Sunday, October 27, 2019 Lisbon
 |
| West structure of the Portuguese Pavilion |
Our main AIA tour reason to visit was to see the Portuguese National Pavilion, the Pavilhão de Portugal, designed by Portuguese architect Alvaro Siza Viera. He had just won the Pritzker Prize – architecture’s most prestigious award – in 1992, when he received the commission for the Expo pavilion.
From the website: “The Pavilhão de Portugal, or Pavilion of Portugal, is a perfect vision of gravity defiance. Designed by Portuguese architect Álvaro Siza Vieira, who also designed the Museum of Contemporary Art in Porto, it was intended to look like a curved sheet of paper balanced between two pillars. The amazing roof, which architect-lovers may revel to stand underneath, weighs an incredible 1,400 tonnes (1,568 tons). “
 |
| East structure of the Portuguese Pavilion |
The 20 year old building is now in some states of disrepair, as there hasn’t been a national sponsor that has adopted the building for exhibitions. In addition, there are 2 large tents put up under the free floating curved canopy roof, which somewhat spoiled the light and airy effect of the main element that connects the two anchoring structures. Apparently, there is a Harry Potter exhibit being planned for the space in the tents. Harry Potter is a big thing in Portugal, as JK Rowlings wrote many of the books while staying here.
 |
| The pavilion seen from the river quay. The two semi circles are tents - not part of the building - that are under the curved concrete roof suspended between the east and west structures |
None the less, you can see elements of why this was an award winning design in some of the photographs and imagine its glory 20 years ago.
 |
| Detail of the suspended, curved concrete roof, meant to resemble an awning at a festival, according to our guide |
 |
| Open spaces in the courtyard |
No comments:
Post a Comment