Memória participada: um lugar público para a Escarpa das Fontainhas

Abstract

The Escarpment of Fontainhas, place of memory and identity, petrifies through granite the essence of Oporto. On a recent past it was densely inhabited and lived; now the degraded houses are in ruins, forgotten memories of the collapse of 2000. Currently, the last ruins were demolished by the public work management of Oporto. Former local identity gives place to an existential and interrogative emptiness. A blank and challenging sheet is now exposed: a question that craves for an answer. This project designs a public place with its historical and relational identity and aspires to emphasize the memory of the place with the participation of the inhabitants of the two nearest Ilhas: Tapada and Maria Vitorina neighbourhoods. Its people are known, theirs stories heard. An extensive contact with the residents is developed, their needs and desires shared, the skepticism of those who have fought for a better future without success is not forgotten. Voices are old, faces are wrinkled, but within this slowness, children and youth show their pleasure for these rooted places. Combination of new and old is one of the mottos of the project. The "right to the center "and its operability are proposed. The drawing is improved through dialogue. Simultaneously, the verticality of the cliff contrasts with the horizontality of the dialogue student/dwellers. This horizontality is also present in three conversations about social participation with who made this issue part of his life: Sérgio Fernandez, Álvaro Siza and Alejandro Aravena. The background Douro is the face of hope and the project grows looking at it.