Contemporary Architecture in Lisbon

On the first day, the extraordinary view from high up on Castelo S.Jorge whets our appetite for the significant singularities of this city of steep slopes and overlapping historical contours. A walk to the Praça do Comércio, down in the Baixa – an area rebuilt on a grand plan after the devastation of the 1755 earthquake – introduces us to a landmark in European urban development. From here, we head up to the Chiado, where famous contemporary Portuguese architect A. Siza Vieira provided a master class in urban regeneration and the sustenance of a potent historical heritage with his clever reconstruction of an area devastated by fire in 1988. Here we also find the National Museum of Contemporary Art (Museu do Chiado), enlarged and remodelled according to plans by Jean-Michel Wilmotte, before taking a look at Aires Mateus’s notable ‘Reitoria’ at the Universidade Nova.

The morning of our second day begins with a visit to Carrilho da Graça’s new Escola Superior de Música, before we head to Belém, a strikingly beautiful area of the city laid out along the side of the vast River Tagus. Here we find the Vittorio Gregotti-designed Belém Cultural Centre, whose architecture somehow manages to mix modern rationalism with a harmonious dialogue between the vibrant centre and the historic surroundings within which it is located.

This quality of poetically attuned architecture is also found in the work of Gonçalo Byrne, the extraordinary Maritime Control Tower and the artistic references of Manuel Graça’s Teatro Azul, across the river in Almada – all of which will be ours to enjoy on our exclusive visits to these buildings.

Day three is dedicated to the Parque das Nações, a 5km area running alongside the river that was transformed from a backwater of industrial decay and obsolescence by the urgent, transformative power of Expo 98 a little more than ten years ago. Buildings such as Oriente Station, by Santiago Calatrava, the Pavilion of Portugal, by A. Siza Vieira and the Oceanarium, by P. Chermayeff, quickly established themselves as new icons for an excited capital. A change of pace comes with a walk through the lesser-known eastern side of Lisbon, where many decades of industrial history still prevail and its un-restored buildings tell their own, characteristic tales. After this, there’s still time – before we take lunch on an esplanade by the river – to take a look at Carrilho da Graça’s Centro de Documentação da Presidência da República, one of the city’s best-kept architectural secrets.

Our last day brings us to the unmissable C. Gulbenkian Foundation. The first large-scale modernist construction in Portugal, this is one of the very best, defining examples of 20th-century Portuguese architecture. Set in a superb garden, this museum of the decorative arts and modern art exhibition centre provides a fitting finish to our journey through the fascinating landscape of contemporary Portuguese architecture.