Location
Évora, Portugal
Year
2022
Area
860 m²
Client
Fundação Mar
Status
Completed
Duration
3 years
Design team
Jonas Nørd, Clara Vidal, Inês Calado
Photography
Atelier Nørd
(The project)
The careful restoration of a sixteenth-century cloister into a house of culture.
Hidden behind the walls of Évora’s old town, this sixteenth-century cloister had been closed for decades. The foundation asked us to reopen it as a place for residencies, exhibitions and quiet study.
Repair before renewal
We catalogued every stone before touching it. New interventions — a steel stair, oak floors, discreet lighting — are clearly contemporary, yet step back so the original building speaks first.
Invisible services
Heating, lighting and data run through the old drainage channels beneath the gallery floors, so no new ducts or cables cut through the historic vaults.
(The brief)
Reopen a closed sixteenth-century cloister as a home for artist residencies, exhibitions and study — without erasing four centuries of history.
(Our response)
We catalogued every stone before intervening. New elements — a steel stair, oak floors, discreet services — are clearly contemporary, but step back so the old building speaks first.
Survey drawings of the north gallery
(Materials)
A quiet palette.
They treated a four-hundred-year-old building with real humility. The restoration feels invisible — which is exactly what we hoped for.
Ingrid Holm, Chair, Fundação Mar
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