Jordão Theater Project honored with Portuguese Urban Rehabilitation Award 2022. Built in the 1930s, the Jordão Theater is an imposing building in the heart of the city of Guimaraes, North Portugal. The building corresponds in programmatic terms to the typical program of Cineteatros, which at the time enabled the production of plays for the travelling companies, providing, above all, space for cinema.
There was significant attention devoted to the reconstruction of this building, due to its functionality and the values it embodies, as well as the memories it evokes. The building’s function was lost over time, and its construction had deteriorated; therefore, an intervention was necessary to transform the building while preserving its heritage.
Jordão Theater| Pitágoras Group | © Manuel Roque
The Pitagoras Group successfully preserved the exterior of the building and its interior, without compromising its function as a school of music, performing arts, and visual arts, always keeping in mind the framework of this project, its past. The new floor over the Jordão building features a metallic structure, covered by an OTIIMA glass curtain façade and metallic elements. This curtain wall system is made up of the latest fiberglass profile technology, featuring a full exterior view of glass, low thermal conductivity, and a reversible system that allows the window to open at an angle of 165º.
Jordão Theater| Pitágoras Group | © Manuel Roque
The project includes a 400-seat auditorium, the new Music School of the Valentim Moreira de Sá Academy (also known as the Guimarães Conservatory), and spaces dedicated to the Performing and Visual Arts courses at the University of Minho, giving new life to the 80-year-old building. In addition to the architectural and aesthetic intervention, Pitagoras Group felt responsible for ensuring the sustainability of the equipment, as the restoration became fundamental in the process of applying for the Couros area to be listed as a World Heritage site, an extension of the historic center already submitted to UNESCO. The new building design involves an interpretative, personal, yet artistic charge, safeguarding heritage, while its expansive glass walls look towards the future with respect and inspiration.
Jordão Theater| Pitágoras Group | © Manuel Roque
