Rising Ground Towers

Oporto, Portugal

Urban Plan

2020

Rising Ground Towers is a mixed-use housing proposal for the city of Porto, conceived as an urban project in which landscape, housing, and community are developed as a single system. Rather than treating the site as a park occupied by buildings, the project proposes a continuous green structure that begins at ground level and extends vertically, shaping both the public realm and the residential environment.

The starting point is demographic variety. Different household profiles demand different forms of living, and the project responds by broadening the range of housing typologies to support both affordability and choice. Instead of a single, repeatable unit type, the development is conceived as an assemblage of multiple typologies, capable of accommodating different life stages while strengthening the conditions for everyday coexistence.

This diversity is reinforced by moving from a single-typology building to a more complex organism composed of multiple housing types. Mixing generations and communities is not treated as a social ambition alone, but as a spatial challenge. Each unit is organised through a balance between fixed and adaptable elements. The formal component accommodates functions that require permanence, while informal areas introduce flexibility, allowing residents to appropriate space according to their routines and ways of living.

At the scale of the site, the project is structured around a pedestrian connection that follows the waterline of the existing lake. This route links the urban fabric to the surrounding park landscape, forming a green corridor that crosses the plot and connects the wider territory. Landscape elements operate as continuous infrastructure, supporting ecological continuity as well as slow, pedestrian movement.

At ground level, new connections activate the interface between buildings and public space. A sequence of shared outdoor areas emerges between the volumes, supporting informal encounters and collective use. Sports fields, playgrounds, and leisure spaces are embedded within the landscape, creating conditions for interaction between residents, families, students, and occasional users. In this way, Rising Ground Towers frames housing as part of an urban ecology where landscape and community are designed together.