Metro do Porto recebe prémio de Urbanismo em Harvard

No passado dia 26 de Agosto o Metro do Porto projecto realizado pelo Arquitecto Eduardo Souto Moura e a Metro do Porto, a par com o projecto de integração urbana em Medelín, recebeu o THE VERONICA RUDGE GREEN PRICE IN URBAN DESIGN pela Harvard graduate school of Design (GSD).

Este é o prémio mais importante neste campo, é concedido a cada dois anos e reconhece projectos exemplares de urbanismo, os projectos devem representar uma contribuição positiva para o espaço público da cidade e contribuir para uma melhoria da vida urbana nesse contexto.

Outros projectos que já tiveram este reconhecimento foram por exemplo: Seoul, Coreia, pelo Governo Metropolitano de Seoul (2010); ‘Olympic Sculpture Park em Seattle’, Washington, por Weiss/Manfredi (2007); ‘Rehabilitation of the Old City of Aleppo’, Syria, pela cidade de Aleppo (2005); ‘Borneo Sporenburg Residential Waterfront’ em Amsterdão, Holanda, por Adriaan Geuze/West 8 (2002);  Projecto Favela-Bairro no Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, por Jorge Mario Jáuregui Arquitectos (2000).

Sobre o Metro do Porto pode ler-se:

”Metro do Porto is a heavy-infrastructure project of significant scale and complexity. Comprising approximately 70 kilometers of new surface and subsurface track and sixty new stations, it was designed and constructed in about ten years. The scope of such an undertaking within a UNESCO World Heritage City is noteworthy. The incredibly high standard of design achieved by Souto de Moura and his team sets this project apart and makes it worthy of emulation.

Porto and its region consist of sixteen municipalities undergoing intense demographic change and socioeconomic restructuring. The Metro do Porto is a strategically decisive project, providing the future template for a cohesive and resilient regional pattern. While mobility plays an important role in achieving this goal, the authority’s decision to engage a designer of Souto de Moura’s stature has ensured the project’s success at all scales.

At the scale of the region, Metro do Porto not only connects residents on the periphery with amenities and services in the historic city, it also forges a collective identity through its negotiation of the region’s unique geography, and the deliberate composition of individual stations in relation to that geography. At the neighborhood scale, new stations become opportunities to connect previously segregated communities while rehabilitating public space to the highest standard. At the architectural or human scale, the experience of each station—as objects within a culturally rich urban landscape, and as interior architectures imbued with civic virtues—is exceptional due to their spatial and material quality.

Metro do Porto exhibits a generosity toward the public realm that is unusual for a contemporary infrastructure project. The capacity of Souto de Moura and his team to negotiate the myriad technical and administrative constraints makes this a truly remarkable urban design project.”

em: http://www.gsd.harvard.edu/#/news/2013-green-prize-in-urban-design.html

Fonte: http://www.planear.fc.up.pt/metro-porto-recebe-premio-urbanismo-harvard/