Programmatic pillar Identity — Lived Territories

This route begins at the "covered nave" of the former Porto Municipal Slaughterhouse, a facility inaugurated in 1932 and deactivated in 2004, a space currently undergoing reconversion and which will become part of the coming Matadouro — Centro Cultural do Porto. This intervention is part of a broader requalification project, M-ODU, conceived by architect Kengo Kuma in partnership with the OODA studio.

From this point, the route proposes an interpretation of the genesis and evolution of the organization of industrial work, evoking the productive memory of the place. More than an isolated starting point, this moment inaugurates a journey in which the route itself – the spaces and transitions – assumes a central role in constructing the lived experience.

Throughout the journey along Rua de São Roque da Lameira, the passage through the area of the A Invencível factory (c. 1898–1900) integrates into this continuous reading, evoking the structuring role of the textile industry in the economic and social development of the eastern part of the city, and revealing labor practices and industrial dynamics of the past that still echo in the urban landscape.

Progressively, the route leads to the Ceres Mill, a space still associated with productive activity, where the contemporary organization of industrial work is observed. Here, more than an endpoint, a moment of confrontation between times is affirmed, highlighting continuities, ruptures, and processes of transformation of the industrial heritage.

In this way, the route is constructed as a continuous experience, in which the value lies not only in the places visited, but in the relationship between them, promoting a reflection on the persistence and reinvention of industrial spaces in the contemporary city, crossing memory, use, and design.