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Nam Van Square

This is a project by VLB Arquitectura e Planeamento and it is located at Macau, Macau. Project's program: Public square. There are seventeen images for Nam Van Square.

: © GCS - Gabinete de Comunicação Social de Macau

Project details

Project name: Nam Van Square
Location: Macau, Macau
Program: Public square
Year: Design: 2001 • Construction: 2002/2003
Client: GDI - Gabinete para o Desenvolvimento de Infraestruturas
Project by: VLB Arquitectura e Planeamento
Team: Co-authors: Manuel Vicente, Carlotta Bruni and Rui Leão
Others: Contractor: Sam Iao • Structure Consultant: Profabril Asiaconsultores Lda. • E&M Consultant: Profabril Asiaconsultores Lda. • Landscaping: Circle & Square ltd.

Project images

Designer's statement

With the aim of enhancing the urban presence of the new tower, this Square was commission soon after the conclusion of the Macau Tower complex: a new Landmark in the City, emulating the symbolic placing of Watch Towers along the river to denote power on arrival. It was also a pragmatic request to reorganize the traffic system in anticipation of the new bridge to the Islands, which was opened in December 2004.

To design a square is to define a Place, before and furthermore than defining a Space. The Mediterranean tradition of Place making is seldom an act of imposition on the urban fabric, as testify most of Macau’s historical Public Spaces: the Square is in most cases, an accident in the fabric, denoting it’s poetic rationality in the almost casual play and manipulation of Geometry.

Geometry, detailing and the intertwining of levels were key elements in the search for a Place. The issue of scale was always about determining a base or floor for the imposing presence of the new Tower, which sits on the edge of a very narrow plot along the Pearl River arm that runs along Macau.

This Square establishes a link of relations between the Lakes; between the Sai Van Lake waterfront and its access to the City centre and the future Civic Centre around the Square.

The main focus of the project was to gather without dilution, the Architectural dealing with very distinct confrontations: The water border; the creation of a place through the design of its immediate surroundings; the clipping of the sky; the laying down of a mass of floor that can accommodate the most multi-functional of programs; the separation without exclusion between car and pedestrian movements; the miscegenation between Square and Park typologies, to counter the constant and excessive density of all the built environment in this City.

The Symbiotic relation of the Architectural Objects designed for the main Space, is a layering of intentions: The playfulness of the space when empty, makes its emptiness a visual paradox; they are spaces within a Space, rewarding monumentality to the Square; their relative positioning insinuates a fourth dimensionality that is discovered by traveling through them: The pattern of the Portuguese cobblestone flooring that defines the Square is a visual maze that constantly alters with the observers every movement.