“Have you ever noticed the wonderful light that shadow has?” Manuel Tainha
In a pre-existing building, with its intrinsic geographical constraints (south slope of Douro’s river, Vila Nova de Gaia) and its preceding usage (Porto wine cellar) a Forum has been developed and adapted.
This art related program became ideal to transform the constraints into advantages, transforming this former warehouse into a vivid space humanized by light.
When one visits a rough space, which has fine works inside, full of soul and desire, the architectural design must undertake all possible variants to let the art shine and transform the space by itself.
The visitor shall not be dazzled by the beauty of the details, but rather by what indirect and defuse light has to offer through enhancement and embellishment.
Beauty lies in mystery, an area that seems dead, cold and empty, where surprise lies in moving shadows, which seem to have been shed as light in a canvas. The visitor is the painter! He lives in the canvas, he is the canvas, makes the canvas… When he leans over the window and sees the other bank (Oporto) so vividly illuminated he realizes the dark density in which he is involved.
Not removing this mystery, the aim is to enhance these key moments with inherent architectonic elements (skylights, openings of various types, materials), directing the senses. And in the dim and tired light we are guided by rare bright spots, drops of light that fall into shadow and tint the space.
This uncertain and precarious light which is a constraint for a constant experience becomes the biggest ornament in a room full of art works. It changes every day, every hour, penetrates weak through the glass, like a last breath, submerge to deafen all who see in darkness a shelter for the thought.
