Citadel within the city 

Year: 2019

Size: 15000m²

Type: Commission

The former canning factory Brandão & Companhia Ltd is part of the Matosinhos Sul Urbanization Plan by architect Álvaro Siza and occupies a privileged position in the city. Near the coastline, the unit builds upon the original industrial feel evoking the nostalgia of a time of production and connection to the sea. This emblematic building, part of the collective memory of the place, had different uses over time, being subject to several interventions that mischaracterized it. By contrast, the proposal aims to fill in the urban fabric with an innovative project that compliments the pre-existing, reconstructing the original building envelope and chimney, withal responds to a very special program: a mixed-use development, which brings together the facilities of a medical laboratory, health clinic, offices, commercial spaces and collective housing.

Whereas the existing volumetry occupies almost the whole lot, green and permeable spaces were created, leading light to their interior and promoting circulation within the block. These spaces produce visual relationships between the different programs with access to the upper floors. Compact moments are formed in a multi-functional city. In the entrance to the dwellings, a reception space opens to the interior patio that connects to different zones and common areas. Services and commerce are located on the ground floors, while the offices are placed on the first floor. Blocks intended for housing are settled at the top.

The use of materials with different densities – pigmented concrete and aluminium stretched plate – evidences the different times connected by a formal unity that combines the old and the new. The thickness of the inherited mass is contrasted with the intangibility of the well-proportioned volumes suspended over the patio, elevated and differentiated, with a materiality inspired by the proximity to the sea. The distribution of the gross area of the building in different blocks, promotes a dynamic volumetric composition, which takes advantage of this intervention on a large plot and responds to the surroundings.

The project establishes a balanced relationship with the design of the public road and neighbouring buildings, revitalizing and dynamizing the block. It is an opportunity for morphological and uses dynamization - two important points aimed at the sustainable construction of the city.

"In Fábrica de Conservas in Matosinhos, in the field of rehabilitation and reconstruction, we have tried to reconcile immense differences and create several balances between contrasting times (and themes)."