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Boa Nova Tea House

Álvaro Siza renovated the building that marked the begining of his career: the Boa Nova Casa da Cha restaurant clinging to the rocks in Leça da Palmeira, Portugal.

Paradigm of integration of architecture and landscape the Boa Nova Tea House was built on the rocks, and soon became an obligatory reference.

The choice of that difficult but gorgeous place went to Fernando Távora, who had won the architectural competition in 1956. “The solution appears today as obvious and inevitable, but only Fernando Távora great experience and intuition made it possible,” acknowledged Álvaro Siza, the architect who would be responsible for the project.

Álvaro Siza, Boa Nova Tea House, photo © Nelson Garrido

At the time, Álvaro Siza was a Fernando Távora disciple and the Boa Nova Tea House marked the beginning of his career, consagrated worldwide in 1992, when he won the Pritzker Prize.

After some years of neglect, the building has recently undergone profound works of redevelopment, again under the guidance of Álvaro Siza. Even the original furniture was reproduced, according to the drawings of the time and using the materials originally planned, with the aim of returning to the Boa Nova Tea House all the beauty and uniqueness that led to its classification as a National Monument in 2011.

Álvaro Siza, Boa Nova Tea House, ph Nelson Garrido — Álvaro Siza, Boa Nova Tea House, photo © Nelson Garrido

The property was granted to the Chef Rui Paula. In this new restaurant, located near the fish auction of Matosinhos, Rui Paula will have the best fish and seafood in the world, to create, innovative and bold culinary proposals.

The aim is to make the Boa Nova restaurant a new Northern Portugal gastronomic icon and thus honor the Matosinhos culinary tradition and also the genius of a property that seems to be born of stones, in communion with the sea and the surrounding landscape.