Inovação Fora de Portas enters the imaginary of Siza Vieira who filled the void in Serralves

“An evident whole” as the one already existing. “A void that imagination tries to fill”. Thus describes Siza Vieira the new building he designed for Museu de Arte Contemporânea da Fundação de Serralves. In the last session of the year, the Inovação Fora de Portas – Engenharia à Mostra entered the architect’s imaginary and promoted an exclusive visit, before the space was opened to the public, in January 2024, with exhibitions of the Coleção de Serralves and the work of Álvaro Siza.

The engineer responsible for the structural project, Jorge Silva, spoke with the coordinator of the architectural project, Maria Moura, in a session moderated by Bárbara Rangel and also attended by the president of Fundação de Serralves, Ana Pinho, the director of Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto, Rui Calçada, and the vice president of Porto City Hall. Filipe Araújo took the opportunity to stand out the importance of Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Serralves and its new wing for “a city that has been transformed throughout time precisely due to this innovation achievements that, in the future, will say a lot about Porto DNA”.

Without the presence of the architect who designed the new wing, the session projected a documentary video, where Álvaro Siza Vieira explains the process of creating the space. Starting with the difficulties, that the architect considers “very important”. “This breaks down the initial hesitation about how to start a project” and helps “to choose the solution in face of the existing constraints”, he says.

In the words of Siza Vieira, “the pioneering of the project comes in the sense of looking at each particular aspect as a part of a whole, with no boundaries among the many and diverse constraints and difficulties”.

Among the constraints is, for example, the existence of classified trees in the Serralves gardens, which could not be transferred. The architect explains that the building had to be included, without major disturbances, among the trees” and the solution found were the “torsions” presented.

Assuming that the “project went smoothly”, the architect says that what was intended was “an attached pavilion, but part of the building” that already existed. This premise gave rise to the “bridge-building” that unites the spaces and allows “crossing the gallery that connects the several rooms, without one realizing that is entering another building”, explains Siza Vieira.

In relation to the structure, the architect admits to always trying “not dominate the space”, preferring “a quiet space, where there is no perception of the material difficulty in holding the building”. As for the light, the project presents “variations that enrich the space, according to the meaning of each sector, of each area”.

“When you take any of the paths, you will always find a window here and there, that establishes the relation with the outside and you never lose track of how the building sits on that land”, highlights Siza Vieira.

The architect also mentions that “the common work with the structural engineer, the lighting engineer, the air conditioning engineer” to find the solution for the ceilings – the crown mouldings – to hide air vent and lighting.

The Inovação Fora de Portas is a collaboration between the Municipality, through Porto Innovation Hub, with the Faculdade de Engenharia, Reitoria da Universidade do Porto and Gaiurb, promoting visits to emblematic places in the city, calling innovation agents, and the entire community, to discover the potential of the transformation of Porto through its spaces. The initiative has the support of the Ordem dos Engenheiros - Região Norte, Ordem dos Arquitetos, Casa da Arquitetura, Fundação Marques da Silva and IACES Porto.

In other Editions, the initiative has already passed through the Estádio do Dragão, i3S – Instituto de Investigação e de Inovação em Saúde da Universidade do Porto, the Terminal Intermodal de Campanhã or even the Bairro de Lordelo.