Castil Building

In a period of significant economic and touristic growth, the need for housing on the somewhat disorganised urban periphery increased and the city centre area experienced exponential growth in office and business buildings. The Castil Building, designed by Conceição Silva’s firm, where Tomás Taveira also worked, emerged as Lisbon’s first large-scale shopping centre. It assumed its pioneering role through its architectural design, which highlights the dialogue between the glass planes and the lines that accentuate the strong structural verticality. A veritable explosion in scale in terms of volume and detail design began to characterise the city’s central areas. This same period saw the construction of the “Franjinhas” building by Nuno Teotónio Pereira, part of the business hub in the area around Marquês de Pombal square. Both buildings experimented with the relationship between the street and the shop spaces on the ground floors, in line with other contemporary international works. In the Castil Building, said relationship is established through the creation of an interior square that provides access to the shops, with three floors of illuminated shop windows facing Rua Braancamp.