DATE: 1995-1998 _______________________________________________ VISIT: Inside - Outside _______________________________________________ MORE DETAILS: The Portuguese Pavilion was the building responsible to house the Portuguese representation at the Expo’98.
Álvaro Siza, without certainty as to what would be the future use of the building and without being able to work the surrounding context that would offer him the arguments for the project, was forced to search the reasonings in the Portuguese architectural tradition, essentially in the scale and atmosphere of convent cloisters, buildings that according to the architect always touched him.
The proposed building has a vast square covered by an imponent canopy in pre-stressed concrete, whose thickness remotes to the image of a leaf of paper with its extremities laying on two bricks. This square assumes itself as a public space that serves the city, where various events can take place.
After the Expo’98, the building was left without a function. Amongst various possibilities of readaptation, transforming the building into an Architectural Museum seemed to be the most interesting one.
It was classified as a “Monument of Public Interest” (MIP) by IGESPAR, in March of 2010.
