The Tua Valley Interpretive Centre (TVIC) tells the story of the Tua River Valley and its territorial transformations.

In 1880 a railway line parallel to the Douro River was opened, connecting the city of Porto to the Spanish border, as an alternative to water transport for people but above all for fine local wines. After about a century of operation, however, the slow decommissioning of the infrastructure began and ended definitively in 2008. The construction of a dam on the Tua river (a tributary of the Douro) also caused the flooding of 16 km of the railway line, making it impossible to reopen the line in the future. 

The cultural centre designed by Rosmaninho + Azevedo is part of a compensation programme for the construction of the dam. In the abandoned station of Tua, the Portuguese architectural firm has renovated two old hangars that now house exhibition spaces, educational areas and offices.

Each of the two volumes has its own identity: the first presents the historic wood cladding, which has been meticulously restored and equipped with internal insulation; the second has instead a new galvanised skin, which with a contemporary language recalls the industrial aesthetics of the area.

With the new function, the building did not need an open side passage and with the extension to the edge of the platform it offers more space for the internal exhibition galleries. The design exercise by Rosmaninho + Azevedo shows how it is possible to update and make contemporary a historical structure without losing its original character.