Monte da Lapa, 1

Siza, Álvaro

This is the first of two volumes featuring Álvaro Siza’s renewal of Monte da Lapa in Porto. Volume I focuses on the project’s background, concept, and work under construction. The design starts from what had by 2014 become an isolated pocket of urban remains, stranded between the city’s downtown and its expansion to the west, a mixture of completely degraded, abandoned, or unhealthy housing. Siza’s intervention transforms it into a living space capable of advancing intersocial, intercultural, and intergenerational junctures. The publication includes a conversation between the Siza and architect and critic Nuno Grande.