Porto: Pedro Duarte says Edifício Transparente demolition timeline due by year-end

Demolition plans for the Edifício Transparente

Porto City Council leader Pedro Duarte said on Monday that the project to demolish the Edifício Transparente is still being drawn up, and that only towards the “end of the year” will it be possible to present timelines for the operation.

“We are working on the project. I would say it’s down to the engineers, the designers, the architects, to look closely at that reality and then propose to us the most reasonable and most viable technical solution,” Pedro Duarte said on Monday.

Speaking during a visit to Ourigo Beach, the mayor argued that it is still “a bit premature” to put forward dates and deadlines. Even so, he said work is being pushed “as fast as possible” and that “perhaps by the end of the year” he will have clearer timings to set out.

Funding and renaturalisation of the beach

Also present at Monday’s visit, Portuguese Environment Agency (APA) president Pimenta Machado said that funding is still being sought for the operation, which is intended to “upgrade that beach” and which “has to be ‘renaturalised’”.

The building will be partially demolished, with only one level left at beach level to provide facilities supporting seaside use.

The Edifício Transparente, close to the Anémona Roundabout, was built in 2001 as part of the project to extend the City Park to the sea. The scheme was designed by Catalan architect Solà-Morales, funded through the Polis programme, and included in the works plan of the company promoting Porto 2001 – European Capital of Culture.

Ourigo Beach bar removal and site findings

Monday’s visit took place in the context of removing the deteriorated structures of a bar at Ourigo Beach in Porto, a job that was completed on 4 July.

Pedro Duarte praised the “combined effort, between different teams, which meant Porto today is a better city than it was yesterday”. Pimenta Machado added that, although the intervention had been planned to take 20 days, it was finished in just 10.

“It started the day before São João and we finished on 4 July, a very fast job, [even so] it took a little longer. Do you know why? Because we found a set of syringes here, 427 in fact, (...) which required some precautions from a public health point of view,” the APA president told journalists. He said that, for that reason, the “small intervention” had a “big impact on the city”.

Asked whether this case prompted internal reflection about possible coordination failures between state bodies, Pimenta Machado said the various organisations are more aligned and that “there is always learning”.

The concrete beach-support structure had positive opinions from all the bodies involved, namely the APA, the Douro, Leixões and Viana do Castelo Ports Administration (APDL) and the Northern Regional Directorate for Culture, and it was under construction when, in May 2021, the then Minister for Climate Action, João Pedro Matos Fernandes, announced it would be demolished.