New Urban Nature

João Moreira, Luís Ferreira e Zosia Fedorów

The New Urban Nature project is a kind of manifest whose aim is to draw attention to abandoned spaces, full of rich vegetation. Guimarães is a city with great potential, but there are many shortcomings here, such as urban green spaces with huge but imperceptible value. All valuable green areas have been placed on the tourist map in order to create a new city-wide attraction. An example of this space is the area of the former textile factory, because there was lush vegetation hidden behind the curtain, which was a wall. During the design phase, the area changed significantly and the top-down decisions resulted in the clearing of the entire area and the loss of all vegetation. Hence the idea of an experimental project that aims both to create an exhibition in the form of greenery and to look after a given area. How to display the value of vegetation without interfering with its development? It was decided to use an industrial steel structure in the form of scaffolding, which is both a path of observation of vegetation, and a cage as a protective layer for the richness inside. Protected by the scaffoldings, it will be able to return to the former light and delight the inhabitants and tourists of Guimarães.