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Title Sparks
Year 2007
Location Lisbon
Brief Urban requalification
Notes Generative design. Part of the T.U. Delft / U. Lusiada Terraventure research, exhibition and conference

The area coming down from the Bairro Alto towards Lisbon’s waterfront is abandoned, unused, at times unreachable. It is also unique; with sights, sounds, happenings, and everyday performances. We propose to preserve this stage of memories, light up and rediscover hidden elements, and repopulate urban voids. By letting fall a web of sensory cables onto this derelict urban landscape we can at the same time reclaim abandoned public spaces and applaud urban decay.

Following an analysis of the site it is evident that there exists a unique situation in which there is a presence of urban voids and derelict spaces increasing closer towards the harbour and waterfront of Lisbon. These urban ruins give the areas of Cais do Sodre and Santos its unique identity. The project’s goal is to revitalize the area without introducing a programme and thereby maintaining the site’s distinctiveness. Communication can be a tool of urban re-qualification. We will use the urban voids as generators and walled-off machine elements for an urban social re-qualification.

By releasing a web of energy cables onto the streets, directions, happenings, and flows can be implied and connected – all streaming down and converging onto three strategically located points. Thereby materializing into a physical space and creating a triangular area of influence, in which this social re qualification can take place. This can be the spark that ignites an explosion and re-appropriation of the Lisbon waterfront.