Palace of Relógio

Built in the early 20th century in late Beaux-Arts style as the administrative headquarters of the Port of Lisbon, this building had as distinct feature a public clock displaying the standard time. The rehabilitation carried-out in 2007 regarded its use as a building that provides support to two European agencies, in the new riverfront ensemble: the European Maritime Safety Agency and the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction. The contemporaneous sense of the intervention took advantage of the pre-existing building’s structure, reconfiguring the high-ceiling of the central atrium by fitting an iron and glass elevator, and adding one more floor to the structure. The elevator is replicated on the outside, becoming a suggestive and clarifying image in regard to the guidelines that defined the intervention: a sober and rigorous design, and special attention concerning constructive solutions, both outside and in the new interiors. This allowed for the discovery of possible relationships between the building and its immediate and distant surroundings: Lisbon, the Tejo and the river’s south bank.