A team led by London-based sports specialist AFL architects has won a competition to refurbish the Portuguese National Stadium outside of Lisbon
The Portuguese football federation and Portuguese Architects Association announced that AFL, working with Lisbon-based Aires Mateus and Gonçalves Vieira Cruz, secured the project.
The proposed €25 million modernisation will see the 81-year-old venue undergo a ‘sensitive and innovative redesign’, the practices say.
Facilities for football, rugby and athletics will be updated as part of the works, in addition to improving the experience for athletes, staff and visitors to the stadium.
The mostly outdoor sports venue was originally built between 1939 and 1944 to designs by Portuguese architect Jacobetty Rosa and is about six miles west of Lisbon’s historic centre.
AFL’s scheme will introduce a new roof to the stadium with a canopy suspended above the stands using a Pratt truss structure supported by four strategically braced points.
But it will retain the stadium’s ‘unique integration into the natural landscape’ of Vale do Jamor, a hilly area to the west of Lisbon, which the practice says is the venue’s ‘defining feature’.
The stadium is used to host the Portuguese cup final as well as rugby games and has been tipped for refurbishment since at least 2012. It has a capacity of roughly 39,000, though this will fall to 36,388 under AFL’s proposals.
There is no project timeline.
Image courtesy of AFL Architects
