Urban Renewal & Public Space Seminar
Urban Renewal & Public Space Seminar
HTTP://GAUDI.FA.UTL.PT/~METROPOLIS/SEMINAR.HTM
Understanding the Post-Industrial City: Metropolis, Urban Renewal and Public Space is a joint research exchange
programme on post-industrial urbanism between the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar and the Technical University Lisbon,
Portugal. East-German and Portuguese cities have been experiencing rapid changes in the run of processes that can be
marked as "post-industrialism". The emergence of a new dynamic of industrial production with a higher degree of mobility,
consumption, cultural and social reproduction has major impact on life in cities.
Portugal and Germany hold evident differences on what urban planning approaches are concerned. Germany is a Central
European large country whereas Portugal is the westernmost country in Southern Europe, directly facing the Atlantic.
Nevertheless, some of the East-German and Portuguese cities have been experiencing rapid changes in the run of processes
that can be marked as "post-industrialism", and similar urban phenomena may be found like the growth of the service sector,
the increase of the industrial unemployment, the recession of the industrial areas, sprawl in peripheral areas, social
exclusion and the emergency of multi and intercultural relations, the arising of new tensions and social urban conflicts, just
to name a few consequences related to our way of urban planning and development.
Although located peripherally in Europe, urban planning in Portuguese cities, as well as in most of the occidental cities
during the XX th century is obviously marked by an industrial economy including its needs, infrastructure and the successive
changes in the logic of industrial location and commuting relationships which have impacted directly on population increase
and different approaches to sprawl phenomena. The 25th of April Revolution in 1974, and further on Democracy, as well as
the integration of Portugal in 1986 contributed undoubtedly for such an urban development. This political and economical
change brought significant differences with various origins, which at some levels may be compared to East-German cities,
especially after the reunification and the consequent need to approaches to urban planning from new viewpoints, which can
already be observed in the post-socialist urban agenda. Today, the failure of an industrial economy, which in Portugal
depended on a large colonial empire, lost in the meanwhile, together with an intensive exploitation of labour-force and the
growth of the services is observed. Moreover the development, cities, like Lisbon, need to rethink its forms of development.
East-German cities are undergoing, particularly Berlin, profound changes mainly after the Fall of the Wall, in 1989, and, thus
are still in transitional phases. Only few cities like Leipzig have been able to build up a substantial service sector economy.
They experience other major trends in society like demographic changes and multi-culturalism. In a sociological context
Lisbon and the East-German cities have also a few aspects in common, such as experiencing a fast multi-layered transition,
specifically when comparing to West German and Western and Central European cities.
While exchanging previous experiences, both teams have realized that comparative work on this area of knowledge,
specifically between East German cities (Berlin) and Portugal (Lisbon) had never been done before in such a transversal way.
As both teams intend to establish this comparison in an interdisciplinary approach - including architects, urban planners and
designers, artists, political and social scientists – this research project might present an innovative approach with respect to
the multidimensional phenomena, like urban development, which could prove to accomplish a work of great opportunity in
the presents days. The comparison between Portugal (Lisbon) and East Germany (Berlin) will deliver a clear picture of the
differences and communalities in both countries, as it is related to comparable patterns of urban development in terms of
metropolisation, re-definition of urban regeneration policies and the definition of “good” strategies in order to create or to
JOINT PHD SEMINAR | UNDERSTANDING THE POST-INDUSTRIAL CITY: METROPOLIS, URBAN RENEWAL AND PUBLIC SPACE | 3-4 DECEMBER 2009 | GOETHE INSTITUT, LISBON, PORTUGAL 2
UNDERSTANDING THE POST-INDUSTRIAL CITY:
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innovate on public spaces. It will thus produce a deeper knowledge pointing out the crucial elements of urban development
under circumstances of post-industrialisation.
The engaged scientists and also possible "users" of the results will be given the opportunity to learn and to understand which
similar macro-processes (metropolisation, post-industrialism etc) are framing urban development and what the room to
manoeuvre is for architects, urban planners, artists and social scientists to understand and design the particular places in
their own country. It will, in this sense, enrich the perspective of all included persons by showing alternative approaches and
strategies under similar conditions. The project focuses on the current state of affairs in urban development and it aims at
working out an analysis and, furthermore, to advance on the proposal for concrete projects in the concerned cities.
This Joint PhD Seminar is organised under the scope of the joint research exchange programme on post-industrial urbanism
between the Faculty of Architecture-TU Lisbon and the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar and welcomes papers from PhD
candidates interested in the discussion of their PhD Research according to the themes addressed by the program: Metropolis,
Urban Renewal and Public Space.
This seminar aims to contributing to knowledge on contemporary urban development by creating a common research
framework where interdisciplinary approaches to the post-industrial city may contribute to a detailed insight into both
general trends and particular projects. It looks at the different strategies in political programmes, architectural approaches,
urban planning and social and artistic interventions.
SCHEDULE
JOINT PHD SEMINAR | UNDERSTANDING THE POST-INDUSTRIAL CITY: METROPOLIS, URBAN RENEWAL AND PUBLIC SPACE | 3-4 DECEMBER 2009 | GOETHE INSTITUT, LISBON, PORTUGAL 3
UNDERSTANDING THE POST-INDUSTRIAL CITY:
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ORGANIZATION
FA UTL BAUHAUS
Sofia Morgado Frank Eckardt
João Pedro Costa Harald Kegler
Manuela Mendes Max Welch Guerra
Filipa Serpa dos Santos Michael Rostalski
João Rafael Santos Daniela Brasil
Luis Filipe Dias Esther Blodau-Konick
Margarida Paz Theresa Dietl
Doro Winge
Institutional Support
JOINT PHD SEMINAR | UNDERSTANDING THE POST-INDUSTRIAL CITY: METROPOLIS, URBAN RENEWAL AND PUBLIC SPACE | 3-4 DECEMBER 2009 | GOETHE INSTITUT, LISBON, PORTUGAL 4
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TRACK 1 | METROPOLIS | discussants: Prof. João Seixas (ICS/UL) / Prof. Frank Eckardt / Prof. Sofia Morgado
Track 1a Lisbon
14.30-16.00 Cristina Cavaco Prof. João Cabral Faculty of Architecture, Technical University of Lisbon
João Rafael Santos Prof. Sofia Morgado Faculty of Architecture, Technical University of Lisbon
Jorge Cancela Prof. Leonel Fadigas Faculty of Architecture, Technical University of Lisbon
Maria João Matos Prof. João Sousa Morais Universidade da Beira Interior - Departamento de
Vanessa Duarte de Sousa Prof. Carlos Fortuna Centre for Social Studies, Coimbra University
TRACK 2 | URBAN RENEWAL | discussants: Prof. Isabel Guerra (ISCTE DINAMIA/CET)/Prof. Harald Kegler/Prof. João Pedro Costa
Joaquim Miranda Prof. Carlos Alho Faculty of Architecture, Technical University of Lisbon
Track 2a
Jorge Manuel da Silva Nicolau Prof. Carlos Ferreira Faculty of Architecture, Technical University of Lisbon
9.30-11.00
Prof. Manuela Mendes
Mercedes Castillo de Herrera Prof. Emilio Pradilla Cobos Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas
Robin J H Kim Prof. Robert Tavernor London School of Economics and Political Science
TRACK 3 | PUBLIC SPACE | discussants: Prof. Jorge Malheiros (IGOT-UL) / Prof. Max Welch Guerra / Prof. Manuela Mendes
16.30-18.00 Paula Marie Hildebrandt Prof. Franck Eckardt Bauhaus Universitat Weimar
Rita Ochoa Prof. João Pedro Costa CER POLIS – Universidad de Barcelona; DECA – Universidade
da Beira Interior, Covilhã
Prof. Antoni Ramesar
JOINT PHD SEMINAR | UNDERSTANDING THE POST-INDUSTRIAL CITY: METROPOLIS, URBAN RENEWAL AND PUBLIC SPACE | 3-4 DECEMBER 2009 | GOETHE INSTITUT, LISBON, PORTUGAL 5
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ABSTRACTS
TRACK 1 | METROPOLIS
AUTHOR ABSTRACT
Ana Estevens AN ANALYSIS OF URBAN SOCIAL CONFLICT IN THE POST-INDUSTRIAL CITY: THE ISSUE OF SPATIAL PLANNING
The economic and political changes that post-industrial cities have been experiencing have given rise to a fragmentation
of urban space, which, alongside the polarisation of income, the fragmentation of the social fabric and the various
processes of social exclusion, bring to the fore the importance of three factors that are deemed of central importance in
the context of this research project: social inequality; changes in social relations; and the planning and management of
the city. The goal of this research is to enquire into the extent to which the various forms of interrelationship between
these three factors lead to the existence of social conflict (or the lack thereof).
The origins of the sociology of conflict can be traced back to the analyses and debates around the issue of class struggle
as seminally introduced by Marx and Engels, but were later taken in different directions by authors such as Coser,
Simmel, Sorel, Obserschall or Rex. Simmel (1964) regarded conflict as the fundamental characteristic of social existence.
Along similar lines, Sorel (1950) argued that social conflict prevents the rigidification of the social system and fosters
innovation and creativity. And Coser (1967) maintained that conflict generates vitality and prevents the impoverishment
of creativity. Conflict is especially important within the context of the process of urban planning and management,
leading Indovina (2004) to argue that this is “an absolutely fundamental aspect of the planning process”. The
participation of a variety of different actors is also often presented as very important – as expressed in the more
participatory approaches and in the ‘governance’ paradigm that have become dominant in the context of urban planning.
In view of the previous considerations on social conflict, as well as of the economic and social changes affecting the post-
industrial city, this paper seeks to discuss the influence of these changes in the production and use of urban space, and to
analyse and question the importance social conflict in this context.
The atypical character of suburban settlements and the way they are sprawled all over the territory in a fragmentary and
discontinuous manner have led us to often consider them as territories of disorder, poorly structured spaces where
neither models nor rules exist; hence, hardly readable and understandable.
But, is this image of chaos and irrationality able to give an accurate account of suburban realities and forms?
With concerns on the legibility and intelligibility of contemporary urban form, the PhD research that is supporting this
paper and presentation came to put forward the question arguing that suburbs are not as chaotic or irrational as a first
look may perceived.
For that, an argument was delivered considering that the rule and the model – as two primary proceeding figures of urban
space and form (Choay, 1980) - can be set up as tools in the important task of reading, understanding and analyzing the
urbanized landscape city. Being aware that what is truly in perspective is the relationship between the morphological
dynamics and the public policies, the hypothesis was to recover the rule and the model as an instrumental basis to
recognize both the legibility and the intelligibility of contemporary urban form and structure.
The Metropolitan Area of Lisbon (AML) was the empirical framework for observation and analysis, within which several
case studies (limited here to the municipalities of Almada and Odivelas) were selected. After identifying the way
different rules and models have been determinant to the emergency of new settlement patterns and a completely novel
non-canonical urban space, an exploratory typology of suburban forms in the AML was set up in order to introduce the
spatial reflection and the systematization that were in absence in the interpretation of suburbs. As a result, case studies
were organized into five different groups or categories, according to their spatial and procedural attributes: First
Footprints of Suburbanization, Polygonal Fragments of Expansion, Erudite Gaps of Exception, Sporadic Detail Plans and Big
Urban Operations.
Upon drawing up a restorative narrative of suburbanization forms within AML, this PhD thesis aimed at contributing to a
new condition of legibility and intelligibility of the contemporary urban space, clarifying the relevance of the rule and the
model in the difficult task of governing, planning and designing the contemporary city. For that, a set of nine premises
was drawn up, focusing on the articulation and compatibleness between rules and models and a planning and a
governance demand.
JOINT PHD SEMINAR | UNDERSTANDING THE POST-INDUSTRIAL CITY: METROPOLIS, URBAN RENEWAL AND PUBLIC SPACE | 3-4 DECEMBER 2009 | GOETHE INSTITUT, LISBON, PORTUGAL 6
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Ian Banerjee SPACES OF KNOWLEDGE IN SINGAPORE AND COPENHAGEN - ARCHITECTURAL AND URBAN STRATEGIES FOR THE
EMERGING KNOWLEDGE ECONOMY
Background:
Advanced economies, and increasingly developing economies, are becoming more and more dependent on knowledge as
the basis of economic growth (Building Knowledge Economies, World Bank, 2007). It is broadly accepted that one of the
most important drivers of economic competitiveness is experience based on scientific, technical and creative knowledge.
a) the spatial needs of the growing ‘knowledge-economy’ in terms of architecture and urban planning: While there is
growing research on the economic-geography of the knowledge economy, surprisingly little studies are produced on
strategic aspects of urban planning accompanying this decisive turn.
Education will become a decisive factor for both competitiveness and cohesion in our future cities. The classroom-model
of the industrial age is getting replaced by new pedagogical concepts with profound changes in the urban needs of
students. Social networks, collaborative learning and digital classrooms are putting increasing pressure on cities to change
their planning vocabulary.
Aim:
This study compares two advanced cities, one in Asia one in Europe, with the aim of devising a set of references that may
be significant to planning theory as to what kind of urban and architectural spaces the knowledge economy will need in
the future.
Singapore boasts the highest per capita investment in education in the world. It has embarked on a course of
restructuring the city that centres around education, health, culture, digital connectivity and quality of life. The city is
broadly accepted to be one of the most innovative of our times.
The twin cities of Copenhagen (Denmark) and Malmö (Sweden) have exhibited extraordinary energy in transforming the
economic bases of their cities. In Orestad, a new urban district in Copenhagen, we can see an evolving urban laboratory
which is becoming a reference for urban planning in the ‘Age of Knowledge’.
Acknowledging a diversified interest in the conceptual and design crossings between landscape and infrastructure (Pavia,
2002, Smets, 2005, Marinoni, 2006, Mossop, 2006, Donani, 2008), one finds the need to assess its implications in a
specifically metropolitan context such as Lisbon. The identification of the spatial characteristics produced by the
combination of multiple infrastructures working at various territorial scales could bring forward a renewed recognition of
the metropolis, supported by coherent urban and metropolitan landscape structures.
The interpretative reading of such territories in the Lisbon’s metropolitan area is built through the lens of a typological
classification of spaces determined by the overlapping of infrastructural strata or “infrastructural mediation spaces”.
The conceptual criteria supporting this interpretation emphasize the need to overcome the ‘urban-rural’ and 'centre-
periphery' functionalist dichotomies, bridging the domains of ecological, public space and mobility and supply
infrastructures as transversal and multi-scalar interfacing elements.
The research methodology has been based on a three-tier process:
- the identification of major infrastructural innovations linked to specific urban tissues and public space typologies based
on morphogenetic analysis of Lisbon metropolitan development;
- the cross reading of conceptual approaches and organizational strata present in urban and infrastructural planning
documents drawn by different public institutions and utility companies;
- the use of overlapping metropolitan cartography of different time periods, since 1856 to 2007, allowing for a
diachronical reading of territorial transformations as well as a support for interpretative morphological drawings.
Five major preliminary types of infrastructural landscape are currently being outlined as part of ongoing research:
- the morphological and functional relationship of infrastructures with the physical shape of the territory and the main
physiographic and hydrographic features;
- the large open spaces associated to infrastructure development, both as part of urban and metropolitan park and
ecological structures or as agricultural/forest production estates;
- the public space structure and the nodal spaces accompanying or produced with metropolitan infrastructural networks,
with its complex modal switch, stratification and patching devices;
- the specialized use areas which play a key role in redefining metropolitan functional interaction, based on premium
infrastructural connection and increased visual perception from the major highway axis;
- the territories where urbanization occurs over a rustic parcel pattern, induced by higher levels of accessibility and
JOINT PHD SEMINAR | UNDERSTANDING THE POST-INDUSTRIAL CITY: METROPOLIS, URBAN RENEWAL AND PUBLIC SPACE | 3-4 DECEMBER 2009 | GOETHE INSTITUT, LISBON, PORTUGAL 7
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- the interstitial and splintered spaces left over by normative right-of-way codes, autonomous, sectorial and strictly
functional design.
Jorge Cancela URBAN AGRICULTURE WITHIN GREEN INFRASTRUCTURE. CONCEPTS, CHARACTERISTICS, FUNCTIONS AND FORMS.
CASE-STUDIES FROM LISBON METROPOLITAN AREA.
Urban agriculture (UA) is growing importance in city planning; food-miles, social cohesion, leisure, energy-efficiency, job
creation, health and climatic issues are some of the reasons for that.
Within Lisbon Metropolitan Area (LMA), the presence of activities of agricultural production inside or at the fringes of
urban perimeters is frequent and well-known.
Definition of “green” or “ecological” structures incorporating areas with real or potential UA presence, is indicated as a
correct form of city planning in the post-industrial city.
Accordingly, the research aims to know through the analysis of formal city planning documents (known as Municipal Plans)
if, and how, UA is being considered and integrated in the green structure of urban areas within LMA.
The research intends to analyze both conceptual and practical issues relating to UA in those Plans, and will give an
appraisal of the presence of UA concerns, proposals and solutions in them.
Specifically, the research aims to answer the following set of major questions:
a) which is the context of UA in the Portuguese planning history, since the decade of ‘40 of the XXth century until now?
b) what are the UA forms within LMA and which are the factors that create them?
e) which are the exemplary Plans in this context and are their conceptual frameworks?
g) what can we learn from that in order to propose UA in city planning documents?
At the end of the research we hope to have evidence for sustaining green infrastructure planning in the LMA and
particularly of UA activities and areas within, as a contribution to more equitable, profitable and resilient cities and
urban regions.
Urban development, new spaces associated to socio-economical processes and their relation with landscape, heritage and
architectural culture generate singular places in some alpine regions.
Alpine cities are chosen as paradigms, expressing a way to widen perspectives on contemporary interventions as
reinforcement of European mountain cities' identity. This approach is part of a PhD research, and stands on the belief
that the Alps are still seen as a symbolic prototype for the European mountain, a region where local identities and
traditions still have an important role; but also a urbanised region, open to innovation, establishing a laboratory for urban
design and creativity in architecture.
This phenomenon is here analyzed through four case studies: the Curial Quarter in Chambéry (France), the new thermal
baths in Merano (Italy), the KUB museum in Bregenz (Austria) and the castles' complex renewal in Bellinzona
(Switzerland). These Medium-sized historical Alpine cities, along with particular geographic, economic and social
qualities, enhance a strong connection to mountain landscape imaginary, in different ways, as a promotion strategy. In
this context, one main objective of this research is to inquire in what measure urban renewal and branding policies –
related to the mountain – can affect urban landscape.
Analysis criteria at city scale include urban development and the evolution of the relation with the mountain, as well as
the importance given to recent interventions with branding purposes. At a smaller scale, specific interventions are
studied through phenomenological and formal analysis, in relation with local architectural culture and the “art of place”
approaches.
That should contribute to develop the comprehension of recent interventions in mountain cities, and therefore clarify the
changing in urban landscapes and its relation to city’s life and identity. The aim is to understand the evolution of urban
form and landscape of mountain cities, as a way to contribute for a more efficient and sustainable spatial planning of
mountain territories.
JOINT PHD SEMINAR | UNDERSTANDING THE POST-INDUSTRIAL CITY: METROPOLIS, URBAN RENEWAL AND PUBLIC SPACE | 3-4 DECEMBER 2009 | GOETHE INSTITUT, LISBON, PORTUGAL 8
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The explosion of the city consequent to the industrial revolution and, even more, the sprawling diffusion arising in Europe
from the post-industrial transformations let us talk about the disappearing of the border of the city.
A diffuse urbanization cancer wastes the landscape and finally the city can be defined more for what it's not (it's no
country, it's no natural landscape, it's no nature) than for a definite urban space.
If the city is configured principally by its surplus (interstices, spaces under, undefined extensions of un-urban
urbanization, infrastructural nets...), in a different sense we may, finally, talk about the thickening of the border of the
contemporary, postmodern, European city; its shifting to a frontier condition.
“Form follows fear”, Ellin (1996, 145) said about the postmodern urbanism. The research this paper is abstract from is
called “Fearscapes?”. It’s going to question the relationship between the growing of the borderspace of the city and the
growing of the scapes (and feelings) of fear into it. Enclosures, barrier, void, control, economical landscapes are (at least
temporary) the categories to analyze these growing scapes.
This paper will focus on the void as the connecting structure into the postmodern urban space. While the city dilutes
itself, the continuity of urban facts characterizing the compact city is replaced by an empty space where these facts
float, linked one each other by physical and virtual infrastructures.
Vanessa Duarte de THE “WELFARE” CITY: FROM THE EMERGING EXPERIENCES TO THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE URBAN SOCIAL
EMANCIPATION. THE LISBON CASE.
Sousa
The city continues to be considered through a dual discourse that describes it as both a field of opportunities and for
citizenship and a metropolis in crisis which is mediated by the very individualistic logic of action that underpins the
experience of modernity.
One of the elements that clearly emerge refers to the individualism that characterizes social and economic relations. It
highlights the intellectual attitude that predominates in the urban context and provokes the erosion of social capital.
Some will argue that "individualism is an increasingly stronger contradiction of the neo-capitalism".
Others would say that this individualism creates opportunities for the contemporary individual while not depriving them
of their freedom to engender strong social ties.
Increasingly and in parallel with the weakening social ties in cities, a set of practices appear that reveal new forms of
solidarity and new forms of living together within the city and with the community support. We argue that these new and
old practices are and can be responsible for a new urban reform, that we call the emerging “Welfare” City.
The understanding of this city is based on the following four dimensions: economic, social, political and ideological.
In terms of the economic dimension, these alternative forms fall within the broader approach that has been called the
social economy. This embraces the whole non-monetary exchanges in the city, not based on principles of economic
speculation and corresponds to the struggle against the growing trend of commercialization of goods and services.
At the social level, they are new forms for the sedimentation of urban social networks, and take sometimes the shape of
collective actions to overcome situations of greater social vulnerability. Against a State that is increasingly less social new
forms of welfare society in the city are thus invented, which can ultimately become a new model of social regulation.
At the political level, the urban lifestyles that are emerging out of solidarity can be regarded as new social movements
that reflect ways to broaden democracy.
Finally, the ideological dimension of these lifestyles is evident in the struggle for social emancipation and, in some cases,
the re-invention of social emancipation, understood as a way of resistance to all forms of power.
This study will be focused on the city of Lisbon, but will seek to characterize other similar practices, following the
completion of case studies that reveal the diversity of the solidarity practices there developed.
JOINT PHD SEMINAR | UNDERSTANDING THE POST-INDUSTRIAL CITY: METROPOLIS, URBAN RENEWAL AND PUBLIC SPACE | 3-4 DECEMBER 2009 | GOETHE INSTITUT, LISBON, PORTUGAL 9
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AUTHOR ABSTRACT
Delphine Regnauld URBAN DEVELOPMENT AND DIVERSITY: DIFFERENT STRATEGIES THE SAME FAILURE.
Situated at the very heart of the Eternal City, Esquilino has changed drastically as a result of massive immigration to the
quarter over the past fifteen years. This transformation has led to the common perception, among Romans, that a once-
predominantly working class district has been replaced by a predominately multi-ethnic one. This paper traces how the
above developments came about, and considers the role of local identity in the shaping of Esquilino’s urban policies. It
assesses competing strategies undertaken by the last two local administrations, and distinguishes a common weakness in
their approaches to the urban diversity.
The aim of this research is to contribute to the concept of authenticity for the conservation of historic places.
The focus of this work is a development of a set of criteria to assess authenticity in order to contribute towards the
conservation of historic places in Portugal. The purpose is to define a set of authenticity criteria.
Firstly, this paper describes the concern of the built environment and the concept of authenticity, based on a review of
relevant research and theories on how authenticity criteria fits in conservation in general and how it is important to
define a set of authenticity criteria in order to conserve historic places.
The set of criteria to assess authenticity in the conservation of historic places is based on the spirit of Unesco criteria to
test authenticity with the definitions of the criteria used by the USA Parks Service to evaluate integrity of the property in
order to be listed .The initial set of criteria is composed of seven qualities as follows: Location, Settings, Design,
Workmanship, Materials, Feelings and Association.
Based on a review of relevant research and theories, the researcher understood the need to define a set of authenticity
criteria in order to facilitate the conservation of historic places. Linked to the “state of the art “ of Conservation of
Historic Places in Western Europe, this criteria will be applied to case studies that showed the evidence in all of them.
According to case studies conclusions and the review of literature, the model of research created is based on five
propositions which define the qualities to assess authenticity in conservation. Four of these parameters (Design,
Materials, Workmanship and Settings) are based on USA Parks Service definitions. The fifth parameter (Function / Use) is
based on case studies conclusions.
With the support of the sounding board of research, the author developed a conceptual model for checking the
propositions.
This model and the propositions were checked by the Delphi Process with a group of experts and through a continuous
analysis of the data.
The set of authenticity criteria established will be sent to other experts in Portugal, and European organisations involved
in the conservation of the built heritage with statements in order to find an agreement on the evidence and definition of
each criterion. This procedure was based on the assumption that the achievement of a consensus was possible.
The final criteria achieved reflects the emerging importance of function and use in historic places for the future.
Jorge Manuel da THE QUARTER AS CATALYST OF URBANITY OF THE CITY: CRITERIA OF URBANITY AS MULTIPLYING EFFECT
Silva Nicolau The research that is intended to accomplish, has as study object the relation between the urban morphology and typology
of the quarters in the city of Lisbon and the sense of identity of its residents. For such, we intend to study and to
determine which the main criteria of urbanity that can be found in the urban drawing of the quarters and in relation with
the urban mesh of the city.
In a global and more undifferentiated world, where the projects of urbanization and the urban drawing stand the
modernist and globalized concepts (for such are enough to compare the project of Renzo Piano, in Berlin (Potsdam
Plaza), with that it proposes for Braço de Prata (Lisbon), is
fundamental to think the European cities of a different form. Lisbon, is also a Mediterranean city, it’s important
remember Solá-Moralles when it affirms, that it is in the Mediterranean cities that the quarters have a fundamental paper
in its development and social organization.
The Quarters are physical units that “mark” the territory of the city. Thus being, it will be important to perceive its
paper in the residence and productive structure in a Post-industrial city.
It is intended to find criteria of urbanity that allow in general to relate these Quarters between itself and with the city,
keeping in mind its specific features. Not being easy and consensual the definition of the limits of quarter, we intend to
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“… For the social morphology, the quarter is a morphologic and structural unit; certain is characterized by one urban
landscape, right a social content and a proper function; so, the transformation of one of these elements is enough to set
the limit of the quarter…”1.
In the methodology, let us hanger to use the method case study or intensive analysis. In this domain and intending to
have a diversity of situations, some cases of Lisbon quarters will be chosen, mainly diverse and deferent’s situations
toward some indicators as for example, how much the drawing, this relation with the city, the diversity of it’s population,
it’s dynamism cultural, and it’s identity, among others. In the choose of these quarters, will also appeal to crossed form
to some sources of information, using itself several collecting techniques and analysis information.
Mercedes Castillo de URBAN RENEWAL IN A CONFLICTIVE AREA. THE CASE OF BOGOTA DOWNTOWN NEIGHBORHOOD.
Herrera Colombia is a non-industrialized country, despite of the fact that some light and medium industry was developed in
several cities during the 20th century. With neo-liberal policies of the 1980s, Bogota, the capital city went into a
deindustrialization which has been replaced by the strengthening of the sector services. Now, a bogotan central
neighborhood that used to be industrial called Los Martires, is being exposed to a very contradictory urban policies.
On the one hand, it has been declared as unique red-light district in the country, and on the other, as urban renewal
area, but many heritage conservation houses and buildings are located in the sector, some of them are indeed brothels.
That means a problem because the city legislation says that buildings should be adapted to the use.
In Colombia, prostitution is not illegal, but, until now, proxenetism was. At the present time, with the declaration as a
red-light district, it is not clear whether it is still illegal. This is not the only problem in the area. Appear, likewise,
precarious conditions of habitability of central slums and shared housing, stuffing "inhabitants of street" and informal
vendors, the arrival of displaced population, drugs and arms trade, social control and the so-called "social cleansing",
garbage mafias, the mafias that control the public space, and many forms of slavery or servitude and human rights abuse.
So, it is necessary to know what is the role of declaratory of a red-light district zone in this central place in the city,
where it was declared also urban renewal? Who is harmed and who is benefited in the game of interests in changing laws
on the sector? Far from a moralist position, it is necessary to ask, is being a red-light district the best destination of the
sector? How will be resolved the conflict of interest between the mafias behind prostitution and the economic powers
behind the increase of land value that the urban renewal process generate? Will be respected heritage buildings or will
they disappear in this struggle between powers? My brief lecture is not going to solve it, but it is a very interesting urban
problem to analyze, even more when it is considered that Bogotá is the capital of one of the most violent countries in the
world.
Using gaps between housing blocks as urban gardens, or industrial wasteland as experimental playground for social,
cultural or economical activities or initiating a project on terrain vague in cities because of private and common needs
means ignoring the formal planned purpose and allowing developments by demanded informal uses.
Berlin offers a wide range of terrain vague: former airports, industrial sites, ports, unused railway properties, or the inner
city border line of the cold war. In the 1990s and beginning of 2000 an increase of informal uses on such sites was
observed. This is often described as temporary uses forming the basis for activities of a creative community. In the paper,
I argue that this is a narrowed view. Because, developments of informal use do neither always offer alternative
economical growth for the property owners, financial surplus for real estate companies, nor are they in consensus with
the main political forces. Informal uses provoke often several conflicts.
These conflicts for instance could be observed on one of Berlin’s terrain vague, a former railway property of Deutsche
Bahn called Raw-Site. Located in the inner city district Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg, the DB repair station was unused since
1993 and became slowly occupied by people. In 1998, the founded neighbourhood association RAW-tempel e.V. got legal
but short-term access to the site. The RAW-tempel acted as an umbrella for a variety of social-cultural activities.
Meanwhile, the property owner and the municipality started a formal planning process. According to the formal zoning
plan (Flächennutzungsplan) – the Raw is considered as an industrial site – and the oppositional ideas of the formal
planning compare to the developments by the social-cultural uses, these uses became informal. The contradictions of the
formal ideas and informal uses led to conflicts.
Govern such conflicts in Germany in general and in Berlin in particular, sets urban planning into the main focus of
institutional governance. Beside the considerations of private law for handling these conflicts, in Berlin can be observed
that some developments by informal uses are included into the formal planning process. This increased the complexity as
well as it stressed the ideas of accepting conflicts within a thin consensus and re-balanced the planning decisions. For
analysing this observation, the theory of Dialogical Planning of Stein and Harper (2005; 2006) was used, which is based on
John Rawls Justice as Fairness: A Restatement. Especially the two concepts of a Wide Reflective Equilibrium and
Overlapping Consensus enable to consider informal uses as a key factor for contemporary planning which seeks to
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participate oppositional private and public interests with local to global backgrounds.
Following the question, which influence does have informal use within urban renewal developments, I will focus in detail
in the paper on the different modes of participation of the informal users. The problem is less a dualistic one of a“bottom
up” vs. a „top down“ approach, but rather the question on how it is possible to create a fair planning process within a
local context that takes into account the actual values of the public. Having such a procedure, the other problem is how
to justify opposing interests to planning decisions for urban development within a democratic society. This may not only
help to renew the physical urban structures of cities along with the real needs and new aims by re-using instead of
demolishing, but it also gives a contribution to the broader discussion of a social and economical renewal within
democratic societies.
Metropolis is an ever-changing product of economic, social, cultural and political processes. In its contemporary
development sites of industrial heritage have become a starting point for new concepts with wide variety of possible
outcomes. Industrial heritage is considered to be an attribute which contributes to the identity of an area and facilitates
one’s perception of it. Nevertheless, within the contemporary metropolis past is being mixed, matched and exploited as
an inspiration for the new developments. With the reinvention of the role and uses of former industrial buildings for
contemporary purposes the nature of perception towards the area itself changes. For instance, through the re-structuring
once-industrial areas of Ostiense\Testaccio in Rome are famous today as the main important Roman areas for night-life.
Taking these areas under the study, within the scope of my research is to investigate possible metamorphosis that might
occur due to the ‘functional transformation’ of industrial heritage. What we experience through our senses is usually
‘filtered’ through various interpretative frameworks where our social environment plays a major role in how we actually
interpret things. Thus, the way we mentally process what we perceive through our senses is to a large extent socially
mediated. Attempting to define the 'character' of an area involves wider contributions from visual to social factors.
People do make places, and an understanding of how people affect places is crucial. The paper intends to look at what is
crucial in current re-imagining of a post-industrial area referring to the area of Ostiense in Rome, and to trace the
interplay between its historical associations and their contemporary application. Photography would be a basis upon
which to see larger patterns of structural transformation.
Nona Schulte-Romer NOT EVERYTHING IS ILLUMINATED - LIGHT PLANNING FOR URBAN RENEWAL?
The phenomenon “city lights” is as old as industrialisation. New, however, is the scope and prominence of lighting
projects in urban environments. Light planners have become urban planners, drawing on a growing repertoire of
technologies andn techniques to redefine urban space and to emphasize urban places. In the 21st century light is not just
switched on but thoroughly designed, it does not emanate from conventional bulbs but from diodes in media facades
reshaping our material environment, transforming space relations and ‘relational space’ (see Löw 2008).
Regarding the new varieties and applications of city lighting, I suggest considering it as a means of urban renewal
affecting both, the ‘space of flow’ and the ‘space of places’ (see Castells 1989; also Berking 2001).
Striving to connect and compete with other cities, local actors highlight historical sites, entertainment districts, business
headquarters and shopping zones. Urban night life is presented as not only safe but also lively and vibrant, meant to draw
attention, to attract tourists, investors and the ‘creative class’. Yet, highlighting growth zones literally casts a shadow on
areas that are less prosperous and less fun – like post-industrial cities that are shrinking or struggling economically (see
Munck 2003).
Aware of it, recent urban light projects aim at redefining periphery and centre or confront social exclusion aesthetically
(see Dawson 2009).
My proposal is to map out two such lighting projects that play or work with postindustrial urban spaces in very different
ways: an annual festival in Lyon and a temporary light intervention in Liverpool that took place in autumn 2008. Focussing
on intentions, claims and expectations associated with both projects, I will question their effectiveness for urban
integration, quality of life and prosperity.
The cases also raise more general questions: Does the aesthetic potential of cities open new ways of meeting today’s and
future challenges? Have modern city lights from vitreous skyscraper to commercial illuminations and film not anticipated
the post-industrial future? “The experience of the modern city seen at night under electric lights”, so Scott McQuire
(2005: 131-132), “conferred a novel sense of mutability on the previously immutable and monumental, converting the
stasis historically associated with architecture into a play of dynamic surfaces and seemingly plastic forms.” Maybe
aesthetics can offer a useful perspective adding to our understanding of the post-industrial city.
Robin J H Kim MAPPING A NEW URBAN QUARTER IN LONDON: FROM THE SQUARE MILE TO THE MILLENNIUM MILE
This paper explores London’s urban transformation, focusing on central London. London, like many other cities, has
thrived because of the relationship with the River Thames. However, the River has also existed as a physical, social and
political barrier, dividing the city into two distinctively separate halves. As such, London has an unbalanced urban form.
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Major governmental, cultural and commercial buildings representing its symbolic heart have been largely clustered to the
north side within Westminster and the City. By contrast, its counterpart across the Thames, from Lambeth to Southwark,
has long been over-looked as sites for prime development. To resolve this fundamental problem, many attempts have
been made during the 20th century. Although they unfolded the key issues of unequal development, most of the proposals
remained unrealised due to a lack of political, social and economic commitment. It was not until the beginning of the
21st century that radical changes occurred to integrate the north and the south parts of the Thames. The conversion of
the former Bankside Power Station to Tate Modern and the construction of the Millennium Bridge, both completed in
2000, have been key to this transformation.
The Millennium Bridge has established a dialogue between the St Paul’s Cathedral and Tate Modern – the ancient sacred
centre of the City and the modern ‘Temple of Art’. The gap bridged by the Millennium Bridge is not just of geographic
significance but of social, cultural and economic value, which stimulates the regeneration of the north and south banks.
More importantly, this urban intervention has initiated the consolidation between the flourishing north and the declining
south throughout combining the ‘Square Mile’ of the north and the ‘Millennium Mile’ of the south. The Square Mile, where
the Romans built their fortification wall, has represented the territorial identity of London as a headquarter of the world
financial centre, as an administrative and civic nucleus, as a core of national events and as a tourist destination. By
contrast, the Millennium Mile, which stretches out the south bank alongside the Thames within Lambeth and Southwark,
has recently emerged as a representative cultural quarter for the capital and the nation. In this context, the proximity of
the Square Mile to the Millennium Mile has led to the reshaping of central London’s urban geography. Consequently, the
establishment of a new urban quarter throughout combining the Square Mile and the Millennium Mile demonstrates a
different narrative of urban regeneration that exhibits the integration between the north and the south, the rich and the
poor, and commerce and culture. My intention in this paper is thus to explore the way in which a new urban quarter in
central London has been created, and its impact on the renewing of economic, cultural and social geographies for 21st
century London.
AUTHOR ABSTRACT
Du Juan THE SHAPING OF PEOPLE’S SPACE- AN INQUIRY OF HUMAN ENVIRONMENTAL EXPERIENCES AND PLANNING PRACTICE,
CHINA
One of the main focuses of recent Chinese urban development is public space creation and retrofitting driven by the
market force and demand. However, researches concerning human and cultural influences on shaping public spaces have
been scanty. There appear critical needs that growing varieties of lifestyle must likewise be reflected in new spatial
strategies.
This is an explanatory research to address interactions, incorporations and interrelationship between the lived
environment and its peoples. It is knowledge-seeking and normative. Theoretically, public space in a Chinese context is
conceptualized; empirically, a selected case is inquired. The research unfolds a comparatively complete understanding of
China’s planning evolution and on-going practices. Data collection emphasizes ‘people’ and ‘space’ concept. First-hand
data is derived from the intensive fieldwork and observatory and participatory documentations. The ample detailed
authentic empirical data empowers space syntax as a strong analysis tool in decoding how human’s activities influence
public space.
Findings fall into two categories but interdependent. Firstly, it discloses the studied settlement as a generic and organic
development model. Its growth and established environment is evolutionary and incremental, responsive to its intrinsic
traditions, life values and available resources. It highlights vernacular traits of spatial development out of lifestyles and
cultural practices, but self-sustaining. Its spatial articulation appears as a process parallel to socio-economic transitions.
Secondly, certain crucial planning aspects are cross-checked with the case. They are theoretically summarized to address
the existing gap between current planning methodology and implementations. It pinpoints several most significant and
particular issues, namely, disintegrated land use system and urban planning; missing of urban design in the planning
system and loss of a human-responsive environment resulted from standardized planning.
The research challenges partial Chinese planning laws and regulations through urban public space study. It pinpoints to
yield certain growth leverage for planning to sustain the development. Thus, planning is able to empower inhabitants to
make decisions along the process of shaping and sustaining their space. Therefore, it discusses not only legislative issues,
concerning land use planning, urban design and heritage conservation. It leads to a pivotal proposal, i.e., the integration
of human and their social spaces in formulating a new spatial strategy. It expects to inform policymakers of underpinning
social values and cultural practices in reconfiguring postmodern Chinese spatiality. It propounds that social context
endemic to communities shall be integrated as a crucial tool in spatial strategy design, hence to strengthen spatial
attributes and improve life quality.
JOINT PHD SEMINAR | UNDERSTANDING THE POST-INDUSTRIAL CITY: METROPOLIS, URBAN RENEWAL AND PUBLIC SPACE | 3-4 DECEMBER 2009 | GOETHE INSTITUT, LISBON, PORTUGAL 13
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Along time different approaches to urban planning and public space design have been practised. Lisbon has a wide range
of urban planning experiences, thought the 20th century. Those different approaches vary considering the political frame
as well has the current theoretical paradigm. The public housing neighbourhoods are an example of that evolution.
In Lisbon, through the 40’s, housing neighbourhoods were thought as a unique project from the urban structure to the
architectural details. An only author designing an indivisible unit is also a reflex of the totalitarian political regime.
Along time open forms of planning have been gradually accomplished. One of those examples is the Telheiras Urban Plan
(Lisbon, Portugal), designed in 1973/74, contemporary of the Portuguese democratic revolution.
It has developed a tool that intend to give the architects the directions for a coherent structure and image between
buildings and urban space design, based on physical dimensions and design parameters.
This tool does not intend to be rigid or exact, instead it is supported by a deductive language witch can be vague,
inaccurate, redundant and even contradictory.
The proposed tool outlines a framework to combine three main characteristics in the site making: the volumetric, the
spatial and the functional. These have a direct application on buildings and urban space physical form and design.
This paper intends to explore the diversity of methodological approaches to urban design project and its relationship with
the architectural image in Lisbon public housing neighbourhoods.
In this paper it will be argued that a research focusing on the (missing) relation between waste management and spatial
planning intrinsically pertains to the “public space” debate, even if not in its most straightforward acceptation.
The logic underpinning this claim, which considers public works as a public space generator (Waldheim 2006a), may result
very effective in engaging the post-industrial metropolitan condition. It finds a solid basis in the conceptual framework
provided by the hybrid discipline of Landscape Urbanism (Waldheim 2006b).
Such perspective may be proficiently applied to a whole set of urban services and infrastructures (transport, energy,
water, etc.), that materially “build” the post-industrial city.
All the more it can prove useful in the field of waste, the most cumbersome and landconsuming outcome of our socio-
economical system, still incredibly left out of the scope of our urban disciplines.
Waste management has so far belonged to the realm of sector planning, regarded as an essentially technical matter. The
first point made by the research is, therefore, that waste has too many spatial implications to remain out of the reach of
our disciplines.
Following the path opened by Kevin Lynch (1990) in his last and posthumously edited book, the research explores some of
the neglected overlaps between waste management and urban and regional planning.
The aim of this paper, drawing from the research, is to demonstrate how a space, to be called “public”, cannot avoid
considering the environmental question together with the social, economical, cultural and psychological issues
traditionally related to place making. Waste is a highly complex notion, physical and metaphorical, global and local at the
same time: just for this reason it can also be seen as a conceptual tool for understanding and addressing public space in a
really contemporary perspective.
The Breaking Boundaries scheme in Ashford, Kent, is an innovative Highways-based project incorporating multi-
disciplinary partners within the public realm and is the cutting edge exemplar of best practice within “shared space”
urban design schemes in Europe. The project came about via an invitation from Kent County Council for me to become
Lead Artist for Breaking Boundaries early in 2006: the project will run until 2009, when it will be formally unveiled.
This is a groundbreaking Highways project, where the main aim has been to look at ways by which an Integrated Design
Team (IDT), with me as the Lead Artist at the heart of it, could work collaboratively on delivering a fresh urban footprint
for Ashford, a town that had become cut-off from its heritage and heart, because of poor urban design. The multi-faceted
outcomes of this project involved community consultation to identify key aims and objectives. Community consultation
with, local action groups, education groups, council members, disability groups, emergency services, has been vital to the
success of the project, ultimately freeing the town from the tourniquet of the existing ring road and enabling growth to
the south of the town. This has been a major part of the working brief that all stakeholder partners, Landscape
Architects, Highway Engineers, Champions Group members, have been involved in successfully delivering.
The concept of shared space is integral to the vision for the project as a whole and is central to the thrust of the
landscape design. The inclusion of ‘stand-alone” sculptures was soon identified as not appropriate to the development, or
the views as expressed by local action groups. However, the IDT* wanted me to look at innovative ways that the historic
legacy of Ashford could be discreetly deployed within the concept of “street furniture” and “highway engineering”. The
aim of creating public spaces where people could meet and socialise, without feeling threatened by a traffic monopoly,
JOINT PHD SEMINAR | UNDERSTANDING THE POST-INDUSTRIAL CITY: METROPOLIS, URBAN RENEWAL AND PUBLIC SPACE | 3-4 DECEMBER 2009 | GOETHE INSTITUT, LISBON, PORTUGAL 14
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was paramount, as was determining ways that a variety of generations could use the newly designed spaces for social
interaction. These goals included utilizing a variety of highway surfaces that at one and the same time underline
aesthetic considerations as well as highway infrastructure. This is particularly relevant to certain disability groups where
changes in surfaces are integral to safety and navigation.
My own research focused on historic and contemporary histories of the Town. Its emphasis on the railways, cycle industry
and tannery industry, formed the main thrust of my research activities and helped form the palette of shapes that are
now reflected in a series of highway intervention designs, and street furniture. This research stimulated a series of
innovative multi functional landmark pieces that relate closely to the vernacular of the space and are at the same time
appropriate to a variety of users of different generations, expanding on the question, what is public art in the twenty-
first century?
Paula Marie PARCITYPATE! OR THE POLITICS OF CULTURAL INTERVENTION — A NEW MEANS TO UPDATE POLITICAL
PARTICIPATION?
Hildebrandt
A mountain bike competition in a staircase of a vacant panel construction in Halle, a black market for alternative
knowledge in Leipzig, a stand-in class performed on the street with pedestrians passing-by in Munich or a bazar on a
rooftop parking for founders of microbusiness in Berlin-Kreuzberg — just to name a few of the plethora of small-scale
interventions and experiments that shape the urban landscape by temporary often playful and performative practices.
The future of urbanism no longer holds a universally applicable image, neither for a cultural vision or a method of
intervention for artists, architects or planners. Changing modes of communication and participation open up new
opportunities to (re)invent the political space and urban citizenship - or what John Dewey called „creative democracy“.
It s mostly small and informal groups that experiment with new contemporary forms of communication and encounter, of
representation and situative participation. Because of their hybrid and mercury structure, their peripatetic practice and
fluid aesthetic, their activities are only occasionally being perceived within in the broader public and academic discourse.
The PhD thesis deals with the question in which way and to which extent cultural interventions can contribute to update
political participation: What are the politics of cultural intervention with which art collectives/project groups such as DIE
KULTURMASSNAHMEN ( the cultural measures ), PONY PEDRO, the REINIGUNGSGESELLSCHAFT ( the Cleaning Company )
or the COMPLIZEN ( the accomplices ) stage sociopolitical issues such as unemployment, homelessness, and culturaln
identity? Working at the interface between cultural production and social activism, city development, symbolic
performance and art in public space these groups have been working long enough to develop their own distinct language.
Empirical research hence focuses on their specific practices, methods of interaction and communication, aesthetics, and
strategies. What are their motives and which goals they pursue? In which way can their projects inspire, influence,
complement and/or transform traditional forms of political expression, instigate democratic participation and civic
engagement? How can cities mobilise creativity and knowledge to tackle social challenges, and what are the
preconditions for a productive collaboration with public authorities, urban planners and cultural commissions? Last but
not least: How do they collaborate/ network on a European level and can experiences, approaches and strategies be
applied to other urban contexts.
Rita Ochoa THE IMPORTANCE OF THE WALK IN THE ANALYSIS OF PUBLIC SPACE
In a conception of Public Space that refuses a merely morphological approach, the direct contact with territory is a
fundamental way for its analysis. The act of walking makes possible a better involvement with territory, although as a
more comprehensive perception of its multiple dimensions. The physical walk allows the mental walk, stimulating the
thought and making possible the contact of the body, as element of measure, with the space.
Consisting my PhD research in analyzing the articulation between city and waterfront as though as the role of public art in
this articulation (considering public art in relation with urban space), it was early detected that the contact with territory
must be the fundamental primary source to use. But a question was done: How to walk?
Some authors have theorized about the walk: the Rêveries in Rousseau, the Flâneur in Baudelaire and Benjamin, the
Voyage autour de ma chambre of Xavier de Maistre, the Dérive proposed by Guy Debord, the Cesário Verde’s walks in
Lisbon…
Taking in account these different meanings of the walk but also the objectives of the investigation, it was constructed a
specific methodology. The process consisted in an entirely year of walking in the city (Lisbon and Barcelona). It had an
evolution: beginning on an informal walk (nearest from the Dérive) it was changing in a more precisely and orientated
walk. The methodology got autonomous and was transformed into a practice with proper rules, playing with the days, the
hours, the speed of the steps, the way of photographing and drawing, the way of observing and thinking about what was
seen.
It was also essential to systematize the walk; using the instruments of Urban Design were created 20 files for Lisbon and
10 for Barcelona.
There were no visits to Libraries, Archives, or consulted secondary sources; the challenge is now to use this base of work
to achieve the objectives of the investigation, conserving and reflecting the spirit of its primary source: the walk.
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