In 1925, Carlos Alberto Cabral inherited a house with a chapel and gardens at Serralves, a rural hamlet midway between the centre of Porto and Matosinhos. With the constant support of his architect, José Marques da Silva, he engaged in the gradual transformation of the place, hiring Parisian architects and decorators, such as Jacques Émile Ruhlmann, Charles Siclis and Jacques Gréber, who contributed to the design of this singular work completed around 1943.

Serralves Library stores a substantial part of the archive of Carlos Alberto Cabral, including his correspondence with Jacques Émile Ruhlmann, Charles Siclis e Jacques Grebèr, the Parisian architects who helped design Serralves Villa, whose overall design and works were overseen by the Porto-based architect, José Marques da Silva.

By consulting the archive’s documents we can uncover the successive steps associated to the building process of Serralves Villa, including the extent to which the owner influenced the architectural project. Step by step, including drawings, correspondence, photographs and a scale model that demonstrates the different stages of the work, it is possible to acquire direct information about the various challenges, pitfalls and setbacks of this architectural creation.

The exhibition is curated by the archt. André Tavares and is organized by the Serralves Museum of Contemporary Art.