architect Amanda Levete leads a guided tour through the building of the Museum of Art, Architecture, and Technology, which opens to the public on Wednesday. In the era of the Internet and distance communications, wanted to create spaces that lead people to find-if
If the new building of the Museum of Art, Architecture, and Technology (MAAT) to pass unnoticed, the architect, that the thought will feel praised. That was exactly what the british-based Amanda Levete had in mind. “The idea is that it seems the landscape, leaving a free view to the city and to the river.”
THE MAAT, that Amanda ensures that only could be here, in Lisbon, was inaugurated on Tuesday and will be open to the public, free of charge, on Wednesday, a public holiday, with an extensive programme (see box). Yesterday, the excitement reached high peaks. As high as the number of people who, this weekend, works in the work – to lay tiles, pavement, the clean, the mount stage, in charge of the catering, mounting of exhibitions, security. Opens ready? “I’ve seen greater miracles happen,” says the architect, Spanish Maria Alvarez-Santullano, manager of this project, AL_A. In the last two years, since the work began, came to Portugal every month, after two in two weeks and now the pace three days per week.”
go Back to 2011, to the day that the president of EDP, António Mexia, entered the atelier of Amanda Levete for you to talk about this project. The architect recalls the story as we approached the building, surpassing the mountains of sand, cars, hand, vans, construction materials and cables. It begins here, along the Tagus, at the suggestion of their own. The director of the studio AL_A, Max Arrocet, goes with a.
Overwhelmed by the light
Amanda Levete, 61 years, recalls the first visit to the site. “We were overwhelmed by the location and by the light”. “We should have stayed two hours but we were some eight and we watched the sun setting”. This is the first project of great impact in Lisbon, but it is the second time working in Portugal. Participated in a project of Corticeira Amorim with the Experimenta Design in 2013. The goal was to use cork in different ways, and architect, and designer, made a bookcase modular.
Paul Spranger/Global-Images
Here, the program was different. “We wanted a space where people could come not only as a museum but a place of public spaces, where people can find, at this time, that communicates at a distance,” he explains. “This is more important than the buildings themselves”. Later, already within the MAAT, there is stress that seems to you a “sample” of the project with the public, but funded by a private institution. António Mexia, pointed to the 19 million euros of investment in the contract of the project.
The seven-thousand square foot building addition to a public garden that will be ready to use in march of 2017, as the bridge linking this side of the river to the city of Bethlehem, in the shape of a boomerang. To overcome the fact that they have a waterfront cut off by a railway line laid without effort on the sketches of AL_A. “We knew that we had to deal with this in the program”.
the coverage of The MAAT unites to the common areas and can be traversed and used as a public zone. “I wanted that the building does not obscure the view of the historic area or would cover my the river”, stresses the architect.
do Not challenge the Central
Another element to take into account was the old power plant, old lady 100 years old in 2018, the industrial heritage of the country. “What we do, we can’t challenge this building,” thought so. Amanda Levete says that everything here was “use the terrain”. The works began in 2014 and it was understood that the building would reflect the light of the place, that kind of shiny scales that form on the surface. Was achieved with the tiles that line the building of MAAT. “So we are with mosaics, three-dimensional,” says Arrocet, talking about the coating of the facade. Yesterday was white, but the photos you have stored on your phone to show a golden hue similar to what you see in the pictures computerized that were up to now what if you knew of the new building of the MAAT. “It’s going to vary a lot depending on the time of day, the season of the year…”, he adds. There the same, Amanda calls attention to the variations. Under the entry, the reflex gives you tones of silver.
The tiles come from Barcelona, made by the same family company that has worked with the Catalan Antoni Gaudí, Cumella, and still works in the Sagrada Familia.
A detail of the work of Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, who will occupy the gallery in the oval office, the widest
| Paul Spranger/Global-Images
Have a 60 inches height and are set in metal plates and are drilled to be lighter,” adds Amanda. Tiny specks brown produce the illusion of sparkles. Within a short time, they will begin to pop. Is of purpose, ensure the two architects. “Evokes the discovery, by accident, for thousands of years by the chinese,” says Levete.
The ceramic façade is a wink of the eye on the Portuguese tradition. As the stairs that reach to the river and that if they are going to show, or hide, as the tides, “which we saw in the Terreiro do Paço,” says Max Arrocet. Or the rock limestone used at the entrance or on the rails on the inside. “The magic of the place is expressed in the materials and in the way that we frame. Root the building on the site”. Later in the conversation, adds: “There is a dialogue between materials very old that belong to this part of the world”.
we approached the entrance. “This building would only work here,” stresses Amanda Levete, under the shadow of the visor, created with a giant tube of the Portuguese team of engineering Alpha Consultants. So Amanda like Max, emphasize another fact, at different moments: “there are No columns in this building”. The weight is supported by this tube, is invisible to the visitor.
The architects get excited with the technical details. For example, says Arrocet, “there is no natural light”, being a museum, except a stray light achieved in some hours of the day, at certain times of the year.” On the roof, created in the style of an amphitheatre, but with steps more subtle, Max lifts a lid from the ground to show that up there, “everything is prepared to be used as a gallery. “We have water, electricity, data”. Amanda gives an idea: “If you want a restaurant pop up”. Has another, still: “we Suggest that to design a movie here,” he says, looking at the houses, back to the river.
once inside, descend the ramp on the left to the centre of the gallery, the oval, named from its shape elliptical. “Lisbon has seven hills, accessibility is very difficult. We wanted this building to be very inclusive”. It is the highest of the museum. The ceiling is “like that of the theatres”.
“this Is where converge the three ideas of the building – art, architecture, and technology,” stresses Amanda. “We wanted to create fluidity of movement, a space for experimental works, for which the artists could do specific works”. The installation Pynchon Park, the French Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster in the assembly yesterday, to illustrate your words: it is of large dimensions, is to be prepared for this site and for the inauguration of the MAAT. “When we come down we are visitors, inside the cage we are the protagonists,” says Levete.
The main gallery is below the level of the river. “Here was where we were counter-intuitive,” says Levete. “We were down, instead of going to the top.” You know, from your research for this project, which is not always the buildings in height have been well received in this area. “In the studio we always try, even if in a modest way, to advance the debate”. If he could only know on Tuesday, but has already had at least a good reaction. “The driver who has been with me, she thanked me for the I did in the city. I could have broken into tears”.
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