The Polana High School

Abstract

Polana High School had been designed by José João Tinoco and José Forjaz around 1970 and its construction started in 1973, but at arriving of independence it had not yet been completed, due to the lacking of the sporting practice sector. The building lived very well of its simple and efficient organization and its material roughness, for several decades; but in the recent years the concrete structures had began to demonstrate some serious problems of breaking up, some of them due to the corrosion determined by the prevailing coastal winds and some others determined by internal percolations of refluent waters. Severe corrosion problems concerned also the metallic operable sashes of the glazing surfaces and more dangerously even the steel fitting supports of the heavy vertical sun-breakers concrete panels. This essay describes the original building design and also the recent restoration works, which have recently led up.