Landscape Architecture Project for the Park of Asprela, Porto

The landscape architecture project for the Asprela Campus Park was intended to promote the requalification of the green spaces located between the Faculties of Engineering (FEUP) and Economics (FEP) of the University of Porto (U.Porto) in Paranhos, Porto.

The full set of plots considered covers an area of approximately 3 ha (29 953.57 m2), which at the beginning of the intervention comprised abandoned and cultivated spaces, farm buildings, most of which uninhabited and in an advanced state of degradation, university buildings, remains of an old alley, an improvised parking lot and a channeled and covered running stream.

This project sought to address the various problems identified in these lands, most of which the property of U.Porto, namely:

1. the overall lack of unity and spatial coherence;
2. the existence of a fragmentary, degraded and disconnected context linking two reference units of U.Porto’s pole in Asprela - FEUP and the EFF;
3. the need to outline a new route and associated outside spaces associated, with a north-south orientation, which can accommodate motor traffic, pedestrian circuits and public and private parking;
4. the lack of outdoor recreational areas;
5. low environmental and landscape quality. 

In order to do so, the landscape architecture program was structured upon the following main priority actions:implementation of a unifying green structure and improvement of the environmental and landscape quality throughout the areas intervened;

• establishment of an explicit physical and visual connection between the FEUP and FEP;
• design of new parking and street areas;
• development of outdoor recreational opportunities in green spaces;
• maximization of the permeable area covered with vegetation, making it suitable for public use;
• "naturalization" of the existing water line;
• implementation of a clean design for the outdoor spaces, protruded by a green forest structure;
• selection of design solutions and materials, optimized at the highest level under functional, ecological, economic and aesthetical perspectives.