The Ministry of justice has just signed, with the real estate fund “Office Park Expo” managed by NORFIN S.A, a contract for installing the Lisbon Justice Campus in a 65,000 m² office park with 135,000 m² basement for car parking and facilities, located on the former Expo98 site in Lisbon. This new concept will host all the different courts of Justice in Lisbon, with a fixed population of 2,500, and more than 2,000 visitors per day.
As a result of a project competition Nuno Leónidas, from NLA Architects was appointed to coordinate the work of the design team. During the past five years he has coordinated a large team of Architects, including FVA and MSA, two other dynamic architectural practices, and several Engineering companies, through all stages of the project from concept to detail drawings, and assisting in the construction process.
The concept is based on the creation of an office park inside the city, over a podium platform, on which the different buildings grow. The surrounding areas to the buildings are carefully landscaped creating an agreeable atmosphere, a sense of decompression in a high-density city area. A large central piazza, with water features emphasizes an urban area, contrasting with the remaining, landscaped and green area.
An 18-storey double skin glass tower appears to rise from the lake and is the main reference building in the development creating a landmark for the surrounding area.
The use of simple materials like white concrete, glass and metal introduces a simplicity that emphasizes the elegant shapes of the buildings. Sustainable design and energy efficiency have oriented the lay-out and design of the buildings which includes state of the art technology. A modular design will provide an extremely flexible environment able to accommodate different types of tenants and their growing and changing needs without having to adapt the shell and core or the mechanical and electrical installations.
These characteristics will make easy to adapt the building to the Ministry Of Justice requirements, allowing the first services to start moving soon.