Riverside Walk in Seixal / RISCO

Text description provided by the architects. The project site is a 2.1-hectare strip of land running parallel to the riverside avenue in Seixal, the main town of the municipality of Seixal, on the south bank of the Tagus River, across from Lisbon. The site is bordered by the river and the town’s historical center, whose buildings have symbolic and morphological characteristics that make it a unique asset in terms of heritage and culture.

Over the years, changes in the riverfront’s organic design have led to prominences and indentations along the riverbank. This geometric growth of the old town enabled the construction of a route with distinctive physical features and characteristics, creating different types of contact with the water and other boundaries inside the old center.

The previous car park is replaced by a green recreational area that reaches as far as the riverbank, creating a new square with planted, shaded, and open regions, freeing up space to accommodate the structures required for cultural events.

The redesigned traffic system reduces car traffic without completely eliminating it. The plan creates areas with one-way systems as well as zones reserved for pedestrians and cyclists.

Our intention was to synthesize the new elements to be introduced in three types of surface: new pavements in ceramic brick, with an artisanal character, capable of resisting pedestrian, cycle, and automobile circulation; organic areas, in the zones subject to greater expansion, making land modeling or turf surfaces possible; and limestone sidewalk borders consistent with the existing pavements.