The project includes a water treatment plant and a public bath.
A proposal for a 14-kilometer urban park in the area currently occupied by the port of Lisbon, including a water treatment plant and a public bath, is a finalist in the New European Bauhaus awards, presented on Friday.
“The proposal reconstructs Lisbon’s landscape with a 14-kilometer urban park along its coastline, and includes a water treatment center and a public bath,” reads the description of the project drawn up by Ioulia Vulgari, an architecture student at the Glasgow School of Art in Scotland.
Called Hydroscape Lisbon, the project, developed in an academic context, is a finalist in the “Rising Stars” section of the New European Bauhaus awards, in the “Reconnecting with Nature” category. The awards will be presented on Friday in Brussels.
The project was also supervised by the Carrilho da Graça studio and was developed as part of an exchange program at the USI Mendrisio University in Switzerland.
“The architectural design explores local aquatic phenomena, conceiving them as a natural flow machine. One part focuses on the aquatic system and the other on the urban face of Lisbon,” says the description.
The proposal follows a “collect – treat – enjoy” approach to water from the valley, which is collected, treated through mechanical treatment and wetlands, and used for the public bath and the park’s irrigation system, creating “a new public green space, reclaiming the port and the Tagus River”.
According to the author, “by implementing efficient water management techniques”, the project would be “an example for urban areas around the world facing similar water issues”.
“The urban park also promotes sustainable mobility, a cycling network, public transport and attractive walking spaces,” according to Ioulia Vulgari’s proposal.
The proposal also refers to the relationship between Lisbon and the River Tagus, with the aim of “recovering the reciprocal relationship between these two entities”, currently “interrupted by the massive presence of train lines and roads in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area”.
In addition to site visits, the author claims to have held participatory sessions about the project, in which residents of the urban area “emphasized the presence of a significant barrier between the city and the river”, and there were also communications with “universities, and specialists in urban planning and landscaping” from Lisbon.
Thus, the proposal “focuses on the city’s strong topography and explores how existing viewpoints can connect to the proposed park, as well as how new ones can be created within it, continuing the city’s layered topography all the way to the Tagus River.”
Lusa contacted the author of the project for more information, but received no reply.