The Eastern waterfront area of Lisbon: progress, decline and regeneration.

Abstract

Urban regeneration represents the future of contemporary cities, seeking for better life conditions of populations and environment. As a strategy, process and political instrument, it is inserted in strategic guidelines of international communitarian development, implying, on one hand, a constant updating/revision of the legal diplomas of urban planning and management, and, on the other hand, new models of territorial development based on economic competitiveness, globalization, sustainability and social cohesion. The rapid European and Portuguese urban development focus urban regeneration as a priority. In the case of Lisbon, the expansion and the subsequent industrial dislocation shaped new and external urban centralities that are currently inserted in the Lisbon Metropolitan Area, requiring specific technical-political organizations. Analysing the complex evolution of post-industrial areas, from expansion/progress until the decline and regeneration, the matter of heritage is one of the most challenging elements in the territory. Since in port and post-industrial areas it is hence notorious, the presence of History, preservation, conservation and/or demolition are present and future challenges to Architects.  We highlight the case of the Eastern waterfront area of Lisbon due to its historic and urban evolution – marked by successive and complex urban and infrastructural transformations – and by its current situation of urban decline that introduces problems, challenges and opportunities of intervention to the technicians that are involved in urban regeneration processes. In the case study, we are able to find many examples of rural and industrial legacy, that reveal the past of that territory. Considering that the past justifies and supports the intervention in the contemporary city and the current scarcity of funds/in times of crisis, it is now crucial to question ways of regenerate declined areas.  We conclude that the territory must be social and economic active and productive, renting pre-existing elements. Especially in the current context of public financial unavailability, it urges to globally rethink urban management strategies - highlighting factors as cooperation, connection and public participation -, and stimulating the intervention departing from the pre-existences, history and heritage.