos Mines Museum
From the old mining activity remain the ruins. Vestiges of buildings, walls, railways and tunnels, that over 18 km join two villages, the village of São Domingos and the village of Pomarão. Those ruins are the contribution for the understanding of that place. The museum project is conceptually translated as the last ruin that the continuity of the route mining marks your order. It is located at the village of Pomarão, former loading bay of the ore, and uses a preexistent tunnel for entrance. With the shape of a tower, the museum hanging over the Guadiana river and the village. It is an iconic element, a mark on the landscape. The case of an isolated building, proposes the restructuring of the place between the village and the museum, designing pathways making access to the museum, among them one that redesigns the river bed creating two points of access to vessels.
Once inside the museum, begins a course that leads museum visitors through 10 floors, experiencing in each different exhibition rooms that are spatially related. In the end of the course is a cafeteria with access to the roof top that works as a belvedere. The connection between the floors is established by a staircase excavated in the thickness of the exterior walls. The building is built with concrete made with cement and sediment shale, which is a local stone.
