The geopolitical reorganization of Atlântico Norte





The United Kingdom of the Atlantico Norte never stops, it evolves according to the times, according to the people and the King listens to what people want, even if that means to give independence to regions, merging others, and receiving with open arms new regions that want to join the Kingdom.

That's what happened during the last year. The elders still remember the times when Atlantico Norte was formed with four regions corresponding to four different countries, the metropolitan areas, the Regionalization... and not a little bit more of History is about to be unveiled... the independence of the Autonomous Regions.

In 2009 was formed by 4 regions on the mainland and 5 Autonomous regions... everything was peacefull untill the representatives of the regions of Setanta and Baniwa asked for a meeting with the King after a regional referendum whose results said that over 75% of the population wanted their independence. Of course that it was a shock... but nothing that wasn't expected by the King since he had followed the independentist moves on those regions. Since those were the least integrated regions with the rest of the Kingdom, the King summoned the National Senate to decide the future of those regions. What the King wasn't expecting was what was going to happen on that National Senate meeting.

When everything was set to vote the decision of giving the independence to the Autonomous Regions of Setanta and Baniwa, three proposals and a claim appeared on the agenda. Those proposals were the merge of the region of Lusoiberia with the region of Lemuria to form the region of Portugalicia, three regions that wanted to join the Kingdom, the proposal to move the capital city into the new formed region of Portugalicia so it could actually be in the heart of the nation and a claim from the Prince of Euskadia that claimed that the northern territories of Lantea was their by inherit merit.

It isn't needed to say that what was supposed to be a normal meeting took over 3 days of discussions, treaties, threaths, fights and in the end... all the proposals and the claim were accepted.

Atlantico Norte wished the best of luck to Baniwa and Setanta as independent nations, and welcomed with open arms the regions of Lyonesse, Ätland and Rèiss. Lusoiberia and Lemuria got the permission to merge as only one region, Portugalicia, and Aveiro, one of the oldest cities in the Kingdom will be the capital of the Kingdom and with that the Senate and the King moving into new government buildings integrated on a brand new district called "Parque Atlântico" (Atlantic Park).

The area of the Parque Atlântico is situated in the eastern part of the city, going up again the river Algus stream. The challenge for this area was to totally renovate and recover an old, degraded industrial estate and covert it into a modern district, with services, shops, sport facilities, cultural and scientific attractions, cafés and restaurants, so it could host the Atlantico Norte Expo in 2010 and create enough infrastructures to host a Universal Exposition in a near future.

Among the most important sub-projects that were implemented, the decontamination of soil formerly occupied by oil companies, as well as of underground water deposits, the mothballing of the Ranholas rubbish dump, and the treatment, elimination of pollution, and upgrading of the mouth of the Algus River deserve particular highlight.

After the preliminary stage involving relocation of the area’s population and business activities, the majority of the existing construction and structures were disassembled and demolished. The works began on a cleared area with construction of a 12.3 Km technical gallery for the purposes of housing hot and cold water supply facilities, structures for waste collection by suction, fresh water supply and watering systems, and power supply and fibre-optic telecommunications systems. Construction of the primary networks involving an extension of 40 Km followed, together with a lifting station for domestic waste disposal and two power substations.

Lastly, all secondary and surface infrastructure was built, in general, and the volume of work involved laying out a total of 600 Km in piping for gas, fresh water, watering, automatic urban solid waste collection, and domestic and riverine sewerage collection networks, and including four lifting stations for domestic waste collection processing, two solid waste treatment stations, and two pumping stations to supply the watering systems.

Construction of the pavement for pedestrian areas involved laying out 325,000 square metres in white stone, 220,000 square metres in granite cobblestone, and 180,000 square metres in concrete pavers. About 930,000 square metres of parking facilities were constructed.

This renewal operation included as well the construction of a new network of roadways and accessibility features, bringing together various means of public transport and major road and railways infrastructure (namely the Magellan Bridge, on-ramps to the Lusoiberia L1 Highway, Aveiro's Inner Ring Road, suburban trains, underground network, and the city’s roadways system), which were all interfaced through construction of an Multi-modal Transports Station – the Moliceiro Station.

Many iconic buildings have been built in this area and many deserve the spotlight for it's peculiar designs or avantgard bulding techniques namelly:




- The Moliceiro Station, it was built as a state of the art multi-modal station. The station hall is big enough to fit a Boeing 747, has a roof area of the size of 24 football pitches and can serve 30,000 passengers an hour utilizing the services of just 150 people. This station is not only big, but also very ecologic and utilizes solar energy at a scale no one ever imagined. The enormous roof is covered by 3500 solar panels that generate enough energy to power the whole station.


- The D. Henrique Centre, a huge commercial mall with cinemas, restaurants and parking.


- The Pavilhão dos Oceanos (Ocean's Pavilion), a modern multifunctional complex used for concerts, congresses and sport events.


- The Oceanário d'Aveiro (Aveiro Oceanary) , the third biggest aquarium in the world. Built on three levels, it hosts 12.000 specimen of animals and plants coming from all oceans.


- Pavilhão da Sabedoria (Knowledge Pavilion) that is a centre which hosts the Science and Technology Museum, with temporary and permanent exhibitions.


- Pavilhão da Ecologia (Ecology Pavilion) that it was built with the goal to achieve an exhibition with visions for the future and models for the balance between man, nature and technology, and provide solutions for the coexistence of more than 6 billion people on our planet and today it hosts the Water Museum.



- Connected World - This building is the HQ of Royal Telecom, and consists of three areas — Connected Gardens, Hall of the Imagination and Hall of Innovation. It's known for it's peculiar design as well for it's indoors hanging gardens.



- Pavilhão do Futuro (Future Pavillion) this building was built to be the HQ's of the Ministry of Environment and Water Management as well the Ministry of Public Works, Housing and Spatial Planning after the Expo2010.


- Pavilhão dos Recursos Naturais (Natural Resources Pavilion) this building was transformed after the Expo into the Minister of Justice and Defense HQ.


- Ministry of Interior and Public Administration and Ministry of Finances building


- Ministry of Foreign Affairs building


- Ministry of Education, Science and Innovation building


- Pavilhão da Utopia (Utopia Pavillion) this building hosted a very important exposition about the future of the humankind, it was built with cutting edge technology on both construction techniques, technological features and ecologic technology. Today this building hosts the Ministry of Environment and Water Management.


- Pavilhão da Realidade Virtual (Virtual Reality Pavilion) it was the most famous Pavilion during the Expo2010. Built with 3 underground levels and 6 above the ground levels it hosted the ultimate virtual reality show. Today it hosts two ministries - Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs and the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.


- Pavilhão do Atlântico Norte - (Atlantico Norte Pavilion) it was also a quite famous pavilion during the expo 2010, it hosted different expositions about the past, present and the future of Atlantico Norte. Now it's the HQ of both Ministry of Economy, Industry and Energy as well the Ministry of Culture and National Patrimony.


- Edificio do Parlamento (Parliament Building) - This building was built to host all the meeting of the parliament. It's a high security building.


- Casa Real - (Royal House). It was built originally as the vacations house for the king. It's architecture is a mix of retro and modern, and as the other buildings of the park, it has many ecologic inovations, for instance, the roof is covered with 140 micro solar panels that generate enough energy to power up the house as well to recharge the batteries of the 20 electric cars used by the workers of the House.