Risco Architects have completed a stunning hotel alongside the docks in Belém, Lisbon. The Altis Belém Hotel & Spa is a three-story building situated directly on the the Bom Sucesso waterfront. This 5-star, 50 room hotel also overlooks the Belém Cultural Centre and offers a number of facilities intended to support water sports.
The two level main structure, lies perpendicular to the Tagus in such a way as to make best use of the views across the city and the estuary. The architects designed the building to avoid all visual obstacles along the axis between the Belém Tower and the Monument to the Discoveries.
Hunter Douglas provided motor driven folding shutters that open up to reveal deep balconies. The pattern chosen by the architect for the glass façade needed to continue in the folding shutters. Hunter Douglas met this challenge by cutting out the pattern from aluminum plates. These plates were then mounted onto a frame. To close the shutters completely, each section starts with a shutter of a half width. All panels are driven individually for ease of operation.