Lisbon is a city and cities are alive. They breathe, they grow, they die and they dream

City is a concept that is really hard to define. There is not a universal definition of city. In Portugal, the requirements to be a city are population over ten thousands, it needs to have certain number of facilities (like schools, hospitals, etc.) and it needs to have certain area. Lisbon fills these requirements so Lisbon is a city and cities are alive. They breathe, they grow, they die and they dream.

Firstly, they grow. People started living there, to live there people needed homes, food, services. So, Lisbon started growing with buildings replacing the desert. This process does not stop. Lisbon, now, is a city, but it is continuing to grow. Instead of small buildings, big buildings; the area will expand; more and more people go live in Lisbon. The cities grow day by day, minute by minute.

Secondly, they breathe. All the cities need to have green spaces, trees, better air quality. In Lisbon, we have Monsanto, it is called ´The lungs of Lisbon`, that is a thing that all the cities should have.

However, they die. People want to have more buildings and they want to grow, this is a big mistake. We cannot destroy our green areas, we need them. If we destroy those areas, the cities will die faster and sooner.

 Furthermore, they dream. All the cities dream to be a better city, to grow, to breathe, not to die, to be a model to the rest of the world; not to have crime, to be organized. These are some dreams that all the cities might have.

Concluding, Lisbon is alive because it grows, it breathes, it dies and it dreams. The population of the city are the ones who let this system flow. The people of the city are the ones who work for the growing of the city, who work for the breathing of a city, who work for the dying of the city and finally, but not least, who work for the dreaming of a better city.