serralves travelling art museum (Oitoo)

The Serralves Foundation is one of Portugal’s foremost cultural institutions, based in Porto. Its campus brings together a large city park with landscaped gardens, the iconic Art Deco villa, and the contemporary art museum designed by Álvaro Siza Vieira.

The competition brief called for a modular, movable pavilion to host itinerant exhibitions curated by the Foundation in cities across Portugal. With areas ranging from 200 to 600 square meters, the temporary structure had to satisfy all the demands of a modern exhibition space, including precise control of climate, humidity, lighting, and safety.

The proposal centers on a single portable module composed of easily assembled components. Each unit has a 25-square-meter square plan and a height of 5.5 meters—dimensions that make it versatile enough to accommodate a wide range of functions, from foyer and gallery spaces to technical and service areas. By combining multiple modules, the pavilion becomes endlessly adaptable, capable of responding to different urban situations and spatial needs within a flexible configurational matrix.

Structural elements are built from 250-millimeter cross-laminated timber, ensuring portability, resilience during frequent relocations, and durability in changing weather conditions. The material also offers thermal inertia, acoustic comfort, and fire resistance—qualities essential to the building’s program. Zenithal lighting paired with a light-diffusing canvas provides uniform, controlled natural illumination throughout the interior.

A symmetrical series of perforations at the top of each module accommodates MEP systems while forming an architectural frieze along the façade—a subtle reference to the civic gravitas of Palladio’s Basilica in Vicenza. Externally, LED displays integrated into the spandrels of each module address communication and interactivity needs, merging technological functionality with architectural expression.