From Sky to Table
The desire to make the utopia of an edible Lisbon tangible challenged the formation of a multidisciplinary network willing to conceive, with many hands, a concrete project from sky to table.
The Bip-Zip – Neighbourhoods and Priority Intervention Zones programme, created by Lisbon City Council, provided both the framework and the opportunity.
Among the neighbourhoods of Murtas and S. João de Brito / Pote d’Água, the Aquilino Ribeiro Machado Horticultural Garden and Park emerged as a potential gathering point for the local population, capable of enabling a practical, conscious, and reflective experience, supported by active participation in a shared urban scenario. Here, the physical recognition and territorial establishment of a new food production and distribution system based on the principles of permaculture could take shape.
As a continuation of the central green corridor, the project proposes the reconfiguration of the garden’s northwestern upper area, organised into different spaces for production, meeting, training, and leisure.
Along the route, almond trees punctuate the bicycle path and reveal the various paths leading to the clearing, where the vaulted greenhouse emerges. Inside, the four upfarms are shaped according to the rhythm of the metal structure, filling the second level that the façade reveals with greenery. Outside, the circular forum faces the entrance, inviting people to gather around planting and harvesting in the public space. All around, the educational vegetable garden and the organic lake animate the site among the existing cork oaks, oaks, and eucalyptus. At the opposite end, fruit trees guide the order of the horizontal plots that make up the ensemble. Finally, a series of shelters and composters occupy the more protected areas of the enclosure, complementing the programme and closing the cycle.
By reducing the physical and conceptual distance between people and food, the project outlines new, healthier, and more sustainable habits, while fostering community involvement in collaborative processes that seek to strengthen social ties, revitalize the idea of neighbourhood, and promote the self-sufficiency of the population within a common and recognizable urban space.
