Instituto Superior Técnico

The IST Alameda campus is a project that was overseen by the then well-known Minister of Public Works, Duarte Pacheco. Completed in 1937, it was begun 15 years earlier when the minister, who was then a director of the school, went ahead with the purchase of land in Arco do Cego next to the then recently built social housing development. The IST project for Alameda was not just a project for a building, but also a veritable urban project. The pavilions, placed parallel to Avenida Almirante Reis, climbed the hill, designing a green avenue that ended at the entrance to the school. This was the exteriorization of a geometrically rationalist approach to urban planning. The volumic composition is simple and based on parallelepipeds heightened by the use of cornerstone-free plastered walls all painted in the same light colour; there were practically no cornices decorating the roof. The windows were narrow and featured very thin frames. The IST campus has moved with the times, however. Recent works have included the Civil Engineering and Architecture pavilion and the North and South towers, which provide symmetry when viewed from the green space below. Both these projects were carried out in the 1990s. The whole complex continues in operation, including the pools, crèche and canteen.