VIRTUAL: Prague Heritages

Abstract

View film

Historical buildings show a set of principles framed in the bioclimatic domain, whose roots go back to vernacular concepts developed over generations. The 18th-century Pombaline architecture in Lisbon, an elite political reply to the earthquake that devastated the city in 1755, is no exception to this rule. Its Reconstruction Plan, considered a precursor of modern urban planning, incorporates a collection of principles and guidelines intended not only to minimize the consequences of another earthquake event but also to build a “new” Lisbon, with high salubrity levels, where air and sun are protagonists, breaking with the old city paradigm. Despite being a period of Portugal’s history widely studied, there is a lack of publications addressing references concerning bioclimatic architectural and design principles in entire documents from that period (e.g., treatise books and prominent authors’ texts and drawings). Therefore, the study intends to contribute to framing a “bioclimatic ethic” approach, guided by the respect for the historical buildings’ bioclimatic balance, particularly Pombaline type, during a retrofit intervention. The outcomes show that bioclimatic principles were accounted for in the design and conception of the Reconstruction Plan at an architectural and urban scale. The study concludes and seeks to stand for that the understanding of bioclimatic core principles is fundamental to a historical building retrofit, as it contributes to ultimately preserving the equilibrium between the buildings, urban surroundings, and climate conditions, as well as maintaining its heritage value whose disrespect has dire consequences to their thermal and energy performance and heritage value.