Artilharia 1
Lisbon, Portugal
2018
A shortlisted competition was held for the former army barracks of Artilharia 1, one of Lisbon’s few remaining locations able to accommodate a large-scale mixed-use development comprising residential, retail and office uses. The location, known as Amoreiras, is on the crest of one of the city’s highest hills, with a concentration of high-rise office and residential buildings, combining ease of access to the centre with a direct motorway exit. Split between two functional areas — residential and offices — the proposed scheme untangles what is a longstanding urban void, increasing the quality of the adjacent spaces and helping to consolidate the neighbourhood, while also fostering the urbane and sophisticated character of the area. The plot is divided into two parcels, based on the opening of a new street (an extension of Rua Sampaio e Pina) between Rua Artilharia 1 and Avenida Conselheiro Fernando de Sousa, each inscribed with different programmes: on the one hand, a residential ensemble comprising 540 units with ground-floor retail, and, on the other, a large office building.
Given the diversity of architectural languages and periods on the site — covering the late 18th-century Pombaline quarter of Geniaux and the 1940s city blocks of Artilharia 1, or the 1970s Brutalist architecture of Conselheiro Fernando de Sousa and, last but not least, the full-fledged 1980s postmodernism of the Amoreiras complex — the strategy was to create a pronounced and clear mega-form that is able to inflect and accommodate the relationships between all these different languages and forms. The proposal is anchored in three key objectives: firstly, to create a large and porous perimeter city block adjusted to the square configuration of the parcel; secondly, to create an as-large-as-possible public courtyard garden, maximising the presence of green, as both a contemplative and symbolic place; and thirdly, to create an outstanding corner building at the Amoreiras crossing, closing the fourth side of the square.
The residential quarter has been devised as a neighbourhood broken down into a series of midsize buildings, with a scale to which Lisbonners can relate. Seen from the existing streetscape, the length, height and width of the new façades form a continuity with the 1940s perimeter blocks of Artilharia 1. From inside the courtyard, the footprints of the four L-shaped blocks have a retail plinth that unites the overall form in terms of ground-floor cohesion, releasing a perfect square of 100 x 100 m, where a public garden welcomes residents and visitors, with the whole perimeter surrounded at ground-floor level by coffee shops, bookstores and restaurants, opened to the street on both sides.
The simplicity of the footprint contrasts with the variations in the heights and setbacks of the buildings and their different façades, albeit within a common structural module framework. Each entrance in the courtyard garden is intentionally located to both promote pedestrian flows and control the heavy wind tunnel effect in the area. The interior façades of the perimeter block have been designed to address the courtyard, with deep balconies reminiscent of Lisbon’s 19th-century cast-iron balustrades, which effectively functioned as outdoor living rooms, while the outer street façades combine different materials such as azulejo tiles and limestone. While the module remains generically the same, various elements — like recessed balconies, protruding slabs, arcades and terraces — grant each building diversity and uniqueness.
While reconfiguring the north side of the crossing facing the Amoreiras complex, the new office building extends to both Avenida Joaquim António de Aguiar and Avenida Conselheiro Fernando de Sousa in a series of cascading plans and a geometry that resonates with the evolving conditions of the site. Allowing for the garden and its pedestrian accessibility, the proposal uses the new office building as a covered passage at ground level. This scheme generates an alternative circulation, making the office building a type of pedestrian hinge that increases the depth of public space, instead of being an obstacle. Conceptually, the building is fundamentally determined by the volume and the façade system. Positioned alongside the corner, the building is a combination of five volumes with different heights and rotations, with the tallest in the centre. The form is based on a volume combining different interlocking cuboids, with heights varying between 9 and 15 storeys that accommodate different tenant layouts and allow subdivisions into four autonomous units. The façade consists of a vertical white concrete grid of 0.80-m-jutting fins that generate shading for the interior while still enabling unobstructed views. The vertical panels are continuous over the height of the building, only broken by the embedded figurative elements representing geometrical tropes, also in white concrete. Strategically located to act as focal points that individualise and humanise each volume, these elements allow the façade to elude its abstract character to become a dialogical element of the city.

Street view




Site plan

Aerial view






Location: Artilharia 1, Lisbon, Portugal
Client: Novo Banco
Scope of services: Architecture and landscape architecture
Project brief: Mixed-use with housing,
street retail and public parking
Plot area: 2.8 ha
Gross floor area: 134,390 sq. m (plus 129,210 sq. m underground parking)
Construction cost: EUR 246m (estimated)
Project status: 2018 (shortlisted competition, 3rd prize)
Rendering: 4+Arquitectos

Residential
Typical-level floor plan
North-east elevation

Offices
Conceptual diagram

Offices
Typical-level floor plan
North-east elevation




Office building entrance

Office building backyard


Office building façade details

Reference images: Josef Albers, Phillip Klinger, Aldo Rossi, Mario Botta and Carlo Scarpa