YOU'LL SOON BE HERE || Short Film

In recent years, Lisbon has become one of the European Cities with the larger tourism growth. Each year, 6 million people come to visit the Portuguese capital: 200.000 tourists every day. Tourism brings opportunities in a city heavily hit by global crisis: about 15% of Portugal domestic product and 8% jobs in Portugal, nowadays are related with tourism. But in the meanwhile, the city is basically disappearing: over the last 30 years, Lisbon lost about 300.000 inhabitants, vacancy rate in the traditional centre is over 40%, about 5.000 buildings are disused, and today only 12.000 persons live in the city center. 

In April 2016, STADSLAB (Urban Design Laboratory of Tilburg University - Amsterdam) organized an international Masterclass on City Making & Tourism Gentrification for professionals and graduates: the urban intervention case-study was focused on Mouraria, one of the oldest Lisbon's neighborhood. Originated as a 13th century Moorish neighborhood and remained a marginal, multicultural and poor downtown area, nowadays, parts of Mouraria are already affected by tourism: cheap property prices and proximity to other tourist destinations raise realistic assumptions that Mouraria will soon face large influx of investment in real estate and tourism infrastructure. The opportunity is its economical development, but the risk is the lost of its identity.

YOU'LL SOON BE HERE from Fabio Petronilli on Vimeo.