Changes

So here I am, returned from a glorious honeymoon in Portugal. Aside from getting robbed of our remaining cash on our last day while we were away from our hotel room, Lisbon and Madeira offered a perfect spot to start a marriage. But of course, even on vacation, I found myself thinking about our exotic surroundings and trying to dissect how a settlement with hundreds of years on anywhere in America has evolved and adjusted to the realities of modern land use needs. Our first stop, Lisbon, had all of what an unindoctrinated American would expect from an "Old World" city. Tight cobblestone roads of the Alfama and Bairro Alto districts captured the bygone times of medieval Europe. We walked the ruins of the St. George's Castle, which overlooked the city, and explored the Belem Tower, a few miles outside of the city center, which was the demarcation point for countless voyages during the Age of Discovery. But it was a discovery that I made in our hotel which was most intriguing to me.

Rummaging through the hotel library, I came across a flier for the Lisbon International Triennale of Architecture, which will be held until the end of July. Unfortunately, I only read the pamphlet after we had left the city. Using "Urban Voids" as its main theme, the symposium's primary mission is to discuss and propose solutions to rectify what the literature calls "spots of 'non-city,' absent places, ignored or not in use anymore, aliens or survivors to any structuring urban plan." Like the "Drosscape" previously discussed in my post dated December 5, 2006, the collection of thinkers drawn to this event will examine ways to reuse and adapt those parcels and locales within cities that have fallen into disuse. When I think about the "Urban Voids" of Lisbon, I can recall those locations we traversed that needed additional consideration and attention. My wife and I left Lisbon with a sense that the city was one definitely worth exploring, but one that did not necessarily require a return trip. Sure, this is a different measure than one to determine the actual vitality of a city, but it does provide some indication as the work that the capital of Portugal can still do to improve on the centuries that have come before.

Moving over to Madeira, and the wonderful vistas that exude from its jagged coast and rugged topography, and the beautiful blue ocean that hugs its shores, this locale brought a sense of new discovery to us. At the same time, I saw many of the same questions to answer regarding "Urban Voids." Sure, Funchal, the major city on the volcanic island, is a beautiful, picture perfect postcard of a resort town, down to the overhead cable car system that take tourists over its wonderful streets below. Gorgeous, if not small vacation homes shove their way up the hills that lead out of town up into the heart of the island. But beneath the luster of the commercial center, where the day we walked its streets a line of classic automobiles were primed for a road rally, was there more that could be done?

I suppose the thoughts that crossed my mind most were about the potential of these places. Notwithstanding their existing beauty, as a land use professional, I couldn't resist what more they could be. In both locations, we were afforded only a very small sample of what it meant to be in "Lisbon" and "Funchal." But of what we saw, we were still left with, "is there more?" Maybe it's that ingrained American outlook on things that pushed us to ask for more. But if the great European minds thinking about issues involving the built environment are also asking this same question, maybe it is a more fundamental pursuit, one that crosses national borders and language and cultural differences. It is that inherent drive of optimism that continues to change and reshape the world around us. Almost on the order of the desire to repaint the walls in your house, just because you want something different, the need to update the place you live in is a prerequisite to remaining a vital part of the outside world. Changes need to be marked with great fanfare, just as my wife and I did in glorious fashion as we walked the streets of Portugal. Perhaps this underlying, fundamental movement towards change will entice us back to the country, to rediscover it all over again.