CUTCITY 2014 - The International Seminar CUT CITY

In nowadays cities, the heavy traffic routes are a real and a very complex problem. The need to link parts of the city through specific routes, to avoidtraffic congestions, culminated in a new typology of urban “road” that is particularly difficult to articulate with the urban space. Because of their scale and because of their strong impact, these routes nothing have to do with the traditional street that constitutes a fundamental public space,and are assumed as part of a necessary solution and as part of a problem one must live with. As well as these roads, the urban railways can also be included in these problematic kind of routes.
As symbols of urban development, these routes were generated by mobility needs as well as by the rational way of thinking the city, separating and creating different levels on the roads system/structure.
These “roads”, in the higher level of the cities’ mobility system, are sources of discomfort (pollution, noise, visual impact, aggressive image,etc.) and are strongly criticized by the population that live nearby and also by those that feel them like insurmountable obstacles on their daily life.
The viaducts and bridges that carry on these roads also generate (under them) residual places - non places as Marc Augé would say - empty and discontinuous. Places where criminality takes place. Places where the city ends and starts over on the other side.
The International Conference CUT CITY will be the opening session for the 1st International Workshop “CUT CITY”, that will bring to Lisbon students from different european architectural schools to exchange and discuss different experiences and knowledges on this subject and to present, after 10 full working days, an architectural proposal and strategy for a specific site in Lisbon.