The Edge

PORTUGAL IS KNOWN FOR ITS WONDERFULLY CLASSIC ARCHITECTURE – FROM OPULENT CENTURIES-OLD PALACES TO STRIKING MODERNIST DESIGNS OF THE 1950S. BUT TODAY CONTEMPORARY BUILDINGS BY SOME OF THE WORLD ’S MOST HIGHLY-RESPECTED NAMES ARE CARVING THEIR OWN PIECE OF HISTORY

Words: LUCY MAYER

ELLIPTIC HOUSE, LUZ

Set against the backdrop of Luz’s cliffs and facing the sea, this ultra-modern, circular white house built on the coast in 2014 is surrounded by landscaped lawns and privately owned.

Architect Mário Martins has said that “drawing is an architect’s writing” and that it “stimulates the imagination.” He wants to create buildings which express emotion and creative freedom – Elliptic House does just that.

Its dramatic angles showcase the light which pours through a central oval-shaped roof. Small pools of water are also used at the property to reflect and merge the shapes cast by the strong and futuristic architecture. The contemporary house is based on a geometric shape and is painted white to create a cool yet intense ambience and enhance the brilliant light of the sun.

In mathematics, an ellipse is described as a plane curve surrounding two focal points, such that for all points on the curve, the sum of the two distances to the focal points is a constant. Elliptic House is a perfect juxtaposition from its surroundings of grassland, traditional Portuguese properties in the distance, the cliffs and the waves crashing against them.

Mário was born in Lagos in 1964 and graduated from the Architecture Faculty of Lisbon Technical University. He runs his company Mário Martins Atelier with his partner and wife Maria. The team has been responsible for many projects, one of which was the renovation of the façades in Lagos’s historical town centre.

This avant-garde concert hall, which is home to the National Orchestra of Porto, has a distinct UFO and futuristic feel about it. It was designed by Rem Koolhaas and opened to the public in 2005.

The 78-year-old Dutch urbanist is said to be one of the significant architectural thinkers of his generation. In 2008, Time ranked him in their top 100 of The World’s Most Influential People. With the concert hall, Koolhaas wanted to create something outside of the normal ‘shoe-box’ aesthetic and eventually delivered this ninestorey high, asymmetrical polyhedron building covered in plaques of white cement and with huge glass windows that allow shards of light to break through the otherwise cement mass.

The front stairway leading from the plaza to the hall is vast and its insides are home to recording and rehearsal rooms, a VIP area with a hint of Portuguese tradition – the azulejo tiles – an underground carpark and terrace. Curtains of glass frame either end of the auditorium, giving the illusion of space; and the seating is not fixed, to allow for more flexible performances. When viewed from above, geometric black and white tiles allow the roof terrace of this 22,000m2 to not only stand out in the building itself but also among all of the others in the area.