Grand Mar

Benguela, Angola 2010

The intervention aims to be structuring by its urban integration, asserting itself as a pole with identity, integrated into the surrounding tissue. It is desired that this plan works as an anchor in its urban context, a clustering space, opened to the rest of the city. A multifunctional cluster where living, leisure and working spaces are overlapped, which ensures principles of living rotation and enhances the experiences that an urban space promotes.
The main outer spaces are subdivided in:
Pedestrian Street – A public space, which forwards views and people to the sea with the help of the pavement stereotomy, longitudinal lines that break with different angles. The hardness of pavements is interrupted by slits where tree alignments are planted.
Square - the longitudinal pavement lines suffer larger breaks and changes in direction to reinforce its squared design, supported by the planted slits which frame different areas of the Square. Central water elements (walkable fountain) inserted in the main pavement refreshes and cheer the square.
Waterfront promenade – The arrival of the pedestrian street to the promenade is once again made with a larger misalignment of the longitudinal lines. These lines will be repeated to both sides of the promenade, marking an intervention that will distinguish this part from the existing one. This is intended to be an essentially pedestrian area, only with occasional traffic (emergency), and, once again, it will have slits with tree alignments and adjoining benches.
Garden Hotel, Hotel roof top, Hotel Courtyards, Gardens of the offices, Business Centre’s courtyards, Gardens of the Residences - private or semi-private spaces.