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PALÁCIO DO COMÉRCIO
“I think it’s the characteristics of the building
itself, the way it was designed and built — very
good design, very good materials... we were work-
ing with a very good basis”
For our 2021 residency, we chose a very special
apartment in the Palácio do Comércio, a historic
building that gives the feeling of time travel
with its layers of history, creativity and life.
Built in the mid-twentieth century for Delfim
Ferreira, a prominent Portuguese entrepreneur,
it features spacious luxury apartments originally
designed to accommodate both the inhabitants and
their housekeepers. The building’s architects,
Maria José Marques da Silva and David Moreira
da Silva, poured generations of skill and knowl-
edge into its creation, both through their own
education and inherent talents and those passed
to them from their fathers. Maria José’s father
was José Marques da Silva, an architect credited
with having shaped the face of Porto in the early
twentieth century through his numerous landmark
works including the São Bento Railway Station,
an icon in Porto with its azulejo-tiled story-
telling walls, and through his role as director
of Escola de Belas Artes do Porto (Porto School
of Fine Arts) where he taught several genera-
tions of architects. Maria José not only grew up
in this influential family, but herself attended
Escola de Belas Artes do Porto where she grew her
knowledge further, and where she met her husband
and collaborator, David Moreira da Silva. David
was also raised in design and construction as
the son of José Moreira da Silva, house builder
and founder of the Porto Stonemasons´ Cooperative
(Cooperativa dos Pedreiros Portuenses).
