The city thought and the city built: design approaches to Praça do Comércio, Lisbon

Abstract

This paper analyses the urban design processes of the square “Praça do Comércio”, in Lisbon. It comprises two distinct moments in its history. The first moment is about the period in the aftermath of the 1755 earthquake. The second analysis moment is about the late XX, and the early XXI century. It confronts a methodological analysis of the iconography and cartography of those periods, with the current local observations and their spatial visual assessment. The paper has three parts. First, it presents the six proposals submitted for “Praça do Comércio” in the second half of the XVIII century. Another sets of four-period maps are also shown as these maps include also the medieval city designs. This reveals the continuity of the different projects’ ideas for the “Praça do Comércio”. The second part deals with the placement of the D. José I (1714-1777) equestrian statue. This section discusses the placement of the statue as part of an overall plan where the “Praça do Comércio” acts as a stage for the D. José I statue. The ideology of public praise towards the reigning king is evident in this tie-in between the square and the statue. At last, the square’s different functions and uses during the late XX and the early XXI century are presented. For that, two recent projects are analysed. The first developed between 1992 and 2000 and the second from 2010. The analysis of the square designs reveals the existence of a strong connection with the past. The projects recover the medieval square design, both the opening towards the Tagus River and its design, regardless of the different proposals advances and retreats in relation to its form, notable buildings, and dimensions. Public art acts in an unabridged whole with the urban design. This is near to the notion of urban composition, in that the monument transcends the idea of a sculptural object and becomes the entire urban set. This understanding is in contrary to the notion of public art as a decorative element apposed on pre-existing spaces. The urban composition is also in contrary to the idea of public space as an outdoor gallery where the art pieces are independent units without any coherent dialog with the public space. The 1992 and 2010 plans, although formally and materially different, present the concomitant ideas. Both present ideas for the occupation of the lateral arcades of the square as the touristic and living areas. The current project (2010 drawing), much criticized by architects in the media, abandoned the ideas of the previous plan (1992). These included a road tunnel and an underground car park. The 2010 project includes some movement architectural barriers. It also presents a new design for the pavement based on a diagonal grid that leads to a novel reading of the square. These projects, proposed in the XVIII–XXI centuries, show how to interpret the memories, the symbolism and the uses of the “Praça do Comércio”. The recent projects are dissonant about the image of the square, but nonetheless, all projects respect the attributes of its genesis.