Date: 2004/2006

Location: Coimbra, Portugal

Area: 15918 sqm

Client: Coimbra Polis S.A.

Project coordinators:
João Ferreira Nunes, Carlos Ribas

Project collaborators:
Joana Barreto

Architecture:
Gonçalo Byrne, José Laranjeira

Speciality:
BETAR, Estudos e projectos de Estabilidade
Grade Ribeiro, Estudos, projectos e Consultoria
JOULE, Projectos, Estudos e Coordenação
Eng. António Magalhães de Carvalho

The intervention lies within a territory that has been re-qualified, in accordance to several detail plans. These plans promote a system of urban river parks and pedestrian pathways on and between both sides of the Mondego River.This intervention has two main objectives: to protect the convent area from river flooding by building an embankment/dike, and to create a public green area that will lead people from the left bank of the city to Mondego’s Green Park, through a tunnel underneath an existing barrier, a road with a rather intense traffic. In this new public space there are three types of pathways: one that allows the access to Mondego’s Green Park, another that crosses through the lower area of the intervention, near the new built embankment/dike that protects Sta. Clara’s Convent; and the latter, one, that stretches on top of the embankment/dike, and therefore enables a beautiful view of the referred Convent. This latter pathway connects the new bus parking area with the entrance of the monument. As a result of the different spot height levels between the Convent area and the pedestrian pathways, several slopes with different degrees of steepness and solar orientations are generated.