by It connects the entire academic center of Campo Alegre, in Porto, through a golden walkway that winds through the treetops to escape road sections. the urban project The Golden Connectiondesigned by university students Alex Albuquerque, Isabelle Freitas, Mayara Mendes and Mariana Horta, proposes a pedestrian route between the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto (FCUP), the planetarium and the Faculty of Architecture (FAUP), in order to find alternatives for the roads that cross Campo Alegre since the 1960s.
The proposal of the four students of the Masters in Landscape Architecture, at FCUP, coordinated by Professor José Miguel Lameiras, is among the 12 finalists of the competition Streetlife Design, an international stage for landscape architecture students. The idea was chosen among 70 others, four of which came from the Faculty of Sciences of the University of Porto.
Mariana Horta describes the daily route in Campo Alegre to highlight the possibilities of “a place that seems forgotten”. Guided by the use of green space, the urban plan they envisioned includes the construction of plazas and recreational areas, promoting contact between students from different faculties. “Well-designed squares produce sustainable environmental, social, economic and cultural outcomes,” reads the presentation of the accessible golden bridge for people with reduced mobility.
Dr
For six months, the team based their work on the Japanese technique kintsugi, is used to join pieces of porcelain with gold. For this reason, explains Mariana Horta, the “unique beauty” and fragmentation of the academic pole gave rise to the idea of the golden tone – which they called the golden connection. In addition, the project was improved by gathering “opinions and ideas from people outside the region.”
From Brazil, Alex Albuquerque explains that the 500m walkway, designed from steel, a material designed to “resist thermal fluctuations and solar radiation”, will be “easily assembled” using prefabricated parts, an option that is “less damaging to vegetation ».
Although the pedestrian route on the golden bridge is not as fast as the existing one, Alex Albuquerque emphasizes the safety and experience combined with the “pleasure of walking among trees” and away from the road, overlooking the Douro River. “Let’s join the pieces of Campo Alegre with gold and bring a new vitality,” suggests the Master’s student in Landscape Architecture.
Dr
Dr
Beyond the idea of the golden bridgethe group of graduate students designed an urban intervention capable of connecting the infrastructure with the University Stadium and the Botanical Garden of Porto, enhancing the connection in the immediate vicinity from Campo Alegre. This part of the plan incorporated another idea, from 2013, in which a bridge over the Via de Cintura Interna directly connects the University Stadium with the Porto Botanical Garden.
The intention to restore this academic center is a recurring theme in the Porto academy and a goal of the direction of the school of architecture, which in October 2021 argued: “This space (…) needs a unifying intervention that, reducing the impact of the street structure that surrounds it, allows the creation of pedestrian routes and cycle paths between the different schools”.
Through the landscaping project, Mariana Horta hopes, “as a student from Porto” and regardless of her outcome Streetlife Design Competition“bringing the municipality’s attention to an excellent green space to bring students together.”
Dr
FCUP
The competition brings together students from all over the world and evaluates urban and landscape proposals that encourage “rethinking and redesigning spaces, creating ideas with a future”, explains Professor José Miguel Lameiras. Prizes in the competition range between one thousand and 7000 euros. Work The Golden Connectionwhich the students will present in Leiden, the Netherlands, on March 24, competes in the final phase with 12 proposals from the USA, the UK, Ukraine, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, the Republic of Ireland and the Czech Republic.
