Church of São José dos Carpinteiros winner of the Gulbenkian Patrimony Prize
The rehabilitation of the Lisbon Church of São José dos Carpinteiros/House of Vinte e Quatro, carried out by RA Rebelo de Andrade Studio, was honoured with the Gulbenkian Patrimony Prize – Maria Teresa and Vasco Vilalva.
This is a landmark monument of great historical relevance – the church dates to the mid-16th century and, in the wake of the 1755 earthquake, housed the House of Vinte e Quatro, a guid debating entity with its origins reaching back to 1384.
In its deliberations over awarding the prize – with its monetary value of 50,000 euros – the jury highlighted the location of the building – “a neighbourhood that still today retains a very particular lived ambience” –, the opening of the space “to the community to which the monument belongs”, the “tenacity of the promotors” and the “multidisciplinarity and high level of qualifications of the team” responsible for the project. “Finally, but no less importantly”, we would also highlight “the touching exhibition in honour of, and open to the public, Gonçalo Ribeiro Telles, a resident in this neighbourhood and who recently passed away”, the jury furthermore added.
According to the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation President, “with this prize, the Foundation year after year reaffirms its commitment to the conservation, restoration, valuation and promotion of private patrimony of unquestionable cultural importance”. Ever since 2007, the Foundation has distinguished “dozens of exemplary interventions on heritage assets and properties from the north to the south of the country”, Isabel Mota furthermore added.
In this edition of the award, made annually by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, there was also an honourable mention for the interventions on the building standing on the corner of Rua dos Douradores and Rua de Santa Justa, also in Lisbon, carried out by José Adrião, Arquitetos. The jury highlighted the “coherence and sensitivity of the project designed for habitation”, the way in which the architect had proven able to “take advantage of that pre-existing, doing so with conceptual rigor and encountering solutions appropriate to the reality of contemporary times” and as well as “the recovery (without restoration) of the fresco paintings on its walls”.
There were a total of 16 projects submitted as candidates to the 13th edition of this Prize and spanning the entire extent of mainland Portugal with the jury made up of António Lamas (president), Raquel Henriques da Silva, Gonçalo Byrne, Santiago Macias and Rui Vieira Nery deliberating unanimously in favour of these two projects.
The Gulbenkian Heritage Prize – Maria Teresa and Vasco Vilalva was launched in 2007 with the objective of distinguishing projects of excellence in the fields of conservation, restoration, valuation and promoting fixed or mobile Portuguese cultural heritage.