Alice Cutter

the living rooms of São Cristóvão

The living rooms of São Cristóvão provide a catalyst for the re-connection of communities within Lisbon, in unison with a means of connection to those beyond … interactions and connections that bridge social, economic and physical separations.

Through the project, alternative and self-organised support networks emerge, aiding the resilience of the city’s ‘island’ neighbourhoods … a response to the aging nature of the population and the developing void in society resultant from the geração à rasca, Portugal’s lost generation.

Overlaps encourage connections between diverse individuals … between the young, students, adults, retired, elderly and those who have left the city … renewed connections foster the exchange of knowledge, learning, culture and information … as well as imparting a sense of integration between people, places and where they belong.

The project interventions make strategic moves to reconfigure and ease circulation through the challengingly steep terrain of the island neighbourhood of São Cristóvão … the six interventions act as anchors for various social programs, centered around the re-appropriation of the domestic.

The project has been approached as a component of a citywide regeneration strategy, with the possibility of parallel opportunities being explored for other island neighbourhoods.