Casa da Arquitectura's opening

During the weekend, Casa da Arquitectura offered free admission, with an intense programme of activities and two exhibitions: “Power Architecture” in the Exhibition Hall, curated by Jorge Carvalho, Pedro Bandeira and Ricardo Carvalho and the “X Bienal Iberoamerican Architecture and Urbanism (BIAU)” at the Casa’s Gallery.
A total of 12 173 people visited the Casa during the weekend, which offered talks, visits and dozens of free admission activities for everyone.
Prime Minister António Costa was one of the first to visit the space, having visited Casa da Arquitectura on November 15, 2017. During the visit, António Costa, accompanied by the Mayor of Matosinhos, Luísa Salgueiro, considered Casa da Arquitetura "an extraordinary project for the country", noting that the equipment only made sense in Matosinhos, a municipality that "knew how to understand the architecture's unique ability to transform the territory ". In the speech he gave after a visit to the new facilities, António Costa said that "the State will complete the registration as an associate of Casa da Arquitectura".
"There is no other municipality where architecture has been so striking as transforming capacity of the territory. Matosinhos knew how to understand this unique capacity of architecture to change the territory and, in doing so, transform people's lives", noted the Prime Minister.
Praising the "extraordinary equipment for the country as a whole", the Prime Minister highlighted the fact that it was "a municipal project", something that shows that municipalities "have an open and wide view of the world", as well as "the capacity to understand that, today, the insertion in the global networks implies projects of this nature".
For Costa, the fact that Casa da Arquitetura was conceived and developed by the Municipality of Matosinhos gives "a great lesson to those who think that municipalities have a parochial vision of their territory and their function".
In his speech, Costa recalled that it was Guilherme Pinto, the former president of the local authority in Matosinhense who died in January, who "challenged him to get to know the project" when he was still under construction.
It was at that moment that the Prime Minister realized that he was facing "an extraordinary project for the whole country" and in which he promised the ex-mayor to be present at the house at its opening.
Costa noted that "Portuguese architecture has been a great opportunity for the country, contributing to a change in the country's image in the world, which has an immaterial value".
More than 12 thousand visitors
With dozens of activities open to the public during the weekend, the number of people who circulated between various spaces was high, numbering more than 12 thousand visitors. A continuous flow of people crossed the 800 square meters of the Exhibition Hall, where the exhibition “Power Architecture” curated by Jorge Carvalho, Pedro Bandeira and Ricardo Carvalho inaugurated and, at the Casa’s Gallery, the “X Iberoamerican Biennial of Architecture and Urbanism”, curated by Ângela García by Paredes and Ignacio G. Pedrosa.
About the programme’s conferences, it was particularly crowded the one that joined together architect Eduardo Souto de Moura, X BIAU commissioner, Ângela Paredes, architect Jorge Figueira and Nuno Sampaio, Executive Director of Casa da Arquitectura. In total, 571 people watched “Conversation with Eduardo Souto de Moura”.
With guided visits to different spaces almost always sold out (more than a thousand participants), the Educational Service of Casa da Arquitectura was very busy during the opening weekend. The various spaces associated with the Kaleidoscope Programme, which offered a range of activities for children and families, accounted for more than 1 500 participants in the two days.