quinta do mitra
FUSAO-FTA_BCA_TIC_20230820_01
The still called Quinta do Mitra is an integral part of the project for the Campanhã’s Bus Terminal (TIC), as its outer space is an extension of the public natural park that already involves all this intervention. It goes from the south area, next to the Ceres Factory, and it extends along the entire TIC building, stretching eastwards to Rua do Bonjoia and ends in the site of the former Quinta do Mitra, with access via a pedestrian bridge, at the north end of the TIC complex. The pre-existing building of an extensive Quinta that was, over time, successively and very closely involved by large mobility infrastructures (the railway, the ring road and now the TIC), was completely abandoned, not fully functional, in ruins and in an advanced state of structural degradation, close to collapse. The TIC project envisaged its reconstruction in order to make it a functional building, to confer an urban sense to it and make it an active player in the new functional and infrastructural surrounding context. The architectural proposal focused on the integral preservation of the existing stone walls, maintaining the condition in which they were found, the appearance of a ruin, reconfiguring their spaces for a new programmatic and multipurpose functionality. It was transformed it into a municipal services building, complying with the new spatial, constructive and infrastructural requirements. The architectural proposal morphologically translates this dialectic between the original pre-existence state in which the buildings were found and preserved, and the new infrastructural and functional components that were added for their renewed functionality. Over time, the construction’s proximity to the ring road and the railway line and the new presence of the TIC building removed its original meaning, and it did not seem logical to remake a conventional pastiche of it, given that its function has also radically changed. It would be better to give the building a new functional and urban meaning, without losing its essence and stony condition. A commitment was made to a highly sustainable reconstruction (without the use of heavy construction elements, concrete, minerals or ceramics) through very light and recyclable structural elements, namely wooden structures and light metal components. These do not jeopardize the structural safety of the existing building, whose interior and exterior appearance reveal the nature and contemporaneity of the intervention, and it does so without renouncing to the memory of its original morphology, whose interpretation is maintained. The building now resurfaces with a renewed scale and appearance, a prominent figure in the green mantle that extends throughout the naturalistic intervention of the TIC park. The abstraction and neutral treatment of the roofs and new equipment highlights and gives prominence to the only old elements that have been fully preserved over time: the stone walls of the building. The chapel, given its spatial potential and symbolic dimension, was transformed into a small auditorium, entirely lit from above through a glazed roof, which confers a charismatic monumentality to the space.
FUSAO-FTA_BCA_TIC_20230820_18
QM_imp
QM_piso0
QM_piso1
QM_corteA
QM_corteB
QM_corteD
FTA_BCA_QM_230529-0606_01
FTA_BCA_QM_230529-0606_02
FTA_BCA_QM_230529-0606_03
FTA_BCA_QM_230529-0606_04
FTA_BCA_QM_230529-0606_06
FTA_BCA_QM_230529-0606_07
FTA_BCA_QM_230529-0606_12
FTA_BCA_QM_230529-0606_14
FTA_BCA_QM_230529-0606_15
FTA_BCA_QM_230529-0606_21
FTA_BCA_QM_230529-0606_25
FTA_BCA_QM_230529-0606_26
FTA_BCA_QM_230529-0606_31
FTA_BCA_QM_230529-0606_33
FTA_BCA_QM_230529-0606_36
FTA_BCA_QM_230529-0606_37
FTA_BCA_QM_230529-0606_39
FTA_BCA_QM_230529-0606_45

project:
quinta do mitra
client:
go porto, porto municipality
location:
porto, portugal
date:
2016 - 2022
intervention area:
4 758 m2
architecture:
nuno brandão costa
collaborators:
beatriz ferreira, damião franco, francisco ascensão, josé pina, rita leite

structural engineer:
antónio adão da fonseca, renato bastos (adf consultores)
hydraulic engineer:
miguel vale (abprojectos)
electrical engineer:
maria da luz santiago, raúl serafim, ricardo campinho (rs associados)
mechanical engineer:
miguel alves, raúl bessa (get)
landscape design:
rita guedes
sinaletic design:
miguel palmeiro (united by)
photographs:
francisco ascensão