Events Calendar

CPD points: 0.5

The next speaker in our ‘Thinkers and Doers’ series is Maria Matos Silva (Portugal) presenting “Public Spaces for Water”.

This lecture looks into the phenomenon of floods as recurrent urban events which are expected to aggravate in the near future. Facing this problem, the design of public spaces is presented as a key component in the adaptation to current and expected urban flood events. In addition, climate change adaptation endeavours have already entered the urban agenda and are influencing urban planning and public space design approaches. This emerging tendency is further prompting new flood management paradigms that acknowledge the practice of integrating ecosystems and the natural water cycle. “Public Spaces for Water: A Design Notebook” displays a different approach to tackle the urgent problem of urban flooding. In this lecture, the importance of public space design in adaptation action is explored and traditional flood risk management practices are challenged. As public spaces provide the opportunity to integrate and reveal the complex connections between natural, social and technical processes, designing “for water” is a present and urgent matter on which the future of our cities relies.

Maria Matos Silva is an Assistant Professor of Landscape Architecture at Instituto Superior de Agronomia (ISA), University of Lisbon. She graduated in Landscape Architecture (University of Lisbon, 2007), completed a master’s degree in Urban Design (University of Barcelona, 2010) and a PGDip in Urban and Regional Planning (University of Lisbon, 2011). In 2016, Maria finished a PhD in Public Space Design (University of Barcelona, 2016), obtained the recognition of “Finalist” for the European Prize Manuel de Solà-Morales (2019 edition). Since 2016, Maria is a Research Associate at the CIAUD – Research Centre of Architecture, Urbanism and Design at the Faculty of Architecture, University of Lisbon (http://urbinlab.fa.ulisboa.pt). She has been involved in several R&D projects and has thus far published in various international peer-review journals and conferences. Her research interests are related to landscape, design and management, urban planning, sustainability, urban flooding, public space design and adaptation to climate change. Currently, Maria is also a board member of the Portuguese Association of Historic Gardens (AJH - Associação dos Jardins Históricos. www.jardinshistoricos.pt).