Post no15 | What is the concept of epoch from a morphogenetic point of view ?

To understand the Lisbon’s transition from the medieval period to the Renaissance, as what regards to the edification of concrete forms, one must consider the thematic values and their under-deployment. Let us now focus on the topological configuration of the framework developed. On the one hand, one can notice the East/ West development of monumental buildings (palaces, squares, commercial houses, noble houses, etc...) facing the river, as on the other, the South/North development of more commercial and more popular areas (both types of developing areas are intertwined).?

As we went along in the previous posts, the city would stand for the exchange and stabilisation of the thematic values: “the Authority” emerging from the linguistic exchange and “the Productivity” emerging from the exchange of objects. These two types of exchanges may be considered as the values that correspond to a system of built positions, the monuments to the first type of exchange, and the districts to the second type of exchange, set up in the 16th?century.?

? 2022 by Isabel Marcos?|?The transition from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance: profound dynamics

Any city, in general, and Lisbon, in particular, is born from the dialogue between the “Law” (law-making institutions) and the “Names” (law-enforcement institutions) which allows the creation of all types of “values”. Its three structuring positions have gradually generated two types of axes, that of Authority and that of Productivity:

The Authority

There is a dynamic axis around which Authority organises itself. The “Political and Religious” figures represent the position of “(A) Law and (B) Names”. The most important function of this axis is to structure and update the topological relations of the human group overall. The “Authority circulates” socio-cultural forms, social motifs within the pregnant surface of this region (a pregnant surface is a propagative surface). Such surface is spatially structured by saliencies – forms that separate from a background – that generally produce the monuments concrete forms, expressive architectural relief.

The Productivity

There is also a dynamic axis around which Productivity organises itself. It corresponds to the regions occupied by the “People”, this being a “figure” that represents the position of “(C) Values”. Its function is basically productive: agriculture, breeding, fishing… The “Productivity circulates”, as socio-cultural forms, social motifs, within the pregnant surface of this region. It is spatially structured by saliencies that generally produce the Bairros (districts), where objects are produced in great quantities, concrete forms, expressive architectural relief.

Its two axes are deployed in the space of Lisbon: the "Authority axis", of the "concentration", of the major institutions of the city, is organized facing the Tagus River from the East to the West, and the "Productivity axis”, of the 'concentration' of the 'people', is organized towards the North. The crossing of the two axes configures an emerging morphological structure.?This structure is engendered by the dynamic topology internal to the urban morphogenesis. It is not conceived of or planned from the outside by a social actor, but is instead the result of a global process of space-time stratification. The valorisation and edification were the major morphogenetic processes during these periods. The abstract morphological structure was set up after the end of the 16th?century. Subsequently, the edification of concrete forms was undertaken in accordance with the positional values invested into the abstract forms.

The work of any architect or urban planner is to read?the city’s?internal dynamics and update them through its architectural proposals.This work allows us to understand the collective memory inscribed in space.