“Uma praça em cada bairro” program: Analysis and contribution to the requalification of Lisbon’s

Abstract

The traditional role of the urban public space has shifted during the 20th century and in particular throughout the post-second world war. The global trend to adjust the public space to the car traffic and parking needs was observed in Lisbon as in many other industrialized cities. By the end of the century, some projects to value public space through the pedestrianization of streets were attempted without significant impact. The 1998 World Exhibition in Lisbon created the opportunity to rethink, recreate the city and renovate its public space in a former brownfield area. Despite its legacy, there was a little spillover effect to other public spaces in Lisbon, even when considering the partial reconversion of the riverfront, and the intervention on the Praça do Comércio, in 2007. This paper reflects on the impact of the program “Uma praça em cada bairro” [“A square in each neighborhood”] started in 2014 by the Lisbon City Council whose main goal is to transform and benefit Lisbon’s public spaces. There were over the 150 micro-centralities identified and the interventions were diverse in terms of scale. They include major projects like the “Eixo Central” [“Central Axis”] of Lisbon connecting the Marquês de Pombal square to Entrecampos square and, simultaneously, small public squares across the city neighborhoods. The methodology used consists of i) the study of satellite images, from 2014 to 2020, ii) the identification of areas allotted to different uses of space (people, traffic, green space), and iii) the quantification of urban elements in the analysis. This paper assesses the results of the “Uma praça em cada bairro” program, through the quantification of the areas dedicated to different functions, against the stated goals to transform and renovate public spaces.