Dolce Vita Ovar

An affordable sports-themed mall
that pays homage to the community’s
basketball team

This mid-size shopping centre is located in the ring road of a former fishermen’s village, now a satellite city of Greater Porto. The shopping centre is part of a large urban park with major sports facilities including a football stadium and a multipurpose arena, the latter connecting directly to the mall. The Dolce Vita Ovar is a simple single-mall centre respectively anchored by a hypermarket on one end, and a food court on the other. Avoiding a boxy facade, the volume is jagged in acute angles that are reinforced by images of basketball players photo-moulded onto pre-cast concrete panels by artist Daniel Malhão, making it the largest concrete imprint of its kind in the world. With more than 200 metres of undulating concrete slabs, the octopus-like sculpture by artist Gonçalo Barreiros functions as the main entry canopy.