Portuguese National Library

For 50 years, this remarkable public building for the construction of Knowledge has been the place for the collection, protection and availability of all Portuguese publications, and many foreign ones, about the country and its authors. The functionality and logic of its spatial organisation—based on the circulation of readers, books and staff as closed circuits—remain up to date. Daciano da Costa defined the furniture, lighting and materials of the main interior spaces. Among several artistic interventions, Guilherme Camarinha designed the tapestry of the General Reading Room, and Leopoldo de Almeida created the bas-reliefs of the main façade. You can visit the tower for the storage of editions, which was expanded and renovated between 2008 and 2012. Its constructive independence was thought of in the original project, so that the foreseeable expansion would do little harm to the library services and the rest of the building.