Old City and a New Urban Artifact

As part of the Polis programme in Viseu, the necessity of urban requalificatiaon and environmental value of the location of the fair of So Mateus is defined, in the joining of two intervention axies, north-south, with the requalification of Cava de Viriato, and east-west, with the environmental value of the involvement of the Rio Pavia.

We define Promenade as the intention of generation a new dynamic to the Pavia River shores, more associated with the Park and with the activities, in the Fair. The Forum establishes usages with a great power of attraction for this faade. In this new pedestrian sidewalk, we propose a balcony in a belvedere shape, along the river, to the bridge next to the old electrical power plant.

Two ramps for pedestrians and soft stairways facilitate the connection from the Promenade to the Cava de Viriato, in terms of the river level and the visual corridor.

The set of residential buildings with elliptic section and private terraces stand out in the volumetry of Block II. The morphology of these condominiums allows the distribution to be highly flexible, and with the same conditions it will be possible to teach the development of 26 households of lower surface, per unit.

Seen from the Park, these double buildings appear to be rocks craved in the lower part of the cliff and next to the river. Their openness leads to the Jos M. Pinto Street and are directed to the gardened patios that are used by the lower floor residences. This profile in elliptical section minimizes the impact on the urban landscape and defines the city boundaries in the river shores.

Edições Caixotim, 2007