Situated on a 10-hectare site between Lisbon’s airport and Campo Grande Park, the project extends the city’s historic north–south axis (Avenida da Liberdade, Avenida Fontes Pereira de Melo, and Avenida da República) towards Alta de Lisboa. The site lies at a climatic threshold between the hot, exposed airport landscape and the humid, shaded urban park. Harnessing these contrasting thermal conditions, the new avenue channels southwesterly afternoon breezes to mitigate urban heat stress while integrating stormwater retention and infiltration strategies to reduce flood risk.

The avenue’s asymmetric geometry responds to seasonal airflow and solar exposure. Three pocket plazas interrupt its western urban wall, accommodating a library, a market, and a student assembly space, while the eastern frontage integrates student housing and a new multifamily residential quarter. Informed by microclimatic simulations, the plazas combine cooling breezes, deciduous shade, evaporative cooling, and winter solar exposure to support outdoor comfort throughout the seasons.

The project’s material identity draws on Lisbon’s characteristic limestone and the site's sandy loam strata. Light-coloured limestone extends across the ground and building façades, creating a continuous mineral landscape, a white valley, animated by reflected light, shadow, and atmospheric movement. High solar reflectance, thermal mass, and permeable paving assemblies help moderate surface temperatures, retain and infiltrate stormwater, and support evaporative cooling.

Operating from the scale of urban climatic infrastructure to that of human sensation, Campo Mineral transforms atmospheric exchanges into spatial, environmental, and civic qualities, connecting Lisbon’s urban core with its northern expansion.

Competition and Institutional Partners: Europan 10, European Competition for Urbanism and Architecture, City of Lisbon with the Urban Planning Department (subsequent project development)

Team: Silvia Benedito and Alexander Häusler (Partners), Mark Sangiorgi