Periurban Park, Vale of Amoreira

For the design of the project for the Parque Periurbano do Vale da Amoreira a strategy of integration and articulation of the built (proposed and existing) and non-built (open spaces of public character) systems was adopted as part of a social, ecologically cohesive and balanced whole. In this sense, the Park is thought of as a multifunctional infrastructure associated with environmental protection (soil, water, flora, fauna) and property (hydraulic structures, traditional walls, etc.), to production (agricultural, horticultural, forestry, biomass) and sports, recreation and leisure. That is why the key idea that guided the design of the Park, based on its understanding as Socioecological Infrastructure, rests on interconnection and interdependence of three types of Infrastructure: Gray Infrastructure like residential and commercial buildings; Green Infrastructure such as meadows, woods, orchards, vegetable gardens, hedges, and tree alignments, and Blue Infrastructure like natural drainage line and retention basin. This, as a structuring and vertebrating element of the Park, allows the integration of the water cycle in the design of the Park by intensifying and optimizing natural processes- circulation of water, air, organic matter- and promoting the increase of biodiversity, through the creation of different habitats for both flora and fauna (birds, insects, amphibians, reptiles). This results in a spatial organization of the Park which, based on interconnection between the natural system and the social system through a network continuity of routes and spaces associated with sport and leisure, intends to reconcile society with nature and the development of both, in the long term.