MAG - ENVIRONMENTAL MUSEUM OF GAIA
An open garden facing the Douro.
This project was conceived as a proposal for the architectural competition of the Museu do Ambiente de Gaia (MAG - Environmental Museum), in Vila Nova de Gaia.
More than simply responding to the given programme, we sought to shape a garden from the very wound of the land, from that abrupt topography that unfolds as a belvedere over the southern bank of the Douro.
In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, trade brought to Portugal species from afar, magnolias, jacarandas, ginkgo biloba, camellias, tulip trees, rhododendrons, azaleas, which, once rooted, came to shape the landscapes of Gaia and Porto. The MAG garden wished to extend that botanical memory, to rediscover within it a sense of continuity and belonging.
The museum’s volumes emerge as planted terraces, overcoming the slope and stitching together the urban fabric. MAG becomes a space of transition, both public garden and museum, linking the heart of the city to the old Port wine cellars, as if reconciling two shores of the same story.
Project in co-authorship with Hérard & Da Costa Architects.
Photography 3D: ON-Studio + Vítor Leal Barros + Hérard & Da Costa Architects
Consultants: GEG Engineering
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