Designed by Nuno Pimenta, The Azores archipelago is partly defined by the continuous search for new horizons, being this will driven by certain needs or curiosity; the economic sustainability or the feeling of enclosure.

Two Manifold explores this insular condition, this bipolar relationship between the permanent and the temporary, the act of going or staying. It invokes the desire to raise ourselves to be able to see a little more of this seemingly infinite horizon, this diffuse but concrete line that defines an uncertain periphery.
Photography: Rui Soares
This viewpoint is located in Santa Clara, one of the most peripheral places of Ponta Delgada. Although it is an underprivileged area, Santa Clara is known for its importance in the construction of the port of this city, one of the major exchange gates between the archipelago and the world.
It was important to create a new centrality in this urban periphery and to emphasize the peripheral condition of the Azores in the European context. ‘Two Manifolds’ thus creates a landmark, a stopover and observation point, a crossing of different vectors connecting the site to its surrounding universe and to the political and geographical condition of the Azores.

The piece consists of two levels – a higher level for observation and introspection, a lower one for rest and stay – and three predominant directions that establish relations with different degrees of proximity to the site.
Model
Each of these level...