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IN A PORTUGUESE GARDENMaking galleries is difficult: some overwhelm their contents, others are so bland that they lack architecturalpresence. Siza masterfully strikes a balance in this new museum for contemporary art in his home town.

Alvaro Siza de Vieira’s latest building isOporto’s Museum of Contemporary Art.Built in the grounds of the Quinta deSerralves (a q u i n t a is a country housesurrounded by its grounds), the museum iscompletely separate from the grand pink1930s villa which served for some years asthe exhibition building. The architects werekeen to connect harmoniously with the restof the garden, and to reduce the considerablebulk of the new building, so that it relates tothe three main areas of the estate: formalgardens, woods and the still farmed meadows– ‘While at the same time asserting itsautonomy’, which Siza believes essential.

The site was chosen to spare mature trees,and the building takes its roughly north-south alignment from the paths of the oldvegetable garden (which has been moved toanother part of the estate). As usual withmuch of Siza’s latest work, the exterior ismodestly and finely honed, with precisewhite cubical forms on a stone plinth: asimilar strategy, abstracted from tradition, tothe one he adopted in the church at Marcode Canaves (AR August 1998, p60).

Though the site falls some 9m from northto south along the length of the building, themuseum has one essential roof-line, so thebuilding is a good deal higher at the southernend, where it bifurcates to offer a greencourt to the sun and the rest of the park.Hence, overall planning strategy is very clear:entrance is at the top of the site (near wherepeople come in from the road), and galleryspaces are downhill. The 290 seat auditoriumis between the museum proper and thenorthern edge of the estate, so that it iseasily available to audiences when thegalleries are closed. It is connected to thegalleries underground. A gravelled entrancecourt is formed between auditorium andentrance front of main building.

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1From south, looking toward green court from oldformal garden.2West side, with cafeteria’s shading roof projecting as plane.3Entrance court. Looking through bay (which signalssecondary entrance) to main porch at end of site westwall. Auditorium block right.4Central atrium, the spatial pivot of the gallery block.5Formal double stair rises from atrium to upper floor.Curiously, one side – left (west) – is obscured fromdouble-height space by wall.6 Gallery illuminated by Siza’s inverted table devicewhich diffuses intense Southern European sun.

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You enter on foot from the estate’s northerncorner (unless you are a member of staff or aspecial guest who can drive down to thetwo-storey underground car park). As isoften the case with Siza, approach andentrance, though by no means obscure, aresomewhat oblique. You walk down the longshady west wall from the entrance court,past the auditorium, to arrive at a porchwhich receives you into the corner of themain building. From here, you are drawncrabwise by a great splash of luminance tothe focal space, the top-lit central atrium.

Here, the essentially symmetrical nature ofthe main parti begins to reveal itself, butthere is a certain coyness about the nature ofthe plan. For instance, the upper (cafeteriaand general purpose) floor is reached by asymmetrical stair which starts in the middleof the south wall of the atrium and takes youby one dog-leg or the other to the gallerywhich surrounds the space. But the westdog-leg is masked as you come in by a wall,so your attention is focused on the left-handstair, and on the unconnected flight whichgoes straight down into the library foyer.

Approach to the main galleries (on the samelevel as the entrance) is through a largeportal between the stairs.

Some of these moves recall Siza’s GalicianMuseum of Contemporary Art (AR October1994, p 68) where the relatively constrictedand modest entrance was in a corner of thebuilding and the plan was organized round agenerous and luminous central space. InOporto, the site was less constricting than atSantiago de Compostela, so the building wasable to have a more relaxed and almostClassical layout. But it is difficult to believe

7Lower (east wing) gallery overlookinggreen court.8Siza relishes inflections from what isbasically a Classical, rectilinear plan.9 Central gallery changes in height following fall of land.

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1 0Galleries are unassertive, yet each has particularpresence, offering curators and visitors alike manyopportunities for interpretation.

a main site entrance b gallery block entrancec entry courtd secondary entrancee b o o k s h o pf a t r i u mg g a l l e r yh auditorium lobbyj secondary site entrancek library lobbyl l i b r a r y

m a u d i t o r i u mn d e p o s i to o f f i c e sp p a r k i n gq service entrancer s t o r a g es s k y l i g h tt a d m i n i s t r a t i o nu m u l t i - p u r p o s ev c a f e t e r i aw t e r r a c e

cross section through atrium

cross section through galleries

level four (cafeteria). Detached square (bottom) is upper part of atrium

level three: entrance and galleries (scale approx 1:2000)level one (green court)

level two

site plan

making of spaces which are open to differentactivities, especially to temporary exhibits.This does not mean ... that the autonomy ofthe architecture is compromised. The spaceitself should be open, but not neutral; aspace with character, providing thepossibility of balance between the thingsexposed and the space itself’. He admits tobeing influenced by the Casa de Serralves,the old pink house in the middle of the estatewhere, in its time as a museum, exhibitsinteracted with the varied domestic spacesin unexpected and mutually enriching ways.

Hence the great variety of spaces in his newbuilding. There are differences in size; inheight and floor level; differences betweengalleries in e n f i l a d e or arranged as separatevolumes; differences between galleries thatcan have views and ones with imperforatewalls. Yet, for all the variety, there are noclumsy moments (even if circulation is a bittortuous at times). There are only about adozen galleries in the building (depending onhow you count), but they offer curator andvisitor a great wealth of opportunities forinterpretation – and inspiration. GUY MARC

that Siza is not slightly embarrassed by aformality which grows perfectly naturally outof a desire to open windows in some of thegalleries to light brought in by the grass-floored southern court. Yet he is sometimesprepared to imply symmetry, even where itneed not exist: for instance he signals theseparate entrance to the long thin bookshopon the entrance front with a bay. On theother hand, he does not hesitate tointroduce inflections from the main axis, forinstance by twisting escape stairs, or bymaking angled hoods over gallery windows.

In the larger galleries, the inverted table-toplighting device invented at Santiago deCompostela is adopted, but with refinementsof section. Essentially, light is modified bystriking down from a central lay-light onto awhite plane which hovers below generalceiling level so luminance is reflected to thetop of the walls and back to the ceiling,making for gentle indirect daylightingthroughout the cool space.

Siza is not a believer in totally restrainedgalleries. He argues that ‘Designing galleriesfor contemporary art requires the deliberate

A r c h i t e c tAlvaro Siza Arquitecto, OportoDesign teamClemente Menéres Semide (principal architect), Tiago Faria,Christian Gaenshirt, Sofia Thenaisie Coelho, EdisonOkumura, Abílio Mourão, Avelino Silva, João Sabugueiro,Cristina Ferreirinha, Taichi Tomuro, Daniela Antonucci,Francesca Montalto, Francisco Reina Guedaes de CarvalhoStructural engineerGOP-João Maria SobreiraMechanical engineerGET-Alfredo Costa PereiraLandscape architectJoåo Gomes da SilvaP h o t o g r a p h sDuccio MalagambaChristian Richters

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