Its a privilege show the most recent project designed by Eduardo Souto de Moura in Portugal, thanks to Joao Morgado, photographer. The Cultural Center of Viana do Castelo opened last 14th of July and its an amazing project designed by Pritzker award-winning Eduardo Souto de Moura.

The cultural center of Viana do Castelo is a project inserted into the privileged space of marginal river mouth Lima, around an axis that is claimed as new cultural centrality of Minho. This bold project with an end multipurpose intended to be the headquarters of cultural events, music, sports and leisure.

Positioned alongside a library by Álvaro Siza and a leisure centre by Fernando Tavora, the Cultural Center is composed of three floors and has a deployment area of 3,792 sqm. On the -1 floor is located the match venue and access to side benches. The level 0 stands for the glass used, which ensures transparency between the city, the river and the interior of the building itself. And lastly the 1st floor are booths scenic and administrative spaces.

Eduardo Souto de Moura started to design this Cultural Center back in 1999, it took five years to build and it was finally opened last 14th of July 2013. The completion of the building marks the end of a five-year construction period. The two original constructors suffered bankruptcy and funding had to be subsidised by the local authority.
 

Project Synopsis by Souto de Moura Architects

The building is implanted in the zone foreseen in the plan, aligned in the south side with one of the buildings projected by Architect Fernando Távora.

In front of the North elevation it is foreseen an arborized square with alleys that mark the entries of the Pavilion. In this square will exist a slope that will make the access to level -1.

Formally the building is defined by a table where an aluminium box and every necessary equipments to the function of the diferent activities promoted in it's interior will be placed.

The whole image intends to be associated with the naval architecture, existing a relation with the image of the "Gil Eanes" ship.

The multipurpose Pavilion will be a space directed to cultural and sport events.

The main accesses will be situated in the North and South extremities. The service entrances will be made in the other elevations.

It's interior will be ample and permeable, existing the possibility of viewing the sea from the entrance floor.

It is pretended that it's transparency will be able to make it as lighter as possible in relation to the other buildings.

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Architects
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Eduardo Souto de Moura.
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Project team
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Diogo Guimarães, , Ricardo Rosa Santos, João Queiróz e Lima, Jana Scheibner, Luis Peixoto, Manuel Vasconcelos, Tiago Coelho.
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Collaborators
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Structural consultants.- G.O.P. Electrical consultants.- G.O.P. Mechanical consultants.- G.O.P.
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Client
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City Hall of Viana do Castelo.
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Area
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Building size.- 8,706.7 m².
Plot.- 3,792.00 m².
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Dates
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2000/2004.
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Budget
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€ 13,100,000.00
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Location
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Viana do Castelo. Portugal.
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Photography
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Eduardo Souto de Moura was born in Porto, Portugal in 1952. His father was a doctor (ophthalmologist) and his mother a home maker. He has one brother and one sister. The sister is also a doctor and his brother is a lawyer with a political career – formerly he was Attorney General of Portugal.

Following his early years at the Italian School, Souto de Moura enrolled in the School of Fine Arts in Porto, where he began as an art student, studying sculpture, but eventually achieving his degree in architecture. He credits a meeting with Donald Judd in Zurich for the switch from art to architecture. While still a student, he worked for architect Noé Dinis and then Álvaro Siza, the latter for five years. While studying and working with his professor of urbanism, Architect Fernandes de Sá, he received his first commission, a market project in Braga which has since been demolished because of changing business patterns.

After 2 years of military service he won the competition for the Cultural Centre in Porto. The beginning of his career as an independent architect.

He is frequently invited as a guest professor to Lausanne and Zurich in Switzerland as well as Harvard in the United States. These guest lectures at universities and seminars over the years have afforded him the opportunity to meet many colleagues in the field, among them Jacques Herzog and Aldo Rossi.

He is married and he has 3 daughters: Maria Luisa, Maria da Paz e Maria Eduarda.His wife, Luisa Penha, and the eldest daughter are architects, the second is a nurse and the third is on the Faculty of Architecture of the University of Oporto for the 3rd year.

Along with his architecture practice, Souto de Moura is a professor at the University of Oporto, and is a visiting professor at Geneva, Paris-Belleville, Harvard, Dublin and the ETH Zurich and Lausanne.

Often described as a neo-Miesian, but one who constantly strives for originality, Souto de Moura has achieved much praise for his exquisite use of materials -- granite, wood, marble, brick, steel, concrete -- as well as his unexpected use of color. Souto de Moura is clear on his view of the use of materials, saying, “I avoid using endangered or protected species. I think we should use wood in moderation and replant our forests as we use the wood. We have to use wood because it is one of the finest materials available.”

In an interview with Croquis, he explained, “I find Mies increasingly fascinating...There is a way of reading him which is just to regard him as a minimalist. But he always oscillated between classicism and neoplasticism...You only have to remember the last construction of his life, the IBM building, with that powerful travertine base that he drilled through to produce a gigantic door. Then on the other hand, he arrived in Barcelona and did two pavilions, didn’t he? One was abstract and neo plastic and the other one was 9 classical, symmetrical with closed corners...He was experimenting. He was already so modern he was ‘post’.”

Souto de Moura acknowledges the Miesian influence, speaking of his Burgo Tower, but refers people to something written by Italian journalist and critic, Francesco Dal Co, “it’s better not to be original, but good, rather than wanting to be very original and bad.”

At a series of forums called the Holcim Forum on sustainable architecture, Souto de Moura stated, “For me, architecture is a global issue. There is no ecological architecture, no intelligent architecture, no sustainable architecture — there is only good architecture. There are always problems we must not neglect; for example, energy, resources, costs, social aspects — one must always pay attention to all these.”

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