This past weekend was the first edition of Open House Porto. For those of you who don’t know what the event is all about, here’s a brief intro from their website.

“Initiated 23 years ago in London, Open House is an event that looks to inform a wide audience about a great diversity of buildings and infrastructures that deserve attention, either by their architectural value, specific function or privileged location. Open House offers a unique (and free!) opportunity to visit spaces that normally are closed to the public<…>”

For the architecture, city scape and photography lovers this is a one of kind opportunity. So me and my photo buddies where all over it.

This is the first building we visited. The Burgo Tower. A 17 stories high offices tower, with an astonishing view over the city and the ocean.

With some time to spare to the next visit, we managed to sneak into this apartment building rooftop and snap some photos of the next location we were about to visit.
The Tower of Jornal de Notícias  A newspaper offices with an amazing rooftop with some insane views over the city.

Formas Criticas enjoying a smoke before the visit started.

The view from the tower. Not too shabby.

After lunch we visited the Old Industrial Slaughterhouse of Porto. I was anxious to visit this one but I was a bit disappointed upon arrival, because there wasn’t much too see, most of the rooms were closed and filled with junk, I had to sneak my camera trough some fences in order to get some of these shoots.
The giant church-like room in the first two pictures bellow was the only room where you could walk in.

Took this one on my way to the train home.

The next day, I visited the Engineer Edgar Cardoso Laboratory Tower. This tower was built by the engineer to accompany the construction of the São João train bridge (the white bridge in the photo bellow.) that he was building.

This is the room where the Engineer sat on the drawing table. Talk about a room with a view.

It was a great first edition of the Open House Porto. There were some buildings I wanted to visited but couldn’t due to the infinite lines. Let’s hope the next edition will be as good.