After the Restaurante Boa Nova and the Piscina das Marés, Álvaro Siza maintains his liaison with the coast north of Matosinhos (Oporto) by redesigning the seafront. The Portuguese architect has taken a sensitive look at the waterline and built-up area and redesigned the shoreline with a few touches that bring fresh urban dignity. Design by Álvaro Siza Vieira, António Madureira. Photos by Duccio Malagamba

Over the years there had been a certain loss of identity in what is now Avenida Marginal, running from south to north along the coast in Leça da Palmeira. It gradually turned from an unkempt path along the beach in the 1920s to a disorderly road serving the substandard building expansion to the east and the Petrogal refinery site to the north. When the oil pipelines on this strip of land required modernising, the Matosinhos authorities asked Álvaro Siza and António Madureira to rethink the whole area and create a public space that was both functional and attractive. They traced a dual carriageway for slow orderly traffic, with a central separation, and a wide pedestrian walkway, also for sporting activities, with links between the different level of the beach level and the town. R.C.