MAAT - Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology
Riverside art centre pairing a wave-shaped 2016 building with a converted Edwardian power station.
MAAT is run by the EDP Foundation on the Tagus waterfront at Belém and brings together contemporary art, architecture and technology in one programme. It occupies two buildings: the former Tejo Power Station, an early twentieth-century thermoelectric plant whose boiler rooms and turbine hall have been kept as industrial heritage, and a new gallery opened on 5 October 2016. Exhibitions draw on the EDP Foundation art collection and on commissions from Portuguese and international artists and architects.
The 2016 building was designed by the British architect Amanda Levete's practice AL_A. A low, curving form clad in some fifteen thousand three-dimensional crackle-glazed tiles, it reflects the changing light off the river. Visitors can walk up and over the roof, which works as a public terrace and viewing point towards the 25 de Abril bridge, and pass beneath the building through an undercroft gallery. A footbridge designed by Charles Correa links the site across the riverside road.
Highlights
- Walkable roof terrace with views along the Tagus
- Tiled, wave-like gallery by Amanda Levete's practice AL_A
- Former Tejo Power Station kept as industrial heritage
- Exhibitions drawn from the EDP Foundation art collection
