Paulo Mendes da Rocha, MMBB Arquitetos and Bak Gordon Arquitectos introduce us the new Museu dos Coches in Lisbon, Portugal, in the historic district of Belém, which follows two of its basics principle, Museology and Urbanism and promotes the initiative of small local and particular trade.

The new museum to hold the exhibitions of eighteenth century cars belongs to Paulo Mendes da Rocha + MMBB Arquitetos + Bak Gordon Arquitectos is proposed in a dual-mode, with a main pavilion that seems to float in the air, and an annexed volume of concrete that attempts to dialogue with the vernacular architecture of the area. The building is located in a square, leaving space for easy pedestrian access through passages.
 

Description of the project by Paulo Mendes da Rocha

A project for the new facilities of Museu dos Coches, poses two basic questions.

On the side of Museology, basic criteria for exhibiting remarkable heritage; on the side of Urbanism, the implementation of a monumental venue, supported by the government project “Belém Redescoberta”. 

In terms of museology, the project adopts a policy centered on the idea of ultimate preservation, forever, a stored treasure and, at the same time visited. Considering the visit under all possible forms of development in relation to the historical memory as an intellectual construction in time. Art and technique in constant progress. Exhibitions and workshops, changing scenarios. Virtual sound and images associated with original objects.

In terms of Urbanism, an available space committed to the integrity of the enclosure, especially with the existent flow of tourists, which will surely increase with the emergence of this new vitality.

Two events should be noted here: the circulation of pedestrians in the sequence of the Calçada da Ajuda to the gardens along the Tagus (overlapping Av India, Av Brasilia and the railroad) and the set of preserved buildings (Belém Redescoberta) along R. Junqueira street, which is configured as an area of museums to the back, the antique Cais da Alfândega Velha street with great charm.

It encourages the initiative of local and small businesses. These are the root of the project, which now, along with drawings and photographs of the model, is presented. This is not to underestimate the program established with all its functions and areas, as well as the budget allocated to this project. These are given, say, unquestionably.

As shown, the construction is proposed dual mode, the main pavilion, a suspended ship for exhibitions, and an annex which includes a reception, administration, restaurant, auditorium and a public Tejo walkway to strategically strengthen the circulation through ramps. This peculiar spatial arrangement creates a portico with links between the two buildings at the entrance to a small, internal plaza, where you get to the preserved buildings in R (a new front). Junqueira now opens to the enclosure so that eventually there are small cafes, libraries … in what was once R. Cais Alfândega Velha street, an interesting recomposition of the same thing. One might note the dimensions of these spaces and their dialogue on the dynamics of passers-by inside and out, in full; the museum as a public place. Strictly protected and unpredictably open.

In addition to the security steps required by law, we adopted all access through special hydraulic lifts, ensuring control of the capacity of the exhibition spaces taken. We made special emphasis on safety and comfort, plus the support for Museum employees. For children, there is a reserved special area in the terrace of the museum, with a garden in the front row next to the access of visitors to the exhibitions. In front of the opposite side of Afonso Albuquerque Square in the same public esplanade, there is a popular bar with character, open with sidewalk tables.

We would also like the highlight the link between the exhibition area and the administration. Overlooking the Tajo. Very useful for services in general, for security policy. And the wide view of the elevated restaurant, to the Atlantic, to the Jeronimos, the administration turned to the river, towards the inner square, to the Museum Gardens.

The building is defined by the reinforced concrete foundations, with a relative concentration of the loads, as recommended by soil conditions, supporting coated steel trusses, configuring the great walls of the museum.

For parking, we excluded the design of an underground parking due to groundwater, drainage of the esplanade and large earth movements, which would mean to accommodate a lean program and harm the tranquility of the enclosure. We suggest an elevated parking lot near the barges for 400 vehicles and a small occupation in the territory. It could then be repeated as a prototype in the Belém Redescoberta project.

São Paulo, may 28th, 2008
Paulo Mendes da Rocha

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Architects
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Paulo Mendes da Rocha, MMBB Arquitetos, Bak Gordon Arquitectos.

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Project team
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Edison Hiroyama, Giovanni Meirelles, José Paulo Gouvêa, Luís Pedro Pinto, Pedro Serrazina, Marina Sabino, Nuno Velinho, Rui Cancela, Sónia Silva, Vera Higino, Walter Perdigão. 

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Collaborators
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Technical consultans. Foundations, Structures, Building Services, Hvac, Thermal, Acoustics, Security.-  AFA Consult – eng. Rui Furtado. Landscape.- Proap.
Enhibition project.- Nuno Sampaio.
Signaling.- António Queirós Design.
Project Coordinator.- Armando Vale.
Construction Coordinator.- Nuno Costa.

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Client
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Government of Portugal.

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Area
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Exhibition pavilion area.- 15.603,3 sqm, annex.-3200,5 sqm.

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Dates
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2009- 2015.

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Location
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Museu dos Coches, Praça Afonso de Albuquerque, 1300-004 Lisbon, Portugal.

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Photography
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Fernando Guerra | FG+SG.

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Paulo Mendes da Rocha spent his childhood between the city of Vitória, the harbour capital of Espírito Santo where he was born in October 1928 at his maternal grandparents’ house, and Paquetá Island, in the middle of Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro, the national capital, where the Mendes da Rocha family lived.

The architect’s family moved to the city of  São Paulo in 1940, where his father Paulo Menezes Mendes da Rocha was appointed Chair of the Naval and Harbour Resources of the Polytechnic School of the Universidade de São Paulo, which he directed from 1943 to 1947.

Still in São Paulo, Paulo Mendes da Rocha graduated from the Mackenzie Architecture School in 1954 and was able to build a solid carrier as a designer of houses, schools, apartment buildings, museums, furniture, theatre sets and several urban projects.

After graduation, he won a national project competition in 1957 for the construction of a gymnasium, the Clube Atlético Paulistano. This work brought him public recognition and also won the Grande Prêmio Presidência da República at the 6th Bienal of São Paulo in 1961.

In 1968, the architect won the national project competition for the Brazilian pavilion at Osaka Expo 70 and traveled to that city to follow the construction development in 1969.

Amongst several international honours, he has been awarded the Honorary Fellowship from the Conselho Internacional dos Arquitetos de Língua Portuguesa, The Mies Van der Rohe Foundation Prize for his project for São Paulo’s Pinacoteca. Furthermore, he was selected in 2000 to represent Brazil at the 7th International Architecture Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. He received the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2006.

In Brazil, the architect was twice honoured with the Ordem do Mérito Cultural, in 2004 and 2013. He also received the Troféu APCA (Associação Paulista de Críticos de Arte) twice, in 2012 and 2015.

Whilst working as an architect, Mendes da Rocha joined the world of academia thanks to his good friend, Vilanova Artigas, one of Brazil’s most remarkable architects. Both architects enhanced the School of Architecture of the Universidade de São Paulo with their social and humanistic views, which have had a major influence on many generations of architects and artists to come.

After receiving the title of Doctor from the Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da Universidade de São Paulo in 1998, his contribution to higher education is attested by the several invitations to international universities:
 
2001 Professor ad Honorem of the Facultad de Arquitectura, Universidad de la República del Uruguay
2007 Doctor Honoris Causa, Universidade Presbeteriana Mackenzie, São Paulo
2009 Doctor Honoris Causa, Universidad Nacional del Litoral, Santa Fe, Argentina
2010 Professor Emeritus, Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da Universidade de São Paulo, USP
2011 Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Architecture and Urbanism "Ion Mincu", Bucharest, Romania
2012 Doctor Honoris Causa for distinction in the arts, science, culture, human rights, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Argentina
2015 Doctor Honoris Causa, University of Lisbon.
 
Mendes da Rocha’s complete work was widely published in several Brazilian and international magazines as well as many books such as: Mendes da Rocha, Introducciones / Introductions, Josep Ma. Montaner, Editorial Gustavo Gili, Barcelona, 1996; Paulo Mendes da Rocha, Cosak & Naify, 2000 and 2007; Paulo Mendes da Rocha Bauten und Projekte, Annette Spiro, Verlag Niggli AG, Sulgen I Zürich, 2002; Paulo Mendes da Rocha, Helio Piñon, Romano Guerra Editora, 1ª edição 2002; Paulo Mendes da Rocha Estrutura: o êxito da forma, Denise Chini Solot; Paulo Mendes da Rocha – Fifty Years, Rizzoli, 2007; Paulo Mendes da Rocha – Tutte le Opere, Daniele Pisani, con un saggio di Francesco Dal Co, Mondadori Electa S.p.A., Milano, 2013.
 
Besides his architectural and urban projects, he designed some interesting furniture: one example is the chair “Paulistano”, published in the magazine New Furniture. Neue Möbel. Meubles Nouveaux, Verlag Gerd Hatje, Stuttgart, 1958. The chair is now industrially produced by French company OBJEKTO.

He passed away in Sao Pualo, May 23th, 2021.
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MMBB Arquitetos was founded in 1991 as a result of the association of the architects Fernando de Mello Franco, Marta Moreira and Milton Braga, graduated in the FAU-USP (FAU) between 1986 and 1987. The association with engineering consultancy companies has been characterized by the development of infrastructure urban designs such as bus station terminuses and corridors, underground garage, highway toll places, pedestrian walkways, etc. The continuous collaboration with the architect Paulo Mendes da Rocha since 1995, in its turn, offers the opportunity to develop large scale designs to institutional and governmental bodies intended to cultural and educational activities and buildings to cater for the sector of services. Marta Moreira teaches in the School of the City and Milton Braga teaches in FAU, where he developed several researches about urban design and his master degree (1999) and doctorate (2006).

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The studio Bak Gordon Arquitectos was founded in 2002 by Ricardo Bak Gordon (1967). He graduated in 1990 from Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade Técnica de Lisboa. During his studies he also attended Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade do Porto and Politecnico di Milano. He was teaching at the Integrated Master Degree (MSc) in Architecture at Instituto Superior Técnico (IST), Lisbon between 2009 and 2019, and at the Escuela de Arquitectura da Universidad de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain, between 2017 and 2019.

He was also a Visiting Design Critic between 2015 and 2017 at Harvard GSD, Cambridge, Massachusetts. He lectured (and/or attended as a visiting teacher) at several universities and institutions such as Universidad de Navarra, Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio, IUAV di Venezia, and Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Barcelona.

His activity as an architect has been developed since 1990, and in the year 2002, he created the studio Bak Gordon Arquitectos, where currently works.

He was the author of the Portugal Pavilion in ExpoZaragoza 2008, the Portugal Pavilion in São Paulo Biennale 2007, and the exhibition project of Lisbon International Architecture Trienal 2007. He has designed, in co-authorship, the new National Coach Museum in Lisbon.

He has built work both in the private and public domain, which stands out as processes in schools, carried out in Portugal and Switzerland.

His work as an architect was present in several exhibitions in Portugal, Spain, Italy, the United Kingdom, Germany, the Czech Republic, Mexico, Ecuador, Brazil, Macau, South Korea, and Japan; and was published in prestigious editions of the specialty.

He was a nominee for the Mies van der Rohe Award in 2009, 2011, and 2022; winner of the FAD Prize 2011 (Barcelona, Spain), BIAU Prize 2012 (Cádiz, Spain), CICA Prize BA2015 (Buenos Aires, Argentina) and APCA Prize (São Paulo, Brazil). He was one of Portugal’s representatives at the Venice Biennale in 2010, 2012, and 2018, and in the 2017 Chicago Architecture Biennial. His work integrates the Art Institute of Chicago (AIC) architecture collection.

In 2019, he was awarded a prize by the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) for his work as a whole.

In 2021 he was awarded the international prize BIGMAT and in 2022 the Portuguese National Prize for Architecture FORMA.

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Published on: October 14, 2015
Cite: "Museu dos Coches By Paulo Mendes da Rocha + MMBB Arquitetos + Bak Gordon Arquitectos" METALOCUS. Accessed
<https://www.metalocus.es/en/news/museu-dos-coches-paulo-mendes-da-rocha-mmbb-arquitetos-bak-gordon-arquitectos> ISSN 1139-6415
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