Architectural design is spread all over Portugal and it’s definetly a secret not to be missed when you visit the country, with the amazing buildings providing you the best of the Portuguese architecture, you will fall in love in every little corner. Secrets from Portugal presents you a selection of the top 7 best architectural designs in Portugal. Let yourself be involved and amazed in this trip through the best Portuguese architecture. Enjoy!
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Terminal de Cruzeiros do Porto de Leixões
Terminal de Cruzeiros do Porto de Leixões is a small port complex of initiative of the Douro and Leixões Ports Administration, in Matosinhos, which was designed by the Portuguese architect Luís Pedro Silva. The design honours the Portuguese tiles when being coated with one million three-dimensional ceramic tiles – made in Portugal, of course. Glazed tiles achieve a chromatic variety through the way the sunlight strikes the hexagonal pieces, which changes throughout the day and the seasons.
Belém Cultural Centre
In order to promote culture, the Belém Cultural Centre was conceived in 1988 and was shaped by the hands of the architects Vittorio Gregotti, of Italy, and Manuel Salgado, of Portugal. The CCB is spread over six separate acres through two inner streets and joined by the José Saramago path that creates continuity with the Praça do Império. The architecture of this centre denies the traditional separation between the interior and exterior, transforming itself into a small town.
Champalimaud Foundation
The Champalimaud Foundation is dedicated to the development of advanced biomedical research programs, but architecture is part of its life. In October of 2008, was laid the first stone for the building of the Foundation. Charles Correa, the architect responsible for giving life to this scientific centre, sought that the contemporary architecture of the building allied the aesthetic to the functionality guaranteeing all conditions for researchers, academics and health professionals, both national and foreign, to develop a work-oriented for excellence and practical results.
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Oceanário de Lisboa
Located in Lisbon, on the Parque das Nações, the Oceanário de Lisboa is an inspiring and superb creation. It consists in a “public aquarium” and in a research institute for the marine biology and oceanography. Here we find it all – birds, mammals, fishes, plants. Regarded as the best aquarium in the world by TripAdvisor, its conceptual design was conceived by the north-american Peter Chermayeff. Surrounded by the waters of Tejo’s River, the Aquarium is also a stage for knowledge and a motto for many study visits.
Casa da Música
Porto, an illuminated city, welcomed, in 2005, Casa da Música. A project full of eccentricity, culture and innovation. The eternal perpetuity of that physical phenomenon which is sound, saw in Oporto a home to live for many years. Designed by the Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, master of contemporary architecture and winner of a Pritzker, this creation doesn’t follow conventional patterns and claims itself as a modern artistic landmark. Undoubtedly, a visual soundtrack for the soul.
MAAT
MAAT – Art, Architecture and Technology’s Museum – is the corresponding of a free drawing that always keeps its functionality. The building holds within itself undiscovered secrets, utopias that become reality and the globality of knowledge. The involvement that possesses us when we visit this mythical museum is embracing and, at the same time, singular. Never a walk on the routes of wisdom felt so good. Architecture assumes expansive contours in this creation, proving that this ancient art can be associated to the highest causes.
Piscina das Marés
The project of the Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza Vieira takes advantage of the natural depressions of the rocky terrain to implant the saltwater pools. The architecture of this project allows the pools to reach the ocean and mix with the natural formations present along the coast of Matosinhos. Siza Vieira forced the contrast between the organic rocks, which invade the pools, and the accentuated geometry of architecture.
See the architectural design of São Bento Railway Station
São Bento Railway Station is considered one of the most beautiful (and most photographed) in the world. In its interior, Portugal is deciphered through 20 thousand tiles that coat it, by the hands of the painter Jorge Colaço. The walls of this space tell the story of transport and lead you on a journey through Portuguese life and culture, with illustrated episodes such as the conquest of Ceuta or pilgrimages and processions.
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