Martim Moniz Plaza

This approach is framed through the idea of a Garden of the World. The concept acknowledges Martim Moniz as a place shaped by plurality and everyday coexistence, and translates that condition into a landscape structure that can be read and navigated. Instead of turning cultural difference into a theme, the project focuses on the shared ground where different forms of presence can overlap, pause, and move through the square without being forced into a single image of public space.

The starting point is a shift in identity. The proposal reads the square not primarily as a paved void, but as a space that needs environmental comfort and spatial legibility to sustain civic life. It replaces the logic of hard surface with a green system, treating planting, shade, and permeability as the project’s main organising tools.

The notion of the ecotone supports this reading. In ecology, the ecotone is a transitional zone where environments meet, and interaction intensifies. Here, it becomes a spatial strategy: the plaza is conceived as a fertile edge condition, designed to host convergence through gradation rather than separation. Gardens, understood as cultural artefacts, inform the project’s understanding of how people inhabit nature and become an urban device for structuring routes, gathering areas, and quieter moments within the square.

Environmental performance follows from this spatial logic. Green infrastructure and nature-based stormwater strategies are integrated into the public realm, while future mobility considerations are absorbed into the overall layout rather than treated as an external constraint. In this way, landscape operates as active urban infrastructure, improving resilience and comfort while reinforcing continuity with Lisbon’s broader green structure.