The Pier
Infrastructure must not be considered as a single process that happens once with a unique result. Infrastructure has unlimited outcomes and unpredictable by-products. One has to consider and analyse them from the perspectives of different actors. One has to democratise infrastructures in order to ensure by-products transform into positive reactions. Ordinary piers are monofunctional.
Porto’s existence grew out of the particularity of a collision between two ecosystems - that of the sweet Douro meeting the salty Atlantic. Porto is where it is because of this confluence. When the South pier was built at this location, the clash of those two ecosystems altered. Not only had the underwater life changed dramatically, but with it Porto’s urban layout and intrinsic meaning.
A section of a new pier is proposed with democratic processes that mimic how natural ecosystems function.
Porto Academy 2021 // Jan KinsbergenIn collaboration with Olivia-Gabriele Vaes