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Leaning tower: copper and the sea have always been intimately associated, in Lisbon they are brought into crisp modern conjunction.


From the lagoon-like estuary of the Tagus, the first great European ocean sailors were sent out in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries by Prince Henry the Navigator to explore the world. Now, Lisbon has a new harbour, and its entrance is appropriately signalled by a new landmark, a modern counterpart of the nearby Tower of Belem, one of the first lighthouses on the long coast.

Set at the end of an artificial breakwater breakwater, offshore structure to protect a harbor from wave energy or deflect currents. When it also serves as a pier, it is called a quay; when covered by a roadway it is called a mole.  that shelters the new harbour, the tower leans out to the lagoon and the south in a dramatic gesture of both welcome and warning. The ground floor is a stone plinth containing entrance and boathouses. Above, are five floors containing offices, meeting rooms and the like. All are clad crisply in pre-oxidized copper panels, which are brawn brawn  
n.
1. Solid and well-developed muscles, especially of the arms and legs.

2. Muscular strength and power.

3. Chiefly British The meat of a boar.

4. Headcheese.
, more than green, though this will change somewhat after winter gales spray the tower with the brackish brack·ish  
adj.
1. Having a somewhat salty taste, especially from containing a mixture of seawater and fresh water: "You could cut the brackish winds with a knife/Here in Nantucket" 
 water of the estuary. The exposed areas will become green with verdigris verdigris (vûr`dəgrēs'), one of three copper acetates: blue verdigris, Cu(CH3COO)2·CuO·6H2O; green verdigris, 2Cu(CH3COO)2·CuO·6H2 , while the sheltered ones will darken dark·en  
v. dark·ened, dark·en·ing, dark·ens

v.tr.
1.
a. To make dark or darker.

b. To give a darker hue to.

2. To fill with sadness; make gloomy.

3.
.

Topping the tower are three floors, a level of offices, the harbour control floor, and a terrace at the top. These upper floors are clad in glass with an external veil of copper louvres (surface treated in the same way as the panels below). Separated by a gridded walkway at each floor for cleaning the glass, two skins are by day a delicate termination of the building against the sky. By night, with the office and control levels brightly illuminated internally, the tower becomes a lighthouse, signalling the danger of the breakwater, and the safety of the harbour.

The skewed skewed

curve of a usually unimodal distribution with one tail drawn out more than the other and the median will lie above or below the mean.

skewed Epidemiology adjective Referring to an asymmetrical distribution of a population or of data
 section is realized with an in-situ shell round the in-situ vertical circulation core. Cladding of the intermediate floors is fixed back to the insulated concrete with a grid of pressed aluminium battens that bear 12mm fibre-cement panels that carry the outer 1.2mm copper sheets, which are joined with breathing horizontal seams.
COPYRIGHT 2002 EMAP Architecture
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 2002, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

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Article Details
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Title Annotation:Lisbon, Portugal
Author:Wilkins, Esther
Publication:The Architectural Review
Article Type:Brief Article
Geographic Code:4EUPR
Date:Jun 1, 2002
Words:317
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