João Filipe Pereira Veríssimo

A market between presents . Lisbon

+ isarch

The urban intervention consists on the introduction of three distinct equipments: a market, a hostel and a housing building.

These are planned to be a starting point for the development of a new program that ad­dresses the problem of the scarce public pathways and light presence, humanizing the scale and atmos­phere, and therefore bringing it closer to the original meaning of the place.
The intention of unifying this place is not only conceptual but also part of a formal strategy. The project so­lution foresees the demolition of two buildings opening up enough space to develop the market on the ground floor that works a continuation of the public space, connecting the three streets and extending its program to the interior of the block. The communication between the streets and the interior of the block is made through an arch that, acting as a symbolic door, marks a transition rather than a separation. The hostel and housing building are strategically placed around the block also working as connection points and intensifying the permeable public aspect of the program.
The interior of the block is then added the urban morphology of the city participating actively in its public structure. The project is a reference to the urban feeling of Lisbon that manages to give its public spaces an intimate feeling through clusters, patios and sudden lookout points.