The first phase of a contemporary art kunsthalle designed by AL_A is set to launch next Wednesday 5 October in Lisbon with a site-specific installation by French artist Dominique Gonzalez-Foester.
Led by Director Pedro Gadanho and commissioned by the EDP Foundation, the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT) will explore contemporary culture through visual arts, new media, architecture, technology and science.
MAAT will be the focal point of the EDP Foundation Campus site on the River Tagus in the district of Belém, at the heart of an exciting urban revitalisation along one of Lisbon’s most historic waterfronts. Housed within two buildings on a 3.8 hectare site, MAAT comprises the elegant new kunsthalle structure and the recently renovated Central Tejo power station.
Blending structure into landscape, the kunsthalle is designed to allow visitors to walk over, under as well as through the building. The kunsthalle contains four distinct gallery spaces that sit beneath a gracefully undulating roof, which has been conceived to create significant new public spaces on the roof and along the waterfront.
The building’s textured façade is composed of 15,000 three-dimensional crackle-glazed tiles manufactured by Ceràmica Cumella. Building on Lisbon’s rich tradition of craft, the complex surface is a contemporary expression of this characteristic Portuguese building material and continues AL_A’s ongoing research into new uses and reinterpretations of ceramics.
The tiles capture the changing light and give mutable readings of the exceptional southern light that vary with the time of day and the seasons. Speaking about the design, Amanda Levete, Principal of AL_A, commented: “In understanding EDP’s ambition for Lisbon, our design draws on the context of the site, creating both physical and conceptual connections to the waterfront and back to the heart of the city.
“The waterfront is so essential to the project that the design literally reflects it. The overhanging roof that creates welcome shade is used to bounce sunlight off the water and into the Main Gallery, one of the four interconnected exhibition spaces.” The EDP Foundation will officially open the first phase of the kunsthalle to the public on Wednesday 5 October 2016 to coincide with the city-wide Lisbon Architecture Triennale.
Pedro Gadahno’s first commission as Director – a site-specific work, Pynchon Park, from renowned French contemporary artist Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster – will inaugurate the Oval Gallery at the heart of the building The opening will be celebrated with a 12-hour programme of events performances and music happenings by international artists in and around the new building.
The events anticipate the second phase of the MAAT kunsthalle, set to launch in March next year with the opening of all four galleries, a restaurant and additional public spaces. Also in 2017, the park designed by Vladimir Djurovic Landscape Architecture will open, and the campus – and waterfront – will become even more accessible to Belém with the opening of the elegant pedestrian bridge that lands on the kunsthalle roof, also designed by AL_A.
Other exhibitions taking place in October across the MAAT site include the The World of Charles and Ray Eames (5 October 2016 – 20 March 2017) and The Form of Form (5 October – 12 December 2016). Source by AL_A. About MAAT: http://www.maat.pt/
- Location: Lisbon, Portugal
- Architects: AL_A
- Principal: Amanda Levete
- Project Director: Maximiliano Arrocet
- Project Team: Fernando Ruiz Barberan, Mirta Bilos, Alex Bulygin, Grace Chan, Sara Ortiz Cortijo, Alice Dietsch, Ciriaco Castro Diez, Yoo Jin Kim, Ilina Kroushovski, Michael Levy, Cristina Revilla Madrigal, Stanislaw Mlynski, Ho-Yin Ng, Giulio Pellizzon, Raffael Petrovic, Chloe Piper, Filippo Previtali, Arya Safavi, Maria Alvarez-Santullano, Joe Shepherd, Paula Vega, Konstantinos Zaverdinos
- Local architect: Aires Mateus e Associados
- Civil, structural & building services engineering lighting:A faconsult
- Landscape: Vladimir Djurovic Landscape Architecture
- Restaurant and shop lighting: SEAM Design
- Site supervision project management: Technoplana
- LEED consultant: Edifícios Saudáveis
- Main contractor: Alves Ribeiro
- Sub-contractors: Ceràmica Cumella – Ceramic façade fabrication Disset – Ceramic façade installation
- Client: Fundação EDP
- Status: Completion of first phase
- Photographs: Hufton + Crow, Fernando Guerra, Courtesy of AL_A
