The Archive of Sta. Maria da Feira results from the intervention in the former Casa dos Magistrados, a building from the 60s decade of the 20th century, already quite degraded and altered, intending to centralize an important physical and digital documental collection.

The various adaptations that the building underwent over time resulted in a total occupation of the lot, with annexes and industrial structures, which involved a residual construction of the former Casa dos Magistrados, summing up to the partial volume that still maintained the public image to Dr. Elísio de Castro street.

The intervention focused on the idea of exercising dialogue between common access, the public image and the protection, or certain inaccessibility, of the most intimate spaces of the Archive.

In the new concrete construction, archive spaces, accesses, and technical areas are resolved, reserving for the existing rehabilitated building, above the street level, the public access spaces and research and management rooms.

Resuming the exercise of previous projects in which the building gives in its domain to the extension of the urban space, the demolition of the existing annexes resulted in a new urban square supported on the roof, and a new construction, which houses the lower floors, where the archive spaces and document processing are located.

Taking advantage of the unevenness in the land between the main entrance and the back façade, the service entrance was located at a low level for a 3-storey building, which works as the containment of the land for the entire lot and creates the base where it rests on its coverage the former Casa dos Magistrados, now completely freed and framed in a new square, which precedes the main entrance.