The Transformation of Cooperativa Agrícola into Museum Zer0

Winning competition entry for Museum Zer0 by Pedra Silva Architects

Museum Zer0

In Santa Catarina da Fonte do Bispo, near Tavira in the Algarve, the finishing touches are currently being made to the building that will house the new Museu Zer0 (www.museu0.pt/en/). The museum will be located in the former building of the Cooperativa Agrícola de Santa Catarina and promises to be the most progressive museum in the Algarve – and perhaps in the whole of Portugal. According to João Correia Vargues, chairman of the Executive Committee, this is the first museum in the country to focus entirely on digital art, something that is still rare even in Europe. The idea came from Paulo Teixeira Pinto, former president of Banco Comercial Português (BCP), also a publisher, art collector/artist, and a spiritual thinker who now lives in Santa Catarina da Fonte do Bispo.

Photos (with architect Manuel Gomes da Costa) and plan and section of the cooperative in the 1960s

The Cooperativa Agrícola

The Cooperativa Agrícola building dates from 1953 and was designed by the modernist architect Manuel Gomes da Costa from Faro. With a portfolio of over three hundred projects spanning more than fifty years, he played a key role in the modernist renaissance of Faro in the post-war period. The Cooperativa Agrícola was not only one of his first works, but also his graduation project at the architecture school in Porto. Although the design underwent some modifications later on, the layout remained clear: a tall silo for storing wheat, compactly connected to horizontal volumes for processing and distribution. The two volumes that make up the building are connected by a base structure with open concrete blocks, which give the façade a light and open appearance.

Paulo Teixeira Pinto

The creator and financier of Museum Zer0 is Paulo Teixeira Pinto. He led a life full of successes and ruptures. In addition to being a banker and publisher, he was also a lawyer and politician. Alongside his public career, he lived for decades within the spiritual discipline of Opus Dei, until he broke with the movement in 2006 because he began to struggle with his faith.

His life took a radical turn when he was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease in 2005, a condition he endured stoically. Shortly afterwards, personal tragedies followed, such as the death of his youngest son Guga and his divorce from his wife Paula Teixeira da Cruz (former Minister of Justice). Despite these losses, he continued to search for new forms of expression in poetry and painting, and merged several quality publishing companies under the umbrella of the Babel group.

In the Algarve, where he moved with his new wife Mónica Félix, he found more space for his art and reflection, far away from turbulent Lisbon and the banking world. He candidly explains his crisis of faith and his battle with Parkinson's disease in the biography ‘De cor é o medo’ (What colour is fear).

His dream and vision for the future are now taking shape through the Lusíada de Cultura (ILC) foundation, which will manage the museum. The board, chaired by João Correia Vargues, also includes his wife Mónica Félix and his son Miguel Teixeira Pinto from his first marriage. In addition, the municipality of Tavira, various cultural institutions and the University of the Algarve are involved in the project, embedding it in regional and national structures that should also guarantee long-term support and resources.

Winning competition entry for Museum Zer0 by Pedra Silva Architects

Architecture and the competition

In 2014, the Lusíada de Cultura Foundation launched a public competition for the design of Museum Zer0. The Lisbon-based firm Pedra Silva Architects (www.pedrasilva.com) emerged as the winner with a clear and visually stimulating proposal. The brief was to renovate the former agricultural cooperative and transform it into a museum and creative centre for digital art, while respecting the existing industrial heritage.

Pedra Silva Architects’ design sought to preserve and fully restore the existing complex, with particular emphasis on highlighting its industrial character. Interventions to the existing structure were therefore kept to a minimum. The focus is on stability and functionality, while enhancing the original features.

In the design, the silos are made accessible by perforations in the plates and the construction of pathways between them, thus preserving their industrial identity. Two newly added volumes provide the necessary floor space, while their simple painted wooden structures recall local and traditional building techniques. Despite their contrasting form, the additions maintain the coherence of the existing ensemble.

Visit to the cooperative / Museum Zer0 with friend Fernando

Visiting the construction site with my friend Fernando

As it happens, my good friend Fernando has been commissioned to design the signage for the new museum. Fernando Lobo (www.202publishers.nl/fernando-lobo-2/), a gifted artist and publisher of beautiful books, is Portuguese, but says he has lived in the Netherlands longer than in Portugal. There he worked for the daily newspaper De Telegraaf, among others, and speaks fluent Dutch in addition to Portuguese. He has since returned to Portugal, where he now lives in peace and quiet in the countryside behind Santa Catarina da Fonte do Bispo.

When Fernando tells me during the opening of one of the exhibitions of his work that he lived as a child in the street of architect Manuel Gomes da Costa in Faro, and even knows the architect's modernist villa well because he and his sister were friends with his children, we decide to explore Faro together.

Casa Gago Rosa and apartment block near the Faro market by architect Manuel Gomes da Costa

We want to visit Gomes da Costa's projects in the neighbourhood where Fernando spent his early years. These include the modernist Casa Gago Rosa, which stands out for its cobogós and concrete brise-soleils, strongly reminiscent of Brazil, and a little further on, an apartment block whose balconies, with their intersecting horizontal and vertical lines, are reminiscent of Gerrit Rietveld's furniture.

It will be a surprising journey of discovery in Fernando's old neighbourhood around the Faro market hall, with, of course, the necessary “inside” stories about Gomes da Costa and his family. An architect who not only put Faro on the map, but also, remarkably, laid the foundations for the Museum Zer0 building with his design for the former Cooperativa Agrícola.

According to the schedule, Museum Zer0 should have opened its doors years ago. Announcements appear regularly, only to be unexpectedly withdrawn. When I meet Fernando again, one of my questions is usually: ‘How is the museum coming along?’ When I recently emailed him with the same question, he responded with a surprise: ‘They are finishing it up. Coincidentally, I have to go there tomorrow for the signage. If you are there at ten o'clock, we can view the building together.’

Of course, I don't need to be asked twice. It's a real treat to finally be in the museum, although there is still a lot to be done to meet the opening date, which is now scheduled for early August.

The Openings

The time has finally come: last Saturday, 27 September 2025, at 8 p.m., Museum Zer0 had its long-awaited (first) opening. The opening was accompanied by an audiovisual performance of 30xN, with light, sound and visuals in a generative composition that promised a dialogue between the performers and the audience. The second opening (second moment) will be on October 18th. Come one, come all, let's see and experience it..

P.S. On 7, 8 and 9 November, the fourth “Modernist Weekend” (www.themodernistweekend.com) will be organised in Faro, with a special focus on the work of architect Manuel Gomes da Costa. The 2025 programme will be published shortly. Here is a nice overview of the 2022 edition (www.wallpaper.com/architecture/faro-modernist-weekend-2022).