CAM Gulbenkian by Kengo Kuma & Associates + OODA Architecture + VDLA

_presented by OTIIMA

_project: CAM Gulbenkian
_architecture: Kengo Kuma & Associates + OODA Architecture + VDLA
_frames: OTIIMA
_location: Lisbon, Portugal

In contemporary architecture, the most consequential work happens in the in-between: shaded walkways, civic patios, and generous overhangs where buildings meet weather, plants, and people. The museum - once an inward-looking institution - is increasingly conceived as an open environment: continuous, seasonal, and shared. As Kengo Kuma has argued, “we are living in the era of the garden, not of the architecture,” a shift from object-making to place-making. These outdoor rooms choreograph how culture spills into daily life and how the city is invited back, softening boundaries without diluting identity. The result is architecture that privileges atmospheres - shade, acoustics, breezes - where art, landscape and routine overlap.

Lisbon’s CAM - Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian - embodies this evolution through a careful renewal of the 1983 building by Sir Leslie Martin with José Sommer Ribeiro, Ivor Richards, and José Nunes de Oliveira, paired with a major landscape expansion. The work is led by Kengo Kuma & Associates (lead architects), with OODA as associated architects, and the landscape by Vladimir Djurovic Landscape Architecture (VDLA). Their approach preserves the building’s discipline while amplifying its civic presence.

At the heart of the intervention is the Engawa, a long, veranda-like canopy that traces the south side of the museum. It offers a sheltered promenade, extends exhibition capacity beneath, and forms a welcoming portico for everyday use. Warm timber and light, tactile finishes translate a Japanese idea of outdoor living to Lisbon’s climate, binding architecture and garden at a human scale. Crucially, the addition grows the museum with minimal visual weight: more climate-responsive setting than conspicuous volume.

Urban connectivity is equally strengthened. A new south entrance and plaza on Rua Marquês de Fronteira open CAM to the neighborhood, stitching together everyday paths across the foundation grounds and encouraging life beyond ticketed hours. Reworked circulation and gallery layouts improve the visitor journey, while the Engawa’s deep shade tempers solar gain and glare. Performance upgrades stay discreet - high-efficiency systems, smart lighting, and rainwater capture from the canopy for irrigation - quiet infrastructure that supports a more outward-facing institution.

Landscape completes the transformation. An “urban forest” renaturalizes the southern grounds with native species and layered, seasonal ecologies, inviting meandering rather than procession. At CAM, architecture becomes the garden’s instrument - and the garden becomes the museum’s welcome. In a city defined by light and topography, the new ensemble turns the outside into a cultural room, where art and everyday life comfortably coexist.

_article written by Daniela Moreira da Silva
_film by Architecture Hunter
_cover and image scroll by Fernando Guerra