Network thinking has opened up new research fields for the understanding of the city form. Cities are not completely predictable and they are much more about self-organized networks than about rational top-down planning and design. This presentation focuses on a research project that is being developed on the city of Lisbon considering the cross-referencing of its natural morphology with the city’s street movement which generates a self-organized network composed by links (streets) and nodes (plazas). Early patterns of the city, emerged from its natural relief, have shaped the street network and today this network can be understood and reinterpreted to the pedestrian movement. The study major goal is to define a pedestrian network informed by the understanding of public life patterns which enable certain public spaces to become successful. In this presentation we propose to demonstrate that Central Lisbon, as a whole, can be treated through win-win strategies as a network of streets and plazas (links and nodes) which would give back the pedestrian life, and facilitate and support connectivity so that human interactions can occur. The important thing is not the isolated buildings, squares or streets but the network of spaces, buildings and the spaces between them. During the presentation several studies on Lisbon’s public spaces will be shown using space syntax tools and observations methods.

--

--