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Rooms + Cities: a strategy for dispersed institutions in Porto’s historic centre

Part 2 Project 2014
Artom Tsapkov
Louise Patterson
Hannah Beatty
University of Dundee | UK
The extraordinary natural and constructed topography of Porto is the context for this investigation into the relationship between room and city. The projects began with a discussion around the theme of ‘place of exchange’ or ‘place of representation’ and an exploration of the oppositions of inside and outside, public and private, small and large, intimate and distant. Working with models and drawings, a dialogue was developed between the interior and the urban scale. This process was essential to understand the complexity of Porto sites with respect to geometry and topography. The three proposals are intellectually interwoven; yet examine different briefs – cinema, theatre and language school. Together they form an urban strategy which tests the concept of threshold, façade and room.

The projects are located in the district of Morro da Sé in the Medieval heart of Porto. The urban strategy was to embed public rooms physically and culturally within this residential context. Much of the fabric is derelict and in disrepair - the current practice is to either retain the facades or to knock the ruin down and rebuild a concrete replica. Our approach was to maintain the heterogeneous nature of Morro da Sé by introducing dispersed public institutions that responded to the particular character of place and created new informal public spaces. It is a conscious decision not to resist Porto's topography and geometry but to work with it and integrate into it. Informed by the existing typology, our urban proposals reflect the scale and proportions of the area to create a sense of familiarity between old and new. A series of urban rooms connect to create new routes and increase the cities permeability.

Artom Tsapkov
Louise Patterson
Hannah Beatty

Tutor(s)


2014
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