A public petition with more than eight thousand signatures runs the internet in an attempt and hope to save the Tapada das Necessidades. The green space of 10 hectares, once a royalty, will be intervened to receive new social and cultural equipment, in the scope of a project awarded by public tender to the company Banana Café Emporium.
The Group Friends of Tapada das Necessidades is against the intervention. But the municipality guarantees that the Tapada is safe, with no "huge, detached building constructions".
What is this requalification project?
The Tapada das Necessidades will become more than just a green area - the idea is to create a new social and cultural meeting point in the outlying parish of Estrela. Through a requalification project, the Tapada will gain a restaurant in the former Zoological Garden, a kiosk with esplanade next to the central lawn, new sanitary installations in a former storage shed, a collective vegetable garden, a space for the Friends of the Tapada and also a pole to the north with offices, coworkIt has an auditorium and space for cultural events.
The requalification of Tapada will be carried out by Banana Café Emporium, a company that operates several kiosks in Lisbon and that, in 2016, won the public tender launched by the municipality. The concession of Tapada to Banana Café involves only a portion of its 10 hectaresThe area for the kiosk, the former zoo area - consisting of six turrets and the former Forestry Service House - and a number of buildings on the north side. In a statement responding to petitioners' concernsJosé Sá Fernandes, Alderman for Environment, Green Structure, Climate and Energy, explained that they will be "recovered and preserved, in their entirety, the relevant built heritage elements"The only thing that will be demolished is the old Forestry Service House, "no architectural value"that exists between them and that "presents a risk of ruin".
Also in the northern area, the existing buildings are uncharacteristic and "equally in very poor structural condition"will be transformed "in another, of equal or lesser height and volumetry". Sá Fernandes guarantees that, contrary to what the petition claims, there will be no "huge, detached building constructions".
A concession to the private sector?
The council clarifies that "the Mill and the Yellow House of the former Forestry Technical Services, located on the northern top were left out of the award to the winner of the contest and that their "use will be further analyzed, discussed and framed in the context of the Recovery and Management Plan" that is being developed by the municipality in collaboration with all the entities that are somehow associated with Tapada das Necessidades. Sá Fernandes wants this plan to "have due discussion" to, for example, meet "future uses for the remaining Tapada buildings, the connection and relationship with the garden allocated to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and with the patio/parking lot owned by the National Defense Institute, spaces which were previously interconnected"..
“The plan, will also point out solutions to the existing drainage problems, to the arrangement of the walls or to the activities that deserve to be 'sponsored' in this extraordinary area of the city."says the councilman in the same statement sent to the media and published on the website of the City Council. Meanwhile, the iconic Tapada greenhouse and the lakes, which are the responsibility of the municipality, have already been restored. Works are planned at the level of sewage infrastructure and public lighting on the main path. In addition, a tree survey, inventory report, vegetation diagnosis and evaluation of the state of the artistic elements of the garden are planned, "work that has never been done in depth before and will be of enormous importance for the discussion of the Recovery and Management Plan".
To the Diário de NotíciasBernardo Delgado, from the company Banana Café Emporium, says that the works were delayed due to the "extremely negative impact that the tourism and restaurant sectors have suffered"but that "the community and municipal funds that may be available to support the resumption of activity may have a very relevant role to play" in the anticipated financing. The expectation of the dealer is start the requalification in September and finish it in the summer of 2022. According to the Lisbon newspaper Mensagemthe Banana Café Emporium will invest five million euros in the project; the municipality will invest 170 thousand euros just to cover the infrastructure part - work planned to start this summer.
With an architectural project signed by Pedro Reis, the head of Banana Café Emporium promised the Diário de Notícias transforming Tapada das Necessidades - an equipment "forgotten and abandoned over the past decades" - on a "one of Lisbon's unmissable tourist attractions"..
Friends of Tapada not convinced
The petition In Defense of Tapada das Necessidades has about six thousand signatures, including those of some elements of the Friends of the Tapadaas told by Message from Lisbon. The text of the petition speaks of a "concession project to private parties that would mean access to cars, demolitions and construction of huge, out-of-place buildings"and that it was "approved by CML without listening to the population". The petitioners argue that since the Tapada passed into the hands of the municipality 13 years ago, "some minor work was done, such as repairing the glass in the greenhouse and improving the irrigation system" and that "everything else has remained as it was until 2008: abandoned and broken buildings, dilapidated fountains and ponds, cactus garden in poor condition, insecurity, etc.".
The petition understands that Tapada das Necessidades should be requalified by the Lisbon City Hall "during the next term 2021-2025", "drawing on areas of knowledge of the restoration of gardens and heritage and cultural buildings, as well as citizens interested in projects of a cultural, environmental, educational and leisure nature that put to good use the different buildings and equipment existing in the Tapada".
The requalification of Tapada das Necessidades was discussed, in November 2019, in the Municipal Assembly, with the PCP and the PEV - The Green Ecologist Party - requesting the revocation of the concession, since part of the historic buildings would be demolished, and also the beginning of a process in collaboration with the population, the parish council of Estrela and associations linked to the environment and heritage preservation.
According to the Lisbon Messagethe Friends of the Tapada were on the weekend of March 13 and 14 handing out flyers to make visitors aware of the issue. The newspaper writes that many wanted to sign the petition and circulate it. "We consider that there was no public debate - only a small window - and we did not follow, nor were we consulted [about the project]. Neither we nor the parish assembly. It is a project aimed at a large amount, and we see that a huge structure is going to be built there, completely out of step with the characteristics of this garden."said to Mensagem Paulo José Deus, one of the members of the Friends of the Tapada. Paulo is especially concerned about the restaurant he calls "megalomaniac" and which, in his view, goes against the nature "quiet" of Tapada because its closing time is scheduled to be at one o'clock in the morning.
"Nothing was done on the sly, because this concession was subject to a public tender and the licensing process of the buildings also deserved the respective deliberation of the CML".The councilman for Environment, Green Structure, Climate and Energy defends himself. "It should be noted that, for these processes, the necessary opinions were issued by the public entities, DGPC and the Institute of Nature Conservation and Forests." José Sá Fernandes also guarantees that "There will be no traffic in the Tapada, nor access to and parking of cars. Traffic and parking will continue to be prohibited, except for the maintenance teams and for eventual loading and unloading of material, always in a sporadic and periodic manner..
The Chamber also guarantees that the first version of the Recovery and Management Plan for Tapada das Necessidades will be ready in May, allowing "a frank and transparent debate about the future of the Tapada and its uses".
