Close collaboration between architects and archaeologists has helped turn a collection of 200-year-old port wine cellars located on a steep slope in Gaia, Portugal into a thriving arts and entertainment venue
This is an edited excerpt from an article that originally appeared on Design & Make With Autodesk, a site dedicated to inspiring design, construction, manufacturing, engineering, media and entertainment leaders.
Portuguese-British architect Broadway Malyan has restored a series of 200-year-old port wine warehouses near Porto, Portugal to house a new tourist hotspot, the World of Wine (WOW).
An old Portuguese law stipulated that port wine must be stored in Vila Nova de Gaia, a municipality on the south side of the River Douro, opposite the city of Porto - a waterway traditionally used to transport wine barrels.
After the law was repealed, the long warehouses in Gaia stood empty and later fell into disrepair.
Margarida Caldeira, practice principal at Broadway Malyan, first visited the site in 2014 and had an idea for a sustainable project.
‘The plan was to turn the area into a new tourist attraction without tearing down the architectural heritage,’ she says. ‘I still remember standing on the terrace of a little old house with a fantastic view of Porto’s rooftops.’ That terrace is now the centrepiece of the WOW complex.
Covering an area of 37,000m² (398,000ft²), the site houses the Pink Palace school of wine, where visitors can learn about rosé; The Chocolate Story, which explains the history of cacao and port; and Planet Cork, a museum focused on one of Portugal’s most important agricultural exports.
There are seven museums in total, along with 14 restaurants, bars and cafes, galleries and shops.
Digging deep and digital planning
Hundreds of warehouses, some of which are more than two centuries old, were restored to create the complex. Located on a steep slope, they are separated by narrow alleyways.
Many of the existing buildings were completely refurbished, with work including the replacement of original wooden beams and restoring the original granite brickwork.
Where main structures were beyond repair, facades were preserved. The development features two new buildings which, while offering a more contemporary aesthetic, are harmonious with their historic setting.
In addition to restoring the historic buildings, the team dug 18 metres into the earth to install reinforcing beams to support those restored structures, as well as to build a space to house modern technology, including air conditioning systems, supply routes and parking.
‘It was a mammoth undertaking,’ Caldeira says. ‘We always had an archaeological team with us - and that requires a lot of co-ordination.’
The two teams used Autodesk AutoCAD and Revit to run collision tests to ensure there were no unwelcome surprises on the construction site. They simulated construction in Autodesk software before starting to build, saving time and money and preventing errors on-site.
Such preparation was key and the project would have been impossible to realise without the technology.
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