Cultural and social Contextualization: Coimbra has been called A cidade dos estudantes (The city of the students) or Lusa-Atenas (Lusitan-Athens), mainly because it is the site of the oldest and one of the largest universities in Portugal - the University of Coimbra, a public university whose origins can be traced back to the 13th century. Nowadays, it has students from 70 different nationalities; almost 10% of its students are foreigners, making it Portugal's most international university. A large number of higher education students from entire Portugal chose Coimbra's higher learning institutions to study, due to the wide availability of degrees offered in different fields, the student-friendly environment of the city, and the prestige of many of its learning institutions allied to the ancient tradition of Coimbra as the historical capital of higher studies in Portugal.

VLC - Vertical Learning Center

The cultural and social contextualization explain why to create this tower in Coimbra city. Coimbra is "The city of the students"
VLC BASIC PRINCIPLES
- cultural and social contextualization
- human scale
- new vertical program
- meeting knowledge point
- environmental strategy
- iconic element
- vibrant geometry
- urban and contextualization logic
- public, semi public and private spaces
- fluid and floating structure
- offer a new and exceptional profile to the skyline
- multufunctional program
- concentrated functions
- vertical and diagonal circulation
- visual games among different floors

SUSTAINABLE STRATEGIES

- solar energie
- daylight ilumination
- natural ventilation
- operable windows
- air control
- environmental contextualization
- double glass skin - south facvade
- energy conservation system

2009

2009