Lisbon Vertigo

BUILDING at 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 quantity of green spaces. High-rise construction is naturally more communal, and allows for greater ground clearance. It’s not a typical solution, but it’s not a taboo, be it ideological/aesthetic or based on the city’s sacrosanct history. The city is not a museum, it is a place that lives, breathes, creates and responds to today’s global challenges.

“The montages of obviously impossible constructions in clearly dated base images make Lisbon Vertigo a project full of potential for questioning a set of guidelines that stubbornly assume themselves to be natural laws in the act of thinking about the city of Lisbon. (…) The series of images obviously addresses issues such as high-rise construction, museification and the city’s 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 take it on, proposing in each project a Rafael Hitlodeu who tells the story of another, better reality.”

Francisco Moura Veiga – Público newspaper