Milena, thanks for joining our City Guide Series! You’ve chosen to share your insights and knowledge of Lisbon with us – can you please share with us a bit more about this city?

Lisbon (Portugal) captivated me with its multitude of colours, contrasts and varieties. The rugged and narrow streets of its Old Town face the wide, blue and expansive Tagus River. Each neighbourhood, whether it is Alfama, Chiado or Bairro Alto, has a completely distinct character because of its architecture, orientation toward the sun or relative elevation in the city. The city spreads across seven different hills, weaved together with stairs, impossibly steep streets and gorgeous viewpoint platforms throughout – that way, you can see so many faces and scales of the city.

Why did you choose Lisbon to explore with us?

I travel to Lisbon often for holidays and I keep on returning because I experience it in a new way every time I visit. The city has so much detail in the streetscape, buildings, the facades, the windows, doors, ornaments and greenery that it feels like a highly-pixelated image: the more you zoom in, the more there is to discover. It also feels like an undiscovered gem: architecture and design lovers might gravitate to Porto, or somewhere next door in Spain, whilst a seemingly quiet Lisbon in fact surprises with so much to offer.

Where do you stay in Lisbon? Any particular neighbourhood or hotel?

I love the Verride Palacio Santa Catarina, with its gorgeous original wood-and-stonework and Portuguese hand-painted tiles, masterfully updated with contemporary pieces. Each of the suites tells a different story, whilst the roof terrace offers an intimate yet expansive city view. Some of the best sunsets are to be seen from the palace windows.

• Cultural Institutions

1. Museu Calouste Gulbenkian is a private art collector’s museum, especially designed for the artworks in the collection. The clarity and rigor of the modernist volumes is contrasted by the lush gardens and waterways around it, creating a true urban sanctuary and one of my favorite places in the world.
2. MAAT (Museu de Arte, Arquitetura e Tecnologia) – beautifully contextual with a textured, pearly facade, this wave-like building by Amanda Levete lets you inhabit its deep underbelly and “ride the wave” on the building rooftop.
3. Casa dos Bicos (The House of Spikes) has a very unique façade and honors the writer José  Saramago, whose works introduced me to the Portuguese culture.

• Retail Destinations

1. LX Factory – a conversion of an old textile industrial complex into a mixed-use terrain with shops, cafes, bars and restaurants. It is replete with street art, murals and graffiti that give it such a strong visual identity that brings the place together despite the discontinuous architecture.
2. Time Out Market Lisbon – the concept of bringing the city’s top vendors under one roof is still powerful as when built in 2014. I never miss a Lisbon visit without passing by the Market, there is just so much to taste!
3. Avenida Liberdade is the high-end shopping street – but aside from all the top designer brands, the pedestrian promenade in the heart of the avenue offers a wonderfully green break from shopping and the city bustle.

• Places to eat

1. Pastéis de Belém – it is impossible to visit Lisbon without passing by here, home of the original Pastel de Nata: a desert deceptively simple, whose recipe is a nevertheless a closely guarded secret. Here you will find truly the best pastel in the city, no need to bother tasting it elsewhere. Feel free to cut the sweetness of the pastel with a coxinha, a type of a chicken nugget, originally from Brazilian– here they are to die for.
2. Prado – Restaurant with a beautiful and fresh interior and equally amazing food
3. Palacio Chiado – What I love about this place is that it works for so many occasions – a quick drink, a cocktail, a fancy or casual dinner, Italian dinner or Japanese, tapas or wellness. All of this in one, fantastically refurbished 18^th century palace, golden flying lion included.

• Things to do in Lisbon

1. Spend a day in Belém – this Western neighbourhood of Lisbon is the famous museum district, but outside of the museums you can spend a beautiful day admiring The Jerónimos Monastery, the Belem Tower and the Monument to the Discoveries
2. Lose your way among the oldest, maze-like streets of Lisbon in Alfama, taking a look around the Cathedral of Lisbon, then stop by a fado bar for a live performance.
3. Have a coffee at the Praça do Comércio – the biggest and grandest square in Lisbon
4. Take the Santa Justa lift (only if there isn’t a line!) – a gorgeous 1902 cast-iron machine
5. Venture out to Sintra – This is a day-trip just outside of Lisbon to visit a UNESCO World Heritage site. Whilst the large Palacio Nacional da Pena is certainly a must, do not miss the nearby mysterious inverted towers of Quinta da Regaleira

• Architecture

All of the above places are amazing pieces of design or architecture in their own right!

Finally, do you have any tips, tricks or advice when travelling to Lisbon?

The Portuguese cuisine is simple, affordable and plentiful, whilst the culture of eating out daily is very strong among the locals. There are plenty of fantastic up-scale restaurants in the city that are worth a visit, but there is equally a culture of very small and local restaurants peppered around, almost all of them offering fresh fish or salted cod (Bacalhau). It is impossible to list or visit all the best ones – and there are plenty! – so I would encourage “zooming-in”, keeping an eye on these small places with simple paper tablecloths, some of which have no more than a few tables. You will be guaranteed to eat well, meet a local, hear a story and drink young wine, tasting a variety of dishes small and big, in a place that has at times been in the family for generations.

About MILENA STOPIC

Milena Stopic is a Senior Architect / Associate at UNStudio. Since joining the Amsterdam office in 2010, she has developed extensive experience in cultural, retail, mixed-use, infrastructural and educational projects across Europe, Asia, Australia and the Middle East. Most recently, she led the design team toward winning the competition for the Southbank by Beulah project in Melbourne (in collaboration with COX Architecture) and she is currently responsible for leading UNStudio’s design efforts on the project.

Milena brings a wealth of knowledge and experience with international projects and clients into an integrated approach to building and interior design. She focuses on value creation within budget throughout all project phases, ensuring that projects reflect UNStudio’s high design aspirations through to completion.

For the 2019/2020 academic year she was the visiting professor at UISEK Faculty of Architecture in Quito, Ecuador.

In March 2020, Milena joined ULI Young Leaders Netherlands Executive Committee.

She earned her Bachelor of Architecture degree from Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago and Master of Architecture from Princeton University.