One: I3s From Serodio Furtado & Associados Arquitectos

The third instalment of the ‘ONE’ series, edited by Eduardo Souto de Moura, presents the University of Porto’s Institute of Research and Innovation in Health (I3S), designed by Serôdio Furtado & Associados Arquitectos. Built during a time of economic crisis at a cost of €700 per square metre, including gardens and furniture, this public building is an unusual, coherent, and exemplary work. Its character and scale are appropriate to its function –monolithic concrete, deliberately grey, with only a few hints of white – while its spaces are distributed with clarity in courtyards connected by capacious galleries and full of light.
With contributions by architect Pedro Bandeira.