Society

LAST MINUTE: Porto City Hall wons appeal at the Constitutional Court. The Matadouro will be framed by Kengo Kuma's project

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The final step towards the conversion of the former Industrial Slaughterhouse into a business, cultural and social hub is taken. Porto City Hall has just won the action before the Institutional Court against the decision by the Court of Auditors (Tribunal de Contas). The works will be performed by Mota-Engil and the project is by famous Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, in partnership with the Portuguese by Ooda. 

The Court of Auditors had denied ante visa to the above mentioned project on 4th February 2019, that is, 14 months ago, when the Municipality of Porto had tem days to lodge an appeal, which it did.

Over one year later, Porto City Hall won the appeal and has received the ante visa. This was the last step so that works can start.

The former Industrial Slaughterhouse is terminated for twenty years now; it was on sale on public auctions but the former Mayor of Porto never sold it. It is located in the parish of Campanhã.

 Now, it will undergo a 40 million euros investment, fully supported by Mota-Engil, the company in Porto that won the tender launched by Porto City Hall for that space allowance.

The master mind behind the New National Stadium, in Tokyo, host to the opening ceremonies of the 2020 Olympic Games, Kengo Kuma, will "recover the place", the place being the Matadouro (former slaughterhouse) in Campanhã.

This vacant urban space will be converted to be part of the community again, as the project consists of a roof, which is meant to embrace the pre-existing coating by preserving it and designing a structure that springs over the VCI main road, by means of a pedestrian bridge, which will connect the Matadouro backgrounds to the western part of the Dragão Stadium.

The entire project was designed to preserve tradition and the historical heritage of the place. As the saying goes "nothing is lost, everything is transformed", including in the city.

Kengo Kuma defines his work as "some kind of frame of nature", an architecture of relations, respecting its surroundings instead of dominating them.

Kuma was born in Yokohama, studied architecture at the University of Tokyo and at Columbia University as a visiting researcher from 1985 to 1986. The Japanese architect has designed renowned buildings worldwide, namely the Suntory Museum of Art, in Tokyo, a Bamboo Wall House, in China; the Louis Vuitton headquarters in Japan; the Besançon Art Centre, in France; and one of the most exquisite Caribbean spas for Mandarin Oriental Dellis Cay.

In 1997, Kengo Kuma won the Architectural Institute of Japan Award and in 2009 he was made an Officier de L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France.

Porto local authorities and developers did not forget to bring human activity and liveliness to a long forgotten place in the western part of the city of Porto.