The Renaissance Porto Lapa Hotel is the new Portuguese hotel inaugurated in April in the city of Porto, architectured by Visioarq.
The proposed challenge of designing a 4-star elegant and sophisticated urban refuge hotel, breaking the traditional concept of most hotels in this rating, was met with a strong investment in exterior architecture.
The project promoted by the Canadian group Mercan, whose investment reached around 56 million euros, embodies the debut in Portugal of Renaissance Hotels, a brand belonging to Marriott Bonvoy’s global portfolio which integrates more than 30 hotel brands worldwide.
The hotel offers 163 rooms and suites, a conference and event room for 500 people, an outdoor infinity pool on the rooftop, restaurant, bar and terrace with a unique panoramic view over the city of Porto, in a location of great centrality.
The construction of the Renaissance Porto Lapa Hotel was decisive for the rehabilitation of a 3 hectares area in Porto, respecting strict criteria of sustainability, and was completed by teams of designers who brought multiple outcomes to the project.
The building was coated on the main façade with a microperforated metal wrap that works as a “second skin”, to establish an urban relationship with the existing hillside in the historic Lapa district, protecting and visually rendering this great hotel lighter. The metallic “sails” that form a geometric pattern evoke both the Douro boats and the design of the hydraulic mosaics, in a discreet homage to the elements that mark the Porto city.
Rhythm and diversity are also found in the west façade, where a coating system with vertical elements of great lightness and plasticity, in natural modified Accoya wood, makes the connection to the large green park.
This coating also draws textures and diverse compositions of geometric voids, in a contemporary approach where sustainability positions the Renaissance Porto Lapa Hotel as a statement of the future.
An asymmetrical and highly expressive canopy was the sculptural element chosen by Visioarq to mark the scale ratio with the building. This is the element that marks the arrival of guests and connects the two volumes that compose the hotel.
The infinity pool, suspended in a 3 meters span above the rooftop and overlooking the Atlantic, is the meeting point between the hotel and the city, and is assumed to be a new privileged viewpoint of the “World's Leading City Destination in 2022”: Porto.
The complexity of the execution of the structural elements of the façade and the cantilever pool, as well as the canopy in precast concrete, simulating large-scale mosaics with hidden metal structure, which took 6 months to be completed, must be pointed out.
The architecture of the new Renaissance Porto Lapa Hotel is based on a solid concept: To grow the city with inspiring forms, using the simplicity and elegance of the cosmopolitan lifestyle. A new atmosphere in the city will be provided through the new and rehabilitated green park of the Renaissance Porto Lapa Hotel, which can be freely enjoyed by all inhabitants of the city of Porto.
