Kengo Kuma

The jury awarded the LILA Landscape and Architecture Award to the Gulbenkian Foundation Garden Extension by VDLA and Kengo Kuma. The project is remarkable for its interplay between old and new: between existing architecture and new interventions, between the formal garden and the more fluid, confidently shaped new spaces. These new spaces may even subtly reference traditional Portuguese paving, such as the iconic Rossio square, often mistakenly attributed to Burle Marx.

What stands out is how the design engages with its historical context. It compresses over six decades of evolving design attitudes into a layered and ambiguous experience—one that invites theoretical inquiry. The new garden challenges modernist dichotomies: it appears porous, operating as a membrane between the built and the grown, between past metanarratives and emerging ecological uncertainties. The new roof structure plays an important role, complementing the dynamism and lushness of the garden—its lightness challenges the monumentality of the existing museum building. The design is a subtle dialogue machine. Everything is in flux, and the strength of this project lies precisely here—not in resolving tensions, but in sustaining and enhancing them.