Co-Organized by

Rainha D. Leonor Housing Block is located at the junction of Avenida do Infante D. Henrique and Avenida de D. Joao IV. It is a 13-story building with commercial and residential use. It was once the first and the highest building in Macau Praia Grande. It is built in the late 1950s by the Portuguese charity: Santa Casa da Misericórida, the original intention of the charity to introducing the concept of such advanced high-rise building into Macau might be to improve the living environment of the society with only two poles at that time: only rich people can live in the big houses and other only can live in the small wooden houses. For the meaning behind the name of this building, it is because the charity wanted to commemorate their organization earliest founder in Portugal: Rainha D.Leonor, so they decided to name this building after her. The building is designed by José Li who is a Macanese architect and has also designed lots of famous buildings in Hong Kong. The 12 floors on the above are used for residential purpose and the ground floor is used for commercial or storage purpose. In the 1970s, casinos such as Lisboa were officially opened nearby the Rainha D. Leonor Housing Block, so there were many pawnshops operating under the strata of the building. Until 1990s, because the new development from ZAPE and most of the pawnshops choose to move to there, the berths have been replaced by jewelry shops, famous clothing brands and electronics stores to attract tourists nowadays. During the completion of the building, the Macau Chinese communities liked to call it "the "Chinese God Tablet" or "Matchbox". In addition, its location Praia Grande is still undergoing reclamation, so the building was directly facing the bay and the surrounding environment was still mostly grass at that time. The children liked to play around the grass there. It is also a good place for walks and lovers to hang around. At the same time, since the building was the highest in Praia Grande and once become a landmark at the time.

 

Although Macau communities have different opinions on its stay, the existence and stories of the building have clearly reflected that the advancement of the livelihood accommodation in Macau and also today buildings in Macau are not fabricated out of thin air. Lastly, Macau Urban Planning Board also recommended that the original architectural style of the building should be retained during its future development.

莉娜大廈位於澳門殷皇子馬路與約翰四世大馬路交界處，是一座13層居有住宅及商業用途的大廈，它曾是澳門南灣第一座以及最高的大廈。它是於1950年代末由葡萄牙的慈善機構仁慈堂斥資興建，其初衷可能是希望借助引進這種先進高樓大廈的概念來改善社會當時只有兩極的居住環境情況:寬闊的大屋只有富人才能居住，而平民百姓只能選擇狹窄的木屋。仁慈堂同時為了紀念他們最早在葡萄牙的組織創辦人: 莉娜皇后，於是決定以她來命名這座新大廈。莉娜大廈設計師是李銘根，他是一位土生葡人的建筑师，也曾在香港設計了不少著名建築物。莉娜大廈樓上的12層都是用作住宅用途，而地層則用作商業或店鋪用途。在70年代，大廈的附近例如葡京等娛樂場也正式開張，使大廈的地層鋪位一度成為當鋪林立之地直到90年代，大部分當鋪紛紛搬遷到新發展的新口岸，其鋪位紛紛被取代成經營珠寶首飾，名牌服飾及電子產品店鋪以吸引遊客。在莉娜大廈落成的初期，澳門華人社區都對這座外形獨特的建築物起了一些外號，例如“神主牌"或"火柴盒”。而它的落成的地段：南灣仍在進行填海工程，因此當時大廈是直接面向其海灣以及附近環境大部分仍然是草地。當時的小孩子喜歡到那裡的草地附近玩樂，同時也是散步及情侶們談情說愛的好地方。另外，由於當時莉娜大廈當時是座落在南灣最高的樓層並一度成為其地標。

 

雖然澳門社區對其去留有著不同意見，但莉娜大廈的存在及故事都反映著澳門當年民生住宿的進步，以至如今澳門林立的現代住宅大廈都不是無中生有的。最後澳門城規會也建議莉娜大廈在未來發展時，都應盡量保留其原有建築風格。