06 LISBON CERAMIC EXCELLENCE

MAAT, the new Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, is located on the banks of the Tagus in Belém, from where the great Portuguese explorers set sail. Designed by British architect Amanda Levete, it features a textured facade of 15,000 three-dimensional crackle-glazed tiles which build on Lisbon’s tradition as a centre of ceramic excellence. The new building is the centrepiece of EDP Foundation’s masterplan for an art campus that includes the repurposed Central Tejo power station. Its graceful, undulating roof has been conceived as an outside room, while four interior exhibition spaces include the 1200-square metre Oval Gallery.