Location: Porto, Portugal
Architect: Victor Mestre
Model Scale: 1:100
Year: 1997-1999
The Santa Clara Convent building was originally founded in the 15th century. After the extinction of the religious orders in the 19th century, part of its space was cut off due to the construction of the Avenida da Ponte. Once vacant, it was transformed into the Aljube, with various adulterations to adapt it and different functions from the original ones.
The typological vestiges of what would have been the convent have thus been completely erased, with only the walls of the cloister and a few sections of the south and west façades remaining. In the 90s, restoration work was carried out. The old building appears like a box within a box, in an assumed contrast between the old and the new, in which the most significant vestiges of the former were kept and the latter was designed with contemporary solutions.
The cloister is seen as a primordial element and the main memory of the past. Some of the old door and window openings and other testimonies of the architectural past are uncovered.
