Plot 1.10/ Bank of Portugal
Lisbon, Portugal
2003–2001
The project for the Plot 1.10 development is the outcome of first-prize entry in a shortlisted competition, held in 2001 by a private consortium for the planning and design of a large urban plot integrated into the Expo ’98 master plan. The programme originally comprised a 19-storey office building and a five-star hotel with 324 keys over 13 floors, both with direct access to the roundabout at the end of Avenida Dom João II. The avenue is the main axis of the Expo ’98 plan, which to the south culminates in this plot and is crowned by the hilltop gardens of Cabeço das Rolas. Given the site, the two buildings were placed in continuity with the façade alignments of the avenue, creating a direct, panoramic and pedestrian connection to the Cabeço das Rolas and reinforcing the reciprocity between the built and landscaped areas of the World Exhibition precinct. Later, the developer requested that the same two volumes be unified and joined at ground level for a single programme and tenant as the main offices of the Bank of Portugal.
Positioned perpendicularly to each other, the buildings form a square at ground-floor level, while their offset configuration emphasises the silhouette in a vertical crescendo that reaches its peak on the axis of the avenue. As a whole, the composition of the ensemble suggests a certain static and tectonic monumentality as a response to the eminently symbolic character of the Expo plan — monumentality understood here as the dissolution of all functional expression and its consequent reduction to an essential type-form, albeit without neglecting its hypothetical dwelling experience. To this end, the ensemble owes much of its presence to the material and constructional quality of its façades, which, in large panels of white GRC and aluminium frames, suggest an image of solidity and durability. The fact that the window frames are positioned unusually deeply in façades guarantees the natural shading of the glazing while symbolically evoking the idea of a superimposed classical portico. Inside, both buildings have high atriums stretching respectively up to the last floor of their lower adjacent wings. Lit by rooftop skylights, these large voids function both as a representational space and as a form of interior decompression for both the office space and the hotel guestrooms.
It is difficult to draw from classical language without going through its intermediate phases, the efforts of which are systematically overshadowed by nostalgia. This project aims towards a clear identification with its Mediterranean origins. Evidently, some of the solid character of the section ostensibly derives from the historical Portuguese penchant that associates the idea of thickness to the tradition of firmitas, which lies in the commitment to give precedence to the articulation and assemblage of the structural systems over the will-to-form. An idea of exhaustive monolithic repetition permeates the whole project and is reflected in the modulation of the exterior and interior façades. The severe monumentality that radiates from the compositional system suggests a representational transposition of the transfer of loads through the structure, wherein the mineral pilasters directly touch the stone square as if it were a classical temple. However, this is not even a literal representation of the structure, since the ‘true’ structure only partially coincides with the modulation of the façade. The conceptual premise is the capacity of this tactile and visual mise en scène to generate a solid and stable urban form.

Ninth- to fourteenth-level floor plan
Second- to eighth-level floor plan
Ground-level floor plan


Presentation model east façade

Location, Parque das Nações



Location: Lisbon Expo ’98, Portugal
Client: Consortium Parque Expo ’98/Somague/Geril
Scope of services: Architecture
Project brief: Office building and hotel
Plot area: 1.37 ha
Gross floor area: 72,000 sq. m
Project status: 2001 (shortlisted competition, 1st prize) – 2003 (concept design)
Model: Norigem
Photography: Fernando Guerra (model)
