Matosinhos Master Plan

overview

Galp, Portugal’s largest oil company, established a refinery at Matosinhos in 1970 and decommissioned it in mid-2021. The 2.37-square-kilometer former industrial site stretches 2.5 kilometers along the Atlantic shore and is surrounded by coastal sand dunes. A new master plan aims to transform the site into a carbon-neutral, resilient, sustainable community that can serve as a development benchmark for other communities. But before it can be repurposed for public use, the entire site must be dismantled and decontaminated—a process that is expected to take about four years.

We are part of the winning team—along with MVRDV, OODA and LOLA—of an international design competition held by Galp for the large-scale conversion of the site, and we were tasked with turning the former refinery into a sprawling innovation district. The project’s new master plan will use Matosinhos’ waterfront location and landscape to promote resilience and sustainability, retaining some of its original industrial character while completely transforming its use. Our vision includes construction of a new urban district, a satellite campus of Porto University, parks, innovation centers and, of course, all the facilities necessary for a city to function properly – schools, theaters, retail spaces, cultural buildings and more.

highlights

• In 2022, the UN’s Office for Disaster and Risk Reduction named Galp’s Matosinhos refinery Portugal’s first resilience hub under its Making Cities Resilient 2030 initiative.
• Currently, the only buildings on the site are Galp's former headquarters, a few utility structures for workers and around 50 tanks formerly used for storing crude oil. Our vision is based on the partial reuse of these industrial features. 
• The scope of our work includes master planning, sustainability, structural engineering, façade engineering, multihazard climate risk and resilience assessment and mobility planning services. We’re also providing site-wide energy, water and waste strategic planning, passive site and building design solutions, structural assessment of heritage assets, resilient site development, integrated energy resilience, emergency preparedness and soft mobility consulting services.