The intervention in Castêlo da Maia High School was held under the modernization program sponsored by the portuguese public company Parque Escolar EPE. 

The proposal is based on the volumetric disposal of the existing buildings as a theme to design the new construction. Starting from the existing buildings, it is proposed a duplication of its volumetric structure. As a result, a set with different altimetrics, composed by built up areas and instersticial spaces where have been distributed some patios, green areas and outdoor amphitheaters, defining a composition that resembles a chess mesh.

The new school resembles to the figure of a spider, where the high central body is suported by the volumes that rise from the ground floor and allows to distribute and unify the spaces on the upper floor. On the ground floor, the scheme is repeated through a duplication of the superior hallway, creating an outside and central space that distributes the main programs open to the community and, at the same time, allows the building to behave as a very permeable structure.