GALERIA VASCO DA GAMA 26 | Marlene Uldschmidt Architects

What is today Galeria Vasco da Gama 26 was a long-abandoned historic building in the Portuguese town centre of Ferragudo.

The rehabilitation of this untouched historical property, with its facade and character still unspoilt, was long coming for our studio, which had envisioned the concept since setting our eyes on it in 2004.

This wasn’t for us just any restoration work, but the opportunity to create simultaneously a home and a multipurpose space for the community to enjoy.

A venue for tourists and residents alike to discover the architecture, the history and the people of this little town according to the spirit of cultural preservation that has always guided our work.

With the loft on the top floor, the ground floor, which was originally reachable by water and was used to repair boats, was designed to host an art gallery.

It was our intention to reproduce the original openness feel of the boatyard creating an open space where deep sea and stone could meet again, their destinies forever intertwined.

And it was the life and destiny of the local community that we wanted to celebrate with the photographic show that inaugurated the newly refurbished space in 2018.

An exhibition entirely dedicated to the many fishermen who, like so many others before them, are the bloodline who kept this tiny village alive.