2015 ENHR Congress - Mouraria Field Trip

Field Trip 30th June 2015

There is life in Mouraria: an integrated urban rehabilitation 14:00 -- Departure from ISCTE 14:30 – Coach arrives at Martim Moniz Square (Church of N.Sª da Saúde) -- Welcome Part 1 - Urban tour hosted by Nuno Franco, an inhabitant of the neighborhood, member of Junta da Freguesia staff 14:50 – Walking tour 16:00 – Arrived at Largo da Achada Coffee break (30 minutes) Part 2 - Standpoint and discussion 16.30 – The discussion with the participation of Marluci Menezes, Rita Aguiar Rodrigues e Teresa Costa Pinto and llocal actors. 17:30 - Departure to ISCTE 18.00 - Close of the Visit ___________________ 100 m

- Interdisciplinary Centre of Social Sciences

There is life in Mouraria: integrated urban rehabilitation Built in the medieval period, the neighborhood of Mouraria has always been an outsider area. The segregation to which it was subject, linked to its position "outside the walls" and the rigid legislation concerning the circulation of its residents within the city and the bans on the crossing of non-residents. Segregation brought the negative aspects of cultural and religious insularity, due to the lack of exchanges, but also enabled the defence of the Muslim identity, its way of life and the urban and social structure which characterises it. 20th century urban history brought about changes to this consolidated organic fabric. The changes recommended by the 1948 Municipal Master Plan were greatly inspired by modernist urban planning which viewed historical quarters of the centre of the city as disturbing elements for the progressive city. It was intended to destroy and renovate the existing urban fabric and buildings and solve the problem of connecting the central square of downtown Lisbon to Avenida Almirante Reis, a structural axis from the Centre to the north of the city and region of Lisbon. The occupancy density of the area placed great demands on rehousing. The ostracism of the public authorities to the neighbourhood and the lack of interest of the population explain

Largo Martim Moniz, during 1970 (Source: Photographic Archive of Lisbon)

the difficulty in implementing the renovation proposed by the 1948 Plan. In 1949 pavilions were set up in the Square to accommodate the traders affected by the demolition of the adjoining market square (Praça da Figueira). But the slow rate of demolition work carried out between 1940 and 1960 in the so-called Baixa Mouraria resulted in the functional appropriation of the square, and in the isolation of the neighbourhood's residents.

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demolished areas who were not rehoused. In the post-revolutionary period new groups of immigrants came to the neighbourhood, originating from countries with little or no presence until then. This was the period when Chinese, Indians, Bengalis, Pakistanis, non-Portuguese speaking Africans and Brazilians arrived, which would socially reconfigure the neighbourhood and develop its wholesale trade. Mouraria’s vocation has oscillated between renewal and urban regeneration. From the 1980s the Municipal Company for the Urbanisation of Lisbon (Empresa Municipal de Urbanização de Lisboa) promoted a public tender seeking its renewal, introducing into the contract specifications concepts which had been absent from previous plans, particularly concerns about scale and spatial configuration, improving certain buildings, respecting the historical urban and environmental fabric, in addition to dealing with road circulation issues.

Largo Martim Moniz, during 1960 (Source: Photographic Archive of Lisbon)

Part of the winning bid was implemented in the 1980s.

José Lamas and Carlos Duarte project for Martim Moniz area. Discurso de cidade: Lisboa anos 80. [City Discourse: Lisbon in the 80s ], José Lamas e Carlos Duarte. 1982 Largo Martim Moniz, during 1970 (Source: Photographic Archive of Lisbon)

Despite related population decreases connected with some of the demolition work and subsequent housing, in 1974 Mouraria showed traces of a process of "shrinking", characterised by a reduction in its area and a concomitant demographic densification, through the displacement of the residents from the

Pre pombalino construction

Pombalino construction

The proposal of José Lamas and Carlos Duarte resulted in the construction of the Commercial Centres of Mouraria and Martim Moniz, the construction of the building on the site of the Arch and Palace of the Marquis of Alegrete (demolished in 1946) and the road circulation improvement works (street layout on the eastern side of Martim Moniz and Rua Fernandes da Fonseca).

“Gaioleiro

Concret construction

Limit of the critical

area Construction typologies of the buildings with rehabilitation needs in the ”Critical Zone Mouraria (Source: Teresa Martins, 2009)

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These works saved Martim Moniz Square from the abandoned situation into which it had fallen. The delay in implementing successive proposals had turned the square into a car park and a place to deposit rubbish and debris. The departure of the market from the 1940s had also reinforced the isolated and eccentric status of Mouraria from the other inhabitants of Lisbon, as well as tourists visiting the Centre. The focus on renewal and the successive shaping of the original constructed area accentuated the isolation of the Mouraria neighbourhood, making it more rundown and less attractive for investment. The ruins continued and the degradation worsened. Works on buildings were carried out without technical support, did not solve infiltration problems and brought their own problems through compromising the structures of the buildings. Given this state of affairs the Plan for the Regeneration of Martim Moniz was set up and approved in 1986, along with the Local Office for Mouraria and, following this, the Plan for the Regeneration of Mouraria was drawn up. The establishing of Local Offices represented a paradigm shift in terms of ways of intervening in Historical Quarters. In order for the Office to act at various levels more swiftly, it was assigned the following competencies: urban planning andmanagement of the area, designing projects, carrying out inspections, supervision and management of the urban park. It was also granted the power to make and provide binding opinions and information in various intervention management aspects related to the area.

The centres were initially occupied by Portuguese shopkeepers and immigrants coming from the former Portuguese colonies. This situation changed during the 1990s with the expansion in trade along the main road arteries and with the introduction of wholesale trade through the settling of immigrants. In the city Martim Moniz Square / Baixa Mouraria have earned a well identified vocation for commercial activity supported by planning instruments. The construction of commercial centres intensified the dynamics associated with ethnic trade, which in the meantime took advantage of the commercial tradition of the area. The preponderance of this activity, and the ethnic imprint underlying it, reinforced the densification and cultural diversity of Mouraria. In the 1990s, a 14,000 m² car park was built under the square and in 1997 projects to regenerate the square were implemented, under the authorship of the architects Daniela Ermano and João Paulo Bessa, with the landscaping designed by Ribeiro Teles. Despite these intervention works the square remained uninhabited. Without the conditions to house the passers-by permanently, it was overridden by an agoraphobic logic together with an outsider appropriation dynamics.

In 1989 the Special Plan for the Protection of Mouraria was approved and included the Regulations and “Urban Amenities” Plan. The Office would monitor a series of structuring intervention works partly based on the José Lamas proposal mentioned above. The Office also served to decentralise the technical support from the municipality to regeneration operations carried out in situ. This support was designed as part of a set of financing incentives to works in regeneration (RECRIA, REHABITA, RECRIPH, SOLARH, PEH) within a legal framework of urban regulations experiencing significant changes. When the two shopping centres, finishing off to the east and west the North side of Martim Moniz Square, were constructed in the 1980s, a new approach to the type of trade practised in the area arose with them. They supported the growth of the scale of business.

Largo Martim Moniz, previous photo to 1946 (Source: Photographic Archive of Lisbon)

In 1994 the municipal budget for the historical districts was removed and the way of working was altered so as to remove the Offices in 1997. Integrated Urban Plans were drawn up, the actions of which were now monitored from the City Hall, as well as the evaluation, licensing and fiscalisation of works. This change in methodology occurred at a Moment when the country had adopted the social policy formats proposed by the European Union based on the decentralisation of social action to local consortia. In the first decade 5 autonomous regeneration projects were drawn up involving intervention works in 5 core areas. What had priority in such intervention work was an integrated regeneration in the physical, economic, social and cultural fields, achieved through partnerships for the planning, funding and sharing of responsibilities and costs.

Largo da Achada, 1 (fonte: EPUL, 2006) Largo da Achada, 6 (Source: Photographic Archive of Lisbon))

Important marks involving regeneration were made during the end of the 1980s and the 1990s. However the impact of the Office on this regeneration was limited. On the one hand the improvement of important public spaces was limited to intervention work in four core areas of the urban pathway Mouraria - Castelo – Alfama. What is more, the funding mechanisms were not intended to support undercapitalized owners.

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3) the rehabilitation of two buildings- the Quarteirão dos Lagares and the Casa da Severa - to house activities connected to the multimedia economy and Fado, respectively. The initial project included the setting up of social facilities (extensions of the Socorro, São Cristóvão and São Lourenço parish councils), for the prevention of drug addiction that have not come to fruition. With the administrative reorganisation which took place in October 2013, these parishes (and several more) were integrated into the Civil Parish of Santa Maria Maior, which in the meantime has extended to adapt to the facilities (more centrally) developed for this project. Infrastructure works on public areas carried out in 2012 included replacing the sewage, road and pedestrian networks as well as landscaping works. Core areas of public spaces qualification (Source, M. Pereira, 2011)

The decentralised presence of Offices and the actual evolution of urban studies in Portugal were involved in the development of research into the social and cultural fabric of historical districts, which in some cases would evolve to a consideration of the territorial identity of the neighborhood. These studies have contributed to theenrichment of knowledge into the tangible and intangible heritage of the Moorish quarter, but show the troubling persistence of worrying socio-urban situations.

Part of this work provided continuity to the Mouraria Community Development Programme, in operation since 2011. It was supported by the Social Development Plan and received funding of 1 million Euros in 2011. Since then the budget allocation has been declining. At the same time the municipality has implemented other social projects, such as the BIP / ZIP project, targetted at the most vulnerable urban areas.

Meanwhile, at the turn of the millennium and by the end of the first decade of this century the relative interest in Mouraria and a regeneration economy remained weak compared to other areas targetted for public investment, such as the Castelo area and within the expansionist metropolitan development model adopted. Mouraria returned to its expectant place, with an incipient and at times even superficial or even destructive regeneration. The improvement in the housing conditions is greatly conditioned by its population density, the age of the buildings and the lack of resources. Mouraria is one of the most densely built urban fabrics in the country, with more than 2500 buildings per Km2, and the investment capacity of local residents is low. In this dense construction the regeneration process has continued at a very slow pace, as envisioned by pioneers, some speculators and the municipality, carrying out works on social housing buildings. In 2009 the application drawn up by the local authority to the NSRF (National Strategic Reference Framework) for Marvila and Mouraria was approved. The design of Ai Mouraria/NSRF was born anchored to the idea of fighting against the abandonment of property and cultural heritage, and improving the living conditions of the residents. The programme was co-financed by ERDF through PORLisboa (the Lisbon Regional Operational Programme) which strengthened the EU co-funding of the projects from 50% to 65%. The total funding planned was of approximately EUR 13 million (EUR 7,3 million financed by EU funding). The intervention works, scheduled for three years, focused primarily on: 1) the redevelopment of the public space between Adelino Amaro da Costa and Intendente squares and the adjacent areas; 2) the provision of conditions for establishing an urban path from the tourist or cultural perspective, involving accessibility, urban hygiene and signage of buildings and spaces with patrimonial value;

Ai Mouraria/NSRF urban area

The visit is an opportunity to reflect on those urban territories defying project intentionality, and challenging the linearity often established between physical regeneration and social regeneration. The regeneration of the Historical Centres cannot escape the paradigm of action that rescues the right to housing within the urban social development framework. It is necessary to develop housing studies to find ways to meet the demands of this paradigm, overcoming the limitations of localism and the regeneration economy. It is the very planning and the culture of the planning that is being questioned and, in a broader sense, urban intervention in vulnerable areas containing historical buildings.

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