Porto, Portugal

Portugal-based architects Meireles Arquitectos were responsible for renovating the Infante building, an 18th-century building, in Porto without non-invasive techniques in order to meet the architectural program’s requirements of the area.

This impressive project was short-listed for a 2021 International Architecture Award from The Chicago Athenaeum and The European Centre for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies.

The two adjacent buildings subject to the rehabilitation project are part of an area classified as World Heritage by UNESCO, which made the intervention careful, non-invasive, and meeting the requirements of the architectural program of the area.

The architectural exercise was complex but very interesting and challenging.

The origins of the adjacent buildings were studied, and, through a historical investigation, it was found that they underwent several distinct interventions over time.

Although the interior of the building structure of the Infante building presents a set of proofs that refer to its primary building to medieval times (basement walls and some elements referring to interventions of the fifteenth century), the predominant architectural characteristics were carried out in the eighteenth century.

It was the last intervention of the 18th century that served as a basis for the renovation that was carried out by the studio. In programmatic terms, the aim was to transform the two buildings into one, consisting of several apartments and a store.

The exterior of the building suffered few alterations: the facades were rehabilitated, keeping their original design, with the exception of new openings introduced at ground level, in order to give some transparency to the store, a new balcony was introduced on the 5th floor and several beams were included in the roof space, in order to make it habitable.

The interior of the building was totally rehabilitated to make the program fulfilled and to guarantee all the quality of habitability currently demanded.

However, all the influence of past times, reflected in both buildings, was used, both in the type of materials used, (predominantly wood), and in the drawings of the spans, the drawings of the stairs, and the drawings of the frames that stand out in the ceilings and walls, the latter being a direct influence of the 18th-century Baroque style in Oporto, although their design and shape were simplified as much as possible. With an excellent location, in the historical center and near the riverside of Oporto, the Infante building is in the center of the tourist activity, surrounded by the main monuments and points of interest of the city.

Project: Infante
Architects: Meireles Arquitectos
Client: João Paulo Amaral, Portas São João Lda.
Contractor: BGM
Photographers: João Morgado