As a part of our faculty’s quality policy, several remodelling works are being undertaken with a view to improving not only the physical working conditions but also the laboratories and teaching and research spaces.

The spaces that are a part of the building shared with the Santa Maria Hospital are now somewhat degraded after long use. Many of the major interventions, such as the changing of the electrical installations, plumbing and adapting to today’s new functional demands have been carried out for the first time over recent years.

The work by the services responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the spaces has been that of constant vigilance, which resulted in several studies for works that then made it possible to establish the correct priorities along with the responsible administrative organs. Over recent years, and due to the increasingly tight budget, the priority has been the teaching spaces and the student-orientated services.

Since the end of 2008 we have had the following ongoing interventions:

Institute of Pathological Anatomy – Floors 1 and 3: the remodelling of the Institute of Pathological Anatomy began in 2008 and aimed at transforming and fitting out the old space where Electronic Microscopy was, on Floor 1.

The transformation was total: all the furnishings that made no sense were taken out, a structured network was set up and all the plumbing, which dated back to the time the building was constructed, was replaced. The work is practically completed, with only the seating remaining to be installed.

On Floor 3, one of the rooms in the former Cytology area was annexed to the Pathological Anatomy classrooms, and is fully prepared to act as a study support rooms, with materials suited to teaching the subject.

Total investment in this undertaking is €166,655.64.

Academic Area: this had previously been a study space and later the Cooperation and Education Room, and with the services of International Cooperation and Student Support being located there it is being transformed in order to receive the Academic Services and the Treasury. These two services are currently in the entrance corridor to the Faculty, and are not able to provide the quality, increasingly personalised service that is expected nowadays. The change is foreseen for next May. Up to now the investment for this remodelling is estimated at being €134,595.00. (pictures of the Academic space)

Besides these Works, which are reaching their conclusion, we will be starting work on the Paediatrics classroom, on Floor 7, and on the Aula Magna direction panel.

Paediatrics Classroom (Castro Freire Auditorium): this room on Floor 7 is no longer suited to its functions. The chairs are those that were previously in the Aula Magna and are worn out. The projection system is totally unsuitable. Besides this it is not possible to make the hall dark enough with the current system. It is foreseen that the room will be inaugurated on the 1st of June, Children’s Day (cost: €3,312.70).

Aula Magna Direction Panel: the audiovisual demands on our main hall are increasing. Current conditions do not allow the technicians to adequately control the sound and the picture of what is going on in the hall. This work involves adapting an adjacent space, on Floor 4, with an opening to the Aula Magna. Cost taken on for this work is €3,054.88.

Still in the study phase in relation to needs are the remodellings of the University Gastro Clinic and Floor 7 of the Library – CDI (books and periodicals archive).

The atrium area of the faculty, which is a noble space, urgently needs a major intervention in order to make the area more welcoming, functional and aesthetically more pleasant. We are counting on the collaboration of an architecture Office in order to draw up a Project that needs to be finished in September this year. This project also includes the Aula Magna hall and its corridor leading to the Direction and the Councils. At the moment we are finalizing the legal procedures for contracting.

Simultaneously, with more major remodellings, we are still working closely with the Information Technologies Unit (UTI) in order to set up the structure network in places in the Faculty that still do not have this, such as the Psychology Laboratory, on Floor 6, and the University Clinic of Gynaecology and Obstetrics.

The amounts of money involved in these remodellings come from joint investment by the Faculty and the PIDDAC (Programme of Investments and Expenses for Developing Central Administration) for Medicine (run by the University of Lisbon Chancellor’s Office).

Manuela Castro
Technical Office
Ext: 44103
Email: manuelacastro@fm.ul.pt