Lisbon Exhibition Centre

This shortlist competition was held in preparation for the Lisbon World Exhibition, Expo’98, in 1994, between Foster & Partners, Gregotti Associati and David Chipperfield Architects in partnership with Promontorio. The programme comprised five column-free exhibition halls, loading docks and an administration centre. In terms of programme, the building was supposed to provide a shed to house smaller national pavilions, which, as legacy after the world exhibition, would function as Lisbon’s new exhibition centre.

The layout is based on a single circulation corridor, that, like a central spine, concentrates the major flows of visitors. The exhibition halls along the spine are served by loading docks. The administration and services building stands inside the entrance courtyard as a stand-alone volume connected through the basement. The ensemble is visually and tectonically unified around the whole perimeter by a second skin of corten steel louvers, including the voids of the loading docks.