Porto Arts Club
Oporto, Portugal
Cultural
1.140 m2
2025
In Foz do Douro, the Porto Arts Club occupies a building shaped by successive transformations. Originally conceived as a private residence, it later operated as a day centre and community facility, accumulating layers of use that altered its spatial coherence. When MASSLAB was invited to intervene, the task was not simply to assign a new programme, but to install it without erasing the building’s accumulated memory.
The existing structure was marked by compartmentalisation and disjointed circulation. Rooms operated in isolation, and transitions between spaces lacked clarity. The project begins by working through this condition rather than replacing it. Circulation is restructured to establish continuity, thresholds are recalibrated, and latent spatial relationships are brought into alignment. The intervention restores legibility while preserving the depth of the building’s past.
The new programme establishes a private club dedicated to culture, art, and contemporary forms of sociability. Exhibition spaces, areas for gathering, and more reserved rooms are organised as a gradual sequence, allowing different degrees of openness and retreat. The architectural language remains restrained, relying on proportion, alignment, and calibrated transitions rather than formal emphasis.
An integral part of the project is the incorporation of residential spaces for artists in residence. These units are not isolated from the club’s activities but embedded within its spatial system, enabling temporary inhabitants to live and work within the same architectural framework as exhibitions and events. The coexistence of cultural production and domestic occupation reinforces the building’s role as a sustained environment for artistic exchange.
The project also features a special collaboration with renowned Swiss designers Trix & Robert Haussmann, who were responsible for the creative development of one of the club’s bars. This international partnership underscores the Porto Arts Club’s cosmopolitan spirit and reinforces its ambition to bridge disciplines, eras and sensibilities.
Porto Arts Club is therefore defined by continuity rather than rupture. By working with the existing fabric and recalibrating its internal relationships, the project establishes a structure capable of supporting contemporary cultural life while acknowledging the depth of its past.
Status
Built, Private
Prémios Construir 2025 - Best Services & Retail Project (Nominee), Prémios Construir 2025 – Best Rehabilitation Project (Nominee)
Client
Marc Jancou
Design team
Diogo Sousa Rocha
Duarte Ramalho Fontes
Ricardo Domingues
Diogo Parente Mina
Andrea Icaro Roveda
Giacomo Cruciani
Lorenzo Mancini
Andre Pereira da Costa
Carlos Guilherme Pinto
Consultants
Matriz
Pedro Castanheira
Add Building
Ivo Tavares Studio
