© João Luís Carrilho da Graça . Published on September 10, 2010.

The creation of the new Cruise Terminal in Lisbon offers a rare opportunity to question and rethink the urban and experiential relationships between the city of Lisbon and the Tagus river. The proposal presents a building designed as a simple volume, that responds to the desire of liberating the surrounding area. This space will be offered to the general public, providing green spaces to the city and to the adjacent neighborhoods, which can support different sort of activities, evoking the ancient boulevards proposed in the 18th,19th and 20th centuries. The small scale of the building is an approach to the urban scale, while the free space ensures the required distance for contemplation of the Alfama’s slope.

© João Luís Carrilho da Graça . Published on September 10, 2010.

The visual relation river /city takes as much as importance as the city / river. The building and the park are in the transition, coexisting and being mutually enhanced.

© João Luís Carrilho da Graça . Published on September 10, 2010.

Thus, the building appears as a response to the program, while the park meets the city. One of the key points of this proposal is the maintenance of the existing dock’s structure, reaffirming its memory by keeping the void space and recovering the surrounding stone walls.

© João Luís Carrilho da Graça . Published on September 10, 2010.

The transport accommodation intends to be simple and flexible and is set among the trees alignments. To achieve this, extensive paved tracks are integrated into the park, refusing the road design in space definition. Separating the park from the harbor, the building of the terminal also defines the entrance plaza, at Southwest, and the car parking at Northeast, which occupies the dock’s space. At the intersection of this plaza with the pre-existing dock, a water plan is created evoking its previous use. The building has a simple and compact design solution, concerned by streamlining facilities and systems used, combined with a flexible space use. The building is assumed towards the park and the city as a pavilion, an overflow system. It appears to be a floating volume, as it is broken, generating tension zones and inflections that suggest entry and exit points for the building.

A path/promenade surrounds the building, allowing a slow discovery of the surroundings while passing through the different facades. This path culminates in the roof that assumes the features of a stage, relating with the river and the city without any obstacles, such as a plaza.