Pedro Duarte says Porto will set deadlines for partial demolition of the Edifício Transparente at Praia Internacional

Porto City Council will set out a timetable for the partial demolition of the Edifício Transparente by the end of this year, according to the council leader, Pedro Duarte. Speaking during a visit to Praia do Ourigo on Monday morning, the mayor said the plans are still being drawn up, but they will include turning the lower floors into a space to provide “support for the beach”. Business owners operating in the building, interviewed by JN, say they have not been told anything so far.

The building, which faces Praia Internacional in Matosinhos, has never been universally accepted and has been the subject of discussion for years. The current administration believes that removing the upper storeys would lessen the building’s visual impact on the surrounding area. Pedro Duarte also said that joint work with the Portuguese Environment Agency (Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente - APA) includes improving water quality at Praia Internacional in order to “give the space back to the people of Porto”.

“We want, of course, to intervene across that whole area - not just the building - to return it to the city,” said the Social Democrat. At present, the Edifício Transparente is largely occupied by coworking spaces. The intention is that, once reduced in height, the site will take on uses linked to its coastal setting, with options including keeping outdoor terraces and creating storage areas for surf schools.

Still no dates

On the project itself, Pedro Duarte acknowledged that it remains at a planning stage. “I would say it’s time for the engineers, the designers, the architects to look closely at that reality and then propose the most reasonable, most viable technical solution,” he reiterated.

For that reason, he said it is “a bit premature” to put dates on the start of works. Even so, he insisted Porto City Council is “accelerating as much as possible” and would “very much” like to have a project ready over the coming months. “We’re already starting to work on it. We’re not standing still; we’re working together and we’ll see - perhaps by the end of the year we’ll already have more concrete deadlines to present,” he stressed.

Standing alongside Pedro Duarte was Pimenta Machado, head of the APA, who underlined the importance of a joint intervention to upgrade Praia Internacional: “Above all, it’s necessary to include that beach in the intervention. It has excellent conditions, but it has to be renaturalised. We have to improve environmental conditions and create that unique link between the [City] Park and the beach.”

Removal of the Ourigo bar

The visit to Praia do Ourigo, held yesterday morning in Porto, took place after the removal of the derelict structures of a former bar. That work was completed on 4 July.

The removal of the “little monster”, as Pimenta Machado described the run-down commercial premises, is seen as the first step in a wider project aimed at restoring Porto’s coastline more broadly and over the long term - a programme that also includes demolishing the Edifício Transparente.

“We have that intention and we’re going to look at the whole maritime area, as well as Porto’s riverside frontage. We have plans and ideas to upgrade that area, from Ribeira to the so-called Ramal de Alfândega,” the leader of Porto City Council concluded.

Find out more

Porto 2001

Construction of the Edifício Transparente went ahead during Porto 2001 - European Capital of Culture. The four-storey building, designed by Catalan architect Manuel Solà-Morales, cost in the region of €7.5 million.

200 jobs

In 2021, the property was refurbished to host a coworking space. There are currently several restaurants operating on the site and around 88 companies, serving roughly 2,000 users.