Integrity amidst Schizophrenia

Abstract

The fire, in 1988, that burned to the ground 14 buildings of Chiado, one of the areas in the 18^th century Pombaline master plan for Lisbon downtown, created an unpredicted break in the history of this city. Álvaro Siza´s plan for the reconstruction of Chiado, seeks to preserve, through architecture, the cultural value of this area and to solve previously accumulated problems.

The article reviews the approach and the methodology of the reconstruction plan, using the drawings and the built work itself as the main source.

After a short description of the burned architectural heritage, it analyses how the reconstruction process includes a methodology that is specifically architectural and that unfolds into five dimensions: the adequacy of the design of the new urban elements to the Pombaline architecture; the ongoing concern with the possible continuity of the social fabric; the adequacy of the buildings brief to their spatial structure and to urban character; the conservation of the existing the construction system whenever possible and the careful integration of new construction systems where necessary; and, finally, the evolution of detailed solutions without caricaturing the earlier ones.

In its last section, the article analyses the topicality of the process of Chiado reconstruction against recent urban rehabilitation trends.