Torre de Memória
Torre de Memória responds to the unique memory of the landscape surrounding Lake Alqueva, the largest man-made water body in western Europe. While the Portuguese government is keen to highlight the many benefits of the Alqueva Dam, which announced the birth of the reservoir twenty years ago, the modest tower design provides an opportunity for the local community and tourists alike to reflect on what was lost, both physically and emotionally, beneath the water.
The simple timber structure, concealed behind a metallic curtain facade, draws metaphorically on the physical submersion of the surrounding landscape and reflects the hidden controversy surrounding the reservoir. While the structure is usually invisible, once a year, a ceremonial raising of the facade will announce a gathering of the local community and provide a platform for collective memories to be shared.
Torre de Memória Torre de Memória was designed in collaboration with Monika Marinova, and received a commendation in an international open competition in 2021.
On the 8th February 2002, Prime Minister Antonio Guterres took to his lectern atop the newly constructed Alqueva dam and declared the birth of what would soon become the largest reservoir in Europe. Over the following years, an arid area twice the size of Lisbon would be submerged, providing water to irrigate Portugal’s most deprived region.
At the foot of the dam, a group of protesters looked on helplessly. Dressed in mourning and carrying black flags, they were the residents of Luz, a village of 380 inhabitants, which was soon to be lost beneath the water. After witnessing the exhumation of their relatives from the church cemetery, it was now their turn to be evicted from land their families had cultivated for generations.
Allied with the residents were environmentalists who decried the loss of habitat which risked throwing the local ecosystem into chaos. Bats, vultures, imperial eagles, the Iberian lynx, and black storks represent a sample of the endangered flora and fauna impacted. Archaeologists too were outraged by the dam. With 160 prehistoric engravings, as well as a Roman fort about to be lost, the Alqueva reservoir was to cast a veil across the region’s ancient history.
While the dam retains bipartisan backing in the Portuguese parliament, and has significantly improved agriculture and tourism in the region, almost two decades later there remains the underlying controversy. Torre de Memória seeks to catalyse a reflective public debate, by inviting people to share their views of what was gained and what was lost, to mark the 20th anniversary of the reservoir.
The proposed timber structure will be built within the base of the São Lázaro hermitage. Visitors enter through the existing archway, into an exhibition space within the ruin, explaining the history of the reservoir. Visitors then ascends behind a black mesh curtain which shrouds both the tower and ruin, symbolising the reservoir’s literal obscuration of landscape, artefacts and memory. Upon reaching the viewing platform atop the tower, visitors are confronted by a panoramic view of the reservoir. Here, simple seating invites dwelling and reflection.
An annual ceremony will commemorate the reservoir’s inception, with the ritualistic raising of the veil, to reveal both the hermitage and the tower’s skeletal frame. The tower will become a gathering point for all generations to converge and share experiences about the reservoir’s impact on their lives and the region’s recent history. By providing a catalyst for open debate, the proposal seeks to give a voice to the forgotten minority who opposed the dam and to foster an incremental process of reconciliation.
