Creative Reciprocity
Curated with the local community
Foundation aka ‘Rock Piece’
The living room lareira is where the heart of the property is. A place of reflection and connection about the guests’ relationship with Porto during the stay. Foundation of The Largo (aka Rock Piece) is an immersive experience that features an abstract representation of a co-creation between the guest and local culture. The Largo worked with artists/photographers to curate a collection of images that capture the colours of Porto in each season. Using machine intelligence, this interactive art piece transforms these series of photographs into an ever-changing digital painting that is projected onto the rock formation. The guests can also contribute to this change, when they are closely observing the artwork. Through this, you are individually contributing to the art piece. Through this immersive experience, the physical foundation of The Largo – the rock structure that is part of the Victoria Hill (14th century) – merges with its metaphorical foundation – the projected visual metamorphosis. The collab between guests and a foundation wall symbolises the purpose of The Largo: a place of innovative perspectives, meaningful connections and transformation.
Tools for Imagination
In the rooms one can find a curiosity cabinet that wishes to trigger a dialogue with the guest. Its objects feed our main purpose – transformation and self-discovery. Our “Wunderkammer” relates to the etymology of the concept: the first ever museums. It wants to evoke a sense of wonder, curiosity and doubt. Each of these glass cupboards display curated objects that recall and preserve collectables of a world: a city, region, time and culture. In this case, a world called Porto and the Northern Region of Portugal.
The items found in these curiosity cabinets allude and contribute to the construction of the story of the guest with, and through, The Largo. Each piece is an element of curiosity, a “tool” for the imagination of the guest. They sit on each of these Cabinets ready to be questioned, touched, asked about … or not. You are the one, who chooses how to discover and map your experience with us.
Siza’s Tile Mural
Álvaro Siza Vieira is a renowned Pritzker Prize Portuguese architect with a series of works spread worldwide. He is an icon of Porto in many ways. From a young age he showed an interest in drawing and envision spaces. Architecture came into his way, but he never stopped drawing and being inspired by the different art forms.
When asked him to think of a piece for us, in particular for our sister project the restaurant Cozinha das Flores, he depicted one of his recurrent themes: musicians. These represent time well spent; fun, relaxed moments; a cross of emotions and people joined together by creativity for the love for sharing ideas, food, and good moments. This bundle of inspirations is how we envision Cozinha das Flores should feel like for the “portuenses”, as well as for our travellers.
