Mar do Oriente Offices

Lisbon, Portugal 2004

The solution creates a transition band between the accesses from the adjacent streets, which pass under the buildings, and the entrances to the underground parking lot and the inner square, inside the block. This band is a public gallery covered by the platform’s slab and shall make the transition between the various pavements without any ledges.

The inner square allows a quick traverse for those who wish it, but also invites to stay, offering shade and light and attracting attention, through the trees of the square that extend above the slab that covers the gallery, to something that happens above.

At the upper floor, on the platform that serves as a foundation for the buildings set, one comes across with a water mirror, walkable thanks to a hovering pavement, reinforcing the idea of reflexes generated by the glimmer of Tagus River from afar and by the glass façades of the buildings. At this water mirror, trees that come from the lower floor leading us here coexist with a series of flowerbeds which help to counterbalance the multiplicity of reflexes.

The scenical performance of this space is of comparable relevance to the previously mentioned functions of direct experiencing of the space.