In the suburb of Lisbon, Moscavide, Oriente Green Campus has been completed — a reconstruction project that transformed an unfinished shopping center, whose construction stopped in 2012. The architectural firms KPF and Saraiva+Associados preserved the building’s main structure and turned the former mall into a modern space for work, study and socializing. The complex now includes offices, public areas and the campus of Universidade Europeia.
The architects kept the existing building frame, which helped reduce so-called “embodied carbon” — the materials, energy and resources used to build it. According to estimates, this cut the project’s initial carbon emissions by 58% compared with building from scratch.
The former closed-off mall structure was made more open and lively: it now includes courtyards, terraces, rooftop gardens, event spaces and private areas for staff. Green spaces occupy almost half of the complex’s area.
Oriente Green Campus matters not only as an attractive architectural case. It shows that abandoned buildings can be not a problem, but an urban resource.
