The new Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT) is an outward-looking museum located on the banks of the Tagus in Belém. During the first year of opening, MAAT welcomed over 500,000 visitors, making it more popular than any public Portuguese museum.

Proposing a new relationship with the river and the wider world, MAAT is a powerful yet sensitive and low-slung building that explores the convergence of contemporary art, architecture and technology. The building is the centrepiece of EDP Foundation’s masterplan for an art campus, including the repurposed Central Tejo power station. Incorporating over 9,000m² of new public space and blending structure into landscape, the MAAT is designed to allow visitors to walk over, under and through the building that sits beneath a gently expressed arch.

AL_A, the architects of the museum, built the façade as ongoing research into new uses and reinterpretations of ceramics. The textured façade is composed of almost 15,000 three-dimensional crackle-glazed tiles manufactured by Ceràmica Cumella. The façade captures the changing light and give mutable readings of the exceptional southern light that vary with the time of day and the seasons.

The challenge for AL_A was to find a simple, affordable façade solution that would adapt to the surface and still recreate all the reflections and play with light and shadow that we envisioned. The solution had to address the budget and AL_A’s solution arose with a split hexagonal grid as it could adapt easily to the ruled surfaces and to the areas of transition composed of a gentle double curvature. By creating a 3D tiling system, it allowed the articulation of the façade in a way that we could reflect light in different directions and easily accommodate the surface geometry.

Light is reflected not just from the sky but also from the water. The change of the sun allows different kinds of shadows and as the day progresses, the appearance of the building changes.

The overhanging of the façade also creates lighting effects both inside and out, capturing and magnifying the unique light qualities of this south-facing site and the continually changing conditions.

The ceramic façade is the first of its kind and LOHAS Australia commends AL_A for their incredible work on the MAAT. This project has set a new standard of ceramic designs in Portugal.