Lumiar Technologic Campus – Lispolis

One is dealing with a territory that was for centuries occupied by farms (the Franciscan Seminary, for instance), located between the districts of Carnide and Paço do Lumiar, old urban nuclei of Lisbon's periphery. In the last decades of the twentieth century these quarters became transition points between the city (that meanwhile grew and got there) and its surroundings.

It is still a very fragmented reality with little urban life due to the existence of many empty lots still to be urbanized, which create urban discontinuity, but also because of the inexistence of commercial or civil equipments. Marked by the presence of many roads and freeways of daily intense traffic, the existence of eventual walking routes in the area becomes difficult.

In this context, the two lots destined to the construction of the Lispolis buildings have a strategic relevance, since it acts out as a sort of "doorway" though which one enters and leaves the city. It is also a doorway in a more literal sense, given that, according to the public contest programme, the buildings should be united by a bridge-gallery.

The central idea of this project is naturally born from the necessity to connect the mismatched parts of this still "pre-urban" territory.
Continuing the traces of the existing urban alignments (sidewalks and buildings) surrounding the project lots, we designed a knit of continuity which translates into a texture of "strips". From it emerge and take shape the buildings, routes, the gallery and alignment.

The aim is to build an assemblage that, beyond the intentional compositive cohesion, acquires its urban personality and works as support equipment to walking fluxes that, at present, are almost inexistent.

Extending through and beyond the two buildings, with which it merges, the bridge-gallery connects streets, square, collective and private spaces and, above all, it unites the two halves of the Lisbon Polytechnic School Campus. It is like a sort of "air stream" that passes through everything.

Owner

LISPOLIS, Polotecnológico de Lisboa

Location

Estrada Paço do Lumiar, 44 Lisboa
Portugal

Competition

2005 - 1º prémio

Architecture

ARX PORTUGAL, Arquitectos Lda.
José Mateus
Nuno Mateus

Work Team

Paulo Rocha, Olivier Ottevaere, Elsa Fonseca

Lanscape Architecure

PROAP, Estudos e Projectos de Arquitectura Paisagista Lda.

Structural Engeneering

SAFRE, Estudos e Projectos de Engenharia Lda.

Electrical and Telecomunications Planning

Security Planning

AT, Serviços de Engenharia Electrotécnica e Electrónica Lda.

Sanitary Planning

AQUAEPRO, Consultoria e Engenharia Lda.

Mechanical Planning

PEN, Projectos de Engenharia Lda.

Acoustics and Sustainability Planning

NATURAL WORKS, Engineering Consultants

Photography

ARX Portugal Arquitectos

Area

45 685  sqm