At the beginning of the 1990’s Portugal was charged with organising the 1998 Universal Exposition (Expo’98) – a unique opportunity to regenerate and requalify an area of eastern Lisboa that was then being put to all kinds of inappropriate uses.
The Expo’98 Urban Development Plan, which was managed by the company Parque Expo, covered a total of more than 300 hectares. The most central part of it, around the Olivais Dock, occupied about 70 hectares and was to house the Universal Exposition itself.
The objective of the design process was to create an urban space which could subsequently be appropriated by the city, rather than just serving the one-off Exposition.
Risco was responsible for the general design of the overall site and the design of the infrastructures, public areas and green spaces. We also designed the Modular Structures for the Restaurants and other Support Facilities, the Modular Pavilions for the International Area South, and the Areas for the National and International Organisations Areas, as well as the Olympic Building (currently Lisboa/Expo), the Open Air Amphitheatre and Restaurant next to the Olivais Dock, and the Camões Theatre.
The design for the public areas is based on a 7x7m web that structures the ground design and lays down the rules for locating furniture, equipment, facilities, infrastructures, planted areas and artistic interventions.
The design for the Public Areas of the EXPO site won both the 1998 Valmor Prize and the 1999 Portuguese Design Institute (IPD) Award.
Expo'98 – Streetscape Design
Location
Lisboa
Client
Parque Expo 98, S.A.
Date
1994 – 1998
Architects
Manuel Salgado, Marino Fei, Tomás Salgado and João Almeida with João Gomes da Silva
Site Area
72 ha
Cost
22.000.000 €
Built
