The first phase of a contemporary art museum designed by architecture studio AL_A on Lisbon waterfront opens today (5 October).

A curving, low-rise new structure and the recently renovated Central Tejo power station together form the new home for the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology (MAAT), which explores contemporary culture through visual arts, new media, architecture, technology and science.

Four distinct gallery spaces sit beneath the undulating roof of the new building, which has been conceived to blend into the landscape and to create significant new public spaces on the roof and along the waterfront of the River Tagus. As a result, visitors can walk over, under and through the building.

Building on Portugal’s rich tradition of craft and ceramics, 15,000 three-dimensional crackle glazed tiles articulate the façade, reflecting light, shadow and the water. The roof is overhanging, creating shade and allowing sunlight to bounce off the water and into the building.

Electricity and gas provider EDP has funded the project through its EDP Foundation, and MAAT will be the focus of the organisation’s campus in the district of Belém.

“In understanding EDP’s ambition for Lisbon, our design draws on the context of the site, creating both physical and conceptual connections to the waterfront and back to the heart of the city,” said AL_A principal Amanda Levete. “The waterfront is so essential to the project that the design literally reflects it.”

The museum opening coincides with the city-wide Lisbon Architecture Triennale. To celebrate, MAAT director Pedro Gadahno has commissioned a site-specific work from renowned French contemporary artist Dominique Gonzalez-Foerste to inaugurate the Oval Gallery at the heart of the building.

The remaining galleries, a restaurant and additional public spaces will be fully opened in March next year. At that time the museum park, designed by Vladimir Djurovic Landscape Architecture, will also open.

The project’s local architect is Aires Mateus e Associados and Afaconsult acted as structural engineer.