Habitar PortugalHP

The regeneration of the public space in the Lagarteiro neighbourhood in Porto is part of the Critical Neighbourhoods Initiative (ibc), a pilot programme launched by the central government to regenerate priority urban areas.
The plan for the intervention area (7 ha) was based on ve general principles:
• Replacing the existing situation with a new plan/design; • Creating circulation ows that cross the neighbourhood; • Restructuring the road network;
• Using quality and lasting materials;
• Adapting and redimensioning green spaces.
In order to make the creation of ows and connections with Lagarteiro’s surroundings possible a new street had to be built through the neighbourhood linking the north and south sector, negotiating the di erence in elevation and dealing with the scarcity of space in the location – factors that called for precision work and adjustments to the layout in order to ensure retention of the sports eld and the existing threshold levels of the housing.
Implementing the programme required a topographic operation on the neighbourhood scale that was able to harmonise the built fabric with the design objectives. For this it was necessary to build a number of support walls that mark the renewed image of Lagarteiro though the kinetic e ect of their surfaces, which was achieved using formwork speci cally devised for the project.
Phase I of the intervention was awarded the ihru Prize in 2012.