Nuno Valentim graduated in Architecture from the Faculty of Architecture at the University of Porto (1990s), Master’s in Rehabilitation of Built Heritage from the Faculty of Engineering at the University of Porto (2007), and Ph.D. in Architecture from the FAUP with the thesis “Project, Architectural Heritage, and Contemporary Regulation — On rehabilitation practices in current heritage” (2010). He has been a lecturer at FAUP since 2005, teaching in the Integrated Master’s in Architecture, the Advanced Studies in Architectural Heritage program, and the Ph.D. Program in Architecture.

He has been working independently in the architectural profession since 1994 and has given conferences and exhibited/published works nationally and internationally. He is one of the authors of the “Manual for Supporting the Rehabilitation Project of Old Buildings,” coordinated by Prof. Vasco Peixoto de Freitas, and the “FNRE National Building Rehabilitation Fund Guide” edited by Prof. Eduardo Santos Júlio/Fundiestamo (20s).

Among awards and mentions, the ULI European Award is noteworthy — Architectural Heritage Intervention, PNRU — National Urban Rehabilitation Award in the categories of best commerce and services intervention, best structural rehabilitation, and best intervention in the city of Porto for the Rehabilitation of Bolhao Market in 2023. It was also nominated for the 2024 European Union Prize for Contemporary Architecture/Mies Van Der Rohe Awards and received the International Architecture Awards in 2019 for the rehabilitation work of Casa Andresen/Biodiversity Gallery at the Porto Botanical Garden. Furthermore, he received the IHRU Nuno Teotónio Pereira 2018/National Urban Rehabilitation Award for the rehabilitation of Albergues Nocturnos in Porto and the Iberian Palmarés Architecture Technal Award in 2013 for the rehabilitation of the Dehoniano Center in Porto. He served as an analyst for the FAD Awards and was nominated for the Mies Van der Rohe Award in 2019.

Nuno Valentim, Architecture and Rehabilitation, is an architectural studio founded in 1997 in Porto. It has over 150 projects of different scales, programs, and contexts. Their practice is attentive to the reality in which they operate and its physical and human analysis, where architecture is understood as a synthesis of program and context, and the architect is recognized as a fundamental author and actor in responding to social, environmental, and landscape needs.

Projects: 

Casa Andresen e estufas Franz Koepp

Casa Andresen, originally built in the early 1900s, is located in the Porto Botanical Garden, the “lung” of the Museum of Natural History and Science of the University of Porto, Portugal.

The program – Hall of Biodiversity – emerges from a very particular urban, cultural, architectural and environmental context. The aim was that this unique setting – the Botanical Garden – a building of extraordinary architectural and cultural value – Casa Andresen – and program – Hall of Biodiversity – should converge as a coherent whole, creating a singular system of relations, while conveying in a very authentic way key messages about the urgency in protecting theses cultural and environmental values.

The intervention concerning Casa Andresen consisted in the adaptation of the house to an exhibition program. A first phase consisted only in the elementary works in order to host the international exhibition “The Evolution of Darwin: Life and Work”.

In a second phase, the works were completed to permanently host the Hall of Biodiversity.

The span of time between operations and the duration of the construction itself contributed towards an integrated and tailored design, allowing adjustments/corrections throughout each phase.

Despite its irrefutable singularity, surprisingly, Casa Andresen is not a listed building and had no heritage protection.

This called for the teams´ responsibility in carrying out a very precise historical research and diagnosis as a basis for the project. In the end, the rehabilitation of the building and the program integration were sustained by a very meticulous and wholly knowledge about the building itself, its independent elements and the system as a whole.

Architectural quality, scale, relation with the gardens, interior space, typology, construction system, materials and decorative quality were the main identified values, making this rehabilitation project a particularly demanding exercise.

more information on: https://nunovalentim.com/projecto/casa-andresen-e-estufas-franz-koepp/

Mercado do Bolhão Rehabilitation 

Mercado do Bolhão is a unique building, part of the memory and identity of Porto’s people. The project, attentive to the existing heritage, aims to enhance the identity and coherence, removing spurious elements and managing new infrastructures without losing its central values – sellers, users and the fresh market activity.

The building protection as “monument of public interest” assigned to Mercado do Bolhão in 2013, recognizes heritage value in two inseparable dimensions – the uniqueness of the Beaux Arts building and its function as a traditional market.

The proposed intervention in the building and market (conceived by Correia da Silva in 1914/17) is based on the recovery and enhancement of the original matrix of the building and the modernization necessary to meet the requirements of its function.

This transformative action, attentive to the existing heritage, aims to enhance the building identity and coherence, removing spurious elements and managing new infrastructures without losing its most important values – the sellers, the users and the fresh market activity.

more information on: https://nunovalentim.com/projecto/reabilitacao-do-mercado-do-bolhao/

Palacete da Quinta do Bom Pastor

The intervention in an ensemble such as Quinta do Bom Pastor, the result of different periods and uses, requires a detailed assessment of values, taking into account the specific nature of each pre-existing building, the potential of its interconnection and the inevitable enjoyment of the surrounding landscape quality.

The programme for the headquarters of the Portuguese Bishops’ Conference is an extensive, diversified and complex programme of services. This programme and the type of use required a great deal of infrastructure, which had to be introduced while preserving the integrity of the pre-existence. All solutions were dimensioned space by space, case by case, taking into account the function, number of users, solar orientation, openings, thermal inertia, thermal load… – an adaptive comfort or adaptive rehabilitation principle that we always keep in mind as a way to minimize the intrusiveness of the solutions.

As it is an ensemble that has been subject to interventions over several centuries, it was important first of all to identify the values to be preserved – original building elements such as stone masonry and stone balustrades and iron railings, but also a succession of decorative interventions – such as the decorative tile panels (interior and exterior), the façade of relief tiles facing the boxwood garden, the “embrechados” and the frescoes on the ceiling of the pavilion/fresco house. In order to maintain the integrity of the decorative elements, an attempt was made to reintegrate them using, as far as possible, materials identical to the existing ones.

The intervention in the exterior spaces followed the same methodology as the building – diagnosing values and observing the premises of the Detailed Urban Plan of Calhariz, walls and paths were rehabilitated, maintaining signs of its rural matrix. In new plantations, agricultural species and ground cover with herbaceous species were given precedence over grass, and existing cultivated areas were maintained.

more information on: https://nunovalentim.com/projecto/palacete-da-quinta-do-bom-pastor/

Casa na Rua do Teatro

The house in Rua do Teatro is an outstanding building dating back to 1910, classified as Patrimonial Value. The intervention mainly consisted in the recovery of the original exterior and interior architectural design.

Constructively, it follows the traditional techniques of its time: a primary granite structure, a secondary timber framing on the floor and roof structures and interior wood and plaster wall partitions.

The building maintained most of the original elements and interior partitions although a large number of representative elements were lost due to its advanced stage of deterioration.

The intervention mainly consisted in the recovery of the original design of the building in its interior and exterior expression. The works on the external facades consisted in the recovery of mortars, window frames, masonry, wooden features, iron railings and tiles. In the interior, original partitions were preserved to a large extent. Consequently, the associated constructive elements such as plaster decorated ceilings, wooden panels and skirting boards, doors and fittings, tile panels, main staircase and hydraulic tiled floors were preserved.

Finally, a new connecting body between the two existing volumes was added- a reinterpretation of the glass “marquises” of the bourgeois houses of Porto was pursued through an alternated composition of glazed plans and wood panels.

more information on: https://nunovalentim.com/projecto/casa-na-rua-do-teatro/