Lisbon: The Latest Architecture and News

RISCO Architects‘ new 5-star Altis Belém Hotel contains 50 rooms and a number of facilities intended to support water sports. The hotel is designed in a way as to not constitute a visual obstacle along the axis between the Belém Tower and the Monument to the Discoveries. The hotel is a very narrow structure composed of a rectangular platform and “pockets” that hold different entities, such as a restaurant, to provide privacy. Above this platform, a larger green space opens for the guests to enjoy. On the exterior of the hotel, what appears to be an elaborate surface is actually a system of shutters that guests can open or close to reveal their larger balconies.

ULHT (Universidade Lusófona de Humanidades e Tecnologias) organized an international workshop on the theme of waterfront design (European Workshop Waterfront Urban Design) EWWUD. The workshop is coordinated by Pedro Ressano Garcia. This event will take place between 14 and 28 March 2010 and has several international specialists in nine foreign universities.

Solutions for the relocation of port facilities and the consequent waterfront regeneration of old ports are dependet upon the capacity of both port and city to sucessfully develop the necessary means of negotiation, to work towards mutual improvements. while Port Representatives privilege the efficiency of maritime activity, City leaders pursue improvements to their citizens quality of life.

Exchange of good pratices between port cities is required with two goals: to support the port’s needed to expand and relocate, and to produce urban waterfront REGENERATION that integrates rather than segregates neighborhoods and their citizens. The Workshop’s objectives and list of universities involved, after the break.