Former Louvre Hotel | Diana Barros Arquitetura
Porto / Portugal / 2023
Built in the mid-19th century to be the house of a Douro nobleman, the building's fame was consolidated over time by the meticulous decoration of the woodwork, framed within the compositional rigour of the 19th-century facade, and the incredible staircase in the core of the building, which extends to the top floor and is topped off by the central skylight.
It has embodied various uses over time, from a hotel prepared to receive emperors, to the headquarters of a resistance movement against the Estado Novo, from the home of the Oporto Film Club to a driving school. The proposed programme involved making it embody another: collective housing with commerce and services on the ground floor. Perhaps more pedestrian, but no less daring, given the dominance of tourist use in the area.
The project tried to respect the incredible polyvalence of a building that was once almost everything, keeping the organization of the common areas and accesses, the careful decorative work that survived in the stonework of the facade and in the interior and exterior carpentry and the constructive system used in the slabs and central staircase. The tension between the scale of the original building and the domestic uses now introduced is accentuated by the elemental design of the new elements, emphasising the textures and colours of the materials.
The fundamental aim was to create a robust and coherent whole, functionally integrated but adaptable and capable of making the natural and human resources invested in its rehabilitation profitable, prolonging its useful life and preparing it for another century and a half of use and as many other incarnations.
[PT]
Construído em meados do século XIX para alojar um nobre duriense, a notoriedade do edifício consolidou-se no tempo através da decoração minuciosa das carpintarias, enquadradas no rigor compositivo da fachada oitocentista, e da incrível escadaria existente no núcleo do edifício, que se prolonga até ao último piso e é rematada pela claraboia central.
Encarnou vários usos ao longo do tempo, de hotel preparado para receber imperadores, a sede de um movimento de resistência ao Estado Novo, da casa do Cineclube do Porto a escola de condução. O programa proposto implicou faze-lo encarnar um outro: habitação coletiva com comércio e serviços no piso térreo. Talvez mais pedestre, mas não menos arrojado, dada a dominância do uso turístico na zona.
O projeto procurou respeitar a incrível polivalência de um edifício que já foi quase tudo, mantendo a organização das áreas comuns e acessos, o cuidadoso trabalho decorativo que sobreviveu nas cantarias da fachada e nas carpintarias interiores e exteriores e o sistema construtivo usado nas lajes e escadaria central. A tensão entre a escala do edifício original e os usos domésticos agora introduzidos é acentuada pelo desenho elementar dos novos elementos, enfatizando as texturas e cores dos materiais.
O objetivo fundamental foi criar um conjunto robusto e coerente, funcionalmente integrado, mas adaptável e capaz de rentabilizar os recursos naturais e humanos investidos na sua reabilitação, prolongando a sua vida útil e preparando-o para mais século e meio de uso e outras tantas encarnações.
Built in the mid-19th century to be the house of a Douro nobleman, the building's fame was consolidated over time by the meticulous decoration of the woodwork, framed within the compositional rigour of the 19th-century facade, and the incredible staircase in the core of the building, which extends to the top floor and is topped off by the central skylight. It has embodied various uses over time, from a hotel prepared to receive emperors, to the headquarters of a resistance movement against the...
- Year 2023
- Work finished in 2023
- Status Completed works
- Type Hotel/Resorts / Tourist Facilities / Interior Design / Building Recovery and Renewal
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