During Web Summit 2017, Samsung sought a distinctive approach to traditional brand presence at major international events. More than visibility, the goal was to create a place where it would be possible to host meetings, work sessions, and networking opportunities with relevant figures from the international tech scene, in a less institutional, more raw, human, and culturally relevant environment.
At a time when the relationship between brands and people was mostly digital, this project was based on the belief that the new luxury lies in leaving the online world behind and bringing brands to life in the real world, creating time, space, and context for encounters that do not happen on a screen.
The Lisbon City Council granted an area adjacent to the complex that would become the Unicorn Factory Lisboa, in Beato. A large, raw industrial space that did not require polishing, but rather reading and interpretation.
The option was to respect the identity of the place and activate it as a temporary and intense meeting point, where the space itself took on a central role in the experience and in the way the brand presented itself.
Beato Art & Social Club was conceived as an ephemeral cultural ecosystem, where the brand connected with the community through experience rather than discourse. Curation was essential to ensure authenticity and cultural relevance: a direct link to the Berlin scene, with international DJs crossing paths with Portuguese talent; a partnership with the iconic Pistola Corazon restaurant, the first major reference point as a meeting place in the new Lisbon, connecting Rua de São Paulo and Rua da Boavista, ensuring authentic, informal, and community-based street food; the transformation of the old bread factory into an immersive gallery with floor-to-ceiling projections and screens; and the creation of ephemeral art installations in the interior rooms, developed specifically for that space and moment.
At the end of the day, the space closed its doors to Samsung meetings, creating a more reserved, inspiring, and intimate environment, designed for deep conversations and meaningful relationships. In the evening, it opened up to the international tech community, without formalities or excessive brand prominence, giving way to intense nights, always with a full house, quickly recognized as some of the most memorable of Web Summit 2017 in Lisbon, in a raw and genuine spirit, very close to the Berlin experience.
More than just a temporary side headquarters, Beato Art & Social Club demonstrated how brands can create cultural value by investing in physical presence with vision and intention, approaching communities in an organic and lasting way. The project anticipated the creative transformation of the Beato area, and the space would later give way to Casa Capitão, keeping alive the legacy of a place where brand, culture, and community came together naturally.
