The Gilão Building

Between 1959 and 1980, architect Manuel Gomes da Costa (1921-2016) designed four apartment buildings - Tv. Zacarias Guerreiro 3 - arranged in a U-shape on the corner formed by Av. Dr. Mateus Teixeira de Azevedo with the Rua Zacarias Guerreiro, commissioned by the Sociedade de Construcções Gilão.

The Gilão building is one of his later and less well-known projects. Each of the five-storey blocks originally contained ten three-bedroom apartments, symmetrical to the stairwell on each of the blocks' floors.

The dwellings on the ground floor were replaced by commercial spaces and the property was ordered and set back, creating a small shopping center with alleys and galleries, leading to the appearance of arcades and semi-circular arcades unknown until then in works by MGdaCosta.

Due to the prominent eaves of the sloping roof, only the first row of curved roof tiles can be seen. In the composition of the facades, he resorts to some elements of his usual repertoire: balconies as small relief terraces, used as outdoor storage spaces; wooden grille with the slats rotated 45 degrees; blind masonry spandrels combined with green painted metal railings, as well as the floating lintels.

You can especially recognize the project as a work by MGdC, at the corners. where the parapets and railings stick out in an overhang, which forms a kind of vertical crest. Just like he did in previous projects in Monte Gordo and Faro.

The above video is an introduction to the architect Manuel Gomes da Costa