Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology
Subscribe now to instantly view this image
Subscribe to the Architects’ Journal (AJ) for instant access to the AJ Buildings Library, an online database of nearly 2,000 exemplar buildings in photographs, plans, elevations and details.
Already a subscriber? Sign in
The curved facade
Hufton + Crow Download Original
Amanda Levete’s Kunsthalle at the MAAT provides four new galleries while attempting to stitch together a tricky site.
AL_A’s gallery sits at the edge of the River Tagus, its curvaceous tile-clad façade reflecting the water. The brief was for ‘a building that should not be boring’, says the client.
The 38,000m2 site is a tricky one. One of Lisbon’s main highways and a railway line run past it, dividing it from the historic city. The building doesn’t rely on height for impact – it is low-slung and, viewed from the river, similar in shape to an eyelid. Conceived as a piece of landscape and public realm as well as an art space, visitors are invited to walk over, under and through the building.
A 1,200m2 main exhibition space can accommodate huge, immersive art pieces. It is elliptical in plan and a curved ramp wraps around it, conducting the visitor on a slow walk down from entrance lobby to lower level.
Data
- Begun: Jun 2014
- Completed: Mar 2017
- Floor area: 7,400m2
- Sector: Arts and culture
- Total cost: £17.6M
- Procurement: Traditional
- CO2 Emissions: 10.3kg/m2/year
- Address: Av. Brasília, Lisbon, 1300-598, Portugal
Professional Team 
- Architect: AL_A
- Project architect: Amanda Levete
- Client: Fundação EDP
- QS: Rui Carmine
- Site supervision: Tecnoplano
- LEED consultant: Edifícios Saudáveis
- Energy certification: e3e
- Landscape: Vladimir Djurovic Landscape Architecture
- Restaurant and shop lighting: Seam Design
- Wayfinding: R2 Design
- Project manager: Tecnoplano
- Main contractor: Alves Ribeiro
- CAD software used: Rhinoceros, Revit, AutoCAD
- Structural engineer and M&E consultant: Afaconsult