Description

Urban context

This complex of residential, office, and commercial uses has two parallel slabs
extending up to seven stories and occupies a five-hectare lot in the historical
old town of Lisbon, which is known for a tightly woven urban fabric embedded in
a hilly landscape. The terraced structure, composed of five buildings connected
by a multistory underground garage, spans between two streets that run to the
sea.

Ground-floor zone

Despite the extreme leap in topography, it was possible to create a common
park-like courtyard space inside that integrates relics of the city’s old
defensive fortifications. The slab-like structure is broken down into individual
volumes. The lively topography can be experienced in the spaces between them. A
public footpath leads over the terraced terrain – the courtyard level leaps
across several floors – and connects the two street facades. The two upper
buildings are raised on pilotis above the natural terrain. Thanks to the
distance between the supports, fragments of the old city wall could be preserved
and the private sphere of the first residential level protected.

Building structure

Thanks to its vertical and horizontal layering, the rhythmical architecture
creates a wide variety of spatial situations in the crowded old town of Lisbon.
A multistory base in the three lower buildings houses stores and offices. The
residential floors are located above that. The heavy volumes of stone are
modulated by designing different open spaces and offer transitional spaces to
the outside that differ according to the situation. The top floors are stepped;
the recesses provide generous terraces as open areas for the apartments. The two
upper buildings are all residential. In front of these high volumes to the south
is a deep, stone shelf structure that provides the apartments with generous
outdoor areas. Access in all the buildings is via stairwells.

Facade

In addition to differences in materials, continuous balcony slabs that project
beyond the line of the building mark the transition from public to private use.
Clearly set projections and indentations lend the block a restrained plasticity.
The vertical shifting of the staggered slabs provides optimal views out of the
apartments, whose generous windows provide a panorama view of the Tagus River.
The northern facade of the lower building is, by contrast, very closed, blocking
views into the private apartments. The wall plates swing away from the facade,
directing views out of the apartments into the depths of the courtyard. Gaps
between the buildings permit views through on the pedestrian level. The result
is a collage of old and new architecture.

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Originally published in: Ulrike Wietzorrek, Housing+: On Thresholds, Transitions, and Transparencies, Birkhäuser, 2014.