Peripheral and suburban urban areas though hosting major urban dynamics and population groups, are often perceived negatively, and have not received the attention of current urban planning and design practices in steering the necessary regeneration. In Portugal, as in other countries, urban development reflects these problems. In research, policy and practice, public space (PS) is addressed as a means to attain a better urban environment within sustainable development, but it also reflects inequalities in its provision and distribution, especially in more extensive and diversified urban contexts. While the recent crises have showcased the importance and potential of PS, they also stressed the urge for these places to be transformed. The main purpose of this project is to understand where and how to redesign PS to deal with transition challenges. The research does this by understanding and reframing the way PS is addressed in the “extensive city” and by discussing with stakeholders its value and potential to contribute to a more sustainable transition path. Through a critical analysis of the public space of peripheral areas in the Lisbon metropolis, the research aims to achieve prospective reasoning to tackle urban change obstacles. Partial goals include: mapping and characterising these public spaces; locating the main challenges and opportunities to be tackled; giving visibility to peripheral urban areas forwarding policy guidelines.

The project aims to understand where and how to redesign PS in the “extensive city”, by discussing with stakeholders its value and potential to contribute to a more sustainable transition path. The project purpose is to study what it means to design sustainable and socially inclusive public spaces in the sprawling city, based on a debate on how to gather more interest and better investment for this purpose. Through a critical analysis of the public space of peripheral and discontinuous areas in Lisbon and Oporto Metropolitan Areas, the research aims to achieve prospective reasoning to tackle urban change obstacles. Partial goals include: understanding the characteristics of these public spaces; locating the challenges and opportunities to be tackled; debating innovative strategies for peripheral and discontinuous urban areas; bridging scientific and practical knowledge.

The research project 'The Critical Monumentality of Álvaro Siza – Projects of Urban Renovation after the 1998 Lisbon World Exposition' aims at identifying, characterising, debating, and reflecting upon the works of Álvaro Siza, within the context of the urban policies launched in Portugal in the early 2000s. This research project ‘The Critical Monumentality of Álvaro Siza – Projects of urban renovation after the 1998 Lisbon World Exposition' seeks to articulate the relationships produced by urban interventions and buildings upon the specific contexts they engage with. The distinctive feature of this project is as a critical analysis of the idea of monumentality in Álvaro Siza’s works. Three overlapping analytical focal themes will be used as methodology: territory, urban and architectural culture, and social impact of interventions. For the purposes of this research, from the study cases - Portugal Pavilion of Expo’98 (1998), Atlantic Park in Vila do Conde (2005), Leça da Palmeira waterfront in Matosinhos (2007), Municipal Library in Viana do Castelo (2008) and Nadir Afonso Contemporary Art Museum in Chaves (2015) - will be drawn a comparative hypotheses in order to measure the impact of the project and the architectural culture resulting from these experiences. Comparative assessments will also be made with other Álvaro Siza projects that were part of similar urban renovation initiatives, carried out after other major events from the last decade of the 20th century, e.g. the Meteorology Centre in Barcelona (1992) designed for the Olympic Games, and the Hannover Pavilion projected for the 2000 World Exposition, and actually rebuilt in Coimbra, in central Portugal, in the course of the Polis programme for that city.

The research project called 'Grand Projects - Architectural and Urbanistic Operations after the 1998 Lisbon World Exposition' aims at identifying, characterizing, debating, and reflecting the urban policies and architectural works produced in Portugal after the 1998 Lisbon World Exposition (Expo98). The study is grounded on the conviction that the effects of this 'urban laboratory' cannot dispense a predominantly analytical and interpretative work, capable of mapping and qualifying the urban, projectual, and technological culture implemented in Portugal in the two decades that followed the Expo98 ventures. In 2008, a decade past over the Lisbon Exposition, the Lisbon Municipality presented its 'General Plan for Waterfront Interventions' (Plano Geral de Intervenções da Frente Ribeirinha - PGIFR), aiming at establishing new urban continuities, by extending the model of the exposition from the West part of the city to the East (between the Trancão River and the Pedrouços dock), through the adaptation of some harbor infrastructure under the state administration. The dynamics generated by PGIFR framed the development of projects of both great scale and major strategic importance, e.g., the Champalimaud Foundation in Pedrouços district, designed by Charles Correa (1930-2015); the National Coach Museum in Belém area, designed by Paulo Mendes da Rocha (b. 1928); the EDP Headquarters at Boavista embankment, by Manuel (b. 1963) and Francisco (b.1964) Aires Mateus; the Ribeira das Naus public space, by João Ferreira Nunes (b.1960) and João Gomes da Silva (b.1962); or the future Cruise Terminal in Santa Apolónia, by Carrilho da Graça (b.1952), currently under construction. The research project 'Grand Projects - Architectural and Urbanistic Operations after the 1998 Lisbon World Exposition' seeks to deepen the relations produced by urban interventions with specific contexts in which they operate on. The distinctive feature of this project consists in the launching of a critical ...