Oriente Station


I've been reviewing my photos from my trip to Portugal - tweaking, cropping, deciding which ones you must must see. It's an arduous task (500 pictures, and I was being careful, as I forgot my second memory card), but enjoyable at the same time. Exciting to re-live the memories so quickly after experiencing them. Last night, I came across the pictures I took at Oriente Station in Lisbon on my way to and from Lagos.

This station, designed by Santiago Calatrava Valls and completed in 1998, has to be one of the coolest examples of modern architecture I've ever seen. Walking through the station is like being in some sort of futuristic world. The spaces are so so grand, sweeping and open that you feel like you're alone, even when surrounded by people. I returned to the station at night, when few people were passing through, and it felt like I had awoken to an empty dreamscape. Apparitions passed here and there, dark figures in the haunting emptiness of this humming metal framework.

Structures like this and the super-clean and efficient metro in Lisbon demonstrate the benefits for cities that overhaul their infrastructure systems late in the game. Bilbao had a similar sense. An old city that suddenly gets shoved into the future with buildings, bridges and transit systems designed by the hottest architects. The result is a kind of anachronistic feel. You walk out of a centuries old building to see a Jetsons tram go zipping by your head into space. I love it, I love it, and I just couldn't wait for the Lisbon entry to share these photos with you :)

You can read more about Calatrava and his creations at his website. As always, remember that you can CLICK on the pics for a larger version, which I recommend for these. Hasta pronto...