Nirvana Studios, also known as the Alternative Cultural Center, is a cultural center in Portugal, housed in a former military arsenal from 1940 located in the town of Oeiras, ; it serves as a cultural hub in Barcarena (municipality of Oeiras). The center was founded by Daniela Sousa, Michel Alex, and Rui Gago, from the company Custom Circus (which manages the space), and operates 365 days a year, 24 hours a day. A hub for artistic projects by independent artists and subcultures.
An alternative cultural center, it houses dozens of resident collectives across three hectares of space and facilities dedicated to culture and the hosting of various events, featuring a range of multipurpose studios, workshops, rehearsal and recording rooms, both outdoor and indoor. The choice of the name Nirvana (unrelated to the American band of the same name) refers to its Buddhist meaning: a state of perfect happiness and peace.
This cultural center has its origins in Custom Circus, a troupe with a post-apocalyptic aesthetic, an organization that began staging shows in Portugal in the 1990s and later went on to work as a traveling theater company. After several years of investment, they sold about two dozen of their vehicles to raise capital and thus found the center, which began construction in 2003. Initially chosen as a parking lot for the vehicles and equipment they used in their shows, the site was dilapidated, lacking sanitation, water, or electricity. Even so, it was the site chosen to be restored and transformed into the company’s base. The facilities of the former barracks were restored and repurposed to house an artistic community. The space was restored in an eco-architectural upcycling style with a post-apocalyptic aesthetic. In addition to the restoration work, a wall of fame was erected for the artists who best embody the project and have passed through the facilities. A platform for temporary artist residencies was also created, along with a 360-degree conceptual theater dedicated to alternative aesthetics, such as rock cabaret, steampunk, industrial e fantasy. This was a project carried out over the years as the company secured funding; for example, one of the cultural center’s main buildings and stages, the Teatro Custom Café, was under construction for eight years and was only completed in 2012.
In addition to entertainment, the cultural center also offers facilities for hosting corporate events and other organizations, and serves as a hub for various creative sectors such as tattooing, surfboard and skateboard building, and the restoration of custom cars and motorcycles. In 2022, the center hosted more than 200 music bands, in addition to other artists in the fields of theater, dance, performance, film, and television, such as Aurea, Buraka Som Sistema or D’Zrt (resident band), as well as extreme sports and environmental movements, among others.
History
Military origins and name
To protect the Portuguese capital from invasions, whether by land or sea, a series of fortifications and military installations were built between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, which would come to be known collectively as "Lisbon Entrenchment Field". Several of these fortifications and installations were connected by a road, inaugurated in 1902, which was initially reserved solely for military traffic; this road would become known as the Estrada Militar (Military Road) de Circunvalação. On this road, near Barcarena, a military barracks was built during the Estado Novo, dating from the World War II; period; the barracks served as an armory for the Military Road and the Braço de Prata arms factory in Lisbon.
Until 1984, the barracks also served as a logistics base for the Army, supporting military convoys traveling along the Military Road carrying bombs and ammunition. After being sold by the Portuguese government to a construction consortium, the barracks began a process of deterioration that lasted 19 years. In 2003, the dilapidated barracks were purchased again, this time by the transdisciplinary theater and visual arts company Custom Circus, using self-financing. Initially chosen as a parking lot for their vehicles and other materials used in their performances, the complex was in a state of disrepair, lacking sanitation, water, or electricity. Nevertheless, it was the site chosen for restoration and thus became the company’s base. After several years of investment, they sold about 20 of their vehicles to raise capital to purchase this 3-hectare property in Barcarena; thus, Daniela Sousa, Michel Alex, Rui Gago, and Custom Circus founded Nirvana Studios. In addition to its name, the project was also designated as the Alternative Cultural Center, establishing itself as a cultural hub in Barcarena.
The name, Nirvana, was the result of a consensus among the group’s members on the idea of creating “a safe haven, both physical and psychological, objective and subjective”—a word synonymous with peace, balance, and wisdom. There is no connection between the name of the cultural center and the American band of the same name. The space, flanked by the historic Military Road, was already listed in the municipal archives as house number 66, which led Custom Circus to make the connection with the famous American Route 66.
Renovation
Starting from the ruins of the 1940s barracks, Custom Circus carried out its reconstruction while preserving and restoring various aspects of the property’s military past. An avenue, Nirvana Boulevard, was built through the complex, three times wider than the original road of the old barracks, becoming a sort of backbone along which one can traverse the center of the complex. Initially, during the cleanup and rehabilitation of this thoroughfare, tons of debris accumulated since 1984 were removed, as well as a series of metal structures at risk of collapse, including a telecommunications antenna. It is on this avenue that most of the studios are located. The first performance structure used by Custom Circus was an old circus tent, refurbished to accommodate part of the audience; however, due to a storm early on, this idea was abandoned. In short, all the barracks’ roofs were in poor condition.
An effort was then undertaken to rehabilitate and restore the armories and hangars, with the aim of repurposing them for the arts. Although the barracks were closed about a decade after the fall of the Estado Novo, the restoration of the buildings followed the aesthetic frameworks of the 1940s and 1950s. Over the years, features were added to the space that follow a line of influences which, according to the founders, “ranges from the imagination of Jules Verne to the post-apocalyptic themes of films such as "Mad Max". Over time, the complex has become a cultural center featuring art galleries, a theater, a café, various rehearsal rooms and studios, a community area for international students, and artist housing, among other amenities.
Custom Circus
The Custom Circus is a portuguese transdisciplinary theater and visual arts company, officially founded in 2002. Established as a non-profit cultural association, it works in the fields of theater, audiovisual productions, cultural events, research and artistic training—areas in which it creates, directs, and produces cultural initiatives in the fields of the arts, cinema, theater, television and advertising.
Initially, the members traveled in a caravan/traveling theater, consisting of classic vehicles or those modified in a post-apocalyptic style, which gradually expanded. While maintaining a nomadic spirit in the early years, they later settled in Oeiras, Portugal, and founded the alternative cultural center Nirvana Studios. The company’s activities began in 1992 and, with the exception of 1995, it held various events every year until its official founding in 2002 under the name Custom Circus. According to João Mendes Rosa, Head of the Oeiras Culture and Arts Division in 2021, this company was one of the main drivers in raising Oeiras’s profile both nationally and internationally through the promotion of culture.
With its headquarters located at Nirvana Studios, between 2004 and 2019 alone, Custom Circus staged around 600 shows, while also hosting and supporting dozens of transdisciplinary events annually—ranging from art to sports—and has already produced 15 interactive theater productions, 10 albums, dozens of visual art exhibitions and installations, 10 literary publications, and other projects. Custom Circus is responsible for all artistic and cultural programming at Nirvana Studios.
Facilities, projects, and recognition
Raus Human Portico and Nirvana Boulevard The entrance to Nirvana Studios is marked by a tribute to the community’s residents and its audience. To this end, a portico-shaped, structure was built, artistically composed of a set of bicycles with stage structures, which became known as the Raus Human Portico. Constructed in separate parts inside the STRANGE Gallery, it was transported along the main avenue and assembled at the complex’s entrance using a crane. All the bicycles were collected, totaling more than two hundred, and only those in an advanced state of deterioration were used in the portico, with the remainder donated to various institutions and clubs.
The main thoroughfare of Nirvana Studios is Nirvana Boulevard, an avenue that runs through the complex from one end to the other, tserving as a sort of backbone along which one can traverse the center of the complex. This small road, dating from the military barracks era, was widened upon the Custom Circus’s arrival at the complex so that the group could park their convoy of vehicles, some of which were quite large. In the early days, it was necessary to remove hundreds of tons of debris that had accumulated since 1984 and to dismantle a series of metal structures at risk of collapse.
Custom Café Theater The Custom Café Theater is a performance venue located in the former main armory building. Construction began in 2004, requiring extensive restoration of the building’s structure; this, combined with the management’s financial difficulties and the performance schedule, caused the reconstruction to take eight years.
During the first phase of the building’s reconstruction, several bombs dating from World War II were discovered during necessary excavation work; some of them, after being analyzed and defused by the Portuguese Army, are now on display inside the auditorium. From the outset, this venue faced repeated setbacks, due both to a lack of financial support and uncertainty regarding the viability of a performance hall of this nature outside the Portuguese capital. Nevertheless, the venue opened in March 2012 with a theatrical production that drew over 40,000 spectators over the following two years. Over the years, several boxes from the 1940s and 1950s were found containing military equipment, such as torpedoes, grenades, uniforms and documents. Due to the complex’s industrial-archaeological character, an electric (formerly No. 333 of Carris de Lisboa, in service between 1903 and 1996) was placed thereto serve as a box office and shop.
The official opening of this theater took place on May 20, 2026, during an official visit by the Minister of Culture, Margarida Balseiro Lopes, to mark the celebration of Custom Circus’s 30-year global career. The visit was also attended by delegations from three departments of he Oeiras City Council, Culture, Tourism and Heritage; including Armando Soares, Susana Duarte, and Mariana Coelho, as well as the three founders of Nirvana Studios: Daniela Sousa, Michel Alex, and Rui Gago.