The Alcântara subway station will change the landscape of the district. The project by the Aires Mateus studio can be "visited" at this year's edition of Open House Lisbon.
Alcântara and its valley have always been an area of great transformation in the city. From the layout of the aqueduct in the 18th century to Duarte Pacheco's road structures in the 20th century, to the passage of the railroad, or more recently, the location of a discrete Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP), this apparently orderly and full of functions area is still a space of opportunity and expansion of Lisbon; maybe not with buildings, but with meanings and connections.
In the present moment, another major public infrastructure is underway: the extension of the Lisbon Metro's Red Line and, with it, a new station and intermodal connection that will transform the neighborhood and the city. A future Alcântara station will operate on the surface, with trains running under the current road junction complex - which will be redesigned with the arrival of the subway.
The Alcântara station design had already been disclosed during the public consultation of the project to extend the Red Line. Designed by the Aires Mateus studio, the station will have two floors: one for the Lisbon Metro and the other for the future light rail line LIOS. The building will also be prepared for the Alcântara's future new underground train station, which will eventually connect the Cascais and Cintura lines.
The renders now released do not show the changes in public space that are already planned for the Alcântara area and that should be implemented when the Metro arrives: among the changes, it is planned, for example, a redesign and calming of the access to the highway (where the station will be), a green space next to the Livramento bulwark (where the viaduct will start) and a pedestrian and road connection to the future Alvito train station (partially built). In the documents section, at the end of this article, you can find some of the drawings made public when the launching of the public tender for the Red Line extension.
If you want to know a little better the future of Alcântara, already this weekend, May 13th and 14th, there will be a guided tour of the Alcântara subway station in the 2023 issue of Open House Lisbon. The visits will take place every 30 minutes by architecture students, volunteers from Open House Lisbon, between 2 and 6 PM, and will be limited to 15 people. No registration requiredThe meeting point will be at Rua 5 de Abril.
