deestructuras: Matosinhos Market (1936)

Drawing of the market

Matosinhos Market: an early example of a concrete thin-shell. Author: ARS arquitectos.

The roof is a barrel vault with reinforcement ribs on the outside. The cross section is a parabola. It spans 38 meters, with 11 m of height and a shell width of only 7 cm.

The project was born in 1936, when the Local Council held an architectural competition to design a new Market building. ARS Arquitectos, a Porto-based architects team (Cunha Leão, Morais Soares e Fortunato Cabral), won the competition. In 1939, the architects presented the final project, after changing the original design.

The building works began in 1944 (the delay was due to problems with expropriations), and lasted until 1952, when the Market was opened. Economic difficulties arising from the World War made great impact in this project, due to shortage of materials (steel, concrete).

The construction of the paraboloidal arches was made with wooden formworks over wheels.