Pousada de Santa Marinha da Costa
Fernando Távora | Guimarães
Location
Largo Domingos Leite de Castro, Lugar da Costa, Guimarães
Preexistence
10th to 18th centuries
Dates
1972-1985
Authorship
Fernando Távora, Alfredo Matos Ferreira, Bernardo Ferrão
Client
Direção Geral dos edifícios e Monumentos Nacionais (DGEMN)
Original use
Convent (in ruins)
New use
Hotel
Collaboration
A. Matos Ferreira, B. Ferrão, J. Barros, F. Barata, J. Jordão, M. Magalhães, A. Ramos, G. Carneiro, J. Távora, F. Barroso.
Landscape architect
Ilídio de Araújo
Archaeology
Manuel Luis Real
Technical consultancy
Jaime Montenegro (electrical and mechanical engineering), Manuel Monteiro de Andrade (water and sewage), Fernando de Almeida de Eça Guimarães (structures)
When the decision to adapt the Convent of Santa Marinha da Costa to a Pousada was taken, the building was in a severe state of decay, as a result of the multiplicity of uses it had been submitted since 1834 and its recent abandonment. Nevertheless, apart from the alterations introduced when it was used as a private residence after the extinction of the religious orders, it can be said that its fundamental structure, dating back to the 17th and 18th century, remained intact [...]
The general criterion adopted in the Santa Marinha da Costa Pousada, the construction of which is now being concluded, was to continue and innovate, that is, to contribute towards the pursuance of the already long life of the old building, by preserving and renovating its most important spaces or by creating spaces which are the outcome of new programmatic conditioning factors.
This is how the life of a building is begun, pursued and continued over a period of eleven centuries, in the certainty that other centuries and transformations will follow…
A dialogue was sought, not one between the deaf who ignore each other, but one between listeners who will make an attempt to understand each other, asserting
similarities and continuity more than cultivating differences and rupture. A dialogue which is a method by which are synthesized two complementary vectors to be considered in the alteration of a preexistence: the scientific knowledge of its evolution and its values, through Archaeology and History, and a creative conception in its transformation process.
The Pousada will, no doubt, introduce a new use in the old building, but it is also certain that ‘if men make houses, houses also make men.’ This is why the old building’s scale and ritual of spaces have been kept. They mean the presence of a past which will never return and are recalled and used here due to the modernity of their significance.
Fernando Távora Porto, 1985
@ Eleonora Fantini, Fernando Barroso
Before
After