[ CONDOMINIUM ROOM ]

> NUNO MELO SOUSA
> PARRETAS

The Parretas housing neighbourhood is one of the greenest in Braga. Vegetation dominates the landscape, with a variety of species and generous public space. Defining this neighbourhood is a long staircase — an essential pedestrian axis — connecting the higher built-up area to the lower level, where the Parretas fountain and its broad promenade are framed by residential buildings. It is on this staircase — more often crossed than inhabited — that architect Nuno Melo Sousa, based in Penafiel, proposes to intervene, installing a reimagined version of a space where tensions and shared decisions often converge: the residents’ room. A space as common as it is controversial in the everyday life of urban neighbourhoods.

Two galvanised steel planes rest on a third, square platform located on one of the stairway’s landings. The structure, subtly raised from the ground, outlines an open-air residents’ room — a space without walls, but filled with possibilities. Reflecting the surrounding vegetation, the intervention incorporates the existing steps and opens at eye level a slit in the metal through which the horizon can be glimpsed. This "room" invites residents to pause, to look, to engage in dialogue. It may become an arena for debate, a stage for gathering, or simply a point of departure for future decisions.

In a time when communication is fragmented, the Parretas Residents’ Room offers an invitation to reconnect in public space — a space open to listening and co-existence, in contrast with the isolation and polarisation that shape so many human exchanges, whether in a building, on the street, or in digital spaces. This is an essay in the possible conviviality of neighbours, in the hope of new understandings and shared futures.

Nuno Melo Sousa (Penafiel, 1988) is an architect, researcher, and lecturer. A graduate of FAUP, he also studied at TU Delft and at the international studio of Balkrishna Doshi in India. Since 2012, he has developed his practice from Penafiel, working on projects that combine design, construction, and research. Between 2015 and 2017, he taught at INDA in Bangkok and has been a guest lecturer at FAUP and at the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio. His work includes the House on the Tâmega (with Hugo Mendonça Ferreira), awarded the BMIAA’23 Grand Prize and the 2024 Young Architects Award. In 2024, he co-curated the Maia Architecture Month and presented his work at Concreta, in a joint exhibition with Tomoaki Uno.

INSTALLATION TECHNICAL 
CREDITS

ARCHITECTURE
Nuno Melo Sousa
I-Hsuan Chu
Diogo Veiga
Ana Dias
Luís Formiga

ENGINEERING
Hélder Gomes (Structure)

PRODUCTION AND ASSEMBLY
ArtWorks

TECHNICAL SUPPORT
ArtWorks
Municipality of Braga
(Eng. Ida Sousa, Eng. Luís Vieira and Jorge Dias)