Casa do Risco
Vila do Conde, Portugal
2nd Prize, Limited Competition
The project occupies the ruins of a 16th-century building — the Casa do Risco — where drawings and full-scale plans for vessels built at the Vila do Conde shipyards were once produced. Located along the city’s riverfront, the ruins were partially buried by later urban development built further inland, at a higher level.
Rather than reconstructing the Casa, the project preserves the ruin as it stands. A new building is inserted within it, connecting the two levels and creating a public route between the waterfront and the city. It accommodates an exhibition gallery, a café and a laboratory. The walls of the Casa do Risco are lined with slate, allowing children to cover them with drawings of boats and other stories.
The intervention introduces a garden at the upper level, consolidates the retaining walls along the waterfront and restores a former cod-drying area, transforming it into a new bathing area.
