The Persistence of Public Space: Downtown Lisbon
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~ FALD '"'" T I A ". Z o m-'" n- -<- n :r z". '"z- • '"c '" '"". Z o -< Z ". - n" '" m'" " -". '" • ~ The ersistence a U Ie ace: o o"- o " ~ owntown is on -• • ,INTRODUCTION . we studied the layouts of Lisbon using three archers highlight the perslS several res~IiC space: (Lavedan, 1926, p. dlstmct approaches: urban history, urban I~,,. deSign and the quantitative assessment of ,- tenee of pu f 1992 p. 130) (Chueca Goitia, o 1) (Kosto, ' )( urban form. I,., 1: 9 2) (Sampayo, 2003, p. 44 Larkham, .~ . The research is based on a compara ,-- 1992, p. Lavedan called it "law of perma- ~2) tive analYSIS of twenty-five drawings of the 2004, p. f h~ plan". Chueca Goitia reuses the , " renovation process of Lisbon after the 1755 I" nence a t applied by Lavedan reinforcing 10 ,~ expressionmeno of perseverance of public earthquake (including maps on the situation ,• no n before the earthquake), concerned with the thiS phe ording to Chueca Goitia: "Ur- observation of public space to understand space. Ac~rs' evolution of cities over time the urban design. ban pla~~hat although the building suffers vea e .In the analysis of the urban form of the re : ations and replaced over the is various drawings, computer aided design trans orn;.malfY the plan remains unchanged software - (CAD, was used to measure ears, no t' "1 (Ch Y u s very few correc IOn. ueca or su"er the public space. All measurements were .' 1992 p 32). recorded on Excel tables in order to carry out GOltla, tof also" highlighte d t h"e recyc I'"Ing KOS . f a comparative analysis of the drawings. The ofur ba n spaces: "The persistence. a open Interpretation of the drawings followed two 'S one factor. A large public monument space I bl interconnected methods: an urban analysis e period with an open usa e space may of on . h . d and a mathematical analysis (Marat-Mendes; b orne a public square In anot er peno , Sampayo; Rodrigues, 2011). eCardless of the shifts in the urban fabric The urban form was interpretee ih two :!ing the interi." (Kostof. 1992, p. 130). phases: it required a collection of primary - With regard to Kostor's observation, note sources and a comparative analysis of the the permanence of the main open spaces of collected cartography. Lisbon in the second half of the 1nth century, The consultation at the archives was es after the destruction of the city by the 1755 sential as it allowed us to classify the existing earthquake: the Comercio square and the maps and note the existence of duplicated - D. Pedro /Vsquare (Rossio). Although they maps, as we already had the opportunity to were geometrzsed, with the post-earthquake show (Sampayo; Rodrigues, 2009). plan, they have occupied roughly the same The organisation of the fieldwork and o 'ground" for hundreds of years (Rossio ex o preparation to read the urban form has the ::;: ists as a place to be since the Roman period, following steps: z o whet it was the circus are) and Terreiro do - Survey of primary and secondary -::;: Pafo has stood out si nce 1511, when D. sources; z Manuel moved his residence from Sao Jorge - Research process in the archives; - Castle to near the river). as theorzsed by '"o'" Consultation of cartography cata z Lavedan. logues; Therefore, when building the current city, - Inventory and cataloguing process one must be sensitive to the memories of the of maps; places and their experiences. Borja warns - Vectorzsation of maps in AutoCAD; that the death of the city is related mainly - Standardzsation of scales; with public space and considers paramount - Interpretive drawings of urban form; the assessment of urban policies as a way to - Quantification of the elements of urban understand how to avoid this death. He also form; con~iders that a major factor in avoiding the city s death is the analysis of urban plans in 3 PUBLIC SPACE terms of the consideration that the public Public spaces have existed since the start of spaces deserve in them (Borja, 1998, p. 2). cities or urban areas. Studies on their form In order to prove the persistence of and function have always kept busy those pub!" . IC space we have centred our study who study urban form. However, the term In the lisbon post-earthquake project We "public space" is recent and polysemic. It ~nalYSed how the city has evolved sin'ce the appeared in France in the late 1970s: "The ate medieval plan through the eighteenth term public spac, itsel, seems to appear for century city b'd '. of b' ,y I entlfYlng the characteristics the first time in an administrative document pu Ilc space that remained present. in 1977, as part of a process of public inter 1 vention in old neighbourhoods, regrouping METHODOLOGY in the same category, green spaces, pedes This resear h' . ofint c IS earned oun using a method trian streets, squares, enhancement of the . Si9ni~;~~eting the urban form in which the urban landscape and street furniture, but Will area Und t structural features of the urban be taken up on numerous documents and (18" ce er stUdy are grasped and analysed will be increasingly successfu. n2 (Ascher, ntury Lisbon). To assess the method, 1998, p. 172). - . ce besides having articulate the various scales of th The concept of publ~sS::ol;ed over time, neighbourhood, the city, and eve~ tOWn, the several meanings, h . ds and mentali- politan area. the metro. depending on the early Borja considers the eXistenc peo~~~ ' t~~~I~ince . b e of PUbl ' ti es. We can even been an immedi spaces In major ur an projects a IC days public spa ces ha~e 'values' " But even of the creating capacity of the cit s ~key fa ctor ate reflection of socletles v~s on which three main reasons (Borja, 1998 y. t leastlor h ' . , Pp. 18-19) now, the public place is t e c an . t "(Kostof - P u bl IC space IS a very effect' : political and social change IS pam e. ' of facilitating the mUltifunct~ve rn,eans 1992, p. 124). urban projects; it allows d'lvlonalltYOI Merlin and Choay define publ~ c space as . erslty I uses In space and adaptabil't part of th e non-built public domain, assOCI ? - Th bl' ' . I YtOtull ated wito public us es (Merlin and Choay, e pu IC space IS, In itself th e. 17-319 ). Public spa ce IS constituted nism to ensure the relation~1 ~a~echa. 2010 , pp. 3 . f 't use an urban project, both for resqd ItY OI by the property and the allocation 0 IS · . I ents an d >z f or ot h ee citizens. This relatio I o As we know, for Lyn ch (1960) the struc . lb' na paten. ture of urban space is determined by fi ve tla must 0 Vlously be confirm db vis ual elements: paths, edges, neighbour urba.n designand verified by u:e. ythe - Public space IS a pOssible anSWe hoods or districts, nodes and landmar ~s: Th e . <to the I contents of the city images so far studied, challenge of articulating the neighb n which are referable to physical forms, can hood (a more or less homogeneou our urban set). the city-agglomeration s d be conve niently classified into five types of ' . an elements: paths, edges, districts, nodes, and m etrop 0 IItan region. The continuit landmark." (Lyn ch, 1960, p. 46). of the main axes of public space is ~ Within the visual elements of the shape condition of visibility and acceSSibility of the ci ty, those that are clearly differentiat for each of the urban fragments and a ing are th e streets and squares, i.e. th ose key factor for city integration. that define the public spa ce. Thu s, "when public spaces structure the urban fabric and Fro m the foregoing it is clear that public the mesh they must also be seen as ele spaces correspond to spaces of movement ments of an organising network of urban ter and spaces of permanence in a city or urban ritory that establishes hierarchies and spatial area. and functional connections that enable us to Pl anners group these spaces into two orientate ourselves and interpret the cities; broad morphotypological categories: linear they reach yet another dimension, which public spaces and non-linear public spaces. has to do with their symbolic and reverential The fi rst correspond to circulation spaces valu. '" (Seixas et al., 1997, p. 60 ). such as streets, lanes, etc., and the latter to Some people elect the square as the main spaces in which you stay such as squares, element in the hierarchical structure of pu blic ch urchyards, etc. (Seixas et al., 1997, p. 55) spaces. Estevez Encarnacion (1990) states (Pereira, 1996, pp. 26 - 27). that although the street is the main element In the next sectioh we will analyse non· of organisation if a city, the square is the main linear public spaces in maps with regard to space, because it is the place of intersec- Li sbon's reconstruction plan. tion of the urban system and main " node" of the city: "urban space is divided into two 4 QUANTITATIVE ASSESSMENT categories: public space and private space. OF SPACES OF PERMANENCE Public space is a place for collective use IN lISBON'E POST-EARTHQUAKE PLAN which constitutes the internal axes of th~ city: Immediately after the earthquake, Manuel da streets, squares, green spaces .. The street is Maia selected a group of engineers to submit the first element of organisation of the city, proposals for the renewal of the lower part but the m.al.n place is occupied by the square of Lisbon.