Lisbon Vertigo

BUILDING in height in Lisbon? A prejudice, an impossibility and an urban taboo. 40 images for those without vertigo.

Cities in the future will be denser, and more concerned with air quality and the amount of green space. Building at height is naturally more communal, and allows greater soil release. It is not a typical solution but it is not a taboo, be it ideological / aesthetic or based on the city’s sacred history. The city is not a museum, it is a place where people live, breathe, create and respond to today’s global challenges.

“The construction of buildings that are evidently impossible in clearly dated base images makes Lisbon Vertigo a project full of potential to question a set of guidelines that insist on assuming themselves as natural laws in the act of thinking about the city of Lisbon. (…) The series of images obviously addresses themes such as building at height, museification and city identity, but also promotes, in a more subtle way, a reflection on issues of property definition, public space and, above all, involvement on the part of all those affected by the impossible towers, repositioning the architect not only as a service provider but also as a citizen. (…) To activate this potential, it is enough to have the courage and generosity to assume it, proposing in each project a Rafael Hitlodeu who tells the story of another better reality. ”

Francisco Moura Veiga – in Público newspaper, 19 January 2020

Bio

Atelier Campos Costa Architects, founded in 2007, has received numerous national and international awards. Among them: IAB Annual Award – RJ 2017, Rio de Janeiro; FAD 2015; VALMOR 2011 (Honorable Mention); APRIZE 2012, Triennale de Milano, Milan; EUROPE 40 UNDER 40 2012, The European Center for Architecture Art Design and Urban Studies; NEXT GENERATION 2006 AWARD Metropolis Magazine, New York.

The photomontages for the Lisbon Vertigo project were created from online photo archives showing Lisbon in the 30s, 40s and 50s, by:

Pedro Campos Costa, Franscisco Guedes, Enrica Mazzon, Federica Fortugno