Location
Porto, Portugal
Year
2022
Area
6,200 m²
Status
Completed
Client
Ribeira Holdings
Category
Commercial
Coordinates
41°08′N 8°36′W
Drawing scale
1:200
N°02 — The project
The ground floor belongs to the street. Everything above it has to earn its place.
Keeping the walls
The original warehouse was built of granite a metre thick, with deep arched openings along the quay and vaulted halls inside that once stored wine and salt cod. We kept every wall, arch and vault, removed a century of partitions, and treated the stone as the first layer of a new building.
At street level the arches open again. A covered arcade of shops and a café runs the full depth of the block and stays open late, so the building adds to the life of the river front long after the workspaces above have closed.
Bronze in stone
Every opening has a new frame of dark bronze, set back from the face of the granite so the old arches read first. Inside, oak desks and shelving and a slim bronze handrail on the worn stair are the only new materials; nothing is fixed to the vaults.
Services run in the floor, and the old loading hatches have become lightwells that bring daylight down into the lower halls.
N°03 — Plates
Photographs · Selected
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N°04
