Large panels were constructed in a space previously used as an archive of Biblioteca Municipal de Coimbra to cover the already existing structure, not so much to enable the new rooms to become independent units and show two distinctive intervention dates as to solve the necessity of creating an expensive area.
The demolition of the west wall allowed the creation of a deep intimacy between the inside and the outside, taking advantage of the light filtered through the big tree tops and emphasizing the visual relationship with the garden by reinforcing axiality of the existing structure. Due to mechanical requirements of contemporary art, the initial finishing of the ceiling was kept — thick spray sand plaster — and the flooring in weak concrete was natural-color screeded. The levels of the mini-auditorium and the library were all covered in wood, so that almost the entirety of the walls could function as storage space.
Its mission, typology, and programmatic strategy are similar in every aspect to that of the Círculo Sede building of the Círculo de Artes Plásticas de Coimbra.
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