In addition to providing an effective response to the proposed program and the surrounding context, the project for the Olivais Market aims to incorporate, through precise design choices, the potential uses and urban opportunities that this structure can generate beyond its primary function.
This market space seeks to offer an efficient solution for purchasing fresh produce, with a high-quality architectural experience, while also serving as a social hub, capable of attracting the community even outside market hours.
Its design, though fully motivated by the market’s purpose, allows for an extremely flexible and diverse use for cultural programs and events, enabling various combinations of exhibition spaces, stages, and audiences on different scales.
Finally, there is an opportunity to propose (outside the scope of the competition and ensuring that the market’s operation does not depend on this proposal, remaining fully functional even without it) a pedestrian connection between
Cidade de Nampula street and Vale do Silêncio park.

Mercado dos Olivais, Modelo

This proposal seeks to maximize the potential identified in its surroundings, enhance latent qualities that can be positively exploited for the market and the urban fabric, and address urgent needs through relevant operations for this project.
“Plaza B,” located north of the intervention space, forms the “living room” that frames the main entrance of the market, acting as a transition between the city’s public space and the market’s public interior space. Here, we place the café, an ideal intermediary between both realities, extending the market’s space outward and inviting the idea that the market is not only a place of transit but also a place to stay.
The connection to the Police parking lot is redesigned as a conditioned path over the pedestrian area, ensuring a less disruptive link shared with loading/unloading and waste collection needs.
The commercial galleries of the pre-existing buildings to the west are connected to the main entrance of the market and its transverse circulation axis through the redesign of the external arrangements.
Using pre-existing sections combined with a new aerial connection, we also propose creating a pedestrian link between
Cidade de Nampula street and Vale do Silêncio park. This resolves elevation differences and creates a circuit between the park and a significant area of the city with a high population density. This circuit, without relying on cars, will complement and directly feed into the market.

The integration of existing outdoor spaces with the proposal was sought through minimal interventions in the surrounding area, redesigning the northern square to integrate the main entrance to the market. The immediate surroundings were pedestrianized, and a new route for access to the Police parking lot was proposed, within a pedestrian zone, delimited by security bollards. This controls access to the parking area, as well as the loading/unloading zones and waste collection areas, via an automatic electromechanical bollard.
This new link redesigns the public space south of the market and the surface of the external Police parking lot.
The proposed pedestrian connection between
Cidade de Nampula street and Vale do Silêncio park addresses the differences in levels within the neighborhood, creating a fully accessible circuit that provides an upper entry to the market, at the level of the administrative area. This floor connects to the ground floor of the market through both a staircase and an elevator.
The market is accessible through its main entrance to the north, a secondary side entrance to the east, service and supplementary entrances to the south and west, and a potential upper entrance to the south (via the proposed aerial bridge).
Inside the market, the approximately one-meter difference in levels between the northern and southern ends of the site is addressed, allowing for level access at both ends. The shops are located at the upper level (aligned with the southern terrain) in a system that runs around the entire perimeter of the market and includes the fish market and secondary entrance. The fruit and vegetable section is located on the lower level (aligned with the northern square and the main entrance). Ramps inside the market connect these two levels, and accessible restrooms are provided.
At the same time, the building is developed on a level plinth that ensures access to the ground-floor shops without the need for ramps or steps, providing access to the side entrance of the market and to the café, which marks the end of the exterior side gallery.

The solution proposed is typologically simple and genuine, rooted in shared collective memory and tested by time. A large central hall organizes the market stalls with a monumental scale that invites entry and encourages lingering, framed by two side galleries at a higher level, which have a more human scale, serving the shops and facilitating peripheral circulation.
Structurally, its composition is simple, featuring the regular repetition of an arched structural plan made of reinforced concrete, which supports the roof and the side galleries.
With a main entrance aligned on the north facade and a secondary entrance to the east (which also connects to the vertical circulation), it is at the intersection of both movements that an open space is designed, constituting the market’s “interior square,” which separates the fish stalls at a higher level from the fruit and vegetable stalls at a lower level.
To free the ground floor for the market program and other complementary functions, the administrative area is proposed on a second floor above the northern entrance, compressing the transition between exterior and interior and enhancing the generous ceiling height of the central hall. This area is served by elevated side galleries and could potentially be accessed by an elevated southern entrance from the proposed aerial pedestrian bridge.
Some shops are designed at this level, facing the pedestrian bridge, aiming to transform it into an elevated street and creating a focal point that draws circulation towards the market.

The starting point for the programmatic approach was to find the best design compromise for the market program, ensuring a high-quality architectural experience that invites and encourages daily use by the surrounding population.
To achieve this, various strategies were implemented: a play between human scale and monumental scale was proposed to create situations of great comfort and awe; the central hall, one meter lower than the side galleries, creates a space for convergence and welcome; above the central hall, the roof transforms direct light into diffuse light, creating an illuminated “sky” while preventing sunlight from reaching the floor; the fish area is separated from the fruit and vegetable area by a difference in levels, which, while effective in terms of spatial perception, does not inhibit the reading of the central hall as a unified space; different types of flooring also communicate different scales and uses, with tiles in the galleries, shops, and fish area ensuring a human scale and perception of cleanliness.
At the same time, the stall module is based on a common base, upon which stainless steel boxes are placed, designed in various capacities and presentation angles according to different potential uses, but which can be easily combined and recombined, allowing each vendor to configure their stall in a highly personalized way. The various box designs are also dimensioned to accommodate standard plastic trays, ensuring the best possible presentation of the products in an extremely simple manner.

Although the overall design of the market was motivated by the best possible response to the fresh products market program, it was always kept in mind that this design should also accommodate other uses, with particular emphasis on cultural activities outside of open market hours.
Thus, many of the market’s elements serve a dual purpose and can be used independently or in combination for various effects.
The interior “Square” at the intersection of the two access axes can function as a stage, with the steps surrounding it on three sides serving as an auditorium. The counter marking the vertical circulation on the upper floor can also present different opportunities for theater performances, music, recitations, or speakers.
At the same time, this square can be used as an audience area, utilizing the fish section as an elevated stage.
The design of the stall module, by removing the stainless steel boxes, creates two opposing stands, allowing the entire central hall to be used as a longitudinal stage (or, for example, a catwalk).
The upper galleries, forming a closed circular circulation, can function as an exhibition space (potentially even autonomously from the uses of the lower space).
Finally, the market represents a built environment of great transparency and permeability with its exterior context, extending and enhancing the existing public space and the adjacent commercial program.

The proposed generous ceiling height for the central hall allows for remarkable thermal comfort. However, this ceiling height is complemented by passive airflow that takes advantage of the prevailing winds from the northern quadrant to refresh and cool the air when necessary.
The roof is compatible with the use of solar panels, and it is possible to collect rainwater for filtration and subsequent use, or for irrigation and cleaning.

The material palette is limited, favoring common solutions presented in their natural state, without subsequent finishes, ensuring high durability and low maintenance costs.

ARQUITETURA Tiago do Vale Arquitectos
EQUIPA DE PROJETO Tiago do Vale, Paula Campos, Nil Kokulu, Anabela Magro Couto
CONCURSO Mercado dos Olivais, Célula B
LOCALIZAÇÃO Olivais, Lisboa, Portugal
ORGANIZAÇÃO Lisboa Ocidental SRU
ANO DE PROJETO 2024
ÁREA DE CONSTRUÇÃO 2571 m2
ESTIMATIVA DE CUSTO 2 890 000 €