A tectónica da infra-estrutura: construir o espaço público na cidade alargada

Resumo

Considering the crossroads of "concepts", contradictions and uncertainties that tend to weaken, from the disciplinary point of view, the role of the architect and architecture in the definition of public space and the city, this paper seeks to highlight, from a concrete example - the interventions in public space within the 1st phase the project of the Porto metro - the plausibility and need to design and build public space in the contemporary city under accurate and meaningful principles. Primarily we will seek to emphasize the urgency of the reaffirmation of the urban role of public space in today´s “construction” of the city, and hence the need for identification and justification of the value or significance of the “project”; that is, we will seek to emphasize the relevance of the act of "design and build public space" may still have today, particularly in the enlarged city. The 1st phase of the Metro do Porto project, which had as general coordinator Eduardo Souto de Moura, which has been materialized “on the ground” between 1999 and 2008, allowed not only to confirm the potential of interventions Metro as structuring elements of a more dispersed urban areas, as made possible the identification of a new tectonic for the whole metropolitan area.