Tip:
Highlight text to annotate it
X
“L’Altra Europa” > "The Other Europe"
[Federico Taddia] Good Saturday morning from Federico Taddia, and welcome to L’Altra Europa.
We are live from the Radio24 studios in Milan, as usual, and here we go with our appointment dedicated to the “other Europes”:
other points of view on our Continent, on our European Union. The coordinates to follow us live: sms to [39] 349 238 66 66, Facebook.com/latraeuropa or Twitter @federicotaddia.
These are virtual pages we update minute by minute, with all the link to the subject we talk about.
Today we will travel a lot. We will talk about an important European consultation on a specific theme that needs the Citizen’s opinion;
organic will be a topic; we will talk about the International Holocaust Remembrance Day;
we will talk about one of the European Culture capitals. And now we begin our journey from Oporto.
Now playing Madredeus, “Ao Longe o Mar”
[Federico Taddia] We are getting to the Ribeira, the historical center of Oporto …
UNESCO World Heritage site …
a spectacular heart of a beautiful city.
It is a crumbling historical center and it is abandoned.
A city center that would need to be regenerated,
but we are in Portugal, in the grasp of the financial crisis,
and locals do not have the means to refurbish,
they are leaving the historical center.
And in this situation there is a project: it is called Arrebita!Porto,
that means “perk up Oporto”.
A project of requalification a zero cost.
To understand how it works, we invited one of the involved architects. His name is Flavio Carniel,
he is Italian and comes from Feltre, in the Belluno Province.
A graduate student from the University of Architecture of Venice,
he was educated also in Norway and Finland and now he is in Portugal.
Hello Flavio, welcome to “L’Altra Europa”.
[Flavio Carniel] Good morning Federico, good morning Italy.
[F.T.] Well, guide us through this historical center, through the Ribeira.
[F.C.] The Ribeira is the core of Oporto.
It is the area entitled and inscribed onto the UNESCO lists, as world heritage.
It is a confluence of buildings, of colours, of architecture
and - most importantly - of Portuguese history.
This makes Oporto one of the most important cities of Portugal and of Western Europe.
Together with all of these characteristics,
the Ribeira has been unfortunately witnessing a depopulation process
that proceeds with reductions of 30% of the inhabitants every ten years.
This means a huge problem for the historical UNESCO-protected Oporto,
since these Medieval buildings are basically falling apart.
The buildings are abandoned and are losing their beauty
because they cannot be lived by the Portuguese themselves, they are losing their identity.
This is a significant problem, because this is
both World Heritage and Portuguese heritage, owned by the Portuguese.
[F.T.] Right! [F.C.] It was in that situation that the Arrebita!Porto project began.
Arrebita means “perk up”, as you said.
[F.T.] The project was conceived by architect José Paixão
… if I am not mistaking the pronunciation …
[F.C.] Yes! I may not have the perfect Portuguese pronunciation,
but I think it is José Paixão … yes.
[F.T.] As far as I understand, there is a local team of senior architects and engineers,
dealing with all the bureaucracy,
backed up by a virtuous mechanism of a group of young architects,
in charge for a short period of months.
These young architects, like you, have the chance to work internationally
and at the same time to have a “low-cost” effect. Right?
[F.C.] Yes. José is dealing with all the communication strategy for the project.
He basically holds contacts with the whole network of suppliers, project partners
and to the Portuguese professionals involved in the project.
As you know an architectural design, especially a project in a UNESCO zone,
it needs a local team that clearly speaks the language … [F.T.] … obviously, yes …
[F.C.] … this is because the contractors, the politicians and in general all the local population are mostly Portuguese.
[F.T.] Talking about you, what are you working with in this project?
[F.C.] We are professionals, architects and engineers, in my case architect.
We follow the technical design of the project.
The team is formed by five international professionals,
taking on this role for three months.
At this stage we are Team 4, and our background comes from various European Universities.
In my case I was educated in Italy,
we have a Portuguese architect, one from Spain,
one from Belgium and one from France.
We are following the working drawings and the detail design phase.
Just the other day we were on the conservation site together with the local team.
All together we are developing and finalizing the working plans of the pilot project;
it is a building just north of the Ribeira area, right in the core of the UNESCO world heritage zone.
[F.T.] This building is the pilot project of Arrebita!Porto, and works should end in 2014, right?
[F.C.] Exactly.
[F.T.] Here is the website, www.arrebita.org, in order to learn on the project.
How long will you be staying in Oporto, Flavio?
[F.C.] I plan to be here till Easter … I will have Easter in Italy.
F.T.] Good. Then we should try to get an hold on you before Easter, just to know the latest updates on the project phase
and on this virtuous initiative.
I think this is a good model, to be studied and imitated in other contexts.
Thank you and good luck with your work. Ciao. [F.C.] Thank you.