The Oriental Foundation: A Garden House Reused

Manuel Pereira’s villa was built in the 1770s, with a broad central block, lower wings, a large front garden and a rear garden. A wide staircase rose to the principal entrance, which was framed by a high porch supported on Tuscan columns. The house introduced a new kind of garden residence to Macao.

Major renovation later reduced the building’s scale. Its original two-storey center became one storey with a semi-basement; the roof changed from pitched to flat, and windows lost their ornate frames. The current structure retains the site’s history while showing how substantially a heritage building can change through reuse.

The house was rented to the East India Company for its trade officials in China. In 1885 it became government property; after the 1960s it housed the Camões Museum. Today it is the Macao venue of the Oriental Foundation.

Renovation changed the original two-storey center and wings, replaced the pitched roof with a flat one and altered the windows. The building’s present form reflects its successive uses as private villa, commercial residence, museum and exhibition space.

The Foundation’s venue is near White Dove Square, the public park and the Protestant Cemetery. The square is used by residents for rest and gathering, so the former villa now sits within a neighborhood landscape that combines daily recreation with historic institutions.

The building’s location helps explain why its reuse matters. It is not an isolated heritage house; it stands within an active district. The same urban setting that once linked private residence and commercial activity now connects a cultural venue to public space and collective memory.