Portuguese Pavilion

Designed to house the Portuguese representation at Expo ’98, this building was conceived as a generous riverside public space. Immediately recognisable for its enormous curving roof in reinforced concrete, it features two different areas: the Ceremonial Square, a spacious area under the dipping roof, and a building of two storeys above ground and a basement level structured around an internal courtyard. Establishing a visual line between land and water, the pavilion’s monumental scale strikes a balance between historic designs and the lighter lines of modernity. Álvaro Siza also completed a design for the later conversion of the building into the seat of the Portuguese Council of Ministers or cabinet, but that project was never realised. Since then, the building has remained unaltered and with no definite fate. It won the Valmor Prize in 1998, sharing it with the nearby Knowledge Pavilion.