Fontainhas Community Housing

Final year project at the University of Westminster. The scheme aimed to address three objectives for the dilapidated Fontaínhas escarpment site on the banks of the River Douro in Porto’s city centre.  These objectives aimed to first make safe the site and surrounding environment and then to culturally and socially enrich this strip of land in the heart of this historic city:

[ 1 ] Physical: Land Stabilasation Securing the escarpment and making safe the sliding land and cliff faces. Water Retention Controlling the flow of water moving across the site and causing the land to slip Pedestrianised Infrastructure a path network that links the Fontainhas area with the nearby historic area of Ribeira

[ 2 ] Social: Re-establish a community on the site using low-cost housing that can be built over a number of years. Over time the development would work to re-knit the torn Fontainhas escarpment community and add vitality back to the decaying heart of the city.

[ 3 ] Cultural: Civic Festival Hosting To consolidate the cultural programme of of civic events in the heart of Porto that generate capital towards the rebuilding of the community housing.