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MAAT

Blending structure into landscape, AL_A designed in Lisbon MAAT museum to allow visitors to walk over, under and through the building that sits beneath a gently expressed arch.

MAAT, the new Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, is located on the banks of the Tagus in Belém. Proposing a new relationship with the river and the wider world, the kunsthalle is a powerful yet sensitive and low-slung building that explores the convergence of contemporary art, architecture and technology. The new building is the centrepiece of EDP Foundation’s masterplan for an art campus that includes the repurposed Central Tejo power station.

Blending structure into landscape, the kunsthalle is designed to allow visitors to walk over, under and through the building that sits beneath a gently expressed arch – one of the oldest forms in western architecture. The roof becomes an outdoor room, a physical and conceptual reconnection of the river to the city’s heart – where visitors can turn away from the river and enjoy the vista of the cityscape, and at night, watch a film with Lisbon as a backdrop sitting on the bank of steps.

AL_A, MAAT, Lisbon, 2016. Photo Hufton+Crow

Below, the exhibition spaces are extensions of the public realm, with flowing interconnected places for experiences and interactions at the intersection of the three disciplines. These spaces complement the galleries of the converted Central Tejo building.

Building on Portugal’s rich tradition of craft and ceramics, almost 15,000 three-dimensional crackle glazed tiles articulate the facade and produce a complex surface that gives mutable readings of water, light and shadow. The overhanging roof that creates welcome shade is used to bounce sunlight off the water and into the building.

Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Pynchon Park, installation view at MAAT. Photo Bruno Lopes

AL_A, MAAT, Lisbon, 2016. Photo Fernando Guerra

AL_A, MAAT, Lisbon, 2016. Photo Hufton+Crow

6.2 SITE PLAN 2000

AL_A, MAAT, masterplan

479 P00 1000 (2)

AL_A, MAAT, ground floor

479 P00 1000 (2)

AL_A, MAAT, first floor

479 P00 1000 (2)

AL_A, MAAT, roof

479 P00 750

AL_A, MAAT, section and elevation

479 P00 750

AL_A, MAAT, Lisbon, south elevation

MAAT, Lisbon
Architects: AL_A
Local architects: Aires Mateus & Associados
Engineering: Afaconsult
Landscape: Vladimir Djurovic Landscape Architecture
Contractor: Alves Ribeiro
Area: 7,400 sqm
Completion: 2016

Get the best of Domus straight to your inbox!

MAAT

Blending structure into landscape, AL_A designed in Lisbon MAAT museum to allow visitors to walk over, under and through the building that sits beneath a gently expressed arch.

6.2 SITE PLAN 2000

479 P00 1000 (2)

479 P00 1000 (2)

479 P00 1000 (2)

479 P00 750

479 P00 750

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