- Independent documentary study
Piscina do Areinho
Location
Focus
A photographic study of the final preparations for the Piscina do Areinho, made on 22 July 2026, one day before the new public pool opened at Praia Fluvial do Areinho in Vila Nova de Gaia.
The day before opening
On July 22, the site was still visibly in transition. Machinery continued moving and shaping sand around the pool, workers finished details along its perimeter, and construction materials remained present across the beach.
By the following day, the pool had opened to the public. The photographs record that brief interval immediately before use, when the project was substantially complete, but the labour, machinery and traces of construction were still part of the landscape.
Approach
The photographs move between wider views of the riverfront and closer observations of people, machinery and materials. The Douro, the bridges and the opposite bank keep the works anchored to their setting, while the closer frames describe the practical activity of bringing the site to completion.
Created independently rather than as a commission, the project is included here as an example of PortoPhoto’s approach to active construction and public-space projects: establishing context, showing work in progress and retaining the people, processes and details that explain how a place comes together.
SELECTED PHOTOGRAPHS
The sequence moves from the wider site into workers, machinery, material and traces of the final preparations, before returning to the riverfront context. Together, the photographs document the Piscina do Areinho at a brief threshold between construction and public use.
