This article examines the development of the Lisbon metropolis in the period between 1940 and 1966, looking for the ways in which urban and metropolitan planning established design and organizational connections with infrastructural development. Two arguments emphasize the changing role of infrastructure-starting as the driving force of a national policy of public works committed to the political construction of a modern capital and becoming the unfulfilled backbone of a late industrialization policy associated with morphological disruption in the context of a fast growing metropolis. A third argument of synthesis claims metropolitan public space as a key to acknowledge and design interfacing spaces of infrastructural mediation. Keywords metropolitan planning, infrastructure, LisbonOne Metropolis, Two Moments, Three Lines of Argument Lisbon, the capital of Portugal and the head city of a two million and a half metropolis, is shaped by unique landscape features, such as Europe's westernmost finisterrae, the Tagus River and its estuary-Europe's largest-cultural landscapes in Sintra (listed as World Heritage) and a rich mosaic of Mediterranean vegetation and land use patterns. Its long history of stratified morphological patterns and elaborate planning events (such as the rebuilding of its downtown area after a major earthquake in 1755) provide an extraordinary field of study for urban morphology, planning history and, more recently, metropolitan studies.Until the 1940s, the Lisbon metropolis was monocentrical with an urban growth pattern of a contiguous configuration along the coast and old royal roads. The period from 1940s to the 1970s witnessed a changing role for the infrastructure, as part of the government planning apparatus and also as the spatial frame for everyday life in the metropolis. The year 1940 was the climax of the first phase in the spatial and political construction of Portugal's dictatorial regime, embodied in the

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In the wake of severe economic slowdown during the 2008-2015 crisis, and despite continued constraints on public investment in large scale infrastructure, Lisbon is emerging as one of the most attractive destinations in Europe. Tourism has been driving major spatial, functional and social changes, initially in the city’s historical districts, and nowadays exerts impact across a much larger urban and regional area. Tourism, together with new drivers of the real-estate market, is promoting the renovation of formerly vacant or rundown built stock, taking advantage of a rather fragile socio-economic milieu and changing the face of residential, commercial and public space landscapes. Recently upgraded transportation nodes and extensive improvements on public space have also played a meaningful role in this process. Central government and municipality rationale have underpinned its role in providing accessibility, “attractivity”, and “heritage valorisation”, aiming to attract young residents after decades of resident population decline. In contrast to considerable public investment in public space and infrastructure, very limited funding or policy has been targeted at maintaining an affordable housing and real-estate market: thus leaving much of the public investment return to the private sector. Criticism of gentrification and “touristification”, rising housing prices, and pressure on infrastructure is growing accordingly. The paper provides insight into aspects of this process, with a focus on the relational aspects of mobility upgrade, public space renewal and inner-city urban regeneration. Several urban projects are mapped and broadly characterised in their spatial and functional relationship with tourism. An interpretative framework that combines them with the forms of territorialisation and the main conflicts and tensions is offered as a contribution to the ongoing discussion. Conclusions point to the complex and powerful role that public space and mobility infrastructure play in the impact of territorialising tourism: as supports for better qualified, multi-scalar and shared urban spaces and as drivers of a more balanced, diverse and socially-inclusive urban tourism development.

The article presents intermediate findings from “MetroPublicNet” research project, in which in which over one thousand delivered public space projects in Lisbon Metropolitan Area (Portugal) were identified and mapped. It offers a specific analysis of the projects delivered under the 2014-2020 EU funding framework, looking for its inception, rationales, funding and delivery frameworks. This focus on public sector-led projects allows for a sharper look in terms of policy priorities, programmatic guidelines and their impact in shaping Lisbon’s recent metropolitan development.

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