PUBLIC SPACE RENEWAL OF LAGARTEIRO NEIGHBORHOOD, PORTO

IHRU AWARD 2012: RENOVATION AND PUBLIC SPACE IMPROVEMENT

HABITAR PORTUGAL 2012-2014 – Public Space: a home for everyone

SELEÇÃO OPEN HOUSE 2016

HABITAR PORTUGAL 2012-2014 – Has architecture been bailed out?

The Lagarteiro neighborhood renovation was integrated in the Iniciativa Bairros Críticos (IBC – Critical Neighborhoods Initiative), an experimental program launched by the government aiming at the improvement of urban areas in Lisbon and Porto metropolis.
The public space renovation was planned for the total area of the neighborhood, which has about 7,4 ha. It was a participative operation coordinated by a specialized office of the National Housing Institute (IHRU) which was deployed in the local, working with the local depressed community, that was involved and empowered in the process of change.
The main concept of the project corresponded to introduction of a connection between the two topographic levels, that feature the neighborhood. A serpentine street was designed in the core of area, structuring the new sport facility also predicted to the local. The new artery implied a rigorous work for controlling the impact of different levels that resulted on the border of the intervention. A set of support concrete walls, stairs and ramps were predicted, aiming at stabilizing platforms on the surroundings. The concrete walls surface was designed using a special formwork. The result was a vibrate kinetic effect, which allow merging those new structures in the neighboring environment.
All the pavements were designed considering the sidewalk traditional technic, in this case using granitic cubes in two different natural colors – yellow on pedestrian paths, and gray in roadways. A matrix of 2,5m was used disciplining the intervention, defining areas for parking and for vegetation.
The new circulation inside the neighborhood, associated to the improvement on the surrounding areas connection, contributed to overcome urban segregation, generating continuities and fluidity between Lagarteiro and the city itself.

Promotor GOP (Go-Porto), EM
Architecture Paulo Tormenta Pinto
Collaboration Rosa Maria Bastos, Gonçalo Oom, Joana Moreira
Structures Miguel Villar/ BETAR, Lda
Hydraulic Andreia Cardoso/BETAR, Lda
Gas Augusto Teixeira
Electricity Luís Gonçalves/JOULE and Ruben Sobral
Roads Pedro Reis / ENGIMIND
Landscape Architecture João Nunes/PROAP
Construction Company (1st phase) Construtora da Huíla, Lda
Construction Company (2st phase) Befebal, Lda.
Construction Company (3rd phase) JFS Lda.
Building Supervisor AFA Plan
Project/ Construction 2008/2015
Location Porto
Photography João Carmo Simões