Sooner or later, talk about Porto is also talk about Rua do Almada. This straight line, which was the rst to be built outside the perimeter of the Fernandina Wall and since then, has not stopped wanting to be the rst in other things as well.
Back-end apartments
Starting at República Square (Praça da Repúbli-ca), Almada street was the rst street to be opened outside the Fernandina wall, with the objective of creating a quick access between the city down-town and the square of Santo Ovídeo (present square of the republic) and the road to Braga. This is one of the most famous and emblematic streets of the city.It was built between 1761 and 1764, on the hand of João de Almada e Melo, the person in charge of the Baixa do Porto development. The new street of the city would also be the rst to have sidewalks and police numbers at the doors, connecting, until today, Rua dos Clérigos to Praça da República. It was integrated into Porto©s gigantic modernization program and it did not stop there. Through the years it became known as the street of hardware, because of the number of businesses connected to this area that settled there. But in the twentieth century many shops closed, the houses were abandoned and the degradation began to settle. However, these conditions opened the door for new businesses and new attractions to set in and Rua do Almada became the preferred setting for the rst signs that something was changing in Porto. Today is a lively street with hotels, bars and shops, where you can hear di erent languages that attest to its cosmopolitan image.
ALMADA376PotentialAn intervention in this building will restore its unique characteristics. The windows and their window frames, granite frames, eaves, wrought iron, interior staircase and skylight are elements that can be accentuated through a good intervention, making them relive the glory of the past.As for the use, we can reformulate the interior in order to make it more protable. At the ground oor and frontal part of the basement, it should be kept the commercial use. Through a small intervention in the staircase, we can calculate an apartment in the basement facing the rear facade that will have the usufruct of the garden. In the upper oors, the residential use will be maintained with two apartments per oor, one for the front facade and one for the back facade. Finally, on the top oor we can preview a one-bedroom apartment.