A M B I V A L E N T L A N D S C A P E S S or t i n g o u t t h e p r e s e n t b y d e s i g n i n g t h e f u t u r e
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Public Spaces – Urban Cultures Conference | FAUTL | Lisbon, 6 and 7 December 2012
Interfacing and infrastructural development in Lisbon metropolis (2001-2012)
João Rafael Santos
(PhD, Faculty of Architecture – Technical University of Lisbon, Rua Sá Nogueira, Pólo Universitário da
Ajuda, Lisboa, Portugal, 00351-213695090, [email protected])
ABSTRACT
The article addresses the emerging forms of spatial development associated to infrastructure in
Lisbon metropolis in the last decade. A specific focus will highlight spaces where the recent
improvement in mobility networks has rendered a very well connected and interfacial metropolitan
fabric. A three part structure is outlined in order to contextualize and discuss this topic:
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a short overview of recent metropolitan development;
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a focused approach to local sites and undergoing projects;
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critical assessment of changing planning and design approaches in spaces of infrastructural
interfacing.
The last decade can be seen as stage of transition in Lisbon’s metropolitan infrastructural strata to
what we call the layering of a connective fabric (Santos, 2012). This fabric is established through: 1)
the multi-scalar recombination of various mobility, supply and communications networks; 2) the
development of well connected patches of urban development bridging or regenerating spatial and
functional gaps in the metropolitan fabric; and 3) the introduction of landscape and intermodal
interfacialities in nodal spaces.
In the field of major mobility and public utility infrastructures, the first steps in the implementation
of a networked configuration were introduced from 1995 onwards with the gradual closing of the
two regional ring motorways in northern Lisbon, along with high capacity water and power supply
lines circumventing the city. A circle line of opportunities in the eastern and southern bank emerged,
especially in the domains of logistics and new residential products, with a fast connection through
the new Lezírias bridge. After 2007 several investments in Trans-European Networks (high-speed
train, new international airport, national network of logistic platforms) were programmed in order to
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A M B I V A L E N T L A N D S C A P E S S or t i n g o u t t h e p r e s e n t b y d e s i g n i n g t h e f u t u r e
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Public Spaces – Urban Cultures Conference | FAUTL | Lisbon, 6 and 7 December 2012
boost systemic capacity, trans-scalar integration and to better organize the impacts of large scale
infrastructures in the local context.
In the meantime, transformations at a local level in the city of Lisbon begin to be sensed as the
underground system is expanded and connected to the railway, the airport, and to river and bus
terminals in a number of new intermodal stations. Public space qualification and urban renewal
projects start to be programmed in the areas adjacent to these new stations, taking a role in the
framing of a better balanced and cohesive urban structure.
Having this as an empirical frame and pursuing a fruitful international debate (Marinoni, 2006,
Prelorenzo & Rouillard, 2009, among others), two key questions arise:
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are the late 19th and 20th century infrastructural spaces of the modern city (e.g. the port
landfills, the airport, the railroad stations) embodying the attributes of an emerging
metropolitan configuration?
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is the designed approach to new infrastructural projects playing a commited role in shaping
new spaces of mediation between the city and the metropolitan landscape (Tatom, 2009)?
Three areas are to be discussed as they offer clues to a changing role of infrastructural spaces in the
current urban planning agenda in Lisbon:
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The border spaces between Lisbon and its adjacent municipalities, along which new public
transportation and mobility networks were recently introduced;
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The riverside axis in central Lisbon, where new underground stations play a key role in
creating the opportunity for an urndergoing program of public space improvements;
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Lisbon’s northeastern area, framed between the Airport and Oriente, where national and
international hubs are triggering new opportunities for development.
KEYWORDS
Infrastructural spaces; public space; Lisbon; urban planning
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A M B I V A L E N T L A N D S C A P E S S or t i n g o u t t h e p r e s e n t b y d e s i g n i n g t h e f u t u r e
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Public Spaces – Urban Cultures Conference | FAUTL | Lisbon, 6 and 7 December 2012
REFERENCES
Marinoni, G (2006), Infrastrutture nel progetto urbano, Franco Angeli, Milano.
Prelorenzo, C, Rouillard, D (2009), La Métropole des Infrastructures, Éditions A. et J. Picard, Paris.
Santos, J R (2012), Espaços de mediação infraestrutural: Interpretação e projecto na produção do
urbano no território metropolitano de Lisboa [Spaces of infrastructural mediation: Interpretation and
design in the production of the urban in the metropolitan territory of Lisbon], PhD Thesis in
Urbanism, Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade Técnica de Lisboa.
Tatom, J (2009), Programs for a metropolitan urbanism in: J Tatom, J Stauber (eds) Making the
Metropolitan Landscape, Routledge, New York, pp. 195-201.
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