mayer park and botanical garden - competition - 1st prize
author: manuel aires mateus
co-authors: jorge p. silva + joão nunes (paisajista)
project team: neus beneyto, francisco caseiro, vânia fernandes, andré passos, humberto silva
engineer: AFAconsult
location: lisbon, portugal
date: 2008 (competition) 2009-2010 (urban plan)
abstract
The project meets the main needs within this area: protecting the Botanical Garden, urban links between the lower and upper levels of the city, and making use of the space within the Parque Mayer as having regeneration potential for the area. The wooded area goes from the garden to the rough wall of the built-up boundary. The projected garden area covers the resulting spaces under the large, continuous planes that mould the platform to the upper level. It continues as a concept, this new green surface: it is open, permeable to streets and squares, crossed within and open to the sky. This fabric of pedestrian public space links the varying levels and surroundings in this area. The Capitol is re-centered within a new square, where all routs meet. Within the paradigm of the historic city, a dense occupation of the ground and low altitude, the solution etches out urban public spaces as key players in city life, on a scale appropriate to its center.
