Climate risk is a shared global condition, marked by intensifying heat, water scarcity, flooding, and ecological loss that no border can contain. In 2025, these pressures sharpened a collective awareness that government pledges and international agreements are not keeping pace with lived realities. Across geopolitical contexts, the tension is immediate and structural, revealing gaps between policy ambition and material change. This moment has exposed a growing reliance on disciplines outside formal structures to respond quickly, intelligently, and with accountability.

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An architecture degree may provide a vast curriculum, but many of the skills needed for a project lie outside the discipline. This is especially true for urban-scale projects. They demand expertise in areas like traffic studies, structural calculations, landscape design, and technical installation forecasting. These are often seen as "complementary" but are, in fact, fundamental to the overall design.

In a country like Portugal, with a relatively small but geographically diverse territory, the challenge of connecting different parts of the territory – whether to cross a river or link one level of a city to another – is a constant one. Its largest metropolitan areas, such as Lisbon and Porto, share a rugged geography of steep valleys and hills. These features led to the development of elevators and funiculars, like the Santa Justa Lift and the Bica Funicular in Lisbon, and the Guindais Funicular in Porto. Today, besides improving urban mobility, they have become tourist landmarks.

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