Xerox Centre
Lisbon, Portugal
2001–1996
The building was designed based on a first-prize entry in a shortlisted competition held by Xerox for its corporate headquarters in Portugal. Given the site’s location at a busy traffic intersection, the building was devised in a U-shape, with two parallel wings of offices, connected by a third block of services (auditorium, showroom, canteen, etc.) and set around a large and enclosed void. With 800 sq. m and five floors, the monumentality of this atrium caters not only to circulation and reception but also meets the less evident need for silence and contemplation within what is a large corporation. However, and notwithstanding the growing privatisation of the public realm, the eminently civic character of this atrium also allows it to function as a space for events, open to the city. The compositional system of both the exterior and interior façades is based on a construction module that endorses the idea of heavyweight tectonics, within which a representational skeleton of prefabricated concrete panels visually holds the more fragile elements — glass and, alternatively, wood or zinc. Drawing on the classical theme of the post-and-lintel, the representational transposition of the load permeates the building, its concrete skeleton resting on a heavy granite plinth with a pronounced stereotomy.


Views towards west and east

Handrail detail

Staircase and loggia

Façade modules
Location: Avenida Infante Dom Henrique, Lisbon, Portugal
Client: Xerox Portugal, SA
Scope of services: Architecture
Project brief: Offices and dispatch and warehouse facilities
Plot area: 8,880 sq. m
Gross floor area: 24,800 sq. m
Construction cost: EUR 750.00 per sq. m
Total construction cost: EUR 9.5m
Project status: 1996 (concept design) – 2001 (built)
Photography: Rui Morais de Sousa, Augusto Alves da Silva and Fernando Guerra

Longitudinal section
Ground-level floor plan

Atrium study

Façade study

West façade main entrance

Rooftop playground by Fernando Guerra

Rooftop by Fernando Guerra

Night view by Fernando Guerra

Swimming pool by Fernando Guerra

Photograph by Augusto Alves da Silva