Display of Technique in Paulo Mendes Rocha Works

Abstract

In this chapter, an interview is made to the authors of Coches Mueseum in Lisbon, Arc. Paulo Mendes da Rocha (Pritzker Price 2006), Eng. Rui Furtado e Arc. Ricardo Back Gordon. This is the first project made by Paulo Mendes da Rocha made in Portugal with the support of Ricardo Back Gordon and the technical team AFA consult leaded by Rui Furtado. Building this project is an example capable of displaying the construction virtuosity through architecture and engineering. In this important Lisbon Plaza, where Portugal´s History is livelong narrated, has this way won another episode, the first in the twenty-first century. Continuing the Jardim Afonso de Albuquerque, a new square was created along Rua da Junqueira’s old houses. Merely linked by a footbridge which indiscreetly observes the new urban space, New Museu Nacional dos Coches is divided into two volumes, the Expository Building and the Appendix Building. Towards Av. Brasil, the Expository Building, a white massive container rising delicately sighting Tejo. Otherwise, towards Rua da Junqueira and Jardim Afonso de Albuquerque, lies the Appendix Building, a concrete skeleton which reveals the auditorium, the restaurant and administrative dependences.

Detached into two functionally autonomous buildings holding self-infrastructures in its insights, the answer’s chastity towards the museum program allowed the design team to show off the virtuous art of raising a building. The pavement crossing Rua da Junqueira towards the riverside is released by the single structure, a constant challenge to law of gravity presented by Paulo Mendes da Rocha. The concrete skeleton uplifts the trussed steel transparent boxes, flying above the bulky auditorium covered in water. Here upraises the bridge that’s finally taking Rua da Junqueira up to the riverside, where will rise the parking lot silo, a Viewpoint to those who arrive to this part of Lisbon.