The new “mechanised pedestrian walkways” strategically seek to encourage an idea of urban interconnectivity, translated into a circular pedestrian course on a wide scale, connecting the upper town to the riverside and back. At the upper city level the circulation is historically consolidated, seeking now to connect the Palácio de Cristal hill through Miragaia to the Virtudes hill. Architectonic pieces will draw “mechanised transpositions” and work as “urban staples” on each strategic point to close the circle.
Thus, at Miragaia the old stone stairway on the hill was deeply worked out to include three sets of escalators. The project is widly supported by an existent structuring wall (in fact, an old wall that already can be seen in a topographic blueprint dated from late XIX century), that splits the new mechanical staircase in three non axial sections avoiding a linear “wound” on the historic fabric. This also allows a more organic and fluid inclusion of the new elements and enhances its interconnections with the surroudings.
Looking to deal with the history of the city and its environment and materiality, the intervention draws a symbiosis and continuity with the existing heritage and identity, without, however, failing to assume the new elements as the marking of a new time of intervention (here, the new sharp edge stones and the bush-hammered concrete walls play a crucial role). The existent staircase was kept original, and is now tracked by flowerbeds in the mid plateaus that sprinkle the long climb up.

The commission from the Porto City Council aimed to design a mechanized stairway to interconnect the riverside to the street of Monte dos Judeus (2 neighborhoods split by a huge height difference), improving the pedestrian connection of these areas of the city.
In this sense and from mobility point of view, the infra-structure was meant to support both local population -mostly elderly people living in the area- and also population in transit or visiting.
The modernization of this access has thus favored the promotion of new walking routes for the population of the city moving between the lower level and the higher level of the Palácio de Cristal area, also improving the access to less-visited city streets and places.
Regarding the urban design aspect, an important exercise was also carried out. An intervention in a dense historical urban fabric, with rich heritage and very specific landscape and environment, needed a clear strategy and a meticulous design. At the end, a symbiosis between the existing elements and the new design or the heavy new mechanized equipments was clearly achieved. The general design of the intervention tried to preserve the pre-existing stairs as much as possible and takes advantage of the large central wall on which the whole design is anchored. The three sections of the mechanized stairs intercalates this central wall in order to better merge into the great mass of the hill.
In this detailed task, materiality also played a key role, seeking the colors and textures of the surroundings and mingle with the nobility of its characteristic stone walls. The new design also extends to the edges of the surroundings, favoring the place with new pavements and green spaces that run along the stairs, renewing the vitality of this area of the city.
At the end of the day, the intervention enhances the general value of the landscape, reinforcing the urgency and the motto for the restoration of the inner public spaces of the historic quarters of the city