Portuguese Pavilion: A public square for the world

The main concept behind Portugal’s participation in Expo 2010 is the role of the “Praça” – the city square - as the focus of urban life and activity, in line with the general theme of the World Expo  “Better City, Better Life”. In consideration of the public square – the “praça” - and the geostrategic position of Portugal as gateway to the Atlantic, the theme to represent Portugal in Shanghai will be “Portugal, uma praça para o mundo” ( “Portugal – A public square for the world”). The pavilion will refer simultaneously to the public square as a territorial space, and to the “country of the great western ocean”, the name by which Portugal was known to the Chinese people during initial contacts between cultures in the 16th century and which prevailed up to middle of the 20th century.

MULTIFUNCTIONAL CITIES

The cities of Portugal enjoy unique characteristics in terms of their historical origins and heritage. Multifunctional, with a capacity for internal connectivity, they are unique in their appearance and urban landscape and the hospitality of their inhabitants reflects both diversity and a welcoming interculturalism. The desire is to convey to the world that Portuguese cities provide a unique experience and way of life.

In Portugal, a public space is, by excellence, the area of the city that brings together, within itself, a set of characteristics which confer identity on the urban space, whether morphologically or typologically, or in the social sphere.The grand variety of Portuguese squares epitomises the role attached to the public space and, as such, reflects the human character that Portuguese cities have, whether in the way they are administered – with a full awareness of the common interest and the collective good that is of and for everybody – or in the way they are "used", lived in, appropriated and experienced, in freedom and with an elevated sense of citizenship. The proposal will then show the “praça” as an urban meeting point, a space for memories, a stage for changes... and an ideal public space, whose multifunctional character and manner of appropriation, define a city’s identity and that of its inhabitants.

LISBON AND THE PRAÇA DO COMÉRCIO

To convey the way of life of Portuguese cities, the Portuguese contribution to Expo2010 will embody an outdoor urban space of notable size and national importance – the city of Lisbon. Praça do Comércio, a landmark square in Lisbon, has been chosen for its location as well as for its symbolic importance in the urban renewal of the city, both in the past and in the future.Praça do Comércio should be understood as a doorway to the Atlantic (“the great western ocean”), via the grand estuary of the Tagus river, with emphasis on its land–sea connection, manifested in the square and its point of contact with the estuary – the Cais das Colunas (the old columned quay). The square reaches out to the Tagus, providing the city of Lisbon with its point of departure for discoveries to come. The Tagus connects two shorelines and embodies the territorial unity of the grand metropolis, a function performed, on another scale, by Shanghai’s Huangpu river.