2026 · Lisbon, Portugal · Cultural
Largo Gallery
A contemporary art space in a historic palace
Photography: Simão Ribeiro
Artandarchitectureinconversation—neitheronesubservient.Agallerythatexistsasaguestinsideapalace,neverforgettingwhosehouseitis.
Specifications
The Palace
The 17th-century palace had been used as government offices for 80 years. The ground floor rooms — vaulted ceilings, painted azulejo dados, and original stone floors — were intact but inaccessible to the public. The brief required an art programme that would open these spaces without compromising them.
The Gallery Strategy
The solution was a series of freestanding white volumes: self-contained exhibition rooms placed within the existing rooms. Each volume is slightly smaller than the room it occupies, creating a gap between the new wall and the old that becomes a corridor, a threshold, or a moment of pause. From inside the white volumes, the palace walls and vaults are invisible. From outside, the palace remains intact.
The gap between the new white volume and the 17th-century wall is exactly 60 centimetres — wide enough to walk through, narrow enough to create intimacy. This corridor is not a service space; it is a deliberate architectural threshold between the contemporary and the historical.
The Detail of Reversibility
The freestanding volumes are bolted to the existing stone floor — not embedded. The electrical conduit runs within the new walls only. The climate control system serves only the new volumes, not the original rooms. Every element can be removed without leaving a trace on the palace fabric. In 50 years, if the brief changes, the palace will be as it was.
Specification // Architectural Drawings & Plans
Drawing Index & Spatial Sections
DWG // 01 // Ground Floor Plan
SCALE 1:100 @ A1
Primary spatial layout showing living courtyard integration and natural ventilation axis.
The ground plan prioritizes continuous indoor-outdoor flow, wrapping communal living spaces around an internal rainwater garden.
Material Palette
White Plaster
The gallery volumes are finished in a warm white plaster — not pure brilliant white, which would compete with the azulejo tiles and painted ceilings of the palace. The slight cream cast makes the new volumes feel deliberate rather than clinical.
Felt Acoustic Panels
Dark grey compressed felt panels line the interior ceilings of the gallery volumes, absorbing sound and preventing the hard reflections that would disturb both the art and the visitor. The felt reads as shadow against the white walls — a material choice made from acoustic necessity that also carries visual weight.
Light Strategy
The palace windows were retained but covered by translucent polycarbonate panels inside the new gallery volumes — admitting diffused daylight without glare or UV damage to the artworks. The exhibition lighting within the volumes is entirely artificial and adjustable, independent of the natural light condition.
Site Response
The building sits on a protected street in Chiado. No exterior modifications were made — the facade, entrance doors, and street relationship are entirely unchanged. The gallery can only be understood from inside.
Transformation
The existing palace — and the completed gallery
Spatial Archive
New volume within the historic vault
SPATIAL EXPERIENCE
Inside the gallery volume, the 17th-century palace is invisible. The space is neutral, quiet, and entirely focused on the art. The transition from palace to gallery takes only a step.
Exhibition space, diffused daylight
PROJECT TEAM & CREDITS
Recognition
Architecture Prize — Cultural Category
Ordem dos Arquitectos, 2026
