Porto Architect Chosen to Lead Belém Architecture Center at CCB

Visitors strolling through Belém in early 2026 may notice a fresh energy radiating from the Centro Cultural de Belém. Behind the scenes, Filipe Magalhães, a Porto-born architect best known for his studio fala, has been tapped to steer the Architecture Center of the Museum of Contemporary Art (MAC/CCB). The four-year appointment, effective in January 2026, promises a curatorial approach that blends northern audacity with Lisbon’s institutional gravitas.

A curator forged between the Douro and the world

Growing up in the shadow of Serralves, Magalhães absorbed a city where Álvaro Siza is discussed as casually as football. After graduating from FAUP, he sharpened his craft with Harry Gugger in Basel and Kazuyo Sejima in Tokyo. Those stints, combined with teaching gigs from Toronto to Lausanne, nourished a fascination with the “domestic space as artwork.” In 2013 he co-founded fala, a studio celebrated for its playful collages and chromatic façades. Their Porto apartments—think candy-coloured arches meeting rigorous plans—earned the Spotlight Award in Houston and a finalist spot at the Dezeen Awards 2024. By situating the ordinary flat at the centre of architectural debate, the forty-something designer fashioned a voice both cheerfully subversive and methodically precise.

Why Belém is betting on him now

MAC/CCB’s leadership opened an international call last June, drawn by the need to recast the centre as more than a repository of models. Magalhães convinced the jury with a dossier that vowed to “question norms with the public” and stage exhibitions generous yet unsettling. The choice dovetails with the institution’s broader push, bankrolled by a €2.5 M tranche from the Recovery and Resilience Plan, to align architecture with social and ecological urgencies. For locals, the hire signals that Lisbon’s flagship cultural hub is willing to import northern boldness rather than export talent southward, reversing a familiar pattern.

What visitors can expect on the Tagus waterfront

Concrete calendars remain under wraps, but the new curator hints at shows that blur disciplinary lines—think drawing workshops in the morning and sound-scored models after dusk. He speaks often of “tenderness for neglected spaces,” suggesting an interest in suburban peripheries as well as in central Lisbon’s overheated housing market. Expect collaborations with engineers, writers, even chefs, reinforcing the CCB mission to intertwine architecture, visual arts and performance. Regulars at the weekly Feira da Ladra may soon find their flea-market discoveries echoed inside the museum as found objects turned architectural evidence.

Money, bricks and a long-delayed expansion

Behind the curatorial headlines lies a construction site. The CCB has finally green-lit the long-promised Modules 4 and 5, a hotel-and-retail complex financed by the Alves Ribeiro group under a 65-year concession. Meanwhile, a quieter overhaul is targeting AVAC systems, LED grids and a new centralised control hub to cut the energy bill. For the Architecture Center, that translates into climate-stable galleries capable of hosting fragile drawings and immersive projections without the perennial fear of summer heat waves.

Admiration abroad, friction at home

International journals have framed fala as the natural heir to Portugal’s modernist poetics. At home the reception oscillates between enthusiastic curiosity and sceptical side-eye. Some critics bristle at the studio’s pop-coloured graphics, seeing them as a rupture with the austere lineage of Siza and Souto de Moura. Others applaud an oeuvre that treats the one-bed flat with the same reverence once reserved for cathedrals. Magalhães steps into Belém carrying both laurels and question marks—a combination that could ignite precisely the debate the CCB wants to host.

Whether you are an architect commuting from Cacilhas or a casual weekend visitor, the coming months at MAC/CCB promise a dialogue between Porto irreverence, Lisbon ambition, and a nation eager to rethink the very rooms it inhabits.