The Santos district of Lisbon (Portugal’s capital city) has become a virtual magnet for students, designers, computer graphics artists, architects, and other creative types. Near Lisbon’s dock area on the Tejo River and once regarded as somewhat dangerous, it is quickly growing in popularity and since 2005 has been dubbed the Santos Design District. Nineteenth-century warehouses and older apartment blocks (some over 200 years old) rub elbows with industrial workshops and some of Lisbon’s most exclusive hotels and apartments. The district offers a supply of large office spaces at inexpensive rents, as well as an abundance of cultural centers, galleries, design studios, and nightclubs. At night, Lisbon’s young and upwardly-mobile elite fill the many restaurants and wine bars.
New complex generates international interest:
In order to promote “the worlds of design and the arts,” Norman Foster (Britain’s most prominent architect) will design a vast commercial complex hosting galleries, studios, cutting-edge shops, nightclubs, and restaurants. This announcement has generated international interest in the regeneration of the Santos District and has attracted upwardly-mobile aficionados of design and architecture.
Top international design names like Norman Foster, Frank Gehry, Zaha Hadid, or Richard Rogers are required in order to receive sufficient interest and investment money in today’s world of the celebrity designer. Lisbon’s Basque cousin Bilbao, Spain (which shares a history of seafaring) was rejuvenated by regeneration projects along the Nervi
