The building handover ceremony was attended by the architect Álvaro Siza, the Mayor of Matosinhos, Luísa Salgueiro, the President of Casa da Arquitectura José Manuel Dias da Fonseca, and the Executive Director of Casa da Arquitectura, Nuno Sampaio, among other personalities.
In order to adapt it to the new functions of an artistic residency, the building has recently received new rehabilitation works in charge of the Municipality of Matosinhos, which architect Álvaro Siza closely followed.
This space is intended to welcome researchers who come to work, study and investigate at Casa da Arquitectura, namely on the collections in the care of the Casa, but also curators and architects who develop work related to the institution.
The Roberto Ivens building, which served as the headquarters of Casa da Arquitectura before its transfer to the current premises in the Real Vinícola Quarter, belonged to Álvaro Siza’s family, who remodelled it, at the request of his father, in 1961. Acquired by the municipality in 2007, it was, two years later, in 2009, the object of a rehabilitation process with the signature of Álvaro Siza.
The Casa Residences are a fundamental component of the Casa da Arquitectura’s Studies and Research Centre, which intends to act as a dynamic centre for the study and research around contemporary architecture and the collections that are in the care of the Casa da Arquitectura’s Archive.