Generative design methods are able to produce a large number of potential solutions of architectural floor plans, which may be overwhelming for the decision-maker to cope with. Therefore, it is important to develop tools which organise the generated data in a meaningful manner. In this study, a comparative analysis of four architectural shape representations for the task of
Abstract. The present study, based on a comparative analysis of several plans for Lisbon's Baixa district, with an emphasis on that area's public space, contributes to an understanding of the urban design process and presents a fresh perspective on dealing with historical data by conducting a posteriori analysis using mathematical tools to uncover relations in the historical data. The nine plans used were quantified and evaluated in a comparative manner. While CAD was used to quantify the urban morphology of the different plans, comparative tables make it possible to register the data, which was further evaluated through two interrelated processes: mathematical analysis and the urban analysis. The results show the existence of power law relations for the areas of each of the city's different elements (e.g., blocks, churches, largos and adros). We discuss how this contributes to the understanding of the plans' elements.
This paper analyses the urban design processes of the square “Praça do Comércio”, in Lisbon. It comprises two distinct moments in its history. The first moment is about the period in the aftermath of the 1755 earthquake. The second analysis moment is about the late XX, and the early XXI century. It confronts a methodological analysis of the iconography and cartography of those periods, with the current local observations and their spatial visual assessment. The paper has three parts. First, it presents the six proposals submitted for “Praça do Comércio” in the second half of the XVIII century. Another sets of four-period maps are also shown as these maps include also the medieval city designs. This reveals the continuity of the different projects’ ideas for the “Praça do Comércio”. The second part deals with the placement of the D. José I (1714-1777) equestrian statue. This section discusses the placement of the statue as part of an overall plan where the “Praça do Comércio” acts as a stage for the D. José I statue. The ideology of public praise towards the reigning king is evident in this tie-in between the square and the statue. At last, the square’s different functions and uses during the late XX and the early XXI century are presented. For that, two recent projects are analysed. The first developed between 1992 and 2000 and the second from 2010. The analysis of the square designs reveals the existence of a strong connection with the past. The projects recover the medieval square design, both the opening towards the Tagus River and its design, regardless of the different proposals advances and retreats in relation to its form, notable buildings, and dimensions. Public art acts in an unabridged whole with the urban design. This is near to the notion of urban composition, in that the monument transcends the idea of a sculptural object and becomes the entire urban set. This understanding is in contrary to the notion of public art as a decorative element apposed on pre-existing spaces. The urban composition is also in contrary to the idea of public space as an outdoor gallery where the art pieces are independent units without any coherent dialog with the public space. The 1992 and 2010 plans, although formally and materially different, present the concomitant ideas. Both present ideas for the occupation of the lateral arcades of the square as the touristic and living areas. The current project (2010 drawing), much criticized by architects in the media, abandoned the ideas of the previous plan (1992). These included a road tunnel and an underground car park. The 2010 project includes some movement architectural barriers. It also presents a new design for the pavement based on a diagonal grid that leads to a novel reading of the square. These projects, proposed in the XVIII–XXI centuries, show how to interpret the memories, the symbolism and the uses of the “Praça do Comércio”. The recent projects are dissonant about the image of the square, but nonetheless, all projects respect the attributes of its genesis.
Abstract. This investigation shows the European influence on the work of Portuguese architects of the Enlightenment period. Based on previous studies we focus our attention on the design of "Praça do Comércio" square and on a hypothesis, that it was based on the French Royal Square. We demonstrate that the design of Lisbon from the second half of the eighteenth-century was influenced by the theories and best practices of the time. We also confirm that the architect Eugénio dos Santos e Carvalho, a member of the reconstruction team for the Baixa, had in his personal library several reference books of French architectural practice that certainly influenced his architecture. The plans for the main square of Lisbon's lower city, "Praça do Comércio", can be compared to the "Place de Nos Conquêtes", predecessor of the "Place Vêndome", in its design, architecture and dimensions. This research analysed the cartography and iconography of Lisbon's reconstruction. In particular, the drawings of "Praça do Comércio" and "Place de nos Conquêtes" were exhaustively studied. The comparative study of the elements for both squares lead to the conclusion that the Portuguese square presents many aspects of the French Age of Enlightenment, and in particular those featured in the "Place de nos Conquêtes". This paper concludes that the Portuguese urban design and architectural projects of the 18th century are the result of previous knowledge where it was always possible to articulate the vernacular with academic design, and where many different influences left their mark on the culture of the period. The plans for the lower part of Lisbon display a mixture of references that relate to architectural and urban planning traditions of the Portuguese military engineering and contemporary French urban planning.
Abstract:The different options for the reconstruction of the city of Lisbon in the aftermath of the 1755 earthquake are studied with an agent-based model based on randomwalks. This method gives a comparative quantitative measure of mobility of the circulation spaces within the city. The plans proposed for the city of Lisbon signified a departure from the medieval mobility city model. The intricacy of the old city circulation spaces is greatly reduced in the new plans and the mobility between different areas is substantially improved. The simulation results of the random-walk model show that those plans keeping the main force lines of the old city presented less improvement in terms of mobility. The plans that had greater design freedom were, by contrast, easier to navigate. Lisbon's reconstruction followed a plan that included a shift in the traditional notions of mobility. This affected the daily lives of its citizens by potentiating an easy access to the waterfront, simplifying orientation and navigability. Using the random-walk model it is shown how to quantitatively measure the potential that synthetic plans have in terms of the permeability and navigability of different city public spaces.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.