Museu de Arte, Arquitetura e Tecnologia (MAAT), Lisbon

MAAT is a museum devoted to art, architecture and technology, designed by Amanda Levete’s practice, AL_A. Its new building forms part of a larger cultural complex beside the River Tagus, together with the former Tejo Power Station. The museum’s programme began on 30 June 2016 in renovated power-station rooms, and the new building opened to visitors on 5 October that year with a large work made for the site by Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster.

The complex brings contemporary exhibitions into conversation with the machinery and working history of an electricity plant. Inside the former station, four boilers rise to about 30 metres, with control panels, air systems and fuel circuits still presented as part of the museum experience. The newer building contains four exhibition areas, including a curved gallery and rooms for film, video and installations.

MAAT’s programme brings together artists, architects and thinkers from Portugal and abroad, while the power station presents the past, present and future of energy. Together, the buildings make this a museum where industrial memory and current cultural debate occupy the same site.