A gallery in lime-washed concrete that is meant to age.
The foundation shows contemporary work in a city of old stone. They wanted a building that would grow into its street instead of staying new.
The concrete is washed with lime and left unsealed. Rain and time mark it slowly, the way the granite around it has been marked.
Client
Lime Gallery Foundation
Location
Porto, Portugal
Year
2021
Scope
New-build gallery
Area
640 m²
Status
Completed
Collaborators
Matos Engenharia
Photography
Anna Lowe
THE SITE
A new building in an old street.
The plot is a gap in a street of eighteenth-century houses. We matched their cornice line and window rhythm, then left the new facade completely plain.
Inside, four galleries step up the slope behind the street. Each one is lit from a high north clerestory.
“We built it to look better in fifty years than it does today.”
Johanna Berg — Senior Architect
Three materials that record time instead of hiding it.
Stone
Board-marked concrete
The timber grain of the formwork is left in every wall.
Plaster
Lime wash, unsealed
Weathers, streaks and softens with each wet season.
Timber
Oak gallery floors
Oiled only, so footfall wears visible paths over time.
PROCESS
Sketch to site.
01
Sketch
Facade studies of the street, house by house.
02
Plan
Four galleries stepping up the slope.
03
Render
Lime-wash samples left out for a full winter.
04
Built
Concrete poured gallery by gallery over a year.