All rights reservedSilva, Paolo2024-05-302024-05-302011978-1530185207https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14235/1670Quality of Space – Quality of Life : Planning for Urban Needs of diverse timeframes. 2nd AESOP European Urban Summer School 2011, LisbonIn the context of the European summer school 2011 held in Lisbon at Universidade Lusófona most participants were requested to give a lecture related to the subject of urban quality. The challenge of producing an essay on the subject is also an opportunity to develop some further ideas from those discussed during the summer school. Although most of the theoretical framework is brought from Portugal, I take this opportunity to focus on practical issues concerning urban quality related to the Portuguese reality and particularly to the Lisbon Metropolitan Area. Despite the fact that urban quality can be approached from many different points of view, I will basically focus in this essay on planning tools, especially on how plans are designed in order to achieve urban quality. I will approach the matter of urban integration to develop the concept of urban quality versus plans. Why does urban integration arise as my focus on urban quality? As I will try to demonstrate, it is because history shows us that urban quality has been related to much differentiated sets of values, and according to those values, city planning tried to focus on different solutions. Nevertheless, what brings together all this diversity is that at each moment of the history of cities urban quality has been part of the solution to problems of cities. Depending on what has been defined as urban quality through centuries, different skills and disciplines were called upon to play a central role in the effort to turn our cities into more enjoyable places.enopenAccessconferenceObject**-**