Benfica Market (Oitoo)

Open competition: first prize
The bustling Benfica Market remains a key hub in one of Lisbon’s most densely populated districts.
Housed in a late-modernist structure from 1968, the market now faces the challenge of attracting a new generation of users while enhancing the experience of its long-standing community.

oitoo won the open competition launched by Lisbon’s Municipality with a proposal that embraces and reactivates the building’s strong existing structure, reinforcing the market’s role as a neighbourhood anchor and improving its relationship with the surrounding public space through a series of strategic, carefully calibrated interventions.

A new shaded peristyle wraps the market, unifying its outer envelope and creating a generous transitional zone between the public realm and commercial activity.
Inside, a central oculus introduces natural light and improves the bioclimatic performance of the open market areas, restoring a sense of openness and clarity to the interior.

At an urban scale, the proposal reclaims the market’s immediate surroundings as a recognisable and accessible civic space, prioritising pedestrians and soft mobility while maintaining the operational needs of a working market.
The result is a renewed Benfica Market: more permeable, more welcoming, and better equipped to serve its community for decades to come.