Escola Alemã de Lisboa

Composed of buildings made in two different phases, the school’s project dates back to 1960, authored by German architect Otto Bartning. In 2008, it was intervened by architect Carrilho da Graça, author of a modernization project that raised two new buildings and renovated the pre-existing, thus adapting the whole complex to the current demands of school activities and programmes. The modern principles that guided the original project were reinterpreted, conciliating new infrastructures that reinforce and optimize the qualities of the pre-existences. A consonant dialogue between different materialities and building stages is rightfully and clearly established. The two new buildings present themselves as simultaneously emphasizing the pre-existing, allowing to locate both interventions in time, in an order that is complemented by the use people make of the space. A generous entrance square is generated from the definition of the new sports pavilion, to the east. The building of the new primary school circumscribes the playground and allows for the creation of a barrier to the adjacent avenue’s intense traffic, with its perimeter having an elongated volume in which the façades are determined in a game of materiality, between the opacity of concrete and the transparency of glass.