Social survey - a short summary of what we found

The rehabilitation of Oporto is an astounding challenge nowadays, and one that, in order to be possible, cannot be delayed any longer. The decay of the city’s historical center is the consequence of different policies and phenomenons that slowly contributed to the actual problem.

It’s a difficult task to systematize what happened, since each factor is cause and effect of another. Shortly we can mention three main action fronts: the abandonment of the city center, the buildings’ degradation and the social problems of the inhabitant population. The abandonment of the historical center of Oporto started around the 60’s, when a high percentage of the inhabitants was relocated on social housing around the suburbs, where more jobs and infrastructures were available, in an attempt to diminish the unbearably high population density as well as the health and social problems of the city center. Simultaneously, buildings had entered in a cycle of degradation, caused by the low investments of the owners (due to the house rents freezing policy) and the intense use throughout the years. The historical center of Oporto became, with time, a segregated area of the city, where a high percentage of elderly people would live together with a low education unemployed population, with severe drug and insecurity problems.

Since 1974 the Portuguese government has developed different rehabilitation programs, each one with their own philosophy and strategy, such as CRUARB and Porto Vivo. In the meanwhile, other urban interventions, like the ones of Porto 2001, and the development of the public transportation network, like the Metro, also contributed to the revitalization of the city center. Private investments, though far from enough, contributed mainly to the increase of tourism, restaurants and commercial offers.

Arrebita!Porto arrives in a time in which the city needs as many different public and private projects, with different goals and strategies, as possible. Arrebita!Porto doesn’t intend to be the solution, but one of the many answers to the same problem. With this opportunity we would like to offer an alternative to the touristic, commercial or even high cost projects, that only consider a few, and try to present a social rehabilitation driven project, to explore the potential of the existing qualities of the historical center.

Our first week

Tuesday – our first day of action! We had an all-day tour that helped us to get the first impressions of Porto, which were necessary for our further work. Pilar and Diana from Sidewalk.Porto were our guides that took us through the steep and tight streets, and uncovering to us a lot of historic facts and current curiosities of the city. On our tour through the historic city center, we had the opportunity to get into buildings that are being refurbished – a hostel project of Floret Arquitectura, and an old house about to be refurbished by SWark. Interesting to hear about their aproach. During our ”short” walk we also met our pilot project building in Reboleira 42 for the first time!

... A lot of work to do, but even more ideas and still a lot of energy – we have just arrived!

Since we had been walking for so long, we sat down for a lunch in a very original and sweet place that can exist only in Portugal! And of course – with the inevitable bacalhau!

After lunch we met with a journalist, so he could take a few pictures of us to appear in the newspaper of Wednesday. We will be shy enough to share the link with you.

 

Still miss Guido, but he can get a whole article when arrives…

Wednesday – official birth of Arrebita! Jose and Municipality have finally signed all of the papers. Unfortunately we could not be there, but during lunch we saw José appearing on TV.

We were having a full day workshop at INFOR in Matosinhos, and a fantastic ArchiCAD lectures by Ricardo! Our best recommendations!

After the workshop, one non official thing - our first touch with the ocean, and kind of a rest from digital world of 3D modeling by the beach…

Thursday – a day dedicated to the social aspects of Porto! We’ve been lucky to hear the results of the surveys made by a few fantastic people:

-     two Arrebita girls – Catharina and Joana with a great historic summary and a opinions on the possible causes of the current situation in Porto inner center

-     Celin, who showed us her master work with very clear conclusions about social aspects of

      Porto, which was her thesis for graduating

-     Jose Sequeira and Ana Leite Pereira from PortoVivo, who explained to us the                 

      strategies of their organization through a presentation, but also took us for a short

      walk to see their current work on Morro de Sé 

 

So many different perspectives and points of view!

Friday, Saturday, Sunday - Boa Páscoa! :) Or if you like - Happy Easter!

The Arrebitas with Diana and Pilar

Visiting the refurbishing project house with SWark

Lunching

José, the celebrity, at the municipality

ArchiCAD workshop with Ricardo

Walking the streets with José, Ana and Celin

Olá Porto!

Eva, José, Cristina, Filip and Ingrid

The day is finally here. We have arrived as the first team of the Arrebita!Porto pilot project. "We" being Eva and Cristina from Portugal, Filip from Serbia, Ingrid from Norway and Guido, who will be arriving from Italy next week.

José and the Arrebita team has given us a warm welcome, and has a lot planned for us. From here awaits two and a half month of interesting working and learning. We are lucky to be the designing team for the pilot project, and have a phase ahead of us with getting to know the city, the building and meet a lot of great and knowledged people. And in the end to leave a good and inspiring project for the oncoming participants. 

We can't wait to start working!