Praça de Lisboa//Passeio dos Clérigos
Porto, Portugal 2013 Architects: Balonas & Menano Architects
The Praça's site was once the location of the Mercado de Anjo (1839-1952). In the 1990s, the area had become an open square with peripheral galleries and commercial spaces known as the Clerigos Shopping. The center did not have much success and it was permanently closed in 2006. In 2007, the city decided to put forth a very exclusive competition, disconcerting citizens and local architects. The site had long been considered a fundamental transition space for the city. It is situated between Porto's picturesque medieval city and the grand public beaux arts projects of the 18th and 19th century bourgeois city (i.e. Torre dos Clerigos, Cadeia da Relaçao, Reiteria da Universidade do Porto & Marques da Silva's works).
As a response to the city's 2007 competition and inspired by a graffiti on the demolished Praça-The "No Rules, Great Spot" was an international competition started by the collective Esta é a minha cidade? [This is my city?] in order to get citizens and local architects more involved in the debate surrounding the space. The competition brief explains that "it pretend[ed] to make the urban rehabilitation project more informed and shared, participative and discussed". The project competition reflects a what I believe to be a"right to the city" approach (coined and described by Lefebvre in 1968). While plans for the space were already in process, the idea of the city forming its own competition despite the ongoing work of the clients can provide an interesting reframing of the citizens influence and what could be a visually presented opinion. Yet not much information could be found of what the competition results were.
The architects of the project, Balonas and Menano, state that the project was meant to a-revitalize the detoriating and problematic square b- take into account the topographical curves from the various inclinations of the site c-extend the urban landscape by using three layers of program. They describe their objective as a square/public space that would "adopt an open shape to the city drawing pedestrians, losing interiority and ensuring an appealing relation to the surrounding". The project features the Jardim das Oliveiras: a rooftop park of 50 locally derived Olive trees. These are meant to recreate the Porta do Olival Gate which was once the entry to the city. The ground floor is made up of the Passeio dos Clerigos (named after the Clerigos tower) which is a type of commercial passageway: a path cutting through the structure to divide into two commercial masses with room for 10 shops and spaces for performances/activities. The previous parking lot is now submerged improving pedestrian and automobile circulation. The structure is composed of prefabricated concrete components and the façade of white structural members which also provide shading for the commercial space. The commercial enterprise is in charge of paying for the maintenance of the place, cleaning/pruning trees and any other necessary arrangements, while the city pays for public lighting and water costs (irrigation of the park). The project was a 6 million Euro investment measuring 2,000 m².
The project is very new so time will tell how the space will continue to develop especially taking into account the initial citizen preoccupations with the space. The commercial space itself contains some big international shops and cafes. It perhaps be an even more interesting space if it could incorporate the local businesses of Porto, much like it once did when it stood as a market. The project has already been nominated in the Urban Intervention Awards of Berlin 2013.
To Learn More:
http://architizer.com/projects/praca-de-lisboa/media/429012/ http://www.jn.pt/paginainicial/pais/concelho.aspx?Distrito=Porto&Concelho=Porto&Option=Interior&content_id=2243698&page=-1 http://www.publico.pt/local/noticia/praca-de-lisboa-rasgada-por-rua-entre-clerigos-e-livraria-lello-1529479 http://www.publico.pt/local/noticia/passeio-dos-clerigos-entrega-jardim-das-oliveiras-a-rui-moreira-1612513#/1 http://www.photoattraction.net/praca-de-lisboa/ http://architecturelab.net/2011/04/call-for-submission-no-rules-great-spot/ http://monumentosdesaparecidos.blogspot.com.es/2009/10/o-mercado-do-anjo-cidade-do-porto.html http://doportoenaoso.blogspot.com.es/2010/07/o-porto-ha-cem-anos-6.html http://www.bmconcept.biz/ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9OwDshcjLJ4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JdfDOI0Xz6M https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zznnwSKRbAo Photo Credit: Myself (1,4), monumentosdesaparecidos.blogspot.com (2), Pedro Alves (3), Balonas and Melano(5)











