Concrete foundry bunkers mirrored in the old quench pond under a heavy sky

Porto

Foundry No. 4

Year

2023

Location

Porto

Typology

Commercial

Area

2,180 m²

Status

Completed

Client

Norte Cultura

I

·

Brief

Commercial

+00.00

A disused iron foundry turned over to workshops, studios and a public canteen. The casting hall and the concrete charge bunkers were kept almost entirely intact, and the flooded quench pond became the court they all face.

New floors are hung from the original frame rather than propped off the ground, leaving the hall readable at full height from the entrance. Nothing new touches the old concrete without a visible shadow gap.

II

·

Plates

Photography — Tomás Ferreira

+03.60

Diagonal shadow across board-marked concrete
Concrete yard with a ramp between high walls under cloud
Foundry hall with concrete columns and vaulted roof
Concrete room lit by a single shaft of daylight

III

·

Credits

Completed

+07.20

Our role

Architecture, Adaptive Reuse

Collaborators

Ferro Estruturas

Photography

Tomás Ferreira

Recognition

EU Mies Award 2024 — Nominated

Concrete reading galleries stepping up beneath a line of rooflights

Next project

North Reading Room

→

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