ARX

In a consolidated area of Benfica that has developed over the past 25 years, particularly following the demolition of the former Sport Lisboa e Benfica stadium and the subsequent implementation of a new urban plan for the neighbourhood, the project occupies one of the last remaining available plots in the area.

The parameters defined by the Lisbon City Council required the building to comprise a seven-storey residential volume, supported on columns above a ground-level base, creating space for a semi-public garden on top of this plinth. Shops and car parking were to be accommodated beneath the base.

This organisational typology can be found along Lisbon’s main modernist avenues developed during the 1950s, drawing on the principles of the Athens Charter (1933), such as Avenida Infante Santo, by architects Alberto Pessoa, Hernâni Gandra and Abel Manta, and Avenida dos Estados Unidos da América, by architects José Segurado, Filipe Figueiredo, Manuel Laginha, João Esteves, Pedro Cid, Lucínio Cruz, Alberto Braga de Sousa and Mário Oliveira.

Given these similarities, the project was interpreted as a critical exercise on the typological elements characteristic of these emblematic 1950s buildings, introducing variations in detail through an approach that is, to some extent, playful. This informed the design of the large staircase connecting the street to the semi-public space, the detailing and finishes of the building’s supporting columns, the tectonics of the plinth, the “glass bubbles” housing the entrance halls, and the grilles of the clothes-drying areas.

The project also reflects on the specific circumstances of its context through the introduction of balcony screens clad in Portuguese glazed terracotta tiles, proposing variations in the framing of the same view. It also explores ways of capturing direct western sunlight in spaces oriented eastwards, and vice versa.