The project is part of a vaster strategy of a cycling network which is being developed by the municipality of Lisbon. However, the relation with the city’s harbor and the river Tagus sets forth an unique identity for this particular route. The heterogeneity of spaces and environments, the proximity or crossing of several industrial and monumental sites drive us to approach this place with caution and sobriety and, at the same time, to determine exactly what is the space through which this route wanders about.
There are conflicts because of the presence and characteristics of so many different surfaces associated with so many contexts which, on the other hand, have an important role in the construction of city’s image and memory and its relation with the river. This acknowledgment took us to pursue a careful study of the successive layers and covers which were accumulated on the river bank in order to find a common ground and to produce a clearer and intenser image.
The design lays down a reversible bicycle trail over the memory of the river bank, the city and the river itself in order to minimize conflicts with other mobility modes and to imprint an unmistakable route.
The strategy first lined out by the municipality is accepted totally and with rigour. In addiction the project interprets the clarity of its linear form with a system of signs, impressions and incisions on the vast mosaic of preexisted or introduced surfaces.
Communication, displacement and experience become space attributes for the riparian city borders.
Awards | Red Dot-design award – 2010, SEGD – Merit Award – 2010, D&AD-in Book e European Design Awards- Silver Award – 2010
