Eduardo Souto de Moura Designing New Hotel in Gaia

11 March 2021 – Ana Custódio

ZOF – Sociedade de Investimentos Imobiliários announced that it would develop a new hotel in Vila Nova de Gaia, in a 5 million euro investment.

Located under the Luiz I bridge and designed by Eduardo Souto de Moura, the new 14-room boutique hotel faces the Douro River and will have a terrace, viewpoint and bar. The project is being designed by Eduardo Souto de Moura, who has already been awarded a Pritzker, known as the Nobel of architecture, and is also planning the future Congress Centre of Gaia.

According to an article in the Portuguese newspaper Público, the Porto-based company  stated that it would invest approximately five million euros and “create approximately 20 jobs.” The local authority has already approved the architectural project, and work is expected to begin this year. Though an operator has yet to be chosen for the hotel, Rita Everard Machado, the architect coordinating the project, confirmed that the hotel should start receiving clients “between the end of 2023 and the beginning of 2024.”

The site housed a printing company for over a century. António Martins Barbosa & Herdeiros was founded in 1890 and only closed last year. The previous occupants are serving as an inspiration for the hotel. The company expects the tender to go ahead in the second half of the year and construction to begin towards the end of 2021.

According to Ms Machado, the “project is located in a very particular point of the historic centre, not only because of its location on the escarpment and its close relationship” with the bridge but also because it’s the first building that can be seen in Gaia when coming from Porto on the bridge’s lower deck.”

Translation: Richard Turner