The Talking Machines Museum in Alcobaça was inaugurated on April 25, 2024, with the design for its installation having begun in 2017. It houses a collection of more than 5,000 pieces related to sound, telecommunications, and broadcasting, collected by José Madeira Neves and later acquired by the Municipality of Alcobaça.

Located next to the Alcobaça Monastery, the museum is spread over two floors, with an exit on the lower level to a bridge that crosses the Alcoa River.

The museum has a total area of 420m², of which 330m² are dedicated to the exhibition. The interiors have been completely remodeled to house the new program, which includes the Alcobaça Tourist Office in the reception area.

The remodeling of the interior, previously occupied by commercial stores, posed several challenges; the spaces were uncharacteristic, with very irregular geometry, structural pillars and a small free area compared to the size of the collection.

The architectural concept was based on the creation of spaces with curved shapes, inspired by the representation of sound waves, which organized and hierarchized the available space, introducing sinuosity and intimacy to the exhibition and creating environments with neutral and predominantly dark tones in order to highlight the morphological and chromatic diversity of the pieces in the collection.

The museum route is structured around four elliptical chambers, delimited by curved white planes that support most of the exhibition’s graphic information. These chambers were designed as more spacious areas, with acoustic ceilings, curved plasterboard partitions, and lighting installed in moldings embedded in the ceiling.

In the interstices of these four elliptical chambers are exhibition antechambers that house pieces in niches and display cases, with lower ceilings and smooth acoustic ceilings.

The exhibition furniture, mostly made of lacquered wood, was designed to fit the pieces in the collection, in a long process carried out in close collaboration with the exhibition curator Alberto Guerreiro.

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ClientAlcobaça MunicipalityYear2024LocationAlcobaça, PortugalStatuscompletedArea420 sqmFotografiaJoão Morgado