Japanese architect Kengo Kuma to frame the Matadouro in Campanhã

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.

The concession was granted today and the notice was both published in the website of Porto City Hall and the newspaper of the municipality.

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 preexisting 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.