"The Difficulty of Restoration 

1. The greatest difficulties when restoring a building do not reside so much in the degradation of the structure or the finishing materials. They instead rather concern the alterations that extend beyond the scope of its architecture or the correctness of the repairs to be carried out, especially when dealing with a modern building with little or no consideration for the care required for heritage conservation (as if the “heritage” condition had somehow ended). 

This becomes especially true when built in exposed concrete as is the case of the swimming pool in Leça da Palmeira and even when classified as a National Monument in the meantime. 

2. The architect Teresa Ferreira, who was aware of my concern regarding the carelessness over maintenance extending over years, told me she had asked the Le Corbusier Foundation for access to information regarding the recent restoration of the exposed concrete on the Convent of La Tourette: she was told that the results had not been satisfactory. 

3. The poor interventions in the Leça swimming pool, extending over half a century, mainly concern some cracks in the concrete walls, which are not structurally worrisome or the use of inappropriate wood coatings (riga recovered from demolitions and so probably in use for more than two centuries and still in a perfect state of conservation). This intervention resulted in a layer of successive coatings in burnt oil about 0,5 com thick. Removing this greasy paste without affecting the grooves that time had inscribed in the wood was one of the most time-consuming and difficult tasks in this project. 

4. Other interventions, wrong but easier to correct, related to the exterior space, the enclosures defined by the rocks and some concrete walls necessary for their organization: the surgical encounter between architectural geometry and natural organicity." 


Álvaro Siza 
Porto, 2022