2

ISBN: 978-972-99101-6-6

Editors: Vítor Oliveira, Paulo Pinho, Luisa Mendes Batista, Tiago Patatas, Cláudia Monteiro

Cover Design by Cláudia Monteiro

The present volume contains the full papers presented at the 21 st International Seminar on Urban
Form, held in Porto, from 3 to 6 July, 2014. Authors alone are responsible for options expressed in
the book.

Cite as: Oliveira V, Pinho P, Batista L, Patatas T and Monteiro C (eds.) (2014) Our common future
in Urban Morphology, FEUP, Porto.
 3

TABLE OF CONTENTS 3

Preface 13

THE PORTO CHARTER 15

URBAN MORPHOLOGICAL METHODS AND TECHNIQUES 17

Urban morphological elements studies: for describing generated urban form 18

Li Q, Ding W

Urban morphology of streets in central area of Vitoria (ES) 36

Botechia F, Thompson A

Studies and hypothesis on Mdina and Rabat urban form 47

Camporeale A

Territory and urban planning in northern Sinaloa 53

Cataldi G, Urios D, Colomer J, Portalés A

The memory of informality: the typological cycles in the self-built environment 63

Montejano M

The positive dissemination: interpreting a new process for urban form analysis 74
Gonçalves A, Tomé A, Medeiros V

The sociability of the street interface - revisiting West Village, Manhattan 88

Palaiologou G, Vaughan L

The ‘Projeto Orla’ (Lake Paranoá, Brasília/Brazil): the creation of an exclusionary lake shore 103
Lembi M, Medeiros V

Mapping urban space based on visual perception 114

Zhuang Y, Ding W

Changing form of the Baltic cities: resurrection of the suburbs 121

Cirtautas M

Mind the gap. Multi-sacle landscape approaches 134

Marras F
Conurbation in the Porto Alegre metropolitan region 142
Rigatti D

Configuration of urban grid and the relationship between apartment buildings location 155
Corrêa A

Typological atlases of block and block-face 166

Vialard A

Analysis and modeling of spatial changes 181

Weiss R, Santiago A

The urban form of the inner port area in Kesennuma, Miyagi prefecture, as source of resilience 195
Abe T, Satoh S

Air oriented urban form: to develop an Eco-City in the tropical urban area 205
Mamun M, Begum A

Territorial and urban form regulation: from Garden-City to Low Carbon City 218
Mourão J

Analysis of tools and ‘patterns’ for assessment of urban sustainability to promote design quality 227
Otto E, Andrade L, Lemos N
4

Hybrid cellular automaton – agent-based model of informal peripheral development in Latin America 239
cities
Santos A, Polidori M, Peres O, Saraiva M

Urban street tree modelling using high polygon 3D models with photometric daylight systems 256
White M, Langenheim N

The recomposition of urban public spaces. Case study of the historic centre of Noale, Italy 268
Pietrogrande E, Caneva A

Landscape design method toward tops of surrounding mountains tops yama-ate in Murakami castle 281
town
Sugano K, Satoh S

Measuring urban canyons with real-time light based sky view factor modelling 293
White M

An approach on describing the street skyline 305

Yang H

Urban form and accessibility to rail transit stations: a case study of Auckland 317
Adli S

Systems thinking for new perspectives on urban form 327

Stevens N, Salmon P, Taylor N

THE EVOLUTION OF URBAN FORM 343

Polish city from conzenian perspective – fringe belt phenomenon in Toruń 344
Deptuła M

Urban evolution analysis as a means to confirm an outstanding example of a traditional human 353
settlement in Rabat
Safe S, Costa S

Transformation of the fringe belt units at the perimeter of Avenida do Contorno/Belo Horizonte/MG 370
Simão K, Costa S

Urban morphology and architectural design in small towns. The case study of San Vito Romano 385
Ciotoli P
Railway as a vehicle of urban transformation. Past and present of the train station 388
Čechová K

The impact of Lisbon’s subway development on Avenida da República 401

Sampayo M, Silvestre C

Urban chronicles: exploring the evolution of the entrepreneurial disposition of Coimbra periphery 415
Tavares A

Spatial fabric of urban cemeteries. Two cases in Lisbon 427

Bazaraite E, Heitor T, Medeiros V

U+D urban form and design. A tool of urban syntax to design 440
Carlotti P

The evolution of house forms and the change of culture: a Turkish perspective 444
Gokce D, Chen F

Athens and military architecture 458

Zaroulas S

Transformation of urban blocks and property relations: cases from the Historical Peninsula 466
Küçük E, Kubat A
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The transformation of the urban block in the European City 484

Oikonomou M

Morphology and structure of road crossings of the modernist urban ring of Viana do Castelo in the city’s 498
general plan
Lopes J, Gulias M, Cavaleiro R

Urbanization in the Brazilian hinterland’s ‘forgotten century’: growth patterns in Planaltina 504
Palazzo P

Hermann Jansen's Grünstreifen in Ankara and their transformation 516

Burat S

Morphological process as an instrument for knowing chronological character: a case study in Tainan 528
Chen C, Lin W

The evolution of urban form since post-war period in Taiwan – a case study of Yonghe city 541
Chen C, Tsai C

Analysis of the correlated relations between ancient Chinese urban morphology and social culture 551
Dai J, Wang Z

Morphological evolution of urban form components in the historical peninsula of Istanbul 563
Kubat A, Kürkçüoğlu E

A code for the Islamic cities of the Gulf 576

Petruccioli A

From ‘a miserable town of 150 mud houses’ to ‘the city that never sleeps’ 583
Geddes I

Analyzing the effects of hot and arid climate on the form of historic cities of Iran 597
Daneshpour S, Nedoushan M

Island-City / City-Island: Island precincts and evolving urban morphology of Abu Dhabi, UAE 607
Mishra A

Restelo neighbourhood: a paradigmatic example of urban form overlapping 617

Almeida P

Utopia and reality: from Etiénne de Gröer to the late 20th century. Évora, Portugal 625
Monteiro M, Tereno M, Tomé M

Campo Alegre: the evolution and persistence of a territorial intent 635

Ramos S

Is there a transversal organic pattern? Favela and its diachronic relations 645
Loureiro V, Medeiros V

The ‘Ilhas’ of Porto and the ‘self-improvement’ urbanism 659

Sena N, Doevendans K, Rousseau S

The ‘ilhas’ of Oporto, a fundamental component of the city’s nineteenth century urban morphology 674
Teixeira M

AGENTS OF CHANGE 685

Influences of housing municipal policy in slum urban form: the case of Heliopolis (Sao Paulo, Brazil) 687
Antonucci D, Filocomo G

The auto representative image as an agent of legitimation and incorporation of urban settlements in the 697
city of Rio de Janeiro
Hollanda C
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The origins and pathways of urban (in)formality 703

Rocha M

Fernando Távora and the Portuguese urban space design 733

Ferreira C

Fourth dimensions urban morphology. Urban geographies of work as a new perspective of urbanity 747
Screpanti D, Carlesi P

Change, utopia and ‘the public’: urban transformations and agents of survival in Brasilia and Rio de 754
Janeiro
Carvalho T

Public involvement transformation for best future of cities in Russia 766

Zakharova M, Gudz T, Meltsova E

Unidade Residencial da Reboleira Sul 773

Ferreira B

Tenure of urban land: structure, form and transformation of the original urban space of the city of 788
Ribeirão Preto - Sp, Brazil
Junior D, Salgado I
An introduction to the research on use pattern of Lushan National Park based on its cultural landscape process 798
Xiong X, Liu M, Song F

From urban sprawl to a compact city policy: the primacy of process over form 810
Cavaco C

Interpret planning gap caused from accomplished roads by identifying building forms 822
Chen C, Liang C

Events-driven morphological process: a case study of Auckland's Waterfront 833

Shephard T, Gibson L

Assessing the effects of governing thoughts on the form of cities 848

Daneshpour A, Soleimani A, Charbgoo N, Ashnaee T

The evolution of neighborhood model as a manifestation of political regime shift 866

Ghonimi I

Power, ideology and space re-generation: Istanbul case 887

Özden P

Within and outside virtual walls 902

Braga A, Trusiani E, Rigatti D, Ugalde C, Zampieri F, Reckziegel D

Analysis of urban morphology on festival space decorated on urban space, focusing revewing spaces 918
and closed spaces in the case of Chichibu Night Festival in Japan
Matsuura K

Mi casa es tu casa 921

Scarnato A

The role of municipality in urban regeneration: the case of Lisbon’s Eastern waterfront 932
Nevado A

The re-appropriation of industrial sites in the urban form of the post-communist city 940
Statica I

Urban mobility - Urban mutations. Means transport and morphological changes in the city of Belém 948
Andrade F, Silveira I

Tracing urban catalysts in ‘Noorderkwartier’ area 955

Waaijer A
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Managing the mark of the memory 967

Moreira M

New University Complexes as a force of shaping the urban form of the medium sized cities in 985
contemporary Iran, a case study of Najaf Abad
Nasserian A, Klets V, Kalbasi S

Urban black holes: the rural in the urban as liminal spaces from where to build a new city 995
Santos P, Pena-Corvillon D
Exploring university morphology. Bergamo as case study 1001
Silva L, Heitor T

Aging as an agent of change in the way how we occupy our territory 1011
Bordalo A, Matos M

FIFA Confederations Cup Brazil 2013 and urban conflicts in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil 1025
Gonçalves R, Simão K, Araújo J, Pedroso A

Urban morphologies of alternative spaces: a case study of Tehran 1036

Soleimani B, Staub A

REVISITING URBAN MORPHOLOGICAL CLASSICS 1047

Comparative notes on Saverio Muratori and Ludovico Quaroni's urban projects 1048
Del Monaco A

Re-thinking city. An exemple of Ilses multidisciplinary approach to urban morphology questions 1060
Nicosia C

The influence of classics on contemporary thinking Louis Kahn and Hestnes Ferreira 1068
Saraiva A

MULTIDISCIPLINARITY IN URBAN MORPHOLOGY 1091

The study of urban form versus water management: lessons to a sustainable urban future 1092
Marat-Mendes T, Mourão J, Almeida P

Morphology and functioning of the metropolitan urban areas 1107

Benaiche A

The city, the river and mangroves: a case study in San José, Santa Catarina, Brazil 1122
Monteiro E, Weiss R, Barea G

Urban growth and hydrography: convergences on landscape morphology 1135

Peres O, Polidori M, Saraiva M, Santos A

Epistemology of public spaces: a cultural approach 1151

Hanzl M

The interaction between urban form and public art. Two examples on Lisbon’s waterfront 1160
Ochoa R

The impact of urban form on wind energy potential 1166

Wang B, Cot L, Adolphe L, Geoffroy S, Morchain J

Heritage, infrastructure, structure and urban form 1176

Nascimento A, Silva M

Morphological structure and system community facilities 1181

Schäfer K, Oliveira L
Housing development transformations: political directives and post-occupation life 1192
Teixeira M, Maciel M, Alonso P
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Unsustainable empty by inadequate use of urban space 1202

Carvalho M

Interactions between agricoltural-systems and urban forms in Sardinian villages 1215

Dessì A

Study on the sustainable development of urban fringe at the background of urban and rural co-ordination 1227
in China
Ying W

Contributions to the study of urban morphology 1238

Dias F, Campos M

A construction perspective of urban morphology study in Shanghai Alleyway House 1257

Ni J, Liu G
The effects of urban form on levels of integration of housing schemes and social interaction among residents 1269
Lay M, Lima M

Characterization of the relationship between commercial plots and building patterns 1281
Jiang J

Municipal average building capacity 1293

Rebelo E

The morphological sense of commerce 1307

Saraiva M, Pinho P

The systemic focus on walkability and urban form 1322

Barros A

By São Paulo sidewalks: urban form and walkability 1331

Degreas H, Katakura P, Santos C

The elements of urban morphology which influence residents’ leisure walking activities 1338
Mao J, Chen Y

COMPARATIVE STUDIES OF URBAN FORM 1349

Urban transformation in meeting places: the cases of Bursa & Yazd 1350
Eslami S, Kubat A

Environmental evaluation method of urban spaces 1364

Teixeira E, Romero M, Cantuaria G

Comparing urban rules for urbanizing villages in Hong Kong, Macau and Shenzhen 1374
Tieben H, Chu J, Soares N, Chungyim E

A study of urban space form in areas with different economic development level 1389
Xiong G, Cao B

Gilberto Freyre’s work: between urban morphology and building typology – first approaches 1399
Aragão S, Marques A
Meeting of minds: investigation on the common concepts and different approaches of the major schools of 1409
urban morphology
Costa S, Netto M, Moraes L
Urban analysis techniques and role of morphology in post crisis urban design 1413
Delsante I, Bertolino N

Past and present: an architectural survey of Birnin Lafiya, a Dendi village 1422
Pinet J
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Urban form and its implication for the use of urban spaces 1433
Reis A

Application of morphological concepts to characterize German immigration’s nucleus in Brazil 1444

Andrade B, Taveira E, Almeida R

Exhibition of city. The case of Lisbon 1940 vs Rome 1942 1457

Pegorin E

INTEGRATED APPROACHES 1469

Study on regeneration of downtown area through riverfront development as urban catalyst 1470
Aitani K, Arima T

Diaspora typo-morphology analysis: a study of post-colonial city in critical approaches 1483

Huang P, Kuo C

Morphological analysis of the informal city. The ‘Villa 31’ in Buenos Aires, Argentina 1492
Amato A, Corvigno A, Bandieri G, Catanzano G, Maretto M, Boggio N

Urbanization in the Ave Valley region: more than a sum of building projects? 1502
Travasso N, Casas Valle D

Integration of public spaces into the urban environment in case of Perm 1521
Kuznetsova A, Maximova S

A planning method for identifying viewing spots and area for landscape control by utilizing spectator’s 1527
experience of a Japanese traditional festival
Yamamoto D, Kawahara S

Urban form and orientation in urban space 1535

Kantarek A

Urban form and social output 1544

Krafta R

Mapping and typo-morphological inferences in low-lying coastal Tianjin 1555

Wang L, Li L, Gong Q

Industrial-housing ensembles at Lisbon – morphology and specialization 1569

Antunes G, Lúcio J, Soares N, Julião R

An urban taboo 1575

Falsetti M

European spatial paradigms. Urban infrastructural morphologies 1580

Triggianese M, Berlingieri F

TEACHING URBAN FORM 1589

Teaching and seminar of urban morphology in Peking University, China 1590

Xiong X, Song F

THE RELATIONS BETWEEN RESEARCH AND PRACTICE 1601

Making a case for the broadening of the urban morphologist’s battlefield 1602
Firley E, Frey A

Towards a flexible definition of limits in urban planning: controlling urban form under uncertainty 1610
Moreira B

Interpretation of morphological data to inform design ‘Bridge to Bridge: Ridge to Ridge’ urban design 1620
workshop
Sanders P
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Urban form study for better future of the city 1634

Kantarek A

The morphological dimension of planning documents: case study Belgrade, capital of Serbia 1642
Niković A, Đokić V, Manić B

Future urban changes through design guidance: new principles 1652

Sepe M

Density, urban form and quality of life 1661

Beaurin C, Raymondon G, Andersen I, Dias S

Study on relationship between urban morphology and policy in China 1676

Gao C, Ding W

A subtropical urban taxonomy: the tension of research informing practice 1693

Richards P

Shaping the city. Public space in the (re)construction of Portuguese contemporary city 1706
Coelho R

Empty vacant. Redefining interior’s block voids in Guimar es 1710

Dias J, Ochoa R, Suaréz M

Reviving the heart of a historical metropolis 1722

Ismail K

Urban design guideline for upgrading environmental quality of Niayasar 1741

Lari S, Dehkordi N

Urban morphology of historic fabrics and contemporary architectural design. The case study of Lazio 1756
Strappa G

Typomorphological methods in planning practice 1763

Pattacini L, Samuels I

SPECIAL PARALLEL SESSIONS 1783

CHINESE NETWORK OF URBAN MORPHOLOGY 1784

Spatial patterns of urban growth in Xi’an, China: a fringe-belt approach 1784

Ren Y, Fu K

THE MIDDLE EASTERN CITIES AND ISFAHAN SCHOOL OF URBAN 1795

MORPHOLOGY
Isfahan School of urban design: a morphological perspective 1795
Arefian F, Estaji H, Jabbari M, Koledova A, Fatemi M

Discussion about the similarity of the forms of the cities of Porto (Portugal) and Qazvin (Iran) 1808
Jabbari M, Ramos R

OPEN SPACES AND THE NEW BRAZILIAN URBAN FORM 1817

Open space systems and the constitution of the contemporary Brazilian urban form 1817
Queiroga E, Macedo S

Open spaces and urban form: a systemic relation 1827

Campos A, Queiroga E, Custódio V

Landscape units as territorial analysis procedure 1838

Montezuma R, Tangari V, Isidoro I, Magalhães A
 11

The landscape of sprawl: relationships between natural and urban dynamics in the Western Portion of 1849
the Metropolitan Area of São Paulo
Coelho L, Macedo S

Integrated approaches in Vitória workshop: a study on open space system and the urban form in Brazil 1863
Mendonça E

BRAZILIAN MORPHOLOGY 1885

The urban form of the housing policy Minha Casa Minha Vida in the metropolitan area of São Paulo 1873
Donoso V, Queiroga E

Open spaces system: describing the urban morphology of Vila Mariana’s district 1885
Degreas H, Macedo S

Urban form and multidisciplinarity: contributions to the São Paulo Master Plan revision 1896
Queiroga E, Meyer J, Macedo S

Public policies towards river and streams restoration: perception and appropriation 1905
Galender F, Campos A

Morphologic transformations of public spaces in the surroundings of Nova Lima’s churchs 1918
Maciel M, Teixeira M
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Preface

This year the International Seminar on Urban Form (ISUF) celebrates its twentieth birthday.
Over the last two decades, the ISUF annual conferences and the journal Urban Morphology
have steadily established as the main references of morphological debate worldwide.
The development of ISUF included the formation of affiliated networks. The Portuguese
Network of Urban Morphology (PNUM) was established in 2010 at the Hamburg conference. In
June 2011 the PNUM launched its annual conference and in December 2013 it published the
first issue of the Revista de Morfologia Urbana. Against this dynamic background, and for the
first time in two decades of history, the ISUF annual conference takes place in Portugal.
‘Our common future in urban morphology’ has a record number of presentations. Almost
400 presentations are included in the conference programme comprising four plenary sessions
and 80 parallel sessions. This book, composed of two volumes, follows the structure of the
conference. Volume 1 gathers the abstracts of all communications included in the conference
programme. Volume 2 includes the full papers submitted to the conference.
The plenary sessions of ISUF2014 include an overview of the urban form and structure of
Porto; a debate on different approaches in the study of urban form (the German morphogenetic
approach, the Conzenian school, the Muratorian school and space syntax); the description of a
repository of urban tissue; and, finally, the presentation of recent work developed by the ‘ISUF
Task Force on Research and Practice in Urban Morphology’, particularly of four case studies of
application of morphological concepts and methods in professional practice and of the ‘Porto
Charter’ including ISUF’s fundamental principles.
The 80 parallel sessions are structured around ten fundamental themes (including also five
special sessions): urban morphological theory; urban morphological methods and techniques;
the evolution of urban form, agents of change; revisiting urban morphological classics; teaching
urban form; comparative studies of urban form; multidisciplinarity in urban morphology;
integrated approaches; and, finally, the relations between research and practice. The debate of
these themes should help us to understand what should be our main contribution as urban
morphologists, how it could be part of wider integrated research on cities, and how this could be
applied into day-to-day practice.

Vítor Oliveira
Paulo Pinho
14
 15

The Porto Charter

ISUF seeks:

To promote urban morphology as the study of the physical form of cities.

a. To demonstrate the relevance of urban morphology at all scales, from the individual
building to the metropolitan region.

b. To facilitate the international dissemination of urban morphological knowledge,

techniques and experience.

c. To promote recognition of the cultural and environmental significance of urban form

and the importance of its contribution to social and economic well-being.

d. To stimulate the interaction of intellectual enquiry and practical activity in

endeavours concerned with urban form.

e. To facilitate communication across the range of professions, disciplines, intellectual

traditions, and communities of interest concerned with urban form.

f. To foster comparative studies and assess the impacts of the transfer of concepts and
experience in different environments and societies.

g. To promote and facilitate the study of urban form in the training of built environment
professionals.
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 17

Urban Morphological Methods and Techniques

The identity of any field of study or discipline is inextricably bound up not only with
what the discipline does but the way it does it. We are defined, in part, by our methods
not least because methods to a large extent fall out as a logical consequence of the
subject matter. At the same time, our methods are a reflection of where we want to go
with the subject and what we want it to become. But what happens when the field is
multi-disciplinary and the subject as multi-faceted as the city? What happens when 'we'
are architects, archaeologists, anthropologists, geographers and historians? The
multiplicity of methods potentially becomes a liability rather than an asset. The step
back out of this corner is the recognition that urban morphology is, in part, a meta-
discipline, a fact that goes back to the inception of the field. Goethe in his preliminary
notes on morphology set out the following sequence of thoughts. “Characterization and
limitation of the field in which we are working; i) phenomenon of organic structure; ii)
phenomenon of the simplest structure which appears to be a mere aggregation of parts
but often explainable just as well through evolution and epigenesis; iii) necessity of
considering all expository methods together, not to thoroughly explore a thing and its
nature, but to give at least some description of the phenomenon, and to impart to others
what has been perceived and seen (Goethe 1952, p85).The last note provides the
perspective that gets us out of the corner. The multiplicity of methods becomes an asset
when we see that one of the roles of morphology is to coordinate the findings of other
disciplines around the unifying aspect of form (Wilkinson 1962). This is not to say we
don't have 'in-house' methods, far from it. It is to say that the coordinating framework is
part of morphological method. So, whether the primary investigation is in-house or not,
part of what we need to do is to situate the results within the framework. To make the
most of the information we need to see where it sits within to the body of accumulating
knowledge and how it is related to the other parts.

Karl Kropf

References
Goethe, J.W. (1952) Goethe's Botanical Writings, translated by Bertha Mueller
(University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu).
Wilkinson, E. M. (1962) 'Goethe's Conception of Form' in Wilkinson and Willoghby
(eds.) Goethe: Poet and Thinker (Edward Arnold, London).
18

Urban morphological elements studies: for describing

generated urban form

Qian Li, Wowo Ding

School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Nanjing University
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract. Urban morphology represents entire city areas or built environment consisting of two parts:
generated form and planned form, in terms of their growing processes and morphological characteristics.
In classic urban morphological theories three morphological elements, such as streets/blocks, plots and
buildings have perfectly defined urban physical form. However, these elements are constituted as the top-
down hierarchical mechanisms, which could not fully express morphological feature of generated form.
Following previous morphological studies, it is worthwhile to further examine these uncertain conditions.
To clarify the relevance of morphological elements and characteristics of two forms, four cases including
both generated form and planned form were chosen from the same area: southern Jiangsu province.
Based on morphological analysis a comparative study was made among those cases. This paper will
present that typo-morphological studies could differentiate varieties of morphological elements and
define their correlations with the type of tissues. The results could be transformed as design methods in
urban design practice.

Key Words: Settlement pattern, typo-morphology, morphological element, generating process

Introduction

Recently, the big challenge in front of architects and urban designers is how to deal with the
problem of the built environment, which leads to urban studies gained popularity among
architects and urban designers in recent years, dealing with land use, place making, site analysis
and descriptions of physical feature. Since urban design practice has to consider various factors
such as developers’ requirements, city governors and public users, so that studies have to be
done from different aspects and angles, six dimensions were shown by Carmona and Tiesdell
(2007). A plenty literature made for constituting urban theories through years, the value of
urban design has been demonstrated, however, what is the core of urban design theories remains
unclear. Cuthbert argued ‘that mainstream urban design in fact collapsed around its own
limitations and it now in need of a paradigm shift towards a deeper theoretical engagement with
the world’ (Cuthbert 2007); while Marshall proposed that ‘urban design to take a freshly critical
look at itself from a scientific perspective’, which ‘is the need not just for ‘more and better
science’, but more specifically, more systematic verification and critical assimilation of
scientific knowledge within urban design theory’ (Marshall 2012). Taking these views, urban
study has been held to correspond to the knowledge of generating urban form and thus to be
susceptible to description by urban morphology.
On the other hand, more urban studies from urban morphologists, their works focus on the
tangible results of social and economic forces and analyze urban evolution its formative years to
its subsequent transformations, identifying and dissecting its various components (Moudon,
1997). The work of Conzen, Caniggia and Kropf has been particularly relevant, that knowledge
system of urban form is being constructed by normative scientific researches by involving a
reduced set of physical elements to describe and explain the city in morphological terms: the
streets, the plots and the buildings. Joined by geographers, architects, planners and sociologists,
Urban Morphology constitutes an interdisciplinary platform, which is more appropriate for
variety disciplines with a broad discourse (Ley, 2012). Recently, one of the most significant
topics based upon urban morphological platform is trying to bridge the gap between urban
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morphology and urban design or planning practices, that will help to make up the lack of urban
design theories.
As tangible form, two specific terms are particularly important for urban design, which are
urban tissue (Moudon, 1996) and typomorphology (Moudon, 1994, Kropf, 1996, 2006,
Samuels, 2008). In Caniggia’s term the urban tissue is a structure of element or association of
buildings, which has been further developed by Kropf proposed three useful conceptual tools:
the outline, the desired spatial scale and the degree of particularity used (Hall, 1997). As a
physical entity, urban tissue is not only identifiable object for urban morphological research, but
also understood as objects by urban design. Typo-morphological studies have been used as a
design tool throughout architectural history, the work done by Krier brothers and Aldo Rossi
shows quite fruitful, particularly in the sense of type of urban fabric, buildings and open spaces,
as well as with socioeconomic processes. Typo-morphological studies use building types to
describe the physical form of cities and the process of accumulating of human habitats, which is
useful in understanding the three dimensional structure of the city and its underlying formation
process. As Moudon (1994: 290) states, “typo-morphology offers a working definition of space
and building type, and serves as a rich launching ground for studying the nature of building
design, its relationship to the city, and to the society in which it takes place. Therefore, typo-
morphological studies are not only good for analysis of existing cities, but also build the
theoretical base for urban design practice, since it has influenced certain strands of thought in
urban planning and design through urban geography and urban morphology during the
European urban development (Carmona et al., 2006: 219).
The most typomorphological studies have done within the circle of morphologist seldom
appearing in urban designer. Marshall（2011）have set very clear division between urban
morphology and design: “separate hemispheres of the brain”, he suggested that urban
morphological analysis should be tailored more towards the kinds of abstraction that are most
useful for designers to use in practice, from designer’s view such abstraction is “Type”. In
design field, normally typology can be seen as methodology guiding problem solving, since
each type is tied closely to a class of problems in the reality, thereby, if connecting typo-
morphology to urban design practice or forming urban design theory, it has to have attribute of
designing not only research. Therefore, this paper tried to follow the term of urban tissue and
typomorphology and analyze them systematically from urban design perspective.
Four cases are selected in the same area, in order to have the same properties in land
features, geomorphology, economic conditions and cultural features, but different in urban
morphological structures. The purpose of selection is to focus on analyzing the relation between
morphological elements (building-parcel-block-district-territory) and typomorphology. Base
upon examining morphological elements this article try to answer what are different between
those types? Why they are different, the forming process is interested for designer.

Settlement pattern and morphological elements

Tangshu, Jin, Jincunyuan and Huyan are four residential communities in Southern Jiangsu
Province(Figure 1) which cluster farmers. They belong to one of China's best farming areas,
which has a sunny, warm and humid climate. The blessed water resources offer convenient
conditions for agriculture irrigation and transportation. Jin has existed for over 1700 years, with
many ponds crisscrossing, while the more than 1500-year-old Tangshu maintains a traditional
structure of centralized farmlands surrounding by ponds. In terms of sites for houses, the
farmers follow the settlements' characteristics of being intimate with rivers, building houses
along the rivers, and keeping the houses facing south. Their courtyards are mostly embellished
by green lands for good ventilation and sunshine, convenient water resource and pleasant
scenery. Different from the traditional layout of villages, Jincunyuan and Huyan have a pattern
20

similar to the urban areas, with convenient communications. They have been newly-established
in recent years due to market causes.

Figure 1. Four selected cases are located in southern Jiangsu Province in China
(source: Google Earth).

The four communities have similar conditions of the waterside settlements and they adopt
production modes equally emphasizing agriculture and sidelines, with hardly any families not
farming. Jin operates handicraft as its sideline, while Tangshu engages in fishing due to its
geographical features. Although Jincunyuan and Huyan are separated from the old villages, their
residents still keep the occupation of farming. Most of them travel back and forth between their
cultivated lands and dwelling places every day. Tangshu, Jin and Huyan have similar sizes
between 10-12 hectares (respectively containing 181, 201 and 242 families), while Jincunyuan
is a little larger than the former three, about 15 hectares (containing 366 families). According
the local policies, every family shall be allocated the curtilage (including the house and the
vacant land in front of or at the back of the house) based on the per capita cultivated area. With
the accelerating urbanization in recent years, township industry has emerged and developed
quickly, which is gradually changing the farmers' employment structure. The traditional
settlements are starting to be removed and merged into new farmers' communities like
Jincunyuan and Huyan. Some residents are replacing the original curtilages with houses in the
new communities. However, the policies and standards for curtilage approval remain
unchanged.
The same region and living habits, similar scales, production modes as well as specific
history and regulations generate different settlement patterns: grid pattern or cluster pattern. In
the following text, we will analyze and compare the four cases from a designer's point of view
with indicator, plan issue and spatial characteristics, and explore and interpret the relationship
between the morphological elements and typomorphology.

Planning indicator

This section intends to identify the relationships between different settlement patterns and
morphological standards (density, height and floor area ratio). The denotations of the indicators
are directly influenced by the calculated areas as the two traditional communities have a loose
planar structure while the new ones are compact. It should be noted that the traditional
communities are defined by unclear boundaries, depending on the natural conditions such as the
curb stones, borders of the green lands and water revetments. Therefore, the indicator calculated
accordingly is just a general concept which indicates the relationships between buildings or
between a building and other open spaces (including roads, green lands, squares and water
 21

bodies). However, equal to the urban plots, the morphology standard for the curtilages in the
selected cases can better define the figure-ground relationship of such specific private sectors.
As a result, the sum of the curtilage plots is regarded as an indicator different from the dwelling
area.

Plot density

The plot density is only discussed in terms of the dwelling area. In the traditional settlement
pattern, the cultivated lands interweave with the village dwellings and consequentially enlarge
the village. However, the new farmer communities are essentially same as the urban
communities, excluding the agricultural lands and only supporting the dwelling function.
Therefore, the coverage rate of the curtilage plots is noticeably increased.

Floor Space Index(FSI)

The plot density only shows that the mode of land use varies with the settlement pattern. The
floor area ratio linking up with the building volume seems more relevant to fabric form of the
settlement pattern. In terms of the dwelling area, the new communities have floor area ratio are
nearly twice as large as those of the traditional communities. However, the equal floor area
ratios do not generate the same form. Although Tangshu and Jin have the equal floor area ratios
of 0.36, their form characteristics are still different.

Coverage Space Index (CSI)

"The acknowledgement of a city is related to a certain building density and a sufficient

construction area," (Salat,2011)same as the dwelling community. In terms of the plot indicators,
the curtilage approval measures regulate that, the housing area shall not exceed 70% of the
curtilage area. The new communities comply with the regulation on building density while
keeping the value above 60%. However, the traditional communities have building densities
only about 50%, generating a figure-ground relationship of 1:1 with the vacant land in front of
or at the back of the house.

Building height (L)

The relationship between the building height and the street width influence the spatial form of
the dwelling area(Figure3). Almost all buildings in the new communities are two-story and even
three-story, with an average height not less than 2. Although most of the farmhouses in the
traditional communities have transformed from tile roofed houses to buildings, there are still
many one-story houses, pulling down the average building height to around 1.6.

Open space ratio (OSR)

Intrinsic relationship between the interweaving private sector and open space on the curtilage
compose the spatial characteristic elements of the farmers' settlement pattern. The new
communities have a single nature of land use and greatly reduced open space, only half of that
of the traditional communities. Tangshu and Jin contain dwelling plots and cultivated lands,
green lands and ponds besides, making full use of lands of all natures and enlarging the open
spaces.
22

Figure 2. Planning indicaters with two variables: plot area and dwelling area.
(1) Tangshu; (2) Jin; (3) Jincunyuan; (4) Huyan.
 23

Figure 3. Main Streets in cases, 2014. Photograph by the author.

Figure 4. Four examples in the Spacemate: (1)Tangshu; (2)Jin; (3)Jincunyuan; (4)Huyan.

Results

With Meta Berghauser Pont and Per Haupt's method(Pont, Haupt, 2005), summarize the four
indicators (FSI, CSI, L, OCR) that more directly influence the forms of the selected
cases(Figure4). The morphological standards vary with the settlement patterns. The planning
indicators of new and traditional communities respectively occupy an area in the coordinate
system, which explains the communities' morphological difference in a certain extent. However,
the planning indicators cannot determine the forms of the patterns, and the settlements in one
group with the similar indicators display some different characteristics (to be discussed in detail
in the next section). In addition, the construction phases, architectural modes and spatial
arrangement can influence the generation of a unique and distinctive morphological system, but
the indicators cannot.

Characteristics of plot and building

Starting from the cases' basic forms and in terms of plan issue and spatial characteristic, this
section will, based on the patterns' status quo, outline their morphological characteristics, tease
out their morphological elements and identify the differences between the morphological types
by comparing and analyzing the elements, so that some elements could be gained for
typomorphology design.

Subdivision of plots

Overall planning for Jincunyuan and Huyan is initially divided into plots by roads, and then the
plots are subdivided to curtilages with equal areas. Each curtilage has a side-way in front of and
24

at the back of it, and all curtilage have their own concession roads of the equal length. In the old
Tangshu and Jin, the division of most of the plots has no relationship with the road system,
because the curtilages are approved only based on quantitative indicators and the farmers could
select the position at will. Additionally, the houses are not built in the same time, and some
plots has no relationship with surrounding curtilages; therefore, the communities' layouts are
relatively disorderly. (Figure 5, Table 1)

Plots and buildings

In the selected cases, most of the curtilages have houses in the north and yards in the south,
which ensures the houses keep a certain distance from neighbors on the south side and get good
ventilation and sunshine. Otherwise, Tangshu and Jin create diverse relationships between plots
and buildings. The houses and side-located auxiliary room enclosing the yard to form an "L"
shape can commonly be found. (Figure 6, Table 2)

Arrangement of buildings

The traditional communities seldom juxtaposed over three buildings. If needed, the buildings
would be staggered or keep a certain distance from each other for passing through. The new
communities are prone to follow the building code and save the cost of excessive road, thus the
buildings are arranged as the military camp, with over 4 buildings in a row, even up to 10,
except those in some corners. (Figure 7, Table 3)

Figure 5. The relations between plots and the streets system or other plots,based on
authors’field survey.
 25

Table 1. Subdivision of plots.

Numbers Defined by Defined by Defined by Defined by

of plots streets other plots streets&plots nothing
1.TANGSHU
162 22 49 13 78
2.JIN
117 11 52 9 45
3.JINCUNYUAN
231 0 0 231 0
4.HUYAN
131 23 0 108 0

Figure 6. The relations between plots and buildings in JIN.A.Farmhouses sitting in the
north and facing the south.B. Farmhouses sitting in the center of the plots.C. Farmhouses
sitting in the south.D. Farmhouses sitting in the east or west with a side yard.E.L-shaped
farmhouses facing the yards.F.Yards surrounded by houses from the south and the north
sides.G. U-shaped farmhouses facing the yards.H.Farmhouses without yards.
26

Table 2. Types of relations between plots and buildings.

1.TANGSHU 2.JIN 3.JINCUNYUAN 4.HUYAN

Numbers of plots 162 117 231 131
TYPE A 98 16 231 131
TYPE B 7 6 0 0
TYPE C 0 3 0 0
TYPE D 4 0 0 0
TYPE E 16 63 0 0
TYPE F 12 15 0 0
TYPE G 0 9 0 0
TYPE H 25 5 0 0

Table 3. Arrangement of buildings (Numbers of buildings in rows).

1.TANGSHU 2.JIN 3.JINCUNYUAN 4.HUYAN

Single 74 67 0 1
Single and a half 36 23 0 0
Twin 74 62 24 12
Triple 60 78 0 6
Four and more 25 67 342 223

single single+a half twin triple four and more

100%

80%

60%

40%

20%

0%
1.TANGSHU 2.JIN 3.JINCUNYUAN 4.HUYAN

Figure 7. Proportion of building arrangement.

Distance of buildings

Analysis on the sample of the pattern profile shows that the traditional communities are almost
entirely for dwelling, and have fewer public open spaces because major public events are held in
cities or towns. The families are of similar demographic structures and economic conditions, so
that there are few differences in the boundary and volume of the house. The distances between
the buildings usually are suitable and unfixed, depending on the vacant lands and green lands
between the curtilages. The new communities no longer consider the feasibility for farming. As
a result, the distances are uniform, with an average value slightly higher than that of the
traditional communities. (Figure 8)
 27

Road crossing

The amplitude of space change is directly reflected by the diversity of the road crossings in the
community. Twists and dislocation of the road crossings diversify the landscape. The new
communities have much more road crossings; however, the forms of the road crossings are less
diverse. Almost all of them are orthogonal. (Figure 9, 10, 11)

Street space

In traditional communities, the houses are built along the rivers and orientated according to the
river direction. Then lanes generated between the buildings. Both the house orientation and
courtyard wall direction are generally not parallel with the streets and lanes, and accordingly
create the unique spatial characteristics. Without designing the building orientation based on the
river direction, the centralized-built new communities lose the spatial and morphological
characteristics of the traditional ones. (Figure 12)

Figure 8. Distance of buildings (sample lenth:350m,direction:north-south), based on

authors’ field survey.

Plan of buildings

In terms of layout design, all the four communities follow the farmers' habits and customs, with
the central room connecting all other functional rooms, but the new communities are
additionally deployed with a garage for each family, closer too villas in cities. However, the two
types of communities also have a difference. In Tangshu and Jin, the neighboring courtyards are
generally directly connected or connected through the side-way at the east and west sides. In
28

new communities, the two buildings are completely separated, and can only access to each other
through the main road. (Figure 13)

Figure 9. Types of street crossing, based on authors’field survey. A.Tangshu; B.Jin;

C.Huyan; D.Jincunyuan.

81

61

22 22 20 18
9
5

TANGSHU JIN JINCUNYUAN HUYAN

Numbers Types

Figure 10. Numbers and types of street crossing.

6 8

15
19
75 53

5
3

TANGSHU JIN JINCUNYUAN HUYAN

orthogonal non-orthogonal

Figure 11. Shape structures of street crossing,orthogonal or non- orthogonal.

 29

Figure 12. With the influence of the different interfaces, the structures of open space are
diversified.

Figure 13. The four different plans show changes in combination forms of plans.
30

Table 4. Characteristics of plot and building in four cases

TANGSHU JIN JINCUNYUAN HUYAN

Subdivision of Nearly half of plots Nearly 40% plots All the plots are Nearly 80% plots
plots are defined by are defined by defined by both are defined by both
neither streets nor neither streets nor streets and other streets and other
other plots. other plots. nearby plots. nearby plots.
Plots and Most houses are Most houses are All the houses are All the houses are
buildings sitting in the north sitting in the north sitting in the north sitting in the north
or forming an “L” or forming an “L” and facing in the and facing in the
shape. shape. south. south.

Arrangement of More than three More than three More than four More than four
buildings houses in a row houses in a row houses are sitting houses are sitting
will be separated. will be separated. in a row. in a row.

Distance of Non-fixed value. Non-fixed value. Building interval is Building interval is

buildings 15.0m. 14.0m.
Road crossing More than 80% More than 70% Only 7% street Only 13% street
street crossings are street crossings are crossings are non- crossings are non-
non-orthogonal non-orthogonal orthogonal orthogonal

Street space Street space Street space Street space Street space
in variations is in variations is remains the same.It remains the same.It
defined by houses. defined by walls. is defined by is defined by walls.
houses.
Plan of The yards of the The adjacent two The adjacent two The adjacent two
buildings adjacent two houses are houses are houses are
houses are joined. connected by the connected by the connected by the
sub-street. main street. main street.
Building forms Buildings in Buildings in Buildings in a Buildings in a
different ages are different ages are uniform style are uniform style are
strongly strongly produced at the produced at the
represented. represented. same time. same time.

Building forms

Traditional communities have a morphological characteristic that a row of houses have different
layout as the unit plan is affected by the era when the houses built. However, the new
communities planned and built in a unified manner have uniform geometrical form. Additional,
a house's era can tell us the development trend of its materials and style. However, even the
houses built at the same time employed inconsistent styles and building methods because these
were determined by the owners of the houses. (Figure 14)
 31

Figure 14. Building forms in different ages. A.Plan and section. B. Elevation.

Results

Table 4 reports the results of measurement of the above-mentioned 8 morphological elements.

Overall, the new communities are more in line with the level-by-level control on urban
morphological elements from the street to building in the urban morphology theory. Traditional
communities are gradually formed by gathering houses in which house construction has
relations with family development, house situating has relations with the neighborhood, as well
as the unit plan has relations with the era when the houses built. Comparing the morphological
elements, we can find that the two types of patterns:grid and cluster,have entirely different
control hierarchy on the morphological elements. The following text will analyze the generation
process of these two morphological types to find the inherent laws and their morphological units
and hierarchy. (Table 4)

Topography and generating process

The main objects of study are established typomorphology and the morphological elements. We
considered that the form of the traditional communities were generated based on complex
causes, related to natural and social environments. With the historical evolution, its
morphological elements are double affected by the nature and human, finally forming a
community form interdependent with the natural landscape and holding relatively stable social
relationship. This form is generated during a long process of coadaptation and interactivity. In
addition to the environmental elements, the awareness and values of the community also
contribute to the generation process and element structure of the form.

Topography

The traditional inhabited space of farmers is gradually generated, developed and evolved during
the course of human adapting to the environment (including the natural and social
environments). Topography here is generalized, which not only includes the characteristics of
the landscapes (including the terrain and ground object) in specific plots, but also involves the
32

built environment existing in the plot before (such as the spatial layout of the existing houses
and the social relationships between the residents).
Because the cases give priority to the plain geomorphology of waterside settlement, the
community form of water network dominates. The habit of living by rivers make the form of the
traditional settlements corresponds with the river form. The river system structure determines
the form and structure of the pattern, while the direction of the water revetment determines the
house orientation. While building houses along the river, the farmers tend to keep them facing
the river, with the orientation parallel or vertical to the river and without forming an included
angle with it. Jin's water system consists of rivers and ponds; therefore, the houses turn with the
rivers. Tangshu's water system gives priority to small ponds, and the houses are consequently
built around the ponds with consistent orientation, although are loosely arranged. (Figure 15)
The water determines the orientation of the house，and the built environmental factors are
concerned with selecting dwelling places. They express the relations between the people and the
environment. The villagers have a very concrete understanding of environmental space. Only
when they are in it, there is a value to consider “at this time and place” (Wang, 1997).Moreover,
a traditional village is the outcome of living together, and the result of relations between houses.
In our investigation, we found that the combination of houses fully reflect the social relations
between people. To build a house close to the neibhour, roughly sharing the environmental
space need first to be agreed upon, and then the positional relations with the existing houses are
taken into account.

Figure 15. The buildings turn with the rivers and ponds in Jin, based on author’s field
survey.

Buildings

The location and orientation of the houses are determined by people, but the plan layout and
elevation style are closely related to the era. The old houses built before 1949 were mainly 3-
bay, with the door on the central room and one more room built on each side of the central
room. Between 1949 and 1980, old house renovation dominated due to the production system
and economic level, which extended the depth and turned the structure to 5 rooms of 3 bays. In
early 1980s, the tile roofed houses were transformed into buildings with the corridors
downstairs and balconies upstairs for living condition improvement. From 90s onward, the
functional layout started to incline to the urban lifestyle, and some houses were even enlarged to
4 or 5 bays with each son owing a room.
The house style is directly affected by the local culture. The farmers advocate a simple but
elegant style (white wall and black tiles) whiling tending to accept innovation. As a result, the
facing material transformed from the whitewash to mosaic and face brick, and then to new paint
with the main color tone kept as white. The balcony railings appeared and evolved from
wooden, cement, granitic plaster to now close type. Simply put, the new materials appear in
 33

cities will be adopted in farmers' new houses two years later. The only unchanged
characteristics are the pitched roof and its bratticing.

Plots

Facing to the south is common in farmers' settlements in Jiangsu Province. The vacant place in
the south side of the house can be used as a passageway and a place for working or stacking
straw or other things.
While building houses, people always pay more attention to the completion of the house, but
ignore orderliness of the plot. Policy control over the plot only involving the quantitative
indicators also contributes to this result. The private area usually keeps a loose relationship with
the surrounding vacant places, and the borders of the vacant lands are uncertain. However, there
is an order accepted through common practice. That is, the borders of the plots that face to the
houses are nearly parallel to the house, although they are not very orderly.

Streets

During the times of agricultural cultivation, there were roughly two types of streets in the
traditional villages: one for external traffic and one for the internal connection of farmhouses.
The houses were always built first,then the streets. This process is quite the opposite of the
construction of modern residential quarters. Streets are referred to as the structural frame or
skeleton in a modern residential quarter, but in a traditional village, streets are just the open
spaces between farmhouses for the use of traffic. Therefore, the street system in a natural village
was initially not the support of the village; instead, streets were developed in response to the
farmhouses.
To sum up, the traditional settlement pattern in rural areas have different morphological
elements with those in urban areas. Its morphological hierarchy is that topography determines
the house orientation and location (the house type are related to the era of construction), the plot
of land of the house determines the private plot, and finally streets are generated between the
houses. In contrast, the new communities have a planned settlement pattern. Its generation
process is in line with the level-by-level control of streets/blocks-plots-buildings in the urban
morphology, which is reverse to that of the traditional communities, topography-buildings-
plots-streets. Therefore, the generation mode of morphology is a major factor that influences
types of settlement patterns.

Conclusion

Through the analysis of both settlement patterns of grid or cluster in Southern Jiangsu the
various factors have taken into account for examining their roles on the generation of the type of
the pattern, which include the set of planning indicators, the morphological elements in terms of
design aspects and environmental values. The way of such analysis is aiming for searching the
factors that could act as designing elements in practice, such as the factors to determine building
position in the plot, group of buildings arrangement and building body shaping. The second is
testing whether morphological elements for describing could also match to the operational
factors acting in the design process.
First of all our study has shown that settlement pattern in terms of urban tissue formed by
very complex reasons: planning regulations and site plan indicators, decision making of
placement or site plan and environmental value judgments. Through typo-morphological studies
tested with both settlement pattern of grid or cluster clearly proved there is the correlation
between the types, morphological elements and formative process, which gives certain evidence
for supporting typo-morphology acting as a kind of urban design theory.
34

Analyses of morphological elements in different views are critical, such as planning control,
form describing or building placement. In our case studies that planning indicators and
regulations are important for housing settlements, but are not effective factor for forming
physical pattern. Morphological elements introduced by Conzen and Caniggia have shown their
powerful capabilities in differentiating settlement patterns: grid pattern or cluster pattern.
Furthermore, our study has also found that not all the elements or factors are operational in
terms urban design. According to our research plot configuration, house placement, street
structure and their density, and building interface and street crossing pattern are the key issues
for the type of the settlement patterns. Planning indicators and regulations are the simple role for
forming grid pattern, while structure of natural elements, such as river, pools and hills are the
important reference for the house placement in cluster pattern.
Most morphological studies recognized that urban design takes place in reality at the nexus
of the users’ requirement, the government’s control and the designers’ knowledge base, while
designer intention is seldom considerate. Design Intention is based on “requirement”,
“controlling indicator” and “design knowledge (partly contributed by morphological study) ”,
but go beyond of them. Norberg-Schulz proposed a phenomenological method in order to
understand and describe the “spirit” of the place through a depiction of its physical features and
an interpretation of the human experiences within that place (1980). His theory helped us to
understand the meaning of the pattern of cluster, as well as decision making with intention of
the place. Research on the relationship between physical features and human perception of the
places has to be further studied.
Finally, during our case studies we have found that‘typological process’of Caniggia and
the‘plan elements’of Conzen (Levy, 1999) could be understood in different design methodology
although they were made equally in morphological terms. As Hall cited (1997) that Caniggia
developed his down-top morphological hierarchy and Conzen's concept of plan-unit was other
way around. In our cases the settlement with grid pattern could be described by Conzen's top-
down hierarchical mechanisms, while the settlement with cluster pattern could suit the theory of
Caniggia. This result should be taken account by designers.

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36

Urban morphology of streets in central area of Vitória (ES)

Flávia Botechia, Agnes Thompson

College of Architecture and Urbanism, Brazilian Faculty Multivix - Vitória (Brazil).
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract. It is proposed the construction of a urban form study, from the analysis of streets and its
typological variations, of the central area of Vitória (ES), featuring characterizing the relationships
between physical elements (buildings, lots and streets) through analysis of floor plan and cross-sectional
profiles, produced with graphic scale, in order to allow for correlations between physical elements
(buildings, lots and streets) through analysis of floor plan and cross-sectional profiles, produced with
graphic scale, in order to allow for correlations between studied elements of different typologies. The
theoretical framework is based on Moudon (1994), Borthagaray (2010), Proença (2011), Panerai et al.
(2013). The registration and analysis of cycles of urban transformation of the physical dimension of
certain tissues, give a meaning to the study of morphology, when combined with the practice of urbanism,
the potential to be effective instrument for the design of the city. The central area of the city of Vitória
(ES) is chosen as a pretext and context for the development of a study group, with reference in urban
morphology, because it is the subject of frequent analysis of the student of architecture and urbanism,
holds proximity to the urban reality, has current reliable Cartographic base.

Key Words: urban morphology, central area, typology, Vitória (ES)

Introduction

This article is part of a research that has been developed, since 2013, in a College of
Architecture and Urbanism - Brazil , which main objective is the creation of an academic
research environment through the proposed analysis of the urban form in the central area of
Vitória (ES), studing specially the streets and its tipological variations. This study´s group was
created by the Professors Msc. Flavia Botechia and Agnes Thompson, had the support of The
Institute of Education Multivix –Vitória and for scientific initiation by FAPES-ES 1 , and
involved the graduation students Joyce Andrade da Silva, Ana Carolina Rosa Marques,
Fernanda Careta Ventorim, Giovana Gonçalves Achiamé, Pedro Queiroz França and Valdomiro
de Souza Neto.
Presents itself at this point the partial results of the analyzes developed by teachers and
students, fellows and volunteers, highlighting the physical categorization of the object of
primary interest. This article is structured in two parts. At first, it was intended to bring together
a theoretical framework about the street as the scene of events and life (Borthagaray, 2010;
Ascher, 2010); as a morphological element (Kohlsdorf, 1996; Moudon, 1997; Lamas, 2000;
Panerai, 2007) and as an object of categorization and analysis. The main theorical reference is
the morphological studies of the French School or "Versailles", represented here by Philippe
Panerai in his works entitled “Urban Analysis” (20072) and “Urban Forms” (2013). Was also
important for applied research the example of Proença (2011), "The diversity of street survey in
Lisbon", which gives further characterization performed by morphological inventory of street in
Portuguese cities (Forma Urbis Lab - Faculty of Architecture/Technical University of Lisbon3).

1
FAPES: Fundo de Apoio a Pesquisa do Estado do Espírito Santo. It means a financial found created by
the Government of Espirito Santo state, Brazil.
2
Year of the book version in Portuguese (Brazil).
3
By the coordinator and professor Carlos Dias Coelho (FAUL).
 37

In the second part, the analysis will be presented about the typology of streets and their
variations in the central area of Vitória (ES), from the creation of categories related to
geographical location. Resources will be used as the historical approach to describe the
background, analysis of the current floorplan base map (2009) with mapping technique known
as solid-void and fieldwork. The limits of central area will be the official boundaries of the
neighborhood named "centro" (Figure 1) with 94,43ha. This choice was made because it is rich
space by overlapping times and forms, functions and experiences, as a source of interest for
reflection through the lens of urban history.

Figure 1. Map of Vitória (ES) indicating the central area (Source: Google maps
modified by Botechia, 2014).

The street

The street as a public space

Urban space is composed of various public and private elements. The public space is defined by
being belonging to the community, accessible to everyone, anytime, including: streets, squares,
alleys, boulevards, canals, beaches, bridges, squares, docks (Panerai, 2007: 79). All this set is
organized on a network, hierarchical and continuous way. From all, the street is definitely the
predominant element in the formation of the urban fabric due to the permanence of the trace
over time (Panerai, 2007), the attribute of imageability in the construction of collective public
image of the city (Lynch, 1997) and because it´s place of sociability and hosts social events
(Jacobs, 2000).
Conceptions of streets and city are very intertwined. Numerous examples of this relationship
are part of the history of architecture since the origin of the city through the contemporary
territory. Now, it’s possible to remember Baron Haussmann when it comes to interventions in
Paris in the late nineteenth century, promoting the opening of wide roads; Walter Benjamin
when he writes about the same Paris portraying its boulevards, streets and characters in the
twentieth century; and finally to the initial gesture of Lúcio Costa in the design of Brasilia, in
the XXI century. But there are so many others examples…
To Borthagaray and Ascher (2010), the street is also a space of living together, in a harmonic
way or not: “What is a street? It is a road inside an urban cluster that serves specific or both, to
cross a zone in the cluster to access places situated along or near this route immediately and to
produce usable in various types of collective space activities. A street then assures at least one of
the following functions: transit access (distribution) or received” (Ascher apud Bortagharay,
2010).
38

Since the eighteenth century, in consequence of the greater mobility of people and goods, the
number of streets tended to increase. Throughout the twentieth century, the mobility increases
even more and diversifies itself in such a way that the street becomes the main infrastructure in
a large circulation system and, with more or less impact on the city, has different speeds,
functions, templates, perspectives. This hierarchy of speeds generated avenues, streets,
sidewalks, highways, freeways, exclusive, underground tracks. A few brazilians municipal
master plans, working with the idea of this hierarchy, classified the streets according to their
flow capacity, width and location in the city as local, collector or arterial roads. Full of vehicles
- buses, cars, motorcycles, bicycles, and its variables - the streets are also filled with people
enjoying it at different speeds: walking, shopping, and chatting; older people, younger people;
same people, different people. In the post-fordist city nor the pedestrian street or expressway
tend to disappear.
In spite of all rich scenes and typologies, the street has been portrayed in Latin America in
the last few years for its conflicts and dysfunctions, discussing their effectiveness and adaptation
to the city (or vice versa), with much emphasis on the aspects of traffic engineering and
statistics mobility. We believe that the street can and should be studied according to its urban
form. The street cannot be divorced from the context in which it appears, and must be addressed
as part of the urban fabric.

The street as a morphological element

In the second half of the twentieth century, in contrast to the modernist scenario that preached
the "paradigm of the machine" as a processor of cities and buildings, has spread among urban
planners and sociologists, the defense for everyday life, the mix of uses and the scale of human
needs (Montaner, 2013).
It is in this context of growing sensibilizations for the local culture, starts to be systematized
the studies of urban morphology, whose basic assumption is that the city can be read and
analyzed for its ordinary physical form (Moudon, 1997). The production of the city is more than
a distribution of objects in a territory organized around functions. The urban form is a set of
architectural objects linked by spatial relationships and morphology "(...) is the study of the
form of the urban environment at their outer physical parts, or morphological elements, its
production and processing in time" (Lamas, 2000: 38).
Given the similarities and specificities of each of the major European schools of
morphological studies - Italian, French and Anglo-Saxon origin - Moudon (1997) along with
other members of ISUF4, fits three principles of morphology: the shape is defined three physical
elements (buildings, plots and streets); the form can be read in four different levels (plot, street,
city and region); the form can only be understood historically elements of which derives
continually transform and there is an overlap.
With a historiographical approach, Lamas identifies three dimensions of urban form and
eleven morphological elements of urban space, with the understanding and design of these
identifiable in those, depending on the reading scale. This classification proposal builds on
previous authors as Tricart and Rossi, have the argument that the reading of the city is done
simultaneously at different levels and that the definition of scales - street, neighborhood, city - is
key to any morphological study. In the sectoral dimension, or street dimension, Lamas identifies
elements such as tracing, the square, the tree, the monuments, street furniture and street. In this
context, the street is part of a set called "urban fabric or urban trace" (which can also be
observed in urban dimension, or scale neighborhood): “[...] is one of the most clearly
identifiable elements both in the form of a city as the act of designing. Based on a preexisting

4
It is an international organization created in 1994 to unite researchers of urban morphology -.
International Seminar of Urban Form (ISUF). Official site: http://www.urbanform.org/.
 39

geographic support, regulates the disposal of buildings and blocks, connects the various spaces
and parts of the city [...]” (Lamas 2000: 99-100).
Also understanding the street as part of a whole, for Panerai (2007), the beginning of an
urban morphological study should be done from the growth of the city related to the lines of
force of the geographical territory. In his writings on urban analysis, this French author develops
the definition of "urban fabric", in clear Italian influence, understanding this as a superposition
of three key sets of elements: networks of roads, land subdivisions and buildings. Notes that the
analysis of urban fabric involves the identification of each of these elements through the
observing of the relationship between typology of buildings and urban form. In this approach,
these elements together constitute the public space as opposed to bordering land available for
housing, mostly private. Whereas the hierarchy and the role that roads have on the structuring of
urban form, Panerai states that the design of streets appear geometries, regularities and
repetitions and that this can be analyzed as well as the whole of routes from: i) relationship
between plotting routes and geographical site: relief, soil type, flood zones; ii) role of roads in
urban and regional groups; iii) geometric logic of strokes especially in monumental systems,
and its relation to the history of land ownership.
With the premise that it is from the existing topography that draws the city (Lamas, 2000) and
that there is a relationship between track route and site (Panerai, 2007), we intend to make an
urban study of morphological characteristics of public space through the removal of layers of
various components, beginning with the element "street".
Among the papers presented at the 1st Conference of PNUM 5 , held in Portugal/2011,
Proença’s work was taken as an example because his analysis of Lisbon´s streets take the
approach that the origin of the urban form is related to the topos: “Thus, we consider the public
space of the street space bordered by adjacent private space; landforms Break, plans to scarps
and water; or other distinct morphological elements of the considered public space” (Proença,
2011: 260).
In defense of the need to identify the diversity of the streets in the central urban area,
Proença uses topography to define typologies, so-called: streets of ridge, valley, coast, coast and
half climbers. This analysis considers as starting point the "natural streets" or those that mimic
the geographical features of the site, comprising three phases: selection and collection cases;
morphological analysis; rating categories.

Streets in the central area of Vitória (ES): a case study

“The city as an educational tool? It's not about whether it should be such a thing, but that cannot
be anything “(Rowe, apud Proença, 2011: 259). By understanding the necessity of analyzing
and constructing a type-morphic frame representative of urban form and considering that the
study of urban morphology, when allied with the practice of urbanism, becomes a potential tool
for the design of the city, this work suggests a morphological study of the streets in the central
area of the city of Vitória (ES), based on the proposal of Sérgio Proença (2011) categories of
type- morphic pathways.
The method for developing the primary stage of studies is also based on the theoretical
frameworks discussed in the decomposition technique in layers and steps: record low plant all
streets in the central area of Vitória sector from basemap with identification of typologies;
record in transverse profiles and scale photographs taken in the field visit, each representing one
of the typologies typologies, detailing elements of composition and allowing correlations
between different types of elements studied. In this research project will be considered analytic

5
PNUM – Portuguese-language Network of Urban Morphology.
40

variable "form", with regard to the description of the geographic influences, full and empty site;
width, scale and proportion of buildings and wide streets.
The territorial clipping covering the Centro neighborhood, called central area of Vitória, is
justified by the fact that the morphological studies conducted focus in this area are rare; the fact
contain a variety of cases, which enables a search rich in examples; and also because of having
reliable cartographic databases.
Importantly, this work is located temporally in the present, so that no historical issues and
transformations of the street over time will be analyzed. It is, therefore, an analysis that involves
relating the types of streets found in central area of Vitória to its uses, thus knowing their
morphological diversity for understanding the design of the city.
Conceptual cutout is based on the proposal type evidenced by Proença (2011) and the model
of urban performance for the street proposal by Andrés Borthagaray (2010), in order to
establish, systematically, the selection of cases. This selection followed the criteria relevant to
the form and framework of the street in the immediate urban area associated with the
characteristics of the physical site, thus defining the rating categories of analysis.
As Proença, the construction of a type consists of two phases: defining and meeting the
common properties of the elements that make up each category, thus defining the type. From the
observation of differences in the type, it is possible to observe variations in type.
Thus, goes the definition of categories and types identified in the central area of Vitória (ES).

Categories and types of streets

The classification of streets into categories and specific types observed implies understanding
that the city, whatever it is, has specific characteristics that define and structure. These
characteristics can be cultural, physical, social and economic.
Based on this understanding, we can infer that the city of Vitória has as elements that
influence the streets of the central area topics related to physical site, since it is an area of
rugged topography, formed by a large central mass, and soaked in water, the Vitória bay. The
flat areas are due to the fact landfills in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have been made,
as shown in Figure 2.
The urban layout with topographic features is a dash of Portuguese vernacular urbanism,
which the city of Vitória is heir, being one of the oldest cities founded by the Portuguese during
the colonization of Brazil.

Figure 2. Gounded areas in the central area of Vitória (ES) (source: Ventorim, 2014).

Thus, it can be said that the streets of the central area of Vitória are divided into two
categories of classification, according to its location: the physical site originally, composed this
being the central massif of Vitória -, and area landfills.
 41

From these two categories types can be defined. In the original physical site category, the
types are: street slope and cross street. In the area landfills category, the types are: straight
avenue and street corridor.

The street slope

The street slope, in the original physical site category, can be defined as one that extends on a
single quota of a hill, or near quotas, requiring less effort in conceiving it, and also reflecting the
influence of Portuguese vernacular mesh.

Figure 3. Coronel Alziro Vianna street location (graphic scale) (source: Marques, 2014).

Figure 4. Coronel Alziro Vianna street view (graphic scale) (source: Marques, 2014).

Figure 5. Coronel Alziro Vianna street (source: Marques, 2014).

42

In this type of street, buildings are located on the line of the street and are usually narrow.
An example is the Coronel Alziro Vianna street, which can be visualized in figures 3, 4 and 5.
In the figures, it can be seen that the road is narrow, approximately 11m. It has a parking
area of a side of the track. Two sidewalks are approximately 2m wide each in attempt to define
the pedestrian path. However they are inadequate if observed, since the buildings are implanted
in the line of the batches, and often with projections from other decks on the sidewalk;
therefore, inducing pedestrians to walk on the road. Typological variations on the street slope
are given by the height of the buildings and the presence of vegetation along sidewalks. In some
of these constructions, there are two or three floors, while in other constructions; they are
observed having five to six floors. The streets are narrow, giving access only to homes with
restricted access, preferably residents.
The street slope ends up defining their uses. Due to its small dimensions, it mostly has the
function of inhabiting. This situation leads to what Andrés Borthagaray (2010) says, namely,
that the various functions of the street are more or less compatible with each other, depending
on how it is presented, based on the morphological point of view, the relationship between the
physical elements associated and, furthermore, the modes of transport.
The situation of narrow streets with narrow sidewalks, little stream of cars, some trees when
possible and the relationship of the building with the lot, characterizes a type of street that is not
shown to the city, but is preserved. It establishes an urban street performance that according to
Borthagaray (2010), dissociates and divides the urban space as it presents its specific use -
mostly residential - decreasing the chance that people other than those who reside there can
cherish it.

The cross street

The cross street, also present in the original physical site category, refers to the connection
between the high and low parts of the study area, interconnecting slope streets, overcoming gaps
and topographic inflections (figure 6). The cross streets can also, connect the slope street and
the street corridor, to meet in the transition from the original physical site from the landfill
areas.
In general, the cross street type has similar attributes to the street slope: narrow streets, with
minimum dimensions of sidewalk, presence of trees in just a few streets, less intense flow of
cars, buildings on the lot tested with three floors, commonly giving the characteristic
articulation of pathways between same attributes, or, organizers of transition, switching the type
of hillside street to street corridor.
Thus, their morphological structure is directly related to the function of access, circulate-
through, allowing residents of hillside streets to connect with the city, furthermore establishing a
formal response to the occupation terms in areas of rugged terrain; besides receiving activities
related to trade and local services in order to meet residing in the vicinity.

Figure 6. São Bento street location (graphic scale) (source: Achiamé, 2014).
 43

For this reason, the cross street that presents a model of urban performance (Borthagaray,
2010) which tends to establish the union of urban space; is associated with the link function,
attracting more transient flows of pedestrians and cars than the streets of the hillside.

The straight avenue

The straight avenue, present in the category of landfill areas, can be defined as one that extends
longitudinally, throughout the study area, exceeding this limit, and expanding to other parts of
the city.
The straight avenue features common variations of the typical characteristics, such as the
presence of tall buildings commonly implanted in the tested lot with ten to fifteen floors,
sidewalks on both sides, sparse vegetation present only in the squares bordering the avenues,
three or more lanes of cars without parking, these variations establishes the heavy traffic of cars,
besides the main bus stops in the study area. These features can be evidenced in figures 7, 8 and
9, which show the straight Princesa Isabel Avenue.
Variations in type present in the straight avenue refer to median plats, number of crosswalks
present in each direction of the road/avenue, width of sidewalks, buildings with canopies that
project on the road/avenue, or the presence of a boardwalk bathing bay Victory - integrating the
city with nature. These variations on the type reinforce the idea that every town, and every street
has its own attributes that give them identity, making them readable, and contributing to the
understanding of the design of the city, associated with local characteristics.
Thus, it can be said that regardless of the variations found, its function is to connect the
different parts of the city as well as receive various activities that meet the different sectors of
the city. Usually having mixed functions, such as dwell (on a smaller scale), access, receive
different activities related to trade and services.
In the case of straight avenues present in the central area of Vitória (ES), these activities are:
i) households, banks, medical offices, institutional buildings on Avenida Marechal Mascarenhas
de Morais; ii) banks, consumer electronics stores, popular trade retailer in Princesa Isabel
Avenue / Governor Blei; iii) retailer popular trade, banking and cultural buildings on Jerome
Avenue.
Then we observe that the various activities presented in variations of straight avenue type
also determines its urban performance, since the model of urban performance is defined
precisely by the association between spatial form and uses and functions.

Figure 7. Princesa Isabel Avenue location (graphic scale) (source: França, 2014).
44

Figure 8. Princesa Isabel Avenue view (graphic scale) (source: França, 2014).

Figure 9. Princesa Isabel Avenue (source: França, 2014).

So, it can be said that the Avenida Marechal Mascarenhas de Morais has a model of urban
performance that divides the space because its features - connections from different sectors of
the city, high flow of cars, activities related to specific services, such as medical offices, law
firms, banks, institutional buildings - turns out to disperse the relations of social interaction,
establishing them only in the squares that lie along this pathway. This is an example of what
Margaret Pereira (2010) states: The Streets " [...] no longer places of conviviality, places to see
and be seen and will be considered, especially as the main infrastructure increasingly fast ‘large
traffic systems’.
The Princess Isabel / Governdor Blei and Jerome Avenues present a performance model of
urban crowding, spatially integrates the city, the present flows of people, trade flow,
communication, various activities related to culture.
Nevertheless, it is these pathways that normally occur the political and social events of the
city, becoming stage of life events, once the largest concentrated flows of people, cars and
transportation modes, are wide and connect the neighboring towns. In those moments, they
become protagonists of the city.
 45

The street corridor

The street corridor can be defined as one that connects straight avenues. It has templates, forms
and layout of buildings compatible with those presented in the avenues that connect straight
uses, but presenting the box narrow street with approximately 12m, 9m of which are in the
range of cars bearing (figure 10).

Figure 10. Alberto de Oliveira Santos street location (graphic scale) (source: Neto, 2014).

The absence of trees, along with the (dis)proportion of buildings and the width of
roads/streets/avenues accentuate the compression feeling of pedestrians and create strong gusts
of wind, consequently, it becomes uncomfortable to stay and walk through. This situation,
coupled with the lack of variety of uses - notably services - ultimately set it as low urban quality
with exclusive access function, circulate-through, making as a channel the movement of people
and cars.
Pursuing a model of urban performance (Borthagaray, 2010) which divides the urban space,
since the uses and forms of layout of buildings make a distribution of urban space that separates
the people from the space itself; in other words, only interested in looking at something specific
in one of those buildings are using it as part of the circulation system of the city.

Conclusions

By the establishment of typologies for the streets in central area of Vitória (ES), one can
understand the design of this part of the city , linking them to their uses and observing how the
relationship form x function directly affects the way people behave in each place.
The four typologies found - street slope, cross street, straight avenue and street corridor -
shape their uses by morphological characteristics, triggering models of urban performance of
different street, which sometimes unite, integrate, and sometimes split, dissociate.
Read, understand and classify each of these types of street allows to conclude how they seem
to be repeated in other parts of the city, establishing general characteristics of urban morphology
in Vitória; and also contribute to, from the understanding of the dynamics found between form
and function of streets, contemporary conceptions that can assess the strengths and weaknesses
of each of the typologies, thus interweaves them with the new to continue the readability of city.
46

References

Ascher, F. (2010) ‘As duas formas de compartilhar uma rua’, in Borthagaray, A. (ed.) Conquistar a rua!
Compartilhar sem dividir. (Romano Guerra, São Paulo) 18-21.
Borthagaray, A. (2010) ‘A performance urbana da rua’, in Borthagaray, A. (ed.) Conquistar a rua!
Compartilhar sem dividir. (Romano Guerra, São Paulo) 134-137.
Frampton, K. (1997) História Critica da arquitetura moderna (Martins Fontes: São Paulo).
Jacobs, J. (2000) Morte e vida de grandes cidades (Martins Fontes: São Paulo).
Kohlsdorf, M. E. (1996) A apreensão da forma da cidade (Universidade de Brasília, Brasília).
Lamas, J. M. R. G. (2000) Morfologia Urbana e Desenho da cidade (Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian,
Fundação para Ciência e Tecnologia, Lisboa).
Leite, J. S. (2011) ‘As ruas emergentes. Interpretaç o morfológica de um novo elemento urbano’, IV
Seminário Internacional de Investigação em Urbanismo (Barcelona), 189-202.
Lynch, K. (1997) A imagem da cidade (Martins Fontes: São Paulo).
Mendonça, E. M. S. (2006) ‘Mudança na paisagem de Vitória (ES) pelo projeto de Saturnino de Brito –
argumentos metodológicos para análise e construç o da paisagem’, IX Seminário de História da Cidade
e do Urbanismo (São Paulo) 1-15.
Montaner, J. M. (2013) Depois do movimento moderno. Arquitetura da segunda metade do século XX
(Gustavo Gilli, Barcelona).
Moudon, A. V. (1997) Urban morphology as an emerging interdisciplinary field.
(http://urbanmorphology.org/pdf/moudon1997.pdf) acessed 10 May 2013.
Panerai, P. (2007) Análise urbana (Universidade de Brasília, Brasília).
Panerai, P.; Castex, J. and Depaule, J. (2013) Formas urbanas. A dissolução da quadra (Bookman: Porto
Alegre).
Pereira, M. da S. (2010) ‘A reconquista das ruas. O desafio urgente das cidades brasileiras’, in
Borthagaray, A. (ed.) Conquistar a rua! Compartilhar sem dividir. (Romano Guerra, São Paulo) 140-
145.
Proença, S. S. B. (2011) ‘A diversidade da rua na cidade de Lisboa. Morfologia e Morfogenese’, IV
Seminário Internacional de Investigação em Urbanismo (Barcelona) 257-271.
 47

Studies and hypothesis on Mdina and Rabat urban form

Antonio Camporeale
Department of Architecture and Project, University of Rome “La Sapienza”.
E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract. The study presented here deals with the theme of the reading of the urban form of the city of
Mdina, the old capital of the island of Malta, and Rabat. The interest in the study of these two urban
centers, whose fortunes are inextricably linked to structural reasons, arises from some geographical
considerations. The island of Malta, in fact, lies at the center of the Mediterranean Sea, in a central
position respect to cultural exchanges between the peoples who inhabited its shores and the resulting
hybridization dynamics that have characterized its history. Dynamics that can be researched in Maltese
architecture, built result of contributions and strong exchanges between the different cultural areas and
during different historical periods. Mdina, with Rabat, still preserves its urban form, readable and
comparable with other centers such as Birgu and Valletta. The analysis of its urban form aims to
highlight some typical features of the Mediterranean: the presence and persistence of the house with a
courtyard in the building tissues . It was also possible to advance a hypothesis, based on the method of
study and reading of the alignments walls, identification of medieval pathways, advances and the size of
the bands attributable to the built , of any planned reorganization by Romans , more evident in the tissues
of Rabat.

Key Words: method, urban tissues, typological process, urban organism, Mediterranean Sea

Chronology of major historical events

Mdina, the old capital of Malta, is situated on a promontory that juts out into the eastern side of
the west plateau that defines the highest part of the territory of Malta, located about 200 meters
from the sea level. An ideal location from the point of view of strategic groups of nomads who
need to choose a safe place to settle and establish their own production activities, typical of
primitive men. In fact, the city is protected on three sides by the height difference between the
promontory and the valley it overlooks and which has full visual control.
The earliest records of settlements date back to the Bronze Age (1500-700 B.C.) and confirm
this thesis quoted above: the discovery of a significant number of ceramics and the discovery of
some stone blocks dating back to this period, that during the Middle Ages, were reused for the
fortifications near the Porta dei Greci, suggests the idea of a little settlement that would have
had a significant importance for the island. Given the archaeological evidence, we cannot
exclude the possibility that this may have been protected, the less well from the south side, by a
defensive wall. The transition from the Bronze Age at the next time is marked by the arrival of
the Phoenicians (VII century B.C.). It is likely that they encountered the island in a totally
fortuitous way: starting from the eastern shores and pushing towards the western part of the
Mediterranean, which is physically beaten by them in trade routes, in search of new territories to
colonize, the Phoenicians have easily occupied the island reaching the ancient Bronze Age
settlement on the promontory of Mdina. “At some point in time between the 6th and the 3rd
Century B.C., when Malta seems to have firmly under the control of the West Phoenician city of
Carthage, a fortified town replaced the Bronze Age settlement on the Mdina Promontory”(D. De
Lucca, 1995, pag. 3). It was probably the site of a Carthaginian military contingent pledged to
defend the island from the continuous attacks by the Greeks from Sicily, and later by the
Romans during the Punic Wars.
In 218 B.C. the island of Malta fell under the control of the Romans and the Phoenician-
Punic Melith became Melite (or Melita). There are many archaeological finds from the Roman
48

period, but little is known about the urban structure of the city. In 535 A.D. the Byzantines took
possession of the island: the Pax Romana was broken and returned to the constant fear, because
of the attacks of the Berbers from North Africa and from the Italian peninsula. This general state
of decay, which often has even led to the abandonment of entire settlements spread across the
lowland, forces the population to return to their fortified enclosures. It is presumably what has
happened to Melite: “the hypothetical creation of a Byzantine Kastron on the side of Mdina
standing proud among the ruins of the ancient Punic town and containing a church and suitable
residence for the civil and military Byzantine administrators is a plausible image of the fortified
Byzantine settlement that emerges on the Mdina promontory in the early 8th Centuy” (D. De
Lucca, 1995, pag. 18). The raids of the Arabs were followed until 870 A.D. when finally
conquered the island and Melite became Mdina. Due to the almost total absence of information
concerning the Arab period, is not possible to reconstruct the urban form that the city took after
their arrival, but it is possible to imagine, for example, the presence of a place of worship as a
mosque, inside the defensive walls. From 870 B.C. to 1240 A.D., the year in which all the
Arabs were expelled from Sicily and Malta by order of Frederick II, the city of Mdina
experienced a period of prosperity. As Idrisi, an Arab chronicler of the time, wrote: "Malta, a
large island with a protected harbor open to the east, where there is a town (Mdina) rich in
pastures, flocks, and fruits of all treasures."After the mid-13th Century, placed firmly under the
influence of European culture and the Christian religion, this registering a considerable impact
on the gradual transformation of the Muslim town during the course of 14th and 15th centuries
hinged, of course, on the small Romanesque church standing as a shining light in the center of
the town” (D. De Lucca, 1995, pag. 25). Conventual religious orders, such as the Benedictines,
Augustinians, Carmelites, Dominicans and Franciscans, they build the great monastic
complexes in the empty lands outside the walls of Melite.
From the social point of view, after the conquest of Sicily by the Spanish Aragonese, the
island riched diverse cultures: the indigenous Maltese, Arabs, Greeks, Jews and Latinos joins
the Sicilian nobility that, through the institution of the Universitas, administratively controls the
new Maltese feud. For the defense of the city was designed to strengthen the system of
fortifications already thickened by the Arabs: it was erected new walls parallel to the first on the
south-west and it was dug the ditch. Particular attention has been paid to the design of the main
entrance of the city: in this case you import the bayonet model, spread throughout the
Mediterranean, so it prevents, through the imposition of built fronts on the route, the linear and
direct access to the city center. “In this rispect, the main entrance area of Mdina, with its statue
of a pagan Goddess and with its small church of S. Maria della Porta, shops, stores and military
trappings, must have offered the first greeting to the trader, the pilgrim, the farmer and the town
dweller so that it could be correctly interpreted as a customs house, a passport office, an
immigration control point, a market place, a place of worship, a reliquary of old traditions and a
celebration of military power, all rolled into one spatial entity of enormous significance and
physical strength” (D. De Lucca, 1995, pag. 33). The city was gradually set up as a place to seek
shelter and protect themselves from the incursions of Berbers from North Africa, taken by force
from the beginning of the fifteenth century. The interior floor plan is organized arranging
themselves along the main route that bisects the city, dominated by the most important buildings
and the headquarters of the Sicilian nobility in Malta.
Compared to the main path, the eastern part, where today stands the cathedral of St. Paul,
home to government buildings, the representative architecture of a certain artistic value, while
in the eastern part develops the typical residential fabric of the Mediterranean areas, formed by
houses organized around a common courtyard. 1530 was the year of the arrival of the Knights
Hospitaller in Malta. Landed in October in the port of Birgu, only in November, the Grand
Master L'Isle Adam agreed to meet with representatives of the Universitas of Mdina. The
reluctance to act this was due to the poor conditions in which the city of Notabile was fallen:
semi-abandoned and adopted a system of fortifications now obsolete for new and powerful
weapons used by the Turks of Suleiman, ready to go to the West. In addition, for the first few
years on the island the priority was given to the same type of defensive adaptation with the
 49

Castrum Maris, which was the first site elected by the Knights for their stay, albeit temporary
island. The work began and continued at a slow pace, but fortunately finished in time to cope
with the massive attack of the Turks and the subsequent siege of 1565. The form, and, more
generally, the design of the new fortifications were based on projects developed by Italian
engineers: the mighty ramparts who surrounded the city, joined in turn by massive walls,
allowed to have a full view on territory and to aim their weapons at the enemy, covering all
possible angles.The Italian engineer Gabrio Serbelloni, already former superintendent of papal
fortifications, proposed to transform Mdina in a military camp: the proposed withdrawal of the
south walls to cut off a good part of the fabric of existing houses and the construction of two
large bastions angle. For unknown reasons these proposals were never implemented.
There are four operations of major construction, took place between the sixteenth and the
seventeenth century, that have fundamentally altered the urban form of Mdina. The first of these
concerns the construction of the Magistral Palace near the south entrance to the city; the second
concerns the construction of the church and convent of the Carmelites on the site of the ancient
church of Santa Maria della Rocca; the third is the expansion and reorganization of the
Benedictine monastery, with the addition of a convent for nuns; the fourth relates the story of
the construction of the Cathedral. Of course, being in the Baroque Age and considering the
dependence on the administrative and cultural center of Mdina to Sicily, the forms and the
architectural language was based on those that were spreading on the Italian peninsula through
the greatest exponents of this period, Bernini, Borromini, Rainaldi, among many.
The tragic event of the earthquake of 1693 caused an inevitable slowdown in the
construction of these four important works, as well as damaging heavily on the structural level.
The reconstruction of Mdina is chronologically divided into two major phases: the first (1693-
1722) covers the ecclesiastical architecture and was marked by the projects of the new Baroque
Cathedral, the Palace of the Bishopric and the new seminary. The second phase (1722-1736)
concerns the reconstruction of buildings, military and civilian, of Baroque palaces and of the
new baroque gate of the city. And it is precisely at this time that Mdina takes the established
urban form, still visible today.
After a brief French domination, in which Napoleon, sailing to reach Egypt, stopped in Malta
for a couple of years plundering the relics of the value of the Carmelite Church in Mdina, in
1813 the island passed into the hands of the English. The institutional and economic center of
gravity shifted to Valletta and its large port. “In 1850, the British colonial government had
decided to transport to Valletta all the 90 cannons belonging to the Order that were mounted on
the fortifications of Mdina, thus underlining a policy of transforming this historic war machine
into a “silent city” associated with peaceful activity” (D. De Lucca, 1995, pag. 120). From the
architectural point of view, even in Mdina enters the new artistic way of making architecture:
the revival takes hold and transforms the facades of the old mansions in beautiful neo-Gothic or
neo-Renaissance palaces (Palazzo Testaferrata, House Gourgion).
Luckily there will be no more substantial transformations in the consolidated Mdina late
baroque structure, until today. The city thrives on tourism and a renewed focus on the
restoration of its architectural gems helps to maintain the perception of its ancient history.

Interpreting urban aggregative organism

The choice of the city of Mdina and Rabat as urban centers to analyze in conjunction, with the
scale of aggregation and urban organism, has matured whereas, on a regional scale, represented
the central and hierarchically more important urban node of the entire island. With the shift of
the capital to Valletta and the growth of the strategic role of the Grand Harbour, Mdina has lost
its institutional function of representation, it has preserved its historical and artistic value,
becoming in time the main tourist destination in Malta. Rabat, however, has continued to carry
out its purely residential function, avoiding to specialize the urban tissues, if not for the
presence of the large convent complexes.
50

These two urban centers have witnessed a common history and must be analyzed
simultaneously.

Planned city. Hypothesis for comparison

The hypotheses on the origin of the ancient urban structure of the planned city of Melite have
proved conflicting. The archaeological evidence, in some cases substantial, have given and
continue to give valuable suggestions for the definition of urban structure that has taken during
the past ages, but as a whole are scarce and still lack a systematic organization. They allowed,
however, to be able to assume the presence of an early settlement already during the Bronze
Age and compare it as a typology to that of Borg-in-Nadur, consists of houses constructed with
sporadic piles operated into holes in the ground and protected where the natural conformation of
the site would not allow it, with a massive defensive wall.
From the seventh century B.C. the Phoenicians begin to move toward the western shores of
the Mediterranean Sea, and during one of these voyages of exploration it is likely that they
stopped on the island of Malta. Now, to occupy it and make it a small colony, the step was
short. With the arrival of these people more organized from all points of view, the settlement of
the Bronze Age is replaced with a real urban core, in all probability, fortified.
With the conquest of the Romans (218 B.C.) Melite does not seem to have changed the
urban structure imposed in the Phoenician-Punic. This hypothesis is supported by prof. Denis
De Lucca in the book "Mdina. A History of Its urban space and architecture "(1997) excludes
the possibility of a Roman planning on orthogonal grid. De Lucca instead supports the
hypothesis of a Punic origin of the ancient Melite, availing of the literary sources,
archaeological evidence which hitherto were available: the presence of remains in the
foundation of a fortified wall dating back to Punic, identified by the excavations in 1994 by
prof. Anthony Bonanno, inside the city walls that enclosed Melite, suggested the presence of an
acropolic area on the upper part of the city, consisting of public buildings, administrative and
religious, as distinct from a lower zone, occupied by the current extension of Rabat, mainly
residential. De Lucca argues that “the urban armature of Punic Melita was based on an irregular
system of planning that probably developed as a response to the natural contours of the terrain”
(D. De Lucca, 1995, pag. 8). In support of this thesis, he also proposes a comparison with some
sites excavated in Punic Sardinia as Tharros, Monte Sirai, sulci and Nora. A few years later, the
hypothesis of the presence of the Acropolis in today's Mdina seems to be confirmed by the
studies of Nathaniel Cutajar (2001): the alleged absence of archaeological layers dating from the
Punic period (V-III century B.C.) which would indicate a relatively low housing activity of the
area, over the previous period (VII-VI century B.C.) has to think of a public use of the same
area, left open like a square. At the same time, however, the excavation of numerous pieces of
wall, found in some rooms beneath the Cathedral, others escavated in Villegaignon Street,
others remains discovered in the foyer of the seminary and in the Villhena Palace, strengthen the
hypothesis, a few years first excluded, of the planning on orthogonal grid of Melite. In the
doctoral thesis of the scholar David Zahra titled "A didactic itinerary of the historical heritage of
Mdina" (2002) there is the first attempt to sketch the alleged Roman grid. Nothing has been
produced rather than the area that stretched on the current Rabat.

Hypothesis of roman re-planning

The analytical work get start from the light path traced by recent studies on the subject and try
to provide some additional insights that can be verified only with the help of a more thorough
and systematic archaeological campaign. The reading and interpreting method adopted is the
one defined by Gianfranco Caniggia. It first involves the identification of routes that shape the
fabric and contextually relevant strips that determine their hierarchy. This is necessary for
 51

understanding the way in which the fabric has been consolidated in the course of time,
according to those general laws relating to a precise cultural area around of which Malta forms
part, which is the Mediterranean. The basic instrument of the research is mounting architectural
surveys of the ground floors of the buildings. In this way, having returned the most complete
assembly possible of existing buildings in tissues, we proceeded to the identification of these
orthogonal grids which define the possible overlaps of built that occurred at different times.
Another important factor is the process of medievalization which generally invests the urban
fabric, adapting to new cultural needs of the medieval period. All this cannot be separated and
must be based on the broader historical record and traceable on archaeological evidence
unearthed during the excavations.
The urban fabric of Mdina, in contrast with Rabat, is still enclosed within the massive
defensive wall since the Phoenician occupation and reshaped according to the military
technology, force in each subsequent period. Today it is structured on a main street with a north-
south direction, Villegaignon Street, which connects the city gate with the bastion placed in an
not-built area on the north side of the city. This trail overlooks the majority of buildings
including specialized buildings as Palazzo Falson, Palazzo Santa Sofia, Palazzo Iguanez, the
Convent and the Church of the Carmelites, the Convent of the Benedictines, the Giuratale Tour,
the little churches of St. Agatha and St. Peter. In the middle of this axis, opens to the East the
town square, on which stands the imposing Cathedral of St. Paul, from which it takes its name,
and other specialized buildings such as the former Seminary and the Archbishop's Palace. The
western side of the fabric axis, presents a totally different nature: it focuses, in fact, the purely
residential fabric of Mdina, which developed along the structuring of St. Nicholas Street, which
in turn is polarized in the Porta dei Greci. The secondary routes, orthogonal to the principal
route, bud from these two main axis and in the transverse direction (east-west) structured the
entire city.
Beyond the walls, the empty area of respect, defining a sort of hiatus, determines the
distance from the urban center of Rabat. The route structuring the urban grid is detectable in San
Pawl Street and seems to repeat the same direction of St. Nicholas Street in Mdina. Here the
fabric is essentially composed of basic building type with the insertion of large specialized
complexes of conventual buildings, occupying antinodal areas. It is obvious just by looking at
the urban form of Mdina, the concentration of specialized buildings in the eastern than western
area and also with respect to the fabric of Rabat over the majestic Cathedral, which abuts the
Sacristy, are the former Seminary and the Archbishop's Palace. This could indicate the
maintenance of civil and religious functions of the area in Roman times, where would host the
temple of Juno, also indicating a probable continuity with the religious tradition of the
Phoenician goddess Astarte and after the Punic goddess Tanit. In Rabat, it is conceivable the
presence of the Roman Forum in the central area of the fabric, now occupied by a serial
specialized building with conventual function. Through time, this spaces, and more generally,
those that have specialized, for example along the walls and near the entrance gates of the city,
are usually abandoned during the period of late antiquity, when the institutional and
administrative structure of the Roman Empire begins to crumble. Over time, these spaces
become clogged with specialized constructions (monasteries, markets) or remain unbuilt. Is the
case of the site where it is assumed there had probably been a building for the games
(amphitheater): in addition, the walls and routes, that just in the vicinity of the suggested site
deform and bend, seem to confirm this view. Following the same observations, we identify the
site where supposedly there was the Roman theater: it may have been built near the main
entrance of Rabat, on the south side, in the urban node into which flowed the territorial routes
that connected the city to the countryside, where we assume the existence an important gateway.
Here, too, the shape of the curve constructed buildings would resume the typical semicircular
shape of the auditorium. Among the few archaeological finds up to today, in addition to the
common theatrical masks in terracotta, stands a tomb dedicated to a young comedian and lyre
player from Pergamum died in Melite. These help to strengthen our argument. Another
important investigative tool is given to identification of the orthogonal arrays based on the
52

cadastral: these showed a certain modularity of routes and allowed, adding them to the sketched
"clues" proposed by D. Zahra, returning an orthogonal credible of the roman structure of Melite.
Overlaying this first hypothetical grid on the cadastral, we could find another phenomenon
typical of planned tissues, the so-called "medievalization": during the Middle Ages, the
hierarchical routes, such as via principalis and the via Praetoria, great roads with reports not
comparable to the needs of the medieval fabric, are obstructed from the constructed facade to
the center. It is possible to read these "advances" also on the fabric of Rabat. Another key
element to the base of the study was the excavation of the Roman domus and other alleged
residential buildings near the south western fortifications of Mdina. Discovered accidentally in
1881, consists of a large colonnaded atrium whose mosaic floor is kept in excellent condition
and related environments that are arranged around it. This domus has provided the other
possible arrangement of the orthogonal planned grid that has been taken into consideration.
Putting all the information from a system we could return a complete and coherent plan of a
hypothetical re-planning of Melite, took place under the rule of the Romans.

References

Caniggia, G. and Maffei, G.L. (2008) Lettura dell’edilizia di base, Alinea, Firenze.
Strappa, G. (1995) Unità dell’organismo architettonico, Dedalo, Bari.
De Lucca, D. (1995) Mdina. A history of its urban space and architecture, Said International, Valletta.
 53

Territory and urban planning in Northern Sinaloa:

Geometric rationalization of the land structure in the
municipalities of Ahome and Guasave.

Giancarlo Cataldi1, David Urios Mondéjar2, Juan Colomer Alcácer2, Ana Portalés
Mañanós2
1
Dipartimento di Architettura. Università degli Studi. Firenze.Via San Nicolò, 93. 50125
Firenze 2Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Valencia, UPV. Camino de Vera, s/n.
46022 Valencia. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected], [email protected]

Abstract. A scientific reading of the territorial structure of both municipalities of Guasave and Ahome, in
northern Sinaloa, has been carried out starting from the urban analysis through three successive
workscales: territory, city and quarter. In the first approach, the agricultural planning of a vast portion
of the coastal plain where a hierarchical grid of roads and canals modulate the territory with high
precision is detected. At the city scale, it is revealed the presence of natural and historic traces, that
compete with the geometric rigidity of the territorial grid to configure the present urban fabric of
Guasave. The Sinaloa river and the courses that interconnected the old Sinaloa missions of the 17th
century are historical paths that become incorporated into the urban planning of the 20th century, where
the development of the central quarter (Colonia Centro) acquires a differential character. The old core
mission of the Nuestra Señora del Rosario Church generated, since the 1920s, a urban grid that follows
the geometric pattern of the colonial city with square blocks on orthogonal axes deviated slightly from the
traces of the agricultural macroplanning. It is flexible in any case, because settles into the plot divergent
paths departing north from the church square and sets its limits to the natural accidents or historical
traces.

Key Words: North Sinaloa, Mexico, geometric colonization, agricultural territory, American colonial
city, orthogonal and hierarchical network system.

Convenience in territory and urban form research in North Sinaloa

Within the framework of the International Architecture and Urban Planning Workshop 2014,
held in Sinaloa, Mexico, managed by the INTHAB (Instituto Tecnológico del Hábitat) and
sponsored by the State of Sinaloa and the municipalities of Guasave and Ahome, it has been
given an opportunity to a group of architects and town planners from different European and
Mexican Universities, to place the first contact with the cities and the territory of Northwest
Mexico, and more specifically with the municipalities above mentioned.
The geographical factors of Northwest Mexico and the remoteness of the region in relation
to the heart of the country have kept it for ages in a secondary position to the political, cultural,
economic and social main dynamics that have been taken place in the rest of the territory of the
Mexican Republic. We must consider that the state of Sinaloa is located in Northern Mexico's
Pacific Ocean coastline, in front of Baja California Peninsula across the Cortes Sea, and it is
also part of this region together with States of Sonora, South Baja California and North Baja
California. The region (Ortega, 1999) is framed by the abrupt mountains of Sierra Madre
Occidental that run on the South into the belt of volcanic mountains that crosses Center Mexico
from West to East. Such geophysical conditions have always made difficult to access the area
and have kept The Northwest in an isolated position. The mouintain range has proven a major
obstacle to the mobility of all of the groups that have occupied Mexico from the beginning of
Spanish exploration and, particularly, acted as a physical barrier to who have held the power in
the main cities in central Mexico.
54

For the majority of experts that have travelled to North Sinaloa to participate in the
workshop, and specially, for those who came from Europe, the area was quite unknown because
there are very few documentary references of the study of its territory and its cities in the circles
of scientific production that European experts are used to attend. These published references of
the research of the different stages of urban and territorial development of the municipalities of
North Sinaloa where we focused our studies, however, do exist, although information is scarce
and scattered, and very often is focused from non-technical aspects. Many studies are made
under ethnographic or folkloric aspects and are confined to small local areas6. Urban and land
planning and development have been carried out in recent times: the first half of the 20th
century, and they were very distinctive for both Guasave and Ahome, as will be shown.
Therefore, it is very interesting to open lines of research in its study but from a different angle
and, in any case, based in a scientific methodology.
To put forward this process is necessary to undertake an objective observation in line with
the present state of a world that is different from the one we usually find in the European or
North American context. Herein lies its strength and originality, thus, in a first phase, that is
concerned with this paper, the reading will be basically descriptive and will focus on the
analysis of the morphology based on the geometry of the traces that define the territorial and
urban structures, determining its layout, hierarchy and metric parameters. The start of this
research is complemented by the outline of the context formed by social, economic and
historical motivations that influence growth of cities and transformation of the territory.

Historic outline of the urban and territorial development of Guasave and Los Mochis

Guasave and Ahome are the most important municipalities of North Sinaloa, according to
demographic, social and economic criteria. They are also very large municipalities7 (3.464 y
4.343 km² respectively) that are settled on a coastal plain crossed by the rivers Fuerte and
Sinaloa that flow into the sea perpendicularly to the coastline. At the moment, the plain is used
for irrigated lands, with fertile soils and presence of water distributed through large hydraulic
infrastructures which has enabled the expansion of high-yielding mechanized agriculture,
becoming a strategic activity for the national agro-industry.

Figure 1. Baja California del Sur. American Geographical Society. N.Y.C., 1923.

6
See Colección Presagio: “18 Encuentros con la historia”. Culiacán, Gobierno del Estado de Sinaloa,
Revista Cultural Presagio, Academia Cultural Roberto Hernández Rodríguez, 2001. y Humphries, Reba,
Los Mochis, historia oral de una ciudad, Los Mochis, Universidad de Occidente, 1986
7
Data from Instituto Nacional de Estadística y Geografía INEGI, Mexico.
 55

Their municipal capitals, Guasave and Los Mochis are 64 kilometers apart, and are currently
connected by the Federal Highway Mexico 15. The territorial morphology between the two
urban centers appears quite homogeneous. In fact, consists in a large grid where the backbone is
the axis of the Highway cited above and the transversal modulation is provided by the irrigation
infrastructures. The origin and the dynamics of the urban development of the capitals of both
municipalities are, however, very different. They have been carried out in an autonomous and
independent way that has been reinforced by the fact of the chronic isolation that is underlined
by the lack of good communication infrastructures for ages between Guasave and Los Mochis.
In early times, these were reduced to rough unpaved roads that become impassable because of
floods in the rainy seasons or the simple deterioration through use.
In Guasave, the location of a system of Jesuit Missions in the lower part of Sinaloa River
established the original settlement in the 17th century, despite its official date of foundation date
is now under dispute between 1592 and 1595. According to Ortega (1999), in the territory under
study, the Missions of Guasave, Tamazula, Bamoa and Nío, founded in 1608, concentrated the
indigenous people in communities settled in fixed locations with clear limits.

Figure 2. System of Mission villages in Sinaloa and Sonora in the 17th century.

The Mission villages, also known as “pueblos”, were linked together to form local networks,
as they were not isolated communities. They were connected by paths that made possible a
constant exchange of products, missionaries and indigenous. These urban and territorial small
structures survived the fall of the system of the Mission Pueblos after the expulsion of the
Jesuits in late 18th century, and they were those that defined the urban morphology of the
settlements until the early 20th century, when new traces began to be set on the territory. At that
time started the development of the first irrigation systems around Guasave: El Burrión canal
was built in 1901 (Sánchez, 1980); La Florida canal, in 1905 (López Ceceña, 1980); both
handmade in a traditional way with no specialised machinery, and that should speed up the
56

agricultural transformation of the plain. The elevation of Guasave to a free municipality through
the Decree of 30 november of 1916 gave the former Syndication of the Sinaloa municipality its
own authorities who addressed in the course of the following years the modernization of the
original mission core (Ruiz Alba, 1980) as well as the urban development planning of the
municipal capital, that began to materialise from the decade of the 20s of the 20th century.

Figure 3. Historic growth of the city of Guasave. Implan. Guasave, 2009.

Moreover, the national land reform promoted by President Lázaro Cárdenas 1934-1940
(Ortega, 1999) implied important changes in the structure of the territory because it eliminated
the latifundia, protected the small property and opened a new way for agricultural development:
the Mexican Collective Ejido. At this time, the era of large federal investment in water
infrastructure projects was opened. It involved the construction and renovation of the main
canals of the municipality of Guasave in the decades of the 40s and the 50s of the 20th century.
In 1955 (Rodríguez Larios, 2001) the construction of the Guadalajara-Nogales Federal Highway
Mexico 15, which set the geometric trace of the current network infrastructure of the territorial
system, was completed. That fact allowed faster communications to the next municipalities, to
the center of the country and to the United States; mitigating the ancestral isolation of the area.
In Ahome, the controversy sparked on the matter of the foundation of the present municipal
capital, Los Mochis (Villaseñor Atwood, 2001), the moment where it took place, a still recent
past, and the interest of the initial model of urban development proposed as an American
cultural based utopian city, have generated multiple lines of research and publications
(Villaseñor Atwood, 2001) that adequately document the period between 1875 and 1935. It is a
territory that is deprived of the preexistence of the system of the Mission Pueblos so their
development is initiated as a result of the implementation of major rail and water infrastructures
that led its agricultural transformation.
 57

Figure 4. Mexican Railways. Built and projected lines, 1881.

The creation of the port of Topolobampo and the construction of the railway that would link
it to the US, unfinished until 1961, from the Atlantic coast (Norfolk, Virginia) to this port in the
Pacific coast (Zonn, 1977), lead characters as Albert K. Owen to the Fuerte River Valley for the
establishment of an agricultural colony in Topolobampo with American immigrants under the
premises of the Utopian socialism in the last quarter of the 19th century (Ortega, 1987 and
Moreno Rivas, 1992).
The most important work of settlers was the construction of the largest irrigation systems
that were known in the Valley. According to Villaseñor Atwood (2001), under planning carried
out by engineer Eugene A. H. Tays, they dug with spikes and blades a main canal, with lenght
11 kilometers, called Tastes canal, to carry the water from the Fuerte River up to the early
settlement of Los Mochis, and also built secondary distribution canals and the cleared 1.500
hectares of wasteland grounds which were going to opened to cultivation (Ortega, 1999).
The initial trace of the village, that determines the core of the city at present, was guided by
this set of canals, arranged in parallel to Tastes Canal, and following an approximate North-
South direction. The canals are separated a distance of 1 km each other, alternating supply
canals and drain canals. Layout gave expression to a functional optimization of irrigation
systems, as well as to the most appropriate sizing for a crop field. Installation of sugar industry
by Benjamin F. Johnston, in 1902 (Villaseñor Atwood, 2001), expanded the populated area due
to the needs of the workers of the company, so commissioned an urban project that would guide
the expansion of the city by following the traces already fixed by Owen and Tays. Street lines
were traced perpendicular to the existing canals, separated by the same distance of 1 kilometer,
generating an urban fabric of square blocks, very similar to the first proposal for the
development of the colony in Topolobampo driven by Owen, although never carried out.

Figure 5. Plan of the first section of the Pacific Railway. Philadelphia, 1885.
58

Such planning did not follow the tradition of the Spanish colonial city in the sense that there
was not a central place in the urban fabric called to host the public square around which would
place the Church, the Market and the Government Palace.
Rather, the urban fabric enclosed a principal place that consisted on the plot of the sugar
factory and its campus, in which were located the houses of the owners of the company and
certain employees of first class; keeping this space closed and segregated from the rest of the
population.
As it has been explained, the urban traces of Los Mochis came from the agricultural
planning. As urban sprawl has been taking place, the agricultural elements that have been
imposing the rationalization of the territory: canals and fields irrigated by them, have been
transformed into streets and lots as they were being phagocytosed by the growth of the city
which has been extended as oil slick, though profiled by the pattern of 1-kilometre square, to
acquire current proportions of about 4500 hectares.
Until Federal Plans for agricultural planning are not taken in the decade of the 40s of the
20th century, Guasave and Los Mochis are listed as different worlds. The agricultural
development was accompanied by the construction of large strategic infrastructures of
transportation in Northwest Mexico. That programme has the inauguration of the highway
Mexico 15 in 1955 as a culmination. Up until that moment Guasave and Los Mochis had
traveled different paths despite having the same economic base in an important agricultural
development.

Figure 6. Plan of municipality of Guasave. Technical Cadastre Office, 2001.

Reading of the urban and territory form: Guasave and Los Mochis

A scientific reading performed is extended to the territory between the municipal capitals of
Guasave and Los Mochis, and goes downscale up to focus on the town of Guasave, completing
the process in the study of urban form of the historic center. So that, from this point is
developed a methodology of urban analysis through three successive workscales: territory, city
and quarter.

Territory scale

On the plain between the towns of Los Mochis and Guasave, a large hierarchical mesh of roads
and hydraulic infrastructures modulate the territory with great precision.
 59

Figure 7. Planned structure of the territory. Own elaboration. Guasave, 2014.

In a first approximation, it is revealed the geometric colonization of a vast portion of the

territory. It derived from agricultural planning started from the land reform of Lázaro Cárdenas
in the late 1930s that opened the coastal plains of North Sinaloa to intensive cultivation. It also
meant a major reorganization of the structure of ownership of the land because achieved the
distribution of the major latifundia of the valleys of Fuerte and Sinaloa Rivers (Ortega, 1999),
through the location of a large cloud of Mexican Collective Ejidos and the formation of
agricultural colonies.
The Federal Highway Mexico 15 runs parallel to the coastline with an approximate
orientation from NW to SE (slightly deflected from the orientation of the main grid which
guided the growth of Los Mochis area), and is plotted as a straight line that connects the main
urban centers of the region because the plain relief does not impose topographical restrictions
that could break the trace in about 60 km. Only in the surroundings of Juan José Ríos town, the
line takes a slight angle to reach also straightly to Los Mochis.
The mesh is constructed from parallel and perpendicular paths to the main road, and is
structured from the cell base of 1 x 1 km square, the same which was adopted for planning
urban development of Topolobampo and Los Mochis, that were agricultural developments
originally. The hierarchical mesh extends to a length of 54 km and is about 20 kilometers wide.
The elements that compose the grid are linear infrastructures being the referred road of two
carriageways the main one. It is recognized the higher order of the base module 6 x 4
kilometers, bounded by the main canals which run alongside traffic roads, which is divided into
lots of 2 x 4 kilometers delimited by lower ranked irrigation canals. These are, in turn, divided
into 1-kilometre square sub-modules whose limits are even smaller roads and ditches. The
territorial structure is very strong and although is interrupted to accommodate the natural
courses of rivers that cross the territory, these discontinuities only affect the geometry of the
sub-modulation, and do not diminish the strength of the geometry. The main pattern overlaps
and commands the constellation of rural villages (known as “Poblados”) of the municipality of
Guasave, which are counted in a number close to 450. The majority of the Poblados were born
under the structure of the Ejidos, whose inhabitants a piece of ground was assigned for
cultivation as well as a plot to establish his dwelling in it, as Juan José Ríos in 1955 (Ramos,
2000); or from the urban consolidation of work camps, as Batamote in 1956, that were in charge
of the construction of the large hydraulic infrastructure of the territory.

City scale

After focus the reading at the scale of the city of Guasave, it is revealed the presence of natural
and historic traces, vying with the strength and rigidity of the territorial pattern described above,
to configure its urban fabric. Among the natural ones stand out the course of Sinaloa River and
60

Ocoroni Stream; and among the last ones, the urban area of the original mission around the
Main Church of Nuestra Señora del Rosario is barely perceptible; as well as the path network
that start off from this point, that probably connected all the Mission Pueblos settled along the
stream of Sinaloa River. Similarly, the first canals dug around the urban core to convey the
waters of Sinaloa River to the crop fields next to the village, before it became the capital of an
independent municipality. All that elements are constituted as the traces that are assimilated in
its urban growth, that differentiate and sequence the stages of expansion.

Figure 8. Urban development of city of Guasave. Own elaboration. Guasave, 2014.

The first planned development of the urban core, conducted by the authorities of the new
municipality established on 30 November 1916, is known at present as Colonia Centro. It
acquired a differential character in relation to the rest of the urban expansion because supposed
the expansion of the old Misión core in a historic moment prior to implantation in the territory
of the great geometric pattern of water infrastructures that rationalized the plain from the 1950s.
It was created a urban fabric that was different from the one that was going to be generated
subsequently in hand with the agricultural macroplanning, which will be specifically discussed
in the next section. The above mentioned 2 x 4 kilometers territorial sub-module, precisely the
one that is at the East end of the grid that already limits to the course of the Sinaloa River,
penetrates into the town and imposes its traces on it. The main pattern along with the main
diagonals of the mesh, are translated into an ordered disposition of canals, paths and drains that
are called to organize the urban growth.
The defining elements of the sub-modulation of the territorial mesh itselves constitute the
West and South city urban limits, while the diagonal canal, almost coincident with the bisector
angle of the Northern sub-quadrate of the mentioned 2 x 4 km module, is the main trace that
orientates a new reticular mesh which is destined to consolidate the urban fabric produced from
the 1970s in the extension of Guasave to the West of the Colonia Centro.

City core scale

As we have seen, the settlement of a small riverside village is conditioned by the presence of
Sinaloa River. This primitive location is where a Jesuit Mission settled, a few years after, in
1608. According to Ortega (1999), Sinaloan and Sonoran Missions respond to a specific type of
urban settings with a center where was situated the temple, which was the main point of the
common life, together with the atrium, the cemetery, the belfry and the missionary house, all
located in front and by the sides of the temple. Adjacent to the atrium, the main square served as
a meeting place and around it, huts inhabited by Indians were lined. Beyond there were crop and
grazing lands and pastures, forming perfectly delimited enclosures. The paths that connected the
sinaloan missions form the historical road network that are incorporated into the urban planning
of the 20th century, as it seems to be guessed regarding the Fig. 9. The first extension is
developed under the geometric pattern of the colonial city with square blocks on orthogonal
 61

grid; although its orientation is governed by the position of the old core mission: the Main
Church of Nuestra Señora del Rosario. The axes of the religious building are slightly deflected
in relation to the axes of agricultural macroplanning. The first ones guide an urban fabric that
has been consolidated since the 1920s, presumably to the North of the current Street Doctor
Luis García de la Torre whose eastern end wades the Sinaloa River. Its area is clearly confined,
therefore, by the city of the 1920s, to the South, by the Sinaloa River, to the East and by
Doradito Canal (now Central Boulevard), to the West. The mesh has a different metric to our
known cases since its origin seems not to come from the rationalization of agricultural land. It
also presents certain peculiarities. The regularity of the plot is based on the 100-meter square
block, with 20-meter road section that seems accentuated by recognizing higher-order modules,
super-blocks of 4 x 4 basic blocks. These higher order units have a dimension of 480 meters by
460 meters, next to the 1/2-kilometre square module, sub-module of those already used in
Topolobampo, Los Mochis and in the agricultural planning of the territory. The mesh, however,
has some flexibility because is defined in the urban environment and is adapted to the particular
circumstances that the preexisting elements impose. From East to West, one block of 80 x 100
meters is included in every super-module that causes the undefinition of this higher order with
pure square geometries. A row of these blocks arises in the pattern to accommodate the
divergent paths that depart northwards from both long sides of the church square; and this
narrower block appears repeated on the adjacent super-modules. We have seen that the limits of
Colonia Centro are marked by natural accidents and historical traces. They abruptly cut the grid
on the perimeter which is formed by triangular or trapezoidal plant blocks generating sometimes
sharply angled chamfers.

Figure 9. Urban structure of Colonia Centro. Own elaboration. Guasave, 2014.

Conclusion

At present, the territory of Guasave and Los Mochis appears characterized by elements that
define a regular and potent geometry; because they come from the rationalization of the land for
intensive agricultural exploitation. These frames also condition the urban growth of the main
towns which adapt to them formulating urban fabric and block metrics on the basis of the lower
sub-modules of the main agricultural structures. It appears, however, interesting peculiarities as
the case of Guasave primitive core and its first extension, opening research paths towards
understanding the territorial and urban structures of the Missions era and towards the study of
planning, genuinely urban planning, that was held, certainly in North Sinaloa, as was the
development of Colonia Centro.
62

References
Alba, E. R. (1980) ‘Guasave ayer y hoy’, Revista Presagio 41 (ed.) 18 Encuentros con la historia:
Guasave (Culiacán) 111-113
Atwood, A. V. (2001) Orígenes históricos de Los Mochis (Culiacán, Universidad de Occidente)
Ceceña, G. L. (1980) ‘Los antiguos sistemas de irrigación’, Revista Presagio 42 (ed.) 18 Encuentros con
la historia: Guasave (Culiacán) 28-29.
Figueroa, J.M. and López, A. and Gilberto (2001) 18 Encuentros con la historia: Guasave (Colección
Presagio, Culiacán, Gobierno del Estado de Sinaloa, Revista Cultural Presagio, Academia Cultural
Roberto Hernández Rodríguez).
Larios, M. R. (2001) ‘La hotelería en Guasave’, Revista Presagio (ed.) 18 Encuentros con la historia:
Guasave (Culiacán) 156-157
Noriega, S. O. (1987) El Edén subvertido: la colonización de Topolobampo, 1886-18960( Siglo veintiuno
SA de CV, México DF).
Noriega, S. O. (1999) Breve historia de Sinaloa (Fondo de Cultura Económica, El Colegio de México,
México).
Ramos, A. B. (2000) General Juan José Ríos, Sinaloa (Hermosillo, Universidad de Sonora)
Rivas, M. M.(1992) Socialismo en Topolobampo. Apuntes para la historia (Ágata, Guadalajara).
Sánchez, J. de J. (1980) ‘El canal de El Burrión’, Revista Presagio 40 (ed.) 18 Encuentros con la
historia: Guasave (Culiacán) 58-59.
Zonn, L. E. (1977) An Historical Geography of the Ferrocarril Del Pacífico (Center for Latin American
Studies, Arizona State University)
 63

The memory of informality: the typological cycles in the self-

built environment

Milton Montejano Castillo

School of Architecture and Engineering, Instituto Politécnico Nacional, Mexico
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. Informal or self-built settlements are concentrations of dwellings, built without compliance to
official norms or urban planning. Today, it is estimated that there are approximately one billion people
living in these conditions. This represents about one third of the world population living in cities today.
Of crucial importance to understand these agglomerations is to capture their changes in time. However,
such a task represents a challenge because these settlements are rarely documented in records or official
sources. An attempt to track these changes based on the example of one of these cities: “Ciudad
Nezahualcóyotl”, a one million people city, that during the last fifty years has been informally developed
as part of the Metropolitan Area of Mexico City. Such a method is based on the identification and
analysis of the typology of dwellings and their transformation through the time. Based on empirical
evidences, we may say that morphological changes in informal settlements do not occur at random or
chaotically. Rather, such changes are susceptible to be explained and traced back at the urban scale, by
means of the observation of building types and the logic of changes they follow in time.

Key Words: informal settlements, typology, consolidation, Mexico City.

The informal city and the morphological analysis

Traditional studies of urban morphology are based on the idea that certain rules of
transformation over time dictate changes to the fabric, and that the organization and
development of the fabric are not random, “but follows laws that urban morphology tries to
identify” (Levy, 1999: 79). In his article, at the end of the last century, Albert Levy asked also
the question, if such logics and laws were susceptible to identify not just in historical fabrics,
but also on modern urban fabrics8, for which new tools of analysis were required.
Fifty years after this publication, the same question remains as relevant, because new types
of cities and urban forms arise. One of this new urban agglomerations is the informal city, that
“comprises the slums of the developing megacities, where the informal sector has its base;
where services are poor or non-existent; and where residents are invisible to legal status
systems” (Un-Habitat, 2003:23).
Quantitatively, this type of city represents a very extensive phenomenon. By 2003 it was
estimated that about one third of the world urban population (approximately one billion people)
was living in dwellings built without compliance to official norms or urban planning, and
growing outside the conventional urban and constructive systems around the world (ibid, 2003).
After many decades of politics and actions used to tackle the phenomenon of informal
urbanization, today the strategies to improve the livelihoods of slum dwellers are manifold:
these include improvements on transport, generation of employment, empowerment of the
inhabitants and improvement of the municipal finances, among many other strategies.
Spatially, allocation of resources to poor areas requires a geographical map of poverty.
However, such a task represent a challenge because these settlements are rarely documented in
records or official sources. Moreover, the urban fabric produced in the informal city is not

8
Levy describes the elements of the new urban fabric as completely autonomous, where constructed
space no longer corresponds to the plot; where there is no longer a clear relation between one building
and another, and between buildings and streets or open spaces (Levy, 1999:83).
64

simple and the social structure in irregular settlements is far from homogeneous within a single
city or even within one settlement (UN-HABITAT, 2003:169).
The conditions described above have given rise to a series of attempts to map poverty, even
facing the scarcity of official sources or census available. Informal settlements have been
interpreted then as “urban texture” with the purpose of correlating morphological patterns with
poverty (Barros and Sobreira, 2005). This concept is based on the quantitative analysis of the
surface and configuration of the buildings as well as the internal emptiness or voids between
buildings. Hence, the results based on the use of satellite images argue that the urban texture of
informal settlements can be analyzed in terms of fractality and lacunarity. That is to say,
informal settlements contain morphological characteristics which can also be found in the
nature, properties which indicate a hidden order. In this sense, an estimation of the population
density or the spatial patterns of informal settlements could be obtained from remote images,
offering new possibilities for a mapping and classification.
Informal settlements have been also the focus of some morphological analysis at the scale of
the building. A practical utility of this approach is the recognition of the design qualities of the
informal settlements regarding the design solutions for the local environment. Such an
analytical framework seems to be feasible, if we think about the informal settlements as a
process and product of vernacular architecture (Rapoport, 1998: 351-377).
Considering the questions above, the field of urban morphology stands here as an
opportunity to develop new tools of analysis based on the physical qualities of the territory. The
objective then, is to show the main findings of a method to unfold the internal spatial
differentiation of informal settlements.
Such a method should link the scale of the plot to the scale of the city. But most important,
this tool should be intended to be based on non-skilled human resources or sophisticated data. In
fact, information gathering about informal settlements (enumeration or mapping) is in many
cases produced by the inhabitants themselves9 (Patel, 2012:3-12).

The informal construction process

In Latin America, informal settlements appeared mostly as a consequence of the rapid

urbanization and industrialization occurring after World War II. In 1930, most of the population
still lived in rural areas, whereas by 1980, over half the population lived in urban areas. This
was due mostly to natural growth and rural-urban migration. In addition to this growth, there
was a rapid social polarization that was reflected in the real estate sector.
Due to low wages and the precarious nature of economical development in real estate sector,
housing for the working class was not a priority. Therefore, the urban poor acquired their
housing in their own way, in some cases subdividing mansions abandoned by the wealthy. This
was the case in some areas of Mexico City. Alternative low cost dwellings arose, with people
building their own squatter dwellings and later on the quasi-legal purchase of land from people
who illegally subdivided their property (Ribbeck, 2004, 35-43).
These settlements are spread throughout the urban area. In many cases, they are located on
land that is inadequate for housing due to flood risks or steep hills where building is difficult
and infrastructure is costly to provide.
As opposed to “formal” urbanization, which begins with an urban plan, a legal delimitation
of property, infrastructure and services necessary to complete the building, informal
urbanization begins backwards. First the informal settlers build the dwellings, then bring in the
infrastructure and finally define the ownership. At the same time, in the structures as such, a
series of constructive stages can be observed (Ribbeck, 2002; 2005: 159-171).
The network of streets in spontaneous urbanization is carried out in an orthogonal manner
ensuring a relatively rational distribution of infrastructure. Within this orthogonal scheme, the

9
For more information, see the special issue of the Journal Environment and Urbanization 2012 24.
 65

dwelling is developed with some freedom since there are no formal restrictions that limit or
control the growth of the dwelling as such.
The building process can be carried out in a fragmented manner but a patio for lighting and
ventilation purposes is generally used. The construction is usually based on a minimal concrete
structure with modular cells measuring about 4 by 4 meters (about 12 by 12 feet). These are
grouped either linearly or serially for a flexible use of space to accommodate: sleeping, living, a
room for the children, shop or a storage area. Another use is for business: a small store, a micro-
factory, or rooms could be rented out and thus become an important source of income. The
continuous construction of cells doesn’t follow any design scheme or floor plan; it is rather a
cellular kind of growth.
Based on the principles of informal dwellings, a house develops by following a step-by-step
growth pattern. It generally begins with the use of temporary materials. Growth usually begins
in the form of an “I” or “L”, usually with the creation of a multi-use patio. As more and more
cells or rooms are added on, the patio usually disappears and is transformed into a hallway. The
dwelling begins to grow vertically once about 2/3 of the surface has been built on. As the
dwelling grows upward, windows are opened up for lighting and ventilation as the open inner
areas have been drastically reduced.
A family’s need for space can reach a limit and at that moment the dwelling stops growing or
falls into disuse because some family members have moved away. In other cases, the dwelling
continues to grow, not for the family, but to be sublet out to other families. In this case, comfort
is drastically reduced since per person space has diminished and illumination and ventilation
have also decreased.
The informal construction cycle stops with the complete substitution of the dwelling. This
occurs in older settlements (around 50 years old), although it is also seen sporadically in
younger ones when these are located in strategic areas- on main streets or in downtown areas.

The informal city Nezahualcóyotl

An example of the informal construction process is “Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl”, a 1.1 million

people city which during the last fifty years has been informally developed as a part of the
Metropolitan Area of Mexico City. Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl (short named “Neza”), originally
informal settlement, has been self-constructed over the last fifty years and with 25 km2 and
more than one million inhabitants, is one of the largest and most densely populated informal
settlements in the world (see Figure 1-a).

Figure 1a. Location of Ciudad Nezahualcoyotl, Mexico City (source: Castillo).

The city locates on the former Texcoco Lake, which at the beginning of the 1950s had several
kinds of proprietors including common share, federal property, national property, and private
property. Amongst this confusion, the lots of land of the old Texcoco Lake were further
fractioned into smaller lots grouped in neighborhoods or “colonias” and placed for sale by
illegal developers, with prices decreasing in direct relation to the distance to Mexico City.In
spite of the existing confusion regarding the property of land, the Mexican Government had
66

been authorizing developments since 1949 (García, 1992). Some of these developments needed
to be regularized as the allocated lots of land were already sold and occupied.
Due to the massive amounts irregularly plotted lots in the old Texcoco Lake region (near to
four thousand hectares), in 1958 a Law for Developing of Land of the State of Mexico was
issued. Through this law the developers were forced to adapt their projects to certain urban
planning measurements, such as the donation of surface for green areas and public services of at
least 10% of the total surface area. Further, the law required streets with minimum width of 12
meters and a front of at least 10 meters.
A surface area of 4,000 hectares, bordered to the North by the remains of the Texcoco Lake,
to the East by the Chimalchihuache mountain, to the South by the Zaragoza Avenue, and to
West the latter built Peripheral Circuit.
The land surface was divided in more than 25 modules or “mega-blocks” of approximately 1
km by 1 km (see Figure 1-b). Free spaces for public areas for urban equipment such as public
schools, clinics, markets, and churches was appointed towards the interior or perimeter of the
mega- blocks. These public areas had the purpose to concentrate services for each mega-block.
There was no space left for a main place or a recreational space for the whole city; the only
place of this type was a space appointed to lodge the administration of the City. Each mega-
block held approximately 90 blocks, and each block was divided into roughly 50 lots of land
each, which had an average measurement of 150 m2 (9 x 15 meters).

Figure 1b. Parceling of the Nezahualcóyotl City and the types of Megablocks (source:
Castillo).

The parceling out of the land was not repeated in the same pattern for the entire surface. For
some of the areas, which had already been occupied, the developers refused to donate lots for
the creation of public areas. This resulted in mega-blocks with variations in the regularity of its
plotting and in the distribution of their public areas. Some mega-blocks were created with
spread public areas, and other mega-blocks were created with big orthogonal zones that
measured roughly 500 x 120 meters. Other mega-blocks grouped their public areas in one, two,
or three squares that limited the avenues. There was also the creation of mega-blocks with the
primary characteristic of the planned division for commerce and public services in public areas
of different location and surface.
 67

After almost three decades of social struggle for services and legalization of plots, this large
informal settlement finally became a municipality in 1962. With its legalization, a massive
program for the construction of infrastructure started, and the inhabitants continued with the
self-construction of their houses.
As a first step to document an intra-urban differentiation in Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, a
graphical documentation, of the dwellings was carried out. To undertake this study, the facades
of 43 blocks from different parts of the city were first selected and photographed. Once
photographed, the facades of each building were organized into blocks of drawn -approximately
1800 buildings. As a further step a typology of dwellings was defined. Some of the main
typologies are in the following described10.

Buildings in process of consolidation

After 50 years from the beginning of its urbanization, one can still see the first steps of the
informal building in Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl. At this stage the physical structure is the easiest to
see: a 4x4 modular concrete skeleton, filled with bricks or stones of concrete. This structure
may be covered with a concrete or a slightly sloping roof which outlines (when looking from the
street) the limits between the room and an internal courtyard.
When the house acquires window openings, a visual relation to the street begins. The
perforations may be placed on one or both sides of the door. The complete façade remains either
without or only partially plastered. Particularly the corners may be used for small commercial
activities. Due to the fact that many walls had not been completely finished, they are often used
for commercial or political advertising.
The building process of the second floor of the informal building doesn't occur automatically
but rather one step at time. An approximately 4x4 meters wide room on the second floor
signalizes where the densification process begins. This room is built on one or the other side of
the plot (see Figure 2). Sun exposure or wind direction seem to play no role in deciding which
side of the plot will be built; even in contiguous houses the verticalization may start in opposed
directions. The second floor may be illuminated and ventilated through the street or trough the
courtyard.
Later on other rooms are added to the already existing room on the second floor. The new
rooms are all aligned on the same side of the house. Once the new rooms are built, the house is
plastered and colored and an “L” form defines the new façade.
Especially if the first floor of the corner building is occupied by commercial activities, the
densification of the plot develops faster. If this occurs, the entire second floor is built at once,
leaving no internal spaces nor a courtyard. In this case half of the building that is plastered is
used as a store, while the other half remains under construction.

Consolidated buildings

A saturation of the front side signals that the densification of the rest of the plot is still in
progress. The new rooms on the second floor may be built on any place on the plot. The built
spaces are articulated by balconies or terraces. With this densification the courtyard begins to
lose lighting and ventilation.

Saturated buildings

To the original “L-shaped” façade other rooms are adhered in form of patches. On the top of the
house a third floor may begin to form with a provisional iron-sheet roof supported by columns,

10
Due to the fact, that the commercial activities are present in practically all the types of buildings, the
mixture of land use was left aside in order to reduce the complexity of the categorization. For detailed
information about the building typology, see Montejano, 2008.
68

precisely the same manner as in the very beginnings of the informal building. With time the iron
sheets are replaced by a concrete roof and the skeleton is filled with bricks. In other cases the
densification takes place but the courtyard remains and as a result the façade takes the form of a
small tower.

Figure 2. Building typology in Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, Mexico City (source: Castillo).

When the room on the top receives a plaster coating, the building and the perspective
changes: the building seems higher because of the small erected tower. The building gets a
different expression too, a different one than that of a house. Small windows on the top signify a
complementary use.
Multi-storey buildings located on the corner of a block differs greatly from those located in
its center. The ones in the middle are used as housing apartments with a repetitive typology,
whereas the corner buildings are occupied by dense commercial activities, this in turn influences
the size of the doors and windows, in order to take maximum advantage of the location.
The limit of the construction density seems to stop at the fourth or the fifth storey. This type
of building may be built traditionally or professionally. The fourth storey may be built all at
 69

once or it may start with a small room which develops step by step just as in the previous
examples.

A morphological characterization of blocks

Based on the literature and the empirical evidences, so far we may conclude that the process of
informal construction corresponds to a typological change, where ‘alterations and changes to
existing buildings form the basis for a new concept of the house or leading type which, in turn,
form the basis for the construction of new houses. Further alterations to those new, as well as
previously built houses form the basis for another change in the leading type and so on through
cycles of building’ (Kropf, 2001:33).
Departing from this assumption and in the absence of official records to measure the speed of
change of the buildings, the approximated age of the city11 was compared to the “morphology”
of the blocks. To make this, and according to the typology described above, the facades of 43
blocks were categorized per block (approximately 1800 facades, and divided in three types of
buildings: “buildings in process of consolidation”, “consolidated buildings” and “saturated
buildings”). The result is a map indicating the proportion of buildings inside each block (see
Figure 3).
As is seen in this figure, the majority of blocks consist mostly of “buildings in consolidation”
(the white segments of the chart) which are mostly concentrated in the south-eastern and north-
eastern areas. In other words, in the younger settlements areas, whereas in the old settlements
area this proportion is lower.
At first glance, one would expect the different blocks to have the same quantitative
distribution of buildings’ types. However a closer inspection shows that they don’t, in fact they
were different and the proportions of building types varied in each block (chart). For example in
some blocks, three quarters of the chart were white: in others, half of the charts were gray. This
leads to the conclusion that one can further differentiate the types by finding “common
denominators” (typical mixtures of buildings between the blocks), and for this reason, they have
been organized according to three categories.
Low consolidated Blocks. These blocks consist of approximately three quarters of buildings
in process of consolidation and the rest consists of consolidated buildings. Multi-storeyed
buildings are seldom.
Semi consolidated Blocks. Approximately a half of these blocks are buildings in process of
consolidation and the other half consists of consolidated buildings with a very few proportion of
saturated buildings.
Consolidated Blocks. These Blocks contain the highest proportion of saturated buildings or
buildings in a post-consolidation stage. The consolidated buildings represent from 25% to 50%
and the rest (in variable proportion) consists of buildings in process of consolidation.
In order to geographically visualize the types of Blocks found in Neza, they were represented by
points with different color (see Figure 4). Finally the points of the same color were joined. This
way, it can be distinguish between six clusters with different levels of consolidation: three red
clusters, two yellow and one orange.

Results

It can be seen that in a span of 50 years, Consolidated and Semi Consolidated Blocks can be
found, whereas, in areas with an approximate age of 25 years, Low Consolidated Blocks are
typical. An interpretation of these results makes necessary to consider the historical context of

11
This information was documented from aerial photographs.
70

the settlement and, all above, the relationship between this settlement and the growth and
changes of the Megalopolis.
The red clusters, which are mostly comprised of Consolidated Blocks, were found in 3
different locations, which are describe in the following.
a) This area was developed before official restrictions on the size of plots, streets and
public areas were introduced. For this reason, this area has a rather irregular spatial structure:
there is no a clear hierarchy of streets; the streets are not parallel to the rest of the city and
public facilities are not equally nor clearly distributed. Functionally, the type of commerce
which developed in the area is relatively traditional and specialized: commercial strips of
clothing, auto parts and a meat market, whose merchandise are introduced to the city by large
trucks or food containers which pull over in the periphery of Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, along the
metropolitan ring

Figure 3. Quantification f building typology on the blocks (source: Castillo).

 71

Figure 4. Mapping of block Typology in Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, Mexico City (source:

Castillo).

b) An area that has a regular spatial structure. It was occupied by the end of the 1960s.
The connection between this area and the Metropolis is the best of all the areas. The avenue
which goes trough the middle of the area has the largest section of all the avenues and these
connect Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl to the metropolitan ring. The accessibility here was further
increased thanks to the construction of a metro station, just on the crossing between the main
corridor and the metropolitan ring. Along the main corridor all kind of commerce is located:
from specialized and traditional ones -like parts for sewing machines-, to fast-food chains and
huge stores for construction materials. More than a half of the houses are consolidated, less than
a quarter are multi-storey buildings , and the rest consist of houses in consolidation.
c) The area close to the City Hall. This area was occupied around the late 1960s. It has a
regular spatial structure, with a clear hierarchy of streets and space left for public facilities.
Spatially and functionally, the City Hall has influenced without doubt the land use and the
consequent social arrangement of the area. Close to the City Hall, banks, furniture stores,
restaurants, stores for office material and the like have appeared. Spontaneous centers have
appeared not just in front of the City Hall, but also in the back: linear commercial centers which
joint together the Neighborhoods trough an imaginary line. This intensive commercialization
reflects in the morphology of the area: more than a half of the buildings are consolidated with
approximately a quarter of them multi-storeyed; the rest is composed of buildings in process of
consolidation.
72

d) An area that is located far from the Metropolis and belongs to both the oldest and to the
youngest areas. Its spatial structure is neither regular nor the distribution of spaces left for public
facilities; these distribute apparently by random and the spatial arrangement of the streets run
parallel to the rest of the city, but these streets have no clear hierarchy in comparison to the
other areas. In opposite to other areas, the buildings here at a first glance are not too old, and
still the less consolidated houses are not deteriorated nor seem to be stagnated in the middle of
the informal building process: more or less a half of the buildings are still in process of
consolidation, while the rest consist of consolidated and multi-storey buildings. Curiously,
commerce has not developed here as intensively as in the rest of the city. There is just a
commercial strip in the main avenue and the concentration of banks and commerce is not the
rule.
On the opposite end, the Young Settlements Area is mostly comprised of Low Consolidated
Blocks with the following characteristics:
e) This area has a regular spatial structure with well distributed space for public facilities.
It was occupied around 1980 but since then the living conditions have not improved much. This
area is particularly isolated from the city of Nezahualcóyotl and from the Metropolis because
this area limits with the rest of the lake to the north and it limits to the west with the
metropolitan ring, which was built at a topographical altitude over the roofs of the houses. All
this conditions have made of this place practically a cul-de-sac. Due to a relative low density,
the speed of urban consolidation (drinking water and energy supply, drainage construction) was
very slow and the area did not developed commercially, perhaps as a consequence of the same
spatial isolation. Morphologically almost three quarters of houses are still in consolidation and
there is a low amount of consolidated houses (more or less a quarter).
f) This area is also a young one, occupied around the 1980s. It has a regular spatial
structure and the spatial distribution of public facilities is different to the other areas, in size,
number and form of space for public facilities. Due to its relative low density, the urban
consolidation, like the previous area, was slow. Considering the types of buildings, around three
quarters of them are still in process of being consolidated and just a quarter consists of
consolidated houses. Multi storey buildings here are seldom and that reflects in the almost
absence of commerce. The social and spatial qualities of this area are mixed but in average the
“indicators” for physical consolidation of the houses are predominantly low: in some parts of
this area half of the houses have no drinking water into the house and the percentage of “cuartos
redondos” or “one room dwelling” reach almost a fifth of the total. The structure of the
population is either not homogeneous but it is composed of predominantly young families.
The rest of the City, the orange cluster, is a “buffer zone” which is composed of Semi
Consolidated Blocks:
g) The area was occupied mostly at the end of the 1960s. The spatial structure is regular
and the spaces for public facilities are homogeneously distributed. Thanks to a high density and
the fact that the majority of the neighborhoods were included into a legalization program
initiated in 1973, the urban consolidation process in this area was relatively fast. In 1970 the
whole area was included into the sewage system network of the city and by the same year this
area was supplied with energy. Ten years later, the number of paved streets here exceeded by far
that of the younger areas. In this area no buildings for administrative purposes was built like the
City Hall or similar, and the commercial corridors exist, but not as saturated as in the other
areas. According to the typology used in thiswork, approximately half of the total houses have
reached a consolidation level; just a few of the buildings are saturated, and the rest of the
buildings, -almost the other half- are in process of consolidation.

Conclusions

The results allow us to conclude, that the morphological stage of “equilibrium” or

“consolidation” may be a useful principle to identify some clues for the heterogeneity of the
 73

social structure within informally developed settlements. The potential of the method developed
in this work is nevertheless limited to the Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl case study. To research an
eventual generalization of the method other settlements should be naturally considered. Each
settlement has an own history and very specific local conditions. However, for the method
exposed there are some variable conditions which could be considered in further detail.
Natural and topographical conditions influence without doubt the physical form of informal
settlements. An informal settlement at a hill or at the coast will develop in form and constructive
conditions very different from those developed at a plain terrain or in a city located thousand
meters above sea level, for example the city of Mexico.
Another factor is the size and the form of the plot. How large or how small the plot is, will have
a direct influence on the possibilities of internal development of the house as well as the
proportion of the sizes of the plot.
The age of the settlement will influence also not just the changes in the house but also the
land use of the building. Population in young settlement have needs which differ strongly from
the needs of population in old settlements. The building thus may become a vertical commercial
building, informal renting apartment, or it may remain with a residential use with the
corresponding morphological typology.
In conjunction with the factors mentioned above, the location of the settlement into the city
and induced planning measures will have also a direct influence on the way and the speed in
which a settlement change.
With the latter, we may confirm the idea that urban morphology goes beyond giving answers
to the logic of the built environment patterns, and may also provide us with powerful tools to
decide and prioritize public upgrading actions.

References

Barros, Joana and Fabiano Sobreira (2005), “City of Slums: self-organisation across scales”. CASA
Working Paper Series, 55. Centre for Advanced Spatial Analysis, University College London, June
2002, available on-line at: http://www.casa.ucl.ac.uk/working_papers/paper55.pdf.
García Luna, Margarita (1992), Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl: de colonias marginadas a gran ciudad.
Gobierno del Estado de México, Toluca, México. 1992.
Kropf, S. Karl (2001) ‘Conceptions of change in the built environment’, Urban Morphology 5 (1), 29-42.
Levy, Albert (1999) ‘Urban Morphology and the problem of the modern urban fabric’, Urban
Morphology 3(2), 79-85.
Montejano, M. (2008) Processes of consolidation and differentiation of informal settlements: case study
Ciudad Nezahualcóyotl, Mexico City, PhD dissertation. University of Stuttgart, Germany.
Patel, Sheela and Carrie Baptist (2012), „Editorial: Documenting by the undocumented“. Environment
and Urbanization 2012, 24:3-12.
Rapoport, Amos (1988), “Spontaneous Settlements as Vernacular Design”. In Patton, Carl
V.,Spontaneous Shelter, International Perspectives and Prospects. Temple University Press,
Philadelphia. Pp. S. 351-77.
Ribbeck, Eckhart. (2002),Die informelle Moderne: Spontanes Bauen in Mexiko Stadt, Awf-Verlag.
Heidelberg.
Ribbeck, Eckhart (2004). „Informelles Bauen in Mexiko-Stadt. Ein Lehrstück für Architekten?“ In Jesko
Fezer/Mathias Heyden, editors, Hier Entsteht, Strategien partizipativer Architektur und räumlicher
Aneignung, metroZones 3/b_books, Berlin. Pp. 35-43.
Ribbeck, Eckhart (2005), “Urban Planning in Latin America, Africa and Asia”. In Lauber, Wolfgang:
Tropical Architecture: Sustainable and Humane Building in Africa, Latin America and South-East Asia.
Prestel-Münich-Berlin-London. Pp. 159-171. 2005.
UN-Habitat (2003),The Challenge of slums: global report on human settlements, United Settlements
Programme. UN-HABITAT/Earthscan, London.
74

The positive dissemination: interpreting a new process for

urban form analysis

Andrea Gonçalves *, Ana Tomé *, Valério Medeiros **

* ICIST, Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Pavilhão de Engenharia
Civil – IST, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal. ** Universidade de Brasília
(PPG/FAU), Instituto Central de Ciências – ICC Norte – Gleba A Campus Universitário
Darcy Ribeiro – Asa Norte – Caixa Postal 04431 CEP: 70904-970 – Brasília/DF. Brasil.
E-mails: [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected]

Abstract. This paper discusses the role of the urban form for the positive dissemination processes
inherent to urban phenomenon. Positive dissemination means the interrelation of urban elements/factors,
so that an action is analysed according to its propagation effects, resulting in a continuous
transformation over the urban system, with impact on its regeneration. Certain places, public spaces or
buildings, by their syntactic, typological and/or functional features, have the capacity to trigger such
processes. Throughout a diachronic study of Évora (Portugal) urban form, under the Space Syntax
perspective, configurational changes were identified and interpreted as the reflex or origin of new urban
dynamics which contribute to urban dissemination processes. The results and corresponding discussion
enabled the creation of a conceptual and methodological framework to categorize the selected cases,
aiming at the distinction between positive and negative dissemination focus, as well the differentiation of
their morphological, functional and resilience characteristics. By integrating a wider research that aims
the creation of an urban regeneration strategic model boosted by positive dissemination processes, this
study intends to contribute to the understanding of such processes when directly dependent from the case
type.

Key Words: Positive dissemination, urban regeneration, systemic perspective, urban morphology; Évora
(Portugal).

Introduction

Under sustainability and urban regeneration perspective, urban projects, surgical interventions
or tactical actions in the city promote global and long-term changes. Such results support the
assumption that city interventions trigger changes in urban dynamics and promote a prosperity
atmosphere that radiates into the system, expressing “positive dissemination processes”. This
idea means the interrelation of urban elements/factors which enables the effects propagation of a
particular action, resulting in a continuous transformation over the urban system, with impact on
its regeneration. It is assumed that certain places, public spaces or buildings, by their syntactical,
typological, functional and/or resilience features, have the capacity to trigger such processes.
This paper explores the positive dissemination processes inherent to urban phenomenon,
supported by the study of cases in Évora (Portugal), selected according to a diachronic study of
the city form under the Space Syntax perspective (The Theory of the Social Logic of Space).
Throughout this investigation changes were identified and interpreted as the reflex or the origin
of new urban dynamics which contribute to positive dissemination processes. Considering that
the effect propagation in the urban fabric is related to its ability to be more or less permeable to
such process, syntactic descriptions about that urban fabric accessibility are explored as tools
with the potential to promote the comprehension of positive dissemination processes.
Because the main purpose of this research is to understand such processes when directly
dependent from the case type, it is intended to develop a conceptual and methodological
framework to categorize the selected cases. Besides that, it is aimed to distinguish between
 75

positive and negative urban dissemination focus, as well to differentiate their morphological,
functional and resilience characteristics. The methodological approach implied the research and
critical reflection of urban form theoretical references.
This study is part of a wider research that seeks to set cross parameters to validate and
evaluate the positive dissemination phenomenon able to inform and support a city intervention
model, oriented to its regeneration and sustainability. The subsidiary premise establishes that
because positive dissemination processes has the ability to magnify the effects of implemented
actions, their comprehension will help to achieve improvements in the environment,
maximizing resources and reducing investment.

Methodology

The methodological approach has a first phase based on the results of a previous morphological
study about Évora (Gonçalves et al, 2013a), under the perspective of Space Syntax (Hillier and
Hanson, 1984), by which positive dissemination focus were identified. The syntactic analysis
enables to study the arrangement and interrelationship of space systems elements, by assuming
that there is a social logic underlying the built space layout, and describing it by topological
features among these elements. Configurational issues also reveal functional and social aspects
inherent to the urban system throughout the “potential of movement”. Movement here is
analyzed as an indicator of the relational aspect in urban space, translating how the space
configuration interferes (and suffers interference) in the city flows distribution (Medeiros,
2006), assuming a leading role in the impact evaluation of urban changes. The previous study
included the construction of axial and segments maps, in order to model pedestrian movement
for different periods of the city's growth. The axial map consists of a representation containing
all possible routes within an urban fabric, based on its simplification by tracing the fewest set of
the longest lines. The lines position and interrelation in the system allows the calculation of
different syntactic measures. The segments map comes from the axial map, in which the lines
are divided between intersections, allowing a more accurate prediction of the movement pattern
because are considered the direction changes, or continuities, important factor to the distance
perception and routes choice (Turner, 2009). The maps show a gray scale that measures the
variable level at each axis/segment, being the darker tones the higher levels and the lighter tones
the lowest ones (Figure1, 2, 3 and 4). The syntactic analysis allowed the identification of
centralities – high level of potential movement – and segregated areas, contributing to select
positive dissemination focus.
The second phase focused on the construction of a conceptual and methodological
framework to categorize the selected cases, aiming at the distinction between the urban
dissemination focus which carry positive and negative effects, as well the differentiation of their
morphological, functional and resilience characteristics, i.e., an urban system capacity to
incorporate change without losing its features (Walker and Salt, 2006). The proposed
categorization framework is grounded by the syntactic analysis, positive dissemination
cases/focus and theoretical references concerned with the urban elements classification.
Finally, at the third phase, through the results discussion, it is expected to achieve a sustained
contribution to the understanding of positive dissemination processes and corresponding
performances when directly dependent from each case features.

Évora urban dissemination focus

Interpreting a syntactic analysis

Évora city, located in Portugal inland, is characterized by its confined delimitation that grew by
its attraction power over the surrounding regions. The settlement presents deep differences
76

between its parts: the historical zone (the inside-walls classified area), the consolidated area
(walls adjacent areas) and the emerging city (formed by the territory discontinuous filling).
The syntactic study of Évora urban form evolution looked into the existing positive
dissemination processes (Gonçalves et al, 2013a). Interpreting the morphological diachronic
changes, it was assumed that the urban expansion and transformation can contain itself urban
dissemination processes. It was also possible to evaluate and measure the potential movement
patterns in the urban system using the Integration and Choice variables. Integration deals with
the system accessibility. The most integrated axes are the most permeable, accessible and,
probabilistically, the most used according the configuration role. It means that the most
integrated axes will have a greater ability to create movement, which is crucial to urban
dynamics, constituting a potential centrality and assuming a leading role to the attraction of
movement flows and diversity of uses. Thus, Global Integration and Local Integration reveal,
respectively, global and local potential centralities in the system. Moreover, Global and Local
Choice indicate the most used segments in the global and local routes in the system,
respectively.
The maps comparative study and corresponding correlations with the attractive
characteristics of some urban stretches, under Whyte (1980) perspective, allowed the deduction
of uses distribution and the most attractive areas with an effective ability to influence and
contaminate positively the surrounding environment. Urban areas, public spaces and buildings
of great attractiveness were identified by their physical and visual qualitative characteristics and
by their configurational features. These ones correspond to high levels of accessibility and use,
and leads to a non-conscious appropriation by individuals and a form of behaviour compatible
with the potential movement pattern (Hillier et al, 1993). A more accessible and permeable
space tends to be more used ending as a meeting, passage and usufruct place, easily subjected to
transformations throughout social interactions which gradually disseminate the corresponding
effects from space to space.
On the other hand, less accessible and segregated areas were also identified, corresponding
to places with a tendency to be less used and with reduced functional and social diversity. These
ones, when associated with marginal uses, insecurity and physical degradation may be classified
as negative dissemination focus. Although these cases are not the study object, they are defined
by opposition to the positive dissemination focus helping to consolidate their understanding.
Syntactical analysis reveals, through the Global Integration values, that “Ringstrasse” around
the city walls (n.14) is the centrality of Évora urban system (Figure 1). By its strategic position
in the urban fabric, attracts and articulates several functions: Polis (n.40), the city walls urban
regeneration program, Horta da Porta Neighbourhood (n.33), Remédios Monastery (n.43),
Bullring/Multipurpose pavilion (n.9), Epral school (n.34), Espírito Santo Hospital (n.24),
Patrocínio Hospital (n.25), Public Garden (n.26), Rossio de São Brás Square (n.11), Cafe (n.23),
Gabriel Pereira school (n.4) and Pingo Doce supermarket (n.17).
Syntactic study of Évora’s evolution (Gonçalves et al, 2013a) revealed that, in earlier times,
the most integrated axes were coincident with those of Evoracom (n.7 – Figure 2), currently the
most used paths for the journeys within the intramural city. Evoracom was an urban
regeneration program implemented on historical streets and commercial buildings, and included
interventions at Giraldo Square (n.12), Avis Square (n.13) and Porta de Moura Square (n.22).
The position of Giraldo Square in the urban fabric works as an attraction point, recruiting the
city users, and as a distribution node. The paths that depart from here towards city gates have a
high use too, creating urban dynamics that affect the buildings nearby, e.g., residential buildings
(n.1) and institutional, services or commercial buildings subject to conservation and/or
rehabilitation actions. The Sepúlveda Palace (M’ar De Ar hotel unit - n.2), S. Domingos
complex (n.6) and Garcia de Resende theater (n.42) are located in synergy with the path towards
Porta da Lagoa (a city gate). Towards Rossio de São Brás square (another city gate), is located
the Municipal Market (n.30), Verney College (n.36) and D. Manuel Palace (n.21).
 77

Figure 1. Syntactic analysis (axial) – Global Integration (2013).

Figure 2. Syntactic analysis (segments) – Local Choice - R1200m (2013).

Near some of these high use routes are located the Eborim shopping centre (n.32) and Cerca de
Santa Mónica private condominium (n.35). Although their privileged positions in the urban
fabric, were selected for being classified as negative dissemination focus. Eborim shopping
centre is now closed and going through a process of physical degradation. If working, it could
be an attractor in the city. Cerca de Santa Mónica, because it is a private condominium,
promotes spatial and social processes of segregation, with no relation with the surroundings
(Ribeiro, 2012).
78

The maps and syntactic measures reveals that Roman core (n.15) is spatially segregated
(Figure 3). However, it is a place of great influx of people, especially tourists. This is due,
firstly, to the fact that the zone is bounded by the memories of the Cerca Velha (first city walls),
the first ringstrasse, which have a high potential of movement. Secondly, because there are
located monuments of great historical value, e.g., the roman temple (its surroundings integrates
the urban regeneration program Acropole XXI - n.44), the Cathedral (n.19) and the roman baths
inside the City Council building (n.20).

Figure 3. Syntactic analysis (axial) – Local Integration - R5 (2013).

The city expansion outside the walls consolidated some local centralities (Figure 3), the first
of which, between Rossio de S. Brás Square and the Train Station (n.10).
Another local centrality is the industrial zone where are located the Évora Industrial and
Technological Park (n.27), Intermarché supermarket (n.18) and Almerim industrial area (n.45).
Malagueira (n.28), Santa Maria and Alto dos Cucos residential neighbourhoods constitute
another local centrality which attracts other uses, e.g., the Maintenance Lane (n.29), a precinct
for the sport activities. Nearby these neighbourhoods are located the Municipal Swimming
Pools (n.39). At the south of this area, but with accessibility low levels, therefore more
segregated, is located the Cruz da Picada social neighbourhood (n.31). This case is considered a
negative dissemination focus, because it has a negative connotation due to insecurity feeling and
some physical degradation.
Ecopista (n.8 - Figure 4), a pedestrian and cycling pathway resulting from a recycled
railroad, is also contributing to new local centralities formation, the north residential areas.
Ecopista articulates spatial heterogeneities (Gonçalves et al, 2013b) and presents itself as a
constant choice in the daily routes. Adjacent to Ecopista is the old “Leões” Factory (n.3), built
in a direct relationship with the railroad. The old factory is now the Architecture School and
keeps the connection with the new Ecopista – the preferential pedestrian access.
The Turgela stream (n.38), despite the syntactic values below average, like the Ecopista case,
introduced configurational changes to the urban fabric. What previously constituted a barrier
became permeable and generated a new movement pattern and consequently new urban
dynamics (Figure 3).
The Global Choice variable analysis (Figure 4) enables to conclude that, outside the walls
the routes that come from the city gates are the most used. At the pathways that come from
Raimundo gate articulated with the southern variant road (the third city ring road) are located
 79

distinct functions, e.g., Bus Central Station (n.41), Severim de Faria school (n.5), Horta das
Figueiras commercial area (n.37) and Continente supermarket (n.16).

Figure 4. Syntactic analysis (segments) – Global Choice (2013).

The conclusions of configurational study by syntactic analysis demonstrate that accessibility

is an important factor to conform local or global centralities (and usage densities). This study is
also an instrument for the selection of positive dissemination focus (and negative – cases n.31,
n.32 and n.35) in Évora which are to be evaluated and classified (Table 1).
The proposed classification system seeks to answer to specific purposes of the research and
it’s not supposed to be a single taxonomy of physical, formal and functional urban elements. In
this context, and always considering the selected cases, use was made of the analysis and
reflection of relevant theoretical references to support the proposed classification system.

Urban dissemination effect classification

The study focuses on positive dissemination cases, which are places, public spaces or buildings,
that generates and attracts movement, promotes social interaction and are useful and profitable
for the urban system. Are identified by the positive influence on the urban surroundings at multi
dimensions: environmental (built environment regeneration, accessibility, diversity of uses),
social (diversity, influx of people) and economical (trade, diversity of activities). In turn,
negative dissemination focus are the place, public space or building, devalued and
counterproductive in the urban system, that promotes movement dispersion and dissuasion of
social interactions. In contrast, are identified by its uninhabited and devoid content at multi
dimensions: environmental (degradation of the built environment, poor accessibility, lack of
uses), social (absence of people or affluence of problematic and delinquent groups, insecurity
feeling) and economical (lack of activities and no trade).

Morphological classification

The morphological approach aims to study the settlements through their urban fabric
configuration, its volumetric characteristics, land use and subdivision, including configurational
changes observed over time, focusing the growth and transformation patterns and processes
(Heitor, 2001; Carmona, 2003).
80

Urban form studies have specificities that enable the identification of distinct approaches:
historical, historical-geographical, descriptive and normative approaches, this last one through
mathematical techniques, in which Space Syntax fits (Heitor, 2001). With reference to Rossi
(1966), Conzen (Whitehand, 2001), Lynch (1960), Krier (1975), Kostof (1992) and Carmona
(2003) studies, articulated with the syntactical analysis results and facing the selected
cases/focus, morphological categories proposed are arranged by scale, type and form (Table 2).

Table 1. Urban Dissemination Focus

 81

Table 2. Morphological categorization

Category Definition Cases
Scale
Urban Area Group of built elements and public spaces, in an area more or less 7;15;27;28;
bounded physically, of similar properties, continuity and spatial 31;33;37;44;
features, formal and/or typological homogeneity, to which is 45.
associated a common vision (Lynch,1960; Rossi,1966).

Public Space Includes all open spaces, all kinds of spaces between buildings 8;11;12;13;
(Krier,1975) and open access spaces, regardless of their shape 14;22;26;29;
and/or function. 38;40.
Built Structure Buildings or physical structures, urban phenomenon element, 1;2;3;4;5;6;
which implementation, aggregation and/or alignment conforms the 9;10;16;17;
system of open/public spaces. 18;19;20;21;
23;24;25;30;
32;34;35;36;
39;41;42;43.
Type
Morphological Unit Group of streets, plots and/or buildings, which presents uniformity 6;7;15;27;
regarding its formal characteristics that distinguish it from the 28;31;33;35;
surrounding areas (Heitor,2001; Whitehand,2001). 37;44;45.

Path Public space of linear features which constitute circulation 8;14;40.

channels. The paths are the elements by which the whole can be
organized (Lynch,1960).
Node City strategic location, constituting a confluence place, focus of 11;12;13;22.
attractiveness and movement distribution (Lynch,1960).
Precinct Open space, with public access, but bounded by physical barriers 26;29.
such as walls or hedges, may having or not restricted timetable.

Autonomous Element Isolated/independent building or physical structure. Sometimes are 2;3;4;5;9;10;

elements of singular characteristics that distinguish it from the 16;17;18;19;
others and works as a landmark (Lynch,1960). Are autonomous 21;24;25;30;
elements, buildings surrounded by open space and monumental 32;36;38;39;
structures that stand out and enable an autonomous reading, even 41;42;43.
when physically connected to other buildings.

Dependent Element Building or physical structure aggregated to other buildings, part 1;20;23;34.
of a group or a facade, with no autonomous reading.
Form
Regular Space, place or urban structure with linear features or pure
geometric forms, understood as the ideal shape (Carmona,2003).

Irregular Irregular, natural or organic shapes, corresponding to spaces,

places or urban structures implemented according to the urban
fabric availability which arises throughout its history and by an
improvised process (Kostof,1992). Not corresponding to any pure
geometric form, seem generated by a natural and non conscious
process, based on pedestrian movement and influenced by the
topography (Carmona, 2003).
Loose Space, place, or built structure, not closed or physically
constrained, with flexibility characteristics and formal adaptability
(Carmona,2003). According to Peña (1987) flexibility can be
assessed under extensibility, convertibility and versatility criteria.
Tight Space, place, or built structure, physically constrained, or
controlled, rigid and inflexible (Carmona,2003).
82

Functional classification

The study of urban form is not indifferent to the functional dimension. The literature review
showed that functional classifications proposed by many authors rarely are dissociated from the
spatial form. According to Kostof (1992) an exclusively formal approach has limitations. The
functional dimension is about how the spaces work, i.e., how the environment supports the uses
(Carmona, 2003).
Syntactic analysis reveals a hierarchy of movement established by the urban fabric
configuration, defining areas of greater or lesser concentration of flows. The areas of greater
concentration of movement tend to be more attractive and to draw uses and functions that take
benefit from this movement (Medeiros, 2006). Though, it is believed that positive dissemination
processes are not exclusive of configuration features, movement patterns and densities, i.e., can
be generated and boosted by attractiveness features of certain uses and activities. So attractive
uses have the ability to attract and to create new and more movement flows which can promote
changes in the spatial configuration (Medeiros, 2006), and have the ability to trigger and boost
positive dissemination processes. Thus the functional attractiveness refers to the space
occupation when determined by the attractiveness power of a function or activity inherent to
that space, regardless its morphological characteristics (Ünlü, 2009).
In view of theoretical considerations of Lynch (1960), Rossi (1966), Krier (1975), Kostof
(1992), Carmona (2003), Brandão (2008), Ünlü (2009) and Gehl (2010), and the selected
cases/focus, the proposed functional categorization considers two levels: the first related to
diversity and, the second, related to specific functions that each case/focus can include (Table
3).

Resilience classification

The resilience concept is a sustainability key attribute. In the urban phenomenon context
resilience is associated to the idea of durability, maximization of resources, requalification of
problematic areas and urban regeneration. In this matter resilience is an important condition for
the urban system elements. Though, facing negative dissemination focus, the system resilience
is not a desirable condition because it can put the system in a situation of persistence even when
interventions are implemented aiming the change towards a positive dissemination process.
Vulnerability in such cases is an advantage because it works as a facilitator of a transformability
process to reverse the negative and counterproductive situation.
Urban system resilience or vulnerability is related to its basic morphology and infrastructures
that support its growth and dynamics. Experience suggests that urban areas with higher
permeability, mixed uses, diversity of buildings and shared public spaces, tend to have greater
ability to accommodate change (Carmona, 2003).
In view of these considerations each case/focus is classified, firstly, as resilient or
vulnerable, secondly, as robust, diverse and/or accessible (Table 4).

Results and discussion

This study led to the definition of a conceptual and methodological strategy to categorize
positive dissemination focus in Évora (Figure 5). The strategy requires, firstly, the translation of
the syntactic analysis results, secondly, its correlation with the discussed theoretical references
and with the observed phenomena in situ.
The syntactic analysis, through graphical and quantitative tools, enabled the study of urban
fabric configuration and revealed characteristics such as centrality, continuity, segregation,
confluence or dispersion points. The study allowed the classification of positive (and negative)
dissemination focus, contributing also to their morphological classification. The resulting
movement pattern denounces the most accessible places and, consequently, the areas with an
higher probability to be attractive for users and activities and to be places of diversity, with
 83

implications for the functional classification. The most accessible places tend to present a
greater ability to incorporate changes and new uses, a relevant factor for the resilience
classification.

Table 3. Functional categorization.

Category Definition Cases

Functional Diversity
Multifunctional Space, place or building in which different activities take 6;7;8;9;11;
place simultaneously. Are also considered multifunctional the 12;13;14;15;
spaces that, because of its flexibility characteristics, support 20;26;33;38;
several uses, planned or not, at different times 40;44.
(Carmona,2003).
Monofunctional Space, place or building for a single use. The monofunctional 1;2;3;4;5;10;
spaces tend to be physically constrained or controlled spaces 16;17;18;19;
(Carmona,2003). Includes industrial areas and residential 21;23;24;25;
neighbourhoods, even when there are some local services and 27;28;29;30;
activities of proximity. 31;34;35;36;
37;39;41;42;
43;45.
Function
Movement Space or urban structure for car and/or pedestrian flows, i.e., 7;8;10;11;12;
for circulation function. The pedestrian movement also 13;14;22;38;
contains cultural, social and economic functions 40;41.
(Carmona,2003). Movement corresponds to a necessary
function which occurs regardless the exterior conditions and
the physical environment quality (Gehl,2010). According to
Rossi (1966) movement is one of the key functions of the
city. This category also includes "travel spaces" as stations,
interfaces and parking (Brandão,2008).
Social Space or urban structure where activities that depend on the 6;7;8;11;12;13;
people affluence and interaction occur, e.g., festive events, 15;23;26;33;
games, kiosks and cafes (Brandão,2008; Ünlü,2009; 38.
Gehl,2010).
Economic Space or urban structure where people and activities affluence 2;6;7;9;11;
correspond to economic flows, by goods or services trade. 12;13;15;16;
The economic function comes also associated with industrial 17;18;22;27;
areas intended to confer economical benefits to the city. 30;33;37;45.
Institutional Space or urban structure that works as public or institutional 3;4;5;20;21;
equipment and seeks to meet the needs of the population, e.g., 24;25;34;36;
health, education and culture. Includes hospitals, schools and 39;42;43;44.
cultural equipments. Act as catalysts due to their contribution
to urban dynamics (Rossi, 1966).
Residential Built element, neighbourhood or building, with residential 1;6;28;31;33; 35.
characteristics, satisfying a city major function (Rossi,1966).
Leisure Space or urban structure where occur activities related to the 8;9;11;12;13;
contact with the nature and landscape contemplation or 15;19;20;21;
related to cultural, memorial, historical, and symbolic 22;26;29;38;
function. Includes a functional dimension of aesthetic and/or 39;40;42;43;
visual nature. Correspond to optional activities carried out 44.
under favorable external conditions and/or attractive physical
environments (Gehl,2010).
84

Table 4. Resilience categorization.

Category Definition Cases

Resilience And Vulnerability
Resilient And/Or Spaces, places or buildings, with capacity to absorb 1;4;5;7;10;11;
Consolidated disturbance and to undergo change, retaining essentially the 12;13;14;15;
same function, structure and feedback, i.e., systems capable 16;17;18;19;
to be subject to changes without crossing the threshold that 22;23;24;25;
puts the system in a new different regime (Walker and 26;27;28;29;
Salt,2006). Resilience depends on robustness, diversity and 30;31;32;33;
accessibility factors. 34;36;37;39;
41;42;44;45.
Vulnerable And/Or Spaces, places or buildings, vulnerable to disturbance and 2;3;6;8;9;20;
Object Of Intervention change acquiring a new function, structure and/or feedback, 21;35;38;40;43.
Cionado – New Life i.e., systems that cross a threshold towards a new distinct
Cycle regime when subjected to certain changes (Walker and
Salt,2006). Includes the cases with a new life cycle due to
an intervention. Vulnerability depends on factors such as the
lack of robustness and diversity. Accessibility is also a
crucial issue for the space vulnerability.
Factors
Robust Space, place or building, with ability to accommodate
change without significant changes to its physical form,
often impregnated with value, meaning and/or symbolism,
resisting to functional obsolescence (Carmona,2003).
Robustness depends on adaptability and flexibility features,
typical of loosen forms.
Diverse Space, place or building that supports different types and
patterns of social and/or functional activity. Diversity
strengthens the system resilience once it allows greater
variety of responses, greater ability to absorb disturbances
and greater flexibility (Walker and Salt,2006).
Acessible Space, place or building, with a permeable and central
position in the system. Accessibility influences how the
consequences of a change implemented in one part of the
system are felt and answered by others, in terms of speed
and firmness (Walker and Salt,2006). Accessibility levels,
in this research are quantified by syntactic measures.

The articulation between the proposed categorization system and the cases/focus indicate
that their features have direct implications for the performance and dimension of the
transformation processes experienced by the city. Urban areas and public spaces with high
levels of accessibility and usage tend to be more efficient to trigger positive dissemination
processes. Built structures, tends to be more permeable to such processes when triggered by
surrounding public spaces. And attractive uses are a key factor to trigger these processes, once
they have the ability to attract and to create new and more movement flows which can promote
changes in the spatial configuration.
 85

1
Classification by dissemination effect

Positive Dissemination Negative Dissemination

Focus Focus

2
Morphological classification
Conclusion
scale

Urban Area Public Space Built Structure

type

Morphological Path Node Precinct Autonomous Dependent

unit Element Element

form

Regular Irregular Loose Tight

3
Functional classification

Multifunctional Monofunctional

Movement Social Economic Institutional Residential Leisure

4
Resilience classification

Resilient Vulnerable
and/or and/or
consolidated Object of Intervention (new life cycle)

Robust Diverse Accessible

Figure 5. Categorization System.

86

Referring to positive dissemination focus in Évora which deals with the urban dynamics
affecting the environment, this study searched the definition of morphological, functional and
resilience categories. The aim was a contribution to the positive dissemination processes, and
corresponding performances, understanding when directly dependent from the case
characteristics. Once categorized the cases/focus, the future goal is a new selection, in the
universe of positive dissemination focus, that were subject to intervention in the past and shows,
today, transformations in the surroundings directly related to the intervention. Then it’s intended
to apply an evaluation and evolution model of positive dissemination processes and create past,
present and future scenarios. Once confronted these scenarios and correlated with the categories
inherent to each case, the objective is to achieve an accurate assessment of the transformation
processes performance in the city. Through this approach, it will be possible to construct a
theoretical framework, illustrated and sustained by the study of cases in Évora. The final aim is
to develop and validate a generator model of urban regeneration strategies boosted by positive
dissemination processes believing that these processes are natural facilitators of the urban
system sustainability.

References

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concepção, qualificação e gestão do espaço público (DGOTDU, Lisboa).
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Urban Design (Elsevier, Amsterdam).
Gonçalves, A., Tomé, A., Medeiros, V. (2013a) ‘Feições Morfológicas para a Contaminaç o Positiva:
Évora’, Proceedings PNUM2013, Universidade de Coimbra, Portugal.
Gonçalves, A., Tomé, A. e Medeiros, V. (2013b) ‘Processos de Contaminaç o Positiva e Regeneraç o
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attraction in urban pedestrian movement’, Environment and Planning B: Planning and Design, 20, 29-
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urbanismo da Universidade de Brasília.
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Arquitetura & Vida Social (FBRH Edições, Brasília) 82-97.
Rossi, A. (1966) La arquitectura de la ciudad, (Gustavo Gili, Barcelona).
Turner, A. (2009) ‘The role of angularity in route choice: an analysis of motorcycle courier GPS traces’,
in Stewart, H. K. et al. (ed.), Spatial Information Theory, Lecture Notes in Computer Science:
Theoretical Computer Science and General Issues (Springer Verlag, Berlin/Heidelberg, Germany) 489-
504.
Ünlü, A., Edgü, E., Cimsit, F., Salgamcioglu, M., Garip, E., Mansouri, A. (2009) ‘Interface of indoor and
Outdoor Spaces in Buildings, A Syntatic Comparison of Architectural Schools in Istanbul’, Proceedings
of the 7th International Space Syntax Symposium, Stockholm.
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(Islandpress, Washington).
 87

Whitehand, J. W. R. (2001) ‘Brithish urban morphology: the Conzenian tradition’, Urban Morphology 2,
103-109.
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88

The sociability of the street interface - revisiting West Village,

Manhattan

Garyfalia Palaiologou, Laura Vaughan

The Bartlett School of Graduate Studies, University College London, 132 Hampstead Road,
London, NW1 2BX. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract. This paper examines the micromorphology of street interfaces, considering how street life is
shaped by the emergent pattern of built form and spatial layout. In an effort to reassess Jane Jacobs’s
conception of liveability, the study uses urban form and space syntax methods to record the changing
micro socio-spatial texture of West Village, Manhattan. The paper discusses the way in which pedestrian
experience varies and changes as the characteristics of street facades change: from the postmodern solid
block front to an alignment of short row house facades or from a wholly domestic setting, to a street lined
with shops and businesses. In order to understand the urban streetscape as a place of social activity, the
study examines the built volume in terms of building-street connections aggregated within a block
frontage. The resulting pattern is analysed to consider how morphological properties might give rise to
street interaction. The study also maps the mixture of buildings by age and relates this pattern to the
spatial distribution of non-domestic land uses, the street network configuration and associated urban
interfaces. Conclusions suggest morphological features of the built form which are more likely to
generate and support a vibrant street-life over time.

Key Words: Micromorphology, urban interfaces, Jacobs, West Village, row house.

Introduction

The field of urban morphology has fundamentally contributed in a morphological reading of the
built environment identifying the basic components of urban form: the building, the plot and the
street (Conzen, 1960; Caniggia and Maffei, 1979; Korpf, 1996; Çalişkan and Marshall, 2011).
One of the main inquiries of morphological studies refers to the organisational rules of the way
building units are aggregated to consist urban space. Space syntax studies on the other hand,
aim to shed light on the social output of spatial patterns, to interpret ‘the social logic of space’
(Hillier and Hanson, 1984). Combining principles and methodologies from both fields, this
paper aims to examine the way the urban components work together (the building, the plot and
the street) to configure varying spatial and in turn social situations in the street domain. The
study focuses on the role of building-street connections in creating sociable places.
In one of the earliest publications of the subject, The Social Logic of Space, building-street
interfaces are seen to shape social encounter. (p.143). Subsequent work by Julienne Hanson’s
(2000, 2009) identifies the potential role of building morphology, as an extension of urban
interfaces12, in creating sociable places. This street scale focus, lies within the wider context of
the way in which cities are theorised in the field of space syntax, where the spatial and physical
properties of urban space are seen as generators of movement patterns, which in turn shape
patterns of potential co-presence and encounter, creating the ‘virtual community’ (Hillier 1989,
p.13). The author suggests that space distributes the physical presence of users and thus
organises the potential patterns of co-presence and encounter. Co-presence and encounters are
thus two basic preconditions for social events to be generated within space. The aim of this

12
In Hanson’s words regarding non-lively streets: ‘… the whole story is one of a ruptured interface
between dwelling and street’ (2000, p.113). This relates to Jacobs’s observations regarding the
importance of ‘eyes on the streets’, namely of a building-street interface that allows for interaction
between the users of the building and the street occupiers or moving pedestrians.
 89

study is to build on this work by looking at the way varying types of interface bring about
varying potentials for interaction. The analysis here focuses on a detailed analysis of how
buildings aggregate along block faces, testing the hypothesis that building-street interface
corresponds to the street’s wider connections within the city’s street network.
The discussion in this paper is based on mapped and quantitative data collected for the area
of West Village in Manhattan, New York. Acknowledging academic critiques that seek for an
evidence-based investigation regarding the validity of some of the mostly cited, yet empirical,
urban design theories (extensively discussed in Marshall, 2012), this study revisits West Village
to take a step towards reassessing Jane Jacobs’s conception of liveability using quantitative data
and a morphologically informed approach.
Furthermore, leaving aside theoretical motives, West Village is an interesting case in its own
right due to its particular built form properties. Restrained by the physical limits of a fixed
geographical area, urbanisation processes in the Manhattan Island have been continuously
challenging the building volume, building densities and the potentials for a vertical expansion of
the city. However, West Village stands out as a special case within the Manhattan metropolis.
Since 1969, Historic District Designations have protected the historic building stock of West
Village. The surviving row houses in the Village are not just reminiscent of the
neighbourhood’s picturesque qualities; instead they are living carriers of the past and the
present. Being used, altered and re-used over time to house shifting densities, uses and
lifestyles, the historic built form works as an incubator for street liveability. At the same time,
the non-historic parts of the area, lying at the urban blocks of the west waterfront, have faced far
more extensive transformations which included block-scale demolitions and redevelopments as
well as gentrification projects. As a result, the present state of the Village streetscape brings
together varying morphological urban settings; from row houses and tenements, to post-modern
blocks and former industrial buildings. In this respect, West Village consists a rather interesting
case study where we can explore and compare the levels of social activity that varying
morphological settings appear to support and develop over time.
In what follows, the discussion introduces briefly the role of citywide urban forces in
shaping the spatial and physical context in West Village historically. Then, the properties of the
historic built form in terms of the building-street interface are described. Following this, the
current Village streetscape is analysed in terms of the social encounters organised by the built
form. In particular, the study looks at the properties of the street interface in historic and non-
historic parts of the case study area. Finally, the paper discusses the role of the street network in
configuring varying street profiles.

West Village

With its street gridiron dating back to 1790 (almost 20 years earlier than the Commissioners’
Plan of 1807-11), West Village is considered one of the oldest parts of Manhattan. Located in
proximity to the financial district and downtown city centre, the Village was challenged by the
pressures of urbanisation as early as 1830s (Ware, 1965, p.9). In its early development the area
was building up a profile as a desirable neighbourhood for the wealthier parts of the population,
which soon attracted an extensive spread of row housing. At the same time the piers and
transport depots were forming the industrial west waterfront. This strong functional split – and
correspondingly, morphological split in terms of the built form – has since played a definitive
role in the history and development of these two contrasting districts: the Village heart, later to
become part of the Historic District Designation, and the west waterfront which has faced large
scale demolitions and redevelopments.
From the earliest period onwards, the varying socio-economic forces of the spreading
urbanity started to shape the diverse architectural profiles of the neighbourhood (Dolkart,
2009:115-116). Figure 1 summarises the contrasting urban forces which were challenging West
Village at the turn of twentieth century. Most of the row houses were gradually converting into
90

multiple-occupancy, if managing to escape demolition by giving way to tenements, apartment

buildings and small industrial units13. Building development varied in order to accommodate the
needs of shifting populations, functions and economic standards. The row houses (both new and
existing) were converted into work-live units 14 or apartments for single living. Tenement
building spread around the area to house manual labourers, creating challenging densities, high
lot coverage and consequently leading to poor living conditions. High-rise apartment buildings
with commercial ground floors filled up the north-south citywide street alignments, such as
Sixth and Seventh Avenues. And finally, warehouses and small manufacturing units to support
industrial uses were constructed on the western Village blocks close to the piers. The profile of
the neighbourhood changed even further with the extension of Seventh Avenue in 1914 and
Sixth in 1918. These street extensions increased the area’s centrality within the Manhattan grid
and turned the Village into more of a passage, rather than just a self-contained area. Figure 2
shows space syntax analysis of the Manhattan street network before and after the street
extensions (darkest colours represent higher values in accessibility and permeability 15 ),
illustrating the sudden increase in the area’s significance within the city network. During the
second half of the twentieth century, the physical unity of the neighbourhood underwent
dramatic transformations, some of which had a significant impact on the social image of the
streets. An example of such redevelopment was the demolition of all buildings in the block
bounded by Barrow, Morton and Washington Streets to be replaced with post-modern housing
(construction started in 1969 and completed in 1974).
Notwithstanding all these pressures, a significant number of row houses survived in the
area16. Protected by the Historic District Designation in 1969, the row houses in the heart of the
village are today intermingled with younger buildings, creating vibrant street qualities of
functional and morphological mixture. Mapping the features of the West Village streetscape in
the present times (c.2011-2013) and comparing the historic and non-historic parts, the following
analytical parts of the paper aims to address properties of the built form that have a potential
impact on street liveability. The role of the street network in shaping a street’s social profile is
also discussed.

The historic building-street interface

Before looking at the urban streetscape in the Village as a whole, it is important to look solely at
the historic building typologies that this study takes into account and to discuss some of their
morphological properties. More particularly, the study considers the row house and tenement
building types (Figure 3). Descendants of the row house typology (Davis, 2006:151-153),
tenement buildings can be divided into two further typological groups: the ‘old-law’ tenements
(including the ‘railroad’ and ‘dumb-bell’ types) and the ‘new-law tenements’ (Plunz, 1990:13,
49). Old-law tenements are five- to six-stories high and cover up to 90 percent of a typical 25-
by-100-foot Manhattan lot (coverage reduced to 80 percent after the Tenement House Act of
1879). Living conditions in these buildings were characterised by severe lack of light and
ventilation. Slightly improved - to match standard plans approved by the Tenement House Act
of 1901 - the new-law tenements are taller buildings with a façade length almost twice the size

13
For instance, the construction of Union Terminal Freight Station and of U.S. Appraises Stores (c.1950-
52) at the south-west blocks of the Village led altogether to around 140 building demolitions.
14
Work-live units refer to artists’ houses and studios as well as to commercial-residential buildings.
15
Space syntax analysis calculated in Depthmap software (Turner, 2001). The measure of combined
integration and choice at different scales of analysis represents the potential for a given street section to
be used for movement through and around the area within that given distance.
16
For a discussion regarding the spatial and social factors that enabled the continuity of the historic row
houses in West Village see the discussion in a previous ISUF conference paper: Palaiologou and
Vaughan, 2012.
 91

of row houses and old-law tenements. New-law tenements usually cover around 70 percent of a
40- or 50-by-100-foot lot (ibid., p.47-49).

Figure 1. West Village - urban challenges at the turn of twentieth century.

Figure 2. West Village - analysis of the street network properties before (c.1891) and after
(c.1921) the extension of Sixth and Seventh Avenues.
92

Besides row houses and tenements, there are other historic buildings as well with long
presence in West Village. Such buildings are small industrial units, factories, schools etc.
However, the primary focus of this study is the façade organisation of row houses, and
consequently, their building-street interface. For this purpose, the analysis here distinguishes
between the row house and tenement typologies for two main reasons: on the one hand, these
building types present regularities and typological consistencies in terms of the façade
treatment. And on the other hand, row houses – and tenements as their descendants – represent
the most common residential building type of the Commissioners’ historic Manhattan.
Figure 4 illustrates a survey of the historic built form presence in West Village. The map
shows the row houses and tenement buildings still existing in c.2013. The buildings’ colour
range (dark-oldest, light-youngest) represents four main typological groups: the shell of a
single-family row house (black); the railroad and dumb-bell17 types of old-law tenements (dark
grey); the new-law tenements (grey); and finally, the remaining buildings which do not belong
to a particular building type and are mostly later developments. It is clear from the map that the
Historic District Designations capture the majority of the historic rows and tenements within the
study area.
More particularly regarding the façade organisation (Figure 3), in the early row houses the
building frontage is characterised by a trilateral vertical alignment of casements. The domestic
door entrance lies at either side and is usually accessed via the stoop (stepped entrances or
porches). In the cases of an additional function occupying the ground floor – usually
commercial – the non-domestic entrance is once again aligned under either the central vertical
zone of windows or to one side. Accordingly, alignment with windows is also retained in the
case of an additional separate domestic entrance when the single-family row house is turned into
multi-dwellings. There are also examples where the second domestic entrance is placed
underneath the elevated stoop of the main old entrance (like in the more grandiose Italianate
style row houses). Due to the small scale of these buildings, façades present in most cases a
maximum of two thresholds. The railroad and dumb-bell façades (old-law tenements) which are
slightly bigger in scale (both for façade length and height) are organised in four columns of
windows, with the main building entrance located in the middle of the façade length. Often, this
building type presents additional commercial uses in the ground floor which are placed at the
sides of the central domestic entrance. Finally, the new-law tenement typology, covering larger
plots, introduces a more solid ground floor, with fewer openings to the street. In other words,
the older narrower building types are found to present a denser pattern of building-street
connections squeezing as many thresholds as possible into the façade.

Figure 3. West Village - row house, old- and new-law tenements.

17
Variations of the old-law tenement building type; for details see Plunz, 1990:13, 49.
 93

Figure 4. West Village - row houses, old- and new-law tenements (c.2013).

The record of building thresholds collected from a survey of West Village conducted by the
first author in 2011 confirms this last observation regarding façade length and density of
thresholds (see Table 1). In order to form a general overview of the density of thresholds in the
area of West Village for each one of these three historic building types as well as for the non-
historic buildings, we can look at the ratio of the total façade length for each type to the total
number of building entrances in each case. Based on the features of row houses in West Village
(1325 row house units, 1469 sides facing streets), results show that in a streetscape completely
built up with row houses a pedestrian would anticipate passing a building threshold
approximately every 3.8 meters. A similar spacing between thresholds is expected in a
hypothetical route constructed alongside old-law tenements (245 units were recorded and 272
façades), where a door would be expected every 4.1 meters. This slight deviation between the
two building types is explained by the slight increase in plot size for the latter. A new-law
tenement streetscape would be looser in terms of building-street connections, with doors lining
up every 4.5 meters. In general, these historic building types commonly form a rather dense
building-street interface. Summarising the previous results, the estimated frequency of
thresholds for the historic built form is a doorway every 4 meters on average. In contrast, the
analysis shows that the remaining buildings in West Village are likely to present an entrance
every 10 meters on average. Considering results comparatively, we understand that the building-
street interface of row houses and tenements supports more than twice the potential for building-
street interaction than the rest of the buildings in the area.
The key observation from this analysis does not refer to the building types per se, rather to
their morphological properties. More particularly, what is important to understand here is that
the narrower the façade (and in effect the plot width), the higher the potential for a denser
building-street interface is observed. The mean façade length for row houses and tenements in
West Village is calculated at 8.4 meters. On the other hand, the remaining building façades are
twice as longer with their mean length reaching as high as 22.4 meters.
94

Table 1. Row houses, old- and new-law tenements; door encounter rate (c.2013).

Tot. Façade Door encounter

Buildings Doors
Length (m) rate (m)
Row house 1324 2477 9523 3.8
Old-law tenement 244 523 2139 4.1
New-law tenement 101 326 1463 4.5
Historic 1669 3326 13125 3.9
Non-historic 982 2156 21982 10.2

The image of the streets

The aforementioned analysis is based on a theoretically evenly constituted urban streetscape;

namely, it assumes an equal number of door entrances across all urban block-fronts in the case
study area. Although this analysis provides an idea regarding the impact of morphological
properties on the street interface, it does not capture the fine-grained complexity and
morphological diversity of real urban settings. In order to configure a better representation of
reality, the following section studies the built form properties at the scale of street segments.
This time, analysis considers each segment side separately in order to study in greater detail the
properties of the constituted street interface. Lying behind this is the proposition that whilst the
configuration street network itself shapes – all things being equal – the varying distribution of
people around an area, the building-street connections organise potential interactions between
inside/outside (private/public) spaces. The study looks firstly at the frequency, and secondly, at
the mixture in terms of morphology of building thresholds and the function each building
contains. The study then also considers these results alongside straightforward space syntax
measures of potential flows (as will be shown in section 5, below).
The survey record of building thresholds is illustrated in Figure 5. The map shows building
entrances in the area of West Village coloured according to building use type. Considering the
Village’s historic split in terms of functional and morphological character – into the west
waterfront on the one hand and the Historic District on the other (where the majority of rows
and tenements lie within) –, results are summarised for each one of these areas to then be
discussed comparatively.
To begin with, in order to form on overview of the building-street interface density for each
district within the Village, we can summarise the number of building entrances and relate this to
the total length of façades (Table 2). In terms of the building properties, the mean façade length
of buildings within the Historic District is almost half the length of frontages in the non-historic
Village parts. This in turn impacts on the street interface: within the Historic District, where
pedestrians are likely to encounter a building entrance every 6 meters on average, in contrast to
the significantly more sparse street interface of the west waterfront where building entrance
spacing increases to 13 meters on average.
Following, in order to measure more precisely the threshold frequency, we can look at the
number of building entrances per street segment side in relation to the block frontage length18.
Figure 6 illustrates the calculated threshold frequency for street sides in West Village. Lighter
colours reflect lower frequency and thus a looser street interface. As indicated by the threshold
frequency map, the streetscape within the Historic District is constituted by a denser building-
street interface (dark greyscale). The strong presence of rows and tenements which take over the

18
The block frontage length equals the sum of the length of building façades calculated separately for
each segment side.
 95

majority of historic blocks supports higher threshold frequencies, and thus higher potential for
inside/outside encounters. In contrast, building thresholds become sparser towards the
waterfront (light grey block sides). Building footprints in the waterfront blocks appear larger,
and this implies longer building façades. This morphological feature, in combination with the
sparse building-street connections, creates a less porous ground floor emphasising further the
historical split of the Village streets.

Figure 5. West Village - threshold map and land use distribution (c.2011).

Table 2. West Village - threshold record for Village parts (c.2011).

Tot. Mean Door

Façades Doors Façade Façade encounter
Length (m) Length (m) rate (m)
Historic
2354 4449 26742 11.4 6.0
District
Non-historic 494 1064 10871 22.0 10.2
Waterfront 249 518 6554 26.3 12.6
96

Figure 6. West Village - threshold frequency (c.2011).

The next step is to understand the street interface as an aggregate of varying uses
overlooking at the street domain. Building use has an impact both on the morphology of the
building-street interface, as well as on the social profile of streets. There are building uses which
aim to engage the pedestrian and hence open up the building interior to the street domain
visually or accessibly (like retail and commercial uses in general). There are also uses with a
more private character which aim to protect the interior function from the pedestrian traffic.
Depending on the uses aggregated within a block front, pavements become more or less private
or public in their morphology; also, depending on the mixture in uses aggregated within a block
front, pavements become mono-functional or mixed-use. These properties (morphology and
function, respectively) have an impact on the potential social profile of the street segment.
Studying the threshold map of West Village, we can explore the social profile of streets
within the Historic District and outside, firstly in terms of uses per se, and secondly in terms of
the mixture of uses (Figure 5, Table 3). The most predominant uses within the Historic District
are the domestic (57.2%) and commercial (32.5%) types. Retaining the historically more
industrial profile, non-domestic uses in the west waterfront refer mostly to offices and light
industry (60.9% of the non-domestic uses). In general, for parts lying outside the Historic
District non-domestic thresholds cover the majority of pavements (64%).

Table 3. West Village - threshold use record for Village parts (c.2011).

Domestic Commercial Community Other Primary

Façades Doors Vacant Stoops
uses uses services uses thresholds

Historic 2547 1430 134 308 30 908 3447

2354 4449
District 57.2% 32.1% 3.0% 6.9% 0.8% 20.4% 77.8%

Non- 353 319 109 253 30 98 927

494 1064
historic 33.2% 30.0% 10.2% 23.8% 2.8% 9.2% 87.1%

205 63 54 182 14 58 442

Waterfront 249 518
39.6% 12.2% 10.4% 35.1% 2.7% 11.2% 85.3%
 97

However, the most important observation arising from this map refers to the mixture of uses.
Looking at the distribution of thresholds, it is interesting to point out that within the Historic
District, in many street segments a mixture of varying uses is observed across the length of a
block frontage. In the waterfront district on the other hand, thresholds of the same uses seem to
cluster at the block scale: see for instance, the offices and light industry at the south, the
residential blocks moving northwards, and finally, the gentrified district of The High Line (see
Figure 5). Here, it is of relevance to recall references that highlight the importance of
‘heterogeneity’ as a significant characteristic of urban life (Hanson and Hillier, 1987). Urban
space becomes livelier and more sociable when it brings together in close proximity varying
uses that support one another in everyday rituals (Jacobs, 1961, p.153). Functional mixture at a
finer scale (like the building and the segment) is one of the features lost in the redevelopments
of the waterfront area in West Village.
Functional mixture leads to morphological mixture of varying building-street relations. The
private-public transition can be configured in terms of access in many ways depending on the
level of privacy required by the building function 19 . A basic distinction of thresholds is
considered here between primary and secondary ones (based on the work of Hanson, 2000;
Hanson and Zako, 2007). Primary boundaries are direct entrances (the building line coincides
with the plot line). Secondary boundaries refer to indirect building-street relations, where in
order to access the building entrance a user needs to pass firstly from an additional space (like a
staircase or a yard) bounded by a secondary threshold (like low or high fences). Table 4 shows
the relation between building function and the type of building-street transition (direct or
indirect). Commercial uses in the area of West Village have almost exclusively a direct relation
with the street domain (94.5% primary thresholds). Offices, hotels and buildings with light
industrial uses (land use category named ‘other’) also have in their majority direct building
entrances (92.5%). Community service buildings (like schools and churches) have in some cases
(22.6%) a protected and more private interface. Finally, as expected, domestic uses are the most
prominent in having an indirect relationship with the street, with one out of three residences in
the Village distinguishing the private interior from the public domain. Overall, the degree of
privacy of the building-street interface depends on building use and purpose which in turn
influence the morphological treatment of the private/public transition.
Morphological mixture is also an outcome of architectural variations. In this respect,
morphological diversities are more likely to occur when a block frontage is the assemblage of
many building façades. Consequently, building units with narrow façades (meaning more
building units per block) and of different architectural styles contribute to creating a complex
micromorphology on the street pavements. For example, row houses themselves present many
morphological variations regarding the building-street interface. Ascending and descending
stoops, grandiose or modest porticos, direct entrances, areaways etc., all consist variations of the
row house interface based on architectural style. These morphological variations can create in
turn different social situations. For instance, when accessibility to the stoop is free from barriers
(like low railings), then stoops can work as informal places of social encounters (people
meeting, seating, talking etc.). Likewise, a commercial use might extend outwards and take up
parts of the pavement area. Looking at row houses and tenements in West Village, we can form
an idea of the complex spatial relations that these building types can generate over time. Figure
7 shows varying threshold types for the row houses and old-law tenements (which have the
narrowest façades). Data in Table 3 confirm as well the more significant presence of stoops
within the Historic District, while the west waterfront is mostly constituted by direct entrances.

19
Consider here the varying levels from publicity to privacy as discussed by Newman 1972, 1975: from a
social utility perspective a space can be characterised as ‘public’, ‘semi-public’, ‘semi-private’, ‘private’.
98

Table 4. West Village - threshold type according to land use (c.2011).

Domestic Commercial Community Other

uses uses services uses
Primary 1953 1652 188 521
thresholds 67.3% 94.5% 77.4% 92.9%
Secondary 947 97 55 40
thresholds 32.7% 5.5% 22.6% 7.1%
2900 1749 243 561
Total Doors
53.2% 32.1% 4.4% 10.3%

Figure 7. West Village - type of entrance for row houses and old-law tenements
(c.2013).

In a sense, analysis in this section has treated the block frontage as a morphological unit. It
has been argued that the properties of the building-street connections within a block frontage
regarding relate to the potential social encounters organised by the built form: blockfronts with
denser and more diverse (functionally and morphologically) building thresholds are more likely
to generate street liveability. Comparative analysis for the current historic and non-historic
streetscape in West Village has suggested that the narrowest façades of historic building
typologies support higher densities and mixture of building thresholds in relation to the solid,
larger in footprint and often monofunctional non-historic buildings.

The role of the street network

Following these observations, it becomes of interest to explore the reasons why some street
sections develop a vibrant and sociable interface over time and others fail to do so. This section
discusses the role of street network in distributing functional mixture (and consequently
morphological built form). The relation of land use allocation and street configuration has long
been established by space syntax studies (Hillier, 1996, Chapter four; Hillier and Vaughan,
2007). According to space syntax theory, streets with higher potential for accessibility and
 99

permeability are more likely to attract uses requiring higher footfall, like retail, and to generate
‘multiplier effects’ over time.20
A straightforward way to address the potential relation of a street segment’s interface with its
role within the street network is to group street segments based on their space syntax
('syntactic') values (high, medium, low) and then explore the features of thresholds for each
group. Accordingly, Tables 5 and 6 show results from this analysis performed for the area of
West Village. Analysis is calculated for the measure of ‘combined integration and choice’, both
for the local and the city-wide context of street network performance: firstly, analysis addresses
the walkable radius of 800 meters in order to estimate the performance of the street network at a
neighbourhood scale; and secondly, the wider city surroundings are considered with analysis
calculated for the whole of Manhattan (radius n). Results for both studied scales indicate that
segments with higher syntactic values contain higher numbers of commercial thresholds (almost
twice higher on average) in comparison to segments with low values. It is also interesting to
observe that the percentage of secondary thresholds (namely entrances with a more private
character) is significantly lower in segments with high values. In effect, it is indicated that in the
case of West Village segments with higher potential for pedestrian traffic have developed a
more public street profile.
In order to interpret accessibility and permeability (namely the configurational properties of
the street network) in terms of morphology, the study looks in addition at the physical
characteristics of street segments which might influence the chances for a street part to develop
high potential in attracting pedestrian movement (and thus attract more urban-like uses). Jane
Jacobs’s observations and interpretations provide a morphological hint regarding the
characteristics of permeability: the author argues that short blocks enhance pedestrian flows,
become livelier and consequently, support greater socio-economic mixture. Here, we interpret
this morphological property of the built form (namely, the short block front) as a configurational
property of the street network (short segment length). Indeed, looking at the syntactic map of
the Manhattan street network illustrating the values for the measure of ‘combined integration
and choice’ (for radius 800 – namely the walkable scale) we can observe that shorter block sides
have measurably higher potential for pedestrian flows (Figure 8, Table 7). To examine this
further we summarise the properties of building thresholds based on segment length (Table 8).
Results confirm a potential impact of street segment length (and respectively of block size) in
the land use allocation. In the Village, shorter segments (with length below 100 meters) have a
prevailing non-domestic character, with the majority of commercial uses allocated there. Longer
segments on the other hand are more domestic in their social profile and are constituted by more
private building-street interfaces with secondary boundaries.
Pedestrian flows themselves confirm the role of street network in terms of the generated
street liveability. As mentioned in section 1 above, spatial patterns are considered to give rise to
the ‘virtual community’. The theory of ‘natural movement’ discusses how the configurational
(namely, the relational) properties of the street network generate a primary distribution of
movement patterns (Hillier et al., 1993). Movement patterns relate in turn with phenomena of
co-presence. Physical co-presence is a fundamental precondition for social life to be generated
in the street domain. Additionally, from a morphological perspective it is important to note here
that not only the building function has an impact on the morphology of the building-street
interface; the street function as a pedestrian route and its levels of utility also play a role in
determining the type of the configured micromorphology of the sidewalk. For instance,
depending on the levels of pedestrian traffic, building thresholds can occupy the pavement
width (like in the case of stoops and areaways) or stand back at the building line (direct
entrances) giving way to passing through users.

20
In Hillier’s words (1996:127): “The urban grid through its influence on the movement economy is the
fundamental source of the multifunctionality that gives life to cities”.
100

Figure 8. Manhattan - short/long segments and permeability. Segment angular analysis

for combined measure of integration and choice for radius 800 meters.

Table 7. Manhattan - mean values for the measure of combined integration and choice for
radius 800 meters according to segment length (c.2011).

0 < 50 m 50 – 100 m 100 – 150 m 150 – 200 m 200 m and over

1138 3851 1151 726 919
Segment Count
14.6% 49.5% 14.8% 9.3% 11.8%
Combined
integration and 31.408 28.715 18.548 10.666 3.487
choice radius 800 m

The morphology of a sociable street interface

This paper was an effort to address properties of the built form that relate to street liveability.
Stemming from the work of Julienne Hanson in ‘Urban Transformations’ (2000), where the
author interprets spatial and morphological properties of the built environment as social
properties of urban space, this study aimed to explore further the morphological features of a
lively street interface. Considering building-street connections as potential points of social
encounter between the ‘static’ (interior) and the ‘moving’ (pedestrian realm), between the
private and the public, the study suggests that building thresholds reflect the potential vibrancy
and sociability of the building-street relation, and accumulatively of the street interface.
Examining the case of West Village, the effort was to decode the role of urban components
in bringing together the spatial and physical affordances for co-presence and social interaction
in the area. To summarise the key observations, throughout the analysis of West Village it was
discussed that the following built form properties are to be considered when aiming for a vibrant
sidewalk micromorphology: i) the plot size; narrow plots mean narrow building façades which
in turn increases the potential for a high threshold frequency across the block frontage; ii)
functional mixture; the mixture of building uses within the block frontage length; iii)
 101

morphological mixture; buildings with varying architectural styles and consequently varying
treatment of the private/public transition.

Table 8. West Village - threshold use record according to segment length (c.2011).

0 < 50 m 50 – 100 m 100 – 150 m 150 – 200 m 200 m and over

47 172 74 10 8
Segment Count
15.1% 55.3% 23.8% 3.2% 2.6%
1.723 km 12.922 km 9.480 km 1.618 km 2.058 km
Total length
6.2% 46.5% 34.1% 5.8% 7.4%
Total façades 124 1220 1065 184 254
Total doors 219 2322 2070 397 501
86 1012 1317 219 266
Domestic
39.3% 43.6% 63.6% 55.2% 53.1%
133 1306 731 178 234
Non domestic
60.7% 56.2% 35.3% 44.8% 46.7%
105 994 418 119 146
Commercial
47.9% 42.8% 20.2% 30.0% 29.1%
4 75 93 22 48
Community
1.8% 3.2% 4.5% 5.5% 9.6%
24 237 220 37 40
Other
11.0% 10.2% 10.6% 9.3% 8.0%
12 209 222 70 45
Blank
5.2% 9.0% 10.7% 17.6% 9.0%
30 346 511 93 155
Secondary
13.7% 14.9% 24.7% 23.4% 30.9%

In addition to these properties, it was highlighted that short segments (and thus short block
sides) enhance pedestrian flows and consequently increase co-presence. Finally, the effect of the
street network in a street’s profile has been discussed: movement patterns influence land use
allocation and levels of pedestrian traffic having and impact on the morphology of the building-
street connection. In other words, the street interface is the morphological unit where all urban
components (building, plot, street) overlap, work together and potentially interact.
Overall, the study emphasised the role of density as well as of functional and morphological
mixture in building thresholds within a block frontage as key properties for creating a sociable
street interface. Considering the post-modern redevelopments in the west waterfront in West
Village it can be understood that these urban blocks present the opposite morphological
features: with building footprints covering large plots (which can be sometimes equal to the
entire whole block area), lower threshold frequency and a more opaque ground floor,
concluding that these redevelopments present far less potential for functional and morphological
heterogeneity, for the oft desired 'urban diversity'.

Acknowledgements
This research is funded by an EPSRC scholarship.
The basemap data used for Islington, London area, were provided by Ordnance Survey/EDINA databases
© Crown Copyright/database right 2012.
102

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 103

The ‘Projeto Orla’ (Lake Paranoá, Brasília/Brazil): the

creation of an exclusionary lake shore

Marcelo Lembi, Valério Medeiros

Universidade de Brasília (PPG/FAU), Instituto Central de Ciências – ICC Norte – Gleba
A Campus Universitário Darcy Ribeiro – Asa Norte – Caixa Postal 04431
CEP: 70904-970 – Brasília/DF. Brasil
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract. The present paper examines the morphological aspects of two developments of “Projeto Orla”
in Brasilia – Brazil, in order to understand how the configurational characteristics affect the local
vitality. The relations between the constructed form and movement are explored, following the concepts
of the Theory of Social Logic of Space or Space Syntax. The variables present in the research are land
use, relation between full and empty spaces, density, axial structure, legibility/orientation, blind spaces,
transport, infrastructure, imaging potential, monumental scale and bioclimatic aspects, with focuses in
four dimensions of architecture: perception of the place (“topoception”), functionality, copresence and
symbolic aspects. The findings allow us to place the area under study within the paradigms of formality
(Brasília Palace) and urbanity (Pontão do Lago Sul), thus fostering the discussion about the differences
between pre-modern and modern cities. In addition, it is possible to use these findings for project
exercise, conceiving strategies or recommendations that can be applied to the implementation of the
remaining developments.

Key Words: Morphological features, vitality, formality and urbanity.

Introduction

Projeto Orla is an urban development program alongside the shore of Lake Paranoá, in the city
of Brasília – Brazil. This article researches two developments of Projeto Orla and their
relationship with the city. Out of the eleven developments originally designed, the Brasilia
Palace Complex and Pontão do Lago Sul were selected for discussion, as they are the only ones
which have already been implemented in most part.
The relationship between the traditional city and the city resulting from modern urban
planning is explored, and Brasilia is exemplary in that regard. Thus, it would be a way of
analysing the reasons associated to the space which potentially lead to the abandonment of
certain places. In addition, the studies seeks to research the relevance of spatial configuration in
order to explain – or at least contribute to the debate – the success (or lack of) of certain areas,
which may provide insight for issues of urban dynamics and decline of these urban spaces.
Therefore, we believe it is possible to evaluate the success or failure of these developments
based on a preliminary analysis of configurational features, such as: land use on the immediate
surroundings, relation between empty and full spaces, density, street infrastructure, distance
from the urban center, segregation vs. integration etc.

Methodology

Theory and concepts

The conceptual scope adopted in this research is based in the Technique of Dimensional
Analysis, which allows the morphological interpretation of spaces, based on six dimensions, or
104

aspects: functional, financial-economic, expressive-symbolic, bioclimatic, copresencial

/sociologic and topological perception (Holanda et al., 2005; Holanda, 2010). The study, whose
aim is to analyse the lake shore and its relation to the city, undertakes the view that the reading
of the urbanization process and the dynamic of the resulting spaces can be better understood
based on its morphologic dimensions.
In order to understand the connection between urban morphology and the different processes
associated to it, we used the concepts of formality and urbanity (Holanda, 2002). The formal
spaces are those whose configuration is less prone to encourage interpersonal encounters than
urban spaces. This is a fundamental aspect in the organization of the elements of space that can
either foster or hinder vitality, taking into account the arrangement of the parts in relation to the
whole (Medeiros, 2013).

Methodology/procedures

A configurational analysis of the spaces is carried out with a qualitative emphasis in order to
reach the scope of the results. An exploratory reading of the developments and their relation to
the city is established considering the identification of existing typologies and land uses and
their relation to the space, the presence of a street network and its degree of articulation, the
definition of integrated or segregated areas, amongst others. Such findings encourage the
construction of hypothesis, questionings and paths to subsidize future researches about the
theme.
In order to do so, we start from the basic premise that possibly the configuration of these
spaces and their articulation with the city are predominant aspects for higher or lower vitality of
the waterfront of Lake Paranoá. Thus, the analysis of the two developments is carried out on a
micro and macro scales. The first is restricted to the legal area of each development and the
second corresponds to a radius of 2 km from the geometric center of the unit. This radius of
coverage was defined so as to cover the main roads as well as the land uses and occupations of
the immediate surroundings.
In the micro-scale, aspects of land use, relation between full and empty spaces, the existence
of barriers, hygrothermal comfort, sense of security or insecurity, density and infrastructure are
addressed. On the macro scale, four dimensions / aspects are analyzed for being considered
most relevant to understand the relationship of the developments with the rest of the city:
topological perception (performance of configuration regarding the legibility and orientation –
cf. Kohlsdorf, 1996), functional (performance on the operational level of the space), copresence/
sociological (performance regarding features which foster or restrict interpersonal encounters)
and expressive-symbolic (the capacity of places to forge in emotional and affective bonds in
people).

Tools/Instruments

Bibliographic survey;
Photographic Survey
Diachronic analysis of aerial photographs of the area under study (Source: Google Earth);
Interpretation of the axial map of Brasília and its surroundings, with special attention to
copresence aspects (Source: DIMPU/UnB with adaptations by Medeiros, 2013);
Analysis of the Master Plan for Transport and Mobility of the Federal District – PDTU/2011.

Formality vs Urbanity

According to Holanda et al. (2005), “human settlements throughout history, from indigenous
tribes to the great metropolis, can be classified according to the nature of their syntactic
 105

attributes”. Therefore, the author uses concepts of formality and urbanity in order to name the
morphological types from the standpoint of Space Syntax Theory (Hillier e Hanson, 1984;
Holanda, 2002; Medeiros, 2013).
“Formality” is a word derived from ‘formal’, related to ‘form’ – ‘the outer limits of the
matter that constitutes a certain thing, and that grants it a configuration, a peculiar aspect” – but
that in a particular way: “that is not spontaneous; that is attached to pre-established formulas;
conventional”. “Formality” is also “a specific way of proceeding, that which is conventional,
routine”. In turn, “urbanity” refers to the city as a physical reality, to which the qualities
“courteous, friendly, with continuous negotiation of interests” is added. (Holanda et al., 2005).
In regard to the built space, formality has been consistently characterized by factors such as:
a) maximization of open spaces on the total area of the settlement, b) higher percentage of blind
spaces, c) an extremely integrated or extremely segregated axial structure/ high or low levels of
incoming streets (as opposed to an intermediate position in regard to this scale of variability), d)
low intelligibility, e) low variety of land use, f) higher presence of empty spaces compared to
full spaces, g) low density, h) great distances to the urban center, i) socio-spatial
isolation/segregation, j) the monumental/symbolic aspects are the main object, etc. The features
that refer to urbanity encompass characteristics that are opposed to those listed.

The ‘traditional’ city

The so called "traditional" city differs from the standards of "modern city" advocated and
embodied in the 50s and 60s of the 20th century. Solutions such as Brasilia and Chandigarh
broke the historically recurring urban model, assuming more formal and less urban features.
In the traditional cities, there is a balance between full and empty spaces, in a proportion defined
by many authors as being 50/50. The concept of full space refers to the private spaces, such as
residences and offices, etc., and the empty spaces refer to public areas, including, but not limited
to, streets and squares.
Both in the regular grid pattern as well as in organic ones, lots are contiguous and distributed
in blocks, having a direct relationship with the street. This allows a greater flow of people and
hence larger amount of interpersonal exchanges in the open spaces. Such configuration is what
makes us consider a city to be "alive".
Moreover, attributes such as the variety of land uses and activities, high density, integration
(at least in the central parts), higher percentage of open spaces, for example, are common
features in "traditional" cities. According to the literature (Jacobs, 1970; Salingaros, 2006;
Alexander, 2013; Gehl, 2013), these features make settlements more urban (and therefore less
formal), awarding greater vitality to open spaces.

Brasília: a modern city

In the modern city, despite the eventual use of regular grids, lots are not distributed in blocks,
but in isolation, with no direct relationship with the street. Here the empty spaces, represented
by green areas, paths and terraces prevail. This relationship is the big break that the modern
movement brought to the way of thinking about the city: full spaces correspond to 30% of the
total area of the city on average.
There are lessons to be learned from the urban design of the Pilot Plan of Brasilia especially
regarding the features that confer strong global legibility. However, for the object of study of
this article, we aim to examine the design issues that weaken the local dynamics, especially
those arising from the fragmentation of the city, i.e., the disruption its fabric. The scenario is the
product of the configuration of space, such as the presence of large voids that result in open
spaces with little or no vitality.
106

With regard to the urban system in its entirety, over the years Brasilia became a
"morphological mosaic" (Holanda et al., 2013), where various morphologic types coexist. Its
classic modernism immediately provided a sharp contrast with the vernacular configuration of
the surrounding urban centers (Planaltina from 1810 and Brazlândia 1930) and with the farms
close by.
The capital is nowadays a "polynuclear metropolis" (Holanda, 2002;. Holanda et al., 2008)
and the classical modernism or "modern city" is restricted to the Pilot Plan, where less than 10%
of the inhabitants of the Federal District live (IBGE, 2010). However, the region concentrate
44% of the jobs in the Federal District, higher level of income and benefits of urbanization,
which legitimizes its role as Centre for Commerce and Services, that is, the main active urban
center.
The overall structure of Brasilia discloses a system characterized by eccentricity, dispersion
and socio-spatial segregation (Holanda et al., 2008; Holanda, 2010). The trends of
fragmentation are not restricted to the macro-scale, they are also identified in the micro-scale,
present in the internal areas of the Pilot Plan.

Projeto Orla

The project under study, Projeto Orla, – also known as Master Plan for the Occupation of Lake
Paranoá Shores or Plan for Touristic Ordering and Structuring of Brasília – was elaborated by
TCI Planejamento, Projeto e Consultoria Internacional Ltda., a company hired by the
Government of the Federal District – GDF and by Embratur in the year 1992. The goal was to
forward the use of the remaining free areas located on the shores of Lake Paranoá, increasing its
touristic, economic and cultural relevance. The development encompasses a broad project for
the whole area around the lake, developed in partnership with the private initiative, having as
the main goal the implementation of quality public spaces.
In its first phase, the ten developments were supposed to be implemented, in an area of
approximately 78,000.00 m2. In 1995, this number was increased to eleven. In addition, a
promenade, called ‘boulevard’, was designed, in order to integrate them all. These attractors
were planned to have diverse land uses and activities, including leisure, entertainment and
lodging, which would include hotels, restaurants, piers, an area for playing sports and support
facilities for water sports, cultural centers, museums, concert venues and a heliport.
Connecting the eleven developments, four circulation systems were proposed, the first being
a pedestrian boulevard, the second a cycle lane, the third option would be a low speed street for
cars, and last, the public marinas and small piers, providing infrastructure for water transport.
However, until the present moment, Projeto Orla has not lived up to its goals. Due to the
slow pace of the Government and the lack of political will, the implementation was partial. The
circulation systems proposed, for example, were never executed.

Brasília Palace Complex

Description of the area and the development

Brasília Palace Complex – Development 3 (Figure 1) is located between Clube da Imprensa and
Bosque dos Leões, near the Alvorada Palace. The original concept encompassed an area for 4
hotels, amongst which, Brasília Palace, designed by Oscar Niemeyer. The place is characterized
as a cultural center, where the Art Museum of Brasilia – MAB, the Acoustical Shell, and the
Pavilhão da Bienal e Arte are already in place. Together, the three of them would be a part of
the Praça das Artes (literally translated as Arts Plaza). In addition, an area for commerce, pubs,
restaurants, cinemas and marinas was previously envisioned. The urban project was registered
and partially implemented. However, nowadays the place is partially abandoned.
 107

The flats and hotels that are part of the complex are mostly surrounded by walls and its
recreational areas invade the shores of Lake Paranoá, forming a barrier that prevents the flow of
pedestrians within the complex and the free access to the waterfront. Such is the situation of the
development called Ilhas do Lago, "Lakeside" (Figure 2), "Premier" and "Royal Tulip"
(formerly "Blue Tree"). The exception is Brasilia Palace Hotel, which has a higher permeability,
since it is a building on pilotis and grants free access to the public: it is the only one that kept a
desirable distance from the water surface.

Figure 1. Aerial photograph of the Brasília Palace Complex – Development 3.

Configurational analysis (micro scale)

Roughly speaking, these typologies act as barriers, due to the walls and blind spaces, thus
affecting the articulation and interaction between the public spaces. These free spaces for the
general public have few buildings, which are isolated and distant from one another, and the
empty spaces prevail. However, due to the total absence of street furniture, except for the
streetlights along the waterfront, the place is dark and lifeless at night – unless there is an event
happening at the Acoustical Shell.
It is possible to notice that the flats and hotels are taking over the place, and the public areas
are in a state of partial abandonment without the assistance and infrastructure necessary for
becoming a touristic and cultural complex. Moreover, there is no diversity of uses, once the
project was not fully implemented. The immediate surroundings present homogeneity, with a
predominance of institutions - Press Club, Air Force Club - and residences - Alvorada Palace
and Vila Planalto.
Despite the large parking lots, there are some clusters of trees scattered around the area.
These trees and the breeze from the lake generate a certain hygrothermal comfort. However, the
issue could be substantially improved with the addition of trees to the parking lots and the
implementation of the landscape project previously designed for the site.
There are virtually no well-defined sidewalks or paths, except for the cemented promenade
being built by GDF along the waterfront. However, it does not meet the requirements of an
environmentally friendly coverage (higher permeability, reflection X absorption of sunlight
etc.). Moreover, the materials and colors do not define the routes well and do not aesthetically
improve the site.

Configurational analysis (macro-scale)

When analysing the development in a macro scale, that is, in relation to the rest of the city, it is
possible to notice that Development 3 is very central, once it is near Vila Planalto, in the
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surroundings of the Esplanade of Ministeries. The street that gives access to the Esplanade, N1
East, is one of the options for reaching L4 North and the Hotel and Tourism Road, the main
Access to the complex.

Figure 2. “Lakeside Convention Center and Resort” – Development 3.

Although Vila Planalto works as a good reference point to reach the desired location, the
signs of way are not very clear for those who are going there for the first time. After reaching
the access road, one has only to follow it to the end, which may also cause certain insecurity,
since there are no reference points or visual landmarks – there are far more empty spaces and
the existing constructions are mainly horizontal. Thus, we can conclude that although the
development is located in a privileged area and the route is fairly straight forward, the place
lacks visual legibility (strong identity) and adequate signs, which could offer better conditions
for orientation.
In terms of functionally and accessibility, the only ways to reach the destination is on a
private vehicle or by bus, there not being any cycle lanes or any other means of public
transportation. The water transport is only destined to those who have their own vehicles,
despite the presence of a pier on the site.
According to data from PDTU-DF/2011, only two bus lines go through the complex. They
are: 1401C (Circular - Vila Planalto – L2 / W3 Norte) and 1042C (Circular – Esplanada /
Palácio do Jaburu / Palácio da Alvorada).
Copresential aspects are tightly associated to a higher or lower level of integration of a
certain area with the rest of the city. Thus, the integration measure ‘refers to the higher or lower
accessibility between the parts of a city, based on the minimum number of turns of a route
between two points” (Holanda, 2010)
“These values can be expressed numerically or by a color scale with a gradation from red to
orange to green to blue – where the axis with a higher integration value tend to red and the
lower to blue” (Medeiros, 2013).
Therefore, analysing the Axial Map of Brasília (Figure 3), it is possible to notice the main roads
that grant access to the complex are green, that is, they have an intermediate level of integration
(between 0,647 and 0,809), except for the axis S1 East and L4 South – of orange color – which
have a higher integration level (between 0,809 and 0,970). Most of streets inside the
development under study are represented by light blue lines, since they present low level of
integration (between 0,486 and 0,647). Thus, it is possible to conclude that the area under study
is more segregated than integrated, being closer to the concept of formality than urbanity.
The symbolic aspects are related to the architectonic elements that translate in images that
represent the site, such as the Brasilia palace Hotel (whose name extends to the whole site), the
Acoustic Shell and the MAB. Therefore, we can come to the conclusion that the place has a
 109

strong imaging potential, but the symbolic aspect needs to be better explored and valued,
specially due to its proximity to Alvorada Palace, an icon of Brasilia.

Figure 3. Axial Map of Brasília – global integration Rn.

Pontão do Lago Sul

Description of the area and the development

Pontão do Lago Sul – Development 11 (Figure 4) is located close to the Costa e Silva Bridge.
Since its conception, the development was created to house restaurants, pubs, small stores,
antique shops, arts and crafts shops, equipments for sports, and a pier for boats. The place is run
by private entities and has been attracting an average of seven thousand people on weekends.

Figure 4. Aerial photograph of Pontão do Lago Sul – Development 11.

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Configurational analysis (micro scale)

On quick configurational reading of the entire Complex, it is possible to notice that the use is
mainly commercial, but it is set in a region that lacks establishments of this kind, since the
residential use is prevalent in South Lake Administrative Region. Despite the predominance of
places dedicated to the Classes A and B, currently, some kiosks have emerged as more
affordable alternatives for Classes C and perhaps D.
The buildings are concentrated along the waterfront and are interconnected by paths for
pedestrians. Although the floor coverage of these paths not being permeable, there is a concern
with materials and colors to better define the paths and aesthetically improve the place. In
general, the wide open spaces for the public already have a reasonable number of constructions,
but empty spaces still prevail. These buildings are opened to the public spaces with their
porches and balconies mainly facing the existing promenade along the waterfront. Therefore,
the open spaces prevail over the blind spaces.
The site is well equipped with street furniture, to include bins, benches, street lighting,
ATMs, etc. Therefore, the site works well, both in during the day and at night, when the sense
of security is constant.
In regard to bioclimatic aspects, the space has a fairly good quantity of trees, however the
asphalt surface of the parking lots is what prevails. There, the tree coverage is still young, and
has not yet reached an appropriate height. The breeze and moisture from the lake help
hygrothermal comfort, especially at night when the air is cooler.

Configurational analysis (macro scale)

From a macro perspective, the place is quite central and stands out in the landscape as it is
located on a peninsula of Lake Paranoá, right next to Costa e Silva Bridge. The main access
roads are Avenida das Nações, Dom Bosco Park Road - EPBD and finally Costa e Silva
Avenue, the access road to the development (there is adequate signs).
Despite the buildings being mainly horizontal in Setor Habitações Individuais Sul - SHIS
and the large green area that separates from the main access road, Costa e Silva Bridge serves as
a good reference to reach the site, and it is possible to see much of the gastronomic complex. In
addition, the entrance portico acts as an important visual marker, although some consider it of
questionable taste. Thus, we can conclude that in addition to its privileged location and few
turns during the route, the signs on the route are present in adequate number and there is great
visual legibility (strong identity), which offers good conditions for orientation.
With regard to the functional aspects, the only way to get to the venue is a private vehicle or
bus, since there are no cycle lanes (inside and outside the complex) or any other means of public
transport. The water transport is only destined to those who have their own vehicles, despite the
presence of two or three piers on the site (Figure 5).

Figure 5. Pier of Pontão do Lago Sul.

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According data from PDTU-DF/2011 there are twelve bus lines that serve the development:
0772i, 1005i, 1005v, 1007i, 1473i, 1473v, 1474i, 1474v, 1477i, 1477v, 1971i and 1974i. All of
them go through the Pilot Plan, being that six go through the city of Paranoá, four through São
Sebastião and two through Agrovila.
In regard to the copresential aspects, analysing the Axial Map of Brasília (Figure 3), it is
possible to notice the main roads that grant access to the complex are green or light blue, that is,
they either have an intermediate level of integration (between 0,647 and 0,809) or a low level of
integration (between 0,486 e 0,647), except for the south portion of Avenida das Nações –
orange line – which has a higher integration level (between 0,809 and 0,970). All the streets
inside the development under study are represented by light blue lines, since they present low
level of integration (between 0,486 and 0,647). Thus, it is possible to conclude that the area
under study is more segregated than integrated, being closer to the concept of formality than
urbanity.
In regard to the symbolic aspects, we must mention Costa e Silva Bridge, designed by Oscar
Niemeyer as the main structure that represent the immediate surroundings, as well as Brasilia.
The bridge was chosen to become a brand of Projeto Orla, since it embodies the connection
between the city and the lake. Therefore, it is possible to say that the place has imaging
potential.

Conclusions

The article examined two developments of Projeto Orla – the Brasilia Palace Complex and
Pontão do Lago Sul – and their articulation to the city of Brasilia (Brazil). Based on the
findings obtained, Table 1 was drafted to summarize the attributes examined in the
configurational analysis, so as to facilitate the compared reading and the placement of each
development within the framework of either formality or urbanity.
Based on the analysis of the previous items, the qualifications identified are listed below. In
some cases, the feature for a certain development can be considered in an intermediate level. In
that case, for this attribute two concepts we marked, but they were not counted in the total sum
presented at the end of the table 1.
In face of the results obtained, we can conclude that the Brasília Palace Complex is a space
of extreme formality, since it has almost all the morphologic attributes associated to this
concept. Therefore, it is a place less favorable to interpersonal encounters and potentially
presents little vitality, except during some events that are held at the Acoustic Shell.
In the case of Pontão do Lago Sul, there was a relative balance between the number of
attributes associated to each concept. However, the concept of formality prevailed by a small
margin. Thus, although this development is more closely associated to the concept of formality,
it still has more urbanity attributes that make it an environment more prone to the flow of people
and their interactions. Therefore, it is a place of great vitality in some periods of the day, for
most of the week.
Nevertheless, Pontão do Lago Sul may deserve the classification of urban magnet, present in
the Space Syntax Theory, to explain some developments which show some vitality, despite not
having the configurational attributes favorable for such. They are potent flow and movement
attracting developments: not only do they concentrate commerce and services, but also refer to a
certain social status, in no small part due to the security of its facilities – which seems to fit
perfectly to the scenario of Pontão do Lago Sul. After all, the surrounding fence and entrance
portico, the security guards all around and the prices practiced at the pubs and restaurants are
elements which clearly restrict the access.
The city is socially diverse and heterogeneous, historically built by differences and these
reflect directly upon the configuration of its spaces. This way, the spaces are built according to
this variation, directed to the public it is meant to serve. However, the spaces must not be
excludent, after all it is a public space, and every citizen has the right to enjoy them. In the
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specific case of Projeto Orla, free access to Paranoá Lake must be granted to everyone, without
causing any embarrassment or hindrances, created by barriers of any kind.

Table 1. Attributes of formality x urbanity.

BRASÍLIA PALACE
PONTÃO DO LAGO SUL
COMPLEX
ATTRIBUTES
FORMALITY URBANITY FORMALITY URBANITY

Land use Low diversity Low diversity

Predominently Predominently
Full X empty spaces
empty empty

Density Low density Low density

Low
Axial structure Low integration
integration
Legibility
Intermediate Intermediate High
/orientation
Spaces: More blind
More open spaces
blind x open spaces
Predominantly Predominantly
Transport
private private

Infrastructure Insufficient Satisfactory

Socio-spatial
Intermediate Intermediate High
segregation

Imaging potential Strong Intermediate Intermediate

Interpersonal Human relations

Intermediate Intermediate
relationship prevail
Good
Bioclimatic Intermediate Intermediate
performance
Total 07 01 06 05

Results Very formal space Formal space

References

Alexander, C. (2013) Uma Linguagem dos Padrões, Porto Alegre, Bookman.

Fonseca, F. O. (org.). (2001) Olhares sobre o Lago Paranoá, Brasília, SEMARH.
Gehl, J. (2013) Cidades para Pessoas, São Paulo, Perspectiva.
Hillier, B.; Hanson, J. (1984) The Social Logic of Space, Londres, CUP.
Holanda, F. de. (2005) Arquitetura Sociológica. Anais do XI Encontro Nacional da ANPUR, Salvador,
23-27 Maio 2005.
Holanda, F. de. (2010) Brasília – Cidade Moderna, Cidade Eterna, FAU/UnB, Brasília.
Holanda, F. de; Kohlsdorf, M. E.; Kohlsdorf, G. (2005) Dimensões Morfológicas dos Lugares: a
Dimensão Copresencial, UnB/Unieuro, Brasília.
Holanda, F. de; Kohlsdorf, M. E.; Kohlsdorf, G. (2013) Brasília: permanências e metamorfoses, In Del
Rio, V.; Simbieda, W., Desenho urbano Contemporâneo no Brasil, São Paulo, Editora LTC.
 113

Holanda, F. de. (2002) O Espaço de Exceção, Brasília, EdUnB.

Holanda, F. de; Ribeiro, R.; Medeiros, V. (2008) Brasilia, Brazil: economic and social costs of dispersion,
Proceedings of the 44th ISOCARP, Dalian – China, Out. 2008.
Jacobs, J. (1970) The Economy of Cities, Londres, Jonathan Cape.
Kohlsdorf, M. (1996) Apreensão da Forma da Cidade, Brasília, EdUnB.
Medeiros, V. (2013) Urbis Brasiliae, Brasília, EdUnB.
Salingaros, N. (2006) A Theory of Architecture, Umbau, Solingen.
114

Mapping urban space based on visual perception

Yue Zhuang, Wowo Ding

School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Nanjing University
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected].

Abstract. Urban space plays a very important role in urban morphological studies, while 2-dimension
based urban patterns were often used as a research basis. Many researchers have tried different ways to
make urban pattern with 3-dimensional information as study basis, however the results were not entirely
satisfactory until now. Isovist is a method used for testing visibility of the plan or space, which has been
used for describing spatial character of urban street. Along that line our research tries to develop a
method to read urban pattern with height information, to create better urban physical space model for
further spatial study. 3D urban physical space model is built by Matlab, and new database for the space
is formed simultaneously. Our approach is setting a viewpoint forming a Viewsphere within the urban
physical space built by Matlab, which can measure the urban space and collect 3D information as well.
Based on isovist idea, new mapping method is developed. This paper tries to show our working process
and do some analysis of the data.

Key Words: Urban space, 3-dimentional information, isovist, viewsphere.

Introduction

Mapping of urban space is an important part in urban morphological studies, while 2-dimension
based urban patterns were often used as a research basis. Many trials have been made to include
the 3rd dimension in the mapping method; however the results were not entirely satisfactory
until now. Isovist is one of the mapping methods based on visual perception. It has researches
based on both two dimensional and three dimensional.
Benedikt (1979) is the first to introduce the isovist to architecture field. An isovist is the set
of all points visible from a given vantage point in space and with respect to an environment. The
shape and size of an isovist is liable to change with position. Numerical measures are proposed
that quantify some salient size and shape features. These measures in turn create a set of scalar
isovist fields.
After his introduction, many space analysis methods based on isovist have been developed.
Turner et al (1999) described a new method for syntactic analysis of isovists that complements
existing space syntax methodology by allowing the automatic generation of integration values
from 3D CAD models. Batty (2001) began with a formal representation of isovists and their
fields, introducing simple geometric measures based on distance, area, perimeter, compactness,
and convexity. He suggested a feasible computational scheme for measuring such fields, and
illustrated how we can visualize their spatial and statistical properties by using maps and
frequency distributions. Turner (2003) uses an agent-based model of visual actors within the
configuration to analyse an urban environment. Llobera (2003) used Geographical Information
Systems (GIS) to study human visual space based on isovist. Arthur et al (2005) studied relating
the dependent variables of ‘spaciousness’ or ‘enclosure’ to independent variables calculated
from the mathematical construct of an ‘isovist’.
But the isovists used in all these studies above are two dimensional and so do not test for
height. Many trials have been made to include the third dimension in isovist studies later. Teller
(2003) introduced a mathematical modelling technique that is capable of mapping the variation
of the sky visible from points distributed throughout space. It is based on spherical projections
and, more specifically, on measures applied to spherical views. Compared with existing field-
oriented approaches (isovists, e-partitions, and so on), the main advantage of this method lies in
the fact that it is truly three-dimensional. Fisher-Gewirtzman (2005) introduces a model ‘spatial
 115

openness index’ (SOI). It is a quantitative metric – expressed in terms of 3D visual spatial

information: it measures the volume of free spaces potentially seen from a given point. In
addition, it enables the simulation of weighted landscapes for a more realistic estimation of the
view. This model can also be described as a 3D isovist. It enables the ranking of alternative
built-up configurations. Yang (2007) developed a new tool ‘Viewsphere analysis’ to test how a
GIS-based 3D visibility analysis can be conducted to evaluate different urban design scenarios.
In all these 3D-isovist methods, people studied mostly on the sky open index of a space, but
none of them collected the detailed shape of the space. This paper finds a method to collect the
detailed data of skyline of a street, and analyze the data of different space to find the meaning of
the data.

Method

We use MATLAB to collect the data of the street skyline from one viewpoint. (figure 1)
Starting from the viewpoint, to the skyline, a series of rays is generated. The horizontal angle
between two rays is one degree. And the degree is recorded as “α”. For every ray, the
intersection points between the ray and the building are extracted. The horizontal distances
between the viewpoint and the intersected points are calculated and the minimum distance is
recorded as “d”. The angles of elevation between the viewpoint and the intersected points are
calculated and the maximum angle was recorded as “θ”.
Setting the angle of rays as X-axis, the distance as the positive Y-axis, the angle of elevation as
the negative Y-axis, the Street Space Outline Diagram (SSOD) is generated (figure 2).
There are two curved lines in the diagram, which show how the distance and the elevation
angle changes correspond to the change of the horizontal angle. The upper one shows the
distance changes from far to near, and to far. After a break, repeat the process, and then appear
another break. This means from a viewpoint in the middle of street, we can see how the
buildings along the two sides of street approach or away from us. The nether one shows the
elevation angle changes from 0 to nearly 40 degree, then back to 0. After that, repeat the
process. This means from a viewpoint in the middle of street, we can see how the skylines of the
buildings along the two sides of street become up and down. Both of the two lines in the
diagram are symmetrical. It reflects the symmetry of the street model. Comparing these two
lines, they changes synchronously. It reflects a kind of regularity of the street model.

Figure 1. Formula used to collect the street outline data.

116

Figure 2. Street space outline diagram (SSOD).

This is the basic model of a street. The diagram displays some characteristics of the model,
but it may include some more information in it. So we would like to test some more models to
find the potential uses of the diagram. And this model may be used as the standard one to judge
the new characteristics of the subsequent models.

Experiment

We usually get the third dimensional information through axonometric drawing or perspective
drawing. It is a direct viewing, but do not have accurate data. This time, we try a different
method mapping the space including the third dimension, and expect to find some more
information hidden behind the normal view.
We draw 28 Street space models, which is abstracted from the real world, to do the
experiment. Figure 3 is the axonometric drawing of the models. Figure 4 is the plans of the
models. Figure 5 shows the Street space outline diagram (SSOD) of the models. Each model is
drawn in a square. It includes two parts, the building and the viewpoint. The viewpoint is
exactly in the middle of the square. SSOD is calculated in MATLAB.

Figure 3. Street space models.

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Figure 4. Plans of models.

Figure 5. SSOD of models.

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In order to find the rules between the model and the SSOD, we compare figure 4 and figure
5. In SSOD, the upper line means the horizontal distance change relative to the horizontal angle.
The nether line means the vertical angle change relative to the horizontal angle.
From model 1 to model 4, the number of buildings increases. Relevantly, in SSOD, the upper
line separate to several pieces or have several peaks. When the viewpoint is facing a side of
building, the piece of line may be very short, because from that viewpoint we may not see other
side of the building, but only one side of it. The lines connect together doesn’t mean that the
buildings are connecting, just because we may not see the break from that viewpoint. So we see
the number of peaks not the number of pieces of lines as the character. The number of peaks
corresponds to the number of buildings. One building refers to one peak; two buildings refer to
two peaks, and so on. The nether line’s peaks are also corresponding to the number of buildings.
We can judge how many buildings are there in the street according to the peaks of line in the
diagram.
From model 5 to model 8, the length of the buildings facing the viewpoint increases.
Relevantly, in SSOD, the length of the upper line increases too. The nether line does not have
significant change. Another discovery is that if the viewpoint is facing the corner of building,
the peak of line is sharp. Oppositely, if the viewpoint is facing the side of building, the peak of
line is smooth. We can judge the length of a building according to the length of the lines in the
diagram, and decide whether the viewpoint is facing the side of building or to the corner of a
building according to the shape of inflexion on the line in the diagram.
From model 9 to model 12, the distance from viewpoint to building increases or we can say
the street become wider. Relevantly, in SSOD, the upper line has bigger break if the buildings
are separate or deeper fold if the buildings are connected. But the nether lines rarely have
difference. We may judge the width of a street according to the size of the breaks in the line.
But it is not so obvious. So we may not see it as the character of the diagram.
From model 13 to model 16, the breaks of building increases. Relevantly, in SSOD, breaks
of the upper line increases, and the fold of the nether line increases. The same with model 1 to
model 4, the number of lines related to the number of buildings, no matter whether the buildings
are along the street or around the viewpoint like a circle. But there is a problem that if the
buildings are connected together and they have so many turning point, it is difficult to judge
how many buildings there are. The connection between number of buildings and number of
lines or peaks is only suitable for simple shaped buildings.
From model 17 to model 20, the buildings alongside the street have advance and retreat.
Relevantly, in SSOD, both the upper line and the nether line are not symmetrical anymore. They
change corresponding to the advance and retreat. If the building advances, the curve becomes
smaller. If the building retreats, the curve becomes larger. Both the upper and the nether lines
change synchronously. We may judge whether the buildings are ranged in a line along the street
according to the synchronous change of both the two lines in the diagram.
From model 21 to model 24, the plan patterns of the models are all the same, but the height
of building in each model are different. Relevantly, in SSOD, the nether line changes
correspond to the height of building. If the building is taller, the curve becomes larger. If the
building is shorter, the curve becomes smaller. But the upper line has no difference. The two
lines do not change synchronously. The nether line which is the performance of the angle of
elevation of the skyline is sensitive to the height of building. We can judge the building height
according to the solos change of the nether line in the diagram.
From model 25 to model 28, the buildings have both tower and annex. One building has two
kinds of height. Relevantly, in SSOD, the nether line changes correspond to the height of
towers. But the line is not so regular. It seems as a mixture of two curves. One is corresponding
to the height of the annex; another is corresponding to the height of tower. But the upper line
has no difference. The two lines do not change synchronously. We can judge the building height
according to the solos change of the nether line, and decide whether the building has only one
tower or have both tower and annex according to the regularity of the nether line.
 119

The most interesting part of this series of models is model 4 and model 21 to model 24.
These five models have exactly the same plan. As we usually describe a space using plans,
which do not have the height information, we can not find the difference between them. But
from SSOD, we can see the difference from the lines in the diagram.
Through all these analysis, we can summarize the rules between SSOD and the models. The
number of peaks refers to the number of buildings. The size of every piece of curves refers to
the length of buildings. Synchronous change of both the two lines refers to the advance and
retreat of buildings along the street. The solos change of the nether line refers to the height of
buildings. We can grasp the main character of the street from SSOD without seeing the plan or
the axonometric drawing, if the street pattern is quite simple. We can even tell what kind of
buildings are there along the street, only by watching the lines in the diagram. But the models in
this experiment are abstracted from the real world. They are not the real world. If we use real
urban street to do the calculation, it may be not so easy to recognize the character.

Conclusions

Based on isovist idea, this paper developed a new method SSOD (Street space outline diagram)
mapping the urban space. This method collects the data of urban street skylines based on a
viewpoint. The data include three parameters of each point on the skyline. They are the
horizontal angle “α”, the elevation angle “θ”, and the distance “d”. All the data are stored in
MATLAB, and can be calculated. In this paper, we draw a diagram of the elevation angle and
the distance change based on the horizontal angle change, which can show the characteristics of
different street patterns.
Different from previous isovist method, this method includes the third dimension of urban
space, and all the data is accurate and can be calculated. Teller’s (2003) method is three
dimensional, but it is not so accurate, and the mapping result can not restore to the original
space. Fisher-Gewirtzman’s (2005) method only collected one parameter of the space that is
‘spatial openness index’ (SOI). Ratti (2004) created the raster analysis of urban form which can
show the third dimensional data of space. But the raster image does not have precise data, too.
In SSOD, all the data of space is stored in MATLAB. We can find the exact data of any point of
the skyline, and the data can be restored to the original space if we want. The accurate data can
be used to analyze the rules between diagram and real space, or the relationship between the
parameters.
But there are still some difficulties in further study. For example, it is easy to recognize the
characteristics of the diagram of simple pattern of street, but when the pattern become complex,
it may be difficult to identify the character in the lines of the diagram.
Our further work may focus on the issue that how to analyze complex street pattern using
SSOD. Another interesting issue is to find more information in the data such as the relationship
between parameters.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the supporting of the Special Research Found for the Doctoral Program of Higher
Education (Program No. 20120091110055) .

References

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120

Batty, M. Ranaô, S. (2004) ‘The automatic definition and generation of axial lines and axial maps’,
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visual analysis models for the urban environment’, Urban Design International, Vol. 10, 23-37.
Llobera, M. (2003) ‘Extending GIS-based visual analysis: the concept of visualscapes’, Int. J.
Geographical Information Science, Vol. 17, No. 1, 25-48.
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and some correlation data’, Journal of Space Syntax,, Vol. 1, Iss. 1, 149-1632.
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 121

Changing form of the Baltic cities: resurrection of the

suburbs

Matas Cirtautas
Urban Research Laboratory, Department of Urban Design, Vilnius Gediminas Technical
University, Pylimo 26/1, Vilnius, Lithuania, E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. Urban sprawl is one of the dominant types of urban development in advanced and developing
world (Bruegmann, 2005; Clapson and Hutchison, 2010). It is described as a process of gradual
conversion of rural areas into partly urbanized environment. Although outer growth started from the
outset of cities (Mumford, 1968), international community of urban researchers, planners and policy
makers is highly concerned about the current extent of this phenomenon (EEA, 2006). Extensive urban
growth is often considered as uncoordinated process creating fragmented suburban landscape (Sieverts,
2003; Meeus and Gulinck, 2008), which is frequently associated with an increased traffic flows,
environmental pollution, inefficient use of public funds and formation of homogeneous living environment
(Couch, Leontidou and Petschel-Held, 2007). Current development of the Baltic cities and especially
trends of their suburban growth have been analyzed only partly, because of the relative novelty of the
phenomenon and well-established dominance of North American cities in this field. The article attempts
to fill this gap and present a research on conditions and consequences of extensive development of major
cities in the Baltic States. This study is based on a hypothetical model of the Baltic city as successor of the
Soviet city in the Baltic region. Evidences from the recent growth of Lithuanian cities show that suburban
sprawl is a dominant trend in major urban regions with long-term consequences on their spatial structure
(Cirtautas, 2013). Therefore, this article advocates a need to revise urban policy in the Baltic countries
and promote coordinated development of urban, suburban and rural areas in the context of prevailing
negative demographic trends and limited economic capacity of both, central and local governments.

Key Words: Urban sprawl, suburban development, post-Soviet city, Baltic States.

Introduction

Over the last century cities in the Baltic States have experienced several fundamental
transformations of their urban form. From historical compact towns they became large cities
with distinct characteristics of late Soviet era. Although maintaining some weaknesses
(disparities of population concentration, low quality housing, monofunctional land use, transport
infrastructure unintended for mass usage of cars, etc.), these cities had rather completed
polycentric structure of scattered residential, institutional and industrial complexes. This
physical and functional layout was based on multi-level system of services and has provided
urban population with basic amenities for living, working and recreation (Šešelgis, 1970). In
recent decades, Baltic cities, as all post-socialist cities in Central and Eastern Europe, have been
exposed to multiple transformations (Milerius, Tornau and Dranseika, 2009). This encourages
researchers to pay more attention to processes which are shaping urban areas in these countries.
Studies of current development of the Baltic cities frequently involve description of
suburban areas. However, evaluation of emerging semi-urbanized landscape is often limited to a
simplified interpretation of the phenomenon, based on experience from the Western countries.
Usage of untenable arguments prevents closer investigation of exclusive characteristics and
targeted solutions for problem solving in these urban regions. Therefore, the article examines
changes around major Lithuanian cities assuming that gained morphological knowledge can
upgrade urban planning and design principles for suburban areas.
The study covers analysis of centrally collected statistical (demography and housing) and
geographical (land cover) data with detailed analysis of urban structure of settlements. This
helps to identify zones of intensive suburban development and establish a link between
122

development processes (as condition) and the prevailing form of the suburban settlement (as
consequence). Giving the scale of the suburban growth and the negative demographic trends in
the Baltic States, current development of suburban zones in long-term can lead to environmental
deterioration and social decline of central cities. Therefore, investigation and monitoring the
development of these areas are necessary. The study does not try to be a comprehensive work
on external growth of the Baltic cities. However, it presents a wide range of challenges of urban
sprawl in the region and highlights possibilities for further and more detailed research of the
phenomenon.

Characteristics of the Baltic city

Historical development of the Baltic city

Baltic States – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia – are located on the eastern cost of the Baltic Sea.
Because of the specific geopolitical situation urban development in this region for a long time
has been exposed to cultural influence of both, Western and Eastern Europe. However, during
the 20th century, when growth of cities reached the peak, the Baltic countries were directly
influenced by communist urban development. Therefore, local urban landscapes are perpetuated
with physical and ideological signs of that period. Separate urban development of the Baltic
countries took place during the interwar period (1918-1940) and has continued after the
restoration of independence (since 1990), in the course of European integration and
globalization processes. The latter marks accelerated social and economic transformations in the
broader space of post-Soviet Central and Eastern European countries (Stanilov, 2007). Some of
the changes in action were planned and carefully guided, while others – including urban
development – took place under self-regulation of free market.
Transformation processes which took place in the Central and Eastern Europe after 1990
influenced changes in spatial structure of the Baltic cities. During the second half of the 20th
century urban development of the Baltic countries was mostly related to the concept of the
Soviet city, which, according to some authors, significantly differs from cities in the capitalist
world (Hirt, 2006; Burneika, 2008). In a physical sense, the city of late Soviet period was
characterized by two fundamentally different morphological zones: the historic centre and large
housing estates on the periphery, supplemented by industrial and institutional complexes. The
main difference from Western analogues was that Soviet city did not possess a suburban ring of
low density residential constructions. This distinct feature was determined by the centralized
urban and regional planning system of the Soviet period, which promoted specialization of large
industry as a base for development of urban networks and encouraged construction of unified
and standardized housing within cities.
According to a simplified view, morphological evolution of the Baltic cities can be divided
into three major phases: pre-Soviet (till 1945), Soviet (1945-1990) and post-Soviet (since 1990).
This division is very general, yet it represents essential differences in the principles of town
planning.
The pre-Soviet period covers a long time span – from the emergence of the states till the end
of World War II. It also manifests very different socio-cultural conditions of urban
development, e.g. from medieval feudalism to democracy in the interwar period. However,
during this phase towns were relatively small and compact. The Baltic countries at that time
were still dominated by rural population. Towns in this period usually were multicultural
settlements, which acted as centres of trade, defence and administration (Miškinis, 1991).
During the post-war period cultural and social landscape of the Baltic States changed
dramatically. Concentration of industry in the major cities and large inflows of population
stimulated their growth. Regarding the pace of urban expansion and dominant construction
principles, urban development in the Soviet period can be divided into early (1945-1960) and
late (1970-1960) stages (Ramanauskas, 2011).
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In the early stage, continuing the traditions of interwar period, urban areas were planned by
quarters, but they were build-up already with new types of buildings, which represented
architectural style of “socialist realism”. Later, after the adoption of common guidelines for
urbanization of the Baltic countries (in Lithuania regional planning scheme was issued in 1964)
and introduction of new standardized technologies for residential, public and industrial
constructions, cities started to grow mechanically. Due to the absence of private property, there
were no restrictions on location and scale of new developments in the Soviet city (Bertaud and
Renaud, 1995). At the same time ideas of urban and architectural heritage preservation started to
spread among local architects and urban planners (Jurkštas, 1994), so they tried to enrich
projects of new buildings with features of national identity. However, poor quality of
construction materials and works limited these attempts to just design of architectural details or
more contextual layouts of free standing buildings. Nevertheless, the overall picture of new
parts of the cities was gaunt and, with small exceptions, similar to other cities in the Soviet
Bloc.
After political changes in 1990, the urban development of the Baltic countries has abandoned
the former course. Although the polycentric urban systems, which more or less have been
developed during the Soviet period in the Baltic States, are identical to the conception of
decentralized concentration (Daunora, 2007), further centrally governed development of major
urban centres became impossible (Juškevičius and Valeika, 2007). Thus, previously centrally
planned cities had to adapt to a completely different political and economic situation. Land
privatization, decentralization of governance and competition at the national and global levels
were essential features of this new reality. The further development of physical structure of the
Baltic cities was also affected by economic restructuring, deindustrialization, negative
demographic trends, traffic problems and, of course, the lack of planning standards for
controlling land-use development processes in cities and around them (Nuisl and Rink, 2005).
All this has led to the strengthening of private and commercial interest in the urban development
processes (Juškevičius and Vitkauskas, 2001). Therefore, recently the Baltic cities, as all post-
socialist cities in Central and Eastern Europe have experienced intense commercialization of
central parts and suburbanization of their peripheries (Sýkora and Ouředníček, 2007).

Current form of the Baltic city

Current form of the post-Soviet city is frequently conceptualized as consisting of three rings
(Sýkora, 1999; Hirt, 2006), which represent central, middle and peripheral zones. These zones
correspond with historical stages of growth and serve as a basis for evaluating current urban
transformations. Since the Baltic cities had mostly expanded during the second half of the 20th
century they have also inherited this particular structure.
According to the example of Lithuanian cities (Figure 1), the central part is a result of city’s
organic growth till the middle of the 20th century. It spans throughout an old town and other
historical neighbourhoods (new town with rectangular street pattern, historical quarters of villas,
etc.). The second half of the 20th century in the Soviet city was dominated by the construction of
large housing estates which form the middle part of the Baltic city. This area also includes
industrial and specialized complexes (hospitals, universities, etc.) with large forest parks and
other open green spaces situated in between. Suburban periphery is often referred to as the most
recent zone of the post-Soviet city (Burneika, 2008). Its physical fabric is framed by historical
homesteads and villages, garden communities, quarters of single-family housing, highways,
modern warehouses and recreational complexes. There are also many fragments of former
agrarian and natural landscape, which formerly dominated throughout the suburbia.
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Figure 1. Development model (A) and current form (B) of the Baltic city.

Currently the Baltic cities face three major challenges which will determine their future
form: regeneration of central parts, modernization of large housing estates and development of
emerging suburban zones. The first two subjects are frequently discussed in the political and
professional field (Alistratovaitė, 2004; Džervus, 2013). Although urban sprawl is recognized as
the predominant type of urban development (Cirtautas, 2013), suburban structures are still
poorly investigated because of their relative newness and complex form.

Research of urban sprawl around the Baltic city

The main question asked in the research was, what shape the suburbs of the major Lithuanian
cities do acquire in the context of active socio-demographic, cultural and economic
transformations in the Baltic States? Referring to the previously presented characteristics of the
Baltic cities, suburban areas can be described as one of the most dynamic parts of these cities.
Therefore, the current phase of urban development in the Baltic countries can be partly
described as resurrection of the suburbs. Growing demand for better housing has increased
importance of peripheral parts of the Baltic cities. Although, development of these areas is an
antithesis of sustainable urban growth, there is a need to find ways and means for evaluating
strengths and weaknesses of suburbs and discussing their future development scenarios. In this
case significance of morphological knowledge needs to be acknowledged as it is obvious that
urban environment with well-established social structure and more or less traditional urban form
should be a prior objective while regenerating the existing and planning new suburban
settlements.
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Phases of the research

Suburban areas are often analyzed indistinguishably from the metropolitan region which they
belong to. However, researchers are often faced with the problem of availability of information,
when studying urban forms at such great scales (Talen, 2003; Clifton et al. 2008). Since urban
sprawl studies examine large areas, it is convenient to split research process according to
monitored data sets and their accuracy. Research of extensive growth of major Lithuanian cities
was divided into two phases. Firstly, the analysis of centrally collected data on socio-
demographic trends, changes of housing structure and land cover has been performed, which
helped to draw preliminary conclusions about development conditions in preselected suburban
areas. Later, this was followed by detailed analysis of physical characteristics of suburban
settlements.

Data sets and their accuracy

During the first phase of research, information of two recent population and housing censuses
has been used. The data set of 2001 consisted of 77 indicators aggregated for smallest
administrative units – settlements. The second data set included 36 indicators generalized for
cells of 1 km2 and representing development conditions in 2011. Both sets of statistical
information cover all populated areas of the Republic of Lithuania. Although different in their
content and accuracy, information in these data sets represents conditions of socio-demographic
and (partly) physical transformations in Lithuania after 1990.
Trends of land cover changes were analyzed by using national data sets of Corine land cover
data sets of 1995, 2000 and 2006. Corine land cover data is widely applied to study urban
sprawl around European cities (Vaitkus, 2005). This is done by rendering extend and change of
urban morphological zone, which is defined as a set of urban areas laying less than 200 meters
apart (EEA, 2010). Typical procedure of identification of urban morphological zones has been
slightly adjusted, adapting it to the case of Lithuanian cities. Changes of individual types of land
cover were analyzed in accordance with similar studies performed by other researchers
(Chuman and Romportl, 2008). Results were generalized to represent rate of land cover change
as percentage of the total area in a particular cell of 1 km2.
Transformations of suburban settlements were analyzed using georeferential data,
representing urbanized areas, buildings, road network and other major physical elements. The
extent of growth of built-up areas was adjusted according to the orthophotograhic material of
respective year (1995-2001 and 2012-2013). It this stage additional investigation of the register
of territorial planning documents has been performed as well.
Although the study included examination of different data, the illustrations presented in this
article were prepared at the same scale. The aim was to demonstrate the relationship between
development processes and physical changes in suburban communities.

Research cases

Suburban development trends around major Lithuanian cities (Vilnius, Kaunas and Klaipėda)
are demonstrated through description of situation in three local administrative units of 2nd level
(LAU2, former NUTS5). Suburban sprawl led by influence of Vilnius city is analyzed by
examining demographic and physical transformations in the community of Avižieniai. Changes
around Kaunas are analyzed in the community of Ringaudai. The community of Sendvaris
illustrates drastic consequences of uncoordinated urban expansion just outside the city of
Klaipėda (Figure 2). All communities represent politically autonomous territorial units – they
are parts of rural municipalities, which surround major cities. These communities are directly
exposed to economic and functional influences of adjacent urban centres, because they are
located at about 5-15 km from the city centres.
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Figure 2. Case studies – suburban communities of major Lithuanian cities.

Conditions and consequences of suburban change around Lithuanian cities

Trends of demographic change (population size and density)

Suburban communities which were examined in the research, belong to areas with highest
residential growth in their municipalities. In 2011 Ringaudai and Sendvaris had up to 5000
residents, and Avižieniai – more than 7500. Over the last decade population in these areas
increased from 40 to 90 percent. During this period, structure of settlements has remained quite
diverse with just few settlements reaching more than 500 residents (Figure 3). However,
changes also occurred in less populated places – increased number of settlements with
population over 200 residents has been noticed as well.

Figure 3. Population in the suburban communities in 2011.

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Unfortunately, population density in the suburban communities remained low – in 2011

outside larger settlements it has not reached two persons per hectare. Population density in built-
up areas showed higher rates, but rarely reaches five persons per hectare. During the last decade
in some parts of Ringaudai and Sendvaris this ratio even declined. This suggests that in some
locations due to higher land prices residential areas are more compact. This might also be
caused by the fact that part of new suburbanities had not officially declared a change of their
residence.

Changes of housing structure (single-family housing)

According to the traditional suburban image, it should be dominated by single-family houses.

Already in 2001, the communities in question showed high share of low density housing, which
accounted for 50 or more percent of all dwellings. One-fourth of these were built after 1990.
During the Soviet period low density housing was forbidden in large cities, therefore in 2001
this type of dwellings accounted just about 10 percent in Vilnius and Klaipėda, and only in
Kaunas ratio was higher (10 to 30 percent). However, significant part of single-family housing
in central cities was constructed during the first decade of independence, with higher numbers
registered in Klaipėda (up to 50 percent). This trend could be influenced by incorporation of
rural areas into the cities. On the other hand, new blocks of detached houses have been built
inside cities as well.
In 2001 detached houses dominated in major part of settlements in Avižieniai and Ringaudai
(Figure 4). Only in larger settlements and areas near the city border it was lower than 70
percent. A smaller amount of individual housing can be attributed to higher ratio of dwellings in
low-rise block of flats. Apparently, similar reasons, determined the housing structure in the
community of Sendvaris near Klaipėda. Here in 2001, detached houses dominated only in
several older or newly emerging settlements. However, data from 2011 shows that individual
dwelling dominated in almost all parts of the analysed communities. This suggests that ongoing
expansion of the major cities in Lithuania is mainly associated with construction of single-
family housing.
The analysis of the structure of residential buildings in the suburban communities shows,
that during the first decade of independence it became more diverse, but generally still was
dominated by buildings of the Soviet period. In 2001 settlements in Avižieniai were dominated
by the buildings of 1946-1970. However, in areas located closer to the city limits, higher
numbers of residential buildings of later periods have been noticed. The same trends are specific
for settlements in Ringaudai and Sendvaris, but here significant share of pre-soviet buildings has
existed.
It is likely that considerable part of construction works in the suburban areas after the 1990
consisted of upgrading the existing building stock in order to meet the changing needs of
households and businesses. However, data sets of the population and housing censuses do not
posses this information. Therefore, these trends can be observed only on a very detailed level of
analysis.

Trends of land cover change (residential and commercial sprawl)

The analysis of expansion of urban morphological zones around the major Lithuanian cities in
1995-2006 shows, that at first growth of built-up areas progressed inside the cities or in places
located near their administrative boundaries, but later outer expansion embraced large portions
of suburban areas. In this case, the community of Avižieniai with adjoining territories became
part of north-west development axis of Vilnius city. Sendvaris started to represent the eastern
sector of urban expansion in Klaipėda region. These areas were gradually affected by processes
of suburban sprawl. Despite lesser extend of urban sprawl in the community of Ringaudai,
Kaunas city still experienced high degree of uncoordinated outer growth.
128

Figure 4. Single-family housing in the suburban communities in 2001.

Figure 5. Residential sprawl in the suburban communities during 1995-2006.

 129

Urban sprawl is a heterogeneous phenomenon. It consists of growth of residential,

commercial and infrastructural areas. Although these processes represent distinct functional
domains of the urban landscape and usually operate at the same time, their spatial patterns can
diverge. The comparison of different processes of land cover changes reveals that majority of
alterations can be attributed to residential sprawl. The case of Avižieniai is exceptional. Here
growth of residential areas was quite intensive and affected settlements adjacent to Vilnius city
and also in some remote locations (Figure 5). In Ringaudai residential sprawl was observed in
several locations around larger rural settlements. In case of Sendvaris, this type of urban sprawl
dominated in settlements neighbouring Klaipėda city. In general, the growth of residential areas
around Lithuanian cities is characterized by both nuclear and dispersed patterns. During 1995-
2006 territorial expansion of commercial and industrial areas also featured some degree of
concentration, however it was insignificant. In most cases, this type of development occurred
near highways leading to the cities or appeared in the vicinity of major transport nodes.
Concentration or dispersion of land cover transformations reveals disparities of urban
development. However, the pattern of urban sprawl depends on spatial structure of metropolitan
and (road network, natural constraint, etc.) local scale (land-use, land ownership, etc.)
Residential and commercial sprawl usually take place as a greenfield development and
drastically changes the landscape of suburban areas. Therefore it is necessary to examine
physical features of emerging suburban settlements.

Physical transformations of suburban settlements

As the review of development conditions in the suburban areas of major Lithuanian cities has
shown, external growth of urban areas is quite noticeable, especially after 2000. Therefore, we
can observe formation of the suburban landscape, which is characterized by mosaic of urban,
agricultural and natural areas. Fragmented urban fabric in peripheral zones can be described and
analyzed using basic elements of urban fabric: buildings, streets and plots (Levy, 1999).
The higher or lower pressure on urban development can be noticed in various places of the
wider space of the suburbia. According to their distance from the central city, three types of
suburban settlements can be identified: 1) residential areas on the periphery of city, 2)
residential areas located immediately behind the administrative boundary of city and 3) self-
sufficient suburban settlements. However, development pressure can also be visible at more
distant locations of metropolitan region, e.g. periphery of the remote towns and large villages.
Similarly, there are other specific types of semi-residential environment, which can be affected
or even created in the course of suburban sprawl, e.g. garden communities and areas of seasonal
or second housing. Respectively, communities in question are dominated by the second and
third type of suburban settlements, which represent former villages and newly emerging areas of
low density housing.
Comparing patterns of built-up areas in the suburban communities near major Lithuanian
cities in 2001 and 2013, high increase of new constructions is visible (Figure 6). These new
developments usually appear near the older settlements or occupy former agricultural fields. In
many cases, it is evident that new suburban residential structures favour locations in the vicinity
of major transport corridors and natural features. However, residential areas expand in a very
chaotic way and usually leave large fragments of undeveloped land in between. New settlements
could acquire more regular urban form, but as long as these speculative voids prevail, suburban
areas will remain incomplete and fragmented.
During the last decade, formation of new low density housing blocks and expansion of older
rural settlements in the communities of Avižieniai, Ringaudai and Sendvaris can be noticed. In
the case of Avižieniai, new residential structures were built across the border of Vilnius city, so
that adjoining urban and suburban fabric started to merge. Construction within built-up areas
was not common, but occurred in all communities.
130

Figure 6. Physical structure of the suburban communities in 2013.

In general, all new residential formations can be divided into several morphological types.
According to their relationship with the pre-existing suburban fabric, they represent infill,
extending and outlying structures (Figure 7). The infill structures are usually small in size and
appear on previously undeveloped land, which is fully or partly surrounded by built-up areas.
Extending structures usually border and expand older residential areas. This type of suburban
tissue can be subdivided into regular and linear formations. Regular structures are formed
mostly by extending pre-existing street grid of settlement, while linear structures form around
separate cul-de-sacs. In some cases, small enclosed residential structures create leapfrogging
patterns, which incorporate former homesteads or even small rural settlements. Such extensive
and complex formations could be considered as additional subtype of extending suburban
structures.
When new residential constructions appear in locations, which are relatively distant from
current settlements (for example, more than 200 meters), they can be considered as outlying
structures. These greenfield developments can acquire various spatial configurations and greatly
differ in size, because usually they are separately planned and relatively instantly built on any
undeveloped land.
There is also a trend to construct single residential structures on large plots of agricultural
land. It partly reminds the dispersed pattern of historical farmsteads, which is considered as
valuable element of rural landscape of the beginning of 20th century (Ramanauskas, 2011).
However, currently emerging single residential structures are just another example of suburban
housing.
To sum up, the infill and extending structures can be considered as more traditional than
outlying formations, which are typical for intensive suburban development of the Western
 131

countries during the 20th century. In reality, these morphological types are not so easy to
distinguish. The main reason for this is the dynamic nature of suburban development, which is
characterized by the time lag between planning and construction works. The analysis of land-
ownership structure suggests that the amount of pre-planned plots for residential construction in
the suburban communities is impressive. For example, in the community of Sendvaris, which is
located near Klaipėda, supply of residential plots is high enough to house ten times more new
residents than this community has received during the last decade. Therefore, it can be said that
currently the prior direction of urban development in Lithuania is suburbanization. However,
spatial and functional structure of suburban settlements still does not meet standards of high
quality residential environment.

Figure 7. Fragments of emerging suburban fabric: extending (A), infill (B) and outlying
(C and D) structures.

Conclusions and discussion

The model of the Baltic city, as successor of the Soviet city, can be used to study trends of
urban development in the Baltic States after 1990. This model consists of three concentric
zones, which reflect different stages of city’s growth and helps to describe distinct
morphological features of urban form. In recent decades, periphery of the Baltic city
experienced significant transformation, therefore latest phase of its development can be
describes as resurrection of the suburbs.
132

As stated in the article, intensive development of suburban areas around major cities in the
Baltic countries is problematic phenomenon. First of all, the process is politically uncoordinated
(especially at municipal level), and secondly – it is not based on any demographic presumptions.
This leads to the situation, where all more or less negative effects of urban sprawl can occur,
e.g. decline of central cities, inefficient use of suburban areas and so on.
From a morphological point of view, suburban growth is complicated as well. The main
problem is that resulting semi-urban structures acquire chaotic and fragmented shape. For
example, peripheries of the Baltic cities is dominated by large patches of greenery and opens
semi-natural spaces, dispersed pattern of former rural settlements and newly constructed low
density commercial and residential areas. And all this is superimposed by the networks of major
and local roads. Nevertheless, tools of morphological research can be adapted to study
contemporary suburban fabric around the Baltic cities, as it has been done in other counties
(Southworth and Owens, 1993; Moudon, 1998; Sheer, 2001). This allows identifying regional
characteristics of suburban form, which can be useful considering possible development
scenarios for territories adjacent to major urban centres.
In general, major cities in the Baltic States represent examples of semi-compact cities
evolving towards a dispersed urban form. Regarding this, three scenarios for their future
development can be discussed. The first scenario – further expansion and urban dispersal –
represents continuation of urban sprawl with all possible negative outcomes. The second
scenario – fragmented regeneration and densification – stresses the possibility to apply area
based measures for renewal and regeneration of pre-selected inner city zones, as well as
densification of progressive settlements on the periphery in order to concentrate financial
capacity of national and local government to deal with problems in these urban and suburban
areas. Finally, the third scenario – urban renewal and reurbanization – enables the application of
compact growth measures to strengthen existing urban cores of metropolitan regions, but it can
only proceed as agreement between representatives of urban and adjoining suburban
municipalities, because it requires political means to restrict or at least discourage processes of
uncoordinated outer growth.
Overall, it is necessary to continue promoting public concern and share information about
negative consequences of urban sprawl and discuss possible measures to sustain a more
compact form of cities in the Baltic region. Therefore, results of this study could be adapted to
further examination of the identity of the Baltic cities as well as comparing its historical
evolution with cities in other regions of the world. Also, there is a great need to continue
research on the current trends of urban transformation in the Baltic States in order to create
models designated to coordinate further development of major cities and their suburban regions.
And finally, it is crucial to perform closer morphological analysis of emerging suburban fabric
and distinguish origins, physical characteristics and transformation possibilities of different
settlements.

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Mind the gap. Multi-scale landscape approaches

Francesco Marras
DICAAR- University of Cagliari, Via Santa Croce 58, Cagliari, Italy
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. The expression “mind the gap” refers to the act of paying attention to crossing pass from one
element to another. In urban transformation and architecture project it is necessary to reflect on the
concept of distance and crossing in particular in relation to the theme of the change of scale and
especially from urban design to the architectural design and detailed design. The method is based on a
deep morphological analysis of the territory and the landscape and detections of elements and invariants
inside, after establishing the invariants you are able to define a formal grid that keeps continuing at all
scales of design, starting the territorial scale up to reach the scale of architectural detail. Supporting this
reflection may present a set of projects that participated in the competition Europan 12 which show that
the multi-scale approach can be a way to control an urban transformation. The project at multiple scales
can be a basis to monitor and study the existing urban form and to reflect on the possibilities of future
transformations going to define development scenarios and guidelines for the territories.

Key Words: Multi-scale, urban morphology, geography, urban project, landscape.

Introduction

Mind the gap represents a sign of the world-famous London Underground, it is a warning to pay
attention to the distance between this platform and the train. This research aims to reflect about
this warning to pay attention to the distance in terms of the intervention scale in landscape
design, and architecture of the city. So mind the gap becomes the categorical imperative of an
approach method of city design through a multi-scale system that crosses all scales. This can be
a useful support system in decision-making and design, through the reconsideration of technical,
thematic and relational characters of the project. The idea came from the need to find a binder
between the various stages of project linking the analysis on territory than on detail. We start
therefore with a strong multidisciplinary system that goes from historical and economic to the
morphological, hydrographical and environmental point of view, until the scale of the object
that can be a building retail or a piece of furniture; the idea is precisely to find a fil-rouge that
addresses all scales and in particular supports the thesis of the project's consistency and its
relationship with the place. The issue, therefore, is a part of landscape architecture strongly
directed towards the project.

Scale adherence

The scale is a need for understanding, but not a principle in itself. So, it follows from the
principle of relative invariance of a system "all organic", in relation to the increased variability
of its components. The consequent organization in space-time depends on the irreversibility of
time, which leads to a sequence of scalar processes, because the flow of time is not
homogeneous (Ingegnoli, 2000). In fact, if the processes are thought of as "verbs", in other
words the potential becoming of a subject, for example: moving, dispersing, evolving, and many
others. The working out of a process is scale-dependent, while the process itself is invariant
under the scale (Sanderson and Harris, 2000).
The theme of scale adherence is crucial in the design of architecture and landscape design, in
particular with the possibility to identify a link between territory and architectural object, and
above all between place, landscape and architecture.
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Roberto Gambino talks about scaling-up, referring to those processes and techniques of
analysis and plan that are based on multi-scalar and multi-temporal approaches, extending the
reference system to the 4-dimensions. In this regard the analysis of scaling-up follows an
inductive approach that deals with the themes of the regional scale to arrive to the urban scale,
across the various scales of analysis arise various problems that often fall into the dichotomy of
global/local and with the changing identities of contemporary territories (Gambino, 1997).
These are the so-called in-between spaces. In these fields indefinite contemporary design is
tasked to act, to produce its rhizomes and create a network of relationships with the existing one
(Farina, 2006).
Gambino talks about multiscalarity as a need that must be set as a matter of fundamental
programmatic planning going to define the issues related to the "territory of the inhabitants"
(Magnaghi, 2000). The School of the Polytechnic of Bari talks about cross-scaling, as a
comparison of the change, the transfer and adaptation of models of ecological analysis to the
landscape scale respecting the levels of hierarchical organization (King, 1991), from whose
cartographic document scale and survey data were dictated by historical and cultural
contingencies. Mariavaleria Mininni shifts the focus on the knowledge construction in landscape
theme that is a fundamental cornerstone of the European Landscape Convention (Mininni,
1999).
Knowledge becomes the first step to approach the theme of landscape design, both for the
formulation of choices, both for the involvement of the players whose activities affect
landscape. This makes it possible to identify the components of the landscape within the
territory, analyze their characteristics and modification tensions. The different texts and
different practices already in progress reveal a wide variety of approaches to the topic that are a
reflection of the many cultural conceptions that are compared, especially in the relationship
between the construction of knowledge and action, in which the available tools are often
inadequate. Landscape in fact demands answers in different scales ranging from the local scale
to that of the particular crossing different time scales.
Landscape knowledge should be developed according to a process of identification,
characterization and qualification which includes the description and understanding of the
places, the examination of evolutionary processes and the recognition of the value systems. In
this regard it may be interesting to draw cards, atlases, manuals and other useful tools primarily
to provide a reference and a common language in order to increase the dialogue between the
interested parties. The construction of knowledge must be closely linked to the action in order to
facilitate the integration of different approaches to the production of knowledge that allow to
observe the region through the construction of databases and other tools that are able to draw the
traces on the territory. This is the work that follows the know, in other words that of the
interpretation, and evaluation of reading that precedes action. In this regard, Bernardo Secchi
says, “Planning means the traces of a wide set of tracks, those of the continuous and conscious
changing of territory and city status” (Secchi, 2007).

The method

The multi-scalar approach is a method of reading heavily project-oriented and in particular

through the analysis must be able to address different scales of the project, therefore, constitute
the corpus of surveys which are actually “already project”. In this way, through this system of
guidelines the project may have a strong element on which to support themselves and with
which to generate a system of relations: the rhizome (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987). The support
of the rhizomatic structure consists of a series of synchronic and diachronic investigations
aimed at identifying the invariants that govern the landscape. The analysis assumes that
landscape is the object of the search and goes to determine the structural basis. Eugenio Turri
talks about iconemi about some elements which he defines as basic units of perception (Turri,
1974). The sum of these elements and their combination form the overall image of the country,
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rising primary elements such as structuring the historical and cultural memory of the place. The
evaluation and selection of invariant and iconemi forms the basis of multi-scalar system, in
other words the elements on which the multi-scalar approach can be found and that can be
explored at different scales and made system with the project. The identification of invariants
and iconemi is based on a series of overlapping layers: morphology; hydrography;
infrastructure; settlement; agrarian plot.
It should be interesting to put together physical readings with other ones that are based more
on a historical study and photography, considering a system consisting of historical and current
photos with different field of view degrees, from panoramic photos to the detail. Reflecting
about diachronic analysis it is necessary to support the research with the cartographic archive
aims to assess any items that do not emerge from eminently morphology. The attempt is to build
the readings that go beyond the eminent morphological data and beyond the historical, cultural
and perceptual one.
The reflection on the scale is aimed at the identification of invariant to the regional scale and
then the exploration of these three basic steps type, or the territory scale and the environmental
system, the urban scale and urban form, and the scale of the neighborhood or the city block or in
some cases until the architecture and construction detail. Such a descent of scale is based on a
reading of territorial planning and well targeted on the lens that filters the information coming
from the territory in order to define its own character. Reflecting on the concept of landscape
emerged from the European Landscape Convention and then the translation from aesthetic
landscape and operating landscape on what Eugenio Turri talks about landscape "A landscape is
in fact dimensionally defined mostly by its content; is its content, which determines the size,
which also depend on our attitude, subjective, interpretive, in which we merge our experience of
the world ( aesthetic, emotional, cognitive, etc…) that leads spontaneously to recognize the
landscape" (Turri, 1974).
The sign reading “makes landscape” and outlines the main characters of the place, the
project has the task of interpreting the signs of the area and take a critical and judgment with
respect to them. In this way the reading of the territory becomes an opportunity for the
emergence of values and important data at different scales that are stakeholders of territorial
scale. The interaction between paper and photo contribution is essential at different scales and
may highlight the continuity and the reading of the invariants in the steps of landscape scale. So
the search proceeds from the territorial scale to the urban scale where the focus shifts on the
definition of the relationship between urban form and environmental dominant and how these
have changed, modified and mutated the settlement. The choice of the invariant rules and
defines this scale and a reading mode that explains how the latter is put in the scheme with the
whole system (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Network thickness.

The mutual relationship between the parties will then have its keystone in the project, closing
arguments and defines the multi-scalar and complete them at the same time deeply rooted with
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them and therefore with the place and with landscape. The further descent of scale can go to the
scale of city block where the invariants often are reflected in the elements, lines or points that
become references, limits or areas in which the project is to feed the relationships of mutual
exchange and reciprocal relationship. If the landscape is the language of the land, we need to
investigate not so much the “syntactic structure”, which represents the most objectified and
uniquely quantifiable (ex: in terms of natural resources and material values) as the recognition
process, in other words a process of identification that binds all communities within its territory
“producing” valuable landscapes. Starting from the signs and landscape invariants, it is
therefore possible to retrace the shared construction process that belongs to landscape, as well as
giving new meaning in those contexts that express different resources today than in the past.
The project is proposed as a multi-scale design for a landscape that is now sprawling, the
concept of which often escapes to the treatise. The multi-scale flow allows to give clarity to the
project, the hierarchy between the parties and getting roughs into the place. Arjun Apadurai
talks about “production places” like the activation of a particular place and the person's ability
to change and to transform it (Tosco, 2011).

Applications

The multi-scalar approach is the focus of an internal research project at the University of
Cagliari which has as the objective of the recovery of the little villages in Sardinia and in
particular the relationship between settlement and border areas. My study takes place in this
project, with a deepening on the village of Cabras, a perfect research terrain for the development
of the theme of project multi-scalar capacity. Cabras is placed in the most important wetland of
Sardinia, characterized by the mouth of Tirso river, and the presence of ponds, drained
marshland and the lagoon with the same name (Cabras Lagoon). In the midst of this wide
regional water landscape it develops society that lives between agriculture and fisheries, and
which derives its resources from two major funds, the lagoon, which until a few decades ago it
was still a feud, and the field cultivated with cereals, rice, vines and olives. The territory of
Cabras is divided into two parts, Bennaxi and Gregori, the first one is a fertile alluvial soil and
with very good conditions for agriculture, the latter is better for settlement. The geological and
hydrographic nature of the place has deeply determined the position of settlements in the whole
area of the so-called Campidano Maggiore, so that Cabras is located at the end of a series of
villages with the same distance from the river Tirso, in which the area of Bennaxi, the
floodplain became both a support source, as the principal place of agricultural production, but
also a means of defense against Tirso flooding. The villages are located on an ancient Roman
road, the so-called Via Maxima leading from the Roman port of Tharros, passed Cabras and
came to the Roman outpost of Forum Traiani, the seat of the Roman army in Sardinia.
The mutual relationship between habitat, road and water has always adjusted system and
relations of urban and territorial scale. The theme of water then reveals additional complexity in
the form as it is enriched with a system of irrigation canals radiating from Tirso as the main
system and allows you to structure the surrounding countryside. The result is thus a supporting
structure of landscape straight from the water system that has in the river Tirso its generator
system and through the system of canals to reach individual plots that generate agricultural plot
and through ducts leading intercept the main settlements. The regional scale talks about a very
complex system, therefore, where it is sufficient to represent a superposition of the water system
and infrastructure related with the distribution of villages in order to understand thickness of the
landscape that can have the river and how the project needs to interact with the water factor.
The agricultural plot draws the countryside but also the urban form, as the center of Cabras
shows deeply scored by a plant in which the vacuum dominates on full and in which the space
between the houses, the heart of the block is actually a large crop of interior farmland that
belongs to housing. It is a fabric in which farmlands are contained and in which the relationship
between road house and garden is a step often direct and linear. The urban scale introduces us to
138

the theme of the relationship between settlement and settlement, road and agricultural plot. The
growth of the city in the last hundred years shows its continuous attempt of the city to include
parties of agrarian plot inside including it inside the shape of the city block and going to clash
with the landscape water that crosses and order the agrarian plot.
The project is confronted with this, a system characterized by a wide water landscape, where
Tirso hierarchizes a duct system that carry water to the countryside close in large tanks and
piezometric towers at the margin with the city center. Water defines an invariant at the territorial
scale, canals and water towers represent iconemi of urban. While the scale of the block controls
the house that defines a filter between urban and rural interior of the block. The multi-scalar
system lies in the strength of these invariants to define all scales, from wide scale river at the
territory scale, to the water tower at the urban scale until the channels that arrive near the
cluster, until the street and the towers that form the skyline of the city and define pathways and
crossings, until the house which is the smallest unit, the atom of the settlement, that variously
aggregated and compared with the elements that I mentioned above, draws the urban form.
The project can become an opportunity to mend the edge of the city through a system of
passing through public space which is based on a structure of farmland, namely the canal that
enters the city through a system of tanks, watering hole, and drinking troughs of the agricultural
plot. The new urban tissue reinterprets the domestic blank isolates reasoning systems with
different densities going to define a base tissue with high density but wide space dedicated to
public space. The houses are all individual with a spread space dedicated to little vegetable
garden, whose size varies in a coordinated and regulated manner. The public space is a very
abstract space where the element dominates the wide square yard, the main trading place on the
edge of the consolidated center and direct daily practice and calls for characters in this kind of
space, in some cases very elongated, while in other an Italian square in a dense system. The
project ends with a new definition of the edge, a line defined by the channel that closes the
project and ideally it is linked to watering tanks that dot the agricultural plot. The relationship
between architecture and multi scalar approach becomes a system of relations between the
invariants of the land, the river and the water, the invariants of public space, the continuity of
the wall, the landscape of iconemi, steeples and towers, and then the water at the scale of the
city block with the channel and the trough that becomes the basis of a series of details that go
beyond the architectural scale, through a coherence that starts from the analysis of the territory
that in this sense becomes study and project in the same time (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Passing through public space.

The second project that I propose has been developed within the international competition
Europan 12 which had the theme of Adaptable City, it was therefore required to teams to engage
in interpretation of the theme in different contexts. Our choice fell on the center of Hoganas,
where it involved the construction of a new settlement and the issue of urban ecorhytms. The
interpretation of ecorhytms and the territory of Hoganas is one that has resulted in the definition
of the project and on which it is inserted multi-scale survey. The city of Hoganas is a historic
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trading port in the south of Sweden, in the region of Skåne, overlooking Denmark and
particularly important maritime crossroads between Helsingor and Copenhagen on the Danish
coast and Landskrona, Helsingborg and Malmo on the Swedish coast.
This important port has sanctioned the birth of an industrial coal processing and
manufacturing center specializing in quality ceramics. In addition to this all an agricultural
hinterland with rape and potatoes fields, which mark the typical rural landscape of Skåne, dotted
with farms and a growing mostly in large estates. With the closure of factories and the reduction
of port traffic, Hoganas is faced with its current resources, the water and the sea, and the
agricultural back end. The scale of the territory tells Skåne system with the network of
relationships between Hoganas and infrastructural mesh that acts as a hub between the pole of
Helsingborg and Halmstadt north and between Helsingborg and Stockholm on the other side. A
landscape invariant is represented by the long field and the park series, often with a territorial
importance, the green size becomes a key element in the urban scale which overlaps the mesh
infrastructure, another element that defines a multi-scale is the railroad, settlement structure
which divided historical coal production centers across Sweden and now abandoned.
The relationship between the green plot and infrastructural plot appears to be the dominant
element in the landscape of Hoganas. These have become the axes of the generators of the new
system of habitat that is proposed for this area. The choice is to define a unique infrastructure
and green mesh percolating through the old railway and port system from large environmental
park in the north to the south through green areas of the north-south axes and understanding the
historic district of Gruvtorget. The wide green bands become public space and infrastructure,
with bike paths and walking trails, overlaying a green and light plot to a heavy infrastructure
that once ran through the area. On this system of relations with the existing, the project engages
the theme of temporality and multi phase of the project, identifying crossings in green
transversal axes generators of new urbanity which then joins in cluster systems with the
possibility of increasing saturation in time (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Hoganas, a growing habitat.

The cluster is positioned as a wood fence in public and defines the boundary between the
percolating green and agricultural mesh that remains consolidated in the area. The idea is to
define wide wood squares that interpret the theme of the public space of the urban centre and in
this way try to find a dialogue with the tissue of traditional country houses that characterize
Hoganas agrarian plot. Thus the cluster is generated as the sum and dialogue between historical
elements, square wood and new elements. In this case the multi-scale project is divided on two
fronts, the first is the multi-scalar system of the public space, from territorial arteries, to the
space of the relationship among the houses, defined by the fence and inside the card .On the
other hand we have the issue of multi-temporal and changeable and evolutionary possibilities of
the project over time. The Adaptable city is becoming a place full of relations marked by a
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green percolation through the countryside, the historic town and new agricultural plot and gives
voice to territorial demands through the micro scale in different time scales(Figure 4).

Figure 4. Wood square with clusters.

Future perspectives

Thinking about the concept of multi-scalar allows us to tie analysis and design in a manner often
inseparable and in this sense to tie it to the place deeply and exert the terms in which Carlo
Socco speaks about landscape, defining it as the sense of a place as it is revealed to the
perception (Socco, 2000). The force is entrusted to the relationship between objects and
network, the multi-scale fact relies on a well-defined mesh, a rigid system to lean to the zoom-in
and zoom-out using as a yardstick of comparison upon which to vary the certain mesh objects
that are part of the signs and fit within a model of perception signs of the landscape which is
based on elements that communicate at all scales and that provide the basis for the project at all
scales of intervention. The project of Cabras and Hoganas show how deep analysis on the
territory becomes the grid on which to perform the progressive zoom, the two elements of multi-
scale flow rate, the water and the woods become defining elements of the spaces in 5
dimensions, in Cartesian space of three dimensions, the fourth dimension that refers to multi
temporality and a fifth dimension that is the one related to the users and to sociability, since they
become the new engine of social relations.
Reading the landscape is not to deny the precarious balance achieved and their continuous
changeability or perfectibility, it means dealing with the inertia of the structures of the signs and
the depth of the layers that make up the local listings. The multi-scale process has an obligation
to balance between change and permanence, and it is the size of the length projecting multi-
scale more than three dimensions. The research aims to identify a transition between the scales
that creeps and lies within the rhizomatic structure of the landscape and identifies possible links
and relation systems. The tension between natural and cultural value, between local and
universal values, inevitably evokes the relationship between places and networks, long thought
of as complementary metaphors, for the interpretation and design of the territories of the
contemporary (Gambino, 1994). They may help to recognize the "territoriality of the landscape"
in the wide meaning given by the European Convention. It is in landscape, as evidenced by the
incessant interaction of the natural and anthropogenic dynamics, that the historical settlement
takes its full meaning. In landscape the historic district dialogue not only with the "built
cultivated fields" (Cattaneo, 1845), over the centuries by agricultural networks, water systems
and systems of roads and infrastructure, but also with the presence of moving nature, often
reluctant to any demarcation, pervades and diversifies the spaces surrounding constructed areas
in various ways.
The relationship of man with the place, and through the places reside in living spaces. The
relation between man and space is living, reflecting on its essence. (Martin Heidegger, 1975)
 141

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142

Conurbation in the Porto Alegre metropolitan region

Decio Rigatti
UniRitter – Laureate International Universities, Porto Alegre – Brazil. Rua Carazinho, 146 Ap.
04 90460-190 – Porto Alegre, RS, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. One of the main features of metropolitan regions is the spread of urban fabrics belonging to
different municipalities and their tendency to conurbation, which can be uneven, presenting different
growth speeds, morphologic peculiarities and different kinds of natural restraints. The parts tend to
connect to each other, making up a spatial unit of a different scale and complexity where the whole and
not only the parts of its structure follow a new logic. In morphological terms, when the conurbation is
strong, its syntactic measures tend to be more robust than those presented by the parts. This can be
measured through the Conurbation Index (CI), which compares the global integration of the parts with
the global integration measures of the whole – the emergent structure. A theoretical model is presented,
from which is analyzed the way the syntactic measures change as the urban fabrics interpenetrate each
other. Empirically, nineteen pairs of contiguous municipalities of the Porto Alegre Metropolitan Region
are examined, together with five wider systems made up of three or more contiguous municipalities in the
same region. In addition, the same methodology used to produce the theoretical model was applied to two
groups of municipalities, presenting different morphological features.

Key Words: Conurbation, metropolitan regions, urban growth, conurbation index, conurbation
modelling.

Introduction

Metropolitan regions can be understood as a product of the transformations held in the territory
by a number of simultaneous phenomena. From the economic point of view, a metropolitan
region means the agglomeration of activities over a territory more or less vast, which are
distributed and enable to bring together relations of complementarity and interdependence like
those that can be found in complex urban systems. This implies, in this sense that the logic of
the economic background can be found within different patterns of production and reproduction
of social relations. How specialized or diverse the economy is within a metropolitan region
depends both on its role regarding a wider economical area, how connected or dependent it is
regarding globalization processes, and on the relationships held inside the region itself.
From the social point of view, a metropolitan region represents an agglomeration of people
and this is close related to the logic of the reproduction of the social/economic sub-systems. The
distribution of the population, the patterns of their income, living standards, jobs, etc., depend
on the way social structures relate to the economic system as a whole. Also in this case,
diversity or specialization depends on the way the entire system works on space.
From the spatial point of view, metropolitan regions tend to represent a new scale of spatial
organization and one of its main features is the tendency to conurbation, that is, the formation of
spatial continuities which are produced independently of local spatial dynamics represented by
the spatial units that made up the region as a whole.

The Porto Alegre Metropolitan Region

Briefly, in this case study it will be analyzed the main conurbation of the Porto Alegre
Metropolitan Region – PAMR, in the State of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, made by 14 different
municipalities, born in different times and for different purposes. Porto Alegre, Viamão and
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Gravatai are the oldest cities and start their evolution from the second half of the 18 th century
on, in a time when Portuguese and Spanish crowns were fighting for a territory whose limits
used to change according to several non-lasting treaties. These are the cases of cities that slowly
evolve from small foundation cores. In the beginning of the 19th century the northern part of the
region begins to be occupied by German immigrants and São Leopoldo is the first colony and
the main centre for the occupation of this part of the State. Later on, Novo Hamburgo, Estancia
Velha, Campo Bom, Portão and Sapiranga start their development as expansions of the São
Leopoldo colonizing core. Porto Alegre was linked to the colonies (firstly with the German ones
and, by the end of the 19th century, with the Italian ones, which occupied the remaining vacant
land in the north-east part of the State of Rio Grande do Sul) through a railroad built in 1874.
Along this railroad and within the PAMR new urban settlements were built around some of the
rail-stations like Canoas, Esteio and Sapucaia do Sul. These are cases of urban areas that grew
from rail-stations.
The entire region experiences a remarkable growth during and just after The Second World
War, as a result of an industrialization process. The growth of the population that follows this
process produces cities like Alvorada and Cachoeirinha which origins are based on consecutive
land divisions promoted by urban developments for low-income dwellings and not in the
evolution of a pre-existing urban core.
Following this socio-economic process, important national (BR) and regional (RS) roads
were built, connecting the cities and the region to the national territory, like the BR-116, which
runs from Brazil’s South to North-east, crossing Canoas, Esteio, Sapucaia do Sul, São
Leopoldo, Novo Hamburgo and Estancia Velha within the PAMR; the RS-030 and the RS-020
cross Cachoeirinha and Gravatai; the RS-118, connects the BR-116 to the BR-290 passing
through the territories of Gravatai, Cachoeirinha, Esteio, Sapucaia do Sul and also of Alvorada
and Viamão, though far away from their main urbanized areas (Figure 1).

Figure 1. The Porto Alegre Metropolitan Region and the main roads.
144

From the 70’s on, new national and regional roads that cross the region and the increase of
regional and interregional connections took an important part in the configuration of the
metropolitan space. Important roads built at that time are: the BR-290, connecting Porto Alegre
to the coast until the north-east region of the country, running E/W from Porto Alegre Northern
city limits and passing through the municipalities of Cachoeirinha and Gravatai; the RS-239,
connecting Estancia Velha, Novo Hamburgo, Campo Bom and Sapiranga, close to the Northern
limit of the study area; BR-386, connecting the metropolitan area to the North-Western part of
the State.
One of the outcomes of this process is that the evolving urban areas begin to carry on roles
that are not explained only by their internal logic, but can only be understood by the way they
are inserted in an interdependent and expanding metropolitan system where the conurbation is
one of its visible outcomes.

Spatial Conurbation and a theoretical model

A theoretical model was produced in order to simulate a growing conurbation process and to
observe how this process affects the syntactic measures of the spatial outcomes.

The syntactic measures

In this paper it will be used four syntactic measures (Hillier, B. & Hanson, J., 1984) which help
to describe the main morphological properties of the spatial systems to be analysed, as follows:
a) Global integration (RN) – Integration is related to the notion of depth: in a spatial system,
represented through the axial map, every line is connected to all others, directly or by using a
number of intervening spaces. A shallow or integrated space requires a small number of
intervening spaces to connect it to all others. On the other hand, deep or segregated spaces need
more intervening spaces to connect them to all others. (Hillier, B., 1996); b) Mean depth – In a
system, the mean depth informs about how shallow or deep the systems are, regarding the way
every space is connected to all others. This measure directly affects the syntactic integration
value; c) Synergy – Synergy is the statistical correlation between global and local integration.
High correlations mean that a larger number of spaces are simultaneously globally and locally
well integrated or segregated, representing systems where the global structure is better
superimposed to the local structure; d) Intelligibility – Intelligibility is the statistical correlation
between a global measure, (global integration) and a local measure (connectivity). It represents
how it is possible to understand the global structure of a spatial system through locally given
information.

The theoretical model

The starting point of the model is a regular grid with twice as much vertical than horizontal
lines, with its correspondent syntactic measures (Figure 2).
In order to increase the complexity and to build up a conurbation, the same grid is placed
contiguously to the previous one, slightly mismatched and with the line that divides one grid to
the other belonging to both systems (Figure 3).
The main syntactic measures: mean global integration (RN), mean depth, intelligibility
(correlation between global integration and connectivity) and synergy (correlation between
global and local integration) are presented below the figures, showing how they change as one
system is inserted in the other.
In this way, the resulting grid has the same number of vertical and horizontal lines.
Mismatching the position of the grids allows us to observe what happens with the syntactic
measures when one grid penetrates the other, step by step, that is, every vertical line of one sub-
 145

system reaching one horizontal line at a time in the other subsystem (figure 4a, 4b, 4c and 4d),
until one grid is completely inserted in the other.
This will produce a more compact and shallow system (fig. 5).

Figure 2. The basic regular grid.

RN = 3.495024638 Mean Depth = 1.304348

Inteligibility = 0.181207316 Synergy = 0.957992888

Figure 3. The global integration of two original regular grids slightly mismatched and
the syntactic measures of the grouping.

It is possible to observe that as the mean depth is reduced, the more compact is the resulting
system in a constant pattern, the same happening with all other measures. These measures are
good indicator of conurbation: compactness is responsible for the movement economy and the
spatial integration is scattered all over the resulting system.
Another theoretical exercise made on the same grid which is important for the purposes of this
paper was made testing the blocking of lines both in the limits between the two subsystems and
in their periphery (figures 6a and 6b).
It is possible to compare this exercise with the analysis made by Hillier (1996) on the
construction of the spatial integration: obstructions in the centre of the composition tend to
reduce integration and push it to the periphery. On the contrary, obstructions in the periphery
tend to reinforce the integration in the centre of the composition.
As Hillier says “A centrally located larger space integrates more than one that is peripherally
located. (...) The more centrally a block is placed, the greater ‘depth gain’ or loss of integration”
(1996:351-352).
For our purposes this is particularly important once we can analyze this process by looking at
what happens in the limits of the municipalities we are interested in observing and where we can
find some obstructions or interruptions within the urban fabric.
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a) 1 step b) 2 steps

Global Integration: 3,675835294 Global Integration: 3,87271791

Mean Depth: 1,2941 Mean Depth: 1,283582
Intelligibility: 0,481838567 Intelligibility: 0,635365513
Synergy: 0,981537145 Synergy: 0,990165972

c) 3 steps d) 4 steps

Global Integration: 4,088060606 Global Integration: 4,324943077

Mean Depth: 1,272727 Mean Depth: 1,261538
Intelligibility: 0,731016225 Intelligibility: 0,797293421
Synergy: 0,994421771 Synergy: 0,996807468

Figure 4 The global integration with the penetration of the grids, step by step (“a” to “d”)
and the resulting syntactic measures.

Figure 5 The global integration of one original grid completely inserted in another one and
the resulting syntactic measures.
Global Integration: 7.056082759
Mean Depth: 1.172414
Inteligibility: 0.797293421
Synergy: 1.0000000
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Figure 6. The global integration of blocking of lines in the limits (“a” – top) and in the
periphery (“b” – bottom) of the sub-systems and the resulting syntactic measures.
"a" - top:
Global Integration: 2.832373333
Mean Depth: 1.52
Inteligibility: 0.368356272
Synergy: 0.833686231
"b" - bottom:
Global Integration: 2.905639506
Mean Depth: 1.304348
Inteligibility: 0.45514709
Synergy: 0.950454979

The Conurbation Index - Ci

The previous theoretical model shows that the more one subsystem penetrates the other the
mean global integration of this system is increasingly higher than the mean integration of the
subsystems. Straightforward, we can propose the following conurbation index (CI): CI=
R/(∑rn/n)
Where CI is the conurbation index, R is the mean global integration of the grouped
subsystems and Ʃ rn/n is the mean global integration of the isolated subsystems divided by the
number of subsystems. The higher than one is the index, the stronger is the conurbation.
It is proposed that in strong conurbations, syntactic measures tend to be more robust for the
whole than for the parts. In this way, urban areas with strong conurbation are better explained in
the way they work together than when they are considered separately.
In the theoretical model, considering a step by step calculation from the original grid – 0 step
- until 4 steps of grid penetration in order to simplify the procedures, and also the results of the
outcome of the complete penetration of the grids are presented in table 1, bellow.
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Table 1 Conurbation Index - CI – in the Theoretical Model

0 step 1 step 2 steps 3 steps 4 steps complete

CI 0.6167293 0.6485320 0.6832683 0.7212614 0.7630549 1.2449132

What is possible to observe is that the Conurbation Index consistently grows as one sub-
system become more and more inserted in the other. Also, the way the index grows in the step
by step process is at a same rate from one step to the next one.

The Porto Alegre Metropolitan Region – Pamr - and the Selected Cases

Regarding the PAMR conurbation, considered as a spatial phenomenon, a deeper look into its
spatial system reveals that there are different degrees of conurbation and interdependency
among the constituent parts. Some spatial complexes - parts of the whole - seem to be better
understood when seen together while others, in spite of belonging to the same conurbation,
seem to keep their individuality regarding other neighbouring areas, both in terms of the space
itself and their socio-economic features.
This paper will deal with the differences in terms of physical relations that can be found in
the 14 municipalities considered here as the main PAMR’s conurbation. A broader analysis was
made, considering nineteen pairs of contiguous municipalities and five wider systems made up
of three or more contiguous municipalities and the entire metropolitan area as well (fig.7).
In addition, the same methodology used to produce the theoretical model was applied to two
groups of municipalities.
The study cases were analyzed through different syntactic measures, but the Conurbation
Index suggested in this paper takes into account basically the global integration measure, once it
captures key aspects of the urban layout.
This index may represent both a limit to the conurbation process, cases when CI is high or,
on the other side, it may either represent potential possibilities of conurbation or restrictions to
its process according to the possibilities of the urban fabrics to be more or less easily connected.
The case studies presented here were selected based on common sense, like: ‘we cannot
identify where municipality X ends and municipality Y starts’, both in terms of the observation
of geographical data and also in the way locals describe their city limits.
In this group of municipalities the notion of compactness seems to be a very important
feature of neighbouring urban areas.

Figure 7. The PAMR and all Contiguous Municipalities Examined in the Selected
Cases.
 149

In the table below, is presented the results for all possible pairs of contiguous municipalities
and also for the grouping of more than two contiguous municipalities.

Table 2. Conurbation Indexes for Contiguous Municipalities in the PAMR and for the
Region.

Conurbation
Municipalities
Index - CI
Alvorada + Viamão 0.727329065
Cachoeirinha +Canoas 0.730430083
Cachoeirinha + Esteio 0.506144471
Cachoeirinha + Porto Alegre 0.690948392
Campo Bom + Novo Hamburgo 0.767137911
Campo Bom + Sapiranga 0.771477628
Esteio + Sapucaia do Sul 1.05085936
Gravatai + Alvorada 0.667362289
Gravataí + Cachoeirinha 0.84343863
Gravataí + Sapucaia do Sul 0.57575311
Novo Hamburgo + Estância Velha 0.879985119
Novo Hamburgo + Gravataí 0.325046497
Novo Hamburgo + São Leopoldo 0.857932704
Novo Hamburgo + Sapucaia do Sul 0.332434153
Porto Alegre + Alvorada 0.731692459
Porto Alegre + Canoas 0.680126249
Porto Alegre + Viamão 0.885701887
São Leopoldo + Portão 0.891893849
São Leopoldo + Sapucaia do Sul 0.863127637
Canoas + Cachoeirinha + Gravataí 0.62463472
Novo Hamburgo + São Leopoldo + Estância Velha + Campo Bom 0.743921475
Novo Hamburgo + Estância Velha + Campo Bom 0.758939133
Novo Hamburgo + São Leopoldo + Sapucaia do Sul 0.866283893
Porto Alegre + Viamão + Alvorada 0.726418989
PORTO ALEGRE METROPOLITAN REGION - PAMR 0.591335660

In red, is marked the case where the CI is higher than one; in yellow, the group of cases with
the higher CI’s (close to one) and in blue, the group of cases with the smaller CI’s. The group of
cases with intermediary values of CI remains colourless.
For the purposes of our analysis we will examine only the cases presenting high and low
conurbation index once they are more useful for the analysis in the sense that they represent
border cases.
The conurbation between Esteio and Sapucaia do Sul is the only one with a CI higher than
one, what is interesting for our study, because is an example of two cities with blurred limits,
with juxtaposed city centres, sharing the syntactic integration core when examined together.
Some regularities were found among the municipalities presenting higher and smaller
conurbation indexes. The main features of the grouping of cities with high CI are (fig.8): (i)
They are connected by well integrated lines, which penetrates the sub-systems; (ii) We find two
different kinds of distribution of spatial integration: a) one of the sub-systems concentrates most
of the integration core, like in the case of Porto Alegre and Viamão; b) the other five cases
presenting high CI present the same features, with a strong concentration of integration in
important roads (BR’s and RS’s) that cross and connect the spatial systems. They are connected
through their urban fabrics and not only by isolated lines.
As for the grouping of cities presenting low conurbation indexes, the main regularities found
are (figure 9): They are connected by a well integrated line, which links both sub-systems but
does not penetrate each other; The sub-systems are connected by a small number of lines –
mostly by only one; There are no urban fabrics on the city limits but only isolated lines.
150

In the case of Novo Hamburgo and Gravatai, which have the smaller conurbation index
within the cases, the sub-systems present independent integration cores. The distribution of the
spatial integration of the joined cities reproduces the distribution of the spatial integration of
each of the considered municipalities. In the other three cases, the spatial integration is strongly
concentrated in one of the sub-systems. These results can be biased by the way the continuous
urban fabric of the metropolitan region is separated for this analysis. For example, in the case of
Novo Hamburgo and Sapucaia do Sul (the second smaller CI), when their fabrics are joined
with São Leopoldo, whose urban fabric lies between Novo Hamburgo and Sapucaia do Sul, one
of the highest CI is produced, as we can see in the table above.

Gravatai
S‹o Leopoldo
Portao

Cachoeirinha

Estancia Velha

Novo Hamburgo
Novo Hamburgo

Sao Leopoldo

Sapucaia do Sul

Sao Leopoldo

Viamao

Porto Alegre

Sapucaia do Sul

Figure 8. Cases with the Highest Conurbation Index. In black, the limits of one
of the municipalities.

In order to observe what happens in actual contiguous spatial sub-systems in terms of their
conurbation indexes, when the procedures proposed for the theoretical model are applied (3.2,
above), two different sub-systems were analysed: Sapucaia do Sul together with Esteio - the
conurbation with the higher CI and with a dense urban fabric in the city limits-; and Gravatai
and Cachoeirinha, presenting a high CI but with some vacant areas along the city limits.
The first step was to extend all lines close the limits of each sub-system and one step apart of
it until they could reach the lines which belong to the city limits. The second step was, from the
 151

previous stage, extending all lines until the first line inside the sub-systems was touched, and so
on.
This exercise was limited to three extensions of lines, although it could be done until every
line of every sub-system crossed each other as it was made in the theoretical model. In this way,
the lines were extended but no new lines were created, keeping the same the size of the systems
in terms of the number of axial lines from the beginning and with the step by step extension of
lines. The results for the syntactic measures and for the conurbation index are presented in Table
03 for the grouping of Sapucaia do Sul and Esteio and, in Table 04, for the grouping of Gravatai
and Cachoeirinha.
Step 0, in both cases, means the original situation of each sub-system before the extension of
lines.

Esteio Sapucaia do Sul

Cachoeirinha

Gravatai

Novo Hamburgo

Novo Hamburgo Gravatai

Sapucaia do Sul

Figure 9. Cases with the Lowest Conurbation Index. In black, the limits of one
of the municipalities.
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Table 3. Syntactic Measures and Conurbation Indexes for Sapucaia do Sul + Esteio, with
Extension of Lines

Extension SAPUCAIA DO SUL AND ESTEIO

of lines Mean Depth RN Intelligibility Synergy IC
0 steps 5.8708294 1.04971959 0.412122091 0.729756479 1.05085936
1 step 5.844212 1.054441401 0.418072177 0.735514995 1.05558629
2 steps 5.710889 1.07978369 0.442237296 0.753198329 1.08095610
3 steps 5.686107 1.081900806 0.455537553 0.761252168 1.08307551

Table 4. Syntactic Measures and Conurbation Indexes for Gravatai + Cachoeirinha, with
Extension of Lines

Extension GRAVATAI AND CACHOEIRINHA

of lines Mean Depth RN Intelligibility Synergy IC
0 steps 10.1811 0.692776914 0.300814959 0.581291802 0.84343863
1 step 10.16005 0.696239306 0.303002426 0.588722765 0.84578566
2 steps 10.13262 0.695886595 0.309784275 0.593726679 0.847225
3 steps 10.09147 0.701809028 0.323290262 0.603776164 0.854435

In both cases, the extension of lines, because they produce a thicker urban fabric in the
centre of the systems (Hillier, 1996:352), improves all syntactic measures, while Mean Depth is
consistently reduced. Another important observation is the thick urban fabric created by the
extension of lines when they penetrate each of the considered sub-systems.
Particularly in the case of the conurbation between Gravataí and Cachoeirinha, it is possible
to say that the conurbation can be stronger or weaker depending on the way the existing vacant
land in the limits of the municipalities will be occupied along time, creating a new pattern of
spatial integration. In this case, the extension of lines in the limits of the municipalities
eventually produces the reduction of the vacant land and their substitution by a denser urban
fabric, as the number of steps grows.

Final Remarks: What Produces Conurbation?

At this point, from the theoretical modelling and from the actual cases presented in this paper, it
is possible to make some preliminary observations about the conurbation process in the Porto
Alegre Metropolitan Region. At a more theoretical level, it is possible to understand when we
can talk about conurbation as a general process, concerning the relationships among different
spatial systems. Furthermore, conurbation is, most of the times, a process resulting from many
of the considered scope of variables working together and not only from one or another of them,
as described below.

Spatial contiguity

Both in the theoretical examples and in the case studies, it was shown that, although the
contiguity of the urban fabrics is an essential aspect of conurbation, it does not suffice to
improve conurbation. The spatial contiguity may in some cases to cover-up sub-systems that are
divided by a joining line, which may separate discontinuous urban fabrics like in the original
situation of the theoretical model showed in figure 3 above.
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Compactness

The compactness of the analyzed urban layouts seems to be a necessary condition for the
conurbation, but is not always sufficient. Some of the studied cases present a compact urban
fabric in the grouped cities, but not a good result in terms of conurbation index, when examined
the spatial structure of the joined municipalities and their syntactic measures as seen above. In
both cases, the axial lines that lie along the city limits actually unite two different and
unconnected urban fabrics that seldom present lines that cross the city limits and penetrate the
neighbouring municipalities. What the studied cases show is that compactness is an important
feature of conurbation when joined urban areas share spaces that not only touch each urban
fabric but, most importantly, interpenetrate each other. Thick urban fabrics in the limits of the
sub-systems presenting a significant number of axial lines that are part of both sub-systems,
more consistently produce higher conurbation indexes. In these cases, the conurbation tends to
be not only a peripheral phenomenon – in the sense that it only touches the sub-systems – but
produces another kind of spatial system. In this way, the logic of the grouping of cities prevails
over the logic of the parts.

Depth of the spatial system

When the grouping of two different urban layouts is able to reduce the Mean Depth of the
resulted spatial system, there is an improvement of the conurbation index once it directly
interferes in the results of the Global Integration (Rn) values and the other considered Syntactic
Measures of the conurbation.

The Distribution of the Integration

The case study of Esteio and Sapucaia do Sul joint together, which presents the only
Conurbation Index bigger than 1, allows us to observe other features that seem to contribute to
rise the Conurbation Index, namely, the spatial distribution of the Global Integration (Rn) or,
more specifically, the Integration Core of a group of cities. In this case, the Integration Core of
the grouped cities tends to produce a centrality that both covers and contains the centralities of
the parts. Even if the new centrality does not eliminate the centralities of the parts or the
identities of every municipality, we can find proximity and continuity of the city centres within
the centrality of the joined cities as an important aspect of the conurbation. On the other hand, in
the case of the lowest conurbation index, between the municipalities of Novo Hamburgo and
Gravatai, the distribution of the integration core of the joined sub-systems keeps almost intact
the integration cores of the parts, almost if the grouping of the spatial sub-systems does not
affect the results of the whole. The syntactic independence of the parts affects the results of the
grouping sub-systems, producing low conurbation index. We can expect, as in this case, that
socio-economic relationships and interdependence tend to be reduced between these two
municipalities and, also, that interdependence tend to be established with other municipalities
where urban morphology is able to facilitate mutual rapports.

Axial lines or urban fabric?

According to the results of the actual cases examined in this paper, it is possible to say that, if
single axial connection is important to produce conurbation, more important is the connection
through urban fabrics. The thicker they are in the city limits, the higher the Conurbation Index
is.
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Is conurbation a spatial quality?

It seems evident that a high Conurbation Index does not implies in qualitative aspects in the
functioning of Metropolitan Regions. In fact, strong physical discontinuities that can be found
among cities like rivers, vacant land, large natural parks, flooding areas, for instance, can
produce low Conurbation Indexes. Nevertheless, low or high conurbation index does not mean
that one is better than the other, but it only shows the diversity of spatial roles that can be found
in metropolitan regions and some limits to produce spatial conurbation within the region.

Urban growth and the two paradoxes

Emergent processes are able to produce higher conurbation indexes among contiguous urban
fabrics through the overcome of the centrality and visibility paradoxes (Hillier, 1996), but only
when spatial transformation is required for the functioning of the metropolitan structure as a
whole, following both the local goals and the global objectives as well.
The research findings explained in this paper allow us to identify common or different
patterns of conurbation, with similar or different outcomes among different groups of
contiguous urban areas. It is possible to suggest a conurbation index that is able to explain about
the way parts and wholes produce configurational features that can be measured and compared.
This Conurbation Index can easily identify the impacts of actual or future urban expansions of
neighbouring urban areas, allowing us to understand how this process can lead to public policies
that, instead of competing with each other, could promote joint efforts in order to solve urban
problems that tend to be shared between the municipalities, specially taking into account that, in
Brazil, there is no urban planning at the regional scale, but only at the local scale.

References

Hillier, B. and Hanson, J. (1984) The social logic of space (Cambridge University Press Cambridge).
Hillier, B. (1996). The space is the machine (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge).
Rigatti, D. (2009). “The morphologic construction of conurbation” Proceedings of ISUF – International
Seminar on Urban Form (Hamburg, Germany).
 155

Configuration of urban grid and the relationship between

apartment buildings location: case study in Florianopolis,
Brazil.

Amanda Corrêa
Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina.
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. The verticalization process is one of the most determining factors of the production and growth
of the cities, since its allows the “multiplication” of urban land and its profit maximization. The location
is an important factor in this process and, among other things, is related to the configuration of the urban
grid, which conforms to a great extent the pedestrian movement on the grid (Hillier et al, 1993) and is
able to make certain spaces more or less attractive, thus assigning greater or lesser degree of probability
for these areas to be developed or not. The aim of this paper is to investigate the patterns of configuration
of the urban grids associated with the location of apartment buildings in the central area in
Florianopolis. In order to do this, we used the Space Syntax Theory (Hillier and Hanson, 1984; Hillier et
al, 1987). Its two main measures, integration and choice, were applied in global (Rn) and local (R3)
scales. Results showed that apartment buildings are mostly located on both globally (Rn) and locally (R3)
highly integrated spaces. On the other hand, for the choice measure buildings are situated in medium
global choice (Rn), and medium to high local choice (R3). Thus, apartment buildings seem to prefer
locations close to the rest of the city, but which, however, prioritize relatively quiet roads detached from
the passageways to other spaces outside the center.

Key Words: Verticalization process, space syntax, configurational characteristics, high-rise buildings.

Introduction

In the growth and urban densification process, the profit motivated by the real estate is one of
the most decisive driving forces (Krafta, 1994; Krafta, 1999). In this process, the verticalization
is a key way by which profit is maximized through the intensification of capital applied in the
same location and the highest rate between built-up area and land area that equates to a greater
"productivity" of the real estate activity. In this dynamic, the role of location is essential.
The attractivity of certain locations is related to the quantity and quality of existing
infrastructure; the accessibility to the city center, to other secondary centers of retail, trades,
services and jobs; the natural attributes such as beaches and interesting views; and indication of
status and socioeconomic levels associated with certain areas of the city (Gonzales, 1985;
Somehk, 1997; Abramo, 2001; Villaça, 2001). Since the price of the construction does not
change significantly in different areas (Gonzales, 1985; Krafta, 1999), property prices are the
determining factor for maximum profits on urban land.
However, the "best locations" from the point of view of the developers are not necessarily
the same from the point of view of those who will use the building. The best locations for the
developers, are those that allow them to extract greater profit, which does not mean that they are
more accessible to downtown or have greater quantity and quality of infrastructure. Krafta
(1994, p. 77) states “Land is bought in relatively poor locations, as an individual commodity,
and sold as part of new buildings, as new, good locations.” There is therefore a delicate balance
between a cheaper land, which reduces the cost of housing production, and a location with
enough quality to attract dwellers. Understanding this balance can, therefore, help to better
understand the dynamics of urban production and reproduction and the role that location plays
on it.
156

However, the location is traditionally described considering, at the local level, the qualities
immediately adjacent to the land (infrastructure, neighborhood socioeconomic status, etc.), and
its environment qualities. Globally, it generally operates in terms of the metric distance to the
CBD – Central Business District (Capozza, 1989). However, since at least the 80’s, more
refined ways to characterize and differentiate intra-urban locations were developed, such as
those introduced by configurational analysis, some of which brought by the theory of Space
Syntax (Hillier and Hanson, 1984).
The aim of this paper is to investigate the patterns of configuration of the urban grids
associated with the location of apartment buildings in the central area in Florianopolis. We used
two different syntactic measures, as we shall see, which capture different properties of the
location in order to answer the following questions: considering all streets in which apartment
buildings could be located, in which these streets did they actually appear? And what are the
characteristics of the chosen streets regarding proximity and centrality to other streets of the
urban system and its more immediate surroundings?
In order to answer these questions, we mapped the location of 697 apartment buildings in the
center of Florianopolis and compared the configurational characteristics of these locations with
the characteristics of the system as a whole, to try to identify significant differences.

Literature review

Dynamics of urban growth

Much of the dynamics of urban growth is driven by the pursuit of profit. This, in turn, is directly
derived from the difference between the final selling price and the cost of housing production,
including not only construction costs, such as labor and materials, but also taxes, duties and
projects, and especially the land. According to Krafta (1998) and Gonzales (1985), the cost of
construction tends not to vary greatly with the location within a particular urban area, provided
that the buildings being compared have materials of similar quality as well as similar levels of
technical and constructive complexity. Thus, the larger price variations properties are due to the
price paid for the land.
This, in turn, is strongly influenced by its accessibility to other parts of the city (Capozza,
1989; Villaça, 2001). Therefore, more accessible areas tend to be more expensive, because they:
a) minimize the costs of travel; and b) possess greater amount of social labor invested in its
environment in the form of public infrastructure.
According to Krafta (1994; Krafta, 1998) areas with potential are "discovered" by
developers, who build it and sell its real estate products profitably. By being the first, earn
higher profits, since the price paid initially by the land is still low, in a process analogous to that
of technological innovation in companies (Harvey, 1985 apud Krafta, 1994), to the point where
the initial location advantages become disadvantages, as the value of the land increases. Other
developers follow the same way in search of equally large profits, but with one difference: when
they arrive, the price of land is no longer the same.
The cycle repeats with dwindling profits and one possibility is that, for the investment to be
worthwhile, even at the cost of higher land, there needs to be a greater concentration of capital
in that location. This is achieved by increasing the level of construction, changing it from, for
example, a residence for middle class to upper class, or by increasing the relationship between
the built-up area and the land area, that is, the verticalization (DiPasquale and Wheaton, 1992;
Krafta, 1998).

Locational characteristics

Several goods that meet human needs are treated as commodities at one time or another. The
same happens with housing, which is directly related to the real estate. Housing as a commodity
 157

depends on a very important factor for their appreciation, its location. As noted above, the
housing production, seen as a mechanism for generating profit, largely depends on the prices
obtained when buying the land and when selling it as part of a new development, whereas these
prices are closely related to the choices of location.
Villaça (2001) states that the quality of the location is the main component of land value
“Urban land is only of interest as ' land-location '”, that is, as a means of access to the entire
urban system of the entire city (Villaça, 2001, p. 74). Gonzales (1985) also states that the
locational characteristics are dominant in the valuation of urban properties.
For residential uses, what are the factors that constitute a good location? The first factor is
the presence of urban infrastructure (Gonzales, 1985; Somekh, 1997), represented by the
existence of favorable conditions for urbanization and essential services. Another key factor is
its accessibility to other parts of the city (Villaça, 2001), especially as perceived proximity to
the main center and secondary centers of trade and services (universities, shopping centers, etc.)
and others (Lynch, 1984; Batty, 2009).
Besides these factors, the scarcity of urban land, according to Gonzales (1985), combined
with the qualities acquired through the status of the different sectors of the city, transform the
urban land on a rare commodity. Thus, these areas are capable of producing enterprises with
superior value to their production prices, especially in cities with significant growth. Under
these conditions, the author states that it is possible to obtain the so called monopoly rent (MR),
a determining factor in the extent of urban land prices. The MR varies according to the quality
level of the project and location (as is the case, for example, in coastal areas), related to their
condition and rarity, and the ability to pay of consumers. This quality is attributed to the lot
status created "spontaneously" from the growth of the city or zoning, which allocates and uses
special qualifications to residential areas.

The Verticalization in Brazil

The fast and intense process of growth in medium and large cities, both spatially, as population,
has attracted the interests of a dominant economic class, especially developers. Thus, among the
various forms of capital reproduction on urban land, the process of vertical integration has been
a genuine innovation in the capitalist city. Thus it is clear that the building height is part of a
strategy of capitalist interests, which ends up changing the urban landscape and the way of
living of citizens (Tows and Mendes, 2011; Ferreira, 2012).
Conceptually vertical integration involves the notion of high-rise building or skyscraper.
Somekh (1997) defines as the multiplication of urban land, made possible by the use of the
elevator and points out that the construction of the first skyscraper in the city of São Paulo in the
1920s initiated an intense process of urban change that extends until today.
At the beginning of the twentieth century the production of vertical integration in Brazil
began to expand due to factors such as the use of electricity, the use of elevators (Somekh,
1997), in addition to technological innovations in the area of construction applied to structural
systems (Töws and Mendes, 2011).
Although the production of urban space is related to capital, political and cultural factors
should also be considered, as the ideological spread of progress, development and modernity,
associated with the symbolic dimension of this vertical integration in the urban context
(Ferreira, 2012; Ramires, 1997).
From the readings made on the process of verticalization in Brazil some aspects can be listed
briefly. (1) The verticalization is a feature of Brazilian urbanization (Mendes, 1992; Souza,
1994; Ferreira, 2012); (2) The verticalization is related to the modernity idea (Ferreira, 2012;
Ramires, 1997; Ramires, 2011); (3) Fast increase (Ferreira, 2012); (4) It is characterized by a
predominance of residential buildings as opposed to services, contrary to what occurs in other
countries of the world (Ferreira, 2012; Souza, 1994); (5) The process of verticalization was
made possible by a revolution in the way of building, both with respect both to new techniques
and the use of different materials (Somekh, 1997; Ramires, 2011; Töws and Mendes, 2011); (6)
158

The vertical construction is also responsible for significant impacts on the urban structure,
particularly social, and the value and use of urban land (Ramires, 2011); (7) The State assumes
the role of urban space producer through the regulation of its growth (Ramires, 2011; Somekh,
1997); (8) The market logic is intrinsic to this process (Ramires, 2011; Somekh, 1997; Villaça
1986; DiPasquale and Wheaton, 1992).
As seen above, the location is able to exert a great influence in land values. Thus, Villaça
(1986) points out that the location can be characterized as one of the engines that drives the
process of verticalization and acts as a major contributor to urban sprawl.

Space Syntax and intra-urban location

The Theory of Space Syntax (TSS), developed by Bill Hillier, has as one of its main features the
emphasis on the importance of the urban layout configuration. It was derived from the
observation of the city and the attempts at trying to understand the relationship between physical
aspects and social interactions. For Hillier (2009), TSS has always sought, first of all, a
descriptive theory of the spatial form of buildings and cities.
To understand the theory of Space Syntax it is important to understand its basic principle,
which is the natural movement. According to Hillier et al (1993), a significant portion of all
pedestrian movement is determined by the road system configuration, that is, the way the roads
and other public spaces are related to each other. This portion of the movement, that depends
only on the configuration and, therefore, does not consider the location of the attractors (trade,
services, housing, urban infrastructure, etc), is called Natural Movement (NM).
The theory of Space Syntax has two main measures: Integration and Choice. The first is a
measure of closeness, while the second is a measure of centrality or betweenness. For both
measures, the spatial unit adopted is the axial line, defined as the greatest straight lines capable
of covering the entire system of open spaces (Hillier and Hanson, 1984).
Integration measures how close an axial line is from all other lines in the system. This
proximity is calculated from the average number of changes of direction required by one lineto
reach all other lines. Therefore, the measure of integration is based on the depth of each axial
line, representing the average topological distance from one line to all others in the system.
Thus, Hillier et al. (1993) states that, the greater the number of intermediate spaces between any
two points, the greater its depth, and therefore, the lower its integration.
The measurement of the average depth may be calculated according to a determined fixed
radius, also topological, called the local Integration. In this case, the integration of an axial line
measures how close (configurationally) this line is in relation to its immediate surroundings.
This location is normally radius equal to 3 (R3) but it can also be 5, 7, 9, or any other desired
number.
Several empirical studies (Hillier and Hanson, 1984; Hillier et al, 1993; Penn et al, 1998;
Hillier and Iida, 2005) found evidence that integration is strongly associated with other urban
patterns, such as land use and value and especially pedestrian movement patterns. According
Hillier et al. (1993) the configuration of the urban grid is what guides new construction and new
uses, since according to the authors some areas may have greater or lesser degree of potential of
being built or rebuilt, as they are in areas more or less integrated into the system.
The second measure used in the study is Choice, which can also be applied on a global or
local level. According to Hillier et al. (1987), the choice measure indicates the probability that a
certain space is part of the minimum path between all pairs of system space.
Therefore, while the Integration measures the closeness between a space and all the others,
the choice measures its centrality in relation to other pairs of system space. This means that they
capture different properties of spaces and therefore may help clarify the different roles that the
same space can play. Integration, therefore, captures the movement ‘from-to’, since it is a
measure of closeness between origins and destinations. It assumes that, on average, origins and
destinations closer to each other tend to generate greater momentum than origins and
destinations that are far apart from each other.
 159

On the other hand, the Choice captures movement through the space, that is, that movement
which is not necessarily generated at the same place but passes by it, having been motivated by
the interaction between the other two spaces. Although this difference is subtle, it is clear: we
can think of spaces that are in shortest paths of other spaces without, however, being very close
to all other areas of the system.
Applied to this study, 'Integration' and ‘Choice’, can help to clarify the preferences location
of the apartment buildings with regard to these two aspects.

Methodological procedures

Produced by Grupo Desenho Urbano e Paisagem (GDUP), the axial map of the urban
agglomeration of Florianopolis was used which has 22,369 lines, and then extracted the
syntactic measures Integration and Choice (Rn and R3) of the central area of the city of
Florianopolis.
Were raised by the Municipality of Florianopolis real estate cadastre data, updated in 2012
and, thereafter, selected lots that have apartment buildings with 3 floors. In the central area,
these account for 476 apartment buildings lots, while the city has a total of 2064 units,
according to the registration database. From these data, all axial lines that have apartment
buildings were identified.
Then, the spaces (axial lines) that had apartment buildings were compared with the total
axial system of the Center of Florianopolis, to identify how (and if) the first differed from all the
lines of the Center. The first comparison was made visually, trying to identify patterns that were
best captured by this way, and that would probably be more difficult to capture through
descriptive statistics (mean, mode, median, etc.).
These statistical measures were part of a second comparison, to verify more quantitatively,
the differences between the verticalized spaces and the system as a whole to assess whether,
overall, the apartment buildings were located in areas more or less integrated than the average
system, both globally and locally. The same check was made to the measure of choice.

Case Study: Florianopolis

Capital of the State of Santa Catarina, Florianopolis is located between the geographical
coordinates 27 º 23 'and 27 º 50' south latitude and 48 º 21 'to 48 ° 21' west longitude from
Greenwich, with an area of 443.36 km² which is divided between its continental portion and
insular and has 421 240 inhabitants (IBGE, 2010).
Florianopolis is now a tourist hub of the country and recently was named the third best city in
Brazil to live, according to human development index published by the UNDP (PNUD, 2014).

The process of urban sprawl in Florianopolis

In the early twentieth century Campos (2009) states that Florianopolis was a provincial town, its
structure was seen as summarizing land to what is now the city center and mainland portion.
However it was in the early decades of this century that a number of modifications started
through construction, responsible for new investments.
From the 1950s, is significant urban expansion of the city, which happens to have one,
however chaotic accelerated growth. In this period the city hall ordering the first master plan for
the city, since so far there has been little state interference regarding actions planned in the
urban area of the city.
For Campos (2009), the installation of various government agencies in 1960, mainly the
federal university of Santa Catarina, attracted a significant growth and development for the city,
hence urban sprawl of the city and begins the vertical expansion in the city center.
160

The construction of the BR101, in the 1970s, became the fastest shifts, encouraging,
according to Coelho (2012), the process of implementation of state highways, especially the
SC401, linking the center to the Casnasvieiras beaches, boosting the city. According to Campos
(2009) diverse investments in urban infrastructure were made during this period in order to
develop the city. The construction of new bridges, Colombo Sales Machado and Pedro Ivo
Campos, along the north and south embankments, enabled the urban expansion, as well as
bridges, roads and double track constructed around the island. As well as across the country, in
the 1970s, Florianopolis experiences its first real estate boom, this is when there were the first
large residential developments, deployed in the city center, Beira-Mar Norte avenue
neighborhood and close to Trindade.
With the process of economic recession that hit Brazil in the 1980s, Campos (2009) states
that some major construction of the city give way to construction of smaller, thus the building
which concentrated in the city center and had in average 12 pavements, this new environment,
migrate to the suburbs and spend to produce buildings with 4 pavements, initiating the
horizontal expansion of the city.
After the crisis of the 1980s, the revival of industry occurred in the 1990s, when many
buildings over 12 pavements began to be built in Florianopolis.
From the 2000s occurs in the metropolitan region of Florianopolis a great "real estate boom",
the city becomes a dream of consumption for various national as well as international social
classes, mainly attracting people from the states of Rio Grande do Sul, Paraná and São Paulo, as
well as neighboring countries in search of quality of life. This scenario turned out to further
boost the construction industry, contributing to a major urban expansion that began a
widespread vertical city.

Results

Global Measures

To identify the configurational characteristics of the streets which happened the process of
apartment building in the central area of the city of Florianopolis, these were analyzed on a
global and local scale, using the space syntax measures described above: Integration and
Choice. The apartment buildings are located in 154 axial lines within a local environment of 642
lines in the central area. Figure 1 Shows the map of Integration and Choice radius Rn and finds
apartment buildings.

Figure 1. a. Integration Rn of the central area | b. Choice Rn of the central area.

Source: Grupo Desenho Urbano e Paisagem (GDUP) UFSC. Compiled by: Authors.
 161

Looking at the study area in relation to the extent of integration Rn, one realizes that the
entire cut has high level of integration with the global system, that is, all the buildings are
coming from other areas of the city (a consequence of the fact that the cut represent the central
area of the city). Yet, clearly the predominance of apartment buildings on high weight lines in
Figure 1a. We can also notice a tendency of these buildings become more concentrated in the
center and north of the cut, with low occurrence in the southern portion. This happens probably
for historical reasons rather than by configurational reasons, since the southern area corresponds
to the Historical Center of the City, where there are lots of historical buildings preserved with
low number of floors.
As for the measure of Choice Rn, we see in Figure 1b that few streets of the central, are part
of the shortest paths to other areas of the system, that is, there is a small amount of lines that
carry these connections, while others remain secondary. In terms of density, this occupation,
however, noticed that the streets with greater choice have higher concentration of apartment
buildings, while, as the streets are internalized and become less "passing", the concentration
decreases.
This relationship between the measure of integration Rn and Choice Rn, can be enhanced in
Graphic 01 below. The black dots represent the streets where there are apartment buildings,
while the gray dots represent the total streets of the central area.

Integration Rn x ChoiceRn
Choice Rn

250,00
x 1.000.000

200,00

150,00

100,00

50,00

0,00
0,15 0,17 0,19 0,21 0,23 0,25 0,27 0,29
Integration Rn

central streets central streets with apartment buildings (AB)

Figure 2. Integration Rn X Choice Rn. Compiled by: Authors.

In this Figure 2 it is possible to identify streets where there are apartment buildings that have
high global integration, being located in the far right portion of the set of points, but low choice
global.

Local Measures

When analyzed on a local scale, the streets behave differently. Observing figure 3 below, the
apartment buildings are located on streets from medium to high integration, while for the
measurement of Choice, the location of apartment buildings is mostly on streets with a high
level.
Figure 4 below shows the relationship between Integration and Choice R3. In this graph, we
can identify that the deployment of apartment buildings focuses on the process of medium to
high local integration and a few streets stand out for the high rate of choice R3.
162

Figure 3. a. Integration R3 of the central area. b. Choice R3 of the central area.

Source: Grupo Desenho Urbano e Paisagem (GDUP) UFSC. Compiled by: Author.

Integration R3 x Choice R3
1,60
x 1000

1,40
1,20
Choice R3

1,00
0,80
0,60
0,40
0,20
0,00
0,00 0,50 1,00 1,50 2,00
Integration R3

central streets central streets with apartment buildings (AB)

Figure 4. Integration R3 X Choice R3. Compiled by: Authors

Numerical Comparisons

Mean syntactic measures for the center as a whole, and for the streets with apartment buildings,
are given in table 1. Comparing the values of two columns, we see that measurements of streets,
where there are apartment buildings, is sensibly larger, with emphasis on measures of local
radius (R3), especially the choice, in which the streets of the central area where there are
apartment buildings is 131.41, against 51.47, the general average of the center (up 255.3%) .
Compared with measurements of choice, variations of Integration compared between all the
streets downtown and only those with apartment buildings, listed in the third column can be
considered small (107.7% and 133.6%). This may be an indication that the key to understanding
the criteria of location, from the point of configurational view, is in the choice and not on
Integration, at least for the selected area for this case study, characterized by a central area in
which virtually all integration values are high, that is, there is relatively little variation.
This impression is reinforced by the histograms of space syntax measures in its two scales of
analysis shown below.
 163

Table 1. Means of syntactic measures of central area streets. Preparation: Authors.

Centre – Centre – streets Centre - streets with

Diference
All streets with apartment apartment buildings
(%)
(624) buildings (154) (154) Weighted Average
Integration Rn 0,26 0,28 107,7% 0,28
Choice Rn 3.447.193,31 5.364. 760,75 155,63% 28.020.368,28
Integration R3 1,10 1,47 133,6% 1,58
Choice R3 51,47 131,41 255,3% 356,43

Central Streets - Int.Rn

160
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
0,16 0,17 0,18 0,19 0,20 0,21 0,22 0,23 0,24 0,25 0,26 0,27 0,28 0,29 0,30
Integration Rn

Central streets central streets with apartment buildings

Central streets - Choice Rn

700
600
500
400
300
200
100
0

Choice Rn (x 1.000.000)

central streets central streets with apartament buildings

Central streets - Int.R3

80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
0,43 0,53 0,63 0,73 0,83 0,93 1,03 1,13 1,23 1,33 1,43 1,53 1,63 1,73 1,83
Integration R3

central streets central streets with apartament buildings

Central streets - Choice R3

600

500

400

300

200

100

0
0,10 0,20 0,30 0,40 0,50 0,60 0,70 0,80 0,90 1,01 1,11 1,21 1,31 1,41 1,51
Choice R3 (x1.000)

central streets central streets with apartament buildings

Figure 5. Histograms of syntactic measures of the streets of the central area. In light
gray, the histogram of the streets where there are apartment buildings.

Through the histogram is also possible to identify most of the streets of central area have a
high rate of integration Rn, and moderate to high level of integration R3. For the measurement
of choice, on the global scale, the vast majority is close to 0, however the few streets that have
164

significant value collaborate to high average which is 3,447,193.31, while on a local scale, few
streets have expressive value.

Conclusions

The verticalization process is one of the responsible for the transformation of the urban
landscape and is part of a capitalist strategy for profit on urban land.
In turn, the urban land value is highly influenced by its location into the urban space,
especially considering the proximity to the center, services, businesses and its urban
infrastructure.
In this context, a configurational analysis can help explain the logical of location within the
urban space. Thus, the Theory of Space Syntax helped identify the configurational
characteristics of streets with buildings in the center of Florianopolis.
Through the analysis it was identified that within the central area of the city of Florianopolis,
apartment buildings are located on streets with high global and local integration, that is, the
other areas are near the city. As to the measure of choice, implantation occurs preferentially in
streets that have medium to high level on a local scale, therefore, these streets are not part of the
shortest paths to other parts of the city, but within the center itself.
In other words, the preference deployment occurs in streets that make its central location and
easy access to many points of the city location, however, prioritize relatively quiet pathways
outside the access roads to other places outside the center.

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166

Typological atlases of block and block-face

Alice Vialard
School of Architecture, Georgia Institute of Technology.
E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract. The classification of blocks and block-faces according to several morphological characteristics
is used in this paper as a basis for assessing urban form. Classification aggregates discrete data into
categories which can subsequently become associated with specific considerations, requirements or
solutions regarding city planning and design (Steadman, Bruhns et al. 2000). The issue, then, is to
present similarities, co-variations or contingencies in a meaningful and legible manner so that the
resulting typology of urban conditions can support planning or design actions. The intent is to represent
and characterize urban units according to numerical profiles and to group them into clusters, using the k-
means method (Gil, Beirão et al. 2012). As a second step, clusters are depicted on maps to produce
typological atlases. They serve to assess existing urban conditions or test future urban conditions. Two
typological atlases are proposed. The first concerns the morphology of blocks based on shape and size;
the second concerns block-faces as the interface between street and building, coalescing external and
internal loads. Syntactic measures such as metric and directional reach (Peponis, Bafna et al. 2008)
characterise the external load exercised by the street system and morphological measures such as
setbacks and building frontages (Talen 2005; Oliveira 2013) represent the internal load exerted by
buildings. The typological atlases help visualize the prevailing building and street patterns and facilitate
the evaluation of urban conditions so as to distinguish between saturated areas and areas with greater
potential for future development.

Key Words: Lock-face; typological atlas; block morphology; metric reach.

Introduction

The morphology of our cities entails fundamental problems but also, when studied carefully,
hints for their solutions. The form of North American cities, particularly as it has accrued since
the 60s, has been characterized principally by ‘urban sprawl’. Studies of the configuration of
sprawl show the incompatibility between our understanding of irregular forms and the tools
proposed to measure it (Scheer, 2001). Furthermore, a study that compared the urban form of
Barcelona and Atlanta has shown that measures that are relevant for a regular and dense city
cannot be applied to a sprawling city (Bertaud, 2004). Solutions that deal with sprawl should be
able to accommodate changes as part of the inward and outward growth of cities, without
detriment to the large-scale functioning structure. Of particular interest is the question of
whether an area developed as a suburb can get more densely urbanized over time, and, if it can,
which particular suburban sites are good candidates for the initial steps towards denser
urbanization.
This paper proposes a way to measure and assess existing urban form in the context of North
American sprawling cities as a basis to provide more targeted and appropriate solutions, which
are a step towards sustainability. For this purpose, a systematic way of assessing urban form
has been developed, taking into account selected syntactical and morphological properties used
in previous studies of cities. Part of the work has been to adapt some of existing measures for
the study of irregular forms. However, the main contribution of this proposed framework is to
link these properties to a single morphological unit, the block-face, as the interface between
street and building that is expected to provide a more comprehensive account of the existing
conditions.
 167

The block-face as unit of analysis

The methodology builds upon a research tradition of analytical and quantitative studies of urban
layout developed in the fields of morphology and space syntax. It raises two questions regarding
the unit of analysis and the measures of built environment. Studies in urban morphology
typically look at the interactions between urban block size and shape, and patterns of buildings.
Typically, however, the impact of the larger scale syntax of street network is not taken into
account. On the other hand, studies in space syntax have looked at the interaction between street
connectivity, land use and development density, but have not specifically addressed the
geometry of urban blocks.

Linking buildings to streets and blocks to buildings

Bridging two fields, recent studies have shown correlations between building density and street
connectivity. While space syntax is typically concerned with accessibility, Marcus (2010) has
proposed the concept of “spatial capital” to relate street accessibility, building density and
population diversity. Direct street accessibility is an essential component of building density in
relation to street life which lends itself to promote a continuous built environment along streets.
To integrate the notion of accessible building density is to look at how the street relates to
buildings physically, by measuring frontage and setbacks.
Looking at building configurations, Berghauser Pont and Haupt (2002, 2010) establish a
strong relationship between block dimensions and building configurations and building
functions. The diversity of building configurations within a block is captured in a matrix called
‘spacemate’ that associates block area, open space area, ground floor area and total floor area
with different types of developments. This study highlights the impact of size of urban block to
building density, but does not fully integrate the impact of the block boundary, which is made
by the streets. The area of the street is considered to be part of the non-built space, and it is not
strongly integrated into the space matrix. To complement these existing measures of block size,
measures of shape based on block periphery are proposed to link blocks to streets.

The block-face

Recent studies have started to link building configurations and street networks. In a study of
New York, Oliveira (2013) uses streets, plots and buildings as morphological units to link
syntactic properties of streets to the morphology of buildings (frontage, height), as well as to
land-uses. This in-depth and comprehensive study limits itself to relatively few streets. Using a
GIS platform, it is possible to develop a more systematic linkage between the syntactic
properties of streets and building morphology.
In the context of sprawling city form, the potential of sites to accommodate future
development should to be assessed in terms of the balance between local and global access, as
determined by the conditions at the perimeter of the block and available land as determined by
block size, shape and existing building footprints. The block-face emerges as the morphological
element that naturally associates the properties of the street network and the properties of
buildings. The block-face is the element that belongs to both the street and the building and, as
such, can capture variations along a street or between different faces of a block. By looking for
systematic relationships between buildings and streets, there is a clearer understanding on how
they associate or dissociate. As such, they can affect the future of cities by constraining the
potential forms of future development.
168

Figure 1. Number of block-faces based on road segment. The distinction between (b)
and (e) is the source of the pressure on the boundary: external (b) or internal (e). The
variation between number of road segments and number of faces happens when there are
internal road segments: dead-ends (e) or internal street (f). Blocks (c) and (d) are cases of
block partially or fully contained within another block.

The block-face, as morphological unit, has been used in only few urban morphological studies
(Purciel, Neckerman et al., 2009). The distinction between collecting data at the block level or
the block-face is that the latter includes the street as a unit of analysis. Figure 1 illustrates the
different translations from road segments to block-faces. The number of faces per block
corresponds to the number of road segments associated to a block with adjustment for internal
road segments.

Measures

The balance between street properties and building properties defines the value of blocks and
block-faces. This section presents a set of attributes related first to street layout and second to
building footprints. Once defined, the measures of the built environment are transferred as
“load” onto the block-face. There are two distinct kinds of loads, the internal load that measures
density and continuity of buildings configurations and the external load that includes the
connectivity and the accessibility of the street network. Figure 2 summarizes the relationships of
each morphological unit to their syntactic and morphological properties and their measures.

Figure 2. The relationships of morphological units, their syntactic and morphological

properties and their measures.
 169

Internal load - Buildings

Because the emphasis is on the density of the built environment along a street, the selected
measures of the internal load define the relationship of building to the block boundary. This
internal load expresses the density of construction in a given area, therefore, it implicitly relates
to the potential for further development or to the saturation of the urban fabric. The location of
buildings in the center or on the edge of the block determines the degree of enclosure or
openness of the block. For a passer-by, the degree of “enclosure” of the block is characterized
by the continuity or the interruption of facades along the streets: in other words, the “built
frontage”.
Built frontage is made of the lines of the building footprint that are within a given distance
from the block-face. Talen (2005) draws the limit at 9-14 meters in the interior of the block
from the street for the sense of enclosure to be effectively present. In the case of Atlanta, the
chosen distances are 15 meters from the boundary of the block (figure 3-1). The frontage ratio
of a block-face is the percentage of its length that is built. The continuity of the frontage is
captured by frontage fragmentation, which is the number of building fronts that makes the
frontage and tells how fragmented the experience is for the passer-by.
The third measure is the setback, which is the distance from the limit of the lot and the street
to the first line of the building footprint towards the center of the block. In this sample, setbacks
are represented by radials. Radial setback indicates the ratio of “in front of the buildings” length
and the “behind the building façade” length as one moves from the perimeter to the block center
(figure 3-2).

External load - Streets

The second set of measures focuses on the characteristics of street layout, the external load.
Street performance is principally linked to accessibility and connectivity. The connectivity of a
street layout is defined by the amount of street length available within a set reach. At the urban
scale, the metric distance and topological distance are incorporated in the measure of metric
reach and directional reach (Peponis, Allen et al., 2007). Parametric thresholds are used to
distinguish local from global reach. Each reach measure records a different affordance of the
street segment. It is then transferred from the street segment to the two block-faces associated
with that road segment.
Metric reach characterizes street density and street connectivity. It measures the total linear
distance in miles that is available for someone departing from the middle of a road segment and
“walking” a given distance in every direction (Peponis, Bafna et al., 2008)21. The given distance
is called radius. Variations in the radius length capture either local street density, using, for
example, a radius of 0.17 mile (270m), or global street density with radius of 5 miles (8km).
Metric reach provides a measure of “potential”, of how much of the urban fabric is available
nearby. It quantifies in length the range of nearby opportunities provided by the street
network. To some degree, metric reach captures availability of alternative routes, or street
connectivity. A metric reach value is assigned to each road segment to characterize block-face.
High values demonstrate high density and therefore high local connectivity.
Directional reach records the total length of streets available from a street segment within a
set number of changes of direction. What counts as a change of direction is specified using a
threshold angle. In this study an angle greater than 10 degrees is considered a turn. Directional
reach can be analyzed using different numbers of turns. Directional reach at 0 direction change

21
The details of their computation in the ArcView GIS platform is discussed in Peponis, J., D. Allen, et
al. (2007). Measuring the Configuration of Street Networks. 6th International Space Syntax Symposium,
Istanbul Technical University, Cenkler, Istanbul
170

depicts the “straightness” of the urban fabric locally. It is associated with the legibility of the
urban structure. This is the only measure that does not take density into account; it is the
simplest configurational measure. Other measures of connectivity and density exist, but these
two are selected because they are associated with the street segment. The last set of measures
relates to the design of blocks and their geometry.

Figure 3. Frontage Ratio (1) is the ratio of the sum of the length of building frontage (c)
that are included in the 10 meters buffer zone of that block-face (b) by the length of the
block-face length (a). Block-face setback (2) is the average ratio of the length of the radial.
Frontage Fragmentation (3) is the number of building frontage included in the 15 meters
buffer zone.
 171

Morphology of Blocks: relate linear dimension to properties of street and building

configurations

The relationship of block-faces to a block resides in the morphology of the block and its
capacity to distinguish its sides depending on which street a side is facing. Geometrical shapes
can be measured in several ways, and the selected measures describe two aspects of a block: the
periphery, which is in contact with the street, and its internal metric depth, which provides a
framework for the location and size of building footprints.
Block size can be described by its area or by linear dimensions. Dimensions describing the
overall proportions of block at the periphery are referred to as “width”. Average length, the
length of the block perimeter divided by the number of block-faces, and segment length, the
length of the street centreline between two intersections, are computed to characterize block
width. Dimensions from center to perimeter are referred to as “depth”. They describe internal
properties of blocks: the longest axis22 or maximum span is the distance between the furthest
points on the perimeter, and the radial depth is the average distance from centroid to perimeter.
Other dimensions of block morphology relative to shape are the deformation of the block
boundary and the proportions of the block. Deformation can be measured by the distortion of
the perimeter or by variations in depth. To compute the distortions of the boundary, two shape
indexes are presented and used to describe the block stock in Atlanta: square compactness and
elongation. According to Colaninno, Cladera et al. (2011), the shape indexes based on the ratio
perimeter-area (square compactness) and based on the longest axis (elongation) are both
indicators of the “complexity” of a shape. Square compactness better describes the boundary
and elongation better defines proportions.

Description of Atlanta stock

These measures become the basis for quantifying and building a profile of the blocks in a
city. In this particular case, Atlanta is chosen to exemplify sprawling city form. Table 1
summarizes values and ranges of values for measures of street load, building load and block
morphology.

Mapping

Figure 4 illustrates two ways of looking at the city of Atlanta based on the most recurrent type
of block morphology. The first profile of Atlanta that shows the most recurrent type of block
dimensions is established based on the selected dimensions for width and depth. To make up the
profile, blocks with a radial depth between 43 and 93 meters and with an average face length
between 58 and 122 meters are selected. Only 1071 blocks match the two requirements (figure
4-1). While the ranges selected described half of the sample when considered one at a time, the
final selection based on both measures encompasses only a quarter of the blocks. These belong
to the small-medium category, with an average size of 1.3 hectares.

22
To measure internal dimensions, except the radial depth, we use the Shape Metrics Tool developed by
Jason Parent and available online [http://clear.uconn.edu/tools/Shape_Metrics/index.htm]. It calculates
the longest axis, the girth and other measures that will be needed to compute index of compactness. The
tool is a Python script that runs out of ArcToolbox in ArcGIS 9.3. It requires a polygon as an input. The
measures are explained in detailed in a published article: Angel, S., J. Parent, et al. (2009). "Ten
compactness properties of circles: Measuring shape in geography." Canadian Geographer/Le Géographe
canadien 54(4): 441-461.
172

Table 1. Summary of values and ranges for all selected measures in the city of Atlanta.

Block-face (n= 29750)

Street load MEAN MEDIAN QUARTILES ALL
Metric Reach 0.17 mile 0.91 0.86 0.63-1.15 0-3.1
Metric Reach 5 mile 735 776 602-880 210-980
Directional Reach 0dc mile 0.5 0.24 0.1-0.56 0-27.5
Building load
Frontage Ratio (20m) percentage 26.8 22.8 0-46 0-141
Setback percentage 46.7 41.8 27-64 0-100
Frontage Fragmentation n 2.9 2 0-4 0-46
Block (n= 4028)
Block morphology
Area hectares 6.15 2.01 1.1-4.3 0-503
Average Length* meters 130 109 78-158 11.6-2046
Segment Length meters 173 131 85-212 7-2585
Maximum Span meters 339 239 168-386 8-4107
Radial Depth* meters 91 74 56-103 2.7-657
Square compactness 0-1.3 0.78 0.84 0.65-0.95 0.06-1.24
Elongation 0-1 0.66 0.68 0.59-0.75 0.2-0.94
Number of block-faces 6.4 5 4-6 1-136
*averaged dimensions

The second profile of Atlanta blocks is based on block shape. It is made of blocks with
square compactness between 0.8 and 1.01 and an elongation index between 0.66 and 0.8. Only
1173 blocks match the two requirements (figure 4-2). Although still small, this profile includes
a wider range of block sizes, with an average value of 2.1 varying between 0.01 and 52 hectares,
compared to the profile based on dimensions alone. The two maps imply two different
principles of urban blocks in Atlanta, but they both show that the combination of different
measures to describe a typical block creates much smaller better-specified categories.

Clustering and visualization

Atlanta embeds a variety of urban forms that range from traditional urbanism on a gridiron to
extreme forms of sprawl. Predictably, the local and global connectivity of the urban form varies
widely in Atlanta. Furthermore, Atlanta is comprised of urban forms that have not yet reached
their full potential in terms of building density. In these currently sprawling patterns, there is
room for future density and street connectivity to increase. Thus, it is useful to determine how to
measure their potential for transformation and which physical characteristics are more
conductive to changes in block subdivision and street connectivity.
The mathematical classification of urban and built form allows for the precise identification
of commonalities and differences between designs. Classification is a way to group elements
with similar characteristics so as to reveal their potential in terms of evolution, function and
performance. The classification of designs is traditionally based on visual and formal
resemblances that are identified to propose types. The designer, who then uses the types, knows
that they embed certain properties. The role of quantification and formal analysis is to structure
the exploration of possibilities given that geometry and topology impose their own limitations
upon urban and built form. It is also important to note that the typology presented is not final.
 173

Different emphases produce different types based on aspects of morphological properties,

syntactic properties or a combination of both.

Figure 4. Blocks representative of Atlanta based on their radial depth and average
length dimensions. They represent the compact half range (n= 1071) (1). Blocks
representative of Atlanta based on their area, square compactness and elongation. They
represent the compact half range (n= 1173) (2).

Clusters (k-means)

The classification of neighborhoods has been used to evaluate the efficiency of urban design
policies (Song and Knaap 2007). Song and Knaap aggregate a set of measures into eight factors
that serve as inputs for k-means clustering. Cluster analysis is used in order to produce
classifications of urban form (Gil, Beirão et al. 2012). Other authors characterize urban structure
by using data training and discriminant analysis algorithms to produce classifications based on
the shape and configuration of buildings (Steiniger, Lange et al. 2008). The most complete and
automated computational classification of urban structure taking into account building footprints
and block shapes deals with Barcelona (Colaninno, Cladera et al. 2011). The authors train the
model by using established historical periodization. They subsequently integrate the structure of
the street network into the analysis. A thorough review of pattern classification methods by
Duda and Hart (1996), suggests that k-means clustering tends to divide a set of objects into
homogeneous groups with no preconceived information about the group structure of the data.
The k-means clustering organizes blocks into clusters that share common properties.
The goal is to create clusters that show statistical and numerical evidence of similar patterns.
Several parameters can be given as input and the data is partitioned according to the distance of
each entry to the different means. With k-means clustering the data are partitioned into a
number k of clusters, determined by the user.
174

Morphology of Block clustering

A first clustering of the Atlanta blocks by their morphological properties is established as

follows. Three morphological factors are selected to characterize the size (area) and the shape of
blocks (square compactness and elongation). After several tests, the number of clusters was
fixed to eight: fewer clusters did not provide enough discrimination and more clusters created
too many classes with too few elements, and quite small variations of values between clusters.
The different clusters are illustrated in figure 5.
Regarding block area, k-means clustering partitions the blocks into groups ranging from
small-medium blocks to mega blocks, the blocks larger than one million square meters.
Regarding square compactness, which is sensitive to the shape of the block boundary, clusters
highlight the range from regular to convoluted blocks. Finally, regarding elongation, which
describes the overall span of the block shape, clusters distinguish between
consolidated/compact, elongated and narrow blocks.

Figure 5. Eight clusters from the k-mean method based on area, square compactness
and elongation: table with mean values. For each cluster, the mean number of block-faces,
average length (width) and longest axis (span) are reported in meters.
 175

This classification of blocks by morphological characteristics provides a first step towards

the assessment of the existing state of the urban fabric. Other design characteristics are
associated with each cluster. For example, the average dimensions of span (longest axis), depth
and width are given as well as the average number of block-faces.

Mapping Syntactic clusters – characterisation of neighbourhoods

For the purpose of understanding the effect of different types of external loads on the formation
of neighborhoods, urban blocks are clustered to depict configurations and associations in their
urban contexts according to distance from the center, the density or the linearity of their as-
sociation, their isolation and the complexity of their boundary. The clustering method by k-
means divides the sample into 8 clusters according to the external load measures: local
connectivity, measured by metric reach radius 0.17 mile (274m); global connectivity, measured
by metric reach radius 5 miles (8km); the regularity of the grid, measured by the directional
reach value for 0 direction changes, and the regularity of the grid, measured by the number of
block faces, which is sensitive to the number of internally and externally oriented T-junctions
along the block periphery.
Figure 6 illustrates the clustering of blocks according to syntactic properties of the adjacent
streets and their location on the map. Block clusters tend to form patterns of aggregation that
visualize traditional type of neighborhood as well as less recognizable ones. In the grid type,
homogeneous and compact neighborhoods are split into three categories: small compact
neighborhoods made of regular blocks centrally located, such as in “Downtown Atlanta” (figure
6-a); compact neighborhoods with a more organic structure like “Ansley Park”, with its
curvilinear streets based on Olmsted-type principles (figure 6-b) and fairly compact
neighborhoods at the periphery of the sample (figure 6-c). These last two clusters have the most
numerous elements; their difference is essentially in their location; within some 4-5 miles (6.4-
8km) from the city center (figure 6-b) and others located beyond the 5 miles (8km) boundary
(figure 6-c).
The linear distribution of pattern relates to neighborhoods with a high mean directional
reach. These clusters represent blocks attached to a major street that is long and straight. These
are neighborhoods that developed along a major axis such ‘North Avenue’ (figure 6-d) or
‘Sylvan Road-Joseph Lowery Blvd’ (figure 6-e). The other clusters depict association of large,
complex pattern blocks with a high number of block-faces. The pattern of blocks is interrupted
by large gaps that create large discontinuity. Adjacent blocks only share a small proportion of
their perimeter. They are very large blocks with normal-medium global and local reach and
directional reach. Finally, isolates (figure 6-h) have the highest number of faces and the lowest
global mean reach and directional reach.
From a connectivity standpoint, Atlanta presents fairly discrete neighborhoods with very few
connections between them. New typologies arise linked to properties of long straight lines or to
a very complex system of bounding streets. Reciprocally, morphologies of neighbourhoods are
associated with syntactical characteristics.

Block-face clustering and mapping

The urban form of Atlanta can be characterized as diverse. While Atlanta is made of a majority
of small and fairly regular blocks, as shown in the first profile, the extremely large blocks
participate fully as elements of discontinuity. The discontinuity of the urban fabric is one of the
main characteristics of the overall urbanism of Atlanta. The second characteristic is that
building configurations in Atlanta are characterized by very deep setbacks that do not
participate in defining the continuity of city form. The two main issues are where to implement
new development to create a sense of continuity and how to use the existing potential carried by
the street network. Density should be increased for block-faces with high connectivity and
buildings should be located as to create a continuous frontage.
176

Figure 6. Clusters based on external load. The number of blocks (n) is reported for
each cluster as well as the metric reach radii 5 miles (MR5) and 0.17 mile (MR0.17), the
directional reach without change of direction (DR0dc) and finally the number of block-
faces (nBF).

A block-face is the link between the external characteristics of the road structure and the
internal pressure of building load. The combination of all these parameters provides a
framework for comparing and classifying block-faces. The k-means method previously used is
applied once more. Three parameters for the external load and three parameters for the internal
load are included in the calculation. The building load is represented with the amount of
frontage at 20 meters from the centerline, its fragmentation and the presence of setbacks. The
external load encompasses the global metric reach with a 5 miles radius (8km), the local metric
reach with a 0.17 mile radius (274m) and, finally, the straightness of the road structure with the
directional reach with no change of direction.
 177

Table 2. The mean values for 8 Clusters of block-faces according to three parameters of
building load and three parameters of street load. Frontage fragmentation [F20F] and
ratio [F20R] at 20 meters and setback ratio [SK] account for the building load. Reaches
with metric reach 5 miles [MR5] and 0.17 mile [MR0.17], with directional reach 0
direction change [DR0dc] account for the street load.

STREET LOAD BUIDLING LOAD

Cluster MR 5 (mi) MR0.17(mi) DR0dc (mi) SK (%) F20R (%) F20F (n) # block-faces
1 479 0.45 26.42 92.9 0.00 0.00 4
3 53 0.50 12.28 77.1 1.70 0.23 22

2 543 0.64 0.29 80.9 15.15 1.72 4373

4 588 0.70 0.24 31.6 41.87 4.10 7127

6 867 1.12 0.46 74.9 20.26 1.45 5269

7 869 1.19 0.48 25.6 70.86 4.26 8473

8 811 0.99 3.11 46.7 34.37 2.49 1296

5 728 0.67 0.28 30.7 67.55 13.56 3006

Several clusters have similar street loads parameters and very different building load and
vice versa. Table 2 pairs the clusters with similar characteristics of either building or street
loads: clusters 1 and 3, clusters 2 and 4, clusters 6 and 7. Cluster 1 includes empty block-faces
near highways. They have very high directional reach but very low connectivity and are empty.
Cluster 3 is a slight variation of cluster 1 with low building loads. Block-faces have plenty of
available space for new buildings but are not connected well to their surroundings. Cluster 2
includes block faces with almost no building on their edges, but with low setbacks where built.
Cluster 4 includes block-faces that are fairly well built on the edge, with building footprints also
covering the interior so that no additional building can easily be added.
Cluster 7 represents the best performing block-faces, they are highly connected locally and
globally, they are fairly accessible, the setbacks are minimum (quarter), they are highly built on
their edge (70 percent) with a reasonable fragmentation (4 to 5 building footprints on average).
They are functioning well. Cluster 6 has similar behavior for connectivity and accessibility but
their building footprint load is very low: only 20 percent of the frontage is built by 1 or 2
building footprints, setbacks indicate lack of buildings with a 75 percent value on average. In
the similar location but more empty of footprints, cluster 6 can be seen as containing blocks
which are at an earlier stage of development compared to those in cluster 7.
Cluster 8 is average on every level, but with higher values on connectivity and low values on
building load with only 35 percent built and fairly low number of building footprints (2 to 3).
These block-faces are located near long straight lines that are not highways. They have a very
good potential based on their existing connectivity and accessibility. Cluster 5 seems to
represent the suburban type of block-face with lots of building footprints (13.6) and high
frontage (68 percent): single-family houses. Block faces in this cluster are fairly well connected
globally, but not performing as well locally.
To illustrate the different types of block-faces, an example of streets and blocks is provided in
locations with large irregular blocks with diversified conditions on the boundary (figure 7). The
example shows the block that accommodates the Atlanta City Water Works Reservoir II with
178

some surroundings blocks. It shows six distinctive types of block-faces. The north side is made
of block-faces type 4. They are characterized by low global or local connectivity and medium
straightness associated with a fairly small amount of frontage associated to deep setbacks (half
way between the center and the boundary) with few building footprints. There is little to be
done to improve the existing conditions. In block-face type 8, located on the east side of the
block, similar building configurations exist but in a very high connectivity and straightness
context. The east side of the block is bordered by Northside drive, which gives lots of potential
for buildings that need connectivity and accessibility, but the existing configuration of buildings
needs to be improved. The south boundary is fairly unbuilt with block-faces type 3 and is fairly
well connected. More buildings could be added. However in that specific example, half of the
southern boundary is bordered by the reservoir. The same condition exists for the block-face
type 2 but as a cul-de-sac, it is less accessible and less connected.
In summary, some of the clusters are context dependent: clusters 2 and 6 are concentrated in
specific regions, and cluster 8 is linked to specific streets. On the other hand, different building
configurations exist for similar street characteristics. The example of the large block (figure 7)
showed that a single block can have variations on its edges to accommodate different building
configurations. The ability of some blocks to create different conditions along their edge carries
an interest for creating diversity.

Figure 7. Example of different block-face types around a fairly large block (Atlanta
City Water Works Reservoir 2) that illustrates clusters 2, 4, 6 and 8. The immediate
surroundings include also clusters 5 and 7.
 179

Conclusion

The proposed framework to understand the behavior of existing block-faces concerning building
and street loads has shown that block-faces can have different levels of densification. However,
only some block-faces have the flexibility to accommodate changes, particularly for addition of
buildings. The analysis of block-faces has facilitated explorations of the significance of streets
in relation to buildings. Streets can now be defined as made of two sides; thus, they link two
possibly different conditions emerging from the two blocks they are in contact with. Streets also
link adjoining blocks along their length. The context is included in the assessment of block-face.
This article has shed light on some purely morphological relationships. It has also proposed
to bring block-faces into focus as fundamental to our understanding of city form. In doing so it
also proposes ways in which the interface between architectural and urban design can be
visualized. Block-faces have emerged as the boundary and interface at which the syntax of
street networks and the syntax of built form interact.
This work contributes to the assessment of existing cities, specifically to the identification of
locations with greater potential for development based on good connectivity and good
availability of development land at the edge and also in the interior of blocks. The work also
contributes to the assessment of the potential of individual properties considered for real estate
development.

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 181

Analysis and modeling of spatial changes: Identification and

quantification of urban growth in Florianópolis-SC

Raquel Weiss, Alina Gonçalves Santiago

Post-Graduation Program of Architecture and Urbanism Department, Federal University of
Santa Catarina. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected].

Abstract. The urbanization process is one of the most remarkable manifestations of human actions on
space, highlighted by the progressive population growth in urban centers. Such growth is what makes
cities big and complex structures, representing the peak of the way of life, appropriations,
transformations and manifestations that humankind is capable of imposing, be them economic, social, or
environmental. Thus, scenarios with a tangled, intrinsic and dynamic physical and territorial structure
emerge, reflecting the changes in the morphology and functionality of such places, thus becoming urban
spaces rather than rural areas. Among the trends in urban expansion, it can be highlighted urban sprawl,
characterized by low density, fragmented, polynuclear, and often uncontrolled urban dispersion.
Considering this, and taking as case study the city of Florianópolis-SC-Brazil, marked by the distribution
of several urban nucleiconsolidated throughout its insular territory, the present study aims at
understanding, identifying and quantifying the dynamics and spatial organizations of the city areas. In
order to do so, spatial-temporal analyses of land use through photo interpretation in GIS platforms of
representative spatial cutouts representing different existing urban morphologies have been conducted.
Besides that, geoprocessing techniques and the use of spatial metrics are employed in the evaluation and
classification of variables through numeral indicators. Thus, the mapping and quantification of the
alterations represented by Human vs Space interaction throughout the analyzed period allows a better
understanding and a higher accuracy of the spatial dynamic processes.

Key Words: Urban morphology; spatial metrics; GIS, spatial-temporal analysis; urban sprawl.

Introduction
The cities have undergone considerable changes in recent decades due to urban growth.
Progressive and intensified form, remains ongoing process of urbanization, leading to changes
in land use, causing significant physical-territorial impacts, mainly related to urban morphology
(Coelho et al., 2014, Borges et al., 2010). According to Deng et al. (2009) and Kong et al.
(2012), urbanization is characterized as the most powerful and visible action of the force of
man, which causes sudden changes in use and landscape patterns, to relate mainly the social and
economic issues.
In this context, marked by the performance of the real estate market, the interests of society
and public policy, is occurring a dispersed process of urbanization (urban sprawl) (Inostroza et
al., 2013). Characterized by low density, spreading spatial patterns, configured for fragmented
and discontinuous urban settlements, forming a polynuclear structure and highly dependent on
the automobile, leading to significant environmental shocks (Herold et al., 2005, Costa and
Silva, 2007, Bhatta et al., 2010, Aguilera et al., 2011, Thapa and Murayama, 2009, Yu and Ng,
2006, Tv et al., 2012, Aljoufie et al., 2013, Yu and Ng, 2007,Barredoand Demicheli, 2003).
In order to mitigate the impacts of urban sprawl, the monitoring of urban development by
means of spatiotemporal information appears to be an important tool in the evaluation of
transformations of the territory. Especially, in order to ensure the sustainability of cities in the
future. The use of geotechnologies, which combines remote sensing and GIS techniques
(Geographic Information System), is a valuable resource in the planning and construction of
urban policies, it is possible to identify and understand the dynamics and shape of the urban
growth process (Coelho et al., 2014, Borges et al., 2010, Deng et al., 2009).
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Among the techniques for assessing the dynamics of urban land occupation, allowing the
characterization and diagnosis of problems, has emerged the use of spatial metrics. These are
adapted from related Landscape Ecology studies and shown to be an important geospatial tool.
Directed to studies of landscape and different ecosystems, especially the themes of forest and
animal species, emerged from the 1980s (Moura, 2010b, Moura, 2010a, Liu et al., 2010, Li et
al., 2005). It is configured on a system that studies the landscape from the perspective that it is
formed by the heterogeneities of an interactive system, the formation of a mosaic of patches or
fragments Forman (1995), Lima and Rocha, 2011). From a system where there is a relationship
between its components, allows the realization of assessments at different spatial and temporal
scales, studying the composition and structure (Poletto and Metzger, 2012).
In this scenario, based on the methods of Landscape Ecology, have become the urban spatial
metrics to urban studies. It is noted an interesting mechanism in knowledge area for the analysis
of spatial and functional patterns. Through the generation of quantitative data and indices
featuring urban space as the form, size, number and geographical dispersion of its constituents
(Sundell-Turner and Rodewald 2008, Sanches and Ferreira 2008, Aguilera et al., 2011).
Thus, taking as a case study of the city of Florianópolis-SC, which is marked by the
distribution of numerous consolidated urban centers along its island territory (Figure 1), this
study aimed, from a spatial clipping, the Canasvieiras District to understand, identify and
quantify the dynamics and spatial organizations of the areas.

Material and methods

Study Area

The District of Canasvieiras is located on the north coast of Santa Catarina island, 30 Km from
the capital center. Its main highway access is SC 401. According to data from the CENSO
(2010) has a population of 18,091, approximately 4.3% of the city's population and population
density of 280.67. See Figure 1.

Figure 1. Localization Township Canasvieiras (source: Authors on Basemap Arcgis 10.1).

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The local appears as major urban centers in Florianópolis, endowed with significant
infrastructure and services. Constituted itself as one of the first centers of the island with bath-
house function, thus having its process of urban growth intensified after 1950 when the
Municipality begun work on parcels and deployment streets (Reis, 2012, Silva, 2000).
Thus, the choice of the spatial clipping area is due to its history of urban development, which
resulted in the diversification of morphological structures. On one hand there they are
significant areas with the urban mesh in “fish spine” format resulting from improper installment
patches of lands well as the city growth along main roads. Moreover, the development of areas
with a regular reticule, a factor that distinguishes them from other bath-houses areas of the city
for its concentration and morphological structure.

Construction of the cartographic base

The work was based on the integration of historic images dated 1977, 1994 and 2013. Equipped
with high spatial resolution, developed the mapping of urban areas through photointerpretation
in GIS (Arcmap) interface, to identify the spatiotemporal dynamics. For Kong et al., (2012) to
conduct studies that consider the territorial changes over time, combined with the remote
sensing constitute an important basis for research and play a determining role in making
diagnoses and planning proposals.

Application of spatial metrics

The ability to quantify the structure of the space is a prerequisite for studying the function and
modification of urban dynamic (Forman, 1995; Herold et al. 2005, Li et al., 2011). This study,
we used a series of spatial metrics to quantify and measure the urbanization process over 40
years, in order to understand the relationships between the spatial patterns, structures and
processes of the urban District of Canasvieiras in relation to its urban fragments.
Thus were applied metrics in class level relative the spots area, shape complexity and
distance from urban areas, based on other works by applying the metrics within the city such as
Herold et al., 2005, Calegri et al., 2010, Muchailh et al., 2010, Yeh and Huang, 2009, Li,
2008).See
.

Table 1. Spatial metrics and description (source: Authors, 2014).

Spatial Metrics
NP- Number of patches
Total number of patches
TLA- Landscape area
Sum of areas of all patches class level
CA- Class area
Sum of areas of all patches belonging to a class
MPFD-Mean patch fractal dimension
Shape complexity
NNDist– Nearest neighbourhood distance
Distance to the nearest-neighboring patch of the same

Subsequently obtained the database relating to metrics, developed in an extension of Arcmap

called Patch Analyst. Together, the development of graphics and tables to better elucidate the
obtained information.
Finally, building mappings concerning measurements and indices identified by metrics with
subsequent confrontations, explaining the changes in the respective analyzed periods.
184

Results

The formatting of the mappings and graphics contemplated 3 metrics in 3 distinct periods of
spatiotemporal analysis, as follows: class area, mean patch fractal dimension and nearest
neighborhood distance. All categorized 5 intervals.

CA- Class area

The 1970s represented the beginning of large investments in infrastructure in Florianópolis,

especially works of implementation and better highways, especially paving the SC 401, as
previously mentioned, the main access Canasvieiras District. Encouraged by national
development policies, the study area followed the moment and began the process of
implementing road and hence urban growth (Trindade, 2009). From the 1970s the District also
began to consolidate as one of the main centers of interest to tourists, opportune by improving
the SC 401, which enabled access to the beautiful bath-house characteristics (Santiago, 1995).
Thus, we realized the rootedness of 3 significant urban areas, as well as its conformation
along the coastline (Figure 2), is characterized as the first function in nucleus with bath-house
on the city. Therefore, urbanization spread along the continue pathways of margin.
The settlements, seen by the municipal government as major driver for tourism, have made
great investments, as in that case, what distinguishes the area of studies of other urbanized areas
of the island, the territorial organization resigned into a regular reticule (Reis, 2012), which will
be further treated at work.
Until 1977 there were 8 urban patches, of which 3 have excelled containing from 34 to
163ha, representing 97% of the total urban area by cropping study. See Figure 2 and Table 2.

Figure 2. CA Urban area 1977 (source: Authors, 2014).

Regarding urban patches of decade 1994, an increase is found, totaling 23 areas (Figure 3).
There was an increase of smaller patches, with until 7.42 ha representing about 69% of urban
fragments, but representing less than 10% of urbanized area (Table 3). These conformed by the
coast and along the SC 401. Urban development took place in the adjoining main highway,
which is perceived similarity with other studies, indicating a global trend.
Major urban areas suffered major additions, by the consolidation of transformation of large
farms in land from the real estate speculation and large urban-tourism undertaking arising from
the financing of capitals representatives.
 185

Table 2. CA Urban area 1977 (source: Authors, 2014).

Class Patch % cumulative Area (ha) % area

1,20 3 30,00% 2,10 1%
3,41 2 50,00% 5,34 2%
34,87 1 70,00% 34,87 12,26%
78,71 1 80,00% 78,71 27,67%
163,47 1 100,00% 163,47 57,46%

Figure 3. CA Urban area 1994 (source: Authors, 2014).

Table 3. CA Urban area 1994 (source: Authors, 2014).

Class Patch % cumulative Area (ha) % area

6,98 24 75,00% 34,87 4,63%
18,10 4 87,50% 59,75 7,93%
28,80 1 90,63% 28,80 3,82%
68,47 1 93,75% 68,47 9,09%
319,63 2 100,00% 561,57 74,53%

We emphasize the emergence of a new urban patch bordering the coast, conforming in 4
main areas that held approximately 445ha, or 82% of the city area (Figure 3 and Table 3).
Finishing the spatiotemporal exploration on the area of the patches, stood out conurbation of
2 zones conforming to the most fragmented urban area of the District (Figure 4). Together the 2
existing large areas totaled around 288ha, that is, 83.5% of urbanized area (Table 4).
However, there was a noticeable intensification of smaller urban areas throughout the territory
in an amount of 28 to 32, appearing with 87.5% of the total. From this, it was noticed the
emergence of new and small urban centers distributed and represented 12.5% of the urbanized
area (Table 4).
This process is possibly associated with a gradual fragment of properties configured for this
process often clandestine and with peculiar characteristics. Other areas appeared and /or
suffered increment, tangent SC 401, connected to a doubling from the 1990s. See Figure 4.
186

Figure 4. CA Urban area 2013 (source: Authors, 2014).

Table 4. CA Urban area 2013 (source: Authors, 2014).

Class Patch % cumulative Area(ha) % area
6,98 24 75,00% 34,87 4,63%
18,10 4 87,50% 59,75 7,93%
28,80 1 90,63% 28,80 3,82%
68,47 1 93,75% 68,47 9,09%
319,63 2 100,00% 561,57 74,53%

Thus, from Table 5 was possible to see the changes that occurred over 40 years. Initially the
clipping study consisted of 8 urban patches, increasing significantly in 1994 and successively in
2013, though to a lesser extent. Concomitantly, there was a progressive increase in total urban
area of the District over the analyzed period, showing the trend in Brazil and the world, mainly,
indicating a population with urban profile.
From 1977 to 1994 there was a total increase of urban district, which reflected the intense
process that happened from then on throughout the city, encouraged by the idea of development
and implementation of infrastructure facing the roads. From 1994 to 2013, there were similar
increases in area, together with the number of urban patches, but in smaller quantities, therefore
the fusion of some urban areas.
Results that were reflected in the average size of the patches, where the first period was 3
representative urban patches of a smaller universe, which implied a higher average. In later
years it was noted the decrease in the average due to the increase in the number of fragments,
but with smaller standards of areas. This resulted in increased distribution of small urban
locations, combined with the expansion process of existing areas. According to Moura (2010a)
minor patches tend to have poor stability and was therefore subjected to greater dynamic, that is,
modifications of urban growth processes.

Table 5. Spatiotemporal analysis and metrics (source: Authors, 2014).

 187

Urban typologies on Canasvieiras District

Currently, Canasvieiras District is characterized by having two distinct models of parceling and
urban grid. Differentiating itself from other bath-house areas of Florianópolis, influenced by
tourism growth and together with large investments, land subdivision entered a formal order.
The settlements that are tangent to the margin have cross line urban mesh, associated with legal
encumbrances. This typology is in 3 principal patches in the mapping of 2013, just offshore,
marked from the beginning of its creation from the years 1950/1960 and has suffered successive
implementation processes. Figure 5.
However, there are areas with an urban morphology like "fish spine", with a discontinuous
and irregular grid (Figure 6).
According to Reis (2002) this urban growth is associated with the conversion of large tracts
of land before rural, in fragment urban portions, without any urban strategy set. Process which is
set along roads that made up the route of the existing agrarian structure, characterized by both
these cool systematization as illegal.

Figure 5. Regular grid (source: Authors, 2014).

Figure 6. Irregular grid (source: Authors, 2014).

188

MPFD-Mean patch fractal dimension

Average value of ratio of fractal dimension of the fragments of the class, this metric indicates
the complexity of the shape. The index is an indicator of complexity that has a minimum value
equal to 1, which represents a fragment to the shape of simple perimeter. Moreover, the index
value 2, the greater the complexity of the shape marked by saliencies and re-entrances
representing a complex geometry.
The mapping 1977 showed uniformity of content, with a mean of 1.33 (Figure 7 and Table
5). Considering values less than 1.33, was up 37.5% in urban patches with low complexity
index, representing an absolute majority of 243 ha (85.55%) of the territory of urban District.
Among the characteristics of these areas, had the effect of drawing the regular urban grid,
making the relationship form the perimeter and area patches showed up straight.
Above average index, 3 urban areas had higher form complexity, covering only 1% of the
total urban area. Are small patches with irregular morphology of the perimeter. See Figure 7 and
Table 6.

Figure 7. MPFD Urban area 1977 (source: Authors, 2014).

Table 6. MPFD Urban area 1977 (source: Authors, 2014).

Class Patch % cumulative Area (ha) % area

1,27 2 25,00% 242,18 85,13%
1,30 1 37,50% 1,20 0,42%
1,33 2 62,50% 38,28 13,45%
1,34 1 75,00% 1,93 0,68%
1,44 2 100,00% 0,90 0,32%

With the increased number of patches, as well as the total urban area from 1994, was the
overcoming of average complexity index to 1.35 (Table 5 and Figure 8). However 43.48% of
the patches had lower average behavior and covering 92% of urbanization. New areas were
implemented, along the lines of gridded urban network.
In contrast, patches showed increasing of area and/or joint, getting forms/more jagged areas,
reflected in a higher rate of complexity. Although part 13 patches, these total are only 7.7% of
 189

the urban area of the cut (Table 7). Factors related to the growth of subdivisions of agricultural
areas, linked to the period of extensive demand for urban land since 1970, which led to
heterogeneity of urban mesh, with complex morphology reflected in the composition "fish
spine".

Figure 8. MPFD Urban area 1994 (source: Authors, 2014).

Table 7. MPFD Urban area 1994 (source: Authors, 2014).

Class Patch % cumulative Area (ha) % area

1,30 4 17,39% 171,83 31,67%
1,34 6 43,48% 328,92 60,62%
1,37 7 73,91% 24,68 4,55%
1,41 4 91,30% 14,22 2,62%
1,47 2 100,00% 2,90 0,53%

Mapping in 2013, there were proportionally to the increase of average complexity index of
1.39, the growing urban fragments, as well as its total area (Tablev5 and Figure 9).
Over 50% of the fragments were characterized by low complexity of form, related to the
increase, as well as the emergence of new urban areas following the regular patterns. Compose
accounted for 95.5% of the District (Table 8).
With the conurbation of urban patches, was a reduction of the complexity index thereof,
which is clearly noted a urban growth marked by the fill of areas.
Among the areas with increase in complexity index, is one of the larger fragments. Unlike
the behavior of other patches where there was the development of urban voids, it went through a
urban expansion process of growth coupled with clustered branch. Aspects which contributed to
a jagged fractal.
In general, the spatiotemporal analysis diagnosed increased areas accompanied by the
appearance of smaller fragments. Thus, in the course of 40 years had as feature the largest
display of these fragments relative to the context of its insertion, resulting in contact with other
urban areas subsequently, through its fill or merger. It, resulted more symmetrical, coming of a
regular pattern of urban mesh. Other fragments with higher rates reflected the development,
often, the appearance of new and isolated areas, or with patterns of expansion inform of
"branches", kind of arms, the morphology characteristic "fish spine".
190

Figure 9. MPFD Urban area 2013 (source: Authors, 2014).

Table 8. MPFD Urban area 2013 (source: Authors, 2014).

Class Patch % cumulative Area % area

1,33 8 25,00% 470,33 62,42%
1,37 9 53,13% 249,74 33,15%
1,41 10 84,38% 29,58 3,92%
1,49 4 96,88% 3,80 0,50%
2,00 1 100,00% 0,00 0,01%

NNDist- Nearest neighbourhood distance

Average value of the nearest neighbor of the fragments of the class, it was realized that in 1977
had 3 significant urban nuclei distributed in the territory. The urban patch with 164.10 ha, about
57.6% of the total, as well as 34.87 ha and 12.26% of the total urban area is characterized by
having in his small fragments adjacent urban areas (Figure 10 and Table 9).
The third representative area, with 27.67% of the total (78.71 ha), proved to be the most
isolated, with a distance of almost 3km.

Figure 10. NNDist Urban area 1977 (source: Authors, 2014).

 191

Table 9. NNDist Urban area 1977 (source: Authors, 2014).

Class Patch % cumulative Area(ha) % area

41,20 2 25,00% 164,10 57,68%
58,43 2 50,00% 5,34 1,88%
356,53 1 62,50% 34,87 12,26%
660,37 2 87,50% 1,47 0,52%
2971,33 1 100,00% 78,71 27,67%

Arising from urban growth, the period of 1994 was marked by a substantial reduction of the
distance between urban areas (Figure 11). More than 60%, both in relation to the number of
urban nuclei as the total urbanized area were virtually interconnected, since the distances were
between 19 and just over 100m (Chart 10).
With the development of a significant new area of representative fragments, there was a
substantial proximity, where the greatest distance was under1 km.
In addition, sets of small areas incorporated, contributing to the reduction of distances.

Figure 11. NNDist Urban area 1994 (source: Authors, 2014).

Table 10. NNDist Urban area 1994 (source: Authors, 2014).

Class Patch % cumulative Area(ha) % area

29,44 4 17,39% 17,37 3,20%
104,21 11 65,22% 314,47 57,96%
175,73 4 82,61% 137,52 25,35%
268,63 2 91,30% 3,69 0,68%
838,52 2 100,00% 69,51 12,81%

Regarding the analysis of 2013, it is predicted that changes have occurred in relation to the
differential in categories (Figure 11: NNDist Urban area 1994 and Figure 12).
In the first 4 classes there was an increase of distances, which reflected the processes of
joining several fragments and deployment of new more distant urban nuclei throughout the
territory (Figure 12).
192

Already the distance of fifth category remained stable (838.52 km), showing virtually no
growth or emergence of new nuclei, demanding a territorial dynamic reduction on west sense of
District (Table 11).
From this, analyzing the Table 5, it was realized that the process of urbanization, where there
was substantial proximity to urban areas, occurred between 1977 and 1994. Compared to 2013
was maintained almost constant distance, and increased urban areas happened towards a
consolidation of existing urban nuclei.

Figure 12. NNDist urban area 2013 (source: Authors, 2014).

Table 11. NNDist urban area 2013(source: Authors, 2014).

Class Table % cumulative Area % area

49,38 13 40,63% 592,42 78,63%
114,01 11 75,00% 71,85 9,54%
226,28 4 87,50% 17,60 2,34%
444,81 3 96,87% 3,12 0,41%
838,52 1 100,00% 68,47 9,09%

Final discussion

Metrics, when treating about the size, shape, geographical position and typology provided the
recognition and realization patterns changes caused by urban growth, allowing to measure the
structures, better comprehension and greater accurate of the processes and interactions of city
areas over 40 years in Canasvieiras District.
An urban dynamic characterized by rapid expansion, accompanied by the interests and
pressures of the real estate and tourism market, which led to the construction of buildings along
the land situated on the boardwalk, in order to attract more tourists and people seeking to
possess a property on the waterfront. Especially where private capital was responsible for the
parceling paper of smallholdings, which were fishermen and farmers, without any organ or
policies of inspection.
Thus, the application of metrics in spatiotemporal analysis allowed us to identify and
measure how much these processes in economic order, tourist, social and political reflected in
the urban morphology of study area.
The elaboration of thematic cartography from the generated database of spatial metrics
enabled confront the various stages of urban evolution, identifying the interactions between
urban patches and the ways in which patterns and interactions have changed over time.
 193

Thus, the use of spatial metrics in urban studies shows an instrument of evaluation and
planning of space, indicating favorable and unfavorable situations, contributing to make
strategic decision.

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 195

The urban form of the Inner Port Area in Kesennuma,

Miyagi Prefecture, as source of resilience

Toshihiko Abe 1, Shigeru Satoh 2

1
Institute of Urban and Regional Studies, Waseda University,
2
Department of Architecture, Waseda University, 513 Waseda Tsurumakichou,
Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, JAPAN 162-0041(Toshi-Chiiki, Waseda University).
E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract. Kesennuma City, which is in nothern part of the Miyagi Prefecture in Japan, was struck by the
Tsunami in March 11th , 2011. The city has an area of 46 square kilometers, and that of 9.6 square
kilometers, 20.5% of the area, were flooded. Reconstruction of city center, “Kesennuma Naiwan” area,
which is the inner port area in Kesennuma Bay, was making little headway, since stakeholders have
focused their arguments on the seawall construction. In fact, they should have more discussion about
comprehensive reconstruction, including land-use plan, scenery and townscape, which would give the
vibrancy around the waterfront. After two years after the earthquake, they established Community
Conference organization comprising city planners and architects, and the recovery program has made by
citizens, and progressing towards revival. There are two sources of the power of the resilience is in the
urban form of Naiwan area. One is the dynamic urban form structured by townscape updated again and
again taking in an advanced architectural design from overseas at every tsunami and conflagration. The
other is static urban form, consisting of landscape, the sea and a mountain weave, climate, and scenery.
The object of this research is to clarify the urban form that contributes to develop the resilient city,
through the study on the contents and the process of making the recovery program of Naiwan area.

Key Words: Tsunami; Resilience; Seawall; Scenery; Hazardous area

Introduction

The Naiwan, or Inner Port area is the old center of Kesennuma City. The area was marked by a
beautiful fishing port, but most of the buildings have been swept away by the tsunami of 11 th
March, 2011, or their ruins were cleared away afterwards.（see the figure 123）
Since the Naiwan area, which encircles an inner bay, is itself closely surrounded by a mountain
range that served as a near-by escape from the approaching tsunami, only few lives were lost
during the tragedy24.（see the figure 2 and 3）
In the aftermath of the disaster, the reconstruction authorities of Miyagi Prefecture
designated a 4 meter-high seawall that would henceforth protect the formerly unprotected
Naiwan area from future tsunamis25. Realizing that a close relationship with the sea is the basis
of their livelihoods and for community recovery, local residents launched a protest movement.
The local government of Kesennuma City supported the citizens in their effort to establish a
Reconstruction Planning Council (hereafter ‘community council’) and to promote a joint,
collaborative reconstruction process. However, most of the local residents were against the
construction of any seawall. For the first two years after the tsunami, the council wasn’t able to

23
Created by the author based on the materials ‘Regarding Tsunami Devastation of Major Areas,’
presented at the second Kesennuma City Disaster Reconstruction Conference, on 28 th March 2012.
24
Based on the materials ‘Damage Situation of our City after the Great Earthquake,’ presented at the first
Kesennuma City Disaster Reconstruction Conference, on 28 th March 2012.
25
Based on the document ‘About setting the Heights of Seawalls along the Coast of Miyagi Prefecture’
that was presented in the Miyagi Coastal Local Coordination Meeting on 9th September 2011.
196

discuss about concrete reconstruction plans, such as revitalizing the local shopping streets or the
reconstruction of residences.
In the Reconstruction Promoting Conference, set-up by Kesennuma City, the perception
developed that the reconstruction planning had become delayed because of the lingering seawall
problem 26 . At this stage, the residents, who had been opposing the seawall plans of far began
to give up and came to think that if the seawall is something that is absolutely necessary for the
reconstruction to move on, they must accept it for good or worse.
The citizen leaders of the Reconstruction Planning Council, however, decided to propose a new
plan in order to mitigate the impact of the next tsunami without being required to build the
proposed, high seawall. They sought to reorganize the planning system, which would now
closer reflect the opinions of the citizens27. Institute of Urban and Regional Studies, Waseda
University appointed as a specialized agency for the urban design.
As an adviser I have been supporting the Community Council in order to promote citizen-
based planning. In this paper I want to discuss the process of reconstruction planning, which I
relate to the specific urban form of the Naiwan area as well as to the process of making the
recovery program, and I will show how that contributed to the development of a more resilient
city.

Figure 1. Devastation around Naiwan area by the tsunami of 3.11: Compared to the area
around South Kesennuma and Shishiori-Karakuwa station that developed from wide wetlands
and paddy fields in the Meiji Era, the tsunami damage was relatively light in the protected Inner
Port area, that formed a safe city center and good natural harbor.

26
Based on the materials ‘Situation and Issues of the Restoration and Reconstruction Projects, p.10’ of
the fifth Kesennuma City Disaster Reconstruction Promotion Conference, on 28 th March 2013.
27
Based on Abe Toshihiko ‘Seawall Problems and Citizen-led Community Development Issue in the
Kesennuma Naiwan Area,’ in: ‘Town Planning Strong Resilience and Large Disaster Mitigation Task
Force Report, Architectural Institute of Japan, p. 213-221, 2014.3.30.
 197

Figure 2. Picture of Naiwan area after the tsunami 3.11, maintains the beautiful scenery:
The Naiwan area surrounds a small bay and is itself wrapped by hills that rise between 20 to 40
meter above sea level. The mountains in the background are located at the opposite shore of
Kesennuma Bay; 1.5km from the mouth of the Inner Port bay. The compact size of the bay with
its 350 meter width in east-west direction and 250m width in north-south direction, has
contributed to the formation of a coherent, human-scale cityscape that in turn facilitated lively
commercial activities.

Figure 3. Harmonious streetscape of the sea and the mountains: Harmonious streetscape
along the waterfront road with Mount Anba (left) and Jin'yama (right) in the background. The
proximity to these two mountains allowed a quick evacuation of the residents before the tsunami
arrived at the Inner Port area on 11th March 2011.

Beginning of the Seawall Issue

Along with other coastal areas in Kesennuma, Miyagi Prefecture decided to build a seawall that
would withstand a so-called Level 1 tsunami – a tsunami that is likely to occur in intervals of a
decade to 100 years. The municipality of Kesennuma City, on the other hand, has the
responsibility for mitigating the impact of a more rare, so-called Level 2 tsunami – one that is
comparable to the tsunami of 11th March 2011 and that is likely to happen every several hundred
to 1000 years. The City is doing this by preparing evacuation plans and by designating the land
that is likely to be flooded as Tsunami Hazard Area. Here residential functions are generally not
to be permitted 28.
In autumn 2011, in the first recovery plans, a seawall with a height of 6.2 meters above sea
level was designated by Miyagi prefecture. A tsunami defense with a height of 6.2 meters would
only appear with a visible height of 4.4 meters, since the ground level of the Inner Port area
would be raised by 1.8 meters. Since there was no seawall before the tsunami disaster, most
people in the Naiwan area objected to these plans.

28
Based on the Tsunami Regional Development Act, enacted 2011.12.14
198

Tsunami simulations that were carried out for recovery plans in other parts of Kesennuma
Bay later led to a changed location of seawalls in the Naiwan area and a height reduction by 1
meter. Although the seawall would be now only 5.2 meters high, the feelings of locals did not
change, because the sea was no longer visible from the port area.
For this reason, the deliberations between the Community Council and Miyagi Prefecture
were making little headway. However, unless the location and the height of the seawall were not
decided, the Tsunami Hazard Area could not be designated either. Furthermore, the placement
of roads and parks could also not be decided if the inhabitable areas were not clearly outlined.
Furthermore, if Land Readjustment procedures were not to be initiated soon central government
subsidies for the reconstruction of residences and shops would expire. Based on the plans of
Miyagi Prefecture, the sea and the town would be separated by a high seawall and thus it
seemed uncertain if the fishery industry and the tourism sector could be revived in the Naiwan.
Worse, neither residences nor stores could be rebuilt in this situation.

Turning point of the Seawall Issue

Two and a half years had passed since the tsunami, when the beginning of deliberations between
the Community Council and the governor of Miyagi Prefecture marked a turning point. The
governor suggested two possibilities: First, if a breakwater would be placed in the entrance of
the bay, the height of the seawalls along the basin of the Inner Port could be lowered. The
second option would be a setback of the seawall from the quay, and not to construct any
seawalls between the bay and areas without residential functions, such as fishery or tourism
facilities. Before these deliberations with the council, the governor had categorically ruled out
any changes regarding the location and the height of the seawalls.29
After the governor had shown his readiness to amend plans, the situation changed
significantly. So far the people had been opposing the seawall plans, but now they began to
change their minds: They realized that if they were to continue their opposition, the revival of
the city would not progress and more and more people would turn their backs to the Naiwan
area. The council decided therefore to resolve the seawall issue as soon as possible and it
offered an own, comprehensive seawall plan to the Miyagi governor.
The core members of the Community Council formed a study group and examined how the
prefectural planners had calculated the height of the seawall. They then demanded from the
prefecture to re-simulate several alternative plans in which placement and heights of the seawall
varied, in order to arrive at a design with the lowest possible visual impact. At first, they
developed a proposal in which the seawall was further set back than in the original prefectural
plan, and designed the waterfront area in a way that people could enjoy good views of the sea.
They also proposed to construct a breakwater at the entrance of the bay, which would allow to
lower the seawall height by 1 meter, because of the tsunami-obstructing effect 30. As a result of
the simulations, they found that the height of the seawall could be reasonably lowered to 3.8
meters, which is 1.4 meters lower than the original height.（see the figure 4）

29
Press conference on 24th December 2013, where the governor of Miyagi announced the possibility of
changing the position and height of the seawall in the Inner Port area.
30
See Miyagi Prefecture ‘Development Guidelines for Tsunami Evacuation Facilities", p.73-6, March
2012.
 199

Figure 4. Model of off-shore breakwater planned by the Community Council: Model of the
Naiwan area with an off-shore breakwater at the mouth of the bay. Apart from studying possible
obstructions to shipping, the Council also explored ways of utilising the breakwater as tourist
attraction: Its visual appearance could be improved by greenery and an observertory at its tip
would allow to spot incoming ships and ferries. The model has been build by the Urban and
Regional Research Institute of Waseda University.

The Problem of the Tsunami Hazard Area

Another problem arose from the designation of the Tsunami Hazard Area: Based on a local
ordinance of Kesennuma City, even if a place would be inundated by only 1 centimeter in the
simulation of a Level 2 tsunami, it would need to be designated as hazardous area, 31. In the
case of rebuilding residences in an area with such designation, this meant that the foundation or
the ground level of the house would need to be raised above the simulated inundation level.
Also, the provision of welfare facilities in the first floors would not be allowed and the city
would not provide any subsidies to people willing to rebuild their houses here. Thus, if the
Tsunami Hazard Area expanded there it could mean that the number of people living in the
Naiwan area could be greatly reduced.
The seawall height of 3.8 meters that the Community Council proposed achieved both,
preserving the view of the sea and protecting the area from a Level 1 tsunami - likely to occur
every few decades. However, with this height, the area that was only lightly damaged by the
2011 tsunami would have to be designated as a Tsunami Hazard Area, due to extensive,
simulated flooding in the event of a Level 2 tsunami, with all the negative implications. （see
the figure 5）

Figure 5. Level1 tsunami simulations for Naiwa area: Tsunami simulations for Naiwan area
based on two alternative coastal protections, discussed in the Reconstruction Town Planning
Council. A December 2013 simulation (left) showed that in the case of a 3.8 meter high seawall
along the port basin, combined with an off-shore breakwater at the bay mouth, wide areas of the
ajacent city center would be flooded. Another simulation of February 2014 (right) showed that
without an off-shore breakwater and an assumed 5.1 meter high seawall, the level1 tsunami
inundation would be significantly less. The inundated, yellow area of the right diagram
corresponds to the Tsuanmi Hazard Area that the City designated.

31
The area designation has been proclaimed on 9th July 2013, based on the Kesennuma Municipal
Ordiance for Disaster Risk Areas.
200

Settlement of the Seawall Issue

The mayor of Kesennuma City was concerned about the question whether the offshore
breakwater could cause harm to the water quality of the inner bay and therefore opposed the
idea. Without the breakwater, however, a seawall height of 5.1m would be required. To solve
this problem, the Communty Council requested to construct a 3.8 meter-high concrete base
structure, with an additional 1 meter steel structure at the top that could move up automatically
in the event of a tsunami approaching. Even though the costs for such a movable seawall would
be comparatively high, the governor of Miyagi Prefecture accepted the proposal by the
Community Council, since the Inner Port is the central area of Kesennuma City, and since it
plays an important economical and symbolical role; worth to be protected from tsunamis.32
If the ground level of the area, protected by the seawall would be raised by 1.8 meters, as
originally planned, the 4.1 meter-high seawall structure would still appear 2.3 meters high and
blocking views from the town to the sea. Thus, the Council proposed to raise the ground level of
the protected area to 2.8 meters instead, so that the seawall would only appear 1.3 meters low.
More than 3 years after the tsunami disaster, finally, the seawall issue in the Naiwan areas was
settled.（see the figure 6）

Figure 6. Section of the seawall proposal in March 2013: Section of the seawall proposal that
the Reconstruction Town Planning Council submitted to the municipal government of
Kesennuma in March 2013. In order to ensure unobstructed views of the sea and still provide
for a coastal protection with an overall height of 5.1 meters, the ground level of the urban area
behind the seawall could be raised to 2.8 meters while a movable structure at the top of the dike
would move up in the event of an approaching tsunami.

Dynamic Urban Form = Resilience

There are many towns and villages where the people are opposing plans of constructing
excessively high seawalls, yet in most of these cases, the heights couldn’t be reduced. Thus, the
construction of seawalls is proceeding without agreement between the citizens and their local
governments. Why was it possible to conclude an agreement in the case of the Naiwan area?33
The most important factor is that although the seawall dispute had started with the debate of
pros and cons and with an initial, fundamental opposition, at a later stage the discussion moved
forward, beyond mere opposition; towards the issue of exploring what could be an ideal urban
form, best able to cater to the lives of future generations in the Naiwan area.

32
Press conference on 14th January 2014, where the governor of Miyagi announced to consider the
adoption of a movable seawall around the Inner Port area.
33
On 14th May 2014 at the commemoration symposium for the 45 th Anniversary of the Japan Federation
of Bar Association Pollution Control and Environmental Protection Committee, with the title ‘Disaster
Reconstruction and Sustainabiltity – Beginning to think from the Seawall Problem’, a report was
presented about the problem of consensus building from the perspective of local residents and experts.
 201

Miyagi Prefecture’s stance was originally that “in order to live in Naiwan, we need to
construct a seawall to protect the life and property of all residents”. Naiwan locals, however,
opposed this view: “In order to live in Naiwan, we don’t need to construct the seawall. We need
to recover our relationship with the sea and preserve the beautiful scenary, in order to foster
tourism and regenerate the fishing industry.” Thus, before centering a reconstruction discussion
on the pros and cons of a seawall, it would have been more helpful to discuss which new urban
form would better serve a holistic recovery from the tsunami disaster.
While maintaining its close relationship to the sea and to the surrounding mountains, and
while responding to the varied and profound environmental and social changes since the
foundation of the city, the Naiwan area has been changing its urban form dynamically and thus
it retained its role as the central area of Kesennuma. The members of the Community Council
recognized this fact.（see the figure 7）
As an urban designer of Naiwan area, I promoted the design method making consideration of
dynamic urban form. The members of the council have discussed about alternative recovery
plans during numerous workshops, aided by the use of a 1:200 scale model that we proposed.（
see the figure 8）They developed plans for a new urban form along the waterfront that perfectly
blended the future townscape with the seawall with our support.（see the figure 9）
In the reconstruction planning process in central Kesennuma the following urban form-
related characteristics must be pointed out:
First, it was feared that the citizen’s valuation of the waterfront would be lost, if the the
seawall were to block the views of the sea from the city. In other words, the concrete form of
the embankment would significantly affect the nature of urban form in the Inner Port area. Since
the citizens were keenly aware of this, the relationship between the port district and the sea
played a central role in the discussions. At first, the mayor of Kesennuma City said that he
cannot change the height and placement of the seawalls by changing the national standards. But
the citizens' movement changed the mayor’s mind. From now on, he will change them based on
local peoples’ opinion.34
Second, since the land reclamation in Kesennuma port in the early Meiji Period until the
1950s, transformations of the urban form sought to strengthen the relationship between town
and sea. However, between the 1960s and the 2011 disaster the new commercial center of
gravity has moved away from the sea. In the current earthquake reconstruction plan, thus, great
emphasis is put on recreating closer links between town and sea.
The most important point is the main facilities for the locals and tourists will be relocated to
the waterfront area where the fish market has been located about sixty years ago.
Third, over time the roads in the Inner Port area have been repeatedly widened in order to
adapt them to the needs of the age of motorisation. In order to tap into national reconstruction
funds that are only available for a limited menue of narrowly defined reconstruction projects,
the local government decided to carry out a land readjustment project in the Naiwan area. This
would result in a further, unnecessary widening of roads. The council hotly debated the issue of
how to improve these initial plans that could further impair the connections between city and
sea. Without reference to the historical urban formation of the area, a central axis was proposed
along which tourist attractions and commercial facilities would line up.
The above suggests that the urban form produces a close relationship between town and the sea
in the Inner Port district, and it is manifest of a strong resilience.

34
On 14th May 2014 at the commemoration symposium, there was a comment about the seawall by the
mayor of Kesennuma City.
202

Figure 7. Dynamic Changes of the urban form by the historical development: Historical
development of the Naiwan area and central Kesennuma, from the feudal Edo Era (1800),
through the late Meiji Era (1911) and early Showa Era (1935) until 1956. These diagrams are
based on the analysis of historical maps and photographs by the author. The 2030 diagram is
based on the ‘Inner Port Area Reconstruction Planning Statement’.
 203

Figure 8. Design workshop process held in the Community Council: Between May 2013
and February 2014 the Naiwan Reconstruction Town Planning Council examined alternative
seawall designs in a series of workshops. A 1/200 model helped to visualise the spatial
implications of the different plans.

Figure 9. Future image of the waterfront in the Naiwan: Future image of the waterfront area
and the seawall as shown in the ‘Naiwan Area Reconstruction Planning Statement’. The model
has been build by the Urban and Regional Research Institute of Waseda University.

Future Perspectives

We all recognized that we cannot build back the Naiwan area better than before the tsunami
disaster; regenerate the fishing industry, tourism, town- and landscape design, as well as
improving disaster preparedness by solely relying on the governments strictly earmarked
reconstruction projects and funds.
But we also realized that it will be very difficult to implement such a proposal that seeks to
harmoniously fuse the seawall with the townscape, and to regenerate a new urban form, only by
utilizing public funds.
Now starting from a comprehensive future vision, we are currently examining which parts of
the overall recovery project are most urgent, such as the underground drainage system; which
parts are eligible to what kind of central government funding sources, and which parts can be
204

tackled later, after further careful discussion. Through such a strategic approach, they hope to
implement the plan incrementally, with every element being part of a holistic strategy.
Many towns of the Tohoku area were already in economic decline before the disaster
happened on 11th March 2011 and it is clear that the affected areas cannot recover without
reconstruction funds from the national government. Usually, it is the central and local
governments that take the initiative in reconstruction planning in a top-down manner, but the
case of the Naiwan area in Kesennuma is different. We will surely find the regeneration of a
new urban form here soon, which is fostered by the unique, dynamic urban structure that has
proven its resilience over history, supported by the strengths of its citizens in the present.（see
the figure 10）

Figure10. Relationship between the urban form and resilience: The public sectors were
promoting planning of the seawall and land adjustment for the tsunami safety and the civil
minimum. But from April 2013, our urban design team is planning the reconstruction plan with
the community council by discussing about the urban form considering the scenery and the
regional life styles.

References

Abe,T. and Satoh,S.(2012) ‘Machidukuri proposal for disaster recovery by Tsunami protection
architecture’, Summaries of Technical Papers of Annual Meeting, Architectural Institute of Japan: 26-
27
Sohda,O. and Abe,T(2013) ’Tomoniikiru! Machi no atarashii mirai: Kesennnuma Fukkoujyuku no
Chousen’ Waseda University Publishers
Satoh,S. and Abe,T. (2011) ‘Machizukuri Enterprise: The New Regional Regeneration by the New Third
Sector’ Gakugei Publishers
 205

Air oriented urban form: to develop an Eco-City in the

tropical urban area

Md Mustiafiz AL Mamun1, Anjuman Ara Begum2

1
Department of Architecture, Chittagong University of Engineering & Technology, Chittagong,
2
Doshomik Sthapathi, House # 109, Road # 5, Block # B, Chandgaon R/A, Chittagong,
Blangladesh. Email: [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract. The quality of city’s living environment spaces has an impact on all aspects of life. It is
essential that the spaces we create and improve through the principles of sustainable urban planning will
influence how we feel. For the fast expansion of globalization with the unplanned organization of an
urban area has affected to develop a city’s sustainability within the means of the environments, social and
economic foundations. However, those inappropriate approaches of development strategies such as,
city’s geometric force of density, undefined land-use pattern, different transformation systems and build
forms could tremendous change to our urban climatology. Air circulation as one of the most prominent
urban principles of urban climate is an effective question for our local and global area where air
circulation flows are discontinuing by different level of building form, its height, wrong orientation and
building to building buffering spaces. Due to no contact with sunlight, some buildings are obtained cold
temperature and during seasonal change it absorbs more cold temperature and increase running
expenditure with discomfort living situation. On the other hand, sun orientated surfaces of the build forms
are also absorb heat and urban area’s temperature extensively space heater than its surrounding rural
areas. In this paper we focus on urban build-form orientations, analysis those, its performance and how
to reduce solar heat grain through the sustainable indicators of proper air flow circulations to develop an
eco-city in the tropical area.

Key Words: Air circulation, orientation, urban form, eco-city, built environment.

Introduction

Cities are extremely responsive to urban climate unsteadiness and inconstancy and capable to
change their own climates (Srivanit and Kazunori, 2011). Urban climate is a fundamental issue
which not only affects regional and worldwide climates but also have an effect on urban
liveability (Grimmond, et al, 2010; Huang, et al, 2008; Srivanit and Kazunori, 2011). It can be
modified and enhanced to fulfil the necessity of resident by urban planning ways. The quality of
city’s living environment spaces are depend on the principles of sustainable urban planning
within the means of the environments, social and economic foundations (UDC-1, 2007;
Brundtland, 1987; UNCED, 1992). For the fast expansion of globalization with the unplanned
urban growth has affected to develop those kinds of city’s sustainability.
It is estimated that over 50% (CIA, 2010) of the world’s population now lives in cities and
urban area. However, these inappropriate approaches of development strategies such as, city’s
geometric force of density, undefined land-use pattern, different transformation systems and
build forms could tremendous change to our urban climatology (Oke, 1988). Furthermore,
temperatures are extensively warmer than its neighbouring rural areas. This statement called an
urban heat island (UHI) effect where have unprivileged outdoor air quality with weaken
ventilation and, which promotes multiple sensitivity to upcoming global changes (Grimmond, et
al, 2010). From the book of Koenigsberger, et al, (1973), where we have found that air
temperature is an urban area can be 8 degC higher than in the surrounding rural area and a
variation of 11 degC has been reported.
The paper has seven sections, including this introduction. Section 2 discusses on the
relationship between urban form and urban climatology with relates eco-city development and
206

defines. Section 3 highlights few considerations of orientation on build-from pattern. Section 4

discusses the impacts of urban formation throughout air flow. Section 5 offers few conceptual
urban formation patterns through sustainable indicators of proper air flow circulation. Section 6
offers a conceptual framework for assessing the air-oriented urban formation of the eco-city.
Section 7 presents the paper’s conclusions

Eco-city: urban form and urban climatology

Form is difficult to define. Generally, urban form is a combination of characteristics which

related to land use patterns, transportation system, and urban design (Handy, 1996). Lynch
(1981), defines urban form as “the spatial pattern of the large, inert, permanent physical objects
in a city”.
In urban design compendium (UDC-2), (2007), shows that urban buildings forms might be
modelled for solar access or shade for shelter, exposure to winds depending. Urban form has a
key influence on climate change, almost 30 per cent of carbon emissions come from building
structures and a further 25 per cent from transport. To succeed in integrating renewable energies
in established urban structure, the actual behaviour and the microclimate performance of the
urban forms have to be precisely identified. Geometry is a changeable that may be controlled for
the preservation of bioclimatic conditions, besides others functional, socioeconomic and
symbolic parts of the urban form (Al-Qeeq, 2010).
The manifestation of “sustainable development” as a popular concept (Jabareen, 2004) has
revived discussion about the form of cities. To achieve sustainability, this challenge has
motivated and encouraged scholars, architects, planners, local and international NGOs, civil
societies, and governments to search for new frameworks of urban form by the study of various
parameters of urban climate modelling and integrate them into planning and design efforts
(Nyuk, et al, 2011). Moreover, there is no universal concept that allows us to evaluate these
approaches, planning schemes, and common policies (Jabareen, 2006). Therefore the
incorporation of basic knowledge of urban climatology in the urban planning procedure has
become more vital. From Jabareen, (2006), The Eco-city concept has a new definition for
sustainable development in urbanization.

The Eco-city

An eco-city is an ecologically healthy city, designed with consideration of ecological impact,

inhabited by people dedicated to minimization of required inputs of energy, water and food, and
waste output of heat, air pollution - CO2, methane, and water pollution (Register, 1987;
Novotny, et al, 2010). Greening and passive solar designs are the unique concepts of the eco-
city. There are others that highlight the perceptions of greening and passive energy design,
among them the Environmental City, Green City, Sustainable City (Girardet, 1999; Nijkamp
and Perrels, 1994; Gibbs, Longhurst and Braithwaite, 1998), Eco-City (Roseland, 1997;
Engwicht,1992), Ecological City (OECD, 1995), Sustainable Urban Living (Girardet, 1992).

Basis of orientation on urban form

The unique concepts of building form orientation are might be respect its context and climate
with few different point of views, like as, (1) optimize sun orientation reduce solar hear gain
(Givoni, 1969; Koenigsberger, et al, 1973; Prasad, 2014), (2) air flow direction (Givoni, 1994;
Koenigsberger, et al,1973; UDC-1, 2007; Prasad, 2014) (3) site geometry (Simonds,1961;
UDC-1, 2007) (4) street layout (Shishegar, 2013; UDC-1, 2007; Bentley, et al, 1985; CABE,
2000) (5) Scenic view/vistas (Simonds, 1961; UDC-1, 2007) (6) Legibility layout (UDC-1,
2007; Bentley et al, 1985).
 207

In the tropical climate, Building orientation is a major design consideration, mainly with
consider to solar radiation and wind (Al-Tamimi, et al, 2011, Prasad, 2014). Whereas every
morning and evening, sun directly radiate on east and west facade of build form, while north
façade faces sun radiation throughout May, June July and August, and south façade faces it
throughout November, December, January and February. Therefore in tropical area, building
orientation mainly should be seriously considered not only with solar radiation but wind
direction also (Al-Tamimi et al, 2011; Bentley et al, 1985). Givoni, (1994), also reported that
the building orientation may be affected by the provision of efficient cross ventilation under the
local wind direction which is key factor in tropical areas.

Impacts of urban forming on air flow circulation

Air flow circulation as one of the most important urban principles of urban climate is a valuable
issue for our local and global region. For the different level of building form, its height, wrong
orientation and building to building buffering spaces, air circulation does not flows frequently
and uninterruptedly (Al-Qeeq, 2010).
It has been proved that the urban layout, the geometry and orientation of the street canyon
affect the climate of the outdoor and indoor environments, solar access inside and outside the
buildings, the permeability to airflow for urban ventilation, as well as the potential for cooling
of the whole urban system (Ali-Toudert and Mayer, 2006). The urban layout influences the
climate of the neighbourhood and that can even adjust it to improve the thermal comfort
situations both outside and inside build form (Al-Qeeq, 2010; Al-Sallal and Al-Rais, 2012). It
seems noticeable that street geometry as an urban design tool is more important in improving
urban climate which allow to welcoming air flow than other factors of urban environments
(Johansson, 2006; Shishegar, 2013).
Usually in towns, when winds face the number and range of obstacles they are flowed
moderately (Al-Qeeq, 2010; Jabareen, 2006; Shishegar, 2013). However, some forms of urban
structures such as long straight avenues or multi-storey buildings can source for significant air
movement. As the air is brought down from high levels, high buildings increasing above low-
rise building can generate strong turbulent wind conditions on the ground (Priyadarsini and
Wong, 2005; Chan, et al, 2001; Al-Qeeq, 2010; Koenigsberger, et al, 1973).
Compactness is the method of minimising the amount of building facade exposed to the
direct radiation of the sun. Therefore, the compact city consumes a small amount of air
circulation for cooling building inner wall or outer façade (Jabareen, 2006; Al-Qeeq, 2010).
Improperly selected and sited vegetation can change wind flow direction and provide discomfort
living environment for both buildings and people (Al-Qeeq, 2010; UDG, 2006;
Al-Tamimi, et al, 2011; Bentley, et al, 1985; UDC-1 & 2, 2007).

Sustainable indicators and applications for air oriented urban form

Climate responsive arrangement of buildings is important for the comfort and energy saving
implications for its users; furthermore, it helps to preserve valuable resources in our planet
(Roche and Liggett, 2001). Givoni, (1994), reported that Air movements inside a building
depend not only on external wind velocity, but also largely on the architectural parameters.
There are generally three techniques that are the use of shadow and air breeze, water elements,
and the minimization of the impact of solar radiation which promoting the liability and comfort
of human settlements (Al-Qeeq, 2010).
The sustainable indicators would not only be implemented all at once, but also faced difficult
to uniformly implement throughout the city. New development areas should be designed to
follow the guidelines, but old, built-up areas should be considered to improvement when
opportunities arise from urban revitalization (UDG, 2006). Maximising the amount of space to
208

be naturally ventilated is one of the fundamental strategies towards reducing energy. The first
step in minimising solar heat gains is to optimise the orientation and massing of a project
specific to its location. Therefore, Establishing and understanding prevailing wind directions
and how they work on specific urban area throughout the year will affect massing and
orientation decisions.

Key indicators

To good natural ventilation of an urban area depends on the macro-environment. From Urban
Design Compendium 1 & 2, (2007); Jabareen, (2006); Givoni, (1969, 1994); Koenigsberger, et
al, (1973); Prasad, (2014); Simonds, (1961); UDG, (2006) and Al-Qeeq, (2010), we have
discovered various sustainable indicators and review again to implement those in tropical urban
area with How to develop the Eco-city.
- site geometry for urban formation: to avoid elongated and linear site geometry which could
possible outcome in single-aspect and wall effect, urban site should be separated for conducive
to wind movements (Figure 1);

Figure 1. Site Geometry to allow more air flow.

- breezeways/air paths: to enhanced urban air ventilation in tropical dense area, breezeways
should be created in forms of major open ways interconnected with major roads, inter-linked
open spaces, amenity areas, building setbacks space and low-rise building corridors, through the
high-density and tall urban form. They should be connected with mainly the prevailing wind
direction routes, and as far as possible, to also preserve and funnel other natural air flows;
- street orientation, pattern and widening: an arrangement of main streets should be allied in
parallel, or up to 30 degrees to the prevailing wind path, in order to take advantage of the
penetration of prevailing wind through an urban area (Figure 2);

Figure 2. Orientation of street grids.

 209

- the length of street gridiron at right angles to the prevailing wind direction should be as shorter
as possible with a view to minimizing sluggish zones while maximizing breezeways across the
urban area (Figure 3);

Figure 3. Pattern of street grids.

- to progress the air ventilation in the urban areas, the extending of streets along the prevailing
wind direction is considered of high efficiency. (Figure 4);

Figure 4. Street widening/building setback.

- waterfront sites: waterfront sites are the gateways of sea breezes and land breezes due to the
sea cooling and sun warming effects. To avoid blockage of sea breezes and prevailing winds,
particular concerns should be given beside the waterfront like as appropriate scale, height and
decentralised within high-density neighbourhoods (Figure 5);

Figure 5. Waterfront buildings should avoid wind blockage.

210

- height profile and form: a changing height profile with strategic nature of low-rise and tall
build forms in the dense urban environment can help to prompt wind flow throughout the city;
In generally, gradation of building heights an urban area would help wind deflection and avoid
air stagnation to promote air movements. (Figure 6);

Figure 6. Varying height profile to promote air movements.

- congestion of high buildings forming a lofty wall-like arrangement should be avoided to the
front of the prevailing wind or along the waterfront;
- tall buildings in a neighbourhood should be arranged in such a way as favourably block the
wind;
- Stepping building height conception can assist optimise the wind capturing potential of
development itself (Figure 7);

Figure 7. Stepping height profile to divert winds to lower levels.

- built forms that would generate a small eddy area to allow a highest of cooling air to flow
around and throughout the build forms should be considered in tropical area (Figure 8);

Figure 8. Creating eddies that also result in building heat loss.

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- stagger buildings;
- the arrangement of the building blocks should be staggered such that the build forms behind
are able to receive the wind penetrating throughout the gaps between the build forms in the front
line (Figure 9);

Figure 9. Staggered arrangement of build forms with sufficient spacing between forms.

- the adequately wide gaps should be provided between building blocks for enhancing air
permeability and that should be at a face perpendicular to the prevailing wind (Figure 10);

Figure 10. Gaps between building blocks to enhance air permeability.

- podium structure;
- to enhance air quality of the pedestrian environment and improving comfort on street levels
and impeding air movement, compact integrated development and podium structures with full
or huge ground covered area on wide sites should be avoided where practicable. The following
measures should be applied at the street level in the existing urban areas: providing setback
parallel toward the prevailing wind; selecting non-building areas for part of large land parcels;
creating voids in building facades facing wind path; reducing site coverage area of the podium
to allow more open space at grade (Figure 11);
212

Figure 11. Reducing site coverage area of the podium to allow more open space at grade.

- where suitable, a terraced podium design should be adopted to direct downward airflow to the
pedestrian level (Figure 12);

Figure 12. Terraced podium design.

- downwash wind;
- to reach the street level and to ventilate streets and allow air movement into buildings,
Building design should consider capturing the downwash wind (figure 13);

Figure 13. Building geometry and layout to allow downwash wind.

- where appropriate, towers should adjoin the podium edge that faces the main pedestrian area
or street perpendicular to the wind direction so as to enable most of the downwash wind to reach
the street level (Figure 14);
 213

Figure 14. Towers placed to enable downwash wind to reach street level.

- building permeability;
- the provision for higher permeability of building masses can be achieved by creating gaps
between building blocks, between the podium and the building blocks built atop (i.e. a void
podium deck) and within building blocks at various levels (Figure 15);

Figure 15. Gaps between the podium and building blocks to enhance air permeability.

- buildings should be as permeable as possible to channel airflow to the blocks in the back row
(Figure 16). Sky gardens and double volume void decks can increase the permeability of blocks;

Figure 16. Sky gardens and void decks increase permeability of block.
214

Assessment of air-oriented urban formation to the Eco-city

Jabareen (2006) provided a thematic typology of literature from the sustainable development
and environmental planning fields and recommended that urban sustainable development has
conventionally been addressed at different spatial stages. He suggested the possibility of
comparing the performance of typical sustainable forms on the basis of design concept criteria
related with urban sustainability (see below Table 1).

Table 1. Sustainable urban form matrix: assessing the sustainability of urban form

Source: Jabareen (2006).

The sustainable urban form matrix in Table 1 provides an assessment of the sustainability of
the different urban forms. Significantly, this is a tentative consideration that is based on the
literature review of the forms and not on experiential findings or field work (Jabareen, 2006).
As shown in Table 1, the scores of the urban forms are highlighted in bold in each cell of the
matrix (1, 2 or 3), and the final score for each form is the sum of these scores that is presented at
the bottom. The results of the assessment, in Table 1, show that the compact city received the
highest score followed by the eco-city and then by the neotraditional development, after that the
urban containment received the lowest score (Jabareen, 2006).
It is clear from Jabareen’s table, for example, that possible conflicts exist between
compactness and passive solar design, because the higher densities linked with compactness
would increase shading, in that way reducing solar access and no presence of air flow design.
There would also be exchanges between compactness and ecological design, with higher
densities impinging on green space aspects.
For the purposes of summary and analysis, we could well add a new row with same columns
where indicate by previous three points (see below table 2).
From New matrix of Urban Form, the Grand Total scores for each form is the sum of with
those previous scores that is presented at the bottom. The results of the assessment, in Table 2,
show that the eco-city has received the highest score than both of the compact city and the
neotraditional development. The urban containment received the lowest score here also.
 215

Table 2. Sustainable urban form matrix: assessing the sustainability of urban form with
additional criteria

Conclusion

In practical situation of, many local authorities, governments, architects, planning consultants,
landscape architects, and so on are grappling much further specifically with aspects of
sustainable urban form through a variety of planning and design approaches and policies. The
question is which urban form is the most sustainable and environmentally sound for the tropical
urban area?
This study identifies the ideal indication of urban formation in the tropical area. To create an
Eco-city with sustainable built environment in the tropical urban area, due considerations should
be given to urban design concepts and ideologies in the planning and development procedure.
Our tropical urban area therefore basically needs more breezy air flows for thermal relief and
comfort in the built environment. To improved and long-term development of the wind
environment in our city, it is so important to optimise urban design for more wind penetration,
particularly to the public realm that urban form would be faced to air oriented.
According to the sustainable urban form matrix and key indicators of sustainable air flow
circulation, this study concludes that air oriented urban form contributes to develop an Eco-city
in the tropical urban area, where the Eco-city has accumulated urban greening, sustainable
transportation system and passive solar design with highly concern of build form orientation to
allow maximum air flow.

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218

Territorial and urban form regulation: from Garden-City to

Low Carbon City

Joana Mourão
Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, DINÂMIA’CET-IUL, Av. das Forças Armadas 1649-
026 Lisboa, Portugal. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. The control of atmospheric emissions is a question of urban planning at least since the end of
the XIX century, when the industrial revolution started to disturb the urban environment (Tarr, 2002).
“Our Common Future” (WCED, 1987) challenges brought this environmental concern back to urban
research demanding for ecological urban form regulation methods, in particular to control the increase
of energy demand and Greenhouse Gases emissions (Nijkamp, 1999). Analysing the concepts of
Smokeless Cities and of Low Carbon Cities this article investigates the ecological purposes of territorial
and urban form regulation methods, in two different moments: First, it analyses Smokeless Garden-City,
proposed by Ebenezer Howard in the aim of social economy (Howard, 1949); secondly, it analyses Low
Carbon City following “Our Common Future” (WCED, 1987) and “Prosperity without growth”
(Jackson, 2009) using academic research in the aim of market economy (Cuchí, 2009; Mourão, 2012).
The comparison of these two concepts shows that Smokeless Garden Cities and Low Carbon Cities
depend not only on urban form but also on territorial form. Furthermore, it shows that, while territorial
and urban form was possible to regulate by social economy zoning; on the globalized market economy
such regulation requires accounting and integrating environmental costs on urbanism.

Key Words: Territorial Form, Urban Form; Garden City, Low Carbon Cities, Ecological Economics.

Introduction

Several authors wrote about Ebenezer Howard’s Garden-City (1898) and ecological
urbanization, looking back more than one hundred years ago, on a perspective either of
valuating this urban project or of criticizing it. If some found on this proposal a powerful
territorial project to control urban growth (Hall, 1998; Peña, 1998), other saw (in particular due
to the asylums segregated from urban areas) an eugenic utopia, even comparable to the Third
Reich (Voigt, 1989). However, references to Garden-City as a model to which is worth to return
are more common than the opposite ones.
Furthermore, Garden-City contents relating ecological purposes of planning, raised later on
by authors as Ian McHarg (1971), are of particular interest for the discussion on methods for
controlling environmental impacts of urban growth, as for challenges of “Our Common Future”
ideology (WCED, 1987) and Climate Change (Stern, 2007). On another hand, this proposal
contributed for the generalization of zoning procedures in urban planning, widely questioned by
more recent planners (Mancuso, 1980).
Among urbanization environmental impacts, consumption of non renewable energy and
resulting Greenhouse Gases emissions (e.g. Carbon Dioxide), are impacts which regulation is of
particular relevance, since it can mitigate a global ecological risk (the rupture of the carbon
cycle and global warming, among other crossed effects) and it can contribute to achieve
prosperity decoupled from fossil fuels consumption (Jackson, 2009). However, to reduce this
impact through urbanism practice, in particular in Southern Europe, has still not produced
visible effects, probably due to the complexity of the globalized market economy and the
weakness of local power. Looking backwards on time can bring us some inspiration for the
research on this problem.
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Smokeless city, an ecological purpose of urban form regulation at social economy

Ebenezer Howard’s Garden-City proposal appears at the context of the agriculture crisis which
affected England at the end of the XIX century (Hall, 1998). In face of this crisis Howard
wanted to organize spatially the new industrial life, while countering the declining rural life.
Garden-City proposal aimed, in first place, to return people to the country and rural life, and
secondly, to conciliate social, industrial and rural development, at short and long term. Thus, it
aimed not only to solve the urban problem of then, but also the agrarian problem, responding to
the intents of several agrarian reformers of the time, which were concerned with the intense
rural exodus in Europe (Peña, 1998).
“To-morrow, a peaceful path for social reform”, first published on 1898 by the author,
stands on a model of redistribution of population, employment and wealth, all trough the
territory: “there is a broad path open, through a creation of new forms, to a new industrial
system in which (…) the distribution of the wealth will take place on a more equitable basis”
(Howard, 1949: 130). Thus, the will of integrating urban and rural life through territorial and
urban form regulation, stands at the basis of Garden-City, together with the idea that the country
could be so attractive as the city, and that these two realities could work as one: “neither the
town magnet nor the country magnet represents the full plan and purpose of nature. (…) town
and country must be married, and out of this joyous union will spring a new hope, a new life, a
new civilization” (Idem: 48).
However, the urban revolution was showing the opposite tendency, and all over Europe
people were leaving the country life in search of a better life and opportunities, flowing into the
cities, congesting and contaminating the urban environment and rising the price of land,
confirming Howards’ assumption: “perhaps no difference between town and country is more
noticeable than the difference in the rent charges for the use of the soil (…) this enormous
difference of rental value is of course almost entirely due to the presence in the one case and the
absence in the other of a large population” (Howard, 1949: 58-59). Population pressure over
cities was causing several social and environmental problems and unqualified urban form
development, specially visible on suburbanization, that Howard considered a way to the
elimination of citizenship and solidarity (Peña, 1998).
Howard proposal of social reform was also directed to two main environmental problems of
the industrial city: spatial congestion (urban form densification and degradation, i.e. slums) and
environmental contamination (concentration of atmospheric pollution, i.e. smoke). To eliminate
such problems rooted on the industrial city, he proposes a polycentric conurbation served by
railways and water channels, where the non-built space is dedicated to agriculture and forest,
while the built space remains contained in each urban settlement, ruled by rather high urban
densities for that times: the central city has 58000 inhabitants on 12000 acres and satellite cities
have 32000 inhabitants in 9000 acres (Figure 1). In average, Garden-City globally would have a
density of around 900 inhabitants/km2, a near value from the density of the metropolitan area of
Lisbon in 2001 (850 inhabitants/km2).
Howard envisioned a dense urban form with few open spaces in its interior areas,
compensated by the green belt of open spaces surrounding and filling the interior of the
polycentric urban system: “this principle of always preserving a belt of country around our
cities would be ever kept on mind till, in course of time, we should have a cluster of cities”
(Howard, 1949: 142).
220

Figure 1. Garden-City represented as a Group of Slumless and Smokeless Cities (Source:

Author, 2014, adapted from Howard, 1998).

The symbiosis between country and city is based on a spatial distribution of population, and
on general principles about urban and territorial form: densities were ruling urban form
(although the options of the built form were not defined) while the spatial balance between built
space and open space was regulating territorial form (Figure 1).
This model would be only feasible with cooperative land ownership, being this cooperative
responsible by the process of territorial and urban form regulation, while assuring that the
Garden-City surplus would be used to the benefit of the cities infrastructures. Land cooperative
ownership concept beneath such spatial model is discussed on the literature about social cities
(Peña, 1998; F. J. Osborn in Howard, 1949; Hall, 1998), however territorial and urban form
regulation method beneath Garden-City and its several ecological purposes are not so frequently
approached. Indeed, the balance between built and open space, favourable to the built space at
the urban scale (of the city) and favourable to the open space at the territorial scale (of the group
of cities), was the base of Garden-City urban and territorial form regulation.
Howard proposal would, in theory, mitigate urban congestion and slums degradation through
population distribution and regulation of settlement density, together with the safeguard of the
structure of open and green spaces. These measures would also reduce environmental
contamination problems, as smoke or waste, since that the right distribution of the urban form
and its economical functions would minimize the conflict among different activities. Such
environmental problems would be also mitigated by green space and by the location of
industries, near the channels and railways, as also by the efficient non-polluting transport of
people: “on the outer ring of the town are factories, warehouses, markets, coal yards, timber
yards, etc., all fronting on the circle railway, which encompass the whole town, and which has
sidings connecting it with a main line of railway which passes through the estate. This
arrangement enables goods to be loaded direct into trucks (…) and so sent by railway to distant
markets” (Howard, 1949: 55).
Territorial and urban form would follow the functions purposed, and therefore “urban form”
expression does not appear on Howard text, while it is seen as a consequence of the town-
country model. Garden Cities urban form, at the city scale, could be variable in each settlement
 221

of the model, ever since accomplishing the rules of density and open space. Such variations are
visible in figure 1, where each satellite city presents different urban forms.
Thus, the territorial and urban form regulation method of Garden-City derived from land use
planning, managing territory and land as a “collective resource” and expecting that decisions on
urban form, taken by the cooperative administration, would give priority to public interests,
safeguarding the collective resources as non polluted soil, air and water.
Garden-City included ecological purposes addressing air pollution, but also addressing
waste. Waste would be returned to the productive soil, near urban land, in order to fertilize it, to
recover nutrients and to assure urban health: “the combination of town and country in not only
healthful, but economic (…) the waste products of the town could, and this without heavy
charges for railway transport or other expensive agencies, be readily brought back to the soil,
thus increasingly fertility.” (Howard, 1949: 61-62)
Garden-City addressed also the energy problem: it would be supplied by electricity produced
outside from the urban settlements and smoke, as waste, would be removed - or delocalized -
from the urban environment: “the smoke fiend is kept well within bounds in Garden City; for all
machinery is driven by electric energy, with the result that the cost of electricity for lighting and
other purposes is greatly reduced. (…) the refuse of the town is utilized on the agricultural
portions of the estate” (Idem: 55). Thus, in theory, smoke and waste would dissipate while
bringing the country into the city.
In Garden-City the role of the free interstitial spaces between the satellite cities and the
central city was larger than the one of a classic “green belt” around the city centre with hygienic
purposes. These spaces were agricultural and ecological production units, crossed by railways
and water channels, that would supply urban centres and would safeguard self-sufficiency by
providing food, materials, fuels and ecological services (clean air, clean water). Therefore,
urban growth would occur in proportion to the load capacity of the hinterland which was part of
Garden-City. And, thus, urban ecological footprint would be compensated by land and
ecosystem services performed at the multifunctional green belt of open spaces.
The reality of slum and smoke full industrial cities of then was even seen as reversible by
Howard (Howard, 1949: 117). While Paris, Berlin, Glasgow or Vienna suffered radical
interventions to clean the city with the opening of boulevards, green rings and the demolition of
unhealthy slums, Howard argued that to develop Garden Cities would solve the problem of
congestion and unhealthy environments, not only within the new cities, but also in London,
while delocalizing inhabitants and relieving its pressure over the capital. However, the
experiences of implementation of the model showed that, instead of relieving London it from
social and environmental pressures, Garden Cities became green suburbs (Peña, 1998; Hall,
1998) with high mobility costs, hidden by the success of the new fascinating automobiles at the
emergent Fordist times.

The role of ecological ideology on urban planning then and now

Howard achieved in the early XX century to propose a new ideology about land owning and
land use planning with ecological purposes, in particular on what concerns to atmospheric
emissions (smoke). However, today, more than one century after Garden-City proposal being
first published, non polluted air in cities got much scarcer, and Ecological Cities are, on the
globalized condition of nowadays, harder to idealize and concretize.
The role of ecological balance, renewal of air and water, which Howard attributed to the belt
of agricultural and ecological open spaces today is not assured. To promote such open spaces
ecological functions demands a high social control against illegal urbanization and
environmental contamination, with high costs at a global scale.
On another hand, the ecological performance of such open spaces, in particular on what
concerns to agriculture, is not always beneficial in several parts of the Globe, while economical
222

activity develops with very few ecological constraints, disrespecting the load capacity of the
regions.
Howard’s work shows that ecological purposes of land use planning are an ideological
question, since the territorial and urban form regulation method of Garden-City was only
feasible in the context of cooperative land management.
In the XX century ideology on ecology and sustainability was widely spread by “Our
Common Future” report (WCED, 1987) and its inherent concept of sustainable development.
Through this report, some of Howard aims became recognized at global scale in the end of the
XX century, and on its sequence others, as climate change, were added (Stern, 2007). However,
ecological ideology is still rarely transferred to land use planning and urbanism theory, on the
contrary of what occurred with Garden Cities during the Pre-Fordism times.
Indeed, a planning method relating territorial form to ecological performance of cities facing
automobiles, only appeared more than 50 years after, on the work of Ian McHarg (1971). Such
research is still in course, leading us to a recent proposal on ecological urbanism, with variable
meanings all over the world, known as Low Carbon Cities or also as Low Carbon Urban
Metabolism.

Low Carbon Cities, a path to restrict urban energy demand at market economy

Recent research on urbanism identifies the study of the energy-carbon flow (among other flows
of the social metabolism) as a relevant field of research to achieve a more ecological territorial
and urban form, mitigating climate change since Carbon Dioxide is the principal Greenhouse
Gas (Stern, 2007; Camagni, 2002; Newmann, 2006). Low Carbon Cities are understood as
urban systems which demand few fossil fuels and produce few carbon emissions. However, Low
Carbon Cities, as all contemporary cities, depend on globalized markets and, therefore, require
an integration in a Low Carbon World.
The same has happened with Garden Cities: its reproduction and generalization would also
had demand a Garden-World, where densities and open belts would be respected on the long
term, all over the world. Thus, the real challenge of Low Carbon Cities is the one of a Low
Carbon Economy, and such challenge requires a strong global ideological endorsement. “Our
Common Future” report could had been the motor of such ideological endorsement, as
Ecological Economics, which arose during the 70’s of the XX century and inspired planners and
an ecological planning method called “Design with nature” (McHarg, 1971).
Under Ecological Economics the limitation of entropy, and the consideration of
environmental costs on the evaluation of urban development scenarios, became key purposes for
a more ecological economy. Low Carbon Cities give shape to such purposes, conceiving spatial
scenarios of low fossil fuels consumption, envisioning an expected future either of scarcity or of
full internalization of environmental and climate change costs. But while such future is not
recognized as reality, few Low Carbon Cities turn reality.
Also only two Garden Cities were created in reality, while its model inspired land use
planning and urban form theory and practice all over the Occident. The same seems to occur
with the concept of Low Carbon Cities: It caused a considerable amount of academic studies
and innovative proposals, conflicting with urban and land use planning dominant practices and
worldwide urbanization trends, so far inspiring several students and academics.
Furthermore, although few Low Carbon Cities still exist in reality, territorial and urban
administrations all over Europe are committed with the low carbon goal (Covenant of Mayors -
JRC, 2009) and low carbon urban form appears as an issue of their major interest.
Additionally, academic research shows that the characterization of carbon emissions from an
urban system, although complex and demanding specific information (Cuchí, 2009), permits to
portrait and then restrict, the carbon emissions of urban origin on a certain municipality,
including buildings, mobility and sanitation emissions, and considering delocalized emissions
(Figure 2 and 3).
 223

This new quantitative knowledge allows to take informed options on territorial and urban
form transformations, and to develop a balance between high carbon and low carbon
urbanization. As research has shown, such balance does not depend only of urban form by itself,
but also from micro factors as buildings envelope, or from macro factors as transportation infra-
structure and open spaces structure and functions (Mourão, 2012).
Urban Carbon Balance is relevant for ecological territorial and urban form regulation but it
is still not incorporated in an operative territorial and urban form regulation method. Indeed,
traditional instruments of territorial and urban municipal planning cannot address energy urban
demand neither urban carbon emissions. There are two main reasons for this limitation
(Mourão, 2012): i) the regulation of carbon emissions at the municipality or city level demands
methodologies and domains of information that not always are available or workable for urban
planning (for example from IPCC reports, at the aim of Kyoto Protocol); ii) traditional planning
relying on zoning fails to address key drivers of urban emissivity, such as mobility, sprawl or
degradation and emptying of urban centres.

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70

A1. Gas in buildings

A2. Electricity in residential buldings
A3. Electricity in non residential buldings
A4. Public buildings lightning
B1. Motorway and diesel Railway
B2. Electric transportation
C1. Waste water
C2. Water Supply
C3. Urban Solid Waste
C4. Roads lightning

Figure 2. Urban carbon indicators for a Portuguese municipality (Source: Author, 2014
(data from 2007), Unities: Gig gram CO2e 1.000 ton).

Buildings

Mobility

Urban Services

Figure 3. Urban carbon emissions distribution in a Portuguese municipality (Source:

Author, 2013 (data from 2007)).
224

As shown before in this article, while defining areas for certain activities, Garden-City
proposes a zoning segregating activities and groups, on a paradigm of full control of land uses, a
trend that remained in the urbanism of the XX century (Mancuso, 1980; Voigt, 1989). Low
Carbon Cities, instead, cannot be achieved through the segregation of activities, since they are
inserted on a global logic and since they require performance planning, based on principles and
goals for a certain territory, and not on the delocalization of emission sources.
An academic proposal for low carbon territorial and urban form regulation, applied to a
Portuguese municipality (Torres Novas, 35.0000 inhabitants, figure 2 and 3), showed that
territorial planning to reduce carbon emissions should follow principles countering high carbon
actions inherent to unregulated urban growth (Mourão, 2012). These principles are: (1)
polycentric concentration of settlements, refurbishing existing infrastructure and buildings,
defining preconditions to allow urban transformations; (2) structuring low-emission mobility
channels, integrating alternative forms of mobility and public transport ,and anchoring this
structure to the settlements; (3) safeguarding open spaces for water and waste ecological
management, biodiversity and food provision, there controlling soil permeability.
At the academic research quoted, simple rules for urban built form planning were also
proposed and tested at the scale of a 5.000 inhabitants settlement (figure 4): (a) use of winter
solar gains and protection of summer solar gains in all buildings; (b) integration of pedestrian
and bicycle paths connecting to the existing equipment; (c) definition of soil permeability rates
and integration of reservoirs and pipelines for storm water.

1 km

Figure 4. Ecological scenario for a low carbon settlement in 2020 (Source: Author,
2012).
 225

This research has shown that with the framework of an ecological Master Plan, and a Carbon
Balance quantifying and adjusting it in terms of emissions, it would be possible to require from
the urbanization agents, in market economy, the compensation for the generated urban energy
and carbon emissions demand. Thus, instead of a pre-established zoning, low carbon territorial
and urban form follows pre-establish conditions and goals, which are converted in a ecological
scenario of land uses and infra-structure adjustment (figure 4).

Discussion and Conclusions

“Garden Cities of Tomorrow” is a work with the ideological background of the local
cooperative movement while the concept of Low Carbon City follows the ideology of “Our
Common Future”, and the Earth Summit spirit of acting local and thinking global.
Nevertheless, Garden Cities and Low Carbon Cities are comparable as grassroots territorial
visions since both aim a superior ecological performance, urban pollution control and
atmospheric emissions dispersion or reduction.
It is possible to identify several differences between these two urban visions, due to the
urban revolution occurred during the time elapsed between the two moments when they were
produced, as also due its inherent ideological and economical paradigms: while Garden Cities
were linked to an social economy based on collective land and cooperative management, in
times of urban and industrial expansion, being executed trough density and zoning regulation;
Low Carbon Cities arise at the globalized market economy and industry delocalization. Its
execution requires, instead, the definition of principles and rules for urban transformation,
controllable by territorial local administration while facing global urbanization agents and major
environmental changes. Such principles need to be legitimated by the recognition of
environmental costs of urbanization (as carbon emissions) and its economic integration.
Garden Cities, as Low Carbon Cities, faced an economic and urban crisis, in different
moments of History. Both visions intend to control urban growth trough territorial and urban
form regulation, following the classical purpose of urbanism. Garden Cities were efficient on its
environmental purposes because its spatial model, endorsed by the cooperative ideology, was
able to structure urban development in times of strong urban dynamics.
Low Carbon Cities endorsed by “Our Common Future” face the harder challenge of
structuring the territory in times of lower urban dynamics. As it was for Garden Cities, the
balance between built and open space is a key for low carbon urban and territorial form
regulation. However, in a globalized urban world, Low Carbon Cities will only succeed if the
ruling of durable spatial structures is efficient to create a spatial context with low energy and
carbon operation costs, at the long term and at a global scale.

References

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different patterns of urban expansion’, Ecological Economics 40, 199-216
Cuchí, A. [et. al.] (2009) ‘A framework to take account of CO2 restrictions on municipal urban planning’,
45th Isocarp Congress Low Carbon Cities (CD proceedings).
Hall, P. [et. al.] (1998) Sociable Cities. The Legacy of Ebenezer Howard (J. Wiley & Sons, Chichester).
Howard, E. (1949) Garden Cities of To-Morrow (Faber and Faber, London) .
Howard, E. (1998 [1898]) Tomorrow: A peaceful path to real reform (Routledge, London).
Jackson, T. (2009) Prosperity without growth. Economics for a finite Planet (Earth scan, New York).
Join Research Centre, European Commission (2009) ‘Covenant of Mayors. Committed to urban
sustainable energy’ (http://www.covenantofmayors.eu/index_en.html).
226

Mancuso, F. (1980) Las experiencias del zoning (Gustavo Gili, Barcelona).

Mcharg, I. (1971) Design with nature (Garden City, Doubleday, New York).
Mour o, J. (2012) ‘Planeamento do Metabolismo Urbano: Uma via para a restriç o de emissões urbanas
de gases com efeito de estufa’, Ph.D. thesis, University of Oporto, Portugal.
Newman, P. (2006) ‘The environmental impact of cities’, Environment and Urbanization 18, 275-295.
Nijkamp, P. [et. al.] (1999) Sustainable Cities and Energy Policies (Springer Verlag, Berlin).
Peña, F. R. (1998) ‘Mirando hacia atras: la Ciudad Jardín cien años después’ Ciudad y Territorial Estudos
territoriales, XXX 116, 449-472.
Stern, N. (2007) The economics of Climate Change. The Stern Review (Cambridge University Press,
Cambridge) .
Tarr, J. (2002) ‘The metabolism of the industrial city. The case of Pittsburgh’, Journal of Urban History
5, 511-545 .
Voigt, W. (1989) ‘The garden city as eugenic utopia’ Planning perspectives 4, 295-312.
World Commission on Environment And Development (WCED) (1987) Our Common Future (Oxford
University Press, Oxford).
 227

Analysis of tools and ‘patterns’ for assessment of urban

sustainability to promote design quality

Érika Otto, Liza Andrade, Natália Lemos

Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo, Universidade de Brasília, Brasil.
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected].

Abstract. This research on methods and requirements to forward urban environmental regeneration aims
to investigate the requirements and patterns of assessment of urban sustainability in the process of urban
design. In the environmental certification of urban development, there is a wide range of evaluation
methods developed and disseminated by various countries and organizations. In Brazil, the main
evaluation methods used are classificatory, and, although with different criteria the quantitative system is
the norm to achieve the certificate. None of them deals directly with the spatial shape or patterns as
qualitative parameters of architectural and urban design. This methodology aims at urban environmental
regeneration, it integrates studies of ecological urbanism principles for resilient cities (Spirn, 2011) and
the principles of urban environmental sustainability (Andrade, 2008), connecting them to the “patterns”
developed by (Alexander et al., 1977) and identified by (Moehlecke, 2010). The patterns illustrate
strategies for the design process, offering alternatives that lead to the design of more sustainable human
settlements. For an in-depth examination, the research analyzed the BREEAM Communities method
(UK). This method was juxtaposed to the 108 patterns selected by (Moehlecke, 2010) leading to
satisfactory results matching the criteria in sustainability categories within social, economic and
environmental dimensions.

Key Words: Urban regeneration, sustainability principles, urban patterns, environmental certification

Introduction

The evaluation of urban sustainability is a complex theme that has different approaches in
different countries. Diverse economic contexts and environmental laws lead to a range of
methods for environmental assessment, each adapted to its local conditions. In Brazil,
international methods are often imported and it is important to question their applicability to
local circumstances.
In Brazil, certifications are being used increasingly to incorporate marketing value and are
becoming a powerful tool for real estate development. This has the benefit of attracting the
attention of society to the issue of sustainability. However, in most cases, the issue of social
justice is not taken into consideration.
Models of sustainability certification in urban areas have evolved significantly in the last few
years. The main evaluation methods in Brazil are classificatory, such as the LEED-ND
certification - Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design for Neighborhood Development,
developed by USGBC - United States Green Building Council and the High Environmental
Quality standard (AQUA) to Neighborhoods Allotments and adapted from the French HQE
technical reference - Haute Qualité Environnementale.
The sustainability principles used in LEED-ND were extracted from policies for sustainable
urban development (Smart Growth and New Urbanism) to neighborhoods, development of
urban communities and sustainable construction (Green Buildings) integrating principles of
smart growth and planning for sustainable construction designing neighborhoods. The criteria
adopted by LEED-ND are divided into three categories: a) smart location and linkage, b)
neighborhood pattern and design and c) green infrastructure and buildings.
228

The High Environmental Quality (AQUA) for Neighborhoods, method was adapted from the
French HQE technical reference - Haute Qualité Environnementale to Brazil by Vanzolini, from
the University of São Paulo. The Technical Reference presents criteria grouped into three
categories: a) neighborhood integration and coherence; b) neighborhood natural resources,
environmental quality and health, and c) social life and economic dynamics.
The first national sustainability classification system developed in Brazil, the Selo Casa Azul
da Caixa 35 , was created in 2009 and sought to associate the budget restrictions and social
practices across six categories: urban quality, design and comfort, energy efficiency, resource
conservation, materials, water management and social practices. However, the method does not
comprehend urban design, being limited to the evaluation of urban sustainability.
Despite establishing requirements for achieving urban sustainability from the earliest stages
of project planning, these certifications do not directly address the urban form and spatial
patterns that serve as parameters of quality in architectural design and urban planning. All these
methods are quantitative approaches to classification systems, used exclusively for certification.
Considering the social inequalities in Brazil, it is necessary to analyze the tools and assessment
patterns of urban sustainability that can promote both urban environmental regeneration and
quality of urban design, as well as the applicability of the foreign methods of environmental
certification within the local context.
The certification of BRE BREEAM Communities (UK), not yet translated into Portuguese,
was emphasized in this research for further studies due to its application process that serves as a
framework for urban planning and design. This guide encompasses design parameters that
guarantee models/patterns that promote social and economic benefits, mitigating the impacts of
the built environment in eight categories of sustainability: energy and climate, site modeling,
community, ecology and biodiversity, transport and mobility resources, businesses and
buildings.
This research hypothesizes that if these models of certifications are combined with spatial
patterns of sustainability they can be a guideline to quality in urban design.
As a methodological procedure, initially, in order to understand urban environmental
regeneration, we studied the principles of ecological urbanism for resilient cities (Spin, 2011).
Within the principle "cities are habitats", patterns were identified (Alexander et al., 1977) as
parameters of quality in architectural and urban projects, and recognized by (Salingaros et al.,
2010), as a way to generate codes for design tools. Then, sustainability principles (Andrade,
2005 and Moehlecke, 2010) were juxtaposed with "patterns" of quality in design. Although not
aiming specifically at sustainability principles "A Pattern Language" offers strategies in the
form of tools applicable at different levels of the physical environment, leading to the
development of more sustainable human settlements. Lastly, after understanding these patterns,
we assessed the tools in the Evaluation of Urban Sustainability (ASU) and its requirements and
criteria of sustainability, seeking to compare and combine them to the sustainability patterns in
BRE - BREAM Communities, matching its criteria to patterns and sustainability principles.

Theoretical and methodological aspects

Society and the current economic model, powered by exhaustible natural resources, increase
reveal themselves to be increasingly unsustainable. This model is being pushed towards a
sustainable evolutionary trajectory, which raises the need for new propositions and future
adaptations.
(Spirn, 2011) presents ecological urbanism as a solution to degradation caused by urban
settlements. Ecological urbanism integrates theory and practice of designing cities with urban
planning and ecology and other disciplines, studying the relationship between living organisms

35
The Guide Selo Azul da Caixa was developed by a CAIXA technical team, with support from a team of
specialists from the universities USP, UNICAMP, and UFSC.
 229

and their environment. It defines some principles that allow the coexistence of all relationships
between management systems of city and nature. (Spirn, 2011) describes six principles for
resilient cities, defining them as: (1) part of the natural world, (2) habitats (3) ecosystems
(connected and dynamic), (4) a deep structure or (5) examples of support, and lastly, (6) urban
design as an adaptation tool.
A Pattern Language (Alexander et al., 1977) falls within the principle "Cities are habitats"
that should provide its residents the social and biological needs, in which the survival of the
species is related to the equilibrium and control that resultant from the design of their habitat.
Therefore, urban design meets "habitat quality", promoting and enhancing the development of
processes supporters of life and satisfactory to the needs of living beings.
(Alexander, 1979) in "The timeless way of building" identified a precise and objective quality
within the built environment, "a quality without a name", that once achieved, injects hope of life
in what we build. This quality gives life to things, freeing them of internal contradictions and
consists of a complex system that demands fealty to its own nature. It can be partially expressed
by some limited words such as: lively, whole, comfortable and accurate.
(Alexander, 1979) describes a process that, if allowed, reveals the spontaneous order in each of
us, resulting in the possibility of designing good and agreeable places, and building lively
structures. On the other hand, when fear prevents us from finding that order we follow rules that
result in dead places.
In defining this quality in buildings and cities, it is important to understand that a space gets
its character by patterns of events that happened within it. It is connected to these events and,
although not limited by it, an event is also the space where it happened. Patterns of events
always relate to certain geometric patterns of space, allowing an analysis of what he calls spatial
patterns.
This analysis shows that in buildings or in urban areas there are recurring elements, and
recurring relationships among them. These elements combine in different results and variations
with different patterns of relationships. The element is, in fact, the pattern of relationship
established between the element itself and the elements of the surrounding world.
Therefore, a space would not be formed by elements initially identified, but by patterns of
relationship indicative of its character. Patterns are concrete elements, solid substance and
starting points to create a building or a city. In adopting living patterns, the outcome is the
spatial quality. Hence, it is recommended the use of "patterns with the quality without a name"
in order to design a good project.
From this premise, Alexander and his team proposed a language made of a set of patterns. It
identifies qualitative guidelines, resulting in patterns that compose a language for urban and
architectural design, promoting an environmental quality and "a timeless way" to build. The
result is a universal process that preserves quality throughout time, a way to build and design
that can help designers to determine the structure of urban spaces with a whole and integrated
outlook (Alexander, 1977).
The patterns are presented and distributed according to their different scales, ranging from
more global aspects to the construction details. All of them were observed over a long period of
time in spatial characteristics of successful places totaling 253, capable of forming an infinite
variety of combinations. As the nature of the construction process is understood, a language
made of patterns becomes possible. Each pattern relates to the other in order to complete major
and minor patterns, many interconnected, suggesting a fundamental order to the working of the
language.
The result is a linear sequence from the larger to the smaller scale, revealing a fundamental
worldview, which does not build one thing alone, but acts in the world around it and within,
allowing for a broader and holistic coherent vision of the world.
The language is more than a manual. It consists of a core archetype of all possible pattern
languages, capable of making individuals feel alive and human. By adopting these patterns as
the basis of analysis, we focused on understanding its system so that we could connect them to
urban sustainability assessment tools.
230

Patterns and Principles of Environmental Sustainability

Despite the existence of guidelines for more sustainable urban settlements, the
recommendations are usually quite general, lacking studies on urban patterns, a tool that could
greatly contribute for sustainable development. (Moehlecke, 2010) saw in the book "A Pattern
Language" by Alexander et al., an opportunity to study patterns connected to sustainability,
although not formulated specifically for this area. The patterns can be seen as strategies
potentially able to contribute to the sustainability of urban settlements.
To the urban patterns identified in the work of (Alexander et al., 1977), were juxtaposed
sustainability principles based on several authors, among them (Andrade, 2005).
These principles are of common interest to different societies and can be applied in different
contexts, as well as guide the development of desirable characteristics.
The results of theoretical connections and analyzes was a set of 108 urban patterns
distributed within nine principles of sustainability in social, economic and environmental
dimensions present in human settlements. The scales chosen go from the smaller scale of the
place, then the neighborhood, to the largest scale of the settlement.
The principles organized by (Moehlecke, 2010) are a result of the translation of "key ideas"
(themes) taken from the matrix composed by the dimensions of sustainability (environmental,
social and economic) and the three urban scales (place, neighborhood and settlement). Each
urban scale, according to the author, must be represented by three principles, each being
representative of a dimension. The result is a set of nine principles: social interaction, urban
diversity, mixed land use, biodiversity, habitability, compactness, energy efficiency, sustainable
mobility and local economy. This identification is only introductory, as other principles can be
incorporated later.
Thus, the set of patterns that establishes a connection with the issue of sustainability takes
the form of intervention strategies and tools that could be applied in different levels of the
physical environment, allowing human settlements to develop more sustainably. The criteria
used to establish these connections are: the dimensions of sustainability, the urban scales, and
the principles of sustainability.
Both the criteria and the patterns selected provide a base for the analysis of environmental
certifications and indicate, respectively, if the certification is truly sustainable and if this is
reflected in the quality of the urban design. Each pattern was analyzed considering its
relationship with a certain principle and its contribution and potential contributions to other
principles and dimension of sustainability, as a pattern can contribute in more than one of them.
Therefore, it was possible to connect the patterns of sustainability identified by (Moehlecke,
2010) to the criteria of environmental certifications, in this case the criteria of BREEAM
Communities.

Breeam communities

The BREEAM Communities is an independent organization within the family BREEAM, which
uses third party assessment and certification standard based on BREEAM methodology. This
method consists of a framework for analysis of issues and opportunities that affect sustainability
in the early stage of the design process and development.
Developed by BRE Global UK organization, the BREEAM accreditation system for city
planning presented its first pilot version in 2008 (almost 20 years after the first versions
BREEAM for buildings). Previously, the organization developed a manual for planning and
design at the urban scale that was the basis for the requirements of the certification system.
Between the 2008 version and the final document, the certification system has undergone public
revisions to allow for public participation in the context of urban planning.
 231

According to BRE organization, this certification has four specific objectives: reduce overall
impacts of urbanization; recognize projects and communities according to their environmental,
social and economic benefits; provide an accredited label for urbanism focused on sustainability;
and stimulate demand and ensure the effective development of sustainable communities. The
aim is to build a vehicle to support the development of projects ensuring that the
models/patterns promote social and economic benefits, mitigating the impacts of the built
environment.
Therefore, it uses measures of quantification/evaluation for sustainable determinations with
flexible approaches, avoiding specific requirements and solution of composition. It uses the best
available science and practice as the basis of qualification and calibration, cost-effective
models/patterns for the definition of sustainability, and aims simultaneously for economic,
social and environmental gains.
The environmental assessment methodology is extended to the holistic view of sustainability,
considering the social and economic impacts of development. It is expressed in a system of
negotiable credits divided into three steps. The steps and the organization of the guide help
project managers in integrating master planning with evaluative processes and ensure the
addressing of issues at appropriate times in the planning process, absorbing strategies of
regional sustainability and encompassing environmental, social and economic planning issues.
The issues addressed in the manual are grouped into five impact categories as mentioned
above. The criteria relevant to each step of these categories were developed in the following
discussion.

Results of the correlation of breeam issues with sustainability patterns

These categories indicate a direction for sustainability, but do not provide an indication of how
to actually achieve it. They outline a goal, without showing the way. The issues assessed are
generic and can be accomplished without guaranteeing the quality of design and even urban
sustainability in full, functioning only as a checklist.
However, by correlating the BREEAM criteria to the contributions of sustainability patterns,
we obtain a design methodology, as the patterns direct how to reach the final goal. The
sustainability pattern groups contribute to the issue selected by (Moehlecke, 2010) within the
dimensions of sustainability. Through these contributions, a way to correlate BREEAM issues
to sustainability patterns was developed, as shown in the following table:

Table 1. Issues, contributions, patterns of sustainability

ISSUES ISSUES / CONTRIBUTIONS PATTERNS OF

ASSESSED SUSTAINABILITY
GO 01 - Public Not addressed in the patterns p.45 Necklace of community
consultation plan selected by Moehlecke (2010) projects (Not among sustainability
GO 02 - patterns selected)
Consultation and
engagement
GO 03 - Project
Analysis
GO 04 -
Community
management of
facilities
SE 01 - Support for local farmers p.19 Web of shopping, p.32 Shopping
Economic impact Support for local products street, p.87 Individually owned shops,
p.89 Corner grocery, p.93 Food stands,
232

p.177 Vegetable garden

Strengthen local commerce p.6 Country towns, p.46 Market of
many shops, p.165 Opening to the street
Passive heating p.107 Wings of light, p.128 Indoor
sunlight, p.175 Greenhouse, p.221
Natural doors and windows, p.230
Radiation heat p.234 Lapped outside
walls
Lower energy content materials p.207 Good materials, p.248 Soft tile
and brick
SE 02 - Strengthening group identity p.8 Mosaic of subcultures, p.13
Demographic Subculture boundary, p.15
needs and Neighborhood boundaries
priorities Group diversity p.35 Household mix
Age diversity p.26 Life cycle, p.40 Old people
everywhere p.57 Children in the city
Gender diversity p.27 Men and women
SE 03 – Flood Water protection p.25 Access to water, p.64 Pools and
risk assessment streams
Natural rainwater drainage p.51 Green streets, p.247 Paving with
cracks between the stones
Respect and preservation of p.104 Site repair
natural areas
Adaptation to local conditions p.169 Terraced slope
Occupancy control p.4 Agricultural valleys, p.21 Four-story
limit
Occupancy balance p.3 City country fingers, p.28 Eccentric
nucleus, p.29 Density rings, p.38 Row
houses, p.39 Housing hill, p.96 Number
of stories
SE 04 - Noise Urban noise reduction p.173 Garden wall
pollution
SE 05 - Housing Development of a sense of p.37 House cluster, p.79 Your own
supply responsibility and identity with home
the place
Indoor-outdoor contact p.140 Private terrace on the street, p.164
Street windows, p.222 Low sill, p.243
Sitting wall
Balanced occupancy p.3 City country fingers, p. 28 Eccentric
nucleus, p.29 Density rings, p.38 Row
houses, p.39 Housing hill, p.96 Number
of stories
SE 06 - Delivery Scattered activities p.9 Scattered work, p.10 Magic of the
of services, city, p.41 Work community, p.42
amenities and Industrial ribbon, p.48 Housing in
commodities between
Support for local farmers p.19 Web of shopping, p.32 Shopping
Support for local products street, p.87 Individually owned shops,
p.89 Corner grocery, p.93 Food stands,
p.177 Vegetable garden
Strengthen local commerce p.6 Country towns, p.46 Market of
many shops, p.165 Opening to the street
SE 07 - Public Streets as places of social p.31 Promenade, p.106 Positive outdoor
 233

sphere interaction space, p.121 Path shape, p.122 Building

fronts, p.123 Pedestrian density
More community interaction p.63 Dancing in the street, p.79 Your
own home, p.88 Street cafe, p.90 Beer
hall, p.108 Connected buildings, p.124
Activity pockets
Develop places that that p.69 Public outdoor room, p.105 North
encourage permanence and facing outdoors, p.114 Hierarchy of
social interaction open space*, p.125 Stair seats, p.160
Building edge, p.163 Outdoor room,
p.170 Fruit trees, p.171 Tree places,
p.241 Seat spots
Development of a sense of p.37 House cluster, p.67 Common land,
responsibility and identity with p.79 Your own home, p.119 Arcades,
the place p.170 Fruit trees
Indoor-outdoor contact p.140 Private terrace on the street, p.164
Street windows, p.166 Gallery surround,
p.222 Low sill, p.243 Sitting walls
SE 08 - Microclimate control p.25 access to water, p.51 Green streets,
Microclimate p.60 Accessible green, p.64 Pools and
streams, p.118 Roof garden, p.162
North face, p.247 Paving with cracks
between the stones
SE 09 - Alternative transportation p.11 Local transport areas, p.52
Amenities methods Network of paths and cars, p.56 Bike
paths and racks, p.100 Pedestrian street,
p.120 Paths and goals, p.174 Trellised
walk
Safe paths for pedestrians p.49 Looped local roads, p.50 T
junctions , p.54 Road crossing p.55
Raised walk
Reduction of expressway p.17 Ring roads, p.23 Parallel roads
interference in communities
Scattered activities p.9 Scattered work, p.10 Magic of the
city, p.41 Work community, p.42
Industrial ribbon, p.48 Housing in
between
Activity pockets p.47 Health center, p.61 Small public
squares, p.97 Shielded parking
SE 10 – Microclimate control p.25 access to water, p.51 Green streets,
Adaptation to p.60 Accessible green, p.64 Pools and
climate change streams, p.118 Roof garden, p.162
North face, p.247 Paving with cracks
between the stones
SE 11 – Green Respect and preservation of p.104 Site repair
infrastructure natural areas
Reduction of human interference p.74 Animals, p.172 Garden growing
in species development wild p.245 Raised flowers
SE 12 - Local Decrease in car prevalence p.22 Nine per cent parking, p.103 Small
parking parking lots
Alternative transportation p.56 Bike paths and racks
methods
SE 13 – Flood Water protection p.25 Access to water, p.64 Pools and
risk management streams
234

Natural rainwater drainage p.51 Green streets, p.247 Paving with

cracks between stones
Respect and preservation of p.104 Site repair
natural areas
Adaptation to local conditions p.169 Terraced slopes
Occupancy control p.4 Agricultural valleys, p.21 Four-story
limit
Occupancy balance p.3 City country fingers, p.28 Eccentric
nucleus, p.29 Density rings, p.38 Row
houses, p.39 Housing hill, p.96 Number
of stories
SE 14 – Local Development of a sense of p.37 House cluster, p.67 Common land,
vernacular responsibility and identity with p.79 Your own home, p.119 Arcades,
the place p.170 Fruit trees
SE 15 – Inclusive Reclaiming streets as places of p.31 Promenade, p.106 Positive outdoor
design social interaction space, p.121 Path shape, p.122 Building
fronts, p.123 Pedestrian density
Broader community interaction p.63 Dancing in the street, p.79 Your
own home, p.88 Street café, p.90 Beer
hall, p.108 Connected buildings, p.124
Activity pockets
Development of places of p.69 Public outdoor room, p.105 North
permanence and social facing outdoors, p.114 Hierarchy of
interaction open space*, p.125 Stair seats, p.160
Building edge, p.163 Outdoor room,
p.170 Fruit trees, p.171 Tree places,
p.241 Seat spots
Development of a sense of p.37 House cluster, p.67 Common land,
responsibility and identity with p.79 Your own home, p.119 Arcades,
the place p.170 Fruit trees
Indoor-outdoor contact p.140 Private terrace on the street, p.164
Street windows, p.166 Gallery surround,
p.222 Low sill, p.243 Sitting walls
SE 16 – Light Solar radiation and lighting p.244 Canvas roofs
pollution control strategies
SE 17 - Labor Support for local farmers p.19 Web of shopping, p.32 Shopping
and skills Support for local products street, p.87 Individually owned shops,
p.89 Corner grocery, p.93 Food stands,
p.177 Vegetable garden
Strengthen local commerce p.6 Country towns, p.46 Market of
many shops, p.165 Opening to the street
RE 01 – Energy Passive heating p.107 Wings of light, p.128 Indoor
strategy sunlight, p.175 Greenhouse, p.221
Natural doors and windows, p.230
Radiation heat p.234 Lapped outside
walls
Lower energy content materials p.207 Good materials, p.248 soft tile
and brick
Solar radiation and lighting p.244 Canvas roofs
control strategies
RE 02 – Existing Strengthening group identities p.8 Mosaic of subcultures, p.13
buildings and Subculture boundary, p.15
infrastructure Neighborhood boundaries
 235

Diversity in time p.33 Night life

Gender diversity p.27 Men and women
Group diversity p.35 Household mix
Age diversity p.26 Life cycle, p. 40 Old people
everywhere, p.57 Children in the city
Diversity of needs p.36 Degrees of publicness
RE 03 – Water Water protection p.25 Access to water, p.64 Pools and
strategy streams
Natural rainwater drainage p.51 Green streets, p.247 Paving with
cracks between the stones
RE 04 - Passive heating p.107 Wings of light, p.128 Indoor
Sustainable sunlight, p.175 Greenhouse, p.221
buildings Natural doors and windows, p.230
Radiation heat p.234 Lapped outside
walls
Lower energy content materials p.207 Good materials, p.248 soft tile
and brick
Solar radiation and lighting p.244 Canvas roofs
control strategies
RE 05 - Low Lower energy content materials p.207 Good materials, p.248 soft tile
impact materials and brick
RE 06 - Resource Lower energy content materials p.207 Good materials
efficiency
RE 07 - Carbon Encouragement of alternative p.11 Local transport areas, p.52
emissions from transportation methods Network of paths and cars, p.56 Bike
transportation paths and racks, p.100 Pedestrian street,
p.120 Paths and goals, p.174 Trellised
walk
Safe pathways for pedestrians p.49 Looped local roads, p.50 T
junctions , p.54 Road crossing p.55
Raised walk
Decrease in car prevalence p.22 Nine per cent parking, p.103 Small
parking lots
Increase the attractiveness of p.16 Web of public transportation, p.20
public transportation Mini-buses, p.34 Interchange, p.92 Bus
stop
Reduction of expressway p.17 Ring roads, p.23 Parallel roads
interference in communities
LE 01 - Respect and preservation of p.104 Site repair
Ecological natural areas
strategy Reduction of human interference p.74 Animals, p.172 Garden growing
in species development wild, p.245 Raised flowers
Water protection p.25 Access to water, p.64 Pools and
streams
Natural rainwater drainage p.51 Green streets, p.247 Paving with
cracks between the stones
Environmental pressure p.3 City country fingers
reduction
Occupancy control p.4 Agricultural valleys, p.21 Four-story
limit
Occupancy balance p.3 City country fingers, p.28 Eccentric
nucleus, p.29 Density rings, p.38 Row
236

houses, p.39 Housing hill, p.96 Number

of stories
LE 02 - Land use Occupancy control p.4 Agricultural valleys, p.21 Four-story
limit
Occupancy balance p.3 City country fingers, p.28 Eccentric
nucleus, p.29 Density rings, p.38 Row
houses, p.39 Housing hill, p.96 Number
of stories
Scattered activities p.9 Scattered work, p.10 Magic of the
city, p.41 Work community, p.42
Industrial ribbon, p.48 Housing in
between
Activity pockets p.47 Health center, p.61 Small public
squares, p.97 Shielded parking
LE 03 - Water Water protection p.25 Access to water, p.64 Pools and
pollution streams
LE 04 - Respect and preservation of p.104 Site repair
Strengthening natural areas
ecological value Building in harmony with its p.168 Connection to the earth, p.246
surroundings Climbing plants
Adaptation to local conditions p.169 Terraced slopes
Reduction of human interference p.74 Animals, p.172 Garden growing
in species development wild, p.245 Raised flowers
LE 05 - Landscape diversity p.24 Sacred sites
Landscape Development of places of p.105 North facing outdoors, p.114
permanence and social Hierarchy of open space*, p.160
interaction Building edge, p.163 Outdoor room,
p.170 Fruit trees, p.171 Tree places
Respect and preservation of p.104 Site repair
natural areas
Adaptation to local conditions p.169 Terraced slopes
Reduction of human interference p.74 Animals, p.172 Garden growing
in species development wild
LE 06 - Natural rainwater drainage p.51 Green streets, p.247 Paving with
Rainwater cracks between the stones
harvesting
TM 01 - Encouragement of alternative p.11 Local transport areas, p.52
Transportation transportation methods Network of paths and cars, p.56 Bike
evaluation paths and racks, p.100 Pedestrian street,
p.120 Paths and goals, p.174 Trellised
walk
Safe pathways for pedestrians p.49 Looped local roads, p.50 T
junctions , p.54 Road crossing p.55
Raised walk
Decrease in car prevalence p.22 Nine per cent parking, p.103 Small
parking lots
Increase the attractiveness of p.16 Web of public transportation, p.20
public transportation Mini-buses, p.34 Interchange, p.92 Bus
stop
Reduction of expressway p.17 Ring roads, p.23 Parallel roads
interference in communities
TM 02 - Safe and Safe pathways for pedestrians p.49 Looped local roads, p.50 T
attractive routes junctions , p.54 Road crossing p.55
 237

Raised walk
TM 03 - Cycling Encouragement of alternative p.56 Bike paths and racks
Network transportation methods
TM 04 - Access Increase the attractiveness of p.16 Web of public transportation, p.20
to public public transportation Mini-buses, p.34 Interchange, p.92 Bus
transportation stop
TM 05 - Cycling Encouragement of alternative p.56 Bike paths and racks
transportation methods
TM 06 - Public Increase the attractiveness of p.16 Web of public transportation, p.20
transportation public transportation Mini-buses, p.34 Interchange, p.92 Bus
stop
Decrease in car prevalence p.22 Nine per cent parking, p.103 Small
parking lots

The results showed that no items relating to the criteria in the governance category were
found and therefore no pattern of sustainability applies in this cattegory according to
(Moehlecke, 2010). However there are patterns concerning community projects consistent with
Alexander. In the category of social and economic well-being (SE) 27 out of 36 issues were
found, contributing to all the principles of sustainability (Moehlecke, 2010). In the category
resources and energy (RE) 16 issues were identified, and apply to the principles of urban
diversity, habitability, energy efficiency and sustainable mobility, embracing the three pillars of
sustainability.
In the category of land use and ecology (LE) 12 issues were identified, contributing mostly
to the principle of biodiversity, as well as other principles such as mixed land use, urban
diversity, social interaction, habitability and compactness. No mention of the principles in the
economic dimension was found. Lastly, in the category transportation and mobility (TM), only
the issues of the principle of sustainable mobility were considered.

Final considerations

The research showed that patterns and their contributions according to (Moehlecke 2010) can be
connected with environmental certification procedures because they share a common base in the
triple foundation of sustainability. In the study of BREEAM, more categories of sustainability
were found to be met, which shows the scope of studies by (Moehlecke, 2010) concerning the
certification procedure. Although some of the issues assessed were not discussed by the author,
it is possible to employ patterns (Alexander et al., 1977) in order to achieve the necessary
theoretical support.
(Alexander et al., 1977) also argues that the pattern language allows for the creation of new
patterns, in case the ones described are not sufficient. These new patterns should be extracted
from the natural order of things. The inclusion of patterns, as suggested for BREEAM, can be
done as well for other environmental certifications, leading to better quality in urban design.

References

Alexander, C. (1981). ‘El modo intemporal de construir’. Barcelona: G Gili,

Alexander, C.; Ishikawa, S.; Silverstein, M. (1977). ‘A Pattern Language’. New York: Oxford University
Press.
Andrade, L. M. S. (2008) ‘Princípios de Sustentabilidade para a reabilitaç o de assentamentos urbanos’.
In: Romero, M. A. B. (Org.). Reabilitação Ambiental Sustentável Arquitetônica e Urbanística.
Reabilita. Registro de Curso de Especialização a Distância. PPG-FAU/UnB. Brasília, p. 344-411.
238

Building Research Establishment – BRE. Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment

Methodology - BREEAM (2009) ‘Communities Assessor Manual’. Development Planning Application.
Moehlecke, J. (2010) ‘Uma contribuiç o para o desenvolvimento de assentamentos humanos mais
sustentáveis: identificaç o de padrões urbanos relacionados aos princípios de sustentabilidade’.
Master’s dissertation. – Faculdade de Engenharia Civil, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul,
Porto Alegre.
SPIRN, A.W. (2011) ‘Ecological Urbanism: a framework for the design of resilient cities’.
(Massachusetts Institute of technology).
 239

Hybrid cellular automaton – agent-based model of informal

peripheral development in Latin American Cities

Alexandre Santos, Maurício Polidori, Otávio Peres, Marcus Saraiva

Laboratório de Urbanismo da Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Pelotas/RS, Brasil.
E-mails: [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected], [email protected].

Abstract. The study of the complex dynamics that engage urban form presents powerful instruments to
understand the driving forces of contemporary urban development. This research intends to test
traditional urban growth tendencies against informal development mechanisms and decision-making
behaviors of competition in geosimulated environments. The empirical objectives are the investigation of
the morphological patterns of peripheral poverty and its interactions with urban form, in which
accessibility has played important parts sided by informal processes from Latin-American contemporary
cities. The paper will present a theoretical review of agent-based models in cellular environments
stressing urban growth and decision-making processes as basis for a proposal of a hybrid agent-based
model in cellular space. The contemplated model expands the cellular automata approaches by including
the interpretation of the model’s landscape by heterogeneous collective agents that settle and promote
growth in competitive dynamics according to preferences and hierarchy. The expected result is an urban
development intensities landscape, natural features and agent-types concentration, which should allow
one to analyze urban form expansion and fragmentation, socioeconomic segregation and urban policies
effects. This work succeeds the research by the LabUrb/UFPEL based on the CityCell modelling
framework, which has yielded insights on the linkages between urban morphology, social and
environmental attributes through emergent urban phenomena simulation focused on temporal and spatial
dynamics.

Key Words: Urban Morphology, Urban Growth, Social Process Dynamic Simulation, Cellular Automata,
Agent-Based Models.

Peripheries, urban form and contemporary urban development

Cities make up the largest artifacts made by man and have structured human organizations since
the first agricultural sedentary societies 6,000 years ago in Mesopotamia (Portugali 2000).Over
history, humanity has become dependent on cities for its subsistence and as cities developed and
evolved the growing integration of its inner and outer expansion converged. In contemporary
urban development dynamics, important economic and social feedback mechanisms reinforce
this bond. Urban form is, therefore, composed through interactive cycles in which both the
peripheries and its centers have active roles (Barros 2004; Abramo 2012).
By end of the 20th Century, the urban development process, propelled by economic and
cultural globalization, has led the peripheries to the forefront of urban development research.
The transition processes that had started in the Industrial Revolution consolidated by changing
morphological patterns worldwide and cities could no longer be defined as the compact
intramuros built mass that exercised absolute contrast with the country surrounding it.
Modernity brought about the progressive dissolution of the urban block (Panerai et al. 2004),
while post-modernity intensified the dispersal of the urban tissue, its hybridization and the
introduction of diverse intermediate stages of urbanization (Chin 2002; Ascher 2010).
The fringes of cities were the stages where sizeable part of this processes took place. The
disperse outskirts and the terrains vagues from the arrebaldes were gradually settled in,
assimilated by the overall urban form and overcome in cyclic expansion waves. From the
centers outward, city form blended with rural and semi-rural forms, discontinuities and low
240

densities. It was crossed by vast transportation networks and divided in extensive poly-
nucleated urban areas. The city limits became less clear with the stretching of urban form, as if
the city was distended to the point of being penetrated by less dense land uses so that towns
begun to blend with one another, forging continuous occupation gradients of varied densities
(Chin 2002).
These changes endowed contemporaneity with great diversity of urban forms that elude
apprehension and classification. On developed countries, specialized urban nuclei organize vast
mono-functional suburban networks. This sprawling urban form expands into very low density
and extends as far as the fuel price allows, while urban inhabitants gradually abandon the inner
city districts (Berube & Kneebone 2006).
South of the Equator, immense informality and poverty areas are interspersed with industrial
facilities and high income enclaves (Davis 2004); social inequality soars and informality is
incorporated as the main alternative to access urban land for poor families (Bógus & Taschner
1999). A true urban development kaleidoscope (Abramo 2012) is formed and redefined in
continuous cycles, without ever solidifying and keeping permanent impetus towards expansion
(Barros 2004).
In this fractured urban condition, the informal settlements scale is such that they start
amassing relative autonomy from the regular urban processes controlled by regulations and
promoted trough the market. They create para-formal logics that escape the normative discipline
of the rule of law and work around environmental and infrastructural constraints. Their urban
interventions are brought about through family savings, reciprocal relationships and local trust
networks (Davis 2004; Abramo 2012). This process establishes a peripheral condition: the co-
existence of opposites with little compatibility; the interspersing of compact and disperse urban
forms; the connection of specific sites to the global scale and the segregation between adjacent
territories based on class; overall low densities; close relation to informality and blatant
illegality; and settled extensions that converge to the regional scale (Walker 1978; Polidori
2004).
This spatial differentiation presents the close combination between the formal market and
widespread informality. The stock market bound real state is associated with land grabbing
practices, with self-help housing in favelas, with the popular occupation of urban voids and
derelict inner buildings. Since the externalities of one process is captured by the other, the
interaction between space and social processes driven by diverse rationalities imposes
antagonistic, but reciprocally determined tendencies. Dispersion and concentration of urban
form occur in alternate cycles propelled by the land market’s logic as well as by necessity’s
vigor (Abramo 2012). They reveal important systemic ties between the urban territory and
multi-scale heterogeneous agent and process networks (Barros 2004).

Global and urban peripheries

In contemporary urban growth processes, cities serve as conduits and motors to globalized
capital so that the capitalist processes at work over land and places (Harvey 1978) include the
cities as translators of global dynamics to the diversity of local reality (Scott & Storper 2003;
Sassen 1999). The contrast between global city-regions and global peripheries is reinforced
under global stimuli and in response to local characteristics. The world-economy capitals are
organized around their specialized and increasingly anti-human Central Business Districts
(Davis 2006) and diametrically oppose immense portions of territory excluded from the
capitalist mode of production and its control (Davis 2004). The latter lie on the extreme end of
civilization: they are relegated to material inferiority, absence from rule of law and to the
deprivation of means for their autonomy.
In the middle ground to these extremes, human societies are pushed towards polarization.
While some of its members increase their specialization, others have to make the best of
informal labor as the only available route for inclusion (Bógus & Taschner 1999). In Latin-
 241

American cities, in the decades of 1950-1960, informal areas were ignored and if possible
removed (UN-Habitat 2010). More recently, though, one can see the resurgence of informal
peripheries as majoritarian form of urbanization and shelter for most of the population,
especially from the 1990s onwards (Bógus & Taschner 1999; UN-Habitat 2003). What
remained was the overall state of incomplete infrastructure, lack of basic services and
opportunities, portraying a second-class urbanization (Davis 2004).
In the last two decades, the urban outline is defined: more than half of the world population
becomes urban, largely due to the contributions of the borders of urbanization on the edges of
cities of peripheral countries in globalized economy (UN-Habitat 2010). These sites, in dual
peripheral condition (both global and local), become the object of renewed interest as a tool for
explaining the urban question integrally through the provision of intermediate and varying tones
of a continuous spectrum of urbanization (Chin 2002).

The role of the peripheries

In third-world cities, the phenomenon of social inequality proliferates fueled by segregation

based on spatial disintegration (Bógus & Taschner 1999). This happens not as a secondary
consequence of the capitalist development of cities, but as a central mechanism of its
reproduction (Harvey 1978). The expansion of cities according to economic and productive
stimuli occurs on alternate surges of rapid, disorganized and seemingly chaotic expansion,
which are followed by slow, gradual consolidation. In these cyclic processes of capitalist urban
development, poverty areas act as compensation valves to cities’ expansion mechanisms. They
dampen tensions, absorb environmental impacts and infrastructure costs while maintaining
flexibility to change according to the settlement evolution. Thus, it can be argued that the
precarious and unstable occupations “[…] actually absorb part of the existent social instability
[…] in unstable pockets within the city” and that “[…] they are necessary for the structural
stability of the global system.” (Barros 2004, p.180).
The actual development of Latin American cities is connected to socio-economic inequality.
It reinforces it, but is also fueled by it. From colonial times the political and legal frameworks
have privileged landowners, which in turn heavily influences the locational process and has
pushed the larger part of the population into the informal land market. Contemporarily,
capitalism is interwoven with these traditions and composes a complex system of competition,
complementation and superimpositions between the legal and informal land markets. While the
individual location decision from a family may target the optimization of its choices, the
aggregate effect is a conflicting tendency among similar families: while searching for unique
opportunities, they drive the market towards homogeneity, which narrows their choices. On the
bottom of the social scale, poor families are driven outwards towards the cheaper lands of the
peripheries and lesser opportunities, or have to improvise ever-denser inner-city settlements.
The conflicts are broadened by social segregation resultant from the “urban convention” that
draws middle-class families towards places occupied by families of similar, or higher, social
standing, leaving the poor to fend for themselves in self-help, informal support circles (Abramo
2012).
This rationale seeks to expose non-aggregate behaviors that are relevant in the modes of
production and occupation of the urban form, acting either in coordination or in competition
with the general market mechanisms. The reciprocal influences between formality and
informality are based on local externalities and logics of interpersonal knowledge and trust,
which add up in consecutive cycles of valuation and de-valuation of urban form (Abramo 2012).
This shapes cities through inter-representation networks (Portugali 2000) between urban
morphology and socio-economic processes that reveal emerging patterns of "peripherization",
which is the alternation between compact and diffuse urban form. These processes increase
contrast between city center and periphery and stress the marked social differences of Latin
242

American societies: the poor end located in the expansion edges or in dense favelas, while the
better off live near the city center and public services.

Urban periphery models

Geosimulation supports an embryonic “science of cities” (Batty 2012) that seeks to reveal
patterns of order that emerge from actions and decisions where individuals interact with their
environment and to each other in collaboration or competition, from the bottom of the systems
up (Batty 2007). Urban models in cellular environments have relevant capabilities in describing
city growth under these premises (Batty 2007) and urban Cellular Automaton (CA) models
allow to coherently articulate the effects of urbanization on the natural environment (Polidori &
Krafta 2005), on informality and on poverty formation (Barros 2004; Patel et al. 2012). The
simulation of urban dynamics can be achieved through the interaction of adjacent cells in grids
that changes states following simple rules, applied locally and in repetition, under stochastic
disturbances. The accretion of these neighborhood relations is capable of producing order states
that emerge from the bottom up, correlating basic elements from the urban environment that
shape overall system order (Batty 2007).
Cellular models of urban growth can be further complemented by the explicit inclusion of
social agents as these may simulate the decision-making capacity of rationally autonomous
entities with limited knowledge. Agent-based models (ABM) bring the detailing of each agents
characteristics to enable the modeling of particular behaviors and attributes such as motivation,
objectives, goals, decision-making and learning. The combination of cellular environments
based on CA and autonomous decision making from ABM may be used to represent social
processes articulated to morphological dynamics (Heppenstall et al. 2012).

Agent-based model of peripheral growth

This paper proposes a model that aims to answer questions of location choice, competition and
exercise of power in decision-making processes. These processes are executed by non-
coordinated social actors during urban external growth in dynamics that put relate urban form to
social interests, as demonstrated by image 1.
This research is supported by the CityCell modeling framework, through which initially
Polidori (2005) and more recently Saraiva and others (2013) have produced several urban
growth simulation models on cities from southern Brazil. Following to the frameworks’
structure, the modeling environment is defined by urban, natural and institutional attributes (
figure 3). They are represented in different intensities on a grid of square cells and can have
behaviors of attraction or resistance to urbanization, interacting in accordance with local rules to
simulate urban growth processes (Polidori & Krafta 2005).

Figure 2. General model flowchart.

 243

Figure 3. Modeling environment structure consisting of urban, environmental and

institutional attributes, which offer attraction or resistance to urbanization.

The society that populates the model consists of autonomous agents capable of decision-
making. The agents’ categories represent social groups defined by socioeconomic profiles such
as social classes. These agents dwell exclusively on urban cells, and may choose to move
according to their preferences. This model constitutes a hybrid approach between the fully
explicit individual ABM and the implied social behavior contained in traditional CA models.

Figure 3. Agents’ parameters.

To determine the agents’ evaluation of the environment, movement and competition

dynamics, as depicted in
figure , agents have the following parameters: (a) target accessibility ( ): is the value of
relative accessibility (see below) considered optimal by the agent. In its evaluation of
environment cells, the agent checks the available range of relative accessibility (from cells in its
neighborhood) and chooses the cell that most closely matches its target; (b) interest parameters
( ): are the stated preferences for each agent in relation to the environment attributes and
accessibility. They take the form of multipliers to be applied when composing the Interest
244

Matrix (below); (c) interest matrix ( ): is the combination of interest parameters for each agent
and attributes of the model. It is calculated in every cycle, being sensitive to variations from
unstable attributes, accessibility and urban area growth; (d) copresence parameters ( ):
indicate the tolerance to different agent populations in the same cell as a given agent. These
parameters are the base for the copresence threshold on each cell, concerning each pair of agent
settled on it. They increase the tolerance to different agents’ populations in direct proportion to
its value; (e) strength parameter ( ): implies the ability of an agent to exercise power in the
competition process. It influences in determining the expulsion of agents when the copresence
threshold is overcome in a cell as the "leverage" each agent can use against its opponent. The
parameter influences disputes in direct proportion to its value; (f) distance parameter ( ): is the
maximum distance, in number of cells, that an agent is able to go (or see); (g) growth rate ( ): is
the growth rate per cycle of each agent. By default, equals the growth rate of urban cells, but
can be specified for each agent separately.

Model dynamics

The overall dynamic structure of the model starts with the entry of environmental and social
data in the model. This includes the input of urban areas, the initial distribution of agents’ and
other attributes in the form of two-dimensional data grids, as seen on
figure 4.

Figure 4. Model dynamic structure.

The first step after initialization is urban growth, which derives from a weighted accessibility
measure from Saraiva (2013). In this model, it acts as a subroutine that determines distances
among cells loaded with urban attraction that receive “resistances” from environmental
attributes (increasing relative distances) to generate an global accessibility pattern. This pattern
is then normalized and used as the base for a combination of deterministic and random
mechanisms that distribute fixed rates of urban growth, as expressed in Table 1.
The main stage of the agents decision-making process depends on the intersection of agent’s
preferences with the modeled environment. The agents’ potential choices are represented in the
interest matrix ( ), determined from each agents’ interest parameters ( ) related to the model
attributes ( ).
For urban, institutional and natural attributes to be included in the interest matrix, they need
only to be informed and have their weights defined during input. Accessibility, however, must
be checked against the economic power of the agent, comparing target accessibility ( ) to
relative accessibility ( ) in tandem with the agent’s interest on accessibility. The highest
values of relative accessibility are close to 1, while the lowest approach 0. The target-
accessibility varies within the range of , and therefore has values ranging from 0 (the least
economic power) to 1 (the highest economic power). The relationship between the target
 245

accessibility of the agent and relative accessibility of each cell is given by the particular
accessibility ( ) measure, as expressed in Table 2.

Table 1. Cell accessibility.

Where:
cellular accessibility from cell
distance between cells and
cell set loaded with urban attraction attributes
Where:
distance between cells and
cell weight for the weighted
accessibility measure
preferential path cell set between and
Where:
relative accessibility from cell
cellular accessibility from cell
maximum grid cellular accessibility
Source: Saraiva (2013).

Figure 5. Modeled attributes and relative accessibility form the interest matrix for each
agent.
246

Table 2. Particular accessibility for the agent in cell .

Where:
Particular accessibility for the agent
in cell and
relative accessibility of cell
target accessibility from agent

Table 3. Agent interest matrix.

Where:
is the interest matrix for agent , drawn
from the parameters for every cell, and

Where:
model attributes present in cell
each attribute’s weight set by the
equivalent interest parameter
number of attributes taken into account.

The sum of all preference measures ( ) compose the interest matrix ( ) for the agent, as in
Table 4.
Each agent’s decision to move for can take two forms: voluntary or due to competition for a
certain space. In the first case, the interest matrix subsidizes the decision-making of agents,
defining a "topography" of its preferences in the system´s cells that is compared with the cell the
agent occupies in each iteration. If the current cell is below the average, the agent then decides
to move.
In the second case, it is assumed that even if the urban form does not impose a settlement
limit to the agents (such as a finite urban form stock to be allocated), there is constant
contention over urbanization. The occupation tolerance of each agent’s surroundings to different
categories of agents is geared to this contention. The limit for this "tension" between the agents
is defined (for each of them) by its copresence parameter. This parameter enlarges or reduces
the quantity of different agents to be tolerated in the same cell, as shown in table 4. It should be
noted that the co-presence factor is directional, i.e., there may be differences between the
parameter of agent to agent to the parameter of agent to agent , indicating asymmetry in
co-presence relations.

Table 4. Co-presence test from agent to agent .

Where:
copresence factor from
agent to in cell
= copresence parameter from
agent to
agent population in
cell
agent population in
cell
 247

Experiment for Jaguarão/RS/BR

Jaguarão, in the Rio Grande do Sul state of southern Brazil has been studied by the Laboratório
de Urbanismo 36 /UFPel in recent years. Outreach initiatives, undergraduate education and
research have been conducted in a systematic manner and have provided important data on the
municipality. Therefore, in continuity to some of this research, this experiment is set to verify
the following hypothesis: is there influence from disaggregate decision in settlement patterns,
especially when poverty is considered?

Figure 6. Modeling environment. Jaguarão/RS/BR urban área Quickbird image from

2009 superimposed by 200m celular grid.

This issue serves as a base for future investigation and model development. To address it and
to verify the viability of the current proposal, the experiment is outlined as follows: (1) to
simulate urban growth in the CityCell framework making use of agent-based model over the
weighted accessibility from Saraiva (2013); (2) to consider the agents distribution from urban,
natural, and institutional attributes and accessibility influence as a result from agent allocation
decision making; (3) to verify the selected attributes influence, seeking evidences of the
linkages between morphological attributes and social subjects.
The parameter set for the urban growth dynamics can be found in Table 5.

Table 5. atributos de entrada do modelo de acessibilidade ponderada por fatores

ambientais
Atribute Type Weight
1947 urban nucleus urban/attraction/mutable 1,0
Rio Branco (UY) urbano/attraction/freezing 0
municipality
Jaguarão river urbano/attraction/freezing 0
Watersheds natural/resistance/mutable 0,7
random layer natural/resistance/mutable 0,3
Source: Saraiva (2013).

36
Urbanism Lab in the Federal University of Pelotas.
248

a b c

d e f

Figure 7. model attributes; a) effectively urbanized area in 1947; b) the territory of Rio
Branco, Uruguay; c) Jaguarão river; d) watersheds (dark values are the valley bottoms
and clear values the watershed limits); e) random layer; f) roads. (Source: Saraiva).

The modeling environment was established in a GIS in the UTM geographical coordinates
system, zone 22 south. It encompasses the extended surroundings of Jaguarão urban area in
2009. It results in the rectangular area shown in
Figure 6, which is divided into 1,476 cells of 200x200m. The growth simulation attributes
are shown in Image 7 and its results are the growth patterns illustrated in Image 8, for iterations
01, 11 and 31 (corresponding to the 62 years from 1947 to 2009). On the left column is the
resulting urban form for each iteration, while on the right, there is the relative accessibility
patterns.

Interest matrix

Three agents’ categories are set for the model population. They represent the high, middle and
low-income populations on the city and to each a parameter set was assigned, as shown in table
2. For this experiment, their preferences were determined by the modeler according to relevant
cases from the literature, considering income stratification, the road system influence, as well as
relationships with environmental attributes, topography and non-urban land use (Sietchiping
2004; Augustijn-Beckers et al. 2011; Abramo 2012; Heppenstall et al. 2012).

Table 6. Agent atributes.

accessibility urban environmental
nucleus Jaguarão
agents target interest 1947 roads river watersheds crops
low income 0,2 3 3 9 1 3 3
average income 0,6 1 3 1 3 1 1
high income 0,9 3 1 3 3 1 1
 249

a d
it. 01

b e
it. 11

c f
it. 31

Figure 8. model outputs. From (a) to (c), urban form corresponding to iterations 01, 11
and 31; from (d) to (f), the relative accessibility for the same iterations
(Source: author simulation based on Saraiva).

From the target accessibility definition, one can verify its impact on the relative accessibility
grid. To this end, the 11th iteration was selected, in which the difference between the relative
accessibility and agents target accessibility was examined, as shown in Figure 9.
The results reveal the influence of the target accessibility parameter for the three agent types
modeled. This measure is added to the weighing of the remaining model attributes, making the
final interests matrix for each of the agents, as recorded in the Image 10.
250

Figure 9. Target accessibility weighing. a) relative accessibility for iteration 11; b) low
income agents; c) average income agents; and d) high incomes agents.

Figure 10. weighting for all attributes; a) low-income agents; b) average-income agents;
and c) high-income agents.
 251

The creation of different bands among agents’ preferences can be observed in the results. It
shows the expected responsiveness and sensitivity of the agents’ evaluation of the different
environmental settings. In the same vein, in comparing the weights with the results of the
growth model, it can be noted how the development pattern of the city may have different
readings under these "disturbances" from the agents’ points of view. The accessibility (a general
system measure, even if locally generated) is then defined by a simple method through the
particular accessibility feature, as can be seen in Figure 11.

a
b

c
d

Figure 11. comparisons between model results; a) relative accessibility grid (it.11,
highlighting column 17); b) distribution of the column 17 results from the relative
accessibility grid; c) low-income agent particular accessibility grid (it.11, highlighting
column 17); d) distribution of the column 17 results from the particular accessibility grid.

The relative accessibility and particular accessibility grids comparison expressed in the
Figure 11 helps to appraise the impact of this measure. The figures for both variables are shown
in Figure 11b (relative accessibility) and Figure 11d (particular accessibility). In these, it can be
252

perceived that the approximation of the highest values to those areas closest to the agents
preferences, such as those cells in which the relative accessibility is around 0.2.
Moreover, the differentiated spatial perception for the low-income agents has largely
decreased their interest on the more central cells through the selection of a reference value for
relative accessibility, as noted in the Figure 11c. It has also created plateaus of interest that span
over the urban areas surroundings. The grid column 17 (shown in Figure 11d) presents interest
peaks (around to 0,95) on lines 19 and 20, on those cells which are contiguous to areas which
are already urbanized at that time (iteration 11). This pattern is prolonged in a collar shape all
around the urban area and lies over cells which are not yet urban (in a prevalent manner at least,
so as not to be given the urban cell type in Image 12), but have enough accessibility and will
turn urban in the following iterations. This high interest dedicate to these cells coincides with
the pioneering role that low-income present in peripheries (Barros 2004; Abramo 2012).
It should be pointed out that for the low-income agents there are large high-interest plateaus
on the peripheries beyond the collar region (with values ranging from 0,80 to 0,94). If the
modeler would not consider factors such as tenure, urban norms and so forth, these areas can be
seen as high potential sites for low-income settlement. This could help explain the great
adaptation capacity of low-income populations and their greater flexibility of location choices.
If compared to high-income agents, the low-income ones have 28 times more location options
(1.238 cells with , versus 43 with ). Obviously, these low
accessibility areas are lacking in urban infrastructure and are not urban for their greater part. If
this were true, low-income agents would have more choices from the worst places (considering
urbanization) while the high income would have fewer options on better locations. It seems
clear how these relationships can generate conflicts over urban form and its benefits.

Figure 12. Composite from Quickbird image and agent concentration areas. Low-income
agents in orange, average-income in green and high-income in blue.

The consideration of remaining attributes brings into view its links to the agents’ profiles.
Figure 12 shows the preferred areas for the three types of agents through the classification of
 253

each agent’s preference matrix (which stand alone in Image 10a, to low-income agents; 10b, to
average-income, 10c for high income).
An inverse Chicago Model is then apparent: the high-income populations settle inside the
urban areas and leave the peripheries to the lower-income populations. The outwards expansion
tendency for low-income populations is also visible. This happens according to secondary (to
the accessibility status) influences as the road network, watersheds and so forth (Bógus &
Taschner 1999). Instead of presenting the prevailing economic motivations, these settlement
patterns are disturbed by other motivations that actually restrict the final interest spatial pattern.
For the low-income agents, the final pattern corresponds to 70% of the particular accessibility
pattern (1,238 cells with , against 845 with ). Figure 13 shows
the difference between the particular accessibility grid distribution and the interest matrix.

a b

Figure 13. particular accessibility grid compared to interests matrix. a) Particular

accessibility and interests matrix subtraction modulus for low-income agent (it.11,
highlighting column 17); b) difference between the distributions of the results of column
17 from the particular accessibility grid and interest matrix for low-income agent.

Final remarks

With regard to the question posed for this implementation, the influence of individual decisions
on land use patterns can be ascertained, including those associated with poverty. Even on simple
weighting of preferences over the environment, it is observed that the inclusion of varying
agents’ characteristics results in adjusted preferences patterns that drive each agent to a specific
cell group on the environment. This steering is sensitive to the attributes selection; the
attributes’ weights as well as to the attributes’ base values, as is apparent in the model results.
Several important challenges remain to be overcome, such as the deeper investigation of the
associations of urban attributes and agents; the strengthening of methodological basis for the
model; the definition of the movement and allocation processes and the insertion of these
features in the software framework.
Even with these limitations, the model displays initial viability for modeling morphological
dynamics in interaction with explicit social processes. Regarding empirical questions on the
topic of poverty areas on contemporary Brazilian cities, the current implementation has
produced embryonic approach to criteria definition for each of the modeled agents. The
254

registered effects indicate further possibilities on the study of linkages between morphological
characteristics, environmental and social agents’ motivations. In this sense, the perceived
adjustment in the agents’ parameters sensitivity reinforces the need for calibration from a
theoretical, empirical or even hypothetical basis.
The model also displays some initial progress regarding its theoretical assumptions. It may
enable the advancement of decision-making systems grounded social and geographical bases. It
seeks to bring urban growth models closer to social modeling tradition of Timmermans and
Golledge (1990) and Epstein and Axtell (1996).
Similarly, the Uneven Development Theory (Harvey 1978; Walker 1978) may also be
represented by urban growth based on weighted accessibility and the unequal settlement
patterns produced for agents. The current experiment suggests that agent environment
awareness, preferences and movement, once deployed, will allow the representation of formal
and informal market dynamics through divergent preferences and conflicting behavior. The
heterogeneity in their preferences, tolerance, power and information culminate in parametric (on
their environment assessment) and strategic (as compared with other agents) rationalities
(Abramo 2012).
Methodologically, it appears there is a suggested increase in capacity in the CityCell
framework, with the addition of micro-specification (Epstein & Axtell 1996) of the attributes
weights for each agent. One can then generate modeling hypotheses with greater clarity as to its
theoretical and empirical assumptions and include the autonomous rationality principle.
On the issue of formation of poverty areas integrated with city growth, the hybrid approach
of cellular automata and agent-based models can qualify investigations in urban models of
morphological basis by increasing the specification of its dynamics and by allowing the
contradiction between its social actors.

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256

Urban street tree modelling using high-polygon 3D models

with photometric daylight systems

Marcus White, Nano Langenheim

Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, The University of Melbourne, VIC
3010, Australia, E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract. The choice of street tree species, size and placement is an integral part of street design in any
city, but particularly in cities with large seasonal temperature variation such as those experienced in
Melbourne, Australia. The arrangement and choice of street tree can make a street seem too dark in winter
or not provide enough shade in summer. Trees have traditionally been difficult to model digitally and
have been considered “polygon-heavy” (thousands of polygons) making them computationally
prohibitive to use for three-dimensional modelling and rendering analysis, particularly on an urban design
scale. Thus street tree assessment is typically limited to spreadsheet /database form, two-dimensional
plans and sections or photographic collage to test aesthetic implications. In this paper we discuss methods
which bring together developing research into mathematical algorithm tree simulation, increasing
processing power in affordable personal computers along with improvements in render engines with
photometric daylight analysis along with efficient ‘proxy objects’ which allow large numbers of highly
detailed three-dimensional representations of trees to be rendered. We discuss the initial results of this
study demonstrating that it is now feasible to use high quality three dimensional polygon street trees in
urban models with photometric daylight analysis. We report that it is now possible to assess the solar
amenity and shade impact of a variety of tree species at different seasonal and time intervals with an
iterative design process allowing multiple scenarios to be tested effectively in short periods of time.

Key Words: Tree modelling, urban modelling, livability, urban forest

Introduction: the growing importance of street trees

Street trees can have a tremendous impact on the quality of public spaces relative to cost (Moore
2009) and the choice of street tree species, their arrangement and spacing is an integral part of
street design in any city.
In cities with large seasonal temperature variation such as Melbourne, the arrangement and
choice of street trees needs to be considered multi seasonally. Large dense evergreen trees might
seem a good choice for the summer months when we are experiencing heat waves of 40 degrees
Celsius for stretches of four or five days at a time (BOM 2013) but this choice might also make
the street seem dark and oppressive in winter when the temperature is nine or ten degrees and
overcast skies are common.
As a result of climate change, heat waves are likely to increase in frequency, intensity and
duration (Akompab et al. 2013) and Australia is particularly susceptible with increasing extreme
weather events (Patz et al. 2005). The micro climatic benefits of street trees in heat mitigation of
urban environments (Oke 1988) are thus becoming increasingly important as is the need to be
able to model these environmental impacts.
Maximizing the health and productivity of Urban Forests is becoming an accountable
activity (McPherson et al. 2012). In cities facing great change such as Melbourne with its high
number of trees nearing the end of their useful life expectancy councils will need to visually
represent to the community why replacing ‘like with like’ (Shears 2009) will not always be
appropriate. Without the community ‘buy in’ on trialing new more resilient and conditions
specific trees the council may face heavy pressure to replant existing species regardless of the
evidenced against it.
 257

In this paper we provide the background of how street trees have traditionally been selected,
how they have been modelled and discuss how recent advances in both software and hardware
may potentially impact on how we model street trees in the future.
We go on to describe our method of bringing together important aspects of previous street
tree modelling along with some of the new hardware and software such as parametric proxy
object tree modelling with photometric daylight system modelling.
We test our new modelling approach on a case study area within Arden Macaulay are no the
north of Melbourne, Australia and continue with a brief discussion and conclusion based on our
findings.

Background: How street tree species have traditionally been selected

Preferred Species List

In the previous decade, when selecting tree species for streets, a designer would refer to the
'council preferred species lists'. The lists were based mainly on the civic image of that a shire or
council:(Ely 2009) I.e. Moreland City Council, a suburb of Melbourne had a list with a high
proportion of native and indigenous species(MCC n.d.) while the City of Melbourne list had a
higher proportion of deciduous boulevard species (COM 1998).

How aesthetic values drive street design

In current practice, aesthetic values such as symmetry still play a greater role in street scape
design than do ecosystem benefits; (Ely 2009) for example; larger trees on the north side of an
east west street could be evergreen, providing shade for the road and footpath depending on
their size and the street width. Traditionally street tree planting would be that the same species
used on either side of the street but use of the same large evergreen species could overshadow
the adjacent buildings on the south side of the street and make the street appear too dark in
winter (Jim & Chen 2003).

How tree spacing can impact both the tree and the environment of the street.

The spacing between trees dramatically effects the qualities of the street environment. Spacing
that is too close effects form, requiring trees to grow taller and narrower to compete for
available light eventually leading to structural instability. Too far apart and the gaps between the
canopies deplete the street scape legibility leaving an inhospitable low thermal comfort
environment for cyclists and pedestrians during the summer months (Norton et al. 2013).

Trees as green infrastructure.

In recent years there has been a growing recognition of the ecosystem benefit trees provide in
cities (Ely 2009; Young 2010). Their contributions include; mitigation of the Urban Heat Island
Effect (Lindberg & Grimmond 2011), air temperature cooling through shade and
evapotranspiration (Shashua-Bar et al. 2010), grey water filtration (Gómez-Baggethun & Barton
2013) pollution filtration (Maher 2013) noise attenuation, reduction of pedestrian UV exposure
and thermal comfort (Parisi et al. 2000; Parisi et al. 2001). The understanding of urban trees as
vital green infrastructure has led to large scale research projects which begin to quantify tree
requirements for survival in complex urban environments (McPherson et al. 2012).
258

Tree model quality and why they are not currently used in precinct scale modelling

While it has been possible to model complex geometries such as trees, shrubs and grass with
realistic results for over a decade there have been issues with balancing the level of realism with
the speed of the model to regenerate or render for images that contain multiple complex objects.
(Weber & Penn 1995) Even two or three polygon-heavy trees can slow down a model and make
rendering times prohibitive. Precinct scale plans and perspectives may contain thousands of
trees.
Modelling of precinct scale plans and perspectives is not popular as the realism of the trees is
usually compromised through abstraction or reduction to minimum polygon ‘billboards’
(photographs of trees applied to flat polygon faces). Sometimes trees are left out altogether.
(Radford et al. 1997)
Due to the difficulties of representing multiple trees in three dimensions, two-dimensional
plans and sections; council ‘preferred species’ lists; and sometimes photographic collages are
more commonly used than 3D models to discuss the role of street trees in the urban environment
(COM 2012; COM 1998; DCC 2012; MCC n.d.). The result of this lack of three dimensional
modelling means that the effects and requirements of trees have not been considered in an
integrated manner (Ely 2009).
Current urban forest research is enabling more quantifiable strategic street tree selection. At
the same time advances in computer software which calculates and replaces a mesh tree model
with a ‘proxy object’ and hardware improvements, allow highly accurate tree models to be
included in precinct scale digital models. This allows tree selections to be included in a rapid
iterative design processes with enough accuracy to inform current urban design practice and
assess some of the solar impacts of tree canopies over a trees lifetime / season.

2D tree modelling

In traditional planning documents, streets are represented in 2D cross sections and small
portions of plan. These types of representation are primarily designed to show pavement and
roadway widths, parking provision and building setbacks and are not really capable of
expressing the quality of the street environment through the seasons or through the duration of
the growth of the tree (Radford et al. 1997). In these drawings tree canopies are commonly
represented at about two thirds of their ultimate size which they may take twenty years to attain.
Canopies in plan are represented as a more or less a circle which hides some of the common
pruning subtractions regularly made from urban trees to allow for building facades, power lines
(Figure ), tall vehicles such as buses and trucks, pedestrians and cyclists.

Figure 1. Photograph showing impact of pruning around power lines on Arden Street in
North Melbourne.
 259

The post-production ‘collage’ modelling

When 3D modelling is used, buildings and street widths are modeled and used to analyze spatial
qualities and overshadowing but ‘post-production’ trees are commonly inserted as photographic
montages as seen recently in the Swanston Street redevelopment scheme (Melbourne, 2009).
This method can be visually compelling and can show reasonable tree shadows but the
drawback is it’s intensively manual and inaccurate. To produce images of the street environment
over the life time of a deciduous tree, good quality images of the tree in summer, winter and
autumn are needed and at three stages of the trees life cycle, nominally five years, ten years and
twenty years. Each tree in the montage is manually scaled to the perspective of the render and
often scaled to the needs of the image composition rather than true dimensions of tree growth
(3DArtistsonline 2007). This makes it an unsuitable method for rapid testing of different
scenarios. It is used mainly for final presentation images after all decision making is completed.

2.5D tree modelling – GIS database modelling

In 2006 Itree™ was released by the USDA Forest Service. It is an open source, GIS database
program and it allows for the creation an abstract model tree. This program has been used by the
USDA Forest Service since 2005 to establish an accessible International tree growth database
(McPherson et al. 2012) and by Melbourne City Council to catalogue and assess their urban
forest. In the USDA case, complex urban growth parameters have been recorded for 17,000
existing tree specimens over 16 climatic regions over the last 10 years. The database can output
a height over time predictive lollypop model for specific tree species under differing climatic,
management and environmental conditions. This is groundbreaking for the management and
selection of trees for the urban forest. The output is a very sophisticated data-rich abstract
model, though does not assess complex three dimensional formal aspects of the trees.

3D low detail level tree models - ‘lollypop’ modelling

One method of modelling trees utilized by urban designers and others for a more detailed
assessment of the environmental impacts of trees over time is commonly referred to as the
lollypop tree or ball on a stick model (Voris et al. 1993). This is a very efficient modelling
method which can be used for large scale planning but the drawback is that the visualization
output is highly abstracted and cannot be used to assess 3D quantities of shade or aesthetic
nuances between a deciduous or evergreen tree or represent individual tree species form.
The need for realistic visualizations to garner community support for tree species selection
based on empirical evidence of that species long term ability to survive or thrive in highly
specific climatic and environmental conditions is well recognized by urban designers and
planners globally (Pettit et al. 2009; Shears 2009).
The production of visualization imagery for community consultation has been explored in a
decoupled manner as real-time rendering has been considered computationally prohibitive
(Grêt-Regamey et al. 2013). External databases or libraries of low-polygon landscape elements
and vegetation which can be drag and dropped into a scene such as those developed for the
Victorian Resources Online (Pettit et al. 2009) or as pre rendered urban design scenarios
developed in a separate visualization software from given GIS database inputs have been
explored in the past few years. These models use the GIS database for decision making and the
3D visualization as an advocacy tool (Grêt-Regamey et al. 2013).

Detailed 3D tree – high-polygon modelling

Tree and plant modelling has been developed for vastly differing purposes in a wide range of
disciplines since the late 1960’s. In computational botany (Prusinkiewicz & Runions 2012;
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Reffye et al. 1988) the aim of the model is high botanical accuracy. These models represent
plants in realistic detail at close range but are often computationally heavy. In computer science
the aim of the model has been to capture morphological aspects of plants in the most
computationally efficient manner allowing for degradation of the model according to the
distance that the plant is from the viewer ultimately aiming for realistic looking vegetation for
real-time rendering in flight simulators, gaming and other virtual outdoor environments
(Rebollo et al. 2006).
Trees are broadly modelled in three ways: Rule based / procedural models the most well-
known of which is L-systems developed in 1968 by Aristid Lindenmayer and Przemyslaw
Prusinkiewicz (Lindenmayer 1968; Prusinkiewicz et al. 1990); Image based models using
photographs of exiting trees either mapped onto billboards or a partially image based canopy
mapped over a modelled trunk and branches (Neubert et al. 2007) and more recently; Sketch
based models for touch screens (Longay et al. 2012). Many programs hybridize between the
three approaches. The focus of each program is different ranging from high botanical accuracy,
(Reffye et al. 1988) though to efficient polygon counts (Pettit et al. 2009), to user type (botanist
or non-botanist), user edit ability and speed of model creation (Ganster & Klein 2008).
For our purpose we need a balance of both adequate botanically accuracy whilst being
efficient enough to render in reasonable time frames.

Improvements in hardware and software

Processing power in personal computers

Processing power and graphics cards have substantially improved in the past fifteen years in
affordable personal computers. In 1998, a high end computer used for modelling and rendering
may have been a 400Mhz P2 64mb sdram running at 100 mhz with one or two voodoo 2 cards
(90mhz core). The rendering for this paper has been produced on a 2013 laptop with an Intel
Haswell 4 i7-4940MX 3.10GHz 32GB 1600MHZ DDR3 Memory NVIDIA GeForce Go GTX
880M 8GB. This simple comparison illustrates the incredible advances in personal computers
(the ram alone is 500 times greater) and according to Moore’s law (Schaller 1997), is an
indication of what we should expect in the near future. Modelling with thousands or even
millions of polygons is becoming possible.

Parametric proxy object modelling

In addition to improvements in algorithms which degrade the ‘level of detail’ of tree foliage
according to the viewer distance from the object (Rebollo et al. 2006), there have been great
advances in software that takes advantage of processor and graphics card hardware
improvements by storing the geometry in the main memory or in the graphics card itself
(Rebollo et al. 2007). The graphics card can store one render of the modeled tree and use
algorithms to calculate the rest of the ‘proxy objects’ based on that first tree.
‘Proxy object’ modelling is now commonly available within architecture and animation
industry software such as Autodesk’s Maya™ and 3ds Max™. Taking full advantage of this
modelling method is a parametric tree placement plugin by ITOO software™. This plugin
allows thousands of trees to be included in a scene before the model begins to slow down
prohibitively. Tree placement is managed through the plugin either by map, region or polyline
meaning that the tree model species or growth stage can be replaced parametrically across the
precinct in rapid succession. Spacing can also be set to ‘self-adjust’ by changing the object
‘collision’ settings. Manual tree placement in models of this scale would take days to adjust for
a change in species in particular the change in spacing with many of the previous modelling
methods discussed.
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Render engines with photometric daylight analysis

Also now common animation software such as 3dsMax™, are the algorithms for daylight
rendering which have been improved with photographic quality rendering possible (O’Connor
2010). There have also been advancements in light modelling for energy rating requirements
such as ‘Green Star’ or ‘LEED’ rating (Reinhart & Breton 2009). It is now possible to calculate
a grid of lux levels in a digital model based on daylight expected at a given time of day, for a
given day of the year that takes into account direct sunlight, indirect ambient light from the sky
and reflected light from surrounding buildings. These light meter grids are designed for internal
use (to assess task lighting etc.) but here we are using them externally to assess light and shade
levels of streets.
The software also allows control over the model to output the shade cast by the tree even
though the tree model is turned off or rendered ‘non visible’. The render output allows the shade
of the tree(s) to be assessed without the obstruction of the canopy or structure of the tree itself
(Figure ) and data grid exported for further analysis in spread sheet form (Figure ).

Figure 2. Rendered plan view of tree showing lux meter grid. LHS showing top of canopy,
RHS showing the tree ‘hidden’ but still casting shadows.

Figure 3. Lux meter grid exported to MS Excel for further analysis.

The aim

The aim of this paper is to demonstrate a new, rapid, integrated approach for precinct scaled
streetscape modelling with highly detailed 3D trees. The approach is aimed at providing
landscape architects and urban designers a swift method for quantitative solar/shade impact
assessment; visual assessment; impact of tree development over time; impact of species
selection; spacing; and positioning so that street trees are a more integral part of the street
design process resulting in higher quality, resilient and more comfortable urban spaces.

Method

In this paper we discuss a new approach to street tree modelling which bring together
developments in highly detailed and botanically-accurate algorithm tree modelling; increasing
processing power in affordable personal computers; improvements in render engines with
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photometric daylight analysis; and efficient parametric ‘proxy objects’ which allow large
numbers of highly detailed three-dimensional representations of trees to be rendered.
We demonstrate this new approach to street tree modelling with a simple case study –
modelling a precinct within Arden Macaulay a suburb within the City of Melbourne.

Case study application: Arden Macaulay

Arden Macaulay – an area of future change

Arden Macaulay is a precinct within the City of Melbourne which will be rezoned from
industrial use to residential. By 2030 this precinct, which currently houses two to three thousand
people is expected to house twenty five thousand (COM n.d.). The structure of the precinct will
undergo great change from predominantly low rise one and two story buildings to multi story
buildings between four and ten stories high putting pressure on public open space amenity. The
green infrastructure of this precinct will be provided predominantly on the streets and the
council is currently formulating a 40% canopy coverage strategy which means that this
particular renewal area is set for dramatic change.

Applying the high-polygon parametric ‘proxy object’ and daylight assessment approach

The modelling shown here is our first test of this rapid high polygon parametric proxy object
and daylight assessment approach applied on this precinct of Melbourne.
We built a simple 3D model of the precinct using a mix of the council’s cadastral data, Lidar
contour data and 3D textured buildings using Google Building Maker™.
The individual tree models we used for this test combined the empirical modelling
techniques of L-systems with parameter based controls (Lintermann & Deussen 1999). The tree
models combine high level botanical detail and potentially photo-realistic material qualities and
high quality shadows , the accurate of which is the topic of concurrent ongoing research.
The parametric L-system trees were converted proxy objects and then parametrically arrayed
along footpaths so as to allow rapid adjustment of tree spacing or tree size and species. A
variety of tree species were tested as well as different spacing’s and different times of the year .

Figure 4. Aerial rendered view of Arden Macaulay area showing planting of: Corymbia
maculata.
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Figure 5. Aerial rendered view of Arden Macaulay area showing planting of: - Corymbia
maculata, 20m spacing.

Figure 6. Aerial rendered view of Arden Macaulay area showing planting of Corymbia
maculata 7m spacing. Summer.

Figure 7. Aerial rendered view of Arden Macaulay area showing planting of Platanus
orientalis 7m spacing, Summer.

Figure 8. Aerial rendered view of Arden Macaulay area showing planting of Platanus
orientalis, 7m spacing, Winter.
264

Figure 9. Aerial rendered view of Arden Macaulay area showing planting of Platanus
orientalis, 20m spacing, Autumn.

Figure 10. Aerial rendered view of Arden Macaulay area showing planting of Platanus
orientalis, 20m spacing, Summer.

Figure 11. Aerial rendered view of Arden Macaulay area showing planting of Platanus
orientalis, 20m spacing, Winter.

As the model was parametric, simple parameters were able to be adjusted and the model
would update immediately. To change the species of tree was just a matter of clicking to
substitute the original high-poly tree model with another.
A lux meter grid was also set up to measure light levels on the street and footpath, with
readings taken for each of the different scenarios. The lux meter grid was calculated with a few
seconds and was exported to Microsoft Excel via a .CSV exchange file for further processing
which allowed qualitative comparisons of the data.
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Figure 12. Aerial view of lux meter analysis of the Arden Macaulay area of Melbourne
assessing light levels of the street taking into account tree shade and light reflected from
building forms for 4pm 21st of June.

Figure 13. Plan view of lux meter analysis set to higher resolution for the Arden Macaulay
area of Melbourne assessing light levels of the street taking into account tree shade and
light reflected from building forms for 4pm 21st of June.

Discussion and conclusion

This method allows for several thousand trees to be included in a scene without making the
model untenably slow to regenerate or render. The models are accurate enough to measure
canopy projections under zenith angle when rendered with the photometric sun producing
realistic images of quantities and qualities of shade in urban design scale projects. In this study
we were only looking at shade and accurate iterative visualization but there is scope to develop
the method to output eco-system benefit, micro climate and thermal comfort mapping.
Future research is required to ascertain if the models can be calibrated accurately enough to
output other predictive measurements such as leaf area index, leaf area volume and rates of
evapotranspiration of urban trees in specific microclimatic and spatial conditions such as pruned
for power lines, facades, footpaths and road clearances, low light availability and constricted
soil quantities.
This new approach to modelling street trees could potentially be used by urban designers and
landscape architects working with Councils to supplement GIS/database decision making,
allowing solar impact and visual assessment alongside other less three dimensional aspects of
tree data.
Being able to present change involving trees in an iterative manner which expresses their
visual and shade impact in very realistic terms may be beneficial to the study of urban forestry
and presentation of the strategic decisions it makes possible and potentially be a powerful
advocacy tool.
Our research allows further analysis of the impact of large scale tree planting or
replacements. It makes a contribution to an iterative street design process where multiple
scenarios and multiple species can be tested and assessed quickly at different stages of growth
with a reasonable level of accuracy, using detailed three-dimensional representations of trees at
various growth stages in a spatial environment which provides accurate sun positioning and
therefore shade qualities through its photometric daylight system. This method raises potential
further investigation of the three dimensional street qualities with the additional dimension of
time – looking at how the movement of the sun over different times of the day and different
angles throughout the year might influence the design of north-south or east-west streets.
266

Our initial results of using this new approach to street tree modelling demonstrate that it is
now feasible to use high quality three dimensional polygon street trees in urban models with
photometric daylight analysis. We are now able to assess the solar amenity and shade impact of
a variety of tree species at different seasonal and time intervals with an iterative design process
allowing multiple scenarios to be tested effectively in short periods of time.

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268

The recomposition of urban public spaces. Case study of the

historic centre of Noale, Italy

Enrico Pietrogrande, Alessandro Dalla Caneva

Department of Civil, Environmental and Architectural Engineering, University of
Padua, 35131 Padua, via Marzolo 9, Italy.
E-mails: [email protected], [email protected].

Abstract. The theme of this paper is the recomposition of public spaces in the ancient town when
compromised by old and recent speculative interventions. The working method is based on the belief
that, in the study of urban morphology, is basic to analyse the history of the city, clarifying the
relationship between permanent structures on the one hand and temporary ones on the other. The history
becomes an indispensable tool to know the deep reasons of the urban structure which is the memory and
the image of the community. The paper is based on fundamental 1960s studies and following about
typological analysis (Aldo Rossi, 1966; Carlos Martì Arìs, 1993) specifically oriented towards the theme
of public spaces. The spatial aspects and formal image of the transformations in the city are studied as a
premise for the design of the new architecture. Noale, not far from Venice, was one of the subjects the
students on the course of Architectural and Urban Composition 2 at the Department of Civil,
Environmental and Architectural Engineering of the University of Padua specifically investigated as an
opportunity to redesign the unity of the historic centre of this town that had previously been lost.

Key Words: Memory, history as a tool for the project, public space, city centre

Introduction

The town of Noale, which has about sixteen thousand inhabitants, is situated at an equal
distance from Venice, Padua and Treviso. The centre of the town is crossed by the busy
regional road No. 515 Noalese, in a rural area that is completely flat and marked by the remains
of the Roman 'graticolato' grid system, a checkerboard of land division that goes back to the
time of ancient Rome. The ruins of the medieval castle and the course of the Marzenego river
enrich the site of the city.
A lively centre as far as social and economic life are concerned, Noale still has some
unresolved issues in the relationship with the wider urban area that bears witness to its rich
past. The city in fact shows aspects of pronounced inconsistency related to random and
disproportionate architectural constructions built in successive periods of the last century, and
heavy car traffic. In particular, it seems disorganized in the form of the fabric of the area today
called Largo San Giorgio, located east of piazza XX Settembre, the centre of nineteenth century
Noale. This paper concentrates on the Largo San Giorgio area, and also considers some nearby
areas of the historic city.
With our students on the course of Architectural and Urban Composition 2 at the University
of Padua (regular professor Enrico Pietrogrande, coworkers Adriano Rabacchin and Alessandro
Dalla Caneva, academic year of 2012-13), we studied new architectural proposals to recompose
the unresolved condition of the Largo San Giorgio area based on analyzing the history of the
village to understand its urban morphology. This is an indispensable tool in discovering the
underlying reasons for the development of the urban structure, which forms an indelible
reminder made in the image of the community. Fortunately, enough traces of the previous
physical reality remain for understanding the morphology that underpinned the urban evolution
to be recognized and read. Students were required to modify the existing buildings whenever
they are in conflict with the surroundings. This request assumes that history is an instrument in
opposition to the museumification of the historic city and in favor of its transformation since in
 269

terms of structural features it accepts the insertion of new buildings in the historic urban fabric
on condition that these are planned by studying the pre-existing organization of the space, the
construction system, and the urban relationships of the buildings with the environment from a
planning point of view.

Figure 1. The ruins of the Tempesta family castle in Noale. Picture taken at the beginning
of the last century.

The idea that the transformation and the protection of the urban landscape can occur
according to a unitary process is the basis of the teaching experience described below. The
assumption is in line with the main contribution of the most advanced teachers in Italy on this
subject at the University Institute of Architecture in Venice during the second half of the
twentieth century, the so-called School of Venice. According to them, the relationship between
a city and architecture, referring to the city’s scale in the study of architecture, is the
fundamental fact that is at the origin of an effective theory on the project, which defines a
synthesis between analysis and design, architecture and urban planning. Aldo Rossi was an
architect and a teacher particularly relevant in the School of Venice. He insisted on the absolute
consistency between the analysis of building and urban analysis, emphasizing the importance of
finding precise relationship between architectural and urban structures (Rossi, 1970). His
fundamental 1960s studies about typological analysis, specifically oriented towards the theme
of public spaces, were published in 1966 in the book L’architettura della città (Rossi, 1966), in
which the spatial aspects and formal image of the transformations in the city are studied as a
premise on which to base the design of the new architecture.
In the teaching experience presented in this paper the first phase of the project the students
had to elaborate was composed of analyzing the land registry survey map and written, pictorial,
photographic records, in order to acquire informations about the past of the city centre and
study the relationship between architecture and urban structure.

Context

The development of Noale, village of late Roman origins, occurred during the medieval period
in conjunction with the construction of the castle of the Tempesta family (Figure 1) and the
fortification of the village. The castle and the fortificated village, surrounded by ditches fed by
water from the Marzenego river, constitute the core (even today easily identifiable) around
which the city expanded (Figures 2 and 3).
The area on which students focused attention extends east of the ancient village, at the
convergence of roads coming from the towns of Mestre and Mirano that originated in the
encounter point piazza XX settembre, the 19th century Noale centre. Here a new space took
shape, that is today without order in the arrangement of buildings. This space, that stands at the
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east limit of piazza XX settembre, is named Largo di San Giorgio (Figure 4).

Figure 2. Noale: planivolumetric representation of the current condition. The area is cut
vertically in two parts by the regional road No. 515 Noalese. The old castle and what remains
of the ancient fortificated village are to the left, while to the right is possible to see the town
later developed with the triangular piazza XX settembre and the two convergent roads from
Mestre and Mirano. From the work of the student Silvia Tarallo.

The dedication to San Giorgio derives from the name of the church and the hospital which
stood in the area already by the second half of 13th century and were complemented by a
convent at the beginning of the following century. In the early years of the 15 th century the
church and the hospital were demolished and rebuilt with larger size, the church where
previously insisted with the façade on the current piazza XX settembre (Figure 5) and the
hospital on the other side of the road to Mestre. The convent, behind the church, was enlarged a
few years later and housed until 1769 the Minor friars religious order.
Then, after the expulsion of the friars, the landlord Diodato Bembo purchased the property
and proceeded to recast the church eliminating some parts (such as the sacristy, the bell tower
and the additional nave) and to build in 1770 palazzo Bembo (Figures 6 and 7), a “building
with portico that delimits even today the piazza XX settembre on the east side” (Dal Maistro,
1994). In the same period boundaries with the road to Mestre were also modified and the
convent was demolished.
From that moment, the church of San Giorgio lost importance, until in the last years of the
19th century it was demolished too. In subsequent years, the area did not undergo further
revisions as regards the boundary on piazza XX settembre while on the back, to delimit the part
that we call Largo San Giorgio and which constitutes the project area in the workshop
conducted with the students, two buildings aligned on the road to Mestre were constructed, a
covered market (Loggia del mercato) in 1930 near palazzo Bembo, and an imposing building
designed to accommodate a bank in 1910.
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Figure 3. Noale: growth of town from the 11th century to nowadays. From the work of the
student Silvia Tarallo.

Current problems

The area of intervention today has very special connotations. Piazza XX settembre continues to
be in fact a node of fundamental traffic as the place of intersection of the roads to Mestre,
Mirano, Padova and Treviso (Figure 8). It isn’t managed as a square, but rather as a parking lot,
and for the characteristics of the traffic that has got, this place has become a roundabout road.
To the state of decay of the piazza is to sum up a veritable state of degradation of the
specific area of intervention, largo San Giorgio. Here, near the mansion built by Bembo on the
square in 1770, the bank and to the Loggia del mercato, have arisen from many years, so
random and disordered, a new housing block, several garages, a two storey house with run-
down aspect and other incoherent volumes.

Figure 4. Piazza XX settembre, planivolumetric plan of the current state. The Largo
San Giorgio area is located east of the piazza, delimited by the piazza itself, the road to Mestre
(north side), the road to Mirano (south side). From the work of the student Silvia Tarallo.

Largo San Giorgio has therefore today the following negative characteristics. First of all, the
discontinuity of the volumes on the front of the road to Mestre, culminating in a empty space,
which is also a parking lot, at the point where the road originates from the square. Then the
neglect of the area behind the building of the bank, a garden not cared and unused. Finally, the
low quality of the façade on largo San Giorgio of the new residential building which has the
main front located along the road to Mirano.
It’s then necessary to dedicate a reflection to the viability of the zone, with regard to the
system of the car parks and the traffic of cars and bicycles. In the area there are many car parks:
the road to Mestre has parking on both sides, the piazza XX settembre is used as a car park,
largo S. Giorgio and the area behind the Loggia del mercato have also the same function.
About the road system it’s then interesting to observe the management that is set in such a
way that piazza XX settembre is actually a roundabout with a single access road, the connecting
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road between Noale and Mirano, and a single track of output, the connecting road between
Noale and Mestre. The road that leads into piazza XX settembre at the western boundary of this
is instead only accessible from the residents.
The complex system of automobile roads is accompanied by a system of partial bike paths
that passes through the piazza. It is important to emphasize that the study of the organisation of
the roads of the area has been amended several times recently and that it’s still intention of the
Public Administration of Noale to find a definitive solution different from the current.

The didactic experience

Two of the four projects presented here refer directly to the object of the study, the Largo San
Giorgio area. The project proposals from students that put the stress on this area originate from
the same premise, that is considered unavoidable: the premise that the area could be
redeveloped with the demolition of the incongruous constructions, finding solutions that are
conscious of the character of the place and that are able to pursue, in the intentions, a formal
recognition of the place as being progressively lost within the community.

Figure 5. The church of San Giorgio in 1890, a few years before the demolition.

The issue of formal recognition refers to the possibility for people to belong to the place where
they live through a process of symbolization of form. In fact, as stated by Cristhian Norberg-
Schultz “the term ‘establish’ does not indicate a purely economic term, but an existential
concept, which denotes the ability to symbolize meanings. When the artificial environment is
significant, the man feels at home” (Norberg-Schultz, 1979). In this sense, the proposed
projects represented a rather ambitious attempt to attend, in the project design, to the formal
features of the tradition of Noale to rediscover and renew continuity with the historical memory
of the community. The simple shapes that students often refer to in the project have this aim.
The possibility is that these will be recognized by the people collectively, thus recalling a civil
dimension of architecture in which a community recognizes its being in the world.
“I therefore support a civil dimension of architecture”, Malacarne wrote, “in which urban and
architectural forms are the reflection of a collective experience that can minimise the individual
aspect of the works by subjecting the form to an idea intended to be intelligible and even
shared” (Malacarne, 2008).
Therefore, the project is part of the dialectic of the historical process in which preserving
and building are components of the same act of consciousness. It is thus passed the
irremediable antagonism between conservatives and innovators because the restore has to be
understood in the sense of a re-enactment of the past and the building activity as a continuation
of the historical process. In this regard Ernesto Nathan Rogers explains: “Many, who think to
be innovators, have in common with so-called conservatives the wrong that both have deep-
rooted prejudices, thinking that new and old are in opposition instead of representing the
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dialectic continuity of the historical process. One and the other don’t go beyond the veneration
for certain fruitless appearances. They are not able to penetrate the essences of the styles,
pregnant with inexhaustible energy. To try to a priori build in a modern style it is equally
absurd to impose respect for the taboo of past styles” (Rogers, 1958).

Figure 6. View of the Bembo palace, built in 1770 aside the church of San Giorgio (1950).

Figure 7. Piazza XX settembre, with the Bembo palace to the right. The church of San
Giorgio stood in the empty space aside the palace. Picture taken in 1960.

The first project of the student Valeria Gallana (Figures 9, 10 and 11) starts from the
assumption of attributing to largo San Giorgio a public dimension. Gallana imagines to
structure the empty space derived from demolished volumes through the narrative sequence of
courtyards that reinterpret the idea of the Noale courtyard, inside which, in two of the four
cases, a cylindrical volume refers to the typological idea of a building with a central plan.
Therefore the court, as a formal feature belonging to the town of Noale, becomes the pretext for
the invention of the design. The narrative sequence begins exactly where the demolished church
of San Giorgio once stood, a space now turned into a court by walls of separation that found a
link with the ancient wall with arches, which is all that remains of the vanished church. The
court presents in the internal organization the same plan of the church reinterpreted as an
outdoor garden. In a non-random way, another garden is located in the hollow cylinder at the
conclusion of the narrative staged by the student.
The four courts each with a specific role have different hierarchies. The principal court to
which the smaller ones are related has a close relationship with the Loggia del mercato that
becomes the pivot around which the entire composition is disposed. The minor courts set out on
an axis arranged to skirt the main public space are occupied inside by a building which, as
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already stated, refers clearly to the idea of a central plan: cylinders that house within them,
respectively, an exhibition hall and a secret garden for temporary sculptural exhibitions. The
two cylindrical volumes are related to each other by a portico with two levels that mimics the
classic idea of the stoà. Its presence is essential for at least three reasons. Firstly, to play the
role of a system of relations between the cylindrical buildings; secondly, to separate the main
space of the square from the private space giving access to existing residential buildings,
thereby establishing an appropriate relationship between public and private space; and thirdly,
to make a backstage area for the main square. The rhythmic pattern of the portico provides a
principle of decorum to the square itself.

Figure 8. Noale, aerial view from the east. You can see the two roads, coming from Mestre
(to the right) and Mirano (to the left) convergent to the piazza XX settembre.

The second project of the student Silvia Tarallo (Figures 12, 13 and 14) aims to redevelop
the area through the achievement of a new market square. The square is exactly arranged in
close relationship with the Loggia del mercato, the real pivot of the whole composition built
during the Fascist period. The new square increases the value of the important pre-existences of
the area as the cube-shaped building by classical form placed on the west and the same Loggia
del mercato.
The module that marks the rhythm of the arcade of the Loggia del mercato is an opportunity
to define a geometric trace on which the other volumes of project lie according to the well-
known principle of unity in diversity: the tower and the public library.
The modularity of the geometric grid is achieved not only on the horizontal but also on the
vertical plane, knowing that the geometry is only a means and not a goal through which you can
pursue the aesthetic idea.
On the rhythm identified by the square module, the arcade with double height marks the
square on the south It’s understood as a promenade architecturale that links the tower to the
public library. The whole board of the pavement is related with the same grid. The identity of
the library is here achieved through the arrangement of a body on the top that, mentioning the
form of a classical temple, would metaphorically alluding to the sacred value of the library as a
place custodian of knowledge.
The student put special effort to make clear the nature of the library of which appeared
important to make clear not so much its way of functioning, but rather the representation of its
value. Partly this explains the design process of the student who wanted first of all to think to
the image that the library must have got and only later the way in which it must functioning,
according to the assertion still considered valid of Étienne Louis Boullée for which the
architecture is not the art of building and “we must first conceive and then we can build. The
ancients built their huts only after having conceived the image (…). The art of building is
therefore only a secondary art that we can define the scientific part of the architecture”
(Boullée, 1780-1795).
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Aldo Rossi who based the study of the city on its shape – “I always refer to the shape and
architecture of the city, not its institutions” – came to the conclusion that the identity (of the
form) depends mainly on the form itself, rather than on reason of a functional nature or, more
generally, on political, social and economic values. This is especially clear in the direct words
of Aldo Rossi, who, for example, expresses his opinion in these terms about the Palazzo della
Ragione in Padova: “When you visit a monument of this kind, one is struck by a series of issues
that are now intimately linked. Above all, one is struck by the plurality of functions that a
building of this type can hold, functions that are quite independent of its form. It is this form
that remains clearly imprinted in our mind, which we live and perceive and that, in turn,
structures the city” (Rossi, 1970).

Figure 9. Project for the requalification of the Largo San Giorgio area in Noale proposed
by the student Valeria Gallana. Ground floor plan.

The arrangement of the portico-loggia, as in the case of the project presented by the student
Valeria Gallana, has the function of cleanly separating the public space of the square from the
private space for access to the residences on the northern face of the square.
The city's tower, besides suggesting the presence of the lost tower of the church of San
Giorgio, is a memory of the towers that make recognizable the secular square and the religious
look of the figurative tradition that is found in Italy and beyond.
The scope of intervention chosen by the student Giacomo Orlandini (Figures 15, 16 and 17)
regards a focal point of the historical residential buildings of the city of Noale, immediately
behind the historic piazza XX Settembre. It corresponds to the long path that is perpendicular to
the north front of the triangular square and connects this one with outlying parking space in the
Piazza della Bastia at the point where the city meets the historic expansion of the twentieth
century, recently completed to extend into the countryside. Piazza della Bastia has a close
relationship with the railway station.
The choice to act on that connection axis originates from an unavoidable premise, namely
that of redeveloping a historic pedestrian path, now Via De Gasperi, which has over time
gradually assumed an increasingly important role in the system of relationships of the city. In
fact, historical analysis has shown how a secondary path has with the advent of modernity
become a privileged axis joining the historic centre and the train station. It was once a lane
leading into the country through the private gardens of the Soranzo family, owners of the
eponymous palace that now houses the public library.
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Figure 10. Project planivolumetric plan proposed by the student Valeria Gallana.

The project aims to enhance the pre-existing environmental and historical conditions,
tailoring them to the needs of the contemporary world, finding a formal relationship with the
existing logic based on the paratactic arrangement and alignment of the long, narrow lot of
medieval origin. The project is expected to recover, complete where possible, and extend what
remains of rural housing, partly demolished during the World War Second, of which only traces
remain in the sediment, arranged laterally along the connection path in long and narrow
segments. The planned extension of the path is an opportunity to organize the volumes of the
project around a courtyard, making a public space to pause along the way, but without
invalidating the disposition of the parts according to the type of block built in depth. The
proposed continuity with history, found through the use of a building material like the brick
typical of the Venetian tradition, is accompanied by the will to respond to the demands of the
community. In this sense, the project is intended as a cultural hub characterized by the presence
of a museum and a public library to complete the existing library of Palazzo Soranzo. These
buildings have their own individuality, each with its own recognizable form. The student's
desire has been not to connect the entrances directly to the courtyard, but to intermediate spaces
under the open sky and with an intimate character, echoing the medieval idea of secret gardens,
where the controlled presence of trees and water suggest and demonstrate the picturesque
character of the space, that belongs to the figurative tradition of the Middle Ages. This being a
predominantly mediaeval environment, it seemed appropriate to stress the picturesque
atmosphere of the place through a careful composition of asymmetries and misalignments, both
in the plan and in elevation, rather than the symmetries that suggest a research mode of
monumental effect, this not being considered suitable to achieve a formal mimesis with the
existing environment. Rounding out the idea of an ortus conclusus, the volumes of the project
are contained within the existing side walls, ancient elements of separation of property. These
walls are reclassified and shown as elements of separation through a discontinuity with the
buildings of the project, obtaining a functional gap in the perimeter circle of the water, an
element that characterizes the atmosphere and history of the town of Noale.
The area of intervention chosen by the student Diego Bonaldo (Figures 18, 19 and 20) is
located near the castle. Located in a space with an irregular trapezoid shape, it is defined by the
presence of two permanent features: the environmental one of the Marzenego river and the
artificial one represented by the axis of the main road linking Padua to Treviso. The area is
located within a broader historical residential zone of support for the industrial district, built in
the Second World War, which marks the limit of the partition between the historic city and the
city of the new expansion. Historical analysis has shown that this area has remained over the
centuries an empty space, only characterized by the presence of temporary wood buildings
during the sixteenth century, defined by the presence of a residential building in the Napoleonic
period, in line with the road leading to the territory beyond the city limits.
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Figure 11. Views of the solution proposed by the student Valeria Gallana.

Figure 12. Project planivolumetric plan of the Largo San Giorgio area proposed by the
student Silvia Tarallo.

The student decided, through more general morphological analysis of the city, from which
he identified the particular character in the formal arrangement in depth of residential lots at
right angles to the main road, to think of the project as a theoretical opportunity to revive the
residential settlement in an existing line according to the type of the Gothic lot - long, narrow
and perpendicular to the road, thus finding an analogy for and continuity with the historic city.
The existing residential buildings are not changed in their appearance, so as not to lose the
historical memory of the urban façades; however, the internal layout of the accommodation is
redesigned, in keeping with the standards of quality of modern life, while a new element is the
fragmentation of the property with external partition walls opposite the main facade, interpreted
in the logic of the lot built in depth. The student was given the opportunity to rethink the two
existing buildings facing north, the result of a late addition that is inconsistent with the existing
buildings, through the provision of two volumes closing the northern front, a library and a small
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exhibition space that meet the expectations of the community. The position of the two volumes
plays a strategic role in terms of the urban view, becoming the fulcrum around which the public
life of the residential district revolves. By virtue of this, the student decided to propose urban
forms in an easily understood and recognizable form, directly linked to the history of the forms
of historical tradition: the cuboid and the cylinder. The first contains the library, the second the
exhibition space. This clear typological reference to buildings with a central plan of classical
tradition and beyond becomes in particular an urban sign capable of interacting with its
surroundings through its cylindrical shape and vertical rise, making it visible from a distance.
The use of simple shapes stems from the belief that the specificity of architecture is to be
attributed to the ability to produce typical forms, of general and popular impact, able to
represent the collective memory: "I believed and still believe that if monuments are to be
meaningful, they must not be difficult to understand. Therefore they should make contact with
common awareness using patterns or stereotypes proper to the figurative universe of the masses
and of all people together: they must belong to the common consciousness" (Polesello, 2003).
One last sign is placed to complete the composition. The presence of a high wall, pierced
towards the castle, that follows the topographic trend of the site, designed to protect residential
life, separating it from the existing public path which follows the course of the Marzanego
river.

Figure 13. Project planivolumetric plan of the Largo San Giorgio area in Noale
proposed by the student Silvia Tarallo.

Figure 14. Project planivolumetric plan of the Largo San Giorgio area in Noale proposed
by the student Silvia Tarallo.
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Figure 15. From the work of the student Giacomo Orlandini. Planning solution of the
footpath from the new car park to piazza XX settembre and Largo San Giorgio,
planivolumetric plan.

Conclusions

The study of the relationship between architecture and culture of the city lies at the heart of the
above displayed planning hypotheses. In-depth study of the history of Noale is an instrument
that clarifies the main aspects and opportunities. In particular, the research into the
transformations of the spaces and shapes developing through time represented an indispensable
premise for checking the planning proposal that aimed at reconstituting a coherent urban fabric
in which residential and touristic uses play a role in connecting the distinct monumental
phenomena present.
The investigation of the history of the city formed the basis of the project solution illustrated
above, in harmony with the belief that in teaching it is essential to promote a synthesis between
knowing and doing. The study of what is already present in the area and the broader historical-
building framework is an essential tool in the promotion of a new cultural layout based on the
needs of the area.
The future image of Noale also depends on the choices that will be made about the old city.
The search for a formal reordering is motivated by the conviction that architecture is a
fundamental means for promoting a new cultural and social asset in the areas investigated,
where the new architecture draws inspiration from the needs of the territory. The on-going
teaching experience at the University of Padova has also proved to be effective in making the
relationship between lecturers and students a cohesive one.

References

Boullée, E. (1780-1795), Architecture. Essai sur l'art (Paris).

Dal Maistro, G. (1994) Noale tra storia e memoria (Multigraf, Spinea).
Malacarne, G. (2008) in M. Landsberger, Architetti italiani a confronto (Edicit, Foligno).
Norberg-Schultz, C (1979) Genius loci. Paesaggio, ambiente, architettura (Mondadori Electa, Milan).
Polesello, G. (2003) ‘Ab initio,indagatio initiorum. Ricordi e confessioni’, in N. Posocco, G. Radicchio,
280

G. Rakowitz (eds) Scritti scelti su Aldo Rossi. «Care architetture» (Umberto Allemandi & C., Turin).
Rogers, E. N. (1958) Esperienza dell’architettura, (Einaudi, Turin).
Rossi, A. (1966) L’architettura della città (Marsilio Editori, Padua).
Rossi, A. (1970) “L’obiettivo della nostra ricerca. Lezione”, in Research group suprevised by A. Rossi,
L’analisi urbana e la progettazione architettonica. Contributi al dibattito e al lavoro di gruppo
nell'anno accademico 1968-69 (Clup, Milan).
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Landscape design methods for surrounding mountain tops

Yama-ate in Murakami Castle Town. A test of GIS analysis

Keisuke Sugano, Shigeru Satoh

Waseda University, Japan.
[email protected]

Abstract. The crowned mountaintops of Japanese castle towns are visible from the streets. This
landscape composition is also common in East Asia, for worshipping Nature – a landscape design worthy
of consideration. Although landscaping phenomenon can be verified via large-scaled maps, for specific
aims, worship for example, it must be processed with scientific accuracy. Thus, this paper concerns itself
with the relation between mountaintops and street centrelines; typological location accuracy needs GIS
and GPS. With the numerical data from types of Object Roads, the Murakami Yama-ate shows three
characters: i) its Object Road as framework, it holds a specific Vision Axis, ii) its periphery roads get
twisted, so the Axis is adjusted to face Mountaintop, and iii) its Axis slides sharply; the appearance of
Mountaintop becomes vaguely unpredictable. This research, concerning the Yama-ate Object Mountains
numerically, believes in, also, the necessity to make these Mountains manifest from their histories,
poetically; four points yielded, i) the Water God Animism in Miomote River, ii) Compass Direction, iii)
Location and Boundary seen from the sea, and iv) Distribution of Ancient tombs and Castle. These four
points are relevant to Murakami Mountains; historical and religious aspects are inseparable from their
life on a day-to-day base.

Key Words: Landscape design method, Sacred Mountain, castle town; GIS; Yama-ate.

Introduction

Research background and purpose

Basing on the Japanese aesthetic sense, the urban compositions of castle town are distinguished
for their formative Arts of landscape, for the nature features and climates; typography and
geological features were all respected and adopted in structuring urban design thinking. The
main street of each castle town, built perpendicularly to the castle-crowned mountain, provides
the pedestrian “Yama-ate” – facing the mountain castle view – including Shinto Shrine,
Buddhist Temple and the Turret of Castle along the landscape axis. Renovating river for flood
control, drawing river water for town use and so on was well planned. The town dividing and
urban planning were done with religious respects to the sacred mountains and castle foundation
banding with Nature.
Such urban composition was verified and common in Japan and other countries in the East
Asian Continent, banding their life to surrounding mountains, paying respects, religiously, to
Nature and perhaps even animism – a landscape design thinking with ecological wisdom and
order, a way of urban construction working hand in hand with local culture – the ancient
methodology worthy of consideration.
This research team, whilst intending to reveal the actual conditions of Yama-ate in
bibliography 1) & 2), 3), has acquired the knowledge, by and large, of most castle towns and the
adjacent cities in Japan. And so, this team is strongly conscious of designing the Mountain View
enflaming the castle-crowned scene in particular, and those natural phenomena that are
irrelevant to Yama-ate are roughly divided (from this research). Hitherto, this team
consciousness is so far a hypothesis, and the designing intention of Yama-ate, planning and
methods, are not yet verified.
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This research employ the precise measuring capability of GIS, seeking to discover the then
actual designing process of castle town from researching the landscaping of Yama-ate by means
of GIS data examining. Then, studying these collected numerical data to reveal the
characteristics of object roads, of the local culture associated with mountains, of documentary
literature (about animism phenomenon for instance) and so on and so forth, this research
concerns itself with the actual condition and wish to let the actual situation of the then castle
town motivated Yama-ate design become manifest.

Research methods

This research starts on from making the data map for analyzing Yama-ate by GIS. The research
team, to begin with, adopts the “2500 Base Information Map” issued by the Geospatial
Information Authority of Japan and makes the Base Map of Murakami City; bettering up the
map by using the geometry compensation tool of ArcGIS, and piling this map upon the
historical map, this methods, piling and making a two-fold maps, reflecting the past and modern
days, helps to recover the urban structure from the Feudal Regime. Next, adopt, again, the
“Surveying Reference Point” published by the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan, study
the historical documents, this research team then is capable of verifying the entire coordinates of
mountaintop points from the old town below the castle-crowned mountains.
Secondly, this research team tries to specify the methods by GIS, tackling the relationship
between streets, moats and Mountaintop. Thirdly, describe the actual condition of Murakami
Castle Town and its urban structure.
Fourthly, the team considers it a mission to verify the “Yama-ate” by inspecting the real
historical situation. The particular features of the road to visualize the Yama-ate are collected,
made as numerical data; three types of Yama-ate are classified to present the characteristics of
each Yama-ate. About the Object Mountain, the culture-historical literature since the middle age
are reviewed and researched.
In the light of the above action, the urban structure and Yama-ate of Murakami city may
become manifest.

Previous researches

Besides the documents 1) and 2), 3) mentioned above and the series of group research directed
by Agemura and Tsuchida about the castle in Satsuma 4), the research proposed by Takami 5),
applying Visual Axis and Vista, as the major design methods, to design modern castle towns.
Also, in Kirishiki 6) and 7) the relation between Edo and Mt. Fuji, between Edo and
Mt.Tsukuba and between Sunpu and Mt. Fuji was discussed in 8). And further, Yamamoto 9)
also discussed the Vista method to frame the castle Turret and the donjon, the castle tower in
Sendai, Kumamoto and Hirosaki, including each “Yama-ate.”
All these were done in accordance with field inspection and small scaled maps; a
phenomenon, as a piece of verified phenomenon, can be nothing but a reference; the
methodology of numerical measurement, investigation on document, reports or historical
literature would end up producing another investigation report without precise, edgy and
convincing results. Thus so, this paper concerns itself with how to obtain accurate and specific
results by means of GIS analysis with documentary investigation in field inspection, and with
how to grasp the basic data for the legitimacy or ground to infer the original design intention of
the Castle town. Also, Zhao 10) presented the study, using the concept of “landscape corridor,”
analyzing the relationship between the castle town and the periphery mountain. Higuchi 11)
concerned himself with the blocking factors in the horizon, or within the vista of Yama-ate. All
these, however, are studies basing on vista methods or documentary literature without the
accurate measurement as the legitimate ground for research. Although Takamori’s researches,
12), by computing the topographical data and information collected from a significant wide
region, did work out the “road ratio” of Yama-ate in this region and be approved as significant
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level of studies statistically, Takamori’s researches were not done by means of specific
measurement and mathematic analysis; viz. measuring from the visional point where the viewer
stands in the main street, for example, and face the mountain through the visual axis
perpendicular to the crowned mountaintop.

Definition of technical usages (Figure 1)

Basing on the usages used in the previous researches, their definition are given below:
1. Object Road: The Road, Moat or River verified in the Vista of Yama-ate and Turret.
2. Object Mountain: the Mountain that faces the Object Road.
3. Field of Vision (point a): the starting point in the center line of main road that faces the
Mountaintop.
4. Center Point (point b): the Vanishing point in the center line of main road that faces the
Mountaintop.
5. Mountain Top (point P): the top of triangulation point is the Mountaintop, or the
coordinates of Mountaintop.
6. The Center Line of Main Road: The line linking the Field of Vision (point a) and the
Center Point (point b) on the ground plan.
7. Mountain Line: The line linking the Field of Vision (point a) and Mountaintop (point P).
8. Internal Angle of Lines: (α) the horizontal angle between The Center Line of Main Road
and Mountain Line.

Figure1. Definition of Technical Usages.

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About Murakami the Castle Town

Murakami, located on the top north of Niigata prefecture and being adjacent to Yamagata
Prefecture, has recently become a contemporary Castle Town with the population of 64,000
(2014).
In the era of Daimyo Honjyo from the mid-sixteenth century till the turn of the seventeenth,
the castle was built on the top of Mount Gagyu; consequently several villages got settled in
below. The then castle, before Murakami Yorikatsu and his retainers came to occupy it in 1598,
was still medieval in style; Murakami started on renovating the castle and his successor carried
on to do so. After Hori Naoki entered into a castle in 1618, the Magewa: castle wall design in
the time of Murakami Yorikatsu, was expanded, the castle donjon and turret were reconstructed
and the moat was rebuilt, fortified to be the sort of (prototype of) Modern Castle Town.
The urban area today has kept expanding around the Murakami subway station of Uetsu line;
yet large scaled land division and preparation were not processed except a small portion of
streets were expanded in width, the Murakami urban structure remains its shape as a modern
Castle Town.

Methods of making the GIS Map Data for analysis

Making the base map

The GIS map-making is processed by ArcGIS for Desktop 10.0 (made by ESRI). The level-
2500 scaled Base Map, issued by the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan is selected, and
the frame of reference is defined WGS, rectangular plane, eight systems. On 11 March 2011, the
super earthquake struck the Northeast of Japan from the Pacific offshore and the earth crust
fluctuation, thus, caused the periphery of Murakami city slightly to move off their original
longitude and latitude. This map-making is re-corrected and modified in accordance with the
official adjustment issued by the Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (land survey report
2011).

Restoration of the urban structure in feudal regime

In order to process the mathematic (numerical) analysis of the urban structure of the Edo period,
the urban structure of the Murakami city in the Feudal Regime Era was restored in level-2500
scaled Base Map. Three grand restoration projects include the following: i) to specify the
location of the historical roads before their expansion and ii) to work out the disposition of
castle moat, fort and castle gate and prepare the division of land use.
The specific plans to restore these projects are the following: i) reading the inspection
drawings plans inscribed in the 56th year of Showa era (1981) about the width of road
expansion, this research subdivides these plans – from the dawn of Meiji Era (1868) till 1981 –
and then compares these 1981 plans with the expansion width in the inspection drawings plans
collected in the modern Maps of Land Registry issued by the Legal Affairs Bureau. Through
such comparison, the original locations of the roads before expansion may be restored and
inscribed on the Base Map; ii) using the GIS tracing function, the two-layer map – piling the
early Meiji Era castle town map onto the map today2 may be more accurately represented.

Specify the mountain top coordinates

Basing on the “surveying point of reference” issued by the Geospatial Information Authority of
Japan, the data of mountaintop coordinates can specify the entire Mountaintops (point P) and let
all the Mountaintops (point P) be visible from the entire area surrounding the castle on the
mountain. Yet, since the Mountaintops with the same coordinates stand among different
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locations, this research also checks the mountain coordinates – the Sea Level Heights of Major
Mountains in Japan (recorded by the Geospatial Information Authority), adjusts the errors and
specifies the Mountaintop coordinates.

Yama-ate and its analytic methods by GIS

Visual field inspection

On September 2013, this research group did a field inspection about the roads found in the
Murakami drawings completed in the Early Meiji Era, seeking verify if these “object roads”
may provide Yama-ate mountain views. Meanwhile, to grasp the “starting point” and the
“vanishing point,” where the mountain view appears from the road or disappear owing to the
bending or curving mountain shapes.

Specify the Yama-ate by GIS (Figure 2)

The city road structure of Murakami town remains, basically, as it was in the time of Feudal
Regime, except that the waterways connecting the castle moat were already buried. Also,
several high-rise buildings do stand along the road, hindering the Mountain View from the road.
With regard to this, the mountaintop (point P) is written down in the postscripts of Base Map
and connected with the center point of main road – the point of Field of Vision (point a) – of the
street blocks and moat embankment. This connected line between “point a” and “point P” is
written as Mountain Line in the Base Map, and in the places where the street crossings or
junctions are absorbed by the width of road expansion, this road regarded as Yama-ate. The
adjacent city blocks and moats that match this condition, the line was regarded as one sequential
Object Road face the Mountaintop (point P).

Figure2. Specify the Yama-ate by GIS.

Computation of Interval Angle (α) and Elevation Angle (β)

The center point of Moat, the starting point and vanishing point of the Object Road are various
center points (point b) in the field of vision (point a), and these points are linked up to be the
Center Line of Main Road. And, as for the Roads that were expanded in width, the center line of
the road before width expansion must be put in the Base Map. Then, make the Mountain Line
by connecting the Mountaintop (point P) and the Field of Vision (point a). Compare both Center
Line of Main Road and Mountain Line, calculate the tolerable errors of horizontal angle of both
Lines and yield the Internal Angle (α) of Lines. That is, if (α) is smaller, the castle-crowned
mountaintop can thus be visible from nearer place of the center line of Road and Moat.
Still, from reading the 5-meter mesh information closest to the Field of Vision (point a), the
sea level heights can be made, and the numerical difference of sea level heights between point
(a) and (P) can be calculated. This numerical value, together with the horizontal distance
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between (point a) and (point P), the elevation angle (β) from the Field of Vision (point a) up to
Mountaintop (point p) can be calculated.

Actual Condition of the Yama-ate viewed from the Object Road (Table 1）

From the results of the Yama-ate analyses via the analyses methods above, 24 cases of Yama-
ate may be verified from seven Object Mountains: Mt.Wahsigasu, Mt.Nakadake, Mt.Takatori,
Mt.Kokuzo, Mt.Sankyo, Mt.Geto and the Mountain without Name. And, the internal angle
ranges from 0.028°～4.774° with an average of 1.09°, the elevation angle from 3.014°～9.501°
and average of 5.41°. The details follow.

Table1. Numerical Analysis Yama-ate, and classification of Object Road

Classification of Object Roads

There are six types below, from classifying the special features and forms of Object Roads.

1. The Main Town Roads built in Straight Line

It refers to the Road built along the front side of the street building for more than 200 meters.
There are eight cases of such Straight Line of Main Town Road:
1a. The Koshindo Line: the Road was built facing the front façade of Koshindo Hall, which
was built at the Gate of Katamachi Gate as the Defense against Evil Spirit; both Mt.Koshindo
and Donjon are visible form the Koshindo line.
1b. The Akiba Gate – Korinji Gate Line: the line was built in the Samurai Residence, linking
the Gate of Akiba and Korinji; it faces the Mountain Without Name.
 287

1c. The Fukuro Gate Line: the Road was built by extending the Fukuro Gate and parallel
with the 1b line by a slight tolerance of 0.20°. The internal angle of Fukuro Gate Line is smaller
than 0.33°. The Mountain without Name is visible as well.
1d. Koishigaki Gate – Nakano Gate Line: the road was built in a Samurai Residence,
connecting Koishigaki Gate and Nakano Gate; Mt. Sankyo is visible from the South.
1e. Nagaimachi – Komachi Line: built on the Hokkoku Highway, it is the longest line, 754.7
meter, of the south-north bound; Mt. Geto in the North and Mt. Sankyo in the South are visible.
Both ends of the line are bent into Key shape, respectively connecting the South Outer Moat
Gate Line(4e) and North Outer Moat Gate Line(4f).

2. The Waterway built in Straight Line

These man-made Waterways, or Moats, were built with embankment for castle protection and
river improvement, extending in straight line for more than 200 meters. There are four cases as:
2a. Koishigaki Gate – Nakano Gate Moat Line: the Moat connecting Koishigaki Gate and
Nakano Gate faces Mt. Sankyo in the South. It is adjacent to, but not parallel with, 1d Line by
an error of 4.57°.
2b. Fukuro Gate – Akiba Gate Moat Line: It connects Fukuro Gate and Akiba Gate, about
91.1° perpendicular to Mt. Wahsigasu in the true East.
2c. Main Gate – Iino Gate Moat Line: It connects Main Gate and Inno Gate, facing Mt.
Sankyo in the South. It is parallel with the 1e Line by a small error of 0.78°.
2d. Main Gate Moat Line: It was built north to Main Gate, facing Mt. Takatori in the North,
being adjacent to 1e Line but sliding away by 2.71°. Also, the 2c Line, sliding away by 3.49°, is
connected within the territory of Main Gate, and the Moat at the Main Gate is hugely bended.

3. The Town Roads build as Side Street in Straight Line

It refers to the town road built along the side façade of town buildings; the center line of such
type of Side Street intersects the Straight Town Road along the front façade. There are three
cases of such Side Street.
3a. Akiba Gate Side Street Line runs from Akiba Gate toward Mt. Sankyo in the South. It
interests the 1b Line by 94.1° and the 1c Line by 85.7°, sliding away from the 90° angle by
more than 4°.
3b. Geto Gate Side Street Line starts from Geto Gate and runs towards Mt. Sankyo in the
South; it interests the 1c Line by 93.4° instead of 90° angle.
3c. Samurai District Side Street Line was built in the Samurai Residence outside of bailey
and runs towards Mt. Sankyo. It interests the main town road by 88.2°.

4. Key-typed Road
It refers to the short span Town Roads shorter than 100 meters, featured with its bent form in
key shape at the end of road, and there are eight cases of such types of Road Line.
4a. De-yagura Turret Line: the line was built on a historical Highway; Mt.Takatori in the
North and the De-yagura Turret of Mt. Gagyu in the south may be seen without hindrance.
4b. Yuki-yagura Turret Line: the line was also built on a historical Highway; Mt.Takatori
and theYuki-yagura Turret may be fully seen.
4c. Highway Line: the line was East to 4b Line, bending toward the East and facing
Mt.Nakadake.
4d. Wahsigasu-key-typed Line: unlike other lines which are bending almost in right angle,
this line changes direction only with the town street.
4e. South Outer Moat Gate Line: it connects 1e Line south, facing Mt.Sankyo
4f. North Outer Moat Gate Line: it connects 1e Line north, facing Mt.Geto.
4g. Temple District Line: the line connects Temple district and the territory/border of
merchant district, facing Mt.Geto.
gh. Gate Line: it links 4d Line and bends itself with the Highway in the north, Mt. Takatori is
fully visible over the gate.
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5. The Key-shaped Waterways

It refers to the short-spanned Waterways or Moats under 100 meters typically built with
bended form at either ends of the water.
5a. Moat Gate Line is the only example, it gets bended in the form of Gate and flows toward
the direction facing Mt.Washigasu.

6. The Sando in Shrine as Worshiping Path

The Sando in Shrine is the road built on the Axis that connects the Torii as its entrance and
the Main Hall. There are three cases:
6a. Fujimoto Shrine Line: from the Sando, Mt.Geto is visible in the North.
6b. Kawauchi Shrine Line: from the axis that links Torii and Main Hall, Mt. Geto is visible.
6c. Kannonji Temple Line: the axis of Kannonji Temple runs towards Mt.Geto.

Three major types of Yama-ate (Figure 3)

Basing upon the differentiations of the six kinds of Object Roads discussed above, three kinds
of Yama-ate may be classified from analyzing the relation between the shape of each Object
Mountain and the Roads in the periphery.

a) The Yama-ate facing the Mountaintop with precise, straight Axis

Following the patterns of Straight Town Roads and Straight Waterway built, each Object Road
that made the major framework of Castle Town is in long span and independent from other
Object Roads; e.g., axis for defense against evil spirit (Ghost Gate) and axis links the Castle
gate, the Southeast Axis of Highway. Disregarding the 1e Line, the axis of the Object Road in
the Vista towards Yama-ate has very small angles – from 0.035° to 0.716°; on the one hand, the
average internal angles of these three Mountain Lines facing the cone-shaped, visibly easy
Mt.Kokuzo, Mt.Washigasu, Mt.Takatori is 0.25°, which is accurate. On the other hand, the
average internal angle of those five visibly uneasy Mt.Sankyo, Mt.Geto, Mt.No-name is 0.50°,
which is a big deviation. Also, the internal angle of the 1a Line, from Donjon to the Ghost Gate
(of Northeast orientation) is -0.175°, a straight mountain line toward Yama-ate.
b) The Yama-ate facing the Mountaintop with adjusted Axis
The Axis of the Key-typed Road and the Key-shaped Waterways are twisted owing to the
bended part at the end of the line, and from the end of either road or waterway the mountaintop
and castle turret are visible. Also, the Straight Side Street that intersects the Straight Town
Roads fails the 90° right angle by the errors of 1.8°～4.1° and let the Mountaintops be visible.
And also, the Sando built on the Axis connecting Torii and the Shrine’s Main hall was adjusted
to let the Mountaintops be visible.
c) The Yama-ate facing the Mountaintop with sliding Axis
Although both Mt.Sankyo and Mt.Geto are visible from the 1e Line, the mountain lines have the
internal angles of 3.093°, 4.774° – the only Town Roads built in Straight Line that slides from
its Axis gravely. And yet although each Mountaintop is vanished from either ends of the 1e
Line, from both 4f Line and 4e Line that link the 1e Line, these Mountaintops of Mt.Sankyo and
Mt.Geto are visible.

Closing comment

Basing upon above, the specific features and characters of each Yama-ate in Murakami may be
concluded as the following three points:
First, each of the Object Roads that made the major framework of Castle Town are not
parallax to each other, and thus from each Vision Axis the Yama-ate can be recognizable and,
furthermore, since the Vision Axis is accurate, the mountain scenery is easily visible.
 289

Second, the Straight Side Streets and the Key-shaped Roads intersect the Main Town Roads
fails the 90° right angle, for the Vision Axis has to be adjusted in order to face the Mountaintop.
And, the Sando starting from the Torii and lining to the Main Hall must also be adjusted to face
the Mountaintop.
And third, the Visual Axis that is gravely slid from the Mountain Line, its Yama-ate offers
appearing and disappearing mountain views.

Figure3. Three major types of Yama-ate.

290

Between the Object Mountains and Murakami – culture aspects on Documentary

Literature

Although there are seven Object Mountains appearing in the respective Yama-ate, in this section
this research wishes to make manifest the significance that how the Object Mountain has any
relation with the local culture.

The Belief in Animism, Water God, Goblin or Water Sprite in Miomote-River Basin

Mt.Washigasu has been enshrined by Washinosu Gongen – literally the Gongen in the Eagle’s
Nest (and Gongen refers to the Buddha that appears as Kami, the Japanese deity in Shito) –
deified in Mountain cave some 1093 meter above sea level in the Satomiya Shrine that was
joined by Kawauchi Shrine in Nunobe, in which the Daimyōjin Kami is deified. The Kawauchi
Shrine has two divisional shrines: the Ichinomiya Shrine Miyanoshita and Ninomiya Shrine
Nunobe.3 The Nyorai Buddha of Medicine used to be deified in Ichinomiya Shrine, is now
deified in Mt.Takatori. The Nyorai Buddha of Medicine is also deified in the Nakadake Height
of Mt.Washigasu. 4 Since the middle age, the belief in Animism has deeply rooted and thus,
Kawauchi Shrine has been strongly associated with Water Deity, Goblin or Water Sprite in local
belief. And also, since the old days, “the people living in the basin of Miomote-River and its
tributary had very unusual relation with rivers and salmons,” 5 it was believed to be their
“Salmon Culture.” According to the history of Ichinomiya Shrine, worshipping the Water God –
Ishigami – whilst sailing along the rivers has been their tradition.” 6 From these cultural aspects,
the belief of Water Deities in Kawauchi Shrine, the Shinto ceremony in Miomote River and the
festivals inherited from the “Salmon Culture” become the culture heritage today.

Relation with Compass Direction of belief

The Mt.Kokuzo is located in Sarusawa of Murakami City, marked with its 463.0 meter above
sea level; the Bodhisattva of Kokuzo has been deified in the Mountaintop. The annual
ceremony, as written in the city history, section 3, of Murakami, has been carried out by every
village, “paying respect to Bodhisattva of Kokuzo, give a wish in the Spring and pray in the
Autumn with one-syo (1.5 kilogram) unhulled rice one village.” 7 The significance of
Bodhisattva of Kokuzo, as rooted in the Murakami region since the old days, is profound and
beautiful. Ox and Tiger, the second and the third in the twelve horary signs, respect Bodhisattva
of Kokuzo as the protector of the people born in the year of Ox and Tiger, yet the direction
where Kokuzo Bodhisattva exists is Northeast, and it is commonly believed that the Northeast
direction on compass is the Gate of Evil Ghosts. Therefore, the Katamati Gate that faces the
Northeast has built Koshindo to pray for protection from Bodhisattva of Kokuzo to guard the
people in the Murakami Castle Town.8 It is clear that the Koshindo Line was designed with
strong Buddhist consciousness to face Mt.Kokuzo, when the Castle town was planning.
In the painting “Senami Gun Ezu” 9, 2nd year of Keicho (1597), it showed that Mt.Washigasu
was noted as True East from Murakami. It is clear that the sense of sunrise direction is strong.

Land Boundary Orientation seen from the Sea

“The fishery spots of Miomote-River and Senami are ‘where Mt.Washigasu seems to be
visible.’”10
Also, the methods to use Yama-tate (not Yama-ate), Mountain as location reference to verify
the reefs and half-sunken rocks, the mountain saddle of Mt.Nakadake has been used for
references for sailing direction.11
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The Location Relation between Castle and Tomb

As noted in Ethnical History of Murakami Region, II, “Mt.Sankyo may be the places for public
tombs” In fact, the place that was used as burying ground was called “Sanmai” 12(a word in Zen,
synonymous with Nehan: Nirvana, or Gedatsu: emancipation) in the history of Murakami, and
the fact that temple and communities were formed around the foothill of Mt. Sankyo, and the
story that Naito Nobuteru, the feudal Lord, was cremated in Ushizawa, the east point of Mt.
Sankyo, were all written in the history of Murakami and became clear in this research.13
Also, the Getogashima Castle, the sister castle of Murakami Castle in Mt.Geto, was built in
the middle age; it was written in the painting “Senami Gun Ezu” and became clear.14

Conclusion

This research concerns itself with the actual conditions of Yama-ate – and with the interrelation
between these issues and the issues of Road and Moat; this research, employing the
mathematical analyses of GIS in field inspection for unbiased, objective results, tries to make
the actual conditions of these issues become manifest.
In doing so, this research pinpoints Yama-ate as the major theme and tries to classify
different Object Roads into six categories from their differences in feature and shape, bringing
up 1) the Main Town Roads built in Straight Line, 2) the Waterways built in Straight Line, 3)
the Town Roads build as Side Street in Straight Line, 4) the Key-typed Road, 5) the Key-shaped
Waterways, 6) the Sando in Shrine as Worshiping Path.
Yet, basing on the results obtained from analyzing the numerical data and the types of Object
Roads, the Yama-ate of Murakami has three characters: 1) as the major framework of Object
Road, it holds a specific Visual Axis, 2) as the right-angle intersection of the periphery roads get
twisted, the Vision Axis is adjusted to face the Mountaintop, and 3) as the Vision Axis slides
sharply, the appearance of Mountaintop become vague and unpredictable.
Lastly, this research, concerning the Object Mountains verified by Yama-ate, believe in,
also, the necessity to make these Object Mountains manifest by searching their historical
literature, poetically. Thus, there are four points worth of our attention: 1) the belief of Water
God in terms of Animism in Miomote River, 2) Compass Direction of belief: the design
motivation of the Yama-ate that faces Mt. Kokuzo, in particular, is of Buddhist consciousness –
defensing against the evil spirits coming from the Ghost Gate in the Northeast compass
direction. 3) The location and boundary as seen from the sea, and 4) the distribution of ancient
tombs and castle.
These four points are culturally relevant to Mountains and Murakami as a whole; and the
historical, cultural and religious aspects of their environments are inseparable from their life on
a day-to-day base.

Notes
1. Murakami City Board of Education. (1998) Basic Plans: the Historical Remain Restoration of
Murakami Castle , Niigata, Murakami City Board of Education, p.54
2. Ibid., p.3
3. Murakami City.(1990) Ethnical History of Murakami Region, II, Niigata, Murakami City, p.283
4. Ibid., p.290
5. Ibid., p.337
6. Ibid., p.288
7. Murakami City Board of Education. (1987) History of Murakami Region Editing Sources, III, Niigata,
Editing Office in Murakami City Board of Education, p.51
8. Murakami City. (1990) Ethnical History of Murakami Region, II, Niigata, Murakami City, p.325
9. Murakami City. (2000) History of Murakami Region, another composition drawing/map/chronology,
Niigata, Murakami City, p.26
292

10. Murakami City Board of Education. (1985) History of Murakami Region Editing Sources, I, Niigata,
Editing Office in Murakami City Board of Education, p.40
11. Murakami City. (1989) Ethnical History of Murakami Region, I, Niigata, Murakami City, p.494
12. Murakami City. (1999) Overview History of Murakami, II, modern history, Niigata, Murakami City,
p.246
13. Ibid., p.246
14. Murakami City. (2000) History of Murakami Region, another composition drawing/map/chronology,
Niigata, Murakami City, p.25

References

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Shigeru, S. (1997) Reading Urban Design in Castle Town, Discover the Machidukuri Method in Castle
Town. Zoukei, Tokyo: 12, 135-158.
Shigeru, S. (1998) Urban Design and Change in Japanese Castle Towns, BUILT ENVIRONMENT,
London: 24-4, pp.217-234.
Katamu, A. and Mitsuyoshi, T. (1991) ‘Shimadu Han Niokeru Humoto Syuraku Ni Kansuru Kenkyu’
Kagoshima Daigaku Kougakubu Kenkyuhoukoku, Tokyo: 33, pp209-238.
Takashi, T. (2008) Kinsei Joukamachi No Sekkei Gihou, Gihoudosyuppan, Tokyo.
Shinjiro, K. (1971) Tensho/ Keicho/ Kanei Ki Edo Shigaichi Kensetsu Ni Okeru Keikan Sekkei, Toshi
Kenkyu Houkokusho, Tokyo: 24, 1-22.
Shinjiro, K. (1976) Edo No Design, Kenchikuzasshi, Tokyo: 91, pp.1235-1236.
Shinjiro, K. (1972) Keicho/ Kanei Ki Sunpu Ni Okeru Toshi Keikan Sekkei Oyobi Edo Keikaku Tono
Kanren, Toshi Kenkyu Houkokusho, Tokyo: 28, 1-31.
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Chngqi, Z. and Shigeru, S. (2010) ‘The Description Of Town-Scape Structure Using "Keirou" ’ Nihon
Kenchiku Gakkai Keikakukei Ronbunshu, Tokyo: 632, pp.2165-2172.
Akihiko, H. (2007) Obstacles of Yama-Ate Vistas in the Old Castle Town Area of Karatsu City, City
planning review. Special issue, Papers on city planning, Tokyo: 42(3), pp.43-48.
Kenji, T. (2011) Analysis of alignment to Mt. Tsukuba through Crofton's theorems, Papers on city
planning Tokyo: 46(3), pp.379-384.
 293

Measuring Urban Canyons with real-time light based Sky

View Factor Modelling

Marcus White, Nano Langenheim

Faculty of Architecture, Building and Planning, The University of Melbourne,
VIC3010, Australia. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract. Many Australian cities are currently experiencing rapid urbanisation and densification with
the unintended consequence of creating dense city fabric with deep urban canyons. Dense urban areas
have a profound impact on the local atmospheric conditions in particular, the urban heat island (UHI)
which can increase temperatures within urban centres considerably when compared to surrounding rural
areas. As Australian cities are presently experience record heat waves with temperatures in excess of 40
degrees Celsius for five consecutive days, there is a critical need to better understand urban form and
heat retention in city centres – urban heat island effect (UHI) and the associated heat related morbidity.
This paper describes the development of a new three-dimensional analysis approach based on a modified
daylight modelling system to improve an established method of UHI prediction – sky view factor (SVF). A
rapid SVF is calculated in a digital modelling and visualisation environment allowing iterative design
decision making informed by UHI and SVF impacts on an urban design scale. The new technique
provides ‘real-time’ SVF feedback for of complex three-dimensional urban scenarios enabling city
designers to have a greater understanding of existing and proposed urban forms and identifying potential
UHI problem areas; improve decision making, community engagement and design advocacy; potentially
have an impact on city’s temperature – reducing cooling energy load costs; and more importantly,
potentially reduce heat related mortality.

Key Words: Sky view factor, urban heat island, urban canyon, urban modelling, liveability.

Introduction

Densification / urbanisation

Many Australian cities are experiencing rapid urbanisation densification (DOI 2012). Though
there is a greater understanding of the relationship between densification, transport, and
sustainability (Beatley et al. 2009; Newman & Kenworthy 1999), there is also great pressure to
accommodate higher population densities in established, well serviced, inner urban areas
(Dodson & Sipe 2008) often in the form of high-rise developments. These forms of
development may be more sustainable environmentally (Newman 2006) and financially
(O’Hara 1997) but may also have the unintended consequence of creating a denser urban fabric
with deep, heat retaining urban canyons.

Heat waves and heat related mortality

Dense urban areas have a profound impact on the local atmospheric conditions in particular, the
urban heat island (UHI) which can increase temperatures within urban centres considerably
when compared to surrounding rural areas (Basara et al. 2010; Mills 2004; Oke 1988; Oke
1981). This heat retention in urban centres has been understood and documented since the late
1960s (Bornstein 1968).
Heatwaves are among the deadliest of natural disaster types (Li & Bou-Zeid 2013). The 2003
death toll in the European heat wave of summer 2003, probably the hottest in Europe since AD
1500, resulted in around 70,000 heat related mortalities (Lass et al. 2013).
294

Australian cities are particularly susceptible to impacts of climate change with increasing
extreme weather events such as heat waves (Patz et al. 2005). Heat waves are likely to increase
in frequency, intensity and duration as a consequence of climate change (Akompab et al. 2013).
According to Victoria’s Chief Health Officer Dr John Carnie, the 2009 January heatwave
resulted in around double the number of fatalities than attributed to the tragic Black Saturday
bushfires (Victoria 2010).
As Australian cities are presently experiencing record heat waves with temperatures in
excess of 40 degrees Celsius for five consecutive days this year; last year being the hottest on
record (BOM 2013), there is a critical need to better understand urban form and heat retention in
city centres – urban heat island effect (UHI) and the associated heat related morbidity. The level
of seriousness with which this issue is now taken is evidenced by the City of Melbourne’s
Urban Forestry Strategy document (Melbourne 2012).

The urban heat island (UHI)

Urban and suburban areas experience elevated temperatures compared to their outlying rural
surroundings; this difference in temperature is what constitutes an UHI (Wong & Hogen 2011).
Temperature differences between central urban areas and nearby rural areas can range from 2°C
to as much as 12°C on a clear and calm night (Wong & Hogen 2011).
The UHI effect can intensify extreme climatic events (Patz et al. 2005) and has been found to
be a major contributing factor to heat-related mortality in urban regions, acting to worsen the
adverse health effects from exposure to extreme thermal conditions (Luber & McGeehin 2008;
Tan et al. 2010). For this reason, along expected extreme weather conditions of climate change,
UHI is a key consideration in the design for the growth of cities in the future.

The UHI and urban canyon modelling using sky view factor (SVF)

The modelling of UHI is extremely complex (Shao et al. 2011) with a great number of variables
such as wind, material colour, street orientation, tree coverage, permeability of ground surfaces
and building heights in relation to street width or “urban canyon”(Oke 1988).
The urban canyon, considered by some to be the most important contributing factor (Ibrahim
et al. 2011) to the UHI effect, is the focus of this paper. The urban canyon is where, in dense
urban environments, buildings on each side of a street enclose a space obscuring the sky and
therefore restricting the amount of long-wave radiation that can escape, a phenomenon
particularly acute at night (Wong & Hogen 2011). The measure of the degree to which the sky is
obscured at a given point is commonly calculated as either Height to Width ratio (H/W) or as
Sky View Factor (SVF) (Watson and Johnson, 1987). SVF has been found to be a more
effective measure as it can take into account the complexity of real streets in which buildings
are irregularly aligned and which vary in height and length (Johnson & Watson 1984).
SVF is a dimensionless measurement of openness between 0 and 1, representing totally
obscured Ψsky=0 and totally open spaces Ψsky=1 where the sky is completely unobstructed by
obstacles allowing all outgoing radiation to radiate freely to the sky (Figure ) (Brown et al.
2001).
SVF as a method for modelling has been shown to have a strong correlation with UHI
(Brandsma & Wolters 2012; Ewenz et al. n.d.; Kakon & Nobuo 2009; Unger 2009) and is
critical to understanding the impact of densification and urban form.
 295

Figure 1. “Urban canyon” or sky view factor calculated for a single point using projected
rays through the single point and surrounding building form, intersecting with a
hemisphere to assess level of ‘openness to the sky’.

Modelling SVF

SVF has traditionally been very difficult to measure (Grimmond et al. 2001). There are however
several methods for modelling and assessing SVF. Unger (2009) lists five common modelling
methods as:
1. scale model (Oke 1981);
2. analytical method (angle measurements, H/W),(Bottyan & Unger 2003; Johnson 1985;
Johnson & Watson 1984);
3. manual and computer evaluation of fisheye photos (Blankenstein & Kuttler 2004; Bradley et
al. 2001; Holmer et al. 2001);
4. evaluation using GPS signals (Chapman & Thornes 2004);
5. and computationally evaluation using digital elevation database describing surface geometric
elements (Brown et al. 2001; Lindberg 2005; Souza et al. 2003). There are also developments
on this method of generating SVF with the use of Lidar aerial mapping with raster based
three-dimensionalisation of two-dimensional data using Digital Elevation Models in GIS
(Kokalj et al. 2011).
In addition to these methods, tools used in forestry to measure leaf area index such as the LAI
2000 have been suggested (Grimmond et al. 2001). There are also relatively recent
microclimatic modellers such as SOLWEIG and Envi-Met which can be used to analyse a low
detail street canyon to a resolution of 0.5 m (Levermore & Cheung 2012).
Each of these methods has been shown to have a reasonable level of accuracy, but vary
greatly in speed of application and ability to test and assess complex three dimensional ‘what if’
scenarios.
Scale models involve a lot of manual labour in assembly and fish-eye photography, though
very accurate, are extremely time consuming to acquire and process even with greatly improved
software (Brown et al. 2001) and is limited to assessing specific points of interest in an existing
urban context.
The “analytical measurement” angle measurement or “height/width” method of assessment
is problematic as described above, as it is a purely two dimensional sectional method, not taking
into account the complexities of a real street where a section may change dramatically along its
length.
Other digital modelling methods such as those described by Brown, Grimmond and Ratti
(2001) can be applied and computed more rapidly to a resolution of a 2x2 metre grid, though
restricted to using Digital Elevation Models which are essentially two dimensional with a height
attribute (2.5D), meaning that they cannot assess more complex three dimensional urban forms
such as where a street has weather protecting canopies at lower levels or has elements of
buildings that may cantilever or protrude from a building at an upper level.
296

Where fully three dimensional GIS models have been assessed using hundreds of rays
projected from a series of points (Chen et al. 2012; Kastendeuch 2013; Kidd & Chapman 2012)
it has been computationally intensive – requiring powerful hardware taking up to 10 hours to
assess a precinct (Gal et al. 2009; Unger 2009).

Aim

The aim of this investigation is to develop and test a new three-dimensional analysis approach
for SVF that provides rapid visual and numeric feedback in a 3D modelling and visualisation
environment. The method is required to allow iterative urban design decision making informed
by UHI and SVF impacts on an urban design scale.

Method

The method we have used to develop and test this rapid three-dimensional SVF analysis
technique involved four parts. Firstly we ‘hacked’ common animation and visualisation
software’s daylight modelling system to create a ‘sky dome light’; secondly we reconfigured a
3D software based lux level light meter grid so that the maximum light level value was equal to
1 and the minimum value equal to 0 to match the SVF metric; thirdly we verified the readings of
the SVF modelling against a simple mesh area mathematical based? model; and finally, we
tested the tool’s applicability at a large urban scale – applying the tool to the Melbourne central
activity district using relatively low-end computer hardware.

Results

‘Hacked’ photometric daylight system modelling - sky-dome light

Instead of starting with the point of interest and projecting rays outwards to intersect with
surrounding geometry and then a hemisphere beyond (Unger 2009), the logic was reversed –
rays start on the surface of a hemisphere and are projected inward to the point of interest. To
achieve this model, we use a hemispherical light source – a “sky-dome” or “Skylight
Illumination” which projects and traces photons (light) from the globe towards the point of
interest. Where no obstacles are present (eg. in a desert), 100% of light of the sky-dome
illuminates the point of interest – the equivalent of Ψsky=0. Where photons are blocked by
obstacles (buildings), shadowing occurs and SVF is reduced to <1. This process was done using
the render engine within common modelling, animation and visualisation software (in this case
we used Mental Ray render engine within Autodesk 3dsMax™) which is able to trace millions
of photons (Grosch 2005), a process normally used to produce photo-realistic rendering of
digital 3D objects and scenes.
To achieve the sky-dome as light source to model SVF, we reconfigured the standard
photometric daylight modelling system. The standard day lighting system would normally
consist of a direct light source from the sun, global illumination from the sky (intensity derived
from weather data) and indirect/ambient light bounced from other objects in the scene. Our
method modified the settings to set the intensity of the sun to zero (no direct light from the sun
as though the sun was turned off), set an artificial uniform low intensity light from the sky
(dome), and set the number of bounces of photons possible to zero (light is not reflected by any
object within the scene). With this ‘hacked’ sun system setup, surface areas of the model that
received full global illumination (full 180deg of light from the hemisphere) appeared white
(Ψsky=1) when rendered. Where the surface is in shadow it appeared as a shade of grey
depending on the amount of shadowing of the sky-light by other objects or black where it
receives no light (Ψsky=0) when rendered.
 297

Figure 2. LHS diagram showing common method for calculating SVF using rays from a
central point. RHS diagram showing reversal of logic, rays starting at surface of dome
projecting inwards towards central point.

Figure 3. Sequence of test screen grabs of four boxes (buildings) with height parameter
changed – the higher the boxes, the darker the shadowing and lower the SVF level.

‘Real time feedback’ with interactive geometry

This method of testing SVF has had rapid results using the built in Mental Ray™ render engine.
SVF for complex urban scenes including buildings, streets, street furniture, canopies etc. were
rendered in as little as a few seconds depending on the size and complexity of the geometry.
Relatively recent improvements in quality of viewport previews of materials, lighting and
shadows within the view ports with the Nitrous™ viewport drivers (Murdock 2012) meant that
this SVF modelling method was able to be employed in the modelling environment with
real-time visual feedback (or close to real time depending on the quality of computer’s graphics
card). Viewport display modes could also be configured in such a way as to display a model’s
SVF ‘shadows’ as a kind of ‘heat map’ meaning that as an urban modelling parameter such as
height limit is changed in the model, the impact can be instantly assessed visually.
298

Figure 4. Test screen grab 1 showing an indicative area of tower development with
adjacent low level urban form with levels of SVF on the RHS. Note: tops of buildings and
open areas are red/orange (high SVF) and areas between towers are green (low SVF).

Figure 5. Test screen grab 2 showing an indicative area of tower development with
adjacent medium level urban form with levels of SVF on the RHS. Note: slight increase in
areas of green (low SVF).

Figure 6. Test screen grab 3 showing an indicative area of tower development with
adjacent high level urban form with levels of SVF on the RHS. Note: High coverage of
green colour equating to very low levels of SVF.

Lux metre reconfigured so maximum = 1, minimum = 0

In addition to on screen visual feedback and being able to render to a high resolution raster
image file (.jpg, .tif, .tga etc.), we also set up the model to use an adapted light meter grid
utilising the program’s advanced light meter calculation system (Reinhart & Breton 2009). The
 299

light meters were configured to measure the total amount of sky-dome light hitting each point –
giving a numeric SVF value (from Ψsky=0 to 1). This value could be exported to a .CSV file
and opened in Microsoft Excel™ (or similar spread sheet program) for further data analysis or
quantifiable comparisons of design options.

Figure 7. Screen grab showing grid of lux metres configured to read SVF levels for a large
urban precinct.

Figure 8. Screen grab showing grid of SVF readings suitable for export to spreadsheet
data analysis software.
0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.69 Ψ 0.71 Ψ 0.50 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.80 Ψ 0.87 Ψ 0.90 Ψ 0.92 Ψ 0.90 Ψ

0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.63 Ψ 0.66 Ψ 0.45 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.78 Ψ 0.85 Ψ 0.88 Ψ 0.89 Ψ 0.89 Ψ

0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.56 Ψ 0.60 Ψ 0.40 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.78 Ψ 0.85 Ψ 0.88 Ψ 0.89 Ψ 0.87 Ψ

0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.51 Ψ 0.54 Ψ 0.31 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.73 Ψ 0.85 Ψ 0.89 Ψ 0.88 Ψ 0.85 Ψ

0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.50 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.77 Ψ 0.83 Ψ 0.86 Ψ 0.88 Ψ 0.84 Ψ

0.68 Ψ 0.60 Ψ 0.49 Ψ 0.45 Ψ 0.43 Ψ 0.44 Ψ 0.44 Ψ 0.41 Ψ 0.42 Ψ 0.42 Ψ 0.45 Ψ 0.44 Ψ 0.55 Ψ 0.55 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.34 Ψ 0.38 Ψ 0.40 Ψ 0.42 Ψ 0.43 Ψ 0.45 Ψ 0.60 Ψ 0.78 Ψ 0.84 Ψ 0.84 Ψ 0.86 Ψ 0.83 Ψ

0.70 Ψ 0.63 Ψ 0.56 Ψ 0.52 Ψ 0.49 Ψ 0.47 Ψ 0.48 Ψ 0.50 Ψ 0.48 Ψ 0.48 Ψ 0.50 Ψ 0.52 Ψ 0.62 Ψ 0.58 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.45 Ψ 0.43 Ψ 0.43 Ψ 0.45 Ψ 0.47 Ψ 0.53 Ψ 0.67 Ψ 0.77 Ψ 0.82 Ψ 0.84 Ψ 0.85 Ψ 0.85 Ψ

0.65 Ψ 0.52 Ψ 0.52 Ψ 0.47 Ψ 0.45 Ψ 0.40 Ψ 0.47 Ψ 0.50 Ψ 0.44 Ψ 0.44 Ψ 0.44 Ψ 0.45 Ψ 0.61 Ψ 0.64 Ψ 0.59 Ψ 0.53 Ψ 0.53 Ψ 0.50 Ψ 0.50 Ψ 0.48 Ψ 0.50 Ψ 0.51 Ψ 0.39 Ψ 0.38 Ψ 0.40 Ψ 0.42 Ψ 0.48 Ψ 0.62 Ψ 0.74 Ψ 0.79 Ψ 0.83 Ψ 0.85 Ψ 0.82 Ψ

0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.60 Ψ 0.66 Ψ 0.62 Ψ 0.61 Ψ 0.58 Ψ 0.58 Ψ 0.59 Ψ 0.54 Ψ 0.40 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.72 Ψ 0.78 Ψ 0.82 Ψ 0.83 Ψ 0.81 Ψ

0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.60 Ψ 0.68 Ψ 0.66 Ψ 0.65 Ψ 0.65 Ψ 0.64 Ψ 0.62 Ψ 0.58 Ψ 0.43 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.68 Ψ 0.78 Ψ 0.80 Ψ 0.82 Ψ 0.77 Ψ

0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.62 Ψ 0.69 Ψ 0.69 Ψ 0.70 Ψ 0.68 Ψ 0.65 Ψ 0.65 Ψ 0.60 Ψ 0.45 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.67 Ψ 0.75 Ψ 0.81 Ψ 0.81 Ψ 0.77 Ψ

0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.63 Ψ 0.70 Ψ 0.71 Ψ 0.72 Ψ 0.72 Ψ 0.70 Ψ 0.66 Ψ 0.62 Ψ 0.49 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.68 Ψ 0.75 Ψ 0.80 Ψ 0.81 Ψ 0.77 Ψ

0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.64 Ψ 0.71 Ψ 0.74 Ψ 0.74 Ψ 0.73 Ψ 0.73 Ψ 0.68 Ψ 0.63 Ψ 0.47 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.69 Ψ 0.78 Ψ 0.80 Ψ 0.81 Ψ 0.76 Ψ

0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.62 Ψ 0.70 Ψ 0.74 Ψ 0.76 Ψ 0.75 Ψ 0.72 Ψ 0.70 Ψ 0.64 Ψ 0.51 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.71 Ψ 0.78 Ψ 0.80 Ψ 0.81 Ψ 0.77 Ψ

0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.65 Ψ 0.72 Ψ 0.77 Ψ 0.78 Ψ 0.77 Ψ 0.75 Ψ 0.70 Ψ 0.63 Ψ 0.52 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.69 Ψ 0.80 Ψ 0.80 Ψ 0.78 Ψ 0.74 Ψ

0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.65 Ψ 0.72 Ψ 0.77 Ψ 0.78 Ψ 0.76 Ψ 0.76 Ψ 0.73 Ψ 0.63 Ψ 0.51 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.72 Ψ 0.80 Ψ 0.81 Ψ 0.78 Ψ 0.72 Ψ

0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.66 Ψ 0.73 Ψ 0.78 Ψ 0.80 Ψ 0.78 Ψ 0.77 Ψ 0.74 Ψ 0.67 Ψ 0.53 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.76 Ψ 0.81 Ψ 0.81 Ψ 0.79 Ψ 0.73 Ψ

0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.65 Ψ 0.73 Ψ 0.77 Ψ 0.80 Ψ 0.80 Ψ 0.78 Ψ 0.73 Ψ 0.67 Ψ 0.53 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.78 Ψ 0.80 Ψ 0.82 Ψ 0.80 Ψ 0.72 Ψ

0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.65 Ψ 0.73 Ψ 0.78 Ψ 0.79 Ψ 0.82 Ψ 0.79 Ψ 0.76 Ψ 0.68 Ψ 0.54 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.75 Ψ 0.79 Ψ 0.80 Ψ 0.81 Ψ 0.73 Ψ

0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.66 Ψ 0.73 Ψ 0.79 Ψ 0.80 Ψ 0.81 Ψ 0.80 Ψ 0.77 Ψ 0.70 Ψ 0.52 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.75 Ψ 0.79 Ψ 0.83 Ψ 0.83 Ψ 0.81 Ψ

0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.67 Ψ 0.73 Ψ 0.80 Ψ 0.80 Ψ 0.79 Ψ 0.79 Ψ 0.77 Ψ 0.70 Ψ 0.53 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.69 Ψ 0.79 Ψ 0.82 Ψ 0.83 Ψ 0.82 Ψ

0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.68 Ψ 0.73 Ψ 0.78 Ψ 0.79 Ψ 0.81 Ψ 0.79 Ψ 0.78 Ψ 0.69 Ψ 0.51 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.71 Ψ 0.78 Ψ 0.82 Ψ 0.83 Ψ 0.81 Ψ

0.62 Ψ 0.52 Ψ 0.55 Ψ 0.52 Ψ 0.46 Ψ 0.45 Ψ 0.41 Ψ 0.42 Ψ 0.40 Ψ 0.42 Ψ 0.42 Ψ 0.45 Ψ 0.64 Ψ 0.73 Ψ 0.76 Ψ 0.79 Ψ 0.77 Ψ 0.76 Ψ 0.77 Ψ 0.75 Ψ 0.73 Ψ 0.63 Ψ 0.49 Ψ 0.47 Ψ 0.48 Ψ 0.50 Ψ 0.51 Ψ 0.64 Ψ 0.77 Ψ 0.82 Ψ 0.84 Ψ 0.83 Ψ 0.82 Ψ

0.72 Ψ 0.63 Ψ 0.60 Ψ 0.60 Ψ 0.56 Ψ 0.52 Ψ 0.48 Ψ 0.47 Ψ 0.47 Ψ 0.47 Ψ 0.47 Ψ 0.52 Ψ 0.64 Ψ 0.70 Ψ 0.74 Ψ 0.74 Ψ 0.71 Ψ 0.72 Ψ 0.70 Ψ 0.70 Ψ 0.69 Ψ 0.67 Ψ 0.62 Ψ 0.59 Ψ 0.62 Ψ 0.65 Ψ 0.64 Ψ 0.73 Ψ 0.81 Ψ 0.83 Ψ 0.84 Ψ 0.84 Ψ 0.82 Ψ

0.66 Ψ 0.54 Ψ 0.55 Ψ 0.56 Ψ 0.54 Ψ 0.51 Ψ 0.47 Ψ 0.43 Ψ 0.45 Ψ 0.43 Ψ 0.46 Ψ 0.47 Ψ 0.63 Ψ 0.69 Ψ 0.70 Ψ 0.68 Ψ 0.59 Ψ 0.60 Ψ 0.62 Ψ 0.63 Ψ 0.62 Ψ 0.59 Ψ 0.58 Ψ 0.56 Ψ 0.62 Ψ 0.62 Ψ 0.59 Ψ 0.69 Ψ 0.79 Ψ 0.83 Ψ 0.84 Ψ 0.81 Ψ 0.80 Ψ

0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.62 Ψ 0.65 Ψ 0.46 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.75 Ψ 0.81 Ψ 0.83 Ψ 0.80 Ψ 0.76 Ψ

0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.59 Ψ 0.59 Ψ 0.44 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.70 Ψ 0.80 Ψ 0.80 Ψ 0.78 Ψ 0.72 Ψ

0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.55 Ψ 0.55 Ψ 0.45 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.70 Ψ 0.79 Ψ 0.80 Ψ 0.78 Ψ 0.74 Ψ

0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.55 Ψ 0.54 Ψ 0.43 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.68 Ψ 0.77 Ψ 0.79 Ψ 0.78 Ψ 0.73 Ψ

0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.56 Ψ 0.56 Ψ 0.45 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.66 Ψ 0.74 Ψ 0.78 Ψ 0.75 Ψ 0.73 Ψ

0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.59 Ψ 0.61 Ψ 0.46 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.64 Ψ 0.74 Ψ 0.76 Ψ 0.77 Ψ 0.73 Ψ

0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.63 Ψ 0.62 Ψ 0.49 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.67 Ψ 0.73 Ψ 0.76 Ψ 0.77 Ψ 0.74 Ψ

0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.68 Ψ 0.66 Ψ 0.51 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.00 Ψ 0.68 Ψ 0.76 Ψ 0.79 Ψ 0.79 Ψ 0.71 Ψ

Figure 9. Exported data grid of SVF readings in spreadsheet format. Note that inside
buildings, SVF = 0 (this is due to windows and internal walls not being modelled in the test
scene.
300

Verification using mesh dome % test

To verify the accuracy of the sky view factor metres (reconfigured lux meters), we modelled a
series of large mesh domes, each with a 300m radius. Each of these domes was then altered to
remove portions of the polygon mesh to a known area percentage – beginning with 50% (Figur).
We activated the SVF meter and the resulting SVF readings were each within ± 0.01 of the
expected 0.50Ψ reading (0.51, 0.50 and 0.51 shown in Figur).
We performed the final test with a more complex 3D mesh with a simulated skyline to either
retain or remove the dome’s polygons. The area of the full dome was measured and compared
with the modified skyline dome area. The area comparison showed that 34% of the polygons of
the mesh dome retained, thus that the SVF meter should result in a SVF=0.66Ψ. In this case the
reading was within ± 0.03. This was seen as an acceptable range of error for urban scaled
modelling and though a higher degree of accuracy would be possible by increasing the number
of photons or the quality of the rendering by increasing the density of light photons, we believed
this was not worth the potential sacrifice in speed of feedback.

Figure 10. 3D mesh dome with 50% of the polygon mesh removed. Each of these domes
should block 50% of the sky and thus result in a SVF=0.5Ψ. The SVF reading for these
three tests were within ± 0.01.

Figure 11. LHS showing full dome with surface area calculation. RHS shows simulated sky
line with area measured for comparison to full dome, then compared with SVF meter (in
the central point of the dome) resulting in a reading within ± 0.03.
 301

Validation – testing on Melbourne central activity district

To test the applicability of the tool at a large scale, we conducted a quick test using a 3D model
of Melbourne’s central activity district. The 3D model was a mix of modelling done in
Trimble’s Sketchup™ Autodesk’s AutoCAD™ and 3DS Max™. The application of the tool
was relatively straight forward requiring the different components of the central activity district
3D model to be imported/merged into the preconfigured SVF scene. We then activated the SVF
viewport and within 15 seconds a comparative SVF was visible.
The resulting viewport display gave a clear indication of the levels of SVF in different areas
of the city at street level with areas that experience low levels of SVF displayed. The other
aspect that was interesting is the 3D aerial view the model not only showed what the SVF was at
ground level, but also gave an indication of the SVF for sides of buildings indicating where
walls were visually shadowed by other tall buildings. This means that areas of building façade
could also be assessed for SVF.
The analysis shown in Figure and Figure was performed on a relatively low-end, two year
old HP Pavilion dv6-6138TX laptop with a 2 GHz Intel Core i7-2630QM processor, 8 GB Ram
and an ATI Radeon HD 6770M (2 GB GDDR5) graphics card. We then tested the same model
on a 2013 model Metabox (Clevo) laptop with an Intel Haswell 4 i7-4940MX 3.10GHz 32GB
1600MHZ DDR3 Memory NVIDIA GeForce Go GTX 880M 8GB (higher performance
graphics card and more ram) which resulted in instantaneous visual feedback – essentially ‘real-
time’ as changes in the geometry were reflected in the SVF display within one or two seconds.

Figure 12. Aerial view of SVF tool applied to 3D mesh model of Melbourne CBD – plan
view. Note the areas in green have low levels of SVF.

Figure 13. Plan view of SVF tool applied to 3D mesh model of Melbourne CBD. Note the
areas in green have low levels of SVF.
302

Discussion

Speed and accuracy

The speed of feedback for this method was exceptionally fast. Though the visual feedback was
dependent on the quality of the computer’s graphics card and ram. A relatively low end laptop
could produce visual feedback within a few seconds even for fairly large complex areas of city.
The lux meter readings were also calculated in less than 30 seconds. The more powerful
hardware yielded even more impressive results.
The level of accuracy was found to be very good when assessing a series of known SVF area of
a ‘sliced dome’ with a maximum error of ± 0.03. This level of comparison with the Brown et al
study mentioned earlier (2001) which, when comparing the digital model to photographic
analysis where results were ‘very satisfactory, with average values of 0.63 and 0.70
respectively’.

3D Complexity and feedback

The method described has the potential benefits of being truly three-dimensional, allowing SVF
analysis of complex urban scenarios allowing urban designers to have a greater understanding
of existing city forms and identifying potential UHI problem areas. The method also has the
potential of providing almost real-time feedback allowing the SVF analysis to be integrated into
a design process as well as have a role in design advocacy used in community engagement.
Using this analysis method, urban designers can test the potential impacts of urban additions or
subtractions as well as the impact of complex forms of urbanism including cantilevering
buildings, stepped building forms, buildings with holes or ‘cut outs’.
The rapid SVF feedback also potentially has application beyond UHI modelling. Because of
the three dimensional nature of the model – the SVF for building façades can also be assessed.
There is potential to investigate the relationship building façade SVF and quality of views from
buildings – how much sky can I see from each apartment?

Potential impact

We have shown this research to be potentially useful in Melbourne, Australia, but the method
also has great potential for application in many other cities around the world, particular rapidly
developing cities in Asia where UHI effect is believed to have an even greater impact on heat
wave related mortality rates (Tan et al. 2010).

Conclusion

The new technique provides ‘real-time’ SVF feedback for of complex three-dimensional urban
scenarios enabling city designers to have a greater understanding of existing and proposed urban
forms and identifying potential UHI problem areas; improve decision making, community
engagement and design advocacy; potentially have an impact on city’s temperature – reducing
cooling energy load costs; and more importantly, potentially reduce heat related mortality.

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predictors of risk perception and adaptive behaviours in Adelaide, Australia. International journal of
environmental research and public health, 10(6), pp.2164–2184.
 303

Basara, J.B. et al., 2010. The impact of the urban heat island during an intense heat wave in Oklahoma
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 305

An approach on describing the street skyline: a framework

for identifying streets spatial significant lines

Hao Yang
School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Nanjing University
Hankou Road 22, Nanjing, Jiangsu, P. R. China, 210093. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. In urban morphology, researchers have developed many methods on describing the
characteristics of urban street patterns. However, a simplified representation of urban texture in just two-
dimensions, which does not take into account the dimensional property of streets elevation(later referred
to as `metric'), therefore, the topological representation of cities discards precious metric information and
is rather limiting. Some researchers has attempt to add the information about the street skyline to study
the street configuration. However, when preparing an street skyline for this method, several critical
decisions must be made about which street skyline features should be included in the representation and
why. Therefore, the present paper draws on postpositivist reasoning to propose a framework for deciding
which lines in an street representation are significant for a study and why. The framework contains
several levels of representation that are defined and mapped against comparable research agendas. These
levels are described and demonstrated using an street skyline from 6 blocks which contains 2 resident
blocks, 2 public blocks and 2 mix-use blocks in urban area of Nanjing,China.
At last, the research choose the Shape index Compactness Ratio(CR) as the indicator for analysis. The
results of the Compactness Ratio (CR) analysis of different representations of the street skyline are used to
demonstrate how decisions about significant lines have a direct impact on measures derived from CR
analysis. By using different layers to expression the spatial significant lines, we can interpretation the
average and properties of block.

KeyWords: Street skyline, framework, compactness ratio, segment.

Introduction

Spatial orientation is a pervasive facet of our everyday life and in spite of over a hundred years
of systematic work on space perception researchers could say little about how we knew where
in the world we are.(Robert Cohen,2006)
Since 1960s, researchers has been pay their attention to the feelings and attend to indifying
the signifificant features in streetscape (Kevin Lynch 1960. Jane Jacobs 1961 , Arthur and
Stamps III 1997 1999 2005, Sergio Porta 2005).There has various of method been presented to
indify the skyline or the features of streetscape(Jon copper 2003, Michael J. Ostwald
2005,Stephan K. Chalup 2009).However, each of them did not given a reasonable way that the
features can be apply to the urban design.
How to apply the study of urban conginition to urban morphology is a critical issue that
urban planners and architects both concern about. Most of the urban conginition researchers
focus their interest on the sense of space or the significant elements of physical construct. These
research give us some advice that which factor it‘s delighted or significant to be pay attention
to .However, without a indicator indeed which can instruction the urban design actually,
although architects they have the image of space in their mind while working through drawings
but it's difficult to be practice without regard to the indicator.
Different properties blocks has distincted image in our city which is mechanism by the
different demands of form and plane patterns (figure 1).which can be highlight in the public
block and resident block. Indicator is a essential factor of block patterns, and the number of the
index has a direct impact on shapes of building (figure 2).
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(a) (b) (c)

Figure 1. (a)Public block (b)Mix used block (c) resident block.

Figure 2. The relationship of the height and Floor Area Ratio and Coverage Ratio.

On the other hand, different views and scale of people analysis the streetscape, different
visual features been presented (Ding 2007). At ordinary times, we observe the block by
identifying the streetscape which give us deep impression when it looks delighted, when we set
our point in urban we may be concern more about the skyline of blocks instead, and we maybe
more care about the material and shapes when we live in (figure 3).Even in the same block, the
change of the observe position will also bring different visual features.

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 3. (a)View from urban; (b) View from street; (c) view when we live in.

Compactness ratio as an indicator

How to define the shape of skyline is very important, some research has calculated the shapes
by calculate the fractal dimension (FD) of skyline for quantifying the visual character of the
built environment. The version of the box-counting approach that has been used in almost all
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architectural and urban analysis is known colloquially by scientists and mathematicians as the
“naïve version” (Huang et al, 1994: 339). However, there also have some investigated the
question of whether people actually do perceive the fractal properties of fractals or some other
properties (AE Stamps, 2002: 6). In actually it has some defect that it cannot identify the shape
clustering that means if the shape is very complexity but the fractal dimension (FD) is same to
the one is simple (figure 4).

Figure 4. Fractal dimension.

A simple measure of the degree of clustering among sites in a reserve system is the total
boundary length of the reserve divided by the area. This is a measure of length per unit area. A
more suitable dimensionless measure is the ratio of the boundary length of the reserve system to
the circumference of a circle with the same area as the reserve, since a circle is the shape having
smallest length for a given area, and is hence the “ideal” boundary length. The formula for this
measure is

We use this measure of Compactness Ratio to show that the clustering of block skyline, we
can define that the higher Compactness Ratio (CR) and the much clustering shape has (figure 5).

(a) (b) (c)

Figure 5. (a) circle; (b) rectangle; (c) triangle.

Treatises

A framework

Under the postpositivist paradigm, a legitimate system of inquiry for investigating a research
hypothesis must be one for which the key hypothesis can be tested using the data collected for
that purpose. Thus, the block buildings features that are represented and measured must be ones
which are appropriate to answer the research question. (M.J. Ostwald and J. Vaughan .In order
to accommodate this central principle, a framework is proposed where four cumulative levels of
representation are defined and mapped against comparable research purposes (Table1) at, for
example, a study of the effect of a illegal building on a streetscape is not undertaken by
representation the silhouette. Conversely, if the impact of silhouette design such as the turns of
wall it will be considered as the properties.
Each of the four levels of representation are described in the following sections and illustrate
using variations of an elevation of the same blocks, which are presented alongside the different
Compactness ratio measures derived from each. Both silhouette and pattern indicators are used
in the analysis, As a silhouette can be considered to provide a measure of the visual complexity
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of the blocks as measured from the exterior and the indicator provides a description of the
planning as it is inhabited.

Table 1. Levels of representation mapped against research purposes

Level Representation Research focus

1 streetscape silhouette Properties
To consider properties and Indicator has the influence on
streetscape image
2 interior silhouette Shape changes
To consider the CR changes of silhouette which can
distinguish shape changes of interior and External
3 block silhouette Planning index
To consider the relationship of planning
Control index and shapes of skyline
4 silhouette overlay Shapes overlay
To consider the background and overlay indifferent blocks the
background which enriched our field of visial

Segments

The research choose six typical block (figure 7) which edges is sequential and orthogonal. The
properties of block is 2 public use only, 2 mix_used only and two resident use only. For analysis
the other properties related there have 2 mix_used blocks appendix in the end. We define the
block is the region surrounded by street one is used for pedestrians and automobile .Each of
case has been used a few years and located one and the same district. The previous study has
confirmed that the coverage of block may have an influence on shape of skyline, so the typical
block elected the coverrage around 0.4 for analysis which caculated by ArcGis.
Stephan K. Chalup has given the method that simplify the information of streetscape by
eliminated the elements of municipal administration( Stephan K. Chalup,2009).The strongest
influence on preference, arousal, and pleasure was the degree of silhouette complexity, with
higher silhouette complexity associated with higher levels of perceived complexity and
preference and higher(Tom Heath,2000).When all three factors were varied simultaneously, the
most important factor for visual preference turned out to be the surface complexity. Silhouette
complexity was less important, and facade articulation was least important (Arthur E. Stamps
III,1999). The findings have direct implications for both practice and research and confirmed
that the texture of focade is insignificant in streetscape analysis, and the silhouette is significant
for analysis. The results suggest that a very simple physical measurement (percentage of pixels
covered by small elements) predicts subjective impressions of architectural detail very well.
Other results were that trim was the most influential design component, and texture.(Arthur E.
Stamps III,1998) was the least influential design component .We acknowledge that others
attributes of buildings such as details at the pedestrian level ,may have greater importance for
pedestrians(Arthur E. Stamps III,2005).So, the research choose the silhuate lines as the methods
for analysis. The silhuate lines contains the turns of buildings and dimension of buildings .An
the other hand, eliminate the elements that design by subjectivity such as texture, ornament. etc.
The data of the building is come from the institution of Planning, Nanjing. (figure 6)
At every instant, there is more than the eye can see, more than the ear can hear, a setting or a
view waiting to be explored (Kevin Lynch 1960). By the pattern more complexity if we want to
describe the information more clearly of buildings which located in blocks internal (figure 8),we
need to make more segments that like a gridding so we can cover them all(fig.9). So, how to
describe the internal information of blocks it's very significant for the reseach. In this, we take
the method of segment for analysis. Each of segment is been cutted aequilate . The first segment
is on behalf of the streetscape, so we defined the width of segment is the longest distance
between the building and street (figure 6) .And the width of other segment is decisioned by the
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first one that because that the most important skyline is the first one is been perception by
directly. the number of segment is decisioned by the shortest street one is used for pedestrians
and automobile.
The formula for the number is( L is the shortest street)

X1 = the longest distance betweenthe frontage and street

(a) (b)

Figure 6. (a) The model of blocks; (b) Orient information of height.

Figure 7. Six typical blocks.

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Figure 8. Pattern more complexity more segments be required.

Figure 9. Define the X1 and segments be maked.

Level 1 streetscape silhouette (x1)

This level is surposed to analysis the streetscape that influence the peoples life most directly. It
is this variation within a theme that designers are seeking to replicate and to which people seem
to respond positively (Jon Copper 2003). So it is significant that the designers have the
knowledge of how the properties and indicator has the impacted. We calculate the distance
 311

between the frontage and street for identify the X1 is about 30m which can cover the most of
buildings focade people can observed. And the shape information is been calculate in Table 2.

Figure 10 (a) the theoretical model that how the segmentX1 is been maked; (b)the patterns
that the segment(area of grey is null); (c)The silhouette of X1.

Level 2 silhouette of different segments

To consider the CR changes of silhouette which can distinguish shape changes of interior and
External. In our experience that public blocks has more shake in streetscape, it's to be concern
that whether the shake is presented by the streetscape or by the changes of silhouette which
located different, researching this appearance can give the planner and architecture where we
choose the building located that can form the silhouette or image we hope to.
Using the formula that define the numbers of segment we calculated the N is about 5.(figure
11, figure 12, figure 13 and figure14) Then, we make five segment and statistics the length of
silhouette and the area of each one.(table 3, table 4, table 5 and table6).

Figure 11 (a) The theoretical model that how the segmentX2 is been maked; (b) The
patterns that the segment(area of grey is null); (c)The silhouette of X2.
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Figure 12 (a) The patterns that the segment (area of grey is null); (b) The silhouette.

Figure 13 (a) The patterns that the segment (area of grey is null); (b) The silhouette.

Figure 14 (a) The patterns that the segment (area of grey is null); (b)The silhouette.
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Level3 silhouette of whole block

To consider the relationship of planning control index and shapes of skyline. The skyline is the
contour of the sky segment in an image and its fractal dimension is regarded as an important
feature which may be used to estimate natural scenes (Stephan K. C 2008).Although we didn’t
calculate the fractal dimension as the indicator, we can confirm that the shape of skyline has
important influence on the blocks appearance.

Figure 15 (a) The theoretical model that how the skyline is been described; (b) The
silhouette of whole block.

Level 4 percentage of background

The Superposition Ratio (SR) of the streetscape silhouette and block skyline reflect the scope
that block internal and external. By calculate the percentage of the bareness which means the
whole area except superposition part we can infer to the extent of changes. We define the
indicator the percentage of background (PB).

Figure 16. Percentage of background that be encloused by the streetscape and skyline.
314

Discussion

Properties has influence to form

By analysis the length of silhouette & floor area ratio (FAR) (fig.17a), we found that the
Resident block (Rb) has the longer length by transformation the FAR, the reason why we could
calculated by that is because that the pre research have confirmed that when the coverage ratio
of blocks is equal the height of silhouette in a linear fashion. The reason for that is because the
plan of public buildings is bigger than resident so the equal acreage the more buildings in
resident. Another reason for that may be the resident buildings a more close to the street than
public buildings (buildings have to give some space close to street for enter in).
The compatness ratio of Resident blocks is lower than public buildings (figure17b) when the
segment isclose to the street.which can be explain that though the buildings close to the street
few but each of them has big acreage so it looks more compatness, but the resident buildings has
indivisual.
However, when we research the skyline of block we found that the president has higher
compatness ratio than public one (fig.17c).It can be explain that the height of resident is
almostly so we describe the skyline more smooth has the lower CR. The public one looks sharp
by reason of the discrepancy of different buildings.
The percentage of background of blocks confirm that the public block has more focade
bareness (figure17d), the reason is same to the compatness ratio of skyline.

(a) (b)

(c) (d)
Figure 17. Relationship between silhouette shapes and properties: (a) length of silhouette
& floor area ratio (FAR) _segment X1; (b) compatness ratio of silhouette and properties _
segment X1; (c) compatness ratio of silhouette and properties _ skyline; (d) percentage of
background and properties.

How the silhouette shapes varichange

No matter the public blocks or the resident blocks the deeper with the area the lower compatness
ratio it will be. The rate of change indicates that the public block changes more acute. The
decline of CR has confirm that it's more smooth inexternal whatever the public block and
resident block. But whether all the changes the public block has higher compatness ratio in the
 315

same segment, means the public block more concentrated in external and internal.

Figure 18. The varichange of silhouette shaped in different located.

The relationship of Compactness ratio and indicator

By compare the data of Compactness Ratio (CR) and indicate, the research found some rules,
and define which indicator has the direct impact the form of skylines. The previous study has
confirmed that the properties of block may have an influence on shape of skyline, the research
calculate the percentage of public buildings (means the area) in different blocks. The statistical
results show that there has a break point when the proportion is 0.6, it means that the more
public buildings the less compactness ratio the skyline has.(fig.19a) The Length/Width Ratio has
the influence on pattern ( MJ Barnsley,2003).
By compare the date of Compactness ratio (CR) and Length/Width Ratio the graphical
representation that by the increase in Length/Width the Compactness ratio (CR) is much (figure
19b). Means that if the block shape is more pointed the skyline is more concentrate on. In our
experience, if buildings are taller so the shape and the length of skyline is easier to be identify,
By compare the Average Height (AH).
The figure 19c, figure 19d make clear that Compactness ratio (CR) of skyline has no clear
link to the average height and the floor area ratio (FAR).

(a) (b)

(c) (d)
Figure 19. Relationship between silhouette shapes and indicator: (a) CR & percentage of
public buildings; (b) CR & Length/width of blocks; (c) CR & AH; (d) CR & FAR.
 316

Conclusion

The former quantitative approaches have clarified the importance of research in blocks
silhouette. Then analysis the indicator for distinguish the different properties and give the main
points of research .By summarize the pre research about skyline, the research discriminate some
important features. Based that features research present a framework in a reasonable way .And
define the rules for describe the silhouette by segment. Through compare the data which come
from the segment there has some conclusion:

i)resident block (Rb) has the longer length than Public blocks;
ii)the compatness ratio of Resident blocks is lower than public buildings in streetscape;
iii)the president has higher compatness ratio than public one on skyline;
iv) the public block has more focade bareness;
v) no matter the public blocks or the resident blocks the deeper with the area the lower
compatness ratio it will be;
vi) compactness Ratio(CR) is related to the lenth/width ratio of blocks.

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 317

Urban form and accessibility to rail transit stations: a case

study of Auckland

Saeid Nazari Adli

School of Architecture and Planning, University of Auckland.
E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract. Rail transport is an environmentally friendly alternative to the use of the car. People are more
likely to walk to a Rail transit stations or RTS for a commuting trip than to take a car. Providing RTSs
with quality pedestrian access improves urban rail ridership. However, little research has been done to
explore how the characteristics of urban form along these routes that provide pedestrian access to a RTS
can influence urban rail travel demand. Urban morphology in general, and the idea of urban fringe belts
in particular, have been recognised as a powerful means of understanding the physical form. This study
examines how urban forms in different morphological periods affect a person’s decision to walk to a RTS.
All 38 RTSs in Auckland, New Zealand have been grouped into three categories, based on their location
and the corresponding morphological period that relates to the development of Auckland. Using GIS, a
multiple regression model has been applied to each of the three categories of stations to analyse the
relationship between the ridership and three planning factors of population density, land-use diversity,
and pedestrian oriented design. The results show that the transit ridership in different morphological
period are differently influenced by the characteristics of their urban form. The results provide policy
implications for a city to improve its walkability and increase urban rail ridership. More specifically, the
results will help to inform the evaluation, design and development of more walkable surroundings near
RTSs. Despite the fact that the findings will be validated in Auckland, the methodological framework is
expected to be applicable in different contexts.

Key Words: Urban form, pedestrian accessibility, rail transit station (RTS), Auckland.

Background

Many cities around the world have concluded that roads cannot be built fast enough to keep up
with rising travel demand. Different policies are being adopted to encourage drivers to use
public transport and rein in automobile use. Among different modes of transit, there is a
renewed interest in rail travel and rail investment. Existing literature shows that rail transport is
an environmentally friendly alternative to the use of the car. People are more likely to walk to a
train station for a commuting trip (Dittmar & Ohland, 2003) than to take a car.
Most transportation-focused policies that were previously effective, such as establishing new
transit services or restricting the use of cars, have encountered limitations. Planners and urban
managers are turning to alternative policies with more integrated planning and design that aim
to provide people with better access to transit by changing urban morphology. These efforts
include new urbanism, the compact city, smart-growth, transit-oriented development and urban
village movements (Bean, Kearns, & Collins, 2008). However, these attempts have seen limited
success. According to Dimmar (2003), “the review of the projects that are emerging reveals that
many ‘transit towns’ fail to meet their objectives. Many projects end up becoming fairly
traditional suburbs that are simply transit adjacent” (Dittmar & Ohland, 2003, pp. 2-3). A recent
study (Chatman, 2013) of residents currently living in the proximity of train stations shows that
rail access has no statistically significant effect on people’s travel behaviour. Can rail really
increase the transit and walk-mode share with such behaviour? Or are urban planners promising
too much? An often unspoken but key component of these alternative proposals is the
morphology of the urban form along access routes to a train stop.
318

Urban morphology can be defined as the study of the physical characteristics of towns and
cities, resulting from an evolutionary process of urban activities and planning action (Gu, 2002,
p. 1). Urban morphology deals with objects and their parts, their relationships and arrangements,
classification, variation, formation and historical change, with reference to the built environment
(Osmond, 2008, p. 41). One of most powerful theories in urban morphology to study urban form
is the fringe belt concept. Put simply, studying such belts provides a comprehensive view of the
spatial process of urban outward growth and internal change (Gu, 2010). A rail transit station or
RTS can be studied and grouped with regards to its morphological period context. Then
planning factors will be studied in each group to find out their relative effectiveness to promote
rail transit system. This compound approach to the research can open a new field for application
of urban morphological methods and techniques.
The City of Auckland, which is a representative of an Australasian metropolis, has the strong
urban planning objective of being a more transit friendly city. Previously characterised by the
successful advocacy of motorways at the expense of rail (Gunder, 2002; Mees & Dodson,
2001) , Auckland is now heavily investing in improving its rail transit system by moving from
diesel to electric trains (Auckland Transport, 2014a), implementing new ticketing systems
(Dearnaley, 2013), and adding new lines (Dickey, 2013). The purpose of this paper is to analyse
the relationship between the ridership of a RTS and morphological characteristics of its
catchment area. The outcome of the research can first, provides the basis for a more integrated
transport and planning policies for Auckland and other cities with an objective to consistently
promote transit ridership. And second, it introduces a new methodological framework for
application of the fringe belt concept.

Theories and model

The fringe belt concept

The fringe belt concept reflects the marks on the ground from the different periods of buildings
cycles (Whitehand, 1988) where mostly undeveloped lands have come into being at the edge of
urban areas during periods of minimal outward residential growth. These lands are
heterogeneous in plan, building forms and land and building use (Gu, 2010). In this research the
fringe belt concept is adopted to classify the RTS area, which determines its position in the
historical development process of Auckland city.

The Planning factors of urban form

In regards to the physical characteristics of urban form that affects transit commute shares,
various policies has been suggested to promote a transit town. Many scholars have indicated
that the planning factors of urban form that influence transit commute share are density, land-
use diversity and pedestrian oriented design of neighbourhoods around RTSs (Cervero &
Kockelman, 1997; Lee & Moudon, 2006). This study does not repeat the previous studies
mentioned above but instead investigates the differences in the magnitude of the impact of each
of these factors based on the morphological context of a RTS catchment.
Defining the catchment area of a station or the pedshed is very important to study planning
factors. A real pedshed based on the actual street network around a RTS provides more realistic
results than a simple as-the-crow-flies radial buffer. There is no exact number for the walking
catchment radius of a RTS, however, some literature suggest it is between 400 to 800 metres
(Bernick & Cervero, 1997, p. xii and 387; Calthorpe, 1993, p. 175; Halden, McGuigan, Nisbet,
& McKinnon, 2000; Kuby, Barranda, & Upchurch, 2004). In this research the pedestrian
catchment was defined as 500 metre or approximately 10 minute walking distance.
 319

Many studies have found that density affects rail ridership significantly (Kamruzzaman, Baker,
Washington, & Turrell, 2014; Ratner & Goetz, 2013; Sung & Oh, 2011). The total density
which is the combination of population density and jobs density can incorporate both densities
in one variable. Total density represents the ratio of the total of jobs and residents to the ground
area in the pedshed (Eq. 1).

Eq. 1
Where:
is the population in the mesh block number k.
is the number of residential units in the mesh block number k.
is the number of residential units in the mesh block number k and station pedshed
number j.
is the area of station pedshed i.

The mixed-use index developed by Gibbs (1962) can ranges the RTSs between 0 to 1 based on
their diversity of land use pattern (Eq. 2).

Eq. 2
Where:
is the count of land use type j in station pedshed number i.
is the total number of all land use types in the station pedshed number i.

The design quality of a RTS area is a subjective matter and difficult to quantified. The space
syntax’s depth score provides a good measure to calculate the integration of a RTS with its
surrounding environment. The depth of one space from another can be directly measured by
counting the intervening number of spaces between two spaces (Bafna, 2003). In this research
the design of a RTS is measured by its depth calculated by Depthmap program (Space Syntax
Network, 2014).
The number of rail transit riders in a station area comes from the latest census data (Statistics
New Zealand, 2013). The same proportion of residential units of each meshblock that falls in a
pedshed has been selected from the total number of rail transit riders. Here the assumption is
that people will walk or cycle to the nearest station (Bernick & Cervero, 1997, pp. 253-267;
Dittmar & Ohland, 2003; Krizek, 2003).

Eq. 3
Where:
is the number of residential units in the mesh block number k and station pedshed
part number ij.
is the total number of residential units in the mesh block number k.
is the total number of people who use rail tranist in the mesh block number k.

To investigate this relationship, as multi regression model is proposed below:

320

Eq. 4

Application and analysis

The main feature of human settlement in the Auckland region has been the development of a
substantial urban area (the largest in New Zealand) in which approximately 90% of the regional
population lives. This metropolitan area is located on and around the central isthmus and
occupies around 10% of the regional land mass. Home to over 1.4 million people, Auckland is a
vibrant centre for trade, commerce, culture and employment (Auckland Regional Council,
2010).

Data collection

Data on population density and ridership was collected from the 2013 New Zealand census
(Statistics New Zealand, 2013). The data on land-use diversity was collected from the Auckland
council GIS viewer website (Auckland City Council, 2013). The data for parcel area is collected
from the university library GeoDataHub (University of Auckland library, 2013). Other data used
in this paper are meshblock boundaries (Statistics New Zealand, 2013), street network (Open
Street Map, 2014), rail station location and rail transit network (Auckland Transport, 2014b)
(Figure 1).

a b

c d

Figure 1. Daily riders (a), the planning factors of the station areas (b–d).
 321

Catchment

Open street map or OSM is a free knowledge collective that provides user-generated street
maps. In this research, the ArcGIS 10.2 was used to download and model street network from
Open Street Map website (Open Street Map, 2014). ArcGIS Network Analyst is a powerful tool
that can generate a realistic walk mode service area for a location based on a street network.
Using the Network Analyst, the transit station pedsheds was drawn based on OSM data (Figure
2).

Figure 2. The rail transit station pedsheds of Auckland metropolitan area.

Clustering the station areas and the fringe belt concept

The morphological periods of Auckland investigated by Gu (2010) have been used as the basis
for clustering rail transit stations based on their morphological context. Gu (2010) has
determined four morphological periods of expansion of Auckland isthmus: pioneer development
(1840-1880), Late Victorian and Edwardian (1890s-1900s), The interwar (1920s-1938s) and
early post-war (1950s-1960s). Characterised by “distinctive planning ideologies that have left
observable material residues”. These characteristics are summarized in Figure 4.
A series of concentric fringe belts can be recognized at the edge of each morphological
period. The inner fringe belt surround the kernel of the city. A discontinuous middle fringe belt
marks the edge of the late Victorian and Edwardian growth, and an outer fringe belt marks the
edge of the interwar development (Gu, 2010) (Figures 3 and 4).
322

Figure 3. Auckland fringe belts and clusters of rail transit stations (Gu, 2010).
 323

Pioneer development
-The kernel of the city, now the
CBD
-geometrical pattern Winding
streets mainly follow the
coastline

Late-Victorian and Edwardian growth (1890s-1900s)

-Characterised by the
construction of streets meeting
at right angles.
-Back-to-back plot pattern
relatively high-density built
environment
-Single-storey-detached villas

Inter-war period (1920s-1930s)

-A grid street pattern
reflecting the influence of
garden suburb ideas
-Californian bungalow and
mission styles

Early post-war expansion (1950s-1960s)

-Loop roads, crescents, culs-de-
sac and irregular shapes
-Building types of this era were
characterised by rectangular
shapes, concrete block walls,
split levels and flat roofs

Figure 4. Ground plans and building types representing the morphological periods (Gu,
2010).
324

Results and discussion

Multiple ordinary least squares regressions has been employed to analyse the effects of the
hypothesized independent variable on RTS’s ridership. Multiple regressions is very flexible to
use and easy to understand, however, similar to all statistical tools the results is highly
dependent on the sample size. The pioneer development of Auckland city host only the
Britomart station and there are only two stations between inner and middle fringe belts (Figure
3). Thus, these stations has been excluded from the analysis.
The research focuses only on inter-war and post war developments and compares the results to
the whole city. For this purpose three different regression model for inter-war area RTSs, post-
war area RTSs and the whole city RTSs calculated to indicate the magnitude of the coefficients
of planning factors in each of these areas. All regression models were statistically significant
and had an appropriate goodness of fit. The results of the model estimation are summarized in
figure 5.

Application N Parameter Standardized R2 Adj. R2 F-Value

Coefficients (sig.)
The whole city 36 b -43.04 .500 .453 10.668(.000)
Total Density .319
LU Diversity .566
Depth .275
Inter-war development 10 b -120.00 .627 .441 3.368(0.096)
Total Density .626
LU Diversity .511
Depth .420
Post-war development 26 b -16.03 .481 .410 6.786(0.002)
Total Density .174
LU Diversity .650
Depth .099

Figure 5. Summary of regression analysis.

The comparison between results of regressions indicates verifies this assumption that planning
factors are highly contextual and they vary depending on characterises of each morphological
period of development. The regression analysis of boarding and planning factors on the whole
city (Eq. 5) indicates the coefficient of land-use diversity was largest and that of density was
larger than that of design. Same pattern could be seen post-war developments (Eq. 6) however
with larger difference between diversity and the other two factors. This trend changes over the
inter-war period area of development as the density is more important than diversity and design
(Eq. 7).

Eq. 5

Eq. 6

Eq. 7
 325

,700

,600

,500

,400

,300

,200

,100

,000
Post-war Inter-war Whole city

Depth TotalDensity Diversity_Index

Figure 6. Standard coefficients.

The interest toward public transport have recently developed in many cities around the
world. The general idea of developing a dense, pedestrian friendly, mixed use urban fabric
around rail stations is common in strategic growth plans for cities. This research assumed, even
though the planning factors are influencing the ridership, this influence is different based on the
characteristics of urban fabric.
Urban morphology provides a powerful conceptual frame work to identify homogenous
urban fabrics based on the ideology that produced it. Urban morphology has been successfully
developed in several areas of planning and design practice, notably urban conservation, urban
design, and urban coding and planning (Gu, 2013) but it has not been incorporated in integrated
planning and transportation policies yet. The purpose of this research was to analyse the
relationship between ridership and the aforementioned planning factors to verify that
morphological study of urban fabric can play an important role in new trends in transportation
policies.
The results indicate that each morphological periods of development have different priorities
to make a city more transit friendly. The periphery areas of post-war development are
influenced mostly by diversity, whereas riders in the inter-war development areas are affected
mainly by density. Consequently clustering RTSs based on their morphological characteristics
is a useful way to establish proper land-use plan and increase their ridership. These findings
support the research assumption that each RTS pedshed shold be planned differently based on
its morphological characteristics.

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 327

Systems thinking for new perspectives on urban form – a case

study of active transport infrastructure in urban corridors

Nicholas Stevens1, Paul Salmon2, Natalie Taylor2

1
Regional and Urban Planning Program, University of the Sunshine Coast,
Maroochydore, Australia, 2USCAR (University of the Sunshine Coast Accident
Research), University of the Sunshine Coast, Maroochydore, Australia. E-mail:
[email protected]

Abstract. Urban planning and design require new ways of interpreting urban form that allows for the
understanding of multidisciplinary approaches and cooperative outcomes. This innovative study brings
together the disciplines of Human Factors with Urban Design to investigate the form and design of active
transport infrastructure (ATI) in urban transport corridors (Stevens and Buksh, 2013). These connectors
of people and place go beyond the roadway and consider the dynamics of adjacent urban form. They are
defined by the disparate demands of engineering, urban planning, urban design, property development
and community expectation. Using Cognitive Work Analysis (CWA) this study investigates and identifies
the interdependencies and ability of these urban corridors to operationalize ATI which permits best
practice road user hierarchies that give highest priority to walking and cycling. CWA (Vicente,1999) is a
systems analysis and design framework that identifies the constraints imposed on activities and designs
new systems that better support the activities of interest. CWA has been used in a variety of design
activities in several domains, including defence, disaster management, process control, and road safety
(Salmon et al., 2010). This research is the first to apply CWA as a tool to interpret the interdependencies
of urban form and its component elements. The application and extension of sociotechnical systems
theory in an urban setting has allowed for unique insights. A key aspect of the framework is that it is
formative in nature describing what could happen if design modifications are undertaken, rather than
provide normative analyses of what should happen. The results of this study allow for a clearer
interpretation of the relationships between all of the physical elements of ATI and its intended functional
purposes. Through the analysis of ATI this research provides a means to understand the multidisciplinary
requirements for establishing urban form which supports safe and accessible use by pedestrians and
cyclists.

Key Words: Cognitive Work Analysis; Urban Corridors; Systems Analysis; Multidisciplinary Design
Framework, Active Transport Infrastructure

Introduction

This paper proposes that the urban form of our cities needs to be underpinned by a better
understanding and prioritisation of community access. This paper seeks to offer insights into the
design of streets which are prioritised as key community conduits and destinations in their own
right. It outlines a systems approach which enables multi-disciplinary responses to the
establishment of active transport infrastructure (ATI) which supports and encourages
pedestrians and cyclists within the urban corridor.
Public space within cities is a dwindling resource, yet though appropriate design, or indeed
redesign, our footpaths and roadways have the capacity to host community life. They offer the
greatest opportunity and potential for our neighbourhoods and urban environments to act as
social places. The role that streets and footpaths should play in contributing to quality of life is
firmly entrenched in urban design and urban planning theory (Lynch, 1960; Jacobs, 1961;
Appleyard, 1980; Gehl, 2011).
There is a range of literature, plans and strategies that outline the known benefits of active
transport, including, reducing vehicular congestion, greenhouse gas emissions and supporting
328

individual and community health (Woodcock et al., 2007; Frank et al., 2010; SCRC, 2011b;
Millward et al., 2013). This research instead focuses on the design and form of active transport
infrastructure. Specifically it is concerned with the provision of pedestrian footpaths and on-
road cycling facilities within existing urban roadway contexts. Many of these roadways were
never designed or intended to provide for active modes of transport and subsequently often do
not support safe interactions between different road user groups.
This ‘systems thinking’ approach to road design is a key requirement for future road systems
(Salmon et al., 2012). It is able to consider the relationships between the ideal functional
purposes of active transport infrastructure and highlight the system relationships. While the
urban form and roadway contexts are key inputs into the system, the approach specifically
identifies the range of interdependencies between functions, purposes, and objects within a
typical active transport infrastructure configuration.
The literature on active transport emerges from a range of discipline areas including health
promotion and preventative medicine (Frank et al., 2010; Hamer and Chida, 2008); transport
geography (Kelly et al. 2011, Millward et al., 2013); and urban planning and design (Forsyth et
al., 2007; 2008; Ewing and Cervero, 2010). This research provides new knowledge through the
convergence of the Human Factors and Urban Design disciplines.

Significance and research challenges

The potential of roadways and more specifically existing urban corridors to act as community
and neighbourhood places support by active mobility is recognised in literature, planning and
policy (IPWEA, 2010; SCRC, 2011b; Stevens and Buksh, 2013). Additionally, there are a
variety of evaluative techniques that seek to establish and reprioritise active transport, and the
amenity to support it, through principles of urban design and health promotion (Cerin et al.,
2007; Clifton et al., 2007; Ewing and Handy, 2009; Millward et al., 2013). While much has
been done to better understand and evaluate the contributions of built form and community life
which encourages active transport there is also a continued acknowledgement that
implementation of appropriate strategies needs to be improved (Stevens and Buksh 2013). This
research recognises three main challenges that have inhibited the ability of urban corridors to be
significant locations of active mobility.
First, is that past and present design standards for roadway corridors prioritise motor vehicles
over all other uses (P and NJ, 2008; TMR, 2013). The engineering based standards are largely
not concerned with the delivery of quality urban design or form, but the efficient and safe
movement of motorised traffic. As transport agencies increasingly seek to enable active
mobility, the supplied active transport infrastructures are required to be established within an
existing roadway context. Footpaths and on-road cycleways are required to ‘fit’ within the
roadway corridor without specific consideration of the needs of active mobility. This post hoc
delivery of painted on-road cycle markings and standard concrete footpaths may fulfil
departmental and agency policy for implementation, but they are not fit for purpose.
Second, is that the engineering or urban design guidance which does seek to enable walkable
and cyclable neighbourhoods is very rarely considered in an integrated manner. The engineering
standards are not interested in ensuring visual amenity and sense of place, and the normative
principles of urban design are often difficult to apply in practice. That is, much of the urban
design guidance for active transport infrastructure is often descriptive or illustrative (ITE, 2010;
IPWEA, 2010). The provision of key principles and listed objectives of primary considerations;
supported by illustrations and elevations of what should be done, may be argued to limit the in-
practice uptake of such advice (Stevens and Buksh, 2012).
Third, current active transport ‘solutions’ rarely seek to exemplify safe, efficient or best
practice sustainable transport, nor do they support a high quality active transport user
experience. As such, despite implementation of ATI, increases in activity are often limited
(Alfonzo, 2005; Paige Willis et al., 2013). Further, there is very little evidence that such
 329

infrastructure considers the implications or interactions between active transport modes which
are often also incompatible - pedestrians and cyclists.
The safety of active transport users continues to represent a significant issue, both in
Australia and worldwide. Of the 1303 crash-related fatalities occurring in Australia during 2012,
174 were pedestrians and 33 were cyclists (BITRE, 2013). The challenge is how to retrofit
urban corridors which are safely engineered for active transport and establish urban form which
encourages use through contributions such as amenity and sense of place. The identification of
design frameworks that can support the development of appropriate active transport
infrastructures which prioritise walking and cycling is critical.
The application of systems analysis and design approaches for roadway configuration and
evaluation is gaining momentum (Salmon et al., 2014; Cornelissen et al., 2013). This research
argues that the Cognitive Work Analysis framework (CWA; Vicente, 1999) provides a suitable
design approach for active transport infrastructure within the urban corridor. The aim is to show
how CWA can contribute to the design of safe and efficient active transport environments which
provide a high quality user experience. This paper outlines an approach whereby it is possible to
better understand the role and interactions of active transport infrastructure within the urban
corridor. The aim is to provide a single analysis with the potential to consider both the
engineering and technical standards of safe active transport infrastructure with the urban design
opportunities and experiential contributions as high quality places for walking and cycling.
Much of the current literature and policy seeks to deal with these issues independently, or in
turn, here they are considered as interdependent.
The study described uses the first phase of the CWA framework, Work Domain Analysis
(WDA) to model the ‘ideal’ active transport infrastructure configuration, considering the current
practices of retrofitting existing urban corridors.

Urban corridors

The idea of the urban corridor is not new and has historically been used to describe the growth
and development between key activity centres (Sargeant et al., 2009). Indeed the concept of the
urban corridor has been used as a spatial planning unit of analysis in several national and
international investigations (OA, 2010; Aust. Gov, 2007; Government of South Australia,
2011).
These transport focussed corridors, within an urban environment, are naturally complex as
they transverse across different scales and are influenced by a collection of economic,
environmental and social relationships connecting people and place. Hale (2011) and Arrington
and Cevero (2008) identify the need to carry out corridor analysis at different scales to better
understand how a particular transport initiative, corridor upgrade, or Transport Orientated
Development (TOD) proposal relates to the broader urban setting.
Hale (2011) argues that this is a practical step forward and must be carried through the
development of analytical tools, ultimately leading towards better outcomes for projects at
different spatial scales over time. Urban corridors of any scale or function and their surrounding
urban catchment have reciprocal latent and explicit impacts which require further investigation,
understanding and management (Stevens and Buksh, 2013).
For the purposes of this paper the urban corridor represents a 400m buffer along road based
transport corridors, often containing public transport (Adams, 2009). These urban corridors are
key development areas and community conduits which respond to and consider adjacent site,
local and corridor urban context.
330

Cognitive Work Analysis and Work Domain Analysis

The CWA framework is concerned with constraints rather than goals, and is based on the notion
that making constraints explicit can potentially enhance human performance. To identify and
understand these constraints the CWA framework comprises five interrelated phases, this
research involved applying the first phase, Work Domain Analysis (WDA).
WDA is used to describe or model the system of focus by describing the purposive and
physical constraints imposed on activity within a particular system. This involves constructing
an Abstraction Hierarchy (AH) of the system in question. The AH represents the system across
the following five levels of abstraction (Naikar et al., 2005):
Functional purpose – The overall purpose(s) of the system and the external constraints on its
operation;
Values and priority measures – The criteria that the system uses for measuring progress
towards its functional purpose;
Generalised functions – The general functions of the work system that are necessary for
achieving the functional purposes;
Physical functions – The functional capabilities and limitations of the physical objects within
the system that enable the generalised functions; and
Physical objects – the physical objects within the system that afford the physical functions.
The output provides a constraints-based model of the system which describes the purposes,
values and priorities of the system, the functions that are performed within the system and the
physical resources that are used to perform the required functions. WDA addresses what
activities can be performed within a particular system, but also how and why they are performed
and with what. This paper asserts that these characteristics make it highly suited to inform the
design of active transport infrastructure that both incorporates safety and sense of place, since it
is capable of describing what design features are required, and what values and priorities should
be met through the design.
The CWA framework has been applied in various areas for systems analysis and design
applications (Bisantz et al., 2003; Cornelissen et al., 2013; Jenkins et al., 2009; 2010; Naikar et
al., 2003; Naikar and Sanderson, 2001; Watson and Sanderson, 2007); however, it is has had
only limited application in the consideration of urban design contexts (Stevens and Salmon,
2014). In this study, the WDA was used to create a model of an ‘ideal’ active transport
infrastructure configuration, which considers the need to retrofit existing urban corridors.

Methodology

Work domain analysis (WDA)

The development of the WDA was based on key design guidelines and standards, best practice
documentation and the literature on urban design, active transport, and on-road cycleway and
footpath engineering (See Table 1). This data represents national standards for footpath,
pathway and cycleway design; national and international engineering design guidance; and
governmental active transport and urban design policy and protocol. It is indicative of the range
of active transport design guidance from across the often disparate disciplines of engineering,
transport planning and urban design. Based on these inputs the WDA was developed by one
Human Factors analyst and one Urban Planning practitioner.

Active transport and urban design literature

The WDA has also drawn on a range of urban design and active transport literature to allow for
the establishment of high quality active transport user experiences. It is important to note that
the concepts described here also emerge across a range of practice and academic literatures and
 331

are by no means exhaustive on the topic of active transport infrastructures or the

operationalization of urban design principles or subjective qualities. Concepts within this study
represent those which respond largely to the context of policy and practice in South East
Queensland and Australia more generally (Aust Gov, 2011; SCRC, 2011; PIA, 2010).
Additionally there has been the inclusion of key elements and considerations that have emerged
within the literature, planning and policy relating to: walkability and active transport (Purciel
and Marrone, 2006; Ewing and Handy, 2009; Ewing and Cervero, 2010; Millward et al., 2013);
urban thoroughfares and corridors (Premius and Zonneveld, 2003; ITE, 2010; Stevens and
Buksh, 2012); pathway and cycleway design guidelines (Austroads, 2009; WSDoT, 2011); user
orientated spaces (Yücel, 2013); and quality human environments (Gehl, 2011).

Table 1. Inputs of the Work Domain Analysis.

Australian and Queensland Design Standards

Austroads (2009) ‘Guide to Road Design – Part 6A: Pedestrian and Cyclist Paths’, Austroads
Incorporated, Sydney, Australia.
Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads (2014) Transport Operations (Road Use
Management – Road Rules) Regulation 2009). Queensland Government, Brisbane.
Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads (2013) Road Planning and Design Manual (2nd
Ed). Integrated Transport Planning Branch, Brisbane, Queensland.
Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads (2013b) Queensland Manual of Uniform Traffic
Control Devices Part 9 Bicycle Facilities. Queensland Government, Brisbane.
National and International Engineering Guidelines for Active Transport Infrastructure
Institute of Public Works Engineering Australia (Qld) (2011) ‘Complete Streets: Guidelines for Urban
Street Design’, Queensland Division Inc, Fortitude Valley, Queensland.
Institute of Transportation Engineers (ITE) (2010) ‘Designing Walkable Urban Thoroughfares: A
Context Sensitive Approach’. Institute of Transportation Engineers, Washington, DC.
USDoT, 2010, ‘International Technology Scanning Program: Pedestrian and Bicyclist Safety and
Mobility in Europe’, US Department of Transportation, National Cooperative Highway Research
Program, February 2010, viewed 28th March 2014.
WSDoT (2011) Roadway Bicycle Facilities Design Manual M 22.01.08, Washington State Department
of Transport,1520-1, July 2011
National and International Urban Design and Active Transport Policy and Literature
Australian Government (2011) ‘Creating Places for People: An Urban Design Protocol for Australian
Cities.’ Canberra.
Australian Government (2009) ‘Healthy spaces and places. A national guide to designing places for
healthy living’ Australian Government Department of Health and Aging, Kingston, Canberra.
Davies, L. (2000). ‘Urban design compendium.’ London: English Partnerships.
Dixon, K., Liebler, M., Zhu, H. (2008) ‘NCHRP Report 612 Safe and Aesthetic Design of Urban
Roadside Treatments. Transportation Research Board, Washington: DC.
Planning Institute of Australia (2010) ‘Urban Design Unit Manual. Planning Institute of Australia.’
AKH Consulting.
Stevens, N.and Buksh, B. (2012). A Leading Practice Framework for Sustainable Transport Corridors:
Sustainable Transport Corridor Research. Final Report to Queensland Department of Transport and
Main Roads. University of the Sunshine Coast.
Sunshine Coast Regional Council (2011), ‘Sunshine Coast Active Transport Plan 2011-2031’. Regional
Strategy and Planning Department, Queensland.

Urban context of the active transport infrastructure WDA

When considering the urban design and the engineering requirements of active transport
infrastructure within urban corridors it is necessary to acknowledge and understand the context
within which they occur (Premius and Zonneveld, 2003; Stevens and Buksh, 2012). First, it is
important to identify the transport task and roadway context (for example, highway, arterial
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road, local road etc.). Second, is understanding the type of neighbourhood within which they
occur (rural, sub-urban, urban centre, CBD, etc.) and third, is the context of the adjacent built
environment within the corridor (residential, commercial, retail, open space, etc.).
Active transport infrastructure may be found in many urban roadway, neighbourhood and
built environment circumstances. However the interdependency and influence of these three
contexts has significant implications for both their physical design and also the quality of the
user experience. For example pedestrians and cyclists have no role to play in the context of
major highways, but may be expected to be key contributors to the success and vibrancy of
inner city streets.
It is important to note that the WDA is actor independent and does not explore the behaviour
of different users of the system. As such the WDA includes all objects that may be important to
some users and of no consequence to others, for example tactile surface indicators or bike racks.
The system view as represented by the WDA considers that the constraints within it are the
same for all users.

Roadway context for active transport infrastructure

This research is principally interested in urban corridors that contain higher order roads that are
administered and managed by state governments. As such it has utilised the urban corridor and
roadway context established by Stevens and Salmon (2014) which considered the influence of
‘multi-modal urban arterial roads’ and ‘community boulevards’. These roadway types are two
of the categories established under the functional hierarchy of strategic roads as defined by the
Queensland Department of Transport and Main Roads (TMR, 2009). This functional hierarchy
of strategic roads identifies four (4) categories (p66):
1. high capacity, high speed motorways and highways to move large volumes of traffic,
including freight traffic, over longer distances;
2. multi-modal urban arterial roads to provide connections within communities and cater for a
range of road users, including pedestrians, cyclists, public transport, private vehicles, as well as
commercial delivery vehicles ('first and last mile' freight);
3. bypass and ring roads to remove traffic from activity centres; and
4. community boulevards to provide amenity through activity and town centres, designed to
cater for low volumes of traffic, with priority given to pedestrians, cyclists and public transport.

Neighbourhood context for active transport infrastructure

This study utilises the South East Queensland Place Model for the classification of the physical
form and character of the neighbourhood context (CM-SEQ, 2011; Stevens and Salmon (2014).
This model suggests that settlements in South East Queensland (SEQ) can be understood as a
series of place types, each with common characteristics, similar land use mixes and intensities
of development. The model represents what may traditionally be recognised as transect
planning (Duany and Talen, 2002). The SEQ Place Model (CM-SEQ, 2011 p 62) identifies
seven (7) categories of overlapping place type (Figure 1):
P1. Natural Places – Areas dominated by the natural environment.
P2. Rural Places – Rural production and landscapes, rural living.
P3. Rural Townships – The range of smaller rural townships in SEQ.
P4. Next Generations Suburban Neighbourhoods – Walkable local areas, which are people
(rather than car) focussed and contain a choice of housing types and some other local uses in a
mixed use setting.
P5. Urban Neighbourhoods – Walkable, high density local areas, which are people focussed and
contain a wider choice of other housing types more mixed use than suburban neighbourhoods.
 333

P6. Centres of Activity – Vibrant and intense mixed use centres including housing, retail,
employment, education and entertainment facilities. Some taller buildings are part of the built
form character.
P7. CBDs – Central business districts – centres of production as well as consumption.
For this research the place types within which the active transport infrastructure WDA have
been established as P5 Urban Neighbourhoods and P6 Centres of Activity.

Figure 1.SEQ Place Model (CM-SEQ 2011 p62).

WDA active transport infrastructure context

The formative model developed through the WDA represents active transport infrastructure
located on an urban arterial or community boulevard within an urban neighbourhood or centre
of activity which has an adjacent built form context comprised of mixed use commercial, retail
and residential uses. The unit of analysis is an urban block, corner to corner of approximately
150 metres in length, and 10 metres in width, begins at the building line and traverses the
footpath and on-road cycleway to the roadway (Figure 2). The configuration for on-road cycling
is described as a ‘wide parking lane with bicycle provision’ as it is the most commonly
delivered by state agencies in South East Queensland (QG, 2013 p 9-17). The WDA considers
the functions, purposes and objects within this system of active transport infrastructure.

Figure 2. Active transport infrastructure WDA unit of analysis.

Active transport infrastructure zones

As an organising device this research extends the recognised zones of a footpath (Austroads,
2009; ITE, 2010) to include the on-road cycleway and the roadway edge. The amount of space
allocated to these five (5) zones and the objects located within them has a significant influence
on the functions of active transport infrastructure. The identified zones may be defined as:
1. On-road Cycleway Zone: This is the distance from the edge of the motorised vehicular travel
way to the kerb. It often contains provision for car parking, in addition to the markings required
to indicate this space as a cycleway.
2. Edge / Kerb Zone: This area is from the face of the kerb and defines the limit of the
pedestrian area. It provides the minimum separation between the objects in the footpath and
other vehicles in the roadway.
334

3. Furnishings Zone: This zone provides the major buffer between vehicles and pedestrians. It
often contains signal poles, seats, landscaping, streets trees, parking meters and so forth.
4. Throughway Zone: This is the walking zone and the area through which pedestrian usually
travel. It is an area that must remain clear and be free of obstructions at all times.
5. Frontage Zone: This is the distance from the throughway to the frontage of adjacent
property. It is an area which should buffer pedestrians from window shoppers and private
business or residential doorway traffic. This zone often contains private street and dining
furniture, merchandise displays, private signage, fences and so forth.
The WDA seeks to better understand each of these distinct zones, the relationships between
them and the objects they contain. To assist in the analysis of the active transport infrastructure,
where appropriate, the physical objects layer within the WDA has been arranged so as to
highlight their placement within the zones.

Results

The system represented by the WDA has been summarised in Figure 3. While the Functional
Purposes and the Value and Priority Measures levels of the WDA are presented in their
entirety, for efficiency the nodes contained within the Purpose Related Functions, Object
Related Processes, and the Physical Objects levels have been grouped into representative
categories.

Figure 3. Summarised Work Domain Analysis.

The following discussion does not endeavour to outline all of the relationships; rather we
provide an overview of the interactions between the levels of the abstraction hierarchy to
demonstrate the applicability and usefulness of this method.

Functional purpose

This highest level of the abstraction hierarchy contains the reasons for the existence of the
system. When considering ATI, the WDA was required to include both objective and subjective
functional purposes. For example the objective purposes of the ATI to ‘provide a right of way
 335

for active transport’, ‘provide safe active transport’, and ‘support efficient active transport’ , in
balance with the best practice and user orientated functions of ‘permit best practice transport
hierarchy’ and ‘provide high quality active transport experience’.
If the analysis had been undertaken simply by considering the function of ATI as ‘provide a
right of way for active transport’ and ‘support efficient active transport’, the WDA would have
yielded a systems view of how ATI is currently implemented – to accommodate these functions
within the roadway corridor. Through the inclusion and analysis of the potential functions of
ATI, in line with best practice, safety and user experience, the research brings together a means
to understand the interfaces and possible outcomes for achieving sustainable active transport.
The important and complex relationships and interdependencies between these functional
purposes are established when considering the below levels of values and priority measures;
purpose related functions; physical affordances; and physical objects. It is interesting to note
that the five functional purposes described at this level may not necessarily be compatible; that
is, it is questionable whether ATI designs can fulfil these purposes without some trade-offs.

Values and priority measures

Values and priority measures are positioned on the second level of the WDA and outlines the
criteria against which to evaluate the achievement of the systems functional purposes. That is,
do these inclusions provide an indication of how the functional purposes are being achieved?
For example, in this ATI system ‘maximise comfort’ is an important value and priority measure
for the delivery of ‘high quality active transport experience’. In turn, ‘maximise wayfinding’ is
one of ten purpose related functions (next level down) which are required in the system to
maximise comfort. Further ‘maximise wayfinding’ is achieved through six object related
processes that are enabled by a variety of physical objects within the footpath. In the WDA
system described here the object related processes and their associated physical objects (in
brackets) to ‘maximise wayfinding’ include: ‘provide stop/go information’ (traffic signals,
regulatory signage); ‘landmarks’ (public art, trees, building setbacks, community archive and
knowledge); ‘footpath illumination’ (pedestrian lighting); and ‘provides wayfinding
information’ (road markings, cycle lane markings, regulatory signage, street name signage,
information signage, tactile surface markers, building number signage) – all necessary processes
and objects for maximising wayfinding.
For another example, when considering the value and priority measure of ‘maximise actual
safety’ it is important in this systems approach to be able to offers means by which it may be
achieved. It makes sense then that ‘maximising actual safety’ has connections with purpose
related functions such as: provide protection for the travel-way; maximise lighting; minimise
obstacles and debris; minimise changes in grade; maintain separation of pedestrians, cyclists
and motor vehicles; maximise through zone clearances; minimise crime; provide warnings;
design in consideration of the traffic context; maximise quality of the design; and corridor
maintenance. These are all sound and adequate indicators of the level of actual safety, in turn
supported by object related processes and the objects themselves.

Purpose-related functions

The purpose related functions sit at the middle level of the abstraction hierarchy. This level may
be considered to represent the functions that need to be achieved for the system to fulfil its
purpose. It is the crucial link between the independent objects and their related processes at the
bottom of the hierarchy with the more purpose orientated concepts above. As such the use of the
‘means ends’ relationships are of significant value here for identifying the interfaces within the
system. In the design context, this level represents design and end-user requirements in that they
describe what functions need to be supported through design.
For example if it is considered that the purpose related function (minimise obstacles and
debris) is the question ‘what’, and the values and priority measures (maximise perceived safety,
336

maximise actual safety, and maximise subjective experience) are the question ‘why’, then the
object related processes provide ‘how’ – prevents roadway water entering footpath, provide bike
storage, protects and contains vegetation, stores litter and debris, provide surface for objects,
provide access, store information on maintenance procedures.

Object related processes (physical affordances)

The physical affordances of the objects within the system relate to the ability of them to enable
or aid a function. The description of these object related processes are such that they are generic
and not a reflection of the active transport infrastructure system purposes. When linking the
objects to their affordances it is evident that the object related purposes are often afforded by
multiple objects. For example ‘provide shelter’ is an affordance of ‘trees’, ‘awnings’, and
‘public transit stop’. While objects which offer the affordance of a ‘landmark’ may also include
‘trees’ the affordance is also offered by ‘public art’ and ‘building setbacks’ in this WDA.

Physical objects

At the base of the AH the physical objects that comprise the active transport infrastructure
system are detailed. At this level the objects, where possible, have been represented within the
footpath zone in which they occur, and in Figure 3 are summarised as such. This is useful when
considering the urban form and socio-spatial aspect of the system and the relationships between
physical objects and the interface to the built form and (transport task) roadway contexts.
Within the summary WDA there is an addition grouping of objects, which are important
components of the ATI system that are not physically located within it. For example road rules;
planning regulations; budget and engineering standards are crucial objects within the system,
yet physically exist elsewhere. Key to this systems understanding is the recognition that many
physical objects fulfil multiple affordances and so contribute to various purpose-related
functions. For example a ‘planter boxes’ not only relates to the affordance ‘protect and contain
vegetation’, but may also act as ‘physical buffers or barriers’ and ‘psychological buffer between
the travel way and pedestrians’.

Discussion

The aim of this article was to demonstrate how CWA may provide a design template that will
contribute to the design of more appropriate; safer and user orientated active transport
infrastructure. It details a unique approach whereby it is possible to better understand the
contributions that active transport infrastructure may make in operationalising hierarchy of best
practice sustainable transport in existing urban corridors.
The analysis presented demonstrates the possibilities for the design of ATI that is context
sensitive, well-engineered and that also contributes to the subjective experience of pedestrians
and cyclists, possibly allowing for greater participation. Through constructing a generic WDA
for ATI, this paper has provided a novel design template that may be used to inform the
establishment of ATI. Additionally it is also useful to evaluate the extent to which existing ATI
within urban corridors achieves anticipated and essential functional requirements.
A key contribution of this method, is that because the overall ATI ‘system’ is considered, it
is possible to introduce different design features and then evaluate them in the context of their
interactions with other parts of the corridor and thus their impact on the overall system itself.
For example, in future design efforts one could introduce new objects in the AH and examine
the means-ends links with functions, values and priorities, and the systems functional purpose.
The analysis presented also reveals the significant influence of the many objects that are not
physically contained within the actual footpath environment, such as planning regulation,
 337

maintenance and design standards, and significantly for urban form and design the community
archive and knowledge.
This study has allowed a clearer understanding of the contributions that physical objects,
both within and beyond the urban corridor, make to the establishment of a leading practice ATI.
Further it highlights the interdependency of many issues that have historically been managed in
isolation and within discipline areas. For example, the engineering aspects of ATI are largely
not expected to contribute to subjective user experience, and the urban design guidance on
active transport and public urban environments has often relied on outlining principles without
practical direction. This whole of system approach to ATI will enable consideration of this
interdependency in future design efforts.
This paper identifies the usefulness of a systems approach in accessing disparate concepts.
This system allows for an understanding of the interdependencies of intertwined functional
purposes. It allows for multiple disciplines and indeed stakeholders to recognise their place
within the system, and the impacts and influences of design decision-making. It makes sense
that a systems approach allows for greater insights into the development of urban form. While
this method has been applied to the socio-technical system of ATI, it is envisaged as a useful
tool for a range of urban environments. Urban planning needs new ways to interpret built
environments and urban form as not only technical systems, but often poorly understood (and
designed) socio-spatial systems. Further research in which CWA is applied in urban design
applications is therefore recommended.

Future Research

The application of the additional phases of CWA will assist in understanding how to best
accommodate a variety of uses and users in ATI. Phases 2, 3, 4, and 5 of the framework
consider important aspects of performance such as decision making, strategies, and allocation of
functions and are important in determining how specific active transport infrastructure designs
might shape pedestrian, cyclist, and motor vehicle behaviour. These stages will detail the types
of activity permitted in different ATI designs and local considerations and contexts that impact
on placement of physical objects and overall active transport infrastructure capacity. Further,
allocation of functions across different physical objects will also be examined (for example,
whether warnings should be provided to users via road and footpath markings or by signage).
As a preliminary study, this research will now be further extended in an application to an
actual circumstance of ATI and assess the extent to which the current design fits the
characteristics identified in the WDA model.

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The Evolution of Urban Form

Analysing urban forms almost always involves a time dimension since human societies
are not static. There were dramatic changes in town plans in the 12th and 13th centuries
in European cities. Architects rediscovered geometrical techniques that had been lost
since Roman times and applied them to both buildings and town plans. At the same
time, and on a different scale, more stable building materials came into use (timber-
framing and brick) which enabled buildings to survive for much longer time periods so
that it was economically sensible to adapt them rather than rebuild. With the industrial
revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries European cities grew rapidly and new house
forms were developed to provide cheap housing for industrial workers. City centres
were re-planned, adapted and rebuilt to provide greater functional utility. At the same
time a multiplicity of new building types were developed to cater for new functions:
from banks to prisons and shopping arcades to city halls. From the 17th to the 19th
centuries European economies were extending their reach to new colonial territories and
‘exporting’ urban layouts to provide the necessary central-place and military functions,
and the entrepôt economic functions, necessary in these colonial territories. Most of
these new urban places were based on grid street patterns and common plot sizes and
growth was demarcated by grid extensions, not always in congruence with their
predecessors, based on underlying land-ownership patterns. The end of the 19th century
saw a new morphological period develop in many parts of the world with low-density
housing layouts characterising much of the Anglophone world and much higher density
apartment blocks in other parts of the world. In city centres technological innovations
led to taller office towers and the pace of morphological change at all scales became
more rapid. In many city centres the life of buildings from new-built to demolition and
redevelopment could be as short as 25 years, whilst concentration of capital resources
has meant that huge developments can wipe out a thousand years of an intricate town
plan and replace it with layouts lacking any historicity. Urban morphologists are still
struggling to get to grips with the scale of some of these modern changes and integrate
them into their models of townscape change.

Terry R Slater
344

Polish city from Conzenian perspective – fringe belt

phenomenon in Toruń

Magdalena Deptuła
Department of Political Geography and Regional Studies, University of Łódź, ul.
Kopcińskiego 31, 90-142 Łódź, Poland. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. The fringe belt idea is one of the most important concepts of urban morphology originating
from Conzenian tradition. Being developed through over half a century it significantly evolved becoming
not only an integral part of detailed town plan analysis but also a tool for synthetic comparisons of towns
and cities of different regions and cultural contexts. In current literature on the subject a great attention
is paid, among the others, on the influence of various processes, especially those resulting from
different political and economic systems and ideologies, on patterns of fringe belt development. An
often raised question is also the role of fortification systems in the process of fringe belt formation. The
analysis of fringe belt phenomenon in the city of Toruń makes it possible to take an attitude towards
above-mentioned issues in relation to Polish conditions. As an important political and administrative
urban centre of medieval genesis Toruń experienced turbulent history, which was not indifferent to its
urban structure. This paper seeks to outline how the following morphological periods, especially
partitions of Poland, when Toruń was transformed into an important Prussian stronghold with double
fortification zone, but also socialism period with associating it industrialization and controlled
urbanization, influenced the specificity of fringe belt in Toruń.

Key Words: fringe belt, fixation lines, historical development, Toruń, Poland

The fringe belt concept is the subject of numerous studies on urban form around the world.
Examinations of fringe belts undertaken in many foreign research centers contribute to the
dissemination of the idea and confirm its validity in relation to cities developing in different
social and political conditions and different urban culture, irrespective of their size, genesis and
function. At the same time they present how different developmental conditions influence the
diversity of fringe belts in terms of their number, scale, structure and distribution in urban space.
In Poland however, despite of a large interest of Conzen’s school of thought, fringe belt concept
has not, by now, been undertaken in native morphological studies. The only attempt of fringe
belt analysis was the one of Terry Slater who in 1989 presented the town plan analysis of Lublin
and characterized its inner and outer fringe belt for the year of 1762. Present study is therefore
the second attempt to present the fringe belt phenomenon in Polish conditions, however the
attention is drawn on its specificity resulting mainly from historically unstable political situation
of Poland as a consequence of wars, Poland partitions and domination of communism system in
post-war period. This conditions had direct influence on Polish cities which were mostly
developed in isolation from the classical mechanisms of market economy, bid rent theory and
decision processes that shaped the cities in the states of capitalist system. Therefore the main
research purpose of the study is to present the specificity of fringe belt in the Polish city Toruń
which has developed in a different cultural context and political, social and economic
conditions, but most of all experienced the disturbed historical continuity of its spatial
development.
 345

Toruń

The detailed fringe belt examination requires a thorough analysis of the city, recognition of the
stages of its historical development, its morphogenetic and functional structure, and
understanding the processes underlying the changes of its spatial layout.
Toruń, which is now an important academic, cultural and economic center in Poland, with
population over 204 thousands people and area of about 116 km2, is a historical riverside port
city situated on both sites of Vistula river, on contact point of two historical regions: Pomerania
(right-bank part of the city) and Kujawy (left-bank part of the city). It is the one of the oldest
cities of contemporary Poland and the first one founded by Teutonic Knights. Civic rights Toruń
received in 1233. Being situated on the cross-point of main trade routes from Silesia,
Wielkopolska, and Mazovia, in the place of passage through Vistula river, Toruń developed
quickly as a main intermediary in trade with Eastern Europe, and became a well known
Hanzeatic city. The choice of Toruń for the study of fringe belt was driven by a number of
factors, both favorable and unfavorable for fringe belt formation, namely:
1. Toruń is a medieval city with distinct fixation lines (both anthropogenic and natural), which
over the centuries experienced alternating periods of unusual dynamics of economic
development as well as economic stagnation, what according to classic view of concept creates
favorable conditions for fringe belts formation;
2. Since its beginnings Toruń played a significant defending role, which increased mainly
during the time of Poland’s partitions when Toruń became a part of Prussia. Prussian invader
transformed the city into an important fortress on the border with Russia. The spatial reflection
of this new function was the characteristic double fortification system: inner (surrounding the
old core) and outer (located in a distance of 3-4 km from the old town) (Figure 1), but also a
large scale of military development, which consequently restrained spatial development of the
city;

Figure 1. Toruń fortress in 1889 with double (inner and outer) fortification system
(Biskup, 2003).
346

3. Toruń during its history experienced multiple and severe destructions of its suburbs, starting
from Swedish wars and construction of modern fortification system in 17th century, and ending
with the construction of the Prussian fortress in 19th century which finally put the end to any
traces of the former layout and buildings of the historic suburbs and obliterated the readability
of its morphogenesis. Through over 800 years of its existence it also experienced the changes of
its political membership – 223 years under Teutonic rule (1231-1454), 339 years within Polish
state (1454-1793), 127 years under Prussian rule (1793-1920), and 88 years under Polish rules
(1920-1939, 1945-2013). This lack of continuity of its historical development differentiates
Toruń from most of cities subjected to fringe belt examination.
4. Moreover, unlike cities of western Europe, Toruń for a long period of its history has
experienced controlled development, especially in the time of Prussian jurisdiction in 19 th
century, when Toruń was transformed into stronghold, but also in postwar period when Poland
become a communist country subordinated to Soviet Russia authority and Toruń, as well as
other Polish cities, experienced the functionalization of space as a result of socialism spatial
planning, controlled urbanization and accelerated industrialization, which significantly
increased the gap between Polish cities and Western European cities subjected to fringe belt
examination.
It is also worthy to emphasize some characteristic elements of Toruń’s spatial layout,
namely: 1) the clear isolation of medieval core from extramural, relatively young suburbs,
mainly from 19th and 20th century and 2) chronologically disturbed sequence of subsequent
residential accretions – in the immediate vicinity of the old core one can find the residential
buildings of the youngest genesis, mainly from 20th century, whereas further away occur the
oldest 19th century residential buildings. The lack of hierarchical system of following residential
zones and the lack of significant density of 19th century buildings around the medieval core are
the result of, mentioned before, numerous and severe suburbs destructions. Moreover in 1813,
in the place of former suburbs, the Prussian building restrictions were imposed, which until the
end of 19th century prevented the spatial development of the city, at the same time favored the
expansion of military land use types.
Similarly the essential communication network system of the city began to form relatively
late – in second half of the 19th century. The contemporary road network has developed on the
trace of the historical system of medieval exit roads as well as Prussian fortress roads – access
roads and detours – which with time became a public roads joining suburbs. During the interwar
period the steps in the construction of new roads were continued by Polish planners, and their
main aim was to connect spatially isolated suburbs. Those actions resulted in formation of a
road system which for subsequent years determined the trends in development of the suburbs,
residential areas, squares, etc.
The construction of railway connections brought the qualitative change to the
communication network system. The first rail connection (between Berlin and Warsaw) Torun
received in 1862. Until the beginning of the 20th century the city was already connected with
Grudziądz, Malbork nad Lubicz. The construction of railway system has played a significant
role in shaping the spatial and functional structure of the city. The railway station was located
on the left-bank site of the city, what stimulated the further formation of the junction in this
area, intensified the construction works and transformed the character of this part of the
city from rural into suburb of workers and offices. On the other hand the course of the
traction in the eastern part of the right-bank site of the city formed a barrier which
spatially isolated the urbanized area from adjoining rural lands and, in the postwar
period, determined the construction of a huge industry sector.
Having in mind a historic-geographical development of Toruń so distinctive from
most of the cities subjected to fringe belts research studies, Toruń seems to be an
appropriate case study for analysis of this type.
 347

Sources

The examination of fringe belt in Toruń was based on town plans analysis and included
reconstruction of historical development of the city based on comparison and analysis of
sequence of historical plans supplemented by information from archive sources and research
literature. The oldest preserved cartographic sources for Toruń originate from 1620s – the time
of first Swedish war, however they only present a project of fortification system and do not give
any information about the spatial layout of an old town or its suburbs. The value for fringe belt
studies in Toruń have only plans starting from the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th
century, especially Douglas plan from 1793, Staudie and Gruetzmacher plan from 1816, and
latter plans from 1873, 1903, 1907, 1921, 1939, up to postwar plans from 1973, 1983, 1999 and
2012. Most of the 19th century plans and interwar plans are small and medium scale maps,
which provide the information about land utilization, sometimes block patterns, but almost no
information about the plot patterns. Most of the postwar plans present the land utilization,
block-plans and plot patterns. Having in mind this constrains the fringe belt examination in
Toruń was carried out on block-pattern.
An useful supplement for the research were numerous studies, which reconstruct and
describe the spatial development of the city in different historical periods, namely Tandecki
(1995), Mikulski (1998, 1999), Biskup (1999, 2003, 2006), Gregorkiewicz (1967, 1974),
Rymaszewski (1970), Tłoczek (1971), Kwiatkowska (1973), Niedzielska (1997).

Morphological periods

The historical evolution of the spatial structure of the city and the specificity of the
morphological elements made it possible to distinguish five morphological periods fundamental
for development of fringe belt components in Toruń, namely: 1) Middle Ages, 2) the modern
times with an emphasis on period of Poland’s partitions, 3) interwar period, 4) socialism period,
and 5) contemporary period, started with political transformation of 1989.
The first period, referred to as initial, presents the stages of development of the Old Town
and suburban areas of Toruń. During this time in the intramural and extramural part of the city
the first extensive land uses occurred, namely monasteries, cemeteries, tanneries, mills and
brickyards. Their peripheral location resulted mainly from limited area of the old town, but also
from sanitary reasons, such as nuisance of production profile.
The second period covers the time of ‘Prussian Toruń’ and is considered twofold – in the
context of the transformation of the city caused by the construction of the Prussian fortress (the
role of double fortification system and Prussian building restrictions as a major fixation lines in
fringe belts formation), and in the context of the spatial expansion of the city in the second half
of the 19th century as a consequence of partial liquidation of outdated medieval and modern
fortifications, gradual development of the inner fringe belt in the area of post-fortification zone,
growth of the suburbs and creation of areas of tenement houses.
The interwar period was associated with further liquidation of the inner fortification system
in Toruń, in place of which the new fringe belt land used occurred. At the same time further
expansion of suburbs took place, where, apart from country houses and tenement houses, the
single-family housing of villa character has developed. The process of suburbs connection
begun (stimulated by Polish authorities), which was continued in the following years. The
administrative area of the city was significantly extended (including the inclusion of left-bank
suburbs into administrative boundaries of the city in 1936).
The establishment of the Polish People’s Republic opens the fourth morphological period,
when the spatial development of the city was subordinated to the unified spatial planning policy.
It had its reflection in both: 1) transformation of the structure of existing fringe belts, as well as
2) creation of new fringe belts components dominated mainly by industrial function. In the
sphere of housing construction, the development and metamorphosis of an earlier forms occurs,
enriched with the elements of multi-storey socialist buildings. As a result of accelerated
348

industrialization, the rapid population growth, the development of the eastern suburbs and the
expansion of the left bank site of the city took place. Simultaneously with the development of
the technical and social infrastructure of Toruń, the process of filling with buildings of the
empty spaces inside the city progressed, but also further connection of the suburbs and
territorial development of Toruń occurred.
The last changes in the spatial structure of Toruń were initiated by political transformation of
the 1989. The turn of the 20th and 21st century is characterized by the construction of large
housing estates of single-family houses on the outskirts of the city, both right- and left-bank part
of it, as well as further process of gaps filling spatial structure of Toruń. In the vicinity of the
existing fringe belt, the new, specialized forms of development occurs.
Each of these morphological periods, which are in general relevant to most of Polish cities,
has left in the spatial structure of Toruń a clear traces in the shape of extensive fringe belt land
uses fulfilling the specialized functions. Obviously the scale and specificity of investments
located in the actual fringe belt of the city were different in each morphological period. They
were a consequence of functional structure of the city in different periods of urban development,
the duration of each period, but also they reflected the actual socio-economic and political
situation of the country. Not always therefore, the location of extensive development in fringe
belt zone in subsequent morphological period, initiated the development of separate fringe belt.
However it needs to be emphasized that in terms of the intensity of development and the
specificity of fringe belt phenomenon formed in the spatial structure of Toruń two
morphological periods are worthy special attention, namely 1) the period of partitions and 2) the
period of Polish People’s Republic, which at the same time emphasize the diversity of
development of Polish cities with respect to their Western counterparts. Fringe belts formed in
the time of partitions are characterized by relatively large spatial scope conditioned by the
policy of the invader’s authorities and the long time in which Poland was deprived of
sovereignty. This period, in accordance with M.R.G. Conzen terminology, can be considered as
formation phase. Fringe belts developed at that time formed the relatively sustainable basis
attracting further specialized land uses of an equally extensive character, but younger genesis.
Similarly, the analysis of the development of the spatial structure of Toruń in the communism
period, allows to draw a conclusion, that through the establishment of functionalization of
spatial development, it was a time conducive to growth of fringe belt components in the urban
peripheries. Political changes and soviet ideology has found its reflection in spatial planning of
Toruń, expressed in following plans of spatial development. Gradually a huge residential zones
of blocks of flats, but also industrial and storage complexes, have dominated its landscape. As a
result of individual, micro- and macro-scale decisions, accelerated industrialization and a
tendency to zoning of the urban space, the new investments have been located on the outskirts
of the city, in the former Prussian isolation wedges and fallow lands, and created new, or
replaced an old fringe belt land uses. A great example is the peripheral localization of a huge
plants of synthetic fibers, situated outside the city, however in close proximity to the outer
bastion fortification system. It is also worthy to emphasize, that fringe belt components formed
in communism time in Toruń, are creating a specific functional zones in the spatial structure of
the city and are characterized by a number of developmental and structural differences
comparing to classic model of fringe belt. However in the urban space they mark the lands of
lower building density and indicate the former outskirts of the city.

Fringe belts in Toruń

Conducted research, based on town plan analysis of Toruń and reconstruction of its historical
development, made it possible to identify two fringe belts in its spatial structure. The result of
the research present three maps: first one, showing the general view of fringe belts in Toruń
(Figure 2), second map presenting the genesis of preserved fringe belt components (Figure 3)
and third one, indicating the actual land use types within fringe belts (Figure 4).
 349

Figure 2. Fringe belts in Toruń, 2012.

Figure 3. Genesis of preserved fringe belt components in Torun.

350

Figure 4. Fringe belts land uses in Torun.

As a starting point for discussion on the number and size of fringe belt in Toruń the thesis of
Michael Conzen was adopted where he states that the number and size of fringe belts appear to
be related to the size and growth history of towns and cities (Conzen, 2009, p. 42). The detailed
analysis of spatial development of Toruń seems to confirm this thesis only partially. Toruń,
despite of its size has developed only two fringe belts, which is not too many comparing to case
studies subjected to fringe belt analysis so far (e.g. Alnwick). At the same time the total size of
fringe belts in Toruń is quite significant (together the inner and outer fringe belts cover about 35
km2). However this apparently disturbed proportions can be easily explained by recalling of
historical events, that decided about the paths of spatial development of Toruń.

Inner fringe belt

The inner fringe belt of Toruń has started to form in medieval times together with peripheral
location of specialized, extensive and heterogeneous land uses, like monasteries, cemeteries,
hospitals, tanneries and others. However due to suburb’s demolitions in different historical
periods, all of the extramural fringe belt land uses were razed to the ground. The only medieval
fringe belt components have survived in the intramural part of the city and are represented by
the sites of the castle and its surrounding, and also former monasteries (Franciscans,
Dominicans and Cistercians). An important role in inner fringe belt formation in Toruń has
played the inner fortification system which has survived in the spatial structure of the city until
the turn of the 19th and 20th century. The post-fortification zone was occupied by specialized
fringe belt land uses, mainly of institutional and open character, which together with the
intramural fringe belt components formed a inner fringe belt. Besides the role of the fortification
system in the formation of inner fringe belt, also the influence of the decision making processes
should be mentioned, among which the essential influence had the introduction of the Prussian
building restrictions in the foreground of the fortress. As a result of that, the extramural part of
the city was colonized by the military land uses, in shape of military barracks, military exercises
fields and associated infrastructure. These land uses only partially have survived in the city
landscape, however it influenced the extensive character of the contemporary inner fringe belt.
 351

Moreover the inner fringe belt formation, was also influenced by the 19th century planning
innovation together with the construction of so called ‘ring’ with dominant institutional
development, and continued in the interwar period under a new name planty.
The inner fringe belt of Toruń has many features reminding of the classic inner fringe belt in
Conzenian meaning of the concept. It is characterized by a concentric, compact composition,
large spatial coverage and diversified types of land use, mainly open lands, public utility and
institutions. It forms a distinct pause in the spatial structure of the city, emphasizes the
specificity of former fortification zone and separates residential zones of different genesis.

Outer fringe belt

However the specificity of Toruń emphasizes its outer fringe belt. It has started to form in the
second half of 19th century along the fixation line in the shape of 19th century outer bastion
fortification system, which is an example of military innovation designed in a large distance not
only from the old town, but also from 19th century suburbs. Along this axis, starting from 19th
century, and with intensification in after-war period, during the time of Polish People’s
Republic, the specialized, extensive fringe belt land uses accreted, contributing to spatial
expansion of fringe belt and strengthening its distinctness towards surrounding lands. Therefore
it needs to emphasized that fringe belt components form socialism period did not formed a
separate fringe belt, but only enhanced the existing one. From most of the case studies subjected
to research of this type Toruń outer fringe belt is distinguished by its large spatial scope of about
30 km2, but also its general concentric composition with simultaneous occurrence of wedge
futures, which are the consequence of Prussian authorities policy (e.g. Prussian isolation
wedges) either the socialist power (e.g. eastern industrial district). What is characteristic, the
process of outer fringe belt formation, which has started during times of Prussian annexation,
still continues, what can explain its large spatial scope and diverse morphogenetic structure of
its components. This fringe belt has not, by now, been surrounded by dense residential zone,
which would cut it off from adjoining rural lands and forests, enabling fringe belt from further
expansion. This is not however the result of a slow dynamics of spatial development of the city,
but its mostly centripetal development, caused by the existence of large open lands reserve
released from former military development. This specificity of spatial development of the city
created the situation where outer fringe belt of Toruń does reflect the pause in the spatial
development of the city, but in the same time it does not separate the residential zones of
different genesis in the classical meaning of the fringe belt concept. It surrounds the extensive
residential zone, that creates a morphogenetic mosaic, distorted in terms of chronology of
following accretions.

Conclusions

The conducted research has proved the existence of fringe belts in Toruń despite of disturbed
historical continuity of its spatial development. At the same time it indicated some similarities
and differences between fringe belts formed in Toruń and fringe belts in classic model of
phenomenon. Similarities concern the types of land uses and its specificity. Fringe belts in
Toruń include mainly open lands, institutions, industry storage and public utility lands (together
with transport), which are characterized by extensive kinds of development, relatively large
plots and low permeability for vehicular traffic (Figure 5). Their common feature is a tendency
to peripheral location on different historical stages of city’s spatial development, therefore the
fringe belts of Toruń reflect former and contemporary outskirts of the city. They are
characterized by considerable degree of sustainability and reveal the strong spatial relation with
fixation lines among which the long-term anthropogenic fixation lines, in a shape of fortification
system, played the major role. Being an important barrier for free spatial expansion of the city
352

those two fortification systems have attracted extensive land uses originally mainly of military
function which become a foundation for further fringe belt formation in following
morphological periods.

Figure 5. Percentage of specialized land uses of fringe belts in Toruń.

However, despite of many similarities with classic model of concept fringe belt in Toruń
differ from most of case studies subjected to researches of that type. Those differences refer
mainly to the general arrangement of the phenomenon, the number of fringe belts and its spatial
scope, and result mainly form different history, cultural traditions, political and socio-economic
conditions. At the same time fringe belts of Toruń reflect its individual character, specificity
functional structure of the city and influence of the various threshold conditions (fixation lines).
Cities are in fact units of such a complexity that even strong similarities occurring
between them, in terms of specificity and arrangement of fringe belt components
reflecting successive morphological periods, do not obliterate their individual character.

References

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Toruń).
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Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika, Toruń).
Biskup, M. (ed.), 2006, Historia Torunia. W czasach Polski Odrodzonej i okupacji niemieckiej
(19201945) (tom III, cz. II, Uniwersytet Mikołaja Kopernika, Toruń).
Conzen, M. P. (2009) ‘How cities internalize their former urban fringes: A cross-cultural
Comparison’, Urban Morphology 13, 29-54.
Gregorkiewicz, K. (1967) ‘Urbanistyczny rozwój Torunia do 1980 roku’, Rocznik Toruński 2, 5-42.
Gregorkiewicz, K. (1974) ‘Toruń w planach zagospodarowania przestrzennego w XXX-leciu
Polski Ludowej’, Rocznik Toruński 9, 55-73.
Kwiatkowska, E. (1973) ‘Rozwój przestrzenny Torunia’, Acta Universitatis Nicolai Copernici,
Geografia X, Nauki Matematyczno-Przyrodnicze 33, 187-207.
Mikulski, K. (1998) ‘Topografia przedmieść toruńskich w XIV – XVII wieku’, Zapiski Historyczne, t.
LXII, z. 3-4.
Mikulski, K. (1999) Przestrzeń i społeczeństwo Torunia od końca XIV do początku XVIII Wieku
(Wyd. Uniwersytetu Mikołaj Kopernika, Toruń).
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Rymaszewski, B. (1970) ‘Geneza i rozwój przestrzenny miasta’, Rocznik Toruński 4.
Slater, T. R. (1989) ‘Medieval and Renaissance urban morphogenesis in eastern Poland’, Journal of
Historical Geography 15, 239-59.
Tandecki, J. (1995) ‘Toruń. Historia i układ przestrzenny’, in Czacharowski, A. (ed.) Atlas historyczny
miast polskich, t. I: Prusy Królewskie i Warmia, z. 2: Toruń, Toruń.
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 353

Urban Evolution analysis as a means to confirm an

outstanding example of a traditional human settlement in
Rabat

Simone Marques de Sousa Safe, Staël de Alvarenga Pereira Costa

MACPS Escola de Arquitetura Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte,
MG, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected].

Abstract. Rabat, capital of Morocco, received in 2012 a UNESCO World Heritage title for representing
a modern urban planning model that incorporates the country´s culture as it integrates its historical
nucleus. Nonetheless, criterion (v) - to be an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement,
land-use or sea-use which is representative of a culture (or cultures), or human interaction with the
environment - has not been justified because the group presented seemed to be fragmented and showed
lack of relationship between property and environment. This study considers to be an outstanding
example of a traditional human settlement, the kasbah of Oudayas alone instead of the group presented in
2012. The aim of this study is to investigate the evolution of urban Rabat according to the morphological
periods of developments, in order to reveal the historic areas in which the city has evolved over time, and
ascertain whether or not it can confirm the kasbah as the most representative Islamic nucleus. The paper
is useful for practitioners and academics in the fields of urban morphology and heritage, as much as for
States Parties interested on applying to becoming part of the UNESCO´s World Heritage list. The
research provides some initial insight into how to investigate outstanding traditional human settlements
and reveal their values. The approach adopted in this work demonstrates how the application and
dissemination of a methodology may open new perspectives for studies on the subject.

Key Words: English school of urban morphology; urban evolution; UNESCO world heritage; Rabat.

Introduction

The Kingdom of Morocco holds nine cultural properties protected as World Heritage by
UNESCO. The newest is Rabat (capital), for its symbolism and diversity of traditions related to
cultural property of populations.
Rabat is located in the northwest part of the country. It stands at the northeastern Atlantic
Ocean coast at the Bouregreg River outfall, facing Salé, considered its "twin" city. The
following maps present the geographical situation of Rabat.

Figure 1. Geographical situation of Rabat (source: Rabat´s Culture Ministry -UNESCO´s

complete report: Rabat, Modern Capital and Historic City: a Shared Heritage. January,
2011 & Etude du schema d’organisation fonctionnelle et d’amenagement Casablanca-
Rabat, 2005).
354

In order to be included in the World Heritage List, the sites must present outstanding
universal value and fulfill at least one of the ten selection criteria established by UNESCO 37.
Information hereby presented is part of the report produced by Kingdom of Morocco and
delivered to UNESCO in 2011 to have its patrimony enrolled and evaluated. Rabat fulfilled
criteria (ii) and (iv), according to ICOMOS38 1401 report: criterion (ii): to exhibit an important
interchange of human values, over a span of time or within a cultural area of the world, on
developments in architecture or technology, monumental arts, town-planning or landscape
design; criterion (iv): to be an outstanding example of a type of building, architectural or
technological ensemble or landscape which illustrates (a) significant stage(s) in human history.
Those criterions were justified by the fact that Rabat has been considered an unique example of
a modernist capital in the 20th century, a legacy of diverse and successive cultures. Such
occupation shows evidence of continuity by its traces from various periods of time and also for
the presence of monuments which reflects African, Mediterranean, Eastern and European
cultures. As a result from European and Moroccan elements, the site acquired distinct character.
Its capacity to demonstrate the lasting historical, cultural and social co-existence on the urban
landscape shows the site Genius Loci.
Criterion (v) - be an outstanding example of a traditional human settlement, land-use or sea-
use which is representative of a culture (or cultures), or human interaction with the environment
especially when it has become vulnerable under the impact of irreversible - was not considered
justified, as indicated by the 1401 ICOMOS evaluation. The presented ensemble - the Roman
city of Sala, the royal necropolis of Chellah, the Hassan Mosque, the Kasbah of Oudayas, the
medina of Rabat and the modern city - bears insufficient testimony to its relationship with a
territory in which they operate, according to the evaluation. It was also considered fragmented,
sometimes on a very small scale, which showed privileged relationship with a particular
environment.
This paper proposes the kasbah of Oudayas as being the most traditional Islamic urban core
in Rabat, Morocco. It investigates the urban morphological process in order to confirm this site
as a World Heritage fifth criterion (v) candidate.
The Kasbah of Oudayas presents occupation by a majority of lower-middle class. Several
interventions without authorization, lack of maintenance, examples of degradation and some
abandoned buildings reflect on the built space in 2014. The kasbah´s administration is made by
the Bouregreg Agency since 2007, which is still elaborating solid instruments to manage this
site. Being able to rely on an estimated budget for the conservation of this heritage, combined
with strategies for heritage education with community involvement are possibilities that expand
with the indication of such individual site as a world heritage.
Urban evolution study is the method proposed by the English School of Urban Morphology,
which is used to investigate the urban process of Rabat. It seeks to demonstrate the relationship
of the cultural property with its territory by detecting the morphological periods of urban
development.
Morphological periods were identified based on historical references and on the Dr. Es-
Semmar (director of patrimony of Bouregreg Agency) research about the urban evolution of
Rabat-Salé over the past twenty-five centuries. Maps from the Rabat Master Plan were also used
for better comprehension of the contemporary urban structure.
Following the study of the urban evolution of Rabat.

37
The list which holds the ten criterions can be found at UNESCO’s website:
http://whc.unesco.org/en/criteria/ and they are explained at Operational Guidelines for the
Implementation of the World Heritage Convention.
38
International Council on Monuments and Sites.
 355

The urban evolution of Rabat

The morphological study is based on historical and evolutionary periods, that should be
differentiated according to Conzen (2004). Pereira Costa and Gimmler Netto (2013) define
historical periods as those demarcated by facts, in which it is possible to settle dates like reigns,
empires, and republican periods among others. In addition, evolutionary periods represent the
synthesis between historical facts and materialized innovations into the urban landscape,
defining formal characteristics. Such innovation could represent a start or an ending of an
economical, social, political or/and cultural aspects, and are identified by specific formal
characteristics.
In 2013, the same methodology was adopted in the city of Ouro Preto, Minas Gerais, by
Staël de Alvarenga Pereira Costa et al, at landscape Laboratory EA/UFMG and it is a reference
for this article. Based on this understanding, we have made the analysis to define the
morphological periods in Rabat.
In Morocco, the historical periods considered relevant are: A - the period before the
islamization (C5th b.C to C3rd); B - the Berbers influence (681 to 1554) and C - the Arabian
influence (1554 to 2014).
Each era possesses political administration that forced changes within social life. In Rabat-
Salé, during period A, three occupations were present: the Phoenicians, the Carthaginians and
the Romans. Period B started with the Almoravids Empire (1100-1150), in sequence follows the
Almohads (C11th to C12th) and the Merinids dynasty (C13th century to C16th). During period C,
there were two major dynasties in power: the Saadian (1554 to 1650) and the Alaouite (1636 to
2014).

Figure 2. Board with morphological periods of Rabat (source: Conceived by the authors
based on historical bibliography. April, 2014).
356

Twelve evolutionary periods were detected based on innovations and evolutions on the urban
landscape of Rabat-Salé:
The Phoenicians, the Carthaginians and the Roman Empire - Sala Colonia (C5th b.C - C3rd)
The Almoravid Empire (C10th to C12th)
The Almohad Empire: 1st Caliph Abdelmoumen (1150 -1163)
The Almohad Empire: 2nd Caliph Youssef (1163) and 3rd Caliph Yacoub Al Mansur (1187)
The Merinids dynasty (1253-1609)
The Saadian dynasty - the Moors period (1609-1666)
The Alaouite dynasty - Golden Age (1666-1727)
The Alaouite dynasty - Expansion and Consolidation (1757-1912)
The French Protectorate - Rabat capital (1912-1956)
The Alaouite dynasty - Independency (1956-1972)
The Alaouite dynasty - Rabat-Sale Master Plan 1971-72 (1972-1990)
The Alaouite dynasty - Rabat-Sale Master Plan 1995 (1990-2014)
The morphological periods represent the synthesis between each historical and evolutionary
period. Rabat’s morphological periods synthesis are presented on the table below:

Morphological periods of Rabat

The morphological periods of Rabat are presented on three methodological basis, respectively
related to the historical, evolutionary and morphological periods: historical event, innovation
and urban form. These periods reveal the city of Rabat.
However, along to the sequence of morphological periods, a general introduction concerning
the Kingdom of Morocco will be presented together with each historical period (before
islamization, berbers and arabians).
Therefore, we begin with an introduction of the first historical period, followed by the first
morphological period.

A – Before “islamization” (5th century b.C – 3rd century): Phoenicians, Carthaginians and
Romans

Two Phoenician colonies of the nowadays Kingdom of Morocco - Lixus (Larache), in the north,
and Mogador (Essaouira), in the south - made the connection route between North Africa and
Spain while Cartago had not yet the domain in the western Mediterranean bank region.
However, due to navigation difficulties of the time, other supporting commercial stations were
founded between the both of them, such as Sala, and also Russandir, Tamuda, Tingis,
Tchemmich, Banasa and Rusibis. Some of those cities appears in the figure below, spotlighting
the existence the trading-post Sala.
Phoenician and Carthaginian archaeological traces of occupations cannot be found in Rabat
anymore. According to Es-Semmar, their evidence are found in ancient texts which show
trading commerce among the Phoenician and the amazigh native tribe, around the 5th century
b.C. Likewise, later on they describe the exploitation by the Carthaginian of the same
commercial spot, during the 3rd century b.C. The only archaeological traces that can be found in
this site are then from the Roman Empire and they correspond to a military fortification that was
as well used for commercial purposes during the first century b.C. Around two hundred years
after this period, Sala Colonial appears as the first urban settlement, on the first century.
 357

Figure 3. On the left, Kingdom of Mauritania; on the right, both Phoenician and
Carthaginian trading-posts.(source: Histoire du Maroc).

1st morphological period: Classic Period (C1st – C3rd)

Historical event: Roman Empire (C 1st)

Innovation: trading settlement turned into a town - south capital of Mauritania Tingitane
kingdom.
Urban form: urban settlement of Sala Colonia (in Rabat). The Roman city was conceived based
on the existence of a protection wall, with a triumph arch, a forum, a main street, a basilica and
public baths, as shown in the schematic sketch below.
Below town concept sketch and some pictures of the 2014 reminiscences.
All urban and architectonical development throughout the following twenty centuries represents
extension or continuity of this initial Roman settlement.

Figure 4. Sala Colonia (source: Dr. Es-Semmar, Heritage Director - Agency of Bouregreg.
July, 2011 & Rabat´s Culture Ministry - UNESCO´s complete report: Rabat, Modern
Capital and Historic City: a Shared Heritage. January, 2011).
358

B - Berbers – The Islamization of the Kingdom of Morocco (681 - C 16th)

The Mauretania Tingitana region was abandoned at the end of the 3rd century, but Sala
(Chellah) remained under Roman domination during a less active period up to the end of the 4th
century. It then entered a rather historical obscure period.
Between the C8th to C11th, the formation of muslin-Berbers enables the rise and the success
of the almoravid´s people, who came from the Sahara region, during a religious reform (Caillé,
2006). The Almoravid empire was founded by Youssof Ben Tachfin and lasted for about
seventy five years. The conflicts between Arabs and Berbers are long and, historically, there are
no literature consensus. In this article, we follow the references of Lugan (2011) and Brignon et
al (1987), which say the occupation of the Maghreb is very atypical comparing to other Arabic
conquers. The occupation of Egypt and Spain happened within three years. Iran’s within four
years and Syria’s within six. Nonetheless, Maghreb's occupation took over a half century
(Brignon et al, 1987). The conflict between Arabo-Muslim and Berbers was longer and during
this period the region was Islamized, but not over-ruled by Arabic's. It is important to
differentiate Islamization, religious concept, to arabization, ethnic-cultural concept, like Lugan
(2011) says. According to the author, not every muslin is Arabic and vice-versa.
Regarding the urban content, this era holds the foundation of Fez – during the Idrissid
Dynasty (789 - 808). It was the capital until the rise of the Almoravids’ Empire (C 10th). The
original Fez El-bali was conceived by two major fortifications separated by a valley. In the 11 th
century, the Almoravids connected both fortifications into a single one. Under the Almohad
empire, the historical core of Fez grew up to the dimensions it presents in 2014.
During the Almoravid dynasty two other towns were founded: Meknes and Marrakesh. The
last one became the capital of the empire until the rise of the merinide dysnasty (13th century).
According to the report presented to UNESCO (Royame du Maroc, 2011), Arab historic
sources refer to an abandoned ancient city, which however played a significant role in the
Islamization of the region. A vast “ribat” is said to have existed in the 10th century, but up to
now the most ancient Arabo-Muslim traces date back no earlier than the 13th century. What
remained of the ancient city was abandoned for a new fortress, built by the Almoravids, in the
early 12th century, to withstand growing pressure from the Almohads. The fortress was situated
on the southern promontory of the estuary. The Almohad conquest took place in the mid-12th
century, and it transformed the fort into a fortified palace, which today has become Kasbah of
Oudayas.

2 nd morphological period: Ribat Almoravid period (1100 to1150)

Historical event: Almoravid Empire

Innovation: both Bouregreg river banks occupation - right bank, extension of Sala ancient
town with Bani Ifren tribe instalattion, for they were threatened by another tribe, the
Bourhouatas from Tamesna. The following figure presents the location of the Bourghouatas
reign and the little distance between its limits and Salé.

Figure 5. The Bourghouata´s kingdom. (source: wikipedia).

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On the left bank, expansion and foundation of a Ribat (military field): Ribat Tachfin, first
Islamic occupation at the estuary promontory.
Urban form: city of Sala (in Salé) and military field Ribat Tachfin (in Rabat) presented below.

Figure 6. On the left, map with the Almoravid settlement; on the right, reminiscences of
the Almoravid empire dicovered in 2007.(source: Dr. Es-Semmar, Heritage Director -
Agence du Bouregreg. July: 2011 & photography by Simone Safe in decembre, 2013).

3rd morphological period: 1º Ribat Al Fath Period (1150 to1163)

Historical event: Almohad Empire - 1st Caliph Abdelmoumen

Innovation: the rampart´s pull down of the Bani Ifren´s town on the right river bank and of the
Almoravide´s Tachfin Ribat pull down, on the left river bank.
Ribat Tachfin was replaced by the kasbah of Mehdiya, the urban core of the new planned city.
In this empire, the Almohads had the intention of turning Rabat into the third empire capital,
after Marrakesh and Seville.
Urban form: kasbah of Mehdiya. The following figure presents the geographic position of the
kasbah of Mehdiya, featured in red.

Figure 7. First Almohad settlement - kasbah of Medhyia (source: Agence Urbaine).

4th morphological period: 2nd Ribat Al Fath Period (1163 to 1253)

This period represents the first major expansion of the city.

Historical event: Almohad Empire - 2nd Caliph Youssef (1163) and 3rd Caliph Yacoub Al
Mansur (1187).
Innovation: Completion of Ribat Al Fath town: ramparts and doors; Hassan mosque; the
kasbah of Mehdiya river front extent and construction of the caliphate palace.
Urban form: Ribat Al Fath. Below, illustrative map with Ribat Al Fath settlement.
360

Figure 8. Ribat Al Fath town - Almohad Empire (source: Dr. Es-Semmar, Heritage
Director - Agence du Bouregreg. July: 2011).

5 th morphological period: Aribat Al Mobarak Period (C13th to C17th: 1253-1609)

- Historical event: Merinid Dynasty - Sultan Yacoub Youssouf e Sultan Abou Al Hassan.
- Innovation: construction of protective walls on the right bank, the region in which there was
an attack by the Castilians in 1265.
The almohad urban area was mostly neglected and inaccessible (80% of 418 h were
undeveloped).
The proposal of a new ribat, known as Aribat Al Mobarak, over the ancient ruins of the roman
city Sala. Construction of ramparts and doors.
Apogee of Salé, on the right bank, as the main economic and urban center and port.
Urban form: fortified ribat and as the mausoleum of the dynasty. This ensemble is known as
Chellah, in 2014.
Figure 9 presents illustrative a map. The Aribat Al Mobarak is colored in red and in brown,
all ignored urban space. Figure ten presents pictures of Chellah.

Figure 9. Merinid Dynasty - necropolis of Chellah. (source: Dr. Es-Semmar, Heritage

Director - Agence du Bouregreg. July: 2011).
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Figure 10. Aribat Al Mobarak (Royal necropolis reminiscences known as Chellah, 2014).
(source: Agence Urbaine. Plan d´amenagement et sauvegarde de la medina de Rabat.
Mission II - leve topographique, diagnostic et analyses thematiques et spaciales. June:
2012).

C - The Arabians (1554 to 2014)

The beginning of the sixteenth century shows crisis in Moroccan territory, due to the west
Iberian conquest and the Turkish conquest in the east. The Ottomans want supremacy over the
Spanish opponent and try to impose influence over Morocco. A new dynasty emerges, the
Saadian, enabling a political, economic and intellectual renaissance. The Saadian were Arabs
and, for the first time since the Idrissid dynasty, Morocco would not be ruled by the Berber
people.
According to Lugan (2011), the word Morocco appears with Saadian, and it results from the
contraction of Marrakech, the main capital of the dynasty era.
The Saadian century was a period of urban developments. Fès and Marrakesh intellectually
dominate becoming cultural centers.

6th morphological period: The Moors period (1609 to 1666)

Historical event: The Saadian Dynasty. The expulsion from Spain of the Moors during the reign
of Philip II (1609), by religious intolerance (Lugan, 2011). In the early 17th century, the
Moorish immigrants set up a principality under the suzerainty of the Saadian sultans.
Innovation: The Moors expulsion led to a significant influx of Muslim and Jewish
populations, who settled in the kasbah of Mehdiya and in the adjacent southern area. These
populations of different origins built their own quarters: they founded their medina, called New
Salé, protected by a wall in the south, dividing in two the large area enclosed by the earlier
Almohad ramparts.
The not yet explored urban space, internal to the Almohad wall, was tapped with agricultural
crops and gardens.
They also fortified the Kasbah, which became the center of their municipal power base. They
engaged in port activities, making Rabat the premier port in Morocco.
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Urban form: Medina of New Salé. Below map and photos with medina of Rabat and
intrawalls green spaces.

Figure 11. Saadien Urban occupation (source: Dr. Es-Semmar, Heritage Director - Agence
du Bouregreg. July: 2011 & Rabat´s Culture Ministry - UNESCO´s complete report:
Rabat, Modern Capital and Historic City: a Shared Heritage. January, 2011).

7th morphological period: Golden Age Period (from 1666 to 1727)

Historical event: The Alaouite dynasty - Sultan Moulay Rachid (1666 dC) e Sultão Moulay
Ismail (1672 dC).
Innovation: Substantial construction works were carried out on a new fortress (operated as a
prison during the French Protectorate and as a Military History Museum after 2010) and the
Kasbah, including the prince’s residence building, completed during the lengthy rule of Moulay
Ismail. This palace became the second residence of the dynasty, after Meknès.
Urban form: illustrative map with emphasis in light blue representing extensions related to
military and royal residence.

Figure 12. Moulay Rachid`s expansion (light blue on the map on the left and picture with
royal residence with garden on the right). (source: Agence Urbaine).
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8th morphological period: Expansion and Consolidation Period (1757 to 1912)

This period represents the second great expansion in the urban context.

Historical event: Alaouite dynasty - Sultan Sidi Mohammed ben Abdallah; Sultan Moulay
Abderrahmane Ben Hicham; Sultan Moulay Slimane.
Innovation: The defensive works continued on the site of the Kasbah with the construction of
two sqalas (military surveillance towers). At that time, the kasbah was assigned to the warlike
Oudaia tribe, which was the origin of the name.
The Alaouites had the intention of turning Rabat into the third empire capital, once again,
after Marrakesh and Fès.
Construction of a new royal palace located intra-walls southeast (left map) with rampart for
the Royal Alaouite new kasbah in the nineteenth century (right map).
Construction of three mosques in the axis connecting the palace to the medina´s Bab Chellah
door.
Construction of new rampart, south of the Almohad defense wall, creating protected new
residential neighborhoods in the northwestern part of the urban space (left map).
In order to install gardens for the royal palace, Moulay Slimane also set limit known as
"Agdal" in the southeast. (right map)
Construction of irrigation system for the new neighborhoods through the aqueduct of Ain
Attiq.
Construction of secondary royal residence facing the Atlantic Ocean, at new urban space
northwest (right map)
Foundation of the Jewish neighborhoods, called Mellahs, in Rabat and Salé.
Urban form: innovations are represented in the figure below, showing the changes in the
urban form.

Figure 13. Alaouite dynasty urban occupation: on the left, C18th, on the right, C19th
(source: Dr. Es-Semmar, Heritage Director - Agence du Bouregreg. July: 2011).

9th morphological period: the French Protectorate Period - Prost urban plan (from 1912 to
1956)

Historical event: the French Protectorate (from 1912 to 1956)

Innovation: Transformation of the city of Ribat Al Fath in the capital Rabat. Modernist
urban plan, designed by Henri Prost, French urban planner. The project showed respect to the
364

traditional tissue integrity, while applying the most modern rules of urbanism. The multiple
ramparts presented on the urban expansions remained.
The project represents the first urban master plan of the city, covering a total of 770 hectares.
Salé was out of the master plan, because it was not considered part of the new capital.
The zoning was restricted to three sectors: residential and commercial conference center
(35%), government (5.2%) and individual housing (44.2% - Medina of Rabat and 15.6% -
Medina of Salé). The urban population in 1930, including Salé, was aapproximately seventy
thousand residents. The following schematic plan shows Prost´s planning.

Figure 14. Modern Urban Planning by Henri Prost. (legend/up to down: medinas;
multifamily houses; single house families; offices) (source: SDAU 1991).

Urban form: In the figure below, we can see the progress of urban structure during the period of
the French Protectorate.
The period from 1941 to 1955 shows expansion of the residential neighborhoods at Agdal
and Souissi (in lighter blue, at the bottom and left of the map)
Also, this period indicates the growth of two new neighborhoods in Salé (in lighter blue on
the right)
It included the completion of a major public housing program, in the region of Aviation and
western Agdal as well (lighter blue area at the bottom center).
Alongside these planned urban developments, others aggregates
were informally and precariously installed in other parts of the capital.

Figure 15. Urban Structure evolution during the French Protectorate Period (source:
Atelier parisien d’urbanisme. Plan d'Aménagement Unifié de la Ville de Rabat. Mission 2
- Diagnostic Analyses thématiques et spatiales. April: 2009).
 365

10th morphological period: period of Independence: Ecochard urban plan (from 1956 to 1972)

Historical event: Alaouite dynasty - King Hassan II (1961-1999). End of the French Protectorate
Innovation: In 1955, a new urban planning was designed by the architect and urbanist M.
Ecochard.
The project proposes four housing programs that are not intended to configure an unit.
Urban population: two hundred thousand residents.
New popular low-income housing forms to replace the existing slums. The designs were
standardized around centralities that included essential equipment: mosque, hammam, school,
market.
Construction of the express road reunites the city to the airport and other roads, allowing free
access to leisure spots, such as the golf and hippodrome.
Urban form: Salé - bairros Hay Salam & Tabriquet neighborhoods, 190 he; Rabat - Yacoub
El Mansur, 160 he, Youssoufia et takkadoun, 190 he and civil district at Agdal, in the west area,
106 he. Industrial districts follow the urban development of Salé and Yacoub El Mansur,
respectively, 83 and 50 he (figure 15). See the master plan below with the Ecochard expansion
proposal.

Figure 16. Ecochard Urban Planning. (source: Atelier parisien d’urbanisme).

11th morphological period: Rabat-Sale urban master plan of 1971-72

Historical event: Alaouite dynasty. King Hassan II (1961-1999). National attempted coup in
1971 and 1972, all the while Hassan II rule the reign with dictatorial powers. Unemployed and
Students’ dissatisfaction.
Innovation: 1971-72 Rabat-Salé’s Master Plan along the objective of developing the roads
and transport. The urban population in 1972 amounted up to 526 600 inhabitants, as reported by
SDAU 1995.
From the Eighties, the Agdal neighborhood has become a business center, by the renewal of
homes into buildings, in where some were occupied by offices and some by large upper middle
class apartments, together with parking and services nearby.
366

Crucial program for clear and grassy spaces: a green corridor was proposed between the
beach and the central area of Temara, a northern metropolitan’s city. Also they’ve designed a
green belt of 1200he between Temara and Rabat.
The figure below displays the map of the master plan 1971-72.

Figure 17. Urban Master Plan of Rabat-Sale 1971-72 (source: SDAU - Schema Dircteur
Rabat-Salé 1991).

Urban form: the Master plan was very different from that foreseen by an overestimation of
population growth occupation.
More affordable institutional buildings were created at the Yacoub El Mansour and Hay Riad
neighborhoods;
There were emergence of irregular housing as a consequence of underestimated calculation
for Salé and Temara’s regions;
Industrial areas estimated at around 1000he were overestimated. Precisely the 90he that was
planned by Ecochard had been high-priced, the remainder being underutilized;
The following figure displays the urban structure’ evolution at first master plan’s period.

Figure 18. Urban Structure Evolution of Rabat after the first Urban Master Plan of
Rabat-Sale 1971-72 (source: Atelier parisien d’urbanisme. Plan d'Aménagement Unifié de
la Ville de Rabat. Mission 2 - Diagnostic Analyses thématiques et spatiales. April: 2009).

12th morphological period: Rabat-Sale urban master plan of 1991

Historical event: Alaouite dynasty - King Hassan II (1961-1999). King Mohammed VI (1999-
2014).
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Innovation: Rabat-Salé Master Plan 1991 is the current. Objectives: Real estate speculation
control over land and the improvement of financing housing for disadvantaged populations; site,
landscape and natural resources protection, particularly potable groundwater; improves running
and transport.
From 1980 to the 2000s, the expansions happened along the coast and outlying areas.
Some neighborhoods have suffered greater density and growth than others.
Urban Development: Riad Al Andalous neighborhood, restructuring the slum Al Kora and final
stage construction of Hay Riad neighborhood.
Building of the Technopolis business area in Salé and Said Hajji and Sala Al Jadida
operations.
Urban form: At that moment we find less urban expansion and major consolidation of the
existing structure. The figure below represents the evolution between the two master plans,
displaying by the lighter blue the urban form improvement in this period.

Figure 19. Urban Structure Evolution of Rabat after the second Urban Master Plan of
Rabat-Sale, 1991 (source: Atelier parisien d’urbanisme).

Rabat´s contemporary Urban Structure

Rabat morphological study case is an application of the method used by the English School of
Urban Morphology intending to identify and analyse the historical urban landscape formation
and evolution. By the example above, we recognized that the analysis focuses on the shape
evolution, taking into account a range of historical and morphological periods.
The maps below show the Rabat urban structure in 2014, enclosing the transformations
sequence highlighted by the morphological periods presented, through a concrete shape
accumulation.
Figure 19 examples the urban structure evolutionary synthesis, showing that the period
before 1913, time of French Protectorate installation, had presented in the urban structure only
the traditional Islamic tissue, kasbah and medina.
Figure 20 shows the Typology Tissues in 2014, highlighting the attention for comprehending
the position of the traditional urban tissue: this study´s aim for proving the criterion (v).
The combination of the two maps shows that the considered traditional tissue is the oldest in
terms of urban occupation, proving to be the original and so the most representative settlement
of this place, and showing relation to the territory where it was installed and to the people who
have ruled and printed their own culture, in every time.
368

Figure 20. Rabat´s Urban Structure Evolution (source: Atelier parisien d’urbanisme).

Traditional tissue (kasbah + medina)

Continuous Tissue: small plots
Continuous Tissue: apartments
Discontinuous tissue
Single family house Tissue
Slums
Royal Palace, religious temples and monuments
Special caracter buldings
Gardens, Parks and Sports fields
Cemitery
Industrial Tissue
Historical rimanescences
Empty plots
Irregular occupation
Non residential plots
Work in progress

Figure 21. Tipology Tissues in Rabat (source: Atelier parisien d’urbanisme).

 369

Conclusion

The urban evolution study has proved to be a landscape interpreting method, able to understand
the meanings of the shape as forces that have been influences, along the exposure of a
landscape, a culture, a period values. The method as used in this article can opens the field for
new applications. The urban morphology is being consolidated as a valuable tool for
demonstrating originality, uniqueness and history of a place, UNESCO´s valued characteristics
part of more than one criterion.
The investigative method revealed the military fortification of Kasbah of Oudayas as the
initial Islamic core in this region. This discovery turns the Kasbah as a potential candidate to
meet the criterion (v), not justified in the dossier 2012.
The research of Rabat´s fixation, expansion and consolidation phases have also demonstrated
the site connection with the diversity of cultures - Berbers, Arabs and Westerners. The natural
defence promontory position also points to the relationship between the original military
fortification form and the operational environment, another criterion (v) desirable characteristic.
New questions have been added up to this study. What is the significance to Morocco of
having an extra UNESCO cultural property and have accepted criterion (v) to the Kasbah of
Udayas? It is worthwhile to ask the country's acceptance of this criterion again, after the
application of this urban morphology method? What are the financial, heritage, education and
management advantages that can be achieved from the UNESCO acceptation? Do the existence
of historicity, valued by UNESCO in criteria (ii) and (iv) and highlighted by the morphogenesis
analysis, create the possibility of men’s awareness and education? Can this education be
measured? Can it be awakened and encouraged?

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledged the support received from the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa de Minas
Gerais - FAPEMIG, from the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnológico - CNPq
and Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES to develop this research and
to present this paper.

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Royame du Maroc. (2011) Proposition d’inscription sur la Liste du patrimoine mondial soumise par le
Royaume du Maroc. Rabat, Capitale moderne et ville historique : un patrimoine en partage. Janeiro,
975 p.
370

Transformation of the fringe belt units within the perimeter

of Avenida do Contorno/Belo Horizonte/MG

Karina Machado de Castro Simao, Stael de Alvarenga Pereira Costa

Architecture School, Urbanism Department, Federal University of Minas Gerais
E-mail: Brazil. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected].

Abstract. This article maps out the transformations that have occurred in the inner fringe belt units
located within Avenida do Contorno, Belo Horizonte / MG. Fringe belts, according to the concepts of
urban morphology, are low density areas, often allocated for institutional use, and have a higher amount
of free space in relation to nearby residential areas. They are classified, according to M.R.G. Conzen
(1960), as inner, middle and outer, depending on their development over time and location. Conzen
(2004) contended that the transformation of fringe belts included growth or reduction that may occur
through alienation or transference. Such phenomena have constituted a widely researched area in
European and American institutions that follow the English School of urban morphology. In this article,
fringe belt units are identified and their transformation is analyzed individually. An evaluation is also
made of the transformation of the three elements, recommended by Conzen, that make up the urban
landscape (urban plan, built fabric and land use) of each fringe belt unit. The process of transformation
in fringe belt units, revealed in the study, is reported in terms of increases or decreases and indicates
that, for example, 30% showed an increase, whilst the remaining 70% manifested a reduction. The study
therefore concludes that there has been a substantial and detrimental reduction in fringe belt units in
Belo Horizonte.

Key Words: Fringe belts, transformation, urban form, process, Belo Horizonte.

Introduction

The urban landscape is structured by morphological elements which include blocks, plots,
roads, buildings, open spaces and fringe belts. These elements are conceptualized in urban
morphology as spaces for institutional, low density use, and have a greater amount of open
space in relation to nearby residential areas.
More specifically, fringe belts have physical characteristics such as, vegetated open spaces,
occupation of buildings for institutional use or non-residential urban landmarks and sparse road
networks with a low incidence of radial roads and low penetration of vehicles. Cemeteries,
parks, villages, military installations, schools, hospitals, golf courses, football fields,
monasteries all constitute examples of fringe belts. These morphological elements are classified,
according to Conzen (1960), as inner, middle and outer in relation to their development over
time and location.
Fringe belt study provides a base for a historical and geographical framework in urban
morphology, since it permits the identification of the urban form's stages of development which
are in turn intimately related to the physical configuration of the contemporary city.
This work aims to identify and analyze the units of the inner fringe belt located within the
perimeter of Avenida do Contorno, Belo Horizonte / MG and the transformation of the belt's
urban form. It furthermore attempts to: understand and recognize the characteristics of the urban
landscape of the area; carry out a literature review examining the theoretical framework on
urban morphology, focusing on the concept of fringe belts.
The methodological approach consists of applying the concepts of the English school of
urban morphology, and the guidelines to fringe belt studies, developed by German geographer
MRG Conzen (1960), which explains urban phenomena through the changes that occur in the
division of land. This area of study, based on the English school, is familiar in European and
 371

American countries. In Brazil, the few studies that address such phenomena include, Pereira
Costa et al. (2009a, 2009b) and Meneguetti (2013). The method in question was applied in field
work for the identification and characterization of fringe belts and has, as its aim, the analysis of
the form and evolution of the inner area of Avenida do Contorno. This paper will thus present:
(1) the method of identification (2) the fringe belt units mapped out on the perimeter of Avenida
do Contorno (3) an analysis of the transformation of these units (4) the final considerations.

Identification of the fringe belt within the perimeter of Avenida do Contorno in Belo
Horizonte/MG

For the identification of fringe belts in the city of Belo Horizonte, Pereira Costa et al (2009a,
2009b), considered a combination of morphological elements from low density and wide open
spaces, to institutional installations (education, health, military, recreation, religious , among
others) occupying reintegrated plots or blocks, as shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1. Open spaces and units of fringe belt identified in Belo Horizonte (source: Pereira
Costa et al., 2009a; 2009b; 2010).

According to Pereira Costa et al (2009a, 2009b), the surface areas of the morphological
elements that constitute the fringe belts equal 10% of the total area of the municipality. It can be
observed in FIG.1 that these elements, identified in the city, have developed in a different
372

manner to those in traditional studies, since the geographical context of Belo Horizonte is
different to those examined in traditional studies on fringe belts. These elements, identified in
the city, are distributed in fragmented form, being composed of several units of fringe belt. This
is corroborated by an analysis of the urban evolution of the city. By analysing the morphological
periods it is possible to identify the location of fringe belt units and the existing occupancy rates
of each period. From this identification, it is possible to assess if the units of fringe belt
constitute an inner, intermediate or outer belt and identify the possible formation of rings,
recurrent in traditional studies. The figure below shows the open spaces and units of fringe belt
identified in Belo Horizonte.
The fringe belt units identified within the perimeter of Avenida do Contorno will be
analyzed in the urban area of the city of Belo Horizonte, planned by Aaron Reis in 1887. These
were chosen for their historical importance and central location. Furthermore, the area may have
been subject to greater transformation since it is in this region that the process of urban
occupation began.
The method used in this work consists of the superimposition of maps which facilitates an
analysis of the permanence of these units in urban evolution and the urban, historical and
economic context necessary to identify the units of fringe belt. The maps used in the study show
the urban evolution of Belo Horizonte, the public institutions, public and private open spaces,
the urban zoning and average gradient. Fieldwork was also conducted in order to confirm the
previously identified elements.

The characteristics of fringe belt units

Fringe belt units, located within the perimeter of Avenida do Contorno, were identified
according to their inherent characteristics and morphological elements, as defined by Conzen
(2009). These criteria include: institutional land use; low density; larger amount of open spaces
in relation to nearby residential areas; location on the boundary of urban occupation in each
morphological period. Thus, forty-nine fringe belt units were identified within the perimeter of
Avenida do Contorno, illustrated in Figure 2, according to the neighborhoods and Planning
Units (PUs) in which they are located. The study area contains four Planning Units: Barro Preto,
Centro, Francisco Sales and Savassi.

Figure 2. Fringe belt units identified in the inner area within the perimeter of Avenida do
Contorno (source: Simão, 2012, p.62).

The first settlements and occupations occurred within the perimeter of Avenida do Contorno,
Belo Horizonte. However, this area was not fully occupied as planned, due to the unexpected
 373

growth of the city and the high value of land, which often characterizes the occupation of a
Suburban Zone (FERREIRA, 1997). At the end of the period 1897-1935, the area occupied in
the Urban Zone was relatively compact and polarized in the downtown area. Fringe belt units
located in these unoccupied areas and on the edge of urban occupation constitute the IFB
(Innner Fringe Belt), taking into consideration the morphological period and location.
Figure 3 illustrates this urban occupation, whose constructed buildings (occupied area) are
marked by the shaded gray/black areas

Figure 3. Registered plan of Belo Horizonte in 1929 and fringe belt units constructed in
the period 1897-1935 (source: Simão, 2012, p.67).

The initial core of the central area in the urban zone is located near the River Arrudas - a
topographically privileged area. The railroad was constructed to run through the original urban
area. The river and the railroad became a double barrier that conditioned the subsequent
occupation of the city (Lacerda, 1986). Therefore, the River Arrudas and the railway can be
considered the first fringe belt line of demarcation in the study area.
The initial period of this urban occupation, from 1897 to 1935, can be considered a demarcation
phase of the inner fringe belt, since it is related to the formation of the fringe belt which usually
occurs around a line of fixation. Between 1935 and 2011, it is possible to observe the
construction of new fringe belt units within the inner perimeter of Avenida do Contorno
characterizing the transformation and consolidation phase of the inner fringe belt of Belo
Horizonte.

The transformation of fringe belt units within the perimeter of Avenida do Contorno, Belo
Horizonte / MG

Conzen (2004) believed that, among the three elements that compose the urban landscape, the
urban plan (blocks, plots and road system) and the built fabric are more resistant to change, this
characteristic being a reflection of the old pattern of land division and a factor in the
preservation of a greater number and variety of traditional urban forms. Land use already
responds more readily to functional changes, making historical study, through this element,
more difficult. In order to assess the changes in the urban and built fabric and therefore, the
smallest unit of urban form (the individual division and the buildings or the buildings and open
spaces), the following maps of the area will be evaluated: planning and division Aarão Reis
(1897), registered plan (1942) and aerial imagery (2011). In the analysis of land use, the history
374

of the buildings on the fringe belt will be studied and the zoning maps, in accordance with the
laws of use and occupation of the city of Belo Horizonte established in 1976, 1985, 1996 and
2010, will be analyzed.
It is perhaps important to note here that according to Conzen's definitions (2004), the
transformation of fringe belts include accretion (increase in area) or reduction, which can occur
through alienation (loss of area for commercial or residential use) or translation (change in the
type of land use from an old fringe belt to a more recent one in the same location).The
transformation of the three elements that compose the urban landscape (urban plan, built fabric
and land use) will be analyzed on each fringe belt unit and this process of transformation will be
reported as an accretion or reduction (alienation or translation).
The fringe belt units identified and their transformation was analyzed individually by Simão
(2012). According to the author, twenty three units of the fringe belt underwent transformation,
comprising 46% of the total forty-nine (units). In this work, three out of the twenty and three
fringe belt units which underwent changes, were selected for illustration. They are: the
Municipal Park, Santa Casa de Misericordia Hospital and the unit composed of the Luiz de
Bessa State Public Library, Police Command of Minas Gerais and the Palace of Liberty (Palacio
da Liberdade), as shown in the following figures.

Municipal Park

According to Maciel (1998), the park's location was chosen by Aarão Reis as the main area for
public leisure and a reference point for his design of the city (Fig. 4). However, only a quarter of
the planned (555.060m2) area was occupied as an public open space. In 1907, the southern area
was chosen to house a municipal institution and in 1909, the northern region was split into nine
blocks (Horta, 1988). The area of the park, therefore, was reduced from 555.060m2 to 352 562
m2.
In 1942, the built area on the block occupied by the Health Campus (South) was 11.200m2
and the open area 91.920m2, of which, 47% was vegetated(43.426m2). The occupation density
was 10%. In the same period, the block marking the park's location was divided into three (Fig.
5). It is thus possible to observe a change in the urban plan and the free and permeable areas of
the park were once again reduced (from 352 562 m2 to 182.820m2).
A Map from 2011 (Fig. 6) shows the block formerly occupied by a stadium (east) divided
into three. Therefore, the only block planned for the park was divided into fourteen as from
1909. The built area occupied by the Health Campus (South) block manifested an increase from
11.200m2 to 42.511m2) while occupation density increased from 10% to 40%. Open space was
reduced from 91.920m2 to 60.609m2, to such an extent that the vegetated area fell from
43.426m2 to 10,326 m2. Besides the transformation of the urban plan and built fabric, it is
possible to witness changes in land use. This is due to the fact that, according to the Law of Use
and Occupation 1976, 1985 and 1996, the blocks on which the park and the Health Campus are
located, are classified, respectively, as SE-2 (Special Sector 239), SE-1 (Special Sector 140) and
SE-2 (Special Sector 2), ZPAM (Environmental Protection Zone) and ZCBH (Central Area of
Belo Horizonte41).
The block planed by Aarao Reis for the Municipal park was subject to a reduction through
transfer as there was a change in the type of land use in the area after its inauguration (from

39
SE-2 are spaces, facilities and installations subject to control and allocated for grand institutional use
such as: parks, squares, hospitals, civic centers, universities, stadiums, terminals, garbage plants, landfills,
cemeteries, leisure areas and schools in general (Belo Horizonte, 1976).
40
SE-1 are the spaces, establishments and installations subject to preservation or specific control, such as:
areas of landscape preservation, the protection of streams and woods, natural forests, forest and mineral
reserves, historical monuments and areas of strategic value to public safety (Belo Horizonte, 1976).
41
Art. 11 - ZC's are the configured regions such as regional, municipal or metropolitan centers (Belo
Horizonte, 1996).
 375

public leisure to health facilities). Because of this change of use, there occurred a transformation
in the urban plan through the division of the single block (planned for the park) into fourteen
smaller blocks. The location of the block next to the River Arrudas valley can be considered as
an important morphological element as it came to function as a demarcation line and barrier to
the extension of the Municipal Park and contributed to the consequent fragmentation of the area.
The new plan led to the transformation of the built fabric, by increasing the built area and
decreasing areas of open space, especially the block occupied by the Health Campus / UFMG
(Federal University of Minas Gerais).
The built area on the block occupied by the park presented no increase in the rate of
occupation, probably due to its classification in Municipal Law No. 7166/96 as ZPAM
(Environmental Protection Zone) and its preservation as a Landscaped area in 1975. However,
there has been a 67% reduction in the in the park's permeable open area (from 555.060m2 to
182.820m2) and 34% in the open area of the block on which the Health Campus / UFMG is
located (from 91.920m2 to 60.609m2), resulting in a large loss of permeability.

Figure 4. Municipal Park in 1897 (source: Simão, 2012, p.97).

Park Area: 555.060m2 (permeable)

Figure 5. Municipal Park in 1942 (source: Simão, 2012, p.97).

Park Area: 352.562 m2: 182.820m2 (permeable) + 169.742m2 (Health Campus + football
stadium), Open Area: Health Campus: 91.920m2: 43.426m2 (permeable) e 48.494m2
(impermeable), Occupation density: Health Campus block: 10%
376

Figure 6. Municipal Park in 2011 (source: Simão, 2012, p.97).

Park Area: 182.820m2 (permeable), Occupation Density: Health Campus Block 40%,
Open Area: Faculty of Medicine block 60.609m2: 10.326 m2 (permeable) and 50.283m2
(impermeable).

Figure 7. Municipal Park in 2011 (source: Simão, 2012, p.97).

Park Area: 182.820m2 (permeable), Occupation Density: Health Campus Block 40%
Open Area Faculty of Medicine block 60.609m2: 10.326 m2 (permeable) and 50.283m2
(impermeable).

Santa Casa de Misericórdia Hospital (10)

According to the Aarão Reis plan, the two blocks occupied in 1911 by the Santa Casa de
Misericordia Hospital were orthogonal, one of which became triangular on being divided in the
construction of Avenida Francisco Sales, the latter following a diagonal trajectory. The first
wing of the hospital was opened in 1903, occupying the non divided square format block
(14.400m2 area). The triangular-shaped block was divided into seven plots (Fig. 7). By the year
1931, the current block (2011) was divided by Rua Padre Marinho, according to the Aarao Reis
urban plan.
Horta (1988) noted that Rua Padre Marinho was deactivated in 1937 and in 1940 the existing
hospital building (2.785 m2) was constructed (Fig. 8). The area of the block was increased from
14.400m2 to 20.690m2 and the occupation density in 1942 was 13%, with 87% of the open area
being impermeable. After the deactivation of the street and junction between the blocks, there
occurred a transformation in the urban plan, however the triangular block remained intact.
In 2011, new buildings were attached to the hospital (Fig. 9), totaling a built area of
8.645m2. The occupation density increased from 13% to 42%. The impermeable open area of
 377

the block was reduced from 87% to 58%. The block was then respectively classified as SE-2
(Special Sector 2), SE-2 (Special Section 2), and ZCBH (Central Area of Belo Horizonte) in the
Use and Occupation of Land Legislation of 1976 1985 and 1996.
The block occupied by Santa Casa de Misericordia Hospital was increased because of the
deactivation of Rua Padre Marinho and the union of the two blocks that compose the current
block thus generating a transformation in the area's urban plan. Despite continued use as a
hospital area, this fringe belt unit underwent many changes in the built fabric with the
construction of new buildings and the reduction of the block's impermeable open area.

Figure 8. Santa Casa de Misericórdia Hospital BLOCK in1911 (source: SIMÃO, 2012,
p.101). Block Área: 14.400m2

Figure 9. Santa Casa de Misericórdia Hospital in1942 (source: SIMÃO, 2012, p.101).
Block Area: 20.690m2, Built Área: 2.785 m2, Open Área: 17.905m2 (impermeablel),
Occupation Density: 13%
378

Figure 10. Santa Casa de Misericórdia Hospital in 2011 (source: Simão, 2012, p.101).
Block Area: 20.690m2, Built Área: 8.645m2, Open Área: 12.045m2 (impermeable),
Occupation Density: 42%

In 2011, new buildings were attached to the hospital (Fig. 9), totaling a built area of
8.645m2. The occupation density increased from 13% to 42%. The impermeable open area of
the block was reduced from 87% to 58%. The block was then respectively classified as SE-2
(Special Sector 2), SE-2 (Special Section 2), and ZCBH (Central Area of Belo Horizonte) in the
Use and Occupation of Land Legislation of 1976 1985 and 1996.
The block occupied by Santa Casa de Misericordia Hospital was increased because of the
deactivation of Rua Padre Marinho and the union of the two blocks that compose the current
block thus generating a transformation in the area's urban plan. Despite continued use as a
hospital area, this fringe belt unit underwent many changes in the built fabric with the
construction of new buildings and the reduction of the block's impermeable open area.

Luiz de Bessa State Públic Library, Minas Gerais Police Headquarters (29) Palace of Liberty
(Palácio da Liberdade) (30)

According to the Aarão Reis plan, the Palace of Liberty should have occupied a block with an
area of 7.150m2, including the surrounding roads (Fig. 10). In 1925 (Fig. 11), the block on
which the palace was built in 1897, quadrupled in area from 7.150m2 to 27.700m2, further
growth being restricted by Rua Borba Gato which was deactivated as can be seen in the 1942
plan (Fig. 12). Here, the extension of the block occurred through the deactivation of a stretch of
road. However, the palace's plot was reduced from 27.700m2 to 24.200m2, since the remaining
plots were occupied by residences. In 1942, the built palace area was 940m2, with an
occupation density of 4% and an open area of 23.260m2, 20% of which was permeable
(4.980m2).
In 2011 (Fig.13), the built palace area increased from 940m2 to 4.600m2, owing to the
construction of a new administrative building (1.300m2) and new Palace buildings (2.360m2).
Thus, the occupation density changed from 4% to 20% and the total open area was reduced
from 23.260m2 to 19.600m2 (permeable). Also observed in Fig. 52 is the construction of a new
institutional building. In addition to this, as shown in FIG. 12, the block occupied in 2011 by the
Luiz de Bessa State Public Library and the Police Command of Minas Gerais was divided by
Rua Tomaz Gonzaga into two blocks with an area of 3.700m2 (each) and the buildings had not
yet been constructed. Figure. 13 shows that the street had already been deactivated and a single
block with an area of 8.500m2 occupied by the library (1.360m2) and the police command
(1.000m2) with an occupation density of 50%.
The Blocks occupied by the Palace of Liberty and the Luiz de Bessa State Public Library
were extended due to the deactivation of Rua Borba Gato and Tomaz Gonzaga and there thus
 379

occurred a transformation in the area's urban plan. Despite continued use of this fringe belt unit,
there was a change in occupation density owing to the construction of new buildings and a
reduction in the open area of the block on which the Palace of Liberty stands.
An Individual analysis of the transformation of the twenty-three fringe belt units resulted in
Table 1, which illustrates the change in occupation density, permeability of open space and
classification of transformation according to Conzen (2004).

Block
Public facility
PermeableArea
Block in 2011

Fgure 11. Palácio da Liberdade in 1897 (source: Simão, 2012, p.110). Block Área: 7.150m2

Figure 12. Palácio da Liberdade in 1925 (source: Simão, 2012, p.110). Block area:
27.700m2
380

Figure 13. Palácio da Liberdade in 1942 (source: Simão, 2012, p.110).

Block/Plot Área: 24.200m2, Built Área: 940m2, Free Área: 23.260m2: 4.980m2 (permeable)
and 18.280m2 (impermeáblel), Occupation Density: 4%

Figure 14. Palácio da Liberdade in 2011 (source: Simão, 2012, p.110).

Block/Plot Área: 24.200m2, Built Área: 4.600m2, Free Área: 19.6000m2 (permeable),
Occupation Density: 20%

An Individual analysis of the transformation of the twenty-three fringe belt units resulted in
Table 1, which illustrates the change in occupation density, permeability of open space and
classification of transformation according to Conzen (2004).
The transformation analysis of each fringe belt unit inserted within the perimeter of Avenida
do Contorno (Table 1) indicates that, out of the forty-nine elements identified, fourteen of them
(30%) were subject to alteration, four of them (30% ) by extension and ten (70%) by reduction.
 381

Table 2. Transformation of Fringe belt units in the area under study

Fringe Belt Units 1897/1942 2011 transformation

Occupation Open Space Occupation Open Space
Density Permeability Density Permeability
Israel Pinheiro(01) 30% Impermeable 35% Impermeable reduction by
Central Bus Station transference
Minascentre(03) 25% Impermeable 45% Impermeable reduction by
transference
São José Church 14% permeable 25% Permeable reduction by
(04) alienation
Souza Pinto Saw 48% Impermeable 42% impermeable reduction by
Mill(06) alienation
Municipal Park(07) 10% permeable 40% Impermeable reduction by
Health Campus alienation
(09)
Health Campus 10% permeable 40% Impermeable Reduction by
(09) transference
Santa Casa Hospital 13% Impermeable 42% Impermeable Expansion/Accretion
(10)
M. Marconi 12% Permeable 22% permeable reduction of open
College (14) area
Santo Agostinho 11% Impermeable 43% impermeable reduction by
College (15) alienation
Carlos Chagas Not Not 5% Permeable Expansion/Accretion
Square (18) implemented implemented
MaterDei Hospital 50% Impermeable 60% Impermeable reduction of open
(19) area
E.Est.Gov. Milton 33% Impermeable 29% Permeable Reduction by
Campos (21) transference
Minas Tennis Club 5% Permeable 32% Impermeable reduction by
(22) alienation
State Library (29) 4% Permeable 20% Impermeable Expansion/
Pal.Liberdade (30) Accretion
Sag. Coração Jesus 20% Impermeable 28% Impermeable Reduction in open
College (32) area
Central Firestation 15% Impermeable 29% Impermeable Reduction in open
(33) area
Felício Rocho 15% Impermeable 60% Impermeable Reduction in open
Hospital (39) area
Monte Calvário 9% Impermeable 50% Impermeable Reduction in open
College (40) area
Pio XII College 10% Impermeable 43% Impermeable Reduction in open
(42) area
12º Battalion of the 10% Impermeable 20% Impermeable Reduction in open
Military Police(43) area
Lafayette Fórum 25% Impermeable 57% Impermeable Reduction by
(45) transference
Cruzeiro Sports 2% permeable 25% Impermeable Reduction in open
Club (46) area
Source: Simão, 2012, p.102.

Six units of the fringe belt (60%) were reduced through transference and four (40%) by
alienation. Therefore, most of the transformed fringe belt areas were reduced.
With regards to the change in the urban landscape component, twenty three fringe belt units,
which account for 45% of all those identified, had their urban plan, built fabric or land use
transformed. In the fringe belt units that underwent extension, there was a change of urban plan
and the built fabric. For those which were reduced through transference, there were
modifications in the three elements: change in land use; built fabric; alienation. In the case of
the other fringe belt units (nine out of the twenty-three - 40% of the total) which did not undergo
extension or reduction due to alienation or transference, the built fabric was transformed (an
382

increase in built area and reduction in open area), or be it, the block underwent a reduction in
free space.
Of the twenty-three fringe belt units that had a morphological element of the urban landscape
transformed, all of them had their built fabric transformed, nine with changes in land use and
eight in the urban plan (Figure 14).

Figure 15. Transformation of fringe belt units indentified within the perímeter of Avenida do
Contorno (source: Simão, 2012, p.123).

The transformation of the built fabric of 45% of all fringe belts units identified in the area
was justified by incentives to encourage increases in density and verticalization, contained in the
Use and occupation of Land legislation in the area under study. This phenomenon is a
consequence of a change in the classification of most fringe belt units, from SE-1 (Special
Sector 1), or SE-2 (Special Sector 1), for ZCBH (Central Area of Belo Horizonte) or ZHIP
(Zone Hipercentral). Spaces defined as special sectors and having the characteristics of fringe
belts, occupied by public amenities and presenting reduced occupancy rates, were classified in
the laws of 1976 and 1985. In the guidelines of the new 1996 law, most fringe belt units had
their zoning changed from Special Sector to Central Zone of Belo Horizonte (ZCBH) or Hyper
Central Zone (ZHIP), thus allowing greater density.
The increase in built area fringe belt units has occurred mainly in ZCBH, since, according to
Caldas, Mendonça and Carmo (2008), the land use and occupation regulations proposed for the
zone use a coefficient 42 equal to 3.0 and allow smaller side and rear clearances in relation to
that permitted in the zoning of the rest of the city, thus facilitating the construction and approval
of new buildings on the blocks. Despite this legal incentive, 55% of fringe belt units identified
have not undergone transformation. This could be explained by the fact that most are classified
as cultural assets and are protected by preservation orders and / or because of their planned and
consolidated public amenity status.

Concluding Remarks

The identification and analysis of fringe belts units define the shape and density of the city, as
well as, type of use and potential. These characteristics also reflect the historical period and the

42
Multiply the area of the land and the utilization coefficient to indicate the highest construction area on
the land, adding up the total number of floors in the building.
 383

socioeconomic conditions of urban development. Thus, fringe belt units have been identified
with the aim of recognizing the shape and potential of the urban landscape of the area within
Avenida do Contorno, starting with the study of the theoretical framework and the fieldwork
carried out.
An analysis of the area's urban evolution reveals that the fringe belt units identified in
unoccupied areas and on the edge of urban occupation, within the inner perimeter of Avenida do
Contorno, constitute the IFB (Inner Fringe Belt).
Each morphological element was analyzed with a view to mapping out the transformation
process of fringe belt units in accordance with the alteration of the three elements that compose
the urban landscape: the urban plan, built fabric and land use. Thus the results show that 45%
of the fringe belt units had a modified element, being that 100% of them manifested a
transformation in the built fabric, 40% showed changes in land use and 40% modifications in
the urban plan. Therefore, it can be said that encouraging density and verticalization, as in the
Law of land Use and Occupation, induced alterations in the built fabric. There is thus a clear
contradiction in a law that establishes the rate of permeability, which should limit excessive
density, whilst at the same time defining areas in which increased density and occupation are
allowed or even induced, especially in the central area.
In addition, the type of transformation which took place was also classified as reduction or
extension. It was concluded that 30% of the fringe belt units were subject to this type of
transformation, 30% of them through extension and 70% by reduction. Most fringe belt units
had their area reduced. The reduction in the fringe belt is the most important result of the urban
transformation witnessed in the area under study, which may explain the distribution of the
fragmented form of the inner belt analyzed and the remaining areas identified in Belo
Horizonte. The fringe belts in the city are composed of several units that are not connected and
do not form the rings recurrently identified in traditional studies on the topic. Therefore, the
elements identified in Belo Horizonte have developed in a different way to those witnessed in
traditional research.
In view of the importance that fringe belts represent in relation to the urban landscape and
the few studies on these morphological elements in Brazil, this work has provided perspectives,
which it is hoped will stimulate new studies on the theme, especially in analysis relating to the
transformation of the urban landscape and its elements.

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge the support received from Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa de Minas Gerais -
FAPEMIG, from Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Tecnológico e Cientifico- CNPQ and
Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES for the development of this
research and presentation of this paper.

References

Belo Horizonte (MG). Prefeitura Municipal. (1976) ‘Lei Municipal n. 2.662 de 29 de novembro de 1976.’
Dispõe sobre o uso e a ocupação do solo urbano do município de Belo Horizonte e dá outras
providências. PMBH, Belo Horizonte.
Belo Horizonte (MG). Prefeitura Municipal. (1985) ‘ Lei Municipal n. 4.034, de 25 de março de 1985’.
Dispõe sobre o uso e a ocupação do solo urbano do município de Belo Horizonte e dá outras
providências. PMBH, Belo Horizonte.
Belo Horizonte (MG). Prefeitura Municipal. (1996) ‘Lei Municipal n. 7.166, de 27 de agosto de 1996’.
Estabelece normas e condições para parcelamento, ocupação e uso do solo urbano no município.
Secretaria Municipal de Planejamento, Belo Horizonte.
384

Caldas, M. F.; Mendonça, J. G. De; Carmo, L. N.(2008) do. Estudos Urbanos: Belo Horizonte 2008:
transformações recentes na estrutura urbana. (Prefeitura de Belo Horizonte, Belo Horizonte)
Conzen, M.R.G. (1960) Alnwick Northumberland: a study in town-plan analysis. (Institute of British
Geographers, London) .
Conzen, M. P. (2004) Thinking about Urban Form: Papers on Urban Morphology (Peter Lang, Oxford).
Conzen, M. P. (2008) ‘How growing cities internalize their old urban fringes: a crosscultural
comparison’, ISUF International Conference Artimino, 21-23
Ferreira, M. G. (1997) O sítio e a formação da paisagem urbana: o município de Belo Horizonte
(Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Dissertação de Mestrado em Geografia – Área
de concentração: organização humana do espaço).
Horta, C. A. da C. (1988) A planta de Belo Horizonte: proposições originais e situação atual.
(Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Monografia Curso de Urbanismo)
Lacerda, N. M. R. F. de. (1986). Traçado da Avenida do Contorno dentro do contexto urbano de Belo
Horizonte. (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Monografia Curso de Urbanismo)
Maciel, M. C. (1998) O projeto em arquitetura paisagística: praças e parques públicos de Belo
Horizonte. 1998. (Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Tese de Doutorado em Estruturas Ambientais
Urbanas).
Meneguetti, K. S. (2013) A morfologia urbana e o paradigma ambiental: um estudo metodológico para a
cidade sustentável. Relatório de pesquisa de Pós-Doutorado Junior – PDJ – CNPq.
Pereira Costa, S. A. et al. (2009a) ‘ Fringe belts no município de Belo Horizonte’ in Tângari, V.;
Andrade, R. De; Schlee, M. (Org.). Sistema de espaços livres: o cotidiano, apropriações e ausências
(Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro) 162-181.
Pereira Costa, S. A. et al. (2009b) Laboratório da Paisagem. ‘Os Sistemas de Espaços Livres e a
Constituição da Esfera Pública Contemporânea: estudos de caso em metrópoles-cidades e novas
territorialidades urbanas brasileiras – Núcleo Belo Horizonte’. (Relatório final do projeto de pesquisa
financiado pela Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais (FAPEMIG). Universidade
Federal de Minas Gerais, Escola de Arquitetura. Belo Horizonte)
Simão, Karina Machado de Castro (2012). Fringe belts como elementos estruturadores da ecologia da
paisagem: o caso de Belo Horizonte/MG. (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte,
Dissertação de Mestrado em Ambiente Construído e Patrimônio Sustentável)
Whitehand, J. W. R., Morton, N. J. (2003) Fringe belts and the recycling of urban land: an academic
concept and planning practice (School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of
Birmingham, Environment and Planning B:Planning and Design 2003, vol. 30, Birmingham) 819-839.
 385

Urban morphology and architectural design in small towns.

The case study of San Vito Romano

Pina Ciotoli
Departement Diap, Doctorate Draco, University of Rome “Sapienza”, Italy
E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract. This paper presents a case study of an ongoing research on urban morphology and design in
small towns, following an experimented methodology (Strappa, 2013) focused on special building types,
and the relationship between consolidated urban tissues and contemporary design. This methodology is
applied in the case study of San Vito Romano, analyzing the place as a text, identifying the elementary
structures and subsequent changes of the historical fabrics. Reading the place in different scales,
territorial, urban organism, urban fabric, building (basic, specialized) we understand the formation
process, corresponding to a phenomenological reduction necessary to solve the organism’s complexity.
Reading buildings and public spaces is substantial and integral part of the project. The specific
characteristics of housing expressed by type’s notion are transformed over time through continuous
updates. The most important of these changes is recognizable as a specific character of Italian
architecture, the increasing of basic buildings to form specialized ones. The project is based on the
concept of a building as a synthesis of all these processes, so were considered the relations established
over time between routes, public spaces, buildings. All this constitutes the primary structure of the
project.

Key Words: Urban-morphology, architecture, urban-design, small-towns, knotting.

San Vito Romano is a case study of an ongoing research on the historical small towns of Lazio
(Italy), following morphological - typological approach (Strappa, 2013). The project, that was a
part of a thesis degree, has been considered as a final outcome, in order of time, of a
transformation process historically determined. San Vito Romano enjoys an excellent
geographic location; it extends Prenestini Mountains and overlooks the valley of the Sacco
River, lying a few hundred kilometers from Rome. Despite the favorable location and historical
importance that the municipality had up until XIX century (it was the seat of the Comarca
Notarile), the center of San Vito is devoid of services for citizens’s active life and today
presents itself as a company town. The abandon of the surrounding agricultural areas is
worsening the economic and environmental situation of the area, depriving the center of the
dignity that historically has always had. The study of San Vito Romano’s territory is based on
the idea of preserving the identity of the built, whereas the old town centre as an organism,
consisting of elements in a relationship of necessity between them. In this way, the town is not
treated as a museum, like any work of art to be protected.
Conservation becomes an active operation, that the current phase of a process, consistent
with the historical legacy of the past, of which we can recognize the characters as training and
mutants.
Reading San Vito Romano’s territory we have carried out analysis on territorial and urban
scale to identify several systems which spell out the reasons for the roots of the community in
that place, and the "formative process" of the site. The area and the urban aggregate were
interpreted according to the paradigm of the method, so we can recognize characters and
potentiality of the land that have been transformed by human activity. On a territorial scale the
shape has been recognized as a visible aspect of a structure transformation, where it was formed
a system of bound distances of the land, the valleys and the hills upon which pseudo-ridge
pathways are implanted (Caniggia, Maffei, 1979). Reading the aerial photo we've identified
pathways of primary and secondary ridge. San Vito is located along a secondary ridge that
386

branches off from the main path: in this case, the structuring of the territory is quite common
also to other historical centers. Very often the main ridge path does not host the best place to the
formation of the settlement. Reading San Vito’s urban fabrics was accomplished first by
surveying ground plan walls and the orientation of houses along the routes. San Vito Romano’s
plan has been an essential tool for the analysis of routes and tissues. We have studied the wall’s
orientation and the houses’s access along the route to understand that in the lower part of the
city we can found multiple bands of continuity. It is difficult to find elements of continuity
between the lower part of San Vito Romano (where we can find the old oil mill) and the higher
part (with Theodoli’s Castle).
This is due to the morphology of the place and to the numerous restructuring that took place
during the XVII and XVIII centuries; all this has caused a shift in land which is no longer
legible the old cadastral plan. So by reading the alignments we recognized the hierarchy paths of
the urban fabric, to a larger scale, and within individual blocks to a smaller scale. It was also
analyzed the shape of many trapezoidal buildings. The presence of trapezoidal form buildings
was due to the shift of the front housing or maybe to the less importance of a matrix route. So
the the cadastral unit is put in a grid of paths much more complex than the last. Before planning
it was important to interpret San Vito's formative process, recognizing and recovering the
typological matrices. The current reading of the building and public spaces is substantial and
integral part of the project, is in fact the logical premise to establish a consequential relationship
between the historical and the contemporary city.
The organic form of the town undergoes a transformation in the time that obeys recognizable
principles; characters transmitted in buildings, expressed by the notion of "tipo edilizio"
(Caniggia, 1972) turns undergoing several changes. The most recognizable trasformation in San
Vito Romano is the collaboration (repletive absorption, redevelopment) to form specialized
buildings (for example in the streets of via degli Orti e via di Borgo Mario). A further analysis
on town's paths was carried out to understand the formative process of the fabrics and more
generally of the entire town. All these examinations underline the peculiarity of a block in
which was found a row house, located in a strategic area of the country, next to the Theodoli's
Castle and via di San Biagio. Starting from the identification of land ownership, were assumed
the formative stages of this first block; then the plan was compared to the actual and historical
cartography. At the end we have studied the building alignments. The analysis of this territory
and the subsequent design phase involve in dealing with archeology and the historic built. Even
the analytical phase is considered as a critical moment in which to express a historical judgment
that concern to the future, not only to the present or the past. So the critical operation and
planning begins by reading the reality and concludes the process of knowledge, based on the
notions of continuity and organization in architectural design. This develops as a congruent
transformation, based on the undeniable fact that the city as a living organism, must constantly
evolve to survive. It's also important to state that the design of the new took place not only
through the study of primary and secondary paths, but relying on the network of intersections
between the routes and the nodes, and according to the notions of basic and specialized
buildings.
The projec area is very wide, includes the entire south of the country and it's characterized by
different altitude. The gap of 5 m between the two paths of via Borgo Mario and via degli Orti is
solved by new building's roof. This seems to continue the square in front of Porta Borgo Mario.
The gap of 35 m between via degli Orti and piazza di Porta Olevano is solved either by using a
mechanized lift to the inner wall of the so called "Cavone" that with a walk along the slope. The
formative process has shown the importance of existing routes that has changed over time
through continous updates. In fact through the study of urban tissue and paths's hierarchies we
can consider via degli Orti, still in state of neglect, as a new matrix route. Tissues on via degli
Orti have the same orientations, so in the past this street had to have an important role for the
entire city. For this reason the road is considered as the matrix route on which developed the
first cells of the project. The secondary route provides for the first building in the use of an
ancient underground route that connects via di Borgo Mario with via degli Orti, and for the
 387

second one, the so-called "palazzo", the use of an existing staircase. Another path, the so called
"percorso di collegamento" takes shape as a new via degli Orti and connects the two buildings
of the project. In the last phase of the formative process, the central part of the palazzo is
specialized on the first level as a square and on the level below as a lecture hall. The building
has been called " palazzo", to synthesize the merge process and plot amalgamation of the
tissues; so the new building has been project as a urban node, a urban knotting of the paths that
can form the new public space. On the second level of the palazzo we can find the knotting of
the entire project; there is a square that follows the allignments and the wall warping of the
ancient buildings. This square is closed to the south by a barrier, and it is outlined as node
design and public space of fundamental importance for the whole town. The second building
solves many problems due to the different quotes of the entire area. In fact, its cells develop
along the underground route that connects via Borgo Mario with via degli Orti (in the past there
were the cells of Carmelite friars and nowadays we can find the seat of municipality. On the
ground zero of both the buildings we can find a "percorso di collegamento"; it is a new street
designed to connect the palace with the second building. We should underline that the
project has recovered and converted some existing buildings (the oil mill, Theodoli's stable, an
ancient building and the fountain of piazza di Porta Olevano). In addition, all existing buildings,
in particular the Theodoli's stable have defined the size of the cells used in the composition of
the project. The existing buildings is in a state of abandon, although he had in the past and it
appears to still have a strategic position, especially compared with town nodes. The stable is in
fact close to the Theodoli's Castle, the great architectural emergency of the upper part of San
Vito Romano, and to piazza di Borgo Mario. The project includes the restoration of all these
buildings. Piazza di Porta Olevano is the node of major strategic importance to the lower part of
town. The project involves the connection between the main road and via di Porta Olevano
through a combined system of squares, rest areas and stairs. The present mill town on via di
Porta Olevano has become a garden inside which penetrates the pavement of the square,
directing the visitor to the seats. So we can say that the project is the last part of the analysis,
and is based on the concept of building as a synthesis of all these processes.

References

Camiz, A. (2012) The diachronic series of medieval notarial sources and the modern cadastral mosaic
for the formative process of urban fabric at San Vito Romano, «Storia dell’urbanistica», XXXI, 4,
pp. 309-412
Camiz, A. (2013) Urban Morphology and architectural design in medieval small towns: San Vito
Romano, in 6th International Congress "Science and Technology for the Safeguard of Cultural Heritage
in the Mediterranean Basin": Abstracts, a cura di A. Ferrari, Editore VALMAR, Roma, p. 30.
Caniggia, G. and Maffei, G.L. (1979) Composizione architettonica e tipologia edilizia. Lettura
dell’edilizia di base, Venezia.
Caniggia, G. (1972) Strutture dello spazio antropico, Firenze.
Strappa, G. and Ieva, M. and Di Matteo, M.A. (2003) La città come organismo. Lettura di Trani alle
diverse scale, Bari.
Strappa, G. (2006) Lettura e progetto dell’organismo urbano di La Valletta, Bari.
Strappa, G. (1995) Unità dell’organismo architettonico. Note sulla formazione e trasformazione dei
caratteri degli edifici, Bari.
Strappa, G. (2013) Territorial organism and urban knotting. Design methods for minor centers of Lazio,
«FA magazine», 23, July-August, pp. 19-23.
388

Railway as vehicle of urban transformation. Past and present

of the railway station

Kateřina Čechová
Faculty of Architecture, Czech Technical University, Prague
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. This paper aims to analyse the impact of railway development on the European city, and
compare the impact it had in the middle of the nineteenth century and it has nowadays. A core question
underlies the analysis and directs the paper on the morphological path: The urban form of the nineteenth
century was significantly redefined by the presence of the railway in all scales (Schivelbusch, 1986 and
Veselý, 2008). On the single unit level, the train station, as the object of major evidence of railway
presence in the city, caused whole city structure to reconfigure, from the position of city centre to the
infrastructural network definition (Krejčiřík, 1991 and Musil, 2002). In the beginning of new millennium,
the European railway celebrates its renaissance, despite not enjoying the exclusivity of its nineteenth
century predecessor. The railway has changed significantly over the 150 years, so has the train stations.
The hybrid objects, emblematic for the city, remind us remotely of the nineteenth century railway stations
(Beneš and Ševčík, 2011). Back to the core question: Is there any transformative force in the
contemporary nature of train station, affecting the urban structure in any way comparable to the force of
the nineteenth century train stations? Is there any reconfiguration of urban patterns present in the
contemporary city, that can be granted to the railway station of present times? The urban transformation
is illustrated on several case studies, such as Prague Masaryk station, London King´s Cross and Vienna
Hauptbahnhof.

Key Words: Railway, train station, urban transformation, urban structure

Introduction

If there was one single greatest innovation of the nineteenth century, responsible for major
development of the society, it would probably be the railway (Powell, 1994). The effect of
railway invention and development was ubiquitous, by no means limited to urban development.
Through the railway, the technological progress entered everyday life of ordinary people and
made them believe in the power of modern science. Railway brought completely new sense of
speed, not achieved by any of the vehicles then known, causing passengers to feel overwhelmed
with new perceptions (Schivelbusch, 1987). It was also railway which accelerated the spread of
revolutionary liberal thoughts throughout Europe, and as many believed, the railway had a
power to unify nations (Schreier, 2010). Spread of railway made travelling affordable for
masses, contributing to growing mobility and its democratization (Hons, 1961).
The core of this paper will nevertheless focus on the effect of railway development on the
transformation of urban structure. The sum and substance is placed on the main passenger
railway stations of European metropolises, their role in this process, and transformation of this
role comparing the second half of the nineteenth century with current situation. First section
analyses the aspects of formation of a modern metropolis, assigned to railway development, in
the second section the current role of railway stations in the redevelopment of urban fabric will
be tackled.
The heritage of past railway forces as well as their current potential has set the ground for
numerous urban regeneration projects, being realized all over Europe on disused railway sites.
For demonstration of past and present transformative forces of railway in the cities, three such
locations with existing projects or realizations were chosen:
London has an exceptional position among European cities, since the end of seventeenth
 389

century the largest city in Europe and first capital adopting the rail roads. Their quantity and
complexity creates highly challenging situation concerning contemporary railway sites
regeneration. On King´s Cross station, the best practice project has been under construction
since 2008.
Vienna on the other hand was rather peripheral metropolis in the nineteenth century,
representing a “model” middle European city, sharing common history and cultural background
with cities such as Prague and Budapest. Vienna is currently adopting several ambitious railway
regeneration projects, including Vienna main station.
In Prague, non of the so far existing projects of railway regeneration has been launched yet,
which opens up an opportunity to get inspired by foreign case studies, dealing with similar
issues formed by railway presence. The exemplary case is the Railway station Prague (in the
text referred to as Masaryk station, its contemporary name), the first and most centrally located
railway station in Prague.

Railway in the nineteenth century

The earliest motivation for the construction of railways was transportation of raw materials -
wood, salt and stone, later on, with the progress of industrial revolution also coal. Moreover,
railway itself stimulated production through demand of further coal, steel and mechanical
engineering manufacture products. Private railway companies, investing in the first railway
lines, were usually consisting of local businessmen, bankers and industrialists, especially the
latter were pushing such railway route, serving their estates, or securing their profits. The
passenger transportation was secondary in the first decades of railway development, which
started to change in the middle of the nineteenth century, when passenger transport spread.
The environment conditions were also a decisive factor for route choice: Since the railway
gives the highest performance on minimal ascent, with carriages moving on smooth, level, hard
and straight surface (Schivelbusch, 1987), the railways followed rivers and valleys, if possible.
The railway could adapt to the existing environment only to a certain extent, beyond that, the
environment was about to adapt to the railway. It cut through the cities and landscape, with new
works of engineering such as embankments, cuttings, viaducts or tunnels, the less valuable
structures had to give way to rail roads. According to Veselý (2008), railway represented
autonomous technical system of objective parameters, layered over the system of everyday
randomness. The conflict of these two systems, causing the barrier of movement and
development, has represented an especially difficult task for engineers and architects since the
first train reached a city.

Locating the first railway stations

Apart from the technical and environmental limits, the price of land was in the foreground, since
most of the rail roads were developed by private companies, while each of them constructed
their own railway station including all facilities. The first railway stations of the European
capital cities were hence almost exclusively terminal stations, rather than single through stations
(Nilsen, 2008), placed on the outskirts of the city. Sparse settlements or completely unbuilt,
cheap land, was prefered.
For illustration of the early railway stations´ location, there are two figures (figures 1 and 2),
capturing urban structures of Prague and London in the similar historical moment: The railway
node was established for long ahead, yet the urban growth had not yet set the hottest pace. This
historical moment came earlier in London (1845), later in Prague (1870).
390

Figure 1. Schematic map of Prague, around 1872.

Figure 2. Schematic map of London, around 1845.

The middle nineteenth century Prague was built up within the city walls - of baroque
construction but of the fourteenth century footprint (Fig.1). The city area was as large as of the
medieval town, so was the urban structure and street network. The location of railway station
was found in a curious position, the passenger part within the city walls in Prague, whereas the
facilities outside the walls, in the rapidly developing neighbourhood of Karlín. Six new gates
connected both parts of the station. The site of Prague station was previously used as flower and
vegetable gardens and execution ground, later as military hospital and popular pleasure
restaurant (Schreier, Kofroň and Sosna, 1995). The available inner city spatial reserve, a sort of
inner periphery of the walled city, enabled this rather curious location, in contrast to Vienna,
where the stations were located just outside the city walls.
London was developing in a different way than the middle European cities. Before the
arrival of first steam locomotive, the oldest district of London – the City – was already
surrounded by industrial quarters and working-class dwellings districts, such as Spitalfields,
Whitechapel or Southwark, which developed in reliance on the river Thames and numerous
canals. By contrast, in the west side of London, to the north and east of the district of
Westminster, the more affluent residential quarters were built in the eighteenth century. This
social distribution had an enormous effect on the location of the first railway stations. Whereas
on the West, the railway stations were located on the outskirts, behind the city structure, in the
eastern part the railway stations were built on the perimeter of City district, deep in the city
structure, cutting through the working-class neighbourhoods (Figure 2) (Schivelbusch, 1987).
The purchase of land for the railway station construction was easier in the less-affluent districts,
yet according to Kellet (2007), the expenses for the British railway stations were almost
devastating, making it the decisive factor for choice of the site.
 391

City expansion

During the industrial revolution, European cities were facing immense influx of migrants,
feeding the growing industry. Even the least advanced European cities launched demolition of
their city walls (Prague: 1874, Vienna: 1857 old city wall, 1894 Linienwall), hence the last
barrier of the city expansion was gone. The effect of railways was imminent: Factories were
settling behind the city on the available land, supply of raw materials and coal was enabled by
railway. Newly incoming workers were settling in the working-class districts emerging nearby,
or in the unkempt central districts. Introduction of affordable commuter train determined the
patterns of suburban development, especially for higher classes, repelled by polluted air and dirt
of the city.
According to Brigs, 1968 and Musil, 2002, railway was unambiguously a concentration
force, bringing population to the vicinity of stations and standing in the background of rapidly
growing cities. Nevertheless, concerning single cities and new perception of space and time
(Boyer, 1996 and Schivelbusch, 1987), the cities of late nineteenth century were spreading
along the rail roads far beyond the traditional city core. The city centres rapidly depopulated,
fell into disrepair or transformed into business districts, whereas new residential settlements of
lower density (garden cities) were far beyond the city. This familiar description corresponds to
the image of late twentieth century western metropolis, however attributed to the development
of automobil industry. Nevertheless, there is a link between future urban sprawl and
“Zwischenstadt“ culture (Sieverts, 2003) and the development of railway.
London, the first world city of the age, had quadrupled the number of its inhabitants between
1800 and 1900, with over 4 million inhabitants in the beginning of twentieth century. As the first
industrialized city, London´s congestion, pollution and lack of greenery was most advanced, so
was the development and popularity of living in suburbs (Janata, 2009). Compared to London,
Vienna and Prague were conservative cities, expanding later by the end of the nineteenth
century, after the demolition of city walls.
The railway stations brought dynamic to the development of inner districts. The previous
node of passenger transportation, the stagecoach inn, could by no means compare to the new
infrastructural node of railway stations with immense volumes of people and goods flowing in
and out (Schivelbusch, 1987). This newly experienced intense concentration in the vicinity of
railway stations was attracting certain functions (retail, business), while repelling others
(residential or smaller workshops). The smoke of steam engines made buildings black and sooty,
yet the bustling atmosphere attracted many cafés, restaurants and hotels, leaving the traditional
city centres behind.
First structural changes of the street network were conceived in order to cope with the
intense traffic, incompatible with narrow winding streets of inner districts. In smaller cities with
through stations located on the outskirts, new street, connecting station directly with the city
centre (so called “Bahnhofstrasse”, railway station street), was placed. Such streets are legible in
the urban structures of cities such as Zürich or Weimar, until nowadays serving as pedestrian
and public transportation shopping and business streets. In contrast, such streets had never been
established in the urban structures of Prague, Vienna or London (Vorrath, 2010). Some streets
may though play similar role, connecting railway station with the city centre, such as
Mariahilfer Strasse, connecting the Western Station with the centre of Vienna. For dispersion of
passengers and easier access of horse-coaches, spacious plazas were constructed in front of
some stations.

Railway expansion

The spatial requirements for the railway operations were growing in the course of the nineteenth
century, mainly the freight transportation required new storehouses and transit sheds. The North
392

railway station, supplying Vienna with coal and salt grew from initial 2 ha site in 1837 up to 96
ha by the end of the century. That made it as large as the central city district (Vorrath, 2010). In
King´s Cross, the facilities of first Coke and Gas Company and storage facilities for grain,
potatoes and coal created an area of 27 ha (King´s Cross Central Limited Partnership, 2014).
According to Kellet (2007), up to 10% of central land in London was owned by the railway
companies.
Apart from the storage facilities, usual equipment of each railway station consisted of
waterworks, locomotive shed, and marshalling ground, shunting yards and sidings. The
passenger equipments were expanding as well, with new tracks being added and halls expanded.
The railway stations started to create large “voids” within the cities - vast inaccessible areas,
splitting newly formed neighbourhoods and making establishment of efficient circulation
network impossible. English idiom “wrong side of the tracks” represents the spatial and social
division railway tracks formed in the cities.
In 1960´s, Masaryk station had nowhere to expand in the vicinity, so it established repair and
maintenance sheds and marshalling yard in Holešovice - Bubny, implanting barrier into another
location in Prague. The existing location of Masaryk station proved to be troublesome for the
first time after the city wall demolition, when the “Ringstrasse” concept – representative
boulevard with public buildings and parks, inspiration from Vienna – was impossible to
implement. National Museum, Opera house, new railway station (today Main Railway Station
Prague) were built along the former city wall, planting the seed of future north-south
communication. The inclusion of the railway sites of Masaryk Station into the urban network as
a part of this communication has been an architectural issue since the 1910´s (Fig.3) The purely
technical solution, a construction of elevated highway over the railway sites, realized in 1980´s,
can not be considered as an adequate answer to this complex and long-standing challenge
(Figure 4).

Figure 3. Proposal of north-south connection, with main square on the place of cancelled
Masaryk station. Designed by architect Kutchera, the Prague Planning Commission from
1942.

Infrastructure and flows

Travellers and commuters used to cause regular congestions around the stations. The key
challenge of the age was to redistribute the enormous volumes of people and goods across the
city. The connection of railway stations with the city centre, with the industrial districts as well
as with each other was essential.
New public transportation systems were set, first of horse-drawn buses (omnibuses), later
horse-drawn trams, replaced by electric tramways by the end of the century. Freight was
transported on horse coaches. Those first public transportation lines were nevertheless avoiding
 393

railway stations, prolonging the transportation problem. Also the capacity of such systems, often
operated in the street network of medieval cities was soon not sufficient enough.

Figure 4. Photography of Masaryk station railway site, view of elevated highway.

The railway station North in Vienna was served by 3 000 horse coaches a day in 1850´s
(Vorrath), balancing on the edge of collapse. In Prague, what we know as Masaryk station, was
for a long period the only railway station in the city. Rapidly growing industrial districts in the
outskirts of Prague were mostly cut off. Transporting the new railway carriages from the
Ringhoffer factory in Smíchov, one such district, to the Masaryk Station in Prague on the horse
carts was an all-day-long operation, jamming traffic in the whole city centre (Hrůza, 1989).
There were first attempts to connect the single termini through railway lines. These
connecting lines remained mostly insufficient in their capacity, facing the demands claimed by
the twentieth century traffic. In Prague, the construction of railway node was finished in 1882.
The new through Main station (back then Franz-Josef Station) was constructed and new
Smíchov terminus was connected with the network. Only Masaryk station, the first railway
station in Prague, remained unconnected with most of the network.
First experiments with underground railway were carried out in London with first
metropolitan system from 1860´s facing the challenge of separated railway stations, spread
across the city. First section of the „tube“, connected railway stations Paddington, Euston,
St.Pancras, Farringdon and Moorgate, and as such set the example of infrastructural network
with multi-modal nodes. The first underground line was later extended and created the „Circle“
underground line, finished by the end of nineteenth century.

Railway station buildings

Before the power of railway was recognized, the very first passengers´ railway stations of
1820´s and 1830´s were plain utility sheds, adjacent to the more important freight stations
(Powell, 1994). Yet the principal expression of the railway architecture of great passenger
stations, such as London St Pancras or Gare de l´Est in Paris was definitely established by the
middle of the nineteenth century. The grandeur of the railway stations was partly inherent by
their size, given the volumes of passengers handled in the stations. Nevertheless, another aspect
was the representation, reflection of their importance.
The typology also evolved, the arrival and departure buildings started to be constructed
separately, the train halls were covered by innovative roof constructions of glass and steel,
inspired by Joseph Paxton´s Crystal palace in London, the house of Great exhibition in 1851.
Monumental facades of the passengers´ halls corresponded to the most glamorous civic
buildings of the era. The architectural style was turning to the glorious past, with classicist, neo-
renaissance or neo-gothic decoration disguising the industrial nature of the buildings
(Schivelbusch, 1987).
394

The cityscape, until recently dominated by the landmarks of castles and cathedrals, gained
new monument. Besides theatres, museums and government buildings, the railway stations were
one of the most spectacular buildings of the time.
In terms of Aldo Rossi´s “The Architecture of the City” (1984), the railway stations of the
nineteenth century are primary elements of the city structure – objects capable of accelerating
the process of urbanization, they are able to characterize the process of spatial transformation,
often acting as a catalyst. Objects of impressive form, capable of structuring the city (1984, 18).

Contemporary railway station

In the course of the nineteenth century, railway worked as unprecedented force in the re-
configuration of city structure. The heritage of this force is interwoven into complex reality of
current cities: large bleak sites of disused railway facilities as well as magnificent buildings of
railway stations, places extraordinarily well connected with the network of public transportation
as well as barrier-like object, separating whole districts.
Large railway sites, busy with railway operations, belong to the past. The freight market has
changed with the spread of electricity, majority of goods is no longer transported through
railways and facilities for steam operations are not in use any more. Rationalization of the
operations enable to diminish the marshalling yards, the unified and well organized railway
node enables the railway companies to share common facilities efficiently.
The disused railway sites are enormously large and valuable. The price of the land is in the
foreground once again. What used to be a periphery behind the city walls in the beginning of the
nineteenth century, is within a perimeter of the wider city centre 200 years later. The location of
the railway stations represents an opportunity to reuse the sites in a way to extend the functions
of the city centre, or set-up a new centre in a derelict, neglected or just fragmented
neighbourhoods. To minimize the disused areas, upgrade the infrastructural network and
optimize the transfer options, integrate the site to the urban structure of the neighbourhoods,
create local or city-wide landmark with urban functions and forms - the ambitions of
contemporary redevelopment projects are high. How do London and Vienna meet their
ambitions, and what kind of challenges would Prague face in the future?

Location of the railway station and city redevelopment

The process of city expansion, triggered by railway in the last third of nineteenth century, and
accelerated by the automobil in the twentieth century had come to the point of
unsustainability. Depopulated city centres, settlements sprawling into the free landscape,
diffuse settlement structure, skyrocketing energy consumption, dependency on private cars and
rising costs of public infrastructure, all that has alarmed governments all over Europe. With over
two thirds of the Europe´s population living in the cities and towns, the demand of sustainable
urban development is getting strong. In the Europe 2020 policy framework, between 2007 and
2013 EU invested about 21 billion EUR in sustainable development projects, such as
rehabilitation of industrial sites or urban regeneration projects (European Commission, 2013).
Large sites of railway brownfields represent such trend of reuse of well connected inner city
reserves.
Vienna adopted a truly strategic approach in railway sites redevelopment, including the city
rail (S-Bahn) and underground (U-Bahn). Austrian regeneration program for railway stations, so
called “Bahnhofsoffensive” (railway station offence) was launched in 1997 with six railway
station areas from Vienna being included, sharing the same project guidelines: Westbahnhof,
Nordbahnhof, Hauptbahnof, Heiligenstadt, Wien-Mitte and Hütteldorf. The first Austrian
“railway city” project, development of Westbahnhof, was finished, meanwhile the projects of
Nordbahnhof (96 ha) and Hauptbahnhof (109 ha) have begun. Outside the regeneration
program, the multi-modal terminus Praterstern has just been finished and the prospective Nord-
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West Bahnhof development (44 ha) will begin within few years (Vorrath, 2010).
In London, there has been projects of railway stations redevelopments realized since 1980 ´s,
such as Broadgate/Liverpool Street or Ludgate, yet without any overarching framework or
policy. The development was primarily a way of raising money for railway operations in times
of cut back in public funding with an enormous pressure on commercial appreciation of the site
(Bertolini, Spit). Currently the most ambitious of all redevelopment projects is the regeneration
of King´s cross – St Pancras terminus with implementation of high speed international
connections and Thameslink line, along with mixed use development (29 ha).
All over Europe, various projects of railway station areas have been launched or finished,
such as Euralille in Lille, Zuidas Amsterdam, Zürich Europaalee, Basel Euroville, Winterthur
Sulzerareal, Berlin Hauptbahnhof, Paris Rive Gauche - Gare d´Austerlitz, Milla Digital in
Zaragoza or Stuttgart 21. The emergence of new quarters is happening again, and those quarters
rise on the former railway sites.
In Prague, there are currently three large central railway brownfields, attached to existing
railway stations: Masaryk station (19 ha), Holešovice-Bubny (76 ha) and Smíchov (179 ha,
including large industrial regeneration zone). Currently, there is no comprehensive strategy for
redevelopment of these zones, neither an effective tool, restricting greenland development and
supporting brownfield development. In past years, larger parts of the property were sold to
private investors, who initiating single projects and negotiating their approval with city
representatives. According to Fragner (2012), urban development project in Prague are mostly a
good way to patch up the holes in the city´s budget.
The Masaryk station area currently borders three districts: the medieval New city of Prague
and two industrial and residential districts, developed in the nineteenth century, Žižkov and
Karlín. All districts has been going through massive redevelopment since 1989, in case of the
latter accelerated after the devastating flood of 2002, making it one of the most progressive
areas of Prague. Complicated topography, rail and vehicle infrastructure, and heritage protection
all play role in the separation of these three districts by the Masaryk station area.

Design tasks – permeability, accessibility, integration

On one side of the project there is upgrade of infrastructure: advance of technology made trains
competitive on medium-length journeys with air-travel (London-Pars) as well as with automobil
(regional connections). Due to the optimization of transfer options, railway nodes are equipped
with new multi-modal terminals, including metro lines, old railway stations disabling trains to
run through are being replaced by new Main stations.
Another part of the project is the regeneration of railway brownfield, its integration into the
surrounding urban fabric and establishment of new connections. In order to eliminate the barrier
effect of the railway station and its facilities, urban design tools elaborate on the usual height
difference of rail road and surrounding environment, using various forms of sunken plazas,
elevated rail road, ground floor passenger halls, bridges or underpasses.
In the main station of Vienna, the whole volume of tracks is elevated, and the ground floor is
used as main space for passengers, replacing passenger hall. It is a wide corridor, underpassing
the width of six platforms, connecting two squares on both side of the station, with entrances up
to the platforms, to shops, to the underground and S-Bahn stations. This spatial configuration
also enables existence of regular underpasses, albeit rather long, in the continuation of existing
street network.
Among many projects under consideration, some still use rather dated design of mega-
structures, inspired by the optimistic 1960´s, when the belief in strong, technical solutions was
ubiquitous. Nevertheless, the solution as such was available much later, and these projects have
often survived up to recent times. Such case was the 1960´s to 1990´s proposal for Zurich
Hauptbahnhof, consisting of large building, spanning over the platforms and railway tracks in
full width. Beside being a demanding, overly expensive structure, the design considered
demolition of existing historical railway station (Wolff, 2012).
396

The urban design of King´s Cross (design by Allies & Morrison and Porphyrios) has been
extensively evaluated by various city bodies in terms of its accessibility and integration. The
resulting scheme proves progress in overall accessibility, with focus on the rich network of
public spaces, from the generous Granary Square to the modest walk along the Regents Canal,
outdoor plazas as well as indoor halls in the Western Concourse. Open space is formed by the
newly designed buildings, which are in their shapes, scale, frontline corresponding to historical
pattern of the site (Figure 5) (King´s Cross Central Limited Partnership, 2014).

Figure 5. London King´s Cross urban pattern.

King´s Cross project shows several other trends concerning the transformation effect. “The
best connected location in Europe” (Argent, 2005) does not mean the dirty infrastructural node
– in fact, most of the facilities, such as six metro lines, including new Thameslink, are buried
underground and hence do not affect the aboveground urban structure. The new underground
world provides passengers with shopping galleries and various services. Another trend is the
regeneration beyond the reach of concrete site – the King´s place, Regent quarter, British library
or The Francis Crick Institute, all has been developed the project started, with a positive effect
on the formerly dilapidated neighbourhood.
Future development of Masaryk station in Prague will have to face several serious facts,
concerning accessibility and integration: re-connection of Karlín and Žižkov districts,
integration of elevated highway, cutting the site in half, and infrastructural solution of the
railway node. Masaryk station is the most busy railway station in Prague for regional
connections, yet with limited future potential: the railway network configuration enables only
connections to the east and north, avoiding the Main station. Past projects of redevelopment
were considering several options: expanding the operations when introducing new Airport line,
keeping only the existing operations while arranging the pedestrian connection for transfers on
the Main station, reducing the station area in order to fit in the network, or complete cancelling
of the operations (Novotný, 2007). Various aspects have been debated, such as foundation of a
representative central city square, an idea regularly revived since 1930´s (Fig.3), or construction
 397

of city railway tunnel, double storey Main railway station and closing of the Masaryk station
(SUDOP, 2011).
In spite of unclear future, the railway area and its surrounding is not sleeping any more.
Florentinum, a large office building, overlooking Masaryk railway station and exceeding the
height of surrounding buildings for about three floors, has just been opened in spring. The
developer Penta (joint owner of the railway station property) and architectural office CMA,
offer 49 000 m2 of office space, shopping passage and piazza with garden, advertised as new
public space. This might seem parallel to the strategy of London, nevertheless, the result is
maximization of profit from the surrounding area before conceiving the overall future
development. This intervention means insertion of a new larger scale of urban fabric, most
likely anticipating urban development, intended by developer. (Fig.6)

Figure 6. Prague Masaryk station urban pattern.

Railway station buildings

Over the past decades, centrally located railway stations of European capitals became
vulnerable to redevelopment. Before establishment of monument protection for the industrial
and infrastructural heritage, several railway stations were demolished, with Euston station in
London, the first grand terminus, being the exemplary case (Powell, 1994). In Vienna, non of
the six original termini remained. The splendid railway buildings of the past were replaced by
modernist utility objects, such as new Euston station in London (finished in 1968), South station
in Vienna (finished in 1961), or Smíchov station in Prague (finished in 1956). The deep contrast
between the buildings of the past and of the contemporary modernist ones caused severe public
protests, resulting in the remaining grand stations of the nineteenth century being classified as
historical monuments, despite with protection mainly limited to passenger and train halls
(Nilsen, 2008).
For various reasons, some of the historical railway stations has been transformed for another
398

functions – they were either not meeting the requirements of contemporary railway operations,
or the railway network was remodeled in another way. For example, North-West station was
used for exhibitions and events, in 1920´s a „snow palace“ was set in there with a ski run and
inclined plane for ski jump with artificial snow. Since 1989 Parisian Musee d´Orsay has been
established in the building of former railway d´Orsay, while Atocha station in Madrid was
transformed into tropical garden.
Another railway stations of the past go through conversions – in order to become the railway
stations of the present, with extensions or new railway buildings added to complement the
services, such as shopping mall, cultural venues, facilities for commuters, sweetening the transit
between various modes of transportation or transforming the railway station into a destination
(Namiki, 1995). New railway stations are truly multifunctional objects, with rail travelling being
only one of the range of functions provided. The once strong statement of monofunctional
monuments – railway stations – has gone for good.
In some cases, monofunctional buildings evolve into hybrid objects, containing the world in
itself, with privatized public space and with functions not adding up, but merging (Ševčík and
Beneš, 2011). Such objects are big in terms of Koolhaas´ theory of bigness (1993): their
envelope does not communicate the inside, there are various autonomous parts, uncontrollable
of single architectural gesture, but is still committed to the whole (Koolhaas, 1993). Large part
of the terminals takes place underground, without really revealing it through the urban structure
visible on the surface.
Reconstructed railway stations often aim for striking aesthetics and expressive form, along
with galleries, museum, airports and shopping malls, they are on the mission to upgrade the
image of the metropolis and improve its competitiveness (Ševčík and Beneš, 2011). Parallel to
the nineteenth century train halls, the contemporary train sheds and canopies became popular
landmarks, in contrast, the passenger halls as such are sometimes even omitted. The case of
Vienna Hauptbahnhof is symptomatic, the passenger hall is a mere corridor, whereas the roof,
diamond shaped steel and glass structure covering the platforms, was given the most attention of
designers and engineers (Fig.7) (ÖBB-Infrastruktur AG, 2014). In these terms, for many
architects the most Inspirational is probably the work of Santiago Calatrava, who has been
shaping the infrastructural landmarks of European cities since his 1990 project for Zürich
Stadelhofen railway station.

Figure 7. Vienna Hauptbahnhof, underpass and iconic roof design.

St.Pancras international and King´s Cross development area show the way of creating space
of various rich forms. The Iconic red-brick pseudo-Gothic building of former Midland Grand
Hotel from 1860´s and 1870´s is forming the main facade of St.Pancras International towards
Euston road and one side of the King´s Cross square. Another side of the square is dominated by
Western Concourse, newly constructed steel and glass canopy by John McAslan + Partners,
extending the passenger hall of Kings Cross station. St Pancras was recently extended by a large
hall of high speed international connections of rather generic design. In the King´s Cross area
 399

redevelopment, about twenty historical monuments has been kept and integrated into the
scheme: landmark buildings such as The Granary building, conversion of former wheat storage
by architect Stanton Williams, hosting The University of Arts London – Central Saint Martins,
voted the “world’s best higher education building” in 2012 (University of the Arts London,
2014), along with ordinary utility buildings of the past, such as canopies for unloading of goods
(King´s Cross Central Limited Partnership, 2014). This strategy helps to keep the memory of the
site, integrating the rich railway past into the current city fabric.
Masaryk station is located within the Prague Heritage Reservation, with railway station
building being the last great railway station in Europe of the first generation buildings,
constructed before 1850 (Zeithammer, 2009). Pseudo-Rennaissance building was designed by
engineer Anton Jüngling in 1845, the objects were going through extensions in 1870´s, with
corner restaurant and glass canopy spanning over the platforms, and facilities building such as
locomotive shed and workshop being constructed in distant position. The railway buildings are
under protection as national monument since 1958, the former locomotive shed is nowadays
conceived for foundation of Railway museum, part of the National technical museum. There is a
chance that these buildings will remain on the site as a part of the future urban development,
keeping the site memory and creating landmarks of the area in the same way we can observe it
in King´s Cross.

Conclusion

Schivelbusch (1987) is writing about the gigantic brushstroke of the early railroads, cutting the
nineteenth century cities´ urban fabric. The works of contemporary architecture and engineering
gives the opportunity to almost erase the legible traces of this brushstroke. Voids are
disappearing, urban structure interconnected, bleak sites revived. From the city structure
interventions caused by railway, seemingly only the positive ones remain.
On large-scale, railway serves as a tool to re-configurate the cities, enabling re-establishment
of sustainable urban patterns. Railway enables to regenerate the inner city districts, while
providing place for new development, and limits suburban development to areas well connected
to the city. This tool may or may not be used, as observed in case studies.
In the framework of single cities, there are mostly urban design tools available for
overcoming the barrier-effect of the railway sites, establishment of new connections and
integration of the newly developed land into an urban fabric. In the best practice cases, the re-
gained confidence of the contemporary railway station is signalized by expressive architectural
features, yet incorporating old memories of early railway times into urban schemes.
In Prague – all these tools to make railway stations prominent, though positive,
transformative force, have not been fully employed yet. The development is in the point, where
much of the potential could be wasted by ill-conceived implementations of urban development,
but also where a lot can be achieved by using wisely the transformative force of railway.

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 401

The impact of Lisbon’s subway development on Avenida da

Républica

Mafalda Teixeira de Sampayo, Carina Silvestre

Departamento de Arquitectura e Urbanismo, ISCTE-IUL ISCTE-IUL, Av. Forças
Armadas, 1649-026 Lisbon, Portugal
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract. In an environment of political regeneration, Lisbon expansion during the XX century is marked
by the “Avenidas Novas” (new avenues) project. In this work we show how the development of the
Avenida da República is affected by the development of the Lisbon subway. The opening of a new subway
station is transformative event that has potential impacts on the development of different sectors and of
the growth of the city. This work was done by in several steps: (i) critical reading of works that focus the
space and time of the object of this study; (ii) identification and analysis of several specific moments of
the growth of the Avenida da República through urban cartography and (iii) assessment of the urban
form of this avenue through a comparative analysis of the results.

Key Words: Urban design, morphology; urban form, Lisbon subway, Avenida da República

Introduction

This work is to be considered in the context of a larger research project. Starting from the
hypothesis that the mass transportation system of the subway acts as a driver of the
transformations of the urban fabric this work presents the case study of the Avenida da
Républica in Lisbon in the context of its three main subway stations. We aim to examine the
evolution of this main boulevard in terms of its buildings, taking into account the several crucial
development periods of Lisbon’s subway system.
How can the transportation systems, namely the subway system, condition the development
and growth of the city? How will it interfere with the social and economical factors of the city
policies? How does the subway change the urban fabric, connecting (or eventually
disconnecting) different city areas? These are some of the questions that this study aims to
answer.
The subway constrains and promotes simultaneously the territory development. It is in
itself a process of urban renewal. The subway growth gives rise to new forms of centrality,
acting as an attractor for new city usages, according to the location of subway stations. This
role of the subway can define different typologies, with places suited for services, commerce,
and office buildings, residential, among others.
This research aims to contextualize the city growth at those dates with the subway
expansion. In the inauguration date of the subway (1959) the stations of Entrecampos, Campo
Grande, and Saldanha open their doors to Avenida da Républica forcing changes in the
boulevard uses and stimulating its growth. The development of this subway line, the relative
importance of its stations would see changes in their centrality that would then have several
implications on the boulevard identity, mainly in buildings facing the boulevard.

Objectives

The main objective of this research is to study the changes suffered by Avenida da
Républica through time, taking into consideration the crucial periods of the development of
402

mass transit systems in Lisbon, namely the transformative implications of the construction
of the Lisbon subway.
This was accomplished also with the fulfilment of secondary objectives in the study of
Avenida da Républica such as: i) the Identification the buildings that are still intact since their
construction; ii) the identification of the architects that took part in the different phases of its
growth; iii) the evaluation the impact of the construction and expansion of the subway of
Lisbon; iv) the Identification of the reasons for the demolishing of buildings seen between
1959 and 2014.

Related Work

There have been several methodological contributions to the study of the city of Lisbon, and in
particular for the study of the new avenues (avenidas novas) and the Avenida da Républica.
Those contributions are based on different approaches ranging from urban history (Dá Mesquita
e Serrano, 2007; Silva, 2006), to urban design (Sampayo, 2003, 2011, 2012), to infrastructural
analysis and network analysis (Rodrigues and Sampayo, 2009; Derrible, 2012).
Dá Mesquita and Serrano (2007) in “Construç o Moderna” performed an extensive analysis
of the different aspects that are involved on the development of the city plan in the early XX
century, which are crucial to the present study. The authors state that in this period the city
development had little dependence on the city plan once the power of decision belonged to the
owners. Thus, they describe that the urban intervention is regulated by “special solutions whose
technical and strategic value superimposes the construction of an image of the city established
earlier - translation by the authors” (Dá Mesquita e Serrano, 2007, p. 69).
Silva (2006) presented the new avenues as “an efficient picture of Lisbon development in the
latter part of the XIX century - translation by the authors” (Silva, 2006, p. 127) referred to the
industrial era. Accordingly to the author the Parisian-like Boulevard was the main reference to
inspire the connection between Campo Grande and the ancient Passeio Público. However, she
states that the quality of the architectonic solutions adopted was inferior when compared to the
great quality of the urban project (Silva, 2006, p. 127). This fact is still visible today on the
buildings along the Avenida da República.
Previous studies by Sampayo (2003, 2012) analysed the urban form and its public space,
showing that Lavedan’s plan permanence law is observed in several urban locations through out
history. The new avenues plan is one more example where this can be observed.
In Derrible (2012) work entitled “Network Centrality of Metro Systems” the author studies
the subway systems of several cities using a network analysis based methodology, namely in
terms of traffic. For this the author analyses the betweenness (Freeman, 1977) of 28 subway
systems across the world to understand the regularities and trends in centrality as a function of
the subway system size.
Rodrigues and Sampayo (2009) showed the role of Closeness and Betweenness in the
subway of Lisbon in the period spanning from 1959 to 2009. The authors produced a
comprehensive analysis of the different stages of the subway expansion measuring the network
properties of interest for the study of the urban form. This work expands the work of Rodrigues
and Sampayo (2009) by extending the study to the upmost recent transformations of the subway
network.

Methodology

The methodology used for this research is based on four steps: i) research in archives for
material gathering; ii) production of building report cards from gathered material and direct
observation (when possible); iii) graphical analysis of the cartography and maps, and iv) data
 403

interpretation.
In the archives research (Arquivo do Arco do Cego, Arquivo Fotográfico e Arquivo
Intermédio da Câmara de Lisboa) several maps where identified and dated to different periods.
A comparison between these maps proves the evolution of the buildings through out the years.
The building report cards where produced for the buildings of Avenida da Républica. These
include: i) images of the built structures before the building and of the existing ones, ii) dates
of construction, demolition and reconstruction, iii) functional description of the building, iv)
number of floors and v) author of the project.
These report cards allowed the construction of a historical timeline about the evolution of the
boulevard. This timeline highlights the changes that it suffered through its history.
The graphical analysis of the existing cartography was done using software systems for
Geographical Information Systems (GIS) and Computer Aided Design (CAD). The usage of
these two software programs helped in the understanding of the Avenida da Républica growth
over time. Both software systems allow for complimentary analysis of the boulevard allowing a
quantitative analysis of spatially defined data.
In this study of the development of Avenida da Républica four dates were taken into
particular consideration: 1908, 1950, 1970 and 2014. i) 1908 corresponds to the initial phase
where the initial plan of the city blocks is defined by the construction of the main avenues that
support the plan and the initial constructions are built; ii) 1950 is the phase just before the start
of the construction of the subway in Avenida da Républica where one can observe the big
developments since the 1908 city plan; iii) 1970 in this phase, after the subway construction in
the avenue, its when the roads, sidewalks and some city blocks suffer some minor
rearrangements; finally iv) 2014 corresponds to the present situation, where all city blocks are
fully occupied.
In the data interpretation step, the analysis was aided by two software packages: GIS and
visone (Brandes and Wagner, 2004). GIS was used for spatial quantitative analysis of the
maps and visone was used for the topological analysis of the network of the Lisbon subway
system.
This methodology allowed the confrontation of the data obtained for the evolution of
Avenida da República and the subway expansion.

Avenida da República

The growth of Lisbon in the XIX century arrives on a later stage when compared to other
European capital cities.
The idea of planning the modernization of Lisbon begins to take shape in the latter part of
the XIX century. In 1864, it is created the Ministry of Public Works (Ministério de Obras
Públicas) with the aim of creating a plan of general improvements. However, that plan ends to
be formulated by the municipal chief engineer Pierre-Joseph Pézerat (1800-1872), in 1865,
entitled “Mémoires sur les études d’amélioration et embellissement de Lisbonne - translation by
the authors”. On this work Pézerat describes “a strategy to apply in Lisbon similar to the one
adopted in Paris by Haussmann - translation by the authors” (Paix o, 2007, p. 107), in which are
included plans for a sewerage system and water supply plan, with the main purpose of
“renewing the urban design of the city and of improving the existing infrastructures translation
by the authors” (Paix o, 2007, p. 107). However, the proposals presented by Pézerat would end
by being rejected by the city council of Lisbon, “who considered them unrealizable and utopian
in a time when the city council was dealing with economic difficulties - translation by the
authors” (Paix o, 2007, p. 107).
With the need of expansion came the necessity of a new urban design plan for Lisbon.
Consequently, it was asked to Frederico Ressano Garcia to formulate the expansion plan.
Ressano Garcia finishes his studies in engineering, in 1869, at the École Imperiale des Ponts et
Chaussées of Paris. He returns to Lisbon and starts working at the city council as a municipal
404

chief engineer using the work of Pézerat as a starting point.

In 1888, it is initiated the expansion of the city from the Ressano Garcia’s plans with all the
ideas inherited from Paris. The expansion project presented had the main purpose of congregate
the previous plans in order to create a fluid and fast connection to the river. It also intended “to
endow Lisbon of new residential blocks with efficient internal articulation and capable of
stimulating the external environment - translation by the authors” (Silva, 2001, p. 60). The plans
correspond to “an area defined by the topography and by the configuration of a future block -
translation by the authors” (Lamas, 1993, p. 221). According to Ressano Garcia, the narrow
streets of the ancient Lisbon and the interior of the blocks were poorly ventilated and
illuminated.
In the planning Ressano Garcia decides to include some hygienization ideas with emphasis
laid upon the regularization and enlargement of streets, the integration of a sewerage system and
a water and electricity supply system, and the plantation of trees. The latter consisted in long
central bands of trees along the avenues so that the public sidewalk could be adapted to the
residential area around.
The foundation elements used in the creation of a new image of Lisbon were “the grid, the
convergent square, the blocks and grid typologies as the reticulated grid translation by the
authors” (Lamas, 1993, p. 224). The blocks were divided in plots that could have been used to
build different kinds of buildings. The plots were sold mostly depending on its location in
relation to the most important avenues. This organization method gave origin to a discontinuous
development of buildings and of the plots occupation.
In contrast to what happened in the planning of Baixa, a block of Lisbon, the new avenues
did not have an architectural development plan. The absence of restrictions in terms of
construction gave origin to diverse kinds of buildings along the avenues. This fact is also
referred by Silva (2006), as mentioned earlier, as she states that the poor architectonical
planning when compared with the great quality urban design planning, are one of the
characteristics that one is still able to observe on today buildings present along the new avenues.
In the late 1930s the expansion plan was not finished, as there were still some plots of land in
the Avenida da República free to build on. However, there were already some building
demolitions registered.

Analysis of Lisbon’s subway network: 1959 – 2012

The development of a subway infrastructure plays a revolutionary role in the growth of a city.
On one hand the subway follows the development of the urban fabric, on the other, it acts as the
driver for the renewal of the latter.
In this case study it was shown that the subway was the main factor by which the Avenida da
República saw major changes, mainly in terms of its buildings.
The first initial subway line of 1958 foresees a great city development encompassing the
urban fabric of the new avenues through an axis starting in Marquês de Pombal and bearing
Entrecampos.
Since 1959, the subway network has gained complexity being composed by four lines, 55
underground stations for a total of 43km. Of these 55 stations only 49 represent a “place” in the
city of Lisbon (the remaining 6 stations are the result of the unfolding of existing stations due to
crossings of two subway lines). Figure 1 shows that the majority of the expansion of the subway
occurred in 1998 and 2004 as consequence of two major international events (World Exhibition
– Expo 98 and the European Championship of Football in 2004).
As a consequence of the expansion of the subway networks, existing stations reflect that
expansion in terms of the traffic to and through them. Considering the subway network as a
graph composed of nodes (stations) and edges (connections) one can study the betweenness and
the closeness of every station in this graph (Rodrigues anda Sampayo, 2009). Closeness gives
 405

the level of proximity a certain node is from all others, while the betweenness represents the role
as intermediate in traffic between other stations.

Figure 1. Expansion of the subway occurred in 1959 and 2012.

Focusing on the stations that are directly situated in Avenida da República (Entrecampos,
Campo Grande and Saldanha), all of which exist since the opening of the network, the role of
the subway as driver of the renewal of the urban fabric was studied. In particular, it was
important to show the subway changed the buildings in plots facing the avenue. To avoid
boundary definition problems in the analysis this subset of the network was extended by one
station in each direction of the 2012 network. In Entrecampos, Cidade Universitária was added
and for Saldanha, Picoas,
S. Sebastião and Alameda were added.
In figure 2a) the betweenness of the seven stations shows that Saldanha always had an
important role in terms of betweenness, but after 2009 this role has been greatly enhanced by
the connections to Alameda and S. Sebastião. It means that this station is now the station that
potentially can have more traffic going through it. It is an important point for the flow of people
in the network.
Figure 2b) shows rank of the seven stations in terms of closeness. It is observed that once
again Saldanha is in first position with the highest closeness. This means that it is also the
station that on average will be closest to any other station making this station the most central
station in the network. It is observed in this situation that Picoas also is highly ranked (4th
place) in terms of closeness and that it had in the past higher ranking then Saldanha (mainly
because it was connected to what was for many years the most central station, Rotunda
(Rodrigues anda Sampayo, 2009)).
Figures 2c) and 2d) show the evolution of the values of betweenness and closeness for the
top 10 stations in the entire network ordered by the 2012 values. It is clear that in 2012 Alameda
becomes almost as important in terms of betweenness as Saldanha and stations connecting to
406

Alameda like Chelas, Olaias, or Bela-Vista can now enter the top 10 in what was until now
considered a peripheral area of the city. In terms of the stations of the new avenues we see that
neither Campo Pequeno or Entrecampos make it into the top 10 in terms of betweenness, but
Campo Pequeno ranks high (4th in 49 stations) in terms of closeness taking advantage of being
just one connection away from Saldanha. Saldanha has become the new central station of the
city after many years where Rotunda occupied first place.
In summary both betweenness and closeness show that the centrality of the subway network
stations is shifting towards the stations of the new avenues, namely Saldanha and Campo
Pequeno are becoming the new centralities of the network.

Figure 2 a) Betweenness of the 7 stations serving the new avenues; b) rank of the 7 stations
serving the new avenues in terms of Closeness; 3) Betweenness evolution of the 2012 top 10
stations at different phases of the subway expansion; 4) Closeness evolution of the 2012 top
10 stations at different phases of the subway expansion.

Graphical Analysis of the 1908, 1950, 1970 and 2014 Cartography

The graphical analysis is based on the study of the different cartography found for the years of
1908, 1950, 1970 and 2014. Several synthesis drawings were generated using ARCGIS that
facilitate the reading of the several timeframes of this boulevard.
This study presents a detailed analysis of the buildings in Avenida da República taking into
account their evolution over time. The original plan for this boulevard was mane in 1889,
making the time frame for this span between 1889 and 2014. The buildings are characterized by
the construction dates, demolition date, by the architects that designed them, by the number of
storeys of the different construction phases, and by the different functions that they had over
time. This research includes all the existing buildings and pre-existing buildings of Avenida da
República, and also the buildings of the square Duque de Saldanha and the buildings of the
roundabout of Entrecampos.
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Concepts

To be able to synthesise the outcomes of this research, it is necessary to explain here some
concepts usually used in the context of urban form studies and that are applied in this work in
the context of the study.
This research has considered the following concepts:
‘Public Space’ – this is a space not built. The public space can be subdivided in two types:
i) the linear public space, corresponding to channels of movement like streets, avenues and ii)
the non-linear public space, corresponding to the places of staying like squares and ‘largos’
(Sampayo, 2011:69). In summary the public space is made of all the circulation space and the
permanence space in the urban form. It is always made with the aim of solving questions
related to the urban design.
‘City block” – It is an element that can generate and be generated by the urban fabric. The
city block has the particular characteristic of being a regularity, a structure, in the urban
layout. It is in this way important in “the local concretisation of a certain model of city, in the
conception of ways of life, in the shaping of the space and the architecture that builds the
city…” (Coelho, 2013, p. 123, translation by the authors).
“Avenue” – It is an important public space of the urban agglomerate. It integrates the two
types of public space: the linear public space and the non-linear public space. An avenue is
usually designed in a very linear way and with great width, integrating both circulation and
permanence spaces. Usually they are closed by the buildings that define it and by green spaces.
The avenues gain particular importance in the urban fabric because of their ability to integrate
buildings of major importance (commercial, monumental or cultural) usually at their endings.
“Plot” – It is a space of land “representing a land-use unit defined by boundaries on the
ground” (Conzen, 1969, p. 128), usually with a regular shape (square, rectangle or other),
that when associated with other plots defines a zoning area (Merlin and Choay, 2010, p.
448). The plot existence doesn’t imply its occupation by buildings in all its area.

Phases of the Evolution of the Urban Fabric of the New Avenues

The graphic timeline in (Figure 3) illustrates the evolution of the urban tissue in the new
avenues and the integration of new grids adjacent to the initial plan. Only the streets that gave
origin to the blocks were sketched. The original surroundings on the central area of the plan
were not considered.

Figure 3. Urban fabric development of the new avenues around Avenida da República.

In 1908, the avenues grid was not fully defined yet. Important avenues such as the Avenida de
Berna, the Avenida das Forças Armadas and the Avenida Duque de Ávila were on an early stage
of development not creating significant hierarchies on the grid. On the borders of the plan the
408

grid is defined by considering the existent road network, which causes the appearance of blocks
with different shapes.
In the plan of 1950, the project of the new avenues was finally concluded. Adjacent to the
initial plan emerge new grids that highlight other influent avenues as the Avenida Duque de
Ávila and the Avenida Miguel Bombarda. It can also be observed the extension of the Avenida
Praia da Vitória Boulevard adjacent to the square Duque de Saldanha.
In 1970, the evolution of the gird does not present significant changes. Nevertheless, it is
worth mentioning the introduction of new roads near the Feira Popular.
Finally, in the scheme of 2014 the grid is completed and consolidated. The most influent
avenues as the Avenida de Berna, the Avenida de Duque Ávila, the Avenida Miguel Bombarda,
the Avenida das Forças Armadas and the Avenida da República no longer present the sidewalk
as a central band.

The blocks

The analysis of the growth of the different city blocks (Figure 4), can be made by comparing the
following periods: 1908, 1950, 1970 and 2014. It was observed that the blocks had a slow
evolution. In 1970, the most part of the blocks was still not completely defined.

Figure 4. City block evolution in Avenida da República.

In the 1908 chart, it is noted that the building development in the Avenida da República begins
south close to the square Duque de Saldanha. The building development at north near Campo
Pequeno and near Mercado do Gado can be considered as residual.
In 1908, south of the Avenida da República some blocks were already completed. Those
blocks also define the first great perpendicular boulevard named Avenida Duque d’Ávila.
When comparing the charts of 1908 and 1950 it is observed that in the latter the blocks were
almost completed. In the front blocks to the Avenida da República there were no plots left to
build on. Nonetheless in 1950, it is still possible to find some free plots in the secondary
avenues adjacent to the Avenida da República.
In 1970, the blocks undergo some modifications with the appearance of new empty spots.
The demolition occurred mostly on blocks frontal to the Avenida da República and not so much
in the secondary avenues as visible in the 1950 chart.
In 2014, it is observed that the blocks were finally consolidated as there no more free plots to
build on. It is also possible to observe that construction grows out to the block interior, thereby
occupying the remaining large empty spots.
 409

The Buildings

As previously mentioned, the plan is developed from South towards North. This growth
direction is clear by taking into account the density of existing buildings in the southern part of
the area during the initial years of the avenue (Figure 5). In any case, the small number of
buildings in the avenue in 1908 is not totally relevant for the future layout of the city. The 1908
plan already shows the city blocks adjacent to the avenue, allowing an understanding both in
terms of its length and its width.

Figure 5. Evolution of buildings in the plots of Avenida da República.

The buildings of this phase are sparse and only in rare cases one observes plots being merged
into a single construction. Building present diversified architectonic characteristics namely the
varied depths of construction into the plot and the varied sizes of the frontages.
In the plans of 1930 the buildings are not so far apart. The limits of Avenida da República
are finally established. In this period all the plot sides facing the avenue are now built. Each city
block pacing the avenue has between 3 and 13 plots facing the avenue, but the majority of them
show an average 5 or 6 plots. In the 1950s it is observed that all the construction is made
without voids between consecutive plots.
By the 1970s some of the constructions start to disappear and some plots facing the avenue
become empty again. Some of these plots are merged with others and in some cases the total
size of the frontages and the plot depth are extended.
In the present all the plots facing the avenue are built and one can observe that cases where
plot merging and subsequent increase of frontages happened.
City blocks have now between 1 and 10 plots and the majority of the city blocks now
present 4 or 5 built plots.
Comparing the map of the avenue (found in the archive of Arco do Cego), from 1902, with
410

the survey made by Silva Pinto (map of 1908), in terms of the number of plots sold, one can
conclude that in 1902 there was a regularity in the drawing of the plots that is not observed in
1908. In the 1902 map the plots facing the avenue in the middle of the city blocks had identical
dimensions while the corner ones where bigger. It is natural that some owners bought more that
one plot and by 1908 the map shows a variety in term of the sizes of built frontages.

Building Height

When analysing the photos of buildings of that time one observes that those buildings presented
no more than 5 or 6 floors. Nowadays, the buildings present in general more than 10 floors.
From the 1950s until the 1970s, the number of floors increases significantly from 8 to 20 floors.
The schemes presented correspond only to the year of 2014 (Figure 6). The first one
illustrates the buildings with 1 to 5 floors and identifies the buildings of the first phase of
development of the Avenida da República from 1880 to 1920. The second scheme illustrates the
buildings with 6 to 8 floors (from 1930 to 1950) and the third scheme illustrates the buildings
with 9 to 20 floors (from 1970 to 2014). Finally, the forth scheme sums up the previous ones.
Today the most part of buildings with 10 to 20 floors are located on the block corners along
the boulevard.
It is worth mentioning that the buildings nearer the subway stations are generally the
buildings from the period between 1889 and 1950.

Figure 6. Number of storeys of the buildings in the city blocks adjacent to Avenida da
República in 2014.

Function of the Building

Initially the most part of buildings of the Avenida da República were residential buildings. The
buildings for business function were only introduced at the late 1950s. Figure 7 illustrates the
function of the buildings as it is today.
Nowadays residence and business buildings occupy the front of buildings to the Avenida da
República. On block corners near subway stations and bus stops it is possible to find mostly
business buildings whereas on the central part of block fronts are present both business and
residential buildings.
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At the square Duque de Saldanha is where the buildings present the highest number of floors
(Figure 6). Those buildings are mainly occupied by the third sector activities due to the eased
access to public transportation systems.

Figure 7. Present function of buildings in the city blockadjacent to Avenida da República.

Building Preservation State

The building preservation state, when considering the façade, was divided into 6 different
classifications: i) ‘Well preserved’ – new building or not presenting any kind of anomalies; ii)
‘Preserved’ – building with some anomalies due to lack of maintenance; iii) ‘Degraded’ –
building with severe anomalies; iv) ‘Highly degraded’ – Vacant buildings (inhabited); v) ‘In
construction’ – Building in construction from the scratch; v) ‘In restoration’ – Building in
restoration.
From the data collected in the beginning of 2014, 38 buildings were classified as ‘well
preserved’, 60 buildings as ‘preserved’, 7 buildings as ‘degraded’, 4 buildings as ‘in
construction’ and 3 as ‘highly degraded’ (Figure 8).
The buildings in better state of preservation are generally located on block corners. The
buildings classified as ‘preserved’ are located mostly on the central part of block fronts. The
412

‘degraded’ and ‘highly degraded’ buildings are still from the early beginnings of the Avenida da
República development.

Figure 8. Present condition of the buildings facing Avenida da República

Urban Void and Green Structures

In addition to the building evolution study, it is important to mention the green spaces role on
the urban design transformation through the time. Ressano Garcia’s plans goal was to integrate
new hygienization solutions on the new boulevards. One of those solutions was the introduction
of new green structures. When analysing the existent cartography from 1908, 1950, 1970 and
2014 it is visible the progressive disappearing of green zones on the Avenida da República
(Figure 9). When observing to old photos it is visible that the subway integration gave origin to
the removal of several trees.
Furthermore, the significant increase of traffic in this area forced the introduction of
additional number of lanes. The need for a better traffic flow induces a reduction on the size of
sidewalks, which used to contain the most part of planted trees.
 413

Figure 9. Overview of green space development in Avenida da República.

Conclusions

It has been shown that the new avenues organised the structure of the public space, but didn’t
regulate the height of the buildings, neither did they regulate the architectonic typologies that
define those spaces. The city is organised by a structure based on designed voids that need to be
analysed and thought off in a chronological manner. The law of permanence of the plan attests
the importance of the public space structure (squares, streets) as they resist the change of time. It
is clear that the plan of the new avenues allows for the introduction of new rules over time that
will improve its composition. Those new rules will weight in the typologies, the facades and the
heights of buildings.
Ressano Garcia incorporated Haussmann social and urban sanitation and hygienisation ideas
in the plan, but war more respectful of the existing urban features. He opted to keep and
linearize many of the existing roads (some resulting from stigmergic foot paths), and chose to
consider the particularly heterogeneous topography of Lisbon. With this balance this plan can is
considered as a good illustration of urban design.
The subway and the stations built in Avenida da República (Entrecampos, Campo Pequeno e
Saldanha) have a big role in the renewal of the buildings of the avenue. Saldanha always
presented a high betweenness but has since 2009 become the most important station in terms of
betweenness with the connections to Alameda and S. Sebastião. Together with having the
highest closeness value, Saldanha is now the most central station in Lisbon with the most
potential to see traffic being sent through and to/from its station. The placement of bus stops on
the surface also potentiates further its centrality, making this station and its above ground square
the new central area of the city. The analysis of the buildings in this square showed only
buildings in normal and good conservation states. Nearby Saldanha station it is clear that a
greater renewal and construction effort was made. This is in part justified by the role attained by
the subway station over time being the most central station in Lisbon (just followed by
Alameda).
In Avenida da Liberdade it was observed that Campo Pequeno is also becoming one of the
most central stations of the network with positive effects on the renewal of the nearby plots.
Near the Entrecampos station no particular changes were observed in the buildings in the past
few years. This is in accordance with the lower values obtained for the centrality measures of
the subway network.
This work also verified the law of the permanence of the public space through a reading of
the cartographic material form 1908, 1950, 1970 and 2014 for Avenida da República and it was
shown how the evolution of the buildings in the avenue are consequence of the expansion of the
Lisbon’s subway network.
414

Acknowledgments

The authors are thankful to Dr. David M. S. Rodrigues of The Open University, United Kingdom, for his
mathematical insights and discussion on the subway network expansion measures. The authors are
thankful to the students of architecture Sara Albuquerque e Pedro Baptista from the Lisbon University
Institute, Portugal, co-authors of Carina Silvestre in the production of images 3, 4 and 7 for allowing their
publication in this paper. The authors are also thankful to Mr. João Salmim Ferreira for his help with the
translation of the document.

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 415

Urban chronicles: exploring the evolution of the

entrepreneurial disposition of Coimbra’s periphery

Ana Margarida Tavares

Department of Architecture, Faculty of Sciences and Technology, University of
Coimbra. Ladeira da Santiva n.º153, 3030-029 Coimbra, Portugal.
E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract. This paper is intended to assess if the roadway infra-structuration of the peripheral areas of
the Coimbra municipality (Portugal) plays a significant role as an engine of urban reorganization and
territorial cohesion in the perspective of the long-term evolution of municipality`s morphology and land
use.To achieve this aim we examine the eastern parishes of Coimbra, long known for their industrial and
entrepreneurial character, though the delineation of a longitudinal dataset on the human appropriation
of their territory. The methodology entails the construction of chronological series of axial maps of the
area, which are associated with satellite images from the Global Land Survey Landsat and data collected
from the Portuguese national registration of corporate entities.The combined analysis of these
informations permitted to identify the morphological parameters of change and continuity that are
responsible for the maintenance of the economic strength of these parishes throughout the years, and to
summarize the reasons for their success inside Coimbra municipality.

Key Words Coimbra periphery, roadway infra-structuration, economic strength, Space Syntax, Landsat

The ordinary way of life

Ordinary, banal or mundane are words that are rarely used in the architectural academic field to
describe something that is worth studying. Nonetheless, ordinary, banal and mundane may well
be the words that best convey the reality of both the western contemporary architecture and the
western contemporary urban development system.
Described as “emphatically un-monumental, anti-heroic, and unconcerned with formal
extravagance” (Harris, 1997), these everyday architectural pieces and their surrounding urban
spaces are much more devoted to serve people`s necessities on every aspect of human life as it
is routinely lived, than to fulfill people`s desires for a certain aesthetic pattern in their lives.
In his 1987 essay “The Everyday and Everydayness”, Henry Lefebvre argues that the notion
of “everyday” is a product of the contemporary world, “the most general of products in an era
where production engenders consumption, and where consumption is manipulated by producers”
(1987: 9). Therefore, “everyday” is “the most universal and the most unique condition, the most
social and the most individuated”, but also “the most obvious and the best hidden” of our time.
In fact, the never ending repetition of gestures of human life, whether commuting, working,
consuming, or having leisure time, is itself most of the times taken for granted, somewhat like
as it was as natural as the cycles of nature, such as day and night, hunger and satisfaction,
activity and rest or life and death. Nonetheless, these ordinary everyday actions are in fact
deeply related to the space where they take place; they are products of the human-constructed
space that hosts them and permits their occurrence (Lefebvre, 1995). Plus, all such actions and
human relations have in common a general law of functionalism, a stipulation of a certain range
of functions, ordered according to the legibility of the forms and structures that serve them,
creating this way, a system of mutual support.
This mode of spatialisation of the society is arranged in a system of different types of
networks, both physical and intangible that occur at every moment, continuously, and infinitely.
The type of network that this paper addresses is the mobility network of goods, people, energy
416

and information (Ascher, 1995), which creates various types of systems of interdependences and
relations, both at global and local scales.
This network reality is described by Castells (1993) as a “space of flows” and is explained
by Delalex (2006: 62-65) through its four main features:
1. It relies on the simultaneous coexistence of events and social interrelations more than on
their contiguity in space. This spatial form of interaction is constructed from social relations that
are detached from the physical contiguity and live in the space of flows;
2. It is supported by a series of global infrastructures used to carry both hard copy
information (through transportation infrastructures like motorways, airports and mail) and
electronic signs (through co-axial cables, fibre-optic cable or satellite) (Lash and Urry cited by
Delalex, 2006: 63);
3. It is simultaneously concentrated and dispersed. Delalex explains that cities tend to
develop as loosely interrelated exurban constellations that emphasize long distance
interdependencies and minimize the role of territorial contiguity. On the other side, certain types
of organizations, namely those related with economic activities, tend to concentrate in areas that
have greatest access to advanced infrastructures of communication, at relatively affordable costs.
The geography induced by the space of flows is therefore neither an effect of concentration, nor
an effect of dispersion, but an intricate association between the two.
4. It`s geometrically varied and the absolute geographical position of the objects is less
important than their position within global networks. The geographical hierarchy is by no means
definitive or stable, which implies a great flexibility and adaptability to the potential and
requirements of the network of flows.
The following sections will explain how these assessments materialize in our case study.

The Coimbra municipality as a case study

Paraphrasing Lefebvre, the study of the banal isn`t necessarily itself banal (1987: 9), since the
ordinary that is present on the human life also encompasses the extraordinary that we can`t (or
ignore how to) appreciate. In this sense, both stressed citizens and unwary investigators may
miss out the relevance of the everyday urban infrastructures, depreciating or devaluing their
power in maintaining the contemporary pattern of urbanization, which this paper tries to tackle.

Hypothesis, aim and context

We believe that the characteristics of the mobility networks of goods, people, energy and
information (Ascher, 1995) is relevant for the expansion and functional polarization process of
new urbanized areas, pattern of urbanization of increasingly importance in contemporary
occidental cities. We also believe that functional urban polarization is better understood if
analysed through the forces that act on the actual processes of the territorial structuration.
In fact, the study here presented is part of a wider research that aims at discussing the role of
high speed roadway networks as structuring elements of the new centrality systems located in
the periphery of the traditional, compact urban centres. This way, we evinced (Tavares, 2013a)
that roadway infra-structuration is an important mechanism of territorial cohesion at the
periphery of the Coimbra municipality, in Portugal. We also tested the roadway infra-
structuration attraction role for a diversified set of urban equipment that prioritizes the
connection to the transportation networks of people and goods instead of the proximity to the
consolidated urban core (Tavares, 2013b). The ensuing development of this line of investigation
raises the question about how far the narratives of the observed integration and spatial
connectivity of the roadway networks are in fact supported by a long-term perspective on
historical evolution of the morphology of the Coimbra periphery and of its land use.
From this main proposition, the following questions arise: (i) Is it possible to reveal the
morphological parameters that explain the settlement of industrial and entrepreneurial
 417

equipment at the periphery of the Coimbra municipality? (ii) Is the pattern of urban organization
and territorial cohesion around the roadway network presently observed also perceptible in the
past? (iii) Is it possible to outline a chronological dataset of the industrial and entrepreneurial
appropriation of these peripheral parishes?

Methodological procedures

In order to answer the questions outlined above, we opted to use a combined methodology of
analysis, based on the confrontation and complementation of three different sources of
information.
In order to reveal the morphological parameters of accessibility of these parishes we
employed the Space Syntax methodology of analysis. In the first place, we collected the
Coimbra`s military cartography (sheets 229, 230, 240 and 241), which is available for the years
1947, 1984 and 2002. We chose to use exclusively the military cartography in order to
guarantee the stability on the representation patterns of the territory, even if the time slot
between the charts is not homogeneous. These charts were used to produce the correspondent
axial maps of the municipality, from which the analysis of the Global and Local Integration and
Choice variables were performed. The software used for this purpose was Alasdain Turner`s
Dephtmap.
We would like to stress that the scope of this study is restricted to the eastern parishes of
Coimbra (São Martinho do Bispo, Ribeira de Frades, Taveiro, Ameal and Arzila). However, we
decided to use the axial maps correspondent to the entire area of the municipality: an axial
analysis performed partially could induce errors and reading misinterpretations due to the scale
of the system itself, and also to the lack of representation of the connections with other major
roadways, which we wanted to avoid.
Respecting the assessment of the parishes` pattern of territorial organization, we resorted to
Esri`s Change Matter website (http://changematters.esri.com/compare). This tool uses the US
Geological Survey and NASA operated Global Land Survey Landsat data to display the Earth
surface at six time epochs (1975, 1990, 2000, 2005 and 2010), in a combination of the visible
and infrared portions of the light spectrum. In these infrared images vegetation appears red,
water appears blue and human constructions appear grey (among other categories), which is
very useful when it is necessary to detect changes, such as deforestation, fluctuations in water
elevation or urban sprawl, on the landscape. For this study, the infrared images were used to
uncover the modifications on urban density of the parishes.
For the study of the economic patterns of land appropriation, we used data provided by the
Registo Nacional de Pessoas Colectivas (national registration of corporate entities, in a free
translation), a section of the Instituto dos Registos e Notariado (the Portuguese institute of
registry and notary). The collected information regardering all the corporate entities based on
these parishes since the beginning of the registration (the oldest entry is from May 1930), and
included, among other information, the date of their establishment, their address, the CAE
(Classificação Portuguesa de Actividades Económicas, or Portuguese Classification of
Economic Activities) and the date of their extinction. This information was processed in the
form of several charts and analyzed in tandem with the axial maps.
In this respect, we should mention that the national registration of corporate entities only
started to collect the “extinction date” data since 2009, reason why there are surely entities
erroneously represented in some of the chronological maps. We are aware of that fact, but we
believe that the advantages of using this information outweigh punctual inaccuracies that may
exist in the representations.
418

Data analysis and interpretation

Global axial analysis

As said above, we performed the axial analysis of the whole of Coimbra municipality for the
years 1947, 1984 and 2002 and the axial maps, when placed side by side, showed an ever
changing territorial reality. Please note that the darkest lines on the images presented are
equivalent to the red lines on the more classic red-blue colored axial representations, and are
thus the most integrated ones. Also note that the lighter the lines become, the least integrated
they are.

Figure 1. Global integration maps and numeric values for 1947, 1984 and 2002.

Analyzing the Global Integration maps (Integration HH) on Figure 1, it is clear that a process
of urban consolidation has been taking part throughout the years. It starts with a fairly dispersed
set of highly integrated routes, yet located on the central area of the 1947 map. The more
elongated representation of the 1984 map follows, assuming the N1 (Nacional 1) and the
recently inaugurated A1 highway (1982) as part of the ensemble of the most integrated
roadways of the system. Finally, the 2002 map displays a more balanced urban network,
encompassing a strongly connected center (that corresponds to Coimbra`s downtown, alongside
the Mondego river) and strong roadway connections, represented by the N1 (that in the
meantime experienced enhancements that transformed it into an expressway, now known as
IC2), the Taveiro`s Expressway (the final part of the EN341, the national roadway that connects
the coastal city of Figueira-da-Foz to Coimbra), the highway A1, and also the IP3 national
roadway (that connects Coimbra to Viseu).
The numeric values corroborate the visual impression by displaying a drop on the average
Global Integration values in the year of 1984, abrogated afterwards on the 2002 representation.
This last map inclusively overtook the 1947 values, disclosing a strengthening of the global
accessibility of the entire system.
Concerning the Local Integration Maps (Integration HH radius 5) on Figure 2, it is also
perceived a drop on the average Local Integration values on the 1984 representation, compared
with the 1974 situation. But, also in this case, both the average and maximum values of
integration raise in the 2002 graphical and numerical data. In general terms, it is observable that
the 1974 trend of having several well connected local agglomerates was partially lost in 1984,
being replaced by a concentration on the Coimbra historic town and downtown, a similar
outcome to what we observed for the Global Integration. The 1974 pattern is restored in 2002,
with more peripheral agglomerates being better connected with the main roadway axis.
 419

Figure 2. Local integration maps and numeric values for 1947, 1984 and 2002.

Figure 3. Choice maps and numeric values for 1947, 1984 and 2002.

The confirmation of these observations was made resorting to the Choice map and values on
Figure 3. However in this case all values increase continuously over time, the correspondent
axial maps reveal a change in the pattern of use of the Coimbra roadway system: in 1947 it
appears to be fairly structured around a few main road axis, the ones most likely to be chosen
from any given position of the system. In the next map, the polarization power of these few
roadways seems to be minimized and the system appears to be more fragmented in general, as
more roadways appear with darker colorations. The final map shows a return to the previous
patterns of attraction, stabilizing into a representation where the main roadways A1, IC2, IP3,
Taveiro`s Expressway and also the EN17, also known as Estrada da Beira (that connects
Coimbra to Celorico da Beira, through some important towns, such as Vila Nova de Poiares and
Arganil) prevail.
To conclude the general reading of the tripartite axial analysis of the Coimbra municipality,
we reckon that not only the construction of some major roadways, namely the A1 highway (it`s
Condeixa-Mealhada section was inaugurated in 1982) and the IP3 (inaugurated in 1995), but
420

also the improvement of others, particularly the IC2 and the N341/Taveiro`s Expressway, had
major consequences on the patterns of movement throughout the municipality and on the
patterns of accessibility of certain areas. Along the years, both the new and the transformed
roadways created a destabilization momentum that had the fragmentation of usages as a main
consequence. In most recent years, with the stabilization of the roadway development and with
the creation of better punctual connections with the urban agglomerates, the system regained its
equilibrium, in a very similar pattern to the older one.

Morphological parameters of change

Bearing in mind the findings expressed above, we proceeded to the analysis of the eastern
parishes of the municipality. We both assessed the influence the roadway networks have for the
urban organization and territorial cohesion of these parishes and outlined a chronological dataset
of their industrial and entrepreneurial appropriation. We zoomed the axial maps previously
presented in order to have a better perception of the color gradation of their axial lines.
In the Global axial analysis section we identified the EN341/Taveiro`s Expressay as one of
the most integrated axis of this municipality’s roadway system. This roadway was constructed
after the publication of the 1985 Plano Rodoviário Nacional (the national road network plan), as
a direct result of this document`s recommendations for the Portuguese roadway infra-structure.
On the article 11, section II of this Plan, it is stated that it should be set up a construction
programme of alternative roadways to those that cross urban agglomerates (Ministério do
Equipamento Social, 1985: 3208). This indeed happened in Coimbra, as the construction of the
EN341 deviated traffic from the municipal roadway that served and crossed all the small
agglomerates along the left bank of the Mondego River, freeing them from the burden and
hazards of the heavy vehicle traffic.

Figure 4. Global integration maps of the eastern parishes of the municipality.

This change between the 1974 and 1984 plans and the 2002 plan is perceptible on the Global
Integration axial maps of Figure 4. It is particularly remarkable how well the EN341/Taveiro`s
Expressay nodal connection with the A1 highway seems to work, fostering the integrator power
of this ensemble inside the system.

Patterns of territorial organization

Having such an extended history of constant changes, between new constructions (the A1 in
1982 and EN341 in the late 1980`s) and improvements (the transformation of the EN341 into an
expressway to better connect the highway exit to the Coimbra city centre, after the turn of the
century), changes on the pattern of urban organization should easily be spotted. The Figure 5 is
a succession of three satellite images we accessed through Esri`s Change Matter website
(http://changematters.esri.com/compare). The main feature of these images is that they were
obtained by the infrared cameras of the Global Land Survey Landsat, presenting in a clear way
 421

the differences between various types of territorial occupation. All three images are the result of
the superposition of two other images, from different dates, highlighting changes on vegetation
(such as agriculture, forest or meadow) and water levels (rivers and lakes or wetland for
instance).
Please note that as these images are presented in grayscale, the darker coloration corresponds
to vegetation decrease and lighter coloration corresponds to vegetation increase. Grey
colorations correspond to absence of modifications. Also note that the first image represent the
superposition of the 1974 and 1990 images, that the second are of 1990’s and 2000’s, and that
the third represents the 2000 and 2005 images. This way, even if the dates of satellite captures
don’t correspond to the military charts that we used for the axial analysis, we´re still able to
have a complete coverture of the territorial transformations for the time period that we are
addressing in this paper.
The major change we notice on the 1975-1990 superposition is a large decrease on the
acreage of the right bank of the Mondego River, an area usually named as campos do Mondego
(Mondego fields). This area is characterized by its low elevation and marshy soil and is mainly
used for growing rice. The activity of the growth of rice in this area comes from ancient times,
but the drop that the image shows on its cultivation may be the best proof of the change on the
life and work paradigms that the adhesion to the European Union in 1986 (named European
Economic Community at that time) brought to the Portuguese citizens. Another explanation for
this disinvestment on agriculture may come from the fact that the construction of both the A1
and the EN 341 brought another type of territorial dynamic, with the development of modern
urban conditions at the existing agglomerates and the arrival of new inhabitants, which were not
as interested in farming the fertile lands of the Mondego basin as having a more specialized and
well-paid type of occupation.
The 1990-2000 image shows a more localized pattern of change, especially regarding the
decrease of vegetation around the roadway axis in three main areas: along the old roadway that
crosses the urban agglomerates; at the Ameal and Arzila parishes; and at the area of the Parque
Empresarial de Taveiro (Taveiro Business Park) and Mercado Abastecedor da Região de
Coimbra (supply market), both inaugurated in the early 1990`s. In this case it is clear that the
motivation for the change is the infra-structuration and urbanization of these areas, which is the
reality that we expected to observe.
Again the 2000-2005 image shows punctual vegetation decrease and densification of the
urban area, namely on the Taveiro area (the Parque Mondego Retail Park was inaugurated in
2002), one of the parishes that developed the most since the early 1990`s. By contrast, it is also
observable a considerable increase on the farming area on both margins of the river. This fact
might strike the reader for a moment, but it seems to be a natural result of recent year`s
assistance and support on agriculture by the Government and by the European Union, as well as
of a rediscovery and “trendification” of the Portuguese national products.
Bearing in mind the readings expressed above, we feel confident to assert that there is a close
relation between the roadway infra-structuration at the eastern parishes of Coimbra municipality
and their territorial organization. These infra-structures, as constantly evolving entities, are
inclusively responsible for the different types of patterns of territorial organization observed on
different time periods.

Industrial and entrepreneurial appropriation

We also wanted to know if the roadway network of the eastern parishes of Coimbra have any
influence on the settlement pattern of industrial and entrepreneurial equipment, and if this
settlement pattern has been changing throughout the history. For that, we located on the military
charts all the companies that have their headquarters in these parishes and that are listed at the
Registo Nacional de Pessoas Colectivas. We then compared the result with the three Local
Integration maps.
422

In Figure 6 we can see that right on the 1947 map, and despite having only six enterprises
registered at that time, it is already clear that there is, in fact, a bond between the most
accessible axial lines and their location. The same pattern is visible on the 1987 and 2002 maps,
with industries and enterprises joining the others that were already set in place. However, we
also observed that when they choose to settle on different locations, they tend to choose the
most integrated areas of the parishes.

Figure 5. Landsat images of the eastern parishes of the municipality.

 423

Figure 6. Location of the existing corporate entities for 1947, 1984 and 2002.
424

Figure 7. Location of the existing corporate entities for before 1947, 1947-1984, 1985-1989,
1990-1999 and 2000-2002 time periods.

Observing the settlement of these entities by different periods (before 1947, 1947-1984,
1985-1989, 1990-1999 and 2000-2002) in Figure 7, we can foretell the political and economic
trends of each period. The 1947-1984 map shows the beginning of the industrial appropriation
of the area, embodied in a slow start of the development process of a ruralized territory, located
 425

just a few km outside Coimbra. In the 1985-1989 map we can see the installation of the first
enterprise at the Parque Empresarial de Taveiro. From this point on, there are two different
location patterns for the industries and enterprises along the Coimbra`s eastern parishes: the first
one is settling inside the business park, which have great advantages in terms of saving infra-
structuration costs, dividing every-day operational costs and creating synergies with other
enterprises; the other location pattern depends on each industry or enterprise assessment of the
importance they give to factors such as accessibility, land cost, parking space, possibility of
creating synergies, among other factor. This way, besides the consolidation of the business park,
it is noticeable a preference on the agglomeration of enterprises in certain areas, and the choice
for more integrated, hence accessible, areas. The 1990-1999’s rends visible an “explosion” on
the number of industries and enterprises, which is explained by the Portuguese adhesion to the
European Economic Community in 1986 and the euphoric period that followed. With the
financial support given by the EEC, specifically for the entrepreneurial development of the
country, many had the chance to start their own businesses, and thus creating better life
conditions for their families. Finally, the 2000-2002 map shows a stabilization on the process of
opening new business activities. The establishment of the single currency in the EU brought
new challenges to the Portuguese economy and the sense of euphoria suddenly dropped.
Nevertheless, the industrial and entrepreneurial presence inside these parishes is strong and
visible until today. Of course the city continued to evolve after 2002, the most recent date
addressed in this paper, but due to financial constraints and to the arrival at a point of
equilibrium, the infra-structural changes haven`t been as evident as in past times. This way, we
dare to allege that the territorial organization hasn`t changed much as well, maintaining the
pattern that we described above.

Conclusion

At the beginning of this paper we claimed that we wanted to investigate how far the narratives
of integration and spatial connectivity that are observed on the contemporary roadway infra-
structures of the eastern parishes of the municipality of Coimbra are in fact supported by a long-
term perspective on historical evolution of the morphology of these parishes and of their land
uses.
We questioned if it was possible to reveal the morphological parameters that explain the
settlement of industrial and entrepreneurial equipment at the eastern parishes of Coimbra, which
we did through a set of three axial maps of the parishes, for the years 1947, 1984 and 2002. The
analysis of these maps uncovered a process of urban consolidation that has been taking part
throughout those years. We inclusively reckon that both the construction of some major
roadways and the improvement of some others had major consequences on the movement
patterns throughout the municipality, and on the patterns of accessibility of certain areas as well.
We wanted to know if the pattern of urban organization and territorial cohesion around the
roadway network presently observed was also perceptible in the past. For that, we arranged a
succession of three infrared satellite images that were the result of the superposition of two
other images, from different dates. These images allowed us to understand the changes on land
uses of the parishes, namely the increasing and decreasing trends of agriculture and urbanization.
The results allowed us to assert that the roadway infra-structures, as constantly evolving entities,
are responsible for the different types of patterns of territorial organization observed on different
time periods.
We also wondered about the possibility of outlining a chronological dataset of the industrial and
entrepreneurial appropriation of these parishes. For that, we used the data provided by the
Registo Nacional de Pessoas Colectivas, which we located on the military charts and compared
with the Local Integration maps. This comparison highlighted two different location patterns,
being the first one the settling inside the business park, and the second one the dependence on
the assessment of the importance of accessibility to each particular business plan.
426

Coimbra, as many other Portuguese cities, is constantly under constructive and destructive
changes. The forces that create these changes are various in type and action and are not, by any
means, banal or ordinary.

References

Ascher, F. (1995) Métapolis ou l`avenir des villes (Editions Odile Jacob, Paris).
Castells, M. (1993) The informational city: information technology, economic restructuring, and the
urban-regional process (Blackwell, Oxford).
Delalex, G. (2006). Go with the flow: architecture, infrastructure and the everyday experience of mobility
(University of Art and Design, Helsinki).
Harris, S. (1997) `Everyday architecture`, The architecture of everyday
(http://www.papress.com/html/book.details.page.tpl?isbn=9781568981147) accessed 10 May 2014.
Lefebvre, H. (1995) The production of space (Blackwell, Oxford).
Lefebvre, H. and Levich, C. (1987) `The everyday and everydayness`, Yale French Studies 73, 7-11.
Ministério do Equipamento Social (1985) Decreto-Lei n.º 380/85 de 26 de Setembro
(http://www.dre.pt/pdf1s%5C1985%5C09%5C22200%5C32063214.pdf) accessed 10 May 2014.
Tavares, A. (2013a) ‘Centralidades periféricas: o caso do nó de Taveiro’ Revista Iberoamericana de
Urbanismo 10, 73-93.
Tavares, A. (2013b) `Questioning the urban: wander through the axial Coimbra` PNUM 2013
proceedings, 311-325 (http://www.dec.uc.pt/~pnum2013/Proceedings_PNUM2013.pdf) accessed 10
May 2014.
 427

Spatial fabric of urban cemeteries. Two cases in Lisbon

Egle Bazaraite1, Teresa Heitor1, Valério Medeiros2

1
DECivil Departamento Engenharia Civil Arquitectura e Georrecursos Instituto
Superior Técnico, UTL. Av. Rovisco Pais. Lisbon, 1049-001 Portugal. 2Programa de
Pesquisa e Pós-Graduação da Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da Universidade
de Brasília. Instituto Central de Ciências – ICC Norte – Gleba A Campus Universitário
Darcy Ribeiro – Asa Norte – Caixa Postal 04431, CEP: 70904-970 – Brasília/DF. Brasil
E-mails: [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected].

Abstract. This paper explores the question of how built environment affects spatial cognition. It is
focused on two 19th century Lisbon (Portugal) burial grounds (Alto São João and Prazeres). These
cemeteries were founded at the same time, but in result of different urban-social and political concept
gained different spatial expression. Using Space Syntax theory and Depthmap software, the paper
approaches axial and visibility parameters, connectivity and integration, that are put into a cross
comparison with real estate and burial service prices, aiming at identifying spatial similarities and
differences, with a focus on social segregation expressed through the cemetery planning. Findings
suggest the chess-like grid (common for both cemeteries) and the connection among parts are crucial for
general spatial cognition’s performance. Besides that, the cemetery “design”, at a certain level,
reproduces diachronically the urban ethos. A more refined intelligibility depends on the conceptual
framework: community vs. lonely mourning.

Key Words: Cemetery, Lisbon burial grounds, burial services, spatial analysis, Space Syntax

Introduction

Cemeteries of the 19th century Lisbon result from the urban ideas, that took them out of the city
fabric together with asylums, slaughterhouses and prisons. The two cases of this study were the
first burial grounds in Lisbon that responded the tendencies. However throughout 2 centuries
they have developed in slightly different manners, though maintaining common social features
in their morphological nucleus.
A burial system in Lisbon presents a list of different services of a cemetery and several
burial options differing in price (Câmara Municipal de Lisboa, 2013: 14; 2014: 151), pushing
the whole cemetery into a structure of social inequality. This social premise is examined
morphologically in two cemetery plans. The root of both cemeteries is cardo and decumannus,
where the center is the most sacred, crowned with a chapel and expensive, richly decorated
private burials – jazigos, serving as the tourist attractions nowadays. Getting away from the
sacred center, the “prices for death” go lower, and the burial ground gradually becomes more
profane.
A further study of social stratification considers Space Syntax theory (Hillier, Hanson, 1984)
applied to cemetery plans and retrieving the axial graphs from Depthmap software, focusing on
2 main variables: integration and visibility.
Integration “basically represents the amount of steps it takes to get from one particular
location to any other in the environment” (Kalff, 2012: 10). Integration, following the formula
described by Hillier and Hanson (1984: 108), considers a value for a mean depth and a number
of axial lines in the system. Parts of a structure of the highest values of integration usually are
found in the city centers (Holanda et al, 2012), same organization is found in Alto de São João
cemetery.
428

An isovist, or viewshed, is the area in a spatial environment directly visible from a location
within the space. (Turner et al, 2001, for details). This variable is important for its capability to
show the variations of visibility pattern associated to different kinds of spatial conditions around
different burials.
The study is complemented with some data from a questionnaire, carried by Egle Bazaraite.
The questionnaire focuses on the visitor’s sense of orientation in burial grounds, the habits of
the visitors and their expectations of spatial qualities of the cemeteries. Comparative table of
different aspects of two Lisbon cemeteries concludes the paper.

Premises: notes on the history of urban cemeteries

The 18th century marks an important turning point in the cemetery culture in the Western world.
At the time illuminist and hygienist ideas were applied to the cities, taking cemeteries,
slaughterhouses, asylums and prisons out of the city (Ariés, 1976). These institutions, placed in
the populated city territory, were seen as impure (Oliveira, 2007: 65).
Literary and art works appeared approaching the phenomenon of death, revisiting the idea of
the paradise, the world of the antique deities, awaking the nostalgia of the past that served as a
key image to the Romantic movement of the 18th century. Thomas Gray lingered in the poem
“Elegy Written in a Country Churchyard”, as well as many other English poets, that described
cemetery as the place for meditation (Oliveira, 2007: 53). All these tendencies led to
questioning the position of cemetery in the city’s intramural structure, leading to constructing
the tombs and sepulchers in the open natural context and starting to apply Ancient Egyptian and
Classical Graeco-Roman burial models in different scales (Etlin, 1991: 178; Curl, 2002: 189-
196). Simultaneously, doctors, city planners and scientists focused the attention to the salubrity
of the overcrowded cemeteries/charniers, located inside the cities and in the church territory.
These ideas gave an impulse for the great changes in cemetery culture. Garden cemetery
appeared as a new, but in fact revisited alternative to the cemeteries. Various parks have been
created in England (Stowe Garden, Leasowes, Howard castle inter alia) and in France
(Ermenonville, Mauperthuis, Monceau inter alia), receiving mausoleums and tombs, sometimes
fake, though evoking the nostalgia for the wisdom of the ancestors. “Now the cemetery was to
be a picturesque landscape garden which conveyed a radically different understanding of death”
(Etlin, 1984: 146).
Cemeteries were to include new aesthetical functions like “embellisement of the city” (Etlin,
1984: 41), as well as a moral message by honouring “worth of ordinary citizens” (Etlin, 1984:
42) serving “as a school of virtue” (Etlin, 1984: 59).
Père Lachaise was established in the existent gardens and constituted “the final stage in the
ongoing debate about how social values and sentiment should be accommodated in the new
Arcadian landscapes for the dead” (Etlin, 1984: 229). The types of burials have been defined,
dedicated to different classes according to their financial capacities.
French approach to the burial gave an impulse to the creation of similar cemeteries around
the Western world. Different urban contexts and natural conditions of climate helped those
burial grounds with the same root of ideas and architectural expression evolve into the structures
with local characteristics.

Burial system in Lisbon cemeteries

Taking into account the premises, the analysis conducted in this paper is based on the syntactic
investigation of the two oldest existing Lisbon cemeteries: Prazeres and Alto de São João. All in
all there are 8 cemeteries inside the city of Lisbon (figure 1) and the burial system and taxes are
regulated by City Townhall (Câmara Municipal de Lisboa, 2013: 14; 2014: 151).
 429

Figure 1.Axial map of Lisbon: the darkest black lines show the potencial urban core. 5
main burials grounds and 3 smaller suplementary ones are located outside the urban
center.

Different options of burial imply different expenses. Presently there are 7 options: temporary
sepulcher, perpetual sepulcher, ash field, private burial construction – charnel house (jazigo),
public burial construction – charnel house (jazigo), public ossuary, private or public
columbarium.
The options can be divided into two groups: one can either use a family jazigo for burial
(private jazigo or perpetual sepulcher) or the options of public equipment. Both choices imply
service fees, however in private burial the fee of a burial service is paid once, while for burial in
public constructions it is paid for a certain period of time (1, 5 or 25 years). When this period is
over, a person responsible for a buried body has to pay the fee again. If there is no one to take
care of the situation, cemetery rules define “taking care of the bodies in the most appropriate
way to the situation” (Câmara Municipal de Lisboa, 2013: 10). Table 1 presents values for
burying in Lisbon cemeteries. The values are different from one city to another since they are
defined by the local authorities.
For burial in a private jazigo or perpetual grave, a piece of land must be acquired from the
municipality, and the construction costs are to be paid by the acquiring person (Câmara
Municipal de Lisboa, 2013: 14; 2014: 151). This person decides on the architectural style and
materials of the project, though following the regulations defined by the municipality (Câmara
Municipal de Lisboa, 2013: 14) (table 2).
This data must be seen in the context of the minimum wage in Portugal for 2014, that is
565,83 euros (Fundação Francisco Manuel dos Santos, 2014). 1 m2 for private jazigo is almost 3
minimum wages, and perpetual grave costs more than 17 minimum wages.
As a burial ground is a paid service, it makes sense that people acquire services responding
to their financial capacities, and though interested in decent treatment of the passed away, rare
one would go over his/her financial limits or even into debt for paying the funeral.
430

Table 1. Fees for burial in public cemeteries in Lisbon, 2014 (Câmara Municipal de
Lisboa, 2014: 151)

Type Of Burial Period Fee In Eur

(2014)
Burial in Temporal Grave once 85
Burial in Perpetual Grave once 145,65
Burial in Ash Field once 52
Burial in a Private Jazigo (Charnel House) once 189,55
Burial in a Public Jazigo (Charnel House) 1 year 116,8
Burial in a Public Jazigo (Charnel House) 5 years 306,15
Burial in a Public Jazigo (Charnel House) 25 years 1712,6
Burial in a Public Ossuary 1 year 98,1
Burial in a Public Ossuary 5 years 201,65
Burial in a Public Ossuary 25 years 615,1
Burial in a Public or Private Columbarium 1 year 95,45
Burial in a Public or Private Columbarium 5 years 188,45
Burial in a Public or Private Columbarium 25 years 562,1

Table 2. Prices for land concession in Lisbon cemeteries (Câmara Municipal de Lisboa,
2013: 14)

Concession Of Land For: Price For: Price In €

private jazigo 1 m2 1619,7

perpetual grave 1 lot 9718,1

The ones unable to pay burial service have a financial support from the religious charity
institutions, eventually covering the expenses for the most appropriate (supposedly the cheapest)
way of burial.
Burying in Prazeres burial ground is not possible anymore, unless a deceased belongs to the
family that owns a private jazigo or a perpetual grave. This burial ground is in a kind of state of
conservation, turning itself into a pure museologic jewel of Lisbon tourist map with various
guided visits.
In the case of Prazeres cemetery, one can only purchase a jazigo from another family, which
would “abandon” it by taking away the coffins, and sell jazigo in an auction. As newspaper
(Alemão, 2013) announces, the price of jazigo in Prazeres cemetery can go up to 150.000 euros.
Alto de São João cemetery today is the most central burial ground in Lisbon, that includes
crematorium and gives service of all possible burial options defined by law.

History of Prazeres and Alto De São João cemeteries

During the 19th century the nucleus of the current Lisbon cemeteries have been founded (except
Carnide), and even after various transformations their initial structure is still present.
Both – Alto de São João and Prazeres cemeteries – were founded in the first half of the 19th
century – precisely in 1833 during the cholera epidemic for handling the great number of
victims. The cemeteries were placed in the outer parts of the city territory, both occupying
 431

beautiful undulating topography with the views to Tejo. Burial grounds were established in
peripheral and rural suburbs of Lisbon, that in the middle of the 19th century still served
agricultural purposes (Oliveira, 2007: 252).
Alto de São João was planned in the Eastern part of the city, occupying existing São João
estate. Prazeres cemetery was founded in the Western part. These cemeteries, established at the
same period received quite different “inhabitants”. Prazeres served for the burial of liberal
figures – politicians and writers of the period, including the nobles and the enriched burgeous.
Alto de São João cemetery obtained political mission, though of a later period, serving the
masonry and institutional monuments erected by the initiative of Estado Novo (Oliveira, 2007:
254).
The idea of preserving the memory, and burial ground as a place for education and evocation
of moral, including value of historical conscience, turned this space into some kind of the
museum. Several project proposals have been made for the Alto de São João and Prazeres burial
grounds. Nowadays the responsibility of cemetery planning belongs technicians (including
architects) working in municipality.
The site chosen for development of Prazeres cemetery had been used for burials in the
periods of epidemic crises since the 16th century. The site included as well an existent chapel.
Prazeres grew twice its size; while Alto de São João has grown by 3 times since it was founded.

Figure 2. The development of Alto de São João and Prazeres cemeteries (Oliveira, 2007:
CCLVI, CCLXII, Ferreira, 2009: 1139).
432

Comparison of the urban context of these two cementeries

Prazeres cemetery is 1.5 km away from the nearest metro station (Rato), and it takes about 21
min to get from one point to another43. (Buses of 5 different routes (712, 701, 709, 774) and
trams of 2 different routes (25, 28) take one almost to the gate of the cemetery.
Alto de São João burial ground is 1.2 km away from the nearest metro station (Arroios), and
it takes about 17 min to make the distance on foot. Buses of 2 different routes (718, 742) stop at
the gate, and buses of 7 different routes stop 600 m away from the entrance (at Paiva Couceiro
square: 206, 706, 718, 730, 735, 742, 797).
There is certain group of people that are interested in burial grounds as public places, using
them as a kind of parks with historical contents. The same approach in the 19 th century revealed
the necessity of a public park - a kind of a public space that did not exist before (Etlin, 1984:
367).
38 respondents age 20-68 filled in the questionnaire prepared by the author of this paper.
Though it is still early to make the conclusions, it is interesting to note that those burial ground
visitors interested in a burial ground as a place for a walk – public place, might not have any
sentimental connection to the graves of their family members and would have a difficulty to
explain where exactly these graves are in the certain burial ground plan. Respondents that
mentioned this had university education and in most cases were connected to arts. They would
visit a cemetery on their trip abroad, expressing their fascination to burial ground as a place of
culture, history and architecture.

Structure of the two burial grounds

Analysed cemeteries differ in size. Prazeres, occupying 0.12 sq.m, is almost twice smaller than
Alto de São João cemetery. This area responds to the permanent sepulchers area in Alto de São
João cemetery. The rest of the Alto de São João cemetery is dedicated to the temporal burials.
At the first glimpse, one can notice that both cemeteries’ central structure is defined by
orthogonal grid, based on the cross like relation between the entrance and central chapel,
expanding its “rays” in three points, shaping the cross, reminding of cardo and decumannus
(Figure ). There is another element that resembles a structure of a Roman city – a wall that
surrounds almost every cemetery of European tradition. This wall – a frontier of symbolical
protection from the dead, and physical protection from the living – differs in height from one
tradition to another. In case of these two cemeteries in Lisbon – it is a tall, sometimes 5 m
height structure, impossible to surpass. It is expected to discover this cross like structure
highlighted after processing Depthmap analysis.

Figure 3. The root of Alto de São João cemetery and Prazeres cemetery is a cross structure
with a chapel in the center, serving as the most sacred element of the burial ground. The
structure gets more profane when getting away from the very center .

43
Estimation obtained from googlemaps.com
 433

The rigid central structure defines the rule of the further development, however in the case of
Alto de São João topographical conditions might have implied the further decisions of the
planner when designing the outer structure for temporal burials. Simple identification of axes of
the cemeteries lead to understanding the level of a homogeneity of the cemeteries (Figure 3).

Figure 4. Axial system of main pathways in Alto de São João and Prazeres cemeteries.

Alto de São João structure reveals two different types of organization – orthogonal at the core
and spontaneous-organic structure at the Eastern outskirt. How these parts of cemetery differ in
function and price? Is there any social difference between the “clients” of these parts?

Figure 5. Alto de São João cemetery is composed of permanent (light grey) and temporal
(dark grey) burial grounds. Prazeres is entirely permanent.

The structure of the Prazeres cemetery coincides to the core plan of the Alto de São João
burial ground, and has no visually identifiable suburbs, except the southern part, that reveals to
be less connected to the central part.
Orthogonal structure in two burial grounds share the same kind of land use – in Prazeres they
are all occupied by private jazigos (charnel houses) and permanent graves (light grey colour in
Figure 4), while in Alto de São João part is exclusively dedicated to permanent burial, while
organic structure of suburbs is all used for temporal burial (dark grey colour in Figure 4).
Temporal burials appear in the orthogonal structure surrounded by private jazigos (charnel
houses), columbariums or municipal jazigo, this way isolating the temporal burial grounds, and
sometimes turning their “backs”, giving the space a feeling of harshness and austerity (Figure
5). The reality reveals a formula neighbourhood&community (Figure 6) vs. desert&austerity
(Figure 5).
434

Figure 6. Temporal burial ground in Alto de São João cemetery with the back walls of
public ossuaries.

Figure 7. Private jazigos are mostly organized in orthogonal grid.

Space syntax study

Space Syntax analysis is carried out for two burial grounds in Lisbon for understanding how
each spatial structure of the burial ground is related and connected to others. The focus is on the
possible social stratification inside the cemeteries expressed through the spatial organization.
The data retrieved from Depthmap is to be cross connected to cemetery service values that serve
as an indication of certain social groups using certain part of a burial ground.
Burial ground as a typology is a segregated element in the city fabric. It is separated by the
wall from the rest of the surroundings, in case of Alto de São João and Prazeres wall in some
points reaches 5 meters. Both burial grounds only have one entrance each that segregates them
even more from the urban context. It is like a city in the city, protected from the exterior world
by the walls, as a kind of Roman city with a notion of danger of the exterior world, of the
unknown. It is like a closed condominium, with guards at the entrance, or a prison, or a hospital
– it is an institution that cannot be entered whenever one wants. It is a territory with rules,
visiting hours, prejudices and myths, with lots of worries expressed by the ones who visit and
the ones that will “inhabit” it in the future.
Different levels of interior segregation can be observed in the “interior” of the burial
grounds. In figure 3 Alto de São João shows a combination of two grids – orthogonal and
organic-spontaneous, while Prazeres has almost homogenous orthogonal grid, only with one
change of direction.
 435

Figure 8. Integration HH axial map shows the most integrated parts of the cemetery (the
thickest lines). Alto de São João cemetery has a more expressed center and several sub
centers. Prazeres cemetery holds most integration in one line.

Axial map uses a scale of lines that differ in their thickness, where thickest line is used for
the most integrated lines, and the thinnest ones for the least integrated lines, varying as well in
black to grey tones.
In the structure of Alto de São João the spectrum of values of levels of connectivity reveals
almost “one colour” plan – meaning that most of the lines are of alike values. Structure of
Prazeres, even though revealing more homogeneity in plan, has a hierarchy of connectivity
values, with the most connected path in the back of territory, stretching in the direct line.
The level of integration of a burial ground structure can give hints of how this kind of built
environment functions socially, indicating existence of the social stratification of a certain level.
Table 3 presents the integration values with a burial options found on the pathways of certain
level of integration in Alto de São João burial ground. Temporal graves only appear on the
second most integrated pathways (average thickness and grey colour in the plan). These
temporal graves, however, are hidden inside the “neighbourhoods”, surrounded by private
jazigos, that beyond the service price of burial, implies the value for land concession and
construction of jazigo, or acquisition of one already built. Same rules are applied for perpetual
graves, values for land concession are presented in the table 2.
In the case of Alto de São João cemetery, while the integration value goes down, temporal
graves get further from the entrance and from the nuclear center. The most celebrated and the
most expensive private burial grounds surround the temporal graves that are closest to the
center, hiding this reality and sometimes even turning their deaf walls to them, as shown in a
figure 4. Private jazigos, found in the green level of integration make part of homogenous
“neighbourhood” that consists only of private jazigos. Perpetual graves located in the pathways
of lowest integration are surrounded by private jazigos as well.
Differences of the urban fabric in Alto São João burial ground lead to different visibility
maps retrieved through Depthmap software. The rigid orthogonal grid of three-dimensional
sepulchers are visibly less permeable. One can sneak peak into the interior of the little
“neighbourhoods” of sepulchers, however the proportions of space only allow one looking
along the extended visibility lines constructing organized chess-like cemetery fabric. “The right
wing” of the cemetery, used for temporal burial, have different qualities – the core is an open
vast space and 3 dimensional objects only surround the territory, serving as a wall of the burial
ground. There is an appealing difference of space quality and it actually differently affects a
visitor. Death is somehow more painful here. There is no caressing and compassion. Death is a
fact, a number marking the grave. Its poetry speaks of loneliness, on the contrary to the qualities
of the area in the core of the cemetery, that reveals itself as more communal, more
“neighbourhood” type.
436

Table 3. Integration values and burial option with service costs

Line Integration
Burial options Price for service, €
thickness values
Private jazigos 189,55
5 1.94 - 1.84
Perpetual graves 145,65
Private jazigos 189,55
4 1.77 - 1.68
Temporal graves (surrounded by jazigos) 85
Private jazigos 189,55
3 1.65 - 1.52 Perpetual graves 145,65
Temporal graves (surrounded by jazigos) 85
Perpetual graves 145,65
Temporal graves (surrounded by jazigos and
2 1.51 - 1.09 85
open field)
Private jazigos (inside the neighbourhood) 189,55
Perpetual graves 145,65
1 1.08 - 0.53
Temporal graves (open field) 85

One point eye-sovist graphs show what is visually reachable from one chosen point. The
view from the entrance of Alto de São João cemetery ends by the chapel, located 130 m away
from the entrance. On the right the view stretches along the columbariums, until it ends by the
cemetery wall 370 m away. On the right the view stretches the same distance, however not as
wide. These isovists are linear. Analogue shape of visibility at the entrance is revealed in
Prazeres cemetery. Eye-sovist and knee-sovist are placed aside since the barriers are of the same
origin – three dimension sepulchers and the chapel.
In the open field of temporal graves in the right wing of the burial ground the eye-sovist graph is
different – it is open, stretching up wide almost to 360º, eventually bringing to sight the
industrial landscape by the Tejo river.

Figure 9. One point eye-sovist from the entrance in Alto de São João and Prazeres
cemeteries are the same “T” shape. Inside the orthogonal plan eye-sovists are either linear
or cross like (where the paths cross).
 437

Figure 10. Eye-sovist in the temporal burial field stretches almost to 360º. This analysis is
processed only to Alto de São João burial ground, as temporal burials are not
implemented anymore in Prazeres cemetery.

Final comparison and conclusions

Spatial qualities speak for themselves, and the historical facts, morphologic analysis, data
retrieved from Depthmap software and the burial service prices serve for confirming the raised
question – at what level social stratification exists in the burial grounds? Can it be confirmed
with a quantifiable data?
It is concluded that these notions can be confirmed joining historical facts with
morphological studies, real estate and service values for burials and graphs retrieved through
Depthmap software, based on Space Syntax theory.
Alto de São João burial ground found at the same time as Prazeres cementery, is still in use.
It is almost twice bigger, both structures started by kind of cardo and decumannus combination
of paths, still identifiable today. The service prices for burials are the same in both cemeteries,
as they are defined by municipality, however Prazeres receives only the ones that already have
family burials there or acquired jazigos in an auction. Prices for jazigos are higher in Prazeres
than in Alto de São João. Prazeres is a prestigious cemetery, a celebrated touristic point, praised
by historians and art lovers.
Alto de São João cemetery has in its territory a crematorium that is in full function. Both
cemeteries are out of urban nucleus of Lisbon, but still in Lisbon territory. Alto de São João is
bigger structure, but less public transport passes, and metro is a big further than in case of
Prazeres cemetery.
Alto de São João is composed of two kinds of morphological structures – orthogonal and
organic (spontaneous), different morphological structures serve different burial purposes.
Prazeres is all orthogonal, with on one change of direction, that still continues orthogonal grid.
Segregation of an organic part of Alto de São João cemetery is identified by the weak
syntactical connection to the orthogonal structure. The far end “east wing” of the cemetery is
used for temporal burial, that is the cheapest burial option, accessible for most of social levels.
After 5 to 7 years in the temporal burial the bones are taken out from the ground, cleaned and
put where family decides – either public ossuary, public columbarium (if cremated), ash field (if
cremated) or any other option. Whatever is chosen, the burial service must be paid again (table
1). Prazeres cemetery has no temporal burial grounds, and this type of segregation is impossible
to identify.
438

Table 4. Two cemeteries, founded at the same time, throughout the years developed into
two directions, differing in their relation to the urban context and their own spatial
organization, serving as well different social classes

ALTO DE SÃO JOÃO PRAZERES

Year of foundation 1833 1833

Size 0.22 sq.km 0.12 sq.km

Still used for burial Yes No (only for special cases)

Price of land Defined by municipality (same

Defined by municipality (same for both)
concession for both)
Defined by municipality (same
Price for burial services Defined by municipality (same for both)
for both)
Price for private jazigo
Lower Higher
(in auction)

Crematorium Yes No

Relation to the city Outside the urban nucleus Outside the urban nucleus

Distance to nearest
1.5 km 1.2 km
metro
Public transport taking
2 buses 4 buses and 2 trams
to the gate
Internal structure
starting with cardo and Yes Yes
decumannus

Internal structure Orthogonal and organic (spontaneous) Orthogonal

Space syntax results -

integration HH Segregation identified Segregation not identified
(segregation)
Temporal burial
Yes No
grounds
 439

The continuation of the research

Continuing this approach to morphological studies of cemetery design, more cemeteries must be
studied for either confirming or denying the question of social stratification of a burial ground.
Therefore questionnaire will handed for more respondents for understanding what mostly
disturbs and caresses people in cemetery – a place of both personal and public memory, as well
as their relation to the cemetery as a place of intimate relation of the passed away – are they
visiting it for celebrating the life of their dear ones, or they live the memories in other places?
The comparison made in the paper joined axial map data with burial service values. It would
be useful to take into account average family savings of the minimum income in Portugal. It
would let to understand which burial option they would more likely acquire. What is more, a
questionnaire for the family of minimum wages could include the question about their burial
options.
In relation to social stratification in the cemetery, it makes sense to analyse the historical
development of Alto de São João cemetery for understanding how temporal burial were planned
throughout two centuries.

References

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da arquitectura (Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian).
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(Euro/ECU)
(http://www.pordata.pt/Europa/Salario+minimo+nacional+valor+medio+mensalizado+(Euro+ECU)-
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440

U+D urban form and design. A tool of Urban Syntax to design

Paolo Carlotti
Lab. Progettazione architettonica, Università di Roma “Sapienza”,
Facoltà di Architettur– DIAP. EmaiL: [email protected].

Abstract. It 's time for a reflection about architectural design through European geographical’s thought
of the late nineteenth century(LEIGHLY, 1965), developed further especially in English and Italian
cultures and particularly in urban morphology (urban morphology – Conzen)(Conzen, 2012) and
architecture design (building typology – Caniggia)(Caniggia Maffei, 1979). This subject, initiated by
Ricther and Ratzer’s thesis, advances to the primary synthesis with the idea of “region” by Vidal de la
Blanche, and aftewards with the Sauer’s idea of landscape as an "organic body " (Sauer, 1925). Later it
was improved by Conzen in urban morphology’s field, and Muratori and Caniggia in the field of
architecture relatively to the concept of “tipo”. Morphology and architecture, landscape and building
process are, actually, complementary scientific fields, essential for designers of historical landscape
(Nevter, 2009). Several research and comparative studies between this two schools, have been the focus
and a field for reflection. This has produced some major studies like that of space syntax (Marcus, 2011).
Landscape and historical spaces are texts that one should learn to read (Strappa, 2011) , with this point
of view the tissue and the urban body are words of a paper written by many authors, that shall be
interpreted. They are like sentences and words of a collective work to be interpreted in order to build a
grammar and syntax for architectonical and urban design. U+ D wants to bring the Italian exception
(typological analysis-Muratori-Caniggia) to a wider international discussion of urban morphology and in
the same time it wants to emphasize the architectural aspect of this theme, which is essential for further
and more effective architectural design dimension.

Key Words: Urban form, urban syntax, design

The european roots of cultural geography

“The systematic organization of the content of landscape proceeds with the repression of a priori
theories concerning it. The massing and ordering of phenomena as forms that are integrated into
structures and the comparative study of the data as thus organized constitute the morphologic
method of synthesis, a special empirical method. Morphology rests upon the following
postulates: that there is a unit of organic or quasi-organic quality, that is, a structure to which
certain components are necessary, these component element being called ‘forms’[….]; that
similarity of forms then being ‘homologous’ and that the structural unit may be placed in series,
especially into developmental sequence, ranging from incipient to final or completed stage.
Morphologic study does not necessary affirm an organism in the biologic sense as, for example,
in the sociology of Herbert Spencer, but only organized unit concepts that are related.” “[...]
there is a unit of organic or quasi-organic quality [...]”(Sauer, 1925).
1925, Carl O. Sauer spells out scientific theory of urban morphology, argues the study of
physical space by systems orderly within a process in which man and territory are included in
the unit. System, organism and process inaugurate, from the beginning of last century, the time
when these terms beginning key words among scholars of territory and landscape. Between
those have tried synthetically to explain the character of human environment within interrelation
of material quality and cultural capabilities.
Ritter, Ratzel, Vidal de La Blanche, Davis, Boas, Wissler, Demangeon, Passarge, Lehmann
are, from the beginning of nineteenth century, among the earliest scholars to operate in
disciplinary field divided between those who stiffly defines the physical surroundings decisive
for human component and whoever later shall reduce the value, within interrelation of material
 441

quality and cultural capabilities, from absolute to relative. Later others will spend time and
effort trying to specify and to point out reasons and values of transformation process notion’s,
but despite this, few will be able to supply adequate and exhaustive useful indications for
architectural and urban design. In several cases, these are suggestions made on surveys intuitive
or derived from studies on borden line architectonic field that rarely goes into the merits of the
systems and anthropic physical structures with the typical tools of architecture.
Leighly in 1965 (Leighly, 1965), in an interesting anthology of writings by Carl O. Sauer,
emphasizes the elements that have helped to establish the theoretical formulations, the
cornerstones of urban morphology. It is begun by Otto Schluter (Whitehand, 2007) and for a
few decades raised to field for urban study , then from purely geographic area it's relocating to
the pragmatic professional architectural.
In fact, It is common conviction among those who deal of territory that the morphology and
the physical character (altimetry, hydrometry, etc.) influence the history and evolution of the
urban landscape. “[…]l’individuazione dell’identità territoriale (alle diverse scale della regione
e del singolo luogo è fondamentale per avviare processi di riterritorializzazione
(riappropriazione dello spazio ndr). Questa individuazione richiede la lettura del processo di
formazione del territorio nel lungo periodo per reinterpretare invarianti, permanenze, sedimenti
materiali e cognitivi in relazione ai quali produrre nuovi atti territorializzanti.
Ogni ciclo di territorializzazione, riorganizzando e trasformando il territorio, accumula e
deposita una propria “sapienza ambientale”, che arricchisce la conoscenza delle regole
genetiche, contribuendo alla conservazione e alla riproduzione dell’identità territoriale
attraverso le trasformazioni (distruttive e ricostruttive) indotte dalla peculiarità culturale del
proprio progetto di insediamento.”
“[…] l’analisi storica del processo di formazione del territorio non è finalizzata alla ricerca-
conservazione della “natura originaria” del luogo (genotipo o memoria genetica) ma
all’individuazione delle sue buone pratiche riproduttive che forniscono regole (costruttive,
insediative, relazionali) per proseguire l’opera di territorializzazione secondo criteri e forme
innovative[….]” “[…] l’analisi non è finalizzata né a trasformare il territorio in museo, né a
copiare stili; ma ad acquisire sapienza ambientale e arte di edificare che hanno creato, in epoche
precedenti, relazioni virtuose fra insediamento umano e ambiente e utilizzarle per il progetto di
trasformazione.” (Magnaghi, 2010). Despite of all these efforts is sufficiently clear to most
people, and like this writing Magnaghi points out, what is the node to be tackled in order to
contribute effectively to the development of the knowledge accumulated. It should go into the
"environmental knowledge" is not so much from the theoretical point of view, rather than the
operational level of development, including the diachronic analysis and urban morphologies.
This operation today is certainly more difficult to recognize than in the past for amount of layers
and architectonic structures and urban areas that are superimposed. The acceleration of the
process of transformation of the territory in general and Italian in particular, has upset the
"spontaneous" metabolising capacity, that human infrastructure had regularly expressed at each
stage of the process of transformation on the landscape. The structure is achieved continuously
overwhelmed by other anthropic structures, by disconnecting the physical context, produce
fragmentation of the urban system, disarticulate content in the urban unit of the institution,
sometimes irreversibly damaging the whole. From the organic unit it switches to the
juxtaposition of heterogeneous and serial elements so in the expression as in the economic and
social function.
The request disciplinary, especially the fields that deal with the design of the territory, it
shall notify the urgent need for new rules to study the transformation process so as to restore
valences and meaning nodality extensive and peculiar to the territory and urban centers
otherwise destined to remain satellites of the large agglomerations or sentenced to
abandonment.
U+D urbanform and design aims to be a space for reflection to accept even the disciplinary
point of view of human geography in its contemporary paradigms (Vallega, Vagaggini, Corna
Pellegrini, Quaini), which coincide (with the idea of type and process concept and history
442

operating of the Roman school of urban morphology) with the idea of human space and
geographic complex, the product of evolutionary processes and involutive of cultural areas, or
parts of them, which contribute and have contributed to define a new unit to larger scale. The
limited range of human geography and urban geography in particular, as a representative form
of the collective imaginary gives particular importance to the relationship between physical
components and the main anthropic structures intended for to displacement, settlement and
conomic productiones (Wissler, 1965). Elements used also by Gianfranco Caniggia in the
synthetic representation of the territory. A position that is in fact agree geographers and
architects of the territory and which has led us to confirm such as particularly useful
representation of these elements to describe the territory nodes (settlements), axis (paths), areas
(production areas) and lines (boundaries).

The italian school contribution and new tools and elements of reflection

It also wants explore significance synchronic and diachronic in Urban Sintax and in drawings of
the territory. Those who Caniggia had already graphically synthesized in the phases of the
formative cycle of the territory, which begins with the phase of the ridge and ends with the step
of the valley.
Now, although the concept of culture area is now common knowledge, the connection of this
with the physical characters (borders, usable areas, structures for the movement and anthropic
elements for settlement), shared and assumed in the domain of human geography and its related
fields is still fuzzy in the design perspective, however, this seems recently emerge more clearly
from the domain of the sciences of architecture. Gianfranco recovering the regional synthesis of
Saverio Muratori published in the book Cività e territorio (Muratori, 1967) had summed up in a
few but significant marks central places, already proposed as significant elements of cultural
regions recognized in the territory by Smile and Dickinson in 1947 (SMILE 1947, Dickinson,
1947). He had introduced the design theme that was missing in the geographical field;
something which in fact was distilling in these disciplines alike to architecture they had in
common the natural environment (in which there are the territorial and architectural. design), its
understanding and its representation in phases and for regional areas geographically
homogeneous and cooperating.
The projective intuition of these studies is the result of the progression of interdisciplinary
knowledge, which developed within a European geographical line of thought binds Otto
Schluter with Carl Sauer, Vidal de la Blanche Lucien Fevbre and Fernand Braudel, and which
find continuity in the school of urban morphology Anglo-Saxon and North American (Conzen,
Whitehand, Moudon, J.Conzel, Larkan), and for urban and regional project showing interesting
elements in results achieved by research and reflection of the Italian school. School that
registers a growing consensus (University of Laval, Portland, Utah, Birmingham, Porto, etc..)
and receives strong encouragement in the field of design, at the international level.
Limits and boundaries are identified on the maps and cadastral tools. They vary in time and
space. In a subsequent phase they may appear, values and hierarchies, the opposite way to the
previous one. Organization and roles of the components are constantly changing from the sites
more easily umanizabili (ridges) to the less antropizzabili territories (valley). All in all this trend
is gradually increasing the extension of the cultural area and at the same time it is articulated, at
the local level, in sub areas qualitatively significant. The study of the formative processes of the
urban fabric of the historical cities of the youngest cities in Europe and America and Asia
(Davis H., 2013), suggests the idea of a reflection space oriented towards the approach of the
scientific analysis of the physical forms of nature and landscape A disciplinary field that
involves the geographic and architectura domain, a field of study and experimentation still
undefined at the boundary between the Space Syntax (Whitehand J., 2007) and the urban
morphology.
 443

The overlap of marks, forms that make up the urban design it is now well-established field of
study of urban morphology (Kroft, 2014). Concepts such as range or boundary dividing
relevance (Conzen, 2013), in the description of the relationship built between the path and lotto
is commonly used in the school of geography in Birmingham (Whitehand, Conzen) and in
schools of architecture like Laval (Moretti) in laboratory of urban form on the shape and the
process of the urban fabric in Lisbon (Diaz). While the confusion of the signs as an expression
of economic, political, morphological factors is object of scholarly attention of Space Syntax, it
seems to sketch, in dimension of the Urban Sintax as a grammar of a three-dimensional text and
collective work.
the renewal of relations between geographic and domain historic (Maffei, 2014) has always
been upstream of the urban process, of the study on building characters, on analyse of type
aimed at project (Strappa, 2014) it seems emerge as the Rosetta Stone in understanding
"architectural text. "
Lines and shapes of the urban space and territorial, still shrouded in the fog of the chaos that
seem to emerge from the apparent confusion such as words of layers superimposed traces of a
collective work, composed by a grammar still largely to be encoded and the story which we
believe is can change, sometimes intentionally amazing but mostly by continuing the process
that generated them.
U+D urbanform and design is an online magazine dedicated to architectural and urban
design. Its an utility open to scholars and architects involved on the project summary of the
process connected to the urban morphology of the city and the region. Wants to offer an
interdisciplinary space between urban morphology and building typology design dimension. He
wants to reflect and offer the space for the comparison of architectural projects in the continuity
of the idea of intentional or unintentional process, the shape of the space in its results and in
relation to contemporary traces of material culture inherited recognizable in their unitary
character stays in the residuals of masonry and organized on knots and cultural areas of different
temporal phases.

References

Caniggia G., Maffei G.L. (2006) ‘Interpreting basic building’, Alinea, Firenze
Conzen, M.R.G. (2012) ‘L’analisi della forma urbana. Alnwick, Northumberland’ FrancoAngeli, Milano
Davis H. (2009) ‘The commercial-residential building and local urban form’, in Urban Morphology, 13.1
Kroft K. (2014) ‘Ambiguity in the definition of built form’, in Urban Morphology, 18.1
Kroft K. (2014) ‘Consolidation morphology as a discipline’, in Urban Morphology, 18.1
Leigly J. (1965) ‘Land and life. A selection from the writing of Carl Ortwin Sauer’, Berkeley press, LA
Magnaghi A. (2010) ‘Il progetto locale’, Torino, p.75
Marcus L, Colding J. (2011) ‘Toward a Spatial Morphology of Urban Social-Ecological Systems’, in
Conference proceedings for the 18th International conference on urban form, ISUF2011
Maffei G.L. (2009) ‘The historico-geographical approach to urban form’, in Urban Morphology, 13.2
Muratori s. (1967) Civiltà e territorio, CNR, Roma
Nevter Z. (2009) ‘Testing an Integrated Methodology for Urban Typo-morphological Analysis on
Famagusta and Ludlow’, Eastern Mediterranean University, Theses (Master's and Ph.D) – Architecture,
Sauer O.C. (1925) ‘The Morphology of landscape’, in Geography, Berkeley, pp-303-304
Strappa G. (2011) ‘The fabric as text’, in P.Carlotti, Studi tipologici sul palazzetto pugliese, polibapress,
Bari
Strappa G. (2014) ‘Organismo territoriale e annodamenti urbani. Metodi di progetto per i centri minori
del Lazio’, FAmagazine a. IV - n. 23/07
Smile 1947, Dickinson, 1947
Valente V, (2012) ‘Space syntax and urban form: the case of late-medieval Padue’, in PCA. Post classical
archeologies, n.2, Mantova
Whitehand, J. (2007) ‘Conzenian urban morphology and urban landascapes’, in 6th International Space
Syntax Symposium, Istanbul
Wissler, C. (1850 ‘Man and culture’, Johnson Reprint Corp, NY and London, 1965
444

The evolution of house forms and the change of culture: a

Turkish perspective

Duygu Gokce, Fei Chen

Liverpool School of Architecture, University of Liverpool.
E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract. People continuously modify their living environment to improve their life quality. This has been
done in a piecemeal manner traditionally where the physical forms could be gradually adapted to meet
the change of life-styles. However, rapid transformation of cities in the modern age has caused
incompatibility of physical forms and the local culture. It is therefore important to study the dynamic link
between house forms and the residents’ everyday life and needs over time. Within the Turkish context, this
paper will explain the change of Turkish house types within 5 different morphological phases when
external influences have been in effect. The spatial arrangements of each house type will be analysed
through case studies and special attentions will be paid to the everyday use in those houses and the
relationships between private, semi-private and public spaces. The conclusion will be drawn on the house
form in relation to people’s way of living and will shed light on socio-culturally sustainable development
and regeneration in contemporary Turkey. This paper will also contribute to the argument for a positive
impact of typological processes of physical environment on the local culture.

Key Words: House form, spatial organisation, residential satisfaction, quality of life

Introduction

Since people interact with each other in spaces, their satisfaction with life depends on their
relationships with the constantly changing built environment. As Ozaloglu (2006, p.75)
indicates, ‘life style and physical environment do not change simultaneously’. Physical
conditions can be easily changed; however, even if these conditions are positive, they might not
meet residents’ genuine desires after change (Cheung&Leung, 2008).
This impact has become more prominent in contemporary built environment, because the
concept of type, which was introduced as a social and cultural tool by Gottfried Semper in the
1830s (Chen&Thwaites, 2013), has lost its power in contemporary world and people have
become less socially and culturally connected to their living place. In this study, the term ‘type’
refers to housing types, presenting similar characteristics in terms of functional zoning, spatial
organisation and public-private area relationships; and ‘typological process’ refers to the
continuous transformative changes of these house types.
To understand the relationship between a house type and the inhabitants’ life style, internal
layout of the house type and its relation to the surrounding are important parameters to examine,
because people organize their surroundings based on their living habits and the intervention to
the organisation of space can easily affect their life styles. Specifically, spatial relations in
Turkey can be represented by the relational structure among private, semi-private and public
spaces. This is because the concept of social interaction derived from nomadic life style and the
concept of privacy changing after adoption of Islam (Yildirim & Hidayetoglu, 2009). Therefore,
privacy and social interaction are the most important factors that should be considered in the
investigation of the impact of spatial relations on residents’ life style and quality in Turkey.
This paper focuses on the relationship between spatial organization and people’s life styles
over time in the Turkish context with special reference to five house types chosen from the
capital city Ankara in five morphological phases from the late Ottoman Empire period to the
present. These house types will be analysed based on their spatial arrangements and the
relationships between private, semi-private and public spaces in order to explain how the
 445

physical housing unit fits to its residents’ life styles. The conclusion will be drawn on the house
form in relation to people’s way of living and will shed light on socio-culturally sustainable
development and regeneration in contemporary Turkey.

The evolution of house form in Turkey

In Central Asia, Turks had the nomadic life style and lived in tents until settled. After the
settlement (VII-XIII. centuries), tents have been replaced by rooms (Ozcan, 2005). The different
spatial organisations of these rooms have resulted in the emergence of different house types now
called traditional Turkish houses. These houses, which have had about 500-year history, have
experienced major development along with social, cultural and economic changes and their
impacts on housing design have continued until the 1940s despite the recession period of
Ottoman Empire in the late 19th century (Yildirim ve Hidayetoglu, 2009 and Eldem, 1975).
However, the growing relations with western countries in the second half of the 19th century
have resulted in the emergence of new house typologies (Sey, 1998a;Sey, 1998b).
In 1923, Republic of Turkey replaced the Ottoman Empire. Despite the significant housing
shortage, the first years of the Republican period were a period of stagnation in terms of housing
construction because of economic problems after the WWI (Sey, 1998b). Despite the desperate
housing shortage and the introduction of apartment buildings called rent houses (Guney &
Wineman, 2008), the ideal housing types were still single-family detached houses (Guney &
Wineman, 2008). Therefore, it was still possible to see gradual extensions of historic residential
areas (Osmay, 1998). Moreover, the 1930s was the period when apartmentalisation was
criticised (Balamir, 1994) to have ignored the traditional Turkish life style by offering flats to
everyone without considering social, cultural, economic differences and forcing them to live on
top of each other (Kansu, 2009). Therefore, garden city house type became the alternative;
however there has not been a significant increase in the number of houses due to economic
constraints (Sey, 1998b).
The emergent problem in the period of 1950-1980 was the extensive construction of informal
houses (Batuman, 2006; Sey, 1998a). As an initial response to these slum developments,
apartment buildings, which were generally 3-storey and with two flats per floor (Toker & Toker,
2003), were offered (Batuman, 2006). Afterwards, large scale mass housing projects and multi-
floor apartment buildings were extensively implemented; however, this caused the replacement
of garden houses by apartment blocks (Sey, 1998a;1998b). In this period, there was no
determination in the construction of similar house types because of the emergence of various
types of apartment buildings and their extensive construction. Furthermore, there have been
important social changes due to the promotion of apartment life style.
The early 1980s was the recession period of housing production because of decreasing
demand for housing as a result of the financial crisis and there had also been a significant
decline in the ratio of slums by introducing new housing regulations as a result of expanded
liberal economy policy (Turel, 1989). From the mid-1980s, the housing production has
dramatically arisen (Turel, 1989) and the housing cooperatives became more dominant in the
construction of collective houses until the 1990s (Sey, 1998a). In the late 20 th century high-rise
apartment buildings have become dominant (Toker&Toker, 2003). Apart from these projects,
there was a new form of housing complexesgated communities, called ‘site’ in Turkish and
whose target group was high-income groups (ibid) and the aim was to increase the QoL with the
preservation of historical, social, cultural and natural resources and the national identity (Tapan,
1998).
From the 2000s, the emphasis has been given to urban regeneration projects due to rapid
increase in the number of slums in Ankara (Dikmen, 2012). Mass housing projects consisting of
an isolated group of apartment buildings which are at least 5-floor or more and usually linearly
arranged in a plot and the borders of which are clearly defined have continued to be
446

implemented. Currently, this type of housing is still the most popular type of collective
housing.

Case studies

From the general description of the evolution of house form in Turkey, five morphological
phases can be identified: The late Ottoman Empire period (1890-1923), the early republican or
modern period (1923-1950), industrialization period (1950-1980), liberalisation period (1980-
2000) and the contemporary period (2000s). Similar phases are acknowledged in literature by
various researchers (e.g.Ataov&Osmay, 2007;Ozbek-Eren, 2012;Tekeli, 1998). These phases
represent the periods when different external influences have been received. This study analyses
these phases under three sections: Traditional, transitional and contemporary (Figure 1).

TRADITIONAL TRANSITIONAL CONTEMPORARY

• 1890-1923 (Case 1) • 1923-1950 (Case 2) • 2000-2014 (Case 5)

• 1950-1980 (Case 3)
• 1980-2000 (Case 4)

Figure 1. The categorisation of the morphological phases.

The investigation of the evolution of house form under economic, administrative, social and
cultural changes starts with traditional single family houses, focuses on how these houses have
developed over time and transformed to apartment buildings in contemporary Turkey.

The traditional period

The design of the traditional Turkish houses developed based on two main elements: rooms and
a hall (called ‘sofa’ in Turkish) (Tavsan and Sonmez, 2013;Oztank, 2010). It is acknowledged
that despite the variety, there are three main types of traditional Turkish houses showing
differences based on the location of the ‘sofa’: with outer hall, with inner hall and with central
hall (Figure 2).

Figure 2. The main traditional Turkish house plan types determined by different
arrangements of Rooms and the Hall (Oztank, 2010, p.273).

The hall in all types was not only a passageway but also a place where residents and/or
guests interacted with each other (Tavsan & Sonmez, 2013). As the traditional types
transformed, sofa had turned to an interior space serving as a living room, which directly
opened to the rooms. Each room was designed to serve one nuclear family and the extended
family shared the entire house. Every family member had to pass through the sofa to access his
or her more private family rooms. One or two sides of these rooms generally project outwards
 447

from the outside wall of the ground floor [Fig.2c] to expand the view and increase the control
over public realm by looking at who came to the house through the narrow windows located on
the projected side wall (Yildirim & Hidayetoglu, 2009). Overall, therefore, traditional spatial
arrangement has played a key role in creating opportunities for social interaction and protecting
privacy at both family and social levels.

Figure 3. The relative organisation of private, semi-private and public areas in traditional
house developments (By author).

The importance given to privacy was also evident through the relationship between a
housing unit and its surrounding because of Islamic rules. For instance, these houses had at least
2 floors and there was limited interaction with the lower floor, and the main living space was
usually on the upper floor (Tavsan & Sonmez, 2013). Moreover, the size of windows was
smaller on the ground floor than that of the first and/or second floor. The connection of the
house to the public realm was provided by private and/or semi-private walled-gardens around
the house [Fig.3].
Regarding traditional Turkish neighbourhood structure, neither buildings nor streets were
randomly organized. Even though the houses were designed individually, they were respectful
to each other and became a part of a whole. Houses and streets always defined boundaries in
both 2 and 3 dimensions (Oktay, 2004). For instance, streets were hierarchically ordered based
on inhabitants’ needs, which was achieved through organic street development from the main
streets to narrower ones and ending up with cul-de-sacs (Oktay, 2004).
Overall, the traditional housing formation at building, street and neighbourhood scales has
been designed strongly depending on the social life style. Currently, it is widely believed that
the traditional Turkish houses were the best house types which have satisfied the needs of the
Turkish people for centuries in terms of having an appropriate shape and plan based on the life
style, culture and morals of the traditional Turkish family (Oktay, 2004;2002). It can be
predicted that the reason for this achievement lies behind the naturally established relationships
between private, semi-private and public areas at both small and larger scales.

Transitional period

Transitional period presents the housing developments from 1923 to the 2000s under 3 sub-
periods. This section will analyse ‘Bahcelievler Housing Cooperative’ in the period of 1923-
1950, ‘14 Mayis Houses’ in the period of 1950-1980, and Apak Housing development in the
period of 1980-2000.
448

Bahcelievler housing development

Bahcelievler housing development planned by Hermann Jansen in 1934 in Ankara was the first
garden city in Turkey and has been actively used until the 1950s (Kansu, 2009;Yalcinkaya,
2007;Ucar, 2005). After the 1950s, the settlement has undergone rapid urban transformation
(Yalcinkaya, 2007).

Figure 4. Bahcelievler Garden city house types (Adapted from Ucar 2005, p.101).

The development consists of five house types: B4, B3, C2, D4 and D2 [Fig.4]. B4-type
houses, which were mainly located on the south of the site, were the majority of the settlement
[Fig.6]. As an individual unit, this house type had two-floor with level entry onto the lower
floor: The living room and the kitchen were located on the ground floor and the bedrooms were
on the first floor. The separation of day and night activities was new for Turkish people.

Figure 5. B4-Type House layouts (Adapted from Ucar, 2005, p. 104).

The accesses to these function areas in both floors were provided via a hall. Unlike in
traditional houses, the hall was not a common room anymore but only a passageway.
Nevertheless, the hall is still an important part of the housing layout, centrally located and
separated from the entrance. It was essentially different from the entrance halls or short
corridors in English garden houses. The location of the living room allows the residents to have
control over both the street side and the garden side. The living room was designed as two
sections separated by a glass panel door, which allows residents to customise the living room
depending on changing daily activities. For instance, when they have guests, they could turn the
back half of the living room into a bedroom or if one of the family members is an elderly, this
 449

room generally given to him/her because of its privacy and ideal location to other functional
areas of the house.
The entrance to the houses is directly from the street through a front garden, which is more
public and there is a back private garden accessed through the house from the kitchen balcony
on the ground floor and through a secondary side entrance [Fig.5]. This also contributes to the
natural connectedness. Privacy is also important in these houses. The garden walls on the street
side are higher and there is a clear separation between front and back gardens. The residents can
both benefit from social and environmental contact and have more private family life away from
the public space.
All house types are linearly arranged along the streets and have their own private gardens at
the back. They were detached houses located close to the street side in individual plots;
however, there was a continuous façade pattern formed by the erection of pergolas between two
houses, which has well defined the borders of the street (Ucar, 2005). Although the built up
density of the site is low, the adjacent arrangement of houses along the streets gives the feeling
of living in a high-density area. The narrow streets contribute to this feeling. It can be
interpreted that this connectedness gives the site a distinct neighbourhood identity.

Figure 6. Bahcelievler Housing development site plan 1938 (Kansu 2009, 5).

Although these houses were introduced to promote the modern nuclear family life style as an
ideal, extended families inhabited the homes and sustained their traditions because the 1930s
was the period when traditional life style was still dominant and familial relationships were still
strong. Thus, families were more likely to occupy the house differently than the layout
suggested. However, the introduction of the functionally defined rooms has resulted in the
integration of western oriented family life style and the traditional ones. Despite this, by the late
1930s, this new housing type has been adopted as an appropriate model of housing for Turkey,
interestingly for all social classes (Kilinc, 2012). This might be because they could, unlike rent
apartments, offer natural connectedness and similar hierarchical relations between private, semi-
private and public areas despite the fact that they did not offer the same spatial and functional
organisation at building scale. In terms of street layout, this new type had offered more regular
and rigid street layout compared with the traditional network. However, the connection of the
each house to the street by a common front garden and small entrance balconies provided the
desired level of social interaction and helped develop neighbourhood relationships. Overall, this
new housing type was not a direct importation and deviated from its European counterparts;
450

what is more, they were good at fostering a more common life at both family and
neighbourhood scales.

14Mayıs Houses

14 Mayıs houses are the important housing developments reflecting the concept of the housing
in the period of 1950-1980. The settlement was constructed in two stages in the years of 1951-
53 and 1958-59; and consisted of two main house types [Fig.11], which have undergone
functional, social and spatial transformations until today (Belli & Boyacıoğlu, 2007).

Figure 7. 14 Mayıs Houses Type 1, Ground and First Floor Plans. (Adapted from Belli ve
Boyacıoğlu 2007, 721)

The functional zoning in Type 1 is distributed over two floors as in Bahçelievler houses and
the function of each room is defined unlike traditional houses. However, the location of the
rooms around a central hall reminds the traditional housing layout and shows that the view
towards outside is also important for the residents.
Similar to traditional houses, the living room is located on the second floor and the view is
extended with the use of the terrace at the front facade, which imitates the projection of the
rooms on the first floor like bay windows in traditional houses. Bathroom and toilets are
accessible through a separate corridor from the entrance differently from the traditional and
garden house types. It is also important to point out that there is still a clear separation between
the entrance that is the first contact place to home and the hall.

Figure 8. Type 1 May 14 Houses Garden-Entrance relations (Tanidik, 2005).

Type 2 has two storeys and one flat on each floor accessed through a semi-public staircase,
which is a transitional space between public realm and the more private entrance halls [Fig.9-
10]. The hall called ‘sofa’ in traditional houses is not an important design element anymore and
has turned to a single entrance hall that leads people to the sitting room, toilet and a secondary
hall. Private bedrooms and bathroom are reached from this secondary hall, also called night hall.
Therefore, the house has a dual usage due to corridors providing alternate routes from different
zones within the house.
 451

Figure 9. 14 Mayıs Houses Type 1, Ground and First Floor Plans. (Adapted from Belli ve
Boyacıoğlu, 2007, p.722).

Figure 10. Type 2 May 14 Houses. (Belli & Boyacıoğlu, 2007).

It can be understood from clearly defined different sections within the house that nuclear
family life style has been adopted; what is more, personal privacy has become more important
than the family privacy which was more important in traditional houses. This also shows how
the concept of privacy has changed and how this is reflected by the housing design.

Figure 11. Site Plan (Belli & Boyacıoğlu, 2007).

452

Both types are located in individual plots with an entrance from the street. While the Type 1
is more protected with high garden walls [Fig.8], the Type 2 is more open to the public [Fig.10].
The whole settlement consists of the linear arrangement of the plots and is low-rise medium-
coverage similar to Bahcelievler Housing Development [Fig.11].
Overall, Type 1 has offered both traditional and modern life style characteristics, while Type
2 as a modern version of Type 1 has promoted apartment lifestyle. It is clear that there have
been a significant shift from extended families to nuclear families with the introduction of new
housing layouts and spatial organisations. Moreover, a transition from single-family housing
units to low-rise multi-family housing units has been succeeded in this period. Therefore, this
period can be considered as a period when apartment living has been adopted as a life style,
which has an impact on both social and family life style.

Apak Housing Cooperative

From the 1980s, apartment blocks have become dominant housing types developed by the
increasing number of housing cooperatives (Balamir, 1994). One example is Apak medium-rise
medium-coverage housing development completed in 1993.
Each flat consists of a single entrance hall as in Type 2-May 14 houses; however, it is large
enough to receive/send guests. This is because it directly opens to the living room, which is the
largest room generally, used to host guests. There are three other rooms used as a sitting room, a
master bedroom and a children bedroom; and the hall plays a key role as a transitional space
between them. There is no clear separation between day and night uses of the house unlike in
Type 2-May 14 Houses; however, there is a secondary corridor connecting to the entrance hall
via a door and defining the private section of the house such as the bathroom and the master
bedroom. Except this private section, the rest of the house is quite integrated, flexible to change
and actively used during the day.

Figure 12. Site entrance.

The high integration level provided through the halls within the house also helps to
customisation of the space based on the needs. For instance, the living room which was firstly
only used to host guests, has been used as a living room nowadays depending on the size of the
family and the need for an extra bedroom or a study room. However, this has also caused
changes in family relationships and individuals have given more importance to their personal
privacy in their own private rooms and have become less socially interacted with other family
members which is currently criticised.
 453

Figure 13. Typical Floor Plan.

Figure 14. The defined spaces between apartment blocks.

The flat also has three balconies one of which connects living and sitting rooms and is larger
than the other two. The main balcony overlooking to the courtyard contributes to social
interaction within family members and\or guests in summer; however, the close distance
between the blocks invades the privacy, which also causes the residents to erect PVC and/or
glass panels and blind/curtain systems to protect their privacy. However, the balconies are also
important design elements contributing to social interaction with the other neighbours in other
balconies and acquaintances passing through the site.

Figure 15. Apak Housing Development Site Plan (www.googlemap.com).

454

Each floor consists of four flats accessed through a semi-public staircase and the whole block
has two entrances on the ground floor [Fig. 13]. The site borders are clearly defined and the
access to the site is partly restricted by site administration as a gated community.
The complex consists of identical 8 five-floor blocks linearly arranged in two rows with a
courtyard in between [Fig.15]. Each building faces both the street side and the courtyard side,
which gives an opportunity of having both environmental and social contact and natural
connectedness for residents.
Overall, although this development consists of isolated apartment blocks, it creates the
opportunities for social interaction in terms of both site arrangement and house layout.
Therefore, the spatial organisation contributes to life style of the residents, however, at the same
time invades the privacy and promotes the individualisation which results in changes in family
and social relations.

Contemporary period

From the 2000s, the construction of gated communities has continued; however, the new
developments are generally high-rise, low-coverage, mixed-use housing developments. One
example is 12-floor ‘Anatolya İkizleri’ (Anatolian Twins) constructed in 2007.
In terms of internal layout, similar to the Type 2-May 14 houses, the flats are rigidly divided
into two sections based on the day and night activities. Differently, the entrance is quite
spacious and leads people directly to the kitchen, the living room, the toilet and the corridor.
The corridor opens to the private section of the house, which includes three bedrooms and two
bathrooms. The independence of the sections to each other has resulted in the emergence of a
very long corridor, which jeopardises connectedness within the house, and decreases the
residents’ control over the house. This is because of decreased frequency of use and restricted
flexibility of house layout. However, this can be also interpreted as a good design feature for the
desired level of privacy.
The balconies are important design elements providing interaction to the outside of the house
because of the difficulty in establishing physical contact to the ground floor in high-rise
buildings. The balconies are not narrow as in the apartment blocks of the transitional period.
Their size is almost close to the average room size and gives an opportunity to host more
people.
Similarly to Apak Houses, each floor consists of four flats and the development consists of 2
blocks connecting to each other through a car park and a commercial development. The distance
between the tower blocks increases the level of privacy and promotes the primacy of family life.
However, social life is restricted by the site development in terms of opportunities for social
interaction. There is also no interrelation with nearby developments.
Overall, the introduction of this type has increased the importance given to family life and
contributed to introvert life style by ignoring the social context outside and by giving
opportunities to host more people inside. Although residents are satisfied with their self-
contained flats and their independency, this has been causing important changes in development
of societal relations.

Discussion

As can be seen from the evolution process analysed through case studies above, residential areas
in Turkey have undergone rapid urban transformation since the late Ottoman Empire period.
In the traditional period, the houses had their unique characteristics in spatial organisation
which resulted in rhythmic street layout, dynamic and distinctive view from individual houses,
connectedness to nature, appropriateness to family and social life, providing opportunities for
social interaction, and hierarchically organised private, semi-private and public spaces for
centuries.
 455

The transitional period saw less appreciation of traditional characteristics in massive

residential developments, which has caused the lack of vitality and liveability (Oktay, 2004). To
tackle with this problem, garden houses offering both traditional and modern housing features
have been proposed. However, while each housing block has been designed individually in the
traditional settlements, housing has lost its individuality and turned to groups of linearly
arranged housing blocks (Erturk&Ozen, 1987). There have been significant changes in housing
layouts. For instance, the hall called ‘sofa’ in traditional houses has been replaced by the
entrance-hall combination and has lost its living room function. Moreover, rigid functional
zoning has decreased the flexibility and customisation of housing space. Extended families have
eventually converted to nuclear families and apartment life has been adopted as a lifestyle.
However, despite the incompatibility between the suggested layout and the life style, there were
still traditional housing characteristics in early apartment examples. Inhabitants were also open
to alter their space usage based on their needs even if they were not offered by the housing
developments.
In contemporary period, these changes have become more prominent and standardization has
forced residents to adapt themselves to the physical environment rather than the other way
around. The opportunities for social interaction in contemporary housing development have
been weakened. The function areas have become less connected and independent to each other.
There has been a significant shift from living-centred organisation to transition-centred
organisation with the introduction of long corridors. Although privacy is still taken into
consideration during this period, the impact of life styles on housing design has been weakened.
Natural bonding and its contribution to social interaction have also been less appreciated. The
housing developments have been individualised and disconnected to their surroundings.
In terms of typological processes, traditional house types were the ones showing continuous
transformation and gradual adaptation to the changing life styles. Garden houses can also be
considered as a part of a typological process because of offering similarities to the traditional
house form or being eligible to be adapted to traditional life styles. The next group of houses
can be seen as transitional types showing inconsistency between traditional and the modern;
but at the same time offering a new life style. The last two groups of houses are imitated copies
and completely broken away from a typological process.
It is clear that typological changes play an important role in adaptation of life styles.
However, as it can be seen from the case studies, the gradual adaptation of physical forms has
failed to meet the requirements of changing life styles, and housing developments have become
less integrated and less reflective over time. Whereas, according to Rapoport (Bretonne, 1979,
p.118), the ‘good fit between life style and the environment’, and ‘very high degree of relevance’
between people and physical environment can only be achieved when it is used by them ‘in very
appropriate ways’. Unfortunately, Rapoport’s (Bretonne, 1979, p. 114) concept of ‘systems of
settings’ which refers to the perfect fit between people’s life style and the physical settings has
been weakened in contemporary housing developments. Whereas, ‘the continuity of a culture is
closely associated with the continuity of its housing architecture’ (Tavsan & Sonmez, 2013,
p.60). Therefore, it is really important to sustain the adaptability of physical forms to local
culture and life styles.

Conclusion

While some elements of urban form are kept alive, the others may be replaced or destroyed by
the new ones over time (Oktay, 2002). Given this, the continuity of types has been broken in the
process of transformation. Standardization in planning and design practices has caused the
destruction of the uniqueness of places (Oktay, 2004). Especially in the last three decades, these
rapid changes have caused the replacement of house traditions by new apartment blocks which
are built at a massive scale, with little thought given to family structure and neighbourhood
organisation (Oktay, 2004).
456

Erturk&Ozen (1987) state that currently Turkish housing planning which forces people to
live in unfamiliar houses is completely dependent on coincidences and affectation. Given this, it
is fairly difficult to mention an ideal housing type that contributes to users’ satisfaction and
Turkish lifestyle. This requires the reinvestigation of typological processes of house types and
their contribution to better QoL. This paper is a part of an on-going PhD research, which deals
with this problem and will use QoL indicators to measure users’ satisfaction in relation to each
house type over time. It aims to prove that gradual and constant typological process plays a key
role in developing better living environment.

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458

Athens and military architecture

Sotirios Zaroulas
Politecnico di Milano, Facoltà di Architettura Civile, Via Teodosio 3, 20131 Milano,
Italy. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. This paper describes the relation between military areas and the form of the current city of
Athens, as it derives from the main urban plans and their elements during the nineteenth century and the
purpose is to show how the settlement of military areas has influenced the construction of the modern
city. In addition, nowadays all these buildings have been left to stand derelict and have become a dual
challenge for the city: on the one hand, to manage to reuse this important architectural heritage and on
the other to succeed in reconnecting these projects with the city. Through a certain number of plans and
an urban scale analysis, the objective is to study the projects of these military areas, focusing on the
design, the typology and their settlement principles. In other words, the aim is to analyse them so as to
understand the process of their construction and their influence on the evolution of the modern city of
Athens. What emerges from this analysis is the fact that the early projects of the barracks during the
nineteenth century are closely related to the city plans, the urban elements and the history of the city.
Moreover, it’s important to underline that even in those cases the military buildings have been
demolished, many urban voids have been created that have offered new opportunities for the growth and
the expansion of the city.

Key words: Settlement principles, military building, nineteenth century, urban types, urban growth.

Introduction

Athens when it became the capital of the Greek newborn state in 1833 was a small city
shrunken to the foothills of Acropolis with no more of 4000 inhabitants (Travlos, 1960) and its
urban limits were extended to a point not further than the roman defensive walls of emperor
Hadrian. What came after, during the nineteenth century, was a series of plans for the
construction of the modern city. The aim was to provide Athens with the aspect of a European
capital preserving at the same time the ancient heritage and proceeding with the excavations into
the archaeological areas.
Particular attention was given to the projects of military barracks which were considered as
important services for the new city. For this reason were constructed remarkable specialized
structures that occupied entire parts of the new city and the models that were followed for these
projects derive from the European renovated military building typologies.
The attempt made here is to analyse both the relation of the military barracks with the rest of
the city and the way these notable urban areas and buildings have influenced and have
determined the form and the growth of Athens.
Through an urban scale analysis of the relationship of the individual military building with
the urban organism of six examples of military complexes of the city of Athens, the intention is
to identify the settlement principles and the relation between the single element/building and the
whole plan/city (Figure 1). This will be an important contribution to the study and to the project
of reuse of these areas and buildings in the contemporary days and to the reintroduction of their
tissue into the present city.
The analysis considers an interval of time between 1833, the first plan of modern city of
Athens and 1997, the moment that the Greek Army returned to the municipality large part of the
military area of Goudí, a suburb in the eastern part of the city.
 459

Figure 1. Α map of Athens with the barracks and the military areas: 1. The building of the
royal palace the current Greek parliament, 2. Kleanthis-Schaubert plan, 3. Leon von
Klenze plan, 4. Vasilissis Sofias barracks, 5. Cavalry barracks, 6. Officers School in
Pedion Areos, 7. The military area of Goudi.

The first two projects have never been realised, as well as the plans of which they made part,
that is, the plan of Kleanthis and Scaubert and Leo Von Klenze plan. The third case, along
Vasilissis Sofias avenue, concerns the first complex of military buildings constructed in Athens,
the next two projects in Pedion Areos are the first to be constructed at a distance from the city
centre, while the last case in Goudi was one of the largest military areas of the Attic Basin.

The city planning proposal by Stamatios Kleanthis and Eduard Schaubert

In the first years after the Independence, different buildings had been used to house the Greek
Army; for example Villa Ilissia, the present Byzantine Museum, was the School of Army
Officers and only in 1900 when it was transferred to the new buildings in Pedion Areos, did the
Army returned it to the municipality of Athens (Biris, 1996). The first organized military
structure for the Greek capital appeared in the plan of the architects Stamatios Kleanthis and
Eduard Schaubert.
The plan was commissioned for celebrating the union of the city with the rest of the country
and the transfer of the capital from the city of Nauplia in Peloponnese to the new site. Even if it
460

had been revisioned many times by many planners, it has influenced dramatically the form of
the contemporary city.
The important element of this plan is its triangular shape, which determines the position of
the main elements of the city construction: the government centre, the economic centre and the
religious-cultural one. The form of the plan derives from the long tradition of baroque urban
plans such as the roman trident, the plan for Karlsruhe and Berlin, the plan of Helsinki and of
Saint Petersburg (Venetas, 2001). Particular attention was given to the orientation of the triangle
so as the future Athenian citizens to contemplate the ruins, the monuments and the Athens
landscape through certain interesting views.
What we should notice here is the relation of the military buildings with the royal palace.
The military barracks here are the extension of the government buildings and they contribute to
the construction of the city, to its elements and to its architectural elevations (Figure 2). They
are positioned onto an axis from east to west and perpendicular to this one of the royal palace;
the armoury to the eastern and the barracks to the western part of the plan. The barracks with the
other public buildings create a round square which in its turn becomes part of a wider system of
round squares and wide roads and consequently part of the whole city plan. The complex of the
buildings of the military barracks forms also one of the urban gates of Athens, an urban fortified
gate. It therefore substitutes the defensive urban walls and symbolizes the fortification of the
city and of the royal palace as well.

Figure 2. Scheme of Kleanthis-Schaubert plan and analysis of the relation between the
military buildings and the royal palace.

The revision of the plan and the new proposal of Leo von Klenze

The plan of Kleanthis and Schaubert is considered too expensive and Leo von Klenze is asked
to review it. For this reason he draws up a new plan that keeps the shape of the triangle but
 461

reduces the width of the roads, the number of tree-lined avenues and squares and also decreases
the area to be expropriated for the archaeological excavations. He favours in this way one type
of continuous and denser construction that, according to him, is more suited to a Mediterranean
city (Venetas, 2000). It also considers improper the location of the royal palace and therefore
arranges the whole government centre from a central location at the foothills of Pnyka.
Although the royal palace is positioned to the western vertex of the triangle and it is not
anymore the central element of the whole composition, as in Kleanthis-Schaubert plan, it
maintains a strong relationship with the buildings of the barracks (Figure 3). The group of these
buildings creates not only a fortified urban gate but even a kind of propylaea for the new
“Othonopolis”; they are arranged symmetrically each to other but in a very dynamic way; while
one forms an open courtyard reserved for the soldiers and it is combined with a large internal
piazza d’armi, the other part with a more complex volume will be used for the officers.

Figure 3. Scheme of Leo von Klenze plan and analysis of the relation between the military
buildings and the royal palace.

The route of a visitor to this new city, oriented towards the royal palace, is characterized by a
succession of interesting elements; has to pass through the monumental gate/barracks, to walk
along the widest tree-lined avenue of the city and to climb up the stairways till the urban
government centre of the new Athens.
Once again the plan of Klenze will not be realised and because of the economic difficulties
requires further revision. Even if it was not carried out it has affected the same the form of the
contemporary centre of the city with narrower streets and less squares. Moreover, this plan and
the ideas of Leo Von Klenze for the monumental gate/barracks seems to be in some way the
anticipation of its project for the monumental gate of Munich, in Königsplatz.

The plan of Friedrich Von Gärtner and the barracks of Vasilissis Sofias street in 1836

Friedrich Von Gärtner is the reviser of the plan of Leo von Klenze. He maintains the general
form of the plan of the city, its density and the character of its streets and squares, but he
decides to move the government complex to the east part of the city, on the eastern vertex of the
triangle of the plan, near to the foothills of Lycabettos. The previous position of Klenze’s plan
was judged unhealthy because of its proximity to the marshy river Kifissos (Biris 1996). He
drafts a plan without the squares of the different urban centres, but with only one axis ranging
from the royal palace to the round square on the northern vertex of the triangular plan, where are
situated the most important public buildings of the university, the academy and the library.
462

With the construction of the royal palace (1836-1842) begins also the construction of the
first military barracks, putting an end in this way to the temporary accommodation of the army,
with the settlement of two military complexes along Vasilissis Sofias street, in an obvious
relationship with the royal palace (Figure 4). The plan of Gartner is very essential and because
of the limited resources there isn’t any intention of designing a great number of public buildings
and consequently there isn’t any intention of a well-planned military complex around the royal
palace. It was thought only a large area at the foothills of Lycabettos as military site, well-
connected with the royal palace through the axis of Vasilissis Sofias avenue.

Figure 4. Analysis of the relation between the first military buildings and the royal palace.

Vasilissis Sofias is the contemporary street of an ancient road towards the suburbs of
Mesogea, but finished to be almost a country road before the plan of Gärtner. With the military
settlements along its axis, the street became in the course of time one of the most important
avenues of the modern city.
During the fifties it wasn’t necessary anymore for the Greek Army to be in possess of all the
military buildings in the area and for this reason many of them returned to the municipality of
Athens.
Unfortunately, the municipality decided not to re-use all these important buildings but to
demolish them, so as to create space for the construction of a number of other public buildings
such as important museums, the National Gallery, the war museum, the American Embassy and
the Auditorium, losing in this way a significant part of the architectural heritage of the city.

The barracks of the cavalry in Pedion Areos 1860

The barracks for the cavalry of 1860 in Pedio Areos are the first to be built outside the city and
away from the royal palace and it is the first to abolish the established relation between the two
main urban elements, the centre of the government and the military centre.
The complex of the military buildings is located in the immediate vicinity, in a distance of
about 200 metres of Patission avenue, the important urban axis that connects the suburbs of
Patissia and Kipseli with the centre of the city (Figure 5). At the period of its construction the
whole region around was a rural area. For this reason the only structures with which it has to be
measured were the monasteries and few rural villas and it could be said that its settlement was
an attempt of urbanization. From the plans is possible to understand that it was a complex of
buildings of interesting volumes and with facades of high civil importance. The succession of
architectural elements, such as tree-lined streets, the square in front of the entrance, the facade,
the courtyard with its internal parade ground creates in this way a certain number of interesting
urban spaces.
 463

During the thirties the barracks was abandoned and in 1944 after a fire it was decided the
demolition of the buildings.

Figure 5. Scheme of the barracks in Pedion Areos.

The Army Officers School in Pedion Areos by Ernst Ziller in 1900

Pedion Areos is a place of great symbolic value for the modern history of Athens; it was a place
for military exercises that later became one of the sites for the construction of military barracks
and recently became a place of memory for the heroes of the Greek revolution of 1821. In 1860
there were built, as above mentioned, the barracks for the cavalry and from the 1900 until 1904
it was constructed the army officers school designed by Ernst Ziller.
The school was built on a dominant part of the place and with a rich architectural facade of
high civil value, which at the same time is contradicted with its isolated position. It is difficult to
see in this operation the construction of a temple; in fact it is easier to see an attempt of
urbanization of this rural area (Figure 5). The buildings drawn from Ziller are positioned not so
far from the other complex of the cavalry, but the two settlements not seem to take into
consideration each other. The only common element appears their relation with the natural
elements and with the physical features of the ground; both of them are adapted to the course of
a little river situated to the north of the site. Ernst Ziller designs eleven buildings, all arranged
around an exercise parade ground; the main building of the command, which is the principal
building of the whole complex, the school building and other smaller buildings as dormitories
for the soldiers.
The case of the Army Officers School is regarded as a successful example of reuse of
military architecture in the contemporary city. In 1984 the Greek Army decides to keep only the
command building and to return the rest of the complex to the municipality. The architectural
complex is considered an asset of high importance and the municipality of Athens decides its
maintenance and its transformation into a courthouse.
The part of the project regarding the reconnection of the area with the rest of the city is
limited to the creation of a square in front of the main building, as a way to exalt its front,
without considering the challenge of a project that aims to combine the different elements, that
are present into the green area and to form in this way a harmonious whole. Moreover, it is very
important the connection of these elements and of the entire green area with the city.

The military barracks in Goudi

When begins the construction of the barracks in the early 1900s, Goudi is still a rural area where
even the road network is rare (Figure 6). In this large area, were constructed several military
464

complexes, in separate moments and with a different use. Around 1920 were transferred here
also the royal stables from the centre of the city.

Figure 6. Scheme of the barracks in Goudi.

These isolated military settlements become not only factors of urbanization but at the same
time they become the circumstance of the preservation of these areas and of their protection
from the division of the ground in building lots and a subsequent dense housing development.
In 1977 it was decided by a decree-law the restitution of an area of 96 hectares and 40
buildings to the municipality that defined their reuse for cultural and sports activities. In the end,
only 45 hectares are returned and what still misses is the institution with the law of the
Metropolitan Park of Goudi (Polyzos, 2008).
In 2000 started the re-use of an area of about one hectare, consisting of four identical
buildings, a parade ground and the green area in front of it. Two of the buildings house the
National Glyptotheque, while the other two remain still abandoned. (Figure 7)The complex was
inaugurated in 2004 with the occasion of the Olympic Games.

Figure 7. The entrance of the National Glyptotheque in Goudi.

Conclusions

After having examined the most significant cases of military architecture, it can be said that
military buildings in the first plans of Athens were built close to the royal palace, maintaining
 465

their relation with the rest of the city. The projects of the barracks are part of a general urban
design, characterized by strong relationships between the various elements. While regarding the
more recent examples, we notice a weakening of these ties and the construction of introvert and
isolated buildings from the rest of the city. In short, the first thing that emerges from this
analysis is the fact that the first projects of the barracks during the nineteenth century are
strongly correlated with the plans of the city, urban elements and urban history.
Moreover, as it can be seen from the last two areas analyzed, the re-use of military areas of
Athens from the eighties onwards have often had positive outcomes. A huge architectural
heritage is preserved and is decided to reuse these buildings with new functions, with the
arrangement of public institutions and with the creation of large open spaces.
Taking a look on the urban area of Athens it is easy to understand that a considerable number
of the urban green areas consist of former military settlements that the army decided to return to
the municipality. Although in cases the military buildings are demolished, such as the large
complex along Vasilissis Sofias avenue, it was created a large number of urban spaces that have
opened up new opportunities for the growth and the expansion of the city (Figure 8).

Figure 8. Analogies, differences, distance from the urban centre of the analyzed cases.

References

Biris, K. (1996) Αι Αθήναι. Από τον 19ον εις τον 20ον αιώνα, (Μέλισσα, Αθήνα).
Papageorgiou Venetas, A. (2000) Ο Leo von Klenze στην Ελλάδα, (Οδυσσέας, Αθήνα).
Papageorgiou Venetas, A. (2001) Αθήνα: Ένα όραμα του κλασικισμού, (Καπόν, Αθήνα).
Polyzos, Y. (2008) ‘To όνειρο ενός μεγάλου πάρκου πληγώνεται ξανά’, Oίκο-Kαθημερινή, August, 48.
Traulos, I. (2005) Πολεοδομική εξέλιξις των Αθηνών, (Καπόν, Αθήνα).
466

Transformation of urban blocks and property relations: cases

from the Historical Peninsula

Ezgi Küçük1, Ayşe Sema Kubat2

1
Department of Urban Design, Graduate School of Science Engineering and
Technology, Istanbul Technical University, Taşkışla, Istanbul, Turkey. 2Department of
Urban and Regional Planning, Faculty of Architecture, Istanbul Technical University,
Taşkışla, Istanbul, Turkey.
E-mails: [email protected], [email protected].

Abstract. Urban form which is defined as the union of streets, plots and buildings, in the historical
evaluation of the towns, also represents legal entities which imply tools for urban planners and designers
to design, to transform or to conserve the sites. In this context, this study aims to recognize urban form as
a product of property relations and investigate the morphological regions in the case of Istanbul’s
Historical Peninsula by constituting its discussion on basic concepts of M. R. G. Conzen’s morphologic
analyses of historical towns. The elaboration for the transformations of urban blocks between 19th
century Ottoman period, early republican period of Turkey and historical persistence of the urban form
up to today are analyzed in Beyazıt, Aksaray and Yenikapı regions in particular. Thus, it is observed that
subsequent to the effects of modernization movement on urban form in Istanbul, large-scale physical
interventions transformed urban blocks and contributed to changes in property patterns. The dependence
between urban morphology and property relations is emphasized in terms of the development of urban
form within historical process. Additionally, due to progressing projects in the peninsula, the danger of
disidentification of the Historical Peninsula is indicated.

Key Words: Historical Peninsula, morphological regions, urban blocks, urban morphology, property
relations.

Introduction

Reproduction of urban space depends on the transformation of urban form in terms of property
relations. When urban designers, planners and architects work on built environment, it should be
managed by considering historical progress and the two folded influence between form and
social activities. Particularly, in urban morphological studies, it should be practiced by getting to
the root of the components of urban form. The morphology schools of British, Italian and
French, having researchers with different backgrounds, observe the urban form for particular
goals through particular methods. The British school of morphology focused on how urban
space should be built and why, while the Italian school looks for the answer of how cities should
be built. French school emphasizes on past design theories to find out what should be built and
what has actually been built. However, as Moudon (1997) points out they all studied on urban
form with consideration to historical processes and analyzing the main elements of the city;
buildings, plots and streets. Larkham states the importance of recognizing urban form and it
components as following: “Understanding the physical complexities of various scales, from
individual buildings, plots, street-blocks, and the street patterns that make up the structure of
towns helps us to understand the ways in which towns have grown and developed” (Larkham,
2005, p.22). Street, plot and building patterns constitute urban blocks based on their physical
and territorial connections. The effects of streets to the plots, buildings and the whole block are
also crucial for defining what urban block is. Therefore, urban blocks refer to public and private
patterns through these relationships of street, plot and buildings as the components of an urban
block (Baş, 2010). In this study, urban blocks with each of its components became the main
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subject. Regarding this, transformation of the urban space is clarified through elaborating urban
fabrics of three regions in the Historical Peninsula.
Günay (2006) explains that urban form production refers to the two and three dimensional
combinations. In order to reorganize or design the parts which indicate identity of urban form,
firstly property, as two dimensional, is a need for them to be reshaped or reserved. In this
process, the form of private and public space of the city is settled. Therefore, the concept of
development rights determines the three dimensional form through property reorganizations. As
long as it creates the form and space of the cities, ownership structure and legal establishments
like development rights influencing morphology of the urban spaces, indicates significant
design problems for designers (Günay, 2006).
In regard to this perception of urban form components, examination of urban blocks from the
maps within different resolutions and different historical periods as can be seen in Conzen’s
studies are recognized in order to clarify the connection between morphology and property
relations.

Influence of property relations on urban morphology

The evolutions of the property concept and its enforcements have been changed according to the
societies. However it can be seen that the meaning of property refers to particular objects from
the definitions. Günay (1999) states that claiming the property only as some objects to own
separates it from the main concept substantially. Many theorists construed the concept
according to the basis of being private, common or public and a bundle of natural rights or legal
enforcements of societies. Property rights are highly associated with the laws, the state,
economy and culture. Usufruct, exclusivity and alienability which can be owned by solely one
person or can be shared by counterparties are also the rights implicated in property. These rights
bring along some permanent relations, which can be seen as the recognition of plots and
building blocks surrounded by street patterns in urban space. Evolution of urban space as a
product is determined through property relations. Macpherson (1978) explains property
relations in the context of Marxian thought as outcomes of significant crisis in history
beforehand such as transformations in regimes of countries, and following relationships between
land ownership systems. Primarily production relations within economical basis bring property
relations. Property relations, in which production and consumption activities maintain, generally
influence the space. As well as being the main subjects of property, structures and lands
constitute physical expression of urban space. Property relations contain usus fructus or abusus
of space, occupations, possessions, dominations. They also explain the dualities like right or
thing, absolute or relative, ownership and possession, private and public, corporeal or
incorporeal, movable or immovable (Günay, 1999).
The political power or the state recognizes the property ownerships, therefore legal relations
become determinant for organization of urban spaces (Günay, 1999).

Morphological explorations in the Historical Peninsula

Istanbul is the most crucial city in Turkey with regards to social, economical and demographical
parameters which have been affecting the city since Byzantium period. With its long historical
background, the changes in the morphological structure of Istanbul can provide us to understand
what kind of relations among urban planning and urban design practices, socio-economical
activities and politics have influence on urban form.
In this respect, Istanbul’s Historical Peninsula is taken as the case area. The Historical
Peninsula is surrounded by Bosporus, the Golden Horn and the Sea of Marmara. Transformation
of urban fabric in the Historical Peninsula is explored in detail through the cases of Beyazıt,
Aksaray and Yenikapı as shown in Figure 1. Beyazıt and Aksaray regions, connected to Ordu
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Street which constitutes the spine of the Historical Peninsula ever since Byzantium period.
Yenikapı region, having its boundary with the sea, is located next to Aksaray region at the south
part of the peninsula.

Figure 1. Focused case areas and important transportation axes which become
deterministic for the study. 1st region Beyazıt, 2nd region Aksaray, 3rd region Yenikapı.

Beyazıt Square and surrounding

In Roman period (Figure 2), place of Beyazıt Square was Forum of Theodosius which was
located on the space between Beyazıt Mosque and madrasah of today. It had a triumphal column
in the middle like other Roman forums and it was connected to Mese. There was a triumphal
arch which was erected on the west side of the Forum. Also, today’s area of Istanbul University
(faculty of letters and sciences) had been at the place of three Basilicas of Byzantium. Around
the forum, civic buildings like churches were built (Kuban, 1996).

Figure 2. The Historical Peninsula at the Byzantium Empire period.

As Istanbul was conquered by Ottomans in 1453, Old Palace was built at the north side of the
forum, where is the highest point of Beyazıt. Mint of Ottoman (Şimkeşhane), bazaar areas and
Grandbazaar were formed at this period. In the 1500s Beyazıt Mosque and külliye (Islamic
social complex) was constructed and the square took a new shape and it became the centre of
Istanbul. In the 1800s the Mosque integrated to Beyazıt Square. In 19th century, the square was
used as bazaar/exhibition area (Kuban, 1998).
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In early republican period of Turkey, Beyazıt Square was designed and planned many times.
Between 1923- 1924, a fountain pool in round shape was placed in the middle of the square and
tramway line entwined around the pool (Kuban, 1998). Later, motor vehicles dominated the
area. In 1933, the Old Palace building was given to Istanbul University. With the plan of Prost
in 1937-1938, traffic flow was removed from Beyazıt Square and it began to serve as a public
square again. In the beginning of the 1940s, the faculty of letters and sciences of Istanbul
University was built. The building became a new morphotype with its huge size and
architectural style in the urban fabric.
The significant changes in these areas were seen in mid 1950s. In the years of 1956-1957,
known as Menderes period in Turkey, Divanyolu (Ordu Street) was expanded from 9,5m to
30m. That development in the spine of the Historical Peninsula brought the destruction of many
historical buildings like Şimkeşhane and Hasan Paşa inns as well as several urban blocks
(Kuban, 1998). Moreover, with the expansion of Ordu Stret, Beyazıt Mosque, the bath, and
some other commerce buildings began to stay in upper level whereas Ordu Street was developed
in lower level. After that, new commerce and business buildings began to build up in the area.
In the 1960s, several projects for Beyazıt Square were added to the agenda. Especially after
1980, urban design competitions were organized for the square. Transformations in urban fabric
of Beyazıt can be observed from Figure 3.

Figure 3. Changed regions marked in street pattern maps of all periods in Beyazıt. A)
based on map of 1875 B) based on map of 1935 C) based on map of 2011.

Widening Ordu Street and destruction of historical buildings

In 1470s, old Mint of Ottoman was built in the place of Şimkeşhane. Educational facilities and
shops were added to Şimkeşhane in 1700s. Since the mint was moved to Topkapı Palace in
those years, Şimkeşhane had begun to be used as an inn. Next to Şimkeşhane, Hasan Paşa Inn
was constructed in 1740. Şimkeşhane was abandoned after the fire in 1826, although it was
repaired in 1867. During the Republic period, as well as some other buildings and building
blocks, the north parts of these buildings were demolished (see Figure 4) in order to expand the
road connecting Beyazıt–Aksaray; Ordu Street, in the years of 1957-1958 (Gül, 2012). This
caused a significant change in the buildings’ physical structure. The courtyard of the buildings
began to face Ordu Street and Beyazıt Square.
In the mid-1960s, it was decided that the rest of Şimkeşhane building was to be used as a
public library, so its restoration was finished in 1976. Archaeological findings of Forum Tauri
from Byzantium period were exhibited in front of the building. Since 1981, the building has
been serving as public library of the city of Istanbul, still having an open green space with the
archaeological exhibition.
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Figure 4. Building blocks destructed in widening of Ordu Street, based on Pervititch map
of Beyazıt.

Aksaray: fires, regulations, boulevards

Aksaray region was located at the east end of the Mese in Byzantium period. It was near Forum
Bovis and today’s Aksaray Street was around Amastrian region. Aksaray was an important trade
centre and transportation node since it was on the most primary road of the town and it was
quite close to Theodosius Port (Kuban, 1998).
After Ottomans settled the city, this region lost its commercial utilization. Aksaray was
populated by the people coming from the city of Aksaray of Anatolia. Thus, the region was
named as Aksaray and it was filled with residential buildings in 17 th century. Aksaray was one
of the most important regions during Ottoman period because of being at the junction of main
transportation axis of the town and the huge green areas. Kuban (1998) identifies Aksaray as a
meeting place for Muslim and Christian communities around the region. He also claims that
Murad Paşa Külliyesi, Pertevniyal Valide Sultan Mosque and Laleli Mosque are the most
significant buildings which represent Ottoman identity in Aksaray (Kuban, 1998). This region
serves as a model for very urban fabric change in the Historical Peninsula of Ottoman’s. In
1856, more than 650 buildings were burned and destroyed in the fire of Aksaray (Çelik, 1993).
With the code of 185644, the expropriations were brought to the agenda in case of the
regulations such as street widening. Therewith, based on new urban policy of Tanzimat,
Mustafa Reşit Paşa, who especially believed in regulation of urban blocks with geometric orders
after the fire near Beyazıt Mosque in 1826, tasked Italian engineer Luigi Storari in order to
regulating post-fire Aksaray (Pinon, 1998).
Storari reorganized the organic urban fabric of Aksaray as a grid pattern (see Figure 5.B) as
it was expected from the authorities supporting modern changes in the urban pattern. Storari’s
work grounded on existing substantial axes in the direction of north-south (Unkapanı-Yenikapı
direction) and east-west (Aksaray Street). He endeavored to widen and straighten the streets in
those directions. Determining the main artery of the region as Aksaray, he expanded the width
of the street to 9.5 meters. Since Storari gave the importance to those axes, he strengthened
them with 7.6 m and 6 m wide parallel and intersecting roads (Çelik, 1993). Pinon states that in
order to comforting existing narrow roads, Storari cut the corners of the urban block boundaries
at the important intersections by describing them as; “The four cut planes define peculiar
lozenge-shaped crossroads” (Pinon, 1998). Indeed, the grid plan of Storari was not regularized
 471

with perfect angles and great shaped urban blocks, instead, size of the new urban blocks were
similar to pre-existing ones. Although there was not a major change in building sizes, through
the cut planes and removing cul-de-sac forms of organic urban fabrics as a result of grid system,
some buildings got smaller (Çelik, 1993).
The fires that ended up with the destruction of neighborhoods leaded the authorities to
provide Street Construction Code in 1863 that was aimed street regularizations based on
widening, straightening or leveling. Considering pre-existing street networks, it was decided to
prepare new plans. While expropriations were practiced for street widening in that process,
allotment of lots for property owners were implemented. Pinon states that: “Aside from
indicating that they should be proportional to the original parcels, no official requirements for
the new designs are mentioned. But neither is design left to private discretion, since public
authority controls the overall organization and allocation” (Pinon, 1998, p. 56). In 1882,
including regulations about street widening and opening, planning fireplace maps, the heights of
the buildings and land ownership, the first construction law of Ottoman Empire (Ebniye
Kanunu) was introduced (Tekeli, 2011). As seen in the case of Aksaray, other urban fabrics
destroyed in fires begin to be formed in grid systems based on this law.
Aksaray was regularized for the second time after the 1911 fire which brought along the
design of the largest urban block of the peninsula. Andre Auric who took the helm of
Infrastructure Department of Municipality of Istanbul in 1910, emphasized on need of large
boulevards minimum of 32.5 meters in order to improve conditions of health, security and
infrastructure services. He also supported the idea of transforming military properties (like
barracks) to park, public square and garden areas in the city. In Auric’s proposed street network
plan for Istanbul, Aksaray region had a great significance (see Figure 5.C). A square, which was
located at the intersection of the roads coming from Beyazıt and Theodosian doors, was
proposed by him. In Auric’s plan, in addition to aesthetics, infrastructure service and open space
systems were tried to be developed through geometrical urban block regulations (Gül, 2012).
Two wide diagonal streets interrupted the urban blocks entailed truncations principally as Pinon
(1998) claims. Streets were organized in hierarchical order. Even though urban blocks were
generally defined in same dimensions, in Aksaray example expand of urban blocks varied
between minimum 20 to 30 meters, with a maximum 30 to 70 metres (Pinon, 1998). Gül (2012)
states that lately the proposed boulevard axes between Aksaray and Yenikapı became one of the
important traffic roads of modern Istanbul. Those urban fabric regulations with widened roads
in grid layouts for modernizing also became the roots of subsequent changes in urban form
which has been mostly seen as expanding the roads.
The first apartments of the Republican period were constructed in the urban blocks which
were formed as a result of the orthogonal street system. Aksaray and especially Laleli region,
became the neighborhood of mid-classes of the society (Kuban, 1998).
In the early Republican period, in 1937, when Henry Prost charged to make the plan of
Istanbul, based on Haussmannian idea of urban planning, he focused on transportation network
of the city by considering population rise and automobile usage (Tekeli, 2011). In Prost’s plan,
the part of Atatürk Boulevard between Aksaray and Yenikapı was already built according to
Auric’s plan, and created the spine of the traffic plan. The boulevard coming from Yenikapı and
reaching the Golden Horn connected to Beyoğlu region through Atatürk Bridge. Gül (2012)
explains that, despite having the extensions of Atatürk Boulevard in cadastral maps of Pervititch
in 1936, it was not exactly practiced till Prost’s plan due to the economic inadequacy of that
time. Width of Atatürk Boulevard increased to 50 meters and it was integrated with several
squares from different parts of it.
In the middle of 1950s, urban planning approach of was predicated on the connection of
commercial and administrative regions via large roads. Regarding the developments on Ordu
Street from the east side and Millet and Vatan streets from the west side with Atatürk Boulevard
in north-south direction, Aksaray became the most significant region by being at the intersection
of the most important transportation structure of the Historical Peninsula (Gül, 2012). In order
to provide construction of expanded roads, a great number of destruction executed in the region
472

as in other urban regions of Istanbul. Those construction activities also caused the decrease of
resident population in the region and the deformations on the urban form. Several historical
buildings were destroyed.
New connections and highways brought rising population along. Therefore, as a major point
of the peninsula, Aksaray began to be shaped with apartments with commercial activities in
ground floors after the 1960s. At the end of the 1960s and the beginning of the 1970s, with the
construction of viaduct in Aksaray, at the junction of Atatürk Boulevard and the streets of Vatan
and Millet destroyed Aksaray Square and a complex motorway network was built in the middle
of the Historical Peninsula. Also Valide Sultan Mosque fell behind the raised roads and lost its
spatial effect in time.
Kuban (1998) claims that historical core of Aksaray was destroyed, because transportation
systems was planned by highway engineers and urban conservation concept and consciousness
did not developed in those years. Widening of Ordu Street caused the expansion of commercial
areas to Laleli region. After the 1970s, residential areas disappeared and Laleli was transformed
to a region of commerce and tourism. Old apartments are turned into mid-class hotels and
commercial buildings (Kuban, 1998). In the 1990s, after bus terminal of Istanbul moved to
Topkapı, especially in Aksaray-Laleli region, a major development of hotel management was
seen. Thus, as a sub region of business, that region has continued its commercial utilization.

Figure 5. Changed regions marked in street pattern maps of all periods in Aksaray. A)
based on map of 1847 B) based on map of 1875 C) based on map of 1935 D) based on map
of 2011.

From the port to the transportation node: Yenikapı

During the Byzantium period, Yenikapı was at the region of Theodosius Port which was the
major port of the city. Port of Theodosius was settled in the mouth of Lykos River. It was the
trade point with Egypt’s wheat carrying ships. As well as residential areas and bakeries, it is
said that a few dockyards were existed in that period (Kuban, 1996).
After Ottoman’s conquest of Istanbul, the shrinking port area - due to the deposition of soils
coming from Lykos River – began to be used as dockland area in 1500s. As the port area
became smaller in the 1700s, relationship between the port and the sea began to fall. Hence, the
character of the region came to a change. The area remained inside of the city walls was called
 473

as Küçük Lagna Bostanı (small Lagna garden), as for the areas outside of the city walls called as
Büyük Lagna Bostanı (big Lagna garden). Yenikapı remained as vegetable garden area until
19th century. The only neighborhood, which is called Yalı neighborhood today, in Yenikapı was
built by a group of Armenians in 1760s, after the debris of construction of Laleli Mosque was
filled the area and stone barriers against the waves from Marmara sea were built. The location
of Yalı neighborhood is at the intersection of Atatük Boulevard and the coast road.
In 1846, the Armenian Church Surp Tateos Partoğomeos was built in the neighborhood.
Urban fabric of the region was composed of rectangle urban blocks in grid layout with attached
wooden or masonry buildings having a bay window. According to Prost’s plan, in the
Republican period, Yenikapı train station would have been an international one, bringing along
a modern development on the Yenikapı port.
As seen in previous regions in the study, the most destructive changes in the history of
Istanbul took place after the 1950s. In Yenikapı, with the construction of coast road; Kennedy
Street reaching from Sirkeci to Florya, the shore line was filled. Therefore, the connection
between Yalı neighborhood and the sea was broke off.
After 1980s, large-scale projects - which have resulted in various transformations and
problems in urban form and urban life - began to come up because of the planning goals of
Istanbul in the global scale. In Figure 6, development of coastline of Yenikapı can be seen based
on illustrated maps.

Figure 6. Changed regions marked in street pattern maps of all periods in Beyazıt. A)
based on map of 1875 B) based on map of 1935 C) based on map of 2011.

Although in the 1990s, conservation decisions were constituted in the historical towns in Turkey
particularly, the rising population of metropolis of Istanbul and its urban problems required new
transportation solutions. Today, in order to solve the transportation problems of the whole city,
Yenikapı is determined as the biggest transfer centre of Europe being at the Integration of
subway of Taksim-Yenikapı, subway of Aksaray-Airport, IDO and Marmaray as the biggest
transfer centre of Europe, and an exhibition area is proposed for archaeological findings that
came to light through excavations of the projects. Moreover, a new (filled) square is constructed
on the Marmara Sea. The square is coming from IDO port to Samatya Training Research
Hospital, as a 715000 m2 filled meeting, demonstration, exhibition, and concert or expo area,
approximate for 1 million people (Figure 7).
These projects incompatible with the identity of the peninsula have been influencing the
urban form of the Historical Peninsula as well as Yenikapı region. As a result of being the major
transportation node of Istanbul, the movement of the whole city will be the carried by the
Historical Peninsula. With the new filled square project, from and silhouette of the Historical
Peninsula was largely changed by a man-made for the first time. Yenikapı may be excluded
from the world heritage site of UNESCO. Also, the lands of the peninsula will become open to
change as a result of property relations. Thus, conservation of the peninsula will become
474

impossible and a significant transformation in the urban fabrics of the Historical Peninsula
becomes unavoidable.

Figure 7. Yenikapı Square as fill area changes the form of the Historical Peninsula, 2014
Google Earth image.

As a consequence of these three regions of the Historical Peninsula elaborated above are
examined regarding transformations of building blocks according to the maps of 1935 and 2011,
in order to see the effect of the property relations on building fabrics.

Figure 8. Change of building blocks. A) Beyazıt (1935) B) Beyazıt (2011) C) Aksaray

(1935) D) Aksaray (2011) E) Yenikapı (1935) F) Yenikapı (2011).

Practice of morphological regionalization

The morphological approach of Conzen mainly centered on historical development of town

plans. Whitehand asserts that: “In this way the landscape becomes an ‘objectivation of the
 475

spirit’ of a society in a particular locale” (Whitehand, 2009, p.8). Having same identical features
in terms of evaluation of urban forms, morphological regions can be founded in town plans,
building fabrics and land and building utilizations (Conzen, 2004). This analysis method
generally involves four hierarchical morphological regions which are grouped by Conzen; the
old town as a whole is described as first order, town quarters represent second orders whereas
street, neighborhood or precinctual units are third order, and smallest building groups of a
dominant period or morphotypes are fourth order. In this respect, the number of hierarchical
levels can be discussed according to the study area. Especially in historical towns, number of
orders can be increase or decrease considering structural changes or mergence in the towns
(Conzen, 2004). Recognizing this classification of Conzen, the method is practiced on the
analysis of land ownership patterns and town plan analyses of the case study areas.

Town plan analysis

Conzen defined the main determinants of urban landscape in three parts: the town plan (or
ground plan), building fabric (the 3-dimensional form) and land and building utilization. This
tripartite division of urban landscape contains the conceptualizations for examining the process
of urban development. He asserted that the persistence of the townscape determinants
differentiated in time. With the strongest persistence, town plan constitutes from urban block
components: street networks, building blocks and plot patterns (Conzen, 1960). It indicates the
analysis of areas delimited according to their ground plan. Each town plan analysis is created in
order to draw hierarchical morphological orders. Since the first order shows the old town as a
whole and the second orders show main plan units, in our study scale, the third and fourth
regions are emphasized as well as predetermined second orders. In addition to this, first and
second degree conservation areas are indicated with morphological regions.
The Historical Peninsula of Istanbul as a whole constitutes the first order because of its
persistence as a multi-level urban fabric beginning from Byzantium period till today inside of
the city walls. Primarily walls of Theodosius are taken as the region boundary. In second phase,
according to urban development directions, urban fabric configurations, major structural
divisions, historical process and the regions within definite identities are considered.
Consequently, 15 regions are founded inside of the first order whereas 4 other second order
regions are identified outside of the city walls where filled coast areas are, as can be seen from
Figure 9.

Figure 9. Morphological reigons of the Historical Peninsula (First and second orders only
illustrated).

A base map in scale 1:5000 is used for settling the first draft of the first and second regions.
Subsequently, several maps of different periods are superposed, in the same scale in order to
determine the technicality of the orders. The map showing significant urban development in
Byzantium, Kauffer map of 1789, 1914 map that was drawn in scale 1:25000 for showing urban
476

blocks, the general street network map of the years between 1925-1950, and Google earth maps
of 2005 and 2014 years are used as base maps.
Focused study areas in this study are determined as Beyazıt, Aksaray and Yenikapı regions
as stated before. In this way, third and fourth orders of these areas’ morphological regions are
analyzed in a closer scale.
In this analysis, the insurance maps of Pervititch that were created in 1935 and last base map
(2011) of the Historical Peninsula that is obtained from the municipality are superposed in order
to observe urban block changes from the early Republican period to early years of 21st century.
Beyazıt: Beyazıt Square next to Ordu Street and other linked urban blocks are analyzed by
emphasizing the changes in urban block components from 1935 to 2011 (see Figure 10.A).
Buildings built before 1935 and buildings built between 1935 and 2011 are dissociated. Streets
are classified based on building before 1935, between 1935 and 2011 and also physical changes
between reference periods. General land use of buildings according to 2011’s data is also
defined. As distinct from Conzen’s analysis, lost structures which have historical significance
(based on Historical Peninsula conservation plan analysis, 2011) are indicated.
According to the map, it is seen that especially built environment around Beyazıt Square, at
the north side of Ordu Street is constructed before 1935. On the other hand, south side of Ordu
Street is mainly constructed after 1935. Moreover, the most significant change in urban pattern
is seen at Ordu Street itself. Expansion of the street created new borders of neighbourhoods
beside it.
As a result of this analysis, morphological regions in Beyazıt are defined (see Figure 10.B).
Considering proposed orders for Historical Peninsula, second, third and fourth orders of
morphological regions are determined. Since second orders represents urban quarter with main
plan units, it only seen as passing through Ordu Street by dividing study area into two. Within
third order regions, urban blocks are grouped according to historical persistence or change.
Also, layouts of urban blocks and land uses are considered. Therefore, within the study area
boundary, approximately 16 different regions of third order are founded. Inside of these regions,
some specialized buildings or building blocks are referred to morphotypes which indicate fourth
order. Building block size, grand physical changes or any significant differentiations among
other urban blocks became determiner of fourth order as can be seen from the map. In this
sense, faculties of Istanbul University are bounded based on its huge block size, as well as
Şimkeşhane and Hasan Paşa inns are bounded because of significant change in blocks.
Aksaray: Town plan analysis of Aksaray (see Figure 11.A) also indicates urban block
components which are built before 1935 and after 1935. According to the analysis, high density
of the buildings built before 1935 are mostly gathered around Laleli Mosque and south part of
the area. This region is the end of Ordu Street. From this point, the spine of the peninsula goes
into division as Vatan and Millet streets. The most remarkable change between 1935 and 2011
is founded as the junction and viaducts in the area. As well as the street is expanded, Atatürk
Boulevard, which extends in north-south axes, is connected to other streets with the roads in
different layers. Construction of Atatürk Boulevard affected urban blocks, especially at the
north side of the peninsula, and it is concluded with many urban block destructions. Except for
that, general layout of the urban pattern is constituted before 1935 as can be seen from the
analysis.
In morphological region analysis (see Figure 11.B), a second order line is seen as splitting
Aksaray from Yenikapı region. Building blocks around Laleli Mosque, Valide Sultan Mosque at
the west side of the map and the old neighbourhood at the north side are taken as third order
regions as well as urban blocks in grid system or specific areas with a dominated land use. In
the fourth order, old specific structures in third orders and great buildings are considered. Also,
some archaeological structures such as Myralion church and its old forum area form Byzantium
are taken as morphotypes.
 477

Figure 10. Beyazıt. A) Town plan analysis B) Morphological regions based on town plan.
478

Figure 11. Aksaray. A) Town plan analysis B) Morphological regions based on town plan.

Yenikapı: In Yenikapı region, town plan analysis (see Figure 12.A) indicates that buildings built
before 1935 are mostly founded at the south side of the map, in Yalı neighborhood. As a quarter
with housing units, street network is also built before 1935 as can be seen from the analysis.
Conspicuously, the coast side and the road system on it are constructed between 1935 and 2011.
The rest of the buildings and roads occur as the structures built after 1935. In this map, based on
Wiener’s map, the walls of the Historical Peninsula are especially taken as historical lost
structures.
In morphological analysis of Yenikapı’s town plan (see Figure 12.B), principally walls are
taken as the borders of morphological regions. These also represent the first order of the
Historical Peninsula by being the main boundaries of the old town, as stated before.
Subsequently, urban fabric in Yalı neighborhood, coast side, and empty areas (without
settlements) constitute third order regions. Intersected conservation area on Yalı region is also
founded in this third order region. Isolated buildings in empty regions are taken as fourth orders.
 479

Figure 12. Yenikapı. A) Town plan analysis B) Morphological regions based on town plan.

Ownership patterns

Streets, buildings and plots require the examination in terms of property relations. Hence, the
ownership pattern of the study areas is analyzed. Public, common, private, private foundation
and foundation management classifications are determined and the patterns are created. As can
be seen from the following maps; a great majority of the study areas contain private ownership
patterns. Around Beyazıt Square, foundation and public lands can be seen. In Aksaray, except
480

for religious facility areas with foundation ownership and common parcels at the Yenikapı
region, dominancy of private ownership can be seen again. As the base of this study, land
ownership patterns are considered as another complex to understand with morphological
regions. The regions are determined based on dominancy of an ownership type and illustrated as
third and fourth orders since the ownership’s of the lands has the direct effect on the formation
of urban blocks (See Figure 13 and Figure 14).

Figure 13. Beyazıt. A) Land ownership analysis B) Morphological regions based on land
ownership.
 481

Figure 14. Aksaray and Yenikapı. A) Land ownership analysis B) Morphological regions
based on land ownership.

Conclusion

The connection between property relations and the morphological transformations based on
form, time and resolution of different components is revealed through the research of
urban/form changes according to definite planning approaches and political grounds in the study
areas of Beyazıt, Aksaray and Yenikapı within historical process.
The Historical Peninsula’s organic urban fabric, which constituted through Islamic politics
with privacy concept and perceptivity of no private property, came to change through grid urban
482

block systems which were practiced in the modernization period of the 19th century. The
configurational changes began to be seen with the destructions of great fires, legal interferences
and regulations by providing property relations.
After 1950s, as planning policies of the government formed according to the changing
economical system and lifestyles, construction of large street systems caused major destructions
in old urban fabrics. During those periods, several characteristic units of the Historical
Peninsula were demolished, and with the construction codes, expropriations were executed in
the urban blocks which indicated complication for widening and opening new roads. With the
rising population of Istanbul, destructions in the Historical Peninsula are tried to be prevented
by conservation plans. However, conservation and restoration studies fell short. Besides, the
form and character of the peninsula was damaged due to the wrong conservation and restoration
practices of local administrations, renewal projects and coast filling projects.
In the cases of Aksaray, Beyazıt and Yenikapı, even though they are all the parts of the
whole old town, counts of identified morphological regions based on town plan and land
ownership analyses (showing same or different features) are tabulated (Table 1) as following:

Table 1. Number of morphological regions in the case areas of Beyazıt, Aksaray and
Yenikapı.

Morphological regions of town plan Morphological regions of land

Study Areas
analyzes ownership pattern
second order: 2 -partly
third order: 14 regions
Beyazıt third order: 16 regions
fourth order: 23 regions
fourth order: 9 regions
second order: 3 -partly
third order: 29 regions
Aksaray third order: 20 regions
fourth order: 44 regions
fourth order: 19 regions
second order: 2 -partly
third order: 14 regions
Yenikapı third order: 17 regions
fourth order: 13 regions
fourth order: 4 regions

As a result of the difference in the areas of each study cases, in the morphological regions of
town plan analyzes, the areas contains the delimitation lines of second order regions, which are
determined within a larger scale in the whole Historical Peninsula. Therefore, at least 2 second
order regions can be seen partly from the focused case areas and indicate major plan units of the
old town. Especially in the case of Aksaray, identified regions seem higher than other study
areas. Yet, third order regionalization gives approximately the same results. This can be seen in
morphological regions of town plan analyzes of the areas around 20 regions; which indicate 20
character areas. For example, in the case of Beyazıt, 4 of the 16 morphological regions based on
the town plan are showing the same character features while the others require distinct
considerations. In Aksaray, 20 character areas and 6 of the regions, which represent built
environment formed after 1935 with commercial utilization, can be discussed as reflecting
character areas with the same identity; whereas the regions that are illustrated for Yenikapı
indicate varied character areas. As well as the town plan, in the results of land ownership
analysis, the fourth order regions are the evidence that in the studied parts of the Historical
Peninsula, there are numerous morphotypes and building fabrics which can be the sign of
complexity of the town or oncoming changes for some areas.
The complexity of the Historical Peninsula, indeed, requires a more detailed research in
terms of determining morphological regions. Regionalization can be discussed by different
participants in a joint study. Through this method, variety of character areas in a historical town
can be ascertained. Although these regions can vary according to the planners or designers,
similar regions can be recognized in general terms.
 483

In order to prohibit the process of the system which makes the conservation of the old towns
a tool for new identity formation, legal enforcements showing its spatial outcomes within
property relations in detail of urban fabric must be built in a serviceable way, considering the
identity of the historical towns from morphological structure to the socio-political stratifications.
Thus, conservation studies in the historical towns should be managed in urban block detail by
considering property relations subject to urban planning and design policies, and morphological
regions based on a series of morphological analyses.

References

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Yenişehir-Ankara’, PhD thesis, Middle East Technical University.
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Geographers, London).
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Lang, Bern).
Çelik, Z. (1993) The Remaking of Istanbul: Portrait of an Ottoman City in the Nineteenth Century
(University of California Press, Berkley).
Gül, M. (2012) The Emergence of Modern Istanbul: transformation and modernisation of a city (I.B.
Tauris, London).
Günay, B. (1999) Property Relations and Urban Space (Middle East Technical University, Ankara).
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Kuban, D. (1996) İstanbul Bir Kent Tarihi: Bizantion, Kostantionopolis, İstanbul (Türkiye Ekonomik ve
Toplumsal Tarih Vakfı, Istanbul).
Kuban, D. (1998) Kent ve Mimarlık Üzerine İstanbul Yazıları (Yapı Endüstri Merkezi Yayınları,
Istanbul).
Larkham, P. (2005) ‘Understanding Urban Form’, in Evans, R. (ed.) Urban Morphology, Urban Design,
Winter, Issue 93, London, Urban Design Group, 22 (http://www.rudi.net/books/6053) accessed 06 April
2014.
Macpherson, C. B. (1978) Property: Mainstream and Critical Positions (University of Toronto Press,
Oxford).
Moudon, A. V. (1997) ‘Urban morphology as an emerging interdisciplinary field’, Urban Morphology 1,
3-10.
Pinon, P. (1998) ‘The Parceled City: Istanbul in the Nineteenth Century’, in Petruccioli, A. (ed.)
Rethinking XIXth Century City, Cambridge, Aga Khan Program for Islamic Architecture, 45-64.
Tekeli, İ. (2010) Türkiye’nin Kent Planlama ve Kent Tarihleri Araştırmaları Yazıları (Tarih Vakfı Yurt
Yayınları, Istanbul).
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Urban Morphology 13(1), 5-27.
484

The transformation of the urban block in the European City

Maria Oikonomou
Department of Urban Planning and Regional Development, School of Architecture, Aristotle
University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki- GREECE
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. The research focuses mainly on the European cities’ urban form and social characteristics by
analyzing the element of the urban block in five historical periods. The aim is not to analyze the whole
history, but to focus on specific periods and case studies that show the metamorphosis of the urban block.
European cities are diverse in several scales but meanwhile they are linked in a common urban
development. By studying examples from the Greek Polis, where the urban blocks are created by
organized city planning focused on the grid, to the urban block of the medieval city, where different built
structures can be seen, to the compact blocks of the industrial Berlin, to the large blocks of
Transvaalbuurt in Amsterdam, where the traditional urban block opens up as well as Le Corbusier’s
modern city and the refusal to the traditional closed block, the reader will be able to understand the
significant vital role of the urban block in the urban tissue. These case studies are examined, analyzed
and, in the end, illustrated in diagrams based on indicators that show spatial and social characteristics of
the blocks. Thus, one can observe urban transformations and social changes of the European cities
always in comparison with the historical framework.

Key Words: urban block, European cities, urban transformation, urban form.

The urban block as one interconnected system of social and spatial relationships

Plots - as the two dimensional space - and buildings - as separate individual component parts -
fit together and create a three dimensional space; the urban block. Groups of urban blocks,
surrounded by streets or public space, create the urban layout. On the other side, what makes the
urban block special is its social-cultural aspect. What is important to realize is that the term
‘urban’ instantly refers to urbanity, to city and not to rural areas, to specialized ways of
production and services, to the urban way of life. Meanwhile ‘block’ refers to the utilized form,
which is perceived rather as a certain three dimensional shape. Given these points the
combination of ‘urban’ and ‘block’ is associated to socio-economical as well as morphological
parameters, defining what the ‘urban block’ is and what it is not. After all being a part of the
city characterizes the distinctive nature of the urban block. These socio-economic features are
the communication language between people and the built environment. Overall, that
exceptional attribute gives to the urban block its social character.
Manuel Castells in his book The City and the Grassroots: A Cross-Cultural Theory of Urban
Social Movements examines the city as a social output and how history relates to a socio-
cultural context (see Castells, 1983). What is important to stress in this point is his theory
concerning the consistent relationship between spatial and social aspects of urbanity. “Urban is
the social meaning assigned to a particular spatial form by a historically defined society.”
(Castells, 1983:302) Within this thesis Castells achieved to express the complexity of
relationships in cities. The same features can be found in relation to urban block; it is an element
which creates relationships between the user and the built environment.
On the basis of these considerations, a contemporary definition of the urban block is
proposed; it can be defined as one interconnected system of social and spatial relationships.
 485

Typologies of european cities and case studies

When people think about european cities, they mostly have in mind cities in Germany, Italy or
Spain, due to the fact that in these countries, the original historical city nucleus (often planned
during medieval years) still exist in their initial urban form. For this reason, it is essential to
point out that this paper attempts to prove that european cities are not only those who were built
during the medieval years.
The special characteristic which connects all of the european cities together is the historically
defined culture related in an inter-mutual european identity. Another issue is that they are linked
in a common urban development, even if they have been effected in different ways, time frames
and circumstances. Nevertheless, european cities are diverse in several scales; geographical,
national, institutional, economical, etc. This diversity is also translated to the urban morphology
but to the social character of the cities as well.
A brief review will be followed for each historical period respectively. Next, the case studies
are examined, analyzed and in the end illustrated in diagrams based on the four layers of the
urban block; the street, the plot, the building/s and the open space. Meanwhile each layer
consists of indicators (see table 1), which serve as parameters and focus points of the analysis.
The case studies were chosen within four criteria; the examples chosen should have been built,
next they should show typical and general rules of planning, they should also be highlights in
history or last, they should have influenced the european city development. But all in all the
examples are accepted as ideal models for each time frame and are already well documented in
the relevant literature, which is the primary source for the investigation.
Last, to avoid any confusion, I need to clarify to the reader four important issues. First, when
valuable information was missing or was vague, there was the necessity to estimate values
based on different input parameters and assumptions in order to obtain a complete image.
Secondly, when it was not possible to estimate, in the end no indication is illustrated. Next, all
the examples are explained in relation to the specific timeframe of the analysis and not to their
present state. Last, all the calculations, such as dimensions and coverage, are fairly accurate but
not exact.

Table 1. The indicators of urban block in relation to the four layers and spatial and social
characteristics

Layers Spatial characteristics Social characteristics

1. Layout 1. Main orientation/function
2. Orientation of the street network (north- (pedestrian, car, mixed, etc.)
south, east-west) 2. Accessibility/circulation (to housing,
Streets
3. Hierarchy of streets to commercial, etc.)
4. Dimensions 3. Use (public space, transitions space,
5. Greenery etc.)
1. Dimensions 1. Land tenure distribution (private or
Plots
2. Space distribution mixed with public)
1. Architectural principles (form, roof) 1. Users (social status, age/family
2. Materials status)
3. Orientation (north-south, east-west) 2. Uses (housing, commercial, mixed,
Building/s
4. Floors [FAR; calculated as the building‘s etc.)
total floor area (Gross Floor Area, GFA) 3. Time (who, when, for what?)
divided by the net size area of the plot] 4. Ownership vs. rent
1. Dimensions 1. Users (public, inhabitants)
2. Density [The total open space in the 2. Activities (recreation, transition
urban block is measured as Open Area space, etc.)
Open space
Coverage (OAC) and the total built area as 3. Ownership (public, private)
Built Area Coverage (BAC)]
3. Greenery
486

Greek Polis

Each Greek Polis was independent and had its own rules and norms of governance. Only men
had right to land tenure and each one owned the same size plot with the facsimile house as the
others. They were also the only ones who participated in politics. Women were excluded from
the society and slavery was a typical phenomenon of the time.
Hippodamus of Miletus was the most famous ancient urban planner and usually called as the
“inventor of city planning”. The Hippodamian system of the orthogonal rastered layout was his
invention and it is called after his name. He was responsible for planning the city Piraeus (now a
municipality of Athens) and is claimed to have also designed Miletus and Rhodes, due to the
similar orthogonal planning system.
Urban blocks in Greek Polis were settled in the private sector. The use of the orthogonal grid
for housing (oikos – in greek οίκος) was the easiest way to offer everyone the same area of land.
Kevin Lynch observes: “Defense, order, and a rapid and equitable allocation of house site and
access seem to be the principal motives.” (Lynch, 1985:16) Commercial and housing were the
main activities taking place in the block, whereas the open space was used for gatherings and
meetings. On the other side, community and public facilities, like the theater, the gymnasium or
the Agora (Market) were clearly separated from the urban blocks.
The case study selected for this period is Priene, a city in Ancient Ionia. This example fulfills
all the criteria and meanwhile Priene is “the most extensively excavated Hellenistic city in Asia
Minor and an excellent example of Hellenistic architecture”. (FHW, 2012)

Case study: Priene

Priene was built around 370 BC, probably planned by Pytheas, the second most famous greek
architect after Hippodamus. It was located southwest of ancient Ionia on a slope, today at the
province of the district of Aydin in Turkey. Built in four levels, the city had 4.000 inhabitants.
The street network consisted of six horizontal main streets faced east-west and secondary
vertical ones faced north-south, which created the orthogonal urban grid. Plots were equal
(207.60 m2 each) and the built area was equal as well. Each block had 8 orthogonal plots, each
sized at 8x23 meters. Main streets were oriented for transition and trading activities. Inhabitants
accessed their houses from secondary streets.
The urban tissue is a repeated image of urban form and architecture; equal blocks, houses
and streets. The inner courtyard (40 m2 each) is used as an atrium and was only accessible to the
inhabitants for gathering, meeting and leisure purposes. Moreover, it was arranged in the middle
so as to be accessed from all the rooms and served for natural ventilation of the house as well.
The buildings for trade and storage were one floor high while housing was two floor high, so
that living spaces gained sun exposure due to orientation and to the inclined surface.
The historical reception of Priene shows that the city was always considered as an ideal type
of Greek Polis. Wolfram Höpfner, notes: “The high point of classical urban planning is Priene.
This is the only case where the city can be considered as an enormous work of art.” (Höpfner,
1997:39)

Medieval City

After the fall of Roman Empire, many cities began to be deserted, while others were being
destroyed by barbarians. During that time, Europe faced an urban growth and new urban
settlements were built for trade purposes and craft industries; a polycentric and differentiated
settlement pattern emerged. This pattern was consisted of specialized cities based mostly on
trade. For this reason, the medieval city as we know it today has a relative homogenous image
through the cities of Europe. Some, as Benevolo, consider it to be the base of the so called
 487

European CIty (see Benevolo, 1980); following the argumentation of Max Weber, it is the base
of european culture and the western society because of the emergence of rationalism, capitalism
and bureaucracy (see Weber, 1986).

Figure 1. The urban block in Greek Polis. The case of Priene (based on Fischer 1920,
Höpfner and Schwandner 1986, Höpfner 1997 and FHW 2012).
488

The most typical characteristic of the medieval city planning was the clear division between
city and landscape. This division was also made possible because of the surrounding
walls/fortification, which protected the city of future invasions. In many european old city
centers that were not damaged during the wars afterwards, the medieval core is still visible in
the urban layout. Another fundamental element of planning was the central location of
representative places, such as main streets and squares with a cathedral, the dominating
landmark of the city. The square around it became the most important market place, whereas
open space was usually occupied by trade.
Other basic principles of medieval planning were compactness and narrow street network.
The emerging layout was a labyrinth of irregular streets radiated from the central square and
polygonal urban blocks with organic forms. Streets were used as transition and trade space;
therefore, the division of the plots was of a great importance. Plots were small but elongated so
that as many merchants as possible could have a front to the street.
The building forms were also different creating many variations of urban morphology. The
individual plot with the house was the element which finally formed the urban block. “The
irregular building lines of medieval towns testify to the varying status and power of the
individuals involved”. (Saalman, 1968:30) Furthermore, another typical medieval characteristic
is mixed use; not only in the city, but inside the urban block as well. Different activities could
be seen next to each other, inside the block, creating a mixture of working and living. There was
also a social mixture of users such as merchants, craftsmen. bourgeois, and clergymen (see
Hilberseimer, 1955:93).
For the period of medieval times the case study of Sagunto in Spain is chosen. Sagunto
might not be a commonly known example for a medieval city, but it can be compared to other
European cities, because of its convergent development that can be seen in the roman
background, the economical and socio-cultural characteristics and its urban layout.

Case study: Sagunto

Sagunto was founded and walled by Celtiberians around 500 BC. The town prospered because
of the trade relations with Greek colonists and the Roman Empire. In spite of the destruction,
the roman influence can be still seen today at monumental expressions like the ruins of the
roman circus, the reconstructed roman theatre and the castle on top of the hill, around which the
old town is arranged. In 1098 the Moorish occupation caused a re-flourishing of the town
(Ibáñez, 2012). The Moorish dominance was disrupted by the recapture by the Spanish troops
(Reconquista) and was followed by a period of comparatively stagnation in medieval times.
Nevertheless, there was a peaceful coexistence of Jews, Moors and Christians and a diversified
social structure within the borders of the fortifications, which channeled growth enough to cause
that densification typical for medieval towns.
Even though in the 19th and 20th c. warfare resulted in the destruction of the built
environment, the urban tissue stayed persistent. The preserved urban fabric is characterized by a
sequence of small squares, connected by curved streets that form urban blocks, which embed
housing with small courtyards and churches. The aforementioned differentiated social structure
within the medieval city can not only be found in the spatial separation of crafts and services,
but it is also exposed in the built environment. Two different types of parcels, houses and
connected ways of living can be distinguished; the gothic house and the court-house.
The life in the gothic house is organized along a vector going from the street to the inside of
the block (see Figure 3). The first floor is meant for manufacturing purposes and main living
room, while the second floor has secondary rooms for example for servants. On the contrary the
life in the court-house is organized circularly around an inner court (see figure 3). The first floor
is an entrance floor with stables, but it is not generally meant for living. It is a representative
floor, which could be accessed through a main staircase located next to the inner court. No
manufacturing function is found in the building, but some trade or commercial activities may be
 489

present. In comparison the gothic house, it appears to be a more simple building for the working
middle class that allowed for manufacturing and could be gradually expanded inside the block
for needed additions. Meanwhile, the court house is a representative building for the upper
class, with better living conditions. It uses the full plot size at once and incremental expansions
for subsidiary buildings are not possible or needed like in the gothic house (de Armiño, 2012).
The chosen urban block is centrally located, its urban context is characterized by curved
streets, main squares and churches and it contains the ‘puerta de la judería’, the gate to the
Jewish district as well. It has a representative scale and combines both types of the described
houses.

Figure 2. The urban block in Medieval City. The case of Sagunto (based on de Armiño
2012 and field study).
490

Figure 3. The gothic house (left) and the court-house (right).

Industrial city

Industrial revolution became the reason of the first mass rural migration in the history of
urbanization because of the many work opportunities offered by factories and big companies
inside the cities. The medieval city at that time had limited – if any – space for new housing
and, in parallel, there was a remarkable population increase. Lack of housing was the main issue
of that time and therefore city planning aimed to create adequate housing in the cities. As a
result, cities grew up rapidly beyond the walls in order to accommodate the industrial workers
and their families.
The unpredictable increase of the population led to compact cities where the car became
dominant in the streets. Problems like the lack of water supply, bad quality of living and
pollution due to industry in cities caused the negative aspects of the industrial city, i.e. spread of
diseases, unhealthy environments and poverty. Concerning the housing planning issue, cities
conformed with the return of the grid. The use of gridiron planning goes along with the
rationalism of modern time and the increasing influences of scientific theories. Orthogonal
planning of streets and blocks was, at that time, the easy and quick solution. The city layout
became regular and strictly organized once more, with almost equal plot division. Kostof notes
that this era projected the “modern metropolis as a limitless, gridded city extension of
stringently regulated private development”. (Kostof, 1991:151)
The urban blocks were closed with a rectangular or squared perimeter whereas inside there
were courtyards. The buildings were similar in type and form, relatively high (four to six
stories), compact and mixed-use at the ground floor. It is essential to point out that one can
observe a repeated image of the urban tissue outside the inner medieval city.
The case study chosen for the industrial city is Berlin; a typical example in the relevant
literature and a historical urban extension in Europe. Berlin’s present urban layout is the result
of the industrial era.

Case Study: Berlin

Berlin was the capital of the Kingdom of Prussia during the industrial revolution with a high
population and economic growth at the time. Berlin became the center of Germany and a
concentration magnet for new settlers from rural Germany.
In 1862 the Land Use Plan of the Environments of Berlin (Bebauungsplan der Umgebungen
Berlins) is proposed by James Hobrecht, the chief of the urban planning police (Baupolizei).
Hobrecht was an advocator of social mixture and through his plan he offered “a foundation for
the development of both working-class as well as bourgeois districts.” (Bodenschatz, 2010:20)
The plan proposed a circulation network with wide streets (25-39 m), radial streets which led to
the centre, and a ring road. The streets surrounded big urban blocks with rectangular or
orthogonal shape. The urban planning police issued in 1853 building regulations
(Baupolizeiordnung) concerning the construction of housing in the blocks. These regulations
regarded an authorization of up to six floor apartment buildings with a maximal height of 22m
 491

and a minimum courtyard area of 5,34 m x 5,34 m.

Tenements were generally built by large landowners or private companies known as
Terraingesellschaften, the forerunners of housing associations (Wohnungsbaugesellschaften) or
today’s real estate developers, which “used the building grounds to the greatest possible extent”
(Sonne, 2009:6). As a result the urban blocks were built extremely compact with small
courtyards, creating the phenomenon called as Mietkaserne (tenements); „the perfect matrix of
slum landlords and abusive congestion” (Kostof, 1991:152).
The urban planning police in 1897 issued building regulations which were by far a better
version of those in 1853. The example selected here illustrates these kinds of blocks. Berlin
Block is a typical example of compactness and high density with open spaces that had no
greenery often used for meeting places for the inhabitants or for crafts and workshops.

Figure 4. The urban block in Industrial City. The case of Berlin (based on Stübben 1907,
Hegemann 1988 and Reitzig 2005).
492

Modern City, early years of 20th. century

During the early years of 20th. c. began a systematic criticism of the industrial city, under the
pressure of a radical immediate action that seemed to be of need after the first World War.
Hence, the modern city appeared as the medicine of the unhealthy city. The goal was to improve
the quality of living away from the industries and propose plans which promote the symbiosis of
living and working in nature.
Ebenezer Howard was the founder of the movement of Garden Cities, also called satellite
towns or “self-reliant communities” (Kostof, 1991:76). Closed and perimeter urban blocks were
disintegrated. The plans of Garden Cities show an irregular city planning, where greenery seems
to be the most important urban element. Few main roads, sprawled housing buildings facing cul-
de-sacs and a parkway, which separated the commercial activities were the basic principles of
the urban tissue.
Meanwhile, in the rest of Europe many extension plans were designed because of the
ongoing rapid urban growth and new transportation technology. Centres were overcrowded and
there was a mass need of housing. The solution was to expand quickly in the periphery.
Hausmann’s monumental “modernization” of Paris during 1853 and 1870 influenced later
extensions plans in other countries, such as the Netherlands, Germany, etc., where one observes
wide streets, big urban blocks and similar facades on the buildings.
In late of 19th c. the evolution of social housing occurred in Vienna. “Vienna was again the
first city to establish a competition for workers’ housing as reformed urban blocks.” (Sonne,
2009:74) The perimeter closed urban block with greenery in the inner open space (Hof) was the
typical characteristic of low-cost housing for the working class. Later, the same planning
principle was adopted to all the new structures for social housing, the so-called Gemeindebauten
(municipality social housing complexes), and a new housing model occured, the so-called
socialist „socialist neighbourhoods“ (Sonne, 2009:78).
The case study selected for the urban block of early years of 20th. c. is the superblock of
Transvaalbuurt, in Amsterdam. This example illustrates the first intension of modern planning
to propose open blocks in the city’s layout (see Panerai, 2004); a revolution, which influenced
many social housing projects in Europe.

Case study: Transvaalbuurt, Amsterdam

After the approval of the Housing Act in 1902, which proposed loans to housing associations
and supported the development of controlled housing production, the city of Amsterdam started
to realize subsidized housing developments. Susanne Komossa observes that “the notion of
‘public housing’ as a social ideal and a task for social reform was born” (Komossa, 2010:63).
The largest public project was the extension of the south part of the city by Hendrik Petrus
Berlage. Berlage made an initial plan in 1905 but in the end it was not implemented. Finally, his
plan Plan Zuid (Plan South) in 1917 was accepted by the city of Amsterdam, which consisted of
a new ring railway, orthogonal regular grid, wide streets and mostly long perimeter superblocks
(50mx200m) for social housing. What we have already examined in the urban extension plans
of industrial city, can also be observed in the case of Berlage; “a clear structure of the new
quarters, a clear-cut separation from the old development and a station opposed to the old city”
(Panerai et al, 2004:70).
The selected urban block is the superblock Transvaalbuurt designed by Hendrik Petrus
Berlage, Jan Gratama and G. Versteeg. Transvaalburt is a social housing complex built between
1903 until 1931.
The layout of the buildings shows the tendency to split the superblock into smaller urban
blocks. In this case, the superblock has been divided in six smaller perimeter blocks which are
connected with secondary streets and open spaces. „This hybrid urban form was transformed
into urban standard in the south of Amsterdam” (Sonne, 2009:91). The block has turned from a
large elongated closed superblock to a combination of smaller open blocks. Green spaces
 493

located inside the blocks were accessed by the public community. As Komossa notes: “the
public realm became the collective realm” (Komossa, 2010:66).

Figure 5. The urban block in early years of 20th. century. The case of Transvaalbuurt
(based on Sonne 2009 and Komossa 2010).

The buildings which face the main streets are higher, whereas the lower buildings are located
at secondary streets and along the canal. These continuing facades was a typical characteristic of
early modern planning, showcasing the important of the street walls. Komossa explains: “The
composition of the façades emphasized the continuity of the street walls and the urban space
rather than the volume of the actual block, and this was accentuated by having façades that were
494

identical in height.” (Komossa, 2010:71)

At first glance Transvaalburt seems to be a large housing complex with a modern urban
layout. Although the inner area of the neighborhood had more of a village character, by
observing the dimensions of the united buildings one can conclude that the urban set is the city.
Transvaalbuurt is like a small city, a combination of metropolis and town (see Sonne, 2009:88-
91). To sum up, this kind of blocks are the highlight of early modern planning due to the fact
that they integrate spatial and social characteristics in a great balance.

Modern City, middle years of 20th. century

This period refers to clear division of activities and to the contradiction against the traditional
compact - mixed use city. Buildings were sprawled in the open space but in the same time they
were highly dense in height. Green spaces were located through the buildings and streets
dominated the city layout as the car became the essential transportation means of mobility.
Ernst May together with other architects at that time e.g. Walter Gropius, Bruno Taut, Otto
Haesler, etc., were representatives of the so called Neues Bauen (New Building) movement.
Ernst May’s new plan of New Frankfurt for social housing in 1925-1930 is a typical example of
modern urban planning in Germany. “May created a synthesis between the environment of the
garden cities and the vocabulary of modern architecture” (Panerai et al., 2004:108). Housing
was constructed in rows which were repeated, so as to be built fast and to form a continuous
image of the urban blocks. New residential districts (Siedlungen) show the homogeneity and the
functionalism of the new urban blocks, whereas an obvious denial to compact mixed-use closed
perimeter block. The modern model of housing proposed a new urban development based on
healthy sprawled identical housing and “on the affirmation of an internal logic, independent of
the contextual conditions of the site.” (Panerai et al., 2004:110).
During the same period in 1924, Le Corbusier, the pioneer of modern movement, wrote the
book Urbanisme, a contentious manifesto about city planning. He expresses his disagreements
concerning traditional cities, which represent disorder, chaos and danger (see Le corbusier,
1971). He proposes plans for the contemporary city, where linearity, street network, open space
and mass housing are the main planning principles. (see Le Corbusier, 1971). Some years later
in 1943 The Charta of Athens was published and until today it remains one of the most
controversial documents of the modern movement concerning the functions of modern cities.
The suggested model of urbanism is quite a contrast to the importance of the historical city, and
promotes architecture instead of urban morphology. The core idea of the document splits the
city into zones and four basic functions i.e. dwelling, recreation, work and transportation.
Unité d‘Habitation has been chosen for the last typology of the urban block for one essential
reason. It is the perfect example of decomposition of the traditional perimeter block and a
newborn type of urban from.

Case study: Unité d‘Habitation 1947-1952

By studying on the example of Unité d‘Habitation one can not refer anymore to a composition
of several elements but only to a predominant characteristic: the building or the solitaire.
Scholars like Panerai describe that Le Corbusier’s planning represents the “negation of the city”
or “the death of the urban block”. (see Panerai et al, 2004:121) Le Corbusier believed that the
materials of urbanism are the technical possibilities of the machinist era and the nature,
especially the 24-hour solar cycle. Moreover, he accredited the primary role to the architect-
urban planner, who is the regulator of the new modern city.
In his book Urbanisme, he notes the planning principles based on which he built Unité
d‘Habitation: “It is a simple matter to build urban dwellings away from streets, without small
internal courtyards and with the windows looking on to large parks; and this whether our
housing schemes are of the type with “set-backs” or built on the “cellular” principle”. (Le
 495

Corbusier, 1971:163)
Unité d‘Habitation was designed to house 1600 residents in 337 units in 18 floors with an
accessible public roof terrace; 165 m long, 24 m deep and 56 m height (see Fondation Le
Corbusier). It is a monolithic high built unit, set-back in the middle of the plot, west-east
oriented and based on pillars which form a pilotis. Open space is full of trees, greenery and
walking paths, whereas parking areas dominate the urban environment.

Figure 6. The urban block in middle years of 20th. century. The case of Unité d‘Habitation
(based on Panerai et al 2004, Janson and Krohn 2007 and Fondation Le Corbusier).

The urban block is totally opened; it has lost its traditional urban form and its interconnected
social characteristics. The building is a part of a large urban block, where solitaires are seemed
to be accidentally arranged in the plot. Spatial characteristics and social qualities are packed into
a solitaire, into “a building that is a town” (Krohn in Janson and Krohn, 2007:7). Panerai and his
colleagues observe another interpretation of Unité d‘Habitation; the vertical urban block. “The
traditional elements of the block are cut up, rethought, reorganized in that new unit, which
appears to us as a vertical urban block, where all relationships are inverted and contradicted”
496

(Panerai et al, 2004:117-118). Public facilities like kindergarten and nursery are incorporated in
the building as a mixed-use functional structure. Other facilities like commercial, post office or
gym are located inside the unit as well. This small dense city, hidden inside a concrete mega-
silhouette, is like a secret place, which only the inhabitants know about it.

Conclusions

The first impression revealed by the comparison of the analyzed case studies is clearly the
obvious difference in size. While greek polis and medieval city are still defined by a
comprehensible dimension for the human observer, from then onwards the urban block has
grown to an object of the implemented plan. Step by step the human scale was replaced by a
hardly at once perceptible, a rather elusive urban element.
Additionally, the remarkable change in terms of density can be emphasized after comparing
the diagrams of built and open space. The formerly clearly prevailing build-up area decreased in
a gradual manner, while the open space became a larger and better useable part of the urban
block - firstly within the block, and in modern times as a surrounding of the solitaires. This
effect was accompanied by an increase of plot size, the improvement of techniques and
materials as well as the resulting enhancement of the building typologies and the expansion of
the urban block itself.
What is essential to point out is the transformation of the morphology of the blocks. Until the
timeframe of the industrial city, urban blocks were formed by a closed perimeter space
subdivided in plots. In the early modern city, the block is formed by a large collective unity of
elongated buildings or smaller open blocks, where the inside of the block “becomes a passing
place, accessible from outside” (Panerai, 2004:130). Until this point in history, urbanism was
defined by the adjustment of the buildings inside the urban block as the main element of the
urban fabric. This process of space production was replaced by the free standing solitaire in later
modern city; the block is dissolved. The building, as a product of an architectural model, stands
in an undefined space with no contact to the streetscape by setting back.
The historical comparison shows the persistence of mixed uses within the block until the
separation of working and living since the late industrial revolution and the rise of social
housing. This went along with a decrease of the importance and liveliness of residential areas by
their functional separation. However living conditions were improved, although through
focusing on the middle class, even the urban poor gained. Additionally the change of
transportation systems caused an increase of quality of life. In contrary, this led to the
emergence of transition spaces within a build environment that was not planned as a socio-
cultural space of interacting individuals.
All in all, spatial aspects are based on the limits of the environment, the technical
possibilities and the social, cultural, political and economical conditions. In a continuous change
the interaction of requirements and opportunities promote the transformation of the build
environment. Due to this belief, social and spatial characteristics are perceived as
complementing and interacting to one another.
Although the examples of Priene, Sagunto, Berlin, Transvaalbuurt and Unité d‘Habitation
represent a long timeframe of the history, the research shows straightaway that urban forms
have not transformed in the way that social relationships have changed. The metamorphosis of
the forms of the blocks follows a relative normal process, whereas the alterations of social
characteristics are always consequences of other complex relationships and systems in the city
(e.g. economical aspects). In the final analysis, the five case studies showed that european cities
have similarities, but also differences, in both their morphological and social character.
 497

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498

Morphology and structure of road crossings of the modernist

urban ring of Viana do Castelo in the City's General Plan

José Lopes, Manuel Gulias, Rui Cavaleiro

Instituto Politécnico de Viana do Castelo
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract. The consolidation of both the medieval walled perimeter of the village of Viana (1258 to 1374-
75) and consequent urban sprawl, resulting in its five suburbs (Moreira 2005 : 22-23), in the following
centuries, led to a new ovoid shape. This happened due to either contagion or”technical culture” when
designing the XVI to XVIII centuries streets and buildings centered on constructive sets of
convents/monasteries and their Renaissance churches - the urban convent ring (Moreira 2005). In
addition to this, the family mansions built on open ground and the lack of major geographical obstacles
reinforced their growth and progressive urban spread along both ends of a main east-west axes (from
São Vincente, along Rua da Bandeira, to Campo d'Agonia, through the former São Sebastião street),
allowing the circulation of people and the establishment of trade, and thus, resulting in a wider
relationship with the countryside and the outside world (Lopes et al 2013; Veloso et al 2012). It is this
space made up of streets and urban buildings alongside the crossing of Minho’s railway line (1877-78)
that makes sense not only to the city planning (1848) but also to its map. Even before the railway line was
built there was already an”urbanist sense" which led to a morpho- functional pattern expressed through
the urban quarters which are defined by the street crossings, where access to drinking water has enabled
the settling of people, houses, events and above all a better local circulation and contact with the
surrounding areas. Our proposal is an analysis of the study and interpretation of the modernistic urban
network, ex ante and ex post, of Viana do Castelo city.

Key Words: Modernist city, streets and blocks, road standard, urban plant

Introduction

According to Saint Augustine, cities are men and not the houses. And in the case of the Viana
do Castelo city this idea applies in full because its genesis is thought out and planned in the
context of our founding of the nation, by charter of King Afonso III project, constituting a new
ex urbe, from 1258 - 1262, County (Vila da Foz do Lima) with an original settler and then a
mayor, both appointed by the royal power. Because that village now has its fortnightly Friday,
granted by King Dinis, since 1286, and after getting walled requested contributions to its
residents and those of neighboring counties, in 1374, the urbanity of Viana was consolidated
and was projected this coastal territory north of the river Lee, and it progressively turned to the
sea and sea trade in the following centuries.
The town of Viana in XIII - XIV centuries and has an inside perimeter of this ovaloid an
orthogonal urban grid, usually led by the intersection of two main axes arruados and today are
the Great and St. Peter Streets in east-west direction, and the Aurora Streets of Lima and Gago
Coutinho, from north to south, and these converging at Largo João Tomás da Costa. Later in
medieval outer zone and the urban plant sets new raster blocks but now contained by the union
of architectural spaces of convents, monasteries and churches around that seem to foster care
and health care material and spiritual to Viennese or wayfaring men, and that will generate
another urban area, called about urban convent (Moreira 2005: 28-31).
This post medieval metropolis is thus an urbanized area, projecting around a corpus of
political and administrative power and, above all, physical defensive structure and control all
movements of goods and people on land transit from south to north or vice versa, as the sea into
the ground and along the Lima valley. The territory north of Lima and our ocean front has
 499

become safer with this póvoa of people, which started surfing because there were great concerns
that drew navigation and mercancia, running with all its vessels to the northern provinces and
islands, and achievements of Portugal, as tells us Frei Luís de Sousa in Vida D.Frei
Bartholomeu dos Mártires (C.A.F. de Almeida, 1987: 77).
But this context of urbanity in growing with time and centered in this village, will be
resumed and strengthened after about 257 years with the extension of this metropolis and its
relational connection Roqueta Tower (1515), for, after so many years and then this place is well
bastions in 1652 and 1700, the Fortress of Santiago da Barra is the emerging stage of the
reputation of Viana, according to the civil conflict Patuleia and this result is a city under D.
Maria II in 1848.

The modern and landscaped city of Viana do Castelo (1880-1910, 1911-1927, and 1928-
1974) ex-post process to the passage of railway line

The urban period between 1793 and 1878 is the transformation of the metropolis, in general, in
the anchoring of the old urban fabric with peripherals and surrounding blocks, generated by the
street layout ordained between the center and the religious buildings and stately homes of the
nobility, both military and civil, and wealthy merchants. It is ex ante process of Viennese city, a
small outbreak of works and qualifications of its urban heritage stemming from the early port
improvements (1867-1904) and urban public space intralocal movement (1891) and passing to
other cities. Urban areas in the entrance of this period is shown in plan dated 1756 (Lopes et al,
2012: 115), where the old wall has the oblong shape to contain in its interior space orthogonal
urban blocks, perpendicular and narrow streets because they were 3 feet wide and some less (d'
Alpuim et al, 1983: 20), these blocks shredded into urban lots, usually 5.5 x 17.7 m, front and
depth, respectively (Baker 2003: 63), but with an urban design with or determined by the
regularity of relation to two main axes crossed, according to the cardinal points and its extremes
were the ports of entry or exit from the village.
Moreover, this period is justified by the urban consequences of the demolition of the
medieval walled fence (c. 10 mx 2.2) from the royal authorization - D. Maria I, 1793 and until
passage of the path line iron- through opening of the first metal bridge roadrail the country on
the river Lima (1878), two trays, in 1882 to reach the train station to the Viana (d' Alpuim et al,
1983: 51), ligand the city of Porto to the international border of Valencia.
With this new urban area, dictated by the train rails and flanked by granite embankments or
walls in stone, there is an urban form that can configure a double combination (internal and
external) urban networks, and the orthogonal radio- concentric, the latter forced or perhaps
disguised by the natural relief that the Viennese metropolis is generated and expands.
Constructive and demographic growth of the village of Viana develops in connection to the
historical center located at its periphery religious centers, or by constructive consolidation of pre
- existing blocks either by new streets cobbled paths and then the stone walls of this (the Eirado
in 1814, and the tower and arch of Mercy/St. Peter, 1816). Is this outbreak and urban
improvement that dictated the constitution and internal organization nine districts (1829) this
Village by the Viennese councilor (d'Alpuim et al, 1983 : 31), as well as the first public garden
(1846), the source of the current chapel of Saint Catherine, in the so-called ' Dízima the dogs '
area, and palm trees in old picture postcards. Most authors describes the modern city in the
period between 1880 and the 40s century. XX, and to signal the following period and since the
'60s, called post- modern city where most reference is planned and according to urban ideals
enshrined in the Charter of Athens (1933) urban interventions. But the Viennese urban
modernism show up subperiods of socio - economic and institutional context dictated by
promoting urban infrastructure associated with the political regime and the then ruling power.
Hence the appointment of three contexts - the constitutional monarchy; the first Republic and
the New State (Lopes et al, 2012).
500

In the first context is given relief to riverside open spaces and conquered the estuary from the
marshland of Argaçosa to dock Castle Bar with its public landscaping (1882-1911), about 78
acres, as the yards and squares in front of important buildings, house Quesados (1878), the CP
(1882) station, Sá de Miranda (1885) Theatre, garden Ferdinand (1888-90) and also to the urban
streets, with emphasis on connecting the city to Mount St. Luzia, via paved road (1890-91). In
the second context stresses the influence of infra - structure implemented in your district
hinterland, where the first hydro-electric use of Lindoso (1915-1922) and the creation of modern
urban interventions of the republican regime, under cover of law and specific regulations
particularly through new plans for urban improvement (still anchored in Dec 10, 1865), social
housing (Dec. No. 16005, 1928) and the implementation of urban plans (Dec No 24802, 1934).
It was thus that sued the urban development of the resort of Mount St. Luzia, the opening of a
new avenue of Fighters (1917), the construction of the funicular St ª Luzia (1923), the
commercial extension to the Dock (1924) the qualifications of the public garden (1936-1940).
But it is in the 40s and following the scheduled and more constructive urbanization was felt at
the fabric of the city, through the following cases : the plan of Architect João Faria da Costa to
St ª Luzia; the plan of Architect João Aguiar, for the District Flag (1943) ; the plan for opening
avenues D. Afonso III and Américo Tomás ; the plan of Architect Paulo Cunha, for the sea port
(1944) ; and the plan of Architect Gennaro Godinho, for the National High School (1946). And
also the establishment of new urban neighborhoods generally dictated by lack of response to
economic and social needs of the urban population, such as the renowned neighborhood -
garden (1939, 1959), the Bairro dos Pescadores (1949-50), Quarter of Welfare (50), and
Neighborhoods of Mercy (1968), adjacent to the old Technical School and the other in the
streets of Santiago and General Luis Rego sector.

Analysis of urban and public space postmodernist: the netwotk of streets, intersections
and urban blocks

The development of public space within the boundaries of the historic center of Viana do
Castelo is full of representative architectural examples from the 60s and subsequent decades.
This diversity and mixing various epochs that mark the image, identity and history of Viennese
urbanity, allows to understand and observe the evolution and development of its space and
urban structure in the specific case, the post- modernist era.
In addition to this amount and diversity of architectural forms dispersed by city knitted
Lopes et al, 2012: 125-128), are notorious three (3) urban spaces of dimension and relevant
scale compared with other urban area, which occupied the existing gaps in urban structure
height. And our focus is centered on the shaft adjacent to urban road - rail zone.
The first is located on the so-called”dry river" near the current shopping center ' Viana
Station ' (2003). In this area, confusing urban design, partly due to the existence of the railway
crossing and consequently, were built multi - residential building construction and aesthetic
very similar. This area of high topography, connecting the city with the lowest elevation to high
elevation, grew buildings with high volumetric which together have shaped the road structure
and adapting to the requirements and limitations of terrain features. Its urban form is confusing,
however routes crossing this area are important pathways in communication, transmission and
interrelationship of people and goods in the public space, allowing the enjoyment of the center
to the periphery and vice versa. This area stands out the building known abuilding Makonde”
whose structure adjacent urban space designed at the time, recently allowed the opening of a
new link from the city to the west (the Campo d'Agonia).
The second area identified is located on the block where the Hotel is located Rally (1970),
and the facilities of the PSP, the Public Security Police, near the overpass of Sto. Anthony
(1985-86, one of the main access roads to the city). This block is a block large compared with
other urban fabric. This is because your inner” core”, is filled with extensions of the buildings
that make up the front of the street or urban front. Are generally warehouses which are activity
 501

along with the rest built area occupies a considerable part of the urbanized area of the city. Have
been the route of the railway line and the proximity to this equipment dictated the scale of this
block? Easily observed through the architectural styles present, we are facing a consolidated
urban structure whose concerns of the postmodern era, in our case, it supplanted the need to
deliver quality public space environment, specifically through the implementation of buildings
public character whose duties correspond to the needs of the time they were constructed (60, 70
and 80). As an example we highlight the petrol pump however demolished to make way for the
aforementioned park hotel, the Palace Cinema (1947) that so many generations of Viennese
welcomed, now transformed into an office building, the Garage - Car, currently the Peugeot
brand, with its facade clearly designed to serve and reflect their function, and others. This area,
in our opinion, deserve in the future, depending on its urban developments and their potential
interests, an urban planning study to better linkage with the remaining area of the city,
contributing to improving urban enjoyment between center and periphery.
The third area is located near the Eiffel bridge access and deployment of existing buildings
created a garden space, today transformed into a “roundabout” (2004). The structure of this area
is characterized by the presence of large building volume and primarily residential in character,
with the exception of the then Hotel Afonso III (1971), now transformed into a multi -
residential building.
These three areas, which are characterized by curiosity absorb three distinct areas, the road
connecting the center with the periphery in different directions, breaking the continuity of the
urban environment that is experienced in the remaining image of the city, contributing to the
visual diversity of environments observed. When you traveled or crossed, these areas reflect the
spirit of the age in which they were designed. The streets have wider than existing streets
profiles (Table 1). The walks are wide and airy. The scale of the city suddenly becomes, grows,
envelops us, but do not affect the relationship with the rest of the urban structure, by contrast,
entranham in such a natural way that sometimes this becomes perceptible change in the
composition and diversity the urban fabric, which is the transposition of the medieval urban
scale to urban scale modernist and post - modernist.
It is interesting that these areas are signposted along the road crossings of particular
relevance to the urban structure of the city of Viana do Castelo. Are these crossings on the line
iron (c. 7.30 meters Profile - Iberian gauge), essential for the flow of traffic from the inner city
to the outside and vice versa. Crossings are made through the tunnel (eg Sto. Antonio) viaduct
(eg dry bridge) and another under the Eiffel bridge as larger example to link the riverside urban
marginal, first on the road Papanata after the park represented by Limia - urban park (60), and
then the Plaza de Galicia, the Hotel park (1972). These crossings were up adapting to the
characteristics of the motor and needs of pedestrians and we can consider them and interpret
them as new doors of access and greater mobility to the inner city. These crossings and we also
brought new roads that generally have adopted guidelines perpendicular to the dominant axis of
which include the Flag Street which crosses the city from west to east. These new arteries
counteract the movement of the pre -existing urban fabric, and are geared towards the River
Lee, allowing a more effective approach to the town with this environmental structure and
natural environment.

Conclusion

The cross-section of the railway line Minho is the end of the century, nineteenth, 7.30 meters,
and this value can be compared with the reference and modernist urban streets of the city of
Viana do Castelo, in other words, be your triple, the Iberian gauge railway, iron, value - system
for tracing the modernist highways because the Warring Avenue, with c. 22.00 meters in profile,
is its largest representation (Lopes et al, 2013). We have then in the study and analysis these two
benchmarks here propose a default value or reference to correlate and distinguish the modernist
streets of the city of Viana do Castelo, according to its time of construction and function in
502

urban morphology/plant city. And the figures in Table 1 should highlight groups of modernist
Viennese streets of the city, if we associate with sectors or areas of urban intervention, either
from home or another function as well as intra and/or inter urban mobility.

Table 1. Cross-sectional dimension of modernist streets in the city of Viana do Castelo.

STREET LAYOUT (reference or place names) meters STREET LAYOUT (reference or place
names)
Av. 25 de Abril (ângulo sudoeste garag. Auto- 13,45 Muro da Linha de caminho-de-ferro (sul)
Lima)
Estrada da Papanata 9,96 Muro da Escola Primária do Carmo
Av 25 de Abril (Old Fábrica das Boinas) 12,59 Linha caminho-de-ferro
Old Rua do Liceu (west) 13,00 Rua João Rocha Páris
Rua João Rocha Páris (west) 12,97 Rua João Tocha Páris (east)
Ângulo sudoeste do Liceu 12,92 Muro de casa sul Bairro da Previdência/Liceu
(Blue)
Rua José Espregueira (south) 9,07 Rua José Espregueira (south, old Fáb. das
Boinas)
Rua José Espregueira (north) 9,02 Rua José Espregueira (north)
Abertura nascente do Viaduto Stº António 22,90 Angulo Bairro da C.P. (northwest)
Casa do Horto Municipal 15,01 Muro do Bairro da CP (north)
Bairro-jardim (poente), Rua V.N. Cerveira 8,24 Bairro-jardim (poente), Rua V.N. Cerveira
Bairro-jardim Nascente), Rua Ponte da Barca 10,05 Bairro-jardim (nascente), Rua Ponte da Barca
Bairro-jardim (norte), Rua de Valença 9,86 Bairro-jardim (norte), Rua de Valença
Calçada de Valverde (south) 7,68 Calçada de Valverde (south)
Rua Ernesto Roma (poente) 7,87 Ângulo da Igreja da Ordem Terceira
Confluência c/ Estrada de Stª Luzia 8,33 Calçada de Valverde (north)
Estrada de Stª Luzia 9,80 Casa do Dr. Simões
Edifício do Elevador de Stª Luzia 23,39 Muro da Linha acesso Estação da C.P.
Av. 25 de Abril 19,20 Av. 25 de Abril, Externato D. João de Brito
Av. 25 de Abril, Sport Club Vianense overpass 14,80 Av. 25 Abril, Sport Club Vianense overpass
Av. 25 de Abril, Somartis 9,55 Casa da família Sá (Av. 25 de Abril)
Rua Moisés Alves de Pinho (south) 9,94 Rua Moisés Alves de Pinho (south)
Rua Domingos José de Morais (south) 10,10 Rua Domingos José de Morais (south)
Rua Bernardo Abrunhosa (south) 9,91 Rua Bernardo Abrunhosa (south, ex-
GAT/CIM A.Minho
Rua de S. José (north), c/ Av. 25 Abril 9,62 Rua S. José (north), c/ Av. 25 Abril
Entrada do Sport Club Vianense 9,55 Rua de S. José (east)
Av do Atlântico, E.S. Monserrate (southeast) 23,00 Av. do Atlântico, bloco residencial S.C.
Misericórdia
Bairro dos Pescadores, Rua de S. Pedro 8,50 Bairro dos Pescadores, Rua de S. Pedro
Rua de Monserrate 10,84 Rua de Monserrate
Rua Dª Amélia de Morais 8,00 Rua Dª Amélia de Morais
Rua G. Luís do Rego/Antiga Casa Paroquial 6,70 Rua Gen. Luís do Rego
Rua G. Luís do Rego, Bairro da Misericórdia 10,48 Rua Gen. Luís do Rego (south-west)
Serviços Centrais do IPVC, Rua G. L. do Rego 8,25 Lar da S.C. Misericórdia, (east)
Serviços Centrais do IPVC, Rua G. L. do Rego 10,03 Lar da S.C. Misericórdia, (west)
Av. Conde da Carreira, Casa Melo Alvim 19,90 Av. Conde da Carreira, junto da Rua dos
Rubins
Av. Conde da Carreira, Palácio dos Wernecks 18,91 Av. Conde da Carreira, Casa-torre do Sr.
Valença
Teatro Sá de Miranda (north) 12,20 Rua Major Xavier da Costa (north)
Av. Rocha Páris (northwest) 13,13 Av. Rocha Páris, junto do Largo/Casa de
StºAntónio
Av. Afonso III, Casa do Dr. Ribeiro da Silva 17,79 Muro da Linha da C.P.
Av. Afonso III, Gab. Arqº Valdemar Coutinho 16,63 Muro da Linha da C.P.
Av. Afonso III, stand da Volvo 15,00 Muro da Linha da C.P.
Rua Abel Viana 36,08 Muro da Rampa da ponte Eiffel
Av Luís de Camões 16,38 Limite do Jardim público
Rua Martim Velho 15,32 Edifício Jardim (west)
Rua de Aveiro (east) 14,06 Rua de Aveiro (east)
 503

Thus propose three distinct groups of streets, by association or proximity in the case made
the following reference: those with a profile close to the values of the Iberian gauge c. 7.30
meters; those with a profile close to the value of 15 meters; and finally bringing together the
values of c. 22 meters.
This analysis and proposal articulated here is a way of testing for a first explanatory zoom urban
diversity contained in each Portuguese city and its internal organization to serve the human
community that inhabits it or enjoys.
But in the concrete values identified arruado own profile relate to urban reality of the site
and taken to measure its contingency ownership or management interests present there - the
public and private space heritage. Hence a typological sort of sketched (and “postmodernist”)
modernist streets of the city of Viana do Castelo and confirmed in further studies and analysis.

References

Almeida, C.A. Ferreira de (1987) Alto Minho, Ed. Presença, Lisboa

Barreto, Rogério R. da Silva (2003) Viana do Castelo, pensar/fazer cidade. O processo urbanístico na
segunda metade do século XX, dissertação de mestrado em Planeamento Regional e Urbano, polic.
Faculdade de Letras da Universidade do Porto, Porto
Lopes, J.C. e Cavaleiro, R.J. Branco (2012) ‘O desenvolvimento polinucleado da estrutura urbana da
cidade vianense’, Cadernos Vianenses 46, 113-129
Lopes, J.C., Gulías, M.R. and Cavaleiro, R.J.B. (2013) ‘Modernismo Urbano Revisitado. O caso de Viana
do Castelo’, Cadernos Vianenses 47, 157-188
Moreira, M.A.F. (2005) A História de Viana do Castelo. Em Dispersos-I, Câmara Municipal, Viana do
Castelo.
504

Urbanization in the Brazilian hinterland’s ‘forgotten

century’: growth patterns in Planaltina

Pedro Paulo Palazzo

Faculdade de Arquitectura e Urbanismo, Universidade de Brasília.
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. This paper examines the patterns of urbanization in Planaltina, a town founded during the
period of economic slump in Goiás state comprised between the decline of gold mining in the late
eighteenth century and the construction of the new state capital, Goiânia, in the 1930s. Laid out on a
rough grid sometime after 1811, this town belies several key concepts of the “canonical” Portuguese-
Brazilian city, such as site selection, lot proportion, and density: it was built by a valley, with wide and
shallow lots having ample side yards, and its houses are often misaligned. These features are compared
with preceding and contemporary towns in central Brazil, highlighting general changes in urban patterns
during the pre-industrial nineteenth century throughout the region, as well as aspects unique to the case
of Planaltina. Changes in regional highway networks, the introduction of the automobile and of the
aeroplane predictably influenced the growth of the town. Starting in the early twentieth century, infill
begins to occur, with lots being subdivided either lengthwise or breadth wise, as well as changes in the
historic centre brought about more recently by the demographic and economic effects of planned
extensions to the city.

Key Words: Small towns, Urban growth, pre-industrial cities, Brazilian Highlands, Planaltina

Introduction44

This paper examines the patterns of urbanization in Planaltina (Figure 1), a town in the Brazilian
state of Goiás founded in 1811 and presently part of the Federal District (Figure 2), 35
kilometres45 from the nation’s capital, Brasilia. Its initial configuration and subsequent growth
challenge several assumptions regarding urban form in colonial and pre-industrial Brazil. It also
sheds some light on a period of the hinterland’s urban history that has received little systematic
attention: that comprised between the end of the eighteenth-century gold rush and the
modernization brought about by the railway and Beaux-Arts urbanism in the 1920s.
The following discussion begins with an account of the history of settlement in the Brazilian
Central Highlands, followed by that of Planaltina. The description of the morphology of the
town is organized according to its three structural elements: public space network, land
subdivision, and building typology. From this, a reconstruction of the urban growth of the town
through time is attempted.

Settlement of the Brazilian Hinterland

Territory and Frontier

The first recorded Portuguese expedition through the central highlands of South America took
place in 1580. By the second half of the seventeenth century, successive slave raids, dubbed

44
This research was made possible thanks to a faculty research grant from the University of Brasilia, as
well as a research contract with the Instituto do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional (National
Heritage Institute, IPHAN), through the company Ábaco Arquitetura & Design Ambiental.
45
Distances are given overland.
 505

bandeiras, had made the region well-known to the Portuguese, though not yet linked to any
administrative unit (Vianna, 1961–1975, vol.II.2, p. 75) Around that time, small farmers from
São Paulo had established rural settlements in south-eastern Goiás (Holanda, 1981–1989,
vol.I.1, p. 293) Eventually, the bandeira of Bartolomeu Bueno da Silva found gold in 1725 on
the site of Vila Boa, and in 1744 the Captaincy46 of Goiás was established by the Portuguese
crown.
Goiás was settled mostly along two highways—mere mule paths—connecting the western
frontier to the Ocean, both running preferably along terrain ridges (Barbo, 2010, p.175): the
Estrada do Nascente (easterly road) ran through Vila Boa, the seat of government of Goiás, then
forked at Meia Ponte into the north-easterly Bahia Road and the Southern Road (Figure 3).
From these, the North of Goiás could be reached only by means of oft-shifting footpaths
descending the sharp rim of the plateau, so inhospitable to the Portuguese—and even to most
Indians—that it was home to hunter-gatherer communities up to the late nineteenth century
(Bertran, 2011, p.49)
The gold rush in Goiás lasted up to the 1770s (Bertran, 2011, p.252) Afterwards, a few
mining towns disappeared altogether, but most declined or stagnated. Goiás experienced a more
severe and longer lasting form of the economic slump that followed this decline (Furtado, 1977,
p.107) This situation led to the widespread understanding of the nineteenth century in Goiás as
being a ‘century of silence’ (Garcia, 2010, p.11) Indeed, at the beginning of the nineteenth
century, Goiás was the least populous diocese in Brazil (Simonsen, 1937, v. II, p. 328)

Urbanization

Except for Meia Ponte - a commercial crossroads - in its heyday, no settlement in the Province47
of Goiás before the twentieth century exceeded a population of 10,000. Vila Boa topped at
8,000, while the third largest town, Santa Luzia, had a mere 3,000 inhabitants; most other sites
numbered in the hundreds. Even then, the towns’ populations could hardly be called ‘urban’ by
modern standards; French botanist Auguste de Saint-Hilaire recorded that: “a few menial
workers and merchants excepted, all of the inhabitants of Santa Luzia work the land, and come
to town only on Sundays and holidays; thus, during the week, no one is to be seen in the houses
nor on the streets”. (Saint-Hilaire, 1848, p.14)
Most towns in Goiás had in common the usual settlement and urban design pattern of the
gold-mining, colonial arraial (village). The characterization of such sites has long been the
subject of controversy in Brazilian Urban History. Historian Sérgio Buarque de Holanda’s
famous essay comparing the gridiron plan of Spanish colonial towns with the seeming
‘unkempt’ character of Portuguese towns (Holanda, 1971), had a strong influence on the
popular view of these sites as haphazard clusters of houses clumped around streams or hillsides.
Historical and morphological research since the 1960s, however, stressed that, though lacking
geometrical regularity, arraiais were planned and regulated. Far from being arbitrary, their street
pattern typically followed hill ridges affording control over their surroundings.
Because of this, lots would be rather deep—one such plot in Santa Luzia is over a hundred
metres long. Urban lot frontages could measure as little as 2.5 meters, although widths from 4.5
to 8.5 meters were most common. This meant a prevalence of party wall houses, particularly in
larger towns and cities.

46
An administrative division of Portuguese colonies.
47
The 1823 Constitution of newly independent Brazil renamed the captaincies into provinces, establishing
provincial legislatures.
506

History and Growth of Planaltina

Precedents and Physical Setting

The post-gold rush economic slump began to revert in the 1880s. The whole Centre-West region
of Brazil experienced then significant economic progress, doubling its population as well as its
per capita income (Buescu, 1978, p.233) Growth during this period was driven mostly by the
expansion of cattle ranching. This development preceded by several decades the arrival of the
railway in Goiás, a conventional hallmark of modernization in Brazil, which only reached the
state48 in 1912. Even then, progress on the railway was sluggish: ten years later, construction
had all but stopped at present-day Pires do Rio, more than 200 kilometres south of the state’s
southernmost major town, Santa Luzia.
It is in this context that the small community of Mestre d’Armas began to thrive. It was
located near the highest plateaus of the Central Highlands, at an altitude of 950 metres, where
the legendary junction of the nation’s three major watersheds had attracted early explorers.
Ragged mountains lie to the north-west, locking out the north of Goiás but for the gorge of the
nearby Maranhão River. To the south, the wide and flat basin of the São Bartolomeu River runs
into a rolling valley leading to the southern provinces. A sharp plateau rim to the north-east
separates the area from the hinterland of Bahia.
The whole region was natively covered with altitude savannah vegetation. In the mid-
eighteenth century, much of this savannah was ripe for pasturing, due to the invasive spread of
an African grass. This landscape is regularly interrupted by rainforest outgrowing perennial
river banks. Local climate is altitude tropical, with rainy Summers, while in Winter days are hot
and nights are cold.
The old colonial highway remained the main regional thoroughfare, running through the
village of Corumbá, 150 kilometres west of the site, towards the northern edge of the plateau, up
to Couros, the closest urban centre, just 40 kilometres to the east. The other branch of the
highway ran much further south, through the town of Santa Luzia 90 kilometres away with no
direct road to Mestre d’Armas at the time.
By the time of the earliest known record of the local toponym, in 1773 (Bertran, 2011,
p.289), the site was already inhabited49 and known to take its name from the nearby stream,
possibly named after an early settler in 1751 (Bertran, 2011, p.369) The earliest sesmarias50 or
land grants in the area were established from 1741, even before the closest towns (Bertran,
2011, p.307)

Founding and Village Growth

In 1810, the owners of three sesmarias in the Mestre d’Armas area provided for the
establishment of an expiatory chapel on their lands. The dedication is recorded to have taken
place on the 20th of January, 1811. Even though the chapel was founded five kilometres south
of the Bahia Road—the exact position of the highway shifted through time—, the area was a
likely passage between the latter and the Southern Road, along a series of smooth valleys. This
passage did not remain unexploited for long, and in 1838 a trail was opened linking Couros to
Santa Luzia through Mestre d’Armas (Castro, 1986, p.20).

48
Republican Brazil borrowed the name ‘states’ from the United States in 1891.
49
The Portuguese word sítio can ambiguously mean ‘site’ or a small farmstead. The latter is more likely in
the document cited.
50
A sesmaria was a title to a vacant tract of land granted free of charge by the Crown or the captaincy. By
the eighteenth century, it had been standardised to one league in width by three in depth, requiring
adjacency to an established highway. Actual dimensions varied, however, since non arable stretches of
land were typically discounted from measurement. The system was extinguished in 1850.
 507

It is known that by that time the site was no longer a cluster of farmsteads, but a proper village:
a record of that same year reads that the provincial legislature was successfully petitioned for
the arraial of Mestre d’Armas to be annexed to the town of Couros, leaving the jurisdiction of
the more distant Santa Luzia (Castro, 1986, p.21) This suggests that the site of the chapel,
comprising a stretch of land one league in length by half a league in breadth (around 18 square
kilometres) donated to the Church, had been partly subdivided into urban lots. Further, it
indicates that the pre-eminence of the former gold town, Santa Luzia, was waning at the edges
of its territory. Conversely, the nearby town of Couros was then establishing itself as the most
active trading centre in eastern Goiás.

Heyday and Decline of Planaltina

On the 19th of August, 1859, Mestre d’Armas was erected a district of Couros. In 1880, it was
belatedly granted the corresponding parish status (freguesia). 51 Accordingly, the chapel was
enlarged, and a pillory was built next to it. At that time, however, Mestre d’Armas was still not
considered important enough for its parish to be regularly curated, according to the Province
Almanac for 1886.
Finally, on the 19th of March, 1891, the state legislature incorporated Mestre d’Armas as a
town (vila). The incorporation may have been an acknowledgement of Mestre d’Armas’s
growing importance, so much so that it was beginning to overshadow its older neighbour,
Couros—now known as Formosa. Indeed, the 1910 Almanac (Azevedo, 1910, p.171–172) has
no entry for Formosa, but does have one for Mestre d’Armas. The latter is described at length
and said by the author to have around 1,000 inhabitants and as many in its rural jurisdiction.
This number is highly unusual in pre-industrial Brazil, where 80% of the population lived in the
countryside; it is more characteristic of a thriving commercial town. This entry describes the
town as having some one hundred houses built on five streets and two squares. This structure
supports twelve craft shops and four stores.
Mestre d’Armas did not cease to grow during the first half of the twentieth century, even
though it did not catch up on the industrialization process of the 1940s. Known as Planaltina
since 1917, the town gained nation-wide fame when, on the 7th of September, 1922, the
cornerstone of the future nation’s capital was laid on a hilltop ten kilometres from the town. It
was the first town outside the old state capital, Vila Boa, to have a power grid, in 1925, as well
as a telephone line. In 1935, it was the first location outside the brand-new state capital,
Goiânia, to have a functioning airfield, and was identified as a possible stop on a planned link
between Belém, in the far north of Brazil, and Buenos Aires. Hosannah Pinheiro Guimarães, a
Planaltina native, rose to become deputy governor of Goiás in the 1940s. In 1938, the century-
old trail that linked the northern and southern highways was replaced by an unpaved road
suitable to motor traffic. By then, the main east-west highway had already been diverted from
its colonial course, so that it ran through the centre of the town.
The construction of Goiânia from 1932, however, heralded a time when the agricultural and
ranching South became the political and economic power-house of Goiás. Planaltina suffered
from this change in the economic make-up of the state. Its urban population growth halted at a
mere 2,000 inhabitants, whereas previously small villages were surpassing 10,000. All of the
public buildings in Planaltina were either finished or abandoned by 1942.
The construction of the nation’s capital, Brasilia, dealt the final blow to the prosperity of
Planaltina, its urban area ending up within the borders of the new Federal District. The new
motorway bypassed the town altogether. The attraction of Brasilia stifled commercial and
manufacturing growth, while migrant workers began to settle in large numbers in Planaltina,
soon outnumbering the locals. The historic centre of Planaltina (Figure 4) is nowadays drowned

51
In Imperial Brazil, the establishment of parishes by the Church typically corresponded to the creation of
districts by the civil authorities, for census purposes
508

in a dormitory satellite town of over 100,000 inhabitants, while the pressure of the real estate
market and the enduring fascination with modernity threaten its architectural heritage.

Morphology

Site

The location where the future town of Mestre d’Armas was to be established does not seem an
evident choice. The town of Couros already fulfilled, since the late eighteenth century, the
necessary commercial and administrative functions for the area. Additionally, Elias Manoel da
Silva, historian in the Public Archive of the Federal District, claims that the more usual halt for
cattle herders was at Lagoa Bonita, some seven kilometres to the north and closer to the
highway (Silva, 2012, p.1). Both the Mestre d’Armas Stream and its affluent, the Córrego do
Atoleiro (slough brook), which enclose the site on the east and south, respectively, are shallow
and have a small output. This results in swampy banks, especially around the Mestre d’Armas
(Cruls, 1947, p.128–129), and water that is unsuitable for drinking. Archaeological evidence,
however, shows that such choice of site for construction, near heavily wooded river beds, was
common throughout the area, and that builders avoided both the exposed plateau rims and the
ridges where roads ran (Barbo, 2010, p.178)
Transportation seems to have played a significant role in the choice of site. Though not
straddling the highway as a typical commercial town would, the location is no more than an
hour’s walk from the thoroughfare. Moreover, it lies at the centre of a triangle formed by the
Lagoa Bonita cattle halt, the watershed known as Águas Emendadas, and the junction of the
Mestre d’Armas Stream with the São Bartolomeu River. Though not the Golden Lake of legend
stuff, Águas Emendadas is crucially the most convenient passage to the north of Goiás in the
area, leading directly to the distant (570 km) town of Natividade, former county seat of the
North. The S o Bartolomeu forms a rolling valley due south of Mestre d’Armas: a prime
location for cattle ranching and smooth passage towards the south. Most of the site has a gentle
slope, between two and five percent, while near the church the slope goes up to eight percent.

Public Space and Monuments

The historic centre of Planaltina has three public squares, each with its hallmark public building.
The São Sebastião Square, around the old chapel, is the original core of the town. The old
elementary school, demolished around 1980, used to stand on one side of the Salviano Monteiro
Square, just one block north of the chapel. The local historical museum opened in 1982 in the
house formerly belonging to the mayor who was the namesake of this square. The Padre
Marcigaglia Plaza stands at the easternmost edge of the historic centre. A huge parish church
was under construction there in the 1930s, but work stopped when one of its walls collapsed
shortly thereafter; it was then razed, and the present church was built on the same spot in 1980.
The former town council building (Casa de Câmara e Cadeia) and the town hall are set on
simple street corners.
On the southern part of the historic centre, a cluster of four large blocks is defined by streets
of irregular width and alignment (Figure 5). The single east-west street, Treze de Maio, follows
an almost imperceptible ridge in the terrain. The four north-south streets are very imperfectly
aligned with the contour lines, while one of them, Quinze de Novembro Street, bends to
conform more precisely to the terrain.
To the north and west of this cluster are seventeen rectangular blocks of a more even shape.
These blocks are defined by streets which are of an even width, and laid out in a still imperfect,
but more carefully orthogonal, grid.
In 1921, one or possibly two north-south avenues, broader than the other streets, were
opened. The creation of Salvador Coelho Avenue, bounding the historic centre on its western
 509

side and roughly following a contour line, is documented (Castro, 1986), whereas that of
Marechal Deodoro Avenue, on the opposite side of town, can only be inferred from the formal
similarity. Additionally, Floriano Peixoto Avenue, an east-west avenue as wide as the previous
two, delimits the southern edge of the historic centre and may also date from this time. The lots
placed along its northern edge do not conform to its alignment, for which the only references are
a ridge in the terrain and the perpendicular intersection with Quinze de Novembro Street .
Finally, a street deviating from both prior grids was opened in 1938 as the start of the road
linking Planaltina to the south, bypassing the former link through Santa Luzia. It was formerly
known as Rua da Palha (Thatch Street), suggesting that this suburban development was lined
with the town’s poorest houses. The opening of the road seems to have been accompanied both
by the extension of the existing orthogonal grid, and by the planning of a new street grid
perpendicular to Rua da Palha, as testified by two buildings defining this new grid. A number of
rectangular blocks were laid out in a 1966 master plan, entirely enclosing the historic core in a
shell of sorts, of which the outer rim was to be a string of large free-standing public buildings.

Land Subdivision

Lot shapes in Planaltina are very different from the canonical image of Brazilian colonial towns.
Instead of being narrow and deep, with attached or semi-attached houses, lots in Planaltina are
often wide and shallow. Because an intense process of land subdivision occurred in the 1980s
and 90s, most information on lot size was gathered from the 1966 master plan drawing (Figure
6).
The four blocks near the chapel used to have very large lots with irregular shapes, often
encompassing the entire depth of the block, a very unusual feature in traditional Brazilian
urbanism. Lots across most streets surrounding these blocks may have been part of the original
subdivision, since their width is consistent with that of the lots inside the blocks.
A very different pattern of lot shapes begins north of Treze de Maio Street. These lots are
much smaller and seldom extend the entire depth of the block; this can be known to be the
original layout of the northern subdivision because lateral lot lines do not line up. The northern
lots, therefore, are extremely unusual in that they are often wider than they are deep, a feature
seldom seen in any traditional urbanism anywhere in the world.
A third, more conventional, subdivision scheme emerges on the eastern and western ends of
the historic centre. There, lots adopt deep, though not very narrow, shapes. As noted before, at
least the western part of this subdivision is known to have been established in 1921. On the
eastern part, the earliest documented construction is the town council hall, built somewhere
between 1926 and 1932, suggesting the subdivision was created in the 1920s as well.
The 1966 master plan introduced a new pattern of land subdivision, with strictly rectangular
blocks harbouring much smaller lots intended for single-family affordable housing. Surrounding
these blocks was a string of large lots for public and institutional buildings in the modernist,
fully detached, fashion—not executed in its entirety Demographic pressure and economic
hardship striking the town’s traditional families contributed to systematic subdivision of the
traditional lots for the past thirty years (Figure 7). The result is that the present-day pattern of
land subdivision has become more conventional throughout the historic centre, with lots much
deeper than they are wide.

Building Typology

Only a handful of nineteenth-century buildings remain standing in Planaltina, the oldest reliable
date, besides that of the chapel,being 1896 for a small house near the chapel. Until the early
1920s, all buildings conform to the standard aspect and distribution of Brazilian colonial houses
(Figure 8): one-storey adobe buildings having a central corridor with either single rooms or
suites of rooms on either side, and a common room at the back. Walls are whitewashed or, more
rarely, painted, with the wood frame either left unpainted, or covered in pastel colours. Roofs
510

are invariably hipped and without gutters; their structure is unsophisticated. These houses are
invariably aligned with the street frontages.
In 1926, the first known example of a transitional housing type was built on the newly
opened Salvador Coelho Avenue, a former clinic locally dubbed “Blue House” (Figure 9). It
consisted of a standard colonial layout with two side porches leading directly to a much
enlarged and dignified common room at the back. It was later enlarged with the addition of an
indoor kitchen—traditional kitchens were set up beneath an open lean-to in the backyard. That
building was also innovative in that it displayed a classical façade in stuccoed and painted fired
brick, topped with an attic hiding the roof. This pattern echoes eclectic house plans and façades
built in larger cities since the second half of the nineteenth century, and attested in the state
capital in the 1910s. From then on, eclectic and art deco features become common in new
buildings. The most iconic examples are the eclectic town council building, completed in or
before 1932, and the art deco town hall, inaugurated in 1942.
The rise of the transitional housing types thus occurs at the time of the last two urban
extensions. This is also the period in which Planaltina experiences a spur of modernization,
receiving a power grid in 1925 and a telephone network possibly a few years earlier—both
being the first in the state outside the capital. This did not, however, mean the disappearance of
the colonial housing type, which continued to be built at least as late as 1965, with a curious mix
of traditional roofs and adobe walls, together with prefabricated steel doors and windows.
Following the 1966 master plan, a standard house design was proposed for poor families to
build for themselves. It has a compact shape with gable asbestos or metallic roofs over fired
brick walls, with or without a concrete frame. The interior, free plan usually accommodates a
living room at the front, kitchen and bathroom in the middle and bedrooms at the back. More
recently, two-story contemporary houses, large commercial buildings and flats have been
transforming the skyline and density of the historic centre of Planaltina. Despite the current
prevalence of narrow lots as a result of recent subdivisions, contemporary single-family houses
will be detached whenever possible, even if this means leaving only the narrowest of passages
on either side. They will also have front setbacks, often used to accommodate grade changes,
and garages at the front. Despite all these changes, it is remarkable that a few recent houses still
retain the traditional compactness of volume and hipped roof shape of their older counterparts.

Proposed Reconstruction of Urban Growth

The urban development of Planaltina since its beginnings in the early nineteenth century, up to
its replanning as a satellite town of Brasilia in 1966, can be tentatively divided into four stages.
In 1811, a small chapel was dedicated to Saint Sebastian on the left bank of the Mestre
d’Armas Stream. As reported by Bertran, burials were taking place within the chapel grounds
since 1812 (Bertran, 2011) Then, behind the chapel and away from the stream, an irregular grid
of a single east-west street and three north-south ones was laid out, defining four blocks with
large and irregular lots. This first step gave rise to the earliest urban settlement, recognised as an
arraial (hamlet) since at least 1838. At this point, a road was opened from Couros to the north-
east to Santa Luzia in the south-west, running through Planaltina at an unknown location; the
present-day single bridge over the Mestre d’Armas Stream was certainly not the only crossing
over the shallow, swampy bed in the nineteenth century. The original chapel is the only
surviving building that can securely be ascribed to this stage. It was enlarged with the creation
of a sacristy, consistory, and a new apse, when the settlement was elevated to a parish in 1880.
In the following year, a pillory was erected next to the chapel, signalling that the São Sebastião
Square remained the town’s most important public space.
At an unknown date, but certainly not later than the 1890s, this settlement grew with the
establishment of a regular street grid to its north and east. The most trustworthy terminus ante
quem for this extension is the reported construction date of buildings around the second square
of Mestre d’Armas: 1895 for the present-day Casarão Hotel, and 1899 for the Historical
 511

Museum, formerly the home of Mayor Salviano Monteiro Guimarães. In the twentieth century,
the Salviano Monteiro Square became the main public space in the historic centre, where most
civic celebrations were held. Considering this major role played by this new square, the fact that
the pillory was built on the old square in 1881 suggests that on that year the urban expansion
either did not exist or was still at a very early stage. This yields a fairly precise date range, circa
1880–1895, for the extension of the urban grid. Still, in 1910, the state Almanac reports only
five streets in town, indicating that this new grid was still barely in its beginnings.
This second grid was extended around 1921, with the creation of two north-south avenues
bordering the town on either side as well as an east-west avenue on the southern edge of town.
The only documented public construction before that date, however, is the creation of a new
cemetery a couple hundred metres south of the historic centre, in 1893. On the eastern Marechal
Deodoro Avenue were sited the two largest public buildings of Planaltina. The first is the town
council building, arguably built somewhere between 1926 and 1932 on the intersection of the
avenue with Treze de Maio Street, the main street in the first stage of urbanization, leading
directly to the old chapel. The second is the new parish church, begun in the 1930s, razed in the
1960s, and completed in 1980. The western Salvador Coelho Avenue held the old post office
and notary, the largest grocery store in town (built in the first quarter of the twentieth century),
and Planaltina’s only medical clinic (1926) and pharmacy (1938). Between the avenue and the
stream was built the town’s power relay station, in 1925. Until 1966, whatever little
construction occurred in Planaltina was almost entirely bounded between these three avenues,
with the town hall (1942) likely spurring more northerly growth.
In 1938, the road to Ipameri spurred a south-west vector, with both a fledgling extension of
the existing grid and the indication of a new grid aligned with the road. Even in such a small
town, wealth distribution can be detected in the remaining housing stock. The largest and
wealthiest buildings were concentrated on the western side of town, particularly around the two
main squares; the far eastern Marechal Deodoro Avenue and Rua da Palha concentrated the
poorest and smallest houses. In response to the strong demographic pressure following the
construction of Brasilia, Federal District government architects designed in 1966 a plan for the
extension of Planaltina with single-family affordable housing blocks as well as a modernist
string of free-standing public buildings intended to shield the historic core.

Final remarks

Despite the paucity of historical documents, morphological analysis can suggest a

reconstruction of the growth patterns of the town of Planaltina. This reconstruction is a step
towards filling the gap in the historical knowledge of Brazilian urbanization in the nineteenth
century. It suggests that, even though written and oral records may be lacking, some information
can be gathered regarding the stages and chief features of the urbanisation.
These possibilities notwithstanding, significant restrictions remain, due to the nature of such
vernacular settlements of the pre-industrial era. Assigning dates to the historical events
described cannot be done with morphology alone. Urban and architectural patterns are long-
lasting, and older patterns often overlap with newer ones for long periods of time—thus, the
earliest eclectic plans and fired brick structures are attested in Planaltina in 1926, but adobe
houses with a colonial plan remain in use at least until 1965. All things considered, it is hoped
that this example of mixed historical and morphological analysis can be extrapolated to other
vernacular sites where the lack of systematic documents has so far hindered research on the
origins and growth of Brazilian towns.
512

Figure 1. Streetscape on Goiás Avenue, Planaltina, early 20th century. Author unknown,
holdings of the District Department of Culture.

Figure 2. Location of Goiás state and Planaltina.

Figure 3. Highways through Goiás, 1736--1938. Redrawn after a map by Ana Laterza.
 513

Figure 4. Streetscape on Treze de Maio Street, Planaltina, 2012. Author: Pedro Paulo
Palazzo.

Figure 5. Historical development of the street grid in Planaltina.

Figure 6. Master Plan for Planaltina. Author unknown, 1966, holdings of the District
Department of Culture.
514

Figure 7. Parcel map of Planaltina as of 2012. Updated by the author after the 1997 survey
by the District Department of Urban Development.

Figure 8. House of Dona Negrinha, Planaltina, ca. 1896

 515

Figure 9. Left: Blue House, Planaltina, 1926; Right: Salviano Monteiro House, 1899.
Author unknown, ca. 1935. Holdings of the District Department of Culture.

References

Azevedo FF dos S (1910) Annuario historico, geographico e descriptivo do Estado de Goyaz. Uberaba /
Araguari/ Goiás: Livraria Seculo XX / Aredio de Souza
Barbo L de C (2010) Preexistência de Brasília : reconstruir o território para construir a memória. PhD
thesis. Brasília: Universidade de Brasília: Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo. Available at:
http://repositorio.unb.br/handle/10482/8547 (accessed 26/03/14).
Bertran P (2011) História da terra e do homem no Planalto Central: eco-história do Distrito Federal : do
indígena ao colonizador. Brasília: Editora UnB
Buescu M (1978) Inégalités régionales au Brésil dans la seconde moitié du XIXe siècle. Revista do
Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro. 321, 222–233.
Castro M (1986) A realidade pioneira. Brasília: Thesaurus
Cruls L ed. (1947) Relatório da Comissão Exploradora do Planalto Central. São Paulo: Nacional
Available at: http://www.brasiliana.com.br/obras/relatorio-da-comissao-exploradora-do-planalto-
central-do-brasil (accessed 02/04/13).
Furtado C (1977) Formação econômica do Brasil. São Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional
Garcia LF (2010) Goyaz, uma província do sertão. Goiânia: PUC-GO / Cânone
Holanda SB de (1971) Raízes do Brasil, 1936-1971. In: Rio de Janeiro: José Olympio. 61–83.
Holanda SB de ed. (1981–1989) História geral da civilização brasileira. São Paulo: Difel
Saint-Hilaire AFCP de (1848) Voyage aux sources du Rio de S. Francisco et dans la province de Goyaz.
Paris: Arthus Bertrand Available at: http://archive.org/details/voyagesdanslinte47sain (accessed
31/07/12).
Silva EM da (2012) De Mestre d Armas a Planaltina: Reflexão histórico-crítica sobre a fundação da
cidade. Brasília: Edição própria
Simonsen RC (1937) História econômica do Brasil, 1500–1820. São Paulo: Companhia Editora Nacional
Vianna H (1961–1975) História do Brasil (4th edition). São Paulo: Melhoramentos
516

Hermann Jansen's Grünstreifen in Ankara and their

transformation

Sinan Burat
Department of City and Regional Planning, Mersin University.
E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract. Urban open spaces have been considered an integral part of urban space in modern urban
planning theory and practice. A comprehensive urban development plan considering the green spaces as
such were prepared by Prof. Hermann Jansen for Ankara, capital of Turkey, in 1932, after he won the
development plan competition in 1928. Jansen proposed an extensive green space structure that provided
pedestrian access to every part of the city and to the greenbelt as well. In the 70 years following the
approval of the plan, this green space structure has been modified in various ways and transformed to
uses other than its original purposes. The purpose of this paper is to trace the modification of this green
space structure in general and to analyse the transformations of one component of this green space
structure, here called Güven Park-Tandoğan green strip, some parts of which still remain. The
modifications will be analyzed with regard to the primary objectives of the State, the insufficiencies of the
legal system, the actions of the landowners, and the decisions of the Development Directorate.

Key Words: Hermann Jansen, Ankara, green space structure, urban open spaces

Introduction

The fate of Ankara, an Anatolian city with a population of 20.000 in 1920s, changed with
becoming first the command centre of Independence War and later becoming the Capital of the
Republic of Turkey on 13th of October, 1923. The objective of the new Republic was to develop
into a Western modern nation, and accordingly the policy of the Republic was to develop on
every front into a fully fledged modern nation employing social, economical and spatial policies
as well. To realise this vision, planned urban development, transportation, and industrialisation
projects were initiated and run by the state, spreading over the country. The role of Ankara, as
the new capital in this scenario, was to be the stage where the practice of the new social order,
that is modern urban life, would be performed. This necessitated the transformation and
development of Ankara from a small Anatolian village into a modern capital. New governmental
offices, housing for bureaucrats and officers, new schools and universities, open and green
spaces, and an urban plan that would guide their development were urgently required. To
accomplish these tasks and to overcome the lack of local planners and architects to plan and
guide the urban development of the new capital, foreign planners and architects were employed.
Lörcher was the first foreign professional to prepare a development plan for Ankara. The
plan was put to immediate use, directing the first developments of Yenişehir (New City) area
from 1925 to 1928. The only green spaces in Ankara in 1928 were Millet Bahçesi (Nation
Garden) in Ulus and Havuzbaşı in Kızılay. The development plan of Lörcher was soon found
insufficient from the points of the population projection and the insufficiency of planned area
(Yavuz, 1980: 5). To obtain a new plan, an invited international development plan competition
was announced in 1928. The experts invited to the competition were Hermann Jansen, Joseph
Brix and Leon Jausseley (T.C. Ankara Şehremaneti, 1929; Tankut, 1993: 66-67). Hermann
Jansen's proposal for Ankara was chosen as the winner, and from 1928 to 1938, the urban
development of Ankara advanced according to Jansen's development plan approved in 1932.
 517

Figure 1. Hermann Jansen's Ankara Development Plan, 1932.

During this period, Jansen also served as a consultant to Development Directorate (Figure 1).
The direction and coordination of urban development was conducted with yearly visits by
Jansen and continuous exchange of letters, attached designs, and plan drawings between the
Development Directorate and Jansen's office in Berlin. By the end of 1938, it was decided by
the Development Directorate that Jansen's services as a consultant was no longer needed and his
contract was cancelled.
Jansen considered urban hygiene as the primary indication of the importance a nation
imparts on its future. In accordance with this understanding, he located the industrial areas in
consideration of the prevailing wind directions, so that the city would be protected from the
industrial fumes. Drawing attention to the importance of public health, he established a green
space structure where citizens -especially the young ones- could exercise and lead a healthy life,
and proposed areas for sports and recreational activities (Jansen, 1929: 138-139). The green
space structure that Jansen proposed consisted of natural and artificial water bodies, green strips
of varying widths, and sports areas, parks, and vegetable gardens that were connected by these
green strips. He intended that the same green space structure could serve as a network of
pedestrian paths, being an alternative to the vehicular traffic roads and providing pedestrian
access from the residential gardens to schools, sports areas, city centre, Ministries Quarter, and
to the airport.
Some components of this extensive green space structure are still present today, but they are
far from forming the continuous and integrated green space structure envisaged by Jansen. The
components of the structure have been modified, destroyed, or not realised at all. The aim of
this paper is to recount the implementation and modification process of the green space structure
with an emphasis on an important component of this green space structure, the Güvenpark-
Tandoğan Green Strip. (Figure 2) The main argument of this paper is that while the green spaces
518

that would serve as stages of representation for the new regime were readily implemented, those
that would serve for everyday public use have been modified in the course of urban
development or have not been implemented as Jansen has proposed. A green space having the
quality of “everydayness” can be defined as a highly accessible, multipurpose green area, which
can be used directly or indirectly on a daily basis for purposes other than organised events and
sports. The “everyday” components of Jansen’s green space structure lacked the functional and
spatial qualities to act as spaces of representation of the new regime, and have been modified for
the most part. The green and open spaces of the plan which were employed as stages of
representation of the power and achievements of the new Republic, or were directly designed as
stages of representation, were given priority for implementation. The reasons behind this
selective implementation and modification process can be summarized as follows: The
importance and the role attached to the green spaces by Jansen have not been understood; the
amount of the green spaces were found excessive and their implementation too costly by the
development administration; and lastly, the state bureaucrats and the officers in urban
development were involved in land speculation.

Figure 2. Güven Park-Tandoğan green strip in Jansen’s 1932 development plan

Jansen's Ankara Development Plans and the Green Space Structure.

Jansen proposed an extensive green space structure composed of four types of green
spaces,52 and integrated it into the larger urban structure. The components of this green space

52
The classification of the components of the green space structure is summarized from Burat, S. (2011)
"Yeşilyollarda Hareketle İstirahat": Jansen Planlarında Başkentin Kentsel Yeşil Alan Tasarımları ve
Bunların Uygulanma ve Değiştirilme Süreci (1932-1960) İdealkent Kent Araştırmaları Dergisi. Sayı 4,
Eylül 2011. Ankara.
 519

structure are:
Green strips (Grünstreifen): The green strips compose the backbone of the green space
structure starting from the gardens of houses, maintaining pedestrian access through and to the
periphery of the city, connecting first the green spaces with each other and with the residential
quarters, and also letting the streams flow through the city. (Figure 3)
Central green spaces: There are three subtypes of these green spaces: i. Hippodrome and
sports fields, ii. Urban parks, iii. Scenery parks and excursion spots. (Figure 4)
Allotment Gardens: Located nearby the workers' dwellings, these gardens and agricultural
plots were reserved for fruit and vegetable gardening for the sustenance of the workers' families.
(Figure 5)
Greenbelt: The city depicted in the development plan approved in 1932 is surrounded with
an agricultural greenbelt (Jansen 1934a, 1936, 1937). The valley bottoms, and the lands around
Çankaya, Dikmen, Keçiören, Etlik and Mamak settlements surrounding the city were reserved
for orchards and vineyards.
According to Jansen (1936, 1937), the most important part of the green space structure was
the green strips, starting from the front or back gardens of houses, reaching to schools,
neighbourhood sports fields, markets and the Ministries Quarter, extending to the outskirts of
the city and turning into scenic pedestrian roads in the agricultural greenbelt. These green strips,
flowing throughout the city, was forming a network alternative to the street network, which was
to be used by motor vehicles and pedestrians as well. For him, walking was not only a mode of
transportation, but it was also the best form of exercise for the modern urban man.

Figure 3. The green strips.

520

Figure 4. Central green spaces.

Figure 5. Allotment gardens.

The Urban Development and the Implementation of Green Space Structure

The first open space implemented according to Jansen plan was the Hippodrome (project by
 521

Paolo Vietti-Viola), construction of which took two years to complete, from 1934 to 1936.
Güven Park, opened in 1935, a park located in Kızılay, constituted the northern part of the
Government Quarter spreading to the south of it and provided entrance to those approaching
from the north of the city. May 19th Stadium and Gülbahçesi were both put to service in 1936,
followed by the Seğmenler Park in 1938. Gülbahçesi and Seğmenler Park were the only
nonrepresentational green spaces in this sequence, both of which were beyond the 1932 plan
boundaries, close to the Presidential Palace. These parks are still present today. Gençlik Parkı
(Youth Park) was the last park to be implemented until 1950s. Development of Gençlik Parkı
took five years, between 1938 and 1943, and it was a very significant urban open space,
positioned between Yenişehir and Ulus, the new city and the old city. As Uludağ (1998) puts it
clearly, Gençlik Parkı was designed to introduce modern forms of recreation to the residents of
both the old city and the new city (Yenişehir). Its location was therefore crucial, allowing easy
access to the locals, the new comers, and the public officers. Considering the global economic
crisis, the Second World War going on at the time, and the burden the cost of the park brought
on the government budget, it must be stressed that the government was determined to create a
park of this size (260.000 m² in the original design, of which 35.000 m² consists of a lake) and
this character.
It was decided in 1952 by the Development Directorate that the development plan prepared
by Hermann Jansen had become obsolete and a new development plan was needed for planned
development of Ankara. After the preparations, an international planning competition was
announced in 1954. The development plan prepared by Raşit Uybadin and Nihat Yücel won the
competition and the plan was approved in 1957. The implementations from this year on have
mainly been made according to this plan. A juxtaposing of Uybadin-Yücel development plan
and Jansen's green space structure proposal illustrates the fate of the remaining parts of the
green space structure. (Figure 6)
Maltepe Green Belts (as stated in the plan competition specification) cover an area
amounting to 150.000 m² and have not been implemented (Ankara Belediyesi, 1954: 87). Out of
these green belts, only four parks have been developed.
Neither the workers' housing, nor the allotment gardens located by the workers' housing were
implemented. They were replaced with a light industry zone by the 1957 development plan.
Hacettepe, an excursion spot highly valued by Jansen to be saved as is, was developed into a
health complex by various modifications between 1957 and 1967, resulting with one of the
largest hospital campuses in Ankara. The hospital spread not only over the green space but also
over several neighbourhoods that had an outskirt character at the time, which can be taken as a
reason for replacing Hacettepe with a hospital (Cantek, 2006: 178).
Kurtuluş Park, one of the large parks in Jansen plan, was opened to use in 1960, after the
development between Yenişehir and Cebeci neared completion between 1944 and 1956 (Altaban,
1987: 133). The construction of İnönü Stadium, which was a part of the sports complex in
Cebeci, was completed in 1967, but the school and the sports field that Jansen had proposed as
parts of the sports complex, was opened to development.
The legal and administrative structure needed to implement and manage the agricultural
greenbelt that was defined in the plan report published in 1937 (Ankara Şehremaneti, 1937) and
the 1/10.000 scale Ankara and Environs Plan have not been formed. The greenbelt has been
considered a forestation area instead of an agricultural area, and its rather belated execution
resulted in a set of scattered forestation areas encircling the city.
Starting with the announcement of the new development plan competition in 1954, six parks
from Jansen’s green space structure were opened to use by 1959, and twelve more parks
between 1960 and 1969. By 1970, the population of Ankara had reached 1.236.152.
522

Figure 6. Juxtaposing of Jansen’s green space proposals and Uybadin-Yücel’s green space
proposals. 1. Güvenpark (1935), 2. Hippodrome (1934-1936), 3. 19 May Stadium (1936), 4.
Gençlik Parkı (1938-1943), 5. Özveren Street Park (1956), 6. Kurtuluş Parkı (1960), 7.
Ördekli Park (1964), 8. İnönü Stadium (1967), 9. Semih Balcıoğlu and Umut Parks (1967).

Güven Park-Tandoğan Green Strip

Construction of Devlet Neighborhood, which started in 1944, was the first intervention that
destroyed the continuity of the Güvenpark-Tandoğan Green Strip. Lack of housing was an
important problem in Ankara and developing mass housing for the officers was a project since
1933. Jansen developed several alternative schemes for housing for the same site that the actual
mass housing was built upon. The difference between Jansen's alternatives and the implemented
scheme of Paul Bonatz was that Jansen's alternatives kept Güvenpark and the green strip
extending to East connected. The implemented plan by Paul Bonatz, also a German architect, on
the other hand, destroyed that connection. Even though the implemented layout employs
courtyard gardens, the connection between Güvenpark and the rest of the green strip lost its
direct connection. This modification of Jansen's green space structure marks the start of a series
of modifications.53
The second and the third modifications took place in 1953, with the opening of the Şehit
Gönenç Street and allocation of the Maltepe Mosque, followed by the Ayla Street development
in 1954. Turgut Reis and Süleyman Bey Steets, two segments of a single street, cut through the
parks as well. Since I have not come across a document containing information about their exact

53
Güvenpark is not included in this analysis, even though it is a part of the overall green space structure.
Güvenpark is an important part of the Ministries Quarter according to the original configuration of
Jansen, a park symbolizing the War of Independence and being an arena of political protests, laden with
different layers of meaning. It is also the largest green space in the city center, making it also an everyday
green space. Having these qualities, the park has been modified in the past and is still a target for further
modification, even development, and is a separate research topic in itself.
 523

development date, I assume that they were constructed in or around 1953, with Şehit Gönenç
Street.
In 1956, a gas station was allocated to the north of the Maltepe Mosque, bordering the Gazi
Mustafa Kemal Boulevard, one of the most important traffic arteries. Hürriyet Primary School
was constructed in 1956, the only plan modification made according to Jansen's proposal for
school grounds. Also, 1956 was the year a park in this region, Özveren Sokak Park, was opened.
The last two plan modifications were the development of a workers' housing in 1958, and its
replacement with sports fields later in 1970, none of which were realised. The final modification
was made to allocate Maltepe Market in 1960. Later, in 2008, the market was replaced with an
underground shopping mall called Malltepe (Mall-Hill).
To summarize, starting with Saraçoğlu Neighborhood development in 1943, Güvenpark-
Tandoğan Green Strip was modified until 1960, diverging from the green pedestrian spine
Jansen had visualised. It was converted to provide space for structures and amenities such as
streets, a mosque, service buildings of district municipality, a gas station (that is replaced with a
light rail station in mid 1990s), a car park, and a market (which later turned into an underground
shopping mall) (Burat, 2008: 104-126). The green spaces left after all these modifications made
to the green strip were four parks, which were opened to use between 1964 (Ördekli Park) and
1967 (Umut and Semih Balcıoğlu Parks), These parks cover an area of 26.000 m² out of the
150.000 m² of the original proposal of Jansen (Çankaya Municipality) (Figure 7).

Figure 7. Parks realised from Güven Park-Tandoğan green strip.

The Dynamics of Modification and Implementation

To understand the demand for urbanisation and the need for housing development and
government building in Ankara, some figures about the population increase must be given.
Squatter developments caused by migration from the rural areas to the cities began as early as
1935 in Ankara (Tekeli, 1980: 91). After the end of the Second World War, migration to cities
524

from the rural areas took place all over the country. By 1950, the population of Ankara had
reached 290.000, almost reaching the 50 year projection of the 1928 development plan
competition, which was 300.000 (Altaban, 1998: 47). Population of the cityrose from 74553 in
1927 to 122720 in 1935, to 157242 in 1940, to 226712 in 1945, and to 228536 in 1950 (Tekeli
and Güvenç, 1987). The number of people employed in public administration was 4920 in 1931,
rising to 11836 in 1938, and to 24620 in 1946 (Altaban, 1987:31). While the population increase
ratio for Turkey between 1927 and 1950 was 53.5 %, the rate was 206.5 % for Ankara. Today
the population of Ankara is over 4 million. (Figure 8)
Against this backdrop, an evaluation of the implementation and modification process of the
green space structure is offered below, taking into consideration the priorities of the republic,
the legal and administrative problems, and land speculation.

Figure 8. The limits of first three development plans of Ankara and the present macroform
of the city (Consecutively from inside out, Lörcher, Jansen and Uybadin-Yücel plan).

Priorities of the State

The production of the green spaces was carried out primarily according to the preferences of the
Republic. The implementation sequence of the green spaces put forth that the green spaces
produced prior to 1954 were of representational character, conforming to the modernity project
of the Republic. According to this project, parade grounds and spaces for celebrations and
ceremonies were urgently needed in order to create a nation state and to adopt the contemporary
lifestyle and manners and to create a middle class (Tekeli, 1998: 4-11; 2000: 320-321). These
representational open spaces provided grounds for celebrations and demonstrations on important
days, national holidays, for organised sports events, which all displayed the power and the
practices of the new Republic. Production of the components of the green space structure
proposed by Jansen started with the construction of Hippodrome in 1934, and ended with the
opening of Gençlik Parkı in 1943. Other than Gülbahçesi and Seğmenler, all the green spaces
produced until 1943 served as spaces of nation creation and the stages to demonstrate the model
of leisure and recreation practices of the modern citizen. The celebrations and the processions at
the national holidays were held at the Hippodrome and the 19 May Stadium. 19 May Stadium
was also the venue for the national and international sports competitions (Bozdoğan, 2001: 75).
Güven Parkı, which was a part of the Ministries Quarter, narrated the Independence War and
introduced the actors and the qualities of the new social order with the Emniyet (Security)
Monument (Batuman, 2002: 52-53). Meanwhile, Gençlik Parkı (Youth Park) was a new place of
 525

entertainment for the middle classes, as well as a place for the locals of Ankara to observe and
to learn this new life, entertainment and recreation practices and to transform themselves into
the new citizens sought by the Republic (Yılmaz, 2006: 213-219). In contrast to the importance
given to the production of the representational spaces by the Ministries, the development
administration fell short for the production of everyday green spaces proposed by Jansen. The
green strips, sports fields and squares, neighbourhood sports complexes, all destined for
everyday use, were the important components of the urban life Jansen had envisioned. Yet
places like Hacettepe and the Güven Park-Tandoğan Green Strip, which both had the character
of everyday green space, were extensively modified and diminished, as summarized above. It
was not realized by the development authorities that these green spaces also had the potential to
have a representational character, as they could serve as a platform for everyone to practice the
youth and health cult that symbolised the break from the old regime.

Development Laws, Regulations, and Land Speculation

The development laws and regulations controlling the urban development were outmoded for a
modern urban development plan such as Jansen’s. Even though a new development law was
passed in 1933, it was prepared under the influence of the one it replaced. The new law was not
detailed enough and did not meet all the requirements to implement Jansen’s plan. The
development administration was trying to find solutions to these problems emanating from the
law. A problem of this sort has surfaced during the expropriation of the market places and sports
fields nearby the schools. A Development Executive Committee decision in May 1933 clearly
expresses that marketplaces marked in the development plan were considered as amenities in
favour of public interest according to the Development Law and their parcels would be
expropriated, but as the law lacked any details of this kind regarding the sports fields, the
decision was to make a request to the gymnastic clubs in Ankara concerning the appropriation
of these fields. From questions asked to Jansen the next year, we understand that the problem
had not been solved. When Jansen (1934b) was in Ankara in April 1934, he was asked about
under whose ownership the sports fields beside the schools would be, and how and under whose
supervision the allotment gardens would be rented.
Coupled with this problem was the increasing impact of the bureaucrats and officers of the
Republic on the course of urban development. Even while the Hippodrome, 19 Mayıs Stadium,
and Güven Park were being built, illegal constructions on sites that were designated as green
areas on the development plan were condoned, and measures that did not conform to the plan
were implemented (Tankut, 2000: 213). Those who could, got involved in land speculation and
used their influence on decision makers for favours. In some instances, using the high
expropriation costs as an excuse, plan modifications were made to decrease the amount of green
spaces and to keep the plots of influential people out of green spaces (Tankut, 1993: 213). These
modifications were made directly on the green spaces that were proposed for daily use of the
urbanite, such as the green strips (Development Executive Committee, 1934; 1938) or the urban
forest to the south of the National Assembly (Development Executive Committee 1937). Jansen
(1936) had proposed this urban forest as a buffer to stop the urban development from coalescing
into each other. In 1937, the decision taken by the Development Executive Committee (1937)
decreased the width of the urban forest in order to remove the parcels of two deputies out of the
no development zone.
The aim of the Republic, to develop Ankara into a modern capital city, was hampered by the
insufficiencies of the development laws and regulations, and the land speculation and patronage
relations in the course of urban development. The green space structure proposed by Jansen for
Ankara has been extensively modified and realised partially in the form of parks, on lands
leftover from the modifications. These separate parks are far from constituting the structure of
the modern life Jansen had envisaged for the urban population of Ankara and the members of
the modern republic. Car ownership increasing after 1950s and the new plans increasing the
density of the city, which are not discussed here, have been the other important factors that led
526

to the modification of the green strips, turning them into streets and car parks. Today, the
produced components of the green space structure are still under threat and the modification
process of the green space structure proposed by Jansen is far from over.

References

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Ankara'nın Kamusal Yüzleri (İletişim, İstanbul) 41-76.
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thesis, Middle East Technical University, Türkiye.
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Dergisi 4, 100-127.
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Viran Ankara (İletişim Yayınları, İstanbul) 175-210.
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Jansen, H. (1929) 'Ankara Şehri imar projesi izahnamesi', in T.C. Ankara Şehremaneti Ankara Şehri’nin
Profes r M. Jausseley, Jansen ve Brix taraflarından yapılan plan ve projelere ait izahnameler
(Hakimiyeti Milliye Matbaası, Ankara) 133-159.
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Development Directorate, 21 March 1934, letter no: - Doc. No. 881. E).
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Development Directorate, letter no: 285, Doc. No. 4414.G).
Jansen, H. (1937) Ankara İmar Planı (Alaeddin Kıral Basımevi: İstanbul).
T.C. Ankara Şehremaneti (1929) Ankara Şehri’nin Profes r M. Jausseley, Jansen ve Brix taraflarından
yapılan plan ve projelere ait izahnameler. Ankara: Hakimiyeti Milliye Matbaası.
Tankut, G. (1993) Bir Başkentin İmarı: Ankara: 1929-1939 (Anahtar Kitaplar: İstanbul).
Tankut, G. (2000). 'Jansen Planı: Uygulama sorunları ve Cumhuriyet Bürokrasisinin Kent Planına
Yaklaşımı', in Tükel Yavuz, A. (ed.) Tarih İçinde Ankara (Orta Doğu Teknik Üniveristesi-Ankaralılar
Vakfı, Ankara) 301-316.
Tekeli, İ. (1980) 'Türkiye'de Kent Planlamasının Tarihsel Kökleri', in Gök, T. (ed.) Türkiye'de İmar
Planlaması (ODTÜ Mimarlık Fakültesi Basım İşliği, Ankara) 8-112 .
Tekeli, İ., Güvenç, M. (1987) 'Ankara Nüfusundaki Gelişmeler ve Nüfus Artışının Bileşenleri', in Tekeli,
İ., Altaban, Ö., Güvenç, M., Türel, A., Günay, B., Bademli, R. Ankara 1985'den 2015'e (Ajans İletim,
Ankara) 16-24.
Tekeli, İ. (1998) 'Türkiye’de Cumhuriyet Döneminde Kentsel Gelişme ve Kent Planlaması', in Sey, Y. (ed.)
75 Yılda Değişen Kent ve Mimarlık (Tarih Vakfı Yayınları, İstanbul) 1-24.
Tekeli, İ. (2000) 'Ankara’nın Başkentlik Kararının Ülkesel Mekan Organizasyonu ve Toplumsal Yapıya
Etkileri Bakımından Genel Bir Değerlendirilmesi', in Tükel Yavuz, A. (ed.) Tarih İçinde Ankara (Orta
Doğu Teknik Üniveristesi-Ankaralılar Vakfı, Ankara) 317-335 .
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Uludağ, Z. (1998) 'Cumhuriyet Döneminde Rekreasyon ve GEnçlik Parkı Örneği', in Sey, Y. (ed.) 75
Yılda Değişen Kent ve Mimarlık (Tarih Vakfı Yayınları, İstanbul) 65-74.
Yavuz, F. (1980) Kentsel Topraklar: Ülkemizde ve Başka Ülkelerde (AÜSBF Yayınları, Ankara).
528

Morphological process as an instrument for knowing

chronological character: a case study in Tainan

Chih-Hung Chen, Woan-Shiuan Lin

Department of Urban Planning, National Cheng Kung University.
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. The evolution of the historical process produced the morphological character of the place,
which can be revealed in previous European studies. However, in Asian cities, urban morphology is
rapidly altered by industrialisation and the evolution of social environment, such as population explosion
in merely half century, lease the morphological structure not really apparently. Therefore, can the
“morphological process” (Conzen, 1988) still be a perceive approach to illustrate the city form in East
Asia in this era? So, we need to figure out what is the character of Asia morphological process? For the
purpose of realising the evolution particularity, we need to find out the fringe-belt (Whitehand, 1987) and
built-up area (Ünlü, 2012) as the morphological region which could may reflect the sequence of urban
forms. However, in East Asia cities, the boundary was usually blurred by filling buildings with because of
the increase population growth. Morphological process can be seen regarded as another evidence of
morphogenesis, and therefore be used as an instrument to measure the sequence of urban formation
process. With a view to knowing the chronological character of Asian cities, Tainan, an old port city
which is located on the East Asia marine trade routes, had experienced the Age of Exploration,
industrialisation and the post-war population explosion. The differences of fringe belt formation process
and four types of morphological region which correspond to each period specificity will be revealed in
this study.

Key Words: Fringe belt, built-up area, Morphological process, Morphological region, Tainan.

Introduction

During the past half century, Asian urban area had experienced rapid industrialisation and post-
war population explosion. In the next few decades, the urban areas are expanded and followed
by the remodelling of existing settlements, which can also be regarded as the “urban
deformation”. Generally, urban form can be viewed as the result of the competition and
compromise between social and economic forces of every morphological period (Conzen, 1977;
Harvey, 1989), especially in European urban studies. Nonetheless, in an even rapid process of
urban growth in East Asian context, could features of each era still be recorded or presented by
the urban form?
The related study of the evolution of urban form or so called “morphological process” can be
summarized in three stages: “Accumulation”, “Adaptation”, and “Replacement” (Conzen, 1985),
while every urban regions has their unique morphological process to adapt the physical as well
as the social environment, and these processes may be recorded on space pattern. However, the
chronology of urban development in East Asia is distinct form the situation in European city.
Therefore, the methodology, by which space character can be defined through a certain
morphological period, may be reviewed by its morphological process once again.
In the past, the history of a city can only be understood through scrutiny of the traditional
reference and ancient map. Acquiring the precise location and boundary of an urban area is
impossible because of the technical limitation of measurement. Therefore, for the purpose of
interrelating the social environment, human activity, and physical environment, urban form, the
study of the morphological process of an area may be crucial, because the morphological
process is one of the practical ways to present urban development in different periods.
Furthermore, the identification of the area, presenting a series of morphological region, can help
 529

to clarify the process of urban evolution. Based on these related studies, each accretion of built-
up area and the limit of urban extension, so called “urban fringe belt”, can be associated with
the location and the form complex character by the sequence of urban development. However,
to recognise the boundary of these two kinds of region is extremely difficult. Thus, we have an
urge to find another instrument to measure the morphogenesis course. With a view to tackling
the problems above, in this study, the morphological process of some representative regions will
be identified, and the specificity of the character in different period will be analysed.
Tainan, the oldest port city in Taiwan, is located on the East Asia marine trade routes. Since
th
17 century, the city has been experienced three major events which caused significant urban
growth, including the Age of Exploration, industrialisation, and post-war population explosion.
Accordingly, these experiences of expansion make Tainan a pertinent case to illustrate the
morphological process. Based on the survey of this research, there are three types of built-up
area and two kinds of ‘fringe-belts’ in Tainan, and each prototype reflects Tainan development
history, including the growth of population and human activity, in certain period. This research
endeavours to propose an instrument to understand the process of every morphological region,
especially in larger scale. Furthermore, this achievement can help to shape the context to design
the urban form in the future.

The related research of morphological process and urban form

The related urban morphology theory, mentioned the spatial continuity of the city (Rossi, 1966),
represents the evolution of space. Furthermore, chronological character can be left and carved
on the urban texture (Conzen, 1985). Because of the continuous process of evolution, the
contemporary structure of urban form must contain the condition of the last era (Erith, 2000).
According to the implication above, we can infer that the development course of the past shape
today's urban form. The following paragraph will reveal the related study of morphological
region which is simultaneously made by the evolution of urban and the factors of deformation,
or called morphological process.

The evolution of morphological region

The spaces with geographical similarities will become a spatial grouping of form ensembles,
which has “Ganzheit” character, such as urban core, period accretion, fringe belts, and the
redevelopment of commercial centre, within the process of urban development (Conzen, 1977).
From the macroscopic point of view, these morphological regions have their own specific
development orders and locations in a city. On the one hand, the built-up area will become
broader and denser from the city centre as the number of the population soars (Whitehand,
2001). On the other hand, fringe belt will be generated as the growth of the population slows
down. So the long term period of the fringe belt will be begun with low density and
unrepresentive building types (Whitehand, 1994). Hence, distinguishing the built-up area and
fringe belt by the urban develop density can help us to define the urban core area and the urban
edge (Whitehand, 1994).
530

Figure 1. The comparison between Europe and Asia fringe belt model.

Based on the definition of morphological region in great detail, built-up areas hold the most
activities in the urban areas and have building coverage in high density. A city as a container
which accommodates the characteristics of the contemporary era and the results of all life
(Mumford, 1961). Therefore, the built-up areas, which are established in the early times, are
supposed to experience many events, causing deformation process and accumulation. Because
of the urban form character of fringe belts, such as rectangular shape, larger average plot size,
series of the norm for plots in a housing area, less hard surface and fewer road crossing … etc.
(Whitehand and Morton, 2003), the built-up area and fringe belt can be defined by
distinguishing the building coverage rate and street density. Furthermore, identification of the
build-up area and the location of the fringe belt can help to us to know the chronological
character of morphological region.
Generally, the traces of circled proliferation which were made during the process of
development can be easily found in many European cases. However, the rapid development of
Asia city results in different trajectories in shaping a city. The character of a space keeps
changing. To illustrate this, numerous fringe belt areas are turned into built-up areas because of
new development. Therefore, the boundaries of the built-up area and the fringe belt can barely
be recognised. Accordingly, current urban form in Asia can hardly represent the boundaries and
morphological region of a city in different periods. For the purpose of observing the evolution
of Asia cities, we need another approach to substitute for morphological region.

Morphological process

Morphological process, representing the causal sequence of urban deformation, can be used as a
tool to measure the sequence of urban development. The morphological process in different
periods will be recorded on today's urban texture. Thus, this evidence of deformation can help to
reveal the temporal and spatial position of every morphological region. Admittedly, the fringe
belt and the built-up area of a city can barely be observe in Asia cities. It is possible to figure
out the morphological process by identifying the key factors of morphological process in every
region’s form complex.
According to the previous European morphology studies, the formative process of the
townscape includes three stages: accumulation, adaptation and replacement of forms (Conzen,
1985). In fact the formative process of each area will vary from case to case because of the
unique characteristic of every place, and furthermore every area is deformed in different way.
The following paragraphs are the definition of each morphological process in related
research:
 531

Accumulation

In general, primary and secondary accumulation in the intensive and extensive morphological
process of a city will be happened in the case of evolution of society and culture. Thus, the
proliferation of a city can be illustrated by observing the shape and the density of built-up areas.

Adaptation of form

The adaptation of form particularly occurs in existing built-up area. During this process, the
built-up area in a city may be reshaped to adapt the functional transformation of a city because
of the change of social environment. Therefore, outbuildings, the additional constructions, can
be regarded as the indication of the adaptation of form.

Redevelopment of form

The existing urban form is usually divided by the route network, adaptive redevelopment and
the extension of the road system. Therefore, parts of the existing built-up area may be removed,
reconstructed and reformed.
Based on the related research, every area has distinct the morphological process due to the
contextual differences in different regions and different periods (Conzen, 1977). Moreover, the
rearrangement of land and building can be revealed in the land investigation. According to this
context, the morphological process can be understood as following. Firstly, the accumulation
process can be recognised by identifying the additional constructions in a city, because of the
difference between building density of primary accumulation and that of secondary
accumulation. Secondly, the adaptation process can be observed in the area, which experiences
transformation of land-use or building construction. Lastly, the plot integration, the building
reconstruction and the change of street system can be regarded as signs of the replacement
process. Figure 2 reveals the system of the correlation between the form complex and
morphological process. The “step” of every process can been seen in the single or multiple
combination of form complex.

Figure 2. The correspondence between morphological process and form complex

532

Model

After reviewing the theories of morphological processes, we can apply them to the explanation
of deformation sequence of urban form. Morphological regions may have diverse sequence of
morphological process because of their different form complex and length of time during
development. In most cases, there are three kinds of scenario, which are showed below:
Scenario A: initial accretion
Scenario B: repeating all kinds of process
Scenario C: jumping transformation

Figure 3. The model of morphological process.

As shown in figure 3, Scenario A is the initial morphogenesis stage which, under the demand
from social environment, urges to establish the settlement. This situation can usually be
observed in new development area. Scenario B is the most common scenario. After the primary
accumulation, the morphological region will start to evolve to adapt new social environment.
And after that, due to obvious external factors urging the previous space to change, the space
may start its redevelopment process. In this scenario, the adaptation and replacement are in an
iterative process. On the other hand, Scenario C is less common and only in case of the rapid
growth of population. This situation can be observed through the immediate collage of the urban
texture for the living demand. Mostly, in this scenario, the construction works, which are
usually large scale or huge amount of residential houses, are determined by the authority.
Furthermore, because land ownership generally does not belong to the occupier, there is no right
for them to merge the plot or rearrange the land for the buildings which meet the demands in the
future. However, the area would change or re-growing when facing the massive demolition,
which, therefore, skips the adaptation phase.
However, the scenario can only describes the built-up area in the urban area. For the cases
which remain undeveloped status or, in other words, are “fringe belt” (Cozen, 1960) in original
stage such as the development of new town may have different morphological process.
Although a fringe belt has lower building coverage and social network density, it still maintains
the relationship with the urban area and remains the existence urban texture. In order to become
a built-up area, fringe belt should go through a significant transformation in order to coordinate
the urban area. Therefore, this type of space usually skips accumulation phase, and directly
starts from replacement stage.
 533

Figure 4. the Fringe belt morphological process.

Fringe belts have different ways of transformation according to their location and size. For
instance, inner-fringe belt or middle-fringe belt which locates between the built-up areas is less
likely to have large-scale redevelopment. On the other hand, the outer-fringe belt is usually
more flexible to carry on large-scale redevelopment. Therefore, by recognising the existing
built-up area which is in accordance to the extent and changing of form complex. Then, by
compare to the location, it is able to identify the past fringe belt where might be located.
According to the spatial characteristics of the morphological region and the sequence of
morphological process, this study will present actual operating procedures and analytical
methods to analyse complex urban texture in Asia in the next chapter.

Methodology

Based on the above model, we can understand that we should examine the evolution of the
process by identifying features of the built-up area, fringe belt, and the morphological process,
which contained in every morphological region. Next, those features can be correlated with the
sequence according to the location and specificity period (Conzen, 1988). The following parts
are the instructions of the instrument for the measurement of the evolution of the process:

The instructions of the instrument

Because the evolution of the city as a whole should be regarded as a single unit. In order to
identify "Ganzheit" character or geographical similarities of morphological region, this study
proposes a method from macro perspective to categorise space and explain the regional
differences. The method of operation shows as follows:

Step 1: Standardizing the measurement unit

Because area is usually too large to be measured as a single unit and observed in complete
‘surface’, the method suggests to separate the continuous space by using fishnet system which
can help to standardize the observation unit. The area of the smallest unit varies with the size of
targeted city. The purpose of separation is to standardize each spatial unit in homogeneous
perspective and to reduce the potential errors which may occur in the next stage if there are
different sizes of the units.
534

Figure 5. the illustration of cutting fishnet.

Step 2: Analysing the percentage of street and building coverage per grid

Calculating the building and street coverage area of each unit, which may be the most
representative are of the property, can help to find out the built-up areas, fringe belts and rural
areas in the city. The building coverage can represent the intensity and density of development;
the road coverage area can be regarded as the response of the difference of planning texture and
the street level. Revealing both the classification and the overlay is a practical approach to
distinguish the different density and development intensity of each areas.

Figure 6. The percentage of the street and building coverage.

Step 3: Defining built-up areas and fringe belts

The following diagram shows the four levels of building coverage and three levels of street
coverage. Twelve different combinations can be arranged out by overlaying these characters. In
these twelve combinations, both the coverage of built-up area, the ratio of which is lower than
fifty percent, and road coverage, the ratio of which lower than twenty percent, are regarded as
fringe belt, while the rest combinations have relative high density of built-up area. At this stage,
we can identify the boundaries of urban growth and built-up areas in a city.

Step 4: Classifying the morphological region

In this stage, we need to find out the morphological region form these twelve categories,
because the space can only be classified by building and street coverage as a criteria to judge
heterogeneity in the previous stage, and furthermore that can merely determine the spatial
distribution of similar spatial quality, which is not accurate descriptions of each morphological
region’s "genius loci". Therefore, we have an urge to introduce another approach to identify the
prototype of morphological region. As a result, with a view to identifying the morphological
process in the next stage, we need to describe the characteristic of each form complex in detail.
 535

Figure 7. the type of the arrangement.

Step 5: Corresponding to the morphological process

The morphological process, such as accumulation, adaption and redevelopment, in each form
complex will be found in this stage. Then, the sequence model of morphological process can be
correlated to the phase which each morphological region had experience.

Step 6: Finding out the evolution of urban forms

The morphological evolution sequence of the urban form can be recognised by matching every
morphological region and the location of inner, middle and outer fringe belt. In this stage, we
can also identify the past fringe belt which becomes to built-up area now. The steps above can
help us to find out the sequence of development.
In order to reveal to the characteristics of the periods, we need to seek to another verification
to confirm that whether the sequence of development is correct.

Verification

The steps above can help to measure various morphological regions of a city and reveal the
processes of urban evolution. In fact the morphogenetic changes of a place can be associated
with the character of socio-environment in a certain period of time. To illustrate this, the
morphological process of an area usually reflects some significant events, which may be caused
by planning programme or political power, such as population growth. For example, the
fluctuations in population growth can roughly present the urban transformation of an era; the
turning point of the rate of population growth can help to relate the morphological process of an
area to the significant event in a period of time. In addition, every related event and planning
programme has the announcement date which can be obvious evidence of city deformation. The
steps, identified in this research, can help us to find out the evolution of urban form through the
morphological region and the morphological process. This result can be applied as a planning
method to reshape urban context in the future and rethink planning laws of each region.

Case study

Tainan, the first city in Taiwan, was a part of the East Asia trade route and an important port
city in world trade system before 18th century. Over the years, Tainan has experienced many
536

times of morphological transformation such as the period of modernism construction planning,

World War II, post-war population explosion, industrialization and etc. Under this context, the
city developed its own way to adapt the environmental change and therefore, created many
kinds of morphological region. In the period of post-war population explosion, the population in
Tainan had grown from 200000 to approximately 800000. Numerous developments in certain
regions sprawl and some inner-fringe belts have been changed into built-up area. Thus, the
boundaries of the morphological regions have therefore became indistinct and this situation
increased the difficulty to identify the sequence of urban morphological change.To understand
the evolution of Tainan urban morphology, this study will try to use the method of
morphological process to explore the traces of spatial transformation. The following paragraphs
are the results.

Result

We identified the boundary and area of built-up area, fringe belt, and the sequence of
morphological region growth by the morphological process measurement. The followings are
the results:

The built-up area and fringe belt in Tainan

To find out the current major development area and marginal zone in Tainan, we adapt fishnet
system to calculate the building and street coverage for each gird. The area of Tainan
metropolitan area is approximately 215 square kilometres. Due to the city’s huge scale, this
study separates the city into 1800 units and each unit is 500 meters in length and width.
Through the calculation we can acquire the percentage of the building and street coverage in
each gird. After that, we combine the data with the digital map of Tainan and analyse the
distribution of different coverage level. Since there are two variables (street and building
coverage) with three and four different levels respectively, there will be twelve categories
showed in the map.
In this research, if the unit’s building coverage is less than fifty percent and street coverage is
less than twenty percent, this unit will be defined as fringe-belt. Hence, there are six categories
of fringe-belt and six types of built-up area. However, after identifying the build-up areas and
fringe belts in Tainan, we found that the morphological region of Tainan does not comply with
the principle, concentric circle model. Therefore, we need another process to identify the space
transformation of Tainan.

The morphological region in Tainan

Based on the results of last phase, investigation of the location, building arrangement and land-
use type can be accorded with twelve categories. After this process, the morphological region in
Tainan can be recognised. As the table 1 shows, four kinds of region have their own spatial
particularity. And through the analysis of different spatial characteristics or, in other words, the
traces left by the urban transformation, we can identify the possible morphological process of
the targeted area. After this stage, we may identify every morphological region and correspond
them with the sequence of urban evolution. In addition, we need to correlate the relation
location with different morphological regions and therefore the description of the character in
each region can be precise.
 537

Table 1. The analysis of morphological region.

Land-
type region location Form Arrangement Process
use
1. organic
Type 1 Accumulation,
arrangement R,
City Urban core patch Adaption,
2. fill up the R/C
centre Replacement
plot
1.The
1.Standardized
Type 2 extension
1.patch arrangement R Accumulation,
Accretion of core
2.point 2. fill up the R/C/F Adaption
area_1 2.Edge of
plot
core
Type 3 Patch
Edge of Standardized
Accretion or R Accumulation
core arrangement
area_2 point

Patch Big volume

Type 4 Accumulation,
Urban edge or tightly I , I/R
factory Adaption
point arrangement
(Land-use code: R- residential, C- commercial, I- industry)

The sequence of morphological region accretion

In order to confirm the chronology of morphological process, this research will compare the
current relative location of built-up area and fringe belts. As figure 10 shows, the fringe belts of
Tainan are mainly located in outer area.
The inner-fringe belt which as used to be the city walls is not easy to be observed. The
middle fringe belts have higher building coverage, but they lose their urban pattern as well as
the linkage between patches. The outer fringe belts have lower building density, while remain
the linkages between the patches which surround the existing urban area.
The following step is the comparison of location and distribution between fringe belt and
built-up area. Figure 10 shows that the accretion spaces are mainly located between the urban
core and middle fringe belt, and some of them are merged into the fringe belt. By inference, this
could be the evidence of the transformation from fringe belt to built-up area. This kind of space
usually contains the traces of large scale redevelopment which aims to the contemporary
demands.

The comparison between Asia and Europe urban form

Based on the results above, this sector endeavours to compare the cases in Tainan and United
Kingdom. The formation processes of built-up area between these two cases are relative similar.
However, the fringe belt of cities in Tainan and United Kingdom is quite different from
European’s patterns. Although there were numerous city walls in Tainan in the past, most city
are torn down now because of the soaring number of population. As a result, the boundaries in
the past has been cleared and filled up by the new buildings. The exact place of inner fringe belt
can barely be identified; thus the pattern in Taiwan is quite different form the British case which
has the inner fringe belt, a closing type.
538

Figure 9. The analysis of building and street coverage.

Figure 10. Morphological region and morphological process.

 539

Figure 11. The distribution of fringe belt and built-up area.

In addition, the middle fringe belts of these two cases are also quite different. In Tainan,
most of the middle fringe belts may be converted into built-up area in the period of rapid
population expansion. Now we can only observe the segments left over from the built-up area.
The outer fringe belts in Taiwan are likely surrounded by the city development area, while
European cities usually have opened outer fringe belts.
The differences above elaborate the particularity of Asia and Europe, and these discrepancies
between cases result in the different morphological region and pattern. However, the trace of
development can still be observed in nowadays urban form by the indication of the instrument
of morphological process.

Table 2. Comparison of fringe belt between British and Taiwan.

Type of British Taiwan

fringe belt
Inner fringe Close fringe belt Only for the city with walls.
belt Surrounding the kernel After removal of the wall, through the conversion process,
of a town may not become a closed ring shape.
asymmetrically
Antecedent fixation line
Middle fringe Open fringe belt Open fringe belt
belt Residential integuments residential-based, mix with commercial use
Outer fringe Open fringe belt Open fringe belt
belt Current periphery of a Current periphery of a town
town
Factory -- Open fringe belt
fringe belt Surrounding the factory district
mix with residential and farm land

Conclusion

In this study, fort the purpose of analysing the complex shape, which is curved in particular
chronology in East Asia, a new method has been proposed. The past studies have shown that a
group of built-up area, sharing similar character, may be constructed in a certain era and the
fringe belts of that expand outward in a concentric-circles way. In the rapid expansion of
housing and the great demand of economic development, the fringe belt in the inner location is
often transformed into built-up area by filling up the buildings or a large-scale replacement.
These developments erase the trace of the edge of urban growth. Because the formation trace is
540

always recorded on every form complex, the morphological process, representing the cause and
event in the formation, can be the instrument to measure the significances of urban formation.
The methodology for analysing the formation of urban from is established by this study. The
following steps can roughly present the whole process of this method, including standardising
the observation unit, determining the edge and built-up area, and finally identifying the
morphological process to correspond to the morphological region and develop sequence. While,
this method can also be adjusted by the different scale of observation area. The oldest city in
Taiwan, Tainan is the operation case in this study. The result shows the applicability of this
method in detecting the past formation traces in a relative complex urban form. In addition, this
method also can be used in observing the relation between the morphological region and the
chorology character.
The method, proposed by this research, can be adopted as an instrument to reveal the
chronology character of every city, and further shape the context of the urban form in the future.
However, this approach measures every city from the macroscopic scale of view, and therefore
is not able to detect the subtle change of urban transformation. In addition, the pattern of land-
use and the value of categories vary from city to city. Therefore, the method for analysing urban
morphological transformation should be emphasized more on the experience of East Asia city
development in different scales and the land-use pattern in the future.
 541

The evolution of urban form since post-war period in Taiwan

– a case study of Yonghe city

Chih-Hung Chen, Chia-Hua Tsai

Department of Urban Planning, National Cheng Kung University.
E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract. To reorganize the living environment ruined by WWII, post-war modernism arose with
emphasis on quantity and function of residential buildings, which became the mainstream of urban
reconstruction. Moreover, the concept “Automobile dependency” (Reichow, 1959) was comprehensively
applied in 1950s. Both essential causes led to specificity of urban forms: an observable morphological
period (Conzen, 1960, 1985). In contrast to Europe, two different factors, namely industrialization and
promptly increased immigration happened in East Asian metropolises, which resulted in the short supply
for residential demand. For the causes above, the process of morphological change transformed rapidly
that the form changing can be observed evidently. A city is composed of the complexity of “fatti urbani”
(Rossi, 1966) and plots (Tarbatt, 2012). These visible and invisible parts are basic units of urban
development (Alexander, 1979). By comparing the correlation between streets, buildings and plots, the
result of the evolution of urban form since post-war period can be found in Yonghe, locating in the
surrounding area of Taipei, the capital of Taiwan.

Key Words: morphological period, post-war modernism, urban form evolution, morphological process,
specificity of urban form in Taiwan

Introduction

In recent decades, urban form study has been extensively used for understanding the context of
cities in several countries. Among them, the study of urban form for descriptive and explanatory
purposes, with the aim of exploring the evolution of urban form (Moudon, 1997) is one of the
most essential part.
However, the total value of an urban form evolution could only grasped in its historical
dimension. (Muratori, 1959) In addition, any period creates distinctive forms would suit the
particular historical dimension. Therefore, the evolution of urban form, which has its causal
sequence, can be easily observed through different periods.
In the period after WWII, post-war modernism arose with emphasis on quantity and function
of residential buildings, which became the mainstream of urban reconstruction and affect the
evolution of urban form in the following decades. Much research has been discussed through
this period in western countries while rarely in eastern countries.
Due to the factors above, this present paper tries to explore the evolution of urban form since
post-war period in Taiwan in order to find out the specific morphological process (Conzen,
1977) which leads to different evolution of urban form from western countries.

Evolution of urban form since the post-war period

Every city has its own morphological process (Conzen, 1977), and any period which creates
particular forms has its morphological period (Conzen, 1960). However, it is the different
context makes the evolution of urban form so distinctive in every single country.
542

Statement of evolution of urban form

Morphological process

Morphological process is any causal sequence that leads to the definition or alteration of any
townscape features and their mutual composition (Conzen, 1977). Understanding the
morphological process of the cities is the essential keys to know the cities. There are visible and
invisible context which influence the evolution of city. However, urban form, which is easily
observable, can be understood historically since the elements which it is comprised undergo
continuous transformation and replacement (Moudon, 1997).

Morphological period: specificity of urban form

In morphological process, there are series of periods in an area which creates distinctive
material forms in the cultural landscape to suit the particular socio-economic needs of its society
(Conzen, 1960). When under the different period of historical or cultural context, the invisible
facts such as urban planning, policy or major construction project, would reflect on the
specificity of urban form. Therefore, by knowing the relation between periods and forms can we
know the morphological period in certain area.

The spiral: evolution of urban form

When the forces caused by the historical and cultural context at play, they would have the
capacity to change the previous forms into other forms in the circulation of growth and decline.
Hence, each circulation represents one specific form based on one specific period. In the trend
of urban development, the circulations of specificity of urban form based on morphological
period are connected one after another and eventually become a spiral. Morphological process is
the continuously rotating spiral, with growths and declines in each circulation. By knowing each
circulation and the force influencing the circulation from growth to decline, the casual sequence
of the evolution of urban form could be clearly recognized.

Figure 1. The spiral: evolution of urban form.

 543

Post-war period: “Renaissance of modernism”

In 1950s, post-war modernism arose with Athens Charter to be the mainstream of urban
renewal, and therefore influence the urban development throughout the world (Chen & Lai,
2010). In eastern countries, most of the cities weren’t seriously destroyed by wars. However, as
the colonies of the western countries, the trend of urban planning in western countries greatly
influenced the urban form of eastern countries.
In addition, the main idea of post-war modernism still has great impact on the urban
landscape nowadays or even in the future (Edward, 1998). Therefore, it is essential to explore
the urban development through this specific period, post-war period.

Post-war modernism

The United States played an important role in the modernism movement concerning new
advanced building and construction technologies. However, Frank Lloyd Wright was a
cornerstone of modernism (Cleary, Levine, Marefat, Pfeiffer & Siry, 2009). His main idea of the
architecture, organic architecture with low density of development, was of significance to the
following urban planning in America, and so did the urban planning in Taiwan during post-war
period.

Zoning: Automobile dependence urban planning

Since the concept “Automobile design urban planning” is comprehensively applied (Reichow,
1959), the idea of zoning came out which led to the different urban landscape from the past. The
organic urban fabric is cut by roads and traffic forcibly, which caused not only shattered
buildings and plots, but created better location for mix-used or commercial uses beside the
street.

Approach to post-war period in Taiwan

In 1949, Nationalist government fled from Mainland China to Taiwan. As the ally of the United
States during the Cold War, ROC officials received U.S. Aid, such as military, financial and
humanitarian assistance from the Unite States to their island bastion during 1951 to 1965
(Pellegrin, 2005). And also because of the U.S aid, came out the first government official of
urban planning which learned the specialty of urban planning from America (Liao, 2013). In
addition, with the extensively used automobile design urban planning, the development of urban
planning in post-war period in Taiwan was greatly influenced by western countries.

Methodology

Urban planning is the crucial fact of influencing the urban form, because it has legal effect upon
land use, city plans roads, building coverage ratio, etc. Among them, the city plans roads divide
cities into blocks and focus on making the regulation of the content in blocks, such as plots and
buildings. These visible and invisible parts are the basic unit of the urban form. The paper
would focus mainly on the two and also the correlation in between.

Urban planning

Based on the urban planning law in Taiwan, an urban plan shall refer to a planned development
for significant facilities concerning urban living, hence it has big influence on the development
544

of urban forms. And in urban planning, city plans roads are the most directly observable results
of the urban planning and they divided cities into blocks.
Not matter the content of blocks, such as plots and buildings, can vary considerably in shape
and size, it should develop according to the configuration of streets. And rules in urban planning
normally use blocks as the unit to control the development of urban area. Therefore, this paper
would use block, which is divided by city plans roads, as the study unit.

Plots & time

In spite of the fact that plot is the invisible element of urban form, it’s the basic unit as the urban
development (Tarbatt, 2012). And because of the macro-processes have driven changes in urban
morphology, the integrity of traditional urban forms would impact on the plot (Tarbatt, 2012).
Therefore, by observing the plots, the evolution of cities can be easily seen.
Density is also a crucial part for understanding the series of plots. Normally in historical
tendency, larger parcels are subdivided into smaller ones for generating a fascinating or
character-full patchwork of form in old cities (Kostof, S., 1991). As the time goes by, street
buildings are lost and plots turn larger by combining them together. This phenomenon cause the
following landscape: monoculture of land use, monolithic building forms and segregated
communities (Tarbatt, 2012), which happened evidently in post-war.
However, the time of urban planning does not correspond to the time of the division of plots
in the same place. Moreover, they are under two separate management institution. These lead to
the difference between lines of blocks and the lines of plots beside the city plans roads, which
causes fragmented area when these two plans overlay with each other. And this paper would
exclude those area to reduce the study error.

Buildings & time

A city is composed of the complexity of “fatti urbani” (Rossi, 1966). The city was seen as a
material artefact, a man-made object built over time and retaining the traces of time, even if in a
discontinuous way (Rossi, 1966). Building is the visible part in urban form and is the main
element for directly observing the landscape at present time. In addition, it can also be regard as
the proof for the historical events.
Density is also an important part for understanding the development of buildings. Normally,
because of the good location of the city centre, it has great potential of development which
causes high density of the buildings; while the landscape of suburb area may be low density of
buildings.
However, the city has always been characterized largely by the individual dwelling (Rossi,
1966). Because the buildings of residential district change with time and it can be clearly
observed, the form of changing can be easily tell. Therefore, this paper would take residential
district as the first priority to find out the evolution of urban form.

Correlation between plots and buildings

The plot is an increment of landholding, set out for the express purpose of building, which
means the invisible plots would directly influence the visible buildings (Tarbatt, 2012).
Density of plots means the quantity of plots in per unit, which can deduce the ratio of the
size in the plot. If the density of the plots are high, there are many plots in per unit and the
average of the size in the plot is small; if the density of the plots are low, there are not much of
plots in per unit and the average of the size in the plot is much bigger.
Buildings are also same as the inference above. If the density of the buildings is high, there
are many buildings in per unit and the average of the size in the building is small; if the density
of the buildings is low, there are not much of buildings in per unit and the average of the size in
the building is much bigger.
 545

However, in reality, buildings does not correspond to the plots, mostly because of the
difficulties of combing the plots to create the new buildings. Hence, normally, we can still see
the remaining traces toward plots. In conclusion, the comparison between the density of plots
and the density of buildings is worth discussing.

Model of the correlation between plots and buildings

Based on the tendency of the history, the correlation between plots and buildings can reflect the
period of time. In the beginning of the development, there are only farms and some built-up
area. At that time, farm is people’s property and can also be regard as the big plots. Therefore,
the density of buildings (BD) is higher than the density of plots (PD), as area A in Figure 2.
As the times go by, there is a tendency for larger plots to be subdivided into smaller ones as
the supply of land decreases and demand for it increases (Kostof, S., 1991). The process will go
from PD=BD (area B in Figure 2) to PD>BD (area C in Figure 2). In the process B, the plots are
mostly equal to the buildings, because the development is based on the urban planning. Later on
in process C, the reconstruction of buildings and the construction of widening city plans roads
begins in the area which has high potential to develop. And because of the difficulties of
combing the plots for new uses, the phenomenon results in many shattered plots, which is the
reason why it has higher density of plots than buildings in such area. On the other hand, still
some places combine the plots before starting the development. And this will be likely to appear
in area A, B or C.

Figure 2. The correlation between plots and buildings.

The correlation between plots and buildings in urban area can be concluded as follows
(Figure 2):
A. PD<BD
The density of the buildings is high while the density of the plots is low, which means plots
and buildings have low correlation. In conclusion, there are larger plots but smaller size of
building, which shows that one single plot may have many buildings on it. This categories can
be concluded as two: (1) The beginning of the built-up area: Normally, all cities will start at this
phase and there are only farms with some farmhouses, or the small area of built up area; (2)
Low density of both plots and buildings: At the time goes by, small plots are combined to
establish new development and this may also lead to larger density of buildings than plots.
B. PD=BD
There are mostly same amount of quantity between plots and buildings, which means plots
and buildings have high correlation. This categories can be conclude as two: (1) High density of
both plots and buildings: The area develops mostly based on the urban planning. There are
546

smaller plots and smaller size of buildings, which largely occurred in older period of time; (2)
Low density of both plots and buildings: The area develops after the combination of the plots.
There are bigger plots and bigger size of buildings, which largely occurred in much closer
period of time.
C. PD>BD
The density of the buildings is low while the density of the plots is high, which means plots
and buildings have low correlation. In conclusion, there are smaller plots but larger size of
building, which shows that there are many plots but just less of buildings on them. This
categories can be conclude as two: (1) High density of both plots and buildings: Most are
located near the transportation system or the main street. Because of its good location, the area
keeps reconstructing but without arranging the plots, which causes the high density of plots; (2)
Low density of both plots and buildings: Normally, the area develops on big blocks which is far
from the main street and the city centre. Small plots are combined to establish new development
and this may also lead to larger density of plots than buildings.

Table 1. The prototype: the correlation between plots and buildings.

A. PD<BD

 Beginning of the built-

up area
 Big plots and small
buildings
 Farms with farmhouses
Prototype  Small area of built up
A1 area

 Closer period of time

 Bigger plots and bigger
size of buildings
 Small plots are
Prototype combined to establish new
A2 development
 Residential or mixed
used uses

B. PD=BD
 547

 Older period of time

 Smaller plots and
smaller size of buildings
Prototype  Develops mostly based
B1 on the urban planning
 Mostly are residential
uses

 Closer period of time

 Bigger plots and bigger
size of buildings
Prototype  Small plots are
B2 combined to establish new
development
 Residential or mixed
used uses

C. PD>BD

 Older period of time

 Highest density of plots
of all
 Smaller plots and
Prototype
smaller size of buildings
C1
 Most located near the
transportation system or
the main street
 Residential or mixed
used uses

 Closer period of time

 Bigger plots and bigger
size of buildings
Prototype  Residential or mixed
C2 used uses

A case study of Yonghe city

Location

Yonghe District is an inner city district in the southern part of New Taipei, Taiwan. It is the
smallest district in New Taipei City but the density of the population is the highest in Taiwan.
548

Figure 3. Location of Yonghe city.

History

The process of urbanization is often accompanied by migration. Nationalist government moved

to Taipei in 1949, which led to the migrated population and military dependents' village in
Taiwan.
Moreover, because the policy of being air-raid place in 1954 and the first urban planning of
Yonghe in 1955, Yonghe city suddenly burst into large amount of people.
In 1951~1965, U. S Aid happened in Taiwan, which affected the construction of cities,
economics or even military event. In addition, scholars brought back the urban planning theories
from America, which led to similar ideals of urban planning between Taiwan and America at
that time. And the first urban planning in 1957 is based on the ideal of organic and low density
of development from America.
Later on after the year of 1970, the population of Yonghe city kept growing because of the
migration of town and country. Yonghe was deemed the new residential area for overflowed
population from Taipei, and the transition between city and rural area until now.

Figure 4. History of Yonghe city.

Model of the correlation between plots and buildings in Yonghe city

Based on the urban planning of Yonghe city, we find out our study area by using the blocks and
land use of residential. And by dividing the density of plots and the density of buildings, the
correlations between plots and buildings can be concluded as PD<BD (grey area in Figure 5),
PD=BD (deep grey area in Figure 5) and PD>BD (black area in Figure 5):
A. PD<BD
1. Because of the population grew rapidly in Yonghe, the density of the development was
high in all area. Therefore there weren’t place like I1 in nowadays.
1-1 It can be regard as the transitional belt, containing both new and old buildings
which remains from military dependents' village.
 549

2. New development with big plots with far location from the centre of the Yonghe city.
And the land use is mix-used.
B. PD=BD
1. The area develops based on the urban planning. There are smaller plots and smaller size
of building with accomplished roads in it. And all area is residential uses.
2. There isn’t any area like II2 in Yonghe, which reveals the arrangement of the plots is
hard to fully correspond to the new development of the buildings.
C. PD>BD
1. The area is located beside the main street and the MRT station, which is the highly
profitable area with residential uses and a variety of commercial uses in the first floor in
Yonghe. And this phenomenon leads to frequent reconstruction which causes more
complicated plots.
2. New development with big plots with distance from the centre of the Yonghe city. And
the land use is mix-used.

Figure 5. The urban planning of Yonghe city.

Figure 6. Results of the correlation between plots and buildings.

550

Table 2. The case study: the correlation between plots and buildings in Yonghe.

A. PD<BD
Case for
none none
A1
Buildings  Transition of new and old
building
 Big plots and small buildings
 Remains old buildings from
military dependents' village

Plots
Case for
A1-1

Buildings  After 1970s

 Bigger plots and bigger size of
buildings
 High rise apartment with
commercial uses

Plots
Case for
A2
 551

B. PD=BD
Buildings  Based on the urban planning in
1957
 Smaller plots and smaller size of
building which has high correlation
between each other
 Far from the city centre

Plots
Case for
B1

Case for
none none
B2
C. PD>BD
Buildings  Frequent reconstruction causes
more complicated plots
 Near main street and the MRT
station
 Highly profitable area
 A variety of commercial uses

Plots
Case for
C1
552

Buildings  After 1970s

 Bigger plots and bigger size of
buildings
 High rise apartment with
commercial uses
 Far from the city centre

Plots
Case for
C2

Evolution of urban form in Yonghe city

As a conclusion based on the history of Younghe, morphological period is caused by the

historical and cultural context as force. In Yonghe city, there were four main force: migration
from Nationalist government in 1949, being assigned as air-raid place in 1954, the first urban
planning in 1955 and the migration of town and country. And as the result of correlation
between plots and buildings, the specificity of urban form can be classified as: type A1, A1-1,
B1, C1 and C2.
By corresponding the morphological period to the specificity of urban form, comes out the
spiral of evolution of urban form in Yonghe city. Before the post-war period, Yonghe only has
some built-up area and farms on big plots which belongs to type A. Later on, migration from
nationalist government occurred and military dependents’ village appears. And because the land
belongs to government, it still a big plots, hence type also belongs to A. However, this type no
longer exists nowadays.
Before coming to the next morphological period, there is a transition of new and old, type
A1-1, which under different time of reconstruction in one certain block.Next, because of being
assigned as air-raid place in 1954 and the first urban planning in 1955, Yonghe city suddenly
burst into people, and led to reconstruction of buildings, which is type B1 and type C1. In spite
the fact that they belongs to same period, the type is so different due to the location and the
automobile design urban planning. As the result, the arrangement of plots and buildings is
complicated if located in the centre of Yonghe city, while it’s in order if it’s far from the centre.
At last, in 1970s, the migration of town and country happened, and the high rise buildings
appear, which may belong to type A2 and C2.

Figure 7. The spiral: evolution of urban form in Yonghe city.

 553

Conclusion

Model

Every city has its own morphological process, and any period which creates particular forms has
its morphological period. However, because of the different context, the specificity of urban
form makes the evolution of urban form so distinctive in every single country.
From this paper, we can know the specificity of urban form from the correlation of the
density of plots and the density of buildings. In conclusion, the process of the specificity of
urban form begins from area A, which is greatly affected by the idea of modernism in America.
However, because of the large amount of people cases by nationalist government and country to
city, it goes on to B and C, and then may go back to type A at last, which is totally different
from the idea of the low development of the first urban planning in 1957.
Based on the historical and cultural context as force, the specificity of urban form can
correspond to the morphological period. And as the time goes by, the circulation of specificity
of urban form and morphological period is like a spiral, which can represent the evolution of
urban form.

Figure 8. The correlation between plots and buildings in Yonghe City.

Recommendation for future work

However, there are some issues coming out when doing the research. Following are the issues
which can be considered in the future:
1) There may be heterogeneity in one certain block in Yonghe City:
By using the density of plots and buildings, the content of the inside block will be regard as
homogeneity. However, the different arrangement may be the factor of influencing the evolution
of urban form.
2) Types may be disappeared through time:
As the type A, it once appeared in the past, but because of the fast regeneration of urban
space, it turned into other type. Therefore, it may be possible that some other types are not be
discussed.

References

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Outward (Guggenheim Museum Publications, New York).
554

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 555

Analysis of the correlated relations between ancient Chinese

urban morphology and social culture

Jinghua Dai, Zhu Wang

College of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Zhejiang University
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. Cities gestate culture. Different cultural backgrounds and ideological concept promote diverse
city planning thoughts, as well as various forms of cities. Nowadays, the development status of Chinese
city, such as the high speed of construction along with the resulting "one side thousand cities" pattern,
urges the designers to turn over to think the guiding ideology and practice way of future city construction.
However, when looking back upon ancient Chinese urban morphology, its distinct features of the age and
spatial attributes are worthy of deep consideration. Based on spatial distribution of ancient cities, this
paper takes ancient Chinese culture as an entry point from three cultural levels including the system,
material and spirit. Furthermore, the effect and influence of culture on constructing urban form are
explored and analysed, and then cultural connotation of ancient Chinese urban morphology is
summarized aimed at leading the future urban to be constructed with distinctive character and sense of
belonging.

Key Words: Ancient Chinese, urban morphology, system, Ancient Culture

Introduction

A well-known western scholar Lewis Munford has a famous metaphor, city is a magnet and a
container, which respectively represents city’s spiritual essence and physical form and he
claimed ‘the magnet comes before the container’. He also thought ‘If the great capitals, like
Babylon, Rome, Athens, Baghdad, Peking, Paris, and London, have dominated the history of
their respective countries, it is because they were capable of representing and passing on a larger
portion of their total culture.’ It can be found that culture has significant influence on urban
planning. As a ‘magnet’, different cultures make cities different in manners and customs, and
linguistic performances as well as architectural style and urban morphology.
During the form and evolution of ancient cities in China, cultural conception has great
formative effects and it’s also an important and unique property of a city. Cultures that greatly
influences ancient city planning in China can be classed into three fields: firstly forming and
culture of the well-field system, secondly the architectural culture of wooden frame and city
layout of ethical topic, and thirdly Chinese traditional theory that man is an integral part of
nature, Zhouyi and geomancy, which respectively correspond to system cultural, material
cultural, spiritual cultural 3 layers in Leslie A White’s theory about structure of urban culture.
All the above three fields together constitute an intact theory system that influences ancient city
planning in China.

System culture level—the well-field system

As the mediating structure of urban culture, system culture is its normalization and
institutionalization. The transition of urban culture will be reflected by vicissitudes of various
systems. Urban system culture is based on material culture and mainly aimed at meeting more
essential needs of urban inhabitants. And the need produced when citizens try to deal with
relationships between individuals or between individual and group because of their
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communication needs. Among system culture, family system, economic system and political
system are the most predominant. Economic system has the greatest influence on urban
morphology while it determines the political system.
China is a large agricultural nation and agriculture is the most important material production
department in feudal society, which is also main source of taxes and land rent. The tendency of
stressing agriculture and restraining commerce was established in Zhou dynasty and developed
through the whole feudal society. To some extent, the early urban morphology in China had
been affected by the farming system represented by the well-field system. And the well-field
system is a Chinese land distribution method, which means the “nine squares” system( of land
ownership in China's slave society) with one large square divided into 9 small ones, the 8 outer
ones being allocated to serfs who had to cultivate the central one for the serf owner. This system
promoted the feature of square grid of Chinese ancient cities. A book named research on Kao
Gong Ji's record on pre-Qin Period city planning system has described that city can be viewed
as a large shaft area, whose crisscross footpaths between fields consist road network of cities,
and some identically-sized square field are utilized as urban construction lands according to the
well-field system. Therefore, the overall spatial layout of square grid of Chinese ancient cities
was established. A famous Chinese ancient book "Kao Gong Ji artisan" has detailedly described
the basic city planning based on the idea of the well-field system. And the Imperial City has the
following characteristics:

Figure 1. Imperial City described in Kao Gong Ji artisan.

1) The ancestral temple of a ruling house is located on the left and Altar of Land and Grain on
the right of the Royal Palace while imperial courts are on the front and markets behind it.—It is
a key feature of the planning and structure of the Royal Palace. This feature not only determines
the location of central district given priority to body with palaces but also lays the foundations
of the overall building planning, which fully embodies the main idea of royal dignity. Palaces
are required to be built in the center position of whole city and around it the ancestral temple of
a ruling house, Altar of Land and Grain, imperial court, and markets are located of bilateral
symmetry. The central axis in North-south direction of palaces is chosen as the principal axis of
urban planning, along which three imperial courts symbolizing the state power are built
successively to strengthen leading role. So, controlled by the central axis, the ancestral temple
of a ruling house and Altar of Land and Grain representing the social rites are unified to form
the central district with the Royal Palace as its center. This is palace area and it’s the main part
of planning and structure of the whole city. And other urban parts are arranged to be located
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around it in accordance with their respective functions and layout requirements to together
constitute an organic integrity.
2) The regional division is clear and the land layout is rigorous for the Imperial City in respect
to each individual component function of the whole planning and structure. The palace area is
located along the central axis of whole city planning while other parts around it and of small-
scale, which sufficiently demonstrates that the palace area is the emperor’s political castle.
Industrialists and businessmen live near the market and princes and aristocrats near the palace.
However, the common people have to live in the four corners of the city. This structure is
formed completely based on the feudal etiquette and it also shows an attribute of the Imperial
City.
3) A system of roads consisting of many horizontal roads and axial routes is founded, where
there are three main roads, some secondary main roads parallel to the east-west direction or the
north-south direction, and also circumferential roads around the city. The road network is
symmetrical distributed around the center district while the two middlemost main roads are
respectively symmetry axes vertically and horizontally and their crossing point is the palace
area. Meanwhile, the main roads extend directly to the city gate so that they are able to connect
to roads outside the city. In this way, the system of roads not only helps every parts inside the
Imperial City connect to the outside worlds, but also strengthens the reign of the emperor.
Therefore, following the ritual concept, the construction system established in Zhou dynasty
utilized the seniors and juniors idea represented by different orientations to locate different
functional architectures. A kind of logic about urban planning was gradually formed and it was
a ritual planning rule. And the layout centered on the palace district. Firstly, this layout showed
slaveholders’ sovereign power and dignity and at the same time it’s convenient to meet their
needs to rule. Secondly, Zhou dynasty adopted the architectural style of square grids in the well-
field system and made vertical and horizontal roads compose a strong network. Overall, this
architectural conception played a significant role in forming of the size, layout, roads and
structure of a city. Especially the urban land-use planning system built based on the well-field
system produced far-reaching effect to improvement of ancient city planning in China. And it
was inherited by later generations and also developed into a traditional city planning method in
China.

Material culture level

Material culture in cities consists of a variety of perceptible and physical infrastructures. The
reason why these physical things are incorporated into the scope of urban culture is that not only
they embodies the humanized nature feature but also they are the most direct-viewing and most
vivid representation of urban culture. It is in the sense of, Kevin Lynch points out, city culture
material, is a communication medium, and shows a clear and ambiguous symbol. As one of the
most direct expressions of urban culture, architectures directly influence the forming of urban
morphology.

Architectural culture about timber construction

The influences traditional architectural culture had on ancient urban planning was firstly
reflected in that every layout planning, fortification material and construction technique greatly
affects square city walls and square grid of roads. Because of the particular climate,
architectures were generally built facing the south and with the north at their back, and on the
sun-facing side and the lee side. It gradually led to the north-south square grid of roads network
(figure 2). Secondly, nearly every building, such as houses, gardens, palace and even entire city,
in ancient cities is surrounded by walls. This courtyard wall culture naturally formed a square
and closed architectural feature and the square and linear city construction style therefore
became more convenient. Thirdly, the group buildings layout method mainly consisting of
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timber construction had a more profound effect on urban morphology. Timber constructions
were chosen by everyone from the emperor to common people since that on one hand it was
flexible for timber buildings to stretch on planes and multiple buildings could be arranged of
axial symmetry in space on the other hand.

Figure 2. Layout of Chang' an City of the Sui-Tang Times.

City layout with a pecking order and a theme on politics and ethics

Spatial layout of ancient cities in China corresponded to hierarchical feudal ethics culture,
which showed supreme power of the feudal society closely monitored the social space. In
ancient urban planning and design in China, square form and central position are welcome and
favored, and urban space arranged according to quadrangles and alleys had distinct levels and
close-knit construction. Chinese famous scholar Xiaoxie Zheng thinks that there was always a
kind of square basis largely identical but with minor differences running through spatial
distribution and organization of ancient cities in China. Buildings of different functions were
often arranged according to obvious central axis so that cities and groups of buildings were
constructed on the basis of certain rules and systems. Paratactic banks of quadrangle dwellings
composed streets and alleys, which, well-regulated assembled, further composed quadrate or
anomalous cities surrounded by defensive walls. From an urban perspective, you can pace up
and down from streets hutongs and lanes gradually to courtyards and houses while, as a
resident, you could walk out of the room and go to courtyards, lanes and streets and even the
outer world. Entire city showed a perfect rationality and a methodical order. Traditional Chinese
cities with the artistic methods of organizing urban system and arranging urban layout
synthetically reflected political institutions and ethical cultural features in a feudal centralized
country.
Ancient Beijing (Peking) couldn’t be a better example. The Forbidden City had been always
located in the center of Peking until Qing Dynasty was overthrown and it coincided with the
north-south central axis of Peking. As a representative of social rites leading urban construction,
architectural construction and distribution in Peking were symmetrical and tight. Hall of
Supreme Harmony was located on the center of central axis and Temple of Heaven and Earth
respectively on its south and north as well as Altar of the Sun and the Moon on east and west
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(figure 3). Qing Dynasty had stringent regulations on construction of cities of different classes
and scales, materials and colors of dwelling houses of different official titles. For example, the
number of housings for officials was given a clear definition based on level of their positions.
Also, the seniors and juniors idea was reflected in design and construction of traditional
quadrangle dwellings in China, which were thought as city cells. For quadrangle dwellings, the
head of a family lived in principal room facing south, the eldest son in west-wing room and the
servants in outer court following the pecking order.

Figure 3. Layout of Forbidden City in the Qing Times.

Spiritual culture level

Confucianism-- theory that man is an integral part of nature

Cities are built on the basis of natural environment, so layout structure and overall appearance
of every city will be influenced and restricted by geographical environment and natural
conditions. In addition, all buildings in a city are also a kind of environment, where people
engage in a variety of activities and which therefore is known as space art.
When ancient Chinese designed and constructed urban architectures, they paid much
attention to harmony between buildings and surrounding environments. By means of unifying
urban planning and design and combining with the nature closely, they tried to create a pleasant
urban ecological environment, which is closely related to Chinese traditional ideology and
culture. In dealing with relationship between human and nature, Confucianism advocated the
idea that man is an integral part of nature, ‘The wise man delights in water and the good man
delights in mountains’, insisting the organic integration of man and nature. Taoism emphasized
‘calm and content himself of nature’, ‘Man law the law of the heavens, France Road, Imitation
of Nature’. Additionally, geomantic omen that highlighted yin-yang and five elements was also
supplied to ancient architectures in China. Although it contained a little of superstition, its
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purpose was to find a fittest living place for human beings based on mountains, rivers and other
natural conditions. It was also supposed to realize harmony between people and nature and in
this meaning it was interlinked with the idea of Confucianism and Taoism. This view that we
should learn form law of nature was given creative range in site selection and planning of
Chinese city, structure and modelling of architectures and especially construction of landscape
garden.
In site selection of a city, ancient Chinese laid stress on harmony among the heaven, earth
and man to find a suitable living environment. During the overall arrangement period, Chinese
city were mostly constructed suiting local conditions and coordinated with nature. And cities
with distinctive style were developed relying on surrounding environment. For instance, Suzhou
is a beautiful city where inartificial and artificial rivers and other resources are adequately
utilized to found a waterborne and land transport network (fig 4). Although, for about two
thousand years, Suzhou was destroyed and rebuilt many times, its construction still comes down
in one continuous line and changes little.
In planning for groups of buildings, Chinese traditional city builders were good at utilizing
mountains and rivers to create a good environment architectures and nature integrated. Taking
Slender West Lake as an example, many gardens are built along the lake, realizing that artificial
and natural environment are combined, and delectable scenic beauty is presented. For thousand
years or more, following nature and utilizing mountains and rivers, Chinese have built countless
cities that are coordinated with nature. It is a kind of cultural creation as well and one of the
basic contents of Chinese culture about traditional cities.

Figure 4. Layout of the ancient Suzhou city.

Taoism--yin-yang and five elements and Zhou Yi

Gemmule of Chinese culture—Zhou Yi is thought as a holy scripture of yin-yang theory and all
Chinese culture is rooted in Zhou Yi. Its core idea comes from the common law between nature
and human. Essential attributes of Zhou Yi is that things moves in circles, never ends and are
boundless and the driving force of this law is yin-yang while its essence is interaction between
yin and yang. The five elements, yin-yang and Zhou Yi are basic framework of Chinese classic
philosophy and cultural speculations. The five elements are basic knowledge about materials
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composing everything and law of their development. Yin-yang reveals two contradictory
aspects of a thing in its continuous movement. Based on The five elements and yin-yang, Zhou
Yi develops from divination into a theory that systematically interprets and generalizes the
world view.
The influence Taoism had on ancient urban planning in China mainly reflected in following
aspects: Firstly, ideas of images abstracting from viewing promote formation of the idea about
reconciliation with heaven and earth in urban spatial layout in ancient China and it always exists
in ancient urban planning. Secondly, armomancy and other analogous ideas that Zhou Yi
contains were applied to city planning and the basic feature that number is important for ancient
urban layout was formed. Six and nine are often adopted in determining the number of many
physical objects in architecture since they represent grandness, maturation, copiousness and
consummation in the image-number system.

Fengshui

Urban morphology is a living environment system that contains deep cultural significance
instead of a simple geometric patchwork. It is known that every nation is the creator of their
living environment. Although the environment is related to external conditions, the more
important is expression of their inner consciousness under corresponding cultural concept. As
one of the three birthplaces of city, China has had well-developed urban civilization and culture
from everlasting When analyzed from the perspective of historical development. And its most
distinctive part is profound urban design and site selection of a city according to fengshui.
In construction of ancient cities in China, some artificial measures also were taken to cover
the shortage of environment that is ominous according to fengshui. For instance, in planning and
construction of Chang’an city in Tang Dynasty, the southeast terrain is higher than southwest
terrain, which is thought detrimental in fengshui. Therefore, a pool was dug in southeast
direction to lower the terrain, which became a pleasant scenic spot. Then a temple and two high
wood towers were built to make the southwest terrain rise. In addition Guangzhou city in Ming
Dynasty was also an example.

Conclusion

Material culture of a city is just like its skin, whose development cannot be separated from
material culture elements, such as houses, streets, traffic and public buildings. System culture is
like skeleton of a city and it provides the guaranty for urban material and spiritual culture.
Meanwhile spiritual culture is soul of a city. These three types of culture have influenced and
shaped urban morphology together. Most of ancient urban morphology in China was quadrate
and axial symmetry was applied to the urban layout while its plane profile and structure appear
as regular and square. This urban morphology represents an idea of crown and social rites.
Under the requirement of pecking order and regalism, imperial palace is located in the center of
a city in ancient China and covers a very large acreage. As for design of a city, ancient Chinese
city also has a main feature: urban morphology, urban design, architectural design and garden
design are highly combined together.
In conclusion, ancient Chinese city was made different for a long history and cultural
characteristics it contains. Produced under a macro social background, it fully reveals the
essence of traditional Chinese social life and the guiding ideology for urban construction
contains quintessence of traditional Chinese culture.

References
Wang, G. (1988) ‘The Analysis on the development of ancient Chinese capital’, (Architectural history
Symposium (The tenth), Tsinghua University Press).
562

Kevin Lynch (1984) ‘Good City Form’ (The MIT Press, America).
Zhuang, L. and Zhang, J. (2002) ‘Chinese urban development and construction history’ (Southeast
University Press, Nanjing).
Gao, M. (2002) ‘Philosophical Thinking on Chinese ancient city planning theory’, Chinese and overseas
Architecture, 19-21
Song, O. (1997) ‘The unique Chinese urban geomantic structure’, Huazhong Architecture, 23-27
Li, Q. and Yang, B. (2002) ‘Urban Planning and Historic Preservation’ (Southeast University Press,
Nanjing).
Benedict, R. (1934) ‘Patterns of Culture’ (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, America).
 563

Morphological evolution of urban form components

in the Historical Peninsula of Istanbul

Ayşe Sema Kubat, Eren Kürkçüoğlu

Urban and Regional Planning Department, Istanbul Technical University.
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected].

Abstract. Communities transform urban spaces according to their socio-cultural structures, needs,
principles and policies. This process occurs either as entirely rebuilding of the space, or as constructing
the remaining with the trails left by previous societies. Thus, several cultures generate a physical and
social mosaic within the same urban space over time. Certainly, the most apparent reflection of this
mosaic can be observed on the morphological structure of the space. City blocks, transportation
networks, open spaces, landmarks, monumental buildings and urban facilities come forward as the most
prominent components through the transformation process of urban morphology. From this perspective,
the Historical Peninsula of Istanbul can be defined as a unique mosaic: The reflection of the cultural
features on the urban space can be seen by the variation of urban form components from Pre-Historic
period to the present. The aim of this study is to evaluate how different cultures have transformed the
morphology of the Historical Peninsula of Istanbul through history. Morphological structures and urban
form components were analyzed through old maps in four periods: Greek, Roman, Ottoman and
Republican. With the determinations obtained by mapping techniques, the transformation ratio in
morphological structure has been examined comparatively via urban form components. In this context,
the impact of cultures on urban morphology has also been discussed. According to the findings of the
study, 16% of the components has been existed throughout all periods, 68% destroyed in the process, and
the rest survived by being transformed or appeared in a certain period.

Key Words: Istanbul, historical peninsula, urban history, urban morphology, urban form
components

A brief history of Istanbul

Istanbul is one of the most dominant cities of the world throughout the history. Strategically
situated at the edge of a volatile region of the world, and straddling the eastern and western
cultures with a long, rich history. It became capital city for two dominant empires and it can be
considered as the stage of those cultures that constructed it.
Istanbul is the only city in the world that sits astride two continents Europe and Asia and it
was the capital of three great Empires throughout its history: Roman, Byzantian and Ottoman
Empires. For 27 consecutive centuries, 3 civilizations; Greeks, The Romans and The Turks built
many structures like palaces, stadiums, bathhouses, roads, etc. In each period, the city was
destroyed, next generation simply rebuilt on the top of the ruins of the past, adding their own
layer. So the city became an unique mosaic with the surviving remains of different periods and
cultures.
The first traces of human habitation date back more than 300,000 years in the Yarımburgaz
caverns. Between 685-680 BC, The Megarions, inhabitants of the city of Megara (Greece)
found the city of Chalcedon, which is located around Kadıköy of today’s Istanbul. The
transformation process of Marmara Region’s morphology extends back to 18 thousand years
ago. Current form of the region was shaped 3000 years before present.
In this study, schematizations and geographical information systems are used for historical
analysis. Old engravings and maps of historical peninsula are scanned and documented digitally.
Then, layers of different eras are georeferenced and digitized for comparing the morphological
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situation of different times. In the schematization process, Historical GIS is used to display,
store, analyze and compare data and track changes of Historical Peninsula in time.

Greek Period (Byzantion)

In 7th century BC, a man named “Byzas” who was a member of a Dorian Greek sailor group
from Aegean Sea constructed a Greek fisher village called “Byzantion”. According to the
records, the origin of the village is based on 667 BC, so it can be supposed as a significant
reflection of Greek Colonization Movement (750-550 BC). Byzantion was a typical colonial
trade city “polis”, which refers to a classical construction of a city and centres on ideas of self-
governance, autonomy and independence, with a significant focus on the public realm. The
acropolis [place for worship] and the agora [marketplace] were the two major anchors and
public spaces linked by wide paved streets in a highly ordered manner. Along with those two
main parts of the city, Byzantion had many several urban form components which were
devastated by following communities: (I) The nucleus of the city (The first of the seven hills,
which Topkapı Palace and Hagia Sophia are located today, surrounded with city walls), (II) The
Acropolis (Location of Topkapı Palace), (III) Agora (A grand bazaar), (IV) Amphitheatre, (V)
Temples, (VI) Stadion (stadium / sport activities), (VII) Tetrastoon (theatre baths), (VIII) Baths
and (IX) Residential Areas (Grid pattern) (Figure 1).

Figure 1. The City of Byzantion (667 BC – 196 AD) and urban form components.

Byzantion was the first nucleus of Istanbul, after this period, the city was developed along
the western direction of Historical Peninsula. This continuity was mainly based on the
topography of the site, followed by a development throughout the seven hills. The first hill
which Byzantion was located is the most important region of Historical Peninsula, in terms of
strategic location. It is the main intersection point of Marmara Sea, Bosphorus and Golden
Horn. The hilltop was extremely convenient for Acropolis and appropriate to maintain control.
However, the information for Greek colonial city Byzantion is very little, because only
procedural diagrammatic maps and literature descriptions are available. Since any of the
buildings could not reach today. The location of the city walls may be found in several maps.
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Roman Period (Byzantium to Constantinople)

In 196 AD, Byzantion was incorporated in the Roman Empire by the Roman Emperor
Septimius Severus and converted to Latin as “Byzantium” at 1st century. Byzantium had first
been reconstructed in the time of Septimius Severus not just as a Roman city, but modeled on
Rome itself, on and around seven hills. Later Constantine the Great chose it as his new capital
(330 AD), renaming it “Nea Rome”, and it remained the capital of the eastern part of the Roman
Empire. After the separation of Roman Empire into east and west sections, Eastern Rome
declared the Nea Rome as a capitol city with a new name “Constantinople” in 395 AD.
In addition to Byzantium’s geographical and strategic location, forests and agricultural lands
were the other effective reasons for becoming the new capital city of Roman Empire. Also, the
existing city walls were providing security. After the Roman conquest in 330 AD, traditional
city planning strategy employed by the Romans on any of their colonies, the Roman Castrum is
determined both by the cardinal directions and the protective perimeter afforded by a wall.
Public space was at the intersection of the two major roads through the town. Adapted to a hilly
terrain and to existing building, this model can be applied to the growth and development of
Istanbul during the classical period. The deliberate hierarchy of spaces and the protective quality
are present on the larger scale. The old temples and structures were not ruined down, but the
whole city was reconstructed by Constantinus I. Also he applied the planning idea of zoning
with the inclusion of 14 separate administrative zones similar to Rome. However the road
system was totally different; instead of the grid pattern of Rome, Constantinople’s pattern was
quite organic. “Mese Street”, which starts in front of the Golden Gate through the historic core
of the city, was the main ceremonial artery of the whole structure (Figure – 3).
In this period, urban form components can be listed as follows: (I) Acropolis (from Greek
period), (II) City Walls (renewed), (III) Necropolis, (IV) Mese Street (the main artery), (V)
Golden Gate (for ceremonies), (VI) Constantinus Forum, (VII) The Great Palace, (VIII)
Hippodrome and Obelisks, (IX) Baths, (X) Aqueducts, (XI) Churches (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Constantinople (324-363 AD) main urban form components.

Figure 3. Hagias Sophia Church, Mese Street and Hippodrome.

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Between 4th and 5th centuries, the Emperors gave importance to the city centres that reflects
to Constantinople with constructing new forums. Forum Bovis and Forum Arcadii, which were
the two important focal points of the forum chain, constructed along the main axis on Mese
Street. In the 5th century, the city walls were renewed by Theodosius II. The city was enlarged
with the construction of the new defensive wall nearly a mile and a half to the west of the
Constantinian circuit. By those improvements and the growth of population; the land was
extended from 6 km² to 14 km².
In this powerful period of Constantinople, new harbours and warehouses were constructed,
public spaces within the old Severan walls were restored and renewed. Architecture and statuary
have gained more importance in Roman period; in addition to the newly constructed buildings,
streets, piazzas and forums were enriched with obelisks and monuments. Also, administrative
and religious buildings were all decorated with ornaments and mosaics. This power and glory
began to collapse along with the 7th century in consequence of plague, wars and upheavals,
disasters (earthquakes and fires) and economic constraints.

Figure 4. Constantinople (4th – 7th Centuries) main urban form components.

The collapse of the city started with the Arabian and Bulgarian attacks at the beginning of 7th
century. A large part of the city was demolished and the identities of the monasteries, churches
and public piazzas have changed. This devastation and transformation continued until the 10th
century, on the other hand, the city became a religious centre. 25 churches were restored and 8
new churches were constructed. Before the 9th century, the harbour on the southern part of the
city was ruined and economical activities were transferred to Mese Street and Haliç. At the
beginning of the 12th century, Galata and Haliç districts were besieged and the Great Palace and
Mese Street were destroyed.
Between 12th and 15th centuries, city walls, palaces and monasteries were reconstructed. It
was clear that the city no longer had the power and glory of the previous centuries. The old city
including Hagias Sophia Church, Hippodrome and the Great Palace was not majestic and strong
anymore. Around the 14th century, Constantinople was no longer an empire, there were only
small villages surrounded by city walls. Due to this decadence, the city was conquered by the
Ottoman Empire in 1453. After the conquest, the first act was transforming the Hagias Sophia
Church to a mosque, which shows the impact of culture and values to the city. This was also a
symbol of a great transition between two major periods.
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Figure 5. Constantinople (8th – 15th Centuries) main urban form components.

In order to summarize the Roman Period of Istanbul (Constantinople), the rise and fall of the
emperors had shaped the structure and morphology of the city. At the end of Roman period, the
city has grown to approximately 5 times of the Greek colonial centre and the growth control was
achieved by the city walls in different time periods. Mese Street and the forum chain, which
connects the historical core to the outer parts, were the most dominant urban form elements of
this period. Churches were also significant elements to the fact that the importance of religion.
Some components of the previous community have remained in this period; however the
identity of many has changed. The topography of the site was the decisive factor for the
development of the city. The hills were the main focus for urban form components, especially
for constructing the symbolic buildings. In this way, the silhouette of the city has become more
powerful and splendid.

Figure 6. Constantinople, general morphological structure and urban form components of

the Roman Era.

Ottoman Period (Konstantiniyye)

Following the conquest of Constantinople, Fatih Sultan Mehmed (Mehmed II) immediately set
out to revitalize the city. He urged the return of those who had fled the city during the siege, and
resettled Muslims, Jews, and Christians from other parts of Anatolia. The sultan invited people
568

from all over Europe to his capital, creating a cosmopolitan society that persisted through much
of the Ottoman period. Fatih Sultan Mehmed was aimed to reconstruct the city, revive the
economy and lay the foundations of a populous and powerful empire; so he repaired the city's
damaged infrastructure, began to build the Grand Bazaar, and constructed Topkapı Palace (to
the location of the Acropolis), the sultan's official residence. He was dedicated to the idea of
renewing a devastated city as a capital of the world with a new structure.
Along with the revitalizing process, many constructions and reconstructions were performed
such as renovation of city walls, construction of Yedikule Fortress, conversion of churches into
mosques, generation of new gardens, formation of the nucleus of Grand Bazaar, decentralization
of old harbours and warehouses to Golden Horn, reconstruction of markets and shops and
construction of new market areas in new forms as “han” (inn / caravanserai) and “bedesten”
(covered market place).
The Ottomans quickly transformed the city from a bastion of Christianity to a symbol
of Islamic culture. Religious foundations were established to fund the construction of imperial
mosques, often adjoined by schools, hospitals, and public baths. Also, other urban form
components started to be formed by the effect of Islamic Culture. A new settlement unit
“mahalla”, which developed around a small local centre including its own mosque, han, market
area and bath, began to emerge all across the city54. Furthermore, a new formation of the Islamic
Culture “Complex (Külliye)” which contains a mosque, an institution, a madrasah (religious
school), a library, a clinic (darüşşifa), kitchens, a bathhouse (hammam) and a fountain, was a
permanent and unique component of this period (Figure 8). In addition, many churches from the
previous period were converted into mosques. Mese Street was henceforth called as “Divan
Yolu” and Hippodrome was converted into a piazza and renamed as “At Meydanı”. In
summary, main prominent urban form components of Ottoman period can be listed as follows:
(I) Mahallas, (II) Mosques, (III) Complexes (Külliye), (IV) Madrasah, (V) Palace (Sultan’s
residence), (VI) Han / Bedesten, (VII) Baths, (VIII) Market places, (IX) Harbours and
Warehouses, (X) Aqueducts, (XI) Trade Centres and (XII) City Walls (Figure 7).

Figure 7. Konstantiniyye (15th – 16th Centuries) main urban form components.

54
According to the records of the Ottoman period, there were 180 neighborhood units with the main
characteristics of a “Mahalla”.
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Figure 8. Süleymaniye Mosque and its complex (külliye).

Through the 16th century, commercial centres were at the same places as in the Byzantium
Period. The most outstanding commercial areas were between Divan Yolu and southern shores
of Golden Horn and Galata. As well as the eastern shore of Bosporus began to develop in
commercial activities, especially Üsküdar, the opposite side of Historical Peninsula. Also the
residential areas were significantly developed; settlement extended from Ayasofya (Hagias
Sophia) to Beyazıt, Şehzadebaşı and Fatih districts. Moreover, new settlements started to
emerge on the shores of Tophane and Fatih, new villages erected in Ortaköy, Arnavutköy,
Bebek and İstinye with a predominant Greek population. As in the previous periods, topography
had an important role for development. The silhouette of the city was prominent for
demonstrating the power and prestige. Therefore, the mosques were constructed on the peaks of
the hills to be seen and perceived from various places. As a result; Bayezid Complex, Şehzade
Complex and Süleymaniye Complex formed the unique silhouette of the Ottoman Empire.
In this century, Galata District (northern opposite shore of Historical Peninsula) had
continued to progress; it was defined as “Pera” or “Istanbul Opposite” and contained three large
districts: (I) Muslim district (around the Arap Mosque), (II) The district of the oldest inhabitants
around the harbour and (III) Ortahisar Mahalla of the non-Muslim groups (on the slope).
Different ethnic groups were lived in their own particular districts not only in Galata, but also
all across the city with their own religious rituals and customs.
After this major structure of Ottoman Empire, the city had experienced various failures and
changes between 17th and 19th centuries. The awakening of Western Countries in technology,
science and economy had a negative effect on the Ottoman Empire, the population continued to
increase. In the Tulip Period (in 18th century), the ruling class, court members and senior state
bureaucrats started to leave the old quarters by the impact of French Palace and Landscape
Design Movement. New palaces, villas, pavilions and mansions were built along the shores of
Bosporus and on the northern side of Golden Horn (Sadabad district). Those new buildings were
constructed by the wealth of high bureaucracy and they were hidden from common people. So,
the contrast and distinction between the “elites” and local people started to be more explicit.
Also in the city centre, Western architectural and artistic styles (Baroque and Rococo) were
dominant with the reflection of a new style in Nuruosmaniye Complex. Besides, new military
and administrative buildings were constructed outside of the city borders as a nucleus of new
districts; such as Selimiye Barracks in Üsküdar, Humbarahane Barracks in Halıcıoğlu, Arsenal
Barracks in Tophane and Artillery Barracks in Taksim. The number of “han”s (the symbol of
commercial activities) had nearly tripled at the end of 18th century. Lastly, 90 great fires
devastated various parts of the city and almost all of the wooden houses were destroyed
throughout the 18th century.
In the 19th century, Galata was the commercial centre of Istanbul which includes business
centres, banks, shopping arcades and luxury shops. Meanwhile, Karaköy which situated on the
shore just below Galata, had became a dynamic commercial centre. The old traditional shops
and markets were still concentrated on the Istanbul side.
570

Until the middle of the 19th century, the image of Istanbul had been characterized with its
mosques, tall minarets and their domes with a harmony. In this century, barracks, government
buildings, banks and shopping arcades were more predominant on the overall city structure.
Also, there were many new developments in transportation; as well as the construction of new
roads, ferry boat voyages were increased and a new railroad system was constructed.

Republican Period (Istanbul – Modern Age)

The modern age of Istanbul had started with an administrative reform followed by the idea of
making Istanbul as a “symbol of civilization” in 1839. During the truce period before 1923,
there were two different pattern typologies in the opposite shores of the Golden Horn; flats and
trade units in Galata-Pera district and crowded housing units, mosques and complexes in the
Historical Peninsula. In the very first years of Republic, the administrative units moved to
Ankara after becoming the capital city. The most important urban renewal project was applied
in Beyazıt Square and also other applications were intended to create small green areas,
recovering the streets and extending the tram line. Another important project was the Taksim
Square Plan, which made by the Italian sculptor Canonica.
In the first half of 1930’s; three urban planners A. Agache, H. Lambert and H. Elgoetz
proposed many projects for the city’s future. The most important proposals were the 2 nd degree
streets around the landmarks, industrial sites out of the city centre, enrichment of the existing
railway system, green and shaded streets and increment of sea voyages instead of constructing a
bridge on Bosporus. Most of them were minor proposals to increase the quality of the urban
structure; however the major changes affecting the morphology of the city first came with the
Prost Plan in 1937.
Henri Prost aimed many objectives to find the solutions for the problems of the existing city
structure: (I) Creating modern infrastructure and flexibilization of transportation system, (II)
Conservation of the topography, urban pattern and architectural landmarks, (III) Restriction of
the building heights, (IV) Improving the recreational needs, (V) Making the historical and
cultural buildings prominent. In line with these objectives, new piazzas, boulevards, streets,
stadiums, exhibition areas, opera houses and monuments were constructed (Figure – 9). The
plan was revised after 1950 and some of his suggestions were implemented, while some of them
were suspended.
There were some negative results of the plan: (I) Prost wanted to protect the historical
pattern but the old neighbourhoods were not conserved, (II) During the construction of new
roads, some important historical buildings were demolished, (III) With his suggestion of the
industrial area in Haliç, the water was polluted and old settlements through the coastline were
ruined, (IV) There plans of Üsküdar, Kadıköy, Galata and Beyoğlu were not integrated.

Figure 9. Henry Prost Plan (1937), proposals and new urban form components.
 571

In Menderes Period (1950 – 1960), new major and primary roads were constructed in
Historical Peninsula with the revision of Prost Plan: Vatan and Millet Streets, Ordu Street,
Sirkeci - Florya Boulevard and Şehzadebaşı – Edirnekapı Roads. The north-south belt Atatürk
Boulevard was extended, Barbaros Boulevard was constructed towards the northern direction of
Beşiktaş. The hills over Haliç were transformed into squatter areas with the influence of the
industry. New piazzas such as Aksaray Square, Eyüp Square and Eminönü Square were
generated. During all these applications; lots of historical landmarks were destroyed or moved
to other places, approximately 7000 structures were demolished or assigned to government,
hotel buildings were constructed into the green zone near Taksim and a huge population
migrated from Anatolia to Istanbul in this period. Informal constructions started to dominate and
threaten the structure of the city and the boundaries were exceeded, in the meantime, the
morphology of Historical Peninsula has been damaged and changed.
After 1970’s, construction practices has increased. Two bridges (1973: Bosporus and 1988:
Fatih Bridge) gave new directions to the development of the city. In the last 30-year period,
Istanbul has become a megalopolis. Contemporary Istanbul is not just one of these historical
phases, but a mix of them. The modern project of a new history-less Istanbul is being
reevaluated as the city becomes increasingly diverse. The new city has a vibrancy resulting from
a recent explosion in population growth and is searching for a new identity. While it does draw
on a magnificent legacy from its past, it also faces new challenges as population and economic
pressures force the city to adapt, evaluate itself and change.

Intertemporal transitions: from Byzantion to Istanbul

Byzantium to Istanbul (2700 years): Byzantium had very little covering area when compared to
today’s İstanbul. Only some of the walls and statues are remaining today in Topkapı Palace. The
list of the temples and other civic buildings are described in literature, but nearly no maps or
engravings can be found describing the city form.
Constantinople to Istanbul (1700 years): Constantinople had a main axis known as Mese
Street. In fact, the word “Mese” means middle road, indicating centrality of this street. Mese
was the center of economic and social activity, surrounded by colonnaded shopping centres.
Konstantiniyye to Istanbul (560 years): Like Constantine, Mehmet the Conqueror embarked
on a building program when he appropriated Istanbul in 1453. As an example of religious
tolerance, he retained Hagias Sophia and turned it into a Mosque. Mosques take over the civic
services of the city, and the rest of the city fabric re-centres around these spaces and divides into
a series of cellular neighbourhoods. The streets congest as the city encrusts itself. In the late
Ottoman period, outside pressures lead the emperors to reconsider the role of the city as a model
for development of the nation and empire. Looking back to the West for inspiration, late
Ottoman emperors began to employ French city planners to re-envision Istanbul in Western
image, re-inscribing thoroughfares and public spaces that had disappeared during much of the
Ottoman rule. Taking the strategic advantage of fires, various neighbourhoods were redrawn
with orthogonal lines, new public spaces were built and roads developed to deal with an
increase in population and new transportation technologies.
The Historical Core: From the first settlement to contemporary Istanbul, the Seraglio
(Sarayburnu) was always a sacred place. In Greek and Byzantian periods, the hill in the northern
part of the core was Acropolis. In southern side, just outside of the inner city walls, tremendous
church of Hagias Sophia has been built. In same area, the Great Palace and Hippodrome has
been built, where Blue Mosque and Sultanahmet Square stand today. After the Ottoman
conquest, Acropolis was replaced by Topkapı Palace which is the main palace of all emperors.
The hippodrome and Great Palace was mostly destroyed in early Ottoman period, thus Blue
Mosque has built in the place of Great Palace. The ruins of hippodrome were conserved and
became a square.
572

Byzantium Constantinople

Early Ottoman Late Ottoman

Figure 10. Istanbul, morphological transitions between historical periods.

Byzantium Constantinople

Early Ottoman Late Ottoman

Figure 11. Morphological transformation of the Historical Core of the Peninsula.

 573

Forum Constantin: The Forum of Constantine was built outside of the old walls. It was
circular in shape and had two monumental gates to the east and west. The column of
Constantine which still stands upright and is known as Çemberlitaş was erected in the centre of
the square.
Saraçhane (Aqueducts): Aqueduct of Valens is planned and begun already in the time of
Constantine the Great (died 337). It ended in a great reservoir in the vicinity of the Forum of
Theodosius. Today, the area is in the quarter of Fatih, and spans the valley between the hills
occupied today by the Istanbul University and the Fatih Mosque. The surviving section is 921
metres long, about 50 metres less than the original length. The Atatürk Boulevard passes under
its arches.

Conclusion

Throughout all periods, the North-eastern point of the Historical Peninsula was always a sacred
& special place since the first settlement. The main morphological characters of Roman Empire,
main axis (Mese), Hippodrome, main Palace and Churches with more diagonal streets were
made. Mese is still the main road approaching to the historical core area as “Divan Yolu” today.
In Ottoman Era, there was lack of planned public open spaces. Since, the mosques were the
main nodes of public spaces. The diagonal, straight streets and wide open spaces of Roman city
were lost and more organic Islamic pattern appeared.
When the urban form components are examined in detail through different periods; it can be
observed that the predominant components of each period are different. In Greek Period; the
city walls, Acropolis, Agora and the temples were the main components. With the growth of the
city and change of culture in Roman Period, the components which became dominant were new
city walls, forums, Hippodrome, Mese Street, aqueducts, churches and monasteries. In Ottoman
Period, the walls were nearly same but the most predominant elements were the mosques, which
are the main urban form components of the Islamic Culture. In addition, public spaces were
transformed into trade areas, Hippodrome was transformed into At Meydanı, Mese Street were
renamed as Divan Yolu, new palaces, complexes, harbours and mahallas (neighbourhood units)
were constructed. In modern period, a part of the prior components were demolished during new
planning and application practices. New roads, open spaces, cultural and administrative
buildings and defined function areas were constructed.
When comparatively considered, it can be seen that some of the components are common
through all periods, which are city walls, palaces or administrative buildings, aqueducts,
monuments, piazzas / public spaces, warehouses and religious buildings. (Table – 1) Almost all
of them are still surviving today, although each community was settled on the ruins of the old
ones. There were radical differences on the general morphology of the city, just like the Islamic
structure of the Ottoman Period with its mosques, quiet and secluded lifestyle, narrow streets
and cul-de-sacs in contrast with the Roman culture in such ways. However, urban form
components are the remaining traces of the past, even if the general morphological structure of a
city has transformed. As well as their importance in historical time sequence, these elements can
also be informative landmarks for subsequent periods of time. In this context, Istanbul has a
unique mosaic in terms of reflecting different periods. As an epilogue, Istanbul is a palimpsest
of geographical and topological preconditions overlaid with multiple layers of history and urban
culture and as a contemporary metropolis.
574

Table 1. Comparative evaluation of urban form components of Istanbul throughout

different periods of history

Greek Roman Ottoman Modern

City Walls
Via Egnatia
Mese Street
Divan Yolu
Acropolis
Agora
Hippodrome
Obelisks
Palaces
Churches
Temples
Harbours
Aqueducts
Baths
Gymnasium
Admin.Centre
Necropolis
Golden Gate
Forums
Monuments
Public Space
Warehouses
Mosques
Madrasah
Trade Center
At Meydanı

References

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Çelik, Z. (1993) The remaking of Istanbul: portrait of an Ottoman city in the nineteenth century
(Berkeley: University of California Press).
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Kuban, D. (2010) İstanbul, bir kent tarihi: Bizantion, Konstantinopolis, İstanbul, Türkiye Ekonomik ve
Toplumsal Tarih Vakfı, Istanbul.
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International Seminar on Urban Form 1, 28-41.
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form: comparative analyses for Eyüp, Fener, Balat, Zeyrek, Ayvansaray and Galata districts’, in
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Seminar on Urban Form 1, 31-48.
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Konstantinopolis-İstanbul (YKY, Istanbul).
 575

Yenen, Z. (1992) ‘Social and religious influences on the form of early Turkish cities of the Ottoman
period’, Journal of Architectural and Planning Research 9, 301-14.
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Cadastre Stambouliote’, Journal of the Islamic Environmental Design Research Centre 13/14, 112-29.
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İstanbul).
576

A code for the Islamic cities of the Gulf

Attilio Petruccioli
Department of Architecture and Urban Planning, Qatar University, Doha.

Abstract. The paper demonstrates that the urban fabric of the traditional cities of the Islamic countries,
beyond an apparently chaotic image , possess a logical structure, that contains all the information needed
for the formulation of a contemporary urban planning code.

Key Words: History, fast growing Islamic cities, typology, urban fabric.

Introduction

The subject of this paper is the traditional Islamic city, or, those settlements of the southern
world inhabited and politically controlled by peoples of Islamic faith, as they appeared at the
height of the colonial movement of the nineteenth century. The fundamental question is
whether these prevalently spontaneous urban constructions are the result of anarchic urban
planning, or whether they possessed a complex code. I will demonstrate that the traditional
cities of Islamic countries, beyond an apparently disordered image, possess a logical structure
that contains all the information needed for the formulation of an urban planning code.

Islamic City

The traditional Islamic city is characterized by homogeneous and compact urban fabrics with
building that is for the most part mono-typological, often enclosed in the circuit of their own
walls. The chaotic appearance of the traces and building fabrics seen through progressive
mechanisms of closure toward the outside and the labyrinthine course of the streets have stirred
up the perplexity of Western travellers and the first scholars who confronted the cities of the
Ottoman Empire and the Maghreb55.
Beyond an initial superficial, subjective impression that all traditional Islamic cities have the
same form—in reality they share the use and perception to which the foreign visitor is
obligated—they differ from one another in the morphological conditions of their territory, in
their origins and their cultural affiliations.
Dar al Islam has welcomed many ethnicities and cultures, which before the Hegira had
developed over the course of many centuries their own idea of space and a different relationship
with the landscape. The Arab world tied to the deserts and the steppes of arid lands like the

55
It is worth summarizing the various Orientalist positions on the Islamic city. The merit of extending the
discourse from the monuments to the urban fabric goes to the brothers Georges Marçais and William
Marçais who emphasized the essentially urban role of religion. See Georges Marçais, "L'urbanisme
musulman," in Melanges d'histoire et d'archeologie de l'occident musulman, 1: Articles et Conferences de
Georges Marçais (Algiers, 1957), pp. 219-231. Also see William Marçais, "L'islamisme et la vie
urbaine," in Comptes rendus de l'Academie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres, (1928), pp. 86-100; G. von
Grunebaum and R. Brunschvig share Marçais 's spatial model as well as a certain resistance to the
"irrationality" of the Arab urban fabric. Only after the sixties, with the conference at Oxford, did these
Orientalist propositions begin to be challenged. In this conference, Albert Hourani noted the African
origin of the Marçais model, and every other participant underlined the impossibility of generalizing from
a single model since the Islamic city is a complex phenomenon, extended in both geography and in time
(see Albert Hourani and S. M. Stern, eds., The Islamic City: A Colloquium (Oxford, 1970).
 577

Arabian peninsula, in the dialectic between nomad and sedentary, barricaded in oases, has
developed a conception of double space: a love of closed and delimited space, from the short
perspective, and at the same time an idea of a serial and repetitive architecture of simple
elements. The Turkish world is formed in the steppes of Central Asia where the main animal of
transport is the horse, which can range infinitely like the eye of the rider. Its space is therefore
open, intolerant of limits and enclosures. Beginning in the tenth century, this conception will
have to compete first with the Persian world and then with the classical world of Byzantium,
ending up profoundly influenced by them. Then there is the Berber world, installed in the Atlas
Mountains, that has marked, with its small tribal settlements with no hierarchical nodes, many
cities of the Maghreb.
The fundamental fact is that the traditional city with the coherent development of its building
fabric, a balanced relationship between residential and monumental building, and a cautious and
proportioned use of technology is good, while the contemporary city, built by the great-
grandchildren, has no character, like the neighbourhoods of Riyadh or, with an excess of
character, is always inappropriate, as at Dubai.
Let’s disregard Dubai, which, in its shrewd synthesis of real estate investments and
astonishing effects (Miami + Las Vegas), presents itself unfortunately as a successful model to
the mayors of the Arab world and beyond, and is in any case an exception. Rather, Riyadh in its
ordinariness is an emblematic example 56.

The failure of the imported Western codes

Beginning in the 1950s under the influence of ARAMCO, the Arabian-American Oil Company,
the cities of Saudi Arabia developed according to master plans based on a geometric grid of
streets and minimum residential lots. In 1953 in the case of the Al Malaz quarter, called New
Riyadh, for government employees, the physical pattern follows the grid with the hierarchy of
streets, regular rectangular blocks and square residential lots with 400 square metres of surface.
With regard to the traditional city, two new concepts are introduced: very low density, about a
fifth of that of the old city, and a large area devoted to streets that end up covering half the total.
The introduction of the principle of detached setbacks has almost automatically imposed the
building type of the one- or two-storey villa. In 1968 the plan of the capital was entrusted to
Doxiadis Associates who, next to the zoning for the new city, confirmed the choice of the
geometric grid, proposing a super grid divided into twelve smaller grids measuring 2 X 2 km.
The standard lot is 400 square metres, or 20 X 20, but in low-income neighbourhoods the
standard is reduced to 150 square metres. In spite of this, the gross density is very low, with
sixteen units per hectare, or 87 inhabitants per hectare57.
In the city of Riyadh, the minimum lot sizes with different standards for different areas,
related to the London Building Act of 1844, have institutionalized social segregation by income,
contrary to the custom of the traditional city, in which different social classes lived side by side.
The confirmation of the setbacks, which is inspired by the London Building Act of 1894, and
the concession to buildings with separations of only two metres of window openings with a
view onto the land of one’s neighbour, has in fact obscured the concept of privacy. In Riyadh,
neighbours are compelled to arm themselves with panels of corrugated plastic, to extend the
height of fence walls to cover the view 58.

56
On Dubai see: Deeba Haider. “ The Growing Pains of Dubai: a City in Search of its Identity”, in The
City in the Muslim World, edited by S.K.Jayyusi, R. Holod, A. Petruccioli and A. Raymond, vol. 2,
pp.1063-1084, Brill, Leiden, 2008.
57
Doxiadis, Riyadh Master Plan, A-19, 1971, pp.119-121.
58
Saleh Al.Hathloul. The Arab-Muslim City: Tradition, Continuity and Change in the Physical
Environment, Riyadh, Dar Al Sahan, 1996, p. 215.
578

Figure 1. Detached cottages in the city of Riyadh.

A paradoxical situation has been created, a dichotomy between a code of behaviour and
long-established customs based on the Koranic Code opposed to the urban planning codes of the
municipalities, derived from Western culture.
Riyadh is a city of the modern era, a product of a universal crisis in urban planning of the
20th century that has seen the organic city of the past slowly break up into separate mono-
functional parts and architecture become the expression of individual languages, based on self-
referential principles. In the 1970s the detachment from history was complete, and rules
became increasingly more abstract. Today there is the imperative to re-establish the codes for
the contemporary Islamic city, not by means of a universal manual or a pragmatic laissez-faire,
but rather through the understanding of the processes that in every specific region of the Dar al
Islam have given physical form to the necessities of society. This is not a case of codes that are
a collection of forms frozen in time like the “Recueil…” of J. N. L. Durand, but rather a
patrimony of stratified information jealously guarded by history in the urban fabric of the
traditional city.

The Shariah is not an Urban Code

In the context of Islamic legal tradition, this concept of continuity within a tradition that changes
is present. The first schools of Kufa and Medina, respectively Hanafi and Maliki in the first
century of the Hegira, try to mix the different local traditions with the Koran, to make the ideal
doctrine come together in the sunnah59. With the taking of power by the Abbasid Dynasty, a
return to the purity of the law is imposed—so that it might reform the sunnah of the Umayyad,
giving authority to the most ancient sources—and in the last analysis to the Prophet through the
numerous hadith 60 . The potential contradiction between sunnah and the new hadith was
rewritten by the Shafia school following the universalist principle, according to which a norm
must be recognized not only locally, but by the entire ummah of believers. The norms relative
to the city contained in the whole of the Koranic Law, basically unchanged after the ninth
59
On Islamic law, see: N.J. Coulson. A History of Islamic Law, Edinburgh, Edinburgh University Press,
1964; Schacht, J. An Introduction to Islamic law, London, Oxford University Press, 1964. The Shafia
school recognizes the sunnah as the second legal source after the Koran. For Al-Shafi, sunnah is the
exemplary behaviour of Mohammed inspired by God, while for the early schools it was the local tradition
where these were located.
60
Besim S. Hakim. “Mediterranean urban and building codes: origins, content, impact and lessons,” in
Urban Design International, 2008, 13, p. 5.
 579

century, are measures that tend to prevent changes that might disturb the moral integrity of the
community or destabilize the peace of the neighbourhood. These are proscriptive meta-
principles rather than prescriptive rules61. They have more of a social value than a physical one;
they are rules of conduct rather than urban planning codes.

The Islamic Common Law is not an Urban Code

Among the treatises generated by the Shariah the most ancient are those of Ibn al-Hakam of
Cairo (767-829 CE) and Ibn Dinar of Cordoba (827 CE), both lost, but cited by more recent
authors. The treatise of Ibn al-Imam of Tutela (940-996 CE) contains numerous legal questions
relative to the city and to building with specific cases about Medina, Cairo, Cordoba and
Kairawan. After confirming the need for rights of interdependence between citizens and stating
that the public can not be damaged by activities that occur in private, Ibn al-Imam discusses
problems of the location of mosques and baths and harmful and polluting activities; he gives a
rough definition of the hierarchies of the streets; he disciplines the use of the waters; he treats in
detail the protection of privacy and the prohibition of outside views. An important role is played
in the treatise by the discipline of contact between nearby walls—a principle reinforced by the
Prophet in the period of Medina, whose hadith states that “a neighbour cannot prohibit another
neighbour from inserting a wooden beam in his wall.” 62 . On the private level, the treatise
protects the right of use of the property with the possibility of increasing the space up to contact
with the adjoining property. It codifies the right to pre-emption of an adjacent property, a
principle at the base of the social continuity of the traditional quarters. These are certainly
principles that have an undeniable influence on the organization of architecture and urban
planning—suffice it to consider that the problem of introspection conditions the opening of
doors and windows and the height of buildings—but we are still in any case within the Common
Law63.
The concept of fina, on the other hand, is original and of great potential, an area of virtual
relevance about a metre wide, along the outside wall of the building64. It is not an absolute right
since its exercise clashes dialectically with the public right, which establishes the control of the
streets, the aqueducts, the emptying of the sewers, and garbage collection, ensuring that the
public way is kept free and safe. Fina is a sophisticated and flexible concept that allows a
limited “invasion of the field” without obstruction of the passage, through the use of protections
from rain like gargoyles, downspouts, enclosed balconies or musharabiyyas or an occupation of
the land like temporary merchant stalls outside the stores, seats or steps in front of the door of
the house.
The impression one has is that the evolution of the Islamic Mediterranean cities rests on a
shrewd interpretation of the fina, so that protective roofs can become porticoes and closed, and
successively be transformed into an extension of the house, or, the stores can gain surface area

61
Besim S. Hakim, op.cit., p. 2.
62
Saleh Al-Hathloul, op.cit., pp. 97-102.
63
With regard to the house, the treatises of the early centuries have left a series of restrictions that have
undoubtedly had an effect on the character of the house: 1. The house cannot have stairs or a mastaba on
the street, a rule not applied to semi-private streets of the quarter; 2. The doors of houses that face one
another should not be placed on the same axis; 3. The lower windows must be located at a height that
does not permit views from the outside; 4.The overhangs of the upper floors, whether mushrabiya
cantilevered spaces must be high enough to allow for the passage of a camel with its load; 5. Sabat are not
allowed on the public street.
64
On the concept and practice of the fina, see: Ibn al-Imam, ms. in Algeri Al-Maktabah al-Wataniyah,
n.1292 , French translation: Barbier “ Des droits et obligations entre proprietaires d’heritage voisins,” in
Revue algerienne et tunisienne de legislation et jurisprudence, part 1, 1900 e part 2, 1901, respectively
1,141 e 143; see also Ibn al-Rami, Kitab al-I‘lan bi-Ahkam al Bunyan, ms. in Rabat, Dar al-khizanah al-
Ammah, n. A8 2834, respectively pp. 43-45.
580

in a moment of inattention of the muhtasib, the official in charge of the control of the bazaar65.
A particular case of the application of the concept of the fina is the sabat. This uses the air space
of the fina on both sides of a street, giving a neighbour the possibility of building a “bridge”
over the street, attaching itself to the property of the neighbour across the street. The result goes
from a room resting on a row of joists or an arched vault, or held up by two posts on the ground;
where the sabat is extended in depth there are real tunnels, which are the more propitious the
more one moves away from the Mediterranean toward the Sahara Desert. If the fina explains in
part the generative principles of the Islamic city, especially the building scale, it does not
contribute to making the corpus of the Shariah an architectural and planning code. If we accept
the idea that the structure of the organism is encoded like a descriptive program, an architectural
and planning code of the Islamic city can be reconstructed only a posteriori beginning with the
legacy of history.
It is an operation of reconstruction that must be carried out backwards, singling out typical
behaviours, called reconstruction of the typological process of the house, of the building fabric
and urban plan66 (12).

Towards the New Urban Code for the Contemporary Islamic City

The construction of a code is therefore a task that can not ignore the local context. Among the
many information that the typological process of the cities produces some have universal value
like curves around the corners of buildings or the city walls; like the convergence of the paths
on the city gates, which give the typical mark of leg chicken: like the layout of building fabrics
in relation to the hierarchy of paths. Others will have a purely local character, primarily the
choice of residential type so intimately tied to the family social unit, its customs and traditions.
The residential type, has been said many times, does not travel, like the dialects it is rooted in
the territory, unlike the cultivated language, expression of an elite often multi-religious and
multicultural. The construction of a code means pick up the threads of continuity with history
with attention to the genius loci, to the deepest traditions of society, which are almost part of its
instinct. A basic theme is that of the courtyard house fabric. They are based on an archetypal
idea of space: the fence, and widespread in cultures far apart as China, India and the
Mediterranean sea. With the passage of time they gave way to extrovert forms of living (not
only in Islamic countries, but in all countries at the time under the Roman Empire) based on
forms of building types referred to the row-house and then to the apartment-house. In the
compact suburbs of Western and Islamic countries the later building type has become the
reference type. It should be stressed as row-houses and apartment-houses are not inventions
impromptu but the steps of the typological process of the courtyard house, unlike the type of
cottage house that reigns in American suburbs, which is a step backward from the "social" and
the aggregate capacity of the courtyard house. I demonstrated how easily the adoption of
colonial codes has dissected the city of Islamic countries, promoting alien building types and
urban fabrics and contrasted with local traditions, social customs and religious rules. The case of
Riyadh is the most striking.

65
The occupation of public land must have been a usual practice in the traditional Islamic city, if an
abundant literature relates the ordinances of the governors to repress it, often unsuccessfully: with regard
to Cairo alone, we can cite the risala (treatise) of Ibn al-Shihna entitled Tahsil al-tariq ila tahsil al-tariq,
which boasts of the measures taken by the emir Yashbak min Mahdi in the 15 th century to rearrange the
streets of Cairo. The muhtasib is the traditional inspector of the market. See: R. Levy. “Muhtasib,” in
Encyclopaedia of Islam, 1st ed., vol. 3, pp. 702-703.
66
See A. Petruccioli, After Amnesia66. Learning from Islamic Mediterranean Urban fabric, Bari, ICAR,
2007.
 581

Figure 2. The proposed masterplan of one quadrant in the new expansion of the city of
Riyadh.

The central theme of research, I am conducting in the Polytechnic of Bari, is centred on the
courtyard house fabric and its application even in the new expansion of the Muslim city, in
different climatic and cultural contexts. Taking in consideration all modern problems of traffic,
parking and prevalence of the use of private cars, all different schemes have demonstrated their
viability in terms of real sustainability, quality of social life offered by public spaces, semi-
public and private in terms of performance compared to extreme arid climates. Versus a
hypothetical expansion of the city by means of disconnected objects like slabs and towers as in
Mostar, Essaouira, Fez and Antakia or by means of repeated endlessly cottage houses as in the
suburbs of the Arabian Peninsula we propose to use fabric of courtyard houses. This is a real
change of direction at 180 degrees, which opposes the traditional way of composing based on
addition to a method based on subtraction: subtraction of paths, creation of voids for the
collective life as sahn, courtyards of the mosque or caravanserai, subtraction of Courts for the
private life. In the case of Riyadh it has decided to design a new quadrant of the city, an entire
compound of 4 square km divided into sub-units of housing 500 x 150 meters, as prepared in
the General Master Plan by the municipality.

Figure 3. A proposed neighbourhood in the quadrant.

582

Figure 4. The proposed urban fabric based on innovative design of a traditional layout.

The proposed scheme provides total separation between driveways giving access to each
house, walkways, located at an altitude above and adopting a system based on a tissue of
courtyard houses. All buildings are largely inspired by traditional types as you can still see in
the old city of Al Darriyya. The project results in terms of building performance, high density
with 65% of the area covered with three-story buildings and quality of public spaces, despite
being a work in progress, shows that path taken is the right one.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the urban codes inspired by the western codes, adopted in modern times by the
municipalities of Islamic countries have failed. They have designed expansion quarters very
similar to the peripheries of American cities, and they have generated building fabrics and
houses that are in clear contrast to the customs, beliefs and sensibilities of Muslims.
At the same time it is important to reaffirm that the moral precepts of the Shariah are not an
urban planning code, even if they have indirect influence on building fabrics and types.
A planning code of the traditional Islamic city of the Mediterranean can be inferred only a
posteriori through a capillary work of interpretation of the typical behaviours of the house, the
building fabric and the urban plan of the traditional city. In the first place, it is possible to create
a model that draws references from the khitta for the urban organism, the centrality and
hierarchy of services, and the distribution of the individual quarters and from the typological
variants of the behaviour of the urban fabrics an articulation of the fabric and the hierarchy of
routes, and the aggregation of building types. It remains understood that planning standards like
road sections, detachments, and quantity of services cannot be fixed at a universal level, but
only at the local level, since they are the product of climate, materials and local building
traditions, that is, diverse architectural cultures that Islam, on the basis of Sura 7 of the Koran,
has always respected. I am convinced that the contemporary Islamic city has everything to gain
if, instead of articulating in a vacuum architectural objects of abstruse form, separated by left-
over spaces without definition, it filled that space with a continuous fabric of introverted
architecture like the city of the past. That is, the practice of the Lego toys that work through
mechanical addition and juxtaposition, would be substituted by the practice of the organic
project of continuous fabrics.
 583

From ‘a miserable town of 150 mud houses’ to ‘the city that

never sleeps’: the transformation of Limassol’s urban form
over the past 200 years

Ilaria Geddes
Department of Architecture, University of Cyprus
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. This paper describes PhD research, which uses spatial analysis to trace the development of the
urban form of Limassol between 1883 and the present day. The research is specifically concerned with
the street network and how this relates to different social variables such as ethnicity, educational level,
and occupational status. It focuses on how these factors have changed spatially and over time, on
analysing such changes diachronically using historical and contemporary maps (from 1883, 1933, 1960,
1987, 2003 and 2011), historical records and census data. This paper presents the findings of the first
phase of the research, which analyses the urban morphology using space syntax methodology and block
size analysis. Firstly, the space syntax model of the contemporary city is used to construct models of the
city in the past based on historical maps, the changes in the accessibility patterns of the city are assessed
across time. Secondly, the models are use to construct street block maps and changes in the block size of
different areas are evaluated. The analysis shows that as Limassol grew, fringe belts developed around
its historical core, partly along radial routes - former rural paths leading to surrounding villages – and
then through the development of ring roads. Although the accessibility core of Limassol has shifted over
time towards the inner ring road and further out into the contemporary city, the historical core still
retains functions and properties typical of its former spatial characteristics. The results suggest that
diachronic analysis and combining different approaches provides valuable evidence and facilitates an
understanding of the ways in which historical formations of urban configuration influence the present life
and form of the city.

Key Words: Space syntax, block size, fringe belts, diachronic analysis, Limassol

Introduction

Diachronic analysis has substantially gained momentum over the past decade thanks to the
spread of GIS technologies and software for spatial modelling, which not only allow the geo-
referencing and layering of historical information related to the urban form, but also provide
greater capabilities to store and analyse larger amounts of data as well as constructing more
detailed analyses and accurate results. Interest in the historical processes which see growth and
change of the urban environment has also increased as the importance of understanding the
process of development in order to gain insight into the contemporary urban form has been
recognised – it has even been suggested that the main aim of morphological analysis of the
contemporary urban fabric should focus on understanding the transformations that led to the
development of features peculiar to the contemporary age (Levy, 1999).
The ability to identify different morphological periods and urban typologies afforded by
diachronic analysis provides the tools to develop an interpretive narrative as to what caused
changes and to assess how the contemporary urban fabric is a reflection of past and present
social, economic and cultural factors. The relationship between socio-economic and cultural
conditions and the urban fabric is key to understanding the urban fabric to the extent that it may
not be possible to ‘read’ form correctly unless we fully understand the cultural conditions which
generated it and which are reflected in the ways additions to the an original historical core are
mixed with or distinguished from the older fabric (Kostof, 1999). The issue of how the physical,
material form of the city relates to social processes is inextricably linked to the dual nature of
584

cities as both physical and social entities – as the collection of material elements which make up
the city and as a system of human activity and interaction. This is what Hillier and Vaughan
(2007) term the physical and the social city, arguing ultimately that the city is one entity as “the
physical and social cities act conjointly to produce significant outcomes”.
The relevance of diachronic research is that it does not exclusively aim at achieving an
understanding of generative rules of urban development but it also provides methodologies for
analysis comprising different analytical tools which can be used individually for assessment of
past and contemporary urban forms as well as proposed developments. It thus also aims to
inform contemporary design in its attempt to incorporate inherited street patterns and the built
heritage within the urban landscape, enhancing its potential to enable a collective experience of
urban space, thus fostering a collective identity (McQuillan, 1990).
This paper presents the findings of the first phase of PhD research focusing on how the
relationship between physical elements of the city and social factors has changed spatially and
over time. The analyses and findings presented here relate exclusively to physical factors -
though they are framed within the socio-cultural context – and focus on how the urban form of
the city of Limassol, Cyprus, has changed between the end of the 19th century and the present
time. Space syntax methodology and block size analysis are used to describe the characteristics
of the city at different points in time, assessing its spatial properties and the way its urban form
functions. Spatial models of the city are constructed and analysed based on historical maps
(from 1883, 1933, 1960, 1987, 2003 and 2011); elements added and changed between two
periods are analysed quantitatively and qualitatively, while the formation of suburban areas,
fringe belts, the development of a conurbation and changes in the centrality of city are assessed.

Limassol’s urban development

Limassol has changed dramatically over the past 200 years; it has developed from being little
more than a village described as a “miserable town of 150 mud houses of which 100 are Greek
and 50 Turks” (Turner, 1820) to a sizeable city of over 180,000 inhabitants, which has “several
reputations, ‘the city that never sleeps’ is one... thanks to the tourist area’s exuberant night life”
(Marić, 2009). Limassol occupies the southernmost point of the island and is the largest port in
the country, home of the 3rd largest merchant navy in Europe and a higly diverse city - as of
2011 3.6% of Limassol’s population were Romanian; 3.3% British; 3.1% Greek; 2.3% Russian
and 2.3% Bulgarian, to name just the top five minorities. The city stretches east-west along the
coast and expands to the hills at the foot of the mountain range to its north – although like other
Cypriot cities density is low and sprawl is evident, it is somewhat more ‘compact’ than other
cities on the island as its development is contrained by U.K. sovereign territory to its west and
the mountains to its north. Much of Limassol’s development in recent years has thus occurred
on the hills to the north and along the coastline to the east, the latter geared towards to the
tourist industry.
The small town described by travellers during the first half of the 19th century was accurately
represented in an admiralty chart of 1849, shown in figure 1. Although it is unclear whether the
map covers the whole of the built area, specific elements of city, such as the fort, mosques,
churches, the jetty and the water tower are marked, while the basic urban form of the historical
town centre is recognisable in the area around the fort and the street of Agiou Andreou, parallel
to the shoreline and becoming the street of Agkyras from the fort heading out north-west over
the river – this was known to be the main commercial street during the Ottoman period (Severis,
2006).
 585

Figure 1. Admiralty chart of Limassol, 1849, drawn by Lieut. Lord John T. Browne
(survey by Capt T. Graves. Admiralty Chart 2074. 3.5 sea miles to one inch, London,
National Archives).

Towards the end of the Ottoman period, Limassol develops as a city of proto-
industrialisation, as the economy benefited from the stationing of British troops in the district,
with consequent development of establishments and retail facilities in the town, partly meeting
increased and changed demands due to social and historical changes (Katsiaounis, 1996).
However, during this time geographical divisions related to ethnicity had become more and
more spatially defined along with other social factors, such as social class – the town was
divided into a Turkish and a Greek sector (west and east of the river respectively), a poorer area
was expanding around the fort and the port, while the wealthier classes had established
themselves further north around the church of Katholiki. Figure 2 shows the city in 1883 – it
had clearly developed significantly towards the north and the east and it now included the street
of Anexartisias, the main contemporary commercial street in the historical centre, while the
large block of the Commissioner’s deposit to the north is evident (later to become the hospital
and police headquarters). The Commissioner’s house, currently the home of the historical
archives, is now also present in the top right corner of the map - the public gardens were later
developed around this.

Figure 2. Map of Limassol, 1883, from Rodney (2001).

Heading into the 20th century ethnic diversity and spatial divisions are evident from
travellers’ records; by the 1930s Agiou Andreou is identified as the street with the highest
586

number of shops, with the Turkish bazaar is at its western end (towards Agkyras), meanwhile
the British community had settled in the eastern end of the town around the public gardens
while the Turkish continued to occupy the area west of the river and the Greeks the central area
of the town (Peto, 1927).
The years of British rule see the development of much urban infrastructure along with the
paving of former footpaths connecting the city to the surrounding villages and now forming the
main radial routes ‘sprouting’ from the edge of the historical town centre out to the suburbs in
various directions. Right after World War II, the first ring road of the city (Makariou) is built,
starting just to the north of the Commissioner’s house along a former ditch lined with a footpath
and continuing further west to surround the whole city – this road is marked ‘By-pass’ in a
tourist map of 1947 (figure 3) and it has now become a popular commercial and service street,
while still functioning as a major vehicular route through the modern city centre.

Figure 3. Tourist map of Limassol during the colonial period (Mangoian & Mangoian,
1947).

By 1960 the area between the edge of the historical core and the ring road is the focus of
densification, while further development takes place to the north of Makariou; the densification
is represented (though not fully) in a tourist map of 1974 (figure 4) where it is also clear that
some land uses, such as the hospital, have shifted. The hospital has been moved to the former
Commissioner’s Depot - no longer in use since Cypriot independence in 1960 - while the
building along the street of Anexartisias was reused to become the district office.
 587

Figure 4. Tourist map of Limassol during the post-colonial period (Milliex, 1974).

Limassol grew after rapidly the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus, when almost half of the
island’s population became refugees in need of housing. Consequently, a large number of
housing estates were built at the edges of cities where land values were relatively low and large
development areas available. Due to this and further expansion at a time when planning
regulation was almost non-existent led to a rather fragmented urban fabric. Previous analyses of
Limassol’s growth have pointed out that uncontrolled urban development led to an uneven
expansion of the city, creating a fragmented structure and leaving many gaps in the urban fabric
(Kritioti, 1988). The motorway surrounding the city was built in the 1980s as far north as it was
viable, ‘demarcating’ the division between the city and the villages to its north. The construction
of the motorway also demarcated a large, low density fringe belt between Makariou and the
motorway itself, but as the city grew further and densification took place, a second ring road
was built in the 1990s connecting existing stretches of road and ‘splitting’ the fringe belt into
two. Limassol is now a significantly large city and the urban area encompasses the former
villages to the north of the motorway; despite the densification, large gaps and large blocks
remain in the urban fabric, especially within the fringe belts and the distribution of the
population between the urban and the metropolitan areas has continued to decrease towards
lower densities from 70% of the population based in the urban area in 1982 to only 52%
nowadays (Gerasimou and Georgoudis, 2011) due to suburban sprawl and the proliferation of
private parking space, while employment, services and commercial activities as well as tourist
services concentrate in the historic town centre and the coastal area.

Methodology

Two types of analyses were undertaken to describe and analyse the evolution of the urban form
of Limassol: space syntax analysis and block size analysis. Both were applied to all the
available historical maps and were selected not only because they provide quantitative results
588

which in a later phase of research can be statistically related to social data, but also because they
are particularly suitable to diachronic analysis and applicable to the city scale with relatively
little human and time resources. Space syntax methodology provides an analysis of the city at
different scales and has the ability to highlight how the main structure of the city changes over
time, while block size analysis is able to capture and describe the process of formation and
densification of fringe belts as described by Whitehand (2001) and M. P. Conzen (2009). Both
methodologies are highly relevant to the case at hand: space syntax because it allows for
comparison of systems of different size and is thus a reliable hard measure for comparing a city
diachronically when this has grown significantly, as is the case here; block size analysis
provides a ‘proxy’ - if only very limited - for a Conzenian approach by assessing changes at
street block level. In the case of Limassol, where the initial assessment of its form and
development clearly shows the existence of an inner, middle and outer fringe belt, it is
necessary to engage such a methodology and assess the fringe belts individually along with the
spatial analysis.
Six spatial models of Limassol were constructed using space syntax methodology67. Space
syntax quantitatively describes patterns of spatial layout; once the model is built, it can be
analysed to provide various measures reflecting different properties of the urban configuration
and of specific elements of the street network, such as a street segment. The most important
measures of space syntax are integration, representing ‘to-movement’ or the accessibility of a
specific element within the system, and choice, representing ‘through-movement’ or betweeness
(the number of times a segment falls on the shortest route between all pairs of segments within a
specified radius). Measures can be calculated at the city-wide scale or at any given radius, the
city-wide measures taking into account all elements in the system and the ‘local’ measures
taking into account all elements within the given radius. City-wide measures tend to be
representative of the whole-city structure and often correlate with vehicular movement; local
measures tend to be representative of local neighbourhood structures within a city and often
correlate with pedestrian movement.
The specific analysis used in this study is angular segment analysis, which takes into account
least angular deviation of each segment from all other segments (hence it takes into account the
relative straightness of a route). The measure used is normalised angular choice (referred to
here as NACh, ‘choice’ or ‘accessibility’) which allows for comparison between systems of
different size. Furthermore because of the mathematical way the measure of choice is
normalised, it takes into account the depth of elements within the system (a proxy for
integration) and hence it combines a representation of to- and through-movement (see Hillier et
al. 2012).
NACh values range between 0 and 2, where values above 1.3 are considered to be in the top
range of accessibility, and values of 1.5 or above being extremely high. All the segments in the
system with values of 1.3 or above are considered here to be part of the core structure of the city
– the global structure when considering the whole system or the local neighbourhoods’ structure
when considering a specific local radius. The two cores can be matched to identify the multi-
scale core of the city – all the segments which have both the highest global and local integration
value, constituting the centrality of the city.
The spatial models were drawn manually in MapInfo GIS using historical and contemporary
maps as basemaps, which were geo-referenced manually using 10 control points. The
contemporary spatial model was constructed first, layered onto the historical maps and elements
removed and adjusted to construct the historical models with a methodology similar to that of
Pinho and Oliveira (2009). The choice measures were calculated using the DephMap Process
tool in the Space Syntax extension for MapInfo developed and licensed by Space Syntax Ltd.

67
For further details of space syntax theory and methodology see www.spacesyntax.org along with Hiller
and Hanson (1984); Hillier (1996); the appendix in Vaughan and Geddes (2009) for details of space
syntax measures, Hillier and Iida (2005) for details of angular analysis, Hillier et al. (2012) for details of
the normalised choice measure, and Versluis (2013) for details of multi-scale analysis.
 589

NACh was then calculated automatically in GIS using the formula provided in Hillier et al.
(2012).
Block size maps were automatically constructed from the spatial model using the Blocks
Size tool in the Space Syntax extension for MapInfo mentioned above. Average block sizes
were calculated for the whole city, the historical core and each fringe belt using simple query
tools in GIS. It must be stressed that this is only a very limited ‘proxy’ for the Conzenian
approach as the automated way of constructing the blocks, though time efficient, means that
these comprise the open areas and not just the built blocks; it also means that blocks at the edges
of the model which are not bounded by roads and accessed through a dead end are not
represented in these maps. The areas were defined as follows:
Historical core: from the coast line to the route along Navarinou/Gladstonos, comprising the
historical Turkish area to the west of the river and the public gardens on the east side of the
town centre. This comprises almost all of the built area of 1883;
Inner Fringe Belt (IFB): the area comprised between the route along Navarinou/Gladstonos
and the inner ring road (Makariou), including the industrial area to the west up to the new port,
for the years 1933, 1960, 1987, 2003 and 2011;
Middle Fringe Belt (MFB): the area comprised between Makariou and the A1 motorway for
the years 1960, 1987, 2003 and 2011. This was divided into Middle Fringe Belt A (MFBa), the
area comprised between Makariou and the outer ring road built in the 1990s, along the road of
Kyprianou comprising the area of Agios Nikolaos to the east and Tsiflikoudia to the West, and
Middle Fringe Belt B (MFBb), the area comprised between the edge MFBa and the A1
motorway. MFBa and MFBb were used in the analysis of 2003 and 2011;
Outer Fringe Belt (OFB), the area outside the A1 motorway comprising the old villages
surrounding the city and also including the tourist area, the easternmost stretch of city along the
coast within the motorway for the years 1987, 2003 and 2011.

Findings

Spatial analysis

The space syntax analysis shows that the greatest change over time occurred in the
‘superstructure’ of the city, with global accessibility values decreasing steadily through the
years for both the city as a whole and the historical town centre. This decrease is slightly more
pronounced for the city as a whole – a significant drop occurred between 1883 and 1933, but
this is perhaps because the spatial model of 1933 includes the footpaths radiating out to the
surrounding villages and at the time few connections between the radial routes were available
outside the town centre.
The greatest drop in the global accessibility of the town centre comes between 1960 and
1987, hence following the construction of the motorway.
At the local level, whether this is very local (400m) or a slightly wider radius (1200m),
change is not as significant, in particular following 1960s, values of local accessibility for both
the historical town centre and the city as a whole seem to stabilise, especially for the wider local
accessibility at 800m and 1200m radius. The results of the space syntax analysis are
summarised in table 1.
The global structure of the city shifts from the historical centre outwards, initially it
comprises all major routes within the centre including the whole of the seafront, the street of
Agiou Andreou and the whole of Anexartisias. By 1960 the western side of the seafront has lost
its importance at the city-scale and the global structure includes less segments within the
historical centre and more to its north, including much of the inner ring road (Makariou). By
2011 only the northern edge of the historical centre is part of the global structure of the city,
which has moved further north and east to comprises both ring roads, the motorway and most of
590

the radial roads, including the stretches going through the old villages and the stretch of the
seafront east of the inner ring road, leading to the tourist area along the coast.

Table 1. Mean accessibility values

Town Town Town Town Whole Whole Whole Whole

Year Centre Centre Centre Centre City City City City
R400 R800 R1200 RN R400 R800 R1200 RN
1883 1.10 1.13 1.16 1.26 1.10 1.13 1.14 1.24
1933 1.13 1.15 1.19 1.24 1.15 1.19 1.19 1.15
1960 1.14 1.16 1.19 1.20 1.10 1.12 1.14 1.11
1987 1.14 1.16 1.18 1.11 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.03
2003 1.13 1.16 1.18 1.09 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.03
2011 1.14 1.16 1.18 1.10 1.09 1.09 1.10 1.02

The distribution of local accessibility values at the 1200m radius changes far less over time
and although accessibility decreases slightly in the southern area of the city and increases in the
area north of the historical centre, the difference is not significant, suggesting that the
development of the city to the north and the changes occured over time have only had a
marginal impact on the functioning of the historical town centre at the local level.
The results of the multi-scale analysis, measuring the overlap of street segments with both high
global accessibility values and high local accessibility values, clearly shows how the core
structure of the city shifts overtime – this is presented in figures 5-10.
The overlap between global and local accessibility is an indicator of the intelligibility of a
city. The extent of the overlap was measured as the proportion of segments with both global and
local (1200m radius) NACh values of over 1.3 out of the total number of segments. This
analysis (presented in table 2) shows that except for 1883 when the city was still fairly small
and much of its eastern side made up of open fields and gardens, the overall extent of the multi-
scale core decreases significantly over time. It also shows that the core concentrates in the
historical town centre. As the core shifted towards newly built areas in the city the difference
between the extent of the core within the town centre and within the whole city also decreases
significantly as more and more of the core ‘moves’ out of the historical town centre – the
exception again is 1883 when almost the whole city was within the boundary of the historical
core. It has to be noted however that, despite dramatic growth and change a good proportion of
the historical centre is still part of the core, though most of this is its northern edge (figure 10).

Table 2. Extent of multi-scale core

Year Town Centre Whole City Difference

1883 25.2% 22.6% 2.6%
1933 33.6% 18.7% 14.9%
1960 27.3% 14.7% 12.6%
1987 19.2% 6.9% 12.3%
2003 15.0% 6.0% 9%
2011 10.2% 5.0% 5.2%
 591

Figure 5. Multi-scale accessibility core of Limassol (left to right and top to bottom: 1883,
1933, 1960, 1987, 2003 and 2011).
592

Block size analysis

The block size analysis of the contemporary city (figure 6) shows how the historical town centre
is almost wholly made up of small blocks with the exclusion of the eastern edge where the
athletic centre and public gardens are located, and the western edge where a newly-built marina
has created a number of large blocks. Both the IFB and MFBa are also dense with some
exceptions, especially at their western end along the coast where much of the industrial uses are
still located.
MFBb still comprises a high number of large blocks, especially in the eastern side where a
large industrial area is located and residential development is still very low density. In this case
the areas dense with very small blocks comprise many of the refugee housing estates built after
1974, which are made up of slab building blocks criss-crossed by a high number of pedestrian
footways creating highly permeable environments and very small street blocks. This area also
includes the centre of the old village of Mesa Geitonia – the only one to the south of the
motorway. The OFB comprises the highest number of very large blocks, including along the
coast to the east where the tourist development has seen the construction of large hotels with
extensive grounds and parking areas; the dense areas to the north of the motorway are the centre
of the old villages surrounding Limassol.

Figure 6. Block size (m2) map of Limassol, 2011.

Looking at the distribution of block sizes over time (table 3), it is interesting to note the
fluctuation in the proportion of large block sizes (20Km2 – 32Km2 and 32Km2 and above) which
increases as fringe belts are created (IFB created 1883-1960), decreases as they are densified
(IFB densified, beginning of MFB 1933-1960), increases again as further fringe belts are
 593

created (MFB established, OFB created 1960-1987), decreases again as the fringe belts are
further developed (IFB, MFB – in particular MFBa – and OFB densified 1987-2003) and
increases again as the OFB expands farther (2003-2011).

Table 3. Distribution of block sizes over time

Size (Km2) 1883 1933 1960 1987 2003 2011

32+ 7.5% 14.8% 4.1% 5.9% 5.5% 6.7%
20 - 32 5.3% 5.6% 2.4% 3.6% 4.4% 4.7%
12 - 20 10.6% 6.5% 6.8% 8.6% 8.2% 9.6%
6 - 12 17.0% 18.5% 26.3% 30.1% 31.4% 28.5%
2-6 34.0% 39.4% 52.7% 43.2% 40.2% 39.7%
0-2 25.5% 15.3% 7.7% 8.6% 10.4% 10.8%

The mean block size for each area over time shows the densification process occurring across
time in all areas (table 4), this is with the exception of the city as whole which expanded greatly
between 1883 and 1960 to develop two fringe belts. The block size for the town centre, the OFB
and the city as a whole also increased between 2003 and 2011, in the former case this is due to
the marina development at the western edge of the historical town centre which has created
large blocks where previously there were none, in the latter two cases this is due to the
expansion of the OFB further out into the surrounding areas. It should also be noted that once
the MFB gets split into two it is the northern part, further away from the town centre that
comprises the large blocks (slightly larger on average than for the whole MFB 15 years
previously. Interestingly, the MFBa has smaller blocks than the IFB, this is possibly because the
IFB has retained many of its former land uses which require large blocks, while the MFBa has
been the focus of much residential development.

Table 4. Mean block size (m2) for each area

Area 1883 193368 1960 1987 2003 2011

Town Centre 9,810 9,675 7,211 6,879 6,374 7,104
IFB 29,404 78,051 14,464 10,166 9,625 9,407
MFB 15,039 14,268 11,103 10,697
MFBa 8,788 8,547
MFBb 14,631 13,617
OFB 18,680 15,074 19,963
Whole City 11,269 87,924 15,786 14,134 11,927 13,548

Discussion

Shifting centrality, spatial change and continuity

The fact that global accessibility continues to decrease despite the insertion of ring roads across
the city suggests that such roads, thought of as improving longer distance connectivity within

68
The value for the IFB and the whole city in 1933 comprise a large area of open fields between the
historical town centre and the surrounding villages included in the spatial model and it is thus not
comparable to the other values.
594

the city, either do not meet this purpose or do not do so sufficiently to ‘counteract’ the effect of
growth, densification and sprawl on global accessibility.
It is perhaps to be expected that local accessibility values of the historical town centre would
change little after a certain time, as development and redevelopment would occur mostly in
areas relatively far from it. This is however only partly true as a major development recently
occurred within the historical town centre with the construction of the new marina – this has
clearly impacted on the mean block size of this area, but does not seem to have had a
measurable impact on accessibility, which may also be due to the fact that it is located along an
edge of the city (the coastline).
It is certainly more puzzling why at the city wide scale local accessibility values seem to
remain quite stable despite a lot of densification and change in permeability as shown by the
block size analysis. This might be simply an effect of averaging local values for the whole city,
whereas changes might be found within local areas subject to development between two
periods, or it may be that somehow the system ‘adjusts’ itself over time to provide a certain
level of overall local accessibility across different areas. This issue remains open for further
analysis and interpretation.
Centrality has been shown to be a process (Hillier, 1999) and it is certainly not surprising
that this has shifted over time to ‘relocate’ to a more geographically central area with
characterised by higher accessibility. The decrease in global values and in the extent of the
multi-scale core was also to be expected as this is in line with previous research showing that
global accessibility and legibility tend to decrease over time as the city-system grows, and that
this is the case for many Mediterranean port cities that have grown rapidly in recent years
(Shpuza, 2009). The shift in centrality shown by the spatial analysis is corroborated by historical
records and contemporary data on land use which identify the main commercial road as moving
from Agkyras at the western edge of the town centre to Agiou Andreou further east and then
northwards onto Anexartisias and Makariou, the latter three remain popular commercial streets,
with Agiou Andreou being more of a tourists’ destination and Anexartisias and Makarious being
more of a locals’ destination.
The fact that a good proportion of the town centre is still part of the multi-scale core of the
city points to a form of ‘spatial resilience’ of the historical centre in the face of dramatic growth
and change.

Fringe belt formation, expansion and densification

The block size analysis shows that fringe belts with different characteristics and varying mean
block size do exist. These are created through the establishment of long, fairly continuous ring
roads, but are ‘broken up’ into areas by radial routes, many of which correspond to former
footpaths leading to surrounding villages. Densification of each area over time is also clear and
this has occurred through the creation of shorter streets (often of equal length with many
residential areas having grid-like design) as part of developments built within the boundaries of
the areas formed by the long radial and concentric routes. The analysis however also shows that
densification is not necessarily an infinite and irreversible process as the rate of densification
tends to decrease over time and may eventually come to a halt. In the case of OFBs this may, at
least temporarily, develop to be less dense through expansion into surrounding areas, while
specific cases, such as that of the town centre where the construction of the marina has seen the
creation of a land bank along the coast and the formation of large blocks, means that even when
block size is traditionally small and persistently so, development interventions may alter the
picture of the historical urban form.
 595

Conclusions

This paper has brought together two types of analyses to reveal trends in the evolution of the
urban form of Limassol. Additionally to confirming previous research results regarding
decreasing global accessibility and intelligibility of cities through growth and development, and
the formation and ‘internalisation’ of fringe belts over time, it has highlighted the resilience of
the Limassol’s historical town centre as a successful local centre at various local scales. It has
also pointed to the interrelationship between the construction of long concentric routes, the
formation of fringe belts and accessibility values at the global and local level by revealing that
roads planned for improving long-distance connections within a city may not have the impact
they were expected to, do not necessarily influence the functioning of local neighbourhoods and
might in some cases (such as in the case of the eastern stretch of Makariou) turn into local
centres themselves. Without diachronic analysis it would not have been possible to assess how
the addition of physical elements to the existing systems had an impact on the way the city
functions at present, neither it would have been possible without assessing both the spatial
accessibility of the city and the process of densification together.
The combination of space syntax and Conzenian approaches used here contributes to the
development of the links between the two and the further understanding of their complementary
which has been initiated in recent years (Pinho and Oliveira, 2009; Griffiths et al., 2010). The
large time gaps between the maps analysed and the lack of detailed information about the
planning, approval and construction of specific physical elements of the city, does not,
unfortunately, allow for an accurate analysis of the economic cycles which are a pre-requisite
for the emergence of fringe belts along with the existence of an established urban core. Both
these elements do certainly exist in the case of Limassol, however the time gap between the
periods analysed includes both times of economic slump and growth and they do, in fact, cover
both the establishment of long routes and fringe belts as well as the construction of shorter
routes, formation of smaller block sizes and densification of fringe belts. Perhaps the most
important result of this study is that it opens up possibilities to enhance the understanding of
generative rules of development by further researching the relationship between the economic
cycles and the times of construction of longer and shorter routes along with the analysis of street
blocks, hence shedding light on how the space syntax’ laws of centrality and compactness
(Hillier, 2002) relate to fringe belt theory and economic trends.

References

Conzen, M. P. (2009) ‘How cities internalize their former urban fringes: a cross-cultural comparison’,
Urban Morphology 13, 29-54.
Gerasimou, S. and Georgoudis, M. (2011) ‘Sustainable Mobility in Cyprus: the city of Limassol’, in
Pratelli, A. and Brebbia, C. A. (eds.) Urban Transport XVII: Urban Transport and the Environment in
the 21st Century (Wit Press).
Griffiths, S., Jones, C. E., Vaughan, L. and Haklay, M. (2010) ‘The persistence of suburban centres in
Greater London: combining Conzenian and space syntax approaches’, Urban Morphology 14, 85-99.
Hillier, B. (1996) Space Is the Machine: A Configurational Theory of Architecture (Cambridge University
Press, Cambridge).
Hillier, B. (1999) ‘Centrality as a process: accounting for attraction inequalities in deformed grids’,
Urban Des Int 4, 107-127.
Hillier, B. (2002) ‘A theory of the city as object: or, how spatial laws mediate the social construction of
urban space’, Urban Des Int 7, 153-179.
Hillier, B. and Hanson, J. (1984) The Social Logic of Space (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge).
Hillier, B. and Iida, S. (2005) ‘Network Effects and Psychological Effects: a Theory of Urban
Movement’, 5th International Space Syntax Symposium, (TU Delft, Faculty of Architecture, Delft) 553-
564.
Hillier, B. and Vaughan, L. (2007) ‘The City as One Thing’, Progress in Planning 67, 205-230.
596

Hillier, B., Young, T. and Turner, A. (2012) ‘Normalising least angle choice in Depthmap and how it
opens up new perspectives on the global and local analysis of city space’, The Journal of Space Syntax
3, 155-193.
Kostof, S. (1999) The City Shaped: Urban Patterns and Meanings Trough History (Thames & Hudson).
Kritioti, M. (1988) ‘Limassol, a town in transition’, unpublished MSc thesis, University College London,
U.K.
Levy, A. (1999) ‘Urban morphology and the problem of the modern urban fabric: some questions for
research’, Urban Morphology 3, 79-85.
Mangoian, L. and Mangoian, H. A. (1947) The Island of Cyprus. An Illustrated Guide and Handbook
(Mangoian Bros, Nicosia).
Marić, V. (2009) Cyprus (Lonely Planet Publications).
McQuillan, A. (1990) ‘Preservation planning in post-colonial cities’, in Slater, T. R. (ed.) The built form
of Western cities: essays for M.R.G. Conzen on the occasion of his eightieth birthday (Leicester
University Press, Leicester) 394-441.
Milliex, R (1974) Cyprus (Geneva: Nagel Publishers).
Peto, G. (1927) Malta and Cyprus (Great Britain: J. M. Dent & Sons Ltd.).
Pinho, P. and Oliveira, V. (2009) ‘Combining Different Methodological Approaches to Analyze the
Oporto Metropolitan Area’, Proceedings of the 7th International Space Syntax Symposium
(Stockholm).
Rodney, S. (2001) Kitchener’s Survey of Cyprus 1878 – 1883. The first full triangulated survey and
mapping of the island, (The Bank of Cyprus Cultural Foundation, Nicosia).
Severis, R. C. (2006) Limassol, a town of visionaries (Hellenic Bank).
Shpuza, E. (2009) ‘Evolutions of Street Networks in Adriatic and Ionian Coastal Cities’, Proceedings of
the 7th International Space Syntax Symposium (Stockholm).
Turner, W. (1820) Journal of a Tour in the Levant (Vol. II) (London).
Vaughan, L. and Geddes, I. (2009) ‘Urban form and deprivation: a contemporary proxy for Charles
Booth's analysis of poverty’, Radical Statistics 99, 46-73.
Versluis, L. (2013) ‘Towards a multi-scale description of Choice’, Proceedings of the 9th International
Space Syntax Symposium (Seoul).
Whitehand, J. W. R. (2001) ‘British urban morphology: the Conzenian tradition’, Urban Morphology 5,
103-109.
 597

Analyzing the effects of hot and arid climate on the form of

historic cities of Iran

Seyed Abdolhadi Daneshpour, Mohammad Rezai Nedoushan, Aliakbar Sardareh

Department of urban planning and design, School of Architecture & Environmental
Design in IUST. Email: daneshpour iust.ac.ir, [email protected],
[email protected]

Abstract. A significant portion of the current territory of Iran is situated in hot and arid climate. While
the strenuous climatic conditions have made living very trying, the greatest and biggest cities of Iran in
the last millennium have emerged in these areas. It seems that one of the reasons contributing to the
formation, growth and sustainability of these cities, is the specific methods used in their architecture and
urban planning. Since one of the methods has manifested itself in the form of historic cities in hot and
arid climate, in this paper urban form is analyzed. The main focus in analysis of urban form is urban
structure (shape, figure, direction of passages), neighborhood context (shape, size, direction, sort of
buildings and yards) and mass and space patterns. The aim of this paper is to assess the urban form in
order to discern the characteristics whose make the harmony between urban settlement and harsh
climatic conditions. Results of this survey are shown that special form of historic cities (Qazvin, Qom,
Kashan, Nain, Yazd, Kerman, Meybod and Ardakan) was affected by Climate property. Moreover the
special climatic characteristics of each of these cities make a difference in their form characteristics to
achieve appropriate compatibility with environment.

Key Words: Form characteristics, hot and arid climate, historic cities of Iran

Introduction

Archeological discoveries have shown a history of 8000 years of urbanization in Iranian plateau.
Vast alluvial plains, groundwater resources and having knowledge about agriculture,
mathematics and astronomy has helped to foundation and survival of different civilizations in
the central Iranian plateau. Today, because of last millenniums climate changes, approximately
all parts of Iranian plateau have hot and dry climate which is an unsuitable condition for human
living. Iranians have applied different techniques to survive and live in this condition.
Application of these techniques can be seen in the urban form of Iranian historical cities. Iranian
large cities generally have hot and dry climate and their fabrics are effectively related to their
surrounding environment.
Therefore, in this paper the general climatic condition of central Iranian plateau is presented
at first and then, those characteristics of urban form that were the result of this climatic
condition are listed. Study of urban form in this paper is more based on the work of Conzen.
Structure of city (form and orientation of roads) and neighborhood fabric (form, size, orientation
and arrangement of buildings and open spaces, built form and open spaces patterns) are
considered in the investigation of urban form. The quality of relationship between climate and
urban form in Iranian cities will be examined in the next sections.

Iran hot and arid climate

Central, eastern, southeastern and southern regions of Iran have hot and dry climate. Hot and
dry climate in central Iranian plateau is dependent on two phenomena. First, the Hedley cell
phenomenon (figure 1) and the second, its location on the world’s desert belt and also being
598

surrounded by Alborz, Zagros and Hindukush mountains in north, west and east, which prevent
moisture advection over inland parts (figure 2).

Figure 1. Hedley cell phenomenon69.

Dasht-e Kavir and Lut desert are two large and inhabitable deserts in the world that are
located in central Iran. Foothills of the Ablborz and Zagros mountains are habitable areas of
central plateau. From Qazvin in northwest to Sistan in southeast, there is a chain of settlements
located in the margins of desert. This chain of settlements consists of different large and small
cities and villages. Large cities in the mentioned region, from northwest to southeast, are
Qazvin, Tehran, Rey, Qom, Ardestan, Nain, Ardakan, Meybod, Yazd, Bafq, Sirjan, Kerman and
BAM. Among them, those cities that have preserved their traditional fabrics are selected and
investigated in this paper.

Figure 2. Iran climate zones, cities located in hot dry climate70.

The mentioned cities are surrounded by Zagros Mountains in west and vast deserts in east.
This geographical condition causes favorable wind from west and unfavorable wind from east.

69
http://fanack.com/en/countries/iran/basic-facts/geography-and-climate/biodiversity
70
http://askabiologist.asu.edu/explore/desert
 599

Iranian cities were established in regions with sufficient water resources. There are two kinds of
water supply: springs, like Fin spring; and Qanat systems which transfer melt water from
mountains to human settlements. Dry weather in these cities causes big temperature differences
between day and night, summer and winter. In summers, temperature goes high up to 40°C and
in winter, there are several ice days. Temperature difference between day and night, particularly
at first days of spring and fall is approximately 20°C.

Figure 3. Wind flow in the cities located along desert margins, hot dry wind from east and
cold humid mountain wind from west.

This extreme weather condition has always challenged living of people but also has led them
to find amazing solutions in competing annoying weather condition. They have learned to
exploit this weather condition to create comfortable condition for living. These hard weather
conditions are: the scorching heat of the sun; high temperature in day and low temperature at
night; diurnal temperature variation particularly in summers; extreme cold weather in winter and
extreme hot weather in summer; dry weather as a result of little precipitation and water supply
reduction; occurrence of hot storms with dust and sandy tones.

The urban form of desert towns

Structure and fabric of desert towns are investigated in this paper. Structure is about the shape
of street network. Shape of street network, hierarchy of roads, length and width of roads and
their junctions are studied in the structure section. The study of urban fabric is done in two
scales: shape and size of blocks and shape and size of parcels. Parcel Shape, parcel orientation,
compactness, arrangement of parcels, proportion of built forms to open spaces, density and
orientation of open spaces are studied under the subject of urban fabric.

Figure 4. Relationship of urban form characteristics in Iranian historical cities.

Structure

The hierarchal order of street network including Main Roads, alleys lead to neighborhood
centers (Gozar), secondary alleys (kocheh), semi private passageways (Darband), is most
600

important characteristic of urban structure. These Roads are different in length, width,
orientation and other qualities. Alleys that lead to neighborhood centers are wider and their
orientation is northeast southeast. All these kinds of roads have the same orientation, but there
are some exceptions in Kerman and Ardakan. These exceptions will be discussed in the next
section. Alleys that lead to neighborhood centers are main roads in formation of the historical
urban structure. Secondary alleys are perpendicular to main alleys and connect one main alley to
another one. Semi-private passageways are branches of alleys that are meandrous and covered
in some parts. (Rezai, 2009)

Figure 5. Hierarchical order of roads in Godal mosalla neighborhood of Yazd, orientation

of main alleys are similar to the orientation of houses (Rezai 2009).

Street network is generally organic. It means that they don't have ordered geometric shape, but
they have structured in a natural order. Shape of roads is based on the land topography. Roads
are generally established in place of gullies. None of traditional cities have Euclidean geometry
in shape of street network, but they have organic form. They were very narrow in comparison
with today’s streets. In fact, they were tracks among urban blocks.

Figure 6. Fabrics of Isfahan, Qom and Meybod, urban roads are tracks among dense
urban tissues. Wide and straight streets are the result of interventions in last centuries.

Urban fabric

This section investigates size, shape, arrangement of urban blocks and parcels which is based on
property boundaries. Shape and patterns of built forms and open spaces are also considered.
 601

Urban blocks

Urban blocks are set of cells separated by roads. They have organic shape like human body’s
cells. They seem disordered in comparison with modern urban fabrics, but they have organic
order. Blocks are not equal in size, but they can be classified in certain ranges. Blocks are
arranged in coherent and connected urban fabric. As mentioned above, narrow alleys separate
blocks in compact fabric of traditional cities.

Figure 7. Blocks arrangement in historical cities of Iran.

Shape and size of parcels

Parcels are located in compact fabric and they don't have certain geometric shape. They are in
large and small size. Their orientation is coordinated with alleys orientation, that is northeast
southwest toward Qibla.

Figure 8. Blocks arrangement in Yazd and Qom.

602

Built form and open spaces

This section investigates the proportion of built form to open spaces in urban parcels. In
historical cities, houses have central courtyard and built forms were arranged around the central
courtyard. Therefore, in study of urban form of Iranian historical cities, the built form contains
living spaces built around one open space (central courtyard). Unlike the shape of whole parcel,
the central courtyards have certain geometric shapes. Orientation of all courtyards in one city
follows same pattern.

Figure 9. Orientation of courtyards in Iranian historical cities.

Urban form and climate

Urban form of Iranian historical cities were discussed in the previous section. In this section,
those characteristics of urban form will be discussed that make historical cities more compatible
with the microclimate of their region. These characteristics can be observed in the structure and
fabric of historical cities. Those people living in similar climatic condition have similar
problems.

Orientation of roads

In almost all Iranian cities, orientation of alleys that lead to neighborhood centers is toward
Qibla, northeast-southwest. This orientation is the same as orientation of houses and in
accordance with central courtyard which makes traditional houses more energy efficient. This is
also the best orientation to get benefits of favorable winds. Ardakan and Kerman are exceptions
to this principle. Alleys leading to neighborhood centers are in north-south orientation in
Ardakan and in east-west orientation in Kerman. This is because of different direction of
favorable winds in these two cities. In Ardakan, mountains are located in south of the city and
therefore favorable wind blows from south to urban area. In Kerman, elevated mountains are
located in east and wind blows from east to west.
 603

Figure 10. Urban roads in Yazd, Ardakan and Kerman, Alleys leading to neighborhood
centers are in north-south orientation in Ardakan and in east-west orientation in Kerman.

Narrow roads are another feature of urban form that help these cities encounter extreme climatic
condition. This narrow width increases compactness and help to encounter unfavorable winds.
Elevated walls shade narrow road’s area and help to protect from direct sunlight heat. Covered
spaces of alleys increase shaded area. Being covered and having large height to width ratio
make these spaces more comfortable in the presence of hot dry wind of desert regions. One
important characteristic of urban form is compactness. Compactness will be discussed in the
next section.

Compactness

Compactness help to protect from unfavorable hot dry winds in summer and cold dry winds in
winter. Compactness also decreases heat absorption from sunlight. Compactness protects
building walls from sunlight in summer and form cold airflow in winter. One of most valuable
solutions in response to extreme climatic condition of Iranian historical cities is the reduction of
the amount of area exposed to heat by increasing compactness.

Central courtyard

Central courtyard plan of houses is most important characteristic of urban form in all Iranian
historical cities. This pattern is a specific feature of historical Iranian urban form. All building
parcels have central courtyard and unlike the shape of whole parcel, they have ordered shape
and similar orientation. This ordered shape and similar orientation is completely consistent with
the climate of their regions.

Figure 11. Shade and light patterns in central courtyard houses in morning, noon and
evening time.
604

Figure 12. Northeast-southwest orientation of courtyards in Yazd.

Courtyards are generally in rectangular shape. Elongation of courtyards has northeast-southwest

orientation. This elongation allows maximum use of sunlight for east and south side of the
house. This elongation also allows maximum use of favorable sunlight in morning time. Axis of
this elongation is also oriented toward Qibla. As mentioned above, Kerman and Ardakan are the
exceptions to this principle.
Built forms including rooms, halls and porches are arranged around central courtyard. This
kind of spatial arrangement allows the use of natural light in living rooms. Small size of rooms
makes them more energy efficient and cause reduction in energy consumption for cooling and
heating.

Figure 13. Arabs house in Yazd, Functionality of architectural components and the
climate. (Tavassoli 2002).

By being lower than ground level, courtyards are able to preserve cold air mass of early
morning hours in the yard and apply it to keep the house spaces cool in next hours. Houses with
Godal Baghche, a green space lower than ground level, more effectively do this. Long
courtyards have shade in morning and evening due to smaller angle of sun’s rays. Airflow over
the building parcel does not whirl dust particles that are near the garden surface and therefore
dust particles cannot enter the living rooms.
 605

Figure 14. Ordered rectangular shape of central courtyards unlike the organically shape
roads in Yazd (Rezai 2009).

Conclusion

Climatic condition has always challenged the living of people in central parts of Iranian plateau.
This has led them to find amazing solutions in competing annoying weather condition. They
have learned to exploit this weather condition to create comfortable condition for living. These
cities with narrow roads, compact fabric, appropriate built form and open space patterns, have
created comfortable space for their settlers. This study showed that the orientation of roads,
shape and size of blocks and parcels in Iranian historical cities were cleverly designed in
relation to the climatic condition of their region. Urban form of Iranian historical city had made
the living of its settlers more sustainable and allowed them to efficiently get benefits of natural
resources. However, modern urban form of Iranian cities is not like historical urban form and
their settlers consume a large amount of resources and energy in their life. It seem that
thousands years of experience in shaping urban fabrics is dismissed. Iranian historical cities
were in complete harmony with their natural environment like a bird nest or termites
construction.

References

Ahmadi, M. Chi-Ani, A. Farkisch, A and Surat, M. (2012) ‘Morphological study of urban hierarchy in
Boshrooyeh city of Iran’, Archnet-IJAR, International Journal of Architectural Research vol. 6 issue 3,
57-71.
Ansari, M. and Diba, D. (1995) ‘The Iranian garden’, Proceeding of the conference of the history of
architecture and urbanism in Bam, Volume II, 33
Bonine, M. (1979) `The morphogenesis of Iranian cities', Annuals of the Association of American
Geographers vol. 69 no. 2, 208-24
Conzen, M. P. (2001) ‘The study of urban form in the United States’, Urban Morphology 5, 3-14.
Hashemi, S. (1996) ‘Description of Iranian house, A narration from Karim Pirnia’, Abadi quarterly 6, 4-9.
Ghezelbash, M. and Aboozia, F. (1987) ‘Principles of traditional houses of Yazd’ Planning and
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606

Kheirabadi, M. (2000) Iranian cities: formation and development Syracuse University Press, Syracuse,
NY
Marzot, N. (1998) `The role of history in Conzen's and Caniggia's approaches to urban morphology',
Urban Morphology vol. 2 no. 1, 54-55
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developing countries 14, 1-12
Nabavi, F. Ahmad, Y. Tee, T.A. (2012) ‘Daylight and opening in traditional houses in Yazd,Iran’,
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Nikpour, M., Shamsolmaali, S., Dehghani, H. and Kandar, M. (2012) ‘Creating Sustainability in Central
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226-34.
Rezai Nedoushan, M (2009) ‘Recognition Qualifing Principle of Successive Spaces (Case study: Yazd
city)’, Master Thesis, Supervisor: Dr. Abdalhadi Daneshpour, Iran University of Science and
Technology, School of Architecture & Urbanism, Tehran.
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Tavassoli, M. (2002) ‘Urban structure and architecture in the hot arid zone of Iran’, Payam Pubs, Tehran.
 607

Island-City / City-Island: Island precincts and evolving urban

morphology of Abu Dhabi, UAE

Anamika Mishra
Department or Architecture and Design, College of Engineering,
Abu Dhabi University, Abu Dhabi, PO Box 59911. E-mail:
[email protected].

Abstract. Islands hold a strong association with concepts of exclusivity and nature, due to their isolated
configuration and the strong presence of the Sea, respectively. However, examples abound of cities that
have emerged as island cities and as urban archipelagos. Consumerist and tourism-driven economies
have helped further appreciate the value of the islands waterfronts and their adaptation as landscapes of
leisure and recreation. Advances in technology and availability of capital have allowed articulation of
grand visions for islands, both natural and man-made. Hence the development of islands has played a
significant role in the emerging urban form of several coastal cities. Cities in the Middle East, in
particular, have displayed this pattern in a more pronounced manner and as a recurring theme, evident
in projects like The Pearl-Qatar and The Palm Islands (Elsheshtawy, 2010), which have also contributed
to the city-image of Doha and Dubai respectively. Abu Dhabi, an island city itself, has joined this trend
by recognizing the development potential of its peripheral islands. While historically development was
concentrated on the main island, which characterised the city form, it has now extended to the various
peripheral islands that are being developed as key projects. This paper studies the emergent morphology
of Abu Dhabi, as influenced by the creation, development and redevelopment of its various islands.
Common morphological patterns at the scale of the island shall be identified and relations drawn to the
overall city morphology. The paper also discusses issues pertaining to the evolving city morphology such
as the environment, connectivity, edges, seams and gateways.

Key Words: Abu Dhabi, Islands, Morphology, Urban form, Urban design.

Cities, due to their inherent definition as places of concentration and exchange, have constantly
grappled with the pressure to grow and expand which in turn has triggered urban
transformations that mark the morphological history of the city. City form has been shaped by
the primary layer of the city - its natural geographical and topographical condition - ‘the
constitution of the elements, land and water, nature, soil and climate’ (Le Corbusier, 1957).
Coastal cities, urban waterfronts, hillside towns, bayside development are all examples of urban
types which reflect this interplay between the natural layer of the city and the development
pressures it experiences. This paper explores the emerging urban patterns relating to city form
through the development of its peripheral islands by providing an account of the city of Abu
Dhabi, the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
The case of Abu Dhabi is particularly interesting, since it is representative of several
characteristics observed in many of the Gulf cities – accelerated growth due to discovery of oil,
focused efforts at diversifying the economic base, particularly through the tourism sector,
intense inter-city competition and assertion as world-cities. In addition to commonalities in
climate and culture, the cities also share a common regional geography that includes a barrier
island chain along the coast. Water, as a landscape feature, finds a special importance in new
developments. Cities like Dubai, Qatar and Bahrain are constructing a new city image through
high-profile projects like the Pearl Island reclamation project in Doha and the Palms Islands in
Dubai. The region has also received considerable attention with regard to sustainability,
primarily because of the rapid economic growth driven by fossil fuels, extreme climatic
conditions that necessitate widespread use of air conditioning and the requirement for
desalination plants. The Gulf countries wanting to position themselves towards sustainable
608

growth due to high per capita emissions, have been undertaking several initiatives such as Qatar
Sustainability Assessment System (QSAS) in Qatar and Estidama in Abu Dhabi to demonstrate
their commitment towards this cause.
In order to create a background for the contemporary urban form, this paper first presents a
brief development history of the city. The plan 2030 and current development proposals are then
comprehensively described. The paper examines the current and future patterns of development
that relate to the decision to develop the peripheral islands. The research methodology includes
site visits and an examination of the physical attributes of different areas. Morphological studies
are used to discuss these patterns and to investigate the relation of elements, both at the scale of
the island as well as the city. Select examples have been discussed as cases that are particularly
illustrative of the issue and to substantiate the conclusions that are being drawn. The paper
concludes with a consideration of the emerging issues relating to the urban form and
summarizes potential future directions.
Helmy (2008) in her doctoral dissertation provides a summary of urban studies in the Gulf
and categorizes them as historical urbanization, modern urbanization and oil urbanization.
Contemporary research in the post-oil urban fabric has been faced with the challenge of keeping
pace with the explosive growth experienced by the Gulf countries. Elsheshtawy (2005, 2010),
Moustafa (2005), Eleishe (2006) and Al Naem (2005) have discussed aspects of contemporary
urbanism in various Gulf cities. This paper attempts to contribute towards the body of research
in the post-oil urban fabric of Abu Dhabi by discussing a contemporary urban pattern that
addresses the role of environment in shaping the urban fabric.

Abu Dhabi – A brief history

Abu Dhabi is the capital of the United Arab Emirates, the seat of the federal government and the
wealthiest of the Emirates as a result of its abundant oil reserves. It is situated on a T-shaped
island which projects into the Arabian Gulf from the central western coast, a part of an
archipelago of several islands within the emirate. Other islands, such as Sir Bani Yas and Dalma
have a played a historical role in the evolution and growth of the southern Arabian Gulf as a
trading center. In general, the native people of the Gulf region, called the Bedouins selected
areas such as the mountains, oases and the coast while seeking settlements in the harsh desert
conditions. The largely nomadic, migratory population shifted from region to region in response
to the rhythms of seasons and trade. Buildings and settlements were distributed along a net of
social and economic relations that tied the interior of Arabia with the larger commercial network
of the region (Hawker, 2008).
Residential clusters date back to 1761, when the principal local tribes of Abu Dhabi, the Bani
Yas, who were settled in an inland oasis, moved to the coastline seeking better living conditions.
(Elsheshtawy,2010). Presence of water helped and it grew as a permanent settlement devoted to
fishing and pearling. A turning point in the development of Abu Dhabi came about in 1953,
when Abu Dhabi Marine Areas Ltd. (ADMA) obtained offshore oil concessions resulting in
royalty payments. This triggered the development process, which accelerated when Sheikh
Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan took over as the ruler in 1966.
The task of making the masterplan of the city was undertaken. In addition to extensive
greening, the main concerns of the planners were a responsive Arab Islamic style, identifying
areas of development and the problem of settling the native Bedouin who were accustomed to a
migratory, nomadic lifestyle (Raban, 1987). The 1960s to 80s saw a surge in construction
activity. High densities were attained since land was parcelised into small chunks and allocated
to nationals. The possibility of installing infrastructure and the reliance on technology for
cooling buildings lifted the limits on urbanizable land and waterfront development and land
reclamation gained importance. The urgency for development placed a greater focus on
planning and land sub-division.
 609

Vision 2030 and proposals for islands

In comparison with other oil-based economies of the region, Abu Dhabi may be differentiated in
the restraint that it has exercised in its growth and development, primarily due to the greater
availability of natural resources. This restraint has allowed it a second mover’s advantage
(Rogers 1983) and a chance to deliberate upon its growth directions by preparing a vision,
which includes socio-environmental concerns in addition to market-driven forces. The Plan Abu
Dhabi 2030: Urban Structure Framework Plan, prepared by the Urban Planning Council (UPC)
in collaboration with the Abu Dhabi Council for Economic Development (ADCED) was
released in 2007. The document envisages Abu Dhabi as a ‘leading 21st century Arab capital,
that is based on a range of factors to ensure sustainable growth and a high quality of living’.
(Plan Abu Dhabi 2030). In order to achieve this vision, the planning principles follow the 4
pillars of Estidama (a sustainability program, customized for the Middle East – Environment,
Economy, Society and Culture. The Plan Abu Dhabi 2030, documents the initiatives to develop
the peripheral islands of Abu Dhabi to ensure they are an important part of the city’s identity. It
is envisaged that the city be defined as much by the natural islands and dunes surrounding it as
the infrastructure, streets and homes to be developed. (Executive Summary, Plan Abu Dhabi
2030). Strong emphasis is being awarded to leisure and tourism and key projects which are ear-
marked towards this purpose include the Sadiyat Island as the cultural district, Yas Island with a
Formula One circuit, the manmade Lulu island, which will potentially hold a major park and the
Desert Islands projects. The Environmental Framework Plan proposes a Green Gradient to
regulate the development of the islands by assigning a series of inhabitation levels, ranging from
‘Park Core Islands’ to City Edge Islands’ (Plan Abu Dhabi 2030, p 51, 138). The Central
Business District (CBD) that is scattered over several diverse islands is consolidated on Al
Maryah Island to improve its legibility (Plan Abu Dhabi, p55). Fig1. provides an overview of
the key island development project.

Figure 1. Map of Abu Dhabi – New island proposals and initiatives in Plan Abu Dhabi
2030. Developed on maps courtesy OpenStreetMap.org.
610

Developing the Islands – Place-Branding

The isolated self-contained, configuration of islands as well as the complete absence of any
development presents a ‘blank slate’ to the developer. Though development is guided by an
overall vision for the city as a whole, drawing references from the surrounding fabric often
becomes difficult and convoluted. Castello (2010) discusses the complementary nature of place-
making and place-marketing in the genesis of places and comments on the growing importance
of marketing in creating associations with places. Hashim (2012) examines the efforts of the
Office of the Brand Abu Dhabi as part of the city’s efforts to place itself as a globally significant
city and studies the case of Sadiyat Island. The strong imageability of the water also means that
celebrated architectural icons are often commissioned to generate an exciting waterfront
experience (Zoe, 2012).
Leisure, recreation and entertainment are dominating functions employed in the mechanism
of place-branding of the islands. Hannigan (1998), refers to places intended for leisure and
entertainment, permanently offering an attractive mix of festivity and social interaction. Sassen
and Roost (1999) discuss the role of entertainment industry in creating urban places dedicated to
products and leisure services. Two of the most significant island projects, reflective of these
trends in Abu Dhabi are the islands at Yas and Sadiyat which have seen extensive development
in erstwhile empty islands. Yas island is intended to be a recreational and entertainment node
while Sadiyat will be a cultural district and both developments have been positioned at a global
scale.
Sadiyat Island, an island half a kilometer off the coast of Abu Dhabi is being pitched as a
venue for staging classical concerts, art exhibits and a major book fair. It comprises of 4
museums, each designed by a celebrity architect and 19 pavilions, varying in size from 2000 to
10000 sq. m. strung along a water canal, which have been conceptualized in order to host an Art
Biennale. The Art Biennale will be a regularly recurring art exhibition (every 2 years), which is
inspired by the historically acclaimed ‘Venice Biennale’, which was first held in 1895 It is
interesting to note that the masterplan while planning for events also acknowledges the fact that
the events will be occurring only for a short duration. Hence the pavilions have been designed
such that one face of the pavilion fronts the canal and the other face responds towards the
commercial development within the island. This creation of a flexible framework appears as an
important characteristic when planning for large events since it addresses their temporal nature.
Other characteristics of this development trend are the creation of thematic environments and
the dominance of projects delivered by star-architects and the pursuit of superlatives (Fig2).

Figure 2. Place-Branding of Sadiyat Island through signature architecture (Source:

The Sadiyat Brochure).
 611

The development of islands incurs large costs due to the extensive infrastructure
requirements and landworks entailed. Hence there is often a tendency to parcelise the land and
divide the island project into sub-projects in order to distribute the risks of investments. This
can at times cause the public realm to become fragmented.

Recharging the Void

Initially designed as a compact city, concentrated around the Corniche and the port, the
downtown area displays a strong imageability that reduces towards the periphery. Peripheral
areas may be characterized by several features such as low density, large sizes of land parcels
and reduced imageability and activity. Fabric dating from various development periods often
surrounds them. With the development of peripheral islands, these areas figure as voids in the
city fabric, since it appears as though the development has leapfrogged over them. In the
modified context of the developing peripheral islands, such urban voids are gaining a renewed
value due to the significance of their location at the cusp of different fabrics and are likely to
undergo dramatic urban transformations in the near future (Fig3).
In the contemporary urban territory, the void or the un-built becomes the structuring
elements and thus should be studied as one of the components – as important as the built one.
(Cortes, 2006). It would be very useful to develop design guidelines that address the
opportunistic value of such sites – the possibility of saving them as open spaces for the city, as
spaces from where the fabrics dating from different periods may be observed, as spaces that
serve as important connections between different districts and as spaces which allow informal
activity and inclusiveness. One such area in Al Zahiya, previously known as the old Tourist
Club Area was studied and documented by students of an Urban Design Studio at Abu Dhabi
University (Fig3).

Figure 3. Above - Satellite image of the old TCA area showing urban fabrics ranging
from different development periods (source: Wikimapia. Right – Graphics showing the
appearance of voids in the urban fabric as peripheral islands are developed).

Connecting the Islands: Expanding the Periphery

The word ‘island’ itself is used in common language to represent an independent entity that has
little or no relation with others. In urban design literature, the term islands and archipelagos
have been used to refer to the extent of exclusiveness of developments (Buchanan, 2013).
Adham K, (2010), uses the term island both to make references to geographical configuration as
well as to allude to new forms of urban archipelagos prevalent in Doha and the region.
612

Abu Dhabi, an island itself, is located less than 250m from the mainland, separated by a
shallow stretch of water, which gave it a strategic advantage but posed an obstruction to trade
and transport (Khaleej Times). In the early 1950s, when a proper link to the mainland became
essential with the oil discovery, Petroleum Development (later Abu Dhabi Petroleum Company)
had a narrow causeway built over this. Under the leadership of Sheikh Zayed, a decision was
taken to turn the causeway to a bridge and the Al Maqta bridge was opened in 1968 (Radan,
2014, Khaleej Times). This was followed by the Mussafah bridge and more recently, an iconic
connection, the Sheikh Zayed Bridge, designed by Zaha Hadid was opened in 2010
(Construction Week online) The 3 bridges serve as portals to the city. The 3 major arterials
extending from these portals were the main routes through which the city was experienced. The
strong directionality of these routes, together with the linearity of the landmass, helped establish
the city image, reinforcing the perception of moving to and away from the city centre.
The traditional linear / grid configuration of transportation configuration is gradually being
replaced by a network configuration (Fig4). The Eastern Ring Road or Salam Street (now
renamed Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Street) was extended to the Corniche end of Abu Dhabi island
where it turns to join the other arterials Khaleej al Arabi and Old Airport road). The Sheikh
Khalifa Highway, E12, connects the city to the 3 major islands – Sadiyat, Jubail and Yas, re-
entering the city close to the airport. Similarly the manmade island, Lulu, which is currently
accessed only by ferry, is set to be connected to the mainland at the Marina breakwater and the
Port Zayed. The high-speed arterial thus created would circumscribe the older parts of the city,
quite like a ring road. The direct connectivity would allow one to travel straight from the airport
to the island destinations, bypassing older areas of the city.

Figure 4. Above – Planned improvements in the Surface Transport MasterPlan for Abu
Dhabi (source: STMP, Abu Dhabi. Right - Changes to the Transportation structure of
Abu Dhabi from linear / grid type to a network configuration in relation to development of
peripheral islands).

These new connections could be understood as creating a ‘string of beads’ configuration of

urban centres which are carefully linked to important transport nodes thus facilitating a global
connectivity. Since movement routes play an instrumental role in the perception of the city, this
modified movement structure will be integral to the development of the new urban
morphological form and the traditional perception of the city as a ‘T’- shaped island.
Further, based on the nature of connectivity between the city and the island, there appear to
be 3 models of islands: Inclusive, Connected and Exclusive. A comparison of the 3 types has
been described in Table 1.
 613

The Al Maryah island, (Fig5) an example of an inclusive island is being proposed as the new
Central Business District and will therefore support the highest concentration of office space in
Abu Dhabi. Since the CBD shall incorporate adjacent edges of Al Mina, Al Reem and Abu
Dhabi islands, it is planned that existing city streets will be extended into the proposed islands,
through modestly scaled bridges (Abu Dhabi Surface Transport Masterplan STMP, p51).

Table 1. Types of Islands based on connectivity. Maps of islands sourced from

OpenStreetMap.org.

The Connected type of island presents further issues in terms of morphology. Such islands
are characterized by a strong urban edge created due to the transport connection that often
dissects the island. An example of this may be seen on the Yas Island where the Sheikh Khalifa
Highway divides the island into areas, which are also being developed as Yas North and Yas
South (Fig6). Though an attempt has been made to propose parks which will serve as seams and
link the two sides, they have a limited effectiveness in serving as seams.
614

Figure 5. The Al Maryah Island, an example of a development integrated with

surrounding fabric. Left and top right - Photos of exhibits in The Galleria Mall, Bottom
right – View of waterfront of Al Maryah Island with the main city in the backdrop.

Figure 6. Clockwise from top left: Map of Yas Island showing the E12 highway
dissecting the island into Yas north and South – Source: OpenStreetMap; View of the
highway creating an urban edge; View of the Gateway Park designed as a seam for Yas
North and South.

Connecting the local island-based movement networks to the city arterial also affects the
urban form and image of the proposed development. Since this involves geometries and traffic
interchanges, which are predominantly concerned with regulating the traffic speeds, they can
interfere adversely with intuitive way-finding due to maze of interchanges and ramps and also
the presence of buildings on the transport routes. This may be experienced through the example
of Manarat al Sadiyat (Fig7), a visitor centre designed to convey the vision for the island to the
visitors.

Figure 7. Access to Manarat al Sadiyat, Map courtesy: OpenStreetMap.org

 615

The Abu Dhabi Surface Transport Master Plan (ADSTMP) also proposes that the planned
land-based transport network will be supplemented by ferries and water taxis to serve the off-
shore island districts in an effort towards creating a multi-modal transport system

Conclusions

As Abu Dhabi pursues its vision for the future, it is quite evidently doing so through massive
development projects, proposed on its peripheral islands. The need to balance environmental
issues, urban form and city image with the pressures of development and expansion thus comes
into the forefront.
The decision to develop large areas over short periods of time on a geographical
configuration which is physically isolated has led to the predominant use of place-branding as a
favoured means of place-making. Place branding has simultaneously reinforced and leveraged
upon the exclusiveness of the island landform. Place branding in Abu Dhabi’s islands has
focused on hosting mega-events and emphasizing the islands for their natural value. The Green
Gradient specified in the Plan Abu Dhabi 2030 is a positive effort that codifies the role of
environment in the future development of these islands. Since the hosting of mega-events and
creation of architectural icons is a strategy adopted by cities to boost tourism (Richards and
Wilson, 2005), it is therefore oriented towards an international audience. Hence direct
connectivity through global links such as the high-speed transport arterials and access from the
airport gain significance in these projects.
As peripheral islands develop as nodes of activity, a reconfiguration of land values is brought
about with erstwhile fringe areas and voids in the urban fabric gaining a renewed importance.
The voids hold importance since they can connect and stitch together different fabrics and allow
better integration and continuity of the public realm. Development guidelines that recognize this
opportunity and addresses this urban type would be useful in ensuring that these issues are
appropriately dealt with.
Connections required to make the peripheral islands accessible are transforming the
traditional linear / grid form of the city circulation to a network type which connects the
dispersed nodes. The morphology of the island itself is influenced by the extent of connectivity
with the main city, with some islands retaining their exclusiveness, some linked through
arterials and others being integrated with the main city. Both the exclusive and connected
models of islands have the merit of limiting the impact of the transport infrastructure on the
natural systems and mangroves.
The high costs of development on islands means special attention is required to ensure that
short-term economic considerations are balanced with long-term goals of vision, waterfront
development and sustainable public realms. Further research and morphological studies that
compare the urban form of the different types of islands, potential guidelines for fringe areas
and voids and urban infill would be very useful.

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York: Routledge) 218.
616

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Helmy, M. (2008), Urban Branding Strategies and the Emerging Arab Cityscape: The Image of the Gulf
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of the International Union of Architects (UIA), Istanbul, Turkey.
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version,property=pdf.pdf), accessed on 16 th Jan 2014.
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(http://www.thenational.ae/news/uae-news/salam-street-tunnel-renamed-and-now-open-to-the-public),
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 617

Restelo neighbourhood: a paradigmatic example of urban

form overlapping

Patrícia Bento d’Almeida

Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, DINÂMIA’CET-IUL, Av. das Forças Armadas 1649-
026 Lisboa, Portugal. Email: [email protected].

Abstract. This paper reviews the numerous phases of the urban growth planned for the Restelo
neighbourhood, located in Lisbon, which is regarded as a paradigmatic example of an amalgam of urban
interventions in the same territory. Throughout the twentieth century the growth of the Portuguese capital
was directly associated to political decisions made by the Municipality and the Ministry of Public Works.
The intention to develop a housing neighbourhood in the south-west limit of the city emerges from a
dictatorship minister that saw, in this territory, a perfect scenario for Faria da Costa to put into practice
the urban knowledge acquired in Paris. But if Duarte Pacheco had been called an urban planner, the
subsequent politicians called in architect teams to redraw what had not been yet built. Multiple forms
expressed in this urban agglomeration testify different solutions in urban design. This paper aims to: i)
reveal the evolution of the urban form in the Restelo neighbourhood; ii) contribute to the understanding
of the urban form development in Portuguese Urban History; iii) provide historical basis for the debate
on the respect on previous urban design solutions. Still with land to urbanize, the Restelo is a territory
open to future urban proposals.

Key Words: Restelo-Portugal, urban History, urban form, municipality.

Introduction

This paper intends to present a critical view of the several phases of urban growth performed on
the Restelo neighbourhood, from the first proposal “Ajuda Hillside Urban Plan” (“Plano de
Urbanizaç o da Encosta da Ajuda”, 1938) developed by the first Portuguese architect graduated
in Urbanism, to the public contest of ideas “East Zone Restelo Hillside” (“Zona Nascente da
Encosta do Restelo”, 1991). Due to the fact that this information is deposited in sparse archives
and is widely unknown to the scientific community, the Portuguese historiography had not yet
been totally released. This served, therefore, as motivation for the development of a PhD
research (d’Almeida, 2013). We live in a period where the population inhabits territories that are
constantly subjected to urban and architectural interventions. Based on the experience of the
Restelo neighbourhood, we hope to contribute to the debate on future interventions that will
take place on this or other territories. Justified value: 1º) The comprehensive overview of Duarte
Pacheco’s definition of Lisbon’s growth lines; 2º) The visionary attitude of this Minister of
Public Works of sending to the Institut d'Urbanisme de Paris one Portuguese architect to study
Urban Planning and to bring back to Portugal the knowledge acquired from Henri Prost (1874-
1959), Jacques Gréber (1882-1962), Georges Sébille (1879-1962), Donat Alfred Agache (1875-
1934) and Etienne De Gröer (1882-1974); 3º) The lack of vision of the politicians that followed
Duarte Pacheco and consistently contributed for the changes that occurred at the Restelo
neighbourhood, making this a paradigmatic example of overlapping urban form.
This paper is organised in four parts. After this introduction, the second part describes “The
heavy task of Duarte Pacheco” part of the assuming the lead of the municipality of Lisbon,
accumulating it with the position of Minister of Public Works as he idealizes the Lisbon city’s
urban growth without Portuguese urban planners. The third part demonstrates the transition
“From Ajuda Hillside to Restelo Neighbourhood”, showing the passage of an agricultural field
to an urbanized territory, according to the model of Garden City. The final part of this paper
618

focuses on the evolution “From Neighbourhood to Neighbourhoods”, exposing the overlapping

of urban plans and, consequently, urban forms over more than fifty years.

The heavy task of Duarte Pacheco

In 1938, the engineer Duarte Pacheco (1900-1943) (Costa, 2012), Minister of Public Works
(1932-1936 and 1938-1943), accumulated political responsibilities when he assumed the post of
Mayor of Lisbon (1938-1943) – “I know it's a heavy task that is being required of me and I
realize the extent of the sacrifice that the acceptance of this duty represents” (Pacheco, 1944),
were the words in his inauguration speech. In the funeral ceremonies held after his death, the
deputy president Eduardo Rodrigues de Carvalho recalled a walk he had with the Minister:
"from that bright spirit flowed in torrents of thoughts on the Eduardo VII Park, the highway, the
aesthetic arrangement of petty buildings that line the Avenue and the Restauradores Square (...)
the Rossio arrangement, the downtown traffic, the vision of the tunnels starting from the
Restauradores by the Corpo Santo, and from Socorro to St. Domingos, to tackle the problem of
Almirante Reis’ connetion with Rossio, all treated with great depth” (Carvalho, 1944).
Pacheco’s passage in the political life was brief but active, creating conditions to achieve what
he envisioned for the city of Lisbon: the "Capital of the Portuguese Empire" (Lobo, 1995).
Firstly, to avoid the constant hiring of foreign professionals and due to the lack of Portuguese
urban planners (Ferreira, 1987), he opened a contest for a Portuguese architect to specialize in
Urbanism in the Institut d’Urbanisme de Paris; secondly, he hired the newly graduated architect
in urban planning to integrate the technical team of the Municipality of Lisbon shortly after his
return to Portugal; finally, he requested this urban planner to develop much of his idealized
urban production for the city of Lisbon. João Guilherme Faria da Costa (1906-1971), the first
Portuguese urban planner, in a first stage and among other projects was commissioned to give
urban form to Ajuda Hillside (1938), Areeiro (1938), Alvalade (1945-1948) (Costa, 2002) and
link 24th July Avenue to Comércio Square (1947).

From Ajuda Hillside to Restelo Neighbourhood

In 1938, the 300 hectares of the “Ajuda Hillside”, located on the western limit of the
municipality of Lisbon, were the focus of the first urban interventions part of the “Ajuda
Hillside Urban Plan”. With some urgency, this plan aimed to transform a territory occupied by
farms and palaces into a large residential neighbourhood, to accommodate 36.000 inhabitants
with generous financial resources. Positioned in the back slope of the Jeronimos Monastery it
should also served as a scenario for the Portuguese World Exhibition (1940) and as the
beginning of the Estoril Coast, which had suffered some changes part of the urban development
plan carried out by Alfred Agache in 1933.
With the axis defined by the Belém Tower and the St. Jerónimo Chapel, as Beaux-Arts style,
the urban planner Faria da Costa designed the plan with three main motorways lined with
vegetation – Dom Vasco da Gama Avenue/Descobertas Avenue, Torre de Belém Avenue and
Jerónimos Street/Ilha da Madeira Avenue – taking advantage of the urban scenario and
strategically enjoying panoramic views over the Tagus River. A third Avenue, designated
Restelo Avenue, follows the contours and guides the urban network with concentric streets that
look over the river like an amphitheatre. This Avenue outlined the areas to urbanize in the 1st
and 2nd phase of urbanization. As in the new Australian capital (1911) projected by Walter
Burley Griffin (1876-1937), for Restelo Faria da Costa thought about a residential
neighbourhood to be seen from Belém. The buildings of greater height were placed in the higher
elevation of the slope and the single-family homes were placed in isolation in the plot along the
"galleries” that make up the “audience". Looking for a certain classical monumentality as Henri
Prost did in Casablanca (1915-1922), a church completed the urban ensemble. Following the
 619

Ebenezar Howard (1850-1928) model of the Garden City (1898), matching the city and the
countryside, Faria da Costa wanted to create a self-sufficient neighbourhood whose boundaries
were defined by a peripheral green belt – the Monsanto Park – where the discomfort of dwelling
in the metropolitan area is diluted with the contemplation of landscaped squares that remind us
of Letchworth (1902-1906), designed by Raymond Unwin (1863-1940) and Barry Parker (1867-
1947). Applying the zoning principle Faria da Costa created residential areas separated from
commercial areas and opened spaces. The contemplation of the commercial centres
concentrated near the dwellings creates neighbourhood units that serve the resident population
and ensure a certain morphological and social homogeneity.

From Neighbourhood to Neighbourhoods

The Restelo neighbourhood was already under construction when it gave the first major change
of the original “Ajuda Hillside Urban Plan”. With Duarte Pacheco’s death (1943) the new
Minister of Public Works (1947-1954), José Frederico Ulrich (1905-1982), leads the
urbanization works differently, taking Restelo neighbourhood to very different directions
comparing to what was conceived by the earlier Statesman. Called again to design at Restelo,
Faria da Costa is at that time requested to change the general urban plan with the “Study of
Economic Houses of Ajuda Hillside Neighbourhood” (“Estudo do Projeto do Aglomerado de
Casas Económicas da Encosta da Ajuda”, 1947-1952), giving rise to the construction of the
identified Restelo Economic Neighbourhood. As advocated by the architect Raul Lino (1879-
1974) (Pereira 2013) this economic neighbourhood was composed of single-family houses, for
state employees, military and their families. Consisting of approximately 460 attached houses,
the presented solution is distinguished from the initially private homes because the economic
houses were distributed in line, forming autonomous blocks built with each type of house
oriented in the same direction, seeking to provide equal living conditions. As a consequence,
streets with continuous buildings in block arise, approaching the urban form designed by
German Modern architects, namely by Walter Gropius (1883-1969) author of Dammerstock
neighbourhood (1928-1929) in Karslsrule, Germany. Although Portuguese laws considered, at
that time, four classes of houses (Class A, B, C or D; Type I, II or III), the Restelo Economic
Neighbourhood only contemplated the upper classes C and D, because they had to be integrated
with the houses previously built and whose lands had been acquired in public auction by those
who offered greater value.
The restructuring of “Ajuda Hillside Urban Plan”, considered of great importance to promote
a significant urban and social change, was readily exposed at the exhibition 15 Years of Public
Works: 1932-1947 (1948), held at Instituto Superior Técnico (Lisbon Tecnical University)
under the support of the Government in an initiative by José Frederico Ulrich. About one year
after the inauguration of this economic neighbourhood, with Álvaro Salvação Barreto (1890-
1975) at the presidency of the Lisbon Municipality (1944-1959), Faria da Costa was invited to
re-urbanize the land north of Restelo Avenue with the urban plan of the "Residential District of
Ajuda Hillside – 2nd part” (“Bairro Residencial da Encosta da Ajuda - 2ª Fase”, 1953). At that
moment that urban planner was looking to partially break the central avenue with the creation of
a promontory around the St. Jerónimo Chapel. A perpendicular axis to the main avenue defined
the northern limit of the intervention with blocks of four floored buildings located
perpendicularly to the street axis. This review of the previous general urban plan was never
implemented. The planned roads that snaked the steepness of the slope accompanying it with
the constant presence of single-family houses, as we shall see, will be partially replaced by
renewed urban interventions that gave priority to modern hierarchical streets where multifamily
houses prevail.
The creation of the Office of Municipal Urbanization Studies (Gabinete de Estudos de
Urbanização, GEU 1954) allocate 100 hectares of land in Restelo for the development of the
“Restelo Hillside Urban Plan” (“Plano de Urbanizaç o da Encosta do Restelo”, approximately
620

1954). The GEU team planned tower buildings and lined buildings to respond to the increasing
of the population. Now were the reflections of CIAM congress, namely the Charter of Athens
(1933-1941) that fascinated the young architects and urban planners. Concentrating height
housing blocks independent from traffic routes, each outlined “housing unit” was relieved with
the presence of green spaces, as idealized in the British New Towns planned in Harlow
(Frederick Gibberd, 1947) and Roehampton (London County Council, coordinated by John
Leslie Martin, 1952-1959). In each cell, the equipment considered essential for the
neighbourhood consolidation were: church or cultural centre, commercial centre, schools and
administrative institutions. A prioritisation of the traffic routes led to the disappearance of the
"traditional street" for main motorways where blocks or buildings were built in line and located
obliquely to get better solar exposure. The "Lisbon old blocks” disappear and the "Modern
City” appears. However, to respond to the requests for housing cooperatives who wanted to
built homes for its members, Pedro Falcão e Cunha (b. 1922) and José Aleixo de França
Sommer Ribeiro (1924-2006), architects that worked for the GEU, were instructed to develop
the "Readjustment of the 2nd Phase of Restelo Hillside" (“Reajustamento da 2ª Fase da Encosta
do Restelo”, 1959). This urban plan replaced, once again, two blocks per single-family houses
and attached houses, solution predicted in 1953 by Faria da Costa. At this planning stage, three
categories of buildings were predicted (Category I, II or III), for three different salaries
(200$00-300$00, 400$00-600$00 or 700$00-900$00). Next to Ilha da Madeira Avenue, six
tower buildings with an "H" plan and 96 apartments were contemplated (category II), which
should make the transition between the cooperative housing and housing for category III. In a
sense, this phase of urbanization has been forgotten by the Portuguese historiography, perhaps
because it was not entirely built. However, it is important to remember that this plan was
developed by the same architects that worked at the urban plan of Olivais Norte (1955-1958), a
very similar proposal developed after “Restelo Hillside Urban Plan”.
During the 40s of XX century the Ajuda Hillside was faithful to tradition. During the 1950s
over 400 projects of scarce equipments and numerous houses were approved for the entire
Restelo neighbourhood. Among other Portuguese traditional single-family dwellings or where
the history of architecture from the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were somehow represented
(Acciaiuoli, 1991), there were the finest examples of Modern Architecture built in Lisbon.
During the twenty years that followed, diplomats, artists and intellectuals hired the most
renowned architects to project their private houses, making this place a strategic point to test the
modernity. Although the division of the plots do not meet the requirements of the requested
programs, this was no impediment for the simultaneous acquisition of two plots. Serving as a
project-lab to the youngest class of architects, these projects were exposed at the General
Exhibition of Fine Arts (1946-1956), the greatest "publicity event” where several generations of
architects and artists exhibit their work, in opposition to the exhibitions organized by the
regime.
With França Borges at the presidency of the Lisbon Municipality (1959-1970) other
architects employed by the City Hall were called to intervene with partial urban plans replacing
the previously prepared by GEU. In 1965, Ruy António da Silveira Borges (1916-1978) was
responsible for the “Study of urban arrangement and architectural complex of the land next to
the C.G. Street” (“Estudo do conjunto arquitetónico e arranjo urbanístico do pormenor do
terreno junto à Rua C.G.”, now Ilha da Madeira Avenue) whose five modern housing blocks
were built by the same project; a year later Manuel Alves de Sousa (b. 1925) was invited to
prepare a detailed plan of a housing development located at the southern edge of Cell C, which
matches what was planned. After the building construction of the Ministry for Colonial Affairs
(1960-1962), the remaining area was being occupied by buildings on a large number promoted
by civil construction companies or groups of people associated to premeditated investment.
The lack of technical expertise at the municipal services leads to other professionals.
Between 1964 and 1970 the architect Francisco Zinho Antunes (1921-2002) and the engineer
Eurico Ferreira Gonçalves (1916-2005) developed the "Study of Restelo and Caramão da Ajuda
Urbanization" (“Estudo de Urbanizaç o do Restelo e Caram o da Ajuda”), commonly known as
 621

"Hight Restelo Plan” (“Plano do Alto do Restelo”). This urban plan had several phases due to
the guidelines given by the urban planner George Meyer-Heine (1905-1984) that was
responsible for the revision of the Lisbon Master Plan. At this time this urban plan was limited
to 30 hectares of surface circumscribed in an adjacent neighbourhood area, bordering the
Monsanto Park and the Caramão da Ajuda Economic Neighbourhood, designed by the architect
Luís Benavente between 1947 and1957. This new team planned and constructed tower-
buildings from 8 to 12 floors interconnected by buildings from 1 to 3 floors. Following one of
the central concerns of the Team X (1953-1984) – constituted by Alison Smithson (1928-1993),
Peter Smithson (1923-2003), Jaap Bakema (1914-1981), Georges Candilis (1913-1995), Aldo
Van Eyck (1918-1999), Giancarlo di Carlo (1919-2005) and Shadrach Woods (1923-1973) –
these galleries placed at different levels intended separate the pedestrians from the vehicles and
favour human relationships between the communities that faced the commercial spaces. All
these tower-buildings functioned as a barrier, forcing Caramão da Ajuda residents to contour the
buildings than to cross through the galleries as previously predicted. There is a certain constraint
between the coexistence of different social classes.
The new Chair of the Council led by Santos e Castro (1970-1972) interrupted the operation
and suspended the announced 2nd phase of urbanization. This second phase should have
continued the construction of the tower-buildings in the south land of Gregório Lopes Street (the
cornice line), where a Centrum on a platform was also planned. It was too late to "remedy" the
northern slope view of the Jeronimos Monastery but it was necessary to avoid the negative
effect of the scale emphasized by the building towers in an elevated area of the city. This
construction forever altered the view of Lisbon from the Tagus River. The architects Nuno
Teotónio Pereira (b. 1922), Nuno Portas (b. 1934) and João Paciência (b. 1947) and the
landscape architect Gonçalo Ribeiro Telles (b. 1922) formed a new team to design the next
urban changes at Restelo neighbourhood. These professionals had the obligation to keep the
already existing population density but significantly reduce the height of the prospected
buildings. Thus, before the recent Lisbon General Urban Plan (1977) defined the guidelines for
the “Restelo Zoning Plan” (“Plano de Pormenor do Restelo”, 1971), the urban plan is going to
turn the tower-buildings horizontal and create low height blocks, recovering the concept of
elongated blocks and traditional streets that point to the Tagus River. This plan was looking to
dilute the nearest neighbourhood plans partly built; creating a passage between the south
housing area (Faria da Costa), to the east block-units (GEU; Silveira Borges; Alves de Sousa)
and the north tower-buildings (Zinho Antunes and Ferreira Gonçalves).
Meanwhile, the Public Urbanization Company of Lisbon (Empresa Pública de Urbanização
de Lisboa, EPUL) was created (1971-2002), giving them administrative and financial autonomy.
This company had a prominent role in the field of urban planning and housing in the city of
Lisbon. Some of the municipal planning processes were transferred to this company, including
the “Restelo Zoning Plan” whose urban arrangement had been previously approved by the City
Council and the housing projects created by the same team of designers, to which joined the
architect Pedro Viana Botelho (b. 1948) and the landscape architect Francisco Caldeira Cabral
(1908-1992). EPUL continued the process with the opening of a tender for the construction of
the “pilot-block”, located on the south end of the enterprise, called the “EP Zone” (Zona EP -
Estudo Prévio). This district included town houses which aggregated a set of courtyards and
terraces and a collective block-unit that took advantage of hits on gallery. With a new Mayor
(1972-1974), the Lieutenant Colonel Jorge da Silva Sebastião (b. 1919), EPUL planned a
phased construction but did not build the central area that included a civic and cultural centre, a
hotel, offices and a church.
The transition from a dictatorship to a democracy had further repercussions on the entire
process. Under claim of the EPUL services, this public company decided that the new projects
should be developing internally. The building projects located on the western side were given to
the architect Vítor Alberto (b. 1938), employee of this public company. At odds with the
"Restelo Zoning Plan”, this architect increased two floors to the building projects. Curiously,
these projects were awarded with an Honourable Mention of the Valmor Prize (1988), the most
622

important recognition given in Portugal to an architect and his work. Although the new
chairman led by Nuno Krus Abecassis (1929-1999) had led all building projects located on the
east slope to the authors of the zoning plan, only the called “Pink Block” was built (“Quarteir o
Rosa” 1984-1987, honorable mentions of Valmor and Municipal Award in 1987 and 1988)
because in 1984 EPUL decided to review the projects and the allotment of five hectares located
at the nascent part, which were still available for urbanization. Already under the tutelage of the
director Joel Hasse Ferreira (b. 1944), in 1991 EPUL opens a contest of ideas for the "East Zone
Restelo Hillside" (“Zona Nascente da Encosta do Restelo”) which qualified the project
submitted by the architect Nuno Leónidas (b. 1954) (see figure 1).

Figure 1. Restelo neighbourhood: overlapping of urban plans. (source: Patrícia Bento

d’Almeida).
 623

Table 1. Urban Forms in Ajuda Hillside/Restelo. (source: Patrícia Bento d’Almeida).

Conclusions

From the selected proposal in contest, the “Slope of the Monastery” ("Encosta do Mosteiro")
was built. Because the basic characteristics of the “Restelo Zoning Plan” were not ensured, the
624

architect Nuno Teotónio Pereira criticized the urban intervention on an article to be published in
the 35th EPUL anniversary (Pereira, 2006). Presently, still to urbanise, are some plots called
“High Restelo” (“Alto do Restelo”) and “Embassies Plot” (“Terreno das Embaixadas”). This
means that the passage of a dozen presidents by the Municipality of Lisbon was not yet
sufficient to terminate the development of this urban agglomeration. It is with difficulty that we
recognise this part of the city as a neighbourhood because the equipments that should give to
this place some autonomy were not built. We have seen that since the late '30s until now the
change of leadership also meant the changing of the "urban-planner" responsible for the Restelo
planning. To define areas of the capital expansion the engineer Duarte Pacheco appealed to an
urban-planner and a single urban plan was developed to create a distinct elite residential area.
The leaders that succeeded in the Municipality and in the Ministry of Public Works requested
the collaboration of other professionals to respond to the needs of the moment. Each
professional did not take into account the previously developed plans, but saw them as a
condition. Each architect will give effect to a particular urban form in his design area. Thus, by
way of example in the city of Lisbon, the urban agglomeration of Restelo is the result of an
overlap of urban forms (see table 1).

Acknowledgments

The present work benefited from the input of Margarida Acciaiuoli and Michel Toussaint Alves Pereira,
who were the supervisors of the PhD thesis research that conduced to this paper (d’Almeida, 2013).

References

Acciaiuoli, M. (1991) ‘Os anos 40 em Portugal. O País, o Regime e as Artes’, unpublished PhD thesis,
Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas da Universidade Nova de Lisboa.
Carvalho, E. R. (1944) ‘Homenagens do Governo e da Câmara Municipal’, Revista
Municipal,(http://hemerotecadigital.cm-lisboa.pt/OBRAS/RevMunicipal/RevMun.htm) accessed 26
March 2014.
Costa, J. P. (2002) Bairro de Alvalade. Um Paradigma no Urbanismo Português (Livros Horizonte,
Lisboa).
Costa, S. V. (2012) O País a régua e esquadro. Urbanismo, Arquitectura, e Memória na obra de Duarte
Pacheco (IST Press, Lisboa).
d’Almeida, P. B. (2013) ‘Bairro(s) do Restelo. Panorama Urbanístico e Arquitetónico’, unpublished PhD
thesis, Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas da Universidade Nova de Lisboa.
Ferreira, V. M. (1987) A Cidade de Lisboa. De Capital do Império a Centro da Metrópole (Publicações
Dom Quixote, Lisboa).
Lobo, M. S. (1995) Planos de Urbanização: A Época de Duarte Pacheco, (FAUP Publicações, Porto)
Pacheco, D. (1944) ‘Afirmações. Excertos de alguns discursos’, Revista Municipal,
(http://hemerotecadigital.cm-lisboa.pt/OBRAS/RevMunicipal/RevMun.htm) accessed 26 March 2014.
Pereira, M. T. A. (2013) Da Arquitectura à Teoria e o Universo da Teoria da Arquitectura em Portugal
na primeira metade do século XX (Caleidoscópio, Lisboa).
Pereira, N. T. (2006) ‘EPUL 35 Anos – Plano do Restelo. Breve Historial’ (Teotónio Pereira archives,
Lisbon).
 625

Utopia and reality: from Etienne de Gröer to the late 20th

century. Évora, Portugal

Maria Filomena Monteiro1, Maria do Céu Tereno2, Manuela Maria Tomé3

1
Department of the History Center, Heritage and Culture of the Municipality of Évora,
Convento dos Remedios, Av S. Sebastião, Évora, Portugal
2
Department of Architecture of the University of Évora, Colégio dos Leões, Estrada dos
Leões 7000-208 Évora, Portugal.
3
Setúbal Municipality, Quartel dos Bombeiros Sapadores, Estrada de Algeruz, 2910
Setúbal.
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract. The origin of Évora dates back a few millennia, and this fact caused successive urban forms
that were diachronically adapting to the needs of a very diverse sum of generations. The walled city lies
consolidated since the late fifteenth century, and integrated in the 40s of last century the first Urban Plan
of the city written by Étiènne de Gröer. This plan and the sequential integrated a spatial structure based
on urban axes dating back to the Roman Cardus and Decumanus in the Roman times. These urban axes
determined by redrafting the insertion of new pro-active roles in the case of pre-existing axes. The
formation of new urban fabric took place with the creation of new axes, obtained at the cost of drastic
demolitions in the dense and consolidated hull. New urban centres were created extramural opposing the
proposal made by de Groër who advocated the establishment of a city walled garden surrounding the
nucleus.

Key Words: Urban plan, urban development, axes.

Introduction

Étiènne de Gröer 71 preliminary urbanization plan of the city of Évora

The preliminary urbanization plan, designed by the architect – urban planner Étiènne de Groër
prepared to Évora, which had its beginnings in 1942, was approved by the Town Hall in 1945
and sanctioned by the government two years later. There de Gröer proposed different types of
interventions for different urban scenarios:
Walled city area – is an area consisting of buildings of various kinds, and that over the
centuries has undergone a process of gradual consolidation. The author advocated the natural
continuation of its densification, the reformulation of some not very dense urban fabric as well

71
Étiènne de Groër was born in Warsaw in 1882. He obtained his degree in Architecture from the
Imperial Academy of Fine Arts in St. Petersburg. About 1920 he moved to France where he collaborated
on numerous development urbanization plans and in various cities. In 1936 he was naturalized French and
joined the Institute of Urbanism of Paris, where as a lecturer was responsible for the subject area where it
was taught the principles of the garden city. Later, in the 1930s and 1940s, he, with the architects Donat-
Alfred Crouch and Luigi Dodi, was invited by Duarte Pacheco to make development urbanization plans
in various cities in Portugal, introducing the new urban principles that then were in force in Europe, of
which we can underline the concept of the garden city that had been set by Howard Ebenezer. He became
one of the main planners of the new State, being in charge of the preparation of preliminary plans or land
development plans of various cities that stand out among other: Abrantes, Setúbal, Beja, Braga, Coimbra,
Évora, Luanda, Sintra and Costa do Sol, with the guiding principles that governed, aiming to preserve the
historic center and consider the expansion of cities, simultaneously reserving areas for essential economic
activities.
626

as the opening of some streets which would take the appropriate requirements of the new era
introducing transverse profiles, enabling a road traffic that he anticipated as rather heavy72.
The constitution of such axes of movement, inside the walled city space, would allowed the
constructive reinforcement along their paths, according to the author, and create a more intense
and adequate urban image to the demands of the new times.
The fact that such pathways strategically crossing the urban fabric, through its main centres
of city life and simultaneously connecting with existing doors in the surrounding wall allowed
the union between interior and exterior as well as easier access by the people that would live
there and of course also a greater enjoyment by living of all the urban space .
At the inner urban space of the walled city the typology for built solutions focused
essentially in continuous urban facades. Those buildings were broadened mostly by the
scrapping of old hull built. Such proposals for interventions were focused on private property
intended to be implemented individually by their respective owners.
In the interstitial spaces between the walled area and the new urban area surrounding the
walls were provided by equipment areas, in key points, for use by residents in both areas. Such
equipment was essentially schools and markets. These would have to ensure not only pedestrian
access for the resident populations in its area of influence but also effective response to to the
distant residential areas: to this end, these spaces must always be located along the structural
axis, close to the main gates of the ancient city and they should be located or from inside or
immediately in the surrounding area and should also having parking areas next to them.

The new urban perimeter surrounding the city walls

Outside the entire walled urban space, that at that time was still very little occupied, de Groër
proposed the construction of a new urban area 73 with characteristics of “garden city”
surrounding the limited ancient core of the metropolis to the existing date by creating a kind of a
“lung” (Brito, V., Ferreira, CT 2007) that would allow a better environmental quality74.

72
The proposal to open an internal circular to Praça do Giraldo that encircling the south, the road traffic
diverted allowing greater enjoyment of the space by pedestrians. This proposal, however, planned the
demolition of large urban continuous long established and notorious asset value whereas its densification
occurred until the fifteenth century. As for the space formerly occupied by the old monastery of Sta.
Catarina, now demolished, it would be aimed at building a central hub of public transport.
73
The preliminary plan of Étiènne de Groër had in its genesis a new technique of urban planning based on
demographic projections and integrating economic analysis. It also included zoning (advocated by Le
Corbusier and the set of technicians who had been in the genesis of the Charter of Athens – reflecting his
knowledge of what was happening in Europe both in the urban and architectural level) and new forms and
urban programs. The preliminary plan is still held by the CME, and is composed by four plants referring
to: “Plan de zones schema des grandes voies” dated 1942; “Anteplano (preliminary plan)” dated 1945;
two undated drawings: one referred to as “zone plan” and the latter as “Plant of presentation.” Charter of
Athens, Athens Charter about Modern Urbanism – Athens 1933 this IV International Congress of Modern
Architecture, resulted in a letter which was defined as the criteria of modern urbanism.
74
To be noted that for the city of Lisbon: “From Groër defends containment of urban development
through the establishment of a green belt, called rural protection area, with an average width of 3 km. The
main objective of the green belt would be to provide the city with a permanent reserve of fresh air, and in
second place, isolated from the surrounding urban formations and prevent melting with these” Brito,
Vasco; Camarinhas, Catarina Teles Ferreira, “Elementos para o estudo do plano de urbanizaç o da cidade
de Lisboa (1938), Cadernos do Arquivo Municipal, Direcção Municipal de Cultura/Departamento de
Bibliotecas e Arquivos/Arquivo Municipal de Lisboa, n.º 9, 2007, pp. 182-183; see also Simplício, Maria
Domingas V. M., Evolução da Estrutura Urbana de Évora: o Século XX e a transição para o Século XXI,
where on p. 4 it reads: “The growth of extramural urban area was, however, very slow until 1940. A map
dated 1930 points just beyond the presence of the aforementioned wards, all of them very small in size
and located near the intramural city, small parts of the wards of Chafariz d' El Rei and Almeirim and the
principle of the Poço Entre as Vinhas (now Bairro da Sª da Saúde)”.
 627

In planned urban space, the building typology proposed consisted of detached, semi-
detached or isolated dwellings, where free private land contributed to the creation of a
continuous green environment for the entire rural surrounding area (Simplício, M. D. V. M.,
2009). According to the areas of each of the respective batches were allowed constructions and
those contributed to the distribution of socio economic hierarchy of the future population that
would reside in the area. Some wards have social housing such as the Bairro da Câmara where
the buildings are located in twinned lots although had building areas and compartments of
diminutive dimensions ensuring reduced costs.
Some of the lots in the new area to urbanize consisted at that time by rural land for which de
Groër advocated different urban typologies that actually were informally constituted. Such plots
were subdivided into parcels described as “avos” usually “sold” at low cost, or even donated, by
the owners of the estates to rural workers of its land thus creating subtle ties of dependence
because those “plots” were still legally belonging to their rightful owners despite sometimes
these workers have be building their houses on those lands . We may refer as examples of these
wards Almeirim (east of the metropolis), Bacêlo, Coronheira, Granito (located north of the city),
and Casinha (located in the west of the city). These cadastral underlying situations were not
considerate when de Groër plan was developed and approved (Carvalho, J., 1990).

Present

Having this as a groundwork plan, and after successive urbanization plans that introduced
updates resulting from new requirements we came into this reality as one can see is substantially
different from that recommended by de Groër proposal in the 40s of XX century .
Walled city area – for the space in question, de Groër opted for the maintenance of the
medieval urban fabric without significant interventions (one of the principles advocated by de
Groër in urbanization plans in which he participated) that nothing could jeopardize the unity of
urban space. The rehabilitation of the buildings was aspirated, though not a fully realized goal.
The private property being in possession of more than one owner, due to successive
inheritances, substantially delayed this aspiration yielding properties and punctually kept them
up slightly degraded. The level of outstanding public spaces interventions were being carried
out in the most emblematic squares of the metropolis. In the buried infrastructure existed special
care in replacing it considering its age and current requirements in particular with regard to the
water, sewer, gas and optic fiber.
In more recent times the decrease of economic power or the population either of the Town Hall
or the housing cooperatives, contributed to the decrease of urban interventions of social nature.
Alternatively housing cooperatives triggered more targeted interventions to classes of larger
economic power by tampering with the original spirit of intervention programs and being
example the allotment of CTT (Correios de Portugal) situated in the walled interior.
The installation of hotel properties located within the historic center, or in large spaces still
vacant as was the case for example of the Hotel Mar de Ar Wall built in the old Quinta da
Palmeira, or even reusing old buildings such as the Hotel Mar de Ar aqueduct installed in the
Palácio dos Sepúlvedas that was adopted for the new requirements resulting of the observed
from the growing tourist demand.
New urban perimeter surrounding the city walls – Urban space delimited by increasing and
actualization of urbanization plans was structured by building a set of streets, some of radial
nature, other circulars that allow the interconnection of various districts scattered throughout the
area surrounding the historic centre. It should be noted that part of this road structure has not
been fully realized for various reasons.
Regarding to the housing typology, mainly directed to the lower classes, there were
promoted by the state, social housing developments built vertically countering all the original
spirit of the 40s. That was the case of the development of the Cruz da Picada (located to the
west of the city) the largest urban complex built vertically for social rental which projective
628

features had not appropriate social and cultural characteristics for the population that would
inhabit it. Concerning private projects there were implemented with some brands of typologies
features of single-family, semi-detached dwellings or individual, as the wards of Tapada and
Vista Alegre, and dated to the mid-twentieth century being located to the west of the city
(Carvalho, J., 1990).
However, all the vast space surrounding the city walls was increasingly taken over by new
illegal wards that after April 1974 were successively converted and legalized through municipal
lots or detailed plans (Carvalho , J. , 1990) .
Later, in the 80s of the twentieth century, the Tapada and Vista Alegre as they were already
sold out at the level of building plots , there were provided the triggering of a new process of
subdivision with identical and temporally characteristics adapted to new generations yielding
characteristics the allotment of Vila Lusitano situated to the west of the city.
It was however at the level of C.M.E. (Town Hall of Évora) and of the housing cooperatives
that much of the surrounding area was built through the creation of lots intended for housing at
controlled costs that, in some individual cases, came to take on the characteristics of
evolutionary housing, as exemplified by the case of Malagueira (to the west of the city), some
lots in Granito Centro and Bacêlo (both to the north of the city). Among the various operations
of the allotments with controlled costs75 as we can mention the exemple of Malagueira,
António Sérgio, Casinha and Alto dos Cucos (all to the west of the city) and Granite Centre
among others (Carvalho, J., 1990). These are some examples that ensured a cohesive and quality
architecture and urbanism greatly due to the conditions that such types of programs demanded
from their promoters.76
After nearly seven decades passed between the proposed by de Groër's preliminary plan, and
through the development and implementation of various development schemes and detailed
plans that sought to resolve the problem posed by the existence of many illegal housing units
genesis dispersed and separated the walled core.
With current legalization, infrastructures and densification has been a challenge only in part
outdated. Its relationship with the historic centre by the solution of building urban axes was
increased by its integration as it would be an effective and inexpensive method of obtaining
continuous urban image over long distances.
Similar increase of the urban area through private initiatives significantly widened, though
accomplished through a whole set of new illegal buildings consisting of “lots” of large
dimensions – the so-called “small farms” – coming again hamper the treatment of space,
making the hybrid relationship between urban and rural. It will be an overview that new decades
and new generations will have to equate making the reality of today in utopia of tomorrow.
With regard to collective facilities scheduled on the edge of the urban area they were located
according to the growth of housing units in development, emphasizing schools, on their various
levels of education, parish councils, sports amenities and cultural facilities among others, day-
care centres and the construction of a new cemetery thereby responding to the substantial
increase in estimated population.

75
The quality of construction remained that finishes being made with less expensive materials allow
smaller final costs. We must mention the existence of financing contracts by the INH (Instituto Nacional
de Habitação) and where the municipality also actively participated with the transfer of land at low cost in
exchange for getting some infrastructures to be allocated to the poorest households, for social renting, or
even self-lots in the case of individual batches.
76
It was required that the project should be prepared by architects, with special attention to integration in
the urban fabric.
 629

Conclusions

Overall, from what was proposed in the de Groër’s preliminary plan, some of the recommended
solutions have been implemented, such as plots of residential areas being the example of Bairro
da Câmara, and Bairro da Tapada.
Regarding the proposed road system, many of the main roads have suffered notable
adjustments in terms of location and route. The cross sections also suffered adjustments
resulting from the new urban concepts.
The proposed architectural typologies, with detached single family dwelling remained in
some cases. With the introduction of new social concerns due to the Revolução de Abril, pilot
experiences were introduced, such as the case of the Bairro da Malagueira, where it was
achieved a high constructive density with single-family residential lots. Another way of trying
to address the problem of housing shortage was completed in the Bairro da Cruz da Picada, state
initiative to social renting, using a project type of housing in height, which was implemented in
cities across the country.
As for equipment, the proposal for a central trucking zone adjacent to the Praça do Giraldo
was relocated in Rua da República, inside the Old town, and was later built on the municipal
lands adjacent to the Cemitério dos Remédios.
The construction of a Municipal Market proposed for the Portas de Alconchel, was relocated
with a much wider dimension as a supply market of the entire region, close to Bairro de S. José
da Ponte.
The utopia proposed by de Groër’s preliminary plan was completed in a substantially
differential way due to the natural socio-economic development of a society that has undergone
significant structural changes due to very profound political changes that have altered the
existing paradigm.
The new political paradigm allowed new urban experiences, some of which examplary, as
the case of Bairro da Malagueira.

References

Brito, V., Camarinhas, C. T., (2007), “Elementos para o estudo do plano de urbanização da cidade de
Lisboa (1938)”, Cadernos do Arquivo Municipal, Direcção Municipal de Cultura/ Departamento de
Bibliotecas e Arquivos/Arquivo Municipal de Lisboa, n.º 9.
Carvalho, J., (1990), Évora, Administração Urbanística, Câmara Municipal de Évora, Évora.
Carta de Atenas, Charter of Athens, Athens Charter about Modern Urbanism – Athens 1933, IV
International Congress of Modern Architecture
http://portal.iphan.gov.br/portal/baixaFcdAnexo.do?id=233, acessed em 10 of Maio of 2014.
Simplício, M. D. V. M., (2009), Evolução da Estrutura Urbana de Évora: o século XX e a transição para
o século XXI.
V. V. A. A. (2001), Riscos de um Século – Memórias da Evolução Urbana de Évora, Coordenação
Editorial: Almeida, C., Edição: Câmara Municipal de Évora. Divisão de Assuntos Culturais – Arquivo
630

Figure 1. Évora. Urbanization plan of de Groër – 1945.

Figure 2. Évora. Urban area in 2014 (Source: Google Earth).

 631

Figure 3. Évora. Urbanization plan of de Groër. Road structure. 1945.

Figure 4. Évora. Urbanization plan of de Groër. Type of housing proposed. Bairro

da Câmara.
632

Figure 5. Évora. Bairro da Câmara. Present days (Source: Google Earth).

Figure 6. Évora. Urbanization plan of de Groër. Collective facilities.

Figure7. Évora. Hotel unit in the intended location of the market (Source: Google
Earth).
 633

Figure 8. Évora. Urbanization plan of de Groër. Proposed new residential areas.

Figure 9. Évora. Urbanization plan of de Groër. Proposed new residential areas.

Bairros da Tapada e Vista Alegre.

Figure 10. Évora. Bairro da Malagueira (Source: Google Earth).

634

Figure 11. Évora. Bairro da Cruz da Picada (Source: Google Earth).

Figure 12. Évora. Location of supply market (Source: Google Earth).

Figure 13. Évora. Circular roads that were built (Source: Google Earth).
 635

Campo Alegre: the evolution and persistence of a territorial

intent

Sílvia Ramos
Centro de Estudos de Arquitectura e Urbanismo, Faculdade de Arquitectura,
Universidade do Porto. E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract. The decision to construct the Arrábida Bridge, induced the need to rethink the area of Campo
Alegre (Porto) which led to the conceiving of the “Urbanization Plan of Campo Alegre – Future
Entrance to the City by the Arrábida Bridge”, rendered by Januário Godinho. Campo Alegre had been,
until that time, characterized as a set of private gardens that structured a Romantic landscape. The
conceived Plan renders its transformation proposing a new collective open space linked with those
existing to form a co-ordinated public park related to the new road system and the new proposed building
ensembles. With this design Januário Godinho interprets Campo Alegre´s essence through understanding
the environmental character of the place in a contemporary way.

Key Words: place, garden; park, Porto, Januário Godinho

Premise

The object of this paper is the “Urbanization Plan of Campo Alegre [Merry Field] – Future
Entrance to the City by the Arrábida Bridge”, commissioned by the Municipality of Porto and
designed by the architect Januário Godinho (1910-1990), between 1951 and 1955.
In the wide range of different studies about Porto or the professional practice of Januário
Godinho there are few that investigate specifically this Plan. Until today, the only identified
pertinent reference is “Campo Alegre: from the New City to the University” (Guedes, 1995).
This magazine article focuses on the Plan mainly through “Reports and Management
Accounts” of the Municipality of Porto (1954, 1956-59). It summarizes, without deeper study,
some implementation issues associated to the Plan: the State and Municipality responsibilities;
the affected University properties; the land expropriation process and the University facilities
proposal for the area.
The article also addresses the Plan as a transforming action of Campo Alegre’s form and
through this point of view, we might interpret the following: i) the exclusive responsibility of
the local planning authority for the proposal, enframed by the City Plan: “Plano Regulador da
Cidade do Porto”, developed by the engineer Antão de Almeida Garrett and approved in 1952;
ii) the resolution of the entrance of Porto by Arrábida Bridge and its surrounding urban areas as
the Plan´s main objective; iii) the change in land ownership, from private to public domain as
the main design premise; iv) the consequences of the partial implementation of the Plan,
execution of the first phase only, which corresponds currently to the major road system (Figures
1 and 2).
Therefore, recognizing the significance of this Plan in the current definition of Campo
Alegre’s urban form, this paper aims to deepen its understanding. The interpretation presented is
concerned essentially with the relationship between the Plan and the territory to which it was
conceived. We propose to demonstrate that, despite the Plan´s intent to radically alter Campo
Alegre, in its transformation, some of the the main features of the place still persist, even though
its form may change.
636

Figure 1. Campo Alegre, 21st century (source: O Porto visto do céu, 2000).

Figure 2. Campo Alegre, 21st century (source:O Porto visto do céu, 2000).

Urbanization Plan

Since the intent of a new crossing over Douro River and the consequent setting of the Arrábida
Bridge was officially proposed (1945), the design of the new road network and the urbanization
of Campo Alegre, became a major issue for the Municipality.
These studies were the responsibility of the local planning authority. However, the non-
exclusive dedication of the municipal services to this plan compromised a comprehensive and
global solution (Contrato, 1951), worthy of approval.
In 1949, with the completion of the urban plans for the territory on the south end of the
Bridge (Vila Nova de Gaia), the conclusion of the studies for Campo Alegre became most
urgent.
The minister of Public Works and Communications, Frederico Ulrich (1947-54) had
suggested hiring an architect from outside the local planning authority to conclude the studies
for Campo Alegre. On one of his visits to Porto, with the purpose to analyze the activity of the
local planning authority, the Minister recommends Faria da Costa (Távora, 1949) who was, at
that moment, the most qualified architect from local planning authority of Lisbon (Lôbo, 1995).
 637

Subsequently to the suggestion of the Minister and the positive assessment for the
construction of Arrábida Bridge, from the Superior Council for Public Works and
Communications, in 1950/51 (Cruz, 2001), the Municipality of Porto invites Januário Godinho,
one of Porto's architects also recognized by its urban practice, to develop the Urbanization Plan
for Campo Alegre (Contrato, 1951).
The invitation was addressed to Januário Godinho in 1949/50; with the main terms of the
contract presented in 1951 and the work beginning in 1952.
When Januário Godinho started Campo Alegre’s Plan, he was 42 years old, had completed 2
decades ago the Course of Architecture at the School of Fine Arts of Porto; and for nine years
had developed plans for the urbanization of cities in the north of Portugal. His name was on the
list of architects qualified to work in urban planning by the National Buildings and Monuments
Committee, although he had no specific studies in town planning (Lôbo, 1995).
The State considered Januário Godinho an expert in solving problems such as the ones in
Campo Alegre – ‘the government had great consideration for the way he had solved the urban
planning tasks he had been entrusted with’ (Contrato, 1951).
According to the contract for the Urbanization Plan, Januário Godinho would submit to the
Municipality of Porto, first a Preliminary Project and then the Definitive Plan.
The first was intended to provide advance knowledge about the way the theme was to be
interpreted, to outline the adopted design and the guidelines for the Definitive Plan. The second
was intended to develop, describe and regulate, with detail and accuracy, the approved
Preliminary Project so that there would be no doubt when its implementation would occur
(Contrato, 1951).
Januário Godinho presents the Preliminary Project for Campo Alegre on August 1954
(Figure 3). The study was approved by the local planning authority, the National Road
Authority and the Minister for Planning and Territorial Administration (Parecer, 1954;
Informação, 1954). In its report, the National Road Authority takes the responsibility for the
construction of the road that, through the Arrábida Bridge, would connect Porto with the coastal
cities north and south, thus, becoming part of the national motorway network (Informação,
1954).
With the approval of the Preliminary Project by the committees, on July 1955, Januário
Godinho presented the Definitive Plan (Figure 4) and its economic study (Guedes, 1995).
During the presentation he defined the intent of his proposal as a “piece of architecture”
(Távora, 1995) for Campo Alegre which would be approved by the local and national
authorities.
In the following years, Januário Godinho would issue technical reports on solicited changes
to the Plan, presented by the responsible authorities (Parecer, 1957; Informação, no date) and
would study its reformulation in order to integrate a set of University amenities (Programa,
1957).
In 1956, the construction of the Arrábida Bridge triggers the expropriation procedure of
private terrains for the implementation of the first phase of the Plan – the major road network
(Guedes, 1995).
The procedure was prolonged and complex (Guedes, 1995), in a way that calls into question
the fulfillment of the other planned phases. Consequently the implementation of the Plan was
never completed.
The execution of the Plan´s first phase did not solve the pressing urban issues present in
Campo Alegre. Therefore, they remained an important topic of Porto’s future planning. Years
later, the “Plano Director da Cidade do Porto”, coordinated by the architect-urbanist Robert
Auzelle, between 1958 and 1962, will once again study the urbanization of Campo Alegre.
638

Figure 3. Preliminary Project (Esboceto-Programa, 1954).

Figure 4. Definitive Plan (Oliveira, 1969).

Place: a sum of private garden plots

The Urbanization Plan for Campo Alegre included two distinct areas of action inscribed in each
other: one extensive regulated by general principles of urbanization and the other, smaller in
size and inscribed, where the Plan proposed a “complete and radical system of urbanization”
(Plano, 1955). This area, with deeper development, corresponded to Campo Alegre –
considered by Januario Godinho as “a privileged territory” that “the new bridge over the Douro
River and the associated road network, would certainly change completely” (Plano, 1955).
Campo Alegre´s site corresponds to the cliff on Douro´s riverbank, located at the point
where the distance between the River´s margins decreases, just before the River´s mouth.
The area of the territory studied by the Plan is larger than 75 ha, facing the River over more
than 1500 m. The boundaries are defined by Campo Alegre Street in the north, Douro River in
 639

the south, Cristal Palace Garden (1865) in the east, and, in the west, the Botanical Garden
(1875).
The general configuration of the site alludes to a polygon comprised of a convex section with
a pronounced curve southwest and a sequence of ledges, facing the River that characterizes its
perimeter to the east.
Campo Alegre is composed by two different topographical forms: the plateau, located at the
top of the cliff, between 75 and 60 m; and the steep slope, between 60 and 0 m, accompanying
the course of the River. In the south-west, this slope is characterized by a rocky mass and in the
south-east, it is shaped by a sequence of natural terraces.
In 1952, the area of Campo Alegre was at the outer limits of the main urban areas, between
the City center, at less than 2 Km, and the communities near the seaside.
Both the Campo Alegre Street, at the level of the plateau, and the road near the waterfront
established important communication connections between these urban areas reinforced by
public transportation (tram and bus) that also circulated through these routes.
In general, the land division in Campo Alegre presented a rural pattern. The territory was
divided into large plots, organized in a system ingrained in Campo Alegre Street and on some
ancient milestones; this system interpreted the local topography (Ramos, 2013).
In certain parts of Campo Alegre this rural pattern had turned into an urban one, namely with
Campo Alegre Street, Entre-Campos Street and in the Arrábida Neighborhood.
Along Campo Alegre Street, some rural plots had been divided into new lengthy and narrow
urban parcels, perpendicular to the street with a constant front dimension.
Entre-Campos Street was outlined through rural plots, by a group of local owners who
proposed to transform their farming land into urban parcels where, years later, the
State/Municipality constructed semi-detached and terraced low cost housing (Colónia Operária
Viterbo Campos, 1915; Bairro Sidónio Pais, 1918-20, 1922-23).
Complementarily, near to an important industrial area at the time (Lordelo do Ouro), and
very close to the rocky-mass, but away from the riverside, a working-class neighborhood,
consisting of terraced housing, was being constructed - the Arrábida Neighborhood.
The population density, in average, was low hence Campo Alegre was a sparsely populated
area due to the fact that building concentration existed only where the field system had been
updated, while in the other areas, the buildings were detached and dispersed.
Campo Alegre was punctuated by poor and ephemeral constructions, to support agricultural
and gardening practices, camouflaged in the landscape, and by a group of small palaces,
disengaged from the rural surroundings.
In the 19th century, Campo Alegre was a place of sublime nature and picturesque qualities,
where many foreign families of merchants and industrialists – including English, Danish and
German – cultivated a Romantic lifestyle.
These families built their small palaces and gardens, with exquisite greenhouses, in existing
rural plots. Many of the gardens, apart from native vegetation, contained special plant
collections from all over the world, namely big trees which formed luxurious arboreal masses.
These estates were: Casa Andresen, Casa Burmester, Casa Primo Madeira, Quinta da Esperança,
and Casa do Gólgota.
Casa Andresen was purchased by the State in 1950/51 with the purpose to create a Botanical
Garden (1951), a University Stadium (1951-53) and a series of residential and functional
buildings for the University. Casa Burmester was also handed by the State to the University
(1957) as compensation for the area reduction of the Botanical Garden, motivated by the
necessity to construct the new road network associated with the Arrábida Bridge.
Therefore, in 1952, Campo Alegre was a huge greenery, composed of a series of private
gardens between the Cristal Palace Garden and Botanical Garden. Campo Alegre’s landscape
was characterized by the estates of the small palaces, clashing with the low cost neighborhoods,
the vast plateau, the steep rocky mass and the sequence of natural terraces, all largely cultivated
and strongly arborized.
640

Through this territory, the Arrábida Bridge, as the second car crossing to be built in the City,
would link the major coastline cities north and south of the Douro, transforming Campo Alegre
not only into a new entrance of Porto, but also into a forced passage point for the main national
highway.
Under these circumstances, the “Plano Regulador” (Figure 5), which summarizes the
previous studies “Ante Projecto das Comunicações Regionais do Porto” (1945), “Ante Plano
Regional da Cidade do Porto” (1946), and “Plano Geral de Urbanizaç o da Cidade do Porto”
(1947/48), all rendered by the local planning authority, programmed the City expansion for
Campo Alegre in the following way (Garrett, 1952): i) identified existing public or private open
spaces and defined them as being of public interest – the Cristal Palace Public Garden and the
Botanical Garden; Casa Burmester Garden and some estates on the steep slope, namely, Quinta
da Esperança and Casa do Gólgota gardens; ii) defined the traffic facilities in Campo Alegre,
associated with Arrábida Bridge; iii) suggested the construction of a residential zone, where non
residential buildings were only admitted in specific areas.

Figure 5. “Plano Regulador”: the proposed roadway network and the open spaces of
public interest (Garrett, 1952).

Intent: a co-ordinated public park

The territory between the Cristal Palace Public Garden and the Botanical Garden was for
Januário Godinho “of the greatest difficulty, in all aspects, due to constrains of all kind,
consummated facts, that by a singular coincidence seemed to have met in order to render useless
a rare opportunity for the future of Porto” (Plano, 1995). These restrains were: the rugged
terrain; the open spaces of public interest; the location of Arrábida Bridge; the low cost housing
ensembles; the commitments between the State and the University; the importance of the
programmed road network; and the symbolic significance of the planned urban landscape – a
fresh new image of Porto.
On this complex territory, Januário Godinho starts with the observation of Campo Alegre
from the opposite riverside which would became one of the main viewpoints of Campo Alegre
 641

after the construction of the Arrábida Bridge. From Vila Nova de Gaia, Januário Godinho might
have read Campo Alegre as a sum of private garden plots. Through balancing this specific
quality of Campo Alegre with the conditions present in “Plano Regulador”, Januário Godinho
proposes the implementation of a co-ordinated public park, related to the new road system and
the planned building ensembles.

Greenery

In the first drawings, Januário Godinho renders Campo Alegre as the “south park of the City”
(Plano, no date). He foresees the entire territory coated with vegetation and restricts the
construction areas to Campo Alegre Street and the surroundings of the University Stadium.
The proposal rendered buildings as elongated rectangles organized in a straight line,
perpendicular to the river front, in an equally spaced layout. Taking into account this
distributional pattern the scheme might have been organized with high-rise buildings attributing
to Campo Alegre a closed architectural image of compacted vertical masses sited in an immense
greenery, through which the major road network would be designed.
In the subsequent studies of this Plan, there was a progressive increase of the built area with
consequent reduction of the open public space.
The main aim of “Plano Regulador” was to implement a residential area in Campo Alegre
and although it pointed out some open spaces of public interest, the design did not include an
open area of greenery, where anybody can go to walk, play, etc.
Therefore, this increase in density may reflect a gradual adjustment of the proposal to the
“Plano Regulador” guidelines and/or a response to the financial burden that the implementation
of the Plan implied for the Municipality (Plano, 1955). The draught of Januário Godinho
required a global land expropriation which meant a huge investment of municipal funds that
would need an equity return, incentivizing higher construction density.
However, even with considerable differences in land use between the diverse versions of the
Plan, Januário Godinho never once deviated from his co-ordinated public park premise – the
open space always dominated the constructed area.
The Plan stipulated that the construction of residential buildings, sponsored by private
stakeholders, would be permitted only within the defined polygon according to the strict
Municipality regulation. Apart from the building polygons all the remaining areas were defined
as greenery for public use (Esboceto, 1954).
In the words of Januário Godinho: “the overview [of Campo Alegre] will be a curtain of
greenery, revealing by transparency various kinds of architectural elements. The entrance of the
City will therefore feature a wide and majestic balcony projected over the river, overlooking the
sea” (Esboceto, 1954).

Traffic Intersection

Januário Godinho designed the road network at the exit of Arrábida Bridge based on the
directives of the “Plano Regulador”. The proposed road network establishes the connections
between the points referenced in the City Plan. However, the solution in Campo Alegre’s Plan
deviates from that of the “Plano Regulador” in the way it solves the different traffic
intersections.
The “Plano Regulador” stipulated from the Arrábida Bridge three road networks (Garrett,
1952): “Ultramar Avenue”, the western section of the City´s ring road, connecting the north of
the country; the “new Avenue”, an extension from the Bridge to the North, connecting the
City´s seaport; and “Infante de Sagres Avenue”, the eastern section of the City´s ring road,
connecting the center of Porto. The “Ultramar Avenue” and “Infante de Sagres Avenue” were
designed in continuity as a single gesture.
To design the intersection of the different road networks, Januário Godinho proposes a
solution with the most modern research on traffic layouts; these schemes, which included
642

Spanish and Dutch press clippings about Detroit and Ohio intersections, were part of the Plan´s
study process.
According to the “Ante Plano Regional da Cidade do Porto” the road network in Campo
Alegre should be extremely efficient – saving time, energy and money; allowing maximum
performance in speed and traffic flow; improving the traffic circulation (Anteplano, 1946).
Therefore, Januário Godinho segregates the fast long-distance traffic from traffic of purely
local nature. He seeks to eliminate intersections providing uninterrupted traffic flow by: always
favoring intersections at different levels between main and secondary roads; only allowing the
contact between them in specific designated points; and avoiding construction along the fast
long-distance network (Esboceto, 1954).
Based on these assumptions, the Plan proposed the following deviations from the scheme
outlined by “Plano Regulador”: i) canceled the “new Avenue” – Januário Godinho verified that
the proposed road would create various intersections, something he intended to prevent
(Esboceto, 1954); ii) changed the type of traffic intersection at the exit of Arrábida Bridge –
Januário Godinho noted that the proposed roundabout solution, was unsatisfactory economically
and aesthetically. It entailed the partial demolition of the University Stadium and required the
construction of a high retaining wall, a “real dam between the plateau and the slope of the
Douro River” (Esboceto, 1954).
For the traffic intersection, Januário Godinho rendered a flyover scheme (Esboceto, 1954).
With this solution, he proposed to divide the “Ultramar Avenue” and “Infante de Sagres
Avenue” in a system which permitted so many passageways as the route directions generated by
their direct intersection. This solution, although less compact than the roundabout one, allowed
to deal with the territory constrains in an “elegant way” (Esboceto, 1954).
For Januário Godinho this scheme was “natural, simple, open and, as far as possible,
attached to the ground, eliminating the construction of stone walls, of colossal slopes”
(Esboceto, 1954), or multiple and costly works of engineering, avoiding the destruction of trees,
reducing to the minimum the intervention on the University grounds and the demolition of
houses in Sidónio Pais and Arrábida neighborhoods (Esboceto, 1954).
Januário Godinho designs this flyover intersection in the following way: “Ultramar Avenue”
and “Infante de Sagres Avenue”, close to Arrábida Bridge, are divided each into two branches.
One of these branches incorporates the Entre-Campos Street, crossing the Sidónio Pais
Neighborhood and passing north of the University Stadium. The other, interpreting the convex
shape of the territory through its pronounced southwest curve, is outlined between the southern
boundary of the Stadium and the Arrábida Neighborhood; disregarding the area that lies
between these two branches – characterized by University Stadium, part of the Sidónio Pais
Neighborhood and different road extensions – this scheme divides the territory into two parts
leaving to the north, the plateau, and to the south, the slope.
Therefore, by interpreting Campo Alegre´s morphology and outlining the different qualities
of its major topographical forms, Januário Godinho´s design clings to the terrain.
This assertion is corroborated by the way the Via Panorâmica Route was designed on the
slope, replicating the movement of the 60 m contour line and dividing the territory between the
“Infante de Sagres Avenue” and the Douro’s riverbank in two parts: the south where the steep
slope inhibits construction and the north, an area which, although on the slope, still had
acceptable construction conditions.
Januário Godinho’s option of not proposing a pathway across the slope, connecting the
plateau with the riverbank also reinforces this observation. A pathway with this direction would
hardly cling to the terrain, so he does not consider it, in his design. Alternatively, the difference
in elevation between the plateau and the riverbank would be solved by the elevators that would
be included in the Arrábida Bridge´s project.
 643

Buildings

In the words of Januário Godinho: “[in Campo Alegre] the system of grouping the blocks [is
carried out] according to the nature of the terrain” (Plano, 1955).
Regardless the building´s vocation, density of construction and housing type, which varied
throughout the different phases of the Plan, Januário Godinho organizes the buildings according
to the following principles: on the plateau, north of the “Infante de Sagres Avenue”, the type
and shape of the buildings were always identical, high-rise rectangular elongated residential
blocks (8-12 floors), and its organization followed a single principle of composition with the
blocks placed parallel and/or perpendicular to each other. These buildings occupied the best
view and solar exposure of Campo Alegre, constituting “luxury residential units” (Plano, 1955);
on the slope, south of “Infante de Sagres Avenue”, the type and shape of the buildings were
variable and its organization resulted “disarticulated for better adjustment to the characteristics
of the terrain” (Plano, 1955). In the Preliminary Project, Januário Godinho proposed the
construction of cultural, sports and leisure facilities along the Via Panorâmica Route: a
municipal swimmimg pool, a restaurant and an amphitheater of greenery for outdoor
performances (Esboceto, 1954). In the Definitive Plan, the margins of the Via Panorâmica
Route were occupied by residential construction for the middle class with the exception of a
small area designed as a center of leisure and sport. The residential buildings were planned as 4
stories high blocks (eventually 8), with different shapes in plan and associated according to
different strategies, suggesting the construction of small residential ensembles with different
morphological characteristics (Plano, 1955).
Thus, the nature of the terrain not only influences the system of grouping the blocks, but also
the type and shape of the buildings and housing categories, as if Januário Godinho recognized
through the nature of the terrain differentiating characteristics that influenced the buildings and,
in particular, the type of residential units.
This idea is stressed in the Preliminary Project by implementing the municipal swimming
pool and the restaurant in special topographical points of the territory. These public facilities
were designed for the ledges that characterized the south border of Campo Alegre. Sticking out
over the riverbank, the swimming pool and the restaurant would offer panoramic views over the
future bridge and the Atlantic Ocean.

Purpose: a territorial interpretation

Through this current interpretation, we may synthesize the following considerations concerning
the “Urbanization Plan of Campo Alegre – Future Entrance to the City by the Arrábida Bridge”:
i) the general idea of Januário Godinho´s Campo Alegre, deviates from the principles
established by engineer Antão de Almeida Garrett, emphasizing different disciplinary
perspectives on the meaning of Campo Alegre in the City structure; ii) the Plan constitutes a
singular exercise that interprets the essence of place by prolonging and underlining the features
that Januário Godinho considered to be its core qualities; iii) by the proposal of a co-ordinated
park, the Plan prolongs the existing dominion of luxurious arboreal masses over the constructed
area that was characteristic of Campo Alegre´s setting in 1952; iv) the gardens, beforehand
fields, are transformed into a greenery system, linked to the existing public gardens (the Cristal
Palace Garden and the Botanical Garden) and related to the new road network and proposed
building ensembles; v) the park´s design outlines the existing morphology and altimetry
qualities of the territory, organizing the buildings and the major road network through their
reinterpretation; vi) by the introduction of a public park theme, the Plan highlights the
predisposition of Campo Alegre, through its topological and geographical qualities, to assume
the special condition of a public space in the City of Porto.
These conjunctions permit the understanding of a certain architectural way to interpret the
notion of place by identifying the evolution and persistence of a territorial purpose.
644

The Plan does not copy a model or an old solution, on the contrary, it recognizes the primary
structural properties of Campo Alegre – respects its location, general spatial configuration, and
its synthesized image – interpreting it in a contemporary way. Consequently, the proposed
solution conserves the identity of the place emphasizing its material substance, shape, texture,
and colour - its Romantic environmental character.
Therefore the Plan seems the outcome, in one hand, of the extreme attention Januário
Godinho pays to the place, and on the other hand, of a sheer spatial force of Campo Alegre that
guides Januário Godinho towards the accomplishment of its essence in a new historical context.

Acknowledgments

This work is within the PhD Research in Architecture, underway at the Faculty of Architecture of the
University of Oporto. This dissertation is funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia
(SFRH/BD/85547/2012).

References

Cruz, P. (2001) As pontes do Porto (Civilização, Porto).

Garrett, A. (1952) Pano Regulador da Cidade do Porto (Câmara Municipal, Porto).
Guedes, P. (1995) ‘Campo Alegre: da Nova Cidade à Universidade’, Boletim 26-27, 5-14
Lobo, M. (1995) Planos de Urbanização. A Época de Duarte Pacheco (Faup Publicações/DGOTDU,
Porto).
Oliveira, A. (1969) ‘Zone Campo Alegre’, in Urbanisme 67, 48-50.
O Porto visto do céu (2000) (Argumentum, Lisboa).
Ramos, S. (2013) ‘Campo Alegre: evoluç o e persistência de um desígnio’, in Pinto, Nuno Norte and
Almeida, Alexandre (eds.) Book of Abstracts of PNUM 2013, the 2013 Annual Conference of
Portuguese Network of Urban Morphology, Coimbra, June 27 and 28, 2013 (Department of Civil
Engineering of the University of Civil Engineering fo the University of Coimbra) 1040-1047.
Távora, F. (1949) ‘Diário’, 15 de Junho in Mendes, Manuel (2010) Do esquecimento para além da arte:
do nomadismo ao erotismo, unpublished PhD thesis, Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade do
Porto, Portugal.
Távora, F. (1995) ‘Memória do Campo Alegre’, in Boletim 26-27, 15-16

Anteplano (1946) Regional da Cidade do Porto

Contrato (1951) com o Arquitecto Januário Godinho para a elaboração do ante-projecto de urbanização
da Zona do Campo Alegre
Esboceto-Programa (1954) do Arranjo da Entrada da Ponte da Arrábida, na cidade do Porto
Informação (1954) n.º 120/Ct, Junta Autónoma das Estradas, sobre o Esboceto-Programa do Arranjo da
Entrada da Ponte da Arrábida, na cidade do Porto
Informação (no date) sobre as soluções esquemáticas n.º 1 e 2 apresentadas pela Junta Autónoma de
Estradas para o traçado da via de ligação da Ponte da Arrábida à Via Rápida
Parecer (1954) sobre o Esboceto-Programa do Arranjo da Entrada da Ponte da Arrábida na cidade do
Porto
Parecer (1957) relativo às alterações sugeridas pelos Serviços de Urbanização da Exa. Câmara relativas
ao plano
Plano (no date) – Futura entrada do Porto pelo Parque Sul da Cidade
Plano (1955) de Urbanização do Campo Alegre – Futura entrada da cidade pela ponte da Arrábida
Programa (1957) das novas instalações da Universidade do Porto na Zona do Campo Alegre.
 645

Is there a transversal organic pattern? Favela and its

diachronic relations

Vânia Loureiro, Valério Medeiros

PPG-FAU, Universidade de Brasília, Instituto Central de Ciências - ICC Norte - Gleba
A. Campus Universitário Darcy Ribeiro - Asa Norte - Postal Code 4431. Brasília, Brazil
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected].

Abstract. This paper explores Favela’s spatial configuration within contemporary city searching for a
diachronic relation in its complexity. And as an informal and organic space, favela must be observed by
its collective emergent and spontaneous actions. It is important to understand its specific organic
behavior as responsible for the inherent complexity and enormously meaningful for urban quality. To
explore these similarities in organic form, a comparison is made between medieval Portuguese towns,
Brazilian colonial cities, and contemporary favelas in order to infer diachronically the existence of a
common configurational type. Space Syntax is the theoretical and methodological approach adopted.
Findings show that favela as definition of a city space is much closely related to its configuration than
with its socioeconomic status. Its organic genesis and spontaneous development are responsible for space
qualities, and so, any settlement without it can’t be consider similar. There is also, a transversal
organicity which forbids favela to be considered an innovative (in)formal phenomenon – it takes part in
the organic form genotype. The space being defined as Fractal and Synergic – internal scales relating in
harmony, being complex and spontaneous – justifies its less immediate seizing but allows more intuitive
use of space and more natural paths.

Key Words: favela, organic form, spontaneity, configuration

Introduction

The present paper focus on favelas spatial configuration aiming to understand it not only as a
contemporary city phenomenon, but also, as part of organic and spontaneous city form through
history. It seems that favela points out an original spatial logic due to its scale in cities today.
But it is intended here to explore whether it is effectively new in urban space or not, considering
its informality but also its self-constructing nature.
For that reason a comparative study is conducted through this paper, in order to comprehend
if informality behaves similarly in its spatial organization (if it can be named after favela all the
times, as we commonly see), and if its configurational patterns are related to other self-
constructed settlements. The actual planning logic frequently is far more simplifying than these
complex structures, and so, already in its genesis, favela tends to be a misunderstanding
complex space. Therefore the interest of this comparison and analisys is also to state what
appear to be successful patterns in space when such complexity is allowed. Irregular city areas
tend to gain from spontaneity what top-down (illegal) processes can offer them. This is the
hypothesis to explore.
Favela is also city, despite its differentiated rules, its proper rhythm and crazy dimensions
(Jacques, 2001) that apparently foreclose legal standardization. The complexity in space and
formal rules not belonging to top-down methods in city brings favela close to incomprehension.
Mostly due to its self-construction and self-organization spatial structures (Sobreira, 2003). Its
modus operandi is bottom-up and that explains its difficulty of perception through top-down
perspectives. This city is informal but also spontaneous and emergent, and above all it’s a space
belonging to its own time, creating itself through a roll of individual actions collectively driven
by negotiation (Johnson, 2001).
646

Historical relation among organic settlements seems to interest as a way of studying favela
not as a new element in city space but as a proper type of space in city, since ever. It is intended
to test the hypothesis that once self-constructed space presents common patterns in its
configuration despite its epoch or even cultural context. The option for Medieval Towns deals
with the symbolic appeal of such cities once most of them are highlighted paradigms of the
organic form, ideal to confront in the search for a diachronic relation. As well as the original
colonial sites in Brazil, being another moment in organic city production.
Despite all its problems associated with social, spatial and symbolic segregation, Favela
represents a complex living space, constantly being adapted. Based on this, the following paper
will focus on studying the elements these forms contain for such a resilience and quality, why
this natural implicit order appears in spite of the apparent “chaos”. This work is funded on the
premise that contemporary Favela is nothing but a particular moment in the organic process for
city space, as for its connection to the intrinsic knowledge of creating space that tend to go
beyond time and History (Guerreiro, 2010).

Figure 1. Different spaces with similar configurations (a: Piódão, Portugal; b: Rocinha,
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; c: Manarola, Italy; d: Santorini, Greece) (source: Google Images).

Figure 2. Organic illegal Settlement: Favela (Morro do Timbau in Rio de Janeiro)

(source: Google Maps).
 647

Figure 3. Illegal Allotment (Sol Nascente in Ceilândia - Brasília) (source: Google Maps).

The set of images in Figure 1 shows clearly this continuity in a constructing and urbanizing
process: it deals with the similarity of an organic pattern through time. Santorini in Greece,
Rocinha in Brazil, Piódão in Portugal or Manarola in Italy, just to mention a few, are great
examples of culturally and socially distant contexts but apparently similar in configuration, e. g.,
the way in which parts of a city are associated, producing specific relationships.
In this paper informal means everything which is not official or legally regulated, as in the
construction of Favelas. But informal might also might mean being close to a specific context
and acting naturally within it (Houaiss, 2012). It can also mean a space being prefigured without
implicit rules from an urban plan. It is informal because it is not following legal rules but natural
ones, self-organizing itself (Salingaros, 1998). It turns “spontaneous” as it behaves emergently –
“spontaneity” being an “implicit will determining itself to act” (Abbagnano, 1998) and
emergent the evolvement process provoking it. So, when Favela and informal settlement appear
to be synonyms, in the context of this research, there’s a “spontaneous” and emergent process
from behind, guiding the resultant urban form. This leads to the argument about different types
of illegality and the will to relate Favela’s concept strictly to bottom up order, once irregular
settlements, as allotments, have nothing similar to organic displacements (Figures 2 and 3). It
seems important to state such perspective because commonly Favela is mention as a social and
economic status and not related to a specific type of form in space.
In order to achieve the aims of this discussion, the paper is organized in three sessions. The
first one deals with methodological approaches, presenting how research was conducted through
a comparative strategy in order to verify the possible existence of similar patterns. The second
part takes care of the discussion about favela’s form by comparing different settlements and
searching for patterns in space organization. It intends to bring form as an argument to
distinguish illegal urban areas. Then, the third and last session discusses the results of the
comparative process with the 22 study cases, from different epochs, in an attempt to observe
spatial patterns in space through history. This will ensure the differences established in the
previous part explaining space in its various organizational orders.

Methodological Approach

Regarding the theoretical, methodological and instrumental aspects, the work is guided by The
Theory of the Social Logic of Space or Space Syntax (Hillier and Hanson, 1984), based on the
Axial and Segment Maps (which represents the potential accessibility of a line according to its
topology in the urban system) from each case study. Structured on a systemic perspective,
Syntax intends to relate space and society, assuming an intrinsic relationship between both.
648

Space, understood as a social feature, is at the same time caused by and the cause of certain
social dynamics – therefore it can be seen as dependent and independent variable (Medeiros,
2013).
The above mentioned maps (linear representations of street systems, considering the smallest
number of the biggest lines) allow to quantify and observe the potential performance of space
concerning its topological relationships. The obtained values are converted into a chromatic
scale that distinguishes different levels of potential accessibility in the network, resulting from
its configuration (Medeiros, 2013). The analysis, developed in Depthmap® software, offers
variables (cf. Holanda, 2002; Medeiros, 2013) and some of them are relevant to the comparisons
intended here: Global and Local Integration (the level of accessibility analyzed globally – when
the system as a whole is considered – or locally – when only the nearby lines are processed),
Connectivity (number of connections in each axe of the system), Number of Axes, Mean Depth
(what is related to the number of steps which is requested, in average, to reach each line from all
the other lines in a system; due to distinct connection types and the distribution of lines, the
system can be “deep” or “shallow”), Line Length, Synergy (the correlation among local and
global properties, based on the correlation between Global and Local Integration), Intelligibility
(legibility of a system from any point, considering the correlation between Connectivity and
Global Integration), Segment Mean Length (dimension between two consecutive nodes) and
Angular Choice (the priority chosen segments within all system routes, covering small angle
deviation).
In order to explore the issue, the analysis considers 22 case studies: the historical grids of
Lisbon, Porto, Santarém, Óbidos, Marvão, Castelo Novo, Castelo Rodrigo, Linhares, all in
Portugal; the colonial sites of Tiradentes and Goiás Velho in Brazil; and the contemporary
Favelas Cova do Vapor in Portugal, Vidigal, Jacarezinho, Providência, Timbau, Heliopolis,
Jaqueline and Jardim de São Luís in Brazil, and yet, the partial maps of Favelas in Luanda
(Angola), Beira and Maputo (Mozambique).

Is there a spatial pattern for favela?

Paola Berenstein Jacques assumes in her book, the vision of Favela as a physic labyrinth and
deals with the concepts of implicit knowledge and tenure in informal space dynamics to walk
through it understanding the essence (Jacques, 2001). Christopher Alexander also mentions
(decades before) this common ability to build within specific emergent and ancestral patterns
implicit to man’s action (Alexander, 1979). This happens due to the “bottom up” process that
seems to be implicit in the building action as in the effective acknowledgement of space to
users. At first sight its complexity appears difficult to read, specifically through formal rules
learned from modern urbanism that simplify spatial relations (Salingaros, 2006).
Being an implicit order, fractal geometries are responsible for the organization of organic
cities as they are in nature and life, and rules as self-similarity in these spaces might be the key
to understand this unplanned order (Guerreiro, 2010). And so, favela as an informal and
emergent process, seems to have a particular behaviour in space, as follows.
Figures 4 and 5 are the first step to understand the presented study cases and the result of a
comparison based on space syntax analysis. Segment and Line Length (consequent from
segment and axial maps) are useful to understand each system’s dimension, being then aware of
its differences in scale. As we can see, there are very distinct sizes in the cases chosen but once
looking at favelas, it remains in a row, showing similarities in size. The only unequal case is Sol
Nascente, illegal allotment in Ceilândia, Brasilia, whose line and segment length are far from
the other irregular settlements. This uncovers the particular reason why this case was chosen:
often called favela, Sol Nascente seems to have a distinct spatiality when related to organic
illegal spaces, and so, it is intended to explore spatially, the conceptual discussion above.
The Integration of a system means its accessibility potential from all its parts to all its parts.
Therefore, as much integrated a system is, the easier its access appears to be. Figure 6 shows
 649

precisely the Global Integration levels of all studied cases, after normalization (a mathematical
technique to reduce scale differences among systems and reinforce similar properties or
differences despite dimensions) and the Figure 7 the Local Integration (the same properties
analysed at a small scale in the system). This might mean a true configurational similarity
among settlements, once we can see in both graphics a permanence of close values. The only
distinction in Local Integration is Sol Nascente its values appear higher than the rest which can
be related to its straight line grid that rapidly connects the local parts to each other despite a
truly inefficient relation at global level due to the innumerous dead ends (Figure 8).

LINE LENGTH
180,5

200
56,48

28,26
43,8

26,09
25,83

24,35

22,45
22,03
100

18,26

18,09

14,48
0
BAIXA DO…

LUÍS (ZONA…
MAPUTO
JACAREZINHO
HELIÓPOLIS

PROVIDÊNCIA
LUANDA
BEIRA

JAQUELINE

VIDIGAL
SOL NASCENTE

JARDIM DE S
COVA DO

TIMBAU E
VAPOR

Figure 4. Line Length (source: Author).

SEGMENT LENGTH
79,08

100
21,23

20,68

14,43

13,53

13,44

12,83

11,68

10,77

10,02

7,81
9,8

0
BAIXA DO…

LUÍS (ZONA…
JAQUELINE

VIDIGAL
NASCENTE

MAPUTO
JACAREZINHO
HELIÓPOLIS

PROVIDÊNCIA
LUANDA
BEIRA

JARDIM DE S
COVA DO

TIMBAU E
VAPOR
SOL

Figure 5. Segment Length (source: Author).

GLOBAL INTEGRATION (Tekl)

0,8
0,67

0,67

0,66

0,66

0,66

0,66

0,65

0,65

0,65

0,63

0,62

0,6

0,6

0,4
MAPUTO
JACAREZINHO
HELIÓPOLIS

LUANDA

PROVIDÊNCIA
BEIRA

JAQUELINE

VIDIGAL
SOL NASCENTE
COVA DO VAPOR

TIMBAU E BAIXA

JARDIM DE S LUÍS
DO SAPATEIRO

(ZONA OESTE)

Figure 6. Global Integration (source: Author).

 650

0
0
1
2

0,2
0,4
0,6
0,8
0,5
1,5
COVA DO VAPOR 0,68 SOL NASCENTE 1,62

JACAREZINHO 0,46 HELIÓPOLIS 1,37

BEIRA 0,43 COVA DO VAPOR 1,36

JAQUELINE 0,42 JACAREZINHO 1,26

TIMBAU E BAIXA DO
0,41 LUANDA 1,23
SAPATEIRO

TIMBAU E BAIXA
HELIÓPOLIS 0,39 1,22
DO SAPATEIRO

SYNERGY
JARDIM DE S LUÍS
0,39 BEIRA 1,2
(ZONA OESTE)
LOCAL INTEGRATION

MAPUTO 0,39 JAQUELINE 1,12

LUANDA 0,26 MAPUTO 1,12

Figure 9. Synergy (source: Author).

Figure 7. Local Integration (source: Author).

PROVIDÊNCIA 0,15 VIDIGAL 1,11

Figure 8. Sol Nascente's Axial Map (source: Author).

JARDIM DE S LUÍS
VIDIGAL 0,11 1,11
(ZONA OESTE)

SOL NASCENTE 0,04 PROVIDÊNCIA 1,1

 651

Figure 9 presents Synergy levels from the studied favelas. Synergy is about the interaction
ability between local and global levels of a particular system, which means a way to understand
how small centers do interfere with global centralities – how the parts are affecting the whole.
Looking at the presented values Cova do Vapor seems to have the highest synergic dynamic
within its system, and Sol Nascente appears to have clearly the lowest. Vidigal and Providência
are the next lower cases, which might be related to its topography once they seem to be the most
extreme situations (hilltop favelas) in this sample. Apparently its synergy tends to decrease
when declivity rises because some connections turn impossible to emerge. Nevertheless Sol
Nascente is a very particular case, it presents itself in a much less declivity situation and the
absence of interaction within its parts appears to come precisely from its design, created as a
row of dead end streets through different directions. Observing its axial map (Figure 8) it is
possible to understand the impossibility of such characteristic in this space – the parts are barely
interacting with each other.

INTELLIGIBILITY
0,26

0,3
0,17

0,16

0,15

0,14

0,13

0,2 0,11

0,1

0,1

0,07

0,04

0,04

0,04
0,1
0
BAIXA DO…
MAPUTO

NASCENTE
VELHO
HELIÓPOLIS

JACAREZINH

LUANDA
JAQUELINE

BEIRA

PROVIDÊNCI

VIDIGAL
JARDIM DE S
COVA DO

TIMBAU E

GOIÁS
VAPOR

LUÍS…

SOL
O

Figure 10. Inteligibility (source: Author).

Intelligibility means the ability to perceive space wholeness while standing in a single part of
it, its easiness for being read. Looking at the Figure 10 it is possible to see that values tend to be
low in this case: favela’s complexity and spontaneity are responsible for a variety of spaces that
forbid a clear perception at a first moment. This is possibly the greatest reason why it is so
frequently considered labyrinthic (Jacques, 2001): protection from the outside is a demand for
the space dynamics, therefore, it cannot be read easily. The clear perception of space is left
only to the inhabitants, which explains such small values. But again, Cova do Vapor seems to
have the highest levels: despite its complex structure, the small dimensions of the settlement
(Figure 14) tend to favour its perception (as the correlation study in the next session will show).
Luanda, Vidigal and Sol Nascente have the lowest values. Once again the topographic situation
of Vidigal appears to be its greatest argument, causing its fragmentation. Luanda, on the other
hand, seems critical by its dimensions (1385 axes) and depth (16.81), its size reveals a much
deeper and complex structure. As we will see scaling properties of favelas frequently tend to
increase some of its characteristics in the growing process. In Sol Nascente the opposite
happens: its straight grid and dead end streets emphasises an inefficient communication among
parts, and so, a difficult apprehension of space as a whole. A possible lack of organized
complexity (Salingaros, 2006) in an illegal space designed to enter a regular system of
allotments as seen in Figure 11, when the settlement’s axial map is shown connected to its
closer context – Ceilândia. The top-down dynamic is based in Brasília, not only in its original
plan but also in its periphery – irregular areas like Sol Nascente only seem to replicate a model
in a clear attempt to interact.
The comparison of these maps and values expresses a clear similarity among most of the
cases which reveals the hypothesis of the existence of favela as a particular set of spatial
patterns. A particular pattern of space organization for what we call favela. Sol Nascente is
clearly excluded. Its lack of synergy when it seems to be one of the greatest advantages of
spontaneous settlements, responsible for a successful internal performance in space, accuses the
652

presence of an entirely different process and order (top-down). Figure 12 shows,

complementary, how the Latin America’s biggest favela (Furquim, 2013) is much more likely to
be a huge complex of illegal allotments whose spatial dynamics respond to other specific rules,
possibly those of land regulation.
Such finding allows rethinking favela as a concept used to mention illegality in urban space
and its socio-economic issues in a global sense, without questioning its genesis or configuration.
The absence of spontaneity in space conformation tends to create inorganic and less flexible
configurations, a very different situation from those seen before. Urban form entering as a factor
in diagnosing illegal areas points out the impossibility to name such different spaces the same.
Favela is here defended as the complex and emergent phenomenon that results in organic spaces
built spontaneously.

Figure 11. Sol Nascente's Axial Map connected to Ceilândia (source: Sol Nascente’s Axial
Map: Author; Ceilandia’s Axial Map: Medeiros, 2013).

Figure 12. Streets in Sol Nascente (source: Author).

Favela aligned diachronically to historical city

The previous analisys as stated the tendency to assume a specific spatial pattern to favela whose
spontaneity and emergency are essential characteristics and inorganic urban forms tend to be
excluded. Based on this it is possible to move towards a diachronic study inquiring favela’s
relation to organic historical city.
It is believed in an organic process belonging to a long tradition in city form, connecting
medieval towns in Portugal to colonial cities in Brazil. Excluded by modern thought where its
scientific principles were looking for a rational and orderly perspective (Salingaros, 1998). In
 653

contemporary city, favela seems like a similar phenomenon, far from the top-down dynamic of
formal system. And so, the data from studied favelas is compared to medieval towns in Portugal
and colonial cities in Brazil.
Analysing at first the settlements dimensions it’s possible to observe a clear variety in
number of axes (Figure 14) as in line length (Figure 13) proving the scaling differences one
could forecast in such a comparative (diachronic) work. Towns and Favelas are substantially
unequal in dimensions and commonly it depends on various factors as population, available
space and site specificities, or even cultural differences (as in medieval Christian public space in
opposition to Islamic one). Nevertheless these metric differences are not impeditive of a similar
structure for spatial relations in space. Global measure for Integration (the accessibility potential
in space), when normalized to observe topologically without its metric specificities (Figure 15),
shows an apparently strong similarity in space accessibility as a whole.
Local Integration (Figure 16), meaning the same accessibility potential but at a local scale
(as in a district scale), points also out a pattern of movement similar through the Portuguese
towns and the Favelas. Values vary between 1.81 and 1.1, which doesn’t seem a meaningful
distance to the research. It is also important to state that Óbidos is the only town expressively
more accessible at a local scale, but very close to Santarém is Heliópolis already (S o Paulo’s
Favela). The less integrated space is Morro da Providência in Rio de Janeiro.
The internal dynamics of analysed systems is also possible to observe through Synergy, a
correlation measure which relates Local and Global Integration in order to evaluate how they
seem interdependent or not. In this case (Figure 17) there seems to be a pattern of good synergic
spaces in the sample, despite these three lowest cases, Medieval Lisbon and Providência and
Vidigal, two top of the hill Favelas in Rio de Janeiro. Another curiosity is Cova do Vapor, an
illegal settlement in Portugal, being within the most synergic spaces, which seems to indicate
that despite epochs, organic spaces behave similarly.

LINE LENGTH
206,85

300
106,21
89,45

200
70,99
65,82
56,48
56,08

38,37
38,19
28,26
26,26
26,09
25,83
24,35
24,22
22,45
22,03
43,8

18,26
18,09
39,5

14,48

100

0
JARDIM DE S…
CASTELO…

TIMBAU E…
CASTELO…
COVA DO…
SANTARÉM

VIDIGAL
MAPUTO

JAQUELINE
TIRADENTES

JACAREZINHO
HELIÓPOLIS
ÉVORA

MARVÃO

PROVIDÊNCIA
LINHARES

LUANDA
BEIRA
GOIÁS VELHO

LISBOA

ÓBIDOS
PORTO

Figure 13. Line Length (source: Author).

NUMBER OF AXES
15000
1728
1404
1385
904
858
800
754
695
677
673
566
402
JARDIM DE S… 323
280
245
175
174
162
135
117
116
CASTELO… 87

0
TIMBAU E…
VIDIGAL

MAPUTO

JAQUELINE

SANTARÉM
TIRADENTES
JACAREZINHO
HELIÓPOLIS

PROVIDÊNCIA
ÉVORA

MARVÃO
LUANDA

COVA DO VAPOR

LINHARES
BEIRA

LISBOA
GOIÁS VELHO

ÓBIDOS

CASTELO NOVO
PORTO

Figure 14. Number of Axes (source: Author).

 654

0
1
0
1
2

0,2
0,4
0,6
0,8
0,5
1,5
0,4
0,6
0,8
CASTELO… 0,77 ÉVORA 1,81 GOIÁS VELHO 0,67
COVA DO VAPOR 0,68 GOIÁS VELHO 1,78 HELIÓPOLIS 0,67
ÓBIDOS 0,68 ÓBIDOS 1,63 BEIRA 0,67
CASTELO NOVO 0,62 CASTELO NOVO 1,44 ÉVORA 0,67
LINHARES 0,57 SANTARÉM 1,44 COVA DO VAPOR 0,66
SANTARÉM 0,56 HELIÓPOLIS 1,37 TIMBAU E BAIXA… 0,66
TIRADENTES 0,5 COVA DO VAPOR 1,36 JACAREZINHO 0,66
JACAREZINHO 0,46 PORTO 1,35 LUANDA 0,66
MARVÃO 0,44 LISBOA 1,31 JAQUELINE 0,65
BEIRA 0,43 CASTELO RODRIGO 1,31 MAPUTO 0,65
JAQUELINE 0,42 TIRADENTES 1,3 SANTARÉM 0,65

SYNERGY
TIMBAU E BAIXA… 0,41 LINHARES 1,29 PORTO 0,64
PORTO 0,39 JACAREZINHO 1,26 VIDIGAL 0,63
INTEGRAÇÃO LOCAL
HELIÓPOLIS 0,39 LUANDA 1,23 CASTELO NOVO 0,63
GLOBAL INTEGRATION (Tekl)

JARDIM DE S… 0,39 TIMBAU E BAIXA… 1,22 LINHARES 0,63

MAPUTO 0,39 BEIRA 1,2 ÓBIDOS 0,63

Figure 17. Synergy (source: Author).

ÉVORA 0,27 MARVÃO 1,18 TIRADENTES 0,62

Figure 16. Local Integration (source: Author).

GOIÁS VELHO 0,26 JAQUELINE 1,12 JARDIM DE S… 0,62
LUANDA 0,26 MAPUTO 1,12 LISBOA 0,62
PROVIDÊNCIA 0,15 VIDIGAL 1,11 CASTELO RODRIGO 0,61
LISBOA 0,12 JARDIM DE S LUÍS… 1,11 PROVIDÊNCIA 0,6
Figure 15: Global Integration (Normalized values) (source: Author).

VIDIGAL 0,11 PROVIDÊNCIA 1,1 MARVÃO 0,59

 655

The long argument in this text about complexity in Favela as in historic towns finds another
good issue in the study of Intelligibility (Figure 18). Intelligibility is the ability to read the
whole space by standing in just one point of it, and empirically is clear the difficulty to
understand that easily a space like Vidigal or old historical Lisbon. That is why the values
present such low result. Although, this specific case proves a clear difference between
contemporary Favela and old towns: the old settlements are much easier understood than
nowadays Favelas. Which is why the correlation between Intelligibility and Number of axes
(Figure 19) appears next in the sequence: old towns are much smaller, and Favela’s scale turns
it deeply difficult to apprehend directly. The result is a 54% correlation between the dimension
of the system and Intelligibility, meaning that size highly explains (c.f. Medeiros, 2013) the low
levels in Favelas.
In consequence, the same process was repeated to Mean Depth, a measure that explains
segregation in space, how difficult or easy it can be to access a specific axe in the system
(Medeiros 2013). Settlements can be deep or flat depending on the high or low result, and it
makes comparation possible in the sense of seeing space as a labyrinth or not. In this case, as
Figure 20 can shows, Favelas are much deeper systems than old Portuguese towns.
Nevertheless, such a reality can be again explained by the system dimension correlation (Figure
21): Space tends to be more labyrinthic as bigger it gets. The same structure of spatial relations
can be more complex as it increases in scale.

INTELLIGIBILITY
0,48

0,6
0,38

0,5
0,34
0,31
0,27
0,26
0,26

0,4
0,21
0,19
0,17
0,16
0,15

0,3
0,14
0,13
0,13
0,11

0,07
0,1
0,1

0,06
0,2

0,04
0,04
0,1
0
TIMBAU E BAIXA…
CASTELO…

JARDIM DE S…
MAPUTO
SANTARÉM

JAQUELINE

VIDIGAL
TIRADENTES

JACAREZINHO
ÉVORA
LINHARES

COVA DO VAPOR
MARVÃO

HELIÓPOLIS

PROVIDÊNCIA
LISBOA MEDIEVAL

LUANDA
PORTO MEDIEVAL

GOIÁS VELHO
BEIRA
ÓBIDOS
CASTELO NOVO

Figure 18. Intelligibility (source: Author).

CORRELATION y = -2978x + 1146,7

R² = 0,5453
20000
NUMBER OF AXES

0
0 0,1 0,2 0,3 0,4 0,5 0,6

-20000
INTELLIGIBILITY
Figure 19. Correlation between Intelligibility and the number of Axes of each case (source:
Author).
656

MEAN DEPTH

24,74
22,91
30

20,99
16,93
16,87
14,51
13,25
13,18
13,09
20

11,74

10,02
10,01
10,9

9,06
8,71
8,06
7,09
7,06
6,66
6,47

5,24
6,3
10

TIMBAU E BAIXA DO…

JARDIM DE S LUÍS…
VIDIGAL

JAQUELINE

PORTO
TIRADENTES

SANTARÉM
MAPUTO

JACAREZINHO

ÉVORA
PROVIDÊNCIA

HELIÓPOLIS
MARVÃO

LINHARES
LUANDA

COVA DO VAPOR
LISBOA

BEIRA

GOIÁS VELHO

CASTELO RODRIGO
ÓBIDOS
CASTELO NOVO
Figure 20. Mean Depth (source: Author).

y = 57,284x - 113,87
CORRELATION R² = 0,4546
20000
NUMBER OF AXES

0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30

MEAN DEPTH

Figure 21: Correlation Between Mean Depth and the number of Axes (source: Author).

Figure 22: Angular Choice Maps (Top: Timbau and Jacarezinho; Bottom: Lisboa, Porto
and Providência) (source: Author).
 657

Finally, the image above shows the Angular Choice, an analyses that permit to understand
how people tend to move in space. Choice means analyzing the potential for a street to be
chosen within all the routes in the system, and so it can give us a good acknowledgement of
how space is used. Favelas tend to be seen as labirynthic spaces in the sense that it seems
impossible to clearly walk through it. Looking at the images above (Figure 22) on can observe
the clear structure of chosen axes for internal routes in space: all space is covered by an
amazingly hierarchical net of paths. The complex space shows clearly here it self-organizing
potential, and the similarities among epochs. The Angular Choice maps are a very important
argument to prove the walkability of space and also the similarity between Favelas and
Medieval Towns. There are clearly more used routes in each space, and the maps prove how
much the space is (potentially) covered by movement and how connected these routes seem to
be.
Historically and culturally different settlements present configurational similar relations
(Medeiros, 2013). This is the critical point in the research: diachronically the organic pattern
was responsible for the continuum know-how of making city and organizing its space. The
proved similarities allow us to believe in an effective timeless way of building (Alexander,
1979), inherent to human beings and to its natural ability to adapt. Spontaneity and Emergence
apparently lead the way to Natural Complexity (Guerreiro, 2010) existent in the unplanned or
implicit organic spaces (Kostof, 1999). But remains the question: Is it possible to plan this type
of organicity? This study points out the existence of a possible way to acknowledge these
complex geometries unseen through simple observation. If Morro da Providência and Medieval
Lisbon are equally chaotic seen from the outside and present the same self-organized rules in
their spatial structure, these recognized patterns are potentially the clues needed to understand
its spatial dynamics.

Conclusions

Favela is defined as a complex form dependent on a spontaneous genesis and a bottom-up order,
as observed through the settlements comparison. Favela is often mentioned as a socio-economic
particular reality in city, frequently not mentioning form and urban space. This paper intends to
point out a distinction based on urban form issues: believing in space as influenced and
influencing at the same time, organic favela and irregular allotment represent very distinct social
dynamics. Favela, as spontaneous and emergent, acts in synergy and according to scale
developing a dynamic relation in space within its parts.
Despite similarities, medieval settlements have smaller street system and its axes are
commonly longer, resulting in a much complex space in Favelas. This emphasizes the
hypothesis that scale has an important role in comparison: organic spontaneous structures
present high levels of synergy, which appears to mean the existence of an harmonic relation
among lower and higher scales in a system. That suggests that to grow it must also get more
complex to ensure the needed levels of hierarchy the organic space need to work efficiently.
Self-organization seems to be the origin of such amazing dynamic in space.
Contemporary city leads to absolutely different scales and dimensions, but the processes it is
emerging from are possibly the same through city history. This is clearly a starting point and an
experimental work, but findings surely point out directions to future studies: Illegal areas in city
are not all the same (despite their similar socioeconomic problems), but those of organic and
spontaneous genesis present such potentially successful space properties as the older towns we
often are amazed to meet.
658

References

Abbagnano, N. (1998). Dicionário de filosofia. (Martins Fontes, S o Paulo)

Alexander, C. (1979). The timeless way of building. (Oxford University Press, New York)
Furquim, Gabriela. (2013) Maior favela da América Latina: Sol Nascente toma posto da Rocinha.
(Publicação: 28/09/2013 in http://www.correiobraziliense.com.br (consultado a 20.01.2014))
Guerreiro, M.R. (2010) Urbanismo Orgânico e a Ordem Implícita: Uma Leitura Através das Geometrias
da Natureza (Tese de Doutorado). (ISCTE IUL, Lisboa).
Hillier, B., Hanson, J., (1984) The social logic of space. (Cambridge University Press, Cambridge
[England]; New York).
Houaiss, A., (2012) Dicionário sin nimos e ant nimos. (Houaiss : Publifolha, S o Paulo).
Jacques, P.B. (2001) Estética da ginga: a arquitetura das favelas através da obra de Hélio Oiticica.
(Editora Casa da Palavra : RIOARTE, Rio de Janeiro).
Johnson, S., (2001) Emergence: the connected lives of ants, brains, cities, and software. (Scribner, New
York).
Kostof, S. (1999) The city shaped: urban patterns and meanings through history. (Little, Brown and Co.,
Boston).
Medeiros, V. (2013) Urbis Brasiliae: o labirinto das cidades brasileiras. (Editora Universidade de
Brasília, Brasília).
Salingaros, N.A. (1998) The Theory of the Urban Web. J. (Urban Des. 53–71).
Salingaros, N.A. (2006) Habitação social na América Latina: uma metodologia para utilizar processos
de auto-organização, (in: Piccinini, L.S. (Tran.), Presented at the Congresso Ibero-Americano de
Habitação Social, Florianópolis).
Sobreira, F. (2003) A Lógica da Diversidade: Complexidade e Dinamica em Assentamentos Espontâneos
(Tese de Doutorado). (Universidade Federal de Pernambuco, Pernambuco).
 659

The ‘Ilhas’ of Porto and ‘self-improvement urbanism’: the

inhabitants as engine of urban transformation

Natasha de Sena, Kees Doevendans, Sophie Rousseau

Alterra Research Institute, Wageningen University, Eindhoven University of
Technology, The Netherlands. E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract. An ‘Ilha’ in Porto is a typology of low cost housing which spread within the city in the 19th
Century as a result of the industrial development. The extremely small dwellings (around 4x4m) were
established within backyards of middle class houses, connected to the street through a narrow corridor.
Despite all public trials of destruction, more than 1.000 ‘Ilhas’ still shelter more than 13.000 people
within the city of Porto. The subject of this article is the analysis of the morphology of the ‘Ilhas’ of
Porto, Portugal. The objective is to illustrate what the typology currently means for its inhabitants and
for the urban space and propose methods of improving their living standards. The social and spatial
dimension of the ‘Ilhas’ as an ‘assemblage’ of the city determines the research method, focusing on a) an
analysis of the morphology and typology of a selected cluster of ‘Ilhas’ in different scales; b)
participatory research involving the inhabitants, including interviews and observation of daily practices
and community values.
Despite the low quality living conditions, the inhabitants of the ‘Ilhas’ show an impressive attachment to
their living space, forming a strong community. This quality is used as a foundation for the ‘self-
improvement’ urbanism, where the community operates as the main engine of the urban transformation.
The main finding of the research is that the ‘Ilhas’ could be an inexpensive solution for the current
housing crisis through the further development of the ‘self-improvement’ urbanism. This innovative
approach includes strong public participation and an innovative position of the planner within the
process.

Key Words: Ilhas, social history, morphology and typology, urban anthropology, self-improvement
urbanism.

The morphology’s historical development

The Ilhas have an unique typology within the urban tissue of Porto. This typology is a result of
several specific events within the historical morphological development of the Porto, in
physical, economic and social aspects.
During the 18th century Porto faced its first large population growth , a consequence of the
economic growth (Teixeira, 1996, p. 19) caused by the success of the Porto wine and trade
development with England (Porto Vivo, 2005, P. 27). In 1732, the city had around 30.000
inhabitants, and reached more than 60.000 in 1787. Porto went through a densification process
within the boundary of the medieval walls, and only after 1760 the city expanded, in a planned
development, to outside the former borders.
In 1763, the governor João de Almada, later followed by his son Francisco de Almada,
started the expansion plans for the city, in a highly centralized decision making process
(Monteiro, 2009). Concerning urban morphology, the 18th century was very important for the
city. Under the governance of the Almadas, new streets were opened or restructured, and new
public space was created in the oldest urban area (Rio Fernandes, 2005, P. 4). The economic
growth was translated into a clear urban expansion. The medieval walls lost their military
defence value, as a result of the development of artillery, and were therefore destroyed in almost
all its length (Rio Fernandes, 2005, P. 4). Four axes were built: they irradiated from the old
centre and pointed towards the main agglomerates of the outside region (Figure 1).
660

Figure 1. The Almada expansion: Porto in 1813, occupying the new axes of expansion.

The expansion plan of the Almadas in the 18th century defined several future aspects for the city
of Porto, including the development of “Ilhas”. The new axes of development were then slowly
occupied by new plots, where new dwellings for the higher classes were built. Besides defining
expansion lines, the plan also created norms for defining the new plots. The focus of the plan
was the street, and not the urban block (Ferrão, 1997). The pattern for new urban plots defined
plots with narrow front lines and deep depth, making the maximum use of the new street
infrastructure in its length. The façade of the plot was mostly 5,5-6 m wide and very long,
sometimes reaching 100 m of depth (Teixeira, 1996). The dwellings had long backyards,
differing from the pattern of the old compact medieval city (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Map from the Almada plans. The long plots were placed along the new street,
without a pattern of urban block (Nonnel, 2002).
 661

After a period of low population growth caused by the French invasions (1803-1813) and the
civil war (1832-34), the city started to grow again due to the industrial development and the
arrival of immigrants from the countryside. Between 1838 and 1900, the population of Porto
went from 59.000 to 168.000 inhabitants. In 1911, Porto had expanded its surface and had a
population of 194.009 inhabitants (Pereira, 2003, P. 140).
According to Rio Fernandes (2005, P. 6) there are two main consequences for the high levels
of population growth of this time. Firstly, the residents of the oldest parts of the city, who had
financial sources, moved to large housing areas in the suburbs. The empty houses left behind
were then occupied by the immigrants, and the centre faced a continuously densification of its
buildings. Secondly, the main destination of immigrants, especially the ones coming from the
rural areas, became the long backyards of profit seeker property owners, usually located nearby
industrial areas. These are the Ilhas (Figure 3).

Figure 3. The main street, the front middle class houses and the Ilhas occupying the
backyards.

The Ilhas

The new working class needed a new solution for low cost housing. In this context, the Ilhas
appeared in Porto. Ilha is the Portuguese word for island, and that refers to the relationship of
these dwellings with the urban space. They occupy inner spaces of the city, like small infill
islands, surrounded by buildings from all sides. Porto ‘grew inwards’ (Figure 4), increasing its
density through the development of the Ilhas (Pereira, 2003).
Besides, the urban plots had between 5,5-6 m of façade and a deep depth, and these long and
narrow backyards were viewed by the inhabitants as an opportunity. Responsible for the
construction of the Ilhas were not large developers, but small entrepreneurs with limited
sources, namely the inhabitants of the front houses themselves. The higher social classes were,
at this time, moving to even further from the centre, and the first expansion areas were occupied
by the lower middle class (Teixeira, 1996).
The Ilhas were small scale and low quality constructions, with the only objective of
providing cheap and fast housing. Most of the Ilhas were built not at once, but gradually, in a
process of internal growth of the city through occupation of the inner space of urban blocks. The
primary typology of the Ilha is composed by rows of small and single-layer houses, built in the
662

back side of middle class houses. The majority of the Ilhas had around 20 dwellings, with a
single pavement and average size of 16 m2. The small houses of the Ilhas were then built based
on the façade space, forming lines of houses and corridors through all plots. The access to the
street was usually made through a small corridor on the side of the middle class houses which
faced the street (Teixeira, 1996). The sanitary facilities were minimal, shared by all houses, and
usually located on the back of the plot (CMP, 2000). The Ilhas have all kinds of variations, but
the original typology, which is still rather common, is showed on Figure 5.

Figure 4. A morphologic comparison between the medieval city core, the 18th century
expansion and the Ilhas: the city grew towards the inner-block space.

Within the most critical period of city growth, between 1878 and 1890, more than 5.000
dwellings in Ilhas were built. In 1899, the Ilhas were home to 35.000 people, 30% of the total
population (Pereira, 2003). The city had around 168.000 inhabitants at that time (CMP, 2000).
The largest concentration of Ilhas was on the eastern part of the city, near the industrial areas.
Nevertheless, Ilhas could be found all over the city, but always with some proximity to an
industry.

Figure 5. Ilha in detail: Impression of the dwelling size and how the residents outline the
inner divisions of their homes.
 663

Due to its construction characteristics, such as reduced size, cheap and low quality materials,
common sanitary facilities and lack of sewage system, the Ilhas soon became famous in the city
as insalubrious and sickening places (LEMOS, 1914). The high density of these housing areas,
together with the lack of hygiene and sanitary facilities was a strengthening to the common
diseases at that time, and helped the proliferation of tuberculosis, cholera, typhus and the
bubonic plague (CMP, 2001).

The current situation

During the 200 years of Ilhas’ history, several public programs have made trials to extinguish
them. Most programs involved demolition of Ilhas and relocation of people to suburbs. The
several programs of relocation of inhabitants through the years only changed the social
segregation pattern in Porto. The form of segregation with the working class occupying central
spaces, had a shift to a periphery pattern segregation.
In 2003, more than 40.000 people were living in social neighbourhoods (Pereira, 2003, P.
145) built to shelter the relocated inhabitants in the second half of the 20 th century. Many of
these neighbourhoods are currently considered ‘problem areas’ in the city due to high levels of
criminality, and are now being demolished by the authorities. According to Pereira (2003, P.
145), “most probably, around 20% (…) of the population of Porto have inherited living
conditions from the housing solutions – and lack of solutions – that were a consequence of the
industrialization and urbanization process of Porto”.
Nevertheless, after all the trials from the authorities to eradicate the Ilhas, they still exist in
the city (Figure 6). Information available in 2001 pointed to an estimation of 13.500 people
living in Ilhas, plus more than 6.500 people in similar living housing conditions (Pereira, 2003,
P. 145). “In the classic form, there are still in the city of Porto 5.900 houses in Ilhas” (CMP,
Pimenta; Ferreira, 2001).

Figure 6. Ilhas in 1940 (CMP, 2001) and 2012 (source: photo by author).
664

Problem definition

The Municipality sees the Ilhas, undoubtedly, as a major urban problem. They have demolished
the majority of Ilhas located in public ground in the last years. In June 8th, 2003, it could be
read on the first page of the newspaper “O Comércio do Porto”: “Last municipal Ilha breaks
down this month” (Cited in Pereira, 2003, P. 147). The authorities declare that ‘the large and
critical problem of the private Ilhas in highly degraded conditions persists” (CMP, Pimenta;
Ferreira, 2001). The problem, according to the authorities, is formed by the high degraded
conditions of the dwellings, unhealthy standards, the low income of the inhabitants and ‘the
expectations of future profit with the liberation of the plots situated in privileged zones of the
city’ (CMP, Pimenta; Ferreira, 2001).
Nevertheless, the demolition of Ilhas increases the demand for social housing. The higher
demand conflicts with the current plans from the Municipality to demolish a large amount of the
social housing buildings in the suburb of Porto. Both demolition plans, concerning Ilhas and
social housing, are not followed by a plan of approach for relocation of inhabitants, resulting in
a larger social problem. Furthermore, there is already a lack of social housing. Not only social
housing for the real poor and needy families, who manage to be selected by the municipality
and located within a social program. But a lack of affordable housing, with a minimum of living
quality, for many inhabitants.

Objective

The Ilhas form an embedded living typology in the city of Porto, which survived destruction
trials for centuries. Away from the judgmental description of the Ilhas as poor and undesirable
spaces in the city, the objective is to illustrate what the typology currently means for its
inhabitants and for the urban space and to propose methods of improving their living standards.
Given that there is need for housing, how could the Ilhas represent a solution for the current
social housing problem, while improving the living conditions of its inhabitants?

Methodology

As guiding principle in the further morphological research of the Ilhas figures the concept of
‘assemblage’. In morphology we see the struggle between holistic-universal approaches aiming
at historical-organic patterns of the city and layered or piecemeal approaches, that make the city
a collage of palimpsest. Assemblage, as applied in (human) geography, takes as point of
departure the ‘contingent, non-necessary coming together of various phenomena, actors,
institutions, or processes to form a stable bundle of relationships and capacities’ (CASTREE et
al, 2013).
For the research of the Ilhas this has been translated into a more practical than theoretical
working method, based on the principle of ‘going there to see, learn and understand…’, in
which the following steps have been taken:
i. take as point of departure the typology of the Ilhas in terms of houses, streets and blocks
as described from the historical perspective;
ii. take a specific cluster as representative location for of the phenomenon of the Ilhas;
iii. involve inhabitants by doing participatory research –as a form of urban anthropology-,
including interviews and observations of daily practices and community live;
iv. define relevant scales of spatial analysis based on social and physical relationships for
detailed morphological description and analysis;
v. define the stability of social, physical and economical relationships of the Ilhas;
 665

vi. take this stability as starting point to characterize the Ilhas and to define the actors
which could be considered the agents of urban and morphological transformation.
In this way ‘assemblage’ is considered a procedural and a material concept, referring to
formal object (research method) and material object of study: the morphology of the Ilhas.

Selected location

The investigation took place in a selected cluster of Ilhas in the central area of Porto. The São
Victor street cluster was chosen because of its large size, and also due to its authentic character,
where the Ilhas still kept their original form (Figure 7).

Figure 7. Location of São Victor street in the city of Porto.

The area of São Víctor street is located within Bonfim neighbourhood, and can be seen as a
buffer zone. On the left side of São Víctor street, the city is lively and crowded, with the Old
Town and the Centre of the city, with main touristic attractions and commercial areas. But
towards the eastern side, a large cemetery followed by the railway form a whole different
environment, already outside the main city route. São Víctor street is located in between,
forming a transitional space. The privileged location in the city is indeed one of the strongest
characteristics of São Víctor street. The Street is located on the eastern side of Porto, nearly
to the City centre. The street is short (625 m long) and the Ilhas can be found only within a part
of its length (367 m, between Praça da Alegria and Largo do Padre Baltasar Guedes). The street
ends at a cliff, with a great view to the railway and the Douro River.

Figure 8. The Ilhas of São Víctor street.

666

The study area (Figure 8), formed by the group of urban blocks on both sides of São Víctor
street, has a total of 1.388 inhabitants (data from the Census 2011 – INE, 2012). In an
estimation based on observation combines with the aerial photos of the area, it can be assumed
that the 29 Ilhas contain 280 dwellings. Given that the average household size of 2.6 people
(data from the Census 2011, INE, 2012), the estimation results in around 730 people, from the
total of 1.388 people in the study area, living in these Ilhas.
Some of the Ilhas are empty, but the majority is at least partially occupied. Their pattern
follows the original Ilha typology, with small houses occupying the backyard of larger houses,
connected to the street through a long corridor. Given that there is no official data concerning
the Ilhas’ dwellings, these conclusions come from a combination of aerial photos analysis and
visits to the area.

Participatory research

The participatory research took place during field visits. The selected location was visited and
observations of the public space were made in different time frames and different days of the
week. During this visits, interviews with the inhabitants were made following an non-structured
interview approach. They took place like informal conversations, when the inhabitants usually
felt more confident to talk, without fearing that it could be an official interview from the
Municipality (although some of them fearfully asked if it was a Municipal initiative). Besides
interviewing inhabitants, other people involved in the subject were also interviewed.

The impressions

Despite the lack of living quality conditions, the inhabitants show an impressive level of
satisfaction. Having some interesting conversations is not a difficult task on São Víctor street.
Especially the elderly are quite sympathetic. They enjoy sharing their stories and their love for
their living space. The most heard sentences in São Victor Street are: “I will die here” and “I
would never leave this place”. The impression is that the value of the neighbourhood and its
community is still lively present in São Víctor. The community is the first item mentioned in a
description of positive aspects of the Ilha life. People know each other, families grew up
together. There is a feeling of cooperation, company and friendship, which is strong especially
for the elderly. They have been there for a longer period of time, and have tighter relations with
the space and with the others. They also keep company to one another, since they are in many
cases alone.
Furthermore, the high social control of the street provides safety, and the fact that the people
know each other and see each other constantly is an obstacle for criminality. The high density
added to the strong contact to the street only increases the general sense of security.
The dwellings surely need improvement in several aspects, but their environment is a
success concerning one of the most important aspects for the inhabitants: the satisfaction of
living where they live, and the sense of belonging to a place. Each Ilha is unique as a place.
They have different stories and different names. Their names are sometimes quite out of the
ordinary. They were named after a former landlord, a famous inhabitant, or a characteristic of
the Ilha itself. The names give to the Ilhas a sense of identity and place.
The Ilhas of São Víctor street are a place for numerous problems, but they also have several
positive aspects. The Ilhas have always been seen, either by the authorities or by the population,
as a shameful city problem that needs to be vanished. The change of times ask for a change of
point of view. The Ilhas should be faced and analyzed from a different point of view, associated
to the current time of (deep) economic, social and political crisis.
Thus, positive aspects should certainly be equally considered.
 667

Morphology and typology analysis – scales of space

Because the social environment forms the greatest positive aspect of the life in the Ilhas, the
social relationships will be used as the main criteria for classifying and separating the different
scales of space during the morphological analysis. From the most public to the most private
space (Figure 9), the pattern of social encounters and the relationship between users and their
space defines invisible boundaries within the urban environment which create different
´heterotopias´.

Figure 9. The impression on entering an Ilha.

From public to private

The group of social acquaintances from a person reduces gradually, from the most public space
until the privacy of the household (Figure 10). The public space is opened for everyone, and a
stranger would not be easily noticed in this scale. The collective space is more narrow, where
the community formed by all Ilhas is able to meet, and a stranger who does not belong to the
street is already perceived and observed by the users of the space. The communal space is the
rather special scale of the Ilha corridor. Its level of privacy may vary according to the type of
entrance of the Ilha, but the corridor is mostly more private than public. Finally, the household
space provides privacy and protection to the resident.
Applying these scale division to São Víctor street and the Ilhas, the result is a hierarchy of three
layers of space, divided according to the scales of privacy and level of social contact. The
household space is not included. The main difference between these scales of ‘publicness’ of the
spaces concerns who meets in the space, and which social relationships take place in them.

Figure 10. The social relationships defining the spatial scales.

668

Large Scale - The public space outside

This scale represents the room for social relationships between the residents of Ilhas and
outsiders, which take place in the public space in the surroundings of the street. These spaces
form the boundaries of the urban blocks where the Ilhas are located. These boundaries work as a
type of barrier to the study area, and it represents the conflict between the urban block formed
by the Ilhas of São Víctor and the surroundings.
The Ilhas have an embedded bad image within the city, as a result of their historical
condition of unhealthy environment. The area forms a buffer zone in the city and does not relate
itself to the very next surrounding area. The urban block is an ‘island’ itself. The challenge in
this scale would be to increase the reciprocity between the block and the city, to make the Ilhas
part of the larger urban scale.

Medium Scale - The collective space of the street

The collective space is still public – opened for all people. Nevertheless, it is a space already
filtered by the first boundaries, forming a different heterotopia. The inner-block space of São
Víctor street is mostly used by inhabitants, and a stranger passer-by is already noticed. These
collective spaces include the street itself, with its sidewalks, and its adjacent spaces, such as
open spaces, commercial buildings and the alley connecting the street to the riverside (and a
beautiful view). The collective space is a key for the binding of the whole community, and
where people from different Ilhas meet. As mentioned by an elderly lady in an interview: “In
the past, this street used to be a large family”.
But why ‘in the past’? An increasing unsafe feeling and decreasing community status has
been mentioned by several inhabitants, especially by the elderly. The amount of newcomers is
increasing, as a possible result of the economic crisis and of the demolition of social housing
buildings in the suburbs. Newcomers are often held responsible for the neighbourhood changes,
because their relationship with the neighbours is not as strong as in the past generations. Thus
we can speculate that a generation clash might be a part of the problem. As a result of less social
acquaintances, the community status decreases and therefore the social control also becomes
weaker. Re-establishing the strong social control from the past through incentivizing the
community strength might be part of the solution for the decreasing security and social decay.

Small Scale - The communal space of the corridor

The corridor of each Ilha is already a private space, located within a private urban plot.
Nevertheless, due to the use by several families, and in some cases the openness to the outside
world, this space can be considered semiprivate, or communal. It is shared by all neighbours
within the Ilha, and is also an extension of the household. The inhabitants place outside, in a
thin line along their dwelling, several personal belongings which coexist with the neighbours in
the narrow corridor. Laundry, plants, chairs, toys, and several other objects give to the corridor a
‘private backyard’ impression.
The Ilhas slightly vary in their morphologic features (Figure 11), with a variation regarding
the level of connection with the street defined by the entrance to the corridor. The extra level of
public-private transition provided by the corridor and the reduced size of this common space,
makes from the narrow corridor become part of the dwelling. At the same time, it is an
extension of the street, keeping the line between private and semi-public rather porous. The
corridor of the Ilha is a distinctive space, since it represents the very basis of the community
strength from the Ilhas. It gives an extra level of collective privacy to the Ilha, and is partially
responsible for increasing the social cohesion, community strength, and is consequently
improving the social control.
 669

Figure 11. The degree of privacy defined by the entrance typology.

Concerning the dwellings, their dimensions are mostly very compact. Some of them have an
extra pavement which was usually built by the inhabitants. Some families rent more than one
dwelling, and make from both one larger house. The façades of the dwellings are painted in
different colours, and some are covered by tiles. The differences between dwellings of a
common Ilha show that the changes had been made by each inhabitant, and not by the landlord.
Self-improvement can be found everywhere.

The strength of self-improvement

The Ilhas carry quite a heavy and dark image with their name. They bring an image of
insalubrious places, of extreme poverty, justified by their historical existence as an urban
problem. Even though Ilhas without sewage and dwellings without private toilets still exist, the
situation improved, mostly as a result of efforts from the residents themselves.
Several Ilhas are equipped with private toilets and small extensions for the dwellings,
resulting in more life quality for the inhabitants. The residents are usually proud of their
accomplishments improving their houses. Mrs. Rosa, from nº 76, declared: “I have my own
toilet and a second floor with bedrooms which I built up myself. The landlord does not do
anything to improve the houses, everything has to come from us. If your roof is broken, if you
want to paint the house, we do it all by ourselves”.
Mrs. Filomena, from the same Ilha, had the best house of all visited ones. Her home is an
example of the self-improvement made by the inhabitants. Her family extended the dwelling,
using a small space on the side of the house, where was previously an open area.
Now, her son has his own bedroom. Furthermore, they also built an extra pavement, where
her bedroom is located, and a bathroom for the family. The house is well maintained, and she
mentions: “We pay such a cheap rent that we can afford reforms, and we feel happy to improve
our home”.
The differences between the building condition within the Ilhas are quite strong and visible
(Figure 12). Based on some interviews, it can be concluded that the improved houses belong to
the long term inhabitants, who reformed their space through the years, maybe even through
generations. The houses without toilets and with the worst structural problems seem to have a
more dynamic occupation pattern, with less permanency of residents. Many of them are now
rented by people who arrived a few years ago, and have no funds for repairing the house. The
main complaint from unsatisfied residents in Ilhas is related to the low quality of their
670

dwellings. If the quality is improved, the satisfaction levels rises, the attachment to the space
gets stronger and consequently the level of residents permanency in the area also grows. It is a
cycle of positive consequences.

Figure 12. Above, a dwelling improved by the residents own efforts; below, a dwelling that
show signs of degradation.

Proposal – the self-improvement urbanism

The improvements made by the inhabitants themselves in their dwellings could be the reason
that makes the Ilhas a resilient urban space. A better living environment plays a role in the
satisfaction of inhabitants and permanency in the living space. As these effects have a strong
influence on the great community standard of the Ilhas.
The extension of this practice to another dwellings – the ones which still need improvement
– could be an inexpensive way of improving the qualities of such houses. The advantage for the
landlord is the improvement of his property without any effort or investment coming from his
side. The residents would work by themselves, as they have been doing for generations of small
self-improvement, but this time in a greater scale. The advantage for the inhabitants is the
possibility of improving their dwellings and rising their living quality standards. Furthermore,
the group approach would boost the community integration and help solving the increasing
social decay.
Mrs. Ineke Hulshof, from the office Hulshof Architecten, has several examples of
successfully realized residential buildings developed under the concept of cooperative
construction. During an interview in June 2012, Mrs. Hulshof was quite optimistic when asked
about a possibility of cooperative building in the scenario of the Ilhas: “I believe that the people
can do it themselves. There is always someone that knows how to build or knows how to fix a
roof or a toilet, and they can teach each other. If well organized, they can surely do it” (Hulshof,
2012).
The self-improvement concept could go beyond the dwelling and reach the urban scale
(Figure 13). The community is strong, and could be used as a basis for the urban transformation
where the inhabitants themselves are the agents of change. Since it has never been an intention
from the authorities of Porto on rehabilitating the Ilhas, but only to demolish them, an
improvement plan for the Ilhas should not rely on tools like legislation support, and much less
on public investment. In times of economic and political crisis, the interest in investing, coming
 671

from the Municipality, became even less significant. Therefore, the methodology for such
transformation should be planned with little or no governmental support.

Figure 13. The self-improvement urbanism applied on the study area.

The urban issues identified in the scale analysis could be approached in the same method of
self-improvement. In the large scale, the reciprocity between São Víctor street and its
surrounding area can be increased through the enhancement of the use of the available public
spaces by both social groups (residents and outsiders). Movable urban furniture have low costs
and maintenance, and could be implemented by the community itself in strategic public spaces
where the connection can be made with outside users for a more intense use of the space. The
augment of connection between these groups would diminish the isolation of the Ilhas area and,
in a longer term, would also diminish the negative image that the space has in the city.
In the medium scale, the collective space of the street provides room that could be used for
the community incentives and connection between the older and younger generations. A great
community incentive might be reuse available space, transforming it into common space that
facilitate social encounters. Since their dwelling space is so small, extra facilities could be
offered as an extension of their houses, just as the corridor space works. A shared outdoor
laundry space or a community urban farm are possible ideas. The opinion of some residents was
asked during some of the interviews. The idea of a shared cultivating area or space to grow
chicken had positive reactions. People especially enjoyed the fact of producing their own
vegetables and eggs and also spending an enjoyable time outside. Such simple activities could
be implemented and maintained by the community itself.

Conclusion

Despite the low quality living conditions, the inhabitants of the ‘Ilhas’ show an impressive
attachment to their living space, forming a strong community. This quality could be used as
672

foundation for the ‘self-improvement’ urbanism, where the community operates as the main
engine of the urban transformation.
The main finding of the research is that the ‘Ilhas’ could be an inexpensive solution for the
current housing crisis through the further development of the ‘self-improvement’ urbanism. This
innovative approach includes strong public participation and an innovative position of the
planner within the process.

Interviews

Ineke Hulshof, architect from Hulshof Architecten. Delft, the Netherlands. (June 2012)
Inhabitants of São Víctor street and Bairro do Herculano (November/2011 and May/2012)

References

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674

The ‘ilhas’ of Oporto, a fundamental component of the city’s

nineteenth century urban morphology

Manuel Teixeira
CIAUD – Centro de Investigação em Arquitectura, Urbanismo e Design, Faculdade de
Arquitectura, Universidade de Lisboa. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. The ‘ilhas’ are nuclei of working-class housing that were built on Oporto in the second half of
the nineteenth century, in the period of greater industrial development of the city. The ‘ilhas’ were made
up of groups of small houses, with an area of about 16 square metres, built along the back-gardens of
middle-class houses (or which had been originally built as middle-class houses) in areas of the city that,
given their proximity to industries located nearby, had begun a process of physical and social decay that
would be further accentuated by the construction of these working-class houses. These houses were built
either in a row, along the 5.5 or 6 metres wide urban lots, or in two rows, back-to-back or facing each
other, when they occupied two of these plots. They were not unlike similar forms of working-class housing
built elsewhere in Europe in the same period, and they would be replicated, by Portuguese emigrants,
later on, in Brazil. Small areas, bad construction and a lack of the most basic infrastructures were
translated into deplorable housing and sanitary conditions, endemic illnesses and high rates of mortality.
Towards the end of the nineteenth century, it is estimated that between one-third and one-half of the
population of Porto lived in these conditions. Despite these numbers, and the sheer presence of their
inhabitants in urban life, most ‘ilhas’ were invisible from the formal city: built in the back-gardens, in the
interior of urban blocks, their sole relationship with the street was by means of a door – no different from
any door – on the façade of the middle-class building facing the street, that led to a corridor under this
house and next to an open corridor along the back garden where the rows of small houses were built. In
the existing city’s cartography they were also absent. Their presence would only be acknowledged
towards the end of the century, when a number of epidemics, and a new cartographic survey of the city,
led to their formal recognition on the part of the bourgeoisie and the municipal authorities.

Key Words: ‘Ilhas’, working-class housing, Oporto, nineteenth-century, industrial city.

General context of development of ‘ilhas’

The ‘ilhas’ are a form of working-class housing which developed in nineteenth century Oporto.
This kind of housing consisted· of rows of small houses, built in the back-gardens of middle-
class properties and with access to the street only through narrow corridors under the houses
which faced on to the street.
With the advent of industrialization, and the consequent immigration into the city, the two
main solutions to house the lower income groups were, first, to increase the density of existing
buildings in the old neighbourhoods up to a saturation point and, second, the development of
new speculative housing in the form of ‘ilhas’. This later kind of housing consisted of rows of
small houses, built in the back gardens of middle class properties and with access to the street
only through narrow corridors under the houses which faced onto the street. Subsequent
developments made this house form independent of the middle class housing and, in some
cases, spread this typology into whole areas of the city, which became exclusive working class
wards.
The first immigrants into the city were mostly young, unmarried men who could not find the
necessary means of subsistence in the countryside, and salaried rural workers, and even small
property owners, who were obliged to procure work in the city in order to survive. Initially,
these men retained a link with the land, where their families remained looking after their plots
 675

of land, and where they returned every weekend. During the week, they lived in lodging houses,
in the old neighbourhoods of the city. This accounts for the high housing densities registered in
the central parishes of the city – Sé, S. Nicolau, Victoria and Miragaia – according to the first
census of population in 1864.
By 1881 just over one third of the population of Oporto was dependent on the industrial
sector; nine years later, in 1890, that proportion had risen to nearly half of the total population
of the city. Correspondingly, the years between 1864 and 1900 are a period of great increase of
population in the city, most of it due to immigration from the countryside. Throughout this
period the population in the central parishes of the city remained stable, and this new
population became established in the outer parishes of Bonfim, Campanhã, S. Ildefonso,
Cedofeita and Massarelos, where most ‘ilhas’ were built in this period. Thus, the housing of the
workers in the overcrowded buildings in the old neighbourhoods and in the ‘ilhas’ corresponded
not only to different periods of migration into the city but also to a different type of migrant;
people living in the ‘ilhas’ being a much more stable, family­ based population. The ‘ilhas’ soon
became the dominant type of workers:' housing in Oporto, and until the 1930's virtually the only
way in which new working-class housing was produced. By the end of the century it was
estimated that nearly one third of the population of the city – 168,000 inhabitants in 1900 –
lived in ‘ilhas’. According to a survey carried out in 1899 there were 1,048 ‘ilhas’ with 11,129
houses and lodging 50,000 people (Teixeira, 1994).
Therefore, the ‘ilhas’ arose as a consequence of the industrial development of Oporto in the
second half of the nineteenth century. That is evidenced by their dates of construction, after the
1860's, subsequently to the complete overcrowding of the old neighbourhoods, and coinciding
with a period of great immigration into the city, their predominant location near the main
industrial areas, and the social composition of their inhabitants, mainly workers.
The ‘ilhas’ were the result of a secondary process of urbanization, most times superimposed
on older middle-class urban developments. The stage of development that is specific of the
‘ilhas’ is their construction, since the division of land and urbanization of areas of the city where
‘ilhas’ were built had taken place years and decades before, when the areas concerned were
developed as middle-class neighbourhoods.
The ‘ilhas’ were built at the margin of Municipal by-laws concerning the building of
housing. These by-laws were applied only to the constructions that were built facing on to the
street; the ‘ilhas’, because they were built inside the blocks, escaped from their control. The
attitude of the Municipality would be characterized till the end of the nineteenth century by a
complete disregard concerning both its development and the serious problems that soon
surrounded the existence of ‘ilhas’. For the successive Municipal Administrations in nineteenth
century Oporto, the bourgeois city was the only existing reality. The ‘ilhas’ were regarded as
something exterior to that apparent reality, and therefore not considered or even mentioned in
the Municipal policies formulated by successive Administrations. It was only after the
epidemics of bubonic plague in 1899, which had its main focus in areas of ‘ilhas’ and
subsequently spread to other areas of the city, that the Municipality took the first legislative and
sanitary measures regarding working-class housing.
Built predominantly within the blocks of middle-class housing, these nuclei of working-class
housing do not participate in the surrounding urban structure. The only communication of the
‘ilhas’ with the street was through a narrow tunnel corridor under the middle-class house facing
on to the street. Quite often, the entry to this this corridor was concealed behind a door included
in the composition of the façade. In Oporto, the spatial segregation of working-class housing
was not made through their location in different areas of the city. With a few exceptions of
working-class wards in the Eastern part of the city, that segregation was made in terms of
exterior and interior of the blocks: on the exterior, middle-class housing facing on to the street,
the visible face of the city; on the interior, working-class housing built within the blocks, and
invisible from the street. This physical "invisibility" of workers’ housing had its translation, at
the institutional level, in the disregard of the Council towards the construction and the existence
of ‘ilhas’.
676

The development of ‘ilhas’ took place outside the usual circuits of property and building
promotion and by social classes other than those usually involved 1n such activities. The landed
bourgeoisie of Oporto, who controlled the urban development of the city in the nineteenth
century, was engaged essentially in land promotion for the middle-classes, and it did not invest
in the construction of working-class housing. The construction of ‘ilhas’ was the result of the
investment of small capitals on the part of the merchant petty bourgeoisie which had in the
‘ilhas’ a privileged field of investment for their small savings: a small initial investment and the
certainty, assured by the great demand for this type of housing, of the rapid amortization of the
capital invested and the obtainment of profits in a short time.
In this sense, the ‘ilhas’ are the result of processes originated in a subeconomy of small
capitals of commercial origin. The holding of land in Oporto was subdivided in a chain of
successive leasings, and the provision of housing for the workers was left to those further down
in the landholding hierarchy, to the lessees and sublessees of single plots of land. Working-class
housing in Oporto was characterized by its fragmented character. It was the result of multiple
small initiatives scattered all over the city, which found their formal expression in the ‘ilhas’.
The intense use of the land, the low building costs, and virtually no costs of infrastructures,
ensured the maximum profitability of the capital invested and made the construction of ‘ilhas’ a
field of investment open to small capitals.
Thus, the ‘ilhas’ were the result of marginal processes of housing promotion in the
nineteenth century, but they were also the result of processes of marginalization concerning
bourgeois housing areas in the city. In certain bourgeois areas of the city built in the first half of
the nineteenth century, the ageing of these neighbourhoods, the encroachment of industries or
working-class housing nearby, or the development of new bourgeois neighbourhoods in other
parts of the city, led to a decline in the demand for middle-class housing in such locations. This
process, which occurred in the second half of the nineteenth century corresponded to the
marginalization of such older bourgeois housing areas, and created favourable conditions for the
development of ‘ilhas’. In fact, ‘ilhas’ were built predominantly in former bourgeois housing
areas which, as a result of processes of functional transformation in the city, were marginalized
by the class that initially inhabited them.

Spatial conditions

One of the man characteristics of the ‘ilhas’ is their construction within the urban fabric built in
the late eighteenth century. This inward growth of the city, embodied by the ‘ilhas’ is one of the
most important aspects of the spatial development of Oporto in the nineteenth century.
In the late eighteenth century the Governors of Oporto planned and carried out a series of
public works aimed at the definition of the main lines of future development of the city. The
main objectives of the Almadas – father and son, Governors of the city from 1757 till 1804 –
were threefold: the construction of new residential areas for the rich merchant bourgeoisie
outside the medieval nucleus, the establishment of new and better communications between the
active business centre by the river and these new neighbourhoods, and the definition of new
lines of expansion for the city. Four major axes of development, which would support future
urban growth, were buil. Together with the transversals that connected them, they defined the
basic urban structure of the city beyond the old city walls.
The plans for these new urban developments, promoted by the "Junta de Obras Publicas",
included joint elevations, sometimes corresponding to long street fronts, to which building
promoters had to subject their own projects. Such plans were carefully designed taking into
account the existing irregular parcelling of the land, and the dimensions of the different lots. In
other cases, because land had been expropriated, the land parcelling was reorganized: its basis
was a land parcel 25 "palmos" (5.5 metres) wide and usually very long, up to 100 metres. This
narrow urban lot would be adopted in most new nineteenth century urban developments. In
 677

addition to the curtailment of infrastructures’ costs, this lot dimensions increased the number of
possible constructions in a given street front.
The individual lot became in the nineteenth century the fundamental unit in the development
of the city, giving free enterprise the greatest flexibility of intervention. Different parcels could
be developed separately, by different people and at different times, with different typological
characteristics, taking into account only the speculative interests of their owners and the market
conditions. The regularity of the urban lots was at the same time the consequence and the logic
pattern for the _capitalistic development of the city. Their regularity made all planning
operations extremely simple, thanks to the simple multiplication or division of costs, prices and
profits by the number of possible lots in a given piece of land. Land had become a commodity,
and the development of the city subjected to market laws. On the other hand, this lot width. had
a technical justification, based on the technology of construction at the time: this width
corresponded to the maximum span of a wooden beam supported on the load bearing walls built
at both extremes of the lot. The development of architectural models based on such dimensions,
which master builders learned to build and repeated all over the city, contributed to the
spreading of this urban typology.
The regular parcelling of urban land in lots with 5.5 or sometimes 6 metres of front width, or
their multiples for bigger buildings, had direct consequences on the development of the ‘ilhas’.
This parcelling of the land was at the origin of the typological characteristics of this form of
housing. In its simplest form, an ‘ilha’ consisted of rows of houses built along these narrow lots:
in a si.ngle row when built in a single lot, in or in two rows when built in two lots. From these,
other. more elaborate variants would evolve. Most times the ‘ilhas’ were built inside the blocks,
occupying the back-gardens of middle-class houses. ·In some other cases, the ‘ilhas’ would
occupy whole lots, coming up to the street.
The expectations of the Almadas as regards the urban growth of Oporto were not matched by
reality, and in between· the major axes of development built by the “Junta de Obras Públicas”,
large extensions of land remained empty till late in the nineteenth century. In·certain locations,
such areas were occupied by working-class housing. Sometimes superimposed on old rural
structures, the development of ‘ilhas’ gave these areas a predominant working-class character,
not mixed with middle-class housing developments. In such cases, although free from the
limitations of lot sizes, it was still the typologies of ‘ilhas’ that were adopted.
Most ‘·ilhas’ are located in an arch surrounding the old nucleus of the city within the
eighteenth century extensions of the city. Greater concentrations of ‘ilhas’ were built near the
main industrial areas: to the East, in Bonfim and Campanhâ; to the West, in the areas of Lordelo
and Massarelos; and to the North the nucleus of ‘ilhas’ of Bouça, Lapa, Leal and D. Joao IV. By
the end of the century it was estimated that nearly one third of the population of the city –
168,000 inhabitants in 1900 – lived in ‘ilhas’.

Stages of the process and social actors involved

The great development of private construction in the city took place since the middle of the
1870's, following an increase of Municipal works. The opening of new streets and. new building
fronts stimulated house building through private initiative. In the fourteen years between 1864
and 1878, 2,700 buildings were built or rebuilt in Oporto, according to plans approved by the
Council. Nevertheless, these 2,700 new construction were not enough to house the growth of
population registered in those years - 19,000 inhabitants from 1864 to 1878. Even considering
that those buildi.ngs might house 10,000 new inhabitants (which is an excessive number, since
40% of these works were extensions of existing buildings or reconstructions), there was still a
surplus of 9,000 inhabitants, whose only destiny was the overcrowding of existing houses, or
the ‘ilhas’. The construction of ‘ilhas’, given that they were not subjected to Municipal
approval, are not included in these numbers. On the other hand, the old and overcrowded
678

districts of the city registered in this period extremely low population - increases, and
consequently the housing of these 9,000 inhabitants had to be found in the ‘ilhas’.
The ‘ilhas’ began to be built in large numbers from the middle of the 1860’s onwards.
Between 1878 and 1890 the number of constructions in the city was about 4,700; to them
corresponded the housing of 19,000 inhabitants. Since the growth of population in Oporto in
this twelve year period was about 33,000 inhabitants, that means that 14,000 people were left
homeless. Also in this case, this population found their housing in the ‘ilhas’. Finally, between
1890 and 1900 the number of constructions municipally approved was 2,700. It is noticeable
here a decrease in the rhythm of construction, owed in a large extent to the grave financial crisis
that affected Portugal since 1891, with serious reflexes in the city of Oporto. To these 2,700
constructions corresponded the lodging of 11,000 people, leaving another 18 000 people without
accommodation, considering that between 1890 and 1900 the population of the city grew by
29,000 inhabitants. In short, from 1864 till 1900 about 41,000 new inhabitants in the city had to
find accommodation outside the houses that in this period were built with the Council approval.
We believe that most of these 41,000 people found housing in the ‘ilhas’, the construction of
which is not reported in Municipal statistics (Teixeira, 1996).
There was a sharp increaseinthe number of ‘ilhas’ after 1878. In the short 12-year period
between 1878 and 1890 about half of the houses in ‘ilhas’ were built, whereas their construction
declined after 1890. Nevertheless, the development of industry and the continuing immigration
into the city, although at a slower pace, continued to ensure a strong demand for working class
housing. The insufficient responses of the Municipality and the Government regarding the
construction of State sponsored worker’s housing, meant that, according- to a new survey
carried out in 1939, there were then in Oporto 1,152 ‘ilhas’ with 13,000 houses and 45,290
inhabitants (Teixeira, 1992).
Despite the growth of industrial production from 1835 onwards, the industrialists would
never become the dominant social class in the city. The merchant bourgeoisie was the dominant
social and economic class in the city. It was this class of property owners who were in control of
the development of the city throughout the nineteenth century. When not the owners of the land
in full ownership, they were the lessees of great estates.
This landed bourgeoisie was, by the middle of the century, mostly engaged in speculative
activities; besides the speculation on land, their investments were mostly in shareholding. In no
way did they constitute an entrepreneurial class. Theirs was a parasitic capitalism of rent
collection, usury and stock exchange speculation, mostly in government bonds and shares from
public works' companies backed by the State. Their names are never found related to any
industrial enterprise, and in the same way they would never assume the risk, or indeed the
trouble, of building for the workers.
Despite the great increases of population in the city in the second half of the century –
81,000 inhabitants between 1864 and 1900, nearly a 100 per cent increase – and the urgent need
to house such masses of people, the landed bourgeoisie who had in their hands the mechanisms
of development of the city did not answer this challenge and, with very few exceptions, did not
invest in building for the working classes. The reasons for this have to be found both in the
characteristics of this bourgeoisie, and in the structure of the industrial sector.
The low wages paid to the workers gave them access only to the most poor kind of housing.
The allocation of land and the provision of housing purposely built for the working classes
would raise the rents to levels not affordable by the workers. Therefore, it was not just a
question of the lack of enterprising capacity of the bourgeoisie involved in property
development, but also a problem of the industrial bourgeoisie, which had in the low wages paid
to the workers one of the main conditions for its survival.
Landed properties in Oporto were leased for three lives – the lessee, the spouse or the
husband, and one descendant – after which the lease was renewed and a new rent established.
The lessees, in turn, although subjected to conditions imposed by the original landowners, were
free to divide the leased property in lots and sublease these parcels, collecting rents that taken
together far exceeded the rent they paid to their lessor. The property in Oporto was thus
 679

subdivided in a chain of successive leasings, and its ownership hierarchically organized: the
direct landowners, the lessees, and the sublessees.
The lessees of individual plots of land in the city were for the most part middle-class people,
merchants, traders, shopkeepers, sometimes craftsmen, who rented those lots to build their own
houses. If one excepts the building of ‘ilhas’, most cases of building promotion were for owner
occupancy. Certain locations in the city were preferred by the upper middle-classes, while in
other locations the petty bourgeoisie and a certain working-class aristocracy of independent
artisans could be found mixed.
The reform of the civil code in 1697, transforming the renewing leases into perpetual leases,
gave rise to changes in the controlling mechanisms of this system, and the original landowners
progressively lost their control over their properties and their development. Because the rents
could not be increased, the depreciation of currency made old rents turn into insignificant
values, and the whole system collapsed. As a result of that, the actual property of the land
passed on to the tenants. This process would favour the development of ‘ilhas’.
With the exception of very rare situations, no ‘ilhas’ were located in any of the main streets
that were opened up in the city after 1865. In those areas of the city, which developed in the
1870's and the 1880's, the ownership of land was still concentrated in the hands of the land
promoter, who was able to impose conditions on the use of the land and prevent the building of
‘ilhas’, which would have given rise to a fall in property values. Also, the prices of land in these
new, fashionable streets were high, and therefore not compatible with the economics of
working-class housing.
On the contrary, in the areas of the city that had been built in the first half of the century, the
land had already been divided in numerous small lots and leased to different individuals. As the
years went by, the control by original landowners over the development of those areas had
become rather weak. Because of the changes introduced by the new civil code in 1867, that
control had become virtually inexistent at the time of great demand for working-class housing.
In these circumstances – property divided, with many landholders, lack of control over the use
of the land on the part of direct landowners, aged areas, depreciated by industrial developments
located in the vicinity, the development of new fashionable residential areas for the wealthy
bourgeoisie elsewhere in the city, and great demand for working-class housing – conditions
were created for the development of ‘ilhas’ in such older urban areas. Sometimes, these two
phases – middle-class house building and working-class house building – were separated by
years and decades; some other times, they were almost simultaneous, and the areas concerned
were never fully developed as middle-class housing areas.
The builders of ‘ilhas’ were many times the original owner-occupiers of middle-class houses,
who built ‘ilhas’ in their own back-garden. In other cases, the original occupier would move out,
and the property was sold to someone else with enough capital to build an ‘ilha’. Most builders
and owners of ‘ilhas’ were simple tradesmen or craftsmen to whom the "ilhas represented a safe
and profitable investment for their savings. The small scale of the enterprise, and the little
investment they represented, made the ''ilhas"- the object of the speculative activity of a large
sector of the middle-classes in nineteenth century Oporto. On the other hand, the profitability of
the investment was very. high; in certain ‘ilhas’, the annual rents collected from all the houses
represented 25% of the market value of the ‘ilha’, that is to·say, the capital invested in their"
construction would be fully amortized in four years' time. In most cases that period was about
ten years. As a result of that, men of higher financial means, not usually involved in the
construction of ‘ilhas’ started to promote working-class housing as well. They were successful
traders,·rich migrants returning from Brazil, and in some cases even a few landowners involved
themselves in the construction of ‘ilhas’. They would buy or lease plots of land and promote the
construction of ‘ilhas’, some of them becoming the owners of numerous ‘ilhas’ in different parts
of the city. In these cases, the ‘ilhas’ were generally bigger and had much better housing
standards than the average. Because of the higher investment necessary to build such ‘ilhas’
their pr6moters resorted to bank loans for their construction. However, either because of bad
management, or because the costs of building better quality working-class housing were
680

incompatible with the economic capacity of the workers and their ability to pay higher rents,
such enterprises generally ended in failure.

Location and morphologies of ‘ilhas’

Most ‘ilhas’ were located in the parishes of S. Ildefonso, Bonfim, Campanh , Paranhos and
Cedofeita, which surround the old nucleus of the city to the North and the East. Together, these
parishes accounted for 75% of the ‘ilhas’ in Oporto. The parishes of Massarelos, Lordelo and
Paranhos, to the West, had another 14% of the ‘ilhas’. These were the parishes that registered
bigger population increases between 1878 and 1890, when most ‘ilhas’ were built. Bonfim,
Campanha, S. Ildefonso, Cedofeita and Massarelos, alone, registered population increases in
this period of about 2/3 of the total growth of the city. The four parishes in the historical centre
of the city – Sé, Vitoria, S. Nicolau and Miragaia – accounted for only 7% of the ‘ilhas’. The
remaining 4% were located in the outermost parishes of Aldoar, Nevogilde and Foz, away from
the main industrial locations.
As regards their typologies, most ‘ilhas’ were built inside the blocks, either isolated or in
clusters. At the origin.of the typologies of ‘ilhas’ was the general adoption in nine- teenth
century urban developments of urban lots with a front width of 5.5 or 6 metres. The simplest
type of ‘ilha’ consisted of a row of small one-storey houses built side by side and all along one
of these parcels, which were sometimes up to 100 metres long. All the houses opened onto a
narrow corridor running all along them, with a width usually not exceeding 1.5 or 2 metres,
sometimes decreasing to just one metre, the strictly necessary to give way to the inhabitants. In
60% of the cases, these passageways had less than three metres of width. In other cases, the
‘ilha’ was built in two lots. Here, the houses were located on both sides of the parcel, opening to
a central path, common to both rows of houses. The joining of two lots allowed greater areas for
access corridors, sometimes up to 4 metres wide. In either of these cases, houses had only one
free frontage. Their rears were propped up against the enclosure wall of the lot or the backs of
another row of houses of the ‘ilha’ built on the neighbouring lot. Sometimes, when the ‘ilha’
was built on two parcels of land, the two rows of houses were built back-to-back in the middle
of the plot, leaving two lateral corridors for access.
These were the two basic typologies of ‘ilhas’, which were developed from the 6-metres
wide urban lot. The development of these typologies, and the related housing typologies, led to
their adoption to situations where those limitations of lot dimensions did not exist. They were
the most rational typological solutions in terms of intensive use of the land, curtailment of
construction costs, and consequently of economic efficiency. When working-class housing was
built on larger pieces of land, the most usual solution was still the construction of successive
rows of houses built back-to-back, using the typologies and dimensions of smaller ‘ilhas’.
‘Ilhas’ varied a lot in their sizes. Small ‘ilhas’, consisting of up to twenty houses, were the
majority in Oporto; sometimes they had as few as four or five houses. The biggest ‘ilhas’ could
have 100 or more houses, and because they represented bigger enterprises and higher
investments, they usually had better housing standards than most smaller ‘ilhas’.
The relation between the ‘ilha’· and the· street could take different forms. When there was a
middle-class house facing the street, and occupying the whole- front of the lot, the access to the
‘ilha’ built in the rear was made through a narrow tunnel corridor. Under this building. This
house looking on to the street was usually a bourgeois multi-storey house, sometimes the
dwelling of the owner of the ‘ilha’ himself. In other cases, the ‘ilha’ had a free communication
with. The street, through an open passageway next to the front building. This building did not
occupy the whole front of the lot, leaving a narrow passage, which in most cases did not exceed
one metre, for access to the ‘ilha’. The existence of this open passage means that the front house
and the ‘ilha’ were built at the same time.
The ‘ilha’ could also occupy a whole parcel of land, coming up to the street, without any
middle-class building in front of it. The most usual solution in these cases was the construction
 681

in two lots, with two rows of houses opening to a central path. The street frontage was made up
of a simple wall, in which a door to the ‘ilha’ was opened. Sometimes, later on, the first house
in the ‘ilha’ opened windows in this wall giving on to the street. In some more elaborate
examples the ‘ilha’ itself built a façade to the street: making the first houses face the street,
signaling its entry, or giving a name to the ‘ilha’, the last· phase of its affirmation as a
recognizable housing form.
As regards equipment and infrastructures, they were very poor. In most ‘ilhas’ there was no
sewage system or water supply. According to a survey of ‘ilhas’ carried out in 1933, at this late
date only 7% of the ‘ilhas’ were connected to the urban sewage system. All the others used
cesspools. This situation was certainly even worse in the nineteenth century, before the
construction, in 1905, of the new sewer system in the city. The lavatories were common to all
inhabitants of the ‘ilha’ According to that survey, there was on average one lavatory for every 5
houses or 25 inhabitants. Domiciliary supply of water, although established in the city in 1882,11
did not exist in the ‘ilhas’. Water was provided by public fountains or, in some cases, by a well,
but the nearby location of cesspools made the water unsuitable for consumption. Open spaces
were usually very small, in most cases reduced to the narrow access corridor to the houses.
Nevertheless, although rare, there were examples of ‘ilhas’ where there was room for a small
vegetable garden.
Concerning the typologies of houses, their areas rarely exceeded sixteen square metres,
decreasing in some cases to just nine square metres. In the most common type of such houses,
its front was 4 metres wide, with only one door and one window. Its depth was also 4 metres.
With just one storey and an area of 16 square metres, they consisted of a living room, a small
sleeping-room or alcove, and a kitchen. Their dimensions were the following: the living-room
4x2.5 metres; the alcove 2.5xl.5 metres; and the kitchen, against the back wall, 1.5xl.5 metres.
Houses with more than these three divisions were rare. Because the sleeping-room was very
small, the living-room was also used for sleeping. In some cases, a small room was improvised
in the attic, to which a narrow and steep staircase led. The ceiling of the houses was the bare
framework of the roof, external walls were generally made of stone, and the internal partitions
of wood. These partitions were not complete, because they did not reach the ceiling.
The houses were low, their high varying from two metres at their lowest point till 2.5 metres
at the ridge. As a result of that, sometimes the total volume of the house did not reach 30 cubic
metres. The situation worsened by the absence of cross ventilation. Also, the windows were
very small in relation to the space they were supposed to illuminate; because every house had
just one small window, in some cases illumination vas increased by means of glass tiles.
Construction was very poor and a few years after construction, in the damp climate of Oporto,
these houses were rapidly decaying.
Some ‘ilhas’, and houses in ‘ilhas’', had much better standards. In such cases internal streets
were wider, and communal spaces were provided, with tanks for washing. House areas in such
cases could be as large as 90 square metres. In most cases the houses were two-storey high, with
each dwelling occupying both storeys. Usually ‘ilhas’ with better standards were amongst the
biggest ‘ilhas’ in Oporto, with 100 to 150 houses, and their construction had been the initiative
of the owner of the land himself. However, these ‘ilhas’ were quite often economic failures for
their promoters, unable to pay the debts contracted for their construction. Sometimes, as a
means of reduci.ng house rents and making them accessible to most workers, the two-storey
houses were split up in two independent dwellings. The result was an increase of densities, and
a lowering of the initially better housing standards.

Conclusion

The low initial investment, and the perspective of easy and quick profits on the part of their
promoters, resulted in the construction of dwellings with extremely low housing standards,
which decayed rapidly. Throughout the years the ‘ilhas’ were subjected to a progressive decay.
682

On the other hand, the same conditions that gave origin to the development of ‘ilhas’ outside the
usual circuits of property development, and the usual social strata involved in such activities,
were on the basis of the persistence of this housing form in the twentieth century. The dynamics
of economic development of the city and the capitalistic mechanisms of transformation of the
city were never strong enough to absorb these obsolete land use forms, which became nodules
in the urban fabric, hindering its development and sometimes the application of planning
directives of the Council itself. From a non-entity in the nineteenth century, the ‘ilhas’ were,
from the early nineteenth century, regarded by the Municipality as a cancer that was necessary
to eradicate. Either way, the ‘ilhas’ were regarded as something external to the bourgeois idea of
the city.

References

Teixeira, M.C. (1992) “As estratégias de habitaç o em Portugal, 1880-1940” Análise Social 115, 65-89.
Teixeira, M.C. (1994) “A habitaç o popular no século XIX. Características morfológicas, a transmiss o
de modelos: as ilhas do Porto e os cortiços do Rio de Janeiro” Análise Social 127, 555-579.
Teixeira, M.C. (1996), Habitação Popular na Cidade Oitocentista. As Ilhas do Porto (Fundação Calouste
Gulbenkian, Junta Nacional de Investigação Científica e Tecnológica).
683
684
 685

Agents of Change

For much of the period of its existence as an identifiable field of academic study, urban
morphology has been criticised as being largely descriptive in its approach. This was
particularly the case in the formative phase of the 1960s and 1970s when urban
geography and social science generally were dominated by quantitative spatial analysis
and political economic (mainly Marxian) approaches respectively. Although there may
have been some substance to such criticisms they considerably underplay the necessary
groundwork in urban morphology that was being established at this time and reflect an
assumption that ‘process’ could only be uncovered through the measurement of specific
social and economic mechanisms. The priorities in urban morphology were different,
reflecting the need to establish a common framework for study including identifying a
taxonomy for the analysis of morphological change, the recognition of the key
components of urban morphology and methodologies for their examination. Building on
this underpinning, urban morphology has subsequently developed strongly in several
academic directions but, given the continuing societal, academic and practical interest in
change in the physical form of urban areas, much emphasis has been placed on the
agents of change. Initially, work focused on the roles played by the principal actors in
urban change, particularly land and property owners, politicians, architects, planners
and developers. In some ways, this has paralleled the interests of other urban scholars,
less concerned with physical form and more with the power relations and economic
influences of specific groups in determining outcomes. The ‘Agents of Change’ sessions
at the Porto ISUF 2014 Conference will undoubtedly continue to explore some of these
relationships, including the examination of the conflicts that inevitably arise between
such actors. However, a brief survey of recent literature indicates that the term ‘agents
of change’ has moved beyond the consideration of key actors, functioning as individuals
and/or groups, and also encompasses the role of institutions, transport infrastructure and
connectivity, demographic trends, religion, and street systems. Critics may consider the
inclusion of such phenomena to constitute too wide a definition, but their role as factors
and processes of urban transformation cannot be denied. The papers to be delivered in
the ‘Agents of Change’ sessions promise to explore the role of many of the above in
specific situations and stimulate debate on diverse aspects of their operation. Whilst
listening to the detailed content of presentations however, it may be useful to reflect on
the applicability of specific studies to broader themes and conceptual frameworks.
Three such themes will be briefly mentioned here – scale, comparability and the
morphological components being studies. The scale of study is vital in its interpretation
if only because conclusions drawn at one scale may be considerably less (or possibly
more) applicable at a different scale. In any search for concepts of universal
applicability it is important to remember the difference that scale makes to empirical
reality and theoretical interpretation. Second, comparability of experience, cultures,
political systems and many other dimensions remains an important dimension of
morphological study and can stimulate some of the most intriguing work. Despite the
pressure of globalisation, the question of what sort of processes operate in different
cultural milieu remains an extremely important one. Finally, we need to be very clear
686

which specific morphological components we are discussing and debating, not least
because different components change at a very different rate and are themselves subject
to rather different processes.

Michael Barke
 687

Influences of housing municipal policy in slum urban form:

the case of Heliopolis (São Paulo, Brazil)

Denise Antonucci1, Guilherme Filocomo2

1
Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie, Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo
Rua da Consolação, 896 – Prédio 9, CEP 01229-010 – São Paulo, Brasil
2
Rua Tenente Coronel José J. Correia de Arruda, 393, CEP 02832-000 – São Paulo, Brasil
E-mails: [email protected], [email protected].

Abstract. This article aims at understanding the possible influences of public policies on the urban form
of fragile and precarious settlements in the city of São Paulo. While establishing the physical, temporal
and thematic limits of this study, we chose to analyze housing policies which have been elaborated for the
precarious settlement of Heliopolis from 1989 to 2012.Firstly, the paper presents theoretical studies of
the housing policy management developed in the chosen period, the founding and building of the slum
area, and the main interventions made by the municipal government in the area selected for analysis.
Secondly, in the pursuit of comprehending how the different policy guidelines have influenced in
Heliopolis, we present an analysis of the Residencial Silvio Bacarelli housing development, a hybrid
space created under the influence of different city administrations with distinct guidelines.

Key Words: Urban morphology, housing policy management, precarious settlement, Heliopolis, analysis
of architectural and urban projects

Introduction

Scholars of Urban Morphology analyze the evolution of cities from their fundamental
principles, considering their constant transformations and identifying their numerous
constitutive elements. A city is the accumulation and integration of several individual and
collective actions, brought about by cultural traditions and social, political and economic ties
over the years. Morphological analyses focus on the tangible results of social-economic actions,
by studying the consequences of ideas and intentions on the mutation of urban areas (Antonucci,
2011).
Under this point of view, the research aims at implementing a specific study on the influence
of public housing policy management on architectural and urban projects for precarious
settlements in the city of São Paulo.
While setting the geographical location and time period for study, the research was delimited
to study the influence of different housing policy managements on architectural and urban
projects developed for Heliopolis, the second biggest slum area in the city, from the end of the
military dictatorship77 to today.
Firstly, through a review of the literature, will be outlined the evolution of housing policy
management in São Paulo. Considering the aforementioned time period, we will approach the
following city administrations: Erundina (1989-92), Maluf (1993-96), Pitta (1997-00), Suplicy
(2001-04), Serra (2005-06) and Kassab (2007-12) and present the main housing policy
guidelines of each administration.
Secondly, will be outlined the history of Heliopolis. At this stage of the paper, will be
recapitulated how the urban fabric of the slum area was formed and how it has changed since its
foundation in 1971. Next, a short report of the main constructions proposed by each
administration will be presented, complementing the historical analysis and directing it to the
paper’s topic.

77
The military regime began on April 1st, 1964 and ended on March 15th, 1985.
688

Finally, after the literature review and interview of a São Paulo city servant, will be
presented the case study of the housing development on Land H, which was designed by
architect Hector Vigliecca and team and suffered influences from two quite distinct housing
policies. This is why this housing development was selected for this article.
This article aims to explain how distinct, but clear and well-defined, political guidelines can
interfere in different ways in the urban form of a single precarious settlement: Heliopolis.

Theoretical study

In this first part of the paper, this research will be started with the theoretical study with a
review of the bibliography. Initially, there will be a brief history of housing policy management
in the military government during the Brazilian dictatorship and in the different São Paulo city
governments after the reestablishment of democracy. Secondly, will be presented the study on
the formation of Heliopolis and the public interventions in the area.

Housing policy management

Historically, housing policy management has been redefined at every change of city
administration, which leads to each policy being distinct. The city housing policy guidelines,
always influenced by the political foundations which elected each specific administration,
underwent transformations and prioritized different objectives, giving way to architectural
projects with quite distinct urban characteristics from one another.
Below, there is a review of the housing policy which guided the actions of the military
government all over the country, and the municipal policies developed in São Paulo, in the
democratic period, when society reconquered the right to direct vote.

Military dictatorship (1964-1985)

From 1932 to 1964, a successful “housing policy” was developed in several states around the
country by the IAP´s (Institutos de Aposentadorias e Pensões - Institutes for Retirement and
Pensions). This phase was marked by the construction of housing developments with
internationally acclaimed, high quality, modern architecture.
Between 1964 and 1985, during the Military Dictatorship, housing projects built by public
organs and were financially managed by SFH (Sistema Financeiro da Habitação - Financial
Housing System) / BNH (Banco Nacional de Habitação - National Housing Bank) (Antonucci,
2009). Although they were originally built for the low income population, these institutions
significantly financed these homes to the middle and high class population. SFH/BNH were
effective agents for raising dynamism in the national economy, especially in the housing
market, leaving the goal of overcoming the housing deficit only in discourse.
This production was guided by a housing policy that valued the centralization of power,
devalued the environment and cultural heritage and prioritized services to the higher income
population in order to avoid so-called ‘non repayable’ investment (Bonduki, 2000). This posture
gave way to the building of housing developments focused on production and capital investment
and not on the quality of the units, neither serving the low income population (Bonduki, 2000).
“The housing developments financed by BNH are characterized mostly by their monotonous
architecture; absence of connection with the surroundings; locations far from the city center,
which extend the city horizontally; their lack of concern with the quality of the projects and
physical space, resulting in environmental damage; the negation of the processes of community
participation […]” (Bonduki, 2000: 21).
Sistema Financeiro da Habitação went into crisis after the end of the military dictatorship
and the extinction of Banco Nacional de Habitação in 1986 ended the production cycle of social
interest housing developments.
 689

The Luiza Erundina Administration (1989-1992)

In 1988, with the São Paulo city elections – a few years after the end of the military regime –
Luiza Erundina was elected mayor with wide support of the population and the promise to take
charge of housing policy management as flagship of her government.
That administration reformed the housing policy, defining new guidelines for projects:
decentralized management with emphasis in local power associated to institutions of people’s
participation, implementation of urban projects to revitalize decadent areas and housing projects
in already urbanized areas, self-run collectives and right to land for all.
According to Bonduki (2010), the proposals of that administration were of experimental
nature, therefore, they would seek a specific solution for each and every housing problem in the
city. There was hope that that experiment would offer references for the formulation of future
housing policy management cross-country.
Based on this ideal, they developed projects aiming at the quality of the housing unit with
projected and built public space. The space was thought of in public dimensions, beyond the
private sphere and with a focus on the low income population (Bonduki, 2008).

The Paulo Maluf Administration (1993-1996)/Celso Pitta Administration (1997-2000)

After the Erundina administration, there was a pause to the programs that had been created until
then, and in their place, the housing project PROVER, known as ‘Cingapura’, was implemented
by the Paulo Maluf administration (1993-1996). This project was characterized by sporadic
constructions and low architectural quality and was continued in the Celso Pitta administration
(1997-2000), serving mostly for political propaganda in (Antonucci & Filocomo, 2012).

The Marta Suplicy Administration (2001-2004)

In Suplicy’s first year in office, the federal Statute of the City (Law 10 257/2001) was approved
in congress. In principle, this law implements the pursuit of social justice in the entire country,
and, in order to reach that target, a number of urban planning tools were created to help
municipal administrations in the development of urban policies.
The Suplicy administration adopted the concept of the then-recently approved federal
legislation to create the first PMH (Plano Municipal de Habitação - Municipal Housing Plan) in
the city of S o Paulo, which ended in 2012, the year Kassab’s administration developed the
second PMH (Barda and França, 2011). The main objective of Suplicy’s PMH was to create
great fields of action in the city of São Paulo, which were to stimulate social and spatial
inclusion of the low income population in the most valuable areas in the city (fonts, 2005:86).
The Plano Municipal de Habitação also established the guiding principles of the Suplicy
housing policy, which were: the creation of the Municipal Housing Council (CMH) – a team of
representatives of the government, civil society and members elected by citizens. They would
evaluate the projects in development, the administrative modernization of the municipal organs
and the search for partnerships to finance public interventions (Fontes, 2005:87).
They also developed a consistent plan of action in slum areas, squatter settlements and
improvements in the housing developments built for the low income population in previous
administrations. All of the projects developed by this administration strived at maintaining the
families in the areas they already inhabited.

The José Serra administration (2005-2006) / Gilberto Kassab Administration (2006-2008 /

2009-2012)

According to França (2012), as a work objective, the focus of the housing policy of
Serra/Kassab was to comprehend the relation between the city and precarious settlements. As a
690

result of this work guideline, they developed housing projects which aimed at, for example,
solving urban problems which surpassed the limits of slum areas. The most successful programs
were the urbanization of Cantinho do Céu, on the banks of the Billings reservoir (Antonucci and
Filocomo, 2013), and the Renova SP program, which created work perimeters of approximately
4 million meters squared (Barda and França, 2011).
In addition to these large scale projects, they produced housing developments following urban
guidelines, but which were developed as architectural projects. This is the case with the projects
developed for the Heliopolis slum area.

Human settlement: Heliopolis

Currently, with its 41,118 people (IBGE, 2014) and 986,222 meters squared (Fontes, 2005: 53),
Heliopolis is the second most populated precarious settlement in the city of São Paulo. Its
foundation was quite peculiar: it was the result of an unsuccessful housing policy. Its
development, similar to other cases in São Paulo, was the result of the rising search for lands by
the low income citizens. In this case, it was a large plot of land near the city center, therefore
well-attended by the urban infrastructure network.

History of the occupied area

The first ownership record of the area known as Heliopolis today appoints the Countess Álvares
de Penteado as proprietor. In 1923, the city hall opened a protocol to subdivide and urbanize
the area. This project was not implemented (Sampaio, 1991).
On April 23rd, 1942, the land was disowned by the Institute of Retirement and Pension of
Industrial Workers (IAPI) in order to build housing units for its members, a common practice of
the retirement and pension institutes (IAP´s) of the day. 36 houses, from 141 to 697 meters
squared were built (Albuquerque, 2006: 186).
In 1966, the retirement and pension institutes merged and the National Social Pension
Institute (INPS) was created. As a consequence, the land became INPS property. During this
period, approximately 423,000 meters squared were subdivided and sold to PERTOBRAS, the
energy company of Brasil (Albuquerque, 2006:186). Nowadays, part of the area is still occupied
by PETROBRAS.
Another part of the land was dismembered in 1969 by the governments in power to
implement two public health units: The Heliopolis Hospital and a Basic Medical Center (PAM).
The second unit has regional importance.
During the decade of 1960 and 1970, it was common for city and state governments to create
temporary shelters for low income families removed from areas receiving public intervention –
mostly for street and road building. In 1971, 150 families were removed from a public area, in
Vila Prudente, neighborhood of São Paulo, in order to build an overpass. These families were
sheltered in the Heliopolis area.
In 1978, more than 60 families were removed from Vergueiro, a neighborhood of São Paulo,
for the construction of a new road for the city. A total of 210 families were relocated to
temporary shelters in the INPS land (Albuquerque, 2006: 186). This area, a specific point in the
land, can be seen in this aerial photograph made available by Fontes (2005).
With this new architectural intervention by the government, there was massive mobilization
to occupy the remaining space in 1977. The dwellers of these shelters, workers of the Heliopolis
Hospital and PAM, bought the areas from the “invaders”, who subdivided the area and sold
plots illegally, forging landownership documents. This illegal activity encouraged the
occupation of the area in record speed, and due to this, the temporary shelters were treated as
permanent interventions.
A new subdivision of the land took place in 1978, when part of the INPS property was sold
to the São Paulo state sewage company (SABESP). The land was acquired by the Company so
that equipment could be installed for the structure of the Construction Program for Sewage and
 691

Water Pollution Control of the Metropolitan Area of São Paulo (SANEGRAN) (Albuquerque,
2006: 187). This area is still occupied by the company.
It is important to mention that both PETROBRAS and SABESP had bought land from a
dismembered area and built low density occupations with low urban quality in comparison with
their surroundings. These areas can be considered urban barriers, thanks to the large dimensions
of the properties and their lack of use.
In 1980, INPS takes legal action for a repossession suit in the occupied area, mainly due to
the action of “grileiros” – a typical and common type of invaders land in Brazil that sell
counterfeit land lots propriety for other people. The plea was granted in 1983. In 1984, the land
was sold to the National Housing Bank (BNH). However, with the bankruptcy of the Housing
Financing System (SFH) and the extinction of BNH, landownership was transferred to the
Housing Company of São Paulo (COHAB-SP) in 1987. At this moment, the sum of the land
area of Heliopolis reached approximately 950,000 meters squared (Albuquerque, 2006: 187).
Due to a series of irregularities (occupations linked to irregular subdivisions since the 1970s;
consolidation of temporary shelters; population of workers of industries located on the margins
of Anchieta road and Juntas Provisórias Avenue; migrations to be close to family and friends),
in 1986, Heliopolis clearly shows urban characteristics which would reflect on the development
of the area. Among other characteristics were irregular urban network, small lands with no
regularization, small empty spaces, low quality housing units (especially in precarious brick
and/or wood constructions) and the inexistence or precariousness of infrastructure (Luz, 2010:
03). These characteristics can be clearly observed in an aerial photograph from 1986 (Fontes,
2005: 75).
At that time, there were about 20,000 inhabitants organized in approximately 4,700 housing
units, of which 51% were wooden and 49% precarious brick constructions (Fontes, 2005: 56).
This initial precarious structuring of the area did not impede further population of the
settlement, which continues to grow until today. However, from the 1980s on, urban
development of the area has been mainly influenced by direct public action.

Figure 1. Heliópolis (Map by authors).

History of public policies for the area

Although this research concentrates on the study of post-dictatorship housing policy

management, public policies for the Heliopolis slum area began in the Barros administration
(1979-1982). Therefore, will be briefly described the public interventions from the end of the
692

dictatorship: Reynaldo de Barros (1979-1982), Mario Covas (1983-1985) and Janio Quadros
(1986-1988). In sequence, will be listed the main public interventions of the period in question,
which spans from 1989 to 2012.
During the Barros administration (1979-1982), after years of struggle, the Heliopolis
residents’ association were granted service from PRO-AGUA and PRO-LUZ, water and energy
programs of PROMORAR, the São Paulo city housing program. These policies aimed at
improving and/or implanting the public infrastructure network in slum areas. In this case, water
and energy supply was taken to parts of Heliopolis and both were financed by BNH (Fontes,
2005: 68).
In Mario Covas’ administration (1983-1985), there were few, inefficient public programs for
the area. Amongst those were two failed attempts at creating the Housing Plan of Heliopolis and
an attempt at hiring a social assistance team for the area, who were eventually removed due to
alleged lack of work conditions (Fontes, 2005: 68).
Between 1986 and 1988, during the Janio Quadros administration, 276 “embrionary housing
units” were built by contractors. They were basic residential units which previewed the
possibility of inhabitants themselves expanding their units. The units were 24 meters squared
each, located in 74 meters squared lands.
In addition, 43 vertical units were built with 16 apartments each, with a total of 688 housing
units, attending the population with income above 10 minimum wages. At the end of the term,
more than 1176 units started being built by collective action. However, due to litigation from
the residents’ association, only 318 units were delivered (Fontes, 2005: 73).
During Luiza Erundina’s administration (1989-1992) in the democratic period, the first
urban plan was implemented in the area: the Global Plan of Interventions in Heliopolis (Plano
Global de Intervenções em Heliopolis). The strongest guideline of the program was to keep the
families which lived in the area there during project execution. However, if a housing unit had
to be removed due to precariousness, risk or infrastructure building, the families affected were
relocated to another area of Heliopolis.
In that moment, 178 vertical units started to be built by contractors and 130 units were built
by organized collective action. Of 308 units, only 120 were finished. Other constructions paused
during the following Maluf and Pitta administrations (Fontes, 2005: 76).
During Maluf’s (1993-1996) and Pitta’s (1997-2000) administrations, vertical and
standardized housing units known as “Singapura” were built in Heliopolis, as well as in other
areas of the city. This program was called PROVER and it delivered 344 housing units in
Heliopolis in 1998 (Fontes, 2005: 79).
In Suplicy’s administration (2001-2004), 430 vertical housing units were built by
contractors. 344 more were in construction, but had been sold before the end of the term. Her
administration invested the most in the urbanization of Heliopolis, by attending 14,588 families
and 75% of the total area. The urbanization project implemented water and sewage networks,
paved the consolidated urban areas and created leisure and green areas (Fontes, 2005: 83).
In the Serra (2005-2006) and Kassab (2006-2008/2009-2010) administrations, Heliopolis, as
well as Paraisopolis, São Francisco and Jaguaré, were considered areas of particular importance
due to being the four largest precarious settlements in the city of São Paulo.
The governments sought to develop projects that enabled implementing an infrastructure
network in the neighborhoods (water supply, sewage collection and public drainage networks),
the removal of families from areas in risk, the construction of new housing units to attend the
housing deficit of the area, street pavement and construction of public equipment (França, 2012:
35).
By the end of the term, 100% of the families living in these four slum areas had been
attended with water supply and 80% with sewage collection through the official network. In
addition, 15,843 families had obtained official ownership of the units they inhabited in
Heliopolis and, in addition, 3,442 new units were distributed among lands A, H, K, SABESP, N,
Rocinha and G (França, 2012: 34, 103). It is important to note that not all units were
inaugurated during Kassab’s term.
 693

Analysis of the influence of housing policy management on the urban space

The study of the relation between society and urban space has been discussed and proven by
different researchers in the area of urban morphology. We can briefly cite names, such as
Manuel Castells, David Harvey and Henri Lefebvre, who have contributed to this area.
In the same manner, we can affirm that the creation of urban form is the product of human
action and the process of transforming space and its results comes from the political, social,
economic and cultural actions of each community (Antonucci, 2005).
However, in 2001, Whitehand criticized urban micromorphology in the sense that it “has not
been widely investigated” (Chen, 2012: 135). And, based on Chen’s conclusion, we can affirm
that this detailed study of the production of this urban space clearly points out the political,
economic, social and cultural influences on urban space in general. The Brazilian studies which
have been published lean towards this theory (Antonucci & Filocomo, 2012).
Based on this information, will be presented the case study on Heliopolis below. This phase
of the research aims to identify the relations between urban policies and urban space production,
represented by the construction of housing units for the low income population by the municipal
government.

Selection of the analyzed project

Considering the limitations of one paper, was defined, for this publication, select only one
housing development to present. Therefore, we defined a methodology which would gather the
main architectural projects developed for Heliopolis during the established period.
The Angélil and Hehl’s work (2012) was choose as an initial reference for the selection
because of their list with 14 finished or unfinished constructions for the precarious settlement in
question. In this work it’s possible to find some of the most important projects for the area.
The production was organized by the authors as followed:
After analyzing the available material, we selected the land H housing development designed
by the architect Hector Vigliecca and team, due to it being the only one to receive direct
influence from completely different housing policy managements, therefore better to exemplify
the possible political influences on the urban form.

Land housing development (2013)

Based on the images provided by Vigliecca and Associates’ office, made available by
Arcoweb (ARCOWEB, 2014), and information from the São Paulo city hall and architect
Marcelo Rebelo78, we can recapitulate a brief history of the land H housing development area,
making a morphologic analysis of the space and considering the political, social and economic
influences.
The first public intervention in the area was during the Maluf and Pitta administrations, when
they decided to provide social interest housing units on land H, Heliopolis. For this, they
elaborated and executed the projects in the lines of PROVER (Singapura), idealized by the
abovementioned administrations.
When the construction of the Singapura housing development began, there was a fire that
destroyed the unfinished towers, and the work was interrupted. At the time, 5 towers had been
built and were receiving finishing touches, while the foundations for the rest of the buildings

78
Interviewed in the beginning of 2014.
694

were in progress. The PROVER development was not resumed. From then, there were
unplanned interventions, detached from surroundings and with low architectural quality.

Table 1. List of construction

City
Period Housing Developments Built Notes
Administration
1989-
Erundina
1992 Development 113 (Land K)
1993- Cingapura / PROVER (Land L1)
Maluf + Pitta
2000 COHAB (Land L2)
2001-
Suplicy
2004 PROVER (Land A) start: Pitta administration
Development 0 (Land A)
Development 1 (Land A)
Development Ceratti (Land N)
2005- Pocket II (Land A)
Serra + Kassab
2012 Development D and E (Land N)
Development 4 and 5 (Land A)
Edifício Comandante Taylor (Land K2)
SABESP 1 (Land K1)
2013- Land H start: Kassab administration
Haddad
2016 Land G start: Kassab administration

The combination of housing deficit, high expansion potential in slum areas, completely
dissociated and already deteriorated urban space and available space for construction
encouraged irregular occupation of the empty space left by the unfinished PROVER
development (a characteristic of the housing projects from the Maluf and Pitta administrations
1993-2000).
This irregular occupation consolidated and lingered in the area for about a decade. During
this time, the homes produced by the residents of the slum went from ground constructions to
precarious buildings of up to six floors, built in brick.
In 2009, during Kassab’s administration, there was a new project for the land H housing
development, named Residencial Silvio Bacarelli, which was developed by the Vigliecca and
Associates office. The project was finalized in 2012. During this process, the irregular housing
units built on the land were removed and construction began.
The project developed by the architect Hector Vigliecca and team sought to preserve the
almost finalized structures from the PROVER program and, in the remaining area of the land,
they created buildings attached to the pre-existing 5-floor structures.
The design of the buildings, besides having more harmonious dimensions with the
surroundings, created six small leisure areas, a big square – where there is a multi-sports court,
lanes connecting every block and three streets accessing the development, solving drainage,
water supply and sewage collection problems.
The area of the unfinished towers was recovered and finalized, completing the 200 50 meter-
squared apartments.
Construction finished in 2013 and, according to the source, the project was capable of
relocating all families initially removed for the Singapura project.
 695

Figure 2. Residencial Silvio Bacarelli before last intervetion - Photo by Vigliecca e

arquitetos associados.

Figure 3. Residencial Silvio Bacarelli nowadays - Photo by Vigliecca e arquitetos

associados

Final thoughts

After studying the documents about the political decisions made in different historical contexts,
it was clear how the preoccupations of each government were distinct as to the quality of the
architecture and urbanism of the produced housing developments, as well as to their
preoccupation in improving the housing deficit in the city (Antonucci and Filocomo, 2012) and
implementing infrastructure in precarious areas.
The interventions in Heliopolis dating back from 1979, still in the dictatorship, denounce the
distinct interests of each administration regarding housing policy management. We believe that
this interpretation is made possible because the precarious settlement in question is today the
second largest slum of São Paulo in population, therefore being frequently chosen by the
different administrations for housing policy experiments and consolidating concepts of
intervention.
In the case of the Residencial Silvio Bacarelli development, on land H, we can observe how
clear guidelines can lead either to creating quality urban spaces which correspond to the area’s
social demands, as seen in the Vigliecca and team project, or to producing spaces with no urban
relation with surroundings, such as PROVER, which was implemented in other areas of São
Paulo as well.
696

It is clear, however, that the city’s housing policy management influenced the urban form of
the precarious settlements of the municipality and that is why guidelines must be created
compatible with the reality of each area of the city, so that the idea of urban space production
through political action in precarious areas is compatible with the aspirations, the history and
the culture of the population.

References

Albuquerque, M. J. (2006) Verticalização de favelas em São Paulo: Balanço de uma experiência (1989 a
2004), PhD thesis, Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo, Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil.
Angélil, M. and Hehl, R. (2012) Building Brazil! The proactive urban renewal of informal settlements
(Ruby Press Berlin, Berlin).
Antonucci, D. (2009) A produção estatal da moradia em São Paulo,
(http://www.unimoron.edu.ar/CLEFA/Contenido/Ponencias/Expuestas/denise%20antonucci%202.pdf),
accessed may 2010.
Antonucci, D. (2005) ‘Morfologia urbana e legislaç o urbanística: estudo de setores de bairros da cidade
de S o Paulo no período de 1972/2002’, PhD thesis, Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo,
Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil.
Antonucci, D. (2011) ‘Santa Cecília: Formaç o e transformaç o’, published in XIV SAL – Seminário
Arquitetura Latino Americano (UNICAMP, Campinas).
Antonucci, D. and Filocomo, G. (2012) ‘Design and occupancy of public spaces in social housing (São
Paulo, Brasil) - As the guidelines of housing policy of the mayor Luiza Erundina influenced the design
of public spaces in the social interest housing (1989-92) and its appropriation’, published in 19st
International Seminar of Urban Form – ISUF. Delft: ISUF.
Antonucci, D. and Filocomo, G. (2013) ‘Análise morfológica: Cantinho do Céu’, unpublished paper,
Brazil.
Arcoweb (2014) Vigliecca & Associados: Residencial Sílvio Baccarelli, São Paulo
(http://arcoweb.com.br/noticias/arquitetura/vigliecca--associados-residencial-silvio-baccarelli-sao-
paulo). Accessed April 2014.
Barda, M. and França, E. (2011) Renova SP - Concurso de projetos de arquitetura e urbanismo. São
Paulo: HABI - Superintendência de Habitação Popular.
Bonduki, N. (2000) Habitar São Paulo: reflexões sobre a gestão urbana (Estação Liberdade, São Paulo).
Bonduki, N. (2008) A arquitetura como arte social, published in 5° Semana Viver Metrópole. São Paulo:
Faculdade de arquitetura e urbanismo Mackenzie + DAFAM.
Bonduki, N. (2010) Política habitacional e possibilidades de atuação do arquiteto. São Paulo: Curso
Práticas e projeto – Programa pós-graduação Escola da Cidade.
Bruna, G. C. and FONTES, M. C. L. P. (2014) ‘A intervenç o do poder público nos projetos de habitaç o
de interesse social’ ( http://www.redalyc.org/articulo.oa?id=81015222012), accessed January 2014.
Chen, F. (2012) ‘Interpreting urban micromorphology in China: case studies from Suzhou’, Urban
Morphology.
Fontes, M. C. L. P. (2005) Produção habitacional de interesse social no munícipio de São Paulo. Estudo
de caso: Gleba N de Heliópolis, Master thesis, Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo – Universidade
Presbiteriana Mackenzie, São Paulo, Brazil.
França, E. (2012) ´Plano Municipal de Habitação, uma construção coletiva´ in Política Municipal de
Habitação. Uma construção coletiva, (HABI - Superintendência de Habitação Popular, São Paulo).
Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística (IBGE) (2010) Censo demográfico 2010
(http://www.ibge.gov.br/home/estatistica/populacao/censo2010/default.shtm.). Accessed April 2014.
Krähenbühl, L. A. S. (1996) Singapura, o encontro de São Paulo com a cidadania (Bix Design
Corporativo Editora, São Paulo).
Luz, F. C. (2010) ‘O programa de urbanizaç o de favelas da prefeitura de S o Paulo – um estudo de caso
da favela de Heliópolis’ (http://www.ige.unicamp.br/cact/semana2010). accessed February 2014.
Sampaio, M. R. A. (1991) Heliópolis: O percurso de uma invasão, Livre docência thesis, Faculdade de
Arquitetura e Urbanismo – Universidade de São Paulo, Brazil.
 697

The auto representative image as an agent of legitimation and

incorporation of urban setllements in the city of Rio de
Janeiro

Carolina de Hollanda
Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Brasi. Bauhaus Universität-Weimar, Germany.
Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst /DAAD; Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal
de Nível Superior/CAPES, Washingtonstr. 44, 99423, Weimar, DE.
E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract. Social Housing is a highly sensitive social issue in Brazil, where there is an urgent need to
develop strong building policies for large conurbations. With the objective of guaranteeing more security
and access to dignified housing, was established the society’s engagement and the practice of new
strategies that enable a bigger commitment with the elaborated proposals. In this sense, independent
initiatives that intend to form photographers in slums are accomplishing a bigger visibility in Rio de
Janeiro and this pedagogical work represents a new dialogue with the inhabitants of informal areas. The
inhabitants can contribute in an effective way to a housing and urban proposal more suitable to their
aspirations. The image decharacterization language assumes here the guiding role of the research in the
inclusionary housing, contributing to help to solve housing issues, pointed with the documentary look.
The research attempts to investigate how such images can contribute to the development and evaluation
of inclusive practices of public policies in Social Housing and how they may benefit from the community’s
perception of their own environment. In the interaction between dwellers and local photographers, the
community can convey their aspirations more effectively and closely related to their local realities.

Key Words: auto representative image, inclusionary housing, urban planning, housing planning, urban
settlements.

Introduction

This Project originated from the author’s reflections after working with “Instituto de Terras e
Cartografia do Estado do Rio de Janeiro/ITERJ” (Land and Cartography Institute of Rio de
Janeiro State)79, and during the preparation of the thesis “Salubridade na Moradia Popular em
Assentamentos Rurais no Estado do Rio de Janeiro: uma análise a partir do Mutirão Campo
Alegre” (Salubriousness of Social Housing in Rural Settlements in the State of Rio de Janeiro:
Analysis of the Campo Alegre Cooperative) for a Master’s degree80.
In both latter instances, photography was a crucial instrument for recording research in the
field and vital in the subsequent analysis of the buildings environment. In the case of ITERJ,
photography was vital to evaluate the transformation of the settlement following legalization of
the properties and lands where they were built. As for the thesis, photography was invaluable to
evaluate the physical conditions of buildings within Campo Alegre, undertaken with methods
developed by the “Rede Brasileira de Habitação Saudável RBHSQ/Fiocruz” (Brazilian
Network of Healthy Housing).
79
In the period 2003-2006 with the assistance of “Fundação Carlos Chagas Filho de Amparo à Pesquisa
do Estado do Rio de Janeiro/FAPERJ”, the work aimed at mapping the housing and infrastructure
conditions of three settlements regularized (legalized) by ITERJ in the metropolitan area of Rio de
Janeiro.
80
The focus was to investigate a cause-effect relationship between housing and health conditions as well
as their influence in the development of the Campo Alegre settlement.
3
The photographic materials enabled the development of a dialogue between different disciplines within
the RBHS/FIOCRUZ research center.
698

As one evaluated the extensive photographic material from the two projects, the question
arose as to whether the importance of photography should be investigated beyond its role as
supporting instrument during scientific investigations. After all, the multitude of images
illustrated clearly the subject matter and, more importantly, those images triggered new lines of
questioning.
Local “people’s photographers” are becoming commonplace in Rio de Janeiro, where some
projects in slum areas encourage locally resident photographers to create their own images to
represent the interests and aspirations of their communities. This development enabled a healthy
dialogue within the communities in addition to creating opportunities in the jobs market. Such
documental images provide, above all, a educational and professional perspective from those
who live in these places, thus representing their reality.
In any case, images also reveal conflict areas in the language used by interested parties
regarding the city and social housing. Thus, the reach of Photography in the interpretation of
buildings, housing and urban areas in the modern city constitute the focus of this project.

Multi-disciplinarity: photography, architecture, urbanism and visual language working

together

Bearing in mind the author’s dual professional expertise – Urbanism and Photography – the
intention of the current research is to focus on the dialogue between these two different
disciplines. As will be seen, architecture, urbanism, photography as well as some other areas of
visual anthropology will be explored together in the search for common grounds within the
topic. From Morin (2010), we learned the importance of “inter- poly-trans-disciplinarity” in
scientific research. The sum of human knowledge generates a global perspective - inter- and
trans-disciplinary - research that releases one to trade and cooperate freely: “intellectually,
disciplines are fully justifiable, since they remain a field of view that recognizes and conceives
the existence of links and solidarities. Plus, they will only be fully justifiable if not hiding global
realities” (Morin, 2010:113). In this sense, this study proposes to go beyond the boundaries
limitations of any one discipline.
Expanding on the relationship between places and cartography, Seeman (2012) reminds us
that the written description of places in maps is heavily influenced by whoever writes the piece.
Thus, there is a dialogue between scientific and the human tradition in cartography. The
winning proposal narrows the scope of the two opposing views: one that fits between the
standardized tests and questionnaires, in order to give a scientifically accurate (quantitative
research) and one that requires more open, flexible, or as the author calls "the most inventive"
(qualitative research) .
Multi-disciplinarity, therefore, guide us down a path where photography, architecture,
urbanism, and visual language work together. Thus, one would expect to reach an outcome that
sums different disciplines to provide us instruments to achieve a housing and urban policy for
the benefit of society.
Although the value of images still finds critics in Academia (Kossoy, 2001), its merits as a
document have been recognized through the constitution of pivotal archives and in institutions
dedicated to images as historical, anthropological and ethnographic sources of information.

The value of the documentary photography

Documentary photography found its place in the course of history from the time images were
created. There are many examples where documented imaging demonstrates its relevance in
understanding urban transformation. Even recently, there are authors from different fields of
knowledge, who are keen to extol the value of Photography in documenting change.
 699

In Architecture and Urbanism too, several authors have acknowledged the value of
photography in the search for understanding the landscape and the transformation of urban
spaces. John Collier, Kevin Lynch, Vilém Flusser and William Whyte and are outstanding
examples that Photography is a validated historic and documentary source of scientific quality.
Emerging in the second decade of the 19th century, Photography adapted itself to the urban
language from the very beginning, and was further developed in modern cities (Rouille, 2009).
Product and instrument of urbanization since its creation, product of industrial society and, with
the expansion of cities, Photography showed to be predominantly urban from its inception.
Photography also provided visual records for scientific research, artistic creation - expressed in
different languages and styles – and for social memory of societies; and almost a century after
its birth, it provided a visual memory of conflicts and war events registered by photojournalism.
In 1935, the Farm Security Administration (FSA) 81 of the USA represented a pioneering
work and one of the most significant visual documentation of history by bringing together a
team of renowned photographers (Dorothea Lange, Walker Evans, Russell Lee, Arthur
Rothstein, Gordon Parks among others) to witness the life of farmers affected by the 1929
financial crash. The latter constitutes one of the largest and most important photographic North
American collections from the early 20th century, consolidating the concept of photo-
documentation.
Photography gradually became recognized as a documentary tool of great historical
importance, acquiring social function and visual evidence in the major events taking place
around the world.
In Germany, during the Weimar Republic in the early 1920s, the photographer August
Sander with the Group of Progressive Artists in Cologne (Kölner Progressive), began his
extensive work of cataloguing contemporary German society through a series of pictures.
Sander developed the “People of the 20th Century”, essentially a cross-section of society during
the Weimar Republic. The series was divided into seven sections: The Farmer, The Skilled
Tradesman, Woman, Classes and Professions, The Artists, The City, and The Last People
(homeless persons, veterans, etc.). The latter covered the crucial period of economic and social
transformations that occurred in the country between unification (1871) and the first three
decades of the last century (Rossi, 2009).
In Brazil, Pereira Passos (Mayor of Rio, 1902-1906) intended to record and show the
changes of his administration through the image. Marc Ferrez (1843-1923) used photography
extensively when he took part of the Geological Commission which documented the north and
south of Brazil, while Augusto Malta (1864-1957), a documentary photographer working for
Rio’s Municipality, recorded changes in the urban landscape of Rio in the late nineteenth
century (Rouille, 2009, p.29) . During the government of Pereira Passos, Malta was responsible
for documenting the transformation of the city in relation to delays of planned works as much as
to the grandeur of the new features.
Sebastião Salgado, a Brazilian social documentary photographer and photojournalist,
devoted many years recording the lives of socially excluded folk, such as the “Movimento dos
Trabalhadores Rurais Sem-Terra/MST” (Landless Rural Workers Movement). Salgado
contributed greatly to the development and dissemination of “photo-complaints”. Between 1986
and 1992, Salgado focused on rural workers, and between 1993 and 1999 he authored "The
Children: Refugees and Migrants" (published in 2000). César Barreto, official photographer of
the Municipality of Rio de Janeiro, currently documenting the changes ongoing in the city in
preparation for the 2016 Olympics. Contemporarily, Boris Kossoy focuses on the value of
photography to witness and document history, while Cristiano Mascaro has recorded the

81
An institution created by President Franklin Roosevelt, under the leadership of Roy Stryker with the
mission of providing support to small farmers and rural communities during and after the Great
Depression.
700

changes in São Paulo as a city and its architecture. These are a few examples of Brazilian
photographers who have dedicated themselves to Photography in its documentary value.
Images initially registered chemically and now registered digitally in photographs, are thus
highly effective tools for scientific research, and they had their role legitimized by enhancing
our understanding of urban life and of the relationships between urban dwellers.

The participative management and the role of the Photography in a social housing
planning

The value of images as vital elements in the pursuit for understanding the landscape and the
transformation of the urban areas - within Architecture and Urbanism - has been investigated
before. Researchers also used de-characterization of images as a means to understanding cities
under construction and the relationship of the dwellers of a given space82. In Architecture and
Urbanism, renowned authors have already spoken about the value of the image as a vital
element on the pursuit for the understanding of the landscape and the transformation of the
urban areas. Many researchers also used the image decharacterization discourse as the main way
to a better understanding of the city under construction and the relationship of the inhabitant
with the space.83
The news here, therefore, is in the fact that the research proposes to Photography a new role
in the popular areas investigation. Starting from the original experience of the programme
“Imagens do Povo”, this project intends to demonstrate that it is possible to attain a satisfactory
result in social housing policies through participatory management, whereby photographic
material helps focusing social realities and aspirations of slum-dwellers84. In short, Photography
can play a pivotal role in generating and implementing social housing policies.
In the modern word, cities have suffered significant transformations. With the vertiginous
urban growth and the disordered occupancy of the land, the current tendency is that appear more
precarious areas, aggravating the vulnerability risk context. As a result, features like the housing
deficit and inadequacy became the main issues to be solved in housing programs.85
In Rio de Janeiro State, the lack of housing and basic sanitation policies have resulted in
tragedy over the last two years. Rain devastated large areas of the cities of Nova Friburgo and
Teresópolis, due in part to the intense building in areas bordering rivers, which are forbidden by
law to be built on (“non aedificandi” areas)86. In Niterói, the second largest city in the state,
houses built illegally on landfill sites were destroyed by the rains. Yet, in several
neighbourhoods of Rio de Janeiro houses are still being illegally built on hillsides that are
unstable and without services (electricity, sanitation), with great risks to health and life,
notwithstanding the environmental damage of such occupation. In the aftermath of these

82
Lynch, White,Collier, Kossoy and Mascaro are examples of authors referred to in this research (see
“Bibliography).
83
Lynch, White,Collier, Kossoy and Mascaro are some examples of authors to which this research will
refer (see “Bibliography).
84
Related to agricultural policy, the Ministry for Cities created in 2005 and the Participatory Directing
Plan Campaign aimed “to create the means to generate resources for investment in housing and urban
infrastructure.” (Bonduki, N.; Rossetto R.; Guilardi, F. H., 2009).
85
Anna Tibaijuka, ONU’s subsecretary and executive diretor of the Programa das Nações Unidas para os
Assentamentos Humanos (Un-habitat) (United Nations Program to Human Settlements), in interview to
the IPEA’s website (2010): “(…) the continuous growth of the cities demands new solutions and public
policies that can join suitable housing with access to goods and services, and to promote income
generation to a population contingent that are still migrating from rural areas to the cities, looking for
better opportunities and life-quality” (Website: IPEA, 2010). IPEA. Available at
<http://desafios.ipea.gov.br/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1369:entrevistas-
materias&Itemid=41>. Access on: 03/03/2012.
86
Areas considered as high-risk of flooding and, hence, forbidden to be built on.
 701

disasters, the local population demanded new strategies to deal with building safety and access
to decent housing87.
One of the issues debated in the “participative management” of the last decade is whether
democratic participation - proposed in the National Housing Policy – actually encourages
society’s engagement in public policy. Participative management is predicated in all interested
parties actively participating in the planning process. However, there is no effective space or
forum for dialogue and reflection between the body politic and the communities. In this regard,
the training of locally (slum) resident photographers represents one such line of dialogue with
the inhabitants of these areas. Other than “Imagens do Povo”, the “Núcleo de Antropologia e
Imagem” (Nucleus of Images and Anthropology) 88 and other research work such as
“Iconografia das Favelas Cariocas” (Iconography of Rio Slums)89 are examples of institutional
projects aiming at greater interaction with communities and social movements, in order to
promote debate about living, working and housing conditions of society’s poor.

Housing – a major issue: how can the auto-representative image be a contribution?

Cities undergo transformations along their history, the pace of which has increased in recent
times. With rapid urban growth and disorderly occupation of the land, the current trend is the
occupation of areas that in varying degrees may be unsuitable for inhabitation, which brings a
concomitant increase in occupation-associated risks. Thus, housing deficit and inadequate
housing became major issues to be addressed by housing programmes.
In order to ensure access to suitable housing, participatory management is paramount,
whereby involvement of the local communities allows a greater commitment by these
communities to the proposals set out in housing policy plans. The concept of democratic
participation published in the “Política Nacional de Habitação/PNH” (National Housing
Policy, approved by the Council of Cities, 2004) establishes that all interested parties should
participate in the planning process. However, the political elites responsible for housing and
urban development have not yet established effective forums for dialogue with the communities
in Brazil.
A new way of evaluating the different spaces within cities is through Photography, which
became common practice among low-income neighbourhoods in Rio de Janeiro city. In this
regard, training popular photographers within the slums represents a new opportunity for
dialogue with the residents of informal areas of the city. Through the visual records of their own
reality, the locals are starting to contribute effectively to housing and urban proposals in a
manner that is more in line with their aspirations, while providing a vision that is more closely
linked to the reality of their living space than the vision of whose is observing from ‘outside’.
As a bonus, photographing gives to the economically disadvantaged a possibility to changing
from being “objects of representation” to being "authors of their own representation" (Gama,
2012).
The agency of images “Imagens do Povo” (People’s Images) started in the 1990s, made a
new proposal, namely to foster a new image of the “favela” (slum) and to increase the self-
esteem of the youth of Rio's favelas, by including them in the jobs market. More importantly,
they proposed to give the local youth the chance of portraying the spaces they inhabited through

87 According to this document (Ministério das Cidades: 2004: 29), the NHP is in line with the
Constitution that considers housing a citizen’s right, which together with the Cities Statute, establish the
social role of property, among other civil rights”. (Bonduki, N.; Rossetto R.; Guilardi, Flávio Henrique,
2009).
88 The Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro created the nucleus. Website: NAI, 2012. Available at
<http://naiuerj.blogspot.com.br/>. Acess on: 03/03/2012.
89 “A story of omission and recovery”. Research work developed at Universidade Federal Fluminense
together with the Post-graduate Programmed of Architecture and Urbanism College (PPGAU/EAU/UFF).
702

their own perceptive. We refer to the above-mentioned images agency People’s Images 90
(created under the auspices of “Observatório de Favelas” – Slums Observatory91) as the germ
of the ideas for the current work. The main aim of this project is to analyse how locally
generated photographic images (of slum areas) can contribute to housing and urban
development. The project also investigates images as a critique of public programmes and how
images may help planning of social housing with citizen inclusion. Such documental
representation is the guiding light to this research in investigative analysis of social housing,
cities, and their urban context.
By means of the generated records of their own reality, slum dwellers start to contribute
effectively to housing and urban proposals that are more suitable to their aspirations and living
space. The language of image de-characterisation takes in this case, effectively, a guiding role
in the investigative analysis of social housing in the city, contributing to solving housing issues
highlighted by the documentary materials.
The results of the current research may contribute towards the development of public
policies directed towards urban housing programmes to identify and offer more urban territories
with infrastructure.

References

Bonduki, N. (2004) Origens da Habitação Social no Brasil: arquitetura moderna, lei do inquilinato e
difusão da casa própria (São Paulo, Estação Liberdade), 344.
Bonduki, N., Rossetto R., Guilardi, F. (2009) ‘Política e Sistema Nacional de Habitaç o de Interesse
Social’, in Ministério das Cidades/ Aliança de Cidades/ DENALDI, R. (org.). Ações integradas de
urbanização de assentamentos precários. Brasília: Ministério das Cidades.
Collier, J. (1973) Antropologia Visual: a fotografia como método de pesquisa (São Paulo, E.P.U., Editora
Pedagógica e Universitária Ltda/Ed. USP).
Gama, F. M. V. (2006) ‘Olhares do Morro: uma reflex o sobre os limites e os alcances da
autorrepresentaç o fotográfica’, in Freire-Medeiros, B., da Costa, M. (eds.). Imagens Marginais (Natal,
RN: EDUFRN – Editora da UFRN).
Kossoy, B. (2001) Fotografia & História (São Paulo, Ateliê Editorial).
Leitão, G. (2009) Dos Barracos de Madeira aos Prédios de Quitinetes: uma análise do processo de
produção da moradia na favela da Rocinha, ao longo de cinqüenta anos. (Niterói: EdUFF) 207.
Lynch, K. (1997) A imagem da Cidade (São Paulo, Martins Fontes) 227.
Martins, J. S. (1986) Sociologia da Fotografia e da Imagem (São Paulo, Editora Contexto) 207.
Mascaro, C. (1986) ‘O Uso da Imagem Fotográfica na Interpretaç o do Espaço Urbano e Arquitetônico’.
Dissertação de Mestrado. FAU/USP.
Morin, E. (2010) A cabeça bem feita.: repensar a reforma, reformar o pensamento (Rio de Janeiro:
Bertrand Brasil), 128.
Rossi, P. J. (2008) August Sander e Homens do século XX: a realidade construída. Dissertação de
Mestrado. São Paulo (Faculdade de Filosofia/ Universidade de São Paulo).
Rouillé, A. (2009) A fotografia: entre documento e arte contemporânea (São Paulo: Senac São Paulo)
483.
Seeman, J. (2012) Tradições Humanistas na Cartografia e a Poética dos Mapas. In Qual o espaço do
lugar?, in Marandola, J. R, Holzer, W., de Oliveira, L. (eds.) São Paulo: Perspectiva, 307.
Whyte, W. H. (1980) The Social Life of Small Urban Spaces (Washington, D.C.: The Conservation
Foundation).

90
The programme Imagens do Povo aims to train and place local photographers in the jobs market. Ex-
pupils of People’s Photographers School form the crew of photographers of the Agência Escola (School
Agency). The agency sends images to the Program’s Image Data Bank
(http://www.imagensdopovo.org.br/apresentacao).
91
Social organization for research, consultation and public action related to slums
(http://observatoriodefavelas.org.br/apresentacao/)
 703

The origins and pathways of urban (in)formality: towards an

understanding of local dynamics and agents of change within
a favela in Rio de Janeiro

Mónica Guerra Rocha92

Kungliga konsthögskolan (Royal Institute of Art, Stockholm)
E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract. “The fact is that the segregated social space that characterizes Rio de Janeiro today had the
public power as one of it director agents”. (Redes de Desenvolvimento da Maré, 2013) p.24
Subnormal settlements, informal settlements, favelas, slums - the words remind us of places of non-
planning, the opposite of the formal city, lack of infrastructure and services, poverty and segregation. In
Rio de Janeiro around 22% of the population lives in informal settlements. These territories have
structural characteristics that diverse them from the rest of the city, but that also diverse them from each
other. Although they have been historically understood as the informal place, segregated and separated
from the rest of the city, they are in fact territories that result from the formal city, dialogue with it and
build its own dynamics as an autonomous and specific urban place. This research looks for the historical
background that built up the favela of Maré, in the North region of Rio de Janeiro, with approximately
130.000 dwellers. This territory may be considered as a paradigmatic example on how different agents of
change build the morphology of our territories. It is a complex of 16 favelas, each with its own
background and particular form, built upon a landfill ("maré" is the portuguese word for "tide"),
delimited by 3 of the most important traffic ways of the city. The aim of this research is to understand the
agents and context of construction of this territory and its inner variations by questioning the dialogues
and dichotomies that determine its urban morphology. It tries to look at the urban form as a complex
result of human, social, political, geographical and infrastructural dialogues, and brings ideas for a new
perspective over these places, focused more on their inner processes rather than on their products, as
places of adaptation: adapted and adaptable.

Key Words: informality, favela, urban dynamics, adaptation, Maré

Overview

Maré is formed by 16 different communities. Each of them have their own story, their own
traumas, challenges and inventions. The physical result of the planning processes (even though
when those processes where not called as being a planning strategy but a temporary solution for
other urban objectives) were in the end, just the first tip for the development that followed.
Being mainly a mangrove area, with only one hill, and having historically passed through
different political moments and political understandings and initiatives towards the favela, one
may say that urban growth and planning bind together as a response to its own urban context –
physical, social, political.
The aim is not only to define the agents of change, the objective causes of morphological
conceptions, but to make a proposal for an understanding of urban dynamics where the form
follows and is followed up by local inventions, wishes and dreams. But coming from the

92
This paper and its conceptual interest come from a direct contact I had with Maré, while collaborating
with the NGO Observatório de Favelas, and was done supported by the Royal Institute of Art -
Stockholm.
Some impressions presented here come from the empirical experience and local informal observations,
that opened up reflections and interests about the urban structure of these multiple territories inside Maré.
Therefore, some impressions here are mostly founded on a daily basis perception and further reflexion,
that are still on the working process of finding the most possible complete theoretical support.
704

research question, we shall understand what is that about informality in Maré? Can we really
talk about an informal settlement and by doing that, consider that it is a result of not planned
processes? As we will see now, Maré is a very clear example of how public decisions and
understandings of the “favela as a problem” turned out to be the planning process in itself.
By getting closer to its own stories and history, the main questioning that is pushed up here is
if territories like favelas, and specifically Maré, can still be understood and classified as being
informal, slums, or any other classification that detaches them for the rest of the “formal”,
“legal” or “beautiful” city, or if this paradigm shall be urgently shifted in order to build a more
coherent understanding of these territories as deeply related to the city as a whole, dependant
from political, economic and social moments, as contemporary territories of urban development.
By shifting this paradigm, one may also question the role of planners as agents of change, and
the necessary political positioning upon these places in order to achieve an integrated and
democratic city.

Classification and conceptualization: regional approach always as a comparative model?

For a theoretical approach of place: applying the anthropological concepts of Michel Agier

In anthropology of the city (2011), Michel Agier, when talking about the urban knowledge of
anthropology, speaks about three categories of approaching the urban themes in anthropological
research. He considers that all the knowledge taken from the city is always a partial knowledge,
based on metaphor, comparison, dialogue, and other inductive perspectives of research. He is
interested in the process between the observation and the construction of urban knowledge, the
way to get to urban theorization from empirical experience.
He says that there are regional, situational and reticular approaches to the urban
anthropological questions, and remembers us that urban investigation has its starting point
within the context of Chicago as a fast growing city with emergent new issues.
From the research question of this paper, I find it interesting to take a departure from Agier's
position, once that what is proposed here is an understanding of the partial perspective that is
being taken upon the understanding of the favela as the “other” territory that is informal,
segregated, poor, and resulting from the absence of the state. What is proposed here is a more
objective perspective of the evolution of the territory of Maré as an interdependent and
integrated part of the city of Rio, and a fundamental testimonial of the history of the city.
“Space has been, through time, designated to answer to specific functions that vary
according to the needs of the social organizations of each time. From this perspective, the city
results, unfinished and in transformation, from interventions that are regulated by different
systems of social and economical values.” (Resende, 1982) p.19
The regional perspective is, according to Agier, where the social control is built. The socio-
spatial classifications organize the affirmation of relative differences, and never of absolute
identities. He supports that there are natural areas of segregation, related to the origins of the
population, reaction, age, or one may add, related to economical situations of a given
population. However, the territories where natural segregation may occur, then level up into
moral regions, reconstructed in the imaginaries of the whole population – the building of the
imaginary city, the imaginary cartographies. In the individual perspective, it would be
considered when the individual becomes a person, as the social status is defined, together with
social distances. As I try to bring the theory to an urban morphological perspective, it would be
when the territory becomes the place. The definition of place is done by all urban actors, from
decision makers, to planners, to the population, and the definition of the place needs to have the
whole city as a referee.
This process supports the building up of social distances above spatial distances, the creation
of relative identities and the possible understanding of the city as a patchwork of different and
well defined places that somehow close in themselves.
 705

These classifications open the door to potential duplications, or definitions by opposition of

two different classifications. According to Agier, defining a place with bad reputation and
building a stigma around that specific area can be a way to classify other areas as being areas of
social success, by opposition.
This regional approach of urban reality can be easily understood in the evolution of the
definition of the favela – and specifically of Maré – as a place: the favela vs the city, informal
settlement vs formal city, ghetto vs legal city, slum / shantytown vs structured city, periphery vs
center, zona norte vs zona sul (North zone vs South zone), and lately the understanding of it as a
neighborhood, but one that needs to be integrated to the rest of the city (considering it is a
different neighborhood, and shall be integrated through “pacification”).
“Taking advantage from that uncertainty of boundaries, the “regional” point of view would
win, I think, in being applied to any space, independent from its limits or its scale. By doing so,
it could be registered the way how a place is defined by the urban actors, whomever they are
(from the urban planner to the inhabitant of an alley). This sense of place undertakes the whole
city as a referee context.” (Agier, 2011) p.67
Besides the regional approach, Agier describes what is the situational and networking
approaches. Both approaches build the understanding that the urban relations and interactions
are not determined only by the place where they occurred, from what they can be at least,
influenced. The specific situations of interaction vary among the same space in different periods
of time, and can give to these spaces different identities and classifications. Also the networks
built upon specific urban areas are fundamental to understand the dynamics and to build on
knowledge about a specific place.
So, one may say that the regional classification is always relative to a specific context, and
that urban interactions exist upon and further from the its regional condition or categorization.

Foreplay and the foundation of maré – could have it been some other way?

Where does the Favela come from?

Let's start the story in 1893, even though we could go even more backwards and find possible
bridges between the favela and its stigma, its creation in the end of the nineteen century and the
slavery history of Brazil. But let's start it from 1893, that was the time when the very first house
occupied the “Morro da Favella”.
“The episode of the destruction of Cabeça de Porco became one of the initial marking points
of a whole way of understanding the management of social differences within the city. Let's
locate the two fundamental points of that way of dealing with urban diversity. The first one is
the construction of the idea that “poor classes” and “dangerous classes” - to use the terms of the
XIX century – are two expressions that talk about, that basically describe the same reality. The
second one refers to the appearing of the idea that a city can only be “administrated”, which
means, managed according to technical criteria alone.” (Chalhoub, 1996)p.19/20
The cortiço of Cabeça de Porco was the first known episode of destruction of these
tenements of the urban poor, but the story repeated in many other areas of the city. The cortiços
were seen as dirty and immoral areas, and through hygienist arguments, they were removed. The
inhabitants, needing to find places to settle, started to go to the hills of the city and build their
own houses. The city was living a moment of great immigration, and also of fast development
and the poor ones could not afford living in more privileged areas of the city.
It is in the end of the century, specifically in 1897 that the Morro da Favella is occupied. It is
important to understand that the issue of housing in the city and the incapacity to deal with the
urban poor dated backwards, before the word “Favella” was even used for the first time Key
Words: Saverio Muratori, Ludovico Quaroni, morphology, typology, Rome School of
Architecture.
The Morro da Favela has a very well known story: it was the place where the soldiers
706

coming from the battle in Canudos in Bahia settled when they arrived in Rio and did not have
housing provisions as promised by the government. Favella is the name of a plant that is very
popular in the region of Canudos, and because of the soldiers occupation, the area was known
with that name.
So, the first generalist identification and classification of these territories is, in fact, the name
of a plant, and is a word that does not carry in itself any morphological considerations or any
pre-conceptualizations of informality or marginality.
In the beginning of the XX century, Pereira Passos, the “tropical Haussmann” (Valladares,
2005)started great urban works in Rio, and defined a very clear urban positioning. It was known
as the period of the “bota abaixo” (“throw it down”): with the construction new big
infrastructures in the city centre and the beginning of the demolition of Morro do Castello,
demolishing one of the biggest cortiços in the city. Already in this early moments, Morro da
Favella was already seen as a place of great violence, lack of basic infrastructures, sickness and
immorality. This is just the beginning of a big story that repeats all over the time, and in Maré
(occupied only in the 40's) it has its specific urban impacts.

Where does Maré come from?

Figure. 1. Maré – the area in 1929 (Guia Briguiet map) and in 2009 (google maps). Down,
the Ilha do Fundão, where is the university of Rio (UFRJ) and in the center (between the
big yellow line that is Avenida Brasil and the shore) Maré. Sobrepositon work by Êisdur
and published at Êisdur (2013).

With the revolution that happened in Brasil in the 30's, the industrial burgeois ascends in
social class and capitalism is expanded in Brasil. It is the end of oligarquies, and the beginning
of an economy based on industries. With the world crises of 29, Brasil focuses on its internal
market until the second world war, when there is a new phase of economical growth: great
exportations, fewer importations and greater demands on its internal market. In 1937 starts the
“New State”, with the main figure of Getúlio Vargas in the power. He starts an extremely
populist government, that in fact supports the industrial burgeois against the working class.
When WW2 ends, Vargas tries to recover his relation with the popular classes, but the
institutionalized powers of the burgeois and the old imperialists do not allow it to happen. In
1945 Vargas is taken out of the government and Dutra takes power until 1950, supporting a new
imperialist moment in the country. In 50 Vargas is elected, and in 54 he suicides and it is when
Jucelino Kubitscheck becomes president, supporting the principles of development, on a
progressist policies towards the greates capitalization of the countrym opening it to foreign
investments and implementing industries in the country for durable products (it is a moment of
great exoansion of the automobile industries in Brazil). Kubitsheck is also the president
responsible for the construction of Brasília and moving the main city from Rio de Janeiro to
 707

there, in 1960. In 1964 starts the military regime in Brazil, a dictature that will last until the 80's.
In this context, Rio faced a great amount of migrants from the 30's on, when the country
faced great growth inequalities between different regions, and reinforced Rio and São Paulo as
the main investment areas. People from all over the country were migrating to both cities,
looking for working opportunities. Only on the 50/60's Rio starts to have fewer migrations than
São Paulo, being until then the main destination of thousands of people, and in the 60's the city
becomes the State of Guanabara, after the inauguration of Brasília as the main city. All these
years of migrations to Rio had strong impacts in the city, that was not prepared to receive this
amount of people.
“The consequent flow of migrations in direction to these points (Rio / S o Paulo) brings as a
consequence the growth of the population of favelas, that grows on a rate of 7% against 3,3%
that refer to the population growth of the whole city. In 1960, the population of favelas reaches
11% of the total of the city, that is of 3,8 million inhabitants” (Resende, 1982)p. 50
It is in this context that the city of Rio is strategically planned to grow towards north, with
great investments in industries. In 1946 Avenida Brasil is built and opens to traffic, and along its
way several industries are built and start working. Years later, the university of Rio de Janeiro
builds its new campus in Ilha do Fundão, nearby Avenida Brasil. In this period, the city had no
housing provision for the new residents coming, and the areas available were of high prices in a
city that was developing increasingly towards a capitalist and private strategy of the richest
ones. The working class, mainly migrants getting to the city, needed to find housing solutions
for themselves. One of the priorities was to be closer to their working places, in a period where
transportation was already a growing problem. There was a continuous growth on the number of
favelas of the city, on faster rates than the growth of the city of Rio itself. (Perlman, 2010)
A part of Avenida Brasil was built close to a mangrove area, that was vacant because it was
not a desirable place for real estate investments. In this area worked, on the XVI century, the
port of Inhaúma that was on that moment a very important port for the transportations between
the centre of the city and its north area. Also, this area was exactly between the new avenida
Brasil being build and the future University at Ilha do Fundão.
This area of no interest for the wealthiest, was a very strategic place for the working class.
(Vaz & Jacques, 2004) On the early 40's, Mrs Orozina decides to settle on the only elevated area
within the mangrove, and for decades, the place was enbanked, occupied, developed, structured,
transformed and adapted. Being built upon the water, it was named Maré (tide). And so the story
goes from here.

A morphological trip: addressing processes of urban development in the 16 favelas of

Maré

This section will focus on the history of the favelas of Maré. The work of Lilian Vaz (Vaz,
1994) was the main source of this data, together with the maps guide of Maré (Redes da Maré;
Observatório de Favelas, 2012) and the publications of Redes da Maré (Redes de
Desenvolvimento da Maré, 2010 and 2013) All the chapter has reference on those works.
Avoiding the classical classification of “formality” vs “informality”, that we aim to dissolve
in this paper, the communities of Maré will be introduced and its history presented based on its
form. We consider that informality can never be the absence of form, but the lack of
understanding of different logics of space structuring. This comes from the understanding that
both time and space are social inventions, built by specific logics of society (Damatta, 1997).
So, based on form, communities are presented according with two different criteria:
regularity vs irregularity, and within each group, they are presented chronologically.
708

Figure2. The evolution of Maré in a period of 50 years (source: Jacques 2002, design by
Pedro Seiblitz, taken from (Vaz & Jacques, 2004).

The irregular places

Morro do Timbau, Baixa do Sapateiro, Parque Maré, Roquete Pinto, Marcílio Dias

The irregular territories within Maré have a common basic story. They all result from
spontaneous occupations, are usually the oldest areas occupied in Maré and have stories of
struggle against evictions. In these areas it is very clear the inventive capacity of the populations
to find strategies in order to fix themselves and build their own urban environment out of the
different challenges that they need to face. These places are a great collection of memories from
the occupation and the removal attempts, as well as from the opportunist episodes when public
forces tried to take advantage of the weak political conditions of the urban poor. In these
territories we may also find great lessons of other ways of thinking urban priorities, difficulties
and solutions for very concrete and specific problems. In Maré history tells us that people didn't
occupy the land, but they built their own land to fix their presence and rights within the city. It is
a construction of identity, built from almost nothing but the need to stay, or what one could
understand as the capacity to organize urban structures around the need for urban life.

40's and 50's

Timbau and Baixa do Sapateiro (located side by side) are contemporary considering their
occupation, but it is usually said that Timbau was probably the first territory being occupied93.
The area known as Praia de Inhaúma was already place for some fisherman communities, on the
fringe between the hill and the water, but it was on the 40's when people started occupying the
hill and giving it the shape we see today. Timbau, Baixa do Sapateiro and Praia de Inhauma
were, one may say, the origins of Maré, and neighbors of each other in a continuity of
development – this continuity is very clear when observing the map of the areas

93
The population argues that Timbau was the first area occupied, but some official sources (SAGMACS)
say that the area where is Baixa do Sapateiro is occupied since the 20's. (Vaz, 1994)
 709

Being the only elevated area of Maré and this was a fundamental condition for the first
occupations, since it was the only solid area to start occupation – Maré was a huge mangrove
area in that period. Baixa do Sapateiro itself first started to be occupied in its hill area, the
borders between Timbau and Baixa were blurred, and only later people started to go to the
mangrove land and build there. This topographical condition supported the definition of the first
occupied area, and its morphological organization is very related with the fact of it being a hill,
with similar territorial distributions than in other hill favelas of Rio. The first inhabitant of
Timbau, Mrs. Orozina, assumed that she knew from the first moment she was occupying land
without allowance, and her family self built their first wood house there. In the next years more
people came and settled in the area, and in the 50's, Timbau was already becoming a more dense
area. (Vaz, 1994)
This has directly relationship with the construction of Av. Brasil in 1946 and the University
of Rio in Ilha do Fundão, in 1950. It was the period of great industrial investments in the city, a
planned development towards north based on industrial development, the area of Maré was
located exactly between the two projects and these infrastructures demanded a great number of
workers. In Rio, in this time, there was a great movement of migration towards the city, from
other areas of Brazil, mainly from the country side of the northeast, where people were suffering
from droughts. It had impacts on the increasing of favelas and its population: the favela
population grew in that period 7%, while the city's total population grew 3,3%. In 1960 11% of
the city inhabitants were living in favelas. (Burgos, 2006)
The population was occupying the area at first according to their individual needs, and the
houses were first built with wood. Because the area was structured, as time passed, the
inhabitants of Timbau started to build better infrastructure systems – while in the other areas
people were struggling to live on stilt houses, and investing on embankment works. Also from
the 40's is the occupation of Marcílio Dias (first called as Praia da Moreninha), an area quite far
away from the rest of Maré94, where fishermans already lived in stilt houses. (Redes da Maré;
Observatório de Favelas, 2012)
It might seem weird, but in the 40's Rio was living a moment of strong favela removals. The
código de obras (code of construction works), created in 1937, proposed the elimination of the
favelas and ignored them from the maps. It was then forbidden to improve the houses in favelas
and to build any new house. As a solution, the mayor Henrique Dudsworth starts the projects of
proletarian parks to re-locate people living in favelas. (Leeds & Leeds, 1978) In these
proletarian parks the daily life was strongly regulated, with great vigilance, considering that the
people from the favelas needed to be civilized. These propletarian parks were supposed to be
temporary but ended up in being permanent and people stayed until they were evicted from
there. From 41 to 43 there were 3 proletarian parks built in the city, on a clear statement of the
authoritarian populism of Getúlio Vargas government – deeply care about the proletarians, with
great control over the urban poor, in exchange of populist measures. 95
It was in this context that one can understand the fundamental role of the military for the
history of Timbau and its present condition: in the 40's, the army settles in an area nearby
Timbau and they start to control the development of the area. They argue that the area of
Timbau is their property and started to ask for payments from the population. The inhabitants

94
There is a military area separating physically Marcílio Dias from the other parts of Maré.
95
It is important to remember that in 1937 the country faced a coupe d'etat that initiated the Estado Novo
(the new State) regime, a dictatorial period, centered in the image of Getúlio Vargas. The Estado Novo
lasted until 1945, and it appeared within the context of the growing of an industrial bourgeois. It was a
populist government, and ended up in being the opposition of the industrial bourgeois and the organized
and “official” working class, against the informal poor workers. When Vargas tries to focus on its popular
basis, the imperialism and its actors don't allow it and he is taken out of power in 1945. Vargas returns,
elected, in 1950, after 5 years of an imperialist government of Dutra. In 1954 Vargas suicides, and
Juscelino Kubitschek becomes president, starting a progressive government opened to international
investments.
710

needed to have a strong relation with the army, considering the threat of removal that was
present in this period in favelas all over the city. In 1947 the municipality orders the removal of
the houses of Baixa do Sapateiro, when there were already some embankments done and stilt
houses in the mangrove area.96 In 1947 the mayor Mendes de Morais created a commission for
the extinction of Favelas, but the commission has as its only effective final product the
construction of a Census of Favelas. However, it was a moment when Favelas where seen as a
issue to face – in 1947 is created the Foundation Luis XIII, attached to the church but with
support from the government, whose main role was to recover the favelados and “save” them
from the communist threat within a politics of high control. Also in 1948 Carlos Lacerda97, that
in that time was a journalist, starts up what he calls “The Battle of Rio”, understanding favelas
as a national problem, rather than only a municipal one. (Leeds & Leeds, 1978)
Although favelas development were strictly controlled, in the 50's the area of Parque Maré
(located between Nova Holanda and Baixa do Sapateiro) starts to be occupied (it is Maré's 3rd
favela) as a consequence of the population growth, mainly resultant from the existence of new
industries along Avenida Brasil. Parque Maré has also an spontaneous occupation and its
irregular streets together with great number of full of alleyways that come from main streets, are
mainly resultant from the processes of embankment done by the population in the 50's (similarly
to Baixa do Sapateiro). The area was occupied first close to Av. Brasil, in what is today Rua
Teixeira Ribeiro, and differently from Baixa or Timbau, the area of Parque Maré was
completely mangrove land, and the first occupied areas were the ones were there were already
some small entrances of land. Its morphological structure has its origins in the fact that the
bridges built above the mangrove were the origins of the embankments done, defining the
streets of the area: Rua Flávia Farnesi was the first resultant from the embankments, but many
other streets were built upon the mangrove. (Vaz, 1994)
In 1955 Roquete Pinto is occupied. It is a landfill area, with constructions first built out of
wood, later replaced by brick buildings, in the process of consolidation of the community. It is
located north, separated from the rest of Maré, and close to Praia de Ramos, also an occupation
from the 50's, when fisherman and some fish marketers lived in the area – known, at that time,
as Maranguirú (mangrove, in TUPI language). There was there a beach and a small port. There,
residents started to build embankments and wood houses, replacing the stilt houses. These two
areas are located in flat areas and were both occupied in an spontaneous way. (Redes da Maré;
Observatório de Favelas, 2012)
So one may understand than even if from 37 until the 50's favelas were being highly debated
and its population controlled - the population needed to ask for allowance to do any
improvement or construction in the area, until the 50's when building new houses was totally
forbidden, it was one moment of great development in Maré. It was a development done with
great struggling, persistency and patient, with the population rebuilding and re-inventing ways
of staying in the area against all odds of the current time politics. This controlling and restrictive
moment of the history of favelas in Rio is also a key to understand why Timbau is the
community of Maré with the lowest density rates, related with several control from the army
against new construction or development of the area. At the same time, from that relationship
with the army, the residents started to organize themselves in order to fight for their need of
improving the area and for achieving their property rights: Timbau has the oldest Residents
Association of all Maré – started in 1954. (Vaz, 1994)
Baixa do Sapateiro ended up in not being demolished, and people kept on building their own
houses in the night, and paid to the policeman that supervised the area for him to let them build.
Houses were made out of leftover materials (construction materials, wood and metal) and the
stilts were done 2 meters above land, with bridges connecting the houses. Later, as people were
embanking the area, these connections turned out to be the streets.

96
Maré had, in the end of the 40's, around 3500 inhabitants.
97
In the 60's Carlos Lacerda becomes the first governor of the Guanabara State, after Brasília became the
main city and Rio turned into a state, and developed a series of politics for controlling favelas.
 711

When the police used to come and demolish some of the houses, the strategy of the
inhabitants was, besides building them in the night, to have them occupied with children in the
day, hoping the policeman would be sensitive to that and not take the houses away with children
inside.
In 1957 the residents association of Baixa do Sapateiro is created with the purpose to build
water provision and sewage networks, which happened in the 60's. Until the 60's the inhabitants
improvised ways of getting water and sewage systems done by themselves. (Vaz, 1994)
It is important to locate historically the resistance of the population that, in a moment of
great control and even forbiddance of building, kept on coming to Maré and struggling to fix
themselves and develop the area. within this dual relationship of government with the favela,
and maybe try to take from it some understanding of the processes that happened: the industrial
investments and infrastructural construction of the city asked for great number of workers to be
in the city, but the municipality didn't have the capacity to answer with proper housing
provision. So, if in one hand the wish to clean the city from the favelas is politically present and
represented through governmental actions, in the other hand the constant demand of workers
supports the process of development of favelas in the city. Maré has both facts within itself:
growing while struggling not to be taken away. This process of development led directly to its
current form: intuitive, completely context-related (both topographical, geographical, political
and sociological) with great priority in building individual housing, before planning or building
common infrastructure.

The 60's

In the 60's, the policies relative to the favela, besides being pointed with external variations on
its shape, is essentially the continuation of a policy of control, that goes back at least to the 30's.
Sometimes that control is lined up of more populist adornments – for example, on the way of
“urbanizing” in loco of favelas, but in some other moments it appears under a more repressive
shape, as, for example, the total removal of favelas and the rigorous administrative supervision
of the governmental housing units of emergency, called as proletarian parks" (Leeds & Leeds,
1978).
From 1968 to 1973 more than 175000 inhabitants of 62 favelas were removed and
transferred to one of the 35517 new housing units built mainly on the north and west side of the
city (Brum, 2012). This was done through CHISAM 98 , an institution from the federal
government, supported by the state government of Rio. On the 11th of May of 1969, the favela
of Praia do Pinto, located in Leblon (one of the wealthiest neighborhoods in the south zone of
Rio) burned and its population was removed to different housing units along the city. Since the
23rd of March that the residents were being removed, but the ones resisting the eviction were
staying in Praia do Pinto, within the debris left of the houses already demolished. There was a
great real estate interest in the area, and the politics of the government was once again, seeing
the favela as a problem to correct by removing it and building low income houses in places far
away from the city centre and the south zone. It is still not confirmed the origins of the fire in
Praia do Pinto, but it is consensual among the residents that it was an initiative from the
government to definitely clean up the area. One of the main arguments from CHISAM to

98
CHISAM – Coordenação de Habitação de Interesse Social da Área Metropolitana (Coordenation of
Housing with Social Interest of the Metropolitan Area) was created in 1968, as an initiative from the
federal government. IT had a single perspective over the favelas, understood as a problem to be
eradicated, through the extermination of favelas in Rio. It subordinated COHAB to build housing
complexes for residents of favelas. In that period FAFEG (Federation of Favelas of the Guanabara State),
a strong association, was also transformed and started to support the state government, with some
residents associations working in representation of the State (Brum, 2012). According to the sources
consulted, this didn't happen with the residents associations in Maré, that kept on fighting for urban
improvements and against removals.
712

remove favelas was that they were “urban abnormalities that act against the more primary
principles of civilization”, so the urban argument was used to justify the removals. In the case of
Praia do Pinto, the houses were all made out of wood and it lacked urban infrastructure, and this
territorial fragility was used sometimes as a government argument, even though it was then
clear that the main objective was to sell that land to private companies and build high valued
housing blocks. (Brum, 2012) The episode of Praia do Pinto became a paradigm of the
governmental action towards the urban territories of the favelas in this historical period, and a
possible trauma for the residents of favelas, being understood and so dramatically treated as
undesired in their city. 99
In this context, one of the objectives of the residents associations in Maré was to resist the
attempts of removal that happened in the 60's by urbanizing and building stronger houses, and
getting structured so they would have arguments for not being removed. Many brick houses
were built in this period. Once it started being forbidden to build in bricks (by SERFHA and
SMDS), people find strategies to overpass the rule and Baixa was consolidated in this period.
(Vaz, 1994)
In 1957 there was a big fire in the whole community of Praia de Ramos that destroyed it
completely. The area was rebuilt by the residents and in 1962 it was already a consolidated
place. (Redes da Maré; Observatório de Favelas, 2012)
In the 60's some residents from Baixa moved to Parque União, a new area occupied and
structured by Margarino Torres, an influent man that planned the occupation of that space. He
took inhabitants from Baixa to start fixing the area in Parque União, and people could find
better physical conditions there, where the embankment was already done. If on one hand Baixa
and Timbau were already becoming structured and greatly occupied territories, Parque Maré
greatest expansion was during the 60's, when the embankments started being built in the area,
and people were already building brick houses and expanding towards the bay, on stilt
houses.(Vaz, 1994)
Its morphology is directed related with the housing building processes, and the strategies of
the house owners to ensure bigger land properties for their own: the houses were built quite far
away from the toilets, built outside. As it was a mangrove area at first, the houses and the toilets
were connected through a bridge, and by doing so the owner would mark on its occupation that
the area between his house and toilet belonged to himself. Later on, the owner could think on
selling portions of the area or renting them and having economic benefits from it. This is a very
interesting strategy, that shows clearly how the residents did not only struggle to stay at that
place and fix in the area even though they needed to make great efforts not to be taken away and
to do great embankments, but that they also planned their occupation considering a long term
evolution of the area, a consolidation and having future economic benefits out of that planning.
In this case, it is extremely wrong to consider that these areas are informal and not planned,
when the logics within their occupation are totally based on a very coherent and strategic
planning thinking. The residents fixed in their formal territory their determination to stay and
struggle (physical and politically) and also to develop further and consistently. It was then, one
may say, a common interest of all the inhabitants to improve their territories, both for common
benefits of having better urban infrastructure, for individual needs of having provision of
services and the specific plans to improve their lives. One may then understand also that, by
building their own houses and organizing their thinking, they planned to stay on the area with
long-term perspectives, and improve their lifes taking advantage of their own planning
decisions.
Because of this organizational methodology, Parque Maré has its specific morphological
asset. Some people coming to Parque Maré didn't have enough budgeting to build their houses
and toilets outside, so sometimes they would build their houses side by side with a neighbor and

99
Some residents testimonials of the fire tell that they were transported to their new housing units in
garbage trucks, and many didn't even know where they were when they arrived in the new houses. (Brum,
2012)
 713

use his toilet, through his bridge. In other cases, if both would have the opportunity, two toilets
could be build side by side, with both bridges side by side. Once the embankments were done
and the urban structure better defined, the bridges that before connected the houses with the
toilets became the streets of Parque Maré: the single bridges may have turn out into small alleys,
as doubled bridges became bigger roads.
So one may say that in Parque Maré we have a great example of how irregularity can result
from planning if planning itself is focused on something else rather than in pre-determined
forms and shapes. In parque maré there were no issues of alignment, spatial proportion or
morphological pre-conceptions; people built as they perceived their best opportunities and
priorities. The same way that happened with Baixa do Sapateiro, the houses were build and
rebuilt, with the police coming and demolishing the built houses, and people putting them up
once again.
As in whole Maré the houses were built without water infrastructure being the basic
infrastructure done later on, after the area was occupied and establishing, usually with support
from residents associations and among the community. The first sewage infrastructure was done
connecting with the sewage network built in Nova Holanda in Lacerda's government – some
inhabitants worked in building that infrastructure, so they knew how to do it to build it
connected with Parque Maré. (Vaz, 1994)
The embankments were also done collectively, in a “mutir o” system, street after street.
They were first done with coal, and later the inhabitants were informally settled with the truck
drivers for them to throw material like construction debris and earth from demolishment of hills.
The water was coming from far away, stored inside barrels. These barrels were put inside tires,
and rolled all the way to the favela. The electricity was illegally taken from the public system.
(Vaz, 1994)

The 70's and 80's

On 1975 the removal moment ends, and 52 favelas stay in middle and high class neighborhoods.
Even though there were great removals during almost a decade, the number of residents in
favelas didn't change – people would sometimes sell their new houses and go back to favelas.
After 75 there was once again a clientelist period, the same politics lived in the populist
governments at Vargas period, with small favors done in exchange of votes, within a
authoritarian context (Brazil was still living in a dictature period). The political disarticulation
of the residents led to a relationship among them and the public authorities based on lack of
trust and on a distant perspective, and this supported the clientelist interests of the governments.
(Burgos, 2006) In Maré, it was a moment of continuation of the work being done, structuring
more the areas, but it was only in the end of the 70's, beginning of the 80's that the whole area
saw once again a moment of great transformations. There was a lot to be done in these
territories: in 1980 only 1% of the favelas had a completed sewage system; 6% had a complete
system of water provision and only 17% had a satisfactory garbage collection. From 83 to 85
the municipal company of water (CEDAE) builds a program to bring water and sewage systems
to 60 favelas, the garbage company buys micro trucks to access some areas in communities and
there is also a program of public lightning in 85. If in one hand these initiatives represent a
different approach to these territories, on the other hand its representation and identification as
the area of poverty, immorality and crime100 does not help in the overcoming of the stigma of

100
In the 80's the organized crime groups in favelas grow, particularly the drug dealers. There is a strong
relationship between this phenomena of violence and the clientelist moments that disturbed the processes
of political organization of the inhabitants of these areas: “The coincidence between the democratic
transition and the privatization of the favelas by these parallel powers is particularly dramatic because it
establishes a continuity with the tragedy lived during the military regime. The embarrassments that these
parallel powers impose to the local political organizations, inclusive with the murderer of many of their
leaderships, follow up the terror that was before imposed by the state.” (Burgos, 2006) p.44.
714

these territories and its segregated condition.

In 1979 the military government had their last program executed, focused on urbanization. I
was called PROMORAR and the first project of PROMORAR was Projeto Rio. The whole
program started in 1979 and was financed by BNH (National Housing Bank), the same bank
that financed the construction of the new housing units in the removals time of Lacerda's
government in the 60's. In the debate of PROMORAR the discussion is not, for the first time,
between urbanizing or removing the favelas but how to integrate these areas in the cuty, and it
means a great advance from the previous programs and projects. Projeto Rio was to be
implemented in areas where people where living in precarious conditions, in watered areas, and
since it was the case for many houses in Maré, there was a seen risk of eviction and its main
objectives of Projeto Rio is to improve basic infrastructure (sewage mainly), to eliminate the
existing stilt houses and to give property entitlements to the residents.
To recover flooded stripes inhabited, pretending, with the valorization of the areas that are
then conquered, to recover the investments done (…) the Projeto Rio would be developed in
areas close to the international airport, reaching six favelas in Maré: Parque União, Rubens Vaz,
Nova Holanda, Baixa do Sapateiro, Timbau and Maré. (Burgos, 2006)
The residents of Maré, when first told about the program, where afraid of being evicted from
the area. The residents associations mobilized and actually Projeto rio ended in having positive
effects in the whole territory, with no attempts to remove the population from the area. People
living in stilt houses were moved to new popular houses built in Maré, in other vacant areas.
The inhabitants of Timbau and of some other areas, had their property entitlements rights given
(1057 in whole Maré) in this period and the territory actually became more consolidated with
the construction of new areas, with the government planning for the residents to stay in the area,
together with people that came evicted from risk prone areas of other favelas of the city.
(Burgos, 2006)
In 1979 Baixa do Sapateiro had around 20 000 inhabitants, and still had a great number of
stilt houses, where people lived in very bad conditions. Some houses were built on top of an
open air sewage, and when the tide increased, people had black sewage water in their houses.
These houses were taken during the implementation of Projeto Rio and the population moved to
the new housing units (1534 units) built in 1982 in Vila do João. The project was extremely
important for the community of Baixa do Sapateiro, that became free from the stilt houses
challenge and its property rights given, and since that at that time almost all basic infrastructure
was built in the community, and the houses were already made out of bricks, it was turning out
to be a even more consolidated and structured area.
The government also paved some of the streets of Parque Maré and the area had many
improvements, with official water provision systems and electricity.
Even though it was a period of greater consolidation101 that extension of the occupations,
Timbau's occupation kept on growing and in the 80's, in the area were previously was the beach
of Inhaúma, were built low income apartment houses.
The existence of basic infrastructure has strong relation with the early creation of a residents
association and its historical active projects and also from the fact that by being a hill, people
didn't have to care about creating their own land, and spent greater investments in improving
their infrastructures.

The 90's

Projeto Rio was just finished in all the favelas in 1992, after strong protests from residents
associations, asking for its ending. For instance, in Baixa do Sapateiro there were promised
sewage infrastructure and urban improvements that were not built or finished in the early 80's.
In 1985 these construction re-started and stop once again, but only in 1990 almost all sewage
and water provision were completed.

101
In 1987 for example, 92% of the houses in Timbau were brick houses. (Vaz, 1994)
 715

The Linha Vermelha (Red Line) was built in 1992 and in that time the population of Maré
decided with the planners what to do with the area between the communities and the highway.
There was built Vila Olímpica, a big area dedicated to sports and leisure activities, managed by
the municipality until today. It is a semi-closed space, where people can have access, but it is a
fenced area.

Figure 3. Part of the area of Maré in the 90´s, after Projeto Rio (source: Project Rio,
design by Leando C. Rodrigues, taken from Vaz & Jacques (2004)).

Since then

All these irregular places are today consolidated and dense urban areas. They have great
provision of economic activities and social connections between the residents. It is very usual in
these areas, as well as in the greatest part of Maré, that people keep on growing their houses as
family grows, or improve their living conditions as their economic life evolves. There are no
more wood or stilt houses in Maré, with the exception of a small area, commonly known as
Favela Mac Laren, where people do live in extremely poor conditions, without basic
infrastructure provided. However this favela dates from round 10 years ago, and being located
between Morro do Timbau and Vila do Pinheiro, it does not belong directly to any of these
residents association areas of intervention. It is a case of exception within Maré, where today
more than 130 000 people live with, at least, basic housing and urban conditions.
Morro do Timbau, together with Parque União, are the areas in Maré with higher housing
prices, known in Maré, between their residents as the “south zone” of Maré.102
Parque Maré is a completely consolidated area, with all the houses built in bricks and with
no urgent problems related to basic infrastructure. Rua Teixeira Ribeiro, in Parque Maré, is one
of the most known streets in all Maré, with a great economical dynamic and one of the most
famous street markets of the whole favela. In the project for a new BRT (Bus Rapid Transit) line
passing in Avenida Brasil (called Transbrasil) it is included a BRT transit stop nearby Parque
Maré, which will improve the access and direct connection between this area and the rest of the
city.

The places with regular guidelines

Nova Holanda, Rubenz Vaz, Parque União, Conjunto Pinheiros, Vila do Pinheiro, Salsa e

102
The South Zone refers directly to the identity of a richest area. In Rio, the south zone of the city is the
wealthiest part of the whole urban area, where the neighborhoods of Copacabana, Ipanema, or Leblon (to
name few) are located. To live in the “South Zone” is then directly related with wealth. Timbau and
Parque Uni o are in Maré the “South Zone” areas.
716

Merengue, Vila do João, Bento Ribeiro Dantas, Nova Maré, Conjunto Esperança

The places in Maré with regular layouts have two main different backgrounds. There are the
cases where the regularity was determined locally, mainly with the intervention of Mr.
Margarino Torres in Maré. These places date from earlier moments and are a local attempt to
organize and structure the areas based on predetermined physical strategies. These places are
not as regular and orthogonal as the other ones, where the public government implemented
projects of low income housing for the residents. In both cases the main common fact is that it is
not about spontaneous occupation, but rather planned and organized processes of urban
development. Both these areas, because of its planning processes and final regularity are the
closest ones to the planning logics of the ordered city, and can easily be understood as being
anything but informal areas.

1950's

Parque União is the most consolidated area of Maré, with a very well defined urban structure
and a high housing prices. It has large streets, some well defined sidewalks and very few alleys.
It started to be occupied in the middle of the 50's, on a spread occupation in the parts that are
nearest to the Avenida Brasil. Threatened of removal by the government, in the end of the
decade Margarino Torres, a communist lawyer, is called to support started planning and
coordinating the occupation of the area, managing the land distribution and selecting the
residents to come to the area (for example, only people with permanent work could settle in).
His plan of organized occupation was followed until 1969.
The portions of land were sold103 to the new residents that needed to follow the rules of the
space – it was forbidden to have illegal activities within the area, like prostitution, if someone
would build a house without permission he would set the fire on the house and each inhabitant
could only owe one piece of land. (Vaz, 1994) Margarino controlled morally and judicially the
occupation, and prevented the residents from potential actions from the police, acting judicially
towards the police initiatives: the policemans needed to be identified in order to get into the
area. On the other hand, Margarino started to be accused of charging for fees and not improving
the area, and his story in Maré ends with an episode of a murdering of a local resident.104
This second phase of occupation happened in a fringe of land close to the water channel
(bordering Rubens Vaz) that was left that was an embankment done by a private company that
then left it without occupying.
The planning of the area took into consideration issues of housing and mobility, with plots
with an area around 70 sq.mt and a well defined layout of streets. The occupation of the whole

103 “
When rumors of a SERFHA-led expulsion began to circulate, one of the residents decided to call on
Magarinos Torres, based on his reputation as a powerful friend of threatened favelas. Magarinos Torres
accepted the charge, setting up a neighborhood organization, re-naming the area the “Bairro Operário
Desembargador Magarinos Torres (after his father), and collecting money that he said would cover court
fees and neighborhood improvements. ” (Fischer, 2013)
104
“In Alexandrino’s retelling he had initially paid and collected the fees without question, trusting that
Magarinos Torres was using the funds to defend local land claims and “urbanize” a favela initially
entirely destitute of water, drainage, electricity, schools, or roads. As the months went by, however,
Magarinos Torres raised the fees, charging as much as 40,000 cruzeiros as an entry fee, in addition to a
monthly charge of CR$1000. The promised improvements never materialized. Magarinos began to
demand that new residents be registered voters, and that they go along with his “political activities,”
imposing increasingly violent penalties – expulsions, shack burnings, beatings – on those who violated
his terms. When João Alexandrino began to question those activities – leaving the local association,
seeking a personal audience with Governor Carlos Lacerda to report the “crimes” and circulating a
petition against Magarinos Torres that would eventually become the foundation for the police land-
grabbing inquiry – Magarinos Torres began a series of steadily escalating threats against Alexandrino and
his family, which culminated in his cousin’s assassination. ” (Fischer, 2013).
 717

area followed 5 different phases, moving towards north and east, and the development
management included the payment of fees from the population that were then applied in urban
improvements and to pay the services done by Mr. Margarino. (Vaz, 1994)
Rubens Vaz is the favela with the smallest ground level area within Maré. Located in a small
fringe between Nova Holanda and Parque União, started to be occupied in 1951 on a sand area
that was left from the canalization of the water chanel of portuária. João Araújo, that was an
inhabitant, started to organize the area and define the streets layout. Being occupied in the 50's,
all the houses were first made out of leftovers of wood, since it was strictly forbidden to build
houses with bricks in favelas on that moment of strong removal policies. It was then a place
where people lived in very hard conditions, living in a very flood prone area and without
allowance to build with more permanent materials. The area hadn't basic infrastructure, and in
1954 the population itself found a way of divert water from the pipes that passed under Avenida
Brasil and have a water source within the community. Before that, the residents of other
communities needed to bring water from Bom Sucesso, in the other side of Av. Brasil, crossing
the high traffic carrying the drinking water (many people died hit by cars in this period).
Afterwards, the whole area was able to have their own water provision individually at each
home. (Vaz, 1994)
The embankments were done by the residents, with chalk (thrown out in the area by the state
gas company) and construction debris that truck drivers would leave in the area in exchange of
payments. The residents build their structured land and the occupation kept on developing and
growing. The authorities paid attention to it and decided to act in order to stop the development
of the area and this is when Margarino Torres steps in and fights for the permanence of the
population in that place. He becomes a strong community leader and this part of Maré, first
named as “areal” (in connection with the sand that existed there), is called “Margarino Torres”
until 1965. (Vaz, 1994)
Its morphology is both determined by the layout defined when it was occupied, the area that
was available with sand from the channel works and from the channel itself: Rubens Vaz is
located between the “val o” (the current name for the channel, since it became a open air
sewage and garbage deposit) and Nova Holanda.

1960's

A refavela
Revela o salto
Que o preto pobre tenta dar
Quando se arranca
Do seu barraco
Prum bloco do BNH
Refavela – Gilberto Gil. 1977

In 1960 the federal district moves from Rio de Janeiro to the new built Brasília. It is a very
important time, when Rio goes from the main city of the country to being the State of
Guanabara. Carlos Lacerda, a famous journalist, is the first governor of the new state and him,
that was in the past a communist, starts one of the most hard decades for the favelas of Rio. The
60's is the decade of great urban and social traumas, with great removals and tragedies, and the
institutionalization and re-enforcement of the favela seen as a problem and a issue to be
controlled and, if possible, eliminated. It is known as the period of the big removals, both from
the favelas and from the proletarian parks that were built in the 40's. It was created the National
Housing Bank (BNH) that supported the construction of new settlements with popular housing
far away from the south zone and the city centre of Rio, to where the population of favelas
(mainly the ones located is areas of high real estate interest) were sent. The construction of
Cidade de Deus (City of God) and Vila Kennedy date from this period. It was also a moment of
718

great investments and financial support in Brazil from the U.S. (through USAID) (Burgos,
2006).
For the re-location of the ones living in the favelas that were removed it was created low
income permanent housing projects (like City of God or Vila Kennedy), far away from the city
centre and the South Zone, in suburban areas, and also temporary housing projects. These ones
were designated to the poorest ones within the poor, considered to be un-civilized, immoral and
dirty. The idea was that these people would stay at the temporary housing projects for some
time, get educated with moral values and hygienic principles in a extremely high controlled
environment and afterwards, they would be sent to more permanent housing, when they would
be ready to live within a more civilized world. This segregationist approach, together with the
great removals, was responsible for the construction of a great trauma among the urban poor,
detached from their territories and divided, separated from their closer ones and from their
urban contexts. Many of these people, living in favelas in the south zone, worked in the same
area but after the removals they faced difficulties on finding work opportunities and building
their new social context.
The foundation Leão XIII, created in the 40's by the church is revitalized, becoming part of
the municipal secretary of social services in 1962. This foundation will be one of the main
responsible for the management of the removal processes and the control of the new
settlements, the administration of the temporary housing centers, registration of people and
definition of the centre of destiny for them. (Burgos, 2006)
This is a political moment towards the favelas that somehow reinforces and evolves from the
politics that were taken 20 years earlier, with the Code of Constructions from 37 (Código de
Obras) and the building of the proletarian parks, when favelas are understood as being undesired
territories and its population being represented as the responsible for urban problems. Once
again, the same story repeating, in an attempt to organize and control the urban land,
segregating the poor areas far away from the wealthiest and high real estate valued places.
“With the increase in planned slum shifting, and the rising proportions of “relocated” people
in new projects, these new projects are sometimes starting off today with the sullenness and
discouragement typical of old projects or of old perpetual unplanned slums – as if they had
already, in their youth, been subjected to the vicissitudes of many disruptions and
disintegrations. This is probably because so many of their residents have already lived with such
experiences, and of course take them along as emotional baggage.” (Jacobs, 1961)p. 278.
The story, once again, influences and reflects directly on the urban morphology of Maré: in
1962 the first inhabitants of Nova Holanda arrive in the area. Nova Holanda was one of the 3
temporary housing centers built with financial support from the USAID that created COHAB-
GB. On these 3 centers and the 3 new permanent areas built in the city were relocated people
from the 12 favelas that were removed. This means that, in the case of Nova Holanda, people
from the old favela of Esqueleto, Praia do Pinto, Faria-Timbó and Querosene were settled
together in the centre. These people had no relationships among them, and it ended up in being
an area with inner segregations. When it was occupied its construction wasn't completely
finished, with some houses to be concluded. (Redes de Desenvolvimento da Maré, 2010)
Morphologicaly, it is a very interesting area of Maré. Nova Holanda was built upon a new
huge embankment done between Rubens Vaz and Parque Maré, that in that period were already
occupied. It had provision of basic infrastructure and the houses were built with wood, brick or
both. There were two different housing layouts: single and duplex houses, and each house was
for a single family.
The construction was done in two phases (first on the northern area until Rua Sargento Silva
Nunes, and then the southern area, until the limits of Parque Maré). It has a completely
orthogonal layout, with very well defined structure, without alleys or cul-de-sac, in a totally flat
and regular area. (Vaz, 1994)
It was not an occupied area, it was not illegal occupation, it was not informal or spontaneous,
it was not abandoned or chosen by the population, it was not supposed to last for a long time
and even though, it became a favela. The case of Nova Holanda should be itself a paradigm to
 719

understand what is it about processes of “favelization”, and to which extent can the public
authorities be part of that process, but that is not the objective of this paper. However,
considering the urban strategy of this area and its occupation process one may address what
possibly creates the perception and identification of informality that has nothing to deal with
urban form itself.
Because it was planned to be a temporary housing centre, the houses were built with fragile
materials and the basic infrastructure was not planned to support long term usages. Also, the
population was completely forbidden of making any improvements in their houses or in the
area, in risk of transforming this houses into more permanent units. Also, coming from different
areas of the city, there were conflicts installed among the residents, which fumbled possible
social organizations (the residents association was only formed in the 80's) and mobilization for
urban improvements.
It ended up in being a permanent settlement, and the population did not leave the centre to be
relocated in any other popular housing units, and as time passed, the houses started to get
destroyed – and not improved – and the basic infrastructural services were not attending
properly the growing population without any maintenance procedures. Since there was no
consideration related to time resistance and adaptation, the area started to have some of the
worst living conditions of whole Mare, becoming a place of shanties. (Vaz, 1994)
So, one may say that the political understanding of the favela as places to avoid, the cleaning of
the city, marked the whole history of Nova Holanda. Its morphology and further processes of
“favelization” are deeply connected – and dependant – on the strategies for social control: the
fact that it was planned to be a temporary housing center, and that it was controlled to stay like
that for many years, together with the difficulties of self organization and mobilization has its
origins also in the planned initiative and the authoritarism of Leão XIII, representing of the
oppressor government.
If Nova Holanda is a great testimonial of the politics of favela removals that happened in the
60's, it is curious to understand that in this period some of the areas of Maré had their biggest
improvements. The population kept on growing in the whole favela, and in some places the
residents themselves improved their urban infrastructures, embanked new areas, and kept on
occupying land. Margarino Torres was a very important character in this period, since he
supported the development of two favelas (Rubens Vaz and Parque União), organizing it and
giving a judicial support to the residents of these areas. It is a fact that both favelas had great
improvements in the 60's, becoming structured places densely occupied. Once the area of Maré
was at that time still a non-valued area for the real-estate market – the city was still having big
investments in the centre and south zone, and moving towards west (Cidade de Deus and Rio
das Pedras were built so that the people moved to there would be probably working on the
building of Barra da Tijuca, the new area of the city in great development), and also with
Avenida Brasil having its industries working all along it and being already the most congested
way of Rio, Maré was then a very strategic place for workers to locate and at the same time it
did not threatened the urban logics of development of Rio. There are stories of corruption within
Maré's development, with the police and Fundação Leão XIII selling houses in Nova Holanda,
and it may have happened in other areas of Maré. No matter what, it is important to understand
that in Maré there were no stories of removal, but stories of population increase during the
decade. In fact, Maré kept on growing and increasing its population until today, and that is also
why it is such a rich and valuable case-study to understand the evolution and patterns of
organization of favelas in different contexts and historical periods.
In 1961, the east area of Rubens Vaz was embanked, at the same time as the government was
doing the landfill in Nova Holanda. The area had urban improvements on basic infrastructural
services that were either given officially by the government (electricity and better water pipes)
or constructed by the population (the sewage system is then directly sent to the water channel).
In the same year, Margarino Margarino Torres leaves the management of Parque União with its
residents associations elected (in 1961) and they keeps on following almost the same guidelines,
continuing the development of that part of Maré. In 1965 the residents association of Rubens
720

Vaz is registered, and has a politics of controlling and organizing the allowance and distribution
of residents in the area, selecting whom could live there and charging fees to the residents. (Vaz,
1994)
In Parque União, the houses were made out of wood, since it was forbidden to build in bricks
in favelas, but the population started to build brick walls behind the wood, and once the house
was finished, the wood panels could be removed. It was also the time of the 5th phase of
occupation of Parque União and if in the first 4 phases the inhabitants had their property
entitlements immediately, in the last phase it took more than 20 years to have the entitlements.
In this period, the inhabitants needed to embank some areas, even though there was a
preexistent embankment done, it was not enough to settle everyone. It was also the period of
greater urban improvements: first, the population (similarly to what they did in Rubens Vaz)
found a way of connecting the water provision infrastructure with the pipe passing under
Avenida Brasil, but once it is found by the municipality it is determined to be destroyed.
However, the residents mobilize and the public authorities decide to make an official connection
replacing the informal one. However, ironically, the official connection has pressure problems
and the populations finds it better to re-make the informal one they had before, increasing and
improving it. Also in 1963 is installed the first electricity network, Also in 61 some streets have
already sewage pipes built, conducting the sewage to the channel that divided Pq. Uniao with
Rubens Vaz, to the bay, and to other channel that passes under R. São Sebastião. In 1962 the
streets are paved for the first time. (Vaz, 1994)
In 1964, when the municipality decides to build a new freeway passing side by side with
Avenida Brasil, a new embankment is done to re-locate the inhabitants living on the fringe close
to the avenue. However, this freeway is not built (it will be build only in 1992 and in a
completely different layout) and the population start occupying the landfill left by the
municipality. This was also the phase when all the embankments were done in the full area (and
after the houses were built, usually another embankment was done to reinforce the streets) that
today is Parque União, completing the construction of its own land by its population and as soon
as land was conquered to the water, it was immediately occupied by new residents coming to
Maré. This last occupations were more irregular than the ones done while Mr. Margarino Torres
was managing the area, and it is very clearly to see two main different street layouts in Parque
União. The streets start having smaller widths and stop following the more orthogonal matrix
done while at Margarino's period. (Vaz, 1994)

The 70's

“The environment is, with no doubt unfavorable. (…) It is hard, if not extremely impossible, to
recover men, women and children in an environment like the one in favelas. Because oh what
we decided for the arduous, but fruitful, work of eradication” (CHISAM, 1971: 31).
cited in (Brum, 2012)
With its territory completely occupied, and with almost one decade of existence, Nova
Holanda becomes overpopulate and its basic infrastructure systems collapse. People went back
to carry the water from far away, as in the old times in other favelas of Maré, and the area is
already becoming unable to support the permanent and growing occupation without any urban
improvement. (Vaz, 1994)
The social conflicts within the center kept on growing with clear segregation and separation
accordingly to the favelas were the inhabitants were coming from (remembering the fire on
Praia do Pinto was in 69, so this population was relocated to Maré in this period and facing
issues of integration and relation with the other residents). This processes designed new
identifications and conceptualizations within the area, subdividing the territory and breaking its
perception as a unit: the duplex area, where people from Praia do Pinto were located, was
known as the Vietnam, because it was considered a very dangerous area. (Vaz, 1994)
Morphologically these differences were also easy to understand, since the duplex units built
were the place for the ones coming from Praia do Pinto, having then a physical differentiation
 721

from the other ones already living in Nova Holanda.

This segregation was supported by the foundation Leão XIII, probably within a strategy of
segregation in order to avoid mobilization and organization among the residents that could put
in risk the authority of the institution and the urban project that was implemented there.
In the government of Moreira Franco, the streets of Rubens Vaz are paved, the streets of
Parque União are re-paved and the basic infrastructural systems are improved. The pavements
are done on a basis of a “street commission”, where people would collect money and take
decisions about the material to pave their streets. It was a self organized process. (Vaz, 1994)

The 80's

In 1982 Brizola is elected in Rio with a political agenda strongly focused on social priorities,
focused on improving favelas and its infrastructure. He represents in that period the alternative
way against the authoritarian clientelism that for so many moments controlled the relationships
between politicians and the city, mainly the favelas.
It is a very different moment that is being lived now, with a different approach towards the
favela, but since the residents were so used to be threatened of removal, they were at first afraid
of being taken from Maré once that the stilt houses would be demolished. They mobilized and
somehow opened the dialogue with the authorities and in fact, everyone that was previously
living in stilts were re-located inside Maré to one of the different projects that Projeto Rio built
there.
Some of these projects were made out of single houses, while others were apartment blocks,
but all within the limits of what is Maré today. This is a moment where all development in Maré
is done on a regular morphological perspective, and the experiences had already shown that if
the projects are not flexible and able to be adapted accordingly to the residents needs they don't
succeed as expected. There is no need to make a deeper analysis of the morphological
definitions, since they are, at this point, mainly resultant from the housing layout decisions and
issues of design priorities. It would be necessary to get into architectural and urban design
paradigms of the moments, and that is not the aim of this work. All the projects have, however,
a very strong regular plan, with modular repetitions, either in apartment blocks or when single
houses are built. The basic layout and structure remains until today, with individual adaptations
in houses. However, one may say that when houses are built individually they are more able to
be adapted and give better flexibility to the residents to evolve or modify their layouts according
to their own needs. Apartment blocks may give a more rigid morphology, and unable some
intuitive transformations of its residents. In both cases, there is a strong modernist perspective
upon the plans and their distribution, based on functionalistic logics and normative, orthogonal
form.
The most important is to reinforce that this was a moment of structuring and development of
the whole area, with a greater definition of its favelas, stabilizing more the occupation and
morphological distribution. Once you have the public authorities and the government building
and planning in Maré for permanent assets, it means the achievement of the urban recognition of
this territory s part of public strategies for urban development of the whole city. However, this is
focused mainly in housing issues at this time, with the communities lacking public services until
today. For this research it is extremely important to see how urban morphology radically
changes when a new logic is placed. This is fundamental to understand the diversity that exists
within Maré, and to acknowledge that in fact this is not the first moment that public policies
influence Maré's development – it has always happened, the main difference is that now this
action had immediate and direct impacts on the urban form.
In 1982 the sewage system of Rubens Vaz is improved, built by the government. During
projeto Rio, the last embankment of the area is done. (Vaz, 1994)
The first election for residents association in Nova Holanda happened only in 1984, and was
planned since 79, with the threat of Projecto Rio to remove the favelas in Maré. Women and
young people are the main responsible for the achievement of a collective thinking, and an
722

organization of the community in order to allow the existence of the residents association in an
area that was initially full of conflicts. The elections were won against the Foundation Leão
XIII, through a remarkable community empowering process. (Redes de Desenvolvimento da
Maré, 2010)
In Projeto Rio, the people living on stilt houses were re-located to new housing units within
Maré and some of the areas were the stilt houses were located, were then embanked by the
project. It is in this context that Conjunto Esperança, Vila do João, Conjunto Pinheiro and Vila
do Pinheiro are build:
Conjunto Esperança is the southern area of Maré. It is a completely planned area, with
blocks of apartments. It does not have direct access via Avenida Brasil, because it is located
behind the main building of the FIOCRUZ foundation (a health foundation). When it was built,
there were no business or commercial activities proposed for the area, and the residents did not
accept the project so well in the beginning because they felt the lack of services and urban
dynamics there. However, with time the area consolidated, adapted and the population became
more familiar with their new context. (Redes da Maré; Observatório de Favelas, 2012)
Vila do João is located North from Conjunto Esperança and faces Avenida Brasil. It was built
in the same context and also for the relocation of people in stilt houses in Maré, but it has a
single housing layout proposal. The residents of Vila do João were given property entitlements
in the moment of relocation, and because of that it is the area of Maré where almost everyone
has their property rights ensured. It is interesting to understand that Vila do João area was an
airport and a flight training center from the 30's to the 70's, that was demolished because it
started to be seen as an unsafe place to do trainings – there was an accident between one plane
that was training with a commercial flight coming from the international airport. (O GLOBO,
2014) It was then an area already defined, completely flat and with a very specific previous
occupation. There are no infrastructural buildings left from that period.
In Conjunto Pinheiro, located east from Vila do João, were built the last apartment blocks (34
units) of Projecto Rio, in 1989. Without maintenance, in 1999, the residents protested for urban
improvements of the area, that were then implemented by the state housing company
(CEHAB). (Redes da Maré; Observatório de Favelas, 2012)
Vila do Pinheiro was built in the context of the second phase of Projecto Rio. It is an area of
small houses built upon embankments done in order to connect the Island of Pinheiros with
land. This island had an elevated area, that became the first (and only one) ecological park in a
favela in Rio – Parque ecológico pinheiros.
Projecto Rio left Maré in 1985, and was publicly announced that all the construction and
improvements were done in Maré, but after popular mobilization the project returns to finish
works that were still undone.

The 90's

In 1990 around 90% of the infrastructure was done in Maré, and the houses of Nova Holanda
were already connected to the electricity network. Rubens Vaz had 98% of the houses with
electricity, 86,04% connected to the sewage system, 96,63% with water provision, and 88,55%
of houses were made out of brick.
From that moment, there were attempts to plan collectively the improvement and
construction of houses in Nova Holanda. The creation of COOPMANH by the residents
association, had the purpose to collectively manage building materials in order to give access to
everyone to improve their houses. It didn't work out as it was planned and then it was created a
factory of concrete bricks with support from the government, that sold those bricks 20% cheaper
(in 1990). in 1992 were reconstructed 46 houses from the duplex area. Today, there are no more
wood houses in Nova Holanda. Nova Holanda has one of the most impressive stories of self
organization after 22 years of authoritarism and segregation among residents, and achieved
amazing results in urban development and consolidation. (Redes de Desenvolvimento da Maré,
2010).
 723

The streets morphology of Rubens Vaz changed among the years. It was first organized as
two main streets connected throw alleys on a very longitudinal distribution but as time passed,
these alleys were closed by the populations, occupied by houses. There is also the argument that
the alleys were closed because they were crime prone areas. (Redes da Maré; Observatório de
Favelas, 2012)
In the 90's there were also other areas being built with initiatives from the public
government.
In 1990 Bento Ribeiro Dantas was built to locate people that came from other favelas and
areas in Rio considered to be risk prone areas. Bento Ribeiro Dantas is located where was in the
past the Inhaúma port, an important infrastructure for the city before the train system was
installed. In 1995 the community had its residents association. (Redes da Maré; Observatório de
Favelas, 2012)
In 1991 the red line is built and it brings transformations for the area. A big embankment is
done in Conjunto Esperança in order to allow to build the freeway, on the area that before
bordered Maré with the water in the south. Contemporary to the red line, the municipality built
Vila Olímpica, a recreational area focused on sports activities located on a big area, on the east
side of Maré. Also after the construction of the red line, it was built a wall all the way that
borders the freeway with Maré, justified by the municipality as a way of reducing noise from
the cars in the community. There are some different positions about that, considering that is was
a strategy to cover Maré from the view of tourists that come all the way from the airport to the
city centre through the red line.
In the 90's starts the Favela-Bairro project in Rio. The main objective of it was to improve
areas of favelas, with great focus in public spaces. It was a moment where “urbanizing” was the
main word for these territories, and the issues of removals were not considered anymore. The
project appeared in a time where there were still infrastructural issues to solve in favelas. It was
implemented during the government of the mayor Marcelo Alencar, on the foreword of the
definition of the city's masterplan in 1992.105 The program is created in 1993 by the governor
César Maia, being one of 6 different programs proposed by GEAP (Executive Group of Popular
Settlements), and has as priority to do the minimum relocations, recover public areas without
being to invasive, and to have interventions mainly in smaller favelas (with 2 to 10 thousand
inhabitants). In 1994 the execution of the program is prepared, and the architectural offices that
win the public competition have the autonomy to define the projects. In 1995 the International
Development Bank injects more money in the project (through another program of popular
settlements urbanization- PROAP), and Favela Bairro extends to around 60 favelas more. There
was the idea of taking Favela Bairro to all the favelas of Rio, and it was already being taken as
an opportunity to build dialogues between the inhabitants and the public authorities, however,
with the new governor being elected, the program was stopped. (Burgos, 2006) The
implementation of Favela Bairro is contemporary to the definition of Maré as a neighborhood,
and José Moraes, the one proposing the change on the areas official denomination argued that
with this new identification it could be possible for the residents of Maré to have more resources
to fight for their fundamental civil rights. (Silva, 2006)
Nova Maré was built within the Favela Bairro process, in the 1996. It was the place for the
resettlement of people that lived in risk prone areas in the city, together with residents from
Maré that were removed from their stilt houses, in favela Roquete Pinto (Redes da Maré;
Observatório de Favelas, 2012). It is interesting to analyze the project on the context of Favela
Bairro, because the focus of the program was the construction of public services, urban
infrastructure and revitalization of public spaces, and Nova Maré is an example of a housing
project within an already structured territory.

105
In the city's masterplan the favelas as first identified as Popular Neighborhods (Bairros Populares), and
there is an attempt to integrate these areas in the city. It considers the construction of new popular housing
and the urbanization of favelas, with a definition of these territories that do not include any moral or
cultural characteristics but only infrastructural and spacial.
724

It is a post-modernist project, south from parque Maré and east from Baixa do Sapateiro,
built with concrete and brick with no finishing, differing aesthetically from the other public
housing projects that exist in Maré, that had a more modernist approach. It proposes an
organization of the houses in groups, with common public areas organizing the space. The
houses are structurally made so that they won't support a vertical increase, and the roofs are
pitched. The circulation within the area is done so that it connects the small public spaces, with
the main streets bordering the area.
Today, Nova Maré is the poorest area of all Maré and also the one with greater conflicts. It is
told among the residents that a big part of the drug dealers in Maré do live in this area, and that
because of that the door numbers of the houses were removed, so that it would be more difficult
to identify the houses. It is also the only favela of Maré that does not have a mail service door to
door, also in relation with that.
The small open spaces proposed by the project are being occupied by new houses, and the
houses are being transformed in all the favela. Some public amenities are sometimes removed,
as the population does not feel they want or need it. It is probably the area of Maré that today is
passing through a faster transformation and adaptation process. It is common sense in Maré that
Nova Maré was an unsuccessful project and its residents are not satisfied with it. Its
morphological definitions and restrictions limited the adaptation capacity of the area, and the
decisions within the project do not supply the social and individual needs of its inhabitants. This
is a paradigmatic case within Maré where the regularity and rationality led to the dilapidation of
the area because it didn't consider the adaptative processes of its residents, and tried to fix a pre-
concept of housing and use of space (the fact that the houses have apparent bricks, looking
unfinished and there is no allowance to finish them with paintings, for example, brings back the
stigma of the favela as the place of informality and permanently unfinished.
Salsa e Merengue is the newest area of Maré. It was built in 2000, and is composed of small
houses. It was built for the relocation of families from other favelas of Rio that suffered from
floods and landslides. Its original name, Novo Pinheiro, makes reference to Vila do Pinheiro, the
community aside, but because the houses were painted in a very colorful way, it started to be
called as the Salsa and Merengue community, making reference to a soap opera that was famous
in that period. (Redes da Maré; Observatório de Favelas, 2012).

Public spaces

In the 7 World Urban Forum, the Future of Places initiative hold a conference series which
included the event Public Spaces in Favelas and Slums. In this event, key stakeholders agreed
on the “the potential of participatory urban planning, utilizing public space as an instrument to
promote equality and poverty reduction; specifically regarding marginalized communities.” as
well as on the need to understand “the importance of understanding the dignity behind public
space and its essential role in favelas and slums.” (Future Of Places, 2014)
In Maré, as well as in other favelas, the public space is not necessarily regularly defined, but
extends to the public areas that exist within. The streets are often an extension of the houses,
and become multifunctional areas. In Maré for example, Rua Teixeira Ribeiro in Parque Maré is
a clear example of how a street can become an open air mall, or a street week market, with
almost all of its sidewalks occupied by the commercial activities that happen along the way.
There are also bars and small food services that extend to the sidewalks, and the whole street
becomes a dynamic public space. There are many examples of this situation in Maré, with
several food markets in different favelas, and with a very usual usage of alleys and smaller
streets as an extent of the house.
There are also more formal public spaces, small squares or sport areas like Vila Olímpica and
football fields. In the case of Vila Olímpica, being a gated areas with access control and with an
extremely formal process of admission of people in their activities (with waiting lists,
dependency on the availability of teachers, etc), it is a space barely used, and even though it
occupies a huge amount of land and has several sports amenities, it is most of the times with
 725

very few people using it. This severe control of public spaces also happens in other formal areas
in Maré. Some football fields have their access controlled by the parallel activities of drug
dealing, that charges the usage of some areas and the moments for them to be used. Even in
some areas where this control is not done directly, there is an indirect influence of the parallel
power over the usage of space.
The urbanization and improvement of public and common spaces, and also its morphological
definition is fundamental for the structuring and development of the areas, as long as it reflects
the flexible use of spaces and its capacity to be adapted to different functions. Once the priority
of occupations in Maré is related with housing provisions, formal public spaces are usually
neglected in the process, for not being considered a priority. However, the way that free areas
are taken are a clear message that there is the need for qualified common amenities and
infrastructures. Streets, sidewalks, or squares may have the potential to connect areas within
Maré and concentrate or disperse local dynamics, if understood from the perspective of the local
needs.
“The private realm often extends into the public sphere due to the proximity between homes
and the narrowness of the roads and pathways. This proximity creates multiple social spaces,
allowing conversations to take place from window to window, doorstep to doorstep, balcony to
balcony. Rooftop gatherings, too, are a popular affair in a private extension of collective
participation. (…)
While the favelas inherently belong to residents, drug traffickers, militias and police forces have
overarching effects over the public’s freedom to enjoy a space. Thus, the notion of scary space
is introduced as one where crime and the fear it instills dominates the perceptions associated
with a place and affects the ways it can be used.“ (Dixon, 2014).
When in the 20th of April the Avenida Brasil was closed in the area that passes in Maré, for
the execution of constructions works, the population used the area for recreational purposes.
(GLOBO, 2014) It was an evidence that there is the need for quality public spaces, and also that
the challenge of adapting urban areas for other purposes is something that the residents are used
to do. It was a lesson given by the inhabitants of that area, of their intense desire of having
public spaces and the right to a city that morphologically supports their urban needs. And public
spaces may have the capacity of changing cities but more than that, changing them within a
collective thinking.
The right to the city is far more than the individual liberty to access urban resources: it is a
right to change ourselves by changing the city. It is, moreover, a common rather than an
individual right since this transformation inevitably depends upon the exercise of a collective
power to reshape the processes of urbanization. The freedom to make and remake our cities and
ourselves is, I want to argue, one of the most precious yet most neglected of our human rights.
(Harvey, 2008)

Ideas for re-classification, re-understanding and re-thinking planning positionings

towards the favela

Idea 1: if maré is a slum, then it is a slum that is unslumming since ever

Slum and Unslumming – lessons from Jane Jacobs

Podem me prender
Podem me bater
Podem até deixar-me sem comer
Mas eu não mudo de opinião
Aqui do morro eu não saio não... 106

106
They can arrest me / They can beat me / They can even leave me without eating / But I don't change
my mind / From the hill I don't move”. Opinião, by Zé Kéti.
726

Leveling this knowledge up to urban form, and focusing on the specific case of the favela,
one will understand how the categorizations that favelas have had are resulting from specific
contexts of relative comparison, and that actions within the favela do take place upon its
regional classification. From Jane Jacobs we find an interesting perspective over what she calls
“slumming and unslumming”. As we read through it, it states clear that, according to the history
of favelas and specifically, of Maré, that when we approach these territories we shall definitely
understand them as something else rather than a slum – or the regional classification she
presents - , but take from her perspective the potential of understanding how situations,
networks, interactions and, in the end, attachments may be the key for unslumming processes.
According to Jacobs, unplanned slums result from the abandonment of urban areas that are
not welcome anymore to wealthy, usually white people. These inhabitants move somewhere else
within the city, to more “valuable” places and leave their old neighborhoods deserted. This is the
starting point for the formation of a slum: immigrants and usually black people buy these houses
and settle in these areas. Usually there is a very fast population growth in these areas, and it gets
overcrowded, and as Jacobs says, usually people are always looking for a chance to move from
these places somewhere else in the city – a safer and more desirable place. Slums can also be
planned, when the public authorities decide to build public houses for people relocated from
other areas of the city.
From this understanding, one may identify the regional categorization that is given to a slum,
and if Maré was build – as we will see during this study – from nothing, there are processes
within the construction of this place that remind us of the traditional slum creation that Jacobs
speaks about. However, as we will see later, if it is to consider that Maré was a slum, once upon
a time, now the regional understanding must change.
“The foundation for unslumming is a slum lively enough to be able to enjoy city public life
and sidewalk safety. The worst foundation is the dull kind of place that makes slums, instead of
unmaking them.
Why slum dwellers should stay in a slum by choice, after it is no longer economically
necessary, has to do with the most personal content of their lives, in realms which planners and
city designers can never directly reach and manipulate – nor should want to manipulate. (…)
Indirectly, however, the wish to stay is obviously influenced by physical factors in the
neighborhood.” (Jacobs, 1961. p.279)
From the lessons learned of American slums through the perspective of Jacobs, and thinking
about Maré as a favela, the proposal is to find a relationship between unslumming foundation
processes as proposed and the reality that is today being lived in Maré. The stories within the
history of Maré tell us, similarly to many other stories of many other favelas, about places of
struggle, of strong and persistent processes and actions from the populations in order to stay in
those areas and not to be removed from there. In the case of Maré we may see from one side, the
conditions that turned that area into a possible area for the poor ones to settle – a place close to
job opportunities, in a mangrove area, not desired by the middle and upper classes, where
people could built their houses free of charge - , so one may say that the population was directed
to this area, but on the other hand, we see a constant strength to stay in those areas and to
improve the houses and also the urban infrastructure.
“As the family grows, or additional resources become available, the shacks are improved
through “puxadinhos” and the cheap materials are substituted by better ones in a continuing
adaptation process.” (Vaz & Jacques, 2004)
So, if in one hand we have conditions that are similar to the foundation of a slum –
occupation of undesirable land – on the other hand it is clear that the population carries within
their territorial story lessons of an unslumming process that is happening since the very
beginning of occupying Maré – with the army demolishing the houses and people re-building
them on the 40's, the construction of their basic infrastructure and improvements of houses,
building with more permanent materials, or growing the houses as the inhabitants economical
conditions improve.
 727

Considering this, one may say that, if we want to talk about favelas as being a slum, then we
shall consider them as a slum in a continuous process of unslumming, and both concepts are
then born together. Or one may consider, from a planning perspective, these evidences as open
messages from the local population of a strong dynamic of urban improvement happening
within the favela. It may be the role of planners and politicians to carry about supporting urban
improvements, the achievements of greater urban quality and, as Perlman says, “sidewalk
safety”, but it is not their role to define or try to manage the reasons why people choose to stay.
But as we see historically, it seems easier for agents of formal transformation to create
potentially “planned slums” than to support unslumming processes that are in action.

Idea 2: favelas are not informal settlements: they are full of form! Proposing an alternative
classification – towards the spaces of adaptation.

Proposal for a contemporary updating of understanding urban dynamics and morphologies of

the favelas.

Regular vs Irregular

Considering the specific dynamics of urban development within Maré, it is not possible to keep
on talking about informality when considering these territories, and it is clear that these spaces
are not urban ghettos or shantytowns as we know them from other international examples.
Favelas, and specifically Maré, exist and develop within their very specific continuing struggles,
resulting from a constant battle from people to find and build their place and identity in the city.
Favelas have logics that are developed from their own necessities and challenges, and what is
usually called as being informal is nothing more that the simple misunderstanding or no-
understanding of another perspective of urban development.
As it was seen, the irregular territories are usually related with the local logics and the self
building of the place. Irregularity comes from the sum and bridging of many individual efforts
within a common ground. It represents the continuous struggle to fix a space within a territory,
and its morphological definition stamps with great accuracy the flexibility of these actions and
the logics that come from human needs and social life, much more than from technical
conceptualizations, or Cartesian understandings of space. It is the planning upon the needing, in
a constant adaptation to everyday challenges, threats and conquers.
On the other hand, the regular communities mainly results from planned initiatives of
development. Either locally organized or resulting from state initiatives, these spaces have in
their orthogonal and clear space definition the confirmation of a planning process that was based
first on land, then on human life. In some cases, the regularity and ruling was so and inflexible
that ended in prejudicing the improvement of some spaces (i.e, Nova Holanda). Regular
territories within Maré represent the planning logics of each specific time, the planning
paradigms and the political moments of the city.

Favelization or Adaptation?

If the more irregular communities are built on a bottom-up approach – people develop and build
the territories and later on, the official services and infrastructures are provided - , the more
regular ones follow an approach that is from above – the places are built and then people adapt
them to their own needs. Somehow, when these events happen in poor areas, they are named as
a “favelization” processes, for both cases: when people occupy land, and when popular housing
or urban infrastructure is built and then transformed by the population. Considering that
“favelization” is a very abstract concept, we rather talk about adaptation processes.
Both regular and irregular places, no matter how they are built, attest the societal
development, political interests and economic strategies of the city. These realities are the real
cards to play the urban planning games, since thay are the greatest determination of where do
728

people live, how do people understand the relation between housing and work, where is social
inequity based on economic values and accesses, which city is wanted and for whom. Then
planning must be seen from a broader perspective – it is not the simple organization of space,
but must be the understanding of the inner forces of urban development. Planning, in Maré, was
done from the first moment, when Mrs. Orozina planned to stay on Timbau hill, when other
people planned to build their houses to be close to the (planned) new industrial city. Planning
was when the military turn houses down and controlled the occupations, when fundação Leão
XIII had their roles defined, when the governor decided to put people in temporary houses,
planning a more civilized city. And finally, in a classical perspective, planning was when Mr.
Margarino Torres organized and controlled the development of two communities, when the
municipality built low income modern and post modern housing units, when Projeto Rio
relocated in new buildings people living in stilt houses.
What we may find different from Maré and other favelas in Rio from the rest of the city (or
the “favelization” processes) is their continuous capacity of adaptation to reality and needs. In
the formally planned city, the organization of space illustrates future investments and strongly
organize the way people live in the city. In the case of Maré it can be seen that space is adapted
to the population needs, to the topographical and geographical conditions, and in the end, to the
logics of the other city. It lives a constant adaptation process and when space lacks flexibility it
will be confronted by the local needs.
It seems necessary to propose a new classification for these territories, replacing the des-
informed and obsolete informal vs formal dichotomy: favelas are adaptative and adapted
settlements, that can be morphologically regular or irregular – they are spaces of adaptation and
reciprocity 107 . This new classification may help society, politicians, and also planners, to
understand the direct relation among these territories and the local realities, and state clear that
there is no such thing of excluded places, living in constant informality, and within some sort of
local autism.
Planners shall understand that these are areas of constant change and that flexibility is
fundamental, they shall shift paradigms when including these territories in their plans and
researches and classify and work upon them understanding their specific logics and histories,
their own challenges and never-ending stories.

Idea 3: breaking dogmas supported by the morphological understandings

On her great analysis of researches done upon the favela theme, Valladares (Valladares, 2005)
presents us with a series of dogmas that appear frequently in the works done. The proposal is to
try to understand, from the morphological story of Maré (considering its multiple inner stories
and the greater story of the city as a whole) to reflect upon those dogmas.

Dogma 1: Favela as a completely specific and singular space.

Favela has a very particular way of occupying urban land, without urban infrastructure and in a
irregular way. It has a very specific aesthetics of housing, and according to official perspectives,
it is a place of exception, where illegality and occupation against the norms established are the
main rule. Therefore, favelas shall have exceptional politics considering their exceptional and
singular contexts.
As it was presented, favelas may have completely different realities within it. They are a
response to established rules that regulate urban space, processes of urban market that exclude
the poor ones from accessing housing in the formal and legal cit, só they don't appear from

107
In its research about space organization in favelas, John Dawsey supports the idea of a space of
discipline (resultant from processes of urbanization) in contrast to spaces of reciprocity, organized by
residents of favelas in their struggle to survive to processes of marginalization. He supports that both
organizational forms are resultant from contrasting cultural processes. (Dawsey, 1989)
 729

exception but from the answer to the established rules that can't include all diferent urban needs
and priorities. There are also different cases of favelas built by the rule directly, such as the case
of all the popular housing built in Maré, or the housing projects (temporary or permanent) built
back on the 60's. They are just examples of how favelas are not singular, independent or
specific, but an urban fact that results, as all other urban facts, from its specific political,
economical and social context.

Dogma 2: The favela is territorial and socially the urban place of the poor.

This dogma would mean the favela residents build a city within the city, the illegal territory
inside the legal one, in a very well defined limited zone, with their own economy, inner laws
and specific codes. It is the theory of the broken city, of urban exclusion.
What we know is that the favela lives economically and socially completely integrated in the
city and that its territory results from the evolution of the whole city. Maré, for instance, has its
territorial history completely dependent and connected with the urban transformations that were
happening around and the economic opportunities that opened in the area, mainly related with
creation of jobs in construction and industries. There is not the case of urban exclusion, but of
urban differences within the same dynamics. If the favela is there ii is because the city wanted
and also needed it to be there in order to be the city it is today. Even inside Maré, there are
different economic realities and valued places, there are different social relations and political
consequences. And if the analysis would extend to the rest of the city, it is today very clear, with
the processes of gentrification happening, that the favela can't anymore be considered as the
place of the urban poor. Also, the favelas of Rio are much more an issue of inequality rather
than a question of poverty.

Dogma 3: Favela as an unit. All favelas are reduced as a single category.

Favela is spoken in singular and lacks the interest about their inner diversities. There is the
tendency of speaking about the favela as a ideal paradigm, with great number of studies and
analyses focusing on the differences among favela and the rest of the city.
There are not only differences between favelas, but also inside a single favela in its different
areas. Even morphologically speaking, there are favelas structured more organically, in hills,
others located in flat areas, others that were slightly conquering their spaces and irregularly
forming. There are favelas with different urban densities, and located in completely different
places of the city. They have their own contexts and structures, and even socially, they have
specific organizations and mobilizations among their life as urban areas. It is fundamental to
take a deeper look to the differences of these areas instead of building generalizations and
unifying wrong conceptualizations, that can only under estimate and misunderstood the
common knowledge and weak the potential capacity of acting and work for the improvement of
these areas.

Idea 4: rio and the mega events: this is not an excepcional moment in the city

In the past the city of Rio hosted several mega events. Specifically on the 20's and on the 40's,
these events where strategic arguments for the public authorities to take action upon urban
development and it had direct impacts in the life of the urban poor, with great number of
removals in favelas of the city. When looking to the events with more attention, one may
understand that the execution of those urban initiatives were planned and debated long before
the events started.
As Soares Gonçalves presents, “he organization of mega events in the first decades of the
XX century had a strong pedagogic role to build a new society and eliminate the points of
diversity. The building of a pretentious agreement about the future of the nation was expressed
also in the way to act in urban space. The time urgency to prepare the city allowed diverse
730

negotiations, with improper use of public budgeting and giving benefits to certain economic
groups, namely the ones connected with civil construction and real estate market. Even the
mayor was pointed of getting undue benefits in the demolishment of Morro do Castelo”.
(Gonçalves, 2013)
Some of the specific episodes help in understanding how the mega events had an important
role in sustaining and acting as an argument for urban actions that have within them other
interests and consequences. Today, Maré is facing this new urban context, with the same old
stories. There is no perceived risk of any intention from the government to evict the favela, or to
take the territory for other investments, but it is also true that new dynamics are happening, and
that in total, around 30000 people were evicted in the context of the preparation of the world
cup and the Olympics.
This year the army occupied Maré, with the main objective to take the organized crime out
of there and, as it is usually said, to re-take the territory to the public power. It is promised since
last year that Maré will have an UPP, a pacifying police that has been taken as a model and
implemented in many different favelas of Rio. At the same time, it is true that the strategy to
occupy Maré now has a direct relationship with the upcoming world cup event, and the
territorial and geographical context of Maré – it is located on the middle way, from the
international airport of Rio to the city center. The decision to position the army in Maré now
has, once again, its origins in a perspective of control of this territory, and the understanding of
it as something that need to be supervised and managed as a dangerous and informal place.
Once again, the territory has its challenges and opportunities directly related and dependent on
the history of the city, but once again being positioned as the different city, where the actions
taken in order to get ready for the mega events differ from the processes in the other, formal,
city.
The UPP process has brought in some territories a classical gentrification process. It is also a
repeated story, that happens al least since the early XX th century in Rio, with the government
of Pereira Passos and his great urban transformations. With UPP favelas, and mainly the ones
located in strategic urban areas, become places of interest from the real estate market. Also with
regularization, people that were using basic infrastructure self-built, without supervision, now
need to pay for these services, and in some cases this is a strong reason for leaving the places
and moving far away, into suburban areas. This gentrification events, with rise of house values
and expenses with services are a real threat to places like Maré. On the other hand, the
occupation of the territory and the certainty of a UPP coming to Maré opens up the perspective
of new opportunities, and the population is organizing themselves to build up dialogues with the
municipal and the state government.
On the 6th of April, the mayor announced that the program Bairro Maravilha, that was being
implemented in areas of the city that lack interventions from the public government, will be
implemented in Maré. The objective is to improve urban infrastructure, but the mayor had also
announced a great investment in education for the area – the building of new 7 schools, 5 kind
gardens, and an educational campus. The mayor has also confirmed that the public government
is taking action over Maré for a long time, and that the biggest issue to face was actually the
armed drug dealers. 108
It is clearly a positive perspective over the urban needs of the territory of Maré, but once
again, it is made upon a principle that it is a territory to be controlled and that things could not
be done without the presence of the army. The majority of the 30 000 people evicted in the
context of the mega events are being relocated far away in the city (62% of Minha Casa Minha
Vida projects, a federal program of low income housing to where some people that are being
evicted from favelas are being relocated, are placed in Santa Cruz, in the west part of the city,
extremely far away from the city center and the richest neighborhoods in the south zone), and
these dynamics immediately remotes us to the policies overtaken back in the 40's and again in

108
“Prefeitura levará obras do Bairro Maravilha para a Maré” in http://oglobo.globo.com/rio/prefeitura-
levara-obras-do-bairro-maravilha-para-mare-12111391#ixzz31SClzPUS
 731

the 60's.

Conclusion

The form of the informality is built through a series of relations, conflicts, challenges and
achievements that build historical relationships between public authorities and the population.
The urban strategies are tactics determined mainly to accomplish clear urban objectives, and the
urban development of favelas – its origins and continuous evolutions – result from these
relations. Economic strategies, political positioning, and social contexts define the final layout
of urban complexities and definitions. It is not different in urban morphology. As we saw from
Maré, the form of this territory is always built among these complex dialogues, revealing stories
of struggle and resistance, or top-down initiatives of urban permanence, but it is always a plan
that exists behind the plan. The idea here is to bring up in the air the notion that planning has
much more to do with this level of decision rather than with the morphological
conceptualizations of space. Therefore, favelas as places need to be considered and read from its
own background and from how these areas are integrated in the whole sequence of local and
global events. From the learning of Maré, one may understand for example how in the 60's the
american financial support given governmental projects ended up in supporting a whole series
of removals and urban traumas. At the same time, the fact that Dona Orozina herself, decided in
staying in Timbau without allowance had a strong impact on the history and on the definition of
that place. And today, the mega events, the processes of gentrification, and the pacification
processes are also building new urban definitions, interpretations and also, new morphologies.
The role of the planner or the architect in this game is, one may say, indifferent for the whole
story. But then, what can we, as planners, as architects, and as social actors, do for the
achievement of a more fair, equal and morphologically understandable city?
The question should be on what do we want for our cities, and how do we see our cities. The
proposal of this research is to suggest that first of all we shall understand how we identify the
space of favelas, and what could be, in the end, their common essence. And, to what concerns
issues of urban morphology and layout, its common essence is a matter of process, and not a
matter of product. There is not a single favela equal to another, there is no definition of form
within these places, but there is a common process of adaptation that follows all paradigms.
And understanding this first, may be a good start.

Acknowledgments

I would like to express my appreciation for the support given on this research from Mrs. Katarina Nitsch
and Henrietta Palmer from the Royal Institute of Art and also from Mr. Rafael Soares Gonçalves, Mário
Brum and Mauro Amoroso. This exploratory thinking may be continued.

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 733

Fernando Távora and the portuguese urban space design

Carolina Ferreira
Department of architecture, Faculty of Sciences and Technology,
University of Coimbra.
E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract. Our urban context is considered in new and complex ways, in which territory is no longer a
mere network or mesh, but an interaction of different plans and systems of urban life relationships. A
territory constituted by several layers that either continue or split from urban collective memory, we are
challenged to grasp the urban question by studying the processes that occur while a project is created.
This paper aims to reflect on idea-based construction processes seeking to intervene in the urban space
by looking at the theoretical and practical career of Fernando Távora (1923-2005) - a Portuguese
architect who has influenced the teaching and practice of this subject in Portugal from the 1960s to the
present time. It will begin from the General Plans and Urban Arrangements carried out by Távora and
his team, during the second half of the 20th century in several Portuguese cities, namely Montemor-o-
Velho (1951-59), Aveiro (1962-63), Barredo in Oporto (1969-76), Guimarães (1979-86) and Coimbra
(1989-1992). Fernando Távora’s work supports a methodological position of the utmost importance to
our time: to intervene locally, according to global strategies, establishing as many relations and
continuities as possible; in other words, to act surgically, promoting an effect of surrounding
contamination.

Key Words: methodology, urban Intervention, urban design, Fernando Távora, Portuguese space design.

Fernando Távora and the portuguese urban space design

The Portuguese Urban Space Project is, from the origin of nationality, a form of organization of
human relations in the territory, building spaces of various kinds: political, social, economic,
affective, among others. The definition of its forms has been throughout the ages, and for
specific circumstances and needs, one of the objectives of the discipline of architecture.
With the project, the architect was able to idealize, imagine and design varied urban realities
and communicate them. Idealistic, utopian, realistic, conceptual - cities experimented different
ways of being, always needing to reinvent itself and ensure its continuity. Therefore, the act of
designing had and will have an important analytical and purposeful role in helping the thinking
and influencing the future of urban culture.
The Portuguese urban territory has followed different directions and forms. The use of urban
design throughout the ages served various purposes such as defending and controlling, the
affirmation of political, spiritual and economic powers, expanding the territory to colonize,
unite or separate, strengthening or weakening, innovating, to modernizing and surprising,
correcting, to aggrandize and / or improving the existing one. They all guided methodological
approaches to suit each context, without ever having been able to define a ‘methodology’, which
would serve as a disciplinary model. Perhaps for this reason, Fernando Távora understands that
"in architecture, the opposite can also be true."109
In fact, the design process is nonlinear and permeates each step to another, adjusting to the
conditions and necessities of each time. The configuration of the phases and the choice of tools

109
This is an autobiographical sentence fromFernando Távora which was referred to as "personal
communication" in a note by Marius Kruger (2005:128, 147). The sentence was associated with a
statement of Fernando Pessoa, in a text from 1927, related to classical and romantic poets (Person, 1993:
157), by Jorge Figueira (2012: 44) and Silvio Alves, who is devoted to the study of relations between
architecture and literature from the work of Fernando Pessoa and Fernando Távora.
734

are organized to suit a problem. The architecture deals, thus, with dynamic processes and
therefore has to reconcile different perspectives, while working with the very objective
condition of the object and the subject's own subjective condition (Koselleck, 2009).
The understanding of architecture has changed over time and ought to continue its
transformation, developed in the light of the main planning and methodologies reflected in
future forms of social organization. The methodological indefinition is also a factor of the
design of today's disciplinary inconsistency factor, placing the subject in a fragile position and
with ill-defined borders in the urban context. These uncertainties raise some questions:
How should the discipline of architecture position itself in front of the urban reality? How
should the architect intervene on urban problems? Will the creation of new methods of spatial
analysis be necessary to argue more practical form their options, and thus be able to act in a
multidisciplinary overview of more active and participatory way? Which is, after all, the
disciplinary specificity that distinguishes architecture from other forms of intervention in the
city? While architects, how do we contribute to the Portuguese Urban Space Project?
To think the architectural project to intervene in the future of urban space is now a necessity.
According to the idea of Aureli (2013: 14, 15), the inability of the architect to shape the city, has
been presented as a fait accompli. The growing ineffectiveness of architecture in providing
answers to the social and political problems. This idea has been underestimating the power of
architecture to influence our reality and the urban condition.
In this sense, it is the purpose of this writing, to reflect on the project of Portuguese urban
space from some work carried out by the office of Fernando Távora in the cities of Montemor-
o-Velho, Aveiro, Oporto, Braga and Coimbra. During the second half of the last century,
Fernando Távora developed some studies and urban proposals that depict important moments of
reflection and construction of an approach to urban intervention. The Portuguese urban
narrative, learned from these cases, aims to raise awareness of critical issues and problematizing
the current urban reality, subjecting them to a reading based on the reconstruction of the thought
processes behind the forms, allowing us to understand the construction and the importance of a
methodology disciplinary project for the Portuguese Urban Area.
This approach integrates the current debate on the contemporary city. The disciplinary
position of architectural practice in the (re) urban design, identifies instruments and tools that
can assist to research, to reflection and to question reality - a phase of analysis - for the formal
implementation of ideas - synthesis.

From analysis to synthesis

"Being collaborative, works of Architecture and Urbanism will be summaries, plastic

translations in those space organized by whom and for whom they perform. (...) It is largely in
the hands of Architecture and Urbanism to organise the environment in where Man lives, the
buildings where he dwells or works, cities, regions or countries where he is integrated.
"(Távora, 1952:155) The preliminary plan of Montemor-o-Velho, 1959, still inserted in urban
policies from Duarte Pacheco, was a turning point and confrontation with the complexity of
urban problems. It was also the moment he entered as a teacher for school Fine Arts in Oporto.
Thus, arising the opportunity to approach the teaching and practice of architecture, bringing the
themes and works which we developed in his office for the school.
In 1951, Távora began to study the town of Montemor-o-Velho, which would last eight
years, up to the formulation of preliminary plan´s proposal. The document was written and
composed by drawings, in addition to photographic records of the city at the time. In a
descriptive memory all research and analysis was collected to support its proposal for territorial
organization of the village. Távora analysed the current state, contextualizing Montemor-o-
Velho in Portugal and characterized the natural conditions where it was implanted. He also
prepared a historical evolution of human occupation and a demographic study.
 735

In this process, Távora sought the understanding of the territory for the design, using it as a
tool of analysis. He developed means of representation that reflect aspects of the organization of
the territory of Montemor-o-Velho. Plans of situation were drew up, first in the country, then in
the district, followed by the county until defining and limiting the area of study and
intervention, by defining the field of action where urban life unfolds. Additionally, Távora
produced plants topography - to show the direction of Montemor deployment in its relationship
with the hill, river and canal. He Drew up a plan of construction of the building in relation to the
castle district, other of the road system of the city, another of buildings representative of civic
commercial, health, religious and sports centrality, types and condition of housing, etc.
Overall, this review process has looked at political, social, economic, geographical, cultural
and spiritual organization way to, in the end, understand the city as an organism, realizing the
way it works and feel. This methodology reveals an enormous sensitivity to the experience of
place and people’s experiences, always seeking strategies of continuity with the existing,
avoiding fracture. The rupture understood as the loss and / or destruction of the references that
connect people among them in space.
Based on these principles, the plan connected the possibilities of analysis from various
disciplines to characterize the identity of the place. It culminates in a synthesis phase
responsible for the formalization and realization of a proposal based on the economic structure
of the village, strengthening the agricultural nature of the site. He proposes plots / lots for
farming, strengthens the concentration of housing area in East slope of the hill, around the castle
wall, and defines in the lower zone a track for the development of more public nature programs.
"Factors as varied as scientific thought or religion, economics or sensitivity, politics or
philosophy therefore constitute facts of the organization of space, condition of the forms that
organize, in addition to pre-existing forms (...). This makes sometimes difficult to discern from
the importance of one on the other (...). The most understandable to the viewer so that they will
better portray, that which he most identifies with, the one he knows by connaturally (...)"
(Távora 1962: 22)
The act of designing is understood as an act of investigating in order to learn, operate and
transform the territory. Involves a maturation process to clarify intentions and pin down
strategies of organizing space.

Figure 1. Preliminary plan of Montemor-o-Velho, Relief and hydrography of the council,

April 1959.
736

Figure 2. Preliminary plan of Montemor-o-Velho, Space Occupancy, April 1959.

Figure 3. Preliminary plan of Montemor-o-Velho, April 1959.

 737

Figure 4. Aveiro’s Centre Renovations, Tower, Plan, Sketches, 1962.

Rupture or continuity? The new medieval.

Two years after the Montemor-o-Velho plan in 1961, Távora was called by the Municipality of
Aveiro to redesign the central part of the city, based on a scheme drawn up by the Office of the
Director Plan. This proposed urban renewal sought to answer an idea of modernization and
affirmation of a city in economic and territorial expansion.
Betting on the peculiar features of the urban landscape, the proposal promotes the binding of
the two parts of the city separated by the channel, through the redesign of bus routes and
pedestrian circulation around and perpendicularly through the arrangement of the block from the
Republic Square. Moreover, it proposes a square tower (the medieval style) base to
accommodate new urban programs (hotel, offices, commercial centre, car park) worthy of a city
that wanted it to be modern.
The development work focuses on the design of the relationship of pedestrian and road,
bridges and the contact of the buildings with the ground paths. The relationship with the
surrounding buildings is carefully designed with games and openings volumetric gradations in
order to provide continuity with the public space.
However, while it worries about spatial continuities, this proposal has aspects of rupture with
the existing. First, because it eliminates all the buildings on the block located between Republic
Square and the canal, with the exception of two bank buildings (symbols of economic power).
Then, because it proposes a typology of the tower that had to change the relationship with the
existing space.
Nevertheless, it resumes the typology of the medieval tower, a building that stands out as an
architectural element of extreme functional and symbolic importance. In this case, the resource
to some references and architectural typologies (at a level of abstraction) helped formalize the
general intent of the intervention, enabling action on the form (reality). In this case, the use and
understanding of history is an important design tool, serving as a reference and stimulus for
formal implementation of the proposal. The discipline of history was used by Fernando Távora
as design tool, showing clearly the Vidler idea (2003) where the history is understood not as a
problem for the architecture, but as the solution.
I was in this way Távora projected the idea of a new city, while reconciling intentions of
modernization, renovation, revitalization and concerns of urban growth and expansion, always
with a particular sensitivity to recognize and enhance urban specificities of Aveiro. Those
specifics that make it a unique and at the same time a part of the design of urban space
Portuguese city.
738

Figure 5. Barredo’s photos.

Methodological experience

The Study of Barredo´s Urban Renewal, from 1969, was a pioneering experience in renovation
and rehabilitation that served as an example for future action in areas of recognized cultural and
historical interest. It expressed all kinds of concerns that resulted of the paradigm shifts that
emerged with the post-war and established a laboratory for experimentation on methods of
intervention in the city (Moniz, Gonçalves Correia, 2013).
First, because it involved a team effort consisting of the Planning Office of the Oporto City
Hall, the office of the architect Fernando Távora, the School of Fine Arts of Porto and the
resident population in the neighbourhood. The possibility of a multidisciplinary work arose
from the Teaching Reform of 1957, with the implementation of a new curriculum and the
creation of a research centre to support research and the profound transformation of teaching
methods in architecture and objectives of training of the architect.
Then, because it presented a revolutionary proposal, against the modernist tendencies of
demolition and construction of new buildings as a solution to the serious problems of lack of
salubrity of the old town. Instead, Távora proposal was to maintain and improve the existing
spatial conditions, considering Barredo an integral part of the city and, therefore, an important
area to conserve and rehabilitate.
In this sense, he consolidated methods relevant to the project-development analysis, making
an exhaustive survey of the neighbourhood, through population surveys, using drawing and
photography as tools to know and understand the reality. The information was organized in
grids of observation, analysis and interpretation. Regarding the graphic part, represents the ratio
of the block with the surrounding context; architectural aspects and interiors of houses in 1:200
drawings; he focus on the block level, exploring the systems of spatial organization of
 739

vernacular construction; redesigns the interior spaces of homes, providing them with toilets and
kitchens.
Through a real experience, he reclaimed the social function of the architect in Portuguese
panorama, showing a completely different positioning of the architect for the time. In addition
to technical and artistic skills, the architect was now understood as an agent capable of acting on
behalf of social causes through interventions in the built environment underpinned by a process
of human knowledge and spatial problems of the community. A work of architecture is thus a
work of collaboration with ethical responsibility to integrate the diversity and uniqueness of
urban culture, because people's relationship conditions and is conditioned by the space they
inhabit.

Urban strategy: density

Another example of a General Urban Plan is the one of Guimarães in 1982, commissioned by
the city to the Fernando Távora´s Office, in 1979. Twenty years after the study Montemor-o-
Velho, the plan of Guimarães was inserted into another political program of urban management
that created the Local Technical Offices in the municipalities with the aim of forming
multidisciplinary teams, depending on the municipal offices would ensure the preparation of
studies, projects and actions to prepare renewal operations and maintenance covered.
It was the moment where Fernando Távora tried a new approach to urban territory through
an analysis of the evolution of territory to various historical periods, beginning with Castro
period to the current state, synthesized in eight plants. In Castro period, he sees the logic of
settlement of the first people in that territory; in Roman times, he recognizes the importance of
roads in the beginning of the urban formation; in the period between centuries IX to XV, he
observes the logic of medieval pathways integrated in door systems of the urban centre and
distribution network of churches and hospitals; in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
period, he marks the manors, churches and convents extramural guiding the process of urban
expansion and expressions of social, economic, cultural and spiritual comfort of the population
with space ( Távora and Ferreira , 1982:39 ) ; in the nineteenth century, there is new mark in the
territory with the railway line and administrative rules to sort and delimit the urban area; in 1950
there is the consolidation of peripheral cores and the consequent abandonment of the urban
centre; in 1975, the morphology reveals the serious problems of urban dispersion disorder; in
the Predictable Evolution plan (name of the last plan) Távora anticipates the future design of
urban sprawl detecting the ways that you can work to redirect the city back to its centre.
In addition, he makes a geographical analysis of the city located in Vale do Ave, a fertile
region for crops, located in a mountain and valley system; he reunites all the urban plans carried
out previously, collects data and promotes questionnaires to the population.
He aims at realization of a "territorial plan that intends to establish lines of development and
use of the physical world and not a plan for economic and financial development or a social
development plan. Thus, it is a plan that, not forgetting the constraints of road character that
mark the territory, focus mainly its physical form and proposes ways to shape their future; or
even a plan where the quality of form is considered as a fundamental determinant of quality of
life. "(Távora and Ferreira, 1982:4)
In general, as a methodology, aims to recognize the process of formation of Guimarães
identity through the shape, de-constructing the process of memory construction of that body
through registration of permanence and history, in order to give it continuity and find memories
that promote recognition of Guimarães´ citizens with space, contributing to building a positive
identity of the city.
The great proposal of the General Urban Plan of Guimarães is a ring road, scoring entries in
the city as doors. This system would work as a wall, and as part of the consolidation centre,
referring to the medieval road structure represented one of eight plans of urban evolution, listed
above. Távora also prepared detailed plans, in which he draws the "new doors" of the city, and
740

proposing the rehabilitation square to square and the rehabilitation of some residential buildings,
serving as an example for future private investment.

Figure 6. Urbanization General Plan of Guimarães. Plans of the urban growth

historical analysis.
 741

Thus, an engine of contamination was created, respecting the natural time for a real change
of the urban system, because collective structures and tools were created, serving as positive
guide to future choices.
Overall, these interventions intended to promote densification and consolidation of centre
city and redirect it to the centre, controlling its form of growth and expansion.
However, the figure of the Municipal Master Plan turned out to counter the strategies
previously advocated by Fernando Távora. Since the 80s, not only in Guimarães, the Portuguese
territorial planning was promoted by such plans, where the city came to be structured according
to the way of mobility, networks, infrastructure, a way of thinking systematized and sectored
territory, encouraging urban sprawl and large-scale planning, thinking about the city in
extension.
The territory was resized and urban systems began to function as diluted and fragmented
bodies in urbanized territory without limits or boundaries, essential to a cohesive and spatially
defined tissue. This rational of thinking about the territory overestimates the functional and
economic issues instead of cultural issues, because these introduce management models difficult
to deal with inclusion and exclusion, connections and disconnections between groups and
individuals.
Despite this, Fernando Távora could still carry out the design of the road node of Creixomil
and rehabilitation of a system of squares, as part of an intramural route, thereby contributing to
the much-desired centrality and consequent revitalization of urban life of Guimarães.

Figure 7. Urbanization General Plan of Guimarães. Routes and Public Spaces, undated.

Figure 8. Creixomil Viaduct, Plan, 1986.

742

Figure 9. Condessa de Juncal and João Franco Squares, Sketches, 1992.

(Re) design (Re) order (Re) orienting

The experience and success of interventions in Guimarães, paved the way for urban
arrangement of 8 de Maio Square and its surrounding area in Coimbra. In the last decade of the
twentieth century, following a series of restructuring measures in the downtown area, backed by
urban policies aimed at solving some of the urban problems and create dynamics for the city by
promoting local programs such as Polis Program and Metro Mondego. These programs
favoured the revitalization of the city from specific themes to promote multifunctionality,
pedestrian areas and to limit the automobile traffic.
Thus, this proposal aimed to recover the initial level of the square reconstituting the reading
of Santa Cruz Church dated 1131, referenced to the streets that used to flow in frontal to the
monument facade and remove motor traffic on this stretch.
If in the case of Guimarães, the intervention of Távora was "invisible", in a sense that it lets
the form speak for itself, that is, limiting to take care of the elements that compose the squares
and buildings from different historical periods, respecting the vernacular architecture and
permanence of urban typologies that have always been part of the collective memory of a city,
in the case of 8 de Maio Square the intervention focused in a deeper way of resetting, changing
relationships with existing morphology.
 743

Figure 10. 8 de Maio Square and envolving area, Sketch, 1993.

In this medieval urban morphology with irregular features, Távora will pursue a rigorous and
careful formal composition method based on the principle of symmetry, which constructs a
system of proportions that sets the dialectic between the parts and the whole, as a way of control
and spatial stabilization to reorient and organize the physical space of the downtown centre of
Coimbra.
To give back the of Santa Cruz Church its centrality, resuming the relationship between
levels of the church entrance and the space of the square, organized by two lateral churchyards
at the highest level of the streets. The connection between levels is made by two ramps,
directing urban morphology towards the river. In addition, Távora proposed the implementation
of a water fountain in each of the squares, setting the limit of its intervention. Thus, he sought to
unify the surrounding urban fabric.
As in the squares of Guimarães, the materialization and image of the squares was built using
native materials. In Guimarães, the granite rock of the area was used and in Coimbra the
intention was to use Ançã stone, the same used in the facade of Santa Cruz Church. In both
cases there was a careful design and placement of the stones, introducing power lines to direct
the "promenades" and stabilize the shape, continuing the plan of facades on the floor. This
plastic unification (an architecture "trick") intends to create a stable, solid, robust environment;
a space of symbolic presence for the city life meeting.
This project found in classical rules a path for the formalization and realization of this urban
piece. It brought uniformity and spatial clarification returning to the original character of
"square" as public space with features that promote the centrality of the meeting and a better
adaptation of city life to its physical space.
744

An (Architectural) Urban Project

On very work, Távora experienced new approaches to the city, visible in how it was
investigated, in how he developed a narrative about each particular city, in how he explored the
graphical work and the way he suggested pivot points of the city with territory. Távora had
therefore developed a method to design and solve architecture’s own problems, building a line
of thought, which persisted among us, the schools of architecture where he was influent, having
immediate implications of the development of architecture in Portugal. He also contributed to "a
generation who considers criticism and history as tools of project that sees architecture as a
process of knowledge, and refuses to separate theory and reality" (Montaner, 2001:139), while
realizing that there are aspects of tradition of architectural theory that guided the past and
remain essential today (Hearn, 2003).
Urban projects he developed integrated works, which his office garnered, working on them
the same way he worked on building projects. These experiences and his training from school of
Fine Arts in Porto allowed him to test approaches to urban design, proposing ways for
architecture to act, seeking transformation of urban reality, by a methodology which was
applied not only to the city but was generalizable to building projects.
In a text from 1957, "Casa em Ofir," Távora reflects on the complexity of the designing
process of a detached house, where he aimed "(...), that it would result in a true compound, and,
more than that, a compound in which a multitude of factors took place, variable value, indeed,
but to consider every single one of them. That is, unlike the normal unfortunate case of caring
mixtures of only a few factors, Távora tried here a composite of many factors. It's not easy, of
course, list them all, given their variety and their number, nor is it easy listing them in order of
importance”.
The projects have always had implicit a work of criticism in order to uncover the roots and
history, the theories, the way things work and organizations (or disorganization), contained in
each city and its territory. From a diachronic reading Távora developed a synchronic reading,
extending the interpretation of values, connotations and contemporary creations as temporal
continuity, predicting the social impacts of options for the collective memory of the city.
Therefore, he constructed a critical project methodology, since it is clearly a forecasting work.
A future betting line is defended by the adequacy of urban form to the general requirements of
the city. It starts from a problem and continues attempting to approach, suggesting and outlining
possible paths and solutions across a broader vision that crisscrossed and connected
multidisciplinary referrals.
Believing that the architect should take a more activist stance towards favouring the effective
practice of changing reality, rather than purely speculative activity, the working process of
Fernando Távora maintains a methodological stance of greater relevance to the present: act
locally. According to global strategies, establishing relationships and continuities, or in other
words, act surgically promoting an effect of surrounding contamination. This thesis argues for a
more socially oriented practice in response to the uncritical position as the city as a mere cluster
of complexities and contradictions that prevents the successful architectural practice.
On the other hand, Távora suggests a disciplinary way which reacts to major general urban
plans and regulations for urban management as tools used for development planning and urban
culture. In fact, for ease and convenience of thought, these tools have tended to simplify reality
in order to understand and master in its entirety, considering the territory as a network or mesh.
However, these tools made it harder to read the object from the outside, opening the possibility
for another type of (non- explicit or literal) spatial relationships and awareness of the existence
of an affective and emotional space that influences the form of more or less empathetic
relationship with the place and creating memories (Caruso, 2001:13). He also ruled out the
possibility of developing readings and images of the city that promote the identification of space
with people, a territory of several layers built on continuity or rupture with the urban collective
memory (Corboz , 1983) . Thus, the domain of the territory is present in its parts, in the local
interventions.
 745

Urban agglomerations are nodes of a space organization according to human relations.

Because each city is unique, attention given to each case requires rational, analytical, emotional
involvement and at the same time, sensitive to their distinctive features that give name to each
of them. As mentioned Orlando Ribeiro (1969: 66), " a city is always a creation, a key element
of the organization of space, a node in the mesh voluntarily or spontaneously established
relationships between people: an inscribed human work on a piece of ground, a fact of surface
of small size but of greater significance for establishing connections. Trying to explain a
conurbation is, first, enter it at this complex context (...). " The city is built by asymmetries,
contrasts and discontinuities, which results in complex ways that do not let them sort themselves
by theoretical models, or interpret geometrical models.
In this process of understanding and analysis of cities, Fernando Távora showed the
importance of the architecture to develop new readings on urban reality, from main planning
methodologies, aimed at solutions more effectively able to modify the social and political
structures of the world. Architecture controls and directs the results of architectural practices in
solving spatial problems of an object that "is conditioned in its preparation and conditioning in
their existence"110 with the aim of organizing human relations.
The spatial relationship has become an important principle to devise new ways to build and
refine the design of urban space, understanding that the relationship that man has with space are
essential for defining boundaries and construction of their surroundings.
"This notion, that is so often forgotten, that the space which separates - and connects –
forms, is also a form itself. It is a crucial notion, because it is what allows us to gain full
awareness that become no isolated forms and that a relationship exists always either between the
ways that we occupy space, or the space between them that although we do not see we know we
can build forms - negative or model -. From apparent forms "(Távora, 1962:12).
The power of architecture is, thus, in its ability to irony, in its ability to relate opposites.
Finding order in disorder; to focus on the ruptures and dissonances and asymmetries of reality;
seek harmony and continuity; become predictable in the unpredictable and predictable in the
unpredictable; transforming truths in its opposite and illogical in the obvious. It is the ability
and capacity of Intelligibility architecture that gives the power "to speak in silence and to touch
the senses as well as the mind" (Curtis, 2012:131). Ability to depart from the rules, creating
space for innovation and creativity. Capabilities that is implicit in the dimension of the
immaterial and intangible of human thought and emotion, together with the domain of relations
of theory, history and criticism, learning from the past, thinking about the present and projecting
into the future.
For all this, methodological consistency in Fernando Távora opens a field of research on
project methodology, which undoubtedly contribute to a new awareness of the problem of
Portuguese intervention in urban space.

References

Aa.Vv (2012) ‘Fernando Távora: Modernidade Permanente’, in Bandeirinha, J. A.

(ed.) Guimarães: Casa da Arquitectura (Catálogo da Exposição).
Aa.Vv (1998) Fernando Távora (Lisboa, Editorial BLAU).
Aureli, P. V. (2013) ‘Means to an End: The Rise and the Fall of the Architectural Project of the City’, in
The City as a Project (Berlin: Ruby Press) 14-38.
Broadbent, G. (1978) Design in Architecture: Architectures and the Human Sciences (London, John
Willey & Sons).

110
Quote from Fernando Távora in the book Da Organização do Espaço(1962), used by Mário Kruger
(2001:33) while explaining when a new paradigm in the construction of theory in architecture not only
from the Laws type I (material conditions of space) and II (society constraint of space), but also from the
Laws Type III (space conditioning of society).
746

Câmara Municipal do Porto (1969) Estudo de Renovação Urbana do Barredo (Porto, CMP, Direcção de
Serviços de Habitação – Repartição de Construção de Casas).
Caruso, Adam (2001) ‘The Emotional City’, in Quaderns 228, (Barcelona) 8-13.
Choay, Françoise (1994) ‘Le Règne de l´Urbaine et la Mort de la Ville’, in La Ville: Art et Architectture
en Europe 1870-1933 (Paris, Centre George Pompidou) 26-35.
Corboz, A. (1983) ‘El Territorio como Palimpsesto’, in Angel Martín Ramos (ed.) Lo urbano en 20
autores contemporaneous, 25-34.
Corboz, A. (1993) La Suisse comme Hyperville
(http://www.jointmaster.ch/jma/ch/dech/file.cfm/document/La_Suisse_comme_hyperville.pdf?contentid
=1040) accessed 10 de June 2013.
Costa, A. A (2007) ‘A obra de Fernando Távora. Um caso de coerência conceptual e metodológica’, in
Rua Larga 20.
Curtis, W. (2012) ‘Memória e Criaç o: O Parque e o Pavilh o de Ténis de fernando Távora na Quinta da
Conceição 1956-60’, in Bandeirinha, J. A. (ed.) Fernando Távora. Modernidade Permanente
(Guimarães: Casa da Arquitetura) 26-37.
Figueira, J. (2012) ‘Fernando Távora, Alma Matter Viagem na América, 1760’, in Bandeirinha, J. A. (ed.)
Fernando Távora. Modernidade Permanente (Guimarães: Casa da Arquitectura. Catálogo da
exposição) 132- 140.
Hearn, F. (2003) Ideas that Shaped Buildings (Cambridge: MIT Press).
Kruger, M. (2001) ‘A Arte da Investigaç o em Arquitectura’, in ECDJ 5, 22-39.
Kruger, M. (2005) Leslie Martin e a Escola de Cambridge. Coimbra: Edições eI d I arq.
Koselleck, R. (2009) Futuro Passado. Contribuição à Semântica dos Tempos Históricos. Rio de Janeiro:
Contraponto Editorial.
Moniz, G., Gonçalves, A., Correia, L. M. (2013) ‘Fernando Távora Oporto´s Urban Renewal’, Journal of
Urban History.
Montaner, J. M. (1999) Arquitectura e Crítica, ( Barcelona, Editorial Gustavo Gili).
Pessoa, F. (1993) Textos de Crítica e de Intervenção. (Lisboa, Edições Ática).
Ribeiro, O. (1969) ‘Proémico Metodológico ao estudo das pequenas cidades portuguesas’, Finisterra 7,
64-75.
Rowe, P. (1992) Design Thinking (Cambridge, The MIT Press).
Secchi, B. (2004) ‘Entrevista a Bernardo Secchi’
(http://www.vitruvius.com.br/revistas/read/entrevista/05.018/3330em) accessed 20 June 2013.
Távora, F. (1945) ‘O Problema da Casa Portuguesa’, ALÉO 9, 10.
Távora, F. (1947) ‘O Problema da Casa Portuguesa’, Cadernos de Arquitectura 1 (Edição Manuel João
Leal, Lisboa).
Távora, F. (1952) ‘Arquitectura e Urbanismo. A liç o das constantes’, Lusíadas, 151-155.
Távora, F. (1957) ‘Casa em Ofir’, Arquitectura 59. 8Lisboa: Casa Portuguesa, Soc. Lda, 11.
Távora, F. (1959) Anteplano de Montemor-o-Velho (Montemor-o-Velho, CMMV)
Távora, F. (1962) Da Organização do Espaço (Porto: FAUP Publicações).
Távora, F. (1963) Arranjo Arquitectónico e Urbanístico da Zona Central, Estudo Prévio, Memória
Descritiva e Justificativa (Aveiro, CMA).
Távora, F. (1992) ‘Coisa Mental. Fernando Távora. Entrevista de Jorge Figueira’ (Porto, dd´AEFAUP)
100-106.
Távora, F. (1993) Praça 8 de Maio, Projecto de execução, Partes Escritas, Memória Descritiva e
Justificativa (Coimbra, CMC).
Távora, F. e Ferreira, A. (1982) Memória Descritiva do Plano Geral de Urbanização de Guimarães
(Guimarães, CMG).
Vidler, A. (2003) Histories of the Immediate Present. Inventing Architectural Modernism. (Cambridge,
MIT Press.)
 747

Fourth dimensions urban morphology. Urban geographies of

work as a new perspective of urbanity.

Daniel Screpanti¹, Piernicola Carlesi²

¹ Centro de Estudos de Arquitectura e Urbanismo, Faculty of Architecture, University of
Porto.Department of Civil, Construction-Architectural and Environmental Engineering,
University of L’Aquila. ² Department of Urban Design and Territorial Planning,
University of Florence
E-mails: [email protected], [email protected].

Abstract. New freedoms of individual choice and new possibilities of displacement in space and time of
men, information, goods and energies have not liberated the «human condition» from all ‘fears’. In
contemporary urbanizations, a big dissociation of modern growth can thus be observed: the endless
technological satisfaction of consumers’ needs is not deprived of «uncertainties». If we consider contexts
where preindustrial spaces, without work perspectives, and postindustrial activities, without urban
features, are interacting, as in Italian urbanized systems containing small cities, the evolution of
territorial relations seems clear and a new issue for urban morphologists is emerging. The Securitas
value is now migrating from cities to new geographies of work. From this process, an exponential
increase of «divergences among cities» emerged and is leading to inequities among individuals more and
more difficult to spot and manage. If the reinforcement of globalization will bring new data on distances
between new and old urbanizations, in front of the responsibilities of urban morphologists about the
formation and growing of social inequities, we could draw a new perspective of urbanity only by tracing
‘the work of cities’.

Key Words: globalization, land use, social exclusion, maps, urban form

‘From Medieval to Global Assemblages’ (Sassen, 2006)

The spread on the territory of the most modern production sectors combined old settlements,
new polarities, lands and infrastructures producing what can be defined as the modern growth of
«rural landscapes», or the extension of the urban economic action to the (formerly) rural areas
(Sereni, 1961).
New energy sources and more rapid and less expensive transports, after having made «non
urban industrial settlement competitive with the urban one», allowed workforces to be recruited
either in the cities than in the countryside (Portas, Fernandes Sá, Afonso, 1990).
In this way, the «city outside the city» was released from the constraints of proximity and
spatial agglomeration (Fantin, Morandi, Piazzini and Ranzato, 2012) and the spreading of
activities and people on the territory have been progressively superimposed by new territorial
dynamics due to the reinforcement of globalization and free exchange of capitals and goods.
The activities of services to companies and to consumers in such a context became essential
and in terms of growth established the predominance of some cities on the others (Sassen,
2010).
In an initial phase, the vertical growth of advanced tertiary economies saw the F.I.R.E.
economy, based on Finance, Insurance and Real Estate activities, to feed on with infrastructural
«kits» and public investments of Welfare State (Domingues, 2006). Following to the
diminishing of public resources and to capitals global redistribution, some sectors of advanced
tertiary, however, failed while others oriented, by sector, towards new market lines and,
geographically, towards more dynamic territories inside the «new geography of work» (Moretti,
2012).
748

From this process, an exponential increase of the «divergences among cities» emerged and is
leading to inequities among individuals which are becoming more and more difficult to spot and
manage (Ascher, 2003).

Figure 1. Paris, June 23rd, 2013: flocks of sheep demonstrating for better conditions of
rural trade in France (Photo: Reuters/ Gonzalo Fuentes).

The work as a privilege and the loss of Securitas

The distance from the reality of contemporary urban design, has ascribed to urban
morphologists strong and specific responsibilities for the current increase in disparities between
rich and poor.
The ability of urban morphologies to counteract emergence or increasing of social inequality
has been also questioned, because of ineffectiveness of analytical and design methods that we
are currently able to offer (Secchi, 2013).
The «new urban question» probably requires a new investigation of relationships between
economy, society and territory. For this reason, it also needs to reconsider disciplinary
«common values», such as technology, mobility and ecology, which have always built
objectives of urban design.
«Socio-technical devices» (Allenby and Sarewitz, 2011), that brought new individual
freedoms in economic exchanges and social relations, have allowed people to make incessant
demand for goods and services but have not strengthened and stabilized the «human condition»
(Arendt, 1964) in the globe as it was assumed.
The opportunity to imagine and satisfy infinite needs has generated «uncertainties»
(Bauman, 1999) and divestment, outlining contents of a global crisis of production.
The major dissociation of growth is therefore observable in urbanized contemporary systems
where the production of well-being satisfies «extendible needs of men» (Einaudi, 1933) and, at
the same time, creates work uncertainties.
In the evident collection of economic injustices and territorial discriminations and
exclusions, «the work as a privilege» (De Masi, 2001) emerges as a new issue for urban
morphologists (Figure 1).
Although the work is an essential condition to humanize an environment, in the past decades
it has been forgotten in the construction of conceptual problems and practice of urban design.
The current gap between wealth and poverty, is an effect of the «new geography of work»
(Moretti, 2012) rather than a cause of the «multidimensional character» of the crisis, crossing
major economies of the planet (Secchi, 2013).
For example, this is especially evident in Italian urbanized system containing small cities
(Figure 2).
 749

Here, there are radical effects in terms of «divergences between cities» (Moretti, 2012) due
to transition from preindustrial, or «third Italy» (Bagnasco, 1977), economy, to the current
postindustrial.
Right where spaces without work perspectives and new activities without urban features, are
interacting, contemporary relations between work and territory, can be seen more clearly than in
other situations.
From the beginning of the Industrial Revolution onwards, these interactions have always
resulted in new urban issues and, as a consequence, in different policies and urban perspectives
for the cities.
Up to this time, in a globalized environment characterized by loss of centrality of States and
their ability to regulate social and economic processes, analytical and design devices have failed
in order to reduce uncertainties.
In the considered contexts, «spatial forms of injustice», «consequences of climatic change»
and «mobility as a citizenship right» (Secchi, 2013) are more and more effects of contemporary
geographies of work.
Here, urban morphologists have the opportunity to design a new urbanity based on a modern
Securitas: a new individual freedom of action in space and time.

Figure 2. Preindustrial and postindustrial, central Italy (Photo: Cnes/Spot Image,

DigitalGlobe).

«Il bel paese ch’Appennin parte e ‘l mar circonda e l’Alpe» (Petrarca, 1336)

Italian small cities have been hit by the modern economic transformations later than big cities,
although, in some cases, they have had modifications even higher in terms of speed and
intensity.
We have chosen these urbanized territories as our field of research, because similar
situations offer a big opportunity in order to observe the link between new productive models
and evolutions of urban morphologies.
In addition, social and economic degenerations faced by small cities, have provided a test
bench for our research regarding ‘urban geographies of work’ as a new perspective of urbanity.
In these contexts, the recent changes of economic models has activated processes of desertion of
the physical production of materials and objects in favor of a network system for productions of
ideas and services, typical of postindustrial economies.
We observed in small cities that the new dynamics have not found the same materials of big
cities to pursue their objective and have been progressively characterized by breaking up into
two parallel and distinct phenomena.
750

On the one hand, we have identified a first process consisting in the extension of new
dynamics on territories, mostly beyond their geographical and historical circumstances.
On the other hand, we have found processes regarding a progressive reduction of
preindustrial activities (Malanima, 1995). They had represented local economies for centuries,
allowing in some situations the «industrialization without fractures» of rural territories (Fuà and
Zacchia, 1983). If the first phenomenon seems to be related to the innovation of productive
cycles, aiming to ride over the restricted areas of traditional productions and to find new
markets, the second phenomenon should be linked to a new business dimension, finding its
target in tourism and in a systematic exploitation of the cultural heritage (Marini, Bertagna and
Gastaldi, 2012).
Beyond the above-mentioned differences, both phenomena share a common trend: the
contraction of the spatial field of activities and the territorial extension of the firm size,
searching the biggest cultural influence or the cheapest productive organization.

Figure 3. Bazzano Industrial Centre, L'Aquila, Italy (Photo: Cnes/Spot Image,

DigitalGlobe).

Figure 4. Lorenzetti, A. (1339) Effetti del Buon Governo in città e in campagna, Palazzo
Pubblico of Siena, Italy (Photo: Wikimedia Commons).

From spatial to reticular connections

Checking the relevant transformations of Italian small cities, we have immediately noticed clear
differences between new situations of neglect and disuse and similar cases in the past.
Precisely, observing differences with the progressive emptying of these contexts during the
postwar period, we noticed that, today, disused socio-technical devices are not isolated but close
to other ‘facilities’ currently operating (Van der Ploeg, 2008).
In addition, this status presents several dissimilarities with situations of disuse in big cities:
the potential intensive use of abandoned areas is not effectively the same.
The mechanisms of ‘urban income’ cannot develop quickly enough, unless there are special
conditions of spatial proximity to larger urban areas with solid, diversified and tempting
economies. This proximity is often due to a progressive approach to small cities of major ones
by expansion or territorial diffusion of their settlements and new accessibilities.
Proximities between different ‘devices’, and unusual morphological synergies, led us to take
a deeper look into the environmental effects of new dynamics.
 751

The analysis revealed a substantial inability of recent transformations to activate new

activities in their territorial surroundings. Basically, in the considered contexts, the exchange
between new phenomena and the environment is always unilateral.
The new dynamics do not produce new urbanities and exceptionally the new firm size
becomes a factor of collective development. Even if new geographies of work have a regional
dimension, it’s exclusively as scale, because they have not urban features.
The work can no longer be generated in this isolated status and it consumes itself, expanding
dramatically in the territory without communicating with it (Figure 3).
As we have already said, a clear trend of postindustrial activities is to create dot links with
urban spaces (Zevi, 2012). Certainly this relationship makes flexible and convenient the
productive organization, but also unstable and unreliable 'the work of cities'.
Postindustrial companies set an extremely uncertain urban model, especially in territories
containing small cities.

Towards fourth dimensions urban morphologies

This unstable and unreliable 'urban condition' is clearly exacerbated by an objective weakness
that urbanism and architecture suffer even in contexts more favorable than those considered.
We only should think about the difficulties of changing morphological structures and density
already defined. Even articulating mix of activities is complicated, without being able to provide
infrastructural support for sustainability, communications and mobility.
In addition, especially in small cities, the design tendency is to conceive public spaces only
as leisure places for local people or tourists.
In this way, common spaces between living structures have gradually lost some functions
that have always had, such as the articulation of productive activities and the connection of
those with domestic ones (Figure 4).
Ultimately, we found in the «landscape» (Palazzo, 2010; Baldeschi, 2011) an additional
factor of anxiety for urban morphologists.
In these contexts, its socially significant features, combined with its new productive
dimension in cultural and ecological terms, could make it become a useful tool for the
transformation of urban spaces and the multiplication of interactions between existing activities
(Magnier and Morandi, 2013).
Despite the premises, this did not happen because landscape design has been reduced to
inclusion of geometries, depleting all the potential of transformation and adaptation of different
contexts.
Typical schemes of the architectural composition, as aesthetics protection and mimesis, have
oppressed intentions and have prevented the unblocking of new landscape processes and the
achievement of new and better economic and social dynamics,.
The landscape became a barrier to the regeneration of small cities because the landscape
design became a morphological design on the landscape.
It means a design that is based only on the inclusion of objects in static environments. An
action necessarily subjected to mitigation and compensation measures.
A similar design does not seem the best way for the identification and definition of new
conditions of urbanity.
In fact, the reality is not static but dynamic. Any context we choose, it has four dimensions
and to understand seriously the current «human condition» (Arendt, 1964) in different
territories, urban morphologists should represent the fourth dimension of urban spaces.
Our traditional representations are not satisfactory because dynamic systems are considered
inertial. In this way, our analysis always considers every issue in neutral space-time
environments.
But actually cities are excitations of conflicts (Tafuri, 1988).
752

Sequences and overlapping analysis at different levels could be attempts to solve

shortcomings of this approximation, but today only geographies of work offer some guidelines
to produce proper studies on urban realities (Moretti, 2012; Sassen, 2010).
From analysis that we carried out on preindustrial spaces, we have developed different
conceptions and interpretations of landscape.
Old 'preindustrial mechanisms' have enabled the reconstruction of the evolutions of urban
geographies of work and, from the stratification of different processes and their changes, in spite
of their fragmentary condition, a description of urban morphologies that differs from usual
representations is born.
If traditional methodologies have a perceptive nature and are based on a fixed, or moving,
external point of view, our description follows the inner flows of human activities in the
landscape.
A similar representation of urban morphologies gives us a new design tool which is able to
create new strategies for stabilizing existing geographies of work (Figure 5).

Figure 5. The work of city as a Fourth Dimension Urban Morphology (Authors’

drawings).

References

Allenby, B. R. and Sarewitz, D. (2011) The Techno-Human Condition (The MIT Press, Cambridge).
Arendt, H. (1964) Vita Activa La condizione umana (Bompiani, Milan).
Ascher, F. (2003) Multi-mobility, Multispeed cities: a challenge for architects, town planners and
politicians (Rotterdam Architecture Biennale, Rotterdam).
Bagnasco, A. (1977) Tre Italie: la problematica territoriale dello sviluppo italiano (Il Mulino, Bologna).
Baldeschi, P. (2011) Paesaggio e territorio (Le Lettere, Florence).
De Masi, D. (2001) Il futuro del lavoro (Rizzoli, Milan).
 753

Domingues, Á. (ed.) (2006) Cidade e Democracia. 30 Anos de Transformação Urbana em Portugal

(Arguentum, Lisboa).
Einaudi, L. (1933) ‘Il mio piano non è quello di Keynes’, La Riforma sociale, 129-142.
Fantin, M., Morandi, M., Piazzini, M. and Ranzato, L. (eds.) (2012) La città fuori dalla città (INU
Edizioni, Rome).
Fuà, G. and Zacchia, C. (eds.) (1983) Industrializzazione senza fratture (Il Mulino, Bologna).
Magnier, A. and Morandi, M. (eds.) (2013) Paesaggi in mutamento. L’approccio paesaggistico alla
trasformazione della città europea (Franco Angeli, Milan).
Malanima, P. (1995) Economia preindustriale: mille anni, dal XI al XVIII secolo (Bruno Mondadori
Milan).
Marini, S., Bertagna, A. and Gastaldi, F. (2012) (eds.) Architettura, città, società. Il progetto degli spazi
del lavoro (Università IUAV, Venice).
Moretti, E. (2012) La nuova geografia del lavoro (Mondadori, Milan).
Palazzo, E. (2010) Il paesaggio nel progetto urbanistico (Il Prato, Saonara).
Petrarca, F. (1374) Francisci Petrarchae laureati poetae Rerum vulgarium fragmenta
(http://petrarca.letteraturaoperaomnia.org/petrarca_canzoniere.html) accessed 15 May 2014.
Portas, N., Fernandes Sá, M. and Afonso, R. (1990) ‘Modello territoriale e intervento urbanistico nella
regione del Medio Ave’, Urbanistica 101.
Sassen, S. (2010) Le città nell’economia globale (Il Mulino, Bologna).
Sassen, S. (2006) Territory, Authority, Rights: From Medieval to Global Assemblages (Princeton
University Press, Princeton).
Secchi, B. (2013) La città dei ricchi e la città dei poveri (Laterza, Rome-Bari).
Sereni, E. (1961) Storia del paesaggio agrario italiano (Laterza, Rome-Bari).
Tafuri, M. (1988) ´L’avvocato del diavolo`, Rivista di Architettura Utopica 1.
Van der Ploeg, J. D. (2008) The New Peasantries. Struggles for Autonomy and Sustainability in an Era of
Empire and Globalization (Earthscan, London-Sterling).
Zevi, L. (2012) Le quattro stagioni. Architetture del Made in Italy da Adriano Olivetti alla Green
Economy (Electa Mondadori, Milan).
754

Change, utopia and ‘the public’: urban transformations and

agents of survival in Brasilia and Rio de Janeiro

Thereza Carvalho
Pos-Graduate Programme of Architecture and Urbanism, Universidade Federal Fluminense,
Brazil. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. This paper addresses changes to the urban form in two different contexts: planned areas and
“organically made” urban fabrics. Two different processes of urban transformations are examined.
Large scale urban transformations, designed by a few in response to specific purposes, and small scale
urban transformation processes made of cumulative individual changes and perspectives. Brasilia and
Rio illustrate the argument. This paper argues that vitality, and other interesting good-to-live-in qualities
that distinguish a good city, requires a dynamic balance between ruling and allowing changes of different
scales, purposes and agents. It comparatively examines processes of change in “organically made”
urban areas - shaped by multiple individual socio-economic-cultural-spatial practices - and in large
scale planned areas. It examines the ways and means that some agents of change, with different purposes,
and resources, have helped to make vital urban tissues survive for the collective benefit of the city and
“the public”, while others killed it. Survival strategies were associated with specific agents and spatial
patterns of change, driven by forces of attraction, expansion and consolidation. They were found to
intertwine with place and time related inherited attributes. Utopian space models have both inspired and
justified significant large-scale changes in city shape, associated to a vision of the future with or without
collective purposes. The question of how those utopian modeled spaces respond to different forms,
dynamics and scales of space appropriation is here discussed. This paper finalizes highlighting ripple
effects that different agents have triggered through changes made to the urban fabric.

Key Words: urban transformations; agents of change; utopia; Brasilia satellite-towns; Rio de Janeiro

Introduction

The ongoing research whose preliminary results this paper presents has been partially sponsored
by the Brazilian National Research Council for which I am very grateful. It provided the
necessary support for the field work to be done and the scholarship of two research assistants,
Ana Carolina Maia, whose dedication, commitment and social skills made the case study with the
community of Rio das Pedras an enjoyable experience. This text was originally formatted for an
opening lecture presented at the Post Graduate Course on Strategic Environmental Assessment, at
the State University of Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil.
The focus of this paper is on change. Change is here understood as a dynamic process that
encompasses various phases of transition that have cumulatively altered distinct parts of the
urban tissue. Time and space are interrelated in those phases of transition, through various
means of attraction, appropriation and consolidation that have successively taken place, and that
have made space significant, through human perception.
The process briefly described indicates how interwoven space, time and the public as agents
of change, shape the course and forms of evolution of a city (Lepetit, 1998)111. In this study, the
idea is that the valued permanence of urban forms creates conditions for these to continue to
serve other functionalities and to influence in some manner urban growth and morphology while
defining the rhythm of change in the dynamic process of sedimentation. They coexist with
distinct temporalities, with technological innovations that distinguish them, according to

111
“The analyzed processes come from a more remote past and did not end with the steam engine, the
train, and industry that continue to interact independently of the arbitrary “periods” that some approaches
to urban history define that privilege round numbers” Lepetit, 1998.
 755

different social, cultural, environmental and economic projections for the future, here
understood as of utopian nature, of a given society in different times in different spaces. F.
Thomas affirms that the “history of cities cannot be told by disassociating the citizens from the
concrete territory where they live and which they contribute to produce and transform”. He
consubstantiates the understanding that this study defends.

Utopia 1 – “the public”, city modelling and urban change

“The principle of utopia consists in defining a place that does not exist anywhere: designing a
space in which and with which a given community will live according to new rules… that means
fracturing any connection with the world around, a spatial de-linkage”, Thierry Pacquot, 1999, p.
91.
Social sciences have traditionally resisted the possibility to consider that the physical
environment is an operative factor in human relations. Architects, on the other hand, tend to
often believe that design by itself can create communities and places. Both professional
standpoints appear to define the whole system, physical and social dimensions, according to one
disciplinary insight. Understanding that purposive actions also establish unintended systematic
relations is a crucial insight to understand how urban transformations are socially appropriated
by the public and, by the same token, to understand the dynamics of change in the process of
city-making.
Studying processes of change challenges disciplinary segmented views and their
institutionalized categories of problems and professionals. It also induces different approaches
to people and the spatial and functional patterns they define in their environment, how they
interrelate, and the spatial and temporal contexts within which they occur.
Utopias have, apparently, emerged in times of significant changes. It often shows man as a
major agent of History and master of his own destiny, equality among men, and between the
public and their governors. Regarded as a response to an immediate problem, or as an anticipation
of the desirable future or even as the fuel of social progress itself, utopia could be perceived as
going along, hand in hand, with creative desire and wishful thinking with collective purposes. The
perception of how the State related to individuals and how it ruled over their relationship to the
territory, through specific legal and institutional arrangements were, however, often either
obliterated by the very vision utopia proposed to illuminate or simply taken for granted as a side
issue.
More recently there has been a shift between the trend towards dreaming new utopia - as a
peculiar form of social ideal construction inspired by universal harmony - towards the more
pragmatic and utilitarian approach where the future heralded is, more often than not, a terrible
nightmare. Possible reasons for this shift may lie in the perceived shrinking presence of the
National State on the ground. Drug cartel networks and other forms of self-government
arrangements are allegedly taking over, in some areas in Brazil, as well as, in other areas, new
social mechanisms bottom-up devised to rule over individuals and territory.
Meanwhile, to dream of better cities, and to design them - where better individuals would
relate to better societies, and to better territories, where nature would play different but always
better roles, and the State which would be responsible for universalizing the benefits would then
issue better ruling over their distribution - has been, traditionally, regarded as part of the
professional privileges and obligations of architects and urban designers. However, as Kevin
Lynch beautifully pointed out in the very last page of the Good City Form - how defective his
presentation was because the city concepts and models he discussed in the book were “too often
stripped of the institutions of management that make them viable, and were described as if
independent of the culture and political economy in which they must be applied” (Lynch, 1981,
p.454). Generalizations are our downfall.
Design guidelines are often addressed ‘stripped of the institutions of management that made
them viable’, originally, and, apparently, as a consequence, independent of the culture and
756

political context where they were generated in the first place, and, also, of the culture and political
context where they are supposed to be applicable. What is sustainable in one given culture may
prove to be quite the opposite in another context. Significant process of change is therefore
required.

Change and dynamic balance between ruling and allowing

The perspective here adopted understands that a singularity (an exceptional condition) once
perceived (therefore observers and physical accessibility are required) in one or more of its
qualitative dimensions it attracts changes in all the others, in a ripple effect that will reshape the
‘townscape’ accordingly. Be it a characteristic that defines its exceptionality a natural feature, or
produced by sedimentation, or designed from scratch, successfully, to that purpose.
This paper adopted six different perspectives, or genetic dimensions, of the cultural heritage
of a city and its grid, and of the process of sedimentation that intertwine them with the lives of
citizens and city into the landscape. Together they have influenced the stages of sedimentation,
with different weights, in different time and space bound contexts, and distinguished their
interrelations as they consolidated.
The first, the environmental dimension, is here understood as one or more geo-
morphological feature of the terrain - topography, coastline, solar incidence, and climate - which
attracts the attention of observers, individual intentions which may grow into collective users in
a given time and space context.
The social and economic dimensions follow. They comprehend different forms of
appropriation practices and uses of potential values perceived in the area. Market activities and
social encounters go hand in hand and they literally make place for more complex events and
users who will benefit from their location.
The fourth dimension, here called institutional or normative addresses the rules that
establishes the power to regulate uses and users, mobility and public access, the building
activity and the built forms and changes allowed. Public sector with bigger or smaller political
prestige, its normative and control mechanisms, and symbolic presence in the built landscape,
are also part of the city genetic heritage.
The last dimension is morphological and it characterizes the singularity of space and form in
the light of a mix of different references - formal repertoire, location in relation to axes of
accessibility, quality of building materials, functional and symbolic contents related to the
previous dimensions. It synthesizes the interrelations among the previous dimensions in built
forms and shapes that tend to last longer than the former purposes to which they were
designated. At the same time it enhances them. The many successive uses and built in values
that usually follow are aggregated to the area. The relative permanence of these earlier forms
and later uses enrich the process of sedimentation of heritage with new interventions, when the
perceived image and identity are positively regarded.
Accessibility constituted the basic condition that allowed for those qualitative dimensions to
interrelate, with distinct rhythms of changes in different time and space contexts.

Case 1 – Rio

This topic addresses the dynamic balance between ruling and allowing, in practice, as perceived
in selected areas in Rio, and what has it improved. The objective was to qualify the community
for participation in the urban policies announced by the local authority which would be
implemented in the borough. In order to achieve that purpose the prospective participants had to
be able to read blueprints, and to understand scale. They also had to feel comfortable enough with
themselves, in the first place, and with these subjects, to enjoy participating in the public
audiences conducted by the Local Authorities. These objectives determined the plan of the
 757

research proposed. It had to begin by strengthening their identity as a community, respecting their
migrant origins., their cultural values, and how these values, and their symbols, were reflected in
the shape of the buildings and grids of access that characterized the settlement.

The settlement

The settlement selected was Rio das Pedras started in 1951, located in Jacarepaguá district,
adjacent to Barra da Tijuca, the urban expansion where the rich suburbia in the shape vaguely
reminding garden cities developments are spreading fast. The area of about 130.000 square
meters, was officially granted to the settlers by the Government in 1966, as result of their own
efforts to articulate with the government. They were mostly employed in building construction by
the real estate developers working in the area. Proximity to their jobs proved to be useful. Located
very close to rich condominiums, built during the 60’s, the settlement grew significantly, through
self-help of all sorts, to the amount of, approximately, 70.000 people basically migrants running
away from desertification in Northeast Brazil.

Methodological procedures

The area selected for the research was a cluster made by a mix of different building typologies
and functions, of housing, shopping, major municipal institutions, the cultural centre represented
by the state school and the settlers association, all of which had clear social, economic and
political links with the formal city and with the state government structure of Rio. A central open
space made into a square with a canopy strangely scaled served as the major visual reference. Not
by coincidence three of its margins were occupied by the school, the association and one small
office of the local authority. The symbolic content of this area, due to this particular mix,
determined our choice.
Interviews, participant observation in different sorts of meetings, and as idle visitors, urban
environmental perception and analysis, historic data research gathering photos, maps and previous
and present urbanization policies regarding the area, together with a great deal of story listening, made
the basis of our initial contacts with the local community and the settlement.
The idea of building a model of the area as an acceptable course through which we could, at the
same time, strengthen their identity and teach the school teachers and their students how to read and
understand a blueprint was proposed. It was quickly accepted by the chair person of the state school
whose strategic plan for the year comprised that specific subject. The teacher of arithmetic of the first
grade for adults, accepted the challenge of supporting our initiatives. She also agreed to have me and
my research assistant participating in her classes during the period.
A method was devised to create with the students a ‘measure’ of reference based on the one
building in the area that had been architecturally designed – the state school. Drawing the area, maps
and facades, exercise done by the various students, proved to be an effective method to raise their self-
esteem as they experienced finding themselves in the maze and pointing their whereabouts to their
colleagues. Updating municipal maps with all this information brought in through that exercise
boosted their self-image even further. The second phase of the exercise demanded that each student
would tell his or her story in Rio das Pedras and also illustrate it with drawings, photos or collages
with several objects that reminded their common origin in the northeast of the country.
The building of the model came as a bonus. The very planning of the model, defining the scale it
should be built, the materials to be employed, engaged and excited students and teachers, empowered
by the perspective of explaining it to the Mayor – a significant change in behaviour - compared to
their subdued silence observed in the initial public audiences.

Processes of change

Initial findings in this stage revealed that one local leader of the settlers association has gathered
enough support to get elected local councillor. He helped to bring local government attention to the
758

settlement. However, some housing developments built since then show the marks of indifference that
zoning based on functional segregation imposes.
The improved skills of the state school teachers and students with blueprints and urban grids, and
the importance of mixed functions and building typologies, strategically placed and scaled open
spaces, and how the whole lot improves local identity, have come as one important achievement. To
collaborate to improve to improve public participation in the management and political process that
rules over their city, or borough or settlement, has also boosted the self-confidence of my research
assistants. They felt happier with themselves and the research received one of the three annual prizes
awarded by the research Council of the University Federal Fluminense, where I teach urban design.
The proposed method of modeling with the community, as a means to enhance participation in urban
renovation programs, has found some support with other colleagues. But that, certainly, is not the
main result of this whole effort.
There were major findings regarding the self-made urban design of the area which need to be
further investigated as they surprisingly matches several recommendations regarding what might
be considered a sustainable neighbourhood. They indicate further research to be done. They are
listed as follows:
a) The research area had an identifiable centre, the square with the high canopy, easily
perceived as a reference point with symbolic meaning as it gathered in its margins the state
school, the settlers association, the local authority office (Fig. 3).
b) Most of the housing units were spread around within a range of five minutes walking
distance;
c) There is a great variety of building typologies, of row-houses, and two and three storey
houses (Fig. 3);
d) Mixed uses fill in the few gaps between buildings, with shops, offices and institutional
buildings (Fig. 3);
e) Several plots had more than one building serving different purposes, small shop or atelier or
room to let;
f) The presence of the school reinforces the singular identity of the area (Fig. 3).
g) Several alleyways communicate within the block, for pedestrians only, as Fig.3 and Fig. 4
illustrate;
h) The neighborhood is organized through self-ruling. When and where conflicts emerge they
are brought to the local settlers association to resolve. Decision is negotiated with the those
directly concerned. The association distributes some form of justice speedily.

Design and dynamic balance between ruling and allowing

Modernist housing schemes and garden cities’ concept have not diverted much from the utopic
trend of social redemption through town and country planning. The huge housing development
schemes for the less privileged or altogether oppressed became the main target – they would,
apparently, need to be redeemed sooner. Those schemes also became the image of the under
privileged with all the stigmatizing contents associated with it in competitive societies.
Walter Gropius and Le Corbusier recommended urban planning as “medicine for a sick
society”. However, more than one planned city, or district, have been severely criticized, and
often with sufficient evidence, for the opposite reason – people have been made sick by the urban
‘medicine’. The critique of the model condemned the principles of the ideology at the same time.

Case 2 – Brasilia Federal District

The area of the Federal District of Brasilia was supposed to be occupied only by the cross-
shaped Pilot Master Plan. This has been planned and originally conceived, in harmony and
order, as a “work of art”. The ‘birth’ of the city was blessed by the creative efforts of some
powerful minds, and politically influent, of that time. As “art”, Brasilia was supposed to have
 759

been kept in a flawless frame, with no poverty, no shanty-towns around it, to ‘stain’ its purity.
The theme of this paper, the settlements surrounding the Pilot Plan, were not part of the original
project for Brasilia. The battalions of poor workers recruited to build it were not supposed to
stay. They had not been invited.
The satellite towns have not been planned in ‘harmony and order’, but conceived through
“rape”, perpetrated through means of several focci of rebellions, by the thousands of workers
that have come to help making the work of art true and subsequently felt pushed out of the
‘picture’. The violence of their birth had been, apparently, tamed by an institutional
homogeneous handling of space and shape. Their standardized urban design, the one standard
plot – with very few variations from one planned sttlement to another – the absent hierarchy of
public spaces, the minimal provision of communal facilities, all these factors together indicated
the mono-functional approach to the matter of satisfying the rebelled workers’ request with a
predominantly dormitory-town.

Prevalent approaches

A great part of the analytical work on Brasilia, and surrounding settlements, have been
developed according to two trends. Either ‘for’ the esthetics of the ‘product’ and the positive
political catalyzing aspect of the ‘process’; or ‘against’ the functionally segregated aspect of the
‘product’ and social segregation of the ‘process’. The string of the original ‘free-towns’, around
the Pilot Plan, have been expelled to areas further removed from the center, named satellite-
towns. These have been legitimized by the Government, through some kind of plotting, gathered
in different shapes, and have long outgrown their original dormitory function. The process of
historic development of each one of them, and corresponding social, economic and cultural
deprivation that characterized the living conditions of the first settlers of Brasilia – the builders
– which derived, to a great extent, from this spatial segregation, have been sufficiently
examined by several authors such as Paviani (1987); Ferreira (1998); Farret (1985); Cony
(1998); Santos (1985) among others, with different political focus.
One important aspect, however, seems to require further attention. The fact that these
settlements have been undergoing a continued process of cumulative changes, over the last
thirty years, which have transformed very positively certain aspects of the role they played in
the region. What are those changes? What do they look like? What kind of initiative, and whose,
made them happen? For what or which purposes? What do these indicate?

The objective

This part of the paper addresses the issue of planning spaces vs. making places. The object area
comprises Ceilandia and Taguatinga, two of five major planned settlements located around the
Federal District of Brasilia, capital of Brazil. The theme is urban design, the focus is on
changes, additions and other alterations made by the residents on the original design of the area
and pattern blocks. It analyses these alterations, how they have eventually a ‘ripple effect’ on
the immediately adjacent planned spaces and neighbourhoods. The character of these areas,
under the impact and influence of these gradually cumulative ‘ripple effects’, has changed
significantly over a relatively short period of time – approximately thirty years.
The vector of change can be traced from Taguatinga, the first workers’ settlement officially
‘plotted’ as satellite, 25km from Brasilia, outwards to the next satellite –Ceilandia. The
economic and social rhythm of these two settlements are unparalleled in the Federal District.
The original building patterns and urban grid have been appropriated in different ways. The two
settlements have grown towards each other, mingled and blended, nad have been substantially
reconstructed, in many patches, in widely different scales.
760

The methodological procedure of analysis

The analytical framework was conceived in a different context, and city. It derived from a
previous research on performance evaluation of large scale housing estates. It had a similar
focus – changes and alterations of the original design, made by the residents. Originally
orientated towards a different purpose – identifying the “why’s”, it gradually developed towards
identifying the “what for’s and how‘s”. The move from one target to the other, by the time of
the previous research mentioned, was like turning the focus from the past to the present heading
to the future. This move resulted from preliminary findings of that research, which questioned
the original assumptions that changes would derive from either design flaw or vandalism. The
alterations carried out by the residents showed a much larger span of choice, mostly geared to
making productive the available space provided for whatever other original purpose. The major
‘arena’ where these changes took place was the space ‘in-between’ the semi-private/semi-public
areas adjacent to the different building patterns. They triggered a process of social and
economical growth with minimum State investment.
The analysis focus on three major points. First, it identified the different purposes and related
perspectives that the various agents, or interest groups, introduced, on their own volition, into
the process of making real the planned satellite-towns . Secondly, it tested the assumption that a
different shape – and scale – would correspond to a different perspective – and interest group –
at different times. The third step was to chose a sample area and to define the approaching
scales of observation. Finally the analysis checked whether some of the more specific findings
of the mentioned previous research proved valid.

The object area

Ceilandia is situated 35km away from the cross-shaped Pilot Plan of Brasilia. It was created in
1971 by personal request of General Medici, who was then the President of The Federal The
Federal Republic of Brazil. He was annoyed with the string of poor settlements, also called
invasões, that ‘lined’ his daily route from the ranch where he lived, out of town, to the
Presidential Palace of Planalto. The Governor of the Federal District of Brasilia then started an
official crusade with the purpose of removing these invasões - the Campaign to Erradicate
Invasões – C.E.I.. A total of 82.000 people were removed from the area to a site 35km west of
the Pilot Plan. The very name Ceilandia springs from the accronyme, C.E.I. plus the English
originated word land, landia, thus making fate clearer: the land of the unwanted ones. Short
memory, hard work, and the ‘live one day at a time’ rule, that ever so often befalls Brazilians as
the one left possible life-motto, for one reason or another, all together apparently helped to,
fortunately, boycott the initial stigmatizing attempt on the town and its residents.
Taguatinga was created before Brasilia, in 1958, 25km from the future Capital site. It sprang
from the urgent need to remove a pioneer housing settlement of 4.000 families formed close to
the Cidade-Livre alongside one major federal road that led to what was then the huge building
site of Brasilia. Six months later schools, hospitals, houses for the teachers had already been
provided even though planning was never a strong aspect in the process nor had any study ever
been conducted on the adequacy of the local environmental conditions. The growth of the
settlement took place through plotting new sectors when thus required.

Processes of change

Over the last three decades, the initial settlement of 82.000 people grew to approximately
364.290 inhabitants. It became the largest of all satellite-towns around Brasilia. Constricted by a
standard urban grid, with standard plots and plot size, as well as by a ‘residence only’ land-use
regulation, Ceilandia has, literally, gone overboard in all aspects. Commercial developments, for
different purposes and scales of capital, have spread over, once again, the planned spaces for
public activities, an grabbed the ‘in-between’ semi-public/semi-private areas, with ill defined
 761

tenure and worse maintenance, that often characterize modernist urbanism as found in Brasilia
and neighbourhood. The initial part of the survey for the research whose findings this paper
discusses, revealed 1.172 commercial establishments which have been gradually added to the
original building design and planned intention for the area as well as 1.110 other irregular
appropriation of public spaces for well-established commercial purposes. These changes
concentrated in the older and more permanent patches of the town and along the high-street that
linked Ceilandia to Taguatinga. The price of the plot in one of these patches can be three times
bigger than in any other part of the mentioned satellite-town.
Each type of building in the selected patches, once identified, was mapped and its ‘origin’
was traced, first in the area of Taguatinga, and later in Ceilandia. By ‘origin traced’ this paper
means the search for the original pattern, when this was the case, and the gathering of its
‘family’, i.e., its multiple variations brought about through alterations carried out for different
purposes. These variations, once analysed revealed a typology of purposes apparently indicating
a corresponding typology of perspectives – or non-physical dimensions - of the urban realm
which have been, apparently, neglected in the original plans for the selected areas. They were
the economic-productive, the administrative-regulatory and the place-making perspectives - or
dimensions.
The economic-productive perspective emerged as a matter of consequence of the specific
circumstances that marked the creation of the satellite-towns and of Brasilia. The great distances
between the Federal District and the main centres of production in the country, distances made
even larger by the precarious means of transportation then available, also made ‘importing’ any
goods from anywhere, very expensive, particularly in its first fifteen years of existence.
Prohibitive costs stimulated the enterprising initiative and talents of the many migrants that
swapped their birthplaces for the desolate paysage of Brasilia early years. They bloomed rather
in the neighbourhood of the federal capital than in the capital itself thus indicating the next
dimension of the process of change that took place despite all planning: the administrative-
regulatory or de-regulatory perspective. Permission was required to change social space
perspectives. The severe rules regarding land-use in the Pilot Plan made it very difficult for
industry or trade to settle in Brasilia. At the same time, income distribution concentrated in the
federal capital made it an attractive market for business (table 1). The average income in
Brasilia was three times bigger than in any satellite towns, and the whole Federal District, all
together had by far the highest income in the country. Taguatinga was the longest established
‘satellite community’ with a growing population of desperate fast learners strongly motivated by
the previous arguments. The making-place dimension regarding, for the sake of this paper, a
space with a perceived meaning collectively achieved came, in the selected areas, as a
consequence of the former two.
The patterns of changes identified comprised the initial alterations and their ripple-effects.
They revealed a ‘coding-system’ made of a check-list of features and forces of change which
were found to characterize the process of urban configuration of the selected areas. They have
been initially tested and acknowledged, in a subsequent research conducted in another
settlement, as indicators of local potential for development and self-government, in a process of
continued change with minimum State investment. The mentioned check-list included static
features such as design patterns, density, scale and size, as well as dynamic features such as
forces of segregation, agglutination and polarization. When and where most of this check-list of
features of change was found some common performance criteria were also perceived. They
comprised: grater accessibility to major trade flux and visibility from these routes; perceived
availability of whatever goods or services being offered, often implying forces of agglutination
multiplying similar patterns of change in the neighbourhood; where singularity of services or
goods being offered, regarded important, was identified it often implied forces of polarization
defining new trends of change in the urban grid with strong impact on future changes in the
area. Permeability to changes as well as environmental adequacy were also acknowledged as
conditions to the desired process of change towards making the original ‘satellite-dormitories’
into better places. Taguatinga, the oldest settlement, proved to be the spatial and economic
762

model whose influence and ripple effects have set the standards for change among the ring of
planned settlements around Brasilia.

Final considerations: dreams and nightmares

The forces that intertwine new and old space patterns, and meanings, sometimes juxtapose,
sometimes overlap and hide, sometimes value and maintain them, sometimes abandon them,
contracting, expanding and recreating. They make the city’s heritage together with the agents of
change that make them happen. They have been appropriated differently, along with various
times of sedimentation, by different social groups, adapting to new and old functionalities under
distinctive manners and management that rules over its use and changes. The changes
introduced in any given era, understood as innovations, leave traces and signs in the
‘townscape’. The individual and collective intentions that have successfully materialized into
changes, and that are still happening, go into sedimentation, intertwining with new uses and
users and public open spaces.
To face the challenge of allowing design approaches that interact with multiple agents of
change, future and existing ones, requires the courage to face the risk of messing it up. The
ripple effects of negative changes can jeopardize social, economic, management achievements
that may have taken hundreds of years to consolidate into a certain level of urban quality
environment. Positive changes may enhance value for all. The financial costs of changes in the
genetic heritage of social and economic space related processes of city appropriation have yet to
be evaluated. Maybe numbers will help those who have the power to redirect present and future
investments towards more adequate useful preservation and innovation compatible policies.

Figure. 1. Aerial photo of Rio das Pedras settlement, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
 763

Figure 2. The area of the settlement Rio das Pedras. The circle indicates the area of the
research project. Its main characteristics are – it is self-designed, self-built, self-managed
and self-provided in justice and public safety.

Figure 3. Mixed land uses, functional diversity together with morphological diversity and a
clearly marked centre. The presence of the school reinforces the singular identity of the
area. Several alleyways communicate within the block for pedestrians only as figure 4
illustrates.
764

Figure 4. The left poster in the photo indicates that bicycles and motorbikes are not allowed.
It illustrates how the community of Rio das Pedras exercise self-ruling over the open space.
The absent State is there replaced.

Figure 5. The model of the borough made by the students of the CIEP school as part of this
research project. They are young adults, migrants, originally illiterate, beginning to learn
reading and writing and basic arithmetic.

Figure 6. The model and the aerial photo of the whole settlement. It was exhibited in an
open fair sponsored by the Settlement Association. The mayor of Rio and other Local
Authorities representatives participated in the event.

References

Arias, E. (1993). The Meaning and Use of Housing. (Aldershot: Avebury).

 765

Burgos, M.(2002). A utopia da comunidade: Rio das Pedras, uma favela carioca (Rio de Janeiro. PUC-
RIO).
Carvalho, T. (1993). The Space of Citizenship, in Ernesto Arias (org.) The Meaning and Use of Housing.
(Aldershot: Avebury).
Buchmann,A. Lucio Costa, (2002). O inventor da cidade de Brasília (Brasília: Thesaurus).
Camara Legislativa Do Df (1995). CPI da Grilagem – relatório final. Suplemento 2 da câmara legislativa
do DF, ano, IV, n.123 (Brasília: GDF) 110-113.
Galvao, P.G. (2000). Ocupação e uso da terra publica no Distrito federal com enfoque par os condomínios
irregulares ou loteamentos clandestinos. Monografia (Brasília: CIORD/UnB).
Holanda, F. (2002). O espaço de exceção (Brasília: Editora da UnB).
Lynch, K. ( 1981). Good City Form. (Cambridge : MIT Press).
Paquot, T. (1999). “A Utopia - ensaios acerca do ideal”. (Rio de Janeiro: DIFEL).
Plano Diretor De Ordenamento Territorial Do Distrito Federal – PDOT (1996). Governo do Distrito
Federal - GDF. (Brasília: Instituto de Planejamento Territorial e Urbano – IPDF).
766

Public involvement transformation for best future of cities in

Russia

Mariia Zakharova, Tatiana Gudz, Ekaterina Meltsova

Perm National Research Polytechnic University, Russia
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. At recent years, the distrust of the government has intensified in Russia. It showed up in the
criticism and denial decisions of the federal and local level authorities, including municipality
development issues. This fact makes strategic urban planning a complicated and unenforceable
challenge. Public discussion of the city strategic development is a mandatory part of the document
approval. This measure is set forth in federal and local legislation. However, despite the enshrined laws,
the quality of public debate still stays extremely low, and the results are not credible. Partly due to the
Russian mentality, partly to the procedure of public hearings the event itself aims just to inform about
upcoming urban life changes, but not to affect the decision. World experience of public participation
illustrates that this approach to decision-making practice is beneficial for all urban participants:
increases the trust level for local government and prevents future disputes, identify the real city resident
interests for potential investors and land owners. Using the results of public hearings on General
Plan Amendments, we propose to amend the public hearings procedure for the urban development
projects in Russia. General Plan of the city of Perm is the main strategic document that regulates the
urban development for more than 20 years. These public hearings focused on land use of significant city
areas, such as the relocation of the Zoo into the urban forest, new outland district development for 75
thousand people (10% of the city's population), shopping centre development on the central city square -
the Esplanade. Perm is an industrial city with a one million inhabitants, one of the first cities in Russia
conducting urban policies based on the new urbanism ideology. Using the experience of public hearings
in Perm, we identified the problems and "bottlenecks" of public participation. This experience gives us
the opportunity to make recommendations for improvement of the decision-making procedure in urban
development.

Key Words: public hearings, public participation, strategic documents, decision-making, surveys, new
urbanism.

Perm is located in the east of the European part of Russia on the Kama River and is a large
diversified industrial, scientific, cultural and logistic center of the Urals with a population of one
million people.
History of the city begins in 1782 during the reign of Empress Catherine the Great. At the
beginning of the XIX century were defined the basic principles of the structure of the city. Like
many cities the layout of which was produced in the period Perm received direct perpendicular
streets and broad avenues with a high level of diversity of historic buildings with samples of
almost all architectural styles and trends that had spread in pre-revolutionary Russia . In the
postwar years, Perm grew all new residential neighbourhoods on both banks of the Kama River.
Documents the strategic planning of the city (in Russian it called General plans) developed
since the founding of the city. In Soviet times such documents in Russia developed large urban
institutions using the same approaches to various Russian regions, which actually led to the
decrease in the role of spatial planning.
City development strategy simply reflected the next administration's plans for the building of
new housing estates and industrial areas provide. With all the social benefits realized in strict
accordance with the regulations and adopted at the state level typological series. These measures
are used during the Soviet years and led to a general decline in the quality of the medium and
the appearance of the same neighbourhoods with a whole set of problems.
 767

In addition, a growing sprawl of built-up area of the city has led to an increase in cost the
city budget for infrastructure development and improvement that affects the state of the
economy of the city. In turn, the reduction in the level of development of the economy provokes
outflow of human resources with those of the city, where the number of opportunities for the
development is greater.
For these reasons in 2008 the Government of the Perm Region decided to develop a Master
Plan for the city of Perm, covering questions of city's development strategy for the long term.
The decision was the first example of the development of such a document in Russian and
formed the basis for the development of the 2010 General Plan for the city of Perm - document
the development of the city under the legislation.
The main principle of the Master Plan and subsequent General Plan was the failure of
extensive development in favour of the development of the city within the existing boundaries
due to the large-scale redevelopment areas.
Thus, Perm got an opportunity to increase the quality of the urban environment within the
existing boundaries and create conditions for the effective functioning of the urban economy.
That’s why large construction companies have lost the right to build up new territories and
urban forests, the level of protection which was increased in these documents.
In the context of a change of government in 2012, the city has been a weakening of urban
regulation that allowed developers and the administration to apply for a change in the General
Plan of the city of Perm. In 2013 17 such applications were submitted by the city administration
to a public hearing held in the period from 05.11.2013 to 28.11.2013. For Russia, a public
hearing is the only legal way to get involved in solving urban problems for residents.
Public hearings on the changes in the General Plan aroused great interest on the part of all
stakeholders. During the discussion of draft amendments have been collected more than 1,500
complaints of city residents, their number is three times the number of applications received in
the discussion of the General Plan in late 2010, which attracted just 452 treatment.
The study was an analysis of the quality of public hearings, with the opening of the problems
and the procedure as well as the collation and compilation of hits residents with the aim of
identifying and evaluating the relationship to the residents to discuss the proposed project and
their perceptions of quality urban environment.
Public hearings are expected participation of citizens in the following forms : 1. Appeal filed
in writing to the Department of Urban Development and Architecture Perm Administration
territorial or administrative authority; 2. Appeal filed in writing, through the Internet reception
Mayor of Perm; 3. Appeal filed in writing in one of the official events held during the public
hearings; 4. Oral treatment to the audience in one of the official events held during the public
hearings.
Residents of the city of Perm got all the proposed forms of participation. Significant amount
applied (63% of all applicants) got two forms: oral statement and a written request transmitted
to one of the eight activities conducted by the Department of Urban Development and
Architecture Perm Administration. Third of the applicants (36%) sent their written requests to
the administration of the city of Perm. A small percentage of the applicants took the internet
reception Mayor of Perm, working on the site of administration of Perm . Distribution of forms
used appeals to all applicants can be traced in Figure 1.
Residents received treatment during the period of discussion projects unevenly. On curves
registration applications to the city administration clearly expressed peaks of registered
applications (Fig.2). These peaks fall on the date of the events in the areas of the city at 5, 7, 12,
14, 19, 21, 26, 28 November 2013. This is due to the fact that most of the applicants have used
the forms of participation in the discussion, suggesting a visit to official events organized by the
city administration. Greatest number of complaints registered in the last days of procedural
delay discussions projects. This fact requires further study. This may be related to the
peculiarities of registration written applications by the City of Perm, and with the escalating
interest of citizens to the proposed changes during the public hearing in connection with the
debate unfolded in the media and social networks. If the increase in the number of calls in the
768

last days of public discussion due to the second reason, it can be concluded that there was
insufficient discussion term projects that should be investigated separately.

Figure1. Method of filing complaints of residents in the city of Perm administration.

It should be noted that in the last days of public hearings received 136 appeals, identical in
content and designed to support all the changes discussed the Master Plan. The share of these
appeals is about 9% of the total. In the generality of content applications and the ambiguity of
their origin, in the analysis of complaints of residents they were placed in a separate group.

500
450
400
350
300
250
200
150
100
50
0
11-23-2013
11-10-2013
11-11-2013
11-12-2013
11-13-2013
11-14-2013
11-15-2013
11-16-2013
11-17-2013
11-18-2013
11-19-2013
11-20-2013
11-21-2013
11-22-2013

11-24-2013
11-25-2013
11-26-2013
11-27-2013
11-28-2013
11-29-2013
11-8-2013
11-5-2013
11-6-2013
11-7-2013

11-9-2013

Figure 2. Schedule registering complaints of residents.

Projects change the General Plan of Perm offer changes associated with the form and content
of the General Plan.
The first draft contains changes that lead document in accordance with Russian legislation,
changed since the adoption of the General Plan in December 2010, and offers to put a grid on
the base maps / diagrams to simplify working with them. However, this project contains
changes that significantly affect the goals and objectives of the document, leading to a levelling
the strategic planning and development of the city.
Second draft amendments prepared by the proposals received in the administration of the
city of Perm municipal government authorities and landowners. All proposals relate changes in
the functional areas of destination. On the proposals of the applicants was formed 17 changes
the Master Plan. Suggestions included changing the zoning of different types of areas:
residential, recreational, commercial and industrial.
Due to the differences between the proposals in the size of the territory, their social value,
changes caused by different response from the residents. Rating Comments proposals shown in
Figure 3. The most active residents spoke against the territory of Chernyayevsky Forest - large
 769

forest within the city, the second highest rating by a wide margin took Esplanade - extensive
free area, located in the city centre. Then follow with a relatively small number of appeals in the
river valley area Danilikha who wish to build up the developers, the territory of the former
airport "Bakharevka" suggests a developing neighbourhood in the 40,000 residents in the new
territory. Following were rated territory, located on the border with low-rise buildings Iva -1, 2.
Other changes General Plan Perm caused less significant response from citizens and are not
considered in the ranking.

1200

1000

800

600

400

200

0
Area of Esplanade Danilikha Former Iva-1 Iva-2
Cheniaevskiy river valley "Baharevka"
Forest area airport area

Figure 3. Rating comments proposals to amend the General Plan.

Within the protected landscape Chernyayevsky Forest, located in the city showed the
importance of territory for the residents of the city of Perm. In the administration of 963
received treatment (about 62% of the total number).
The main objective of the zoning change was the transfer of the territory in the Permian
forest zoo. Currently Zoo is negligibly small area of 2 hectares in the center of Perm. The
question was raised repeatedly moving it once and has already received the decision on
placement in one of the areas of the city. In accordance with the decision of the Spanish firm
Amusement logic,SL drafted zoo. Subsequently, the decision was reversed and the
administration has proposed for the zoo territory Chernyayevsky Forest. According to the
results of the hearing majority of residents (58%) was not in accordance with the changed plans
and administration insisted on keeping the current usage. Supports changing the intended use
area is transfer the Perm Zoo, only 38 % applied. About 6 % of the requests contain proposals
for alternative uses of this part of the territory.
Distribution of calls for an exemption of the proposal of the draft amendments to the General
Plan has addressed the place of residence shows enhanced activity of resident’s adjacent
administrative areas. It is understandable that the said area fulfills recreational functions and is
involved in the daily life of the community. For residents the opportunity to freely use territory
forest park is valuable because their normal life is inextricably linked with the forest. Changing
the functionality of the site will reduce the comfort of living in areas adjacent to the territory of
the possible deployment of the zoo. On the other hand the situation of resistance increase in the
activity of using the territory expected and occurs when discussing the possibility of placing any
large urban sites (the tendency of " not in my backyard ").
The main reasons given in explanation of position ‘delete" are shown in Figure 4.
It should be noted that residents of neighborhoods in their applications using the emotional
momentum to express their attitude to the territory of the forest park , "Leave the forest people",
"last bit of hope for the rest in the neighborhood", "The only joy”, "Miracle, existing in our city"
and others. This demonstrates a high degree of sensual attachment residents to discuss the
project.
770

Figure 4. The prevalence of the different arguments of opponents of changing the status of
protected Chernyayevsky forest area.

The addresses of residents reflected dissatisfaction protracted decision-making process for

migrating zoo " should stop already discussing ", " need to take resolute decision " and others.
With regard to statements supported by this argument, for the desire to change the designation
of part of the territory Chernyayevsky forest to accommodate it for Perm Zoo , may be hiding
hope of speeding up the process of government decisions on the construction of significant
urban object.
The main reason residents in "voting’ for making changes is the desire to have a modern zoo
" European level ", located near the city center . Thus, references in support of changes to reveal
the significance of the zoo inhabitants, not their attitude to the zoo on the placement of the
Chernyayevsky Forest area.
Turning to the cultural context of the existence of zoos in Russia, we can say that culture zoo
itself is not deep Russian tradition, unlike the culture of theaters or museums. In the world of
zoos, in addition to its recreational functions may perform the functions of environmental
education, upbringing respect for the environment and work as a research enterprise. While in
the eyes of Perm , the zoo is a certain image object for the city, raising its status compared to
other cities , that is, the city is a means of identification.
Territory of Esplanade ranks second in the ranking of the most talked about change. In 1960
- 70s during the active development of the city it was cleared the space housing construction,
but the project of one of the Perm architects was transformed it into a large open space in
conjunction with surround buildings form a single plan's composition. Three quarters converted
to esplanade become the hallmark of Perm.
In comparison with the territory Chernyayevsky forest it caused much less excitement. Its
opinion on the proposal expressed 220 people (14.3 % of all references), including 70% of them
argued for the preservation of recreational functions esplanade share against 27 % of residents
are in favor of a change in its use.
Most of the arguments for retaining the existing use (about 40% of the total) are based on the
perception of the Esplanade as a recreational facility - the venue of the city's celebrations and
festivals. The addresses residents say the probability of loss of these functions, due to changes
in land use. The townspeople called Esplanade «The only place where you can relax with
children ", ‘place of favorite holidays." A group of residents insists on maintaining the
Esplanade as a cultural heritage site. Thus, most people like to characterize the Esplanade
important to identify their city, refers to her as a symbol of Perm.
 771

In the public mind Esplanade residents perceived as an integral part of the city and its culture
, as opposed to other provincial cities as "highlight" of Perm. At this point explanations used
residents: "We can lose shape Perm ", " This is the center of the city, its “face”, which is
necessary to make beautiful ", "Pride, heritage Perm" and others.
The arguments supporting the position of the applicant for change of use, based on
perceptions of underground space development of the Esplanade as " a step forward for the city"
and high-tech image project , which will raise the status of the city. As an example, speech:
«Underground Mall - it's not bad. Breathes new technologies”. This argument, like the previous
one, reveals the need for citizens to identify, illustrates the importance of assessing hometown
side. Hypothesis is supported by the statements of individual residents of the need for other
unconditional attributes of "success" of Russian cities "indigenous Permiaks just dream about
Metro and the water park." However, the nature of the change - placing the mall in these appeals
is blurred for appeal of the idea.
All most discussed objects - zoo hosted part of the territory Chernyayevsky Forest and
Esplanade - the elements forming urban identity. Identification processes underlie the formation
of relatively stable social interests, that is, lead to the formation of the local community. [1]
With the help of these urban characters formed stable mental communication within the urban
community - a sense of community with the territory, a sense of "city”.
For positive identification of members of the urban community is important, whether the
territory develops and how it is evaluated by other [2]. In particular, the existence in the city zoo
“European level ", which is mentioned in a variety of applications, is a means of external
identification, the identification associated with the estimation of the city outside.
Obviously, uniform , monolithic " urban identity " is not possible, since different social
groups have their own , differing in type and content , views about the city, its values and
interests in the citywide resources [3] , such as , for example, an area of forest or small river
valley .
The analysis revealed various appeals of citizen’s awareness and mindfulness in making
decisions and formulating their own opinions on Urban Affairs and the difference in the degree
of readiness of citizens to take responsibility for their decision.
Some residents of the city characterized by the ability to perceive complex, consider several
interdependent factors - is traced in the analysis-cited arguments. The situation unfolding
around changing land use of urban forests and valleys of small rivers , allows you to select a
group of people, differing development of environmental thinking , guided when deciding the
principles of sustainable development.
Nevertheless, most residents look at the city's problems unilaterally, often expressed
intuitively guided or conventional notions of "modern" city with multilevel underground shops,
"European" zoo on site urban forests and high-rise buildings in the valley of the small river.
In a community that when making the choice based on the generally accepted ideas,
simplifies the process of manipulating opinion using the media and invited experts. These
technologies have been applied in the recent hearings on draft amendments to the General Plan.
Feedbacks when we analyze complaints of residents in the administration of the city of Perm,
research on this issue will continue.
An analysis of the complaints of residents concluded that public hearings could be an
effective tool for strategic decision-making, only in the case of a conscious attitude to the future
residents of the city, as well as if they have a comprehensive knowledge of urban development
relating to legal, economic, political and social processes.
Under these conditions , of particular importance in the task of forming citizens citizenship
and the creation of public institutions that act as intermediaries between citizens and the
government , the business community. However, despite the active work of public organizations
of Perm, some citizens in the appeals expressed dissatisfaction with such organizations. This
indicates a lack of representation of the interests of the residents of the city by public
organizations or distorted perception of the position of public men.
772

Conducted public hearings showed that neither residents nor the government nor the
business community was not ready to discuss together solutions. Residents were not sufficiently
educated in urban planning and put yourself at risk of manipulation by other party’s debate. The
administration has been unable to provide the necessary conditions for effective discussion of
projects and businessmen do not want to look into the eyes of their customers.
Educating residents conscious attitude toward the city can be stimulated from above - by
providing the most comfortable environment discuss urban projects (and informative handouts
available, exposition materials, equal opportunity to speak to all participants of the discussion) ,
or through the creation of alternative possibilities for participation of residents : preliminary
public discussion on the draft , Civilian expertise, project seminars, surveys and more.
The experience of countries that use mechanisms for involving the urban community in
planning for a long time, shows that the change in terms of the debate in making strategic
decisions in the direction of the interests of all stakeholders benefit all [4]: power - in enhancing
its legitimacy and credibility with citizens, residents - in consideration of their needs and desires
and the business community - to identify the interests of consumers.

References

Reaven, M. (2009) ‘Citizen Participation in City Planning: New York City, 1945-1975’, New York City.
Sequeira, D., Leader, T. and Warner, M. (2007) ‘Stakeholder Engagement: A Good Practice Handbook
for Companies Doing Business in Emerging Markets’, International Finance Corporation/World Bank
Group, Washington D.C.
Berger, P., Luckman, T. (1995) The Social Construction of Reality. Treatise on the sociology of
knowledge. - M: Medium, 323 p.
Yakovleva, M.V. (2008) Features of the sociological analysis of urban symbolism as a factor of identity
formation citizens, Bulletin of Udmurt University. Man and society .1, pp.83 -90.
 773

Unidade Residencial da Reboleira Sul. Critical reading of

the “Optimist Suburbia” that Sá Rico designed and J.
Pimenta built in the Lisbon suburb

Bruno Macedo Ferreira

Instituto Universitário de Lisboa (ISCTE-IUL), DINÂMIA’CET-IUL.
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. This communication aims to present part of an investigation that, by surveying 30 cases study
unpublished sought to understand the phenomenon of residential occupation of the northern suburb of
Lisbon. Questions whether the evolution of the territory built in the suburbs (architectural and urban
planning) when, in the late 1960s, the ideals of neoliberalism, the emergence of large property developers
and a large demographic pressure reshape the process of urban growth and the logic of metropolitan
relations (the traditional building lot to lot by the production of large urban packages) and urban area in
the suburbs of Lisbon acquires its contemporary shape. The suburban growth recorded in Amadora is the
most emblematic expression of the suburbanization process from 1950s reconfigured the territory of the
Lisbon Metropolitan Area. Specifically we intend to present the Urbanização da Reboleira for being a
"pioneer" and paradigmatic case. These large residential construction packages ex-novo found in
Modern tabula rasa and its social optimism a model of easy operability. Designed by architects trained in
the values of Modernity, this also enables us to identify the time when the Portuguese architects were
losing capacity to intervene, from primary responsibility for the design of the territory (up to 50s) to
figure technicians ensured that only approval of real estate projects. The Urbanização da Reboleira Sul
is an initiative of a group of small landowners and their masterplan is the responsibility of the architect
Sá Rico. Once approved the masterplan, the construction process proceeds to the liability of J. Pimenta
(then the largest real estate developer and builder in the country) who, with the connivance of local
government, adulterous urban principles originally defined. This was a usual strategy of this promoter -
clearly speculative process that obeyed only to the logic of the market.

Key Words: J. Pimenta, Lisbon Metropolitan Area, real estate developers, subur,; Urbanização da
Reboleira Sul.

The formation of an urban Amadora. Amadora Masterplan

Urban growth recorded in Amadora is the most emblematic expression of the suburbanization
process from late 1950 restructures the entire logic of metropolitan relationships. These
territories that until that time were dominated by an agricultural landscape punctuated by small
urbanized centers, a lapse of 20 years, gave rise to extensive densely built-up urban networks by
mostly residential buildings (Figure 1).
The beginning of 1950 marks the beginning of the general awareness of the need of urban
planning instruments that covered much of the urban territory. It is according to this new
consciousness that in 1949 the Ministério das Obras Públicas (MOP) is the first to approve a
planning public source for Amadora designed by Faria da Costa.
This Plan is intended to consistently organizing the process of urban growth in Amadora,
following the logic of building lot by lot (yield buildings with four floors) that had been
practicing in Amadora, typology which also came to be practiced by "official” program
Habitações de Renda Económica. Following an urban structure based on the street, in the square
and the block, set up the main road traces, areas of expansion and the number of floors of the
buildings to be constructed in conjunction with the existing urban fabric.
In March 1958, presents a second Amadora Masterplan designed by architect João António
de Aguiar (Figure 2). This Plan establishes the scheme circulations of all Amadora, determine
774

the main roads connecting the village center and links this to the city of Lisbon. It also made a
comprehensive zoning scheme which establishes the main uses for each territorial unit and
especially sets up housing densities allowed in each. There was also concern Amadora endow a
certain autonomy in relation to Lisbon, so set up the profiles of the necessary equipment to
which that territory was autonomous in terms of housing, job/industry and equipment. (Nunes,
2011, pp.195)

Figure 1. Aerial photograph of Urbanização da Reboleira, 2013.

João P. Silva Nunes (2011, pp.196) cites a diagnosis made by the team that participated in
the studies of PDM Amadora summarizing an exemplary way the application of the plan.
“The Aguiar plan was followed in the areas of immediate expansion of existing
settlements (Amadora, Damaia, Buraca) (...) (but) now with respect to large areas of urban
sprawl of the '70s and '80s, Aguiar Plan is abandoned and replaced isolated projects by the
private sector who shall be assessed and approved on the basis of general criteria of the
Lisbon Regional Master Plan meanwhile completed (1964). Based on these general criteria
and sample approval of proposed subdivision, centers on the Direcção Geral de
Planeamento Urbanístico, alter morphologies, types, uses and densities of previous plans".
(CMA, 1990, pp.168-9)
This analysis allows us to trace well the three stages of growth that characterized the
construction of the Amadora urban fabric: 1) phase of homes for either housing or homes that
were ordered individually builders; 2) phase of buildings yield four floors promoted by “patos
bravos”; 3) phase of large urban and real estate transactions for private promotion in a short
time, once transformed agricultural farms in residential housing developments.
 775

Figure 2. Amadora Masterplan, Architect João Aguiar, 1958.

Reboleira Norte

In late 1950, two private developers, Rodrigo Barbosa Araújo Leite da Silva and Amadeu
Cotrim Garcez acquired an extensive farm located in Casal Brandão ou Casal da Reboleira,
bounded on the west by the railway line linking Lisbon to Sintra, by Estrada Militar south and
to the west by the Quatro Caminhos.
This location will not have been a fluke, because it allowed benefiting from a series of
strongly attractive factors for this type of venture. Enjoyed is the low cost of purchasing
agricultural land; benefited from the synergies created by the "front" of urbanization that is
recorded in the neighboring land of Benfica, the Buraca and Damaia; the recent (1957)
electrification of railway line that allowed substantial technological improvements in the
management of the traffic line and consequently the frequency of trains; easy accessibility to the
center of Lisbon, either through private road transport either by public transport (train) in less
than 10 minutes put the potential residents of central Lisbon.
These promoters wanted there to create a new "garden-city/satellite" of capital seeking to
attract a population group to aspire to reside in a suburb evocative of an experience that is
associated with the countryside and green spaces to the benefits of urban life and the dynamism
that of city services offer.
"Eight minutes from the capital
is simply herself
built in top condition and a lovely place
here is the satellite city of Reboleira
true garden-city". (O Século, July 4, 1964)
In December 1959 shall be submitted to the technical services of the Oeiras Municipality
design of streets that prosecutors plan to send the couple running in Reboleira land could begin
to urbanization in accordance with the Amadora Masterplan (Figure 3). This plan follows the
planning assumptions previously set by the architect João António de Aguiar and is one of the
leading builders EMUR – Empresa de Urbanismo e Construções Lda.
776

Figure 3. Reboleira Norte Urban Plan, Architect João Aguiar, 1958.

At this time is a celebrated deed transfer of land between the municipality and the promoters.
This scripture was to be adjusted several times during the year 1960, and in July 1960 signed the
final version of the urbanization contract. Under this contract settled down land that would be
assigned to building public facilities (playground, school, college, church, market, sports park
with swimming pool, skating rink, basketball and volleyball) in an area of about 50000 m2.
The urban principles established in the plan were based on contemporary studies developed
internationally in the English garden city. Thus the center of the housing development was
planned location of buildings with height between six and eight stories, with the ground floor
was planned location of trade. The remaining buildings would be organized in band housing
buildings with four floors. On the hillside to the south, across the main boulevard linking the
Quatro Caminhos (current Av. D. José I) was provided for the construction of about 250 houses.
The set was completed by an inn and a car garage.
“There was concern the Reboleira buildings obey a design that does not hurt the
entrenched traditions preferences and therefore did not have style too bold, but not ceased to
be modern and attractive lines." (Diário Popular, June 1, 1963)
In about 24 hectares was envisaged that a population that was around 140
inhabitants/hectares had been established as the Amadora Masterplan.
“The Reboleira will be a residential unit and not a neighborhood. Will satisfy the needs of
its people with their own resources (...) In Reboleira is to take the effect of making an urban
plan that's best interest and can integrate into the spirit of a satellite city. Is noteworthy,
however, that Reboleira will become self-sufficient urban center. (...) [According to the
general plan] have all the requirements of the most modern urban centers, the characteristics
of order, cleanliness, convenience and taste indispensable to the existence of population
centers in the civilized world. The Reboleira will not shy but authentic "lungs" of vegetation
gardens. A vast park and many garden areas provide a healthy life". (O Século, July 4,
1964)
In urbanization contract was also established that the plots assigned and for the construction
of buildings of public interest ground, could not be given another use, but they would return to
the immediate possession of the original owners. The Municipality was also in charge of
endeavor, to the extent that it is possible for the brevity of construction of such establishments.
 777

Was initially scheduled starting date of construction that established the late 1962 and early
1964 as the deadline for the construction of the facilities. However many of the efforts of the
promoters were not met and shortages experienced by populations made him feel. The
Municipality was justified that some of this facilities to Municipality relied on foreign entities
and therefore could do little. However, it is reported the construction of a Police station on land
previously intended for movie theater, preventing future construction of this, and the
construction of a playground outside the ceded plot for this purpose.
In August 1965 the construction of the Reboleira railway station was embargoed by works
are being carried out, for access to the station, which collided with a Aqueduto das Águas
Livres, as well as the sewerage system. In a letter of June 1966, CP advises homeowners to
operational the way station was not considered a priority issue because it could only come into
operation while the new Santa Cruz station, and saw no urgency in solving this problem the
much demanded by residents.
In August 1967 a large part of the streets, public parks and green spaces of trees were
already completed.
With all already "customary" adventures in this type of processes that extend over a long
period of time, the work planned on the southern slopes were not proceeding as designed, and it
is thus that in 1966, require the approval of the Oeiras Municipality of Reboleira Sul Urban
Plan.

Reboleira Sul Urban Plan

The Reboleira Sul Urban Plan marks a new cycle in the process of urbanization in the
Amadora. These lands were given to a large number of owners and were given responsibility for
building, among others, Empreendimento Urbanos e Turismo J. Pimenta, SARL, at the time the
most important real estate developer to work in Lisbon Metropolitan Area (LMA).
Fernando Caneças de Morais, owner of land in the Reboleira south zone, whose review was
provided for the MOP in November 1964, presented in May 1966 the study of urbanization the
responsibility of the architect Antonio Sarrico Santos (Sá Rico) (Figure 4).

Figure 4. Model Reboleira Sul Urban Plan, Architect Sá Rico, 1966.

The Reboleira Sul Urban Plan follows the experience that the architect Sá Rico had
experienced in 1963 Buraca Urban Plan. Although recalling that this plan, this has been the plan
of Buraca followed the previous assumptions expressed in the urban lan of the Amadora
designed by architect João Aguiar, the author stresses that "this work is in relation to the Buraca
778

a breakthrough. All the space from the exterior to the interior has been carefully considered
and studied". (Sá Rico, 1966, pp.5)
In the previous plan was expected to Reboleira a density of 141 inhabitants/hectare,
corresponding to a ground occupation divided into three functions: about 1/3 of the area was
intended for four-story buildings, one third the houses and the rest as green zone. This new plan
was reviewing all this data, and the cell with about 39 hectares provided an occupational density
of around 157 inhabitants/hectare, which corresponded to 1923 dwellings in tenement buildings
and 103 townhouses, for an estimated population of 6078 people.
This urban plan was prepared over and year and its descriptive memory is an exhaustive
document that deserves emphasis here. This text board urbanism and general considerations
about the topics of discussion at the time, characterizes the whole of difficulty representing the
production of a plan of this scale in the Portuguese context in the 1960s. Objectively explains
each option taken, always based on comparison with other proposals "official" promoted by the
regime (Olivais Norte, Olivais Sul and Chelas) and other contemporary international
experiences in vogue (in particular the experiences of British new towns).

Buraca essay

"This work follows as urban study certain amplitude of the Buraca officially approved
approximately two years ago by MOP and currently running, and experience which
necessarily benefit.
Although considered a correct solution for all those who are linked to the problems of
urbanism is about me outdated, not only in its general conception of organizing spaces, as in
the work processes adopted. There are aspects that I consider negative and that its
development in detail accentuated. Too bad though it had been a very low level of
collaboration in the implementation of the road and sewage project that very committed and
the solution led to a review of final settlement, but have committed certain aspects of the
initial solution.
Among the many negative aspects of this work, whose attribute blame myself, regard as
key:
I have limited, due to commitments made by the official plan, the definition of outer space
and the study of their organization, starting from the abstract definition imposed on that
plan, determined lot sizing.
This necessarily led me to a disintegration of human space by solving the truncated, only
one of its aspects, which will lead implicitly to an adulteration of the final development of the
scale of the lot.
The lack of an initial synchronization, due to an in-depth study, could lead to the
disintegration of the space itself, been further accentuate all negative positions.
Were all these negative aspects, the result of my previous experience I deleted the job that
I now present [Reboleira Sul], a consequence of a much more in-depth study that led to the
search for a comprehensive solution and the proposal which I now present, and that is a
remarkable advance in respect of that work”. (Sá Rico, 1966, pp.19-20).
This excerpt is particularly important because it demonstrates quite clearly awareness that
architects participating in the construction of the Lisbon suburb had on their achievements.
Allows us to refute many preconceived ideas that these authors considered as "minor" only
guided by the profit motive inherent in real estate.

Urban and populational reality of Reboleira Norte

To start the urban plan, architect Sá Rico calls attention to the lack of a sociological study
able to characterize the Amadora territory with a rigor/depth that allows making architectural
choices based on that diagnosis.
 779

Reference is made to the survey conducted in 1960 under the responsibility of the architect
João Aguiar when the Amadora Masterplan, which, though done with some care, rested on
bases considered, outdated when the population forecast provided for each dwelling. This
simplicity of position and the lack of a greater depth of study and objectivity of the plan were
stated as the cause for the uncontrolled number of dwelling that were occurring in the execution
in the north. Thus Sá Rico lies on the task to conduct a survey to the situation in Reboleira
Norte in order to gather data for designing a system based on real facts and not on outdated
estimates urban plan.
“From the survey it was possible to do that and the northern part of Reboleira ever built
and which represents one third of the whole area, I concluded:
- over 1413 dwellings in 1002 provided the official plan were executed.
- this represents an increase of 411 dwellings which corresponds, according to the same
plan, a population increase of the order of 1233 people.
- beyond that increasing the number of dwellings, there to consider further 62 stores, 6
offices, 26 garages, 10 warehouses, storerooms 7 and a small factory.
- assistance of worship is taken through a Protestant church in a working area for a shop.
- buildings set in the plan with greater height, 7 floors, were built with 8 floors.
- the buildings are built higher floors and 10 were included in the plan with only 5 floors.
- a building with four plots that corresponded to the plane 32 dwellings were built five lots
and there was an overall increase of 30 dwellings.
In addition to the checks made on the built and part of which is only one third of the whole
area, I am aware of some studies and projects approved with 261 dwellings for 85 provided
in the official plan, which gives a further increase of 176 dwellings and therefore more 428
people.
From here I can only conclude that for the northern area of Reboleira, with a part
already built and running another shall be given, according to the data plan a population
increase of the order of 2,000 people”. (Sá Rico, 1966, pp.38-40)

General Structure of the Proposal

The first projective plan options passed by the restructuring of the connections to the
surrounding areas. With this reformulation, we sought to better integrate this cell housing in
major regional roads in the AML and the large circular Lisbon, which quickly lead residents to
the city of Lisbon. In terms of structuring the proposal is clearly highlighted the importance of
the train station, while iron pole generator centrality of whole cell (Figure 5).
"Due to the two movements that create a daily flow of people, with greater strength at
peak times, one in the morning and another in the late afternoon in the opposite direction.
These two movements create lines necessarily constraints of the physical strength of the cell.
This led me to consider the season the dominant axis of the whole composition, thus seeking
to give physical expression to a strong human condition”. (Sá Rico, 1966, pp.24)
Thus, the movement of pedestrians lines were drawn, with different expressions according to
their flow from the attraction pole of station. In the vicinity of the fundamental elements
vitalization of cell were found, "according to a structure that almost reminds the correct form of
a large tree trunk, its branches more or less long, to unfold in other smaller coming out of it"
(Sá Rico, 1966, pp.24). On the hill opposite the station and the culmination of the largest power
line was proposed location of the large shopping center.
The overall composition of the cell is affected by this central shaft which are derived from
two orthogonal axes that determine the whole composition of the cell and from which all
external spaces are shaped. Sá Rico states that "this sense of composition is what best suits the
natural development of the land, and in it we find a quite space organization that comes close to
our traditional area of strong Mediterranean incidences". (Sá Rico, 1966, pp.25).
780

Figure 5. Reboleira Sul Urban Plan, Architect Sá Rico, 1966.

Every cell development, following this axis follows the natural development of land
extending in gentle upward slope from the station, watching the Estrada Militar to the Quatro
Caminhos. Hence the composition of orthogonal blocks that will progressively combining
altimetry oscillation creating several spaces.
"Just so, a certain physical space can give strength to a human space that corresponds to
it and in which man can find that scale of values which lead him to identify it with you and
appropriates it, then feeling sir what to it was created. Only then urbanism identifies with the
architecture and from there all his abstract sense became reality, serving the purpose it is
intended, man". (Sá Rico, 1966, pp. 26-7)

The human cell center

Sá Rico stresses that the human element was considered in structuring the plan and
organization of spaces, "all his strength". Its strong presence is evidenced by not opting for a
large civic and commercial center located in a single point. Choose to organize and
conveniently treat a number of walking routes that they would play the role of "canal space"
public and civic experience (Figure 6).

Figure 6. Scheme of the Human Center of Reboleira Sul, Architect Sá Rico, 1966.

Classified in the general line composition, the center extends along the central part of the cell
following a orthogonal composition. It extends almost from the movie theater (way station train)
to the area of housing, including the two major shopping centers and rises orthogonally to the
church. Around it, integrating it, gravitate fundamental elements aimed at equipping children:
two primary schools; the kindergarten; two playgrounds; and the medical center. Then the
pawn, with special emphasis on the child can move "freely and wildly". The car gives access to
it from all sides, without the trespass.
 781

Circulation

"It has such force the presence of the car in urban space that cannot be forgotten in
structuring any neighborhood. Must be equated directly linked to the man with which it
forms a binomial, the better or worse resolution of which results in a better or worse urban
solution. (...)
The binomial vehicle-pedestrian was here equated forming a system of two equations each of
which corresponds to a scale so that both, in their own space if you continue and complete
without counter". (Sá Rico, 1966, pp.27-8)
As already experienced in the Buraca Urban Plan, also in Reboleira Sul, entire road system
of the cell was chalked within an integrated overall scheme considering four different types of
roads, the V1, V2, V3 and V4, designations adopted by Le Corbusier in its rule of 7V (Figure 7).

Figure 7. Road Structure of Reboleira Sul Urban Plan, Architect Sá Rico, 1966.

Although taking a different scale and dimensions, we adopted the same principle: V1 -
Freeway, via extensive regional traffic flow and speed of exclusive use for mechanical transit;
V2 - roads intercellular distribution of housing unit, are responsible for channeling all the
different mechanical cells for V1 transit. Make the connection between the cells and the
common center of the unit, having no direct contact with the housing; V3 - roads penetration
and mechanical movement of each cell. Completely individualized pathways for pedestrians
give direct access to these dwellings and through parking areas. Also be avoided crossing of the
paths of pedestrians in the main points intersect at different levels, by “bridging” or tunnels; V4
- roads and paths for pedestrians only.
"By analyzing the urban structure of the cell, easily verifies that the pedestrian was given
such presence that almost all the solution evolves from the power lines down by it.
Leaving the station, core of the entire drive at peak times, to the most distant zone, along
the four paths, a series of platforms serving a regular route. They have however increased
expression, which corresponds to a larger footprint at the point of gravity of the cell, those
who track the movement towards the station represents the largest movement within". (Sá
Rico, 1966, pp.29)
The issue of parking was also equated with the fundamental structure of the residential
unit. It was thus destined for an area of 21070 m2 open and parked in an underground area of
3998 m2.
"Although it has not been able to achieve optimal prediction of 1 car per house, that they
need to check only come among us many years from now, however could exceed the
averages of many European countries, where the rate of cars per capita exceeds our". (Sá
Rico, 1966, pp.35)
782

Three large garages at key points, such as run a gas station were also provided. "The
individual garages were not considered here, for fear that given the structure of the cell, were
transformed into small workshops, improper appearance". (Sá Rico, 1966, pp.57)

Facilities

Sá Rico, warning that the items of facilities referred to in the Amadora Masterplan was meager
that claimed many changes during the implementation of the plans. It was said that the situation
should be changed as part of a broad-based review of the entire Urban Plan revision that was
considered urgent and which had been requested by Conselho Superior de Obras Públicas.
"As I mentioned in the Buraca Urban Plan of our sociology studies are poor or virtually
non-existent, which further aggravates the problem.
However, we cannot sit back and imposes the programming for the whole cell from a
ware able to give you the self-sufficiency of its scale. (...)
For the human mass that forms our neighborhoods is quite heterogeneous, economically
weak, socially poorly structured, very far from saturation of their human potential, behaves
in a disorderly and unpredictable prey to the harmful effects of the recent past of disabled
proper conditions, which correspond to conditions of habitability also disabled. (...)
If we are only just beginning, for reasons of natural social evolution, to look seriously for
the housing problem, without a basic structure that still meets, no wonder that only several
years from now, after the experience of some valid constructions , begin to have some
elements capable of providing us with the data necessary for the establishment of certain
facilities programs. (...)
That does not prevent me however that, based on the data and information within my
reach at this time, in consultation with foreign counterparts accomplishments, in direct
observation of certain behavior of populations, establish a program of urban equipping of
certain scale". (Sá Rico, 1966, pp.42-4)
Thus, considering the assumed population and scale of the plan, several devices have been
provided in order to make the cell self-sufficient in their primary needs.
Although the absence of a pre-primary education official in Portugal, two kindergartens were
provided. With regard to primary schools, has mentioned the experiences of English new town
where was considered the primary school as the starting point for structuring the city itself.
Thus, it was based on the route of the child that the cell was scaled. Were therefore envisaged
two primary schools located in the center of gravity of the metric and human cell. Each school
would be well served by the network paths due to the mechanical individualized pedestrian
traffic.
The level of health care services were provided to local own medical center, in buildings of
differentiated for housing, located in a central area that is served by car access and privileged
pedestrian access.
It was also provided the location for a church, the possibility to install a movie theater at one
end of the cell, located along a route of intercellular transit and railway line, thus benefiting
from the possibility of attracting public outside the cell.

Trade

In the study conducted for the resolution of commercial program experiences that were being
made in several English New Towns and Olivais Sul and given the characteristics of the cell,
the topographic development at pedestrian pathways and their structure were observed were
considered four commercial centers: A great center opposite the station, which cumulatively
play the role of civic center; another which proposed a new model in which the function
normally performed by a market were replaced by a supermarket that worked the most hours
according to the life of the inhabitants. "This whole cell mode, despite its fusiform configuration
 783

would be covered by a commercial ware that does not oblige a housewife for your needs day-to-
day, long distances". (Sá Rico, 1966, pp.51-2)

Green Sapaces

At the top of the slope, and corresponding to the zone of protection of the Estrada Militar will
develop, under the proper afforestation plan, a dense wooded area that will frame the new
neighborhood (Figure 8).

Figure 8. Green Spaces of Reboleira Sul Urban Plan, Architect Sá Rico, 1966.

“Perfect green line separating the living from the white buildings and bright blue Lisbon
sky.
From there, cascading, born various branches of trees, through the villas that bathing the
linear center in order to give greater strength and comfort to footpaths and some free,
spaces corresponding to the schools the most powerful, the kindergartener, the playground,
end up coming faintly die against the strong and dense area of trees that must be born after
the train line to protect the natural noise of the trains”. (Sá Rico, 1966, pp.54-5)
Sá Rico proposes that all open spaces, the permeable zones and afforestation are the subject
of a timely landscaped study, consciously prepared by a landscape architect. These zones would
be designed so seamlessly with playgrounds considered "indispensable in any neighborhood."
Recreational areas for teens and older were also thought in relation to green spaces.
Regarding games area, was considered a games area-wide cell, regardless of considering the
games area designed for the Reboleira Norte, but is separated from it by a cell via high flow of
traffic. Thus a basketball and roller hockey, a tennis court, a swimming pool with attached and
integrated them an assembly center buildings and a clubhouse was planned.

Home Organization

The time of presentation of the Urban Plan, also pointing-three housing typologies combined in
various ways, would serve the residential function of the whole. Regarding home T2 to T4 were
provided (Figure 9).
784

Figure 9. Plans of housing typologies of Reboleira Sul Urban Plan, Architect Sá Rico,
1966.

“The internal organization of the home must be considered a program that satisfies
certain human requests. And for completing it must sit on certain data that clarify the
sociology of mass human behavior that will serve.
Whereas this cell to home an internal program to serve a population of already evolved
middle class or continuous evolution, it was structured and organized, taking into account
all the above principles.
Thus, a single dialog, speak the whole neighborhood”. (Sá Rico, 1966, pp.37) (Figure10)

Figure 10. Photograph of the model of a housing block of Reboleira Sul Urban Plan,
Architect Sá Rico, 1966.

Approval process and review of the Urban Plan

In May 1968 the review of the Reboleira Sul Urban Plan, designed to give satisfaction to the
comments made by the various entities involved in the approval of the Urban Plan was
presented at the Oeiras Municipality (Figure11).
 785

Figure 11. Review of Reboleira Sul Urban Plan, Architect Sá Rico, 1968.

Imposed changes were related to the need for improvement of the road system, for improved
handling and mechanical irrigation transit through the entire cell trying yet not completely
penetrate the core. Thus pedestrian crossings are reduced uneven leading to obvious economic
benefits, as well as pedestrian pathways are reduced. Also makes repairs to the street level
design, including the requirement walks the streets of most car traffic and were eliminated the
underground car parks, distributing them to the surface without increasing the area for parking.
It has also increased the area of the central green area to constitute a true lung plan and revised
the height of volumes, proceeding to the standardization aiming to make the most economical
running.
In April 1971 it signed the final contract for the donation of land between the city and the
owners of the land where the following final values are established: Total area 38.75 hectares;
6078 inhabitants; 1923 block houses; 103 homes; population density of 156.8
inhabitants/hectare.

Implementation of the Plan and construction of buildings

Shortly after adoption of the Urban Plan, begins the work of earthworks for the construction of
buildings. The construction process is then controlled by the Empreendimento Urbanos e
Turismo J. Pimenta, SARL the meantime had acquired some parcels of land to the original
landowners and developers of Urban Plan.
From that moment begins a new process that will lead to many changes were clearly
misrepresenting the approved plans. As had already happened in the Reboleira Norte, this
company starts a speculative process clearly about lots already approved.
In 1970 are subject to the approval of the project for residential buildings designed by the
architect Sa Rico and would be built by SUIÇOPOR – Imobiliária Suiço Portuguesa Lda. In
these projects the housing typologies previously presented as small simplifications to the
interior design of the homes were observed.
For the same year, the responsibility of J. Pimenta, a change in some portions is required.
With the pretext of pursuing some adjustments in retaining walls and track alignment (resulting
from the work of moves land) intended to increase the number of parking spaces. It is also
intended to extend the zone of construction through the implementation of eight new lots, and
786

seven of the lots already approved, increasing the number of floors. As justification was
advanced the need for reimbursement from increased expenditure generated by the arrangement
of the soil and the various works of rectification. This request would be accepted by the council
and was the "first stone" to the process that would follow.
In terms of the types of buildings, tabula rasa on the work of the architect Sa Rico was
taken. The types T2, T3 and T4 proposals were replaced by T0 and T1 types, offering only the
regulatory minimum areas required for a bedroom, living room and a kitchenette. Thus T0
apartments include a bathroom, living-room and kitchenette and T1 presented bedroom,
bathroom, living-room and kitchenette. These properties were offered for sale and rent already
furnished. In the room was provided a bed, bedside tables and wardrobe; in-room room was
included a sofa bed, a bench and coffee table, dining table with four chairs, a cabinet with
storage shelf and two lamps; the kitchenette was installed a stove, water heater and countertop
sinks.
The justification for this change typologies was repeated throughout the various change
orders:
“In general, the buildings set in the plan intended to dwellings of a kind apartment of one
or two divisions, systems that has proven model in solving the housing problem in the area
concerned". (Sá Rico, 1966)
This process was being followed by the same promoter company in the Espargal
neighborhood in Paço de Arcos (Ferreira, 2010, pp.156-60). The request for change of type was
joined often changes the configuration of buildings, number of floors and occupation of the
ground floor with trade by claiming that the configuration previously approved (as in buildings
already done) "caused poor conditions of insolation, rectification and visual relief” (Silva,
1969). This strategy obviously configured a market strategy development company, because
with these types T0 and T1 could be an increase in population density with natural economic
benefits (Figure12).

Figure 12. Type plan of cross buildings promoted by J. Pimenta, Architect Hélder Silva,
1971.
 787

Final considerations

This text is not intended to present a critical reading of the urban and architectural options
adopted by the various stakeholders designers throughout the construction process of
urbanization of the territory of Reboleira Sul. It is rather a first survey that subsequently
compared with other cases study, will be the subject of this critical view that will surely be
useful to extract more fruitful conclusions.
Thus made a first survey of facts which will then be subject to analysis and framework
regarding the responsibilities of both parties - developers, architects, builders and authority.
This is also the first basis for understanding the transformations and the type of ownership that
the suffering was built over these 40 years.
Future will be framed commercial strategy construction company J. Pimenta whom great
responsibility can be assigned in the construction of urban-metropolitan territory of the LMA, as
can be easily proved with the construction of Urbanização da Reboleira in Amadora, Espargal
neighborhood in Paço de Arcos and the Pampilheira neighborhood in Cascais among others, as
well as in the city of Porto. The commercial strategy and market logic of this company has been
the subject of study (Nunes, 2011), as well as strong advertising campaign that was promoted at
the time of construction in various media. This study also highlights the notoriety that its
founder João Pimenta was acquired over the decades of 1960-80 in the social structure in
Amadora.
We can conclude with a journalistic piece "Reboleira: the landscaped gardens to the
monumental disappointment", which illustrates the transformation that occurred in this area over
20 years - a garden city to a "forest of reinforced concrete"
“The city Reboleira it really is more concrete, dehumanized buildings where many, many
floors are honeycombs of human hives where people are stowed coo cheap merchandise,
uninteresting. The law of money, and fast income overlap with the values of the man-man.
Instead of the promised gardens and socializing, sites where mercandeja love easy. Because
Reboleira (...) has become a true "cashbah" where every corner and through the night it sells
and buys love and no requests for debasing vices. In easy but well enroupada of sound
"nightclubs" where prostitution is practiced widely and suggested coverage. Given this (and
more) ... We can only ask - which houses the original draft Reboleira, "Garden City"? How
could so radically change". (O Século, January 28, 1975)

References

Câmara Municipal da Amadora (1990) Plano Director Municipal. B – estudos de caracaterização de

nível municipal (Amadora, CMA).
Ferreira, B. M. (2010). [in]formar a Cidade Contemporânea: a criacção de uma imagem/modelo de
periferia com a obra do arquitecto Fernando Silva. Unpublished Master Tesis, ISCTE- Instituto
Universitário de Lisboa, Lisboa.
Nunes, João P. S. (2011). Florestas de Cimento Armado: Os grandes Conjuntos Residências e a
Constituição da Metrópole de Lisboa (1955-2005) (Lisboa: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian; Fundação
para a Ciência e a Tecnologia).
Sá Rico, António. (1966). Parte Escrita do Plano Urbano para a Célula Habitacional da Reboleira Zona
Sul (Arquivo Municipal da Câmara Municipal da Amadora.).
788

Tenure of urban land: structure, form and transformation

of the original urban space of the city of Ribeirão Preto - Sp,
Brazil

Dirceu Piccinato Junior, Ivone Salgado

University of Campinas; Rodovia D. Pedro I, Km 136, Jardim Santa Cândida, 13020-904,
Campinas – SP, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected].

Abstract. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the urban morphological aspects of cities governed by
the juridical regime of the emphyteusis, recurrent situation in northeastern São Paulo state - Brazil, with
special attention to the city of Ribeirão Preto. The land concession to the Catholic Church was recurrent
in Brazil during the colonial and imperial periods for the foundation of cities. As these lands were
destined to the formation of patrimonial goods of a devotion saint of the residents, they couldn't be
commercialized. The tenure reveals a relation in which there is an owner - landlord - who has the direct
control of the urban land, granting another - leaseholder - the useful domain of the land, giving the latter
the right to use the land, the obligation of an annual tax payment and a compromise of giving a
percentage of the property sale. In 1845 some farmers donated a tract of land for the formation of the
land assets of the saint São Sebastião, where is now the city of Ribeirão Preto. This conjuncture defined
the structure, the form and the transformations of the original urban space of the city.
Key Words: tenure or enphyteusis, urban land, Catholic Church, Ribeirão Preto-SP, morphological
urban aspects

Introduction

The urban space is formed by a social diversity, so every society seeks to reproduce forms,
whether permanent or not, on the surface. This means that these forms obey a given
sociopolitical order of the group that builds them, functionally responding to a present
sociability which also regulates the use of urban space and the resources contained therein, thus
defining their own modes of appropriation of the city (Moraes, 2005). Hence, we can consider
the full character of a social process in the urban morphology studies.
When our eyes are directed to Brazil, attempting to list the aspects that outlined the urban
space of Brazilian cities, the study of urban morphology, according to this methodology, must
consider our social, cultural, geographical and historical contexts.
According to Vasconcelos (2009) in the examination of Brazilian cities, their morphology
and their aspects, it is possible to identify "modeling agents". These agents have not been jointly
present in the urban setting, but when we lean in each case we identify, if not the presence of the
majority, at least one, common for all cities. There were five "modeling agents": first, the State,
especially in its upper level, ie, the Portuguese Crown, which played a key role in the
implantation of the first towns and cities in Brazil. The Portuguese Crown sought to manage its
colony from orders sent directly by the Metropolis; second, the Church, which had a role as
decisive as the State's one in the structure of the brazilian cities. The Church in Brazil had been
conditioned by the patronage system, in an agreement between the Vatican and the Portuguese
Crown. The Church counted on the presence of the Secular Clergy, which was the high
hierarchy of the Church (bishops, archbishops, ecclesiastical courts and seminars) and Regular
Clergy, formed by religious, male and female orders; third, the Lay Orders, actually Catholic
institutions, but relatively independent of the official Church, formed by volunteers of lay men
and women; the fourth "agent" is about the economic agents, these agents could be identified as
external economic agents, who were landowners, and domestic economic agents, such as traders
and financiers, slave traders and craftsmen; finally, the last agent, The Population and Social
 789

Movements, composed by small employees, especially staff, master of letters, surgeons, along
with the poor and freed, the slaves (until the year 1888 when slavery was abolished in Brazil)
and social movements, the latter extremely important to national history due to the various
uprisings, rebellions articulated by dissident social groups.

Urban morphology: some considerations

In recent studies, the understanding of urban morphology presents diverse perspectives of

methodological approach; from assessing the physical form of urban spaces, listing as
fundamental elements, streets, lots and buildings (Oliveira, 2013); to description and
prescription of urban form according to a multidimensional, systematic, exploratory and
quantitative environment (Gil, Beirão and Duarte, 2012). Studies of multidisciplinary
discussions about urban morphology have made social sciences and humanities studies relevant
in the construction of urban space (Whitehand, 2012); in some studies, as developed by Kim
(2012) on the urban form of South Korea, we observed a particular attention to the formal
aspects of cities and towns having as parameters of analysis the history, as well as the influence
of European morphology in the country. A range of different urban forms are examined through
a cultural perspective which the construction of the form is the result of theory and practice,
describing representations of particular culture and historical conditions (Ehlers, 2011).
These various methodological approaches to urban morphology point us to the fact that the
analysis and understanding are configured according to the interdisciplinary relations of science,
with different views, as well as specific, economic, cultural and social conditions of a country, a
city. In this sense, our work seeks, as well as Ehlers, to discuss the structure, shape and the
transformation of the urban space of the city according to social and political articulations in the
representation of the physical urban space.
The urban morphological study for us is a cumulative process, every temporal dimension
identifies a result and a possibility, a continuous movement. So we pondered that, somehow,
every urban formation is also a social formation because the latter necessarily spatializes itself
(Moraes, 2005).
The morphological elements are directly related to urban size and can be identified by the
form; the analysis of this form requires movement and pathways. Lamas (2010) considers these
elements as: the soil, the buildings, the lot (land parcel), the block, the architecture, the layout
(the street), the square, among others, "defining and explaining the urban landscape and its
structure." (p. 37).

The formation of the religious heritage of Ribeirão Preto

The religious heritage emerged in Brazil in a discrete way, it constituted a tract of land that
allowed the construction of the chapel and also the external space recommended by
the First Constitutions of the Archbishop of Bahia for the formation of houses to shelter the
small sesmeiros, giving rise to what would be the future urban core. "On one hand, it occupied a
predetermined ground and planted the desired temple; on the other hand, it propitiated the
agglomeration of houses and businesses." (Marx, 1991, p. 41).
The territorial plots tended to be large in the progress of the colonization process of Brazil,
which hindered the full use of these plots because of high costs and charges. Many of the
settlers ended up not having access to land. Those who had the ressources could acquire lands,
so this large contingent formed by the poorer class ended up forming "clusters" of large
landowners.
In the formation of the city of Ribeirão Preto, the researcher Lages (1996, p. 216-217)
reports that the religious heritage of the city was dedicated to the Holy Saint São Sebastião and
790

that the strip of land was donated by many owners over the years 1852, 1853 and 1856 (Table
1).

Table 1. List of donors of land for the constitution of the heritage of São Sebastião of
Ribeirão Preto-SP

Donors Farm Extension Date

João Alves da Silva and Ana Delfina Bezerra Retiro 30 acres 19 Dec, 1952
Severiano João da Silva and Gertrudes Maria Teodora Retiro 12 acres 16 Mar, 1853
José Borges da Costa and Maria Felizardo Retiro 9 acres 20 Mar, 1853
Inácio Bruno da Costa and Maria Izidora de Jesus Retiro 9 acres 19 Apr, 1853
José Borges da Costa and Maria Felizarda Retiro 12 acres 20 Mar, 1853
José Alves da Silva and Pulcina Maria de Jesus Barra do Retiro 2 acres 1856

The tracts of land were ceded by one or more landowners so that these disadvantaged
workers could settle there. However, the granting of this strip of land did not happen directly to
them, the benefited part was always a Catholic saint of devotion, being up to the Church the
administrative care of this heritage (Abreu, 2006). In the case of Ribeirão Preto it was possible
to identify the boundaries of the religious heritage of the city through the information about the
blocks properly listed together with the Archdiocese of Ribeirão Preto and the 1st and 2nd
Notary Real Estate Registry (Figure 1).
The management of this heritage was under the care of the Factory of the Church, which
constituted an entity formed by the religious and the good men of the town who watched over
the goods of the parish, disposing of land donated in urban dates, ceded under the jurisprudence
of the institute of long lease or tenure to those interested in residing in the heritage
lands (Ghirardello, 2010).
Once constituted the patrimony of the Holy devotion, local people gathered to build the first
building, the chapel. This could not be built everywhere, according to the First Constitutions of
the Archbishop of Bahia, it should be built on a "high and decent place, free from humidity,
private homes, and other walls in a distance in which the processions could walk by without
impediments (...)." (Vide, 1853, p. 252, our translation). At this time the religious building and
the urban status were defined as a chapel.
With the increase in population, the inhabitants of the chapel could ask the Ecclesiastical and
Civil Institutions for the elevation of its urban condition to Parish. The elevation from a Chapel
to a Parish status would take into account criteria of demographic and economic order, but
the political interests ended up prevailing (Derntl 2013).
Feeling strong enough, the Parish could ask the Civil and Religious Powers for the
promotion of its category, achieving the status of village, which meant "finally its political
autonomy, the status of a municipality." (Marx, 1991, p. 62). In this condition, it was up to the
Village the definition of its term, a territorial limit that could contain chapels, parishes and
neighborhoods and corresponded to the territory controlled by the city council. It would also be
up to the Village the definition of its park, that was referred to as a smaller geographical area,
intended to the division into plots willing to integrate the assets of the city council. "This could
divide them into "grounds" (lots) and grant them, upon payment of annual pension, to the
residents who asked for them to build their homes." (Fonseca, 2011, p. 30).
To the religious heritage, "property" land of the Saint and managed by the Church, was
superimposed a new demarcation, the park, public land. A conflict, however, was established
between the civil and religious power about land ownership, a situation that was resolved
overlapping the civil power to religious power in most Brazilian cities, but in many other the
conflict remains until the present day, as it happens in Ribeirão Preto.
Thus, in the composition of the Brazilian urban landscape, religious buildings outlined the
structure and perceived the form.
 791

Figure 1. Heritage Factory of the Mother Church of São Sebastião do Ribeirão Preto,
1932. We highlight the limits of the patrimonial lands in the urban space where the city
was originated and it is possible to observe the blocks slightly listed (Public Archives and
History of Ribeirao Preto).

The presence, poise, refinement and especially the privileged position in which were placed
the religious buildings made them ordering agents in the urban space of small and large
agglomerations (Marx, 1980).
What is observed is a result of the pragmatism and constructive need that initially demanded
simplifying procedures, traces and architecture, however, these principles can be considered as a
condition for innovation, transformation of urban space (Teixeira, 2011).

The Institute of Long Lease

The Institute of tenure or long lease of land is a legal instrument formulated in ancient Greece
later assimilated into the Roman Empire in order to legitimize the use and retention of workers
on the ground. Portugal, during the Middle Age, included this instrument in its set of laws: the
first was the Afonsina Ordinances (1500-1514), then the institute was again included in
the Manuelina Ordinances (1514-1603) and finally in the Filipina Ordinances (1603-1916), the
latter prevailed in Brazilian lands until the year 1916 when it was enacted the first Civil Code
which recognized the right of Long Lease. This code remained until 2002, when a new Civil
Code was formulated, but little changed about tenure. For this paper, we will take as a source of
792

analysis the Civil Code of 1916, because it recognizes tenure as a right and because it remained
until the beginning of the XXI century. The long lease or tenure is a way to break up the
property by a perpetual contract, that is, its holder gives others the powers of use, enjoyment
and disposition, only transferring them to third parties with his approval.
The long lease can only occur in uncultivated land or in lands intended for building as the
article 680 of the Civil Code points out. One can’t therefore establish long lease on the mobile
nature goods, or on buildings already constructed or plots already colonized. The long lease's
economic purpose is to encourage the use of uncultivated or unbuilt lands.
The institute of tenure or long lease is a territorial alienation contract which divides the
ownership of a property into two types of domain: the direct domain (imminent) and indirect
domain (useful). This means that there are necessarily two people: the direct landlord who owns
the property, and the copyholder that acquires real rights. The first one is the holder of the
domain, while the second one has the possession, use and disposal, although subject to certain
limitations for the benefit of direct landlord (Monteiro, 1953).
According to Amorim (1986), in Brazil the lands tenured by private personal have as
landlord the Church and its religious orders and religious institutions established by them, there
is still the imperial family (urban land in the city of Petrópolis-RJ) and some hundreds of
individuals in the following percentage: Church, 60% of the tenured lands; 30% are public
lands; 3% refers to the former royal family, and the remaining 7% belongs to private
individuals.
It is peculiar to the long lease the payment of an annual pension. The value of the pension is
a small, symbolic amount and in many cities this tribute was abolished, unlike Laudêmio.
The Laudêmio is a compensation that has to be paid directly to the landlord for not having
exercised the right of purchase option. The obligation to pay the Laudêmio is the "seller's" and
not the "buyer's". It is important to clarify that in the buying and selling process what is being
negotiated is the right of using the land and not the ownership of it.
In Ribeirão Preto, when a resident of heritage lands puts a property on "sale", he will transfer
to the new owner only the right to use, because the Church has the ownership of the land.
The Laudêmio is prepaid, the deed of sale is not tilled and the letter of auction is not issued
without having solved the mentioned tribute. The value of Laudêmio is 2.5% of the total value.

Ribeirão Preto-SP and its morphological conditions

During the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, occupying unoccupied
and uncultivated lands became a constant attitude among those who wanted to settle, it could be
considered, according to Lima (1990) as a "legitimate way of acquiring domain at first, and after
in replacing our distorted system of land grants, sesmarias" (p. 47). A good escape for these
men who had no titles was the foundation of a chapel with a holy of devotion. The grants of
land intended to the Church for the establishment of a religious heritage were a way of
regularizing the possession of the land.
Under such conjuncture, Lages (1996) and Garcia (2013) agree with the view that the
donation of lands to integrate the heritage of São Sebastião do Ribeirão Preto, holy devotion of
the locals, was beyond the religious content, that is, these residents had a strategy to legitimize
and regularize the land possession.
According to Costa (1955), Lages (1996) and Garcia (2013), there were two attempts of
donation to the formation of the heritage that failed, precisely because of the lack of documents
proving the legitimacy of the land: the first one happened in 1845 and the second one happened
in March 1852. It was only in July 1852 that Ribeirão Preto began to be constituted into the
lands of the farms Retiro and Barra do Retiro (Table 1).
Once constituted the patrimony and granted the lands to the formation of the urban space of
Ribeirão Preto in lands of São Sebastião, it was essential to nominate a vestryman, who would
take care of the patrimonial lands and manage the parish goods. Costa (1955) points out the
 793

figure of Manuel de Nazareth Azevedo, however, Manuel Fernandes do Nascimento, an

important figure from the first donations, was the witness and signer of the donors who could
not read and write.
According to Garcia (2013), from 1859 on, the responsibility of taking care of the territory,
tracing the first streets and building a chapel in honor of the patron saint was entrusted to
Manuel Fernandes do Nascimento, however, the researcher points out that there is no document
that effectively proves the tracing and the division of lots of the urban territory were actually
made by Manuel Fernandes do Nascimento.
Costa (1955), Laureano (1973) and Lages (1996) inform us that even before the final
regularization of the third and final donation, the residents of the farm Retiro had built a
temporary chapel. This small chapel was located in front of the current Rio Branco Palace,
where today stands the City Hall.
The courtyard open to build this modest church comprised the block Viscount Inhaúma,
General Osório, Cerqueira Cesar and Duque de Caxias; the chapel was located on the block
comprised by the streets Barão do Amazonas, General Osório, Cerqueira Cesar and Duque de
Caxias (Figure 2).

Figure 2: Our interpretation, referring to the block, highlighted by the black rectangle
where the first chapel in Ribeirão Preto was located, in the center in white, on the City
Plan credited to the Engineer Olímpio Antunes, made in 1892, as part of the studies for
the implantation of sewage and supply networks (Public Archives and History of Ribeirão
Preto).

According to Laureano (1973), it was around this chapel that "have emerged the first roads
and the first buildings, still primitive, of a village." (P. 11). Lages (1996) adds that at this time
(in 1857), according to an analysis of the packet of voters of the Historical Archives of the State
of São Paulo, there were 23 voting residents, eligible voters according to their annual income;
however, the number of residents was certainly much greater because at this time the slaves and
women could not vote.
In August 1859 Manuel Fernandes forwarded a request to the Diocesan Bishop, D. Antônio
José de Melo, to have a baptismal font in the chapel. Before the request and supported by the
local population, the Bishop authorized the construction of it, but as long as it was in a "decent"
place. In 1861 the resident Maria Felizarda made a large donation in favor of São Sebastião, this
value, possibly instigated the vestryman in the building of a new Parish Church proper to
progress of the growing region. In 1862 the permission to build a new chapel on the left side of
794

the stream of Palmeiras was granted by the Bishop of São Paulo, location that had guaranteed
diocesan provision and patrimony legalized by the court.
Interests and disputes among residents of Barra do Retiro led the priest Manuel Euzébio de
Araújo, under the guidance of the priest Jeremias José Nogueira, to demarcate a new location
for the construction of the new church. The place was chosen in the patrimonial area of São
Sebastião do Ribeirão Preto, where nowadays is located the 15 de Novembro Square. According
Laureano (1973), while "buildings were erected, the population of the village gradually
increased, to the point of having 3,000 or even 4000 inhabitants as others say" (p. 12) (Figure
3). The plots of land granted within the patrimony were placed under the institute of long lease
in accordance with the descriptive request document from August 1882, from the City Council.

Figure 3. The village plan of Ribeirão Preto, 1884. The urban structure has as guiding
point the Church (1) located in the center of a large and open space. Around the church
and nearby, there are the first buildings on tenured plots (Public and Historical Archives
of Ribeirão Preto).

The importance of the vestryman as a street architect, as an organizer of the orthogonal

layout of the original urban core of Ribeirão Preto is of great importance. A proof of this was
the murder of the vestryman Manuel Fernandes do Nascimento on February 10, 1867 by a
wealthy merchant, Manuel Soares de Castilho, because the vestryman had determined, without
his agreement, to open a street in his backyard.
The rapid growth of the town was considerable. On July 2, 1870, the President of the
Province of São Paulo, Dr. Antônio Cândido da Rocha, elevated Ribeirão Preto to the category
of Parish through the Provincial Law #51. On July 16, 1870, the Vicar of São Paulo, Monsignor
Dr. Joaquim Manoel Gonçalves de Andrade, signed the decree creating the Parish of São
Sebastião do Ribeirão Preto, confirming as the first vicar the priest Joseph Philidory Torres.
According to the Law #67 of April 12, 1871, it elevated the Parish to Village, whose term
was dismembered from the town of São Simão His first Board was elected on February 22,
1874 and installed on June 4 of the same year.
 795

In 1883, the tracks of the Railroad Company Mogiana reached the village of Ribeirão Preto,
from this moment, the economic, social and cultural contexts have a big impact. The Church
will no longer be defining the morphology of the urban space of the village, but the station of
the Mogiana Company, built on the right side of the heritage lands, next to the stream of
Ribeirão Preto, which is nowadays channeled because of the construction of the avenue
Jerônimo Gonçalves.
In the transition of the 1870s to 1880s, Ribeirão Preto joined the "pioneer front" of coffee
production, which had as a conditioning point the private property of the land. The land turned
into capital and the social relations were now to be regulated by the commodity. "These
relations do not end in the personal contact sphere anymore. The functioning of the market is
the regulator of wealth and poverty. "(Lages, 1996, p. 247).
The interest was not the proximity to the Church anymore, the proximity to the market and to
the railway station were the ones that now played this role; it was the place of loading and
unloading of goods, also the place of arrival and depature of people, a new meeting point,
movement of ideas, ideals and culture. In the Books of Tenure in the Archdiocesan Curia of
Ribeirão Preto, we can observe a continuous application process for tenured plots by the church
next to the Mogiana rails (Figure 4).

Figure 4. Detail of the city plan of Ribeirão Preto organized by the office of the Força e
Luz Company, 1911-1914. In this detail of the heritage we can identify the old square of
the main church (1), current XV Novembro Square; at the top of the plan, the buildings
of the Mogiana Company (2), and, in the nearby blocks, the occupation of the tenured
lands; the left side at the top, the 13 de Maio Square, where now stands the Cathedral (3)
(Public and Historical Archives Ribeirão Preto).
796

Ribeirão Preto had an important role in the national and international scene as a major
producer of coffee, the major local landowners, the general population and the small group of
religious people were organized in a Construction Committee to raise funds for the construction
of a new main church at a new location from 1900 on. This Commission was formed by priest
Joaquim Antônio de Siqueira, President, and Francisco Schmidt, one of the largest owners of
lands producing coffee, as Vice President, and other important members of the society of
Ribeirão Preto.
Furthering the studies of urban morphological structure of Ribeirão Preto to the setup of the
tenured land, we observe, according to surveys conducted in the Books of Tenure along the
Archdiocese of Ribeirão Preto, certain irregularity in its dimensions. According to the Book of
Tenure from 1929, which transcribes the tenured lands since the 1870s approximately, we
identified a wide range, for example, 17.20 meters of width by 23.70 meters of length; 7 meters
of width by 23.00 meters of length; 11.00 meters of width by 23 meters of length; 9.80 meters
of width by 27.00 meters of length; 20.50 meters of width by 44.10 meters of length; 11.40
meters of width by 24.45 meters of length, plus plots of land that ended up not having the
geometric shape of a rectangle (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Detail of the City Plan of Ribeirão Preto, in the 1930s, where we highlight the
ancient Main Church Square, where Praça XV de Novembro is located today and where
you can see the settings of tenured plots of land and buildings thereon. Standing out the
Rio Branco Palace (1), the Carlos Gomes Theatre (demolished) (2), the Central Hotel
(demolished) (3), the location of the former Main Church (4), the Duque de Caxias street
(A) and the General Osório street (B) (Public and Historical Archives of Ribeirão Preto).

The original land structure of the city has undergone changes in its form, a fact that was not
restricted to drawing or factors, but the "modeling agents", who had in the social articulations
their greatest contribution in the morphological constitution of Ribeirão Preto.

Conclusion

The urban morphology itself does not constitute a physical and structural analysis of the tracing
and planning of a city, it also involves conflicts, joints and interests of a society or an
individual.
The formation of the religious heritage in Brazil and the tenure of its lands were procedures
that timidly but decisively participated in the setting of urban areas of many cities. The Institute
of Long Lease which aimed to unite residents to work became a "modeling agent" of cities.
 797

However, the tenure that should give rise to civil land during the development of the locality
ended up just keeping itself in some cities, creating conflicts, agreements and especially
defining the shape of urban space.
Ribeirão Preto is an example of this reminiscence, however, it is also the crystallization of a
context that leads us to the colonization of Brazil, which involved the movement of people,
interests, classes and religious orders in structuring and transformation of urban space.
Decidedly the urban space is formed by a variety of social agents. The form follows a given
sociopolitical order of the group that builds it, responding to a current sociability that regulates
the use of the urban space and resources therein, thus defining the processes of appropriation
and transformation of urban land.

References

Abreu, M. de A. (2006) A apropriação do território no Brasil colonial, in Castro, I. E. de (et al) (ed.)
Explorações Geográficas (Bertrand Brasil, Rio de Janeiro).
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Código Civil (1916) Código Civil dos Estados Unidos do Brasil (http://www.planalto.gov.br/
ccivil_03/leis/l3071.htm) accessed 12 April 2014.
Costa, O. E. (1955) História da Fundação de Ribeirão Preto (Coleção da Revista de História, São Paulo).
Derntl, M. F. (2013) Método e arte: urbanização e formação territorial na Capitania de São Paulo,
1765-1811 (Alameda, São Paulo).
Ehlers, E. (2011) ‘City models in theory and practice: a cross-cultural perspective’, Journal of the
International Seminar on Urban Form 15, 97-119.
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Belo Horizonte).
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(doutorado). Instituto de Arquitetura e Urbanismo, Universidade de São Paulo, São Carlos, 2013.
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(1850-1900) (Ed. UNESP, São Paulo).
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entrantes mineiros na primeira metade do século XIX (VCA Editora e Gráfica, Ribeirão Preto).
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Lisboa).
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Ribeirão Preto, Ribeirão Preto).
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Paulo).
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Oliveira, V. (2013) ‘Morpho: a methodology for assessing urban form’, Journal of the International
Seminar on Urban Form 17, 21-33.
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Form 16, 55-65.
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N. P. A construção da cidade portuguesa na América (PoD, Rio de Janeiro).
Vasconcelos, P. de A. (2009) ‘Os agentes modeladores das cidades coloniais’, in Pessotti, L., Ribeiro, N.
P. (eds.) Urbanismo colonial: vilas e cidades de matriz portuguesa (CTRL C, Rio de Janeiro) 10-25.
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Paulo).
798

An introduction to the research on use pattern of lushan

National Park based on its cultural landscape process: case
study of Kuling Town

Xiao Xiong1, Min Liu1, Feng Song2

1
College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, World Heritage
Research Center of Peking University, Beijing 100871, China,
2
College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, World Heritage
Research Center of Peking University, Urban Morphology Research Group,
Birmingham University, Beijing 100871, P.R. China.
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected].

Abstract. “Cultural Landscape” originally appeared in the 19th century in Germany as an academic
concept. As time went on, the comprehension of this concept had changed. When “Cultural Landscape”
was introduced into the field of World Heritage. Because of the neglect of its academic tradition, it was
defined as a sub-type of Cultural Heritage, adding confusion to identifying the heritage value and
conservative management of cultural landscape. In 2013, UNESCO Beijing Office, Lushan
Administration Bureau and World Heritage Research Centre of PKU established a project to improve the
understanding and management of WHCL in China, presenting effective and promotable conservative
utilization strategy in the case of Lushan, especially in Kuling town. The research group of PKU adopted
Conzenian approach of urban morphology into Chinese practice. Research findings improved the
understanding and management of Cultrual Lanscspe in China and indicated new issues of Conzenian
approach to be discussed.

Key Words: World Heritage Cultural Landscape, Conzenian Approach of Urban Morphology, Lushan,
Kuling

Project Background

In 1996, Lushan was nominated on the World Heritage List as Cultural Landscape. Untill now
there are 4 Cultural Landscapes in China on the World Heritage List including Lushan.
However, there exists puzzles about the understanding and conservative management of cultural
landscape. For this reason, UNESCO Beijing Office launched a research project on cultural
landscape in 2010, taking Lushan as an example, for promoting a more thorough understanding
of the cultural landscape listed as the World Heritage in China, as well as posing method and
other suggestions for conserving and managing. The Lushan project in 2013 was taken as an
advanced research under the framework of UNESCO Beijing Office, which conducted a
research on use pattern of Lushan National Park based on its cultural landscape process. At the
same time, an international Cultural Landscape Forum was held in Lushan, proposing references
for the conservative management of World Heritage Cultural Landscape (WHCL) in China on
the List and the Tentative List.

Participants and Purpose

Under the sponsorship of Mercedes-Benz (China) automobile sales co. LTD, UNESCO Beijing
Office established a partnership with Lushan National Park Administration Bureau and invited
the World Heritage Research Center of Peking University as academic adviser. Together with
Ministry of Housing and Urban-rural Development P.R.C., national and international experts
and scholars as well as the officer of heritage sites, following activities are conducted: 1.
 799

Research on use pattern of Lushan National Park based on its cultural landscape process; 2.
World Heritage Cultural Landscape forum; 3. Paper collection and Lushan Statement of Intent.
The purpose of the project is first of all to improve the understanding and management of
WHCL in China, presenting effective and promotable conservative utilization strategy in the
case of Lushan, especially in Kuling town, where the conflict of conservation and utilization is
the most incisive. Secondly, the purpose of the project is to launch Cultural Landscape Forum,
to create a platform for the discussion of Chinese WHCL conservation and management.

Process and Output

After signing the contract, the World Heritage Research Centre of Peking University
immediately started preparation, such as gathering basic data, making investigation plan and etc.
From March to September 2013, research group conducted multiple investigations in Lushan
under the academic mentoring of Professor Jeremy Whitehand and Mrs. Susan Whitehand. The
investigation covered every single building in Kuling town. Based on investigation data,
historical records and maps, taking Conzenian approach as methodology, the research on use
pattern of Lushan National Park based on its cultural landscape process, especially the case
study of Kuling town, is completed.
From October 24th to 26th in 2013, the cultural landscape forum was held in Lushan as
scheduled. Participants are project stakeholders, administration bureaus, representatives of
WHCL, reporters and local communities. During the forum, World Heritage Research Center of
Peking University made precise introduction to the research report. Professor Jeremy Whitehand
from the University of Birmingham made a key note speech about Conzenian School of urban
morphology and WHCL theories and practices. After discussions on WHCL heritage value,
conservation and management strategies, consensus are achieved in the form of “Lushan
Statement of Intent”.

Significance

First of all, about the theory and practice of urban morphology, this project explored the
possibility of Conzenian Methodology to Chinese WHCL practices. Cultural landscape is
physical space entity as the result of human activity intervening natural process, which can
represent the evolution under the influence of both human and nature. From the perspective of
town, this kind of physical spatial entity is shown in the form of a mosaic of the remains from
different historical period. Town plan, building type and land utilization as three elements of
urban form, are carriers of heritage value. Based on a large-scale map, a dynamic developmental
perspective can help not only with precise spatial identification of heritage value carriers, but
also overall historical interpretation of heritage value. Character regions based on 3 components
of urban form complex system can reflect the space and time character of townscape with
hierarchy, which can be helpful for administrative management and set conservation strategies
from micro-scale to macro-scale.
Secondly, about World Heritage Cultural Landscape, this project mitigated the existing
confusion in the field of world heritage. Cultural landscape as an academic concept has a long
history, which can be traced back to the end of 19th century in Germany, when Schluter
identified cultural landscape as the objective of geography and generated systematic
methodology. However, during the successive spreading, the nature of this academic concept
was changed. When “cultural landscape” was introduced into the field of world heritage, people
had little knowledge of its academic background. Cultural landscape was defined as a sub-type
of cultural heritage, adding confusion on the existing misunderstanding of this concept. A
misinterpretation of cultural landscape as a type of heritage may lead to serious problems, such
as misidentifying heritage values, choosing wrong methodology to conduct heritage practices,
and blocking conservative management effect. In this project, the research group of PKU
systematically traced the academic history of “cultural landscape”, reviewed UNESCO
800

documents of WHCL and sorted out a clear developmental route of cultural landscape from the
academic origin to the heritage practices. By this way, the project somehow mitigated the
existing confusion in the field of world heritage.
At last, this project is an exploration of the suitability of British urban morphology tradition
to a different cultural background. To be specific, what may happen when Conzenian School
met Chinese town. The reflection of research problems and achievements is helpful to World
Heritage conservation and management. This research is also an important case study to
promote the cross-cultural comparison of Conzenian School.

Figure 1. Lushan Statement of Intent, source: www. unesco.org.

Academic Research and Conclusion

This research, paying special attention to Kuling town, studied the use pattern of Lushan
National Park based on its cultural landscape process. The goal of it is to discuss the following
questions: 1. How to propose an efficient methodology to study World Heritage Cultural
Landscape? 2. How to use the methodology to carry out a case study in a heritage site of World
Heritage Cultural Landscape? 3. How to apply the methodology and its research result in the
practice of conservation and management?

Research Methodology

The two main methodology of this research are cultural landscape process analysis and
Conzenian approach of urban morphological analysis. Process analysis is the basic method and
was applied to the analysis of Lushan as a whole, while the Conzenian approach, focusing more
on the townscape, was applied to Kuling.
For more detailed method, documentation analysis, fieldwork, morphological analysis based
on large-scale plans and statistic method were taken.

The Evolution of Lushan Cultural Landscape

Lushan is in the middle and lower reaches of Yangtze River, and near the confluence of
Yangtze River and Poyang Lake. Meandering is the main feature of northern Lushan, which
helped shape a beautiful ridge-valley landform. Southern and northwestern parts of Lushan have
a series of bluff layers and a lot of peaks. The highest peak of Lushan, Han Yang Peak, is within
 801

the southern part. There are some canyons between the mountains and more developmental
terraces in outlying region. This is the natural base on which Lushan cultural landscape has been
developing.
Overall, until the end of 19th century, Lushan had been developed naturally and in a low
pace. At the very beginning, people only lived in the foothills or the plain down Lushan. When
Buddhism and Taoism were spread to Lushan, people began to have more activities in the
mountain and settled more towns. In Ming and Qing Dynasties, the population of Lushan grew
quickly, while religion and Academic Culture declined. Later in the late Qing Dynasty, with the
invasion of foreign countries, the worldly development in the mountain became more intensive
and mainly focused around Kuling Town. And the trend remained today as well. After the
Reform and Opening, tourism flourished and the ancient relics of Lushan had a chance to
restore.
The cultural landscape process of Lushan features in: human activities stretching from the
foot to the top of the mountain; the pattern of human activities changed from the scattered to
centralized pattern; development activities being secularized and more intensive.

Figure 2. The cultural landscape evolution process of Lushan (influencing factor).

Figure 3. The cultural landscape evolution process of Lushan (location).

802

The Evolution and Value of Kuling Town Cultural Landscape

During the historical development of Kuling Town, there were varied cultural and political
switches and socio-economic requirement, leading to different construction features, which
were shown in space as particular morphological characteristics. According to the existing
characteristics and historical development, morphological period of Kuling could be divided
into five:

Figure 4. Morphological Period of Kuling.

Pre-urban Period (-1895)

Kuling Town, located in the north part of Lushan, involves the East Valley (Changch’ung
Valley ), West Valley (Dalin Ch’ung Valley) and the relatively narrow and long saddle between
the two valleys. Before Edward Little’s exploitation of Kuling, there existed some Buddhist and
Taoist temples in this area, where secular developments were rare and only a few villages
scattered around.

Figure 5. The natural landscape of Lushan.

Little’s Period (1895-1928)

After the Second Opium War of 1858, Hankou including Kiukiang became a trading port and
thereafter many foreigners came to the neighborhood. It is unbearable hot in the summer of
Kiukiang, thus the foreigners were eager for a summer resort. In Dec. 31st, 1895, the Twelve
Testation of Guniu Ridge (牯牛岭案十二条) were signed and thus the exploitation of Little in
East Valley became legal. He divided the land into plots and sold them to foreigners of many
countries to build villas. Yishenwa and Lulin area were also developed by other missionaries. In
 803

1904, the local government rented another 900 mu land in Caodipo, Xiachong, Houzi Ridge and
Dalinchong to Little, thus the size of summer resort was enlarged.
Along with the develpment of the town, the need for service people increased. Thus Yaowa,
in the neighborhood of Kuling high street, became the settlement of these people.
In the beginning of Kuling’s development, the first road to well link Kiukiang to Kuling via
Lotus Cave and Jiandao Gorge was built. This was the first road to well link Kiukiang and
Kuling. As for internal transportation, it was divided into rectangular plots with Changch’ung
Valley as the core under the influence of topography. Little controlled the plots divided by the
roads to about 3.7mu. One villa was built in the middle of a plot and facing the valley along the
hill. They were linked to main roads through individual paths. Around the villa plants were
acquired. In this period, the dominating building types were bungalow and detached house, both
the popular type in temporary foreign countries. For instance, No.86 West River Road and
No.29 Zhihong Road. The main construction of this period was for residence, while as the town
develped, the service installation were also constructed and improved, such as the Linsayd Park
located in the centre of the town as public open space, and Kuling Street as commercial street.
There were also religious, official, education buildings as public building utilization.

Figure 6. Morphological process of the East Valley during Edward Little's peirod, (source:
Lushan Administration Bureau).

Figure 7. Plot distribution and number during Edward Little's period, (source: Lushan
Administration Bureau).
804

Figure 8. Building type: Bungalow (Left) and Detached House (Right), (source: left-Luo
Qi (2008), right-Luo Shixu (2005)).

Figure 9. High Street in Edward Little's period (Left) and modern time (Right), (source:
Left-Lushan Administration Bureau, right-author).

Republic Period (1928-1949)

In 1928, the Nanjing Republic government established. Since 1930s, Lushan was regarded as
Summer Capital. In this period, the residents in Kuling Town are mainly Chinese with a few
foreigners in the west valley. The main transportation and travel path network was constructed.
The former path to Kuling from Lotus cave via Jiandao gorge was gradually abandoned and the
Lotus-Kuling new road was used instead. The main constructions of this period were residence
and public buildings. Most of the newly-built architects, mainly in the west valley, covered
relatively large area. The overall style remained as the former period. Kuling also constructed
some public buildings, among which the Three Buildings, namely Lushan Library, Lushan
Mansion and Auditorium, are of significance. Three Buildings reflected the turn of building idea
from following the west to maintaining both European characteristics and traditional Chinese
style. In this period, the land utilization pattern was basically similar to that of the former
period. municipal installations such as waterworks and power plant were improved and in
residential areas as well as commercial areas repletion process happened in the morphological
frame of the former period. Besides, Shengli Village and Chaoyang Village began to prosper.

Figure 10 The Three Buildings: Lushan Library (left), Lushan Mansion (middle),
Auditorium (right), (source: Luo Qi (2008). p154\157\162).
 805

Early Period of P.R.C (1949-1978）

In May 1949, Lushan was liberated and Lushan management office set up. Three important
meeting of Chinese Communist Party Central Committee were held here, during this period, a
lot of service people came to Kuling and some new sanatoriums and hotels were newly built. In
the aspect of external transportation, the north road began to work in 1953 and in the same year,
Lushan motor station was constructed. In 1971, the south road began to work. In the aspect of
macro structure of the town, the northern part of the Kuling developed rapidly. Under the
socialist system, the ownership of land and the distribution pattern changed dramatically, which
contributed to the change of the townscape characteristic of Kuling Town. Firstly, the land in
the town were owned by the government, thus for townscape, the significance of plot boundary
decreased while that of the individual buildings increased in the distribution process. Secondly,
with the Danwei system introduced, the organization pattern of urban space changed
dramatically, as well as the function and ownership of buildings.

Figure 11. Danwei in Lushan, 2013.

Open Policy Period (1978-)

In 1996, Lushan was listed in World Hseritage List as Cultural Landscape. Since the Reform
and Opening-up, the rapid development of economy stimulated the travel industry of Lushan.
Some sanatorium made some change and served also travelers instead of only the members and
guests of the Danwei and other tourism installations were also built. Newly-built buildings of
this period tried to conform to the existing buildings through learning from the building
language of them, thus formed a mixed style. Kuling Town became the town in a national park,
thus the function of it changed and consequently the land utilization. The alteration to tourism
service function of many other-function buildings is remarkable. The numble of hotels, stores
and restaurants increased rapidly.
806

The Heritage Value of Kuling Town

Based on the morphological analysis of Kuling Town, heritage value of three levels could be
identified as follows: Firstly, the site selection and the process of construction of Kuling Town
reflected the organic integration of human activities with natural environment, which formed
characteristic cultural landscape. Secondly, in the evolution process of Kuling Town, the East
Valley and West Valley were closely related as organic parts of the whole townscape, which
together illustrated its value of cultural landscape. Thirdly, the present amounts of micro-scale
physical remains, such as street pattern, boundary marker, and outer wall, etc., embody the
cultural landscape, which are of conservation value.

Figure 12. Muti-level Reflection of Heritage Value.

The Strategy Analysis and Intensity Threshold Measurement of Kuling Town

The current cultural landscape of Lushan thus became the accumulating record of its
development process. The multiple factors contributed to the differentiations of cultural
landscape in different regions of Lushan. The conservation and management should be based on
the differentiations and apply different character regions. Based on the principle of integrity to
represent the cultural landscape process, the principle of independence to delineate the
geographical spatial unit and the principle of operability to implement conservation and
management, a two-hierarchy conservation and management units are demarcated, namely 5
rank-1 units and 20 rank-2 units.
Next, the measurement of intensity threshold was carried out to evaluate the development
intensity of Kuling so as to provide quantitative basis for the strategy of conservation and
management. Firsty, units are divided based on the property rights of the buildings and the
landscape around. The current situation of each unit is assessed as U0, then the threshold, also
marked as Umax, is figured out according to the current situation and future expectation. The
Differential Intensity(DI), is the result of Umax minus U0, which measures the space between
current and expectant intensity, could have three possible values. Negative value means a larger
current intensity than the expectation, which would possibly need fixation; Positive value means
improvement could still be made; zero value, which means an accordance between current
situation and future expectation, maintenance and preservation in small scale is enough for these
area. Development intensity of a unit is decided mainly by natural condition and activity, we
built an evaluation index system consists of 3 first-level and 11 second-level indexes, combining
with AHP Approach to evaluate the development intensity and intensity threshold of each unit.
 807

Finally, according to the threshold analysis results of each unit, detailed and appropriate
strategies of conservation and management were proposed.

Figure 13, Conservation and Management Units (First-Hierachy)

1.Core Villa Area of Little’s Development; 2.High Street and its Adjacent Area;
3.Early Settlement of Service People (Yaowa); 4.Fringe Belt Area; 5.Scenic Area.

Figure 14. Intensity analysis of the Conservation and Management Units.

Discussion

A Chinese-specific Way of Space Division and Organization

Under the socialist system, the ownership of land and the distribution pattern were changed
dramatically, which contributed to the change of the townscape characteristic of Kuling Town.
808

Firstly, the land in the town were nationalized, the significance in the distribution process of
plot boundary decreased while that of the individual buildings increased. Secondly, with the
Danwei system introduced, the organization pattern of urban space changed dramatically, as
well as the function and ownership of buildings. Danwei, combining the function of production
and life, integrated the work, residence, commerce, education and recreation functions in a
compact space, forming a relatively independent complex.
Danwei has several space forms. Firstly, the space integrity of Danwei compound is strong,
with wall as its ownership boundary, and inside the wall, the function of work, residence,
commerce and education is orderly organized. The typical Danwei compound was often
designed by the Soviet experts with its layout and architectural design carried out on the spare
land. Secondly, the space of non-compound Danwei is less integrated, generally without wall
and the organization of all kinds of function depends on the specific condition of the site. This
situation occurs in the case of spatial redistribution of existing substances, the government took
building as its distribution unit and allocated it based on the principle of living adjacent to the
workplace. The spatial distribution and organization of Kuling Town belonged mostly to the
latter situation, besides, there were expansion and construction of residential buildings in the
vicinity of the existing building. Some large Danwei which has higher demand for space got
buildings in more than one site, so that the space integrity was further weakened.

Figure 15. Plan of Beijing No.2 Textile Factory (Left), Distribution and function of the
buildings of Lushan Construction Company (Right), (source: Left-Zhang Yan (2009),
Right- drawn by author).

The Decline of Importance of Plot Boundary to Urban Landscape

According to the experience of England, town plan, including street pattern, plot pattern and
block plans, is dominant among the three basic elements of townscape and the most resistant to
change. However, it is really different in Kuling, where the importance of plot pattern
decreased. When revolutionary change happened and the ownership system changed totally, the
plot boundary which contains relatively less capital lost its dominance over the following
evolution of townscape.
This was exemplified by No.8 middle 6th road and No.33 west river road. These two villas,
belonging relatively to the Air Sanatorium and Lushan Sanatorium, were very close to the road,
which went through the original plot. These two villas were both in No.109 plot in Little’s
 809

period. It was subdivided into 109B, where No.33 west river road locates, and 109C, where
No.8 middle 6th road locates. Nowadays, the door plate, the ownership as well as the physical
remaining of the two villas show little relationship to the original plot.

Figure 16. Newly constructed road dividing original plot.

The Deficiency of Research Material

The research method of Conzenian School of urban morphology has a high demand of richness,
historicity and continuity of research materials, such as large scale map, historical map and local
chronicles. And the microscopic scale and accuracy of its methodology lead to the higher
accuracy of these materials. However, China has been in war in a long period of history,
especially when the western society was going through rapid scientific and technological
development, China was concentrating on the post-war recovery. As a result, Chinese have
failed to map and collect the historical data, and the scientificity and accuracy of the materials
was restricted, which had a negative impact for the popularization of Conzenian methodology in
China.

References

Wu, Z.(1996)‘History of Lushan’(‘Lushan Zhi’)Jiangxi Renmin Chubanshe(Jiangxi People’s Press).

Wu, Z.(1992)‘Draft of the History of Lushan’(‘Lushan Xuzhi Gao’)Lushan Chronicles Office(Lushan
Difangzhi Bangongshi).
Edward S. Little. The Story of Kuling. Chinkiang Missionary Association, 1899.
Conzen, M.R.G., translated by Song, F. etc. (2001) ‘Alnwick, Northumberland: a Study in Town-Plan
Analysis (2nd edition)’(‘Chengzhen Pingmian Geju Fenxi, Nuosenbolanjun Annike anli yanjiu’),
Zhongguo Jianzhu Gongye Chubanshe(China Architecture & Building Press)
Jiujiang Local History Office (2008) ‘Old Photos of Jiujiang’(‘Jiujiang Lao Zhaopian’)Wuhan
Chubanshe(Wuhan Press).
Compiling Group of Chronicle of Jiujiang•Lushan(2012) ‘Chronicle of Jiujiang•Lushan’ (‘Jiujiang
Shizhi•Lushan Pian’)Lushan Keyi.
Luo, S.(2005)‘An overview on Lushan villas’(‘Lushan Bieshu Daguan’) Zhongguo Jianzhu Gongye
Chubanshe(China Architecture & Building Press)
The World Heritage Research Center of Peking University (2013), Research on Use Pattern of Lushan
National Park based on its Cultural Landscape Process: Case Study of Kuling Town, unpublished
report.
810

From urban sprawl to a compact city policy: the primacy of

process over form

Cristina Soares Cavaco

CIAUD, Faculty of Architecture, University of Lisbon.
E-mails: [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract. Cities represent a challenging demand for contemporary society. In a time when the majority
of the world population is already living in cities, urban areas are showing an exponential enlargement,
having heavy impacts on social, economic and environmental sustainability and a tremendous footprint
on the globe. The canonical response to the problems of extensive urbanization has been the return to a
compact city model, as a less predatory and more sustainable type of urban form. Nonetheless, the
subject is controversial and has generated misconceptions related with the compact city concept itself,
with the advantages and disadvantages of urban concentration and with the misunderstanding of urban
density. After the compact city has been presented as a paradoxical fallacy, new perspectives are now
emerging opening the debate to a wider point of view, less related with the city shape itself and more
oriented to the process of planning, managing and governing the urban development; i.e. to a compact
city policy rather than a compact city model. This article aims at exploring the contemporary debate
between urban sprawl and the compact city, especially addressing the question of whether urban form is
crucial in pursuit of urban sustainability objectives.

Key Words: Compact city, urban sprawl, urbanization, urban policy, sustainability

Introduction

It is of general consensus that last decades have brought deep transformations into the spatial
organization of cities. Beyond the changes in demographics and population density, critical
changes have happened in the form of cities, namely throughout phenomena such as the urban
sprawl - low density settlement patterns, leapfrog unplanned developments, spatial segregated
land uses, large outward incremental expansion, widespread commercial strips, disseminate land
ownership and land uses governance (Angel et al, 2005; EEA, 2006; Font, 2007).
Urban sprawl is therefore considered a challenging demand for national urban policies and
territorial development agents due to its high impacts on energy inputs, land consumption and
soil sealing. This is especially critical in Europe where cities have traditionally been much more
compact (EEA, 2006).
Envisaging progress towards a sustainable urban development, doctrinal thinking and
literature on the benefits of a compact urban development for a sustainable urban form came up,
becoming a dominant doctrine on urban planning theory after the release of the Brundtland
Report (1987) which consigned the emergence of the agenda of sustainability. The compact city
has become one of the most discussed concepts in contemporary urban policies and much
attention has been put into the relationship between urban form and sustainability (Elkin et al,
1991; Breheny, 1992; Jenks et al, 1996; Rogers, 1999; OECD, 2012; UNHabitat, 2012).
Nonetheless, several criticisms came forward arguing against the abusive position that
considers the compact city as a sort of panacea for the ills and problems of extensive urban
developments (Neuman, 2005; Westerink et al, 2012; Hofstad, 2012; Echenique et al, 2012).
The paper aims at discussing the accuracy and timeliness of compact city policies, reviewing
the rationale behind the compact city and exploring the relationship between urban form, urban
processes and urban governance.
The paper is divided in two different parts. The first one is dedicated to the discussion of the
compact city concept striving for an understanding of its trade-offs with both urban sprawl and
 811

sustainability. The paper explores the origins of the concept, the controversies stemming from
the relationship between urban compactness and sustainability and the rising up of processual
approaches over shape-oriented strategies. The second part is addressed to compact city
policies. A survey on standard compact city policy tools and approaches is carried out, as well
as on the emerging trends that underpin the need for an integrated policy approach. Discussion
includes a review on the increasing importance of urban governance’s delivers, as well as a
reflection on the role of urban form on the scope of a comprehensive compact city policy.

Compact city: does urban form really matter?

The rise of the compact city concept

Compact urban settlements have long since taken as an immediate response against the problem
of urban sprawl. Sprawl has been pointed out as one of the most decisive menaces to sustainable
development, broadly recognized as having a huge carbon footprint and a high social, economic
and territorial impact. The return to a compact city model arose and grew up as a natural
reaction, running counter to urban sprawl.
The compact city concept was first coined by George Dantzig and Thomas Saaty in 1973.
Focused on putting forward a more efficient city model on the use of space and resources, the
proposal presents a visionary circular city for 250.000 people composed by different levels and
platforms where activities are distributed in a vertical way. High-densities developments, clear
boundaries, diversity and mixed land use are the main physical and functional characteristics for
a city spatial model where an independent government, a clear identity and a self-sufficient
daily life economic basis also make a difference.
Some of the principles established by Dantzig and Saaty had already a root on the beginning
of the 60s, stemming from Jane Jacobs’s theories and writings. In the book “The death and life
of great American cities” (1961), Jacobs addresses a fierce criticism to the 20th century modern
urban planning doctrines and zoning urbanism, fostering diversity as a reference concept on
upholding livability and the quality of life in urban areas. Mixed-use neighborhoods and streets,
short blocks layouts, building variety and density are given as the crucial features Jacobs
considers being at the foundation of vital and diverse cities, alive at different times of the day
and with high levels of pedestrian permeability.
It was by the end of the 80s that the concept has conquered a widespread popularity. With
the release in 1987 of the Brundtland Report, sustainable development has become part of the
mainstream. A first definition of sustainable development came up then, widening the scope of
the concept to economic and social issues (far beyond the more restrictive environmental
perspective) and putting the emphasis on the principle of intra and intergenerational solidarity:
“sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without
compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs” (Zwart et al, 2012).
Other subsequent events such as the Rio Summit in 1992, and some doctrinal papers such as
the European Community’s “Green Paper on the urban environment” (1990) and the Urban
Task Force’s final Report “Towards an Urban Renaissance” (1999), also had a decisive role on
the rise of the compact city as a sustainable model for urban development.
Since then, much attention has been put into the relationship between urban form and
sustainability, being the compact city some sort of sponge-like concept that congregates several
divergent perspectives, related either with the physical dimensions of urban form (size, shape,
land uses, distribution of open spaces, etc.) or other parallel issues where mobility and
transports represent a significant share (Jenks & Jones, 2010). Above all, the purpose has been
achieving alternative solutions and adequate planning strategies to contain urban expansion and
protect open land and natural resources. Elkin et al (1991), Breheny (1992) and Mike Jenks et al
(1996) are among the literature that have contributed the most to ascertain a close correlation
between urban form and sustainability, questioning to which extent the form of cities affects a
812

sustainable urban development. In Northern America, New Urbanism and Smart Growth
movements have also acknowledged the benefits of a compact urban form influencing the
adoption, in many states and counties of the United States, of smart urban policies (Dieleman &
Wegener, 2004). After that, a range of other reflections and writings have carried out the
consolidation of the compact city paradigm. In addition to the containment agenda regarding the
efficiency of land use and the clear separation between urban and rural land, other issues have
come up such as the protection of the countryside and open land for agriculture and ecological
purposes, the reduction of car dependency and the increment of public transportation facilities
and multimodal solutions, or the increase of social and economic interactions in intra-urban
areas, striving for land uses mixture and proximity (Westerink et al, 2012).

The compact city controversy

But the problem is controversial and the compact city concept generates a series of
misconceptions. On the one hand there are the pros and cons of compactness as a current urban
development strategy. Notwithstanding the positive aspects related to proximity and the
preservation of open land and natural resources, it is worth not to lose sight of the negative side
effects coming from high densities. Urban concentration and intense land use can easily fall into
crowding leading to traffic congestion, air pollution, lack of vegetation in cities, loss of open
green space and insufficient affordable housing. Contemporary high density metropolises show
that this is still a legitimate concern. At this point the debate raises a sort of paradox (not yet
solved, indeed) in a sense that suburban developments and contemporary sprawled urban space,
now at the source of centripetal stances (the compact city ideal), stem precisely from responses
to overcrowding (Breheny, 1996). On the opposite side of the modern claim – “nothing gained
by overcrowding” (R. Unwin), the current statement is more likely – “something lost by
overspacing” (L. Mumford). Notwithstanding, the compact city paradigm is still an open issue,
namely due to the inverse relation that exist between the sustainability of cities and their
livability. While the first asks for higher densities, the second one suggests lower densities and
less concentrated settlements (Wiersinga, 1997 cited in Neuman, 2005).
On the other hand there is doubt on the accurateness of the concept itself vis-à-vis the
establishment of a causal link between urban form and sustainability. Whether substantial
advocacy supports the benefits of higher densities and mixed land uses on reducing travel
distances and generating socially vital and economically viable urban spaces, no clear
conclusions arise from empirical case studies. Following extensive research, a direct
relationship between urban sustainability and compactness can hardly be drawn (Westering et
al, 2012; Hofstad, 2012; Echenique et al, 2012; Neuman, 2005). Burton, Williams and Jenks are
the first to recognize that “the problem of how the compact city can deliver sustainability is
complex; it depends on the relationship between the form and location of intensification, the
extent of intensification, and the policy, management and wider socio-political and economic
context.” (Burton et al, 1996). For this reason “caution must be exercised in assigning causal
effects from the compact city” (Burton, 2000).
In 2005 Michael Neuman reasoned that the question whether a compact urban form is
sustainable does not hit the nail on the head. According to Neuman, process is more critical than
form when it comes to deliver sustainability: “conceiving the city in terms of form is neither
necessary nor sufficient to achieve the goals ascribed to the compact city. Instead, conceiving
the city in terms of process holds more promise in attaining the elusive goal of a sustainable
city”.
The compact city is, above all, a morphological concept. The emphasis is placed on density
and compactness, and the concept is eminently addressed to the spatial characteristics of urban
settlements, namely to the concentration and the intensification degree of both activities and
built occupation. But, as Neuman points out by identifying “the compact city fallacy”, urban
form is not a sufficient condition (Neuman wonders if it will even be necessary) to drive urban
sustainability. He also remarks that “the attempt to make cities more sustainable only by using
 813

urban form strategies is counterproductive”. On the one hand a city is always a complex system
to which converge, in an integrated way, a series of functions and urban subsystems,
continuously subject to a multitude of interdependent processes (Dieleman & Wegener, 2004).
On the other hand, sustainable development is, in itself, an extremely complex issue (Burton et
al, 1996). According to Neuman, it comes out from five different intellectual traditions
(capacity, fitness, resilience, diversity and balance112), assigning to an ongoing process where
our current way of life is conditional upon the perpetuation of species and the prospect of future
well-being (which represents a clear paradigm shift against the former stance where present
time was solely conditioned by historic past). At this perspective, Michael Neuman advocates
the primacy of process over form. It is the urban processes themselves that might be sustainable,
not urban form, he says. “Form is a snapshot of process. It is a fixed condition at any point in
time” (2005: 23), so it is by no means measurable in terms of sustainability.

The primacy of process over form

But, is spatial form a completely negligible issue when it comes to ascertain urban sustainable
development? If, on the one hand, Neuman’s position is absolutely pertinent and admissible
attending on the etymology and the proper understanding of sustainability113, on the other hand
the thoroughness of the compact city concept also depends upon the prism through which urban
form is considered.
The text from André Corboz “The territory as a palimpsest” might bring us some expertise
on the subject. In the face of the multitude of disciplines and interpretations concerning the
territory as a physical and mental entity, and reasoning about what might be a fair definition,
Corboz establishes that the territory is simultaneously a process (in a sense that it is the result of
a set of natural and human processes/actions), a product (since it is also an artifact, i.e., the
physical and spatial expression of the territorialisation of such processes) and a project (to the
extent that it oversteps its physical existence being placed as an idea, i.e., an imaginary
construction concerning the territory’s mental collective representation). These three inseparable
translations of what the territory is, took Corboz to claim that, besides having a form, the
territory is itself a form. As such, it congregates the physical artifact plus the processes and the
projects shaping it (Corboz, 1983; Cavaco, 2009). In a certain sense, Neuman also corroborates
this understanding when he states “one cannot overlook the fact that form is both the structure
that shapes process and the structure that emerges from process” (2005: 22).
Yet processual approaches have been strengthened on the planning context, especially when
put into perspective and compared with zoning and blueprint planning. The explanation lies in
the uncertainty that characterizes contemporary society resulting in a growing inability to
predict short-term social and economic trends and therefore establish definitive physical models
to accommodate future urbanization outcomes. According to Portas et al (2011), the city as a
puzzle has come to an end meaning that blueprints - totalized frozen visions - can no longer be
the standard approach to urban development. New planning and management mechanisms are
needed, considering the upshots of the urbanization process in a less deterministic shape-

112
Capacity refers the capacity of a certain habitat or place to accommodate and support a population of
living beings, without compromising present living conditions as well as the habitat’s future capacity.
Fitness refers interaction over time between environment and species, attending to their mutual adaptation
and evolution, especially attending to the way a given organism fits into a community or an ecosystem.
Resilience respects the way a certain place or habitat absorb the presence of an organism and the
capability it has to respond and react against the effects caused by him. Diversity respects the coexistence
of a variety of members in a community focusing their ability to interact and adapt each other. Balance
reflects upon the ability to search for an equilibrium especially focusing on the trade-offs between
environment and development. (Neuman, 2005: 17-19)
113
It derives from sustain which means to “keep something going over the long run”; an understanding
that is behind the thesis of the Brundtland Report – the most widespread definition of sustainable
development.
814

oriented point of view. The decline of spatial form as the guiding issue of spatial planning
coincided with the upsurge of integration purposes within the urban development strategies and
policies. Documents such as the Leipzig Charter, the Toledo Declaration and the Territorial
Agenda of the European Union (2007, 2011) constituted a major step, fostering the importance
of integrated approach in urban development and highlighting the need for searching for close
coordination between the different sector-wide approaches heading a specific territory as a
target. From the Leipzig Charter “integrated urban development is a process in which the
spatial, sectoral and temporal aspects of key areas of urban policy are coordinated”.
Notwithstanding the growing primacy of processes over form, it does not mean a space-
blinding paradigm has arisen, far from it. Spatial aspects are still a relevant issue (one would say
determinant issue), particularly when place-based development policies are concerned, framed
by a territorial spatial-aware perspective. Whether the focus of sustainability should be placed
on processes rather than on spatial form, every process or strategy with a territorial/urban
impact has necessarily a spatial effect on the ground. The same as urban processes and the
outcomes of every urban policy or strategy are conditioned upon the spatial and the physical
features of a certain territory or urban area.
Hand in hand with integrated approaches, the territorialisation of public policies - place-
based development policies - has been gaining ground. The emphasis relies on the aim of
tailoring interventions to a specific place regarding place-specificities and mobilizing local
actors and resources (Barca, 2009). An integrated approach in urban development is necessarily
a place-based and territory-focused approach, stressing for a strategic and operational
confluence between the different sector-wide policies and the urban development itself. As
such, what might be the role of urban form on current urban policies? What is indeed the very
potential and importance of the compact city concept for current urban policies?

Compact city policies: appraising urban processes, urban governance and urban form

Policy approaches and instruments towards the compact city

It is recognized by OECD that the “compact city is one of the most discussed policy approaches
in contemporary urban policies” (Matsumoto, 2011; OECD, 2012). In recent years, compact
city policies have increasingly integrated national urban agendas at a European and International
level (OECD, 2012; UN-HABITAT, 2012). A wide sort of strategies, measures and
recommendations falling into the basket of compact city policies and covering a range of
different types of policy intervention (regulatory, fiscal, strategic, direct investment, partnership,
informative) have been adopted by a number of European and OECD countries, confronted
themselves with the increasing problem of urban sprawl and with the disadvantages coming
from a widespread urban development.
The containment agenda framing both land use efficiency and open land protection stays
ahead of the curve. At this level regulatory tools are the standard policy approach, being urban
growth boundaries for limiting urban expansion and distinguishing urban areas from the rural
land at the top of the list. Concepts vary, going from the “green side of the urban frontier” in
which the greenbelts are included (Westerink et al, 2012), to a more abstract approach
committed to the institution of urban perimeters and containment boundaries. While with
greenbelts a zone barrier is physically created around urban settlements usually with a dual-
purpose of preventing urban development and providing green amenities and leisure facilities
for city-dwellers, in other cases a polygonal boundary is established beyond which no other
constructions than agricultural structures are allowed, having the unique intent of controlling the
enlargement of the urban footprint. In Europe, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands
represent, probably, the primal examples. In England, the establishment of the Green Belt
Policy dates back from 1935, first limited to London city and then extended to other areas by the
Department for Communities and Local Government, in 1995 and 2001 (Rogers, 1999; OECD,
 815

2012). In the Netherlands, the compact city has also performed a policy issue since the 70s,
centered on the preservation of open agricultural areas and natural environments, namely the
Green Heart for the Randstad (Geurs et al, 2003; Dieleman & Wegener, 2004). But they are not
exclusive. Other similar concepts and situations happen, not only in Europe as is the case of the
Ceinture Verte in Paris, but also in the United States (e.g. the urban growth boundary of
Portland in Oregon) as well as in Asia (e.g. the greenbelt of Hong Kong, China) and Australia
(Dieleman & Wegener, 2004; OECD, 2012). In Portugal, the concept of the urban perimeter
might be integrated in this type of planning tools, although the resulting delivers in the last
decades are not very encouraging; quite the reverse, in fact.
Another regulatory instruments respect the establishment of urban development and urban
design strategic guidelines, at a national, regional or even sub-regional/metropolitan scale. The
territorial structure framed by the settlement pattern and the network of urban areas (urban
network) is, at this point, a major aim and concern. Czech Republic offers an interesting
reference. A national urban policy framework was release by the Ministry of the Regional
Development: Principles of Urban Policy (2010), establishing a conceptual and operational
framework for the implementation of urban policy in the country. Polycentric development is
drawn as one of the principles and main strategic guideline. In Portugal, polycentrism also
figures as a primal spatial development strategy, being one of the six main objectives of the
National Spatial Planning Policy Programme, approved in 2007 by the Parliament.
Far beyond the narrow understanding where the compact city model is exclusively addressed
to a monocentric urban structure, polycentrism has been advocated has an alternative for a more
balanced spatial organization of cities and urban areas. The polycentric development is actually
one of the driving policy aims stressed at the European Spatial Development Perspective
(approved by EU Member States in 1999). Rooted in Ebenezer Howard’s theoretical model of
satellite cities, it has been capturing followers within the scope of the compact city debate,
arising on a range of different concepts and approaches. Dutch planning is once again among
the examples stressing the concept of clustered deconcentration since the 70s. The idea was
recovered by Thomas & Cousins who have introduced the notion of decentralized
concentration, envisaging a new possibility for a compact city form. Slightly different from the
most popular Peter Calthorpe’s approach of Transit Oriented Development (TOD),
decentralized concentration explores a new conceptual regional city form based on the idea of
virtual compactness, where diversity might stem from a flexible dispersed urban structure of
decentralized concentrations (1996). Polycentric compactness is another flourishing concept,
this time committed to the Paris metropolitan planning framework (2008).
Indeed, the polycentric interpretation of the compact city has opened doors to a new focus of
attention: accessibility instead of proximity. Westerink et al point out that “travelling time has
become more important than distance” (2012), foster linkages between transport and urban
form, i.e., between land use and mobility. In fact, anti-sprawl planning strategies combining
both land uses and transport policies represent a significant share of compact city policies.
Transit Oriented Development from North American New Urbanism movement (Calthorpe,
1993) is a well-known example. Notwithstanding the critical panorama of urban development in
North American, a number of innovative approaches have been carried out, striving for more
compact and mixed-used urban forms, as well as for more sustainable urban systems. Portland,
Oregon, is a good example, having implemented since the 70s a containment policy, first with
the definition of an urban development boundary, secondly following a TOD. A regional public
transportation system based on light-rail and a dense bus network was implemented, thereby
signaling the hubs where mixed-uses and higher density nucleus are to be developed (Dieleman
& Wegener, 2004). In Vancouver, Canada, a similar concept (Frequent Transit Network - FTN)
has been introduced, shaping land use in development corridors accordingly to the frequency of
public transportation transit (OECD, 2012).
Density and mixed-use requirements lie among the regulatory tools as one of the most
popular approaches. Besides establishing maximum densities, zoning codes are also settling for
minimum densities to ensure the necessary intensity of uses in specific areas. Accordingly,
816

mixed uses have become an increasing concern, following a similar approach at zoning
ordinances. The French Code d’Urbanisme offers good reference on the matter since new
regulatory guidance came to allow the municipalities to require minimum densities on
greenfield and brownfield developments near public transportations nodes. London planning
also comes up with recommendations on density requirements which took several London
boroughs to establish threshold limits.
Regulatory tools are sometimes orchestrated with a range of complementary fiscal
mechanisms such as: development taxes or development fees, as well as sub-density taxes, not
only to charge developers for urbanization costs, but also to capture the capital gains coming
from land use changes and thereby fighting against sprawl; split-rate property taxes on behalf of
brownfield developments rather than greenfield leapfrog developments; parking and congestion
taxes to discourage the use of private cars. Subsidies and other compensatory mechanisms are a
common procedure as well, ranging from incentives to developers and households to invest in
specific priority areas such as transport nodes and historic centers, to amenity bonus, namely
social infrastructures, granted by developers in exchange for higher densities permits (OECD,
2012).

Trends for a comprehensive policy approach: the challenge of integration

Regardless of whether the term compact city is a good one to describe the intended goals of
urban sustainability and offset the adverse effects of sprawl, it is rather the outcomes of compact
city policies that concern the most as a valuable approach for current Green Growth and
Sustainable Development debate. Far beyond the focus on urban form, density and
compactness, compact city policies are already “raising the level of the game” to a more holistic
approach where the spatial structure of cities and the patterns of urban settlement are just a piece
among others in the multidimensional process of urban development. Figuring as a policy
approach rather than a spatial model, compact city policies have gradually incorporated new
policy targets and instruments regarding quality of life, livability, urban efficiency, energy
savings, risk management and prevention, etc., far beyond the elementary stance of protecting
the environment and the natural resources by simply containing urban expansion and controlling
growth.
Based on a study launched by the OECD involving several member countries (Compact City
Policies: Comparative Assessment, 2012), five current urban trends were identified that
underpin the accuracy and timeliness of more comprehensive compact city policies: (i) The
most evident trend concerning compact city policies is land consumption. It regards both the
increasing rhythm of land-take and the emerging discrepancies between land-take and
demographic growth. More than a half of the world population is already living in cities and it is
expected that in 2050 it reaches about 70% (90% in OECD countries). Nevertheless, the critical
issue is not simple the increase population in urban areas, but rather the fact that land
consumption is exceeding significantly the rhythm of population growth. Between 1950 and
2010, built-up areas expanded by 171%, whereas population growth did not overcome 142%. At
the same time, the geographic footprint of cities is also changing radically. The spatial
distribution of the population within cities shows that the urbanization dynamics has been
followed by an exponential growth of peripheral areas. Statistical data prove that, between 2000
and 2006, urban growth was faster in suburbs than in urban centers, leading to new greenfield
developments rather than infill and brownfield developments. At this point, compact city
approaches have focused on the establishment of policy instruments specifically driven to
endorse sprawl containment and to protect open land from predatory uses; (ii) Energy prices is
also a traditional issue within the scope of compact city approaches, particularly related with
disperse settlement patterns vis-à-vis the general increment of energy prices. According to
OECD data, over the last 40 years the increase in world energy consumption has been followed
by a general rise of energy prices. A widespread and sectored urban configuration, particularly
in cases where activities and mobility patterns are very much dependent on road infrastructures
 817

and the use of private car, might become especially vulnerable to the variability of energy costs,
bringing negative side effects to the economy and competitiveness of such territories. Policy
instruments have been specifically driven to endorse urban mixture and efficient location
patterns, along with transport policies to encourage public transportation in detriment to
automobile; (iii) Demographic changes are one emerging issue attending to the expected
population dynamics along with the change on demographic patterns. At this point, contrasts
arise from demographic trends, posing a risk to social and territorial cohesion. On the one hand,
population growth presents variation rates that do not keep up with land take dynamics. A
decline is even expected at short-term for some of the OECD countries, Portugal including.
Concerning demographic patterns, discrepancies exist, as well, at a regional and metropolitan
scale, since positive variation rates in some areas means the shrinkage of others, namely urban
cores and historic centers. On the other hand, ageing population coming from birth rates decline
and longer average life expectancy, coupled with a change on households size (average has
reduced from 2.95 to 2.55 from 1980 to 2008), ask for appropriate house types and a balanced
territorial distribution of local services and social infrastructures. Combined policy mechanisms
on density and mixed-use requirements have been a common procedure, while urban
regeneration policies focused on the conversion of brownfields and existing buildings and sites,
associated to other housing policy instruments, might open the door to increasingly inclusive
approaches; (iv) Another emerging trend is global warming and climate changes to which cities
are particularly responsible and vulnerable. Two issues are especially meaningful. The first one
is the rise in average temperatures across the world (from 1.7ºC to 2.4ºC up until 2050; from
4ºC to 6ºC at long-term). To a great extent, they are consequence of the high levels of global
greenhouse gas emission, which are expected continuing to raise. Cities are one of the largest
producers of CO2. The second has to do with sea-level rise affecting in particular coastal areas,
knowing that it is at coastlines where urbanization has indeed a major incidence. Mitigation
measures as well as climate changes adaptation approaches are the two main policy branches
that might converge to a comprehensive compact city policy; (v) The challenge of a sustainable
economic growth stresses the need for combining a proactive environmental safeguard with the
imperative of economic growth. In 2008, the outburst of the subprime crisis has pushed
traditional economies where Europe is included into an extremely hard condition. The situation
is even bad for countries whose national economies, nourished by the promising advent of
neoliberal policies and the expectancy of deregulated markets’ profits, were largely dependent
on the building sector and the real estate market. Urban sprawl cannot be decoupled from that.
The negative effects affect not only the private sector, but also the central and the local
governments’ finances. The problem is not only the dispersion and fragmentation of urban areas
per se, with obvious losses of efficiency burdening both the environment and the economy. It is
also the amount of vacant houses and buildings that result from unregulated real estate markets
and easy credit facilities, as well as the extensiveness of road network infrastructures, whose
conservation and maintenance costs have huge impacts on the limited budgets of local and
central governments. Focus goes to land use policy instruments, regulatory or fiscal, especially
driven to endorse a paradigm shift, from expansion to contention and regeneration, namely
through the establishment of compensatory mechanisms to regulate and balance land prices and
the real estate market provide, at the same time, a rationalized offer of high-quality public goods
and services.
The wide spectrum of urban trends and the cross-cutting and interdisciplinary nature of
policy measures ask for a comprehensive urban policy approach, necessarily involving a
coordinated implementation of the several specific sub-policies. Having as an ultimate goal the
achievement of urban sustainability in terms of environmental quality, social equity and
economic viability, a comprehensive compact city policy is thereby oriented to a
multidimensional process of planning, managing and governing the urban development, rather
than staying hung up on a frozen spatial model framed by the reference (and the myth) of the
compact traditional European city (Sieverts, 1997).
818

The master key of urban governance

The transfer of the policy focus from urban form to urban processes has brought another
imperative issue: urban governance. Governance arrangements are indeed a fundamental step to
endorse the objectives of integration and coordination of a comprehensive urban policy. “Cities
need to break away from compartmentalized approaches and to integrate formerly fragmented
policy actions by taking the spatial, economic and social dimensions of urban development; an
approach that will help them to integrate all these dynamics, activities and services. Multilevel
urban governance has been advanced as the government model that meets most of the
requirements imposed. (…) it can be defined as an arrangement for making binding decisions
that engages a multiplicity of politically independent but otherwise interdependent actors –
private and public – at different levels of territorial aggregation in more-or-less continuous
negotiation/deliberation/implementation (…)” (Tasan-Kok & Vranken, 2011).
Fitted as an integrated territorial approach 114 , one can say that a compact city policy is
therefore a place-based, multi-scaled, multi-level, multi-sector and multi-agent approach: (i)
Place-based since it is oriented towards the specificities of each territory and the political
framework of each region and country (Barca, 2009). In fact, there is no single comprehensive
compact city policy applicable to all cities and metropolitan areas. Depending on the
characteristics of each territory and urban area, spatial strategies might differ both in terms of
compaction degree and urban structure, either monocentric or polycentric. On the other hand,
policy instruments also differ from region to region, requiring the necessary local/regional
adjustments; (ii) Multi-scaled since it has into account the broader context of functional urban
areas which include urban cores - intra-urban areas, but also urban hinterlands – the city-region,
and the links and relationships that are forged between cities and urban centers. The functional
metropolitan area is therefore the reporting spatial unit of a compact city policy, recognizing the
need for cities/municipalities to collaborate in a same region (OECD, 2012). Spatial strategies
concerning an efficient and sustainable urban development cannot be closed in local individual
approaches. Municipalities have much to gain from sharing certain collective services and
infrastructures and a broader inter-municipal policy of public transportations. A cross-cutting
approach between different scales and levels of territorial aggregation is therefore a demanding
challenge; (iii) Multi-level since it requires the vertical integration and coordination between the
different government levels, local, regional and national. Although it is generally agreed that a
compact city policy especially falls into a local/metropolitan level, the fact is that there are
several policy measures pursued at a national level that have direct impacts on the spatial
structure of urban and metropolitan areas. Land use policies are one the situations requiring the
vertical coordination between the different government levels; (iv) Multi-sector since it is a
cross-cutting policy requiring the horizontal integration of different policy agendas; a crucial
step to maximize synergies, complementarities and policy outputs. The objective is not only to
ensure the dialogue of the diverse sectoral policies, but also the ability of working together in
order to provide coherence between policies envisaging the achievement of a consistent holistic
territorial approach: (v) Multi-agent since it asks for the participation and involvement of the
several urban actors. With the fall of the welfare state paradigm, government responsibilities
and functions have progressively been transferred from the central state to the local
governments and from the public sector to private stakeholders. Urban development has become
an activity shared by a multiplicity of different agents, ranging from public agencies and semi-
independent public organizations, to private stakeholders and enterprise, non-governmental
organizations and the civil society.

114
Integrated approach is defined as “the incorporation of diverse sectoral policies (such as employment,
education, environment, culture, spatial policy, social policy) at diverse organizational levels (local,
regional, national, intergovernmental instances) to achieve a holistic territorial policy approach”
(Tasan-Kok & Vranken, 2011).
 819

A comprehensive policy addressed to sustainable urban development is therefore dependent

on the implementation of a good governance model able to promote ”an interactive framework
in which diverse actors at diverse scales of governance are actively involved in the policy
making and implementation” (Tasan-Kok & Vranken, 2011).

Conclusive remarks: the place of urban form

In the last pages a survey was done on the compact city as a response to urban sprawl, regarded
either as a spatial model or as a comprehensive urban policy focused on sustainable urban
development. Discussion has showed that the emphasis has been changing from urban form (i.e.
cities’ spatial model) to urban processes and governance, from shape-oriented blueprint
planning approaches to integrated approaches focused on a processual multidimensional
planning. Whilst a controversy persist on the accurateness of the compact city concept,
especially when it comes to recognize a direct relationship between urban form and
sustainability, national urban agendas at a European and international level have been striven for
the implementation of a sort of policy measures that meet the goals behind a compact city
strategy. Compact city policies are now one of the most popular urban policy approaches in
OECD countries. A set of emerging urban trends, ranging from energy to climate and
demographic changes, as well as to economic growth, stress and highlight the need for a
comprehensive urban policy, where compact city policies also fit.
The question, however, remains on urban form. What is the place of urban form in
contemporary urban policies? What about the territory-focus and the spatial-core of public
policy approaches? What part do they play within integrated process-oriented approaches? How
pertinent might be urban form in contemporary policies for cities?
Compact city policies might help us to better achieve a balanced ground. If one is led to
agree that processes, along with governance, shall acquire a prominent position on a context of
disseminated government responsibilities and multiple actors’ engagements, form is still a
relevant issue. According to A. Corboz, the territory is itself a form, being at the same time a
physical artifact and the processes and ideas that have shaped it. Urban form, as well as urban
space, cannot thereby be left behind on a territory-focused approach.
In fact, the territory-focus has been gaining emphasis on the context of the European
Cohesion Policy, especially after the territorial dimension has been introduced in the Treaty of
Lisbon (2007), joining economic and social cohesion. The rationale of place-based development
policy approaches has been gradually settled down since then, stressing the importance of
territorial context and spatial linkages to catalyze the results of policy measures focused on
economic growth, social inclusion and environmental quality.
Nevertheless, there is still a long way to achieve. Exploring the crossings between place-
based development policy approaches and urban morphology might be an interesting way to go.
Compact city policies are well positioned to support such a playground.
In fact, the distinctiveness of compact city policies (among other policies focused on
sustainable urban development) is neither the reference to a model of a compact city nor even
the aim of looking for urban compactness as an urbanization trend. It is rather the fact that,
notwithstanding the emerging primacy of processes over form in contemporary urban policies
and planning approaches, spatial form shall still be a reference issue. If, on the one hand, there
is no such a thing as a sustainable urban form (evidences show that no conclusions can be taken
whether compact urban development is more sustainable than a sprawled urban form), on the
other hand spatial criteria shall be determinant on integrated urban approaches.

“Compact city policies offer a comprehensive policy approach that addresses urban
sustainability goals by influencing the use of urban space.” (OCDE, 2012:51)
820

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 821

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822

Interpret planning gap caused from accomplished roads by

identifying building forms

Chih-Hung Chen, Chiung-Wen Liang

Department of Urban Planning, National Cheng Kung University No.1,
Daxue Rd., East Dist., Tainan City 701, Taiwan (R.O.C.).
E-mails: [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract. In the cities, street system offers the framework of building forms. In macroscopic, streets
define the pattern of blocks, and could be identified as building lines of the beginning of “building
behaviour” (architecture) in microcosmic. Since lands had been restrained by planning, planned roads
are laid and patterns of original settlements had been covered. Therefore, this brings out two layers of
urban fabric, the planned and non-planned roads, which are so called “accomplished roads”. Due to the
overpopulation post WWII, the accomplished roads conflict to the plan pattern makes blocks far away
from the pursuit of satisfying demand of housing through automobile dependent urban planning and
zoning. To interpret planning gap caused from accomplished roads, the evolution of building forms
follow two perspectives: 1) Building forms follow the management of zoning of the urban plan by the
time. 2) The floor area depends on the width of“Face roads” (Oliveira, 2013). According to the
investigation, Blocks are heterogeneous of building forms with the accomplished roads exist. The change
period of building form follow the rule of the street system by the time building behaviour took place,
usually in the term of motionless along accomplished roads while those along planned road reflect the
urban plan immediately.

Key Words: planning gap, accomplished road, building form, Yonghe

Introduction

As the Athens Charter (Charte d’Athènes) manifests the four functions of dwelling, work,
recreation and transport, it has become the highest principle of urban planning and development.
According to the principle, urban reconstruction after WWII was rational and the
overpopulation make the built up area develop rapidly to satisfy the demand of housing (Hall,
1988). In the late 1950s, due to the penetration of vehicles, the automobile oriented planning
concept had been developing. Straight and wide geometry pattern became the central idea of
road planning. Furthermore, since lands had been restrained by planning, blocks become the
basic unit of zoning, no matter whether the goal of urban plan is; the planning based on zoning
should be trend to homogeneous. For the perspectives above, the modern urban planning should
be rational, geometric and homogeneous.
Nonetheless, such automobile design urban planning shattered the existed urban fabric in
built up area. The accomplished roads, which own the characteristic of irregular, bending and
heterogeneous, make the vision of blocks somehow different from the expectation and the
surface feature will be showed up by building forms.
As street system offers the framework of building forms, the arrangements of buildings have
been locked in the frame that the street systems construct. In microcosmic, the street line
became building line, which is the beginning of building behaviour. The building line has legal
validity and makes the buildings have a corresponding layer of street system. Also, the height of
the buildings shall be rendering proportional to the width of streets. Both layers of street
systems are thence owns decisive influence on building forms.
Due to the urban built up area will never be blank, the two layers of street system overlap
each other make the city face with the fabric neither orderly nor organic (Figure 1). Therefore,
according to the evolution of time, how will the forgotten impurities, accomplished roads, give
rise to the planning gap from the expectation of urban plan?
 823

Figure 1.The current pattern generated by the cover of original fabric.

Gap between the ideal and reality

Urban form can be understood at different levels of resolution. Commonly, four are recognized,
corresponding to the building/lot, the street/block, the city and the region (Moudon, 1977). To
interpret the planning gap, rules and tools pursuing ideal urban plan would be elaborated to
express the datum and the difference can be count. According to the planning theory post WWII
and the progress in technology, the great demand of housing from the overpopulation was tried
to settle efficiently and try to become homogeneous, while Acts manage land and building
utilization in strict control. The interaction between urban plans and laws plays the rational
development role in the cities.

The beginning of gap

About a century ago, Henry Ford founded the mass production line of Ford Model T, the car
then produced in great quantity and the vehicles ownership significantly increased. In Asian
cities, private car and motorcycle ownerships were rising quickly by the 1970s, especially in the
middle-income cities of Malaysia, Thailand and Taiwan. To match the demanded of rising
private vehicles, the influence of Western automobile-oriented ideas was spread all over the
world. The prestige of the United States tended publicizes highways and cars as the way of the
future. The Western consulting firms also influence or conducted the transport or urban
planning studies by the early 1970s, and they used the standard urban transport planning (UTP)
process that had been developed in and for American automobile-oriented, suburban-style cities,
which implement the idea of wide and straight.
"A city made for speed is made for success." (Le Corbusier, 1929). Based on the automobile
design urban planning, the planned roads then become straight and wide, the geometric
streamlines then provide security and speed passage for vehicles. The planned roads not only
provide the service of transport but also segment the city into grids which are called blocks.
The Post-World War II baby boom and political immigrants make the explosion population
crowd into the cities and suburban area. Buildings were rapidly duplicated in the blocks to fulfil
the demand of housing comply the arrangements of street systems before the very first urban
plan. The overpopulation is uninterruptible in decades and makes the urban planning necessary
to control the development. Planning based on zoning is then become the universal principle.
Zoning, the device of land-use planning, separates one set of land uses from another. Early
zoning practices were occurred in New York in 1916. In 1930s, Asian cities try to
westernization and the zoning method start to restrain the land use of plots, based on the
minimum unit, blocks. The management was only on the plane but gradually changing to
824

control the volume and height of buildings. Hence, the development under the same zoning
management should approach to the homogenous (Litman, 2009).
While zoning and planned roads were laid on the original pattern and make complex
circumstances in the blocks. The negligence of original pattern become two layers of street
system, planned roads and accomplished roads.

Characteristic of street systems

The ground plan is the component most resistant to change, rejecting a major capital investment,
particularly in the case of the street plan (Conzen, 1960). Street systems define the pattern of
blocks and offer the framework of building forms. Moreover, street systems offer the beginning
of building behaviour (Architecture).
As the beginning of building behaviour, street system offers the building line of building
base to make sure the demarcation of land use. In compliance under the provisions, the building
behaviour is then allowed to take place. (Talen, 2011)These also strengthen the fixity of street
system of the original land use. Ratio of building height to street width is another management
from street system in microcosmic. The ratio is positive correlation. The wider the street system
is, the higher the buildings can be built up. The height of Face road is the element decides the
building height by Acts. Buildings along the two layers of street system should be able to
predict from the principles above.
At last, when the street system is laid and confirms the use of being public passage, the
streets only broaden and increase by the urban plan. The street systems are barely removed that
after the first urban plan the accomplished roads are sometimes being broadened and extend and
the planned roads are laid on the prime lands.

The impurities and gap

In the ideal state, the result or transition of urban plan should be estimated by street system
(planned roads) and the management of zoning.
the ideal state

Actually there are still other factors in the model which output the real urban morphology. The
planning gap is cause from the factors that we ignored, and accomplished road is one of kind
(Pissourios ,2013). The accomplished roads are not irregular and own the same right as planned
roads under the management of Acts. The characteristics of accomplished roads make the actual
state unable to achieve the purpose and maximum benefit the urban plans expectation.
Therefore, the factor was seen as impurities which interfere in the operation of the ideal state
which cause the planning gap.
the actual state

The less of cognition of planning gap makes the new urban plans carried out harder and
harder. The circle become vicious and causes real estate market failure and development costs
were waste.
Accomplished roads are the trace of human activity and exist all over the world. In a highly
competitive between cities, the less of planning gap will enhance the competitiveness.
 825

Model

Restriction

From the point of views above, accomplished roads would be certainly discussed and the
influence would be confirmed by a model investigate the buildings evolution along different
layers of street systems.
In the model of evolution of building based on street systems, there are two restrictions to
eliminate the influence of other factors.
First, the zoning of study area must be the same. The construction of land use, building
coverage ratio and floor area ratio are equal in a single block, which make the building
utilization and the maximum development intensity of each building base under the same
construction. The purpose of the restriction is to confirm the homogeneous of blocks from the
vision of urban planning.
Second, there was neither major facility in nor near the study area. If there were major
facilities around, the service level of public facilities will be evidently different. Due to the gain
in benefit of redevelopment, the possibility to bring out the urban renewal will be arising. If the
urban renewal occurs, the change period of buildings will not only follow the characteristic of
street systems and the development will be implemented by big area beside the regular rule of
one by one reconstruction.
In summary, the usage of the following model will be operated in the study area which under
the same zoning control and without major facilities. In the situation, the impurities factor from
street system will be show of.

The evolution of building form based on street systems

Due to the fact that street systems influence the buildings in both macro and micro scale, there
are some components in the model of the evolution rule. According to the advance of time, the
factors will evolve through the time line. The three components are street system, building and
urban plan: (i) Street system: There are planned road and accomplished road in the street
system. Owning the same right on law to construct the development of buildings. The
accomplished roads exist from the beginning of the model and the planned roads were laid after
the first urban plan.; (ii) Building: The city has always been characterized largely by the
individual dwelling (Rossi, 1966). The building form changes from the technology and value of
the time, and the floor areas grow because of the demand of housing increase and under the
management of urban planning. (iii)Urban plan: The very first urban plan occurred because of
the demand of housing reach the standard. When more and more people gathered into the area,
the demand change and the new urban plan come to relieve arrange the demand of housing.
The building component depends on the street system because of the framework and the
right on law. The street system and building depend on urban plan from its management while
the plan is try to fulfill and properly configure the demand of housing. Thus urban plan realize
the demand of housing when it reach a standard or become saturation. All the components
above alert by time. The relationships between the components are shown below.
Due to the components on the model, there will be accomplished roads and buildings along
them, the forms of the building will be low in height and with little floor area.
When the demand of housing rise to reach the standard, the very first urban occurred and the
planned roads are then laid. During the period of time, the buildings along accomplished might
changes by the time, following the first urban plan’s management. Along the planned roads,
buildings are higher and the floor area would be larger due to the width of planned roads are
much longer.
826

Figure 2. The relationships of the model components.

When the demand of housing are again full and the floor areas are no longer afford it, a new
urban plan try to use the land more efficiently and offer more floor area. According to the
ordinance of new plan, the buildings along planned roads are getting higher and the floor area
would increase. Otherwise, the buildings along the accomplished roads limited to the shape of
accomplished roads that are hard to expand and the shorter street width, the capability of offer
floor area is low that make the buildings hard to renew then maintain their original form. The
buildings between the accomplished roads and planned roads might change the Face road of
buildings. When the buildings’ change to planned roads from accomplished roads, the benefit
makes the buildings higher but the floor areas won’t be as much as those along the planned road
because of the framework obstruct the expand. Thus, there will be three evolution progresses in
the model.

Figure 3. The evolution of building form based on street systems.

The evolutions are shown above and the colour level represent the age of the building. The
darker the older. The area of the blocks represents the floor area of the building. There are 3
stages of urban plan evolvement: (i) Buildings along accomplished roads: The accomplished
roads exist from the beginning and the change period of building forms are slow due to the
framework and restriction of height.; (ii) Buildings along planned roads: The planned roads
occur from the very first urban plan and the buildings along comply with the management then
the height and floor area have high quantity; (iii) Buildings between accomplished roads and
planned roads: At the beginning the buildings are along the accomplished road, when the
demand of housing is high enough, some buildings change their Face road to the planned road
and the building will be as high as those alone the planned roads but the floor area would be less
because of the framework of accomplished road to expand.
 827

Case Study

The study area: Yonghe city

Yonghe, a city little settled before WWII, was the country side out of Taipei and the land use
are nearly farm land before 20 centuries. The street system then was close to the rivers. After
WWII, Yonghe has a great population explosion after the war. According to the proximal
location beside the Capital city, the overpopulation influx into the Yonghe area because of
political policies and industrialization. There were more than six hundred thousand military and
their family move in to Taipei Basin, and had the highest population density in Taiwan and
second in the world (after Manila in the Philippines), with over 41,300 people per square.
In 1957, the first urban plan of zoning management was published. The population rapidly
increase and went out of control. The government then uninterruptedly published new plans to
satisfy the great demand of housing. The planned roads are then laid from the urban plan of
different periods. By that time, the original patterns are ignored and covered by the zoning
management which surrounded by the planned roads.
In Taiwan, the very first zoning is started from the act of Taiwan City Planning Order in
1937. The act divided lands into seven kinds of zones. The construction management is loose
and only restrict the plane extend of buildings. To maintain the public facility service level, the
floor area ratio was controlled in 1980s. The maximum building form has been controlled from
urban planning and building control acts. The buildings thus being controlled in 3-dimension
way, according building coverage ratio, floor area ratio and land use.
According to the Acts, thousands of accomplished roads are identified in Yonghe. There is a
main accomplished road which called “Xiulang Road” near the Xindian River from 19 century.
The road was the main route to connect the villages and the land use around are farm lands.
Although the plan road are laid in turns, the original pattern of Xiulang Road still maintained
even the land use of it should be residential use in the urban plan. The pattern even sometimes
becomes the base of the new planned roads.
To understand the accomplished road as the impurities in the blocks, three blocks which
cover Xiulang Road are selected. The blocks are in same residential use and without major
facilities around. The planned roads around the blocks were laid in the different period of time
which represents the management from different urban plan. Thus, the buildings in the blocks
and along the planned roads are the main object in the paper to be observed.

Experimental result

On the basis of the evolution model, we observe the building components of the building time
and the height. The buildings are along the accomplished roads and three planned roads. The
street system here was built in different times and width. (Table 1).

Table1. Characteristics of street system.

Layers of street Width(m) time

system
Xiulang Rd Accomplished road 8 19 century
Dehe Rd Planned road 18 1974
Houde St Planned road 8 1990
Chenggong Rd Planned road 18 1995
828

The investigation shows the characteristic of the buildings and they are separated into 4
clusters by statistics analysis. Figure 4 shows the samples are mostly distinguished in the first
two clusters, which means the development of the study area happened in great majority
between 1980s to 1990s (Figure 4).

16
15
14
13
12
11
10
HEIGHT

9
8
7
6
5
4
3
2
1
0
1970 1980 1990 2000
TIME

Figure 4. The clusters from the building time and height.

The figure 5 shows the locations of different kinds of clusters. According to the building
height and the time, the building forms are similar and try to solve the population problem at
that time. (Table 2): Cluster 1: The buildings are before 1978 and the heights are all under 5
floors. Cluster 2: The buildings time is between 1978 and 1989, and the height are 4 to 5 floors.
The divergence of cluster 1 and 2 is from the urban plan published in 1976 and the floor
management is loosened. The new bridges connect to the Taipei city make the study area having
another period of population explosion and 5-floors apartment were commonly use in the
solution copy in a huge amount.
Cluster 3: The buildings time is between 1988 and 1999, and the height are 6 to 7 floors. The
buildings follow the urban plan published in 1985. After 1988, the floor area ratio was
controlled and building behaviours are then shrinking.
Cluster 4: The buildings time is in1999 and the height are 14 to 15 floors. The buildings
follow the urban plan published in 1997. Near the 21 century, it is prevalent to build apartments
higher than 10 floors, citizens living in the small residential unit.

Table2. Characteristics of clusters.

Cluster Building time Building height(floor)

1 Before 1978 <5
2 Between 1978 to 1989 4~5
3 Between 1988 to 1999 6~7
4 1998 14~15

The composition of building clusters is diverse in a single block. According to the

proportional analysis, Cluster1 and 2 accounted for the largest proportion which means
buildings in the study are over 30 years and lower than 6 floors. As a densely populated area,
new urban plans try to release population pressure but the situation still exists (Table 3).
The figure 6 show the comparison with model of evolution of building based on street
systems, the figure shows all kinds of progress in the study area. Buildings along accomplished
roads: Before the very first urban plan, build up area is few and scattered in the study area.
Lands along Xiulang Rd were little settled and were in agricultural use. Buildings along Xiulang
 829

Rd are almost classified into cluster 1nd 2. Buildings of cluster 1 were settled before the blocks
were designated. When overpopulation took place, buildings of cluster 2 were stuff in the blocks
with the period of planned road were laid, and the buildings forms were mostly attached
apartments. Buildings along planned roads: Buildings along Chenggong Rd are almost
classified into cluster 3 and 4. Buildings of cluster 3 were settled with the period of Chenggong
Rd were laid, and the buildings forms were mostly attached apartments with elevators.
Buildings of cluster 4 were settled with the new urban plan published and the building forms are
apartments more than 10 floors which are in the shape of big area squares. Buildings between
accomplished roads and planned roads: there are all 4 clusters of buildings between Xiulang Rd
and Chenggong Rd. The buildings were replaced through time and follow the management from
urban plan of the time. The different of the buildings from cluster 1 & 2 to 3& 4 is that the
buildings transfer the building line from accomplished road to planned road. The wider the road
is the higher the building can build to get more floor area. Hence, the buildings of cluster 4 in
the ribbon are narrower or in the shape of column compare with those along Chenggong Rd
ascribe to the slender building base.

Figure 5. The arrangement of the clusters.

Table 3. Proportion of clusters in a single block

Cluster1 Cluster2 Cluster3 Cluster4

Block 1 21% 61% 7% 11%
Block 2 41% 48% 7% 0%
Block 3 25% 59% 8% 8%
830

Figure 6. Building forms of each cluster.

According to the clusters distribution, the buildings arrangements are truly following the
framework of street systems. In the micro observation, though the building behaviour follows
the building line and width of street, there were no obviously relationship between them and nor
the cluster characteristic. The R-squared of building line and the clusters is only 0.22, and the R-
squared of road width and the clusters is only 0.31. Actually, the effect from street system to
building is not isometric. The open up period of road and the process interaction might have
more significant influence of the change period of building form.

Figure 7. The aerial photograph in 1974 and the cluster arrangement along Dehe Rd.

Towards the investigation and analysis, there were two spatial deformation circumstances.
As figure 7 shows, even Dehe Rd is a planned road; there are still many buildings of cluster 1
along it. Before the urban plan, there was an important branch of Xiulang Rd. After being
broadened and became the planned road in 1957, the buildings are still root along the road. The
buildings here are in the shape of strip and complex in the proprietorship which make them hard
 831

to be renewal. Therefore, we can tell that the attraction of development chance of planned road
is hard to resist the fixity of accomplished roads.

Figure 8. The aerial photograph in 1974 and the cluster arrangement along Dehe Rd.

In block 3, there were a building of cluster 4 which strangely surrounded by the narrow
alleys. The building base is triangle and the streets are all less than 7 meters. Under the normal
circumstances, building start the building behaviour from the building line in front of the
building base and the Face road should be the accomplished road or planned road attach the
building base. According to Building Technical Regulations, the building can make the Face
road become Chenggong Rd, due to the narrow streets and no road wide enough attaching the
building base, which makes it much higher than other buildings around (Figure 8).

Conclusion

In the pursuit of orderly and efficiently of land utilization, urban planning tries to make the city
rational, straight and homogeneous. Zoning and automobile oriented planning are the tool and
concept to fulfil the value. The negligence of the original pattern fixity shatter the original
pattern then causes gap that is hard to be forecasted. The accomplished road irregularly cutting
the blocks and limit not only expand of building base but also change periods of building
renewal.
View as the impurities in blocks, the accomplished road effect the homogenous balance and
bring out the planning gap. When architecture is viewed as the city, buildings can represent the
actual results of operations from urban planning. Building forms and floor area depends on
street system from the control of law. Both of components rely on the urban plan when the
demand of housing isn’t satisfied. The evolution model is then verified by the case study and
can be sum up as the following consequences.
1) From the distribution of clusters in the study area, buildings in a single block with existence
of ancient accomplished roads are obviously diverse and far from homogenous.
2) The buildings along accomplished roads maintain the very first building form, while those
along planned roads reflect the urban plan in fast change period. Besides, buildings between the
two layers of roads are in a great variety of forms which reflect the demand of housing partly.
3) As the transformation of the model, planned road which was broadened and extend from
accomplished will maintained the building forms before the planned road was laid. The forms
were depending on the characteristic of the original accomplished road. We can say that the
evolution of building will follow the rule of the street system by the time building behaviour
took place.
832

According to the investigation, Blocks are heterogeneous of building forms with the
accomplished roads exist. The change period of building form follow the rule of the street
system by the time building behaviour took place, usually in the term of motionless along
accomplished roads while those along planned road reflect the urban plan immediately.
Since accomplished roads were sure to be one of the factors bring out the planning gap, the
coefficient of the factor can tell the degree of heterogeneous in blocks. In addition, the continual
exploration of planning gap can be interpreted the ownerships and real estate market.

References

Barter, P. A. and Tamim, R. (2000) Taking Steps: A Community Guide to People‐Centred, Equitable and
Sustainable Urban Transport (The SUSTRAN Network, Kuala Lumpur).
Conzen, M.R.G. (1960) Alnwick Northumberland: a study in town-plan analysis (Institute of British
Geographers, London).
Hall, P. (1988) Cities of Tomorrow: An Intellectual History of Urban Planning and Design Since 1880
(Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, London).
Le Corbusier (1925) Urbanism (Ed. Crès, Paris).
Litman, T. (2009) Evaluating Transportation Land Use Impacts (Victoria Transport Policy Institute,
Canada).
Moudon, A. V. (1997) ‘Urban morphology as an emerging interdisciplinary field’, Urban Morphology 1,
3-10.
Oliveira, V. (2013) ‘Morpho: a methodology for assessing urban form’, Urban Morphology 17, 21-33.
Pissourios, I. A. (2013) ‘Whither the planning theory–practice gap? A case study on the relationship
between urban indicators and planning theories’, Theoretical & Empirical Researches in Urban
Management 8, 80-92.
Rossi, A. (1966) L'architettura della città (Institute of British Geographers, Padova).
Talen, E. (2011) City Rules: How Regulations Affect Urban Form (Island Press, Washington, D.C).
 833

Events-driven morphological process – A case study of

Auckland’s waterfront

Toby Shephard, Luke Gibson

University of Auckland, New Zealand.
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]

Abtract. In order to contribute to international literature concerning the process of morphological

change, this paper focuses on a study of the city centre waterfront in Auckland, New Zealand. A
Conzenian analysis of the space, with reference to historical economic and cultural contexts, is used to
derive a narrative explaining of urban modifications of the waterfront fringe belt. Auckland waterfront
has undergone redevelopment across a 200 year period. Beginning with the morphologically invisible
culture of aboriginal M ori occupation to the maritime industry of the 20thcentury and to recent modern
regeneration, the waterfront has changed from a low-density fringe belt to one pocketed with commercial
and residential intensification. This is particularly true of the western side of the city's waterfront. Our
research finds that much of the recent urban regeneration of the last 15-20 years is the result of
preparation for the hosting of major international events. These include the America's Cup 2000 and
2003 and the Rugby World Cup 2011. We find that major events have accelerated urban form change on
Auckland's waterfront and thus might provide noticeable contrasts between planning units. Such building
form and layout might then been seen as a physical expression of a sporting culture and tourism based
economic necessity. A discussion of the impact of international events upon urban place-making and
planning is included with a view to establishing broad morphological periods of development along the
Auckland waterfront as well as informing the manner and typology of urban reconfiguration that major
international events require.

Key Words: urban morphology, event-led development, Auckland, M ori, waterfront redevelopment

M.R.G. Conzen fathered the urban morphological analysis in the mid 20th century. Conzen’s
approach to urban examination consists of a consideration of three elements of urban form: the
ground plan, building fabric and land use. For Conzen, an analysis of urban morphological form
was coupled to an understanding of the historical development of land areas (Whitehand, 2001).
This analysis has led to the identification of plan units within the urban structure of cities. Plan
units are defined as land areas with a shared history of development, similar ground plan,
building form and land use. As such, plan units represent pockets of historical development and
their identification aids in an understanding of the underlying principles of urban development
and land use.
The Conzenian principle of morphological regionalization has been under represented in
international research outside of Europe (Siksna, 2006; Gu, 2010). However the work of Gu
(2010; 2013) has provided valuable insight into the organisation of one city in particular,
Auckland, New Zealand, using the Conzenian approach. Gu (2010) describes the present day
plan units expressed on the Auckland waterfront. The waterfront itself is identified as a fringe
belt, a broad subcategory of urban form first identified by Herbert Louis (Whitehand, 1988). Gu
(2013) has investigated the application of this concept to the New Zealand examples of
waterfront redevelopment. This paper seeks to add to the analysis presented in Gu (2010) by
critiquing the driving force behind the modification of Auckland’s waterfront fringe belt area.
Fringe belts are defined as low-density stretches of urban land, which usually contains
transport facilities, parks, public utilities, cemeteries, and institutional land uses (Whitehand,
1988). These broad sections of the city are located on the fringe of more dense development,
including the CBD, and often constitute public open spaces and include prominent public
amenities (Whitehand, 1988). Ports and their surrounding areas are identifiable as expressions
834

of fringe belt land use in the Conzenian morphological analysis (Whitehand, 2001). Fringe belts
are characterised by low density, public or institutional land use with large, irregular lot sizes
and building footprints (Whitehand, 2001). As such they can be imagined as a ‘breathing space’
for the CBD: in that they have the capacity to support the growth of commercial and residential
activities within the CBD.

Research objectives

Waterfronts globally are undergoing post-industrial redevelopment (Gordon, 1996; Breen &
Rigby, 1994; Oakley & Johnson, 2013). As these spaces are developed and plan units modified,
cities face challenges establishing new waterfront identities. Oakley and Johnson (2013) in
particular have presented a fascinating post-colonial reading of the Port Adelaide and
Melbourne’s Docklands; in their paper they find that colonial powers, intent on extracting the
economic value of a waterfront via ports and industry, transformed the aboriginal understanding
and use of the waterfront space entirely. We find that such a reading, informed by a Conzenian
understanding of urban plan units, is valuable in Auckland, New Zealand.
The identification of plan units on the Auckland waterfront has led to the documentation of
the fringe belt area around Auckland’s CBD by Gu (2010). In recent years development within
the waterfront fringe belt zone has been characterised by the reappropriation of land plots for
higher density land uses on smaller plots. On the Auckland waterfront the Princes wharf and
Viaduct Harbour are such examples where high-density residential and commercial land use has
become established in areas previously associated with marine and shipping industries (Gu,
2010; Gu, 2013). This process is known as the alienation of the fringe belt. As fringe belt
alienation continues, the historical information held within the built form, land use and urban
fabric of a plan unit is similarly modified. To what extent can modification erase cultural
histories along Auckland’s waterfront? And what is the driver for said alienation upon the
Auckland waterfront?
This research paper aims to establish plan units along the Auckland waterfront at three points
in time in order to demonstrate the morphological evolution of the space. These are pre-colonial
Māori occupation of the area in 1840, the height of port and marine operations in 1940s and the
present day waterfront. Progressive shoreline reclamation is also depicted to illustrate the
modification of the original pre-European occupation waterfront over time.
This paper has been structured first to include a discussion of colonial appropriation of the
Māori occupied Auckland waterfront, which is then analysed using a Conzenian lens of urban
morphology to illustrate how modern development is rewriting the colonial waterfront in much
the same way. The paper is divided into the three broad morphological periods identified
through this research. These are pre-contact Māori occupation, colonial reclamation and modern
redevelopment centered on the economic stimulus of international events.
The objective is to understand that tangible changes to the waterfront are expressed as the
result of economic, institutional and social forces (Moudon, 1997). These being the economic
realities of development and social attitudes towards waterfront use. Each broad period is found
to be clearly paired with the economic realities of its era in so far as built structure and land use
reflect profitable and realistic uses and sit within commonly held worldviews of that time. In
recent years the driver for urban change on the Auckland waterfront, the driver for alienation of
the fringe belt, is identified as both the reduction of port activities and subsequent release of port
land; and the real and potential economic stimulus of the hosting of international events.
Event-driven urban redevelopment is not an uncommon development strategy (Chalkley and
Essex, 1999). Event-led development helps to ‘fast-track’ urban development/regeneration
because of economic stimulus. This is undoubtedly true in New Zealand. Benefits include
improving transport, cultural facilities and global recognition and prestige (Chalkley and Essex,
1999). The Olympic games are clear global examples of event-led development and their
legacies are clear in the infrastructure and built form of cities such as London, Beijing and
 835

Sydney. These include airport capacity, hotel accommodation, public transport, water and
sewage systems and urban landscaping; all are needed to cope with the capacity these events
demand (Chalkley and Essex, 1999; Ritchie, 1984). As a city begins to acquire said
infrastructure and capacity, the city attains a reputation for holding events, which increases the
likelihood of hosting further events in the future (Chalkley and Essex, 1999). This indicates that
Auckland could expect to hold more of these events as it begins to gain a reputation and begins
to construct the type of infrastructure that is needed to facilitate these events. This has already
been shown by the 2011 construction of ‘The Cloud’ for the Rugby World Cup on Queen’s
wharf – an events facility for public screenings.
The legacies of event-led development extend far wider than transport infrastructure and
stadiums. The Eiffel Tower is a legacy of the Paris Exposition in 1889 and the Royal Festival
Hall in London is a legacy of the festival of Britain held in 1951 (Chalkley and Essex, 1999).
While these physical legacies are now tourism boons in their own right, event-led development
can also lead to social and economic hangovers. A magazine in Canada in 1994 polled locals for
their estimation of the legacy of the 1994 Victoria Commonwealth Games; the most common
answers were increased taxes, increased real-estate prices, a new pool, debt and increased
tourism (McCaw, 1994). These insightful answers clearly speak to the largely short term
economic benefits that characterise an international event. How well has Auckland faired
following the hosting of the two large international events: America’s Cup yachting competition
in both 2000 and 2003 and the Rugby World Cup 2011? To what extent does the modification
of land use for these events within the fringe belt erase the history of colonial maritime
waterfront use? How does this echo the impact of colonial modification of the pre-colonial
Māori occupied waterfront?
From a morphological perspective, the short and long term economic benefits of event-led
development must be weighed against the lasting urban form that such events create. In
Auckland, events such as the America’s Cup 2000 and 2003 and the Rugby World Cup 2011
have produced dramatic urban fringe development along the waterfront – will their legacies
prove beneficial to Auckland? The reality is that event-led development has the potential to
produce poorly distributed outcomes, chiefly because of the spatial specificity of the events
themselves and the potential lack of valuable public participation due to the speed at which the
project is implemented (Coakley and Souza, 2013).
It is argued that such development is beginning to overwrite the history of the waterfront
space in the same manner as European occupation and development was stamped on top of
aboriginal Māori history in the study area. It is argued that a detailed morphological reading of
the space, concerned only with the building form, fabric and ground plan, has the potential to
dismiss the erased history of a site and render it invisible. To this end a consideration of colonial
modification to the unmodified waterfront is included. As redevelopment takes place,
particularly in locations where societies do not have a built form legacy, what is the effect on
the history of that space?

Methodology

A morphological analysis of the evolving and existing Auckland waterfront study area is
undertaken. Historical land use maps, photographs and newspapers have been consulted
alongside literature and the authors’ own observations of the present day Auckland waterfront to
produce an analysis of plan units on the Auckland waterfront. Plan units are mapped spatially in
order to group land use and built form along the waterfront. Plan unit diagrams have been
constructed which show the Auckland waterfront at three intervals: 1840 (none due to the nature
of Māori occupation); 1939 (eight); and 2014 (twelve).
836

Auckland

Auckland is a city of 1.4 million in a country of 4 million. Auckland’s economic prosperity has
been linked both publically and in reality to recent investment in the waterfront area. After
unifying district and regional councils in 2010, Auckland Council created the Auckland
Waterfront Agency to oversee the further development of the space, recognising the economic
importance of waterfront redevelopment.
Initial colonial development (including vast reclamation schemes in the Waitemata harbour)
was driven by the economic stimulus of the marine and shipping industries. In contrast, present
development on the waterfront is conceived as primarily driven by the economic stimulus of
international events hosted in Auckland. Just as the colonial reclamation of the 19 th and 20th
centuries ousted Māori land use patterns, modern redevelopment is alienating the morphological
patterns of marine and shipping industry. As a result, Auckland is experiencing redevelopment
aimed at creating a consumer waterfront for international tourism and the elite residential
market that is in the process of erasing the morphological history of the study site.

Pre-European contact Māori occupation

Pre-European contact tribal occupation within the Auckland isthmus has been fluid since the
Māori people first landed in New Zealand some 1000 years ago. Most recent rights of ahi ka
(traditional occupation) are held by the Ngati Whatua iwi (tribe). Ngati Whatua operated
farming, horticulture and fishing operations about the entire isthmus pre-European contact
(Ngati Whatua o Orakei Maori Trust Board 2003). The tribe was denied access to the land and
so cut off from their cultural practices. This had profound impacts on the people of Ngati
Whatua as their culture derived mana (respect and authority) from their role as kaitiakitanga
(resource guardians). The ensuing reclamations in the Waitemata harbour engulfed landmarks of
cultural importance to the Māori people such as Te Ngahuwera Pa (a military fortification) at
the foot of present day Queen Street and Te Rerenga Ora Iti at the site of present day Britomart,
where a great military victory was won over rival tribes (Auckland City Council 2004).
In 1840 Te Kawau of Ngati Whatua made 3,000 acres available to Governor Hobson in order
to strengthen ties between the government and his people following the signing of the Treaty of
Waitangi (New Zealand’s founding document) (Ward 1999). He believed the two peoples
would live together in this land. The area contained the 1840 waterfront and central business
district, upon which the reclaimed present-day waterfront situated. Upon securing a new
location for his capital, Governor Hobson immediately began development of the waterfront so
that it be made fit for European occupation.
Figure 1 shows the shoreline as at 1840, prior to modification. The modern waterfront
ground plan is also shown. The difference between the two is striking. Colonial occupation and
modification of the Auckland waterfront, Auckland treaty settlements, is a matter for others (see
Durie, 1998; Ward 1999). From a morphological perspective, as at 1840, there were no plan
units recognisable by the Conzenian analysis of built form, urban fabric or plot size. This is
precisely because the Māori culture did not build in this manner nor recognise an individual
ownership model. For these reasons, the Conzenian morphological regionalisation approach is
an incomplete method of capturing a comprehensive understanding of the history of urban form
development. This is an important caveat to the method and is all the more noticeable in a
location such as Auckland with such a limited history of European occupation as opposed to the
long urban histories of England where Conzen developed his thinking (Conzen, M.R.G. &
Conzen M.P. eds, 2004).
The development of natural and physical effect can have a deleterious effect on the link
between cultural heritage and living cultural expressions of status and authority. Colonial
industry development on the Auckland waterfront established new expressions of the authority
of a new culture in place of the existing aboriginal Māori occupation. Land uses (fishing and
 837

port activity), as well as landmarks, were erased by colonial modification. For instance, the
mining of Point Britomart demolished the significance of the place for Māori. The British flag
was first raised on this landmass on 16 September 1840 after a preliminary agreement for the
sale of Auckland had been signed (McClure, 2012). It represented an important landmark in
Maori history and geography, by the turn of the 20th century it was gone. The colonial
experience dominated indigenous culture both socially and physically through how they built
their city. It is likely that an invisible indigenous culture in the city morphology is an
unconscious by-product of the way colonisation occurs through active oppression of that
culture.

Figure 1. pre-1840 Auckland Waterfront Plan Units (zero).

The reading presented here contributes to the invisibility of the Māori population to a
modern audience. Colonial powers have successfully rewritten the history of the space by
inscribing new meaning through urban form. This inscription can be primarily expressed
through a modification of the waterfront edge itself via reclamation for new land use. Colonial
occupation through modification of the shoreline and private land titles represents the original
privatisation of the waterfront. Recent residential and commercial development is arguably
having the same effect by replacing the presence of the Auckland Harbour Board and POAL on
the waterfront with elitist apartments and hotels.

Colonial reclamation and waterfront modification

Extensive reclamations began almost immediately following Hobson’s decision to move the
capital from the Bay of Islands (to the Auckland site Te Kawau made available) (Ward, 1999).
The move yielded positive economic results for the new city. The deep Auckland harbour was
an ideal port location and successive dredge and fill techniques both deepened the harbour and
brought the wharves and associated land to the deeper waters.
Reclamations began with provincial government land tips pre 1859 and continued in force
throughout the 20th century (Engineer's Department Auckland Harbour Board 1973). The most
active period of reclamation was 1910-1916 in accordance with the Hamer scheme (Engineer's
Department Auckland Harbour Board 1973). The waterfront still contains many examples of
wharf buildings constructed in the Edwardian and classical revival styles including the ferry
terminal, wharf police, post office. Each are examples of reclaimed land that has been vested in
public ownership for public works, characteristic of fringe belts.
The reclamations from 1840 onwards dramatically altered the shoreline of the Auckland
isthmus. Figure 2 shows the progressive reclamations from 1859-1972. The original shoreline
and its associated activities were erased by this new morphology in just 170 years. Landfill cut
838

off headlands and filled in gullies to create a flat waterfront conducive to port and transport
activities, thus fulfilling the role of CBD support common of fringe belts: the Māori occupation
of this land left no trace that could endure the colonial reclamation modifications.

Figure 2. Reclamation on Auckland’s waterfront 1840-1972 (Constructed by author from

Auckland City Council, 2014).

Plan units have been identified using a 1939 land use map in Auckland City Archives. These
are shown in figure 3. Attention should be focused on the large port (8) and Wynyard Quarter
(1) units at the East and West ends of the waterfront as well as the viaduct harbour unit (3). All
three locations are dramatically different in modern times. In 1939 they were examples of vast
expanses of marine and shipping industry land use; today these activities are dramatically
smaller, with new higher density developments on surplus land.
 839

Figure 3. Planning units on Auckland’s waterfront 1939.

Table 1. Plan units

Plan Unit Unifying characteristics

1. Wynyard marine industry Marine industrial land use: large plots on reclaimed land. High
unit impervious surface percentage and an absence of vegetation.
Vast clusters of chemical tanks dominate the land use.
2. Victoria Park unit Large singular plot: reclaimed public open space, bordered by
streets on all sides.
3. Viaduct Harbour unit Dilapidated marine industry site.
4. Viaduct public facilities Community pools and City market; large, public buildings.
unit
5. Central area unit Medium-rise commercial buildings forming the waterfront
border of the CBD.
6. Transport unit Auckland station; Edwardian terminal.
7. Ferry transport unit Edwardian-baroque ferry terminal, nestled inside port land use.
8. Port unit Extremely large plot size accommodating many storage sheds
for port use.

Colonial occupation established new land uses across the isthmus and in particular along the
waterfront. Headlands and gullies became shipping yards fit for port activities. Not only was the
physical landscape changing but the political as well. A colonial governmentality was imposed a
“colonial-based articulation of power” in New Zealand (Certoma 2013, 9). Maori lost the
opportunity to engage in power relationships, to resist and to have real impact on planning
matters. British Parliament passed the New Zealand Constitution Act (1852) which conceded
administration of all matter relating to land to European settlers. New Zealand parliament was
established without iwi representation because only men with claim to land with a single title
could vote and participate. Iwi power was revoked and Maori were removed from the planning
sphere in one clean stroke. The New Zealand parliament defined a new planning reality that
permitted no meaningful opposition.
The newly established New Zealand parliament recognised individual title only: land sales
were transfers of the right to exclusive possession. Prior to European occupation land ownership
was tribal and ongoing (Blair 2002). This is an expression of Flyvberg’s proposition that power
defines reality (1998). In real terms, the definition of land ownership asserted and defended by
the British-based legal system facilitated a grave asymmetry between the settlers and Maori.
Backed by the power of knowledge creation and the ability to legitimise their definition, the
settlers created a new planning reality for Maori in New Zealand that they could not engage in
840

effectively. As a result, Ngati Whatua iwi experienced a 82,000 acre land loss. Without their
turangawaewae (home place) the cultural, spiritual, economic, social and environmental
wellbeing of the tribe was destroyed.

Modern Auckland

The Auckland waterfront stands in contrast to the geometric uniformity of the central business
area and clearly encloses the expansion of the central city. It is an area of low-lying reclaimed
land protruding into the Waitemata harbour, characterised by sweeping roads which previously
followed the coastline and jutting finger wharves built for the shipping industry.
Alienation occurs within the fringe belt as redevelopment of land constitutes a move from
historic land use towards smaller, privatised uses. In Auckland the Viaduct Harbour, developed
for the 2000 defence of the America’s Cup, and the Princes Wharf are examples of fringe belt
alienation. Previously sites of marine industry, both sites have been transformed into high-
density residential and commercial properties. These conversions largely ignore historical land
use characteristics, and therefore epitomise alienation.
On the Auckland waterfront the authors find the following plan units shown in figure 4. The
delineation used is largely based on the analysis found in Gu 2013 however some plan units
have been added. These are the division of Wynyard point into two units (Wynyard marine
industry and Wynyard quarter units) so as to reflect recent developments of the Wynyard
quarter including North Wharf restaurant area and innovation centre. The Viaduct Harbour unit
presented in Gu 2013 has also been redefined as two units (Viaduct harbour and Viaduct
commercial). The multitude of plan units present on the modern Auckland waterfront speaks to
the difficulty in presenting a coherent whole.

Figure 4. Planning units on Auckland’s waterfront 2014.

Upon comparing the plan units of 2014 in figure 4 with those in figures 3 and 1, it is
immediately clear that the number of units along the waterfront has increased over time. This
speaks to the fragmentation and alienation of the space in that there are many planning units and
this hinders cohesive development. In recent years units 2, 4, 6 and 10 have been heavily
invested in and have undergone substantial redevelopment. Units 4 and 6 (Viaduct Harbour and
Princes wharf) have done so as a direct result of international events preparation. In particular
contrast to the 1939 image shown, the open space near viaduct has been built up into elitist
apartment dwellings.
 841

Table 2. Plan units

Plan Unit Unifying characteristics

1. Wynyard marine industry Marine industrial land use: large plots on reclaimed land. High
unit impervious surface percentage and an absence of
vegetation. Low-rise commercial buildings organised in a
through street pattern.
2. Wynyard quarter unit Auckland’s recently successful public waterfront space. Low-
rise commercial buildings and medium-sized public open
space connected along a pedestrian route.
3. Victoria Park unit Large singular plot: reclaimed public open space, bordered by
streets on all sides.
4. Viaduct Harbour unit Heavily redeveloped in the 1990s, this residential area consists
of much smaller parcels than the historic marine land use
previously located here. Irregular through streets. There is a
strong coherence of built form across the space, which
consists of mid-rise modern residential buildings.
5. Viaduct commercial unit Prominent mid-rise commercial land use around a major
regional transport route. Poor pedestrian infrastructure.
6. Princes Wharf unit A high-density hotel development privatises the wharf space
and alienates it from the fringe belt. Built form resembles a
cruise ship, which references the maritime legacy of the
harbour.
7. Central area unit Large lot sizes occupied by high-density, high-rise structures.
A six-lane street dominates the street level.
8. Ferry transport unit Edwardian-baroque ferry terminal (restored in the 1980s)
alongside modern additions to the capacity of the transport
terminal.
9. Queens wharf unit Currently occupied by temporary structures, the land is now
surplus to port requirements. The space is still fronted by
the historic (and protected) red wharf fence, deterring
public use.
10. Britomart transport unit Grid street layout: The area is a commercial and transport hub
developed in response to regional transport strategy.
Northern edge fronted by historic wharf buildings including
the wharf police, northern steamship and union fish
company buildings.
11. Port unit Large singular plot: expansive private open space, used
exclusively for port activities. The area is fenced off to the
public but offers a glimpse into the working waterfront of
Auckland. This large area bordered by a major regional
transport corridor.
12. Quay park unit Medium sized irregular plots: this area is largely of mixed
modern design, including both residential and commercial
land use. Irregular, curving streets throughout.

The Modern Auckland waterfront is undeniably the result of land release by Ports of
Auckland. Most notably, the focus of port operations have shifted Eastwards in the last 20 years
and have made the Viaduct harbour and surrounding land as well as Princes wharf available.
Between 1989 and 2013 72 hectares of waterfront land has been released from the Port of
Auckland, allowing space for future event-led development (Ports of Auckland, 2013a). Present
day port operations now occupy approximately half the land area of the waterfront.
842

Princes wharf, now the site of the Hilton Hotel, is one example of land release and
subsequent fringe belt alienation along the waterfront. Princes wharf sold for NZ$25.75 million
in 1997 and the Hilton Hotel built on it promptly to take advantage of the international tourists
associated with large events. The development is a controversial one in light of private
appropriation of the prominent waterfront location. The public street that previously ran the
length of the wharf now operates as a car park for hotel guests and taxis.
The poor planning outcomes on Princes wharf were the direct result of the fragmentation of
District and Regional councils in Auckland. In 1988 the Auckland Regional Council dealt with
the application since it was on water, not land. This meant that the Auckland District Council
isthmus plan had no jurisdiction, despite the building clearly having urban design and traffic
implications (Cayford, 2009). Because district planning issues did not need to be addressed, the
development proceeded without public consultation in 1998. The result was a poor planning
outcome for the public and a privatised, alienated section of the fringe belt without opposition
from the public.
The reduction of port operations as a stimuli for redevelopment is a common reality for
many urban waterfronts such as London, Melbourne and Boston (Gordon, 1996). In Auckland
another element was in the mix: international events were coming to Auckland like never
before.
The history of event-led development in Auckland began as early as the late 1980s when
New Zealand’s yacht team ‘Team New Zealand’ seemed poised to bring the America’s Cup
home in 1989. The event had real impact on the political climate of planning process in New
Zealand. At this time Mike Moore, a newly created Minister for America’s Cup, pushed for an
America’s Cup planning bill that would speed planning applications. The position and planning
reform was deemed appropriate in light of the potential for international tourists coming to a
future America’s Cup defence. The 1992-93 Whitbread round the world ocean race was also
recognised as a stimulus for tourists; the event would bring 800,000 people to the Viaduct
(Basset, 2014).
However the new planning bill and Minister were not needed as the Team NZ did not come
away with the 1989 win. And so, apart from some dredging for the Whitbread race, the Viaduct
remained unchanged when Team NZ did eventually lift the America’s Cup in San Diego in May
1995. By August Auckland Council had authorised a development committee following
submissions by eager developers. Pacific Development Investment Corporation suggested
commercial and residential space and further dredging in the Viaduct harbour (Basset, 2014).
The fringe belt was poised for the alienation process.
As noted in the introduction, event-led development has the capacity to produce poor
planning outcomes chiefly because those outcomes are geographically concentrated expressions
of public investment. Investment that is derived from the wider rates base both locally and
nationally. In New Zealand, sport events have become synonymous with national pride and with
notions of healthy communities, making plans for their propagation extremely difficult to argue
against. Public opinion can so easily swayed when plans are justified by national sporting pride
(Hall, 2006). This reality allows politicians to capitalise on planning contributions that will
make their city more globally competitive, despite the fact that these outcomes are concentrated
spatially and economically as was the case with the Viaduct development (Hall, 2006). The
uneven spatial distribution of development within a city and can further entrench the power of
the elites (Jones, 2001).
The Viaduct harbour is one example of spatial concentration of planning outcomes as a
result of event-led development in Auckland. In 1996 Viaduct Harbour Holdings Ltd. bought
the Viaduct and its surrounds from POAL for NZ$75 million. The land had been for sale since
1995 as POAL shifted East. In 1998 stormwater and wastewater were realigned and the harbour
widened and deepened so as to improve the water quality. It’s important here to note that the
port activities, the fringe belt, restricted the growth of the CBD up until its removal. As sections
such as the Viaduct were sold, residential and commercial land uses encroached upon the fringe
belt and alienated the Viaduct Harbour from their historical uses. Figure 5 and 6 show the
 843

viaduct harbour in 1940 and today. The comparison is a dramatic example of waterfront
redevelopment, with cast harbour land reclamation occupied by medium-rise residential and
commercial buildings eliminating the historic marine industry land uses of the area.

Figure 5. Auckland’s Viaduct Harbour 1939.

Figure 6. Auckland’s Viaduct Harbour 2014.

In 1999 Auckland hosted the successful defence of the America’s Cup. This was an
economic benefit to Auckland like none before it and signalled enormous economic activity,
injected into waterfront redevelopment. The net expenditure of the America’s Cup 2000,
according to Market economics, was $474 million with a total value of $640 million added to
the New Zealand economy. This event created the equivalent of 10,620 full time jobs.
In 2003 Auckland hosted the America’s Cup again and generated, according to Market
Economics, a total of $523 million net expenditure and the equivalent of 9,320 full time jobs
between 2000-2003 (Market economic Ltd, 2003). Most of the impact was in the 2002-2003
year. The majority (70-85%) of the economic impacts of both yachting events were
concentrated in the Auckland region due to the restricted spatiality of the event. The legacy of
America’s Cup is its boost to the New Zealand’s marine industry, which is now worth NZD$1.7
billion; the sector NZD$642 million had worth of exports in the year 2012 (Forbes, 2013).
In 2005 New Zealand was selected to host the 2011 RWC. In 2008 Auckland Council
pledged NZ$211 million to the redevelopment of the Wynyard quarter and a further NZ$88
million by 2010 in preparation for the event (IRB.com 2011). The Queens wharf sheds were
844

redeveloped and the ‘Cloud’ installed to allow the public screenings of the games and host
events on the waterfront. The RWC2011 resulted in $512 million additional expenditure in
Auckland across the period between 2006 and 2012, split amongst property, construction,
manufacturing, transport, storage, finance and communications (IRB.com 2011). The New
Zealand Economy grew by $573 million as a result of additional expenditure during the Rugby
World Cup, and the tournament sustained 22,890 jobs for the duration of one year (Ministry of
Business, Innovation and Employment, 2012).
These figures show that international events represent large injections of overseas capital to
the country and are thus desired by local and national authorities. The economic stimulus has
become the driving force of urban renewal just as port activity once served as a driver for
modification to the pre-European occupation shoreline. Investments in international events
during this period reflect council philosophy. Auckland Mayor Len Brown is quoted as claiming
that “events should be the drivers of economic growth and they have certainly delivered for
Auckland” (RWC 2015, 2012). Events-led development has strong positive connotations in
Auckland as a result: “it has only been a few months since Auckland was the hub of Rugby
World Cup 2011, but our region has been transformed forever” – Doug McKay (Auckland
Council, 2011, pg i). Ultimately Auckland’s City Council and tourism agencies are trying to
achieve economic growth through these events. This pursuit of growth through events shapes
the pattern of urban development as they become integrated into the strategies of urban renewal
(Hall 2006).
These events illustrate the optimism for new development that international events can
stimulate. Particularly in areas of public space such as waterfronts. We saw this excitement
again in 2013 when Team NZ seemed assured of victory in San Francisco, spending much of
the regatta with only one point needed for victory. Planners and politicians alike were teeming
with excitement for new developments in Auckland. As the nation watched the victory slowly
slip from Team NZ’s grasp, planners felt the very real blow to future development.

Conclusion

Historical land use maps, photographs and newspapers and the authors’ own observations have
produced an analysis of plan units on the Auckland waterfront. Plan unit diagrams have been
constructed which show the Auckland waterfront at three intervals: 1840 (none due to the nature
of Māori occupation); 1939 (eight); and 2014 (twelve).
This research paper demonstrates that Auckland’s pre-European occupation shoreline has
undergone two broad eras of modification. The first being the colonial reclamation of the
waterfront to accommodate port activities. This resulted in the filling and levelling of valleys
and streams outside the heart of the newly establish Auckland CBD. Plot sizes were large and
housed public and industrial land use, which is common for fringe belt zones in the city
(Whitehand, 1988; Gu, 2010). The second era of waterfront modification began with the
reduction of port activity along the industrial waterfront in the 1990s. This period signalled the
densification of the working waterfront recognisable as a process termed alienation. This most
recent period of modification, which has brought residential and commercial land use to the
fringe belt, has been driven in part by an eagerness to make Auckland ready for international
events including the America’s Cup 2000 and 2003, Whitbread round the world ocean race and
Rugby World Cup 2011.
It is postulated that the first broad period of development, that being the colonial modification of
the waterfront driven by the economic reality of port orientated city. Urban form constructed
during this time has left visible marks on the urban landscape that may be read by an analysis
using the Conzenian morphological regionalisation. These are the built form (where it survives),
plot sizes and street layouts. Contrastingly, this visible legacy is not found for the Māori
occupation of this area prior to 1840. Māori used the waterfront and indeed the wider isthmus to
practice fishing, horticulture and farming. The landscape was inscribed with a cultural history
 845

that was retained orally and not in the edifices of urban form. Thus, once the landscape itself
was completely modified beyond recognition and a completely new ownership model
established, Māori history was erased.
The second period of urban development within the study site has been shown to be in part
driven by the economic stimulus of international events held in Auckland. This period of
development is really one of redevelopment in that the existing legacy of colonial modification,
as we have termed it, is present. This fringe belt legacy informs modern construction of urban
form along the waterfront. Primarily through the release of port land for residential and
commercial densification. Land that is of a large plot size and open space.
Event-led development itself has its positive and negative implications. Event-led urban
development has a focus on infrastructure for people with improvements around public transport
and public space. It can be a serious driver of short to medium term economic improvements
with increases in jobs and tourist expenditure. Events-led development can provide certainty for
urban development, through local and national investment programs, allowing significant
investment in infrastructure. This was demonstrated in the case of the NZ$211 million
investment in infrastructure for the Rugby World Cup in 2008 from the Auckland Council. This
investment is less likely to occur if there is no event to leverage against financial costs.
Due to spatiality of events infrastructure, event-led development has the potential to
eliminate connections between planning units and fragment existing units as select areas are
developed. For example, in response to the America’s Cup 2000 and 2003 and the Rugby World
Cup, only select areas of Auckland’s waterfront underwent development. These were the
Viaduct and Princes wharves. As was the case in Auckland, when development is staged over
time in correlation with numerous events, there can be a lack of continuity and cohesion
between planning outcomes, which make up the modern plan units on the waterfront. In
Auckland this is best expressed by the low pedestrian permeability of the waterfront space as a
whole; and the lack of cohesion between plan units 4, 7 and 2 in particular. The resulting
waterfront is a difficult one to navigate for a pedestrian. The task is made all the more imposing
because the public space is bordered by the exclusive Viaduct and Princes wharf developments
which encroach onto the public pathway and contribute to a feeling that the public user does not
belong. A better understanding of the existing plan units could contribute to a more holistic
conceptualisation of the space and the connections between units. The Royal Commission on
Auckland Governance 2009 expresses this view and bemoans the lack of coherent management
and development of the waterfront space. The report recommends a master plan approach to the
waterfront and city centre areas to enhance public and private investment in the area (Report of
the Royal Commission, 2009).
Considerations for development in the future should consider the alienation process as a
reinscribing of meaning onto the urban landscape. This definition has been proven apt in the
example of Auckland’s waterfront as ‘Māori history’ was replaced through waterfront
modification to become ‘colonial port history.’ That history is now slowly succumbing to the
new economic reality of event-led development, which brings with it new plot sizes, street
layouts, urban form and levels of density.
To summarise, this paper has examined the Auckland waterfront using the lens of an urban
morphological analysis grounded in an understanding of the fringe belt concept. Modern
redevelopment along the waterfront is found to be erasing the 170-year history of colonial
occupation and port reclamation in much the same way that the reclamation erased Māori land
use in the area. However in contrast to the modifications of the 19th and early 20th centuries,
modern redevelopment is intensifying land use within the layouts of the historical industrial
waterfront and in doing contributing to the alienation of the fringe belt through private
appropriation of public open space. Consequently, recent developments are establishing a new
cultural authority over the space: that of international tourism associated with sporting events
hosted in Auckland city. This raises questions of equity as to the land uses permitted and
supported using public resources in the waterfront space.
846

If future planning and urban redevelopment takes place ignorant of the plan unit concept,
there is potential for future development to overwrite the history of the waterfront, create
disconnected plan units and dominate potentially important public spaces without a recognition
of its past land use. However this paper has shown that there limitations to this solely
morphological understanding of urban space in that the history contained within a plan unit
analysis can omit invisible cultures such as Māori occupation in this example.

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848

Assessing the effects of governing thoughts on the form of

cities; a comparison of Damascus, Cairo and Tehran from the
emergence of Islam to the contemporary period

Abdolhadi Daneshpour1, Atefeh Soleimani1, Nasibeh Charbgoo1, Toktam Ashnaee2

1
Iran university of Science and Technology, NO, 4 – floor 4 , Maryam Tower, Atisaz2
Condominium , Sohanak blv, Artesh highway, Tehran , Iran. 2 Iran university of Science
and Technology. E-mails: [email protected]; [email protected];
[email protected], [email protected]

Abstract. The evolution of the urban form has always been affected by numerous factors. This article
aims to discern to what extent the governing schools of thought have determined the form of the cities.
From the emergence of Islam to the contemporary period and before the start of information age, we
have categorized three distinctive systems of thought: Islamic approach, the colonial period often with a
modernist essence and the contemporary period (mainly after the independence of the country and
bearing upon modernist and post-modernist views). Each of these systems has affected the form of the city
in general and also its components. Studies in Tehran, Damascus and Cairo indicate that in the Islamic
period the changes made to the form are mostly limited to single buildings contributing to emphasizing
the presence of Islam in the city or as a manifest to the power of the caliph, however the general form of
the city has mainly stayed untouched in compliance with the local social and environmental requirements.
In contrast, the colonial period is coupled with vast changes and modification to both the general form
and its components due to the technological advances and the mass production trends. The changes in the
contemporary period are however built upon the challenges that the modernist approach brought about
and therefore take a more moderate route.

Key Words: Urban form, governing schools of thought, Islam, colonial period, modernism, post-
modernism

Introduction

For most researchers in urban morphology urban form mean the form of urban fabrics (Levy,
1999). However urban morphology is also used as a source of ideas about spatial elements
which can be used in the construction of proximal spatial models of cities (O'Sullivan, 2000).
This article aims to assess the effect of one dimension of the socio-political aspect of the city
on its form, namely the governing thoughts. In order to avoid generalization three cities were
chosen for this purpose; Damascus, Cairo and Tehran based on the similarities of their history.
There is of course much to be discussed about what the term governing thoughts entails and
how it can be categorized, however the authors have discerned four main periods in the history
of the mentioned cities: emergence, Islamic period, colonial period and contemporary period.
These periods sometime overlap as for instance the emergence takes place in the Islamic period
and sometimes a city does not go through all the periods as is the case of Tehran which does not
have a clearly defined colonial period, although its form has been influenced by its allies at the
time.
As this article seeks to compare the form of city and its elements in the mentioned periods, it
does not research the cause of the events of each period in depth and focuses more on the
differences and similarities of the changes in different eras in target cities. In order to so first a
brief description of what aspects of urban form is being studied and the different periods is
given. Then the changes the cities go through in each period are introduced and finally there is a
concluding comparison between the effects of each governing thought on the form of these three
cities.
 849

Urban form

The definitions of urban form vary to a great extent in the literature. While some authors solely
rely on land use/land cover to measure urban form in terms of the physical structure of a city,
others also include socioeconomic aspects such as population number or density. Furthermore,
the question of whether the sheer size of a city is one aspect of urban form or an independent
indicator is still open. However, urban form itself is mainly referred to as a property of a city
and therefore static for a given point in time, while urban growth is a dynamic process that alters
urban form. (Schwarz, 2010)
Urban form, or urban structure, refers to the land use patterns, transport infrastructure, water
and energy infrastructure, and physical form of developments that facilitate human activities
and their interactions. It is a product of the social and economic activity patterns of the city, its
culture and its technology and is the outcome of physical planning practices, both in
infrastructure development and in regulation.
Urban form reveals the relationship between a single city and its rural hinterland as well as
the impact of human actions on the environment within and around a city. This also relates to
transportation patterns (Schwarz, 2010).
Considering what was mentioned this article mainly focuses on two aspect of urban form in
its research; the urban fabric, also referred to general form consisting of streets, infrastructure
structure and etc, and also architectural elements and components.
Certain periods of time can be discerned in target cities regarding the governing thoughts.
Regardless of how Cairo, Damascus and Tehran emerged, they have gone through different
periods such as Islamic, colonial and modern periods. Like any other macro-scale change in the
socio-political dynamics of a place, Islam also sought to announce its presence through various
means in cities. Since Islam is considered to be an “Urban Religion which favors communal
practice…it is widely accepted that most of Islam’s teachings are best practiced in an urban
setting. It is not surprising that Islam made particular emphasis on the form and design of the
city … (Saoud, 2002)”
Besides the Islamic period most of the cities have also gone through a colonial phase which
has vastly affected them, not only in terms of physical conditions but also cultural, social and
etc. This period can be a somewhat clear example of how far an outsider system of thought
would go to dictate changes in the context it is now governing.
There is also a time period in which the cities have declared independence or are being
governed with a more modernistic school of thought which “was evident in the city’s physical
appearance through what is called standardization of urban systems, as the width of roads,
heights of buildings, zoning and segregation of use and etc (Abou El-Ela, 2003)”.
Currently the new communication system and the use of (ICTs) have increased the capacity
to absorb all kinds of cultural, social and political articulation, in a digital globe that is
electronically communicated and managed. They are modifying all aspects of the life of cities,
political, economic and cultural and consequently affect the urban form as well (Abou El-Ela,
2003). Although these changes can be categorized as another period of a governing thought in
cities, this research does not focus on this era.

Survey

Damascus - Emergence

The history of the Damascus is defined by usage of water. The original oasis was a central
meeting point and a sustainable settlement which through time became the longest permanently
inhabited city. The initial structure of the city as one of Aramaneans governing centers was
formed in 11 century BC and had a western feel to it. In the year 46 BC Romans occupied the
city and an orthogonal settlement was formed near the Aramanean city with straight streets,
850

forum, stadium and Hellenistic residential areas. Romans built a fort around the Aramanean and
Hellenistic neighborhoods. After the Byzantine empire, Arabs entered the city in 635 AD
(Coeno, 2003), (Chang & Lienert, The Oasis City, 2009)

Figure 1. Hellenistic Damascus (Burns, 2011).

Figure 2. Roman Damascus (Burns, 2011).

Islamic period

Damascus had become mainly a settlement for the wealthy Arabs and the Umayyad Caliphate
decided to build a mosque for all the Muslims of the world. Such a building required significant
financial power along with exceptional design and organization so the Caliphate invited
architects from Syria, Byzantine, Iran and Constantinople. The walls of the mosque illustrated
utopian cities and gardens (Coeno, 2003) In the “Everyday life of Damascenes” the neighbors
are described to have close relations and shared interests and ceremonies in the Islamic period.
The shop owners would control the presence of strangers in the neighborhood. The narrow and
winding alleys would preserve women from the eyes of strangers (Ghazaf, 1988).
But how did the Arabs, who were converted to Islam, apply the concepts in establishing new
settlements and in adapting existing towns and cities, such as the case of Damascus. The organic
 851

Islamic city began in the Byzantine Empire. The Greek and Roman city followed strong
geometric patterns and straight lines (Wifstrand, 2009). Therefore the street network in the
older parts of the city is based on the canals built by Aramaneans, Semitic nomads from
Mesopotamia, and also based on later orthogonal network of Romans and Umayyads.

Figure 3. Street network in the old part of Damascus (Wild & Stokhammer, 2009).

The strong ritualized living patterns of Islam made formal institutions unnecessary and so
open spaces like forum disappeared over time. This transformation from straight Roman street
grid with large open spaces into Islamic narrow street-cities happened slowly taking many
centuries to form.
The entrance of Arabs is not associated with drastic changes in the form of the city and the
changes are limited to the construction of a mosque and a palace for the Caliphate. However
after the city became the capital of the Umayyads, gradually other public centers were formed
near the primary establishments: Judiciary building, entertainment center, stables, numerous
bazaars and indoor trade complex for valuable goods. But the growth of the city took place in
accordance with the historic water distribution system (Coeno, 2003).

Colonial period

With the introduction of pipelines though The French, the old system of the canals and sabils
was not needed anymore therefore the streets which were formed based on the placement of
canals could also be changed. The result of these changes in one of the western neighborhoods
of the city can be seen in figure 4.
The last 60 years of the Ottoman Empire was a time of administrated reform and
modernization, influenced by Europe. The new urbanism and this was before any French
mandate master plan, that developed was based on three principles. (i) Widening of streets and
roads. (ii) The design of new suburbs with geometric patterns. (iii) Construct in stone instead of
wood (Wifstrand, 2009).
852

Figure 4. Morphological evolution from the Roman city to Islamic city in Damascus
(Wifstrand, 2009).

Figure 5. Area of Baghdad Street in Damascus, Designed by the French (Wild &
Stokhammer, 2009).
 853

Another point which affected the form of the cities especially in the old city was the outward
movement of wealthier population to modern suburbs and abandonment of old city. This exodus
from the old city left it to be inhabited by the poor and in neglect (Wifstrand, 2009).
French Mandate continued the urban development which the Ottomans started in the 19th
century. The first master plan for Damascus totally ignoring the local tradition and neglecting
the old city, faced a lot of resistance from a city which has grown organically for a thousand
years. Danger and Ecochard presented a new road system, creating a ring road around the old
town to ease congestion but also to “show off” the cultural heritage of the old city (Wifstrand,
2009).

Figure 6. First French master plan for Damascus and surroundings: the Danger plan
developed between 1925 and 1937. A recognizable grid shows the first French urban
interventions (Wild & Stokhammer, 2009).

Architectural components of form

One of the important monuments of the city is the Umayyad mosque. The French proposed a
plan to separate this mosque from the urban fabric in 1984 in which there is a road for vehicles
around the mosque.
All architectural interfaces as the smallest piece of an urban fabric are very much part of the
development of Middle Eastern city, especially Damascus. The smallest elements like the
fountain, the tale’ or the canals are influencing and determining the whole city structure. From
the roman orthogonal canal grid to the hamams as urban nodes, the sabils as public meeting
points and representative architectural elements to the courtyard fountain as the end of a whole
chain of division and separation processes. The fountain again is defining the size of a courtyard
and so also the proportion of a house, which is part of the urban fabric of a neighborhood and
the whole city. All these elements formed urban fabric and are only working by a system of
ancient pipelines and the natural gravity. The symbolic meaning of water is also given, because
there is a strong bonding between architecture and infrastructure which is not separable because
none of it is possible to exist without the other one (Chang & Lienert, The Oasis City, 2009).
Although sabils have now lost their original function with the use of a modern water distribution
system, there has been attempts in some parts to preserve them from an urban heritage
viewpoint.
It can be assumed that most of the city parts developed out of a canal grid. So at the urban
fabric of the city the history is still visible. The agricultural field which is strongly connected to
traditions and heritage could also use the water of these canals. The original field was probably
a square or rectangle and was in possession of one farmer. The ownership allowed him to use
the canal with a certain amount of water for a specific time during the week. In every village or
854

city-neighborhood was a person in charge of the time schedule (Chang & Lienert, The Oasis
City, 2009).

Figure 7. Water-related architectural components in old Damascus (Sabils, Fountains,

Water reserves, orthogonal grids, etc).

Often buildings were built along main street, which was built along the main canal. So the
canal had to be redirected around the building areas to the fields. Over time the fields got less
important and the canals dried out or got abandoned and streets were built on top of it. A block
structure evolved. The third step is that a total urbanization of the agricultural area happened.
Most parts of the city were at a status of change. Only the main city and its areas around are
completely evolved. Midan is an example for a perfect change from agriculture to a central
urban neighborhood. Therefore between the 1870s and 1920s, it is assumed that irrigation
system heavily influenced the urban morphology of Damascus (Chang & Lienert, The Oasis
City, 2009). The following pictures illustrate this influence.

Figure 8. Water canals (simple line: Canals for the city, dotted line: canals for agricultural
lands) (Chang & Lienert, The Oasis City, 2009).

Housing

Visible in the buildings of the French Mandate era is that the courtyard disappeared completely.
The first time that it was possible to create apartments on one level, stacked onto each other.
The building became a closed volume and the private exteriors changed from courtyard to
balconies. The private exterior got minimized but there started to be a collective exterior in the
form of public parks (Chang & Lienert, The Oasis City, 2009).

Gardens

A second step after decoupling of water from architecture was introducing a different
understanding of gardens, coming along with the French mandate. The garden became
something collective and shared a social meeting pot. It is something totally new in the
understanding of public space in city, since the garden or also a “private exterior” used to
always be clearly defined in terms of who it belonged to (Chang & Lienert, The Oasis City,
2009).
 855

Figure 9. Pattern of modern (left) and traditional (right) houses in Damascus (Chang &
Lienert, The Oasis City, 2009) (wifstrand & Jila, 2009).

Figure 10. Evolution of Gardens in Damascus (Chang & Lienert, The Oasis City, 2009).

In summary after the French came into the city, there was a change in the structure of the
social and architectural life in the city. The main inventions and developments of the city which
made Damascus the longest permanently inhabited city were made since the Neolithic era until
1920s. This period is of course very wide-spread but the infrastructure system did not change
much in it. Canalization happened at the beginning of this period and then Romans connected
the city with a pipe system to the spring water. Later on the Sabils were built in the city and
generally there was a coupling of water and architecture. However after the installation of
modern pipe system the decoupling of water from architecture started and continued by the
French master plan by Ecochard which changed the cityscape from Damascus totally (Chang &
Lienert, The Oasis City, 2009).
The main characteristics of this period can be categorized as follows: master plans,
immigrations, socialism and neglect of the old city
856

Contemporary Period

In the contemporary period there is a selection of ideas which is mainly affecting the form of the
city. Some of which include: garden city as a new take on the idea of an oasis set up in the
desert, socialist city which targets mass housing as a strategy to move out the surplus
inhabitants of Damascus, and gated communities which have mostly been formed for the more
wealthy citizens but are changing the form of the city nonetheless.

Cairo

Islamic period

The emergence of Cairo occures mainly with the entrance of Islam to the area which was
consisted of disprsed settlements. The city of Fustat near the remains of Babylonian fortress was
the first Muslim settlement. After that settlements as Al-Askar of the Abbasids and later Al
Qatai of Ahmed and Tulun were built further north. In 969 the Shii’te Fatimid Caliphate
conquered Egypt and developed a first plan (rectangular grid) for their city on a new site (Al-
Qahira) (Mélanie & Nathalie , 2011).
In the early years Fatimid city was only a royal and military refuge city which had two
palaces in its center. The main street was called Bayn al Qasrayn which means between the
palaces. There was also a north to south corridor (Mélanie & Nathalie , 2011) & (Coeno, 2003).

Figure 11. First Muslim Settlements (left), Fatimid Dynasty (right) (Mélanie & Nathalie ,
2011).

As the Ayyubids came to power Salah-al-Din, principle ruler, built a gigantic wall
encircling Fustat and Al-Qahira. He opened the former princely city to the public who began to
build in its spaces and gardens, changing the function and structure of the Fatimid’s city. The
city then was consisted of very dense pattern of houses that formed narrow streets. Cairo
developed from a military camp to a religious place. During the period of the Mamluks Cairo
experienced a great growth. It was during al Nasir’s reign that Cairo experienced its greatest
 857

change and the western development was encouraged. Mamluks were famous for their wealth
and ambitious building activity of madrasas, mosques, sabils etc (Mélanie & Nathalie , 2011).

Figure 12. Ayyubid Dynasty (left) Mamluk Dynasty (right) (Mélanie & Nathalie , 2011).

Although there was many constructions in Ottoman period, the constructions were not very
organized, monuments and open spaces were built in close proximity and densely especially in
the old part of city, corridors were occupied by retailers who would block the traffic, and
winding streets and unrelated and abnormal buildings cleared out the wide streets of the Fatimid
(Coeno, 2003).

Figure 13. Ottoman Cairo (Mélanie & Nathalie , 2011).

Considering the changes in this period, the desire to integrate the architectural elements
resulted from the local traditions with the capabilities and potential of a new context, is quite
interesting. The loyalty to the local traditions which is manifested in the official buildings is
evident (Raymond, 2002).
858

Colonial period

The modernization of Egypt and its capital began under Mehemet 'Ali (c. 1769–1849), often
called the "father of modern Egypt," who ruled the country for nearly half a century beginning
in 1805, modernizing and strengthening it, and expanding its borders. Modernization of Cairo
began in 1830, but the period of greatest progress occurred during the reign of Ismail Pasha (r.
1863-79). Pasha undertook a major modernization of the city modeled on the renovation of
Paris under Napoleon III (1808–1873). To the west of the older, medieval part of Cairo (now
called Islamic Cairo); a newer section of the city boasted wide avenues laid out around circular
plazas in the style of a European city. The development of this area was also influenced by the
growth of French and British colonial power in Egypt (Cairo, 2008). The interventions went so
far that the term “Paris along the Nile” is sometimes used to describe Cairo in those years.

Figure 14. Map of Cairo in colonial period (Elshahed, 2011).

Contemporary Period
Considering the significant growth of Cairo in recent years, new neighborhoods have formed
and are being formed. Since the implementation of decentralization policies, the Islamic part of
the city is declining. Although there are plans for conservation of heritage, the surrounding
residential areas are mainly neglected. However there are bright planning spots as well, like the
Al-Azhar Park.
During the 20th century the trend of restoring single monuments was converted into a new
ideology. Many heritage and conservations plans were set for the city. But one can summarize
that all the plans intended to create a monument corridor with touristic infrastructure that has the
character of an open-air museum. There is no clear and specific building law for city parts
which makes the development even more unpredictable and confusing.

Tehran

Emergence

Decline of Rey was the advent point of Tehran development. Rhythm of development of this
city became faster in Saffavid Dynasty. When Ghazvin was chosen as capital, Tehran became
subject of attention for authorities due to its good location and weather.
 859

Figure 15. Current Cairo and the location of old city (Mélanie & Nathalie , 2011).

Figure 16. A sample of heritage and conservation plans (Mélanie & Nathalie , 2011)

Figure 17. Rey and Tehran )Hamidi, 1997).

860

Islamic period (beginning of Ghajar dynasty to Nasereddin Shah)

In 1200 Mohammad Khan, king of Ghajar chose Tehran as capital of Iran. This new role of the
city changed its form and landscape. However the changes in this period were limited to
establishment of new buildings and walls and later on development of new communities and
inner growth of market (Hamidi, 1997:19). Indeed, evolution of urban structure was the main
change in the city during Mohammad Khan’s reign.
The king after him, led the growth of city outwards by building mosques, markets,
communities, palaces and gardens out of the city boundaries )Hamidi,1997:20). This approach
was modeled after the changes in Paris regarding Versailles. Generally, at this stage
development of the main structure adhered to linear-branch and linear- central patterns
)Hamidi,1997:22).
Architectural elements of urban form including mosques, schools and formal and official
buildings especially in new urban centers; have bigger lots and open spaces at this stage, but
still adhere to introvert pattern. The texture is still continuous and integrated which conforms to
the existing linear-branch pattern )Hamidi,1997:22).

Introduction of Modernism (from Naserddin Shah Ghajar to Islamic Revolution)

Vast urban growth occurred in Naserddin Shah Ghajar reign which was the second stage of
development in Ghajar dynasty. In this period many new buildings and gardens were built in
Tehran and the city expanded significantly. However main elements of urban form remained
untouched.
Amirkabir was one of the men who had a major role in the development of Tehran. In this
period compact and dense texture of the city, and narrow non-geometrical streets were
regenerated )Hamidi, 1997: 24-28).
Although the city development occurred in all directions, the quality and quantity was not
the same. The growth was more concentrated in the north of the city because of the location of
king’s palace.

Figure 18. Emergence of wide and semi-orthogonal streets in Tehran and concentration
of growth in north )Hamidi,1997).
 861

This period is characterized by gradual and integrated growth of the previous pattern which
also in some places is starting to show the first steps towards the fundamental changes in the
next period )Hamidi,1997:31).
The changes to the structure were mainly the result of the construction of new streets,
squares and buildings which changes the nature of the structure from linear-central to a grid
pattern. This new grid pattern could also accommodate new urban elements which subsequently
further changed the form of the city.
Architectural and urban elements which were built in big plots were surrounded by great
open spaces as well. Therefore the space-mass ratio shows a significant increase
)Hamidi,1997:32). The wide streets and squares subsequently led the development of the
structure towards the outer regions.
Another major change in this stage was the pattern of urban façades and monuments. For the
first time great attention was paid to the design of exterior facades of the buildings and also the
placement of monuments and signs. Shamsolemareh is a good example of this change.
Another indicator of visual characteristic of this period is the construction of important
buildings specially Ghajar palaces in strategic topographical points outside the city. One of
these examples was Doshan Tappeh palace. )Hamidi,1997:34-372).

Figure 19. Great open urban spaces and Ghajar palaces in strategic topographical
points outside the city )Hamidi,1997).

Two sets of internal and external factors contributed to neoclassic or neo-traditional styles in
Ghajar dynasty. The most important internal reason was Ghajar’s tendency to associate
themselves with the powerful Safavid dynasty. And one of the major external agents was the
attempt to define a new identity for country in relation to the new world which was very
important for the Ghajar government. This definition of identity led to total and fundamental
change in urbanism and architecture. In this approach city was considered as a new
interpretation of the old city with different time- space concepts (Habibi, 2004).
The emergence of Tehran style occurred in this era but achieving the real concept of this style
needed two historical event; 1-reformal practices of Amirkabir in creating new official systems
and 2- presence of European teachers and engineers in Darolfonoon school as the first
professional school in Iran (Habibi, 2004). Tehran style in general avoided interfering with the
old parts of city but tried to changes some functions and elements which in some cases resulted
in social movements, for example moving the city center from Sabzeh Meidan to Toopkhaneh
square.
862

Pahlavi

This period was accompanied by changes of the main structure of the city in the official and
legal frame of Baladiye (municipality). In which one of the first action was demolition and
renewal of traditional old neighborhoods of city center. In addition construction of wide streets,
new governmental and cultural buildings were other actions occurred in regard to this official
frame, these changes formed the basis for further development of main the structure
)Hamidi,1997:42-43).
The orthogonal grid pattern of streets directed the growth of the city to the north- south and
east-west directions. New elements and functions were shaped in the north and south of the city.
Indeed, this period can be considered as a start for the separation of main component of city
structure or change of continual pattern of structure growth to the disconnected pattern. Tehran
University and The Central Train station are some of the examples. Therefore streets role as
linear elements strengthened in this era (Habibi, 2004).
Introvert growth of Tehran occurred through changing the function of gardens and palaces
into public functions or through construction in open spaces. In contrast, the construction of new
street network and formation of functional centers along them along with architectural elements
built separately in other parts of the city resulted in a simultaneous extrovert growth (Figure 20).

Figure 20. Extrovert and introvert growth pattern of Tehran )Hamidi,1997).

In summary physical structure of the city changed in this period and the city has hybrid
structure: A center which is shaped after the traditional structure of the city and an orthogonal
street network branching out from this center in all direction with small dispersed centers
around them.

Architectural elements

In the Tehran style squares had a different organization in terms of concept, function and
structure in comparison with the traditional midans. Toopkhaneh square and Baharestan were
formal and symbolic representations of this change. In these squares instead of school, mosque,
bazaar and palace, new components were located such as banks, municipality and post office.
Bazaar was confronted with strong rivals such as cinemas and hotels which changed the form of
the city with their new functions. Streets had nor the traditional role of recreation neither the
contemporary role of traffic, but they found a new role as livable urban spaces.
In this style confrontation of old and new, contemporary and traditional, vernacular and
foreign exhibits their first spatial and formal effects on the city. As a result streets and squares,
with their new components, became places of gathering for “modern” people and Bazaar
became a place for general public who still lived based on traditional lifestyle (Habibi, 2004).
Evolution of the city in Pahlavy dynasty was under the influence of modernism international
movement. Haussmann inspired spatial and physical organization of cities occurred in Tehran as
 863

well. The straight and wide streets of the 19th century Europe formed the foundation of future
developments of Tehran.

Figure 21. Expansion of the city –Hamidi (1997).

Summary

The changes the form of Damascus, Cairo and Tehran went through are summarized in the
following table.

Table 1. Summary of the changes in form in Damascus, Cairo and Tehran

Conclusion

Indeed, there are many factors contributing to the form of urban fabric and its elements, such as
geographical, social and economic factors, this article attempted to single out one contributing
864

factor and tried to illustrate to what extent the governing thoughts of a city can influence the
form and process of change in the city. For this purpose the form of the city, consisted of the
urban fabric and architectural elements, was assessed in different periods: Islamic, Colonial,
Modernism and contemporary.
Cases in this article demonstrated despite the similarities between each period in the cities,
there is a great difference between the changes the form goes through in Islamic, modernism or
colonial periods. The main point in the Cairo and Damascus was that the governing Islamic
thought has changed the face of the city gradually and with respect to vernacular factors.
Whereas in Colonial period the modernist approach has changed the form totally and rapidly
through vast interventions.
Studies also indicate that in the Islamic period the changes made to the form are mostly
limited to single buildings contributing to emphasizing the presence of Islam in the city or as a
manifest to the power of the caliph; however the general form of the city has mainly stayed
untouched in compliance with the local social and environmental requirements. In contrast, the
colonial period is coupled with vast changes and modification to both the general form and its
components due to the technological advances and the mass production trends. The changes in
the contemporary period are however built upon the challenges that the modernist approach
brought about and therefore take a more moderate route.
It is also noticeable that the scale of changes in each case in all three periods is different due
to their unique situation. Definitely Tehran is somehow different because it has never officially
been a colony. However it does not mean that the governing thought was not affected with
international dominant trends. This led to new hybrid styles of traditional and new ones.
Finally, it should be considered that this research barely scratched the surface and there
should be more extensive research on how the governing thoughts can and will influence the
form of cities.

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866

The evolution of neighborhood models as a manifestation of

political regime shift: a case study of Cairo - Egypt

Islam Ghonimi, Ibrahim Ghonimi

Faculty of Engineering - Benha University
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected].

Abstract. Through history, Cairo witnessed different political regimes that caused consequential
different neighborhoods models with varying socio-spatial characteristics. The research is to tackle the
effect of Political regime on cities first in terms of their impacts on development manifesto, the role of
development actors, and planning theory, then their impacts on the Evolving and declining neighborhood
models. The paper will track Cairo development through history by Linking between the adopted political
regime with development policy and their analogous impacts on Evolving and Declining patterns of
urban development. This will pave the way to predict the future of neighborhood model form as
manifestation of current and future political regime paradigm shift, especially after 25 Jan. revolution.
In Order to achieve this goal, the paper based on a case study of 5 different neighborhood models at
different chronological ages, an empirical analysis based on three steps: First, to document aspects of
political regime and their impacts on development actors and planning method. Secondly, to measure the
common socio-spatial patterns of evolving neighborhood model in three level analysis micro community,
adjacent community, and macro community. Thirdly, to examine the correlation between the socio-spatial
patterns of neighborhood models and the Political regime aspects.

Key Words: Political regime, Islamic, Imperial, Socialism, Capitalism, Post-Capitalism, neighborhood

Theorizing the impacts of political regime on neighborhood models

This part of the research intends to theorize the impact of political regime on neighborhood
models. Through three interlocking parts, the political regime, the impact of political regime on
design and planning method, and finally tracing neighborhood models as a manifestation of
planning method on political regime. This analysis method is used later on to test different
political regimes and their impacts on evolving and declining neighborhood models.

Political regime

The political regime is a set of political structures that make up a state and determine who has
access to political power. And it ranges from single to public involvement in decision making
Fishman, R. (1990). Political regime can be classified under different headings based on
democratic versus authoritarian, Van den Bosch defined three types of political regimes based
on type of government; the single, aristocratic, and democratic (Van den Bosch, J. - 2013):
i) Autocracy (Dictator-Single) Regime
In this regime, government is carried by an absolute ruler, in which a supreme power is
concentrated in the hands of one person, whose decisions are subject to neither external legal
restraints nor regularized mechanisms of popular control when other states call the head of state
dictator, that state is called dictatorship (Gordon 1987).
ii) Anocracy (Aristocratic-Elite) Regime
In this regime, government is carried by a group or class considered superior to others. is a
regime-type where power is not vested in public institutions but spread amongst elite groups
who are constantly competing with each other for power .
iii) Democracy (Public) Regime
 867

In this regime, government is carried by representative are elected by citizens to make

political decision for the people, a doctrine of or belief in social equality or the right of all
people to participate equally in politics.
The relation between politics and urban form always exist, but it was much clear in large
political paradigm shifts. There are different causes of politics paradigm shift. It could be based
on religion shift, just like the shift from Aton religion into Ekhnaton religion, and the shift from
the sunny into shea. It could be based on an economic shift, just like the political shift from
communism into capitalism (Fatma, 2013). On the other hand the political paradigm shift
should have consequences on the society structure and methods of production, and of course on
architecture and urbanism.

The impact of political regime on urban planning method

The type of political regime could impacts urban planning methods; it also impacts the role that
different development actors play in the political decision making and design methodology. It
also impacts the degree and power of intervention of each group. For example in the dictator
governance, the emperor is the only one who can take the decision. On the other hand, in the
aristocratic governance, the elite benefit group even they were politically, socially, politically
elites or they were ethnic groups. On the other hand, in the democratic governance, the public
have great impacts on decision making.

Role of development actors

Authority, developer, planner, community and interest groups are actors that are sharing with
varying values in decision making in urban development. According to the type of political
regime, the type and degree of the role that each of these actors play in urban development are
defined, and consequently impact the process and methodology of producing urbanism. This
role ranges between complete controls, partial involvement, and complete neglecting in decision
making. Beside, defining the primary and secondary role in urban development represented in
regulator, developer, and builder:
(i) State Role, represent the state political manifesto. According to political regime, its
primary and secondary role ranges between being regulator, developer, and builder.
(ii) Private sector Role, that works to achieve money capital benefits. According to political
regime, its primary and secondary role ranges between being developer or reduced to be builder.
(iii) Planner Role represents the technical role; According to the political regime, the planner
works for the state to achieve public benefits, or work for the developer to achieve private
(iv) Community member, who benefit of architecture and urbanism, and the only affected with
the political decisions.
According to the political regime, the Regulation role ranges between Common regulations that
carried by the people themselves, or intended written regulations that carried by the state with
strong governmental legislation framework, or unwritten regulations that carried by the
developer with New-private legislation framework instead of the weakness of the authorities
legislation framework.

Planning methodology

According to the role of development actors involved in planning and decision making, three
types of planning method are used:
i) Central/comprehensive/holistic Model: A central planning method is used for the
complete control on decision making, take place in dectator governments. Planning is
considered as a scientific-technical process without any involvement of the public (Kinyashi
2000). Where the planner work for the dictator to achieve their trends, and develop a master
plan.
868

ii) Incremental/advocacy/ participatory Model: An involvement of the public in planning

methods, the planner work for the public in planning method, the planner obeys strategic plan,
where all interest groups should permit the plan.
iii) Market oriented planning model: It is used with incremental strategy to meet market
needs, most commonly used in capitalist communities, where the market controls the
incremental modification of the plan. Depending on the regulation role of government, It can
operate in two ways, the first with week legislation role of the government, the monopoly take
place and the customer (private sector) controls with monopoly all development aspects to
achieve his benefits, the second, with strong legislation framework, the incremental
modification take place for the benefits of the consumer.

Tracing the impacts of political shift on urban form

Neighborhood Models have witnessed a large shift as a result of the Political shift. To test
this hypothis, a previously developed spatial analysis tools are used to trace the ways in which
political regime impacts the social and spatial fabric of cities (Ghonimi et.al, 2011).
In order to achieve this aim, the research depends on three levels analysis. First, the way
political regime impacts spatial and social fabric of micro community is traced. Second, the
ways in which these socio-spatial features change the continuity and relationship with adjacent
community and consequently impact the social and spatial fabric of adjacent community is
deduced. Third, the way in which these communities collectively impact the social and spatial
fabric of macro community is deduced (Ghonimi et al, 2011).

Micro community Adjacent community Macro Community

Figure 1. Three level analyses.

Neighbourhood socio-spatial characteristics

Street network pattern, land use pattern, and housing pattern are socio-spatial characteristics of
neighborhood model, that are used to manifest political regime (Ghonimi et.al, 2011).
Street network pattern ranges between grid, loop, and tree patterns their spatial structure can
be classified under heading of type of street, Linear feet of streets, number of blocks, number of
intersections, number of access point, number of cul-de-sacs, percentage of streets area.

Figure 2. Alternative street network pattern (Carmona, 2003: 73).

 869

Land use pattern can be classified under heading of landuse type, variation and density. The
(dividing vs. connecting) line between different landuses repesent the mixed vs. separation of
landuse as a manifestation of political regime (Ghonimi et al, 2011).

a b c d
Figure 3. Alternative land use patterns (Ghonimi, 2011).

Housing pattern can be classified under heading of landuse type, variation and density, they
can be measured using the (dividing vs. connecting) line between housing types. It represents
the exclusion vs. segregation of housing types as a manifestation of political regime (Ghonimi
et.al, 2010).
For the social governments this line is called connecting line (not dividing) it increases social
benfits through creating a relation between different social groups, according to Butman it
creates much more social capital. For the post capitalist governments this line is called dividing
line (not connecting) it reduces capital benfits through creating a relation between different
social groups, it reduces the mony capital of the developers (Ghonimi et.al, 2010).

A B C D
Figure 4. Alternative housing patterns (Ghonimi, 2011).

Adjacent Community socio-spatial characteristics

Micro Community socio-spatial pattern constitute the way neighborhood models create it's
relation with external social-spatial fabric, and determine how to encourage or discourage
connectivity, accessibility and interaction with its adjacent neighbors and with its boarder city.
The relation between the new development and its existing context determines its way of social,
economic, political, and functional interaction.
Spatial Fabric: The (dividing vs. connecting) line neighbourhood and adjacent community,
represent the type and degree of inclusion vs exclusion of the neighbourhood model. It can be
measured through No. of egress, No. of continued streets, Parameter, type of parameter, Length
of parameter.
Social fabric: The (dividing vs. connecting) line between neighbourhood housing type and
adjacent community housing type, represent the type and degree of social inclusion vs social
exclusion of the neighbourhood model. It can be measured through length of line between
Micro to macro housing type, variation, and difference.
 870

City socio-spatial characteristics

The type of the relation between micro community with adjacent community constitute the
pattern of the city, which Visualizes the ways in which these socio-spatial features are
collectively reshaped the socio-spatial fabric of public and private realms of the city.

The case study of Cairo

The following part will examine the impact of political regime in term of (development actors,
development methodology) on the evolution of neighborhood models. The field study will go
through four stages to achieve these goals. First: Case study selection: 5 case study areas are
selected. Second: Data Gathering with defining methods, and tools, of collecting. Third: Data
Classification including the documentation and measurements of the variables. Finally: Data
analysis: undertaken to test the hypotheses of the research to reach the results.
Cairo is exposed to different changes of political regime starting from the origin islamic,
Impiral, Socialism, Capitalism, and post Capitalism. Thus undergoing a dramatic shift on
neighbourhood models and city form. The case study of Cairo will be investigated through
describing the effect of changing political regime on urban legislation, planning proceeds and
role of development actors. Then describing the resulted changes on the urban form. The data
related to socio-spatial characteristics were measured using different measurement tools and
their scores are presented in table (1,2).

Figure 5. The case study of Cairo.

1 Islamic Cairo 3 Cairo under Socialism (Nasr city)

Cairo under Capitalism (New Settlements
2-a Imperial Cairo (Khedive Cairo) 5
wave)
Cairo under Post- Capitalism
2-b Imperial Cairo (Masr El Gdeda) 6
(compounds)

Cairo’s political changes and the urban form

To understand the changes that took place in Cairo, first a portrait will be drawn of the original
political and urban form of the traditional city followed by its steps towards current states.
The Islamic Cairo (the impacts of Basic principles of Islam on urban form)
Cairo under Islamic governance, passed through different political regimes, with different
government types, it ranges between the public and the aristocratic governance depending on
different factors:
i) The religion versus mundane tendency;
 871

ii) The type and degree of dependency as an Emara depend on the Caliphate, or
independency as in Tolon and Fatimid;
iii) The fundamentalism versus multi-nationality and the degree of foreign intervention.
Starting with Rightly Guided Caliphs, Muslim authority were adheres with the religious
tendency. Fustat was established by Arab military commander 'Amr ibn al-'As to be the first
Islamic capital of Egypt. The Doctrinal base of No damage or harm in Arabic "La Darar nor
drar", was a guiding role in shaping urban form. This was reflected on the city form ( Fostat):
i) street network pattern: A Central and radial street network pattern is used to link all city
with the mosque as the central element of the city.
ii) land use pattern: Land use are characterized by variety of deferent types of uses,
Starting from the mosque as the center of the city, and to be the authority place at the same time,
it was partially surrounding the central mosque by different layers of interconnected markets
(suqs), Ending with residential and commercial uses, all land uses were mixed with each other,
except the crafts that cause harm to residents, is excluded out the city, respecting the Doctrinal
of "La Darar wala drar".
iii) housing type: Fustat was mainly characterized by its intermixture where the poor and
the rich inhabit the same alley (hara). This caused homogeneity in social fabric; there was no
social division between the rich and the poor.
Moving Egypt to Abbasid Caliphate, Al-Askr was established as the new Abbasid capital of
Egypt. Abbasid Caliphs used foreign Persian elements, they shift the governance from public
democratic into aristocratic governance that bring with them the luxury life style and bring the
stratigraphic trend, also this caused a reduction of religious tendency and instead increased
mundane tendency. This was reflected on the city form ( Asker) with following patterns:
i) street network pattern: A Central and radial street network pattern still used to link all
city with the mosque as the central element of the city, with filling the spaces between the
fingers.
ii) land use pattern: The mosque was removed from the city center and replaced with
governmental palace and princes palaces attached to the center.
iii) housing pattern: Fundamentalism to multiple nationalities, a social division between the
aristocratic foreigner governors and the public poor exist. The city become composed of
consecutive rings the center is the authority palace, the mosque and commercial areas, the next
ring locate princes houses and the next ring high level governmental employees, and the outer
ring the public poor residents.
Moving Egypt to Tulunid Emara. The Turkish Ahmed Ibn Tolon, accounted for the authority for
himself. He shifts the governance from aristocratic into single governance. Ahmad ibn Tulun
established Al-Qatta'i as the new Tulunid capital of Egypt. It was founded with a change in the
governance from emara depend to the khelafa into an independent entity. This was reflected on
the city form (Al-Qatta'i) with following patterns:
i) street network pattern: A Central and radial street network pattern still used to link all
city with the mosque as the central element of the city, with filling the spaces between the
fingers.
ii) land use pattern: The role of the mosque is reduced and replaced with the governing
palace, mosque, commercial area that are placed at the center of the city.
iii) housing type: Apartheid regime is growing where a layer of who is closer to the
governor, were dwelling near the central layer and excluding the poor in the outer layer. So a
social division exists between the rich and the poor.
Moving Egypt to Fatimid Caliphate. It was a Shia caliphate, They originated Fatimid Cairo, al-
Qāhira (Cairo),to the north of Fustat, When Al-Mu'izz ordered Jawhar Al Sikilli (the Sicilian) in
973 to build the Fatimid new capital in Egypt. They worked to encourage Egyptians to turn
from sunni to shai, in order to achieve this goal they built the city with following patterns:
i) street network pattern: A linear street network pattern started to be used to
accommodate a multifunctional core connecting the city two mosques.
872

ii) land use patterns: a multifunctional mixed land use core connecting structure
enveloping between the two mosques Al-Azhar and Al-Hakim to publish the shai doctrine, they
built two palaces at the middle of the core, for the caliph and for his heir, opposite and facing
each other, to practice different celebrations in order to extract Egyptians to Shia. The two
mosques, in addition of being the place of prayer, their courtyards serve as the primary public
open space of the city.
iii) housing type: the turn from Fundamentalism to multiple nationalities caused a social
division between the aristocratic foreigner governors and the public poor. The city become
composed of consecutive rings the center is the authority palace, the mosque and commercial
areas, the next ring locate prince's houses and the next ring high level governmental employees,
and the outer ring the public poor residents.
Moving Egypt to Aube Caliphate. It was combined with two political shifts, the first is to
eliminate the impacts of Shea doctrine and to encourage the shift from Shea to Sunni Doctrine,
and the other is to face the external potentialities of the crusade and Tatar invasion. In order to
achieve this aim they made some political strategies that are reflected on urban form:
i) street network pattern: A multifunctional core still exists, with increasing development
areas and controls the development with fences and walls.
ii) land use pattern: They incorporated new building types inside urban fabric named
schools, to fight the Shea doctrine and publish the Sunni four Doctrines. They moved the
government palace from the center of the city in to a place far to the east over a higher hill and
built fences and gates around Cairo, they build a defensible urbanism.
iii) housing pattern: Due to moving the governmental palace from city center to the castle,
the house of the governor and his lords and mukluks are moved to the citadel, the matter that
caused a separation between governor's elites and the public. Accordingly, the city become
much more homogeneous and the streets still contain different housing types in the same alley.
Moving Egypt to Mamluk political regime aimed to two shifts; a repeated shift from
Fundamentalism to multiple nationalities, and the insertion of feudal system, where the lords
give ownership of lands to the senior statesmen. In order to achieve this aim they made some
political strategies that are reflected on urban form:
i) street network pattern: Keeping the linear street network with increasing extension
areas.
ii) land use pattern: new patterns of multiuse buildings that contain schools, hospitals and
shrine.
iii) housing pattern: Multi-nationality and Feudalism become tools that caused an extreme
social gap between the rich and the poor and caused a social division and segregation. It was
reflected on the housing pattern variation, and separation of housing types.

a) Street network pattern b) Housing pattern c) Land use pattern

Figure 6. Spatial analysis of Islamic Cairo neighbourhood model.

 873

Neighborhood manifestation of Islamic political regime

Micro community socio-spatial patterns:

i) street network pattern: At that era movement system was still depending on pedestrian,
so an organic and spontaneous street network was used, their form was a reflection of the
inhabitant’s beliefs and neighbourhood right. Street is called (SHAREA) where the place that
manage the social relation between community members, the Doctrinal base of No damage or
harm in Arabic "La Darar Wala drar", was a guiding role in shaping their form. And this
doctornie created the unique islamic regime with homogeneous urban form.
ii) land use pattern: the Land use pattern was focused on mixed and multifunctional land
use core structure enveloping, at least partially surrounding the central mosque by different
layers of interconnected markets. Specialization of neighborhoods of the city which housed
workers, craftsmen, religious and governmental officials sprung up around the centralized
structures. Commonly the land use pattern were ranges between residential and other service
uses, mosque, governmental palace; but mostly they were mixed with long connecting line
between different land use, unless a hard factories or harm crafts that are excluded out the
residential area. Beside it is mostly based on high density development.
iii) housing pattern: Housing pattern was focused on variation, diversity and intermix of
housing types, Except some foreign Persian elements that are brought by Abbasid Caliphs,
Created some elites’ residences were located around lakes e.g. Birkat Al Fil or on the boarders
of the Birkat Azbakyia, make social segregation between aristocratic foreigner governors and
the public Egyptian residents. Cairo residents most commonly are distributed in a wide range of
housing types, but it was mainly characterized by its intermixture (social mix) where the poor
and the rich inhabit the same alley (hara) (Abo El Ela, M., 2003). A long connecting line
between different housing groups was enough to create social inclusion based on common
appropriation and transformation of public space by the various social groups.

Macro socio-spatial fabric:

i) relation between neighborhood and the city: In this period, micro urban forms of cities
were seen as integrated urban settlements with neighborhoods as divisions of the city, integrated
and linked organically and structurally to its existing city structure, its center, and the main civic
functions. It showed a connection to the city, the large urban environment, and the community
life surrounding it. It does not miss the basic function and nature of being an entity of a larger
urban area; it cannot lose its role in the life of the city. In addition, it was not a standalone cell
rather it was an interconnected reality. Neighborhoods were permeable communities that
regularly interact both communally and on an individual basis with the whole urban community
and larger sociopolitical structures.
ii) social fabric: The long connecting line between different housing groups in micro scale
creates homogeneity on macro social fabric, and the social fabric of old Cairo gives a feeling of
socio-spatial continuity (Bianca, 2000).
iii) community life: The civic life of the city was its focal point and was usually organized
along a central point the mosque and sometimes along a linear scheme commercial axes. This
relationship between the neighborhood and the town by means of its principle streets.
Neighborhood activities stretched out from the crossroad intersection along the main street in
either direction (Lott, 2004), and were connected to the center of the city that resemble the link
to city life (Duggan, 2007: p.24).
iv) loyalties: It tends to create public loyalties between the neighborhood and town. It
seems to create a large integrated society within a large community context.

The Imperial Cairo

Imperial Cairo was ruled under governance of French expedition (1798- 1801), Muhammad Ali
and his successors (1801-1882), and British Colonialism (1882-1956), passed through different
874

political regimes, with the same target of the process of Cairo’s westernization, and not
modernisation1. Westernization as apolitical orientation creates the role of development actors
and accordingly development method:
The westernization of Cairo was not truly under way until the reigns of Muhammad Ali’s
successors during the second half of the century, (Abu Lughod, (1971) and Bianca, (2000)). The
westernization of Cairo was catalyzed in Khedive Isma’il reign. The British colonial occupied
Egypt for about 70 years, they continued the line of westernization (Stewart, J. 1999).
Wide Westernization steps took place through, the construction of European-style urban
form, in addition to a proliferation of private foreign communities; Ismael depended on foreign
architects and planners to build Cairo according to European plans, and the British colonial
brought foreigner private developers, who started to contribute in the urban development,
different new settlements in different locations, just like Heliopolis, Maadi, Garden city,
Zamalek, and Roda.

The role of Development Actors

The aristocratic governance of Cairo due to the process of westernization and private sector
intervention in development, a new change in the role of development actors, where the state
lost its role in development, in the other hand the foreign developer's role is increased to be the
developer and the regulator. The urban planner works for the developer, and private domain.

Figure 7. Spatial Analysis of Imperial Cairo neighbourhood Model.

Neighborhood manifestation of Imperial political regime

Micro community Pattern

ii) street network pattern: the applied European style in the urban form and buildings of the
new part of Cairo was characterized with transition to radial patterns of development which
caused the wide spread of urban form. This impact the intensive connectivity, where the paths
and nodes are combined to create the common visual image of the city (Abo El Ela, M., 2003).
ii) social pattern: a low quantity of dividing lines between different housing types exist, that
reflects a continuous homogeneity of foreigners and elite Egyptians with exclusion of others
public poor Egyptians.
iii) land use pattern: a high quantity of connecting lines between residential and other
commercial uses, that reflects expanded transit commercial axis which combines different
vertical mixed uses, residential with commercial in ground floor.

Micro to Macro Relationship

i) spatial fabric: in this period the city was designed as connected neighborhoods which
are connected in an organic way that resemble neo-traditional developments in their modified
radial connected street networks, high density, moderate accessibility to bus stops, and ample
 875

multi-family residential uses. Also, encourage of commercial uses and the neighborhoods
engagement from the rest of the region. , and the public life was an important aspects with its
radial streets and nodes. , and the public life was an important aspects with its radial streets and
nodes.
ii) social fabric: a high quantity of connecting lines indicates social exclusion, were
designed according to the European plans, especially on the model of British Garden city, which
started to show a process of socio-spatial segregation, foreigners and upper-class Egyptian share
the same life style. Their planning was mainly based on having separate residential districts,
with their services clustered on main corridors. The colonialism introduced an alien cultural
system and did not favor a smooth integration.

Macro community socio-spatial model

i) spatial fabric: in this period, micro urban forms of cities based on TOD, were seen as
integrated urban settlements with neighborhoods as integrated and linked organically and
structurally to each other, its center, and the main civic functions. It showed a connection to the
city, the large urban environment, and the community life surrounding it. It was an entity of a
larger urban area; it revealed its role in the life of the city. In addition, it was an interconnected
reality. Neighborhoods were permeable communities that regularly interact both communally
and on an individual basis with the whole urban community and larger sociopolitical structures.
ii) social fabric: the wide range in social structure of Egypt starting from the king family,
authorities, ...., and foreigners that constitute the high economic level social group, to the mid
economic level Egyptian residents, to the low economic level of the public residents of workers
and farmers. This variation composes a wide range of housing types, but they were commonly
excluded from each other, creating a wide gap between the rich and the poor exist.
iii) community life: the civic life of the city was its focal point and was usually organized
along a central point the mosque and sometimes along a linear scheme commercial axes. This
relationship between the neighborhood and the town by means of its principle streets.
Neighborhood activities stretched out from the crossroad intersection along the main street in
either direction (Lott, 2004), and were connected to the center of the city that resemble the link
to city life (Duggan, 2007: p.24).
iv) loyalties: it tends to create public loyalties between the neighborhood and town. It
seems to create a large integrated society within a large community context.

Cairo under socialism (Revolution and Republic) (1952-70)

Moving Egypt to Socialism, Egypt has been ruled by Abdel Nasr. In this time, Egypt, through
revolutionary action, managed to establish its independence. This period had witnessed an
accelerating move towards Egytianisation, Revivalism, and Socialism in various aspects, that
put the poor and the rich in the same interst, the state take the role of development e.g. Nasr
City.. Under Socialism, A public governance is used, where a doctrine of social equality to
participate in politics. The Political shift from Imperial to Socialism has narrowed the gap
between the rich and the poor and settled the doctrine of social justice, equity, equality.

The role of Development Actors

The shift to socialism is reflected on the role that public sector, developers, and planner play in
urban development. The authority put the poor and the rich in the same interest, the state take
the role of development, in search for social justice and equity. The authorities take public
responsibilities. The private real estate developer, Authority role means the existence of little or
no private sector intervention upon economic issues, their role was reduced to be builders. The
urban planner works for the state, and public domain.
876

Planning Method

A central planning method take place, Central/comprehensive/holistic Model: it concerned the

complete control on decision making, there is no right solution as time, money, information and
mental capabilities of the planners are not sufficient (Kinyashi 2006; Mitchell 2002). Planning is
considered as a scientific-technical process without any involvement of the public (Kinyashi
2000).

Neighborhood manifestation of Socialism political regime

A new trend toward process of Egyptianization, Revivalism, and Socialism; that put the poor
and the rich in the same interst, the state take the role of development e.g. Nasr City.

Figure 8. Spatial Analysis of Socialist Cairo neighbourhood Model

Under a political orientation, western neighborhood unit is adopted, and used in Egypt
development. Socialism political regime based on a Neighborhood patterns , that are drawn
from western, but until now and according to the socialism Philosophy it encourage the social
justice, social equity, equal distribution of resources and benefits, and inclusion, on the other
hand it encourages inclusion of others, all have wright to benefit urban life, services, urban
spaces, and all facilities. In order to achieve this aim it takes different patterns as follow:

Micro community pattern

i) street network pattern: Socialism search for social equity of accessibility so it centered
plan on Grid network plan connected to each other and enable continuous connected outward
oriented growth to enable the connection between different parts of the city and facilitate
accessible bus services and alternative transportation options.
ii) land use pattern: the authority responsibility to provide services make it use different
types of land use as services area for education, medical, administrative, cultural, entertainment
and sport, commercial services, with respecting to make all these services and facilities
accessible for all community residents.
iii) housing pattern: in dealing with a number of demographic problems due to the rising
population and the migration of residents of the canal cities, And according to socialism it tends
to narrow the gap between social groups, so it aims to standardize housing types with little
variation between housing groups. A standardized cooperative housing residential building were
constructed (Nasr City, muhandseen). So it is characterized with little variation, High social
mix, High density,
iv) community life: centering the plan on public domain, make it compatible with the
character of urban life, mobility, diversity, the desire for choices, and the need for larger areas
for social interaction, which are aims of socialism.
v) loyalties: it tends to create public loyalties between the neighborhood and town. It
seems to create a large integrated society within a large community context.
 877

Macro community pattern

i) spatial fabric: The micro community pattern is spatially connected to each other, they
are part of a continuous fine-grained pattern. They encourage community, connectedness and
integration, focusing on public realm. Whereas, in macro level enable accessibility, permeability
and continuity in the overall urban fabric.
ii) social fabric: The narrow gap between community residents eliminate the social
exclusion, and achieved social homogeneity in social fabric.

Cairo under Capitalism (The adoption of the open door policy) (1971-1980)

Moving Egypt to capitalism, Egypt has been ruled by Sadat. In this time, Egypt like many other
countries in the world has been drawn in to a dramatic economic and social change, a change in
the adopted Egyptian socio-political regime from the societal ideology to the capitalism
ideology, it is followed by the economic restructuring and the transition towards open door
policy (Bayoumi, 2009). The first legislative step towards the open door policy appeared with
the Law 65 of foreign investment, which paved the way for a vast market for investment and
commercial banking, (Yousry, Abu-Zekry and Yousry, (1998)). Its chief purpose was to attract
Arab and foreign investment capital under highly favorable conditions.
Open door policy make two shifts in development policy and social structure of the
community. The shift in system of organization and governance and consequencly adopted
policies that have reshaped development tools and methodologies and directed the trend of
development toward the market privatization, and development through private sector
developers. The socio-economic gap has widened between the fixed-income earners and a new
capitalist class who gained from the new economic dependency.
Large personal investments took place to serve the upper and high-middle class of Cairenes
through the establishment of non-governmental private uses. On the other hand, the government
was more directed to solve the pressing problem of the boorst and concentration of population
through the creation of new urban centres with new economic activities and better facilities in
an attempt to attract people to a better life. Under Capitalism strength of the state regulating role
still exists, that is required in a market economy. The strong governmental legislation
framework, enable the state to regulate urban form in a suitable manner.

The role of Development Actors

The change from social economy into free economy leads to a change in the role of
development actors: The state role is reduced to be just the regulator of development. A strong
governmental legislation framework, the state can control and regulate urban development in a
suitable manner, with an explicit written known regulation. The developer role has transformed
from being the builder to be the developer and impact regulation. The planner role also has been
transformed; he does not work for the state hopefully to take part in the state development for
the public, rather the planner works for developers that make earn more money at the top of
their priorities.

Planning Method

An Incrimeal planning method take place, market oriented model: it concerned the market
controls the incremental modification of the plan. It operated with strong legislation framework,
the incremental modification take place for the benefits of the consumer.
878

Neighborhood manifestation of Capitalist political regime

Under a political orientation, western neighborhood unit is still adopted and used in new town
wave of Egypt development. Capitalism political regime based on Neighborhood patterns that
are drawn from western, it started using strong legislative framework to encourage the social
justice, social equity, equal distribution of resources and benefits, and inclusion, on the other
hand it encourages exclusion of other. In order to achieve this aim it takes different patterns as
follow:

Figure 9. Spatial Analysis of Capitalist Cairo neighbourhood Model

Micro community Pattern:

i) street network pattern: capitalism under strong legislative framework can still achieve
social equity of accessibility so it centered plan on the use of loop systems, to achieve safety and
reduce car penetration without losing benefits of Grid network plan that is connected to each
other and enable continuous connected outward oriented growth to enable the connection
between different parts of the city and facilitate accessible bus services and alternative
transportation options.
ii) land use pattern: The authority responsibility to provide services make it use different
types of land use as services area for educational, medical, administrative, cultural,
entertainment and sport, commercial services, with respecting to make all these services and
facilities accessible for all community residents and at equal distance from community
members.
iii) housing pattern: To face the wide gap between the rich and the poor and according to
capitalism tends, so it aims to provide housing for different housing types with wide range. New
community wave were constructed (as in first community and fifth community at East Cairo and
second and third community at West Cairo) to inhabit wide range of social groups. But still the
state intervention and strong governmental legislation framework used to achieve social justice
and intermix between different social groups. It is characterized with little variation, High social
mix, High density.
iv) community life: Starting to shift centering the plan from public domain to private
domain, make it in compatible with the character of urban life, mobility, diversity, the desire for
choices, and the need for larger areas for social interaction.
v) loyalties: it tends to create public loyalties between the neighborhood and town. It
seems to create a large integrated society within a large community context.

Macro community Pattern:

i) spatial fabric: The micro community pattern is spatially semi connected to each other
and to context hence, they are part of a continuous fine-grained pattern. They discourage
 879

connectedness and integration, focusing on priavate realm. It reduces accessibility, permeability

and continuity in the overall urban fabric.
ii) social fabric: A high quantity of connecting lines indicates social inclusion, and mostly
heterogeneous housing type. They are connected to their context, so they are socio-spatial
inclusionary pattern, which strive for gathering different housing types, and different parts of
the city.

Cairo under Post-Capitalism (1980-2011)

Moving Egypt to post-capitalism, Egypt has been ruled by Mubarak, his policy worked to
achieve the liberalization of Egypt's economy. From 1991, Mubarak undertook an ambitious
domestic economic reform program to reduce the size of the public sector and expand the role
of the private sector. In order to achieve this goal the state regulating role is changed. A shift in
the nature of contemporary "Economic-Political Ideology" reflects a shift from capitalism to
post-capitalism, a shift from free market economy to monopoly of market, a shift from keynzian
policy that assume that the developers need control and strict strong legislations in to liberal
policy that freed private sector of any control and follow the deregulation policy. In other
words, it reflects the change from Fordism that depends on written explicit known regulation to
Post-Fordism that depends on oral implicit unknown regulations (Csefalvay, 2009). The
government may not yet play the strong regulatory role as before, so the weakness of the
authorities legislation framework cause the emergence of New-private legislation framework
with new standards, (Abdel Khalek, 2009).
An Extreme economic-Political Shift cause a social shift, that widen the gap between the rich
and the poor, the laissez - faire deregulation public legislations, and the new private legislations
all are factors influenced the process of development. These factors are reflected on various
development actors which can be explained as following: the first actor is wide gap between the
rich and the poor. As a result the rich seek for exclusivity, protection and lifestyle inside Gated
Communities. Besides, the public sector bureaucratic make the state fail to provide better
environment that is suitable for the high class residents, the matter that make them search for
enhanced built environment, this is exactly what the private developer succeeded in achieving
inside a gated privatized area. The private real-estate developers have more efficiency than the
public sector, therefore private developers gained large acceptance in real estate development
especially from high class residents. One should argue that private sector is not completely new,
but its role to impact and shape urban fabric and hence shape their role in development, was
always related to what the authorities permit and regulates to them through development
control. The third actor is the state; the shift to open door policy is reflected in the role that
private sector developers play in urban development. The authorities aimed to evade public
responsibilities, even its role in regulation, reduced with adopted laissez faire deregulation
policy.

The role of Development Actors

Bayoumi (2009) argued that the doctrine of the laissez faire ideology is based on three concepts.
First, developers see regulations as an infringement of their freedom, even when regulations are
about issues such as preserving or at least slowing down the rate of environmental destruction
(Henry 2008). Second, it is wise to protect the property and privilege of the wealthy and
powerful assets for the benefits of the whole national economy (Waller, 2006). Third, it relies
on enabling the well-specified property rights and the activities of the free market enterprise to
reflect the beneficiaries’ real interests (Aune, 2001).
The state adopted laissez - faire deregulation policy, that means the existence of little or no
state intervention and controls upon economic issues (Holmes 1976 & Waller 2007), on the
form of free markets, minimal taxes, minimal regulations, and assuring the private ownership of
property. The role that private sector developers play in development has changed where the
880

developers put forward their new-private legislation framework and design principles (Abd el
khalek, 2009), and begin to contribute to the production of urban form and space.
The role of state under the adopted laissez- faire deregulation policy started to diminish and
restrict to just being an observer of development. It became week enough to leave the arena of
development in the hands of private sector developers permitting them to take decisions
according to their commercial interests. The state obeyed developers requests, letting them act
and make changes in the spatial development of urban form.
The case of GCR shows how decisions taken by municipal public sector, in most cases,
permit developers to take decisions according to their commercial interests. Municipal urban
legislation, in most cases, has been changing all the time in order to meet private interests,
without consideration about effects over these local boundaries, it is easier to accept developer’s
decisions. The state in most cases fulfills developers’ requests, letting them act and make
changes in the spatial development of urban form. The government produced private oriented
legislation because of a political decision and the developers' stresses. The state role is blind in
not taking in mind the macro public responsibility.
In the meantime the privatization theory revolves around the argument contend with its
ability to save money and seeks for fast sales, benefiting a small group of people who have the
affordability to pay, with detriment of the majority of the population and consequently affecting
public actions.
Indeed, high class residents seek for exclusivity, homogeneity and protection; private actors
contribute to the production of space (social selection of residents, control management of total
gated area); local public authorities have key strategies (Laissez - faire policy, development
without bearing public responsibility, deregulation policy); and publicly-owned and managed
areas tend to disappear, yielding to a private-owned and managed Gated Communities. The
consequences and systemic impacts of these strategies, that built or restrict the public space,
produce social selection of residents, impose externalities over the neighbors (implications on
property values, on fiscal equalization, on segregation...). These strategies contribute to define
the ability of public authorities to regulate the allocation of public space and to control urban
planning processes.

Planning Method

An Incrimeal planning method take place, market oriented model: it concerned the market
controls the incremental modification of the plan. It operated with week legislation role of the
government, the monopoly take place and the customer (private sector) controls with monopoly
all development aspects to achieve his benefits.

Neighborhood Manifestation of post-Capitalist political regime

Urban form manifests the political shift it manifest the emergence of new patterns of private
urban governance (Gated Communities). Gated Communities reflect the state adopted laissez-
faire economic policy that reduces any state intervention against private sector control on urban
development. The Egyptian context of post-modernism, revealed a continuation in the process
of globalized, American westernization, new Gated Communities model become the dominant
pattern for development in Egypt which relatively borrowed from the westernized, American
model (Denis, 2003).
The expansion of Gated Communities in GCR began since the mid-1990s, become a mass
trend in new town urban developments on the outskirts of the Greater Cairo Region when the
government started to sell land in The new satellite cities around Greater Cairo, for developers
to construct Gated Communities. They contribute to reshape the suburban landscape of GCR’s
new towns (Meyer 2000).
 881

Figure 10. Spatial Analysis of Post-Capitalist Cairo neighbourhood Model.

Post-Capitalism manifested a Postmodern neighborhood models, an important change in the

concept of neighborhood to be a more independent and self-contained unit that are characterized
by:
Micro community socio-spatial characteristics(Ghonimi etal, 2011):
i) street network pattern: Centering to be cellular model with inward oriented, intently and
totally separated from the city, make it depends mainly on its own resources, and exclude others
who are not engaged.
ii) land use pattern: Centering the plan on a single facility and use, mostly residential, no
mixed or varied or compact use.
iii) housing pattern: Capitalism enhances micro social exclusion and macro social
segregation. Centering the plan on single housing type, seems to be designed only for high class
families, no mixed interconnected or varied diverse or compact social group.
iv) community life: Centering the plan on private domain and neglecting the public
domain, make it incompatible with the character of urban life, mobility, diversity, the desire for
choices, and the need for larger areas for social interaction.
v) loyalties: Gated Communities tends to create a division of loyalties between the
neighborhood and town. It seems to create a small somewhat separated society within a large
community context.

Micro to Macro Relationship

i) spatial fabric: Gated Communities are inward oriented Street network, with physical
barriers that blend with adjacent network, and splintering them out from their context, hence
they are physically excluding their adjacent area and segregating themselves from each other
and from the overall image of the city, they creates inaccessible bockets, super blocks and
islands inside urban fabric, that cut the continuity of urban fabric.
ii) social fabric: Gated Communities are closed area with homogenous social group that
are closed of the entire spatial and social fabric of the city. This impact social fabric in two
ways, firstly, it breaks the connection with adjacent Gated and Non-Gated areas even they were
of different or the same housing type, secondly, it widens the gap between different social
groups, which could weekend the socio-spatial fabric of the city. The spatial and socio-spatial
exclusion of Gated Communities for its external urban fabric caused a dramatic impact on the
social fabric of the city. The process of social exclusion and segregation exist, this could have
its relevant impact on both micro restricted private community and macro excluded and
segregated adjacent public community, which will be discussed and criticized in the next
section.
882

Macro community socio-spatial characteristics

This shift cause many subdivisions to be built without reference or link to the city.
Community life become much more limited to this subdivisions, and moved from totally
focused on city public life to be totally focused on private domain. Gated Communities become
the main development pattern in contemporary Egyptian city, which extends the concept of
separation between micro and macro urban form in the city.
This process of privatization and orientation to private urban governance has begun to
contribute to the production of urban form making its permanent impacts on the urban form and
structure of greater Cairo region, that have been affected by the emergence and proliferation of
gated residential developments.
A process of change on patterns of urban development from public spaces and open patterns
to post public space and gated privatized pattern; this has cause the emergence of newly
urbanized areas, an important change relating to these spatial outcomes is the construction of
physical barriers that constrict connections within and between community members, via the
deployment of gates and other design barriers around units of accommodation.
Splintering large public areas of micro urban form and isolating them out from macro urban
form of the city, cause that publicly-owned and managed areas tend to disappear, yielding to a
private urbanism in which planned unit developments (and Gated Communities and other forms
of private urban governance) are key features. A housing consumption patterns can result in
segregated areas a new phenomenon in micro scale known as enclaves, and in macro scale
known as a Divided City.
This phenomenon has reshaped the face of urban life and has a great influence on the
evolution of metropolitan area in term of its form and structure, which necessitates revisionist
view for its impacts on urban development. Soja (1989) in "post-metropolis: critical studies of
cities and regions", argued that these trends in urban development signify a major
transformation in the physical characteristics of cities. Low (1996) in "Imaging and theorizing
the city", conceptualized the impact of these patterns on the emergence of "Divided city", and
"Fortressed city". Graham and Marvin (2002) in "splintering urbanism" argued that these trends
impact the physical fabric of many cities across the world starting to fragment into giant cellular
clusters (Ghonimi etal, 2011).

Conclusion

An analysis of Cairo neighborhood models, gives a great understanding of the impact of

political regime shift on the evolution of neighborhood models, as follow:
The political regime impacts planning method and role of development actors as follow:
In single governance, a central comprehensive planning is used and the state primary role as
the regulator, the developer and the builder, their regulatory role based on a written intended
regulation with strong regulation framework. In aristocratic governance, an incremental,
pecimal method is used, the state role is restricted to be the regulator as in capitalism with
written strong regulations framework, and sometimes it loses its regulatory role as in post-
capitalism based on unwritten regulations that carried by the developer with New-private
legislation framework, and the developer role become much more stronger. In public
governance, a spontaneous method is used, the people put common regulation framework.
The impacts of political regime are reflected on urban form as follow:
Street network pattern: Single and Aristocratic Governance tends to have division of
loyalties, so it mostly use treed street network, in the other hand public governance tends to
create equal access to urbanism so it mostly use grid street network pattern.
 883

Table 1. Neighborhood model as a manifestation of political regime

884

Table 2. Micro community, adjacent community and macro community as a manifestation

of politicalregime
 885

Housing Pattern: Single governance tends to create homogeneity on micro scale and social
exclusion and segregation macro scale, as in Mamluks, post-capitalism, and imperial
governance, so it tends to create low quantity or no dividing lines between different social
groups.
Democratic Public governance seek contact, social justice and democracy, so they work to
involve different social groups in the same neighborhood; to be inclusionary of different social
groups and macro social homogeneity, so it commonly tends to increase the connection line
between different social groups.
Aristocratic governance tends to create division, segregation, and neglect public space
aiming for post public space the matter that reduce residents opportunities for democratic
participation. Aristocratic governance depends on replacing public spaces with post public
spaces, in which diversity and freedom are lost, where segregation, social inequality, and
disintegration of society are promoted, and ethics of deconstruction, exclusivity and
individualism. A shift from space that reflects democratic participation and social resistance,
into a space that is controlled without any permitted public response.

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 887

Power, ideology and space re-generation: Istanbul case

Pelin Pınar Özden

Istanbul University, Faculty of Political Science, Department of Public Administration,
Urbanization and Environmental Problems Branch. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. The role and desire of Power in shaping the urban space has always been existent throughout
history. The urban space is a plane that is generated parallel to the ideology of Power. It is also a tool
that transmits the existance and the ideology of Power to the society, and legitimizes the Governments.
Power realizes this via reconstruction activities. Urban space is a kind of stage where these activities take
place. Governments offer their ideology to the society in different ways so that the society is forced to live
in an urban space that is shaped by Power’s wishes and its rules. The situation in Turkey also is not
different. During the urbanization process from the Ottoman Empire to the present, what shapes the
urban space is largely the Power and its ideologies. Urban space has been regenerated with the symbols
of Power, with the references to the past or with the rejecting spatial policies the past. In this study, the
relationship between Power, ideology and space will be analyzed based on periods of Istanbul's
urbanization process. Especially in the process after 2000’s, the background of the increasing capability
of Power and how it is constructed with through the European Court of Human Rights judgments,
lawsuits, council decisions will discussed.

Key Words: power, ideology, capability , urban space, regeneration

Introduction

Throughout history, the power, the ideology and capability of State have always been the
primary factor in space regeneration. State is the power that shapes, develops and regenerates
the space, and the ideology behind this regeneration is its flag. The equipements that the State
utilizes in the regeneration of space have become versatile through time. Spatial policies, and
legal and institutional regulations are known as the essential tools used in the regeneration of
space. The State has applied its ideologic goals firstly on Ankara with its spatial decisions. In
Istanbl, this process has not been different. Space in Istanbul, with the turning points in each
decade, has been produced over and over again with the ideology of the State.
The process of legal or institutional reconstruction that supports this process has gone
through a difficult path. This study aims to analyse the influence of the State ideology on space
through Istanbul eperience, since the foundation of Republic of Turkey.

The role of power ideology at the space regeneration: theorical perspective

One of the fields where the technological-economical and political ideologic process that started
with capitalism and became clear with the Industrial Revolution was the city. (Ökmen, Parlak,
2008). The city and its spaces was the stage for the ideologic transfers.
Space is where the State strengthened and produced its physical and symbolic sovereignty.
Foucault (1997) consolidated this claim by saying the space was also an area of the authority
struggle. Dicle (2012) defines space as a tool that naturalizes and justifies the State and transfers
the State’s existence to the society. According to Castells (1997), the planned structure of city
space was the tool of the political control, whereas the monumental buildings, monuments and
squares transferred the ideologic structure.
Tuncer (2013) defines space as the combat area of those who regulate and discipline, those
who live and coexist. In his opinion, the power that has the State tools determine the actions and
888

thoughts of the society. So, it makes its hegemony over social and spacial areas. Just like the
State’s plot of space with castles and churches, today there are different dinamics who shape the
organization of the State in space. This organization, as Öztürk (2012) says, is the “political
language of space”. Lefebvre (1973) supports this idea as well. To him, “Space is not an
ideology nor a substance cleaned from politics, it has always been political and strategic.The
space is indeed shaped by the natural and historical dinamics, however this process itself was a
political process.”
At this point, the State gains importance. Uzbek and Dinçer (2009) summarize this process
as the following table (table 1).
In this study, while the process in Istanbul experience will be separated into periods, the
situation of the State will be discussed as well.

Table 1. Situtation of the State According to Paradigms

Pluralist- paradigm Governing Class-centered

paradigm paradigm
Situation of the State The State is not a The State is a The State is under the
power nor a verdict power and a verdict determination of the
maker by itself, center all by itself, sovereign class,
it stays equidistant In this context, it Approaches why the
to every group, it liberates itself from State is capitalist:
arbitrates. all the external materialistic ve
Policies are social powers. structuralist görüşler
determined by the
negociations in
groups.

Istanbul case

Throughout history, Istanbul, with its tangible and intangible values, has undertaken a mission
of a world city. The ideology of the Sate has always been a great influence on the regeneration
of this important city. Parallel to the change of the State, space has also kept this pace and
transformed. This transformation can be analysed in many dimensions of different time periods
of Istanbul. The process of spatial development of the city will be analysed starting from the
frame of the study, Republic period, and then will be separated into periodical sections.

From the early Republic to 1980’s

The regeneration of space parallel to the ideology started in 1920’s with the Ankara experience.
New Republic had to be the symbol of a modern and a western society. Without a douby, it is
not a coinsidence that Ankara was selected to be the capital, with the foundation of the
Republic. For the first time, the continious “only big city” role of Istanbul, which had the
experience of being a capital, has been shared with Ankara for one time only in the early years
of the Republic. Besides the goal of security and easy access from all over the country, this
small village in the middle of Anatolia both symbolized a victory against Bizantian and
Ottoman, and also created an opportunity to render a city that symbolized the modern, new
Republic. Space was the essential tool to construct a new society by regenerating it. Thus, it was
necessary for the space to regenerate quickly.
This radical modernity project was put in progress by the hands of the State itself.
 889

The way to socialization was possible by creating spaces to let them interact. This goal was
aimed to reach with three urban dinamics: train stations, squares and public buildings. 115 Relate
to the conservative structure of the society, there was very limited squares in the Ottoman
Empire.
Ankara was assigned to foreign masters, and the planning studies were started rapidly. Big
boulevards and large and geometric squares for ceremonies were necessary not only for
socialization and involvement of women in public spaces, but also for announcing the voice and
the power of new Turkey. (Figure 1, Figure 2).

Figure 1. Ankara Güvenpark Kızılay Square 1942 (source:http://v3.arkitera.com/h56692-

gecmisin-modern-mimarligi-10-ankara---3.htm).

Figure 2. Ankara Train Station.

The majestic public buildings that filled Ankara created a strong city image, and symbolized
the city as a Capital and a officer city.
Planning was the most important tool in the urban regeneration. The first plan made in 1924
was the Lörchr Plan. Parallel to this plan, there was 198 houses made in 1925 as the first attempt
to solve the housing problems of the officers.
In 1927, the municipality of Ankara brought three planners by sending a comitee to Europe, and
assigned the planners to make a city plan, framed by the municipality. Harmen Jansen and two

115
In Istanbul, the entertainement areas will be tools as well; in fact, in the last periods of Ottoman
Empire, some big steps were made to become a western society. The number of these western spaces that
were founded in Ottoman augmented in the Republic times. Theatres, opera buildings, ball saloons of
hotels started to take place in the city. Ankara followed this process more slowly because it was designed
more like a city of officers.
890

names that he suggested commenced the planning studies. The plan also designed a “workers
neighborhood” in the Northwestern city, in a partially muddy area, close to industry. (Figure 3).

Figure 3. Ankara Workers District (source: Yavuz F., Başkent Ankara ve Jansen,
O.D.T.Ü. Mimarlık Fakültesi Dergisi , Cilt 7, Sayı 1, Bahar 1981, 25-33).

Although Ankara was trasnformed essentially into a officer city with Lörcher and Jansen
plans, the worker and the officer spaces were the proof of the social class difference in this
regeneration.
Modernist project also aimed to create a systematic development plan by praising the
villager and the rusticity, and by focusing on education in the rustic areas. In this context, Ideal
Republic Village project took place in the modern village space and the village life was plotted.
Adorned with the necessities of modern life such as conferance room, hotel, reading room etc., a
modern village area was designed. Public houses and village institutes were imporant areas of
the rural development.
Starting from 1930’s, Istanbul has taken its role back from Ankara. Prost plans were made
and applied between 1930’s and 1950’s. Space created a new Istanbul by transforming quickly.
It is possible to classify this big regeneration in Istanbul under several titles:

Large scaled destructions, evacuation of history and disappearance of symbols

Destructions were the most important activities that rengenerated the urban space. To modernize
the city, particularly historical sections of the city were destructed. The head of the Municipality
and former governor Lütfi Kırdar, who established his housing policies with the statement: “The
way to reconstruct Istanbul goes through mattock.”, demolished many historic buildings such as
mosques, hamams and military barrakcs according to the plans of the famous urban planner
Henri Prost. The great regeneration has started in the city in these years. In the same location as
Gezi Park in today’s Taksim Square, Topçu Kışlası (a military barrack) who is known for
uprisings in history, was demolished according to the Prost’s plan in order to build a park. In
this way, a military symbol was also abolished. (Figure.4, Figure 5).
Prost plans created a high devastation on Istanbul and removed many historical values.
Destructions abolished many arficats that were proofs of the past. (Figure 6, Figure 7, Figure 8).

Figure 4. Topçu Barracks.

 891

Figure 5 After the destruction.

Figure 6. 1941-1944: Karaköy (source: İAM Archieve).

Figure 7. Anterior of the Historical Valens Arch (source: İAM Archieve).

Figure 8. Destruction of Dolmabahçe Palace Barns (source: İAM Archieve).

In 1956-1957, Istanbul Governer Fahrettin Kerim Gökay played a huge role in the
transformation of Istanbul in the destructions, particularly in Zeytinburnu and Kazlıçeşme in
terms of industry-dependent urbanization process.
In 1967, the first shopping mall of the Republic of Turkey, Manifaturacılar Bazaar, was
opened after the expropriation of hundreds of pacels. The area of the Bazaar, in front of
historical Valens arch, possessed many examples of civil architecture. (Figure 9).
892

Figure 9. Construction of İstanbul Drapers Bazaar (source: İAM Archieve).

In the early periods of the Republic, it can be said that the ideologies of the new and the old
States have observable differences, in terms of the regeneration of urban space. The buildings
that symbolized the history were started to be utilized for cultural or administrative purposes.
When Sultanahmet Mosque was turned into an art gallery, Hagiasofia was turned into a
museum and the Street names who carried the names of the Ottoman Sultans were changed, this
seperation between two ideologies were clear.

Looking for a New and Unique Architecture

While the buildings and the functions that represent history regenerated, public and cultural
buildings, public houses, large and geometric formed square shaped the new cities of new
Turkey. The rational, pozitivist ideology of the Republic guided the regeneration of space.
A search for a nationalist formed architecture was apparent, which the masters strongly
supported. Behçet and Bedrettin (1933) stated this approach as the following: “…Turkish
territory now expects to have masterpieces of itself. We are not thrilled by the foreign and
decieving buildings that do not fit in our territory. They seem artificial. If it is possible to
differentiate a German from a Turk today, it is necessary to separate a Vienna architecture from
an Istanbul architecture, from a France architecture, and even a Istanbul building from an
Ankara building… Turkish reform architecture will be something different than the old Ottoman
architecture. The dome, the angled window of that architecture are now a history with all its
shape. There is no turning back in the road to progress. With the experience of the past, old
elements, Seljuk and Ottoman motives are seemed to be inconvenient for today.
Similarly, Abdullah Ziya (1932) says: “The real artifact is not the immitation of the past nor
obeying it. The real artist is that who sees the tastes of the society and creates them. The
immitated 19th century architecture is dead.”

Industry-dependent urbanization and squattering

Since the beginning, industry has been a tool that promotes urbanization and that transforms
urban space, in the hands of the statist policies. As a regional policy, especially in small and
medium sized cities, the factories opened by the government triggered population accumulation.
However none of these cities was able to compete with the magnetizing power of Istanbul.
Particularly in 1950’s, two basic aspects were effective on the regeneration of space: One was
the industry-dependent immigration to Istanbul and that the strengthening of highways. The
other one was the squatter’s houses of the working class. These aspects chose their places in
space by following the Industry Plans, which were applied after Second World War. All of the
masters who participated in the process of the planning of Istanbul marked Haliç as an industrial
area. In this way, Haliç, which was started to be industrialized since Ottoman times, transformed
into an industrial area in the Republic times with the influence of Prost plan.
The special zoning relief for Ankara, which was issued in 1947, spreaded to the country after
a year. Populist policies expedited the transformation of cities to shanty-towns. This arbitrary
policy of the State is told by Saran (1972) in his article as the following:
 893

“Here (Zeytinburnu), the first shanties were constructed on the side of the roads. At first, the
gendarme was a little bit confused towards this issue, but later on, as the number of these
buildings augmented, they had to interfere. First, the prefectand then the governor was
informed. Although the governor had an attempt to demolish the constructions, he was not
successful. Still, the shanty neighborhood was surrounded with the order of the governor and
there was not even left water to drink. 1947 was full of fights between the gendarmes and the
crowd. In 1948, it was announced to the crowd both in text and in audio, that all the shanties
would be demolished on Sunday. The crowd was terrified. While the crowd was looking for a
consult, administration of a newspaper adviced them to go to Büyük Millet Meclisi Reisi (The
Head of the Council of Nation, which was then in Istanbul. A council consisted by the
preeminent figures of the shanties went to the Head’s house to convince him to visit the area.
The crowd welcomed the Head of the council who went to Zeytinburnu, crying and miserable.
The car of the Head did not go into the area really, because it was very muddy then.The Head
promised the crowd to not destruct the houses, and a couple of days later the news were official
and announced on the radio.“
In Turkey, one of the main problems about shanties is the ignorance of public institutions
when approaching the problems thoroughly. In 1964, The National Council of Turkey Republic
was proposed a law, regarding the development of shanties under the control of public. In this
proposal, it was foreseen that on the lands belong to municipalities, immigrates in the city
would build shanties under the control of the technical staff of municipality. In this way, they
hoped that the housing problems of people with low income would be solved, and the State
would be prevented from losing prestige because of demolishing the shanties. However, this
proposal did not regarded positively by the parliment. Members of the Parliments did not like
the idea of labeling people as squatters. (Heper, 1978). Actually, as well as the country did not
have an obvious immigration policy, it did not have an experience of shanties neither. In fact,
the Minister of Interior found it “positive” that the poor people were solving their own housing
problems by themselves. He said “with time, these people will be shown new places and get out
of shanties, and in this way they will clean the aspects that disturb the aesthetics of the city, but
for now the shanties provided a need.” (Şenyapılı, 2006).
To sustain its political existence, Democratic Party kept supporting the agricultural regions,
which put the city workers in difficulty. This bottleneck of city economy was in the core of the
plan of development policies. After the coup d’état in 1960, during the imported substitution
industrialization process between 1960-1980, Development Plans were an important base for the
State to plot its ideology over space. The number of 78 thousand shanties in 1962 augmented to
195 thousands after 10 years. At the same year, 40% of the population consisted of squatters.
The Shanty Law, which aimed to regulate this process was issued in 1966. In 1970’s, besides
those on the treasury lands, people started to build shanties with title deeds in the agricultural
areas outside the municipality lands, away from any kind of regulation.
However, a strong authority over the shanty areas was not established for many years. When
the rapidly urbanizing rural areas started to be insufficient to provide the needs of the poor, the
State, who was incapable of obtaining authority over a stable city, decided to embrace a strategy
that limited the State with a national frame, by leaving the town a little bit. (Tekeli, 1998)
Besides the rapid on-going squattering, another reality that changed the shaping of space was
the apartments in the planned areas. (Figure 10, Figure 11).

Highway centered regeneration

The social class basis of the Democratic Party, which was in authoriy in 1950, was the alliance
of the mercantile bourgeois and the large land ownders. (Oktar, Varlı, 2010). In fact, Menderes
trusted in this alliance so much that he once said: “As long as the peasants are with us, how
much are the ideas of Istanbul intellectuals worth?” (S.P Huntington and J.K Dominguez,
transferred by: Oktar, Varlı, 2010). Furthermore, the Head of the Democratic Party Adnan
Menderes, who embraced the idea of a liberal and externally open economy, focused more on
894

highways as a response to the incoming Marshall helps. He also interpretted metro as “It’s a
wasteful investment under the ground.” Highway policies of Menderes evacuated the old city
patterns and created new, rigid spaces. (Figure 12, Figure 13, Figure 14).
One of the most important progresses in the regeneration of Istanbul is the construction of
Bosphorus Bridge. The bridge shaped the city macroform by being the spine of the town (Figure
15).

Figure 10. Squatter Areas

(source:http://wowturkey.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=1854914).

Figure 11. Modern Parts of the City (source: nostalji-resimleri.blogspot.com).

Figure 12. Dolmabahçe Stadium (source: İAM Archieve).

Figure 13. Beşiktaş Barbaros Boulevard (source: İAM Archieve).

 895

Figure 14: The construction of Vatan Street (source: İAM Archieve).

Figure 15. Construction of Bosphoros Bridge (source: mimdap.org).

Mass Housing Projects:

In 1950’s, there were two important mass housing project experiences, regulated by the State.
Real Estate and Credit Bank was the main character of the process. Koşuyolu, Levent and
Ataköy were the first modern regions of the mass housing projects, created for the low middle
class. Koşuyolu Houses were built by Real Estate and Credit Banks in 1946-1962 (Figure 16).
Consisted by the 400 houses, the first part of the houses were started to be built in 1947. In
1950 1. Levent was completed (Figure 17).
Ataköy Houses, started on the expropriated area on London Asphalt by Real Estate and
Credit Bank, was finished in 1955. (Figure 18, Figure 19).
Local elections in 1973, a right-wing Party in the center for the first time, left-wing Parties in
big cities, and interference in city space weakened the impact of the center. While utilizing
guiding aspects, the social democrat municipality that came out of this experience started to
regard these innovations and the decisions of the development of city, as tools. The guiding and
encouraging understanding of municipality that embraced simultaneously with the rest of the
world, also brought regulation function of the municipalities in 1970’s. This regulative
understanding gave birth to Fordist approach of municipalities. Innovations of the municipalities
in first mass housing were a big step in terms of the interference of local, instead of centeral in
the cities, and also symbolized an innovative local experience, which gained power against the
centeral authority. In short, with the new Republic, the State who made a big impact on city
space and its regeneration in early times changed its approach, and –for some time- agreed to
stay behind the local. However, the slogan “we need rice not plans” hinted the special policies
of the State in 80’s.

Neoliberal period

The process of postmodern organization caused Turkey to embrace a new urbanization policy.
One progress that created the basis of this policy was the coup d’état in 1980. After the coup
896

d’état, 1982 constitution came into force. In 1983, a new Cabinet that fit the privatization trend
of Europe and America was created in 1983. Then, basic laws that created the basis for the
regeneration of city space came into force one after another.

Figure 16. Koşuyolu Houses (source: wowTURKEY.com).

Figure17. Levent 1. Stage Houses (source: wowTURKEY.com).

After the 1. Stage, 2. Levent in 1951, 3. Levent in 1952 and 4. Levent in 1960 was made.

Figure 18. Construction of Ataköy (source: wowTURKEY.com).

Figure 19. Ataköy Houses (source: wowTURKEY.com).

Although 80’s were the years in which the basic laws of the city were written, those laws
needed approximately 10 years to be applied by transforming the space. Even though policies
were embraced simultaneously with the rest of the world, it was going to take time to realise the
observable effects of the legal reconstruction. Anavatan Party, with its Liberal-conservative
policy, opened the way for city innovations and the transformation of resources of center into
investment. After the cities became the center of the capital accumulation and the rent became
important for the capital accumulation, private capital started to participate in its direct sanctions
on the space (Sancar, www.ozgurlukdunyasi.org).
 897

The way to work with outside capital was opened in those times. Welfare policies left its
place to innovative and operator municipalities with the augmenting liberal values.
As it is in the West, 1980’s were the years in which the decentralization became more
popular and the local government gained power in Turkey as well. The reason for that is mostly
the convenience of the negotiation and sharing on an area with local government. In this period,
in which the 17 zoning relieves were in progress, the space generation in Istanbul, like in other
cities, occured as the shanties transformed into apartments. The city lost its empty lands quickly.
In mid-80’s, when Beyoğlu Municipality did not give license for the Gökkafes project planned
to be made in Dolmabahçe, centeral government gave housing permission to Ministry of Public
Works, and in one night the border of the strict of Gökkafes was changed and transferred to Sisli
Municipality.
In 1989, with the construction of 2. Bosphorus Bridge, and with the neighbor roads opened
to service, the shanties were transformed into apartments in first Hasköy, Kağıthane,
Caglayan,Gultepe, Ortabayir, and then Sarigazi, Samandira and Sultanbeyli (Figure 20).
In 1980’s, Head of the Municipality, Bedrettin Dalan, used the slogan “I’m going to make
Haliç as blue as my eyes.” to promise the crowd to clean Haliç, which was highly polluted
because of industrialization. Indeed, he both worked for the deindustrialization of Haliç by
cleansing and rendering Haliç to be used for recreational purposes, and for the Istanbul traffic
by making a “scalpel operation.” In historical Taksim district, he opened Tarlabaşı Boulevard,
which was a very controversial project for demolishing numerous civil architecture artifacts. In
that period, the cases of the profession chambers were lost due to the “superior public interest”
verdict. Whereas, Haliç shore was cleansed from industrialization and there was a green
corridor created along the shore (Figure 21, Figure 22, Figure 23).

Figure 20. Illegally constructed area of the town (source: www.emlakkulisi.com).

Figure 21. Persembe Bazaar (source: www.arkitera.com).

Figure 22. Haliç shore (source: www.dunyabulteni.net).

898

Figure 23.Tarlabaşı Destruction (source: www.arkitera.com).

In early and mid-80’s, the difference between the two development plan, the difference
between the perspectives of welfare State and neo-liberal State on space could be seen clearly.
4. Five Years Development Plan covers the years 1979-1983 says: “City lands were subjects of
the private ownership. Thus, all special regulation attempts that involve the solutions of the
problems in housing plans, which is one of the basic tools of urbanization policy, are
insufficient. 5. Plan covers the years 1985-1989 was concentrated on current illegal
constructions and services for shanties, and on improving them.

Post-2000 Period

A situation like the coup d’état and post-coup d’état reconstrouction was repeated in 2000’s.
Justice and Development Party, which was born in the conservative-liberal and had a strong
base, gained a success in the centeral and local governments, and on a large geography since the
elections in 1994. The most important dinamics that shaped the period was the increasing
demands of the global capital and the Marmara earthquake in 1999. Laws that are issued one
after another and attempts for institutional reconstruction made the power of centeral authority
on the regeneration of space clear. Contrary to 80’s, the centeral authority had the control of the
negociations and the important area decisions.
In these times, Istanbul was assigned to foreign investors and strengthening big construction
companies. According to the laws that created the basis for regeneration, first the historical
areas and then the shanty areas, and then the shore and forest areas took a step through big
projects in the regeneration process. 3. Bosphorus Bridge, Sulukule and Tarlabaşı Renewal
Projects, Ataşehir Finance Center Project, Galataport, and other cruise shore area regeneration
projects started to re-shape the city. Actors of the process were more compared to those of
earlier periods: starting from 1994, NGO’s took more roles in the participation mechanisms and
the private sector shaped the process more strongly compared to 80’s.
In the post-2000’s, the role and the capability of local governments gradually reduced.
Whereas, the centeral government transformed into an innovative contractor to reconstruct its
content to strengthen its capability, with institutions like Environment and Urbanization
Minister and Mass Housing Administration. This reconstruction overlooked all the actual plans
and represented a projet-centered mentality –one-man governance-. Kanal İstanbul project, also
known as “Crazy Project of the Prime Minister”, started by overlooking the agricultural areas,
natural registered areas and areas at the risk of natural disasters, and also ignoring the advices of
the masters. The effects of such a situation could be seen in many examples. Journalist Necati
Doğru mentioned 3. Bridge as the following in one of his articles: “I’ve asked to the Mayor,
Kadir Topbaş; “…the feet and the direction of the third brige, which will affect the city you’re
governing in many aspects are determined by Ankara who sees the city from a helicopter. Does
it sound right?” Kadir Tobaş answered me. “No, it’s not.” and he claimed: “The direction won’t
be determined by the helicopter. In the plan that he made for Turkey, the Trasportation Minister
developed ‘3. Brige Project Proposal’ for Istanbul. This project developed by the Minister will
be evaluated by Istanbul Metropolitan Planning Center in terms of ‘compliance and land usage
analysis’, and then the exact direction will be presented to Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality
Council.”
 899

The effect of power and the capability was clearly obvious in Taksim Gezi Park events
which took place in the world press. Who came face to face with the sociwty were just the
Prime Minister and the Governor. 2000’s has witnessed that the architectural design has been
strengthened by the symbols of power. Ataşehir Mosque and Çamlıca Mosque which is planned
to build on the top of Çamlıca the most striking examples of this process (Figure 24, 25).

Figure 24. Atasehir Mosque (source: www.yapi.com.tr).

Figure 25. Camlica Mosque (source: www.yapi.com.tr).

Evaluation

As a result, it is not a new experience for Istanbul to witness the reflections of the ideology of
the State on space. Plus, this experience transformed the judgement verdict into applications
made by overlooking even the international institutions. Spatial verdicts were made with the
“one voice” of the center, and the term planning stayed behind in the regeneration of space. The
appearance of political Islam in public space augmented with symbols and signs. In Turkey, the
appearance of Islam in public is also a part of a politically organized social attempt to create an
Islamic society system to create a middle-class “ethos” (Saktanber, 2007).
This process can be summarized with the following chart (Table 2).
900

Table 2. The role of the State and its ideology in the regeneration of urban space

Period Policy Actor Regeneration of Space Tools Situatio

n of the
State-
Paradig
ma
From the Pluralist
early Rural Policies Central İdeal Republican Village -
Republic Authority Village Institutes, Public paradig
periods to Houses m
1980’s Legal and
Transition from Organic Institutional
Pattern to Rigid Pattern Reconstruction
Central Evacuation of the Past
Urban Authority Large Boulevards Planning
Policies Ceremony Areas
Public Buildings Development Plans
Theatres, Cinemas, etc. after 1964
Cultural Buildings
Squatter areas

Neoliberal Urban Military coup d’état Class-

period Policies Central and Before 1990’s centered
local Squatter areas Globalization paradig
authorit Unplanned construction m
Bridges Legal and
Military institutional
between 80- After 1990’s reconstruction
83 High office buildings
Huge shopping centers Development Plans
Speculators Mass housing
Major Projects

Privatization

Zoning Relief

Earthquake
2000 sonrası Rural Central Transformation of rural areas Legal and
dönem Policies authority to urban areas Institutional
Reconstruction Governi
Urban Central Transformation of urban areas ng
Policies authority Skyscrapers Major Projects paradig
Private Huge shopping centers m
sector Comprehensive luxury “Crazy” Projects
NGO’s housing projects
Icons and symbols of political Privatization
Islam

References

Aptullah Ziya, Yeni Sanat, Mimar, 1932, Volume: 4, 97.

Behçet and Bedrettin, Türk İnkılap Mimarisi, Arkitekt, No:9-10, 1933, 265-266).
Castells, M., Kent, Sınıf, İktidar, (Çev: Asuman Erendil), Ankara, Bilim ve Sanat Yayınları, 1997.
Dicle E., Modern Ulus Devlet Projesinde Bir İdeal Mekân Temsili Olarak Köy Ütopyası, Turkish Studies
- International Periodical For The Languages, Literature and History of Turkish or Turkic, Volume 7/1
Winter 2012, p.859-871 , Turkey
Foucault, M,, İktidarın Gözü, Ayrıntı Yayınları, İstanbul, 1997
Heper, M., Türkiye’de Gecekondu Policy in Turkey: An Evaluation With a Case Study of
Rumelihisarüstü Squatter Area in Istanbul, Boğaziçi Uni. Press, 1978, Hürriyet Gazetesi, 20.11.2005
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Lefebvre H., Reflections on the Politics of Space, Antipode 8/2: 30-Radical Geography: Alternative
Viewpoints on Contemporary Social Issues, London: Methuen & CO, 1976 , 339-52]
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Açıklanmasında Uygulanabilirliği Üzerine Kuramsal Bir Tartışma, YTÜ Arch. Fac. E-Journal, Volume
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İİBF Dergisi, 2010, C: XXVIII, Sa: 1, 1-22
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Sorunlar Ve Projeksiyonlar, KMU İİBF Dergisi Yıl:10 Sayı:15 Aralık/2008, 199-259
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Sabah Gazetesi, 13.11.2007
Şenyapılı, T. (2006). Gecekondu Olgusuna Dönemsel Yaklaşımlar, Değişen Mekan: Mekansal Süreçlere
İlişkin Tartışma ve Araştırmalara Toplu Bakış 1923-2003 içinde, der. A.Eraydın, Dost Kitabevi,
Ankara; 84-122.
Tekeli İ., 1998. Türkiye’de Cumhuriyet Döneminde Kentsel Gelişme ve Kent Planlaması, 75 Yılda
Değişen Kent ve Mimarlık, Tarih Vakfı Yay., İstanbul, 1-24.
Tuncer E., İktidarın Mekansal Fantazmagorisi Alışveriş Merkezleri, Kentleri Savunmak: Mekan, Toplum
ve Siyaset Üzerine, 309-314
Zaman Gazetesi, 09 Nisan, 2006
Zaman Gazetesi, 9 Mayıs, 2010
Saktanber A., Bir Orta Sınıf Ethos’unun ve Onun Günlük Pratiğinin Oluşumu: Kentsel Türkiyede
İslam’ın Yeniden Canlandırılması, Mekan Kültür İktidar içinde, eds A. Öncü ve P. Weyland, İletişim
Yay., İstanbul, 2007,
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Fakültesi, Coğrafya Ens., İstanbul 1971
Huntington S. P. and Dominguez J.K, Siyasal Gelişme, Çev: Ergün ÖZBUDUN, İstanbul, 1978, 82-83,
aktaran: Oktar , Varlı, 2010
Zaman Gazetesi, 09.04.2006.
902

Within and outside virtual walls: spatial configuration,

touristic and immigrant co presence and routes
in Rome (IT) city core

Andrea da Costa Braga *, Elio Trusiani **, Décio Rigatti ***, Claudio Ugalde *,
Fábio Lúcio Zampieri ****, Daniela Reckziegel
* PROPUR / Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. ** DATA /
Università Degli Studi di Roma – La Sapienza, Italy. *** Centro Universitário Ritter
dos Reis - UniRitter, Brazil. **** UFFS / Universidade Federal da Fronteira Sul, Brazil
E-mails: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected].

Abstract. Social and spatial complexity is the most outstanding feature of contemporary Rome (IT)
metropolitan core, one of the main touristic destinations in Europe for its touristic attractions and a
pluricultural metropolis, one of the main immigration gateways to Western Europe. Space Syntax
methods and tools were applied to describe and analyze Rome (IT) spatial network measuring
accessibility – connectivity, integration - segregation correlated to movement potential and fluxes
probability. Data was empirically collected for Trastevere and Esquilino neighborhoods, providing a
configurational explanation for foreigner's locational choices. We target to describe sociospatial
practices enabling spatial governance and its impacts on co presence diversification and ethnic
centralities. Our hypothesis is that urban grid morphological differences play a main role in fulfilling
these users’ expectations towards interaction with locals and mobility and can explain social
appropriation of space transformations, triggering gentrification and significant co presence processes
from which emerge enclaves and interethnic neighborhoods. Our purposes are: (1) to describe and
analyze Rome city core spatial street network, applying Space Syntax tools and modeling methods; (2) to
correlate route choice probability at local, global and metropolitan scales to immigrant and tourists
spatial practices and locational choices; (3) to identify relations between spatial configuration and ethnic
groups spatial agency; (4) to analyze users groups sociospatial strategies impact on neighborhoods´
spatial lives.

Key Words: spatial configuration, Rome (IT) city core, spatial governance, neighborhoods
transformations; foreigners´ routes, significant co presence

Foreword: Rome, the intercultural metropolis shades plural cities

Social meanings for place and space are not uniform and these are old news for the city of Rome
(IT), for centuries a pluriethnic city, the earliest Western / Mediterranean Empire Capital. Italy
has been an emigration country for about 100 years. From 1970ies on, it became a major off-
CEE immigration attractor, drawing African, Middle Eastern, East European and Far Eastern
steady foreign fluxes. Urban life cultural plurality was enhanced by brain drain processes,
endogenous migrations (S-N) and tourism intensification. These processes impacted Italian
cities strongly, causing the reorganization of local social relations and neighborhoods´ spatial
lives transformations with impacts on co presence, natural movement and land use patterns
related to migration, touristic fluxes, globalization (grassroots specially, Appadurai, 2000),
European territorial reorganization and contemporary diasporas from which emerge new forms
of citizenship and group affiliation. That frame Italian urban planner’s concerns on cultural
heritage, socioeconomic integration, neighborhoods´ transformations and residential segregation
 903

and were summed on MEGARIDE / European Urban Directives Chart (1994 116 ) towards
interethnic integration and UNESCO MOST meetings (1984) addressing tourism impact on
European metropolis. Their concern is that “cities might provide diversified places to fulfill the
needs of its citizen´s majority and different ethnic groups, understanding diversity and alterity as
a valuable social capital linked to urban development positive standards” (Beguinot, 2009, 30-
2), adding that the contemporary interethnic city must be open, equalitarian, intelligible and
sustainable, goals drawn from sociospatial qualities.
Rome is exemplary of large scale social processes ignited elsewhere and spread by networks
informing foreigner's locational choices which modify urban dynamics, promote selective
reconfigurations on interface patterns between local and strangers, movement and co presence,
impacting sociospatial integration. Its metropolitan area is a patchwork of self-contained,
fragmented, discontinuous and morphologically diverse urban sprawls that challenge its core
spatial structure resilience and compacity. These relate to the way in which city core public
places are socially appropriated by its users.
Space Syntax (Hillier & Hanson, 1984) methods and tools describe space as a system of
constrains and potentials which define social interaction patterns through local (inhabitants) or
global (strangers) control. Foreigner's collectives diversified co presence or ethnic segmented
gathering practices suggest that strangers (Hillier & Hanson, 1984; Vaughan, 2007) unfold
subcategories that capture the spatial system morphological properties to fulfill their
expectations towards socioeconomic integration, interaction with locals and mobility.
Configurational analysis depicts social behavior from spatial patterns inequalities driving
movement and co presence potentials. Provides evidences to analyze how foreigners experience
the city, where foreigners presence is strong enough to provide places a new identity and
attribute meaning for conflictive social relations from the way in which control over spatial
structure privilege inhabitants or strangers, enhancing social boundaries or easing their
transition from one status to another (Hillier, 1993). These processes drive a selective
reconfiguration of land uses and significant co presence emergency according to cultural
group’s autonomy and bordering practices (APPADURAI, 2000). While in site, the group might
regulate co presence in the area, a process known as spatial governance, reinforcing fluxes to
collectively built centralities in a way that can affect other people behavior and assign these
places symbolic meanings.
Our targets in describing Rome configuration are to provide sociospatial evidences that
explain differences on foreigners´ locational choices for gathering and the emergence of
specialized centralities leaving for further research the intertwinements between urban sprawl,
spatial segregation and these groups social reproduction. We focus on two neighborhoods -
Trastevere and Esquilino - supplying empirical evidence of foreigners' - tourists and immigrants
spatial behavior in order to test our hypothesis and analyze the correlation between spatial
variables and co presence patterns (Hillier, 1999). We aim to contribute to the discussion on
interethnic / pluricultural relations within European metropolis and their changing human
landscapes.
We justify our methods by the premises: a) the neighborhoods cluster high land uses and
attractors related to foreigners co presence giving emergency to specialized functional
centralities that act as place signifiers - Chinatown (MUDU,2006), touristic ghetto-, b)
"inassimilable ethnic groups", even when represent an unexpressive population share (2%
Chinese on Rome population), a lot less than the impressive amount of tourists (up to 50% of
the city´s population) that flood the city every summer, monopolize urban planning debate; c)
Tourist herds’ definitely impact spatial life locally and ignite long lasting transformation
processes such as gentrification ones; d) meanings given to co presence and interaction system
based on avoidance / gathering (Holanda, 2010), are driven by subjective values affected by
alterity and otherness notions (APPADURAI, 2000).

116
Beguinot, Corrado (ed.) 1995 Carta Di Megaride 94.Città Della Pace-Città Della Scienza. Napoli:
Aa.Vv, Napoli.
904

We focus on immigrant and tourists /short term resident's different goals towards spatial
integration, their sociospatial logics and the phenomena described above. Foreigners control
over space might relate to mobility, accessibility and functional centralities and the way in
which socioeconomic integration is achieved. It might be through individual entrepreneurship
and community agency or through stable gathering places where renew and spread supportive
networks providing landmarks for shared social and cultural practices and work opportunities
information diffusion.
Alessandria (2004) findings on foreign workers gathering practices depict their goals to
minimize suburbanization, residential segregation, group spatial dispersion and social
marginalization negative integration effects and to face social discrimination through visibility
strategies and cultural identity affirmative behavior performed in central public places. Their
locational choices contemplate good accessibility to group’s main clustering zones and transport
/ commuting nodes stable references, both vital for social network stability. That is why
betweenness centralities matter (Hillier, 1999).
For tourists, accessibility, connectivity and straight forward routes to their hotspots explain
their locational choices, since becoming local is not among their priorities. Navigating a foreign
city where they won´t stay long enough matter: through movement and walking distance matter.
Tourist's information networks produce and are feed by stable spatial references which, in turn,
promote functional clustering and specialized centralities.
Our hypothesis is that foreigner’s locational strategies are intertwined to the spatial structure,
driving the election for gathering places according to collectives´ social expectations towards
interaction with locals and among themselves and whose regards towards spatial and social
integration are built in different ways. For these reasons, addressing foreigner's co presence as a
relational byproduct of spatial patterns differentiation grant meaning to their spatial strategies,
to Rome spatial syntax.

Rome metropolitan core spatial network: the analysis and its goals

If contemporary social relations are built from and through movement potential rather than
territoriality, navigational information depicted from the spatial network might enforce social
boundaries, since movement is a kind of amorphous and dynamic power driven by potential
connectivity and node control. For that we provide a configurational description applying three
Space Syntax modeling methods - Axial, Angular and metric Radius (Hillier & Iida, 2005) from
which depict the morphological properties that enable us to analyze strangers subcategory
(Hillier & Hanson, 1984) - tourists and foreign workers - spatial behavior.
Rome city core was decomposed into a one-dimensional graph, the axial map (Figure 1)
depicting its spatial network (Hillier, 2013) modeled using depthmapX software© (Varoudis,
2009). The mapping boundaries were established by spatial barriers and urban grid
discontinuities surrounding the core: geomorphic barriers (rivers and hills), main ring roads and
railroads, institutional / archaeological compounds, urban grid discontinuities (Figure 1).
Hillier & Iida (2005) definitions that integration is topological closeness, Choice is bridging
or accessibility and Segment Analysis is connectivity potential modulated by cognitive
information ponder correlations for foreigners spatial behavior within the city core. If
integration (Rn, R3) measures potentials and choice probability, we might compare them to
empirically collected data on ethnic and tourists clustering and spatial practices (Hillier, 1999).
Axial analysis focuses on topological integration. Urban grids deformation degree is
measured by continuity, linearity, connectivity and control potentials between its parts (Hillier
& Hanson, 1984). Local and global Integration (HHRn/R3) inform the potential for natural
movement and co presence within the urban grid. Analysis enable to explain group clustering
choices towards interaction with inhabitants and social boundaries emergence through groups’
most instrumental exercise of power: control over places. Route choice (HHChoice) depicts the
shortest paths providing best accessibility between all parts of the system, attributing the most
 905

probable used routes an iconographic hierarchy ranging from red to blue, allowing to evaluate
fluxes probabilities along routes.

Figure 1. Axial map of Rome city core (Andrea Braga, Fabio Zampieri & Daniela
Reckziegel) on cartographic shapes mosaic (© Università La Sapienza di Roma, Data
Library developed by G. Longo), recomposed by Zampieri. Cartographic source: Lamco
S.r.I; Catizzone, A., Regione Lazio, Carta Tecnica Regionale, volo 2002, restituzone, 2005.
Costanti di transito da Gauss-Boaga a U.T.M. ED50, Elemento n°37406(1,2,3,4).

Spatial structure ringness strength equals to weak synergy between local and global spatial
patterns, differentiating the ways space is socially appropriated (idem) underlying the notion of
meaningful co presence (Hillier, 1999a): control and bordering of public spaces, in short spatial
governance, for which avoidance and gathering modify the notion of co presence as the
“unaware presence of strangers and dwellers in the same convex space”.
Segment modeling transforms axial lines into nodes according to the deflecting angle of its
connections to other segments and captures cognitive information implicated in navigation;
what is perceived as spatial and visual continuity /along a route (SegInt) modifying deepness
topological structure to depict more accurate fluxes probabilities . The analysis consider
betweenness centrality on different metric radius (SegChoice 500m, 1km, 5Km) to evaluate the
role route choice has on the emergence of specialized centralities as a function of local, global
or metropolitan movement.
These provided configurational evidence for foreigner's successful exploitation of the urban
grid morphological properties according to their different objectives towards integration in
correlation to their sociospatial behavior of unexpected centralities “which can only be
explained beyond street grid configuration, through navigational patterns” (Hillier & Iida,
2005).
906

Rome city core configurational description: touristic and immigrant co presence and
routes

Axial and Segment modeling's (Figure 2) depict Corso Italia (Cardo – Decumanus system) as
the most integrated axis within the city core, a linear centrality at global and local scales. It
stretches from Piazza Venezia, the gateway to Foro Romano, to the end of via Flaminia - Foro
Italico, connecting both Ancient Rome ritual centers, defining the main route through the old
city core and to its expansions beyond Tevere river (W,N), Pincio, Palatino and Quirinale
hills(E, S) through two ceremonial plazas – del Popolo (N) and Venezia (S) both are encircled
by main traffic connections.
Axial Choice (HH) depicts quite accurately routes from Piazza del Popolo to Vatican city,
Castel Sant’Angelo and Trastevere (W), main touristic attractions. Via Flaminia (N) stretches
Corso integration on a single axis towards Imperial archeological sites and newer developments
(Vila Olimpica, Parioli). From Piazza Venezia(S), Vias dei Fori Imperiali (Colosseo) and Del
Teatro di Marcello enclose archeological monuments (Foro Romano, Palatino, Circo Massimo)
connected by via Appia.
The Corso integration / connectivity robustness turns it into the spatial network central node:
it controls routes / touristic paths through the old core (Pantheon, Piazza Navona, etc.) and to
core surroundings. It also contributes to exploring the scenic and picturesque character of the
area by providing visual fields which improve navigation while wandering around: Corso is a
compass for wanderers venturing into the old core allowing strangers to regain control over
navigation, out of the labyrinth.
Comparison between axial local / global integration evidenced secondary functional
centralities subjected by the Corso integration / connectivity robustness which bounds different
phases on urban evolution. On its Western side, spatial system is deeper and less intelligible due
to strong grid deformation denoting local (inhabitants) control over the whole city core.
Corso (W), Via del Babuino (E) and via Nazionale (S) form a triangle of shallow, well
integrated and connected axes bounded by Pinchio hills / Villa Borghese (E). Its deformed
orthogonal grid has better global integration that grants strangers control over this part of the
system. It defines a perimeter for Rome's symbolic and functional centralities and tourists stroll
freely from Piazza di Spagna to Fontana di Trevi, Campidoglio and Quirinale.
Axial Choice depicts radial axes connecting urban expansions to the Corso formed by
Ancient Rome roads system that structured its regional territory (Salaria, Ostiense, Casilina,
Portuense, Tiburtina) and ritual periphery (Cimitero Monumentale) outside the city walls. The
longest E-W axis linking Piazza di Spagna to the Tevere banks /Castel Sant’Angelo, across the
Corso with higher integration measure is Via Condotti, a reference for tourists and shoppers.
The triangle stretches south from Piazza Venezia, linking Palatino - Colosseo / Colle Oppio
and XX Settembre / Nomentana (S) / Via Cavour (E) connecting peripheries (E) and 19th century
monumental sites. The city´s main commuting node, Termini train station is the far vortex (E)
beyond which global integration fades, bounding the compact city and reinforcing sprawl
discontinuities through superimposed spatial barriers.
18th and 19th centuries changes urban grid expansions turning linear functional centralities
into distributive through the fusion between orthogonal and radial systems, distributing global
integration.
Metropolitan sprawl follows residential segregation patterns for lower or upper classes
indistinctively captured better through Segment Analysis. Spatial network global integration
(SegInt) is more robust than axial, pondered by connectivity that highlight large scale
circulation hierarchies (ring roads) as preferable routes surrounding the city core, outside the
walls connected to commuting nodes(train stations radial roads systems). The measure depicts
routes from peripheries to the centre and between neighborhoods, around the core forming a
ring road system connecting each part of the metropolitan discontinuous sprawl. Their
efficiency in taking vehicular movement to the old core perimeter change the ancient centre-
 907

periphery global choice radial structure into a deformed wheel, improving the urban grid
ringness which, in turn, improve connectivity and accessibility between system's parts.

Figure 2. Rome axial (HH) and angular (Seg)modeling DepthMap aided by Claudio
Ugalde
908

Changing metric radius to segment choice modeling (Figure 3) enabled to depict the urban
grid changes following sociospatial transformations to the city core (500m) spatial patterns such
as late medieval segregation between civic (Campidoglio) and religious (Piazza San Pietro),
their connection through Corso Vittorio Emmanuele (W) and consequent N-S old core divide
into unbalanced halves, that produced a popular, pollute and peripheral southern centrality
(Campo di Fiori).

Figure 3. Route Choice system Axial and Segment modeling (Claudio Ugalde). Route from
the Old Core to Trastevere is highlighted hin red/yellow for 500m radius.
 909

Segment Choice for 1Km radius (Figure 4) highlights the radial system linking the city core
to its expansions and another commuting node at the end of via Flaminia: Piazzas Mancini and
Apollodoro, both functional and ethnic centralities to immigrant domestic help scattered along
upscale neighborhoods (Parioli), referential to South Americans gathering practices. Expanding
radius to 5km, secondary and local centralities emerge along routes connecting suburbia to the
core (E-W) where middle class developments abound. Street markets and immigrant significant
co presence on public squares along transportation main routes and commuting nodes evidence
their preference for highly accessible and visible gathering practices targeting alterity
affirmative behavior as their sociospatial integration strategy and endogenous bond renewal.
Comparing Choice system, axial and angular, we find out coherent morphological
boundaries to residential developments provided by main axes capturing both configurational
and functional centralities. That indicates that local centralities tend to linearity, shared by more
than one neighborhood, what reinforces connection and integration between different
socioeconomic clusters. Roman peripheries are highly segregated, but well connected to the
core, a possible explanation for tourists keeping their ground near the core and for immigrants
choice of gathering places (Figure 4).

Figure 4. (Above, left) Fontana di Trevi and Piazza di Spagna: two main touristic hotspots
located within the Old core higher Axial Segmented Integration area, always full of
tourists; Circunvalazione Casilina and via del Pigneto (right), one of c Rome oldest
suburbs (SE), going through a gentrification process. Photos: Andrea Braga, 2011. Below:
Segment Choice 1 and 5 Km radius (Claudio Ugalde). The short route in orange (W) links
Largo Argentina and Campo dei Fiori to Trastevere (right).5km radius depicts routes linking
Termini to SE suburbs. The two main axes (NE) are via Salaria and Viale Libia, enclosing
newer residential developments. Lungotevere main vehicular route encircles the old city core.
The Corso segment with intenser fluxes cuts the old core.
910

Strangers in paradise: spatial qualities turned Trastevere into a tourists´ enclave

Trastevere (W) was one of the earliest Rome urban expansions (13th century). A walled
medieval compound built on rural land across the Tevere. The spatial system is deep, poorly
connected to its surroundings, a quality reinforced by topographical boundaries (W). Large
densely built blocks and small scale public spaces produce a series of short axes indicating local
inhabitants control and spatial solidarity. In 1980ies it resembled a typical italian village:
neighbors chattering through open windows and laundry lines crisscrossing narrow streets
(Figure 5).
Control over space being one of the main forces driving the organization of social relations,
enhance different spatial strategies to fulfill foreigners purposes locally, transforming not only
these places social lives but also Rome population imaginary over them. Final stop for main
touristic routes, Trastevere is a gated community since its earliest days, converted successfully
into an American expats enclave.
The neighborhood gentrification process was anchored by the opening of three USA college
branches focusing study term abroad that turned long term tourists into short term residents,
enabling their local control over space. Trastevere social and spatial life is turning into a
simulacrum through drastic changes: dwellings converted into short term rental unities / student
hostels, local shops replaced by restaurants, cafes, tourist shops, meeting new inhabitant's needs.
SegChoice (radius 500m, 1 Km) fluxes probability is coherent with empirically observed
movement and co presence along routes irradiating from Piazza di Santa Maria in Trastevere to
main hotspots on the old city core, providing strong spatial reasons to become a tourist's
enclave. Local control is strong; it is spatially segregated from its surroundings but well
connected to points of touristic interest; conforms to campus lifestyle with its cafes, restaurants
and “student dorms” that enable this expat community to experience Rome without being
infatuated by metropolitan life.
Retracing the highlighted route choice system back to Trastevere (Figure 5) reveal that
intense fluxes are more probable along the circuit connecting Piazza Venezia, Largo Argentina,
Campo di Fiori, Ponte Sisto to Piazza Santa Maria in Trastevere. It explains why we were
fooled by Trastevere axial segregation, when empirical evidence was counterintuitive: shorter
and straight routes connecting city core attractions to the neighborhood justify its touristic
attractiveness. Trastevere is at walking distance to / through main Rome touristic attractions.
A group strongest potential mobility might weaken other group’s chances towards the same
opportunities. Tourists spatial governance empower themselves towards local control over
movement and route choice discouraging diversified co presence. We ask ourselves if their
spatial behavior weaken Rome inhabitant’s ties to such places, changing their identity locally
and globally from which emerge new kinds of specific and exclusive centralities.
Tourists tend to limit interaction with inhabitants to a minimum. Axial integration is less
important to them than route choice and betweenness centrality. Spatial segregation might
become an advantage as long as the potential enclave is strategically located and connected to /
connecting points of interest. Clustering provides safety and enhances significant co presence in
a highly accessible spot. Trastevere sums those spatial / instrumental qualities money can buy;
therefore Americans spatial governance is noticeable here. No wonder the neighborhood plays a
special role on Woody Allen's To Rome with Love (2012).

Strangers meet in paradise: spatial reasons that turned Esquilino into an interethnic
neighborhood

Esquilino is considered the most globalized, cosmopolitan Rome neighborhood and a successful
interethnic community case, even if official data (legal immigrants, 2010) is only 36% of
neighborhood population share. Residents major ethnic groups are diversified: Eritreans,
Bangalores, Philippines and Romenians are numerically expressive (7,8% to 5,9%). Other
 911

groups subjected to immigration fluxes aren't dwellers (chinese, polish, africans, indians,
afganis) either workers / users of services hub give sense to the statement above. Copresence is
defined by interethnic relations giving emergency to special forms of sociospatial and
economical integration and place image.

Figure 5. Above HH Integration Rn displaying empirically collected data on tourists

(backpack), inhabitants (cell phone) and strong foreign workers movement / gathering
(hugging) places (Andrea Braga, 2011). Centre: Trastevere map showing American
universities campi andneighborhood landscapes (Google Earth, Street view); Below:
Pigneto neighborood maps and images (images: Google Earth, Street view).

An 18th century urban expansion that changed the city core development E-W along its
historical fringes, Esquilino orthogonal grid is cut by diagonals spreading from a large scale
piazza, Vittorio Emanuele (250mx120m) at its geometric centre. Sinergy between local / global
integration mesaures distributes control among inhabitants and strangers, symbolic of Italy
unification: urban modernization, territorial and sociocultural integration (Aymonino, 1985).
Since its once borgeois founding, Esquilino is foreigner´s territory. Decadent in the eighties,
was enrolled on Rome Municipality's Historical centre renovation plan (1981-5, SPQR)
strategies to ignite socioeconomic changes: Termini modernization, urban and environmental
912

recuperation, street food market (1902-2001) replacement, via GGiolitti extension to Porta
Maggiore and new functions induction (hotels, culture, education).
Centrality spread easily trough the orthogonal grid according to complex dinamics from
which an immigrant centrality (MUDU, 2006) emerged through ethnic entrepreneurship,
grassroots globalization and interactions between sociospatial and political variables and also
interfaces between inhabitants /strangers, italians / ethnocultural groups, concurrent with
italians neglecting the use of public places. Places potential centrality are key in urban
transformation processes and to understand appropriation conflicts due to interfaces intensity it
encloses, living out of diversification / especialization duality (Hillier, 1999).
Strong spatial reasons lead Esquilino to be known as an immigrant centre (Figure 6),
reassigning roles between local / strangers. Good accessibility and connectivity to immediate
periphery potentialize to and through movement, configuring centrality, in which commercial
activity relay, strenghten by monopolist attractors, transport hubs and global integration
robustness that meet immigrates objectives towards socioeconomic integration and endogenous
- exogenous interface system. Economic variables were low cost real estate; local commerce
decay and dispopulation that activated ethnic agency promoting complex transformations that
unbalanced the once evenly distributed spatial control between inhabitants and strangers,
turning the neighborhood into what its shallow spatial strucuture and its conectivity to
peripheral areas allow better: to become a funcitonal centrality, for better or worst. That's why
immigrants occupyied Esquilino.

Figure 6. Top-down left-right: Esquilino and Piazza Vittorio (Andrea Braga, 2011;
CRAPSI et al, 2010); Orchestra di Piazza Vittorio (2002): Cultural Hibridism and
conviviality in pluriethnic Esquilino (Source: Ethnic newspapers Bellobuono et al. Marino,
2010); Esqulino market (Piccione, 2010); Other images are all by Andrea Braga, 2011.

The context favored ethnic entrepeneurship specialization by branches (LIGHT et al. 2009)
summing up to transform the neighborhood's spatial and social lives. Spatial governance
emerges from conflictive sociospatial practises and unbalanced control over spatial dynamics
attributing meaning to ethnic copresence: Italians seldom gather in public, immigrants do the
opposite despite group membership. Ethnicity might be considered spatially built in Esquilino.
 913

Distributive connectedness and accessibility disperse centralities and give way to several
gathering places to which groups refer according to their interest, needs and degree of social and
economical integration.
Esquilino is a strangers place, its shallowness, accesibility and conectivity attract immigants
eager to mingle and integrate themselves into the city´s economical and social life. A stable
functional centrality confirms its importance in structuring SE urban expansion. Its orthogonal
grid provides the fair ground for interaction between locals and strangers. We might risk saying
that once in Esquilino foreigners feel at home, explaining why the neighborhood is an example
of positive sociocultural and economic interethnic integration.

Walking along invisible borderlines: Esquilino spatial configuration, ethnic commerce and
plural territorialities

Co presence data collected empirically display main gathering places which support ethnic
solidarity networks, enabling us to analyze different spatial strategies operated by immigrants
on their locational choices. Addressing foreigner's co presence as a relational byproduct of
spatial patterns differentiation provided some evidence to their voluntary clustering at Esquilino,
appropriated as a metropolitan centrality.
Enclosed by main routes linking Termini to Southern suburbs, the area is alive with to and
through movement reinforced by the mere location of this monopolist attractor. Accessibility to
the city core, connectivity to surroundings and main metropolitan commuting hubs reinforce its
functional centrality and are instrumental to ethnic/cultural groups gathering choices since
global integration matters for foreigners. Significant co presence follows criteria related to
spatial control: foreign workers might be inhabitants if living /working on the neighborhood; or
strangers who come from afar to socialize or shop. Gathering places vary according to ethnicity,
inhabitants / strangers divide, integration measures and movement potentials. If the Corso axis
is where tourists and inhabitant’s co presence and movement are evenly distributed, the
orthogonal grid integration differences ponder significant co presence (Figure 7).
Via GGiolitti / Piazza Vittorio Eastside define the perimeter where HHRn is stronger,
concentrating most part of ethnic / metropolitan commerce and foreign co presence. HHRn/R3
depicts stronger integration measures on N-S axes. Via GGiolliti is the longest and most
globally integrated axis connecting to the ring road system (Circonvallazione Tiburtina, SE) and
captures vehicular movement on the neighborhood periphery. Pedestrian movement is weak
beyond Termini secondary entrance and ethnic significant co presence is outstanding between
Cattaneo and Cappelini streets, where's a sort of newly immigrates service hub (restaurants, call
& remittance centers, hostels, DVDs/ newsagents) emerged. The site is easily spotted from
Termini but secluded from pedestrian movement, on an elevated sidewalk. Around its corners
(Capellini /Rattazi) a step deeper, beauty parlors, International Amnesty and other legal
assistance offices provide refugees / immigrant's social support, services and gathering
references, leading us to conclude that this area attracts foreigners strangers to the
neighborhood, barely venturing far from its boundaries (Figure 5). Co presence is mainly
African and masculine and groups are small.
Esquilino food market entrance (Principe Amedeo) attracts ethnic restoration and specialized
food suppliers to its vicinity, organizing its spatial concentration and spread: Shop management
gives sense to ethnic groups gatherings and include travel agencies, call/remittance centers,
restoration in the mix. Foreign inhabitant's masculine co presence is high on weekdays,
gatherings usually outside small cafes near the market, solidarity built through their trade and
gender. Co presence diversification and movement increase on Saturdays, market´s grand day,
when the whole street turns into a pluricultural and interethnic gathering place. On Sundays,
gatherings move to Piazza Vittorio where ethnic, gender and age groups have stable meeting
points inside and around its limits.
Piazza Fanti vicinity defines the boundary between interethnic Esquilino and touristic Rome;
from there until via Cavour there are almost exclusively hotels, B&B, guest houses and tourism
914

related services. Around the Piazza, Bangalore jewelry shops and beauty parlors mix with
African handcraft, Chinese retail and restaurants. Ethnic co presence is weaker, groups are
smaller but spatial governance is stronger, each group controlling small stretches of sidewalk.

Figure 7. Co presence and ethnic land use labels dispersion in Esquilino (Andrea
Braga, 2011).

Via La Marmora block between Principe Amedeo and Piazza Vittorio is Indian/ Bengali
territory where Bollywood DVD 's shops, clothing and newsagents draw this group major co
presence. Chinese commerce (clothing wholesalers /retail) cluster on Piazza Vittorio eastern
side, sprawling north along Napoleone III / Carlo Alberto, where it diversifies (beauty parlors,
ethnics, restoration) and South along Conte Verde (clothing), where through movement is
intense. Palazzo del Freddo (traditional ice cream factory) turned global ironically through Far
Eastern franchises, Mas department store and missionary churches outstand among Chinese
homogeneous shops testifying for previous commercial trends and diversifying co presence.
The Western side of Piazza Vittorio is a secondary functional centrality to the city core
spreading towards via Cavour (N) / Merulana (W) with traditional shops still doing business
(popular department stores, cafes, clothing, and hotels). Shorter axes perpendicular toPiazza
Vittorio (W, Foscolo, Machiavelli, Leopardi) concentrate neighborhood commerce
(supermarkets, giftshops) but also some ethnic services such as call centers, remittance,
electronics, travel agencies and beauty parlors (massage) hidden from main through movement
routes, but accessible to insiders. Streets seem empty, large institutional buildings and dwellings
predominate, movement and co presence are weak, stronger local control is easily perceived.
Foreigners gather on the sidewalks, attentive to people passing by, arousing uneasiness
reinforced by the ambiguity of services provided.
Ethnic ommerce is usually placed along less integrated axes. Grassroots globalized business
networks nodify along axes displaying better to / through movement potentials. Foreign workers
who see themselves as locals gather along most integrated axes. Newcomers tend to gather in
more secluded places, meaning axes which natural movement potentials aren´t fullfilled, but
remain important vehicular routes through the neighborhood, displaying good accessibility and
connectiveness locally and globaly.
Piazza Vittorio seems to be the boundary between the prevalence of local and global
integration and their effects on social and spatial life. On its Western side movement and co
 915

presence are weak, local commerce prevails and ethnic co presence is discrete. On its Eastern
side through movement is intense, reinforced by commuting nodes; foreigner’s co presence
remarkable since integration higher measures favors stranger's control.
Foreign workers mere copresence in public spaces denotes their eagerness for urbanity,
attributing meaning to different integration patterns within the neighborhood. We identifyed
three functional centralities based on commercial branches distribution (Figure6): its Northern
zone extends city core centrality, taken over by tourism services and commerce; Piazza Vittorio
west side a neighborhood centrality punctuated by low profile ethnic commerce and services;
and a metropolitan one (SE), sensitive to fluxes through Eastern peripheries, re-built on
immigrant/ethnic entrepreneurship. Their superposition plus the configuration potential to fullfil
different social agendas feed conflict over space and impacts social imaginary for its spatial
qualities resilience that enable profound functional transformations.
Esquilino social life operates between neighborhood and ethnic relations: foreigners can be
neighbors according to its spatial integration hierarchy that eases conviviality. Economical
decay might be overcome thanks to its local connectivity, global integration, high acessibility
and gentrification proccess ignited institutionaly. Its spatial patterns jeperdize coherence
between social exclusion and spatial segregation, challenging the political agenda because
addresses new romans integration to Italian society, which extent and form is molded through
spatial integration equal to economic one.
The neigborhood spatial and social life is divided by an E-W boundary, Piazza Vittorio: an
Eastern ethnic Esquilino (Figure 8) and a Western Roman one. Piazza Vittorio itself is a frontier
zone where spatial governance is negotiated evenly between Italians and foreigners, immigrants
and tourists, where different forms of territoriality might be displayed side-by-side. Where
foreigner's become new romans, where romans acknowledge their otherness.

Figure 8. ethnic commerce and service on GGiolliti elevated sidewalk and Termini
connection to San Lorenzo. Esquilino market surroundings (photos Andrea Braga, 2011).

The social sense of urban form: Where do you come from? Where are you heading to?

Spatial pattern discontinuities endure the ways in which social categories occupy and regulate
movement, mediating significant co presence and defining spatial governance. Integration,
accessibility and connectivity hierarchical differences establish differences on movement
potentials implied in the form and intensity co presence is organized according to each groups’
916

interaction strategies to members/non members. Foreigners elect and assign gathering places
exploring more than one form of distance between themselves and those considered outsiders,
through the routes they choose, thorugh the spatial qualities that inform their locational choices.
Orthogonal grids distribute integration potential quite evenly. In such cases, slight
differences on integration and connectivity potentials might be the clue to understand foreigners
locational choices from which significant co presence patterns emerges. Movement potential
and fluxes probability drive centrality processes shaped by the kind of movement they require
and co presence they facilitate (HILLIER, 1999).
As for foreigner’s movement and routes, we addressed the spatial strategies structuring
gathering places network correlated to spatial configuration; their potential to connect to and
command other network nodes and route segments is explanative of foreigners sociospatial
locational strategies towards interfaces with themselves and to others. While in movement it is
the route which identifies or classifies locals from strangers, in the way it provides straight paths
to main collective attractors. Foreigners build strong links based on shared experiences along
routes: tourists and immigrants alike, to the point they might be identified through them. They
define borderlines to social appropriation of space, their reachable limits within the city spatial
system.
If bounding is a self-organised spatial process related to groups strategic choices towards
endogenous and exogenous forms of interface, spatial integration is prerogative to interact
evenly with social diversity on daily practices, in co presence. According to an Orchestra di
Piazza Vittorio member:
“Piazza Vittorio is changing, for better or worse, it is being transformed. Places aren´t
supposed to change on behalf of people who doesn´t live there. Yet daily life imposes its own
movement patterns, and changes on it are noticeable if movement is weak on market days; in
other cases, changes are silent and people remain unaware of them, except those living nearby.
And those who live here are Chinese tango dancers. What matters here is complexity,
difficulties living together, being in co presence, these minor conflicts and integration
gestures.” (Piccolo, 2006, p.7).
Assuming that enclaves are space used as capital on gentrification or economical integration
processes, than both, interethnic Esquilino and Ameritown in Trastevere are enclaves of
different kinds: one remains a gated community, dwellers, even in transit, exert local control,
transforming its social and spatial life in a way that jeopardize its cultural heritage. The other is
open to global fluxes that transform sociospatial integration promoting interethnic conviviality
not without conflicts One enclave is a spatial compound, the other a strategic node in global
networks which encompasses the whole metropolitan area and beyond. Both promote radical
changes on neighborhoods landscapes.
Tourist’s interaction with locals is selective and casual related to where they move about and
might benefit from sociospatial segregation. Immigrant interaction with locals is essential to
their socioeconomic integration, benefiting from spatial integration. On both cases their spatial
strategies target to modulate interfaces to their own benefit. On both cases spatial governance is
exerted, transforming places identities. Foreigner's practices, co presence and route choice
become signifiers. Therefore, the questions:
Where do you come from? Where are you heading to?

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of the ethnic economy (Rowman & Littlefield, Plymouth) 165-176.
Piccolo, F. (2006) ‘Noi che All’Esquilino ci viviamo’, in Occhipinti et al., Prove d’Orchestre, (Lucky
Red, Roma) 5-10.
Vaughan, L. (2007) ‘The spatial syntax of urban segregation’, Progress in Planning, 3, 205-294.
918

Analysis of urban morphology on festival space decorated on

urban space, focusing reviewing spaces and closed spaces in
the case of Chichibu Night Festival in Japan

Kenjiro Matsuura
Faculty of Engineering, Mie University, 1577 Kurimamachiya-cho, Tsu City, Mie prefecture,
514-8507, Japan. E-mail:[email protected]

Abstract. Urban spaces transform into festival spaces when urban spaces are decorated with various
ornaments and various events are held in urban spaces. In the case that audience over permissible
amount crowd of festival spaces, it is theme to control audience for safety and to design good spaces to
see at the same time. In Chichibu Night Festival in Chichibu city in Japan, which is one of the three
biggest float festivals in Japan, there are three hundreds of thousands of audience in the last night of
festival. Owners of the sites along the float route take two different ways as follows, to open outside
spaces to put pay reviewing seats (reviewing spaces) or to close outside spaces by barricades (closed
spaces). This paper aims to clarify characteristics of reviewing spaces and closed spaces in the case of
Chichibu Night Festival in behalf of float festival in Japan. Findings are three points as follows. 1)
Reviewing spaces are set to crossings, hill and Otabisyo (the place where the sacred palanquin is lodged
during a festival) which are highlight areas of float festival, and are able to be typed three patterns by
relationship between reviewing spaces and the ground, 2) The whole area where crossings, hill and
Otabisyo are located changed closed space for safety because many audience crowd to, 3) In closed
spaces, barricades are set up by plywoods and iron plates along boundary line of streets so audience
can't enter the sites.

Key Words: festival space, urban space ,Chichibu Night Festival, reviewing spaces, closed spaces

Outline of this study

Urban spaces transform into festival spaces when urban spaces are decorated with various
ornaments and various events are held in urban spaces. In the case that audience over
permissible amount crowd of festival spaces, it is theme to control audience for safety and to
design good spaces to see at the same time. In Chichibu Night Festival in Chichibu city in
Japan, which is one of the three biggest float festivals in Japan, there are three hundreds of
thousands of audience in the last night of festival. Because audience over permissible amount
crowd around along the float route, owners of the sites along the float route take two different
ways as follows, to open outside spaces to put pay reviewing seats (reviewing spaces) or to
close outside spaces by barricades (closed spaces). This paper aims to clarify characteristics of
reviewing spaces and closed spaces in the case of Chichibu Night Festival in behalf of float
festival in Japan. I define reviewing spaces as the spaces which put pay reviewing seats and
receive audience positively and closed spaces as the spaces which refuse audience by
barricades, and both spaces have common features as follows, 1) these are festival spaces and 2)
sites along the float route and 3) outside spaces.
Next, I talk about how to study. First, when I find reviewing spaces or closed spaces along
the float route in Chichibu Night Festival in 3 Dec. 2012, I plot points of them in the map,
photograph and film. Second, I type reviewing spaces about relationship between reviewing
seats and ground. Third, I grasp areas which were closed during towing floats. Fourth I type
closed spaces about materials of barricades.
 919

The outline of Chichibu Night Festival

Chichibu Night Festival is held from 1 to 6 Dec. every year as annual festival of Chichibu
Shrine. Main festival events in Chichibu Night Festival are 1) towing floats around town area,
2) playing Kabuki on the floats, 3) playing "Hikiodori" on the floats, and 4) towing floats from
Chichibu Shrine to "Otabisyo"(the place where the sacred palanquin is lodged during a festival).
Main places of Chichibu Night Festival are Chichibu Shrine, "Otabisyo" and Chuoh street
which is main route of towing floats. Chuoh street 9-13 meters in width is main street. Modern
buildings and historical buildings are mixed along Chuoh street. Towing floats event start from
Chichibu Shrine, make a round of the Shrine, and arrive at "Otabisyo" by way of Chuoh street,
Seijin street and Dango hill.

The characteristics of reviewing spaces

I plot points of reviewing spaces on the map (figure 1). There are 4 points near crossings (a, b, c
in figure 1), 8 points near Dango hill and 1 point in Otabisyo. Every points are set near view
points of towing floats.
Next, I analyze each reviewing spaces. Reviewing spaces are able to be typed three patterns
by relationship between reviewing spaces and the ground (figure 1). First, there are 6 points
called "ground level type" which are set reviewing seats on the same level of the ground. They
are separated by red-and-white-striped curtains (A-3, A-5, A-6 in figure 1), blue vinyl seats (A-
2 in figure 1), or color cones (A-1 in figure 1) between seats and streets. Sometimes chairs and
benches are set. Second, there are 3 points called "stairs type" where reviewing seats are set like
stairs (B-1, B-2, B-3 in figure 1). There are reviewing seats of stairs type in Otabisyo to enjoy
seeing floats meeting together inside Otabisyo where people couldn't enter from 17:30 (B-3 in
figure 1). Stairs type is good way in case of long depth of reviewing seats. Third, there are 4
points called "platform type" whose level is higher than the ground and flat. They are separated
by red-and-white-striped curtains (C-4 in figure 1) or white vinyl seats (C-1, C-2, C-3 in figure
1) between seats and streets. Audience are easy to see floats because of high level.

Figure 1. Reviewing spaces and closed spaces in Chichibu Night Festival

920

The characteristics of closed spaces

First, I grasp closed area while towing floats. There are three closed areas as follows, along
Seijin street, along Dango hill and Otabisyo which are climax areas of towing floats (figure 1).
Closed spaces are distributed everywhere along float route (figure 1). In all closed spaces,
barricades are set up along boundary line of streets. The major materials of barricades are
plywoods (D-1, D-2, D-3, D-4 in figure 1) and iron plates (E-1, E-2, F-1 in figure 1).

Conclusion

Findings are three points as follows. 1) Reviewing spaces are set to crossings, hill and Otabisyo
which are highlight areas of float festival, and are able to be typed three patterns by relationship
between reviewing spaces and the ground, 2) The areas of crossings, along Seijin street, along
Dango hill and Otabisyo which are highlight areas of float festival are closed for safety because
many audience crowd to, therefore areas itself are closed spaces, 3) In closed spaces, barricades
are set up by plywoods and iron plates along boundary line of streets, so audience can't enter the
sites.

References
Kenjiro Matsuura (2012) 'Analysis of Urban Morphology on Festival Space decorated on Urban Space',
EAAE / ISUF International Conference, New Urban Configurations, p.25
Ryota Negishi, Haruhiko Goto and Taro Taguchi(2007) 'A research of the influences festival has affected
regional management: a case of Chichibu night festival, which takes place in Chichibu, Saitama
Prefecture' J.Archit.Plann.,AIJ,No.622,p.p.129-136.
 921

Mi casa es tu casa: the creation of the new Rambla del Raval

in the historic center of Barcelona, between urban renewal
and touristic branding.

Alessandro Scarnato
Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya, carrer del Palau,
4, 1.1.08002, Barcelona, Spain. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. In the last twenty years Barcelona has become a top touristic destination. An important part in
this achievement is due to the extensive effort in urban reshaping started in the 80’s of the last century.
The interventions in the historic center have had a key role in the regeneration and the promotion of the
city on the global stage. The operations in the Old City (Ciutat Vella), led by famous architects like
Bohigas and Busquets, were based on Aldo Rossi’s theories on urban shapes, and followed an unusual
dialogue between existing and new architecture. The creation of the whole new Rambla del Raval (1996-
2001) throughout the demolition of almost 3000 houses in the historic tissue, has been the most consistent
operation. The physical impact of the Rambla had been vast and deep: the transformations have gone
way beyond the expected effects and one of the first consequences has been the creation of an
ideal terrain vague where the increasing communities of non-European immigrants filled both the
physical and social voids created by the interventions. The ‘new’ Old City of Barcelona entered in a
process of gentrification, becoming a incredibly popular touristic destination, a result that was out of any
plan when the renovation started. Newcomers (tourists, visitors and immigrants) have, quite obviously,
adapted faster and better to the new morphology of the center and, differently from the locals, they
appreciate the original historic features of old urban tissue.The paper, based on my PhD research, aims
to describe how the urban process triggered by the Rambla del Raval has generated both physical and
social transformations which had a mutual influence, far beyond the original intentions of planners,
administrators and inhabitants.

Key Words: Barcelona, historic centers, immigration, tourism, public space

Introduction

The historic center of Barcelona is now the administrative district of Ciutat Vella, the “old
town”, which includes the large Raval sector, a once rural area that became part of the city when
its walls were constructed in the fourteenth century. With the construction of the new grid
extension of the Catalan capital designed by Cerdà in 1859, the old town entered into a rapid
process of social and physical decline, with the Raval as a critical focus of poverty, insalubrity,
prostitution and petty crime enhanced by its proximity to the seaport. The area, popularly known
as the Barrio Chino, or Chinese Quarter, since the 1920s, was the most urgent problem facing
the first elected Barcelona City Council (BCC) when it embarked on what was known as the
“reconstruction of Barcelona” (Bohigas, 1985) in 1981. A detailed plan (Pla Especial de
Reforma Interior, PERI) for the Raval was passed in 1985 as part of the Pla General Metropolità
(Metropolitan Master Plan) of 1976. In the 1985 PERI, the architects Xavier Sust and Carles
Díaz designed an articulated system of public spaces to be created in the dense urban fabric of
the Raval, from the popular South sector (bombed during the 1936-1939 Spanish Civil War and
subject to ongoing remodeling since the time of Cerdà) to the North sector, where a cultural hub
of museums and university faculties was to be built, reusing and transforming the many
abandoned religious buildings. In the late 1980s, Promoció de Ciutat Vella (Procivesa) was
constituted, a company with joint capital (51% Barcelona City Council and 49% private
investors) and the mission of managing the urban renovation of Ciutat Vella.
922

Shaping the urban matter

The 1985 PERI envisaged linking the interventions in the South and North sectors of the Raval
by opening up a huge central space called the Pla Central del Raval (PCR) in the middle of the
urban fabric. In its technical report, the project was described as a reevaluation of the entire
district:
[By means of this] operation, five blocks will be demolished to create a large central space
measuring 60x235 meters, similar to Rome’s Piazza Navona. The existing buildings along the
sides will be maintained while, at each end, a new construction will provide access to the space
via a loggia. The treatment [of the new ends] must provide distinctive frontages on the new
plaza, as they have to compensate for and balance the sides, where the [existing] irregular
building is not of very high quality. (Procivesa, 1988).
The reference to Piazza Navona was used repeatedly, but the analogy was simply a
geometrical reference, since the former Stadium of Domitian was the product of centuries of
largely unplanned sedimentation, whereas this project was a planned and designed demolition
and remodeling. The declared intention of respecting the existing urban fabric, local residents
and popular atmosphere was stated as a priority in the operation, but it was no obstacle to the
destruction of over 400 apartments in a significant change of scale from the surrounding
neighborhood.
In the 1985 scheme (Figure 1), the short sides of the new plaza were supposed to comprise
arcaded buildings incorporating the area’s few noteworthy architectural features. These porches
reflected the then common architectural aspiration to the Italian movement La Tendenza and
were intended to give a visual order to the largely unplanned Raval environment.
In relation to other contemporary urban remodeling projects in Barcelona, the 1985 PERI
suggested the continuation of operations previously carried out in the center. This continuity
was, however, only apparent; unlike other projects such as Carme Fiol’s Fossar de les Moreres,
in this case the layout accorded no architectural value to the surrounding buildings. At the same
time, its proportions ruled out any affinity with small interventions in the center, such as Plaça
de la Mercè, a square created by demolishing a semi-abandoned residential block. Residents’
associations pointed out that the overall design of the operation coincided with the location of
blocks already affected by a process of expropriation started by previous, obsolete planning, as
the architect Beth Galí noted: “[the Administration plans to] create this new space in the place
where it is easiest [and] most convenient, without considering whether this is where it’s really
needed”(Espada, 1998). Frustrated plans from the 1950s and 1960s had in fact left their mark in
legal and urban terms, making it difficult hypothetically to withdraw from processes of
expropriation that were already under way, with all the foreseeable complications.
In 1987, two years after the Raval’s new project had been approved, the details had still not
been defined. Documents in municipal archives show a considerable number of sketches, notes
and memos referring to subsequent specifications that were never implemented. Embryonic
indications for the design of the floor plan revealed planners’ uncertainty about the final
morphology of the space, and no serious study of the elevations of new building was ever
carried out.
The situation changed in the summer of 1990, when the University of Barcelona began
negotiations with the City Council to move the humanities faculties to new facilities to be built
in a large, empty urban space located in the former convent area of Raval North. The technical
office of Procivesa welcomed the proposal and used it as an opportunity to rethink the whole
1985 PERI. In 1992, after signing the agreement with University, the Council decided to
implement a preventive one-year suspension of expropriation and building permits on the future
PCR site, pending a new project outsourced to the architect Jaume Artigues, which was
completed in 1993. The new plan redistributed open spaces originally planned in Raval North,
taking into account another operation promoted between 1991 and 1993 by the Generalitat
 923

(Catalan regional government) in Raval South, substantially at odds with the 1985 PERI117.
This new operation dismissed the arcaded square planned as an intermediate space between the
future “Piazza Navona” and the construction site of Richard Meier’s MACBA. This tract of
public space was brought within the limits of the Raval’s new plaza project, thereby reducing
the number of buildings to be demolished in the area as a whole.

Figure 1. On the left, the map of the active expropriations in a plan from the 1985 PERI.
On the right, a sketch of the first version of PCR, with the first layout of the Loggias.
(from Arxiu Municipal del Districte de Ciutat Vella).

As regard the future space’s morphology, the 1985 PERI included the demolition of five
street blocks, but the new version of the PCR did not include new constructions at the north and
south ends, and would produce a much larger open space. The square it proposed did not look
like a closed urban salon, since it opened onto the commercial streets of Sant Pau and Hospital.
As regards the sides, the construction of the Riereta gardens to the west was postponed
indefinitely, and, to the east, a new intervention was planned between the project site and the
historic Carrer d’en Robador (Figure 2).
The technical argument used to justify the modification of the 1985 design was that the land
where the north and south ends were to be built did not meet the requirements of the PERI,
according to which any plot of land should be “intrinsically easy to address in constructive
terms” (Artigues, 1993 and Artigues and Cabrera, private conversations in 2012). When
municipal architects studied the executive aspects, various legal and technical complications
emerged, particularly in relation to the management of land for which the 1985 project had not
foreseen a unified treatment. A plan to rehabilitate the façades overlooking the plaza was added
to the new project, which replaced the Italian influences of the first version with local
architectural references. As a result of these changes, the area covered by the square (58x317 m)
would be almost two acres.

117
The Generalitat was required to fit the BCC prescriptions only in few, basic elements. This fact has
been, for some years, a generator of discrepancies in policies and operations between municipal and
regional administration.
924

Figure 2. On the left, the 1993 proposal (Procivesa 1996). On the right, aerial view of the
completed Rambla del Raval in 1999.

The amended plan received final approval in 1994, coinciding with European Union grants
that would fund up to 85% of the operation. ERDF funding was obtained with a semantic trick
because the project was presented as “environmental regeneration” in order to comply with
grant requirements, designed to finance development based on ecological and sustainable
criteria in accordance with the EU’s Green Paper. The semantic ploy was only apparent,
however; the new plan really was a plan for environmental improvement. Besides increasing the
amount of public space (enhanced by a double row of trees), the operation effectively
reorganized all the technical services, introducing a pneumatic waste collection system and an
efficient mechanism for draining and reusing rainwater to irrigate the trees. The project actually
marked the end of the Raval’s long history of periodic flooding.
The architect Jaume Artigues materialized the new project jointly with the architect Pere
Cabrera, of Procivesa. From a compositional viewpoint, it was a diligent Barcelona-style
exercise, with one outstanding non-orthodox element: trees. The great mass of green (133 trees,
including palms, planes and jacarandas) mitigated the colossal dimensions of the opening and
constituted the main difference between the project for this plaza and the many places dures, the
hard squares that had characterized the city in the 1980s, when local practice had tended to shun
any visual elements that prevented the unitary perception of space. In the PCR, a hierarchy of
grassy and paved areas culminated in a central section with a pedestrian corridor, designed for
strolling and for setting up markets or similar activities. Throughout, lines of stones marking the
outlines of the demolished blocks would punctuate the pavement. At the northern and southern
ends, two large ellipses cut into the ground, highlighted by palm trees, mark the limits of the
project without the volumetric solidity originally envisaged.
The new square emerged as a convincing architectural composition but caused considerable
controversy as an urban operation. Criticism was initially leveled at real-estate issues; to give
the project its final dimensions, the number of demolitions within the PCR area was extended
(Figure 3), affecting some listed buildings such as the Modernista townhouse of Can Buxeres
and the Sastre Marqués pharmacy designed by Puig i Cadafalch. The heritage status of these
items had been previously downgraded to keep up an appearance of correctness. Though neither
was a major monument, the chosen method (declassification) was hasty and led to protests in
defense of architectural heritage. Many residents’ associations and individual citizens (including
 925

famous names such as the writer Manuel Vázquez Montalbán and the dramatist Josep Maria
Benet i Jornet) spoke out against the threat represented by the planned destruction of the Raval’s
historic fabric and a “Neighborhood Heritage Destruction List” was published118.

Figure 3. A picture of the first demolitions of PCR, in 1998.

Difficult as the proposed morphologic change of the district was, the process of
expropriation was even more complex. Council administrators and local residents’ associations
had agreed on a model of compensation, with residents being required to demonstrate a
minimum of five years’ continued occupation and proof of legal occupation (utility bills were
accepted) to be eligible. Those entitled were offered the choice of reallocation in the Raval or
elsewhere in the city, or financial compensation. Although (as thorough documentation and
interviews suggest) everyone who met the requirements and expressed the desire to stay in the
area received satisfaction, conflict was inevitable.
Firstly, there was the attitude of the municipal employees, generally described as
uncooperative. This was probably due to awareness that residents of other districts were trying
to exploit the blurred legal situation of many buildings, the ownership of which was sometimes
impossible to clarify; it was well known that many individuals, some highly conflictive, took up
occupancy of apartments, pretending to be eligible for compensation.
There was also the unchecked economic trend. By late 1995 (coinciding with the start of
demolition), there was a dramatic increase in real-estate prices, generating major friction
between the Administration and residents about the expropriations, which had noticeably
increased. Council planners did not want to postpone the construction once announced, since
property values quickly outstripped the appraisals carried out in 1993, making them
impracticable.
In operational terms, the granting of ERDF funds came as a boost, and in early 1999 the first
project phase was complete. A huge celebration under the slogan “El Raval de la gent” (The
Raval of the people) marked the opening, presented as a new lease of life for the district. The
space was thus christened “Rambla del Raval”, prompting local writer Quim Monzó to
comment ironically on the contradiction inherent in a space that was designed as a plaza and
came into being as an avenue to nowhere, with no clear purpose other than letting the sun in119

118
Vázquez Montalban gave, in his novels of the 1980s and 1990s, a good description of the atmosphere
of old Raval, perceiving the transformations going on. In 1999, Benet i Jornet described in the pièce
“Olors” the drama of a Barcelona family who must leave the territory where have lived for generations. In
2000, activist Octavi Alexandre edited, on his own, an exhaustive list of historic buildings demolished
during the renovation process of the center.
119
The writer Quim Monzó and the journalist Lluís Permanyer wrote several articles in the local
newspaper La Vanguardia, pointing out that the name “Rambla” is supposed to be, in Catalan language,
an avenue resulting by covering some former urban creek. The Rambla del Raval was, instead, a new cut
in the urban fabric.
926

On September 16, 2000, the last building was demolished and the now empty space was
inaugurated with a festive event. General enthusiasm momentarily took precedence over
complaints about expropriation, demolition and social conflict. Newspaper chronicles described
the end of “centuries of marginalization” of the Raval, whose residents could finally emerge
from the neighborhood without being ashamed of their origin, and where ladies from the
bourgeois Sarrià district could venture to visit the new Rambla without risk120.

Figure 4. Municipal advertising in the local press, of the new Rambla del Raval. The
slogan says: “Rambla del Raval, 1988 a project, 2001 a reality”.

Leaving aside the celebratory tone of press and officials, there were inevitably pros and cons
to the Rambla del Raval operation. The pros included innovative design and private investment
in remodeling buildings, which occurred surprisingly fast in comparison with other city-center
sectors. Private spending totaled 890 million pesetas, whereas the Administration had spent 17
billion pesetas (85% from the ERDF), 8.3 billion of which went on reallocating 925 residents.
As regards the cons, real-estate prices had risen far more than expected: for a flat in a
publicly rehabilitated building, the average price per square meter rose from 193,000 pesetas in
1995 to 230,000 pesetas in 2000. In the case of new warehouses or apartments rehabilitated by
individuals, the prices tripled. For the first time, real-estate agencies specializing in the Raval
appeared. This was positive in itself, but it led to a huge, unchecked rise in prices leading to
speculation with private property and the unexpected effect of momentary stagnation of the
market121. The apartments overlooking the new Rambla were sold for 400,000 pts/m2, and the
average rent skyrocketed from 15,000 to over 75,000 pts/month.
Turning to look at social problems, twelve months after the inauguration of what is now
called Rambla del Raval, there was no perceptible sign of improvement. Drug dealing and use,
petty crime and prostitution, poverty and insalubrity picked up where they had left off, and
initial enthusiasm gave way to general disenchantment. The big question, repeatedly echoed by
the local press, was whether such an enormous operation had actually been necessary.

120
In almost every newspaper like La Vanguardia, El Mundo or El País between July and October 2000,
there are daily chronicles of how the city of Barcelona was discovering the new space in the former
Barrio Chino.
121
Such a contradiction in the economical ambit (the stagnation of the market coinciding with the rising
of the prices) was only apparent: the administration had not considered, in original plan, that somebody
out of Raval could have interest in invest in the area. The stagnation was, thus, the consequence of the
enlargement of the potential range of buyers, since many owners were just waiting to see where was the
new limit of the market.
 927

Operation robador

Doubts and criticism gained intensity when work began on the project to remodel the adjacent
area around Carrer d’en Robador in spring 2000. Unlike the new Rambla, the Robador plan
could not even remotely be termed environmental regeneration; it was purely—and quite
explicitly—an initiative on the part of Barcelona City Council to raise funds to avoid bank debt.
This self-financing tactic, alien to Procivesa’s mission, was based on a zero-profit logic, since
improvement of the historic center would in itself generate substantial opportunities for business
and prosperity (Brunet i Cid, 1996).
In the 1985 PERI, no significant intervention had been planned in the two blocks between
Carrer d’en Robador and the new Rambla. Five years later, however, following the approval of
the project’s new layout, political voices were raised about the risks of such a large operation in
terms of time and cost. Some parties called for a parallel operation to produce capital gains that
would compensate for the dreaded rise of costs and secure a reserve of land that could, at least
partially, be used for public infrastructures.
The solution seemed to lie in and around Carrer d’en Robador, one of Barcelona’s most
conflictive streets, famous for its round-the-clock prostitution that aggravated other problems
like drugs, petty crime, STDs and lack of investment in private properties. A shock intervention
here was therefore seen as an effective way to consolidate the success of the neighboring
Rambla del Raval (Figure 5).

Figure 5. Layout of the Robador operation as presented in municipal advertising in local

press in 2001.

At the end of 1994, Procivesa was commissioned to draft the plan. An initial layout
envisaged the expropriation and demolition of 50 buildings, freeing up 12,706.48 m2 of land,
2,700 as public gardens (initially referred to as the Jardins d’en Robador). Studies of the
executive aspects started and, in 1995, the area was the subject of an international student
architect competition at the UIA 96 Congress held in Barcelona (Procivesa, 1996).
To speed up proceedings, Procivesa decided to act as an independent agent in the open
market in direct negotiations for buying properties, expediting the usual expropriation process.
Meanwhile, the social climate heated up when the City Council confirmed that the buildings in
the Robador area would be demolished. The brusque management of the expropriations,
together with the popular belief that the promised gardens would be replaced by a private
underground car park, increased local residents’ opposition.
In 1997, the architecture practice Martorell-Bohigas-McKay (MBM) signed an agreement to
develop a new detailed plan for the area. MBM’s configuration included a new building for the
UGT trade union headquarters, 10,000 m2 of social housing and another 10,000 m2 to be sold
on the free market, plus 9,500 m2 for trade or services, and a public underground car park. At
this point, Mayor Joan Clos personally called for the addition of a 4-star hotel with at least 110
928

rooms—cutting 7,000 m2 from other uses—to benefit from Barcelona’s booming tourist trade
(Cabrera, personal conversation in 2012).
It was, then, unsurprising that by the late 1990s the Robador operation was exciting even
greater expectations than the Rambla del Raval, exceeding purely financial concerns, as Deputy
Mayor Xavier Casas wrote in a confidential note three days after the inauguration of the
Rambla:
[To a] large extent, right or wrongly, general opinion about the results of the huge
investment throughout Ciutat Vella will be strongly influenced by the success of the
development of the Robador area and the Rambla del Raval. Since the latter is practically
defined down to the last detail, we now have to decide on the profiles of the Robador area. The
key importance of creating the [right] real-estate product is obvious.
Josep Martorell, one of MBM’s principals, was also apprehensive about the outcome of the
operation, since his task involved basic planning, with no specific project and no supervision or
overall coordination of the new blocks. Presented to the public in its final version on September
28, 2001, the new plan sparked controversy due to the volume of a 45-meter high hotel. This
height exceeded the regulatory maximum and, since it was impossible to amend the Master
Plan, the only way to keep within legal boundaries was to compensate for this height by
removing the four top floors of the municipal tower block built in the 1960s at the heart of the
Barri Gòtic. It was also decided to include in the operation the new Film Theater of Catalonia
(eventually built just meters away) to attract cultural tourism.

Identity vs. Planning

The Robador operation turned out to be extremely complex, both administratively and
practically. The presence of many undocumented immigrants in abandoned apartments and the
speculative expectations of owners (at one point, harassment became a social emergency) fed
tensions that had already been reactivated by the persistence of petty crime in the new Rambla.
It was at this point that the spectacular and completely unexpected increase in newcomers to
the Raval emerged as a crucial element in the ongoing urban process. The demographic
transformation had started slowly a decade previously but became clearly visible in the mid-
1990s, when the newcomers, primarily Pakistani, filled in the gaps in municipal plans. It was no
coincidence or simply a matter of low rents that the Pakistani community grew from 600 to
10,000 inhabitants in the same years and on the same site that the new Rambla was built. They
filled the empty space with a visible identity, welcoming the opportunity of a livable public
space well suited to a culture that was used to living much of its social life in public spaces 122.
The immigrants replaced the historic inhabitants with almost no conflict and saw the traditional
urban fabric through new eyes, unaware of local prejudices and complaints about the infamous
Barrio Chino. Moreover, the Pakistanis were interested in safeguarding their businesses and
created vigilance against drug dealers and pickpockets. These extemporary initiatives were not
enough to eliminate crime; many petty criminals benefited from municipal urban planning,
since it provided fresh victims in the form of new residents or visitors from other districts. In
addition, tourists began to be a considerable presence in the area, fascinated by the myth of the
infamous Barrio Chino (however much less dangerous than many similar areas in London, Paris
or Athens), and attracting even more pickpockets.
The increasing presence of foreigners, who had “inexplicably exceeded the locals in both
trade and in attendance” (El País, 2001), became the main problem of the Rambla del Raval just
a few years after its inauguration. The 1985 PERI was drafted with the ultimate aim of freeing
the area from the marginal living conditions that had made the name “Barrio Chino” a synonym
of urban poverty worldwide. Almost fifteen years later, the flamboyant new Rambla had erased

122
In 2002, a show called “Super Raval” featured a kind of Pakistani Superman who solved the district’s
problems. In the same year, a movie, En construcción (directed by José Guerin), and a music compilation,
“Barcelona Raval Sessions”, highlighted the far-reaching metamorphosis of the sector’s identity.
 929

much of that wretched identity, leaving in its place a blurred image. Most long-time residents
left the area, replaced by new communities, mostly from unfamiliar (for the most of
Barcelonans) areas of the planet. At the same time, tourists became a regular presence, though
showing far more interest in the now relatively safe bohemian atmosphere of places like Bar
Marsella (whose absinthe was praised by Ernest Hemingway) than the contemporary urban and
interior design promoted by Barcelona City Council (Delgado, 2005). In an attempt to create a
landmark in the space, in 2003 a sculpture by Colombian artist Fernando Botero was installed in
the southern stretch of the new Rambla. The presence of his gigantic bronze Gato (Cat) has been
well received by residents and visitors, and has gone some way to moderate the frequent
vandalism in nearby streets.
By 2005, the area was once again more dangerous than the rest of the center, though still not
comparable to the dramatic situation thirty years previously. The residents’ associations claimed
that the Rambla had made things even worse, because its large empty space provided the young
population (Erasmus students, squatters and local gangs) with a perfect public venue for
socializing, with the attendant noise, consumption of alcohol and drugs, and fights. A more
serious danger emerged in 2008, when petty crime and international Islamist terrorism
unexpectedly joined forces; counterfeit copies of passports stolen from tourists on the Rambla
del Raval by local pickpockets were found in the hands of Al-Qaida members in the Middle
East123.
The inauguration on February 12, 2012 of the Film Theater of Catalonia, designed by
architect Josep Lluís Mateo, marked the end of the main interventions in the area, still [2014]
dotted with street prostitution (officially banned since 2011) and latent social tension between
the various groups of residents (Pakistanis, Africans, Europeans, Spaniards and Catalans). In
this sense, the Rambla del Raval can be regarded as having failed to construct the new local
identity envisioned by the plan’s original mission.
At the same time, Artigues and Cabrera’s project has reached its maturity as a work of public
space design. Geographer Edward Soja could now [2014] hardly repeat the words he uttered in
2001, declaring that the Rambla was the worst thing he had seen during his visit to Barcelona
(La Vanguardia, 2001).

Conclusions

More than ten years later, what was once a wide-open empty space is now a pleasant place that
channels many surrounding pedestrian streets and is a reference point for neighborhood life.
Thanks also to the successful activation of private investment in the buildings that line it, the
Rambla has acquired a visual coherence, and many people who go there everyday do not realize
that the space was created from scratch at the end of 2000. The large Pakistani community has
played a significant role in this process, never expressing discomfort with the demolitions or the
morphological distortion of the district, as many arrived in Barcelona when the main destruction
was already past. In a curious historic tradeoff, the construction of the Rambla del Raval,
originally designed as an urban improvement in response to a century-old demand on the part of
a desperate district, has become the ideal scenario for all kinds of newcomers, playing the same
role as a sandbox in computer security: it provides a safe environment for new arrivals, with
relatively low conflict with the rest of the city, until the true nature of the process is clear. This
probably explains why the area’s important demographic change did not provoke the tensions
and violence seen in other European cities at this time, including Barcelona’s parallel operation
in the eastern sector of Ciutat Vella, where a considerably less aggressive intervention produced

123
The most remarkable case happened in the event of the 2011 Mumbai attacks, where the main
commando used counterfeited passport reportedly stolen in Raval two years before.
930

major neighborhood confrontations between 1996 and 2004 (Calavita and Ferrer, 2000; Capel,
2005; Delgado, 2007).
Less clear is the effect of the Robador intervention, halfway between a clumsy attempt to
mix different social realities (one of the most acclaimed ideas of the social democrat Council of
the 1980s) and the clash of irreconcilable urban settings. This contrast is apparent every day
around the tower block that is the 4-star Hotel Barceló, where middle-class tourists, street
prostitutes and the Carrer Sant Rafael mosque share the same area with mutual suspicion, latent
tension, minimum contact and no real interaction. In this sense, the fears expressed by
opponents of the project, that hotel guests would use the Rambla as a drop-off point for their
cabs without ever interacting with the environment, have been fully confirmed by daily
experience.
However, the assertive morphological intervention of the Rambla del Raval has also
somehow helped to dissolve the traditional barrier between the street and the inside of the city
blocks. As Francesc Múñoz pointed out, many bars, clubs and restaurants recently to have
opened in the area have big, transparent frontages and interiors that echo the compositional
theme of the new outdoor design (Múñoz, 2008).
The real unplanned factor has been the tourist boom, not just as statistical data but as a
phenomenon. In Barcelona City Council’s political plans in the early 1980s, the creation of an
appealing new image for the Raval was a clear objective. The role of the cultural hub in the
northern sector and the “Piazza Navona” in the old Barrio Chino was to attract to this part of the
old town Barcelonans who had previously never dared to pass the Liceu opera theater, the
gateway to the “underworld” (Scarnato, 2013). The initial aspiration to Italian models of
contemporary urbanism (particularly Aldo Rossi, Carlo Aymonino and Umberto Secchi) was
supposed to represent a step forward at both urban and social level. The surprising success as a
tourist destination of the Catalan capital after the 1992 Olympics was also fueled by amazing
images of a remodeled Barcelona, where architects and planners were able to shape the city and,
to some extent, its society. This, at least, was the mantra of many official messages around the
change of millennium.
Neither the non-European newcomers nor today’s large volume of tourists met these
expectations. The Rambla del Raval is the stage of a social drama where, rather than following a
common script, the actors try to inhabit the space according to needs, desires and possibilities
only partially in keeping with Barcelona Council’s original plans. For instance, the popular
atmosphere of the sector lives on, as clothes hanging from the balconies (forbidden elsewhere)
prove at any time of day. Pakistanis have adapted very well to the “Ravalestan” spirit, and both
short- and mid-term visitors (between one and eight months) appreciate a moderately roguish
environment. Moreover, tourism has a major impact on the current trend of apartment
renovation, emerging as a trending habit on the part of owners and designers, once reluctant to
see any technical or aesthetic value in the area’s houses.
Behind the reevaluation of the physical characteristics of old Raval houses there is a trend
with unpredictable and potentially much greater consequences for economic and social identity
than the shock intervention of the new Rambla. The future of the area will depend largely on the
stance adopted by Barcelona City Council on the effects for real estate of the area’s touristic
success.

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932

The role of municipality in urban regeneration: the case of

Lisbon’s Eastern waterfront

Ana Nevado
DINÂMIA’CET-IUL, ISCTE-Lisbon University Institute.
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. Urban regeneration as an integrated process is an essential component of the current and
future public policies, which justifies its research. Post-industrial and declined areas, such as the Eastern
waterfront of Lisbon, are complex and peculiar territories that require a critical look on urban
regeneration and management. We analyse it aiming to understand the crucial changing role of the
municipality in urban regeneration processes – through political, governance models and agents – as
well as the main agents of change involved in strategic, collaborative planning. Within this scope, we
consider the transformation of public policies, urban plans and governance models until now; the urban
planning/management leaded by Lisbon’s municipality, partnerships and public participation; the
evolution of urban morphology of the case study and its relation with the city and the metropolitan area.
Considering the contemporary context of scarcity of financial resources and the triggered challenges by
globalisation, we intend to contribute to the debate on the evolution of spatial planning and management.
We conclude that new ways of planning based on urban regeneration are emergent opportunities
throughout the construction of networks of communication and cooperation among several agents of
change - government, private sector and communities –, where Architects are elementary.

Key Words: Urban regeneration, municipal planning/management, public participation, Lisbon,

collaborative planning

Introduction

Urban regeneration is currently an essential component of public policies, which justifies its
research (Portas 2003; Ferreira 2013). However, although urban regeneration is widely
experienced, it is still a slightly understood phenomenon (Friesecke 2007, p.2).
Despite there is not a standard/universal definition worldwide, in this particular context we
define urban regeneration as integrated, inclusive, collaborative and strategic social and
economic processes of (re)developing specific urban areas (MAOTDR 2007; 2013).
Consequently, municipalities play a decisive role of planning, management and especially
change, throughout the definition of strategies, political/governance models and instruments
(Fidalgo 2012).
Many cities, especially industrial ones, were affected by the most severe industrial decline
during the 20th century, leading to mass joblessness and subsequently an out movement of
people (Friesecke 2007, p.4). Post-industrial cities and urban areas suffered remarkable
economic decline. De-industrialization brought about by reductions in demand for traditional
products and intensifying competition from elsewhere has eliminated much of the industrial
base, employment and social stability that existed in 1960’s (Friesecke 2007, p.4). The
consequences for the cities – such as: polarization of demographic development between
different regions (growth islands next to shrinking regions); demographic decline in cities with
severe impacts on municipal housing (vacancy, deterioration), real estate market (decrease of
property values), technical and social infrastructure (under-use) and retail development (lack of
consumer traffic, slump in sales); ongoing suburbanization to the detriment of downtown
development/population (Friesecke 2007, p.4).
Urban development and urban regeneration are complex processes, which are influenced by
many general conditions, such as the impacts of demographic and economic change (Friesecke
 933

2007, p.2). The current tendency of shrinking cities has been transforming urban planning and
management in the last decades, focusing on and highlighting urban regeneration operations.
The Eastern waterfront of Lisbon is peculiar since it is a complex, post-industrial and
declined area (Custódio and Folgado 1999) in the city, requiring a critical look on its urban
planning and management, according to strategic, integrated and collaborative planning (Alves
2001; Ribeiro 2012).
We analyse it aiming to understand the crucial changing role of the municipality in urban
regeneration processes, through political, governance models as well as the main agents of
change involved in strategic, collaborative planning. Within this scope, we consider: (i) the
transformation of public policies, urban plans and governance models until now; (ii) the urban
planning/management leaded by Lisbon’s municipality, partnerships and public participation;
(iii) the evolution of urban morphology of the case study and its relation with the city and the
metropolitan area.
Aware of the implied difficulties in urban regeneration and the new challenges imposed on
Urban development policy, we intend to contribute to the debate on the evolution of spatial
planning and management through the analysis of conceptualizing, monitoring and management
practices of urban regeneration operations in the territory as well as the main agents of change
involved, focusing on Lisbon’s municipality.
Considering the contemporary context of scarcity of resources, funds and the triggered
challenges by globalization (Ferreira 2005), we conclude that new ways of planning are
emergent and an opportunity (Tyler, et al. 2013) throughout the construction of networks of
communication and cooperation among several social actors - government, private sector and
community (Alves 2001) – where Architects are elementary.

Urban regeneration and (re)development: strategies, instruments and agents of change

In this section, we focus on a brief enlightenment of the main strategies and instruments lead by
municipalities on urban regeneration to cope with urban decline and the most important agents
of change that are involved.
It is important to be aware of the fact of the meaning of urban regeneration has widened
since the early 1990s, when it was associated mainly with economic and infrastructural
development (Davies 2002, p.9). However, it is now an umbrella term understood as the
promotion of the social, economic and environmental well-being of an area (Davies 2002, p.9).
The wide-ranging and integrated visions and actions of urban regeneration lead to the resolution
of urban problems, seeking to improve economic, social and environmental conditions of
specific urban areas that have been changed (Roberts and Sykes, 2000:17 cited in Friesecke
(2007:6). Therefore, urban regeneration means improving the physical, economic and social
well-being of current cities (Friesecke 2007, p.1). Over the past years it has played an important
role due to the changing demographic (i.e., shrinking populations, ageing, diversification of
lifestyles and migration) and economic (i.e., globalization, the deregulation of markets, rise in
unemployment) conditions (Friesecke 2007, p.1). Those complex processes lead to a strong
pressure for urban change due to vacant land and building, obsolete or under-used infrastructure
and social segregation (Friesecke 2007, p.1), such as gentrification.
Urban regeneration programs are locally and regionally developed, inducing the participation
of several formally independent organizations and individuals (Figueira 2007).
In council-manager governments, the council is more generally expected to arrive at some
sort of consensus of views (Davies 2002). The task of the council may even be interpreted as
finding the best means to ends which are assumed to be agreed upon (Davies 2002).
In Portugal, as it happens worldwide and especially in the U.S.A. and U.K., Central
Government is becoming more influential in the local policy arena (Davies 2002). The model of
‘governing without government’ (Rhodes cited in Davies 2002, p.1), depending on the
interaction of public and private sector actors in (informal) networks in order to generate
934

economic growth, is being departed from the influence and control by central states (Davies
2002, p.1), especially since 2008 (Crisis). Although partnerships are a distinctive mode of
governance (Davies 2002, p.1), having been developed in the 1990s, they are losing strength.
Hence, individuals and organizations must collaborate to achieve goals (Davies 2002, p.5).
Empowerment (or collaborative synergy) is an important issue for theories of networking and
regime governance is a highly specific form of collaborative politics and a specialized form of
networking (Davies 2002, p.5-8).
Whereas urban planning and urban development in Europe have been heavily development-
orientated with the focus on extending infrastructure and designating new residential areas,
globalization, demographic and economic change leads to substantial changes in urban
development policy (Friesecke 2007, p.2). Urban growth has been replaced by stagnation and
shrinkage processes at many places in Europe in the last decades (Friesecke 2007, p.2). This
process of change rises to new challenges and tasks for the federal governments, states and
municipalities and results in a new planning range and readjusted urban support instruments
coping with shrinkage (Friesecke 2007, p.2), such as urban regeneration.
Facing deep transformations, cities are undergoing structural changes (Friesecke 2007, p.6)
as its governance models through multi-scale networks (Davies 2002). Urban regeneration is a
multidisciplinary approach that requires a well coordinated set of strategies and options (Fidalgo
2012, p.8). Currently, it is one of the main goals of urban policies of central and local entities at
national and international scales. In the contemporary context of change, urban policies and
especially integrated processes highlight the need to rethink the relation between citizens, State
and territory in terms of models and solutions of governance, considering, however, the
individualities of each municipality.
Nevertheless, it is important to highlight that urban regeneration is beyond urban renewal
(which is an essentially physical change process), urban development (general mission) and
urban revitalization (which has no precise method or approach and is fundamentally about
social-economic transformation) (Lang 2005, p.8 cited in Friesecke 2007, p.6). It should be
based upon a detailed analysis of the condition of an urban area and seek to ensure consensus
through the fullest possible participation and cooperation of all stakeholders with a legitimate
interest in the regeneration of the area (Roberts and Sykes 2000, p.18 cited in Friesecke 2007,
p.6), which can be achieved through partnerships (Friesecke 2007, p.6).
In general, and according to Friesecke (2007), the priority objectives of urban regeneration
can be specified in the following categories: (i)improving housing and living conditions of the
residents of older districts; (ii) strengthening and supporting the vitality and economic functions
of such districts; (iii) renewing and preserving their building stock as well as their urban
physical and social structure.
There is a variety of themes and topics involved in urban regeneration, and the multiplicity
of interrelated outputs (Friesecke 2007, p.6). Nevertheless, any urban regeneration strategy
needs to be adapted to each circumstance and place within which it operates (Friesecke 2007,
p.6).
We follow the definition of urban regeneration including the principle of ensuring
sustainable development in all areas of public and private policy as a “comprehensive and
integrated vision and action which leads to the resolution of urban problems and which seeks to
bring about a lasting improvement in the economic, physical, social and environmental
condition of an area that has been subject to change” (Roberts and Sykes 2000, p.17 cited in
Stouten 2010, p.28).
As in many other European countries, the role of local authorities became marginalized as
central government began to encourage planning in partnership with private investors (Stouten
2010, p.27). The relation between State, city and citizen grew apart (Ferreira 2005). Cities
became agents of state, dependent on putting national public policies into practice and
legitimizing forms of land management prescribed by the state (Stouten 2010, p.27).
Today local governments are taking the initiative, within their own constitutional limits, to
launch programs of urban regeneration in a climate governed by a pan-European concern to
 935

adopt a uniform cooperative policy (Couch, Fraser and Percy 2003; Drewe, Klein and
Hulsbergen 2008 cited in Stouten 2010, p.28). The strategy adopted for urban regeneration
involves a continuous process of refurbishment and modernization of the urban fabric rather
than short-term fixes (Stouten 2010, p.28). This strategy combined physical, economic and
social restructuring, re-engineering and reinvention of the city-region (Ravetz 2000, p.274 cited
in Stouten 2010, p.28), such as: (i) Physical restructuring, continuous and city-wide, to achieve
strategic environmental targets; (ii) Diversification of employment and the economy to counter
risks generated by globalization; (iii) Social empowerment through community action and the
third sector economy; (iv) Urban and environmental planning for the city-region (‘a sustainable
development framework’).
Being aware of spatial relationships underlie territorial politics at all levels (such as
neighbourhood, city, regional, state and global) (Stouten 2010, p.28), we consider that urban
development is influenced by the relationships between spatial and social processes that have
been developed during the last decades (Stouten 2010, p.28).

Main strategies and instruments: Partnerships

It is consensual in Europe (e.g.: Netherlands and UK) on the importance of an appropriate

model for a more compact, mixed-use urban form towards the creation of sustainable cities
(Raco 2007 cited in Stouten 2010, p.52). A compact city gives priority to urban regeneration,
the revitalization of the city centre, restrictions on planned developments in rural areas, high
density, mixed functions, public transport and the concentration of urban development at public
transport interchanges and the concentration of urban development at public transport
interchanges and, to encourage sustainable development, reduction in the use of motor vehicles
and pollution and minimizing the loss of rural areas (Stouten 2010, p.52-53).
The financial situation in many cities is concerning, so that municipalities ascertain losses of
revenues to finance urban (re)development, local public transportation improvement and the
construction and maintenance of roads, schools, hospitals, cultural and sports facilities
(Friesecke 2007, p.1). Therefore, partnerships between public and private sector may be a
reasonable instrument for urban (re)development and urban revitalization.
The range of partnership activities is divided between ‘policy’ and ‘implementation’ types
(Davies 2002, p.9). Collaboration tend to be structured in the production of ‘policy’ partnerships
responsible for establishing goals and making funding bids, and ‘implementation’ partnerships
responsible for project delivery (Davies 2002, p.10). These types of partnerships exhibit
different collaborative dynamics (Davies 2002, p.10). However, the endogenous dynamic to
regeneration dynamics is weak (Davies 2002, p.10).
According to Elkin (cited in Davies 2002, p.15), current partnership structures would have to
be redesigned to enable local innovation and autonomous action. For instance, in the U.S.A.,
while local governments are ‘creatures of the state’, they enjoy practical autonomy (Stone 1998,
p.2 cited in Davies 2002, p.15). According to Rhodes (cited in Davies 2002, p.15), autonomy is
a condition of networking, trust and diplomacy, although it is not an evident feature of local
regeneration politics in Britain. However, local collaborative dynamics remain weak across a
wide range of local governance activities in Britain (Davies 2002, p.16), due to the fact of: not
only regeneration partnerships but also local politics in general, are characterized by hierarchies
which are becoming stronger (Davies 2002, p.16); it is easier to build and sustain where the
influence of central government is weakest (Davies 2002, p.16); where new participatory
mechanisms have been established as part of the drive to re-build local democracy and they
have succeeded in mobilizing sections of a given community, they have not given local citizens
more control over local politics (Davies 2002, p.16). Participatory strategies have not resulted in
bottom-up networks, because they are constrained by hierarchical tendencies and also because
non-state actors do not have sufficient leverage, once involved, to make a difference (Davies
2002, p.16).
936

According to Figueira (2007, p.33), urban planning and management depends on public
participation through the coordination between several agents and multidisciplinary groups: (i)
representatives of political and administrative power, mediators and policy makers related to the
choices within spatial planning; (ii) Professionals (technicians, experts and investigators) with
relevant and specific academic skills/competencies, provided with technical know-how about
interventions on territory; (iii) Economical agents and potential investors, i.e. stakeholders, on
rentable outcomes of urban operations (e.g.: private sector); (iv) civil society, i.e., common
citizens and/or final receivers of the taken urban options, decisions and interventions on the
territory that they occupy (e.g.: local communities and residents).
According to DGOTDU (2002), public participation in urban planning is a right of citizens,
through the participation on the elaboration, alteration, revision, execution and evaluation of
territorial management tools, as well as formulating suggestions and requesting for clarification
through those processes and participating on the final phase of public discussion before the
approval of urban plans (Figueira 2007, p.12-13). In general, public participation is related to
the capacity of involving local population and communities on social development of their
territories (Sanoff 2000, p.1 cited in Figueira 2007, p.13). «[Public Participation] reduces the
feeling of anonymity and communicates to the user a greater degree of concern on the part of
the management of administration. [With] it, residents are actively involved in the development
process; there will be a better maintained physical environment, greater public spirit, more use
satisfaction and significant financial changes.» (Becker 1997 cited in Figueira 2007, p.13).
The strengthening of public participation on urban planning and management reflects on the
reinforcement of democratization of/on that process, which reflects a wider and more
consequent involvement of society (Figueira 2007, p.57). Thus, other methodological
approaches are needed, in order to guarantee participated, inclusive and integrated development
processes, such as decentralization of power of decision (Figueira 2007, p.57). We consider that
this approach may be advantageous in urban regeneration through the reinforcement of local
administration entities (i.e.: Municipalities and especially Parishes) (Figueira 2007, p.57),
interactive processes (Figueira 2007, p.11) throughout regular debriefing sessions with local
communities and also incentives for people to present problems and proposals to improve the
city and its specific urban areas, that would be discussed and later reflected on urban plans (e.g.:
Municipal Master Plans), as a way of (re)developing a (symbolic) sense of belonging and
identity with the territory (Figueira 2007, p.57). This type of effective, strategic and
collaborative participation on urban planning and management is performed through
cooperation (such as partnerships and delegation of power) and also controlled by citizens, since
its contribution determines the final decisions (Figueira 2007, p.12).

The role of municipality in urban regeneration processes: the case of Lisbon’s Eastern
waterfront area

Considering that the city is the stage of democracy and public participation is structurally
fundamental on urban regeneration processes, in order to achieve social cohesion and to
(re)develop a sense of trust and identity between communities on specific urban areas, we
analyze the case of Lisbon’s Eastern waterfront. That complex, post-industrial and declined area
(Custódio and Folgado 1999) in the city requires a critical look on its urban management. due to
its urban evolution and importance of industrial and port activities, is currently a declined area.
Therefore, the role of municipality has in urban regeneration processes is essential, through the
implementation of public policies, such as Política de Cidades - POLIS XXI (MAOTDR 2007;
2013) and also urban plans. This scenario reveals an innovative management philosophy on
urban and spatial planning and management in large cities (Ferrão 1994; 2013), considering not
only the administrative boundaries that are defined on the Municipal Master Plan (CML 2012)
but also promoting social, physical and economic connections with the surrounding region, i.e.,
its metropolitan area (AML 2001).
 937

We consider the case study area along the Eastern waterfront area of Lisbon (Portugal),
specifically between Santa Apolónia and Parque das Nações. The consequent urban mutations
and evolution of the city, since its rural genesis (XVth century), the important industrial and
infrastructural overlap (during the XIXth century) and the aftermost declining process from
1960s, built complex and heterogeneous urban landscapes until today (Custódio and Folgado,
1999; Nevado 2013). The implementation of pollutant industries, large scale infrastructures
(e.g.: railways and port activities), disqualified neighbourhoods and the consequent process of
deindustrialization and the transfer of industry to other metropolitan areas around Tagus river
(e.g.: Margem Sul) since 1950, in parallel with globalization and urban sprawl on Lisbon’s
metropolitan area, promoted the lost of importance of Eastern waterfront area transforming it as
peripheral in the city in the last decades (Nevado 2013).
However, nowadays that territory represents opportunities through urban regeneration, by
reconnecting Tagus River to the city, articulating port areas with consolidated/obsolete urban
tissues and reconnecting it to central areas of the city through the reinforcement of
accessibilities.
Local authority in Municipalities is implemented through several entities - such as Town
Halls, its Representatives (i.e.: Presidents), Municipal Assemblies and Parishes - that determine
the use and form of occupation and development of cities (Figueira 2007, p.33). In the last
decade, communities have been required to participate on urban regeneration, through meetings
in local Parishes and Town Councils (Figueira 2007), forming partnerships (e.g.: Parcerias
para a Regeneração Urbana (Fidalgo 2012; CML 2012), among other strategies with benefits
for redeveloping urban declined areas (Tyler, et al. 2000).
But although public-private partnerships for urban regeneration are a useful tool, they are
still not sufficient for solving the current problems. Thus, it is needed a wider political strategy
that involve not only public investment programs but also private ones, in order to stimulate the
renting market, reviewing the estate tax system and also the legislation on urban rehabilitation
(Fidalgo 2012, p.vii). As we can identify on PDML – the current Municipal Master Plan of
Lisbon (CML 2012) -, the Municipal Council of Lisbon has been redirecting efforts towards
urban regeneration of the Eastern waterfront area of the city, for instance, by transforming and
updating the legal framework of renting regime. Despite some lack of articulation between
urban policies and the Administration of the Port of Lisbon, urban plans and especially
Municipal Master Plans focus on urban regeneration and rehabilitation (e.g.: PDML) (CML
2012). The role of municipality is, therefore, essential in urban regeneration of Lisbon’s Eastern
waterfront and to articulate it with other areas on the city, improving employment and attracting
people and investment.
Considering the transformation of public urban policies (Ribeiro 2012), urban plans and
governance models until now, The urban planning/management strategies and instruments (e.g.:
urban policies, urban plans such as Municipal Master Plans and strategic urban plans) leaded by
Lisbon’s municipality, partnerships and public participation as well as the evolution of urban
morphology of the case study and its relation with the city and the metropolitan area, we
conclude that the changing role of the municipality in urban regeneration processes is crucial,
especially in the current context of scarcity of financial funds (Bourdin 2011).

Conclusions

Considering the contemporary context of scarcity of resources, funds and the triggered
challenges by globalisation, we conclude that new ways of planning are emergent and an
opportunity throughout the construction of networks of communication and cooperation among
several social actors - government, private sector and community – where Architects are
elementary. We intended to contribute to the debate on the evolution of spatial planning and
management, focusing on the role of Lisbon’s municipality on urban regeneration on the
Eastern waterfront area of the city.
938

In this study we analyzed the role of municipality in urban regeneration operations on the
Eastern waterfront of Lisbon, focusing on the main agents of change and the need of alternative
methodological approaches. The chosen case study stands out for its ability to generate new
visions and practices of urban regeneration through municipal action, public discussion and
participation, under a flexible coordination and combining different types of agents.
Considering the long-term of urban regeneration projects, its institutional and financial
complexity, it is necessary a wide political and social support for strategic and prospective
(re)development proposals. Besides physical transformations, urban regeneration must provide
social consensus, closer relations between citizens, developers and local authorities in order to
be successful. Therefore, interactive collaboration among communities and institutional entities
is needed in several phases of development, implementation and review of legal mechanisms of
municipal urban planning and management, to (re)create and reinforce a sense of identity with
the occupied territory. Public participation plays a fundamental role during the several phases of
the process, in order to supply integrated approaches.
We emphasized on the relation of local government structures in processes of urban
regeneration, to contribute for the economic growth and development of communities. There is
still needed greater flexibility and transparency of political processes - especially on urban
planning, management and regeneration -, as well as wider coordination between
Administration entities and scales (e.g.: Central VS Local), decentralization and a monitored
execution through innovative processes of governance and partnership, including local and
regional actors (Ferreira 2005).
Once that redevelopment strategies and operations are not only a local but global
phenomenon, the involved entities and communities need to be coordinated at different scales
(e.g.: city-region). Hence, the role of the municipality on urban regeneration is crucial to update
IGT, diagnose problems and advantages, test and implement urban regeneration proposals and
alternative scenarios for the waterfront of Lisbon, articulating it with the city, its metropolitan
area, at a national scale and in global networks and flows, as an international port city.
This study also reveals that part of the handicaps of municipal/local planning of the last
decades can be surpassed through different methodological approaches (such as partnerships,
public participation and debate, and urban plans/instruments of territorial management) with
advantageous outcomes. The current legal framework highlights Municipal Master Plans as
synthesis of the strategy of local (re)development (Rodrigues 2005, p.136). Therefore, the
conception, management, execution and monitoring of the urban plans must embrace public
participation of local communities (Rodrigues 2005, p.136), in order to achieve social cohesion,
more inclusive approaches on urban (re)development - especially on urban regeneration -, and
forming consensus about competitive development of global cities (Figueira 2007, p.1) besides
connecting communities to the contemporary city (Lawless and Pearson 2012).
In general and in spite of urban decline, waterfronts of post-industrial and port cities are
emergent central areas, fulfilled with opportunities through urban regeneration and strategic
(re)development. Considering the scale of contemporary metropolitan city, the situation of
obsolescence, diversity and rigorous field of the Administration of the Port of Lisbon on the
riverfront, the Eastern area of Lisbon is a relevant case within the scope of urban regeneration.
Although EXPO ’98 global event and operation of urban regeneration had redirected critical
looks on this area, the current situation of urban decline along the river triggers challenges of
contemporary urban/spatial planning and management. However, that area is emerging in the
current context of scarcity of financial resources, through the implementation of strategic
models of municipal urban restructuring and (re)creation of central areas and identity.

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940

The re-appropriation of industrial sites in the urban form of

the post-Communist city

Iulia Statica
Department of Architecture and Design, La Sapienza University of Rome, Piazza Jose
de San Martin, n. 1, 00197, Rome, Italy. E-mail: [email protected],
[email protected]

Abstract. The paper purposes to analyse the phenomenon of the re-appropriation of post-communist
post-industrial urban sites in the city of Bucharest. The study aims to develop an interpretation of the
various conditions, from the technological to the ideological, that has contributed or could contribute to
determining the nature of the re-appropriation in terms of both urban memory and functional re-use.
Initially, the study will examine specific urban, industrial sites built between the late 19th and early 20th
centuries, as function of the industrialization of the Romanian economy, seen in their development in the
urban topography. From the middle of the 20th century, these spaces were included in the communist
project of growing Romanian industry. Examining the extent of the embodiment of the communist
ideologies in projecting a new urban form, the second part of the paper will investigate which was the
role of ideology in the process of appropriation and re-appropriation of these industrial sites. In today’s
Bucharest a big part of these spaces, lots of them already part of the industrial archaeological patrimony,
constitute huge un-used areas blocking the fluidity of the urban tissue. The paper thus asks, can the
contemporary re-appropriation of these sites result in an authentic rehabilitation of the urban tissue,
generating forms of political praxes that negotiate the various historical layers or appropriation and re-
appropriation which would mediate different understanding of urban memory and different experiences?

Key Words: Industrial sites, ideology, re-appropriation, urban memory, re-use

Introduction

The perpetual changes in the urban spatiality, the projects overlapping or successive in time, are
themes shaping the city’s specificity. Especially when certain events occur having a deep impact
at the social, economic or political level, the city reacts through changes manifested at a
physical level (the fabric of the city) and more important, in the way the new changes are
appropriated by the inhabitants (Stanilov, 2007). The almost 25 years from the 1989 Revolution
allowed, more or less, the new forces to manifest and to re-shape the post-Communist, city
following new principles. As Dingsdale noticed, ‘urban form has been often described in social
theory as a passive element of our social existence, a mirror reflecting past and present socio-
economic conditions, or a “text” serving as a basis for their interpretation’ (Dingsdale, 1999:
65).
The paper brings the hypothesis that industrial areas constituted significant spaces not only
for the economical context, but also they manifested themselves as urban and mental landscapes
both in Communism and post-Communism, representing one of the main themes which shaped
the urban topography. Furthermore, the socio-economic changes engendered by the fall of the
Communism can be clearly observed in the industrial areas. Their decline is probably the most
prominent site of the transition period manifested into the urban tissue (Kiss, 2007: p.147). It
proposes, therefore, that Bucharest can function as an exemplary context, through which the
issue of the re-appropriation of the post-Communist industrial spaces can be considered. After
the fall of the Ceausescu regime, the decline of the industry determined the emergence of
disaffected or ruined spaces into the urban topography, acting now as huge spaces of numerous
layers of history. The industrial architecture of Bucharest was of major importance during the
Communist era, but it, currently, exists as large patches of dead or underutilized urban tissue.
 941

The paper’s purpose is to examine the evolution of spatial patterns of the industrial landscape
both in the Communist and post-Communist city’s topography.
The first part of the study will draw the evolution of industrial spaces in Bucharest showing
the way they influenced the form of the actual city. Their evolution before and during
Communism will be explored. Having as well an ideological purpose – where the propaganda
was omnipresent – they led to deep changes in the urban tissue not only by their own presence,
but also by determining the emergence of new housing districts for the people who migrated to
the city. The second part will try to give an understanding of these spaces in the Communist
context, connecting them with notions belonging to the common imaginary and habitus. The
‘industry’ and the ‘factory’ represented semantic elements during Communism being the realm
where ideology fully unfolded attributing to these spaces a moral connotation (Chelcea, 2008:
p.98). The works of Henri Lefebvre and of some texts belonging to the Critical Theory will
serve as framework for approaching concepts such as urban memory and ideology, seen in their
relation to the theme of industry. The final part of the work will concentrate on the
contemporary re-appropriation of these industrial sites by the urban tissue. The impact of
political and socio-economic transformation can be clearly observed in the industrial areas of
the post-Communist city. One of the many areas of the city of Bucharest will serve as example
for investigating the way these spaces have adapted or not to the new capitalist post-Communist
context.
Before 1989, along with social housing and buildings of representation, the most important
theme in terms both of architecture/urban planning and social manifestation was the industry.
Even if in the Western countries, the end of the industrial era began much earlier, in the Eastern
part of Europe it ended only after the fall of Communism. The economic changes were strictly
connected with the political regimes and they involved radical transformations at the level of
urban form and social perception of the city. These changes can be easily observed in the
industrial areas of many post-socialist cities (Kiss, 2007). Their contemporary understanding is
not only connected with the economic importance but it also has cultural dimensions. According
to the era in which they existed, they also determined various controversies related to the
cultural place they occupy in the industry of the city. Since their emergence, in the second half
of the 19th century, the industrial spaces would represent a source of exploitation for the pre-war
socialists, whilst the nationalists will consider them a symbolic contamination with craftsmen
coming from other countries (Chelcea, 2008: p. 9). During Communism, these spaces will be
seen by the Party as a source of progress and as the main spaces where the propaganda was
disclosed. For the workers and the inhabitants around them, the ideology’s rituals present in the
factories became a tiresome manifestation of the regime because of the official visits and of the
excessive visibility in media and in the 50s literature (Chelcea, 2008: p.9). Today, again, a new
semantic is assigned to these spaces, mainly informed by their economic potential. Apart from
the nostalgic image which still persists in the collective memory, they are now ‘haunted’ by the
‘urban developers’ who consider them as real business opportunities due to their central
location.
The two layers of the city – the Communist and the post-Communist one – coexist as
framework for the new development being superimposed over the old urban fabric (Stanilov, 8).
In most cases, this overlapping of such different patterns also reflected the chaotic manner in
which the city developed. The factors that have contributed to the greatest extent to this
development have been generated by the new players and by the misapplication of some
developmental schemes taken from the West and applied without caring too much about
adjusting them according to the context, anyway precarious. The block type structure, unitary,
of the state, for more than 50 years, was after 1990, fragmented and dissipated in various
directions because of the political, social and economic interests (Stanilov, 8).
942

The theme of industry in Bucharest before 1989

Before 1880, Bucharest’s economy was characterized by small handcraft industries. There were
few exceptions, as the Assan’s Mill (1853), the Metallurgical Factory Le Maitre (1864), The
Brick Factory Max Tonolla (1865) or the Ceramic and Basalt Factory (1865). The rhythm of
industrial growth increased significantly also due to the establishment of the National Bank of
Romania in 1880, with the support of the liberal party which had the power at the time. At the
beginning of the 20th century, the number of factories started to grow, such that in the 30s there
were 332 factories. The accelerated growth of industrial development in Bucharest was due to
various factors including its status as capital, acquired after 1859 124 . Hosting the state
institutions influenced both the growth of the industry and the intense urbanization of the city
(Chelcea, 2008: 101). The administrative factor was very important as well, especially after
1918 when, after doubling the territory and the population, the administration increased even
more125. As a result, Bucharest was, until the beginning of the 20th century, rather a consumer
city than one of production (Madgearu, 1999: 132), meaning that it represented a large market
for selling different products. Another factor which determined the industrialization was the
expansion of Romanian Railways (Caile Ferate Romane), which created new opportunities for
the city’s industry through a rapid and cheap transport of the merchandise. New train stations
were built – Filaret Train Station (1869), Gara de Nord (1872) and Obor (1904) – which
constituted the core of Bucharest’s industrial areas (Chelcea, 2008: 104). The most important
industrial areas of the city began to take shape. Their location was determined mostly by the
railroads and other transportation networks. Therefore, in the first decades of the 20 th century,
six main industrial areas could be identified in the urban landscape, all of them having as
common point a strong connection with the transportation routes. Later, during Communism, a
period obsessed with production (it was a production society, not a consumer society!), the
rhythm of the economy, especially industry, grew much faster than in the West. In short time,
the industry became completely nationalized: the main companies were the first to go, by a
decree of 11 June 1948, and the others followed (Boia, 2001: 119). Soon after that, other three
industrial areas emerged, due mainly to the growth in the number of the population and to the
city’s expansion, but also to Communism which tried to exploit the whole industrial potential of
the city. This era presented a huge opportunity for outlining a new spatial structure of industrial
activities due to the new regime which reshaped drastically the socio-economic system.
However, the former industrial zones within the city did not change much – most of the
factories being rebuilt or reused on their existing sites. Being at that time under the USSR’s
influence126 and seen as well as an element of propaganda, the evolution of the industry was
made through the modernization of the nationalized factories and presented in a very
triumphalist way in the journals of that time. During this period, the economy of Bucharest was
no longer guided by the market, but by the “plan”, as a general principle of organization
(Chelcea, 2008:112). Ceausescu emphasized the industry’s development rate without taking into
account the real economic indicators. These were completed by an absolute economic control.
On the short term, this economic system had a positive impact on the social plan: a large amount
of working places was created, the urbanization of the villages and a relative wellbeing. On a
long term, it turned out to be a bankrupt policy which determined the industrial specialization of
whole regions, without offering alternatives. At a large scale, the Communists would invest only

124
Bucharest became the capital of the two Romanian provinces (Moldavia and Wallachia) after their
unification on 24 January 1859.
125
For instance, in 1930, 15% of all the public servants from Romania were living and working in
Bucharest (Golopenita, 2002: 350).
126
The USSR’s influence manifested in Romania from 1947, after the abdication of King Michael I, until
1965, with the beginning of Ceausescu’s government. Where Gheorghiu-Dej (the Communist leader after
1947) had hewed to a Stalinist line while the Soviet Union was in a reformist period, Ceaușescu initially
appeared to be a reformist.
 943

in three fields: the heavy industry, infrastructure and projects with a propagandistic character
(the Danube-Bucharest Canal and the transformation of Bucharest into one of the ports to the
Danube, the Civic Centre and the People’s Palace, and the transformation of the villages
through systematization into agro-industrial cities). The period between 60s and 70s is the
period of quantitative expansion but qualitative reduction, both at the dwelling level and
industrial activities. Bucharest becomes the target for great investments in the industrial field
(the development of IMGB factories, or Republica, old Malaxa). It is also the time when large
housing districts will be built due to the increasing job offer in the capital and also to the
migration of the people from the countryside to the city. Districts as Berceni, Titan-Balta-Alba,
Drumul Taberei, Colentina, Rahova, Ferentari or Crangasi are consequences of these changes.
These new buildings were very modest in terms of space for living for each inhabitant, but also
in terms of the quality of the services – reason for which they were nicknamed ‘matchboxes’.
The forced industrialization also absorbed an important part of the rural population and it sent
them into the towns where they were never fully integrated (Boia, 111). In communist Romania,
urban planning was centralized, technocratic and subordinated to national economic objectives.
It proceeded within the institutional and ideological framework of a single-party system (Hirt,
2005: 222). The building of a new world was announced: ‘entire areas of the towns were
flattened, without sparing historical buildings or even tiny segments of the traditional urban
landscape’ (Boia, 2001: 136). The district of tower blocks and the factory127 became the great
symbol of Communist modernization. The idea of the transformation of the towns as the ideal
solution was embedded in the human consciousness by the very aggressive propaganda showing
the magnificence of the newly-built areas. This attitude is also part of a rhetoric of the ‘active
new’ characteristic for the Communist discourse. The new tendency implies ’the erasure of the
traces left by the capitalist society founded on exploitation and its replacement with a new built
environment that would rest under the sign of satisfying the material and spiritual needs of the
working class’ (Zahariade, 2011: 34). As a consequence, the country has to become an immense
building site.

Industry as embodiment of ideology

Assuming the theoretical system of Henri Lefebvre, the production of space can be framed into
three categories: representations of space, spaces of representations and spatial practices.
Transferred to the Communist and post-Communist cities, all these three elements contribute to
the shaping of spaces, to their re-semantization and assignment of different understandings. The
representations of space which imply ideology and power can be best put into relation with the
industrial spaces and their role in the Communist system. After Communism, and implicitly,
after the end of the industrial era, these spaces continued of course to be part of the urban tissue,
engendering the production of other types of spaces: “the shift from one mode to another must
entail the production of a new space” (Lefebvre, 1991: p.46). The industrial spaces have been –
from spaces of representation of the ideology during Communism to the most encountered
actual condition of waste land – subject of nostalgias and fuel for visions of reconstruction or
preservation, without trying though to integrate them into the lived present (Boyer, 1996: p.1).
The Communist industrialization – a ‘transformist’ phenomenon of general mobilization itself –
needs people in order to occupy the work force. For this, the first step is constituted by the
industrial and general massification of the education. According to the instructions of the 12 th
Congress of PCR (The Romanian Communist Party), 90% of the students graduating secondary
school will be enrolled in industrial and agro-industrial high schools (Cernat, 2008: 235).

127
On the cover of one of the touristic guides for Bucharest, issued in 1962, the factory was ilustrated as
one of the main urban elements which contributed to the identity of the city (Ghidul Bucurestiului, Dan
Berindei, 1962).
944

To which extent the Communist appropriation of the industrial sites resulted in the
normalization of ideology, and by extension of the integration of ideology into the daily praxis?
Here, we may speak of a ritualization of space, referring to the types of industrial and political
praxes that evolved in the industrial Communist period. In the terms of the Critical Theory,
ideology, ‘spatialized or otherwise, is not just false consciousness’ (Goonewardena, 2005: 51)
as Althusser noted, but at some point, it comes to represent also the reality, in one way or
another, besides reflecting it wrongly. In other words, during Communism, the ideology became
part of human daily praxes, and proposed, instead of a naturally-appropriated tradition, a new
tradition. ‘However, while admitting that they [ideologies] do not correspond to reality, i.e. that
they constitute an illusion, we admit that they do make allusion to reality, and that they need
only be ‘interpreted’ to discover the reality of the world behind their imaginary representation of
that world (ideology=illusion/allusion)’ (Althusser, 1971: 162)
Ideology, said Althusser, is necessary in every society which needs its people to be formed
and transformed in order to respond to the offered conditions of existence (Althusser, 1990:
235; Goonewardena, 2005: 53). „Ideology, […] springs from a situation in which social life has
become too complex to be grasped as a whole by everyday consciousness. There is thus the
need for an imaginary model of it, which will bear something of the oversimplifying relation to
social reality that a map does to an actual terrain. Society, in the terminology of the eighteenth
century, has become ‘sublime’: it is an object which cannot be represented. ‘For the people as a
whole to get their bearings within it, it is essential to construct a myth which will translate
theoretical knowledge into more graphic, immediate terms’ (Eagleton, 1991: 151).
Space as a general concept has always been seen in relation to ‘notions of human utopia,
whether social, political, or economic’ (Buck-Morss, 1994). Space is not a passive surface, a
tabula rasa, but, as like other commodities in the words of Walter Benjamin, is itself actively
produced on the one side, and it has in its turn influences on the humans that are part of it. After
Communism, along with the industrial buildings it was not just ideology that was dissolute, but
also a ‘particular collective and individual identity, a social order that sustained life both
physically […] through the communities and solidarity that emerged within them’ (Pusca, 241).
Any kind of shift from a political or economic system to another ‘must entail the production of a
new space’ (Lefebvre, 46). The space is produced by the conditions and context it takes place
in. The human factor is also a significant component of the image and appropriation of a certain
territory, and as Richard Sennett assumes (Flesh and Stones, 1994), the body and the built
environment have always had a very strong symbiosis along the history, the morphology of the
ancient cities being closely related to the human body – as, for instance, the need for a
centrality. The traditional city gathered its inhabitants around central squares where some
symbolical institutions such as a church or parliaments were being housed. The modern city,
and especially the Communist city, removes these landmarks from the urban topography or
simply shifts the core of the community towards places of production such as industrial sites,
around which all the human activity is now concentrated. The city of Bucharest had a
fragmented structure, being organized in heterogeneous mahalale (slums), which constituted
themselves around centers, usually marked by the church. They represented the basic cell which
determined the structure of the entire city. After the instauration of Communism, these cells not
only physically dissolved by being incorporated into the new proposed urban tissue, habitat of a
‘new man’, but especially in symbolic terms, by destroying their centers and by replacing them
with spaces of production. The Communist strategy will attempt the urban and social unification
and rationalization and the main themes of the city will be the industry and the social housing.
They will constitute a priority for the socialist project and over the old fragmented structure of
the city a new one will be overlapped, unifying tissue which will modify not only the
morphology of the urban topography, but also a certain natural appropriation of the space
already learned and in a way ritualized in the human consciousness. The many years of
Communist regime, also determined a re-semantization of the city and of its landmarks. The
new conditions ideologically imposed transformed the initially pseudo-reality into a lived reality
which started to be appropriated by the inhabitants.
 945

The industrial sites after the 1989

The end of Communism brought about radical changes in the context within which urban
planning operates, such as: the development of a multi-party political system; a more stratified
society; the re-introduction of private property rights to land and various structures; the end of
the Communist economic; the highly decreased role of public institutions and the emergence of
a great variety of actors, mostly from the private sector (Nedovic-Budic, 2001). Covering up
a significant part of the city – the industrial spaces are now lying in ruin or underutilized,
forming large patches of dead tissue in the urban fabric. After 1990, many of Bucharest’s
factories have deeply changed their purpose. The effects of deindustrialization could be both
seen in terms of urban metamorphosis and as social problem (Chelcea, 2008: p.243).
The new changes, both in terms of law and economy, were the main conditions that
weakened the urban planning as well. The development of the private sector, the re-
consideration of the lands and real estate market (Hirt, 2005: 224), but also the chaotic way of
reacting in a democratic regime whose practice was missing, would represent elements which
would diminish significantly the management of a controlled and rational urban growth and
change. After the huge housing districts inherited from the former regime, the most significant
weight in Bucharest’s urban landscape will refer, after 1990, to the industrial sites. They are still
seen to embody, maybe the strongest, the heredity of the previous regime. Relevant for the
urban topography and imaginary in their various stages these spaces should now be re-
appropriated into a new paradigm, of the post-industrial post-Communist city and should deal
the various layers of understandings and legacies of their past in order to re-integrate them into
the actual urban tissue and memory.
To outline the way the industrial sites in the city of Bucharest have evolved, I will use as
example the case of one of the industrial areas in Bucharest – Stefan Cel Mare – Obor –
Pantelimon. I will consider three industrial spaces belonging to this area in order to emphasize
the way in which the urban tissue has developed in the last 25 years. The chosen industrial
spaces also represent images of the way in which these fragments of the city have been
reutilized in the post-Communist post-industrial city.

Urban renewal as tabula rasa

Many of the historical industrial spaces have been demolished during Communism because they
didn’t satisfy anymore the standards for production, and few of them were demolished after
2000. The gesture of tabula rasa seemed to be the only choice to exploit the land underneath the
Dambovita Mill, one of the oldest mills in Bucharest. The site in question included actually two
mills, one of them, Olmazu Mill, whose building date is not very sure, but which appears on the
1911 city plans; the other, very close to it, the Commercial Mill, was built in the 20s. After the
nationalization, in 1948, the two mills merged into Intreprinderea de Panificatie Dambovita
which was demolished in 2005-2006 (Chelcea, 2008: p.199). In 2005-2006, it was demolished
with the purpose of using the land for the construction of a new housing project. It was the first
time when the public opinion reacted at this kind of urban gesture. Becoming part of the
collective memory of the area and of the city, it was presented as well as urban and epic
landmark in some Romanian literature books.

Ruin

Situated in the same area and built in 1853, the Assan’s Mill was the first steam mill in
Romania, using the most sophisticated equipment for that time and marking the beginning of the
industrial era in the country (Chelcea, 2008: p. 203). After the nationalization law in June 1948,
it became the state’s property and it continued to function under various purposes. The Mill
marked the surrounding urban space, also seen in the toponymy of the streets named after the
mill and its activity: Assan’s Boat, Fainari (related to the flour), Silozului (Silo’s Street),
946

Irimicului (Middling’s Street), and others. After 1990, becoming also part of the national
patrimony, the mill is now a private property left in ruin in the middle of Communist housing
blocks. The Assan’s property covered initially an area of more than 5,41 acres, but because of
the blocks built before 1990, the area of the industrial complex was diminished to 4,7 acres.
Currently, all the buildings of the complex are in an advanced stage of degradation. Expected to
disappear by itself, in order to make room for new investments in the terrain situated in a central
area, the complex was subject to various mysterious fires and free of any type of security which
led to vandalism.

Partial use and conversion proposal

The Malaxa Factories were began being built during the 1930s. Today, the industrial complex
covers an area of 91,16 acres. The most important and valuable part of the complex was edified
between 1930-1943, by the famous Romanian architect, Horia Creanga, in the modernist style.
They are now part of the national architectural and industrial patrimony. After the instauration
of Communism, the factories remained for a while under the control of their owner, due to the
financial support given to the Socialist Party. Taken by the state after the immigration to the US
of Nicolae Malaxa, at the end of 1940, they were renamed in the 60s the 23 August Factories.
“The Communists transformed them into a symbol of the fight of the workers against the
capitalist ‘exploiters’”. Becoming a ‘city within a city’, this complex of factories had more than
17 000 employees during the 70s and maybe some more in the 80s (Chelcea, 2008: p. 219).
Today, part of them is still in use at a very low capacity, with less than 400 employees, some of
the buildings are rented as office spaces, but as a whole they still represent an underutilized
space. In 2003, a study and a project for the conversion of the whole industrial area was made.
‘Located in the Eastern area of Bucharest, in the proximity of the lake chain, an area deemed as
an extraordinary natural patrimony to be developed for entertainment and leisure and, offering
access to the Danube (the Oltenita fluvial port) by means of the railway terminal (Bucharest
Titan stop), the FAUR industrial site could be integrated into the town reconversion by taking-
up specific industrial activities, such as storage and services, ensuring the direct and fast
connection to all great European industrial towns located in the area influenced by the Danube,
reaching all the way to the North Sea, and this confers it the opportunity to the included in the
European configuration of the global development strategies’(Radulescu, 2010: p.41)128.

Conclusion

As a general conclusion, the paper suggests that the radical change produced after 1989, on
various levels, has manifested deeply its influence in the urban landscape and especially in the
former industrial areas.
One of the main center of production during the 20th century, ‘affected’ by a late de-
industrialization because of the political regime, Bucharest finds itself today in the situation of
searching for new purposes for the disaffected industrial spaces. The mismanagement of these
spaces is caused also on the one hand by the fact that these spaces, nationalized by the law of
June 1948, were claimed by the inheritors of the former owners, who will try in many cases to
exploit the lands having a significant value. On the other hand, even if, in theory most of them
belong to the national patrimony and their protection is mandatory, the new owners found each
time a way to destroy indirectly the monument.
In terms of the urban and social semantics, their presence along all these decades in the core
of the city has contributed to establish a relationship between them and the inhabitants, and
normalize the symbolical value of these various fragments in the urban tissue. Therefore, the

Radulescu, I., 2010: ‘Faur – Uzinele Malaxa – Un sit industrial de interes european’ ‘Faur – Malaxa
128

Factories – An Industrial Site of European Interest’ in Seria Arhitectura, 2, n. 2, vol. 1

 947

recovery of these spaces, having not only a symbolical value, but also an architectural and
economic one, should imply not only their re-insertion in the functional urban tissue, but also
the preservation of their character as landmarks of memory.

References

Althusser, L. ([1962] 1971) ‘Ideology and ideological state apparatuses’, in Lenin and Philosophy, 127–
186, translated by B. Brewster, New York: Monthly Review Press.
Althusser, L. ([1965] 1990): For Marx, translated by B. Brewster, London, Verso.
Benjamin, Walter, (1999), [1982] The Arcades Project, Harvard University Press.
Boia, L. (2001) Romania: Borderland of Europe, transl. by James Christian Brown, London, Reaktion
Books.
Boyer, M. C. (1996) The City of Collective Memory. Its historical Imagery and Architectural
Entertainments, Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.
Buck-Morss, S. (1991) Dialectics of Seeing: Walter Benjamin and the Arcades Project, Cambridge: The
MIT Press.
Chelcea, L. (2008) Bucurestiul postindustrial. Memorie, dezindustrializare si regenreare urbana [Post-
industrial Bucharest. Memory, deindustrialization and urban regeneration], Bucuresti: Polirom.
Dingsdale, A. (1999) ‘New geographies of post-socialist Europe’, The Geographical Journal 165(2),
145–153.
Eagleton, T. (1991) Ideology: An Introduction, London, Verso.
Goonewardena, K., (2005) ‘The Urban Sensorium: Space, Ideology and the Aestheticization of Politics’,
in Antipode.
Hirt, S. (2005) ‘Planning the Post-Communist City: Experiences from Sofia’, in International Planning
Studies, Vol. 10, No. 3–4, 219–240, August–November.
Humphrey, C. (Mar. 2005) ‘Ideology in Infrastructure: Architecture and Soviet Imagination’, in The
Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. 11, No. 1, pp.39-58.
Kiss, E. (2007) ‘The evolution of industrial areas in Budapest after 1989’, in The Post-Socialist City.
Urban Form and Space Transformations in Central and Eastern Europe after Socialism, Stanilov, K.
(ed.), Springer.
Leach, N. (ed), (1999) Architecture and Revolution. Contemporary perspectives on Central and Eastern
Europe, London and New York, Routledge.
Lefebvre, H. ([1974] 1991) The Production of Space, Translated by D. Nicholson-Smith,Oxford:
Blackwel.
Madgearu, V. (1999) Agrarianism, Capitalism, Imperialism. Contributii la studiul evolutiei sociale
romanesti, Cluj, Dacia.
Nedovic-Budic, Z. (2001) ‘Adjustment of planning practice to the new eastern and central European
context’, in Journal of the American Planning Association 67(1): 38–52.
Pusca, A., (ed). (2010) Walter Benjamin and the Aesthetics of Change, Palgrave Macmillan.
Pusca, A. (2010): “Industrial and Human Ruins of PostCommunist Europe”, in Space and Culture, 13(3),
pp.239-255.
Stanilov, K. (ed) (2007) The Post-Socialist City. Urban Form and Space Transformations in Central and
Eastern Europe after Socialism, Springer.
Thompson, Z. (2010) ‚Erasing the Traces, Tracing Erasures: Cultural Memory and Belonging in
Newcastle/Gateshead’, UK, in Pusca, A., ed., Walter Benjamin and the Aesthetics of Change, Palgrave
Macmillan, 2010.
Zahariade, A. M. (2011) Architecture in the Post-Communist Project. Romania 1944-1989, Bucharest:
Simetria.
948

Urban mobility - Urban mutations. Means transport and

morphological changes in the city of Belém

Fabiano Andrade, Inah Silveira

Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo – UFPA, Secretaria de Planejamento –
Governo do Estado do Pará. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected].

Abstract. Urban mobility is among the important agents that contribute to morphological changes of
city, new routes are executed and/or enlarged, large spaces transformed and resized, new technologies
and techniques tried and updated, at the end they all linked the intensity of demand of the population. The
history of Belém do Pará contains direct influences of design mode of Portuguese overseas cities from the
early 17th century: strategic location on the margin of a river, articulation with the place where it was
implanted and regular trace of the urban grid (Teixeira, 2012). In the 19th century, a large lowland area
was grounded, expanding the regular layout with new avenues, and with the significant increase of the
urban population, two trams companies settled also contributed with expansion of roads. However with
the start of construction (1883) and the inauguration of Estrada de Ferro de Bragança-EFB (1908), and
with the lifting of the “Primeira Légua Patrimonial” (1883-1886), authored by Manoel Odorico of Nina
Ribeiro, that Belém began major changes in their morphology. The study shows the transformations
arising from urban mobility in two spaces of great importance for the town of Belém: the “Complexo
Viário de São Braz” and the “Complexo Viário do Entroncamento”.

Key Words: urban mobility, history, morphology, means of transport, mutations

Means of transport of passengers and cargo and mutations in Belém (1870-2014).

Carts, Trains, Tramways, Garapeiras, Zeppelins, Buses and Cars (1870-1948).

The city of Belém in Pará State, Brazil, belongs to the territory of Eastern Amazonia and is part
of a plain, where the levels of land relative to sea vary with dimensions of -4, 00 m to 18.50 m,
still possessing water basins and a very high water table level, which makes it liable for flooding
caused by atmospheric precipitations especially when these coincide with high tides, flash
floods that occur mainly in the areas of lower quotas.
Due to inner city watershed structure and geographical location, the means of river transport
represented by vessels of all sizes and quiet has always been present in Belém that is bathed by
a bay and a big river, as part of its territory, several islands located nearby. Its ports receive
vessels from all the States of the Amazon region, especially the municipalities of the State of
Pará in the northern region, including those located on the Marajó Island.
Small boats both rowing (mounts and barges) as sailing (canoes), can still be seen today
navigating streams that penetrate into the urban area, as is the case of the Igarapé do Tucunduba,
which bisects the Campus in the neighborhood of Guamá. Those boats and those of other sizes
and models, but can be seen in the daily life of the edge of the city, sliding the Guamá River and
the Bay of Guajara, or anchored in ports and docks like “Ver-o-Peso”, nodal point and visual
landmark in Belém.
Unfortunately the means of river transport intraurbano in the city of Belém no longer
happen, symbolically, from the first decade of the 19th century, with the beginning of the
embankment on the large flooded the Piry, and then gradually through rectification and
channeling of arms of rivers, streams and creeks. In generally, speaking, these interventions
have contributed and still contribute to the emergence of new avenues, when fully grounded, or
if kept and ground, in this case allowing the use of its banks for the construction of pedestrian
routes or car routes.
 949

The first company of Tramways circulating in Belém do Pará was the "Estrada de Ferro
Paraense", owned by the North American James B. Bond, hired in September 1, 1869. In 1874,
this company no longer belonged to the American businessman, who had sold to Manoel Bueno
& Cia in 1870, which transferred rights acquired for a company of joint-stock company.
However, everything indicates that in the same year, Manuel Bueno created the "Company of
Bonds Para" to manage cars pulled by pairs of donkeys, rail gauge 0, 75 m, but that did not
begin to operate immediately in the city (Província do Pará, 1874).
Third owner of the so called "Urban Railroad Company Para", the Corporation developed its
activities with 3 locomotives, 12 passenger cars and freight cars 8, that constituted the
undercarriage for both main lines and for a branch, all gauge 1, 435 m, your responsibility.
The first line which connected downtown, taking as a starting point the Government Palace
Square, until the "Arraial de Nazareth", an extension of 3.413 Miles, has contributed
significantly to the development of the nascent Neighborhood of Nazareth, still considered the
outskirts of the city.
The second line which connected the” Largo de Nazareth” through Independence Square and
ending at one of the limits of “Primeira Légua Patrimonial” , represented by the “Boulevard da
Câmara”, contributed to the definition of two other important neighborhoods, S o Braz and
Marco.
In 1873 the two lines transported a total of 265,343 passengers. Even with this performance,
reviews the use of steam trams multiplied. Questions about quantity of locomotives to be
insufficient, the unraveling of the curves, the wrong choice of the gauge onto the tracks, the use
of tracks already used, and especially why animals have not been used as traction (Província do
Pará, 1874).
The incorporation of the trams of animal traction, the "Company of Bonds Para" on urban
practice didn't happen before 1874. The important thing was that taking advantage of the layout
of existing roads in the three neighborhoods already solidified of Belém, “Cidade Velha,
Comercial and Campina”, installed their lines and expanded its services. In 1894, the "Urban
Railroad Company Para" assumed all lines of trams and continued to contribute to the
expansion of the urban area of Belém until 1905, when it was sold to the company of English
origin "The Stop Electric Railway and Lighting Company". Two years later, in 1907, began
circulating the trams moved to electricity, the so-called Tramways, the responsibility of that
company. And in 1908, the streetcars of animal traction have been disabled.
For 40 years, the electric trams of The Pará Electric Railway and Lighting Company
"contributed significantly to the expansion of the city of Belém, taking his pace declined, by war
economy, during the period of the Second World War. No longer circulate in the year 1947,
paradoxically for reasons of economy of electric power to the city, but it wasn't just that the
reason.Others, such as the increase in population, urban sprawl, the emergence of new
neighborhoods with consequent increase in the number of routes, and the competition from bus.
The increase of the quantity of these vehicles in the last ten years has been quite significant,
went from 87 existing units in 1938 for 300 units in 1947 (Tobias, 2004). These vehicles, in
addition to the conventional historical models had, including those manufactured with wooden
and/or assembled in the city itself, as the “Garapeiras”, that worked from the early decades of
the 20th century until the Zeppelins, which circulated from 1948, they all not depended on Rails
or electric energy to work and were places not served by Tramways, also contributing to the
extinction of that collective means of transport, which was already considered obsolete for mass
human displacement (Mendes, 1998).

Buses, Trucks, Trailers, Cars, Motorcycles and Bicycles (1948-2014).

The legacy of roads left to the town of Belém since the plan/survey of Nina Ribeiro in 1883-
1886, implemented and become reality for many municipal administrations, was such, that from
the year 1948 until 1988, the year of the country's new Constitution, which allowed the creation
of the Transport Company of the City of Belém - CTBel, urban transport in existing routes
950

coexisted in Belém. The road network was enough at that moment for the displacement of the
inhabitants of the town, in the various modes of transportation, really happening facts
significant that caused the high population density index and the increase in the number of
vehicles on roads, such as the invasions of areas of lower level quotas, "baixadas", where
traditionally inhabited people of lower purchasing power the large number of housing estates,
consolidated in the late 1990, intrusions on the periphery, urban sprawl and the verticalization
that starts in the early 50 in central District.
However, in the Decade of 1990, historically inherited road network began to reach the limit
of its capacity, in relation to the amount of existing vehicles, especially in relation to the number
of automobiles expanded in recent years, and recently by the large number of bicycles.
With the little wide road network, in the next decade, from 2000, the presence of the
automobile in Belém and in other municipalities of the metropolitan region has intensified, as
demonstrated by the sheer numbers recorded in the period from 2001 to 2012, from 142,032 to
300,275 cars, meaning an increase of 111.14%. Nevertheless, in figures, the participation of
motorcycles is even more expressive, 8.1% in 2001 to 27.7% in 2012, in relation to the total
number of vehicles in the Metropolitan Region of Belém (Rodrigues, 2013).

Urban mobility and mutations in two important areas of the City

Complexo Viário de São Braz

This space has been studied recently in its evolution as a public square, in the research project
presented the UFPA, under the title of "Analysis of changes in urban space and buildings of the
city of Belém do Pará: architectural and urbanistic truths of every project executed", and which
gave rise to the work plan entitled "Mutations of the former of Largo da Independencia in
Belém do Pará 19th century, later named Largo de São Braz to the current area occupied by
squares of the Trabalhadore, Leitura, Floriano Peixoto and the Municipal Market, Set the IAPI,
bus station and other buildings in it deployed" (Fig. 01). The designation used here aims to
establish terminological binding with another space then parsed, and already known by the
technicians as the “Complexo Viário do Entroncamento”.
The “Complexo Viário de S o Braz” began to form even in the 19th century, when from the
Largo de Nazareth, in the year 1862, there emerged a new road in continuing the Road of
Nazareth. This new Road, named as "Independence", with approximately 1,200 metres ahead
and in a straight line, opened in a large space, which in 1861 was Independence Square, then
called the Largo de São Braz and later Praça Floriano Peixoto (Cruz, 1945; Muniz, 1904).
Already with the name of Largo de São Braz, the large space was represented graphically in
its fullness, in the city of Belém plant prepared by polytechnic engineer Manoel Odorico of
Nina Ribeiro, to the City Council of Belém from 1883 to1886. The Largo, possessing an initial
area around 28 ha (Fig. 02), with 700 m long and 400 m wide, that already showed that
representation had been deployed, inside, some urban facilities, High Reservoir (water tower)
and the first Railway Station building of Estrada de Ferro de Bragança. Were also shown and
identified the rails of the means of transport, using the space of Largo as a path. Historical
photos show a few dwellings located in their extremes, indicating the feasibility of housing and
the possibility of offsets to the inhabitants to the location and to the city center (Muniz, 1904).
One of the tracks depicted in the map belonged to second line of steam trams of "Urban
Railroad Company Para", described above, and which connected the Largo de Nazareth until the
Boulevard in front of the camera. The other representation of tracks belonged to the line of
trams pulled by animals of the "Company of Bonds Para", which connected the Largo from
Nazareth to the cemetery of Santa Isabel. The third representation of tracks belonged to the
Branch of the railroad, which connected the São Braz Station to the Central Station of Belém,
located in the public garden (Andrade, 2010).
 951

Figure 1. Aerial photography of the Largo de São Braz in 1998, with influences of the
rails of the tramways and train lines. Source: Prefeitura Municipal de Belém Ortho-
photos. 2001.

Figure 2. Detail of a map of Nina Ribeiro de 1883-1886 showing the space occupied by
the Largo de São Braz and the lines of tramways (1) and the railroad line of Bragança
(2).Source: Muniz, 1904.

Complexo Viário do Entroncamento

The name of “Entroncamento” for this space exists since the first decade of the 20th century,
but still in the 19th century, there were forecasting and rail project would ensure its future
existence. The space analysis is an important Point Nodal 129 the city, which lies at the
intersection of Almirante Barroso Avenue, main entrance and exit of the city, with the Augusto
Montenegro Avenue. These two avenues have hosted or were created from the tracks of the

129
There is no doubt that the “Complexo Viário do Entroncamento” is a "nodal point" in accordance with
the concept of the five elements created by Kevin Lynch to analyze the image of the city: "(...) strategic
places of a city through which the observer can enter, are the intensive outbreaks for which or from which
he travelled. Can be basically joints, places of interruption of transportation, a cross or a convergence of
routes, times of passage of one structure to another. Or they can be mere concentrations begin to be
important because it is the condensation of some use or any physical characteristic, such as a meeting
point in a corner or a closed square. " Lynch, Kevin.A Imagem da Cidade.
952

main Line of the Estrada de Ferro de Bragança (EFB) and the tracks of the “Ramal de Pinheiro”,
respectively.
‘The terrain “Entroncamento” remained preserved in its original triangular shape (Fig.03)
until around 1965, when they were disabled the services of the railway, and from there came to
be occupied by wooden buildings in precarious conditions of hygiene and safety, mostly for
commercial purposes to foodstuff, until the early 1980, when it was vacated entirely for the
construction of a memorial even without changing the original shape.
The lack of road alternatives for entrance and exit of Belém and access to neighborhoods of
their expansion area, caused in the following years the density of traffic in that area. Road
interventions performed at the “Entroncamento” from the years of 1990, for traffic congestion
solution, which charted in the following limits of saturation, not brought significant
improvements to urban mobility. In order to reverse this situation, in January 2014, was
deployed in space the "Complexo Viário do Entroncamento" (Fig. 04), consisting of three high,
small tunnels and pathways snippets extension.

Figure 3. Detail of Map of the aerial photographs of Belém (CODEM-PMB-1973).

Figure 4. Aereal view “Complexo Viário do Entroncamento” .Source: Google Earth

2014.

Final Considerations

It is clear by the historical summary of modes of transportation in the city of Belém, that the
mutations occurred in the flooded areas, rivers and creeks watershed located in the urban area,
can not be used for the emergence of new waterways, which could contribute in the present day
with a more ecological and sustainable utilization for the benefit of the quality of life of the
 953

inhabitants of the city. These mutations of the urban space, since the first major land runs, had
as a priority the creation of new roads to link important points of the city and improve the traffic
of people and animals. The 19th century was in its early decades, but the morphological change
of that area and other areas throughout the city, following the same principle, are sources of
trouble until nowadays. The intense rainfall regime of the Amazon region and the coincidences
with the high tide brings back the same situation for these areas every year.
The two spaces chosen for analysis of morphological changes induced by urban mobility,
different from the historical situation of the areas flooded and backfilled, are situated in pockets
along structural pathways that have higher level dimensions of the city, reaching 18 feet above
sea level, which makes them immediately, valued differentiated areas for execution of
architectural projects, urban and infrastructure of urban mobility.
The influence of the means of transport on the morphology of these spaces is found in its
genesis, as was the case of the “Complexo Viário de S o Braz”, that had one of their main
routes defined by the internal steam tram line in 1870, and another route their initial coverage
area defined by rails of “Ramal da Estrada de Ferro de Bragança” that went from S o Braz to
the center of the city in 1887. In the case of the “Complexo Viário do Entroncamento”, its
original triangular shape and area were defined by the rails of the main line of “Estrada de Ferro
de Bragança” and the rails of the “Ramal do Entroncamento – Vila de Pinheiro” in 1906, and by
meeting the guidelines required for rail projects at the time, in the specific case to the stroke of
the train lines, establishing large cornering, with greater than 100 m, for the execution of the
maneuvers come true with the total security required.

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954

Tobias, M. S. G. (2004) ‘Condicionantes históricos da evoluç o do transporte público na Regi o

Metropolitana de Belém’, Anais do XVIII Congresso de Ensino e Pesquisa em Transporte, ANPET,
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 955

Tracing Urban Catalysts in ‘Noorderkwartier’ Area

Arnoud de Waaijer
Julianalaan 134, 2628 BL Delft, The Netherlands.
E-Mail: [email protected].

Abstract. After WWII the ‘Noorderkwartier’ Area, North of Amsterdam functioned as overflow for the
city. Spatial policies in the Netherlands at that time aimed at reducing urban pressure on the ‘Randstad’.
(Cammen, 2013) Costly policies of redistribution of urban development towards the peripheries were
developed. (Healy, 2007) As a result a dispersed territory arose often linked to car mobility. Nowadays
the policies are severely scaled down (Healy, 2007) and the area is confronted with possible downfall in
population, employment, facilities and building production. To counter this for the area currently policies
on Transit Oriented Development are under construction. (Provincie, 2010). Central in the concept of
TOD is clustering spatial developments around nodes of public transport and thus re-establishing
proximity. (Priemus, 2007) The research methodology applied to develop these policies mostly does not
involve societal and spatial dynamics of these formation processes (Aken, 2004) This research aims to
identify the key factors in urban change in relation to proximity to transit for understanding the processes
involved to develop possible grip on the matter. By mapping the area historically since the
commencement of transit and trough spatial analyses the critical changes are identified for TOD. The
processes underlying these critical changes will studied and placed in their context.

Key Words: urban morphology, transit oriented development, urban transformation processes, mapping,
Amsterdam Metropolitan Area

Tracing Urban Catalysts in ‘Noorderkwartier’ Area

After WWII the ‘Noorderkwartier’ Area, North of Amsterdam functioned as overflow for the
city. Spatial policies in the Netherlands at that time were aimed at reducing urban pressure on
the ‘Randstad’. (Cammen, 2013) Costly policies of redistribution of urban development towards
the peripheries were developed. (Healy, 2007) As a result post WWII a dispersed territory arose
often linked to car mobility. Nowadays the policies are severely scaled down (Healy, 2007) In
the most recent note on spatial policies (Ministerie van Infrastructuur en Ruimte, 2011), the role
of the state is decreased to investments in infrastructure. By indicating where it is willing to
invest in the infrastructures needed it aims to navigate spatial developments. Should the market
be willing to participate in such spatial development the public will invest in those previously
appointed projects. Currently the area of Noorderkwartier is confronted with a possible downfall
in population, employment, facilities and building production. While simultaniously the means
for intervention are limited to infrastructure investments and the provision of knowledge (Healy,
2007). At the provincial level currently a development is ongoing in the program 'Densification
around nodes of public transport' which is part of the current main spatial policy (Structuurvisie
Noord-Holland 2040, Kwaliteit door veelzijdigheid) (Provincie Noord-Holland, 2010). The
policy has with its focus on transit locations and the aim of densification the characteristics of
Transit Oriented Development / TOD. In the concept of TOD clustering spatial developments
around nodes of public transport and thus re-establishing proximity is key. (Priemus, 2007) A
normative standard for the influence of transit is the radius of 800 meters which coincides 10
minutes of walking which coincides with the distance generally considered to be acceptable as
walking distance. The distance of 800 meter around a railway station is what defined as the
railways station location.
In the early phase of this policy the methodology of the ‘Node-Place Model’ of Bertolini is
used. The method is theoretical in character and gives on the bases of numerical input on spatial
956

development en transport provision predictions on to be expected developments in the railway

location, The model does not take spatial and structural aspects into account (Waaijer, D.A. de,
2014). At a later stage, with the policy related publication ‘Maak Plaats!’ the reality of the
locations would have been confronted with the Node-Place model. The predicting model is
replaced by the ‘evolved’ ‘Vlinder-model’ (Leidraad Maak Plaats, 2013).

Figure 1. Landscapes and infrastructures in ‘Noord-Holland’.

Instead of using the predictive values now, in the ‘Vlinder’ model the desired direction of
development is stated with the existing values as a starting point. How this goal is to be
achieved is not elaborated, but it is suggested that a certain percentage of 50% of the future
extensions should be within the railway locations and that this could be realised through a
restrictive directing policy. The partially liberal oriented provincial Parliament endorses the aim
for the 50% but the method of restrictive intervening policies is not accepted, it proposes a more
detailed study on the matter. This research aims to identify the key factors in urban change in
relation to proximity to transit for understanding the processes involved to develop possible grip
on the matter. What are the driving forces in allocation of new development en how does this
relate to the Transit locations. By mapping the area historically since the commencement of
transit and trough spatial analyses the critical changes are identified for TOD. The processes
underlying these critical changes will studied and placed in their context. It is of interest to
illuminate the dynamics in allocation towards the transit locations. The province now
concentrates its policy on a section of the railway line Amsterdam to Den Helder. This part of
the line is subject to the ‘Program High Frequency Rail Transport, which entails an increase in
frequency. This line is the subject of this paper. For this study the most central locations, which
themselves are centralities are excluded. The locations of Den Helder, Alkmaar and Zaandam
are therefore not taken into account. Per location the urban developments are analysed relative
to the transit location to indicate the dynamics of the development processes.
 957

Historical development of the Railway line

The line, line ‘K’ was built between 1862 and 1869 by State initiative to make the Military Port
of Den Helder better connected in winter times. In the context of the policy of King William I to
perpetuate to Netherlands as a nation. In the first plan for the trace of the line ran over the sand
wall. There is a deviation in two parts, in both the North as in the South it is partially placed
further eastwards. The factors involved in the Northern part were the polder reclamations of
land, some of which were built on private investment and which had influence stakeholders.
These were able to influence the course of the track. (van Giffen, 2006), a number of places in
the area of Kop van Noord-Holland got a railway station for this reason: Anna Paulowna,
Schagen, Heerhugowaard. In addition on a more local level factors as suitability of the surface
and the possibilities on acquiring the necessary land play, this last aspect was involved in the
realignment in the South.
The railway is opened in parts between 1867 en1869 with 14 stations and 8 stops in the early
stages. (Jonckers Nieboer, 1938). In the 1920s in public transport the bus rose and years of
heavy losses for the railways followed, as a strategy to overcome this the railway company
focussed on longer distance transport (Cavallo, 2007) this led in the area to the closing of 7
stops and 1 station. (Jonckers Nieboer, 1938). The places that already had a certain volume and
or that by the arrival of the track had come to fruition stayed open those with lesser size were
closed.
As a result of the large-scale developments in the area due to the postwar spatial policies the
coverage on the line scattered from 38.5% in 1970, to 23% in 2010. The coverage is the
percentage of inhabitants in a municipality that lives in a railway location. This is calculated
with data from the report ' 22 stationslocaties Noorderkwartier in Kaart’ (Engel, 2011). Already
in the late 1960s it became clear the coverage was decreasing. and policies started to develop to
link stations to extensions. In the 80 's a policy started to opened stations on areas that happen to
be besides the railway track. (Cavallo, 2007).

Analyses on the developments on the Railway locations

In this paper per location the urban developments are analysed relative to the railway
location and it is indicated what were the logics. For this the historical Topographical (Military)
Maps of the area that go back until the middle of the 19th century are studied and the
developments are mapped. The resulting maps show the developments in periods
corresponding to typo morphological characteristics. The periods are: up to 1850, 1850-1910,
1910-1940, 1940-1970, 1970-2000, 2000-2010 (Engel, 2005). In this article the locations are
grouped by type of landscape they are situated in; the Northern Coastal landscape, the landscape
of sand banks parallel to the coast, the peat landscape with the Zaan. (Figure 1).

The ‘Kop van Noord-Holland’ area, coastal landscape

At the construction of the track between 1862 and 1867 the rail and the station were established
between the settlement of Den Helder (1) and the eastern thereof located Military Warf (2). By
its unique position as outpost on the sea the harbour of Den Helder has acquired the status of
main Military Warf. A fortification was situated around Den Helder and the Warf. In the period
after the construction of the track to 1910 there is only growth around the yard, in a strip of 700
meters around it (3). The station is located in this area therefor spatial developments and transit
were linked. The yard got a growing number of activities assigned from national governments.
By 1940 the whole area within the fortifications was build up. In the period after WWII new
locations outside the fortifications were built in the ‘satellite’ quarters ‘Nieuw Den Helder’ (4),
958

and ‘de Schooten’ (5). A ‘finger structure’ of green areas between the satellites comes to the
fore. After 1970, the district of Julianadorp is built remotely. In the 80 's from the policy of the
railway company of opening stations to the recently expanded areas, at the quarter situated east
of the railway track ‘de Schooten’, the station of Den Helder-Zuid was opened. By its peripheral
situation and the halting growth of the Warf, the area is faced with a low demand for building
production. Starting from early 80 's at the vacant East side of the track, an artist established a
sculpture park and more recently in connection a nature reserve is developed (6), both in the
green zone and both with spatial permanence. Further on the East on quite some distance (0.5
km) a business park ‘Dogger-Drirksz Admiraal‘ (7) is developed. The district of 'de Schooten' is
well disclosed, but the location itself is only half utilized.

Figure 2. Railway location Den Helder-Zuid.

The Anna Paulowna polder, in which the station is located, was between 1845-1847
reclaimed through private funding. The goal was to acquire agricultural land for exploitation in
the sea mouth of the Zijpepolder. (bron) In 1865 the railway track between Den Helder and
Alkmaar was inaugurated and the station was Anna Paulowna was opened, as described above it
had a political cause. (Haarlem) The station was situated between the two settlements present
within the polder; the core of ‘Kleine Sluis’ (1) and the hamlet ‘Gelderse buurt’ (2). ‘Kleine
Sluis’ stemmed from the former harbour in the sea mouth of the Zijpe polder. The developments
from the opening to 1910 take place at the railway station location towards ‘Kleine Sluis’ but
merely around core of ‘Kleine Sluis’. in the period between the two world wars, there are almost
no developments in and around the cores but especially in the polder itself around Breezand (3).
By the emergence of bulb cultivation from South of Holland, the land was suitable and cheap.
For this reason the Stop of Breezand is opened in 1914, it is closed in 1938 when the railway
company focusses on transport at longer distances. The post-war developments are only around
‘Kleine Sluis’, outside of the railway location, first the district 'Nieuwe Sluis' and subsequently
around it 'de Elshof' (4). This development arrived now at the railway location. Since 2000,
there are also developments West of the track in the form of business park 'Kruiswijk' (5). The
combination of centrality of functions and the good car connection in the N249 road at ‘Kleine
Sluis’ is stronger for attracting developments than that of the transit location with less further
functions. The area is peripheral and has a low density, the car is the ideal means of transport.
 959

Figure 3. Railway location Anna Paulowna.

Figure 4. Railway location Schagen.

The station opens in 1865 and is located east of the core of Schagen (1) that is at the junction
of three roads. Schagen is situated within the Westfriese Ommeringdijk, an area that has been
protected from the sea as early as since the 11th century. To 1940 the development is mainly
between the station and the existing core (2). In 1937, the port of Schagen (3) with the canal '
Stolpen-Schagen' (4) is yielded with the purpose to give access to the North Holland Canal. The
harbour was politically very desired, but quickly proved an outdated means of transport.
(BRON) This project also includes the road connection on the N9 (5) in the direction of the
main cities in the area; Den Helder and Alkmaar and the construction of the local roads '
Westerweg’ (6) and ' Zuiderweg' (7). Until 1960, the spatial developments are largely focused
on the station area (Koningshuisbuurt) (8), but also close to the newly established car
connection (Ambachtenbuurt) (9). Schagen most grown between 1970 and 1980; from 7,310 to
16,761 residents. In the years to 1970 the extensions are mainly outside the station location, in
the North in Nesdijk (10) and Groeneweg (11) , due to the good car accessibility, while at the
same time sites closer to the station site were available. In the beginning of the 80’s remotely
from the station the most Northern part of Groeneweg is finished . In 1977 on the southern side
960

of the village a road connecting with Alkmaar N245 (12) is established, consequently the
district of Waldervaart (13) is developed, with a focus on automobile transport system and
outside the station location. The area to the east of the track all this time for housing untouched.
Only in the 80's, as a consciousness of mobility problems arises, the development closer to the
station starts with the district ‘Muggenburg’ (14) and mid 90’s ‘de Hoep-Zuid’ (15) located
directly at the train station . After 2000 and end in 2010 , the district ‘Hoep-Noord’ (16) is
developed.

The ‘Kennemerland’ area, landscape of sand walls

Heerhugowaard originates from the 17th century by reclamation of the Lake on private
initiative. The structure of the polder is with a middle road and in parallel two main canals.
Regents of Alkmaar had to grant permission for the project to be executed. Around 1850 the
built area is along the South-North connection routes, mainly on the Middenweg (1). The track
is placed parallel to the West side of the Middenweg, it runs through new share and the course is
adapted to the possibility of exploiting the parcel boundaries. The station is placed at the point
where connection was to Broek op Langedijk, a village with an important auction. At the same
time a road from the station to the Middenweg, nowadays the Stationsweg (2), is created. In the
period after 1865 to 1910, the only development is along the existing roads. Between 1910 and
1940 the Stationsweg gets occupied. There is a tremendous growth between 1940 and 2000,
from 5.315 to 44.248 inhabitants, as a result of the growth poles to policy. After 1960 the huge
urbanisation starts and Structural plans are made to accommodate this. A facilities core is
appointed at Veenweg (3). In the plan of 1968, de Ooster (4) en Westertocht (5) are to be held
as boundaries and there will be a new core shopping center on the South side Middelwaard (6).
This is the new focal point of further development. From here further development will take
place in the South (7). In the structure plan of 1981 the Strip South of the track is designated as
zone for facilities clustering (Beveland) (8) and the station square (9) is developed, this should
strengthen the position of Middelwaard as centrality. The developments at Heerhugowaard
evolved around cores of facilities, at a later stage in the early 1980s the railway station area was
involved in the plans. Because of the enormous population growth, build in low density around
a nucleus of facilities, there has been an exceptionally low coverage of 9%.

Figure 5. Railway location Heerhugowaard.

Alkmaar begins to grow significantly in the 1950s whereas it is designated as overflow area
and growth core for Amsterdam. Between 1940 and 2000 its population grows from 33.837 to
 961

92.836 inhabitants. Caused by national policies to relieve the pressure on the Randstad Alkmaar
gets the task to accommodate a huge population growth. The required developments will be
related to car infrastructure which is simultaneously developed. Between 1940 and 70 the
extensions take place around the existing city and are to the car bypass 'de Ommering’ (1) (De
Hoef (2), Overdie (3), Veiling (4), Industrieterrein (5), Oudorp Oost (6) en Oudorp West.) (7)
between 1970 and 1980 On the north side mainly related to the then delivered N245 road to
Schagen (8) and N242 to Heerhugowaard (9). quarters of Bergermeer (10), Huiswaard I (11),
de Horn (12) en ’t Rak) (13). In 1980 the railway companies policies were was to open railway
stations to newly delivered districts, in Alkmaar in this context the station ‘Alkmaar-Noord’ is
opened. It is situated next to the then western of the track neighbourhood ‘Huiswaard II’ (14)
which was just completed. Both spatial developments are not very related to each other. On the
East side of the station a sports complex, the North Holland Canal and a park ‘Oudorperhout’
(15) are situated. Half of the railway location consists of uninhabited area. The area of Alkmaar
is almost completely related to car infrastructure infrastructure and has a very low coverage of
18% in 2010.
In 1850 the area of the railway location of Heiloo consists of the two cores of Oekdom (1)
and the more important Heiloo (2) a core with some facilities. By its situation on a relatively
narrow sand wall Heiloo has a parallel North-South road structure, the Kennemerstraatweg (3)
was an important connection between the major cities of Haarlem and Alkmaar in the area and
paved. The railway station (1867) was situated at Oekdom to facilitate the local horticulture.
After the advent of the tramline Haarlem Alkmaar over the Kennemerstraatweg, Heiloo became
a commuter village for rentiers of the region of Alkmaar. It had in the area a particular forested
area on sand wall. The spatial developments until 1910 occur on the exiting road structure. In
the period to 1940 the main developments are between the two cores. The areas within the road
structure between the centrality of Heiloo and the station (4) are completely filled in.
Subsequently in Heiloo’s period of main growth; from 1950 to 1960 the rest of area in the
railway location, within the road structure (5) is build. Thus, in 1960 the railway location is
almost filled and it begins to build the first areas outside. It starts outside of the railway location
around the core of Heiloo with plan East (6), and in the middle 60’s on the other side of Heiloo;
Egelshoek (7). Afterwards the developments are directly outside the stations location with plan
West (8) and in the 80’s that of ‘het Die’ (9). Heiloo does not have its own exit on the A9
highway, in the new appointments in the ‘Program New Sand Wall’ (plan Zuiderloo) evolves
around this. The location of the plan South of Heiloo is perfect for a new railway location but
with the focus on the missing linkt to the highway there are no plans for this. Additionally
impacts the paradox that by the ‘PHS’ more stops are more difficult to realize. (Maakplaats,
2013).

Figure 6. Railway location Alkmaar-Noord.

962

Figure 7. Railway location Heiloo.

Figure 8: Railway location Castricum.

Castricum developed at the Kennemerstraatweg (1) (the connecting road from Alkmaar to
Haarlem) at a small church. Buildings around this church with square the core of Castricum in
1850. The railway track is to on the West side of Castricum and makes a turn and is situated east
along the other core of Bakkum (2). The railway station is placed at the curve in the track at the
core of Castricum. Until 1910 there are almost no spatial developments, except at the
psychiatric hospital Duin en Bosch (3) at Bakkum, which are entirely outside of the railway
location. From 1910 to 1940, the population increased from 2813 to 8412. The urban extensions
are primarily at Duin en Bosch and around the core of Castricum the latter is in the location. In
the period after 1950 the both cores extend and further on with the Oranjebuurt (4) and
Zeeheldenbuurt (5) the cores grow to each other.
The earlier developments in Duin en Bosch have influence on the further development in this
period, the extensions are situated between the two cores. Proximity of existing urban territory
is important for the allocation of new buildings in this period. Afterwards to the East a
development starts of Molendijk (6) en Noordeind (7) which is not linked to existing territory
these are completed in the early 80 's. West of the track almost no developments are taking
place. When in the 1990s in general the development of building on ‘the other side of the track’
starts in Castricum this side with its particular landscape protected by law. By this not to be
occupied area and by the developments around Bosch en Duin the site has the low coverage of
 963

15% in 2010. Opening a station at Bakkum could improve this, there in an earlier period both
sides of the track were built.
In 1850 Uitgeest was a ribbon (1) composed of the Middelweg and here directly parallel to
Westergeest, with a core at the junction with the road to Castricum. The village lies on a sand
wall. At Uitgeest two railway lines join, from the Zaan area and from Haarlem. The station is
placed where they are joined and tracks are placed on the southernmost point of the Ribbon on a
frim distance of 1 km. The station is located east of the Ribbon, Western would not have fitted
in connection with the Assumervaart. (2) Until 1910 the building expansion only took place at
the main core which is outside of the railway location. Afterwards the Hogeweg (3) is
constructed up to 1940 the build finds place here. Also there is some ribbon development South
of the station. Both developments are mainly in the railway location. In the early 1960s the start
of with industrial estate Dorregeest (4) North of the old core. It is situated close to the
Uitgeestermeer and the A9 motorway. This area continuous to develop until now completely
outside the railway location but with excellent connections. Around 1960 the Geesterweg (5)
was laid out right in front of the station, West of Hogeweg in the 10 years until 1971 the area
around this road is built related to the railway location. The location to the North of the track
becomes completely filled in and the following development is North of the location in the
southern part of the district ' de Koog ' (6) early 80 's the whole area of ‘de Koog’ is completed,
largely outside the railway location. To the early 90 's the mainly building activities are on the
‘other’ side of the track, the beginning of the quarter ‘de Kleis’ (7), this is related to the rail. The
great distance at which the station was placed to the original core of Uitgeest and the late
crossing over the track in the South is to large part of extentions outside of the railway location.

Figure 9: Railway location Uitgeest.

Railway locations in the peat landscape of the Zaan area

The track is placed immediately south of the ribbon of Krommenie in the middle of the peat
landscape. The center of Krommenie (1) is situated north of the station on the border of the
railway location. It is situated at the crossing road to Uitgeest and the one to Wormerveer. The
station is immediately West of the Ribbon, as on the East side is the Nauernasche Vaart (2), an
important access for Krommenie. In the period up to 1910 extensions in particular find place at
the core towards the Nauernasche Vaart this concerns housing and industry, further expansion
from this development along the Canal continue in all the periods to follow, manly industry.
From the first to the second world war the further building is mainly around the core and also a
bit on the road directly opposite the station (Stationsweg) (3) which is constructed and building
at the ribbon southward. Between 1950 and 1960, the area around the Stationsweg is built up to
964

the Fortuinlaan (4). There is also some small development South of the track, east of the ribbon.
These developments are related to the station. In 1960 the new area to bee build comes to lie
entirely outside the location with Rosarium (5) which is the Northwest. The areas of
Noorderham (6) and Zuiderham (7) follow and are completed in the late 1960s. Only as of 2005
the extensions continue with locations south of the track in Saendelft (8). Between 2006 and
2008 the station is replaced 400 m to the West. The link with the existing core is completely lost
and the location is now connected to Zuiderham, the field of Fortune Avenue and the new
district Saendelft South of the track.

Figure 10: Railway location Krommenie-Assendelft.

Railway locations along the Zaan; the Railway locations of Wormerveer, Zaandijk and
Koogbloemwijk

Figure 11. Railway location Wormerveer.

Around 1850 the build in the area lies mainly on the dyke along the Zaan, line-shaped and
stretched out, some distance away parallel the track is constructed. On a number of places in the
ribbon there are concentrations in development.
The station (A) is located South to the core of Wormerveer (1), which is at the junction with
the dyke at the Zaan (2), the road to Krommenie and the ferry to Wormer. The station is located
east of the ‘Karnemelkssloot’ (3), a water connection to the peat landscape of Westzaan. Until
1910 in particular the surroundings of the station and concentration of warehouses (4) on the
 965

Zaan further East are built. To 1940 almost the entire area between the track and the existing
buildings is taken, everything in reach or transit. Starting in the mid-1950s, a stand-alone
expansion to the North from Wormerveer in the Polder Westzaan which is completed in 1970
(5). This lies entirely outside the location. Only after 2010, the rest of Polder Westzaan
constructed with industrial estate (6).

Figure 12. Railway location of Zaandijk and Koog Bloemwijk.

In the area of the railway location Zaandijk (1) and of Koog Bloemwijk (2) the
concentrations at the dyke area at: Sluissloot (3) Zaandijk (4) , the road to Westzaan (Guisweg)
(5), Koog aan de Zaan (6) and at the Mallegatsloot (7). The station of Zaandijk (1869) is located
between the Zaandijk and Koog aan de Zaan, exactly South of the Guisweg the connecting road
to Westzaan forms. The station serves these three settlements. Until 1910 the building activities
are at the Guisweg, the new road to the station and around the existing concentrations. In 1920
West of the track the quarter of Rooswijck (8) was developed parallel to the Guisweg. Until
1940, the area between the track and the Zaan became largely occupied. In 1931 the station of
Koog Bloemwijk (2) was opened adjacent to a residential area (9). In the early 1960s from
Rooswijck the district of Rooswijk (10) was started this development carries through to 2000.
The driving force was the major at that time, it is the first major development West of the track.
At the end of the seventies the station Koog Bloemwijk the district of Westerkoog (11) is
developed.

Conclusion

Characteristics specific of the location in the field of spatial quality within the territory can
cause spatial developments. Mobility provision trough infrastructure has the same property.
Especially between 1910 to 1940 the station has a rebounding effect for spatial development.
Cores with facilities and centralities also have this feature, perhaps to a greater extent than the
station. The developments begin here earlier and are larger. The locations where station and
core are competitive show that a core with facilities exercises on developments more attraction
than the station. By 1960 most railway locations are full and the areas outside it follow. While
paradoxically the still undeveloped side of the rail often remains unoccupied. This phenomenon
also confirms that the proximity of facilities and other built-up area are stronger than the station.
After the beginning of the 60s the developments become more independent. The combination of
centrality and mobility provision has a very strong rebounding operation for spatial
development. If the distance between core and station is larger this has a negative impact on the
966

coverage. The trend of building outside of the location is intensified during the 1970s and
1980s. Simultaneously in the 1980s a development starts of opening of stations where rail is
close to urban extensions, this shows a starting consciousness about the relationship transit and
urban development. In the 90 's starting to occupy the unused side of the track. The shape of the
station and its disclosure can affect the spatial development and level of orientation of the future
urban territory to transit. The cases of Alkmaar, where a ring road forms the carrier of urban
development and the Zaan area where the line shaped rail is the carrier of spatial development
compared to show the structure of the infrastructure influences the relation transit to urban
development.

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Waaijer, D.A. de (2014) ‘Modelling the urban developments in the ‘Noorderkwartier Area’, in Cavallo,
R. and Kamossa, S..
Marzot, N., Berghauser Pont, M.Y., Kuijper, J.A. (eds.). 2014. New Urban Configurations. (IOS Press,
Amsterdam) 167-174.
 967

Managing the mark of the memory: a case study on the North

Dublin Victorian fringe-belt

Mariana Moreira
MosArt Architects (Architecture, Landscape Architecture, Urban Design), Block 6, Broomhall
Broomhall Business Park, Wicklow, Co. Wicklow, Ireland. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. The urban fabric can be regarded as a repository of human life that records past culture and
includes historic-geographic changes that have physical manifestations, but that are also underpinned by
processes, whether social, economic or political (Whitehand, 1977). Notwithstanding the fact that much
of the urban fabric is worthy of conservation, research indicates a general paucity in understanding
among planning authorities of urban morphology and the morphological nature of the city that results in
weak or inadequate conservation planning policy and systems more focused on buildings and plots than
their integral role in terms of urban form in larger urban tissues (Whitehand and Morton, 2004). As a
pretext for demonstrating the nature of urban form as an organic whole comprising parts that are
interrelated in form and historical process and the failure by decision makers to recognise and appreciate
this, the northern intermediate fringe belt in Dublin City is taken as a case study. The study involved a
morphological analysis of both the preceding Georgian city and the Victorian fringe belt, examining both
the historical processes over the two centuries concerned and the resulting and contrasting urban form.
To date, however, in the planning system in Dublin City Council, there is no recognition or appreciation
and, thus, management of the intermediate fringe belt. Hence, this clearly identifiable urban tissue that
bears witness to a significant period in Irish history is open to insensitive development, especially with
concerted urban policies concerned with compaction and densification (Rudlin and Falk, 2009). The
likely ensuing loss of significant parts of the urban fabric surely poses a major threat to our future
cultural heritage as constituted by the city.

Key Words: conservation, fringe-belt, Dublin, Georgian Era, Victorian Era, planning

Introduction

Urban Morphology – the solution for urban conservation planning

It has been recognised that planning policy concerning conservation tends to focus on buildings
and their immediate settings and not on the city-wide scale (Jokilehto, 2010; Prunty, 2010;
Whitehand, 2010a). But, clearly, concern for the historical integrity of the city as a whole must
involve the city-wide scale perspective and its interrelated parts (Slater, 1984). Moreover, the
problem of the weak relationship between research and practice is widely noticed as well as lack
of cross-disciplinary awareness of relevant research (Whitehand, 2012). The consequences,
whether potentially or actually, of the present approach is the damage or loss of significant parts
of historical city fabric along with the resulting compromise of the associated historical record
of city growth regarding form making. The likely ensuing loss of significant parts of the urban
fabric surely poses a major threat to our future cultural heritage as constituted by the city
There is in Ireland, currently, an apparent failure among common decision-makers who
determine planning to fully appreciate the city in terms of its morphological constitution that
includes its historic-geographical significance and involves the study of urban form (Kealy and
Simms, 2007).

Fringe Belts

The urban fabric, comprising parts of the city and their spatial relationships, changes and cities
expand, so engendering a shifting periphery that becomes a repository of the urban
968

morphological history in regard to urban pattern and function and effectively recording the
stages, physical and social nature and process of city growth. Typically an important integral
component at a whole-city scale of such change is the urban fringe belt, whether inner,
intermediate or outer. These belts not only demarcate particular eras and geographical regions of
urban expansion, but also comprise a particular character type reflecting land use as well as
socio-economic state. They are, therefore, culturally significant.

Morphological overview of Dublin: origins and growth

Dublin is the location of the case study of this paper and is used to demonstrate the limitations
of current planning policies in regard to conservation at the urban scale. For this reason a brief
overview of the origins and early growth of the city is provided here.
The origins of Dublin as an important settlement dates from the end of the 9th Century when
the Vikings, spreading across the Irish Sea, first began to use the site as a base for their
operations (Haughton, 1949). During the 10th and 11th Centuries, this settlement developed into
one of the most important coastal trading station within the Viking trading-network (Simms,
2001).
In the late 12th Century, after the capture of Dublin by the Anglo-Normans, the town reduced
in status from a semi-independent Viking kingdom to a medieval English borough under the
Henry II. Only a few major medieval buildings have survived (Simms, 2001). The Anglo-
Normans brought to Dublin a reliance on the institutions, which supported urban life. They also
set about land reclamation, particularly on the southern bank of the River Liffey. The medieval
street-pattern has survived to a greater extent, judging by depiction on the earliest surviving
maps of Dublin: John Speed’s map of 1610 and John Rocque’s map of 1756 (Simms, 2001).
During this period Dublin began to be dominated by squares and streets forming an urban
coherent network of spaces and axes. The 19th Century, however, was marked by deep
economic crises, which was reflected in the city fabric, particularly in respect of institutional
urban fringe belt on the periphery of the Georgian city.
In the mid-19th Century the Dublin Corporation was established making the first step towards
the creation of a single authority with comprehensive responsibilities. However, this body was
not given the necessary resources and powers to be able to act effectively to respond to the
difficulties that the city was experiencing, in particular the problem of slums between 1800-
1925 that revolved around a number of key issues, such as tenement accommodation,
overcrowding and moral degradation, the policing, control and relief of the poor by both state
and charity organizations (Prunty, 1998). Improvements were characteristically piecemeal,
without a broad based integrating mechanism or plan (Prunty, 1998).
The lack of cohesive plan for the city in the early 20th Century continues today at least
regarding the historical heritage: ‘Dublin must be one of the few European cities where the
destruction of eighteen-century and earlier fabric is still accepted as a valid means of urban
development’ (McCullough, 2010: 28).
The adequacy of planning policy regarding urban conservation is clearly called into doubt in
this statement. Rather, it can be deduced that there is an urgent need for a visionary and
systematic planning and development approach. A case is made in this paper for an urban
morphology-based conservation planning methodology that establishes an appreciation of the
past as reflected in the present physical and social fabric and which, more pragmatically,
provides tools for both analysis and decision-making for the future.

Case study: North Dublin intermediate fringe-belt

This section will review briefly the historical context of the original city wall with the adjacent
extramural zone as the inner fringe belt and the ensuing urban growth up to the Georgian era of
 969

the 18th Century and subsequent decline. The intermediate fringe belt starts to emerge from the
late 18th Century and can best be recognized in juxtaposition to its surrounds and in the
distinctive process of its formations. For this reason, urban development of the northern part of
Dublin City during the booming Georgian and the recessionary Victorian periods, respectively,
are paid similar attention. Moreover, given the strategic role played by the Wide Street
Commissioners in the shaping of the city, particular attention will also be paid to decision
making as recorded in minutes and how their work adapted to the troubled transition period of
the end at the 18th Century and the early stage of the 19th Century.

Dublin’s Early Fringe Belts: Inner & Intermediate

Inner Fringe Belt – instigated by the City Wall

The city wall was built to function as the primary system of defense. The wall had to ensure
its own survival under attack. Generally, it was raised on rough terrain, seeking to maximize the
advantages of natural features of defense (Kostof, 1991). Such is the case with the River Liffey
in Dublin, which flowed along the northern edge of the city wall. The town plan of Dublin
preserves many clues to its morphogenesis which, when analysed together with historic maps
and other documentary sources, allows the reconstruction of the medieval street pattern (Prunty,
2010) as well as outer wall street systems. The map below (Figure 1) illustrates the overlap of
the medieval Dublin from c. 840 to c. 1540 over a 1939 Ordenance Survey map.
Dublin’s inner fringe was occupied by churches of religious orders with their associated
lands and buildings, as well as institutions (Prunty, 2010). In the early 1600’s migration of
refugees fleeing from an economic slump caused by wars and harvest crises, clustered together
in ‘cottages’ or shanties on the fringe area, so presented a serious threat to urban stability and
order (Lennon, 2001).

Figure 1. Extract of the Medieval Dublin (c. 840 to c. 1540) map over a 1939 OS map
(Source: Dublin c.840 to c. 1540: the Medieval Town in the Modern City, Irish Historic
Town Atlas, Clarke, 2002)
970

Figure 2. 1610 Dublin map by John Speed (Source: Richview map library) Note some
ribbon suburban development and the city periphery comprised mainly by institutions.

Georgian period - Dublin urban growth

In the succeeding first half of the 18th Century with the urban growth eastwards and northwards,
each of these establishments which were initially at the edge of the city, became embedded
within the urban fabric. The 1756 Rocque’s map shows a complete absorption of the walled city
and its original peripheral institutions within the expanding urban area, reflecting the
redundancy of the medieval fortifications (Lennon, 2001) reflecting the process of fringe-belt
alienation.
Further urban growth during the second half of the 18th Century is revealed by comparing the
1756 Rocque’s map with the 1798 William Wilson map (Figure 3 and 4). From this it is clear
that the streets and squares had begun to extend northwards beyond Rutland Square to
Phibsborough and eastward to the North Lotts bounded by the trajectory of the new North
Circular Road that had been laid out by the 1780’s. The Royal Canal reached the North Lotts by
1792, forming a boundary beyond the North Circular Road (Casey, 2005).

Figure 3. 1756 John Rocque’s Dublin county map – yellow line: future location of North
Circular Road; blue line: future location of Royal Canal (Source: Trinity Map Library)
 971

Figure 4. 1798 William Wilson map (Source: www.dublin1798.com).

Dublin Victorian/Intermediate Fringe Belt Formation

Due to fundamental political change in Ireland at the end of the 18th Century and the beginning
of 19th Century, an economic slump occurred. This, in turn, brought urban expansion to a
standstill with the consequence of the area at the edges of the city becoming open to institutional
development. Hence, fringe belt formation began along the canals. With subsequent expansion
this zone became embedded in the urban fabric so establishing an intermediate fringe belt.
Similar to the inner fringe belt, the intermediate belt is associated with fixation lines, in this
instance comprising the canals. When compared with the inner fringe belt, however, our case
study area tends to be less continuous in space, have fewer contiguous plots with more open
ground and vegetation cover and a sparser street pattern (see Figure 5).
The map below (Figure 5) illustrates the approximate position of the original city wall and
the intermediate urban fringe belt along and beyond the canals of the city of Dublin in 1948.

Figure 5. 1948 OS map highlighting the typical fringed belt plot uses (source: Richview
Map Library) (blue line – Royal and Grand Canals; yellow line – North and South
Circular Roads; red line – original location of city wall).
972

A more detailed map analysis later in this paper will focus on the intermediate fringe belt with
its fixation line and surrounding use patterns, urban tissue, block and plot sizes. However,
before examining this fringe belt in detail, it is necessary to understand what preceded it in
terms of urban development and its cultural, economic and social context that generated the
urban fabric of the 18th Century Georgian era.

Urban development in the North Georgian City as a coherent vision

The 17th Century occupation of Ireland by many who served in Oliver Cromwell’s armies could
only be achieved through massive confiscations of lands, with the existing freeholders being
turned out and transplanted to other areas of Ireland or forced to emigrate. The settling of
Ireland by these soldiers and the ensuing peace stimulated the economic development of the
country and, so, a considerable level of prosperity was experienced. This was reflected by an
increase in building activity throughout most of the country (Loeber, 1973).
The powerful agents of growth of the last quarter of the 18th Century are characterised by
different factors. One is the free trade concession won by 1780, allowing the removal of foreign
trade restriction. Another significant factor was the economic concessions granted to the Roman
Catholics: as Catholics were excluded from politics and from many professions, commerce was
their main occupation, which significantly increased the wealth of some. The concessions made
in 1778 enabled these Catholics to speculate in buildings and lands and to participate in urban
development (Burke, 1972).
Moreover, the independent status of the Irish parliament gained in 1782 made Dublin the
place where functions that were previously performed by the House of Lords in London now
devolved in the Irish House of Lords in Dublin. This growth determinant gave great prospects of
a permanent resident legislature with growing administrative bodies, which, in turn, increased
speculative investment in upper class residential buildings (Burke, 1972).
The 18th Century Georgian Dublin City growth pattern, notwithstanding the underlying
rectilinear geometry, manifested a disparate structure caused by the power of those who owned
parts of Dublin and reflecting a piecemeal individualisation of control as distinct from being
based on a coherent overall vision that is determined by, say, a single mind or by the common
good. Thus, development comprised speculative terrace housing on a patchwork of small
independent land holdings (McCullough, 1989; Sheridan, 2001; Twomey, 2010).
Notwithstanding, as explained by McCullough (1989), unity was attained, if not at the city
scale, at least in regard to building architectural style materials and elevation classical
proportions.
The 18th Century streetscape of Dublin was produced by private landlords who developed
large tracts of land, the most noteworthy being the Gardiner family (later Barons and Viscounts
Mountjoy) on the north-east side of the river, and the Viscounts Fitzwilliam of Merrion on the
south-east. Common practice in street and square planning at the time involved the owner
providing a plan of the plot-series layout as a guideline, each plot then being leased for
development to architects, builders, speculators or private individuals whose buildings were
controlled by clauses in those leases. From the second half of the century the control of such
development became concentrated in one planning body – the Wide Street Commissioners who
had the power of consent the approval for development or transformations of any part of the
cityscape (Sheridan, 2001).

The part-to-whole relationship

The schematic axonometric of Mountjoy Square shown in Figure 3.6, illustrates the typo-
morphological hierarchy commonly found in Georgian Dublin. Starting at the larger level, this
hierarchy comprises an urban tissue (from service lane through plots and square to opposing
service lane); square and street/plot series, individual plots and buildings (main house to the
 973

front with a front area, facing the street and square, and coach house to the rear facing a service
lane) (McParland, 2010).

Figure 6. Part-to-whole: a plot within a plot serious on the north side of Mountjoy Square
. (Source: Trinity Map Library).

Figure 7. 1875 OS map extract (not to scale). (Source: Trinity Map Library).

This analysis demonstrates the complex hierarchical interdependence of the different levels
of which the urban fabric is comprised. It is clearly useful for morphological description but
also, as we shall see later in this paper, as a powerful planning tool. As affirmed by Kropf
(2001b), this methodological tool also provides a basis for urban character identification:
‘Whatever the element, an entire street or a single wall brick, the design of the element is a
matter of both the objects that compose it and the relationship between them’ (Kropf, 2001b:
14).

The Wide Street Commissioners – the main decision makers of Dublin - Late 18th Century
(aspirations/rise) to early 19th Century (decline).

In 1749 a parliamentary committee was appointed to find out the causes of traffic congestion on
Essex Bridge, which was clearly blamed by the fact that there was no other easterly bridge to
974

serve the spreading city to the east. In 1757 the House of Commons appointed a committee to
examine how best an avenue from that bridge to Dublin Castle might be opened. Eventually
twenty-one Wide Street Commissioners (WSC) voted for making a wide and convenient way,
street and passage from Essex Bridge to the Castle and subsequently received royal assent on 29
April 1758 (McParland, 1972, 1986). The 1757 Act and the 1758 royal assent empowered the
commissioners to summon a jury to value the property needed to open a new street, this
property was subsequently bought under their powers of compulsory purchase (McParland,
1972; Sheridan, 2001; Boyd, 2006).
During the first half of the 18th Century development in Dublin is marked by uncontrolled
physical expansion and lack of continuity between the old centre and the new surrounding
suburban area (Sheridan, 2001). The second half of the 18th Century is marked by a radical
change characterized by a concerted drive towards an improved Dublin City, derived in part
from Enlightenment principals of civic life expressed in new public buildings. This was realised
most effectively in the work of the WSC and, in turn, caused changes in the social, economic,
geographic and architectural realm of the city (McParland, 1986; McCullough, 2007).

WSC and the Royal Canal Company Affairs

By the last decade of the 18th Century, the Royal Canal and the Grand Canal together already
encircled the city. The attention of the commissioners was pointed to the northern fringe of the
city by the works required to the Royal Canal. Although the canals lay outside the circular road,
they became part of the WSC jurisdiction after the 1792 Act, which extended their control half a
mile beyond the circular road. The resulting encompassing of the city in effect delineated a
metropolitan area and, thus, a metropolitan planning authority was created. Thus, for the first
time, the development of Dublin could be said to be under the jurisdiction of a single unified
authority (Burke, 1972; Fraser 1985; Sheridan, 2001): ‘Read the Resolution of the 1 st July 1791
relative to the expediency of having a correct Map of this City – and by an Act of this session
the powers of this Board be extended for half a Mile beyond the Circular Road.’ (WSC minutes
book 10: 316).

Figure 8. Map of the vicinity of the North Circular Road, showing Drumcondra Road,
Binns Bridge (Source: Dublin City Library WSC/Maps/237, date not given).

The following year, on Friday 10th May 1793, (present Right Honorable Lord Mountjoy) the
commissioners ‘Approved and signed a Map of the Interior Bank of the Circular Royal Canal,
 975

and a short Street leading from said Street called Dunn Street, said bank to be Fifty six feet
Wide and the Street Forty feet in width.’ (WSC minutes book 11: 279) (See Figure 3.8)

The WSC’s decline

From the 1790’s money started to run short causing delays in the WSC’s projects and site
development progress. As this last decade of the 18th Century passed, an economic and social
downturn was becoming more and more imminent, in particular due to the disturbed state of the
country with political unrest occasioned by the United Irish rebellion of 1798.
After 1800 complaints of acute shortages become common in the WSC’s minutes. The
United Parliament, resulting from the 1801 Act of Union, showed an unwillingness to
financially support the commissioners’ work and this duly caused the post-1800’s decline. At
the start of the new century, Dublin became reduced to a mere provincial city instead of a
capital, as was marked by the various incomplete WSC’s projects. Having been active for over
one hundred years, the commission was finally dissolved in January 1851 (WSC minutes book
50: 108-9).

The historical context of the intermediate fringe belt formation

The city suffered severely in respect of its economy, politics and physical development as a
consequence of these dramatic changes. Examples of the diminution of the city status made
physically manifest are, as follows: whilst Mountjoy Square retained its status during the first
half of the 19th Century, it then gradually deteriorated due to the influx of rural migrants
escaping and trying to survive to the Great Famine; grand urban plans for the Royal Circus
comprising monumental and luxurious residential buildings had not yet been realised and in
1800 there are no signs of it having even begun; and the Circus became the site of the Mater
Hospital in 1853. Another significant institutional development during the 19 th Century, close to
the Mater Hospital, was Mountjoy Prison, built in 1850 (Burke, 1972). During the 19 th Century,
a limited amount of money was spent in private ostentation whilst more was spent on
improvements on urban infrastructures and public facilities as well as on some social housing
for the poor that dominated Irish history of the post-Famine era (McCullough, 2007).

Post-Union Dublin lost her resident gentry and peers due mainly the disbanding of the
Parliament and the consequent economic slump. The Georgian property of the political and
social elite was extended, reutilized and subdivided, especially in the case of larger mansions,
most of which were transformed from residential use to institutional use (McCullough, 2007).

Historic context of the Royal Canal Construction

In 1715 an Act of Parliament was passed which proposed to make a considerable number of
rivers navigable and to link them with a series of canals. In 1788 the Irish Parliament introduced
a scheme to help finance private companies to build canals, make rivers navigable and improve
ports and harbours. Under this scheme a series of new navigations emerged in Ireland (Clarke,
1992). Among them was a re-vamped version of the northern river-canal, the Royal Canal, a
navigation proposed in 1755. The Royal Canal, completed in 1817, links the River Liffey in
Dublin to the River Shannon at Cloondara in Co. Longford (Delany, 1992).

The Royal Canal as a fixation line to the Northern fringe belt

Looking at a Dublin City map from the beginning of the 19th Century, the line where Dublin
City officially ended can be identified along the North Circular Road. This line was extended
outwards to the canals by the mid-century. In fact, this is confirmed on a map of Dublin City
produced in 1837 (Figure 3.9) where the municipal boundary is delineated (purple line)
976

following for the most part the line of the Royal Canal to the north and the Grand Canal to the
south. Accordingly, the two canals provided a clear-cut administrative area.
However, a more complex and less clear-cut form emerges when one traces the real extent of
the built-up urban area. The north side of the Liffey, from Arbour Hill to Phibsborough was
dominated by open fields, interrupted only by development around Prussia Street and a complex
of institutions around Grangegorman. It is not surprising that the streets bordering these
institutions typically included low-value houses or cabins (Prunty, 2001).

Figure 9. Map of the County of Dublin, 1837, by Thomas Larcom. Red line:
Parliamentary boundary; Purple line: proposed boundary; Green line: ancient boundary
(Source: Irish Historic Town Atlas).

Morphological development – the institutional fringe

The History of the City of Dublin two-volume book, written by Warburton, Whitelaw and Walsh
in 1818, describes buildings and urban fabric of the city at the beginning of the 19 th Century. A
considerable part of the second volume is dedicated to several types of institutional buildings
that are referred to in great detail. The location of those institutions tends to be at the edge of the
city, thus gradually forming an institutional fringe as commonly emerges during an economic
slump. There was a significant number of institutions along the North Circular Road outlined in
the mentioned volume as follows:

1. Dublin Female Penitentiary was opened in the year 1813 and in the following year ‘was
removed to a new and extensive building erected for the purpose on the North Circular-road.’
(Warburton, Whitelaw and Walsh, 1818; II: 775)
2. Asylum for old men in Russel-place was completed in 1812. ‘It stands on the south
side of the Circular-road, near Mountjoy-square, in a pleasant and healthful situation’
(Warburton, Whitelaw and Walsh, 1818; II: 795-6)
3. Widow’s retreat: ‘… excellent institution was erected in 1815, at the sole expense of the
Latouche family. …, situated at the extremity of Dorset-street, in the open and healthy outlet of
Drumcondra.’ (Warburton, Whitelaw and Walsh, 1818; II: 784)
 977

4. Asylum for aged and infirm female servants: ‘This institution was founded in 1809, …, in
the vicinity of the circular-road, in a situation healthy, cheerful and airy,’ (Warburton, Whitelaw
and Walsh, 1818; II: 790)
5. House of Refuge: established by a ‘pious widow in humble circumstances … engaged
the concurrence of many opulent Catholics, and a spacious house was purchased in Stanhope-
street, (Grange Gorman-lane), …. Forty females whose character and conduct entitle them to
this protection, are here supported, and finally recommended to reputable services.’ (Warburton,
Whitelaw and Walsh, 1818; II: 793)
6. Female orphan house: ‘In the year 1790, two ladies, Mrs. Ed. Tighe, and Mrs. Ch. Este, at
their own private expence [sic], took a small old house in Prussia-street, and placed in it five
female orphans. … A subscription was opened the following year, which increased so fast that
the present extensive building was erected, on the north Circular-road, … . The situation of the
house is airy and healthy,’ (Warburton, Whitelaw and Walsh, 1818; II: 849)
7. Newgate prison: this provides an example of a fringe-belt translation, that is, the transfer
of a land-use unit from an older fringe belt to a more recent one. ‘The old gaol in Corn-market
(number 7.1 in the map below), called Newgate, from its having formerly been one of the city
gates, being small, inconvenient, and from its ruinous state, insecure, it was determined to erect
a new prison’. Later in the 18th Century building began ‘in the Little Green, a piece of ground in
the north part of the city, which was chosen, but we are sorry to add, very injudiciously, for its
site, as it was not only insufficient in extent to admit of sufficient yards and other necessary
accommodations for the different descriptions of prisoners usually confined in gaols, but
environed by dirty streets, and in so low a situation as to render the construction of proper
sewers to carry off its filth impracticable.’ (Warburton, Whitelaw and Walsh, 1818; II: 1047)
8. Dublin penitentiary: ‘The first stone of this large edifice was laid by the Duke of
Richmond, in 1812, and it is proceeding rapidly to its completion. It is situated contiguous to the
House of Industry, and presents its front to Grand Gorman-lane, which extends 700 feet.’
(Warburton, Whitelaw and Walsh, 1818; II: 1061).
The institutions outlined above are mapped in Figure 3.10 below. The majority of these
institutions are located along the North Circular Road, thus forming the north intermediate
fringe belt.

Figure 10. Byrne’s Map of the City and Environs of Dublin, date 1819 (Source: Trinity
Map Library).
978

From maps of north Dublin City dating after 1800 and throughout the 19 th Century, there is
little evidence of high-class residential development (Figure 11 and 12). Rather the predominant
development type was that of institutional buildings, most notably, as previously mentioned, the
Mater Hospital and Mountjoy Prison as well as the female penitentiary, asylum and orphanage.
The early 19th Century Dublin had inherited urban form and built fabric that varied
immensely, reflecting its long and complex history. Street patterns had changed from the packed
narrow lanes of the medieval city core to the orderly and uniform set pieces of the previous
century landlord speculation on both sides of the river (Prunty, 2001).

Figure 11. 1821 Duncan Map (Source: Richview map library) (blue line – Royal Canal;
yellow line – North Circular Road; 1 Phoenix Park; 2 Military Hospital and Royal
Barrack; 3 Female Orphanage; 4 Richmond Penitentiary; 5 Female Penitentiary; 6
Whitworth Fever Hospital).

Figure 12. 1860 Ordnance Survey map (Source: Irish Historic Towns Atlas) (blue line –
Royal Canal; yellow line – North Circular Road; 1 Phoenix Park; 2 Military Hospital and
Royal Barrack; 3 Richmond Lunatic Asylum and Penitentiary; 4 Female Orphanage; 5
Mountjoy Prison and Female Penitentiary; 6 Mater Hospital; 7 Whitworth Fever
Hospital; 8 St Alphonsus Convent).
 979

Notwithstanding the complexity the fringe belt form noted above, a diagram is provided
below (Figure 13), adapted from the famous JWR Whitehand’s ‘Fringe-Belt Model’,
demonstrating an interpretation of morphological urban expansion layers that reflects Irish
history.

Figure 13. Irish version of JWR Whitehand’s ‘The Fringe Belt-Model’.

Manifestation of Institutional Expansion in Elevation

A study carried out by the 2009-2010 class taking the Masters in Urban and Building
Conservation (MUBC) at University College Dublin (UCD), examining the north Georgian
urban area of Dublin. This study included various street facades, one of which being the North
Circular Road (Figure 14 and 15). In many instances plot series were mixed, with the original
fringe belt pattern comprising relatively extensive plots with open spaces in between (Mater
Hospital) facing more continuous compact lengths of terraced housing.

Figure 14. North Circular Road Street Façade (note the northern façade of terrace houses
and the southern façade of both terrace houses and the Mater Hospital).
980

Figure 15. North Circular Road Street Façade (note the northern façade of the Mountjoy
Prison and the southern façade of the Mater Hospital).

Urban morphology as a conservation tool - critical review of current and proposed

Architectural Conservation Areas (ACAs) in Dublin

Looking at the current Dublin ACAs and the recently proposed ACAs, some points can be
considered bearing in mind the Larkham and Morton (2011) study reflecting an overall lack of
explicit consideration of morphological concepts of boundary-drawing.
One of the current ACAs is in the Thomas Street area, on the south side of the river. Figure
16 below identifies with red spots the protected structures within this area of the city and with a
green line the boundary of the ACA. One can question why the south side of the boundary line
outlined with a purple line, along The Coombe Road, was left outside the area given that it has
similar morphological characteristics to the other side of The Coombe Road, as is clear from the
photograph below (Figure 17). Again the street here is used as the boundary line, which surely
makes little sense in terms of the actual constitution and coherence of the urban fabric
concerned. Moreover, Cork Street, outlined in blue, is open to serious questioning regarding its
design and location considering how it insensitively breaks historical and social links between
the north and south of that street, namely the Liberties and Newmarket, respectively.
Boundary delimitations will continue to be an important activity of geographical urban
morphologists and urban landscape managers due, not least, to the fact that urban areas undergo
continuing change and, thus, require revision from time to time.
In any case, regarding boundary delineation, a thorough understanding of the historical and
special structure of townscapes is a prerequisite for successful zoning and management of
ACAs and, so, a thorough awareness of morphological regions is key to understanding the
richness, community value and identity of the townscape of any particular urban area (Larkham,
1990). Only with such knowledge can the conservation challenge be scoped for present and
future generations. Furthermore, such insight helps to identify areas at the urban scale worthy of
conservation that comprise buildings and ground plan features that relate to each other
historically and physically (Conzen, 1985). Conzen (1985) contends that ‘such ensembles form
 981

the historically most appropriate units for conservation planning within the city’ (Conzen, 1985:
75).

Figure 16.Thomas Street ACA map, boundary line in green, excluded area in purple, Cork
Street in blue (Source: Dublin City Development Plan 2011-2017).

Figure 17. Photograph of the Coombe Road looking westwards.

Pressure for change

The lack of formal recognition and protection of fringe belts leaves them vulnerable to erosion
and ultimate disappearance. Once a fringe belt is encompassed within the built up area rather
than remaining on the urban periphery, it becomes subjected to most of the forces for change at
work in any urban area which, in turn, depend in a large part on the existing character of the
fringe belt regarding open space as well as the state of the economy regarding pressure for urban
infill and densification. Within the compact city discussion, Rudlin and Falk (2009) described
the fringe belt areas as an ill-defined space or as a ‘shatter zone’ where considerable capacity
exists for new development. Yet, it is striking that, generally, fringe belts retain their
distinctiveness long after they cease to be at the actual fringe of the city. Although their
982

character inevitably changes to some extent, they tend to remain distinctive from adjacent areas
(Whitehand, 1967).

Management of the Dublin intermediate fringe belt

The Dublin case study, the north intermediate fringe belt, is currently the subject of
redevelopment proposals in respect of such key plots as Mountjoy Prison, Mater Hospital and
Grangegorman area (previous Richmond lunatic asylum and penitentiary). The current Local
Area Plan for the Phibsborough Mountjoy is illustrated in Figure 18 below and from this it is
evident that the boundary line of the plan is entirely unrelated to and ignores the actual structure
of the fringe belt character.

Figure 18. Phibsborough Mountjoy Local Area Plan and key development sites (Source:
Dublin City Council Local Area Plan).

It is, however, worth noting that the essential site character of these fringe belt’s plots is
being retained. Thus, at least along this stretch of the fringe belt, the overall character is not
under threat for the moment. Nevertheless, clear unambiguous recognition of the morphological
character and its important historical development would provide an important critical basis for
planning policy and mapping a vision that could guarantee for posterity more forthright
conservation of the character as an integral part of the development of the area under study. The
failure in planning to pay due attention to the urban fringe belt as an entity reflects the fact that
decision-making has been almost entirely on a site-by-site basis instead of adopting a holistic
view of the urban fabric.

Final Remarks

The town plan study of fringe belts, involving historic and geographical components of a city,
reveals clear morphological patterns. For reasons of their cultural importance as well as
embodying communal memory, these patterns must be recognized, appreciated and managed as
urban historic documents.
Besides the morphological significance of fringe belts, they are worthy of conservation for
cultural, scenic, ecological and recreational reasons. Moreover, they have the potential of
providing a model for the structuring of urban expansion, mediating between historic and new
urban fabric. It also might be noted that this morphological phenomenon can prove particularly
 983

relevant conceptually in spatial planning given the current economic recession and consequent
stagnation in urban growth. In other words, the past could well provide a model for the future,
but for this to occur the urban fringe belt as a historical form type must be fully appreciated.

References

Primary Sources
Wide Street Commissioners Minutes Books and Maps in Dublin City Library

Secondary Sources
Boyd, G. A. (2006) Dublin, 1745-1922: Hospitals, Spectacle and Vice Dublin: Four Courts.
Burke, N.T. (1972) ‘Dublin 1600-1800. A Study in Urban Morphogenesis’ PhD Thesis, Lecky Library in
Trinity College Dublin.
Casey, C. (2005) Dublin : The City Within the Grand and Royal Canals and the Circular Road with the
Phoenix Park London, Yale University Press.
Clarke, P. (1992) The Royal Canal : The Complete Story Dublin : Elo Publications.
Conzen, M. R. G. (1985) ‘Morphogenesis and Structure of the Historic Townscape in Britain’ In Conzen,
M. P. (ed.) (2004) Thinking about Urban Form, Papers on Urban Morphology 1932-1998 Peter Lang
AG, Bern.
Delany, R. (1992) Irland’s Royal Canal 1789 - 1992 The Lilliput Press, Dublin.
Jokilehto, J. (2010) ‘Reflection on Historic Urban Landscapes As A Tool For Conservation’ in UNESCO
World Heritage Centre Managing Historic Cities, World Heritage Papers 27.
Kealy, L., Simms, A. (2007) ‘The study of form in Ireland’ Urban Morphology 12 (1) pp 37-45.
Kostof, S. (1991) The City Shaped Urban Patterns and Meanings Through History Thames and Hudson
Ltd, London.
Kropf, K. (2001a) ‘Conceptions of change in the built environment’ Urban morphology 5 (1) pp 29-42.
Larkham, P. J. (1990) ‘Conservation and the Management of Historical Townscapes’ In Slater, T. R. (ed.)
The Built Form of Western Cities Biddles Ltd. Bristol.
Larkham, P. J., Morton, N. (2011) ‘Drawing Lines on Maps: Morphological Regions and Planning
Practices’ Urban Morphology 15.2.
Lennon, C. (2001) ‘The Changing Face of Dublin 1550-1750’ in Clark, P., Gillespie, R. Two Capitals:
London and Dublin, 1500-1840 Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Loeber, R. (1973) ‘Irish Country Houses and Castles of the Late Caroline Period: An Unremembered Past
Recaptured’ Irish Georgian Society Vol. XVI, No. 1 & 2.
McCullough, N. (1989) Dublin An Urban History Anne St. Press, Dublin.
McCullough, N. (2007) Dublin An Urban History Anne St. Press, Dublin.
McCullough, N. (2010) ‘The Dublin House’ in Casey, C. The Eighteenth-Century Dublin Town House
Four Courts Press.
McParland, E. (1972) ‘The Wide Streets Commissioners: Their Importance for Dublin Architecture in the
Late 18th-Early 19th Century’ Irish Georgian Society Vol. XV, No. 1.
McParland, E. (1986) ‘Strategy in the Planning of Dublin, 1750-1800’ in Butel, P., Cullen L. M. (ed.)
Cities and Merchants: French and Irish Perspectives on Urban Development, 1500-1900 Tony Moreau,
Dublin 2.
McParland, E. (2010) ‘The Geometry of the Stable Lane’ in Casey, C. The Eighteenth-Century Dublin
Town House Four Courts Press.
Prunty, J. (1998) Dublin Slums, 1800-1925 Irish Academic Press Ltd.
Prunty, J. (2001) ‘Improving the Urban Environment Public Health and Housing in Nineteenth-Century
Dublin’ in Brady, J., Simms, A. Dublin Through Space & Time England, MPG Books.
Prunty, J. (2010) ‘Conzen in Dublin: The Applicability of the Conzenian Conceptual Framework of Town
Plan Analysis, Utilising the Irish Historic Towns Atlas, Dublin parts 1 and 2’ paper presented at the
ISUF 17th Annual International Conference on Urban Form Formation and Persistence of Townscapes
Hamburg 20th-23rd August 2010, http://www.isuf2010.de/Papers/Prunty_Jacinta.pdf (accessed 5
December 2011).
Rudlin, D., Falk, N. (2009) Sustainable Urban Neighbourhood Building the 21 st Century Home
Architectural Press, Oxford.
984

Sheridan, E. (2001) ‘Designing the Capital City Dublin c. 1660-1810’ in Brady, J., Simms, A. Dublin
Through Space & Time England, MPG Books.
Simms, A. (2001) ‘Origins and Early Growth’ in Brady, J., Simms, A. Dublin Through Space & Time
England, MPG Books.
Slater, T. R. (1984) ‘Preservation, Conservation and Planning in Historic Towns’ The Geographical
Journal Vol. 150, N0. 3 pp 322-334.
Twomey, B. (2010) ‘Financing Speculative Property Development in Early Eighteenth-Century Dublin’
in Casey, C. The Eighteenth-Century Dublin Town House Four Courts Press.
Warburton, J., Whitelaw, J., Walsh, R. (1818) History of the City of Dublin London: W. Bulmer and Co.
Whitehand J. W. R. (1967) ‘Fringe Belts: A Neglected Aspect of Urban Geography’ Transactions,
Institute of British Geographers 56 pp 39-55.
Whitehand J. W. R. (1977) ‘The Basis for an Historico-Geographical Theory of Urban Form’
Transactions, Institute of British Geographers New Series, Vol. 2, No. 3 pp 400-416.
Whitehand J. W. R. (2010a) ‘Urban Morphology and Historic Urban Landscape’, in UNESCO World
Heritage Centre Managing Historic Cities, World Heritage Papers 27.
Whitehand J. W. R., Morton N. J. (2004) ‘Urban Morphology and Planning: the Case of Fringe Belts’
Elsevier Vol 21, No. 4 pp 275-289.
Whitehand J. W. R. (2012) ‘Issues in Urban Morphology’ Urban Morphology 16 (1) pp 55-65.
 985

New University Complexes as a force of shaping the urban

form of the medium sized cities in contemporary Iran, a case
study of Najaf Abad

Ario Nasserian1, Valeriya Klets1, Sara Kalbasi2

1
Dipartimento DIAP, DRACO ,Università di Roma "Sapienza", Italy. 2 Islamic Azad
University of Najaf Abad (IAUN), Iran. E-mails: [email protected],
[email protected], [email protected].

Abstract. Aim of this paper is to study the effect of the newly emerged factors in shaping a city in Iran. In
recent years, with the huge increase in number of the students and the wave of building of new
universities across the country, in many medium-sized cities, the main element forming the city changed
drastically to the university complexes and other buildings related to them. In this paper, initially, there
would be a short description of growth of the urban tissue in the city which has been used as a case study,
together with a description of the influence of its historical background in the development of historical
tissue. Then the statistical and demographic study of the city will be carried out in order to show the
trend of urbanization in the city. A summary of the results will prove that by building the university a
sudden increase in the rate of city’s growth and area has been started, also due to the price change in
some neighborhoods of the city, this growth is much more than the others. It would be shown that the
general number of stories of the city buildings and the area of the housing has also changed to make the
buildings more profitable to rent, as a huge renting population is added to the city. In general, the city’s
face has changed from a traditional working-class residential city, to a so-called dormitory-city.

Key Words: factors of growth, change of the urban tissue, medium towns, accelerated growth, dormitory
city

Introduction

Najaf Abad is a city in the center of Iran in Isfahan Province, 25 kilometers to the west of the
city of Isfahan, which is the 3rd largest city and traditionally most important cultural center of
Iran. (Fig-1) Being this close to a very big City like Isfahan, has made Najaf Abad always being
overshadowed during four centuries since its foundation in many ways and not least, the study
of its urban issue.

Figure 1. Najaf Abad and its Neighbour, Isfahan

986

Nevertheless, The urban tissue of this city is a very unique one in Iran, as it is the first city
that was built from scratch, as a city and is not outcome of a natural or organic development of a
rural area, and the first example of many satellite cities all around Iran, and then a possible role
model for many of them. Of many elements affecting the growth and form of a city, one of the
most influential ones is the population, as discussed by Longley et al.(1991). The most recent
change in population of this city was caused by building a huge branch of IAU (Islamic Azad
University) with around 25’000 students which not only changed the city’s population as a sheer
number, changed the population’s desires, needs and requirements and thus changed the
lifestyle of at least a portion of the population of the city.
The aim of this Paper is to show the effect of these changes on the urban form of the city of
Najaf Abad. The method to do this study would be to investigate the essential urban form
parameters in the city in order to attain a better knowledge of the structure of the city, study of
its size and population growth, together with the study of the parameters like the city shape in
different scales-starting from Macro scale- different densities in different zones, different rate of
growth, and finally visiting the city in order to obtain some visual evidences.

Historical Growth and background of city

The city was founded in 1613 by the direct edict of the Safavid court, with some
administrational objectives, which the most important one of them was to establish a settlement
in the west of the capital to give the region more security and stability. In order to do this and as
the city lies in a dry valley, they had to transfer water there. As a very unusual move, it had very
unique consequences, and one of these was the very unusual form of the urban issue. As
Bonine(1979) describes, there are very few variations in the general forms of the city blocks in
Iran as they are usually influenced by the same factors everywhere. He suggests that a very
influencing factor, particularly in the regions with few water resources is the city’s water
network shape, specially underground water network (Qanat). In this case as the water had to be
brought from somewhere else and the watering network could have been designed in any
desired form, it wasn’t a factor at all. This effect of water on shaping the city is further
emphasized by Spooner(1974).
The fact that due to the lack of water in place there was no rural settlement, plus a flat
topography and the Safavid urban preferences was the reason of a very regular plan for the city
with a big square which is very characteristic to that period. This center and the general
macroform of the city in its three phases of growth are shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2. Safavid city center of Najaf Abad, a regular Cartesian tissue and city’s
development phases.
 987

It is very obvious that this is very different with the usual perception of an Islamic city which
is usually described in his way: "irregularity and anarchy seem to be the most striking qualities
of Islamic cities”, (de Planho, recited by Bonine,1979) or "the organic, irregular plan . . . is
universal in the Muslim world,… Muslim towns grew so spontaneously and haphazardly as to
prevent the development of a systematic street pattern.”(English, recited by Bonine,1979). Later
the government decided to build the arms factory of the Safavid army there and thus moved the
workers and their families there too, therefore increasing the population.
The city has been always in strong and direct relation with its bigger neighbor, Isfahan, If
Isfahan was in a prosperous period so prospered Najaf Abad and in the times of decline of
Isfahan, it was on the decline too.
In the years after its foundation until the middle of the previous century, Najaf Abad had
grown on the basis of an agricultural economy, with a somehow steady and slow growth, at
1950 the process of Industrialization of the region started, causing a rise in the influx of the
immigrants to the city and thus making the growth more rapid.

Contemporary Growth of the city

Using the documents provided by the municipality of the city, one can draw the boundaries of
the city in the past 60 years, the way it is shown in the (Fig-3). Using the terms given by
Allain(2004), in the scale of the Macro form, it can be seen that up to 1983, the city was
growing in a single, almost round agglomeration, But the last two phases of city development
show significant deviation from a centrally growing city, First, city starts to grow along the
north-south road which is its eastern boundary, then new neighborhoods which are not
connected to the main body of city appear, and continue growing.

Figure 3. Limits of contemporary Najaf Abad, Growth of the city in last 70 years.

In order to have a good understanding of the city’s pattern and rate of growth, it is useful to
have a quantitative estimation of its city’s population and area growth per year. The Chart
shown in Fig-4 represents the city’s area by square kilometers in past 70 years and the annual
growth rate percentage for the city. It can be seen that with an average annual growth rate of
7.3%, it is growing quite rapidly.
988

120

100 1955
80 1967

60 1977

40 1983
1991
20
2002
0
1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Figure 4. Growth of the city, Total Area by square kilometres.

Here rises an interesting issue, if two later stages of the city growth are considered, it can be
seen that in this phases the city is expanding much more in the new neighborhoods, than it is
growing by expansion of the initial core areas which are traditionally more pleasant and more
expensive areas. In other words, one can reach to the conclusion that for some reason attraction
of the new neighborhoods is more than the main core of the city for increasing the urban area.
Fig-5 Shows this phenomenon of the satellite area growth.

40,00
30,00
20,00 Area Growth outside
core of city in square km
10,00
Area growth inside core
0,00
of city in square km

Figure 5. Growth of the main body of the city and he satellite cities.

In order to understand the process of the growth of the city and the change of its shape better,
the main elements shaping the macroform of the city shall be considered, Ghahraei(1996)
counts four important factors: 1- the mountain on the north which won’t let the city to grow
northward further than a certain limit. 2- Gardens and fields which used to surround the city,
has been transformed to the city tissue, so the tissue follows the arrangement of the old fields
which in turn get their shape from the waterways, this element is close to the origin for shaping
process described by Bonine(1979). 3- City’s position on a main road connecting two important
regions of the country-main oil fields of the Khuzestan to the main industrial pole of Isfahan,
has been instrumental in redesigning the city as a linear one -along the axis of the road- in the
modern period in Iran, which later changed and took its current form. 4: The General slope of
the city site, east to west, and equal to 0.1% which is used for water network system has been an
adding influence to the orientation of main streets inside the city.
Also it has to be noted that this rapid rate of growth has made the city unable to form any
shape of a fringe-belt or a fixation line (Conzen, 1960) with green areas and low population
around the city.
 989

Study of the Population of the city

Study of the development of the city would be impossible without study of its population. The
data available to writers, states that in 1956 city had a population of 30422, and by the start of
2013 city’s population had seen a very sharp increase to 246017, which means during a period
of less than 60 years, city’s population has increased more than 8 times. Fig-6, shows the total
number of inhabitants of the city during this period.

300000
250000
200000
150000
Population of The City
100000
50000
0
1940 1960 1980 2000 2020

Figure 6. Population of the city

Naturally, this population is not distributed homogenously in the city, Fig-7, shows the
density of the population in the city area. In order to make this diagram, a basis of four groups
for density is used (Conzen, 1960), the limits of these groups are: Low: Less than 5000
inhabitants per square kilometer, Medium: Between 5000 and 10000 inhabitants per square
kilometer, High: Between 10000 and 15000 inhabitants per square kilometer, Very High: more
than 15000 inhabitants per square kilometer.
Usually one will expect to have the most population in the city center, and to observe a
decrease in density by getting away from this center (Allain, 2004), but the pattern of population
distribution is not this simple. It can be seen that in the old city center, there is an average
density, comparing the Fig-7 with Fig-3 shows that the parts with highest densities all belong to
the constructions in the past 30 years, (after 1983), it can be also seen that formation of these
parts in the main core of the city corresponds to an almost 30% increase of population in early
80’s and late 70’s(Fig-6). Further development of the main core of the city is in medium density
as expected. Longley et al.(1991)

Figure 7. Density of Population in City area (2010).

990

There are some parts of the city center, which due to their old origin-comparing Fig-7 and
Fig-2 shows that this low-density part is the same old Safavid part-, were dedicated to some
functions which have remained the same (like mosques), these urban elements together with the
municipality trying to keep and renovate the city center in its old shape (Fig-8) has been
instrumental in keeping the density in city center low.

Figure 8. Renovation of the city center which keeps its density quite low.

New trend of construction in the city

Now having in mind from Fig-5 that more than half of the growth of city in its last two phases
of growth belongs to the areas outside of the city core, and considering the Fig-9, one can reach
to a conclusion that city’s most recent construction is designed for more population density.
This goal can be achieved by two means: Smaller homes and/or more stories for the residual
buildings.

60,0

50,0

40,0 18,0

30,0 Ouside core

7,5 Inside core
20,0
29,7
10,0 20,4 6,1
2,8
7,6 7,8
0,0
Low Medium High V.High

Figure 9. Percentage of different densities in total city area in different parts of

city.
 991

This act can be confirmed by two more observations: First, change of form in residential
buildings of the city. In order to understand this change of form, one has to look in to the block
plans in different areas inside the city, to have a logical comparison two bocks which almost
have the same size and belong to the same population density category have been selected.

Figure 10. Comparison of two neighbourhoods, before(Left) and after(Right)

construction of IAUN.

These blocks are shown in Fig-10. There are some clear differences in these two blocks,
which can be listed as follows: (1) The houses are shaping in a much more orderly form, more
suitable for larger constructions. Also they almost have the same length perpendicular to the
streets. (2) Secondary alleys and central courts are eliminated completely. Remembering these
alleys are the spaces that form a pseudo-private entrance to the buildings and the concept of
center court just applies to a family and private space, these changes are a step toward de-
privatization of the residential spaces. (3) While the coverage area of the building is 59% in the
old formations, it has very slightly decreased to 57% in more recent buildings.(Note that the
municipality regulations in Iran limits this ratio to maximum of 60%.).
Also a very significant change is number of the stories of the buildings. Almost all the city
has been in one or two stories, less than one percent of the houses had three or more stories. But
in the recent years residential buildings of more than three stories are quite common, statistics of
the region shows the demand for buildings with more stories is increasing. In Fig-11,
percentages of the buildings with various stories built in the year 2011 in the city are shown,
together with the under construction buildings in developing parts of city.

50,0

40,0

30,0

20,0

10,0

0,0
1 2 3 4 5

Figure 11. Recent buildings, change of trend in the number of stories.

992

Universities and their effect on the city tissue

Considering all of the changes the city is going through, it is obvious that due to sudden
increase in population there has been more demand for residential spaces. There is another
factor which contributes both to the increase of population and the change of the architectural
form of the buildings and that is the effect of various educational institutes in the city specially
the huge university complex in the north east of the city.
In 1985 the Najaf Abad branch of the Islamic Azad University (IAUN) was founded in the
city. Following the nationwide desire for higher education institutes, it went through a rapid rise
in the number of students to the extent that right now it has more than 25000 students.
Considering the total population of the city which is 240000, it can be seen this single university
contains more than 10% of the whole population of the city.
Due to the lack of dormitories in the university campus, the need for housing had to be
answered within the city and it has been a driving force for the construction boom and leading
in the formation of the city.
The Universities have impacted the macroform of the city in a very obvious way. City is
reaching out toward the universities and also making a cluster around them. Once more, a look
at city’s general form in Fig-12, can show this pattern of extension towards these centers.It can
be seen that in the south west, due to relative closeness to the city tissue and the existence of a
road, the city has extended itself toward this point, in the west, due to the city’s initial plans, a
cluster has been formed and the university has made the process of urbanizing faster, and in the
north east and around the main university campus, almost a whole new urban tissue has been
formed.

Figure 12. Location of IAUN and two other universities on the map.

The change in the trend of residential construction which has been previously discussed, also
can be a result of the effect of the university, as due to the demand for residences and rise of the
price of the housings and the rents, now it is economically sound to build houses with more
stories and provide more space and area of residence for the lands. As a result of his rise in the
profits of owning houses, there are many owners in older pats of the city who are trying to
demolish and rebuild their properties in order to increase value of their properties. Fig-13,
shows some examples of this rebuilding process. It is seen that old one-story housings are
demolished in order to clear land to make way for buildings with more stories and hence more
residual space.
 993

Figure 13. Demolition of the old one story buildings and building multi-story ones.

Conclusion

Demographic and statistical analysis together with study of the urban macroform and medium
scale study of the tissue of the city, shows that a change in the population characteristics and the
demands inside a city can have significant consequences on the urban tissue of the city. In the
case of the city of Najaf Abad, the building of university complexes has been very instrumental
in changing the demography of the city’s population and hence its demands.
In Najaf Abad, these consequences can be singled out in three ways: First, change in urban
macroform, which happens in two ways, stretching toward the university centers and clustering
around them. Second, it impacts the general form of tissue, makes it more regular, and usually
in bigger land portions for construction and third, the general shift of the buildings toward
multi-story buildings to provide more residential space.
Najaf Abad which has long been a satellite city for Isfahan, now is working as a huge
dormitory for the university complex near it, which gives it a dual dormitory function, for the
city that it is a satellite for and for a satellite cluster of its own. It shows that the size and
importance of two settlements is not the only factor deciding their roles towards each other,
functions and requirements inside each of them are important as well.

References

Allain, R, (2004) ‘Morphologie urbaine. Géographie, aménagement et architecture de la ville (Paris, A.

Colin, coll. U Géographie).
Longley, P., Batty.M and Shepherd, J., (1991) ‘The Size, Shape and Dimension of Urban
Settlements’,Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers, New Series 1, 75-94.
Bonine, M. E. (1979) ‘The Morphogenesis of Iranian Cities’, Annals of the Association of American
Geographers 2, 208-224.
Spooner, B. (1974), ‘City and River in Iran: Urbanization and Irrigation of the Iranian Plateau’, Iranian
Studies 3/4, Studies on Isfahan: Proceedings of the Isfahan Colloquium, Part II (Summer - Autumn,
1974) 681-713.
Ghahraei, H. (1996) ‘Development of Najaf Abad city during the period 1910-1980’, The Geographical
education quarterly 39.
Conzen, M. R. G. (1960) Alnwick Northumberland: a study in town-plan analysis (Institute of British
Geographers, London).
994

Note that all the data needed for statistical studies are taken from municipality of Najaf Abad or the
Iranian Center for Statistics, available online at : http://www.amar.org.ir/
 995

Urban Black Holes: the rural in the urban as liminal spaces

from where to build a new city

Paula Santos1, Daniela Peña-Corvillon2

1
Departmento de Ciência Política e do Comportamento, Universidade Fernando Pessoa &
Centro de Políticas Públicas Urbanas, Universidade de Lisboa,
2
Department of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning, Univ of California at Berkeley.
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract. This paper takes an anthropologically informed approach to urban form and to a particular
space and its social world: the so called hortas (vegetable patches) in Porto, Northern Portugal. These
hortas are small sections of land located along a water corridor that are cultivated outside any legal
frame by local neighbours, thus producing informal grower communities. Since the traditional narrative
on city growth is one of the urban form expanding while agricultural practices are relegated to other
spatial realms, the ‘rural’ is not expected to be an element of the ‘urban’. As such this paper deals with
what could be thought of as ‘urban black holes’: ‘the rural in the urban’. Through an ethnographically
informed analysis we argue that these hortas are not mere ‘survivals’ of past stages of the city’s evolution
and growth, but an essential element of change in today’s city where city dwellers take power into the
urban landscape starting a new paradigm of urban community life.

Key Words: Rural-in-the-city; Liminal-spaces; Informal communities; Water-corridors

Introduction

After thousands of years of urban development we still can find places in some neighbourhoods
that look very different from what is commonly understood by ‘city’. These other places are
frequently located in the internal margins of the urban fabric, and although they display strong
roots within the urban structure, they are not necessarily tied to ‘the constant grey’ of the city.
They are frequently seen as an urban emptiness, as urban black holes. But in fact, in some
instances connectivity and urban growth have forged a rich urban-life setting. This paper
analyses two such places.
The sites are two urban hortas located in the city of Porto, Northern Portugal. The
Portuguese word hortas comes from the Latin “hortus”, meaning garden, and is used to refer to
vegetable plots. The cases under analysis are working-class informal community-related grass-
roots hortas, as opposed to City Council or urban middle-class environmental-conscious
association sponsored hortas. They occupy areas where the built city has stopped developing,
probably due to the water corridors that are one of the main morphological elements of these
two sites.
We will first describe the morphology of the hortas and their topographical relation to the
surrounding city elements. Because the methodology involved in this study is also
anthropologically oriented (thus involving direct contact and retrieval of information with the
members of these growers communities), a central role will also be given in this paper to the
social world that both produces and is produced by the hortas.

Urban vs Rural

What is a city? Lewis Mumford posed this very question in 1937. His answer was that “[t]he
city, in its complete sense,… is a geographic plexus, an economic organization, an institutional
process, a theatre of social action, and an aesthetic symbol of collective unity” (Mumford,
2003:94). According to Horta (2011) a settlement is a city when it displays demographic
996

density, social division of labour, social differentiation, public services and a concentration of
the secondary and tertiary economic sectors. The first sector, agriculture, is never referred to as
an element constitutive of the city. The European industrial revolution of the 1700s and 1800s,
with its major impact on the economy, social organization and life-styles of western cities, is the
element that more strongly builds the present-day idea of the city as ‘a place of work’ (Santos,
2014: 113), even if today that work is mostly related to the service economy and not to industry.
Thus, presently, the idea of ‘city’ does not generally entail agricultural practices (Gottdiener,
2014:19). If any forms of agriculture were to be found in urban contexts, they were seen as
‘survivals’ of past times, as anachronistic practices that time and the inevitable march of
progress would make disappear.
In this paper, and as a result of the fieldwork carried with urban grower communities, we
argue for a different perspective on and a different understanding of these agricultural practices
in urban contexts.

The two sites

The morphology of places is an essential element in the process of constructing the urban space
and its social world. Thus, morphological conditions of urban systems create the possibility of
specific situations that support the emergence of specific spaces within the urban system.
Liminal spaces are one such type of place. The hortas here under analysis are liminal spaces
where the essential interaction between humans and nature (the latter taken in a very broad
sense) is enhanced. These liminal areas and their social systems tantamount to other places that
are protected and stewarded by the local communities that produce them.
The cases presented here will be named Horta A and Horta B. They were both differently
shaped by morphology and history.

Case study 1- Horta A

Horta A (Figure 1) is located on one of the edges of the city (the River Douro) being a natural
storm water drainage. The verticality of the place and the steep slope contributed to the overall
erosion, mainly due to the continued water run-off, washing the topsoil away. The land is the
property of one of the city’s universities and the growers make use of it with the approval of the
institution. The number of growers that constitutes this community is c 15 people. The total area
of the cultivated plots is 20 000 square meters. According to the information collected through
fieldwork, cultivation has been taking place on this site for over 15 years.
It is understood that horta A is located on the terrain of a former Quinta (agricultural estate).
The old retaining walls of rock and stone appear and disappear on the site. This element helps
integrate the new agrarian practices with the old infrastructure in a space that claims to be
something new (the horta/growers community) in between the remains of old rural-urban city
borders and the contemporary surroundings and community. The community garden plots are
located around the old terraces in irregular shapes and at different levels. The remaining
elements from the past Quinta help to subdivide the space and make it easy for people to define
their own individual agricultural space.
The food grown by this community ranges from potatoes, to beans, tomatoes, onions,
lettuces, cabbages, spinaches and, in some cases, strawberries. The water has been collected and
centralized on the highest point of the urban stream flow and it is currently one of the main
morphological elements of the horta: the grower community decided to build a small water
retaining structure for that stream (Figure 2: Site A-Water Pond). The work was carried out by
them sharing labor, materials and expenses. From the ensuing pond, water is distributed by dug
out canals and pipes to each corner of the horta in order to irrigate people’s crops.
Accessibility to the horta is limited with only three points of entry (Figure 1) being very well
protected (there are gates with locks for which you need keys). Growers say that the land
 997

belongs to the university and as such they feel responsible for what is going on inside the horta.
This is the reason they give to the importance they attach to keeping control of the access to the
grounds.

Figure 1. Map of Site A.

Figure 2. Water structures (Site A and Site B).

Case study 2- Horta B

Horta B (Figure 3) is located on a flood plain of a small creek. This type of land formation (ie,
flood plains) has been avoided by the development grid of the city due to the unstable ground
conditions. The area where this second site is located is an area where the city meets in a multi-
scalar way (Figure 3). All the different elements coexist in an extensive open space where the
cultivated plots (aggregated in more than one unit) occupy c 68 500 square meters. In this paper
we will only be describing a smaller section of the complete area: Horta B, occupying c 19 000
square meters.
Located on a horizontal landscape (the flood plain) there is usually a couple hundred meters
or more between the horta and the surrounding elements part of this landscape. Just like in
Horta A, rock walls are important elements here that create a unique space and provide a
minimal structure for this horta. As a morphological element of the landscape, these walls also
provide shade and accentuate the sun’s position and thus the temporality of the space.
998

The small creek that runs through the site brings water from the costal hills (100 m
elevation) into a bigger creek that runs through the city all the way to the Douro. The water
quality of the creek is extremely poor, being polluted by industrial units located upstream, on
the exterior of the ring-road. Using water as the main resource (Figure 2 Site B – Water canal)
local people have been growing food produce such as potatoes, beans, tomatoes, onions, lettuce,
cabbage, spinach, flowers and some fruit trees. The community of growers of Horta B is
constituted by more than 30 individuals (both male and female but, again, with a predominance
of the former). They have been cultivating this particular section for more than 12 years. The
growers do not know who holds the deeds of the land they are cultivating.

Figure 3. Map of Site B.

Community Space

At both sites the housing community next to the site supports (although not exclusively) the
hortas. Some of the growers might live fairly distant from the horta site, but have connections
(through family or work) to the first growers of the horta. According to the narratives collected
through field work, it is usually the men who take the initiative to start cultivating next to the
creek. They also clean and prepare the site for agricultural uses, especially on steep slopes. All
the physical activities and the daily chores that these urban agricultural units demand imply a lot
of effort and time, but hortas are spoken of by their growers as “doing you good”.
The sense of goodness that growers attribute to the hortas is the main and the most common
characteristic in the growers’ discourse. According to them, hortas are keeping people active
and consequently healthy and consequently happy. The horta is a source of goodness because it
steers men away from the tasca, but also because it implies an outdoor, physically active life-
style.
The goodness of the horta translates itself also onto the goodness of the food produce grown
in them. As the growers say, “the food I buy in the supermarket, god knows where it comes
from and what stuff they put on it! This one, I know it is healthier because I grew it myself –
and it tastes better too!” So, to the goodness of the activity to one’s health, one adds the
 999

goodness of the produce itself: free from commercial farming practices and associated ‘evils’.
An additional goodness of the practice is the contribution it makes to the household economy.
However, this element of contribution to the family budget is never presented as the main
impetus for the agricultural practices. Growers refer to the reason why they grow food produce
mostly because they take pleasure in it, because “it is good for you”.
Besides being inhabited (or having as a morphological element) the openly voiced figure of
‘goodness’, hortas as an urban terrain are also inhabited by (or have as a morphological
element) the circularity of ‘the gift’, in the sense Marcel Mauss delineated it in the 1920s. So,
what is the object of the gift in the hortas? The most immediately circulated element is the food
produce. Growers refer quite often to the pleasure they have in offering some of their produce
surplus to family, friends and neighbours. With the economic crisis the country is presently
living, this gift of food produce is even more welcome than before. However, none of the
growers refers to selling their produce surplus.
The second element that circulates through a gift economy is labour. The pooling of labour is
a well-known social feature in agricultural societies. In the hortas, very often growers referred to
the fact that if one of the growers is off sick and is not showing up regularly at his/her plot, they
will carry out the necessary tasks so as to the crop is not lost. In times of more intensive labour
everyone receives help from their neighbour to cultivate their sites.
The third element that circulates through a gift economy is knowledge. According to the
narratives collected, some growers have approached the initial growers, not only to ask if they
could also cultivate a section of the land (due to the liminal nature of the space in legal terms,
they did not know whom to address for such authorization but for those who somehow were
already farming the land), but mostly to learn from them how to grow things successfully.
These urban cultivated areas are liminal spaces that are central places to these peoples’ lives.
They are places where people interact with the landscape and, most importantly of all, places
where they are able to build their own interpersonal space. Elderly people, young women and
children have now a space to share their knowledge, to be physically active and where to enjoy
leisure time and the beauty of the landscape, of their farmed gardens and of the city.

The hortas as urban black holes

Hortas are liminal but not marginal spaces. They are interactive spaces of exchange in hidden
areas inside the urban structure. The hortas are the result of a complex morphology and
changing ecosystems. The identity and particular culture of these places are extremely important
to the urban dwellers that cultivate them. Local people protect and understand the natural
landscape of the area making these places key elements in the urban landscape connecting
nature and people.
As far as morphological elements are concerned, on both sites water is the main actor of the
natural settlement and responsible for preventing the city from developing the grey in those
areas. The cultivation of the landscape requires spreading water in different directions and
along terraces. The necessary slowing down, sinking and spreading of water helps both to
control the erosion as well as keeping the soil fertile. It also involves the community by
implying shared labour and shared water management, as well as giving these city dwellers a
place to cultivate.
As Martin Heidegger (1951:2) said, to build is to dwell since “ in the word bauen we
hear three things: 1. Building is really dwelling; 2. Dwelling is the manner in which mortals are
on the earth; 3. Building as dwelling unfolds into the building that cultivates growing things and
the building that erects buildings… We do not dwell because we have built, but we build and
have built because we dwell, that is, because we are dwellers”. The hortas are places of dwelling
where exchange of knowledge is constantly happening, where community resilience is
produced, where people engage in physical activities and an environmental consciousness
develops. The protection of these spaces and their communities is very valuable. The hortas here
1000

presented are a clear example of a social nucleus and a scenario of a unique urban community
culture.
The fluidity of time and the challenges that these sites present have taken people to settle in
them in a flexible way, away from rigid systems which so often our urban grids produce. It is
clearly under the physical/morphological conditions of the place that essential human values are
taking root, values that are related to identity and to livelihood and that so often our cities curtail
by hiding them among the anxiety and the productivity that the urban promotes. And it is the
realization of the latter reality that prompts our questions on our cities of today and their public
spaces, on the absence of freedom, flexibility and capacity for transformation that is limiting our
ability for harmonious human development.
A lot of our green public spaces, usually named ‘parks’, are places that promote another type
of spatiality not that of the hortas’. In parks there are limited forms of interaction between
people that is accompanied by a continuous exhibition of the self to others. Parks as promoters
of leisure have forgotten about important human activities of connection between the individual
and his/her territory, namely about the incorporation in them of communal activities of
subsistence that should be salvaged and protected. The hortas here presented, due to their grass-
roots nature are a reflection of the freedom of the human. It is in the hortas, spaces that are
usually read as an urban emptiness, that in fact the dynamic exchange between individual and
environment takes place. Thus the metaphoric term of ‘urban black holes’ in the title of this
paper.
A black hole in Physics does not in fact refer to an emptiness but to a location of immense
energy. The same way, hortas are not an urban emptiness, but spaces in which there is instead a
concentration and exchange of energy vital to our survival through time, not as individual
beings, but as social communities that belong to a live ecosystem in which we dwell in the
Heideggerian sense of the word. And by analysing the hortas as part of Porto urban system, two
questions arise: was it the morphology of the place that has promoted those values or were we
ourselves who knew not how to build the city under those values? And how does a formal
system of territory management embrace an informal system without annihilating it?

References

Gottdiener, M. (2014) “The New Form of Urban Space and its Architecture” in Santos, P.M. and Seixas,
P. C. (ed.) Globalization and Metropolization – perspectives on Europe’s West Coast (Berkeley Public
Policy Press – Institute of Governmental Studies, Berkeley) 15-26
Horta, A. P. B. (ed) (2011) Sociologia Urbana (Universidade Aberta, Lisboa)
Heidegger, M. (1971) Building Dwelling Thinking, from Poetry, Language,
Thought (1951) translated by Albert Hofstadter (Harper Colophon Books, New York)
Mauss, M. (2000) The Gift: The Form and Reason for Exchange in Archaic Societies (Routledge,
London).
Mumford, L. (2003) “What is the City?” (1937) in LeGates, R.T. and Stout, F. (ed.) The City Reader
(Routledge, London and New York) 92-96
Santos, P. M. (2014) “The Tourism Constellation: Urban Tourism and the Globalized Circuits of
Commodified Selves” in Santos, P.M. and Seixas, P. C. (ed.) Globalization and Metropolization –
perspectives on Europe’s West Coast (Berkeley Public Policy Press – Institute of Governmental
Studies, Berkeley) 109-132.
 1001

Exploring university morphology. Bergamo as case study

Luísa Cannas da Silva, Teresa Valsassina Heitor

ICIST – Instituto de Engenharia de Estruturas, Território e Construção, Instituto
Superior Técnico, Lisboa. E-mail: [email protected],
[email protected]

Abstract. Universities have a preponderant role in today’s societal models especially under the influence
of the knowledge economy. They have been in the core of development — economical, social, inter alia —
and their role within urban context has changed in order to respond to the third strand of the university
mission — that of civic engagement. Whether conceived as autonomous entities or diffused within the
urban fabric, universities are a key element in urban dynamics and policies and they are progressively
more included in strategic plans and development actions worldwide. Therefore, it has become significant
to understand the extent of university integration within urban territories. This paper aims at exploring
an analytical framework for university precincts within urban fabrics, understanding the different types of
urban insertion and connections established with local and regional players. The focus is placed on the
impact of the university precinct at the level of the adjacent urban fabrics, on an attempt to understand
the ways universities can relate to their hosting cities, from a morphological point of view. The University
of Bergamo, Italy is used as a case study, for the diversity present in the urban insertion of its physical
premises.

Key Words: University precinct; urban integration; campus; knowledge economy; university morphology

Introduction

This paper focuses on universities and their precincts and the role they perform in urban context.
It relies on the premise that universities are a key element in urban dynamics and urban policies
and that they have the ability to be powerful urban generators, attracting people and flows, and
creating urban vitality (Calder & Greenstein, 2001). Their physical settings act, thus, as the first
vehicle through which universities can interact with their hosting city.
Within the context of the knowledge economy, universities are progressively being
perceived as one of the most influential elements in society, since they impact on city
development on several levels (Wiewel & Perry, 2008). They have the ability to change city
demographics, to act as economical developers and to impact on several ways on society in
general. Besides, universities can contribute to urban regeneration, by directly improving the
quality of the urban fabric, and helping to reclaim parts of cities and leverage funds from public
regional players. Therefore, it is urgent to understand the full extent of their impact, and to
explore university-city relationships.
This paper aims at analysing these university physical settings, on an attempt to understand
their impact on the universities’ vicinity, and the ability they have to promote synergies and
relationships with their urban surroundings.
In order to better explore these matters, the University of Bergamo, located in the north of
Italy was chosen as a case study, for its morphological features and insertion in the urban fabric
of its hosting city.
This paper is organized in three parts: the first explores the university general context and the
key themes involving university facilities planning. The second explores the morphology of
Bergamo recurring to space syntax tools, always focusing on the university and its relationship
1002

to the city. The third summarizes an experiential mapping contrasting the results of these
observations with the syntactic analysis performed.

Context

It is argued that universities are one of the driving economic forces in contemporary societies
(Duderstadt, 1999; Conceição & Heitor, 1999). Their role is not only related to the production
and sharing of knowledge, but has progressively developed towards their social involvement
and responsibility. Whether conceived as autonomous entities or diffused within the urban
fabric, universities are a key element in urban dynamics and policies and are progressively more
included in strategic plans and development actions worldwide, thus providing an opportunity
for change and new perspectives towards their role in contemporary societies.
Along with the traditional strands of their mission (research, learning and teaching) a third
one, that of civic engagement is becoming significantly more important in today’s university
(Berglund, 2009). This may have substantial implications for the built environment since it
approaches academia and the wider community, from simple actions such as allowing the latter
to have access and make use of university facilities, to deep mutual involvement and
engagement in several activities. Therefore, besides rethinking university-learning spaces at the
architectural design scale, it becomes critical to reassess university facilities in terms of their
spatial integration within the urban territory, considering both the metropolitan area scale and
the city-university interaction. This interaction should be understood as an inevitable component
of university collective life (Campos Calvo-Sotelo, 2010).
The research question is focused on how the university precinct turns out to be integrated in
the urban tissue.
Nowadays, universities are required to balance between two trends: while it is considered
that when conceived as autonomous entities, universities’ facilities cause the isolation of
academic communities, highlighting ruptures within the urban fabric and originating
unsustainable mobility patterns; one can argue that, on the other hand, when universities’
facilities are built within the city core, the preservation of their uniqueness and distinctive
features may be easily affected by the surrounding environment thus requiring special
consideration.
The “campus” should preserve its necessary distinctiveness (Trani & Holsworth, 2010), but
also to be open to the city to foster processes of social and economic integration to the
community. It is argued that university precincts can no longer be considered secluded places,
where non-academic people feel rejected and not welcomed.
Therefore, this work aims at analysing different integration models and their repercussions,
in order to better understand to what extent does campus morphology influence the interactions
established between the university and the city.
The activities of the university impact their surroundings and wider communities
(Alexander, 1965) to the mutual benefit of both society and academia. Therefore, the university
precinct must be perceived in its urban dimension, as physical element that acts as conveyor of
information, knowledge and an image of higher education, while assuming an important role in
the dynamics established between the university and the city where it is embedded.
It is critical to understand the demands that the university requires the city to fulfil, along
with the role that the university can play in order to contribute to urban regeneration, by directly
improving the quality of the urban fabric and promoting cohesion of social territories.
 1003

Methodology

The analysis was performed combining space syntax tools with in-situ analysis, along with
student interviews.
It allowed to perceive the city globally, focusing on urban integration aspects, as well as to
deeply understand how the university premises relate to their immediate surroundings, and
which role they are able to perform in the urban environment.
Depthmap software (Turner 2004) was used in order to build a topological map (axial map)
(Hillier and Hanson, 1984), which performs as a base map, considering the scale of the city
under analysis. The axial map description operates as a macro analysis of the urban structure. It
allows a representation of information on a plane in topological relationship and with
measurable horizontal distances, i.e. a metric analysis of the catchment area and an angular
segment analysis of global integration (closeness centrality) and global choice (betweeness
centrality). At same time it has sufficient geographic reference information to identify the
location of each university infrastructure.
Along with the syntactic analysis, in-situ observations were made, and an experiential
mapping of all the university facilities was developed under the scope of the Smarter Citizens
research project i.e., a collaborative project between Harvard GSD and the University of
Bergamo aiming at developing alternative urbanization models in order to pursue physical,
digital and social innovation.
This experiential mapping consists of an analysis based on direct observations by the
university users It draws on the research on urban design qualities related to walkability pursued
by the Active Living Research Program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (Ewing et al.,
2006), whose aim is to link the built environment to active living. This study relies on the
premise that urban design qualities depend on physical features but are distinct from them, and
they reflect the general way in which people perceive and interact with the surrounding
environment (Smarter Citizens Research Team, 2014a). Therefore, factors as the morphological
features and the urban design quality, along with individual reactions influence and affect the
way an individual feels about the physical environment. Even though the study focuses on
walkability conditions, it allows inferring for other uses of public space, measuring how some
physical features of the built environment affect the users behaviours.
In this analysis, five variables assumed to be critical to establish a good walking environment
were measured, in order to provide a broad perspective on the areas surrounding the University
locations in Bergamo: imageability, enclosure, human scale, transparency and complexity
(Smarter Citizens Research Team, 2014a). A 5-minute walking distance was considered,
according to the city’s morphology and the walking culture of the students and city dwellers.

Bergamo and the University

Bergamo exemplifies a typical mid-sized European city, with its 120.000 inhabitants
(approximately 500.000 in its surrounding area). It was developed from upper town (Città Alta),
an urban settlement located on top of the hill, which is surrounded by Venetian walls dating
from the 16th century. Città Bassa, downtown, was developed mostly from the second half of
the 19th century, after the construction of the railway and train station, located in the southern
part of the city (Comune di Bergamo, 2008). Città Bassa was developed through the existent
borghi, the smaller urban settlements adjacent to the upper town, although located outside its
walls. These areas vary in type, number of inhabitants and architectural styles, and they
represent a part of Italian urban culture (Comune di Bergamo, 2011).
1004

Figure 1. Bergamo urban mapping (Smarter Citizens Research Team, 2014b) (1) Città
Alta . uptown; (2) Città Bassa – downtown.

The University, Università degli Studi di Bergamo, dates back to 1961, even though it only
achieved university status by the end of the 1960s. Nowadays it hosts approximately 15.000
students, among its six departments (Università degli Studi di Bergamo, 2013b).
The university is spread within the city in several different locations, both in Città Alta and
Città Bassa, and also in the outskirts (Università degli Studi di Bergamo, 2013a). Different
locations host different areas of study, for the four main locations of the university. Thus, all the
locations within Città Alta are dedicated to the Humanities, while in Città Bassa is located the
Economy department. Finally, the Engineering department is located in Dalmine, a smaller city
situated about 10km from Bergamo. The university is also a partner of Kilometro Rosso, the
technological park, owning one of its buildings. In this facility, most of the areas are only used
for research but some of the spaces are available for specific purposes, even though there are no
regularly scheduled academic activities.
In the upper town, the university occupies 7 different locations, spread around the main areas
of the centre. Most of these host academic spaces within. Students travel around to attend
classes, which can be seen as an opportunity or a threat. On the one hand it allows for more
dynamism within the area, caused by students presence in different places during the day, but on
the other hand requires more resources and can provide distractions from the academic
environment.
In Città Bassa, the university location hosts more functions and provides more services, thus
being used not only by the students who attend classes there, unlike what happens in Città Alta.
Both the university premises in Kilometro Rosso and the Engineering campus in Dalmine,
are not going to be considered in the framework of this paper, since only university premises
located within the city’s boundaries and hosting academic areas were considered.
The dispersion of the University is a defining feature for Bergamo, and can be perceived
both as an attractor and as a negative feature while characterizing the university. On the one
hand, the dispersion allows the university to reach more areas of the city, and to interact with
different environments. On the other hand, the university is not perceived globally, and it does
not become clear to both city users and students themselves what is the role the university is
 1005

playing in urban context. Its premises are unknown and disconnected, even though located in
some of the most central and important areas of the city.

Figure 2. University of Bergamo spatial distribution and organizational structure.

Figure 3. University locations in Bergamo (1) Città Alta, (2) Caniana – Città Alta; (3)
Kilometro Rosso – Città Bassa.
1006

Axial analysis

The city fabric shows strong morphological differences between Città Alta and Città Bassa,
which can be easily recognised in the axial map. As can be observed in the picture, the upper
town shows relatively low values for integration, which are consistent with the perception of the
territory obtained through the empirical observations. One of the justifications for this fact
might be the topography of the area, mountainous and steeper on the northern side of the hill
where Città Alta is located, opposed to the flat land in which Città Bassa was developed
through the borghi.

Figure 4. Integration HH Bergamo, with the university locations.

Nevertheless, Città Alta presents a historically and culturally rich environment, very
propitious for the location of an academic institution. The area’s lack of integration is resolved
through the use of cable cars, which increased global integration of the whole system by
approximately 25%. However, this increase only affects pedestrian accessibility.
In Città Bassa, however, the university’s premises are located in one of the most integrated
axis of the city and are easily reached by any other street in the urban system.

Experiential Mapping

The experiential mapping consists of an analysis built on direct observations by a group of 13

students from University of Bergamo involved in the Smarter Citizens research project. This
group includes students with different backgrounds and from different areas of study,
This experiential mapping analysis was based on the research on urban design qualities
related to walkability pursued by the Active Living Research Program of the Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation (Ewing et al., 2006), whose aim is to link the built environment to active
living. The analysis does not focus specifically on the university buildings, but instead on the
 1007

whole area on a 5-minute walking distance from them. This approach allows a better
understanding of the integration and the morphological features of the surrounding environment
of the university. It allows also recognising some aspects of the university’s urban insertion and
connections. A scale from 0 to 2 was used to quantify all of the variables, 0 being the lowest
level, and 2 the highest (Smarter Citizens Research Team, 2014a). Thus, the university facilities
and locations with academic functions were evaluated for the above-mentioned criteria: (1)
Imageability – as the quality that makes a space memorable and recognizable (Lynch, 1960),
depending on how the physical elements and their arrangement are able to draw attention,
arouse feelings and create a lasting impression; (2) Enclosure – the degree to which the public
space is visually defined by vertical elements (Cullen, 1961), such as buildings, trees, walls,
among other elements; (3) Human scale – referring to elements that are perceptible to humans
while walking in a specific area (Ewing et al., 2006). These can be materialized in different
textures and elements, but matching human size and scale, as well as rhythm and speed of
dislocations and movements; (4) Transparency - the degree to which people can see or perceive
objects and activities beyond the edge of a street; (5) Complexity – the visual richness of a place
(Apopod, 1990 apud Ewing et al., 2006). A place complexity depends on the variety of elements
and articulations present on the physical environment.
For the university locations in Città Alta, the 5 premises with academic functions were
analysed, and the result is summarized in the picture and table below.

Figure 5. Locations of the experiential mapping – Città Alta (1) Rosate; (2) Salvecchio; (3)
Sat’Agostino; (4) Pignolo; (5) Tassis.

Table 1. Experiential mapping summary - Città Alta

Criteria /Location Imageability Enclosure Human Scale Transparency Complexity Total Score
Rosate 1 1 1 1 2 6
Salvecchio 1 2 2 1 2 8
Sant'Agostino 2 0 1 2 2 7
Pignolo 0 1 2 1 1 5
Tassis 1 2 1 0 1 5
Average Città Alta 1,2 1,2 1,4 1 1,6 6,4

As can be perceived from the axial map, the majority of university facilities are not located
in highly integrated areas. Within the limits of the upper town, though, because of the small
scale and proximity among the facilities, this fact would not be problematic, if the university
was able to make up for the lack of integration with other strategies, such as improving its
visibility and imageability within the public realm.
From the experiential mapping, we can perceive the importance that is attributed to features
such as the complexity and the human scale of the urban environment, which is consistent with
1008

the urban fabric and the historical morphological characteristics of the area. Nevertheless, the
imageability evaluation of the university shows, in general, low values which seems paradoxal.
A possible explanation would be the visual richness of the whole area, which creates difficulty
in the recognition of each individual building. Moreover, this evaluation is dependent on the
students’ perception. It is relevant to mention that none of the students who engaged in the
project comes from architecture or any related field of studies.
Also, if compared to similar analysis in different cities, it might show different results, since
the whole city performs very well for most of the chosen variables.
As far as Città Bassa is concerned, the university presents a different type of physical
setting, behaving as a campus-like structure within the urban fabric. It doesn’t consist of isolated
dispersed buildings like in Città Alta. It is a clearly defined precinct, comprising two different
buildings. Thus, for the experiential mapping, in order to enrich the analysis, four locations
around the campus were chosen: (1) Caniana, as the main entrance and more representative
informal meeting space around campus; (2) Lower San Bernardino, the area where most shops
and services are located, therefore extremely used by students; (3) Upper San Bernardino, where
the library is located, and also restaurants, cafes and bars, making it a highly frequented area;
(4) Moroni, the area around the secondary campus entrance, which, in comparison to the other
three described areas, is less used and visible from the premises and hosts less services and
commercial activities.

Figure 6. Locations of the experiential mapping – Città Bassa (1) Caniana; (2) Lower San
Bernardino; (3) Upper San Bernardino; (4) Moroni.

Table 5. Experiential mapping summary - Città Bassa

Criteria /Location Imageability Enclosure Human Scale Transparency Complexity Total Score
Caniana 2 0 2 2 1 7
Lower San Bernardino 1 0 1 2 1 5
Upper San Bernardino 1 2 1 0 2 6
Moroni 0 1 0 1 0 2
Average 1,0 0,8 1,0 1,3 1,0 5,0
 1009

Globally, these locations show lower values in all the attributes, even though they are more
integrated than all the university locations in Città Alta.
The principles of the educational campus (Campos Calvo-Sotelo, 2009), establish a
comprehensive framework of analysis for university precincts. Analyzing the University of
Bergamo under this scope, it becomes clear that some of the traditional physical features are not
present, or do not assume the necessary importance. As far as utopia, integral planning and
spatial harmony are concerned, the university does not follow the principles, for most of its
facilities occupy previously existing buildings. Nevertheless, it would be possible to solve this
lack of spatial harmony, if there was a coherent unifying strategy among all of the university
premises.
The learning community is not sufficiently encouraged, and the dispersion of the facilities
works in a negative way towards this objective. Also the affective and intellectual embracement
is not attained through the physical premises, diminishing the impact of the university physical
settings on obtaining a strong learning community. The university also needs to improve the
morphological features with impact on its visibility and legibility.
Regarding the incorporation of nature and art within the university premises, there is
sufficient offer within Città Alta, and the university users are able to benefit from it, despite the
lack of integration and connections between university and city. Besides, the rich cultural and
historical settings present a stimulating learning environment, while represent and enhance the
city’s and the university’s collective memory. Notwithstanding, in Città Bassa there is a lack of
both artistic and natural landscapes, and the university premises are not fulfilling this need.

Conclusions

The combination of space syntax tools with direct observations has proven a suitable method for
analysing university-city relationships, for it allows understanding simultaneously the impact of
integration, morphological features and university dynamism on the creation and improvement
of synergies between the two entities.
Bergamo presents a very peculiar university environment, with its diversity in morphologies,
insertion types, connections, urban fabrics and relationships established between different
entities. Nevertheless, the relation between the university and the city should be improved,
reinforcing the presence of university users within the social and urban context. A more
synergetic environment would be valuable to foster innovation and improve the knowledge
creation, sharing and acquisition.
The dispersion of the buildings and locations of the university of Bergamo can be perceived
either as a threat or as an opportunity. On the one hand, it can cause the dispersion of the
academic community, decreasing the serendipity and the amount of interaction opportunities
and chance encounters on an interdepartmental basis. Also, it creates unpractical mobility
patterns and raises management difficulties. Nevertheless, the need for the academic community
to access different locations and premises could help creating positive flows of movement that
would benefit the whole city, as long as there were better connections and attractor areas among
different university premises, for “(...) the learning campus is one that maximizes the
probability of chance encounters, and encourages lingering once an encounter - whether by
chance or by plan - takes place”(Kenney et al., 2005, p.39). Considering that, in the case of
Bergamo, the whole city is the campus, success may rely in the creation of attractors among the
different university locations for “the true success for a city or town lies in the creation and
maintenance of a network of spaces that support a variety of uses and users”(Space Syntax,
2006, p.4). Thus, the scattered facilities offer opportunities for better integration and creation of
synergies between the university and the city as long as there is the necessary will to do it.
1010

Acknowledgments

This paper was carried out on the framework of the author’s PhD research, funded by FCT – Fundação
para a Ciência e a Tecnologia. We would like to thank the whole Smarter Citizens Research Team for
their cooperation and contributions, specially Katia Passera, from the University of Bergamo and the
students who engaged in the One Univer[city] project, namely Egle Carobbio and Stefano Terranova.

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 1011

Aging as an agent of change in the way how we occupy our

territory

Ana Bordalo, Madalena Cunha Matos

Centro de Investigação em Arquitetura, Urbanismo e Design da Faculdade de
Arquitetura da Universidade de Lisboa | CIAUD-FAUL.
E-mails: [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract The aging of population characterizes the contemporary societies and promotes changes in the
way how we are occupying our territory. Today, Portugal stands as one of the most aged countries in
Europe with an aging index of 127,8%130 - which means that for every 100 young people (0 to 14 years
old) there are 127.8 citizens with 65 or more years old. In parallel, there is a marked imbalance in the
occupation of our territory: with a high concentration of population in coastal regions (especially in the
metropolitan areas of Lisbon and Oporto) and depopulation in the inner - characterized by an elderly
resident population. In the inner regions, begins to be frequent to find a numerous unoccupied houses, or
even entire abandoned towns. This fact can be seen as an opportunity and not just as a problem. We
propose to analyze the potential that these territories may provide in the implementation of resident
systems dedicated to the needs of the elderly people, like Home-Villages, and the way of these kind of
structures can contribute to the revitalization of depopulation territories; concealed with other structures
(a motor for local development) which can potentiated the fixation of young people and promote a
intergeracional territory. Through a case study, that summarizes a proposal for intervention, structured
in a review of the territory, which aims to revitalize the Pessegueiro town, in Alcoutim (Portugal) -
unpopulated, with a significant unoccupied housing structure and with an aging resident population.

Key Words: assisted living, territory revitalization, home-villages, spatial equity, living in old
age.

Introduction

Portugal is one of the most ageing countries in Europe. According to data released by
PORDATA - referring to the year of 2012 - we know that about 10.5 million inhabitants, less
than 15% are young people1 and over 19% are elderly2. If we compare the data on the elderly
population, released by the National Institute of Statistics - INE, it is clear that in 1990, there
were about 68 elderly people per 100 youngsters, in 2000 that number was higher than 102 and
in 2011 increased to over 127 elderly. Current projections indicate that by 2050 the ratio should
be of 243 elderly people per 100 youngsters; however the worst-case scenarios indicate that this
ratio could reach 398 elderly people per 100 youngsters.
There is a double aging situation affecting the Portuguese population, characterized by the
increasing number of elderly people and the decline in births. Between 1981 and 2012 there was
a decrease of approximately 41% of births and an increase of over 78 % of the number of
elderly (Tables 01 and 02). These figures tend to escalate, the latest projections of INE, indicate
that between 2000 and 2050 there should be a decrease of 5% to 58% of the young population,
and simultaneously an increased between 63.2% and 76.5% of the elderly population.

130 PORDATA – Aging indicators according with 2011 Censos in Portugal.,

http://www.pordata.pt/Portugal/Indicadores+de+envelhecimento+segundo+os+censos-525, Survey
conducted in December 2013.
1012

Table 1. Total of births in Portugal (1960-2012). Source: PORDATA

c 1978 1981 1991 2001 2011 2012

213,895 180,690 152,071 116,299 112,774 96,856 89,841

Table 2. Total of elderly population in Portugal (1980-2012). Source: PORDATA

1960 1978 1980 1990 2001 2011 2012

------ ----- 132,638 1.372,543 1.705,274 1.992,034 2.020,126

Another factor characterizing the Portuguese population is related to its distribution in the
territory. The 2011 Census revealed a high concentration of population in metropolitan areas
(Lisbon and Porto) and depopulated rural areas, with low percentage of young people and high
percentage of elderly people.
Against this backdrop, there is the need to find solutions in order to minimize the
depopulation of rural areas, where demographic ageing is presented as an agent that
characterizes the occupation of territory.

Case study: Monte do Pessegueiro

Approach

We present an intervention proposal in the territory - within architecture and project – for the
revitalization of Monte do Pessegueiro3 by implementing infrastructure for the elderly
population, similar to the Retirement Villages concept.
Retirement Villages seek to oppose the isolation of elderly people and promote a sense of
community life. Integrating housing with trade, health services, household and personal care. In
view of this optimization model and aiming to revitalize depopulated areas, the Retirement
Villages may, also, come to include units for local development, in such a way to generate jobs
and the consequent establishment of young people.
The decision to choose this village focused on the analysis of specific factors: According to
the 2011 Census, Alcoutim was the municipality to registered the highest population loss
(22.6% ); About 44 % of the population is elderly; It has a significant number of unoccupied
housing; Presents distinguishing characteristics in the territory, on a local and regional scale;
Topographical conditions are favourable for the adaptation of the territory to the mobility needs
of the elderly; There are small local industries, handicrafts and agricultural potential, which if
expanded may generate employment; •It is nearby villages, that are also, facing a depopulation
process (some already completely depopulated). This situation may enable the implementation
of a housing "network" for the elderly - and thus promote greater use of the necessary
infrastructures for its functioning.
The proposed intervention was established according to five elements of analysis: territory
occupation; characterization of the population and housing; enhancing and restrictive factors for
the revitalization of the territory. The occupation of the territory exposes local features and links
with the region. The characterization of the population is based on data from the INE and
Câmara Municipal de Alcoutim [Town Hall of Alcoutim]. The characterization of housing was
established through fieldwork held in July 2013, and through the characterization present on
reference works on local architecture, such as: Arquitectura Popular em Portugal [Popular
Architecture in Portugal] [Sindicato Nacional dos Arquitectos – AA (1ª ed. 1961) National
Architects Union - AA (1st ed.1961)] or Arquitectura no Algarve [Architecture in the Algarve]
[Comissão para a Coordenação e Desenvolvimento Regional do Algarve (2005) - Algarve
Regional Coordination and Development Commission (2005)]. The identification of enhancing
and restrictive factors deems the existence or necessity for the implementation of equipment or
 1013

enhancing structural elements for development and the identification of elements that may be
restrictive for its dynamics.

Figure 1. Pessegueiro, Alcoutim.

Territory Occupation

For the Algarve region, Orlando Ribeiro (1991) identifies two periods of territory occupation:
an old one that resulted into clustered housing; and a modern one, that resulted into detached
buildings. Alcoutim still bears the mark of the first period. Pessegueiro, maintains regional
population cluster characteristics: a group of clustered houses, with access directly from the
street – which arise organic and spontaneously, according to the land’s topography.
The resident population is, mostly engaged to agriculture and livestock for subsistence that
marks the territory: the presence of fields reaching the limit of clustered housing and small
buildings, next to the houses, destined for animals or tools and agricultural products storage.

Resident population

Alcoutim has registered the greatest population lost in Portugal over the last decade. At the time
of the 2011 Census there where 2,917 individuals residing in Alcoutim – along 576.57 km2 - in
five parishes, formed by the 106 population centres referred to as "montes [mountains]" 4.
Pessegueiros is inserted in the parish with the highest number of residents and approximately
40% of its population is elderly (Table 1). Martim Longo recorded, in the last 20 years, a
significant loss of population: in 2011 1,030 individuals lived here, this represents a decrease of
25.6% compared to 2001 and a decrease of 35.1% compared to 1991 (Tables 3, 4 and 5).
1014

Table 3. Resident population, population with 65 or more years and accommodation in

Alcoutim - 2011 Census INE (ed), op.cit, tabela Censos 2011_Idosos_FREG.

Designation Resident Resident Total of Total of Total of Total

populatio populatio individual accommodatio accommodatio accommodatio
n n with 65 s who live n n only with n with just one
or more alone or individuals person aged 65
years old with with 65 or or more years
individual more years
s with 65
or more
Alcoutim 2.917 1.282 years
919 3.508 623 336
Alcoutim 921 385 249 1242 172 97
Giões 256 134 104 311 74 45
Parish

MartimLong 1.030 415 303 1.044 198 97

o
Pereiro 213 102 78 396 55 32
Vaqueiros 497 246 185 515 124 65

Table 4. Resident Population - Martim Longo (1991 - 2011), op.cit, tabela Censos
2011_Idosos_FREG.

Year 1991 2001 2011

Numer of Inhabitants 1.586 1.384 1.030

Table 5. Population density - Martim Longo (1991 e 2011).

Year 1991 2001 2011

Parisch Total Area 11,8hab/km 10,3 hab/km 7,6 hab/km

Housing Structure

In Pessegueiro you can find presences of the Algarve vernacular architecture, characterized by
rectangular plans, ground level houses – scalable architecture, i.e., prepared to undergo
successive enlargements, according to the needs of the household, without introducing façade
changes5 - the buildings are made of schist masonry (exposed or whitewashed). Schist is also
used to line the interior and exterior floors. The access openings are mostly of wood and in
existent windows there is often the presence of exterior wooden shutters. The single or double
sloped roofs, of lime mortar tiles, cane thatched, connected together and to the elements of the
roof structure, commonly referred to as "encaniçado"6.

Enhancing Factors

Alcoutim is an aged village and its housing structures abandoned. The revitalization of the
territory can only happen with the presence of young people. Thus, it is necessary to promote
economic development to maximize the improvement of quality of life of its residents. The
introduction of housing structures for the elderly is presented as a potential enhancing factor,
that should be interrelated with other infrastructure.
Enhancing factors for the economic development of Pessegueiro: The “Campo Exprimental
de Opuntias7” bakehouse – plants for a multiplicity of uses, profiteering fruits, ironwork,
gastronomy, or firebreaks for forest conservation; the dam besides being used for irrigation may
promote structures for water sports, construction of a river beach or natural swimming pools, for
the benefit of local residents and as a way to attract tourists.
 1015

The interrelation between Pessegueiro's and the surrounding villages infrastructure’s could
generate the revitalization of the area through actions such as: restoration of cultural heritage to
promote housing for elderly and intergenerational; renovation of the road system:
requalification of pedestrian passages and road routes; parking areas, resting areas;
implementation of qualified and differentiated equipments and services for the elderly;
implementation of services and trade (banks, post office, tourism office, trade of crafts and local
gastronomy); development of small industries, related to regional products (development of
existing industries, crafts and gastronomy; planting, harvesting and processing banyan);
establishment of young people (job creation, tax benefits, family support, schools, sports and
social assistance); generate economic and tourism development (inn/guest house; river beach,
natural swimming pools, rural tourism, senior tourism).

Table 6. Monte do Pessegueiro.

Table 6 presents examples of possible structures that could be introduced in the

implementation of a Retirement Village in Pessegueiro, as a community of housing structures
dedicated for elderly and, simultaneously, promoting the community's revitalization.
Similar actions where, for example, implemented in Luberon (French Provence), despite
gathering different urban characteristics from Alcoutim, presents similar problems, i.e.: aging
and isolation of it's population; (e)migraton of young people and consequent low birth rates;
lack of commercial, business and service activities; lack of job opportunities; unoccupied
architectural heritage; lack of social and economic development perspectives; significant
decrease of local taxes’ collection; degraded infrastructure. In this region, after analyzing the
identified problems, 77 small villages and towns assembled and promoted the revitalization of
the area, established by exploiting the economic potential offered by the region and
1016

implementing small measures to improve the quality of life of the elderly population – turned
into intergenerational measures, which served as a lever for the establishment of young people
with consequent economic development. Joining efforts led to the revitalization of the territory,
this situation could be applied in Alcoutim, for it faces similar problems.
Authors like Schittch (2007), Huber (2008), Cisneros (2012) classify housing for elderly as
one of the main challenges for architecture and territory planning. However, another challenge
in designing structures is preventing them to become " ghettos", even if the same should be
enjoyable in regards to architectural space quality. I.e., enclosed spaces, dedicated to people
whose only common reference is age. Following this concern, Burton, Bosman (2010) and
Steinfeld (2013) warned about the risks of segregation that some of these structures, however
well-intentioned, may produce. They also assert that most people prefer to age in places where
they can establish a close relationship with the concept home, a part from the image of
institutionalization. They further state that, smaller structures - based on the principles of
community life and the principles of universal design - may be more attractive both to residents
as to the purpose of attracting new residents, of varying ages.

Restrictive Factors

Pessegueiro indicts isolation if compared to close urban centres: Faro and Vila Real de Santo
António, probably one of the main factors that has contributed to its depopulation. This implies,
for example, the distance to central hospitals exceeds one hour.
Isolation may be presented as a restrictive factor for revitalization. However, there may be
other, demographic, social, cultural or economic factors, as well as issues related to the right of
ownership of unoccupied housing. It would be necessary to, in line, implement further measures
including: development of existing industries and implementation of new units, promoting
employment; tourism units; sports and cultural development; agricultural development; creating
tax benefits for companies and residents; creation of a social support network to cut across age
differences and the needs of the population - Table 7.

Table 7. Proximity relations between Pessegueiro and next reference localities

Distance (1) Time (2)

Martim Longo 8,5 10 min
Alcoutim 38 45 min
Faro 69 01h : 45min
Vila Real de Santo António 64 01h: 10 min
Ayamonte (Spain) 65 01h: 10 min
Almodôvar 41 01 h
Beja 93 01h: 45 min
(1) Approximate distance in Km
(2) Mean time to perform the calculated route - distance traveled by car.

Land Surveying - data analysis

According to the Municipal Master Plan of Alcoutim - PDMA, Pessegueiro enters into urban
land area, endowed with the possibility of building construction intended for "housing, trade or
services and installation of public or private equipments"8. That is to say that, it meets urban
conditions for the elderly housing structure installation.
We have identified 33 unoccupied housing, organized in a street continuous alignment. The
majority is badly preserved, for being closed for some time; only a small percentage is well
 1017

maintained. This may indicate that with time we may lose part of the architectural heritage
(unique and assembled) - Table 8.

Table 8. Conservation Stage of vacant houses in Pessegueiro – survey in 07.2013

Units Percentage
Good 2 6,0%
Reasonable 8 24,2%
Bad 16 48,5%
Ruin 7 21,3%

As regards to the outside walls building system, most off them maintain the traditional
exposed schist masonry, whitewashed or the combination of these two finishes. Occasionally we
verify recent changes, construction changes, with the introduction of painted brick masonry or
lined with ceramic materials, or even, coated ceramics, or construction of an additional floor –
Table 9.

Table 9. Characterization of exterior walls finishing systems – survey in 07.2013

Units Percentage
Exterior walls in exposed slate masonary 8 24,2%
Exterior walls in traditional whitewash finishing 12 36,4 %
Combination with above to finishing 12 36,4%
Others 1 3%

Another feature of the region is the absence of windows, which is verified in 28 of the 33
referenced houses, when there is window aperture, it is most likely to maintain the original
wooden frames - Table 10. As regards to doorways, most of them are original, made of wood
with one layer and small sized - with a width varying between 75 and 80 centimetres and height
between 1.75 and 1.85 metres - Table 11.

Table 10. Characterization of windows – survey in 07.2013

Units Percentage
wooden frames (original) 4 12,1 %
wooden frames (original) and other (aluminum) 1 3,1 %
Without windows 28 84,8%
Other 0 0%

Table 11. Characterization of access door – survey in 07.2013

Units Percentage
Original in wood 25 75,8 %
Replaced in wood 2 6%
Aluminum 2 6%
Iron 3 9,1%
Without access door 1 3,1%
1018

The need to provide large spaces - to promote the versatility of space - presents itself as a
major factor in housing restoration and adaptation. If we consider the gross construction area
identified we verify that most of those houses have a reduced floor area; thereby, we must
consider to combine to units for the construction of a single unit with suitable dimensions and
space - Table 12.

Table 12. Characterization of gross Building area (Approximate values) – survey 07.2013

Units Percentage
2
Less than 50m 12 36,4 %
Between 50m2 and 75m2 15 45,5 %
Between 75m2 and 100m2 4 12,1%
More than 100m2 2 6%

Twenty houses have terraces (to the rear; along the common main entrance to different
houses, or both). We identified three sites with three or more unoccupied houses that share a
common outdoor terrace area, which may allow the creation of residence and community areas
(Figure 2).

Figure 1. Pessegueiro, Martim Longo – Alcoutim, Unoccupied houses – Survey in

07.2013. Scale 1:2.000.
 1019

Figure 2. Pessegueiro, Martim Longo – Alcoutim. Unoccupied houses. Photographic

survey in 07.2013.

Synthesis

We can conclude that, from the referenced houses, the majority maintains features of local
architecture, but are badly preserved and require significant intervention. However, it is possible
to follow their structural and constructive nature and simultaneously endow the space with the
desired versatility. Building elements such as walls, roofing and interspaces can be restored and
integrated within the new habitability concept. The ratio between street and housing in some
cases may require an intervention to remove existing barriers.

Proposal

To promote the revitalization of the territory by implementing a housing structure of community

life - based on the structural principles of the Retirement Villages - which can simultaneously
promote the restoration of unoccupied cultural heritage, and its adaptability to mobility needs,
we hereby present an intervention proposal.
This proposal was formalized in a summarized form in a previous study and synthesizes the
exposed concepts.
Image presents the different functional spaces and their interrelations. It is visible the
importance of vegetable gardens in the structure of the village, since they are considered as very
important for the local population - essential for the maintenance of physical activity and
healthy eating (affordable). Support spaces for the resident elderly population – medical and
nursing services, maintenance services, meals - were located centrally.
1020

Image identifies new construction proposals, as well as some buildings the use of which may
be altered or reclassified. Parking spaces should be considered, organized and allowing easy
access to the houses, services, trade and industries.
The fact that the village is "torn" by the National Highway may be a concern to the
pedestrian level crossing, since residents of the West side (higher concentration of population)
have to cross this road in order to access different services.
The urban structure of Pessegueiro is characterized by the absence of pavement, and should
remain so, because this feature undo’s the gaps (architectural barriers) – occasionally verified, at
the entrance of some houses, a situation that can easily be reversed. The streets may maintain, or
restore, regional features with schist flooring, as long as prevention of the danger of falling is
ensured (without variations in heights between stones and slip-resistant finish). The arid aspect
of outdoor spaces can be minimized by introducing small notes of green spaces, residence and
community areas for residents.
The proposed interventions adhere to the principles set by the Universal Design and space
use concerns - some of which are reflected in national legislation. Among these, we can list:
elimination of physical barriers, such as stairs; placement of switches at a height of 90cm
maximum of 120cm; placement of sockets to a minimum height of 45cm; Proper sizing of the
spaces to allow its versatility (possible changes in furniture arrangement); allow visual contact
with the outside, at the level of the individual when sitting (between 80 and 120cm minimum
height from the floor); Use of devices with correct ergonomic dimensions suitable for use by all
individuals (doorknobs, taps, supports, etc.); and good placement of equipment in order to
enable its use without additional effort (such as dishwashers, washing machines, furnaces, etc.).9
Case scenario A presents a small housing, with an approximate gross construction area about
43,00m2, badly preserved, inserted in an inhabited building, near one of the community ovens.
Given its dimensions, it could only be used as a Studio, one bedroom (double or single), a
bathroom and a small private outdoor terrace covered or not. Constructed with exposed schist
masonry, precisely whitewashed near the access opening. This house is characterized by the
absence of windows, only a small wicket envisages a mark on the facade. The access openings
(main and rear facade) do not satisfy the minimum dimensions (height and width) considered as
necessary and comfortable, in a living space that respects the principles of universal design,
therefore needs to be resized. It is also necessary to regularize both the ground floor level with
the interior floor, so as to eliminate any architectural barriers. Another important element for the
construction of a comfortable and cosy living space is the introduction of natural light. This can
be achieved through the introduction of glass doors with wooden frames (at the access
openings), duly protected with wooden shutters – characteristic that respect the design and
constructive system of the original door – in order not to change the architectural characteristics
of the houses.
Case scenario B presents a set of two houses, also very small (with gross areas inferior to 50m2),
interconnected to shape a one bedroom house. This house enjoys two outdoor terraces: one
private, at the rear, and the other one is common area, along the main access, marked with
shading elements and residence areas. This case scenario includes the interventions mentioned
for the case scenario A, especially with regards to the dimensions of the access openings;
removing steps at ground floor level; levelling interior floors; provide the rooms with natural
lighting; creating wide and adaptable spaces to the various needs of its users.

Conclusion

The depopulation and aging of the rural regions of Portugal is not a modern problem, in a
territory marked by inland regions and rural environment. Different rural areas watched their
youngsters (e)migrate; schools, health centres, courts, public and private services and local trade
closing, generating lack of opportunities; consequently more people abandoned those rural
areas.
 1021

Figure 3. P essegueiro, Martim Longo – Alcoutim. Intervention in the territory: Urban

Structure. Scale 1:2.000.

Figure 4. Pessegueiro, Martim Longo – Alcoutim. Intervention in the territory: Urban

Structure – identification of new constructions, new uses and redevelopment of the
existing uses. Scale 1:2.000.
1022

.
Figure 5. Pessegueiro, Martim Longo – Alcoutim. Intervention in the territory: Road
Structure and parking area. Scale 1:2.000

Is depopulation a consequence of an aging population? Or is aging a consequence of

depopulation? On one hand, young people abandon rural areas looking for opportunities, on the
other hand, the lack of youngsters leads to a non-investment (public or private) for this
investment is not feasible (lucrative).
In Portugal, inland regions interior will always be different from the coast regions. Different,
in regards to the undertaken economic activities or, urban characteristics. These differences may
be positive, since they can generate differentiated infrastructure’s in the inland regions and
promote a balanced revitalization of the territory. Housing structures for elderly people -
developed according to a model of community life, like the Retirement Villages – may be one
of those infrastructures.
These arise from the response needs in providing quality housing for local elderly and
simultaneously the establishment of others, who wish to return to their origins, but seek
 1023

differentiated spaces and services; these may also attract other individuals (national or foreign)
that intent to spend their retirement in a rural environment. This population increase brings new
job opportunities, providing the establishment young people, whom also need different support
structures. That is to say, taking one of the characteristics that mark the rural areas, aging
population, and we may achieve the answer to another problem: depopulation, by transforming
the aging population into an agent for change.

Notes
1
People between 0 and 14 years old.
2
People with 65 years old and older.
3
Parish of Martim Longo, Municipality of Alcoutim – Algarve
4
http://www.cm-alcoutim.pt/portal_autarquico/alcoutim/v_pt-PT/menu_turista/concelho/freguesias/
5
José Manuel Fernandes and Ana Janeiro (2008) “A casa popular do Algarve: Espaço rural e urbano,
evoluç o e actualidade”, Comiss o de Coordenaç o e Desenvolvimento Regional do Algarve, 87
http://www.ccdr-alg.pt/ccdr/parameters/ccdr-
alg/files/File/upload//Publicacoes/Recentes/Casa_Popular.pdf
6
AA (1988) “Arquitectura Popular em Portugal” Sindicato Nacional dos Arquitectos
7
Banyan
8
PDMA – Chapter II: Use and transformation of the soil; Section I: Urban soil; Sub-section I: Spaces
class; Article 9: Strong use of urban soil
9
RIBA (ed.), A Guide for Assisted Living: Towards LifeHome21. 1ªed. London: Royal Institute of British
Architects, 2011, p.36-67
10
The proposed measures considered necessary are expressed, both for case scenarios A and B, at the
Intervention Proposal General Description, text include at the correspondent images.

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– AA).
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Boomers’, Utopia: 2010, PIA QLD State Conference, Fiona Fullarton.
Câmara Municipal de Alcoutim(2013) (http://www.cm-alcoutim.pt/portal_autarquico/alcoutim/v_pt-
PT/menu_turista/concelho/freguesias/) accessed May 2013.
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2013.
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for an Aging America (University of Texas Press, Austin).
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Regional do Algarve, Faro).
Huber, A.(2008) New Approaches to Housing for the second Half of Life (Birkhäuser Verlag AG, Basel,
Boston, Berlim).
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(http://www.ine.pt/xportal/xmain?xpid=INE&xpgid=ine_destaques&DESTAQUESdest_boui=72193&
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Bristol, Bristol).
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Marsden, J. P. (2005) Humanistic Design of assisted living (The John Hopkins University Press, Baltimor
and London).
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Lisbon).
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1024

Ribeiro, O. (1991) Opúsculos Geográficos: o mundo rural – vol. IV (Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian,
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differently/) accessed May 2013.
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Edition, Berlin).
 1025

FIFA Confederations Cup Brazil 2013 and urban conflicts in

Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil 131

Raquel Garcia Gonçalves, Karina Machado de Castro Simão, Juliana Godoy

Corrêa Araújo, Ana Carolina Amorim Pedroso
Urbanism Department, Architecture School of the Federal University of Minas Gerais,
Brazil. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected], [email protected].

Abstract. June of 2013 will be remembered in Brazilian history. The main reason for that could be the
Confederations Cup held by FIFA and also the victory of the Brazilian team in such tournament.
Nevertheless, between June 15th and June 30th of that year, the spotlight turned to the popular
manifestations, protests to show disapproval of the perverse socio-spatial segregation processes that
inform the history of the country. In order to hold the event, a major transformation of the structure and
image of the six host cities – including Belo Horizonte – was necessary. However, it is important to
emphasize that these changes are part of a larger process that indicates a concept of city which
reinforces the capitalist basis of the property market and consolidates the historical process of social
exclusion. In response to dissatisfactions accumulated over many decades, there have been several urban
conflicts during FIFA Confederations Cup Brazil 2013 that turned the city into an arena and an object, in
order to expose government’s mistakes and claim rights. We remark that, when using the key concept
“Urban Conflict” we mean any confrontation or dispute relating to infrastructure, services or urban life
conditions which involves at least two collective actors and/or institutions (including the state) manifested
in public space. This research is one of the subject areas of the Urban Conflicts Observatory. The main
objective of this research is to analyze the urban conflicts that happened in Belo Horizonte during the
FIFA Confederations Cup Brazil 2013, according to data and studies developed by the Urban Conflicts
Observatory of Belo Horizonte.

Keywords: Urban Conflicts; FIFA Confederations Cup Brazil 2013; Belo Horizonte.

Introduction

The Confederations Cup 2013, just like the 2014 World Cup, demands the fulfillment of a long
list of requirements and recommendations made by the International Federation of Association
Football (FIFA), ranging from technical issues related to the host stadiums and their
surroundings (easy road access, proper public transportation and hotels near the airport),
infrastructural issues (transport and telecommunications) to budget issues (the local government
and the country's football federation must bear the costs regarding infrastructure). Therefore,
many public works were started and planned in preparation for the events. An institutional
arrangement was made, with new organizational departments and organizational committees at
the national, state and local governments, and also partnerships with private companies (Alvares
et al, 2013).
These major sporting events have led to the transformation of the games host cities in Brazil.
Football stadiums went through great improvements, since the government was aiming to meet
the stadium requirements made by FIFA, such as expansion of their seating capacity,
improvements in infrastructure, fire systems, among others.

131
This research is funded by UFMG (Universidade Federal de Minas Gerai), FAPEMIG (Fundação de
Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de Minas Gerais) and CNPq (Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento
Científico e Tecnológico).
1026

Moreover, urban plots were dismembered to set new systems of public transportation and to
expand the existing ones. Families were expropriated to make room for the construction of
public works related to the events, being these areas, in most cases, interesting in the housing
market.
It is emphasized that the occurrence of such mega events in the country, as well as the
transformations they brought, are part of a larger context that involves new ways of thinking
cities. Hence, these new local-global relations would be leading cities towards the adoption of
policies and practices that would ensure their integration into the globalized world.
“We notice that the worldview that is imposed, in contemporary times, is covered with a kind
of economic rationalization and the logic of the market begins to dominate consciences and
permeate new discourses that arise. An arsenal of keywords and/or key concepts, to begin with
the so-called globalization, an established belief that is often justification for thoughts and
attitudes, and also means maximum growth, productivity and competitiveness appear in recent
times as background of a context where the business/commercial realm is practically imposed to
the most diverse discursive fields, also gaining strength in practice performances that refer to
space in general”.(Gonçalves, 2005, p.42).
However, we can observe the engagement and the work carried out by groups that resist the
current processes in progress. Among them, the Popular Committees of the Cup and the
Olympics and its National Articulation (ANCOP) stand out, since they contributed prominently
to build a collective consciousness about the fact that those mega events are a burden for the
Brazilian population, as they lead to the deviation of resources from priority sectors (Vainer
2013).
Against the backdrop of the new perception of the events that were being developed in the
country and bringing up dissatisfactions accumulated over many decades, there have been
several urban conflicts during FIFA Confederations Cup Brazil 2013 that turned the city into an
arena and an object, in order to expose government’s mistakes and claim rights. We remark that,
when using the key concept “Urban Conflict”, we mean any confrontation or dispute relating to
infrastructure, services or urban life conditions which involves at least two collective actors
and/or institutions (including the state) manifested in public space. This research is one of the
subject areas of the Urban Conflicts Observatory under the leadership of ETTERN laboratory of
the Institute of Research and Urban and Regional Planning – IPPUR, of the Federal University
of Rio de Janeiro - UFRJ. One component of this network is the Centre of Urban Conflicts of
Belo Horizonte, created in 2006. With this paper, we aim to analyze the urban conflicts that
happened in Belo Horizonte during the FIFA Confederations Cup Brazil 2013, according to data
and studies developed by the Urban Conflicts Observatory of Belo Horizonte.

The Confederations Cup 2013 in Brazil

The Confederations Cup is an event held every four years by the International Federation of
Association Football (FIFA) and was held in Brazil in 2013, between the 15th and 30th of June.
It was supposed to be an experimental event, prior to the hosting of the World Cup 2014.
The cities chosen to be the hosts of the event were Rio de Janeiro, Fortaleza, Recife, Brasília,
Salvador and Belo Horizonte, whose major works and projects are briefly presented below.
Rio de Janeiro, city whose governor considered the Confederations Cup 2013 a rehearsal for
their major projects for the World Cup, failed in his intention. The Cup happened and the only
public work that was completed in time for the occasion was the Maracanã stadium, which cost
twice what was anticipated in the original budget (from BRL 600 million, the budget was
brought to BRL 1,049.00 billion, according to the state government). Besides, this stadium, that
held the final match of the Confederations Cup and will also hold the final game of the World
Cup, had a test match canceled and was inaugurated on the eve of the competition. The intention
to expand the stadium capacity to 200,000 people was also not achieved, as it was reopened
with a maximum capacity of 78 thousand supporters (Estadão, 2014).
 1027

The other public works anticipated in the original Responsibility Matrix of the Sports
Ministry were postponed until the competition of 2014, for example, Antonio Carlos Jobim
International Airport, the Galeão, whose improvement works were not finished by the beginning
of the Confederations Cup and had its privatized services started only in September 2013. The
new expected delivery date, according to the city of Rio de Janeiro, is the month of April 2014
(Portal Da Copa, 2014).
The Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) in Rio – Transcarioca – a project that involves the construction
of an express corridor connecting Barra da Tijuca to the international airport, was 85% complete
by the time the Confederations Cup started.
Rio de Janeiro wasn’t even able to conclude its projects related to tourism in the city. The
evaluation of the Brazilian Hotel Industry Association of Rio de Janeiro (ABIH - RJ) showed
that only 70% of the 33 thousand vacancies of hotels in Rio would be filled during the
Confederations Cup, and that the host capacity of the hotels will be increased for the World
Cup, with over 10.000 new vacancies (Associação Nacional De Transporte Público, 2014).
In Fortaleza, also a host city, there were many pending projects by the time of such event,
particularly related to mobility in urban environments surrounding Castelão Arena. In front of
the stadium, the biggest of the public works (an overpass that was supposed to connect two
major avenues) was shut down during the event. In a statement, the Ministry of Cities asserted
that some of these great works will not be ready for the World Cup 2014 (MOBILIZE, 2014).
The main urban mobility work in Fortaleza is the Light Rail Transit route (LRT) that has not
been completed yet, and also the BRT along with its four projects, totaling 20 km and that will
lead to the expropriation of 144 families to give space to a line of 3 km; the works of the
Mucuripe port and the airport of Fortaleza, Pinto Martins, were also delayed when the
Confederations Cup started (Mobilize, 2014).
In the city of Recife the numbers were around USD 918 million, according to the
Responsibility Matrix. The works involve the Caxangá Corridor, that will become the main
access of public transport by bus to the Pernambuco Arena, besides other projects related to
buses, road transportation and the remodelling of Gilberto Freyre International Airport of Recife
and also the port (Portal Brasil, 2014). The Pernambuco Arena was not complete during the
games of the Confederations Cup and is still in the works, according to Portal da Copa 2014.
In Brasília, public works regarding urban mobility and improvements in Juscelino
Kubitschek International Airport and the Mané Garrincha National Stadium were proposed. At
first, a Light Rail Transit route would be built in the Federal capital, but the work was stopped
due to irregularities concerning public bidding and ended up being removed from the
Responsibility Matrix.
The city of Salvador had expected investments of BRL 172.00 million (Responsibility
Matrix, 2010), which would be distributed between urban mobility works and improvements on
the airport and the port. By the time of the Confederations Cup, a major part of such public
works was delayed and/or unconcluded. We observe, therefore, that the cities were not fully
prepared for the event.
Besides these five cities, Belo Horizonte hosted the FIFA Confederations Cup, whose
projects and conflicts that occurred during such event will be presented below.

The Confederations Cup 2013 in Belo Horizonte

In the city of Belo Horizonte we can highlight some projects related to mega-events (Image 1),
namely: the improvement of the Magalhães Pinto Stadium – Mineirão (1), the expansion of the
International Airport (2), the creation of the Liberty Square Cultural Center and the
revitalization of Savassi (3), the implementation of the BRT (Bus Rapid Transit routes), the
transport corridor linking Pedro II avenue to Carlos Luz avenue, linking Route 210 (between
Via do Minério and Tereza Cristina avenue in the west region) and linking Route 710
(connecting Andradas avenue to Cristiano Machado avenue) and Boulevard Arrudas to Tereza
Cristina (Alvares et al, 2013).
1028

Figure 1. Location of the main projects in Belo Horizonte and conflicts due to the
World Cup 2014 mega-event (source: Authors, 2014, based on Alvares et al, 2013).

The remodeling of Mineirão Stadium was completed on 20th December 2012, after two years
and ten months of stoppage, with an expense of BRL 666.3 million. The Stadium is a preserved
historical heritage of Belo Horizonte and therefore its original design, inaugurated in 1965, was
not modified. However, some significant changes were made, for example, in its outdoor area,
which currently contains an esplanade of 80.000m², called "Mineirão for All", with capacity for
65,000 people. The "New Mineirão" has better uses than before, since it now contains
panoramic restaurants, 58 bars and snack bars, luxurious locker rooms, high definition screens;
the field was lowered by 3.4m to improve its visibility, but its internal capacity decreased from
64,000 to 62,170 covered seats and 98 loges (Portal Transparência, 2014).
The BRT - Bus Rapid Transit implementation works were initiated on important roads of the
city in 2010 but were not completed during the Confederations Cup, estimated period for the
completion of such project. The construction of the BRT caused major detours and traffic
problems, besides the expropriation of residents, especially in the vicinity of Pedro I avenue,
which caused dissatisfaction among the population of Belo Horizonte.
Since the connection that the BRT would enable – between the center of the city and the
Confins International Airport, located in the north of the Metropolitan Region (40 km far) – was
not performed in time for the Cup, supporters who hoped that the city would be able to welcome
visitors and provide quick and economic system of transportation were distressed. It is
noteworthy, however, that the biggest losers were the inhabitants, workers and everyday users
 1029

of public transport and roads majorly affected by the works. The increase of time spent in traffic
was significant and the delay in completion of those works made the situation worse.
Thus, the solution to a system with insufficient means of transportation to serve the
supporters of the event was to facilitate the use of buses for those who would watch the games
at Mineirão Stadium and issue decrees creating holidays, mostly because of the protests made
by the population to show their dissatisfaction with the occurence of the events in Belo
Horizonte.
Regarding the promised subway expansions, its project began with surveys on routes
throughout the city, but nothing was done besides that.
In order to stimulate the hotel business, Belo Horizonte estabilished the Urban Operation
(Law n. 9952/10), a "stimulus to the development of health infrastructure, cultural tourism and
business, to meet the demands of the World Cup" in 2014. Thus, the city, that had 17,920
vacancies, was expected to increase that number to 31,240. The laws regarding such operation,
when setting quite permissive urban parameters, fostered the construction of buildings
considered out of the current context of Belo Horizonte, since minimum bedrooms were offered
on abusive prices (Jornal Estado De Minas, 2014).
The dissatisfactions accumulated over decades, the changes aforementioned, as well as other
modifications in the urban landscape of the state capital generated a remarkable grievance
among the population and, consequently, several urban conflicts, manifested during the
Confederations Cup.

Urban conflicts manifested in Belo Horizonte during the FIFA Confederations Cup 2013

There are several groups and residents who have been "affected" by the Cup and the public
works it demanded. In line with other movements in other host cities, by the end of 2010, the
Committee of People Affected by the Cup in Belo Horizonte (BH-COPAC) was created, as a
way to group the various people and groups negatively affected and articulate their demands.
COPAC-BH is part of the National Articulation of Popular Committees for the Cup, which
comprises all Brazilian host cities and released, in December 2011, the Mega-events and Human
Rights Violations in Brazil dossier, denouncing a number of systematic violations perpetrated
by governments and their partners against population at three levels (Alvares et al, 2013).
According to Álvares et al (2013), arbitrary actions have been reported in the blogs of local
committees (as for Belo Horizonte, the http://atingidoscopa2014.wordpress.com/) and at the
Portal da Copa (www.portalpopulardacopa.org.br). In June 2011, along with the "Freedom
March", different groups that compounded COPAC - BH protested in downtown Belo
Horizonte against the social impacts caused by the Cup, requiring – among other things – an end
to evictions and expropriations, as well as demanding popular housing construction rather than
hotels.
The timing of the occurrence of the Confederations Cup ended up encouraging mass
outbursts of protests throughout the country. Most of them were connected to COPAC and
questioned the social impacts caused by the realization of the Confederations Cup 2013 and the
World Cup 2014.
In this period, the Urban Conflicts Observatory of Belo Horizonte researched 134 conflicts,
dated 13 of June 2013 to 31 of July 2013. This data collection was done by consulting the
electronic newspapers: O Tempo online, Portal UAI - Estado de Minas, Portal PBH (DOM –
Diário Oficial do Município), Portal globominas.com - MGTV and Portal Alterosa.
The conflicts spread throughout the city, as it can be seen in Table 1. Among the chosen areas
(Table 2), 28% of the conflicts occurred in the city center and 17% in the Center-South
1030

Region132, where most part of the public agencies of Belo Horizonte are located. In addition, big
public parades of protest occurred significantly throughout the city (15 %), starting in distant
districts, heading to the center and neighborhoods of the Center-South Region and ending at the
City Hall, in the central area.

Table 1. Areas of the conflicts, June and July 2013 (source: Authors, 2014).

Table 2. Areas of the protests, June and July 2013. (source: Authors, 2014).

Most protesters demanded the repudiation of the abuse of political power and also the
explanation, by the authorities, of alleged misuse of public funds and corruption schemes.
Based on Table 3, we notice that the majority of conflicts (27 %) had multiple objects
("other"), regarding the dissatisfaction related to the government’s implementation of projects
and public works for the Confederations Cup according to FIFA rules, instead of those related to
education and health. The protests with multiple objects were eventually criticized and led to the
discussion regarding the protesters "lack of focus".

132
Belo Horizonte is divided into nine regional administrations (Barreiro, Center-South, East, Northeast,
Northwest, North, West, Pampulha and Venda Nova), according to their geographic positions and
occupation history.
 1031

Claims concerning transportation (18%) were also recurring subjects during the
Confederations Cup. Protests to demand the increase of the half fare bus pass program gathered
a number of protesters since the outbreak of such protests in June.
The outrage began after the government’s assertion that the half fare bus pass program
would serve 95,000 students, when the actual number would not reach 8,000. Students
demanded meetings with the mayor, requiring plebiscite on free fare in the city.
Furthermore, movements were organized to discuss the public transport systems in the
capital and to discuss bus fare costs.
The grievances of employees of private and state companies were also expressive. Workers
of the BRT (Bus Rapid Transport) public works, for example, made several stoppages and
threatened to go on strike to demand better working conditions.
Health issues were also widely questioned (7%) and, as one of the responses, the Federal
Government released the More Medical Doctors Program, for which foreign doctors were
recruited to work in the country, especially in areas where medical services are scarce and
lacked professionals or urban infrastructure.
Issues regarding education were also widely questioned (7%), ranging from the
infrastructure of public schools to the increase in the number of schools vacancies and wider
recruitment of qualified teachers. Along with the discussion related to education, there was a
discussion concerning the share of GDP that is spent on education and also the proposition of
increasing the share, which is currently 7%, to 10%.

Table 3. Objects of the conflict, June and July 2013 (source: Authors, 2014)

Concerning the mobilized groups (Table 4), most of them are "residents or neighbours"
(24%). Therefore, remarkable are the protests of squatters – who questioned their rights in order
to evoke a response from the Local Government – as well as the new land occupations and
squats that happened during this period.
Professionals from the same area (15%) also joined to protest for better working conditions
and some peculiarities in each area: the Organic Law for Police Officers; the return of fare
collectors on Sundays and holidays, concerning the demands of bus drivers; the complaints of
the Brazilian doctors related to the More Medical Doctors Program and the work overload of
health professionals; public transportation vouchers and overtime work concerning waste
collectors; salary increase and guarantees required by employees of banks; among other issues
that arouse during this episode of massive dissatisfaction .
The number of students who went to the streets to protest was also significant (11%), since
they showed a politicized attitude and outrage at the events that occurred in the country.
1032

What draws attention in Table 4 are the "Other Social Movements" (10%) that include the
population and the citizens as a whole, in addition to other types of movements and appearances
of other existing and not recognized associations. Included in this category are people who were
expropriated, either due to the BRT, to another public work made by the Municipality or
because they were expropriated from areas which are interesting in the housing market.
We also emphasize the meaninglessness of the Syndicates, labour unions and professional
associations (6%). In fact, we noticed protests characterized by little premeditation and euphoric
outburst, in a certain way, as well as the rejection of partisan organizations.

Table 4. Mobilized Groups, June and July 2013 (source: Authors, 2014)

Regarding the means of protest (Table 5), 21% of the outbursts occurred as parades, especially
in the aforementioned areas. Another significant means of protest was the closure of public
roads, totaling 17%.
It is noteworthy, however, that the most common mean of protest was the outbreak in public
squares (23%), drawing the attention of people who were passing by strategic locations of the
city and encouraging the participation of people who were often unaware of the causes of such
protests.
Depredation was little used, totaling 2% of the means of protest, but reverberated in society.
Repression by the police force was significant and the protesters themselves repudiated
depredation, understanding that such actions disqualified them and emptied their speeches,
always full of claims.
Table 6 indicates to which institutions the complaints were made. The majority, 40% of the
complaints, was directed to the Local Government, which explains the protesters choices to
make outbursts in the Center and Center-South Regions, since the City Hall is in the center of
Belo Horizonte, such as other public facilities where population claimed their Objects of the
Conflicts. 13% of them were directed to the State Government, mainly due to the public works
on roads and other structural changes, and 11% of the claims were directed to the Federal
Government, which can be related, above all, to the problems in the housing programs, deemed
ineffective and inefficient.
"Whole Society" represents a percentage of 11% and sums up the widespread outrage and
generalized dissatisfaction, which were amplified in the given period.
 1033

The total of 7% concerning the Private Company as target of the claims represents the union
of professionals from the same area, calling for improvements in working conditions, and also
by users of such companies demanding the improvement of the companies’ services and
questioning the price of the service and the treatment given by companies.

Table 5. Means of Protest, June and July 2013

Table 6. Target of the claims, June and July 2013 (source: Authors, 2014).

Conclusion

Understanding the conflicts manifested in a area involves understanding the context that led to
their emergence.
In recent times, Brazilian cities, often based on the adoption of international standards, have
been seen as productive platforms and economic vectors, being designed within the construction
and reproduction of competitive advantages and development of strategies that will ensure them
a favorable position amongst the global intercity competition space. These ideas can be related
to a neoliberal scenario and can be translated by the "urban entrepreneurialism".
1034

Interventions related to communication or other activities connected with the global

economy (information, quality of public services, culture, accessibility) are gaining space within
the contemporary context and are, in most cases, nothing but specific interventions (which
indicates that the general plans are little emphasized) of monumental or symbolic character -
huge visible works that can be turned into spectacle. We can notice that the urban policies
should be instruments capable of placing the city in the best possible way to seize opportunities,
identify and promote its main attractions, according to the current propositions.
Ergo, the mega sporting events - the FIFA Confederations Cup 2013 and World Cup 2014 –
fit into the picture, since they provide visibility to a country and its host cities. To attract
investment, tourists and capital - that is the justification for such events.
However, it is noteworthy that the huge urban projects which are conceived and executed
based on new planning models and also to meet the demands of the mega-events, in Brazil, have
been reinforcing the capitalist basis of the property market and consolidating the historical
process of social exclusion.
Increasingly, public spaces generated by such interventions are presented as spaces which
are not accessible to a major part of the population – for example the Stadiums that cost billions
and the prices of the tickets, which are not compatible with the reality of most residents. Also
worthy of notice is the incentive given to the hospitality industry in Belo Horizonte, in disregard
of the real needs of the city. Another example can be the public funds spent in spectacular
public works for the Cups if compared to the neglected sectors of health and education in the
country. Our current projects end up promoting a kind of urban "sanitization" in social terms,
i.e. expelling groups that occupied certain areas of the city to distant places, far from the areas
which are interesting in the market and that are only revalued after the urban "regeneration" or
"renovation”.
It is clear that these models that emerge in recent times, supported by the idea of the
inevitability of competition between municipalities, present themselves in a convincing and
hegemonic way. One should, however, consider other possibilities that are presented in the same
context. In this sense, to evidence and understand the conflicts and events that took place in
Brazilian cities, intensified during the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup, can help to change the
course that the aforementioned socio-spatial issues are taking in the country. Describing and
enhancing the conflicts of a city are means of listening to what the city has to say. What
happened in Brazil in June and July of 2013 brought to the surface some issues related to
historical and recurring problems and showed the negligence, by the government, of one of the
most fundamental rights - the right to the city. After all, for whom is the Cup? Who wins and
who loses? For whom is the city?
Therefore, we must rethink the city based on concepts such as minimization of social
exclusion and, considering the importance of citizen participation in the processes of
management and planning, this path can be longer and more complex, but fairer. Pondering the
particularities and historical and cultural realities of each place can expand the possibilities of
effective and efficient action and may also contribute to the disruption of the historical process
of reckless use of formulas and ready models.

References

Alvares, L.M.C.; Bessa, A. S. M.; Barbosa, T. P. (2013) “Empresariamento da cidade e geraç o de

conflitos: as várias faces da Copa de 2014 em Belo Horizonte”, in: XV Encontro da Associaç o
Nacional de Planejamento Urbano e Regional XV ENANPUR, 2013, Recife (PE). Anais do XV
ENANPUR, 2013.
Associação Nacional de Transporte Público (2013) Rio não entrega obras, e Copa das Confederações será
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4CEF-9BF4-C9F6197FAABB) accessed 25 March 2014.
 1035

Estadão (2013) Custo do Maracanã fica mais caro e chega a R$ 1,192bi

(http://www.estadao.com.br/noticias/esportes,custo-do-maracana-fica-mais-caro-e-chega-a-r-1-192-
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Gonçalves, R. (2005). Modelos emergentes de planejamento: elaboração e difusão. Um estudo do
Planejamento Estratégico Situacional. Tese de Doutorado. IPPUR/ Rio de Janeiro, 2005.
Globo Esporte (2014) 100 dias da Copa só 18 das 81 obras de infraestrutura foram entregues.
(http://globoesporte.globo.com/futebol/copa-do-mundo/noticia/2014/03/100-dias-da-copa-so-18-das-
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para-abrir-as-portas-antes-da-copa-do-mundo.shtml) accessed 25 March 2014.
Mobilize (2014) Parte das obras de mobilidade em Fortaleza não estará pronta na Copa
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pronta-na-copa.html) accessed 25 March 2014.
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(http://www.brasil.gov.br/infraestrutura/2014/01/obras-de-mobilidade-urbana-para-a-copa-do-mundo-
sao-avaliadas-no-recife) accessed 25 March 2014.
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(http://www.portaltransparencia.gov.br/copa2014/cidades/execucao.seam;jsessionid=4EA0C4A0763A
A8647D7DD2EE65F1F2E9.portalcopa?empreendimento=1) accessed 25 March 2014.
Portal Transparência (2010) Matriz de Responsabilidades.
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2014.
Tribuna da Bahia (2014) Infraero garante terminar obras do aeroporto de Salvador até a Copa
(http://www.tribunadabahia.com.br/2014/02/14/infraero-garante-terminar-obras-do-aeroporto-de-
salvador-ate-copa) accessed 25 March 2014.
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Grandes Manifestações e as Perspectivas Políticas.
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2013-06-25.pdf) accessed 31 January 2014.
1036

Urban morphologies of alternative spaces: a case study of

Tehran

Babak Soleimani, Alexandra Staub

Stuckeman School of Architecture and Landscape Architecture, Penn State
University, Unversity Park, PA 16802 USA. E-mails: [email protected],
[email protected].

Abstract. For the past century, Iran has been characterized by an intense social polarization: on the one
hand, those who claim a traditional, “Islamic” lifestyle, on the other those who champion a
modernization akin to Westernization. This paper examines how the two forces have played out in
shaping the physical spaces of the capital city, Tehran. The urban transformation of Tehran initiated in
1934 aimed, among other things, to restrict the cultural activities and public life of a traditional urban
class in favor of a Western-oriented elite. The Iranian revolution of 1979 attempted the reverse: with
similar procedures but with different outlooks, the revolution reinserted traditional culture into the public
sphere and marginalized non-traditional subcultures. Both after 1934 and again after 1979, particular
urban settings have played a key role in the form of “alternative spaces” that enabled the marginalized
social group to preserve the vitality of their lifestyle. Using a case-study approach, this paper examines
the ways specific aspects of urban morphology have contributed to the formation of these alternative
urban spaces. Through a parallel analysis of Tehran’s Grand Bazaar and Ekbatan housing estate, this
study posits that urban boundaries shaped by physical structures have been a significant factor in the
formation of these alternative social spaces. The outcomes of this research shed light on the
interrelationship of physical and socio-cultural landscapes in socially contested cities.

Key Words: Iran, public spaces, social transformations, Bazaar, Ekbatan.

Iran’s cultural dichotomy

Iran has experienced two cultural upheavals in the past 100 years: a radical “modernization” in
the 1920s and 1930s, and the Islamic revolution of 1979. Both led to vast transformations in the
structure and use of public spaces in the capital city of Tehran. It was Shah Reza Pahlavi (1921-
1941) and his son Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi (1941-1979) who forcibly modernized Tehran
through both cultural and economic reforms as well as physical changes, including a new
Western-style matrix of streets superimposed onto the old urban fabric. After the Islamic
revolution in 1979, the new government, promoting a more traditional society based on
religious values, shifted this social and cultural framework to limit the manifestation of a
Western-oriented lifestyle in public spaces. Both conditions resulted in the polarization of the
city, a strengthening of spatial dualities and the marginalization of certain groups in society.
Several studies have been dedicated to the spatial conflicts and territorialization of public
spaces, both in the pre-revolutionary and post-revolutionary time periods (Mowlana 1978;
Abrahamian 1982; Keshavarzian 2006; Amir-Ebrahimi 2006). Often the focus has been on the
socio-economic processes that result in the internalization of public activities, or manifestations
of resistance in public spaces. However, the role of spatial factors has often been neglected in
these studies.
We aim to contribute to this body of work through focusing on the socio-spatial processes in
the city. In this, we have studied Tehran’s conflicting conditions based on a parallel study of
morphological, social and cultural transformations since the 1920s. We have investigated urban
boundaries that segregate space in the city of Tehran from a socio-spatial point of view, in order
 1037

to explore the paradoxical relationship between governmental powers and people’s actions in
public spaces.
This paper focuses on the process of spatial segregation and internalization as a reaction to
governmental control in two different and even contrasting historical and spatial settings: the
Grand Bazaar of Tehran during the Pahlavi period, and a large residential complex named
Ekbatan in the years after the 1979 revolution. We argue that the spatial segregation of these
structures from their urban context blocks the homogenizing and controlling power that
dominates the rest of the city, allowing the formation of an alternative socio-cultural landscape.
Thus, despite significant variations in their mechanisms, these urban zones have become the
spatial manifestation of the conflicting dualities that shape the power struggle in Iranian society.
Before 1934, the structure of Tehran was comparable to that of other traditional Iranian
cities: surrounded by defensive walls, and with a bazaar that ran through residential
neighborhoods, connecting a southern city gate to a citadel located in the north (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Map of Tehran and the Old Bazaar in 1859. Arrows shows the gates. Bazaar
connects the main streets that are connected to Tehran’s gates Source: Author reproduced
from the Map of Tehran in 1859 Available from
http://geographyscience.persiangig.com/Map/.

Transformations in the Pahlavi era dramatically changed the face of Tehran. In 1937, the
walls and the twelve main gates of Tehran were demolished to open the city for future growth
(Madanipour 1998). A matrix of wide and straight boulevards was superimposed onto the
traditional urban fabric, destroying some parts of the Grand Bazaar (Figure 2). Replacing old
narrow streets, these new boulevards gradually became the main channels of transportation in
the city, as well as providing a backdrop for a new urban life. Through linking a series of
squares, the new street network accommodated an increasing number of cars and facilitated the
flow of traffic within Tehran(Mirgholami & Sintusingha 2012).
Parallel to this physical transformation, widespread socio-cultural changes were under
progress. A new Western-oriented consumerist life style started emerging in Tehran, while
religious spaces were replaced with new institutions. Reza Shah’s reforms provided a basis for
secularization in Iranian society, a lifestyle that required new public spaces(Abazari et al. 2007).
1038

Figure 2. Map of Tehran 1944, reproduced by Author from:

http://nimrouz.com/blog/?p=618, Accessed on May 14, 2014.

Secular institutions defined new zones for social life through providing public spaces.
Through offering new forms of sociability and entertainment, these spaces implied a rejection of
traditional lifestyles. At the same time, new activities expressed Western cultural components
that were in conflict with the values of a traditional society. The hierarchical network based on
social structures and public-private relationships in cities was replaced by a gridded network of
streets that created homogeneity through connectivity(Madanipour 1998). The public realm,
which was previously concentrated in the bazaar and its vperipheral urban structures, became a
widespread network of orthogonal streets distributed across the whole urban fabric, and
bordered by new commercial venues on both sides.
Social, political, cultural and urban transformations shaped a polarized public sphere in
society. A fresh lifestyle started emerging under a new capitalist mode of production, as well as
growing relationships with countries abroad. Exposed to modern ideas and cultural products, a
new urban class was seeking a new identity. This was contrasted by traditional parts of society,
who were following their own culture and beliefs. The foreign ideas, products and cultural
manifestations brought in by the Shah were perceived suspiciously, and rejected unless
confirmed by major clerics. These rejected a significant part of the new activities and products
that were being promoted as part of a modern lifestyle as “immoral” and “non-Islamic”.
After the revolution of 1979, Iranian society saw a return to traditional values as a basic
theme for cultural policies. “Modernity” and “secularity” were replaced with “Islamic” in public
spaces. While cities did not face major physical changes, new policies limited Western cultural
products, encouraged women to concentrate on domesticity and motherhood as their main
responsibilities, and ended cultural secularization by bringing religious values back to the public
realm. Rules and regulations were established to reinforce new codes of appearance and
behavior in public spaces including traditional dress codes for women, separation of men and
women in public spaces, prohibition of music and dance performances, and the prohibition of
alcohol.
The cultural policies critically changed how people used public spaces, especially in large
cities. The new codes significantly limited the continuity of the modern life style that had taken
shape during the Pahlavi years. Spaces for non-traditional forms of interaction, including bars
and clubs, were closed. Major urban spaces, such as squares, streets and parks, became a stage
for implementing new codes. The controlling power was being transmitted through the urban
network into the public realm of the cities, where even without the presence of police people
were expected to respect the new rules (Amir-Ebrahimi 2006).
 1039

This controlling power shaped a paradoxical condition for public urban spaces, in which the
most integrated urban spaces, i.e. those with the highest visibility, were at the same time those
that were the most controlled. This paradox significantly changed the relationship of public to
private life in society: home, as the most private space with private ownership, allowed
freedom, while urban spaces became a stage where control would be exercised over one’s
behavior and appearance. In this sense, the meaning of visibility, usually associated with
security, shifted to represent the insecurity of constant control through the moral police,
neighbors, and community (Amir-Ebrahimi 2006).

The Grand Bazaar

The bazaar in Iranian society is a traditional market with small, individually run stalls, but was
traditionally also the area for extra-familial sociability, public life and urban activities (Ashraf
1988). The bazaar usually consisted of a number of covered linear streets, interspaced with
enclosed courtyards, small squares, and cross roads. This system provided access to major
public buildings located within the bazaar, including mosques, public baths, cafes and
gymnasiums. For this reason, the bazaar also played a significant role in the structure of Iranian
cities. Tehran’s bazaar is comparable to that of other Iranian cities, and to this date it contains
all the original components of a traditional bazaar.
In Iran, the bazaar is recognized as the main core of the city. It is the extension of major
streets in the city, which can be read in the continuity of the urban street system. Its central
location in Iranian cities has a significant role in the formation of the bazaar’s distinctive role as
the center of social activities. The bazaar acts as an axis that connects different segments of the
city through its linear structure.
Passing through the gates of the bazaar marks a major sequence within the city, that of
moving from a publicly owned street to a seemingly privately owned and controlled urban
structure. In this sense, the bazaar creates a paradoxical situation: it is the most sociable and the
most integrated part of the city, while at the same time being owned and controlled by bazaaris
(merchants who work in the bazaar), and protected by gates. The bazaar thus becomes a pseudo-
public space in which activities, behaviors and appearances are highly controlled. Through their
daily use of the spaces that comprise the bazaar, the merchants who work there have complete
control over the behaviors and activities that take place in this space. The bazaaris’ traditional
outlook is reinforced by clerics, whose close relationship with bazaaris, allow them to have a
significant role in controlling public spaces.
The transformation of Tehran in 1937 included ideas for controlling the urban fabric through
the ease of access for troops; however the bazaar remained intact and, to an extent, untouched
by this policy. Yet the attempted integration of the bazaar into the larger urban network became,
for Iran’s traditional society, an attempt to merge them into a Westernized lifestyle that was in
contrast with their culture and beliefs; the attempted control over the space of the bazaar was
thus perceived as an attempt to create a homogenizing network that would allow the government
to flow its power into all segments of society.
The urban transformations of 1937 changed the spatial role of the bazaar within the city.
The urban matrix shifted the public realm to the new streets.
The urban grid plays a major role in the patterns of use in a city(Hillier et al. 1993). Based on
the space syntax theoretical framework, theory of natural movement investigates the
relationship between pattern of using urban spaces and the spatial layout of the urban grid.
Using space syntax’s axial-line analysis, we show the change in the bazaar’s integration level
and changing role into the urban fabric before and after the transformation. The axial line
analysis of the Tehran map of 1859 reveals that the city’s urban core matches the location of the
bazaar. The main axis of the bazaar have the highest integration value (Rn= .81), while other
highly integrated lines are located on further streets of the bazaar. The integration value of the
bazaar is much higher than the mean integration level in 1859 Tehran (which is Rn= 0.51) and
1040

reveals the relatively central role of the bazaar in the urban structure of Tehran at the time
(Figure 3). The urban transformation of 1937 shifted the core of the city from the bazaar to the
new matrix of streets. After the transformation, the bazaar’s degree of integration (Rn= 1.59)
became less than the average degree of integration (Rn= 1.64). The urban integration has been
shifted from the bazaar to the new major streets in the city, including Boozar-jomehri (later
Panzdah-e-Khorded) (Rn= 3.03), Shapoor (later Hafiz) (Rn=2.89) and Pahlavi (later Vali-asr)
(Rn= 2.96) (Figure 4).

Figure 3. Global integration map of the City of Tehran based on the map of 1859. Main
axis of Bazaar is marked by a circle. Source Author Reproduced from
http://geographyscience.persiangig.com/Map/.

The other reason that the bazaar became more segregated within the city was the fact that
without major destructions, the narrow and irregular streets of the bazaar were not compatible
with the new vehicle-based transportation system in Tehran. Supported by clerics and traditional
social groups, the bazaaris resisted the demolition of the bazaar, and any attempts at major
reconstructions remained ineffective. Thus, movement within its spaces remained pedestrian-
based and separated from the urban transportation system.
Despite its declining economic significance, the bazaar as the core of public life found a
critical new role. Resisting external pressures, the bazaar gave an alternative space to traditional
segments of society, allowing them to keep the vitality of their rituals, culture and belief.
Without access to the new mass media, traditionalists relied on the bazaar and its subsidiary
spaces as a channel of public communication (Mowlana, 1979). The bazaar was thus promoted
from an economic center to the powerful basis for spreading cultural values of the traditional
parts of society.
Urban transformations turned the bazaar from the spatial core of the city to a segregated shell
protecting its spatial, economic, cultural and social structure from the life of the streets beyond.
Urban transformations in the old urban fabric were a tool for integrating these areas into the
larger socio-economic system promoted by the government and other modernizing forces within
society. The coherent space of the bazaar protected the network of public buildings and
religious spaces that functioned as the cultural and intellectual center for traditional elements of
society, and provided space for the traditional rituals and beliefs that were being promoted
inside the bazaar.
The bazaar’s significance for traditional parts of society was also symbolic. The city’s new
public spaces, through their resemblance to European streets and through offering new forms of
sociability, were perceived as a break from the past and as advocating “modernity”,
“connectivity” and “engagement with a developed world.” In this system, the bazaar found
symbolic meaning as the dynamic continuity of traditional values and meanings.
 1041

Figure 4. Global integration map of the City of Tehran based on the map of 1944. Main
axis of Bazaar is marked by a circle Author from: http://nimrouz.com/blog/?p=618.

Ekbatan housing estate

The revolution of 1979 established restrictions over public appearances and behavior. As the
rigidity of these codes declined somewhat after 1989, the rigorous distinction between the
private and public realm of life shifted, and a new type of public space emerged that, while still
controlled, allowed people to express themselves and act with a higher degree of freedom than
in the city’s most visible public spaces. This new type of space was usually privately owned yet
open to the public, with less control over patrons’ activities, appearances and clothing. Shopping
centers, coffee shops, cultural centers, art galleries and restaurants were among these spaces.
Residential complexes in Tehran are the largest privately-owned spaces that are open to the
public. In this study we focus on Shahrak-e-Ekbatan, the largest residential complex in Tehran,
to investigate the role of urban boundaries in its spatial segregation from the city. A community
planned as several building phases by American architect Jordan Gruzen in the 1970s, our
analysis concentrates on Phase I of this complex.
Ekbatan’s segregation from the urban fabric has created a space able to allow alternatives to
the current top-down system of social control. Bordered by Mehrabad International Airport to
the south, Ekbatan is bounded by highways to the north, east and west. The first phase of
Ekbatan includes ten distinct blocks straddling a linear market place. This configuration is
bordered by a row of trees, which has shaped a green belt around Ekbatan.
he spatial relationship between Ekbatan and its urban context depicts the relationship
between residents and the city as a whole. Vehicular access to Ekbatan is possible only through
two entries, one from the south and one from the north. The highways surrounding Ekbatan
have completely disconnected it from rest of the city; pedestrians are not able to access the
complex from outside (figures 5 and 6).
Vehicular traffic within the complex is limited to a single peripheral street that circulates
around the complex and provides access to parking. The vehicle access to Ekbatan is possible
through two entries from southern and northern highway. Ekbatan is not accessible from outside
the region for pedestrians. Figure 7 is an axial line analysis map that shows the degree of
integration between Ekbatan and surrounding areas. As can be seen in the axial analysis, the
most integrated street is Nafisi Street, located between Ekbatan Phase I and a complex called
Shahrak-e-Bime. Interestingly this street was blocked for so many years by a wall to prevent
access from Shahrak-e-Bime until the wall was destroyed in 1997. This street was blocked by a
1042

wall until 1997 to prevent access to Ekbatan from Shahrak-e-Bime. Despite this, Ekbatan
remains spatially segregated from the surrounding city, and with its large size, the segregation
of Ekbatan has shaped a hole in the urban fabric.

Figure 5. Three phases of Ekbatan from “Tehran.”, 35°42'31.99"N and 51°18'30.59"E.

Google Earth.

Figure 6. Ekbatan phase 1 is bounded by highways. Source: Author reproduced from

“Tehran.”, 35°42'31.99"N and 51°18'30.59"E. Google Earth.
 1043

Figure 7. Global integration map of the City of Ekbatan. The street between first phase
and Shahrak-e-Bime is the most integrated street which is blocked by a wall, Source
Author reproduced from “Tehran.”, 35°42'31.99"N and 51°18'30.59"E. Google Earth.

A layering of space has intensified the disconnection between Ekbatan and the city.
Ekbatan’s space configuration is based on striation, with transitions from the surrounding streets
to the central market associated with crossing several layers of space. Layers provide a set of
boundaries that decrease the spatial and visual connections between Ekbatan and rest of the city.
These layers shape a shell for Ekbatan and create a visually and physically segregated “inside”
(Figure 8).
Through its physical segregation, Ekbatan blocks the flow of movement from the
surrounding urban network. Inertia caused by boundaries minimizes social exchanges between
Ekbatan and rest of the city. In essence, Ekbatan is a micro-city separated from the main body
of Tehran, which has allowed the complex to reject external surveillance and control. Socio-
spatial barriers between Ekbatan and the surrounding city have developed the concept of
“strangers” and “outsiders” among the residents in Ekbatan; residents use these terms to
describe non-residents who use the open spaces of Ekbatan. Residents consider the exclusion of
“outsiders” as the main aim behind the formation of a controlled world of familiar people,
images and settings that contrast the anonymity and chaos of the uncontrolled world beyond
Ekbatan’s walls. Residents of the complex consider public spaces a part of their living
environment, and the presence of police forces in Ekbatan is considered a violation of their
private domain.
The boundaries of Ekbatan not only exclude outsiders but also limit the connection between
the residents and the surrounding city. This border has created inertia against going outside
Ekbatan, reinforced by the local availability of amenities such as shops and parks, or institutions
such as schools and clubs. Thus the immobility of people within Ekbatan, as opposed to the
“otherness” of people moving in the surrounding metropolis, has resulted in the locality of
activities and relationships. More significantly, limitations shaped by these boundaries are a
means of extending individual control over public space. The anonymity of the metropolis is
substituted by familiarity and local social surveillance. Adjacency of living areas and public
spaces has shaped the residents’ high levels of control and dominance over the courtyards.
1044

Residents recognize courtyards as the extension of their territory. In contrast with

governmentally sanctioned external control, which Ekbatanis consider a form of restriction,
local surveillance is considered as a means of security.
The proximity of public spaces and residential units, as well as the strong social bonds
among residents, brings about their dominancy over the public spaces. The moral police sent by
the government usually avoid interfering in these spaces. In observing behavior taking place in
Ekbatan, one sees that activities and appearances are much less hindered in these spaces.
Women can be seen without head coverings in public spaces, people walk dogs, otherwise
prohibited under Islamic law, and social interactions between unmarried young men and women
are common.
The relative exclusion of external controlling forces within Ekbatan has made possible
activities that are rarely seen outside. While the hijab133 is mandatory in Iran, women can be
seen without Hijab. While taking pets out of home is illegal in Tehran, pets are an impartible
part of the activities in Ekbatan. Ekbatan is well known for its subcultures influenced by
Western culture. Ekbatan is the origin of parkour or free-style running and a major site for
parkour festivals in Iran. The complex is also known for its graffiti artistry. Concrete walls of
Ekbatan are a safe canvas for graffiti artists to show their work. There is a concrete wall in
Phase III of Ekbatan which is called “free wall”; it has become a favorite place for graffiti
artists. Not surprisingly, a significant number of Western-style underground music groups also
work in Ekbatan.

Conclusion

This work has investigated public spaces that, through their spatial segregation, have shaped a
socio-cultural landscape different from the rest of Tehran. The two spaces discussed have
created “alternative spaces” within two different regimes. While the role of the bazaar, as the
core of the urban fabric and the main center for public activities, changed due to the urban
transformations and rapid growth of Tehran, Ekbatan was originally imagined to be a
segregated, self-sufficient complex. Both the bazaar and Ekbatan create urban voids in Tehran’s
transportation network, further increasing their isolation. Both spaces are not accessible by car,
while pedestrian and visual access is controlled.
The interrelationships between a top-down system of control and these urban boundaries are
different in the two examples studied. Tehran’s bazaar has been symbolically and functionally
merged with the public life of the city’s traditional society. The bazaar includes significant
public institutions, and administration is provided through the traditional powers of bazaaris
and clerics. Consequently, the bazaar has remained structurally and semantically engaged with
traditional life. Segregation of the bazaar during the Pahlavi era provided an opportunity for
preserving the continuity and vitality of a traditional lifestyle within the bazaar. Offering an
alternative space inside the city, the bazaar rejected the homogenizing world being shaped
outside, and offered traditionalists a controlled environment.
Ekbatan is also secluded from the city through physical borders. Rather than providing a
socially controlling environment, however, the complex offers a more liberal environment than
that of the city beyond. External control forces are blocked through a lack of vehicular access,
creating a basis for a higher degree of freedom compared to the rest of the city. Both the bazaar
and Ekbatan have created the opportunity for an alternative system to exist within the greater
society. In this, the duality of Iranian culture has existed over time.

133
Hijab is a veil that covers the head and chest, which is particularly worn by a Muslim female.
 1045

References

Abazari, Y., Varij kazemi, A. and Faraji, M. (2014), in M. Semati (ed.) Media, culture and society in Iran:
living with globalization and the Islamic state (Routledge) 238-255.
Abrahamian, E. (1982) Iran between two revolutions ( Princeton, Princeton University Press).
Amir-Ebrahimi, M. (2006) ‘Conquering enclosed public spaces’, Cities 6, 455-461.
Ashraf, A. (1988) ‘Bazaar-mosque alliance: The social basis of revolts and revolutions’, International
Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society 4, 538-567.
Hillier, B., Penn, A., Hanson, J., Grajewski, T. and Xu, J. (1993) ‘Natural movement-or, configuration
and attraction in urban pedestrian movement’, Environ Plan B 1, 29-66.
Keshavarzian, A. (2007) Bazaar and state in Iran (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press).
Madanipour, A. (1998) Tehran (Chichester, Wiley).
Mirgholami, M. and Sintusingha, S. (2012) ‘From Traditional Mahallehs to Modern Neighborhoods: The
Case of Narmak, Tehran’, Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East 1, 214-237.
Mowlana, H. (1979) ‘Technology versus tradition: Communication in the Iranian revolution’, Journal of
Communication 3, 107-112.
1046
 1047

Revisiting urban morphological classics

‘The future has an ancient heart’ is the title of a book written in 1956 by the Italian
writer Carlo Levi. I mention it as inaugural metaphor of our session: the classics of
Urban Morphology can be considered as the foundations of a building under
construction, which will be much firmer and more cohesive than us (who are the
builders) we will be able to recognize and focus our cultural debts with the masters who
anticipated, with their studies, the complex problems of the urban form. In this respect
the language barriers are a severe limitation to the international circulation of the texts
of the pioneers of Urban Morphology, who as ‘classics’ should be read, summarized,
commented and compared in a systematic way in their chronological sequence,
regardless of the language in which were written. It could think out to put in them in a
critical anthology, to be published in the future as a further step for the growth of our
discipline. Moreover Urban Morphology in his collection has already hosted a series of
articles aimed just to document the different national traditions of urban studies that
preceded the ISUF establishment. Vitor Oliveira in his summary article (Oliveira, 2013)
there has provided the references, which I here enclose as useful starting point for this
project (which could be called 'Critical Anthology of Urban Morphology') to bring to
completion in next few years.

Giancarlo Cataldi

References
Oliveira, V. (2013) ‘The study of urban form: reflections on national reviews’, Urban
Morphology 17, 85-92.
1048

Comparative notes on Saverio Muratori and Ludovico

Quaroni's urban projects: typology-morphology vs intuition
or Piacentini’s gymnasium?

Anna Irene Del Monaco

Dipartimento di Architettura e Progetto, Sapienza Università di Roma.
E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract. This study attempts to throw light on the different approaches to urban design between Saverio
Muratori and Ludovico Quaroni, with particular emphasis on the way in which the two architects
interpreted the idea of morphology and typology and the relationship between these two concepts, with its
origins in the lessons they both received from Marcello Piacentini. The idea of ‘typology’ for Quaroni134
was not to be confused with ‘type’, in the enlightened sense of the term (investigations of which are
legitimate only in the case of monuments), even though, as Quaroni maintained, «the word ‘typology’ has
been confusingly replacing ‘type’135, perhaps because of the word’s aura of scientific fascination». For
Quaroni, ‘typology’ meant simply the study of ‘building typologies’ and was not to be thought of as a
generative process or a ‘form-creating form’ that was understood a priori – as Saverio Muratori would
put it.136 Quaroni in his writings usually talks of the ‘successful achievement’137 of a given building-type,
as the result of a spontaneous process of a given urban civilisation. Rarely does he mention the idea of
‘morphology-typology’, identifying it as an interconnected problem to be examined ‘in order to formulate
138
correctly a design process’ as is the case, on the other hand, with the Muratori-Caniggia school. The
paper includes some comparative notes on certain of the residential districts designed or built by the two
architects, in particular the INA-Casa ‘La Loggetta’ district in Naples, and the INA-Casa at Magliana,
Rome, 1956-57 by Saverio Muratori, and the Casilino residential zone of Ludovico Quaroni, 1963-64.

Key Words: Saverio Muratori, Ludovico Quaroni, morphology, typology, Rome School of Architecture.

In modern Italian architecture, the work of both Ludovico Quaroni and Saverio Muratori had an
important role in defining the relation between architectural typology and the form of the city.
The relationship between the two architects has often been described as being fraught by bitter
animosity and academic competitiveness; this was demonstrated to a large extent when they
both took part in important design competitions at the end of the 1950’s, and even more so when
they both taught in the Faculty of Architecture in Rome in the sixties. Yet younger critics of
architecture saw this apparent conflict as a sign that their opposed ways of thinking and
different ways of envisaging architecture derived from their divergent educational background
in radically distinct cultural, political and architectural principles.

134
Esposito G., Quaroni L. (1996), Il progetto per la città, (Edizioni Kappa, Rome), 200
135
The rhetorical figure of metonymy: to use in place of an object a word which is a logical extension of
that object – type instead of typology
136
Muratori S. (1963), Architettura e civiltà in crisi, (Centro Studi di Storia Urbanistica, Rome), 1963,
124.
137
Esposito G., Quaroni L. (1996), Il progetto per la città, (Edizioni Kappa, Rome) 1996, 185
138
Petruccioli A. (1998), Exoteric, Polytheistic, Funtamentalist Typology, In Typological Process and
Design Theory, Akpia, Boston, 9. For a full-scale coverage of the schools, themes and protagonists of the
so-called ‘morpho-typological schools in architecture and geography, their roots in the Enlightenment
(Nicholaus Louis Durand and Etienne Louis Boulle), and their differences – the French school (Marcel
Poete, Pierre Lavedan – J. Castex, P. Paerai, J. Depaule), the English (M.R.G. Conzen) and Italian
(Saverio Muratori, Gianfranco Caniggia vs Aldo Rossi, Carlo Aymonino)
 1049

The well-known designs that they created, in competition, for the Cep residential zone at the
Barene di San Giuliano in Mestre in 1959 became almost emblematically an icon of their
antagonism, of their wholly different way of imagining and designing cities. However, the urban
design projects briefly described in this paper also include the Villaggio La Martella at Matera
(1951) by Quaroni, the residential district INA Casa ‘La Loggetta’ in Naples (1953) by
Muratori, the INA Casa ‘Magliana’ I-II (1957) by Muratori, Quaroni’s design for the Edilizia
Economica e Popolare del Casilino 23 in Rome (1964), as well as, naturally, the various
designs for the Barene di San Giuliano (1959). I have decided to examine these projects, which
are well-documented with drawings and in some cases with photographs, because I feel that
they enable us to reconstruct the progress attained by the two architects in their most productive
years as regards their different achievements, and also the possible reciprocal influences
between them. I believe this owes much to their common educational background, to the fact
that they both belonged to the same generation of Italian architects who, since the 1930’s, cast
doubts on the dogmatic axioms of ‘rational’ modernism and preferred to speculate on the
relationship between tradition and modernity, and on the formative processes of ancient cities
compared to those of modern ones.
On closer inspection, both Quaroni and Muratori, even though they arrived at an
interpretation of urban phenomena that was based on a different sense of the values involved,
always conceived of and worked towards a better form of modern city, and held in their minds,
openly or almost unconsciously, the idea of the city that had been handed down to them by their
teacher Marcello Piacentini: a city of comprehensive monumentality, which was ensured by the
design of the whole, its architectural richness consisting of monuments and ‘small town’
buildings fused together into a continuous fabric of architectural systems that complemented
each other, and that, from the viewpoint of their teacher Piacentini, guaranteed that the entire
urban organism was a programmed whole. Yet Piacentini had worked in a historical period and
on projects whose themes were completely different from those undertaken by his two best
pupils. The judgement of history that has up till now been passed on our two architects means
that their ideas and projects deserve an ideologically less specialist outlook than they have so far
been given. However, what is primarily needed is a critical and academic perspective that is
more open to other academic systems – non-Roman, non-Italian – which for some time now
have been observing and studying Italian architecture in a much more attentive fashion, seeing
that no major Italian critic (Ernesto Rogers, Manfredo Tafuri and Bruno Zevi are long gone) is
capable of using his own, home-grown, authoritative interpretation to mediate between Italy and
the international critics.
All the preconditions are in place. The recent historical importance given by European and
North American critics to Italian architecture from the thirties to the sixties is well documented.
I need only cite one instance which points to a potentially new way of thinking about Italian
architecture and architects. These are the words spoken by Eric Mumford in 2002 139 at a
conference entitled Urban Design: Practices, Pedagogies, Premises, held at Columbia
University, exactly two years after the death of Bruno Zevi, the oldest member of the great
Italian critics of modern architecture: “Postwar Italian architects developed positions, which in
different ways advocated the importance of architecture's relationship to the city and to historic
urban culture, themes that continue to resonate in urban design down to the present. In Rome,
Bruno Zevi (1918-2000) and Ludovico Quaroni (1911-1987), later joined by the young
Manfredo Tafuri (1935-1994), advocated an organic and populist approach to the design of
modern cities in which the neighbourhood or "quarter" assumed particular importance.” In these
few words, the irreconcilable ideological differences between Zevi, Quaroni and Tafuri were
dismissed as nothing more than a thin coat of paint over the strong collective identity of modern
Italian architecture. They are mentioned only as ‘different ways’, which did not hide the

139
Mumford E., Framing paper delivered for the conference “Urban Design: Practices, Pedagogies,
Premises” at Columbia University on April 5-6, 2002. File available at:
http://www.arch.columbia.edu/files/gsapp/imceshared/Briefing%20Materials.pdf
1050

common intention of our twentieth century architects to express ‘an organic and populist’
concept of the city and its design. I am sure that not only Ernesto Rogers (the theoretician of the
Italian neo-liberty style), but also Saverio Muratori, had Eric Mumford known them better,
would have been included in his list. Naturally, by accepting Mumford’s perfunctory judgement
of the heated debates that enflamed any discussion on Italian architecture within Italy itself to
the point of almost destroying its vitality, the new critical perspective could start by finding a
more cogent definition of the two adjectives ‘organic’ and ‘populist’ used by Mumford as
describing the more progressive Italian viewpoint as seen from outside, as he was doing.
Because it is actually in the debate on the significance of the organic in architecture that
Marcello Piacentini, Bruno Zevi, Saverio Muratori and Ludovico Quaroni came together and
disagreed with one another, as Lucio Barbera has also revealed in his essay Ludovico Quaroni e
Saverio Muratori, between dialogue and silence140; and it is precisely about the meaning of
popular, in other words the popular culture of the city, that the four architects directly or
indirectly disagreed. Piacentini recognised the people of modernity in the mass of the middle
class that settled in the new cities, and who made their bonds with tradition the lifeline that
helped them face modernity; Zevi fled from any kind of extreme or cathartic political ideology
and believed it was each individual’s aspirations towards freedom that acted as a catalyst for the
freedom of the urban population and of his own architecture. Muratori looked to the evolution
of the culture of building and living, that which was thus anthropologically popular, within the
processes of nature, the most important philosophy of history and architecture. Quaroni saw the
fascination of cities not as a product of the overlapping of dominating, formalist or rationalist
cultures, but as being due to the dialogue between these and the adaptive capacity for continual
constructive inventiveness of a people without architects, who throughout history countered the
restrictions of the dominant way of thinking by finding ever new ways to express the truth of
their existence, which is and will always be our own.
Starting from that short quote from Eric Mumford and from my own concise observations, I
am convinced that a study carried out in a different spirit on Quaroni and Muratori’s academic
and design practices, as well as on the differences between them as regards urban design, could
be a valuable Italian contribution for everyone, also – perhaps above all – in the non-Italian
context.
Returning to the particular aims of my paper, I should remind anyone who is not Italian that
in Italy, Quaroni and Muratori are figures (without any critical limitations, along the lines of star
architects competing with each other) that are usually mentioned in association with the now
mythical open competition for the Cep residential neighbourhood at the Barene di San Giuliano
in Mestre in 1959, in which each of them took part as leaders of different groups. An experience
that brought to a head their divergence as urban designers, began twenty three years previously.
In 1936, the Italian architectural world had come to admire the two young architects who were
participating together in the open competition for the plan for Aprilia, a new town on the
agricultural land that was created when the Pontine Marshes were reclaimed. Their design did
not win, but it was selected by the Milan Triennale for the 1936 exhibition. Pippo Ciorra
reminds us that it was their design for the Aprilia Plan, and the different and contrasting designs
for the Barene, that are both, after all these years, astonishing in their ability to renegotiate the
relationship, or the “indirect dialogue with the urban formulations of the great master of the
modern, […] establishing form as the principal instrument of urban design”141. In between these
two experiences, which without a doubt can be seen as important examples of design, we have
the project that Saverio Muratori, Ludovico Quaroni and Francesco Fariello developed in 1939
for the Piazza Imperiale for the Esposizione 42.

140
Barbera L.V. (2014), 'Quaroni-Muratori between dialogue and silence', in Barbera L.V. (2014) The
Radical City of Ludovico Quaroni, (Gangemi Editore, Roma)
141
Ciorra P. (1989), Ludovico Quaroni, 1911-1987. Opere e progetti, Documenti di architettura, (Electa,
Milano), 6-7
 1051

Piacentini’s gymnasium

The professional relationship between Saverio Muratori and Ludovico Quaroni had never been
the subject of detailed study before the recent essay by Lucio Barbera – who was an ‘eye-
witness’, as pupil of both of them at different times and in different ways - entitled Quaroni-
Muratori between dialogue and silence 142 . Barbera’s study was encouraged (one might say
commissioned) by the organising committee of the Convention of Studies on Saverio Muratori
of 2011 recently published143, and was presented in its first draft during this itinerant convention
on Muratori in May 2011. What follows are the issues that emerge from Lucio Valerio
Barbera’s study that are relevant to our purposes in this paper. First of all, the joint experience
in the 1930’s of the youthful studies shared between Saverio Muratori, Ludovico Quaroni and
Francesco Fariello, classmates in a faculty dominated by Marcello Piacentini. Barbera reports a
rather difficult confession made by Quaroni: “between ’37 and ’40 they called us “the
Dauphins”. Barbera reckons that this ‘ironically regal’ title was, on the one hand, due to
Quaroni’s presence in the group, and 'his never-mentioned though well-known Piacentinian
“ascendance” had made him, in the eyes of many, the principal heir to a formidable professional
and political position. Yet that nickname used in the plural – “the Dauphins” – revealed that
there had been, perhaps, a shift in its meaning; the three were not simply the “Dauphin’s group”,
but each stood out and distinguished himself for some recognisable individual quality – they
were only twenty-six or twenty-seven at the time. I am certain that the young Muratori, with his
capacity, or better yet his absolute necessity to make each act of design the consequence of lofty
philosophical principles, undoubtedly stood out as a singular young individual with a tendency
toward the theorisation of architectural composition'144.
The Muratori-Quaroni-Fariello group, then, developed a series of projects for competitions,
among the most important of which were the design for the Aprilia Plan already mentioned, the
competition for the Preture unificate (1936), the Opera Nazionale Combattenti (1936) and the
Piazza Imperiale project for EUR (1938). The detailed list of the competitions and works can be
found in the section Regesto delle Opere in Pippo Ciorra’s book on Quaroni.145
It was a period of real communal training; Barbera continues in his essay, trying to find
useful clues to the ‘singularity and diversity’ of the two architects: 'They constructed a very
exclusive “time and space of self-education” […] that generated lines of research that each
would pursue in his own right over time [...] Despite the scale of the distance and growing
mutual rivalry that developed over the years, we must not forget that in cultural terms they were
linked by a common root and by a number of shared underlying convictions. These latter
included the conviction that Rationalism, often in its German incarnation, served as an
extraordinary demonstration, with touches of elegance, of the necessity of overcoming the crisis
of a determinate moment in a determinant space. Making it a universal language meant making
it a “style” among others, though it was intellectually comfortable and very economical to build.
The post-war birth of the so-called “International Style”, in Italy loaded with political meaning
– rationalism as the “style” of democracy – appeared to support their claims. Their point of view
was derived from an even more profound conviction: that history is a continuum in which
fractures and dramas can be overcome only if, beginning precisely with them, we start out once
again with a greater understanding of the city in history, calling on all that we identify in it as
significant values, processes and forms to model the city of the future. As part of this vision, at a
certain point Quaroni and Muratori, so young at the time, appeared to confront also the problem
of technology, in order to test the possibility that their vision could synthesise it, utilising in

142
Barbera L.V. (2014), 'Quaroni-Muratori between dialogue and silence', in The Radical City of
Ludovico Quaroni, (Gangemi Editore, Roma)
143
Cataldi G. (ed) (2013), Saverio Muratori Architetto, (Aion, Firenze)
144
Barbera L.V. (2014) op. cit., 223
145
Ciorra P. (1989), 163-168
1052

favour of the modern city less its incomparable productive efficiency as the new idea of beauty
that accompanied it.'146
The urban culture of Europe in that period reached the young Quaroni and Muratori through
the filter of Piacentini’s view of it; he used to teach wonderful lessons on European cities
furnished by photos – his book, Architettura d’Oggi is an example – and up-to-date maps, but
above all backed up by his incomparable direct knowledge (for his day) of the cities of Europe.
Even when he became a professor emeritus in the fifties, Piacentini was still giving introductory
lessons on the historical design and the form of European capital cities and their architecture
(Edilizia Cittadina, town building, was the term he used) almost as if such didactic exercises
were the lifeblood of his cultural outlook and of that of future Roman architects.. Piacentini was
of the opinion that cities were the expression, and at the same time the bedrock of culture and
the laboratory, of the development of architecture; modern architectural research derived its
strength and its sense from the historical character of cities, as had always been the case
throughout history.
Let us look at what he wrote in his book Architettura d'Oggi147 in 1930 regarding European
and Italian architecture, particularly the Roman variety: “Modernism in Italy became bogged
down in simplifying theories, without taking the plunge. Rationalist and ultra-modern formulas
are only now beginning to interest some of the younger architects, especially in northern Italy,
but these ideas have an imported feel to them, and cannot yet be adapted to our particular
climate. Our form of modernism instead is reattached to the entire evolution of Italian
architecture and reflects the character and traditions of our regions. Among the Romans, as is
only natural, a broad sense of solemnity predominates; for the Milanese, a greater reserve, a
finer circumspection. The Romans remain in touch, in a very free fashion, with ancient
architecture, taking their inspiration from the ruins of the Empire, and reconnecting with
sixteenth century art, with its wide surfaces, heavy protuberances and splendid profiles. Nor is
there always an order to these massive forms. Their tutelary deity is Sangallo (author’s italics)”.

Baroque Rome, neo-realist Italy

Piacentini’s words reinforce the idea that in that period there was in Rome a widespread and
specific method of envisaging the form and the architecture of the city, rooted in history in its
materials and appearance; but Rome was no exception. Piacentini maintained that the different
European cities, regarded as primarily ‘cultural areas’ or a significant variation of such, were
each characterised by a specific way of organising space and creating architecture that derived
from a stable evolutionary process, taken up by and strengthened by becoming the dominant
mindset of the local ruling classes, and in the case of capital cities, the national ruling class. This
was a way of conceiving and organising the city that was to be respected or renewed or even
invigorated by modernity, as Saverio Muratori would say at a later date. One certainly cannot
hide the fact that for Piacentini, the elements of architecture (building materials present on site,
climate, housing styles, social culture, relationship with natural and planned (urban designed)
morphologies) were only vaguely and misleadingly defined as ‘spiritual identities’ of the local
culture, or even merely as ‘Italian’, and other similar convoluted simplifications. However these
few lines, where Piacentini traces a chain of natural evolution and reproduction from the
remains of ancient Roman architecture through the early and late Renaissance to the threshold
of the Baroque, describe the material and cultural (or ‘spiritual’, if we include all his categories)
landscapes on which the main ‘Roman’ exponents of the Baroque era modelled themselves, and
on which, therefore, the major exponents of modern Rome should continue to model
themselves, in their own way. We should bear in mind that Piacentini was born at the end of the
nineteenth century, and for him, the Rome of the popes, which commissioned and created much

146
Barbera L.V. (2014) op. cit., 228
147
Piacentini M. (1930), Architettura d'Oggi. Re-print 2009, Mario Pisani (ed) (Libria, Melfi), 36
 1053

of the Mannerist and Baroque architecture of the city, had lasted until just a few years before his
birth. The exedras, both large and small, of the temples, the villas and the ruins of the baths that
emerged from the landscape of the horti urbani, the idea of axial roads, tridents, symmetrical
squares or squares with dynamic central spaces, ellipses, the idea of lines converging on an
actual or virtual centre point or points – all these, originating in Rome, had certainly had an
effect on most of the greater or lesser capital cities of Europe and had become the most lasting
and recognisable components of western city culture. For Piacentini they had to continue to be a
point of reference and an inspiration for the new generations of Italian architects, the precious
grounding of modernity. This was the basis of his teaching, and Quaroni and Muratori, in the
accustomed fateful dissension between master and pupils, reacted against it but also absorbed it
while trying to supersede it with their own new youthful ideas. Each of them, in attempting to
reject Piacentini’s teaching, chose two different paths that led to the same end: the repudiation
of rationalist and internationalist orthodoxy. Setting aside here the problems that they
themselves would have seen as problems ‘of style’ rather than ‘of architecture’, in the post-war
years, their interest in urban design pointed them towards the world of small Italian towns,
situated in the arduous morphology of the Apennines, beset as they were with economic
difficulties from ancient times. For each of our architects, this interest came about in different
ways 148 . Briefly, for Muratori, concentrating on these valuable places that seemed to best
exemplify the strength, rationality and overall organic nature of ‘natural’ architectural
processes, created an opportunity and a field for analytical research into the ‘true state’ of
humanity within nature. For Quaroni, on the other hand, the same truth was to be learned
through intuitive impressions, through the power of suggestion, by means of an ability to
identify with and creatively reproduce the wealth of an urban and environmental complexity
that no analytical or systematic process could ever replace. Here we should take a quick look at
Quaroni’s deeply felt belief about the value of intuition as a major tool for understanding and
modifying reality. He used to say to his students (who sometimes would have preferred a more
systematic or rationally organised form of teaching) that intuition was a form of reasoning of a
higher order, a granule without size that contained the entire complex repository of our
cognitive processes, which, if expressed in linear fashion or even in the most intricate of three-
dimensional frameworks, demonstrate the transience and insufficiency of all reductive
simplifications. And so, in the very years in which Muratori was starting to build his
monumental system of ‘scientific’ interpretation of the relation between man and nature, in
other words, of architecture, Quaroni resurrected the expressionist intuition of Bruno Taut,
publishing for the first time in Italian his Die Stadtkrone149, the City Crown, with a marvellous
introduction, which I advise everyone to re-read.

Quaroni and Muratori

But at the end of these journeys of research that were so different, the arrival points as regards
design seem to me, living two generations after the two architects’ confrontation, to converge on
one another to the point where they overlap in certain of their basic premises; I would say that
they appear to coincide ‘even more strikingly’ if I consider those who have made each one of
our architects the founder-figure of their own monolithic ‘party’, totally closed off to outsiders.
On the other hand, for both Quaroni and Muratori, the spark that lit their independent research
came from the short-lived yet intense enthusiasm of Italian neo-realism that almost unanimously
assailed the thinking and aroused the interest of educated, professional, artistic youngsters who
emerged after the second world war. For both of them, this experience, after initial
experimentation, proved to be inadequate, and so, without changing the focus of their attention
(the connection between building and organism, between the individual and society, and

148
Cfr. Barbera L.V. (2014) op. cit., 219
149
Taut B. (1919), Die Stadtkrone, (Eugen Diederichs)
1054

therefore between an inhabitant and the urban space he inhabits), they moved from the poetry of
the small ancient towns, which they saw as models for the new residential neighbourhoods to be
built on the city outskirts, towards the search for an overall picture of the city, seen as a
physical, and above all conceptual, place with a continuity of settled spaces and the co-presence
of many-sided and contradictory (or also complementary) aspirations belonging to a complex
society. During the same period that Quaroni, after his designs for the Tiburtino IV residential
quarter, wrote his famous article criticising architectural neo-realism entitled Il Paese dei
Barocchi150, Muratori began revising his own design methods that he had adopted immediately
after the war which were in part neo-realistic and in part rationalistic, moving on from his work
in Rome on the INA Casa quarter at the end of the 1940’s to the Naples and Magliana designs
of the early 1950’s. And here there unexpectedly appeared what Piacentini had perfunctorily
prophesised, the ‘genetic’ teaching of Rome’s urban architecture, which materialised in the
atmosphere of antiquity, I would say of history, that typified the researches of Muratori and
Quaroni, and which was certainly reinforced by their intuitive analysis of unplanned settlements
in Italy, but also and directly by an exquisitely morphological examination of the
‘compositional’ efficiency at any given scale of the baroque urban and scenic system. Thus it is
not difficult to see the ‘genetic’ origins of the great spoke-shaped radial systems that are a
feature of the residential zones of Muratori’s Loggetta and Magliana and of Quaroni’s designs
for the Barene San Giuliano and the Casilino district. In the first of these Quaroni designed a
polycentric system of convergences which is monumental and semi-hidden at the same time,
while in the Casilino project he dogmatically designed all the fabric according to polycentric
convergences towards focus points that were by this time merely virtual; this marked Quaroni’s
elimination of any symbolic effect inherent in urban systems since he no longer believed that
there was any remaining possibility of there still being a ‘Crown’ of the District. Instead
Muratori still seemed to believe it in his Loggetta project in Naples, but this was no longer the
case for the Magliana or the designs for the Barene di San Giuliano, where his research is
entirely morphological and the monumentality that is indispensable in an urban context is
exclusively assigned to the layout of the residential buildings themselves. It therefore seems to
shed light on Muratori’s remark in the academic year 1959-60, when he was commenting to his
students on the results of the open competition for the Barene di San Giuliano, which he had
won, that the only project that he found interesting (apart from his own, naturally) among all the
designs presented by the elite of Italian architects of the day, was that of Ludovico Quaroni. A
project, however, Muratori pointed out, that had been dealt with in a ‘formalistic’ manner; his
use of this word revealed the difference between the two approaches, his and Quaroni’s.
Muratori certainly realised that his words were in any case an important tribute to Quaroni, but
he could never have known then that he was proving Pippo Ciorra right, when, many years later,
in the book mentioned above, he revealed that in the Barene project Quaroni was attempting to
uphold “form as the primary instrument of urban design”, to the astonishment of the Italian
architectural world, and that he was opening “an explicit dialogue with the urban proposals put
forward by the great modern masters”. But Quaroni also, Ciorra goes on to say, appeared to
want to restore meaning (if somewhat abstrusely) to the long-term aims that linked him to
Saverio Muratori from an early age. Muratori’s designs for San Giuliano, Ciorra says, were “
the exact opposite in every sense to Quaroni’s, yet this ‘opposing polarity’ – and here Ciorra is
quoting Quaroni – ‘resulted in a confirmation, rather than a contradiction of certain affinities
that I shared with Muratori in the pre-war infantile period of architecture’”. Finally, reflecting
on the courses in composition during his teaching experience at the Rome School of
Architecture, Quaroni wrote 151 some significant comments on Muratori in the cultural
atmosphere of the Faculty of Architecture in Rome: “after the twenties, which were a sort of
decade of trial runs, came the thirties and the crisis of rationalism, the controversy of ‘the arches
and the columns’ and the famous struggle between modernity and tradition (the review

150
Quaroni L. (1957), Il paese dei barocchi, in (Casabella-Continuità, Milano), n.215
151
Quaroni L. (1972), Cronaca d'un corso di composizione, (Controspazio, Roma), maggio-giugno, n.7
 1055

Casabella was forbidden to students and the Library did not subscribe to it); then we had the
forties and the war, then the 1950’s and the neo-realist crisis, the organic movement and the
APAO which flowed into the student movements, a battle that pivoted round the old and the
new, that was principally a movement of an élite that was aware and culturally and politically
committed, up against an élite that was conservative, culturally represented by Muratori alone,
but exploited politically by a group that had more or less disqualified itself by the bad behaviour
of its followers and disciples. Muratori’s philosophical standpoint was totally different from that
of the Italian Academy who wanted the Faculty to be a ‘breeding ground’ for small-time
professionals armed with tracing paper. It was Muratori who first began to read books on
architecture and get his students to read them; the first, in Composition, to teach on a cultural
plane and get to work on a disciplined plane. He was also one of the first to specialise in city
architecture [.....] But the discipline Muratori insisted on did not work for our times, and despite
the fascination of his words, many students said they were dissatisfied with his teaching”. At
this point Quaroni’s voice seems full of consideration and regret, a voice speaking the truth
about his ‘true’ Muratori, his companion in ‘the pre-war infantile period of architecture’, but
also a difficult, fragile friend; there was much that linked the two of them, and much that
separated them; there was much that he learned from him, and much that he rejected. In the last
years of his life Quaroni loved to listen to the music of Brahms, with whom one can imagine he
loved to secretly identify himself; he saw himself in the loneliness of the German composer,
who was only half understood in his day, and also perhaps, in the pointless, condescending story
about the great rivalry between Brahms and Wagner and the Wagnerians, invented, as always,
by the ‘best’ disciples of one or the other.

Project descriptions and figures

The geometric arrangement of the ‘La Loggetta’ (up) project in Naples has many similarities to
the Casilino project: it has a radial network system, but compared to the Roman project it is
situated on a hill rather than on flat ground. This has influenced the creation of a landscape152
which has as its focal point the service area and the church which are clearly shown in the
perspective view of the project. This view brings to mind the designs for the village of La
Martella Village by Ludovico Quaroni (down), built with a completely different rationale in an
area that is mostly flat and only slightly sloping, and which determines the scenic appearance of
the buildings that surround the ‘crown of the city’, the church, with the rich variety of
residential buildings below (La Martella Photo). The height of the buildings in the La Loggetta
project, on the other hand, is constant, and the variations in shape are made by varying the
heights of the plots on the sides of the hill. Reproduced from Maretto M. op. cit (La Loggetta)
and Ciorra P. op.cit. (La Martella).
Muratori created four designs for the Magliana project (Magliana I on the left, Magliana II
on the right), one for a settlement at the foot of the valley, and the other three for a settlement
arranged on a complex hill ridge. All of them remained in a somewhat preliminary state,
especially those for the ridge. The most complete was the one for the valley, and shows a
considerable evolution from the INA-Casa La Loggetta project from a few years before. The
designs for the hill ridge are masterful compositional exercises in a very difficult natural
morphological situation using the most refined instruments from the baroque urban project in
which, under extreme conditions, Muratori experimented with his already elaborate system of
analysing and designing the city: external and internal polarities, architectural piazzas, and axial
and radial roads worked out, naturally, by his very advanced studies of the hill ridge settlements.
Reproduced from Maretto M. op. cit (Magliana I-II)

152
Maretto M. (2012), Saverio Muratori. Il progetto della città. A legacy in urban design, (Franco Angeli,
Roma), 97-101
1056

Figure 1. INA-Casa ‘La Loggetta’ (1953) and La Martella (1951).

Figure 2. INA-Casa ‘La Loggetta’ (1953) and La Martella (1951).

 1057

Figure 3. INA-Casa “Magliana I-II” (1956-57).

Figure 4. Le Barene di San Giuliano (1959): centre and radial system.

1058

The projects developed by Muratori and Quaroni for the Barene di San Giuliano are too well
known, analysed and published for me to make a detailed description here. I shall merely draw
attention to certain characteristics that are relevant to our present purposes in this short paper.
Both architects made the presence of the city of Venice on the horizon of the lagoon the focal
point of their designs. These designs therefore were arranged according to a radial layout, more
or less expressed in the overall plan. The interrelation with the water was determined in
different ways by the two architects; Quaroni used a language that was decisively geometric,
abstract and expressive, while Muratori saw the logic of the inescapable morphology of the sea
front with respect to the urban fabric, and he could not avoid, for example in his winning design,
a reference to the baroque and late-baroque palace complexes of the cities on the Tyrrhenian sea
and the attempt to restore the apartment blocks of Giuseppe Samonà in Messina. In Muratori’s
designs for the Barene, the centre as a physical place is an identifiable area and forms part of the
design. Quaroni’s designs, on the other hand, did not have an well-identified functional centre,
while there was a central zone of great modern monumentality which however seemed to be
mostly residential. This was set in a geometric radial system, whose rhythmic force was
interrupted dynamically by great circles of varying size, which were where the entire design
converged; behind was an area developed in an apparently free style, like a Kasbah, wrote
Ciorra, ‘a series of types of the modern: a residential fabric with courts, in clusters, in lines,
uniting together in a new mode the typology and the form of the city. The form and size of all
the buildings, in fact “essentially depend on their function within the general form and concept
of the quarter’153. Yet even in Quaroni’s design the real centre of the fan-shaped composition is
the view of Venice that emerges delicately across the waters of the lagoon. The sense one has of
large buildings in the form of cylinders open to the landscape is therefore one of great mirrors,
reflecting the geometric centrality of the residential district within the landscape of Venice at the
centre of its inland sea. Reproduced from Maretto M. op. cit and De Sola M. UR Urbanismo
Revista n. 7.

Figure 5. Casilino (1964): the opposite of the Barene of Quaroni, the similarity to the
Barene of Muratori.

153
Ciorra (1989), op.cit., 46
 1059

An important commentary on the questions we have been discussing here, and in particular,
on the Casilino 23 project, is made by Roberto Maestro in his recent essay on Quaroni’s
Casilino project, in which he took part as a young and active assistant: ‘How do you arrive at
that solution? At first sight we thought of using the model of the geometry of Roman piazzas
(based on circles and ellipses) but we scrapped that idea because it would lead to a solution that
was closed, not really suitable for the design of a city neighbourhood in expansion. And then
that solution was too ‘Quaronian’, or rather too formulaic for Quaroni himself. Lucio Barbera
recalls that he used to tell Quaroni that the Casilino 23 project seemed to follow along the same
path as Muratori’s researches for the Magliana quarter, and so also some of his designs for the
Barene. Barbera noted however that Quaroni’s Casilino 23 designs appeared to be the reverse of
his designs for the Barene. On the same radial layout at the Barene, Quaroni envisaged the
powerful architectural presence of the polycentric arrangement that supported the fan shape of
the convergence of the fabric, whereas at Casilino the centres of the convergence disappeared
into an indefinite space that was partly green, partly and irregularly covered, while the rays of
the fan emerged stereo-metrically as the main features of the urban form. Roberto Maestro,
another pupil of Quaroni, adds: ‘in the Casilino project you can quite easily see that Quaroni’s
idea was to reproduce, on an experimental scale, that mixture of freedom and restriction (or
rules) that formed the basis of the medieval city, and thus prove the effectiveness of the
traditional tools of architectural design on the formal management of a modern city of today.’ 154
Reproduced from De Sola M. UR Urbanismo Revista n.7.

References

Quaroni L. (1996), Il progetto per la città, (Edizioni Kappa, Rome)

Muratori S. (1963), Architettura e civiltà in crisi, (Centro Studi di Storia Urbanistica, Rome), 1963
Petruccioli A. (1998), Exoteric, Polytheistic, Funtamentalist Typology, In Typological Process and
Design Theory, Akpia, Boston
Mumford E., Framing paper delivered for the conference “Urban Design: Practices, Pedagogies,
Premises” at Columbia University on April 5-6, 2002. File available at:
http://www.arch.columbia.edu/files/gsapp/imceshared/Briefing%20Materials.pdf
Barbera L.V. (2014), 'Quaroni-Muratori between dialogue and silence', in Barbera L.V. (2014) The
Radical City of Ludovico Quaroni, (Gangemi Editore, Roma)
Ciorra P. (1989), Ludovico Quaroni, 1911-1987. Opere e progetti, Documenti di architettura, (Electa,
Milano)
Cataldi G. (ed) (2013), Saverio Muratori Architetto, (Aion, Firenze)
Piacentini M. (1930), Architettura d'Oggi. Re-print 2009, Mario Pisani (ed) (Libria, Melfi),
Taut B. (1919), Die Stadtkrone, (Eugen Diederichs)
Quaroni L. (1957), Il paese dei barocchi, in (Casabella-Continuità, Milano)
Quaroni L. (1972), Cronaca d'un corso di composizione, (Controspazio, Roma), maggio-giugno, n.7
Maretto M. (2012), Saverio Muratori. Il progetto della città. A legacy in urban design, (Franco Angeli,
Roma)
Maestro R (2012), 'Il progetto del Casilino 23 quasi mezzo secolo dopo' in Strappa G. (ed) (2012) Studi
sulla periferia est di Roma (Franco Angeli, Roma)

154 MaestroR (2012), 'Il progetto del Casilino 23 quasi mezzo secolo dopo' in Strappa G. (ed) (2012)
Studi sulla periferia est di Roma (Franco Angeli, Roma), 124
1060

Re-thinking city. An example of Ilses multidisciplinary

approach to urban morphology questions

Corinna Nicosia
DAStU – Dipartimento Architettura e Studi Urbani, Politecnico di Milano.
E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract. «Architettura della città» written by Aldo Rossi (1966) is a classic in urban morphology, but
we must look at this book in its original form, a field research report (1964), in order to understand how
much urban morphology is important in the city planning design process. Analysing the report we can
point out the main references on which Rossi bases his new urban science theory, also we can trace the
basis concepts that Rossi will develop in the book written two years later. Reading the report within its
original wider contest, the Ilses scientific program – a program shared by politicians, administrators,
technicians and academicians – means contextualize the Rossi’s thought in the Italian Sixties debate, a
reformism season where territorial management could not regardless reasoning about city, its form and
its content. In this sense, the Rossi’s theory goes back to being part of the urban planning debate in line
with one of the two new territorial imagines discussed.

Key Words: Ilses, Aldo Rossi, urban questions, urban planning.

The urban question in the Italian sixties debate

The Sixties were the most fertile period for Italian urban planning: the economic boom, the
reconstruction of bombed-out city, the large-scale migration and immigration movements and
the rapid urbanization of increasingly large portions of territory posed a number of new
technical and theoretical problems. The ‘urban question’ becomes part of the public language:
State becomes a promoter of development and, therefore, demands to local governments a
qualitatively and quantitatively improvement of their action. New situation make it clear that
studying in depth the socio-economic aspects of territory has become a necessity (Bellaviti and
Fareri 1986, p.3, p.43).
To cope with these new demands, some public and private research institutes were
established. These ones – as well as providing support to the government – thanks to the
introduction of social sciences, help to update the techniques, methods and tools of all those
disciplines that have city and territory as their object of study (Romano 1980, p.127).
At the same time, the urban question animates the town planning-architectural debate raising
numerous objections to the disciplinary tradition that, according to some critics, was not able to
deal with the new territorial transformation dynamics. Especially planners, who still had not
been able to formalize a scientific statute for their discipline, trying to legitimate their technical
knowledge by developing a new cognitive model (Olmo 1992, p.X; Romano 1980, p.80).
A strange relationship between politicians and technicians was created: politicians see
technicians as the modernizing force that is essential for the development and, therefore, they
seek a technical advice to justify their political choices; technicians need the support of political
power to give authoritativeness to their intervention (Crosta, Pizzorno and Secchi 2013, pp.11-
12; Olmo 1992, pp.X-XI).
Milan, where a part of political forces had already begun a slow renewal process of the
ruling class, becomes an excellent testing field where for the first time technicians work with
politicians (Landoni 2011, p.107). The Institute for Economics and Social Studies of Lombardy
(Ilses) established in Milan in 1960, is an illustrative case of this reformism season:
representatives of the main political forces and the most important members of the academic
 1061

staff are involved; the scientific products, based on American socio-economic researches matrix,
help to introduce social sciences in the Italian culture (Crosta, Pizzorno and Secchi 2013, pp.11-
12).

The ‘Metropolitan area urban structure’ research group

Ilses aim was twofold: to carry out socio-economic studies; to cope with the problems related to
regional planning155. The Institute tries to accomplish its task by putting together a team of
experts from different disciplines (urban planning, sociology, economy, finance, etc.) to take an
overall view of the complexity of territory.
The original work program was organized in nine projects research whose case study was the
Milan metropolitan area. This was not just an object to be analyse – what are its structures? how
can we steer the development? – but also a problem to be defined – how can we recognize the
metropolitan area spatial extent? how can we trace characters of a metropolitan community?
The ‘Metropolitan area urban structure’, directed by Giancarlo De Carlo and Paolo
Ceccarelli, is the most interesting research project. They carried out about eleven researches
(1962-1965) through which they wanted to understand what were the factors, that interacting
with each other, determined the structures and the morphological configurations of the Milan
metropolitan region. Among these works, in 1964, was published the Aldo Rossi’s research,
«Contributo al problema tra tipologia edilizia e morfologia urbana. Esame di un’area studio di
Milano, con particolare attenzione alle tipologie edilizie prodotte da interventi privati156», on
which he will base the book «Architettura della città» (1966).
Many of the conclusions outlined in this research group have also had wide repercussions
outside the Institute: the famous Turbina plane (1963), made by Giancarlo De Carlo, Silvano
Tintori and Alessandro Tutino, was based on the data and analyses carried out by Ilses; the De
Carlo’s book «Questioni di architettura e urbanistica» (1964) was taken from results of
numerous observations made by the Ilses researchers and it tried to state a new way of reading
and interpreting territory; the famous meeting «La nuova dimensione della città. La città
regione157», organized in Stresa (1962) by the De Carlo Ilses research group, was one of the
most important moments of the international debate.
The new dimension of urban phenomena forces architects and urban planners to redefine
their branch of learning (Lobsinger 2006, pp.30-32). Rossi’s opinion gradually moves away
from the De Carlo’s group statement and we can see the impact of these theories on the
disciplinary debate looking at the two new spatial images produced: città regione and città
territorio.

The report

Rossi shared the De Carlo's group starting hypothesis: there is a close relationship between
planning goals and urban form, since each phase of planning process is crystallized in a specific
pattern, but the targets choice, although based on multiple factors, depends largely by human
behaviour. For this reason, enforcing a city in a form without regard these complex dynamics,
would have serious implications both from an economic point of view – because there would be
a resistance would rise the operation costs – and from a social point of view – because the

155
Although Regions had already been included in the Constitution (1948) and the issues related to
regional planning had already been dealt with in the Planning Law (1942), Regions were officially
established in 1970.
156
«Contribution to the problem of building typology and urban morphology. Examination of a study
area in Milan, with a focus on building types produced by private interventions»
157
«The new dimension of the city. Città regione»
1062

operation would be rejected. The De Carlo's group was working on the theoretical references
developed by F. Stuart Chapin, who correlated urban structure changes to the sequence of
individuals and social groups behaviour, and those developed by Lynch and Rodwin, whom
proposed an alternative analytical method to describe urban form and to extrapolate the traces of
effects left in space organization by the activities localization.
In my opinion, Rossi takes two step forward: he explores the transformation of urban fabric
in a transversal direction that can hold together times and modes of evolution (Rossi 1964, p.II);
he shifts the focus of analysis from urban structure to the structure of architecture, because
Rossi thinks that the changes in a minimum element of a system can trigger the mechanism of
the whole structure.
Already in this first work, we can see the main features of the new urban science developed
by Rossi in the following years. He proposes urban planning shifts towards architecture, where
architecture becomes the tools through which know the reality: on the one hand, architecture
allows us to study the structures and dynamics of the city process formation; on the other hand,
through architecture we can develop new tools and methods for planning (Vasumi Roveri 2010,
pp.26-30; Lobsinger 2006, pp.28-29).
It is no coincidence that Rossi develops this new ideas within Ilses: on this occasion Rossi
comes into contact with social sciences that widen his literary knowledge and help him to
‘rediscover’ some classics (Vasumi Roveri 2010, pp.32-54).
An urban morphology study, in the context of this reformism season, is relevant: who have
to deal with urban morphology becomes an interlocutor for who dictate terms of the public
agenda because urban morphology specialists view city from a different angle, since urban
fabric is no longer considered as a product of time but as a product of society. This turnaround
appears in the Rossi’s work especially in the choice of references on which he builds the
reasoning.
Object of Rossi's research is a wedge-shaped area that extends from the center of Milano to
the periphery 158 . The result that this research wants to reach is the identification of the
interrelationships between urban form – in terms of the relationship between building typology
and infrastructure – and social structure. The aim is twofold: using the data obtained from
survey to express an opinion about the characteristics of urban fabric; formulating hypothesis
about the structure-form ratio, referring both to the present situation and the evolution in
progress (Rossi 1964, p.I).
The report is organized into three sections: the introduction, where the author exposes the
underlying assumptions and describes the methodological approach; the first part is divided into
four chapters, which collect the cartographic documents and surveys; the second part is divided
into nine points or paragraphs, where Rossi argues investigation findings. The iconographic
equipment is composed by maps and technical drawings that attend and illustrate the analysis.
One interesting thing is that this section has its own bibliography. The bibliographic notes
conclude the report and are a programmatic selection. Looking at the bibliographic references,
explicit and implicit, we can understand the Rossi’s attempt to reformulate the problem of urban
form within a wider design reflection, although initially Rossi seems to abstract its reflection
compared to the contemporary debate on the different governance dimension (Vasumi Roveri
2010, pp.28-29). Four books are essential: «The City», written by Robert E. Park, Ernest W.
Burgess, Roderick D. Mckenzie (1925); «Intoduction à l'urbanisme. L'évolutione des villes»,
written by Marcel Poëte (1929); «Le mémoire collective» written by Maurece Halbwachs
(1950); «Géographie des villes» written by Pierre Lavedan (1936).
Revising them, Rossi extends the meaning of urban morphology from a simple analytic tool
to a guide for planners.

158
From Piazza Mazzini to Viale Beatrice d’Este; from Corso Italia to Corso di Porta Romana
 1063

Study area, urban space construction, fatti urbani

The definition of the study area is not a simple problem of selection, but it is a very important
theoretical point. Rossi refers to the concept of natural area159: is a city portion that, during the
urban structure evolution, develops its own characteristics because of different growth
processes. This allows us to distinguish it among other areas. This means that, if it is possible
starting from the analysis of these characteristics, through historical recognition, to reconstruct
the area evolutionary process, it is also true that the identification of these dominant features
allows us to work out future trends (Rossi 1964, p.105). Rossi starts from the assumption that
city is built up over time, therefore, on one hand, as citizens we can experience just a few
moments of its history, on the other – both from the architect and the urban planner point of
view – city maintains the memory of what it has been and it holds traces of what it could be.
Another important aspect is the interdependence between area and its inhabitants:
environment is continually shaped by individuals and social groups behaviour, understood as
common values and ideals inherited from a particular culture; environment affects these
behaviours through primary impulses of urban life, such as economic and social needs and
desires. Spatial grouping forms, therefore, may be constant or they can change over time. This
depends on the importance of behaviour patterns, since they cyclically affect the spatial forms
reappearing, determining frequency and permanence over time. This spontaneous zoning trend
was also empirically demonstrated by the early sociology and ecology studies applied in the
urban field.
The main contributions about the sociology aspects of urban life came from the surveys
realized by the Chicago School of Human Ecology (1920-1970). The first collection of essays is
«The City», published (1925) by Ernest W. Burgess, Roderick D. McKenzie and Robert E.
Park.
This book is relevant for some key concepts that have opened up the way for new studies.
One of these concepts is ‘natural area’, proposed by Park to indicate the people tendency to
congregate according to homogeneous characteristics. From the human ecology point of view
this process can be explained by distinguishing between two basic relationship types: social
selection and division of labour; agreement and assimilation (Torres [1996] 2000, pp.217-218).
Evolutionary process can be summarized, therefore, in two main phases, invasion and
succession – taking these concepts from natural ecology – that indicate penetration and slipping
of a group in an area that is already occupied by a different entity. We can understand how
social mobility becomes synonymous of spatial mobility. Contrary to what we may think, the
area still retains a leading role, because it develops its own character – let me say – its own
consciousness, which allows it to react to invasion in a positive way, attracting them, or in a
negative one, rejecting them (Elia 1971, pp.31-32).
What is natural to assume, therefore, is that this process occurs regardless of planners'
projects, because it takes life by energy that – as in the osmosis processes – is generated when
social organization and physics organization interact. Understanding city development as a
‘process’ is another original and important aspects dealt in this book: Burgess uses ‘metabolism’
to describe this continuous process of organization and disorganization of society that leads to
the renewal of urban organism (Park, Burgess, McKenzie [1925] 1967, p.7, pp.52-53; Elia 1971,
pp.31-32).
The biunique relationship existing between environment and people, in terms of mutual
transformation, has already been recognized, but Rossi wants to emphasize that there is a further
degree of complexity expressed in the consciousness of social body in relation to the places it
occupies. Social morphology studies, developed in France in the late Nineteenth and early
Twentieth century, had faced the problem of social body ‘form’, that is how society is spatially
determined within urban structure, describing the practices and their effects from the social
point of view, and how its structure evolves over time. A breakthrough is made when

159
Rossi uses the English word in the report
1064

Halbwachs analyses through what kind of immaginario the different entities – that make up the
social body – become aware of it (Jedlowski 1987, pp.13-14).
We must look to the Halbwachs' book « Le mémoire collective», in order to understand how
the thought of the French sociologist and philosopher influenced Rossi. Halbwachs wanted to
investigate and examine the relationship that memory, here understood in the particular meaning
of collective memory, interweaves with the various dimensions of reality (Halbwachs [1968]
1987, p. 137).
Signs and images that are gradually deposited on the elements of the city express the
dialectical relationship existing between environment and inhabitants. This slow sedimentation
process means recognizing a value in certain areas or in certain buildings that goes beyond their
formal or aesthetic qualities. At the same time, however, this accumulation process turns out to
be a strict selection process: we can perceive only the strong and distinctive characters that
remain over time, ultimately, those which contribute to form the image of the city. In this sense,
the memory becomes the instrument through which we – as citizens – take position into its
construction process. Contrary to what we might think, our contribution, since it is strictly
temporally defined, is still active and constructive, because the tool we use – memory – is a tool
for a critical selection: it does not make us able to revive the past, but through memory we can
remodel some aspects of the past in response to the needs solicited by our present conditions
(Jedlowski 1987, pp.20-21).
Thinking city as the deposit of the community experience signs, reminds me of what Roland
Barthes said about urban semiology. Urban space, understood in a strictly material sense, has
always been a mediator of meaning, and as such it is comparable to a linguistic sign. Therefore,
urban space can be broken up into form – the combination rule that organizes concepts – and
substance – the material articulation of the concept. Understanding city as the expression of a
concept through a material mediation, but mainly as a linguistic sign, means reading it by forms
and substances whose physical traces can be taken up and manipulated. These signs whereas are
irreversible because they are a container for the transmission of the social institution values,
therefore they can not be changed by individual, but only by community. Introducing the
concept of space as a sociological category, Halbwachs considers the memory as an institution.
Urban space and its elements become the forms through which the memory explicits itself.
Obsolescence and decay become synonymous of continuity. The slow aging of certain parts
of the fabric, due to the progressive loss of efficiency and functionality, is interpreted as a loss
of value and it shows those parts of building fabric that are prone to accommodate recovery or
expansion. At the same time, however, the presence of these parts shows that, regardless of
evolutionary process that involves the whole urban system, some items – houses, streets or
neighbourhoods – survive the natural selection. These isole or aree di riserva, as Rossi defined
it (Rossi 1964, p.110), can become strategic elements because they are the result of almost
spontaneous micro-dynamics, which express the right and natural city evolution process.
If evolution of urban structure is not governed by a top-down action, it must exist an implicit
design that directs development. Rossi, referring to the Pierre Lavedan's studies, talks about the
‘implicit plan’ as a set of city elements that create an invisible but solid frame on which city
grows. «Qu'il s'agisse d'une ville spontanée ou d'une ville créée, le tracé de son plan, le dessin
de ses rues notamment, n'est pas dû au hasard. […] Il existe toujours un élément générateur du
plan» (Lavedan [1936] 1959, pp.91-92).
Lavedan introduces and develops the concept of ‘plan’ as that forces system which, forcing
on some foundation elements, determines the shapes of urban structure evolution. Through
History, we can see how human laws have gradually replaced the laws that had always governed
city development. In certain cases it is complicated finding the élément générateur of these
forces, especially if the city is ancient, and is also impossible to think that there can be only one
generating element (Lavedan [1936] 1959, p.18, pp.92-94). The «comprensione e creazione»
(Rossi 1966, p. 142) process through strategic elements, as Rossi said, joins the past city to the
future city. This is the right way to accompany urban system evolution in accordance with his
implicit plan.
 1065

Lavedan rightly states those generating elements can be either matériels and intellectuels,
Rossi often uses the expression âme de la cité to give us the idea and make us feel the
consistency of this aspect that is intangible and indescribable with the terms of reason, but all of
us daily experience it as citizens. The preeminence or individuality – to use a Rossi's word – of
these elements, therefore the justification for their active role within urban system, is due to
their ability to catalyse forces. Rossi uses fatto urbano locution to indicate these urban elements:
the word fatto takes us back to the real and physic dimension of what we experience as
inhabitants of a place; while its nuances of meaning – action, event, etc. – can make us fell the
exceptionality dimension of that experience. This locution comes from the French urban
geography knowledge and we can find it especially in the Pierre Lavedan and Marcel Poëte
studies.
Rossi referred to Poëte theory, when he says city is an organism. This means not only that
who want to design city have to deal with past, but it also means that city is a living entity.
Continuity of life is manifested by the presence of some significant elements – roads and
buildings – that come from distant eras and characterizes city as a whole and also they infiltrate
into its minimum elements. Reconstructing the story of a particular building we can see that it is
constantly in evolution, although it seems fixed in a precise form. Poëte suggests a evolutionary
approach to the study of city: as in the case of human organism, evolutionary process selects
only those characters that have been able to adapt to change. From the urban planner point of
view, therefore, it will be crucial examining how some urban structure elements have been
evolving naturally to adapt itself to the needs dictated by time, rather, this study should become
the guide for planning actions (Poëte [1929] 1958, p. 25, pp. 128-129, p. 132).
City structure, in other words, varies over time, it maintains some fixed elements that
constitute its load-bearing structure. They are active elements compared to the city growth
dynamics, because they are the centers around which – and through which – city continuously
reorganizes itself. These elements are permanence in real and physical terms, «un passato che
sperimentiamo ancora» (Rossi 1966, p. 51), but they are persistences from a ‘qualitative’ point
of view, because of their intrinsic qualities which distinguish them in the system.
Their function or their form does not determine the exceptional nature of these elements,
although in most cases their trace constitutes an exception within urban fabric. Speaking of the
exceptional qualities of these elements, we immediately think of monuments (Rossi 1966, p.
24): ‘monument’ is a status that we confer to an element in reference to the community
imagination.

Città regione vs città territorio

If city grows without the aid of a plan, what is the urban planning role? «D'altro canto il
concepire la fondazione della città per elementi primari è a mio avviso anche l'unica legge
razionale possibile; cioè l'unica estrazione di un principio logico nella città per continuarla»
(Rossi 1966, p. 143).
The city that Rossi imagines is a city of cities, where each fragment evolves as a result of
both direct transformations – which depend on factors within the area – and reflected
transformations – whose causes stem from dynamics originated in other portions of the city
(Rossi 1964, p. 6). According to this logic, using the plan as a tool would be contradictory: we
can not think of applying a unique design on different reality. In most cases, in fact, the plan
does not have a positive effect on city structure, rather it isolates fatti urbani and it contrasts its
action (Rossi 1966, p. 133). If we accepted the idea of a city made by fragments, we should
work focusing on primary elements in order to take advantage of them as growth engines.
Although initially Rossi seems to abstract its reflection compared to the contemporary debate
on the different governance dimension, this statement shows us how his thinking is in line with
one of the two hypothesis that, in those years, animated the disciplinary debates.
1066

The De Carlo's research group was processing a new territorial concept, città regione, that
comes from the American ‘city region’. They look at Geddes and Mumford theories and they
refer to the line of research generated after the publication of the Robert E. Dickinson's book
‘City, Region and Regionalism’ (1947). Città regione is a constellation of remarkable points of
the territory linked by continuous and dynamic relationships, in this way they share the same
economic, social and urban development process (Aymonino 1964, p.94; Dikinson 1952, pp. 2-
17). In this scenario, we can no longer talk about town as a generator center, but we can talk
about the potential expressed by the different parts of the territory in order to capture or repel
the forces that govern the location process of people and activities. Urban planning goal,
therefore, is to identify systems and structures (Viganò 2010, p.215).
This concept is opposed to città territorio that is an own Italian locution, in fact, it appears
for the first time in the workshop organized by Aymonino «La città territorio. Un esperimento
didattico sul Centro direzionale di Centocelle in Roma160» (1962), and in the essay «La città
territorio. Verso una nuova dimensione161» (1962), written by Giorgio Piccinato, Vieri Quilici
and Manfredo Tafuri. According to the authors, it was necessary using this neologism to
emphasize the difference between American examples, where ‘region’ is an area whose size is
variable, and the Italian situation, where the word regione referees to a specific political and
administrative entity (Campos Venuti 1967, p. 62). Città territorio instead means a network
formed by different cities. In this scenario, urban planning has to identify new themes and their
interrelationship (Piccinato, Quilici, Tafuri 1962, pp.16-17).
An illustrative example of the latter statement can be found in the debate about centro
direzionale and asse attrezzato in relation to historical center – which is well documented in the
Casabella numbers published during Sixties. These two elements were the solution to remove
directional functions from historical center, in order to protect it and to promote the localization
of cultural activities (Aymonino 1964, p. 21). This issue has always been felt in Italy, but new
size of urban phenomenon imposed a serious and critical meditation. Before the explosion of
city in modern times, our territories had homogeneous characteristics, therefore, the ancient
nuclei had to stand out as a place of interests and values. In a città territorio scenario, instead,
the old center will have to find a synthesis with the whole territory in order to restore the
balance necessary to survive. This means understanding centri direzionali as elements that
mediate city and territory. They should be complementary respect historical fabric and they
should work in synchrony with it. The lesson we can learn from historical centers is the ability
to develop a continuous and compact fabric, where functional and formal uniformity also allows
the formation of singular points or ‘monuments’ that are its backbone (Aymonino 1964, pp. 28-
29). Centri direzionali, therefore, would have become the new generating element of città
territorio (Aymonino 1964, p. 24). Centri direzionali and all the facilities for community life –
universities, shopping centers, cultural centers, etc.. –, which are already spread in the
contemporary territory, will become the monuments of the metropolitan area.
In opposition with città regione, they want to reflect again about city as a generator, but
redefining the meaning for the word ‘city’ because it is no longer sufficient to describe the
spatial, economic and social complexity of the urban organism (Lobsinger 2006, p.30). The
reasoning about the shape of the city goes back to being central in the urban question debate: the
many issues raised by urban phenomena can not be resolved through a single and general
project, but the action should be focused on the design of little city fragment that can be
strategic for the evolution of the whole organism (Viganò 2010, p.219).
We must read the Rossi’s reasoning in this second line of thought, that aims to redefine the
role of planning within the architecture field: urban planning goal is to provide a framework
within which the urban fabric project can deal with the construction of urban space, as a place
where society can build its image. Urban morphology, therefore, from an analytic tool becomes
a design tool.

160
«Città territorio. An educational experiment about the Centocelle business center in Rome»
161
«Città territorio. Towards a new dimension»
 1067

References

Aymonino, C. (1964) 'La città territorio un esperimento didattico sul Centro direzionale di Centocelle in
Roma', Atti del seminario del corso di Composizione Architettonica della Facoltà di Architettura di
Roma (Leonardo Da Vinci, Bari).
Bellaviti, P., Fareri, P. (1986) Le organizzazioni per la ricerca e l'azione pubblica. L'esperienza degli
istituti regionali in Lombardia 1960-1983 (Clup, Milano).
Campos Venuti, G. (1967) Amministrare l'urbanistica (Einaudi, Torino).
Corsta, P.L, Pizzorno, A., Secchi, B. (2013) Competenza e rappresentanza, C. Bianchetti and A. Balducci
(eds.) (Donzelli, Roma).
Dickinson, R. E. (1952) City, Region and Regionalism. A Geograpghical Contribution to Human Ecology
(Routledge and Kegan, London).
Elia, G. F. (1971) Sociologia urbana (Hoepli, Milano).
Halbwachs, M. (1987) La memoria collettiva (Unicopli, Milano).
Jedlowski, P. (1987) Introduzione, in Halbwachs, M. La memoria collettiva (Unicopli, Milano).
Landoni, E. (2011) ‘L’innovazione amministrativa a Milano (1956-1967)’, in Canavero, A., Cadeddu, D.,
Garruccio, R., Saresella, D. (eds.) Milano tra ricostruzione e globalizzazione. Dalle carte dell'archivio
di Piero Bassetti (Rubettino, Soveria Mannelli) 97-117.
Lavedan, P. (1959) Géographie des villes (Gallimars, Paris).
Lobsinger, M.L (2006) 'The New Urban Scale in Italy. On Aldo Rossi's L'architettura della città', Journal
of Architectural Education 59, 28-38
Olmo, C. (1992) Urbanistica e società civile. Esperienze e conoscenza 1945-1960 (Bollati Boringhieri,
Torino).
Park, E.R., Burgess, E.W. And McKenzie, R.D, [1925] (1967) La città (Edizioni di comunità, Milano).
Piccinato, G., Quilici, V., Tafuri, M. (1962) 'La città territorio. Verso una nuova dimensione', Casabella
270, 16-19.
Pöete, M. [1929] (1958) Introduzione all'urbanistica. La città antica (Einaudi, Torino)
Romano, M. (1980) L'urbanistica in Italia nel periodo dello sviluppo (Marsilio, Venezia).
Rossi, A. (1964) Contributo al problema dei rapporti tra tipologia edilizia e morfologiaurbana. Esame di
un'area studio di Milano con particolare attenzione alle tipologie edilizie prodotte da interventi privati,
Ilses, Milano.
Rossi. A. (1966) Architettura della città (Marsilio, Padova).
Torres, M. (2000) Geografie delle città. Teorie e metodologie degli studi urbani dal 1820 a oggi
(Cafoscarina, Venezia).
Vasumi Roveri, E. (2010) Aldo Rossi e L'architettura della città. Genesi e fortuna di un testo (Allemandi,
Torino).
Viganò. P. (2010) I territorio dell’urbanistica. Il progetto come produttore di conoscenza (Officina,
Roma).
1068

The influence of classics on contemporary thinking

Louis Kahn and Hestnes Ferreira

Alexandra Saraiva
Faculdade de Arquitectura e Artes. Universidade Lusíada _ Porto; CITAD
Rua Dr. Lopo de Carvalho 4369-006 Porto, Portugal.
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. Architecture and the consequent urban form can be analysed and interpreted without reference
to classical influences? Or can we analyse the urban form dated to the time and devoid of any previous
bonding or influence? The purpose of this article is to show that two contemporary architects, Louis
Kahn and Hestnes Ferreira created their own language of interpretation and implementation of formal
relations at the same time they developed their buildings, transposing the formal urban analysis for the
formal development of each projected unit. The designation of morphology results from the analysis of
configuration and the exterior structure of an object, in direct relation to the phenomena that arise.
Despite all the classical thought, the architecture of both architects closes a dimension beyond the
essential nature of architecture as Michel Freitag uttered (2004) in his book Architecture and Society.
The architecture relies on a phenomenological and sociological interpretation related then with History
of Architecture, aiming to understand the urban form. Louis Kahn and Hestnes Ferreira approach the
process and the materialization of urban form by following these guidelines. The main conclusion of this
article is to prevent that architecture, in contemporary thought, do not continue to be associated with the
paradox of the beautiful and the ugly.

Key Words: Louis Kahn, Hestnes Ferreira, classic influence, contemporary thinking.

Introduction

Our reading and comprehension of architecture remain intertwined, with architecture history
always supported in Art History tradition, oblivious of social analysis and social and historical
identity. Therefore, it is almost impossible to analyse both the architecture and the urban form
without comparing them to the classical models. Architecture, art, literature and philosophy
history have always determined broad and deep domains.
Louis Kahn and Hestnes Ferreira’s fascination with Architecture History and classical models
knowledge were essential in their architecture.The purpose of this article is to demonstrate that
these two contemporary architects have created their own language of interpretation and
implementation of formal relations, simultaneously to the development of their buildings,
transposing urban formal analysis to each projected unit’s formal development.

The influence of the classical thinking on contemporary architecture

Our intention to map the classical thinking influence is centred on these two architects and how
their architecture displays that influence.
Morphology is the result of both configuration analysis and outer structure of an object, in
direct relation with the phenomena that originate it. Analysis fits in the sectorial dimension, just
as Lamas (1993) refers the street scale, having the author also analysed the dimensions as
presented by Rossi and Tricart.
The proposed formal analysis is based on the four aspects presented by Lamas (1993), the
quantitative, the functional organization, the qualitative and the figurative ones.
 1069

Studies by Rudof Arnheim, Kevin Lynch, Christian Norberg-Schulz, Francis Ching, Josep
Maria Montaner, among many other authors, present different models of descriptive and
phenomenological analysis of formal configuration.
In his book A Modernidade Superada. Arquitectura, arte e pensamento do séc.XX, Josep
Maria Montaner (2001) refers to Louis Kahn as one of the architects from the third generation
of the Modernist Movement, next to Dennys Lasdun, Jorn Utzon, Aldo van Eyck, Josep
António Coderch, Luis Barragán, Fernando Távora, and others. According to Montaner, all
these architects assume a different attitude, they intend to incorporate history, to associate it
with vernacular architecture, adjusted to reality and its user, thus rejecting both the formalism
and mannerism of the international style.
Louis Kahn initiated his professional practice under the scope of the Modernist Movement,
but evolved in a different direction from the 1950’s on. Kahn didn’t relate to the rupture
propositions meanwhile adopted regarding the form and planning of the modern city.
Montaner (2013, 41) refers that,
… con un fuerte ascendente platónico, el pensamiento de Louis I. Kahn evidencia la
influencia de Andrea Palladio, por su relación entre obra escrita y construida y por divinización
de la idea, el orden y la simetría. Y una de sus más destacables aportaciones se refiere al
concepto de nueva monumentalidad en arquitectura.
Although Louis Kahn never refers to Martin Heidegger or his Carta sobre o Humanismo
(1949), Norberg-Schulz writes that he intends to find the projecting form reasons and their
theories, in light of Heidegger’s philosophy. The text is rather surprising, once that, just like
Hestnes Ferreira does, it mentions that Louis Kahn did not reveal his source of inspiration, nor
did he talk about his conception process. Hestnes Ferreira mentions in Saraiva (2011, 287),
Kahn não defendeu princípios que depois renegasse, havia sempre uma evolução, o
pensamento dele flutuava, evoluía, assim como evoluía a arquitectura dele, criando novos
conceitos e espaços. A coerência com que destacou nessa altura a importância da arquitectura
moderna, dado o seu contributo para a renovação da arquitectura americana e para si próprio,
nos anos trinta e quarenta, levou-o também mais tarde a ser dos primeiros a criticar a
arquitectura moderna, nos anos cinquenta.
Ignasi de Solà-Morales states that ethical humanism and aesthetic phenomenology had their
highest influence in 1950’s architecture, presenting the reasons for that influence,
Realización personal, producción experimental, plena libertad estética, disolución de la
tradición moderna como método racionalmente elaborado serán puntos de apoyo de un
sinnúmero de obras arquitectónicas en las que la experiencia individual, la primacía de lo
privado, el anti monumentalismo, la incorporación de materiales y técnicas antropológico-
vernaculares, la búsqueda, en definitiva, de un grado cero para la arquitectura. (1991,33)
Although he wouldn’t say it, Louis Kahn used Beaux-Arts notions, namely the central plan
and the centrelines, even if only as starting points that would then be overcome by other factors.
Hence the need to travel, to know, to register and understand the classical civilizations, having
stayed in Europe for two long periods. This same need was confessed and felt by Hestnes
Ferreira.

The sectorial dimension in works by Louis Kahn and Hestnes Ferreira

According to Kahn, the architectonic project process is divided in two distinctive stages that
alternate throughout the process: the conceptual and the material stages. The process initiates
from the production of a conceptual image that sets the basic principle around the project
essence and to which all other generated elements are subordinate.
In terms of formal and conceptual process, there is continuity in Hestnes’s process, when
compared to Kahn’s.
Design, order and form are understood as part of the formal development process, where
geometry and formal hierarchy allow to define the character and the essence of the project.
1070

To achieve the purpose of this article, we compared a building by each architect, Kahn’s
Indian Management Institute (1962|1974), in Ahmedabad, India, and Hestnes’s Casa da Cultura
da Juventude de Beja (1975|1985), in Portugal.
The suggested formal analysis is based on the previously mentioned four aspects presented
by Lamas (1993). However, we will name them design | order | form, in dialogue with the
function, the spaces quality and the aesthetic communication.

Design | order | form

Even though these projects’ dimension is sectorial, in both projects the architects structured
them as elements of transition between the street scale and the neighbourhood scale or, as
referred to by Lamas (1993), the urban dimension.
According to Kahn and Hestnes, form is always associated with a set of parts that determines
a whole, providing the final result with a strong sense of unity.
This strong sense of unity is the result of an evolving and cumulative process. In it intervene
the formal, conceptual and material processes, the latter making the whole set visible.
Louis Kahn defines design as something circumstantial, order as what determines
appearance and form as something that does not materially exist, something that can be
understood as pre-form.
To Hestnes Ferreira, design, order and form are concepts that interrelate and complement
each other, willing to overcome the conceptual process.
With the square and rectangular forms, Louis Kahn usually defines the unit. It is through
repetition and the proposed relation between units that he obtains the building, granting its unity
and formal coherence.
In a line of continuity with Kahn, also Hestnes finds formal coherence in geometry and unit
exploration.
This analysis helps to reinforce the formalists’ idea over the functionalists’ one, that is to say
that form in both architects’ buildings is much more than a consequence of a function.
Analysing the quantitative aspects in both the Indian Management Institute, in Ahmedabad,
India, and Casa da Cultura da Juventude de Beja, according to Lamas (1993), there is a very
unique and cohesive reality, developed and tested by Louis Kahn and followed by Hestnes
Ferreira.

Dialoguing with Function

This institute’s programme would reveal itself to be comprehensive and at a large scale. It
included classrooms, administrative areas, a library, students dormitories, faculty and workers
residences and other services and premises.
As always, the first thing Louis I. Kahn would do would be having a look into the
programme and rewrite it according to his ideas for each space. He wouldn’t be intimidated by
its restrictive character nor its dimension.
From the beginning, Louis I. Kahn would exhibit a visible distribution according to the
spaces required by the programme, dividing the project into specific areas, as he had previously
done in La Jolla, at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies. Such a division assumed a
hierarchy and simultaneously pointed out the main structure, the school building – although
Louis I. Kahn never referred to the spaces in a differentiated manner, as they were all equally
important -, where all the school community’s functions would concentrate. This hierarchy and
space division are only noticeable because Louis I. Kahn has always based his project ideas on
one of his fundamental concepts – order.
The school building solution would suffer the most modifications, as it held numerous
functions. Kahn’s final version would be presented in 1972, although some areas would never
 1071

be built. In this plan, his order principle can be observed, as well as a slight symmetry. Its
contours resemble the rectangular shape Louis I. Kahn had envisioned from the beginning,
creating a united space in which all parts are intertwined. The different functions gather around
a central area, the court, where students and teachers should meet. ‘The court is the meeting
place of the mind, as well as the physical meeting place.’(Kahn apud Brownlee e De Long,
1997, 163)
Montaner (2002) describes Louis Kahn’s ability to differentiate spaces and functions also
through the proposed construction system, introducing the double façade, also referred to as
membrane wall (Saraiva, 2011).
It is interesting to understand that central spaces assume utmost importance in Louis I. Kahn´s
architecture, which would be related to his fascination with Italian squares, which he repeatedly
drew during his travels to Europe. He was able to capture the essence of those meeting areas and
to build them in his works. This same fascination is also present in Hestnes Ferreira’s work, in
particular regarding Casa da Cultura da Juventude de Beja.

Figure 1. Floor plan, main symmetry centrelines_ Casa da Juventude de Beja.

Casa da Cultura da Juventude de Beja (Picture 1) was the first construction of its kind to be
built after 25th April 1974. Because of its use specificity and the population it was addressed to,
Hestnes Ferreira intended it to have a festive atmosphere.
Its privileged location, making it visible from every angle, has reinforced its sense of
centrality, which has contributed to its formal feature, intensely symmetric.
The central building includes a court at a lower level, from which all other areas develop,
clearly representative of both serving and served spaces. The constant search for these two
spaces translates into projecting in a continuity line with Louis Kahn.

Spaces quality

Louis Kahn´s architecture assumed a constant search for materiality, implying that the choice of
material was much more than its function and its technical characteristics.
Materials were used according to their formal and expressive possibilities, simultaneously
staying true to them and also to the construction systems, by not hiding them.
This attitude matches Frampton’s (1996) definition of Critical Regionalism, assumed by
Louis Kahn and followed and sustained by Hestnes Ferreira.
In both architects’ work, materials respect the interaction between the light and themselves.
The surface texture definition, and how it reveals the light, intensifies even more the proposed
space quality. We can say that the revealing of the materials’ secret qualities depends on the
1072

shadows that occur when the light diverges from the surface and on how the material absorbs
the light.
In both these architects’ work, expressiveness is directly related to the concept of light, as the
combination between light and shadow highlights the formal composition, originating volume
effects on the façades.
According to Leland M. Roth (2005, 77), Louis Kahn stated that light is the most important
and significant element in the perception of an architectural work, and as such it should be
integrated and worked upon according to its potential.
Urs Büttiker (1993) developed a thorough research on the effects of light on Louis Kahn’s
work, having created analysis diagrams. In the same line, we present a similar analysis on
Hestnes Ferreira’s work. (Saraiva, 2011)
Both Louis Kahn and Hestnes Ferreira reveal extreme care towards comfort and quality
standards in their work. The pinnacle of this comfort is achieved through the interaction
between interior|exterior they suggest in association with the materiality.
In this interior|exterior interaction, the significance of the openings in the built architecture
should be highlighted. The way Louis Kahn and Hestnes Ferreira capture the vertical light sets
them apart from other architects by their use of geometry in the opening, that is its dimension
and form.
Hestnes Ferreira, in his Casa da Juventude de Beja, (Picture 2) materializes this interaction
including a small skylight in the cupola centre.

Figure 2. Light entrance scheme _Casa da Juventude de Beja.

Vertical light, as used by Louis Kahn and Hestnes Ferreira, assumes two possibilities and
consequently determines two differentiated light spaces.
The first one is related to large scale interior spaces, enabling the intensification of the beam
of light projection; the second one occurs when the opening is smaller, directing and
intensifying the beam of light, increasing the luminous concentration in one point.
As we can see, the form and dimension of the opening intensify the beam of light, at the
same time that they increase the lightness concentration in one point.
According to Hestnes Ferreira, Louis Kahn defined silence as the key to the understanding of
architecture.
Kahn, in his drawings for the Architecture: Silence and Light conference, defined silence as
the wish to be|express, and the light as the wish to be|make. In his perspective, silence also
depends on the light diversity, introducing the concepts of Darkless and Lightless.
 1073

Aesthetic communication

Local construction tradition was a defining element in these architects, who have always
projecting in respect to it without mimicking it.
Along with this tradition, the respect for the structure and its material is another essential
aspect in aesthetic communication.
In Casa da Juventude de Beja (1975|1985), Hestnes Ferreira uses cloister vaults inspired by
traditional domes from Alentejo to cover the building, in a total of twenty domes. Brick assumes
a double feature, as both structure and coating. The work was so thoughtful that to this day the
quality and final image of this element is well preserved in the global context of this building.
Louis Kahn, in his Indian Management Institute project, in Ahmedabad, included the
traditional brick arch in the 20th century architecture vocabulary.
The Indian Management Institute buildings translate an unparalleled spiritual quality. This
ability in Kahn’s work relies on the constant dialogue between light and silence.
Among the different architectural elements, silence can be interpreted as the one that links
and synthetizes Louis Kahn and Hestnes Ferreira’s works.
Kahn establishes a relation between the concepts of light and silence. Silence represents
what is not there, and light what is.
In both architects’ work, silence translates into the simplicity and neutrality of spaces and is
achieved through the absence of ornament and effortlessness and clarity of the form. Their
architecture is defined by homogenous spaces, valued for their light and silence. Both architects
convey a Monumental architecture. The Monumentality concept can be defined by the way the
building manifests itself, by the identity it transmits, by its use of scale, by its interaction with
light and by the way it rouses a reaction.

Conclusions

The university campus in the Indian Management Institute (1962|1974), in Ahmedabad, may be
understood as a synthesis of buildings within the comprehensive work of Louis Kahn.
According to both Hestnes Ferreira and Louis Kahn, each architectural work should be
simplified, allowing to exclude any element that might confound its reading, in order to achieve
its purest aspect.
In part, the range of timelessness in Louis Kahn and Hestnes Ferreira’s architecture is a
result of their own capacity to observe and reflect on the two most important and always
existing entities: nature and Man.
In the perspective of Campo Baeza (2013), the desire that architecture persists in time
depends on its capacity of persisting in the memory of Men.
Beauty may only be achieved when architecture is true in its Conception, idea and
materialization. This kind of beauty shall not be related to the beautiful and ugly paradox.
According to Nesbitt (2008), in 20th century architecture, the reference to beauty and to sublime
was repressed both by scholars and architects, eager to break from the past.
Campo Baeza (2013) notices the concept of time in its relation with history, as presented by
Heidegger. He summarizes every architect’s ambition to accomplish an essential work, able to
transcend them, to exist as a part of history and to persist in time.
The truth and beauty motto ‘Design with beauty, build in truth’, that features in the London’s
A.A. Architecture Association coat of arms, is the perfect synthesis of Louis Kahn and Hestnes
Ferreira’s work analysis.
Louis Kahn’s architecture is formalist, intense and true, simple but not minimal as it unveils
the essence of architecture.
1074

Hestnes Ferreira, like Louis Kahn, does not project dependent on a style, a trend or a
mainstream. By repeating some elements, he creates a unique signature and sets aside the
Portuguese national scene. Assuming his own authenticity, his path is the result of a continuous
search for the architectural essence.

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank the architect Raúl Hestnes Ferreira for his availability and for providing me with all
the necessary material, as well as for all his support throughout the research process. Also significant
were the interviews in his Lisbon office, on 12 th October 2009 and on 1st April 2010, included as
attachment in the doctoral thesis. (Saraiva, 2011).

References

Brownlee, D.B., De Long, D.G. (1997) Louis I. Kahn: In the Realm of Architecture (Thames and Hudson,
London).
Büttikler, U. (1993) Louis I. Kahn – Light and Space (Birkhäuser, Berlin).
Campo Baeza, A. (2013) Principia Architectonica (Caleidoscópio, Casal de Cambra).
Frampton, K. (1996) Studies in tectonic culture: the poetics of construction in nineteenth and twentieth
century architecture (MIT Press, London).
Frampton, K. (2008) História Crítica da Arquitectura Moderna (Martins Fontes, S. Paulo).
Freitag, M. (2004) Arquitectura e Sociedade (Dom Quixote, Casal de Cambra).
Heidegger, M. (1962) Being and Time Transl. by John Macquirre & Edward Robinson (SCM Press,
London).
Lamas, J.M.R.G. (1993) Morfologia Urbana e Desenho da Cidade (Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian,
Lisboa).
Montaner, J.M. (2001) A Modernidade Superada – Arquitectura, arte e Pensamento do séc.XX (Gustavo
Gili, SA, Barcelona).
Montaner, J. M. (2002) As formas do século XX. Barcelona (Gustavo Gili,SA, Barcelona).
Montaner, J.M. (2013) Arquitectura y crítica, 3ª edicción (Gustavo Gili, SA, Barcelona).
Nesbitt, K. (2008) Uma nova agenda para a Arquitectura (Cosac Naify, S. Paulo).
Roth, L.M. (2005) Entender la Arquitectura: sus elementos, historia y significados (Gustavo Gili, SA,
Barcelona).
Saraiva, A. M. (2011) ‘A Influência de Louis Kahn na obra de Hestnes Ferreira’, unpublished PhD thesis,
Universidad de Coruña, Spain.
Solà-Morales, I. (1991) ‘Arquitectura y existencialismos: una crisis de la Arquitectura Moderna’
(http://hdl.handle.net/2099/1288) acessed 11 May 2010.
 1075

Relevance study: relationship of morphological characteristics

between residential plot and building pattern in Nanjing,
China

Qin Zhao
School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Nanjing University, Hankou Road 22,
Nanjing, Jiangsu, P. R. China, 210093. E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract. Residential plots dramatically contribute to urban form of Chinese modern cities for large
quantities. However, just a few studies following Conzenian tradition of urban morphology have been
undertaken in China, especially few at the scale of plot. And previous researches about residential plot
concentrate on living units or indicators of plot, lacking in thoroughly morphological exploration of
relationships between plot and buildings within. Therefore, this paper pays attention to residential plots,
describes geometrical characteristics of these plots and building patterns and reveals their relationships.
By investigating of 2019 residential plots within urban area in Nanjing, this paper has categorized them
in terms of residential building types within plots. According to different shapes, rotation angle of
residential plots, how patterns of building arrangement change has been examined. It thus firmly proves
that residential building pattern has a relationship with shapes and rotation angle of plot. And through
several typical building patterns, how they are affected by geometrical characteristics of plot is
demonstrated with boundary condition as well. These discoveries on the relevance of residential plot and
building pattern lead to a complete summary of designing rules for residential plots, and are valuable for
urban design reference and policy-making.

Key Words: residential plot; building pattern; morphological characteristics; relevance

Introduction

Background

Chinese cities have seen dramatic changes of urban form with the process of urbanization in
past three decades. Especially large numbers of residential buildings for increasing population
contribute to these changes, forming notable urban fabric. Plot as a unit of or component of
urban fabric has helped to clarify the relation between buildings and the town as a whole
(Kropf, 1998). Therefore, it is essential to identify morphological characteristics of residential
buildings at plot scale and articulate the formation mechanism of urban fabric.
Nanjing, one of main developed cities in Yangtze River Delta, is a typical Chinese city
undergoing extensive development, and residential plots account for nearly 65 percent of all
residential and commercial plots. Excluding vernacular dwelling, 2019 residential plots from
old town and Hexi new town in Nanjing form sound basis of the study (Figure 1), which
provide good examples of all kinds of residential building types and plots over the course of
past three decades (Figure 2). Based on mass data of these residential plots, statistics is an
effective way to focus on common problems and build up appropriate classification.

Morphological study on plot and residential plot

The Cozenian school founded by M.R.G. Cozen recognized urban landscape into the town plan
or ground plan, comprising three distinct ‘plan elements’: streets, plots and block plans of
buildings. The plan analysis following Cozenian tradition has been identified as a fruitful
1076

approach in Europe (Whitehand and Gu, 2007), and the study on relationships of plan elements
above to analyze contemporary urban fabric was emphasized (Levy, 1999).

Figure 1. All the plots in old town (left) and Hexi new town (right),
residential plots are shaded.

Figure 2. Urban fabric formed by typical residential building types and plots
in old town (left) and Hexi new town (right).

Morphological studies on modern cities concentrate on streets and their arrangement in a

street system (Scheer et al., 2001), plots and their aggregations in block (Siksna, 1997). And
this paper pays attention to the plot level. Plot is a crucial notion in building typology and urban
morphology, and typomorphological studies is a view of type that shows built structures and
their associated open space(Kropf, 1998). Along this acknowledgment comes that plot is a basic
unit of urban planning and direct restriction of architectural design, which builds a firm link
between building typology and urban form. Therefore, morphological element ‘plot’ provides
an effective tool to clarify the relation between plots and buildings within.
Related studies on plot and buildings within fall into three groups. First one refers to
building typology and building patterns. Building types are carefully examined to articulate
 1077

physical transformation (Moudon, 1986) and building arrangement in a plot to distinguish plot
types has drawn attentions (Kropf, 1998). These studies have some influence on this paper. The
second is characteristics of plot, such as density and coverage, are used to describe urban fabric
(Lupala, 2002). However, studies of this subject mainly correspond to square or rectangular
plots, plot shapes are seldom discussed. Geometrical characteristics of plot are very complicated
in Chinese modern cities and are worth studying. Meanwhile, research on plot characteristics is
not closely connected with physical form. The third group emphasizes the typological process of
buildings (Corsini, 1997; Gu et al., 2008), typomorphological attempt in urban renewal rooted
in building history (Maretto, 2005), and socio-economy linked with morphology (Mowla, 1997;
Chen, 2012). These studies pay less attention to an overall view of physical form of a city. A
few pioneer studies at plot level have been undertaken in China (Whitehand and Gu, 2007;
Chen, 2012). As for residential plots, previous studies summarize the basic residential building
types (Liu, 2012), and reveal the rules of building pattern within residential plots in a
quantitative way (Zhang, and Ding, 2013).
Above all, relative research on residential plot and buildings within has not been widely
conducted, especially in Chinese modern cities. This paper accordingly makes an attempt in the
direction following Conzenian tradition, and take Nanjing city as an example, trying to uncover
the mechanism of physical form in China. Levy emphasizes the distinct relationships between
plan elements (streets, plots and block plans of buildings) correspond to the typological analysis
of each individual element of the fabric (Levy, 1999). Therefore, in order to articulate the
relationships between residential plot and buildings within, building typology and building
patterns should be further studied except some existing research.

Types of residential buildings and plots in Nanjing

Residential building types

Quan Liu’s research on residential plot in Yangtze River Delta (2013) clearly reveals that
natural climate and living habits in China mainly influence the shape of residential buildings.
That is the need for southern sunshine, natural lighting and cross ventilation determines the
basic compositional rules of basic rooms, limiting the depth of the buildings. Normally, a living
unit is composed of several rooms for daily life. A dwelling unit is composed of several living
units that share the stairs and emergency exits (including lifts), which are the core of a dwelling
unit. According to economic efficiency and safety regulations, living units are organized in
various ways, thus forming different dwelling units (Figure 3).
Having investigated residential buildings of old town and Hexi new town in Nanjing,
residential building types are sorted into two kinds: slab apartment and tower apartment. Slab
apartment is composed of several dwelling units in a row, while tower apartment is only one
dwelling unit usually composing at least two living units. Specially, one dwelling unit whose
aspect ratio of plan is greater than 1.5 is defined as slab apartment, or it is a tower apartment.
And among slab apartments, majority dwelling units are arranged together completely along a
straight line, while there exists the types that the dwelling units of same orientation are
dislocated along an oblique line (Figure 4).

Residential plot types according to building types

Based on the combination of building types within a plot, residential plots are divided into three
categories (Figure 5): slab apartments only; tower apartments only; slab and tower apartments.
All 2019 residential plots from old town and Hexi new town in Nanjing are classified according
to building types. It is obviously found that residential plots with slab apartments, including
both slab apartments only and slab and tower apartments, make up nearly 95 percent of all plots
1078

(Figure 6). In order to articulate the most widespread urban fabric, the scope of the research
focuses on residential plots with slab apartment for next analysis.

Figure 3. Components of an apartment in China. A living unit is composed of several

rooms for daily life. A dwelling unit is composed of several living units that share the stairs
and emergency exits (including lifts) (source: Quan Liu, 2013, “Morphological Study on
Units of Urban Fabric that Constitute Contemporary Residential Plots in the Yangtze
River Delta, China”).

Slab apartment: Tower apartment:

One dwelling units Two living units
(Aspect ratio: a/b≥1.5) (Aspect ratio: a/b<1.5)
More than one dwelling unit More than two living units

Figure 4. Residential building types are sorted into two kinds: slab apartment
and tower apartment.
 1079

slab apartments only tower apartments only slab and tower apartments

Figure 5. Residential plot types according to building types.

1600 1510

1400
1200
1000
800
600
397
400
200 112

0
slab tower slab & tower

numbers of plots
.
Figure 6. The quantities of three kinds of residential plot types.

Relevance analysis

Reclassification of residential plots

For it is more complicated to discuss the problem of building pattern based on residential plots
with at least two buildings, reclassifying the plots with slab apartments according to quantities
of buildings within is necessary.
It is read from the table that among all the residential plots with slab apartments, nearly 86
percent plots are composed of more than one building. Emphasis will be laid on these plots.

Table 1. Reclassification of residential plots.

slab slab & tower Amount Percent

1 272 0 272 14.3%
>1 1238 397 1635 85.7%
Amount 1907
1080

Elements of typological analysis

The notion ‘plot’ is not only one of the morphological elements of town plan, but a significant
link between individual building and urban fabric. It is quite important to perform typological
analysis of residential plots from a perspective of designing rules of buildings.
For Chinese living habit, sunlight reception and natural cross ventilation are the first
consideration, which makes orientation of slab apartment is crucial. Then how geometrical
characteristics of plot, such as shape, rotation angle, are correlated with orientation of buildings
within are worth discussing. When trying to illuminate the relationships above, boundary
condition of plot should be taken into consideration as well. Therefore, the typological analysis
of residential plots is based on such elements as below according to designing rules of
residential building:
• Geometrical relationship between buildings and plot sides;
• Geometrical characteristics of plot;
• Boundary condition of plot.
It should be declared here that building pattern within plot is related to two factors: how
buildings within plot as a whole are associated with plot and the interrelation of buildings per
se. This paper concentrates on relationships between plots and buildings, regardless of the latter
factor.

Geometrical relationship between buildings and plot sides

For these residential plots with one slab apartment, it is easy to see that about 91 percent of the
plots are composed of slab apartment parallel to the plot sides conforming to appropriate
orientation of residential building no matter what plot shape. And the rest are regular
transformation changing with the plot boundary (Figure 7).

Figure 7. Residential plots with one slab apartment.

By investigating the rest 1635 residential plots with more than one slab apartment, it is
explored that there exist three types of geometrical relationships between plot and buildings as a
whole (Figure 8):
a. buildings parallel or perpendicular to at least one side of plot;
b. buildings totally not parallel or perpendicular to any sides of plot;
c. part of buildings parallel or perpendicular to at least one side of plot while the rest not, that
is the combination of situations above.
Building’s side and plot side are identified as parallel or perpendicularity when the angle of
the two sides is less than 10 degree.
 1081

a b c

Figure 8. Three types of geometrical relationships between plot and buildings within.

1800
1549
1600
1400
1200
1000
800
600
400
200 41 45
0
a b c

numbers of plots

Figure 9. The quantities of plots following three kinds of geometrical relationships.

Nearly 95 percent residential plots with more than one slab apartment conform to the first
geometrical relationship (Figure 9). In other word, no matter how residential plot shapes change,
the buildings are arranged along (parallel or perpendicular) at least one side, which suggests that
the arrangement of residential buildings within plot, namely building pattern, is mainly
influenced by plot edge.
However, not all the building patterns are clearly clarified by such geometrical relationship
between buildings and plot sides. On the one hand, it is mentioned above that the need for
southern sunshine, natural lighting and cross ventilation shapes the east-west long slab and then
constitutes the row fabric of residential areas (Liu, 2013). And through long-time summary of
designing experience, the appropriate orientation of residential building in Nanjing ranges from
south to south by east or west 15 degrees, which provides more comfortable living environment.
If rotation angle of residential building is over that degree in a reasonable range, the living
environment is not that good but still accepted. Actually, the statistics shows for one third of
residential plots, parts of the buildings within adjust themselves to plot boundary beyond reach
of appropriate orientation. On the other hand, while majority residential buildings are arranged
in rows within plot, for one quarter of residential plots there are one or more buildings within
are totally perpendicular to the rest ones. These types of residential plots need to be further
studied according to other elements, such as the geometrical characteristics of plot.

Geometrical characteristics of plot

Shape, size, rotation angle and scale of shape are main geometrical characteristics of plot. In this
paper, plot shape and rotation angle of plot are mainly discussed to analyze the relationship
between plot and buildings within.
1082

Plot shape

All the shapes of residential plots are sorted into 6 categories after carefully examined and
reasonably simplified as below:
• Triangle: approximate three straight sides or the length of forth side is less than one third of
the longest side;
• Square: approximate four straight perpendicular sides and the aspect ratio is less than 1.5;
• Rectangle: approximate four straight perpendicular sides and the aspect ratio is greater than
1.5;
• Trapezoid: one pair of sides parallel while the rest two sides not, including shapes
satisfying condition above with one unfilled or additional shape;
• L-shape: a quadrangle with one unfilled or additional shape;
• Polygon: more than four sides.

Table 2. Categories of plot shape

Triangle Square Rectangle Trapezoid L-shape Polygon

(a/b<1.5) (a/b≥1.5)

Regular
Shape

Transfor-
mation

Rotation angle of plot

Considering appropriate orientation of residential building, rotation angle of plot is defined here
as the angle between bottom side of plot and the horizon for easier description in next analysis
(Figure 10).

Figure 10. Definition of rotation angle of plot.

 1083

Boundary condition of plot

It is found that two kinds of boundary characteristic of plot that are worth discussing in this
paper: next to road, including main road, secondary road and branch road, and next to adjoining
plot (Figure 11).

plot boundary next to road

plot boundary next to adjoining plot

Figure 11. Two kinds of boundary characteristic of plot.

Comprehensive analysis

According to the typological analysis above, 1549 residential plots with more than one slab
apartment parallel or perpendicular to at least one side of plot are further studied here with
geometrical characteristics of plot. Based on the shape category of residential plots, rules of
building arrangement are analyzed comprehensively with rotation angle and boundary condition
of plot. Through statistics below, square, rectangular and L-shape plots need detailed discussion
for their great proportion.

Table 3. Quantities of plots with more than one slab apartment parallel or perpendicular
to at least one side of plot based on shapes

slab slab & tower Amount Percent

Triangle 11 3 14 0.9
Square&Rectangle 475 61 536 34.6
Trapezoid 204 67 271 17.5
L-shape 331 118 449 29.0
Polygon 148 131 279 18.0
Amount 1549
Square and rectangular plots

These two kinds of plots are put together for their similar rules of building arrangement,
which account for the nearly 35 percent of all plot shapes and can reveal the most common
rules. As it has shown that slab apartments are mainly parallel or perpendicular to plot sides, it
is easy to imagine that in square and rectangular plots, slab apartments should be arranged in
rows at certain angle with corresponding distance between according to the need of sunshine.
Actually, about 20 percent of these residential plots are composed of slab apartments
perpendicular to each other, thus leading to two plot types: square and rectangular plots with
unidirectional slabs and the ones with multidirectional slabs (Figure 12, 13).
For plots with unidirectional slab apartments, rotation angle of plot plays an important role in
building arrangement. The rotation angle of square and rectangular plots ranges from 0 degree
to 45 degree, among which nearly 98 percent ranges from 0 to 15 degree, that is conform to
appropriate orientation of residential building. Therefore, it is valid for slab apartment to be
parallel or perpendicular to plot sides while keeping appropriate orientation. When rotation
angle of plot ranges from 15 degree to 45 degree, arranging slab apartments along plot sides
1084

regardless of the appropriate orientation may make plot accommodate more buildings and living
environment of these slab apartments is still accepted. Such building arrangement is overall
consideration of living habits and economic benefit.

unidirectional slab apartments multidirectional slab apartments

Figure 12. Typical square and rectangular plots with unidirectional slab apartments and
multidirectional ones.

500 444
400
300
200
92
100
0
unidirection multidirection

numbers of plots

Figure 13. The quantities of square and rectangular plots with unidirectional slab
apartments and multidirectional ones.

The rotation angle of square and rectangular plots with slab apartments perpendicular to each
other also follows the rules above, thus majority of buildings within such plots keep
unidirectional in rows, while there are small parts of buildings perpendicular to the rest ones.
The arrangement of these perpendicular slab apartments correlates with two aspects: boundary
condition of plot and designing requirements.
Boundary condition. There are 58 plots within which these perpendicular slab apartments
are parallel to plot side next to road, which account for nearly 70 percents of plots with
perpendicular slab apartments. Taking function of ground floor into consideration, three
quarters of plots with slab apartments parallel to road are commercial-residential types. It thus
suggests that these perpendicular slab apartments are the result of overall consideration of
residential needs and economic benefit.
Designing requirements. The rest plots with slab apartments parallel to sides adjoining to
other plots are preliminarily supposed to be the result of some stage, for that in cases from Hexi
 1085

new town lately, such plots are quite rare, while it is more common in old town. The
perpendicular slab apartments may be designed to contribute to Floor Area Ratio (FAR). It
needs further study on typological process historically.

Triangular plots

In triangular residential plots, though all sides of plot are oblique at different angle, slab
apartments are firstly arranged parallel to the sides which are conform to appropriate orientation
of residential building. As for the rest sides, they mainly have effect on size of the slabs (Figure
14a).
When one side of the plot is next to road, slab apartments tend to be arranged along the side.
Cases show that within some triangular plots, except slab apartments conforming to appropriate
orientation of residential building, the rest are totally parallel to the side next to road beyond
reach of the appropriate orientation, or the dwelling units are dislocated along the side next to
road as mentioned above to keep the appropriate orientation (Figure 14b).

unidirectional slab apartments multidirectional slab apartments

Figure 14. Typical triangular plots with unidirectional slab apartments and
multidirectional ones.

Trapezoidal plots

Similar to triangular plots, sides of trapezoidal plots conforming to appropriate orientation of

residential building firstly determines the arrangement of slab apartments. Then the direction of
unparallel sides of trapezoidal plots makes sense. One the one hand, unparallel sides of vertical
direction mainly limit the size of slabs. On the other hand, slab apartments are prone to be
organized parallel to the sides of horizontal direction conforming to the appropriate orientation
(Figure 15).

sides of vertical direction sides of horizontal direction

Figure 15. Typical trapezoidal plots with unidirectional slab apartments.

There are one third of trapezoidal plots composing of multidirectional slab apartments.
Firstly whether side of plot is next to road is still important. Statistics shows that for 75 percent
of trapezoidal plots, the slabs within perpendicular to the rest ones beyond reach of the
appropriate orientation lies along the side of plot next to road. Secondly, in order to
1086

accommodate more buildings, the shape of ‘trapezoid’ itself determines slab apartments’
arrangement along hypotenuse. Regular trapezoidal plots with one unfilled or additional shape
follow the rules as well (Figure 16).

Figure 16. Typical trapezoidal plots with multidirectional slab apartments.

L-shape plots

Nearly 97 percent of L-shape plots are indentified as a square or rectangle with one unfilled
shape. Therefore, the rules of building arrangement within square and rectangular plots can be
applied here. What make a difference specially in L-shape plots is the size and scale of the
unfilled shape, in other words, the size and scale of the two wings of L-shape (Figure 17,18).
The minimum width of the wings almost equals to the depth of slab apartment.

Figure 17. Typical L-shape plots with unidirectional slab apartments and multidirectional.
 1087

350 324
300
250
200
150 125
100
50
0
unidirection multidirection

unidirection multidirection

Figure 18. The quantities of L-shape plots with unidirectional slab apartments and
multidirectional ones.

23 percent of L-shape plots are composed of multidirectional slab apartments, among which
arrangement of slabs beyond reach of the appropriate orientation are influenced by two equally
important elements, one is still the side of plot next to road contributes to that change, the other
one is L-shape itself with two wings of certain size and scale only can accommodate
multidirectional slabs. Regular L-shape plots with an unfilled or additional shape still follow the
rules.

Polygonal plots

Although polygon is defined as shape with more than four sides, it can be seen as combination
of simple shapes (triangle, square, et al). After investigating all the polygonal plots, it is found
that rules of building arrangement within regular plots (square and rectangular plots) and
irregular plots (triangular, trapezoidal and L-shape plots) fit polygonal plots as well.
It is strengthened here that for all multidirectional slab apartments within irregular plots
(triangular, trapezoidal and L-shape, polygonal plots), the correlation between arrangement of
slab apartments along the side of plot next to road and the boundary condition is similar to the
situation in square and rectangular plots.

Conclusions and further work

The paper pays attention to plot level in the light of Cozenian morphological study. By
investigating 2019 residential plots from main city and Hexi new town in Nanjing as mass
database, residential building typology and geometrical characteristics of plot have been
examined. In order to reveal the relationship between residential plot and buildings within, how
building arrangement changes with geometrical characteristics of plot is analyzed step by step
and demonstrated with boundary condition. Statistics provide effective tools for processing data
to articulate the classification in typological analysis.
The geometrical analysis of buildings and plot sides has shown that building arrangement
within residential plot is related with such geometrical characteristics of plot: plot shape and
rotation angle of plot. For irregular plot shapes (triangle, trapezoid and polygon), hypotenuse of
these shapes has obvious effect on orientation or size of building. As for regular plot shapes
(square and rectangle), plot angle plays an important role in controlling rotation angle of
1088

residential building except the experiential orientation. Beyond that, plot side next to road as
main boundary condition of plot mainly contributes to the change of residential building beyond
reach of appropriate orientation.
As the second level of morphological elements, plot links building typology with urban
fabric, which prompts the cognition of physical form of Chinese modern cities. In Nanjing, as
residential buildings are always arranged along plot sides, the key point of different fabric
between old town and Hexi new town is plot, especially plot shapes. Complicated historic-
geographical transformation of plots in old town leads to more fragmental plot shapes and more
various building arrangement than those in new town.
The study is preliminary analysis of residential plots, more detailed and comprehensive work
should be conducted. First, more characteristics of plot need to be taken into consideration, such
as size, scale of plot and FAR. Then the tower apartment and interrelation of slab apartment
should be included in following research for overall understanding. Furthermore, more precise
geometrical analysis of the relative study can be made to summarize designing rules practically.
All the achievements will contribute to better understanding of plan analysis following
Cozenian tradition in Chinese modern city.

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 1091

Multidisciplinarity in urban morphology

Multidisciplinarity in urban morphology constitutes one of the ten thematic sessions of ISUF
2014 that wishes to reflect on ‘Our Common Future in Urban Morphology’.
The main goal of this session is to encourage new multidisciplinary teams to come together
to strength and depth the study of urban form fresh perspectives. Urban Morphology as already
recognized by some of ISUF founders and the editor of Urban Morphology journal is a field of
knowledge that exists for over than a century ago and that was built up throughout the
contributions of different disciplines, including, history, geography, architecture, among others.
It is precisely on the possibility that urban morphology offers as a potential bridge to bring
together knowledge provided by different disciplines that this thematic session has been
proposed and encourage reflection and debate upon three specific topics: i) The benefits from
the potential of cross-disciplinary knowledge, while bringing together separate disciplines to
better contribute to the study of urban form; ii) The need to encourage the formation of new
areas of knowledge, while encouraging new multidisciplinary teams to come together in a
timely manner in response to identified opportunities as places by Our Common Future; and iii)
Determine how can urban morphology better determine and evaluate the impacts of urban form
on the natural environment and therefore contribute to our common future through sustainability
at the ground. In order to reflect on the potential of these three main topics, a group of question
was placed by this session to encourage further discussions: Which are the contributions that the
different disciplines have imputed to the study of urban form? What advances can be identified
from such cross-disciplinary knowledge and what lines of thought are emerging? How and why
specific relationships between changes of lifestyle, population growth and urban form can be
identified? How can these be measured and evaluated? Which are the impacts of these factors
on the natural environment? How to evaluate the dynamics interactions between urban form,
water and green spaces? How can urban form better respond to the call for Sustainability?

Teresa Marat-Mendes
1092

The study of urban form versus water management

Teresa Marat-Mendes, Joana Mourão, Patrícia Bento d’Almeida

Instituto Universitário de Lisboa, DINÂMIA’CET-IUL, Av. das Forças Armadas 1649-
026 Lisboa, Portugal. E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract: This paper exhibits the on-going results of a research project, MEMO - Evolution of the
Lisbon Metropolitan Area Metabolism. Lessons towards a Sustainable Urban Future, which aims to
develop a comparative analysis of the metabolic behaviour of Lisbon Metropolitan Area (LMA), in
different historical periods (1900-1950-today). The existing relationship between urban form and the
access to water is examined, to provide a possible application of urban morphology to face Our Common
Future (WCED, 1987). The concept of urban form considered in this investigation includes territorial,
urban and rural forms that testify the man will to transform the territory, while providing access to water.
Nine types of water elements were identified and analysed against three territorial scales: Municipality,
Settlements and Royal Farms. The analysed relationship between the water elements and the access to
water contributed to visualise the characterization of the metabolic behaviour of Lisbon Region, in 1900.
Finally, this study testifies that specific urban forms of water typologies are preferable than others, at
different territorial scales. Thus, testifying the interaction between urban form and water management,
but also how and why specific urban forms and territorial arrangements were selected and allocated to
better respond to human and environmental needs.

Key Words: Lisbon region, royal farms, settlements, urban morphology, water

Introduction

Requests for more linkages between sustainability and the study of urban form have already
been addressed. As emphasized by Marat-Mendes (2013) and Talen (2014) urban morphology
is strategic for the recognition and articulation of the relationships between changes of lifestyle,
population growth and urban form, as well as to explore the impact of these factors on the
natural environment.
Recent studies focusing the study of urban and rural form (Cakaric, 2010; Ribeiro, 1989), the
evaluation of the metabolism of cities (Barles, 2009; Billen et. al., 2009; Gandy, 2004; Niza et
all, 2009), and also historical accounts of water infrastructures and cities metabolism (Bocquet,
2008; Barles, 2007; Swaney et all, 2011; Tarr, 1980) evidence that water infrastructures are
responsible for urban transformations within cities, rural territories and the natural environment.
It is based on this assumption that the study of urban form, conducted by this investigation
integrates several forms built by man, including: water infrastructures, territorial arrangements,
and urban and rural forms. These are the forms that have contributed to modulate the physical
form of the built environment within which man lives and testifies its respective lifestyle.
This investigation analyses the urban form of Lisbon Region against the access to water, in
order to identify why and how specific territorial arrangements, water infrastructure typologies
and urban-rural morphological units were conceived, while responding to specific human and
environmental needs.
This paper is organised in four parts. After this introduction and the description of the
adopted methodology, it moves into the analysis of water and urban form evaluation for the
Lisbon Region in 1900. More precisely, it identifies and characterizes: i) the territory under
analysis; ii) the historical archive and cartographic sources that have informed the analysis; iii)
the identified water typological elements; and iv) the territorial units under analysis. Finally, the
access to water evaluation is provided in section four.
 1093

Sources and method

Study area and territorial scales

The territory under analysis agrees with present LMA administrative limits, which did not exist
yet in 1900. Thus, this paper has designated such territory in 1900 as Lisbon Study Area (LSA).
Sixty-three charts at scale 1:20.000, elaborated between 1896 and 1905, acquired from the
Instituto Geográfico Português (Charts 1 to 34; 36 to 38; 44; 59 to 74; 79 to 82 and; 84 to 85),
belonging to Carta dos Arredores de Lisboa (CEM, 1893-1932) (see figure 1) illustrate LSA for
the period under analysis. Complementary cartographic and historical sources were also used to
visualise the territory under analysis and confront it against the account and characterization of
the identified water elements.
The methodology involved an analysis of historic cartography and other original archive
documents. Selected data and information for the period under analysis, aimed to identify and
characterize: i) water elements; ii) water volumes; iii) population; and iv) urban form.
From the analysed sources and cartography it was possible to identify three territorial scales,
according to the availability of needed data: 1) the Municipality; 2) the Settlement; and 3) the
Royal Farm scales. Fifteen Municipalities were identified at the municipal scale, as existing in
1900: Alcochete, Almada, Barreiro, Cascais, Lisboa, Loures, Mafra, Moita, Montijo, Oeiras,
Seixal, Setúbal, Sesimbra, Sintra and Vila Franca de Xira (Direcção Geral dos Trabalhos
Geodésicos, 1907). Sixteen Settlements were identified. These corresponded to the main
Settlements of the above identified Municipalities, plus Palmela. The number of inhabitants, the
area and the number of dwellings for each municipality were gathered from the 1905 Portuguese
Census (DGEPN, 1905).
The 1903 survey on the hygienic conditions of the most important Settlements of Portugal
(CMSMOPCI, 1903) and the 1935 survey on the water provision of Portugal Municipalities
(CEMOPC, 1935-1936) constituted two important sources regarding water use in LSA
Settlements and Municipalities.
In 1900 LSA included a high number of farms (Marat-Mendes, 2011). This paper focuses its
analysis exclusively on the Royal Farms, as information about water supply was available for
1904 (CFR, 1905). Ten Royal Farms were identified: Ajuda, Alfeite, Belém, Caxias, Mafra,
Necessidades, Pena, Queluz, Sintra and Tapada da Ajuda.

Water supply typologies, Settlements and Royal Farms

The adopted methodology implied: i) geo-referencing the selected cartography; ii) geo-
referencing a mosaic map in Geographic Information Systems (GIS); and iii) a web map.
A GIS Survey for the nine water elements, identified from the analysed cartography and geo-
referenced in the mosaic map provided an innovative database of aqueducts (including
underground aqueducts), fountains, springs, tanks, tide-mills, water mills, water mines, water
reservoirs, and wells (see figure 2), totalizing approximately 3.800 units (see figure 3, table 1
and table 2)
The location and the relative position of all water elements, at the sixteen Settlements and at
the ten Royal Farms, within LSA, were also identified.
At the Settlements scale the perimeter of the built area determined the polygons that allowed
measuring each Settlement area (see table 3). An overview of these sixteen Settlements, within
in their established limits, at the same scale (except for Lisbon) is provided in figures 4 and 5.
For the ten Royal Farms, the GIS survey was complemented with data and information provided
by the 1904 report (CFR, 1905). Additional aqueducts, fountains, pipelines systems, springs,
tanks, water mines, water network and wells were identified. When present, the Royal Farms
inherent Royal Properties were also identified. These were considered for the delimitation of the
Farms polygons, bounded by the farms walls and surrounding roads (see table 4). An overview
1094

of these ten Royal Farms, within in their established limits, at the same scale, (except for
Mafra), indicating water elements is provided in figure 6.

Figure 1. Lisbon Study Area (LSA) - Settlements and Royal Farms. (source: Geo-
referenced map (IN+ and DINÂMIA’CET-IUL MEMO Team).

Figure 2. Water Elements identified in the Cartography. (source: CEM (1896-1905).

Table 1. Water elements in LSA Municipalities vs. area. (source: Geo-referenced map
(IN+ and DINÂMIA’CET-IUL MEMO Team) and (a) through DGEPN (1905); (b)
CMSMOPCI (1903) and CEMOPC (1935-1936).*Municipalities with different limits in
1900 than in 2014.
 1095

Figure 3. Identification of water elements in LSA. (source: Geo-referenced map (IN+

and DINÂMIA’CET-IUL MEMO Team)).

Table 2. Water elements in LSA Municipalities vs. population. (source: Geo-referenced map
(IN+ and DINÂMIA’CET-IUL MEMO Team) and (a) through DGEPN (1905); (b)
CMSMOPCI (1903) and CEMOPC (1935-1936). *Municipalities with different limits in 1900
than in 2014.
 1096

Figure 4. The delimitated Lisbon Settlement (source: Geo-referenced map (IN+ and
DINÂMIA’CET-IUL MEMO Team)).

Figure 5. The delimitated fifteen Settlements in LSA. (source: Geo-referenced map (IN+ and
DINÂMIA’CET-IUL MEMO team). Legend: See Figure 2).
 1097

Figure 6. The delimitated ten Royal Farms and respective Royal Properties in LSA.
(source: Geo-referenced map (IN+ and DINÂMIA’CET-IUL MEMO Team). Legend: See
Figure 3).
1098

Access to water in Settlements and Royal Farms

Following the cartographic treatment, and based on the geo-referenced cartographic mosaic, it
was developed a comparative systematization of the access to water for the sixteen identified
Settlements and ten Royal Farms. Information provided by the 1903 and 1935 surveys, but also
by the 1904 report, was used for this systematization.
This systematization required the establishment of a standard graphic representation. This
informed about the location and the relative position of water elements to the Settlements and
Royal Farms. No scale consideration was required.
Four relative positions of the localization of water elements in Settlements were identified:
1) in public space; 2) inside the Settlement; 3) at the Settlement border; and 4) in the vicinity of
the Settlement. For these last ones, it was considered elements existing within a radius of 1 Km
approximately (see figure 7).
Two relative positions of the localization of the water elements in the Royal Farms and their
inherent Royal Properties were identified: 1) inside the Royal Farm and; 2) inside the Royal
Property (see figure 8). The relative position of the Royal Farm to nearby Settlements was also
represented.
Water elements considered in these analyses did not cover the nine identified water
elements. Water reservoirs and water mines were excluded from the Settlements analysis, as
these were inexistent. The analysis was based on the observation of the water elements within,
at the border and in the vicinity of the delineated polygons, which gave a very subjective detail.
For the Royal Farms, the 1:5000 scale plans of water distribution within the Royal Farms
provided by the 1904 report, allowed to complement this analysis with greater detail.
Nevertheless tide mills, water mills, water mines and water reservoirs were excluded from the
accounting, as these were inexistent within Royal Farms. The number of water elements in each
identified Settlement and Royal Farm, and the rate of water elements per area unit, is provided
in tables 3 and 4.

Table 3 - Water Elements at the LSA Main Settlements. (source: Geo-referenced map
(IN+ and DINÂMIA’CET-IUL MEMO Team); *CMSMOPCI (1903) and CEMOPC
(1935-1936)).
 1099

Figure 7. Access to water at the main Settlements in LSA (source: by authors).

1100

Figure 8. Access to water at the main Royal Farms in LSA (source: by authors).
 1101

Table 4. Water Elements at the LSA Royal Farms (source: CFR (1905); *Geo-referenced
map (IN+ and DINÂMIA’CET-IUL MEMO Team)).

Water and Urban Form in Settlements and Royal Farms

The present section follows with a brief description for each Settlement and Royal Farm.
Gathered information includes: location; elevation, water elements, water supply net, building
form, public space availability; and land uses. An account of the inhabitants and dwellings was
also provided for Settlements description.

Settlements

Vila Franca de Xira (5-25 meters above sea level, MASL) located beside Tagus River and North
railway, in 1911 housed 4873 inhabitants in 1220 dwellings. No water network was present in
1935, and in 1903 this Settlement was supplied by one fountain, two municipal wells for
irrigation and washing and also by private wells. Buildings were distributed along the access
roads in narrow blocks and beside the railway, in large scale closed blocks with vineyards in the
inner space.
Mafra (210-230 MASL) located beside the Convent of Mafra, in 1903 housed 2175
inhabitants in 387 dwellings. In 1935 it had no municipal network, except a municipal pipeline
located at the Royal Farm. Water was sold by watermen and collected in two fountains, next to
the convent and the Royal Property entrance. The Settlement was distributed along two radial
roads, starting from the main entrance of the convent. In the vicinity vineyards and pinewoods
were located.
Loures (20-45 MASL) located along Malveira hills, in 1903 housed 457 inhabitants in 118
dwellings. A high slope, at 110 MASL, surrounded Loures where spring water was brought by
an underground aqueduct to the central fountain, where the water was free. In 1903 the water
network was only provided for the City Hall and Military buildings. Water was sold to the
remaining buildings. The Settlement, formed by three radial short rows of buildings was
surrounded by ploughed land.
Sintra (160-200 MASL) in 1903 housed 2856 inhabitants in 753 dwellings. One water
network existed since 1855, although private and partial. In 1914 there was a municipal network
and in 1923 also a private company network was developed, which provided one fifth of the
water for municipal use. Altogether these networks supplied fifteen fountains. One fountain was
located in a public space inside the Settlement. The Settlement was surrounded by trees and by a
valley with several water mills.
Cascais (5-20 MASL) located by the sea, in 1903 housed 2536 inhabitants in 876 dwellings.
Several springs and fountains, where the water was free, served it. Additionally, two
1102

underground aqueducts supplied a partial network since 1894, which served 1173 dwellings in
1935. Six springs and one well located in public spaces were also present. In the vicinity land
was not cultivated except for a small vineyard, an orchard and pinewoods near the fortress.
Oeiras (10-35 MASL) located near Tagus River, in 1903 housed 1.776 inhabitants in 455
dwellings. A private company developed a water network in 1919. Previously, the water
available for human consumption was sufficient. It was obtained from private wells along a
waterline, from one spring and one water mine. Water was freely available at the fountains
located on the main access roads, in the way out of the Settlement. The buildings were
distributed along these roads, close to vegetable gardens, orchards and vineyards.
Lisbon City (10-70 MASL) stands at Tagus estuary surrounded by the railway. It housed the
majority of the municipal population, 352.715 inhabitants in 81.021 dwellings, in 1903. The
Aqueducts of Águas Livres and Alviela supplied houses and fountains. In 1851 (Andrade, 1851)
counted more than fifty fountains, seventeen pipelines and six wells. From 1880 onwards a
water network served Lisbon. Vegetable gardens and trees were located within the Settlement.
In its vicinity, land was cultivated with orchards, vineyards, olive trees and ploughed lands.
Located beside Tagus River, Alcochete (3-15 MASL) in 1903 housed 3506 inhabitants in
937 dwellings. The small and compact Settlement had a public square with a municipal well
that in 1905 was replaced by a fountain. The water network was installed in 1918. Previously,
water was supplied by private wells and tanks located within the Settlement and its
surroundings. Along the river there did vineyards and orchards, while the remaining Settlement
was organized in small blocks, surround small rows of buildings perpendicular to the margin.
In 1903 Montijo (2-15 MASL) housed 7.010 inhabitants in 1687 dwellings, which
corresponded to 70% of the municipal population. In 1903 the drinking water was distributed by
car, provided by wells, four of them were inside the Settlement. In the vicinity there were two
tide mills with basins contiguous to the urban form. The Settlement had large empty spaces, two
with public wells in the centre. The ploughed soil was found inside the urban fabric, protected
by a walled road by the riverside.
Almada occupies an elevated promontory (75 MASL). In 1903 it housed 3162 inhabitants in
815 dwellings and was developed with linear rows of buildings forming large blocks, bounded
by ploughed land and vineyards. In 1905 there were no water elements inside the Settlement.
One fountain was present at the riverbank. In 1935 there was still no water network, but there
was one spring and one fountain in the highest part of the Settlement, providing free water
public supply. Until then, water was distributed in barrels and in pitchers.
Barreiro (5-15 MASL) is surrounded by Tagus River and by tide mills basins. In 1903 it had
5206 inhabitants and 1419 dwellings. Small compact blocks were concentrated on the north side
of the Settlement and along two access roads. Until 1927, when the water network was built,
water supplied by wells was abundant. In 1935 the network served 287 dwellings and water was
still being sold by the Municipality to the watermen.
Moita (5-30 MASL) is located in a long recess of the Tagus estuary with salt basins. In 1903
it housed 6850 inhabitants and was served by wells and by one fountain located on a public
space. In 1925 the water network collected water from wells, and in 1935 it served 105
dwellings. The buildings were distributed through three linear rows. One formed by
quadrangular blocks next to central water basin. Cultivated land and vineyards surrounded the
backyards of the Settlement. At the southern end of this basin a tide mill and salt basins limited
the Settlement.
Seixal (0-15 MASL) stands on a recess of the Tagus estuary. In 1905 a riverside road and a
landfill with pinewoods surrounded it. In 1911 housed 2769 inhabitants in 614 dwellings. It was
supplied by five wells; two of these were public with free water, and by one fountain located on
a public space at the east side of the Settlement. Small compact blocks, including two green
areas along the river, built the urban form. In 1935 there was still no municipal water network.
Palmela (160-190 MASL) is placed on a hillside. In 1903 it housed 2490 inhabitants in 690
dwellings. One spring located in the base of the hill and one public well supplied the population
in 1903. Six public wells and four fountains complemented these water elements in 1935, while
 1103

there was no distribution network. The Settlement is arranged along the slope with trapezoidal
blocks. Due to the topography cultivated land was not contiguous to the Settlement. Yet, at the
vicinity there were vineyards on the southern slopes, but also olive and cork trees.
Setúbal (0-20 MASL) is a city that stands next to the Sado River. In 1903 housed 20,027
inhabitants in 5869 dwellings. Watermen sold water network dates from 1896, when the
inhabitants were still served by wells and water. In 1905, one fountain and one spring existed in
public space. There were no wells within the Settlement but in its vicinity there were twelve of
them supplying the network. The city had green spaces beside the large closed blocks, at the
river.
Sesimbra (10-35 MASL) is located at the seacoast. In 1903 it had 5,104 inhabitants in 1483
dwellings. Water network was available since 1909, although fountains only used such water in
some parts of the year. Before, was supplied by wells (one in the main public square) and two
fountains. Narrow streets and orthogonal blocks structured the compact urban form. Flanking
the access roads to the Settlement the land was cultivated with cereals and vineyards. Olive trees
were present along the waterlines.

Royal Farms

Mafra Almoxarifado (230-356 MASL). Almoxarifado corresponded to a number of lands that

belonged to the jurisdiction of an Almoxarife, whom was treasurer of the Royal House. In 1900
the waters that supplied these properties were obtained within the Tapada of Mafra (a Hunting
Reserve) or in the lands belonged to the Royal House. Without the obligation to supply any
others, the Municipality of Mafra such as other buildings did also served by some of these
sources. From the nearly fifty sources, four were piped. Apart from the Aulas Fountain, twenty
other sources supplied the Royal House and the Cerca Garden. Most of the property was
cultivated with pine and other trees; Frades vegetable garden was watered by two springs.
In 1904 Sintra Palace (200 MASL) was supplied by water from two aqueducts: Serra Aqueduct,
whose waters were also served by some privates; Sabuga Aqueduct, that supplied the lake
located in front of the Royal House and watered the Preta Garden. The distribution of the
Sabuga leftovers was of the responsibility of the Municipal Council, without prejudice of the
public and the Royal Palace.
The Pena Royal Property (380-529 MASL) principally consisted of woods. Because of this
elevated location, in 1904, the 72 sources that supplied the Pena Almoxarifado consisted of
mines, tanks, lakes, and sources and spring whose origins sprouted from the properties of Pena
Park (explored since 1838). Several other buildings and private farms were also supplied by
these waters, both for human consumption and irrigation.
Queluz Royal Farm (100-140 MASL) is located in the municipality of Sintra. In 1900 more
than eight water mines and sources provided the water catchment. One of these sources was at a
distance of 2kms from the Royal House. Although a river with a dam crossed the Royal Farm,
the water was also brought by three aqueducts that supplied one spring located within the Royal
Farm; one spring located on the main square of Queluz; and one public fountain in the northern
edge of this village. In 1898 the ploughed lands occupied the Royal Property. Near the Royal
House garden and woods occupied the soil.
The property where is located the Ajuda Royal Palace (85-110 MASL) was bounded by a
road. In 1904 the waters provided by mines and wells supplied this almoxarifado and were
distributed by piping systems. These were used to serve the Royal House, three public
fountains, and the irrigation of ploughed fields and gardens. There was no municipal network.
Telheiros and Quintinha residents were served by the Palace water mines and in case of fire,
water should be provided by the Royal House water.
The Tapada da Ajuda (25-160 MASL) property was bounded by walls and cultivated with
several types of trees and ploughed lands. This was located within the municipality of Lisbon.
From the piping systems built up to 1904, some of them supplied also some buildings located
within the Royal Property, such as a lake, orchards, vegetable gardens and the Calçada da
1104

Tapada spring. Among the eight sources whose origins were located within this Tapada, two
water mines were owned by other properties: Belém Royal Farm; and Saldanha Farm.
Necessidades (30-60 MASL) is located within the municipality of Lisbon. The quantity of
water produced in this property that ran into the Royal Farm woods would gather 12 Pennas (1
Pena measured approximately 3390 litres/24h) from the Águas Livres Aqueduct. In 1904 the
waters from the Almarjão mines, apart from supplying the Palace, also supplied four springs
located outside the property, placed in public spaces, such as lakes, tanks and one waterfall
located in the Royal Park, stables and the Queen garden.
Caxias Royal Farm (10-42 MASL) is located along the coastline. The property was
surrounded by walled road and was cultivated with olive trees, vineyards and other trees. In
1904 the Barcarena River, next to the Royal Property, was dammed just below Laveiras village
and its waters were used for irrigation and supply the Cartuxa Convent and other private
properties. The Royal House and the cascade fountain were supplied by water from the Queijas
Aqueduct. This also supplied the spring located in the courtyard of the palace, the public
fountain from Queijas and other close palaces. One well situated next to the cascade provided
abundant water for irrigation.
The Belém Royal Palace (5 and 114 MASL) is situated on the margins of the Tagus River in
the municipality of Lisbon. In 1901 the water that watered the orchards and gardens of this
property was provided by a well located in the Belém Royal Farm. These waters, despite of
being an abundant source, were not enough for the required consumption. The public and
private houses consumed the waters from the three groups of water mines in large quantities,
collected from springs. The water source located on the west side of the Ajuda Royal Palace
was connected to the Belém Royal Farm pipeline.
The Alfeite Royal Property (5-60 MASL) is located on the south bank of Tagus River. In
1904 the Royal House was supplied by water from one well and by the Municipality of Almada,
through a contract from 1890. The property was cultivated mostly with pinewoods, some olive
and other trees. The Brejo da Romeira ditch, whose waters were elevated by a dam, irrigated the
nearest lands. Three wells watered the orange orchard. The water provided by this
Almoxarifado sources was all consumed in this property.

Discussion

This section moves into a comparative analysis of the access to water in the analysed LSA
Municipalities, Settlements and Royal Farms.
For the total area of 2935 km2 LSA housed 567 thousand inhabitants in 1900, and presented
a total of 3732 water elements. Table 1 and table 2 allow characterizing the average number of
water elements per km2 and per inhabitant. However, it should be stressed that these densities
do not testify the water elements efficiency in terms of quantity of water supplied. Moreover,
the distribution of water elements over the territory is not homogeneous as indicated in figure 3.
Ii should be noticed that the density of water elements per area is not always proportional to
the density of water elements per inhabitant. Thus, some Municipalities with a high population
density do not always present a high density of water elements per area. The case of Lisbon is
exemplar: while presenting the highest population density, it presents the lower rate of water
elements per inhabitant. Additionally, scarcity of water in Lisbon was a problem already
identified by Montenegro (1895). A further analysis of water volumes account is needed to
better inform about this heterogeneity of water elements distribution.
Water elements in LSA and in its main Settlements follow a growing hierarchy in
complexity, from the simple well or direct water source to the more complex spring where man,
often conducted by an aqueduct, drives water. Such hierarchy responds to the natural
hydrographical conditions and to the population needs.
Wells were more common and numerous at the Municipalities and Settlements of south area of
LSA, while springs and fountains were more present at north area (see figure 3). The presence
 1105

of water elements within public spaces occurs in the majority of the Settlements. Three
Settlements without public spaces do only present water elements within their border areas (see
figure 7). Lisboa and Setúbal present a greater number of public spaces and water elements
variety within such areas. These are the most important cities.
It is evident from the description of all Royal Farms the presence of a complex network of
water pipelines and aqueducts for irrigation and human consumption (see figure 8). Half of the
Royal Farms had water infrastructures that connected to public springs. A considerable number
of Royal Farms allowed privates to collect water directly from their sources. Two of them
supplied a municipal water network (Mafra and Pena) and one received water from the
municipality (Alfeite), testifying the articulation between Royal Farms and Settlements in what
concerns to access to water in LSA in 1900.
The provided tables allow an account of the various water elements in each analysed
Municipality, Settlement and Royal Farm. Their comparative analysis allows concluding that in
Municipalities and Settlements wells represent the predominant water element per Km2 and also
the presence of a great variety of water elements. However, at the Royal Farms it is evident a
uniformity in the distribution of the total water elements. Yet, some Farms present a higher
number of water elements than others. Water Mines are the most numerous water elements but
Aqueducts and Pipelines are present in all Farms.

Conclusions

A characterization of the access to water in LSA in 1900 was offered in this paper, although
conditioned by available sources. The analysis and confrontation of historical governmental
surveys and cartography proved to be adequate to the investigation methodology. Such
information did not cover all the needed data for the full account of the urban metabolism in
LMA, as referred by Barles (2009). Nonetheless, the present analysis contributes to visualise the
water use and the characterization of water flows that operate within the LSA metabolism.
The analysis of access to water in LSA has confirmed the existence of a hierarchy of water
elements, supported by the complexity of their infrastructure and involved costs. This analysis
also reveals an existing relationship between Settlements and Royal Farms, in what concerns to
water management.
The overall distribution of water elements in LSA confirms their relationship with
geographical conditions, population concentration and territorial arrangements. Thus testifying
the interaction between territorial, urban and rural forms, and water management.
Finally, this paper has verified that the localization, type and number of water elements are
determined by pre-exiting territorial structures, but also determines future urban form structures.

Acknowledgements

The Portuguese Science Foundation with grant PTDC/EMS-ENE/2197/2012 financed this research. The
full MEMO team includes Samuel Niza (PI) and Daniela Ferreira from IN+, IST. For further information
visit the research project MEMO website at https://sites.google.com/site/memoamlmetabolism/.
The authors are thankful to Nuno Gomes to have prepared the geo-referenced map. The authors are
also thankful to Instituto Geográfico Português for the use of cartography.

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por portarias de 12 de Janeiro e 23 de Maio de 1934 Suplementos ao Diário de Governo II Série.
Conselho dos Melhoramentos Sanitários do Ministério das Obras Públicas, Comunicações e Indústria
(CMSMOPCI) (1903) Inquérito de salubridade das povoações mais importantes de Portugal: anno de
1903 (Imprensa Nacional, Lisboa).
Corpo do Estado Maior (CEM) (1893-1932) Carta dos Arredores de Lisboa. Scale 1:20 000. Instituto
Geográfico Português.
Direcção Geral da Estatística e dos Próprios Nacionais (DGEPN) (1905) Censo da População do Reino
de Portugal (Imprensa Nacional, Lisboa).
Direcção Geral dos Trabalhos Geodésicos e Topográficos (DGTGT) (1907) Carta de Portugal com a rede
das estradas construídas até maio de 1909 e com a divisão administrativa decretada até 1900 - Scale
1:500 000.
Gandy, M. (2004) ‘Rethinking urban metabolism: Water, space and the modern city’,
(http://www.geog.ucl.ac.uk/about-the-department/people/academic-staff/matthew-gandy/professor-
matthew-gandy/files/pdf2.pdf) accessed 1 May 2014.
Marat-Mendes, T. (2013) ‘Sustainability and the study of urban form’, Urban Morphology 17, 123-124.
Marat-Mendes, T. (2011) ‘Lisbon Territory from a morphological and environmental approach: Lessons
for a Sustainable Urban Agenda’ Cidades, Comunidades e Territórios, 22, 22-40.
Montenegro, A. P. M. (1985) ‘Memoria sobre as aguas de Lisboa’ ( Imprensa Nacional, Lisboa).
Niza, S., Rosado, L. and Ferrão, P. (2009) ‘Urban metabolism. Methodological Advances in Urban
Material Flow Accounting Based on the Lisbon Case Study’, Journal of Industrial Ecology 13 (3), 384-
405.
Ribeiro, O. (1989) Opúsculos Geográficos (Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, Lisboa)
Swaney, D., Santoro, R., Howarth, R., Hong, B. and Donaghy, K. (2011) ‘Historical changes in the food
and water supply systems of the New York City Metropolitan Area’, Regional Environmental Change
12 (2), 363-380.
Talen, E. (2014) ‘Urban Design as Urban Morphology’, Urban Morphology 18, 69-70.
Tarr, J. (1980) ‘Disputes Over Water Quality Policy: Professional Cultures in Conflict, 1900-1917’,
American Journal of Public Health, Vol. 70, No. 4
 1107

Morphology and functioning of the metropolitan urban areas

Anissa Benaiche
Institute of geography and regional planning, University of Nantes, France.
E-mail: [email protected]nantes.fr.

Abstract. The principal aim of this paper is to construct a new spatial typology of the Metropolitan
Urban Areas MUA, based on four metropolitan processes: concentration, dispersion, centralization and
decentralization. It is at the same time, a theoretical and multidisciplinary approach that rest on works of
many Francophone and AngloSaxon researchers. In this context, it is necessary at the first step, to
determinate for each spatial type, morphological localisation/land use and functional
mobility/transport networks characteristics of MUA and to specify at the second step, their evolution
according to the centrifugal mode.

Key Words: spatial typology, metropolitan urban areas; metropolitan processes; morphological and
functional characteristics.

Introduction

Through the literature, we note the abundance of concepts and alternative models in order to
find a solution to urban sprawl phenomenon and designate the most sustainable urban form
polycentric city, urban corridors, smart growth and new urbanism. These models are in the
centre of the current debate whose the crucial question is: what’s the urban form that promotes a
more sustainable society?
We distinguish a variety of urban forms across the world and specifically in Europe:
monocentric versus polycentric forms, centralized versus dispersed models. We classify these
urban forms in several geographic scales: neighbourhood, city and metropolitan area Tsai,
2005. The neighbourhood and the city are included in the metropolitan area, so, the
metropolitan scale seems to be the most pertinent to understand the spatial organisation of
Metropolitan Urban Areas MUA.
In general, spatial structure of MUA can be defined as ‘the overall shape, may characterise
such land use phenomena’ Tsai, 2005 and refers to ‘the set of relationships arising out of the
urban form and its underlying interactions of people, freight and information’ Rodrigue et al.,
2009. These two pertinent definitions gathering both land use and relational aspects show that
the understanding of spatial organisation of MUA is conditioned by two things: morphology and
functioning.
The reflection initiated today seeks in particular to deepen links between morphological,
functional and structural aspects of the city and the challenge of sustainable urban development.
In this context, this paper tends to know morphology and functioning of MUA by using a
theoretical and conceptual approach. This paper is divided into five sections on, respectively
the definition of metropolitan processes, the construction of new spatial typology, the MUA’s
morphological and functional characteristics, the evolution of MUA according to centrifugal
mode and the example of a metropolitan territory named G10.

Definition of metropolitan processes

MUA as a term is used to configure a statistical unit which can extend up to several tens of
kilometres from the city centre; it includes both city and urban area Roger, 2007. It may
1108

correspond to ‘a major city together with its suburbs and nearby cities towns and environs over
which the major city exercises a commanding economic and social influence’
162
. In addition, MUA is a functional and scalable territory Conesa, 2008 since it corresponds
to the influence area of metropolis etymologically mother city. In terms of threshold, French
metropolises are spaces with 500 000 inhabitants at least which include one urban area of more
than 200 000 inhabitants and involve several medium sized cities DATAR, 2004.
In a context of globalisation, MUA defines the territorial system concerned by
metropolisation, the major urban phenomenon of the last fifteen years Roger, 2007.
Metropolisation is ‘a protean and contradictory phenomenon which now works both urban
spaces and national and international urban framework’ DATAR, 2012. Researches on
metropolitan processes are conducted in several fields such as economy, geography and town
planning. Among processes that accompany metropolisation, we have dilatation and stretching
frame, concentration and decentralization, increase and diversification of mobility, logics of
residential and economic localisations, ruralurban confusion and pressure on natural and
agricultural spaces.
Four contradictory processes catch our attention in order to build a spatial typology of MUA:
concentration, dispersion, centralization and decentralization. It is necessary to define these
terms basing on a theoretical corpus and taking into account the most significant definitions.
Concentration reflects the high density and represents monocentric development Gordon
and Richardson, 1997. It is a condition to improve accessibility Pouyanne, 2004 and concerns
employment and dwellings Ewing, 1997. It opposes to urban sprawl and integrates a high
functional diversity. Furthermore, the concentration of development is required by the
compactness Tsai, 2005, thus, monocentric and polycentric compact forms Anderson et al.,
1996 require the concentration of development. Concentration refers also to clustering term.
According to Rodrigue et al. 2009, clustering is the setting of activities in relation to a specific
part of the urban area. A cluster of activities is therefore a concentration around focal point
which can be a transport infrastructure example of station or a smaller town that has been
absorbed by the metropolis expansion.
Dispersion called also decentralized sprawl Ewing, 1997 designates the urban sprawl. It is
characterised by discontinuity Tsai, 2005 and low density. Newton 2000 explains that
dispersion is a suburban low density development concerning population, housing and jobs.
Moreover, dispersion is the diffusion of spatial components according to principle of
automobile accessibility and it opposes to concentration which correspond to the agglomeration
of components according to principle of proximity Secchi, 2002.
Consequently to concentration and dispersion processes well known of the economic
geography, two opposing forces occur within the urban system with the obligatory presence of
transport networks: centrifugal and centripetal forces.
Centripetal forces push to concentration Duranton, 1997 or agglomeration. Among the
agglomeration factors, we have for example the proximity of firms to exchange information,
existence of fixed costs, availability of labour, etc. Centrifugal forces push to differentiation or
dispersion Duranton, 1997 and they are the result of many factors such as increasing land
costs in the centre, congestion, space consumption, transport costs, etc.
Centralization refers to the setting of activities in relation to the whole urban area Rodrigue
et al., 2009, so, centralized cities gather more than 60% of jobs in the centre 163 while
decentralized cities have less than 40% of jobs in the centre Aguilera and Mignot, 2004. In
Switzerland, decentralization doesn’t concern only workplaces; it represents dispersed housing
zones situated in rural areas at some distance from agglomerations Meyre and Stalder, 2006.

162
http://global.britannica.com.
163
The authors designate centre in contrast to periphery.
 1109

This is confirmed by Bertolini 1999 who clarifies that decentralization is the remoteness
process of houses toward suburbs and peripheral zones.
In their paper titled ‘spatial structure and productivity in US metropolitan areas’, Meijers and
Burger 2010 are interested in localisation of the metropolitan population. They have
mentioned that population either it localises in urban poles or it disperses with decentralized
manner on metropolitan territory. They confirm that localisation of the population is related to
‘centralizationdispersion’ dimension. Moreover, Bertolini 1999 explains that concentration
and decentralization are concomitant because economic functions like production can
decentralize contrary to business services which need to concentrate. Pouyanne 2004 stipulates
that there is a double movement because firms detach from centre to peripheral zones where
they tend to gather and to concentrate.
Finally, the World English Dictionary attributes two pertinent definitions to decentralization
in closed relation with concentration and dispersion. ‘To decentralize is to distribute the
administrative powers of functions of a central authority over a less concentrated area. It is also
to reorganise a government, industry, etc. into smaller more autonomous units’. This first
definition related to administration shows that decentralization is the process of transferring
some of power exercised by state to political or administrative entities of lower level Bussi,
2010. ‘In France in 1980s, decentralization was synonym of state modernisation and
democracy deepening. It was questionable to organise best repartition of political competences
between centre and periphery entrusting new missions to local authorities and shortening
decision times’ Levy and Lussault, 2003; Bussi, 2010.
‘To decentralize is to disperse something from an area of concentration. In other words, it is
to disperse a concentration, as of industry or population’. This second definition of the
dictionary completes and coincides with Bertolini’s definition.
Table 1 recapitulates concisely what we mean when we refer to concentration, dispersion,
centralization, decentralization.

Table 1. The recap chart

Concentration Dispersion Decentralization Centralization

dispersion concentration
distance from the proximity to the
monocentric
metropolitan centre metropolitan centre
forms decentralized
peripheral localisation of localisation of people,
polycentric forms sprawl
people, employment and employment and
compact forms low density
activities activities in
high density discontinuity
competences organisation metropolitan centre
continuity
between centre and functions exercised by
periphery a central authority

Corollary, we propose personalized definitions figure 1 of the four metropolitan processes:

Centralization: is to centralize population, economic activities, employment and major
equipments cultural, of transport… in the metropolitan centre of commandment.
Decentralization: is to disseminate the components mentioned above to metropolitan limits
generating shrinking of the centre in terms of demography, activities, etc. This shrinking can’t
be quantified in terms of surface voids can be filled through urban renewal operations.
Concentration: is to gather population, activities... around a focal point upon specific
metropolitan parts which can be the main centre or any geographical zone. Specialized
concentration residential, economic or other is at the origin of cluster formation. The
emergence of small nonmetropolitan secondary centres is both the consequence of
decentralization and concentration.
1110

Dispersion: is the inverse of the concentration action, it consists to delete the logic of clusters
spontaneously or regularly central disjunction followed by localised and peripheral
concentration.
The concentration/dispersion tendency is related to a key factor which is land. Inversely, the
centralization/decentralization tendency is related to existence of transport infrastructure road,
rail, highway….

Figure 1. The four metropolitan processes.

Construction of a new spatial typology

If we link the four terms, we will obtain four spatial models which may characterise a MUA:
centralized concentration; decentralized concentration; centralized dispersion and decentralized
dispersion.
Centralized concentration may represent a compact or a monocentric metropolitan area.
Decentralized dispersion may correspond to a diffuse metropolitan area. Centralized dispersion
has not a theoretical basis or a set of conditions that can define it.
Decentralized concentration is the intermediate model that may represent a polycentric or a
multipolar metropolitan area. Morphologically, decentralization occurs in metropolitan
territory from the centre to secondary polarities whereas concentration occurs in these poles.
In theory, decentralized concentration aims to decrease polarization of the metropolitan
centre, multiply polarities and encourage urban growth around nodes and transport networks
figure 2. In Europe, decentralized concentration is a planning strategy which has emerged in
Germany in 1993 and a principle announced in Swiss federal law on town and country planning.
 1111

Figure 2. The decentralized concentration.

MUA’s morphological and functional characteristics through researchers works

Basing on the works of many researchers and according to the typology cited above, we try
through this section to determinate morphological and functional characteristics of MUA.

Works on morphology

Through his paper titled ‘the development of spatial structure and regional economic growth’,
Parr 1987 has defined three distinguish cases of spatial structure development in relation with
the economic growth regional concentration and metropolitan centralization, regional
concentration and metropolitan decentralization, regional deconcentration and metropolitan
decentralization. We explain in each case, economic and migratory factors which influence the
population and the employment localisation at metropolitan and regional scales.
Regional concentration and metropolitan centralization figure 3 in this first case, the
economic growth process is recent, the income per capita is low and the demographic growth is
rapid in the metropolis but slow in the nonmetropolitan part of the region. Here we have two
situations. Firstly, when regional economy is in the process of industrialization and economic
activities are concentrated in the metropolis due to forces of agglomeration economies, it will
have a net migration from the nonmetropolitan part of the region towards metropolis as well as
a net international and interregional migration in the direction of metropolis.
Secondly, when growth of the nonmetropolitan part stimulates growth in the metropolis, it
will have a net substantial international and interregional migration towards metropolis and the
nonmetropolitan part with a low intraregional migration towards metropolis. As a
consequence of these two situations, the concentration level of regional population will increase
and will be accompanied by the centralization of population in the metropolis.
Regional concentration and metropolitan decentralization figure 4 in this second case, the
region has known an economic growth in a certain time and the income per capita is situated at
a superior level. The demographic growth increases in metropolis limits and especially in the
internal nonmetropolitan part of the region. The superior income of population and the low
cost of transport system facilitate this decentralization of population. However, the external
nonmetropolitan part knows slow and negative rhythms of demographic growth. Moreover, the
forces of agglomeration economies and low cost of interregional transport promote the
concentration of activities and the centralization of employment in the metropolis. So, we note a
net international and interregional migration towards the region and especially the metropolis.
Consequently, the concentration of regional population increase is accompanied by the
decentralization of the metropolitan population.
1112

Figure 3. Regional concentration and metropolitan centralization.

Figure 4. Regional concentration and metropolitan decentralization.

Regional deconcentration and metropolitan decentralization figure 5 in this third case,
regional economic growth and the income per capita are relatively high. The housing demand in
zones of low residential densities continues to rise up because of the high income of the
population. So, demographic growth rates are negative in the metropolis and positive in the
nonmetropolitan part of the region. This decentralization of population is also associated to the
decentralization of employment in order to escape the negative externalities of metropolis such
as congestion, pollution and criminality. Additionally, the firms move away from the metropolis
to take advantages of the nonmetropolitan part of the region accessibility of land and the more
interesting costs of transport and communication systems.
Two situations are associated to these developments the first is characterised by a net
migration from the metropolis towards the nonmetropolitan part of the region while the second
indicates a net interregional migration in the region. These tendencies cause in consequence the
deconcentration of regional population which is accompanied by the metropolitan
decentralization of population and employment.
 1113

Globally, Parr has stipulated that the spatial development of metropolitan region can directly
pass from a phase similar to the first case to a phase similar to the third case. The intermediate
phase is nonexistent or short. Additionally, he has explained that we can imagine a fourth case
of regional deconcentration and metropolitan centralization but it’s difficult to invent a coherent
set of conditions which can explain this development of spatial structure.

Figure 5. Regional deconcentration and metropolitan decentralization.

Brotchie triangle allows us to understand the different relationships between concentration

and dispersion of activities and displacements Simmonds and Coombe, 2000. It’s a simple
graph figure 6 whose the horizontal axis measures the concentration of employment in terms
of the average distance between employment and centre and the vertical axis measures the
average distance that residents travel to work this distance is conditioned by localisation of
residents and jobs. Only the triangle’s summits interest us because they represent three
theoretical situations
Point A represents a metropolitan area characterised by centralization of employment and
radial homework trips the residents travel to centre for working. This first situation reflects
the centralized concentration model.
Point B represents a metropolitan area characterised by decentralization of employment,
dispersion of population and long distance homework trips. This second situation represents
the decentralized dispersion model.
Point C represents a metropolitan area characterised by decentralization of employment and
localisation of homework trips each active walks to the nearest workplace, so, it’s a local
concentration of short distance trips. This third situation indicates the decentralized
concentration model.
Besides, Gilli 2005 stipulates that economic activities don’t scatter with the same manner
and deconcentration can be non homogenous for all sectors. When sectors scatter in the same
manner, it means that they undergo spatial horizontal disintegration. This disintegration could
be partial if deconcentration has only concerned some sectors. It’s the example of an area where
population is decentralized to periphery generating an increase of peripheral potential merchants
which attract new activities. When sectors relocate and don’t scatter, it means they undergo
spatial vertical disintegration. This second type generates specialization of urban spaces in
different complementary activities.
1114

Figure 6. The triangle of Brotchie (source Simmonds and Coombe, 2000).

According to these works, we can deduce that mutations in MUA morphology are linked to
(i) Behaviour related to the nature of economic activities; (ii) Impact of regional economic
growth on spatial structure income per capita, land costs, economical sectors primary,
secondary and tertiary; (iii) Human behaviour related to employment localisation nearest jobs,
furthest jobs; (iv) Commuting patterns radial, localised or dispersed trips; (v) Adopting a new
lifestyle choice of low density peripheral zones, presence of various services....

Works on functioning

In his work on mobility, Appert 2004 stipulates that metropolitan processes influence the
urban perimeter with intensification, lengthening and complexity of mobility. Intensification of
mobility means concentration of flows due to centripetal forces. This intensification is possible
for a single pole or a set of poles, so it concerns the two spatial models of centralized
concentration and decentralized concentration. Complexity of mobility is perceived for
decentralized concentration, there are at the same time radial, local and dispersed trips.
Lengthening of mobility means that distances increase due to dispersion and urban sprawl as
well as the presence of centrifugal forces which divide urban system components.
In their work on forms of relationships between poles, Schwanen et al. 2001 distinguish
four Dutch built-up areas supposing the morphological configuration around a major centre
centralized, decentralized, cross commuting and exchange commuting. We are interested only
on the two first models; centralized model corresponds to centralized concentration because
there is a strong link between the major centre and the territory. Decentralized model
corresponds to decentralized concentration because there are strong links between all urban
poles even secondary.
Also about relationships between poles, Champion 2001 distinguishes three formation
modes of polycentric urban areas centrifugal, incorporation and fusion. The first mode is the
emergence of secondary centres in urban area initially monocentric. The second mode indicates
sprawl of the main urban centre which integrates small other centres to form a stronger area.
The third mode signifies that many centres creating an individually attraction area,
conglomerate in unique urban area.
Additionally, Bertaud 2004 defines four patterns monocentric, polycentric, urban village
and composite. The urban village pattern is utopian, an autonomous community will emerge
 1115

around employment poles allowing short displacements and use of alternative modes walking
and biking. This model could not exist because it does not actually correspond to MUA
organisation which obeys to logic of economic scales. The monocentric pattern corresponds to
centralized concentration model and it’s characterised by concentration of activities and flows in
centre, high densities, public transport use, continuous growth and radial transport system. This
pattern is organised because main flows converge to the centre.
The polycentric pattern is characterised by several subcentres without major centre,
repartition of activities uniformly, medium and high densities, individual and public means of
transport, discontinuous growth and random displacements. This pattern is unbalanced because
flows are random and don’t converge to a single centre.
In terms of activities, densities and subcentres, this pattern may correspond to decentralized
concentration. Conversely, it may correspond to decentralized dispersion because of random
trips and discontinuous growth. The composite pattern corresponds to decentralized
concentration and it’s characterised by the presence of a major centre and subcentres. It is
unbalanced because the primary and secondary flows are both radial and orbital. It represents
the current model of MUA organisation.
Generally, these works have allowed us to note that decentralised dispersion is a
disorganised or unbalanced model which is characterised by random trips and lengthening
mobility. Both public and individual transports are used here.
Mobility in the decentralized concentration model is intense or complex. Urban centres even
secondary have strong links thanks to decentralization process. This disorganised model adapted
to individual and public transports, is formed with centrifugal and incorporation modes.
Centralized concentration is an organised model. A strong link exists between the major
centre and the rest of territory provoking mobility intensification. Theoretically, this spatial
model is characterised by the use of public transports only. Nevertheless, Simmonds and
Coombe 2000 explain that this model does not reduce the number of car trips, traffic increases
at the centre of area generating a serious problem of pollution and congestion and decreases in
the rest of the territory. The centralized concentration of employment pushes commuters to use
more and more automobile in order to go to workplaces. However, the concentration of
residences along public transport lines permits to reduce distance made by car thanks to the
increase of public transport distance and the parking politic in parkandride.
From another standpoint, centrifugal model allows the passage from the centralized
concentration model to the decentralized concentration model. In other words, the monocentric
reading of urban dynamics is less and less pertinent Heikkila et al., 1989 because monocentric
structure of big metropolises has tendency to dissolve over time in a polycentric structure, and it
is related to the increase of urban area size.

Synthesis

Table 2 recapitulates the characteristics of MUA using the main explanatory factors.

Evolution of MUA according to the centrifugal mode

In this section, we have to take again spatial structures formation modes and especially the
centrifugal mode. According to the factors cited above, we attempt to give two progressive
drawings operating with decentralization phase and which illustrate creation of clusters and the
development of secondary polarities like village centres and small cities figure 7. These
village centres and small cities have constituted the major elements of a rural framework which
had been penetrated by the metropolitan urban system, particularly when they occupy a strategic
location near major traffic lines. It is the case of Dijon urban area whom its towns and environs
have became employment poles thanks to their demographic and economic growth and their
situation near transport networks Prost, 2001.
1116

The first drawing explains the evolution of centralized concentration to decentralized dispersion
passing by sprawl of metropolitan centre and formation of clusters. One of the particularities of
this drawing is to tender toward a progression of decentralized dispersion sprinkling on rural
space.

Table 2. The characteristics of MUA

Spatial structure/ Centralized Decentralized Decentralized

Factors concentration concentration dispersion
Decentralization of
Concentration of Decentralization metropolitan
population in region of population at population
Population
Centralization of metropolitan Deconcentration of
people at metropolis level regional
population
Morphology

Centralization of
Centralization of employment at Decentralization of
Employment
employment metropolitan employment
level
Concentration of
economic
Concentration of Decentralization of
activities at
economic activities economic activities
Economic metropolitan
in metropolis Partial or complete
activities level
Vertical spatial horizontal
Vertical or
disintegration disintegration
horizontal spatial
disintegration
Homework Radial and
Radial trips Dispersed trips
trips localised trips
Migration from the
Migrations
Functioning

Migrations toward metropolis to the

Migrations toward the
the metropolis nonmetropolitan
metropolis
part
Publics usual and
Transport Publics and Publics and
individuals less
means individuals individuals
frequent
Relational disorganised disorganised and
Organised model
models model unbalanced model

The second drawing explains the evolution of centralized concentration to decentralized

concentration specifying that the crossing between transport networks is the support of new
agglomeration. It encourages urban renewal and tenders to the efficient management of space. It
also clarifies that population and daily services are concentrated in secondary polarities which
are characterised by the presence of transit station offering speedy access to metropolitan centre.
The economic aim of this organisation is to have a dynamic link between metropolitan centre
and secondary polarities. At environmental scale, this organisation proposes an answer to urban
sprawl and decreases the individual transports incidence.
In addition, we can with this progression logic explain at the first step the widest range of
small cities 3000 to 20000 inhabitants; at the second step their integration to urban framework
with different entities agglomerations, urban areas and employment zones according to
INSEE; at the third step their diverse identities industrial pole, residential pole, etc.
 1117

Figure 7. The drawings of MUA evolution.

The metropolitan territory of G10, towards decentralized concentration model

This section is primarily based on the urban project ‘Reims 2020’ presented during the
conference held on December 2010, at the congress centre of Reims. The main goal of this
project is to make Reims French compact city a reference in terms of sustainable urban
development while opposing to urban sprawl and frequent use of automobile. In order to
understand the philosophy of this urban project, we have chosen the proposition made by
Philippe Panerai 164 team named Reims ‘20202050’. Their reflexion is ported on the whole
metropolitan territory going from global scale G10 to local scale districts and polarities.

164
Philippe Panerai is a French architect and town planner. Two others professional teams had
participated in the project Bruno Fortier and Christian Devillers.
1118

With a surface of 17370 km2 and more than 1 million inhabitants 80% in urban space and
20% in rural space, the G10 is situated in northern France and concerns three departments La
Marne L’Aisne and les Ardennes. It’s a heterogeneous territory which has a specific and
unique geographical configuration in both national and Western Europe levels. Effectively, it
represents ten cities situated in a radius of 50 kilometres without conurbation and concurrence,
functioning in a good coherency Laon, Soissons and ChateauThierry localised in the Picardie
region; Epernay, ChalonsenChampagne, VitryleFrançois, Rethel, Sedan,
CharlevilleMézières and Reims localised in the Champagne Ardenne region. These cities are
served by rail and road networks in a star configuration 1 hour maximum for a trip on the
railway between the ten cities of G10 figure 8.

Figure 8. The configuration of the G10 (source Panerai et associés, 2009).

It is important to note that the G10 is a territory of exchanges based on economic and social
relationships; Reims purposely constitutes the metropolitan centre of G10 because it centralizes
several exchanges with the nine other cities. Table 3 illustrates population repartition on the
G10 territory.

Table 3. The population repartition on the metropolitan territory (source Panerai et

associés, 2009)

Metropolitan territory Demography

Reims area 2888000 inhabitants
G10 cities without Reims 381000 inhabitants
Metropolitan G10 600000 inhabitants
G10interstitial space of villages and
750000 inhabitants
small cities
Departmental G10 1,13 million inhabitants

INSEE 2012 had studied privileged relationships between the cities of G10. In this study,
we have understood the general function of the metropolitan urban area which is characterised
by framework structured according to centralized concentration
 At the migratory level, Reims centralizes 70% of residential movements between G10
cities and attracts more and more young people. We can explain this residential attraction by the
presence of Reims University as regional and interregional infrastructure that offers higher
education. Rethel is the only attractive city for people of Reims because of availability and low
 1119

costs of land as well as the existence of speed transport to Reims. Other interdependency links
can be highlighted such as Sedan and CharlevilleMézières, Soissons and Laon,
VitryleFrançois and ChalonsenChampagne.
 Concerning commuting, Reims concentrates 60% of trips principally with the seven
nearest cities. These exchanges are as the whole equilibrated except those of Epernay and
Rethel with Reims. Effectively, many people of Reims go to work in Epernay whereas people of
Rethel are more oriented to Reims. Other favourite links exist between nearby employment
zones related by a major road between CharlevilleMézières and Sedan equilibrated
exchanges, between Soissons and Laon equilibrated exchanges, between VitryleFrançois
and ChalonsenChampagne unbalanced exchanges. Less important links exist also between
Soissons and ChateauThierry, ChalonsenChampagne and Epernay.
 At the economic level, Reims centralizes corporate headquarters occupying an
important place in the economic fabric of G10 especially financial activities and insurances.
Economic links exist between Sedan and CharlevilleMézières in sectors of commerce and real
estate business, between Rethel and Reims in rubber and plastic products industry, between
Reims, VitryleFrançois and Epernay in the food industry.
INSEE is predicting from 2030 negative natural increase and migration balance in
Champagne Ardenne as well as negative migration balance more important in Picardie.
However, this demographic decrease will be accompanied by a significant increase of
households and housing needs. In order to thwart this situation favouring G10 configuration and
thinking about polarities organisation, Panerai team proposes the concentration of demographic
growth in metropolitan level rather than continuing urban sprawl figure 9 60000 additional
inhabitants in G10 cities 10% and 8500 additional inhabitants into the space of villages and
small cities, so, 668000 additional inhabitants 11, 5% in G10 in 2050. According to
decentralization process, this growth is moderate because development will operate in urban
poles without Reims city population would pass from 87% to 78% whereas Reims metropolis
in G10 would know demographic gains population would pass from 36% to 39%. Housing
offer and metropolitan network development would be added to this decentralized
concentration. So, metropolitan concentration will be accompanied by decentralization of
population.

Figure 9. The Panerai sketch (source Panerai et associés, 2009).

For checking sustainable mobility and decreasing car trip number, Panerai team proposes many
ecological measures such as development of express regional train, complementarity between
transport networks, setting of rapid buses, access facility to alternative modes and
harmonisation of transport pricing.
Finally, the set of these measures tenders to settle decentralized concentration at
metropolitan scale and aims to equilibrate flows, increase Reims and G10 attraction, establish
1120

equilibrium between urban and rural space, attract people to come from elsewhere Paris,
England, Canada and avoid Reims polarization.

Conclusion towards a more sustainable future of MUA

In this paper, we have tried to demonstrate morphology and functioning of MUA employing
theoretical and multidisciplinary approach. This approach is situated in a favourable context for
studying the complex processes that accompany metropolisation phenomenon. Effectively,
‘morphologies and intern functioning of French metropolises of 2040 would be the spatial result
of production systems and exchanges transformations as well as political choices that would
have determinate or accompany these transformations’ DATAR, 2012.
All documents studied have allowed us to define the four metropolitan processes
concentration, dispersion, centralization, decentralization, then to elaborate synthesis with a
recap chart to obtain a new spatial typology. The objective has consisted to make sense to
spatial models with a set of factors pulled from the works of many Francophone and
AngloSaxon researchers. Factors have been presented in two groups, those in relation with
morphology and those in relation with functioning. This list of factors is not exhaustive and
varies according to the contexts and planning policies of each country.
Centrifugal evolution of models and general characteristics stemmed from theoretical
development have been presented with table and illustrations. We note here that progressive
drawings look like to logical explanations of Parr who has confirmed that income increase,
transport development and land availability are the most important parameters of
decentralization of people and activities as well as the increase of dispersion tendency.
Since reflections on the future European city highlight more and more polycentric and
multipolar forms Wulfhorst et al., 2007, we defend therefore the decentralized concentration
as the ideal spatial model of MUA. It would be necessary to long term to opt for a planning
more compact based on transport nodes. These nodes represent an interface places conciliating
both urban form and connexion with the territory. Furthermore, decentralized concentration
with a political voluntarism could play an important role in space hierarchy and the
consolidation of the secondary polarities role in metropolitan space.

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1122

The city, the river and mangroves: a case study in São José,
Santa Catarina, Brazil.

Érica Corrêa Monteiro, Raquel Weiss, Guilherme Antônio Barea

Post-Graduation Program of the Architecture and Urbanism Department, Federal
University of Santa Catarina. E-mail: [email protected],
[email protected], [email protected].

Abstract: Brazil is among the countries with more mangrove areas, with approximately 25,000
km², representing approximately 12% of mangroves worldwide. For this article, is taken as the
study mangrove located in São José in Santa Catarina, Brazil, whose influence growth and urban
interventions for improvement in this area, without considering the importance and dynamics of
mangrove witness significant environmental impacts and accelerated process of disappearing
arising from these changes in recent decades. Thereby, the work seeks to diagnose and analyze the
impacts of these dynamic processes, considering physical, environmental, economic and social aspects.
Through employee photo interpretation techniques, creation of GIS (Geographic Information
System), time series and geoprocessing techniques. Firstly, it takes advantage of a more global
scale, which aims to highlight the potential that the area has with its surroundings, using
principles of landscape ecology as a means of integrating the systems that make up the area. In a second
step, it works in a larger and more detailed scale photographic surveys along with the implementation of
municipal courts, in order to understand the dynamics and urban structure. Thus it’ll be possible to
diagnose and extract important information that underpins strategies to conserving or restoring this
mangrove.

Key Words: city; river; mangrove; impacts; conservation

Introduction

Brazil is among the countries with more mangrove areas, with about 25,000 km², representing
approximately 12% of mangroves worldwide. Comprises a territory that extends from the state
of Amapá, north, to south in the state of Santa Catarina, more precisely, to the city of Laguna
(Vasques et al., 2011).
Mangroves configured in unique environments as they present themselves as a coastal
ecosystem that develops along estuaries, bays and lagoons, a result of the meeting of sweet and
salt waters. Thus, it is composed in a medium containing brackish water and nutrients endowed
with muddy soil encourage the growth of plants species with roots and textures of plant material
that partially decomposes. Due to these characteristics their own, also many animal species have
shelter (Alves, 2001, Vasques et al., 2011).
Therefore, mangroves play a significant role in relation to marine life, areas of waterways
that permeate the plant and animal populations that need this peculiar shelter to develop and,
above all, the man who draws his vegetable resources and animals. Also promote the
maintenance of coastal areas, with real shells that protect the territory of erosion from waves
and tides and retention of sediments carried by the rivers (Correia and Sovierzoski, 2005).
However mangrove areas, although they are protected by specific laws, are suffering
significant environmental impacts resulting from human activities, which undermine its
stability, vegetation structure, fauna and significant reductions in area due to urban pressures.
Are targets of deposits of solid waste, sewage, deforestation and landfills, threatening the
existence of their areas and the balance of the coastal zone (Alves, 2001, Silva et al., 2005).
 1123

Problems aggravated by neglect and complacency with which the government treats such areas
not complying with existing laws and not giving proper ecological and economic value that
mangroves provide to citizens.
Thus, this work makes a timely analysis of an urban clipping covering the mangrove and
adjacent areas located in the city of São José in Santa Catarina, Brazil, to later propose some
strategies to preserve, conserve and enhance these natural spaces.

Methodology

To achieve the proposed objective, a survey of the study area, considering their physical,
environmental, economic and social aspects was performed. Through employee photo
interpretation techniques, creation of GIS (Geographic Information System), time series and
techniques were possible to make a diagnosis and to extract important information about the
existing problems (Li, 2008, Kong and Nakagoshi, 2006).
At first, the work took on a more global scale to highlight the potential that the area has with
its surroundings, using principles of landscape ecology as a means of integrating the systems
that make up this space. In the second stage, we worked from a larger and more detailed scale,
taking advantage of photographic surveys as relevant complements the urban cuts, in order to
understand the dynamics and urban structure.
Finally, these strategies we could identify measures and plausible solutions could be
deployed in these areas, taking into account the ecotourism practices, accessibilities, movements
of animals, people and vehicular traffic.

The city of São José

O São José is located in the east of Santa Catarina-Brazil, forming a region of conurbations, as
part of what is called Big Florianópolis. It is the fourth oldest municipality of Santa Catarina,
the fourth city in number of voters and the vast majority of its population is concentrated in
urban area (Livramento, 2008). See Figure 1 .
Among the main access roads to the city, we highlight the BR 101 with international role.

Figure 1. Location of São José-SC and area of study. (source: Authors, 2014).
1124

The landfill

Among the most significant areas of the city, there is the existence of a maritime strip which
significant portion is derived from a process of landfill. This is configured as one of the main
interventions and responsible for significant changes in the city. Named with Long Beach
Landfill, its initial project dates back to 1991, undergoing a reformulate in 1995 and with the
final proposal in 1998, starting his execution in 2000. Extension project was to the fillet
covering the Araújo river, boundary between the cities of São José and Florianópolis, to the
Historical Center. However, its implementation was partly, not reaching the old town (Silva,
2006). See Figure 2.

Figure 2. Landfill proposed (1998) (Source: Silva apud Farias (2001)).

Figures 4, 5 and 6 show terrify area in relation to the case study. We notice how main
interventions the creation of Beira Mar Avenue, bike path, promenade and wide open spaces,
totaling an area of 37,230.8 m².

Figure 3. Mangroves and the infrastructure around (source: Authors, 2013).

Figure 4. Panoramic landfill area and mangrove (source: Authors, 2013).

Moreover, among the main findings, it is worth mentioning the economic changes as one of
the most expressive. Until the implementation of continental landfill, buildings constructed near
the shore had characterized the funds as the batch tested overlooking the sea. From the process
of filling, with implanted of vehicular roads, bike and pedestrian, note a new trend. Observation
made from Silva, 2006: "Finally, the contact with the sea. Historically, the city of São José was
built 'backs' of the sea, for even less than a century, the waterfront was considered a negligible
space left for slaves and garbage houses ".
 1125

Figure 5. Landfill area in cropping study (source: Authors, 2013).

The buildings are now designing their main front for Beira Mar Avenue, endowed with
significant territorial recovery and target real estate speculation. Have as main uses, institutional
buildings, connected to the municipal government, and commercial. Mostly present
considerable areas of occupation and significant infrastructure.

The study area

Among the areas that comprise the landfill, there is the existence of a mangrove, targeted study
of this work, because of its ecological importance and its ecotourism, economic and social
potential. Besides the mangrove area, was taken as part of this study an adjacent space, whose
domain is the Ministry of Agriculture. These two areas form a big potential for deploying a park
with a system of free spaces integrated with significant green areas for recreation and ambient
quality taking into consideration your surroundings, especially when associated with Beira Mar
Avenue, cycleway and the existing public footpath.
To access the study area has, to the north, the local road Jaci S. Lins and, with higher flow,
the BR 101. To the south, the Beira Mar Avenue and dividing the mangrove area of the Ministry
of Fishery area, Joaquim Antônio Vaz street, who is responsible for the main access and
continuous flow of vehicles throughout the city. See Figure 6.

Figure 6. Hypsometry and access (source: Authors, 2013).

1126

Considerations from ambiental and legal presupposed

Master Plan of São José-SC

The Master Plan for São José is regulated by Law Nº 1.605 of 04/07/1985 and establishing
determinations relating to zoning and land use. According to Figure 6, which the study area is
circled, is established areas of the Ministry of Agriculture (MA), the Predominant Residential
Areas (ARP) which are mainly for housing function, however, enhanced by diverse functions
daily range, location and small importance. Also have in blue the Central Mixed Areas, aimed at
households, complementary activities of trades and services, recreation and public services.

Figure 7. Map of the zoning and uses of the Master Plan for São José (source: Website of
São José City Hall, 2013).

Still, as the laws of the municipality itself, in Article 30 are descriptions about what would
be the Permanent Preservation Areas - PPAs, consisting as those necessary to preserve the
ecological balance of natural resources and remarkable landscapes.Thus, according to the
Municipal Master Plan 2013:
I - (PPA) Permanent Preservation Areas: are, besides as defined in articles 2º e3º of the
Federal Law nº 4771/65 and other federal regulations, another areas with place characteristics,
vulnerability or exceptional scenic value and/or ecological, deserve to be considered for
Permanent Preservation and have totally banned its use and occupancy, subject to the necessary
public uses;
II - valley bottoms and sanitary zone of water bodies;
III - mangroves and their areas of influence;
IX - areas of notable landscapes (Master Plan, 2013).
It is worth noting that given in Article 159 as follows: "The PPA are considered
“nonaedificandi” for any use or activity with the exception of special cases mentioned in this
Law, provided with permission of the Municipal Planning Agency, after consultation with the
relevant instruments."
Still, as areas "non aedificandi" the Master Plan provides in Article 180 and 181 places with
Hydrographic Elements (HE).
Art. 180 The EH are considered permanent preservation and "non aedificandi", except for
the construction of nautical equipment, fishing activities and energy use with the approval of the
competent municipal body.
 1127

Art. 181 To the hydrographic elements also applies to federal competent legislation, such as,
water code, forest code, decree-law 9.760/46 and notable subsequent legislation (MASTER
PLAN, 2013).
However, even appears on the zoning map and uses the mangrove area and, much less, the
identification of PPAs, both referring to the mangroves as the water course that comes from the
Ministry of Agriculture (Figure 7). As demonstrated above, have the occupation of mangrove
areas by urban buildings that gradually exert pressure, decreasing the mangrove and causing
serious environmental impacts. Ironically, there are buildings of the Ministry itself that do not
respect the PPA 30m of the river that passes over your area.
It should also be mentioned, among the zoning defined by the said Master Plan, in section
VI, about the criteria and determinations as to municipal Green Areas (GA), establishing them
as their purpose. The LeisureGreen Areas (GA)should take advantage of native vegetation
where it exists, to publicly consecrated areas or adjacent to community equipment. Even
contained in Article 146: "The greater the GA over its location should be linked to natural
factors of morphology, vegetation and aquatic elements."
And in Article 147: "In exceptional cases the Green Recreation Areas may be located within
the protection zone buffer maritime margin (marine lands), subject to the provisions of the Law
of Installment Land".

Forest Code

Another important conditioning is the Brazilian Forest Code, which is regulated by Law Nº
12,651, of May 25, 2012. On this contain the PPAs regulations and Urban Green Areas.
Moreover, it complements the previous article with the Art. 4º and delimits the PPAs as
areas of sandbanks, as dune fixers or stabilizing mangroves, throughout its extension.
As to guarantee the protection and restitution of vegetation of PPAs, it is Article 7ºthat
provides the stay be mandatory vegetation in such areas by the owner of the area, possessor or
occupier for any purpose, individual or juridical entity, the public or private law.
In case of suppression of vegetation, it is for the owner of the area, possessor or occupier for
any title, the obligation to provide the restoration of vegetation, except for the authorized uses
provided for in Law (public utility, social interest or of low environmental impact hypotheses).
In Art. 9 the access of people and animals to Permanent Preservation Areas to obtain water
and to perform low-impact activities are allowed.
It is noteworthy also that in Section III defines the Regime for the Protection of Urban Green
Areas:
Art. 25º. The municipal government will, for the establishment of urban green areas with the
following instruments:
I - the right of preemption to acquire relevant forest remnants, pursuant to Law nº 10,257, of
July 10, 2001;

Confrontations: Spatiotemporal analysis x national and municipal laws

To better understand the studied space, was made a spatiotemporal analysis considering three
periods, based on aerial and satellite images of the years 1957, 1978 and 2013, in order to
identify the urban dynamics and processes of expansion. The following figures show the
evolutions of study area and allow you to make some considerations.
When conducting an analysis from the current situation based on old information about the
area, it is noticed that today, although mangroves are protected by laws of national and
municipal level, their protection and maintenance have been negligence by Municipal
authorities, as the population living around it. Residential buildings and primarily commercial
occupy part of mangrove, bringing significant environmental impacts arising from the
construction area in last decades. These exert pressures on mangroves, progressively reducing
its length, as well as being responsible for pollution, dumping of waste and sewage that
1128

compromise the vitality and expansion of mangrove and, thus adversely, affect the flora and
fauna characteristics of this habitat, such as crabs reproduction, numerous species of fish and
bird feeding. See figures 8, 9 and 10.

Figure 8. 3d use and current (source: Authors, 2013).

Another problem identified was the construction of traffic lanes, of the Beira-mar (coast), in
the mangrove area only with the opening of two channels that allow the passage of salt water
(sea) reaching the mangroves and vice versa. However, this passage is insufficient to ensure an
environment of salinity along the water of the river, as is relevant to the vitality of the same
process. See Figur.
Note that, by law mangrove areas should be protected and preserved. However, with the
urban dynamics and disorderly occupation, we find several residential and commercial
occupations settled in the mangrove area that, over time, were being cleared and paved. See
figures 12 and 13.

Figure 9. Use and occupation 2013 (source: Authors, 2013).

Figure 10. Panoramic showing occupation of mangrove área (source: Authors, 2013).
 1129

Figure 11. Openings for passage of seawater to mangrove (source: Authors, 2013).

Figure 12. Map of the mangrove and inadequately occupied areas (source: Authors, 2013).

Figure 13. Land use 2013: Area (há) (source: Authors, 2013).

In the watercourse that runs to the mangrove there is disrespect for PPAs, whose Forest Code
establishes as 30meters protected area not edifying, when the river has a width of up to 10m.
Therefore, the illegalities occur most significantly in the field of the Ministry of Agriculture,
where only 27% of PPAs have vegetation cover, which is more significant because of the
1130

mangrove. Of the remaining 73% are disrespected and comprise field, exposed soil and paving.
See figures 12, 13 and 14.

Figure 14. PPAs x Uses (source: Authors, 2013).

Figure 15. Land use 2013 x PPAs: Area (m²) (source: Authors, 2013).

By analyzing the use and occupation of this area in 1978, it is noticed that the coastline had
its threshold along the Joaquim Antônio Vaz street. In its entirety the cut consisted of field and
some fragments of vegetation. The fragmented mangrove area was permeated by a sandbar.
Since that time, there were irregular buildings in mangrove areas contravening existing laws.
See figures 14 and 16.
Taking the last review period, the year 1957, it is observed that it was during this period that
most of the buildings belonging to the Ministry of Agriculture were built. In this sense, the
deployment area is characterized as vast green fields together some fragments of vegetation and
presence of exposed soil area between the buildings. It is noteworthy, too, that in this period
there was no appropriation of the mangrove area where their boundaries were demarcated by
 1131

Joaquim Antônio Vaz street. See figures 15 and 19.

Figure 16. Use and Occupancy 1978 (source: Authors, 2013).

Figure 17. Land Use 1978 - Area (há) (source: Authors, 2013).

Figure 18. Use and Occupation in 1957 (source: Authors, 2013).

1132

Figure 19. Land use 1957- Area (há) (source: Authors, 2013).

Thus, from the analysis of space-time is possible to diagnose it over the course of years the
mangrove area increased, but being isolated in the urban area, because the processes implanted
landfill. The occupations began in 1978 and had its intensification in later decades. Another
unusual fact, by the reality experienced by most cities, is on the increase in areas with
vegetation cover and areas of exposed soil before becoming field. See Figur.

Figure 20. Analysis of alterations 1957, 1978 e 2013 (source: Authors, 2013).

Final considerations

Seen the importance and training of an ecosystem with its own characteristics, which are
essential to develop projects and initiatives that establish the revitalization, sustainable use and,
above all, compliance with national and local laws concerning the guarantee and protection of
mangrove areas.
Thus, as a first consideration on existing laws would propose the eviction of houses and
illegal trades of PPAs. In this sense, interventions begin by recuperation of these areas and
recovery of these environments by means of specific actions for integrating these spaces as a
whole.
 1133

As mentioned earlier, with the implementation of the landfill were reduced flows along the
saltwater marsh. Therefore, it is necessary to increased permeability, with more openings for
channeling water to enable the passage of seawater and thus introduce again the relation of tidal
flows that pervade the vital functions of mangrove areas, forming a large lake with direct
influence, returning it an environment of high salinity, essential for the development of
vegetation.
According to Alves, (2001) and Silva et al (2005), the mangrove has essential role in the
dynamics of the estuary areas, with a space of sedimentation of the material carried by the rivers
and sea. Such an environment enables the development of vegetation with protruding roots that
perform the fixation of the transported material. This process contributes to increasing the
shoreline and an increased range of vegetation.
The typical vegetation for mangrove area, in this process, is predominant, because when you
enter the front lake for a direct influence of the waters to mangroves, makes you create a
transition band from an environment that has changed, again, vulnerable. In this case, it is
essential to implement vegetation typical of mangrove protection as, for example, the Praturá-
grass, considered a marine grass genus Spartina, that functions as a protection filter estuary
areas that can remove pollutants and heavy metals. Consequently, ensuring the survival of
mangrove vegetation typical, there will be the development and diversification of animal
species such as crustacean, fish, crabs and resident and migratory birds. For (Costa, 2006), these
animals make use of that space for shelter, means of reproduction, growth and maintenance.
Besides the mangrove area is interesting to note that the strong relationship of the river on
the area of intervention is present in its entire hydrographic contour. Thus, it is necessary to
deploy along the river lakes openings to improve the flow and the flow right next to its
utilization for environmental system.
Among the aspects to be considered, there is fragmentation of green open spaces. These,
mainly result from appropriations and anthropic pressures exerted by the urban expansion.
According to Collinge (1996), fragmented green areas lead to the configuration space in a kind
of island, whose striking factor is the loss of biodiversity, because it ends up isolating animal
species and vegetables and favors the invasion of exotic species. Moreover, it contributes
significantly to the deterioration of vegetation along the waterways, compromising the quality
of it and making it areas susceptible to processes of sedimentation and erosion.
Thus, it is necessary to seek the revitalization and preservation of existing large green areas,
as well as the creation of new and restoration of riparian vegetation along the streams, in order
to requalify spaces, provide them with environmental quality and ecosystem balance (Collinge,
1996, Gurrutxaga et al., 2010).
Among the main mechanisms of intervention and minimize these impacts there is the use of
techniques related to landscape ecology, more proper, the use of ecological corridors.
Responsible for reestablishing the connectivity of fragmented areas, play important for quality
of life, especially in a city, since they allow the spread of animal and vegetation, are configured
in the lungs of urban spaces and promote spaces for recreation and appreciation to the
surrounding populations (Chang and Chao, 2012, Kupfer, 2012).
Another relevant to the recovery of the mangrove area strategy would incorporate it into the
daily life of local people and highlight their tourism potential. Thus, the value of social
appropriation could be experienced through the creation of public open spaces, insertion of
trails, viewpoints and park paths that circumvent the mangrove and the river banks, providing
opportunities for collective living, leisure and enjoyment, tours, rest and contemplation of
protected areas, and especially knowledge about this peculiar habitat.
In response, it intensified the need for intervention projects for mangrove areas along the
areas of the Ministry of Agriculture, in order to adapt their environmental potential with
beneficial actions and proposals that foster local identity, the connection between the
Management and the environmental issues inserted in the urban environment.
It is a complex and necessary process, whose transformations arise from the direct
relationship between Management and population as an essential source of care and
1134

understanding of the importance of this habitat to the city, because it takes better care of what
one knows and loves.

References

Alves, J. R. P. 2001. Mnaguezais- educar e proteger, Rio de Janeiro, FEMAR: SEMADS

Chang, C. L. & Chao, Y. C. 2012. Using the analytical hierarchy process to assess the environmental
vulnerabilities of basins in Taiwan. Environ Monit Assess, 184, 2939-45.
Collinge, S. K. 1996. Ecological consequences of habitat fragmentation: implications for landscape
architecture and planning Landscape end Urban Planning, 36, 59-77.
Correia, M. D. & Sovierzoski, H. H. 2005. Ecossistemas Marinhos: recifes, praias e manguezais, Maceió,
Universidade Federal de Alagoas.
Costa, L. M. S. A. 2006. Rios e paisagens urbanas em cidades brasileiras, Rio de Janeiro, Ed. Prourb.
Farias, V. F. D. 2001. São José: 250 anos: natureza, história e cultura, São José.
Gurrutxaga, M., Lozano, P. J. & Del Barrio, G. 2010. Gis-based approach for incorporating the
connectivity of ecological networks into regional planning. Journal for Nature Conservation, 18, 318-
326.
Kong, F. & Nakagoshi, N. 2006. Spatial-temporal gradient analysis of urban green spaces in Jinan, China.
Landscape and Urban Planning, 78, 147-164.
Kupfer, J. A. 2012. Landscape ecology and biogeography: Rethinking landscape metrics in a post-
Fragstats landscape. Progress in Physical Geography, 36, 400-420.
Li, Y. 2008. Land cover dynamic changes in northern China: 1989–2003. Journal of Geographical
Sciences, 18, 85-94.
Livramento, M. R. 2008. Apropriação de espaços públicos – estudo da rua Assis Brasil em São José.
Dissertação, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina.
Silva, M. A. B. D., Bernini, E. & Carmo, T. M. S. D. 2005. Características estruturais de bosques de
mangue do estuário do rio São Mateus, ES, Brasil. Acta bot. bras., 19, 465-471.
Silva, T. C. D. 2006. Centro histórico de São José (SC) [dissertação] : patrimônio e memória urbana
Dissertação, Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina.
Vasques, R. O. R., Tonini, W. C. T., Cuevas, J. M., Santos, D. F., Faria, T. A., Falcão, F. D. C., Simões,
D. D. R., Batista, R. L. G. & Couto, E. D. C. G. 2011. Utilização das Áreas de Manguezais em Taipús
de Dentro. Revista da Gestão Costeira Integrada, 11, 155-161.
 1135

Urban growth and hydrography: convergences on

landscape morphology

Otávio Peres, Mauricio Polidori, Marcus Saraiva, Alexandre Santos

Laboratory of Urbanism, Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the Federal
University of Pelotas, Brazil. E-mail: [email protected],
[email protected], [email protected],
[email protected].

Abstract: This work identifies the relationships between urban morphology and natural landscape as a
result of urban growth articulated to the spatial scale of hydrography based on the assumption that in the
long-term and in macro spatial scales city and environment could reduce spatial conflicts. The main
focus is to outline an urban growth dynamic articulated to natural landscape in which water resources
are understood as tipping point to phase transitions in urban growth morphologies. This theoretical
statement is applied in the urban growth simulation framework CityCell through the potential-centrality
model in a dynamic cellular automaton. The urban modelling mechanism captures the "edge effect" on
water resources buffers, parametrically distributing urban growth in axial and diffuse tensions.
Associated with urban modelling, the theoretical statement was empirically tested in simulations,
replicating the urban growth reality of the city of Pelotas, RS, Brasil for the period from 1815 to 1965. In
the framework of systems theory, by empirical, theoretical and methodological approaches, the urban
modelling results can be replicated in future urban growth simulations, especially to study the relations
between urban form and natural landscape.

Key Words: urban growth; hydrography; cellular automata; city edges; urban systems

Introduction

Traditional approaches in landscape planning have difficulty to address city dynamics and
natural environment based in their mutual influences. Traditional ideas of urbanism performed
structural interventions on water resources in order to drain and clean up the environment; thus
enabling the process of urban expansion on behalf of the compact city (Jenks e Burgess, 2000).
On the other hand, environmental planners suggest water resources as structuring urban growth
process based on idea that urban waters are vital to sustaining human life on the planet. (Alberti
et al, 2003).
Approaching urbanism, urban ecology and landscape ecology, in a broader framework,
environmental science paradigm is on articulated urban form and urban growth studies on
natural landscape support. Thus, urban science will be applied to better understand
compatibilities of urban form with natural environment and water resources system.
Supposing city as a complex system, with urban form emerging in different spatial patterns, this
paper aim to identify urban form relationships with natural landscape scales defined by
hydrography
This work suggests a space-time convergence between urban growth morphology and
landscape scales defined by hydrography. The main contribution is a theoretical statement that
describes a urban growth dynamic that occurs alternating concentric and diffuses external
morphologies spatially oriented by hydrographical formations.
In this sense, assuming that natural landscape would able to support urbanization in different
spaces, urban growth dynamics defined by compression and fragmentation movements would
be spatially articulated with water resource's environmental fragilities and urbanization
resistances.
1136

Theoretical Approaches

Ecological Approach: emergence, self-organization and urban resilience

Analogies between Urban systems and ecological systems were first applied in urban science by
Chicago's school authors (Park e Burgess, 1925). These authors were based on ecological
theories, as cooperation and competition mechanisms, to better understand intra-urban
organization forces able to leave the urban phenomenon in a socio-spatial order.
Differently, today there is a consensus that, precisely, these competition and cooperation
mechanisms that keep urban system in constant imbalance. In times that simultaneously ecology
and urbanism starts to investigate the balance breakdown, as a way to maintaining internals
vitality and dynamics, intrinsic features in respective systems (Alberti, 2003; Formam, 2008;
Marzluf, 2008).
Contemporary, urban ecology's paradigm are systems theory and self-organization sciences,
with common concepts in natural science and social sciences, indicating the city as emergent
phenomenon. Until the mid-20th century, complex structures as cities were assumed ignoring
the overlapping high degree and randomness that occur in their subsystems (Portugali, 2000;
Alberti et al, 2003; Buzai, 2003). Currently, there is a change in cities and societies approaches,
like complex organisms that continuously grow and its modifications can only be focused,
induced and rarely designed in top-down sense. In urban science, it has been assumed its urban
growth as an emergent phenomenon from thousands agents action, resulting in a complex
structures behaviour (Batty, 2007; 2013).
Urban self-organization studies has indicated cities as the largest human action artefact
(Portugali, 2000) and over 3,000 years of history show that must withstand throughout time
(Vale and Campanella, 2005 ). From this viewpoint, urban sustainability is associated with
intrinsic properties as a complex phenomenon which gives it self-organizing and resistance
abilities through times. In complex sciences, self-organizing structures are able to handling in
adverse situations, which in urban ecology has been referred in terms of urban resilience
(Alberti et al, 2003; Vale and Campanella, 2005).
In this sense, urban form self-organization proprieties are not associated with geometric
arrangements (such as it occurs in other complex systems), however urban sustainability are
discrete structural properties shared by cities in resilience terms (Portugali, 2000).

Urban theories, growth dynamics and natural landscape convergence

In short and recent history, urban science has explored the urban phenomenon through models
and theories (Batty, 2013).
Urban growth has been studied since pioneers locational theories, until mid-century XX,
where several authors have attempted to explain the city based on cause-effect logic, from a
single viewpoint: ecological, economic or social. Recent statements have approached city
growth as complex systems and self-organization theories framework, and even more
contemporary, approaches about urban form discontinuity and convergences to natural
landscape. (Batty and Longley, 2004; Czamanski et al., 2008; respectively).
The first urban locational theories launched in later XIX century by von Thünen, based on
profit maximization economic principle are replicated in Alonso's monocentric city model
(1964, Figure 1a). A disc-shaped Central Business District (CBD) and surrounding residential
region served as a starting point for urban model analysis.
A concentric urban model was also associated with ecological logic by the Chicago School
(Park and Burgess, 1925 Figure 1b) and later related to accessibility in Hoyt's sector model
(1959, Figure 1c). Also, the city concentric thought was proposed by Christaller (1933, figure
1d) in Central Place Theory, differing by regional scale approach and polycentric occurrences.
 1137

a b c

Figure 1. concentric urban models:

a) Alonso, 1964; b) Park and Burgess, 1925; c) Hoyt, 1959; d) Christaller, 1933.

However, these primal urban locational theories were unable to describe the urban growth
dynamics and temporal approaches, mainly by static configurations. These important theories
are replicated in contemporary geographers and economists studies, authors like Fujita and Mori
(1997), in complexity framework, featuring the New Economic Geography theoretical approach
(NEG). The "evolutionary approach to urban systems" (Fujita and Mori, 1997) suggests the
urban theory validity from a evolutive approach, relating it to Darwin's evolutionary process.
From NEG evolutionary approach, researchers such as Janoschka (2002) have (has) been
explaining successfully the spatial discontinuity and the suburbanization phenomenon in Latin
American cities. These works have (has) been supported by dynamic resumptions of classic
locational urban theories, a evolutionary-historic read about Alonso's, Hoyt's, Park and Burgess'
and Christaller's models (illustrated in Figure 1, above).
Currently, more studies dedicated to external urban growth dynamics and the correlated
morphological fragmentation are produced, with recent studies with natural landscape scales
integrated into urban approaches (Czamanski et al., 2008). In this way, after featured studies on
urban sprawl and fractal dimension of Tel Aviv, Benguigui, Benenson, Czamanski, Portugali
and others researchers from the Research Lab Complex City (http://www.eslab.tau.ac.il/) have
achieved important advances in theoretical approaches to better understand urban spatial
discontinuity, specially associated with a growth dynamic called leapfrogging. (Benguigui et al.,
2001).
Leapfrogging originates in a child's game to perform jumps driven by obstacles over other
child. This theoretical approach has also been absorbed by economic theories to approach
economic growths in unfavourable situations by innovation actions.
Urban growth associated to leapfrogging ideas corresponds to an urban morphology dynamic
able to set up successive open spaces, similar to fractals geometries and urban sprawl theories.
Thus, urban spatial discontinuity may be explained by articulation with landscape fragilities or
environmental value, thereby reducing the urban footprint effects (Czamanski et al., 2008).
In a recent editorial for Environment and Planning: B, Batty (2009) presents the catastrophic
cascades idea, which proposes a challenge to contemporary urban theory. The challenge to
1138

studies about urban change and dynamics should be to extend our understand of discovering
discrete subsystems that catalyze the dynamics through a called catastrophic cascades.
According to the author, urban dynamics derive from multiple attributes overlaid that are able to
influence the global order and urban spatial discontinuity. These multiple attributes associating
economic, social and environmental issues, shape the urban morphology in a complex way and
enable triggering abrupt changes on urban dynamics. In this work Batty proposes a challenge to
urban science, that is in overcoming studies to indentify attributes that composes urban system
as a complex system. Contemporary urban studies should be applied to identify the tipping
points where occurs the transition phase in convergence with all the system.
However, for effective integrated approaches between city and environment, we should
overcome traditional ones based on isotropic plain assumption (Nystuen, 1968). The landscape
isotropy concept is an abstraction of the environment, widely applied in classic urban theories,
which disregards urban landscape aspects where the natural environment does not provide any
kind of resistance to urban growth.
In fact, natural landscape represents the predecessor environment around the city, operating
as an irregular field exerting different resistance intensities. Natural landscape directly
influences the morphology of urban growth in the short and long term, both at micro as at large
scale. (Polidori, 2004).
The landscape irregularities are able to impose greater or lesser restrictions on urbanization,
and hydrography attributes assumes a crucial role in landscape shaping. Rivers, streams and
drainage lines feature places usually flooding, in general unhealthy and the land has low
capacity to urbanization. Moreover, on hydrography natural scales, watershed ridge lines are
generally places for local environmentally friendly urbanization. Ridge lines are in essence the
higher locations in a basin, with better drainage and usually away from challenges imposed by
drainage adjacent areas.

Urban Growth and Hydrography: empirical approach to Pelotas case [1815-1965].

Pelotas is a city located in southern Brazil , on state of Rio Grande do Sul (RS). In the UTM
coordinate system (Universal Transverse Mercator) is located in zone 22 south, 373,081 meters
at east and 6,482,330 meters at south.
In southern Brazilian cities the water systems - rivers, lakes and ponds - were decisive
factors in land-use process. The low altitudes, slopes and wetlands in abundance configured a
landscape of difficulties to urbanization and displacement on territory (Souza, 2000).
Specifically in Pelotas region, natural landscape attributes were dominant in the urbanization
process. This area was found as undeveloped and appropriate to implement a salt meat process
called charqueadas. At the end of the eighteenth century the charqueadas were attracted to the
region by possibilities of disposing the production and the waste by water ways (Gutierrez,
2004).
For the first urban core location, in 1815, was chosen a shortly elevated terrain to run off water
and better drain the streets. From original core, in 1835, a concentric second plan to expand the
city was (Weir) located yet on slightly elevated terrace. As it is shown in figure 2 below, this
plan expressly avoids the low areas along water resources, places with constraints to
urbanization.
After this period, the city maintains concentric growth morphology urbanizing low areas
next to water resources.
Occupying wetlands adjacent to streams, at same time, allotments occur in small scale and
diffused on landscape. At this time, urban growth morphology occurs beyond limits defined by
water resources and located on terraces adjacent to watershed ridge lines (Gutierrez, 2004).
 1139

Figure 2. landscape around Pelotas city in 1835;

emphasis on urban morphology articulated with topography of terraces and wetlands.

We can assume that there is a temporal convergence with concentric urban growth on
wetlands and another pattern of growth occurring in diffused and fragmented morphologies,
repeating the landscape selection criteria of the original urban core. At time when urban growth
is faced with higher landscapes constraints, it occurs on new watershed ridge lines, in flat
terraces and well drained, away from unhealthy and environmentally fragile areas next to water
resources.
Thus, it is possible to identify a convergence between the urban growth morphology of
Pelotas city with an 'evolutionary approach to the classical models of urban theory " proposed
by the New Economic Geography (as Fujita and Mori, 1997) and applied by Janoschka (2002)
for the case of Buenos Aires city.
Through an evolutionary urban theory approach, in Pelotas the growth first occurs
concentrically, urbanizing areas immediately adjacent to the original core. Dynamic associated
with concentric models and theories of the Chicago School (Park and Burgess, 1925) and
Alonso (1964), as shown in the column "a" of Figure 5, below.
After, when city grows on low areas adjacent to drainage lines, road access and the axes of
urban expansion are defined. At this time, urban morphology can be associated with the Hoyt's
sector model (1939), as in column "b" in Figure 5, below.
Finally, in a third dynamic, when concentric urban growth is shared with diffuse and
fragmented forms, the city shows evidences to morphologies associated with multi centrality, on
analogy to Christaller's Central Place Theory (1933), illustrated in column "c" at figure 5,
below.
In short, from theoretical and empirical approaches it is possible to assume a urban growth
dynamic convergent to hydrography. The city grows (with) mainly (priority) concentrically by
conversion of undeveloped spaces immediately adjacent to urbanized area. At this time, urban
growth may happen in other landscape areas, at diffuse and fragmented forms, allowing the
maintenance of the continuous process of spatial production that defines the urban phenomenon.
In this dynamic, intrinsically (on) linked to urban growth it can be perceived/confirmed the
presence of urban voids spatially associated to natural environmental attributes. City dynamic
that emerges in convergence to the natural landscape irregularities.
1140

1835 1911 1926

a b c

Figure 3. table showing theoretical convergences between "evolutionary approach to the

classical models of urban theory" and urban growth stages of Pelotas city:
a) 1835 x concentric model; b) 1911 x sectoral model; c) 1926 x multi centralities model.

This outcome suggests recognizing urban voids as structural city component and urban
morphological changes convergent to natural preservation. Urban growth forms articulated with
hydrography can be understood as a mechanism for city self-organization, giving it ability to
sustain through time. (Alberti et al., 2003; Polidori, 2004).

Urban Modelling Approach: urban growth simulation in a CA context.

As urban growth methodological approach this work assumes the spatial differentiation
possibilities of Potential-Centrality Model (Krafta, 1994). Originated from Uneven
Geographical Development theory (Harvey, 1985), Krafta's Potential-Centrality model enables
to approach the urban loads over urban space representing the system into a imbalance spatial
state.
From original Potential-Centrality Model statement (Krafta, 1994) a continuous research has
been developed to improve city comprehension by production and reproduction of internal
 1141

mechanisms. This efforts have been undertaken by Configurational Urban Systems Gruop in
Graduate Program in Urban and Regional Planning, PROPUR-UFRGS and in Graduate
Program in Architecture and Urbanism - PROGRAU-UFPel.
In other words, the Potential-Centrality Model measures the spatial relationship in urban
systems internally, describing urban morphology at a given moment but indicating also the
spatial system imbalance. Places with higher Centrality are places in convergence to urban
changes occurrence. This convergence can be assumed as measure of urban growth Potential
(Krafta, 1999).
The Potential-Centrality Model should not be taken just as a static morphological portrait. It
can be assumed as an imbalance measure in urban system able to configure a set of urban
growth vectors in near future. Growth potentials occur in greater economical opportunities, so in
places with large centrality differences in surroundings (Polidori, 2004).
Originally Krafta's model operated from graph theory and could be adapted in a cellular
automata (CA) urban modelling environment by Polidori (2004).
Graphs and cellular automata resources integrated in model set it up to explore urban
morphologies by global and local relations. While CA works with spatial relations and
neighbourhood relations, graph theory works the connections between different spatial units
remotely. Thus, Potentential-Centrality adaptation in a cellular environment (Polidori, 2004)
allows advances on Krafta's original ideas (Krafta, 1994) once spatial relations are not limited
through the graph path. Thus, Based on such these ideas, an Urban Growth Simulator
development (Polidori, 2004) allows urban morphology replication in axial, polar, and diffusive
forms.
In an iterative way, cellular centrality distribution configures spatial opportunities landscape
overlaid on a resistances field of natural environment. There is an urban growth dynamic
emergent from semi-deterministic and semi-stochastic logics. (Polidori, 2004).
As the city grows, it tends to interface with natural values and environmental resistances.
These interfaces are overlaid places by urban growth potential and natural landscape attributes.
This occurring urban growth potential on water resources attributes are natural-urban conflict
places, setting a called urban edge effect on environment system. This edge effect can be
associated with urban resilience idea, an index of urban-nature conflicts and a tipping point to
morphological urban growth changes (Polidori, 2004).
Furthermore, as edge effects are shaped in linear forms, if natural landscape are approached
by hydrography and streams, the edge effect is evidenced by overlapping urban potential and
water resources resistances fronts in their linear forms.
In short, the edge effect on hydrography streams are convergent urban and natural places.
This edge effect can be assumed as tipping point of a catastrophic cascades urban dynamic, as
proposed by Batty (2009). Besides this(Further), such morphological urban growth interchange
can be approached with complex system terms like phase transitions.
On urban modelling methods this work develops a simulation procedure operating sensitive to
landscape hydrography. This procedure captures the urban growth potential on hydrography
attributes. Thus, the related edge effect (Polidori, 2004) on water resources adjacencies.

wl = PotBuff / PotTot
wl = D

As read:
“waterland factor” is equal to the ratio between urban growth potential incident on hydrography
buffers and urban growth potential's total.
“waterland factor” is applied as perceptual of diffuse urbanization forms, in each model
interaction.
The procedure called "Waterland factor" (z is a ratio of urban growth potential on
hydrography stream's buffers). According to Equation 1 the "Waterland factor" ("wl", in the
model) corresponds to the percentage of Urban Growth Potential's total (in the model, PotTot)
1142

incident on hydrographical spaces (in the model, PotBuff). In the Urban Growth Simulator this
ratio is applied as an index to diffuse urbanizations in the urban growth dynamic.

Urban growth simulation integrated to hydrography: urban modelling in Pelotas city case
[1815-1965].

In sequence, this work concerns on developed simulation growth procedure in validation and
application terms. Studies are applied to urban growth of Pelotas case [1815-1965] empirically
described in this paper's third title.

Figure 4 spatial delineat.ion and simulation's disaggregated scale to Pelotas case,

regular red grid represented on hydrographic landscape.

The spatial delineation and simulation's disaggregated scale are defined by a regular grid (red
lines in Figure 4 below) with 40 rows by 60 columns, defining 2,400 square cells with 250m
side. The surface is 96 km2. A rectangle of 8 km side in north-south direction and 12 km side
in east-west direction. The limits in UTM coordinates are on zone 22 south: a) northern:
6,489,900; b) southern: 6,489,900; c) western: 366,750; d) eastern: 378,750.
From vectorial data on a Geographical Information System (GIS) individual grid inputs were
set up, as shown in Figure 5 and described in following:
a) urban core (atrator, mutable; figure 5a): urban attribute loaded in two levels (weight 1,0
and 0,5, in red and light red);
b) hydrography streams (resistance, mutable, weight 1; blue and light blue in figure 5b):
resistance to urban conversion but removable on simulation process;
c) external city space (resistance, freezing, weight 1; figure 5c): institutional attribute that
prevents urbanization on external space to Pelotas municipality;
d) hydrographic landscape (resistance, mutable, weight 1; figure 5d): environmental
attribute, natural resistance matrix differentiated into five classes by interpolation between the
drainage lines (higher resistance level 4, in green) and watersheds ridge lines (smaller
resistance, level 0, in brown and white);
 1143

e) flooding areas (resistance, mutable, weight 1; figure 5e): environmental attribute, natural
resistance matrix distinguishing flood tendencies by binary values (0 values in white or 1 values
in pink).
f) random attribute (resistance, mutable, weight 1; figure 5f): resistance matrix differentiated
randomly with values interpolated between 1 and 3.

a b

c d

e f

Figure 5. regular grid inputs with 60x40 cells: a) urban core in two levels; b) hydrography
streams; c) external city space; d) hydrographic landscape matrix; e) flooding areas; f)
random attribute.

Below, the model outputs are shown on figure 6 and described below, which in sequence
will be resumed to numerical correlations in simulations: CellType, representing the urban
phenotype; CentABS, absolute cellular Centrality; CentR1, cellular Centrality normalized by
mean values; CentR2, cellular Centrality normalized by max values.
From control scenarios a cell count (UrbanCount operation in model) of urban phenotype
(CellType) could be calculated annual cell conversion rate, adjusting the simulations speeds.
These values composes an urban growth rate of 1.88% percent annum, calculated for 130 years
period. The simulations proceedings are set to occur in 50 iterations. Thus, the cellular
conversion rate parameter is 4.95% by interaction.
After processed the urban growth simulating, in figure 7 are shown the outputs of CellType,
Centrality, Growth Potential, Natural Resistance (CellType, CentR1, ResistE, respectively).
Illustrated 8 of 50 total iterations (iterations 1, 8, 15, 22, 29, 36, 43 and 50).
1144

Celltype CentABS CentR1 CentR2

Figure 6. model outputs of CellType, CentABS, CentR1 e CentR2;

control scenarios to a) 1835; b) 1916; c)1926; d) 1965.

Numerical Correlations

Performed the simulation procedure that reply alternations in urban form on growth dynamic
with visual evidences and similitude with Pelotas city in empirical reality between years 1815-
1965. To forwarding, the urban modelling results need a numerical correlation with control
scenarios to an effective validation of model mechanism developed.
To make results numerical correlations, the output iterations are associated with control
scenarios through number of urban cells (UrbanCount). That is, from CellType number of each
control scenarios (presented in Figure 6) is indicated an iteration with similar number of
CellType, and thus proceeded a kind of dynamic correlation.
Accordingly, the correlation for the year 1835 is iteration 01; for scenario year 1916 the
iteration 09; for scenario year 1926 the iteration 38; and year 1965 is correlated with iteration
50. The figures 8, 9, 10 and 11, shown below, represent the dynamics correlations from the
Absolute Centrality (Figure 10), Centrality type 1 (Figure 11), Centrality type 2 (Figure 12) and
urban phenotype, CellType (Figure 13).
In addition to visual correlations, the grid's numeric data can be compared with control
scenarios by linear correlation (R ²) and plotted scatter diagrams (as shown in figure 12).
In the chart below, Centrality type 1 data points are plotted in a scatter diagram. Four distinct
control scenarios are overlapping in crescent blue colour scale.
In scatter diagrams, the proximity between points and tendency line indicates best results. The
best result achieved is Centrality type 1 with 0.79 of correlation, a significant statistic value.
The table 1 below shows numerical correlation results for outputs: Absolute Centrality
(CentABS), Centrality type 1 (CentR1), Centrality type 2 (CentR2) and Urban Phenotype
(CellType). Comparing numeric correlations between simulation procedure and control
scenarios, a dynamic understanding is possible and better results could be compared.
 1145

Figure 7. simulation outputs with active waterland factor; shown 8 of 50 iterations:

a) Celltype; b) CentrR1; c) Potential; d) ResistE.

Figure 8. dynamic correlations between simulation and control scenarios to Absolute

Centrality output.
1146

Figure 9. dynamic correlations between simulation and control scenarios to Centrality

type1 output.

Figure 10. dynamic correlations between simulation and control scenarios to Centrality
type2 output.

Figure 11. dynamic correlations between simulation and control scenarios to CellType.

In Table 1, for each control stage are highlighted in deep blue the maximum values and in
red the minimums. In the last column are indicated a scenario formed with mean values and the
maximums values are highlighted in last line.
It is possible to observe that the majority of the maximum values happens in the Absolute
Centrality type (CentABS, mean 0,85) and the minimum results are to urban phenotype
(Celltype, mean 0,66).
The data showed in this chart was presented in linear graphs that allow to demonstrate the
evolution of the numerical correlations for each of the outputs (centralities in variations of blue
and urban phenotype in red). The graph of drawing 4.30 indicates better results for the results of
centrality, that besides happening with larger values (means, 0,85; 0,79; 0,85), the comparative
horizontality of the lines indicates a trend to occur constantly. This means that, during the
process of simulation, (larger the horizon simulated, smaller the control of the data), the
centrality correlations are almost the same.
 1147

Figure 12. scatter diagram from Centrality type 1 output data, overlaid scenarios 1835,
1916, 1926 e 1965, in crescent blue colour scale.

Table 1. Numeric correlation values for each output in four control stages

R² 1835 x i_01 1916 x i_09 1926 x i_38 1965 x i_50 Média

CentABS 0,81 0,90 0,87 0,82 0,85
CentR1 0,79 0,81 0,76 0,81 0,79
CentR2 0,86 0,90 0,84 0,80 0,85
Celltype 0,90 0,53 0,52 0,48 0,66
máximo 0,90 0,90 0,87 0,82 0,85

Conclusions

Approaching urban growth and hydrographic landscape this paper approaches objects
traditionally from different epistemological fields: city and natural environment. Furthermore,
this paper main highlight is the approach from three different scientific bases: theoretical,
empirical and methodological. From these three approaches the results are converging into a
common result, reinforcing the statements proposed throughout the work.
Can be highlight too the explored relationships between urban growth morphologies and
hydrographic landscape. From a widely perspective in a systems approach the watershed
attributes influences urban dynamics in a complex relationship, overcoming cause-effect linear
relations.
Thus, the work also overcoming landscape attribute approach operating as a simple urban
resistance, merely constraining the urban form resultant. In fact, what is proposed is the urban
form spatial discontinuity as an inherent growth dynamic characteristic. In this complex
relationship hydrographic attributes are discrete, operating as a tipping point on urban-
environment system.
The spatial convergence between urban voids and water resources are a way of ecological
preservation on urban growth dynamic. Thus, the work sought to contributes to overcoming
pessimistic views about urban futures. Traditionally urban futures have been summarized by the
negative morphological impacts on natural resources. Rather, the results proposes the city as
richest human artefact with intrinsic properties of vitality and expansion, associated with
resilience and permanence factors over time.
In more specific terms, some discussions from this work can raised, as described below:
a) urban form fragmented and coincidence with natural landscape.
The results appointed the urban form fragmentation as an intrinsic characteristic to urban
growth, emerging from multiple subsystems convergence.
The urban form fragmentation does not nullify the natural tendency of concentric urban
growth. Contrariwise, this fragmented and concentric morphologic changes indicates cities
1148

grow by both movements synchronously, featuring a dynamic that essentially defines as a

complex phenomenon.
The occurrences of the fragmented urban form allows that the urban voids can match
spatially to places of interest of the natural environment. Due to this, the dynamics of growth
and the spatial discontinuity can be actually a path to better interact urban systems and natural
ecosystems.
However, in order to occur in fact the city articulated to the natural landscape, before it is
necessary to indicate a scale to foster the urban fragmentation and the urban voids effectively
match to the important places of landscape ecology.
In this sense, some authors have antecipated and presented the integration between transport
systems and the hydrological basins as a possibility to reduce costs of implementation of
infrastructure and reduce the impacts of urban growth over the natural landscape. It is in such
perspective and spatial scale that this work is integrated
b) spatial discontinuity intrinsic to the urban growth dynamic and the water resources role.
Urban theory has been applied to understand the spatial discontinuity of urban form.
In this context, statements from the New Economic Geography make possible to improve the
understandings of the dynamics of growth and the spatial discontinuity from an evolutive
approach of the urban theory path (Fujita e Mori, 1997). Due to the lag between South
American and European history cities, this theoretical approach are applied successfully in
Buenos Aires city by Janoschka (2002). Alike, as in this paper the NEG's "evolutionary
approach to urban systems" is also valid for Pelotas' case, that urban growth is associated with
concentric, sectoral and multi centrality evolutionary stages.
In terms of complex sciences this morphological changes has been referred as a phase
transition dynamic, occurring as a catastrophic effects. Urban science would not just discover
the attributes that characterize cities whereas complex system (Batty, 2009). In this sense, this
paper take on the hydrographic attributes as tipping points in the complex system, where the
environment converges to promote a dynamic.
c) urban growth morphology watershed's articulated.
On hydrographic urban sub-basins, the hydrologic properties configures wetlands in adjacent
areas to drainage streams, defining constraints spaces to urbanization. This urban-resistant
places are in contrasting with environmental amenities on terraces and watershed ridge lines.
In a watershed scale, original urban cores tend to occur due to proximity and distance with
water resources. In general, looking for places in resemblance the idea of isotopic plans.
Originated on environmental spaces like an isotropic formation, the urban core expands
predominantly in concentric forms until confront with natural restrictions to urbanization. In the
natural landscape, hydrographic streams are set as important attributes against urban built form.
In these places urban and natural interests are overlaid, configuring an interface where is
restricted the concentric urban growth. To keep the urban spatial production is overcome the
landscape restrictions and urban growth occurs in remote places. At this time, in general,
diffuses urban nucleus tend to occur places resembling the original environment. Urban growth
seek for environmental amenities on terraces and ridge lines beyond the hydrography's
wetlands.
Repeating the original locational criteria, repeats urban growth expansion form and sets up
an iterative and dynamic process, successively.
d) urban morphology, sustainability and performance.
This paper assumes the morphologic urban growth dynamic articulated with hydrographic
landscape as a discrete property that gives cities a permanence factor over time, which in terms
of urban ecology has been called in resilience.
However, that in fact occurs, the urban permanence also depends on the internal performance
and difficulties imposes on social and environmental structures.
Certainly concentric city has the performance facilitated by enabling endless interactions
occur internally, promoting accessibility to all spaces and socio-spatial relations with proper
intensity and equity.
 1149

Though, the compact city model pursued by urban theory has no shown able to reducing the
urban social costs and the human environmental footprint. Furthermore, concentric
morphological models do not allow the natural landscape articulation, urbanizing
indiscriminately environmental attributes and contributing to internal urban-environment
problems.
On the other hand, urban fragmentation that a priori presents greater restrictions on urban
efficiency, has been presented as an alternative to reduce the indiscriminate conversion of the
attributes of the natural landscape, promoting preservation practices and ecological valuation on
the city.
However, there are strong evidences that discontinuous urban form tends to maintain urban
facilities in an unequal distribution and promote spatial segregation. In fact, like the tendency to
promote diffuse urban growth, the spatial inequity is intrinsic to urban phenomenon and needs
to be confronted by urban science.
That is, if in the contemporary city coexists: the socio-spatial segregation and urban the
interaction; the urban artificiality and environmental nature; the morphological fragmentation
and concentration. Urban science must develop a model that involves both efficiency, equity
and environmental quality, simultaneously. Construct a new science paradigm that ensures the
urban sustainability and permanence over the times, in fact.

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 1151

Epistemology of public spaces: a cultural approach

Małgorzata Hanzl
Institute of Architecture and Town Planning. Lodz University of Technology
Al. Politechniki 6A, 90-240 Łodź, Poland. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. Cultural aspects of urban settings require developing methods of description of public spaces.
The current paper addresses the problem of a theoretical exploration of the analysis of public space from
a dual perspective: morphological and anthropological. It claims that the void constituting a physical
manifestation of the public realm is a common element which is in the scope of interest of both
disciplines. For public life to occur in urban areas necessary conditions are required. Anthropologists
endow forms of urbanscapes with meaning, treating them as a form of communication. Inversely, claim
may be made that a lack of formal definition of urban situations results in a decrease of meaningful
communication itself, thus, as a consequence, public life withers in outdoor spaces. The quest for
methodology for description of public spaces, including their physical form, becomes crucial in this
perspective. The description of culture based differences of appearance of various outdoor spaces
requires detailed analyses of cues pertaining to the notion of atmosphere perceived in distinguishable
settings. The current paper conveys some entry points to a more systematic exploration of public spaces.

Key Words: Urban design, public spaces, urban morphology, eclosure .

Introduction

The Postmodernist shift of approach towards research in the field of urban design requires the
development of an exploratory framework for the epistemology of the public realm. The current
paper aims at a trial to review the main threads related to the epistemology of urban open
spaces. While studies in urban morphology have flourished recently, after the period of
Modernist stagnation the paucity of theory on morphology of urban open spaces is still
perceivable. Morphologists recognise that "(...) the city or town can be 'read' and analysed via
the medium of its physical form" at the same time pointing at the tight and dynamic
interrelationship of urban structures shaping and being shaped by social and economic forces
(Vernez Moudon 1997, p.7).
In order to establish the epistemological position at the outset, it is necessary to recognise the
lack of theory which may convey the explanation of relations between the way people use open
urban spaces and their physical form. Gauthier and Gilliland (2006, p.44 after Levy, 1999, p.
79) suggest that comprehension of the urban fabric in terms of ‘urban form’ should assume
treating elements of urban structure as linked together and creating a whole, governed by an
‘internal’ logic. This postulate recalls the structuralist position within anthropological research,
namely the concept of 'the order of orders' discussed by Lévi-Strauss (p.332).
The requirement to include culture related aspects of urban structures into the normative
theory of urban design should be recognised. The author tries to fill in this gap, in the quest for
common threads enabling the commensurability of the theoretical framework of anthropological
studies and the epistemological approach of urban design and urban morphology. This paper
identifies some threads in urban design writing which refer directly to the description of urban
settings that may be characterised as culture related. It looks for theirs overlap with
anthropological theory, namely the structuralist approach presented by Levi-Strauss as well as
ideas developed by the archaeology of space.
The paper is organised as follows: after this introduction, the explanation of structuralist
theory is presented with regard to urban settings. Further on, a review of urban design writing is
1152

performed. The last section discusses the perceived overlap of the two theories and potential
future research avenues. It also summarises conclusions from the paper.

Links between anthropology and studies of urban morphology

Levi-Strauss attributes different aspects of social life to the unconscious activity of the mind,
which consists in imposing forms upon content (p.30). He discusses "(...) interpreting society as
a whole in terms of a theory of communication" (p.89). This endeavour may be undertaken on
three levels: the rules of kinship and marriage, economic rules and linguistic rules. (p.89). In his
opinion, it is legitimate to search for homologies between these levels, as well as to look for
reflections of social structure in the spatial organisation of human settlements - again on various
levels (pp.290-291). He distinguishes direct and indirect communication and points at rules of
communication games which constitute an important element of culture (pp.296). Social
institutions find their projection in the space around them, which refers not only to primitive
societies but also as Levi-Strauss ephasizes: "most modern cities present spatial structures
which can be reduced to a few types and which provide certain indexes of the underlying social
structure." (p.329). He discusses "the order of orders", which "is the most abstract expression
of the interrelationships between the levels to which structural analysis can be applied."
(p.332). The question raises which physical features of urban spaces evoke what kind of notions
and how these phenomena function.
The anthropological concept of walking, elaborated by Certeau (1988, p.98) as a space of
enunciation and his comparison of the usage of space and urban structures to speaking in a
given language, provides a valuable asset for analysis of the way urban spaces are created
through embodied practices and read. A desirable harmony of urbanscapes requires congruency
of the form of structures and of human behaviour. Certeau (1988, ix) discusses a concept of
singularity – in this approach defined as the scientific study of relationship - that links everyday
pursuits to particular circumstances.

Morphological approach

The principles of morphological analyses assume analyses of the form of physical elements at
different levels of resolution and taking into account their changes in time (Vernez Moudon,
1997, p.7). The resolution of analysed structures corresponds respectively to the levels of a
building/lot, street/ urban block, city/ region. They are the subject of analyses of the three
different main schools of urban morphology: (1) Conzenian, following the thought of M.R.G.
Conzen (Whitehand, 2001) - mainly British and German, although developed as well in the
neighbouring countries, (2) Italian, continuing the tradition of Muratori (Cataldi et al, 2002) and
(3) French, started by Panerai and others (Panerai et al, 2009).
The classification of research in urban morphology (Gauthier, Gilliland, 2006) places the
oeuvre of morphologists, who incline towards an anthropological method (Rapoport, 1969,
1990, 2003; Rykwert, 1989; Mumford, 1989; Lynch, 1994), on the border between the cognitive
and normative approach, which provides characteristics both of existing places and looks for
normative theory in the field of urban design. Detailed analyses of open urban spaces were
conducted as an element of plot profile analyses by the French school of urban morphology,
such as studies of tenements in Versaille by Castex and Celeste (Panerais et al, 1974).
The recognition and characteristics of elements of urban structures as defined by Lynch
(1960), namely: nodes, paths, regions, edges and landmarks, introduces analyses of outdoor
spaces from the cognitive point of view, in a more holistic approach. Lynch and Rodwin (1991,
p.361) distinguished two basic classes of urban structures: the built up plots and open outdoor
spaces. When looking for the description of 'a system of activity pattern' they point at the
requirement to concentrate on two basic aspects: flows of men and goods and spatial patterns of
 1153

'localized activities', including: exchange, recreation, sleeping and production. When

concentrating on physical patterns, this breakdown may be transpositioned to the description of
the physical form: "(a) the flow system, excluding the flow itself; and (b) the distribution of
adapted space, primarily sheltered space.” (Lynch and Rodwin 1991, p.361) . In the first group
there are roads, paths, pipes, wires, canals and rail lines - that is all the elements which “are
designed to facilitate the flow of people, goods, waste, or information". The second type
consists of all spaces that "have been adapted in some way to be useful for someone or several
significant non-circulatory activities.” (Lynch and Rodwin 1991, p.361-362). In this group,
apart from urban structures, understood as volumes, there are also the open spaces of squares,
markets, streets, parks, etc.

Definition of enclosure

The notion of enclosure should be evoked here as it constitutes a physical representation of

open, publicly accessible, outdoor space. It has been present in the language of description of
landscapes since 1235, that is since the Statute of Merton (Holmes 1910, p.479). It further
developed on the ground of landscape architecture. In the classic handbook by Hubbard and
Kimball (1917, after Böhm 2004, p.12) inclosure or enclosure is defined as a result of plan
composition, which provides, thanks to the introduction of proper divisions, an impression of
interior regardless of the location of an observer. Ashihara (1983, p.34) underlines the
importance of walls in western culture. Ramparts of medieval castles created a "centripetal
order ruled by the wall".
Outdoor spaces are physically delimited by a boundary consisting of facades of buildings,
fences, greenery, etc. The void defined in this way is an element commonly perceived as a
physical manifestation of a public realm, thus, may be considered as providing an opportunity to
apply a theoretical framework stemming from anthropological studies and urban morphology.
Cullen (2008, p.29) describes enclosure as “the most powerful, the most obvious, of all the
devices to instill this sense of position, of identity with the surroundings.” He emphasizes the
role of enclosure in defining the idea of Hereness. In this context the concept of place which is
distinguished from space by means of meaning and recognition (Tuan, p.73) acquires more
physical shape. The singularity of definition is one of the features enhancing the 'imageability'
of an urban environment which is strongly emphasised by Lynch (1960) for whom the
sharpness of a boundary or presence of an enclosure is one of the possible ways how singularity
may be achieved.
Ashihara (1981) discusses concepts of positive and negative space, in which tensions are
directed respectively inward on the centre or outward from the centre. He claims that, from the
viewpoint of space theory, planning is an activity which consists of the determination of
boundaries and then building of an order inward, towards the centre. Many postmodernist
theoreticians point out the same distinction. Krier (2011, p.169-170) rejects public spaces
created without a conscious concept of definition of boundaries (N-type) as accidental and
chaotic.
Streets as well as squares, piazas, etc., conversely to 'empty ground in the Gestalt scheme' of
wide spaces between buildings in mass-scale modernist planning, may demonstrate the qualities
of Gestalt figures, in this case the boundary, which separates the interior and exterior space,
becomes the 'inside wall' of the enclosure (Ashihara 1981, pp.141-142). Observation by Norberg-
Schulz confirms that in order to become a true form, the street must possess a ‘figural character’
(Norberg-Schulz, 1963, p.83, after Ashihara 1981, p.142).
Space is experienced in a dynamic way, urbanscapes are examined from an endless number
of viewpoints along with movement of an observer through sets of consecutive enclosures. The
return of sequential analyses of urbanscapes, which address perception from a pedestrian
perspective, including changes in observer position - that is perception in time - started with
Sitte (1996). In parallel, the continuation of the British Picturesque tradition was developed by
1154

Cullen (2008), who referred to more subtle notions, that is, visual perception, but also to other
parameters of settings, including multi-sensual perception: tactile, acoustics, smells, etc. Further
more contemporary development of the theory in the Anglo-Saxon tradition has been carried out
by, e.g., Venturi et al. (2001) with regard to urban strips.
Nowadays concentration on the human perception of cityscape has become quite a common
approach within a field of urban design. This group of analyses also contains psycho-
geographical examinations of a cityscape, (e.g.: Debord, 1955, Nold, 2009). The current shift
from the 2d approach to planning of urban areas, towards emphasis of perception from the
pedestrian’s perspective is another reason for the increased attention paid to the appearance of
'spaces between buildings' (Gehl, 1987).

Culture related character of public spaces

Ashihara (1981, 1983) pays attention to the differences between the appearances of public
spaces in various cultural contexts. In his work (1983) he concentrates on the way outdoor space
is approached in Japanese culture and European tradition, namely Italian. The obvious
distinction between Japanese culture, with its characteristic visual incorporation of external
spaces into interiors, and Western spatial order (Ashihara 1983, p.34) indicates the presence of
various "spatial orders". More detailed analyses allow us to notice the much less obvious
distinctions, which express themselves in variations of rhythms of facades, heights of buildings,
their distribution and distance from streets, ways how streets profiles and silhouettes are shaped,
etc. These observations are congruent with Rapoport (1990, p.89) who claims that “the ordering
principles of fixed-feature arrangements have meaning, although one group’s order may be
another’s disorder”. Lynch and Rodwin (1991, p.355) point at the custom as one of the reasons
for “choice of form” in the design process.
Rapoport (1990, p.49) argues that one of the channels of visual communication is the built
environment and emphasises its meaning (1990, p.91). He points at the presence of 'visible and
stable cultural categories' made by physical elements and moreover he states that there is the
possibility to decode the meaning of urban settings under the condition that 'they match people’s
schemata.' (Rapoport 1990, p.15).

Anthropological perspective

The anthropological approaches confirm the observation expressed above. According to Hall
(1989): "structures provide context, which enables communication". People must have the
ability to interpret codes embodied in the built environment which is possible when they
represent the same culture. The factor which intercedes between the cognitive absorption of
perceived visual stimuli and the creation of new environment is visual awareness. Hall (1966)
distinguished three main types of elements which undergo changes as a result of a culture
specific communication processes: (1) fixed-feature, (2) semifixed-feature, (3) nonfixed-feature
ones. The way fixed-feature elements are organised, their spatiality, size, location and
arrangement transform meaning, especially in traditional cultures. The territorial distribution
and exchange of nonverbal cues serves the communication purpose and usually certain
semantics may be attributed to it (Goffman, 1959). Anthropologists developed elaborated theory
on ways in which a site is converted into a meaningful ‘place’, by inscribing human activities
into the surroundings.
Important indications on how physical settings may be 'read' and understood may come from
the field of archaeology, where anthropological theory and practice are being abundantly
developed (Hodder, Hutson, 2010). Special attention is given to the notion of meaning of
material culture objects: "the idea of meaning is making sense of the situation" (p.157).
 1155

Following Hodder, all objects of material culture, including physical settings, are entangled in
some activities and it is impossible to consider them separately (Hodder, 2012).

The overlap of theories coming from the two disciplines

The concept of situation, which is essential for current considerations, was defined in the 1920s
as a “constellation of the factors determining the behaviour” (Thomas, 1937, p.8 after
Schumacher, 2011, p.420). Goffman (1959, p.18) explains the notion of situation as “the full
spatial environment anywhere within which an entering person becomes a member of the
gathering that is (or does then become) present”. The term is understood in anthropology as a
theatre of human activities (Perinbanayagam, 1974). In the morphological approach, the above
concept is reflected by the notion of habitus (Panerai et al, 2009) characterised by a set of
identifiable cues, which may be qualified as culture-specific. They refer to physical space,
including features like: “quality, size, shape, enclosing elements, paving, barriers, and links,
etc.” (Rapoport, 1990, p.106). Rapoport emphasises the role of physical settings “(...) it is the
social situation that influences people’s behaviour, but it is the physical environment that
provides the cues.” (Rapoport 1990, p.57)
The relationship between people and sites encompasses both: attaching meaning to space and
“recognition and cultural elaboration of perceived properties of environments in mutually
constituting ways through narrative and praxis” (Lawrence, Low, 2009, p.14). Hillier and
Hansen (1984, p.224) ponder on the method of investigation of encounters as morphic languages,
concluding that the aim is to establish how encounter systems acquire differential properties
which would have different manifestations in space. Hiller emphasises the role of human
cognition in the creation of cities, at the same time also pointing at the culture based differences
in their structure (Hiller, 2009). His research, in cooperation with ethnographer Jean Cuisenier
(Depaule 1995, p.30), encompasses the relation between urban composition and 'social logic of
space'.
The social cues discussed hereto may be twofold. First they are related with some prescribed
rituals, unique for a given community and thus belong to conscious activities. Second, the
nonverbal communication cues associated with the group behaviours and proxemics issues,
including interpersonal distances and distribution of people in communication situations, affect
the form of physical settings as well (Hall, 2009). The claim is made that the rules which govern
the non-verbal communication component of the human group behaviour, its intrinsic
organisation and arrangement, constitute the internal order which lies behind distribution of cues
in urban settings. They both represent the same culture of space usage.

Methodology of the description of physical spaces - state of the art

In order to make the case for a more systematic appreciation of the physical attributes of open
public space, arguing that such attributes trigger cognitive and behavioral responses associated
with deeply seated cultural meaning, a review of current practices is further provided. The basic
method of gathering data for projects both in urban planning and urban design is the inventory
and analyses of urban landscapes. Direct contact with the environment enables observation and
validation. Rapoport (1990, p.97) suggests direct observation, analyses of existing studies, and
an analysis of descriptions and the like as a method of verification of the thesis on nonverbal
communication role of the environment. He provides a comprehensive list of potential cues,
which should serve as a basis for description (1990, pp.106-107), which includes elements of
vision, sounds, smells but also social aspects, such as characteristics of people, activities and
uses and objects present in outdoor spaces.
The theoretical body for this kind of studies is derived from Lynch's theory (1960). Further
classification of the two basic categories: adapted spaces and flow systems, should pertain to the
1156

following features: (1) element types, (2) quantity, (3) density, (4) grain, (5) focal organization
and (6) generalised spatial distribution (Lynch and Rodwin 1991, p. 362-363). The typologies of
public spaces were the subject of investigations by many authors, e.g., Krier (1975) undertook a
trial to formulate a typology of squares, based on their shape and Jacobs (1995) provided an
elaborated typology of streets. Discussing these typologies in relation to the culture of usage of
space, it is necessary to take into account cognitive aspects of form, which precede the creation
of physical objects and notions which are related to these concepts (Caniggia and Maffei, 2001,
p.50).
Another characteristics of urban enclosures is connected with their proportions, which also
influence both perception and understanding of settings. Ashihara (1981, p.41) analysed
changes of proportions of street profiles in various periods. He bases his approach on the
relation of building height (H) to street width (D) and further also to the width of the facade (W)
(Ashihara 1983 p.141). The D/H factor emphasises Gestalt qualities of exterior urbanscape
composition. The qualities of contextual design advocated by disciples of Sitte's oeuvre
reendow it with proper significance.
The analogous theory of urban composition was developed in Polish architectural writings
by Wejchert (1984). He discussed a similar set of elements of urban structure to Lynch, though
based on the epistemological ground of urban composition. He is widely recognised for the
comprehensive theory of urban enclosures. He introduced the notion of central angle, defined as
an angle between a horizontal plane parallel to the floor at the height of 1,5m (the medium level
of sight for humans) and a line going through the highest point of the building defining the
closure in a given profile. The point belongs both to the silhouette line and to the cross-section.
Wejchert (1984) provides general rules for classification of enclosures basing them on the
description of heritage sites which are widely recognised for their great proportions. According
to his classification, enclosures may be divided into complex and simple, elongated and neutral
- close to square. He discussed also openings - breaks in a line of facades, which he classifies
into narrow, neutral and large, and following their content: architectural or natural. Among other
concepts defining a composition of urbanscapes, there are notions of leading and retaining
(stopping) lines and planes, rhythms, visual axes, vantage points, landscape openings, etc.
(Wejchert, 1984, Żurawski, 1962).
In order to define the understanding of a city as consisting of multifarious "sensuous
experiential orders", a concept of an atmosphere has been introduced by Böhme (2004, after
Andersen, 2012) defined as "a spatial character we experience through our bodily presence". In
the architectural praxis a "phenomenological survey" of cityscape is conducted, which allows
distillation of "sensuous quality of space", which finds further application as input standards for
transformations. Following definition by Andersen (2012), atmosphere belongs to the interstice
between an articulating physical object and a sensing human body. Böhme claims atmosphere to
be evoked by "orientation, suggestions of movement (and) markings" creating "concentrations,
directions, configurations in space." (2002/2005, after Andersen 2012). He points at four main
factors pertaining to the way an object is sensed by a human body and what emotional response
it elicits: form, colours, proportions and texture.
People develop a better understanding of the world through experience, starting from early
childhood, the abilities to assess 'gravity, hardness, surface character, thermal conductivity'
together with the geometry of shapes (Rassmusen, 1964) is acquired. This deftness is a result of
experience collected by a youngster along with the culture of usage of space. A
phenomenological survey should point out a number of properties of a buildings' facades
pertaining to an overall spatial character: (1) contour, (2) shift (like shift of cornice providing
dynamic transition between neighbouring facades), (3) colours palette, (4) profile - (e.g. of the
cornice), (5) relief, (6) plasticity - twists of line of construction, corrugation, (7) rhythm - of
facades, windows, lamp posts, etc, (8) framing as emphasis of architectural elements, (9) pattern
- touchable, increasing tactile qualities (Andersen, 2012). The above listed distinctive building
elements pertain to form, colour, proportions and texture qualities of an open space.
 1157

Conclusions and further research

The challenge, stated by Hall (1989, p.55), is that, in a globalising world, humans should
discover ways how “basic cultural systems such as time and space are used to organise
behaviour” have become popular in contemporary urban design thought, as numerous studies
show (Schumacher, 2011). At the same time, the studies of urban morphology are going through
a period of intensive revival after a break associated with the activities of modernists and attract
the attention of numerous researchers all over the world, as Gauthier and Gilliland (2006) point
to in their survey.
Outdoor open urban spaces provide settings for the social life of a community. They convey
the framework for social situations endowed with cultural meaning. The characteristics of
enclosure, including its scale, profile, definition, the character of walls and floor as well as
characteristics of space: odours, temperature, etc, make up the perceived image of these places.
The requirement to grasp the physical attributes of outdoor space in a more systematic way has
been recognised, in respect that such attributes elicit cognition embedded with cultural meaning.
The heretofore research on the character or atmosphere of urban outdoor spaces were mostly
descriptive ones and were carried out on the basis of historical studies. An extensive set of such
culture dependent features as well as some theoretical assumptions were introduced by Rapoport
(1990) and Rykwert (1989). Valuable observations referring to the quality of public spaces come
from urban design theory, namely the works of Lynch (1960), Lynch and Rodwin (1991),
Wejchert (1984), Ashihara (1981, 1983). In all this research the importance of the definition of
space in the form of enclosure is emphasised. The ability of a boundary to be read as a profile or
set of profiles based on the Gestalt theory is underlined as the one which especially influences
human perception. Some normative approaches towards the examination of urban structures
(e.g.: Andersen 2012) include phenomenological: tactile and sensual experience, essential for
perception of architecture. The creation of atmosphere which refers to the character of urban
outdoor spaces remains central in the design process.
The urban settings are the subject of elaborated research in the field of anthropology. As Hall
states (1966 p.88) “(..) settlement pattern both relates to the core values of the culture and
contrasts with the other patterns around it.” The meaning of space is explained by
contextualisation provided by the built environment which should help citizens deal with the
overload of information related to certain cultural settings. The social cues may be twofold: the
first related with some conscious activities and the second, unconscious, reflecting the group
behaviour related with proxemics. This 'spatial order' may be interpreted as a set of rules lying
behind the way urban spaces are unfolded in urban settings of various cultural backgrounds.
The necessity for more systematic research on the relations of the two spheres - human
activity and physical settings framework has been recognised. Further research is envisaged,
including different approaches to the analyses of urban silhouettes and profiles, the sequences of
views over time and the character of the buildings themselves as well as the verification of
analyses of various types of visual cues through the analyses of a case study.

Acknowledgements

The current research is financed from the National Science Centre of Poland funds, project: UMO-
2011/03/D/HS3/01630.
1158

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1160

The interaction between urban form and public art. Two

examples on Lisbon’s waterfront

Rita Ochoa
CIES.UBI/Cr Polis.UB. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract: In our contemporary cities, public art plays an important role, in urban regeneration
processes and in the construction of social identities. Its placement on the public space raises several
questions: which spaces are elected for the implementation of public art? In those spaces, what kind of
relations are established between its morphologic characteristics and the new interventions? Finally, is it
possible to identify models of placement? Despite the lack of systematization of these themes, some
authors focuses on the interaction between urban space and public art, in a framework that positions it
across different disciplines. In Lisbon, the criteria for the placement of public art are not always evident.
Most of the times, there is not a true spatial integration. In this sense, this paper proposes an analysis of
two artistic interventions, on Lisbon’s waterfront: The intervention in a viaduct, by Eduardo Nery (2003);
The work Lisbon (a tribute to the builders of the city), by José de Guimarães (1999). By the way as they
dialogue with its context, both interventions are in the opposite attitude of an understanding of public art
as decorative objects on the public space. In fact, both contribute not only to the physical, visual and
symbolic enhancement of the place, but also to the monumentalization of the waterfront.

Key Words: public space, public art, urban form, Lisbon, waterfront

Introduction

Throughout the second half of the 18th century, public art has enhanced the city’s public spaces.
In such a context, the production of monuments or smaller works like busts or statues has been
interwoven with the urban design processes. Progressively, across the 20th century, the public
art monumentalization paradigm has changed, but still the values of monumentality remained,
assuming new ways of expression. Recently, urban regeneration actions have included public
art programs as a way of providing new public spaces of symbolic contents.
The placement of public art in the city raises several questions: which spaces are elected for
its implementation? In those spaces, what kind of relations are established between its
morphologic characteristics and the new interventions? Is it possible to identify models of
placement? Finally, is it possible to relate different historical moments with certain paradigms
of monumentalization?
Despite the lack of systematization of these themes, authors such as C. Sitte (1889), Stübben
(1906), Jaussely (1907), Hegemann & Peets (1922) and more recently Kostof (1991), focuses
on the interaction between urban form and the placement of monuments, in a framework that
positions public art across different disciplines.
In our contemporary cities, some spaces seem to have a greater readiness to host public art
interventions. Thus, it appears frequently in historic centres, in areas of urban sprawl, in gardens
and parks, in new residential districts, among others.
In port cities, the inherently symbolic nature of waterfronts makes them privileged spaces for
the placement of public art, and Lisbon is no exception (Remesar, 2002; Ochoa, 2012). Its
waterfront is a large repository of built heritage. This display of Lisbon and that of Portuguese
legacy contains historical and emotional value that reinforced the strong symbolic character
enclosed in the city’s waterfront. As a result, not only the city’s identity is bounded in this area
but the nation’s character as well.
 1161

Retrospectively, and directing now a perspective upon chronological events, Lisbon has
hosted two significant events that both enclosed ambitions of affirming national identity in two
very different political contexts (Matos, 2013).
The first was the Exhibition of the Portuguese World, held in Belem in 1940, that celebrated
the Nation with two centennial events: the eight hundred years of the Foundation of the
Portuguese State (1140) and the four hundred years since the Restoration of the Independence
(1640). The once densely industrialised area transformed into a cultural and leisure area, which
promoted great symbolic expression through several emblematic buildings and monuments
related to the Portuguese discoveries.
Almost six decades later in 1998, the Lisbon World Exposition (Expo’98) took place on the
eastern side of Lisbon that celebrated the wonder of the discoveries with the theme ‘the Oceans,
a Heritage for the Future’. Expo’98 also aimed at rehabilitating a long extension of obsolete and
disjointed areas in Lisbon leading to the creation of a new centrality.
The public space network that is enclosed within Lisbon’s waterfront offers a wide range of
opportunities for public life, socialisation and communality. As an example, recent investments
took place that resulted in urban renewal and rehabilitation projects165 within various particular
areas of the waterfront. In particular, one can address the examples of: (i) the construction of the
new ‘Museu dos Coches’ near Belém166; (ii) the new public space of ‘Ribeira das Naus’167 next
to Praça do Comércio; and, (ii) although still in its initial phases, the cruise terminal at Campo
das Cebolas168, offering a greater and wider variety of public spaces.
As previously discussed, Lisbon’s waterfront is a privileged space for the placement of
public art and, in particular, monuments of strong symbolic nature. In turn, the placement of
public art is also a way to value the inherently symbolic nature of the waterfronts and to
emphasise its monumentality169. A predominant example of this is the strategic placement of the
Equestrian Statue of D. José I170 in Praça do Comércio (as part of the ‘Baixa Reconstruction
Plan’171), in clear owe and representation of the King’s power. This monument is currently a
symbol of the city, due firstly to its referential value, and secondly because of its relation with
the surrounding urban space. Furthermore, other relationships are of particular interest such as
that with the square, and with the Tagus River. Lastly, its surrounding permeability is of
significant value owing to its monumental axis of articulation with the riverfront, and from
Rossio (also reconstructed by the same plan) to Cais das Colunas (at the same time, a physical
and symbolic entrance door to the city).

The monumentalization of Lisbon’s waterfront. Two examples of public art integration

Along Lisbon’s waterfront, one can find a wide variety of works of public art, regarding its
physical characteristics (scale, size, shape, materials, colours, and so on) and also the type of

165
Initially lead by ‘Sociedade Frente Tejo S.A.’ and succeeded by the municipality of Lisbon.
166
Architecture: Paulo Mendes da Rocha + mmbb + Bak Gordon Arquitectos; project date: 2008-2009.
167
Project Consortium: João Gomes da Silva GLOBAL, João Ferreira Nunes and Carlos Ribas PROAP;
project date: 2009.
168
Architecture: Carrilho da Graça Arquitectos; project date: 2010.
169
However, it is important to remember that the monumentalisation of the waterfront is, in many cities,
conflicting. As S. Kostof states, ‘the issue of monumentalizing the water’s edges is complicated by
functional arguments. To the extent that a river is a working watercourse with a port, there is a definite
conflict between those who make use of it for trade-related activities and those who would turn into a
work of art’ (Kostof, 2005: 41).
170
This statue was executed in 1775 by Joaquim Machado de Castro, according to previous drafts by
Eugénio dos Santos.
171
After the Earthquake of 1755, the Reconstruction Plan of Baixa is directed by Eugénio dos Santos and
guided by Sebastião José de Carvalho e Melo (Marquês de Pombal). The new Praça do Comércio
redesigned the previous Terreiro do Paço, through a U-shaped square, open to Tagus River.
1162

relationship established with the respective public spaces (Ochoa, 2012). However, the criteria
for the placement of public art are not always evident. In some cases, there are thematic
correspondences between the works and the respective places, but most of the times there is not
a true spatial integration. Finding this sense of integration, it is here proposed an analysis of two
interventions on Lisbon’s waterfront:
1. The “Intervention in a viaduct”, by Eduardo Nery (2003);
2. The work “Lisbon (a tribute to the builders of the city)”, by José de Guimarães (1999).
Both artistic interventions are positioned at the intersection between the waterfront and the
urban axes which give access to it (Fig. 1). However, as the physical characteristics of the works
are also quite different, the relationship with the place is also expressed in very distinct ways.

Figure 1. The placement of the two analysed works, at the intersection between the
waterfront and the urban axes which give access to it. (From top to bottom): a)
“Intervention in a viaduct”; b) “Lisbon (a tribute to the builders of the city)”.

The Nery's intervention starts on Avenida Infante Santo and integrates two types of
situations (Fig. 2): i) the application of a composition of tiles in some of the walls that define the
access to the waterfront, between Avenida Infante Santo and Avenida da Cintura do Porto; ii)
the painting of the viaduct and its walkways, on Avenida 24 de Julho.

Figure 2. “Intervention in a viaduct”, by Eduardo Nery (2003)

Although it is also visible from the walkways, this work is more related with the roadway. It
is important to note the continuity of this work with a sequence of other interventions, from
several artists, on the beginning of Avenida Infante Santo. By the way that it stands along this
path, all this set of public art interventions has the effect of underlining this axe of connection
with the water.
In this underlined structure, the public art emphasizes the waterfront along the axis of access
to it. One detail of this work is the application of colour on the viaduct. Thus, rather than
accentuate the view of the water, public art also underlines/highlights the way to get to it.
By this way, public art has her a direct relationship with the place of which it belongs. In this
case, it is not about existing or not an interaction with the urban space; or of the work being
thought to be located on that place. This work could never be replaced, simply because it is in
direct relation to the walls of the Avenida Infante Santo and with the viaduct. We cannot
 1163

imagine it any other place. Thus, this is undoubtedly a case of public art’s integration with its
surroundings.
Its abstract character does not have any theme or memory recall. However, without this
intervention, the viaduct would certainly have a different expression on urban space. Thus, this
intervention has as effect a enhancement of that place, defining a first paradigm of interaction
between public art and urban space: the highlighting of a place through public art.
The José de Guimarães intervention is located at the Praça 25 de Abril (next to Doca do
Poço do Bispo) and consists on a set that integrates (Fig. 3): i) a sculpture with strong colors
(red, green and white); ii) a pedestal with seven steps; iii) a pavement design.
The sculpture is aligned with the access axis to the waterfront and centred on the square. The
physical characteristics of the work (the scale, the strong colours and the fact that it is very
elevated in the square, through the 7 steps) and the physical characteristics of the axis (based on
a straight line and descending towards the waterfront) provide a visualisation of the water, along
the route. As in Eduardo Nery’s intervention, public art has also a constant view along that
route, although differently: here configuring a fixed point, at the end of it.
The descending towards the water has also as a consequence that, in the beginning of the
axe, the sculpture and the water are at the level of the eyes. As we descend, the sculpture, that
represents a seated woman, goes up, relatively to the horizon line, until in a certain point where
she is "seated" on the water.
The pavement design is only visible in its nearby, after arriving to Praça 25 de Abril. Only
from a higher level – after climbing the 7 steps – it is possible to perceive the drawings in the
floor.

Figure 3. “Lisbon (a tribute to the builders of the city)”, by José de Guimarães (1999).

The place of this intervention as the designation of “square”. However, as it is possible to

confirm in the territory, this space doesn't function as a real square, because it has no
permanence on it; in practice, it works like a roundabout. We know the existence of the project
Jardins de Braço de Prata, contemporary to this artistic intervention and that supposed
1164

collaboration between the Sculptor José de Guimarães and the Architect Renzo Piano. Perhaps,
that project would include another kind of space experience, or even another kind of work
placement.
In terms of placement in urban space, this work has similarities with the previously
mentioned Equestrian Statue of D. José I. Both works are placed on a pedestal, in a square near
the water, and both are not exactly centred on the respective squares, they are rather closer to
the water, probably with the intention of favouring his framing. However, if D. José I has an
“advocativo” sense (Remesar, 2011), in a clear owe and representation of the King’s power, the
work Lisbon is a tribute to the builders of the city, but also to the city itself.
With a strong symbolic content, the tribute to the builders of the city also chose an emblematic
place in the city. Being Lisbon a riverside town, the choice of the waterfront, next to one of the
entrances to contemporary event “Expo'98”, seems very intentional. Thus, we have a celebration
of Lisbon and of its builders through the placement of this the work, in that site. On the other
hand, the site is also celebrated, through the work.
i) The creation and the design of a new public space (a square in the waterfront); ii) the
decision on the placement of the work; iii) and finally, the work itself; all these aspects define a
second paradigm of interaction between public art and urban space: the celebration of
something that establishes a symbolic relationship with a place, through public art.

Conclusions

Waterfronts are privileged spaces for the placement of public art. However, in Lisbon, the
criteria for its placement are not always evident. Most of the works do not profound the
relationship with the place. Few situations promote a true morphologic and visual symbiosis
between the public art and its context, limiting it to some thematic associations.
Also the time lag between the making of the works and their placement in the public space,
or the removals and dislocations of some works (Ochoa, 2012), sometimes to completely
different contexts, confirm that the relationship with the place is not always considered.
In the opposite attitude of an understanding of public art as decorative objects, the two
analyzed examples represent an interaction with the place, according to two distinct paradigms:
The highlighting of a place through public art (“Intervention in a viaduct”);
The celebration of something (a fact, an event, an important person) that have a symbolic
relationship with a place, through public art (“Lisbon (a tribute to the builders of the city)”).
These two ways of public art integration relate not only to the waterfront (horizontal logic),
but also with the axes of articulation with the city (vertical logic). Both contribute not only to
the physical, visual and symbolic enhancement of the place, but also to the monumentalization
of the waterfront.
We finally conclude that, although the placement depending on the thematic – trough the
toponymy, or trough the association of certain persons or facts to a place – already represents a
way of symbiosis between public art and its environment, its implementation in the urban space
should seek for a deeper integration; promoting, whenever possible, relations with the urban
morphology, but also with the social reality to intervene. Public art should be it in relation to its
environment, not as an isolated object. Its integration in the urban space and the dialogue with
its physical and social context are essential for the construction of meanings in the city.

References

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 1165

Kostof, S. (1999) [1991] The city shaped. Urban patterns and meanings through history (Thames and
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Lisbon’s Waterfront’, unpublished manuscript, lecture presented at the Honors Society, Franklin
College, Lugano, Switzerland.
Ochoa, R. (2012) Cidade e frente de água. Papel articulador do espaço público (Universidade de
Barcelona, Barcelona).
Remesar, A. (2002) ‘Waterfronts and public art: a problem of language’, On the Waterfront 3, 3-26
(http://www.ub.edu/escult/Water/water3/artsdev.pdf) acessed 21 June 2013.
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Seminar A Rua de TODOS [CD].
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1166

The impact of urban form on wind energy potential

B. Wang1 , L.D. Cot2, L. Adolphe3, S. Geoffroy1, J. Morchain4

1
Université de Toulouse, UPS, INSA, LMDC (Laboratoire Matériaux et Durabilité
des Constructions), 135, Avenue de Rangueil, 31077 Toulouse, France.
2
Université de Toulouse, UPS, INSA, ISAE, ENSTIMAC, ICA (Institut Clément
Ader), 3 rue Caroline Aigle, 31400 Toulouse CEDEX, France.
3
Université de Toulouse, ENSA, LRA (Laboratoire de Recherche en Architecture),
83, Rue Aristide Maillol, BP 10629, 31106 Toulouse, France.
4
Université de Toulouse, INSA, LISBP (Laboratoire d’Ingénierie des Systèmes
Biologiques et des Procédés), 135, Avenue de Rangueil, 31077 Toulouse, France.
E-mails: [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected], [email protected], jerome.morchain@insa-
toulouse.fr.

Abstract. Developing wind energy in built environment is an old topic for sustainable city dwellers. With
improvement of computer science, CFD simulation with complex building configuration or city models
becomes accessible. This paper tries to analyse urban wind energy potential by urban form research.
Two groups of idealized models were experimented for analysis of the impact of building size
configuration and courtyard configuration in a semi-urban environment. Results show that the impact of
building length on wind potential over the roof is much important than the building width. In addition,
three typical urban form types in community scale were chosen and a set of morphological indicators
were defined. The cross-comparison on wind energy capacity over the whole examined area for each
urban tissues was taken. The great difference of wind energy capacity over different urban morphology
features and different wind inlet directions confirmed the important impact of urban form on wind
potential layout.

Key Words: urban morphology, CFD, urban wind energy.

Introduction

Increasing need of energy resources and great environment problems caused by over-used fossil
fuel, demand for the development of renewable energy. Wind electricity as a relatively cheap
green energy has been well developed over last two decades. According to the Eurobserv'ER
Database, global wind power capacity at the end of 2013 has been multiplied by 18 times from
2000. However, most of the wind turbines are located in rural or off-shore areas. Favorable zone
for future development is getting fewer and fewer. Their extra drawbacks like over-production
for accessible consumers and great loss in long-distance transportation, propel new wind energy
adapted to urban environment. In fact, some European countries have made great efforts to the
research of wind energy for built environment since 1990's. In 1998, a project named WEB
(Wind Energy for the Built Environment) was launched and a new architectural and
aerodynamic model was invented as the prototype of UWECS (Urban Wind Energy Conversion
Systems) (Campbell and Stankovic, 2001). Later, another European Commission project named
WINEUR (Wind energy integration in the urban environment) were elected for more detailed
investigation of wind energy development in an urban environment, like suggestions for turbine
installation, economic analysis and detection of potential social problems of small wind
generators in urban areas (Cace et al. 2007). Apart from the projects mentioned which are rather
oriented towards an overview of the real world situation (market, policy, social and economic
 1167

aspects), other research has explored the technical domains such as wind turbine design and
application (Mertens, 2006; Chong et al., 2013).
With the great rugosity of urban context, urban environment usually has great turbulence and
low velocity. However, some special building configurations can have concentrate wind flow,
e.g. building edges, passage between two buildings. Research found that, ‘the concentration
effect of buildings and the heights of buildings could enhance wind power utilization by
increasing the wind power density by 3–8 times under the given simulation conditions’ (Lu and
Ip, 2009). High buildings are among the most favourable sites to capture wind energy, where
the wind can be much stronger and less turbulent than lower levels. Increasing researches are
aiming at roof mounted wind turbines (Blackmore, 2008; Mithraratne, 2009; Ledo, 2011;
Balduzzib, 2012; Bashirzadeh Tabrizi et al., 2014) and high-rise building wind catcher (Lu et
al., 2009; Poh and Fazlizan, 2012; Lu and Sun, 2014). In addition, new wind turbine technology
like Darrieus Turby model, and some successful examples of architecture integrated wind
turbines like Strata SE1 tower in London, have shown great confidence for future urban wind
energy.
Urban morphology is the study of urban form, which is defined by Kevin Lynch as a part of
generally identified urban area corresponding to a homogeneous area in morphological point of
view (Lynch 1960). As great urbanisation processing and complex urban system immerging,
urban morphology becomes a popular and effective method in the domain of urban planning.
Like the built form, urban form can also be determined by two forces: physical and non-
physical environment (Sharag-Eldin, 1998). In fact, in the physical environment, urban form is a
important impact in city problems like energy consumption and development (Ratti et al.,
2005), wind comfort (Bottema, 1993; Ng et al., 2011), air pollution (Edussuriya, 2006; Sun et
al., 2012), etc. With the development of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) technology,
wind simulation in complex built environment is becoming possible. Even though there exits
still problems like turbulence model instability, inexactitude or divergence, many numerical
simulations work well and validated by wind tunnel results. Actually, some Best Practice
Guidelines (BPG) have been given for the case of wind flow in a built environment by
researchers through their rich CFD simulation experiences (Franke et al., 2004, 2007; Tominaga
et al., 2008, Blocken et al., 2007, 2012). With CFD simulation, Campos-Arriaga (2009)
analysed the optimisation of wind energy development for a specific urban site. Bell (2011) has
explored more on wind energy development in urban environment like CFD simulation, turbine
design and some sites evaluation. All these literature will be a good reference for our further
research on wind energy development with urban morphology. In this paper, a well used CFD
code -- FLUENT is used for analysing the impact of morphological indicators on wind flow
around some idealised urban tissues, and then some real urban tissues in community scale were
chosen for more presentation and discussion.

Simulation settings and validation

To ensure a satisfactory result of a simulation, reasonable settings are of great importance. In

this sense, a careful parameter study of CFD code was taken before start a simulation for urban
morphology. Actually, a benchmark was applied with one of the wind-tunnel experiments
performed by the Architectural Institute of Japan (Yoshie et al., 2007). The test model was a
building of width 5 m* length 20 m* height 20 m with a scale Rs = 1 : 100 for the tunnel test.
Inlet flow data was simplified as a power law:
U = U0 (Z⁄H )α (1-1)
0
where U is the inlet velocity at height Z, U0 = 7,84 m/s is the reference velocity (horizontal,
of axis X) at height H0 = 100 m and α = 0,25 is the power law exponent. There were 109 test
points in the central vertical section parallel to the wind (Figure 1).
1168

1 14 20 26 32 45 58 71 84 97 350 [mm]

2 15 21 27 33 46 59 72 85 98 300
3 16 22 28 34 47 60 73 86 99 275
4 17 23 29 35 48 61 74 87 100 250
5 18 24 30 36 49 62 75 88 101 225
6 19 25 31 37 50 63 76 89 102 210.
7 38 51 64 77 90 103 200
8 39 52 65 78 91 104 175

9 40 53 66 79 92 105 150

10 41 54 67 80 93 106 100

11 42 55 68 81 94 107 50

12 43 56 69 82 95 108 12.5
13 44 57 70 83 96 109 5
－75 －25 0 25 50 100 200 300 400 550 [mm]

Figure 1. Schematic view of tunnel test model (left), vertical section (Y=0m) and its 109
test. points (right)

The ANSYS 12.0 Workbench integrated with FLUENT was used for the CFD simulation. 57
tests were conducted for choosing the proper parameters in geometry, mesh, boundary
condition, turbulence models and solution method. Best parameters were chosen under the
balance of time cost and comparative errors. 𝑘 − 𝜖 Standard model for the turbulence
calculation with double precision and 2 order discretization solution were used finally. The
diagram of Figure 2 is a velocity comparison in the central-line section between the ones
measured in the experiment and the ones calculated in the CFD simulation, applied with the best
parameters found from the study. Note that the horizontal distance from the vertical base line
(grey, where locate the test points, as also shown in Figure 1) represents the magnitude of the
velocity and a reference length of 5 m/s is given. Results to the right of the base line signify
positive values and results to the left are negative. Agreement between the CFD simulation and
the experiment is generally rather good. Then these parameter settings were maintained for
forward simulations, except for some necessary adaptive modifications like domain size change
or mesh number control when modelling a large urban form.

Figure 2. Velocity comparison between experiment and CFD simulation in the vertical
section.
 1169

Simulation of idealised forms

Before working with actual complex urban tissue, some idealised models were considered to
analyse the relationship between the wind flow and building configuration. Here a test reference
model with a group of building units (width 12 m* length 30 m* height 20 m) was chosen.
Wind domain and building dispositions are presented in Figure 3. Note that the group of
buildings is symmetrical on the central line, parallel to the wind inlet direction. However, the
distances between each row are not all the same. Actually, we did that in expecting for some
more various results, as chose the stagering pattern. Wind energy over the roof is the main
evaluation object. Two altitudes (5 m and 10 m, over the roof) were considered and the
calculation zone was the projecting size of the building plan (Figure 3, right). Considering the
analysis of the wind intensity over different altitudes with different wind velocity, the velocity
rate U/UH is used where U is the model wind velocity and UH is the reference velocity in the
free wind (same environment but without building) of the same altitude.

Figure 3. Wind domain (left), building disposition in plan (middle), evaluation zone over
the roof (right).

Impact of building size

To analyze the impact of building size on the wind flow, we considered five models with
different building size (length and width) for all the 24 buildings of each group. Another four
models with different size configurations only for the central 12 buildings were compared. An
extra model (A') which cuts down the central four buildings each into three small parts in the
same environment is compared with the reference model. New building sizes and different
densities (building coverage ratio) were given (Figure 4). All the buildings are at the same
height.

Figure 4. Models in plan with different building size configurations and densities.
1170

By averaging the velocity rates (U/UH) over all the central 12-building roofs in two
evaluation altitudes, the differences among the different groups can be seen (Figure 5): (i) For
the modification of fragmentation within the same space, the sum of wind potential over the
roof shows less than before (between A and A'). (ii) For the models with different building
lengths facing the wind (A, B, C and A, B', C'), the one with shorter length buildings (therefore
a smaller density) has higher wind potential over the roofs. Moreover, the wind flow in central
zone was greatly influenced by the peripheral buildings, as the change amplitude of the wind
velocity ratio from group B to C is much larger than that from group B’ to C’. (iii) Among the
models with different building widths (A, D, E and A, D', E'), the differences of wind velocity
over the roofs are very small, and the changing tendency is not clear. (iv) For the pairs of
models with the same building densities (B and D, or C and E), the model with a smaller
building length (B and E’) has always a higher wind velocity ratio, that is to say, the impact of
the building length is much more influential than that of the building width.

0,850
0,800
0,750
0,700
U/UH

0,650 Z=10
0,600 m
0,550
0,500
0,450
A 20% A' 20% B 13% C 30% D 13% E 30% B' C' D' E'

Figure 5. Average wind velocity rate for different building-size group models.

Impact of courtyard

To analyze the impact of courtyard on the wind flow, we considered six models with different
courtyard configurations in partial or whole of the buildings for each group. The sizes of
courtyards and different porosities (compared with reference group) were given (Figure 6). All
the courtyards are down to floor.

Figure 6. Models in plan with different courtyard configurations and porosities.

By averaging the velocity rates (U/UH) over all the building roofs in two evaluation altitudes,
the differences among the different groups can be seen (Figure 7): (i) Generally, the models
with partial courtyard-buildings (B, C and D) are less windy over the roofs than the reference
model without courtyard; (ii) Models with all courtyard-buildings (E and F) are slightly windier
than the reference model without courtyard. In addition, the model with small courtyards and
small porosity has a higher wind velocity than the one with big courtyards; (iii) Between the
models with the same courtyard porosity (D and E), the one with all buildings installed
 1171

courtyards is much more windy over the roofs than the one with only partial building installed
courtyards.

0,850

0,800
Z=10
U/UH

0,750
m
0,700

0,650
(A)0% (B)2.5% (C)5% (D)10% (E)10% (F)20%

Figure 7. Average wind velocity rate for different courtyard group models.

Simulation of real urban tissues

Morphological indicators

For the issue of wind energy evaluation, we chose only some morphological indicators that have
close relationship with wind flow. Hence, apart from well-known urban planning indicators like
Building coverage ratio (CR) and Building floor area ratio (FAR), Average building height,
rugosity, Porosity and Occlusivity are used for extra analysis. The definitions are given as
follows:

(1) Building average height, the average height of all the buildings in discussion.
̅=
𝐻 𝐹𝐴𝑅 ∗ ∆𝐻⁄ (1-2)
𝐶𝑅
where ∆𝐻 is the average height of a story, usually taken as 3 m.

(2) Rugosity, a parameter to describe the roughness of a surface to resist the free wind.
Absolute rugosity is the average obstacle height over the whole examined area.
̅ ∗ 𝐶𝑅
𝑅𝑢 = 𝐻 (1-3)

(3) Porosity (absolute), a ratio of the emptiness volume to the entire volume.
∑ 𝑉 + 𝑘 ∑𝑖 𝑉𝑐⁄
𝑃𝑜 = 𝑖 𝑜 𝑉 (1-4)

where 𝑉𝑜 is the volume of a open space (street, park, etc.), 𝑉𝑐 is the volume of a courtyard, 𝑘
is the openness coefficient of the courtyard and 𝑉 is the whole canopy volume of the examined
urban area.

(4) Occlusivity, a parameter of the distribution of the built to un-built perimeter against
height.
∑𝑖 𝐿𝑏
∑𝑁 ( ⁄𝐿 )
𝑜⁄
𝑂𝑐 = 𝑁

(1-5)
1172

where 𝐿𝑏 is the perimeter of a building in the horizontal section and 𝐿𝑜 is the perimeter of
the correpondent non-built area in the same section, 𝑁 is the number of horizontal sections.
(Adolphe 2001)
Here we choose three different types of urban tissue from three different cities of the world:
Barcelona, Toulouse and Bombay. A community scale of 450 m * 450 m is taken for analysis
(Figure 8). The information for each form case is given in the Table 1. The general initial
conditions are all the same for the three and the validated simulation parameters mentioned
above were applied. Local climates were neglected and a 360° round of inlet directions of every
45° were used for analysing an average impact of urban form on wind potential accumulation.

Figure 8. Different urban tissues in plan (from left to right : Barcelona, Toulouse,
Bombay).

Table 1. Urban form information for each tissue

Barcelona Toulouse Bombay

Urban form type City centre core Collective residential area Individual building area
CR 56.87% 18.66% 22.08%
FAR 2.94 1.18 1.08
Average building
18.1 m 21.0 m 16.0 m
height
Rugosity 10.3 m 3.9 m 3.5 m
Porosity 32.04% 68.26% 78.64%
Occlusivity
21.27% 26.71% 20.12%
(relative)

Occlusivity
(absolute)

Simulation result and analysis

As the accessible wind-exploitation heights and areas for different urban tissues are all different,
only comparison of wind intensity (as evaluated by the wind velocity ratio U/UH) is not
sufficient to describe the wind capacity of a certain urban tissue. Then, we tried to evaluate with
another indicator: Total wind capacity. As we know, wind turbine power is given by the
equation:
𝑃 = Cp ∗ 0.5 ∗ ρ ∗ A ∗ ν3 (1-6)
 1173

where Cp is the coefficient of performance, ρ the air density, A the area swept by the blades and
ν the free wind velocity. Therefore, in our case, to evaluate wind energy, a simplified indicator
M was defined as:
𝑀 = ∑ni=1(Ai ∗ ν3i θ) (1-7)
where Ai represents the area of the corresponding velocity νi . For the wind capacity of an
urban tissue, here we only consider the wind potential at a certain height over the roof. From the
code FLUENT the area-weighted average wind velocity on the defined planes areas over the
roof of those wind-promising buildings (usually the highest buildings) can be found directly. In
addition, with the corresponding planes areas calculated in the software AutoCAD, the indicator
M for different urban tissue at the height Z = 15 m (15 m over the roofs) were figured out
(Figure 9).

4000000

3000000
M (m5*s-3)

2000000 Barcelona

1000000 Toulouse

Bombay
0
-165° -120° -75° -30° 15° 60° 105° 150°
Wind inlet direction Ɵ

Figure 9. Comparison of wind potential capacity for different urban tissues.

From the Figure 9, it can be seen that: (i) 1. The wind capacity in the urban tissue of
Barcelona is much higher than in the other two. This is due to the large gap over the accessible
roof area and roof height. In fact, from the Table 1 we can see that the CR and FAR of the
Barcelona urban tissue are both around 3 times of those of the other two cases; (ii) The wind
performance from different inlet direction is clear for each cases: the best inlet angles for
Barcelona case are -165° and 15°, while for Toulouse case they are -120° and 150°, and for
Bombay the 15° and 150°; (iii) The ratio of the amplitude to the average M value can be found
out: Barcelona 28%, Toulouse 50% and Bombay 38%. In fact, according to the impact of urban
morphology on wind direction, it reveals the different anisotropic properties among these cases,
with the anisotropy level from high to low: Toulouse, Bombay and Barcelona.

Conclusion

Based on a parameter study with a reference wind tunnel experiment, the choice of turbulence
model and other parameter settings of the CFD code are validated. Then the paper conducted a
series of idealised models with a group of 24 buildings, in search for the impact of building size
and courtyard on the wind energy layout over the roofs in the semi-urban environment. Main
results include that: (i) the impact of the building length (facing the wind) is much more
influential than that of the building width; (ii) the fragmentation of building form within the
same space hinders the wind flow; (iii) to ensure a big sum of wind energy over the whole area,
courtyard should be distributed evenly rather than partially. At the same time, the wind energy
outcome shows no linear dependence to the courtyard size.
1174

Furthermore, three real urban tissues were chosen for morphological analyse and wind
potential evaluation. Results of different wind capacity values over different type of urban
tissues and in different wind inlet direction, confirmed the great impact of urban morphology.
Some macro character of the urban tissue like anisotropic property is discussed. For future work,
more types of urban tissues would be considered and more morphological properties like
porosity can be discussed for better contribution to the wind energy development in urban
environment.

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 1175

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1176

Heritage, infrastructure, structure and urban form.

Challenges for Brazilian historical cities and/or colonial
matrix

Adriana Nascimento, Marcelo Silva

Departamento de Arquitetura Urbanismo e Artes Aplicadas, Universidade Federal de
São João del-Rei. Rua Maestro Batista Lopes, 147 – Tejuco São João del-Rei/ Minas
Gerais, CEP. 36300-176. E-mails: [email protected], [email protected].

Abstract. In this paper we propose to glimpse potentialities and challenges as a process and acquiring
meanings for the construction of others and news practices related to what you can name common and
also the uncommon. Taking considerations about the relationship between infrastructure and structure,
the presence of collective educational equipments in the urban form with heritage sites, we propose to
inquire the ways that the urban investments can and should happen to subsidize the sense of the common
as the uncommon.How can conceptual delimitations and/or definitions of the territory, as heritage area
limit and/or expand the fields of action? In which way can we apprehend, transform and reconstruct
practices, uses and functions with distinctive and different parameters for the common sense? Which
future and common in terms of urban morphology can we put as necessary and unpredictable? In Brazil,
the challenges are related to the infrastructure and the urban structure on the measure that it would be
the elements that can allow cohesiveness as urban quality. This is an attempt to indicate parameters to
give an orientation to take decisions in the direction of the common and the uncommon future.

Key Words: urban morphology, heritage, infrastructure, urban planning.

Introduction

This paper / essay seeks to relate the general theme of 21st International Seminar on Urban
Form: Our Common Future in Urban, with the specific theme Multidisciplinarity in urban
morphology: The formation of new areas of knowledge and also to research, education and
extension works we developed in the last five years.
We believe it is important to point out that since we start our studies in Urbanism (PROURB
/ UFRJ) and Urban and Regional Planning (IPPUR / UFRJ), our approaches have been directed
towards multidisciplinarity, thinking about limits and challenges not only as theoretical but
practical and therefore real.
Another pertinent question to be placed here is about our professional and academic
experience that have been displaced from large scale (Metropolitan, Rio de Janeiro / São Paulo
axis in Brazil), triangulating towards vector internalization southeast toward Belo Horizonte, for
the medium and small scales, although considered regional scale (Brazilian and also the state
governamental one) by we became professors at the Architecture and Urbanism Course at the
Federal University of São João del-Rei 172 in Minas Gerais. This change of scale-space-time
show problems in complete different points of view, notably the real and particular ones of the
city and the region.

172
Course implantation with beginning in 2009, we serve coordinating (ATA-UFSJ) and engaged with
Groups (LAUS and OBEDUC) in Research Projects involving multidisciplinary themes related to urban
and public spaces, as well as thematic studies of form and urban relations via guidance for the production
of different surveys and preparation of unpublished reports on SJDR, both associated with the teaching, as
with the extension projects.
 1177

Taking into consideration the relationship between infra and structure, the presence of
collective educational equipment in the urban form (Panerai, 2009) with heritage sites (Choay,
1988, 2006), and their preservation and transformation, we intent to raise questions on the ways
(Nascimento, 2009) that the urban investments can and should happen to subsidize the sense of
the common as the uncommon (Pietromarchi, 2005).
The diverse experiences and practices of urban management can contribute as parameters to
think about how to proceed in this direction. However, based on our studies, including some
conducted on specific SJDR sites, we understand that it is not just playing with unquestionable
practices and processes, but rather develop tools and instruments to contribute in fact to the
quality of life of the population, as with the urban morphology.
These factors, inseparable in our view, could contribute towards thinking about the city and
its intersectoral issues. Thus, we ask:
Which future and common, in terms of urban morphology, can we put as necessary and
unpredictable?
Another inevitable approach proposed here concerns the interrelation between urban and
cultural production, between action and work (Arendt, 1972; Nascimento, 2009), and
accordingly, forms spatiotemporal structured and structuring (Bourdieu, 2002) and therefore,
infra and structural.
Regarding the methodological question of scope developed here we start from morphological
debate associated with that presented by Lefebvre (1995 [1966]) on formal logic, as well as a
selection of authors from diverse disciplinary fields, in order to contribute to a multidisciplinary
approach to spatial question (CHOAY, 2006) still in process, not only in our studies but also for
approaches that seek to extrapolate and reevaluate such notions in a formation field –
multidisciplinary - (Panerai, 2009; Bourdieu, 2002; Krauss, 1984) and bringing further
contributions to enable the theme proposed herein.
This way, we propose to glimpse potentialities and challenges to be faced as a process and
acquiring meanings for the transformation and the construction of others and news practices
related to what we can name the common and also the uncommon.

Heritage

As we understand the historical question does not restrict the shape of the city, but imbricates by
practices that, appellants, can transform and rebuild the uses and functions in the cities that are
beyond the scholars’ ones. In which way can we apprehend, transform and reconstruct them
with distinctive and different parameters for the common sense?
Thus the heritage question to be crossed by debates that go beyond levels and dimensions
(Lefebvre, 2008) formal and spatial suggested by letters and patrimonial practices, which
produced mostly in developed countries, eventually approaching the theme of virtually
unfeasible mode on your whole, especially economically (Harvey, 2013).
Choay (2006) reinforces what we understand about the aspects and qualities of form, which
remain to be desired on spatial values in everyday life. Thus, studies of urban morphology
continue to have effect (Panerai, 2009) not only for their technical character, but especially by
those speculative, not in the financial sense, but analytical and purposeful.
In fact the issue of Brazilian cities that arises is adversely and simultaneously in
construction, given absences and distances between theories and practices, between formation
and apprehension, between public policies and management.
The speed of change in the urban form is disparate in relation to political and cultural debate
in recent decades in Brazil and is not synchronized and much less associated with positive
changes. Even the creation of forums for heritage debates not yet cover a broad and coherent
manner, either by training distances, by practices and oversight.
By stating that there was a direct relation between the action, the work and the product
Hannah Arendt (1972) lead us to understandings about the senses of action from critics and
1178

doubters placements. Using the distinction and the direction of actions, Arendt tell about the
differences concerning the consumption and the expression from the senses of actions, of
memory and the subjective investments.
Thus, attempts to preserve in SJDR end subject and related only to the shape of the buildings
and their interiors, without considering broader urban and spatial aspects - related to the built
area on the lot, the relations established between solids and voids, forms and content173, which
also correspond to the time-space questions.
How conceptual delimitations and/or definitions of the territory, as heritage area, can limit
and/or expand the fields of action?

Urban Form

The question of urban formal logic / morphological in this paper seeks to address the
multiplicity of possible and able relations to allow dialogues between different urban areas:
central, transition, and expansion of the urban edges, because they all belong to the urban form
and if that is not clear, there could bring about many mistakes.
Studies carried out over the city of Sao Joao del-Rei generally have almost exclusive visions
about its historical centrality, under a nostalgic ideology, which was lost, somehow throughout
the twentieth century and, as if it were a unique temporality and exclusionary related to the
colonial matrix of Portuguese origin. Despite all attempts at preservation in the city, these are
limited to the historical center and emphasize fleeting urban readings, and that does not even
include any guidelines or debate about the intangible.
This understanding of what takes place on and in the historical city and its shape is not
repudiating the meager attempts to rescue significant cases. However, it ends up being restricted
to a matter of class and / or elite that invests to possess the means to maintain assets. Actions
developed by the city managers organs to meet the different levels and dimensions of the
problems correspond to isolated attempts and staggered by the lack of data, studies and by not
being configured as projects, plans or government programs.
Thus, the urban form when restricted to its historical centrality and exclude other spacial
temporalities and temporary uses ends up losing indispensable qualities of the common.
Understanding174 and imagining studies of urban form associated with planning are able to
add other parameters to formal. They are geared to meet both legislative deficiencies, as the
practices and which relate to other inputs such as socio-economic-cultural basic data, urban
density and registration (enrollment) permit match the plural circumstances present over time in
urban structure, and may in fact contribute to a broader and more comprehensive joint.
On the Brazilian case and its historical cities, we understand that the challenges are related to
the infra and the urban structure on the measure that it would be the elements which can allow
cohesiveness as urban quality. It isn’t just about quantity, but also about qualities, in a lathing
between time and space (Rossi, 1988; Argan, 2005).

Infrastructure and structure

The separation between infrastructure and structure is not out here on purpose. It has an
immediate-mediate and / or progressive-regressive intention of moving both exposed by
Lefebvre (1995). We understand that the terminology composed infrastructure is precisely its
interconnection and / or juxtaposition of complementary issues. However, we understand that as

173
The debate about the relation form-content appears both in our dissertation, as in the article written for
the PNUM 2013.
174
Observations on the experiences acquired during the period from 2010-2012 in which we operate as a
representative member of the UFSJ in the City Council Preservation on Cultural Heritage of São João del-
Rei.
 1179

separate categories, they remain virtually treated in urban reality of Sao Joao del-Rei,
contributing to the senses brought to their understandings. They sould be treated alone at first,
then to be reconnected and therefore practically transformed.
It is a process of reframing, and hence, formation, auxiliary to what relates to what refers to
the structure as a basis, and the infrastructure associated with the above, or to what outside or on
the surface would relate to buildings and equipment intended for use and functions of the
collective (Choay, 1988).
In the relation of infraestrural question in Brazil, we understand that the precariousness and
the improvisations even with legislative efforts and instrumental approaches for updating
qualitative and quantitative transformations, still necessary in large scale.
Thus, the debate proposed towards the Right to the City (Lefebvre, 2001; Harvey, 2013)
remains today, especially in what corresponds to the urban and existing centralities, as well as
other, not recognized, still in process and / or under construction, even without local planning
and / or immediate needs.
Concerning the position of the central location of certain associated community facilities to
public spaces, it is important to bring to the debate a case study of one of the first public schools
established in the city of SJDR, located in the historical fabric.
As structural and structuring element of urban space it could serve as an educational
parameter both for their formal, spatial and property aspects. However, what might serve the
most expensive formation of intentions through comprehensive education, to be devoid of its
qualities and mischaracterized spatially contributes only in its most primary sense: as a place of
shelter.
Relation to equity, infrastructure and urban form is treated as a separate thing, we hardly
chance for some less common and very unusual, especially in cities, for its historical richness,
still preserve memories, tangible and intangible, in shares, plural times and spaces.

Challenges for Brazilian historical cities and/or colonial matrix

Regarding challenges for Brazilian and / or colonial matrix historical cities, due to distance and
the gap between rights and duties (Nascimento, 2011), between theory and practice, between
infrastructure and structure, these are many.
Our approach is tentative (Bourdieu, 2002 ; Lefevbre, 1995) to indicate parameters that add
time and space, that means to give an orientation to take decisions and, finally, of practices that
can be in the direction of the common and the uncommon future, because it’s not done yet.
In addressing urban and local-global issue, not global-local, we believe pointing directions
and questions about weights and values that different in its various scales and speeds allow, if
placed on the agenda, scroll and break with hegemonies.
There it comes, bearing simple challenge, but above all, necessary utopias (Ribeiro, 2005;
Lefebvre, 2008). Utopias as answers to consider the actual and possible (socio-economic and
cultural) in the plural sense, spatial, urban, common and unusual qualities.

References

Arendt, H. (1972) La Crise de la Culture (Gallimard, Paris).

Argan, G. C. (2005) História da arte como história da cidade (Martins Fontes, São Paulo).
Bourdieu, P. (2002) O poder simbólico (Bertrand Brasil, Rio de Janeiro).
Choay, F. and Merlin, P. (1988) Dictionnaire de L’Urbanisme et de ll’aménagement (Presses
Universitaires de France, Paris).
Choay, F. (2006) Pour une Anthropologie de l’espace (Éditions Du Seuil, Paris).
Harvey, D. (2013) ‘O direito à Cidade’, Revista Piauí (Editora Alvinegra, São Paulo) 38-43.
Krauss, R. (1984) A escultura no campo ampliado (Revista Gavea 1, Rio de Janeiro).
1180

Lefebvre, H. (2008) A Revolução Urbana (Editora UFMG, Belo Horizonte).

Lefebvre, H. (2001) O Direito à Cidade (Centauro, São Paulo).
Lefebvre, H. (1995[1966]) Logica dialética/ Logica Formal. (Civilização Brasileira, Rio de Janeiro).
Panerai, P. et al. (2009[1997]) Formes Urbaines. De l’îlot à la Barre (Éditions Parenthèses, Paris).
Pietromarchi, B. (2005) Luogo [non] commune. Arte, spazio pubblico ed estetica urbana in Europa
(Actar ed Fundazzione Adriano Olivetti, Barcelona).
Ribeiro, Ana Clara T. et al. (2005) Formas em Crise. Utopias Necessarias (Rio de Janeiro).
Rossi, A. (1998 [1966]) A Arquitetura da Cidade. (Martins Fontes, São Paulo).
Nascimento, Adriana G. (2009) ‘(arte) e (cidade): Ação Cultural e Intervenção Efêmera’, unpublished
Tese de Doutorado, IPPUR/ UFRJ, Rio de Janeiro.
Nascimento, A. G., Silva, M. ‘Transição: (entre) os sentidos da forma-conteúdo: Territorialidades e
Temporalidades em São João Del Rei’, in Proceedings of PNUM 2013, Coimbra, 758-768.
Nascimento, Adriana G.(2011). ‘Territórios do corpo-espaço tempo. Quem Planeja?’, Anais ENANPUR.
 1181

Morphological structure and system of community facilities

Karine Lise Schäfer1, Lisete Assen de Oliveira2

1, 2
Universidade do Vale de Itajaí, SC, Brasil. 2Federal University of Santa Catarina.
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract. This article focuses on the relations between the Morphological Structure and the System of
Community Facilities at several scales of the human form, seeking the understanding of connections and
possible interdependency between the two systems. Starting from the conceptualizations of Urban
Morphology and System of Community Facilities discusses the case of the city of Navegantes in the coast
of the State of Santa Catarina, southern coast of Brazil. In regards the said city, one can identify that the
understanding of its formal structure related to the system of community facilities leads to the deepening
knowledge of its present urban form and future possibilities. Furnishes both the verification of its spatial
patterns in several scales like listing situations and locations where new community facilities and spatial
patterns would potentially be capable of establishing new and qualified relationships between different
scales. From one side one would have better conditions of attending the basic needs of the population, in
which the devices are essential providing, possibly, an increase in the quality and vitality of urban life. Of
another, it would strengthen urban structure, able to potentiate the permanence of meanings and identity
of the city.

Key Words: Community facilities, urban morphology, city of Navegantes.

Understanding the urban morphology

The importance of urban morphology and its verification is acknowledged by the majority of
scholars of urban form. But the conceptions of what a morphological study is are not coincident,
but the conceptions of what a morphological study do not coincide, there being a diversity of
definitions and understandings on how to approach the form on which elements should be
studied, and on which are the possible and necessary analysis for the recognition of shape.
The morphology one can say is initially related to what is seen - to the appearance - or by
what our visual perception appropriates on the immediate level, since the shape is what first,
generally, amazes our senses. This seeming aspect of things refers to an arrangement of objects,
a pattern or structure or formal organization that can be interpreted and where we can identify
the presence, the potentiality and capacity for social life.
We highlight our understanding of the city as one of the most important patrimonies and
property of the material culture which in its great inertia acquires social factor conditions, and
not only a result or consequence. The permanence of forms is crucial on this issue, by being one
of the most remarkable features of form phenomenon, which makes it also be, an agent in the
relation between crystallization and Changeover of social life. The city, seen as asset of material
culture, is a structured form, where situations and places - with different durations -compose the
dynamic (and the tension between) of permanencies and changes that creates and recreates the
meanings and identity of the city. In the analysis and in the city intervention, understanding it as
in a constant and dynamic social process, the form cannot be seen as an isolated phenomenon,
because, historically, it is both a consequence and factor of evolution or transformations.
‘For the definition of the scales and the elements to be investigated, and at last, for the
understanding of urban form, one should understand it as an extensive phenomenon and, at the
same time, with local occurrences, from which elapses the morphological study on the global
scale and on the scale of parts and, furthermore, one must consider the growth issue and
historical development.’ (Assen de Oliveira, 1993: 24)
1182

In the range of this essay, we embrace the study of morphology and identification of
morphological structure through the study of relations between emptiness - the natural elements,
the trace, the micro and macro subdivision and full - the buildings, their typologies, uses and
collations, in order to identify the morphological structure of the city and speculate its relations
with the location of equipment.
Thus, at the survey conducted that provides support for this essay, on the study of relations
between morphological structure from the City of Navegantes, located on the south coast of
Brazil, and community facilities it was used a methodology for morphological basis,
denominated "Method of Apprehension of the city", developed by Professor Dr. Silvio Sawaya,
in 1991. The choice to this method came from the premise of a method that enabled
morphological analysis, without leaving aside other essential issues to the understanding of the
city - Usage flow laws, regulations, appropriation and meaning.
This way, the method gives support to the morphological analysis, allowing a work of
thorough research, focusing on the community facilities system, spaces that are seen as
permanent in the city. The application of this method permitted, in the first moment, an analysis
throughout the understanding the four layers that compose it: morphology, permeability,
legitimacy and fundamentality to, in a second time, as a result of the crossing of layers
previously studied, listing situations and locations where new community facilities and spatial
patterns would potentially be capable of setting up new and qualified relations between different
scales.
The implementation of the method of Apprehension of the City starts from the premise of the
relation between the part and the whole, where the whole is not the simple sum of its parts, but
on the contrary, they both contain themselves. Furthermore, it is argued that it is from within
that one can visualize the set with greater clarity. The case of the City of Navegantes has had the
understanding of the morphological structure of the city on its "whole"," and the in-depth study
of community facilities in the "part", comprising the subsystem for education equipment.

Understanding the system of community facilities

Aymonino (1975:49) presents the buildings as community services designed to meet the needs
shown by the services, in other words, the specific needs of a particular society. Additionally,
the emergence of equipment is in its relation to the services, since these two variables should
not be analyzed separately. Meanwhile, these needs vary over time, according to the particular
interests of such society. These amendments are connected to the transposition of a need or
individual interest in collective, as one can also claim that the inverse is true.
Aymonino (1975:47-48) brings the definition of services proposed by GESCAL
175 center, however, argues as more pertinent the definition for services that brings the Italian
Encyclopedic Dictionary, in which public services are divided solely on special and general
services. Special services are defined by individual benefits that are paid by each user
individually. Now general services have the concept of the collectivity in which the services are
funded by taxes from such community.
It seems, therefore, more logical to set as service all appropriate elements to satisfy different
human needs in a certain society , introducing, in the first place, a distinction by private or
public qualification, thereby establishing a legal reference of the forms of property,
appropriation and management. (Aymonino, 1975:49)
In Brazil, the subject of typification and definition of Equipment is treated in rules and
legislations. The Rule NBR 9284/86, entitled Urban Equipment, defines them as being “todos
os bens públicos e privados, de utilidade pública, destinados à prestação de serviços necessários

175
GESCAL Laboratoty (Gestione Case Lavoratori), considers community facilities elements defined by
its public character .This characterization brings the subdivision of the equipment according to the needs
they aim to satisfy.(Aymonino, 1975:47)
 1183

ao funcionamento da cidade, implantados mediante autorização do poder público, em espaços

públicos e privados.” 176 The rule does not distinguish urban from community equipment; it
treats them as "urban facility" and subdivides it into a few categories and subcategories,
according to their function.
The Rule NBR 9284/86 proposes the categorization of the equipment in: Circulation and
Transportation, Culture and Religion, Sport and Leisure, Infrastructure (Communication
Systems, Energy System, Public Lighting System, and Sanitation System), Public Safety and
Security, Public Management, Social Assistance, Education and Health. Likewise NBR
9050/2004, revised in 2005 laying down criteria and technical parameters that must be observed
on conditions of accessibility to public places, it also treats the equipment in a unique way, as
Urban Equipment. Torres (2000) also adopts the definition of urban equipment, not to mention
the term community facility, as the material support for the provision of basic health services,
education, security, sport and leisure.
The Federal Law No. 6766/1979, in its Chapter II brings a distinction between community
facilities and urban facilities. The Article 4°, 2°Paragraph, defines community facilities as being
“os equipamentos públicos de educação, cultura, saúde, lazer e similares”177. Article 5º, Single
Paragraph, considers as being urban facilities “...os equipamentos públicos de abastecimentos de
águas, serviços de esgotos, energia elétrica, coletas de águas pluviais, rede telefônica e gás
canalizado”178 .The Federal Law 10257/2001, known as City Statute (Article 2), employs the
same categorization about guidelines on Urban Policy, “...oferta de equipamentos urbanos e
comunitários, transporte e serviços públicos adequados aos interesses e necessidades da
população e às características locais”179.
Besides these conceptualizations of urban and community facilities, Célson Ferrari
(1977:417), characterizes as equipment material spaces that materialize the institution. So, to the
author, the areas of urban space occupied by the material equipment of the institutions are
referred to as institutional urban land uses180. It is observed that, even though the legislation, at
least since 1979 set as urban facilities only those from urban infrastructure and, as communities,
the equipment for collective use by the community, Brazilian Association of Technical
Standards makes no such distinction. Yet, unanimously, the authors consulted distinguish
between infrastructure and community facilities adopting the term "institutional use" proposed
by Ferrari (1977).
Exploiting the facilities location in the morphological structure of the City, Panerai
(2002:215) states that the program definition depending on terrain must incorporate, beyond
quantitative issues, such as volumes and distances, issues regarding to hierarchy to the city in
relation to the immediate surroundings, with accessibility, in other words, questions concerning
the monumentality and limits. Gouvea (2008) adds that “Equipamentos comunitários são
elementos essenciais para o funcionamento da cidade. Sua localização na malha urbana deve
obedecer a uma relação de uso (cotidiano ou eventual) [...]”181.
Aymonino, already in 1975, showed concerns about the location of community facilities at
the city structure, with exposition of the concept of "edification typology" in its relation to the
urban form as a guide for the insertion of these facilities location in space. The analysis field of

176
"All public and private properties, of public utility, for the provision of services necessary to the
functioning of the city, implemented upon authorization of the government, in public and private spaces."
(translation of authors)
177
"public facilities for education, culture, health, recreation and similar" (translation of authors)
178
"... public facilities of water supply, sewerage services, electricity, rainwater collection, telephone and
piped gas network." (translation of authors)
179
"... supply of urban and community facilities, transportation and public services suitable for the
interests and needs of the population and local characteristics" (translation of authors)
180
Celson Ferrari divides institutional uses in: Education; Social, cultural and cultural; Recreational or
leisure; Administrative.
181
"Community facilities are essential elements for the functioning of the city. Its location in the urban
area must obey a relation of use (daily or occasional) [...] ". (Translation of authors)
1184

the concept formation "edification typology" displayed by Aymonino (1975) takes place from
the eighteenth century, period of the industrial city (capitalist-bourgeois) that constitutes the
matrix of the contemporary city. (Aymonino, 1975:96). The study of the slow process of
activities characterization allows to identify origins of what was defined by Aymonino as
community facilities, and the emergence of new necessities - determined by economic, political
and social development of a society historically defined, bourgeois society - that over its
development convert into organized and socially necessary activities.
When these activities reach in their organization, a more complex and articulated stage, with
the tendency of turning into permanent activity, in other words, stable over the years, there is a
need to define a suitable space, able to consolidate and develop certain activities through the
same architectural expression. Only then one can speak of equipment, such as the original
nucleus of the modern "edification typology" non-residential character (Aymonino, 1975: 97
and 98).
When addressing on typology, its concept and formation, Aymonino (1975) adds that a very
positive aspect of modern functionalist movement was an extension of the thematic related to
residential relations, as a way to address the problems of flow, and function. Now the buildings
facing the community facilities need, the author argues, to transcend the issue of typology and
be conceived in accordance with the surroundings is to result in an architecture that stands out
or simply shapes to the existing, but mainly incorporating cultural and symbolic characteristics
of society and location.
On the typology Argan in 1963 already envisaged that the type is materialized in the
reduction of a complex of formal variants on a common basic shape.
By having the reduction of formal variations to a basic form to suit certain activity the
building is disclaim of all symbolism and identity, even considering that the creation of the type
is the synthesis of a complex of ideological demands or practices related to a certain historical
situation in a given culture. Priority is given to meeting the needs through the activity such
edification will perform. These considerations are of great value so that the insertion of
community equipment has not been referenced only to the preconceived architectural typology,
but the issues related to structure of the city, the relationship with the immediate surroundings,
to its accessibility and potentiality of appropriation and meaning.

Contextualizing the City of Navegantes – SC

The city of Navegantes is located in the Micro-region of Itajaí, and form a continuous area of
urban occupation and socio-economic logic that makes it highly representative, both regional
and national (Figure 1).
The recent growth in the region, especially after the 1990s, understood as a reflection and
social condition of the duplication of BR-101, influenced so that Navegantes International
Airport became the second passenger terminal of the State. And, according to Infraero and
information obtained at City Hall, the airport has already a project for its amplification and 70%
of the necessary area already expropriated. The city also received a major investment with the
implementation of the port terminal of Navegantes in the opposite bank of the port terminal of
Itajaí.
The city has twice the population of the State cities average, corresponding to more than 60
thousand inhabitants by the count in 2010, which places it in 20th place, with density of 543.29
inhabitants / km ², in addition to placing, in the period of 1991-2000, it has become the fourth
city with largest demographic growth of the State, way above even the Brazilian average
growth, explained by the recent implementation of the port terminal and industries of cutting
edge technology connected to logistical issues brought by the Port.
 1185

Figure 1. Area of Urban Occupation in the Micro-region of Itajaí.

Source: Schäfer, 2009.

The data of population growth in the State of Santa Catarina show a large growth in the
period 1991-2000. In the period 2000-2010, as predicted, but not as rapid as verified in the
previous decade. However, even with the annual growth rate reduced and stabilized, the city of
Navegantes presents an annual growth rate of 4.41 %, indicating a tendency of the city's
population more than double, in the year of 2030 (a period of 20 years ), reaching more than
143 thousand inhabitants.
The city of Navegantes has great economic representation, with a high GDP and a growing
population rise. Though, it presents a Human Development Index extremely low compared to
other cities of the micro-region and, even, nationally. The low level of human development can
also be explained by the data on poverty in the city. The incidence of poverty in the city of
Navegantes, according to IBGE (2010), shows very high, including if compared to other cities
in the State of Santa Catarina, being the fourteenth city with the highest rate in the order of
38.20%. Compared to the cities of its micro-region, it is a city with the highest index. Thus
Navegantes presents demographic rates on the rise, an extremely representative economic
profile in its micro-region, but it has a condition of extremely low medium human development,
indicating little income distribution, little longevity and low indexes of education.
The period that understands the evolution from 1970 to 2000 the city of Navegantes accrued
an evolution of 80.8%. The biggest step forward was recorded in income dimension, than the
same period grew by 215.7% and the lowest evolution was registered in education dimension,
which grew by only 48.4%. This condition heeds to the understanding of the system of
community facilities, with emphasis on education subsystem and its intersection with the
morphological structure of the city.
1186

The crossing of morphological structure system with community facilities

The structure of the city of Navegantes is verified with the aim of identify, fundamental areas in
its configuration, containing the relation between permanencies and changes. The fundamental
and most enduring components represent the structure of the city and, usually, are related to
spaces for common use or the symbolism and identity that may be acquired to people and city
residents.
“Toda realidad puede ser estudiada por meio de su estructura. La ciudad es uma realidad
compleja: um hecho, uma experiencia e uma idea. Es historia y proyecto, forma, lugar, lenguaje
y cultura. Todos estos aspectos también pueden revelar su estructura.” (Munizaga Vigil, 1985
apud Munizaga Vigil, 1998:27)
When applying the method of Apprehension City, it was identified that the main structural
morphological elements of the city, are: the conditioning of the hill covered with vegetation, the
line of the Atlantic Ocean, the serpentine line of the river and constructed elements, airport and
port (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Schematic Morphological Structure of the City of Navegantes.

Source: Authors.

These elements seem to organize the growth of the city, representing the trend of expansion
of earth built, which in turn seems to have the same logic of the growth of centralities, These
elements seem to organize the city's growth, representing the expanding trend of the built mass,
which in turn seems to have the same logic of the growth of centralities, the direction of flows
and including the possible expansion logic of the system of community facilities (Figure 3).
It being the main elements that structure the city, represented in Figure 2 that reflect the
morphological structure, summarizes other forces of fundamental importance for the city. (See
Figure 4) The key elements are generally related to spaces of common use, and thereby the
centralities-recognized as capable of containing the diversity and superimpose flows, uses,
activities, people, cultures- show themselves as places where collective happens and ownership
is recognized, even in Navegantes, at centralities are present the community facilities.
 1187

Figure 3. Schematic Axles of concentration of community facilities and possible expansion

logic. Source: Authors.

Figure 4. Synthesis of the City Structure. Source: Authors.

The forces of fundamental importance to the city of Navegantes and, therefore, structural
shape of space are related to morphological configuration. These forces are:

Natural elements

In the case of Navegantes, Itajai-Açu River, the hills and the Atlantic Ocean are the major
natural elements that, apart from being structuring elements and conditioning of the landscape,
play an important role for local identity and symbolism. The city has emerged on the banks of
Itajai-Açu River, which served as basis for the livelihood of fisherman families that lived there
and, currently, this natural element supports the development of fishing industries, shipyards
and the port which provide the city one of the higher gross domestic products of the state.
Moreover, the river also provides the city an extremely distinguished landscape by its
serpentine motion, which is reflected in the urban occupation area. Itajaí-Açu River is an
element of the morphological structure, for permeability and also due to these historic features
and presented identities.
1188

Navegantes, when bathed by the Atlantic Ocean, gives rise to a waterside leisure and
entertainment. The boardwalk built by the sea, along with the equipment that supports this axis,
is the main attraction, for both tourists and locals.

Existing centralities and a New Centrality proposed by the current Director Plan

The superposition of scales, flows and uses provide to existing centralities a character of
dynamism and enrichment of public space by the diversity of activities being developed there.
All existing centrality are arranged by a main shaft, of morphological importance as well
structuring the morphology, from which it has been branching along the same track or others
connected to it.
Among the verified centralities stands out Downtown, besides the importance in the uses and
flows of the city, also possesses characteristics that legitimize its importance in the city scale by
the symbolic and identity character representing the citizens of Navegantes. In it are
encountered the Square and the Church of Nossa Senhora de Navegantes and the main
waterway crossing to Itajaí, town south, through the Ferry.
All existing centralities, besides being under axes of the city morphological structure,
contain local scale of community facilities, the neighborhood and regional. The proposal for a
New Centrality, by the City Master Plan, strives to overpower the discontinuity of the city urban
occupation by reducing the vacant urban areas and, in this way, provide a positive gradation of
the built area to natural elements. Another fact that reinforces this New Centrality and asserts
itself as a very interesting alternative for the development of the city, as with the expansion of
the airport that currently seems to be an accomplished fact (since more than 70% of the area is
already expropriated) could create a large segregation between the northern and the southern
part of the city.

Ferry, Square and Nossa Senhora dos Navegantes Church

The form has permanence degree higher than the uses and flows, however, some equipment,
especially when pegged to public use, show themselves in the city structural areas, also due to
its symbolism, they are: Nossa Senhora dos Navegantes Square, along with the church and the
Ferry. They are equipment at the scale of the city of Navegantes representing its founder center
and, the crossing through the Ferry, coming from Itajaí, the square and the church are landmarks
of the space.
At Nossa Senhora dos Navegantes Square, are developed activities and events as Carnival and
religious festivals that attract every year thousands of tourists to the region and state.

Port, airport and fishing and shipyards activities

The port and airport condition the urban occupation in Navegantes, are elements that
morphologically present major vacant urban in the area. Are mobility equipment of national and
international scale which provide great visibility to the city and high economic indexes, and
optimize labor supply for citizens of Navegantes.

The tracing and Mobility Axes

BR-101 is a constructed element that has high degree of permanence in the system, as it has
territorial scale. Other axes of the trace, with regional scale, form a connections system that
promote north-south and east-west links of the city with its neighboring towns, as well as the
centrality system and the urban and community facilities system within the city. The degree of
permanence of these axes is elevated for being collective use and, mainly, for being public
domain, materializing in spaces of way, of living, experience and socialization.
 1189

One highlights the importance which tends to take the Estrada Geral in Navegantes - Penha
in the new structure that will incorporate the city with the expansion of the airport and the
materialization of New Centrality. This route will hold the north-south flow in equal capacity,
or perhaps larger than Beira Mar Highway.

Comunity Facilities System

The Community Facilities System is associated to centralities and is found at the main axes of
displacement of the city, which represent the morphological and permeability structure of
Navegantes. The sets of Community Facilities System, mostly, have at least some subsystems of
uses of such equipment. Subsystems of education, social institutional, health, safety and public
administration and leisure are found.
The approach in two educational institutions of the city strove for discussion of community
facilities facing towards the inside and with little or no relation to the street public space. The
connection between the equipment and the public space of the street is restricted to determined
schedules for the ending and beginning of classes for students entering the institution and no
longer keep in touch with public space. Being understood that in class schedule contact should
be restricted to not disperse students’ attention; however in situations of socialization one would
be able to have the expansion to public space (Figure 5).

Figure 5. Images of students exit of Elementary School "Prof. Irene Romão":

Appropriation and socialization in public space. Source: Authors (2012).

The sizing of Community Facilities from the radius of coverage is a first step to knowledge
of the possible influence that equipment provides on the city area. But one must consider, in a
second stage, the morphological features, especially the city layout, are of fundamental
importance to check whether the equipment can really meet to the radius of influence, as well as
the density of the locality. In the case of Navegantes, the parceling is perpendicular to Itajai-Açu
River and Atlantic Ocean and this feature evidences few connections in north-south direction.
This condition is a characteristic that should be taken into consideration, primarily for leasing of
local-scale facilities, like health centers and kindergartens.

Places of permanence as a basis for the implementation of the community facilities system

The understanding of the city structure, primarily morphological, but also in its relation to the
permeability and legibility, synthesized by permanencies and changes, point out the of
community facilities system as possible and important protagonist of the city of Navegantes.
With its deployment the one hand one would be able to have better conditions of service for the
basic needs of the population, in which the devices are essential providing, possibly, an increase
in the quality and vitality of urban life. On the other hand, to would strengthen urban structure,
capable of potentiate the permanence of meaning and identity of the city.
It is acknowledged the capability that equipment plays attracting people in different scales.
Thus, it recognizes that there may be protagonists of public spaces and induce the greater
1190

vitality of the place, but with a few caveats. It is done a merge of activities and uses, as each
subsystem of community facilities schedule, which is often defined, on the basis of its
complexity.
Understanding the centrality as spaces of permanence in the structure of the city of
Navegantes, it is claimed that they provide the articulation between the built environment and
the natural environment and, likewise, the implantation of community facilities system, as
protagonists of different public spaces which develop at different levels of centrality, are likely
to promote reaffirmation of the city morphological structure.
At central areas of Navegantes, can concentrate the equipment designed for the city scale in
its different categories of uses, since it is recognized that sociability and the incentive to
appropriation of public space occurs with the mix of the equipment activities. Nearby the
natural elements have emphasis on large parks with culture activities, leisure and sports, and can
meet the festivities of Nossa Senhora de Navegantes and Carnival, admittedly symbolic events
and activities for residents.
Setting out a parallel between community facilities system and centralities, it results in a
scheme that demonstrates that at maximum occupancy of centralities of Navegantes could
develop equipment on the scale of the city and in the same way at the rarefied occupation, on
the transition with the natural environment, they will develop the equipment on the scale of the
city, including regional. In what represents the core between the maximum occupancy of the
centrality and rarefied occupation, on the banks of the natural elements, the equipment would be
on the scale of the neighborhood and location.
As it is understood that the rarefied occupation will be related to the natural elements of the
city of Navegantes, this condition of occupancy of community facilities system will provide the
contact of citizens of Navegantes with both centrality of trade and services (using equipment on
the scale of the city as hospitals, cathedrals, administrative uses) as well as city contact with
natural elements (with the use of equipment on the city and regional scale, as urban parks,
sporting venues, cultural facilities) (Figure 6).

Figure 6. Relation Scheme Centralities x Scale of Community Facilities. Source: Authors.

The opportune places for deployment of community facilities are located along the
morphological structure of the city and necessarily must contemplate the mix of trade / service
activities, with the residential use, adding up the attractiveness of several subsystems of
community facilities (education, health, social, administrative).
It is important to underline that the implementation of community facilities, can strengthen
the identity and the promotion of sociability, that almost always associated to the existence of
community facilities, such as places Secchi (2003), and that, in its turn, these community
facilities (hospitals, cathedrals, schools, markets) are shown as space affirmation of public
 1191

space. Besides reinforcing the identity, the community facilities implementation, configured
from the structure of permanencies the city of Navegantes, can also be understood as the
possibility of providing more representative indexes of Human Development to the city and as
an alternative to provide living spaces with urban quality.

References

Argan, G.C. (1963), On +the Tipology of Architecture, Architectural Design n. 33, pp. 564-65 apud in
Nesbitt, K. (org). Uma Nova Agenda para a Arquitetura. Editora Cosacnaify.
Assen de Oliveira, L. (1993) “Rio Vermelho no seu vir-a-ser cidade. Estudo da dinâmica de organização
espacial.” Dissertation (Architecture and Urbanism), University of São Paulo, BR.
Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas. (2005) NBR 9050.
Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas. (1986) NBR 9284: Equipamento Urbano.
Aymonino, C. (1975) El significado de las ciudades, Presença, Lisboa.
Brasil (2001) Lei Federal 10257: Estatuto da Cidade.
Brasil (1979) Lei Federal 6766.
Brasil (1999) Lei Federal 9785.
Ferrari, C. (1ª edição 1926, 1977) Planejamento Municipal Integrado. São Paulo, Editora: Livraria
Pioneira.
Gouvea, L. A. (2008) Cidade Vida: Curso de Desenho Ambiental Urbano. Editora Nobel.
Munizaga Vigil, G. (1998) Macroarquitectura: Tipologías y Estrategias de Desarrolo Urbano, Ediciones
Universidad Católica de Chile, 2ª edição, Santiago de Chilie.
Panerai, P., Mangin, D. (2002) Proyectar la Ciudad, Celeste Ediciones, Madrid.
Secchi, B. (2003) Ciudad Contemporânea y su Proyecto. in font. Antonio (org.) Planeamiento
Urbanístico de la Controvérsia a la Renovación, Editora Diputació de Barcelona.
Torres, M. G. C. (2000) El Equipamiento Urbano de La Educación Superior em La ZMCM. In: Revista
Gestión y Estrategia.
1192

Housing development transformation: political directives and

post-occupation life

Maria Cristina Teixeira, Marieta Cardoso Maciel, Paulo Henrique Alonso

Architecture School, Federal University of Minas Gerais
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract. The housing policy adopted by the Belo Horizonte City Council over the last 20 years has
produced housing parameters that have resulted in standardized buildings grouped together into housing
estates. Although conceived and designed by architects, the construction of these buildings does not
follow the premises on which policy and project are based. The process does not take into consideration
the often accentuated differences in land characteristics of both shape and topography, resulting in large
differences between built areas and open spaces. Despite free spaces being large because of pronounced
gradients, they are not primarily destined for collective use, but rather they are used to make adjustments
on the estates in the form of embankments and green areas. As these housing developments are occupied,
the open spaces are transformed and buildings are isolated by fences and walls, compromising
permeability, circulation and the internal landscape. In addition, the few spaces attached to the housing
projects are used privately by ground floor residents who close them off completely. These manifestations
underline the lack of articulation between the parameters dictated by the housing policy and the
appropriation desired by the residents. This article intends to investigate the coherence in the
relationship between the adopted housing policy and the housing development projects under analysis
and will examine the transformations that have been taking place in the post-occupation process.

KeyWords: housing policy, project, transformation, housing

Introduction

This article focuses on the research, "Open spaces in housing projects in Belo Horizonte (MG)'',
carried out by the Landscape Laboratory at the Architecture School of the Federal University of
Minas Gerais (EAUFMG) and sponsored by the State of Minas Gerais Foundation for Research
Support (FAPEMIG). The changes that have occurred in the free spaces allocated to housing
units constructed in Belo Horizonte, from the 1990s, when urban policy became municipalized
in the main cities of the country will be analyzed. The process of post- occupancy in 22 housing
units and the housing policy guidelines over this period will also be examined.
In accordance with the municipalisation of housing policy, several guidelines for social
housing were established, these being designed to meet immediate local need. For the
construction of new housing estates which followed the general concepts of housing policies in
the municipalisation process, the plan to build small estates, whose population would readily
assimilate to the proximity and relationship with the city, was ratified. These housing estates
were constructed in the urban areas available, originating in greater part from speculative
retention. Thus, the cost of infrastructure and facilities could be reduced and future users could
be provided with additional benefits regarding access to municipal goods (Teixeira, 2004).
At the same time, the programs originating from urban policy were distributed and applied in
the municipalities in an attempt to meet housing demand. It is clear that local specificities
demanded immediate action of a local nature, however, in practice the standards established by
the federal authorities were maintained.
In Belo Horizonte the situation was no different. With the foundation of the City's
Urbanization Agency (Urbel), in the early 1990s, the first estates were built in already urbanized
areas, provided with nearby infrastructure and facilities and were composed of few units, in
accordance with the characteristics of the available land.
 1193

As such land within the urban area was being occupied, it was necessary to seek less
expensive areas near the outskirts of the city which made the implementation of the project
feasible. Many of these plots had irregular topography thus compromising the construction of
the blocks, the internal accessibility, permeability and pedestrian flows. As a consequence, the
projects were marked by emerging disparities, particularly in relation to the external free spaces,
and these form the primary focus of analysis in this work.
Currently, the demand for new housing projects in the city is great. The population of Belo
Horizonte stands at 2,375,151 inhabitants (IBGE, 2010) and has increased 6.1% in ten years.
Moreover, the housing deficit increased from 57,288 to 78,241 households, increasing by 36.7%
over the same period (FJP, 2012). It is therefore of paramount importance that improvements in
the construction of housing for the city's low-income population are sought.

Free spaces in housing estates

The research identified 22 (twenty two) housing estates, designed for low-income families and
constructed by the Municipality of Belo Horizonte, under the auspices of Urbel, in the period
1996-2010. For analysis, estates accommodating a minimum of one hundred families were
chosen since the relationships between free and constructed areas were deemed more tangible.
As the free areas of these estates were extensive, it became necessary to evaluate the
transformation conditions resulting from their use (or not), from the design project up to
ownership by the residents.
In general terms, Nogueira and Righi (2003) highlight the fact that free spaces in housing
estates have often not received the attention they deserve having been misguidedly treated and
appropriated as residues, rather than being designed as, places of social interaction, physical
exercise, forums for the exchange of opinions and differences, rest and leisure. Such spaces
need to be treated as areas where life takes place, and in which, the contribution of landscaping
can provide enhancements to this particular environment.
Free spaces are of great importance in the design of housing estates and attend the specific
needs appropriate for this environment and its inhabitants. The latter, especially children, need
passive and active play areas which should be conducive to social interaction - an immediate
benefit of good project implantation.
The design of the free areas in these estates, in the majority of cases, does not get to be
executed. Existing vegetation is reminiscent of the original land, whilst amenities, which should
provide a better quality of space and living conditions for residents, are improvised or not even
constructed.
The lack of amenities in several of the analyzed estates can be offset by their proximity to
urban facilities designed for collective use, which allow the practice of sport and more social
interaction between residents: 3 (three) estates have no proximity with any municipal amenities
for collective use; Three (3) are close to parks; Three (3) near plazas and thirteen (13) are near
community football fields. However, despite their proximity with such municipal amenities,
there is no original intention in the estates' architectural design to establish interaction or
connection between them.
Within the estates studied, the wide differences between the free areas and those occupied by
buildings are particularly noteworthy. The free spaces correspond to, on average, 75% of the
total land area, in contrast to 25% built, as shown in Figure 1.
Although the estates have extensive free areas, they are not always intended and designed for
the collective use or social interaction of the residents. Seven estates have no free spaces for
social interaction, and in fifteen of them, the average area devoted to these activities
corresponds to only 3.65% of the total land area. The proportion of open space used by the
population is very small.
The estates' social amenities are composed of plazas, small squares, nurseries, small football
fields or community centres. In most of them there is no maintenance.
1194

The circulation of vehicles and pedestrians, which for the most part is facilitated by ramps and
stairs, corresponds to 22.45% of the total land area. Parking areas make up, on average, 7.15%
and the embankments, which are vegetated by grass, shrubs, trees or no vegetation, correspond
to 41.75% of the total land area.

Built area
Embank 25%
ments and
vegetated
area
41.75% Collective
Appropria
tion/owners
hip and
social areas
Vehicle and 3.65%
Parking pedestrian
space circulation
7.15% 22.45%

Figure 1. Proportion of built and free areas in the housing estates studied.
Source: research carried out by the authors, 2014.

Figure 2. Ramps and stairs in the open spaces of the estate R2 DRENURBS
Source: Authors' archive, 2013.

Figure 3. Fences and barbed wire - Coronel Jorge Dario housing estate Source: Authors'
archive, 2013.
 1195

The architectural project adopted and the high gradient of the land on which the blocks were
constructed are two common features of most estates. They are, furthermore, important factors
for the type of configuration the free spaces follow.
All architectural projects are standardized and have no relationship with the site on which
they are constructed. Blocks are pre-designed, four-floor, "H" or "I" format, arranged and
adjusted on the ground in order to obtain the maximum number of housing units. On average,
there are 188 housing units and 12 blocks per estate. The estates are surrounded by a
combination of bars, walls, and barbed wire which impairs visual permeability and integration
with the rest the city.

Figure 4. Fences, walls and barbed wire São João housing estate. Source: Author's
Archive, 2013.

Figure 5. Implantation of AR03 housing estate generating embankments, supporting walls

and residual spaces. Source: Author's Archive, 2013.

All estates were constructed on land with high or average gradients, which led to adaptations
of the terrain such as embankments, retaining/supporting walls and even residual spaces. These
are the same elements which therefore form the majority of open spaces and impede and hinder
appropriation by the residents. Moreover, collective and social spaces are neglected both in
1196

architectural projects and their execution and landscaping is not even considered in the
construction of the estates.

Appropriation and transformation

As the projected space is appropriated by the residents, new interventions occur in the territorial
configuration, reflecting the way of life of these people. Naturally, to represent their physical
and social characteristics, new manifestations of appropriation are being constructed by the
residents which portray the changes made to the original design.
Palhares (2001) clearly recognizes this fact and adds that the act of modifying living space
can be understood as an intrinsic characteristic of human nature and the alterations, although de-
characterising the formal and spatial architecture, allow residents the freedom to construct,
"improvements in the quality of life" (Palhares, 2001, p.74).
The appropriation of free spaces is favoured due to several characteristics such as the
elements of nature, the diversity of these elements, the form in which they are deposited, the
interaction between the natural and the exterior, and the way that the affirmation of identity
happens within this space. Coelho (2013) lists three reasons for the appropriation of free spaces:
1. Environmental - where integrated and contiguous green areas provide environmental
suitability.
2. Functional - characterized by improvements in privacy and spatial demarcation.
3. Effective - consists of the development of psychological, emotional and sensory
influences able to relieve states of depression and stress - creating spaces that can potentially
generate the peace and satisfaction of the user.
The transformation of open spaces is encouraged by the segregation of urban space and by
the construction of large spaces in the urban environment, as noted by Aragon (2006). Caldeira
(2000) observed, when speaking about housing estates, that transformation occurs commencing
with given spatial configurations and their instruments and this makes us value the importance
of the project and take due care over its execution.
Therefore, one of the main reasons for the changes arising from appropriation is due to the
shortcomings of the project. Ferreira (2012) adds that the socio-spatial, environmental and
topographic conditions are rarely considered in the design of housing estates and this generates
larger transformations in collective spaces starting with appropriation by the users.
However, Ornstein (1991) states that the inadequacy or viability of the appropriation of open
spaces in housing estates revolves around three factors: legal regularization, the project and the
management. Legal regularization consists of granting ownership rights to the residents, which
is not always effective in reality. The project, for its part, encompasses how the blocks are
arranged on the land and the way these buildings relate to free spaces. In most cases, this
integration is neglected and seldom regarded by architects and public authorities. Management,
in turn, constitutes the presence or not of a residents association/condominium and is related to
how the residents organize maintenance, safety and cleaning of the buildings and common
areas. This participation in the maintenance process makes clear the involvement and social
relations between residents.
In the post-occupation process, ownership of the open space within the housing estates does
not always correspond to that specified in the original design. In contrast to that idealized on the
drawing board, amenities, when implanted, are used inappropriately or even destroyed. The
maintenance of green areas is not carried out effectively - the vegetation is poorly maintained in
most cases, resulting in neglected environments and ones that are poorly integrated into the
landscape. Consequently, residents isolate the interior of their homes rather than engaging with
the estate.
As to the form of free space ownership in the estates studied, we observed that residents
carry out various activities: in every 22 (twenty two) estates, children play and people converse;
In 11 (eleven) of these the residents have barbeques, wash cars and leave clothes out to dry; In 4
 1197

(four), residents have periodic parties. These activities are not always carried out in places
designed or intended specifically for the purpose - one clearly sees a demand for spaces
designated for children's use.
The main transformations resulting from post-occupation are the erection of isolating railings
or walls between blocks; the transformation of some gradients into retaining walls; the
privatization of parking places that are surrounded and covered and the appropriation of spaces
adjacent to some of the blocks by ground floor residents. These are sometimes locked off and
often have improvised openings and unauthorised new access to public roads.

Figure 6. Clothes hanging in free spaces on the CDI Jatobá housing estate. Source:
Author's archives, 2013.

Figure 7. Isolation between blocks on the 'Via Expressa' housing estate. Source: Author's
archives, 2013.

Figure 8. Privatisation of free space for parking CDI Jatobá housing estate.
Source: Author's Archive 2013.
1198

Figure 9. Privatisation of free space by residents on the ground floor - Jardim Leblon
housing estate. Source: Author's Archive 2013.

In addition to these observations there has been an increase in residents requesting Urbel to
individualize blocks, expand the parking area, improve accessibility, expand access and even
remove social and leisure facilities in isolated areas within the estates. Residents consider that
these spaces encourage a concentration of people involved in inappropriate activities such as
prostitution or drug use. Such demands have been reflected in the design of the most recent
projects.
It is also possible to observe a trend towards the privatization of blocks, reduction in
common recreational areas, expansion of parking spaces and incorporation of these areas at the
rear of buildings, rather than in front .

Management and Maintenance

The management, which is one of the factors highlighted by Ornstein (1991) for the inadequacy
or viability of the appropriation of open spaces, was also observed in the estates studied. In the
cases analyzed, the management of each of the estates is undertaken by a general
trustee/caretaker, who is responsible for all blocks and / or an individual caretaker responsible
for each block. Thus eighteen (18) estates were investigated, while in 4 (four) of these, precise
information was not forthcoming. In the eighteen (18) analyzed the situation is as follows.

Table 1. Management of estates : general caretaker v individual block caretaker

Is there a general Is there a caretaker in every

Total of estates
caretaker? block?
Yes Yes 8
Yes No 2
No Yes 7
No No 1
Source: the authors, 2014.

In seven (7) estates, management is undertaken by caretakers responsible for each block
which confirms the desire to privatize open spaces - isolating blocks by means of railings and
fences, as mentioned earlier (Table 1).
The maintenance of estates is undertaken, in the majority of cases, by the residents
themselves as shown in Table 2 below. This reflects the financial situation of residents who are
generally low income and who, by self-maintaining the estate, may exempt themselves from
service charges.
 1199

Table 2. Estate Maintenance

Who does it ?
Activity The Nobody does
The residents EXTERNAL
CONDOMÍNIUM the maintenance
Gardening On 14 estates On 3 estates - On 5 estates
Cleaning On 16 estates On 4 estates On 1 estate -
Renovation On 6 estates On 6 estates - -
Source: the authors, 2014

The difficulty of managing and maintaining spaces for socializing and collective use, as well
as, the grassed and landscaped areas, which in most cases are in a precarious condition, are
worthy of attention. It may be further observed that the situation of free space in estates that
have a general caretaker is generally better than those that do not, even with the deficiencies
presented.

Final Considerations

The plots of land used for the construction of the estates under analysis are far from the centre
but are located near commercial areas and services and have some nearby space for leisure
activities, especially football fields.
The blocks were constructed on land with excessive gradients and are therefore less suitable
for the realisation of the strict architectural typologies suggested. In fact, Urbel imposes the
adoption of design and construction projects which require adjustments in the topography in the
form of railings, stairs and ramps and which do not always manifest adequate landscaping and
optimal conditions of accessibility.
A significant area devoted to open spaces within housing estates, representing more than half
the total area of land in all estates studied, has no leisure facilities that can attend residents'
needs, such as a plaza, internal square or playground. It is noteworthy that in some of the estates
they are nonexistent.
Most free space is allocated to embankments and vegetated areas that are underutilized by
residents because of the gradient. For the same reason, the circulation of vehicles and
pedestrians also occupy a significant area of the project. Thus, the free space destined to be
permanent and for collective use is reduced and little used for socializing by the residents.
The inadequacy of free space projects on estates, combined with the difficulty of estate
management, generates transformations in these areas. In general, a trend to privatize the free
areas which become separated by bars between the blocks and the demarcation and
individualization of parking spaces was observed. The phenomenon is repeated in most estates
at the solicitation of the residents who justify it by the need for greater security and privacy.
Although the area of open space on the estates analyzed is representative, this does not imply
good environmental quality. A hierarchy between the constructed spaces for socializing or
movement of vehicles and pedestrians has not been established - they are merely a consequence
of the insertion of the blocks on the land. Moreover the socio-spatial, environmental and
topographic conditions of the land on which the estates are constructed were not considered.
The individualization of blocks constitutes transformation that has its origins in the estate
management. As most estates have a caretaker in each block, residents demand from Urbel the
right to close each off their respective areas. Moreover, the constant conflicts among residents
that are referred to the agency have induced new solutions for the implantation of separate
blocks.
At the same time, because users do not have property ownership rights they have no
sensation of being homeowners and take little involvement in the maintenance of the buildings -
soliciting Urbel when renovation is necessary.
1200

It was shown that after appropriation, the free spaces undergo significant transformation. These
changes are the result of the social housing production process which involves: the selection of
the land; the project conception; the execution of the works; the ownership and the maintenance
of the estates.
The transformation of free space already manifests itself in the construction of the estates as
the amenities projected are not executed under the justification that the costs would be too high.
The most obvious changes are related to use, for example, eliminating playgrounds which
represent one of the most important requirements of the local population. Improvised parking,
invasion of collective areas or amenities has also been common, which in turn affects the
landscape and the permeability of the land, as well as, limiting the possibility of residents living
together harmoniously.
A curious fact with regard to parking is that space is located on the flattest part of the estate.
Sometimes the movement of earth necessary was used to justify the high cost of construction to
the detriment of collective amenities.
The transformation of the free space in the estates, due to the inadequacy of the project, can
still be seen in the appropriation of the spaces for pedestrian circulation. There are cases where
spaces are closed and others take over this function. An example of this is present in the San
José estate which received a makeshift ladder so as to allow people to climb over the retaining
wall installed and have access to the other side of the estate.
Finally, the free space in housing estates are residual areas, little utilised, often privatized in
their form of appropriation and that generate needs, not only in terms of landscape, but mainly
in the need for leisure and social areas, especially for children.
Although, on the one hand, housing policy tries to address the quantitative problem of
municipal housing with the production of many housing units, on the other, the quality of
housing, the inclusion of these houses in the municipal context and the concept of decent
housing have remained only a desire in the projects and their respective execution.

References

Aragão, S. (2007) Espaços livres condominiais. Revista de Pesquisa em Arquitetura e Urbanismo. v.6.
São Paulo, p. 49-64.
Aragão, S. (2007) Do conjunto ajardinado ao conjunto parque – variações tipológicas na paisagem
paulistana. PÓS. n. 20. São Paulo, 2006. p. 106-120.
Benvenga, B. M. de M (2006). Cohab José Bonifácio: redesenhando espaços livres. (Trabalho de
Conclusão de Curso). Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo. Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo.
Benvenga, B. M. de M (2009). ‘Apropriação dos espaços livres em áreas residenciais populares: uso,
ocupação e invasão’ Paisagem e Ambiente: ensaios, São Paulo, n. 26.
Caldeira, T. P. R. (2000) Cidade de muros: segregação urbana, enclaves fortificados e espaço público
(Edusp, São Paulo).
Coelho, A. B. (2013) A importância dos espaços comuns ou semi-privados nos edifícios multifamiliares
(II) - os perfis de qualidade e de criatividade nos espaços comuns habitacionais. ARTIGO XXXVII da
Série Habitar e Viver Melhor. Infohabitar, Ano IX, nº 456. Publicado em 07/10/13. Disponível em:
http://infohabitar.blogspot.pt/2013/10/qualidade-e-criatividade-nos-espacos.html
Coelho, A. B. (2013) A importância dos espaços comuns ou semi-privados nos edifícios multifamiliares
(I). Artigo XXXVI da Série habitar e viver melhor. Infohabitar, Ano IX, n.º 455. Publicado 30 de
setembro de 2013. Disponível em: http://infohabitar.blogspot.pt/2013/09/espacos-comuns-
habitacionais-i.html
Ferreira, J. S. W. (ed.) (2012) ‘Produzir casas ou construir cidades? Desafios para um novo Brasil
urbano. Parâmetros de qualidade para a implementação de projetos habitacionais e urbanos’
(LABHAB; FUPAM, São Paulo).
FJP ( 2012). Fundação João Pinheiro. Déficit habitacional do Brasil.
IBGE. (2010) Instituto Brasileiro de Geografia e Estatística. Censo Demográfico.
Laboratório da Paisagem – EA. UFMG. (2014) ‘Os espaços livres nos conjuntos habitacionais de Belo
Horizonte/MG’. Relatório técnico-científico. Pesquisa financiada pelo CNPq. Belo Horizonte.
 1201

Nogueira, Z. B. and Righi, R. (2003) ‘Paisagismo de conjuntos habitacionais: avaliação de três

experiências em São Paulo’. Cadernos de Pós-graduação em Arquitetura e Urbanismo (São Paulo), v.
3, p. 1-15.
Ornstein, S. W. (1991) ‘Arquitetura e responsabilidade social: algumas considerações sobre a Avaliação
Pós-Ocupação (APO) de estabelecimentos penais urbanos’, São Paulo, Sinopses (USP). v.15, p. 10-16.
Palhares, S. R. (2001) ‘Variantes de modificação em habitação popular: do espaço planejado ao espaço
vivido’ unpublished MSc thesis, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Br.
Teixeira, M. C. V. (2004) Espaço projetado e espaço vivido na habitação social: os conjuntos Goiânia e
Araguaia em Belo Horizonte’ unpublished PhD thesis, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro,Br.
1202

Unsustainable empty by inadequate use of urban space

Monica de Carvalho
City Hall of University Federal do Rio de Janeiro - UFRJ
Email: [email protected]

Abstract. Studies of the Middle Ages tells of deforestation, since man saw the forest as barbarism, and
reduced as a benefit to civilization for crops and rearing of herds. (Dorst, 1973). But, also, there is
evidence of respect and admiration for nature the forms of buildings, urban landscape, vegetation and
agricultural production in other cultures, as the Incas. (Bingham, 1911). Different paradigms, who built
the various stages of human civilizations, explain the current situation that leads many urban centers in a
significant deficit in environmental sustainability, a lack of resources for planning the shape of the urban
landscape. Urbanism is to provide sustainable built man in his habitat, with comfort and environmental
infrastructure to supply water, food, shelter, heat and light. This proves that man is capable of
transforming the natural environment without destroying their livelihood condition, because the planned
space is the best solution in the growing demand for food, housing, jobs and mobility of families,
congregations, markets and armies. Governments around the world create managements to ensure
sustainable human life on the planet, with the maintenance of corporations and lucrative markets in the
global system. But the vulnerability is evident in various forms, such as natural phenomena and accidents
in built space with large numbers of human casualties and loss of economic output. Experts say that the
planet is finite, and does not support the artificial transformations, by an infinite lifetime warranty and
urban production on Earth.

Key Words: urbanism, environment, landscaping, sustainability, urban mobility.

Introducion

This research work reflects on the functions and uses in urban areas of Brazil's capital, in
particular the City of Rio de Janeiro, my hometown, which will host two major world events in
the period 2014-2016. The City of Rio de Janeiro today prepares the landscape of urban space
for events, and demands that uses and global functions are sufficiently sustainable in
territoriality, and this is another example of the many unforeseen past 20 years, as in the event
RIO - ECO 92 .
The event RIO - ECO 92, of world importance, brought discussions of environmental
problems, consequence of urban growth on the planet, made a significant change in the planning
of cities thinking about the degrading performance in the natural environment. So Rio de
Janeiro, temporarily, was the capital of Brazil, declared the President Mr. Fernando Collor de
Melo, and attracted representatives from 180 countries of the world to decide what steps to take
to reduce environmental degradation and ensure the life of the human and other living beings.
The central idea, left the meeting was to provide sustainable economic development with the
consumerism of moderation to better ecological balance through preservation plans and
environmental conservation. So, important documents were created as the Earth Charter,
Biodiversity Convention, Desertification and Climate Change, the beginning of Forests,
Environment and Development and Agenda 21. Agenda 21 has become the most important
instrument to be followed for each country, each region and each city representing urban areas,
and which produces the livelihood and are concentrated forms of growth and economic
development of societies and peoples of the planet.
The City of Rio de Janeiro has a natural landscape with medium mountain ridges and are
interspersed with its various neighborhoods and the limited road system and the sea. However
the challenge is to get world events, resolving review their sustainable intentions revealed at the
 1203

time as a condition to grow the economy and the population of the city, and the natural
environment as its main axis. With concepts of Agenda 21, the Rio Declaration (Earth Charter)
and the Conventions signed in the RIO-92, the city administration moves efforts to create
actions and targets the improvement of urban conditions for sustainable development and that
the main focus are: Social and Economic Dimensions, Conservation and Management of
Resources for Development, Strengthening the role of the main social groups and Means of
Implementation.
Then, with bases in this brief exposure, this research is to know the "State of the Art" and the
reflections on the issues that are compelling and disturbing to shape the urban form of the city
that, after more than 20 years, is again interrupted in your routine and submit to the urban trials,
which makes seeing possible horizons in the common future of cities elected to major world
events.

Aspects and impacts in the urban landscape

Middle age studies speak of deforestation, since man understood the forest as barbarism, and
reduced as a benefit to civilization for crops and cattle breeding (Dorst, 1973). But, also, there is
evidence of respect and admiration for nature in various forms of buildings, urban landscape,
vegetation and agricultural production in other cultures, as in the Incas. (Bingham, 1911).
History shows the different paradigms, who built the various stages of human civilizations and
explain the current situation that influences many urban centers to a significant deficit of
environmental sustainability, a lack of resources and planning to reshape the urban landscape. In
the collective perception urban landscape expresses how the individual must read and
understand the city and it can move to the most possible activities related to who elect the urban
site as the ground of its existence.
In the years 50, 60 and 70 the Town Planning intensifies and is providing sustained man in
his habitat built with environmental comfort and infrastructure for water supply, food, shelter,
heat and light. This proves that man is capable of transforming the natural environment without
destroying its condition of living, because the planned space is the best solution in the growing
demand for food, housing, jobs and mobility of families, congregations, markets and armies. As
a result, governments around the world create steps to ensure sustainable human life on the
planet, with the maintenance of corporations and lucrative markets in the global system. But one
notes the vulnerability in several ways, such as natural phenomena and accidents in built space
with large numbers of human casualties and loss of economic output. Experts say that the planet
is finite, and does not support artificial changes to an infinite lifetime warranty and for
sustainable urban production on Earth.
The United Nations Conference held in Stockholm in 1972 happens with the purpose of
reviewing the synergies between the Environment and Urban Development, establishing new
visions and urgent procedures for the greatest possible viability to sustain the future of cities
across the world. So are magnified concerns, reviews, commitments and measures to create new
uses and functions to the best of urban city and rural areas. The situation called for attention in
all the processes governing the productions which support the cities, as the latest models of
social and productive organizations are established in urban city to keep workers in at least 50%
of the world's population, but 1/3 that live in sub-human conditions known as favelas.
In Rio de Janeiro City this proportion is confirmed and becomes the most difficult task to
compose the form of the urban landscape associated with a sustainable condition for economic
production and environmental preservation of the city's future. This view is undeniable to
common eyes, it creates an impossible density to be recorded in real time, and does not allow
the actual location of shifts that move the socio-economic production, which is the thermometer
to provide the conditions for development with urban sustainability and environmental.
Other aspects are shown in the city of Rio de Janeiro as relevant which are the administrative
expenditures with urban violence and the production of solid waste, which saturate the existing
1204

sectoral structures in the Municipal Administration, creating impacts of disproportionate

dimensions on the challenges signed with the remainder the planet, and being in sight the
approach of the 2014 and 2016 world events for the World Football Cup and the Olympic
World Games.
About the spaces devoted to the world events, there is nothing to disagree about their real
possibilities of being available. However, the same result does not occur on the perception on
urban routines that promote socio-economic production of day-to-day city, and they need that
their movements are carried out on roads and land transportation systems, today already
seriously committed to the fluidity by several reasons the urban phenomenon.
The municipal administration made a bold plan born in 2010, which provides a radical urban
operation that transforms urban axes, transport types, routes and systems that served the city for
over 40 years. See what happened with the complete demolition of the high Perimeter, which
bordered the entire port area of the city, which created a ring road to meet the arterial routes of
inputs and outputs regional and international airport of the city.
Many impacts already become visible at a future understanding of the shape of the city,
when it has the waterproofing without provision of intense forestation and landscaping in new
urban axes, in addition to condition the intensive use of public transport systems of long
distances (BRT and BRS), which were preferred to place surface or underground rails, and the
creation of new shopping centers, technological and industrial poles, and as creators of intense
shifts the provision of services, labor, work and jobs, mainly by harmful production of polluting
waste.
Although not seem unheard and not disturbing, but these mentioned factors indicate the
extensive spreading condition of the city, as the transfer and upgrading of subnormal
agglomerates or slums are located mainly in the central areas of large real estate appreciation of
the city, gathering around the least 2 million people a housing shortage in the city of 200,000
units, and only 60,000 units were contracted to build the last 2 years. The transfer and the
readjustment of each cluster means a problem for many residents, which represents the change
in the commitment of families with their urban living needs with their attributes related to labor,
employment, health, education, transport and leisure. And change often cannot be gradual,
given the condition of tight deadlines to have the new morphology imposed in the city that will
receive two world events in a short time of two years.
The spreading of the carioca metropolis promotes many social, economic and environmental
delays, since the productive urban axes of significant scale will be transferred, considering the
limited road and inefficient road transport systems, sanitary and storm sewer system inadequate
and outdated and the constraints physical-geographic of a city choked between the sea and the
mountain ridges. The city of Rio de Janeiro today, still sheltered themselves from the omens
that threaten their preservation and conservation signed in commitment to the Earth Charter and
Agenda 21 for the global environmental event RIO-92. Therefore it is visible from the
appearance and impact refers to the new solid waste, where landfill space no longer meet the
demand, as well as new areas for this purpose, since they do not become possible to offer the
metropolitan area of the city thus saturating the security of the neighboring municipalities, still
very poor and latent in his urban and socio-productive structures.
Given the above, the City's commitment to the Rio de Janeiro, to meet the requirements of
providing world events, has become a task of great responsibility in the present and in the future
in order to get the city morphology with guarantee of intelligent conditions for effective and
sustainable metropolis over the next 30 years. This time leading up to the global meltdown
which provides urban life occupy 70% of the environmental resources of the planet. That future
should ensure the promise that the Urban Contemporary 50s did, after Chicago and Bauhaus
School, when allowed ratify on ensuring the comfort in the urban condition at the expense of
rural condition, the full and stable permanence of man due the relationship of economic output
with the accumulation and capital surpluses.
 1205

The morphology of unsustainable empty

Although the experience of Rio de Janeiro City is not as exceptional as the transfer or
displacement of socio-productive routes, this comes at a time of various changes imposed by
both an internal and external demand, promoting conflicts and even aggravating that can make it
impossible many plans and projects still under development and already running. In theory, the
change shaft through urban operations produces significant results, often unforeseen or
foreseen, it may be aborted by an external demand, creating action of irreversible stages, for
example, the formation of voids that may become urban areas unsustainable, both the social
focus as economic and environmental.
But what can be said of unsustainable empty? Well, then, urban voids are disturbing themes
and replicating over the past 50 years in almost every city in the world. The Modern Urbanism
developed solutions and also problems throughout his 60 years in office, and inspired
controversial authors like: Ebenezer Howard as the defender of the garden city with 30.000
inhabitants surrounded with green belt; Le Corbusier as a defender of super vertical city hostels
towers on stilts holding free and green land for the passage of people and vehicles; Daniel
Burnham as a defender of the city as the backdrop for artistic monuments in green parks. And
otherwise, the Jane Jacobs author, questioned these monotonous approaches of Modern
Urbanism, accusing the main reason of abandonment and death of cities.
But today, the theme of the life and death of cities (Jacobs, 1961) could not be supported on
this issue, given the new grounds of the city that need to raise over environmental preservation
and the restructuring of production, with the focus of globalization world economy. In this
vision, new paradigms and institutionalities are thought to promote change with adjustments or
changes, on expected the supposed urban voids, such as remnants of the spaces of the large
factories, and other models of urban occupation.
In the city of Rio de Janeiro Urban Plan, with some delay this temporality, preferred the
view of environmental reserves as the Barra da Tijuca Pilot Plan and Baixadas of Jacarepagua,
Sepetiba and Guaratiba, including Vargens, beyond the Fundão Island - City university, and
other districts of the Baixada Fluminense. These spaces, today, are seen as non-functional urban
voids for socio-economic production of the city. Then the thought and Janes Jacobs vision are
present, and follow fostering municipal administrations, on the emergence of creating strategies
to move new "inputs" in the city of global dream. And so perhaps the managers of Rio de
Janeiro City chose to get involved, based on the question indicated by Jacobs, leading the city to
apply to world events, with the intention of renewal and recovery of empty spaces, considered
lacking in production and inhabitants.
But even on the basis of thought and Jacobs's view, the City of Rio de Janeiro develops
practices that have not and are not educated on the issue raised by the author. Curious fact about
the inclusion of consortium operations in the area of Porto Wonder, the new urban function of
Fundão Island and the other inserts of road systems and transportation, that enter areas
previously considered of environmental reserves of the city, as the Vargens, Baixada de
Jacarepagua, Baixada Fluminense, and Restingas Guaratiba and Sepetiba. Thus, the city will be
relocating and moving away from the urban area of the city, without the minimum infrastructure
such as sanitation, sewage collection and disposal of solid waste and other urban facilities such
as health centers and schools. The order is now being functional, no longer be the condition of
conservation areas of environmental reserves, which once served the new world order from the
RIO-92.
From then on, it creates a paradox that affects the urban organism, functioning as a city, as it
is exposed to surgery with urban operations that break and exclude old urban infrastructure such
as bridges, overpasses and elevated. Now, since no real vision of its derivatives, and through
their elimination or substitution by other equipment, considering many have not yet effective
and sufficient for the flow and maintenance of various urban routines being productive or not,
but routines that emerge from a city that even with empty, still remain with "green lungs".
1206

In Modern Urbanism scheduled to be compartmentalized city plan with its uses and
functions, and empty were filled with green parks and squares that served the leisure of
residents. But Jacobs housed the concept that these green areas were empty, they were only
accessible to residents, while on the rest of the residents moved to produce other extreme of the
industrial city. Anyway, do not explain the green areas as environmental and ecosystem areas,
and the time was trying to degrade them here in Rio de Janeiro, including the Tijuca Forest
Park, Quinta da Boa Vista and now at the end and unfortunately, the Flamengo also already
suffering from neglect and improper maintenance.

Green and environmental reserves - potential empty

In Rio de Janeiro City is confirmed, then a functional use of vision in areas of green
reservation? This is only for fear the thought and vision of the death of the city? Or is it just a
new urban-environmental vision? As support and how to present to the world a city of so many
natural environments interspersed between seas and mountains, now, a vertical city in the entire
region "Marvelous Port" and sprawling to the region of Vargens, the Baixada Fluminense and
Jacarepaguá and, the Restingas Guaratiba and Sepetiba? What new urban concept can be
allowed to present to the world the new candidate city to be global?
From this observation, this research work brings to the analysis, the effects that are repeated
in the municipal administrations that follow in the city of Rio de Janeiro, primarily on the
improper and inadequate practice of Landscape discipline with the lack of trees in compensation
environmental urban zone. In theory, the urban landscape expresses how the individual must
read and understand the city and it can move with comfort, for the most possible activities
related to who elect the urban site as the ground of its existence.
But it is important to accept that arises every minute, and uncontrolled speed, new human
needs that need immediate solutions, in order to give all humans on the planet, and in order to
ensure the economic and financial corporations met their productions and of their profits. This
turbulence produced in the last 60 years, excellent solutions and also created in the wrong lane,
little effects or never perceived, that are present in incommensurable scales, such as the
reactions of the atomic world and the bacteriological abysses, formed from effects of molecular
transgeníases.
The human being is faced with today, with something almost unrecognizable to himself, or
something that inspires you to go further, and provide himself with a sensitive intelligence and
great wisdom. So, putting it to the service itself, putting to the service of all who provided an
entity transformer, and the entire environment that surrounds it, observing and following the
signs, which should guarantee the required compensation for sustainability the interactions of
the natural environment to the built environment.
Research on the best actions to be recommended and implemented in future urban
administrations, and these can develop the best return for the sustainable use of the city and can
restore the gaps that form the voids in these landscapes. Instead, these can work plans and pilot
projects for the restructuring of green empty and recovery sites containing species which may
have been extinct from the original habitat, transforming them into areas of Urban Tourism and
Environmental Alternative or Urban Development Centers as occurs in the incipient Vilas
Green being tested in mountainous regions of neighboring towns.
Therefore, the recommendations and guidelines developed in other urban centers outside of
Rio de Janeiro, and foreign cities recommend that urban spaces are inventoried in order to make
qualitative and quantitative data of vegetation to provide its Environmental Landscape Plan.
This, so that the city can have real and substantiated data, in order to review problems and
solutions for environmental sustainability. This is reasonable as it has knowledge that the
Landscaping is a reason practiced since the Middle Ages, and in Europe the initial movements
of the urban landscape planning occur in half of the fifteenth century and the appearance of
landscaped public spaces occurred in the century XVII. (Segawa, 1996)
 1207

The spaces of landscaping and urban forestry

The practice of Landscape contributes a lot to keep the moisture in the air and to the
permeability of soils, which softens in the flooding of large cities. This interferes with quality of
life by visual benefits, and behavioral, in addition to landscaping come to enhance the
preservation instinct that arises in the consciousness of people who want to have more green
space from the streets, sidewalks even in their own homes and workplaces (Bernatziky, 1980).
The fact is that the landscaping adds the development of a variety of species of plants native
or not, and that with this development allows other living beings such as insects, birds and many
other animals can stay longer present. Thus, get your food next to residential gardens, green
parks, malls and other habitats that may encourage the approach of flora and fauna biodiversity,
which are by nature an intelligent, self-regulating environments and therefore sustainable. For
example, we have bees that feed on nectar from flowers, birds also carry seeds and other
ecosystem interactions that come together for an infinite improvement of biodiversity. (Chacel,
2000).
Urban centers, according to international survey conducted in 1988, already home to more
than 40% of the population tends to increase observing comfort of life proven in more
developed countries. So being generated environmental impact by expanding cities, is studied
and applied in various locations in the world plans to landscaping and urban forestry. Different
authors have already advocate the practice and highlight importance of their implementation and
maintenance, such as comfort for the city, air purification, thermal balance, noise reduction,
financial and landscape qualification of a property, attraction of wild fauna and flora, options
leisure and rest for the population and development of the historical-cultural and environmental
tourism (Ruschel and Carvalho Leite, 2002).
In Brazil, influenced by Europe, cultivated public gardens arise only in the late eighteenth
century, with the aim of preservation, sanitation and maintenance of species. D. Pedro II valued
by a preservation order of the natural environment, which promotes our first environmental
legislation. However, the periods governed by regimes of the Empire and the Colony in Brazil
have important records in relation to the environment (Earth, 2000). But the treatment given to
the elements was mercantile character. That is, nature was seen as a commodity, under the
influence of anthropocentric doctrine - in which man is seen as the center of all things. (Abreu,
1997). But, there is also the strong influence of landscaping on urban design, which elucidates
the time the trees and plant elements are to be understood as structuring elements of urban
space, and have the force of such acquired form, which shall be define new types and styles of
landscape and urban design. (Farah, 1999).
However, professional landscaping in southern Brazil, city dwellers as Maringa, Piracicaba
and Ribeirão Preto have published many articles and symposia to promote the best possible
dissemination of the importance of the exercise of discipline applied to the infrastructure of
cities and state capitals, with the rational use of urban forestry. Explain that part of the
ecosystem of trees plays a big role, influencing the weather conditions, air quality, soil fertility,
in the life of animals and plants. In the big cities, which are the most responsible for CO2
emissions, planting trees comes assist in the purification of the whole environmental system.
Studies indicate that some species should be preferred as the Jatoba, Rosewood, guapuruvu
among others, which are species of great absorption of carbon dioxide, which both overloads
global warming. Simply not only that but also explained that a single change adult has the
ability to spray around it about 500 liters of water / day, which makes the air and much more
fresh and pleasant environments. For this reason, a woody place comes to have a difference of
10 degrees less than the temperature measured in areas without vegetation (Chacel, 2000).
Topics for this analytical study are being conducted primarily in smaller cities or prefectures
in growth, as those located in the southern and midwestern Brazil, and these working groups
estimate that the landscape study and practice acts as update tool of urban functions, as well as a
1208

new condition to effect the purposes of socioeconomic and environmental sustainability in

urban centers.

The experience of the city of Ribeirão Preto - SP

Former Superintendent of Landscape and Environment of Ribeirão Preto City Hall - SP was
responsible for the implementation of a program which is shown below with the title Landscape
and Urban Centralities by Sergio Marin de Oliveira" between the years 2001 and 2004.
"Program Objectives: i) signic relevance; ii) expansion draining areas; iii) reduction of heat
islands; iv) biodiversity enrichment. We believe that today's cities, with their enormous needs of
all types (health, education, transport) can’t, in spite of these, and do without neglecting, as a
paradigm of systematic reconstruction, for environmental and landscape issue. The landscape
design in its range of intervention, should not be a possibility (the result of indifference,
ignorance or weakness of funds), but a vital necessity for the future of cities, as worthy of living
place, living and working as a place of citizenship, democratized and qualified public spaces. "

Figure 1. Greater safety for pedestrians. Sidewalks away from the guide tours. Av.
Armando de Arruda Pereira.

Figure 2. Public facilities - BMX track. Praça da EMEF Remo.

 1209

Figure 3. Greater thermal comfort. Largo Arariba.

Figure 4. Praço do Encontro Jabaquara (after).

Figure 5. Landscaping. Landscaped paths. Av. Lagos x Ipanema. Capela do

Socorro.
1210

Figure 6. Praça Sampaio Vidal – Aricanduva (after).

Figure 7. Greater thermal comfort. Residential project Faria Lima.

 1211

The own spaces for urban vegetation

Similar afforestation view in public and private open spaces, trees accompanying the road
system exert ecological function, in order to improve the urban environment, and aesthetics, in
the sense of public roads beautification and consequently the city. And as afforestation
accompanying the road system is its subservience as an ecological way, linking the free
vegetated areas of the city, such as squares and parks. In addition, on many occasions, the tree
in front of the house gives this a particular identity and provides direct contact of residents with
significant natural element, considering all its benefits. (Concise Oxford, 1988)
However, many problems are caused in the confrontation of unsuitable trees, on the urban
equipment such as electrical wiring, pipes, gutters, sidewalks, walls, lampposts, etc. These
problems are very common viewing and cause, in most cases, inadequate management and
damaging the trees. (Velasco, 2003). It is common to see trees pruned drastically and many
phytosanitary problems such as the presence of termites, drills, other types of pathogens,
physical injuries as barking, hollow and rotten stems, chipped branches, etc. (Velasco, 2003)
Noting this common situation in Brazilian cities, adds to the fact that the shortage of trees
along the streets and avenues. In this sense, it is essential we consider the need for constant and
proper management aimed specifically at the urban trees. This management involves concurrent
phases of planting, driving the seedlings, pruning and necessary extractions.
To implement a municipal system that accounts for all this demand services, it is necessary
to consider the need for a specific municipal laws, administrative measures aimed to structure
the relevant sector to perform the work, considering fundamentally skilled labor and appropriate
equipment, as well as involvement with companies to help financially support projects and
idealized actions, and with the general population. The latter may happen, preferably through
environmental education programs for the theme, seeking to involve in fact the residents in
afforestation or reforestation process of the city. (Houass, 1988)

Importance of creating green space in urban reserves

As for the microclimate

In the case of the urban environment, it appears that the rapid population growth in conjunction
with other variables of the urban space, contribute significantly on changes in climatic elements.
The city causes changes in the surface parameters and the atmosphere, which in turn lead to a
change in energy balance (Lombardo, 1990).
According to Furtado and Melo Filho (1999), all landscape elements must be carefully
handled in order to bring benefits that will interfer in the integrated project, aimed at improving
air quality, the shading of the building and surrounding areas, the ventilation control and
moisture. Most of the heat load of a building comes from solar radiation and the outside air
temperature, a strict control of the microclimate elements being necessary to remove an excess
of energy that would make the built environment inhospitable.
According to Lima (1993), urban areas constitute an artificial environment, since they have
high concentrations of paved area constructed and favoring the absorption of solar radiation
during the day and the night reflection. Called heat island, this phenomenon can have a very
significant thermal differential to more vegetated sites. The trees intersect, reflect, absorb and
transmit solar radiation. Proper tree planting and good ventilation are two key elements for
obtaining the thermal comfort for the humid tropical climate. The tree set placed at a more
appropriate distance possible from the building provide a good shading in the risers of
buildings, composing a more favorable environment (Furtado and Melo Filho, 1999).
1212

As for health

The green area serves to constitute an area of "social and collective", is important for
maintaining quality of life. For ease of access for all, regardless of social class, promotes
integration among men (Martins Júnior, 1996). The OMS recommends that cities have at least
12 square meters of green area per inhabitant (Lang, 2000).
Trees can be considered antimicrobial agents. The trees still act against atmospheric
pollution, noise and visual (Pedrosa, 1983).
In the urban environment, have considerable potential for removing particles and
atmospheric greenhouse gases. Curtains experimental plants were able to decrease by 10% the
dust content of the air (Pedrosa, 1983). Excessive urban sound from traffic, equipment, and
construction industries interfere with communication, leisure and people can rest psychological
affect them or physiologically. You can make use of trees as a complement to the alleviation of
the noise, since the vegetables reduce the reverberation of sound. It is necessary to emphasize
that the protective effect varies with the frequency of sounds, with the position of the trees in
relation to the emission source and the structure and planting composition (Milano, 1987).
According to Bianchi (1989), the trees also helps to mitigate the visual pollution, because the
trees are components that give shape to urban environments and playing a major role, defining
spaces, featuring landscapes, visually guiding and enhancing properties, in addition to
integrating various components system.

As for urban ecosystems

The standardization of vegetation in urban centers is one of the greatest dangers to the earth's
ecological balance and should be avoided. The diversity of plant species is a basic condition for
the survival of animals and the ecological balance.
Cities that do not diversify its vegetation may turn into green deserts. Each city should give
higher priority on native species. When this happens, the tourists will be happy to visit them, as
they present distinct and typical aspects of its vegetation.

The current legislation

According to the Federal Constitution, every city with more than 20,000 inhabitants must
necessarily have a master plan approved by the City Council. So, will the existence of urban
zoning identifying sectors with vocations, destinations and specific occupation rules. The
zoning determine the specific occupation rules which, in turn, generate facilities and / or
difficulties for the existence of urban forestry.
The creation of public squares and parks requires for its effectiveness, and legal foundation
and economic resources, the availability of physical spaces. The zoning laws and subdivisions
to define rules and installment conditions, destination and urban land occupation can guarantee
these spaces, forming highly effective instruments for the realization of a suitable tree planting
system.
The laws that determine and govern the areas of permanent preservation and immune native
tree species are cut to Federal Law No. 4771 of September 15, 1965 - Forest Code and the State
Law No. 8518 of January 21, 1992 - State Forest Code.
In this set, the municipality must have a specific legislation. In order to help municipalities,
as the example of RGE - Rio Grande Energia, responsible for distribution of electricity in the
southern region of Brazil, who made a collection of laws and environmental projects that can
guide in defining the best legal guidelines for implementation of an environmental management
policy.
 1213

Conclusion

The knowledge and scientific research as the basis for the management of green areas would be
the foundation that would support the control and management of these areas. According to
chapter 35 of Agenda 21, it is emphasized the role of science for sustainable development where
scientific knowledge provides support for the prudent management of the environment, ensuring
the daily survival and future development of humanity. You can’t control or manage the plants
and animals of urban green areas without knowing the biology of the species, the relationship
between them and the relationship with the other components of ecosystems.
In the face of threats of irreversible environmental damage, lack of scientific knowledge
can’t be an excuse for postponing measures to protect the environment. In a broader and more
general analysis it appears that the lack of knowledge often is usual to assume that protecting
the vegetation is protecting all living beings who live there all your life or at least part of it. This
is the possible position with the available knowledge, but it does not guarantee the success of
the control and management of green areas. With the evolution of knowledge will be allowed a
more secure control with scientific bases and more adequate monitoring.
In this new section appears on the priority guided models of cities that make studies, projects
and the implementation of programs, they always monitored and rectified by Technical and
Scientific Committees designed by international rites of ideal functionality that will promote the
city that reacts technically front of own adversity. So it's definitely inserted in this context, the
construction of a vision with mature approach for providing scientific disciplines
multidisciplinary tone in order to create new demands on organizational chains of public and
private companies, but also creating necessarily the true condition of participation public and
citizen in the various aspects of sustainable development of urban life in cities. Thus arises the
strong condition of raising cultural efforts in order to create the new 21st century citizen profile,
providing for the training from basic school cycle in the course in Environmental Education for
Citizenship.
The matters set of Urban Environmental Planning intended to show how isolated and
fragmented attitudes of the government, whether in the physical space, either from a legal point
of view, is a vision of unilateral interests, are able to create situations of economic and social
spending, generating conflicts and social dispersion. Should be alert authorities that the
occupation, both spontaneous and formal, reserve areas has caused many environmental damage
from landfills, stream channeling, street opening and construction of condominiums in
permanent preservation area.
This research has also demonstrate the impertinence of expropriation made by the
Government of private reserve areas, whether in environmental issues presented, either because
the installment law of urban land make possible an active joint government with the
landowners, provided they are used democratic actions and the government there is indeed in
the interest of minimizing costs and build consensus. You can still submit proposals open to
resolve the impasse caused by the expropriation and for a possible discussion of an Urban
Design for Environmental Parks and corrective measures in the medium and long term so that
the competent authorities pay attention for environmental issues.
Thus, there is sure to have achieved contribute to the deepening of issues relevant to the
understanding of the issues presented and that this work can indeed be a tool to elucidate
polemics, enable the defense of the collective interest. With the facts and analysis presented
here, there is sure to have fulfilled the duty of citizens and technical research, understanding that
failure to not investigate and denounce means complicity.

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Bernatziky, A. (1980) L'Afrique équatoriale: types et paysages - Ed. Atlantis, 256p.
1214

BianchiI, C. G. (1989) Caracterização e análise das áreas verdes urbanas de Jaboticabal-SP.

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Equilíbrio p.6.
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Piracicaba, Tese (Doutorado) Escola Superior de Agricultura Luiz de Queiroz, Universidade de São
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Lombardo, M.A. (1990) Vegetação e clima. In: Encontro Nacional de Arborização Urbana 3, Curitiba,
1990. Resumos. Curitiba: FUPEF, p.1-13.
Martins Junior (1996) O.P. - Uma cidade ecologicamente correta. Goiânia: A B Editora, 224 p.
Milano, M.S. (1987) O planejamento da arborização, as necessidades de manejo e tratamentos culturais
das árvores de ruas de Curitiba, PR. Floresta, v.17, n.1/2, p.15-21.
Oliveira, S. M. (2001) Paisagismo e as centralidades urbanas - Projeto -Superintendencia de Paisagismo
e Meio Ambiente da Empresa Municipal de Urbanização (EMURB) - Ribeirão Preto - São Paulo.
Pedrosa, J.B. (1983) Arborização de cidades e rodovias. Belo Horizonte: IEF,. 64 p.
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ESALQ/USP).
 1215

Interactions between agricultural-systems and urban forms

in Sardinian villages

Adriano Dessì
DICAAR, University of Cagliari, Italy. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. The rural landscape is historically based on mutual interaction between the biḍḍa and sartu,
the village (villa) and the countryside (saltus). The forms of the Sardinian countryside, the openfield in
the plains and hills with cereal crops, the closures in the inland basalt slopes and highlands used for
sheep grazing, are deeply connected with the form and structure of minor towns. The contribution focuses
on the historical reasons and the contemporary developments of three specific relationships between
Sardinian villages and their agricultural systems: (i) Villages situated in the plains are placed in a
central position in relation to the openfield and they are characterized by strictly closed blocks which
have large interstitial inner spaces between them, that constitute the sites of accumulation and primary
processing of cereal resources;
(ii) “Margin” villages between environmental and agricultural
specialized systems, or between different agricultural systems, show mixed structures and forms that are
generally compact and adherent to the topography. The fringes of these centres are highly dependent on
soil conditions, on crop specializations and different topographical forms. The porous space of the block
gives greater precedence to the peri-urban hortus conclusus; (iii) The pastoral villages of the great
tancas (enclosures) are composed of narrow elongated “spindle” blocks located on the terraces of the
inland hills. The adjacent agricultural systems are a few kilometres away, in a pattern of total autonomy
and division among the cultivated fields and urban forms. The contribution aims to focus on the effects
that these historical relations have today on the creation of new forms of contemporary habitat.

Key Words: rural landscape, villages, urban forms, agricoltural systems, enclosures

The exceptional poverty of the soil combined with his incredible fragmentation of ownership
and with an economy fundamentally based on sheep farming, paradoxically, have given an
exceptional diversity of forms to the Sardinian landscape: we can find in just over 20000 km2
many of the structures that characterize the rural 'ancient continent from the closed pastoral of
the most distant parts of Wales to the openfield landscape of Lanières in Alsace, peri-urban
regions of orchards of Andalusia on the Iberian Peninsula.
This extraordinary material and cultural palimpsest, consisting of the rhythmic succession of
the bidda-sartu binomial, villages and agricultural systems domain, or constisting of the
different agro systems, is the ability of the Sardinian landscape to change "in short," and to
conform and adapt human habitat to a severe and arid soil and also be structured around
complex social rules, extreme collectivization of resources or drastic ownership manifestation,
in a continuum made up of rural fragments of floating islands, of landscape "plaques".
The research interest on the landscape, or rather, on the rural landscapes in Sardinia, then, is
based on this ability to be revealing of urban forms that for a long time, it represented a direct
extension or densification of them, in this so interpenetrating and structured two-way
relationship, that we can consider agro systems and villages as a supportive and cooperative
aggregation, two entirely consistent expressions of architecture of soil.
The origin of the Sardinian village, despite the numerous classifications and structural analysis,
it is nevertheless difficult to understand, and indeed, for a long time, it had "the disconcerting
habit of disappearing, reappearing, disintegrating, fractionating, recomposing in compact
clusters, even the habit of changing location (...). "182

182
John Day, Villaggi abbandonati in Sardegna dal trecento al settecento, ed. CNRS, Paris, 1973.
1216

And however, a constant in its geographical location is precisely this founding relationship
with its more closely agricultural domains, which only for convenience of description, can be
described as anything else from the same village, even when there is no physical continuity
between the two systems. The house and the field, in fact, can be defined as two complementary
devices of production and organization of agricultural resources and, in accordance to this,
conform the soil and are in turn modeled.
It exists in Sardinia, and then remains very strong, that extraordinary identification between
urban and territorial “individual”, based on their agro-pastoral culture and the everyday
construction of rural landscape that even in inevitable contemporary transformations, it is still
rooted and often contrasts the inappropriate use of territory.

Figure 1. Ground uses and organization of the village territory.

The Mediterranean landscape: a history of agro-urban relationship

The rural history of Sardinia is not very different from that which characterizes the
Mediterranean landscape: the continuous layering of cultures, diversity of land uses, the
different urban morphologies, make the island one of the places in which the continental rural
forms have specifical configurations. In particular, the the structural and perceptual contrast
between the specialized cultivation encloses and of pastures and upland expanses of open fields
of cereal crops or extensive contemporary, the Sardinian landscape enroll in the formal
evolution of rural Mediterranean and therefore also in its constant mutation processes.
However Sardinia still shows those "figures" and "geometries" imprinted by strong
colonizing cultures, such as the Roman one (for example, is still significantly visible in the so-
called "valley of Quartu", the hilly hinterland of Cagliari) or the Arabic one, especially in the
management of water systems and peri-urban agriculture of small villages. The same “domus-
structure” of the agricultural villages of Sardinia, it appears that expression of Roman rus in
urbe which sees in the rural landscape the exact morphological and economic origin of the more
rooted urban fabrics.
In the whole area of influence of Andalusia, the Iberian peninsula and Mediterranean France,
the huertas accompanied and structured the development of the cities which, albeit with a
progressive consumption of soil, embraced them within their confines and guaranteed their
historic function. In fact, these spaces, as well as influencing urban growth, were considered
valuable for the complex infrastructure of the cities themselves, especially in relation to the
articulation and distribution of water resources, whose network often designed and organized -
as happened with the Romans - the urban fabric, making it morphologically continuous and
unified with the countryside.
The minimum, suburban rural lots, in such contexts, gradually merged with the large
residential blocks of the city, describing them as large open interior space, or large, productive
estate farms.
 1217

Rus in urbe - the countryside into the city, but also the city into the countryside - is the first
real expression of that structural union between urban and rural that makes Roman society the
first real landscaping society in history: "within the peaceful and lasting context of the Roman
Empire, rational design flows back from the cities to the territory, and puts into the landscape
the regular forms of agricultural subdivisions, roads, bridges, aqueducts, border lines, canals and
ports: a functional support and omnipresent image of a homogeneous civilization spread over a
very large geographical area.”183
For a long time, even after the end of Rome, the strength of that urban and territorial
settlement model was able to continue as an ordering platform and was effectively the landscape
approval system on the continent, although in its various forms. A real “ground-city”, a real
“continuous monument” which, in many ways and in many cases, formed the solid basis even
for the construction of contemporary landscapes.
The Mediterranean countryside, even subsequently, especially in its more urban spatial
forms, the enclosed garden, the rural court, the suburban garden, was for a long time the area of
man’s production and socialization and made up for the well-known poverty of strictly urban
public space. In the whole Mediterranean area, the historic links between the city and forms of
agriculture that surround them and provide them with supplies, for a long time, represented a
necessity and subsistence, but were also generators of alternative spaces to those intra muros.

Figure 2. The Ghardaia “cultivated fabric”.

In the Arabic settlement fabric, the countryside was a source of income for the city (medina)
in which the vegetable-garden spaces were already used for relaxation and leisure. In the coastal
cities (Beirut, Tripoli) they were located within the walls and maintained through collective
irrigation systems (dams or large tanks) or individual systems (wells, boreholes) and were
located in the vicinity of the ports for marketing the produce. In Istanbul, the horticultural
gardens are the Bostan, which face each side of the Bosphorus, whereas to the north of Tunis
large orange groves (jnina) and olive groves have been preserved in the peripheral residential
areas.
In the countryside of Tunisia (the rif), the well-off people stay in Swani, properties and rural
homes; urban oases in Damascus (Waha) represented a gradual and hierarchical landscape that
allowed the passage from city to horticultural gardens and orchards, to grasslands and
cornfields, before finally reaching the wilderness. "
In the whole area of influence of Andalusia, the Iberian peninsula and Mediterranean France,
the huertas accompanied and structured the development of the cities which, albeit with a
progressive consumption of soil, embraced them within their confines and guaranteed their
historic function. In fact, these spaces, as well as influencing urban growth, were considered
valuable for the complex infrastructure of the cities themselves, especially in relation to the

183
Vitta, M., Il paesaggio, una storia tra natura e architettura, Einaudi, 2005, Torino.
1218

articulation and distribution of water resources, whose network often designed and organized -
as happened with the Romans - the urban fabric, making it morphologically continuous and
unified with the countryside. The minimum, suburban rural lots, in such contexts, gradually
merged with the large residential blocks of the city, describing them as large open interior
space, or large, productive estate farms. It is also the historical continuity between urban and
rural areas that can be traced back to the ecological porosity and permeability of the
Mediterranean urban fabrics. In fact, there exists a close relationship between the private and
protected open space, whether it is urban space or cultivated fields, or also intimate space of
domestic life and the closed structures of the Mediterranean peri-urban rural landscape.
It is no coincidence that the greek word kepos (the garden) and the Latin Hortus, in the
Middle Ages have been treated with the Indo-Germanic word ghordho, which also indicated the
court and the fence, reaffirming the closed, protected and circumscribed nature of the space,
typical of a hortus conclusus. In addition to protection and control the enclosure guaranteed,
biotopical balance and diversity of crops, but also spaces for socializing away from the hottest
conditions. Even when in the post-medieval age -exactly as happened to the urban processes -
the need to subdivide the lots according to the property divisions and the farming types and
techniques led to a gradual densification of divisions and lots near the cities, re-proposing
organizations, paths and structures quite similar to the urban ones, the autonomy of the two
systems and the formal and functional integration between the city and the countryside were not
lost. The outcome of this process in large parts of rural mainland, is therefore that of a
subdivision in Lanières - long and narrow lots - a direct expression of this primordial urban
occupation of the countryside.

The agrosystem-village relationship in different forms of rural landscape in Sardinia

Due to this strong link, the village and the agrosystem are arranged in the territory according to
different and changing social, economic and nature of the land conditions.
However, the persistence of a dominant economy allows us to identify some repeated ways
to organize the rural space and then to "give form" to a landscape so recognizable and prevalent.
The fundamental relationship between agriculture and sheepherding for centuries has affected
the habitat of Sardinia. It is in this way that discriminates against some forms of housing
permanent and immanent, from the most nomadic and ephemeral. In fact, it could be more
synthetic if we say that the behavior and the work in the pastures determines the position, shape
and durability of the Sardinian settlement. In Sardinia the transhumance, for example, is
responsible not only more compact and fortified forms of mountain villages, but also more fluid
and dynamic configurations of spread habitats in peripheral regions, of which it is the main and
the relatively recent colonization reason.
The permeability of rural areas within the urban fabric of the village is measured in multiple
scales. However, it is the nature and size of the public space that we have confirmation of this
deep interaction. The dynamic and fluid pastoral habitat produces villages without real squares,
and public spaces are made simply where, for morphological reasons, the road widens
considerably its section or converges with another territorial path also originally a flocks
passage.
In short, we are allowed to identify three main modes of behavior of the ratio village / agro
system within the complex and diversified Sardinian rural landscapes.

The “center – center” form

Within the cereal open-field, inside the common management system of soil resources (called
Viddazzone, deriving from the Sardinian word “Bidda”, specifically, the village), in the regions
of hills and plains, the urban position is available in the most convenient way to support this
 1219

system, at the center. Beyond specific situations of institutional or religious nature, which could
substantially affect on the definition of landscape boundaries, simultaneous and cyclical use of
land in this agro-pastoral sense not only creates an equable sharing of village territory in pasture
and arable land but also determines a certain equidistance between the centers, proportionally
according to their size. These open landscapes are characterized by little point features of micro-
urbanity (rural villages) that underlie a territory proportional to their specific needs.
The characteristic of the compact village of plain or hill is that it is also surrounded by
another dense habitat form, the specialized crops one, a kind of food system made of
interlocking orchards and of enclosed gardens (lottus, cussorgias, binjas), impermeable to
pastures and in clear continuity with the urban tissue.
This belt manifests urban features: in particular, the settlement culture of the enclosure and
hortus conclusus makes urban blocks and enclosed gardens two events entirely consistent
habitat made in a different way. The continuity of the road network, the horizontality of built
profiles, the enclosing public space, make the binomial village / agro system an integral and
autonomous element with morphology clearly recognizable.

Figure 3. The centered village in countryside.

The “Center-edge” form

It is frequent in Sardinia that the village places itself in a strategic edge site between two major
agro systems or between the dominant agro systems and grazing; in this territorial
configuration, we’re allowed to consider the urban center itself an edge that controls both
production systems. This is done in the frequency halfway fluvial systems, in which the space
between the river and the town consists of the most fertile land is occupied by peri-urban
specialized crops (citrus groves , vineyards , orchards), while the space upstream of the urban
pastures or extensive olive groves. In these cases, the landscape is not structured on more
centers that colonize isotropically in the territory, but on centers arranged linearly and with an
almost symmetrical between land use systems or agro gardens and saltus. This operating center /
edge also makes two different types of configurations of urban edges: those upstream definitely
closed and protected, sometimes in continuity with fences, pastures, and downstream of high
permeability and dense and capillary branching paths to the river. Many of these situations are
often near the mouths of rivers, inland, or in the narrow terraced valleys of the interior, in which
the cultivated terraces show morphologies and sizes absolutely comparable to urban terraces.
1220

Figure 4. The village between specialized crops and saltus.

The “Center-Saltus” relationship form

In this case, especially prevalent among mountain or hill pastoral habitats, as opposed to the
main agro system and inhabited reality are two totally different and distant but closely related.
The area of the gardens, occurs therefore also a few kilometers from the center that controls it,
very often placed in a dry and arid soils, not very suitable to crops, much more connected to the
main paths of the pastures. These villages, in contrast with the village of the cereal open-field of
the plains, present themselves as centers with a strong vertical development, with a significant
urban projection and a very limited internal porosity.
The pastoral relationship with the large enclosures (tancas) dominates the physical
configurations of the relationship with the countryside, and as these are very wide, often
dramatic antinomy between full and empty spaces. The specialized crops agro system domains,
very often arise in the highlands and valleys that characterize the draining themselves are
enclosed by dry fences arising from the works of stone clearance of rocky soils that characterize
these areas.

Figure 5. The village away from its agricultural domains.

 1221

This concise classification of rural Sardinian villages on the ground of relationship with its
closer agricultural domains, shows how this extraordinary continuity of rural landscape,
continuity of space and time, permeates all the scales, the one of big territorial organization
forms (the hill openfield “puzzle”, the flock passages (camineras) net, the boccage of
agricultural enclosures, the twentieth-century modern reclamations chess-board, the
fieldworking strips of Southside urban fringes), the one of urban blocks and of housing
dimension, the great agricultural domus dominant figure or the mountain simple house “en band
“, or again the diffuse pastoral farm-houses of island peripheral regions (called furriadroxius on
Sulcis – in southwest side, cuiles on Nurra – in northwest plain and stazzos on Gallura, in
northeast side).

Figure 6. San Vero Milis. The village and its enclosed domains.

The new ecologies of fringes. Hybridizations urban / rural

It is no coincidence, in fact, that in the smaller towns of Sardinia, which have never completely
supplanted the activities related to agriculture and farming, which occurs today this slow and
difficult re-appropriation of an unproductive and piecemeal countryside, through a mixture of
housing configurations, where the fringe of the original nucleus fabric of domus, dissolves into
a singular and picturesque morphogenesis of '"building-annexed", into the carpet of polychrome
surfaces between urban and rural areas.This form of “landscape of fringes” is a result of
stratified processes, the dynamics of which diachronically occurred, uncoordinated and
inconsistent, and in which the very presence of the green has more a residuality and isolation
character than connection, contributing to diffuse image of patchwork landscape. Within this
mosaic of full and empty spaces, buildings and agricultural interstitial, where persists
deregulation and the need to take up space for the production and housing, there is an evident
concern to organize and live the suburban areas through new rationalities. In contexts such as
Sardinia, where rural activities held decisive roles in the landscapes formation as an expression
of a specific social economic fabric, this hybridization with typically urban settings, generates
discontinuity and inconsistency factors which necessarily reflected in the new rural habitat
1222

types.This, in indirect farming system, in part derives from the incompatibility between a
'building that is substantially related to the sharecropping activity generated by social and
economic needs and the current one oriented towards only to economic development. Also in
the rural systems in which dominates the ownership and direct agricultural management, as we
have seen, we are witnessing a shift in housing and in other urban functions to holdings,
especially situated in peri-urban areas, thus altering their historical relationship with the
landscape. This process therefore occurs not only in territorial scale, in which the historical
structures gradually change or they are subject to a new logic of settlement, «but also involves
the domestic space, which - split the original unity between living and produce spaces of the
farm - it becomes the space devoted to services and business»184
This change in the singular unity of this “rurban” settlement then generates rationalities that
are moving more in the direction of a multi-functionality185 that radically changes the historian
concept of rural and urban space. As a result of these processes, these rationalities seem to be
made of combinations, unusual juxtapositions between spaces for housing, manufacturing,
marketing, in which the domestic space and the public one are often not identifiable and even
not physically divided.
The combinations "house-greenhouse ", "house-shed", "house-warehouse", rather than the
large remittances, livestock farms residential or residences complexes attached to the company
craft, witness a sharp re-appropriation of the countryside by the production activities although
never related to the traditional concept of the rural space of agricultural production. And yet the
direct management of rural areas, since the beginning of the new millennium that had
accentuated the possible distance between the places of production and administration and
especially the residence, in the opposite direction, seems to be peremptorily returned as a
practice of a new extra-urban living186, a new ecology that distinguishes the nowadays great
spread housing crown of main conurbations.

The "urban" multifunctional potential of specialized crop areas.

In this "puzzled" belt of specialized crops that densely surrounds the village, strategically
displaced in urban fringes areas and which is deeply rooted in the very nature of the village, are
occurring the main mutations in “rurban” sense of the historical landscape, the deeper
hybridization between bidda and sartu (the village and the countryside), historically distinct but
highly related. This bond is in crisis today, paradoxically for a new rapprochement of
agricultural, lifestock farm and handicrafts and housing.
And yet, in the current “rurban” configurations of fringe areas, specialized crops participate in
multifunctional sense evolution of the countryside and are just essential into the new processes
of progressive urban colonization. If we consider that our rural areas, as stated by Bernardo
Secchi, as invaded by urban tensions, react and are yet structured for “micro-rationalities” of
production, often still closely tied to the fabric of rural society that generated them, we are
allowed to consider the specialized peripheral crops as a specific dimension and completely
integrated with all these rationalities, or are themselves rationalities, through which the farm or
another small generic production unit reached the direct and continuous use of the land.

184
Durbiano, G., Robiglio, M., from “la nuova dimensione del territorio”, in Paesaggio e architettura
nell’Italia Contemporanea, Donzelli editore, Milan, 2003, p. 40.
185
These features are described very well by the addresses of the PAC (Politiche Agrarie Comunitarie) in
which “multifunctionality” of agricolture activites is a fundamental issue. Abou this topif cfr. AA.VV., La
riforma della Pac in Agenda 2000. Dalle proposte alle decisioni finali, Osservatorio sulle Politiche
Agricole dell’UE, Inea, Roma, 1999.
186 Cfr. Pierre Donadieu, Campagne Urbane, (trad. eng. Urban Countryside), Donzelli editore, Roma,
2006.
 1223

Figure 7. Schemes of contemporary rurban house/garden aggregations.

1224

Figure 8. Schemes of contemporary rurban house/garden aggregations.

The specialized crops such as residential gardens

It is undeniably the most diffuse issue of rurban landscape. Increasingly the suburban
specialized crops, especially in the Mediterranean area, are incorporated inside the residence
domain at the time when the ancient rural lot, originally productive, it becomes tight housing.
 1225

This phenomenon is due to landlocked agricultural parts into the more and more closed net of
the city, those rural "vacuoles" mentioned by Gilles Clement in the Third Landscape Manifesto
in 2006, they become more and more places of the garden or the urban individual tree-private,
which represents the new garden of the house. The myth of ornamental plants, the ancient
lemon pergola of Mediterranean terraces, the classic bourgeois garden, is increasingly taken up
in making suburban neighborhoods into residual peripheral crops and becomes one of the
essential factors of the binomial "garden-with-house" of large mesh of pavillionners fabric,
within the housing sectors between suburban nucleus.
In Sardinia, for example, the two most important urban areas, that of Cagliari and Sassari,
evolved than their suburban crops in different ways: in Cagliari, the ancient crops of olive
groves and vines, now on a residual basis, remain as trim farm into long and narrow lots
(Corrias) and define the main slope of spontaneous settlements in urban fringes that have no
more agricultural vocation; in Sassari, a robust and ancient crown of olive plantations is
underpinned by the residential expansion, however, that not substitute, rather incorporates it as
an internal garden of second homes, or operates a network of suburban micro-accommodations.

The specialized crops as work and play clusters

In many circumstances the tree-crops, such as olive groves and citrus groves, constitute a sort of
buffer to protect new residential-productive mix cluster -which tend to operate independently
within the non-urban territory. In this case also, the functional shift between a productive and
ornamental green and another one for loisir is decisive. In fact, the tree-lined field becomes
ornamental windbreak tree-lined for sports areas or a traffic noise barrier for productive and
residential enclaves. The residual of ancient belt of orchards and olive groves surrounding these
villages, often built over ancient poles of rural production, restores the idea of great productive
farming within a complex landscape of encloses: the evergreen leaves of tree-lined or the
Boccage made of Mediterranean shrub and bush arrangement species contribute to "making-of-
privacy" of peri-urban multifunctional farm. This new suburban landscape multiplies the
crossing and colonization devices of the soil: alleys, yards, sheds, parking lots, dirt roads, open
spaces are entered in the residual cultivated network that mediated the capillary relationship
between the ancient village and the pasture territory.

The specialized crops such as peri-urban centers connectors

In no different way, the old and new origin main urban nuclei, belonging to the suburban
crowns of the main conurbations, whose growth in the last twenty-five years, often
proportionally higher than that of the core, they often occupy large areas of the fringes engaged
in special cultivation. The interesting combination between settlements and cultivated crown
has generated ever-changing and evolving landscapes, where territorial connections and
crossings are developed in a "non-stop" urban-rural and in which the walls of the cultivated
fields, orchards and of peri-urban vegetable gardens, are often in substantially line with those of
the houses, restoring the close landscaping relationship between the house and the field, the
arcades and the rural court, between the market open space and the alley. This continuing
situation of dispute for the use of the ground in more fertile areas between the city and the
agriculture activities, produces interlayered configurations between urban and rural, in which
typological hybridization of different nature buildings is the most common and the most
"natural" in the management process of a difficult balance between built-up areas, empty spaces
and green spaces. In these rurban areas, the logic of the interstitium takes precedence over the
traditional one vacuum, the ecological corridor than the urban block, the residue compared to
the unitary effect.
1226

The specialized crops as new poles of multifunctional agricultural production and tourism

The latest Community Agricultural policies encourage the so-called principle of

“conditionality” of the agricultural farming, which as well as ensures the efficiency and quality
of the product, it must be as multi-functional core and consumption within the peri-urban rural
areas. This fact, from the typological point of view, constituted an important innovation but has
made even more complex the definitive shift from monofunctional traditional rural building, on
the model of "farm-house", to aggregates volumes for different functions, more and more
specialized. To the original productive nucleus should be added the store, the local dining and
consumption, marketing, workshops and warehouses. So,within this multifunctional nature of
the contemporary farm, in many cases, the specialized crops dominate the agricultural sectors
here although short-distance and absolutely necessary to the survival of the same company. The
configurations that can take this relationship is variable: you can think of a real agro-urban
village in contexts of intensive agriculture and diversified from multifamily management, small
farm-houses into agri-tourism houses.

Figure 9. The Sassari olive groove crown. A new “rurban”habitat.

References

Branzi, A. (2006) Modernità debole e diffusa (Skira, Milano).

Clement, G. (2006) Manifesto del terzo paesaggio (Quodlibet, Macerata).
Donadieu, P. (2006) Campagne Urbane. Una nuova proposta di paesaggio della città (Donzelli Editore,
Roma).
Durbiano, G., Robiglio, M. (2003) Paesaggio e architettura nell’Italia contemporanea, (Donzelli editore,
Roma).
Lawrence, D. H.(1989 [1929]) Mare e Sardegna (nuova immagine editrice, Siena).
Le Lannou, M. (2006 [1979]) Pastori e contadini di Sardegna (Edizioni della Torre, Cagliari).
Maretto, P. (1980) Realtà naturale e realtà costruita (Alinea Editrice, Firenze).
Ortu, G. G. (1996) Villaggio e poteri signorili in Sardegna (Laterza, Bari).
Ricci, M.(2000) RischioPaesaggio (Meltemi editore, Roma).
Ritter, J. (2001) Paesaggio. Uomo e natura nell’età moderna (Guerini Associati, Milano).
Roger, A. (1997) Court traité du paysage (Gallimard, Parigi).
Sanna, A. (2009) a cura di - Atlante delle culture abitative e costruttive della Sardegna (DEI Edizioni del
Genio Civile, Roma).
Tosco, C. (2007) Il paesaggio come storia (il Mulino).
Tosco, C.(2007) Il paesaggio storico. Le fonti e i metodi di ricerca (Laterza, Roma-Bari).
Turri, E. (2008) Antropologia del paesaggio (Marsilio Editore, Venezia).
Turri, E. (2003) Il paesaggio come teatro, (Marsilio Editore, Venezia).
Turri, E: (1979) Semiologia del paesaggio italiano (Longanesi ed., Milano).
Viganò, Paola (2001) I territori della nuova modernità (Electa, Milano).
 1227

Study on the sustainable development of urban fringe at the

background of urban and rural co-ordination in China

Wu YingYing
Department of Architecture, Zhejiang University, 310013, Hangzhou, China.
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. Since last century of the 90's, with the continuously expanding scales of modernization and the
high-speed development of urbanization, as well as a long-term practising on the structure of urban-rural
binary economy ,urban fringe, as a transitional area derives on the urban-rural region system, is facing
great challenges of sustainable development, and a series of contradiction of expansion and protection is
becoming more and more obvious. At the background of the urban and rural co-ordination, urban fringe
has become a critical point of sustainable development realization in integrating urban and rural areas,
on the basis of whole above, this paper selects three different urban fringe of Hangzhou in Zhejiang
Province as case study areas, by analysing the non-single factors influencing on the mainly subject, and
focusing on the development process of urban fringe and its evolution mechanism, attempting to find an
effective approaches on optimizing the distribution of land resources in urban fringe, and establishing a
development strategy evaluation system, to promote relevant measures and recommendations for the
future development of urban fringe areas.

Key Words: urban and rural co-ordination, urban fringe, smart growth, spatial conformity, strategy
guidance

Introduction

Background

Since the 1990s, with the rapid development of urbanization in China, the urbanization has
reached to 30.8% by the end of 1998. In 2011, the urbanization has exceeded 50% for the first
time. The State of Chinese Cities 2012 / 2013 points out that China's urbanization will reach to
70 % -75 %, by 2050.
Around metropolitan area, as the continuously developing of modernizing construction and
promoting urbanization, urban and rural area have shown a mounting blurry boundary between
each other, and the traditional urban-rural dichotomy is gradually replaced by the new urban-
rural relationship, which is mutually infiltrated and relied on each other. In the spatial structure
aspect , there has been a sensitive , rapidly changing area of relatively independent regional unit
named Urban Fringe , which is a new transitional area derived from the foundation of urban-
rural regional system, and it has been the first choice of urban sprawl. Urban fringe, as the
frontier region of non-agricultural constructive land sprawl, and the marginal area of
agricultural land protection as well, is the key to controlling the urban scale and guaranteeing
the agro-ecosystem. Various forces from urban and rural area are gathering there, inspiring and
exposing the contradiction between the urban fringe development and protection apparently.
Whether it is from the view of long-term goals or short-term benefit, a systematic study on the
land-use of urban fringe, spatial distribution and sustainable development research, has become
an urgent task for China's urban construction.

Interpretation of the Urban and Rural Co-ordination

The urban and rural co-ordination, proposing as the economy development strategy, is based on
the contradiction of urban-rural social economic structure dichotomy, aiming at establishing a
1228

symbiotic circular economy system of functional complementary and organic in urban and rural
area. By changing the imbalance of policy and resource allocation that implemented under the
social economic structure dichotomy in the past, with the way of developing urban area to
promote the rural growth, transforming the rural feature of poverty and fall behind, improving
farmers' production and living conditions, ultimately, achieving an integrated development
pattern of suitable level in urban-rural productive development, relatively associated urban-rural
industrial development, relatively unified urban-rural policy institution, relatively equal urban-
rural dominant position and frequently urban-rural interaction.
In the spatial aspect, it is considered to co-ordinate urban area and rural area, combine the
characteristics of urban and rural to make each other mutual penetration.

Urban fringe spatial development status

The case of Hangzhou expansion

Hangzhou’s development is a process of rapid expansion. The early days of the foundation,
under the guiding principles of vigorously developing in the industry, Hangzhou suburban
district has formed a large-scale industrial area, the urbanization begins to sprawl to the urban
fringe for the initial expansion. By the early 1990s, with the rapid development of market
economy, Hangzhou’s construction has dramatically speeded up and sprawled along the urban
periphery. The rapid expansion of urban space leads to structural imbalance, shortage of land
and other issues, we must take measures to guide urban function. In the year of 2001, the
adjustment of administrative districts eased tensions of land conflicts and urban spatial
morphology got changed from the original single-center to multi-center.

Land utilizing scale, expansion rate and intensity

The land scale of Hangzhou is 3068 square kilometers and the population is of 409.54 million,
the metropolitan spatial pattern has begun to appear. By using remote-sensing image technology,
we count the urban construction land area of different period in Hangzhou, and calculate the
average expansion rate and intensity. (Table 1, Table 2)

Table 1. Land utilizing scale of Hangzhou ( Urban Master Plan of Hangzhou, 2001-2020)

Year City Area Downtown

Average Average
Land scale Population Land scale Population
(Square meter (Square meter
(Square (million) (Square (million)
per) per)
kilometer) kilometer)
2000 229.01 253.72 90.26 204.75 238.26 85.93
2005 290.39 313 92.77 256.53 284 90.33
2010 354.76 362 98.00 304.70 319 95.52
2015 399.96 404 99.00 334.65 345 97.00
2020 453.00 445 101.80 369.92 370 99.98

From the expansion area in different district, the rapid expansion of urban land-use in Hangzhou
has an increasing impact on urban fringe. The sustainable development of urban fringe should
be studied on the basis of this background that fully understanding the economy development
and rapid urbanization.
 1229

Table 2. 1991-1999,1999-2008 Different districts expansion speed and intensity in

Hangzhou ( Urban Master Plan of Hangzhou, 2001-2020)

Expansion
Constructive Land Area Expansion
Expansion Speed Intensity
(Square kilometer) (Square kilometer)
(%)
Location
99-
1991 1999 2008 91-99 99-2008 91-99 99-2008 91-99
2008
YuHang 76.87 107.92 166.57 31.05 58.85 3.88 6.54 5.05 6.06
XiaoShan 117.37 166.36 389.96 48.99 223.91 6.12 24.88 5.22 14.95
GongShu 21.24 31.65 43.81 10.41 12.21 1.3 1.36 6.13 4.29
XiaCheng 17.33 25.53 33.77 8.2 8.29 1.03 0.92 5.91 3.61
ShangCheng 14.22 17.28 16.29 3.06 -0.96 0.38 -0.11 2.69 -0.62
JiangGan 32.02 53.9 108.4 21.88 54.59 2.74 6.07 8.54 11.25
BinJiang 9.68 16.12 37.56 6.44 21.47 0.81 2.39 8.32 14.80
XiHu 38.69 53.69 71.58 15 17.99 1.88 2.00 4.85 3.72
Total 326.67 471.58 867.95 145.03 396.37 18.11 44.04 5.54 9.34

Land-use changes in urban fringe

According to the changing situation of urban space in Hangzhou (Figure 1. and Table 3.), from
1988 to 2004, the central area of Hangzhou has expanded by nearly six times, and the urban
fringe area expanded by 3.5 times as well, while, the rural area has reduced by nearly 20 %.
Hangzhou is still in the process of expanding rapidly, and the urban fringe expansion is the most
furious.

Land-use and urban fringe spatial morphology features

By the Hangzhou urban fringe range chart in three periods of 1988, 1998 and 2004, we can get
the general expansion trend of urban fringe area and built-up area.(Figure 2.)
A. Concentric expansion trend
Part of the main city urban fringe, whether it is inside or outside, the boundaries of the
border are in the form of concentric ring that constantly pushing and outward, showing the
evolution tendency of developing from the center to the edge.
B. Road - river trend
Through the investigation of external edge, we can see the urban fringe belt’s extension
characteristics of plan morphology. Urban fringe belt and its built-up area are presented with the
shape of rhomboid, reflecting the evolution trend changed from the concentric mode to the
finger expansion mode.
C. Trend of satellite towns
There is convincing evidence of frequently contact with the Hangzhou central area,
administrative district and satellite towns. On the one hand, the urban fringe expansion was
driven forced by built-up area, on the other hand, was affected by the satellite town’s
geographical tension. All of these, highlighting the stretching of urban fringe belt and built-up
area’s plan morphology in East-West axis .
1230

Figure 1. Urban land-use classification by remote-sensing analysis.

Table 3. Analysis of urban space land uses

Urban Area Urban Fringe Rural Area

Year Area Proportion Area Proportion Area Proportion
(Km²) （%） (Km²) （%） (Km²) （%）
1988 Total Area 30.9 0.93 145 4.36 3151 94.7
Construction Scale 22.3 0.67 66.9 2．01 400 12.02
Agricultural Area 1.96 0.06 53.25 1.60 1956 58.79
Forest Area 0.96 0.03 8.61 0.26 499 15.00
Water Area 5.7 0.17 16.15 0.49 298 8.96
2004 Total area 210 6.3 652.4 19.6 2464 74.1
Construction Scale 176.7 5.31 290.37 8.73 485 14.58
Agricultural Area 16.75 0.50 237.05 7.13 1003 30.15
Forest Area 10.28 0.31 56.64 1.70 619 18.61
Water Area 6.63 0.20 68.26 2.05 357 10.73

1988 1998 2004

Figure 2. Each period of Hangzhou urban fringe range.

Relationships between the population and urban fringe development

The characteristics of urban population spatial agglomeration and diffusion are extremely
significant aspect to interpret the urban internal spatial structure model. Studying on the
demographic changing charts in three stages various form 1964-1982, 1982 - 1990 to 1990-
2000, we can obviously see that during the period of 1964 to 1982, changes of Hangzhou urban
population is relatively small, and the central area population has emerged signs of
decentralization, however, the population decrease was minimal (Figure3.). In 1982-1990, the
urban center’s absolute quantity of population is reduced by 11.86%, which indicates that the
 1231

central area has such suitable scale of diffusant source.The distant suburban population declines,
and the suburban population growth rises, showing that the suburban area has been the main
part of attracting urban population (Figure4.).In 1992-2000, the entire central area of negative
population growth rate increases, and the distant suburban population growth rate decreases,
meanwhile, the suburban population growth is considerably highly improved. (Figure5)

Development types of urban fringe in Hangzhou

Hangzhou urban expansion is affected by multiple factors, such as, population urbanization,
economy agglomeration, industry suburbanization, development of science and technology park,
and construction of intercity transportation infrastructure. Through the integration of research
and summary, Hangzhou urban fringe development types are mainly in these following
categories:
A. Type of mainly based on the recovery of culture and landscape, and the development of
tourism and residence. For example, XiXi Wetland and Jiang Village, which are characterized
by estate agent as the vanguard of spontaneous market force.
B. Type of ecology protection and control of urban development. For example, Zhuantang
district, which is characterized by achieving the coordination of overall urban and local benefit
of urban fringe development under the way of urbanization.
C. Type of the construction of high technology park. Such as Binjiang district, which is
completely developed under the leadership of local government.

Figure 3. 1964-1982, Spatial types of population changing in different blocks of Hangzhou.

Figure 4. 1982-1990 , Spatial types of population changing in different blocks of Hangzhou.

1232

Figure 5. 1990-2000, Spatial types of population changing in different blocks of Hangzhou.

Explore the evolution mechanism of urban fringe development

The evolution mechanism of urban fringe

Urban Fringe is a unique human environment system, which should be due to the interaction of
various factors and powers including urban nature, economy and cultural environment system.
Each aspect of the urban fringe developing changes is related to the different element of the
whole urban environment system, and has maintained a close spatial relationship with urban
area, relying on each other. Among the all factors, urban economy activity is the determining
factor of the urban fringe development, industrial activity is the direct motivity of the urban
fringe development, furthermore, the content and pattern of industrial activity determines the
urban fringe spatial structure and land-use morphology characteristics.
Urban fringe internal evolution mechanisms, essentially is the result of joint action that the
urban internal development pressures working on the suburban area and the needs of
urbanization of suburb. The existence and development of urban fringe entirely rely on the
pressures of urban development, the imbalance of all these pressures in different directions, is
the direct cause leading to imbalanced changes in urban fringe. The factors, affecting urban
fringe spatial development can be summarized in three aspects: promotion mechanism, basic
mechanism and support mechanism. (Figure 6)
Promote mechanism: The spatial requirement that urban economy development has to be
faced with, is the motivity resource of urban fringe spatial expansion. Urban continuous
development, on the one hand, is to make the urban function and structure complication and
diversification, upgrade traditional industry, rise the related peripheral industry, and increase the
spatial resource demands of urban, on the other hand, economy development has attracted a
large number of non-agricultural population congregated, which stimulates the urgent spatial
resource needs of urban. Industrial development and population congregation makes the urban
create a strong model of developing from the internal to external, which is a spur to seek ways
to the external expansion.
Basic mechanism: Transportation system construction, transformation of lifestyle of
production and living that promoted by technological development, and the influence of the
natural conditions, all these above have become the basis of the spatial evolution mechanisms of
urban fringe, which is the main support to realize the possibility of spatial evolution. Building a
modernized transportation system has greatly increased the individual action distance, at the
same time, the construction of modern logistics system in the internet age, reduces the
individual spatial distance of seeking service and information. Traditional urban structure has
got shocks by the reciprocal relationship in distance. The superiority of central area information
has gradually weakened, a real external expansion has achieved to form a various group pattern.
Support mechanism: Urban planning and policy regulation is the coordination mechanisms
 1233

of urban fringe spatial evolution. As a subjective form of coordination, the establishment of

policy regulation and the formulation of urban planning play a role in promoting or limiting the
urban expansion. Among these, the whole urban planning policy, urban development policy,
related land-use space and industry development, which are all formulated under the guidance
of national macropolicy, have a direct impact on the development of urban fringe spatial
morphology, as well as the provisions of the regulations and macroeconomic policy form an
indirect impact

Form the structure diagram of governance evolution mechanism

The phenomenon of urban sprawl development is a consequence of various factors, we should

consider the governance measures in a systematic standpoint instead of a single aspect, and on
the basis of the conclusion of western countries’ management experience, combining with the
current reality as well.(Figure 7.)

Figure 6. Analysis of the evolution of urban fringe.

Land Compensation Planning Principle Investment Mode

Urban Sprawl Excessive Sprawl Control Sprawl

Urban Transportation Growth Pattern

Figure 7. Governance mechanism of urban sprawl.

1234

Select the case of urban fringe

XiXi wetland: recover culture and landscape, develop tourism and residence.

XiXi district is located in the westnorth part of Xihu district in Hangzhou with the total area of
23.06 square kilometers. In the process of XiXi district development, the government of
Hangzhou has formulated a series of related planning and made decisions to consciously guide
the recovery of culture and landscape, and achieving the sustainable goals of the development of
the tourism and residency, which mainly including:
A. ‘Jiang Village phenomenon’ and improvement of the basic infrastructure
B. The construction of XiXi Wetland Park and cultural tourism
C. Provide employment chance for the farmers and other related security

Zhuantang district: ecology protection and urban development controlling.

Zhuantang district is located on the southwest part of urban fringe with the total area of 156.32
square kilometers, which is an essential place of the golden tourism line. In quite a long period
of time, Zhuantang district has been incorporated into Hangzhou scenic tourism and urban water
conservation district, and takes the function as the industry base of agricultural production.
Since 1990s, the whole Zhuantang district developed slowly and had a poor economy
foundation, which become the ‘ lagging region’ of Hangzhou’s economic and social
development. In 2006, the government proposed to develop economy to achieve the goal of
controlling the urban development under the protection of ecology. The planning decision
including:
A. Tourism scenic spots protection and tourist facilities development
B. Ecological belt protection and developing planning
C. Education facilities construction
D. Pollution prevention measures
E. The agriculture support for the valuable culture
F. Financial compensation

Binjiang district: develop high-tech skill and construct eco-creativity park.

Binjiang district is located on the South Bank of Qian Tang River with the total area of 73.33
square kilometers. At the beginning, in the face of ‘agriculture, rural, farmers’ and the blank
situation of urban infrastructure, the government put forward the main objective that combines
the high-tech skills development and economy promotion. The developing orientation of
Binjiang district ranges from a single high-tech industry development district at first to a
combinational functions of education, business and dwelling, which moves towards from the
‘West Lake Times’ to the ‘QianTang River Times’. The planning decisions including:
A. Building technology innovation base, high-tech industry base and the most dynamic
economy growth district
B. Set up the ‘White Horse Lake’ creative park as the foundation of the urban organic
renewal, ecological environment protection and creative industry .
C. The improvement of living development and basic facilities
D. The favourable tax policy and independent budget system
E. Re-employment training for the land-lost farmers

Summary and reference

Through the spatial development strategy analysis on the three cases above, the advantages and
disadvantages of sustainability of content, implementation results and decision-making process
 1235

can be easily found out. The existed problems on sustainability of content can be summarized as
paying not so much attention to the guidance of land layout in the future, compactly efficient
land developing, effective usage of resources, reduction of the social differences in groups and
achieving the social equality. In the aspects of implementation results and sustainability of
decision-making process, there are issues that the insufficiency of public participation, and lack
of the effect evaluation after the formulation and the feedback correction system. Of course, the
spatial development strategy of three regions also play an effective role in promoting the
sustainable development of the whole urban fringe in Hangzhou and provide some experience.
A. The reference of ‘XiXi mode’
During the process of urban sprawl, natural resources are often difficult to be got effective
protection. As the accelerating pace of development, natural environment and historic relics are
the common phenomenon of a significant recession. Some local governments in order to pursue
the economy benefit, fail to attend to the protection of natural space. The protection of Xixi
wetland displaying the importance of natural ecosystem protection that government attaches to,
is an innovative meaning practice of urban management, which tells us how to protect valuable
nature resources in the process of urban sprawl with sustainable development based on the
fundamental concept, how to find ways of ecology protection among the battle of the benefit of
economy, society and environment, and how to explore a new style of protection and utilization
in the urbanization.
B. The innovation of ‘White Horse Lake’ style
Binjiang southern district construction tasks are identified from four fields, such as economy,
culture, spatial quality and development model that are the most basic elements of urban city.
Economic ‘transmission mode’, which actively cultivates new leading industries, stresses the
mutual supporting relationship between the new - old industry and the new – new one,
emphasizes the positive interaction between the industry and environment on the original
industrial basis. Culture’s ‘growth mode’, which focus on the heritage of urban tradition
protection and the cultivation of mechanism’s sustainability. Living space’s ‘quality mode’,
which is unified with the goal of the whole urban construction and is raised to the height of a
kind of productivity.
C. Thinking about the ‘Jiang village phenomenon’
In the process of urban fringe development, the market force tends to be a effect can’t be
ignored. Developers can often lead to drive the region’s initial development because of the
market sensitivity and profit-driven, however, as the approach of ‘isolation’, which leaves a lot
of problems in the west part of the city during the early days. Although, there are improved
facilities in each neighbourhoods, the whole basic infrastructure is still in absence. During the
development, because the lack of necessary preparation of the uncertainty about the future,
planning following with the developers leads to a state of disorder and confusion about the
urban development space. Developing the urban fringe, we must strictly implement the
principle of ‘planning in advance’ to continue the sequence of the holistic urban city and
achieve the sustainable development.
D. The advantages and disadvantages of urban space development mode under the
leadership of government
The development of Binjiang district is an entirely typical case of urban fringe development
under the leadership of government. Some scholars have pointed out that the evolution of urban
development and spatial structure in China is largely depended on the result of institution
changes. The local government can directly intervene the urban space resource by the executive
power, which shows a strong state of government leading.
When in the face of the fierce competition of external environment, the executive power can
often produce a strong priming effect quickly, and thus the development of urban space that is
implemented under the guidance of the local government, has a significant positive influence on
the rapidly gathering superiority resources, promoting the urban structure adjustment,
improving the appearance of urban landscape and enhancing the urban competitiveness. What’s
more, we should notice that the transformed local government, market and public has produce a
1236

profit misalignment.

Propose the sustainable space development strategy of urban fringe

The concept of sustainable development in urban fringe is an important part of the overall urban
sustainable development. The power of sustainable development is consist of economy
development ability, social development and stability ability, resource environment ability and
management coordination. This kind of sustainable development pursue to reach a state that the
common development of urban and rural area, and the coordinating construction of economy
and environment. It promotes social equality and intergenerational fairness in the course of
urbanization, and emphasis on meeting the demand of urban population, rural population and
foreign population, and rational allocation of existed resource as well, which not only think
seriously about the economy development, but also pay more attention to the social progress
and environmental ecology protection.
Hangzhou is a city of rapid urbanization. The city, urban fringe and suburban area are all in
the fast evolution, at the same time, the economy, society and land-use structure of urban fringe
is abrupt changing all the way, which requires effective urban development strategy and spatial
planning guidance and regulation. By the sustainability assessment of regional planning strategy
in the case of Xixi wetland, Zhuantang district and Binjiang district, we propose some following
suggestions for the sustainability of urban fringe spatial development in Hangzhou.
A. At the stage of urban rapid expansion, in order to keep the reasonable orderly
development of urban space and coordination of economy growth, social development, and
ecological environment protection, we need effective development strategy, spatial planning
guidance and regulation. How to maintain the consistency and unified implementation in
different strategy and planning, how to keep the coordination of planning in different period, are
both the issues we should pay attention to of Hangzhou urban fringe development.
B. For the development of Hangzhou urban fringe, we need to emphasize the
relationship with the whole city from the aspects of functional orientation, construction scale
and logical urban form. With the space expansion and the aggregation of population and
production, we should form the division coordination of urban function, and set up urban traffic
system to ensure the sustained performance, also, we need to solve the coordination operation to
build a suitable working and living environment.
C. During the process of urban fringe development, there is a most prominent contradiction
between the farmland, ecological space protection and the land for construction. On the one
hand, it is the requirement of country and urban's long-term benefit that try to protect the
farmland, water and other natural space, on the other hand, it is the industrialization and
urbanization which need a large quantity of land space. It demands that improving the efficiency
of land-use construction by the study on spatial planning and development strategy is an urgent
task.
D. During the process of urban fringe develoment, farmers are always the vulnerable groups,
who have lost their production and living land because of urban sprawl. The government should
use a variety of policy methods to arrange their residence and ensure their living life. It is a
strategic work that will make a close relationship with the stability of society and long-term
development.

Conclusion

Urban fringe’s sustainable development is inseparable from the basic conditions of urban and
rural co-ordination. From the perspectives of urban and rural co-ordination, there is of positive
significance to study the structure of urban fringe spatial development, explore the evolution of
urban fringe development mechanism, seek the countermeasures for space sustainable
 1237

development, play an important role in coordinating urban-rural relationships and promoting

region development and so on.
However, urban fringe development is a dynamic changing process throughout, and has its
own particularity. This paper is just based on the research data of Hangzhou, and making a
preliminary study of the process of urban fringe development evolution and characteristics.
There are still many questions to be discussed and solved in the future.

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1238

Contributions to the study of urban morphology:

morphological, typological and landscape interrelationships in
Brazilian Jesuit architecture

Fabiano Vieira Dias1, Martha Machado Campos2

1
Faculdades Integradas de Aracruz (FAACZ-ES), 2Universidade Federal
do Espírito Santo (UFES). E-mails: [email protected],
[email protected].

Abstract. The hypothesis put forward in this article is based on the possibility of Jesuit architecture, in
particular, located in Brazilian territory (16th century), and brokering dialogue built on the same body,
and interrelated manner, aspects of urban morphology, typology and landscape. Lamas explains that, as
a discipline, urban morphology adds to itself not only the built environment, but the means by which this
was built in its interaction with urban form, ie "social phenomena, economic and other engines of
urbanization" (LAMAS, 1992). Understanding the urban form is to understand its elements, "both in
order to read or space analysis both in order to design or production" (LAMAS, 1992). Studying urban
form means understanding where it enters the city and its constituents, its spaces and the interrelation
between them and their context in a comprehensive spectrum of what is called the city and urban. The
architectural typology and urban morphology are connected at the heart of their analyzes, whereas both,
according to Pereira, studying "two orders of homogeneous facts" (PEREIRA, 2012), studying the
components of the city - architectural and spatial - that overlap or complement according to the scale of
analysis used. The Jesuit colonial architecture models Brazil, in a decisive way, the construction of
distinct urban cores originating in the Brazilian coast in the sixteenth century. This by deploying edilicia
typology accompanying the Jesuit doctrine of location and site selection for its buildings, recommending
security, visibility and ease of access around rivers or the sea. These constructions carried out on
elevated areas marked in time and space the landscape of the first Brazilian urban core.

Key Words: urban morphology, typology, landscape, architecture jesuit; Brazil

Introduction

The city as a center of human culture builds great narratives of architecture and urbanism over
the time¹. These narratives are cultural products that communicate and translate to a greater or
lesser extent, as time passes, the quality and shape of the space and the landscape is constantly
changing and reframing their content, mostly cultural. In this article, the typological analysis
reaches its understanding from the articulation with the urban and landscape morphology. So
comes the understanding of the transformations of cultural content of a given time and place, or
even changes the meanings of such content. Therefore, the inclusion of the landscape as part of
the typological study is relevant. Besides the typology and morphology, include the landscape
as one of the narratives of architecture and urbanism, which helps in translating the object of
analysis on canvas, provided that such narratives are hinged together. As Milk (1991) explains,
the landscape changes constantly as the prevailing cultural content. However, when inserted in
the urban environment, binds temporally morphology and typology. At the same time, the
construction of the connect type urban form, or morphology of the city, also constructs the
image of the city in specific time and space. The landscape under the parameter of urban
development complete the history of the city, constituting perhaps one of his most compelling
narratives.
Therefore, this article proposes to elucidate the connection between three major narratives of
architecture and urbanism - the typology, urban morphology and landscape - and as a last level,
investigates the role of architecture in the constitution of the city, taking the type as conductor
 1239

initial analysis. Assume, therefore specifically, the study of Jesuit architecture implemented in
Brazil in the XVI century, the understanding of spatial relationships that surround it. It is about
seeking to elucidate the morphological construction of Brazilian colonial city through
typological analysis of Jesuit buildings in an attempt to understand how this typology interferes,
builds, rebuilds and replaces landscapes, in different times and spaces.
The Jesuit architecture in its European origin, introduces new aspects in the typology of
religious architecture, reflecting the modus operandi of this order itself. Founded in 1540 by
Father Inácio de Loyola187, the Society of Jesus is characterized as an effective religious arm of
the Catholic Church, to act directly on the catechized peoples and for those that will be
catechized, imposing and adapting itself to new cultures that are the incursions of Portuguese
overseas trips of the XVI century.
Patetta in citing Alois Riegl, explains that the birth of the Society of Jesus himself comes
against political Counter-Reformation of the Catholic Church (Patetta 2012), in his political-
religious struggle against the advance of Protestantism over the Christian world, and
primordially on the new world discovered by the great navigations, initiated in the late fifteenth
century. On behalf of the Church of Rome, the first Jesuits arrived in Brazil in 1549 - almost ten
years after the creation of the Order - as part of a new crusade (Ribeiro, 2006).
The partnership between the Portuguese Crown and the Church, especially through the
Society of Jesus - not forgetting the role of other religious orders - induces the mode of
occupation of Brazilian lands. According to Freyre, unlike the occupation of other American
colonies for Spanish, English and French, the Portuguese colonization is characterized by being
more open to foreigners, importing only the settler who arrived was of "faith and Catholic
religion" (Freyre 1999 : 29).
Carvalho says in his work of catechize the "Gentiles" (Carvalho, 1982: 11), the Jesuit Order
has in its doctrinal basis fixation on earth through the creation of religious buildings in urban
centers have started as villages or seats of captaincy or the creation of new urban centers such
settlements and missions. These centers would be the radiators of the Catholic faith in new
lands. The Jesuit installations serve to both the Indians as legitimate or interracial children of
Portuguese with Indians (Carvalho, 1982).
The first decades of colonization still had in the presence of the Jesuits the power of the first
laws, which required control of European culture on the social, economic and spiritual life of
the Indians and settlers. Specifically on the Indians, this culturalisation on European molds
occurs in Jesuit domains in their properties deployed on Brazilian ground. Freyre discern how
the Jesuit European cultural influence was, in his words, "deleterious" to the indigenous culture,
to a greater or lesser level. In the Jesuit missions and settlements in accordance Freyre (1999:
153), "the assembled Indians out of their system and integration with nature" are segregated and
protected from slavery and European settlers, but are integrated in a artificialized life
transformed into men and women "incapable of have independent living and natural
development", concludes the author (Freyre, 1999: 153).
Different situation, or more "friendly" as Freyre explains, for those who "enjoy missionary
work, not with eyes of devout apologist or sectarian Society" (Freyre, 1999: 152), there is found
among Jesuit colleges, where instead of segregation, the children of Indians or already
mestiçados are treated as equal to the sons of Portuguese settlers. The central courtyards of the
colleges were the meeting place of the two "races" of dominant and dominated, says the same
author, "meeting and amalgamation of indigenous traditions with European; trading toys; word
formation, games and crossbred superstitions" (Freyre, 1999: 153).

187
Officially as a religious order linked to the Catholic Church, the creation of the Society of Jesus was
given by the Papal Bull Regimini militantis Ecclesiae, of September 27, 1540, signed by Pope Paul III.
See in particular: Oliveira, Beatriz dos Santos. Espaço e Estratégia considerações sobre a arquitetura dos
jesuítas no Brasil. Rio de Janeiro: José Olympio / Uberlandia: City Hall, 1988: 17.
1240

Jesuit typological references: hypothesis of its origins

For Costa, the "modern, post-Renaissance and Baroque" jesuit spirit (Costa, 1941: 10) is
unmistakable part of the Order, both in their doctrine as in their art and architecture, even if that
has passed in the centuries by changes in their aesthetic, technical and formal patterns. Born in
the first decades of the century XVI, in the ends of the art and architecture Renaissance (Costa,
1941), their constructions of this first century are characterized by "programs" and "aesthetic
guidelines", called by Patetta of "pauperism" (Patetta, 2012: 390). It is the art and architecture
as an expression of faith by unassuming, dedication and self-sacrifice, discipline and order of
religious life, says the author.
The stylistic flexibility of the Jesuit production determined that its art and architecture were
opened to "mannerism experimentalism, until the formal and decorative triumph of Baroque in
the century XVI and the Rococo in the next century "(Patetta, 2012: 390). And further, this
flexibility has enabled the Jesuit art and architecture to "adapt to historical situations, cultural
developments and the conditions of society" (Patetta, 2012: 391), not retaining on styles, but in
local and symbolic needs. To Patetta, in fact, this flexibility or adaptation expresses a
"typological experimentalism" (Patetta, 2012: 391), characteristic of this religious order, making
it impossible to disassociate their architectural production of their typological historical
experiments:
(...) It is not possible to talk about of the "jesuit architecture" without discern between a first
period, of the century XVI, characterized by typological facilities and very simple, austere and
functional decorative apparatus (in which utilitas and firmitas relied more than venustas); a
period between the century XVI and XVII which saw the foundation of important head offices
and typological pontualização of the great collegiates complex; a third period (the full century
XVIII) based more on the decorative finishing of buildings and scenic than the new foundations
(Patetta, 2012: 391)
Such adaptation of the arts and Jesuit architecture to "physiological" changes, as Costa
(1941) explains, are only enhance the brand or the "cachet" of this intense production that
spreads around the world adapting according to the "conveniences and local resources and style
characteristics specific to each period "(Costa, 1941: 10). It made that Jesuits would be different
from other stricter Orders in their doctrines, and at the same time, established his identity to
them.
Typological origins of Jesuit architecture in Brazil date back to the creation of the Order in
the European context, its architectural reference, or references, that represent the expression of
its doctrine and ideal of evangelization. This article, in front of studies on a variety of sources,
pointing assumptions that, if they are not distinct, may in the end, they can be complementary
for the recognition of the origins of architectural typology of the Society of Jesus in Brazil.

Figure 1. In the center, the Monastery of Santo Antão the Elder inserted into the fabric
of the city of Lisbon. Source: Google Earth, 2014.
 1241

Both for as to Carvalho Gonçalves, for example, the Society of Jesus has in the medieval
monastery of Santo Antão the Elder, in Lisbon, his first architectural experience (Figure 1 and
Figure 2). The Company was established in 1540 and the monastery was received as donation
from the Portuguese Crown in 1542 (Carvalho, 1982; Gonçalves, 2014). King João III,
indicated by previous years (Gonçalves, 2014), receives and installs in Portugal two brothers of
faith of Inácio de Loyola - Francis Xavier and Simon Roberts - arriving in Portugal in 1540.
Two years later, a small group of Jesuits along with Simão Rodrigues, settles in Santo Antão the
Elder "in full Moorish lisboeta" (Gonçalves, 2014: 96). Do this, their first home (Carvalho,
1982) and the basis for the Order be established in Portugal. Santo Antão along with the
construction of the College in Coimbra (1548), the later works of the College of the Holy Spirit
of Évora (1551) and the Professed House of São Roque (1553), became typological references
for future religious works of the priests in Brazilian lands188

Figure 2. Picture in elevation of the Monastery of Santo Antão, the Elder, in Lisbon.
Source: Google Earth, 2014.

Francisco Rodrigues, cited by Carvalho (1982), points out in his report the architectural
features of Santo Antão, which define the building typology of another Jesuit buildings since
their beginnings189: from the concierge, can get to a cloister or "square courtyard" (Rodrigues
apud Carvalho, 1982: 23) made up of pillars supporting a balcony surmounted and skirted
around the patio; the central courtyard, a well water for daily services; upstairs, the bedrooms
and support rooms that completed with atelier and another rooms from the ground floor. The
building is closed on a court with a small church "devout and collected" (Rodrigues apud
Carvalho, 1982: 23).
For Santos (1966), however, the typological origins of Jesuit architecture found itself in the
first churches built by the Society in Portuguese land under foreign influence or not 190 ,

188
In the rapid expansion process, the Jesuit buildings spread over several Portuguese cities from the
second half of the century. XVI, reasserting itself in Portuguese territory, while they advance on other
provinces, in Europe, coming to Africa (Congo, Angola, Mozambique, Ethiopia, Cape Verde and
Guinea), Asia (India, China and Japan) and new World of the Americas. See in particular:
GONÇALVES, Nuno da Silva. Baltasar Teles, Cronista da Companhia de Jesus.. Available at:
<http://ler.letra.up.pt/uploads/ficheiros/5270.pdf. Accessed on 16 Jan. 2014.
189
Santo Antão overcomes its importance as the original site of the Jesuits. At the end of the sixteenth
century the monastery with his high school constitutes an important place for teaching basic fortifications
taught by Jesuit priests who combined in their classes, the religious basis with technical education, the
training of future military engineers of fortification, "making them respected as intellectuals, writers,
professors of mathematics and other activities "(Oliveira Ribeiro in 2013: 54). Inside the Jesuit Order
itself existed priests who beyond assume their cassocks and religious functions, were dedicated to studies
and craft of military engineering, also acting on Brazilian ground (Ribeiro, 2013; Oliveira, 1999).
190
See in particular the work of Santos on the "autochthonous" and foreign hypothes buildinges of
Portuguese Jesuit architecture, mostly Italian, from the mid-sixteenth century. Santos, Paulo (1966).
Contribuição ao estudo da arquitectura da Companhia de Jesus em Portugal e no Brasil. V International
Colloquium on Luso- Brazilian Studies Coimbra: 19-30.
1242

especially in works of the College Church of the Holy Spirit of Évora (1551) and Professed
House and Church of São Roque in Lisbon (1565) (Figure 3). From the two, according to
Santos, the most important for the Brazilian story is that São Roque, in addition to becoming
one of typological reference architecture Portuguese Jesuit, had his foreman, the architect
Francisco Dias, sent to Brazil191 for the construction work of the colleges of Bahia, Olinda and
Rio de Janeiro (Santos, 1966), since the last decades of the sixteenth century.

Figure 3. Schematic plans of Churches (A) of San Francisco in Evora; (B) of San Roque in
Lisbon (1565) and (C) of the Holy Spirit Church of Évora (1551). Source: Santos, 1966.

Studies indicate, however, that only at the beginning of the construction of the Church of
Gesu in 1568, with its professed house in Rome, originally designed by Vignola and completed
by Giacomo Della Porta and Girolano Rinaldi192 in 1575 (Capitel, 2005), that Society of Jesus
has its "mother church", Patetta argues (2012: 391). The Vignola's Gesù is not complete before,
however, of two projects with plants attributed, firstly to Nanni di Baccio Biggio in 1550 and
subsequently a second project attributed to Michelangelo in 1554 (Santos, 1966). In both
projects, the cornerstone of the start of construction is launched, but only the Vignola's project
remains as final. In projects of Biggio, Michelangelo and Vignola - three architects of "universal
renown" (Santos, 1966: 16), have variations of the same type of cross and longitudinal plan
(Figure 4), with her arms a little more or less indented; side chapels along the unique nave and
chapels in the background, on the side of the altar and apse closing a greater or lesser proportion
the end of nave's perspective, embracing the altar (see Santos, 1966 Tábuas VI).
The construction of Gesu (Figure 5) happens in a singular moment in urban history of Rome,
and to the very concept of city and western architecture. To Argan (1999), it is the construction
of humanist culture throughout the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries in Europe, which brought a
new vision of the city, based on the organization of its urban space, the definition of its
functions and the creation of a defining architecture and urban space defined itself 193. Gesù

191
To Lúcio Costa (1941), the importance of the architect Francisco Dias extrapolates the limits of Jesuit
architecture built or helped build in Brazil. As an architect, his performance in Brazilian lands has
featured in the spread and development of the architecture of the early colonial Brazil.
192
According Capitel (2005) is attributed to Rinaldi the charge for completing the Jesuit complex of
Gesù, projecting their professed house and closing the occupation of a large block of irregular design of
the city of Rome. Della Porta takes and completes the design of Gesu after the death of Vignola (Santos,
1966).
193
The humanist city, according Argan is a rational conception, derived from the will of a prince by the
hand of an architect, base of humanism to be "lay, bourgeois and urban" (Argan, 1999: 58). These urban
changes are part of a complex of social, economic and political changes that redefined the central role of
European cities in the known world of that age. Part of this urban transformation focuses on the
prominence of the architect as part of the explanation of Argan, the "bourgeois split of the city" (Argan,
1999: 58). The liberal, highbrow arts are distinguished from their mechanical and legwork to be created
elites of artists who work directly to meet the artistic and urban demands of this new vision of the city
(and its sovereign).
 1243

therefore born under the aegis of an architecture focused on practicality and adaptability of
architectural compositional possibilities, with the city and its urban fabric as a background.

Figure 4. The three plants Gesù of Rome, assigned respectively to the Nanni Baccio Biggio
(1550), Michelangelo (1554) and the conclusion in 1575, from the design of Vignola (in the
picture the plant appears to work as part of its Professed House). Source: Santos, 1966.

Figure 5. In the center, the Church of Gesu in Rome, with its Professed House shutting in
type of court. Source: Google Earth, 2014.

If the Renaissance architecture is governed by a rational ordering of your speech, translating

their own faith as part of this new environment, Gesù and later religious architectures, discourse
is now clear, second argument of Brandão (1999: 128): an artistic "anti-intellectualism" and
"approaches everyday," demonstrating the power of faith over men, having their art as
marketing. In fact, the art this time is no longer the middle of the speech, the ideation of the
Catholic faith, from itself to be the ultimate representation of the very power of the Church.
This is reflected in the architecture developed by the Jesuits in their expansion across the
world. In its origin, is characterized as a mixture of austerity and introspection around a central
courtyard, the molds of Santo Antão, and the Professed House of Gesu. However, while the
typology expresses the architectural and urban brand of the Church presence on earth. Initially
assuming this austerity, the Brazilian Jesuit architecture accompanying with the passage of time
the ideal of aggrandizement of religious space by the art, mainly represented in the work of the
panels richly ornamented, represented in the classic text of Lucio Costa, 1941, on the Brazilian
Jesuit architecture. In summary, in a range of less than 30 years between the acquisition of the
monastery of Santo Antão and the construction of the Gesu, the architecture of the Society of
Jesus establishes the beginnings of its build typology. Based on a flexible and adaptable type,
1244

functionality and meets the symbolism of faith and the power of the Church, while it is
ultimately the representation of European culture outside their continent.

Typological origins of Brazilian Jesuit architecture: the church, the fence, the court and
the courtyard

As mentioned earlier, the power of the Catholic Church in colonial Brazil was present, primarily
through the Jesuit order, one of the first to arrived in Brazil on an unquestionably way. Their
religious buildings mark the virgin and untouched kind of the first centuries of Portuguese
colonization of Brazilian lands. Deployments of Jesuit buildings, always it can, seek for
strategic places on the land to be catechized, regardless of the large availability of land in the
early days of Brazilian colonization. According to Carvalho (1982), the Jesuit religious
buildings seek a middle ground in the occupied territory, among the first villages of Portuguese
colonization and indigenous villages, the latter being his main target for Brazil. Still according
to the same author, the proximity of the Jesuit religious complexes with the Portuguese urban
cores is providential, because of the eminent growth of the first urban centers in Brazil. Thus,
the Jesuit buildings would be in "civil action center to better exercise their religious activity"
(Carvalho, 1982: 25).
From there, the places chosen for the construction of their religious complexes are defined
primarily by their position in relation to the environment (Figure 6) and, not least important, by
the ease of roaming about the territory to be catechized:
Thus, the location of Jesuit buildings in Brazil was almost always on the highs, with
beautiful views over the sea and next to a river. The proximity of another building warranty
Jesuits easy locomotion: an along the coast, for communication with other centers of catechesis
and conversion; and another for the interior in search of Indians and the establishment of new
settlements. And the elevation facilitated the defense, and the building itself, by itself, it stood
as a fortress (Carvalho, 1982: 25).

Figure 6. Drawing 1758 the Jesuit college of Bahia (BR) and its prime location relative to
the sea. Source: Oliveira, 1988.

Free visual obstacles, these high places - mostly - establishing control and dominion over the
lands around them and the landscapes that form from the inevitable framing that the openings of
the first religious buildings do to nature around. A form of occupation guided primordially on
safety of the clergy and their aggregates, living around religious life of the Order. But at the
same time, they reflect the human and foreign occupation in these virgin lands, creating,
recreating and continually appropriating the surrounding and abundant nature, as part of daily
activities, tasks and moments of seclusion of the Jesuits priests.
 1245

In a mix of religious building for teaching and dissemination of the Catholic faith and
fortitude - place of safety for the community that there was forming - the Brazilian Jesuit
architecture adopts formal and functional types that suit both the missionary purposes of the
Order as the casualities those unexplored and wild places. The occupation of the land is done at
first by the erection of temporary structures (Figure 7), namely: a rustic shelter, almost a hut
without dividing the reference is built for exploring the surrounding territory in search of the
ideal and to construct the final religious building, besides the first religious activities of the
Jesuits in that ground (Carvalho, 1982).

Figure 7. The construction of the Jesuit temporary shelter. Source: Najjar 2011.

Chosen the place in the premises of service protection, location and presence between
Portuguese and Indians, initiated up the works with the availability of materials and
workmanship site. The definitive work, which was started by the construction of the church
(Carvalho, 1982) should reflect the establishment and continuity of the activities of the Jesuit
Order in Brazilian territory. In general, as Costa explains the Jesuit religious complexes in
Brazilian lands were divided into three parts concerning their religious duties and day-to-day
life of priests:
The program of Jesuit buildings was relatively simple. Can be divided into three parts: for
worship, the church with the choir and sacristy; for work, classes and workshops; to the
residence, the "cubicles", the infirmary and more service areas, beyond the "fence", with garden
and orchard (Costa, 1941: 13).
This division of functions was present physical and symbolic form in its architecture: the
church (with its sacristy), first building to be executed of the final building, marked the place. It
was the church who carried the Christian symbols of the Rome Church and represented,
ultimately, European architectural culture that moment. The fence, where was the orchard and
vegetable garden or as well as, sometimes, the water well is discordant point between some
authors because their position and existence194. Carvalho indicates the presence of the fence, as
reserved space to the livelihood of the priests in their Brazilian complex, and the social and
symbolic distinctions of the same, as illustrated below:
In all these buildings were almost always a 'fence'. There were cultivated fruit trees,
vegetables, aiming to help the maintenance of the inhabitants of the residence or College. This
kind of orchard was fenced (there, the name ‘fence’), and Inácio de Azevedo, when he visited in
1568, has forbidden women to enter there, even for cleaning and should be made this deal with
men who could hire women to work, but whose entry would be on the outside, not through the
Jesuits house. (Carvalho, 1982: 27).
The Carvalho's definition complete what Lucio Costa, quoted above, states the fence as an
important part of the Jesuit religious buildings. Cardim describes the College of Salvador in
Bahia, 1583 (see Figure 6), with its extensive fence and its access to the sea: "The fence is very
large, it hits the sea, in its inside priests will embark, has a perennial source of good water, with

194
See as an example NAJJAR Rosana (Jan.-April 20112001). Para além dos cacos: a Arqueologia
Histórica a partir de três superartefatos (estudo de caso de três igrejas jesuíticas). Boletim do Museu
Paraense Emílio Goeldi. Ciências Humanas, vol. 6, n. 1: 71-91.
1246

your tank ... "(Cardin in Santos, 1966 note 3: 50). Therefore, the fence conforms with an
external place to the building of the Jesuit complex. Even after completion of the building,
about the place serves the livelihood of the Order, through the gathering of fruits, vegetables
and other plant products, in addition to housing a water well - in some cases - for the supply of
the building (Figure 8). In Carvalho's explaination, the fence is not a constant in all Jesuit
buildings because it demand, like the rest of the complex, material support and labor to do it.

Figure 8. Detail of the Jesuits property situation in Vitória city, capital of the state of
Espírito Santo (BR), in a survey done in the eighteenth century by the military engineer
José Antônio Caldas. The building of São Tiago (Ca) complex and the layout of the fence
demarcating the Jesuits property. Source: Miranda Ribeiro and Pessoti in 2011 Edited by
the author.

In the Jesuit religious architecture the typology repeats in a mixed of physical protection and
sacred. The architecture is built at the same time, bound and limited by no more sacred
representation of some pagan god, as Fustel de Coulanges (2004) explains, but the Christian
God, his church and his clergy. It is Temple and home; palace and fortress; housing, shelter,
garden and place of worship and God's presence in new lands. Outpost of the Church, organized
and representative of European culture, its architecture superior technical quality, complex
compositions and striking symbolism differ it of the surroundings built and natural, becoming,
in the town or village, the main building of the early occupation of Brazilian urban centers.
The Jesuit typological complex with its “quadra” (court) 195 format is organized by
complementary parts, with marked functions, spatial and formal hierarchies: the court frames
the courtyard, while the patio conforms to the block. Both have a higher limit on the fence
(regardless of its format and concept), and the church, where was everything began.

195
This article follows the term used by Lúcio Costa in his article about jesuit architecture, 1941, to
meaning the regular design tipical of brasilian jesuit buildings, maked by parts with its functions and
especific uses that was modeled by the local relief, started always by the church construction that’s used
to close one of the parts of the block as one of its sides. And at the end, when finished, it give form to the
tipical brasilian jesuit architectural building. As a rule of translatio, it was chosen to translate the term
“quadra” to the english “court” because its proximity with “courtyard”, because of the “quadra” sides that
surrounded the central courtyard.
 1247

The Jesuit court presents interesting constructive process (Figure 9) therefore creates over
time of its execution, historical relations with the urban evolution of the place itself, gradually
and slowly, shaping their place of deployment, with characteristic morphology and distinct from
civil buildings of that time. Also impressive for its size, height and strong impact on the local
environment because it constructed at this time the beginnings of a distinctly urban landscape
on the natural landscape.

Figure 9. The form of Jesuit occupation: following, the church building, the main building,
and then the continuous process (which could take centuries or never be completed or
executed) the closure of the court and the formation of the inner courtyard. Source:
Najjar, 2011.

The houses, schools and residences are typical Jesuit establishments of the fixation of the
Order in Brazil196, and its center of "raid" for catechesis of the Indians (Carvalho, 1982). The
196
Santos (1966) lists the Jesuit buildings and their functions installed in colonial Brazil, which were not
limited only to education and faith: "Among the establishments founded included: for education, homes,
residences, schools, and seminaries; for catechesis, missionary villages; for the treatment and retreat, the
halfway houses or Thursdays of rest, mental hospitals, gatherings, hospitals; and religious preparation,
novitiates, where the waves of soldiers leave for his army. Because in fact they constituted an army, even
if surprisingly brief given the magnitude of the work undertaken - work more than educational and
catechetical, because it starts of the colonizing action itself, built at the best clay - the education and faith.
"The farms, barns and mills built by the Jesuits, as the author explains, emerged as a way to aid in the
costing of the Jesuit work in Brazilian lands. See in particular: Santos, Paul (1966). Contribution To The
study of the architecture of the Society of Jesus in Portugal and Brazil. Coimbra: V International
Colloquium on Luso-Brazilian Studies.
1248

differences are related to their function within the Order, but because of an urgent needs of the
spread of the Catholic faith in Brazilian lands invariably it takes education as a priority function.
These Jesuit establishments are defined based on their location and function, according to
Carvalho explains:
The building built in the main portuguese village of a captaincy was always the headquarters
for raid operations inside in search of native villages for future settlements. In Portuguese
village, the headquarters received the designation house when it was not able to perform the
duties from the college, while establishments in settlements received the designation of
residences (Carvalho, 1982: 20-21).
Carvalho explains that these differences between colleges and residences are in level of
teaching that develop (Carvalho, 1982), colleges addition to being devoted to the teaching of
reading and writing Portuguese and the indigenous populations of the colony, they also develop
higher education facing training new missionaries in Brazilian lands (Carvalho, 1982). The
settlements are formed by Jesuit residences, according to Carvalho, the way of the Order to keep
the Indians catechized around and about its religious auspices. These were arranged along a
large central square, opposite the church, in houses built by them constantly referred these back,
as Carvalho explains, the image of the Indian village. But the great square beyond something
aggregator it's the principle of being space and domain Christian and European discipline. At
one end of the rectangle to conform the square, one finds the imposing church as brand of the
new faith about the customs and traditions of the Indians.

Figure 10. Plan of the city of São Paulo (BR), 1810, updated in 1841, with the following
caption: "Plant of the imperial city of são paulo. Surveyed in 1810 by Captain Rufino J.
Felizardo of Engineers e Costa in 1841 and copied with all changes. - Lat. South. 23°, 33'
30" Long. At the Meridian Iron Island 331º 24' 30". Above left, drawing the Jesuit College
of St. Paul, considered ground zero of the city building. Source: Municipal Historical
Archives of São Paulo, 2014.

Therefore, in one way or another, the Jesuit Order is concerned to establish or participate in
the creation of urban centers in Brazilian territory, such as the Jesuit College of St. Paul (Figure
10), based on a morphological type or constructive typology of urban proportions. As noted, the
Jesuit buildings, originally, or were present in the Portuguese first urban cores, the headquarters
or villages or the captaincies were in remote areas, however strategically close enough these
towns and / or the Indians to be catechized. Its elevated position relative to the rest of the
 1249

territory197 and next to the rivers or the sea ensure proper protection, and mobility needed for
their evangelizing missions from inside the captaincy.

The Jesuit typological composition: form, function and symbolism

The establishment of Jesuit buildings on the block should be the role of the court typology as a
synthesis between architecture (building construction and urban and spatial occupancy) and
urban morphology (or part of the urban fabric), introduced as an effective way that has adapted
to the hardships of the new uncivilized and unchristian world, the example of colonial Brazil
(Carvalho, 1982). This spatial organization that revolves around a central courtyard (Figure 11),
open to the heavens, becomes its own form of organization of life and the daily lives of
missionaries priests in Brazilian territory, adapting to the harsh and dangerous reality of early
colony:
(...) This type of construction was very specific to the environment found in Brazil, since it
presented an aspect of fortification, with few openings on the ground floor, in addition to
entrance doors (sometimes one on each side of the court) and with freedom within the court
where it stood all the movement of work (Carvalho, 1982: 24).

Figure 11. In the picture developed by Santos, from the guidelines Nóbrega, according
to Oliveira (.1988: 58), the division of the block for its main functions: A - wing of the
church, first to be built; B - wing of priests and brothers, as his permanent home; C - wing
of the young men; and D - ward services, the last to be completed. In the center courtyard
typical of Jesuit architecture in court. Source: SANTOS, 1966.

For Carvalho, the fact that brand building court in the Jesuits and what differentiates them
from other religious orders is the appropriation that their clergy did the central courtyard (Figure
12 and Figure 13). The ordinary meaning of the religious orders was to give to the courtyard an
aspect of place meditation, silence and introspection. But in contrast to the Jesuits, the courtyard
was a place of service organization's day-to-day, especially in Brazilian territory, feature this,
since this use of the Monastery of Santo Antão, the Elder, in Lisbon, as first home Jesuit.
The Jesuit courtyard expresses the "active life" (Costa, 1941: 23) of the Order, because
different from the seclusion that the courtyard represented in other religious orders, the Jesuits
was the place of moving priests in their daily educational, religious commitments and

197
As Oliveira recalls, the case of the Paranaguá College, in Paraná, is the exception to the rule
typological of the Jesuits in Brazil, citing Cardim, the priests have chosen instead to deploy his college in
high place, a place close to the River Itiberê and "a little more than three hundred feet from the water
source, the public fountain built in 1714, and where the ships that arrived at Paranaguá to supply of
water" (Cardim apud Oliveira, 1988: 39). In explanation of the author, in this particular case of
Paranaguá, priests exchanged protection for "extreme functionality" because of "proximity to the port, the
trade area; place where we could embrace and therefore have strict control of the most significant events
of the metropolis "(Oiveira, 1988: 40).
1250

administrative, students and their banter and exchanges, support for everyday services complex.
It was a lot of activities that the central courtyard of all this confluence, constituted in a "noisy
creative center" (Carvalho, 1982: 24), because the buildings of the complex that revolved
around this courtyard housed the classrooms, dormitories, workshops, administrative and
support areas to school and church.

Figure 12. Picture of the inner courtyard of the College and Church of St. Alexander, in
Belém city (state of Pará). Source: Ribeiro, 1988.

Instituted by the Company, thinking in problem solving "technical and economic in places of
work, derived from inexperience" (Patetta, 2012: 393), it was created six plants of churches
adaptable enough to adversity of each place, designed by architect Francesco de Rosis in 1580,
for new buildings of the Society in the world at your fingertips198. Are variations of scale and
proportion (Figure 14), in their dimensions, which refer to a first analysis, the design of the
church of Gesù in Rome, with its unique longitudinal nave. But, within the types presented were
two typological possibilities of plants with three naves, appearing to be extensions of the
longitudinal side chapels. In all types was maintained the retracted transept and three apses at
the bottom, with formal variations. According Patetta, these plants:

198
Custódio in a concise outlines the organizational process of the Society of Jesus for creating your
architecture to be propagated mainly by the New World. In addition to characterizing their architecture
from the functionality of its buildings - the church building, place of liturgy and sacred buildings and the
common use and services of the priests (the schools, homes and houses) - the Jesuit organization had
need, along the sixteenth century, to establish roles technical and operational support for the construction
of Jesuit buildings. The creation of the post of director of construction was important for the initial
systematization of edilicia typology of the Society of Jesus. The first was Giovanni Tristano, a lay brother
who worked beside Vignola in the Church of the Gesù, establishing the use of longitudinal plan as a
single nave and a Latin cross. Others came replace Tristano's function, including Francesco Rosis,
responsible for plant-type sent to the new churches.
Effectively, the systematization of the architecture of the Society begins to happen from the
imposition of Instructiones Fabricae et Supellectilis Ecclesiasticae of 1577, creating the first general
guidelines and standards for buildings, as Custódio says, "incorporating ideas drafters, without giving the
necessary guidance of architects. "And how full the author, among the drafters of reference for the
Society of Jesus are, Vitruvius, Cataneo, Vignola, Palladio and Serlio. It was based on the creation of the
Common Rules of the Society, including the architectural, Rosis that creates the sixtype plans which
spread the new territories catechized by Jesuit hand. Even though this organization held responsible by
the Society at its beginning has been lost with time and lack of control, she was instrumental in creating
and establishing the Jesuit identity in the new lands, through a typological construct that according to
Custódio, "was the result of both expressing the functional needs as references to iconic works of
architecture treaties and the contribution of professionals from different countries." See in particular:
Custódio, Luiz Antônio Bolcato. Diretrizes arquitetônicas e ordenamentos urbanos nas missões jesuíticas
dos Guarani. In: Souza, Luciene Pessoti de; Ribeiro, Nelson Pôrto (2011). A construção da cidade
portuguesa na América. Pod Publisher, Rio de Janeiro, RJ.
 1251

(...) They reveal an elaboration of the original type with varieties of solutions either within the
schema itself (elliptical plant with lateral chapels and atrium, plant with a central vain with
dome and atrium), both in layout and depth of the side chapels, the apse and transept (Patetta,
2012: 393).

Figure 13. Inner courtyard of the Church and Residence of Kings in Nova Almeida, Serra
city (state of Espírito Santo) Source: Loc.alize.us, 2012.

Figure 14. Types of plants developed by De Rossis, 1580, to the Jesuit buildings.
Source: Patetta 2012.

For Costa, the typology of churches and their built complexes are architectural parties or
"reference" (Costa, 1941: 23), adopted or created "by Jesuit architects, or laymen architects in
the service of the Society of Jesus" (Costa, 1941: 23) that have influence and propagating in
Brazilian Jesuit buildings. In Brazil, according to the author, are adopted by the Jesuits, four
kind of plants which the single nave is the most used typology (Costa, 1941). Churches
developed in these kind of plants differ by the degree of simplicity of its parts: the simplest,
according to Costa (1941), the first to be built in Brazil, where the chancel and a single nave
formed a single body (Figure 15 ), which were divided "conventionally into two parts by a cross
arch" (Costa, 1941: 29).
1252

Figure 15. Layout plan of the Jesuit churches of simpler type according Lucio Costa
(source: Costa, 1941).

A second typology, wider, according to Costa (1941), where the constructive simplicity still
holds, but there is already a clear differentiation between the nave and the chancel (Figure 16),
especially through the smaller dimensions of the latter in relation to nave (Costa, 1941).

Figure 16. Typology which the nave differs from the chancel (source: Costa, 1941).

The third typology with larger churches, mainly from the seventeenth century, where the
simplicity of the early days is mixed with more complex compositions (COSTA, 1941). In this
typology, besides the characteristics of the former type, are increased side chapels on the
chancel (Figure 17) "of greater or lesser depth" are added, according to Costa (1941: 31);

Figure 17. Type of Jesuit churches where the simplicity of its architecture is mixed
with more complex solutions (source: Costa, 1941).

And the last type, the churches, as the author explains, are built under the influence of the
church of the Gesù in Rome. In this type of church, in particular and the Gesù way, chapels
spread along the lateral of the nave (Figure 18), each one with its specific altar. The greater
detail is the two mirrored chapels that were closer and just below the chancel, for "they were
almost ever wider and taller, if not also deeper, with that same goal to score, the plant, the
cross” (Costa, 1941: 31).
 1253

Figure 18. Type of Jesuit churches of greater complexity, based Gesù (source: Costa,
1941).

In most instances, was the presence of a tower that made up the whole and at the same time,
separating the body of the liturgy - formed by the church - the body of the services and
bedrooms, the latter on the college and other dependencies. The towers themselves were one of
the striking elements of Jesuit architecture, with little time high in relation to the set in order to
balance it between their horizontal and vertical proportions. But, according to Costa (1941)
these were not always finished, and were only started after the expulsion of the Jesuits in Brazil
(held in 1759), and finished "without regard then, (...) the characteristics of the original
building" (Costa 1941: 24). Costa completes the analysis with other elements of architectural
composition and construction techniques that close the typological characterization of Brazilian
Jesuit architecture199: the use of eaves on their roofs against the excessive rains of the great in
Brazilian territory; the roofs of the towers varied according to the constructive technique and the
availability of material and labor in that place (Figure 19); the pediments of churches that in the
first Brazilian churches even follow the Renaissance rigor, it enter the Baroque with more
elaborate designs (Figure 20); portals that change in number according to the level of detail
among the simplest sixteenth century churches until the most worked churches of the following
centuries; and lastly, the wings that close the typology of the block with the church (Figure 21),
more austere designs, giving due importance and hierarchy to the main church building.

Figure 19. Changes in typological roofing of the Jesuit towers.(source: Costa, 1941).

199
See in particular: Costa, Lúcio (1941). ‘A arquitetura dos jesuítas no Brasil’. In: Revista do Serviço do
Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional. Serviço do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico
Nacional/Ministério da Educação e Saúde, Rio de Janeiro.
1254

Figure 20. Typological variations of churches pediments, from the most simplified
drawings even on Renaissance influence, to the most ornate the Brazilian Baroque period
(source: Costa, 1941).

Figure 21. The court way and architecture in mixed of residence and fortress (source:
Costa, 1941).

The composition of the parties seeking a balance of shapes, volumetries at the same time that
purposed the hierarchy of functions and meanings without losing the "visual unity of the whole"
(Oliveira, 1988: 59). According to Costa, scenic construction extended into the interior of the
church , the principal place of God's presence, joining the ritual and symbolism of the liturgy
The Jesuit church was a beginning and end, the building symbol of a new way to express and
propagate the faith. Since the implementation of the building, with the choice of the ideal place,
under the Jesuit security guidelines, visibility and ease of displacement; through its construction
which marks the place and the landscape, reaching its way to transmit their faith by the
symbolism embedded in its architectural typology, became the expression of this religious order
throughout the centuries
In Brazil, it has become more prevalent in the urban establishment of several towns where
the Jesuit Order settled, their buildings were mostly the buildings better finished, more volume
and height. Both his buildings and the manner of their priests were, as Oliveira, direct way their
relationship with society and its time explains:
The deployment location of the colleges at the heart of the urban core activities, on top of a
prime elevation in the chosen place could provide the desired contact with society, the
proximity needed to show them their dynamism, their intellectual erudition, his brilliance in
various technical issues, their ability in practical matters, and thus their indispensability in the
colonial urban daily life. Symbol of militant faith, these institutions only by its placement in
 1255

urbe, the sight of his austere elevations, were also a symbol of the new age of reason (Oliveira,
1988: 101-104).
The morphological type in Jesuit block shows the significance in the settlement and
expansion in Brazilian lands. In different Brazilian cities, the Jesuits complexes - the church and
the court - shape both the landscape rehearsing their urban beginnings as urban morphology,
drawing and narrating for centuries, the image and the symbolic significance of the places.
Elevated and highlighted front the environment, deployed at strategic locations for the domain
and protection, the Jesuit complexes were invariably in their urban cores originating, one of the
driving forces of urban expansion over the Portuguese colonization centuries, and even after the
expulsion of Society of Jesus in Portuguese territory in 1759.
This way, the typology in urban scale, the Jesuits complexes were involved both in the
construction of cities, defining, the priori, the scale of traditional block brought by Portuguese
colonization, which was modeled by local relief and their conditioning, but also of its urban
landscape - before, it was isolated as an architectural object, which by its own morphological
characteristics were able to join the growing Brazilian urban fabric that expanded and
diversified the long centuries. His typological flexibility adapted itself to the sinuous design of
the first Brazilian cities, as was also able to change positions after the forced departure of the
Jesuits. In major urban centers maintained their religious functions, in large majority, but in the
hands of the government (Portuguese, Brazilian Empire and Republic) were adapting their
duties to the bureaucratic requirements or turned into new symbols of power: the Church out,
the State in. In extreme cases, like the ancient church complex and the College of São Tiago, in
Vitória city, capital of the state of Espírito Santo, the change of political regime, raised a new
aesthetic and a new image for the complex transformed into government headquarters - today,
the current Anchieta Palace. The simple architecture of the early Jesuit sixteenth century no
longer exist on the new composition of facades, volumes and eclectic decorative elements, the
beginning of the twentieth century, also marking the new functions and internal reforms of the
building.
One may consider that this is an architectural typology that crossed the country's urban
history, experienced its transformations, being a fundamental part of the morphological and
landscape constructions of these early urban centers, which can be understood as historical
narratives, principiadas, largely by this typology.

Notes

From that exposes Waisman (2013), the typological construct is a cultural process, due to the
opening that the types have to external influences. To Waisman, while the type is the "principle
of architecture" (Waisman 2013: 102) is also a "historical subject" (WAISMAN 2013: 102),
given that in its essence the possibility of transformations, adaptations and "provide the basis for
new inventions, maintaining, however, a continuity that could be considered structural basis"
(Waisman 2013: 102).
This article seeks to integrate the typology study, from a new meaning their cultural content
associated with urban morphology through narrow approach of Jesuit building in Brazil. It also
argues that the typology exists only because of its relationship with the city shape, it is a
constructive process of cultural projects, covering not only the urban fabric, but all the cultural
content that surrounds or fenced throughout history. The type is, ultimately, a cultural and
historical example of a moment, not as a model, but represents a not statical historical moment,
subject to modifications and changes in form, use and meaning moment. Thus, reaffirms
Waisman proposition itself, on the type as a cultural element of the story, turning culture in a
possible interaction between type and morphology with the landscape.
Finally, the landscape designed and narrated by the Jesuits, specifically in Brazilian lands, it
was defined from an urban architectural typology with own meanings about their functions,
1256

integral part of shaping the urban morphology of most Brazilian cities originating on the coast
during the sixteenth century.

References

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(Companhia das Letras, São Paulo).
Arquivo Histórico Municipal de São Paulo (2014)
(at:www.prefeitura.sp.gov.br/cidade/secretarias/cultura/arquivo_historico/) acessed 24 April 2014.
Barthes, Roland et al (1976) Análise estrutural da narrativa. Pesquisas semiológicas (Editora Vozes
Ltda, Petrópolis, Rio de Janeiro).
Brandão, Carlos Antônio Leite (1999) A formação do homem moderno vista através da arquitetura (Ed.
UFMG, Belo Horizonte).
Carvalho, José Antônio (1982) O colégio e as residências dos jesuítas no Espírito Santo (Expressão e
Cultura , Rio de Janeiro).
Capitel, Anton (2005) La arquitectura del pátio (Editorial Gustavo Gili, Barcelona).
Costa, Lúcio (1941) ‘A arquitetura dos jesuítas no Brasil’, Revista do Serviço do Patrimônio Histórico e
Artístico Nacional. Serviço do Patrimônio Histórico e Artístico Nacional/Ministério da Educação e
Saúde.
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morfológicas e de paisagem´, Anais do I Congresso Internacional de História da Construção Luso-
brasileira, Vitória, Universidade Federal do Espírito Santo.
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jesuítas no Brasil (Prefeitura Municipal, Uberlândia).
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Defesa Nacional 787.
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acessed 27 april 2012.
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(http://www.vitruvius.com.br/revistas/read/arquitetextos/13.146/4421) acessed 07 August 2012.
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 1257

A construction perspective of urban morphology study in

Shanghai Alleyway House

Jiangtao Ni, Gang Liu

College of Architecture and Urban Planning Tongji University
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. The Shanghai Alleyway House which was 57.4 percent of the gross residential area in the
modern Shanghai in 1949 is the major object of this paper. 2 typical individual house which is a special
type of the alleyway house called Lilong Mansions are chosen as the case to take deeper research. And
construction is the main and also architectural research perspective. It is discussed in two ways:
construction technology and construction organization, and is focused on the particularities of Lilong
Mansion as a physical object in the former modern Shanghai. i) Construction technology: the way to take
deeper research of the 2 Lilong Mansions case-study objects are based their location; completed time; the
shape of their plans, and to the construction level, there are mainly three partial issues: structural system;
tectonic style; material. Then by contrastive analysis from these phenomena, the variation of construction
technology from the traditional timber-frame style to the brick-wood hybrid style would be acquired. ii)
Construction organization: Summing up the information on the construction organization of the alley
houses among the archives to find out the features during the progress from the ‘craftsman’ system to the
‘contractor-architect’ system. Thus, the research significances come out, firstly, the historical course of
how the Shanghai alleyway house developed till traditional Chinese house to the Western-Chinese house
could be unscrambled in a more microcosmic way. Secondly, it is also a sort of supplement of the urban
morphology study on the modern Shanghai besides the spatial geographic form and the Social cultural
form.

Key Words: Former modern Shanghai, the Shanghai alleyway house, Lilong Mansion, construction
technology, construction organization.

Background

The Former Modern Shanghai which is commonly defined as the Shanghai from 1943 to 1945,
its urban space is a research object containing Historical continuity and Spatial richness. And of
which the most typical elements and special forms are the public buildings, public spaces (the
Bund and the Nanjing Road) and the mass-developed residential units (the Alleyway House)
(Figure 1). What is chosen as the research object is called Lilong Mansion, a special type of the
Alleyway House (Figure 2).
The lucid definition of Lilong Mansion is that, the house built for self-living by the land
owner which is also called the squire. It differs from the lilong house developed for rent (Figure
2). There’s a saying mentioned in the book Shanghai Longtang by Prof. Luo Xiaowei in 1997
that, the ‘longtang mansion’ was another special feature of Shanghai. And it re-indicated the
possibility to be chosen as an individual research object. Besides the difference of development
and type of owner, the speciality of its physical level and the elements during its construction
process also differ from the alleyway house for rent. Which are often embodied as the
commodious of spatial arrangement, the variety of material use, the delicacy of details and the
mix of different styles, etc. The lilong mansion gives a multifarious cognitive dimension of
understanding aleeyway house which is a typical element of the urban space in former modern
Shanghai.
Besides, to understand the urbanization issue of former modern Shanghai under a dynamic
perspective, the research of the physical ontology of lilong mansion provides a strong frame of
reference. By the vertical comparison with the different individual cases during its develop
1258

period and the horizontal comparison with other type of architectures in the same time, it has
great value to get better understanding of these issues: firstly, the location of the construction
system of lilong house inside the whole Shanghai construction system; secondly, the
transformation of the construction system in shanghai from the carpenter system to the
architectural system; thirdly, the vicissitudes of the physical and social space of former modern
Shanghai from vernacular to urban. Compared with taking the economic rationality as the first
stage value of lilong house for rent, the construction system of lilong mansion contains rich
information.

Figure 1. The Bund, Nanjing Road, typical Shanghai Alleyway House.

Figure 2. The different classification method between former research works and this
paper.

Because of the characteristic of self-living of the lilong mansion, it always locates inside a
block by individual way as the feature of special distribution. Its building space usually take a
role of the catalyst of events (Aldo Rossi, 1966). That means the social and historical elements
inside is still typical and abundant, and by the contrast between its special and social structure,
we can dig out more information of the former modern city’s transformation. This also lead to a
 1259

research method of individual case study. That is ‘After answer what, we should also illuminate
the social meaning, and analysis in both formal way and social way’ (Lai Delin, 2002).

Case Study

The research method of this period, is that by preliminary calculate the number of lilong
mansion in Shanghai (about 300-500), taking two typical lilong mansions as the objects of case
study (Figure 3). As what is mentioned above, construction is the entry point of this paper. And
the detailed classification method, is that summarized introduction, special functional use,
structure, material, decoration and characteristic detail.

Figure 3 the location of the 2 Lilong Mansions.

Case 1 – House Zhaozhou

Summarized introduction: The first case is called House Zhaozhou(Figure 5), its location is
No.148, Lane 200, Zhaozhou Road (Figure 4), it’s a lilong mansion built before 1920s, and is
located inside the third expansion area of the former French Concession. It is 2-floor high and
hides inside the block surrounded by lots of lilong house for rent. And the feature of House
Zhaozhou differs much from the surrounded buildings.

Figure 4. The location of House Zhaozhou.

Figure 5. Photo of House Zhaozhou.

1260

Special functional use: The special distribution inside House Zhaozhou has obvious
functional separation (Figure 7). There are two functional clusters separated by the back
courtyard (Figure 6), those are the main part and the assist part. The main part is composed by
the principal room, the wing room and a main entrance gate. The principal room has three bays,
but actually the two side bays belongs to the wing room. And the principal room has the living
room function while the wing rooms have the bedroom function. Turned to the assist part, it
contains the kitchen and the maid room function, and on the west top of the roof there’s a
balcony having both hanger and fireproof function. The back courtyard is the part where mainly
used to put the wash basins.

Figure 6. The courtyard.

Figure 7. Function separation: ■ living room ■ bedroom ■ maid room.

Structure: The foundation part is a typical shikumen style, it is consisted of detritus and sand
to form a 600mm³ cube. What is built on top of the foundation is the supporting system
composed by brick walls and timber frames. The 360mm-wide brick walls surrounds the whole
building with 12 200mm²-square timber pillars inside. These combined with the wood rib floor,
the triangle roof truss, the purlines and the rafters to form the whole structure system of the
house (Figures 8 and 9).
 1261

Figure 8. The structure model of House Zhaozhou.

Figure 9. The force analysis.

Material: Turned to the material using, firstly, about the wood use, a large number of the
timber material is Oregon pine, which contain the pillars, beams, doors, windows, ceilings,
skintles and stairs, and lots of them were made by machine (Figure 10). Secondly, about the
brick use, all use the machine made red and black brick with the size 50*120*240mm³. They are
also used in the brick carving on the outside wall. The outer wall has the width of 360mm while
the inner wall 120mm (Figure 10). Thirdly, about the plaster use, the outer wall is in a dry-wall
way, with no plaster and with grass-lime mortar as the bonding layer, also with a special
pointing called ‘Yuanbao Feng’. The inner wall is the same way as the outer wall except the
plaster part. It has white lime as the plaster. Fourthly, about the floor part, first floor with red
floor tiles while second floor with strip pine floors. The second floor of the west part of the
assist room is different, it has reinforced concrete floor. Fifthly, about the roof, it has pine
triangle trusses, purlines and rafters. With small bricks called ‘Wangzhuan’ and Chinese black
tiles on top of the roof.
Decoration: House Zhaozhou has a quite mixed decoration situation. The outer side of the
main gate is decorated in a western style while the inner side is a traditional Chinese style
(Figure 11). The ceiling is western style, but the doors and windows are Chinese style. And the
other mix part is the different class from the main house and assist house, there’s complicated
decoration inside the main house while little decoration inside the assist house (Figure 11).
Characteristic detail: Firstly, There are iron gutter outlets at the eave of the house. Secondly,
the reinforced concrete balcony on the roof of the assist house was made for a bi-functional use,
one is to be the fireproof ceiling for the kitchen downstairs, the other is to create a space for
hanger in the crowded block (Figure 12).
1262

a)

b)

c)
Figure 10. a) Wood material - Oregon pine, and most of them are operated by machine; b)
brick material - the outer wall, the inner wall, and the roof; c) floor material - 0F: clay
with red painting; 1F: timber floor; 2F of the maid room: reinforced concrete
 1263

a)

b)

c)
Figure 11. a) the main gate from outside and inside view; b) the elevations of the outside
and inside view of the main gate & the section of the main gate; c) Outer wall with
Western-style decoration Windows with Chinese-style Ceiling with Western-style pattern
Architrave with Chinese ‘Dougong’.
1264

Figure 12. The iron outlets the reinforced concrete floor of the maid room.

Case 2 – House Yulin

Summarize introduction: The second case is called House Yulin, its location is No.3, Lane 449,
Yulin Road(Figure 13), it’s another lilong mansion built at 1893, and is located inside the
eastern part of the International Settlement. It is 1-floor high, and compared with House
Zhaozhou, it’s more like a local style house in Shanghai. And also hides at the back side of a
row of 2-floor commercial lilong houses built by the owner (Figure 14).

Figure 13. Location of House Yulin.

Figure 14. House Yulin.

 1265

Special functional use: The special distribution of House Yulin has little difference with the
traditional Jiangnan-Style houses. One principal room with two wing rooms and one gate to
form a courtyard space. The inner space has no functional separation with only partition wall to
separate the house. But only a small part at the east bay of the principal room has different roof
style and this part is used for cooking and washing. The north wall of the principal room set
back 1m to make the under-eave space a common corridor connecting the two wing rooms and
the principal room (Figure 15).

Figure 15. ■ living room ■ bed room ■ kitchen ■ reconstruction.

Structure: The foundation part is more like the traditional Jiangnan-Style house, use small black
brick to form the tube foundation units, which is called ’Hangshi’. What is built on top of the
foundation is the supporting timber frame structure system called ‘Chuandou’ Style. And on top
of the timber pillars, the purlines, rafters, tile brick and the Chinese black tile compose the roof
part (Figure 16, 17).

Figure 16. The structure model of House Yulin.

Figure 17. The force analysis.

1266

Material: Firstly, about the wood use, all of the timber frames, doors, windows and roof
structure are made by a special wood material called China Fir. And all the wood materials are
painted by varnish and tung oil to make the color in a wood or dark red (Figure 18). Secondly,
about the brick use, all the bricks inside the house are called Chinese black brick. It's a little bit
smaller than the late machine-made brick with the size of 40*100*200mm³. But it is also mass
manufactured by brick factory (Figure 18). Thirdly, about the plaster use, the outer wall is
painted with yellow grass-lime mortar plaster while the inner wall with white lime. Fourthly,
about the floor part, the outer floor in the courtyard is made by Chinese black bricks and stripe
granite stones while inner floor by bricks and concrete (Figure 18).

a)

b)

c)
Figure 18: a) Wood material - China Fir, and most of them are operated by machine; b)
brick material - the outer wall, the inner wall, and the roof; c) floor material - Outdoor:
black brick & granite stone; Indoor: black brick covered by cement.

Decoration: House Yulin little decoration except the brackets of the beams in the Northside
of the principal room with cloud pattern, the beams cross the under-eave corridor with a moon-
beam pattern. There’s no ceiling, no other decoration inside the house. About the door and
window, no complicated but in a humble way, with only vertical wood batten. And the eave part
is also in a traditional way, with beautiful eave tiles called ‘Dishui’ and ‘Wadang’ (Figure19).
 1267

Figure 19. Decoration of the ceilings, beams and eave.

Characteristic detail: The entrance wooden gate of House Yulin is the most special symbol of a
so-called town house for its location is inside the urban area. But the pattern turns to be a really
vernacular style which is rare in the Lilong house area (Figure 20).

Figure 20. The entrance gate.

Analysis and Conclusion

After the case study in the construction of the two lilong mansion, I try to put these two samples
together with the previous research and make comparisons. This comparison can make sense
because firstly, they’re both constructed in the concession city after 1843, that is the year when
Shanghai started its urbanization. Secondly, although they belong to different concessions,
there’s little discrepancy in construction system based on the statute. The main conclusions are:
i) The functional separation became more enhanced, and tended to fit with the construction
system reciprocally. The conclusion can be draw from the comparison between the two kitchens.
ii) The decoration inside House Yulin has still the vestige of the handicraft from the subtle
difference between the same components. But inside House Zhaozhou, all the same components
are like copy from each other. That is because they were made by machine. So this shows that
way of manufacture has changed from the handicraft way to the machinery way.
iii) Based on the transformation of the structure system, we can see that because of the
increasing urbanization strength, there are new demand on the buildings, that is much higher
and more intensive. But the structure of House Yulin can’t fit the change. For it is hard and
expensive to be built higher using ‘Chuandou’ style, and the structure would be too complicated
to make terrace house. So we can find that in House Zhaozhou, the wall becomes more
important in structure. The house can be built higher easily and it can be adjoined with other
house. But there are still deficiencies in House Zhaozhou. The wall-timber pillar system is
unbalanced with force stress. And the structure between the main house and maid house cannot
become a unit.
iv) In the previous study, they chose alleyway house for rent as research object. Economic
rationality becomes the main issue when being built. So if we put all types together during
1268

1870s to 1920s to compare, there’s little difference between each other. And it’s hard to explain
why the garden & apartment alleyway house have so mature construction system when they
first came into appearance at 1930s-1940s. And based on the comparison we did, the conclusion
or guess that the types appeared in these period are all transforming types can be established.
v) On the basis of the change in materials, in operating ways, in the styles, decorations and in
some panel joint just like the eaves, it’s easily to find that construction system was changing at
that time. But what was not changed is the house owner always wants to regress to traditional
type. This somehow shows that the type of alleyway house was partly transformed from the
local type rather than fully transplanted from western style.
The study of Lilong mansion which as a residential type that is not paid much attention
projects mass information with cohesion and variety to understand the transformation issue of
former modern Shanghai. It needs to be cared and researched with more and more attention.

References

Bracken, M. G. (2013) Shanghai Alleyway House: A Vanishing Urban Vernacular, Routledge.

Chun, X. and Liu, M. C. (1998) Shanghai Residential Building Annals, Shanghai Academy of Social
Sciences Press.
Feng, D. S. (2009) ‘Shikumen Architecture Restudy: Historical Adjustment of Traditional Construction
Craft in the Formation of Vernacular Building in The Modern Shanghai’, Thesis for Master degree of
CAUP Tongji University.
Frampton, M. K. (2001) Studies in Tectonic Culture: The Poetics of Construction in Nineteenth and
Twentieth Century Architecture, The MIT Press.
Gangliu, D. (2009) ‘The Built Form of Former Shanghai New French Concession’, Thesis for PhD degree
of CAUP Tongji University.
Jiang, M. Z. (2003) Millennium turning the head: Shanghai Construction Collective Drawing, Shanghai
Pictorial Press.
Kostof, M. S. (1993) The City Shaped: Urban Patterns and Meanings Through History, Bulfinch.
Kostof, M. S. (2005) The City Assembled: The Elements of Urban Form Through History, Thames &
Hudson.
Li, M. H. (2004) Modern Transformation of Chinese Architecture, SEU Press.
Lou, M. C. (2004) Construction Industry and Architects in Old Shanghai, Tongji University Press.
Luo, X. and Wu, M. J. (1997) Shanghai Alleyway, Shanghai People's Fine Arts Press.
Shen, M. H. (1993) Shanghai Alleyway House, China Building Industry Press.
Wang, S. and Chen, M. Z. (1987) Alleyway Building, Shanghai Science and Technology Literature Press.
Wu, M. W. (1997) Shanghai Construction Annals, Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences Press.
Yao, C. and Zhang, M. Z. (1986) The Original of Construction Method, China Building Industry Press.
Xie, J and Li, M. X. (2010) Surge of Ram: Photography of Shanghai Modern Construction Industry,
Shanghai Splendid Article Press.
Zheng, D. H. (2009) ‘Construction Craft of Shanghai Alleyway House Research’, Thesis for Master
degree of Fudan University.
 1269

The effects of urban form on levels of integration of housing

schemes and social interaction among residents

Maria Cristina Dias Lay, Márcia Lima

Faculty of Architecture/PROPUR, Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract. The paper investigates how levels of integration of housing schemes can affect social
interaction among residents within the scheme and with its urban context, further affecting resident social
and emotional health. The study incorporates global configuration aspects and their cognitive dimensions
within a single framework in investigating the relationships between man and built environment, more
specifically those involving the analysis of relationships between the configuration characteristics of
accessibility, legibility and perception of environmental performance. Methodological procedures
consisted of post-occupancy evaluation of four low income housing schemes comprised of different
layout, size and location in the city of Montenegro, southern region of Brazil. Data were collected by
complementary techniques, such as mental maps, interviews, observations of behaviour, physical
measurements and questionnaires. Quantitative data were analyzed through non-parametric statistics
and qualitative data by meaning and frequency. Following the perceptive approach adopted, user
satisfaction and environmental behaviour were employed as indicators of environmental performance
and social interaction. Space syntax measures were used in order to analyze spatial configuration as
measured by the axial map of local and global integration and analysis of street connections with the
immediate surroundings and with different locations in relation to the consolidated urban area. Results
indicate that successful integration of the housing scheme in its urban context helps residents integrate
into the neighbourhood and the city, increase satisfaction with their place of residence and promote sense
of belonging and citizenship, all of which support residents’ well-being.

Key Words: social housing, spatial configuration, environmental performance, social interaction,
resident well-being.

Introduction

It is argued in this study that Brazilian public housing has been negatively affected by
standardization of project design and the nature of the system of provision based on economy of
scale, with overemphasized priorities for quantitative targets. Consequently, the design of most
housing schemes built so far was not appropriate for the satisfaction of user needs and
aspirations and often have common features that distinguish them from the rest of the urban area
in which they are located. The attribute mainly identified as usually affecting public housing, is
its artificiality – a ‘cyst’ in relation to its urban context. In short, the spatial configuration
generally provided in low-income housing schemes is characterized by: lack of relationship
with its urban context, as streets designed to serve the housing scheme do not integrate with the
existing urban network; low density; uniformity and dispersion, which imply high costs in
infrastructure, maintenance and replacements; location on the urban periphery, lack of attractors
to motivate surrounding residents to use the environment and integrate as part of the
neighbourhood. The repercussion of the number of standardized projects with similar problems
in its urban context looked as damaging to neighbourhood residents and to the city as a whole.
Therefore, it is clear that the spatial structure of social housing provided in Brazil and its
performance need to be further analyzed in terms of quality, as attempted in this study, in order
to identify the relevant factors requiring change and the nature of change that will promote
significant improvement in mass housing provision. When bad performance exists, the massive
scale and number of those projects in Brazil, which replicate poor quality housing schemes has
1270

been creating a major negative impact on the cityscape, propagating “ulcers” in extensive parts
of cities (Lay and Reis, 1994). The consequences of this are predictable, in that the attitudes,
motivations and behaviour affected by the adversely perceived performance of housing schemes
and entire lower-income neighbourhoods might encourage further deterioration of the cityscape,
adversely influencing citizens’ feelings of self-esteem, their social standing in the community,
their relationships to neighbours, sense of belonging, and sense of identity with the place,
further affecting maintenance of social order, encouragement of self-development and
promotion of well-being for the population.
The process of social and spatial differentiation that characterizes the urbanization of
Brazilian cities is marked by strong segregation and segmentation of urban space in terms of
social groups (Maricato, 2001). Segregation is also derived from a dispute for convenient
location within the city. It is a process in which different classes or social strata tend to
concentrate more intensively in certain regions or groups of neighbourhoods, sometimes
creating a significant concentration of low-income population in large areas. The problem seems
to be directly related to characteristics of spatial configuration and location of housing schemes,
since segregation can be related to the geometric distance (location) or topological distance
(configuration). Marques (2007) points out that segregation means, besides the social
separation, inequality of access, which can restrict circulation or hinder the establishment of
frequent contact between groups. In this sense, the urban space is inherently unequal;
availability of equipment, infrastructure and quality of buildings, as well as the inequality result
from differences in accessibility to all points of urban space. In order to account for the attested
influence of the built environment on spatial behaviour and well-being, this investigation
focuses on the configuration characteristics that affect user attitudes and the perception of
environmental image of social housing schemes.
The network of social relationships is regarded as essential to residents’ effective integration
in the community they live, and territorial behaviour is part of a system that allows social
organisation take place, promoting neighbourhood interaction and community formation.
Consequently, legibility of site layout, which results from how the site is organised and how the
buildings and spaces are located and related to each other, affect the ways spaces are used (Lay,
1998). That is, despite spatial behaviour or user satisfaction cannot be determined by design, it
can establish a number of physical and spatial qualities that can support or inhibit patterns of
behaviour, consequently affecting the intensity of contact among residents. The literature on
human cognition suggests that configuration aspects of built environments have significant
consequences. Lynch (1960) says that legibility, which is highly related to configuration
aspects, may play a decisive role in acquiring a sense of spatial control in spatial experience. He
notes that, in order to be "imageable", an area needs to be apprehended as a pattern of high
continuity, with a number of distinctive but interconnected parts. Moreover, he argues that in
the process of way finding, the strategic link is the environmental image: a generalized mental
picture of the exterior physical world, which benefits from architectural legibility as
experienced by an individual, further emphasizing affective qualities of spatial form that is
central to the emotional and physical well-being of the inhabitant population, personally as well
as socially.
Moreover, Golledge and Stimson (1997) emphasize that the path or network structure used
in everyday spatial behaviour becomes critical feature of the image of a spatial environment.
Others suggest that spatial layout of the built environment influences the accuracy of cognitive
representations of real world spatial information (e.g. Appleyard, 1969; O'Neill, 1991). Downs
and Stea (1973) note that the process of cognitive mapping is a means of structuring,
interpreting and coping with a complex sets of information that exist in different environments:
cognitive maps are useful instrument for recovering information about the way we represent the
environment, the regularity or irregularity of frameworks such as street systems, and the most
salient positive and negative elements, which further denote user attitudes towards that
environment.
 1271

From a different approach, Hillier (1996) has argued that spatial configuration may face
constrains on spatial experience since it appears to encourage or impede aspects of human
activity through spatial cognition and subsequent behaviour. Since 1984, Hillier and Hanson set
out a theory of space as an aspect of social life, which has developed in the direction of better
understanding the spatial nature of buildings and cities through techniques of configuration
analysis, such as space syntax analysis tool applications, which allow dealing graphically with
the numerical properties of spatial layouts in order to measure accessibility. In simple terms,
spatial configuration deals with a set of interdependent relations originated by a network
structure in which each part is determined by its relation to all the others. According to Peponis
and Wineman (2002), built space can be defined as a field of structured co-presence, co
awareness and encounter. It follows that built space is to be understood as a relational pattern, a
pattern of distinctions, separations, interfaces and connections. The theorem chosen by Peponis
and Wineman (2002) to illustrate ways in which built space works socially deals with linear
spaces, such as streets in urban areas and the paths of movement along those spaces, and argue
that high accessibility implies a higher probability that a space will be used for movement. That
is, the degree of accessibility and consequently potential of movement and presence of people in
the urban space would affect the choice of path to be followed by pedestrians, since people
would be attracted by spaces with people and would tend to avoid deserted spaces, as Gehl
(1987) points out.
So far, space syntax has contributed sophisticated ways for dealing with urban layouts as
differentiated patterns of large-scale connections. This complements the emphasis on local
attributes (such as the dimensional profile of street sections, the characterization of boundaries,
or the attributes and qualities of individual open spaces) that is typical in many studies of urban
space use (e.g. Whyte, 1980). Since Jane Jacobs (1961), the circulation of people and
appropriation of public space has been mentioned as a crucial element to the urban vitality, as
the number of encounters increases potential interactions among users and urban security. In
addition, Jacobs claims that certain conditions can also affect interaction, such as population
density, where higher densities are associated with higher number of interactions; interface
between public and private spaces that generate permeability, favouring greater movement of
people and interaction between them and positively affecting perception of security; urban
diversity with variety of uses, activities, built form, social classes and lifestyles, coexisting in
the same space; and limited distances that might increase opportunities for social contact. Then,
it is assumed that urban structures and spaces that do not have these conditions can hinder or
discourage social interaction among residents and generate segregation, which appears as
negative consequence of the lack of social interaction.
Therefore, it is understood that the essential quality of cities is to fulfil the need to provide
meeting places and support social exchange and social interaction is considered a key indicator
of housing performance, which according to Alexander (1965), is an essential mechanism for
the functioning of the city. Authors (e.g. Cooper 1975; Lay, 1998; Basso, 2001; Gambim, 2007)
highlight the important role of public open spaces play in residential areas on promoting social
interaction and indicate that the open spaces, depending on how they are configured and in
accordance with the existent physical elements, can encourage contact between people. It
follows the premise that certain urban structures can encourage or discourage the occurrence of
more intense social interaction. Complementary, Hillier (1998) argues that, independent of
density of a certain area, if the configuration makes the natural movement of pedestrians more
difficult, there will not be a sufficient number of people to generate the perception of a well
appropriated and used space.
In this context, this study incorporates global configuration aspects and their cognitive
dimensions within a single framework in investigating the relationships between man and built
environment, more specifically those involving the analysis of relationships between the
configuration characteristics of accessibility, legibility and environmental image. It attempts to
identify configuration patterns that might be collectively perceived as fulfilling or not residents’
satisfaction with the housing scheme and their responses to it through positive or negative
1272

behaviour, and higher or lower social interaction. It is further assumed that good or bad
environmental performance of social housing is reflected, among other things, on resident social
behaviour and self-esteem, affected by the degree of satisfaction with the place where they live.
Finally, it explores the effects of levels of integration of housing schemes on the legibility and
imageability of the area and degrees of social interaction among residents and neighbourhoods,
in order to produce evidence to base the production of more qualified residential environments
that facilitate sociability, promoting sense of belonging and citizenship, all of which support
residents’ well-being.

Methodology

In order to achieve the objectives of this study, the relationship between housing schemes of
different layouts, sizes and location in the city, and the level of interaction among dwellers in
the scheme, interaction between the housing scheme and the immediate surroundings and the
city, were analyzed. The case study consists of four housing schemes produced by COHAB -
Housing Company of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, located in the city of Montenegro,
characterized by single-family housing units. The sample of housing schemes was selected
based on the axial maps. The housing schemes show different levels of integration in the urban
fabric, as measured by the axial map of global and local integration (Figures 1 and 2) and the
analysis of street connections with the immediate surroundings. Integration measure is a key
global measure in syntactic analysis which relates each space in the settlement with all the
others, providing information about accessibility of each one in relation to all other spaces
(Hillier, 1996). In the global integration (Figure 1), each street that constitute the housing
scheme is analyzed in relation to all the streets of the urban system, whereas in the local
integration (Figure 2) each street that constitute the housing scheme is analyzed in relation to a
specific number of streets, departing from each of these streets. Therefore, global integration
tells about the accessibility of a housing scheme in relation to the city as a whole, while local
integration tells more about accessibility in the housing scheme: the shallow the axial line (red
and orange lines), the more integrated or accessible is the space. On the other hand, spaces with
more depth are the most segregated (green and blue lines: yellow is in between integrated and
segregated lines), as they are less accessible in relation to all the other.

Figure 1. Axial map of Montenegro, Global Integration.

 1273

Figure 2. Axial map of Montenegro, Local Integration R3.

The schemes are of small size (up to 50 housing units), medium (51 to 200 housing units)
and large (more than 201 units) and are differently located in relation to the consolidated urban
area of the city (Table 1).
1
Table 1. Sample of housing schemes
2
Housing scheme Number of residential Distance in relation to Configuration –
3 3
(h.s.) units the city integration in the
urban fabric
Cinco de Maio Medium size Close to the old city Not integrated
172 units centre
Vila Popular 4 Medium size Close to the old and 4 Integrated
107 units new city centre
Vila São Pedro Small size Close to the new city Integrated
20 units centre
Germano Henck Large size Far from the old and Not integrated
366 units new city centre

The factors most mentioned in the literature that might promote or inhibit social interaction
such as characteristics of open public spaces, relations with the surrounding buildings, quality of
infrastructure, services, retail and entertainment available, as well as the morphological
characteristics of the scheme and the socioeconomic characteristics of dwellers, were
investigated.
Methodological procedures consisted of record information, physical survey (use of
buildings, vegetation, furniture and equipment in the housing schemes and surroundings) and
mental maps with interviews in a sample of 72 interviewees residents of the housing schemes
and residents of the surrounding areas (verification of perceived territory). Systematic
observations of behaviour registered in 112 behavioural maps and application of 210
questionnaires to residents of the housing scheme and residents of surrounding area, were also
carried out in order to measure the degree of social interaction and attitudes among residents in
the h.s. and within the neighbourhood. The sample of respondents was defined to fulfil at least
30 residents in the h.s. and 30 residents in the surrounding area, except in Vila São Pedro, with a
total of 20 units. The statistical analysis of quantitative data through frequencies and non-
1274

parametric tests such as Kruskal-Wallis and Spearman allowed inferring relationships and
correlations between variables. Map of barriers and syntax analysis (Hillier & Hanson, 1984)
were further used.

Results

The results focus upon the analysis of relationships between spatial configuration and social
interaction, and the verification of the intensity of social interaction among the housing schemes
investigated.

Characterization of the housing schemes

Cinco de Maio h.s. was built in 1969 and represents not integrated scheme at local and global
levels, medium size and located near the city centre. It has two kindergartens, a school, a
community centre and a gymnasium. Despite its steep slopes and lack of equipment, the
existing green area in the neighbourhood is used by residents of the h.s. to perform social
activities. There are few retail outlets and service in the housing scheme and surroundings
(Figures 3 and 4).

Figure 3. Cinco de Maio h.s. and surroundings.

Figure 4. Axial map Cinco de Maio h.s. and surroundings (Global Integration extracted
from Fig. 1).

Vila Popular h.s. was implemented in 1968, medium size with 107 single-family housing
units. This scheme is integrated to the surroundings, with an integration line of high integration
 1275

value in relation to the system, is located close to the city centre and has a green area and a
community association.

Figure 5. Vila Popular h.s. and immediate surroundings.

Figure 6. Axial map Vila Popular h.s. and immediate surroundings. (Global Integration
extracted from Figure 1).

In the surroundings, there are two schools, a nursery, a religious temple and a recreational
space with a football field, and a reduced number of retail outlets and service in the scheme and
its surroundings (Figures 5 and 6 above).
Vila São Pedro h.s. was built in 1970, with 20 single-family units. It has a green area and a
school. In the surroundings, there are four houses of worship and a parish pavilion, which
features group activities and meetings of community associations.

Figure 7. Vila São Pedro h.s. and immediate surroundings.

1276

There are many retail outlets and services, as this area has become a new centre of commerce
and city services, that is, the new city centre. The existing shops are located along a street
peripheral to the housing development and serve the residents of scheme and also the residents
living in the surrounding and in the city (Figures 7 and 8).

Figure 8. Axial map Vila São Pedro h.s. and immediate surroundings. (Global Integration
extracted from Figure 1).

Figure 9. Germano Henck h.s. and immediate surroundings.

Figure 10. Axial map Germano Henck h.s. and immediate surroundings. (Global
Integration extracted from Figure 1).

Germano Henck h.s. is the largest and most segregated scheme, built in 1984. It has a school,
a nursery, two places of worship, and a community centre and a church under construction. In
the surroundings, there are health clinic and two places of worship. There are few retail outlets
 1277

and services in the neighbourhood, which are located in the most integrated streets, but only
serve the residents of the scheme (Figures 9 and 10, below).

Relationship between spatial configuration and social interaction

It was investigated whether the integration of the scheme in the existing urban fabric, due to
spatial configuration, helps the residents to integrate into the neighbourhood/city and recognize
as belonging to the city. When integrated schemes were analyzed, it was found that Vila São
Pedro h.s. (small size) is integrated because it is blended with the existing urban fabric, and Vila
Popular h.s. (medium size) is integrated into the environment via a central street that connects
neighbourhoods. However, it was verified through the axial maps (Figures 5 and 6) that the
small h.s. presents continuity of urban fabric and medium size housing schemes do not,
indicating greater homogeneity in the area where the small-size scheme is located.
It was found that Vila São Pedro h.s. (small-size and integrated) is inserted in the
neighbourhood boundaries perceived by residents of the scheme and in the surroundings, and
variations in perceptions refer to the structural pathways that serve as physical barriers,
indicating that the continuity of streets in the surroundings influence the perception of
integration. However, in the Vila Popular h.s. (integrated and medium-size), resident perception
of neighbourhood boundaries includes only the scheme, possibly because it is a concentrated
occupation, facing the main street and with few connections in the existing urban fabric.
Furthermore, the perception of boundaries is also related to structural pathways that generate
physical barriers. Thus, it was found that the existence of very integrated streets in the system
did not influence the perception of integration, and just indicates good accessibility.
Behavioural observations confirmed that the green space is heavily used by residents, despite
having little equipment and furniture. It also became evident that the proximity between the
scheme and the city centre, contributed to a more urban pattern of co-presence and possibilities
of interaction.
Meanwhile, in Vila Popular h.s. (mid-size and integrated), behavioural observations
underscore the importance of the main road system, the heavy flow of vehicles and pedestrians
in different neighbourhoods, confirming researches showing that the degree of integration of a
space is strongly correlated with the number of people moving in it. According to Peponis
(1992), spatial configuration only determines the potential for others to notice, as the backdrop
for an active society, but do not prove that people interact, share and exchange experiences
among themselves, or even notice each other. In addition, it was confirmed that open spaces in
Vila Popular do not meet the necessary requirements to perform activities of social life, for
example, due to narrowing and irregularity of sidewalks, lack of vegetation and shading in the
square, making it difficult to stay in the place, reducing opportunities for social and informal
contact and negatively influencing the level of interaction among residents.
Results further indicate that residents in Vila São Pedro h.s. (integrated and small) are the
most satisfied with where the place they live and the neighbourhood, while residents in Vila
Popular (integrated and mid-size) are less satisfied than those from Vila São Pedro, but have
better evaluation than the other schemes (not integrated) and the surroundings. Residents in Vila
São Pedro also showed better evaluation relationship with neighbours in the scheme and
neighbours in the surroundings while Vila Popular appears in third place in the evaluation of
quality and intensity of relationship among the residents of the scheme neighbourhood where
they live, being superior only to the assessments of residents, probably due to the fact that
maximizing the integration increases the control of the strangers in the place, to the detriment of
the local control, i.e., the main road with high-value integration enhances the flow of strangers
and decreases the control of residents, therefore decreasing opportunities of interaction among
the residents. Regarding the relationship in the neighbourhood, residents in integrated mid-size
scheme have a better assessment than residents of other non-integrated schemes and
surroundings, but with lower assessment than residents in the integrated small-size scheme. It is
noteworthy that a significant percentage of respondents of this scheme consider as
1278

“neighbourhood” only the area of the housing scheme. Finally, residents of two integrated
schemes and respective surroundings are among those who reported having more friends in the
place where they live, however, also indicate a high percentage of friends outside the
neighbourhood, showing interaction with residents in the scheme, in the immediate
surroundings and the city. The results suggest that the integration of the scheme with the
existing urban context, due to spatial configuration, helps the residents to integrate into the
neighbourhood/city and to become recognized as belonging to the city as well as with
satisfaction with where they live. However, it appears that the perception of integration of the
scheme is more related to the continuity of streets of the scheme in the vicinity, than the
existence of more integrated streets in the system.

Intensity of social interaction among housing schemes

Vila São Pedro h.s. is inserted into an existing subdivision and therefore within the existing
urban fabric. The continuity of the urban fabric indicates a homogeneous area. Through
interviews and mental maps, it was found that the dwelling units in the scheme are perceived as
part of the neighbourhood in which they inserted, both by residents in the h.s. and by residents
in the surroundings. The behavioural observations indicate that the green area is heavily used by
residents of all age groups, despite not having sitting facilities along the sidewalks, which
facilitates social interaction among residents of the scheme and immediate surroundings. It was
also noted that the sidewalks, due to inadequate width and maintenance, are not used for passive
activities or socialization. Besides, the proximity of the h.s to the new city centre generates great
flow of pedestrians and vehicles, contributing positively to residents’ satisfaction with where
they live and with the neighbourhood. There was a continuity in the flow of pedestrians on the
streets of the settlement, due to the existence of services used on a daily basis (possibility of
movement on foot), giving a more urban pattern of co-presence and possibility of interaction,
which tends to be influenced by the geometric distance (Holanda, 2002). When comparing all
schemes, results indicate that residents living in Vila São Pedro are the most satisfied with
where they live and with the neighbourhood. They also had a better assessment than the others
h.s. of relationships among residents where they live and in the neighbourhood, besides
presenting a high percentage of friends outside the neighbourhood, showing interaction not only
with the residents of the scheme, but also with the immediate surroundings and the city (Table
2).

Table 2. Intensity of friendship among residents

Cinco de Maio Vila Popular São Pedro Germano

scheme surrounding scheme surrounding scheme surrounding scheme surrounding
30 24 30 24 20 31 40 11
(100%) (100%) (100%) (100%) (100%) (100%) (100%) (100%)
+ friends in 19 7 15 13 8 15 27 5
the h.s. (63,3) (29,2) (50,0) (54,2) (40,0) (48,4) (67,5) (45,5)
+ friends in
0 2 1 0 1 3 1 0
the
(0,0) (8,3) (3,3) (0,0) (5,0) (9,7) (2,5) (0,0)
neighbourhood
+ friends
11 8 11 8 7 8 8 3
outside the
(36,7) (33,3) (36,7) (33,3) (35,0) (25,8) (20,0) (27,3)
neighbourhood
0 7 3 3 4 5 4 3
equal
(0,0) (29,2) (10,0) (12,5) (20,0) (16,1) (10,0) (27,3)

The analyzed data allowed to verify that the size of the housing scheme may influence the
degree of social interaction with residents of the immediate surroundings, where the smaller the
number of units of the set, the greater the degree of social interaction with residents of the
 1279

immediate surroundings. However, it is important to note that the h.s. investigated, in addition
to its small size, is characterized by being integrated and well located near a commercial centre,
which can influence the results, i.e., a segregated small-size scheme could provide different
results. Moreover, it was investigated whether the most segregated housing scheme Germano
Henck, located far from consolidated urban areas present higher interaction among residents of
the scheme than the more integrated housing developments located in central areas. It was found
through the mental maps that residents of the scheme consider as part of the scheme just the
occupation on the south part of the main road, possibly because it is concentrated, segregated
from the surroundings (connected at only one point), with well defined limits and the presence
of the road, which seems to work as a physical barrier. It was confirmed that the deeper the
system (low integration) more difficult is appropriation by the pedestrian, particularly by
strangers to the place that, in general, are most people in public spaces (Holanda, 2002). It was
possible to identify through the interviews the existence of 'social cohesion', as residents point
out that everyone knows everyone, are protected and feel safe ('nothing happens with the people
here').
Through questionnaires, it was verified that residents in this large scheme have one of the
best assessments in relation to satisfaction with security, indicating the existence of territorial
control and internal cohesion. Besides, behavioural observations confirm that the green area,
soccer field and pedestrian crossings are heavily used by children, young adults and elderly,
facilitating social interaction among residents, despite the lack of equipment and furniture. It
was further observed that the pedestrian flow starts from the bus stop at the entrance of the
scheme, since the shift to the city centre happens basically by bus. The continuous flow of
pedestrians contributes to a more urban pattern of co-presence and possibility of interaction
among residents. This scheme has the highest percentage of residents who have more friends in
the place where they live. However, it was not found a positive assessment higher than in the
other schemes that might indicate a better relationship or a stronger relationship among the
residents in Germano Henck. Nonetheless, it must be pointed out that due to its location, far
from consolidated urban areas, outsiders to not penetrate in the inner parts of the place, which
indicates the existence of friendships restricted to the place where they live, confirming that
schemes more distant and isolated can cause residents to relate only to each other and encourage
social segregation in relation to the city.

Conclusion

Results indicate that the level of integration of the housing scheme in the pre-existing urban
fabric, due to its spatial configuration, can help residents to integrate into the
neighbourhood/city and feel recognized as belonging to the city. It was noted that residents in
integrated schemes tend be the most satisfied with where they live and socially interact more
intensively with residents in the housing scheme, with residents of the immediate surroundings
and with the city. In this sense, spatial configuration seems to be the variable with more direct
influence on social interaction among residents, confirming Hillier and Hanson’s (1984) results,
that put accessibility as the most effective component in the dynamics of segregation, as stated
by the social distance through the natural implication of movement networks. According to the
authors, from the urban structure and dynamics of social classes’ point of view, segregated areas
would be used by relatively homogeneous populations and morphology of these housing areas
could show these pre-determinations, as well as the contrast of juxtapositions of segregated
areas. Nonetheless, when compared to larger housing schemes, smaller schemes tend to have
better assessment regarding the relationship among residents in the place where they live and
with neighbours in the surrounding area. That is, those residents develop friendships in and
outside the neighbourhood, and at the city scale, as a result of higher accessibility. It is worth
noting that smaller schemes require smaller areas for implementation and can be easily inserted
1280

into the existing urban fabric, with better location and closer to local services, which can
positively affect residents’ satisfaction with where they live and the neighbourhood.
It was further confirmed that housing schemes located distant from the consolidated urban
area, usually of large size, tend to prevent strangers to naturally penetrate to the inner parts of
the scheme, thereby maximizing local control and friendship among residents and reducing
opportunities of interaction with outsiders. On the other hand, the small size and good location
of social housing schemes can not be a sufficient condition for the integration of residents
together with the surroundings and the city, as spatial configuration seem to be more crucial.
However, it is important to note that although there is a common sense that certain
characteristics are more favourable to the performance of housing schemes for the effects on
social interaction, there are no conclusive studies. Finally, this study highlights the importance
of assessing the effects of spatial configuration in order to produce more integrated and
qualified residential environments that support and facilitate social interaction among residents,
promoting a sense of belonging and citizenship, further confirming that the architecture of
settlements can positively influence our physical, social and emotional health.

References

Alexander, C. (1965). A city is not a tree. In: Architectural Forum, 122 (1), 58-62.
Appleyard, D. (1970). Styles and methods of structuring a city. Environment and Behavior, 2, 100-116.
Basso, J. M. (2001). Investigação de fatores que afetam o desempenho e apropriação de espaços abertos
públicos: o caso de Campo Grande - MS. Master Dissertation. Faculty of Architecture, Universidade
Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre.
Cooper, C. (1975). Easter Hill Village: some social implications of design. New York: Free Press.
Gambim, P.S. (2007). A influência de atributos espaciais na interação entre grupos heterogêneos em
ambientes residenciais. Master dissertation. Faculty of Architecture. Universidade Federal do Rio
Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre.
Downs, M. & Stea, D. (1973),Cognitive maps and spatial behavior: Image and Environment. Aldine, 8-
26.
Gehl, J. (1987). Life between buildings: using public space. New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold
Company.
Golledge, R & Stimson, R. (1997). Spatial Behavior, The Guild Press.
Hillier, B., & Hanson, J. (1984). The Social Logic of Space. Cambridge: Cambridge University.
Hillier, B (1996). Space is the Machine, Cambridge: Cambridge University.
Holanda, F. (2002). O espaço de exceção. Brasília: Ed. Universidade Brasília.
Jacobs, J. (1961). The Death and Life of Great American Cities. New York: Random House.
Kim, Y. (2001). The Role of Spatial Configuration in Space Cognition. Proceedings of the Space Syntax
First International Symposium. Volume II.Atlanta, 49.1-49.21.
Lay, M.C.D., Reis, A.T. (1994). The impact of housing quality on the urban image. In S.J. Neary, N.S. Symes
& F.E. Brown (Eds.), The Urban Experience. London: Chapman and Hall, 85-98.
Lay, M.C.D. (1998). Site layout, territorial organisation and social behaviour in residential environments.
In J.Tecklenburg, J. Andel, J. Smeets, A. Seidel (Eds.), Shifting Balances: Changing Roles in Policy,
Research and Design. Eindhoven: University of Technology, 398-409.
Lynch, K. (1960). The Image of the City, MIT Press
Maricato, E. (2008). Brasil, cidades: alternativas para a crise urbana. Petrópolis, RJ: Vozes.
Marques, E. C. L.(2007). Redes sociais, segregação e pobreza em São Paulo. Doctoral Thesis. Faculty of
Philosophy and Human Sciences, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo.
O'Neill, M. (1991). Effects of signage and floor plan configuration on wayfinding accuracy. Environment
and Behavior. Vol 23,553-574.
Peponis, J. & Wineman, J. (2002). Spatial Structure of Environmen and Behavior. In R. Bechtel and
A.Churchman (ed.). Handbook of Environmental Psychology. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 271-291.
Reis, A., Portella, A., Bennet, J. & Lay, M.C. (2003). Security, Safety, Design and Crime. In J.Hanson
(Ed.). 44.1-44.12
Whyte, W. (1980). The social life of small urban spaces.Washington DC, Conservation Foundation.
 1281

Characterization of the relationship between commercial

plots and building patterns: a general survey in urban area of
Nanjing, China

Jingjing Jiang
School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Nanjing University. Hankou Road 22，
Nanjing, 210093 Nanjing, Jiangsu, P. R. China. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. Following Conzenian tradition of urban morphology, several studies have explored
characteristics of commercial plots in China in a framework identifying the fundamental elements of
urban form: Streets, plots and buildings. However, previous researches lack exploration on the
relationship between building patterns and plots, without taking the complex controlling factors of
commercial plots into account. Therefore, interdisciplinary approach must be applied to explain the
formation rules of building patterns. Building typology and planar geometry rules as typomorphological
base must be applied into the characterization of public plots. In this paper all the 645 commercial plots
along the main roads in Nanjing are grouped into a hierarchically structured category according to plot
shape and building outline. It focuses on two morphological criterions: the shape similarity and
positional relationship between plots and buildings; and demonstrates how these correlates to plot
coverage ratio and arrangement of open space. Such knowledge of rules can support subsequent urban
analysis, planning, and guide future design of commercial plots.

Key Words: Commercial plot, building outline, coverage ratio, positional relationship

Introduction

Public buildings in China have undergone a rapid development in the last 60years. Since the
different functions of sites within an urban area tend to be differentiated by physical form, each
morphological category tends to have distinctive form and therefore can be studied individually
(Whitehand, 2009; Abramson, 2008). However, commercial plots in urban area are under
control of especially complicated conditions both from land use indicators and boundary
conditions. The public buildings within commercial plots are required to meet the demand of
public activities and an elaborate organization of the internal pedestrian and car circulation.
With the pursuit of becoming a landmark, public buildings in China especially the high-rise
mixed-use buildings show a great diversity of building forms.
Controversies have existed for long whether the architectural arrangement of public plots
follows certain common rules, regardless of the functions of the buildings. Since the modern
public building design have for long been use-led design codes, rather than form-led principles.
However, from the architecture designer’s perspective, even under the seemingly disordered
situation lack of form control, there seems to be certain rules restricting a ‘design envelope’,
that is to say, the suitable buildable area for the public building within the plot, such as the
circulation inside the plot, the surrounding traffic condition, the intention of creation of public
spaces within the site, etc. These rules on site plan control bring certain similarities to the
architectural arrangement within the commercial plots, regardless of the function or contents of
the buildings. The difficulty of research lies in which morphological criterion to choose, in order
to evaluate and illustrate the underlying rules in building arrangement of commercial plots.
This paper is based on a general survey of all the 645 commercial plots in Nanjing and
proposes several morphological indicators in description and prescription of the morphological
relationship between commercial plots and buildings inside.
1282

Research Background

The combination of hierarchical framework of urban morphology and building typology

Within urban morphology there is general consensus on the core, fundamental elements of
physical built form: streets, plots and buildings, following the tradition of Conzenian school. On
the other hand, the Italian school established by Muratori and further developed by Cannigia
focuses on mainly on the architectural typology research.
The understanding of urban morphology and the evolution of building typologies are keys to
the zoning and design nowadays. Several scholars have tried to combine the two theories
together to provide an efficient way to evaluate the morphological characteristic of urban tissue
and to guide the zoning and design of urban area. Based on the work of Conzen and Caniggia,
Kropf proposed a framework combining building typology and urban morphology and illustrate
an example of the application of typomorphological principles (Kropf, 1998).

The selection of assessment criteria in morphological description on the plot level

Several previous studies on plots and buildings provided inspiring research framework and
criterions for assessment of the morphological relationship between street, commercial plots and
buildings within the plots.
The shape Grammar theory (M.Tapia, 1999) describes shapes and compositional logics by
simplifying the spatial elements such as plot edge, building, open space as well as access into
basic components of a relative network, in which way topological relationships of the
morphological elements are revealed and described. Through implement of the shape grammar
rules space structure of certain area is revealed.
Following the conzenian tradition, the assessment methodology named morpho (Oliveira,
2013) proposed by Vitor Oliveira provide a quantitative framework to assess the fundamental
elements of urban form at different scales, that is to say, streets, plots, and buildings, and each
relation between the pairs of element. He chose several morphological criteria such as ratio of
building height to street width and alignment of buildings as well as dimensions of street blocks
to evaluate the morphological characteristics of a given area quantitatively.

The addition of geometry rules in morphological description on the plot level

The plots as study objects in former studies on plot characteristics are usually of square or
rectangular form lying in a regular order. However, the forms of blocks and plots in China are
much more complicated with various shapes and sizes. Besides, the assessment of the positional
relationship between building and plot must be based on the recognition of plots and building
outlines as geometrical units. Therefore, planar geometry rules for necessary simplification of
the plot shapes and building outlines must be applied in the study (Stiny, 2011).
This paper combines the methods above following the hierarchical framework of assessment
between streets, plots and buildings and mainly focuses on the discussion of morphological
relationship between commercial plots and public buildings inside by evaluating the shape
similarity and positional relationship between plot and building.

The general description of the commercial plots in Nanjing

Nanjing is the capital city of Jiangsu Province, which situates in the more developed eastern
region of China, with a population of more than 8.16 million, and a total area of 6597 square
kilometers. Public plots in Nanjing have undergone complex transformation due to the change
in land ownership in the past decades. The public buildings in Nanjing represent a very broad
category which includes the buildings of different purpose and contents.
 1283

In total, there are 862 commercial plots among the main roads and secondary main roads in
Nanjing, which account for 75% of all the commercial plots in Nanjing. The selection of
research objects is according to the rules as follow, in order to clarify the basic condition and to
avoid certain unnecessary exceptional cases along branch roads. Plots under construction or
without constructional development are excluded; Shops along the streets, which are mostly
extensions affiliated to residential buildings, are excluded; commercial plots, which are used as
temporary garages are excluded; historical buildings which are now in public use, are excluded,
because they don’t follow the modern design principles.
Therefore, 645 commercial plots with the land use of office buildings, hotel buildings, and
shopping malls or mixed use of the mentioned functions are chosen as the analysis database
among all the plots.
The sizes of commercial plots varies dramatically from 131 ㎡ to 248314 ㎡. Above all, the
most of the plots have a total area at the level of 5000 ㎡. Generally, the size of the hotel plots
are the smallest.

Six types of plot shapes

The shapes of the plots are categorized into six types according to geometrical rules: Square
form rectangular form, triangle form, L shape, Z shape and U shape. The last three types are
transformed from the square form or rectangular form due to the several plot property
transitions during the last decades of land use change.

Figure1. The distribution of commercial plots all over Nanjing.

1284

Figure 2. The 6 types of plot shapes.

At the street level: the boundary conditions of the commercial plots

Plot boundary conditions contribute a lot to the pedestrian flow and car circulation organization
within the plot. The study of plot boundary firstly focuses on the plot boundaries, which are
adjacent to highest-ranking roads.
The road network in Nanjing is a hierarchy system, composed of the main roads, the
secondary main roads, and the branch roads. Blocks are divided by main roads and secondary
main roads. Semi-blocks are divided by branch roads within the blocks. Due to the complex
natural conditions (rivers, mountains) and several morphological transformation of the street
system, the blocks of Nanjing varies significantly in block size, and proportion, which brings
variable boundary condition to the plots inside (Zhang, 2013).

Figure 3. The existing boundary condition of commercial plots.

At the street level: Assessment of the relationship between Street and building:

Since the plot boundary adjacent to streets is parallel to streets, and the plot boundary is usually
4.5 meters setback from the street edge, the distance of building setback from main streets can
be evaluated by the setback distance from building outline to the plot edge adjacent to highest-
ranking road.
The setback distance of buildings from the plot boundary adjacent to the main roads
(secondary main roads) vary dramatically from 0m to 120m.
As we can see from the statistics, the setback distances of buildings from the main streets in
the Hexi (new city) area are averagely larger from those in the main city area of Nanjing.
 1285

This situation indicates, that the urban tissue formed by public buildings has a fragmented
boundaries to the streets. This is due to the lack of urban planning code of the setback distance
of building layout to the streets.

Figure 4. The building setback distance from the highest-ranking road.

Further comparison of four commercial districts in Nanjing

Four public districts situated in four part of Nanjing are chosen for closer study of the
relationship between streets and commercial plots.

Xinjiekou CBD Shanxilu CBD Zhongyangmen CBD Hexi new town

Figure 5. Four commercial districts in Nanjing.

Tissue I: Continuous frontages of public buildings in Xinjiekou CBD district which lies in
the central of old city, which has the highest density of commercial plots in Nanjing, with 31
commercial plots inside. The commercial plots are mostly shopping malls and mixed use
1286

buildings. The plots in Xinjiekou CBD are mostly of fragmented shapes like L, Z, or triangle
shape. This phenomenon is due to the several phases of morphological transformation of the
street structure in different period of time (zhang, 2013). The shape of the plots then
accommodate to two road systems in two unparallel coordinate system, one of which is closely
related to the ancient water system ( about 24 degree to the east of north), the other of which is
mainly determined upon the Zhonshan Avenue system completed by 1937 following the design
principle of straightness.(zhang, 2013) More than that, the several phases of plot development
also contribute to the fragmented plot shapes due to the change of plot ownerships. Adjacent
plots appear to be interlocking while the plot are redivided and integrated with morphological
information of the former land owners remains in the plots.
Tissue II: Continuous public building frontages and plots in Shanxilu CBD. This area serves
as a sub-commercial -center of Nanjing, with 33 public buildings including theaters, shopping
malls, commercial office buildings and governmental buildings.
Tissue III: Isolated public buildings in the Zhongyangmen CBD lies in the north fringe part
of Nanjing. The district serves as a sub-commercial-center with agglomerated shopping malls
and high-rise hotel buildings. The total area of the 15 shopping mall plots vary from 2679㎡to
43191㎡, showing great discrepancy of plot sizes.
Tissue IV: Isolated public buildings in the Hexi CBD district locates in the new town of
Nanjing, which is planned as the future administration center of Nanjing. The development of
the Hexi CBD started from 2002, controlled thoroughly by the modern planning principles of
average block grids. The plots are mainly used for Headquarters of state-owned companies,
governmental buildings, and commercial office buildings. The district consists of 11
commercial plots whose total area range from 10667㎡ to 49456㎡.
Most of the plots are perpendicular to the streets. The examination of locations of the plots
within the block indicates the adjacency condition of plots to main roads. Other boundaries of
the plots are adjacent to branch roads or other plots. In the old city area of Nanjing, most of the
commercial plots locate along the edge of the blocks, with one boundary adjacent to the main
road or secondary main road. In addition, several commercial plots occupy one corner of the
block. In the New town (Hexi) area of Nanjing, commercial plots often occupies the whole
block, while in the fringe area of Nanjing, the commercial plots often occupies three edges of its
block. In certain areas in the Zhongyangmen district in the north fringe part of Nanjing, the
main roads (secondary main roads) exist also on the opposite side of the plot.
According to the above analysis, the main morphological distinctions of the commercial
plots in different areas exist in three aspects: size, shape and boundary condition.

The assessment of morphological relationship between plot and building

The simplification of building outline and plot shape

To simplify the morphological relationship between the plot and the building, this paper focuses
on the planar outline of the building, regardless of the spatial compositions of the building
forms, neither the internal spatial arrangement. Slight variations of quadrilateral shape like the
bays or short hangouts are ignored in the study.
Simplification rules of building outline and plot shape: The length-width ratio of the building
outline and that of the plot is considered as the main factor to distinguish whether it is a square
or a rectangular. Since the extremely high length-to width ratio of a plot can lead to different
design strategies in building arrangement compared to the square plots with even length and
width. When the two adjacent boundaries are slightly not perpendicular, they are considered
perpendicular.
 1287

Figure 6. Examples of Simplification Rules of the Shapes.

The similarity and non-similarity between plot shape and building outline

According to the above principles of shape simplification, the plots shapes are simplified into
two main categories: the quadrilateral plots and the deformed quadrilateral plots. The
quadrilateral category is subdivided into two types: square plot with a length-width ratio from
1/1 to 2/1; rectangular plot with a length-width ratio larger than 2/1. The deformed quadrilateral
category consists of three plot types: L-shape plots with one corner encroached; U shape plots
with middle part encroached; Z-shape plots with two corners on the diagonal encroached.
The building outlines are classified into six types: square shape, rectangular, L shape, U
shape with a half surrounded open space in the center, Z shape with two corners on the diagonal
encroached, multiple separate buildings in one plot.

Figure 7. Plots with similar-shape building outlines and plots with non-similar-shape
building outlines.

Figure 8 (left). Amount of building outline types within plots.

1288

Figure 9. All existing shape relationship between plots and buildings.

Morphological relationships between plot shape and building outline are further classified
into two types: similar shapes and non-similar shapes. All the existing morphological
relationship types are listed in sequence according to the coverage ratio of the certain plot.
Firstly, 90% of all the 645 commercial plots have one single building inside the plot.
Therefore, this paper mainly discusses the single-building plots.
Statistics show that there are 136 square building outlines in square plots, 135 rectangular
building outlines in rectangular plots, and 79 L-shape building outlines in L-shape plots.
Consequently it can be concluded, that those plots, within which the buildings have similar
shape with its plot shape, play a dominant role among all the commercial plots.
However, as a matter of fact, many factors of a broad range from land use indicators to plot
boundaries conditions as well as internal spatial arrangement are responsible to the architectural
composition of commercial plots. In this way, it is dubious to assert that the building outline
within the commercial plot is controlled by the plot shape. Further study on the relative plot
indicators is required to explore the underlying factors which control dominantly the
morphological relationship between plot and building pattern. Through the examination of
several land use indicators, plot coverage ratio stands out as a dominant factor affecting building
pattern.

Comparison of plot coverage ratio and building-plot shape similarity

The coverage ratios of all the commercial plots differ remarkably from 0.04 to 1, and the
majority of the plot coverage ratio lies in the range from 0.2 to 0.9.

Figure 10.The shape similarity and plot coverage ratio.

 1289

Despite four square plots of high coverage with L-shape building outline inside, all of the
commercial plots with a coverage ratio of over 0.68 have similar building outline with the plot
shape. For plots with coverage ratio from 0.20 to 0.67, there is no obvious rule for whether the
building outlines have similar shape relation with the plot or not. For plots with a coverage ratio
less than 0.19 the buildings outlines inside are all non-similar to the plots.
It can be concluded that when a plot has a coverage ratio of over 0.68, the building outline
usually duplicate the plot shape.
Besides the shape relationship between the building outline and the plot, another important
morphological factor is the position of the building within the plot. The urban tissue formed by
commercial plots is significantly influenced by whether the adjacent plots share a consistent and
continuous building setting, in which way a continuous or a disordered frontage is formed.

Assessment of building position within the plot

The void space in the plot can be used to evaluate the position of building. Since the building
outlines are generally parallel to the adjacent plot boundary, the position of the building inside
the plot can be described by measuring the setback distance of each building edge to the
adjacent plot boundary.
The setback distance of building within the plot can be divided into kinds of uses: one is
linear space for traffic; the other is open space mainly for static activities.
1.0m There is no void space between the building edge and the adjacent plot boundary.
2.1-3m. The aisle between the plot boundary and building edge is designed mainly for
necessary pedestrian access.
3.4-6m. The path is left for fire engine access, which follows the design code for public
buildings. The 4-meter paths also serve as the car path inside the plot.
4.10 meters and more. The open space usually has three uses: pedestrian open plaza, parking
lot, landscape area, or the combination of the mentioned functions.

Figure 11. Existing setback distance with function.

Therefore, building positions can be classified into two types: overlapping centroids of plot
shape and building outline, non-overlapping centroids of plot and building outline.
When the centroid of the building outline overlaps that of the plot shape, there exist two
circumstances: the setback distances of each edge of the building outline are equally the same;
or the opposite setback distances of the building outline are the same.
When the centroid of the building outline does not overlap that of the plot shape, it indicates
that each access between the building and the plot boundary are not equal and are of different
uses.
The plots with similar-shape building outline are simplified into quadrilateral within
quadrilateral prototypes with various positional relationships. The plots with non-similar-shape
1290

building outline are simplified into quadrilateral with an addition of void space of different
position within the quadrilateral plots.
Based on the careful examination of all the 645commercial plots, the building position are
classified into the following table according to the setback distance of each building edge from
the plot boundary. The table is classified into two main categories: plots without open squares
and plots with open areas.

Figure12. All the existing building positional type within the plot

Figure 13. Types of open squares for public activities and parking lots in different location
within plot.
 1291

Among all the plots with an open square, the most frequently existing positional relationship
between plot and building outline are as follows:

Figure14. Seven most frequent existing positional relation types of plot and building.

The position of the open space within the plot plays an important role in controlling the
urban tissue which the commercial plots form together. Statistic of all the existing building
position type within the plot shows several rules of internal arrangement:
i) for the plots along the edge of the block, the open squares for public activities mainly exist
in the front part of the plot parallel to the highest-ranking road. For the plots on the corner of the
block, open squares for public activities usually prefer to locate adjacent to the corner of the
highest-ranking roads;
ii) parking areas usually locate perpendicular to the highest-road or lie in the backyard of the
plot. Sometimes the parking lot exists as an L-shape area continuing from the perpendicular area
of the plot to the backyard. Generally the parking lots in the back of the plot have a larger size.

Conclusion and discussion

Based on a general study of all the 645 commercial plots in Nanjing, the study aims at exploring
the underlying formation rules of the urban tissue formed by commercial plots. After a series of
assessment of the relationship between streets and plots as well as streets and buildings, the
study finally focused on the morphological relationship between plot shape and building outline
with two assessment criteria: shape similarity between plot and building and building position
within the plot.
Firstly, the plot shapes in different areas of Nanjing present to be discrepant. The
commercial plots in the old city of Nanjing are usually fragmented due to the several
transformation of street system and interlocking to each other. In contrast, the plots in new town
and fringe area of Nanjing generally have more complete shapes like squares or rectangulars.
Secondly, statistics show that the level of the plot coverage ratio plays a significant part in
the rules of the building arrangement within the commercial plots. For plots with a coverage
ratio over 70%, the outline of the building usually follows the shape of its plot. For plots with a
coverage ratio of less than 70%, there seems to be no dominant rules of building outline.
Furthermore, the positional relationship between building and plot is carefully classified. Four
types of setback distance indicate the different functions of the void space in the plot. The
setback distance is mainly decided by the location of the open space for public activities and car
circulation inside the plot.
In the end, the study on the commercial plots in Nanjing proves that interdisciplinary rules
must be applied in studying the commercial plots and the modern buildings within them.
Knowledge of architectural typology and planar geometry are indispensible in exploring the
underlying rules controlling the building arrangement within commercial plots. Other relevant
factors such as floor area ratio, building height, as well as building function must be further
investigated.
It is worth noting that with the development of construction techniques, there exist more
buildings with stilt floor of large area. The above covered area can also serve as pedestrian plaza
or parking lot, in which way the simplification of the building outline in this paper is no longer
1292

applicable. Further studies on the stilt floored buildings are required to accommodate the ever-
developing topology of modern public architecture.

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 1293

Municipal average building capacity: a strategic instrument

for economic and financial sustainability of urban
developments

Emília Malcata Rebelo

Universidade do Porto, Faculdade de Engenharia, Rua Dr. Roberto Frias, s/ n, 4200-
465 PORTO, Portugal. CITTA – Research Centre for Territory, Transports and
Environment. E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract. The main goal of this research consists in the development of a methodology – based on
territorial plans and urban morphologies - that supports the computation of how much average gross
built surface is allowed in each municipality. It fits into the overall scope of the revision of the juridical
regime of Territorial Management Instruments currently taking place in Portugal, in the wake of the
approval of the new Portuguese Basis Law of Land Policy, Territorial Ordering and Urbanism. The
assessment of building capacity herein proposed supports the application of current territorial
management instruments (such as the Municipal Urbanization Tax) or new instruments - based on a
fiscal monitoring over urban developments - in a clear, accurate and objective way. It, thus, enables the
implementation of the most innovative goals of this new Basis Law: raising equity and social cohesion,
and ensuring that urban development processes are sustainable from an economic and financial
perspective. The methodology to compute the average municipal building capacity is applied, as a case
study, no the municipality of Ourém, considering the classification of spaces and the urban indexes
settled in Ourém´s Municipal Master Plan, in Fátima´s Urban Development Plan, and in the Detail Plans
currently enforced. It can be concluded that urban morphologies that derive from territorial plans
support the design of new management instruments in order to: (i) strengthen municipal finance,
ensuring municipalities´ economic and financial sustainability; (ii) assess, in a clear and objective way,
the concrete building capacity of certain urban operations as compared with the municipal average
building capacity; (iii) quantify the concrete values that can possibly be collected through current or
innovative urban management tools; and (iv) warrant a better equity in the distribution of benefits and
charges that accrue from urban development processes.

Key Words: economic and financial sustainability, territorial management instruments, equity, building
capacity, urban indexes.

Introduction

All the legislation concerning land, territorial ordering and urban development is currently
underway in Portugal. The new Portuguese Basis Law of Land Policy, Territorial Ordering and
Urbanism was already approved (Proposta de Lei nº 183/XII, 2014), linked together with the
revision of the juridical regime of Territorial Management Instruments, the juridical regime of
Urbanization and Edification, and the new Cadastral Law. This is a deep amendment that
intends to surmount some drawbacks and contradictions that accrued from the previous
legislation, on the one hand, and to contribute to the structural reform of the state in these
matters, on the other. In fact, the previously enforced legislation revealed hard to apply and
often contradictory especially due to different complex plans that overlapped on the same
territories (that had adverse effects on the clearness of applicable rules), the existence of several
territorial plans and urban development models specific to each municipality (that hampered
integrated development and sustainable articulation among municipalities), and a planning
model founded on urban sprawl (that was unable to stop the quick proliferation of vacant land).
Thus this revision involves the reassessment of the core paradigms that underlie land
planning and management, territorial ordering, and urban development processes. The new
1294

launched paradigm founds on three basic guidelines: planning increased flexibility; Municipal
Master Plan´s strengthening as a strategic tool; and a bet on urban rehabilitation to favour town
development. One of the core innovative goals of this new paradigm sets that urban plans and
programs should include an economic and financial sustainability model. This means that they
should only be approved are they able to engender incomes equal or higher that the charges they
will involve. As a result, this model will also provide the achievement of all the other goals this
new paradigm settles, namely the linked integration of territorial policies, the efficiency of plan
execution devices, the economic and financial sustainability of urban development processes,
and the promotion of social cohesion and equity.
The research reported in this article proposes a methodology to compute how much abstract
average gross built surface/m2 is allowed in each municipality, according to the enforced
territorial plans (that is to say, according to the parameters settled in the Municipal Master Plan,
Urban Development Plans, Detail Plans, parcelling out procedures, or other territorial
management instruments). It is applied, as a case study, to the municipality of Ourém.
The measurement of the abstract average gross built surface/m2 is a required condition for a
more efficient application of a set of already existent territorial management instruments (such
as Municipal Development Charges, that can anyway be reformulated) and newly proposed
ones (so to ensure that surplus values engendered by plans, planning decisions and/or public
investments should be reassigned to social purposes). It supports the search for more objective
and clear urban parameters that underlie municipal decisions and their succeeding
implementation that ensure: the economic and financial sustainability of territorial planning and
urban developments; the fair collection of part of the land surplus values arising from planning
decisions; the clarification of funds´ origins and investments aimed at urban development; and a
better fair distribution of benefits and charges arising from urban development within each
municipality and among different municipalities.
This article finally debates the importance of the average gross built surface/m2 for
municipalities proper - founded on this new paradigm of territorial planning economic and
financial sustainability - to enhance sustainable development and people´s quality of life.

Computation of the abstract municipal average gross built surface/m2

Methodology

It is herein proposed the measurement of the municipal average abstract gross built surface/m2
according to the urban parameters settled by the territorial plans enforced in a certain
municipality, weighed by respective land surfaces (Figure 1).

Urban
development Land surfaces
parameters assigned to each
kind of use

Allowed gross built surface

in each developed or
developable area

Municipal average abstract gross built surface/m2

Figure 1. Systematization of the data required to compute the municipal abstract

average gross built surface/m2.
 1295

The municipal average abstract gross built surface/m2 represents the gross surface (expressed
in m2) allowed by the enforced territorial planning instruments in a certain area. It is computed
through the quotient between the sum total of the surfaces where urban parameters of different
planning tools apply, multiplied by respective occupation indexes (quotient between the
implanted surface and the land surface, expressed in %) and land use indexes (quotient between
the total gross built surface and land surface, expressed in m2 per m2 of land), weighed by the
percentage assigned to each type of use, and the total municipality´s buildable area.

Case study

Brief characterization of the municipality of Ourém

The municipality of Ourém locates in the Portuguese central region, in the district of
Santarém. It is bound in the east by the municipalities of Ferreira do Zêzere and Tomar, in the
southeast by Torres Novas, in the south by Alcanena, in the west by the municipalities of Leiria
and Batalha, and in the north by Pombal and Alvaiázere. It spans a surface of about 417 km2, is
made up by 18 parishes, and has a population density of 98,2 inhabitants/km2
(www.infopedia.pt) (Figure 2).

Municipality
of Ourém

Figure 2. Map of the municipality of Ourém with respective parishes.

(Source: https://www.google.pt/)

Territorial planning instruments enforced in the municipality of Ourém

The Municipal Master Plan of Ourém200 is the legal planning instrument that frames the urban
development activities in this municipality, and that guides the applicable Urban Development
Plans and Detail Plans (Article 6th, Urban hierarchy). In the absence of Urban Development
Plans, Detail Plans and municipal regulations worked out according to the main guidelines of
the Municipal Master Plan for the planning and management operational units, only the precepts

200
The Municipal Master Plan of Ourém was approved by the Resolução do Conselho de Ministros n.º
148-A/2002. This plan was ratified on the 12th March of 2009 (Aviso n.º 5416/2009), and later on, in the
15th October 2009 (Aviso n.º 18200/2009), being afterwards adjusted to the Regional Plan of Territorial
Ordering of West and Tagus Valley – PROTOVT (Aviso n.º 11779/2010, ratified by the Declaração de
Retificação n.º 1614/2010, of 12th August), and changed on the 29th March 2011 (Aviso n.º 7841/2011).
On the 9th April 2013 a modification was enforced in the plan for Pias Longas site (Aviso n.º 4800/2013),
which involved a change in the National Environmental Reserve map of Ourém (Aviso n.º 4735/2013).
1296

of the latter are applicable, as well as the statements settled in additional municipal regulations
(Article 7th, Supplementary application).
According to Article 8th (Enforced planning instruments) of this same plan, inside the urban
perimeter of Fátima applies the respective Urban Development Plan201; and in some areas inside
the urban perimeter of Ourém apply the enforced Detail Plans.
After the passing of the Urban Development Plan of Fátima, two Detail Plans were enforced
inside its urban perimeter, becoming applicable their urban parameters instead of those from the
Urban Development Plan: Detail Plan of Avenida Papa João XXIII (Aviso nº 15622/2009);
Detail Plan for the block formed by Rua Francisco Marto, Estrada da Lomba de Égua and Rua
do Mercado (Portaria nº 67/99).
The Detail Plans enforced inside the urban perimeter of Ourém are: Detail Plan of the
industrial area of Casal dos Frades (Despacho nº 195/91); Detail Plan of the Health Centre of
Ourém (Portaria nº 190/97); Detail Plan of Caridade (Portaria nº 496/93; Portaria nº 445/97;
Declaração nº 376/99); Detail Plan of Quinta do Ribeirinho (Resolução do Conselho de
Ministros nº 159/2000).

Regulation of land use in the municipality of Ourém

In the regulation of the Municipal Master Plan of Ourém - Chapter III, concerning land uses,
Article 33rd (Classes of spaces) - spaces are classified according to their land occupation, use
and land use changes, within the following classes202: urban spaces; developable urban spaces;
tourism; industry; extractive industry; equipment; agricultural; forest; agricultural-forest mixed
uses; natural; canal-spaces and infrastructures.
In the same article (point 3.) urban perimeters are pointed out as including urban spaces,
developable urban spaces, and industrial spaces, according to the delimitating borders settled in
the ordering plan.
Article 35th (Urban hierarchy network) settles tree levels for built-up urban areas belonging
to the municipality of Ourém, according to the functions anticipated for each one (they may
eventually include sets of close built-up urban areas) (Table 1): Level 1 encompasses built-up
urban areas with trade, services and equipment functions at municipality and above municipality
grounds; Level 2 includes built-up urban areas or sets of areas with trade, services and
equipment functions at local grounds; Level 3 comprises the remaining built-up areas or sets of
areas.
Section I of chapter III of the Municipal Master Plan of Ourém lays down the rules for the
use of urban spaces. Article 36th (Scope and main goal) features the urban spaces (demarcated in
the ordering plan) as made up by the existing built urban knitwear provided with urban
infrastructure, equipment and services. These spaces are predominantly aimed at housing,
despite including other uses, such as tertiary activities, industry, agriculture or tourism, provided
they hold housing-compatible characteristics.
Consolidated urban spaces (point 4. of the same article) rank, by their turn, into level 1, 2, or
3 subcategories of urban spaces.
As aforementioned, the urban perimeters of Ourém and Fátima correspond to level 1 built-up
urban areas (article 39th, urban built-up areas of Ourém and Fátima). This article further states
that rules laid down in articles 40th and 41st should be applied in Ourém and/or Fátima in the
absence of Urban Development Plans or Detail Plans inside respective urban perimeters,
considering: As medium-density urban spaces the wholly infrastructured urban areas where

201
Portaria nº 633/95, on 21st June, which revision was approved by the Resolução do Conselho de
Ministros n.º 148-B/2002 of 30/12; this plan underwent, after its approval, a simplified change on
30/01/2009 (Aviso n.º 2766/2009), and a later ratification on the 15th October of the same year (Aviso n.º
18200/2009).
202
These classes are delimited in the ordering plan, according to the exclusive or dominant use category
in each one.
 1297

streets make up a close knitwear together with bordering parcels and plots, that are already
built-up in over 50% of parcels and plots, with four or five-storey buildings; As low-density
urban spaces the remaining developable urban areas, as well as the wholly or partly
infrastructured urban areas.

Table 1. Classification of built-up urban areas belonging to the municipality of Ourém

according to the urban network hierarchy settled in respective Municipal Master Plan

Level Parishes Built-up urban areas

Town of Fátima, Cova da Iria, Moita Redonda, Lomba d´Égua,
1 Fátima
Aljustrel, Moimento, Casa Velha and Eira da Pedra
Nossa Senhora das
Town of Ourém, Ourém/Castelo, Santo Amaro, Lagoa da Carapita,
1 Misericórdias/Nossa Senhora
Vale do Lobo, Hortas, Regato, Corredoura, Lagarinho and Penigardos
da Piedade
2 Alburitel Alburitel
Atouguia, Mourã, Murtal, Outeiro do Murtal, Pinheiro do Murtal,
2 Atouguia
Feteira and Fontaínhas
2 Casal dos Bernardos Casal dos Bernardos and Casal dos Moleiros
Caxarias, Vendas, Caxarias/Carvoeira, Pontes, Pisões, Cavadinha and
2 Caxarias/Urqueira
Mata
2 Cercal Cercal, Vale do Feto and Ninho de Águia
Espite, Cimo da Igreja, Braga, Casal Monte; Meliceira and Vale do
2 Espite
Ugreiro
2 Formigais Formigais, Casal da Igreja and Porto Velho
Freixianda, Abades, Várzea do Bispo, Casal do Pinheiro, Aldeia de
2 Freixianda
Santa Teresa, Porto do Carro and Vale do Carro
2 Gondemaria Gondemaria, Cidral, Fartaria, Palheiro and Cardiais
2 Matas Matas, Achada, Casal Menino, Cubal and Barreirinhas
2 Matas Lavradio, Vesparia and Perdigão
Nossa Senhora das
2 Vilar dos Prazeres
Misericórdias
Nossa Senhora das
2 Melroeira and Pinhel
Misericórdias
2 Nossa Senhora da Piedade Vale Travesso, Casal Matos and Casal Castanheiro
2 Nossa Senhora da Piedade Alqueidão, Cartacha, Quinta Nova and Casais da Caridade
2 Nossa Senhora da Piedade Pinheiro, Pimenteira and Cabiçalva
2 Olival Olival and Aldeia Nova
2 Ribeira do Fárrio Fárrio and Reca
2 Rio de Couros Rio de Couros
2 Rio de Couros Sandoeira and Castelejo
Seiça, Pombalinho, Outeiro, Alqueidão, Carvalhal, Chão de Maçãs and
2 Seiça
Estremadouro
2 Seiça Peras Ruivas and Pedreiras
2 Urqueira Urqueira
3 - The remaining built-up urban areas correspond to level 3

The rules laid down in article 40th (Medium-density urban spaces in Ourém and Fátima)
apply to buildings´ construction and enlargement in wholly infrastructured parcels or plots in
medium-density urban spaces, in the absence of Urban Development or Detail Plans.
Article 41st (Low-density and very low-density urban spaces) settles that level 2 built-up
urban areas correspond to low-density urban spaces, and level 3 built-up urban areas correspond
to very low-density urban spaces. However, medium-density areas may be settled through
Urban Development or Detail Plans in level 2 built-up urban areas with delimited planning and
management operational units (point 2. of this article).
Article 42nd (urban-use parameters for low and very low-density urban spaces) specifies the
following parameters for low and very-low density spaces, respectively:
1298

Table 2. Urban parameters for low-density spaces in the municipality of Ourém settled in
respective Municipal Master Plan.

Maximum
Maximum gross
occupation Maximum
Dimension of the built index or Maximum number Maximum number
Density level 2 percentage or waterproofing index
buildable plot (m ) maximum built of floreys (**) of dwellings
maximum implanted or surface
surface (*)
surface (*)
From 500 to 1200 25% 0,45 0,35 2 2
Low
2 2 2
> 1200 300 m 540 m 420 m 2 2
(*) Including all the built surfaces
(**) Use of attics is admitted

Table 3. Urban parameters for very low-density spaces in the municipality of Ourém
settled in respective Municipal Master Plan.

Maximum
Maximum gross
Dimension of the occupation Maximum
built index or Maximum number Maximum number
Density level percentage or waterproofing index
buildable plot (m2) maximum built of floreys (**) of dwellings
maximum implanted or surface
surface (*)
surface (*)
From 500 to 1500 20% 0,36 0,3 2 2
Very low 2 2 2
> 1500 300 m 540 m 450 m 2 2
(*) Including all the built surfaces
(**) Use of attics is admitted

The urban parameters that industry-solely plots (compatible with other urban uses) must
conform to are:

Table 4. Urban parameters for industry-solely spaces in the municipality of Ourém settled
in respective Municipal Master Plan

Maximum
Maximum gross
Dimension of the occupation Maximum
built index or Maximum number
percentage or waterproofing index
buildable plot (m2) maximum built of floreys (**)
maximum implanted or surface
surface (*)
surface (*)
From 500 to 2000 35% 0,4 0,45 2
2 2 2
> 2000 700 m 800 m 900 m 2
(*) Including all the built surfaces
(**) Buildings´ maximum heigh is 7,5 m

Section II of the Municipal Master Plan of Ourém impinges on developable urban spaces.
Article 43rd (Scope and main goal) features urban developable spaces as aimed at urban
spreading, namely housing and respective complementary functions, and also at industrial uses
compatible with other urban uses.
Point 2. of this article stresses that the conditions stated by the current regulation to urban
developable spaces intend to master the urban growth and consolidate the existing urban spaces,
creating urban areas provided with the required infrastructures and collective equipment,
making profits on investments in built or to be built infrastructures and amenities. Urban
developable spaces may result in medium-low, low or very low density spaces, according to the
urban spaces they fit (delimitated in the ordering plan).
 1299

Methodology to compute the abstract average gross built surface/m2 in the municipality of
Ourém

Within this legal and regulatory context, the methodology to compute the abstract average gross
built surface/m2 in the municipality of Ourém pursued the following steps: Identification of the
areas encompassed by the urban perimeter of Fátima, where the Urban Development Plan of
Fátima is enforced (Portaria nº 633/95; RCM n.º 148-A/2002; Aviso n.º 2766/2009; Aviso n.º
18200/2009); Identification of the areas encompassed by the urban perimeter of Ourém (level 1
built-up areas), where the Municipal Master Plan of Ourém is enforced (RCM n.º 148-B/2002;
Aviso n.º 5416/2009; Aviso n.º 18200/2009; Aviso n.º 11779/2010; DR n.º 1614/2010; Aviso
n.º 7841/2011; Aviso n.º 4800/2013; Aviso n.º 4735/2013); Identification of the areas inside the
urban perimeter of Fátima where the Detail Plans are enforced (Detail Plan of Avenue Papa
João XXIII (Aviso nº 15622/2009) and Detail Plan for the block formed by Francisco Marto
Street, Lomba de Égua Road and Mercado Street (Portaria nº 67/99)); Identification of the areas
inside the urban perimeter of Ourém where the Detail Plans are enforced (Detail Plan of the
industrial area of Casal dos Frades (Despacho nº 195/91); Detail Plan of the Health Centre of
Ourém (Portaria nº 190/97); Detail Plan of Caridade (Portaria nº 496/93; Declaração nº 376/99);
and Detail Plan of Quinta do Ribeirinho (RCM nº 159/2000)); Identification of level 2 and 3
built-up urban areas in the municipality of Ourém, where the Municipal Master Plan is
enforced; Application of the urban parameters correspondent to each previously identified area,
in order to set up respective maximum allowed gross built surfaces, according to the applicable
plans; Computation, for each area, of the concrete gross built surface/m2, through the quotient
between the maximum allowed gross built surface and respective territorial surface (expressed
in m2/m2 of land); Determination of the percentage of each of these areas in relation to the total
developed and developable urban area in the municipality of Ourém; Computation of the
average gross built surface/m2 through the sum total extended to all considered territorial areas,
of the product between respective percentage in relation to the whole studied developed and
developable space, and correspondent gross built surface.

Computation of the abstract average gross built surface/m2 in Fátima

The Urban Development Plan of Fátima applies to Fátima built-up urban areas and the
surrounding environment - article 2nd (Territorial application scope) of the regulation of this
plan (Portaria nº 633/95).
The urban area of Fátima includes the following level 1 built-up urban areas203: Fátima;
Cova da Iria; Moita Redonda; Lomba d´Égua; Aljustrel; Moimento; Casa Velha and Eira da
Pedra), that amount to a total surface of 7 004 853 m2. The surface of the unit of Cova da Iria (1
731 829 m2) was subtracted from that value, as it corresponds, jointly with Cova Grande, to the
area where the Detail Plan of Avenida Papa João XXIII are enforced. Thus level 1 built-up
urban areas where the Urban Development Plan of Fátima is enforced, amount to a total surface
of 5 273 024 m2.
The average maximum gross built surface/m2 allowed in level 1 built-up urban areas in the
urban zone of Fátima is 0,5313 m2/m2 of land (Table 5).
As aforementioned, there are two Detail Plans currently enforced inside the urban area of
Fátima: the Detail Plan of Avenida Papa João XXIII; and the Detail Plan for the block formed
by Rua Francisco Marto, Estrada da Lomba de Égua and Rua do Mercado.
The regulation board of the Detail Plan of Avenida Papa João XXIII points out a gross built
surface of 0,5876 m2/m2 of land (Table 6).

203
These built-up urban areas correspond to planning and management operational units.
1300

Table 5. Surfaces, allowed gross built surfaces, and average maximum gross built
surface/m2 inside the urban perimeter of Fátima where the Urban Development Plan is
enforced

2
Maximum gross
Planning Areas Surface (m ) 2
built surface (m )
Aljustrel 156.180 63.450
Fátima 1.895.800 993.860
Moita Redonda 909.780 658.500
Lomba d´Égua 521.329 357.420
Moimento 371.878 167.400
Casa Velha/Eira da Pedra 1.418.057 560.700
Total 5.273.024 2.801.330
2 0,5313
Gross built surface/m (Level 1 built-up urban areas)

Table 6. Surfaces and gross built surfaces/m2 allowed in the intervention area of the Detail
Plan of Avenida Papa João XXIII.

Collective urban
Housing, trade,
Equipment development Construction of
services and Total
facilities spaces (current the new church
tourism
and anticipated)
2
Maximum gross built surface (m ) 374.047 63.570 137.753 33.910 609.280
2
Total surface of the Detail Plan (m ) 1.036.814,0
Gross built surface/m2 of the Detail Plan (m2) 0,5876

As far as the Detail Plan for the block formed by Rua Francisco Marto, Estrada da Lomba de
Égua and Rua do Mercado is concerned, the maximum allowed gross built surface amounts to
1,2476 m2/m2 of land (Table 7):

Table 7. Surfaces and gross built surfaces/m2 allowed in the intervention area of the Detail
Plan for the block formed by Rua Francisco Marto, Estrada da Lomba de Égua and Rua
do Mercado
Housing, trade
and services
Maximum gross built surface (m2) 35.558
Total surface of the Detail Plan (m2) 28.500
2 2
Gross built surface/m of the Detail Plan (m ) 1,2476

The remaining area encompassed by the Urban Development Plan of Fátima includes the
following planning areas204: Fazarga/S. Miguel, Charneca, Tapada and Valinhos (that cover a
surface of 2 665 635 m2). The maximum anticipated gross built surface/m2 for these areas is
0,2627 m2/m2 of land (Table 8):
When the Municipal Master Plan of Ourém was voted through (2002) (Correia et al., 2002),
the urban area of Fátima amounted to 696,6 hectares, and its developable urban area to 286,4
hectares, what added up 983 hectares. In the urban area that results from the difference between
these 9 830 000 m2 and the surfaces of 5 273 024 m2, 1 036 814 m2, 28 500 m2, and 2 665 635
m2 (correspondent to level 1 built-up urban areas where the Urban Development Plan of Fátima,

204
Chapter IV (Special precepts applicable to each area) of the Urban Development Plan of Fátima,
article 27º (Definition of the planning areas): UE4 – urban growth area (car parks); UC8 – north
environment of Monte de Valinhos; VU1 urban park; VU2 – Valinhos (Moimento); VU3 – Fazarga; RS –
urban reserve that encompasses the areas of Fazarga/S. Miguel, Charneca, Tapada and Valinhos.
 1301

the Detail Plan of Avenida Papa João XXIII, the Detail Plan for the block formed by Rua
Francisco Marto, Estrada da Lomba de Égua and Rua do Mercado, and the remaining surface
where the Urban Development Plan is enforced, respetively) are applicable the urban
parameters settled by the Municipal Master Plan of Ourém.

Table 8. Surfaces and allowed gross built surfaces/m2 in the remaining urban area of
Fátima under the Urban Development Plan.

% of surface in Gross built

Land occupation
Planning Areas Surface (m2) relation to total Land use index
index surface/m2
surface
Fazarga/S. Miguel 880.301 33,02% 0,4000 0,5000 0,2000
Charneca 443.208 16,63% - - 0,6586
Tapada 353.587 13,26% 0,2700 0,4500 0,1215
Valinhos 988.539 37,08% 0,3000 0,6000 0,1800
Total 2.665.635 100,00% 0,2627

This area (826 027 m2) corresponds to level 3 built-up urban areas, as settled in the Report of
the Municipal Master Plan of Ourém (Correia et al., 2002). So it is subject to the urban indexes
settled in article 42nd (Urban use parameters for low and very low-density urban uses). Under
these circumstances the gross built surface amounts to 0,0720 m2/m2 of land (Table 9):

Table 9. Surfaces and gross built surfaces/m2 allowed in the remaining urban area of
Fátima (level 3 built-up urban areas), under the Municipal Master Plan of Ourém.

Maximum
Maximum gross Gross built
Planning Areas Surface (m2) occupation
built index surface/m2
percentagem
Total 862.027 0,2000 0,3600 0,0720

After that, the average gross built surface of the urban area of Fátima is reckoned according to
the following methodology (Table 10):
Computation of the percentage that each of the considered areas represent in relation to the
whole developed and developable urban area of Fátima;
Multiplication of the maximum allowed gross built surface in each area by respective
percentage;
The abstract average gross built surface in the urban area of Fátima corresponds to the sum of
the previous values for the different considered areas, and its value amounts to 0,4262 m2/m2 of
land:

Table 10. Synthesis of the gross built surface/m2 in the developed and developed urban
areas of Fátima
% of surface in Gross built
Surface (m2 ) relation to total 2
surface/m
surface
Level 1 built-up urban areas 5.237.024 53,28% 0,5313
Detail Plan of Avenida Papa João XXIII 1.036.814 10,55% 0,5876
Detail Plan for the block formed by Rua Francisco Marto, Estrada
28.500 0,29% 1,2476
da Lomba de Égua and Rua do Mercado
Remaining urban area of Fátima (Urban Development Plan) 2.665.635 27,12% 0,2627
Level 3 built-up urban areas (Municipal Master Plan of Ourém) 862.027 8,77% 0,0720
Total surface of developed and developable urban areas of Fátima 9.830.000 100,00% 0,4262
1302

Computation of the abstract average gross built surface/m2 in Ourém

The urban area of Ourém includes a set of level 1 built-up urban areas that belong to the
parishes of Nossa Senhora das Misericórdias and Nossa Senhora da Piedade (Ourém;
Ourém/Castelo; Santo Amaro; Lagoa da Carapita; Vale do Lobo; Hortas; Regato; Corredoura;
Lagarinho; and Penigardos).
As aforementioned, the following four Detail Plans are currently enforced in the urban area
of Ourém: the Detail Plan of the industrial area of Casal dos Frades; the Detail Plan of the
Health Centre of Ourém; the Detail Plan of Caridade; and the Detail Plan of Quinta do
Ribeirinho.

The Detail Plan of the industrial area of Casal dos Frades allows a maximum gross built
surface of 0,0795 m2/m2 of land205 (Table 11):

Table 11. Surfaces and gross built surfaces/m2 allowed in the intervention area of the
Detail Plan of the industrial area of Casal dos Frades

Housing, trade, services, and

equipments
Maximum gross built surface (m2) 65.000
2
Total surface of the Detail Plan (m ) 817.500
2 2
Gross built surface/m of the Detail Plan (m ) 0,0795

In what concerns the Detail Plan of the Health Centre of Ourém, the maximum allowed gross
built surface amounts to 0,9401 m2/m2 of land (Table 12).

Table 12. Surfaces and allowed gross built surfaces/m2 in the intervention area of the
Detail Plan of the Health Centre of Ourém

Housing, trade
Equipments Total
and services

Maximum gross built surface (m2 ) 97.097 27.000 124.097

2
Total surface of the Detail Plan (m ) 132.000
2 2
Gross built surface/m of the Detail Plan (m ) 0,9401

The Detail Plan of Caridade considers different kinds of land uses in its intervention area:
ZUHM – Buildable area assigned to single-family houses; ZUHB – Buildable area assigned to
blocks of flats; ZUE – Buildable area assigned to social equipment and facilities; ZI – Buildable
Area assigned to industry; ZVU - Non-buildable area of urban green; ZVP – Non-buildable area
of green environmental protection; ZD – Non-buildable sports area.
The maximum average gross built surface allowed by the Detail Plan – considering the
maximum allowed gross built surfaces in each of its areas – amounts to 0,5710 m2/m2 of land
(Table 13).
In the Detail Plan of Quinta do Ribeirinho the maximum allowed gross built surface amounts
to 0,5238 m2/m2 of land (Table 14).

205
An height of 7,5 meters was admitted for industrial pavilions.
 1303

Table 13. Surfaces and allowed gross built surfaces/m2 in the intervention area of the
Detail Plan of Caridade

ZUHM ZUHB ZI ZUE

Remaining Total
Housing Housing Workshops Equipment
2
Maximum gross built surface (m ) 4.200 39.520 3.600 6.200 6.440 59.960
Total surface of the Detail Plan (m2) 9.600 32.500 11.000 20.900 31.000 105.000
2 2
Gross built surface/m of the Detail Plan (m ) 0,4375 1,2160 0,3273 0,2967 0,2077 0,5710

Table 14. Surfaces and gross built surfaces/m2 allowed in the intervention area of the
Detail Plan of Quinta do Ribeirinho
Housing, trade, services, and
equipments
Maximum gross built surface (m2) 9.330
2
Total surface of the Detail Plan (m ) 17.813
2 2
Gross built surface/m of the Detail Plan (m ) 0,5238

When the Municipal Master Plan of Ourém was approved (2002), the urban area of Ourém
amounted to 287,3 hectares, and its developable urban area amounted to 107,9 hectares, what
adds up to 395,2 hectares (that supposedly represent the current situation) (Correia et al., 2002).
Thus, the remaining area of level 1 built-up urban areas of Ourém has a surface of 2 879 687
2
m , that results from the subtraction from its developed and developed urban area ( 3 952 000
m2) of 817 500 m2, 132 000 m2, 105 000 m2, and 17 813 m2 (correspondent to the intervention
areas of the Detail Plan of the industrial area of Casal dos Frades; the Detail Plan of the Health
Centre of Ourém; the Detail Plan of Caridade; and the Detail Plan of Quinta do Ribeirinho,
respetively).
The urban parameters settled in article 40th (Medium-density spaces in Ourém and Fátima) of
the regulation of the Municipal Master Plan of Ourém are enforced in this area (where the
maximum net land use index is 0,75, that is to say, the maximum allowed gross built surface
amounts to 0,75 m2/m2 of land) - considering the characteristics defined in article 39th, 2.a)
concerning the urban areas inside the urban perimeters of Ourém and Fátima.
The average gross built surface/m2 comes up, finally, as 0,6119 m2/m2 of land, adding up the
gross built surfaces of the different considered areas, weighed by the correspondent percentages
in relation to the total surface of the urban area of Ourém (Table 15).

Table 15. Synthesis of the gross built surface/m2 in the urban area of Ourém

% of surface in Gross built

Surface (m2) relation to total
surface/m2
surface
Detail Plan of the industrial area of Casal dos Frades 817.500 20,69% 0,0795
Detail Plan of the Health Centre of Ourém 132.000 3,34% 0,9401
Detail Plan of Caridade 105.000 2,66% 0,5710
Detail Plan of Quinta do Ribeirinho 17.813 0,45% 0,5238
Remaining urban area of Ourém 2.879.687 72,87% 0,7500
Total surface of the urban area of Ourém 3.952.000 100,00% 0,6119

Computation of the abstract average gross built surface/m2 in level 1 and 2 built-up urban
areas in the municipality of Ourém (excluding Fátima´s).
1304

In low-density (level 2) and very low-density (level 3) built-up urban areas are enforced the
urban parameters settled in article 42nd (Urban-use parameters for low and very low-density
urban spaces) of the regulation of the Municipal Master Plan of Ourém.
As far as level 2 built-up urban areas are concerned, the whole developed urban area
amounts to 1 507,5 hectares and the developable urban area amounts to 736,9 hectares, what
adds up to 2 244,4 hectares (Correia et al., 2002). According to article 44th (Edification in urban
developable spaces), point 2. of the regulation of the Municipal Master Plan of Ourém (RCM nº
148-A/2002), the precepts settled in articles38th, 39th, 40th, 41st and 42nd are applicable to urban
developable areas. So, in these level 2 developed and developable urban areas are enforced the
urban parameters settled in articles 41st and 42nd.
Thus the allowed gross built area amounts to 0,1125 m2/m2 of land (Table 16).

Table 16. Surfaces and gross built surfaces/m2 allowed in level 2 built-up urban areas
under the Municipal Master Plan of Ourém.
Housing, trade, services,
equipments, and industry
Maximum percentage of land occupation 0,25
Maximum gross built index (m2 of gross built surface/m2 of land) 0,45
Developed and developable urban area of level 2 built-up urban areas (m2) 22.444.000
2
Maximum gross built surface (m ) 2.524.950
2
Gross built surface/m of level 2 built-up urban areas 0,1125

The total surface of level 3 developed built-up urban areas amounts to 2 310,3 hectares, and
of developable urban areas amounts to 620,4 hectares, what adds up to 2 930,7 hectares.
The application of the urban parameters correspondent to very low-density areas (article
42nd) leads to an average allowed gross built surface of 0,0720 m2/m2 (Table 17):

Table 17. Surfaces and gross built surfaces/m2 allowed in level 3 built-up urban areas
under the Municipal Master Plan of Ourém.
Housing, trade, services,
equipments, and industry
Maximum percentage of land occupation 0,2
2 2
Maximum gross built index (m of gross built surface/m of land) 0,36
Developed and developable urban area of level 3 built-up urban areas (m2) 29.307.000
2
Maximum gross built surface (m ) 2.110.104
2
Gross built surface/m of level 3 built-up urban areas 0,0720

Computation of the abstract average gross built surface/m2 in the municipality of Ourém

The abstract average gross built surface/m2 in developed and developable urban areas in the
municipality of Ourém amounts, therefore, to 0,1716 m2/m2 of land, according to gross built
surfaces, weighting the different studied areas by respective percentages in relation to the total
developed and developable municipal urban area (Table 18).
 1305

Table 18. Synthesis of the surfaces and gross built surfaces/m2 of the different delimited
areas in the municipality of Ourém, and abstract average gross built surface/m2 in the
whole municipality.
% of surface in
Gross built
Surface (m2) relation to total
surface surface/m2

Total surface of the urban area of Fátima 9.830.000 15,00% 0,4262

Total surface of the urban area of Ourém 3.952.000 6,03% 0,6119
Developed and developable urban area of level 2 built-up urban areas (m2) 22.444.000 34,25% 0,1125
2
Developed and developable urban area of level 3 built-up urban areas (m ) 29.307.000 44,72% 0,0720
Total developed and developable urban area of the municipality of Ourém 65.533.000 100,00% 0,1716

Conclusions

Within the scope of the revision of the whole legislation concerning land, territorial planning
and urban development – currently underway in Portugal – this article tried to show how
(current and/or anticipated) urban morphologies support the development of territorial
management tools able to ensure the economic and financial sustainability of urban
developments, as well as the sustainability of the municipalities they belong to.
The computation of the municipal abstract average gross built surface/m2 further supports
reaching other goals that underlie the new land planning and management, territorial ordering
and urban development paradigm. In fact, it stands as a benchmark for assessing current and
new territorial management tools, in order to ensure higher equity and a fair redistribution of
costs and benefits that arise from urban developments among all the inhabitants within a certain
municipality.
Indeed, the municipal abstract gross built surface/m2 proposed in the current article can be
further integrated as a parameter or indicator in different land policies, especially the fiscal-
oriented ones that allow, namely, to: Assess, in a clear and objective way, the allowed average
gross built surface/m2 of specific urban developments, in comparison with the municipal
average gross built surface/m2; Contribute to a more accurate definition of municipal
development charges intended to fund infrastructures execution, maintenance, and
reinforcement provided by the municipality (Almeida et al., 2013; Leitão, 2011; Rebelo, 2013a;
Silva, Deus and Tenedório, 2012); Develop new territorial planning and management tools
aimed at capturing the surplus-values that arise from planning decisions or public investments,
so that municipalities can reassign them to social purposes (Rebelo, 2013b); Clarify the origins
of funds, and accurately quantify the contribution of the (current or proposed) territorial
management tools to the strengthening of municipal finance, thus ensuring municipal economic
and financial sustainability; Assure a better intra-municipal equity in the distribution of benefits
and charges that accrue from urban development processes.

References

Almeida, J., Condessa, B., Pinto, P. and Ferreira, J.A. (2013) ‘Municipal Urbanization Tax and land-use
management – The case of Tomar, Portugal’, Land Use Policy 31, 336-346.
Correia, P., Sousa, R., Lobo. I.C., Alves, R.A., Alves, F.B., Oliveira, V., Monteiro, F., de Sèves, A.,
Matos, I., Costa, P., Martins, P. and Duarte, I. (2002) Relatório do Plano Director Municipal de Ourém
- Proposta Final, Volume I, (Câmara Municipal de Ourém).
Leitão, D. (2011) ‘Taxas e Procedimentos Sustentáveis em Operações Urbanísticas’, unpublished PhD
Thesis, Universidade do Minho, Escola de Engenharia.
1306

Rebelo, E. M. (2013a) ‘Promotion of local governments´ financial sustainability through a reform in

municipal development charges’, in Proceedings of the 19th APDR Congress Place-Based Policies and
Economic Recovery, Joint initiative with Innovaflow Conference 2010-2013
Rebelo, E. M. (2013b), ‘Perequação Urbanística a Nível Municipal: um Contributo para o Reforço das
Finanças Municipais’, II Conferência em Planeamento Regional e Urbano, VIII ENVPLAN, XIII
WORKSHOP APDR, Conferência Internacional “Europa 2020, retórica, discursos, política e prática”
Silva, J.B., Deus, R.F. and Tenedório, J.A. (2012) ‘Paying as the urban áreas grow – implementing and
managing urban development charges using a GIS application’, International Journal of Geographical
Information Science 26, 1689-1705.

Legislation

Aviso n.º 2766/2009 (simplified change of the Urban Development Plan of Fátima)
Aviso n.º 5416/2009 (ratification of the Municipal Master Plan of Ourém)
Aviso n.º 18200/2009 (new ratification of the Municipal Master Plan of Ourém and of the Urban
Development Plan of Fátima)
Aviso nº 15622/2009, de 4 de Setembro (Detail Plan of Avenue Papa João XXIII) Aviso n.º 11779/2010
(adjustment of the Municipal Master Plan of Ourém to the Regional Plan of Territorial Ordering of
West and Tagus Valley (PROTOVT)
Aviso n.º 7841/2011 (changing in the ratification of the adjustment of the Municipal Master Plan of
Ourém to the Regional Plan of Territorial Ordering of West and Tagus Valley (PROTOVT))
Aviso n.º 4735/2013 (change in the National Environmental Reserve map of Ourém)
Aviso n.º 4800/2013 (modification in the plan for Pias Longas site)
Declaração nº 376/99, de 17 de novembro (alteration of the Detail Plan of Caridade)
Declaração de Retificação n.º 1614/2010, de 12 de agosto (ratification of the adjustment of the Municipal
Master Plan of Ourém to the Regional Plan of Territorial Ordering of West and Tagus Valley
(PROTOVT))
Despacho nº 195/91, de 3 de Dezembro de 1991 (Detail Plan of the industrial area of Casal dos Frades).
Portaria nº 496/93, de 10 de maio (Detail Plan of Caridade)
Portaria nº 633/95, de 21 de junho (Urban Development Plan of Fátima).
Portaria nº 190/97, de 20 de março (Detail Plan of the Health Centre of Ourém).
Portaria nº 445/97, de 7 de julho (alteration of the Detail Plan of Caridade)
Portaria nº 67/99, de 28 de janeiro (Detail Plan for the block formed by Rua Francisco Marto, Estrada da
Lomba de Égua and Rua do Mercado)
Proposta de Lei nº 183/XII (Proposal of the New Basis Law of Land Policy, Territorial Ordering and
Urbanism)
Resolução do Conselho de Ministros n.º 148-A/2002 de 30 de dezembro (Municipal Master Plan of
Ourém)
Resolução do Conselho de Ministros n.º 148-B/2002 de 30 de dezembro (Revision of the Urban
Development Plan of Fátima)
Resolução do Conselho de Ministros nº 159/2000, de 20 de novembro (Detail Plan of Quinta do
Ribeirinho)
 1307

The morphological sense of commerce – theoretical review

and lessons learned in four Portuguese medium sized cities

Miguel Saraiva, Paulo Pinho

CITTA - Research Centre for Territory, Transports and Environment, Faculty of

Engineering, University of Porto, Portugal. E-mail: [email protected],
[email protected].

Abstract. Shopping has been considered the principal wealth-generator of post-modern societies. Yet,
two elements continually elude current theories and practices about the role of commerce on a wider
perspective. Rarely is it considered an active agent in the structuring of the city and, furthermore, most
studies have solely focused on the geographical, economic and social dimensions of shopping, neglecting
its morphological dimension. Only in the last 10 years have authors addressed this perspective, although
sporadically and presenting focused views, resulting in a lack of knowledge and, ultimately, in the lack of
proper public policies. This paper aims to address the structuring nature of commerce and the influence
of its morphological component. For that it combines knowledge from various fields of research and a
large array of morphological variables at various resolution levels. Using as test-beds four Portuguese
medium-sized cities, GIS-models containing commercial, morphological, structural and temporal
variables were produced, explored and compared. Findings include i) the definition of commercial /
morphological indicators, that can constitute values of reference or comparison for commercial policies
and other planning studies; ii) the evidence that morphological, rather than statistical similarities
generate, on the micro-scale, more commercial similarities; and iii) the main bridging aspects between
commercial activity and the form and structure of cities.

Key Words: commerce; medium-sized cities; urban morphology; Space Syntax; urban planning

Introduction – From geography and economy to morphology

Ever since the Industrial Revolution, when the ‘shop’ gained a permanent physical location
within the city and became ‘aware of itself’ (Pessoa, 1926), the act of shopping has become an
integral part of city-living. If cities have evolved from ‘artifacts’ (Karaman, 2001) to
‘organisms’ (Moudon, 1997), commerce has evolved from being considered just an ‘economic
activity’ to an ‘experience’ (Pine, Gilmore, 1999), as the paradigms of both commerce and
consumption change (Cachinho, 1994). Indeed, there is a growing interest in the proven
capacity commerce has of driving urbanization processes, and of promoting and developing
successful urban spaces, boosting their economic and social value (Whysall, 1995; OdC, 2000a;
Evers, 2001; Lowe, 2004, 2005; Emery, 2006, Fernandes, 1994; Balsas, 2000, 2001; Moreira et
al, 2006).
Yet this understanding of commerce as a structuring element of the ‘organic’ city has never
been given enough importance, nor in the literature nor in policy-making (Balsas, 2001; Musso,
2010; Grant and Perrott, 2011). Commerce has mostly been considered a consequence of
markets and urban and social behaviours (Borchert, 1998), i.e. commerce was deemed to seek
the best locations after-the-fact, and furthermore no-one assumed that the presence of retail
spaces could be, in itself, a cause for the shifts in value of given locations.
In this framework, various fields of research have studied commerce. Historians and
geographers have weaved the evolution of commercial patterns and hierarchies over time
(Kwan-Yiu, Kong-Sut, 1971; Guy, 1976; Lee, McCracken, 1982; Axenov et al, 1997; Borchert,
1998; Wang and Jones; 2002; Fernandes, 2003; Fernandes and Martins, 2003; Shan, 2004,
1308

Cachinho, 2002, cit in GECIC, 2005), based on hierarchical organizational theories such as the
Central Place Theory, the Spatial Interaction Theory, the bit-rent theory or the principle of
minimum differentiation (for a review see Clarkson et al, 1996; Saraiva, 2013). Sociologists
have tried to understand the behaviour of the shopper (Gregson et al, 2002; Sinha, 2003; Sinha
and Unyal, 2005; Sarma, 2007) and of those who sell (Varanda, 2004). And economists have
dwelt on the values of location, in terms of market-shares (the retail location theory – RLT),
using various mathematical models (reviews in Yrigoyen and Otero, 1998; Hernandez et al,
1998, Mendes and Themido, 2004, Reynolds, 2005, Saraiva, 2013). In this case the
relationships with the external environment, with the location mix and with the consumer, are
only briefly considered as catalysts for the optimization of sales.
These studies perform, all things considered, ‘simple’ geographical pattern comparisons,
between the location (or future location) of the store with the value (economic, social or
statistical) that location generates. The site may ‘make the shop’ (Alexander et al, 1999), but the
notion of location entails much more than a set of coordinates or statistics, the economic
capacity of the customers in the catchment area, or the market competition. Location is
accessibility. Location is built landscape. Location is layout and design. In other words, location
is also morphology.

The morphological sense of commerce

In 1958 Nelson wrote: ‘the emotional aspects of a location can be important to the success of a
store or a shopping centre as the more obvious characteristics of convenience and access’. But
his prophetic afterthought remained unanswered for decades: ‘But can stores or shopping
centres be as important to the emotional aspects of location?’ Only in the past decade, authors
have been calling attention to the lack of an urban morphology dimension in the commercial
literature (Van Nes, 2005; Sarma, 2006) and to the lack of knowledge on how urban form
affects the spatial distribution of retail activities (Villain, 2011). Urban environment conditions
have turned, according to Axenov et al (1997), into the major group of factors that shape the
commercial spaces’ market.
Yet most morphological studies still present a narrow view, are context-specific, and lack an
interdisciplinary approach. Initial studies followed, more than they actually assumed, previous
geographical / economic research, overlapping commercial distribution maps with those of
socio-economic densities (Barke, 1998; Joosten and van Nes, 2005; Kompil and Çelick, 2006;
Smith, 2006) or of land-use and transport networks at city level (Joosten and van Nes, 2005;
Jingman, 2009; Villain, 2011), or even at regional or national level (Marques, 2003). Joosten
and van Nes (2005) noted that most literature focused on the macro-scale, and had not yet
zoomed into the micro-scale (street, building).
And when it does have, there is also a distinction, seldom overcome, between the study of
the store itself and the study of the urban environment the store is part of. The first has mostly
been non-morphological, interpreting type of activity, sales data or employee information. There
are nonetheless some exceptions. Barke (1998) analysed window size, building type and
occupation, and the existence of storage facilities, noting distinct morphological characteristics,
highly inter-correlated, in buildings with only commercial use. These were also more correlated
with the catchment area population than that of the local area. Allegri (2010) analysed the
evolution of the physical layout of shopping centres and arcades in the city of Lisbon, whilst
crime researchers have also analysed store layout (Saraiva, 2008, 2011) or product design
(Lester, 2001), albeit with different purposes. The second, the analysis of the surrounding store
environment, has read as yet another time-line of context, unrelated to the intrinsic
characteristics of both space and commerce. The works of Fernandes (1993) or Tokatli and
Boyaci (1999) display demographic, urban and political changes on one side, and commercial
dispersion changes on the other, not linking them. Tokatli and Boyaci (1999) go as far as to
mention the ‘changing morphology of commercial activity’ yet, in truth, only occasionally are
 1309

references made to streets, floors and building types. The inverse happens in many commercial
urbanism projects, and in marketing and place-attraction studies (Teller et al, 2010), which
discuss physical improvements to exterior elements such as streets, parking spaces, shop
windows, or urban furniture, aiming to produce attractive environments able to induce
shopping. Yet, in all, there fails to be a direct connection between particular stores and their
surrounding morphological context.
This connection has nonetheless started to steadily emerge in the literature. Yoshida and
Omae (2003) and Jostens and van Nes (2005) have compared store dispersal with the properties
of blocks and buildings. For the first authors commercial blocks are distinctly associated to
larger areas, volumes and building-to-land ratios. For the second, stores tend to full block
typologies, characterized by high floor space index and build up street sides, preferably of
smaller size and in medium-density zones, usually near main junctions or along the main streets.
Only chain-stores and shopping centres tend to occupy non-block typologies.
The relationship of the store location with the accessibility of the network has also been the
object of Space Syntax literature, or analogue models. According to Hillier and Iida (2005),
activities that depend on movement will follow the grid’s logic, and there will be a gradation
according to the necessities of each particular activity. Morphology is here characterized
through concepts of connectivity, either distance to closest intersections (Villain, 2011), or the
weight of the store’s street segment in the network, according to the so-called ‘integration’ or
the ‘betweeness’ of the grid. Jingman (2009), using segment analysis in Chinese cities,
concluded that city’s commercial centres exactly correspond to city’s syntax centres, both at a
local and a global scale, and that almost all large-scale stores are directly located within sub-
local syntax centres, in places connected to major thoroughfares and bus routes. Likewise, for
van Nes (2001, 2005) shopping areas are only successful if they are among the highest
integrated streets and the higher the density of streets in the vicinity, the more intense is the
shopping street in terms of number, size and variety of shops. Yet the same author, in Berlin,
found a weak co-occurrence between integration and the presence of shops (Joosten and van
Nes, 2005) and Porta et al (2007) were keener to defend that the strongest correlation occurs
with global ‘betweenness’ rather than with ‘integration’. Furthermore some authors believe that
this is not entirely true for all cities and all types of activity – the ‘gradation’ Hillier had already
hinted to.
Sarma (2006), Hossain (1999, cit in Sarma, 2006) and Villain (2011) agree that commercial
spaces whose sales (movement) are generated by their own attracting potentialities (anchor or
specialized stores) have the tendency to be clustered together in central locations, although
surviving in isolation. On the other hand, functions whose movement is just attracted
coincidentally, like convenience and multi-purpose shopping, because they are more affected by
competition and movement, are more dispersed, although in spatially strategic locations with
high through-movement potential and serving local catchment areas. Only first necessity and
some convenience stores appear to be a global phenomenon in the market, correlating both
globally and locally with through-movement. This leads Sarma (2006) to conclude that distance
is directly proportionate to social and economic class in terms of movement and in terms of
shops. Teklenburg et al (1994) also stress that in suburbia, although the busiest shopping street
is in one of the most integrated lines of the axial map, other commercial streets or department
store locations are not. They established that in most cases where the most integrated lines for
pedestrians did not coincide with the major store locations there was a co-occurrence of
pedestrian and intense vehicular traffic.

Methodology

Although the studies that have tried to establish a connection between urban morphology and
commercial activity are becoming more frequent, they seem to suffer from an exaggerated
spatial and theoretical focus. Commercial, economic and geographical studies seldom look at
1310

the micro-scale morphological element, syntactic approaches do not regard any morphological
characteristic other than the location in the grid, and morphological studies do exactly the
opposite, associating the measure of form and structure with the mapping of evolutionary
geographical patterns, something which led Conzen (1980) to state that these studies were
‘amorphological’, and Whitehand (2007) that a ‘typological’ component, i.e. land and building
use, and an interdisciplinary integration was missing. Each study usually uses only one method
for variable comparisons, does not usually divide stores by activity or type, and dwells
exclusively on one city or urban area. Joosten and Van Ness’s (2005) conclusion that stores are
located preferably in full-block typologies may hold for Berlin, but it is easy to question its
validity elsewhere.
In this context, this article wishes to synthesize the first findings of the research performed
by Saraiva (2013), whose main goal was to establish to what extent the morphological
environment is connected to the location, characterization and performance of commercial
spaces. A multiple case-study approach and a multidisciplinary variable-analysis approach, were
carried out. Four Portuguese medium-sized cities: Vila Real, Aveiro, Leiria and Évora, were
selected, in order to get a diversified sample, according to their geographical location, their
number of inhabitants (20-60 thousand), their structural importance in the urban network and
their permeability to new commercial formats and commercial-urbanism programmes. The
study area was made coincident with the so-called urban perimeter as defined in the respective
municipal master plan. Within this perimeter, commercial and morphological variables were
collected, street by street, building by building and store by store. The cities were later divided
into two areas: the ‘city center’, and the ‘periphery’, which was also, in turn, divided into
homogeneous areas (e.g. ‘residential areas’, ‘industrial/commercial areas’), and the analyses
were conducted at these different resolutions.
According to recent Urban Morphology literature, the ‘morphological sense’ could no longer
be described as just the study of form, but of form and function over time, in a given context,
i.e. form and structure, that is characterized as having morphological, but also topological and
typological components, analysed according to three resolution-levels: street, neighbourhood
and territory (Conzen, 1960; Lamas, 1989; Cannigia and Maffei, 1993; Moudon 1997;
Karaman, 2001; Whitehand, 2001, 2007, Saraiva, 2013). Figure 1 portraits the general research
framework in which these notions are present.

Figure 1. Components of the form and structure of a city, according to urban

morphology literature (source: Saraiva, 2013).

Figure 2 lists the morphological variables considered in the research. Streets were
characterized according to their type (exclusively pedestrian or not), width, quality and the size
of sidewalks, building characteristics, an accessibility measure and the amount of movement.
These last two were measured through Space Syntax. According to Hillier and Vaughan (2007),
 1311

60 to 80% of movement flows can be accounted by the configuration of the grid. Sixteen
different radii (in meters) were considered, and the results were divided into six quantiles,
ranging from the most central (first) to the most segregated (sixth). Blocks were characterized
according to their typology (full, hollow), land-use mix, statistical information concerning
families and dwellings, and a set of distances (between built elements, stores and store types).
Buildings were characterized according to their type and amount of occupation, their height,
area and volume, and their age (before and after 1975), style and preservation. A wider
contextualization based on planning, historical and geographical backgrounds, expressed the
‘territorial level’ resolution.

Figure 2. Morphological and commercial data collected in the research.

The collected commercial variables can also be seen in Figure 2, and are intended to answer
more specifically to the ‘typology’ component. These have not changed significantly
sinceearlier works on hierarchical retail geography and location modelling (Kwan-yiu and
Kong-Sut, 1971Guy, 1976, Lee and McCracken, 1982). The classification by activities and sub-
activities (e.g. ‘Food & Beverages’ and ‘Butcher’, respectively) was based on the Portuguese
legislation (Portaria nº 418/2009 of April the 16th), even though a more expedite ‘retail
categories’ division, based on necessity, presented by Sarma (2006), was also used206. Stores
were also categorized by their type (modern or traditional – Fernandes et al, 2000), their
business model (individual or family-owned, chain, franchise), their integration in the building
(building type and occupation, and how much space they occupy) their integration in the street
(relation to other stores), their web-connection and their status (open, closed or empty).
During 2011 (the year of the most recent population Census) a total of 7.898 individual
stores in the four cities were catalogued, and the information was uploaded into a GIS platform.
Following Saraiva (2013), research was carried out in five main stages: an overall geographical,
organic and statistical definition of the four cities; the assessment of the physical distribution of
commerce; an extensive commercial characterization; the characterization of blocks and
buildings containing commerce; and the characterization of streets containing commerce. This
paper focuses on the last two stages, although the analysis is transversal and closely related to
the other three stages as well.

206
Sarma (2006), inspired in Eaton and Lipsey (1982), divides commercial spaces in six categories: M1
(Multipurpose 1 – related to first necessity goods of local accessibility), M2 (Multipurpose 2 – rely on a
larger customer base, such as banks or bookstores), MC (Multipurpose-Comparison – like fashion,
telecommunication or sporting goods), C (Comparison – such as home or car related products) and S
(Single Isolated Purchase).
1312

Results and discussion

One of the most striking findings was the great commercial similarities between the case studies
when the differences in study area and number of inhabitants were taken into account. The four
cities have, approximately, the same number of inhabitants per store, stores per urban area and
per street length, similar hierarchical commercial structures and location patterns, and similar
percentages and distributions of store type, structure and status (Saraiva, 2013). When
morphological variables are placed over these distributions, the similarities are maintained
which can only mean that the distribution of stores is not random, depends on form and
structure, and can be quantified. Accordingly, commercial spaces are usually in buildings with
similar average heights (3-4 floors), with similar areas207 and volumes per store, and the same
overall number of stores per block (6) – see Table 1. There are also similar hierarchical
commercial street networks in all cities (from the central pedestrian street to the suburban
thoroughfare), and there are even similarities in the distribution of stores that are in buildings
constructed after 1975. Their percentage is approximately the same in all peripheries (around
70%), and so is, in all four cities, and for r = n, the percentage of these in the segments of the
second and third quantiles of integration and choice (respectively 60% and 40% of buildings –
Figure 3).
Obviously, there are exceptions, most of which are a consequence of particularities different
cities present. For example, Évora never has similar indicators whenever building height or age
is a variable, because the city centre is a world heritage site. The rural nature of Vila Real’s
periphery also leads to fewer stores, which reduces some indicators. Nevertheless, these
exceptions usually occur in only one city. Furthermore, most of the indicators that are not in the
same order of magnitude in all or in three of the case studies, are similar in pairs. And these
pairings seem to be much less dependent on economic and even commercial variables (such as
purchasing power, degree of local economic development and overall number of stores), and
more on the morphological ones.

Table 1. Commercial building and block data, by cities, by city centres and by peripheries.

Cities Vila Real Aveiro Leiria Évora

City 183 258 244 204
Average store
City center 140 147 144 101
area (m2)
Periphery 292 403 376 300
Average City 3,71 3,76 3,77 2,23
number of City center 4,1 3,97 4,26 2,45
floors Periphery 2,82 3,49 3,14 2,03
Number of City 233 358 442 441
blocks with City center 99 154 173 172
stores Periphery 134 204 269 269
City 6 6 6 4
Stores per
City center 10 8 8 5
block
Periphery 3 5 4 3

Leiria and Aveiro are larger, more developed cities with more stores, commercial area and
diversified store types, something which appears to corroborate Barke’s (1998) proposal that
commercial development is dependent on the regional number of inhabitants. Yet, when
comparing store data with network and building properties this does not ring true. The
similarities are clearer between Leiria and Vila Real, and between Aveiro and Évora (as it is
seen in Figure 3 for local radii), simply because, in each pair, the cities have much more in

207
The store was deemed to occupy the whole implementation area of the building.
 1313

common in terms of form and structure. Exploring this idea, several considerations can be
made.

Figure 3. Percentage of the total number of stores located in post 1975 buildings that are
in the second and third quantiles of integration and choice, for all considered radii.

The first, which is often neglected in commercial studies, is that it is virtually impossible to
dissociate the ‘store’ from the building it is in. Only one in five stores (and one in ten in Aveiro)
is in a purposely-built structure for accommodating exclusively commercial-use. It is then safe
to assume that in most cases these buildings were erected bearing in mind the specificities of the
existing other uses in upper floors (mostly residential), and not those of commercial spaces. The
morphological variables associated to the store are therefore not their own, but are related to the
building they occupy, and to the street and the block in which that building is located. If this
establishes the building as the most important morphological element that influences commerce
it also gives strength to the hypothesis that commerce is a mere consequence of land
development.
But this constitutes a half-truth. This research found that residential neighbourhoods without
stores are not crossed by main streets, are usually in segregated areas of the network, have
closed and small street and block structures, and only seem to influence the structure of the
public transport network, as they attract transit stops. Residential buildings with stores,
however, assume an entirely new significance. In the city centres major traditional ground-floor
commercial streets have been maintained, despite the proliferation of commerce in new centres
and in main residential localities. The weight in these locations of activities such as MC, M1
and M2 (see footnote 2) has actually been crucial in the conservation of their liveability but this
is not the only reason (all cities have, for example, 80-90% of all their fashion stores in just the
main central streets). Structurally these corridors constitute the most central or travel-through
locations in the city centres, so it can be said that commercial construction has influenced
centrality instead of being a consequence of it. Vila Real’s secular and central pedestrian street
is still one of the most integrated segments of the entire city-network. But, at the same time, this
position of centrality may also explain why stores have established there and why they have a
continuous success, which can mean that Nelson’s two questions may have exactly the same
answer as ‘who came first, the chicken or the egg?’
This duality is maintained when recent construction containing commercial spaces is
analysed. On one hand, these new buildings are generally located in the most central lines
possible (‘integration’), but also in the lines with the greatest travel-through potential (‘choice’)
when in peripheries, which seems to suggest that their location is to some extent dependent on
the pre-existing network structure. But, on the other hand, the appearance of these new
buildings, especially in the urban peripheries, has been simultaneous to the opening of new axis
(the plot by plot development formed the street), so they have influenced, in their own right, the
properties of the network, particularly at the local level, where only 20% of stores in post-1975
buildings are in segments of the last three quantiles (Figure 4). Consequently, new streets with
1314

commerce have generated larger local centralities influence radius by establishing a connection
to, or becoming, the main peripheral axis. This not only grants greater access of surrounding
areas to the local commercial poles but also permits a greater connection to the thoroughfares
leading to the city centre, maximizing their feeding capacity.

Figure 4. Percentage of the total number of stores in the centers and in peripheries,
located in post 1975 buildings that are in the last three quantiles of integration and choice.

These new buildings are associated to specific morphological characteristics, which however
seem to depend more on the location inside the urban perimeter than actually on the type of
commerce they contain. The number of commercial poles of recent formation, as well as
building heights, road-size and road complementarity decreases and block area increases with
the distance from the centre. This contradicts the works of Yoshida and Omae (2003) or Joosten
and van Nes (2005) that allocate specific, non-changeable, morphological features to
commercial spaces. With the exception of particular store types which tend towards specific
locations (like commercial services generally seeking buildings with other services), most
commercial variables, particularly in the centres, have even distributions between the various
types of buildings and blocks, with the only particularity that they constantly tend towards the
larger side of blocks. At the same time, modern stores are very rarely in buildings and
neighbourhoods constructed before 1975, which may mean new stores need new buildings.
Stores in these buildings are in greater number, closer together (‘door to door’) and more
spatially organized, which increases the chances of success as commerce performs better in
proximity. ‘New’ buildings are usually located in larger blocks (a prevailing tendency for
commercial spaces), the stores therein have more esplanades comparatively – use more public
space – and as they usually are farther away from the street they also condition size and type of
the sidewalks. This means that commercial buildings condition blocks, sidewalks and streets.
In any case, exclusively commercial buildings also impact on the landscape. Commercial
arcades, shopping centres and warehouses obviously possess the greatest areas and volumes.
They can also be extremely beneficial to revitalize main street shopping, as the literature
suggests, but in these case studies they are only successful if they are close to pre-existing main
shopping axes, regardless of overall accessibility, and if they have a limited number of store
spaces. On the contrary, in the peripheries, large shopping centres appear and survive in isolated
 1315

areas, but they quickly stimulate commercial and residential development close-by. Actually,
they seem to appear more frequently in peripheries without clearly defined centralities.
Considering the example of Aveiro, a city with various shopping centres in the periphery and
that, over the years, has linearly expanded through edge-roads, it could be speculated whether
the lack of well defined commercial and urban centres cannot influence the appearance of these
spaces.
Other than the type, age and nature of ‘buildings’, commercial variables seem to be more
affected by the form and organization of the city. This structure obviously conditions the
characteristics of the segments that form the network, of which store types seem to depend.
Actually, they are more affected by this positioning (centrality, through-movement, closeness to
an element) than by any other morphological characteristic of that position. But, at the same
time, this position also conditions the morphological characteristics of the elements, because
these are likely to change from the centre to the periphery, and from the main local road to
segregated neighborhoods, and it also conditions how localities are connected between
themselves and how hierarchies are built, something which, again, affects commerce.
For one, ‘streets’ are the second greatest morphological element, especially in the periphery
where most commercial clusters favour through-movement (70% of stores are in high quantiles
of choice, against around 40% in high integration quantiles), and where urbanized ring roads,
expansion thoroughfares, and local or regional roads passing through the centre of localities are
the distributors of development, as most localities tend to develop around or facing them.
Greatest connections mean more commercial strength, not only of the ribbons per se, but also of
the poles these ribbons connect. Connection means continuity, and in these concentrations the
number of stores reachable is proportional to the distance travelled. When continuity is broken,
the development and type of the commercial poles in the extremities change. In Vila Real’s
centre, for example, there are no commercial ribbons connecting the older and newer
commercial centres. This may be one of the reasons why the second ones have still not been
able to surpass the first. A link is a natural element for change, rather than a complete and
abrupt shift in position. Other non-urbanized and non-commercial connecting axes can also be
prejudicial for development. Ring roads in Aveiro and Leiria, for example, decrease the
accessibility of the main streets and consequently of the main commercial areas. In Vila Real
and Aveiro the lack of connection points between the centre and the periphery also segregates
several commercial poles inside residential neighbourhoods, and makes it more difficult to
access the centre. This causes the creation of competing stronger poles outside the city centre,
obviously changing the morphological landscapes and development capacity of these areas. On
the other hand, in Vila Real and Leiria the thoroughfares that unite different localities become,
at the extremities, main local streets. Because the axis is the same, this considerably improves
both the through-movement potential and the centrality of these localities, which helps to
maintain their commercial structures, at the same time as it stimulates continuous development.
The same does not happen in Aveiro and Évora, where the connections between main local
roads of different localities, and between these and the centre, are not direct, despite the
existence of very high through-movement axis, as is depicted in Figure 5 concerning Évora.
This hinders the creation of centralities, and allows for older traditional axes to be substituted by
stronger commercial poles in multi-family buildings located in or around the main through-
movement axes. This peripheral store necessity (to be near ‘choice’ axes) clearly influences the
location of the building and, consequently, it influences the location of all uses in the building.
Therefore, the form of the city can also influence commercial behaviour. Leiria and Évora
have shopping centres inside the urban perimeter, and central traditional commercial areas
inside the centre, unlike Aveiro and Vila Real, so, naturally, they have a clearer hierarchical and
commercial structure from the core to the periphery, which increases the centrality range and
the local ‘choice’, attracting specific activities accordingly. As a result, the closest peripheral
localities are more connected to the centre, which should explain why these two cities have
more developed communities, overall, in the periphery. In the peripheries of Aveiro and Évora,
the expansion in edge-axes (as is clearly seen in Figure 5) and the lack of closed hierarchical
1316

communities is negative, in a sense that it produces weaker commercial centralities, but

positive, in a sense that zones gain multiple hierarchical purposes, something which can
influence variables like ‘building height’ and ‘pedestrian accessibility’. Despite the similarity in
the overall physical location patterns of stores in the same hierarchical zones of different cities,
the morphological composition of these zones may be different due to these nuances, which are
caused by residential areas, commercial buildings and accessibility. These are then three crucial
elements affecting the ‘emotional aspects of location’. On the other hand, symmetry, like the
one found in Évora, also contributes to the creation of similar ‘integration’ and ‘choice’
patterns, i.e. stronger axes that are attractive to stores. This, in turn, influences the ‘emotional
aspects of stores/buildings with stores’, so it is rather difficult to ascertain where the cycle
begins and ends. Other physical constraints have also been proved to affect morphological
characteristics of commercial blocks. Slope, for example, can affect geometry and hinder urban
and commercial expansion.

Figure 5. Évora choice map for r=n. Buildings are not represented, but stores are
signalled with a green colour.

Consequently, these physical variables and the historical expansion of the city commercial
landscape seem associated to the appearance of ‘closed’ and ‘empty’ stores. The first are
generally in older areas, which have lost their vitality and, comparatively, their spatial attraction
(due to changes in the network), whilst the second are usually in new neighbourhoods. The
number of these is sometimes so excessive in new commercial poles in residential areas that it
has to necessarily mean that these stores lack of success is not a consequence of location or
competition, but simply of a lack of market need for more store space. As the centres are the
greatest commercial destinations, stores therein are hardly in segregated segments, so
conclusions are hard to draw. In the peripheries, however, we can see that, although stores are
generally not on global centralities, if they are not even in local centralities / destinations then
their chances for success are much reduced. Even so, local centrality may not necessarily be a
guarantee of success, because what stores need in the periphery is to be in axes of high ‘choice’
potential or, at least, at the distance where they can be reached easily. For ‘integration’, and for r
< 2000, more than 70% of closed and empty stores in the peripheries are in segregated
segments. Furthermore, over 80% of these non-open stores are in buildings constructed after
1975, which helps to understand why older axes still withhold and why the construction of
buildings containing commercial spaces cannot occur in any given location inside the urban
perimeter (Figure 6). The drop to zero in Vila Real is explained by the rural nature of its
 1317

periphery, as stated before. Stores not on the ground floors are also comprehensibly unpopular
and perform worse.
These findings can definitely dispute the hypothesis presented by most Space Syntax
researchers that stores are preferably located in first quantile segments, and also Jingman’s
(2009) findings that a city’s various centres correspond to various syntax centres. Indeed, these
types of research are generally conducted in the centres of large cities. As Teklenburg et al
(1994) had already suggested some twenty years ago, the commercial landscape in smaller cities
has a different behaviour, especially outside their centres. If in the centres stores seek mid-range
centrality, in the peripheries they seek through-movement, benefiting much more from global
than from local ‘choice’. Stores do not want (for market reasons), cannot (for financial reasons)
or are unable (for structural reasons) to be in the first quantile segments, which are often longer
connecting roads or service areas. Because they seek movement rich locations, but also areas
closer to a larger clientele (i.e. residential areas) and corners, they stand most favourably on
perpendicular roads to the main streets and on intermediate axes of the network. For radii over r
= 3.000, over half of the stores are in the second and third quantile ‘integration’ lines and
between 40%-50% of the stores are in the second and third quantile ‘choice’ lines.

Figure 6. Percentage of closed and empty stores, in the peripheries, located in

segregated lines, both for 'choice' and 'integration', and the respective percentage in post
1975 buildings.

Likewise, when Sarma (2006) reveals that MC, C and S categories (see footnote 2) do not
correlate with ‘choice’, he grounds this statement on the analysis of a central location. In the
case-study peripheries, for example, C stores are, logically, in travel-through thoroughfares and
segregated out-of-the-way areas, and S stores, because they require space and have strong
attraction by themselves, can locate just outside the centre in areas with limited attraction. As
well, in the centres, even though M2 and MC stores have a strong affinity to first quantile
segments, both of choice and integration, first necessity M1 stores obviously drift towards
segregated (residential) neighbourhoods.
1318

Concluding remarks

By combining, in four medium size cities, several morphological and commercial characteristics
of stores and of the buildings, streets, blocks and neighbourhoods they are in, this research has
established a link between the form and structure of cities and the commercial landscapes they
possess. Actually, there is evidence that cities or city areas with more morphological (rather
than statistical) similarities will have, on the micro-scale, more commercial similarities,
something which strengthens the validity of what we called the ‘morphological sense’ of
commerce. Based on the similarities between case studies, some reference-values were
established and we found that the location, characteristics and performance of commercial
spaces is to a significant extent connected to the following six aspects: (i) the amount, type and
age of buildings and their distribution; (ii) the location of residential areas and whether they
have commercial rows or not; (iii) the way urban hierarchies are structured; (iv) the
configuration / form of the localities, that is, the structure of their blocks and of their street
networks; (v) the relative position of the centres inside the localities; and (vi) the way localities /
areas are connected through urban ribbons.
Nevertheless, the above commercial spaces features are not exclusively dependent upon
these aspects. Because the store is intrinsically connected to the building it is in, it is almost
impossible to state undoubtedly that the proven influence on a given area’s development,
residential growth or degree of centrality is caused exclusively by the store and not by, for
example, any of the other uses a given building accommodates, or even by the mere existence of
the building (or the street) itself. But the truth is the store is indeed there, it is open to the public
and it is more directly entwined with the economic, social and morphological realm of the area
it belongs than any other residential or service use the building might contain.
Therefore, the store is not only an economic motor and a wealth-generator, but also a city
maker. It can produce centralities and friendly public spaces, and can command the location of
new neighbourhoods and of new streets. Consequently, it can influence, among others,
demographic and social indicators. In other words, commerce can indeed be an instrument of
urban planning. With this in mind, the permissiveness of construction in general and of
licensing of commercial establishments in particular could be substituted by a more
comprehensive and demanding vision that would ultimately be much more beneficial to urban
spaces. The similar thresholds found in our research can, for example, at least for cities of the
same type, safeguard the construction of unnecessary store spaces (and hence avoid the scenario
of empty stores), show excesses or deficiencies of a particular activity in a particular area, or
regulate the construction of peripheral commercial poles, placing them close to a ‘choice’
thoroughfare, for example, to maximize the influence range of the stores therein. If there has not
been a planning for commerce (Guy, 1994; Fernandes et al, 2000) but just a global planning that
mentions commerce occasionally (Borchert, 1998), then looking at commerce from an urban
morphology perspective can supply the necessary knowledge to start doing just that. Fuller (cit
in Ratti, 2004) said ‘reform the environment, stop trying to reform the people. They will reform
themselves if the environment is right’. If, substituting the word ‘people’ for the word ‘shop’,
the sentence still makes sense, then this way of thinking, as well, makes sense.

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1322

The systemic focus on walkability and urban form

Ana Paula Barros

PhD Student of the Department of Civil and Environment Engineering, University of
Brasilia (UnB – Brasilia/Brazil) and of the Department of Civil Engineering and
Architecture, Superior Technical Institute (IST – Lisbon/Portugal).
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. This paper aims at analyzing walkability – most commonly approached in the studies of
Transport Engineering – and the urban form – traditionally applied to research in the field of
Architecture – in order to discuss the interdependence between both perspectives. The research is based
on systemic thinking (relational) (cf. Capra (2003); Morin (2010); Bertalanffy (2012); (Vasconcellos,
2013)), in order to articulate different areas of knowledge for a more coherent reading of urban
dynamics. In order to accomplish that, a thorough review and analysis of the literature about walkability
and urban form was carried out, encompassing different areas of knowledge: geography, history,
sociology, philosophy, literature, anthropology, architecture, engineering, medicine, etc. It was possible
to verify that although each one of those fields reach the same diagnosis – there is a need for prioritizing
pedestrian space –, the different fields hardly ever exchange information, which leads to fragmented
interpretations. Thus, we suggest that the qualitative and quantitative approaches be merged, in order to
effectively enhance the analysis, making it more sound and befitting to the reality of the object under
study.

Key Words: systemic theory, multidisciplinarity, urban form, walkability, Space Syntax.

Introduction

Until the mid 20th century, the perspective of separating knowledge into specific fields implied
the study of objects and phenomena in isolated approaches. Although consistent with a detailed
research, the notion of fractioning in order to understand ended up masking a set of
interdependence relations between objects, which compromised their interpretation. From the
1960s on, however, a new tendency arose: the trend of understanding the objects (or
phenomena) from different perspectives, relying on a broader and systemic view (Capra, 2003;
Morin, 2010; Bertalanffy, 2012; Vasconcellos, 2013).
It is under this paradigm that the present research explores the theme of walkability, in order
to contribute methodologically to the debate, analyzing different field of knowledge to
understand how the phenomena can be seen by distinct perspectives.
Walkability is approached from the standpoint of philosophy, social sciences such as
anthropology, sociology and anthropology, health sciences (medicine ad psychology) and
engineering, thus emcompassing both the qualitative and quantitative perspectives.
The emphasis in aspects of the constructed form can also be an important variable,
contributing for different fields of knowledge. Hence, the facets studied by Space Syntax are
relevant for both the quantitative and qualitative contexts, and provide a sound methodological
contribution to the research at hand.

Theoretical background

Systemic thinking

The notions of relation and fragment lead us to consider the city as an entity or a whole, where
articulations are formed and parts organize themselves, helping us to understand it as a system.
 1323

According to Cunha (1997), a system is a set of elements, materials or ideas, amongst which
one can find or define some relation, method or process; and Alexander (1966) states that a
system is a set of elements that belong together or work together somehow.
When viewed as a system, the city is a whole that includes relations of interdependence
which cannot be perceived only by analyzing its components, and that is not consistent with an
analytical perspective. Systemic thinking also implicate creating relations between different
fields of knowledge, seeking connections between them. In urbanism, it corresponds to looking
at the object of study – the city – from a set of perspectives that must invariably be articulated.
For Morin (2010), “there is an increasingly broader, deeper and more serious inadequacy
between knowledge that is separate, fragmented and compartimentalized in disciplines and
realities and problems that are increasingly more multidisciplinary, transversal,
multidimensional, transnational, global, planetary”.
In fact, hyperspecialization hinders a global vision (which is fragmented in parts), as well as
the essential (which becomes diluted). Essential problems can never be fragmented and the
global problems are increasingly more essential. Moreover, all particular problems can only be
placed in a planetary context (Morin 2010).
The relevance of a relational view gained visibility during the 20th century with the studies
carried out by Bertalanffy (2012), in which he presents numerous applications of the systemic
perspective in several areas of knowledge (politics, sociology, psychology, psychiatry,
medicine, physics, computer science, military, biology, amongst others). The author believes
that “it is a transformation in the basic categories of thinking of which the complexities of
modern technology are just one – and possibily not the most important – manifestation. In one
way or another, we are forced to deal with complexities, with ‘holism’ or ‘systems’ in every
field of knowledge. This implies a fundamental re-orientation of scientific thinking”.
The contemporary re-orientation of science considers researching a way of articulating
knowledges and disciplines, in addition to understanding the object as something related and
interdependent. According to Bertalanffy (2012), “[…] the only way to study an organizatin is
to see it as a system, once the systems analysis treats the organization as a mutually dependent
system of variables”.
The trend to study systems as an entity and not as a set of parts is in line with a trend in
contemporary science that no longer isolates the phenomena in strict confined contexts; instead,
it is open to the study of interactions and researches increasingly broader sectors of nature
(Ackoff, 1960 apud Bertalanffy, 2012, pp. 29).
From this standpoint, Medeiros (2006) “considers that there are characteristics of the whole
that cannot be understood by the sum of its parts: they exist only when the parts of the whole act
and arrange themselves relationally.
Thus city, mobility and walkability must be understood as parts of several articulated fields.
Moreover, it is paramount to study the relations between the elements that compose the city,
such as the urban form, because they contain the perspectives to explain the phenomenum.
It is important to highlight that, in order to apply systemic thinking it is necessary, first and
foremost, to be ready to change the paradigm. Vasconcellos (2013) believes, for example, that
“systemic thinking is the new paradigm of science”. A paradigm is the way we perceive the
world and act towards it, based on our own rules. The author also warns us about the fact that
“when our paradigm becomes ‘the paradigm’, the only way to view the world and act, a
dysfunction called ‘paradigm paralysis’ or ‘fatal certainty disorder’ takes place” Vasconcellos
(2013).
The ‘paradigm paralysis’ can stop us from seeing opportunities that are all around us in
several situations. In order to recognize and enjoy these opportunities, we need to be flexible
and willing to embrace new views, different from what we are used to. “In addition, the changes
in paradigm can only occur through experience and evidence that places us face to face with the
limits of our current paradigm” Vasconcellos (2013)
1324

How is it possible to use this approach of a changing paradigm to understand walkability?

The first step seems to be the need of increasing the knowledge about walkability from several
angles, which would provide input to understand the city and its form.

Walkability

In Portuguese, the verb ‘walk’ is “caminhar” which derives from “caminho”, a word that means
‘path’. As well as in other Latin languages such as Italian, Spanish, and Catalan, it has the
meaning of following a path, a road.
Moreover, we must take into account how often the act of walking is refered to in the non-
scientific literature, which shows how present it is in the life of individuals as a symbol of
human life itself. The Italian writer Ítalo Calvino explored the description of imaginary villages,
in his work Invisible Cities, where the importance of walking to the perception of the urban
espace is poetically presented. For Calvino’s traveler what matters is the act of walking in itself,
not the crossing of space by other vehicles: walking expresses a vigorous relation with the
space.
This is the same philosophy that guides the work of authors who claim that walking is
crucial for understanding the world. Canellas (2013), in a series of chronicles, translates the
importance of walking for the comprehension of the urban space (something which would not
be possible by car). Reading the city becomes easier when we cross its distances on foot.
People ‘feel’ the city in a different way when walking, instead of travelling in the high speed
of cars. Although everyone is a pedestrian at one time or another, we choose the car in most
occasions, even if the result is a distance from other people and from the city. Acceleration and
swiftness matter most, because this concept is embedded in the western imaginary as a positive
paradigm: there is no time to waste (Gondim, 2014).
From a philosophical standpoint, in the view of Solnit (2001), walking allows us to get to
know the world with body and soul, being an important cognitive experience in a time when
individuals prioritize the use of car in their displacements.
Walking the streets is what connects the reading of a map with life, the personal
microcosmos with the public macrocosmos; it is what grants order to the surrounding labirynth.
There is also a belief that walking involves a process of self awareness, and maybe even
inspiration. Gros (2010), based on the text Ecce Homo by Nietzsche, highlights the importance
of walking in the professional life of the philosopher, stating that for Nietzsche “a walk outside
was an element of his work, the permanent follow up to his writing”. He adds that Jean-Jacques
Rousseau, in his work Mon Portrait, stated that only when he walked he was able to think,
compose, create and feel inspired.
In Éloge de la marche, published in 2000, the anthropologist and sociologist Le Breton
discussed the relevance of walking for human relations, for life. He attests the relevance for
urban mobility and criticizes the overdependence on the use of car in contemporary days.
Considering the excerpts presented, it is clear the interpretation that walking is also seen as a
path for comprehending the city and even the individual. From a philosophical or artistic
standpoint, walking is the element for understanding and decoding the outside world, somehow
a counterpoint to a time that overvalues speed and swiftness. The increasing value placed on the
vehicles means a devaluation of the act of walking, which becomes a symbol of something
outdated. However, there are indications that say the opposite: walking is the permanence of
time and the path to a clearer vision of what the city and the world around us really are.

Urban Form

After what was discussed above, it is possible to assume that the act of walking favors a
coherent understanding and experience of the city, for reasons embedded in different fields of
knowledge. Walking in the city can be interpreted in terms of origins and destination, or in
terms of the capacity of places becoming routes or points of arrival, as discussed by Hillier
 1325

(2008). There seems to be a logic in the organization of urban spaces that affects the process of
choosing paths, which expresses the preferences of individuals for a certain path or another.
Speaking about organization of space means considering the urban structure, perceived as a
system of interdependences and understanding how the form of the city influences the act of
walking. This component may play a more relevant role than previously imagined, actively
conditioning the flow of pedestrians.
According to Cunha (1997), form encompasses “the way in which something exists or
manifests itself, configuration, outer appearance”. Urban form is understood as geometric
composition of the elements of a city (streets, buildings, blocks, facades, street furniture,
vegetation, etc.), its dimensions and proportions (geometric scope). Moreover, it is of interest to
examine how the elements of the urban space are placed and how they relate to one another, in a
bidimensional or tridimensional perspective. Since these relations are relevant and result in
hierarquical variations, we intend to draft a topological reading (topological scope).
In the literature, urban form has been historically dealt with in terms of its differences in
layout. In his work Wanderlust: a history of walking, Solnit (2001) poetically and accurately
portrais the distinction between the traditional urban form (cohesive) – or pre-modern (Holanda,
2013) – and contemporary (isolated) – post-modern (Holanda, 2013).
The polarization of spaces between isolated and cohesive is in line with the notion of fraction
and relation that are the heart of this research. To a certain extent, the isolated spaces become
the fragments of a larger space; whereas when these spaces are cohesive, they create an
environment which is better articulated to the whole urban system.
Polarization is recurrent in the interpretation of patterns of urban form in cities throughout
history. Here, it is a tradition to analyze the layout of the urban grid as a symbol of the city
form, one of the most emblematic and long lasting features of urban structures. In the opinion of
Kostof (1992); Kostof (2001), there are two main kinds of urban form: the irregular/organic and
the regular/grid/orthogonal/chessboard. However, for the author, the cities are not rigidly
composed: they are a mixture between regularity and irregularity. In present times, one would
hardly be able to achieve a homogenous layout that spreads all throughout the city.
When discussing the issue, Medeiros (2006) emphasizes the same kinds mentioned by
Kostof (1992); Kostof (2001), when analyzing a sample of cities in Brazilian and around the
world. However, when analyzing the articulation between the layout and the impact they have
on displacements, the author highlights that the issue is not the existence of one type or another,
but how they are articulated. Aspects of seaming, connection and relations between the various
axes seem to be more relevant than the layout itself. The quilt pattern urban forms are regarded
as the most negative scenarios for urban mobility, even from the perspective of walking: the
apparent planning seen in the regularity of the layout disappears for a lack of global intention
that could foresee coherent levels of integration amongst the parts.
In order to understand form, one must simultaneously understand geometric and topological
aspects, with the focus on relations, on the articulation of the elements of the city.This
interpretation seems to play a substantial role in an individual’s process of displacement in
space.

Different views on the paradox cars vs. pedestrians

The theme of mobility is present in several fields because it is one of the most relevant aspects
of the urban context, especially considering the crisis cities have been going through and the
need for a better displacement in order to ensure the vitality of the settlements. As Gehl (2010)
states, everybody needs to move around space in order to carry out their daily, weekly or
monthly chores. In order to achieve that, everyone start their trip in a point of origin A to reach
their destination B, using some mean of transportation. It may be individual public
transportation (taxi) or group public transportation (busses, trains, subway etc), individual
motorized transportation (car or motorcycle) or non-motorized transport (bycicle or walking).
1326

As displacements are essencial to urban life, attention to the paths taken is paramount:
Jacobs (2001) defines the street and the sidewalks as the main public places in a city. The
research about the structure of these paths has received an increasing number of converts, which
progressively raises attention about the relationship between the quality of space and
performance of displacements.
It is remarkable the protagonist role the individual motorized vehicles in the use of urban
space. Although walkability has been the focus of studies both from the area of Transport
Engineering and related disciplines, it has not yet gained enough visibility to convince society
of its relevant and determining role in fostering more people friendly and functional spaces.
There are several studies showing that cars take precedence over pedestrians in the context
of urban mobility sometimes present in more descriptive or more analytic discourses, with
references to them present in several fields.
The diachronic scrutiny of the topic shows a shifting preference for either qualitative or
quantitative contexts, depending on the field that is undertaking the analysis. In the first, we can
verify the main presence of the discourse, many times connected to the artistic, poetic or
philosophical scope. Here the incorporation of the evaluative aspect of the narratives happens,
with the purpose of bringuing together the philosophical scope and the empirical information
obtained. In the second, the purpose is to transform what is observed in the urban practice into
numeric models, bringing together statistical aspects that streghthen the analysis.
In order to foster the understanding of both aspects and their corresponding strategies of
approaching the topic, we present the views of authors from several fields of knowledge that
mention aspects of mobility in the city.

Qualitative context

In the field of sociology, as far back as the 60s, it is possible to see that Lefebvre (1968) already
associated the image of the car to something that could compromise the good development of
the city, which to a certain extent already defined a criticism to industrial society.
The idea that, in addition to its symbolic features, the car hinders interpersonal relations and
thus the use of public space is also highlighted in the area of anthropology. The observation
made by Caiafa (2007) is accurate in certifying that the public investment is focussed
predominantly in favor of motorized vehicles, with the implementation of more roads and
overpasses to accommodate the flow of cars, ignoring pedestrian traffic (Caiafa (2002).
The focus, however, should be on diversity, and not on prioritizing one mean of
displacement to the detriment of the others. Caiafa (2007) adds the notion that the public space,
when occupied by people, is transformed in a heterogeneous environment in which people
mingle with strangers. The author concludes saying that “the urban experience is strongly
supported in the creation of this collectively shared space of contact […] In the streets of the
city, when they are used by the public, we experience a great variety of stimuli, such as the
great human diversity to which we are exposed” (Caiafa, 2007).
Together, the sociologic and anthropologic views take into account the individual and their
relations to one another and with the world. Therefore, mobility plays a fundamental role in this
interaction and here the car represents individualism and exclusion.
In the field of geography, Yázigi (2000) presents his contribution to understanding the city
and its inhabitants, by studying the sidewalks. The author places the sidewalk in the diachronic
context when interpreting the past, present and future, presented under a historic discursive
character, highlighting its role of inclusion/exclusion in society.
Cardoso (2007) and Affonso (2012) explore the role played by transport in aspects of social
inclusion/exclusion, and he observes that the automobile takes precedence over the pedestrian,
even if their findings are not articulated to other areas of knowledge.
Under the perspective of history, Barros (2007) believes that the role of pedestrians in the
city remains unaltered at all times, according to a research in which he gathers information from
 1327

history, sociology and urbanism. For the author, a person who walks experiences a variety of
sensory information.
There is also a growing tendency of studying the theme from an interdisciplinary
perspective, similar to what was developed by Yázigi (2000) and Gondim (2014), who unite
historical aspects of the city and urban mobility, with the intention of identifying symbolic
permanence of the paradigms of high and low velocity throughout time. The author concludes
that the vehicles, even when non-motorized, take precedence over pedestrians in the urbis since
time immemorial, and that the problems related to the conflict pedestrians/vehicles are not new
as many tend to believe.
The research carried out by Steg (2005) – a classic from Psychology – deserves to be
highlighted. It articulates qualitative and quantitative perspectives, and it proves through
statistical data and the application of questionnaires, the power that the car exercises over
people. It concludes that people do not drive only because it is necessary, but also because they
love to. The symbolic and affective aspects contribute significantly for the positive use of
driving and this may be one of the reasons why there is such a great resistence to the policies for
reducing the use of cars.

Quantitative context

Similar to the research made by Steg (2005), there are research strategies that try to bring
together qualitative and quantitative aspects, discourse and numbers. In architecture and in this
research in particular, we pay special attention to the syntactic approach focused on walkability.
Inicially, it is important to cite the research of Rodriguez (2007) that approaches
displacement and mobility relations through the analysis of syntactic and social variables. The
author highlights the priority given to the individual motorized vehicle. The findings suggest
that the quality of spaces destined to pedestrians is below the expectations, which does not
encourage walking.
Mehta (2008) produced an empirical and qualitative study about the relation between
walking and the physical aspects of space, land use and the social features of the environment in
microscale. In the study, people’s behavior was measured through countings and the perception
of people through questionnaires. As a result, it was possible to verify that the great majority
prefer spaces with a variety of uses, the presence of shops, activities and people.
The research of Tenório (2012) is based on the premise established by Jacobs (2001), Whyte
(2009) and Gehl (2010) about the morphological characteristics of the space and its impact to
urban vitality. The author explores the excessive preference given to individual motorized
transportation and, therefore, the little attention paid to non-motorized ones. The study used
pedestrian countings and interviews as a research tools and in addition the author proposes a
method to the evaluation of public space that is based on empirical verification (qualitative
analysis) and does not focus on quantitative aspects.
The studies of Choi and Sayyar (2012) and Choi (2013), although considered simultaneously
qualitative and quantitative, are based on data from the software of syntactic analysis. There are
no relational statistical interpretations, therefore, the modeling of data is considered basic for the
standards of Transport Engineering. The studies analyse the data of diversity of land use,
population density, syntactic analysis and pedestrian behavior in three neighborhoods with
different urban layouts. The results obtained show a strong correlation between morphological
and syntactic typologies and the convergence with diversity of land use, which corroborates that
the form fosters movement and, therefore, fosters the presence of attractive factors.
Wineman et al. (2012) explore the correlation between the characteristics of the built
environment and the data for physical activities (here understood as walking with the purpose of
displacement). From the results obtained, it was possible to verify that the people who live in
more integrated neighborhoods report higher levels of physical activity if compared to the
people who live in less integrated ones. Moreover, people who live in neighborhoods with high
local connectivity report higher levels of physical activities, in contrast with people living in
1328

low local connectivity areas. In general terms, the findings show that when a neighborhood is
well connected locally and globally, they present high density with a heterogeneous mixture of
land use and are associated to higher levels of localized physical activities.
The work of Ozer and Kubat (2013) aims at predicting walkability more precisely by comparing
the spatial syntactic measures with the measures of environmental and pedestrian perception, in
order to check their effects over the level of displacements on foot. They used pedestrian
countings, spatial configuration data and questionnaires about the perception of urban
environment. Later, they drafted a statical correlation between the number of people (counting)
and the integration data (syntactic). The findings reinforce the potential of the data gathered
from the syntactic analysis of space, because depending on the other variables, there may or
may not be an encouragement to walkability.
It is thus important to highlight that the approaches mentioned above explore either the
discourse in itself (discoursive-qualitative context) (exception to the work of Steg, 2005) or the
discourse aligned with the evaluative process, both related to the qualitative analysis. The
evaluation, sometimes (when Space Syntax is used), is closer to the more quantitative
interpretations, although it still lacks the soundness present in Transport Engineering.

Qualitative Context

When studying pedestrians, it is an essential condition to know the detailed aspects about the
environment where the traffic flows. To this end, the qualitative works that focus on the
characterization and evaluation of the environment of walking are presented.
In this topic we aim to examine works of two areas, Medicine and Transport Engineering,
with focus on walkability, approaching aspects of the urban form. The first one focuses on (a)
statistical data regarding diseases (obesity, diabetes, heart problems, etc), (b)daily physical
activities (in the case of walking, referring to daily displacements), and (c) characteristics of the
built environment (from physical aspects or urban layout to the different compositon of street
grids, disregarding those not related to the syntactic/morphologic aspects). The second research
focuses on the aspects of the built environment (urban form), mixed uses, population density
and data about mobility.
In the context of health, there seems to be continuity in the studies that try to find a pattern in
walkability related to aspects of the built environment. There is a number of works that adopt
different analytic strategies, such as: Owen et al. (2004) uses aestethic and infraestructure
aspects; Leslie et al. (2005) which is based on the study of neighborhood with different layouts;
Frank et al. (2005) that furthers the discussion including the use of equipment to measure
walking speed; Giles-Corti et al. (2006) who uses questionnaires as the main strategy; Leslie et
al. (2007) who gathers the data about uses, street layout and socio-economic information in the
SIG plataform; and finally Grant et al. (2010) whose focus is on the elderly.
The works from researches Frank and Pivo (1994), Handy (1996a), Handy (1996b), Cervero
and Kockelman (1997), Amâncio (2005), Reid and Cervero (2010) and Rodrigues (2013) seek
to learn to what extent the aspects of urban form interfere in walkability. In order to do that, the
methodology used varies, correlating data from transportation with socio-economic and
activities, using questionnaires and countings, and incorporating data about the urban network
(using or not the SIG plataform). It is interesting to observe that although these researches study
urban form, they do so mostly from the geometric perspective, and only in some cases include
topologic aspects. Even in the case where the topologic perspective is taken into account this is
done from a Cartesian perspective, and not from a systemic one.
 1329

Methodological contributrion

As discussed previously, the systemic perspective applied to urban mobility leads to the
research of the relations between the elements of the city, expressing a dynamic between the
global and local scales.
In the global scope of this research, we aim to consider systemic thinking based on the
analysis supported by two interpretations: (a) the qualitative context and (b) the quantitative
context. The articulation between both would allow bringing together the dimension of
architecture and transport engineering in order to understand walkability.
According to Van der Maren (1985 apud Lessard-Hébert, 2012) there are clear distinctions
between the two perspectives, qualitative and quantitative. In the first, the processes have an
speculative nature, whereas in the latter they are more experimental. Thus, it is possible to reach
a broader view of walkabity when we bring together perspectives from different areas of
knowledge, such as those described above, which is the end goal of this research.
The understanding of this conection between qualitative/quantitative approaches is
prioritized in the interpretation offered by Space Syntax, in which the research of the relations
between the void and the contructed areas is of special interest, which encompasses
configuration issues.
Hillier (2005) states that there is a great problem remaining in the studies of urban
settlements, since the city is still thought as either a social entity or a physical one, with social
scientists specially dedicated to the study of the first, and architects to the latter. What seems to
be missing is the connection or a ‘bridge’ and he claims that “historically, the main goal of
Space Syntax was to build a bridge between the human city and the physical city”.
The approach, however, is usually criticized by those outside its traditional circles of
application. Some critics point to the excess of quantifications (cf. Medeiros, 2013); and others
they claim that those statistics are shallow, as stated by Maha (1997) and Alves (1999).
Nevertheless, Barros (2006) responds to such criticism by demonstrating that the analytic
perspective of Space Syntax is usefull for research about urban mobility. The author has found
meaningfull values (61%) in the correlation between real flow counted by electronic equipment
in the streets of Brasilia and the so called integration indexes from Space Syntax).
Therefore, Space Syntax was chosen for the research, both in the local and global scopes, in
order to establish a connection between the qualitative and quantitative aspects, enabling a
broader analysis of the object under study: walkability in cities (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Relation between global vs local aspects from the standpoint of systemic
thinking, portraying the role of Space Syntax.
1330

Final Considerations

Based on the discussions presented in favor of a comprehensive analysis of the qualitative and
quantitative aspects (local), it is possible to reach more detailed information about the object of
study. Different perspectives about the object of study, gathered from several areas of
knowledge allows a more detailed analysis, thus incorporating a broader view of a system, that
is, systemic thinking.
According to what was explored in the research, by bringing together the two strategies it
was possible to notice the relevance of Space Syntax, understood as a potential bridge between
Architecture and Engineering.
Although there are other theories that allow this connection, in the particular case of this
research – focused on urban form - this is the one that best fits the purpose, due to the
configurational aspect of the theory, closely related to urban mobility and, thus, to walkability.
Therefore, it is possible to notice that this contribution to the methodology allows us to
broaden our scientific horizon, by making the connection between these areas of study tighter,
which can in turn contribute to the creation of policies for fostering mobility in cities.

References

Alexander, C. (1966) A City Is Not A Tre. (Design 206).

Bertalanffy, L. v. (2012). Teoria geral dos sistemas: fundamentos, desenvolvimento e aplicações (Vozes,
Petrópolis).
Caiafa, J. (2002) Jornadas urbanas: exclusão, trabalho e subjetividade nas viagens de ônibus na cidade
do Rio de Janeiro (FGV, Rio de Janeiro).
Caiafa, J. (2007) Aventura nas cidades: ensaios e etnografias (FGV, Rio de Janeiro).
Calvino, Í. (1990) As cidades invisíveis (Companhia das Letras, São Paulo).
Canellas, M. (2013) Províncias: crônicas da alma interiorana (Globo, São Paulo).
Capra, F. (2003) A teia da vida: uma nova compreensão científica dos sistemas vivos (Editora Cultrix,
São Paulo).
Cunha, A. G. (1997) Dicionário etimológico da língua portuguesa (Nova Fronteira, Rio de Janeiro).
Gehl, J. (2010) Cities for people (Island Press, Washington).
Gros, F. (2010) Caminhar, uma filosofia (É Realizações, São Paulo).
Kostof, S. (1992) The city assembled: the elements of urban form through history (Thames and Hudson,
London).
Kostof, S. (2001) The city shaped: urban patterns and meanings throught history (Thames and Hudson,
London).
Lefebvre, H. (1968) La vida cotidiana en el mundo moderno (Alianza Editorial, Madrid).
Morin, E. (2010) Ciência com consciência (Bertrand Brasil, Rio de Janeiro).
Solnit, R. (2001) Wanderlust: a history of walking (Verso, London).
Vasconcellos, M. J. (ed.) (2013) Pensamento sistêmico: o novo paradigma da ciência (Papirus Editora,
Campinas).
Yázigi, E. (2000) O mundo das calçadas (Humanitas/ FFLCH6/USP, São Paulo).
 1331

By São Paulo sidewalks: urban form and walkability

Helena Degreas, Paula Katakura, Caio Rubens Gonçalves Santos

FIAM-FAAM Centro Universitário, Av. Lins de Vasconcelos, 3406 - São Paulo, SP,
Brasil. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected].

Abstract. Streets, avenues, boulevards, lanes ... innumerable are the public spaces designated to the
circulations of cars and pedestrians; in fact, the opens spaces work as a system and are represented by
many typologies that gave form to the city. Brazilian cities, as a rule, have being building open public
spaces as if they were residual spaces of private properties. Public policies promote facilities to car
owners, so pedestrian circulation was reduced to spaces with little functionality (locomotion, access
conditions, shape, dimensions and other morphological attributes), that resulted in places of public life
that do not guarantee the quality or safety of the users. São Paulo’s mater plan has been suffering
numerous amendments to promote a better mobility without the presentation of studies pertaining to
pedestrian spaces sidewalks. The actions of the public authorities to the issues about urban mobility have
been reduced to the deployment of public transport with a focus on buses. Issues such as quality of
driveways (one-third of the trips in the city are made on foot), safety against the set of barriers
(equipment, public securities and urban infrastructures) randomly distributed in space, private
management (the responsibility of management of sidewalks is of the owner of the immediate area)
generate the need for indicators to cooperate not only on qualification of existing spaces as well as in
organizing projects guidelines to cities in expansion process.

Key Words: urban form, urban mobility, walkability, open spaces system, landscape architecture

Introduction

This text is part of the research called planning, design and management of the the Master
(professional degree) program on City Planning called Project, Production and Management of
Urban Space. The master's degree enables graduates to serve areas directly linked to the world
of work and future production system. Empowers and trains researchers and professionals to
generate, disseminate and use scientific knowledge in their daily work.
The knowledge is collected and organized from the observation of reality that leads to
reflection, analysis and review of routines and processes generating solutions to noted problems.
The surveys shown are part of a research that studies urban mobility, with focus on walking
journeys made in Brazilian capitals. In the text, we present the situation found on some
sidewalks of the city of São Paulo.

Far more than simple pathways

Far beyond its function of making possible the movement of people between different places
from urban areas, the sidewalks are places of sightseeing and "tour". From this linear space, the
citizen can contemplate the open public space, the buildings that make up the landscape, the
movement of people, feel the sun and the wind, and enjoy the plazas and gardens. Live the
urban life.
Connected to the road network of the city, the sidewalks are conected physically to the
streets. Street that play distinct functions in the circulation, transport and mobility system
functions of contemporary cities.
1332

A question arises: but how the public footpath became bound to the secondary road network
route?

About the fragmentation of sidewalks and public tours: the lack of unity in the design

We assume that it is possible to qualify the level of civility of a place from the pavement
morphology, maintenance, coating, location, lighting ... in other words, applied to aesthetic
standards and the efficient displacement of the pedestrian into a functional city.
The sidewalks along with all the types of public open spaces accounts for up to 40% of the
areas found in Brazilian cities. They are squares, parks, beaches, public gardens, streets,
avenues, they are also part of the space for the citizen. In Brazil, the public space was born as a
heritage of the founding of cities: either by donations, expropriation or legal obligations to the
land allotment, the truth is that these spaces were born as leftovers, waste from the private
sphere life.
Culturally, the way in which spaces for public life or res publica were created, is key to
understanding the popular culture: public space is not from or to the public that attends.
Therefore, it is an "unknown" whether the municipality or the owner of the establishment must
ensure their construction quality and maintenance.
Despite the National Traffic Laws consider sidewalks as part of the public highway and
therefore responsabilties are due to government, is up to the citizen its maintenance. This kind
of "strange" culture also permeates the actions of government.
Rather than take responsibility for public space, the city of São Paulo transfers the
responsibility for the construction, reform and maintenance services to homeowners and to
renters who can be fined if the sidewalks do not meet Decree No. 45,904 of May 19, 2005.
The government ignores that the sidewalks integrate a system of broader circulation over the
city that also incorporates streets where vehicles travel. To blame the homeowner, the city
manager acts as if this system were the sum of excerpts interrupted and fragmented by steps,
plants, benches and so on, without pattern coating, design and construction guides .
The quality of the public footpath is compromised and directly reflects the welfare and safety
of citizens. Origin-Destination Survey taken by the São Paulo Metro in 2011 showed that 30%
of the daily trips in the metropolitan region of São Paulo (which encompasses 39 counties and
nearly 20 million residents) are realized on foot in approximately 23 million daily trips.
The decree defines a new architectural standard for city sidewalks. It establishes standards to
ensure accessibility and the materials that can be used. It also adds that the sidewalks should be
divided by service groups. They are:
1) Area destinated to public services: with minimum recommended width of 0.75 m, is the
closest to street "strip", for the placement of trees, access ramps for handicapped vehicles,
lampposts, traffic signs, benches, planters , telephones, mailboxes and trash cans.
2) Open area strip: with a minimum width of 1.20 m, is intended exclusively for pedestrian
circulation and thus should be free of any height differences.
3) Area strip of access (no width): existing only in pathways which are greater than 2 meters
wide, and located right in front of the property, it can contain tables, vegetation, sunblinds,
ramps or advertisement, since they do not impede access to property.
The pavement should be divided into groups differentiated by texture and / or color,
according to its width:
- Sidewalks with up to 2 meters breadth: should be divided into two areas
- Sidewalks over 2 meters breadth: should be divided into three groups
What follows are some images that illustrate the situations encountered in all Brazilian cities.
 1333

Planting on sidewalks: the yard invades the street

The planting of vegetal species varying between ground covers and Flowering Trees is a
cultural habit in all Brazilian houses. Fruit trees such as blueberries, mango and coffee trees are
common in city streets. They are planted by citizens both, in their yards and in front of their
homes. When in apartments, balconies are full of large vessels that have lemon groves,
jabuticaba trees and orchards. The problem is that ordinary people plant these elements
inappropriately without knowing the consequences of aggressive roots, trunks, branches and
flowers can cause to the pedestrian safety and to maintenance of sidewalks.

Figure 1. Home yard and outside space planted in the same way (source: Pamela Silva,
2014).

About the widths of sidewalks: coexistence is not always possible

Since the creation of the streets was an act of donation of land or public expropriation, the
movement of pedestrians and freight transport occurred spontaneously as from the absence of
the state in defining a plan of action to discipline mobility. It is natural therefore that there is no
hierarchy on streets, there are no appropriate width or places to for maneuvers or also not
permitting a flow of pedestrians (in densely populated areas) safely.

Figure 2. Streets and narrow sidewalks (source: Pamela Silva, 2014).

1334

Figure 3. Streets and narrow sidewalks (source: Pamela Silva, 2014).

About the differences between levels: the sidewalk as an extension of the house

To adapt the external access to domestic areas of buildings, the level difference between street,
sidewalk and private property, ramps are built. Regardless of the width of the sidewalk or the
height differences, instead of remedying the situation inside the property, public area is
transformed into a house extension. Solved the problem of access for residents and the car in
front of the house, the problem of the staircases created by ingenious solution remains to
pedestrians.

Figure 4. Adequacy of public sidewalk for access of the residence (source: Pamela Silva,
2014).

Pathways: materials and finishing coats to suit all aesthetic tastes

The illustrations bellow show common situations in everyday life of the city. The use of
materials for coating the pathways happen according to the aesthetic taste of the owner of the
property and independent of the length of it. The maintenance, the owner's responsibility and
depends on the availability of time and financial resources of the same.
 1335

Figure 5. (source: Pamela Silva 2014).

Figure 6. The sidewalk in front of a vertical condominium, although narrow to existing

legislation, allows a peaceful transition without "scares" When materials are chosen and
the ride is executed correctly, the maintenance is easier. (source: Pamela Silva 2014).

Urban Furniture: what is for the sidewalk?

The government also acts out of the public laws, although imposing the same law private
owners. Maintenance is careless when it exists. In the research, it was found that there were
about five dozen agents that intervene directly on the space of sidewalks. Among them we find
companies that have a "concession" to the operation of a public service and those who have the
"permission".
"Concession" means the transference to perform a public service by contract service to
private owners companies for a specified period. This is a long term, beyond decades.
As "permission" means a precarious administrative act by which the Government transfers
the running of public services to private owners companies. In this case, the instability is in fact
that permission can be revoked at any time without the need for payment of compensation by
the municipal government to that which was allowed.
The difference between both is the compensation for cancellation of public contract as well
as the definition of term.
From the perspective of what has been presented in this paper, there were found in searches
many inappropriate situations on dealing the public space.
1336

Figure 7. tables, chairs, coffee and beggars. Where is sidewalk? (source: Helena Degreas,
2014).

Public facilities: fits so much?

Figure 8. Poles, newsstands, bus stops, metro access via escalators. The lack of space for
pedestrian walkabilty leads pedestrians to use the street to walk over the city. (source:
Paloma Lopes 2014).

Some thoughts on the topic: The public space can satisfy the public who goes to public
space?

A comment is necessary: the definition of groups/strips of service is an excellent solution to the

problem since the sidewalks of the city arose spontaneously and so alien to urban legislation. As
a consequence they have no shapes, proportions, width suitable for vehicular routes system
which physically connect them.
It is possible that the idealized management (generic) embedded in the legislation will solve
the problem or may bear some application in order to help organize new environments created
on the sidewalks?
 1337

Perhaps by analyzing each case separately the distribution, location of furniture and
equipment may actually be helpful to the citizen and no longer a barrier that hinders
accessibility.
There are two problems that need to be addressed by the city if the aim is to create
conditions of comfort and safety to citizens:
- The width of the sidewalks in the central regions of São Paulo does not reach 1.50 m. In
peripheral regions the sidewalks behave the much the lamppost. In many cases, it does not exist.
Because public housing policies for centuries were not the object of interest of various
municipal administrations, the city was randomly constructed and outside urban law. . This
created numerous neighborhoods where urban infrastructure is precarious, public facilities for
health, education, security, leisure, transportation is inadequate. As part of the infrastructure,
sidewalks also suffer from the same problems.
- The different actors (licensees and concessionaires) that interfere in public space, especially
on the sidewalks, are numerous. Existing legislation only refers to those who legally respond to
the municipality as an example owners of bars and restaurants that want to put tables on the
sidewalks, or even shopkeepers who put benches in front of the store or the citizen who intends
to plant a tree in front of the his residence. Remember that agents are responsible for providing
public services in different areas: municipal, state and federal. Requests for intervention in
public space are also held in various "desks". The fragmentation of these departments and
agencies in city is visible and materializes its interventions on the sidewalks.

References

Decreto Nº 45.904, de 19 de Maio de 2005. Regulamenta o artigo 6º da Lei nº 13.885, de 25 de agosto de

2004, no que se refere à padronização dos passeios públicos do município de São Paulo.
(http://www.leispaulistanas.com.br/sites/default/files/PASSEIO/DECRETO%2045904.PDF) Acessed:
10 april 2014.
Macedo, Silvio Soares; Queiroga, Eugênio ; Galender, Fany ; Degreas, H. N. ; Akamine, R. ; Custodio
Vanderli . Quadro do Sistema de Espaços Livres nas cidades brasileiras. 1. ed. São Paulo: FAUUSP,
2012. v. 1. 368p.
Macedo, Silvio Soares; Queiroga, Eugênio; Campos, A. C. A.; Galender, Fany; Degreas, H. N.; Akamine,
R.; Custodio Vanderli. Sistema de Espaços Livres: conceitos, conflitos e paisagens. 1. ed. São Paulo:
FAUUSP, 2011. v. 1. 252p.
McCluskey, Jim. El diseno de vias urbanas. Barcelona:GG, 1985.
PMSP Prefeitura do Município de São Paulo. Conheça as regras para arrumar a sua calçada. São Paulo:
PMSP, s.d.
Presidência da República. Lei nº 8.987, de 13 de fevereiro de 1995. Dispõe sobre o regime de concessão e
permissão da prestação de serviços públicos previsto no art. 175 da Constituição Federal, e dá outras
providências. (http://www.planalto.gov.br/ccivil_03/leis/l8987cons.htm) Acessed: 13april 2014.
São Paulo. Lei nº 15.442, de 9 de Setembro de 2011.
(http://www.biblioteca.btu.unesp.br/Home/Referencias/LuABNT_6023.pdf) Acessed: 05 march 2014.
Yazigi, Eduardo. O mundo das calçadas. São Paulo: Humanitas/FFLCH/USP; Imprensa Oficial do
Estado, 2000.
1338

The elements of urban morphology which influence residents’

leisure walking activities: case study of Shanghai

Jie Mao, Yong Chen

College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, No. 1239, Siping Road,
Shanghai, 200092, P. R. China. E-mail: [email protected],
[email protected]

Abstract. With the rapid development of motorization in modern cities, urban morphology is threatened
seriously which gave priority to walking transportation before. It also leads to the changes of residents’
walking characteristics. Leisure activities such as stroll, fitness and walk the dog increase significantly,
but the essential commuter walking activities reduce gradually. In this research, 21 neighbourhoods were
taken as cases to make questionnaires survey, observation on site and multiple regression analysis.
Effectively statistic model was made to seek the key variables of urban morphology which influence
leisure walking activities. It was found by the research that, objective variables of urban morphology
affect the frequency of leisure walking more than subjective perceptions do, while the subjective
perceptions of environment affect the duration of leisure walking more than objective variables do. Six
variables of urban morphology have critical influence on the frequency of leisure walking. They are
penetrability of sidewalk network, mixed land use, proportion of commercial interface in the street,
density of the storefronts in commercial interface, wide space with hard pavements, safe and neat
community environment. In addition, residents’ individuality such as societal attributes and subjective
demands have intrinsic influence on choices of leisure walking activities as well.

Key Words: Leisure walking activity, urban morphology, built environment, neighbourhood.

Background

In recent years, many researches have attempted to enhance the cities’ livability by improving
the urban forms in the field of urban design. In the field of urban planning, the ideas of low-
carbon city and green travel have been proposed. In the field of transportation planning, the
concept of Non-motorized Traffic (NMT) has been put forward. As to the public health field,
more physical activities and exercises have been encouraged. The common intersection point of
these fields advocate more walking, and promote walking activities by built environment.
Many previous studies from North America and Europe held the views that it can increase
the walkability of cities by intensive construction of land use, dense sidewalk network, more
commercial facilities, or other measures (Frank and Pivo, 1995; Cervero and Kockelman, 1997;
Greenwald and Boarnet, 2001; Moudon et al., 2006; Alfonzo et al., 2008). But some studies got
the opposite conclusion (Crane and Crepeau, 1998; Handy and Clifton, 2001). The key factors
of urban morphology founded out by these researches, which focus on their respective regions,
were both similar and different. Meanwhile, are these researches suitable to develop in Asian
countries? Especially to the emerging Chinese cities, their population density, economic level,
cultures and customs are totally different from those regions.
With the improvement of living standard, Chinese residents pay more attention to their
health. Leisure walking activities which take stroll, fitness or social contact as their purpose
have been increased substantially. The demands of quality and quantity of walking spaces also
have been increased. But, on the other hand, in the process of rapid urbanization and
motorization, the construction of Chinese cities tends to provide convenient to private cars.
Such construction mode has encroached pedestrian space seriously. Many form designs of
neighborhoods never take the interests of walking activities into consideration. Therefore, how
is the current situation of residents’ outdoor leisure walking activities? What are the residents’
 1339

main demands of pedestrian environments? What kinds of space morphology factors in the
neighborhoods will influence residents’ leisure walking activities? These problems all need to
be pondered.

Survey

Research objects

This study tries to find out which characteristics of urban morphology will make more
important influence on residents’ leisure waking behaviors, by quantization the characteristics
of spatial morphology of neighborhoods. Moreover, residents’ personal attributes and attitudes
to waking will be also taken into consideration as influencing factors.
Urban Morphological Variables:
i) Characteristics of spatial forms: including 6 aspects, they are neighborhood attribute, spatial
texture, land use, public transit service, walking facility, interfacial morphology.
ii) Satisfaction of subjective environment: refers to the individual perception and evaluation of
the pedestrian environment, including 7 aspects, they are satisfaction of whole environment,
satisfaction of accessibility of public transit, satisfaction of accessibility of commercial
services, satisfaction of convenience of road network, satisfaction of traffic safety,
satisfaction of security and satisfaction of quality.
Residents’ Leisure Walk Behaviors - outdoor leisure activities, that residents make walking as
their purpose, are calculated by two ways, frequency and duration:
i) Walking frequency refers to the times of residents’ leisure walking weekly.
ii) Walking duration refers to the amount of residents’ daily leisure walking.

Selected cases

Shanghai is one of the biggest cities in China, which has the highest population density and
fastest pace of economic development. This study selected 21 neighborhoods in central urban
area of Shanghai as cases. Each neighborhood is about 0.5 to 1 km2. They are the units which
can take 8-minutes’ walking distance as their radius. And there is at least one subway station in
or near the units. Make the main roads or river system as their boundary. According to the times
of construction and characteristics of spatial morphology, they can be divided into 5 types
(Figure 1): 1) historical neighborhood; 2) workers’ village; 3) old neighborhood; 4) new
neighborhood; 5) international neighborhood.

Figure 1 Distribution map of cases of neighborhoods.

1340

Summary

During the period from December 2011 to June 2012, questionnaires were sent to those 21
neighborhoods and took back. The content involves the residents’ social attributes,
characteristics of outdoor walking, satisfactions about the pedestrian Environments, etc. The
quantity of questionnaires for each neighborhood was determined on the basis of its population.
Community service workers selected the households and made the survey at random. Totally,
3820 questionnaires were sent and 2940 questionnaires were taken back. After the evaluation of
integrity and authenticity of each one, 2863 questionnaires were selected as the last samples.
The rate of the useful questionnaires is 74.9%.
The results of the survey show that the average level of residents’ daily leisure walking is 28
minutes. Furthermore, 41% of the residents have their daily leisure walk more than 30 minutes
averagely. But, there are still 10.9% of the residents whose daily leisure walking time is almost
zero. From the view of personal attributes (Figure 2): The older the resident is, the more he/she
spent on leisure walking, especially for those who are tired. The aged over 70 is the group
which has the most leisure walking activities. Their average level was 37 minutes. Primary and
middle school students under the age of 19 is the group which has the least leisure walking
activities. Their average level was 18 minutes. From the view of types of neighborhoods,
average level of leisure walking is around 30 minutes in all kinds of neighborhoods. The
residents in international neighborhood have the longest walking (29.6minutes), while the
proportion of the residents who almost never have daily leisure walk in the workers’ villages
and the old neighborhoods, where blue-collar workers occupy the majority population, is
highest (13%).

Figure 2. Leisure walking duration of different social groups.

Analysis and results

Correlation Analysis

Pearson linear correlation analyses on the data of residents’ leisure walking, satisfactions of
pedestrian Environment and the spatial morphology were made by SPSS statistical software to
find out the variables which are related to leisure walking.
i) Residents’ Satisfactions of Pedestrian Environment
 1341

Table 1 shows that the residents’ satisfactions of pedestrian environment have more influence
on their duration of leisure walking than on the frequency. Satisfaction of whole environment
(0.079) correlates with residents’ leisure walking duration most. And then, satisfaction of
accessibility of public transit (0.062), satisfaction of accessibility of commercial services
(0.060), satisfaction of convenience of road network (0.058). Satisfaction of traffic safety and
Satisfaction of quality are the least two variables.
It can be inferred from the data that: i) residents’ satisfaction of pedestrian environment will
influence the duration of their outdoor leisure walking. The more they are satisfied with
environment, the more they will walk; ii) satisfaction of traffic safety and satisfaction of quality
have a lower correlation with walking duration than other satisfaction indexes. It shows that
residents’ recognitions to the traffic safety and quality of current pedestrian environment are
lower than other indexes. Such situation reveals the common problems existing in
neighborhoods from another aspect.

Table 1. Correlation test between ‘satisfaction of walking environment’ and ‘leisure

walking activities’

Satisfaction

Pearson Correlation Accessibility Accessibility Convenience

Whole Traffic
of Public of Commercial of Road Security Quality
Environment Safety
Transit Services Network

Avg.

Historical
Neighborhood
Workers’
Walking Village
Frequency Old
Neighborhood
New
.091* .117**
Neighborhood
International
Neighborhood

Avg. .079** .062** .060** .058** .046* .045*

Historical
Neighborhood
Workers’
Walking .082* .078*
Village
Duration Old
.116** .080* .075*
Neighborhood
New
.117** .141** .078* .102** .091*
Neighborhood
International
.102*
Neighborhood
* P＜0.05, ** P＜0.01

ii) Variables of Spatial Morphology of Neighborhoods

Table 2 shows the effect that spatial morphology of neighborhoods on residents' leisure walking
frequency is greater than it on residents' leisure walking duration. All the factors of urban
morphology are highly related to walking frequency except public transit service.
1342

Table 2. Correlation test between ‘space morphology variables of neighborhood’ and

‘leisure walking activities’

Walking Walking
Spatial Morphology Variables
Frequency Duration
Neighborhood’s Land Area
Attributes Population Density .131**
Average Block Length
Density of Intersections
Spatial Texture
Section-Node-Ratio .046*
Density of Neighborhood’s Entrances
Density of Centralized Commercials
Density of Commercial Interfaces .050*
Density of Commercial Interfaces ≥15 Stores
.083**
(Per 100m)
Proportion of Commercial Interfaces ≥15
.119**
Stores (Per 100m)
Proportion of Commercial Interfaces ＜ 5
-.131**
Stores (Per 100m)
Land Use Density of Educational Facilities
Density of Medical Facilities
Density of Cultural Facilities
Density of Office Buildings
Density of Community Service Facilities
Density of Public Green Areas -.056** -.054**
**
Complex Degree of Functions （Entropy） .085
Density of Bus Stops
Public Transit
Density of Bus Routes
Service
Density of Subway Stations
Density of Walkable Area
Density of Walkable Length
Walking Facility Average Width of The Sidewalks
Proportion of Sidewalks ≥10 Meters Width .071** .041*
Proportion of Sidewalks ＜ 3 Meters Width
Interfacial Density of Houses’ Entrances .048*
Density of Houses’ Entrances
Density of Parks’ Entrances .066**
Interfacial
Morphology Interfacial Density of Buildings .064**
Interfacial Density of Penetrable (Green)
-.066**
Interfaces
Interfacial Density of Closed Interfaces
* P＜0.05; ** P＜0.01

It can be inferred that: i) objective spatial forms of neighborhoods are more likely to affect
residents’ choice of leisure walking. But it is very difficult to influence the length of time that
residents spent on their daily leisure walking. Walking duration may be more influenced by
individual subjective perception of the environmental quality; 2) the atmosphere of commercial
vitality in the street is the most important factor which can attract leisure walking. The longer
and denser interfaces of the stores are, the more abundant commercial vitality and social
activities of the neighborhoods will be. And the attraction to the residents to make daily leisure
 1343

activities will also be stronger. Penetrable (green) interface and closed interface which contain
no commercial element cannot attract residents’ leisure activities; 3) high population density
mode and mixed land use are useful to make the spaces of neighborhoods compact and
diversified. Thus, it will promote different social groups using the spaces and having activities.
Mixed land use also means diversity of urban space. Hence, a neighborhood is no longer a
simple combination of many buildings. It will show the complexity of spaces and activities.
And that would attract residents’ leisure activities; 4) wide space with pavement of hard
material can attract leisure walking more than public green. Those sidewalks above 10 meters
width can accommodate street fitness, dance and other community activities. And they also can
provide outdoor seating of café and other leisure facilities. Such things will benefit for residents
to make their leisure walking. However, the higher the density of public green in neighborhood,
the lower frequency and duration of leisure walking residents would have. Probably, it is
because the designs of many green parks paid attention to the visual image and green coverage
rate only, and didn’t provide sufficient places and facilities for walking activities. So, there is
still a gap between the reality and the residents’ demands of the leisure; 5) penetrability of
sidewalk network in neighborhood can facilitate walking leisure activities. Section-node -ratio
of roads reflects the penetrability of road network in neighborhood. The density of residential
areas’ entrances and the density of parks’ entrances reflect the penetrability between inside and
outside of a closed area (Park). The higher the density is, the stronger the penetrability of a
neighborhood’s space is. The sidewalk network in a neighborhood with strong penetrability can
provide residents more choices of routes, increase diversity and complexity when experiencing
the walking environment, and provide more chances for neighbors to encounter, stay and
exchange as well.

Regression analysis of model

The correlation analysis merely explains the relationship between two variables. Regression
equation is needed to carry on further analysis. It is helpful for quantitative study on the effect
what multiple independent variables (X) influence on dependent variable (Y). It can be found by
the previous correlation analyses that leisure walking frequency is influenced more by spatial
morphology factors of neighborhoods. Therefore, in the multiple logistic regression analysis,
walking frequency is taken as the dependent variable (Y) to be calculated.

Basic Model I

The multiple logistic regression analysis was made by taking residents’ leisure walking
frequency as dependent variable and taking residents' personal attributes variables as
independent variable. Took the frequency = 0 time per week as a reference target, and got the
Basic Model I. The Pseudo R Square（Cox and Snell）= 0.394, that means the model is valid.
Basic Model is:
LN(Pi/P0)=βi+βig1Xg2+βig2Xg3+βig3Xg4+βig4Xg5+βig5Xg6
（ Xg2—Age ； Xg3—Career ； Xg4—Education ； Xg5—Number of family members ；
Xg6—Monthly income ； “i” means walking frequency per week; In 6 sub-models, “i”
respectively equals to 1,2,3,4,5,6 ）
In order to study the level that different personal attributes influence on leisure walking,
the changes of numerical value of Pseudo R Square should be observed by removing the
variables which were retained by regression from Basic Model I one by one. The Pseudo R
Square reflects the fitting degree of the whole model. So, if the change of numerical value of
Pseudo R Square is big when removing a variable, it means this variable is significant to model
fitting. The calculation results are shown in Table 3.
1344

It can be inferred that: i) age is the key variable of personal attributes affecting residents’
leisure walking frequency. And the significance of age presents a raising effect with increasing
frequency; ii) the higher the monthly income of one’s family, the less the possibility of all
frequencies he/she choose to have leisure walking. The possibility is that people with high
salary have more ways of leisure, and they don’t need to always choose leisure walking
activities; 3) those who are retired or don’t work are more likely to choose the high frequency of
leisure walking than students or office workers. The mainly reason is that they have more free
time.

Table 3. Selection of the Personal Attribute Variables

Personal Contribution Significance B Value (When the Significance Level of Sig＜0.1)

Attribute of Pseudo R Level of
Square Likelihood Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4 Model 5 Model 6
Ratio Test

Age .110 .000 .567** .877** 1.210** 1.803** 2.641**

Number .016 .033 .238* .287**

of Family
Members

Education .007 .035 .302** .344** .367**

Monthly .004 .000 -.651** -.305** -.266** -.292** -.368** -.311**

Income

Career .003 .016 .373** .443**

* 0.05＜Sig＜0.1; ** Sig＜0.05

Model II

Leisure walking activities is an act of strong subjective consciousness. Residents’ attitudes to

walking and perceptions of environments may have significant influence on choices for leisure
walking. Hence, added these variables to Basic Model I and selected the new added variables by
logistic regression automatically. Finally got the Basic Model II, and its value of Pseudo R
Square (Cox and Snell increased from 0.394 to 0.421). Fitting effect of model is better.
It can be inferred from the contribution of Pseudo R Square (Table 4) that “Close to nature
and have relaxation” is the key variable of subjective perception affecting residents’ leisure
walking frequency. In a big city where the pace of life is fast, when residents realize that
walking can promote physical and mental health, they would tend to make more leisure walking
activities. The pedestrian environment that is clean, comfortable, spacious and safe will promote
residents’ choice of leisure walking activities of high frequency. Then walking may become a
daily habit.

Model III

The spatial morphology variables, which were selected by correlation analysis according to the
rule of P value ＜ 0.05 with leisure walking frequency, were put into Basic Model II
respectively. Influential degree of a morphology variable was ascertained by observing the
change of Pseudo R Square after adding it into Basic Model II. And its effect to residents with
different frequency of leisure walking was analyzed by its model parameter value (B) and
significant value (Sig.) in 6 sub-models. The calculation results are shown in Table 5. Key
 1345

variables of spatial morphology are: proportion of sidewalks ≥10 meters width, complex degree
of function （entropy）, density of parks’ entrances, proportion of commercial interfaces ＜5
stores (per 100m), section-node –ratio, proportion of commercial interfaces ≥15 stores (per
100m).

Table 4. Selection of Walking Attitude Variables and Perception Variables of Pedestrian

Environment

Attitude and Contribution Significance B Value (When the Significance Level of Sig＜0.1)
Perception Variables of Pseudo R Level of
Square Likelihood Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4 Model 5 Model 6
Ratio Test

Close to Nature .012 .000 .671** .721** .921** .839** .834** 1.382**
and Have
Relaxation

Dirty and .006 .002 .392* .829** .638** .479*

Disorderly
Environment
Making Walking
Uncomfortable

Spacious Walking .004 .048 .693** .515 .860** .897**

Space

Satisfaction of .004 .069 .500** .502** .575**

Security

Be Beneficial to .003 .271 .531* .426 .750**

Physical Health

* 0.05＜Sig＜0.1; ** Sig＜0.05

It can be inferred that: i) under the influence both of personal attributes and perception
variable, “proportion of sidewalk ＞ 10 meters width” is the key spatial morphology that
influence residents’ leisure walking frequency. Spacious walking places (such as small squares
in corners of streets, small gardens and the spaces formed by the backward parts of buildings)
can accommodate the walking activities that keep pedestrians staying. Provide spacious places
for residents’ near there to having their outdoor leisure activities, such as chatting, dancing,
doing exercise, sitting at leisure, having tea, playing chess and playing cards. Gradually, such
places become the conventional sites with function of social contact in community. And that
would attract people promenading there to meet each other; 2) complex degree of function in
land use and commercial interfaces with high density of small stores are useful to induce
residents to choose walking leisure activities in medium or high frequency. It undoubtedly
verified the results of previous correlation analyses. Mixed land use can not only promote
efficient and intensive use of land in a city and be helpful to realize the accessibility of walking
activities in a short distance, but also create diversity and continuity of the interfaces along the
streets. Dynamic and interesting interfaces of streets make pedestrian feel safe and pleasure both
in visual and psychological experience. And then leisure walking activities would be promoted;
3) the penetrability of sidewalk networks in neighborhoods will also have an impact on the
residents’ leisure walking activities. Sidewalk networks with good connectivity increase the
number of routes, offer more choices of walking routes for residents, and rich the experiences of
leisure walking activities in sites. Parks are important leisure sites in neighborhood. Increasing
entrances of parks can effectively improve their accessibility. It would be convenient for
 1346

residents to use and have a strong influence on attracting leisure activities with high frequency
especially.

Table 5. Selection of Spatial Morphology Variables in Neighborhoods

Spatial Morphology Types Contribution Significance B Value (When the Significance Level of Sig＜0.1)
Variables of Pseudo R Level of
Square Likelihood
Ratio Test Model 1 Model 2 Model 3 Model 4 Model 5 Model 6
Proportion of Walking .006 .003 .321** .312** .258*
Sidewalk ＞10 Meters Facility
Width (%)
Complex Degree of Land .005 .007 .312** .353** .271** .400** .393** .364**
Functions (Entropy) Use
Density of Parks’ Walking .005 .015 .357** .447** .387** .420** .407**
Entrances (per km²) Facility
Proportion of Land .005 .019 -.303** -.232** -.247** -.299** - -
Commercial Interfaces Use .397** .433**
＜5 Stores (Per 100m)
(%)
Section-Node -Ratio Spatial .004 .040 .286** .337** .362** .320**
Texture
Proportion of Land .001 .773 .237*
Commercial Interfaces Use
≥15 Stores (Per 100m)
(%)
* 0.05＜Sig ＜0.1; ** Sig ＜0.05

Conclusion

Objective spatial morphology variables of neighborhoods mainly influence residents' leisure

walking frequency, but have little effect on the duration. Subjective satisfactions of pedestrian
environments, which are subjective evaluation formed by individual cognition to the spatial
morphology, have little effect on residents' leisure walking frequency, but evidently on the
duration. Frequency indicates the times of leisure walking trips, while duration indicates the
quality of leisure walking activities. Therefore, improving objective environment can encourage
residents to make more choices for leisure walking, while increasing the degree of subjective
satisfactions of walking environments can extend the duration of walking activity.
In order to promote more residents’ leisure walking, designs of spatial morphology of
neighborhoods should focus on the following aspects: enhancing penetrability of sidewalk
networks; improving mixed functions of land use; increasing the density of commercial
interfaces along the streets; offering spacious sites paved with hard materials; optimizing
designs of public greens; creating a safe and clean atmosphere of the community. In addition,
the personal attributes and the subjective demands of residents will also affect whether they
choose leisure walking or not. For example, the thoughts of closing to nature, having relaxation
and being beneficial to physical health will promote the occurrences of leisure walking activities.
That means the construction of neighborhoods’ morphology should pay attention to the layout
and design of natural ecology and fitness facilities of pedestrian environments.

References

Alfonzo, M., Boarnet, M.G., et al. (2008) ‘The relationship of neighborhood built environment features
and adult parents’ walking’, Journal of Urban Design 13, 29-51.
 1347

Cervero, R. and Kockelman, K. (1997)‘Travel demand and the 3Ds:density, diversity, and design’,
Transportation Research Part D:Transport and Environment 3,199-219.
Crane, R. and Crepeau, R. (1998) ‘Does neighborhood design influence travel? A behavioral analysis of
travel diary and GIS data’, Transportation Research Part D: Transport and Environment 3, 225–238
Crane, R. (2000) ‘The Influence of Urban Form on Travel: an interpretive review’, Journal of Planning
Literature 15, 3-23.
Forsyth, A., Hearst, M., et al. (2008) ‘Design and destinations: factors Influencing walking and total
physical activity’, Urban Studies 45, 1973-1996.
Frank, L. D. and Pivo, G. (1995) ‘Impacts of mixed use and density on utilization of three
modes of travel: single-occupant vehicle, transit, and walking’, Transportation Research Record 1466,
TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 44–52.
Greenwald, M. J. and Boarnet, M.G. (2001) ‘The built environment as a determinant of walking behavior:
analyzing nonwork pedestrian travel in Portland, Oregon’, Transportation Research Record: Journal of
the Transportation Research Board, No.1780, TRB, National Research Council, Washington, D.C., 33-
42
Handy, S. L. and Clifton, K. J. (2001) ‘Local shopping as a strategy for reducing automobile travel’,
Transportation 28, 317-346
Learnihan, V., Vanniel, K. P., et al. (2011) ‘Effect of scale on the links between walking and urban
design’, Geographical Research 49, 183-191.
Moudon, A. V., Lee, C., et al. (2006) ‘Operational Definitions of walkable neighborhood: theoretical and
empirical insights’, Journal of Physical Activity and Health 3, 99-117
Owen, N., Humpel, N., et al. (2004) ‘Understanding environmental influences on walking: Review and
research agenda’, American Journal of Preventive Medicine 27, 67-76.
1348
 1349

Comparative studies of urban form

There is a long tradition of comparative studies of urban form. In the early years of
development of urban morphology as a field of knowledge, German-speaking researchers in
particular were active in making both inter- and intra-urban comparisons of the physical forms
of cities. Indeed comparisons over time became inherent in the concept of the morphological
period, which has figured explicitly or implicitly in much morphogenetic research. In a twenty-
first century environment in which the scope for international research has become so much
greater, a wider compass of comparisons of many types has become increasingly realistic.
Perhaps most obvious is the opportunity for cross-cultural comparisons. However, the success
of both these and more local comparative studies will relate importantly to progress in research,
including comparative research, relating to concepts, theories, methods and different
disciplinary perspectives. In these respects the scope for shedding fresh light on urban form by
comparative studies is great indeed. This is not to argue that research on individual cities and
parts of cities should become of lesser importance. The key point is to ensure that research at
whatever geographical scale is placed within a comparative framework. As perceptive
researchers were aware long ago, research is not just about particular places. It is about the light
that work on a particular place can shed on places more generally, and vice versa. To achieve
this, other needs must be addressed: not least it is important to work more actively towards
common definitions of the terms being employed. This is a major challenge in a field
characterized by a wide range of perspectives, including those emanating from different
disciplines and language areas. However, we should take strength from the fact that it was
particularly to meet this challenge that ISUF was formed!

J. W. R. Whitehand
1350

Urban Transformation in Meeting Places: The Cases of Bursa

& Yazd'

Sima Vaez Eslami, Ayse Sema Kubat

Department of Urban & Regional Planning, Istanbul Technical University.
E-mail: [email protected]@itu.edu.tr.

Abstract. In the 19th century, due to modernization programs, historical cities faced powerful socio-
spatial transformations. While the traditional urban structure of historical cities, which was the outcome
of an incremental growth, was created over centuries, the new urban pattern system was imposed on
historical urban fabrics and led to some serious damages on the body of historic urban fabrics all over
the world. Islamic cities underwent the same type of modifications, as well. For example, in the city of
Yazd (an Islamic Iranian city), the grid urban pattern was imposed on the organic structure which not
only affected the physical form of this historic city, but also caused many social and economic changes
within the traditional life of people.
This research uses space syntax as a tool for investigating what modernization meant for Islamic cities;
how the modern changes affected the traditional urban pattern especially the structure of meeting places
and to find why it was necessary to preserve the old structure of historical cores in Islamic cities.

Key Words: Islamic Cities, Urban Transformation, Space Syntax, Yazd, Bursa

Introduction

From the past to the present, the cities in the world have faced different changes and
transformations. Due to urban modernization programs, many historical fabrics of traditional
cities were seriously demolished to create new open spaces for new roads and constructions. In
the Middle East, the industrial and urban modernization of the Islamic cities date back to the
19th century which changed the morphological, social, and physical characteristics of The
Middle Eastern Islamic cities after a short rapid growth period of urban modernization in
Europe. This paper attempts to investigate what modernization meant for Islamic cities by using
space syntax as a tool. The main focus of this study is to present the impact of urban
modernization on the structure of meeting places in Islamic cities through an analytical
investigation of the urban structure before urban modernization and at the present time.
Although there are other studies, such as “Urban conservation and spatial transformations
preserving the fragments or maintaining the spatial spirit” by Kayvan Karimi and “The
morphological characteristics of Anatolian fortified towns” by Ayse Sema Kubat, that
investigated the effect of urban change on the historic core through using space syntax tool, this
research takes a unique approach to find the effect of urban modernization on the structure of
meeting places in two Islamic cities being Bursa and Yazd in two different countries, Turkey
and Iran, respectively.

Urban Form in Islamic Countries

A traditional (pre-industrial) Islamic city according to orientalists generally includes the

following characteristics: a medieval citadel or fort, a nearby central market (bazaar) and one or
more public baths (hammam) clustered around a Friday mosque, a religious school (madrasa)
and caravanserai, a narrow irregular street pattern, ethnic quarters, houses with courtyard,
medieval walls and gates, and a complete lack of open civic space other than the Friday mosque
courtyard (Abu-Lughod 1993; Bianca 2000). In Islamic urban model "Islam" was considered an
 1351

"urban" religion, to make people live together in communities. Streets were not designed in
purpose as in American and European cities, after the mid-nineteenth century, but were
composed of leftover space after houses were built.
Belkacem (1982) emphasizes the importance of the enclosure of space in Islamic civilization
as a symbol of the relationship between body and soul. In Islamic urban pattern public space
was also enclosed if possible. These public spaces could include covered markets,
caravanserais, madrasa, and mosque courtyards (Abu-Lughod 1993).

Physical Dimensions of City of Bursa, from Past to Present

The city of Bursa is located in the Northern western region of Anatolia in Turkey. It is believed
that Bursa was found by Prusias in about 150 B.C. (I.Orbay, 1983). In 1326 Bursa was taken
from Byzantines, and became part of the Ottoman Empire, and Ottomans started to Islamize the
environment of the city for example, Byzantine church was changed to a mosque. The first core
of the city of Bursa was surrounded by a fortress and Bursa was a fortified town (figure 1), after
a period of strengthening, the city of Bursa started to extend out of the fortified core. The Orhan
Gazi Mosque, a public bath (Hemmam), and a commercial complex (bazaar and han), were built
to the east of the fortress (T.J. Heng, 1985). The development of the city continued on an area
on the outside of the fortress.

Figure 1. Plan of Hisar (Heng 1985).

New commercial buildings were built, such as bedesten, arasta bridge, bazaars, open market
places and stores. In the Islamic city of Bursa the commercial square of the city was its focal
point and like other Islamic cities the residential quarters (Mahalla) were located around it.
These residential quarters were connected to the heart of the city (Commercial Square) by urban
access roads (Figure 2).
In the 19th century, the industrial revolution in Europe had a critical impact on Bursa, and
industrialization and westernization program was started by the Ottoman Empire to adjust city
of Bursa to the West. After deterioration of the Ottoman Empire, new urban modernization
projects were started. During these new urban modernization constructions, historic core of the
city (commercial square) were surrounded by new wider streets such as: Atatürk Street on the
South, İnönü Street on the East, and Cumhuriyet Street on the North, Figure 3 shows the roads
at the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th. So, after new urban constructions
the commercial area which was occupying a large area of the city in the 16th century was
limited with mentioned streets. New wide roads were created to provide suitable traffic, but had
caused demolition of many historical monuments.
1352

Figure 2. The historical evolution of commercial buildings in the Khans region at the end
of the 16th century (Bagbanci, 2010).

Cumhuriyet St.

Uzuncarsi St. Inunu St.

Ataturk St.

Figure 3. The roads at the end of the 19th century and at the beginning of the 20th century
(Baghbanci, 2010).

Physical Dimensions of the City of Yazd, from Past to Present

The city of Yazd is located in the center of Iran surrounded by two major deserts, Dasht-e-Kavir
and Kavir-e-Loot. The walled city of Yazd developed in different stages from pre- Islamic era
till the 14th century. In pre- Islamic era the urban pattern of the city of Yazd was the same as
other Persian cities at that time, however, after the Islamization of Iran, the urban pattern of the
city changed to organic urban form with the main elements of an Islamic city such as: bazaar,
Friday mosque, public bath, religious school and several residential neighborhoods. In the
beginning of the 15th century an urban complex consisted of a bazaar, a Friday mosque and a
water reservoir was built around the city square which was located at the extreme South-East of
the city. This new addition was called Amirchaqmaq Square (Afshar, 1995). The old city center,
which was around the old Friday mosque (Masjid-I-Jame) was gradually merged with this
square. The bazaar of the city also extended from the old Friday mosque to Amirchaqmaq
square as a good link between the old city center and the new one.In 1790; in the south-West of
the walled city another square surrounded by commercial and public activities was built and
called "Shahtahmasb" square. Shahtahmasb square was well connected to the Amirchaqmaq
 1353

square by an axial road full of commercial functions. In the 19th century, another new complex
consisting of religious school, mosque, public bath, water reservoirs was built in the middle of a
commercial route between Amirchaqmaq and Shahtahmasb squares and was called "Khan"
square-khan square later- became the most important city center for commercial activities
(Figure 4).

The walled
city

Friday
Shahtahm Mosque
asb Sq.

Amirchaq
maq Sq.

Khan Sq.

Figure 4. The city of Yazd in 1859 (Afshar, 1995).

The first and the most significant urban modernization activity was done by the order and
decision of Reza Shah (1925-1941) to drive a major network of long, wide and straight streets
as could be seen in most other Iranian cities (Wilber, 1981). Due to urban modernization
constructions the heart of the old city of Yazd was demolished. The construction of Ghiam and
Imam (Shah and Pahlavi) streets was the first sign of urban modernization and significant
change in the old city of Yazd. The bazaar was divided into two parts by Ghiam Street (Figure
5).

Figure 5. The first sign of urban modernization by construction of Pahlavi and Shah
Streets (Afshar, 1995).
1354

Methodology

In order to do a morphological analysis of the selected cities, a mathematical model, called

space syntax technique, was applied. Space syntax was developed by Hillier and Hanson at the
Department of Architectural Studies, University College of London (Hanson 1989; Hillier 1989,
Hillier & Hanson 1984; Hillier et al 1983; 1992; 1993). “Space syntax is also one of the few
theories which allow us to understand how culture and society are embedded in the specific
relational patterns constituting architecture and urban design. The aim of the technique is to
describe different aspects of relationships between the morphological structure of human-made
environments and social structures and events. It is possible to give quantitative descriptions of
built spaces. This methodology contributes greatly to understanding of the physical structure of
the cases in this study” (Kubat, 1997). As this paper is not submitted to any Space syntax
symposium, a number of analytical and technical ideas used in the paper are defined here in
order to help readers.
Axial map: “The axial map is the basis of settlement layout analysis. This represents the
distance up to which an observer can have an uninterrupted impression of visibility and
permeability as he move about the town and look in various directions. The map is derived by
drawing the fewest and the longest lines of uninterrupted permeability necessary to cover the
public open space of an area. The size of a settlement system is measured in terms of the
number of lines.” (D. Dhima, 2006).
Connectivity: "Measure the number of the immediate neighbors that are directly connected
to the spaces. In axial map connectivity of an axial line is measured by the number of lines that
are directly intersecting that line" (D. Dhima, 2006).
Integration: "Integration measures how many turns one has to make from a street segment to
reach all other street segments in the network, using shortest paths. If the amount of turns
required for reaching all segments in the graph is analyzed, then the analysis is said to measure
integration at radius 'n'. The first intersecting segment requires only one turn, the second two
turns and so on. The street segments that require the least amount of turns to reach all other
streets are called 'most integrate' and are usually represented by hotter colors, such as red or
yellow. Integration can also be analyzed in local scale, instead of the scale of the whole
network. In case of radius 4, for instance, only four turns are counted departing from each street
segment. Theoretically, the integration measure shows the cognitive complexity of reaching a
street, and is often argued to 'predict' the pedestrian use of a street"(D. Dhima, 2006).
Intelligibility: Hillier (1988, 1996) defined intelligibility as “the degree to which what can be
seen and experienced locally in the system allows the large-scale system to be learnt without
conscious effort” (Hillier, 1996, p. 215). In practice, the intelligibility value is calculated by the
degree of linear correlation between connectivity and the global integration value (Hillier and
Hanson, 1984).

Syntactic configurational measurements

To start the syntactic analysis of the spatial configuration, it is imperative to draw axial maps
first. Then, this axial map (in DXF format)should be imported into a Depth Map software to
produce a visibility graph which shows the value of Integration by ranging from red (or black)
for the most integrated lines to blue (or light gray) for the most segregated ones. By the use of
this map, the researchers were able to find the value of global integration and connectivity and
the correlation between these values results in value of intelligibility.

Data collection and analysis

In this part, Syntactic Configurational Measurements of Bursa and Yazd will be presented,
respectively. The results obtained from the gathered data will also be analyzed.
 1355

Syntactic Configurational Measurements of the City of Bursa

To start the space syntax analysis on the city core of Bursa before and after urban modernization
constructions, the axial line of the city core in both conditions were drawn and imported to
Depth map software in the context of connectivity (See Figure 6).
Figure 6 shows the connectivity map of the old city of Bursa in 1860 (top) and in the present
time (bottom), red color lines indicating the highest value of connectivity and the blue featuring
the least one. As it is clear from the connectivity map of Bursa in 1860, the most connected
lines on the map are the route of bazaar which is called "Uzun Carsi" street at the present time.
The axial line of this street is shown by o-Max on the map and its connectivity value is 9. It is
obvious that the points with high value of connectivity are located in the center of the area and
lines with low value of connectivity are located on the borders of the study area. According to
the connectivity map of Bursa in present time, the maximum connectivity value is 24 at the
point marked by n-Max, which is located on "Cumhuriyet" Street, one of the most important
streets that surrounds the historic core.
Table 1 shows the key connectivity values of the city of Bursa in 1860 and the present time.
According to this table, due to new road constructions, the mean connectivity value in the city
of Bursa increased from 2.98 to 3.45 and as it was mentioned earlier, in 1860 "Uzun Carsi"
street had the most connectivity value (Value of 9); however, in the present time "Cumhuriyet"
Street has the most value of mean connectivity (value of 24).

O-Max

Uzuncarsi
St.

Hasimiscan
St.
Inunu St.
Ulucami
St.

n-Max
Cumhuriyet St. Uzuncarsi
St.

Figure 6. The connectivity map of the city of Bursa in 1860 (top) and in present time
(bottom).
1356

Table 1: The Key Connectivity Values of the City Of Bursa in 1860 and Present Time

Connectivity Value
Old Bursa New Bursa

Average 2.98 3.45

Minimum 1 1
Maximum 9 24
Number of counts 461 1731

Figure 7 shows the global integration map of the city of Bursa in 1860 and in the present
time. Red color lines indicate the highest value of integration (Rn) and the blue lines refer to the
least value. Accordingly, in the old city of Bursa bazaar route has the most value of integration
(0.95) marked as i-Max and the lowest integrated part is shown by i-Min which has 0.35 value
of integration located far from the city core on the border.
In reference to global integration map of Bursa in the present time, the highest integration value
marked as d-Max with a value of 1.13 is located on the "Ulu Cami" street which passes through
the historic core of the city. The lowest integrated part is shown by d-Min which has 0.29
integration value and is located far from the city core on the border. So, even after urban
modernization process, the most integrated part of the city is the center and around the historic
core of the city. It is noteworthy that the integrated core of the old city of Bursa has been
preserved after urban modernization constructions.

Figure 7. Comparison between axial line maps (integration Rn) of historical city of Bursa
in 1860 (top) and at present time (bottom).
 1357

In the next step the value of intelligibility (the value of correlation between mean global
Integration and mean connectivity value) for city of Bursa before and after urban modernization
constructions; is calculated. According to this calculation the value of intelligibility has been
decreased from 0.29 to 0.10 after urban modernization and urban growth. This reduction
explains that the sense of legibility and way finding dropped after urban modernization in city
core of Bursa.
In order to find the impact of urban modernization and urban growth on the structure of meeting
places in the historic core of the city, the average of integration values of each type of meeting
places in the city of Bursa in both conditions were measured (by measuring the average of
global integration of all the entrances of each building). Table 2 shows that the hierarchy orders
of mean value of global integration of historic meeting places in the city of Bursa is not
disrupted after urban modernization transformation.

Table 2. Comparison between the Hierarchy of Integration Value of Meeting Places in the
City of Bursa in 1860 and in Present Time.

Meeting space Value of Integration Rn

Old Bursa New Bursa

Bazaar 0.87 0.99

Mosque 0.85 0.95
Public bath 0.77 0.94
Religious school 0.76 0.92

Syntactic Configurational Measurements of the City of Yazd

Having analyzed Syntactic Configurational Measurements of the City of Bursa, the researchers
repeated the same process with the second city of the study, Yazd. To start the space syntax
analysis on the city core of Yazd before and after urban modernization constructions, the axial
line of the city core in the two conditions were drawn and imported to Depth map software in
the context of connectivity. Figure 8 shows the connectivity map of the old city of Yazd in 1928
(top) and in the present time (bottom), red color lines indicating the highest value of
connectivity and the blue showing the least value. As it is clear from the connectivity map of
Yazd in 1928, the most connected lines on the map are located on the rout of bazaar near the
“Khan square.”
The axial line of this street is shown by h-Max on the map and its connectivity value is 10.
According to the connectivity map of Yazd in present time, the maximum connectivity value is
29 at the point marked by i-Max, located on "Imam Khomeini" Street which is one of the first
streets constructed in 1928.
Table 3 shows the key connectivity values of the city of Yazd in 1928 and in present time.
According to this Table, the mean connectivity value in the city of Yazd increased from 2.62 to
2.69 by urban modernization constructions and the most connectivity value (29) belongs to
“Imam khomeini” street (at present time).
1358

Table 3. Key connectivity values of the city of Yazd in 1928 and at present.

Connectivity Value
Old Yazd New Yazd

Average 2.62 2.69

Minimum 1 1
Maximum 10 29
Number of counts 943 2498

Friday
Mosque
Shahtahmasb
Sq. Amirchaqmaq
Sq.

Khan
Sq.

h-Max

Friday
Mosque Imam
Khomeini
St.
Shahtahmasb
Sq. i-Max

Ghiam St.

Khan
Sq.

Amirchaqmaq Sq.

Figure 8. The connectivity map of the city of Yazd in 1928 (top) and present time (bottom).
 1359

Figure 9 shows the global integration map of the city of Yazd in 1928 and in the present
time, red color lines indicate the highest value of integration (Rn) and the blue ones show the
least.
According to Figure 9 in the old city of Yazd, the most integrated part is seen to be in the
central part of the urban system indicated by red and less integrated parts are located around the
borders which are far and poorly connected to the center. The highest integration value marked
as a-Max with a value of 0.532 is located on the route of bazaar which is in a very central point
of the system. The route of bazaar makes a good connection between two cores of the city
(Friday Mosque and Amirchaqmaq squares). The lowest integrated part is shown by a-Min
which is located far from the city core and on the border.
Regarding global integration map of the city of Yazd in present time, the highest integration
value marked as d-Max with a value of 0.77 is located on "Ghiam" street which passes through
the historic core of the city. The lowest integrated part is shown by b-Min which has 0.28 value
of integration. According to Figure 9, it is not on the border and it is near the center of the city.

Friday
Mosque a-Min
Shahtahmas
bSq. a-Max

Public bath
Religious school
Mosque Amirchaqma
qSq.

Friday
Mosque

Shahtahmas
bSq. b-Min
b-Max

Ghiyam St.
Amirchaqma
Public bath qSq.
Religious school
Imam
Mosque
Khomeini St.

Figure 9. Comparison between axial line maps (integration Rn) of historical city of Yazd
in 1928 (top) and at present time (bottom).
1360

In the next step value of intelligibility for city of Yazd before and after urban modernization
constructions is calculated. According to this calculation the value of intelligibility has been
decreased from 0.09 to 0.07 after urban modernization and urban growth. This reduction
explains that the sense of legibility and way finding dropped after urban modernization in city
core of Bursa.
In order to find the effect of urban modernization and urban growth on the structure of
meeting places in the historic core of the city, the average of integration values of each type of
meeting places in the city of Yazd in both conditions is calculated (See Table 4). According to
the table 4, in the old city of Yazd, bazaar has the highest global integration value and public
bath has the lowest one; while at present time Religious School (Madrasa) is the most integrated
urban element and Mosque has the lowest global integration value among other historical
meeting places meaning that urban structure of meeting places in city of Yazd has been
disturbed by urban modernization constructions.

Table 4. Comparison between the Hierarchy of Integration Value of Meeting Places in the
City of Yazd in 1928 and in Present Time

Meeting space Value of Integration Rn

Old Yazd New Yazd

Bazaar 0.47 0.66

Religious school 0.45 0.68
Mosque 0.43 0.54
Public bath 0.39 0.56

Comparison and conclusion

In the present study, the urban pattern of two different Islamic cities namely Bursa and Yazd in
two different countries, Turkey and Iran, has been examined comparatively from the point of
view of identity, including their mathematical analysis. The main objective of this comparative
study is to find the impact of urban modernization transformation on old structure of historic
cores of these traditional Islamic cities. Such a study is helpful in contemporary urban studies,
especially for the renovation of the historical and cultural regions of the cities that are changed
and damaged by the effects of rapid urban modernization and urban growth programs.
Both of these cities had an organic urban pattern before urban modernization transformation;
however, in the city of Yazd grid urban pattern was imposed on the old organic pattern of the
city, thus the urban structure of the city changed dramatically. In addition, some parts of the
bazaar of the city were demolished due to such urban modernization system. But in the city of
Bursa, a new ring road was constructed around the historic core of the city without any dramatic
changes or demolitions in historic areas.
According to the analyzed maps (Integration radius n) of the old cities of Yazd and Bursa
before urban modernization transformation, in both cases the maps of global integration (radius
n) create a clear structure based on a powerful and compact integration core in the centre of the
organic pattern of the city. The most integrated part of the city is the city core that the mostly-
used places such as bazaar, mosque, madrasa and public bath are located in this part of the city.
The map of global integration (Rn) for the core of Iranian city demonstrates a total destruction
of the old global configuration. The modern streets (Ghiyam and Imam Streets) are the most
integrated lines of the systems. Since these streets have not been constructed in any accordance
 1361

to the older organic street patterns, the new integration core totally ignores the older centre of
integration. In fact, the historic integrated core of the old city is lost after urban modernization
transformation and changed to integrated streets. On the other hand, some lines which used to
be segregated become integrated and vice versa. The story in the historic core of Turkish city is
completely different. First of all, the historic core in the context of the whole city has not been
lost through urban modernization. The pattern of global integration in core of modern city of
Bursa fallows the pattern of integration in the traditional city of Bursa. In other words, the most
integrated streets are around the historic core of the city now and then with a seemingly more
expanded new integration core. Another remarkable notion obtained from the analysis of the
city of Bursa is that the segregated lines still are located in the borders and far from the city
core.
Table 5 is a Comparative analysis of the cities of Bursa and Yazd in before and after urban
modernization transformation. According to the table the value of global integration of the city
of Bursa is more than that of the city of Yazd’s in both the old and new conditions. On the other
hand, the value of global integration of both of these cities has been increased after urban
modernization process. Due to the construction of wide streets and highways as well as the
demolition of traditional narrow streets and cul-de sacs, the urban structure of both these Islamic
cities has been developed after urban modernization constructions. Value of mean connectivity
in the city of Bursa is more than that of the city of Yazd’s in any conditions. On the other hand,
the Increase in value of mean connectivity in the city of Bursa is remarkably more than the city
of Yazd meaning that new road constructions in the city of Bursa have been more than in the
city of Yazd.
According to the table 5 the intelligibility of city core in city of Yazd is poor in any
condition and its value decreased after urban modernization. The intelligibility of city core in
city of Bursa is also reduced after urban modernization process; however the correlation
between global integration and connectivity in city of Bursa is higher than intelligibility value in
city of Yazd in any condition.
The major objective of this study is to examine the impact of urban modernization on urban
structure of meeting places in Islamic cities of Yazd and Bursa. It is worth discussing the ways
the constitution of meeting places in the city changes when its spatial structure transforms. As
discussed in the previous sections, the pattern of global integration in the historic core of the
city of Bursa has not changed dramatically, thus kept the original urban structure of meeting
places in the core of the city. In other words, the hierarchy orders of the mean value of global
integration of meeting places in the city core of traditional city of Bursa before urban
modernization is similar to the modern city now. It means the most integrated meeting places
before urban modernization process were "bazaar" and "mosque" and the most segregated
elements were "public bath" and "religious school". This order is preserved after urban
modernization process (See Table 5).
On the other hand, the global position of meeting places in the city core of the old city of
Yazd has been disturbed dramatically by urban modernization process. In other words, the most
integrated meeting places in the old city of Yazd were "bazaar" and "mosque" and the less
integrated public places were "religious school" and "public bath". However, after urban
modernization process the global position of meeting places changed dramatically. It means the
most integrated meeting places after urban modernization process become "religious school"
and "bazaar" and the less integrated buildings are "public bath" and "mosque". According to the
above findings and also other results in the previous sections, it is apparent that in the city of
Yazd, a larger entity, i.e. the configuration organization has been lost. Consequently, the Islamic
identity of the city has been deteriorated drastically. In contrast, the old city of Bursa seems to
have retained its traditional urban morphology features, especially from the point of view of
Islamic urban elements so the Islamic identity of the city is preserved in an acceptable way.
1362

Table 5. Comparative analysis of the cities of Bursa and Yazd in before and after urban
modernization transformation.

Bursa Yazd Result

Integration Old 0.61 0.36 The urban structure of city of Bursa

Rn is more integrated than city of Yazd
New 0.73 0.50 in both old and new conditions.
Old 2.98 2.62 Increase in value of mean
Connectivity connectivity in city of Bursa is
remarkably more than city of Yazd
New 3.45 2.69 so road constructions in city of
Bursa were more than city of Yazd.
Old
Value of intelligibility decreased
0.29 0.09
Intelligibili after urban modernization in
ty New both of these cities; it means
0.10 0.07 legibility of the city cores has
been decreased after urban
modernization process.
Meeting Place Global position in The hierarchy orders of mean
the city core value of global integration of
historic meeting places in the city
Bazaar Old 0.87 0.47 of Bursa is not disrupted after
New 0.99 0.66 urban growth and urban
Mosque Old 0.85 0.43 modernization, but this structure
is completely disturbed by urban
New 0.95 0.54
modernization process in the city
Public Old 0.77 0.39 of Yazd.
bath New 0.94 0.56

Religious Old 0.76 0.45

School New 0.92 0.68

References

Abu-Lughod, J. (1993). The Islamic City: Historic Myth, Islamic Essence, and Contemporary Relevance.
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Edition.
Afshar, L. (1995). Yadgarha-Yi Yazd: Mu'arrifi-I Abniyah-1 Tarikhi va Asar-1 Bastani.
Ardalan, N. & Bakhtiar, L. (1979). The sense of unity: the sufi tradition in Persian architecture. Chicago:
The University of Chicago Press.
Bagbanci M.B. & Bagbanci O. (2010). Urban Reforms of Tanzimat: Early Urbanization and
Transportation Practices in The Formation Process of Turkish Reconstruction System (1839-1908) in
Bursa The First Capital City of Ottoman Empire, World Academy of Science Journal Vol. 42, pp. 1107-
1112.
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Istanbul, Turkey, edited by Renate Holod, The Aga Khan Award for Architecture.
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Century, Seattle: University of Washington Press, Washington, WA
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Master of Science Thesis, MIT, Cambridge, MA
Hillier, B. & Hanson J. (1984). The Social Logic of Space, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, MA
Hillier, B. (1996). Space is the Machine, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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Karimi K. (1998). Continuity and Change in Old Cities, an Analytical Investigation of the Spatial
Structure in Iranian and English Historic Cities Before and After Modernization, PhD Thesis, The
Bartlett School of Graduate Studies, UCL, London.
Kubat, A.S. (1997). The Morphological Characteristics of Anatolian Fortified Towns, Environment and
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Kubat, A.S. (1999). Morphological History of Istanbul, Urban Morphology – Journal of the International
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The Morphological Elements of a Traditional City, Yazd-Iran, in R.C.G.L.M. Alinea (ed.),
Transformations of Urban Form, Florence PP.FK1.15-FK1.18.
Tavassuli, M. Bonyadi, N. (1992). Urban Space Design 1, Tehran: Urban Planning and Architecture,
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of Tehran
1364

Environmental assessment method of urban spaces case

study: south wing of the Urban Plan for Brasilia

Ederson Teixeira, Marta A. B. Romero, G. A. C. Cantuaria

Faculty of Architecture – University of Brasilia. E-mail: [email protected] ,
[email protected]

Abstract. The urbanization process tends to create many problems of environmental condition in the
urban space, but not in a general way. Nowadays, there are many examples of cities that have sought an
organization of the urban space in order to improve habitat conditions in public spaces. Based on this,
this paper seeks to develop a method of Urban Morphology Analysis with a sustainability scope in
administrative regions of the DF, and thus classify these regions according to the performance of a
passive urban design. A fundamental research was developed from specific concepts from aspects of
urban morphology, for when examined under a certain method, define the degree of sustainability of the
region analyzed. Therefore, this work seeks to develop a new implementation methodology reducing the
subjectivity of the results from in situ environmental measurements, computer simulations and studies of
urban forms, using as case study the Administrative Region I - South Wing of the Pilot Plan Brasília.

Key Words: Urban morphology, comfort, environmental evaluation, urban spaces, South Wing

Introduction

From the understanding that cities have individual and disparate features amongst them, and
that growth brings, most often, many problems of environmental aspects of the urban space, it is
understood that there is a great contrast between the notions of urban and environmental,
"including the reasons why this impasse apparently does not exist in current urban planning"
(COSTA, 1999:2). However, several other authors, as Romero (2000, 2007, 2011), Olgyay
(2008), and Alucci Monteiro (2007), among others, argue that both concepts should be
addressed in an integrated manner to ensure a better quality of urban life, both for the city, as
mainly for its users.
Analyzing the concepts studied by these authors, its perceived the need to integrate the
conditions of the physical space to ensure a good quality of life. However, any method of
valuation that is exclusively related to the quality of public spaces is not currently available.
Nowadays, various methods of building assessment, be them commercial, public, residential or
services, have been developed to verify levels of energy efficiency and environmental comfort.
Among these, we mention LEED, HQE, AQUA and PROCEL. In most cases, the method of
measuring the results is based on the score in several attributes that check individually, parts of
the building . These attributes, when brought together, define the construction quality level,
from a value of its end result. However, there are few evaluation methods that have attributes to
verify the level of urban quality. In most cases, the urban attributes are only related to the
interference of these on the building.
Given this panorama, from a basic research we present in this work a method for
environmental qualification of urban spaces, using as a basis a study developed in the course
Sustainable Urbanism, of the Graduate School of architecture and Urbanism of the University of
Brasilia. In this work, called Sustainable Morphological Analysis of Administrative Regions of
the Federal District, specific, grouped concepts were defined in a table of indicators and
attributes, defining values, which when analyzed, define the degree of sustainability of a region.
However, because it is a subjective method of analysis, a difference was noted in the results,
varying according to each researcher.
 1365

The indicators were conceptualized according to the studies of Romero (2007), Panerai
(2006), Rueda (2007) and Lynch (1997), set out from similar characteristics of the physical
space of cities. In this case, adopted the indicators studied by Romero (2011) were adopted:
Accessibility, Safety, Comfort, Landscape, Social/Cultural Relations and Resources. The use of
these was due to several studies conducted by the author, consolidating information from
several other researchers.
The review also pointed out that the questions of urban environmental quality or, the
Environmental Indicator, are analyzed briefly, being necessary an improvement of this aspect,
making it one of the main objectives of this work.
Therefore, this study was divided into three basic steps. The first improved the theoretical
framework involving the assumptions related to environmental conditions in urban areas,
identifying attributes with well-defined concepts, gathering indicators, following the same
methodology as developed in the work cited above.
With their respective attributes and concepts defined, the second methodological step begins
for applying these attributes in the sectors and regions to be studied. For this it was to study the
best method where there is no interference from the researcher and / or user, preferably using
automated mechanisms or appropriate mathematical formulas, including computational tools to
facilitate, enhance or ensure the correct relationship of the results.
Among the software used, we cite the ENVI -met, which generates a three-dimensional
simulation model of urban micro climate, analyzing the surface, vegetation, atmosphere,
calculating the energy balance, among other variables .
Finally, the third step consisted in the " calibration " of the proposed methodology by
applying to study in an urban fraction of the Federal District ( DF ) . The selected region has
also been part of the work of Sustainable Urbanism mentioned previously, the South Wing of
the Pilot Plan of Brasilia, thus obtaining a comparison of results . The end result sets a label for
sustainable urban quality whose results are compared with other studies obtained in other
administrative regions of the DF . This procedure is in progress and its results serve as inputs
for discussion. With these three steps finalized, we conclude the work by presenting all the
achievements and future proposals for continued study.

Presentation of the work on sustainable urbanism

Initially, it was necessary a literary review of theoreticians that define concepts on urban
environmental quality, such as Romero (2000, 2007 and 2011), Toledo (2003), Miller and
Alucci (2007 and 2008), Ghiaus and Allard (2005), Fleet and Schiffer (2003), Carmona (2007),
Duany (2001), Sennett (1991) Duany (2001), Lynch (2004), Kostof (2006), among others.
With the theoretical background acquired by reading the authors, it was possible to develop a
reference table identifying the main aspects related to the environmental quality of urban spaces.
Later the concepts of the authors will be unified as indicators (from the similar identification of
the attributes and their parameters environmental quality). This table shows how each author
examines elements that even if they are similar and related to each other, they obtain as a final
result independent parameters, and adopt concepts that analyze differently urban spaces.
With the definition of these concepts, it was possible to unify them into Indicators, which
aim to demonstrate the level of urban quality, highlighting the need for a critical view at the
current way of life in various regions of the DF . The indicators used were the same six studied
by Romero (2011 ) : Accessibility, Safety, Comfort, Landscape, Social/Cultural Relations, and
Resources .
With the indicators defined, we developed a list of Attributes, appraising and synthesizing
the data acquired by reading the authors, framing them in the seven key indicators .
Furthermore, it was necessary to divide some of the renowned attributes in both scales studied
by Romero (2011 ), the City Scale, and the Sector Scale, for being independent of specific
aspects, such as the perceptual quality of the great physical and organizational form,
1366

environmental variety, the macro transportation system, the permanence and continuity of built
environment ( City Scale ), as well as to analyze morphological relations and their respective
environmental response, environmental and functional accessibility, consistency, knowledge
and functionality (Sector Scale) .
With these relationships defined, it was possible to develop a table of " Contents of Urban
Morphology ", separating the attributes in their respective scales and indicators, as noted in
Table 01. It is divided in two study scales: City Scale and Sector Scale. First, the indicator is set,
then, the sub -indicator and analysis attributes. In this case, because it is a review, only the
environmental indicator was presented .
The fourth column referes to the concept of the attribute, helping to obtain analytical view /
formulas / values ( valuation method of the attribute set from the on-site observation,
measurement, analysis and identification maps of the study area ), the fifth column. This is the
main column of the table, allowing to identify the quality level from each attribute, and each
result has a specific weight, which in their sum generates a value that defines the level of urban
environmental quality of a given region under study . These last two columns will be better
exemplified in the following item .
However, it is valid to note that these last two columns ( analytical vision and weight ) ended
up being arbitrary, often assessed from the perception of the observer in situ, which may bias
the final outcome, because by not being qualitative, may create different occurrences depending
on the individual analysis of each user.

Table 1. Analysis of sustainable urban morphology - environmental indicator

City Scale
Sub- Analytical View / Formula
Ind. Attribute Concept WG
Indicator / Values
I. North / South 1
Orientation
Orientation of tracks II. East / West 4
of the paths Solar
predominance III. Northeast / Southwest 3
set
IV. Northwest / Southeast 3
I. None 1
Thin, open, sparse, dense, II. Rala, Open, Sparse 2
Form
large pantry, high III. intermediate 3
IV. Dense Wide Cup 4
Visual perception of I. No porosity 1
empty and full II. porosity secreted 2
Porosity (afforestation): analysis III. partial porosity 4
Environmental

of the vertical plane - IV. total porosity 3

Green urban groupings of trees
I. No green areas (0% to
1
25%)
II. Secreted green areas
2
Ratio of Wooded area ratio - (26% and 60%)
green areas percentage III. Green areas partial
3
(61% to 80%)
IV. Total green areas
4
(81% to 100%)
I. There 1
APAS, APPS, etc. Good II. Exists, but do not
Fields 2
Preservation as a territory and preserve the fields
preservation
sustainability III. There, preserve, but
3
there is a limit of fields
 1367

IV. There is no limit and

4
preserve the fields

Sector Scale
Sub- Analytical View /
Ind. Attribute Concept Wg
Indicator Formula / Values
I. North / South 4
Orientation
Predominant Orientation Ii. East / West 1
Of Solar
Of Facades Iii. Northeast / Southwest 3
Dwellings
Iv. Northwest / Southeast 2
There Permeability I. 1
Ii. Inadequate
2
Existence Of Obstacles To Permeability
Permeability
Ventilation Iii. Partial Permeability 3
Iv. Adequate
4
Permeability
I. Variable Ratio
Ventilation 1
(Priceless)
Qualification Under Ii. Claustrophobic Spaces
2
Relation Between The (W / H <1)
Windchill
Lane Width And Height Iii. Collecting Spaces (W
4
Of Buildings / H = 1, 2 And 3)
Environmental

Iv. Expansive Spaces (W

2
/ H> 4)
I. There Is No
Accommodation
1
Pathways To The
Contours (0% To 25%)
Ii. Favorable To The
Contour Lines (26% To 2
Accommodation Pathways
Relief Topography 60%)
To The Contours
Iii. Favorable To The
Contour Lines (62% To 3
80%)
Iv. Favorable To The
Contour Lines (81% To 4
100%)
I Dont Bother 4
Ii. Intermittent Low
3
Acoustic Noise Nuisance By Noise
Noise Level
Comfort Sensory Perception Iii. Constant Noise 2
Iv. Loud Noise
1
(Deafening)

After defining all the weights in each attribute, it was determined using an evaluation
criterion based on existing certification systems. In this case, the method used for evaluation of
urban areas was the criterion of points. Thus, it is possible to distinguish the difference between
the assessed regions, and examine whether the region has a "low" rating, allowing you to work
on specific attributes to thereby improve their grades.
Based on this, it is possible to compare the urban regions analyzed by checking the degree of
sustainability of each region and its result on the Labeling Scale, thus noting which regions have
better qualities for its users.
1368

Urban environmental quality analysis

The new work methodology consisted initially in a new literature review of the main authors
that deal with concepts related to environmental urban morphology. After analyzing all these
concepts presented, and evaluated previously explained work and on the sum of factors that
interfere with the way on how to define appropriate living conditions, it was possible to
consolidate all information acquired by extracting aspects of environmental quality of each
author studied. With that, we present in Table 2 the similarities and the coherence of the
information, also identifying concepts that fit directly in the Environmental indicator which was
reassessed.
In addition, this table 2 was the basis for recognizing which aspects are necessary to
guarantee. good environmental condition in urban spaces, a complement to the information
already acquired in research for the course of Sustainable Urbanism.

Table 2. Synthesis

Autor Atributos
Machado (1997) Tastes, preferences, perceptions, values
Norberg-Schulz Orientation, identification
(1984)
Sennet (1991) Hierarchy, identity, centrality, heterogeneity
Lynch (1997) Legibility, imageability, paths, boundaries, districts, nodes, landmarks,
shape, color, arrangement, identity, structure, meaning
Romero (2000, 2007, Scales ratio W / H topography, vegetation, floor covering, natural and /
2011) or artificial elements that interfere with radiation and / or ventilating
Ferrari (1991) Units Neighbourhood, size, boundaries, public areas, institutional areas,
local trade, internal street system, use and occupation of land, diversity
of uses
Vargas (1999) Diversity of uses, use and occupation of land, boundaries
Panerai (2006) Hierarchy
Rueda (2000, 2007) Density, use and occupancy, permeable areas, mobility, accessibility,
urban organization, orientability, diversity of uses, institutions, flows of
energy, water, materials, comfort, degradation, automotive mobility
McHarg (1967) Integration milestones, road connections, hierarchy of roads, cycling
infrastructure, accessibility to public transportation, mixed-use
pathways, equity
Rau (2003) Public lighting, indoor-outdoor visibility (public buildings - space),
environmental degradation
Jacobs (2009) Indoor-outdoor visibility
Newman (1996) Evaluation of the physical characteristics of the site and the natural
environment, analysis of users and their needs, relationship between
user needs and features of the site, pedestrian movements, boundaries
between public and private ownership of space, time occupation of
public spaces busy, spatial design, scale and proportion, movement,
structure, artificial lighting, spatial degradation

Table 2 presents a consolidation of all information acquired during the studies on the
development of this work. Seeking to improve these concepts in major groups, the six basic
indicators studied by Romero (2011) were adopted: accessibility, safety, comfort, landscape,
social / cultural relations, and resources.
 1369

Each indicator has specific characteristics. According to Romero (2011:42), the "nature and
natural forms of the land are the basis of sustainable urban design ." She further states that
"conservation allows the existence of a sense of place, their identity, sensitizing the user to the
context and making more complex and continuous the perceived scale." Community social
relationships create a sense of belonging and expectations of development where strategies such
as social interaction, learning, continued education, magnify these concepts. Furthermore, the
resources refer to "aspects of recycling solid and liquid waste in integrated systems, eliminating
waste and making use of the heat generated". For this, we look for alternative energy sources,
rational use, as well as solutions to environmental air quality (Romero, 2011:42) .
With these key indicators set, and separating each authors’ guideline in their respective
indicator, we find: Accessibility Indicator (11 attributes) ; Landscape Indicator (14 attributes);
Comfort Indicator (9 attributes); Social/Cultural Relations Indicator (12 attributes); Security
Indicator (4 attributes), and; Resources Indicator(4 attributes), for a total of fifty-four ( 54 )
attributes .

New method application

This step of the work consists, initially, on the understanding of the classification criteria
adopted by the study conducted in the course of Sustainable Urbanism, of the Urban
Environmental Quality table. These classification criteria stipulate optimal parameters acquired
from the reading of the theoretical framework, and this way ensuring a degree of comparability
between the areas to be studied, in this case, a review of the South Wing of the Pilot Plan of the
Federal District.
Based on existing certification systems, the method used for evaluation of urban areas was
the points criteria. Each item measured has a specific value ranging from 1 to 4, wherein those
having a greater assessment of weight 4 are more sustainable than those with weight 1. Thus, it
is possible to distinguish the difference between the evaluated areas, as well as examine whether
a region is on a low note, allowing work on specific attributes to thereby improve their grades.
In addition, it was adopted in the work a reference level between administrative regions
studied (in this case it was just presented the South Wing of the Pilot Plan of Brasilia). This
reference level, called here "Labeling Scale" was defined as the sum of the weighted averages
based on the number of attributes and their grades. The Seal B is acquired from the sum of all
attributes being considered Weight 3, thus ensuring a minimum level for a Sustainable
Urbanism. Have the Seal D, was given from the sum of the attributes with weight 2, and their
ranges were established as Seals A, C and E.
This way it was possible to compare the urban regions analyzed by checking the degree of
sustainability of each region and its result on the labeling scale, therefore verifying the urban
areas that have better qualities for its users.
After the development of the labeling scale, a method was developed for the application of
the table parameters, in this case only the comfort indicator. Because it is one of the more
subjective indicators of work previously mentioned, this analysis sought to study this unique
indicator to ensure an assessment where there is no interference from the researcher in the final
result.
For this, it was necessary to continue the procedure already set, dividing each attribute into
four (4) evaluation indexes, each possessing its respective weight ratio. For these indices to be
agreed upon, it was necessary to discriminate all the attributes by checking the form of analysis
of each attribute, thereby locking the feasibility assessment.
Among the attributes found in the Comfort Indicator, we have: acoustic, porosity,
temperature, ventilation, humidity, environmental W/H ratio, topography, shading/vegetation
and soil permeability. Therefore, it is observed in Table 3, the Comfort Indicator, two examples
of the attribute containing the conceptualization, his method of analysis, evaluation indices with
their respective weights
1370

Tabela 3. Confort

Attribute: Ventilation Indices: WG:

I. Ideal (0-30%) 1
Assessment Method: Check the result of computer II. Ideal (31-60%) 2
simulation, the percentage of adequate ventilation in the III. Ideal (61-80%) 3
pedestrian level. IV. Ideal (81-100%) 4
(Adopted value between 1.2-1.7 m / s)
Analysis: Computer Simulation - ENVI-met.
Attribute: Permeability of Soil Indices: WG:
I. Permeable (0-20%) 1
Assessment Method: Ratio of paved area and constructed II. Permeable (21-50%) 3
with permeable area in percentage (%). III. Perm. (51-80%) 4
Analysis: Study of Soil Permeability. IV. Perm. (81-100%) 2

The analysis of each attribute was defined from the use of scales, studies and computer
simulation. These choices seek to reduce the chances of interference from the researcher's
personal assessment of the results and so may be possible to maintain a standard of
comparability across sectors analyzed.
Initially, it was necessary to understand at what scale (City or Sector) to apply the study. For
this, it is necessary to understand the space as a whole, observing all its features, identities,
similarities and singularities .
It is noticed initially in the South Wing of the Pilot Plan of Brasilia (the case of this study ), a
standardization of these areas, from the routes, buildings and vegetation in almost 90 % of its
area. Moreover, it is observed that urbanism adopted follows the features proposed as
Neighbourhood Units (Ferrari, 1991), with residential, commercial and service buildings in an
area of approximately 500m each as defined in the Pilot Plan of Brasilia as Superquadras.

Figure 1. Simulation study of ventilation in Envi-MET software.

Regarding the evaluation of the Soil Permeability attribute, it took place initially from the
withdrawal of buildable area with paved area. Of the spare area, 70% was defined as pervious
area, with the remaining 30% used as a public footpath concrete, non-permeable. Therefore, the
result obtained 41.10% of permeable area (Figure 57), obtaining weight 3 as evaluation indices
defined from the theoretical reading (Figure 2). It is known that the more permeable the region,
the better for rainwater drainage, biodiversity, among others. However, because it is an urban
area, seeking appropriate paths for all users, including individuals with special needs, excess
 1371

permeable area decreases the quality of urban space. It is noteworthy that soil type was
evaluated, only the amount of possible permeable areas.

Figure 2. Soil Permeability Study.

After analyzing all the attributes, the sum of the weighted average of all weights is found,
checking the degree of urban environmental quality of the region according to the labeling
scale. It was noted that for the Comfort indicator, the end result was little different than
previously found. However, we understand now that the new review process became
independent of the perception of the researcher, applicable by any user.
Briefly, of the final table with 54 attributes defined in the 6 indicators, only 49 have a
defined method of analysis. In this sense, the attributes that do not have a method of analysis set
were taken from the sum of weighted average weights because their definitions are not part of
the objectives of this work .
With that, and analyzing the old review of the case study with the new results obtained with
the Comfort Indicator (this work), the Analysis of Sustainable Urban Morphology in the South
Wing, received the Label A.

Final Considerations

The present study sought to enhance the work developed in the course Sustainable Urbanism, of
the Graduate School of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of Brasilia, on sustainable
morphological analysis of administrative regions of the Federal District .
Based initially on literature review on urban environmental quality, through authors such as
Romero (2000, 2007 and 2011), Toledo (2003 ), Miller and Alucci (2007 and 2008 ), Ghiaus
and Allard (2005), Fleet and Schiffer (2003), Carmona (2007), Duany (200 ), Sennett (1991),
Lynch (2004), Kostof (2006), among others . From this, we sought to systematize the acquired
concepts, defined here as attributes, grouping them into indicators, later to establish valuation
parameters that would be used in some administrative areas of the Federal District .
With regards to the reading, it was possible to synthesize the concepts of fifty- four (54)
attributes, divided into six (06) indicators adopted from studies of Romero (2007), Panerai
(2006) and Rueda (2007). They are: Accessibility, Landscape, Comfort, Social / Cultural
Relations, Security, and Resources.
Furthermore, it was established a method of classification, defined as Labeling Scale, where
each attribute independently analyzed receives a weight, and the weighted sum so would set a
1372

rating of " A" to " E", being "A" the label adopted for the regions with better urban
environmental quality .
With this, it was sought to develop a new evaluation methodology, trying to reduce the
subjectivity of the results and to be applied by any researcher. For the case study, the Comfort
indicator was revised. All attributes of this indicator were studied individually, conceptualized
and implemented in a new methodology for analysis from in situ measurements, computer
simulations and study of maps and forms .
It was noted however that even after the new procedure, there weren’t so many differences in
results from the previous study, receiving in the end, the same level of labeling ( Label A) .
However, it is noticed that despite the similarity of the results obtained in both studies, there
was an evolution in its application methodology. Even though much of the assessment method
still presenting subjectivity, this study will help other researchers to develop new methodologies
for analysis and application, increasingly looking to minimize any user interference in their
results.

References

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1374

Comparing urban rules for urbanizing villages in Hong Kong,

Macau and Shenzhen

Hendrik Tieben1, Joanna Chu1, Nuno Soares1, Chung Yam Yiu2

1
School of Architecture, 2Department of Geography and Resource Management, The
Chinese University of Hong Kong. E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract. Since the introduction of China’s Open Door Policy (1979), scholars were attracted to study
Chinese urbanism in general and conduct individual case studies. The methodological approach of urban
morphology has been extended to Chinese cities, and comparative studies of Chinese and Western cities
were published. This paper adds another comparative study focusing on three cities in the Pearl River
Delta (PRD): Hong Kong, Macau, and Shenzhen, all belonging to the People’s Republic of China, but
presenting significantly different urban forms. The cities lend themselves for comparative studies, as they
share the location in a river delta, subtropical marine climate, Cantonese culture, and high-density, but
differ significantly based on their individual histories and British, Portuguese, and Chinese planning
rules. Due to China’s One Country, Two Systems policy their differences persist, despite the integration
process currently pushed forward by large-scale infrastructure projects. With this focus the authors’
intend to link urban morphological research closer to urban design and planning practice. This paper, in
particular focuses on rules, which were implemented to address issues arising from the urban expansion
onto rural land. The research is supported by a General Research Fund (GRF4440740), awarded by the
Hong Kong University Grants Committee.

Key Words: Chinese urbanism, comparative studies of urban forms, urban rules, and urban villages.

Introduction

Based on the economic and political significance of Hong Kong and Macau’s integration
process into mainland China, comparative studies on the different planning cultures in the PRD
have been made (for instance Ng, 2005). Also the governments of these cities made initial steps
to plan an integrated “Pearl River Bay Region”. These studies concentrated until now mainly on
the regional scale. Detailed comparative studies highlighting the local characteristics of the
different urban forms and planning experiences are still missing.
For our research project we assume that the three selected cities (like many other cities) had
to address similar key urban issues such as public health, economic development, housing,
informal development.208 For this paper, we concentrate on those rules implemented by Hong
Kong, Macau and Shenzhen, to address issues arising from the cities’ expansions onto rural
land. Such rules had to address various issues related to different local histories, land
management and ownership, compensation, housing eligibility, and redevelopment
opportunities. In the discussion of the case studies these issues are used to organize and compare
the different rules. The selected case study sites are: Hung Shui Kiu (HSK) (Hong Kong),
Baishizhou (Shenzhen) and Taipa (Macau). These sites were selected, due to currently ongoing
projects in these areas which likely will transform them very soon. These sites were also

208
In general, we identified the following key issues and planning goals, as reasons to implement, revise
or repeal specific urban rules and guidelines in the four cities: public health and order concerns, increase
of industrial, productivity and employment, response to mass migration, attraction of foreign direct
investments, coping with overdevelopment, transformation from manufacturing to service and financial
industry, attraction of tourists and talents, ensuring environmental and heritage protection and quality of
life, encouraging creative industries, responding to citizen concerns and aspirations.
 1375

selected as studio sites for the M.Sc. in Urban Design Programme at the Chinese University of
Hong Kong.209 Findings of the case studies are discussed in the final part of the paper.

Figure 1. PRD Map with case study sites.

Cases and rules

Figure 2. Case Study Sites: 1) Hung Shui Kiu (Hong Kong); 2) Taipa (Macau); and 3)
Baishizhou (Shenzhen).

209
The parallel studios were taught by Travis Bunt, Colin Fournier, Chris Gee, Tat Lam, Nuno Soares and Hendrik
Tieben. With there inputs in the studio discussions they all contributed to the idea and content of this paper. Students
visited all three sites and presented their research and design projects at different stages to all classmates and teachers.
1376

Figure 3. Urban Villages in Hung Shui Kiu (Hong Kong), Taipa (Macau), and Baishizhou
(Shenzhen).

The urban rules for urbanizing villages are organized according to the following four categories:
history; land management and ownership; Compensation for Eminent Domain redevelopment of
villages.

History

The first category of rules is related to the specific backgrounds of the three villages.
The villages in Baishizhou and HSK are located in close vicinity in the north and south of
Shenzhen Bay, respectively. The boundary between the north and south side of the bay, created
in 1898 after the “New Territories” were leased to Hong Kong, still exists. Most villages in HSK
were built by Punti which had developed into complex wealthy lineages, settling in separate
villages about ½ mile from each other, and became known as “the Great Clans” during the 15-
19th century. The Tang clan settled first at Kam Tin in the mid-11th century and established their
settlements in Ping Shan, Ha Tsuen, Lung Yeuk Tow, and Loi Tung, which still exists today. The
Tangs were the most powerful of the “Five Great Clans” in the New Territories, with Ha Tsuen,
Kam Tin and Ping Shan, as their most important settlements. It is known that Ping Shan and Ha
Tsuen villages fiercely competed over the ownership of the ferry over the HSK River (Hase &
Sinn 1995). Originally this river arrived at Ha Tsuen, which was the most important village of
the area, and is the location of the Tang clan ancestor hall. Later the river was relocated towards
north-east dividing today’s HSK from the new town Tin Shui Wai (TSW). Before becoming part
of the British colony, HSK was well connected via the Shenzhen Bay to the Nantou peninsula
and the provincial capital Guangzhou further north. After the construction of the border this
north-western part of the New Territories lost its importance and became the backyard of Hong
Kong. Today its landscape is shaped by three storey “village homes”, open container storages
and patches of remaining agricultural land. This landscape contrasts to the adjacent new town
TSW, with its 32-38 storey residential towers, multistorey school buildings and shopping
centers. TSW new town was built in 1987 over an area of abandoned fish ponds and rice
paddies.210
Based on the current housing demands and as part of Hong Kong’s regional strategy, the
government plans to build in HSK one of its biggest New Development Areas (NDA) for
around 160.000 inhabitants. 826 hectares are earmarked for 60.000 new homes and a logistic
hub. 40 storey towers are planned around the newly planned MTR West Rail Station. The first
part of the HSK NDA should be completed in 2024 (Ng, 2013). The 20 existing indigenous

210
Around 488 hectares of land for the new town were reclaimed. A consortium Mightycity Ltd.
(including investors from Hong Kong, UK and China) bought the land from the local Chan clan, and a
first public-private-partnership development proposal was made in 1980. However, due to a property
slump in 1982, the government declined the proposal and decided to buy the land from the developer, but
re-granted 38.8 hectares of land to the developer in 1989 for a private housing and commercial
development scheme (Bristow, 1989 p.220). In 1982, the government commissioned consultants to
prepare a master plan for the Tin Shui Wai south development zone, and started the Tin Shui Wai New
Town Development. (Law et al., 2009).
 1377

villages in HSK would not be directly affected; but, 5 of the 9 non-indigenous villages,
including 1,400 squatter huts, are planned to be cleared (Ng, 2013). In addition some of the land
of the indigenous villagers, currently used as container storages, will be used for the new
housing areas. Thus the villagers have already compensations for these areas. A similar NDA
project in the north-eastern New Territories has created vehement protests of villagers and
similar resistance is to be expected in HSK.

Figure 4. Shahe Farm in 1982 (in Xia Baishi).

Figure 5. Shennan avenue in 1980s (Shennan avenuedivides Baishizhou into Shang

baishi and Xia baishi).

Baishizhou is located in Shenzhen, north of Shenzhen Bay between Nantou and Louhu. Most
of the land next to Baishizhou is owned by the Overseas Chinese Town (OCT) Holding, which
developed here China’s first theme parks, luxury residential areas and “OCT Loft” (Shenzhen’s
main creative industries cluster). Baishizhou encompasses an area of 7.4sqkm with an estimated
population of 140.000 people, of which only 7.500 residents have the Shenzhen hukou and only
1,880 are locals. The area is serving as residential place to those employed in the OCT theme
parks and creative industries. Density reaches 18,900 p/sq.km (O'Donnell, M.A. 2013). In the
same super-block, there are industrial buildings and gated communities next to the village. The
Baishizhou area includes 5 smaller villages - Baishizhou, Shangbaishi, Xiabaishi, Xintang and
Tangtou, which date back to the state-owned agricultural collective, Shahe Farm, established in
the 1950s, when agricultural land and production was reorganized by the communist
government (O'Donnell, M.A. 2013). Houses in the urban villages reach up to 15 storeys and
are surrounded along the perimeter roads by new commercial and residential towers. Industrial
buildings and dormitories in Baishizhou are south orientated, multi-storey slab-blocks, similar
to those found in many parts of China. Currently there are discussions between OCT Holding,
the village corporation and further private developers how to regenerate or redevelop the urban
villages of Baishizhou.
As part of the 2003 signed Closer Economic Partnership Arrangement (CEPA) between the
PRD cities, several ambitious infrastructure projects were launched (which also affect the three
1378

case study sites). Since 2007, Shenzhen Bay Bridge has connected the western part of Shenzhen
(incl. OCT, Baishizhou, Shenzhen Airport, and the new Qianhai Special Development Zone)
with Hong Kong and Hung Shui Kiu. The bridge is part of a new Hong Kong-Shenzhen Western
Corridor which will reach Hong Kong International Airport in the south and via the Hong
Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge the western side of the Pearl River Delta. In Macau and Zhuhai,
another New Development Zone is planned on the Island Hengqin (similar to the Qianhai New
Development Zone in Shenzhen). This area on Hengqin is located across the boundary of
Macau’s COTAI Strip and near the third case study site: Taipa Village (see map). When the
Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge opens in 2016, traveling time from Shenzhen and Hong
Kong to Macau and Zhuhai will be decreased significantly so that daily commuting by car
would be possible. Today, new apartments in Macau are sold at comparable prices to Hong
Kong, as property prices tripled since 2009. Since Taipa Island has a lower population density
than Macau peninsula, and vicinity to the new casinos, Macau Airport, University of Macau and
Hengqin, it is particularly targeted for upper-market real estate projects.
Like HSK, Taipa Village has always been located at the periphery (with some typical fringe-
belt land-uses in its neighborhood). Taipa always had few developments for most of its history.
However, due to Macau’s casino boom and the ongoing integration process of Hong Kong and
Macau into mainland China, this is quickly changing. According to the Macau census of 1991,
the population of Taipa Island then was 7,037. This number increased to 41,786 in 2001 and to
78,497 in 2011 due to the intensive building activity taking place on the Island for the past
decade.
In Taipa, we find a similar contrast in building scales like those found between HSK and
TSW new town: houses in Taipa Village are still only 2-4 storeys high, while the towers of the
adjacent New Taipa area reach 40 storeys.
Taipa began to be developed more intensively after the inauguration of the first Macau-Taipa
bridge in 1974 (Ponte Governador Nobre Carvalho). Differently from Macau peninsula, the
Portuguese presence on the island dates back only to 1847. This happened under the Governor
Ferreira do Amaral, who was later killed by Chinese in response to the extension of Portuguese
rule over a territory that so far had been administered by the Chinese. Amaral had pushed for a
transformation of Macau into a colony similar to Hong Kong, which had been established as
colony only five years earlier and quickly took-over most of Macau’s trading business.
Before 1847, Taipa, originally two separate islands, was inhabited by Chinese fishermen and
a few farmers and traders who lived in villages spread on the west coast of the larger island
(Pedro Dias, 2005). Little is known about these villages, however, the presence of a temple
dedicated to the God of War – Kuan Tai Miu – constructed during the Ming Dynasty, points to
the first settlements dating of the 15th century. These villages expanded into becoming one
during the 18th century, due in large part to an order issued in 1717 by the Chinese emperor by
which all foreign vessels travelling towards Guangzhou should dock here before continuing
towards China. The presence of foreign traders attracted new people who settled on the island
taking advantage of the commercial opportunities emerging with the mandatory anchorage.
The occasion of a series of devastating fires (1853, 1858, 1878) and typhoons (1874) that
affected Taipa Village during the second half of the 19th century eventually led to changes of its
urban fabric. In 1867, a special administrative body was put in charge of carrying out public
works on the island, such as installing electric lighting, widening and paving roads, lining them
with trees, constructing small land reclamations, etc. A few public buildings also date from this
period such as a market, a church and a hospital (Pedro Dias, 2005; Rodrigues Costa, 2001).
In 1869, a Town Council for the island was established and it received its civil district
administration in 1879 (Rodrigues Costa, 2001). Thus the name “Taipa Village” is misleading,
as its status already was that of a small town.
Following the public works mentioned above, besides the five villas that were built in 1921
as summer residences for Macanese on the southern shore of Taipa; there were little changes on
the island for a few decades. From 1926 to 1974, Portugal went under the rule of the
authoritarian and highly bureaucratic regime Estado Novo (lit. New State), which centralized
 1379

colonial administrative bodies and policy making in Lisbon, causing most urban development in
Macau to be put on hold (Proença, 2007).
This changed in 1971, with the completion of the preliminary stage of Macau’s first Master
Plan to include the islands (Plano Director de Macau, developed by Grupo de Trabalho de
Planeamento de Macau). Even though this plan was never carried on to further design stages,
nor was it officially published but many of its strategic principles were adopted in the following
decades. The plan previewed distinct roles for each of the three territorial units: while Macau
was in urgent need of expansion in the short run, Taipa was envisioned as a long-term expansion
area and Coloane was regarded as a touristic destination only. The plan established large land
reclamation areas both for the Peninsula and for Taipa, meant to accommodate the high
demographic growth that was taking place since the 1950s. It also established strategic lines for
the development of a transport and infrastructural network; including the Macau-Taipa bridges
and the International Airport in Taipa (Proença, 2007).
In 1987, the Sino-Portuguese Joint Declaration determined the conditions of the handover of
Macau’s sovereignty from Portugal to China (three years after the Sino-British Joint Declaration
for the handover of Hong Kong’s sovereignty to China). The signing of this agreement resulted
in an acceleration of public works for Macau as a whole. At this time the project for University
of Macau was established in Taipa, acting as an important catalyst for its development. 1987
was also the year when the first plans for the new town project “New Taipa” were presented.
Thus the planning of this new town came after the first ideas for Hong Kong’s new town TSW
(see above). One year later, in 1988, the firm Asia Consult prepared the “General Plan of Taipa”
(Rodrigues Costa, 2001).
The opening of two new Macau-Taipa bridges - Ponte da Amizade (1994) and Ponte Sai Van
(2004) –, the inauguration of the international Airport in 1995, and the construction of the
COTAI strip around the Taipa-Coloane Isthmus (first opened in 1963) in the early 2000s, set the
ground for Taipa’s most recent accelerated development. It was in COTAI that, following the
opening of Macau’s gaming monopoly in 2002, several of the world’s largest casino resorts
were constructed. If we compare Taipa Village with Baishizhou, it is remarkable that next to the
40 storey towers of New Taipa and the 980,000 sm Venetian Macau Casino Resort, yet the small
fabric of Taipa Village remained unaltered.

Land management and ownership

The different organization of land ownership is another key factor influencing the different
urban forms of the three villages. The indigenous villages in HSK were constructed on land
belonging to clans. Basically two types of land ownership in the New Territories existed, one
privately owned and the other collectively owned under the name of a T’so (祖) or a T’ong (堂
)211. It is a Chinese customary trust over land to maintain and preserve the clan’s properties in
the village, for various purposes. It is estimated that there are about 7,000 T’so/T’ong
established in the New Territories. They are governed by the New Territories Ordinance (Cap.
97) stating that an appointed manager of the T’so/T’ong shall be registered. For example, in the
HSK case, it was reported that there were 100 ha T’so/T’ong land out of the 826 ha of acquired
land from the villages, while the privately owned land was about 511 ha.
Over the years, rural land surrounding the original villages was transformed in various
stages: Villagers sold their rights to build small houses to developers, which then developed
larger units with up to nine houses (Cody & Richardson, 1997). These developments can be
recognized as loosely grouped clusters outside of the tightly organized village cores (Figure 5b).
Other houses were sold individually and can be recognized by individually fenced-in gardens

211
A t’so normally originates from an ancestor who did not want his land to be divided among his
descendants, but to be preserved perpetually and collectively for various uses. A t’ong is similar but not
originated from an ancestor. It can be a collective decision to form a t’ong to preserve the land for various
purposes such as education, business or religious purposes.
1380

(Figure 5c). Over the years, much of the village land in the New Territories was bought-up by
Hong Kong’s powerful property tycoons, who hold here large land banks as to control land
supply and invest in future developments. But their land ownership in the area remains hidden
and is not represented by plot boundaries and building footprints.

Figure 6. Village houses in Hung Shui Kiu with changing land ownership relationships.

Land in Baishizhou, as in other parts of China, is generally subdivided into two categories:
1) Land owned by the government and state owned enterprises and 2) Village land managed
collectively by village corporations. In the 1950s under the new communist government, the
state-owned agricultural collective, Shahe Farm, was created. After establishment of the
Shenzhen Special Economic Zone, it was transformed into the different villages of Baishizhou.
In 1987, Shenzhen started to experiment with a land-lease system inspired by Hong Kong,
however with the difference, that in Shenzhen (and China) only land-use rights could be
acquired, while land-ownership remained unchanged. This option was confirmed in 1988 by a
revision of the Chinese constitution. In only a few years, a vibrant real-estate industry
developed in Shenzhen (Lü et al., 2001). Today, in Baishizhou the most important stakeholders
are the village corporations, OCT Holding and further private developers, who are responsible
for different parts of land within the super-block.
An essential difference, between the villages of HSK and Baishizhou, with their collective
land ownerships and Taipa Village in Macau is, that after its repeated destruction through fire
and typhoons in the late 19th century, it was reconstructed with a network of public streets, street
blocks, and individual plots. Thus, although it has similarly small alleys and houses like the
other two villages, it has clearly defined boundaries between public spaces and private plots
(Figure 7).

Figure 7. Selection of street blocks and building types of Taipa Village (left) and the
surrounding public and private housing developments in its direct surrounding (right).

With Macau’s growing role in tourism, Macau’s municipal office conducted several projects
to regenerate these public spaces. In contrast, the open spaces of the villages in HSK and
Baishizhou are collectively owned and have ambiguous boundaries between the collective and
private spaces. This contributes to various issues related to public safety, sanitary conditions,
and illegal constructions. The different conditions of Taipa Village, were likely related to the
 1381

adjustments made after the destructions. However, despite these changes, the intimate scale of
the village was kept.

Figure 8. Population Growth Comparison.

Compensation for Eminent Domain

A major issue in the urbanization process of rural villages is arrangements of compensation for
the loss of rural land.
In the first years after the establishment of the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone (1980), the
government could easily expropriate rural land for new developments. At that time villagers
were not compensated for the loss of rural land, but could usually continue to live in the area.
The 1982 Interim Regulations of Building Land of Villages in Cooperative in Shenzhen SEZ
allowed each household to build a residential dwelling of max 80sqm with a max floor area of
150sqm on 2-3 floors. At that time, villagers built the houses as their own homes. This changed
soon with Shenzhen’s rapid economic growth. From 1984 onwards, villagers increased the
building heights to 3-5 floors, using only one unit for themselves and renting out the other units
to migrant workers (Wang, 2013).

Figure 9. Selection of building types in Baishizhou arranged according to building age.

In 1989, the Provisions of Land Expropriation in the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone was
implemented to protect parts of the rural land for “law-protected villagers” residential lots, as
Housing Based Land (HBL). In addition, parts of the expropriated land were returned to the
villagers as compensation for their lost agricultural land. This land could be used for
commercial and industrial developments, as Land for Collective Development (LCD) and would
be managed by the newly established collective village corporations (Wang, 2013).
Villagers could now gain profits in two ways: rental-income and collectively managed
commercial and industrial developments. According to the regulations for Housing Based Land,
new plots were organized in a grid of 10m x 10m with narrow alleys (Figure 10).
In Baishizhou, we can find such houses built after 1989, however the grid layout and building
dimensions are more irregular, creating labyrinthine spaces. In addition we find industrial
1382

developments in the middle of the block, which according to the new rule of 1989 could be
collectively planned by the village corporations. Based on the farmers’ dwelling policy
restriction, villagers in Shenzhen could not sell properties. Thus their main way to raise their
income was to increase building heights and build more houses. Also as unbuilt areas in the
villages were more likely to be expropriated by the government, villagers had an interest to
cover the entire area with buildings. This resulted in the extremely narrow, dark and dense
spaces in Baishizhou and other urbanised villages in Shenzhen.

Figure 10. Compensation rules for villagers of urban villages in Shenzhen.

Reflecting upon the rules Hong Kong government implemented to address the high demand
for land for the accommodation of migrants and the construction of factories in the decades
following World War II, we can identify different rules from those in Shenzhen. The first
migrants who arrived either were absorbed by the urban areas, where in the 1950s height
restrictions were loosened, and buildings quickly grew taller; or they settled in improvised
squatter areas along the hills, which the government demarcated. With the decision to extend
urban development with new towns into the New Territories, as suggested by Abercrombie in
1948, landowners in the villages (elders or their sons) became interested in selling or leasing
some of their property to private developers. In 1960, the government devised a way of
acquiring rural land in the New Territories and responded to the interests of villagers and
developers by implementing a program of transferable development rights: for every 5sqft of
agricultural land surrendered 2sqft of building land were allocated (in the form of a certificate
for future redemption). In contrast to Shenzhen, villagers in Hong Kong’s New Territories could
sell the new development rights on the open market, much of which were bought by developers.
A new policy, known as Letter A/B system, provided villagers with a marketable certificate tied
to specific development parcels in the new towns.212 The rule was especially used in centrally
located and earlier developed parts of the New Territories such as Shatin in the 1960-70s. Today,
this option is no longer used in HSK. The rule which instead shapes the urban landscape here is
the Small House Policy (Cody & Richardson, 1997).
This policy was launched in November 1972. Under it, indigenous male villagers, who are
over 18 years old and are descended through the male line from a resident in 1898 of a
recognized village, are entitled to one concessionary grant during his lifetime to build one small
house. The policy allows indigenous villagers to build small houses, no matter if they own land
or not213, provided that they are built in existing village areas within 91.44 metres (300 feet)
from the edge of the last house built before December 1972, or within village type development

212
Each new town had several parcels of urban development land for redeemed Letters A or B
certificates, developers bid to develop Letters A/B parcels by purchasing required number of certificates
in the open market. Under the conditions of the 1984 Basic Law Agreement between Great Britain and
China, after July 1 1997, the Letters A/B certificates were no longer operative (Cody & Richardson,
1997).
213
(a) For an indigenous villager who owns private agricultural land, he can apply for a building licence
at nil premium, or a land exchange to build a small house on his own agricultural land; or (b) For an
indigenous villager who does not own land, he can apply for the grant of a site on government land at a
concessionary premium of two-thirds of the full market value.
 1383

zones in Development Permission Areas or Outline Zoning Plans. The small house is regulated
by a height limit of 3 storeys or 8.23 metres (27 feet) and 65.03 sqm (700 square feet) in the
roofed-over area (Figure 11).

Figure 11. Urban rules in Hong Kong’s New Territories including the 1972 Small House
Policy.

Since then, a process of suburbanization started in the New Territories. All new private
buildings had the same small dimensions and were scattered on the village land without an
overall planning process.
In Hong Kong, this rule was a welcomed entitlement for those who qualified, and was
generally followed. However, in Baishizhou, the rules implemented by the government to
compensate villagers and restrict illegal constructions were usually soon ignored after
implementation. According to V. Wang, the inability to provide enough land for development,
pay the full compensations promised to the villagers and provide enough accommodation for
migrants, made it difficult for the government to enforce their own rules. Villager used this
weakness to extend their houses to 7-8 storeys since the 1990s, as demand for rental spaces
continued to grow. Later, implemented rules such as the Bylaws of Housing Rental in the
Shenzhen Special Economic Zone and Bylaws of Registration of Real Estate in the Shenzhen
Special Economic Zone remained without effect (Wang, 2013). In Baishizhou, some of the
village buildings reach up to 15 storeys.

Figure 12. Development units of Taipa Village and its surroundings

1384

In Taipa Village, the situation is very different from the other cases. Most inhabitants here
were fishermen or tradesmen and didn’t own significant amount of farmland, for which there
was also little space given that the village was surrounded by hills and water. New constructions
for public and private housing were built on reclaimed land, and thus needed no costly and long
negotiations. This also benefited the government, which like Hong Kong uses a land-lease
system and benefits from the production of new land, if the building density is high enough to
recover the reclamation costs. In contrast to HSK and Baishizhou, villagers in Taipa had no
basis to bargain for compensation. On the other hand, they were not driven out from their
private properties either.

Figure 13. Shadow rule, Taipa village.

Although Macau experienced several waves of immigration, Taipa Island wasn’t affected for
a long time. Until 1974, the only way from Macau to Taipa was by ferries. After the
construction of the bridge connection, new constructions remained limited to middle to upper
class housing, except a smaller public housing project built adjacent to Taipa Village in 1992.
This project was part of a larger social housing programme that took place in Macau as a whole,
between 1985 and 1992, to house low-income residents of the territory. However, generally job
opportunities for low-skilled workers remained on Macau peninsula. This only changed with the
construction of the new casinos after 2002. The small dimensions of houses in Taipa Village
remained determined by the small plot sizes and the Shadow Rule, established in 1985 by the
General Regulation of Urban Construction, which defined building heights by a 76 degree angle
measured from the middle of the street (Figure 10). As streets and alleys in the village remained
narrow, the building height also remained low. The same rule, however, allowed in New Taipa
high walls of towers based on the wider roads and open spaces in this area.

Redevelopment

The HSK NDA, will not directly affect the settlements of the indigenous villages, but residents
are afraid of unemployment and loss of income in form of rent, if the surrounding container
storages would disappear to make space for the new housing development. In addition there are
concerns of the indigenous villagers eligible to small houses, if they still will be able to find
spaces to build them. Also there is some frustration on their side that it is not allowed to build
larger buildings.
On the other hand there are also those concerns of people in Hong Kong, which cannot find
affordable living space and have to live under very congested conditions. The Small House
Policy continues to make efficient land use in the New Territories difficult, resulting in the
paradox condition to have large areas with scattered settlements of three storey “village homes”
and next to them, high density new towns, like TSW, with over 30 storey towers.
 1385

Table 1. Rules Comparison

1386

Figure 14. Development units of Baishizhou.

In Baishizhou, the villages are already surrounded by new developments, which tend to be
gated up-market residential estates. In 2005, the government implemented the Comprehensive
Planning Guidelines for Urban Villages Redevelopment 2005–2010 as another attempt to show
its determination to solve what they identified as the fundamental problems of urban villages
and free up land for development. Villages in Shenzhen which have been redeveloped, usually
had a significantly higher density than before, as to make-up for the much higher compensation
claims of the villagers. In Baishizhou, the low rental prices in the villages allows workers and
young university graduates to remain in the central areas nearby the employment provided in the
Overseas Chinese Town.
In Taipa, the municipal government has implemented several improvements to these public
spaces in the recent years, treating them in a similar fashion to those heritage urban ensembles
of the Historic Centre of Macau (UNESCO 2005). This has contributed to the inclusion of Taipa
Village in Macau’s tourist routes, which is now emphasized by the recent construction of a
footbridge connecting Taipa Village to the COTAI, particularly, to The Venetian Casino Resort.
As a consequence, shop rent in Taipa Village are increasingly high, which is contributing to a
gentrification process. In addition, the improved public spaces are taken over by tourist groups.

Conclusions

Major differences in the urban forms between the three cities are found to be related to historical
conditions and urban rules: In Shenzhen, and generally mainland China, the essential difference
between inhabitants with local and non-local registered households (“hukou”) was a key factor
for the growth of urban villages as most incoming migrants were excluded from the housing
produced by the government and state-owned enterprises and there was no formal private
housing market. As the government had difficulties to provide promised compensations to
villagers and couldn’t address the housing needs of migrants, they accepted a twist of the rules
by the villagers to build more and taller buildings, resulting in a further increasing density and
potentially higher compensation claims of the villagers. On the other hand, when compared with
squatter settlements in other fast growing parts of the world, Shenzhen’s urban villages also
have substantial advantages: they are centrally located and offer access to jobs, public transport,
electricity, commercial facilities and to certain degree, clean water. In a region with frequent
typhoons and flooding, they also provide a relatively safe environment, when compared to Hong
Kong’s early squatter settlements, which were often destroyed by natural hazards and fire.
Hong Kong’s Letter A/B schemes since 1960 and the Small House Policy for indigenous
villagers since 1972 have resulted in a clear separation between villages and new towns, and
have shaped the uniformity of village houses in the New Territories. The Letter A/B schemes
helped to shift development rights to new town areas and ensure more comprehensive new town
 1387

planning. In the meantime, despite the achievements of Hong Kong’s resettlement and public
housing programmes, urban poor and migrants, who don’t qualify for the public housing,
continue to live under appalling conditions in cagehouses and “coffin homes” (subdivided flats).
Taipa Village, despite having kept its original urban fabric, serves mainly as tourist spot today,
and ironically, the height limitation rule that managed to keep its original form limits its
potential as for further growth as a place for living.

Acknowledgements

This paper is part of a two-year (2013-2014) General Research Grant project “Investigating the Urban
Design Guidelines of the PRD cities Guangzhou, Hong Kong, Macau and Shenzhen” (GRF453312)
awarded by the Hong Kong SAR Research Grant Council. The authors would like to thank Doreen Liu,
Natalie Xing, Vivienne Wang, the urban design students KANG Ningda, SUN, Qi, and ZHANG Chi, as
well as the studio teachers Nuno Soares, Tat Lam, Colin Fournier, Travis Bunt, and Chris Gee for their
contributions.

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 1389

A study of urban space form in areas with different economic

development level: a case study of Jiangsu province

Xiong Guoping, Cao Bowei

Department of urban planning, Southeast University, 2 Sipailou, Xuanwu district,
Nanjing, China, 210096. E-mail:[email protected]

Abstract. The unbalance in provincial economy is a common phenomenon in China. It is an urgent task
to take different urban development measures according to different areas’ economic levels to achieve an
integrated provincial development. With south, central and north Jiangsu areas of Jiangsu Province as
an example, this article studies the urban space forms in different economic development level area, and
points out that north Jiangsu area takes a point-like cluster dominated by Xuzhou, Huaian, Yancheng and
Lianyungang; central Jiangsu area takes a belt-like cluster dominated by Nanjing-Nantong traffic axis;
and south Jiangsu area takes a net-like cluster with Nanjing region and Suzhou-Wuxi-Changzhou region
as the dominant. The evolution dynamic mechanisms vary greatly in the areas with different economic
development levels. The industry structure dominates the traffic corridor pilots and the science and
technology guide urban space form. For the areas with different economic development levels, different
measures should be taken to optimize urban space form. South Jiangsu area should stress giant city
construction and promote regional integration; central Jiangsu area should mainly construct riverside
and seaside urban development belt to realize integration of south and central Jiangsu areas; and north
Jiangsu area should focus on the construction of urban groups with some central cities as the core to
achieve regional development.

Key Words: region; urban space form; economic development level

Foreword

In China, it is a general situation that there exists an unbalanced provincial economic

development. Since the 1980s, due to the shortage of finance, technology and market resources,
each province has centered its resources for the development of areas with favorable conditions,
leading to the aggravation of unbalanced urban economy. In 2014, the ratio between the first
place and last place of urban GDP per capita in Anhui, Fujian, Jiangsu, Shandong and Zhejiang
is respectively 2.8, 2.0, 3.5, 6.4 and 2.2. The unbalance in provincial economy has become an
increasingly obvious issue, as proved by the contrast between Zhujiang Delta Region and north
Guangdong area, Jiaodong Peninsula and southwest Shandong area, and the difference between
south, central and north Jiangsu Province. The issue of income disparity, social conflicts and
provincial infrastructure and resource overall planning difficulty and the deterioration of the
ecological environment brought by the unbalance in provincial economy have posed a threat to
the sustainable provincial economy development. As the need of a coordinated provincial
development is becoming more and more urgent, different development policies should be acted
for areas with different economic development levels. For instance, Jiangsu Province has
proposed a joint development and cooperation between south Jiangsu area and north Jiangsu
area, and Guangdong Province has advocated the integration of Zhujiang Delta Region and the
mountain area as well as the flank areas. With Jiangsu Province as a case study, this study is to
explore the inherent link between economic development level and urban space form and
propose some measures to optimize the provincial urban space structure so as to promote a
coordinated and orderly development of provincial economy.
1390

Literary Review

In terms of the urban space form features of areas with different economic development levels,
some scholars think that for the under-developed area, it is lacking in regional big cities, the
cities and towns are far away from each other without organic connection, the cities are in point-
like dispersion, and this kind of area is in the early period of regional development. For the
moderately developed area, it bears more advanced regional transportation. The towns are in a
belt-like spreading along the axis with help of communication axis and the exterior space of the
towns takes an olive shape. The major axis of the olive goes along the polymerization axis,
presenting a homogeneous belt shape (Haggett and Cliff, 1997). For the developed area, the
balanced development of cities and towns accelerates the growth of central cities and secondary
cities within this area. This area bears a multi-core space structure, the cities and towns form a
continuous belt-shape polymerization axis with close interconnection, the polymerization axis
connect each other, and displays a continuous network structure(John
Friedmann,1986;Sassen,1991).
As to the evolution dynamic mechanism for the urban space form of areas with different
development levels, some scholars point out that the under-developed urban form is under
heavy influence of the natural resources distribution and the point-like dispersion of these cities
are essentially coincident with the regions bearing advantageous land conditions or rich
resources(Boume and Simmons, 1978); in the middle stage of industrialization, the point-like
dispersing cities will be connected by traffic lines and develop gradually along the main traffic
axis to form a polymerization axis; the economic development will promote the construction of
new traffic lines, the increase of which will strengthen the relation between the cities, thus there
will be an interactive development between cities and traffic axis(Che Qianjin, 2011). Based on
the study of Europe, some other scholars find that by the time of post-industrialization, with the
growing influence of technology, information network, ecological environment as well as the
strengthening of relation among the cities, cities and regions, the concept of city will gradually
evolve into urban agglomeration(Wegener,1991;Castells,1989).
As for the optimization of the urban space form in areas with different economic
development level, scholars have put forward different ways. The economically underdeveloped
areas should actively cultivate central cities and create regional growth
poles(Boudeville,1972;Lasuen,1973). The moderately developed areas should strengthen the
role of traffic axis, and takes the linear development mode of connecting several metropolises
through the highly developed modern transportation line (Ginsburg,1961;Whebell,1969). The
economically developed areas should take the development of track communication and large
capacity public transportation as the leading force, and construct a multi-center and intensified
urban-rural integrated development of regional space structure (Zhang Jiarui, 2012).
The existing research is mainly focusing on the regional development of the developed
countries, while little attention is paid to the fact that the developing countries are undergoing a
rapid urbanization and the regional disparity is widening unceasingly. There has been rare
research on the maintenance of balance during development. This article will study the urban
space form of the areas in Jiangsu Province with different economic development levels.

Theoretical Method

Jiangsu Province lies in the east coast of China covering a land area of 102,600 square
kilometers. It governs 61 counties (districts). In 2013, its residential population was 78.6 million
and the per capita GDP was 12,047 US dollars.
 1391

Figure 1. Location of Jiangsu Province.

Methods to classify areas with different economic levels

This research selects six indicators including the GDP non-agricultural rate, per capita revenue,
per capita social retail goods, per capita GDP, rural residents per capita net income, labor force
non-agricultural level, conducts a Q cluster analysis, and classified the whole counties (districts)
into three layers according to their economic development levels. Based on this, the data of
every group is transferred into ArcGIS to obtain the spatial distribution of each group and
categorize Jiangsu Province into the developed area, moderately developed area and under-
developed area.

Methods to extract urban space form

The unsupervised classification is conducted after the strengthening of the satellite photo map
image of Jiangsu Province, and the results are re-categorized into buildings, roads, water body,
forest, lawn, farmland and open land. Then the hot pixel suppression measures are taken for
urban built-up area which is transformed into ArcGIS. Systematic samplings are collected with
1kmX1km grid to determine that the urban land area within the grid bigger than the average 1
standard value is used for urban construction, and the others are for the non-urban construction.
In so doing, the image of provincial urban space structure is obtained.

Data sources

In this research, the indicator data like the per capita GDP, per capita revenue, per capita
volume of domestic retail sales of commodities, rural residents per capita net income, non-
agricultural rate of GDP, and labor force non-agricultural level originates from Jiangsu
Statistical Annual 2013. The statistical standard is consistent and has the comparability. And the
remote sensing data extracted for the urban space form is based on NASA’s landsat8 remote
sensing data, the image photography time is set in April, 2014, and the data is downloaded from
US USUG Website (http://www.usgs.gov/).

Result

Obvious gradient of provincial economic development

Three groups of clusters can be obtained after the indicator data like per capita GDP, per capita
revenue, per capita social retail goods, rural residents per capita net income, non-agricultural
1392

rate of GDP, and labor force non-agricultural level of the 61 counties (districts) of Jiangsu
Province are introduced into SPSS and a Q cluster analysis is made. The per capita GDP of each
group of counties (districts) is 14,675, 8,048, 5,159 US dollars respectively, corresponding to
the developed area, moderately developed area and under-developed area (Table 1).

Figure 2. classify areas with different economic levels.

Table 1. Stratification of County (District) Clusters.

Type Name of County (District)

Developed Wuxi, Jiangyin, Changzhou, Suzhoua, Changsu, Zhangjiagang, Kuanshan,
Area Taichang, Nanjing, Lishu, Gaochun, Yixing, Xuzhou, Liyang, Jintan, Yangzhou,
Zhenjiangand Danyang
Moderately Nantong, Lianyungang, Jingjiang, Haian, Rudong, Qidong, Rugao, Haimen,
Developed Ganyu, Huaian, Hongze, Jinhu, Yancheng, Dongtai, Baoying, Yizheng, Gaoyou,
Area Jurong, Taixing, Jiangyan, Suqian, Taizhou, Yangzhong, and Xinghua
Under- Feng County, Pei County, Suining, Xinyi, Pizhou, Donghai, Guanyun, Guannan,
developed Lianshui, Xuyi, Xiangshui, Binhai, Funing, Sheyang, Shuyang, Siyang, Sihong
Area County, Jianhuand Dafeng

Displaying the space distribution of the three groups of counties (districts) on the map
through ArcGIS, it can be found that the economic development level of the counties (districts)
of Jiangsu Province indicates a gradual decrease of economic development from south to north
with a spatial concentration characteristic. The developed counties (districts) concentrate in
south Jiangsu area cities like Suzhou, Wuxi, Changzhou, Zhenjiang and Nanjing; the
moderately developed districts (counties) concentrate in central Jiangsu area like Nantong,
Taizhou and Yangzhou; and the less developed counties (districts) concentrate in north Jiangsu
cities like Lianyungang, Xuzhou, Suqian, Huaian and Yancheng. The disparity between
different areas manifests greatly in three indicators, i.e. per capita GDP, per capita revenue, and
per capita social retail goods. The ratio between the developed and moderately developed areas
is 1.93, 1.92 and1.67, while the ratio between the moderately developed and under-developed
areas is 1.55, 1.51 and 1.92. That is to say, the entire ratio is bigger than 1.5, which shows that
the economic development level displays a gradient feature.
 1393

Table 2. Economic Data Comparison between Different Areas

Area GDP Per Revenue Per Social retail Rural residents GDP non- Labor force
capita ($) capita($) goods Per net income Per agricultural rate non-agricultural
capita($) capita ($) (%) level (%)
Developed area 14,675.2* 1,357.8 15,536.4 2,569.2 96.4 89.8
Moderately
8,048.5 707.8 8,048.5 1,928.6 88.5 73.3
developed area
Under-developed
5,159.5 470.2 5,195.1 1,607.8 81.1 59.5
area
* According to WB，per capita 12616 US dollar is of developed country level

Table 3. Economic Data Comparison between Different Areas (Standardized)

Area GDP Per Revenue Social retail Rural residents GDP non- Labor force
capita ($) Per capita goods Per net income Per agricultural rate non-agricultural
($) capita($) capita ($) (%) level (%)
Developed area 1.62 1.61 1.57 1.26 1.08 1.21
Moderately
0.84 0.84 0.94 0.95 0.99 0.99
developed area
Under-developed
0.54 0.56 0.49 0.79 0.92 0.80
area

Striking difference of urban space form in areas with different economic level

Net-like cluster in south Jiangsu dominated by Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuxi and Changzhou

South Jiangsu area has formed a continuous net-like space structure led by two city regions,
Nanjing City region and Suzhou-Wuxi-Changzhou region. It is at the mature stage of urban
space development. Within the Nanjing City region, the core city status is obvious, the core city
establishes a close link with the peripheral cities, there is a clear tendency of inter-city public
transportation, and a high level highway network is basically formed with Nanjing as its core.
The main cities lie on the radiation channels, and a net-like cluster based on transportation
network has almost been formed. The Suzhou-Wuxi-Changzhou region has evolved from its
early axial development to the current network development; the cities group has displayed a
balanced development trend. In the suburbs of these cities, there have appeared some districts,
which become the new space for the city expansion, and the city space has presented a multi-
core and homogeneous network structure.

Figure 3. Urban Space Form of the Developed Area in Jiangsu Province.

1394

Belt-like cluster in central Jiangsu dominated by Nanjing-Nantong traffic axis

The cities and towns on north side of Yangtze River in central Jiangsu area appear a belt-like
cluster along the Nanjing-Nantong traffic axis and Yangtze River. With the completion of
several Yangtze River channels, the cities and towns along the Nanjing-Nantong transportation
axis will affected by the radiation from the cities and towns on south riverside, especially those
cities near the cross-river channels. As the development of lateral axis belt accelerates, the
longitudinal axis of development comes into being.

Figure 4. Urban Space Form in the Moderately Developed Areas in Jiangsu Province

Point-like concentration in north Jiangsu dominated by Xuzhou, Huaian, Yancheng and

Lianyungang

The connection among the cities and towns in north Jiangsu area is fairly weak. In some regions
with outstanding transportation advantages, the cities and towns begin to develop on the basis of
transportation and a point-like space structure dominated by Xuzhou, Huaian, Yancheng and
Lianyungang emerges. For instance, within Xuzhou metropolitan circle, there have appeared a
space organization pattern, namely, one core city, Xuzhou; two city development axis, Xuzhou-
Lianyungang and Zaozhuang-Xuzhou-Suqian axis; and a city connection channel, Suqian-Feng
County-Pei County. In a circle at a radius of 300 km with Xuzhou as its center, the space
connection is divided into the close-connected circle layer, economic cooperation circle layer
and loosely-connected circle layer.

Figure 5.Urban Space Form in the Under-developed Areas in Jiangsu Province.

 1395

Different Evolution Dynamic Mechanism of Provincial Urban Space Form

Industry form dominates urban space form

Cities and towns are the base and backbone of industry development and industry is the source
of urban development. The expansion of urban scale and the enhancement of urban status will
provide better conditions for the development of industry, while the development of industry
and the cluster of space will affect the urban development and spatial structure. South Jiangsu
area strives to develop high and new technology industries, and some modern manufacture
bases dominated by high and new technology have been formed. With the functions spreading
of several cities like Nanjing, Suzhou, Wuxi and Changzhou, an industry structure network has
been gradually established, and the development of each jointing city and towns has displayed a
trend with homogeneous quality and spatial network. In some cities in central Jiangsu area like
Yangzhou, Nantong and Taizhou, the technology-intensive industry clusters like petrochemical
industry, fine chemical industry, superior automobile industry and household electrical
appliances have been formed. The transportation-oriented heavy industry and manufacture
industry has led to the formation of industry axis structure, which further promotes the belt
cluster of urban space form. For north Jiangsu area, during its “Four Alongside Develop”
strategy and the construction of “Three Latitudes and One Longitude” industry belt, the
construction of the industry belt along the east Longhai Railway is highlighted, however, due to
its disadvantageous base, the industries take a point-like form, which leads to the formation of
point-like urban space form.

Traffic corridor pilots urban space form

The two core city regions, Nanjing region and Suzhou-Wuxi-Changzhou regions, in south
Jiangsu area enjoy relative mature traffic network. A high level road net with Nanjing City as its
core has been formed and the major cities spread along the radiation channels, among which
Nanjing-Zhenjiang, Nanjing-Yangzhou and Nanjing-Wuhu are the main axis with advantageous
development momentum. Suzhou-Wuxi-Changzhou region bears an inter-linked space
structure, and for its systematic traffic network, the fluidity among its inner elements has been
strengthened. As to central Jiangsu area, the cities and towns along the two highways, Nanjing-
Nantong and Nanjing-Shanghai highways, especially those at the traffic hubs have developed
rapidly, and the point-axis system has been increasingly improved. Among them, based on the
development of traffic corridor composed by Nanjing-Nantong Highway, Nanjing-Qidong
Railway and Yangtze River, Nanjing-Nantong traffic axis contributes to the planning of
riverfront basic industry belt. The urban space structure in north Jiangsu area takes a point-like
pattern, the cities and towns develops along the traffic corridor composed by Beijing-Shanghai
Highway, Xinyi-Changxing Railway, Huaian-Yangzhou Railway, Beijing-Hangzhou Grand
Canal, Tongjiang-Sanya Highway, Nantong-Ganyu Canal and the seaports, East Longhai
Railway, and Xuzhou-Lianyugang Highway. Each city and town is independent, the number of
small towns is numerous and the scale of the major cities is limited.

Science and technology guides urban space form

The economy of south Jiangsu area is fairly high and the level and quantity of the higher
education establishments and scientific research institutions within this area has the outstanding
advantage. The economy in this area is based on the advanced and new technology. With
Nanjing, Zhenjiang, Changzhou, Wuxi and Suzhou as the joint cities, the cities and towns on the
urban belt have robust economy, and the industry is shifting towards advanced and new
technology industry. This area is the concentration place for the electronic information,
biological engineering and new medicine, new material and new energy. It has a big density of
1396

cities and high level of economy development, and the export-oriented degree of the cities and
towns is growing. In many cities of this area, various types of technology industry parks,
science establishments, college towns have been constructed to meet the need of adapting to the
advanced and new technology and the rapid development of information economy. The
advanced and new technology has become the dominant force for the development of the city
marginal space. Due to the limitation of economic development level, the influence of science
and technology is yet distinct.

Optimize urban space form according to local conditions

Promote the integration of south Jiangsu area and improve network development of space form

Promote the integration of south Jiangsu area and the integrated construction of urban and rural
areas, and build grand urban region in south Jiangsu area. Upgrade the function of major cities,
and develop actively the medium-size and small-size cities. Build multi-level functional
complementary city areas, realize regional urbanization, and establish a structure with proper
distribution, mutual connected and functional complementary of major-size, medium-size and
small-size cities.

Figure 6. Optimization Measures for Urban Space Form of the Developed Area.

Strengthen urban traffic corridor in central Jiangsu area and construct the riverside and seaside
urban development belt

The cross-river channels in central Jiangsu area has promoted the shift of industry from south to
central Jiangsu area, provided a new environment for the development of advanced and high
technology industries in south Jiangsu area, and created channels for the introduction of market
space and capital for the riverside resources in central Jiangsu area; jointly develop industry
parks, promote the share of resources and information across the river, and put hands together
for development and construction; strengthen the cooperation between the joint cities, and based
on the existing and cross-river channel to be completed, overcome the limit of administrative
regions and promote the formation of unique economic zones. Build seaports in central Jiangsu
area, promote the traffic and infrastructure level, and build an urban space structure of “three
pole-one belt-multi joints”. With the main seaport area of Lianyungang Seaport, Yangkou
seaport area of Nantong Seaport and Dafeng seaport area of Yancheng Seaport as the focus,
promote the construction of Lvsi seaport area of Nantong Seaport, seaport group at Guanhekou
area, Sheyang seaport area and Binhai seaport area of Yancheng Seaport at the right moment to
support the seacoast urban belt, and make this area the most convenient exit to sea and a
window to the outside world along Longhai and Lanxin Railway.
 1397

Figure 7. Optimization Measures for Urban Space Form of the Moderately Developed
Area.

Cultivate growth pole in north Jiangsu area and construct urban groups with central cities as the
core
During the development process of north Jiangsu area, attention should be paid to the
cultivation of growth poles. Enhance the development of central cities, and bring the potential
advantage into full play. Given the fact that the urban development is still at the cluster stage,
we should give priority to the development of major cities and enhance the development of
central cities. Actively cultivate central cities like Xuzhou, Huaiyin, Yancheng and
Lianyungang and develop counties and central towns to transform the pattern of “ponies
drawing cart” into the pattern of “a group of horses drawing cart”.

Figure 8. Optimization Measures for Urban Space Form of the Under-developed Area.

Conclusion

The unbalance in provincial economy is a common phenomenon in China. The economic

development of the counties (districts) in Jiangsu Province presents a progressive decrease from
south to north, with a gradient feature between south, central and north Jiangsu areas.
1398

The urban space form of the areas with different economic development level varies
significantly. South Jiangsu area takes a net-like cluster form with Nanjing region and Suzhou-
Wuxi-Changzhou region as the dominant; central Jiangsu area takes a belt-like cluster
dominated by Nanjing-Nantong traffic axis; and north Jiangsu area takes a point-like cluster
dominated by Xuzhou, Huaian, Yancheng and Lianyungang. The new urban belts emerge in
south and central Jiangsu riverside area, and central and north Jiangsu seaside area.
The evolution dynamic mechanisms vary greatly in the areas with different economic
development levels. The industry structure dominates, the traffic corridor pilots, and science and
technology guides urban space structure.
For the areas with different economic development level, different measures should be taken
to optimize urban space structure. South Jiangsu area should stress the construction of giant city
and promote regional integration; central Jiangsu area should mainly construct riverside and
seaside urban development belt to realize integration of south and central Jiangsu areas; and
north Jiangsu area should focus on the construction of urban groups with central cities as the
core to achieve regional development.

References

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Regionalization: a Case Study in Nanyang[J].Resources and Environment in the Yangtze
Basin,2007(6):704-710.
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John Friedmann. The World Hypothesis[J]. Development and Change. 1986,(17):69-83.
Sassen.S. The Global: New York, London, Tokyo[M]. New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1991.
Boume L.S., Simmons J.W. Systems of cities[M].Oxford University Press,1978.
Cheqianjin. Urban Spatial Expansion Process, Pattern and Mechanismin of Yangtze River Delta. Acta
Geographica Sinica, 2011,04: 446-456.
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Boudeville J. Amenagemet du terrlleire et polarization[M]. Paris: Genin, 1972.
Lasuen J.R. Urbanization and Development, the Temporal Interaction between Geographical and
SectoralCluster[J].Urban Studies, 1973,(10):163-188.
Ginsburg N. The Dispersed Metropolitan: the Case of Okayama[J]. ToshiMondai. 1961(6),631-640.
Whebell,C.F.,Corridors: a Theory of Urban System.[M] Annals,AssociationofAmericanGeographer.1969.
Zhang Jiarui, Yuan Yuan. Rail Transit Network Based Zhujiang Delta Spatial Structure
Transition[J].Planners, 2012,07:82-86.
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2005(2): 3-10.
 1399

Gilberto Freyre’s work: between urban morphology and

building typology – first approaches

Solange de Aragão1, André Marques2

1
Universidade Nove de Julho,2Universidade São Judas Tadeu.
E-mail: [email protected]; [email protected].

Abstract. There are many possible ways of reading Gilberto Freyre’s work. One can read them to know
about Brazilian society; other to understand the process of mixing races from which resulted Brazilian
people; yet some other can do that to get to know the History of Brazil from a sociological point of view.
But there is also another possibility which is to find morphological and typological approaches
throughout Freyre’s work. Since the sociologist adopted the house as the centre of interest of a great part
of his works, and analyzed it to comprehend Brazilian society, there is a lot of information in his texts
regarding certain types of buildings, as well as information concerning the cities where these buildings
were placed. In fact, Gilberto Freyre was one of the first Brazilian researchers who gave attention to the
study of the traditional house in relation to the urban landscape it composed. We aim here to present
some morphological and typological approaches in Gilberto Freyre’s work, considering the trilogy
composed by The masters and the slaves, The mansions and the shanties, and Order and Progress, as
well as some other important works in which he deals with the theme of the Brazilian house.

Key Words: Gilberto Freyre’s work, urban morphology, building typology, the Brazilian house, 19th
century.

Introduction

During the 1930’s, Gilberto Freyre published two of his main works: The masters and the slaves
(1933) and The mansions and the shanties (1936). In both of them he adopted the Brazilian
house as the centre of interest of his research on Brazilian society. In both of them he mentioned
the creation and transformation of Brazilian types of buildings, mainly those destined for
habitation, analysing the house produced by a society still in process of formation instead of the
house or building projected by renowned architects.
Whereas in The masters and the slaves his focus of interest was the rural residence,
particularly the sugar-mill complex, in The mansions and the shanties he was interested in the
urban house – specially the two up to five-storey house which made up some Brazilian urban
landscapes at the 19th century. To analyse the house, Freyre considered also the city, or the
urban context, with its open and built spaces.
To do this research, Gilberto Freyre made use of some sources such as traveller’s writings,
biographies, memories, 19th century journals, 19th century photographies and pictures, and
some other materials which were not vastly considered by Brazilian historians up to then.
Therefore, regarding History and History of Architecture, Freyre’s work was innovative in the
use of these source materials, as well as in that consideration of the ordinary house which
composed the majority of the urban and the cultural landscape.
In his work Gilberto Freyre studied the master’s residence and slave habitation, the two-
storey house and the “mucambo” (or the shanty), the ground-floor house and the five-storey
house, and refered also to the chalet, to the garden small palace, and to the country house. In
describing them, comparing them, relating them with landscape, with their surroundings, with
society, with ways of living, he built up a typology of the Brazilian house of the 19th and
preceding centuries.
Curiously he was not an architect but a sociologist interested in the study of the house for
comprehension of society. It is also necessary to mention that previously to the writing of these
1400

works he had the opportunity of studying in the United States and in Europe, where he would
make contact with especialists who were worried about cultural aspects not under consideration
in Brazil up to then – which meant an important influence on his work and thought.
Always remembered by the everlasting discussion on the advantages of mixed race, Gilberto
Freyre should also be considered as one of the predecessors of professionals whose study of the
type takes into account society, history and certain morphological aspects. When he came back
to Brazil, he was ready to write several studies on the Brazilian house – in spite of his main
objective being the study of Brazilian society.

Morphological and typological approaches in Gilberto Freyre’s work

While in Europe the first studies of the urban form appeared at the end of the 19th century in
works such as those written by Otto Schlüter who established a morphology of the cultural
landscape, in Brazil the first studies of the urban form may be attributed to some travellers who
visited the country during the 19th century whose analysis is more than merely descriptive.
Differently from what happened in Europe, it was not the rapid increase of the cities that caught
the attention of these travellers, but rather some lack of development in comparison with
European civilisation as well as their peculiarities such as the fact of their being surrounded by
tropical vegetation and their geographical aspects – not to mention cultural, social, historical,
economical and architectural differences.
Certainly these studies did not compose a disciplinary field as those by Otto Schlüter and
other European geographers; besides, they were written and produced by foreigners; however,
they do reveal the 19th century Brazilian city in many aspects even if from an European point of
view. Land form, climate, particularities of rivers and vegetation, the arrangement of houses and
streets, numbers of floors, building materials, squares, public buildings, all of these
characteristics of the 19th century Brazilian city can be found in some traveller’s writings.
In Europe, Schlüter’s influence spread out at the half of the 20th century through Conzen’s
works (Larkham, 1998). According to this geographer, the urban settlement has the essential
attributes of a region and for this reason allows three complementary approaches: the functional,
the morphological, and the historical-geographical (Conzen, 2004). In the case of the
morphological approach, Conzen emphasizes on the one hand the importance of identification
of formative processes and their geographical results in the townscape, and on the other hand
the need of close attention to every significant townscape detail (Conzen, 2004).
In Brazil, Conzen’s ideas did not spread out until the last decades, but Otto Schlüter has been
a renowned geographer in the field of urban geography. Pierre Monbeig and Aroldo de Azevedo
were responsible then for introducing, in the 1950’s, the analysis of the urban space in Brazil
taking into consideration geographical, historical, social, and cultural aspects.
Concerning typology, in Europe the study of the building type dates back to the epoch of the
Industrial Revolution when Jacques Nicolas Durand attempted to classify types of buildings
which made up the architectural pattern from the period. Philippe Panerai defined Durand’s
typology as analytical since it revealed but basic schemes of building plans and façades (Panerai,
1999). A typology interconnected with urban morphology that evinced relations between
building types, the urban context, and the historical period was established in Europe only in the
1950’s, when Saverio Muratori founded the Italian school of typology (Moudon, 1998). In the
following decade, during the 1960’s, Phillipe Panerai and Jean Castex started to develop a new
method of typological analysis creating then the French school of typology (Moudon, 1998).
Whereas in Europe geographers were many times responsible for building typology during
the 20th century, in Brazil it was Gilberto Freyre, a sociologist, who brought into light the
importance of the study of the type for the understanding of man and society. Afterwards were
historians of architecture rather than geographers who dedicated their research to the study of
building types.
 1401

A considerable difference between building typology in Europe and building typology in

Brazil results from this fact. When typology appeared in Brazil it was intrinsically related to
social consideration, as well as to the urban and rural context.
In Gilberto Freyre’s work social, geographical, and cultural aspects are always
interconnected. When he studies and analyses some types of buildings, such as the mansion (or
the two or more storey houses) and the mucambo (or the shanties), he does it with
morphological and typological approaches. He considers house plans, as well as the house in
relation to environment, streets, gardens, patios, and the landscape it composes. As a sociologist
Freyre was able to establish a typology of the 19th century Brazilian house with a something of
the study of the urban form.
If we take into account European or any other international study of the urban form or of
building types, the relevance of Gilberto Freyre’s work relies exactly on the importance he gave
to social aspects in the study of building types as well as on his perception of the role of the
house in society and in the shaping of man. Freyre believed that this type of architecture – the
house – was one of the most important expressions of a culture. As a sociologist he recognized
also the importance of this morphological element in the composition of landscape, specially the
cultural landscape.

The Brazilian city in Gilberto Freyre’s work

In 1960 the Brazilian geographer Aroldo de Azevedo published a text entitled “Gilberto
Freyre’s work examined by the light of Geography” (A obra de Gilberto Freyre examinada à luz
da Geografia). In this text, Azevedo draws attention to the important contribution of Gilberto
Freyre’s work to the field of Geography in Brazil. Azevedo lists some of the main geographical
aspects that can be found in Freyre’s work such as certain characteristics of the Brazilian
environment, or the process of colonization, as well as some relevant aspects concerning the
Brazilian city.
In “The mansions and the shanties” Freyre presents a study of urban life in Brazil in the
19th century which has many times a geographical conotation as it includes information on the
placement of Brazilian cities, on their urban characteristics, and on their streets, squares and
buildings (Azevedo, 1960).
Recife is defined by Freyre as “socially an island and geographically something between an
island and a peninsula” (Freyre, 2006a). Differently from what happened in most 19th century
Brazilian cities, in Recife there existed flat streets where it was possible to find some four-
storey houses – a consequence of the geographical characteristic of the place, since there was
not much space so that houses could be larger than higher (Freyre, 2006a).
Rio de Janeiro was a city marked by its hills, and this geographical characteristic determined
from beginning some social differences and spatial segregation in the urban space. According to
Freyre, at first the rich built their houses on the top of the hills, while the poor lived at the
botton of them. Afterwards, the rich left the highest parts of the city to live by the sea, while the
poor occupied the hills (Freyre, 2006a).
Regarding the city of Salvador, in Bahia, Freyre observes that it has always been
characterized by large and extended streets, with houses open to the sea with plenty of palm
trees in their yards (Freyre, 2006a). During the 19th century, the urban landscape of Salvador
was also marked by gardens between the houses, mainly in the suburbs where the rich would
live (Freyre, 2006a) – once again it is possible to find a relationship between the type of
building and its geographical location in the work of Gilberto Freyre.
When the sociologist takes into consideration the city of São Paulo, he emphasises how soil
type determined building materials during colonial times and in the earlier half of the 19th
century, with a predominance of mud walls in urban houses, and how climate influenced
architecture as in the use of glass windows instead of windows made of wood, due to the rains
(Freyre, 2006a). He also affirms that in São Paulo there was a preference for country houses
1402

surrounded by gardens and fruit trees to the detriment of urban houses – which partially
explains the empty aspect of the city related by 19th century travelers (Freyre, 2006a).
The Brazilian city in Gilberto Freyre’s work is considered in its morphological (or
geographical) aspects, and these aspects are revealed to explain the way the city was structured
– with spatial or social segregation –, to be related with some characteristics of the house itself,
and to bring to light characteristics of Brazilian society. In Freyre’s work everything is
interconnected: the Brazilian city, the Brazilian society, and their types of buildings.

Types of buildings studied by Gilberto Freyre

Amongst those houses studied by Gilberto Freyre are the master’s residence, slave habitation,
the two or more storey houses, the ground floor house, the mucambo (or the shanty), and the
chalet.
The first one is described at the preface of “The masters and the slaves”: “(...) The sugar-mill
master’s residence that the colonizator started to build up in Brazil at the 16th century with large
mud walls or stone and lime walls, roofed with straw or tiles, a porch in front and beside it,
fallen roofs in a maximun of protection against the strongest sun and tropical rain was not a
copy of Portuguese houses, but a new expression, corresponding to our physic environment and
to an unexpected phase of Portuguese imperialism: their agrarian and sedentary activity in the
tropics, their rural and proslavery patriarchy. Since this time the Portuguese (...) became
Lusitanian and Brazilian at once, the founder of a new economic and social order; the creator of
a new type of habitation. It is enough to compare the floor plan of a 16th century Brazilian
house with a 15th century Lusitanian manor-house to find out the enormous difference between
the Portuguese from the reign and the Portuguese from Brazil.” (Freyre, 2006b)
The sugar-mill master’s residence was a symbol of power in rural areas. Not only slaves but
also children and women were under domination of the master inside the limits of his property.
The first master’s residences were simple to the point of being roofed with straw. However,
throughout the centuries this type of building became more solid being built with less ephemeral
materials. Palm trees started then to mark the front garden and the landscape, symbolising the
nobleness of the house and the power of its owner. The patio garden was a mixture of the
vegetable garden and the orchard, and presented a meaning of utility much stronger than an
aesthetic value, as Gilberto Freyre observed in his second work (Freyre, 2006a).
Inside the master’s residence one could find only the strictly necessary mobiliary; certain
rooms would even appear predominantly empty to the European eye at the beginning of the 19th
century. Some chairs here and there, sometimes a table, some other wooden mobiliary, and it
was all that one could find there. Women would sleep in alcoves – bedrooms without windows
– away from the eyes of the stranger and under the eye of the master.
The floor plan of the master’s residence could be characterised sometimes by a porch
between the guest’s room and the oratory, a living room after the porch with bedrooms and
alcoves on the left and on the right, and a kitchen at the back of the building close to the patio.
The master’s residence was part of a complex in rural areas which included slave habitation.
This was even more rustic than the former. In general, it was a rectangular building with mud
walls, roofed with straw or tiles, with small openings, where slaves would sleep. Floor tiles
were not used; instead the ground floor was made of soil. This type of building was in fact a
large and rustic room for slaves.
While the master’s residence – together with slave habitation – was placed in rural areas, the
two or more storey houses were situated in the city. They were the richest type of urban house
during the colonial period. As Gilberto Freyre emphasised, the number of floors as well as
building materials were different from place to place. In São Paulo, this type of building used to
have two storeys and was built with mud walls; in Salvador, Recife and Rio de Janeiro, they
were made up of stone or brick and could have three, four or even five storeys (Freyre, 2006a).
 1403

The ground floor of such houses would commonly have rooms for slaves and guests, a store or
warehouse, and a narrow corridor which led to the patio. The owner’s family would live in fact
on the upper floors, where there were rooms and alcoves. Kitchens used to be in the attic, where
there were also rooms for female slaves. This kind of arrangement became so usual in the
Brazilian house that Vauthier would affirm at the 19th century that those who had seen one of
them had seen all of them (Vauthier, 1975).
The two or more storey houses were owned by some of the richest people of Brazilian
society (from aristocracy and bourgeoisie), and symbolised the most civilised type of habitation
in the tropics, according to Freyre: “There were not a few Brazilians from the first half of the
19th century to whom the good people, the good couple, the family well established, according
to the patriarchal ortodoxy, should live, in the city, in a two or more storey house, leaving the
ground floor house of any sort for those who were socially less consolidated. (...) This
conception – of the two storey house still patriarchal and already bourgeois representing the best
and highest Brazilian civilisation, at the end of the 18th century and at the beginning of the 19th
century – seems to have been general amongst the cultured men of this epoch. Not only
Brazilians would have it but also Europeans from the North – almost all of them impregnated
with bourgeois and urban notions of civilisation.” (Freyre, 2006a)
These houses were built side by side on the alignment of narrow lots without front yards
(Reis Filho, 1970). Sometimes painted yellow or some other vivid colour, they made up some
Brazilian urban landscapes up to the 19th century. But in between one and another building
there would almost always be a ground floor house. This was simpler and poorer than the two or
more storey house. It used to have a store or room at the entrance, followed by one or two
alcoves, and a kind of dinning room with a kitchen at the back. Many times it would not present
a tiled floor – which would contribute to a great extent to give it a dirty appearance. But
however plain was it, this type of building would compose the Brazilian landscape in the same
way as the two or more storey houses, built up on the alignment of narrow lots. One could say
that it was even commoner than the former, mainly within those cities far away from the coast,
where European influence was not so deep and commerce was less developed.
Narrow houses built on narrow lots on irregular blocks alongside narrow streets – this was
the Brazilian urban morphological pattern during colonial times.
Near the city and sometimes inside of it there was the “mucambo” – one of the poorest types
of habitation, but not the worst one concerning some ecological aspects according to Gilberto
Freyre (2006a). The “mucambo” was a ground floor house made of straw and stick, and covered
with palm leaves, in which it was clear the native and African influence. It was situated in mud
flats or in swampy areas – the less valuable areas near the city. The internal arrangement was
similar to that of the urban ground floor house, but instead of alcoves, it had bedrooms with
windows.
Notwithstanding quality of materials used in this type of building or even the fact of its being
an ephemeral house, the “mucambo” was in perfect harmony with the environment. In this sense,
it was an ecological type of building.
In “The mansions and the shanties”, Gilberto Freyre considered also the chalet, as one of the
results of European influence on Brazilian architecture at the 19th century. Whereas in Europe
the chalet was a wooden house which could be found in montanious areas, in Brazil it became a
mere style of some urban houses made of brick, characterised by front eaves in contrast with
lateral eaves of traditional houses. This type of buiding used to have a small garden in the front
yard – another European influence taking into account that during the colonial period the garden
was situated in the backyard or in a patio surrounded by the walls of the residence.
The chalet was also considered in “Order and progress” (1959), in which the sociologist,
based on a speech given by Vieira Souto, would express the necessity of a Brazilian architecture
to replace certain foreign buildings such as the chalet that spread throughout Brazilian cities at
the end of the 19th century and became common even in commercial streets (Freyre, 2004).
In his work, Gilberto Freyre wrote also on the country house, the villas (or small palaces), and
the slum tenement. The country house was the best type of residence half way long the city and
1404

rural areas or in the suburbs. It had the advantage of being situated near the city and as well the
advantage of being surrounded by nature as the rural residence. Many travellers would
emphasise the qualities of the country house and its surroundings such as Robert Burford and W.
M. Gore Ouseley:
“(...) The houses in the suburbs are large, more convenient, and abound in the comforts of
Europe: they are generally in large gardens, which during a great part of the year resemble huge
bouquets (...).” (Burford, 1827)
“The Laranjeiras road is one of those that lead to the ascent of the Corcovado. It follows the
widing course of a mountain brook, and the scenery is varied and beautiful. On either side are
country houses, cottages, gardens, and ‘chacras’ or villas, in their enclosed grounds.” (Ouseley,
1852)
To the European eye the country house was a better place for someone to live in than the two
storey house within the city. Surrounded by gardens, with a large porch, and many fruit trees
throughout its terrain, such ground floor house with oratory, living room, bedrooms and alcoves,
and a kitchen at the back, would seem to Europeans more advantageous in aesthetic and
hygienic terms than the urban narrow two storey house.
The villas or small palaces in the same way as the chalet would be the result of European
influence at the end of the 19th century as well as an expression of Eclecticism. According to
Freyre the small palace was many times the residence of the “new-rich”, the “new-powers”, the
“new-intelectual” (Freyre, 2004). It was another type of European building transferred to Brazil,
where the social, cultural, and environmental context was totally diverse. But little by little it
became one of the urban ways of living of aristrocracy and bourgeoisie. Maria Cecília Naclério
Homem has defined the small palace as the “type of one-family house, with one or more storeys,
cellar, stylistic accuracy; a detached house, surrounded by gardens, with a service area and an
annexe at the back” (Homem, 1996).
Inside the residence, as well as outside it, the small palace or villa would express a clear
European influence on architecture. Sometimes neoclassical, other times eclectic, its rooms, its
mobiliary, its architectural aesthetics would demonstrate that obsession with everything which
was European. Above all, the urban small palace or villa, with its vast garden, would be a
symbol of status as the master’s residence in rural areas.
While the small palace became the richest type of urban residence, the slum tenement
became the poorest one. Carlos Lemos affirmed that the slum tenement was not a house in fact
but a group of very small rooms where all the activities would be developed at the same place
(Lemos, 1998). The slum tenement was characterised by the worst building materials and by a
bathroom and service area common to all residents. It was not a healthy type of building but it
was preferred to the “mucambo” by immigrants, and for this reason it became habitation for
many industry workers (Freyre, 2006a).
In “The masters and the slaves”, “The mansions and the shanties”, “Order and progress”, and
some other books, Gilberto Freyre brought to light relevant information on the Brazilian house.
However, it was in “The mansions and the shanties” that he decidedly presented a typological
study. In this book, he compared the two storey urban house with the “mucambo”, with the
ground floor house, with the country house. He emphasised differences between two storey
houses from one city to another. He established a relationship between the house and the street
and analysed their transformation at the 19th century under European influence. He established
a relationship between the house (or types of houses) and the 19th century Brazilian society –
under European influence. He considered the “mucambo” within the environment it was part of.
He established hierarchies and gave attention to materials, to room arrangements, to open and
built spaces. In these terms, it is possible to affirm that he introduced the study of the type in
Brazil, more specifically the study of the building type with some morphological connotation, at
the moment he wrote and published his second work.
In Gilberto Freyre’s work it is possible to find some information on the Brazilian city and
some information on the Brazilian house, but not only this. Freyre’s analysis of the Brazilian
house as well as of the Brazilian city reveals some typological and morphological approaches
 1405

with a sociological refinement which is nowadays indispensable for any typological or

morphological study.
The read of European and American texts was fundamental to his consciousness of the
importance of the house in man’s life, in society, in the urban or the rural landscape. As a
sociologist he looked at the house to understand man and society, but the cultural inheritance
from his work goes beyond this. The richness of his work lies not only in the comprehension of
Brazilian society, but also in the knowledge of Brazilian houses, Brazilian gardens, Brazilian
landscapes. His contribution goes far beyond the sociological field and reaches history of
architecture, history, geography, landscape architecture, and so on. His work is certainly of great
significance to Brazilian people but also to those who are interested in the way the sociologist
analyses the house considering landscape and society.

References

Azevedo, A. (1958) A cidade de São Paulo (Companhia Editora Nacional, São Paulo).
Azevedo, A. ‘A obra de Gilberto Freyre examinada à luz da Geografia’, Boletim Paulista de Geografia
1960, 74-82.
Burford, R. (1827) Description of a view of the city of St. Sebastian, and bay of Rio de Janeiro (1823) (J.
And C. Adlard, Bartholomew Close, London).
Conzen, M. R. G. (2004) Thinking about urban form: papers on urban morphology (1932-1998) (Peter
Lang, Switzerland).
Freyre, G. (1936) Sobrados e mucambos (Companhia Editora Nacional, São Paulo).
Freyre, G. (2006a) Sobrados e mucambos (Global, São Paulo).
Freyre, G. (2004) Ordem e progresso (Global, São Paulo).
Freyre, G (2006b) Casa-grande & senzala (Global, São Paulo).
Homem, M. C. N. (1996) O palacete paulistano e outras formas urbanas de morar da elite cafeeira
(1867-1918) (Martins Fontes, São Paulo).
Larkham, P. J. ‘Urban morphology in the United Kingdom’, Typological process and design theory 1998,
159-177 (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge).
Lemos, C. (1998) ‘Os primeiros cortiços paulistanos’. In: SAMPAIO, M. R. A. (1998) Habitação e
cidade (FAUUSP, Fapesp, São Paulo).
Monbeig, P. (1958) Aspectos geográficos do crescimento de São Paulo (Anhambi, São Paulo).
Moudon, A. V. ‘The changing morphology of suburban neighborhoods’, Typological process and design
theory 1998, 141-157 (Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge).
Ouseley, W. M. G. (1852) Description of views in South America (Thomas Mc Lean, London).
Panerai, P. (1999) ‘Typologies’, Analyse urbaine (Éditions Parenthèses, Marseille).
Reis Filho. N. G. (1970) Quadro da arquitetura no Brasil (Perspectiva, São Paulo).
Vauthier, L. L. ‘Casas de residência no Brasil’. In: Arquitetura Civil I 1975, 1-94 (FAU-USP, IPHAN,
São Paulo).
1406

Meeting of minds: investigation on the common concepts and

different approaches of the major Schools of Urban
Morphology

Stael de Alvarenga Pereira Costa, Maria Manoela Gimmler Netto, Laura Cristina
Coelho de Moraes
Escola de Arquitetura Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais. Rua Paraíba 697 sala
404c. Bairro dos Funcionários. Cep: 30130140, Belo Horizonte. MG. Brazil.
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected]

The purpose of this paper is to present the results from research conducted in the years 2011-2013,
entitled: "Meeting of Minds", which investigated the common concepts and different approaches of the
two major schools in urban morphology. The research focused on the survey work undertaken by the
founders of the schools in order to carry out an urban analysis in England and Italy and thus establish, as
well as, compare and contrast their different methods. Other sources of documentary references were
found in books, publications in academic journals, together with, the reports of pupils who participated in
the formation of these methods. Examples of convergence can be found in these approaches. Both, for
example, consider the form as a product constructed throughout time and thus take the view that research
should concern itself with the investigation of the transformations and continuities of the form in the
urban landscape. However, the methods differ with regards to the scale of analysis. The English school
tends to examine the form from the general to the particular, while in contrast, the Italian school chooses
to take the building as the starting point and widens its focus to include the whole territory. In this sense,
the concepts adopted by schools show both similarities and differences, however both reflect the specific
goals of each approach. For the English school, the geographical approach is the guideline for a
tripartite division of urban form. Conversely, for the Italian school, the architectural approach represents
many focuses in relation to the basic built type and the typological process that transforms it over time. It
is a primary contention of this article that the knowledge acquired from the structure of both schools may
contribute to the development of a wider interdisciplinary approach to research on contemporary cities.

Key Words: schools of urban morphology; research; approaches; similaritie; differences.

Meeting of Minds: Investigation on the common concepts and different approaches of the
major schools of urban morphology

This paper describes the activities undertaken in ″Meeting of Minds", a research project
designed to investigate the common concepts and different approaches employed by the major
schools of Urban Morphology, (FAPEMIG- PPM/ 2011-2013) which was accomplished in
2013. The incentive to develop this research is mainly due to teaching activity which has been
based on the principles of the two traditional schools of Urban Morphology. These were
previously presented on separate courses containing a practical assimilation of content over
several years. In more recent years we have chosen to offer a course in condensed form
containing the concepts of the two schools which have also been further explored in practical
studies.
Another stimulus for this research was that it emerged as a result of suggestions made by
Whitehand (2001) to those he encouraged in the development of studies designed to generate
common concepts within the two schools. On the one hand, the main objective of the research
comes from the need to disseminate the didactic concepts necessary for application in national
Urban Morphology post graduate programs. On the other, the following specific objectives have
 1407

been identified: discuss common concepts in the various schools of urban morphology; identify
the characteristics of each school; establish contemporary morphological thought.

The development of the research

The research was divided into two stages, the first being related to obtaining data on the English
School of Urban Morphology and the second, to data collection on the Italian School. The first
stage of the research began with a literature search on the main representatives of the English
School in order to identify lines of investigation and conceptual currents. The literature in
English was scanned and has been made available on the ISUF website and data was also
obtained from interviews with key representatives, in addition to material obtained from books
and periodicals. The data acquisition on the English School became a simple task and it was
thus completed within the planned stage.
In contrast, the collection of data on the Italian School was rather more difficult. Some
information is available on the ISUF website, but almost every article makes references to the
professional architectural history of its founder, Saverio Muratori. (Marretto,2012). Most of the
data contains the work of Muratori´s disciples who recorded, reinterpreted their classes with
him and published a few books, almost all in Italian and now unavailable and out of print.
Possible alternatives led us to interpret the projects planned by Muratori and assess possible
concepts employed in his style and practices. Another strategy was to seek out publications
written by Muratori´s followers with the aim of establishing common concepts.
We opted to follow both alternatives, but the following factors have adversely influenced the
development of the research project. Almost all literature is in Italian and as publications are not
digitalised we were dependent on our Italian colleagues sending copies of the work in question,
as well as, the availability of Italian teachers to fulfil such requests. Furthermore, there is only
one publication in English on the method and in order to gain a full understanding it became
necessary to translate and interpret the whole book (Interpreting Basic Building by Cannigia
Gianfranco and Gian Luigi Maffei) (2001). Moreover, the concepts are not easily assimilated
and it was necessary to promote seminars that provided an understanding of the work by reading
the chapters and discussing the subject amongst members of the Laboratory of Landscape /
EAUFMG. However, the main concepts were finally identified, analyzed, evaluated and
compared, as the following part of the article will demonstrate.

The conceptual foundations of the traditional school of urban morphology

The conceptual foundations of the instrument have been addressed differently by followers.
Analysis has been distinguished by greater emphasis on some elements of urban form rather
than others, the differing focuses giving rise to the contrasting schools of urban morphology.
The English school of urban morphology structures its conceptual basis on the formulation
of historicity which is the ability of the urban landscape to present the visible results of the
morphological periods. Historicity is thus viewed as an attribute of the landscape that reflects
the diversity and strength of its social historical and cultural content. Therefore, the overlap of
new and old buildings is viewed as being the normal consequence of population growth, which
has resulted in the adaptation of existing structures to meet current needs. Also apparent is the
transformation that these structures have undergone in order to render them suitable for
contemporary uses.
For these reasons, the evidence of historicity in the urban landscape suggests identification
of these processes of historical interest generally, and such phenomena may be viewed as the
ensembles of cultural and social needs during successive, more or less distinct cultural periods
(M.P.G. Conzen, 2004). The morphological processes result from the development of the plan
and its economic, cultural and functional determinants. The study of the successive plans of a
1408

city and the oldest evidence of historical morphological phases show the city's development in
terms of growth and inner transformation over time.
This study, together with analysis of the plans, aims to contribute to increasing the
perception of the three morphological complexes, the road system, the standard division of plots
and the built up area, which make up the urban landscape. These categories are closely related
to individual buildings and units of land use, are found anywhere in the urban landscape and
serve to accommodate one or another element of the urban plan. (Conzen, 1969)
In contrast, the Italian school is structured on the belief that there is a way to build homes
that is intrinsic to a particular people, manifested in its culture at a given point in time. This
particular way is viewed as a kind of gift already rooted in people’s minds as a prototype
inherited by every inhabitant of the group that proposes to build a house. This reproductive
capacity of the people, to build prototypes without barriers and judgment, is referred to as
spontaneous consciousness. Therefore, this consciousness, together with, human interactions
with nature, structures the fundamental concept of the Italian school. (Caniggia ET Maffei,
2001).
As a methodological alternative the built type is considered "synthesis a priori" and the
object of the morphogenetic historical research of the existing urban fabric. A typological study
consists of the selection of a basic type which is in turn compared to other existing types. As
such, it is possible to determine the appropriate level of specificity and thus establish the types
of morphological distinction. With the structure of types and their respective classification
established, the processes of evolution of urban areas can be traced leading to an understanding
of the human environment. These are, in summary, the basic conceptual theories of the two
schools of urban morphology. Their similarities and differences are discussed below.

Similarities and differences between the traditional schools of urban morphology

The common basis of the two schools lies in the researched object - the urban form and its
transformations. Both schools study the transformation of the urban fabric and describe the
transformative processes that occur over time, as well as, manifesting a shared notion of the
urban form's formative and transformative process (Pereira Costa et all, 2013). Another
commonality between the two is the realization that urban forms reflect the social, political and
economic actions of agents within society.
The actions of economic forces often occurs through land speculation and, as noted by Rossi
in 1980, through the implementation of urban plans that are determined by economic forces.
The author concludes that the study of these actions is facilitated by the abundance of material
in the capitalist city, usually manifest in plans. Both founders of the schools agree with such
contentions. Thus for Conzen, (1969) the urban plan of the city is a reflection of the needs of its
inhabitants and how the economic order settles at different times to meet such demands.
According to the author, a reading of the urban plan gives us above all, an understanding of the
different legal economic and political conditions prevailing in each period. These perceptions
are important primarily because they allow the researcher to identify, through the decoding of
planning regulations, the legal restrictions, political and economic data prevailing in each
period.
Muratori, for his part, considers urbanism as a set of architectural products that renew and
adapt according to the needs of society and thus the architectural objects are a physical
reflection of these needs. For Muratori (1959), cities are great architectural compositions; they
thus become a theoretical and methodological instrument of great importance. He comments
that for urbanism, the essential fact is the urban organism and the character of the cities. The
latter can be taken as a basis for the original sense of the urban development plan over time. It
can also be viewed as a manifestation of the role of urban structures and buildings in civic and
social life, moral environment, traditions and history. Pardo (1980).
 1409

The commitment to the preservation of the cultural bases of their respective countries,
demonstrated by the two teachers throughout their academic careers, is also another important
common point between the two schools. (Moudon, 1997). However there are differences
regarding the approach of these schools which can be attributed to the academic background of
the two founders: Geography and Architecture.

Differences

If the main object and beliefs share a common basis, the differences are mainly due to the
methods of approach, characterized largely by the academic background of the two founders
and their respective nationalities. The method developed by the German geographer
M.R.G.Conzen, (Whitehand, 1981), the most eminent representative of the English school, is
often referred to as a tripartite vision. In this, the urban landscape is seen as a composite of
forms which belong to the three systematic categories: the urban plan; the urban fabric and the
pattern of use and land occupation. In any urban landscape these categories are closely
associated.
According to Conzen, the plot is the essential element in the urban plan as it represents the
functional aspect of the city which expresses the logic of the genesis of a geographical
settlement. The author notes that, even if changes related to the road system and land
subdivision occur in the form of cities, the plot demonstrates the ability to align towards the
streets and their extensions, adapting and maintaining its characteristics in the face of urban
transformation over the centuries.
Moreover, the process of land subdivision in cities reflects the economic and social order of
the inhabitants and transformation throughout time. The correct combination of each element is
the result of land conditions and it is established by morphological homogeneity over all
existing area units. This represents a planning unit which is unique and distinct from any other
existing in the surrounding neighbourhood. Different regions combine their hierarchical system
to form the whole of the urban landscape and it is vital to ensure the permanence of urban
landscapes as important cultural assets.
The practices and articles written by Conzen led to the conclusion that the investigative line
found in the English Morphology School is a result of a geographical background based on
concepts developed at the Berlin School of Geography before the Second World War
(Whitehand, 1981). The concepts learned by Conzen, during his academic training at the school,
were applied in his daily practice in England after immigration in 1933.
The English Morphology School sees the urban form as a structure settled on a natural site.
The method takes into consideration the global view of the site in order to analyse the town plan
and its components, the road system, the standard division of plots and the built area. The
method takes a broad view by going into a detailed analysis of the land occupation.
Conversely, the vision of the Italian school is structured in reverse. The school sees the city
as a living organism, in constant transformation that is structured by built forms. Muratori
conceives the morphological analysis based on an architectural scale and by focusing on the
study of the building type - the prototype of the residential building can be viewed as a synthesis
of a collective history defined from the observation and interpretation of the built environment.
The architectural type is a construction, a built organism, which springs from the mind of an
individual and thus expresses an experience that is repeated various times in order to meet the
typical requirements of society. In a way, it absorbs and reflects all essential human aspects.
Analysis of the morphological type starts with the selection of the building type which
resembles a cell, and as such, forms groups of constructed units. These clusters are established
around the nucleus connected by what is known as a matrix route. The buildings are constructed
parallel to the matrix route and this consequently leads to subsequent occupation within the
area. Another further development is a pathway which follows a perpendicular trajectory in
relation to the matrix route and thus gives rise to the construction of other connecting routes.
1410

Other buildings are constructed far apart and settled parallel to the line of the matrix route. In
order to reach these new buildings, new routes are constructed in parallel to the main axis and
the block becomes consolidated. Thus, the scale of research widens gradually due to the
establishment of blocks of similar building types, which in turn structure the urban fabric. The
city then becomes a mosaic.
The formation of the sets of urban fabric, receives from the Italian school of urban
morphology, a comprehensive and detailed conceptualization. Furthermore, the territory is
viewed as being strictly and directly related to the spontaneous consciousness of a human
being´s feeling of belonging to a certain place at a given time. This assumption leads to the
concept of a cultural area whose limits are different from other bordering geographical
territories due to the fact that they manifest specific cultural characteristics.
In summary, the analysis of these concepts from both schools reveals fundamental
differences between them concerning comprehensiveness and applicability. This is because one
is structured from a universal and the other a regional perspective, being that, the first structure
has a notion of territory based on Human Geography while the latter Italian, is based on regional
architectural interpretations. (Pereira Costa, 2013).
The geographical concept identifies the formation of routes as structural elements of
communication and consequently, input vectors in the formation of urban centres, as such, they
are considered to derive from a universal concept. In contrast, for the Italian school routes
appear due to the human sense of belonging to a specific place and time, thus the concept is
restricted to Italian culture and to the specificity of a given territory. (Strappa et all, 2003).
The notion of territorial pre-existence has permeated the studies of the founding fathers of
the two schools. However, it is perhaps significant to mention that they never knew of the
existence of the other or had knowledge of each other's respective studies which were then in
development. According to Samuels (2002), they were only a generation apart, came from
different cultural and professional worlds and yet had similar techniques when arriving at
conceptions of the evolution of urban form.

Synchronicity between themes and independent approaches

Reports recognize the presence of similarities between scientific research in different areas of
knowledge which interface chronologically and linearly and yet have no physical relationship
with one another, given the great distance of time, culture and other circumstances that separate
them. This phenomenon is named by Jung (1980) as synchronicity and corresponds to a
coincidence in which two or more events, without causal relationship, manifest themselves
simultaneously and with the same meaning for the human psyche. This can take the form of an
external event and is independent of time and place. Basically synchronicity is defined as
coincidence and significance, which in turn, requires the existence of an archetype. Archetypes
are psychotic factors which have the power to transgress because they are not unique to the
psychic sphere. They can also occur in non-psychic circumstances thus constituting the
equivalence between the external physical and psychic process. Jung (1980)
This phenomenon was also observed by Thomas Kuhn (2007) who thought that time and
space should be considered from the point of view of synchronicities, due to the fact that,
objects of research always show aggregated results for scientific ends. According to Kuhn, the
advance of science is not cumulative or linear and usually occurs, in contrast, in discontinuous
ways characterised by major rupture or "scientific revolution", such historical watersheds being
marked as a time of paradigm change. Paradigms are defined by Kuhn as a particular way of
looking at the world, which articulates in a coherent manner, problems, concepts, research
methods suitable for specific communities according to certain periods of time.
Jung contends that synchronicity occurs in more perceptive and attentive minds that
somehow are the catalysts and in a certain way, the guardians responsible for the cultural
heritage of the social group. There is no evidence to affirm whether this phenomenon also
 1411

occurred in other areas of knowledge of the period, however it can be recognized in the field of
Human Geography and Architecture and Urbanism and especially in Urban Morphology. In the
latter, therefore, the title custodian of knowledge, can be held by certain morphological elements
- the plot for the geographer and the house for the architect.
The selection of the plot and the study of its transformation is due to the fact that it is the
smallest unit into which human beings divide the land and establish the urban form. In addition,
the plot is the place where human beings individually establish themselves and define their
individual limits in the collective place. This selection is of the utmost importance because to
Conzen, it is on the plot, the smallest divisible parcel and one which houses the distribution
functions of the urban structure, that the whole process of transformation will be more clearly
manifest throughout time. Likewise, in the architectural field of knowledge, Muratori highlights
the basic type, the residential space and the urban element that is found abundantly in cities. For
him, the house is an extension of the human body, which is part of a larger organism - the city.
The events that succeeded World War II demonstrate the effectiveness of the two choices -
both being pioneering and catalytic, as well as, fundamental in deciding which morphological
elements should be preserved. Furthermore they demonstrate how the two morphological
elements, the plot and the house, are chosen to maintain the memory and preservation of
morphological knowledge, for without these we would have no discussion here in 2014.

Conclusions

Presented here are the results of the research on Urban Morphology conducted by the
Laboratory of Landscape/ UFMG. The main goal of the project was to establish the
methodological knowledge generated by both schools in order to facilitate the development of a
larger, interdisciplinary approach to the urban morphology of contemporary cities. Thus, it can
be concluded that the urban form is constantly transformed either by the individual or by
collective decisions taken throughout history. These decisions reflect the cultural aspects of
their era and are in turn objectified in the formation of the urban landscape, setting in motion the
evolutionary process, which is the object of analysis in urban morphology. As transformation is
a natural process in the evolution of urban landscapes so its permanence must be identified,
analyzed and elected for the preservation of cultural and environmental value. Thus,
permanencies are also the result of human decisions and are aspects that significantly contribute
to the unique quality of the urban landscape.
Therefore, in order to understand the process which results in the construction of a building
or a city, it is necessary to investigate the latter's formation and transformation. The different
forms of transformation were described by the founders of the two schools on different scales
and levels of abstraction. The Italian school of urban morphology, for example, sees the
typological process in relation to the transformation of the building type, which leads to the
classification of buildings or other elements. In contrast, the English school sees, in the
evolution from a morphological or historical period to the subsequent era, the long-term
transformation of the form as constituting a complete range of transmitted features a specific
culture can generate.
Taking into account a broader view of both sides of the analogy, it appears that there are
significant similarities between the typological process and the theory of evolution of urban
landscapes. Both concepts can be used for the benefit of contemporary research approaches to
the built environment. Conducting a comparative study of the different types of approach have
proven fruitful in comprehending the development of the complex structure of contemporary
cities. In this sense the differences between schools are critically important because they can
represent, not only differences in approaches, but also provide the complementary tools
necessary for enhancing overall methods and results in Urban Morphology.
1412

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledged the support received from the Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa de Minas
Gerais – FAPEMIG, from the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnológico - CNPq
and Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior - CAPES to develop this research and
to present this paper.

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building. Firenze: Alinea editrice srl.
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Peter Lang.
Conzen, M. R. G. (1969) Alnwick, Northumberland: a study in town-plan analysis. London: Institute of
British Geograpers.
Jung, C. G. (1980) Psicologia do inconsciente. In Obras completas de C. G. Jung (Vol. 7/1). Rio de
Janeiro: Vozes,.
Kropf, K. (2011) ″Urbanism, politics and language: the role of urban morphology″. Journal of the
International Seminar on Urban Form: Birmingham, 15.(2) .157- 161
Kuhn, T. (2007) A estrutura das revoluções científicas. 9ª ed. São Paulo: Perspectiva,.
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dello Stato.
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 1413

Urban analysis techniques and role of morphology in post

crisis urban design: the case of Rubattino and Ortica districts
in Milan

Ioanni Delsante, Nadia Bertolino

School of Art, Design and Architecture, University of Huddersfield
School of Architecture, The University of Sheffield. Email: [email protected],
[email protected]

Abstract. Urban spaces and towns are facing different and contradictory dynamics, between “endless”
expansion and “shrinking” trends. Post financial crisis urban renovation also deals with different
practices, between real estate development and temporary use entailing reappropriation of urban areas.
It is nowadays almost impossible, at least in Europe, to realize major town plans similar to those carried
out in the past decades, but new forms of urban renovation, much more complex and fragmented, or
temporary and low cost, are now spreading. They allow the participation of different actors (public /
private partnerships), flexible timing and spatial organization, with the not secondary goal of reusing
urban territories and buildings. The aim of renovation projects is more and more focused on social issues
and challenges, for example in terms of quality of life and health, also by means of innovative housing
programs, and sustainable layouts over the years: which will be the effects of this “programmatic”
architecture on urban morphology? The completion of elaborate programmes requires deep and
integrated urban analysis, based on a “reading of the town” through multiple and complementary
methodologies (i.e. considering the town as combination of layers, the town seen as an archipelago or a
“town within the town”). Urban morphology plays an important role in defining urban strategies,
especially within fragmented or superimposed layouts. Rubattino and Ortica districts in Milan represent
a meaningful case study for research and design: it could be described as a multi-layered and multi-
composed scenario, considering its various parts and their “complementary”, “separated” and even
“contradictory” status, as opposed to a homogeneous and uniform one.

Key Words: post crisis urban design, programmatic architecture, town as combination of layers, town as
‘archipelago’, Rubattino and Ortica districts in Milan

Contemporary situation of urban settlements

Towns and urban territories have to deal simultaneously with contradictory dynamics: on the
one hand “expansion”, that is mainly linked to urbanization trends at a global level (Bugatti and
Shiling, 2011), and characterizes the megalopolis of developing countries (i.e. Asia, South
America), or the sub-urbs of urban territories (Garcia Vàzquez, 2011).
The meaning of “town” (Rossi, 1982) itself is changing (Cacciari, 2003) as the existing
habits, rules and procedures contributed to create an uncontrolled urban effect and to the
“eradication” of planning activities. The results are evident in terms of urban “sprawl”
(Ingersoll, 2006) that could represent also a loss of meaning for human settlement.
“Greenfields” are economically attractive for the real estate industry, so that urban settlements
too often expand with no relationship with landscape and environmental sustainability.
On the other hand, urban degrowth and town shrinking are already occurring, mainly due to
postindustrialization and post financial crisis effects that are affecting specific territories (i.e.
Detroit in Usa). Sometimes these events create large urban “vacancies” involving social,
economical and political problems, and even the loss of “urbanity”. The focus should be shifted
also on the reuse of existing buildings and “brownfields”: innovative uses and strategies should
be defined in accordance with more complex situations including soil pollution, existing and
underused architectures, lack of density and functions. Urban design should find new tools and
1414

methodologies to deal with these trends in a different way: it is evident that urban renovation
based on large and ambitious town plans (i.e. Milan “Bicocca” plan, by V. Gregotti) are no
more effective and sustainable from many points of view.

Architecture, social challenges and the role of programs

Even if the effects of financial crisis are deeply affecting society, the causes that generated it
still have to be solved (Rossi G., 2011).
Social needs are strongly and increasingly emerging - even if not like in the past - and they
involve larger parts of the population.
Architecture and urban design are not autonomous: new or renewed social needs in the post
crisis society concern housing (i.e. lack of or too expensive), but also working spaces, facilities,
infrastructures, public spaces and all functions that affect urban quality and quality of life.
Quality evaluations take over quantity ones: the failure of urban planning leaves the strong need
for “urban” futures (Bertolino, 2013).
Architecture should also face the changing meaning of “community” (Moroni and Brunetta,
2011): different kind of “contractual communities” are possible (i.e. Usa, North Europe) and
they reveal the potentialities of unexpressed needs in terms of shared spaces, activities, values.
Which could be the effects of a larger diffusion of these kind of experiences on urban
development?
The meaning of “housing” itself, between “private” and “non private” spaces (Riley, 1999),
is rapidly changing accordingly to new life styles and to new enlarged concepts of “family”. The
modernist approach to men’s needs and life organization is definitely over.
Architectural and urban design should actively act within this innovative framework, for
example by dealing with flexible and multi functional layouts and realizing innovative social
“programmes” (i.e. via Cenni Social Housing in Milan).
More flexible configurations can include also innovative and diversified housing, (i.e.
temporary or co-housing) (Delsante, 2011), work spaces (i.e. coworking), creative , high-tech,
or other forms of soft production spaces (i.e. start-ups, incubators, etc), and also other functions
(Delsante, 2012). Functional mix and social diversity are some of the key words tracked in
these experiences (Fernandez Per, Mozas and Arpa, 2011).
As a matter of fact, the architectural “program” (social, functional) becomes more and more
important: a well defined program could better fit fast changing scenarios and social needs as
well as the reuse of existing and underused buildings.
“What pressures - specific of the twentieth century -. does the combination of programs
impose on architectural form?” (Holl, 2011); in other words, if post crisis architecture becomes
“programmatic”, which are the effects on urban design and morphology?

Innovative tools and procedures to regenerate urban settlements

Many techniques and procedures could better meet the actual conditions of urban territories in
the post crisis framework.
Updated or innovative public private partnerships (PPP) can better fit a more complex urban
organization with multiple actors and wider needs. At district level, “private” driven
requalification initiatives, even small scale (single or multi owner residential buildings), could
become part of larger initiatives including public spaces and infrastructures (i.e. smart town
projects).
Forms of “contractual communities” could also represent innovative ways to approach urban
renovation: in some cases, groups of tenants organizing themselves to develop a refurbishment
project of an existing building (i.e. Numerozero in Turin). Auto construction and participated
 1415

design processes represent the most meaningful examples of these experiences, whose effects
should be deeply evaluated.
Other approaches support the “temporary” use or reuse of existing spaces and/or buildings
(Bishop and Williams, 2012). Flexible, low-cost, light architectures and installations often
reflect new forms of social organization (i.e. Temporiuso in Milan). These kind of
transformations are usually connected with innovative “participation” processes, promoted by or
agreed with public authorities. The results of these experiences are not only significant in terms
of use of public spaces, and of transformation of unused spaces or land (i.e. taking care of
“urban agriculture”), but also of reuse of underused or dismissed buildings with no chance to be
transformed, as a consequence of the economic downturn and lack of private investors (i.e.
Macao and the Torre Galfa in Milan).
All these different kinds of urban habits call for social sustainability and realization of
innovative and flexible programs meeting the complexity of actual urban conditions. Which are
the effects of complex, multiple and even temporary forms of renovation on urban design and
morphology?
Needs are new and diversified, and the tools do not seem completely adequate: the “urban
dilemma” is still not just economical, technical or even social but it is also a “design” issue.

Rubattino and Ortica districts in Milan

The districts of Rubattino and Ortica represent a meaningful case study to show the effect of
post crisis design on urban morphology. They were originally constituted by two different
historical settlements outside the “town” of Milan, along two important communication routes.
These historical centres are nowadays still recognizable but they were merged by
urbanization process mainly after World War II. The history of both districts is strictly related to
the industrialization process that started in the beginning of the XX century. Ortica area became
a factory and railway neighbourhood with poor life conditions, that led to the development of
social housing, whereas Rubattino was historically linked to big car factories such as Maserati
and OM). Huge industrial yards are still visible on part of the original places, as a memory of
that era.
The whole urban area of Rubattino and Ortica is historically (from the middle of XIX
century) surrounded by infrastructures and strongly separated from the “planned” city (town
plan by Beruto, 1884).

Figure 1. Aerial view of Ortica and Rubattino districts.

The west and south facing sides of the area are defined by the strong edge represented by the
railway (the urban ring and the Milano-Venezia line), with high concrete walls showing strong
differences in height: along the entire south and west perimeter just two small tunnels link the
site to the town. Large inaccessible and unused spaces under the elevated highway (eastern ring
1416

road) depict - as a matter of fact - the end of this urban district on the eastern side. Except for
the huge industrial factories, large greenfields and agricultural areas are still present just outside
this eastern edge: unfortunately, real estate development assisted by law procedures still
continues to build new and meaningless “architectures” instead of recuperating the large amount
of dismissed areas. This is a meaningful example of contradictory trends in contemporary urban
settlements, between “endless” expansion and the complexity of reuse and reappropriation of
urban vacancies.
Inside Rubattino and Ortica district different parts can be recognized, which are
characterized by functional and morphological specific features: historical settlements with their
monuments, social-housing blocks, big industrial sites, large old barracks, blocks of small
factories, residential areas from post war expansion, recent and high density post industrial
housing complexes recently recuperated for creative and cultural activities.

Figure 2. Urban fabrics with preservation and renewal areas.

Figure 3. “Transformation Areas” (in dark grey) according to the new PGT (Territorial
Administration Plan).

The attempts to carry out an urban renewal in the middle of the ‘90s through large real estate
plans suddenly stopped, and were partially unsuccessful, since some of the residential blocks
 1417

still need to be completed due to real estate crisis. Even if the reuse of outer dismissed industrial
sites is still replaced by more convenient developments on close greenfields, some innovative
and also temporary reuse of old manufacturing yards and buildings show a successful pathway
to urban “regeneration”. Different buildings have been reused and rearranged for creative
activities (i.e. fashion ateliers, designers’ studios, creative productions, etc): in addition to this,
there is an extended use of underused or dismissed industrial sites during Milan Design Week
(via Ventura district).
So, what to do with large underused areas and old barracks? Milan municipality recently
approved a new Territorial Administration Plan (PGT, 2012) that supports new planning
strategies, accordingly to a general vision of a “shrinking” town that is reducing its population.
According to the new plan, within the above selected district we can distinguish two main
“Transformation Areas”: the first deals with the site of the disused barracks of Rubattino,
whereas the second one runs along some unused railway lines close to Lambrate station.
A truly “programmatic” architecture is needed to better meet the needs and the social
transformation of the whole district: urban morphology should play an important role in
defining strategies able to face the complexity and multiplicity of the urban structure. There are
no actors (public or private) with the financial capacity of transforming the whole complex of
dismissed sites, but there is the chance to transform them on the basis of a progressive,
sprawled, multiple actor urban regeneration process.

Techniques for complementary urban analysis

Taking into consideration the complex urban framework and the lack of homogeneity in the
urban fabrics, the aim of the research on Rubattino and Ortica districts is to deal with urban
analysis in accordance with different approaches, showing their complementarities and effects
on design strategies.
Post industrial towns are characterized by “differences” more than by homogeneity and the
town is intended as a sprawled and open structure that cannot be reduced to a homogeneous
system: “Appropriate techniques have to be found for identifying the character of these
disparate places, defining it and developing its specific features, either by adding the missing
functions or by perfecting the existing ones” (Ungers and Vieths, 1997).
There is still the chance to identify specific and recognizable features, also in a
morphological sense, as already revealed by some urban studies years ago (Boeri, Lanzani and
Marini, 1993).
Continuity and “separation” are two complementary issues of urban structure: they “are not
the consequence of each other, but they are two simultaneous phenomena meant to reinforce
each other” (Aureli, 2011).
The whole and its parts (Ungers and Vieths, 1997) should be recognized (i.e. “the town
within the town”) and the post crisis urban territories identified as an “archipelago”: “the idea of
separated parts links the possibility of an absolute architecture to the idea of the archipelago as a
form for the city. The concept of the archipelago describes a condition where parts are separated
yet united by the common ground of their juxtaposition” (Aureli, 2011).
Moreover, the superimposition of different urban elements (in time or in space) should also
be read and interpreted (i.e. “the town as a combination of layers”). Differences and
contradictions emerge and cannot be reduced.
Post crisis urban regeneration is characterized by morphological multiplicity and variety,
with complementarities, differences, separation more than homogeneity and the uniformity of
the “sea of urbanization”.
“Conflicts, fragments, unresolved contradictions and oppositions are, however, the original
criteria of the “town as a combination of layers”. The various structures are superimposed, like
the layers of a historical city […] the variety of forms and spaces is intentional, the result of a
clear and strictly defined process. This process takes into account the topographical and
1418

historical factors, the techniques as well as the social requirements and formal concepts.
Nothing is decided in advance, decisions are taken on a case by case basis” (Ungers and Vieths,
1997).
As a matter of fact, two approaches appear to be more appropriate to describe the features
and morphology of Rubattino and Ortica districts: one is based on the idea of “archipelago” that
describes the city as a unity of different and independent, though complementary, parts. It deals
with typological and morphological features, more than with mere functional ones.
The other one is based on the idea of the town as a “combination of layers”, showing the
interference of different functions and “systems” (not just historically), and of contradictions
and differences, also due to superimposition. The analysis of spaces through these different
methodologies represents the chance for a comparative study.
The results of urban analysis, developed also within the course of Architectural Composition
3 held at the University of Pavia (Academic Year 2013-14 – by Ioanni Delsante; side
professors: You Yinan and Nadia Bertolino) show the effectiveness of the selected
methodologies.
Reading the city in layers led to a better understanding of the superimposition of historical
developments, physical structures (i.e. rail systems), mix of functions and diversified spaces not
just per dimension but also per role, use and quality.

Figure 4. Urban analysis by “layers”.

Reading the city in parts showed morphological “differences” together with functional and
social “clustering” processes. “Continuity” and “separation” are two complementary faces also
defined by the buildings themselves.

Figure 5. Urban analysis through “islands” and “archipelago”.

 1419

Urban analysis is the basis for the consecutive design activity: interpreting the urban
complexity, also from a morphological point of view, can lead to define strategies that are more
adaptable to fast changing scenarios.
Some design experimentation could better show the results of this process, but simply as an
attempt and as a consequence of the interpretation of urban structure.
Some urban strategies clearly emerge and can be briefly described as follows:
i) deal with the urban scale and dimension, and not with pre assigned perimeters or enclosed
spaces. Relationships and enclosures are two complementary features, depending on specific
site conditions. Urban morphology is one the key factors in defining the dimension and the
“edges” of the project;
ii) define a clear architectural “programme” with also different or progressive timing, including
social, economical and functional goals;
iii) take care of multiple actors or public /private initiative, with fragmented, complex or even
enlarged perimeters in comparison with the fixed ones stated by planning regulations or
“transformation areas”. Urban design supports flexible, progressive, inclusive strategies at urban
level;
iv) define a strategy in terms of preservation and transformation of existing buildings, with short
and long term planning, also depending on economical conditions. Social needs have to be
translated into a morphological strategy.

Figure 6. The project scale is urban, involving public and private actors in accordance
with the specific program and goals.
1420

Figure 7. Progressive design including existing buildings and public spaces.

Figure 8. View of one of the experimental projects: new urban shapes defined by reuse
and addition of functions in existing urban fabrics.

Figure 9. The superimposition of morphological shapes on the existing framework.

 1421

Conclusion

Taking into consideration the post financial crisis framework and the conditions of urban
settlements and architecture, urban analysis in Rubattino and Ortica areas should deal with
selected methodologies to better meet and describe urban “complexity”.
Societal challenges and economical trends shift the focus of the project on the “program”
that should be sustainable from many points of view, and not just technically.
Urban morphology plays an important role in identifying features, continuities and
separations, also through differences and contradictions that fragmented or progressive
programmes can realize in multiple steps and long term periods.
The results of the research developed on Rubattino and Ortica districts in Milan show the
effectiveness and the complementarities of multiple urban analysis representing a meaningful
case study in terms of coherence between morphological strategy and urban renewal techniques
and tools.

References

Aureli, P. V. (2011) The Possibility of an Absolute Architecture (MIT Press, Cambridge).

Bishop P. and Williams L. (2012) The Temporary City (Routledge, Oxon - New York).
Bertolino, N. (2013) ‘Proposal for a New Architectural Theory: How to Establish a Renewed Balance
between Man and Nature’, ATINER'S Conference Paper Series, Athens, No: ARC2013-0764.
Boeri, S., Lanzani, A. and Marini E. (1993) Il territorio che cambia: ambienti, paesaggi e immagini della
regione milanese (Abitare Segesta Cataloghi, Milano).
Bugatti, A. and Zheng, S. (2011) Changing Shanghai. From Expo’s after use to new green towns
(Officina Edizioni, Roma).
Cacciari, M. (2002) ‘Nomads in Prison’, Casabella 705, 4-7.
Delsante, I. (2011) Experimental architecture in Shanghai (Officina Edizioni, Roma).
Delsante, I. (2012) From research to design (Editrice Compositori, Bologna).
Fernandez Per, A., Mozas, J., Arpa, J. (2011) This is Hybrid (A+t architecture publisher, Vitoria-Gasteiz).
Garcia Vàzquez, C. (2011) Antìpolis (Editorial Gustavo Gili, Barcelona).
Holl, S. (2011) Prologue, in Fernandez Per A., Mozas J., Arpa J. (2011), ibidem, 7-9.
Ingersoll, R. (2006) Sprawltown: looking for the city on its edges (Princeton architectural press, New
York).
Moroni, S. and Brunetta, G. (ed.) (2011) La città intraprendente. Comunità contrattuali e sussidiarietà
orizzontale (Carocci Editore, Roma).
Riley, T. (1999) The un-Private House (Museum of Modern Art, New York).
Rossi, G. (2012) Capitalismi (Sole 24 Ore, Milano).
Rossi, A. (1982) The architecture of the city (MIT Press: Cambridge).
Ungers, O.M. and Vieths, S. (1997) The Dialectic City (Skira Editore, Milano).
1422

Past and present: an architectural survey of Birni Lafia, a

Dendi village

Jean-François Pinet
Faculty of Architecture La Cambre-Horta, Free University of Brussels (ULB), Place
Flagey, 19 – 1050 Brussels. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. How a city’s architecture and urbanism, seen as particular manifestation of material culture,
can reflect its identity? In collaboration with the multi-disciplinary project Crossroads of Empires, mostly
composed of archaeologists and anthropologists, a group of architects conducted a study of contemporary
villages of Dendi, a rural territory in north-Benin, bordering the River Niger. This architectural study was
conducted in 2013 and 2014. The evolution of Dendi villages was only poorly documented since the first
European explorations and the whole Crossroads of Empires project aims to emphasize the development
of identity and material culture in northern Benin. A specific village, Birnin Lafia, was studied as a case
study using a typo-morphological method of analysis combined with oral inquiries. This paper presents
various aspects of the fieldwork.

Key Words: North-Benin, field survey, urban morphology, rural area, anthropology of space

Introduction

Since two decades, the relationships between territories and identities are at the center of a
debate that concerns social sciences in a methodological and epistemological point of view: in a
globalized world, (Sassen 1991) do different territories prefigure specific cultural identities and
reciprocally, do distinct identities involve specific territories? (De Biase, Rossi, 2006).
This link between territories and cultural identity is the core of the Crossroads of Empires
multidisciplinary project, initiated in 2011 by Anne Haour, archaeologist and researcher at the
University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK. The main goal of the project is to study to what
extent medieval empires of the Sahel-Sudan (Cornevin, 1966) have influenced the political,
economical and religious history of the regions surrounding the Niger River. In a more specific
way, through a combination of archaeological diggings, compilation of oral traditions,
comparative analysis of technologies and cultural studies, the project aim to understand how
material culture was structured and dispersed between 1200 and 1850, at the start of European
colonization. The period studied by the anthropological and architectural part of the project is
more recent and starts around 1850 until the 2000s. Indeed, the majority of contemporary
villages have emerged in the second half of the nineteenth century. The overall goal is to
understand whether there are links between contemporary settlements and ruins discovered by
archaeologists and to collect data on population dynamics through material culture and technical
activities. In a region where the main historical sources available are relatively poor, the issue is
also to establish if the results of the excavations are coherent with historical data from written
documents and oral sources and to understand how the identity of this particular area developed
over the centuries.

A rural territory in north Benin

Dendi is a key case study in many aspects. From a methodological point of view, Dendi is a
narrow region (about 200 km long and 15 km wide), parallel to the axis of the Niger river,
which may be covered systematically. This territory, almost virgin of any scientific research, is
 1423

at the edge of two of the largest well-known historic areas of west Africa (Kanem and Bornu
empires to the west and the succession of empires of Ghana, Melli and Songhai to the east) and
a myriad of kingdoms (Hausa city-states, Sokoto caliphate, Gulmantchéba kingdoms). Theses
empires and kingdoms were subject to different studies, allowing a comparative approach.
Because of its location, the Dendi was the theater of major population movements and has long
been a crossroad of ancient trade routes linking the Hausa cities to forested areas currently
known as Ghana. 'Marginal territory', 'crossroad', 'refuge area' : the commercial, military,
demographic history of Dendi explain how this territory can be so heterogeneous in both
linguistic, ethnic and technical level.

Figure 1. Map of main medieval West African empires.

These population dynamics, particularly complex, result in considerable ethnic diversity in

the region and the creation of one own cultural identity, but also by the formation of a two-
headed political power where the leadership of the land belongs to groups of farmers identified
as indigenous or natives while the leadership of the villages and people is in the possession of
non-native groups of warriors designated as newcomers or non-native and usually coming
because of the fall of the Songhai empire (Haour, 2013).
It is important to stress the difference between Dendi as a territory, dendi as a language, the
dendi cultural area (that far exceeds the boundaries of the region) and the dendi identity. The
same term is used to designate the language, territory and the people who live there, even if they
are very heterogeneous. The literal translation of dendi is 'go downstream' or 'down the river'
(Bako Arifari, 1998). The term does not refer to an ethnical connotation but geographical, the
river in question is the Niger river.
The dendi 'culture' or 'identity' is an inclusive culture that tends to assimilate elements which
are originally foreign. The Dendi language or dendi cine is a vehicular language and therefore
shared by different ethnic groups. The notion of a 'dendi ethnicity' seems quite questionable and
seems to rather be a result of the construction of a shared identity by inhabitants, in order to
make bounds between different ethnical groups. This structure was reinforced by the impact of
colonizers who had a tendency to regroup people of this territory under the same name (Bako
Arifari, 1998).
Available historical records regarding Dendi are relatively rare. Except for some sketchy
references present in the Tarikhs (Houdas, Delafosse, 1913) and memories of european
explorers and military (Barth, 1959; Toutée 1897; Drot, 1904) the main information about this
area during the last centuries came from colonial administrators (Larose, Perron, 1924 Ardant
du Picq, 1933 Sere River, 1965) and studies from the late 1980s (Bio Bigou 1987; Bako Arifari
1424

1989; Baka, 1992; Dembou, 1992; Whalter, 2006). Most of these studies are master thesis of
history or PhD theses which investigate the political upheavals in depth but discuss little the
daily lives of people and rarely describe architecture and environment.
During the French colonization, the Dendi territory was largely marginalized in the reports
because it was too remote and and lacked natural resources. The increase of forced labor
between 1920s to 1930s seemingly also had a strong impact on the area, not concerning
migration, but also construction techniques and and to a certain extent, material culture. For
example, some people left to border regions or to cities in order to escape the forced labor and
upon their return, they brought with them habits, techniques and customs foreign to the dendi
(Vennetier, 1976). After the independence of Benin in 1960 and two revolutions in 1963 and
1972, a new political way of functioning in the village chiefdoms was introduced.
Transmission of the function of village chief, previously hereditary became subject to an
election. Therefore, the ruling dynasties in the Dendi were on a large scale overthrown for a
time. However, this change in the system appears to have concluded into some form of
compromise since the 1970s: it is often the 'legitimate' heirs who presents themselves to the
electoral vote.

The place of architects in a multidisciplinary study project

The integration of architects in the project team provides new skills and a reflective analysis
based on an architectural survey of built forms and existing habitats, a quality relatively unique
in this type of archaeological study. Alongside the archaeological excavations, we had to
develop a method of analysis suitable to the field, complemented by interviews with inhabitants.
Although the typo-morphological method of analysis was born in Europe in the 60s, in the
context of 'sedimented' cities with relatively 'steady' models (Muratori, 1960), we believe that
this method, by its phenomenological and essentially descriptive nature, is adaptable to African
territories that are, urban or rural. Analysis of African cities using the tools of typo-
morphological method of analysis without necessarily declaring itself as such already exists
(Maas, Mommersteeg 1992; Bourdier, Minh-ha 2005). The analysis of rural dwellings, which
dates back to early eighteenth century (De Foville, 1894 Brunhes, 1920) has quickly emerged as
a hub of questions about society and the theories that were elaborated on it. Rural areas, villages
and houses, but also the old neighborhoods of our cities have become a pertinent laboratory.
(Rivière 1941, Lévi-Strauss, 1958 Chombart Lauwe, 1959, Bourdieu 1969).
If cities have the ability to integrate into their framework social and urban mutations while
keeping traces of their past development states, rural villages, mostly composed of concessions
made of mud and lasting rarely more than a generation, seemed to be a priori much more
sensitive to any urban upheaval and therefore much more difficult to analyze. Our assumption,
which was verified during the field survey, was based on the hypothesis that urban structure
(roads, parcels and to some extent the implementation of buildings on the plot) persisted over
time, although the buildings themselves were renewed regularly. In that way, the study of the
contemporary state of Birni Lafia can provide actionable insights on its previous states on the
urban scale but also on the typological scale by studying the evolution of construction
techniques and building types (Garmy 2012).
By questioning spatial arrangements, urban structure and space appropriation, it is possible
to address issues studied by the entire project team. By understanding the architecture and
urbanism as the expression of a specific material culture or 'identity' and trying to understand
how people live, the village's history and its development based on personal and families
stories, we were able to open some 'doors' on other specific knowledge.
It was thus to understand whether there were recurring structures passed on over generations,
observable on both an urban and architectural scale. These specific elements of material culture
of the studied city should be not necessarily unchanged over time but consist in what Ryckmans
identifies as a permanency. 'Permanency is not what denies transformation, but what informs it'.
 1425

(Ryckmans 1991). The identification of these elements and their description should provide the
basis for a typological classification.

Figure 2. Relationship between Birni Lafia and other cities.

Site

In 2013, we chose to work on Birni Lafia, a village whose name comes from the hausa words
birni (enclosure, wall) and lafia (health). This choice was made initially for very practical
reasons : Birni Lafia was the location of the base camp of archaeologists. Without cars at our
disposal, it greatly simplified our logistics. In more methodological terms, the size of the village
allowed us to do a detailed and fairly representative field survey, and which could lead to an
understanding of the 'whole picture'. Finally, because the idea was to understand links between
the existing villages in the region and ruins discovered during archaeological campaigns, Birni
Lafia turned out to be an interesting site by its proximity to one of the major archaeological
excavation sites in the region.
Birni Lafia is located in the north of Benin, on the right bank of the Niger river. Major cities
around Birni Lafia are Karimama and Kompa in the north, Tenda and Gaya in the east, on the
left bank of the Niger river and Malanville and Guene in the south on the Benin side.
If the city is located 4 km far from the river, its adjacent to the river basin which is around 7 km
wide close to Birni Lafia. These lands, cultivated by the inhabitants mainly to grow rice,
tomatoes, peppers and onions, are water covered during the annual floods which regularly flood
new areas in the north of the village.
Before the field survey, we created a map of Birni Lafia based on satellite pictures of the
village. From a methodological point of view, this process may seem somewhat risky because of
the many uncertainties that include: poor definition of the pictures can lead to confusion in the
interpretation of the elements, the scale can be subject of a margin of error, foliage can hide
certain elements... In fact, this work was relatively accurate as we have seen during the
subsequent field campaign. This process has allowed us to quickly produce a map highlighting
the existence of circular and rectangular buildings, the presence of voids within the framework,
some roads and on the whole, the overall shape of the city. During this fieldwork, mapping
fences and walls that were mostly missing in the first map allowed us to understand the
geometry of concessions and establish an preliminary land registry.
During the campaign conducted between January and February 2013, we interviewed 114
people in Birni Lafia using a survey form asking the identity of the inhabitant (name, age,
1426

ethnicity, activity), their level of wealth (oxen or cow number), some genealogical information
and family history or village history in general and, finally, architectural information (floor
plans to fill in, technical or specific information). We compared this research material with
archaeological data and information based on a cartographic analysis mostly conducted on the
network of roads and land plots in the city. Family trees that we could reconstruct from
interviews with inhabitants indicate that the village has existed for five or six generations on
average. Assuming that the average length of a generation is 25 years, it can be estimated that
the village exist since 125 to 150 years, which actually place his creation before 1900, during
the second half of the nineteenth century.

Urban form

Globally, the shape of Birni Lafia corresponds to that of an almond which the more slender side
would be headed north. The village has a more densely built area which we will call 'center' and
a less dense area that can be described as 'peripheral area'. The boundary between the two is
quite porous, fuzzy. The town is bisected by a highway that follows a north-south axis. Eastern
part of the village is more important than the western part. Dimensions of buildings are
repetitive and regular. At first glance, their disposal seems random. However, taking into
account the fences and walls, we can discern houses that form coherent sets.
The identification of the locations of political, economic and religious powers places, based
on the descriptions given by the village inhabitants, suggests that the village that once
functioned on a radio-concentric pattern around the village chief and land owner houses,
changed to a linear model. The market, the administration, the school, the main mosque of the
village are located around the road, as a kind of 'strip' (Venturi, Scott Brown, Izenour, 1972).
The transition from one model to another appears to be related to political and historical
circumstances: the states of war promote compact forms, easily defensible. Since the French
colonization and the appeasement of tensions between villages, the village could take another
shape, more suited to its economic development, polarized by the highway. This evolution of a
radio-concentric shape to a linear shape seems to be common across the Dendi and has been
observed in various other villages in 2014.

Figure 3 and 4. Hypothesis of development: the influence of french colonization & Old and
current main places of power.
 1427

Borders

The territory around Birni Lafia is relatively empty, dotted with isolated villages. It is not a
context of dispersed housing. It is therefore quite easy at first to draw the outline of a city.
According to the interlocutors the various entities that compose the city vary in number. The
designations used also change. Based on their interviews, Birni Lafia seems to be composed of
two large areas.
The first one is the 'old town' or kwara zema, which includes the oldest parts of the village,
whose boundaries correspond to the former surrounding wall (the birni) and which corresponds
to a dense 'core' containing no fields. It is also the part of the city where the vast majority of the
holders of traditional power still live today.
The second one is the 'new town' or kwara tegui, which surrounds the old city and which
boundaries are less defined. From the study of building density, we have chosen to divide it into
two subgroups: a first periphery moderately built, interspersed with large open spaces where we
can see some fields and a second periphery, less built and much more recent, comprising mainly
fields and a few isolated houses. This third entity acts as transition between the first two and the
bush.
The boundaries between these three entities are sometimes materialized by a street, a row of
trees, granaries or may be intangible, symbolic.
To this relatively common to all respondents division is superimposed over a second division
in quarters which corresponds more to ethnic or family groups and, in this case, vary to a large
extent from an interlocutor to an another. The 'confusion' in the designation of quarters probably
reflects power struggles (Rozenholc, 2004)
The basfonds, or clay extraction areas, that have been flooded later for some and became
small artificial ponds where fish farming is practiced, were clearly identified by locals as
markers of extension of the city. According to the myths of creation of Birni Lafia, the first
settlement was surrounded by piles of garbage. When the village expanded, new piles were
made at its limits and residents dug new clay extraction areas, marking steps in its evolution.

Roads layout

Two structures appear when studying roads of Birni Lafia: in the most central part of the village
buildings are aligned along orthogonal roads, very regular in contrast to the tortuous paths
which are distinguished elsewhere.
During the field survey, we understood that this transition from an organic road framework
to orthogonal roads is a legacy of colonization. Indeed, after colonizing Benin, the French did
not only built the highway that cuts the village in two but also ordered to inhabitants of different
villages, including Birni Lafia, to create roads, that people call vons, following a orthogonal
layout.
This work, which respond to a hygienist, military logic and should serve as firewalls, are not
unlike, on a smaller scale, the boulevards Haussmann carved in central Paris, relatively
speaking. They created a major trauma in the collective consciousness. During the interviews,
inhabitants explained that the French have 'broken the village' when they forced people to
destroy some houses to trace the vons. The French also tried to force people to align their homes
on vons but it was not very effective.
Due to their irregular pattern and reduced size, the fondos, which can be translated in English
by 'path' or 'trail', appear older than the vons. Some fondos are referred to as fondos ndangaize
or ‘where only one foot passes’ and correspond to very narrow alleys. Besides this, the status of
vons and the fondos differs : while vons are a public shared space without owner, fondos are a
private, shared space. Among the fondos, we can distinguish paths that connect two open
housing groups mostly used by the residents and paths between different housing groups,
bordered by mud walls or straw fences. Even if they are originally a private shared space,
1428

temporary they receive the status of public space or path and are used in some cases as an right
of way, a more or less forced servitude
In Birni Lafia, we can perceive three logics in the pattern of roads. First, the colonial logic
that led to the development of the orthogonal layout of vons. The second logic relates to the site,
the topographic morphology of Birni Lafia and the third logic is the expression of the social
relationships between the inhabitants (White-Pamard Quinty and Bourgeois, 1999). Both the
second and third logic are used in the organization of fondos (White-Pamard Quinty and
Bourgeois, 1999). The hierarchy of the social structure in Birnin Lafia seems to have been
highly hierarchical, based on a caste system (e.g. oldcomers, newcomers and slaves). Therefore,
it is possible that the obligations or prohibitions that bind clans, families and everyday
relationships (e.g. ceremonial greetings, necessity) have determined the location of concessions
(which must be allowed by the dual power of land chiefs and village chief) and pathways
between concessions. Pathways and in particular some fondos have specific purposes
determined by daily activities. For example, people greet each morning the old 'aunt' or 'uncle'
of an affiliated family to inquire about his health or women ask for condiments to allies rather
than feuding families that could poisoning it. One will thus avoid some concessions. Similarly,
one will not enter impunity in the housing group of a sorcerer or a leader.

Figure 5. Two roads structures.

Plots layout

Before the survey, due to the lack of any land registry, we did not have prior information about
plots. The limits defined by the people during the field survey helped us to develop an
approximate plot map. This map, open to changes, provides information related to the size and
geometry of the plots.
By analyzing plot sizes, it is important to quantify the order of magnitude of variations
between large and small plots. If the difference in size between the families of plots is small
(e.g. one or two), the study of dimensions is not necessarily very significant. However, if the
difference is higher (e.g. one to five, one to ten or more), it can be used as a tool for defining the
types of plots (Panerai, Depaule, Demorgon, Veyrenche, 1980). In our field survey, we mapped
a difference between plot sizes in medium of one to five.
We defined two groups of plots: a group of small irregular plots in the center of Birni Lafia
and a group of large orthogonal plots located in the outskirts of the village. The orthogonal plots
seems linked to the vons, a road pattern itself orthogonal, while the irregular plots seems more
linked to the fondos. However, this rule is not absolute. As the vons have superimposed the
layout of the oldest roads, some irregular plots were served or cut by the vons.
 1429

Considering the hypothesis that due to the inheritance process from generation to generation,
the plots, handed down from generation to generation, are successively subdivided, then the
size of the plots could be interpreted as a marker of anteriority. Although this hypothesis is
validated by the testimony of the inhabitants, we must nevertheless moderate it. For example the
smaller parcels are not necessarily the oldest. It would be useful in this regard to report
swarming issues or on the contrary dividing plots issues. The field survey showed that the
majority of smaller parcels are occupied by the descendants of slave families. In addition, some
plots do not appear to have varied in their dimensions over time, or just a few. Then, can we
consider that there are optimum dimensions for the plot? Is there a density of building or a
configuration from which the heirs choose not to share their land but to create new ones ?
Transmission of plots is still complex to understand. It is difficult to find a recurrence in
inheritance. It is not always the eldest son who inherits the plot. In some cases, because the
eldest son got married and was too old to stay with his parents, he leaved the housing group and
created a new plot. In this situation, the youngest son remained until the death of his parents and
inherited the whole plot. How inheritance is distributed in the case of a larger family? Within
the limits of our study, we have not been able to answer these questions precisely.
Are there different modes to occupy a plot depending if the owner is part of one or the other
groups mentioned above? Some plots are constructed on the entire surface while others are built
on only a part of their surface, the other being left empty.
The buildings in general are organized around a courtyard called windi guende, where one or
two trees are planted. This courtyard is the centre of the housing group and a shared living
space. In addition to this, the position of the buildings on the plot obeys in one hand to the
geometry of the plot, and on the other hand to the location of the plot in the village. For
example, the organization of an isolated plot is not the same as that of a plot located in the
village centre or along the highway. All the buildings follow the non-adjoining rule imposed by
the French military as a protection against fire.

Building types

Buildings or fou of all the concessions that we could visit in Birni Lafia are very repetitive and
can be classified into six types. The first one which seems to be oldest type, is a circular
building in mud bricks called kouroukoutou. The other five types are orthogonal buildings
called kata, werenda, cheroga, kabanda and salon. Apart the obvious anteriority of the fou
kouroukoutou, we are currently unable to determine whether one of the five type is older than
another. It is highly likely that the five orthogonal types have been introduced in the Dendi in
the same period and that the choice to build any specific type is due to the owner’s personal
preferences or his means and eventually the geometry of the plot.
By analysing the changes in building typology depending on the ethnicity or main activity of
the occupants, we noticed that some professions mark the appartenance to an ethnic group or a
caste, even nowadays. In Dendi, in a certain time in history, potters and dyers were slaves.
Nothing can distinguish the homes of their descendants in typological terms from those of
others. During interviews, some people had explained that the buildings were all the same,
regardless of ethnicity but 'fetishes changed'. Then, how can we perceive the invisible? We
observed that some families brought more attention to cleaning their courtyard than others, but
this does not seem really significant and it is more related to each family customs. It is possible
to find smoking rooms and nets in the fishermen houses while in a home of blacksmiths or
potters we could find other very specific tools. That is the only difference we observed besides
the difference in size of the plots.
We elaborated two hypotheses about the changing of building typology from circular fou
kouroukoutou to orthogonal types. According to our first hypothesis, the most evident, this
transformation is related to the influence of colonization and is a side effect of forced labour.
The villagers have reproduced the internal organization of buildings constructed for the settlers
1430

and have replaced the traditional clods of clay, straw roofs and techniques plastering by adobe
bricks, concrete and tin roofs.
However, a second hypothesis arises due to the fact that European explorers described
starting from the eighteenth century orthogonal constructions with flat roof in Tombouctou,
Djenne and in other major cities of the region. The medieval empires and kingdoms of the
Sahel-Sudan have long before developed a building typology of their own, in constant dialogue
with the Arab-Berber architecture and material culture conveyed through caravan trade
(Cissoko, 1996). It is possible that this Arab-Berber architecture was disseminated in all
territories controlled by the medieval West African empires and may have influenced the Dendi
architecture.

Figure 6. Building types 'genealogy'.

Conclusion

The work during the field survey was challenging and enriching because it implied the need to
adapt a methodology and a language usually used for architectural and urban research in a
multidisciplinary team composed mostly of archaeologists. The typo-morphological method of
analysis proved to be very effective in the fieldwork, especially when it was coupled with
interviewing inhabitants. By articulating social analysis and spatial descriptions, we wish to
develop a fundamental research on the anthropology of space. (Twitchell Hall, 1971 Van Eyck,
1972 Paul Levy and Segaud, 1983; Depaule, 1994; Choay, 2006; Segaud, 2007).
The anthropology of space is not yet a well defined discipline, but is more a common
thought, a common attention given by researchers and authors from different disciplines usually
dealt with separately. The method used by anthropologists for developping knowledge has long
been the one, 'malinowskian', of the 'detailed study of a defined area' (Stocking Jr. 2003) and in
this context, the correspondence between identity and territory was proved particularly
interesting with regard to the Dendi.
 1431

Figure 7. Axonometrical view of the east part of Birni Lafia.

Dendi villages that we visited are currently in a process of transformation. Far from being
influenced by the globalized trends while remaining in a form of marginality, they suffer radical
changes, visible from one year to another. We observed transition of some architectural and
urban forms as well as of some construction techniques to other forms and techniques. The
passage of the circular types of buildings to rectangular buildings is also observed in the nearby
regions (Augustin 1994).
Among the various results collected, the study highlighted the impact of French colonization
in the structure of villages and architectural techniques. Transformations of the urban form and
of architecture stand as evidence for the political and social changes in the region and are
observed also in other Dendi villages. There are not many architectural characteristics from one
village to another or from one ethnic group to another. The people have clearly explained that
'they built the same as other people where they live.' Thus, despite a very heterogeneous
population, due to the long history of evolution and the influences from the West African
medieval empire, the Dendi identity in general terms remains homogenous.

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 1433

Urban form and its implication for the use of urban spaces

Antonio Tarcísio Reis

Faculty of Architecture/PROPUR, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul.
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. The objective of this paper is to discuss urban form and some of its implication for the use of
urban spaces. The relationship between urban form characteristics, such as those related to type of
building use and amount of visual and functional connections with the public open spaces, and presence
of people are considered. A comparison is made between ‘traditional’ urban form and ‘modernist’ urban
form. In a ‘traditional’ urban form buildings have front doors and windows facing the public streets,
whereas in a ‘modernist’ urban form buildings tend have doors and windows far away from the public
streets and/or facing inward open spaces with no distinction between front and back windows and doors.
Therefore, examples from cities in different countries are used for the comparisons and reflections
involving these issues. The main outcomes from these discussions emphasize the need for a better
understanding regarding the implications of urban form for the use of urban spaces. Additionally, type of
building use and amount of visual and functional connections with the public open spaces tend to have
significant consequences for the vitality of urban space.
Key Words: urban form, use of urban spaces, traditional urban form, modernist urban form.

Introduction

Mainly after the Second World-War the urban form has been shifted from its ´traditional`
characteristics to a ´modern` approach. Whereas the first is characterized by a direct
relationship between buildings and public open spaces, the second is characterized by a loose
relationship, with public open spaces merely resulting from the layout of blocks of flats.

Figure 1. Ouro Preto-Brasil.

Figure 2. Diamantina-Brasil.
1434

Figure 3. Prague-Czech Republic.

Figure 4. Porto-Portugal

In a ‘traditional’ urban form, as in Ouro Preto (Brazil) or in the historic areas of Prague
(Czech Republic) and Porto (Portugal), buildings have front doors and windows facing the
public streets, whereas in a ‘modernist’ urban form, as in the residential superblocks in Brasília
(Brazil), buildings tend have doors and windows far away from the public streets and/or facing
inward open spaces with no distinction between front and back windows and doors.
Although, some authors (i.e., Gehl, 2010, 2011; Jacobs, 1984) have highlighted the
importance of the relationship between buildings and open spaces, as has been the case in the
´traditional` urban form, the ´modernist` urban form, the `modernist´ urban form appear to be
the model for most of the contemporary planning including university campuses and residential
areas of Olympic Parks or equivalents such as the Residential Vila of the Pan-American Games
in Rio. Therefore, there is a need to further discuss the implications of the `modernist´ urban
form in comparison to the `traditional´ urban form.
Hence, the objective of this paper is to discuss the urban form and some of its implication for
the use of urban spaces. The relationship between urban form characteristics, such as those
related to type of building use and amount of visual and functional connections with the public
open spaces, and presence of people are considered. A comparison is made between
‘traditional’ urban form and ‘modernist’ urban form. Therefore, examples from cities in
different countries are used for the comparisons and reflections involving these issues.

Relationship between buildings geometry and street alignment

In the ‘traditional’ urban form, for example, in the historic areas of cities such as Ouro Preto or
Diamantina , Prague, and Porto , buildings geometry have a direct relationship with street
 1435

alignment, its main façade plane being parallel to the street alignment. This allows for these
buildings facades being part of a person’s visual field while walking, enriching the aesthetic
experience and making easier the connection between people and the buildings. Nonetheless, in
the ‘modernist urban form’ this relationship tend to be broken, mainly after the Second World
War, when the ‘Unité d’Habitation’ designed by Le Corbusier, was built in Marseilles between
1947 e 1952, following the modernist ideas such as the inclusion in a single large scale block
(140 meters long, 24 meters wide, 56 meters tall and 19 floors, including the ground floor on
stilts and the rooftop terrace) not only residential units (337 flats) but also service, commercial
and leisure activities such as post office, laundry, general and food stores, restaurant, hotel,
gymnasium, kindergarten, a 300 meters jogging track (Curtis, 1996; French, 2009). The layout
of the ‘Unité d' Habitation' follows the east-west orientation of its longer facades, provoking a
misalignment of the block to the adjacent street, and a lack of a direct relationship with the
public open space. This lack of relationship or geometrical coherence tends to make the visual
perception and so the aesthetic experience poorer, what also tend to negatively affect the use of
urban spaces. Sitte (1992 ) have criticized the irregularity of the streets limits caused by the
recede and advance of building facades, affecting the perception of continuity of the built
perimeter in the interface with the street space.

Visual and functional connections between the buildings and the open spaces

The visual and functional between the buildings and opens spaces tend to have an effect on
security and vitality of open spaces (Gehl, 2010; Jacobs, 1984). These connections allow the
visual supervision of open spaces by those inside the buildings and the requests for help as well
as the demand for refuge by those in the open spaces. In the ‘traditional urban form’ such visual
and functional between the buildings and opens spaces tend to be present while the opposite
frequently happens in the ‘modernist urban form’ . Moreover, while the visualization of
openings in the buildings generate visual stimulus creating a more satisfactory aesthetic
experience, the lack of visual stimulus provoked by the blind walls generate a poor aesthetic
experience for those using the public streets.

Figure 5. Terraced houses in Porto Alegre, RS, Brasil.

Figure 6. Sapucaia Estate, Sapucaia, RS, Brasil.

1436

This interface or edge between the buildings and public opens spaces constitutes the facades
that are closely experienced, is part of the places where we walk in the city, is where we come
in and out of buildings, where the inner and outer urban life can interact; this interface,
particularly, at ground floor level has a decisive influence on urban space vitality and must have
a certain degree of transparency or visual permeability (Gehl, 2010). The existence of narrow
units and many doors, complemented by a wide variation in functions provide many points of
exchange between inside and outside and many experiences (Bentley et al, 2013; Gehl, 2010).
Therefore, while ‘soft edge’, such as a shopping street with its windows, attracts and retains the
pedestrian, a ‘hard edge’, such as blind walls at ground floor, does not attracts the pedestrian
since there is nothing to see, not even the frame of a window (Gehl, 2010). In Miami, the urban
planning legislation was recently revised establishing new rules that propose to integrate
individual ownership with the public sphere, leading to ground floors with adequate activities
and levels of visual and functional permeability (Miami 21, 2010).

The existence and type of use in the ground floor and the public open space

Together with other factors (i.e. visual and functional connections) ground floor use is an
important issue to be considered in the relationship between buildings and public open spaces,
since the existence of adequate type of use can contribute to the urban dynamics, making the
urban experience safer and more aesthetically pleasing, this being the usual characteristic of the
‘traditional’ urban form (Gehl, 2010, 2011). On the other hand, ground floor inadequate use
such as parking, lack of eventual use or permanent use as provoked by stilts , does not have the
potential to contribute to urban dynamics. Access to garages or parking areas can fragment the
edge between buildings and public open spaces and weaken or compromise the idea of
continuity (Gehl , 2010). In Brasilia, the modernist principle of stilts is normally present in the
residential buildings, preventing the building from having a direct connection with the public
open spaces (Holston, 1993).

Figure 7. Porto, Portugal.

Figure 8. Istambul, Turkey.

 1437

Figure 9. Unité d’Habitation, France. Source: Fabiano Scherer.

The distance between the buildings and the street

In the ‘traditional’ urban form buildings usually are closely connected to the streets, on the
perimeter of the block , while in the ‘modernist’ urban form, mainly after the Second World
War, buildings tend to be disconnected from the streets, being located inside a block, defining a
layout characterized by isolated buildings interspersed with empty spaces, as in the residential
superblocks in Brasília , and in many university campuses and in residential areas of Olympic
or Pan-American Games . Therefore, while in the first situation the city user is invited to look
at or/and to go inside a building, in the second case the user is kept away from the building and
so from its direct visual and functional impact; in this case, what is first perceived is the void or
the open space in front of the building and not the building itself. The cohesion or contiguity of
buildings defines a permeable wall for urban open spaces and is responsible for the harmonious
effect of the whole due to the continuous enclosure of space by buildings (Sitte, 1992). The
cohesion reflects the potential for visual appeal far higher than an isolated building or buildings
containing voids between them (Cullen, 1971). Hence, the urban experience tends to be poorer
in the ‘modernist’ than in the ‘traditional’ urban form.

Definition of open spaces by buildings and user control

In the ‘traditional urban form’ open spaces are generally defined by the buildings creating an
interaction between the open spaces and the buildings with positive results for the use of open
spaces (in many cases, such use is an extension of the use inside the building), potentially
improving security and the aesthetic experience of urban spaces. These open urban spaces tend
to have a clear hierarchy (i.e. regarding what is a public and what is a private space), definition
and control.

Figure 10. Istambul, Turkey.

1438

Figure 11. Porto, Portugal.

Figure 12. Vienna, Austria.

On the other hand, in the ‘modernist urban form’ open spaces tend to be left over spaces,
with no clear definition and control and with no clear connections with the buildings, and so,
without clear purpose of use. Therefore, the consequences generally are a poor visual
experience due to the lack of nearby building facades generating visual stimulus and a lack of
use or the existence of inadequate use. This can be exemplified by the illegal occupation of
communal open spaces for private uses (i.e. building of garages and barbecue area) in many
housing estates in Brazil characterized by the ‘modernist urban form’, with negative
consequences, for example, concerning aesthetics, the use and security in the open spaces (Reis
and Lay, 2012).
Additionally, in the `traditional´ urban form buildings tend to have a front and back
regarding its relationship to public urban space. The front facades themselves define the
sidewalks or have some retreat giving room to a private front yard, whereas the backyard has a
greater degree of visual and aural privacy in relation to the space of the public street. On the
other hand, the ´modernist´ urban form has eliminated the front and back of buildings, and so,
the different levels of privacy, either in the open spaces as well as inside the buildings,
promoted by these differences.

The ‘conceptual’ or the ‘identity’ open space, and social interaction

An open space that can be perceived as having an identity, a character, due to its definition by
the formal attributes (i.e. height and fenestration) of buildings and their relationships to the open
spaces, tend to be present in the ‘traditional urban form’ and lost in the `modernist´ urban form
. The ‘conceptual’ (Prak, 1985) or ‘identity’ space appears to be perceived not only as an
aesthetic qualified space but also as an inviting space for people to stay and carried out some
social activity. Analyzes carried out by Holston (1993) in Brasilia showed that residents of
 1439

superblocks rejected the street characterized by an absence of connection with the buildings,
since it does not stimulate social interaction.

Figure 13. Pan-American Games Residential Vila – Rio de Janeiro, Brasil.

The absence of a continuous sidewalk bordered by the facades of buildings made the street to
lose its characteristic of attracting people to go for a stroll, and so, reduced pedestrian
movement on the streets (Holston, 1993).

Repetition of identical large scale horizontal or vertical blocks in a vast open space

The repetition of identical large scale horizontal or vertical blocks in a vast open space has been
a common layout adopted in the ‘modernist’ urban form, as shown in the designs by Le
Corbusier such as `La Ville Contemporain´, the `Plan Voisin´, and the `Ville Radieuse´(1930).
Moreover, the internationalization of this urban form has reached Brazil, as in the case of the
design in 1942 by the architect and urban planner Attílio Correa Lima and his team of the
Várzea do Carmo Housing Estate in São Paulo (Bonduki, 2004), and Brasilia. Residents of
standardized superblocks in Brasilia, criticized the lack of differentiation of buildings and its
consequently monotony and impersonality, with no visible personalization by residents, due to
their difficulty in doing so (Holston, 1993). Two housing estates are emblematic of the
problems caused by the intense repetition of identical large scale horizontal or vertical blocks in
a vast open space, namely, Pruitt-Igoe
, in St. Louis, Missouri, U.S.A., and the Killingworth Housing Estate in Killingworth, north
east England (Greger and Steinberg, 1988; Kellet, 1987; Reis and Lay, 2012), giving support to
the following: “The uniformity and rigidity of ‘modern’ housing estates all over the world has
lead to drastic problems of negligence, lack of maintenance and even vandalism – as a form of
helpless counter-reaction of its inhabitants.” (Greger and Steinberg, 1988, p.23). The Pruitt-Igoe
housing project was partly demolished 20 years after its completion and occupation in the mid
1950s, been planned to house about 15,000 people in a group of 33 widely spaced, 11-storey,
high-rise buildings. Although some point to social and economic problems as the main reasons
for its demolition (i.e., Montgomery, 1977), others emphasize that the modernist design of
Pruitt-Igoe was a strong determinant of its failure to satisfy the residents, like Peter Blake
(1977), in his book ‘Form Follows Fiasco - Why Modern Architecture Hasn't Worked'.
The Killingworth Housing Estate, an award-winning project, with high quality of
construction and detailing, was demolished in 1987, only 15 years after its completion.
Containing 740 housing units in 27 multi-storey towers of 6 and 10 storeys, it was designed to
accommodate 3,292 inhabitants. Although social, economic and political factors can be
associated with the its demolition, and even poor management as pointed out by the architect
who designed the Killingworth Towers as the main cause of problems, design problems were
evident. Even though the majority appeared to be satisfied with their new homes, with generous
1440

internal spaces, central heating and bathrooms at a high standard compared to the old housing,
‘people in a position to choose preferred traditional low-rise houses with gardens, to multi-
storey accommodation’ (Kellet, 1987, p.5). Moreover, the fact that residents did not like the
overall layout of the estate can be illustrated by the fact that the bleak, monotonous, large-scale
and above all unattractive appearance of the estate may have influenced people to leave (Kellet,
1987), and by the following declaration that show that although the dwellings themselves were
well liked by the residents, the problems with the housing estate design were clearly expressed:
They [dwellings] were nice inside when you shut your door. Beautiful, we had them lovely
(and) couldn't have asked for anything else. We all said that we would have liked to have taken
our houses (out of the Towers) and put them on the ground somewhere (in Kellet, 1987, p.7).
Additionally, results from research about urban aesthetics (i.e., Reis et al, 2011), give
support for the fact that the large repetition of identical large scale horizontal or vertical blocks
in a vast open space tend to produce monotonous environments with resulting unsatisfactory
aesthetics, due to the lack or very low visual stimulus produced by the repetition of a great
number of blocks deprived of an architectural composition that might be characterized by the
ideas of order and visual stimulus. As highlighted by Prak (1985, p.69) “People might suffer
from perceptual deprivation if the built environment does not offer them enough variety ….”.
Moreover, the open spaces that were left between the blocks also tended to be deprived of any
major visual stimulus. It can be noted that many complaints about the lack of variety in modern
architecture, particularly in suburbs and office buildings, were made by architects themselves
(Prak, 1985). These characteristics of the open spaces also affect the quality of views of people
inside the buildings, and so, impoverishing their architectural experience not only outside but
inside the buildings too.

Figure 14. Pruiit-Igoe Housing Estate, St. Louis, U.S.A.

Moreover, stimulating visual fields when walking in the cities would be characterized by the
possibility of having, at every moment, a different look and not by the look that gets lost in the
infinite (Sitte, 1992). This principle can justify the vitality of medieval streets of numerous
historic cities and streets in some parts of contemporary cities.

Figure 15. Killingworth Housing Estate, Killingworth, England.

 1441

On the other hand, the modernist principles tend to generate monotonous and empty spaces
around the buildings (Sitte, 1992). In addition, the ‘traditional’ urban form is generally
characterized by buildings with predominantly vertical lines, whereas the ‘modernist’ urban
form tends to constituted by horizontal buildings. In the first case walking seem smaller while
in the second case the horizontal lines emphasize and reinforce the perception of greater
distance (Gehl, 2010).

Traditional streets and elevated walkways or streets in the air

The walkways between blocks, as in the Killingworth Housing Estate , which reflect the
modernist idea of streets in the air and the strict differentiation of functions - the strict
differentiation of pedestrian walkways and car-routes, create a pedestrian circulation channel
devoid of major sensory stimuli, deprived of visual supervision from people in the housing units
and from pedestrians and people in public or private transport. Additionally, the vertical access
to the walkways is destitute of visual surveillance and access control. Nevertheless, the architect
of the project expressed his full conviction in the appropriateness of his design concept:
“In this ‘vertical village’, unlike conventional multistorey flats, which tend to isolate
families, the high level streets or decks will encourage the growth of a community without
reducing the privacy which everyone wants to enjoy within his own home. The decks will
provide safe walking above the roads … and places where neighbours can meet and talk, or
watch children playing in the public gardens below.” (Killingworth Development Group, 1967,
in Kellet, 1987, p.7).
On the other hand, substantial evidence to the contrary can be provided:
‘This romantic vision of ‘streets in the sky’ was not merely inaccurate but completely
mistaken. In reality the decks had the opposite effect on social relationships and became
associated with anti-social behavior and a sense of acute insecurity and fear. No windows face
onto the decks which became anonymous semi-public spaces with access through unsupervised
common entrances completely open to all – residents and strangers alike. This created a lack of
privacy and control which may have encouraged vandalism and crime. Young children could
not be properly supervised from the decks which in addition were noisy (with living rooms
directly below) and inappropriate for the exposed climate.‘(Kellet, 1987, p.7).
Hence, there appear to be sufficient evidence to support the idea that the streets in the air do
not reproduce the traditional urban street. This is characterized by visual and functional
connections between buildings and public open spaces, allows the perception of activities in
adjacent buildings and in the public open space of the street itself, tends to be provided with
sensory stimuli (visual, olfactory, aural) and to allow visual monitoring from people in adjacent
buildings or in the street itself.

Wayfinding in the ‘traditional’ and in the ‘modernist urban form’ and building access

As stated by Passini (1992, p.159) ‘Wayfinding is an important aspect of environmental

quality.’ and ‘… wayfinding is a fundamental key to environmental appreciation, be it at the
level of architecture or at the level of urban and natural landscape.’ The ‘traditional’ urban form
tend to be legible and make wayfinding easier since people move following the streets and
access buildings directly from the public space of streets . On the other hand, in the ‘modernist’
urban form wayfinding is generally made more difficult due to the lack of direct connection to
the building entrance from the streets and to the great repetition of identical blocks. Moreover,
as exemplified by the Guajuviras Housing Estate, the lack of legibility, due to the expressive
number of repeated four storey blocks of flats without greater formal distinctions and to
building entrances away from the streets, can be made worst when the communal open spaces
1442

do not have a clear definition and control and are disorderly occupied by illegal buildings, such
as garages, that tend to narrow and hinder the circulation among the blocks, change the space
hierarchy and estate appearance, and negatively affect accessibility and wayfinding in the
housing estate (Reis and Lay, 2012).

The idea of ‘urban fabric’ and ‘urban object’

The idea of ‘urban fabric’ is defined by the whole of identical or similar buildings, while the
‘urban object’ stands out, contrasting with the ‘urban fabric’ and generating visual stimulus,
focus of attention. The idea of ‘urban fabric’ and ‘urban object’ tends to be clear in the
‘traditional’ urban form (In historic cities or historic downtowns most private buildings,
including housing, tend to characterize an ‘urban fabric’ whereas public buildings such as
churches and city councils, tend to characterize an ‘urban object’. This relationship between
‘urban fabric’ and ‘urban object’ tended to be a well orchestrated one, with the object creating a
focus of visual attention from time to time, and making the urban experience an aesthetically
stimulating and rewarding one. Nonetheless, these relationships tend to be lost in the
‘modernist’ urban form where the ‘urban fabric’ tends not to exist, since neither the perimeter
block nor smaller buildings facing the street are present. In addition, the ‘urban object’ tends to
be isolated from other buildings that are neither part of ‘urban fabric’ nor are ‘urban objects’.
Therefore, in the ‘modernist’ urban fabric the idea of designing the urban space and its
elements, establishing a relationship between them, the proper idea of urban design, is lost in
favour of focusing on individual buildings standing out or not as ‘urban objects’.

Distance between buildings

In a ‘traditional’ urban form buildings tend to be near to each other (since most of them are
connected through side walls) and to define open spaces that generally are not so large as to
generate huge sunny areas and to make walking uncomfortable during summer . On the other, in
a ‘modernist’ urban form, as in many university campuses and residential areas of Olympic or
Pan-American Games , the distances between the buildings tend to be big enough to generate
huge sunny areas and to make walking uncomfortable during the summer. Moreover, these
distances tend to weaken the use of open spaces, since such use is not supported by nearby
buildings activities, and to make walking a less enjoyable aesthetic experience than in the
‘traditional’ urban form, where such experience is stimulated by the presence of nearby
buildings facades and uses.

Conclusion

These discussions about `traditional´ and `modernist´ urban forms and some of their
implications for the use of urban spaces have emphasized the differences between these two
concepts of urban form. These differences show that the `traditional´ urban form tend to better
respond to urban user needs than the `modernist´ urban form. Exemplifying, the relationship
between buildings and urban open space, type of building use and amount of buildings´ visual
and functional connections with the public open spaces tend to contribute to the vitality of urban
life in the `traditional´ urban form, to the presence of people in open urban spaces, whereas in
the `modernist´ urban form these contributions are generally lost. As mentioned by Gehl (2011)
people attract people, and having a choice of walking on a deserted or on an animated street, we
would generally choose a lively street. The fact that urban experience tend to be much richer in
the `traditional´ than in the `modernist´ urban form, is a major difference between these two
approaches to urban form. As emphasized by Rapoport (1977, p.208): “The many
 1443

environments in different areas, eras and cultures which are liked and preferred have one thing
in common: they all seem to be perceptually interesting, complex and rich.”. The main
outcomes from these discussions emphasize the need for a better understanding regarding the
implications of urban form for the use of urban spaces, and so, concerning the implications of
adopting the `modernist´ urban form.

References

Bentley, I., Mcglynn, S., Smith, G., Alcock, A., & Murrain, P. (2013) Responsive environments: A
manual for designers (Oxford: Architetural. Kindle Edition).
Blake, P. (1977) Form Follows Fiasco: Why Modern Architecture Hasn't Worked (Boston: Little Brown).
Bonduki, Nabil. (2004). Origens da habitação social no Brasil: arquitetura moderna, lei do inquilinato e
difusão da casa própria. (São Paulo: Editora Estação Liberdade Ltda).
Cullen, G. (1971) Paisagem urbana (Lisboa: Architectural).
Curtis, W. (1996) Modern Architecture since 1900 (London: Phaidon)
French, Hilary (2009) Os mais importantes Conjuntos Habitacionais do Século XX – Plantas, Cortes e
Elevações (Porto Alegre: Bookman).
Gehl, J. (2011) Life between buildings: using public space (Washington: Island Press).
Gehl, J. (2010) Cities for People (Washington: Island Press).
Greger, O. and Steinberg, F. (1988) Transformations of formal housing. Open House International, 3, 23-
35.
Holston, J. (1993) A cidade modernista: Uma crítica de Brasília e sua utopia. (São Paulo, Companhia das
Letras).
Jacobs, J. (1984) The Death and Life of Great American Cities - The failure of Town Planning
(Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England, Penguin Books).
Kellet, P. (1987) ‘Killingworth towers: what went wrong?’ Open House International, 4, 4-11.
Miami 21: Your city, your plan. (2010) Project vision. (http://www.miami21.org/) accessed 20 May
2014.
Montgomery, R. (1977) High Density, Low-Rise House and Changes in the American Housing Economy,
in S. Davis (Ed.), The form of housing (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold) 83-111.
Passini, Romedi (1992). Wayfinding in Architecture (New York: Van Nostrand Reinhold).
Prak, N. (1985) The Visual Perception of the Built Environment (Delft, Delft University Press).
Rapoport, A. (1977) Human Aspects of Urban Form: Towards a Man-Environment Approach to Urban
Form and Design (Toronto, Pergamon Press.)
Reis, A., Biavatti, C. and Pereira, M. L. (2011). ‘Estética Urbana: uma análise através das ideias de
ordem, estímulo visual, valor histórico e familiaridade’, Ambiente Construído, Porto Alegre 4, 185-
204.
Reis, A. and Lay, M.C. (2012) ‘Social Housing Design in Southern Brazil and its Implications for Urban
Development.’, in Valença, Márcio; Cravidão, Fernanda & Fernandes, José (eds.) Urban Developments
in Brazil and Portugal. (New York: Nova Science Publishers, Inc.) 249-272.
Sitte, C. (1992). A construção das cidades segundo seus princípios artísticos (São Paulo: Ática).
1444

Application of morphological concepts to characterize

German immigration’s nucleus in Brazil

Bruno Andrade, Elisa Taveira, Renata Almeida

Heritage and Development’s Laboratory, Architecture’s Department, Universidade
Federal do Espírito Santo. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. This article seeks to analyze comparatively morphological structures as a result from German
immigration’s occupation in Espírito Santo, from middle XIX century. For this investigation, Gunter
Weimer’s advanced studies it’s assumed as reference, concentrated in the decades of 1970 and 1980,
about German architecture in Brazil’s southern region. Weimer (2005) is elected because he’s a Brazil’s
central reference about the approached theme. The intention is to recognize and present by mappings
some morphological configuration’s particularities of urban sites located in espirito-santense’s centro-
serrana region; occupation structured by hydrographic basin from Santa Maria da Vitoria’s and Jucu’s
river. It is recognized, at the territory’s physical-geographic dimension, both the adoption of river
courses as structuring elements of land division and the sites’ location at high and cold lands. In the
urbanistic dimension, there are two types of nucleus: Strassendorf, urban form structured by a central
and commercial road; and Angerdorf, urban form when the central road widens open to a square.

Key Words: Urban form, German immigration, Espírito Santo/Brazil

Introduction

This article investigates morphological structures sedimented by German immigrants’

occupation in Espírito Santo, from the mid-nineteenth century. For this analysis, Gunter
Weimer’s advanced studies it’s adopted as reference, focusing on German’s urban morphology
and its deployments in the occupation of Germany’s immigrants in Brazil. The intention is to
recognize and represent, through photographs, diagrams and mapping, morphological
configuration peculiarities of urban sites located in Espírito Santo’s central mountainous region,
and the occupation structured by river basins of Santa Maria da Vitória and Jucu, in Santa
Leopoldina, Santa Maria de Jetibá, Domingos Martins and Marechal Floriano (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Municipalities’ location of Santa Leopoldina, Santa Maria de Jetibá,

Domingos Martins e Marechal Floriano. Source: Elisa M. Taveira.
 1445

It is recognized, in the territory’s dimension, both the adoption of courses of rivers as

structural elements of land parceling, as the location of settlements in high and cold lands. In
urban dimension, it is identified three types of nucleation: Strassendorf, urban form structured
by central trade route; Angerdorf, urban form that the central trade route widens open to a
square; and Haufendorf, urban form derived from a spontaneous growth.
The identification initiates from the state of the art, referenced in Weimer, from which
studies conducts to German researchers, experts in the urban form’s history of villages built in
ancient Germania. These represent the effort of human groupings’ characterization and
systematization originated from times long lasting, related to Northwest European Space’s
cycles of territorialization.
The historical data’s methodology survey and the current cartography’s construction for the
cities analysis are based on the study by Elisa Machado Taveira in the Master Planning’s thesis,
"Redescubriendo el patrimonio: revaluating them culturales paisajes Santa Leopoldina," under
Joaquín Sabaté Bel’s mentorship, Professor at the Universitat Politècnica de Cataluña, under
development.

Gunter Weimer’s advanced studies

Weimer (2005) presents Germany’s sedimented morphological characteristics, from two

German authors’ investigations, Werner Radig 214 (1955) and Heinz Haushofer 215 (1974), as
analytical subsidy for German occupation’s in Brazil, especially in Rio Grande do Sul. This
publication leads and guides this article’s analysis, in analogy to German immigrants’ urban
nucleus occupation in Espírito Santo.
In Europe, in the early nineteenth century, in regions where farmers are free, the property is
limited to a small land’s glebe within the village, encompassing home and garden - a Hof - and
the land’s remainder, forests and pastures, joint exploration. Each parcel is subdivided into
arable zones – a Felder - and each farmer is entitled to one, in three parcels (Willems, 1946
p.327-328, cited in Weimer, 2005, p.37). The medieval villages’ formal evolution varies
according to socioeconomic regional logics. The simplest way is the Weiler (Figure 2), a set of
two or three Hof, called Einzelhofsiedlung if it’s isolated from each other.

(a) (b)
Figura 2. (a) A Weiler’s scheme. Source: Weimer (2005, p. 41); (b) French Weiler,
composed by four sites. Source: Radig (p. 86, cited in Weimer, 2005).

If the Weiler grows irregularly, it’s a Haufendorf (Figure 3), which is the most common
village form in Hünsrück 216 . If the Weiler develops along a street, it’s called Strassendorf
(Figure 4), commonly found in the Westphalia217. When the street widens open in the village’s

214
Radif, Werner. Die Siedlungstypen in Deutschland und ibre frühgeschichtlichen Wurzeln. Berlin:
Henschelverlag, 1955.
215
Haushofler, Heinz. Die Agrarwirtschaft in der Bundesrepublick Deutschland. München: B.L.V., 1974.
216
Hünsrück: region between the Moselle and Nahe’s rivers, in Germany, where comes more than half of
Brazil’s German immigrants. Weimer, 2004, p. 58.
217
Westphalia: northwestern Germany region, from where comes about 20% of Brazil’s German
immigrants.
1446

middle road, forming a public place (in the original sense, public passage for cattle), it’s an
Angerdorf (Figure 5). An Angerdorf’s variation is the Rundling, where the street leads to the
village and ends in a devesa (Latin defensa, enclosed property), it’s the most common form of
Elbe’s east settlement, where is located Pomerania 218 (Figure 6). There are also other
settlement’s forms, such as Punkdorf, Hufendorf, Zeilendor, Waldhufendor, Marschhufendorf,
Rundweiler and Streuselung (Radig, 1955: 95-96 cited in Weimer, 2005, p 41 -42; Redensek,
2007) 219.
In consonance with Weimer (2005), Wolf (1926, cited in Redensek 2007), defines the small
villages kinds: Angerdorf, where houses are arranged around a green space or Anger; the
Strassendorf, where a central street is the characteristic axis; the Rundlingdorf, where houses are
arranged around a central green space, and whose radiation is outsourced; and the Reihendorf,
whose implanted houses are aligned.

Figure 3. Haufendorf. Source: a) Haufendorf, Radig (cited in Weimer, 2005,

p.42); b) Haufendorf, Weimer (2005, p.42).

Figure 4. Strassendorfi. Source: a) Strassendorf, Radig (cited in Weimer, 2005,

p.42); b) Strassendorf, Weimer (2005, p.42).

Figure 5. Angerdorf. Source: a) Streusiedlung, Radig (cited in Weimer, 2005,

p.42); b) Streusiedlung, Weimer (2005, p.42).

218
Pomerânia: extinct northern European territory, under the Baltic Sea, located between Germany and
Poland. From there comes the other 20% of Brazil’s German immigrants.
219
Hof: Site, residence’s assembly, betterments, orchard and vegetable garden that compose an
agricultural establishment’s seat, within the village; Strassendorf: village in which the sites are built along
a road; Angendorf – Strassendorf: where the road bifurcates to give place at a square; Haufendorf: site
formed by various buildings irregularly arranged; irregular design village; Rundling: Village which had
only one access, where the sites were located around a square in which animals were originally guarded at
night
 1447

Figure 6. Map of Husrück, Vestfália and Pomerânia. Source: a) Hunsrück’s tematic map,
2010; b) Westphalia’s map, 1799; c) Pomerania’s duchy map, 1635.

For illustration’s purposes, Mattedi (2009) argues that this occupation refers to the traditional
northern and eastern Germany urban form model, where originates the majority of Brazil’s
German immigrants, and to Espírito Santo, as the Lubeck city (Figure 7), dated 1143, whose
morphology is molded around a commercial axis with roads that connect with the countryside.
According to Peluso (1991, p.392, cited in Mattedi, 2009), the cities plan from German
colonists is thus described by the urbanist Bernoulli:
The city must be safe over a mountain’s back or protected by a river; must have a market, a
long and wide main street that reaches a large square in the center. It’s streets’ system should be
understandable at first sight ... The church with its cemetery should be separated from the
traffic, but so that the largest nave and the bell tower, emerging from the housetops, dominates
the main square.

(a) (b)
Figure 7. Strassendorf, characteristic urban form. Lubeck. Source: Mattedi, 2009.

Therefore, the German`s colonists sedimented in Brazil urban form is synthesized up in the
following way.
The next item is dedicated to characterizing the morphology of four urban settlement
experiences, deriving from the German immigration in Espírito Santo's solo process.
1448

Urban form characterization. Experiments in German immigrants nucleus constituted in

Espírito Santo / Brazil

The German immigration to Brazil begins in 1824, with the arrival of the Dutch ship Argo, to
Rio de Janeiro (Seide, 1980), bringing 251 colonists destined for São Leopoldo, Rio Grande do
Sul, and 29 men for the Brazilian army, recruited by the German Georg von Anton Schäffer.
Besides Rio Grande do Sul, the Germans occupied Santa Catarina and Rio de Janeiro. With the
success of these colonies, in 1855, Pedro II idealizes the foundation of German colonies in
Espírito Santo (Figure 8). According to Schwarz (1992, p.2), in 1855, it’s founded Suiça, a
colony in the river Santa Maria da Vitória waterfall region, with an area of 567 km ², consisting
of equal lots of 62,500 braças quadradas220. In 1857, it was installed 99 Swiss, 24 Hanoverians,
6 Luxembourg, 3 Prussian and 8 holsteinianos (Seide, 1980). Few years after, these are
relocated to the site "more fertile and crystal streams cut" (Ferrari, 1968), four leagues below
the first installation, which is erected a temporary home for the Cologne’s director, warehouses
and a shack for housing 50 families. Next to the shack, install traders, builds a chapel, and, by
its side, a cemetery, and new buildings for service providers’ housing and workplace.

Figure 8. Espírito Santo’s european immigration (source: Kill, cited in Posenato, 1997,
p.18).

Figure 9, below, illustrates the Topographic Letter of the Espírito Santo’s Province in 1878,
which is possible to identify the Santa Izabel and Santa Maria colony location, where they are
located in the following year, the Santa Leopoldina’s colony.
Raises the hypothesis that the colonies’ delimitation attends watershed embraced regions: the
colony of Santa Leopoldina is referenced by the river Santa Maria da Vitoria; the Timbui’s
nucleus, linked to the Santa Leopoldina’s colony, is referenced by the Timbui river; Santa
Izabel, by Jucu river; and Rio Novo, by the Benevente river. For confirmation its analyzed
cartographic documentation (Figure 10) and secondary data, emphasizing the interest in
establishing the immigrant in place close to watercourses, besides the subsistence factor
(Schwarz, 1992; Posenato, 1997).

220
A measurement lot area unit adopted in Brazil in the nineteenth century, with no equivalent measure
for the English language.
 1449

Figure 9. Espírito Santo’s colony map detail, 1878 (source: Arquivo Nacional, Rio de
Janeiro).

Figure 10. Espírito Santo’s colony map detail, 1866 (source: Arquivo Nacional, Rio de
Janeiro.

The Seyferth’s research (1988, p.4 and 5) is in consonance with Ferrari (1968), to inform
that in Espírito Santo, such as Rio Grande do Sul and Santa Catarina, the German colonization
focus are the upper valleys of the Jucu and Santa Maria da Vitória rivers (mountainous region
called cold lands). In the upper river Santa Maria valley, there is Pomeranians predominance
although the first colony, Santa Isabel, 1847, has been founded by Hesse and Hunsrück
immigrants. Seyferth (1988) also emphasizes the German immigration importance as a
sociological and historical phenomenon, by constituting a diverse society from the national.
Regarding the context of Brazil immigration, the Germans stand out by establishing in
homogeneous and compact areas, modifying the agrarian structure and rural life.
Until the mid-nineteenth century, Espírito Santo is one of Brazil’s most backward provinces;
this fact was mainly attributed to serving as a natural barrier for Minas Gerais gold protection.
For such, the Portuguese Crown allows only the coastal belt occupation, restricts navigation and
prohibits clearing of the interior (Posenato, 1997). Later then, by the very mountainous regions
weather conditions, occurs non Lusitanian immigration, given the Imperial Government
program, in the need to occupy the interior lands (Schwarz, 1992). The first colony begins in
1812 with the official creation of Santo Agostinho colony (currently Viana, in Grande Vitória)
where arrives 250 Azorean, between 1812 to 1814 years.
The German colonists in Espírito Santo founded two colonies: Santa Isabel, 1847,
originating Domingos Martins and Marechal Floriano cities; and Santa Leopoldina, 1857,
yielding Santa Maria de Jetibá and Santa Leopoldina cities (Posenato, 1997). Most Germans,
both in Santa Isabel as Santa Leopoldina colony, live in dispersed sites in family-colonies, and
only a few merchants and artisans families concentrated in the urban nucleus (Table 1) (Muniz,
2009).
1450

Table 1. Dados relativos às Colônias de Santa Isabel e Santa Leopoldina / ES

Foundation Colonists Predominant foreign

Colony Urban nucleus
date quantity nationality

German and Pomeran Domingos Martins

Santa Isabel 1847 753
German and Italian Marechal Floriano

German Santa Leopoldina

Santa Leopoldina 1857 1065
Pomeran Santa Maria de Jetibá
Source: Relatory presented to Espírito Santo’s Province, 1862.
<http://www.ape.es.gov.br/pdf/Presidentes%20da%20Provincia/1862_05_25_Jose_Fernandes_Costa_Pere
ira_Junior.pdf> Access 04/29/2014.
Methodologically, its designed an Siedlung (urban form) matrix as a way to diagram maps and images for
the four urban nucleus characterization. All of them obey the following matrix:
Urban form methodological matrix – Siedlung:
Old picture Radig’s scheme
Recent picture Weimer’s scheme
Aerial photo Local urban form scheme

Santa Isabel Colony

Domingos Martins

The first Germans coming from the Hunsrück, Rhenish Prussia, in particular the Koblenz,
Lötzbeuren and Traben-Trarbach cities arrive at Espírito Santo’s capital on December 21, 1846.
Remain a few days in Vitória, and then follow to Santa Isabel colony, first founded colony, by
Dr. Luiz Couto Ferraz, President of the Espírito Santo’s Province. The colonist moves up the
mountain along the Jucu river northern arm margin and settled on January 27, 1847, in Serra da
Boa Vista. There are 39 families, 16 Evangelical-Lutheran, and 23 Catholic, totalizing 163
people.
The first chapel is soon built on the Boa Vista’s hill where it also intends to build a village.
Over there remained about 10 years. Some of the immigrants, for climate reasons, rise higher,
and then that Catholic families settle in Santa Isabel and the Lutheran pursue a little more,
reaching a flat spot among the mountains which they called Campinhoberg – Morro do
Campinho. In 1852 the first Catholic Church is consecrated in the Santa Isabel village. Between
the years 1858 and 1860, in Campinho, Lutherans begin their temple construction. First,
however, build a small chapel in the area’s center where the cemetery is located today.
The Colony gradually progresses and then emancipates Viana; being elevated to the status of
Freguesia221 in 1869. On October 20, 1893, the Santa Isabel municipality dismembers from
Viana. Its installation takes place in Campinho, on December 19 of the same year. On
December 20, 1921 the municipality’s name changed to Domingos Martins, in honor of Espírito
Santo’s hero, Domingos José Martins.
Next, in Table 2, presents hallmarks references synthesis of Campinho’s urban form map.

221
Freguesia is a political administrative category adopted in Brazil, in the nineteenth century, similar to a
Municipality, with no equivalent for the English language.
 1451

Table 2. Campinho’s Urban form – Siedlung.

(a) (b)

(c) (d)
(f)

(e)

Marechal Floriano

After the first German immigrant’s arrival and installation on demarcated lands in Santa Isabel
and Santa Leopoldina colonies, in 1860, the Agriculture’s Minister ordered the demarcation of
100 new lots in the Jucu’s region, belonging to Santa Isabel colony, and the construction of a
bridge over the southern arm river, which crosses the municipality. Thus, in 1862, it’s
inaugurated the Southern arm village, occupied by the new German immigrants arriving to
Espírito Santo, and later, also by the Italians. On May 13, 1900, the village is named Marechal
Floriano in honor of the 1st Republic’s Vice President, Marechal Floriano Peixoto. On October
13, 1991, Marechal Floriano is emancipated from Domingos Martins. In addition, next, the
Table 2 presents hallmarks references synthesis of Marechal Floriano’s urban form map.
1452

Table 2.1. Marechal Floriano’s urban form – Siedlung.

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

(e) (f)

Santa Leopoldina’s Colony

Santa Leopoldina

On December 15, 1855 a resolution establish the Santa Maria’s river waterfall region as a
foreign colony. Originally marked an area of 567 km². In the year 1857 come to the colony the
first 140 Swiss German language colonists, and in the following year 222 people of various
nationalities such as Germans and Luxembourgers and then Tyrolean222.
The land’s implantation is given by the valley bottoms with front to the river and back to the
hill. Unlike the German tradition in which farmers live in small towns, the colonists are
distributed at sites in the valley bottoms, in a dispersed linear occupation223.
The Santa Leopoldina colony begins in 1857, with 222 German settlers in Porto do
Cachoeiro Santa Leopoldina village, where a river port works. Each family gets a lot of 62,500
braças quadradas of land (about 190.000 m²). Into the nucleus settlement are reserved 500,000
braças quadradas, with plazas, churches, schools, with urban lots of 10 fathoms in length by 25
background (about 22 meters in length by 55 meters deep), with cemetery located outside the
village (Muniz, 2009).

222
Arquivo Público do Espírito Santo. Imigração no Espírito Santo.
Source:<http://www.ape.es.gov.br/imigrantes/html/historico.html>. Access 11/20/2012.
223
Espírito Santo (Estado). Relatório da Análise da Proteção do Ambiente Cultural de Santa Leopoldina.
Vitória, Secretaria de Estado da Cultura, 2008.
 1453

Subsequently, other immigrants arrive: the Dutch established between the years 1857 and
1862; Austrians and Luxembourgers are established in 1857; Germans arrives in 1859, most
from Prussia, Saxony, Hesse, Baden and Riviera. Most Pomeranians established between the
years 1872 and 1873; while the Italians begin to settle from 1875; but most of it direct to Santa
Teresa municipality. The Cachoeiro Santa Leopoldina Village emancipates on June 6, 1882 and
Law No. 21 of April 4, 1884, elevates the colony to the status of municipality.
In the figure “a”, in Table 3, there is Santa Leopoldina urban nucleus developed around the
commerce street, "back" to the Santa Maria da Vitoria River, due to the location of the port
flowing coffee to the coast; and a restricted occupation on the opposite margin, endowed with
limited flat area (Figure f, Table 3).
Next, the Table 3 presents hallmarks references synthesis of Santa Leopoldina’s urban form
map.

Table 3. Santa Leopoldina urban form – Siedlung.

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

(e) (f)

Santa Maria De Jetibá

In May 1873 landed at the Vitoria port hundreds of German families, mostly coming from
Pomerania, then belonging to Prussia and now Poland territory. First comes 413 Pomeranians,
and also in the same month, comes more 366 Pomeranians, all Lutherans, a people who lived
isolated between Germany and Poland, with extremely different cultural habits from the rest of
the population.
Although not considering themselves Germans, Pomeranians immigrants are treated as such
and sent to the mountains top, in Santa Leopoldina’s colony, where other German immigrants
had settled. Most Pomeranians settles in regions still called Luxembourg and Jequitibá, in Santa
Leopoldina colony. In the following decade, some of these immigrants leads to Santa Maria de
1454

Jetibá region, but among them there are also immigrants from Luxembourg, Netherlands, and
the Rhine and Hessen regions, in Germany, which thus initiate a second stage of the
immigration process.Until 1943, the town is known as Jequitibá, being a Cachoeiro Santa
Leopoldina’s district. By state law no. 4067 to May 6, 1988, the district is elevated to
municipality with the current name of Santa Maria de Jetibá.
The Santa Maria de Jetibá’s nucleus implementation follows the Strassendorf logic, as
identified in Santa Leopoldina. However, instead of developing surrounding a street, develops
around the São Luis river, Santa Maria da Vitória’s tributary (Figure a, Table 4), because the
flat valley area allows the occupation to the hillsides limits (Figure b, Table 4) (Weimer, 2005).
Next, the Table 4 presents hallmarks references synthesis of Santa Maria de Jetibá’s urban
form map.

Table 4. Santa Maria de Jetibá’s urban form – Siedlung.

(a) (b)

(c) (d)

(e) (f)

Urban Nucleus Form Constituted by German Immigration. A Comparative Matrix

The comparative analysis indicates a Strassendorf predominance, identified as main

morphological characteristics in the colonies settlement of German dominance, or its variation,
the Angerdorf. The territory physical dimension is recognizable both in the adoption of rivers
courses as structural elements of the land’s division, lots located along watercourses, generally
orthogonal to the water frontline; as in the settlements location in high and cold lands. Despite
 1455

the characteristic factor of the immigrant’s sediment close to watercourses, it doesn’t represent
an urban form front role, because the main street is the structuring force line of the settle.
The urban dimension stands out the inhabitancy from nucleation, and the dominance of a
structured pathway by a road, generally central and characterized, functionally, by the
commercial activity prevalence. The built settle, consisting of peculiar architecture and detached
and distant position, distinguished the single central tower church.
From Günter Weimer, the Santa Leopoldina and Marechal Floriano urban morphology
analysis allows to recognize the predominance of Strassendorf formal type, ie the, urban design
structured from a commercial street, main, one of the German colonization in Brazil central
attribute. Furthermore, there is a river role in choosing the occupation locus, despite not
representing morphology front role.
In Santa Maria de Jetibá, Haufendorf is the predominant type, with spontaneous growth
characteristics, polygonal shape, decentralized from the Santa Maria da Vitoria tributaries, and
may in some ways be considered Angerdorf due to the formation of a square during urban area
growth. Finally, in Domingos Martins, the predominant type is Angerdorf, a variation of
Strassendorf, in which the central street widens open to a central square.

Conclusion

This paper intends to acknowledge and present the urban areas morphological configuration
particularities derived from the German immigration in Espírito Santo. Chronologically
sequential, occupations promote urban settlements with more than a few similar characteristics.
Importantly, this is an initial approach to German colonization in Brazil urban heritage studies,
especially in Espírito Santo experience.
The geopolitical dimension, initially, draws attention to the underlying territorial cutout for
the colonies settlement logic: situated in the colonial occupation limits areas in Espírito Santo.
This first criteria seems to follow the physical and geographical territory dimension,
recognizable both in the adoption of rivers courses as land division structural elements - lots
located along water courses, in general, orthogonal position to the waterfront; as the settlements
location in high and cold lands.
The urban context stands out the settlement from nucleation, and the structured pathway
dominance surrounding a road, generally central and characterized functionally by the
prevalence of commercial activity. The built settle, consisting of peculiar architecture and
detached and distant position, distinguished the single central tower church, if any.
The urban morphology analysis, from Günter Weimer, in Santa Leopoldina and Santa Maria
de Jetibá, in Espírito Santo, presents a Strassendorf formal type predominant, ie the urban
design structured from a main street, commercial, one of the German colonization central marks
in Brazil, in addition, it’s noted the river role in choosing the occupation locus, however, is not a
protagonist urban form role.
As future deployments, it’s pointed out urban morphology related investigations in other
immigrants cities (Weimer, 2004) in Espírito Santo; from a deepening in specific literature,
focused on Werner Radig, in German language, with the objective of identifying and mapping
the immigration nucleus settle in Espírito Santo, from the nineteenth century, territorialized in
the Santa Maria da Vitoria and Jucu river basins.

References

Ferrari, Â. (1968) ‘Notas sobre os alemães no Espírito Santo’, Colóquio de Estudos Teuto-Brasileiros,
Recife, Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico do Espírito Santo.
Mattedi, Paulo Roberto. Uma leitura da construção da paisagem da rua 15 de Novembro Blumenau-SC.
Dissertação de Mestrado, Programa de Pós-Graduação em Urbanismo, História e Arquitetura da Cidade,
da Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina. Florianópolis, 2009.
1456

Muniz, M. I. (2009) Cultura e arquitetura: a casa rural do imigrante italiano no Espírito Santo. (Vitória:
Flor&cultura).
Peluso, V. (1991). Aspectos geográficos de Santa Catarina (Florianópolis: FCC : UFSC).
Posenato, J. (1997) Arquitetura da imigração italiana no Espírito Santo (Posenato Arte & Cultura, Porto
Alegre).
Redensek, J. (2007) Manufacturing Gemeinschaft: Architecture, Tradition, and the Sociology of
Community in Germany, 1890-1920 (Nova York, ProQuest).
Schwarz, F. (1992) O Município de Santa Leopoldina (Vitória: Traço Certo).
Seide, F. H. (1980). ‘Colonização alemã no Espírito Santo’, Enciclopédia Histórica Contemporânea do
Espírito Santo (not published).
Seyferth, G. (1988) ‘Imigração e colonização alemã no Brasil: uma revisão da bibliografia’, Rio de
Janeiro: Boletim Informativo e Bibliográfico de Ciências Sociais 25, 3-55.
Weimer, G. (2005) Arquitetura Popular da Imigração Alemã (Porto Alegre, Editora da UFRGS).
 1457

Exhibition of City. The case of Lisbon 1940 vs Rome 1942

Elisa Pegorin
CEAU Centro de Estudos de Arquitectura e Urbanismo / FAUP Faculdade de
Arquitectura da Universidade do Porto, Portugal. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. In order to exhibit their own dominance, during fascism in Italy and the authoritarian regime
of Salazar in Portugal, the respective capital cities, Rome and Lisbon, were to plan an International
Exhibition. At a different scale of analysis, the responses of both States to the public space present
analogous elements as well as differences, links of continuity however, can be found. Rome and Lisbon
have not been arbitrarily cited as example, but chosen because they are directly related through their
planned exhibitions. If we do a comparison between the scales of the two cities (Roman occupied an area
of about 400 hectares, Portuguese and a much small area), there are similarities between the two like the
choice of the place and manner of their integration (or not) in the existing city. Like in Lisbon wanted to
bring the city to the Tagus, in Rome Mussolini wanted to bring it to the sea and, in both cases, the urban
redevelopment included a change in the road network, as well as the creation of new connections. The
aim of this essay is to analyze and understand how both these countries responded to urban issues,
summarized in three points: the territorial scale, in this case the degree of connection with the historical
city; the organization and exhibition of a “new city”.

Key Words: Exhibition, Estado Novo, fascism, Urban Planning.

Aderire perfettamente alla vita d’oggi, materiale e spirituale, pur rispettando le condizioni di
ambiente. Ammettere quanto vi ha di universale, di corrispondente alla civiltà contemporanea,
nei movimenti artistici europei, innestandovi le nostre peculiari caratteristiche e tenendo
presenti le nostre speciali esigenze di clima. Ecco il nostro compito.1 (Marcello Piacentini)
During the fascist regime in Portugal and Italy, the respective capitals, Rome and Lisbon,
were to plan an international fair (almost at the same time): the outcome of the planning
proposals presented both similarities and differences, however signs of analogy and continuity
can be found, determined by constant diplomatic and cultural exchanges between the two
countries at that time.
The paradigm underlying expositions on this scale implies thinking and building a "new
city" inside the City itself: how to design this new part of the town; whether it should be
integrated with its present fabric, historical heritage and urban complexity; how it should take
into account its past, and the course decided for its future. And furthermore what future will
there be for that "new part" inside the historical city’? Architecture, as design process developed
on a specific period, involves the dimensions of time and space. Thinking a set of pavilions as if
they are "ephemeral" or rather to stay and to last, define the urban choices for the urban
planning of the compound itself. All this is sublimated in a representative architecture that
stands and states a clear ideological choice of those involved.
From the late nineteenth century, and especially in the '30s, the debate about urban planning
via the alteration of the historic town with the "modern city" entered its maximum point, and
was closely bound to the ideology and propaganda of the specific country.

Ideology and propaganda

In Portugal, along the riverside district of Belém, the exhibition called Exposição do Mundo
Português was planned for the year 1940; the Italian Exhibition was designed for Rome, for the
1458

year 1942.
Both Fairs had some common purposes; the main one was to represent the valour and
strength of the State, under the concept of nationalism in the context of the broader notion of
"Empire".
Both Rome and Lisbon intended to assert themselves as capitals of the Empire: the "Roman
Empire", so celebrated by Mussolini; and the "Portuguese Empire", that claimed to have given
the rest of the world its “Latin civilization” through its homeland extension to its colonies in
Africa and South America.
This premise outlines that the two city’s expos shared similarities on its urban and
architectonic design especially throughout a bond of political and ideological principles that
uses architecture (and its image) to demonstrate abroad, the modernity of the country, and at
home, national pride celebrating the country’s iconic values to the people.
On that matter, the link between Portugal and Italy, was supported by Portuguese
government itself by António Ferro (Director of National Propaganda Secretariat) and Duarte
Pacheco (Minister of Public Works), senior representatives of the political regime.
In political and ideological terms, Antonio Ferro often looked at Mussolini’s regime as a
point of reference to shape Antonio Oliveira Salazar home politics: it is widely documented that
Portugal studied the background of the Italian political system at that time, identifying affinities
with their own national interests and aims, especially after its distancing from the Nazi
Germany's ideology after 1939. The Portuguese political reorganization itself, called “Estado
Novo”, took as a reference many of those political changes that occurred in Italy, such as for
example: the juridical reform, corporatism, the FNAT3, educational reform, the AEV and youth
organization (Mocidade Portuguesa4), among other models of political and socio-economic
organization.
But if on one hand, the Portuguese government with António Ferro and Duarte Pacheco,
always showed great interest in Italian politics, artistic and architectural models, on the other
hand Italy itself was keen to share influence and dominion beyond its borders. Many institutions
were established in foreign countries (for example, the Caur, the Fasci all'Estero, the Italian
Institutes of Culture) to promote
the Italian propaganda abroad. All this boosted and strengthened the Portuguese-Italian
connection also in terms of cultural orientations.
Within this framework of political and ideological influences with Italy, the grounds to
organizing a "Portuguese World Exhibition" were set. This represented an opportunity to show
to the rest of the world, the strength, the grandeur and modernity of the country when
simultaneously, as Salazar wrote, "fosters self esteem of the Portuguese people and remind you
of its value as a nation ".5

Marking history: the value of time

The ideology behind investments on this scale - the universal expositions of Lisbon (1940) and
Rome (1942) – consisted in building an artistic propaganda tool, based on the celebration of
each country and their heroic past and present, displaying to the world the modernity achieved
from their heritage. Both exhibitions therefore feature significant events of the past history of
each country.
In Portugal, on the 20th of February 1929, Dr. Alberto de Oliveira, in an article entitled
"1140-1640-1940", published on the Diário de Noticias, launched the idea of celebrating the
eight hundredth anniversary of the foundation of the country (1140) and the tri-centenary
anniversary of the Portuguese Restoration War (1640). However, his proposal was not
immediately taken up. Only in 1938, in an "Unofficial Note from the Presidency of the
Council", published on March the 27th, on the Diário de Noticias, did Salazar declare his
intention of celebrating the double anniversary with an exhibition about the Portuguese World.
In the same years, in Italy, after the events of 1936 that led to the proclamation of the
 1459

Empire, the “Bureau International dês Exposizions” accepted the Italian application, submitted
in 1935, to hold an international exhibition, originally scheduled for the year 1941. In 1937 the
final date for the exhibition that was called Olimpiadi della civiltà was set for 1942. This date
was chosen by Mussolini himself to be representative of the two decades that had elapsed since
the establishment of fascism (1922-1942).
The date of the Italian exposition was announced before that of the Portuguese and it
naturally provided an example that could be followed.
However, while the development of the Italian exposition “E42” had already been prepared
some time before, the planning of the Portuguese celebration was delayed. Salazar, conscious of
the lack of time and of the limited economic resources of the country, outlined a short-term plan
for the works: only two years to organize the event in a difficult context where the international
situation had worsened with the onset of the war in 1939.
The main idea was to make the work express, on one hand, a historical orientation,
traditionalist and official, intended to assert Lisbon as the capital of the Empire, conforming the
symbolic values of the Estado Novo; on the other hand to brand themselves with "Imperial
Rome" in its symbolic meaning: the architecture, the relationship with the city, the
monumentality, the strength of representative statuary.

The model of Rome

Notwithstanding the influence of the European context at the time, and of German and French
architecture, it is pointed out in this paper that the Portuguese exhibition owed most to the
relationship with the Italian exhibition.
The reference to Italy was already clear in 1934, at the "First Congress of the National
Union," which was designed as a documentary exposition planned by the architect Paulino
Montês, where Ferro proclaimed the the “May 28” Movement. One example mentioned was the
Italian exhibition held for the celebration of the tenth anniversary of Mussolini's march on
Rome, in 1932. In the Portuguese fair, the attention given to Roman architecture was clearly
expressed by the creation of a more modern and rational space, always informed by an
awareness of the different scale of the two countries. In an interview with engineer Carlos
Santos, comparing the exhibition with the Italian one in 1932, claimed to "feel a
disappointment, because it at is the scale of the country, but ten times smaller" .6
Following the Italian 10th anniversary exhibition: “Mostra della Rivoluzione Fascista"7 in
1932, Portugal celebrated in 1936, the tenth year of the National Revolution. The Portuguese
exhibition had to deal with similar spatial problems to those in Italy, especially regarding fitting
the desired design layout within the existing environment. The solution involved, as it had done
in Rome, combining ancient architecture with a monumental structure with straight and rational
lines "and, despite the considerable difference the way in Italy and Portugal solved the same
problem, we had learned something from the Rome exhibition".8
Besides the exhibition of 1932, following chronologically, the Milan Triennal of 1933 and
1936, reported in national and international journals of the time. were also known amongst
Portuguese architects
Simultaneously, we must not forget that Portugal had participated in other exhibitions, such
as Italy: Paris 1937, New York and San Francisco 1939; which were important to consolidate
the image of the Estado Novo, used as an opportunity to experiment with the pavilions a new
representative architecture with the aim of asserting the identity of the state. The 1937
exhibition in Paris was certainly a significant one for Portugal. In this same exhibition wide
visibility was also given to the Italian pavilion designed by architect Marcello Piacentini, as
shown by the repeated publication of this work in L’Architecture D’Aujourd’hui9, an
international journal which arrived in Portugal, impressing (their) architects.
At the time, architecture and monumentality of Italian contemporary works were clear
references for the Portuguese architects, many of whom had travelled to Italy, staged or
1460

collaborated with Italian architects. These contacts are documented in the state archives and
private archives of these architects, where there are many surveys, photographs, books and
Italian magazines.
The plans for the new fair in Rome, were published in the magazine L'Architecture
d'Aujourd'hui few months after the proclamation of the intention to prepare a Portuguese
exhibition, precisely in the issue number 10, October 193810. It is interesting that, later in 1940,
a special issue (from the same magazine) “Expositions”11 presents simultaneously the two
exhibitions: “Rome 1942” and “L’Exposition de Lisbonne 1940”.
Press and magazines were the main vehicles for the diffusion of the plans of the Roman
exhibition, named with the initials of E42 (after the war renamed EUR12) (Fig.01). There, the
project was widely documented since its presentation in 1937, first by the Italian press, then
reissued later in the main Portuguese magazines: Arquitectos, A Arquitectura Portuguesa e
Cerâmica e Edificação.

Figure 1. Plano of the E42, Rome, 1937-’42 (source: Tafuri,M., Dal Co, F., Architettura
Contemporanea. Electa, Milano 1976, p.260).

In 1937, in Rome, Marcello Piacentini was appointed as chief architect of the E42. In
Lisbon, two years later, 1939, the architect Cottinelli Telmo was nominated as director for the
Portuguese expo. Their relationship was close. Mainly because, at the time, Cottinelli Telmo
was also director of the Portuguese magazine Arquitectos (magazine of the National Union),
where he had, as a correspondent from Italy, Plinio Marconi13, Piacentini’s collaborator. Plinio
Marconi had already represented Portugal before, at the General Assembly in Paris on 1937,
covering for Pardal Monteiro - one of the most influent architects of the urbanism of the Estado
Novo, the latter also involved in the exhibition in 1940.
Cottinelli Telmo himself, while director of the union's magazine, had first-hand access to the
foreign magazines14, many of them from Italy: L’Architettura Italiana, Casabella, Domus,
Edilizia Moderna, Rassegna, Architettura Rivista del Sindacato Nazionale Fascista Architetti,
which began publishing the Roman exhibition since 193715. It is essential to know that, among
the most important documents from Cottinelli Telmo’s library, there is the volume Exposição
Universal De Roma 1942-XX, which includes the paragraphs: "program", "General Rules" and
"Invitation to the World”, with drawings, photos of the model and the expo buildings
 1461

(Portuguese edition of 1938).16

It is likely too, that rumours of Italian exhibition reached Portugal with the help of the
architect Giovanni Muzio who was called to Portugal in 1939 to replace Marcello Piacentini
working with the Municipality of Porto, when he took over the responsibility for planning the
E42.
In the same year of 1939, with the construction of the exposition in Belem already started,
the Roman magazine: Civiltá: Rivista dell’esposizione universale di Roma17 . arrived in
Portuguese universities. The presence of this magazine in the Portuguese universities is not
surprising considering the diffusion of Italian propaganda abroad, one of the pillars of foreign
politics for Mussolini. 18 In those years, it is important to remember that those involved in the
Belem exhibition had already travelled to Italy. For example, in 1939, Adelino Nunes, returned
to Portugal with the most important books of Italian architecture of the time, during the time he
was planning the Post Office building of the Belem expo. Also the artists who played a key role
in representing the monumentality (Fig.02) had had a connection with Italy: Leopoldo de
Almeida, for example, considered the main sculptor of the expo, author of the Padrão dos
Descobrimentos (along with Cottinelli Telmo) had worked in Italy for three years, having
performed in Rome a solo exhibition of his work.

Figure 2. Photo of Exposição do Mundo Português.

In 1939, a book by Gustavo Giovannoni arrived in Portugal called: Lineamenti fondamentali

regolatore del piano di Roma Imperiale, with 12 panels of drawings. 19
On the other hand, Italy also asked the Portuguese National Committee for the Centennial,
an appropriate space reserved in one of the pavilions of the Portuguese World Exhibition as well
as at the inaugural act on July the 1st. Previously the Chief of State and members of the
Portuguese Government, Admiral Umberto Monico spoke on behalf of the Royal Navy of the
Italian Empire, marking the connection of Italian and Portuguese empires. To honour the
country, the Italian magazine Architettura reproduced some photographs of Portuguese
exhibition, with the following commentary: "Excellent examples of good architecture well
suited to its function".20
If we put aside the comparison between the scales of the two expositions (the Roman one
occupied an area of about 400 ha, while Portuguese a much smaller one), there are similarities
between the two regarding the issues that arise when planning an event of such scale: the choice
of the place and the way of its integration (or not) with the existing city.
In Portugal, the coordinators of the exhibition - Júlio Dantas, Augusto de Castro and Antonio
Ferro - who had the responsibility to present "the true city of Portugal's history", after some
doubts about the place, decided its final location to be in Belem, with the pavilions organized
around the garden in front of the Jeronimos Monastery.
The site is a flat terrain, relatively far from the city centre, surrounded by notable pre-
1462

existences and at the time partially occupied by some warehouses which were demolished, but
which allowed the integration of the Tagus river within the exhibition as a key element to
achieve the historic character required (fig. 03). Another aspect considered in Lisbon, was the
integration of the city's main historical elements with the very site of the expo through light
effects. The castle of São Jorge, the monument to the Restorers and Liberdade Avenue,
geographically isolated poles of the city were connected with Belem using electric light beams.
A scenic ensemble, full of symbolic sense, to be seen by the river.

Figure 3. Site plan of Exposição do Mundo Português (source: Guia da exposição do

mundo português, Lisboa, 1940).

In Rome instead, a completely empty lot was chosen. Far from the historical city centre,
unrelated to the rich architecture of Roman antiquity, and thought to be planned together with a
new road axis linking Rome to the sea. A "fourth" Rome. Lisbon wanted to bring the city to the
Tagus, and Mussolini wanted to bring Rome to the sea. Whatever the goal, in both cases, the
urban redevelopment included a change in the road network, as well as the creation of new
connections.

Figure 4. Aerial view of the portuguese exhibition in Belém, 1940 (source: Eduardo
Portugal, 1940, Arquivo Fotográfico CML).

Regarding the spatial distribution of each plan: The kernel of Roman exhibition was a square
crossed by a road leading to the historic city; in the Portuguese case, the axis that structure the
whole layout is constituted by the river and a main square, interconnected with the elaborate
presence of the Jeronimos Monastery. Thus was born the Empire Square, bounded on one side
by the river, on the opposite by the monastery and on the other two sides by two pavilions: the
main ones. 21 The exhibition was like a "modern" take on the historical city: the new square
 1463

designed for the exhibition recalls the Commerce Square of historic Lisbon, reaffirming the
Portuguese dominance of the sea in the memory of the discoveries.

Figure 5. Exposição do Mundo Português (source: Guia da exposição do mundo

português, Lisboa, 1940).

In the Belem expo, the pavilions (Figure 4) were distributed in a fragmented way, in a
relation to the outdoor spaces, where the perspective is not axial, but constantly changing. Water
is a key component. As a symbol, it reinforces the historical importance of Portugal in maritime
trade. It has architectural potential, in the sense that the water reflects and extends the
architecture, supported the pavilions like if were floating boats. The pace of the public space
between the pavilions have a hierarchy dictated by voids, on the opposite to what happens in
Rome, where the rhythm is given not only by the emptiness but, above all, by the metric and
monumentality of the architecture. The buildings design in Rome create a coherent whole,
unlike in Belem, were the pavilions were designed with different languages. In Belem a
hierarchy of styles was chosen for the pavilions: modern for the most monumental and
traditional for the minor ones, arriving even to reproduce "Portuguese villages". This choice was
not random. Amplify instead the marked difference within the architecture of the two regimes:
on one side the Italian fascism in search of modernity and monumentality; on the other side the
ongoing commitment between modern taste and traditional rhetoric, characteristic of the Estado
Novo (Fig. 05). The Portuguese exhibition also learned from the Italian one to reinterpret the
elements of the historical city and use them for its own purpose,: Belem came out as future
expansion of Lisbon, when the E42 was intended to be a new, almost independent, block of
Rome.

Figure 6. Photo E42, Rome, 2012 (photographer: Alessio Agresta).

Another difference is that, in Rome, the E42 was designed from the beginning to last beyond
the exhibition itself, therefore, the architecture features a greater solidity in all aspects: urban
1464

planning, construction criteria and used materials (Figure 06).

The exhibition of Belem was conceived rather to be an ephemeral experience running over a
specific period of time. This is reflected in the choice of materials, speed of execution and
reduction of costs. Being approved in 1939 and scheduled to run the next year, in Lisbon, the
general plan of the exhibition was seen as a test case for future changes inside the city,
considering impossible, in the immediate, a definitive urban transformation. As Cottinelli
Telmo stated later: the exhibition was intended to show to the world the strength of the state,
and the great ability of Duarte Pacheco as Minister of Public Works.
In the preface of the "Exhibition of the Portuguese World guide" the main reasons of that
choice could be read: "For the first time a great exhibition of History was held here. Until
today, only international or national fairs for commerce, industry or colonialism were made
here. That should be a lesson of energy, a portrait of the Portuguese genius through all their
spur of greatness, a balance of spiritual forces. I mean: the exhibition will not be a Museum of
dead things, but an example and an exaltation of the permanent and immortal forces of our
nation". 22
Clearly this is an ephemeral architecture. That was clear to Salazar and to the architect chief
Cottinelli Telmo, when he said: "the ephemeral architecture is a kind of adventure within the
architecture"23. Among the objectives to be launched for the future, not an archaeological
demonstration looking at the past was pursued, but rather "whether it's fair or exhibition of
every nature, architecture always look forward and participates in the spirit that exists in the
composition of advertising. It is always a manifesto"24. The important thing was to show (off).
The pavilions were built as ephemeral elements, but even so, Cottinelli Telmo was
convinced, based on the E42, that what will last is " a preparation of a vast urban plan," and
that the exhibition was "a dress rehearsal of the first International Exhibition to be held in our
country". Was fully clear, the desire to be first and foremost a "Symbolic City" that "will be in
the shadows of the storm of the current world, the document of national consciousness and faith
with, strong of a glorious past that celebrates, the Motherland affirms the unwavering certainty
of the Future."

Figure 7. Photo of the Palazzo della Civilità, 2012 (photographer: Alessio Agresta).

Comparing the urban choices, the architectural languages of the pavilions, Rome (Fig.07) and
Lisbon were both trying to rebuild their own classicism.
Voluntarily, Portuguese architects, choose to be never completely away from tradition.
Always leaving - even in the most "modern" cases - a reminiscence of vernacular identity: so in
the most obvious cases there is always an element that refuses to be merely trendy to be
"modern and Portuguese ", fulfilling so the primary mission requested by the Estado Novo. So
says Augusto de Castro, General Commissioner of the Exposition: "It has been demonstrated
 1465

that it was possible to elevate life and national consciousness to a level unanimous
understanding and an environment of collective elevation that many assumed unattainable" 25.

Figure 8. Photo detail of the Palazzo della Civilità, 2012 (photographer: Alessio Agresta).

The history and development of exhibitions is a complex story and deserves - to be properly
understood - a more detailed reading of the various determinants, as well as a careful
examination of each pavilion and sculpture (Figure 8). Due to the beginning of the war, we
never got to see the full E42 (Figure 9) and, as to the Portuguese World Exhibition of 1940,
remain no more than a spectacle offered to the country.

Figure 9. Aerial photo of E42, Roma, 1953 (source: wikipedia).

Notes

1- original text from: Piacentini, M. (1930), Architettura D’Oggi, Paolo Cremonese (Editore, Roma), 39.
2- for a further study, look the bibliography of António Ferro: Viagens a volta das ditaduras (1927); and
Salazar, O Homem e A Obra (1933), where is clear the connection to Mussolini and the Italian
regime.
3- FNAT (Fundação Nacional para Alegria no Trabalho) founded in 1935, inspirited by the "Opera
Nazionale Dopolavoro" italiana de 1925, that will be the base for the "Obra do Trabalho Nacional"
(ref. Arquivo Salazar PT/TT/AOS/D-M/16/1/18).
1466

4- AEV (Acção Escolar Avanguarda) was a youth organization established in 1934; then renamed in 1935
Mocidade Portuguesa (Portuguese Youth), inspired by Italian style of ONB (Opera Nazionale Balilla)
founded in Italy in 1926.
5- TRABULO, A., (2004), O Diário de Salazar, Parceria A.M. Pereira Livraria Editora, Lisboa, 2004,
p.139.
6- “A exposição documentária”, in: “O Século”, 27/5/1934, pp. 10-15; interview with Eng.º Carlos
Santos, pp.2.
7- Alfieri, D., Freddi, L.(a cura di), (1933), Mostra della Rivoluzione Fascista- Guida storica- I
Decennale della Marcia su Roma, Rome.
8- Acciaiuoli, M.,(1998), Exposições do estado novo 1934-1940, Livros Horizonte, 22.
9- Architecture D’Aujourd’hui, n. 5-6, Maio/Junho de 1937, “expecial issue of Paris 1937”, pp.110; e
Architecture D’Aujourd’hui n.8, Agosto de 1937, pp.24-25.
10- Architecture D’Aujourd’hui, (1938), n. 10, October, 24-25.
11- Architecture D’Aujourd’hui, (1940), n. 1-2, 1940, p.45, pp. 82-84, p.87.
12- E.U.R. is the acronym of Esposizione Universale di Roma, also called Eur.
13- Plínio Marconi (1893-1974). Italian architect and urban planner. Among many projects, was
responsible, since 1933, for urban plans along Italiy. He worked alongside Marcello Piacentini,
replacing him in 1950 at the Faculty of Rome.
14- Foreign magazines came to Portugal: from France Architecture D’Aujourd’hui and L’Architecture;
from Germany Modern Bauformen, and from the USA The Architectural Fórum.
15- For example: Architettura, n.4, 1937; Casabella n.114, 1937; Architettura, Dezembro 1938.
16- Information took from the thesis of Martins, J.P., Cottinelli Telmo, 1897 - 1948 : a obra do arquitecto
(Texto policopiado), (1995), Master thesis in History of Contemporary Art, Faculdade de Ciências
Sociais e Humanas da Universidade Nova de Lisboa.
17- Civilitá: Rivista dell’esposizione universale di Roma, (1939), (Ed. Valentino Bompiani, Milano).
18- Just as example, the University of Coimbra opened an Italian library (already opened in July 26,
1928), with 3000 Italian volumes offered directly from Mussolini.
19- Giovannoni, G., (1939), Lineamenti fondamentali del piano regolatore di Roma imperiale, (Ist. Di
Studi Romani, Roma).
20- Architettura, Agosto, 1940.
21- The general plan of the exhibition was given to Cottinelli Telmo, who also designed the Gate
Foundation Gate and the Monumento of the Discoveries (with Leopoldo de Almeida). Pavilion of
Honour and Lisbon, by Cristino da Silva; Portuguese Pavilion in the World, by Cottinelli Telmo; The
Discoverers, by Pardal Monteiro; Portuguese villages, by Jorge Segurado; Colonial Ethnography
section by Gonçalo de Mello Breyner and others; Post Office Pavilion by Adelino Nunes; Pavilion of
Brazil, Raul Lino; Pavilion of Colonization, by Carlos Ramos; Pavilion of Foundation, Training,
Achievement, and Independence by Raul Rodrigues Lima.
22- Castro, A. de, “Roteiro da Exposição do Mundo Português”, Lisboa, 1940; in Colóquio Artes, n. 48,
Março 1981, pp. 10-11.
23- Revista Oficial do Sindicato Nacional dos Arquitectos , Agosto/Outubro, 1938, p.163.
24- Ibidem.
25- Quinze Anos de Obras Públicas 1932-1947, Livro de Ouro, 1º Vol., Comissão Executiva da
Exposição de Obras Públicas, Lisboa, 1947, p.177.

References

Acciaiuoli, M. (1998) Exposições do estado novo 1934-1940 (Livros Horizonte).

Architecture D’Aujourd’hui (1937) 5-6.
Architecture D’Aujourd’hui (1937) 8.
Architecture D’Aujourd’hui (1937) 10 .
Architecture D’Aujourd’hui (1940) 1-2.
Architettura (1937) 4.
Architettura (1938) L’Esposizione Universale di Roma.
A Arquitectura Portuguesa Cerâmica e Edificação Reunidas (1939),Ano XXXII, 3ª Série, n.52, Julho.
A Arquitectura Portuguesa Cerâmica e Edificação Reunidas (1940),Ano XXXII, 3ª Série, n.58, Janeiro.
A Arquitectura Portuguesa Cerâmica e Edificação Reunidas (1940),Ano XXXII, 3ª Série, n.64, Julho.
A Arquitectura Portuguesa Cerâmica e Edificação Reunidas (1940),Ano XXXII, 3ª Série, n.67, Outubro.
 1467

Arquitectos (Revista Oficial do Sindicato Nacional dos) (1938) 5.

Arquitectos (Revista Oficial do Sindicato Nacional dos) (1939) 8 .
Arquitectos (Revista Oficial do Sindicato Nacional dos) (1939) 9.
Arquitectos (Revista Oficial do Sindicato Nacional dos) (1939) 10.
Arquitectos (Revista Oficial do Sindicato Nacional dos) (1940) 12.
Casabella (1937) 114 .
Castro, A. de (1981) ‘A Exposição do Mundo Português 1940 , Colóquio Artes 48.
Ciucci, G. (1989) Gli architetti e il fascismo. Architettura e cittá 1922-1944 (Einaudi, Torino).
Di Majo, L., Insolera, I. (1986) L'Eur e Roma dagli anni Trenta al Duemila (Laterza).
França, J. A. (1990) ‘Estratégias de 1939, no limiar da Exposição do Mundo Português’, Colóquio Artes
87.
França, J.A. (1974) A Arte em Portugal no século XX (Bertrand, Lisboa).
Ippolito, A.M. (1983) Roma-EUR 83: storia ed analisi critica dell'architettura del quartiere EUR dal
piano per l'E42 ai giorni nostri (Palombi, Roma).
Martins, J. P., (1995) ‘Cottinelli Telmo, 1897 - 1948 : a obra do arquitecto’, Master Thesis in História da
Arte Contemporânea, Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas da Universidade Nova de Lisboa.
Ribeiro, A. I. de M. (1992) ‘A Exposição do Mundo Português ou a alegoria efémera da cidade’, Jornal
Arquitectos 109.
Vajuso, M. (2007) E42: la gestione di un progetto complesso (Palombi, Roma).
1468
 1469

Integrated Approaches

Although the conference proposals and research papers organised under the theme - ‘Integrated
approaches’ include a wide range of theoretical and practical interests and purposes, they are
primarily concerned with urban form analyses and their planning and design implications. The
study of urban form relies on the identification and analysis of structural elements or a
combination of structural elements of the urban landscape. Different disciplines and
professional groups have developed their respective research ideas and concepts for describing
and interpreting urban form. For example, architects use building type areas and urban tissue to
understand the configuration of urban form; planners and urban designers are concerned with
land-use zones, ecological areas and historical precincts. There have been efforts to develop an
integrated approach to urban form. In particular, geographical urban morphologists, argued that
the urban landscape comprises three morphological elements: the ground plan (comprising
streets, plots, and the block plans of buildings); the building fabric; and land and building
utilization. The idea of urban morphological regions is a key tool for distinguishing and
characterizing urban landscape divisions and the relations between them. Morphological
regionalisation can be used as a basis for prescriptions in which future changes are incorporated
harmoniously into the existing landscape. Recent research on an integrated approach to urban
form includes Swedish researchers’ Place Syntax and Vitor Oliveira’s Morpho. The use of
computer tools and integrating physical and socio-economic elements are increasingly
important for spatial data analysis and synthesis. Research papers under this theme are expected
to contribute to the exploration of urban form analyses which are fundamental for creating and
managing urban landscapes.

Kai Gu
1470

Study on regeneration of downtown area through

infrastructure development as urban catalyst. case study of
Tokushima city’s regional resource: Shin-machi river’s
frontage development

Koichiro Aitani1, Takafumi Arima2

1
Department of Architecture, Texas A&M University, Langford Building A – Room406,
College Station, TX 77843-3137, USA. 2Department of Architecture and Urban Design,
Faculty of Human-Environment Studies, Kyushu University, Japan

Abstract. "Urban Catalyst" indicates "Project where the catalyst was applied to stimulate the
metropolitan environment for the improvement of an existing city". Conceiving of urban design in
terms of architectural actions and reactions, the elements to act as a catalyst are defined physical
elements such as buildings, open spaces, and the temporary buildings in various scales, and broadly
non-physical elements such as festivals and events could be considered also. In this paper, the
downtown area of Tokushima city was chosen as a case study and discussed about the Shin-machi
board walk along the River, and its effect to the city. Community has been developed to utilize open
spaces along the river. The essence of Urban Catalyst is to create a new space within a city while
maintaining an existing context. In addition to that, this method is quite different from the
redevelopment such as “Scrap & Build” approach.

Key Words: Urban catalyst, urban transition, water front, event, management, infrastructure.

Introduction

Background and Purpose of the Research

The decline of the central area in the local cities is brought into discussion for such a long
time, but there are some cities with which original regeneration schemes brought their life
back, or regained their vitality. In addition, Central City Revitalization Law was revised in
2006, and it pointed out of the needs of "Regeneration Plan underutilization of Local
Resources", therefore, the movement of regeneration of the downtown initiated by the local
governments or shopping mall’s association is quite active recently in nationwide1) 2) 3) 4) .
Recently, the method of urban regeneration, called "Urban catalyst" 5) 6) 7), draws more
attentions in Europe and America. In this paper, “urban catalyst” is defined as a catalyst
promoting the chain development and regeneration in the city and places it with something
like catalyst in the chemical reaction. Unlike the development methods such as “Scrap and
Build” in the period of economic growth, it is a significant characteristic of urban catalyst
which promotes changes and chain effect to the surroundings beyond the boundary of the
development site. It should be an extremely effective method such as Japan, which is in a
mature phase, not growing, rather declining and shrinking. The point unlike the conventional
development method, urban catalyst make effect to the surrounding neighborhood like chain
effect which is the strong characteristic whereas the conventional method limited in the
change of the target site itself. There could be lots of examples to be observed as a result of
“urban catalyst”, even if they are not recognized as is, which exactly influenced positively
around its surroundings and most likely regenerate the area.
The central area around the Shinmachi River in Tokushima City is the place where the
decline is the big issue. However, it is remarkable that city regeneration advances
significantly by the citizen lately, authorities, collaboration of public and private sectors, it
would be beneficial to understand the current situations and to find out the physical influence
 1471

on to the built environments, clarify the individual activity and its relation to each other, and
then applying these knowledge to establish the Japanese oriented urban catalyst theory. At a
glance, it seems that there could be a certain rule, regularity, even type or pattern for these
successful regeneration exist, even if it happened randomly without any order, or just by
accident. Not only restraining indiscriminate developments, but also enabling the selection of
the strategic catalyst, and effective places for intervention, envisioning its regeneration,
would be effective way of development without spending enormous amount of investigation.
Urban catalyst could be an optimize solution for urban regeneration. The objective of the
research is to analyze the cause and evidence of declines of the city center, Shinmachi district,
and also to clarify the chain effects of catalyst to the urban context, built environments and
community development chronologically.

Precedence Research

There are some papers which focused on the Shinmachi River for the research in the past.
Those are by Akihiko Higuchi, “Riverfront Development for Community Revitalization” 8)
and by Yoshitomo Deguchi, “Study on Improvement of Shinmachi Riverside Park and its
Influence to Surrounding Environment” 9), and both of them are describing about the role of
the urban river in the viewpoint urban design, but most of other research is limited in the
engineering aspect such as quality of water resource and construction and maintenance of
infrastructures along the river, thereby there are very few research dealt with the
collaboration among community leaders, or community development for urban regeneration,
or cause and effect related to the related field, moreover the emphasis on the chain effect of
the methodology in urban regeneration.

Summary of the Research

Method of the Research

In this research, to obtain a general and background information on the research area
(Tokushima City Center), chapter 3 clarifies it based on various documents 10), 11) including
statistics data and documents about urban transformation. Chapter 4 refers the previous
research of the urban transformation and forces on Awa Dance Festival. Chapter 5 focuses on
the transformation around the Shinmachi River successively and effects of chain type catalyst
around the Shinmachi Boardwalk construction, recent activities by the residents and
community, several hearing survey had conducted to the local Government and event
organizers to clarify the present conditions and issues. Chapter 6, summaries and analyses
each chapter for the establishment of the Japanese type urban catalyst theory.

Summary of Tokushima City and Downtown Area

Tokushima City is developed on a delta located at the mouth of Yoshino-gawa River, and 138
rivers flow across the city, which is quite rich. The most of Tokushima City were located on
the Tokushima plains, forming city blocks in a flat part, and the downtown developed
between the symbolic Mt. Bizan and the former Tokushima Castle (Figure 1) since 16th
century, feudal period.
The core of the central city is constituted with two districts; Shinmachi district and
Uchimachi district. Particularly the Shinmachi district was flourished by its port activity,
indigo products and sugar are the main trading products, and it became the most prosperities
commercial district in Tokushima. However, large commercial districts are concentrated
around the JR railway station, and now younger generations recognize the station area is the
city center, not the Shinmachi district. This research’s study area, Shinmachi River
Neighborhood is around the border between Shinmachi district and Uchimachi district.
1472

Figure 1. The Shinmachi District located in Tokushima City Center.

Transformation of the City Center

Statistics and maps of about 30 years are collected and these data organized and analyzed for
visualization to clarify the transformation of the city.

Analysis by Statistics Data

Statistics data such as national census, establishment company statistics, and commercial
statistics are obtained from the Tokushima municipal government office and visualized it.
Additionally, 23 administrative sections which Tokushima City was divided into 23 districts,
is analyzed, however, as shown in Figure 2, only Uchimachi district and Shinmachi district
was visualized, while invested to see the transformation of the city every five years from
1970 through 2005.

Transformation of Buildings (Large Commercial Facilities, Movie Theaters, Parking Lots)

Through visualization of the collected map-data every in five years of Tokushima Center,
locations and transformation of the buildings such as large commercial facilities, movie
theaters, and parking lots is conducted. Based on Z-map of 2009, Zenrin map information is
plotted on the GIS map with every 5 years and the plot area of the parking lots is calculated
particularly to verify the urban transformation on GIS (Figure 2).

Figure 2. Transformation in Uchimachi District and Shinmachi District.

 1473

It is confirmed that parking lot plottage (proportion designated in parking lot) increased
from 66,335 square meters (5.5%) to 129,936 square meters (10.8%), more than double
within 1,206,000 square meters of the target area. This explains buildings are demolished, or
converted into parking lots, hollowing out phenomena in the downtown is remarkable (Figure
3, Figure 4). Comparison with the tendency of increases of large commercial facilities in
Uchimachi district, decreases of large commercial facilities in Shinmachi district is sharp,
and rather serious. As for the shopping arcade (shopping mall) around half is driven into the
closing a shop by the aging of the storekeeper, the issue of inheritor, and, unoccupied
situation and ended up being the parking lot, this increase tendency is remarkable in the
Shinmachi district. Furthermore, it accelerates a “Shuttered Street” literally.

Figure 3. Transformation of parking lots and buildings in the city center（1983 and
2012).

Furthermore, the movie theaters in the downtown got damages severely, due to the ground
opening of suburbs type large shopping mall, Fuji-Grand Kitajima (2001) including the
cinema complex. As a fact, the movie theaters in the city center closes chronologically; OS
Ground (2002), Tokushima Toei (2003), Tokushima Toho (2005), Tokushima Hall (2006) and,
with an advance of acceleration in decrease of the number of customers to the Shinmachi
district. After 7 years of Zero movie theater in the downtown, a movie theater (ufotable
CINEMA) showing mainly on animated cartoons opened in March, 2012 as a dynamo of
regeneration

Figure 4. Transformation of Parking Lots Areas (1983 – 2012).

1474

The most of the abandoned sites of large commercial and cinema facilities, which drew
large number of customers turned into large-scale high-rise apartments in the Shinmachi
district, the aspect of the shopping mall underwent a complete change (Fig. 2, Fig. 3). The
opportunity to visit the Shinmachi district became less and less, because the large commercial
and cinema facilities which drew customers from the city or even from prefecture level
closed down. In fact, people except a neighborhood resident and t commuters to the school
and to work rarely visit the Shinmachi district. As a result, the walker route (pedestrian route)
with excursion characteristics of Shinmachi Bashi → Higashi Shinmachi Shopping Arcade
→ Konya-machi & Ryogoku-cho → Ryogoku Bashi from the JR Tokushima Station
diminished.

Assessment from Transformation of Transportation Network and Facilities

The construction of the bypass road (National Highway No. 11 & No. 55), the opening of the
expressway (Kobe-Awaji-Naruto Expressway) under the opening of Akashi Great Bridge
(1998) promoted the express bus services and enabled easy access to Osaka and Kobe for
approximately two hours in one way. It was the trigger of the many people of Tokushima
travelled out to Kansai Area for shopping (Figure 5). Ironically, it caused the straw effect to
draw large number of customers to the outside metropolitan area, and ended up causing the
acceleration of the decline of local industry, business, and the emptiness in the downtown
area by a transportation network enhancement.

Figure 5. Transformation of the number of users in different transportation system.

Assessment from Transformation of Retail & Commercial Facilities

Figure 6 classified the opening and closing of retails such as shops and stores, and
commercial facilities categorized by a radius of 1 kilo around Shinmachi Bashi, 2 kilos and 5
kilos zone. Retail floor areas suddenly increased by Sogo Tokushima (27,000 square meters)
to be built into the abandoned elementary school in the Uchimachi district in 1983. The
amount of product sale increased gently, but is suddenly depressed in 2000.
On the other hand, the amount of product sale gradually decreased in the Shinmachi
district after 1980. As for this, the bankruptcy of the two biggest commercial facilities of the
Shinmachi mall created a major negative impact, they are called Marushin department store
(7,898 sq. m) in 1995 and the Daiei Tokushima shop (4,097 sq. m) in 2005. Moreover the
advance of the suburbs type large shopping centers, called “Suburbanization of Commercial
and Shopping Facilities” made a significant impact to the closing down of retails and
commercial facilities in the downtown.
 1475

Figure 6. Opening and Closing of Retail & Commercial Facilities.

Tokushima City Centers Urban Transformation

Case of Awa Dance Festival

Tokushima is well-known as Awa-Dancing Festival. It is originally developed in the region of

Tokushima, and now a big attraction for the tourist in Tokushima. Despite its religious aspect,
the parades by the group of dancers and musicians along the streets draw peoples' attentions,
and it developed as a tourist attraction. It grew one of the largest dance festivals in Japan, and
it attracts over 1.3 million tourists during 4 days in August12) .

Performance Places and its Transformation

Type of dancing and performance spaces is divided to four periods 14) according to Bando’s
1476

research. Lately, two distinctive performance types could be defined, one is regular &
organized, and the other is irregular & dis-ordered.

Period 1 (Icho-Mawari: Edo Era - 1955)

The group of dancers is formed based on the community areas such as towns and districts.
The areas for the performance are rather limited to the community neighborhood.
Tokushima City is the castle town that the lord Hachisuka constructed from 13 to 15 years
by utilizing large/small seven islands scattered in the delta zone, the mouth of the Yoshino
River (Figure 7).

Figure 7. Samurai and Merchant district (16th Century).

Period 2 (Sajiki and Contest: 1929 - 1971)

Sajiki is temporal wooden structured seating facilities where people can watch the
performance of dancers. Contest was conducted to access the level of performance. Through
the time, the area got larger in scale.
The castle town was divided into the samurai district where the castle located in the center,
and the merchant district for commercial and trading along the river. The railway station was
built in 1899. The station became an urban center in the downtown, however as a result the
center area had been divided into parts (Figure 8).
Narrow roads were changed to the urban roads authorized in city plan of 18m and 12m.
After the war, damage-recovery plan was made in 1955, a new axis from the station square to
the Bizan Mt. was planned as a symbolic street, and the extra width road of 50m was
constructed. A lot of performance spaces were able to be installed along/on the widen road, as
well as along the city planning road (Figure 9).

Figure 8. City Planning Map (1937).

 1477

Figure 9. City Planning Map (1957).

Period 3 (Street Theater: 1965-1995)

Street theater is further developed version of Sajiki. Structure was transformed from wood to
steel to accommodate more audience. Organizers define the area where people are allowed to
dance and paly the music. This can be seen in nowadays.

Period 4 (Street Theater and Street Corner: 1992-Current)

Steel made seating is carried on and remained as a designated dancing performance area. On
top it, the dancers began dancing around the corners of the streets, open spaces where the
organizers did not designate as performance areas. This is a strong character of Tokushima.

During the Festival (Surveyed in 2012)

Figure 10 shows the temporary installation (gallery seat, electric spectaculars, signboard,
toilet, and garbage box, etc.) set up for the festival was investigated, which could affect
dancers and audiences navigation, as well as overall trace of dance teams’ traces (17:00-
23:00) to clarify the relationship between those.

Figure 10. Downtown of Tokushima during Awa Dance Festival (Left: Temporally
Installation, Right: Trace of Dance Team Route).
1478

Catalyst Analysis

Urban transformation originated from the development of Shinmachi Board Walk and a
Parasol Shop for the inflow from the Uchimachi district for the purpose of the activation of
the Shinmachi district. And analyzes was conducted focusing on community development for
town planning almost acting like a chain effect, the connection and networks of human
relations are well related to the regeneration of the area afterwards.

Situation before the Shinmachi River Restoration

The hearing interview to the president of Shinmachi River Saving (NPO), also the
publication by this NPO, the evidence was told that the river bank was totally reinforced by
the Concrete Parapet for disaster prevention, after the extremely strong typhoon hit the area
in1961, the area was suffered from the serious damage.
The decline of the means of transportation by water, taste of the less human being, out of
scale, etc. ended up the life of citizen apart from the river, and the river bank was shifted to
the parking spaces for the auto mobiles. Then, the river front became the back side of
citizen’s daily life, another word, demoted from the main stage of the life to the backyard of
city, people’s place. When the water pollution of the river worsened by an inflow of factory
effluent and the home drainage, and the river became the place where the bad smell occurs
and no fish could dwell, obviously people will be away from the river even seriously, and
caused less human activity, transformed to un-attractive and lonely place. In fact, nobody
likes the river at all.

Shift of the Shinmachi River Restoration

The citizen group including the NPO (Non-Profit Organization) called “Saving Shinmachi
River,” started up to clean a polluted river once again, triggered a local governmental support
both in prefecture and municipal to initiate a project to revitalize it for citizen’s life and
amenity. Figure 11 shows the development and the sectional transition of the right-side river
bank (1989-2012), Figure 12 shows the river bank’s restoration situation in a chronological
order (1971-2012). In the Shinmachi River, it began with water purification project, followed
by the development of Shinmachi River Water Front Park on the left-side bank, and
beautification of the bank surface covered by the domestic bluish stones on the both sides,
and in the end the completion of the Shinmachi River Boardwalk, these chained effect of
river development taken place from 1989 to 1996 as an oasis for citizens.

Figure 11. Development and sectional transition of River Bank.

 1479

Figure 12. River Bank’s Restoration in a Chronological Order (1971-2012).

Shinmachi Board Walk

The Higashi-senba Shopping Arcade Promotion Association of the Shinmachi district

promoted and executed "Higashi-senba Boardwalk Restoration Project" and successfully, the
wooden decked promoted was constructed along the right-side bank of the Shinmachi River.
According to the local architect, Nakagawa, “It was such a pity that most of the buildings
along the river faced to the street, in another words, back side of buildings face the river front.
Then, his design intention was creating a river front park with a total extension 287m consists
with river bank board walk between Shinmachi-Bashi and Ryogoku-Bashi, Higashi-Zume
Park of Shinmachi-Bashi, and Nishi-Zume Park of Ryogoku-Bashi all together as Urban Park.
Thanks to the Shinmachi River Purification Project, attention to the river, and the water
front for the citizens had begun to revive to a citizen, and triggered the campaign of
community development and town planning with the river initiated by the Higashi-senba
Shopping Arcade Promotion Association. This evidence proved that purification the river
water and the beautification of the river bank development brought citizens attentions and
Patriotism for the further effect of utilization of river front, as well as bringing citizen’s life
back or co-exist with the river. Figure 13 shows the significant change before and after the
completion of the board Walk. It generates accessibility to the river, and permeability to the
river. Built environment along the river was dramatically changed.

Figure 13. Before（1990）and after（2012） of Board Walk Development.

1480

Parasol shop

Parasol shop (Fig. 14) is the temporal shopping mall to sell agriculture products and
processed foods along the Board Walk.

Fig. 14 Parasol shop.

After the completion of Board Walk in 1996, parasol shops started its operation, the nature
of Newness, trendy movement; it brings vitality along the water front temporally. However,
the turnout did not continue for a long time. The sales decreased, and, due to un-strategic
opening of the shops by professionals and immature retailers, often did not match with
customers’ demands and needs, ended up shrining and downsizing the market.

Hyotan-jima Cruising

When the Youth group of Tokushima Society of Architects & Building Engineers, manifested
“Renaissance of Hyotan Island”, the idea and the nick-name of Hyotan Island became
familiar with the citizens of Tokushima in 1984. The sandbank surrounded by Shinmachi
River, Suketo River, and Fukushima River branches of the Yoshino-gawa River, has been
forming a downtown, a center of commerce for the citizen. Only one man began the
campaign of cleaning the river, and bringing fish home. Soon after, in 1990, ten individuals
gathered around him, and made a slogan of “The river was contaminated by the citizens,
therefore, us, citizens are responsible to clean the river, and bring it to original cleanness”. It
ended up a launch of NPO for “Saving Shinmachi River”.
According to the hearing investigation, it began to navigate a cruise ship, one lap of 6 km
regularly at the same time to begin the cleaning of the river with the boat twice a month. In
late years the number of the visitors gradually increases and reaches 5,000 monthly
passengers and grows up as tourist attractions steadily. In addition, the events utilizing a river
are organized all through the year, as well as cleaning of the river. Moreover, the role of
letting people recognize a boardwalk as an event place, almost “Landmark of the City” by
planning various events simultaneously such as Tokushima LED Art Festival, Machi Asobi,
an event in connection with Hana-Haru Festival.

Analysis of Catalyst Effect

Change in the Flow of the Person

The result of quantity survey of pedestrian traffic flows in the Tokushima city’s downtown
along the central shopping street are shown (Figure 15). The quantity of pedestrians increases
in 1,999 in comparison with 1996 on the weekends and the holidays around Shinmachi River
Area. It is understandable due to the effect by the completion of the Board Walk and the
success of the parasol shop.
 1481

Figure 15. Pedestrian traffic flows in the Tokushima city’s downtown.

Upon the completion of the Board Walk, the previous parking lots under prefectural
management became the city park, and eating and drinking, the sale of the above related
articles were enabled. Profit utilization spreads, but I gradually show a tendency to decrease,
and it is considered that the effect was temporary, but the increase is again observed after
2009. It should deserve high attention.

Chain Effect to the Neighboring Facilities

Transformation was observed in neighboring facilities like a chain effect by the construction
of the Shinmachi Board Walk after the completion of Water Front Park. The buildings which
turned the face to the river side increased. Original expectations was realized, the ratio of
more than 50% of the building, in fact 13 buildings out of 21 buildings along river front
turned the façade and face to the river. Although there are still issues remains such as less
harmony of the buildings as a whole, each buildings’ design quality and integration remained
still very low, etc. The building was refurbished to arrange permeability to the Higashi-
Shinmachi shopping arcade from the river (Figure 16). These are caused by two main
reasons; Shinmachi Boardwalk was considering as a road which allows “building permit “by
code to the adjacent site, and a parasol shop brought the citizens attention. As a catalyst effect,
expected chain effect was observed around the built environment. Parasol shop acting as an
incubator, or start-up shops to initiate permanent stores around the downtown as a chain
effect, as a result, 26 new stores opened around immediate context, 14 stores opens in the
neighboring shopping malls.

Figure 16. Buildings along Board Walk.

Conclusion

In this research, the following aspects are identified and clarified to understand the cause and
effect of catalyst each other: 1) before and After of physical phenomena applying catalyst,
such as the number of building upgrade, amount of pedestrian traffic flow, 2) through the
hearing survey to the event organizers and government officials, to understand their intention
and motivation of events, and to find out the relationship developed between each catalyst
effect. As a result, the following things became clear: 1) primarily, the interest of citizen
began toward the river by purification work of the Shinmachi River, which is defined as the
1482

first stage of catalyst; 2) secondary, the campaign and promotion of creating Shinmachi
Boardwalk and a parasol shop emerged, because a Shinmachi River Park was restored. These
two are private enterprise-based development called the Shopping Street Promotion Society
and are not by the public sector like government. This is defined as a chain effect of
regeneration of Shinmachi River, and categorized as a second stage of catalyst; 3) when
Shinmachi Boardwalk and a parasol shop were completed and running its business, the
increase of the building which face, frontage turned toward the river side are confirmed. This
is the third stage of catalyst, and the influence on physical phenomenon, to the built
environment are confirmed even beyond the target area.
These series of city regeneration was not originated from the governmental vision,
because, by understanding a conventional development method, it assumes the change is
limited in the targeted area. Envisioning chain effect to the surrounding context and neighbor
are beyond the consciousness. Moreover, within the limited budget for regeneration,
government tends to narrow down the scope of development, which is a strong character. As
a good example of Shinmachi Boardwalk, it promotes the next development activity by a
chain effect, and city regeneration is accelerated and realized by the synergy of all the
involvement.
To conclude, it is desirable to find more successful and similar examples, and analyzing
those samples to identify common aspect, generality, and tendency, to establish the theory of
urban catalyst, as approaches to experience based urbanism for matured and shrinking society
like Japan.

References

1) Architectural Institute of Japan, Karatsu: Re-editing a Fragmented City, Kashima publication, 2012
2) Kiyonobu Kaido, Plan and Design of the Central Compact City, Gakugei publication, 2007
3) Yoshifumi Muneta, Creativity of the Central City Area, Gakugei publication, 2007
4) Inter-city Study Committee, Urban Dwelling Regeneration of Charming Downtown, Gakugei
publication, 2002
5) Wayne Attoe and Donn Logan, American Urban Architecture: Catalysts in the Design of Cities,
University of California Press, 1989
6) Carl Grodacha, Museums as Urban Catalysts: the Role of Urban Design in Flagship Cultural
Development, Journal of Urban Design, Volume 13, Issue 2, pp.195-212, 2008
7) Naomichi Kurata, Urban Design as Catalyst, Building Magazine, Architecture Annual Report 1991,
pp.6-7, 1991
8) Akihiko Higuchi others, “Riverfront Development for Community Revitalization”, Japan Society of
Civil Engineers, Journal of Civil Engineering, vol.22 no.2, pp.387-396, 2005
9) Yoshitomo Deguchi, “Study on Improvement of Shinmachi Riverside Park and its Influence to
Surrounding Environment”, Japanese Institute of Landscape Architects, Landscape Study 72(5),
pp.701-704, 2009
10) Institute of Tokushima Economy, Economy and Industry of Tokushima, 2012
11) Tokushima City, City Maintenance Division; Promotion Section of City Policy, Tokushima City,
City Plan and Master Plan, 2012
12) Aitani K., Arima T., Takayama T., Matsuyama K. (2012). Characteristics and Issues clarified from
the Comparison between Spatial Condition and Management of Four Largest Awa Dancing Festivals –
Case Study of Tokushima, Koenji, Minami-Koshigaya and Yamato -, 589-584, Journal of the City
Planning Institute of Japan No. 47 No.3, October
13) Aitani K., Arima T., Takayama T., Matsuyama K. (2013). Impact on Performance Places through
Urban Morphology and Transformation -Case of Awa Dance Festival in Tokushima, Japan -, 35-42,
Selected Papers from ISHED Conference 2012, Shanghai, Journal of Habitat Engineering and Design,
March 2013
14) Bando, Y., Kinoshita H., Marumo H. (2007). A Study on the Changes of the Performance Space in
Awa-Dance, 31-36, Journal of the City Planning Institute of Japan No. 42-3, October
 1483

Diaspora typo-morphology analysis: a study of post-colonial

city in critical approaches

Po-ju Huang, Chaolee Kuo

Department or Centre, Institution. E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract. Diaspora is a spatial representation of colonialism, that is also prime phenomenon of urban
is constantly duplicating and reproducing urban form. Colonial city's planning often by the advanced
standards of Western countries equitable distribution of the overall planning in order to erase the gap
between the local and construct the hypothesis of a homogeneous city by ignoring the people's "sense
of place''. In fact, during the process of spatial practice, standardize modification would be impossible
to complete, and only highlight the complexity that populations and societies possess in colonial cities.
In recent years, development in Taipei is dictated by the economics of space, creating competition
between builders and politicians. Many new plans for the redevelopment of industrial sites show how
global capitalism has resulted in a homogeneity of architectural types. Such implementation often
contradicts local traditions, resulting in a discrete landscape, a grafting of modern and traditional
urban forms. It’s not only show the "practice of social behavior" and "spatial practice" to
simultaneously, but also combine with each other or resistance to each other. In order to analyze the
diaspora phenomenon, we attempt to explore the historical changes that took place along the city’s
borders and explore Taipei through morphological analysis and narrative scenes in order to
understand the Diasporas typo-morphology. The study combines urban form weaving together a
complex web of relationships, analysis and dialectic relationship between buildings, open space and
social practices in order to critical the local traditions meaning and contradictions of modern city,
that as a reference for future development of urban space.

Key Words: de-construction , post-colonialism ,typo-morphology ,diaspora, hybridity

Introduction

Diaspora is a spatial representation of colonialism, a migration of people or communities,

voluntarily or by force, temporarily or permanently. That is also prime phenomenon of urban
is constantly duplicating and reproducing urban form. During this dynamic process, a
variable is constructed through new examples that can be highlighted spatially. More like
approaching modernity "diaspora space".
In the context of Taiwan’s development, there were three major migrations: the early
settlements of the Han Chinese, the Japanese colonial immigrants, and the large-scale
postwar retreat of the Nationalist Chinese. They symbolized the end of traditional society and
the coming of modern world. Railways weakened symbolic society and gave rise to spatial
rationality.
Taipei’s urban environment in the twentieth century has had to confront the contradictions
of imperialism and modernism. As such, the economic-oriented urban culture arose from a
grafting of colonial modernity to the growing influence of the post-war United States, which
extended to the development of today’s neo-liberalism as manifested in “product building”
and the “instant city”. Therefore, the structural collapse of the traditional urban landscape and
architectural type threatened to disappear, along with a “sense of place” in the historical
context. In the face of consumerism and globalization, we have been unable to grasp the
urban artifact.
This article discusses the transformation of Taipei’s urban form from 1880 to 1945, and
how the natural result of its expansion is an artificial outgrowth of the modern nation state’s
authority mechanism. Examples include the walls of the late Qing Dynasty- the railways of
the Japanese occupation, avenues, Nationalist government buildings, fairs, illegal buildings,
1484

shopping malls, etc. These different forms created space and shaped the landscape over a few
decades, constantly creating new patterns that appear and are later replaced. This process of
change is the object of study in urban space, and reflects the unique growth trajectory of
Taipei city.

Figure 1. In the context of Taiwan’s development, there were three major migrations:
the early settlements of the Han Chinese, the Japanese colonial immigrants, and the
large-scale postwar retreat of the Nationalist Chinese.

Figure 2. In recent years, development in Taipei is dictated by the economics of space,

creating competition between builders and politicians. Many new plans for the
redevelopment of industrial sites show how global capitalism has resulted in a
homogeneity of architectural types.

In order to analyze the diaspora phenomenon, we attempt to explore the historical changes
that took place along the city’s borders and explore Taipei through morphological analysis
and narrative scenes in order to understand the Diasporas typo-morphology.
Such implementation often contradicts local traditions, resulting in a discrete landscape, a
grafting of modern and traditional urban forms. It’s not only show the "practice of social
behavior" and "spatial practice" to simultaneously, but also combine with each other or
resistance to each other. The study combines urban form weaving together a complex web of
relationships, analysis and dialectic relationship between buildings, open space and social
practices in order to critical the local traditions meaning and contradictions of modern city,
that as a reference for future development of urban space.
 1485

Weakening of "local community": edge and enclosed lay the foundation for the unique
characteristics of diaspora

In the Man-Ga and Twa-Tu-Tia districts between 1882 and 1884, the late Qing government’s
construction the city walls of Taipei Fu created an administrative settlement with other two
ethnic groups not strongly associated with an enclosed regional urban landscape. At the same
time, belief that the introduction of the modern western rail system risk of would open late
Qing China to the Western colonial powers led to the first railway (1893) not being built in
the cities of the Chinese mainland, but on the island frontier, specifically in Taipei.
Two projects of walls and railway were designated for the late Qing Dynasty Taipei city,
but the presence of both common to feudal cities created a challenge. Planners were
presented with a conflict of modern and traditional ideas, with the city wall adopting the
periphery to imperial order, whereas the modern railway improving the development to
modern world. Though the two ideals are in conflict, they did develop a symbiotic
relationship in the beginning.
At the second half of the 19th century, the Qing government shifted its policies from
“passive governing” to “active governing,” however, it’s governance of epistemic rationality
(Foucault; 1970) different from the conservative views of local society restricted Taipei to
the three segregated settlements layout, rather than a single unified modern urban landscape.
Nevertheless the relationship between government and society was not one of tense isolation
and confrontation, but rather isolation with cooperation, contributing to the unique nature of
diaspora, one that accepts and tolerates differences.

Figure 3. Planners were presented with a conflict of modern and traditional ideas, with
the city wall adopting the periphery to imperial order, whereas the modern railway
improving the development to modern world. Though the two ideals are in conflict, they
did develop a symbiotic relationship in the beginning.

Rising of "new community": urban planning highlights the spatial differences

Edward Said in the book Orientalism (1978) pointed out that the reality of colonial rule is not
how it is manifested in the West, but a representation. In addition to being a colonial power
and more than a reflection of the West, Japan has learned the true value of description,
calculation, and analysis, becoming an important engineer of change. For Japan, urban form
provided the tool that empowered the imperial government to achieve its goals.
1486

After the 1895 Sino-Japanese War, Taiwan became the first colony of the Empire of Japan
and as such was a symbol of the empire’s vision for modern urban development and
infrastructure improvement. The stretches of railway and supporting infrastructure meant
significant changes for Taipei and Taiwan. The importance of the island’s traditional harbor
cities in Taiwan’s economic development was superseded by rise of the industrial cities that
sprang up along the new mountain line. With the transformation of the island-wide regional
production space, many cities within this new urban landscape faced unprecedented change.
This resulted in a "space compression" era in which the sense of distance disappeared with
the growth of personal mobility and transit speed (Lardner, 1968).

Figure 4. The stretches of railway and supporting infrastructure meant significant

changes for Taipei and Taiwan.

Figure 5. The importance of the island’s traditional harbor cities in Taiwan’s economic
development was superseded by rise of the industrial cities that sprang up along the
new mountain line. With the transformation of the island-wide regional production
space, many cities within this new urban landscape faced unprecedented change.

A major flood in northern Taiwan in 1912, the colonial government took the opportunity
to implement urban renewal in connection with three settlements of Taipei, that processing of
planning attitude is guidance rather than spontaneous. For viceroy authority to have an
impact, the concept of “place” must be eliminated. There can be no spatial differences; the
original differentiating characteristics have to be forgotten. After the integration of three
settlements, the residents no longer enjoyed a sense of togetherness (place), and began to
experience feelings of metropolis, separation and anonymity.
In the Japanese period the empty space among three settlements was developed as
Seimoncho new district, which would include Japanese shops, residential gathering areas,
and Seimon Market on the east side of boulevard (i.e. Chunghua Road), which serviced
 1487

mainly Japanese residents. Late at night, shops and street vendors remained open and the area
buzzed with the sights and flavors of a Japanese night market.
The railway and urban renewal are new urban morphology in the Taiwan. And railway
station is a new typology introduced by railways. It is the most conspicuous spatial
transformation relating to the fading of localized society and the transition towards spatial
universality. Anthony Giddens stated that “spatial planning has only become necessary after
the emergence of modern nations; it means to take away the ‘place’ meaning of the land so it
becomes a space with nothing to hold it back, a tool of governmental authority.” (Giddens,
1991:16)

Figure 6. After a major flood in northern Taiwan in 1912, the colonial government took
the opportunity to implement urban renewal in connection with three settlements of
Taipei, that processing of space engineering attitude is guidance not rather than
spontaneous.

Figure 7. The railway and urban renewal are new urban morphology in the Taiwan.
And railway station is a new typology introduced by railways.

The rise of Taipei: precipitated of spatial and social creative a new city layout

The periphery of three settlements began to create a new morphology. For example, the
creation of law enforcement institutions (colonial administration, prison, police stations)
established constitutional politics, while the emergence of banking (e.g. Imperial Bank of
Taiwan) introduced economics into the equation. Next, consider the establishment of
numerous elementary and middle schools (e.g. Lao Song Elementary School) aimed at
ideological indoctrination under the colonial power structure. And other building types
1488

developed, such as industries (distilleries, tobacco factories, sugar refineries) and healthcare
facilities (e.g. Imperial Taiwan University Hospital and Public Health Bureau).
The colonial government expanded the role of spatial power with its new system of
knowledge and ruling institutions. Nevertheless, to combine and distinguish the self from that
which is alien or the other, reconstruction of spatial order was attempted from “periphery”. In
practice, however, deconstruction had begun. Of course, urban morphology made a
difference under the new order. The Japanese attempted to introduce the imagery of Western
colonial imperialism to Taiwan’s urban spatial system, mixing elements of two (or three)
very different lands and people. Such imagery had to be combined under one state system,
while also attempting to eliminate social factors through spatial segregation. This
contradictory relationship resulted in the complexity of Taipei’s urban space.
With the conclusion of World War II and the defeat of Japan, 50 years of colonial rule in
Taiwan came to an end. However, the retreat of the Nationalist government in 1950 brought a
flood of people to the Chunghua Road area. This prompted the construction of temporary
refugee housing to accommodate fleeing soldiers and civilians from the mainland. Suddenly,
the beautiful boulevard transformed into a refugee camp, a home to mixed ethnic groups of
different lifestyles and cultures. In order to improve the quality of life for these people,
President Chiang Kai-shek ordered the renovation in 1961 of eight three-level shope-houses
to create a new typology — China Mall.
This appeared to reflect the simple form of the modernist-style buildings. The
complexities of the modern urban space meant that buildings were crowded with various
forms of signs and advertising. A pedestrian overpass connected the previously Japanese side
of Chunghua Road with the newly developed zone and within a very short time Taipei
became important conduit for modern life. China Mall integrated the concept of Chinese
culture with all variety of local traditions, rather than focusing specifically on Fujian,
Guangdong and Japanese colonial culture. It became a miniature hybrid city center of post-
war Taipei, and the best representation of the city as a whole.

Figure 8. President Chiang Kai-shek ordered the renovation in 1961 of eight three-level
shope-houses to create a new typology - China Mall.

In nature a hybrid is not a single species or breed but a combination. Similarly, hybrid
culture is not a single culture. When one’s attention is not focused on pure culture, one is less
prone to be influenced by so-called cultural purists. From another perspective, tolerance
opens the way to hybrids. The hybrid is a deep cultural mix, not just the juxtaposition of
different cultures, and it focuses on the parallel coexistence of different cultures in an area
along with a different culture's right to exist and develop its identity.
 1489

The impact of capitalism: lack of counteractive to the development of space in

globalization

After the 1980s, with Taipei's commercial center shifting eastward and the emergence of
globalization, development focused on modernization. However, Taipei is an extremely
dense city in which land is difficult to obtain, hampering development. With the moving of
the city’s rail lines underground and the demolition of colonial industrial sites, land
developers and politicians competed for access to newly available open space. The China
Mall was demolished in 1992 after standing for a short span of just 31 years (1961-1992).
Along the railroad many industrial redevelopment projects illustrate the homogeneity of
architectural forms within global capitalism. Building types such as department stores,
shopping malls, and skyscrapers conflict with the traditional local urban landscape and
sometimes result in a grafting together of disparate elements with chaotic results.

Figure 9. The hybrid is a deep cultural mix, not just the juxtaposition of different
cultures, and it focuses on the parallel coexistence of different cultures in an area along
with a different culture's right to exist and develop its identity.

Figure 10. After the 1980s, with Taipei's commercial center shifting eastward and the
emergence of globalization, development focused on modernization.
1490

Local city planning by the advanced standards of American and European countries
pursues equitable distribution of the overall planning in order to erase the gap between the
local and construct the hypothesis of a homogeneous city by no longer ignoring the people's
"sense of place." By creating uniform benchmarks for spatial distribution in urban
construction rather than focusing on integration with local character, excessive emphasis has
been placed on modernity. This has resulted in a confounding disconnection between
residents, society and the urban landscape in the colonial city.

Figure 11. Along the railroad many industrial redevelopment projects illustrate the
homogeneity of architectural forms within global capitalism.

Conclusion: each city must develop its own space on the counteractive of typo-
morphology by critical approaches

During the process of spatial practice, standardize modification would be impossible to

complete, and only highlight the complexity that populations and societies possess in colonial
cities. Looking at large-scale urban adaptations from a spatial point of view, one clearly sees
new urban blocks generally mixed in with old alleys. Space is still diverse mix, but the
standard was implicit in the era of the moment, which is a spatial structure is also a process
of deconstruction.
In this hybrid landscape, include those who homogeneous space generated by
centralization, there are a number of heterogeneous edge of space in the city. They may
accept the change, perhaps to resist change. These are panting for a chance to face major rule
era, but in terms of the city is very important. Rich and interesting city, because the
production of different social identity through every hybrids space, and even the creation of a
different culture. Therefore, the production of space can also be the production of new social
relations, space is social.
How to see the counteractive of hybrids space? Planning scholars Nihal Perera said
‘clarify the relationship between the resistance or institutional behavior and rules of the
system, he pointed out rebel action is not exist independently, but often entangled together
with the formal system, making the space to do the cutting becomes almost impossible. He
stressed: "These vulnerable people in society created by the edge of space and can not
 1491

completely replace the hegemonic narrative space, but the presence of these narratives can be
localized and contextualized.’
As stated by Paul Ricoeur (2007): “I shall call for the time being the creative nucleus of
great civilizations and great cultures, that nucleus on the basis of which we interpret life,
what I shall call in advance the ethical and mythical nucleus of mankind.” This space can be
defined as a "living space” where the inhabitants or users have some degree control over it.
Therefore, emphasis should be placed on the fact that though planners follow a narrow ideal
of scientific and architectural standards, residents have the power to reshape the space and
give it new meaning. However, space is liable to be eroticized and restored to ambiguity.

References

Cohn, B. (1996) Colonialism and Its Form of Knowledge: the British in India. Princeton, N.J.,
Princeton University Press.
Foucault, M. (1970) The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences. New York:
Vintage. (Original work published 1966).
Hsiu-Shen C. (2008) Taiwanese Modernity and Its Culture of “Native Place” Coping with the
Thoughts of Japanese “Overcoming Modernity”, Journal of Humanities Vol. 7., Taiwan, (publisher).
Murdoch, J. (2006) Post-Structuralist Geography: A Guide to Relational Space. London, Sage.
Said, E. (1978) Orientalism. London, Penguin.
Shao-Li L. (2005) EXHIBITING TAIWAN: Power, Space and Image Representation of Japanese
Colonial Rule. Taiwan, Rye Field Publishing.
Shuo-Bin S. (2010) Invisible and Visible Taipei. Taipei. Socio Publishing.
Soja, E. (1996) Thirdspace: Journeys to Los Angeles and Other Real-and-imagined Places. London,
Blackwell.
Paul, R. (2007) Universal Civilization and National Cultures" in Canizaro, V.B. ed. Architectural
Regionalism- Collected Writings on Place, Identity, Modernity, and Tradition. New York, Princeton
Architectural Press.
1492

Morphological analysis of the Informal City. The ‘Villa 31’

in Buenos Aires. Argentina

Anna Amato1, Antonio Corvigno2, Gabriela Bandieri3, Gabriele Catanzano2,

Marco Maretto2, Nicolò Boggio2
1
Department of Architecture and Design. Sapienza Università di Roma,
Via Antonio Gramsci 53, 00197 Rome, Italy. 2Department of Civil Engineering,
Environment, Land and Architecture. Università degli Studi di Parma, Parco Area
delle Scienze, 181/A, 43124 Parma, Italy. 3Facultad de Arquitectura, Diseño y
Urbanismo, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Intendente Güiraldes 2160. Pabellón III
Ciudad Universitaria, C1428EGA Buenos Aires, Argentina.
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract. This research comes from the idea that the tools of urban morphology can be applied on
‘informal’ contemporary city. Informal fabrics are basically spontaneous fabrics, but ‘spontaneous’
are a large part of the pre-modern urban fabrics on which urban morphology developed as a
discipline, let us recall the studies of MRG Conzen on Alnwick and those of S. Muratori on medieval
Venice. It is possible then to find some interesting morphological analogies between the urban
processes of pre-modern historical cities with those of the major slums in many contemporary
metropolises. Starting from this assumption it was taken the case study of the Villa 31 in Buenos Aires.
This fabric is of great interest for the purposes of our work. It is located in a strategic position with
respect to the historical and economic centre of the Argentine capital, between the harbour, the
railway station and the compact fabrics of the consolidated city. It is crossed by a main motorway
overpass, the Autopista Presdente Arturo Illia. It has already a first social and building stratification
that makes it a very useful example to extend to other similar cases. The application of the urban
morphological tools to contemporary slums should, in our opinion, make it possible to critically
understand the transformation processes of these kind of neighbourhoods (often considered chaotic,
illogical and so ‘unreadable’), either from the urban point of view and from the social-economic
aspects, in order to consciously design the regeneration of its fabrics. This is the direction of our
research on Villa 31 and the approach taken on other similar situations on which we are still working.

Key Words: informal city, urban morphology, social and urban transformation, urban design.

Introduction

This research comes from the idea that the tools of urban morphology can be applied on
‘informal’ contemporary city. Informal fabrics are basically spontaneous fabrics, but
‘spontaneous’ are a large part of the pre-modern urban fabrics on which urban morphology
developed as a discipline, let us recall the studies of MRG Conzen on Alnwick and those of
S. Muratori on medieval Venice. It is possible then to find some interesting morphological
analogies between the urban processes of pre-modern historical cities with those of the major
slums in many contemporary metropolises. Starting from this assumption it was taken the
case study of the Villa 31 in Buenos Aires. This fabric is of great interest for the purposes of
our work. It is located in a strategic position with respect to the historical and economic
centre of the Argentine capital, between the harbour, the railway station and the compact
fabrics of the consolidated city. It is crossed by a main motorway overpass, the Autopista
Presdente Arturo Illia. It has already a first social and building stratification that makes it a
very useful example to extend to other similar cases. The application of the urban
morphological tools to contemporary slums should, in our opinion, make it possible to
critically understand the transformation processes of these kind of neighbourhoods (often
 1493

considered chaotic, illogical and so ‘unreadable’), either from the urban point of view and
from the social-economic aspects, in order to consciously design the regeneration of its
fabrics. This is the direction of our research on Villa 31 and the approach taken on other
similar situations on which we are still working.

The typological process

In the informal city, the rules of urban morphology are often based exclusively on economic
issues and behaviors related to lifestyle culture. The occupation of the lots and the absence of
laws makes the urban expression a text devoid of contamination superimposed in which the
researcher is able to analyze the social and cultural needs that cause the urban changes.
However the study of these phenomena is often not a simple exercise: governments tend to
ignore the problem and, in the official documents, these areas simply do not exist and it is
impossible to find any evidence of urban transformation. So the only analysis workable is the
direct one and the urban transformations can be deduced only through the stories of the
inhabitants, limiting the scientific nature of the study. In this respect it was considered very
useful to analyze the dynamics of formation and growth in the ‘formal’ context of the urban
fabric. In this case, it is possible to trace the reasons for the development and transformation
of contexts both by direct analysis of the urban organism, either by the use of documents able
to demonstrate the changes in the analyzed fabric. The dynamics of development of the
‘formal’ city, however, are based on a series of data that depend on the legislation and the
need to control the transformations in addition to the economic and cultural problems. So in
this case, the analytical tool compared to the contexts ‘informal’ contains a number of
variables that require further interpretation in order to free it from the data are not strictly
cultural. This operation is made possible by considering the feature of the building organism
generator of the urban fabric. In fact these features contain within them the logical
development of the analyzed context and allow evaluating the transformations irrespective of
any external variables that come into play from time to time. In the analyzed case, the basis
of the urban structure of Buenos Aires consists of the derivations of the development of the
Casa Colonial de Patios. This courtyard organism is based on a predominantly longitudinal
dimension along which develops a series of patios, which distribute around the various rooms
of the house. The short side is the one that is directly related with the public way and in
which is located the entrance on the longitudinal axis of the building. This structure, whose
size (20 for 100 varas: 1 varas = 86.6 cm) is practically constant, becomes the generating
element of the whole urban fabric: the urban block is formed by aggregation of basic
architectural organisms that give rise to the cuadrícula mesh, typical of the colonial Latin
American cities. The transformation process of this type is developed from the demographic
growth of the early nineteenth century. The typological transformations, aimed to respond to
the increase in housing demand, define units with an area ever smaller, without big changes
to the buildings structure and the urban fabric to allow accommodating a greater number of
inhabitants. The first important transformation of the type is developed in the second half of
the nineteenth century, with a body that measure 10 varas and which is called Casa de Medio
Patio o Casa Chorizo (1870-1915). Its plan is the result of a virtual division along the
longitudinal axis of the Casa de Patios and its dimensions arrive to a limit which represents
the minimum acceptable for the health and livability: 4m to the covered part of the unit and 4
meters for the patio and the area of distribution. In most cases the Casa de Medio Patio
occupies the whole lot and it going to be a type formed by a sequence of patios, which
distribute two or three rooms, up to a number of five consecutive, depending on the size of
the lot. This type will remain stable for more than 40 years and become the basis of a large
variety of multi-family types. The great housing demand within the city, further compresses
the housing units and the new small lots are transformed to accommodate a greater number of
inhabitants. This operation is defined by F.E. Diez densification for ‘reduction-
multiplication’ and will become the basis for the establishment of multi-family homes. This
1494

process will lead to the formation of Viviendas en Hileras (1890-1940), consists of a

sequence of small houses along the longitudinal dimension of the lot. In this case, each patio
corresponds to a housing unit that conceptually contains in itself the compositional features
of a Casa de Medio Patio: an access from the path that comes to a courtyard that distributes
the various rooms of the house; the served area has a transverse dimension of 4 meters as
well as the height, instead the serving area has the first floor of 2 metres in order to obtain
another service environment of the same height upstairs which is accessed through a metal
stair that starts from the patio. The access to each dwelling is made by a passage on one side
and is separated from the patio of each unit through a low wall which allows a greater
lighting for the small size of the open-air space that lost surface because of the connection
path. Parallel to the densification for ‘reduction-multiplication’ begins the process of vertical
development, the process by which the one-story buildings are starting to gain the upper
floors. This growth begins with the overlap of the ground floor plan on the first floor while
maintaining virtually unchanged distribution. The superposition of several floors leads to the
establishment of multi-family organisms as the Casa Chorizo de Altos (1880-1925) and then
Casa Chorizo Superpuestas (1885-1940). During the same period it developed a type defined
as Conventillo Chorizo that, with the same structure, is a type in which each family occupies
a single room, sharing the serving areas. The morphological difference with its mono-family
referent is given by the presence of stairs located in each patio which distribute the upper
floors that work thanks to a gallery configuration. The Casa Chorizo Superpuesta contains
the main features of both types: the repetition of the ground floor distribution to the various
levels and the presence of stairs in each patio. In this type are accommodated a family in each
floor and for each patio and this morphology causes problems of introspection on the ground
floor and the upper floors only keeps a visual relationship with the courtyard. From this
moment on, the courtyard loses its meaning of center of the house to becomes a space with a
just distribution role.
A parallel process concerns the development of Vivenda en Hileras. During the first forty
years of the twentieth century this architectural organism use an horizontal extension of two
lots (Vivienda en Hileras doble): the ground floor is mirrored in the next lot to generate a
building structure that defines a number of housing units ‘in line’ with access from the path
generated by the recast of the two already existing entries. The combination of the two-
mirrored plans allows the formation of a secondary path perpendicular to the public street,
which replaces the narrow passage of the Vivienda en Hileras and configure a semi-public
path. The new path has greater exposure to the sun, as well as patios that in this new
configuration, not confine more with the built but with the next patio, separated by a low
wall. Soon you will begin to open windows facing the new path which links the units and this
fact will lead to change the position of the housing units in order to respect the value of new
passage which is comparable to a pedestrian public path. The largest change, with respect to
the new structure, refers to the location of the patio that regains its typical placement on the
bottom of units. This defines the type called Pasaje whose structure determines units with a
distribution more suited to the needs of contemporary society and consists in the
rapprochement of the kitchen to the dining room and bathroom to the bedrooms. Further
developments are related to the progressive loss of significance of the open-air space that on
one side will generate compact architectural organisms, able to use on several levels a
significant area of the lot and on the other will develop multi-story buildings (Diez, 1996).
This process refers to developments in the ‘formal’ city of Buenos Aires and defines a
structure whose expression derives from dynamics influenced by economic, social, regulatory
and formal problems. Therefore, before setting up a comparison between developments of the
‘formal’ and the ‘informal’ environments in the analyzed area, it is very important to
underline a very important aspect: beyond the procurement of construction materials more or
less appropriate, the most important differences between the results of the processes are
related to economic issues linked to conditions of occupation of the lot, strongly influenced
by the need to optimize the space, even at the expense of a clear division of property, a
distinction between public and private or the health housing and the fabric. The starting
 1495

hypothesis was born from the analysis of the two distinct urban expressions and identifies
the type of the Casa de Medio Patio, such as the common denominator of the two fabric; this
architectural organism, which is strongly linked to the ways of life of local culture and
identity, is systematically used within informal contexts to create mono-typological fabrics or
nearly so. The developments of this type, in the two distinct environments, contain some
differences but the logic of the growth results, in both cases, are linked with the basic features
of the organism.
Starting from the beginning, the first phase of development of the architectural organism
and its urban fabric, is realized in the subdivision of the area with the formation of lot of
about 200 square meters for each family. Lots occupied measure about 10 x 20 m, size
corresponding to the minimum area of a Casa de Medio Patio. The main problem is the
safety of the propriety and the demonstration of the possession of his lot. A property title
cannot be obtained in any legal form or in a short time and the previous show that, once
installed on a plot of not important commercial value, rarely there are possibilities of
displacement, therefore the safest form of defending the property is to build a strong structure
with good foundation. For this reason, the occupants are forced to build on their lots as
quickly as possible. The first building is the fence which defines the area of the property. At
the same time it forms the first housing unit built with precarious materials because the
urgency of defining the occupation. As the Casa de Medio Patio, even the makeshift shelters,
that form the first expression of informal fabric of the Villa 31, refer to the features of a
courtyard organism. The closed fence is the main structure and the covered living space is
located on the perimeter, so as to create a distribution open-air space that links each room.
Compared to the courtyard type, the main difference you notice analyzing the urban organism
of the Villa 31 corresponds to the tendency to open the enclosure with direct openings on the
public path. In the urban fabric analyzed, the commerce space is closely related to the house,
often to solved safety problems. In this sense los kioscos (shops) are part of the homes and
have direct access to them. In these cases, the sale space is external and the contacts between
customer and seller are held on the threshold of an opening which, in most cases, corresponds
to a window or even a door. Therefore the openings on the street are often made in
anticipation of a commercial use, because the exchange of goods is one of the main means of
subsistence in these contexts. Another very important aspect to take into consideration for the
analysis is the concept of courtyard and his use.
We have seen how the Latin-American process, is not only a very short process, from a
duration point of view, but also immediately defines a multi-family organism that, if at first
tries to keep protected the privacy of the courtyards, then surrenders to the demographics
pressure of the surrounding urban fabric, by sacrificing the private use of the open-air space.
Actually this part of the house does not lose importance, because becomes the distributor
space of more housing units that form a new community that replaces the concept of family,
both from a social point of view and from the point of view of architectural and urban
organism. In effect, it can be said that until that time the courtyard type had been the matrix
of the urban fabrics of the American Spanish colonies but once scaled the demographic
problem, the basic type specialized by acquiring a feature that caused the reorganization of
both the society and the basic structure of the urban organism, whose last element, continues
to maintain the structure of the basic type but enriched with a data son of a social dynamics,
which represents the transition from a society based on the family to one whose constituent
element is represented by communities that share the same problems and the same means to
address them.
The next phase of development of the ‘informal’ dwelling in Villa 31, corresponds to the
consolidation of existing buildings and the overlapping to the precarious house (which will
be demolished then) with a frame of reinforced concrete that will form the basis for the next
superelevation organism. At this point the possession of the lot is a certain fact and the
architectural organism can develop and contribute to the economic growth of the family that
is occupying it.
1496

The first two elementary cells built are positioned almost always on the roadside and
placed on one side of the fence. In this way it is possible to enable a passage that from an
access both to the courtyard space and to the covered rooms of the house. The housing unit,
at least in a first phase, not expects, for safety reasons, the direct opening on the public path.
The second phase sees the doubling of the previous structure so as to define a more
private space directly facing the courtyard, and the other part of the housing unit open on the
roadside. This area of the house will be allocated to trade or laboratories and workspaces.
The third phase corresponds to the moment in which the housing unit becomes a multi-
family building through the building of a unit on the bottom of the fence, with the purpose of
obtaining a house to lease or to give to sons who form new families. In the more populated
areas, the internal division of the lots may continue until the establishment of units result of
further internal split of the lot that uses a single elementary cell on the front and defines
organisms similar to row house structure. In these cases the housing requirements exceed the
problems related to the housing health forming organisms in part or totally devoid of external
openings. The transition, from single-family lots to housing units able to accommodate more
families, is possible thanks to the main feature of the organism: the courtyard type lives
thanks to the open-air space around which are distributed the various environments of the
dwelling. When the architectural organism is transformed into a multi-family unit the
environments that previously belonged to a single unit, are connect so as to constitute areas
of life for several families that share the distribution space of the previous mono-family
house. As in Pasajes of Buenos Aires, also in the informal fabric these paths form semi-
public or public spaces that distribute the units in the bottom of the lot. In cases of strong
housing demand the described process generates such a pressures able to constitute
connections between the public path and the inner housing units through private spaces, often
open-air, making very important problems of privacy. In analogy with what happens in the
‘formal’ fabric process, the development of basic architectural organism, on one hand
provides multi-family houses and on the other a vertical growth especially in the most
populated areas. New stages of development, often contemporaneous with the described
process, depend, as always, by the growth of the surrounding fabric and the increased
housing demand. In this case, the unit will develop upper levels, starting from the elementary
cells on the road, with a direct distribution from the street which avoids the use of the
courtyard for the distribution of housing units on the upper levels. The vertical development
also continues inside the patio, but only in cases of high-density urban fabrics and in this case
the stair will be placed inside of the courtyard space.
Today walking the streets of Villa 31, but probably in the area of Guemes ten years ago,
the constant element, main feature of the architectural organisms, matrix of the analyzed
fabric, is the presence of winding staircases, or in some cases rung stairs, along the street in
correspondence to each housing unit. These stairs represent one of the signs of the
transformation in multi-family houses. Once you have defined the structure on the ground
floor, it doubles the height of the reinforced concrete frame (ready for the raising of the
structure) and builds more housing units on the upper floors which are generally used as
houses to rent. Today the Villa 31 is one of the more established informal fabrics of the
whole Argentine Republic, with buildings that come to have up to 5 levels (Amato, 2014).

From morphology to urban regeneration

Regeneration, renewal, revitalization, are just some of the concepts used to define an
extremely complex topic as that of the transformation of strongly degraded contexts, in terms
of physical, economic, social and cultural development, into proper urban neighbourhoods.
The interdependence of socio-economic factors with those more specifically architectural-
constructive is indeed one of the crucial aspects of spontaneous settlements and, above all,
one of the basic elements to the understanding and transforming of and contemporary
informal city. Do not understand this aspect means to put our self at a ‘different’ level, far
 1497

from the reality that we want to regenerate. On the contrary, especially within spontaneous
organisms the understanding of the socio-building logics that led to the formation of these
tissues is crucial to achieving the same success of the project: the urban fabric is first and
foremost expression of many other social, economic, cultural, ‘tissues’!
The Villa 31, like so many similar realities, lacks of a network of sub-services: no running
water, no electricity, no adequate sewers, it lacks of the minimum health standards. There is
no road paving, actually it often lacks a clear distinction between vehicular and pedestrian
spaces, as well as a clear distinction between public and private is not always evident. In
short, it lacks all the elements that characterize a contemporary urban neighbourhood. Think
of those elements according to a functionalist and technicist approach only makes us fall into
the error previously mentioned, that of ‘take the distances’ from the reality that we want to
enhance paving the way towards a likely failure. On the contrary, all these elements must fit
within a ‘socio-morphological’ framework traced starting from the understanding of the
strategies that have led, up to that moment, the formation of these tissues. In this way, each
new element is able to ‘tune’ itself with the community living in that given context and
which, in turn, is able to ‘make it their own’, being responsible for its functioning. It's always
the community of inhabitants to have in its hands the fate of its district, especially in
contemporary informal and semi-urban slums. Do not involve it, do not understand its
settlement logic means to fail in our intent. These fabrics possess, in fact, a strong social
density and an incredible building dynamism, both aspects of great importance when
designing an urban ‘regeneration’. These are the dynamic, vital, elements on which to build
the new district. These are the ‘forces’ to use to actually regenerate an urban setting. Forces
that, if misunderstood, will lead to the probable failure of any urban initiative but, if well
understood, they may also constitute its foundation.

Paths, polarities, fabrics

Our first task was therefore to understand the socio-morphological structure of the Villa 31 in
order to design its conscious regeneration. Paths are the tool that, perhaps more than others,
allows us to understand and read the processes of anthropization of a given territory
according to their ‘structural aspects’. The more an environment is anthropized, the more the
logics driving the formation of routes are accurate and precise. The less it is anthropized, the
less its routes have a ‘form’ scientifically readable remaining in the boundaries of the
subsistence routes and of immediate functionality. Paths that belong to the same logics of
settling and therefore constitute a good basic structure on which to consciously read (and
design) urban transformations. In Villa 31 is possible to identify three interrelated systems of
routes. The first, most important, that we have called matrix path as the main route
structuring the whole neighbourhood. It has a longitudinal trend, parallel to the railway
tracks, which arises from the Buenos Aires Bus Station and, a little farther, from the Retiro
Train Station. It is the only path characterized by the noticeable presence of commercial
activities that characterize it as the backbone of the entire neighbourhood. Substantially
orthogonal to the latter there is a secondary matrix path connecting the first one with the
eastern tissue. This too presents small commercial equipment along its margins. The two
main routes, structuring the new settlement are therefore the two major connection arteries
with the existing context. This is not accidental because as we said, we are in a settlement
phase where the ‘streets’ are paths of immediate functionality. It is along these two axes that
the heights of buildings are over two floors above ground and it is along these axes that we
find the greatest concentration of non-residential uses. A second system of paths, which we
call building paths arise mainly from the Bus Station square and from the main matrix path.
These are the routes along which the neighbourhood builds its urban structures. They are
characterized by the dominant presence of the residence with commercial activity
concentrated at the points of connection among the building paths and between them and the
matrix paths. A third and final routes system concerns that broad network of lanes (pasajes)
generated directly from the consumption of the courtyards of the first plant, when the patios
1498

turned itself from a private family area to a collective semi-public ambit. They are paths
deeply rooted in all courtyard fabrics when the increase of demographic pressure and the
finite amount of building space leads to a need to increase the population density through the
occupation, the clogging, the superfetation of all the available space. For this reason, this
third routes system is of fundamental importance in the understanding of the ‘socio-urban’
tissues of the Villa 31 constituting the lifeblood of the entire building structure. It is in them
that the daily life of the district take place, it is to them that the functioning itself and the
identity of the informal settlement defer. At these paths corresponds a dimension purely
residential except for some craft activities that can take place in what remains of the original
courtyards and that are spread patchily across the fabric without a real urban logic.
“A city is a system in which all life, including the everyday life show a tendency to be
polarized, that is to take place in terms of social aggregate, public or private. More
polarization is exercised and closer is the exchange ratio between the public and the private
and more ‘urban’ is the life of an aggregate from the point of view of sociology”. (Bahrdt,
1966). It is not a coincidence that the vast urban historical iconography presents the city as an
object enclosed by walls and exalted within towers and domes, sharply contrasted to an
‘external’ rural undeveloped, although often carefully organized. The view generally tended
to identify the essence of the place fixing its special features in a high-quality ‘characteristic
image’. Those towers, those walls, those steeples, those domes, minarets and so on are what
comes of urban polarities. They are responsible for coordinating the urban fabric; they are
responsible for identifying the different urban communities by giving all citizens a sense of
belonging to a single civil individuality. Polarities can thus be ‘centralizing’ or ‘delimiting’
an urban organism. In particular, civil and social most representative buildings were located,
in the heart of the city or its neighbourhoods (the cathedral, the parishes, the Bishop's Palace,
the Broletto, the market, the stock market etc.), while buildings with a specialized function
(the city walls, the lazarettos, monasteries, military barracks, etc.) because of their higher
dimensional space and because of their sectorial role within the civil fabric, tended to sit on
the side-lines of the city, to occupy those urban fringe belts defining both the urban boundary
and its points of exchange with the territory. There are two key elements that emerge
studying the concept of urban polarity. The first is the dynamic relationship that is
established between the polarities. The second is the relationship that develops between the
polarity and the urban fabric. It is a relationship of reciprocity: tissue indicates the various
possibilities of polarization available within itself, but it is the physical construction of the
latters to allow that potential to materialize and the fabric to be realized. Like many other
spontaneous contemporary reality, however, even in the Villa 31 we look at the total absence
of urban polarities, of special buildings carrying out some recognizable public function
within the tissue. Beyond the two major polarities formed from the Bus Station and Railway
Station from which, we said, originates the same Villa 31, the district is, in fact, in a pre-
urban settling condition in which the maximum level of specialization is given by
commercial ground floors along the matrix route and the major connection points between
the different road systems. This does not mean that they lack places with a strong polar
vocation. On the contrary, the still directly utilitarian characterization of paths makes that
along the latters those conditions of nodality and anti-notality cited in the construction of a
building fabric, are conducted freely and spontaneously. Conditions that lead to the
identification of areas of higher (or lower) polar vocation in which it is possible, at a later
time, to realise those public buildings around which to consolidate and identify the urban
organism. Specifically, in the Villa 31 we can see how all the significant spatial dilatations of
the tissue occurs along the main matrix path to connote an embryonic system of public spaces
of unequivocal evidence. A system of ‘squares’, one might say, placed to enhance the role of
the main matrix path as a great ‘linear polarity’ as a common threads that is a system of urban
polarities able to structure and prioritize dynamically over time the whole neighbourhood. No
coincidence that the only exceptions to the rule are characterized by whitespaces at eminently
anti-nodal position with respect to the fabric of the Villa but directly related to the urban
context according to a settling ratio typical of the ‘peripheral polarities’ whose specialist
 1499

function play a role in defining the building organism but, then, determining its exchange
points with the territory.
The city is an organism made up of fabrics. Social, economic, cultural, environmental,
fabrics leading the correct functioning of an urban structure. The more they are
interconnected, the more that organism will be dynamic, versatile and able to answer to
citizen needs and aspirations. To understand their ‘form’ means to understand their relational
logics. The way in which these tissues interact with each other, in fact, expresses the way in
which citizens live the city, expresses the way in which citizens transform the city through
their daily actions. Understanding these logics, or rather, to understand the logical basis of
these relationships and above all to understand their role in the definition of the urban fabric
can be of considerable interest when studying the informal city. The reasons that support the
formative process of its building structures, its tissues, are to be found within the dialectic
‘nodality/anti-nodality’ where the condition of nodality does not coincide necessarily with
that of the centre and the anti-nodality does not necessarily correspond to that of the suburbs
in the strict sense. It 'a matter of basic behavioural priorities and then of the hierarchies that
are derived from these priorities. To these conditions of nodality correspond a greater
specialization of the urban fabric that will go reducing as the distance from the nodality will
increase until it will reaches the opposite condition of ‘anti-nodality’. To the latter will
correspond the absence of any specialization and the progressive fall of urbanity. The first is
‘centre’ and the second is ‘periphery’, the first is ‘axis’, the second is ‘border’ and so on.
Through this dialectic urban fabrics will develop an integrated system of hierarchies, the
more complex the more it will be the society of which they are an expression. In the case of
the Villa 31, as explained before, urban fabric is characterised by the Casa de Medio Patio
building type and its variations. Changes that follow the parallel system of hierarchies put in
place by the urban fabric according to a dialectic of nodality and anti-nodality. So it is along
the main matrix path that we find the greatest non-residential specializations of the ground
floor. It is along this route and on the ‘squares’ that buildings implement, first, that process of
multi-family transformation and that development in height of the type resulting from the
rapid increase of population. A process of clogging and superfetation that, by now, involves
most of the central areas of the villa but that gradually moving away from the ‘centre’ loses
in specialization, characterising itself as a predominantly residential area, loses in number of
stories, leaving the traces of original fences re-emergence with greater force, loses urbanity,
blurring the transition between public and private, between built-up areas and open spaces.
Putting together all these elements it has been possible then to come to the definition of a first
draft ‘structural (morphological) map’ of the Villa 31. On this map we finally started to found
our regeneration project of the villa.

The regeneration project

The most urgent problems of the Villa 31 regard the basic services of the everyday life
(water, electricity, gas etc.), the drastic health conditions (no adequate sewers, no wc etc.)
and the retrofitting of the buildings from both the structural and environmental point of view.
For this purpose the rudimentary morphological map drawn in the analytical phase of the
work has proved of great methodological utility. The vast array of open spaces, previously
analysed and broken down into their urban potential, were thought as vocational areas for the
distribution of all the sub-services networks. Spaces for which has been laid down the paving
and the hierarchization according to their more or less nodal position within the urban fabric.
So in the squares of the central spine was planned to build all those public buildings
necessary for the everyday life of the neighbourhood. So in the two polar areas around the
perimeter of the settlement, to the Port and to the Bus Station, two specialised public building
were predicted to better connect the district to the urban context. So, finally, the green has
been hierarchized following the same nodality/anti-nodality system according to a
progressive decreasing of urbanity until to become a public garden or a sports equipment
1500

(football field) in the most peripheral locations of the tissue. For the urban fabric have been
planned the optimization of its spaces through the densification and the structural and
environmental regeneration of its structures. Regeneration that must be done, however,
according to the processual logics of the the Casa de Medio Patio, with the advice of
engineers and building companies identified initially by the Municipality and through the
activation of mechanisms of public-private financing. Apart from the services of first
necessity, the fabric of Villa 31, in fact, must continue to grow and change autonomously
according to the processes already started and clearly legible and where public intervention
must be limited to a work of normalization. It’s always the community of the Villa primarily
responsible for the transformation of its district and its civitas.
The neighbourhood, however, is in constant and rapid expansion. For this reason it has
been identified an area already partially occupied, towards the harbour, as the scope of a
future expansion of the settlement. Expansion that, too, must take place according to the
settlement logics already analyzed: starting from the hierarchical system of routes and public
spaces. In particular, the second (building) and the third system of paths (local) are entrusted
with the construction of the new fabric on which two new transversal paths (taking the role of
secondary matrix paths) are interposed to connect the Villa 31 with the new context.
Similarly, two new public spaces are planned in as many key positions to characterize the
new building fabric. In this case needed more than ever because of the strong break of the
district carried by the Autopista Presdente Arturo Illia of which we suggests undergrounding
in order to permit the full conversion of the Villa 31 into a proper urban neighbourhood. The
new fabric is then set according to the typical lots of the Casa de Medio Patio leaving the
implementation of the process (building-superelevation-clogging) to private initiative with
the advice and control of the municipality and through systems easy-access to credit.

Conclusion

La Villa 31 in Buenos Aires has been a good test to start a research project designed to assess
the usefulness of the urban morphological tools in the regeneration processes of the
contemporary informal city. Its location in a strategic position with respect to the historical
and economic centre of the Argentine capital, between the harbour, the railway station and
the compact fabrics of the consolidated city, its basic social and building stratification made
the Villa 31 a very useful example in this direction. In particular, it gave us the opportunity to
identify some key concepts, exportable to other case studies, around which to start building a
morphological methodology for Urban Design.

References

Amato, A.R.D. (2014), Architettura di recinti e città contemporanea, vitalità del processo formativo
dell’abitazione a corte (PhD Thesis, Dipartimento di architettura e progetto DiAP, DRACO, La
Sapienza Università di Roma, unpublished).
Bahrdt, H., P. (1966) Lineamenti di sociologia della società, Marsilio Editori, Venezia 1966
Caniggia, G, Maffei G.L. (1979) Composizione architettonica e tipologia edilizia. Lettura dell’edilizia
di base, Marsilio, Venezia.
Conzen, M.R.G. (1960) Alnwyck, Northumberland: A Study in Town-Plan Analysis, Institute of British
Geographers, London.
Diez F.E. (1996) Buenos Aires y algunas constantes en la transformaciones urbanas, Univeridad de
Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires.
Fernandez Castro J. (2010) Barrio 31 Carlos Mugica, posibilidades y límites del proyecto urbanoen
contextos de pobreza, Instituto de espacialidad humana, Facultad de arquitectura, diseno j urbanismo,
Universidad de Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires.
Habraken N.J. (1998) The structure of ordinary: form and control in the building environment, MIT
Press, Cambridge and London.
 1501

Lewis, D. (1972) El crecimiento de las ciudades, Gustavo Gili, Barcelona.

Maretto, M. (1998) Il paesaggio delle differenze, Edizioni ETS, Pisa.
Maretto, P. (1960) L’edilizia gotica veneziana, Istituto Poligrafico dello Stato, Rome.
Muratori, S. (1960) Studi per un’operante storia urbana di Venezia, Istituto Poligrafico dello Stato,
Rome.
Strappa, G. (1995) Unità dell’organismo architettonico, note sulla formazione e trasformazione dei
caratteri degli edifici, Edoizioni Dedalo, Bari.
1502

Urbanization in the Ave Valley region: more than a sum of

building projects?

Daniel Casas Valle, Nuno Travasso

Centre for Architectural and Urban Studies (CEAU), at the Faculty of Architecture at
the University of Porto (FAUP). E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract. In the diffuse urbanized pattern of the Ave Valley region (NW Portugal), a dominant urban
morphology is absent. The fragmented and discontinuous urban form is a result of a layered urban
landscape with a big variety of urban patterns. In contrast to compact urban settlements, this region
has a very dispersed urban image. Not only have the physical and social conditions determined a
relative small development grain, but also the planning system. In VN Famalicão – despite the
availability of urban or project planning instruments (PU, PP) which have been the exception – the
urbanization process has been highly determined by the sum of small loteamentos (since 1994, when
the overall spatial municipality plan – PDM – was approved: one PU and one PP – global and
detailed urban plan types - and 510 loteamentos). These are private urban developments regulated by
a simple procedural regime almost without a specific urban regulation. The autonomous character of
this urbanization mechanism has led to an uncontrolled or unplanned urban pattern for the whole,
without a leading role from public administration. Central question is what is the result of the total of
all individual building projects, which patterns and structure can be mapped? What is the spatial
contribution to the public space structure (streets and roads) and public facilities (schools, sport, etc.),
which design rules or urban regulation are applied? What kind of instruments are used to guide
building projects, within the framework of the loteamentos? And what kind of instruments are included
into the licence process of building projects for future use and maintenance?

Key Words: loteamentos, private urban development, planning system, urban pattern, street

Introduction

“Facing the evident mismatch, it was needed to put aside the idea – typical of planning
technicians – that the world is wrong when compared to abstract models which are right;
instead of thinking that the problem may be that our theoretical and technical tools are not
adapted to reality.” (Portas, [1986] 2006)
In the diffuse urbanized pattern of the Ave Valley region (Norwest of Portugal), a clear
dominant urban morphology is absent. The fragmented and discontinuous urban form is a
result of a layered urban landscape with a big variety of urban patterns. In contrast to
compact urban settlements, this region has a very dispersed urban image. Such image is
determined not only by specific physical and social conditions but also by the planning
instruments and established daily practices that shape common urbanisation processes.
Although the diffuse urban landscape and the fragmented urbanisation process are since
long recognized and studied (Secchi, 1984; Portas, [1986] 2006; Sá, 1986; Indovina, [1990]
2004; Neutlings, 1990), certainty is that there are still missing the means, models and
instruments capable of guiding action in these territories, based on their own logics, in order
to improve their legibility and intelligibility (Sieverts, [1997] 2003). Furthermore, Cavaco
(2009) emphasises the existing of a mismatch between the planning system and the
urbanisation processes.
In a context of vast and diffusely urbanised areas, where urban transformation is made by
the sum of small autonomous private interventions the main question is: how to articulate
such individual operations in order to create a coherent and intelligible larger urban
structure?
The answer seems to point towards a planning essentially based on management (Bourdin,
[2010] 2011), resting on a more continuous, procedural and reflexive practice (Ascher,
 1503

[2001] 2010), able to involve all willing actors (Jessop, 1998; Forester, 2008). Such practices
will necessarily be the result of a bottom-up process, based on learning experience of local
agents (Sanderson, 2009) and on a profound knowledge of the existing reality.

Figure 1. Urbanization in the Ave Valley region: more than a sum of projects?

More recent studies – namely in the field of urban morphology – seek such knowledge, by
identifying and analysing the main elements that compose the complex structures of diffuse
urbanisation (Boeri, Lanzani and Marini, 1993; Viganó 1999; De Rossi, 2009), and by
understanding how they relate to each other in multiscale networks (Oswald and Baccini,
2003), and what are the logics and processes that shape each one of those elements (Mangin,
2004).
Following such path, this paper looks at the loteamentos of Ave Valley Region. These are
private urban developments regulated by a simple procedural regime, and one of the main
elements of this region’s urbanisation.
Taking the municipality of V.N. Famalicão as a case study, loteamentos are analysed both
as a process and as an urban morphology in order to better understand their role in the
definition of this urban structure. Central questions are: What is the result of the total of
single individual building projects to the overall spatial structure? What are the planning
instruments, procedures and actors behind this process?

Urbanization in V.N.Famalicão

Adding fragments

During the last five decades, the Ave Valley Region has undergone an enormous urban
growth, mainly shaped by the sum of small autonomous fragments, namely private urban
development projects. Although this process followed an existing diffuse urban pattern224, it
shows a trend break on the urbanization process, which is expressed by the transformation

224
The extensive diffuse urban settlement of this region has ancient origins. It has been referenced in
1762 by Castro, who described this whole region as a continuous city (I, 48).
1504

speed, the type of operations, the building typologies and the planning procedures. The
creation of loteamentos in 1965 is a key factor in this shift.
In the period 1970-2011, the population of V.N. Famalicão increased 49,2% and the total
housing units rose 178,7% (Figure 2). This growth was caused by several reasons such as:
internal migrations induced by new industrial jobs, improvements of living conditions and
mutations on household types. Simultaneously, between 1976 and 2003, private house
ownership was stimulated by a public program of subsidized credits and a series of fiscal
benefits.

Figure 2. Evolution of the urbanisation in V. N. Famalicão.

The existing planning instruments and institutions were unprepared for such a sudden
growth. In V.N. Famalicão, the existing plans were limited to the central town area and
essentially linked to the design of specific public spaces and facilities.
The first comprehensive plan covering the entire municipality’s territory – the PDM,
Plano Director Municipal – was published in 1994, and it is still valid today225. This long or
mid-term spatial plan established zoning (land use), generic rules (procedures, taxes, land
use, typologies), new mobility lines and some special projects (as the town park). The plan

225
Presently, the PDM revision is in process. According to the national law, this should be updated
every ten years.
 1505

enables large building possibilities in a vast area 226 , which was a common practice in
Portugal. The logic was to provide excess of building area, to ensure low land values and, in
this way, controlling housing prices, considering that housing production was completely
dependent of the private market 227 . The plan does not go further in the creation of
mechanisms to steer the urbanisation process, such as the definition of a yearly housing
quote, target groups and their necessary housing demands, or a public housing policy.
Furthermore, it does not include an implementation or execution programme
More detailed urban plans – such as PU, Plano de Urbanização and PP, Plano de
Pormenor –, which, according to the Portuguese planning system, were expected to detail
and shape the generic rules of the PDM (art. 87th, art. 90th, RJIGT), have shown to be the
exception (Portas, Sá and Cardoso, 1998).
It is important to underline that, due to limited financial and technical resources, the
municipality has no leading role in the urbanisation production, at least as a developing
agent. Even more, it has no instruments to directly control land value (Correia, [1993] 2002).
In practice, this means that the municipality has a restricted capacity to impose specific land
uses or urban design228. Therefore, its key role becomes essentially to regulate and control
individual private urban interventions.
In fact, the urban structure of this region is not the product of any overall design, but the
consequence of a process of successive addition of autonomous private urban development
projects. Even though these operations have been created through different procedures, the
standard legal instrument is the loteamento. In V.N. Famalicão it is possible to recognize the
major impact of this mechanism in the urbanization process (Figure 2 and 3). There, we can
count a total of 1090 approved loteamentos229. Since the PDM was published, in 1994, while
only one PP and one PU have been approved, a total of 488 permits for loteamentos have
been issued. These correspond to more than half of all housing units licensed during the same
period.230

Figure 3. All loteamentos of V. N. Famalicão.

226
This included the already urbanised territories in 1994, plus an important share of contiguous areas
for future urbanization.
227
Controlling housing prices was one of the main purposes of planning laws and practices of this
period, due to the fast urban growth and housing shortage, especially considering the almost absence
of public housing.
228
This was particularly truth in a context where urban growth was an objective to cherish. Not only
because it was understood as a device and a sign of local development, but also because it was an
important source of income for the municipality.
229
Although the large majority of these loteamentos are held by private developers, they include 17
initiated by the municipality, 15 of which for public housing.
230
Between 1995 and 2011 there have been licensed 16813 dwellings in new buildings (data: Instituto
Nacional de Estatística). The loteamentos licensed during the same period comprehended 8662
dwellings (data: Municipality of V.N. Famalicão), which corresponds to 51,5% of the total licensed
dwellings.
1506

In this region, loteamentos are based on a small grain and historical irregular parcel
structure. The overall image loteamentos have in common, is their significant autonomy or
independence of developing logic (Figure 4), which is directly related to ownership and small
grain of this urban territory (89,3% of the loteamentos are smaller than 2,0 ha). In general,
the possibility to urbanise a certain area is always approached from the logic of one-entity-
one-area. Though, in certain situations, the ability to develop larger areas through the
collaboration of different landowners would probably increase spatial quality and economic
value, this is not an established practise. By enabling building in such a vast area, the
planning strategy made it impossible to create enough urban pressure to lead to bigger
interventions. More than spatial reasons, the urbanisation is led by other factors such as
economy, employment, demographics, public policies (taxes, subsidies), and the trends and
dynamics of housing market.

Figure 4. Planning logics of loteamentos.

Planning instrument

Loteamento: The creation of the legal instrument

In legal terms, loteamento is an urban operation that implies the division of the land in plots
to be subsequently built (art. 2nd i), RJUE). It was created in 1965 (Decreto-Lei nr 46673) as
a reaction to the proliferation of private urban development projects held outside any
planning instrument or legal framework, which was a reaction to the fast growth of that
period. By then, existing regulations were only applied to the few areas covered by urban
plans; as the possibility of relevant urban developing outside central town areas was
generally not considered, although common practise. In order to control these kind of private
developments, the government created the loteamento, as a new legal instrument. For the first
time, it was recognized to private agents the ability to urbanize the territory, and, in this
sense, private developers were considered as substitutes of public entities, in their duty of
urban developing.
Since 1965, the legal framework of loteamento has changed several times, pointing
towards the creation of a simple and fast procedure. Such changes followed three main axis:
 1507

(i) Simplifying the procedure – Initially, obtaining approval for new loteamentos outside
planned areas was difficult, time-consuming and uncertain, as it was decided directly by the
central government. Hence, the tendency for developers to use other legal or illegal
mechanisms in order to obtain the same effect. Seeking to oppose such practices, the
government tried to ease and clarify the approval procedure. Nevertheless, the main change
came with the implementation of PDMs, with which approvals of loteamentos became
dependent only from municipalities. (ii) Limitation of alternative mechanisms – In order to
escape the requirements of loteamentos’ procedures, developers found other legal
instruments that enabled land division, which became common alternatives. Several changes
were made to the legal framework in order to abolish or limit those alternative mechanisms.
(iii) Collective space – In order to guarantee a minimum quality of collective space and
prevent the common practice of selling parcels before the completion of the needed
infrastructures and public spaces, seldom left undone, new regulations have been created,
defining minimum areas and conditions for such spaces and determining that parcels can only
be sold after the completion of all collective spaces and infrastructures.

The legal procedure

Loteamentos made it possible that the urbanisation process is mainly based on individual
operations, held directly and autonomously by private developers. Prerequisite for this is that
they follow the general legal framework, and that their parcels are comprised within urban or
to-be-urbanised areas according to the municipal plan.
The loteamento is a simple administrative procedure that can be initiated by any
landowner by presenting to the municipality an urban scheme proposal for the intervention
(street layout, public green space, parking, plot divisions, building footprints and typologies,
functions and number of dwellings, etc.). In this process, the municipality has mainly a
controlling role. It verifies the compliance of the presented proposal with the legal national
framework and with the municipal plans and regulations. If the intervention is smaller than 4
ha, has less than 75 housing units231 and is previewed to increase the population of its parish
by less than 10%, no public consultation is needed.
After approval, the developer has to present detailed design proposals for all collective
spaces and urban networks (water supply, sewerage, electricity, ICTs, roads, etc.). These are
examined by the municipality, which consults all the responsible external entities. When
these are approved and all due taxes are paid, the permit is emitted and the developer can
start the construction of public space, including all the urban networks. Only after their
completion and transfer to public domain is the developer able to sell the created plots or
built units. The principle is that the municipality will be responsible of the maintenance of the
public space.
Besides the needed streets and infrastructures, developers are required to create public
green areas (Figure 4) and areas destined for public facilities. The needed dimension for this
depends on the number of housing units or building area, according a general national
regulation (Portaria nr 216-B/2008). However, such spaces are not always created. According
to the municipality regulations, developers may compensate the public domain by creating
similar spaces in other areas or by paying an equivalent financial contribution. This
contribution should enter a public fund destined to invest in new public spaces and facilities,
which in practice, is not a common practice.

231
75 housing units, according to municipal regulation (art. 10th §1 b), RMUE) which, in this particular
point, is stricter than national general law, which considers a maximum of 100 housing units (art. 22 nd
§2 b), RJUE). The remaining conditions are similar both in municipal and national regulations.
1508

Loteamentos and urban plans

Apparently, this simple and fast process came to substitute what was expected to be the role
of PU and PP. Unlike loteamentos, those plans imply a fairly long and complex process, not
only because of the needed steps to complete the procedure, but also because of the number
of actors involved – namely several landowners, central government guidance, sectorial
entities and mandatory public consultations. Changes to already approved plans are equally
long and complex. Furthermore, whenever one landowner disagrees with the plan or does not
wish to participate in its execution, all the process may simply block. Compulsory purchase is
the established mechanism for solving such cases, but it implies financial resources public
entities normally don’t have.
More exactly, it is not relevant to compare the two processes – plan vs loteamento – as
two possible alternatives (Figure 5). The loteamento is also the common mechanism for
execution of urban plans. Therefore, it is possible to say that, in normal urbanisation
processes, PU and PP are simply dispensable. PP and PU are only necessary if changes to the
PDM are required (functions, building volumes or urban structure) or whenever the PDM
explicitly states that a certain urban plan type is mandatory for a specific area. But these are
clearly the exceptions232.

Figure 5. Comparison of planning processes between ‘urban plan’ (PU, PP) and
loteamentos.

A procedural paradox

In principle, loteamentos are not recognized as a planning instrument233. According to the law
that regulates loteamentos (RJUE), all urban structure and design should be determined by
232
An on-going revision of national planning legal framework has the intention to change this
condition. However it is still not possible to realize the real consequences of such revision.
233
This position is clearly stated in the on the law that regulates loteamentos: “loteamentos should stop
being understood as a mechanism for substitution of public administration by individuals in the
functions of planning and urban management.”(preamble, RJUE).
 1509

urban plans. Consequently, the loteamento should be understood as mere mechanism for their
execution, with no relevant interference on urban structure, similarly to regular building
licences. Such is the reason why the same law now regulates both loteamentos and individual
building operations. This is a significant issue, as it points towards the idea that public
entities have mainly a verifying and approval role234, instead of an active planning position.
According to this stance, local public administration should not have the instruments or the
ability to guide or affect the design of each private urban development, in order to make it a
logic part of a coherent wider urban structure, for which the municipality is responsible.
This leads to an apparent paradox. On the one hand, the lack public financial resources
and the absence of urban pressure – particularly on a context of diffuse settlement such as the
one of Ave Valley – makes it impossible for public urban plans to establish as a standard
mechanism for urbanization. On the other hand, the municipality has no means to interfere on
the design of each of the fragments that, in practice, compose the overall urban structure
without any clear coordination.

Daily practice

In spite of law intentions, the daily practice shows that the municipality has means to
interfere. In reality, the actual law gives necessary margins. As mentioned, during the
approval procedure, the municipality has the duty to examine if the presented urban schemes
comply with municipal plans and regulations (art. 24th, RJUE). Such examination allows
some room for interpretation235; especially considering that such plans and regulations are
created by the municipality. Other mechanisms are at the municipality disposal. For instance,
in V.N. Famalicão, in the case of larger projects, the urban management department of the
municipality – responsible for the licensing procedure – usually asks the planning department
to pronounce itself on the relation of the proposed development with its surroundings. The
position of the planning department may then be presented as an external sectorial consult,
and, in this way, reason enough for veto.
However, it is not as much a question of legal power, as it is of recognized legitimacy. In
fact, from the analysis of several dossiers of licensing procedures in V.N. Famalicão236, it is
possible to affirm that developers, in general, do accept municipality changes and suggestions
in order to improve the urban scheme, without questioning its authority – obviously, after a
process of dialogue and informal negotiation. Actually, this ability to directly negotiate with
private developers has often been pointed out as one of the main instruments of the so-called
informal planning237.
Nevertheless, this is the exception. Municipality’s interference on the urban scheme
proposals is usually very limited and restricted to the correction of clear and quantitative

234
RJUE clearly states the specific reasons for possible non-approval (art. 24º).
235
The law that regulates the procedure clearly identifies the specific reason for possible non-approval
(art. 24th, RJUE). However, it creates room for some interpretation. For instance by stating that an
urban operation may be denied whenever it “negatively affects archeological, historical, cultural or
landscape heritage” (art. 24th §2 a), RJUE) or by stating that “The analysis by the municipality of
loteamentos’ proposals […] should focus on its compliance municipal spatial plans, national spatial
plans, […] as well as on its uses and urban and landscape integration." (art. 21st , RJUE)
236
The presented conclusions result from an on-going systematic and detailed analysis of licensing
processes of loteamentos in V.N. Famalicão. This study is part of the PhD research of one of the
authors.
237
Informal planning is the common designation for the series of planning practices conducted by
municipalities which are outside the established legal framework, such as negotiations with private
developers or the development of urban design studies to guide urbanisation process which are not
approved and have no value as plans. Several authors have studied such practices considering that,
despite their lack of legal value, they tend to reveal higher effectiveness than formal planning system
(Portas, Sá and Cardoso, 1998; Morais, 2006)
1510

regulatory issues. In the few cases in which the municipality took a more active stance, the
arguments supporting its suggestions were generally not evident, showing the lack of a clear,
comprehensive and supported strategic vision for the spatial development of V.N. Famalicão.
In this sense, it is noticeable the lack of municipal instruments based on spatial criteria,
principles or qualities, than could be used in this phase, such as public space design
guidelines or an overall maintenance strategy for public space. It was also possible to identify
the absence of an established negotiation culture between the involved actors (no clear
procedures, mistrust).
It is then possible to claim that, as João Ferrão (2011) argues, the main issue is not a legal
one. It is mainly a question of culture. It is the way in which all involved actors understand
and relate both to spatial planning and to the territory itself that determine the daily practices
which shape the urban landscape.

Impact of Loteamentos in V.N. Famalicão

Looking at loteamentos

Acknowledging the impact of loteamentos in the urban landscape of V.N. Famalicão, it is

clear they have contributed to the creation of a very dispersed and fragmented urban pattern
(Figure 6). Analysing their spatial distribution there is no evident concentration related to any
period or type, apart from a certain prevalence of collective housing typology in the central
town area. Loteamentos are spread all over the municipality, following the existing diffuse
pattern distributed along the valleys of the region and main road infrastructures, to which
urbanisation is mainly linked. At a smaller scale, it is evident loteamentos have contributed to
the creation of complex, discontinuous and fragmentary structures.

Figure 6. The sum of all loteamentos in relation with the urban areas of V. N.
Famalicão.
 1511

Dynamics

As stated, urban growth of the Ave Valley Region directly follows market dynamics. Until
the implementation of democracy in 1974, loteamentos had little presence in V.N. Famalicão.
In 1974 there was a first production peak, corresponding to a total of 926 housing units238,
followed by a profound depression in 1978 and by a second peak in 1981 (1027 housing
units). From 1985 it is possible to identify a continuous and sustained increase until the year
2000 (1252 housing units), after which the number of processes clearly falls. From 2008,
with the sub-prime crisis, the market has basically paralysed.

Figure 7. Licensed housing units, in numbers.

Figure 8. Housing typology in loteamentos (average housing units per year, for each
period).

Figure 9. Developer category in loteamentos (average housing units per year, per each
period).

238
Number of housing units contained in the approved permits for loteamentos.
1512

During this period (Figures 7, 8, 9), different trends – related to typologies and procedures
– can be identified. Key factors are the approval of the PDM and the introduction of
professional developers. Before 1994, the most common projects were the ones initiated by
individual landowners, who, most of the times, limited their interventions to plot division
(with or without the creation of new public space and infrastructure) leaving building for
future buyers. In such cases, single housing was the most common typology.
After 1994, the share of row houses increased enormously, becoming the most common
typology for loteamentos. From 1994 to 2007, row houses and collective housing clearly
dominated the growth process, which had a relevant impact on the urban landscape of the
region, until then mainly dominated by the small grain of detached and semidetached houses.
Such trend is correlated with the evident preponderance of private professional developers
during this period. The introduction of this kind of developers had an effect on the dominant
typologies, as they were normally responsible not only for infrastructure and plot division,
but also for the buildings. It had also an impact on the scale and network type of the
operations. Also, more non-residential loteamentos were initiated in period, because of the
industrial zones established by the PDM. These loteamentos’ types show a completely
different urban design and morphology, primarily because of the different building typology
and heavy road network destined to trucks.
In the last years, the involvement of professional developers has gradually decreased.
Though private companies are still responsible for the major part of loteamentos, they are
now a minority when considering the totality of permits for new housing units in the
municipality – something that happens for the first time since 1998. Such mutation will
probably have noticeable consequences on housing typology and on the processes of
transformation of urban landscape.

Loteamentos: morphological typology

Case-study selection

For a more detailed morphological analysis of loteamentos, an East-West strip covering the
whole length of the municipality is delineated to select a representative sample for residential
loteamentos (209 loteamentos, ~19% of the total loteamentos) (Figures 10, 11, 12). It is a
1500 m wide strip along the axis of the regional road N206, covering different contexts: a
more rural and dispersed area to the West, the central town area in the middle, and a more
intense and diffuse settlement to the East.
The presented results are based on this sample. Main focus is on the contribution each
loteamento has to a larger structure. In this sense, two scales were essential to map: the
loteamento unit and the impact to a bigger area (sample). For this analyses GIS data is used
combined with map and aerial photograph information. The base source for this research is
the GIS database of the municipality of V.N. Famalicão. This database is further developed
and extended by the authors for this article. In the last year, several fieldwork visits were
made.

Relation of loteamentos to the overall structure

Essential loteamento aspects are: ownership, own accessibility, series housing types, and one
single planning process. Therefore, loteamentos tend to present certain independence in
relation to their surroundings: an autonomous spatial entity. Each loteamento introduces its
own urban type (Silva, 2005) without clear or significantly transforming, adding, improving
or adapting the larger existing context. However, the sum of all creates small and larger
disruptions in the existing spatial structure, due to the introduction of big building volumes
 1513

and new typologies, clearly identifiable building clusters, or larger street space standards
(Figure 13).

Figure 10. Sample of loteamentos 1 – programme and developer type.

1514

Figure 11. Sample of loteamentos II – public contribution.

 1515

Figure 12. Sample of loteamentos III – data.

Figure 13. Two examples of loteamentos – introducing new public space characteristics
and building typology.

In order to better grasp in which way loteamentos participate on the construction of urban
structure, the analysis focused on the public contribution given by each operation, namely
looking at the proposed public space design.
1516

Public contribution

In principle, each loteamento is a unique and autonomous ´urban product´. However, the
ability to urbanise involves certain responsibilities towards the community and/or the direct
surroundings. As mentioned before, developers have the obligation to execute all needed
infrastructures networks and public space – namely public streets, a certain amount of public
green space and areas destined for public facilities. After completion, these are transferred to
public domain, shifting the maintenance task to the municipality. In this way, an important
share of the public urban structure is created by the sum of private interventions.
Nevertheless, these are mainly quantitative demands – often even with a paid-off
possibility – which do not take in consideration local spatial characteristics. Despite existing
regulations, it is noteworthy the lack of public green space (only 37% of loteamentos
sample), specific pedestrian areas such as sidewalks or squares (only 36%), or the use of trees
in public space (only 30%). This gives an indication of the relative minor public contribution
of the sum of all loteamentos.
Due to the lack of spatial, urban design or morphological municipal regulating
instruments or guidance, the design is shaped by generic rules239, independently from specific
contexts. Such rules determine the existence and dimension of elements such as sidewalks,
parking lots and road lanes, creating new urban design standards that contrast with the
existing thinner and more delicate structures. Public facilities are basically absent. Due to the
limited dimensions of loteamentos, mandatory areas destined for public facilities are
generally too small for buildings. Therefore, they are usually used for installing simple
children playgrounds. In the few cases of larger operations, some parcels are transferred to
public domain unbuilt, as developers are not required to actually build facilities. Parcels are
then part of a municipal land stock, which maintain available for future necessities or
opportunities of public domain. In order to include in the spatial analyses urban morphology
aspects, two urban design features are distinguished: network type and public green space
type. Both are key indicators of ´public space contribution´.

Figure 14. Network types and public green space types.

239
Portaria nr 216-B/2008 is a national regulation that determines the required areas for public green
space, public facilities areas and parking, as well as the required dimensions for roads and streets. Such
regulation is valid for all the country, unless it is totally or partially substituted by different rules by
local spatial plans. V.N. Famalicão follows the national rules, which not include local specific aspects
in order to adapt them to the spatial characteristic and qualities of each context. These regulations are
further complemented by other national laws such as the accessibility regime (Decreto-Lei nr 163/06)
that establishes in detail minimum measurements for sidewalks.
 1517

Network types

The relatively small size of loteamentos limits the possibilities of urban structure types. All
loteamentos have a certain connection to the existing road network, also connecting to other
urban networks 240. In the selected area, five different network types can be distinguished
(Figure 14, 15): (i) Attachment: Loteamentos that make use of the exiting street or road
network; (ii) Cul-de-sac: Loteamentos based on new introverted streets; (iii) Adhesion:
Loteamentos that create new streets connecting to the existing streets and roads, often
improving local network continuity; (iv) Own street pattern: Loteamentos with a proper
public street design with its own recognizable logic, normally with a specific materialisation,
urban furniture and green space; (v) Part of the spatial structure: Loteamentos that directly
contribute to the realisation of a part of the street or road main structure.
In general, loteamentos have little contribution to the construction of an overall
continuous and intelligible street or road network. In fact, a total of 160 loteamentos (77%)
have basically no contribution to such a structure (attachment or cul-de-sac types). 45
loteamentos create some local street patterns: some improving the local street network by
introducing new connections and enhancing its continuity (no dead-ends), others introducing
their own street patterns, which, in general, are embedded and connected to the existing
street network. Only two loteamentos have a direct contribution to the main street network,
both at the scale of the town of V.N. Famalicão. No loteamento makes a contribution to the
main regional network.
Noticeable in various urban schemes of loteamentos, is the simple repetition of series of a
housing typology, even if it does not fit easily into local spatial context or if it does not
benefit public space quality. This has directly consequences to the network type layout,
public and private gardens, and the connection with the surrounding. Specially, if there is no
clear vision on the overall public space structure, including a maintenance framework and
specific design aspects.

Public green space

Based on the position and access scheme of public green spaces – and considering their
relation with different network types – five categories were identified (Figure 14): (i) Green
space situated on the edge of the loteamento, facing a street; (ii) Green space situated at the
end of an interior dead-end street; (iii) Green space situated in the interior of the loteamento,
facing a street of the new network created by the operation; (iv) Green space as a central
organizing space of the loteamento; (v) Green space designed as constituent part of a larger
structure.
Similarly to the network types, it is here possible to observe that public green space has
little contribution to the creation of an overall coherent urban structure – only in two cases
are green spaces part of an existing or expectable larger structure – or even to the definition
of a clear order for the loteamento (see example m and n in Figure 15). In the majority of the
cases, they are small spaces, with no specific character or use, simply located in the areas of
the parcel which are the most difficult to occupy with buildings. In this sense, they seem to
bring little value to public space or to each operation.

240
This point is clear in the PDM, where it is stated that in order to be approved, a loteamento needs to
be connected to the existing road and urban network by qualified links (art. 37 th)
1518

Management of public contribution?

These two features underline the aforementioned difficulty of the municipality to guide each
project in order to make them part of a larger intelligible urban space. However, it is not
possible to claim that this results from the lack of legal instruments.

Figure 15. Network type, example of loteamentos.

Municipal regulations clearly state, “[…] all loteamentos […] involving the creation of
new roads shall be designed so that they rest on the existing network, establishing
connections with unquestionable logic and urban justification and, whenever possible,
avoiding dead-ends.” (art. 35º §1, PDM) They equally affirm that the “location, design and
dimension” of public green spaces must “a) ensure an appropriate relation to its
surroundings, enhancing the urban space where it is embedded; b) present adequate size and
shape to the intended uses […]” (art. 12nd, RMUE). However, the effectiveness of such
regulations depends on the municipality’s capacity to interpret and implement it.
 1519

Conclusions

It seems clear that, in the Ave Valley Region, an urban growth shaped by the sum of
autonomous small fragments has failed in creating an overall coherent and intelligible urban
structure. Loteamentos are a key element of this process, producing various (new) urban
typologies. And, in fact, generally, they do not contribute to the construction of continuous
logic larger structures, mainly due to the lack of attention paid to their public space.
However, the main problem is not the existence of the legal instrument of loteamento in
itself - although it is not an adequate instrument without overall spatial plans or visions. In
reality, loteamentos seem to have revealed an important potential for the production of urban
space, especially in a moment of a bursting real estate dynamics, and in which other planning
instruments have shown to be incapable of answering to the existing demands. The problem
rests mainly on the lack of efficient apparatus able to coherently connect each individual
operation to other interventions and to its surroundings, in order to create logic urban
structures.
Nevertheless, such lack of effective mechanisms is not primarily due to existing
legislation or procedures. It is a result of the spatial planning and territorial culture of all
involved actors, which determine daily planning and urbanisation practices. It is possible to
identify a mismatch between, on one side, what different involved agents think planning and
urbanization process should be, and, on the other side, the real dynamics, trends, logics and
processes that daily shape the urban landscape. In parallel, there is also a mismatch between
the planning system itself and its instruments (plans, design guidelines and regulations:
formal and informal). Standardisation may have evident value when applied to large-scale
integral urban plans. But when applied to scattered small urban developments, such as
loteamentos, an incomprehensible mismatch between new small urban pieces and the existing
spatial structure is produced.
In order to develop more effective planning practices, it is essential not only to recognize
the specific characteristics and logics of loteamentos, but also to understand the impact the
sum-of-all has to urban landscape. Much more important than possible changes to the formal
planning system is to create an informal planning process based on local contexts and on
local actor experiences. Instruments such as informal guidelines and spatial strategies –
clarifying an overall vision but open and attentive to specific characteristics of particular
territories – can contribute to the urban planning process in order to guide and define clear
requirements in more open and transparent dialogue phase. This is not to substitute the
formal planning system itself, but to give more room for local-based-solutions.

References

Ascher, F. ([2001] 2010) Novos princípios do urbanismo (Livros Horizonte, Lisboa).

Boeri, S., Lanzani, A. and Marini, E. (1993) Il territorio che cambia: ambienti, paesaggi e immagini
della regione milanese (AIM/Abitare Segesta, Milano).
Bourdin, A. ([2010] 2011) O urbanismo depois da crise (Livros Horizonte, Lisboa).
Castro, J.B. (1762) Mappa de Portugal Antigo e Moderno (Officina Patriarcal de Francisco Luiz
Ameno, Lisboa).
Cavaco, C. (2009) ‘Formas de habitat suburbano: Tipologias e modelos residenciais na Área
Metropolitana de Lisboa’, unpublished PhD thesis, Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade
Técnica de Lisboa, Portugal.
Correia, P.V.D. ([1993] 2002) Políticas de solos no planeamento municipal (Fundação Calouste
Gulbenkian, Lisboa).
De Rossi, A. (ed) (2009) Grande Scala: architecture, politic, form. (LISt Lab, Barcelona).
Ferrão, J. (2011) O Ordenamento do Território como Política Pública (Fundação Calouste
Gulbenkian, Lisboa).
Forester, J. (2008) ‘Editorial’, Planning Theory & Practice 3, 299-304.
Indovina, F. ([2004] 1990) ‘La ciudad difusa’ in Martín Ramos, A. (ed.) Lo Urbano en 20 autores
contemporáneos (Edicions UPC, Barcelona) 49-60.
1520

Jessop, B. (1998) ‘The rise of governance and the risks of failure: the case of economic development’,
International Social Science Journal 155, 29-45.
Mangin, D. (2004) La ville franchisée: formes et structures de la ville contemporaine (Éditions de la
Villette, Paris).
Morais, P. C. P. (2006) Planificação sem planos: estudo sobre algumas figuras planificatórias de
natureza urbanística não designadas ex professo pela lei como planos. (Almedina, Coimbra).
Neutlings, W.J. (1990) ‘Tapijtmetropool’ Archis, 3.
Oswald, F. and Baccini, P. (2003) Netzstadt: designing the urban (Birkhäuser, Basel).
Portas, N. ([1986] 2006) ‘Modelo territorial e intervenção no Médio Ave’ in Milheiro, A. V. and
Afonso, J. (ed.) Nuno Portas: Prémio Sir Patrick Abercrombie UIA 2005 (Ordem dos Arquitectos,
Lisboa) 80-87.
Portas, N., Sá, M. F. and Cardoso, R (1998) ‘Planos operativos de escala intermédia: caracterização
técnica e arquitectónica’, unpublished research study commissioned by Direcção Geral de
Ordenamento do Território e Desenvolvimento Territorial, Portugal.
Sá, M. F. (1986) ‘O Médio Ave’, unpublished thesis, Escola Superior de Belas Artes do Porto,
Portugal.
Sanderson, I. (2009) ‘Intelligent Policy Making for a Complex World: Pragmatism. Evidence and
Learning’, Political Studies 57, 699-719.
Secchi, B. (1984) ‘Le condizioni sono cambiate’, Casabella 298/299, 8-13.
Sieverts, T ([1997] 2003) Cities without wities: an interpretation of the Zwischenstadt (Spon Press,
London).
Silva, C. (2005) ‘O Difuso no Vale do Ave’, unpublished master thesis, Faculdade de Arquitectura and
Faculdade de Engenharia da Universidade do Porto. Portugal.
Viganò, P. (1999) La città elementare (Skira, Milano).

Laws and regulations

Decreto-Lei nr 46673 (29-11-1965)
Decreto-Lei nr 163/96 (08-08-2006)
Portaria nr 216-B/2008 (03-03-2008)
RMUE, ‘Regulamento Municipal da Urbanização e da Edificação’ (16-05-2003)
RJIGT, ‘Regulamento Jurídico dos Instrumentos de Gestão Territorial’, Decreto-Lei nr 380/99 (22-09-
1999).
RJUE, ‘Regulamento Jurídico da Urbanização e Edificação’, Decreto-Lei nr 26/2010 (30-03-2010)
 1521

Integration of public spaces into the urban environment in

case of Perm

Anastasia Kuznetsova, Svetlana Maksimova

Department of architecture and urban design, Perm National Research Polytechnic
University. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected].

Abstract. The quality of urban environment is constructed not only with help of certain elements of it
but with help of interaction between them. Historical buildings, nature elements (the river, the lake,
the forest) should be integrated into public spaces of the city for the best perception of them. In this
case public spaces have one more social function. The tool for planning is the a graphical method of a
placement building mass (filled spaces) and open spaces. The open spaces are streets, parks,
embankments, the yards inside the blocks, etc. Such morphological elements directly influence on the
quality and comfort of urban environment and create the impression about the city as well. Interaction
between open spaces and buildings takes place with help of facades of buildings. It is necessary to take
into consideration the morphotype, condition of the facade, relation between the facade area and open
space area, etc. Perm is the Ural city which partly has historical buildings of XVII-XIX centuries. The
events of XX century contribute to lose historical shape and authenticity of the city. Seven rivers valley
in the city are existing in bad condition and have no social and recreation functions anymore. The
analysis of existing situation of Perm is occurring by the method of placement open spaces and
research of facades condition for different morphotypes. It allows to find the ways of improvement of
urban environment quality.

Key Words: public space, morphotype, interaction, perception of the landscape, historical heritage.

Perm is a city on Ural Mountains of Russian Federation with the numbers of inhabitants
about 1,023 millions, total area is 800 square meters. City is situated on the banks of the
Kama river, stretched along it. The central part of the city has linear structure. Here are
located historical centres and the main public spaces of the city.

Figure 1. The central part of Perm (Google maps).

Nowadays territory of the city crossed by 7 big valleys of small rivers, flowed to one of
the biggest rivers of the Ural is Kama river. Historically, the city started to develop in the
beginning of XVIII century on the banks of the Egoshiha river, where the territory of copper
smelting plant was formed. To the end of XVIII - beginning of XIX century the center of the
city gradually shifted to the banks of Danilikha river and continue to develop along Kama
1522

river. Therefore the rivers are flowed in the central part of the city have not only recreational
function but the historical meaning as well.

Figure 2. Perm 1910. Valley of the small river.

On the top of the valleys slopes diversity of the buildings are dominant: low-rise
residentional wood buildings, high-rise buildings, industrial buildings and empty spaces.
Herewith the valleys don't integrated to the city fabric, and are used for horticulture, don't
connected by functions with the buildings around, are existed in abandoned condition. The
accesses to them extremely uncomfortable and sometimes dangerous, or don't exist at all
(Figure 3).

Figure 3. Valley of the small river.

Some watercourses of the small rivers are locked in the tubes and identify them as the
water objects is not possible.
The embankment of the Kama river also is not in good condition now. Many years it had
the scenic landscape and it was the adornment of the city and the favourite place for citizens
walking. However, in the last time it has less popularity. Market makes faced interests of
different departments and existing urban codes for railroad, river port, historical heritage
(river station), electricity power line. In addition were formed the problems of bad conditions
of entrances to this embankment from nearest streets: ruined ladders and subways are
dangerous in the dark time of the days (Figure 4).
 1523

Figure 4. Subway leaded to the embankment of the Kama river.

As the result the main function of the territory to be a public space is blurred. The valleys
of the small rivers and the embankment are the main and biggest components of green spaces
of Perm (Figure 5).

Figure 5. Ratio of the green territory areas of Perm. Source: Strategic master plan of
Perm, 2010.

Thus only the part of the green spaces are filled by functions. Big number of the small
green areas and green yards is characterised by low quality of accesses, don’t clear function,
low activity of use. There is not infrastructure for physically disabled people. There is not the
full recreation function.
Figure 6 shows the use of graphical method of two main elements of urban environment
placement: the mass of buildings and empty spaces to define the problems and the ways of
transformation the territory. One of the first who begin describe and search the relations
between built and open spaces was Camillo Sitte.
Open spaces are the yards inside the blocks, streets, embankments, etc. These
morphological elements directly influence on the comfort and quality of the urban
environment and form impression about whole city. Interaction of open spaces with the mass
of buildings is realized with help of the facades. Here are considered the morphotype of the
building, it condition, relation between the area of façade to area of open space, and other
parameters.
1524

Figure 6. Open spaces of Perm (empty spaces are marked by grey, the main recreation
areas are white).

The method of open spaces placement allows to analyze urban fabric in criteria: define
existing functions of public spaces; location in relation to public spaces in city and local
levels; accessible; connectivity of public spaces; possibilities to form of the public spaces
system.

Figure 7. Placement of green spaces of the central part of the city and the main
streets are connected them.

The second part of research is the analysis of facades which is allow to define presence of
the visual connective between public spaces and buildings around. The visual links are
created in depending the way of looking is going in between buildings and the main facades
are located in relation with streets and open spaces.

Figure 8. The example of defining of the visual links.

 1525

For example, the embankment provide good visual connectivity with the park near Art
Gallery and the Gogol garden. (Figure 9, 10)

Figure 9. The view from the park near Art Gallery to the greenery of embankment

However, these territories have different quality: good condition of one territory is not
continue in other green area with absent landscaping.

Figure 10. Parks are connected with the embankment.

Conclusions

Morphology of the buildings of the peripheral Russians cities became more blurred.
Buildings and cars displaced people, nature and the public spaces.
Perm has unique resources of recreation spaces which are nowadays don't consist full
functions of public spaces and recreation. In the city which has a lot territories for winter
sport activity inhabitants have to go 40 km for skiing. The summer create big traffic to the
banks of Sylva river (30-60 km outside the city). All these are existing in the same time the
water resources in the center of the city don't using at all.
The transformation of the small rivers valleys have to starts from the back the first view of
it, the nature landscaping and after has to be in harmony with the transformation them to
public spaces with certain functions. Unify it in the urban net of the public spaces with help
of pedestrian ways, bicycle lines, visual connectivity, providing the accesibility with help of
improvement of the paths and roads, creating of places for street celebrations, open-air
games, constructing of the playgrounds and grounds for the dogs. All of them will improve
physical and visual links between public spaces and green areas of the city. The perception of
the city will be changed in minds of inhabitants. The territories of the city which are now
have a potential but don't used will be full of life.
1526

References

Kuznetsova, A. (2013) ‘Problemy integratsii istoricheskoj zastroyki v sredu sovremennogo

promyshlennogo goroda Perm’, Vestnik PNIPU. Master’s Journal.
KCAP Architects & Planners (2010) Transforming of the city. Perm Strategic Masterplan
(Perm).
 1527

A planning method of identifying viewing spots and area for

landscape control by utilizing spectator’s experience of a
Japanese traditional festival

Daichi Yamamoto1, Susumu Kawahara2

1
Department of Tourism Science, Faculity of Urban Environmental Sciences, Tokyo
Metropolitan University, Japan, 1-1 Minamiosawa Hachioji-shi, Tokyo-to, 192-0364, Japan. 2
Graduate Schools of Urban Environmental Sciences, Department of Tourism Science, Tokyo
Metropolitan University. E-mail. [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract. We present a practical a planning method of identifying viewing spots and area for
landscape control by utilizing spectator’s experience of a Japanese traditional festival. To realize these
aims, viewer’s favorite photographs of “festivalscape” are analyzed in a case study of Kibune festival,
a traditional Japanese festival held in Manazuru Town, Kanagawa. This study recognizes three
categories of “festivalscape,” namely, the viewing location (Viewing spots), the viewer’s target
(Performance of the festival), and the wider landscape (Background). In this study, we identified three
popular viewing spots examined the landscape viewed by spectators at those locations. Also, The most
commonly viewed area was failed in comparison with landscape control area for festival compiled by
the Manazuru planning authorities. These results located areas that should be preserved or enhanced
for a more pleasant viewing experience during the festival. Our method is attractive because it can be
easily implemented by non-specialists, uses data acquired from ubiquitous, low-cost digital cameras
and smartphones, and is versatile. This last feature renders the approach applicable to any region with
a traditional history, bordering seas or with panoramic points.

Key Words: Japanese traditional festival, Festivalscape, Viewing spot, Landscape control, Viewer’s
favorite photographs.

Introduction

Tangible landscape control, which unifies the heights of buildings and facades in townscape
or highlights landmark features, such as castles, towers, and mountains, has been embraced
worldwide. In contrast, landscape control based on intangible features has remained
underdeveloped. Such intangible features are rooted in tradition and local lifestyles and
constitute the living and cultural landscapes. Japanese traditional festivals have been globally
recognized as an intangible cultural heritage by UNESCO (2014).
This exploratory paper aims to develop a planning method of identifying viewing spots
and area for landscape control by utilizing spectator’s experience of a Japanese traditional
festival. As a case study, the method is applied to enhancing the experience of spectators at
the Kibune festival, a traditional Japanese festival held in Manazuru Town, Kanagawa.
To realize these aims, the study presents a series of viewing spots favored by spectators
and landscapes that attract viewers’ attention. This information is obtained to analyze
viewer’s favorite photographs of “festivalscape”.
This study recognizes three categories of “festivalscape,” namely, the viewing location
(Viewing spots), the viewer’s main target (Performance of the festival), and the wider
landscape (Background).
Manazuru Town is located on the Manazuru peninsula of southwestern Kanagawa
prefecture. The cone-shaped terrain faces Sagami Bay and projects toward the sea. With a
population of approximately 8,000, Manazaru Town is a prosperous hub of fishing and stone
industries.
The Kibune Festival is a portable shrine that carries a god by ship through the Manazuru
Port. The origins of the Kibune Festival are intimately linked to the town’s historical
1528

background. Since the early modern period, Manazuru locals were mainly employed in
fishing and in the mining and marine transportation of stone. Because the ships built for
fishing and stone transportation were very small and sophisticated technologies and machines
were lacking, people were regularly exposed to natural dangers. Therefore, people offered
prayers for safety and plentiful fishing hauls and strongly appreciated the peace and security
of their everyday activities.
From this background emerged the Kibune Festival of Manazuru Town.

Figure 1. Spatial elements of a “festivalscape”.

Figure 2. Bird’s-eye view of Manazuru Town.

Figure 3. A “festivalscape” of Kibune festival.

Landscape planning of Manazuru

This study aims to clarify the current situation and landscape planning problems of the
“design code of beauty” aspect of the Kibune Festival of Manazuru.
 1529

To this end, I bibliographically surveyed the “design code of beauty” and interviewed a
representative of the Manazuru Town Planning Division.
Manazuru Town was not exempt from the high developmental pressure that has altered
Japan’s infrastructure since the late 1980s. Manazuru Town is a commutable distance from
the Tokyo metropolitan area and is renowned for the quality of its natural environment.
In order to resist development beyond a human-scale landscape, Manazuru Town
introduced the “design code of beauty” rule to promote creative urban designs and
landscaping appropriate for a small town. The “design code of beauty” is based on the
“pattern language” concept proposed by Alexander (1994), a positional design algorithm for
representing high-quality regions. The algorithm locates suitable landscape grounds from 69
keywords. In applying the algorithm to Manazuru Town, the term “Festival” is included as a
keyword.
Landscape planning in Manazuru has relied on qualitative assessments of attractive
buildings, such as “design code of beauty,” for 10 years. Furthermore, after the landscape by
law was enacted in Japan in 2004, Manazuru became the first township to specify
administrative organizations and undertook quantitative landscape planning in January 2005.
To control its landscape, Manazuru Town has adopted a color standard that quantifies the
festival by the Munsell value of the plan. During the festival, the port is dominated by vivid
red ships. Consequently, the external walls of buildings in the Manazuru Port district, which
define the background of the festival, are set to be brighter than other Manazaru districts to
emphasize vivid red ships. Thus, an advanced landscape planning approach has been adopted
for the Kibune festival.
On the other hand, a line of demarcation for color control area is obtained by utilizing
land use, that is, basis for this standard is not intended to be reflecting the spectator’s
perspective. It was recognized that spectators’ perspectives are dynamic, and that current
measures to enhance viewers’ experience may alter in future. Therefore, the planning seeks to
create favorable viewing spots for the festival and to increase the range of viewing
perspectives.

Data Collecting Methods

Two surveys were conducted to obtain the required data for analysis.
In the first survey, preferred festivalscape views were derived from viewers’ favorite
photographs captured during the festival. Photographs were collected from three sources.
First, 250 viewers selected by random sampling were requested to photograph the marine
parade and e-mail their five best shots of the festivalscape. This approach yielded 39
photographs from 10 viewers.
Second, 13 high-quality festivalscape photographs entered in Manazuru photograph
contests targeting various categories, such as historic sites and nature, cityscape, food,
festivals, events, and people, were collected.
Third, we conducted a web search of the phrase “Kibune Festival space Manazuru” and
selected a blog article on the Kibune Festival from the sites returned by the word search. This
approach yielded 43 photos posted on 26 blog sites.
Collectively, we obtained 81 high-quality photographs of the marine parade festivalscape.
The second survey focused on the action records of Kifune Festival spectators. On July 27
and 28 in 2013, 10 investigators tracked the progression of the Kifune Festival and recorded
its movements on a map. Moreover, the procession was captured by video cameras operated
from three fixed points overlooking the entire Manazuru Port. To maximize the recording
time, the photographing direction of the video was altered to follow the dynamic movements
of the audience.
This survey revealed that almost all viewers distributed along the waterfront line moved
around relatively freely while photographing the event.
1530

Figure 4. Results of spectator action record survey.

Best-photograph analysis of festivalscape

Favored viewing spots

The 81 photographs obtained from the photographic survey were analyzed with respect to
viewing spots and cityscape.
The first analysis extracted several favored viewing spots from the landscape elements in
the 81 photographs.
Process 1: The photographs were vertically bisected by a line defined as the central axis.
Points of intersection between buildings and the uppermost and lowermost parts of the
central axis were designated as Points A and B, respectively.
The density distribution of Kibune festival visitors, captured by the fixed video cameras,
revealed that viewers remained along the waterfront of Manazuru Port. Thus, we extended a
line through Points A and B in the direction toward the waterfront line. The intersection of
this extended and waterfront lines were labeled as Point C.
In addition, the direction of the line joining Points C and A indicated the eye direction of
the viewer, and the range between Points A and C decided the photographing area.
This process was completed for all 81 photographs of the festivalscape collected in the
survey.

Figure 5. Implementation of Process 1.

 1531

Process 2. Based on land use and spatial continuity, the waterfront areas of Manazuru Port
were classified into 10 regions and labeled Area A to Area J, each with its longest side
extending to a maximum of 100 m.
Within each of these areas, the degree of the integration of viewpoints was acquired by
dividing the number of photographs with viewpoints contained in the area by 81 (the number
of photographs acquired).

Figure 6. Implementation of Process 2.

Areas E, I, and J showed a high degree of integration, being observed in 14, 16, and 35
out of 81 photographs, respectively. Therefore, these three areas are identified as the favored
locations for viewing the festivalscape in action and are expected to enhance the experience
of viewers visiting the Kibune festival.
This result is likely affected by two factors: the parade route of the main target (the ship)
and the visibility. The viewing values of Areas E and J may be linked to their proximity to the
start and end points of the parade route, where viewers tended to congregate. In addition, the
field of view in the southeast and northwest directions opens into Manazuru Port owing to the
cone-shaped terrain projecting into the sea.

Extraction of important cityscape

Subsequent study focused on the backdrop landscape of the festival.

Because the festival is viewed against a background of buildings, Manazuru Town has
formulated a color standard for landscape control.
However, a line of demarcation for color control area is obtained by utilizing land use,
that is, basis for this standard is not intended to be reflecting the spectator’s perspective.
So, to clarify important cityscapes that should be preserved, cityscapes that frequently
appeared in the 35 photographs acquired from Area J were analyzed as a case study. The aim
was to determine the section of cityscape most commonly encountered by viewers’ eyes.
Process 3: The analysis focuses on a panoramic shot acquired on a sunny day on
November 27, 2013. The panorama extends through 90°, sufficiently covering the city area
from the midpoint of the waterfront line in Area J. The camera that acquired this image was
affixed at 160 cm above the ground, the approximate height of a man's glance.
The acquired panorama covers almost all of the cityscape regions visible from Area J.
Process 4: In this analysis, buildings occupying the four corners of a photograph collected
from Area J were extracted and labeled Building 1 to Building 4. The four buildings are
interconnected by straight lines, which delineate the cityscape background of the
festivalscape most commonly visualized by viewers.
The background cityscape observed by many viewers was identified by projecting the
1532

delineated cityscape on the panorama and overlapping each area. For this purpose, Buildings
1–4 in each of the 35 photographs taken from Area J were identified in the panorama. The
matching buildings in the panoramic view were connected by straight lines in all 35
photographs.
At the completion of Process 4, the most commonly viewed sections of the cityscape are
indicated by dark colors.
Process 5: The obtained chart was divided into square grids of approximately 5 m × 5 m.
The grid dimensions were based on the minimum size of the photographed buildings. If the
projected areas covered 50% or more of the grid, the covered grids were counted, divided by
35 (the number of photographs acquired from Area J), and multiplied by 100. The result
expressed the degree to which viewers focused on that area of the cityscape.
The numerical results were classified into four viewing frequencies ( ≥50%, ≥40%,
≥25%,over 0%). Process 5 reveals how a background is observed from a viewer’s elevation.
Landscape planning, such as designating landscape preservation area, requires a ground plan.
To solve this problem, buildings included in areas of high visual interest (40% or more) were
extracted by the visual observation of the locale and painted on the residential quarter chart.

Figure 7. Implementation of Processes 3–5. The thick white line in the central panels
delineates the cityscape of high visual encounter.

The chart with the painted buildings presents a symbolic landscape of the Kibune festival,
revealing the background cityscape most commonly viewed by festival spectators. Thus,
these buildings should be earmarked for landscape preservation.
 1533

Conclusions

This paper presents a method of identifying favored viewing spots from photographs of the
festivalscape, based on landscape features along the central photograph axis. By dividing the
number of viewpoints contained in designated areas by the total views of the festivalscape,
three areas of favored viewing (Areas E, I, and J) were identified.
We consider that cityscapes most commonly viewed by festival spectators should be
preserved because these areas frequently appear in spectators’ photographs. These results can
guide the current situation of landscape planning in Manazuru Town.
The most frequented viewing areas, I and J, should be maintained as favorable viewing
spots by improving the land use of their backdrops. This is especially relevant to Area J,
whose background encompasses a vacant “no entry” zone.
In addition, the extracted buildings mentioned in subsection 4.2 were compared with the
color-controlled cityscape rendition of the Manazuru festival clarified in Section 2.
The comparison highlighted the need to accommodate more of the spectator’s perspective
in district planning. In particular, the Manatsuru primary school situated high above the
Manatsuru port should be included as a landmark in the controlled district.

Figure 8. Areas I and J should be maintained as viewing spots.

Figure 9. Extracted buildings mentioned in subsection 4.2 superimposed on the

color-controlled cityscape version of the Manazuru festival.

The proposed method makes three useful contributions to district planning.

First, the method is easily administered in practice. High-quality photographs that provide
the underlying data are easily retrieved from photograph contest archives. At present,
anybody can capture images on digital cameras and mobile phones. With these technologies,
which have become ubiquitous, viewers can essentially capture events, such as festivals in
action, providing a wealth of data reflecting the viewpoints and needs of numerous viewers at
1534

low cost. To narrow the data sources, photography contests on themes, such as “Landscape
and Festival,” could be held.
Second, the analytical procedure is easily implemented by non-specialists, as it requires
no specialized equipments or analytical techniques that must be learned beforehand.
Finally, because traditional festivals are held throughout Japan, this method provides an
effective support tool for landscape planning around regional characteristics. Moreover, the
method is applicable to any region with a traditional history, such as sea-facing bays or slopes
that provide ideal panoramic points.
In summary, we present a versatile and practical approach to landscape planning that
identifies both important viewing spots and area for landscape control. Such planning will
certainly enhance the viewing experiences of spectators at Japanese traditional festivals.

References

Yuto Watanabe, Naoya Urabe, Kimiko Kasai (2011) ‘Study of a Method for Developing Good
Landscape by Use of Qualitative Criterion of Color, Part 1~Part3’, Journal of Architecture and
Planning.
Yu Okamura, Saori Nakazawa, Susumu Kawahara, et al (2010) ‘A study On The Relationship and
Interaction Between Urban Festival and Urban Space As Its Setting’, 14th International Planning
History Society Conference, Istanbul.
Kenjiro Matsuura (2012) ‘Analysis of Urban Morphology on Festival Space decorated on Urban
Space’, EAAE / ISUF International Conference, New Urban Configurations.
 1535

Urban form and orientation in urban space

Anna Agata Kantarek

Faculty of Architecture, Cracow University of Technology
31-450 Kraków, ul. Ułanów 28, Poland. E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract. The question is about developing research disciplines based on human abilities of
perception in the spatial reality of a city and referring them to urban morphology and typology. This
also means posing a question about human orientation abilities in urban space nowadays. Urban
structure and spatial legibility relation is extremely important. It is possible to formulate orientation
codes of the urban form (the own codes of a form, signaling codes, mass transmission codes and other
codes incorporated in culture) and find determinants which could define the notion of orientation of
the balance in the urban space as a criterion of Urban Form.

Key Words: urban space; space orientation; codes in urban space; urban meaning; urban signs

Thinking of spatial orientation as a significant aspect that determines the form of a city is
obvious and yet very often neglected when it comes to the designing of the form and its
content and implementation decisions.
The book "On Orientation in The Space of The City" 241 deals with the realities of the
urban form perception nowadays. It develops the theme of orientation in the space of a city as
a stage of developing such awareness of the city and acquiring such habits or skills of
purposeful movement that would make other activities possible. Thus the quality of
orientation plays the role of a determinant of other aspects of the life of man and the
community.
Urban space and, in particular, public spaces realize a variety of types of information
transmission and are targets of many information providers. The process can be called a
struggle for efficient information transfer and an incessant play for the attention of users – the
city residents and visitors.
A short summary of the conclusions and results of the above work "On Orientation in The
Space of The City" is given below.
According to the definition of orientation in the space of a city " … orientation in the
space of a city is the whole of man’s psychophysical and spiritual abilities to define his place
in the physical space of a city in the face of the meanings it carries. It should be treated as the
basis for intentional movement, activeness and being in an urban space as well as the
establishment of values and meanings.
Orientation in the space of a city: is fixed in space-time; binds and facilitates man’s other
relations in the environment; concerns what is included in space and perceptual but may be
associated and identified with non-spatial meanings and values; is environmental (Gibson);
concerns values and potential actions (Lewicki); is aware to various extents; in the broadest
depiction, it remains under the influence of elements from the area of consciousness,
including knowledge and abilities, and from beyond this area, including hidden memory,
while a certain range of environmental monitoring is the constant, unconscious labour of an
organism involving it at the level of reception as well as an initial selection and the valuation
of stimuli; is related to various degrees of attention engagement in spatial orientation
processes in relation to people’s direct contacts or expression and concentration on non-
spatial values and contacts (D. Broadbent, A.M. Treisman, U. Neisser and others) as well as
man’s emotional and cognitive disposition (K. Obuchowski); is connected with the
241
The study was published in 2008 (Kantarek, 2008), and its abbreviated and revised English version
was released in 2013.
1536

characteristics of a manner of staying in a space (a kind of movement, objectives, the

knowledge of the space); is based on the concrete, generalization or abstraction to various
degrees (Obuchowski); is of local character; is of adjusting character, uses the most
expressive elements, in a sense it accepts the state of things; so, it results in a kind of
adjustment; is rooted in culture and uses the temporary knowledge of a city whose sources
are diverse. "242

Typology Examples Of Types

according to a place of residence, house, neighborhood
place places of work, education
places of relaxation, recreation, destination
places of motion
characteristic places – Centre, regions, areas
according to every day
motion in time every several days, monthly
yearly
festive
untypical
according to traffic on foot
– kinds of motions by bike
and vehicles by car /driver, passenger/
by bus
by tram
according to child
person – age, adult
psychophysical elderly person
condition, culture disabled person
according to inhabitant
person – relations visitor – tourist, guest, employee
to the city
according to the
degree of the
cognition of space

Figure 1. Situations related to orientation in the space of a city. A register of

typologies (by the author) (Kantarek, 2013) p. 94

Attention should be drawn to several general determinants.

Firstly, orientation abilities are specific to a particular person – this includes individual
perception abilities, cultural background, intrinsic values, interests, habits, age which make
up a person’s unique profile.
Secondly, orientation is dependent on the extent of the knowledge about the space.
Thirdly, orientation depends to a great extent on the manner in which one moves or stays
in a particular space and hence on the kind of attention that is triggered (Fig. 1.)
Fourthly, it is a fixed ways in which a space is being used by a man, a group and a
community.
A look at the space around man is one aspect of the issue. While asking about urban form
we are concerned with another aspect – it is a reflection on the structure and dynamics of the
changes in the anthropogenic environment.
There is a question about such a description of urban form and its elements that will help
determine the best possible conditions of orientation in the space of a city.

242
(Kantarek, 2008) p. 125, 126, (Kantarek, 2013) p. 91, 92.
 1537

This purpose is served by the orientating codes of urban form. There are four kinds of
such codes243 (Figure 2.).
A The own codes of a form. U.Eco’s definition of a code through an architectural sign can
by analogy be extended to refer to an urban sign and subsequently a distinction can be
made between inherent codes of urban form (semantic – denotation or connotation
through form) and syntactic (the structure of the form). It is important to bear in mind that
the codes operate on various scales and within various ranges – from the scale of a single
object, interiors and their details, architectural forms, their complexes to any extended
image of the whole of a city, region or the world. These are aesthetic codes.
B Signalling codes. These codes are based on the form but speak a different language.
They are mainly signals defining the principles of movement around the city but also
informing about the content of particular elements of the form – including designations
and proper names of places. Their basis are written language or conventional signs
(pictograms).
C Mass transmission codes. These codes in urban space use primarily pictorial and
written language. Pictorial narration and linguistic message firmly embedded in culture
create an attractive means of communication that captures attention. Basically, these are
advertising messages – public sphere is involved in private messaging that works for the
benefit of small groups of sponsors rather than the residents. The message, whose
strengths lies in the application of repetitive elements of slogans and pictures, obscures the
image of the city and makes identification impossible. It is a confusing element.
Nowadays, the subject matter of the codes is extended from solely commercial to a wide
range of political and cultural persuasion. More and more tools of transmission are being
used – architecture and animated events in urban scenery become advertising banners.
It is worth noting that the message is external in relation to the space in which it
operates. It uses the space and destroys it.
D "Other codes incorporated in culture, including information and events. All the other
codes used by the city dwellers as the entire process of communication exist in the space
of a city in an obvious way. They include both personal codes, related to the story of a
life, based on subjective sensations and diversified, and many conventional codes built
anew. Their coexistence and co-creation with an urban form is self-explanatory, unusually
dynamic and elusive. They also include various manners of looking for a destination, e.g.
asking the way or using GPS." 244
A diagnosis of urban space perception under contemporary conditions shows mass
transmission and signalling codes to prevail. In the case of signalling codes this means that
coding through form is too weak to satisfy the need for comfortable movement within the
space or reflect the dynamics and complexity of connections. As for mass transmission
codes, we are faced with unjustified interference with the urban public space of the content
which has nothing to do with this space and affects recognizibility of the site since it conveys
a typified message.
Another question to be asked is what relations there should be between the elements that
carry the particular codes in the city space to ensure optimum conditions for good orientation.
Orientation called the orientation of balance245 is in fact a postulate addressing urban
form. To make possible the operation of other codes incorporated in culture (D), the own
codes of a form (A) synthesize all the others. The composition of codes is based on the
composition of the form of the city. (Table 1)
It is worth pointing out to what extent the above concept of orientation in the space of a
city differs from K. Lynch’s views on orientation in space.

243
Cf. (Kantarek, 2008) pp. 85-87 , (Kantarek, 2013) pp. 63-65
244
(Kantarek, 2008) p. 86, (Kantarek, 2013) p. 65
245
(Kantarek, 2008) p. 129, (Kantarek, 2013) p. 96, 97
 1538

the own codes of a form signalling codes

mass transmission codes other codes incorporated in culture

Figure 2. The orientation codes of an urban form – The Main Market Square in Kraków
(by the author) (Kantarek, 2013) p. 66.

Urban Conditions Of Conditions Man

In Accordance With The Requirements Of The Orientation Of Balance

Form Compositional Legibility Of Orienting Perception

Composition Of Rules Of Reception Of All Conditions Of

Form As A Whole Composition The Composition Physiological,
And Partial Of Volumes Psychological,
Compositions Of Spiritual,
An Urban Form Sociological,
Semiological And
Cultural Nature
The Own Open Public
Codes Spaces As A
Of A System Of
Form Orientation
Composition Of An Urban Form

Perceptual Zones
Meanings Relations Of The Reception Of
According To The Zones Around The Zone
Composition Of Codes

Own Codes Of A Man And An Around Man

Form Entire Form
Signalling Codes
Mass Transmission Codes Rules Of The Reception Of
Reception Of Meanings
Meanings
Other Codes Incorporated
In Culture

Figure 3. The composition of an urban form in accordance with the requirements of the
orientation of balance (by the author) (Kantarek, 2008) p. 130, (Kantarek, 2013).
 1539

According to the definition given by Lynch in his book of 1953 (K. Lynch, Notes on City
Satisfactions (1953), [in:] (Lynch, 1991, pp.135-153): orientation is "… the sense of clear
relation of the observer with the city and its parts, and with the larger world around it. In the
simplest sense it may be taken as knowing where one is at any time, and how to reach any
other part." (p. 135). Although the concept is restricted to direct spatial relations and being
aware of them, it is part of a more general definitione given above.
However, orientation is treated here as one of the seven areas of City Satisfactions(beside:
Warmth and Attachment, Stimulus and Relaxation, Sensual Delight, Interest, Movement,
Shopping and Entertainment). This means that it is in no way general in nature. It is one of
the elements of satisfaction generated by a good form of a city; it does not determine other
activities of a man or a community.246.
K. Lynch regards orientation as way-finding, by which he means organization of a body
monitoring the environment: "… it now seems unlikely that there is any mystic "instinct" of
way-finding. Rather there is a consistent use and organization of definite sensory cues from
the external environment. This organization is fundamental to the efficiency and to the very
survival of free-moving life."247
And yet it is just the systems of orientation that form the basis for classifying the main
elements of the image of the city. "The systems of orientation which have been used vary
widely throughout the world, changing from culture to culture, and from landscape to
landscape. (…) examples of many of them: the abstract and fixed directional systems, the
moving systems, and those that are directed to the person, the home, or the sea. The world
may be organized around a set of focal points, or be broken into named regions, or be linked
by remembered routes. Varied as these methods are, and inexhaustible as seem to be the
potential clues which a man may pick out to differentiate his world, they cast interesting side-
lights on the means that we use today to locate ourselves in our own city world. For the most
part these examples seem to echo, curiously enough, the formal types of image elements into
which we can conveniently divide the city image: path, landmark, edge, node, and district."248
The question about Lynch’s concept of orientation comes back while reading his "Good
City Form" (Lynch, 1984). It seems to play a marginal part here, too.
Lynch presents the elements that constitute the basis for the spatial form of the city -
Vitality, Sense, Fit, Access, Control and two complementary ones
– Efficiency and Justice. They should be regarded as requirements of a good urban
environment.
The category defined as Sense (Lynch, 1984) pp. 131 – 150 includes: identity, structure,
congruence, transparency, legibility, unfoldingness and significance.
Depending on the size of the urban system Lynch distinguishes two situations concerning
orientation (within formal structure): "The next element of sense is formal structure, which
at the scale of a small place is the sense of how parts are fit together, and in a large settlement
is the sense of orientation: knowing where (or when) one is, which implies knowing how
other places (or times) are connected to this place. " (Lynch, 1984) p. 134.
The concept of orientation is interpreted differently, depending on the extent of
knowledge of the urban environment. Lynch points out that in a small and familiar place our
awareness and attention are not engaged since our intuition and habits are sufficient to make
use of the place.
In conclusion, the author’s approach to orientation in city space presented in the paper
differs from K.Lynch’s theory. It seems rather to concern the level which Lynch defines as

246
The ways of such orientation thought of as self-location are defined by Lynch (pp. 135-137) as
follows: directed lines, sequences, landmarks, spaces or areas, grid system, diffuse ["… compass
orientation only, from various effects: streets which run in one or two general directions, though not on
a grid (Bologna); large topographic features visible outside the city (Udine, Chicago); sunlight, etc."
(p. 137)], topographic and symbolic.
247
(Lynch, 1960) p. 3
248
(Lynch, 1960) pp. 7, 8.
1540

Sense (of settlement): "By the sense of settlement, I mean the clarity with which it can be
perceived and identified, and the ease with which its elements can be linked with other events
and places in a coherent mental representation of time and space and that representation can
be connected with nonspatial concepts and values."249
The wide scope of the concept of orientation in the city space brings to mind the opinion
of K.Obuchowski who wrote that " (…) we are taking into account all the levels of
orientation – from an instinctive backward movement of a burnt hand to the definition of the
meaning of one’s own life.”250
The presented concept of The Orientation of Balance based on the concept of The
Orientation in The Space of The City as an explication of the relations between man’s
orientation abilities implemented in the city space makes many things clear but does not
provide tools for action. Many urban practices nowadays ensure effective solutions to shape
urban space properly in this respect 251 but many situations are still out of control.
The above remarks were made from the point of view of visual perception and in relation
to the anthropogenic environment.
The reality is much richer than that. Perception comprises all the senses and the life of a
city is the phenomenon of life of all of us and various personal relations on a myriad of
levels.
The problems outlined in the book requires a broader perspective nowadays.252.
First, it concerns looking at perception as a whole – through all the senses. Orientation is
formed by various stimuli and received information and although the visual sphere prevails it
is to a varying extent complemented or co-created by the other senses.
There remains the question about the ways of perception. Between the associationist and
Gestalt perception theories there is a wealth of others (e.g. Reed’s theory of pattern
recognition, Gibson’s theory of features, Marr’s computational theory, Gibson’s ecological
theory) and each one highlights significant elements of the process.
Another important aspect of orientation is the manner in which the knowledge about the
possibilities of moving around is gathered consciously and deliberately. This is not only
investigation or asking the way but also using modern tools (GPS, the Internet).
Manipulating our attention is an increasingly important question these days. Not only do
we live in the world of information overflow but also we are subjected to various scenarios
that engage our attention. The scenarios employ more and more sophisticated measures and
mainly concern advertising but can also be of a more general nature through promoting a
particular lifestyle or simply a way of spending time.

249
(Lynch, 1984) p. 131.
250
(Obuchowski, 1967), p. 104
251
In (Kantarek, 2008) pp. 132-154 examples of such solutions have been presented: comprehensive
regulations, creation of new key sites for orientation and the redefining of the city space.
252
In 2009 and 2011 surveys on orientation in the space of a city were carried out.
The surveys were carried out in Evora (Kantarek, 2009) (Kantarek, 2012) in 2009 among a group
of students and tutors who had come there to attend a two-week workshop. The questionnaire was
filled in on the arrival and its purpose was to show the knowledge of the space of the city among the
people who had not been to Evora before. At the end of the stay, another questionnaire was filled in to
show the knowledge of the city the respondents were already familiar with. An interesting finding was
the fact that in the second survey, topographical features of the city were much more appreciated as
Elements of The Structure in Support of Orientation (even though the respondents had learnt about the
specific location of the historical city centre before); another point of interest was the appreciation of
the venue (Giraldo Square – the city’s main square) in the Landmarks category. Both elements were
also appreciated in The Most Important Elements of The Urban Structure category. In 2011 first year
students of the Faculty of Architecture were surveyed (Kantarek, 2011). In answer to the question:
"What spaces do you associate with Krakow? Name several." they enumerated sites, regions and
specific elements of landscape (edges, nodes, roads, dominants or accents did not count among
significant answers) Significant elements listed in answer to the question: "Which elements help good
orientation in the space of Stare Miasto" included nodes, accents squares and gates.
 1541

All the above questions are concerned with urban form. The reality of the three
dimensions of space and time can synthesize other, more elusive dimensions of life.
Nowadays, defending the form of the city is essential. It is one way to defend the
dimensions of the reality of our lives against the illusion that we can only live in virtual
dimensions and that the fragmenting of the physical space and time is justified and possible.
It is neither possible nor does it give grounds for seeking beyond them the earthly basis for
the coherence of man as a person 253 and hence of the life of a community.
We are concerned with a conflict, a clash or the situation that requires urban form to be
defended.
The concept of codes composition (Fig. 3.) explains a lot – it says that composition in
aesthetic terms is part of composition or harmony in a broader sense. Within the codes of the
form we deal with a composition of volumes, requirements of open spaces where we move
and a scope of meanings. The other codes transfer information (also through their form)
which can help or hinder orientation in space.
Can we control the arrangement of space so as to facilitate orientation to the maximum
extent? We seem to have reached the level of explaining and ordering notions rather than
possessing pragmatic tools.
How can we define the mutual requirements of urban form and life activities going on in
its dynamic and changeable contemporary reality to obtain such pragmatic tools ? What tools
should they be – of monitoring, control, prohibition or injunction ?
This is ,of course, the sphere of urban space management and there is a number of good
practices in this respect. They should be promoted and inspire further regulations.
How shall we fight for the form of the city, its typological clarity and good orientation
within it?
Since the city is, by definition, built on consensus, agreement – it is the agreement that is
the means. This implies a regulation that is enforced as well as sensitivity to the dynamically
changing needs of urban life and the stabilizing force of the built form of the city.
How can we build a kind of the Map of Orientation in the space of the city or a visual
information system that would be based on the form of the city, on the message concerning
the form? I do not mean another kind of coding through signalling codes – road signs or
pictograms but a kind of formally legible composition of elements of the form that would
facilitate orientation.
Some important areas are listed below: (i) Ordering the elements of the form by the
orientation of balance requirements basically means eliminating the excess of signalling
elements and mass communication elements. In some zones of the city there are regulations
in force (an example is Polish legal formula of Culture Park); (ii) Rearranging the image of
the city as viewed from the main access and transit roads (where signalling systems cannot be
questioned). This system of roads forms the basic division of the city area into vast urban
superblocks. The edges of these superblocks adjacent to the roads are filled in various ways
but it is those urban superblocks and the sites from which new panoramic views or vistas can
open that determine the orientating quality of communication sequences. It amounts to the
requirement of legibility of particular city districts and regions; (iii) The concept of the city of
small towns which has been popular for many years makes sense when primary residential
environment is taken into consideration. Identification with the site on the basis of the space
of the flat, house, neighbourhood or elementary educational or shopping facilities (local
shop) is insufficient. A possibly complete hierarchy of connections with other districts (more
distant neighbourhood, other functions) and the centre is necessary. The relationship between
the centre and the outskirts is an important reference point; (iv) It is worth recalling the
mechanisms defined by K. Lynch and referring to: (a) building the image of the city
(developed along familiar lines of movement, construction of an enclosing outline, by a basic

253
In philosophical terms it is worth noting the contradiction inherent in our western civilization:
individualism which is at its roots leads to the destabilizing of man’s identity as a person and negating
its individualization.
1542

repeating pattern, as a set of familiar regions or developed from a familiar kernel254) as well
as (b) related to stages of awareness, how parts are arranged in a structure (unrelated
elements, flexible relations of parts to one element, flexible structure, related elements, rigid
structure and multiplied connections255); (v) A particular role in the creation of the image of
the city is played by powerful forms. Jacek Gyurkovich w (Gyurkovich, 1999) writes that a
powerful form : „ … focuses the observer’s whole attention distracting it from other elements
which participate in the creation of spaces and reducing their role to that of a background”256.
The most important feature of the powerful form, beside attracting attention, is its emotional
effect through distinctness (shaping, inner organization, scale).
The author treats the powerful form as an extension of J.Żórawski’s concept of the strong
form. In brief, J. Żórawski’s theory257 is concerned with the perception and construction of
the architectural form and is based on Gestalt psychology. Żórawski distinguishes two
categories of form in relation to its environment: a strong form (when it dominates the
surroundings) or a weak form (when it does not assume a dominant role). In terms of internal
relations, he speaks of coherent forms (whose composition is fixed and unalterable) and free
forms (where the relationship between the elements can change with no consequences for the
whole) The concept of the powerful form is an extension of the strong form concept to
include urban relations.
I imagine the Map of Orientation in the space of a city to be an individual document for
each city that would oblige the city authorities to include its guidelines in the urban planning
system and which would also form the basis for creating the image, or images of the city for
the purpose of the Internet or advertising since orientation key points can differ in relation to
a place or person. The top-down formula should be supplemented and enriched with local
initiatives to create images of local communities. The map together with its documentation
could be thought as an element of the Open Book of Urban Form of The City.
In the case of Krakow it would be advisable to include the Map of Orientation in the
space of the city of Krakow in the Study of the Conditions and Directions of the Spatial
Management of Krakow and to maintain its character of a dynamic monitoring-based
document.

References

Gyurkovich J., (1999) 'Znaczenie form charakterystycznych dla kształtowania i percepcji przestrzeni.
Wybrane zagadnienia kompozycji w architekturze i urbanistyce', Wyd. Politechniki Krakowskiej,
Kraków
Kantarek A. A., (2009) 'Évora’2009. Ankieta dot. orientacji w przestrzeni miasta' typescript, Statistic
Survey - Adamiec A.
Kantarek A. A., (2011) 'Kraków. Ankieta dot. orientacji w przestrzeni miasta dla studentów 1 roku
WA PK' typescript, Statistic Survey – Polczyk R.
Kantarek A. A., (2012) 'The Tourist and the City. On Orientation in Unknown Urban Space', IFoU 6 –
TOURBANISM – the 6th Conference of the International Forum of Urbanism, Barcelona.
Kantarek A. A., (2013) 'On Orientation in The Space of The City', Lambert Academic Publishing,
Saarbrűcken.
Lewicki A., (1997) 'Procesy poznawcze i orientacja w otoczeniu', 1960, in T. Rzepa (red.)
'Psychologia w szkole lwowsko-warszawskiej', PWN, Warszawa
Lynch K., (1960) The Image of The City (The M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, London).
Lynch K., (1984) Good City Form (The M.I.T. Press, Cambridge, Massachusetts, London).
Lynch K., (1991) City Sense and City Design. Writings and projects of Kevin Lynch (The M.I.T. Press,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, London).

254
(Lynch, 1966) pp. 86, 87
255
Ibid, pp. 88, 89.
256
(Gyurkovich, 1999) p. 7
257
(Żórawski, 1973). Żórawski writes, inter alia, about four tendencies of the human psyche - to a
strong form, to a cohesive form, to the geometrization and to the limited number.
 1543

Obuchowski K. (1982) 'Kody orientacji i struktura procesów emocjonalnych', PWN, Warszawa

Obuchowski K. (1967) Psychologia dążeń ludzkich (PWN, Warszawa).
Żórawski J., (1973) O budowie formy architektonicznej (Arkady, Warszawa).
1544

Urban form and social output

Romulo Krafta
Department of Urbanism, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil.
E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract. Assuming that the ultimate purpose of the city is to provide support to human interaction
and that opportunities to social interaction are unevenly distributed across the urban fabric, this paper
reports some attempts to describe such a distribution, as well as to infer the role of urban form in it. In
order to do that, it is proposed, firstly, a method to describe urban form from its smallest components
up to the different urban fabric patches, to the entire spatial system, and second, a model to represent
social interaction as a process associated to the urban morphology. Both the spatial description and
the analytical model are discussed through the examination of some results, obtained through
simulation.

Key Words: urban morphology, spatial analysis, urban performance indicators

Introduction

Cities are places for social interaction (Batty, 2012, Bettencourt 2013, Jacobs, 1969). Social
interaction occurs across cities in many different ways; it can vary according to group size,
purpose, intensity, frequency, group composition and so one. It also can take place in
different locations and settings, from the privacy of residential rooms to many collective
gathering buildings to the open public space. All of them, regardless scale, type, location,
etc., contribute to the social output of a city. In this sense, social output encompasses the so-
called productive activities, as expected, as well as many others that invest in family,
friendship, love, culture and civilization. All of them flourish in the city, some in
concentrated ways, others scattered around, some daily, some occasionally, and depend upon
the city to carry on.
The most recent attempt to capture such a process in a unified urban model and to
describe it quantitatively has been by Bettencourt (2013); his model builds upon the notion
that each individual has an actual interaction area, defined by the average distance he or she
can cover in a day. The more mobile an individual is, the larger is its interaction, and
consequently its social output. But area is not the only variable for interaction definition, as
the presence of other people is essential, so Bettencourt considers an average density across
the entire urban area, so that eventual more disperse areas will be compensated by others
more dense. Mobility is, of course, defined by urban infrastructure, which puts urban actual
form as crucial to social interaction and output.
Urban form is uneven and hierarchical, it is also occupied by so many different activities
which contribute to its unevenness and hierarchy, some of those activities add to the basic
urban form differentiation, some others can create their own differentiation. Moreover,
mobility can vary widely within the urban fabric, all those evidences suggest that, despite the
average described by Bettencourt’s model being accurate, not only relevant differences in
social interaction can be found, but also urban spaces can perform better or worse, according
the their morphologic characteristics. The possibility of achieving a more morphologic based
representation of social interaction distribution suggests that not only our understanding of
the phenomenon would improve but our ability to act upon key components of city spatial
structure, aiming at performance improvement, could be better.
 1545

Theory, model definition

Assuming that the urban fabric is an aggregate of many components, it is relevant to identify
what they are, and how they are put together, from smallest urban bits. Figure 1 represents
that, suggesting that the urban atom would have two types of matter particles – built forms
BF and open public space PS, directly connected (A column in the figure), as well as other
non-matter particles, called interaction-machines IP (B column). These are force-carrier
particles of various kinds, associated to BFs, all sorts of institutions (families, shops, service
providers, industries, …), promoting specific interactions; associated to public spaces, other
group of more ill-defined institutions, promoting less controlled interactions (C column).
In C, the figure suggests different types of social interactions, such as SI1, which could be
strictly residential, SI3 & SI4 as two different types housed in a same built form, and SI2 as a
more complex social interaction process involving the same people of SI1, 3 and 4, as well as
other operators passing through the open public spaces. In this sense, the urban atom would
entertain a same group of people (residents and eventual service users) in different types of
social interactions, some more defined and controlled, indoors, and some less defined and
controlled, outdoors. It becomes clear that some social interactions have trivial descriptions
(residential, both isolated and grouped in condominiums), some are a matter of more careful
consideration, as they do not have a previously known population (shops, offices, schools,
hospitals), while public space is a mixture of local and passing by population.

Figure 1. An illustration of a urban atom: A: matter-particles built forms BF and open

public space PS; B: interaction machines IP of different types, each one corresponding
to an social institution; C: social interaction associated to each matter-particle (red
cycle arrows) and accumulation in the public space (blue arrows).

Urban molecules of different sizes and shapes are easily derived from the atom, such as
suggested in figure 2A. In the example, other particles are included, as open collective
(although not public) spaces, such as front gardens, halls and other built spaces available to
more than one interaction promoter IP. Molecules are, of course, joint together, forming the
actual fabric, as in 2B, and the whole city.
Now, considering that every instance of spatial configuration is likely to house some kind
of social interaction, the next step is to provide formal description to them. Social interaction
is, of course, a function of the number of individuals present at a certain place, interaction
with each other. The least a social interaction requires is two people, whereas social
interaction could involve pairs, as well as any other amount of individuals. The larger the
group, the higher the social interaction, in geometrical progression. Here social interaction
will be taken by its root variable, population size P, relativized by a parameter K, which
measures the specific social interaction’s relevance (intensity, frequency, proportion to the
whole social output). Social interaction is not cost-free, however, as individuals usually
1546

travel, sometimes striving to get to distant places, to put themselves in the right place at the
right time.

Figure. 2. Aggregates of urban atoms; in A a urban ‘molecule’ made out of built forms
BF (○○○○), collective open spaces (◊) and public open space (diamond); in B a second
order aggregation of many interconnected molecules.

𝑆𝐼 = 𝑓(𝑃, 𝐾, (−𝐶)) (1)

Starting from the smallest particle of the urban atom, the residential BF’s social
interaction population is the respective family, its relevance is probably high and the cost is
nil, as the individuals involved in the actual social interaction are already there. In the
equation 2, the expression (𝑃𝐼 ∗ 𝐶 𝑖 ) implies that cost is per capita, meaning that in order to
have interaction, Ci should be <1. For residential BFs, Ci is zero. It is noteworthy that the
opposite situation, in which cost is maximized, interaction could be null, or even negative. In
this sense, interaction costs can prevent interaction, creating a sort of interaction passive. The
possible values of K will be addressed later on.

𝑖
𝑆𝐼(𝐵𝐹𝑟𝑒𝑠 ) = [𝑃𝐼 − (𝑃𝐼 ∗ 𝐶 𝑖 )] ∗ 𝐾 𝑟𝑒𝑠𝐵𝐹 (2)

While residential BF’s social interaction is trivial, non-residential ones are more complex,
due to the fact that their actual population is not declared, as in residences, but made out of
individuals that travel from many other places, in order to interact at the given BF. One
possible way to proceed with its calculation is to consider all interaction promoters, that is,
service providers of one type competing for all potential consumers; in this situation, every
individual qualified as potential consumer is likely to choose the place of interaction based on
least distance, submitted to size and complexity of the offered interaction places. For every
service type, the whole pool of potential consumers will be split up among all places of
provision of that service, in different proportions, according to spatial distribution of
population and size/complexity of places of provision. A measure of that configuration,
called Convergence, is in Krafta (1996), and for the purpose of this work, could be taken as a
measure of attractiveness of every non-residential BF, helping to define each BF potential
population.
Despite being attracted to a specific IP, individual will necessarily be located at different
distances from it, meaning that each individual will bear a cost to travel from home to the
considered IP; such a cost can be appropriated through a travel time, taken as the sum of each
shortest path’s spaces’ time, measured by the quickest mean of transport, at worst traffic
situation. Normalized, so that the shortest travel time being zero (the case of an individual
living in the same space as the IP) and the longest being one (the most faraway place of
living) each individual’s actual travel time can be taken as its probability to carry out the
travel&interaction; the chance of the individual living in the same space as the IP being one
hundred per cent, whereas the most distant place being zero. In this sense, for each pair of
spaces in which A is where the non-residential BF is located and B is where the residence of
a potential consumer is located, the equation 2 applies, provided that population in B is
resized by the convergence value of A, and the cost is the sum of travel times of all spaces
 1547

linking A to B through the shortest path. The overall social interaction in the considered non-
residential BF will be the sum of all pairs A-n provided by the system. K is very high.

𝑗
𝑖
𝑆𝐼(𝐵𝐹𝐼𝑃𝑛 ) = ∑[(𝑃𝑗 ∗ 𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑣𝑖 ) − (𝑃𝑗 ∗ 𝐶𝑜𝑛𝑣𝑖 ∗ 𝐶 𝑖𝑗 )] ∗ 𝐾 𝐼𝑃𝑛 (3)
𝑖
𝑝
𝑖𝑗
𝐶 = ∑ 𝑡𝑗𝑝 (4)
𝑗

In the equation 3, ConvIPn (convergence) varies between 0-1, the same occurring to Ci, so
that the BF population will always be a part of total potential consumers of IPn, and the total
cost will be at most equal to total population. It is notable that total population of all IPs is
necessarily bigger that the total population of the city, as most individuals will be potential
consumers of more than one service, so that the whole numbers need a further normalization
based on the actual city population.
Collective spaces are usually placed in between BFs, the private realm, and the open
public space. Social interaction in there is performed by the same people living or using the
BFs attached to the referred CS. Reaching the CS from each BF involves a cost which is not
measured only by the corresponding (usually very small) elapsed travel time, but also the
overcoming of an institutional barrier, a locked door of sorts. K is low.

𝑗
𝑖
𝑆𝐼(𝐶𝑆𝐼𝑃𝑛 ) = ∑[𝑃𝑗 − (𝑃𝑗 ∗ 𝐶 𝑖𝑗 )] ∗ 𝐾 𝐼𝑃𝑛 (5)
𝑖

Open public spaces PS’s social interaction has two basic components: locally it works just
like a collective space, in which the population is the sum of all residents and other people
attracted to it by the interaction machines. Added to it there is the moving population, that is,
people passing through. Strong references on co-presence, that is, the relationship between
local people and individuals traveling across city spaces are in Hillier and Hanson (1984).
Estimation of flows, based on morphology is in Krafta (1994), a measure of centrality
adapted from Freeman’s betweenness centrality.
To each person present at a public space corresponds a travel cost. Residents will have to
cross one or two institutional borders, service users are already there, their travel cost already
accounted for. Following the method previously adopted, it can be assumed that travel cost
will range between 0 and 1, meaning that people moving from the most faraway place in the
system will have cost 1, which in practice make its interaction null. Social interaction in
public spaces is, therefore, represented by the following equation 6.

𝑆𝐼(𝑃𝑆 𝑖 ) = ∈ [[𝑃(𝐵𝐹𝑟𝑒𝑠
𝑖 𝑖
) − 𝐶𝑟𝑒𝑠 ] + [𝑃(𝐵𝐹𝐼𝑃𝑛 ) − 𝐶𝐼𝑃𝑛 ] + [𝑃(𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤) − 𝐶𝑓𝑙𝑜𝑤 ] (6)
∗ 𝐾 𝑃𝑆

Territorial domain

The method explained above suggests that travel time, or cost, is always maxim at the most
faraway location, which is obvious, and equals 1, meaning that the whole system’s
population is likely to be included in the global interaction process, in the sense that even the
most remote residential location will have a travel cost < 1 and therefore an interaction value
>1. More realistic and interesting is to consider that this condition does not always hold, and
thresholds should be considered, such as Marchetti’s (1994) invariant – half an hour, or the
observed city’s average travel time. With thresholds on, every BF holding a non-residential
Interaction promoter IP will have a territorial domain, constituted by all reachable spaces
1548

around it within the time limit. In this case, the normalized travel time value 1 won’t be at the
system’s border, but on the threshold, and all spaces outside the territorial domain will be
excluded from the considered BF interaction. This could be considered an interaction deficit,
to be compared to the actual social interaction, resulting in an indicator of performance M*.

Figure. 3. The notion of territorial domain in a one-dimensional city, defining the part
of the system holding actual interaction in a particular space, as well as the part of the
system excluded from it, therefore bearing a interaction deficit. The difference between
positive interaction (yellow zone) and interaction potential unfulfilled (pink zone) is an
indicator of performance M*.

Establishing a threshold is not trivial, as both travel mode and urban form are involved.
In general terms, urban form can be described through length, capacity and traffic density.
The latter can easily be estimated by one of many accessibility measures available, working
as a proxy for inverse speed and parking opportunity. However, such a description suits only
one transportation mode, the private car, or public, surface, transport systems that use
ordinary roads. For pedestrian travel mode, capacity is not relevant and speed is more
uniform. Multi-modal travels are even more complex.
Two territorial domains seem to be relevant: the first related to purpose travels ending at
the space being considered, and travels using that space as a link to elsewhere. For the latter,
only pedestrian travel will count, as people passing through in cars or buses won’t interact;
for the former, all means should be considered. Territorial domain for pedestrians can be
established once a distance/time limit is defined, using a simple accessibility algorithm. TD
for people traveling to the considered space has two options: point-to-point car travel, and
pedestrian-public transport-pedestrian one, provided that public transport runs on segregated
lanes and are, therefore, free from the ordinary traffic congestion. In these cases, it will be
necessary to proceed with time calculation, from length, capacity and traffic density, then to
apply an algorithm which builds up a spanning tree from the space in question up to the
threshold limit, calculating for every space visited, a population/cost factor.

Figure. 4. Spatial system (A) and graph representation of alternative space unit
description: (B) space is described as street segments, in (C) corners and street ends.

Space description is relevant here, figure 4 shows an idealized spatial system (A) and two
graph-representations, taking different space descriptions; the graph (B) considers space units
as street segments, whereas (C) takes space units as corners and street ends. It is easy to
realize that B representation is more intuitive and probably handier for population and
activity appropriation; on the other hand, C is better for distance/time description. Figure 4
 1549

shows also a possible public transport route (red dots and lines), running on segregated lane,
so that its speed is different from the ordinary traffic.
Up to this point, it has been described all interaction that a space unit can generate by
itself, both from its own population and from the visitors it can attract. However, nearby
space units, particularly those bearing commercial activities, are known to benefit from that
propinquity, case in which people visiting one is encouraged to visit, and therefore, interact
in the others as well. To this extent, space units can work together, as a macro molecule
(MM). Territorial domain is clearly of pedestrians, spatially defined by adjacency and
increasing cost varying with distance. Equation 7 captures this interaction

𝑖 𝑗 (7)
𝑆𝐼(𝑀𝑀𝐼𝑃𝑛 ) = ∈ [[𝑃(𝑃𝑆𝐼𝑃𝑛 ) − 𝐶𝑖𝑗 ] +] ∗ 𝐾 𝐼𝑃𝑛

Finally, the K parameter should be addressed; it has been valued as ‘high’, ‘low, ‘very low’,
etc., suggesting that each type of interaction adds differently to the overall social output of a
city and therefore K can be estimated. Indeed, it is easily seen that some interactions involve
large number of people, compared to others that take just a couple of it or little more, some
are very frequent, compared to others that occurs rarely, some are very well programmed and
controlled, compared to others that are next to random. All of them are socially required and
productive, each one in its own way, probably even those which look destructive. One
possible way forward is to consider the relative density of social interaction over the
population involved. On the one hand there is the residential instance, in which few people
develop and maintain constant interaction of each family member with every other; on the
other hand there is the public space, where a large population develop a few, eventual
interaction. In the former, it takes few people to get high level of interaction, in the latter it
takes large population to get low lever of interaction.

Experimentation

In order to provide some evidences on the effectiveness of the proposed models, some
controlled experiments were carried out. The city has been reduced to a one-dimensional
string of sequentially connected cells, in which one half side is removed, as showed in figure
5. In this way, the cell on the far right is the centre. This simplified city is supposed to grow,
from its most initial 2-cell embryo, up to 21 cells; in all its stages, the cells are filled with an
Alonso style (1964) activity and population distribution, although at some point a secondary
service centre is introduced, as explained later on. Total population in each stage is always
3X the number of residential cells.
Considering that built form constitution inside each cell is not specified (assumed as a
single built form), residential interaction computation is trivial – equals the population of
each cell, the same occurring with collective space’s interaction (non-existent), and public
space (again, interaction there equals the residence’s one). A little more interesting is to
observe how interaction in the centre occurs. Having no residential population of its own, the
red cell attracts service users from all existing residential cells, who have to travel along the
string. The simplified city implies that all cells are alike, meaning that infrastructure (roads)
is equal; in this way, it is expected that traffic fluidity is maxim at the border and minimal at
the centre (more congested). Traffic differential conditions at each cell have been taken as the
inverse of accessibility, that is, at the centre, where accessibility is higher, traffic conditions
is worse and vice versa. Length is equal for every cells, what makes the inverse of
accessibility the only variable defining the travel cost from each residential cell to the CBD;
this value has been initially normalized from zero (at the centre) up to one (at the border),
meaning that all population is within the centre’s range, although the cost of each one’s
actual interaction varies with distance. The computation of each residential cell’s contribution
to population at the centre is then made as a probability of each resident to take the trip; the
1550

ones living at the cell next to the centre is near 100%, the ones living at the most faraway is
near 0%.
Table 1 shows some results from a full 21 cell system, considered in three different ways:
a) having a evenly distributed population (3 residents in each cell) and no traffic fluidity
influence (only plain distance), b) population distributed according to Alonso’s general curve
and no traffic fluidity influence, and c) same as b, with traffic effect taken into account.
Situation b produces the highest interaction output, whereas situation c the lowest. This is
quite interesting, for it, first, do suggest why Alonso’s monocentric, non-linear population
distribution’s city is so right, as it seems to be the most efficient interaction generating spatial
configuration. It also suggests that it only works when the undermining effects of congestion
is minimized, otherwise it loses its density advantages. Table 1 also suggests that interaction
taking place at the centre involves only a portion of the total population, varying from 45 to
75%. This however does not mean that 25 to 55% of it is excluded from it, but that not
everybody will be interacting at a given time, although everyone will interact at some time.

Figure. 5. A One-dimensional half city made out of a string of 21 sequentially connected

cells. It is supposed to grow from a 2-cells embryo up to 21 cells. Population distribution
is as Alonso’s general city form curve. Jobs and services are at the centre.

Table 1. Results for a 21 cell system, considered in three different situations: A) having
a evenly distributed population and not suffering the effect of traffic congestion, B)
having a non-linear distribution of population and not affected by traffic congestion,
and C) same as b, with traffic effects.

A B C
Total population 60 60 60
Total interaction 28,5 45 27
% pop/interact 47,5 75 45

As a second step, the one-dimensional city has been examined while it grows from the 2-
cell seed. It has been done through the evolution of the M* interaction performance indicator.
M* is defined as the difference between actual produced interaction at a nominated space and
the interaction deficit at the same place. Interaction deficit is understood as the unperformed
interaction. In this sequence of experiments, a threshold point has been adopted. Threshold
point defines the territorial domain for the considered centre, it is assumed that, either for
preference or travel restrictions, interaction will only be possible for people located within
the territorial domain, leaving anybody outside it excluded from it. Inverse accessibility, as
well as travel times are calculated so that cost at the threshold will be 1, resulting in a 0%
interaction probability for those located just out of it. In the case of this experiment, threshold
point was arbitrarily established, although in more realistic situations, it would replicate
average travel times effectively experienced in a particular city, or the invariant travel time
suggested by Marchetti.
Figure 6 displays evolution of actual interaction (blue), interaction deficit (green) and M*
(red) at the centre of a system growing from a 2-cell seed (position 2 in the X axe) up to 7
cells, considering Alonso population distribution, homogeneous infrastructure, and traffic
effects represented by the inverse of accessibility. It is seen that M* grows with actual
 1551

interaction growth from the beginning, but soon enough it falls down, crossing the X very
quickly. This performance is directly related to provision of mobility infrastructure, in the
sense that considering it evenly distributed, the system would have less than required road
capacity in the central cells (and certainly more than required at the border). The green zone
in the graph represents the interval in which CBD’s interaction output is positive, red zone is
where interaction deficit exceeds the actual one.

Figure 6. Performance indicators for the central space of a system growing from a 2-cell
seed. M red curve suggests that social interaction at the centre is crucially dependent
upon mobility infrastructure, as congestion effect at the most central cells cause the M
indicator to fall sharply, becoming negative.

Figure 7 displays the evolution of the same system, in which a secondary service
provision location is considered at the precise cell that causes the M indicator to become
negative. The introduction of a new service location introduces a competition between the
two centres for potential users, which is estimated by the measure of convergence. In this
particular case, convergence of the principal service centre, which had been 1, falls to 0.76
(implying that the new one starts off with 0.24 convergence. It is seen that the introduction of
this new service location not only stops the M fall, but makes it to perform positively again,
near the level previously experienced (but still a bit lower). The graph captures this time the
effect of spatial configuration on the social interaction, as M performance varies with
changes in service locations and consequently with relative distances and mobility
infrastructure provision.

Figure. 7. Performance indicators for the central space of a system growing from a 2-
cell seed, with two service centres. M red curve suggests that social interaction at the
centre is fairly dependent upon spatial configuration, as accretion of a new service
location makes it return to positive performance.
1552

A third experiment with the same system has been carried out, this time simulating the
effect of a transport system. To do this, in the last (eleventh one) step of simulation, it was
assumed that, from the border, every other cell of the string were interconnected without the
traffic effect (so those direct connections would be either underground or exclusive bus
lanes). The display of indicators performances are in the figure 8. It is clearly noticeable the
sharp upward tendency introduced in the M evolution by this, confirming the strict
dependence of social interaction on mobility services. It is, then, expected that the
introduction of transport in earlier stages of the system’s growth would significantly change
both the road infrastructure and spatial configuration’s dependence of M, probably retarding
and smoothing its decay.
Finally, figure 9 displays, on the left side, M for all system’s cells, and on the right the
overall M performance. On the left, red and purple thick lines catch the two service centres,
whereas the others are residential. On the right side, blue line describes the overall system’s
M performance without transport, and the red one, a bit displaced, shows how the transport
would make things change. The first graph displays two different types of social interaction,
the economically productive ones, in spaces where interaction is more intense, and the
family-related ones, in residential spaces. Other types have been omitted, in spite of being
real and operational. The right-side graph, summing up all the system’s social interaction,
combines different kinds of interaction and, in this way, should take measures to weight
adequately each one. This issue has not been approached here, so that the graph is just a
demonstration, focused more on the comparison of performances with and without taking
transport into consideration.
The simulation described above does not include interaction in the streets, in order to do that
another set of calculations would be required, according the proposed model. Nevertheless, in
this simple spatial configuration, it is quite predictable (increasing quantity of people in the
streets from the border to the centre) and it would not change the tendencies previously
described. Further levels of spatial aggregation are also left untouched; if unfolded, cell
aggregation could reveal instances of social interaction potentially able to change the M
overall profile, but still reinforcing the role of central spaces

Figure 8. Performance indicators for the central space of a system growing from a 2-
cell seed, with two service centres and the introduction of a transport system in the last
step of the simulation. M red curve suggests that social interaction at the centre is
deeply dependent upon transportation, as accretion of a traffic-free transport line
makes it shoot upwards.
 1553

Figure. 9. Left, M curves for all cells of the system, along evolution from 2 to 21 cells;
right, M overall performance with and without transport provision.

Discussion

There are two aspects of urban dynamics addressed in this work, the intertwining relationship
among spatial configuration, mobility infrastructure and transportation, and the performance
of spaces and parts of the city in the social interaction promotion. The model, as well as the
few experiments reported in this paper, has suggested a meaningful relationship among those
elements of the city, being urban form at the very heart of it. Indeed, both spatial
configuration and mobility infrastructure are the urban form’s actual middle name, they are
intrinsic to urban form; even transport systems are themselves conditioned by urban form.
The reported simulation has taken urban form at its very basics, although it has allowed the
necessary transparency, and so, allowed for a more controlled experimentation. It has
provided early evidence on the pros and cons of the monocentric city and accumulated
density, but most important, it has revealed an intricate interplay of scales within the urban
system. From the most private bit of built form to the entire urban system, the city offers a
variety of opportunities for social interaction, where the same individuals do perform
different kinds of social interactions, within different groups. In this way, the model could
have been revealing a sort of scaling functionality in the urban form, not only in its day-to-
day operation but also in its long term fine tuning involving changes in location, linkage, and
space provision.
The M indicator deserves a few words too; taking a relationship between effective social
interaction and not fulfilled one, it could be indicating a sustainability dimension, in the sense
that spaces displaying bad M scores would not be coping with its most fundamental purpose.
More revealing, however, seems to be the global M, taken from the entire system, which
more properly indicates the city’s fulfilment of its fundamental endeavour. Nevertheless, the
ability to determine each space’s particular performance could be precious for planning and
design purposes.

References

Alonso, W. (1964) “Location and Land Use” (Harvard University Press)

Batty, M. (2013) “The New Science of Cities” (MIT Press)
Bettencourt, L, (2013) “The Origin of Scaling in Cities”, Science 340, 1438
Hillier, B., Hanson, J. (1984) “The Social Logic of Space” (Cambridge University Press)
Jacobs, J. (1969) “The Economy of Cities”, (Vintage Books, N York)
Krafta, R. (1994) “Modelling Intra-Urban Configurational Development”, Environment & Planning B
– Planning and Design 21, 67-82
Krafta, R. (1996) “Urban Convergence: Morphology and Attraction”; Environment & Planning B –
Planning and Design 23, 37-48
1554

Marchetti, C. (1994) “Anthropological Invariants in Travel Behaviour”, Technological Forecasting

and Social Change 47, 75-88
 1555

Mapping and typo-morphological inferences in low-lying

coastal Tianjin

Linchao Wang1, Li Li1,2, Qingyu Gong1

1
Tianjin University, School of Architecture, 92 Weijin Rd., Nankai,300072,Tianjin,
P.R. China 2BIAD & JAMA Co., Ltd., Beijing, P.R. China. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. Nowadays, a large number of Chinese towns and villages are undergoing an
unprecedented transformation. The redevelopment normally favours a one-off urban design method
and replaces the traditional fabrics with identical new faces. Although typo-morphological analysis
is widely used to inform the characteristics of urban structures, not many studies focus on the role of
environmental elements in pattern formation and infer the underlying forces of the structuring in
coastal low-lying areas. In this paper, we first mapped 27 coastal villages and towns in Tianjin and
extracted some key elements such as street networks, homesteads and three-section courtyard houses.
We inferred the driving forces for the origins, expansions and transformations by using the historical
and current satellite imagery along with water-related toponyms. We then classified the built
environment of the villages into a three dimensional, typo-morphological matrix, and used
‘complexity’ to categorise the compositions formed by the elements across the three classes. Our
approach, which is certainly not tied to the studies of villages, is obviously applicable to any other
informal settlements in urban areas. Except for some impossible compositions in the matrix, the rest
would offer a template for urban design and new forms generation.

Key Words: typo-morphology, mapping, toponymy, complexity, coastal lowland

Introduction

Although typo-morphological analysis is widely used to inform the characteristics of urban

structures, not many studies focus on the role of environmental elements in low-lying coastal
areas. Renowned for being lowland as the Netherlands is, the hydrological foundation for
urbanism has not been rediscovered until recently (Hooimeijer et al., 2005; Hooimeijer and
Geldof, 2007; Hooimeijer, 2011) and moreover, few studies have applied typo-morphology.
Hooimeijer et al. commenced to investigate the transformation of Dutch cities with water and
water infrastructures a decade ago, where the taxonomy of water towns has been established.
Based on the water features and hydraulic infrastructures where a town is adjacent to, located
in or situated on, the Dutch water towns are categorised into coastal towns, dune towns, sand
ridge towns, river towns, dyke towns, dam towns, etc. According to the topography in which
a town is located, more categories include polder towns, peat polder towns, geest towns,
mound towns, brucht towns, etc. Hooimeijer summarized the structure characteristics or
interrelations of the water, road networks and buildings for most water town types. The
classification provides valuable insights for profiling the relationship between water features
and urban forms. Nonetheless, citing an instance for each class is limited to performing typo-
morphological analysis at the plot scale.
The use of typo-morphology has a long tradition in analysis of urban transformation. A
few restrictions limit its application to the non-urban areas: firstly, the analysis is laborious
and relatively subjective; secondly, the method is strongly context-dependent and hardly
applicable to the homogenous fabrics of new developments or data sparse areas (e.g. informal
developments); thirdly, the classic analysis focuses more on the built-form than
environmental attributes. Apart from some continued applications to the analysis and
evaluation of urban environments (Osmond, 2010; Wang, et al, 2013), there is an increasing
interest in applying typo-morphology to urban design and planning (Gil, et al., 2012).
Marshall and Gong (2009) developed a concept framework for the specification of a pattern
1556

typology that could be used for either understanding an existing pattern or specifying a future
one. A more fashionable method is to use pattern recognition and data mining to support
information exploration, analysis and clustering. The basic idea of this method is to
decompose the objects into geometric entities or morphological constitutions, which can then
be defined by a set of measurable attributes. These geometries generate combinations, i.e.
morphotypes, and produce accumulated attributes when combined, which can be classified
into homogeneous groups by appropriate algorithms. Computer has advantages in dealing
with laborious work to develop a consistent classification, distinguishing typological
regularities and further, may create new geometric features to facilitate future design works
(Serra, et al., 2012; Gil, et al., 2012; Chaszar, et al., 2013). In this paper, we will study the
relationship between the hydro-driven forces and built-forms in the peri-urban and rural areas
in Tianjin by using maps, remote sensing images, and water-related toponyms. Characterized
by the one-storey, three-section courtyard houses built on homesteads, settlements in the non-
urban areas are organised by the ad hoc ‘self-regulations’. Homesteads behave as the
Conzenian plots (Conzen, 1960) and act as an ‘engine’ of the urban structuring. Therefore,
we will adopt Conzenian approach to define the corresponding complexes of plan elements.

Toponymic typologies of low-lying settlements

Ancient toponyms can contribute to studies on the origin and evolution of settlements, and
water-related toponyms can help reveal settlement relationships to water during early phases
of occupation. If the name of a settlement contains a water-related character, this settlement
likely originated along or close to a water body. Nearly all of the major water-related
characters can be identified in the names of over 5,000 currently used administrative division
names in Tianjin. Such characters include "sea (hai, 海)" and "ocean (yang, 洋)", which
represent water bodies that cover broad surfaces; "river (jiang, 江; he, 河)", "canal (qu, 渠)",
"ditch (gou, 沟)" and "flow (liu,流)", which represent linear water bodies; and "lake (hu, 湖;
po, 泊)", "pond (tang, 塘)", "shallow lake (dian, 淀)" and "pool (ze, 泽; chi, 池)", which
represent planar water-bodies. In addition to these easily recognisable water-related
characters, geographical names in Tianjin also describe river terrain and topographies,
providing geographic information on the origins of settlements in connection to water bodies.
Many of these names do not possess water-related characters or may have unique meanings
that differ from conventional understandings. According to studies by Zhou (2012) and Tan
(2005), a geographical name containing a "circle (quan, 圈)" denotes an area that was once
positioned along a meander bend, and a geographical name containing a "mouth or head (kou,
口; zui, 嘴; or tou, 头)" denotes an area that may have been located along a confluence or on
the intersection of waterways. Certain geographical names may even provide information on
the topographical characteristics of a settlement. For example, "heap (tuo, 坨)", "platform (tai,
台)" and "Gu (gu, 沽)" translate to "mound", "high ground" and "central highland in water",
respectively. Village names containing the characters for "dyke (di, 堤)", "dam (ba, 坝)", etc.
likely denote a settlement was built along a dyke or on a dam that would protect against
flooding. Geographical names containing the characters for "islet (ting, 汀)", "beach (tan,
滩)" and "mattress (fa, 垡)" indicate areas located on flat, waterfront terrain, although there
are slight differences between these terms. "Islet (ting, 汀)" refers to a small flat waterfront
area, "beach (tan, 滩)" refers to a large depositional area that becomes exposed during the dry
season, and "mattress (fa, 垡 )" refers to land that is reclaimed by an army after the
sedimentation of an older river. Geographical names containing the characters for "pit (wo,
窝)" and "depression (wa, 洼)" may refer to the villages that were once located in low-lying
swampland. Water-related geographical names can thus provide additional information when
topographic data are limited.
 1557

The identification of spatial features

We selected the sub-basin of Hai River as the study area. It locates in a coastal alluvial plain,
surrounded by the Yongding New River, Waihuan River, Ziya River, Duliu River Diversion
and the Bohai Sea (Figure 1a). It is characterised by dense water systems with interlaced
rivers, the functions of which include flood discharge, transportation, drainage, sewerage and
water supply for agricultural production.
Methods of visual comparison and element mapping using both historical and recent
satellite images were applied to explore the influence of environments on village siting and
expansion. Based on the principle of well-preserved village form, which refers to villages
that do not combine with other villages and that retain the traditional courtyard living
structure, 25 villages and two towns were selected as the objects of the study (Figure 1b).
These objects cover the Xiqing, Jinnan and Binhai New Regions, which are located in the
southern section of the study area and are especially concentrated in the southwest area of
central Tianjin. According to the toponyms, nearly half of these villages may have a close
relationship with water. For example, the character "tai, 台" in Xueweitai (薛卫台) Village
and Chentaizi (陈台子) Village, the character "gu, 沽" in Gegu (葛沽) Town and Xinigu (西
泥沽) Village and the character "tuo, 坨" in Xilantuo (西兰坨) Village all refer to waterfront
highlands; the character "kou, 口" in Nanlibakou (南里八口) Village refers to an intersection
of waterways; the character "wo, 窝" in Zhangjiawo (张家窝) Town refers to a depression;
and the character "shuigao, 水高" in Shuigaozhuang (水高庄) Village directly refers a high
water level. The majority of the other villages were named using a "surname + Zhuang"
structure. The main sources of data used include a digital 1:10000 line topographic map,
Google Earth satellite images (hereafter referred to as GE images) and historical satellite
images collected through the U.S. CORONA program (hereafter referred to as CORONA
images). The digital line topographic map was prepared in 2002. The GE images were
captured from 2000 to 2014. Because many villages in the study area were demolished over
the past five years and the quality of the 2004 GE images is relatively high, 2004 GE images
serve as the primary source of element extraction. The CORONA images primarily cover the
left oblique section of the study area and provide relative high quality data for 1967 and 1970.
Although they show the approximate boundaries of built areas and farmland textures, it was
in some cases difficult to distinguish linear water bodies from roads and ponds from
fields/grass/wasteland.
Mapping of the first decade of 21 century village morphology was conducted for all of the
research objects. Using water bodies and farmland as the geographical environmental factors
and streets and homesteads as the interactive artificial construction factors, elements related
to village morphology, including natural and artificial water bodies, street networks and
homesteads, were extracted. Most natural water bodies (rivers, streams, depressions, ponds,
etc.) were extracted from the 1:10000 line topographic map, which was compared to the GE
images. When necessary, minor manual adjustments to the comparative results were carried
out. The extraction process for the street network was more complex than that of the water
bodies, and we extracted streets of three levels, including crossing roads, main streets and
lanes. It is inappropriate to classify street networks solely according to absolute road width.
Thus, using the GE images as the control, the streets were classified according to their
functions and relative widths in addition to other characteristics. A crossing road generally
refers a road that crosses the core area of a village and that connects to other regions; the
main street is a street that encloses a block following a homogeneous pattern; and a lane is a
path that connects individual homesteads. Lanes that have developed spontaneously tend to
have a width of only two to three meters and are thus not easily recognisable through the GE
images. However, after removing all homesteads from a block, the remaining space is
primarily composed of paths to homesteads. These particular street networks were thus not
directly extracted in this study. Homestead borders and internal courtyards were extracted
1558

through visual judgments of the GE images as well as through hand-drawing with judgment
bases comprising traditional local residential courtyard formats, shading from the boundary
walls, the ages of adjacent buildings and so on. Meanwhile, public buildings in the village
were extracted.

Figure 1. Location maps: a) Hai river sub-basin in which the villages and towns are
located; b) Locations of 25 villages and two towns.

Limited by the photographic range, the CORONA images cover only fourteen out of the
27 research objects. They were used to infer the siting causes and expansion driving forces of
village primarily through visual comparisons with GE images.

Inferring the location and structural evolution

We used Corona satellite imagery to infer the siting history of the villages. According to the
type of the water body to which a village is adjacent, we divided the villages into five main
categories. The first category is composed of villages that are located adjacent to a major
water course. Dangcheng Village (当城村) and Shuigaozhuang Village (水高庄村) are
located outside the right bank of the Ziya River; Xiniantuozui Village (西碾坨嘴村) is
located across the Nanyun River and was constructed along the sinuous embankment. Rivers
close to Dangcheng Village and Xiniantuozui Village follow a north-south orientation, and
both of the villages exhibit comb-like structures, with the comb teeth perpendicular to the
river. Rivers adjacent to Shuigaozhuang Village follow a southwest-northeast orientation, and
this village has a comb-like structure lying perpendicular to the river that follows the northern
section of the river for approximately 80 meters. A large tract of land southward was
positioned at a 60° angle to the river, with buildings distributed in the south-easterly direction.
The second category includes villages that are located at the junction of a tributary and a
larger water course. Beiyang Village (北洋村) is located approximately 1,000 meters from
 1559

the point where Weijin River flows into Hai River. Xiniigu Village (西泥沽村) is located
along the eastern side of the old channel of the Hai River, which is located 500 meters south
of the junction of the old Hai River and the current Hai River. The western boundary of the
village is positioned approximately 100 meters away from the old Hai River.
The third category accounts for villages that are located at the intersection of several small
waterways. As it was not easy to identify small streams and roads from the CORONA images,
we primarily made judgements based on the identification of sinuous morphologies. We
therefore speculate that the Nanlibakou Village was once located in a floodplain at the
intersection of multiple streams.
The fourth category encompasses villages that are located close to a constructed waterway.
The constructed waterway identification from the CORONA images requires considerations
of river names (Irrigation River, Diversion River, Drainage channel, etc.), shapes (straight)
and related historical information. It is evident that few of the villages studied are located
close to a constructed waterway, and the dominant orientation of the villages is north-south
with no perpendicular or parallel relationship to constructed waterways.
The fifth category includes villages located close to a pond. It was observed that most
villages that are not adjacent to a natural river are positioned next to a pond, and some
villages are positioned close to multiple ponds, such as Xiaobianzhuang Village (小卞庄村),
Gaojia Village (高家村), Xiaodianzi Village (小甸子村), Shizhuangzi Village（石庄子村）,
Yuejiakai Village (岳家开村) and Zhoulizhuang Village (周李庄村). For example, the area
of Wangzhuangzi Village (王庄子村) is divided into two sections positioned at a distance of
approximately 150 meters apart, and each section is located adjacent to a pond. These ponds
are typically fairly large, covering up to several thousand square meters. Certain ponds
exhibit irregular morphologies, while others show regular morphologies with border ridges.
Due to the relationships of village forms to water bodies in 1967 and 1970, the coastal
area in Tianjin is a low-lying area, and the selection of locations for settlement was affected
by comprehensive considerations of many factors, including water usage, flood avoidance
and proximity to water. Proximity to an open water body represents the most important
driving force. As long as flooding can be avoided, people prefer to live as close to water body
as possible. Accordingly, the villages were located along river embankments. In cases where
a river was not especially wide, villages tended to develop along both sides of the river.
When a nearby river was not readily accessible, villages primarily developed around ponds.
Topography is also an essential factor for siting a settlement. Several villages are located on
large tracts of farmland far from water and roads, and some settlements separated into two
parts over the course of development. We speculate that the relatively high terrain on which
these villages were established may have been selected to avoid flooding. Settlement location
selection was not affected by constructed waterways because they were just excavated in
recent decades. Moreover, the names of Chentaizi Village, Shuigaozhuang Village, Xinigu
Village and Nanlibakou Village reflect consistencies between village names and their
geographical features. While the character "pit (wo, 窝)" in Zhangjiawo Town (张家窝镇)
implies "low-lying", this could not be verified due to missing elevation data in the existing
maps (Figure 2).
Following 30 years of development, the settlement area of Dangcheng Village and
Shuigaozhuang Village along the Ziya River not only expanded to the entire area surrounding
the river but also spread across the road (the original outer boundary) toward outside
embankment. Beiyang Village and Xiniantuozui Village, which originally crossed a river,
became completely fused. Ponds that were originally located along the edges of the
settlements were later located within villages, and some ponds were even located at the
centres of villages. Except for the pond adjacent to Xiniantuozui Village, which decreased
slightly in area, the area of the other ponds did not change significantly, and the pond
boundaries were smoothed. Large ponds were typically found along the edges of expanded
villages. In fact, the southern boundary of Shizhuangzi Village (石庄子村) fully invaded
adjacent ponds, resulting in an interwoven pattern of built area and water body. If constraints
1560

had not limited the pattern of develop, the village would have expanded in a fan shape facing
south. A village would expand southeast if a crossing traffic lies to the east of the village.
Likewise, it would expand southwest if a crossing traffic lies to the west of it. Only when
space for expansion southward is limited will the village grow northward. During the
development stage of a village, the orientation of the homestead will be adjusted according to
the farmland orientation. Fine, cultivated traces of farmland (“canvas grid”) limited the
growth of the street network and homestead. The old farm road became the basis of the street
network. The developed village boundaries are largely composed of peripheral roads,
drainage ditches and farm ridges that create neat borders. When the area of a farmland block
was small with changes in texture orientation, the local border of the village was neat while
the overall outline developed into a complex polygonal shape (Beiyang Village).
In summary, we conclude that the environmental factors that drive a village to expand
include closeness to water, storm drainage, crossing road and living habits. The initial
requirements of water access and flood avoidance at the time of village siting gradually
lessened with the influence of recently available household tap water and with the
construction of Duliu River Diversion. We inferred that the preservation of ponds addressed
drainage needs, and more importantly, lacking of soil.
We then compared the 27 village street network structures obtained through mapping
(Figure 3). Of these 27 villages, 26 possess a grid street network structure that is longer along
the north-south orientation and shorter along the east-west orientation. Road networks close
to a river typically exhibited an orientation perpendicular to the river as well as another
orientation parallel to the river, thereby causing deformation based on the river curve. Along
the peripheries of large ponds, road networks form loop or alternative routes and may be
directly interrupted by the presence of a small pond. Other village road networks adapt to
farmland textures based on ridge orientations. Although most of the street networks originate
from a regular grid, the internal texture is no longer a grid structure if seen from a scale no
larger than a block. We therefore further investigate the characteristics of village textures at a
plot scale.

Classifying the interactively computational settlements

Using Conzenian approach, the planes of the villages and towns contain three distinct
complexes of plan elements: streets/street-blocks, plots (homesteads) and their aggregation in
street-blocks, and buildings within those homesteads. Texture characteristics are difficult to
describe. From the perspective of physics, Salingaros drew from theories of computational
complexity and classified urban substantial morphologies into four categories: interactive
computation, non-interactive computation, random and non-computational. Among these
classifications, non-interactive computation is primarily conducted through a planning
approach that employs strong compositions, and the random category refers to the so called
parametric design in recent years. These two categories are not common in villages. The
texture of the villages in this study includes two extreme cases of interactive computation and
non-computational forms, and the former is dominant. However, the degrees of "interaction"
were different for the two extreme forms.
 1561

Figure 2. Comparisons between the historical and recent forms of villages.

1562

Figure 3. The relationship between the street networks and water systems.
 1563

Since Salingaros did not subdivide the class of "interactive computational" form, we
devised a method that facilities the sub-classification and cross combinations of the three
plan elements. The elements of each level were expressed as a polygon or combination of
polygons of different forms, and the orientation and length variations (abbreviated Ov and Lv,
respectively) of the polygon edges were used together to evaluate the richness of information
for this element. A value of Ov1Lv1 indicates that changes in orientation and length are small;
Ov2Lv2 indicates that changes in orientation and length are large; and Ov1Lv2 and Ov2Lv1
indicate that changes in orientation and length are small in one instance and large in the other.
Because local resident house orientation requirements are relatively homogeneous (south-
facing), the Ov1Lv2 category represents more self-selection. Ov1Lv1, Ov2lv1,Ov1Lv2 and
Ov2Lv2 show the information richness in the order of simplest to most complex. For the sake
of simplicity, these are expressed with the values 1, 2, 3 and 4, respectively. For example, S1
may represent an orthogonal street system that is nearly equal in width and interval. Next, an
inter-level crossing was executed for each element.
The method involves first defining combinations of streets and homesteads in various
classifications (Figure 4a) and then cross-combining these combinations with each category
after the screening of results (Figure 4b). Three major screening criteria were applied: 1) the
information richness for high-level elements should be lower than that of low-level elements
(e.g., the information richness of streets should be lower than that of homesteads so that the
S2H1, S3H1, S3H2, S4H1, S4H2 and S4H3 combinations may be excluded); 2) the
information richness of orientations should be consistent with each other when plan elements
at different levels are cross combined. Hence, the compositions formed by elements from the
odd-number classes with elements from even-number classes, or vice versa, e.g. S1H2,
S3H4,S1H1B2,S4H4B4, etc., were deleted; 3) since buildings in villages are all self-built, the
combinations involving B1 and B2 were also excluded. After verifying the above principles
through real village comparisons, we obtained the ‘six basic compositions’ in the order of
simplest to most complex: S1H1B3, S2H2B4, S1H3B3, S2H4B4, S3H3B3 and S4H4B4
(Figure 6). For simplicity, we used I, II...VI, to denote the above six basic compositions. The
six settlements of Dangcheng Village, Shuigaozhuang Village, Xinigu Village,
Xiaobianzhuang Village，Xiaodianzi Village, and Yuejiakai Village were selected for a case
study to further investigate internal temporal and spatial morphology changes in villages at
the scale of the plot.
Following the above complexity classification model, the villages were classified into
varying levels of complexity for the preparation of a grey tone map. Town and village
construction boundaries over the two different periods were then superimposed onto the grey
tone map. We also calculated the weighted complexity of the two periods (Figure 6). We
found that all six villages showed a trend of a gradual decrease in morphological complexity
from the village centre to the perimeter, or from one side to another. The morphological
complexity level showed a specific correlation with the phase of the village construction. The
settlement area morphological complexity levels were dominated by V and VI before 1970
and by I and II at the first decade of 21 century. Thus, rather than overall reconstruction, the
growth of these six villages was primarily driven by external expansion. Borders of high
complexity in the village centre experience more disruption than the less complex outer
boundaries of the lower peripheral region. Public constructions are primarily located in the
boundary areas between two levels of complexity, indicating that public buildings were
constructed during periods of village expansion.
1564

a . Combinations of streets and homesteads b . Combinations of streets, homesteads and buildings

Figure 4. Selected typo-morphological matrix showing the inter-level combinations of

the three elements: streets, homesteads and buildings.

Figure 5. Selected six combinations shown in the village segments.

 1565

Figure 6. Degree of complexity of the tempo-spatial morphology of six villages.

Inference of homestead-scale interplays

We also examined interactive patterns between homesteads, streets and water bodies. The
homestead is the smallest unit of the village environment. Deformations of the road network
will thus be affected by homestead aggregation. From 1967 to 2004, homesteads located
along village boundaries gradually compacted from loose formations, and the homesteads
that were built later on have not always been located adjacent to existing homesteads. With
the splitting of households and the arrival of migrant populations, open spaces within villages
were gradually occupied. New homesteads were constructed based on existing homesteads
and roads, and road borders were gradually defined by homesteads positioned along both
road sides.
Homesteads exert the greatest impact on road network morphologies with respect to
entrances and angular distributions. The courtyard style house possesses only three entrances
along the east, south and west walls. An east-west lane can thus provide the entrance to the
north side of a homestead, while a north-south lane road can provide east and west entrances
to a homestead. The road network structure of the villages thus follows a grid morphology
with lanes of a north-south orientation and with main streets following an east-west
orientation. In a strict regular grid, the space between two lanes comprises the width of two
homesteads. Homesteads are thus not only affected by the overall pattern of the road network
1566

but are also affected by street linearity. The shape of a single homestead forms a roughly
regular rectangle with at least one side of the building lying perpendicular to a water body or
road. In spontaneous morphologies, when the border of a water body in a village is irregular,
the orientation of the homesteads adjacent to this water body is adjusted accordingly, forming
a grid with deformations that are approximately parallel or perpendicular to the water body.
We observed a combination of homestead areas following differing orientations, suggesting
that these homestead had been planned as integrated zones.
In addition to being affected through a bottom-up process by homesteads, the intercepted
texture findings of this study show that road networks may also be destroyed through top-
down processes of macro-control. The satellite image of Hanjiashu Village (韩家墅村)
shows an oblique crossing road lined with buildings along both sides, with homesteads along
the road boundary that do not respond to the road orientation, denoting the occurrence of
splicing(Figure 7). This road was thus developed after the village texture had already been
established.

Figure 7. An oblique street running through the Hanjiashu.

Conclusions and discussions

Inspired by Conzenian approach to interpreting urban forms with three classes of elements
and Salingaros’ thoughts on the urban forms as computational complexity, we classified and
mapped the built environment of the low-lying villages into a three dimensional, typo-
morphological matrix. Here, the hierarchical method of traditional typology is challenged by
the seemingly homogenous villages where elements at different classes are frequently twisted.
We used ‘complexity’ to categorise the compositions formed by the elements across the three
classes, and ‘information richness’ to classify the properties of elements within the same class.
When completely listed, we would gain 64 compositions and form a total set of the degrees
of ‘complexity’. For the sake of simplicity, we picked out six possibilities out of the 64
compositions and assured that no compositions from our villages fell out of the scope. Our
approach, which is certainly not tied to the studies of villages, is obviously applicable to any
other informal settlements in urban areas. Except for some impossible compositions in the
matrix, the rest could offer a template for urban design and urban form generation. Our
method, however, stays in qualitative analysis, which indeed relies on an analyser’s
intuitiveness.
 1567

Although not widely verified, our method lends help to understand the formation of low-
lying settlements in coastal Tianjin. The small sample analysis suggested that the older the
part of a village was the higher degree of the complexity it exhibited. The only exception,
Xinigu Village, which demonstrates an equally high complexity throughout the history, is
because the village has been surrounded with abundant water features. The high complexity
arises when frequent interactions between the plots and water features occur. Similar to the
research into the history of Dutch water cities, many low-lying settlements originate from
mounds, opt to live with waters, and develop with water infrastructures (Hooimeijer et
al.,2005; Hooimeijer and Geldof, 2007; Hooimeijer, 2011). Accessibility to water supply and
avoidance of flood hazards would be the primary factors for siting a village, as evidenced by
the toponyms in Tianjin. Villages that abut river levees would remain somewhat orthogonal
to the river reaches when expanding, and the expansion of others would normally depend on
living conditions, construction cost and industrial development, whereas the need of water is
substantially decreased. We therefore concluded that before the systematic water
management significantly loosened the tie between the urban form and surrounding water
bodies, the water-related settlements in Tianjin were logically shaped by, and thrived with
water systems. Insofar as structural measures for the systematic flood control has established
and consolidated in the Hai river sub-basin, the development of villages located in the sub-
basin barely illustrates the responsiveness to water features.

Acknowledgements

This work was supported in part by National Natural Science Foundation of China under the grant
number of 51178295. The authors would like to thank Xuzhou Zhang and Chi Zhang for their
assistance with the mapping work.

References

Chaszar, A. and Beirão, J. (2013) ‘Feature recognition and clustering for urban modelling’, in Stouffs,
R., Janssen, P., Roudavski, S., Tunçer, B. (eds.) Open Systems: Proceedings of the 18th International
Conference on Computer-Aided Architectural Design Research in Asia (CAADRIA 2013) 601–610.
Conzen, M. R. G. (1960) Alnwick, Northumberland: a study in town-plan analysis, Institute of British
Geographers Publication 27 (George Philip, London).
Gil, J., Montenegro, N. et al. (2012) ‘On the discovery of urban typologies: data mining the many
dimensions of urban form’, Urban Morphology 16, 27-40.
Hooimeijer, F., Meyer, H.,and Nienhuis, A. (2005) The Altas of Dutch water cities (Sun, Amsterdam).
Hooimeijer, F. and Geldof, G. (2008) ‘The form and function of water in the city’ in Hooimeijer, F. and
van der Toorn Vrijthof W. (eds.) More urban water: design and management of dutch water cities.
(Taylor &Francis, London).
Hooimeijer, F. (2011) ‘The tradition of making polder cities’, PhD thesis, Delft University of
Technology, NL.
Marshall, S. and Gong, Y. (2009) SOLUTIONS: urban pattern specification WP4 Deliverable Report
(Bartlett School of Planning, University College, London).
Osmond, P. (2010) ‘The urban structural unit: towards a descriptive framework to support urban
analysis and planning’, Urban Morphology 14, 5–20.
Salingaros, N. A. (2012) ‘Urbanism as Computation’, in Portugali, J., Meyer, H., Stolk E. and Tan, E.
(eds.) Complexity Theories of Cities Have Come of Age (Springer, Berlin) 247-270.
Serra, M., Gil, J. and Pinho, P. (2012) ‘Unsupervised classification of evolving metropolitan street
patterns’, EAAE/ISUF International Conference ‘New Urban Configurations’, October 16-19.
Tan, R. W. (2005) ‘The socio-linguistic analysis of the place name culture in Tianjin’, Nankai
Linguistics, (01),135-14449 (in Chinese).
Wang, H. F., Qiu, J. X., Breuste, J., Ross Friedman, C., Zhou, W. Q. and Wang, X. K. (2013)
‘Variations of urban greenness across urban structural units in Beijing, China’, Urban Forestry &
Urban Greening 12, 554-561.
1568

Zhou, Q. X. (2012) ‘The Linguistic Culture analysis to the water-ralated toponyms in Tianjin area’,
Literary Education 3, 46-49 (in Chinese).
 1569

Industrial-housing ensembles at Lisbon: morphology and

spacialization

Gonçalo Antunes, José Lúcio, Nuno Pires Soares, Rui Pedro Julião
e-GEO, Research Centre for Geography and Regional Planning, Faculdade de
Ciências Sociais e Humanas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Avenida de Berna, 26-C,
1069-061, Lisboa, Portugal. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected], [email protected]

Abstract. This study aims to analyze the housing solutions implemented during the 19 th century in
Lisbon, focusing in particular on pátios and vilas operárias. Main objectives: i) classify, analyze and
describe the urban morphology of pátios and vilas operárias; ii) understand the relationship between
urban morphology and toponymy. Clarify the terms "pátio", "vila", "rua", "travessa" and "beco"; iii)
analyze which steps have to be taken in order to conserve and adapt this complex heritage; iv) analyze
the spatial distribution and points density of pátios and vilas operárias by using the potentialities of
Geographic Information Systems, as well as analyze and describe its spatial matrix;

Key Words: Vilas operárias, pátios, Lisboa, industrial-housing ensembles, industrialization.

Introdution

The population lodging is recognized as one of the major urban issues of the last two
centuries. Recently the urban population equaled the rural population.
The urban demographic explosion was experienced in several large cities. In Portugal, the
population explosion in large cities occurred after 1850 and also during this period started its
first industrial developments.
In Lisbon, in the second half of the 19th century took place the first great population
impulse, with the arrival of rural population (Brito, 1976). The city newcomers passed
serious difficulties to get decent homes. The poor population lived commonly in housing
ensembles analyzed in this work: pátios and vilas operárias.

Methodology

We proceeded to the information collection and georeferencing. In this sense, were collected
and georeferenced 562 pátios and 364 vilas operárias (total: 926 elements), using the
following methodology:
i) information collection: books, articles, annuals, geographic information and
fieldwork;
ii) georeferencing and data processing: list of pátios and vilas operárias (name,
localization, date, parish);
iii) data validation with historical cartography, particularly: Filipe Folque 1856/57; Silva
Pinto 1911; Lisbon Municipality 1950;
iv) map creation: spatial distribution; mean center; standard distance; .directional
distance, and; spatial density (Kernel density estimation).
The spatial analysis makes use of the following measurement forms: mean center,
standard distance, elipse distance.
The density maps are exploratory analysis that aims to estimate the intensity of
phenomenon occurrence. Thus, it was possible to generate a grid whose values reflected the
1570

intensity of the phenomenon per unit area. This made possible to calculate the value of pátios
and vilas operárias per km².
To the density maps was used the Kernel density estimation method. For the density maps
production was used: grid (using Kernel density); cell dimension: 10 meters; search radius:
1.000 meters.

Results

19th century housing crisis

In Lisbon, during the 19th century the precariousness housing scenario had the condescension
of the central and local government. Public authorities considered themselves unable to
respond to such challenge. During this period it was believed that the housing market would
eventually meet the housing needs of the population (Batista, 1999).
In Lisbon, the first answer to demographic explosion was based in buildings over-
occupancy. The city newcomers were forced to live in poor conditions, settling in
substandard dwellings, unoccupied houses, ruined palaces, convents, small rooms and
basements (Pereira, 1994; Teixeira, 1992; Almeida, 1993).
Thus, the initial response to population growth was the occupation of derelict buildings. In
result, the population density increased within the historical perimeter of the city.

Lisbon grew "inwards": pátios

After the buildings over-occupancy, real estate entrepreneurs realized that they could use the
backyard to increase profits. Accordingly, pátios emerged as a natural conjectural evolution.
Thus, entrepreneurs with limited economic capacities began to build pátios. The pátios
construction meant a small, profitable and secure investment. (Teixeira, 1992).
Ethnographer José Leite de Vasconcelos (1959) defined pátios as courtyards with single-
family homes around. In the center pátios has a space open to the sky, surrounded by small
precarious homes. Pátios can be thought as semi-spontaneous forms of accommodation that
occupy the consolidated urban space. Without planning and as a fallback solution, these
habitation ensembles seek to maximize land use (Salgueiro, 1992).
Pátios were small and informal unhealthy houses ensembles, where welfare was not a
concern. Stands out the poor habitation conditions, where prevailed construction problems
that did not guaranteed minimum living conditions. Bad sanitary conditions potentiate
pathogenic problems, increasing hazards to the whole city.

Pátios: spatial analysis

We proceeded to collection and georeferencing of vilas operárias built in Lisbon. We

identified 562 elements. From the information contained in Figure 1, 2 and 3 we highlight the
following results:
i) in the northwest boundary of Lisbon exists an important concentration of pátios (over
than 45 per km²). This important concentration extends to downtown direction. In
second half of the 19th century this area was in a process of urban expansion;
ii) Cerca Fernandina endogenous area: dozens of pátios in the historic neighborhoods of
Alfama, Mouraria and Socorro. This area was consolidated in the 19th century and
pátios emerged as urban surplus;
iii) Eastern Axis: there is a significant concentration of pátios (35 to 44 per km²)
associated with the East Lisbon industries;
iv) Western Axis: on the slopes of Alcântara valley and in the parish of Prazeres. This
axis prolonged to more remote areas, such as Santo Amaro and Ajuda.
 1571

Figure 1. Pátios: elements distribution.

Figure 2. Pátios: spatial density (km²).

Figure 3. Pátios, spatial analyze: mean center, distance standard and directional
distance.

End of industrial-housing evolution: vilas operárias

In 1881 was realized an Industrial Inquiry that made critics to industrial housing in Lisbon,
specially to the pátios. After that, pátios lost relevance and were replaced for a new kind of
habitation ensembles: vilas operárias (cf. Leite et al., 1991).
1572

Vilas operárias were built in devalued land by using cheap material. So, vilas operárias
were built mainly outside the city in the area of urban sprawl. This period was tender about
constructions standards and surveillance. This situation potentiated the economic
construction of buildings with one or two floors, repetitive and monotonous.
In this sense, vilas operárias were intended to lease low cost for families with low
incomes. The vilas operárias construction were economic, simple, used inexpensive
materials and based on a modular structure, allowing higher densities of occupation and easy
expansion.
Thus, the demand to maximum utilization of area to get great profits remained in vilas
operárias period. However, it should be noted that vilas operárias had better living
conditions than pátios (Pereira, 1994; Leite et al., 1991).

Vilas operárias: morphology

To Nuno Teotónio Pereira the morphological classification should favor the characteristics
associated with size and relationship with the public space. In this way, Pereira (1994)
classifies vilas operárias as:258
i) Corridor Vilas: exist all over the city, developing directly on the public street.
ii) Vila generating pátio: houses grouped around a common and discovered place.
iii) Vila built behind buildings: demarcating the social status of residents. In the building
that faced to the public street resided the bourgeoisie, the backyard was left to families with
low incomes. This type of vila operária divided the space with a strong social dichotomy. The
architectural quality and living conditions were better in the main building, as opposed to the
backyard.
iv) Vila generating street: were often associated with industrial production and near of
factories. Some industrial entrepreneurs took the initiative to built vilas operárias, ensuring
proximity houses to their workers.
v) Vila with urban scale: superior area comparing to the previous classifications. This
concept of vilas operárias definitely departed from pátios style, although it has not lost the
segregated nature (Pereira, 1994).

Vilas operárias: ban, preservation

In the early of 20th century emerged two regulations that defined the construction conditions,
namely Regulamento Geral de Saúde (1901) and Regulamento de Salubridade das
Edificações Urbanas (1903)259.
These regulations made the buildings construction more demanding, but vilas operárias
developments were not stopped. This only occurred in the 30’s, when the Lisbon
Municipality forbade vilas operárias construction.
In the 90’s Lisbon Municipality created Gabinete dos Pátios e Vilas (Bureau of Pátios
and Vilas operárias), which aimed to survey the real number of vilas operárias in Lisbon.
Accordingly, it identified about 100 vilas operárias as historical and heritage interest to
preserve.

Vilas operárias: spatial analysis

We proceeded to collection and georeferencing of vilas operárias built in Lisbon. We

identified 364 elements. From the information contained in Figure 4, 5 and 6 we highlight the
following results:

258
Authors such as Salgueiro (1981) and Rodrigues (1978) also classified vilas operárias.
259
General Health Regulations (1901), and Urban Hygiene and Construction Regulation.
 1573

i) the largest concentration is located in the old western boundary.

ii) we can identify in Lisbon historic center an axis on the north of S. Jorge Castle. Some
historic neighborhoods, like Graça, Mouraria e Alfama have several vilas operárias.
iii) less relevant: 1) in the East there was a significant concentration of vilas operárias; 2) In
the west of the city we can identify a set of vilas operárias extending to the waterfront.

Figura 4. Vilas operárias: elements distribution.

Figure 5. Vilas operárias: spatial density.

Figure 6. Vilas operárias, spatial analyze: mean center, distance standard and
directional distance.
1574

Discussion

In the second half of the 19th century the industrial growth caused high levels of urban growth
in Lisbon. In this way, Lisbon faced many problems common to other major European cities
(i.e population and urban growth; population density increase; urbanization rate increase;
urban space and buildings over-occupation; urban expansion to rural areas; real estate
speculation; local administration lethargy; precarious housing construction; neighborhoods
without sanitary conditions; urban poverty; mendacity; epidemics, etc.).
Regarding to the housing ensembles analyzed in this work is clear that we are in the
presence of different generations: 1). buildings over-occupation; 2) pátios dissemination (i.e
backyards colonization); 3) vilas operárias dissemination (i.e housing ensembles with urban
scale).

Figure 7. Temporal evolution.

In parallel, and as the results obtained by georeferencing and mapping of almost 1000
elements, are evident for the following results:
i) Pátios had a higher quantitative and spatial spread than vilas operárias. Nevertheless,
although pátios are more in number, vilas operárias generally have higher dimension;
ii) Pátios had higher concentration values in the historic center of Lisbon. On other hand,
vilas operárias show a spread marked by urban expansion areas (between the nineteenth
century and 20th century). In this way, the location of the pátios and vilas operárias is not
fully converged. This is confirmed by mean center analysis, where can be seen pátios mean
center is located most southern than the vilas operárias mean center.
It can be stated that in the transition between the 19th century to the 20th century, private
developers have resolved the first major housing crisis in Lisbon. Only in the early 20 th
century some voices began calling for public policies to promote social housing.
Currently, pátios and vilas operárias conceal in the urban landscape, in the non-visible
space of city. With its hidden passages and entrances, these housing ensembles are often
imperceptible from the public street, mingling with the other city elements.
Finally, currently pátios and vilas operárias were presented strongly uncharacterized. The
mischaracterization is characterized by the increase of area, allowing dwellings to meet the
current demands.

References

Almeida, F. (1993) Operários de Lisboa - na vida e no teatro (1845-1870) (Caminho, Lisboa).

Batista, L. (1999) Cidade e habitação social (Celta editora, Oeiras).
Pereira, N. T. (1994) ‘Pátios e vilas de Lisboa, 1870-1930: a promoção privada do alojamento
operário’, Análise Social XXIX, 509-524.
Rodrigues, M. M. (1978) ‘Tradição, transição e mudança – a produção do espaço urbano na Lisboa
oitocentista’, Boletim Cultural da Assembleia Distrital de Lisboa, 3-96.
Salgueiro, T. B. (1981) ‘Habitações operárias em Lisboa’, Revista de Arquitectura.
Teixeira, M. (1992) ‘As estratégias de habitação em Portugal, 1880-1940’, Análise Social XXVII, 65-
89.
Vasconcelos, J. L. (1959) Páginas Olisiponenses, (CML, Lisboa).
 1575

An urban taboo

Marco Falsetti
Departement Diap, University La Sapienza Rome
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. The historiography of the twentieth century has always looked to the architectural
production of the last century with different critics, while maintaining uniquely, as an unavoidable
prerequisite for modernity, the constant reference to the Modern Movement, considered the only
parameter and yardstick for any ‘value judgment’. As a consequence of this vision, an important part
of the projects related to the ‘Reconstruction’ has long been marginalized from the debate around the
contemporary architecture, superficially labeled as the product of an ideological authoritarianism or
the aftermath of a broader ‘nineteenth-century thought’. Monumental projects like Don Bosco district
look significant today, especially if related to the historical period they belong, the Fifties, when most
of the interventions on the urban fabric were morphologically punctual and autonomous, probably
even more meaningful if we consider that monumentality, that characterizes those projects is a
feature obtained through the use of architectural typologies usually unrelated with the idea of
monumentalism, and thus they shaped a new idea of city different from both the past and coeval
experiences.

Key Words: monumental districts, countertrend methodology, Don Bosco, urban-integrity.

Monumental district countertrend Rome interruption

Defined through monumental perspectives, dimensionally related to the historical Roman

avenues, and philologically connected to the Mausoleum of Alexander Severus, the Don
Bosco district in Rome has both the characters of a lithic wing and the obsessive seriality of
its housing blocks.
It was mostly planned by Architect Gaetano Rapisardi in the first half of the Fifties, by
resuming and developing the “Plan of Rome” made in 1931, and it represents the only
discontinuity in the Italian panorama of low-cost housing districts, more related to foreign
contexts like France than its Italian coeval experiences, that assume new districts as
conflictual realities with the historical urban fabric.
While almost completely ignored by the Italian architectural debate,the Don Bosco district
denotes a refined spatial stronghold ,thanks to: the monumental dimension of the courtyards
and the scenic continuity of Viale Don Bosco (one of the largest axis in Italy); all those
elements define an highly discernible morphological area, enclosed by two poles: the
Mausoleum and Cinecittà.
The Don Bosco is set on a monumental urban axis, Viale San Giovanni Bosco, that has a
length of about 1 kilometre and a half, and which connects the Mausoleum of Alexander
Severus to the Basilica of San Giovanni Bosco. This pair of poles identifies what is, in
substance, a triumphal street, if we consider the presence of the two thematic depths that
open and close Viale San Giovanni Bosco.
The whole axial system, interrupted only by Piazza dei Consoli (which distributes an
array of smaller lots), is in fact concluded by Piazza San Giovanni Bosco, where Viale San
Giovanni Bosco and Viale Marco Fulvio Nobiliore are tied through the monumental
buildings designed by Gaetano Rapisardi, which also bound a space that has no precedent
among the public housing estates in Italy, having only few similar cases in Europe, mainly in
the countries of the former socialist block.
Viale San Giovanni Bosco’s unusual width of fifty meters, in consideration of which
would seem more correct to call it ‘promenade’ (which by definition is opened and
1576

concluded by theme or by a singular architectural episode) is indicative of a strong aesthetic

projectual will, which produces, in contrast to the italian prevailing urban thought, a city-
district, both linked to the notions of urban morphology and the Piacentinian idea for the
suburb as the sum of large urban systems functionally and formally autonomous but related
to the historical urban fabric.
The Plan of Rome made in 1931 originally envisaged the structure of Tuscolano (as it was
called the macro area that actually includes the Don Bosco) around a central trident,
patterned after a colonnaded square and circumscribed by housing blocks.
The central trident had been planned having as main axis Via Tuscolana, with a branch
ending in a widening in the proximity of the rail, and another in a new square. By the latter,
in turn, a further, less accentuated trident would have to rise, characterized through a central
axis, and interrupted by a large square with government buildings.
The Tuscolano was thought, in this sense, as a homogeneous urban episode, according to
the model of the town as a sum of different districts; and thus the Don Bosco was somehow
thought to be the typological reference for the southern suburbs, populated by the working
class.
Subsequently, for a term of the administration, the uniform project of 1931 was split into
two smaller plans, planned at a distance of 7 years, hinged on via Tuscolana. Due to this
change Via Tuscolana became a separator element, and also mutated its function from "urban
axis" to freeway.
One of the two plans (the one that originated the Don Bosco), was organized around a
new axis, parallel to via Tuscolana, and delimited by two thematic polar squares, plus another
one in the middle, Piazza dei Consoli, necessary considered the size of the central axis, but
also signal of a smaller system of perpendicular streets. However, it remained partially
incomplete.
Only one of the two smaller plans was built, creating the district Don Bosco, that
reproduces, in a smaller scale, all the features included in the original project for the
Tuscolano: in this way focus and theme of the square became the Basilica of San Giovanni
Bosco, built between 1952 and 1964 as a result of a competition organized by the Pontifical
Commission on May 15th, 1951, on a plot of 17000 square meters donated by the real estate
company Tirrena to the order of Salesiani
The competition was won by Gaetano Rapisardi, who had already worked with Piacentini
for the Città Universitaria in Rome (he designed the faculties of Humanities, Law and
Political Science) who proposed a building that had both the character of the central plan
(expressed by a dome resting on the huge drum) with a basilical type characterized by the
great transept.
During the subsequent phases of the project, the nature and the size of the dome were
defined, in fact it was lowered and put directly on the drum; then on the main facade three
large portals framed by pilasters were opened, a treatment that was later extended to the other
elevations with the opening of further portals. On the morning of May 2, 1959, after seven
years of work, during an international conference of more than four thousand Salesian
Cooperators, present all the superiors of the order, the Cardinal Protector Benedetto Aloisi
Masella, consecrated solemnly the Basilica and ten bishops consecrated at the same time the
ten altars.
In its final version, the building looks like a rectangle of 45 x 78 meters. The height is 73
meters, including the crypt that is 6 meters below the ground level. The building can be read
as two parts, which summarize the basilical type of church and the one with the central plan:
the first part stands as a pedestal and measures approximately 20 meters, the latter acts as the
crowning, 46 meters and includes the main drum, with a double row of circular pillars, and
the smaller drum, the domes, the metal plated terminals and the two bell towers. The facade
is divided into seven bays by pilasters (not featured in the first project made by Rapisardi).
The monumental Piazza San Giovanni Bosco (m125 x 185) that opens and concludes the
namesake avenue, features the same theme of the colonnaded square included in the Piano
 1577

Particolareggiato made in 1942, and enforces the perspectival outcomes through the
relational character that binds the church and the square.
The jury of the competition for the Church of San Giovanni Bosco wanted that the
winning architect supervised the design of the opposite overlooking buildings opposite in
order to achieve a unified image, which is what happened in 1955, when the town gave
Gaetano Rapisardi the provision of urban square.
The project made by Rapisardi, aimed to emphasize the homogeneity of the project by
using an unified design of the facades of residential blocks, and furthermore by using a
sophisticated play of perspectives, such as the narrowing of via Marco Fulvio Nobiliore,
which was supposed to put in contact the church to the square, but that was not realized.
The square, Piazza San Giovanni Bosco, is characterized by the constant presence of a
massive portico, 8.50 m high, with a distance between the spans of 5.20 m and with the
pillars having a section of approximately 1 x 1.20 m. Above the portico there are six floors
with a height of 3, 50 meters, are divided into three zones by a continuous band of bulwarks.
Each one of these three areas of the elevation is unified vertically through a sequence of
small pillars, three times the number of the portico below. The south-west side feature a
tower that connects two different lateral buildings and works as a backdrop for Via Calpurnio
Pisone.
Originally a large circular fountain was planned to be placed in the center of the square,
but only the shape of the base was realized (a circle with a diameter of 40 meters that has
the same dimension of the section of Viale San Giovanni Bosco), which originated its
current appearance.
A perceived figurative relation with the fascist model of urban planning is one of the
reasons for which this district has mostly been considered as a taboo in the Italian
architectural debate avoiding to solve, in a rational way, the urban problematics posed by a,
highly populated peripheral area.
In the same years were realized three projects of public housing close to the Don Bosco,
linked to the an idea of the city closer to the dictates of the Modern Movement. The
proximity of such interventions, made by INA Casa (the authority for the public housing),
emphasizes the diversity of two ways of approaching the plan, one based on large urban signs
independent from the urban fabric and influenced by the idea of the functional city, the other
on strongly hierarchical parts, which although preserving its autonomy create a '"different"
kind of city, in which the dialogue with the existing city, while preserving its recognition, is
not in terms of conflict.
The Tuscolano I was carried out between 1950 and 1951, and is a collage of different
buildings designed by different architects within the same plan (Piano Regolatore Generale),
but it does not show an overall urban design. Its boundaries are Via Tuscolana, Via del
Quadraro, Via Giulio Agricola and the Park of the Aqueducts. It features intensive buildings
and villas.
The Tuscolano II was built between 1950 and 1952 with a strong formalistic will in urban
design.The project is by Mario de Renzi, Saverio Muratori and Lucio Cambellotti with
Francesco Fariello, Adalberto Libera, Giuseppe Perugini, Giulio Roisecco, Dante Tassotti
and Luigi Vagnetti as collaborators.
The Tuscolano III or Horizontal Residential Unit is located in Via Selinunte 49 and was
designed by Adalberto Libera and built between 1950 and 1954. The district is enclosed by a
wall, the entry is placed in line with Via Sagunto, and underlined by a low arch
The complex consists of 200 apartments (about 1,000 people) on the ground floor, each
one with a patio. These accommodations are preceded by a central garden planted with pine
trees that contrast with the green of the tiny patios.
Unlike the other sectors of the Tuscolano area, realized by INA Casa, all of which well
documented, there is lack of documentation on the district of Don Bosco, both in general
terms (general plan, intervention programs, etc) that in specific terms (on individual
buildings, but also on the work of Gaetano Rapisardi that is nowadays the best known
1578

architect among those who worked on the Don Bosco Quadraro, mainly known for having
designed part of the Città Universitaria in Rome).
Numerous are the causes but mostly related to the ostracism coming from the coeval
cultural and political prevailing ideology, hostile towards an idea of the city considered,
unfairly, traditionalist and reactionary.
Despite the size of the project, dimensionally larger than any New Town made in the
fascist era, there is no trace of the project on the coeval architectural magazines. On the other
hand the Don Bosco district has been widely documented by the neorealist cinema, a fact that
gives the idea of the project's impact on the collective imagination. The opening scenes of La
Dolce Vita, fictionally set in the EUR district were shoot in the Don Bosco.
The Don Bosco is in fact very close to Cinecittà, to the Istituto Luce (institute of
cinematography) and to the Experimental Centre of Cinematography, and the district has
been featured in a countless number of movies since its creation. In fact is depicted in movies
like La Dolce Vita, Mamma Roma and Fantasmi in Roma, from time to time scenically
representative of different parts of the city, all included within the district.
A second reason why the intervention has not been adequately investigated is the
incompleteness of the original plan, due to, a number of lacking lots were later completed in
a regime of speculative real estate investing. However a huge part of the Italian
historiography has proven to be more prone to justify the great failures of urban modernist
thought, guilty of making anonymous suburbs, detached from the cities in which the
idealistic logic of the great signs has not provided a logical urban thought. As a proof of the
persistence of this attitude, also recently published books report the Don Bosco case only as
an example of speculative overbuilding: “(..) to better understand both the ethical and urban
vision presiding over the system of Viale Etiopia, just a quick comparison with the
simultaneous realization (we are in the mid-fifties) in the district of don bosco in the
tuscolano neighbourhood. In the building blocks, the different morphological-type models
(the urban block in the front courtyard, the tower houses, the tall houses in line arranged in
paralle, diamond or herringbone) are used to construct an urban fabric that has a paroxysmal
character because the built volumes are designed and matched with each other only to
respond to the principle of maximum utilization of the lot”.260
Yet just a quick comparison with the urban projects made under the Fascism is needed to
underline that the origin of Don Bosco district is actually linked to a different architectural
thinking, related to the notions of fabric and shaped by a concept of monumentality not
associated to ideology. Just think of the plan made by Auguste Perret for the reconstruction
of Le Havre or the project for the MDM Marszalkowska Housing District in Warsaw in
which, both the specialized tissue and monumentality are defined, as in the Don Bosco,
through basic buildings, a thought more ancient than the Modern Movement and that is
starting to be seen as a solution to the problems of the contemporary city.

References

Argenti, M. (2005) Adalberto Libera, l’insula INA - Casa al Tuscolana, in Rassegna di Architettura e
Urbanistica, 117, 2005.
Ippoliti, E., Unali, M. (1990). La chiesa e la piazza di San Giovanni Bosco al Tuscolano. In Dossier di
Urbanistica e Cultura del Territorio, X, 59-81.
Mornati, S., Cerrini, F.(2003) Il quartiere Tuscolano a Roma (1950- 1960), in R. Capomolla, R.
Vittorini (eds) L’architettura INA –Casa (1949-1963). Aspetti e problemi di conservazione e
recupero, Roma: 1-18.
Piccione, A. (1997). Gaetano Rapisardi. I Siracusani, II, 9, 36-39
Strappa, G. (1995) Unità dell’organismmo architettonico.Note sulla formazione e trasformazione dei
caratteri degli edifici,Bari.

260
Rossi O.P. Per la città di Roma.Mario Ridolfi urbanista 1944-1954.
 1579

Strappa, G. (1989) Tradizione e innovazione nell’architettura di Roma capitale (1870-1930),Kappa

Edizioni.
1580

European spatial paradigms towards urban infrastructural

morphologies

Manuela Triggianese, Fabrizia Berlingieri

Department of Architecture, Faculty of Architecture, Delft University of Technology
E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract. Because of their impact on urban fabric and economy, infrastructural changes, are key
components of complex urban transformations. Large scale interventions, shaping major European
cities, are mostly related to the Trans-European Network (TEN-T) policy. The nature of this
development results in the increasing evolution of urban hybrids and multi dimensional morphologies
within the territories infrastructures cross. They are characterized by aggregations, juxtaposition and
super positions of different modality of transport, defining new typologies embedded within the urban
scenario and, at the same time, linked to a larger urban frame. This contribution aims to explore how
within the new policy EU territorial changes can be supported by research and methods of analyzing
urban form and its structural elements. In that sense an integrated design approach to mobility will be
presented from the dialogue between theoretical reflection and design practice of infra-urban
reconfiguration processes, in order to increase the awareness of the unique challenges of
infrastructure and the role of architectural design. From the research analysis of coding Urban
Morphological Types (A) to the investigation of Intermodal Knots (B), driven by public-private
interests along the high speed line, the paper attempts to enlighten the meaning of new European
spatial paradigms.

Key Words: infrastructure, intermodality, urban morpho-type

Coding urban morphologies

Transitions. From Modernism to EU visions

“Almost all the streets should be straightened and enlarged. They should be extended as
much as possible to eliminate too frequent windings. New streets should be driven through
all blocks that are longer than 600 feet. At all intersections of streets the corners should be
rounded; at all crossroads there should be squares” (Laugier, 1765)
At the turn of the nineteenth century, the unity of the urban tissue, based on the built
intertwining of masses and voids, is definitely substituted by the presence of a new figure, the
infrastructure, assuming the asset role for the incoming vision of Modern City. As prologues
of this condition were standing the XIXth century disembowels operated in European cities’
large interventions on urban body, as the Haussmann boulevards, writing new urban codes
based on the rational geometry of accessibility. Inheriting Italian Renaissance axioms, the
urban body at the end of the XIXth century was the representative scene of institutional
power and at the same time the perfect embodiment of idealistic urban concepts emerging
(Vidler, 2011). In few decades the institutional power was substituted by the Industrial
Revolution values, however maintaining the same key components to build its own image. In
that sense the ideal of urban construction evolved towards a new metropolitan configuration
in which the infrastructure acquired a status of autonomous formal entity. The spatial urban
perspective defined by urban curtains is overpassed by an horizontal and infinite metropolitan
extension, in which nature and artifice became interrelated parts of the whole. The spatial
development linked to Industrialization and the process of formal autonomy of infrastructure
together reorganized the urban scene in a a system of objects floating in a dialogue through
distance. It defines an exploded space (Choay F., 2000 ed.it.), a city carefully dismantled into
its components and lying in the openness, where each part becomes singular entity of
 1581

dialectic with a totalizing landscape. These characters of the Modern City - the dismantling
of urban scene’s unity, the giantism, spatial isotropy - generate what Sitte defined as the
disease of modern isolation (Sitte C., 1889). “Urbanism will abandon the current street-
corridor, and through the path of new developments will create, on a much larger scale, the
architectural symphony that need to be conducted. The street-corridor with two sidewalks,
suffocated by high houses, must disappear. Cities have the right to be something else that
many buildings with corridors”. (Le Corbusier, 1924)
Infrastructure becomes, within the formulation of Modern and post modern urban visions,
a constant reference, even more a true alter ego to the city itself, duplicating and overcoming
it. In this direction proceeds the research of Alison and Peter Smithson that, mostly on
infrastructure and its role in contemporary urban development, tried to found a specific design
iconography as, for example, in the project for Golden Lane Housing of 1952 or the project for
Haupstadt Berlin of some years later. In Smithson’s experimental project the settlement design
literally duplicates the infrastructural one. The city raises to a formal simulation of circulation
flows, becoming a sort of iconic network mold. The semantic autonomy gained by infrastructure
within the construction of urban scene rages, along the last century and up to the contemporary, its
own morphology based on elemental figures -as viaducts, flyovers, superficial and underground
conducts- strongly conflicting with urban form.
But at the turn of the new millennium we are observing a deep transformation of the
figural relationship between infrastructure and urban body. The key factor of this
transformation is related to infrastructural proliferation, namely to the exponential growth of
networks and transport modes. Major European cities host at least two airports, large harbor
areas, several subway lines, traditional rail lines implemented by those of high freight
capacity and high-speed. Compared with the amount of infrastructure is also profoundly
changed its quality aspect. If in Modernism, in fact, infrastructure constituted an extensive
grid of territorial accessibility, today it is increasing in terms of greater intermodal
concentration. These two factors, proliferation and higher density, are deeply influencing the
change of infrastructural characters, that could be defined as new hybrid morphologies.

Interferences. Infra-urban morpho-types

“Rather the new forms and those inherited from history seem to be able to live within new
frameworks of meaning that hide, under the blanket of an apparent familiarity of the daily
scene settlement, the multiple and disjoint memberships to the space of flows and the new
scales of interdependence with territories at a distance. Thus new settlement morphologies
accompany the profound changes that have affected the places of living, producing,
consuming and their specific relationships” (Clementi, 2010).
Contemporary infrastructural intersections are mostly envisioning a new European
metropolitan scale through the interventions of redevelopment, conversion and expansion of
infrastructural lines and areas within urban conditions. Because of the emerging panorama of
intermodal transport and the need of physical density, infrastructure cannot be read through
individual and autonomous figures as it was in Modernism. Arises, in fact, the problem of
new settlement morphologies’ materialization, linked to the flow dynamics, which frequently
overlap themselves on the stratified territorial frames, generating ambiguous complicities if
not outright conflicts.
The proliferation as well as the increasing spatial complexity that these intermodal density
bring into the urban scene, make impossible a clear and defined figurative reading. They are
merged within the city, mostly relocated in its underground and are more and more
presenting the ability to duplicate city itself. For these reasons today we can talk about not
single infrastructures, not individual figures, but about new infrastructural grounds
articulating urban body and its limits. In that sense we talk about intersections that create new
morphologies, in balance between infrastructural and urban spheres. The emerging
intersection morphologies have to do with a larger and more complex issue within the
1582

disciplinary debate. It is possible to affirm that intersections represent a key word in the
disciplinary framework, that are more and more present within different fields and seen as
interactive, hybrid spheres of cultural domain. A semantic intersection we talk is related to
infrastructure, urban form and architecture. The semantic hybridizations evolve towards new
forms and design configurations in which infrastructure is continuously compared, showing
deeply modified in its disciplinary statute. Looking at the main infrastructural and urban
transformations happening in EU cities, is possible to enlighten and describe which
morphological changes have been defining for the forthcoming years. These interventions are
mostly related to redevelopment projects where the infrastructure, exponentially loaded over
time, has become a factor of social exclusion, of physics break and, for this reason, of
conflict within the social scene. Nowadays these huge transformations are a primary mean of
financial attractiveness as privileged sites for new flows demographic and labor, are real
engines of economic development and socio-cultural development.
A first case of morphological interference concerns the relation between infrastructure and
the recovering and re-appropriation of nature within urban and territorial contexts. The place
of the conflict - the ground divided between infrastructure and urban body - is now
conquered by an artificial ecology (Allen, 2003), which redraws the cities’ ground and
internalizes infrastructural figurativeness. In general terms, this trend allows to trace an
emerging twenty-first century iconography that appeals to a new arcadia for future scenarios,
solving in disappearance, the conflict between infrastructure and urban form. Some examples
of this phenomenon could be addressed to the ongoing projects of Avenue 2 for the city of
Maastricht or Parque Central in Valencia. Both of them work on the covering of
infrastructural lines within urban context, reallocating over them new leisure and green areas.
The second case of morphological interference is similar to the previous one and refers to
infrastructural interventions in urban conditions. The fundamental choice, in fact, is to
reallocate infrastructure in underground spaces (Purini, 2005), creating a sort of
infrastructural artificial basements within the cities. Near to the urban subway that builds
under the city plan, a physical substrate of mobility interactions. A third form of the
intersection between urban body and infrastructure is represented by the concept of threshold,
where the infrastructural density appears at the city limits. Indeed these interventions occur in
a greater need of surface able to host a dense field of lines, traces, viaducts, building voted to
mobility. Patterns that take up more and more impressive bands of liminal territory to the
city, becoming no more doors as stations were for the modern city, but real infrastructural
thresholds, whereas the increasing extensions fall within a more complex imagery. They
constitute, as in the cases of Zuidas in Amsterdam or Euralille, new typological
hybridizations between infrastructure, architecture and public space.
In all these morphologies of intersections, that can show a general framework for several
ongoing projects in Europe, the role of infrastructural typology emerges with new meanings.
Through a process of interdisciplinary synthesis, it appears more complex in configuring new
typologies that could be defined as urban morpho types. These present themselves as result of
an hybridization process, overlapping for instance three different disciplines such as
environment, urban and infrastructural studies, merging together and finding spaces for
design interactions. The different disciplines, within the interaction with each other, are
weakened. As semantic and figural weakening, which appear similar to state transitions,
these new morphotypes are able to weave new scenarios and new compositive configurations
in architectural and urban design. The interferences, between infrastructure environment and
urban form, are bearers of innovation, for remodeling reading instruments and design
methods.

Negotiating urban form

Intermodal Knots. Hybrid Spaces

 1583

“Infrastructures allow detailed design of typical elements or repetitive structures, facilitating

an architectural approach to urbanism. Instead of moving always down in scale from the
general to the specific, infrastructural design begins with the precise delineation of specific
architectural elements within specific limits. Unlike other models (planning codes or
typological norms for example) that tend to schematize and regulate architectural form and
work by prohibition, the limits to architectural design in infrastructural complexes are
technical and instrumental. In infrastructural urbanism, form matters, but more for what it can
do than for what it looks like”. (Allen, 1999)
The investigation on infrastructural matters becomes a common interests among
researchers over the last decades, especially on the topic of High-Speed Railway (HSR), part
of the trans-European transport network (TEN-T) policy, and the (re) developments of the
hubs along the line. At the city-level, HSR stations emerge as Intermodal Knots that connect
different spaces linked to the various parts of the urban surroundings, emphasizing
infrastructures’ design potentials and limits (Bertolini, 1996, 2012). The (re) development
projects of these hubs raise new urban questions of emerging morphologies – where
architecture and infrastructural urbanism are blend together in hybrid configurations across
multiple scales.
Furthermore train station area (re) development projects in Europe are assuming new
definitions of Typology, as result of the interface between networks and design potentialities
for architectural and urban interventions around the node (Peters and Novy, 2012). The
notion of Hybrid Typology blends together the issues of flexibility, multi functionality and
interconnection between mobility functions and related urban activities. Recent research
studies attempt to classify architectural and urban Hybrid Typologies, both in Europe and
Asia context, as follow: the hyperpole, the urban connector and the extended hub (Tiry,
2008). These mega-urban structures, as a three dimensional infrastructure, become the
interpretation of contemporary spatial experimentation on multi-use buildings that enrich the
city’s fabric, based on principle of interconnection between different networks and their
capacity to take shape from the intersection between architecture and mobility (Ziedler, 1985;
Banham, 1976). Upon taking a closer look at the researches on HSR infrastructural urbanism
associated with architectural development in-around intermodal hubs, there is still a line of
investigation to be defined in the architectural knowledge: the unfinished and long term (re)
configuration processes as current critical issue for the design of HSR station areas across
multiple scales.
A large number of strategic National projects, dealing with contextual conditions, such as
political and economic constraints (as for example the case of Stuttgart 21 rail station mega-
project), are forms part of wider planning initiatives at different policy level and aim at
triggering multi-dimentional changes: the (re) development of the station facilities, the
interfaces between the infrastructural node and its impact on the urban surroundings and the
public-sector strategic interventions and private-sector driven and commercially oriented real
estate projects with a longer term purpose in mind. The interaction with local stakeholders
deeply influences the configuration of these stations from functioning as truly intermodal
nodes to potential interfaces between pre-existing conditions and future urban scenario
development (Tesoriere, 2013).
Addressing specific attention to the design process of the HSR stations Torino Porta Susa
(Italy), Rotterdam Centraal (Netherlands) and Lille Europe (France), this paper aims to
illustrate the typo-morphological design aspects through which infrastructure manages to
transform itself from urban dis-connector, that is was in the last century, into connector of
hybrid forms. Especially if we consider the overlapping systems of transportation, it is
possible to reconstruct a new configuration, both in scale and distribution for each project.
The HSR becomes instead the ‘urban connector’ between diverse realities, often addressing
to infrastructural nodes an active role of integer of urban and architectural space, in a
dynamic layering of multiple scales, in the urban core or at the edge of the City. Torino Porta
Susa, Rotterdam Centraal and Lille Europe are representing projects of hinge between living
places at different scales, in which the mobility of people, goods and information plays a
1584

central role 261 . The combination of functional and the programmatic flexibility of HSR
stations and its environs are often identified through an organization of functional plans or
layers of a dynamic system that does not correspond to the different urban shapes in place but
to the spatial connections able to generate hybrid conditions. In both vertical and horizontal
planes, infrastructure (re) connects interrupted spaces of urban life. Therefore these projects
closely link architecture and urban reconfiguration to a markedly political character, which
requires the coordination of a variety of planning documents and programs, and also the
involvement a great number of actors, by means of negotiation and cooperation between a
variety of policy makers and investors. (Terrin, 2011)
Given the variety of scale, economic interests and interaction with the stakeholders (on
local, national and international level) that have been targeted, the architectural programs on
these projects focus on typological settlement within ambitious master plan, providing a
single-building solution, where all activities will be concentrated, for the HSR station in
Rotterdam, a multiplicity of buildings in Turin Porta Susa, variably integrated in the urban
fabric, and a site with different multi layered urban fragments in Lille.
The station becomes a covered part of the City in Torino Porta Susa, where the linear and
horizontal continuum of the structure is a reminiscence of the traditional gallery in the history
of the City. (Figure 1) The tracks have been sitting where the boulevard crosses, cutting the
city in two parts but at the same time linking both sides through public pedestrian passages.
The station is a longitudinal roof that links all the networks and the train disappears from the
urban scene below the future Central Spine (D’Ascia, 2010).

Figure 1. Torino Porta Susa (Silvio d'Ascia Architecture).

The station is a node of urban centrality in Rotterdam Centraal. (Figure 2) In the city of
the permanent change, since the post-war reconstruction plans, the master plan for the
Central Station quartier (Rotterdam Central District) contributes to the definition of the new
skyline for the City. It perfectly fits within the Dutch tradition of integrating land use
planning and urban development with transportation planning.
The station belongs to the site in Euralille master plan, the Quantum Leap by Koolhaas.
At the beginning of the 90s’ Lille was trigged by transportation and urban development
around the node Lille Europe. The different networks influenced the position and the function
of the station and its relation to the urban environment. As piece of the infrastructure, the
station is sitting under high-rise buildings in the middle of the park, where the roof becomes
the symbol of the multimodal hub and the envelop of the modern station. (Figure 3) The (re)
development of multifunctional area between the two stations, Lille Flandre and Lille

261
Torino Porta Susa and Lille Europe have been presented as ‘covered part’ of the City and as a ‘site’
by Andrea Heym, Director of International Development AREP, during his lecture The Station is not a
Building (23 May 2014, TU Delft).
 1585

Europe, is underway after almost twenty years, taking then a central position in the EU urban
panomara.

Figure 2. Rotterdam Centraal (Team CS).

Figure 3. Lille Europe (Manuela Triggianese).

Master Planning. Hybrid Process

«It has been recognized for many years now, even by the most rigid planners, than a ‘master
plan’, like Utopia, an ideal completed form, can no longer serve the purposes of design in
which change and growth may be the essential determinants of order. Forms in their great
diversity must become apparent and significant; no single ‘master form’ can do this. Urban
design cannot be form alone. Purposeful social commitment must precede all action in the
design process without concern for the techniques or shapes through which the commitment
may finally be translated into physical reality. (Chermayeff and Tzonis, 1971)
During the last decade the increasingly combination of public policy with private
initiatives helps to change the territory of EU cities to promote and position as strategic sites
leftover spaces and neighborhoods around the intermodal hubs, located in or out-side the
heart of the City. The desire to reconfigure the station and its intermodal character and a
number of large real estate projects supported by the Railway Company and private
stakeholders contribute to initiate urban interventions for the area. In this context, the City
wishes to encourage a renewed ambition by performing larger urban projects around the hub
1586

to implement a coordinated public intention and supervise the work of private actors. Long
term ambitions of the urban project – in the ideal form of the Master Plan - pursue the
following fundamental objectives: strengthening the status and image of international
gateway area, employment hub around the station as part of an overall urban strategy,
combining social and functional diversity; take advantage of the excellent accessibility of the
public transport to target urban development model based on regional perspectives for the
area.
Therefore the complexity, as result of long term purposes for the development of an
infrastructural area, lays in the following tasks: the design of an urban project (programming,
densities and urban forms, templates, landscape, urban and architectural requirements,
requirements for the design of public spaces including lighting design and signage, etc.); the
study of multimodal mobility (including the definition of scenarios and traffic plans change
and networks modeling the impacts of different scenarios of urban planning and mobility);
economic feasibility studies and financial; the possible implementation of the Master Plan
(where the architect becomes the coordinator of the process) monitoring the projects
(architecture, public spaces, mobility) and its adaptations. In the negotiation of these hybrid
urban configurations can be confirmed the Deleuzian assumption « Creation’s all about
mediators. Without them nothing happens ». (Deleuze, 1990)
These complex issues raise major questions in terms of density and morphology,
especially at the district level of HSR stations (Bajard, 2007). Research on high speed railway
and the mega projects along the network increasingly proliferate, in relation to the evolution
of urban dynamics and different national context. (Bruinsma et al., 2008, Peters et al., 2012)
Furthermore contemporary utopian models (master plan) as urban renewal by means of large-
scale interventions around nodes, require a particular investigation on decision-making
processes and the role of the architectural design within its complexity, especially for the
design (re) development of infrastructural areas.

Conclusions

Throughout the different morphologies of intersections, presented as a framework for several

ongoing projects in Europe (Berlingieri and Triggianese, 2013), the role of infrastructural
matters emerges with new meanings. The issues of interdisciplinary (environment, infra-
urban and design process studies) keep configuring more complex typologies that could be
defined as new Urban Morpho-Types. They present themselves as result of hybridization,
both in spaces and in process, overlapping for instance three different disciplines, linked
together in new composite configurations in architectural and urban design interactions.
“Infrastructural work recognizes the collective nature of the city and allows for the
participation of multiple authors. Infrastructures give direction of future work in the city not
by the establishment of rules or codes (top-down), but by fixing points of service, access, and
structure (bottom-up). Infrastructure creates a directed field where different architects and
designers can contribute, but it sets technical and instrumental limits to their work
Infrastructure itself works strategically, but it encourages tactical improvisation.
Infrastructural work moves away from self-referential and individual expression toward
collective enunciation”. (Allen, 1999)

References

Allen, S. (2003). Artificial Ecology. In Patteeuw, V. (2003) Reading MVRDV (Nai Publisher,
Rotterdam)
Allen, S. (1999) Points and Lines: Diagrams and Projects for the City (Princeton Architectural Press,
New York)
 1587

Bajard, M. (2007) De la gare à la ville. AREP, une démarche de projet (AAM, Bruxelles)
Banham, R. (1976) Megastructure: Urban Futures of the Recent Past. (Harper and Row)
Berlingieri, F. and Triggianese, M. (2013). ‘From Utopia to real world: Construction of a unique
metropolitan space of Europe’. In MONU: magazine on urbanism, n.19, pp. 18-23.
Bertolini, L. (1996) ‘Knots in the net: on the redevelopment of Railway Stations and their
surroundings’. In City, 1, 129-137.
Bertolini, L. (2012) ‘Integrating Mobility and Urban Development Agendas: a Manifesto’. In disP -
The Planning Review, 48:1, 16-26.
Bruinsma, F., Pels, E., Priemus, H., Rietveld, P., van Wee, B.(2007) Railway Development: Impacts
on Urban Dynamics. (Physica-Verlag GmbH & Co, Heidelberg)
Choay, F. (ed.it.: 2000). La città: utopie e realtà (Einaudi, Torino)
Chermayeff, S. and Tzonis. A. (1971) The Shape of Community (Penguin, London), p.14
Clementi, A. (2010). Territorio: una risorsa per lo sviluppo. XXI Secolo, Treccani (http://
www.treccani.it)
D’Ascia, S. (2010) Torino Porta Susa, PEC SPINA2: Stazione Ferroviaria e Torre Servizi. In TEMA
Vol 3 - No 4, pag. 71-82. (http://www.tema.unina.it) accessed 20 May 2014
Deleuze, G. (1990) Negotiations: 1972-1990. Trans. Martin Joughin. (Columbia UP, New York)
Laugier, M. A. (1765) Observations sur l’Architecture (La Haye Desaint, Paris)
Le Corbusier (1924). Urbanisme (Gallimard, Paris)
Peters, D. and Novy J. (2012) ‘Train Station Area Development Mega-Projects in Europe: Towards a
Typology’, Built Environment, 38:1, 12–30.
Purini, F. (2005) Questioni di infrastrutture. In Casabella, Dicembre-Gennaio, 739-740.
Sitte, C. (1889). Der Städtebau nach seinen künstlerischen grundsätzen (Birkhause, Berlin).
Tesoriere Z. (2013) ‘Infrastructure as Interface: Thinking the Urban and the High-speed Railway
Station: Italian Case-studies.’ Spaces and Flows: An International Journal of Urban and ExtraUrban
Studies, Volume 3, Issue 1, 71-87.
Terrin, JJ ed. (2011) Gares et dynamiques urbaines. Les enjeux de la grande vitesse (Parenthès,
Marseilles).
Tiry, C. (2008) Les megastructure du transport, typologie architecturale et urbaine des grands
équipements de la mobilité (CERTU, Lyon).
Vidler, A. (2011) The scene of the street and other essays (The Monacelli Press, New York).
Zeidler, E.H. (1985) Multi-use architecture in the urban context. (Nostrand Reinhold).
1588
 1589

Teaching urban form

Considering how aspects of urban form are taught is of increasing importance as the
subject becomes more international and more interdisciplinary. Further, some key
figures in the field are retiring, and a new generation of researchers and practitioners
needs to be recruited and educated. Finally, the challenges posed by technological
advances in data collection and analysis need to be explored. This is a big agenda,
and this session can only make a start. We have sought contributions from academic
and professional courses, and from different national contexts. We have deliberately
sought comparisons, with local innovations being set in wider contexts. But this
session does not provide a ‘how to’ manual for teaching urban form: it questions
approaches and demonstrates good practices. Many issues will remain unexplored;
but the profile of teaching urban form will be raised for future conferences.

Peter J. Larkham
1590

Teaching and Seminar of Urban Morphology in Peking

University, China

Xiong Xinkai1,2, Feng Song1,2,3

1
College of Urban and Environmental Sciences, Peking University, 2Urban
Morphology Research Group, CHINA, Peking University, 3Urban Morphology
Research Group, Birmingham University. Email: [email protected]

Abstract. There are three teaching and seminar activities on Urban Morphology in Peking University,
whose academic background is urban geography and urban planning, under the charge of Prof. Feng
Song, from UMRG.CN. The first one is the undergraduate course, Introduction of Urban Morphology.
The second is the graduate course, Senior Lectures of Urban Form and Culture. The third is the seminar
about theory and practice of Urban Morphology in the research group for graduate students. Through
the design of curriculum, the research group focuses on important issues, like multidisciplinary
background of urban morphology; disciplinary history of Conzenian School, Italian School and Chinese
School; method and tips of field work survey; integrated research with practice and multi-cultural
comparison and international communication. On the other hand, there are also some difficulties during
the urban morphology teaching, like language, filed work survey, multi-cultural comparison etc. The
paper also gives the future plan of urban morphology teaching in Peking University.

Key Words: Urban Morphology; Teaching and Seminar; Peking University

Academic Background of Urban Studies and Planning in Peking University

Peking University was founded in 1898, considered as the earliest modern university and the
supreme comprehensive university in China. Different from the origin of architecture in
technology universities, Urban Studies and Urban Planning in comprehensive university usually
derived from geography, focusing on multi-scale urban problems and strategies handling with
them.
The academic background of urban studies and planning in Peking University could be
retrospect to the Department of Geology and Geography, which integrated Geography, Geology
and History from other universities before 1949. In the early time, site selection of industry was
the most important research and practice of the department. Through 50 years, the department
has developed to three colleges with various subjects (see Fig.1). At present, Urban Studies and
Planning in Peking University has the fundaments of multidisciplinary academic background
with the core of urban geography.

Teaching and Seminar of Urban Morphology in Peking University

Similar as the worldwide development of Urban Morphology, despite of its long history in
China since 1930s, the academic interest in the study urban form arouse after 1990s considering
its influence on urban planning and design.
However, in comparison with the situation in China, the teaching and research of Urban
Morphology has played an important role since 1950s in Peking University because of its
tradition of historic geography research. Prof. Hou Renzhi, whose supervisor was Sir Henry
Clifford Darby, has focused on the historical process of Beijing after finishing his study in
Liverpool University. Although the research of Prof. Hou did not use the terminology of Urban
Morphology, his concentration had reached some important issues like geographical difference
 1591

of urban landscape. Thanks to the corporation with archeological department and opportunity to
make early urban planning in China in 1980s, the teaching and research of urban form in Peking
University had long-time accumulation especially in these historical cities, which provided
profound academic tradition and atmosphere.

Figure 1. Change of Department, Subject and Practice of Urban Studies and Planning in
Peking University.

After his retirement, the rise of urban system and urban structure research to some extent
affected the study of urban form in Peking University. These researches focused on the other
aspect of urban geography using massive cross-sectional data integrated with the approach of
geometrics and GIS. Up to now, these researches have still held the dominant position in urban
geography, while the tradition of historic geography has gradually been overlooked because of
its “incomplete” academic paradigm.
After 2000, the “culture turn” of Chinese urban geography and more and more highlighted
city problems led the rethinking of the urban form study especially influenced by the idea of
American urban planning, such as Kevin Lynch. At the same time, Prof. Song Feng got to know
the Conzenian academic tradition of Urban Morphology and ISUF. After his academic visit to
UMRG cooperating with Prof. J.W.R.Whitehand, he started to found the research group of
urban form in China and reestablish the teaching system of Urban Morphology in Peking
University.
In the teaching system of Urban Morphology in Peking University, integration of Chinese
and European academic tradition seems to be the most significant issues as well as the
application of Urban Morphology in the teaching of urban planning. Because of its multi-
disciplinary knowledge preparations and its influence on planning practice, the introduction
course has been arranged in the 6th Semester of undergraduate students since 2011, given its
mid position of the teaching plan (see Fig.2). In addition, the UMRG.CN seminar has been
prepared for the graduate students who have deep interest in this field, including: perusal of
important academic literature, monographic independent research and academic lecture. In
2013, another graduate course named as Senior Lectures of Urban Form and City Culture was
established for the students major in architecture and urban design focus on the application of
Urban Morphology (see Tab.1).
The details of these teaching and seminar activities will be illustrated in the following parts.
1592

Figure 2. Position of Urban Morphology in the Teaching Plan of Urban Planning.

Table 1. Brief Information of Teaching and Seminar of Urban Morphology

Course and Seminar Starting Time Credit Type Participant

Undergraduate Students,
Introduction of Urban (Urban Planning, Urban Geography)
2011 2 Optional
Morphology College of Urban and Environmental Sciences,
Peking University
Graduate Students
Senior Lectures of
(Architecture, Urban Design)
Urban Form and City 2013 1 Optional
College of Urban Planning and Design, Shenzhen
Culture
Graduate School of Peking University
Professors and Graduate Students
UMRG.CN Seminar 2011
whose concentrations are Urban Morphology in China

Undergraduate Course: Introduction of Urban Morphology

Target of the Course

The target of the course is to help undergraduates learn the system of Urban Morphology,
including: understanding the key concept of Urban Morphology, comprehending the
disciplinary history of different school and applying the terminology and theory in urban form
study. Because of the academic background of UMRG.CN, the course focuses more on the
concept and theory of Conzeinan School.
However, since the course assessment is the independent research of Urban Morphology,
‘Introduction of Urban Morphology’ gradually becomes one of the most important guides for
the potential students whose concentration is Urban Morphology and help them build their own
academic habits and interests.

Significant Issues of Curriculum Design

The curriculum design mostly follows these principles:

Firstly, the curriculum is divided into 5 parts referring different topics, including:
disciplinary history, concept and theory of Conzenian Urban Morphology, basic introduction of
building typology and cross-culture research. In these 5 parts, Conzenian Urban Morphology is
the most important one, which leads the mainstream of the introduction course. In the
curriculum design, Chinese local urban morphology study is also included to compare with the
classical ones.
Secondly, the arrangement of the course follows the logic to present the academic context of
urban morphology. The origin and development of urban morphology is designed to present
first, dating back to the late 19th Century Germany geography. Then, the case study of Alnwick
is designed to present after the disciplinary in order to use a classical case study to illustrate the
terminology system of Conzenian Urban Morphology and help students understand what the
 1593

town-plan analysis is and how to make it. After the case study, concept of urban landscape,
building typology and cross-culture research are designed to present more recent research
results of the concept, theory and case study in the field of urban morphology(see Tab.2).
Thirdly, the course includes lecture section and discussion section. There are totally 12
lectures and 4 discussions in one semester. The lecture section is mostly prepared by Prof. Song
Feng, but the building typology course is designed as the joint teaching with Southeast
University. Prof. Deng Hao has been invited to present lectures of his research. The discussion
section requires the student to read the classical paper in such topic and presents their idea based
on these literatures. The topics of discussion include disciplinary history of urban morphology,
Alnwick study, Conzenian and Italian school urban form study, approach and significance of
cross-cultural research. All students are required to make 4 paper reviews in each discussion
course and at least make 1 presentation for their idea.
Finally, the course assessment needs the students to take the independent research and make
the field research work(see Fig.3). This assessment could help student take some practice in the
field work and make some brief urban morphology study integrated with just learned theory and
concept independently. The assessment also could lead them to understand the urban landscape
around them which will help them in their future work of urban studies and planning.

Success and Experience

This course is one of the few urban morphology courses for undergraduate students in China.
Although the course just went through a few years, there also exists some success and
experience which could be shared all around the world:
1. It is not a good idea to present the concept and theory first, because it is hard to understand
for new learners. Presenting the disciplinary history and classical case study will help them
where these concept and theory come from.
2. Reading classical papers plays the most important role of teaching because it could give more
details of the study. However, it is also hard for students to read the paper without any guides.
Some papers could be introduced in the lecture part to help students be familiar with it.
3. Field work and independent research are important for the students who are new in this field.
This could help them find their own academic interest and better understand the cities at least.

Graduate Course: Senior Lectures of Urban Form and City Culture

Target of the Course

The target of the course is to help graduates who only want to grasp the basic idea of urban
morphology which could help them in the field of urban design. Most students taking this
course learn architecture when they are undergraduate students. This course focuses more on
how to help students understand the context of city, cultivate their capacity and integrate some
idea into practice.

Figure 3. Picture about the Field Wok of the Course.

1594

Table 2. Curriculum of ‘Introduction of Urban Morphology’.

Week Arrangement Description

Basic Concept, Disciplinary History
1-2 Chapter 1. Origins and Development of Urban Morphology
Chinese Urban Form Research
Discussion 1: Disciplinary History of Urban Morphology
Selected Paper:
[1] Moudon, A.V. (1997) ‘Urban morphology as an emerging interdisciplinary field’, Urban Morphology
vol. 1 pp. 3-10.
[2] Cataldi,G., Maffei,G.L. and Vaccaro, P. (2002) ‘Saverio Muratori and the Italian school of planning
typology’, Urban Morphology, Vol. 6, No. 1,pp. 3-20.
3
[3] Cataldi G. (2003) From Muratori to Caniggia: the origins and development of the Italian school,
Urban Morphology, Vol.7 No.1,pp.19-34.
[4] Whitehand,J.W.R. (1997) Why Urban Morphology_Editorial Comment, Urban Morphology, Vol.1,
No.1,pp.1.
[5] Whitehand J W R. (2001) British urban morphology: the Conzenion tradition. Urban Morphology,
Vol.5, No,2, pp. 103-109.
Case of Alnwick,
4-6 Chapter 2. Case Study of Alnwick Achievement and Idea of
M.R.G.Conzen
Discussion 2: Alnwick Study
Selected Paper:
[1] Conzen, M.R.G. (1960) Alnwick, Northumberland: a study in town-plan analysis, Publication No.
7
27, Institute of British Geographers, London; reprinted with minor amendments and Glossary, 1969.
[2] Conzen, M.R.G. (2004) Thinking about urban form: essays on urban morphology, edited by M.P.
Conzen, Lang, Oxford.
Conzenian School of Urban
Morphology
8-11 Chapter 3. Concept of Urban Landscape Urban Landscape, Plot Cycle, Fringe
Belt, Landscape Unit, Agent of
Change
Italian School of Building Typology
Chapter 4. Building Typology
12 Concept and Theory of Building
(Joint Teaching with Southeast University)
Type, Typological Process
Discussion 3: Conzenian and Italian School Urban Form Study
Selected Paper:
[1] Kropf K.S. (2001)Conceptions of change in the built environment. Urban Morphology, Vol.5,
No.1,pp. 29-46.
[3] Corsini M.G.(1997) Residential building types in Italy before 1930: the significance of local
13
typological processes. Urban morphology, Vol.1, No.1, pp. 34-48.
[4] Whitehand J.W.R.(1972) Building cycles and the spatial pattern of urban growth. Transactions of the
Institute of British Geographers, pp.39-55.
[5] Caniggia G, Maffei G L.(2001) Architectural composition and building typology: interpreting basic
building. Alinea Editrice.
Cross-culture Comparison, Field
Chapter 5. Cross-culture Research of Urban Morphology
14-15 Work, Independent Urban
(Field Work in Beijing)
Morphology Research
Discussion 4: Approach and Significance of Cross-cultural Research
Selected Paper:
[1] Conzen, M.R.G. (2004) Thinking about urban form: essays on urban morphology, edited by M.P.
16
Conzen, Lang, Oxford.
[2] Whitehand J.W.R.(2009) The structure of urban landscapes: strengthening research and practice,
Urban Morphology, Vol.13, No.1, pp.5-27.
Course Assessment: 1) Independent Research based on Urban Morphology
2) 4 Paper Reviews and at least 1 Presentation in Discussion Course

Significant Issues of Curriculum Design

The curriculum design mostly follows these principles:

Firstly, the curriculum is divided into 5 parts referring different topics, including: concept of
urban morphology, Conzenian School Urban Morphology, Italian School Building Typology,
 1595

urban morphology and city culture: cross-cultural and morphogenetic approach and application
of urban morphology in urban planning and design. Different from the undergraduate courses,
application of urban morphology becomes the most important part here.
Secondly, in the arrangement of theory teaching, the lecture is designed not only to illustrate
the concepts but also more on how urban morphology could help in urban studies and urban
planning. For example, morphological process is related to how city culture is formed and urban
landscape unit is related to the site and context as the basis of urban design.
Finally, the course assessment is an independent research or design works based on urban
morphology. This requires the students integrate urban morphology with their own academic
interest and design practice, which could help them better grasp the critical part of urban
morphology.

Table 3. Curriculum of ‘Senior Lectures of Urban Form and City Culture’.

Week Arrangement Description

Basic Concept, Disciplinary History
1 Chapter 1. Concept and Theory of Urban Morphology
Chinese Urban Form Research
Case of Alnwick and Conzen’s
2-4 Chapter 2. Conzennian School Urban Morphology Achievement
Conzenian School of Urban Morphology
Italian School of Building Typology
5 Chapter 3. Italian School Building Typology
Concept and Theory of Typological Process
Urban Landscape Unit/Urban Tissue and
Chapter 4. Urban Morphology and City Culture:
6-7 their Relationship with City Culture
Cross-cultural and Morphogenetic Approach
Cross-cultural Comparison of Urban Form
Application of Urban Morphology in
Chapter 5. Application of Urban Morphology in Urban
8 Heritage Conservation Planning and Urban
Planning and Design
Design
Course Assessment: Independent Research or Design Works based on Urban Morphology

Success and Experience

This course is not designed for the graduates whose concentrations are urban morphology but
the ones who need it in their design or research. This course is the new one for the graduates
major in urban design but it actually receives the good effect. The success and experience of this
course maybe more helpful for most colleges of urban planning and urban design:
1. It is helpful to integrate existing concept and theory with the urban planning practice,
especially for the students who need urban morphology but not take the research.
2. It is important to help more graduates learn the idea of urban morphology, because the
idea will be taken into planning practice which could give more opportunities for the scholars
tos bridge the gap of research and practice in the future.

UMRG.CN Seminar: Theory and Practice of Urban Morphology

Target of the Seminar

The target of the Seminar is to help graduates who are interested in urban morphology and want
to take deeper research. Most students in the seminar have taken the course “Introducation of
Urban Morphology” when they are undergraduates, so they have a clear view of what is urban
morphology.
The seminar is not only for the graduates but also for the researchers from all over the world
who are interested in urban morphology. The role of the seminar is to provide the opportunity of
academic communication for both researchers and students.
1596

Arrangement and Topics of the Seminar

The seminar is divided into three parts: classical literature review, lecture and thematic study
(see Tab.4).
The target of Classical Literature Review is to read the paper by former famous scholars
more carefully in order to find important ideas and details critical to present research. In this
seminar, 3 books are selected for reading: M.R.G.Conzen’s ‘Alnwick, Northumberland: a study
in town-plan analysis’ and ‘Thinking about urban form: essays on urban morphology’ and
Caniggia’s ‘Architectural Composition and Building Typology: Interpreting Basic Building’.
The work of Alnwick is the most important literature for the new comer. A lot of detailed
review has been done to help learn Alnwick’s academic point(see Fig.4).
Despite the literature review, lectures are also important in the seminar. M.P.Conzen and
J.W.R.Whitehand have been invited to give the lectures in 2011 and 2013. In the seminar, the
lecture becomes not only the way to present the knowledge of Urban Morphology, but also the
important opportunity for scholars across the world to communicate with each other.
Thematic study is the most important topic in the seminar. Until now, 4 theme researches
have been done: Urban Landscape Analysis of China after 1949, Urban Morphology and City
Problems, Urban Morphology and Heritage Conservation, Chinese Urban Morphology
Research. The cities of case study are across the whole country, e.g. Beijing, Shanghai, Jiujiang,
Macao and etc. Thematic study is important for learning Urban Morphology, because it helps
graduates cultivate the research skills and review the concept and theory of this field.

Table 4. Arrangement of UMRG.CN Seminar.

NO. Arrangement Description

Classical Literature Review
Conzen, M.R.G. (1960) Alnwick, Northumberland: a Detailed review of Conzen’s approaches,
study in town-plan analysis, Publication No. 27, Institute terms and research details in the study of
1
of British Geographers, London; reprinted with minor Alnwick.
amendments and Glossary, 1969.
Conzen, M.R.G. (2004) Thinking about urban form:
Detailed review of Conzen’s original idea of
2 essays on urban morphology, edited by M.P. Conzen,
Urban Morphology and other case studies.
Lang, Oxford.
Caniggia G, Maffei G L. (2001) Architectural
Detailed review of Canaggian original idea
3 composition and building typology: interpreting basic
of Building Typology.
building[M]. Alinea Editrice.
Lectures
1 M.P.Conzen in 2011 Cross-cultural Comparison of Fringe Belts
Conenian approach of Urban Morphology
2 J.W.R.Whitehand in 2011, 2013 Research in China(Beijing, Pingyao,
Guangzhou)
Thematic Study
Case Study: Shenyang(Wu Menghe),
Yuxi(Dai Ying), Shenzhen(Xiong Xinkai,
1 Urban Landscape Analysis of China after 1949 Shi Chunhui), Beijing (Shi Chunhui, Dai
Ying), Shanghai(Xiong Xinkai),
Chengdu(Ma Yandi)
Physical Environment Study (Liang
2 Urban Morphology and City Problems
Yuecong)
Case Study: Kuling
Town(UMRG.CN,J.W.R. Whitehand and
3 Urban Morphology and Heritage Conservation S.M. Whitehand), Macao(Liang Yuecong,
Xiong Xiao), Beijing(Xiong Xinkai),
Kaiping(Liu Hao, Xiong Xinkai)
Zhao Zhengzhi’s research work(Song Feng,
4 Chinese Urban Morphology Research
Dai Ying, Shi Yanhui)
 1597

Success and Experience

This seminar is designed for the Urban Morphology research student and scholars. It is the most
common way of communication for the researchers concentrating in Urban Morphology all over
the world. The success and experience of this seminar maybe helpful for the foundation of
similar type of Urban Morphology Seminar:
1. It is helpful to review the classical literature again and again, because the most excellent
case study has not been transcended. Therefore you can get a lot of information from the old
paper about the idea, viewpoint, academic history and skills in the field of Urban Morphology.
On the other hand, the more you know about the classical literature, the more you understand
the future research.
2. It is important to get group research, because the students can share more information
through the same topic and find newer information about it.
3. No matter how large the cultural difference is, cross-cultural communication of the
viewpoint shows its significance for future research.

Figure 4. Picture of the Seminar (1: Research Result in the Seminar; 2: Seminar Lecture
by M.P.Conzen; 3,4: Field Work with J.W.R.Whitehand and S.M.Whitehand).

Conclusion and Discussion

Difficulty faced in the Teaching and Seminar

Although the teaching and seminar of urban morphology in Peking University has received
satisfactory results, a list of difficulty also appears in these years.
The first difficulty is the language in translation of glossary and urban history. In the
introduction of Alnwick study, the students appeared very confused to some glossary which is
easier to understand in different cultural background, such as burgage, town-plan etc. However,
the glossary and some terms related to urban history and institution could not be easily changed
into another one because of the loss of cultural information. For example, the concept of “plot”
could not just transplanted into Chinese term “dikuai”(地块) without any notes, because the
“plot” especially “burgage” contains more important information of morphological period.
1598

The second difficulty is the multidisciplinary teaching, mostly the gap between geography
and architecture. Conzenian School and Italian School have different academic background with
different academic habit and knowledge. However, in actual urban morphology study, it is more
important for researchers to get a comprehensive and multidisciplinary view. This requirement
is quite difficult for students if they want to get more achievement.
The third difficulty is the field work survey. Actually, the field work requires the most
experience in the whole process of research. However, for the young people who are new to this
field, the details in the landscape are hard to find and understand. The teacher also does not have
enough vitality to guide each student carefully. Thus, it is necessary for the experienced scholars
to prepare a Guide Book of Investigation which could help new students get some useful skills
in field work.
The fourth difficulty is multi-cultural comparison. It is not only the problem for the students
but also for all scholars. To cultivate more future scholars in urban morphology, international
communications are critical especially for young students, including: visiting research, global
cooperative study etc.

Further Discussion

Urban Morphology is a “new” research field with more than 100-year academic history.
However, the teaching of urban morphology is even “newer” because of its unsystematic state.
There even not exists a whole textbook referred to urban morphology. Thus the share of
teaching experience is more important for our common future of urban morphology giving the
fact of raising number of ISUF members and papers.
The teaching and seminar of Peking University only have a short history. Our research group
is also new to this field. Therefore it is significant to build more close and global relationship of
each university offering courses of Urban Morphology considering the cross-cultural nature of
this research field.

References

Conzen, M.R.G. (1960) Alnwick, Northumberland: a study in town-plan analysis, Publication No. 27,
Institute of British Geographers, London; reprinted with minor amendments and Glossary, 1969.
Conzen, M.R.G. (2004) Thinking about urban form: essays on urban morphology, edited by M.P.
Conzen, Lang, Oxford.
Cataldi, G., Maffei, G.L. and Vaccaro, P. (1997) ‘The Italian school of process typology’, Urban
Morphology vol. 1 pp. 49-50.
Cataldi, G., Maffei, G.L. and Vaccaro, P. (2002) ‘Saverio Muratori and the Italian school of planning
typology’, Urban Morphology vol. 6 no. 1 pp. 3-20.
Kropf, K.S. (1993) The definition of built form in urban morphology, unpublished PhD thesis, School of
Geography, University of Birmingham.
Moudon, A.V. (1997) ‘Urban morphology as an emerging interdisciplinary field’, Urban Morphology vol.
1 pp. 3-10.
Whitehand, J.W.R. (2012) ‘Issues in Urban Morphology’, Urban Morphology vol. 16 no. 1 pp. 55-65.
1599
1600
 1601

The relations between research and practice

In January 2013 Michael Conzen, then president of ISUF, launched a task force to
strengthen the relation between urban morphological research and planning practice.
Subsequent responses to accounts of progress of the work, published on the ISUF
website and in Urban Morphology, including an exceptional number of Viewpoints,
confirmed that there was a latent body of opinion and experience which seemed to be
waiting for a vehicle for its diffusion. The papers in these parallel sessions confirm the
extent to which urban morphology has been applied in practice in wide variety of
countries and through a diversity of practice instruments which range far beyond those
few western countries which have hitherto dominated the field. This broadening of the
context also responses to a major intention of the embryonic Porto Charter and it is
hoped that it is a start to a new and fretful chapter in ISUF’s endeavours.

Ivor Samuels
1602

Making a case for the broadening of the urban morphologist’s

battlefield - the impediments for small-scale development in
Miami-Dade County

Eric Firley, Andrew Frey

School of Architecture, University of Miami.
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. Following Moudon’s work on the history and philosophy of the ISUF (International Seminar
on Urban Form) movement, urban morphology can be described as the study of the physical form of
cities and the process of city-making. Particular emphasis is given to the notion of time and the
importance of the single lot as the fundamental unit of evolutive analysis. As a professional and foremost
academic set of methods, urban morphology functions empirically and descriptively, even though the
complexity of city-making, its multi-disciplinary character and behaviorist interdependencies do not
facilitate the scientific proof of causalities.This paper further explores the discipline’s normative
challenges, particularly on the base of the above-mentioned positivist limitations, but also on the
background of implementation issues for the present. To what extent, and for whom, can or should
common goals be defined? Which ones are crucial for the creation or retention of an urban environment
that does not mock the fundamentals of what we call “urban grain”? How can we have an impact on city-
and policy-making without losing the freedom of a neutral academic discipline? As a very tangible
example of one of the discipline’s allegedly most important issues, the one of scale, the paper discusses
legal obstacles to small-scale development in Miami-Dade County. Informed by Moudon’s definition of
the city as “the accumulation and integration of many individual and small group actions” (Moudon,
1997, p. 3), the authors address the current virtual impossibility of implementing this definition due to
systemic impediments to small development.

Key Words: normative challenges, small-scale development, Miami-Dade County, policy implications,
implementation issues

Introduction

Initially, this call for papers was perceived as a simple opportunity to study and raise awareness
of a very specific development issue: legal obstacles to small residential development in Miami.
On second thought, the authors questioned the obviousness of this endeavor, sensing that such a
non-historic analysis of the development processes falls outside of the canon of academia.
To test this intuition and make it part of the paper, we explored all the abstracts from the past
eight years of “Urban Morphology”, a leading publication in its field and the one closely
associated to this conference. How many of the 64 contributions dealt with a similar topic?
Only a few articles -- such as “The morphological dimension of municipal plans” (Volume
10.2, p.101-113) and “The persistence of suburban centres in Greater London” (Volume 14.2,
p.85-99) -- genuinely extended their analysis of historic urban development processes into the
present. Several other articles mentioned the issue, but did so abstractly, without analysis of
specific contemporary forces on development, as if these forces -- including economic
constraints and legal requirements -- were no longer relevant to city-making.
A similar exercise for the journal “Urban Design International” revealed a higher percentage
of papers that examine current conditions. This suggests the discipline of urban morphology (at
least for the active contributors of the eponymous journal) is still perceived as a specialization in
a historic understanding of urban development, rather than in urban development as such -- past,
present, and future.
 1603

This is not surprising given Moudon’s characterization of the movement as originally

confined to geographers, but it underscores her concerns regarding the discipline’s further
evolution and impact. Jeremy Whitehand, editor of “Urban Morphology”, has repeatedly
published similar reflections, such as “Making connections” (Volume 16.1, Editorial Comment)
and “Towards a more integrated approach” (Volume 10.2, Editorial Comment).
We would like to suggest possible reasons for this tendency of urban morphology to focus on
historic development patterns and the important role played by laws and procedures, but not
extrapolate such importance to present and future development. Keep in mind that the below
possible reasons reflect the personal opinions of an urban desinger and a developer, and
furthermore are likely not reflective of geographers, planners, or architectural historians.
(i) As mentioned by Moudon, urban morphology as a discipline can be understood as a
critique of and reaction to Modernism, and specifically Modernism’s ambivalent relationship
with history. Studying the past is hence not only a crucial methodological component, but also a
professional and even political statement.
(ii) Historic research and contemporary research differ in methods, skills, and sources, and
they attract different kinds of scholars. Contemporary research particularly lacks previously-
published work, and its primary sources -- communications with developers and designers --
can be full of colorful and evocative “marketing language” that obscures relevant details like
legal obstacles.
(iii) The most recent generations of city-makers -- developers, planners, designers, engineers,
lawyers, etc. -- are most familiar with large-scale interventions. From the famous city-extending
projects of the second half of the 19th century (Barcelona’s Eixample, Vienna’s Ringstrasse,
Castro’s Plan for Madrid, etc.) to Germany’s Siedlungen of the 1920s to post-war public
housing projects, urban planning academia has been preoccupied with “big power” and its
implementation, preferably of visionary character.
However, the plain fact that a large-scale plan was implemented (often because the relevant
government was persuaded to change laws) does not prove that the content of the starting vision
was the only or even most important determinant for its final outcome. It may be that the large-
scale state of mind obscures and underestimates some of the aspects of development that were
actually operative. Regarding developments (especially vernacular ones) in the more distant
past, physical, economic, and legal “details” are – in contrast - considered of crucial importance,
details such as building materials (e.g. wood beam strength in row houses), material prestige
thinking (e.g. Shanghai Shikumen), property tax calculation (e.g. the width of houses in
Amsterdam or Charleston), or laws regarding inheritance (e.g. Tokyo mini-houses). Yet for
contemporary projects only the conscious design intent seems to be relevant.
This point leads to two contradictory conclusions: on the one hand, the machinery of large-
scale development has prevented the emergence of new types of vernacular architecture, or such
types have emerged but a large-scale state of mind has clouded our ability to detect and analyze
them.
(iv) Architects often view their work primarily as externalizations of their vision, regrettably
constrained by parameters. An architect is given certain parameters by the client or building
codes or engineering calculations, and after a brief analysis, the architect creates a form and
space that accomplishes the parameters and expresses creativity. It is not central to his work to
examine the source of the parameters, or to question them. Unlike an economist or a planner,
the architect is not interested to know how economic and legal forces influence behavior and
outcomes. This is also true for urban designers. For good or for bad reasons many designers try
to force his or her will as a product on the environment, rather than to see design as a process of
internalizing exterior forces.
To summarize and tie back to the main thrust of this paper, we have tried in this section to
understand possible reasons that urban morphology has not paid special attention to the
contemporary development process, including obstacles economic, legal, and otherwise. The
next section will scrutinize exactly such obstacles and how they shape development using the
1604

case study of a single product in a single US local government: new small residential
construction in the City of Miami.

Legal obstacles to small residential development in Miami

New small residential construction faces many obstacles, some inherent in its small size (i.e.
lack of economies of scale), but many others artificially imposed by law. Legal obstacles come
in three flavors: 1) make small buildings physically impossible, or 2) increase cost or 3)
decrease revenue. Often one obstacle will both increase cost and decrease revenue, for example
required parking drives up a small building’s construction cost and reduces its net square feet
(or, because required parking is usually prescribed on a per-unit basis, it steers a small
developer to subdivide the building into fewer, larger units).
Obstacles result from laws at every level of US government: federal, state, and local laws,
regulations, unwritten policies and interpretations. Because the legal obstacles occur at varying
levels of government that do not coordinate, the obstacles are difficult to catalog and their
effects difficult to isolate.
We provide this case study of Dade County, to show a few of the many obstacles faced by
small developers, explore their effects, and ask the reader to imagine these problems multiplied
across all the cities in the US, all its counties and states, and countless federal laws.

Federal Regulations Regarding Permanent Debt

Obstacle: An example of a legal obstacle at the federal level are regulations regarding how the
government buys permanent debt (long term, not construction debt) for small residential
buildings with up to four units. The federal program is very useful if you want to build a
building with up to four units, but penalizing for five or more.
Law: The program is intended to promote home ownership, and the US federal government
buys notes through its subsidiaries Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac to give an additional incentive
to private banks to make loans for owner-occupied buildings: a guaranteed “secondary market”.
Because the federal government’s desire to promote home ownership is so great, the program is
“over-inclusive” (to an extent) so as not to exclude houses that happen to have a “granny flat” or
other accessory unit. Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac will buy a note for buildings with up to four
units.
Effect: How does the secondary market for permanent debt affect new construction of small
rental buildings? Banks are more likely to make a construction loan if they know that, at the
end of construction, there is more likely to be a buyer (or refinance) to pay off the construction
loan with permanent debt. So there is more construction debt for buildings up to four units, but
less for buildings with five units or more.
It is a legitimate concern that this program creates “moral hazard” for one- to four-family
home ownership. However, even if the US government is in the business of creating moral
hazard, it should be acknowledged that the four-unit “bright line” regulation has a secondary but
significant negative effect on small but more dense development.

State Fire & Building Code

Obstacle: At the state level, a key legal obstacle is the state building code requirements for the
number of exits that a building must have. A tower with a large floor plate can absorb two
stairs, but a small building ends up mostly stairs.
The number of exits – and thus separate stairs and corridors leading to exits – is another
example (like required parking discussed below) of a “two-point swing” in the wrong direction
for small developers: stairs increase construction cost and reduce each floor’s net square feet.
More specifically, for a small building, the jump from a single exit to two stairs, corridors,
and exits can be catastrophic. Assume a stair occupies about 200 square feet per floor. In the
 1605

City of Miami, a residential tower in the most dense and intense zoning area (T6-80) can have a
floor plate up to 18,000 square feet (Article 5, page 41). One stair occupies 1% and two stairs
occupy 2%, a difference of only 1%.
However, most of the city is platted into lots of 50 feet wide. Assuming a building with zero
side setbacks (permitted in T4, 5, and 6) and 60 feet deep (a typical apartment unit is 30 feet
deep), its floor plate is 3,000 square feet. One stair occupies 7% and two stairs occupy 13%, a
difference of 6%. So state egress rules have a potentially 600% greater impact on the assumed
small typology than on the large tower.
In Florida, laws regarding the number of exits come from both the state’s adopted Fire
Prevention Code and its Building Code. The requirements differ in each code, so must be read
carefully to find the small area where they overlap. If a building design meets the requirements
of one code but not the other, it must have two stairs (or more).
Law: Florida Fire Prevention Code Section 30.2.4 states that for new apartment buildings “a
single exit shall be permitted in buildings where the total number of stories does not exceed
four” subject to a maximum of four dwelling units per floor and a maximum travel distance of
35 feet. The building must have 0.5-hour fire rating between units both horizontally and
vertically, and must have an automatic sprinkler system. Corridors and exit stairway must have
1-hour fire rating with self-closing doors. The stair may not serve more than one-half [sic] story
below the level of exit.
Florida Building Code Section 1021.2 states that “only one exit shall be required” for Group
R-3 occupancy buildings (one or two units) and certain other occupancies. An occupancy is a
space with a specific use within a larger building. Such occupancies are subject to a maximum
number of occupants (or dwelling units) per floor and a maximum travel distance to the exit,
reproduced below.

Table 1. Story, occupancy, maximum occupants

Story Occupancy Maximum Occupants (Or Dwelling Units) Per

Floor And Travel Distance
First Story Or Basement H-4, H-5, I, R 10 Occupants And 75 Feet Travel Distance
Second Story R-2 4 Dwelling Units And 50 Feet Travel Distance
Third Story R-2 4 Dwelling Units And 50 Feet Travel Distance

Footnotes state that “basements with a single exit shall not be located more than one story
below grade plane”, and third story R-2 occupancy may have a travel distance of 100 feet if
equipped with an automatic sprinkler system and provided with emergency escape and rescue
openings.
Effect: While the Fire Prevention Code suggests that a building may have up to four floors
with a single stair, the Building Code limits it to three stories. (Both require that the building be
equipped with an automatic sprinkler system, in itself a large cost.) Thus for a small building
with five or more units per floor, or more than three floors, it must double the number of stairs,
corridors, and egresses.

County Water & Sewer Regulations

Obstacle: At the county level, the small developer faces formidable obstacles in the regulations
promulgated by its Water & Sewer Department (“WASD”). According to John Hall, a civil
engineer in Dade County for decades and a leader in its development industry, “WASD
regulations are our community’s biggest obstacle to economic development” (2014).
More specifically, WASD regulations treat large urban towers, large suburban subdivisions,
and small urban buildings the same when it comes to forcing developers to upgrade off-site
water and sewer mains. Large developments can absorb such exactions, which can easily run
into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, but small developments cannot.
1606

Law: WASD rules state that for any new construction, addition, or even change of use, all
surrounding water and sewer infrastructure must be upgraded to meet current standards. WASD
regulations Section 2.04(2), paragraph (e) states that, when property is “redeveloped, its use
changed or otherwise improved”, any water facilities serving the property must be improved “so
as to comply with prevailing Department standards, pursuant to paragraph (d)” and subject
certain exceptions “in the flow charts of Exhibit A.”
This requirement to upgrade is triggered whenever the water main serving the project does
not meet current standards. Per Exhibit A, Chart F-2, for low- and medium-density residential
(defined as townhouses or apartments or condos), the current standard is set at 8 inches, and
anything smaller must be replaced. Per Exhibit A, Chart F-3, for high-density residential the
standard is set at 12 inches. In both cases “an offsite extension may also be required”.
This requirement to upgrade applies not only to immediately abutting mains, but also off-site
mains and even secondary services to other properties. Paragraph (d) states that a developer
must install a water main that meets current standards “along one entire boundary line of said
property [that] abuts a public road” as well as “any required off-site mains” and secondary
services to “abutting properties”. The Department “may also require said Developer to install
additional water mains as the Department may deem necessary to promote the public interest” in
accordance with Exhibit A.
There is an exception in paragraph (e) that states “the Department may, at its sole discretion,
perform additional infrastructure analyses consisting of field investigation of flow and pressure
provided by existing mains for a period of no less than seven (7) days to determine if capacity is
available”. The Department may determine that capacity is available and no water facility
improvement is required if there is an existing building with a change of use but no increase of
total building square feet and either 1) an increase of “daily rated gallonage” of less than 50%,
or 2) the change of use will not cause “a reduction below 750 GPM at 20 PSI residential
pressure in the level of domestic and fire flow service”.
The Department may still determine that no water facility improvement is required, but only
if additional criteria are met, listed in paragraph (e) and Exhibit A. However, such criteria are
only for re-occupancy of bays in retail centers and industrial parks, and new construction of
single-family, duplex, and commercial and industrial buildings of up to 5,000 square feet. The
criteria do not include apartment development of any kind.
Effect: These water and sewer regulations are unreasonable in many ways, but for our
purposes they are a clear obstacle to small development. The regulations give WASD wide
discretion regarding single-family and duplex construction – which uses water and sewer
infrastructure least efficiently – but not regarding small urban buildings.
This means that, for a small urban development that happens to occur on a street with a
water main smaller than eight inches, on at least “one entire boundary line” the developer must
upgrade the off-site urban water and sewer network as if it were building new mains and
services in a virgin green-field area on private property. The urban water and sewer network is
under existing roads that must be closed, and the old pipes must be removed, neither costs that
burden a suburban developer. Furthermore, the small developer must upgrade the main and
services until it intersects with a main that meets current standards, which may be several
blocks.

City > Density (Units Per Acre)

Obstacle: Miami zoning in certain areas permits a maximum density so low that the number of
units is less than the existing building (for redevelopment) or does not correspond to the
permitted maximum square feet (for new construction).
Law: Miami zoning T4 permits a maximum density of 36 units per acre (Article 5, page 17).
Effect: Miami is platted into lots that are typically 50 feet wide and 100 feet deep, and at
least 1,000 acres are zoned T4. Thus on a typical lot, T4 permits four units. T4 also permits a
maximum height of three floors and maximum lot coverage of 60%, and does not require a
 1607

minimum side setback, which sounds like what are known in the US as “brownstones”: small
attached buildings divided into apartments.
Much of Miami’s T4 area is currently developed with one- and two-story rental apartment
buildings built in the 1920s and 1930s with very poor quality and thus nearing the end of their
useful lives. These areas are ready for the next increment of urban development, which would
be three-story buildings.
However, most of the existing buildings have at least five units. A common building type is
a one-story apartment building with five units in a row perpendicular to the sidewalk. Thus
while such a property could be redeveloped into a building three times the current height, the
owner would lose at least one unit.
In the less common case that a lot is vacant, the owner could build a building with a floor
plate of 3000 square feet (60% lot coverage) times three floors, for a total of 9000 square feet,
but could divide it into only four units. Each unit would be 2250 square feet, which is twice the
average unit size in a typical rental apartment building, and not marketable or financially
feasible.

City > Parking (Spaces Per Unit)

Obstacle: Miami zoning requires an amount of parking spaces per unit that do not fit on small
lots.
Law: Miami zoning requires 1.5 spaces per unit (Article 4, Table 4).
Effect: Assume a small property owner has a lot that is 50 feet wide and 100 feet deep and is
zoned T6-8, which permits 150 units per acre (Article 5, page 29). The owner wants to develop
a small rental apartment building with eight units, which require 12 parking spaces.
Each space is approximately 10 feet wide and 20 feet deep and the driveway along the 12
spaces is 120 feet long (10 feet multiplied by 12 parking spaces) and 22 feet wide. Clearly a
driveway that is 120 feet long does not fit on a lot that is 100 feet long, and 5040 sqare feet of
parking spaces and driveway do not fit on a 5000 square feet lot.
This effect does not apply to large buildings that can fit multi-story structured parking
garages. Thus the law is a disproportionate burden on small buildings. Furthermore, it is not
even a problem of cost or income, the required parking for a modest apartment building
physically does not fit on Miami’s typical platted lot.

Conclusion

We hope the above-listed obstacles and their effects are self-explanatory. Our motivation in
discussing them in an academic paper is to insist on the relevance of external forces and
processes for understanding urban change.
Though it is only one small example of this process-focused (not product-focused) approach,
small residential construction in Miami makes two important points. First, this case study
provides a road map for how to detect and document many systematic obstacles to a particular
urban morphology.
Second, it helps bring some attention to small urban buildings, a building type overlooked in
recent decades, as part of a broader effort to shift focus away from large, master-planned
projects and toward smaller, interdependent interventions, an effort joined by developers like
Jim Heid (2012), planners like Victor Dover (2011), architects like Brian Phillips at ISA (2013),
writers like Robert Dalziel and Sheila Qureshi (2012), Howard Davis (2012), and Ed McMahon
(2012), and organizations like ULI (thought its small scale developer conferences), the National
Trust for Historic Preservation’s Green Lab, Lean Urbanism, and the California Infill Builders
Federation.
Urban morphology as a discipline is uniquely skilled to analyze small-scale development
patterns -- past and future -- but the issue of scale seems not yet to have caught the attention of a
significant number of its members. This is somewhat ironic because small-scale development is
1608

one of the most characteristic features of urbanism before the mid-1900s. Historically speaking,
urbanism in which most projects are large (such as the current building activity in central
Miami) is rare. The historic city developed in a piecemeal manner, mainly through investment
by private individuals. In most cities this is still the case, but this fact tends to be overlooked by
most professional associations and academia.
What would be the benefits of a research paradigm shift to small, other than consistency with
actual conditions on the ground?
The preceding section’s analysis of legal obstacles to small development helps us understand
why a city would fail to develop its small lots and instead develop in a mostly large-scale
fashion. The reason may surprise many readers: some small lots remain vacant not because the
owners speculate on a windfall offer from a large-scale developer, but simply because a small-
scale project would not be feasible due to the operation of one or more legal requirements.
Uncovering these hidden obstacles is a condition for policy change and an increase of small
building construction, especially in areas that are not the focus of large development companies.
The latter idea is essential, in that it moves beyond urban morphology’s predominantly
descriptive activities and into the territory of the normative. It is of crucial importance to study
the relationship between the urban development processes and the socio-economic outcomes for
the occupants of the resulting city. Even though the role of academia cannot be the making of
generalized value-judgments, parts of its vocation might be the preparation of informed
decisions by the wider public, politicians and professionals in a specific place and situation.
In the case of small-scale development and the resulting fine-grain urban neighborhoods,
literature already exists documenting its advantages. The same day this paper was due, the
National Trust for Historic Preservation’s Green Lab published a report finding that urban
neighborhoods characterized by small lots and buildings of different ages also have more people
per acre, households per acre, residential units per acre, businesses per square foot, jobs per
square foot, and percent of jobs in small businesses (National Trust for Historic Preservation,
2014).
Nassim Taleb writes that, while modern urbanism is “fragile”, the urbanism of Jane Jacobs
(dense but fine-grain and mixed-use) is “anti-fragile” and can actually improve with stress
(2014); however, he also writes that, in the event of calamity, the most robust systems are made
of many small parts that each have many uses (2010). Richard Reep makes a similar point
about urban development post-2008: “People are turning local needs into opportunities at a
scale that is small enough that outside help is not needed” (2012).
Continuing with the theme of small scale contributing to robustness, Joe Minicozzi finds that
small (three- and four-story) mixed-use buildings generate outsize property tax per acre,
meaning a city need not incentivize towers to balance its budget (Sonoran Institute, 2012). Eric
Klineberg, a disaster recovery expert, writes that the best disaster recovery resource is social
connectivity that is characteristic of neighborhoods that are dense but fine-grain (Klineberg,
2013), not composed of the skyscrapers that Richard Florida calls “vertical suburbs” (Florida,
2012).
Charles Montgomery’s book Happy City about the many ways that urban design can
improve human lives describes a surprising number of such improvements that depend on or are
intensified by a fine-grain urban context (Montgomery, 2013).
More correlations should be studied to understand if and why small-scale development leads
to urban environments that tend to be the most desirable and sustainable. Such insights can then
guide policy and political decisions. Such studies would be particularly helpful if they focus on
recent developments and avoid the distractions of “historic patina” and “charm”. What matters
is not that tourists on their Paris trip prefer the Marais to La Defense, but the fact that small-
scale environments anywhere might be more robust, diverse and mixed-use.
Another potential benefit of small-scale development is its ability to involve more people in
city-making. Buying a condo or renting an apartment is not the same as an individual designing,
building, and owning his or her small building. Natalie Weinberger writes that small-scale
 1609

development can be a path to economic justice (2010), and William Apgar makes a similar
point about ownership (2004).
The value of increased participation is difficult to dismiss in societies that proclaim
democracy. If our built environment is seen as a mirror of our political system, such
interpretation is not negligible. However, increased participation in a process may not result in
improved outcomes, just as there is no agreement that Swiss direct democracy produces a better
society than a more representative form of democracy.
Such a thesis regarding participation in urban development is difficult to prove, but that does
not render the inquiry irrelevant. It fits well with the current Zeitgeist of “open-source” and
“crowd-source”, and the perfection of that approach in computer programming (Raymond,
2000) now being tested in real estate “crowd-funding” by Fundrise and similar companies. This
trend has already manifested itself in small development, for example the early-2000s rise of co-
housing development in Germany. Such novelties are just the translation of changes happening
outside the real-estate sector, including trends like 3D printing, customized fashion and
individualized app-programming. In the coming decades we will witness the growth and
creation of ever stronger conglomerates and monopolies, but on the other hand we will - and
already did - see the emergence of a counter-reaction.
Urban morphology provides all the tools to analyze the workings of these promising
developments and opportunities, and can help reveal the implementation issues that they face.
Most importantly, it can also help identify the most promising development patterns, an exercise
that historic studies do not have to provide. We believe that this could and should be one of the
goals for the future of the conferences, the journal and the discipline in general.

References

Apgar, W. (2004) Rethinking Rental Housing: Expanding the Ability of Rental Housing to Serve as a
Pathway to Economic & Social Opportunity (Joint Center for Housing Studies of Harvard University).
Dalziel, R., Qureshi, S. (2012) A House in the City: Home Truths in Urban Architecture (RIBA).
Davis, H., (2012) Living Over the Store: Architecture & Local Urban Life (Routledge).
Dover, V. (2011) ‘Intelligent Incrementalism’, CNU Council.
Firley, E. & Stahl, C. (2009) The Urban Housing Handbook (London: John Wiley & Sons).
Moudon, A.V. (1997) ‘Urban morphology as an emerging interdisciplinary field’, Urban Morphology. 1.
3-10.
Heid, J. (2012) ’Reinventing Real Estate’, Urban Land Magazine
(http://urbanland.uli.org/Articles/2011/Mar/HeidReinventing).
ISA (2013) 100k House (http://is-architects.com/100K-HOUSES, Flexhouse http://is-
architects.com/FLEXHOUSE, and Hi-Res Miami http://hiresmiami.tumblr.com/).
Klineberg, E. (2013) Adaptation: How can cities be ‘climate-proofed’?
(http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/01/07/130107fa_fact_klinenberg).
McMahon, E. (2012) ‘Density Without High-Rises?’, Citiwire Magazin
(http://citiwire.net/columns/density-without-high-rises/).
Montgomery, C. (2013) Happy city (Farrar, Straus & Giroux ).
National Trust for Historic Preservation (2014) Older, Smaller, Better - Measuring how the character of
buildings and blocks influences urban vitality (Washington D.C., NTHP).
Raymond, E. The Cathedral & The Bazaar (http://catb.org/~esr/writings/homesteading/cathedral-
bazaar/index.html).
Reep, R. (2012) ‘Localism As An Anti-Depressant’, New Geography.
Richard Sennett, Why Complexity Improves the Quality of City Life
(http://lsecities.net/media/objects/articles/why-complexity-improves-the-quality-of-city-life).
Taleb, N. (2010) The Black Swan - the impact of the highly improbable (New York, Random House).
Taleb, N. (2014) Anti-Fragile (New York: Random House).
Natalie Weinberger, “The Shophouse as a Tool for Equitable Urban Development: The Case of Phnom
Penh, Cambodia“, Masters thesis, University if Pennsylvania School of Design, Spring 2010.
1610

Towards a flexible definition of limits in urban planning:

controlling urban form under uncertainty

Bruno Moreira
Centro de Estudos de Arquitectura e Urbanismo, Faculdade de Arquitectura da Universidade do
Porto. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. Portuguese formal planning system was born in the thirties and has since then promoting the
development of an opaque, centralized, hierarchical and ineffective planning system. In the seventies
modern concepts of planning began to be applied, still limited to consolidated urban areas and
surroundings. Reality was that the territory beyond those limits was growing without control, pushed by
industrialization, increased mobility and people’s expectations towards better conditions. When the first
systematic plans that considered the municipality as a whole were born in 1982 and the shift towards a
strategic planning approach gained importance in the nineties, the territory was complex and disordered.
Plans and regulations created to limit and control the individual’s increased capability to transform the
territory became part of a reactive and prohibitive planning system instead of on one based on pro-
activity and responsibility: the inflexible nature of these plans led to delays in their definition and
approval as a response to uncertainty. (Portas 1995). The concept of limit is structural and deeply
embedded in plans and regulations, as it influences and controls urban form, which is gaining significant
relevance within urban planning since the eighties (Oliveira 2006). Our goal, as part of a research
focused on the flexibility of planning instruments and their efficacy on regulating contemporary urban
space, is to identify how these limits have been understood in key moments of society and expressed in
their plans and regulations.

Key Words: Flexibility, limits, municipal planning, uncertainty, urban form

Introduction

Contemporary territories are changing at a fast pace. Concepts and methods to understand and
regulate it are being questioned as they do not efficiently respond to these territories’ needs,
such as, precisely, the concept of limit – morphological, administrative, symbolic and
disciplinary.
A flexible limit is, apparently, a paradox: by limit we use to think of a boundary that clearly
separates one entity from another, a boundary that is stable and unchangeable, of entities that
have their own autonomous logics and that don’t overlap. This was clearly noticeable during the
Modern Movement, when the limit was used as a rational tool to bring clarity and order to
planning, mankind overcoming Nature throughout an unlimited rationality. Nature itself always
had, however, its kinds of flexible limits.
With this article we intend to address one specific question: How has the concept of limit
been understood in key moments of the twentieth century in science, society and urban planning
theory?
With this article we intend to introduce how the concept of limit, applied to those topics, is
changing towards openness, multidimensionality and flexibility, and why we must adopt it to be
able to effectively control urban form under uncertainty and achieve better plans and
regulations, providing an important theoretical framework for the broad research which is
currently undergoing and that has as case study the municipality of Santo Tirso in Vale do Ave,
Portugal.
The three topics that will be discussed in this article – “Towards a limited rationality”,
“Unlimited citizens and territories” and “The limit in controlling urban form” – have their own
autonomy, but they can also be read as a (simplified) macro-narrative, introducing how the shift
towards a limited rationality and the increased ability for the citizens and cities to break their
 1611

own limits have brought uncertainty to the ability (and purpose) of controlling urban form in
contemporary societies.

Towards a limited rationality

Contemporary urban planning is shifting from a rational-comprehensive approach towards a

strategic approach. Its common to consider, on the one hand, the rational-comprehensive
approach as a centralistic “top-down” approach where science and technical knowledge are used
to determine the best solution for all planning issues, attending to a well defined public interest,
and following a precise and linear process, while, on the other hand, strategic planning is
considered a decentralized, multi-level and multi-directional approach where the discussion and
the learning process between planners, policy makers and the citizens is as important as the
scientific and technical knowledge, the planner assuming a mediating role between numerous
public and private interests, and where the process is non-linear and subject to changes and
uncertainties.
The seek for unlimited rationality in planning was evident on the “voluntaristic” and
“planifying” urbanism of the sixties and seventies (Ascher 1991) but it was already present in
several scientific fields and production modes which have influenced it – such as Positivism,
Taylorism and Fordism.
The theory of Positivism, introduced by Comte and further refined by Durkheim in the late
nineteenth century, argued that the natural science’s rationalism should also be adopted by
social sciences. Reality was something that existed independently from the knowledge of those
who were living it. The world should be objectively defined independently from our
representation of it and social reality was conceived as divided between “normal” and
“abnormal” states which needed to be “cured” (Durkheim 1982).
In the rational-comprehensive approach, the planner had indeed the role of defining urban
development with maximum objectivity and independence from city life, deciding what was
right and what “needed to be cured” on behalf of a well determined public interest, paying little
attention to those who were living the reality (and thus were unable to see what was best for
them). The design of the city was therefore scientifically based in zones, parameters, ratios and
indexes (Busquets 1995).
In the beginning of the twentieth century, Taylor aimed to promote efficiency in scientific
management, arguing that despite the extent of material inefficiency (such as natural resources
depletion), human inefficiency was far a greater problem in need to be addressed. He then
proposed systematic management as a rational system able to reduce every single action of the
workmen to a science, replacing individual judgement with universal and systematic laws
(Taylor 1919).
Traditional and empirical knowledge, passed from one generation of workers to another, was
to be replaced by scientific knowledge gathered, filtered and disseminated by a new class of
men – the managers – who should develop a science for each step of the productive process and
train the workmen. This meant separating planning from execution in the belief that the
subdivision of labor would increase productivity but also well-being of both workers and
managers by balancing responsibilities, and that better management was the way to make
workmen do their work better.
Planning ahead was a key component of Taylor’s theory and the specialty of these managers,
who should anticipate tasks, means to achieve them and time to be spent, an effort to avoid the
discretionary present in old management systems which allowed a great part of the learning and
decisions to be led by the workmen. In the end, Taylor’s vision was of an organizational
machine comprised by well defined and organized groups of individuals interacting with each
other with clearly defined roles.
Taylor’s principles can be found in the rational-comprehensive approach in urban planning,
namely in the planners’ position as managers of urbanity in the sole possession of scientific
1612

laws, correct principles and adequate ratios and parameters. Planning believed and intended to
anticipate all tasks of urban development, as if there was only one (scientifically) truth, only
reachable by planners with their technical expertise, thus reducing any sort of judgement from
those who executed – and lived with – the plans.
As of Fordism, it emerged as a paradigm for the innovations in the work processe, capital
accumulation and social regulation established in the capitalist society around 1920 (Jessop
1992). Mass production of standardized goods was achieved through the division of labour in
the assembly line (and in the territory), increasing their affordability and profitability by means
of an economy of scale, producing standard goods for an anonymous and homogeneous public
and making them available through mass retailing and desirable through mass media;
accumulation was possible throughout a repeating cycle of mass production and mass
consumption, driven by the continuously rising cycle of productivity, demand, profits and re-
investment; but Fordism was also to be found in the social regulation present in the set of
norms, institutions, networks and patterns of conduct that guided the capitalist society (Jessop
1992). Planning focused in the production of plans, rather than on the production of urbanity,
through hierarchical and institutional assembly lines that produced plans for an anonymous and
homogeneous society and on behalf of a centrally defined public interest.
The post-war economic boom was driven by these paradigms, which were reflected in the
new practices on work management, mass production and consumerism as allowed by
technological assembly lines and economies of scale (Moreira 2004). Rationality was the
answer to the city problems as a whole, aiming to replace the old and degraded (or destroyed)
cities by racional, homogeneous and functional new ones (Busquets 1995). The Modern
Movement played an important role on bringing rationality to the planning system: the plan as a
technical document designed by specialists and enforced by a strong central state (Soares 2000)
finding in it the instrument of its own legitimacy (Veneza 1998). Fordist cities were created,
combining modern architecture and urbanism with neo-keynesian urban policies (Ascher 1991).
Keynes’ vision was of an economy that should incorporate the concept of uncertainty,
instead of being obsessed with predicting the future – therefore distancing itself for the seek of
ultimate rationality as Positivism, Taylorism and Fordism did. For Keynes, the economic theory
should be a method and not a doctrine (Olivares 2009) and its models should be used as
instruments of thought and not as quantitative formulas (Hodgson 2011). Keynes attacked the
traditional concepts of economy who believed that unemployment was a self-regulated system,
stating that it depended (as well a consumerism) on the amount of investment – which, in turn,
was extremely volatile due to the uncertainties towards the future (Hodgson 2011). The way
was open for centralistic and (still) powerful national states to legitimately enforce extensive
public interventions on behalf of a supposedly public’s interest, reflecting the rational
distributive nature of the public welfare state policies that tried to balance the access to goods
and services (Ascher 1991; Moreira 2004), distributing public investment to more recessed
areas (Marques 1995) and leading to a decentralization of equipments and production activities
in an attempt to balance urbanity.
Again, an homogeneous vision of reality was present in the minds of politics and planners
and in the mainstream economy and other fields of knowledge, obsessed with rationality and
with the intention to predict the future with the help of technocratic, mathematical and formalist
models, stepping back from the uncertainty concept that was fundamental in Keynes theory
(Hodgson 2011) and that is gaining increased relevance in contemporary society.
Contemporary thought on urban planning is distancing itself from this kind of absolute
rationality towards a more limited one due to several failures in previous paradigms. Fordism
has failed as a virtuous cycle of permanent growth – making companies think on switching from
stocking large quantities of standardized assets towards a “just-in-time” strategy (Ascher 1991)
and from producing homogeneous standardized goods to producing good with some sort of
customization – and as a rational approach to urban development, which has led to mono
functionality, segregation, crime and dispersion of residential zones. Collective and public
transport policies are challenged by the needs of contemporary society, which demands more
 1613

flexible means of transportation, especially in dispersed territories, leading to the rise of the
private transport (Soares 2005). The welfare state is facing serious problems as well as the
Keynesian politics which are suffering from the vicious cycle of “stagflation”, i.e. high
unemployment and inflation and low growth (Jessop 1992).
The planning efforts that tried to accommodate and control reality as a whole are now
inefficient due to their normative and rigid nature when faced with new, complex and
fragmentary urban forms and political, social and economic dynamics (Veneza 1998), being
now understood as obstacles to decisions that must be made quickly in order to grab
opportunities (Marques 1995) just in time. Planning needs a broader project for the city, able to
articulate several scales and actors in its development.
After this “rationalizing” and “voluntarist” phase, we are facing, since the eighties, a
“liberal” and “concorrential” urbanism where rational models are losing ground to
incrementalist and heuristic methods on urban development (Ascher 1991). Urban planning is
shifting from the rational-comprehensive approach towards strategic planning, or from an
absolute towards a limited rationality. The solution for the future cities is neither in chaos, nor
in global solutions, and there’s no unique key to explain all current urban forms (Borja et al
2003).
The concept of strategy is now deeply present in urbanism: the city is no longer planned as a
whole, but with precise interventions which try to grab or create opportunities. Instead of
rationalized “truths” about the territory and its development, the focus is now on defining long-
term objectives and ideas on the city, finding the available options to make them possible and
creating urban management mechanisms able to make that strategies operational (Ascher 1991).
Strategy, and its integration of deliberative, responsive and shared participation mechanisms, is
also found to be a way to develop urban proposals with enough legitimacy and social support
(Borja et al 2003) in a time where social life is fragmented and national political power
diminished, thus making it difficult to determine and give unique answers to societies’ needs.

Unlimited citizens and territories

Contemporary citizens are increasingly complex in their needs and aspirations and in the tools
they have to achieve them. The association between new, faster and more reliable ways of
transport and communication has increased mobility and communication possibilities and the
ability for these citizens to respond to needs and aspirations that would otherwise be harder to
fulfill. This has been leading to new ways of interacting with others, giving rise to more
heterogeneous social groups and family models and to more numerous and diverse – tough less
stable – social relationships (Borja et al 2003).
Still, in an apparent paradox, these unlimited citizens, powered by all these means of
transport and communication often isolate themselves. The increased mobility and access to
information and communication technologies, although can play an important role in promoting
citizenship by making easier the relations between citizens and administrations, and by
connection global with local identities (Borja et al 2003), may also increase segregation for
some sectors of society (Domingues, & Silva 2004) as economic capital and knowledge restricts
the ability to move and connect. Gated communities, in suburban areas, linked to an
“hiperspaced” mobility, show how some of these citizens do fear the “real city” (Muxí 2003).
However, their spatial segregation is different from that of the Modern Movement, where
rationality was involved in determining spatial distance between different social groups; in the
contemporary city the space is fragmented and diverse, personal and work relationships have no
fixed territory (Carreiras 2013): a gated community can coexist side by side with social housing
and / or with a highway. Social cohesion and citizenship coexists with urban and social
fragmentation (Borja et al 2003).
This complexity leads to the difficulty in representing the society as a whole and mediate or
make compatible everyone’s interests. Political power still fails to recognize this plurality,
1614

dedicating speeches to the public or the people’s interests because they represent an ideal of
limited society that is not accepted anymore but that is still the main target of the political
power. Public interest is hard to be defined. Due to this increasing complexity, citizens in
contemporary world are increasingly harder to be represented. There isn’t a single territory of
proximity but multiple belongings and identities, and citizenship should not be limited to the
scope of an individual “state” (Borja et al 2003). Belonging is no longer funded in proximity or
on densities, as transports and communication technologies made us part of numerous and
diverse relationships (Choay 1999). Contemporary citizens have progressively more numerous
and diverse interests and values, which translates into more complex and varied actions
throughout the territory, giving way to new ways to explore and inhabit it (Domingues, & Silva
2004) and to a new kind of citizenship.
Citizenship is deeply related and embedded in the concepts of city and public space, which
tend to confuse themselves and have multiple meanings (Borja et al 2003). Dispersion,
fragmentation and privatization are considered to be the three key processes which are making
public space disappear as a citizenship space (Borja et al 2003). In the “Third City”, there is
(often) a lack of an “urban landscape of citizenship” (Borja et al 2003). The Generic City
produces dispersed pieces throughout the territory in a “functional urbanism” for private
business among politics and architects, but it does not produce citizenship (Borja et al 2003).
These unlimited citizens are making the territory harder to be limited as well.
Increased mobility has deeply changed and reduced the limits of the territory for those who
were able to pay the price of mobility. Cities have expanded their well defined and fixed limits
towards suburban growth, invading rural land. A new reality has emerged where those expanded
city limits have clashed, confused and mixed themselves, ultimately making their limits
disappear – such as the limits between those two main containers where we still insist on fitting
all reality: urban and rural land.
Urbanity has ceased to be an exclusive feature of the city (Domingues 2013) and its limits
are increasingly hard to trace if we intend to do it against a “rurality” that no longer matches its
archetype and has no substantial social and cultural difference from the city (Soares 2005); the
construction of urbanity has also ceased to be the exclusive competence of the public sector,
weakened in its ability to intervene, to be opened to partnerships with the private sector, to the
international capital and to a strategic and entrepreneurial management (Moreira 2004)
considered more effective for its flexibility, adaptability to opportunities and to uncertainties,
but still in need of democratic control and transparency (Borja et al 2003).
Both territory’s and citizens’ limits are becoming hard to define: there are multiple types of
limits at a given time, overlapped and diffuse. Multiple limits coexist on our cities: traditional
limits, industrial limits, relational limits, symbolic limits, all present at the same time in our
imaginary. Delimiting this territory is an task requiring innovation – these real limits do not
correspond and are questioning administrative and political ones, which do not correspond
anymore to the complex dynamics of economy and society (Ferrão 2014).
This leads us to the last topic of this article: after stating that an absolute rationality is no
longer an answer for the knowledge of the city, and that its knowledge is increasingly harder to
gather due to the fragmentary nature of the citizens and their ways of living – how can urban
form be controlled under this context of uncertainty?

The limit in controlling urban form

The changes in the strategies of urban planning and management can’t be understood unless in
relation with the changes in its social and economic contexts. The major transformations on the
european societies of the twentieth century have generated, besides multiple distinct urban
forms, different positions on how to plan and manage the territory.
Urban planning was legitimized by means of the Athens Charter, place where the CIAM
Congress of 1933 was organized, as a rationalizing instrument used by a welfare state in its full
 1615

capacity, able to promote large urban operations integrating, simultaneously, “networks”, built
“volumes” and “green” or “free” spaces (Portas 2005). From the post-war to the seventies,
society grew in a fast pace motivated by the Fordist machine of mass production and consume,
at the same time that the welfare state reinforced its rational and distributive planning actions on
the territory.
This state, true to technique and to its notion of public interest, distributed public equipments
and productive and industrial activities into zones according to technical and scientific criteria,
assuming itself as the main agent of the territory’s transformation – but the Fordist model
started to decay, the mass production and consumption cycle started to wear out, and this state’s
capability to transform and control urban form became weak. Influenced by neo-liberal politics,
it had no choice but to share its power with the private sector throughout partnerships, and to bet
on more targeted interventions – losing its monopoly on controlling the territory, abandoning its
role on designing urban form except for the infra-structures, unable to cope with the increased
number and power of agents able to act on the territory (Portas 2005).
From the eighties, we are witnessing the globalization and internationalization of economy
and the reticular recomposition of the territory. The tertiary is gaining more relevance and the
rigid Fordist production models more flexibility, betting on innovation in order to adapt to the
needs of a complex and differentiated society demanding, simultaneously, mass production and
customization. It’s in this context that strategic planning is gaining importance, trying to make
more operational the actions on the territory, seeking complementarity relations between cities
and the engagement of all actors with enough power to intervene in the territory, reviewing and
integrating alternatives in the planning process, and progressively paying more attention to
context and contextual solutions (Domingues, & Silva 2004). Regions are inherently different in
their built environment, population, lifestyles – not “blank sheets” (Ferrão 2014).
This increased localism seeks also the participation of a greater number and diversity of
actors in planning (Alves 2008) and is a reflex of the globalization that reduced the power and
functions of the central states, weakened their representativeness, and promoted a greater
distribution of power throughout the territory and more noticeable actions from local and
regional economic, social, cultural and administrative agents (Ferreira 2005). The national states
are losing their power in controlling urban form towards both local or regional powers, but also
to supra-national organizations such as the European Union.
This same role of events was present in Portugal, with the adoption of Duarte Pacheco’s
detailed and rational urban plans in the forties, which intended to predict the city transformation
in long term (Carvalho 2004) but quickly became misfit to reality; then, in the sixties, with the
state seeking to involve privates in urban developments and replacing urban design by zoning
and quantitative parameters.
The unpredictability of opportunities and execution capabilities, the need to opt for
cooperative solutions over “rationalized” unilateral ones, and the need to more responsively
involve the increasing number of agents with the power and will to transform the city would
lead to the strategic model in urban planning (Carvalho 2004) and to substantial changes in
understanding the city and the urbanized territory, particularly from the eighties (Domingues, &
Silva 2004). This connection between planning, evaluation and reflexive management of the
territory with a strong local component is essential to the uncertainties of a society where
reaction is sometimes as important as planned action.
Planning and urban management must be intimately related and permanently informed by
processes of self-evaluation in order to be able to change, if necessary, and to define new goals
and objectives (Encarnação 2011). Only through a systematic evaluation can planning be
assessed in terms of its efficacy and credibility (Oliveira 2011) and adequately respond to the
specific problems of urbanity – hence the importance of the concept of reflexivity, in which
every action needs a reflection for its adequate response (Ascher 2010). Planning systems must
be flexible enough to adapt to these needs, both in their formal and informal instruments.
Portuguese planning system is formalized by a set of legal documents that establish power
relations. These documents – plans, laws, decretes, regulations, etc. – create a network of
1616

relationships that becomes an apparatus that act as a link between the state, its citizens and their
multiple organizations.
The formal apparatus is an instrument of control of the urban form, understood not as an
hostile device but as expected and legitimated by the society and democracy. However, due to
the rising complexity and specialization of contemporary society, and of the entities of the state
itself, these formal apparatus are often understood in contradictory ways, raising conflicts and
deadlocks. The concept of state, as clarified by Bourdieu, is therefore fundamental to understand
this logic of control: the state is a collective construct which derives from the historical
accumulation of capitals of diverse nature – military, economic, cultural, symbolic – making it
able to use its influence in all these fields in a way unsurpassed by any other group or social
agent, having, in exclusive, the ability to create the laws and punish the offenders: the
“monopoly of legitimate physical violence” (Bourdieu 2001).
The formal apparatus assumes itself as a particular expression of this “legitimate physical
violence", carried out by a state legitimized by its citizens, with the particular purpose of
regulating the transformation of the physical and spatial environment of the city but also the
social relations of the agents responsible for such transformations. Implicit here are the two
dimensions of these formal apparatus that we consider fundamental to their understanding: the
apparatus as an object, embodied in the writings and documents that give the its material
support; and the apparatus as a process, reflected in the institutional relations between social
agents whose power directly depends on their ability to interpret and manipulate those
apparatus.
The complexity of these apparatus as objects is clear since they are many and relate to each
other in complex ways. In the current framework of the Territorial Management Instruments,
these apparatus are distributed by national, regional and municipal levels, according to a
hierarchical logic; we find apparatus of strategic nature (such as the PNPOT, the PROTs, and
the PIOTs), of regulatory nature (such as the PDMs, PUs and PPs) and of special or sectorial
nature, such as the specific plans for key areas of administration – such as transports,
communications or energy.
All these types of plans establish between themselves complex networks of relations that
influence behaviors and processes, affecting the ways to understand the logic of planning itself.
Some authors point out the difficulties in understanding the role of these plans as defined in
theory and consequentially their wrong use in practice, such as using the PDMs as rigid and
normative plans instead of regulation tools (Encarnação 2011) or the excessive formalization
and binding nature of the PPs and its misuse (by ignorance of the role of the PUs) as a way to
change plans of a higher order (Sá 2002).
We thus realize that these apparatus as objects are not likely to be fully understood without
their use and transmission by the agents and social groups that deal with them. However, their
material transmission (which is becoming increasingly facilitated with ICT) must not be
confused with their real understanding and incorporation, which requires time, as Bourdieu
remembers us (Bourdieu 1979). To use them without interpretation or critique is to forget the
complexity and uncertainty that defines contemporary society, rendering the apparatus useless.
The limitations and lack of flexibility of these formal apparatus make for more informal
actions to occur within urban planning processes, as a response to the inefficiency and
inflexibility of the former, both as objects and as processes, although some authors accuse this
inefficiency to be associated more with the latter – such as the mechanisms involved in planning
revisions – than with the material content of those plans (Sá 2002). The difficulty comes from
the fact that changing the formal object may also mean changing a previously established power
relationship. The plan is therefore involved in a struggle between several entities that try to
control it according to their skills and interests.
We may as well note that the struggles around the formal apparatus are not simply struggles
between a state and its citizens: state and citizens are increasingly complex entities formed by
agents and social groups of different natures, resistant to such broad simplification; the state
multiplies itself by several entities, and the same happens with contemporary citizens, with their
 1617

multiple belongings, interests and aspirations, continuously adapting themselves to more and
new challenges in the contemporary society. In the growing impossibility of predicting the
future, it becomes increasingly important for formal plans to learn to act in a more strategic and
less deterministic way on defining urban form. The formal plan, both as an object and as a
process, must therefore seek to be the structure of human action and not the prediction of the
action itself, assuming uncertainty as an integral part of human nature which gives the
foundation to the “plurality of world views” (Bourdieu 1989).
It’s in this context that the informal apparatus moves: as a flexible structure and not as a set
of rigid rules. The use of these apparatus has become widespread due to the inability of the
formal plans to solve, in due time, the problems of the territory, with the entities responsible for
its control using other sorts of plans such as details, plans of city blocks, of heights and
alignments, of axis, to name a few (Portas 1998). They assume themselves as plans of no legal
validity, but they allow for more open negotiations with individuals, the creation of more and
faster alternative scenarios with a strong visual component, therefore being more effective on
reconciling the diverse interests and positions of the agents involved. Their content is not
determined a priori, but according to a set of events and developments and according to the
particular objectives of each situation. Informality is thus present both in the more diffuse power
relation between those agents, and in the un(pre)defined nature of the informal apparatus,
allowing for more flexibility and proximity during the discussions.

Conclusion and further work

This article intended to provide a theoretical framework on the concept of limit, discussed in the
three topics that we’ve covered: “Towards a limited rationality”, “Unlimited citizens and
territories” and “The limit in controlling urban form”.
In “Towards a limited rationality” we’ve focused on the limits of the racional-comprehensive
approach in planning in relation to the unlimited conception of science and knowledge,
expressed in several paradigm such as Positivism, Taylorism, Fordism and Taylorism. As those
paradigms failed, a new way of planning has risen, adopting uncertainty and a limited
rationality as a way to better address the new contemporary challenges of urbanity.
“Unlimited citizens and territories” showed us how both territory and citizens limits have
changed, became more complex, diverse and multiple, influencing one another in the production
of space and citizenship. Globalization, internationalization of economy, development of better
transports and communication systems are enabling us to extend and dissolve limits, making
them more complex.
Finally, “The limit in controlling urban form” intended to show us how these diffuse limits
and their expressions in the territory are making it difficult for planning to understand and
accommodate all urban forms and dynamics that they have created, forcing it to bet not on over-
rationalized and homogeneous solutions – or racional intentions to balance urbanity – but on
diverse, complementary and cooperative solutions to make urbanity and its unequal parts work
better together, which sometimes means taking advantage of unpredicted – and unpredictable –
opportunities.
Understanding the contemporary limits in controlling urban form requires, therefore,
understanding the complex context of our unlimited society and territory and how they relate to
a particular philosophical position concerning science and knowledge.
The concept of limit is also being questioned in other topics that extend or complement the
topics that were brought to this article, such as the limit between urban and rural land, center
and periphery, public and private developments, formal and informal planning, the limits on the
representation and communication of the territory, of Supra-National, National, Regional and
Local powers, the limits in the increasingly multidisciplinary knowledge on the city, etc.; all
these limits are becoming diffuse and confused, questioning the role and efficiency of urban
planning; but still we argue that understanding this new reality where pure black and white is
1618

being replaced with multiple shades of gray is fundamental for urban planning to be more
effective and able to deal with uncertainties and opportunities.
This article is part of an on-going research, and field work concerning the impact of these
limits in the territory and in urban plans is currently under development on the municipality of
Santo Tirso, in the Ave valley, Portugal.

Acknowledgements

This paper is part of the PhD research project “From informality to formal variability – planning and
urban management strategies under uncertainty contexts: the municipality of Santo Tirso between the
Provisional Regulations and the review of the Municipal Plan” (original title: “Da informalidade à
variabilidade formal – estratégias de planeamento e gestão urbana em contextos de incerteza: o município
de Santo Tirso entre as Normas Provisórias e a revisão do PDM”) which is being financially supported by
FCT – Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia – under the QREN-POPH program and the PhD Grant
SFRH/BD/86675/2012, and developed in CEAU – Centro de Estudos de Arquitectura e Urbanismo – at
the School of Architecture of Porto University.

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1620

Interpretation of morphological data to inform design. Bridge

to Bridge: Ridge to Ridge urban design workshop

Paul Sanders
School of Design, Queensland University of Technology.
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. The importance of design practice informed by urban morphology has led to intensification in
interest, signalled by the formation of the ISUF Research and Practice Task Force, and voiced through
several recent academic publications262. Cognisant of this current debate, this paper reports on a recent
urban design workshop at which urban morphology was set as one of the key themes. Initially planned to
be programmed as a augmented concurrent event to the 2013 20 th ISUF Conference held in Brisbane, the
two day Bride to Bridge: Ridge to Ridge urban design workshop nevertheless took place the following
month, and involved over one hundred design professionals and academics. The workshop sought to
develop several key urban design principles and recommendations addressing a major government
development proposal sited in the most important heritage precinct of the city. The paper will focus
specifically on one of the nine groups, in which the design proposal was purposefully guided by
morphological input. The discussion will examine the design outcomes, shedding critical light on the
issues that arise from such a design approach.

Key Words: urban morphology; urban design; design workshop

Discussion
Context
This papers reports on the outcomes of a major urban design workshop held in Brisbane,
Australia, that occurred over two days in August 2013. The workshop involved over one
hundred participants, with representation from the design professions and academic disciplines.
Of particular interest is the inclusion of urban morphology as a key theme in the agenda of the
event, and the paper will assesses how the theme manifest in the design strategies of the
working groups.
‘ISUF aims to bridge the divide between academic and applied. It seeks to advance research
and practice’ (Whitehand, 2012).
The paper responds to the call from the ISUF Task Force on Research and Practice for
examples of research-led practice (Samuels, 2013), and provides a case study in which the
design leadership of one particular workshop group was jointly led by an academic (the author)
and a leading urban design professional.
The Bride to Bridge: Ridge to Ridge urban design workshop (B2B UDW) was organised in
reaction to the release of information concerning a proposed development which put an
important heritage precinct under threat. Ever since the initial consolidation of the urban form of
Brisbane in the later part of the nineteenth century, the focus area has been severely impacted by
major large-scale developments; and furthermore several controversial development proposals
have increased awareness of the fragility of the heritage precinct, warranting action by
professional bodies and academic institutions.

262 See for example Urban Morphology (2013) 17 (2) Editorial and Viewpoints; Built Environment
(2011) 37 (4) Editorial and Essays.
 1621

Research & Practice

The significance of urban morphological study has yet to be broadly recognised amongst
urbanists; it however occupies an intriguing position at the confluence of current contemplations
on how the urban form of cities should be managed, providing a basis for a cross-disciplinary
search for relevant urban design methods.
Jeremy Whitehand has for some time now, identified the failure of urban design to draw on
urban morphology (Evans, 2005); he nevertheless surmises that ‘there has been increasing
interest beyond academe, in mapping the ‘character’ of areas and this interest must surely lead,
sooner or later, to strengthening the bridge between urban morphology and urban design
(Whitehand, 2005, p3). He posits the justification for urban morphology as having practical
utility and intellectual value, while recognising that the townscape has an aesthetic value
(Whitehand, 1987, p2). Furthermore the understanding that the ‘historical unfolding of the built
environment is the starting point in the search for a theoretical basis for the management of
urban landscapes in the future’ (Whitehand, 1992, p6).
Certainly intensification in this discussion has led no a number of published articles in recent
volumes of Urban Morphology, see 17(1) and 17(2); as well as a special edition of Built
Environment journal dedicated to article addressing the theme of ‘Urban Morphology and
Design’ (Marshall and Caliskan, 2011).

ISUF Manifesto – Research & Practice Task Force

‘Urban morphology promises to bridge a gap which is currently debilitating both the research
and practice of city building’ (Moudon, 1997, p8).
The escalation of interest into the question of how research can inform practice? has
prompted ISUF to establish a Task Force in 2012, to better bridge between researchers in urban
morphology and urban design practioners, and to draw up a report with concrete suggestions for
action (Samuels, 2013).
There are two key interconnected intentions of the draft proposal of the Task Force, they are:
to increase the influence of urban morphology by better packaging and marketing, and secondly;
raise the level of understanding and application of urban morphology in a range of relevant
professions through the channel of education and professional organisations (Samuels, 2013).
Furthermore it is suggested that urban morphology, ‘as the science of urban form’ (Samuels,
2013, p42), can benefit a range of different sectors, for example: those of whom are concerned
with describing and analysing urban form, environmental design professionals, and importantly
the clients and employers of both these groups (public authorities and developers).
Arising from this overview four recommendations are made in the preliminary Task Force
report:
- the publication of a manifesto;
- the compilation and publication of relevant curricula in different countries;
- the production of a good practice guide, and;
- the creation of an urban morphology toolkit for understanding the past and planning; the
future of urban settlements. (Samuels, 2013).
The author’s own recent ‘viewpoint’ in Urban Morphology on this issue drew attention to
the tension between prescriptive controls for design, versus a more open process of
interpretation of research material in design practice (Sanders, 2013). The case study example of
Workshop Group 4, from the B2B UDW was led by the author and a leading urban design
professional, and will offer a glimpse to how the provision of morphological data can influence
the design process.
1622

Brisbane and its river – a brief economic and morphological overview

Brisbane is situated on latitude 27° 28' South, in a sub-tropical climatic region approximately
750 km due north of Sydney.
The first inhabitants and traditional owners of the Brisbane River area are the Aboriginal
groups of the Turrbal, and Jagara people (Greenop and Memmott, 2007). Their place values and
place-making activities, being points of orientation for spiritual, social and cultural reference
and including sites of large gatherings (Greenop and Memmott, 2007), were numerous and
widespread throughout the region.

a b

Figure 1. Early surveys of Brisbane River. 1a: Oxley, J (1823) Section from Plan of River
Brisbane and chart of Moreton Bay (source: National Library of Australia). 1b: Dixon, R
(1839) Section from Plan of Brisbane River and Moreton Bay (source: State Library of
Queensland).

European occupation followed John Oxley’s discovery and survey in 1823 of a large tidal
river suitable for settlement (Johnson, 1988, 12; Johnson, 1989b). A convict colony, initially
known as Moreton Bay Settlement (Johnson, 1989b, 242) was established in 1826 on the banks
of the river, some 16 km upstream from the sheltered Moreton Bay; and housed only the
hardiest of criminals from the penal colony in Sydney.
The initial convict settlement comprised a small number of buildings, the first of which was
the Commissariat Officers Quarters, which was a timber cottage that had been relocated from
Sydney, and re-assembled in 1826. This was followed soon after by the construction of a
Convict Hospital, and establishment of a Timber Lumber Yard in 1827; Prisoners Barracks and
Chaplain’s quarters in 1828; and Observatory, Windmill and Commissariat Store in 1829
(BrisbaneHistory.com). The latter two are the only remaining structures from this period that
have remained; the Commissariat Store located alongside King’s Jetty (later renamed Queens
Jetty after the accession of Queen Victoria), which was the original place for ships to dock; and
the centre of the present day heritage area.
The penal settlement was short-lived and was closed in 1839. Transportation of convicts
ceased in 1841, with the official proclamation that ended the penal colony declared shortly after
in 1842 (Gough and Ogilvie, 1985; Johnson, 1988; Johnson, 1989a).
Even during the period when the convict settlement was being dis-established, preparations for
free-settlement were already well underway. The period of economic development in the new
free settlement was initiated in 1841 by free traders and tradesmen who had established shops
through leasing space in the former convict premises; this was soon followed by the first sale of
land in 1842, by auction in Sydney for £100 per acre (Johnson, 1989a, p261; Gough and
Ogilvie, 1985; Johnson, 1988).
The new town experienced a steady growth during its formative decades, with commercial
and trading businesses emerging concurrently as the migrant population increased. The first
census in 1846 showed that there were 960 people living in Brisbane, and 2258 people spread
 1623

across the region; by the 1851 census Brisbane’s population had increased to 8375 (Gough and
Ogilvie, 1985, p8; Johnson, 1989a, p106).

Figure 2. Morphological development of Brisbane River 1829-1969. B2B UDW study area
indicated by doted lines. 2a: Wade, H (1843) Plan of the limits of the town of Brisbane
(source: Queensland State Archives). 2b: Ham, T (1863) Map of the City of Brisbane
(source: State Library of Queensland). 2c: Mckellar, A.R. (1898) McKellar's official map of
Brisbane & suburbs. (source: State Library of Queensland). 2d: Department of Works
(1969) State Government Buildings: Central Brisbane. (source: Queensland State Archives).
1624

Figure 3. Looking towards William Street from the Brisbane River, 1865. The Commissariat
Store and Kings Wharf is to the lower right; Kings Wharf Road leading uphill from right
to left. (source. State Library of Queensland).

It was not until 1867 that the settlement underwent its first economic boom following the
discovery of gold by James Nash at Gympie, some 170 km north of Brisbane. The huge influx
of people that followed triggered an unprecedented growth in primary industries, and a period of
prosperity and building activity that would last 15 years, and would not be equalled for a
century. It was eventually ended by the cutting out of the gold and the world financial crisis of
the early 1890s (Holthouse, 1982, p41).
Brisbane had become a significant shipping port with minerals, rural products and sugar as
its primary exports. It was the capital of the annexed state of Queensland, and was to be been
proclaimed a city in 1902. The population of greater Brisbane at the time of the 1901 census
was 119,428 people. The period of economic growth continued up to the advent of World War I
(Statistics, 2009).

Figure 3 Figure 5
view view

Figure 4. Carson, W.A. (1888) Part section of Balloon eye oblique ‘View over Brisbane
1888’ (source: Queensland State Archives).

From 1918, Queensland’s economic base continued to be mainly foreign trade to the UK
(73% of total exports); primary goods being wool (41%), butter (19.5%) and meat products
(24.5%). However the impact of this trade was tempered by problems driven by increasingly
higher prices for basic goods such as food and clothing.
 1625

To accommodate this growth in mercantile trade, wharves lined both sides of the Brisbane
River allowing for large-scale docking capacity for ships. Neighbouring the wharves, and
imbuing the commercial character of the city were numerous warehouses buildings, which
incorporated the storage and office functions of the trading companies who were occupying the
buildings.

Figure 5. Sketch of the Brisbane River looking towards the wharf and buildings on Short
Street, Brisbane, ca. 1889. The roofs of the Parliament House are visible on the skyline.
(source: State Library of Queensland).

In 1925, the City of Brisbane Act (1924) came into effect, rationalising civic government by
amalgamating 18 former local government areas under a single administration, the Brisbane
City Council (Holthouse, 1982, 55). Despite strengthening Brisbane as an economically
powerful civic entity, the impact of the Wall Street Crash of 1929 brought about the Great
Depression in Australia during the early1930s. Nevertheless by 1935 Queensland emerged with
employment levels restored, stimulated from public works expenditure and the recovery of
wool, wheat and metal prices to pre-depression levels (Statistics, 2009). Optimism was short-
lived however, due to the onset of World War II which once again stifled economic growth and
development in the city.
The post-war decades from 1944 found Brisbane dilapidated and neglected, and it was to
recover much more slowly than either Sydney or Melbourne. However in the 1960s, with new
mineral discoveries in Queensland, the city finally entered an enduring phase of prosperity from
which Brisbane emerged as a modern city through a program of large-scale urban and civil
construction, which has been sustained until the present day.
In summary, there have been two significant economic periods in Brisbane’s 170-year-old
history which have generated two distinct morphological periods of urban development in
shaping the form of the city. These are approximately its initial growth from 1840s up to 1914;
and then, following fifty years of relative fallow activity, a rapid growth from the 1960s to the
present day.

Major urban disfigurements to the Northbank edge of the Brisbane River

Riverside Expressway 1968- 75

A Brisbane Transportation Study was conducted in the mid 1960s, which included
recommendations for a number of major road improvements to address increasing traffic
1626

congestion in the city. The Riverside Expressway was a key component of the plan, extending
the Pacific Motorway from south of the city, over a new bridge, and extending along the
entirety of the Northbank disbursing traffic into and from the CBD, via a complex configuration
of ramps (Cole, 1984).

a b

Figure 6. Riverside Expressway traversing the rivers edge. 6a: Wilbur Smith, in 1968
demonstrating the line of the proposed Riverside Expressway, a main feature of the
Brisbane Transportation Study. 6b: Construction of the Riverside Expressway nearing
completion in 1974. (source: Cole, 1984).

Large-scale demolition was required to enable the new embankment structure to traverse the
river edge, and penetrate through fronting built fabric to connect to the existing road grid. In
particular the quay and wharf profile was obliterated, replaced with multiple pylons supporting
the road platforms; as well as an under-ramp car park that truncated pedestrian connection to the
river at ground level (See Figure 7).
The obliteration of the small-scaled quay and wharf typologies occurred with the
construction of the Riverside Expressway between 1968-74, and its presence has remained
unaltered to the present.

. Figure 7. Map depicting the alignment of the Riverside Expressway, and the outline of
the river edge profile it replaced. (source: Queensland State Archives).
.
Queensland Government precinct- construction 1983-87

The Skidmore Owings & Merrill master plan for the State Government Precinct developed in
1976, was to be one of the largest State Government works to be undertaken spanning
administrative office spaces across five city block sites (Massey, 2014). It is to be noted that in
this proposal all existing heritage buildings on these sites were to be erased to make way for this
development.
 1627

Figure 8. Preliminary sketches of the proposed SOM Masterplan 1976 for the
Government Precinct. (source: Massey, 2014).

A reduced scope of building construction was eventually carried out by local architects Lund
Hutton Newell Ryan Morton, and building works were completed in 1987 (De Gruchy, 1988).
The complex accommodating the Department of Public Works in the new State Works Centre
extended across the two sites along George Street and bridged over Margaret Street. Harris
Terrace (ca1866) and The Mansions (ca 1889) were both spared and incorporated into the
revised design; however the Bellevue Hotel (1886 – Figure 9), an elegant three storey building
with cast iron balustrades and full length verandas, was unscrupulously demolished in 1979
under instruction from the State Premier, to make way for the new development.

Figure 9. Bellevue Hotel in 1940. (source: State Library of Queensland).

The controversial loss of the Bellevue Hotel (Follent, 2013) remains an infamous event in
the history of Brisbane’s development, in that it symbolises the crude and unsophisticated
approach to urban growth at that time, an approach that lacked interest in the morphological and
architectural significance of many historical areas of the city. Indicative of this attitude is the
award of ‘Joint Best Building’ by the RAIA (QLD) in 1987 to The Government Precinct
Building Block 1! (De Gruchy, 1988).

Northbank development proposal – 2008

In 2008, a Queensland Government supported proposal for the 'Northbank' ensured that the
historic precinct came under further scrutiny with the release of details to reclaim land into the
river to create a new high rise commercial development. The proposal would effectively
construe a wall separating the river from its historic relationship to the city, cutting Brisbane off
from its past (Robinson, 2007).
Stewart Armstrong, Director of the National Trust warned, "The history still exists, but the
1628

ability to interpret the history and to tell the story of Brisbane will be greatly diminished"
(Moore, 2007). Following considerable public outcry, the development proposal was dropped.

Figure 10. Northbank proposal 2007 (source: Brisbane Times).

Queen's Wharf- Government precinct proposal Brisbane – 2013

Most recently in 2013, a new government-led proposal for an ‘Integrated Resort Development’
was released, this time seeking to develop on the state owned land between George and William
Streets; and also including the heritage precinct towards the river. The development is planned
to expand the CBD including a mix of new uses such as: six star hotels, casino, retail, restaurant
and entertainment zones, theatre and convention facilities and new open spaces.
With the renewed weight of development demand on the heritage precinct; and cognisant of
the Queensland Government’s record of sponsoring belligerent development, a number of
concerned built environment professionals rallied to initiate a design workshop. The aim of the
workshop was to give a platform for a collective voice from the design community, with the
ambition to influence the trajectory of the State’s decision making.

Bridge to Bridge: Ridge to Ridge urban design workshop – 2013

A call was made in July 2013 for participation in an urban design workshop focusing on the
significant heritage precinct extending between the Goodwill and Victoria Bridges, and the
Brisbane River to George Street: between the bridges, and from the ridge to the river.
Significantly the principal stakeholder groups involved were from practice, industry and
academia. The professions were represented by: The Australian Institute of Architects and The
Urban Design Alliance of Queensland; while The Brisbane Development Association
represented the interests of industry. The three major academic institutions in South East
Queensland are: Griffith University, Queensland University of Technology and The University
of Queensland; a number of academics and students from their departments of architecture and
urban design were also invited to participate in the event.
The organisers of the workshop represented both practice and the academy; Caroline Stalker
and John Loneragan are both directors of architecture and urban design practices, while Leigh
Shutter is an Associate Professor.
The expectation of the conveners for the workshop, were set out in the invitation flyer with
the intention to develop the key urban design principles for the public realm of the precinct,
forming the basis of recommendations to be sent to the State Government. The preamble and
introduction to the workshop expanded on these general ambitions, articulating eleven specific
themes; it is important to note that urban morphology is the third listed.
Design groups were encouraged to take consideration of:
1) The precinct’s place in the city and connections beyond;
2) A network of public spaces;
 1629

3) Urban morphology;
4) Connections to the river;
5) Places of significance;
6) Traffic and transport (including the river);
7) Pedestrians and cyclists;
8) Flood mitigation;
9) Subtropical landscape;
10) Functions and activities in the public realm;
11) The experiences of the place. (Stalker et al., 2013).
The prominence of Urban Morphology as a theme can be attributed to the productive
partnership that occurred in the programming of the ISUF 2013 Brisbane conference, with the
annual Urban Design Alliance Superforum. The two events overlapped with a keynote session
and cocktail function. Through this arrangement urban morphology was prominent in many
discussions, and several design practioners registered for the full ISUF conference. Furthermore
Brisbane’s earliest surviving structure, The Commissariat Store, was poignantly chosen as the
venue to host the workshop.
Participants of the workshop were allocated into nine groups that were deliberately
organized with a disciplinary mix; as well as a distribution of practioners, academics and
students. Groups were prompted by the conveners to consider several important questions, those
with a morphological provocation were: What are the qualities of place that are important?
What are the places that contribute most positively to the public realm? How does it fit and
contribute as part of Brisbane city? What are the important physical qualities of the buildings
and landscape of this precinct? How could this area change or be transformed?

Figure 11. Workshop session at the Commissariat Store. (source: Stalker et al., 2013).

Group 4 – Approach, development & outcomes

The author, an academic, was designated to Group 4 as co-leader with Cameron Davies, an
architect and director of a leading urban design and architectural practice. Cameron had been a
full delegate at the ISUF 2013 conference the previous month, and was therefore conversant
with the themes discussed amounts morphologists at the conference, including the quest for
better integration of research and practice; it was therefore an ideal opportunity to tests this
relationship.
The roles for the working group were discussed and agreed; it was decided that the author
would develop mapping diagrams of the morphological evolution of the rivers edge and
development of wharf buildings, from the period of urban settlement, up to the present. The
drawings would be presented and described as a basis of knowledge to inform the understanding
of the contextual condition. It would be for the design team to ‘interpret’ this information and
1630

distill the significant issues along with the other aspirations and demands of the project; to
manifest into the concluding design scheme.
Figure 12b is a composite diagram of the changing river edge over time, with each altered
profile being mapped from the archival survey information; therefore articulating the
morphological development of the rivers edge. This was the key mapping diagram to inform the
design process, it was therefore presented to the group as reference material for the design team
to interpret.

a b

Figure 12a. Group 4 working session. 12b. Composite diagram of changing river edge.
(source: Stalker et al., 2013).

The four key principles and recommendation that Group 4 derived from the process were:
a) Respect, express, celebrate and make accessible to all the rich heritage morphology of the
site in its redevelopment;
b) Create more bridges over the river to connect the city centre to Southbank;
c) Design the buildings and places to accommodate different uses over long time spans;
d) Work towards a longer-term redirection of traffic between Alice and Queen Streets so that
an ‘opening’ in the express-way can be created, enabling buildings to link to the river. (Stalker
et al., 2013)

Figure 13a. Adaption of 1913 Water and Sewerage plans. (source: Author/ Brisbane City
Archives). 13b. Group 4 final design proposal 2013. (source: Stalker et al., 2013)
 1631

Referring to the final Group 4 design proposal (Figure 13b), it is clear that the principles a &
d had a profound impact on the direction and outcome of the design project. Furthermore
specific aspects 1 and 5 listed below, patently address the lost attributes within the urban form;
for example, a corner building of similar scale to the demolished Bellevue Hotel (see Figure 9 ),
and the introduction of a new ‘fragmented deck’ which takes its cue from the original quay and
wharf profile, including the design of new dispersed building forms (yellow) which resemble
the warehouse structures from the 1913 diagram (Figure 13a).
The specific details of the design proposals included:
1. A new hotel/ pub at the southern end of George Street- (former Bellevue Hotel site)
2. 80 George redeveloped as two linked towers; if a casino, include it in a tower that opens
up Mary St at the ground plane;
3. Create a great streetscape along William Street;
4. Adaptively re-use the Neville Bonner building;
5. Construct a River Quay between Victoria Bridge and QUT which includes a
‘fragmented deck’ whose form interprets the history of the site;
6. A new design museum in the Old State Library.
(Stalker et al., 2013).

Outcomes and reflection of the Bridge to Bridge: Ridge to Ridge urban design workshop

Whereas Group 4 undertook a concerted approach to embedding urban morphology into the
design process; the outputs from other groups were varied. The following list captures some of
the themes in their reports that construe an urban morphological intent within their
recommendations.
Group 1: Respect and enhance the Commissariat Quarter, Brisbane’s most significant heritage
precinct located between William Street and Queen’s Wharf Road.
Group 2: Recognize and celebrate the historic significance of the precinct. Establish a fine grain
that creates a destination with character and scale. Recognize and celebrate the historic
significance of the precinct; adapt and reuse heritage buildings, provide interpretive
facilities, and respect the symbolic importance of the linear spine of George Street.
Permit only appropriate scaled buildings adjacent to heritage areas.
Group 3: Celebrate the historical significance and architectural qualities of the Heritage
Precinct. Construct a new Queens Wharf Ferry Terminal (replacing existing) to be
sited at its original location on the riverbank in front of the Commissariat Store.
Group 6: Retain the scale of the heritage precinct – linking it to the river and creating a green
space ‘buffer’.
Group 7: Respect and enhance the heritage quality. Use a development framework
(requirements for podiums, a restricted material palette and carefully managed
building heights, etc) to achieve these aims.
Group 8: Manage building heights to enable density while respecting heritage.
Group 9: Acknowledge area as Brisbane’s first landing site. Restrict building heights around
heritage buildings with highest buildings north of George Street.
(Stalker et al., 2013)
It is encouraging to note that all but one of the nine groups make specific reference for the
need to relate new structures closely to the existing heritage buildings: through various
approaches, such as: ‘character’, ‘significance’, ‘appropriate scale’, ‘respecting’, ‘acknowledge’
and ‘architectural quality’. These groups thereafter made intuitive design responses to address
the strategic intentions indicated above; and not surprisingly the design results from these
groups are less explicit than the Group 4 submission. It could be surmised then, that with greater
access to morphological data, all groups may have been more specific in design detail towards
achieving the intent of the recommendations.
1632

The overall collated outcomes of the workshop have been captured in a wide range of 23 key
recommendations; with the three resolutions that best capture morphological aspects as follows:
Development Scale and Form
Preserve the integrity and historic setting of the lower scale heritage buildings by keeping
adjacent buildings lower scale and providing buffers to new taller development. Undertake an
impact study to determine appropriate scale of new development immediately adjacent to lower
scale heritage buildings and nature of required buffers.
The Heritage Precinct
Actively enhance the heritage precinct to improve its enjoyment and accessibility for the
people of Queensland. It is the most significant collection of heritage buildings in the state and
this should be able to be understood and enjoyed through the design of its setting and its
interpretation.
More clearly articulate and demonstrate the experience of the historic relationship between
the Commissariat Store and the river in the design of spaces around the building.
The River’s Edge
Create a lively, safe and welcoming river’s edge. Activate the river’s edge with new decks,
restaurants, event spaces, cafes and recreation areas in the short term to make it a safe and
enjoyable place in the city. Consider noisy activities that can coexist with freeway noise.
Plan for the potential redundancy or staged rerouting of the expressway (including the
closure of on/off ramps) so that this highly significant reach of the river can be reconnected to
the city in the longer term. (Stalker et al., 2013)

Conclusion

‘The attraction to urban morphology from a wide disciplinary base is the nexus of concepts,
ideas and approaches’ (Samuels, 1990).
The concerted integration of the ISUF Conference event with the local design profession had
a positive impact on the urban design workshop, in that the organisers and participants had been
made aware of the work of morphologists, and in particular the richness of research data that
can provide the knowledge base for designers.
It was also evident that following the willingness of the designers to accommodate research
generated knowledge into the briefing and idea formulation stage of a design project, as in the
case of Group 4, a clear correlation with the end proposal and important morphological
attributes can be achieved.
Therefore it is suggested that research-led design, based on the designers interpretation of the
research data, is an effective and accessible method to align theory and practice, and potentially
more readily accepted than prescriptive guidelines and controls.
It is hoped that the example presented in this paper will contribute towards the current work
that is being undertaken by the ISUF Research and Practice taskforce towards understanding
better the modus-operandi of practice, and how practical guidelines can be developed to aid the
adoption of principles of urban morphology in the process of design.

References

Cole, J. R. (1984) Shaping a city: Greater brisbane 1925-1985, (William Brooks, Brisbane).
De Gruchy, G. (1988) Architecture in Brisbane, (Boolarong Publications with Kookaburra Books, Bowen
Hills, Qld).
Evans, R. (2005) Urban Morphology. Urban Design, Winter 2005, 16.
Follent, P. (2013) Foreword. In: Stalker, C. (ed.) Bridge to Bridge, Ridge to Ridge: An Urban Design
Workshop. Brisbane: Urban Design Alliance.
Gough, S. & Ogilvie, S. (1985) The book of Brisbane: The story of a city : Why it started, how it grew,
what it's like today, (Oxford University Press., Melbourne).
 1633

Greenop, K. & Memmott, P. (2007) Urban Aboriginal Place Values In Australian Metropolitan Cities:
The Case Study Of Brisbane. In: Miller, C. & Roche, M. (eds.) Past Matters: Heritage and Planning
History - Case Study from the Pacific Rim. (Cambridge Scholars Press, Cambridge).
Holthouse, H. (1982) Illustrated History of Brisbane, (Reed, Frenchs Forest, NSW).
Johnson, R. G., Gregory, H. (1989a) Brisbane: Making it Work. In: Statham, P. (ed.) The Origins of
Australia's Capital Cities. (Univeristy of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK).
Johnson, R. G., Gregory, H. (1989b) Choosing Brisbane. In: Statham, P. (ed.) The Origins of Australia's
Capital Cities. (Cambridge University press, Cambridge, UK).
Johnson, W. R. (1988) Brisbane The First Thirty Years, (Boolarong Publications, Brisbane).
Marshall, S. & Caliskan, O. (eds.) (2011) Urban Morphology and Design, Oxon, UK.: Alexandrine Press.
Massey, J.K. (2014) Portfolio [Online] Linkedin. Available at: http://www.linkedin.com/in/johnmassey
[Accessed 28th May 2014 2014].
Moore, T. (2007) National Trust says no to North Bank. Brisbane Times, April 24, 2007
Moudon, A. V. (1997) Urban morphology as an emerging interdisciplinary field. Urban Morphology, 1,
3-10.
Robinson, G. (2007) North Bank will "sever city's past". Brisbane Times, June 26, 2007.
Samuels, I. (1990) Architectural practice and urban morphology. In: Slater, T. R. (ed.) The Built Form of
Western Cities: essays for M.R.G. Conzen on the occasion of his 80th birthday. (Leicester University
Press, Leicester).
Samuels, I. (2013) ISUF Task Force on Research and Practice in Urban Morphology: an interim report.
Uban Morphology, 17, 40-43.
Sanders, P. S. (2013) Towards consonance in urban form. Urban Morphology, 17, 116-118.
Stalker, C., Shutter, L. & Loneragan, J. (2013) Bridge to Bridge, Ridge to Ridge: An Urban Design
Workshop, Workshop Outcomes and Key Recomendations. Brisbane: Urban Design Alliance
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[Online]. Canberra: Australian Bureau of Statistics. [Accessed April 12th 2013].
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(Blackwell, Oxford, New York).
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[England] ; Cambridge, Mass., U.S.A).
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Design, 93, 19-21.
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1634

Urban form study for better future of the city

Anna Agata Kantarek

Faculty of Architecture, Cracow University of Technology,
31-450 Kraków, ul. Ułanów 28, Poland. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. A look at the problems of urban forms from the point of view of the practice of architecture,
urban planning and urban design is especially needed today. Contemporary sprawling cities and
metropolitan areas require a holistic perspective from the point of view of synthesizing Urban Form while
maintaining respect for historical tradition and cultural meanings of the place. The research problem
boils down to the question of how, through research on urban form in its historical and spatial complexity
we can find or formulate models for good solutions for the coherent and harmonious development of the
city. The basis for such a specific approach is : understanding Urban Form Study as crucial for better
urban design and spatial planning; recognizing a level of Urban Form as a base level of synthesis;
understanding locality as a main determinant of the overall Form of the City; finding basic relations
between contemporary Urban Form and possibility of its perception.

Key words: Krakow, Urban Form design; urban structure; contemporary Urban Form.

Understanding urban form

Contemporary understanding of urban form in the Polish tradition of urban planning has its
roots in the ideas of Tadeusz Tołwiński263. The important contribution made by him was the
distinguishing of six city development factors.
City development factors are: natural conditions (physiography and nature); economic and
social affairs; fortifications; laws and customs; means of communication; town-planning
composition.
It is crucial to view the role of town-planning (urban) composition as a factor synthesizing
all the others. To quote Tołwiński:
„The town-planning composition factor operates in a similar manner in various cultural
epochs – it subordinates the often divergent influence of other factors to a certain general
construct from which it derives the appropriate form. It crystallizes either as a result of an
individual’s creative work or as a product of the collective effort of a number of people or even
whole generations. (...) As time passes, some cultural movements develop common types of
general urban plans. They result from searching and experiments made over long periods of
time (...)”264.
Urban composition is also important for K. Wejchert265. In his book "Elementy kompozycji
urbanistycznej" (Elements of Urban Composition), he distinguishes some elements of the city
structure which he considers significant. He assigns a particular role to the elements
crystallizing a city plan. They can vary in nature but they always refer to the basic structural
principle of the city fabric.
At another level, he identified streets, districts, edges, nodes, dominants, outstanding
landscape elements and characteristic features. The classification essentially corresponds to

263
T. Tołwiński was an active architect an urban planner as well as a professor of architecture (Warsaw,
Krakow). He wrote a book summing up the achievements of European urbanism – (Tołwiński, 1948).
264
(Tołwiński, 1948, I) p. 28
265
K. Wejchert – urban planner, professor, Faculty of Architecture, Warsaw University of Technology.
Author of post-war reconstruction of small towns and a new city called Nowe Tychy, which is an
excellent example of urban superblock development.
 1635

K.Lynch’s division although in Wejchert’s terms it refers to the actual structure rather than the
elements of perception of the city’s image266.
K. Wejchert also defined a spatial interior. "All sorts of restraints create a kind of interior
around the observer stopping at a specific point regardless of the absolute dimensions of the
perceived section of the surroundings."267.
An important Polish approach to the understanding of urban form is its interpretation by
prof. Janusz Bogdanowski, a pioneer of Polish landscape architecture, in his work268.
Janusz Bogdanowski 269 developed the theory of urban interior (Bogdanowski, Łuczyńska-
Bruzda and Novák, 1973): „We get to know landscape through recognizing its particular
interiors. The interior in this case are the whole physiognomic surroundings of the place from
which landscape is viewed. Of course, there can be an infinite number of such places. However,
while studying the area, we can restrict their number to a series of those which most fully
characterize individual types and forms of the landscape thus usually constituting its nodal
points”270.
In brief, urban interior is a spatial unit which makes possible perception of landscape271 -
perception through fragments (perception based on the senses through presence).
We are dealing here with two points of view.
On the one hand it is the understanding of space through interiors – it is subjective and
changeable depending on the time, person, function and use, form. It is the point of view which,
through the synthesizing of impressions and opinions, can lead to studies and generalizations
forming a set of issues related to the perception of the environment and research of
environmental psychologists.
On the other hand, there is a definite physical structure which can be examined also through
the study of specific places defined as urban interiors. The division into urban interiors is neither
complete nor complementary. However, we can talk about interrelations between these interiors.
Both the recording of the structure of the existing landscape and the design methods are based
on a more or less conscious division of the landscape into interiors through the cubature forms
that shape them. The perception of space through interiors imposes order and allows
sequencing. This is related to the recognizing of the existing forms and the reading of cultural
meanings.
This is also what both K. Wejchert and J. Bogdanowski mean by urban interior. This way of
thinking complements in a sense the approach presented by K. Lynch, G. Cullen or Y. Ashihara
who emphasize the manner of man’s reception of space.
It lets us confirm the significance of the two different views – through the examining of the
form and structure and through the studying of the principles and possibilities of perception of
urban space.
At this point, it is worth mentioning the opinion of Roman Ingarden who writes about a two-
layer structure of an architectural object – a spatial form and multiplicity of appearances272.
We also ought to present the concept of a powerful form introduced by Jacek Gyurkovich273.
A powerful form differs from its surroundings and has great power of expression „(...) it focuses
the observer’s whole attention distracting it from other elements which participate in the

266
K. Wejchert carried out studies on the curve of impressions thus joining in the debate over perception
of urban space.
267
(Wejchert, 1974) p. 25
268
http://www.la-congress.pk.edu.pl/rejestra.htm
269
J. Bogdanowski was professor at the Faculty of Architecture, Cracow University of Technology, a
historian, urban planner, landscape architecture and a theorist. He authored a number of studies on the
history of Krakow’s urban development – its greenery, fortification systems and landscape.
270
(Bogdanowski, Łuczyńska-Bruzda, Novák, 1973) p. 19
271
Landscape is the physiognomy of the environment (the earth’s surface) which is a synthesis of natural
and cultural elements. Ibid, p. 76.
272
Cf. (Ingarden, 1958), (Ingarden, 1981), (Gołaszewska, 1984)
273
(Gyurkovich, 1999).
1636

creation of spaces and reducing their role to that of a background” 274. At the same time, it
assumes their meanings and constitutes a basis for the crystallizing of characteristic spatial
sequences275. It is attractive and has the power to compose the surroundings. The term form is
used here in relation to the space as a whole rather than cubature forms alone. The term can also
apply to important public spaces which act as nodes276.
Such an approach to the urban form is presented in the paper (Kantarek, 2013 b) and defined
as a four-dimensional Capacity:
"A vision of the form of a city as a physical, three-dimensional extension is the basis for
understanding numerous theories. It is supported by a realistic attitude which assumes the
existence of real, recognizable entities independent of consciousness 277 . In the most general
sense, we can imagine a uniform, three-dimensional universe with a permanent location of
points in relation to selected directions. These directions, defined naturally, mean the horizontal
(X-Y plane) and the vertical (Z). In such a rationalized space, its initial (only imagined)
uniformity practically includes various kinds of realness. It can be a man – a person whose
realness is more than physical; there are other forms of matter, too, including visible elements –
topography, greenery and architecture. The air is treated involuntarily as a “lack” although it
makes a space of the same type as visible matter. The diversity and richness of spatial forms as
well as time and the transformations of matter in time overlap on such a basic model. Such an
imaginary four-space “stage” is the environment of life in its broadest sense, first and foremost
the life of an individual and a community. This approach makes it possible to see the city in a
geometrized scheme of inventory and morphological character. Four-dimensional capacity can
also establish and assume an unlimited number of other, immaterial dimensions which differ
from each other (e.g. in the sphere of meanings, emotions, applications, descriptions, histories
etc.). In such a universe, it is also possible to continue defining certain wholes, always with the
guarantee of geometrical precision as far as location, distance and size are concerned.
Four-dimensional capacity as an initial vision of the city of complete and holistic character is
the basis for many well-known theories. This basis is realistic, not phenomenological."278

A few words about the contemporary spatial planning in Poland, Krakow case

The present-day system of spatial planning in Poland is far from perfect. It results from the
overlapping of some elements of the central planning system which was a rule before 1989 and
the policy of openness to private investments in the transforming state economy that ensued.
The planning system based on master plans which guaranteed systemic and comprehensive
solutions, supplemented with detailed plans, was replaced with the Study of the Conditions and
Directions of the Spatial Management of a Commune - Studium uwarunkowań i kierunków
zagospodarowania przestrzennego gminy which is general and does not act as law. Local legal
regulations are executed basing either on Local Spatial Management Plan - Miejscowy Plan
Zagospodarowania Przestrzennego (which is not obligatory) or administrative decisions. These
decisions refer to private investments (Conditions of Development and Spatial Management –
WZiZT Warunki zabudowy i zagospodarowania terenu) or public investments (Decision on the
Location of Public-Purpose Investments - ULICP Decyzja o ustaleniu lokalizacji inwestycji celu
publicznego) and are separate spatial management decisions with no coordination between one
another or other decisions (often the systemic ones concerning communication loads, for
example) What is more, their compliance with the Study279 is controversial and disputable.
274
Ibid. p. 7.
275
Ibid. p. 169.
276
An interesting comparison can be made in relations to Aldo Rossi’ s artefacts.
277
(Leksykon, 2000), p. 282
278
(Kantarek, 2013 b), p. 31n
279
Study will be used as a shortcut for the Study of the Conditions and Directions of the Spatial
Management of a Commune - Studium uwarunkowań i kierunków zagospodarowania przestrzennego
gminy.
 1637

To sum up, it can be said that urban space defragmentation starts already at the stage of the
legal system of planning.
It is worth considering certain aspects of the integrity of the spatial structure of Krakow in
the light of the legal conditions of recent years. The last binding master plans which referred to
the whole city area were made in 1988 and 1994. The 2003 plan was a Study of the Conditions
and Directions of the Spatial Management of a Commune and as such had no force of local law.
The 1988280 Master Spatial Development Plan of the City of Krakow (Miejscowy Plan Ogólny
Zagospodarowania Przestrzennego Miasta Krakowa) defined a general spatial policy which the
City Council wished to adopt with a view to returning to the traditional urbanism of streets,
squares and urban blocks as well as respecting the values of particular districts as reflected in
the formula of "a city of small towns".
The plan specified 50 spatial planning zones which were divided by themes into the
following groups: landscape and natural resources protection zones; cultural resources
protection zones; environmental protection zones; sanitary and protection zones; technical
zones; transit services zones; municipal policy zones; investment policy zones; health resort
protection zones.
They linked functional requirements with the specification of prohibition, obligation and
protection measures.
The 1994 281 Master Spatial Development Plan of the City of Krakow (Miejscowy Plan
Ogólny Zagospodarowania Przestrzennego Miasta Krakowa) uses two clear categories which
determine the development. These are land use and conditions of development.
Land use is defined in terms of 19 different functions /purpose/ while conditions of
development are determined by the establishing of spatial management policy zones. They
include: the environment and nature protection zone, landscape and cultural heritage protection
zone, view protection and view shaping zone, building intensity zone.
The first two zones are the most important ones with prohibitions and restrictions having
priority over permissions.
The four zones are further subdivided to reach a total of twenty.
The plan shows a division of the area of Krakow into particular fragments each of which has
been ascribed a code that is a combination of the function and obligation to meet the
requirements of the 4 basic zones. 344 possible combinations have been distinguished.
The graphic form of the plan shows graphic symbols representing continuity of particular
themes (Figures 1, 2).
Although the layout of the plan is legible, logical and safeguards the value of the urban form,
designers regarded it as too complicated and employing hermetic terminology. In the late 1990s
it was common to think about a city structure in terms of a whole as insignificant. What
mattered most in the investment policy of the city authorities at the time (like today,
unfortunately) was to give proprietors functional and spatial freedom in developing particular
areas, which was seen as the only way to boost economy and growth. As the spatial planning
system in Poland changed leaving it to the communes to take up or not to take up planning
activities and restricting local plans to small investment areas without precise regulations
ensuring compliance of Local Spatial Management Plans with the Study, the 1994 plan for
Krakow was also overriden by the 2003 Study.
The 2003 Study regulations continue to protect the values contained within previous plans
although they are rather general and descriptive.
The plan distinguishes 12 functional possibilities giving investors more freedom to develop the
areas.
As for the description of spatial structures, the plan makes clear distinctions between
function, form and zoning of the centre and the outskirts.

280
( Plan I, 1988), general designer of the plan is prof. Zygmunt Ziobrowski.
281
(Plan II, 1994); as in the case of Plan from 1988 prof. Zygmunt Ziobrowski is the general designer and
the coordinator of the plan.
1638

According to the 2003 Study, the spatial structure of Krakow includes: the historical city
centre with the surrounding built area; the area of "old" Nowa Huta; complexes of multi family
housing; complexes of single family housing; high density industrial areas; transportation
system; greenery and open spaces.
The main elements forming the spatial urban structure include: urban centre; main streets;
main urban routes; multi functional urban centres; key areas of economic, cultural and
technological development; greenery.
An attempt at saving the integrity of the urban space of Krakow was the study which won the
competition for Local Revitalization Program for Krakow 282 . The aim of the study was to
present a general idea of revitalization of the city which is necessary because of both social and
spatial problems.
Seven levels of revitalization were indicated from retrofitting and scale of a particular
building or plot, various urban complexes, through systemic actions in selected areas and
integration of the community and space of the whole city. The work resulted in a proposal to
draft some necessary documents such as a map of acceptable sizes and a map of significance.

Figure 1. The 1994 plan – fragment of the graphics, (Plan II, 1994).

The authors choosed several major areas where revitalization should be carried out. In view
of the obvious shortcomings of the urban planning law, the basic level was the scale of the
whole city and the need to include in the revitalization program the guidelines referring to the
integration of city space and modernization of spatial systems of different nature.
An analysis of urban space was the basis for the assumption that revitalization should cover
both "the central areas of the city and the adjacent sites which showed a lack or insufficiency of
use intensity /the ring around the centre of Krakow/, as well as local centres /residential and
industrial/ together with systems based on the values of natural and cultural environment."283.
Unfortunately, the study was not used at a general level. It allowed identification of the most
vulnerable areas designed for revitalization while further administrative procedures resulted in
the creation of a bank of particular projects and local interventions basing on the binding urban
planning law.
Both the 1994 Plan and the study which won the competition for Local Revitalization
Program for Krakow are attempts at a comprehensive approach to the urban form of the city and
the establishing of effective rules of urban development that would allow conservation and
creative interpretation of the city’s cultural heritage.
To what extent is it possible to define such rules given contemporary Polish law? A possible
solution could be the strengthening of the role of the Study of the Conditions and Directions of

282 (Kantarek A. A., Gołąb-Korzeniowska M., Karczmarska E., Motak M., Noworól M. and
Tchórzewska A., 2006)
283
Ibid p. 8
 1639

the Spatial Management of a Commune and the extending of the projects which would allow a
comprehensive approach to the themes it includes but not in the form of further changes in the
document but as a basis for supplementary projects that would specify the general guidelines
wherein.
The steps that should be taken in the first place include: the drawing up of a map of
acceptable size with the monitoring of views and vistas from important locations, the
forecasting of the effects of the decisions concerning function (which is missing in the planning
of the city’s transit system), the preservation of historical content and meanings of public
spaces 284 and finding a formula for active construction of a network of the city’s public
spaces285. Obviously, even the best Local Spatial Management Plan cannot enforce decisions
that concern the sequencing of public spaces, obligation to buy out spaces and maintain their
high standard.286.

Visions and ideas

They are extended proposals submitted to the ISUF Manifesto.

1 Urban form research An important research field of urban form is associated with
for better urban design finding models of good solutions for today's tasks in the field of
and spatial planning urban design and spatial planning

2 Urban form as a From the point of view of an architect and urban planner ,
crucial level of practitioner and theorist , it is important to look at the form of the
synthesis city as synthesizing other /and all/ guidelines - from politics to
culture, from the community scale to the scale of the individual.

3 Locality and the Locality is increasingly seen as the only significant scope for the
overall form of the life of the people. Overall reflection says that the body develops in
city the environment at the same time contributing to this environment .
It is therefore a basic range of synthesis .
Such an understanding of locality and urban form requires us today
to look at the overall form of the city or agglomeration and finding
such research tools that are able to describe it in all its complexity
and dynamics of development.

4 Urban form and its My point of view is that in urban form research seeking good
perception models for today it is extremely important to carry on the double
look – through the description of the structure/form and through the
principles of its perception. At the junction of these studies we have
an extremely important range of studies related to orientation in
space, orientation understood as the basis for use of the space.

Figure 3. Main proposals submitted to the ISUF Manifesto.

284
Lack of regulations concerning protection of unique public spaces leads to their appropriation. An
example to the point in Krakow is the current fight for preserving public space integrity and the modernist
form of the Cracovia hotel. The new owner of the hotel wants to build over a part of the traditionally
shaped public space in front of the hotel which is an element of a sequence of views from Old Town
towards green areas on the west of the centre and destroy the valuable modernist architecture..
285
Within the same legal framework, Polish cities deal with spatial planning in different ways. Wrocław
is particularly successful in implementing the comprehensive approach of Study both as regards decisions
about functions and the creation of articulate public spaces.
286
A relevant example in this respect is ul. Cystersów (Cistercian Street) in Krakow which is included in
the plan and yet cannot provide the proper standard of its public space for adjacent housing, for which it
is designed. (Kantarek, 2013 a)
1640

Wider comment on the proper meaning of the idea of locality is necessary. The text above
highlights the significance of this spatial level. The important relationship between an individual
and the environment is vital since life is realized at this very level. Individuals and the
environment feed on one another.
For man, a four-dimensional environment (physical space + time) is important from the point
of view of his growth and self-realization not only at the physiological level but also the
psychical, emotional, intellectual and spiritual ones. It is at this level that he develops his
axiology and approach to universal values. It is the local-universal relations that matters more
than reference to the global scope. In such terms globality is assimilated by locality and not vice
versa.
Globalization, which allows multiplication of the processes of tightening relations (including
the economic, technological and financial ones) worldwide between countries and nations,
fosters exchange of information and gives access to a wider scope of knowledge, can be viewed
as a source of many opportunities including a need for compromise and standardization.
However, it poses a threat to cultures which are based on locality.
Obviously, today, to a much lesser extent, the environment in which we live are related
spatially. Even the spatial environments are often broken up into isolated parts which are
separated by the time and sections of travel. However, none of these arguments means that the
four-dimensional space and its legible functioning and composition are now less important.
Perhaps the solution would be to develop the Open Book on Urban Form of The City (whose
scope is inexhaustible so it should be continued and updated) which would have the following
aims: to show the complexity of the urban structure as a whole in relations to its history and
meanings, also in a broader context (region, nation, country); to show significant established
models of development of the elements making up the whole (areas, systems); to show the
possibilities of the areas that are not formally shaped or underdeveloped in the shaping of the
urban form
An important aspect of such a book is the social and environmental context.
This book should relate to a specific city. Open Book on Krakow Urban Form should include
the following problems: The starting point ought to be a synthesis of the knowledge about the
whole urban structure and the elements of its form in terms of history and meaning. There is a
wealth of information on Krakow to be found in numerous studies and encyclopedias as well as
the binding Study; Significant models in the case of Krakow certainly include: urban block
forms that result from the implementation of defined systems and shaped in various historical
epochs through the parceling out of streets, modernist housing estates as well as the public
spaces of the historical districts of Krakow Old Town and Kazimierz.
This is the least explored scope of the urban form content. Regular studies should start with the
determining of the current division of the city into development urban superblocks according to
transportation routes and their declared and actual loads (which determine the role of a road in
land development – transit or link).
Other areas of research include: categorizing views /sequences of views, sites, kind of
stay/; categorizing typo morphological content; defining possibilities of transformations /fabric
development/ in relations to the existing and historically legitimate elements/.
Development of a complete study of this kind seems unfeasible in terms of time. However,
some things need to be done since they are particularly important for Krakow. These are:
conservation, protection and development of complete urban spatial systems; in particular,
protection of the network of open and accessible public spaces which emerged within the
established historical and functional system of public spaces including protection of public
spaces for pedestrians with the accompanying activities; conservation of modernist heritage –
both objects and public spaces; preventing urban thinking by isolated functions (gated areas)
which get detached from the common public space; protection of the basic street system
(including "town entrances") with its legible layout, without acoustic screens and a barrier of
advertisements as well as the chaotic visual and functional enclosures. Creation of proper
 1641

synthesis of pedestrian traffic and the accompanying activities of street ground levels as well as
car traffic, public transport and parking zones is a must.
Such a book should not only be an analytical material for spatial planning and design but
should also define good, from the point of view of urban form, ideas of its development and
transformation and necessary legal obligation.

References

Bogdanowski J., Łuczyńska-Bruzda M. and Novák Z. (1973) Architektura krajobrazu (PWN, Kraków)
Commin (2014) National Glossary, Poland
(http://commin.org/upload/Glossaries/National_Glossaries/COMMIN_Polish_Glossary.pdf) accessed
28 March 2014
Gyurkovich J. (1999) Znaczenie form charakterystycznych dla kształtowania i percepcji przestrzeni.
Wybrane zagadnienia kompozycji w architekturze i urbanistyce (Wyd. Politechniki Krakowskiej,
Kraków)
Ingarden R. (1958) Studia z estetyki, II (PWN, Warszawa)
Ingarden R. (1981) Wykłady i dyskusje z estetyki (PWN, Warszawa)
Kantarek A. A., Gołąb-Korzeniowska M., Karczmarska E., Motak M., Noworól M. and Tchórzewska A.,
(2006) 'Założenia do Lokalnego Programu Rewitalizacji Krakowa', I st prize in competition of Krakow
Munucipality, unpublished, author's archive.
Kantarek A. A. , (2013a) Ulica Cystersów w Krakowie, Cysterian Street in Krakow,
(http://www.arch.pk.edu.pl/~kksm/housingenvironment/img/arts/2013.11/33.pdf) accessed 28 March
2014
Kantarek A. A., (2013b) On Orientation in The Space of The City (Lambert Academic Publishing,
Saarbrűcken)
Leksykon (2000) PWN Leksykon. Filozofia (PWN, Warszawa)
Park (2014) Park Kulturowy Stare Miasto (http://www.bip.krakow.pl/index.php?dok_id=48882) accessed
28 March 2014.
Pionierzy (2007) Pionierzy polskiej architektury krajobrazu (http://www.la-
congress.pk.edu.pl/rejestra.htm) accessed 28 March 2014.
Plan I (1988) Plan ogólny zagospodarowania przestrzennego miasta Krakowa
(http://www.bip.krakow.pl/index.php?sub_dok_id=49207&dok_id=49207) accessed 28 March 2014.
Plan II (1994) Miejscowy Plan ogólny zagospodarowania przestrzennego miasta Krakowa
(https://www.bip.krakow.pl/index.php?sub_dok_id=49209&dok_id=49209) accessed 28 March 2014.
Study (2003) Studium Uwarunkowań i Kierunków Zagospodarowania Przestrzennego Miasta Krakowa
(http://www.bip.krakow.pl/_inc/rada/uchwaly/show_pdf.php?id=51018) accessed 28 March 2014.
Sykta I. (2008) Plany zagospodarowania przestrzennego miasta Krakowa Czasopisma Techniczne, Wyd.
Politechniki Krakowskiej, z. 1-A/2008, Kraków,
(http://suw.biblos.pk.edu.pl/resources/i1/i3/i5/i8/r1358/SyktaI_PlanyZagospodarowania.pdf) accessed
28 March 2014.
Uchwała (2010) Uchwała nr CXV/1547/10 Rady Miasta Krakowa z dnia 3 listopada 2010 r. w sprawie
utworzenia parku kulturowego pod nazwą Park Kulturowy Stare Miasto
(http://www.bip.krakow.pl/_inc/rada/uchwaly/show_pdf.php?id=55293) accessed 28 March 2014.
Ustawa (2003) Ustawa z dnia 23 lipca 2003 r. o ochronie zabytków i opiece nad zabytkami
(http://isap.sejm.gov.pl/DetailsServlet?id=WDU20031621568) accessed 28 March 2014
Wejchert K. (1974) Elementy kompozycji urbanistycznej (Arkady, Warszawa).
1642

The morphological dimension of planning documents: case

study Belgrade, capital of Serbia

Ana Niković *, Vladan Đokić **, Božidar Manić *

* Institute of Architecture and Urban & Spatial Planning of Serbia, Bulevar kralja Aleksandra
73/II, 11000 Beograd / Serbia. ** Faculty of Architecture, University of Belgrade, Bulevar
kralja Aleksandra 73/II, 11000 Beograd, Serbia. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected],
[email protected].

Abstract. The aim of this paper is to present one of the main issues and tasks of the ISUF – the
importance of introducing concepts of urban morphology to professional practice, in a systematic and
coherent way, to achieve a better built environment - in the specific context of Belgrade. A review of
relevant up-to-date research topics and developed concepts found in the current theoretical discourse
presented in the Urban Morphology Journal and ISUF, such as: morphological dimension of municipal
plans (Oliveira), the issue of boundaries (Whitehand, Larkham and Morton), the question of scale and
key concept – block or tissue (Kropf, Samuels, Hall) will be conducted. A number of major themes in the
agenda of the morphological debate, will be examined to establish how existing morphological criteria in
the Master plan of Belgrade and related planning documents correspond. It was determined that the
morphological dimension of those criteria is questionable and that the real form-based approach in
Belgrade’s planning documents and procedures were absent which had a detrimental impact on the
quality of physical and urban structure. It can be stated that there is a need, firstly, for a detailed
theoretical elaboration of relevant concepts of urban morphology and then integrating them into
planning documents and procedures in Belgrade and Serbia. The principal conclusion reached is that
urban morphologists should have a key role in the prescription of future changes through coordination of
design guidance, codes and plans at different scales.

Key Words: Belgrade, urban morphology, urban form, planning, designing

Introduction

This paper builds on the existing researches dealing with the morphological dimension of urban
plans in specific contexts of urban planning, the results of which are a part of contemporary
urban morphological discourse exposed within the ISUF research database. The title of the
paper directly refers to Oliveira’s investigation of morphological dimension of urban plans for
the city of Porto (Oliveira, 2006), pointing to the similar method and theoretical background to
be used in case study of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. Linking up and building on the results
of past researches in the field of urban morphology provides multiple contributions. On one
hand, urbomorphological investigations offer a significant theoretical base and direction for
improving planning practices in Belgrade. On the other hand, international framework of urban
morphology is expanded and a number of issues are examined in the specific context of
discontinued development of Belgrade that is thus put in relation to continuous development of
western countries whose experiences are primarily represented within ISUF (Whitehand, 2012.).
In Belgrade, over the past decade significant morphological changes have occurred due to
huge pressures for increasing of building capacities, either through planning new or
reconstructing the existing physical structure. The pressures mostly come from private investors
driven by their economic interests, which become dominant in the decision-making processes.
The resulting quality of the built environment is highly unsatisfactory, leading to erosion of
character of the existing urban entities. The problem is particularly evident in the central zone of
Belgrade which includes the historical city core, the center of New Belgrade and Zemun. In all
these parts of the city that have different and specific historical developments, uncritical
 1643

interventions have been emerging not taking into consideration the existing urban forms and
building typologies.
The existing planning documentation for Belgrade – primarily the current Master Plan of
Belgrade 2021 (Urbanistički zavod Beograda, 2003) which acts as the planning basis of a higher
level compared to detailed urban plans – recognizes the significance of preservation of the
character as well as the opening of possibilities of new development within the existing urban
entities. However, the planning guidelines do not offer the way towards achieving these goals,
neither can they follow and control the undergoing urban transformations. The problem lies in
an insufficient or inadequate direction for the detailed building level, through the planning
recommendations that neglect the aspects of the resulting urban form. The question that arises
is: in what way would it be possible to enhance the planning documentation and consequently
the practice, by using the concepts of urban morphological discourse and recent experiences in
linking these theoretical concepts with the practice? The unanswered question is: what happens
in case of successful improvement of planning documentation in this way, how to ensure its
successful implementation, where the key role of urban morphologists in coordination of design
guidance and codes in plans at different scales can be recognized.

Context of the research

Oliveira (2006) puts his research in the context of the attempts to integrate the urbo-
morphological methods and concepts into the practice of urban design and planning, performed
by the members of the contemporary British morphological school – Karl Kropf, Tony Hall and
Yvor Samuels – as co-ordinators of urban plans and studies for several settlements in France
and England. Then, he conducts a comparative analysis of these documents to the methodology
applied in developing the plan of the city of Porto co-ordinated by Fernando Ça who builds on
the morphological theory of Gianfranco Caniggia.
Introduction of the specific morphological criteria creates a methodological framework for
protection of the existing historical and regional values, as well as for the formation of the new
fabric. Based on the comparative analyses of the selected plans, Oliveira notices research topics
and issues that are relevant for discussion and establishment of relation between the urban
morphology and urban design. He especially highlights the issues of city character, typo-
morphological approach to zoning, the concern for urban tissue and levels of resolution as well
as the question of boundaries.
Oliveira implies the possibility of improving the content of plans by including illustrations of
acceptable typologies of plots, buildings and architectural details based on the morphological
analyses of surrounding sites. Although these elements are not legally binding, if taken into
consideration during implementation, they can contribute to the quality of the built environment
because they take into account the relation between the existing and the new urban forms, thus
preserving the character and the continual development of the specific areas.

Issue of boundary and scale – character and homogeneity.

The issue of boundary represents one of the key indicators of morphological dimension of plans
because it addresses an important planning standpoint – which area is delineated, how and why
(Larkham and Morton, 2011, Birkhamshaw, 2006). In accordance with linking urban
morphology and planning practice, the boundary that encompasses the subject area should be
based on morphological analyses of urban and physical structure. It should display the scope of
the area with the homogenous morphological characteristics for which the spatial policies,
planning guidelines and design rules have been defined.
1644

Key concept – block or tissue

One of the basic interests of urban morphology in making its knowledge applicable in practice
is the definition of the key concept. In that term, Kropf talks about urban tissue as the basic
growth and transformation unit (Kropf, 2006, 2011.), while Hall and Samuels suggest block
structure (Hall, 2008, McGlynn and Samuels, 2000). The concepts of tissue and block are
related in terms that the tissue can be defined as the series of blocks of homogenous structure
interrelated with street network. By morphological analysis of a particular area, a continuous
expansion of a specific type of block can be identified together with its variations which
generate the area of homogenous characteristics. This generative boundary is of special
importance in contemporary morphological studies because, unlike the administrative
boundaries of municipalities or designed boundary made up for the purposes of design brief, it
recognizes morphological – intrinsic qualities of urban structure. In the Conzen’s terminology,
the generative boundary stands for „fixation line“ (ISUF Glossary). The use of this approach in
defining the boundary helps avoid the frequent problem of administrative boundaries
intersecting with parts of urban areas with similar morphogenetic characteristics (Whitehand,
2007).

Planning regulations

The design rules can be given explicitly, in the form of quantitative indicators which are
obligatory for obtaining building and use permits, or implicit, in the form of qualitative
descriptions that offer possibilities for different solutions in designing (Tieben, 2011). The way
in which the design rules are formulated and used most directly influence the quality of the built
environment. They link the different scales of professional activities, i.e. macro-scale of
planning with the micro-scale of designing.
In accordance with the theoretical discourse of urban morphology, the morphological
dimension of planning documentation implies the presence of morphological methods and
concepts which adress planning guidelines to resulting qualities of urban and physical structure.
The paper is particularly concerned with the abovementioned topics in the agenda of the
morphological debate in order to establish how existing morphological criteria in the Master
Plan of Belgrade 2021 and related documents correspond.

The case of Belgrade

The system of planning in Serbia is similar to those in most countries that use the approach of
comprehensive planning and principle of hierarchical linking from larger scale of
spatial/regional plans towards smaller scale of urban plans. According to the scope of the
subject area, urban plans have their own hierarchy to be obeyed: from master plans, via general
regulation plans, to detailed regulation plans. The regulatory framework for the planning system
is the Law on Planning and Construction (Zakon o planiranju i izgradnji, 2009), Rulebook on
the Content, Method and Procedure for development of Planning Documents (Pravilnik o
sadržini, načinu i postupku izrade planskih dokumenata, 2010) and Rulebook on General Rules
for Land Plotting, Regulation and Building (Pravilnik o opštim pravilima za parcelaciju,
regulaciju i izgradnju, 2011).
According to these documents, the integral parts of both spatial and urban plans are the rules
of regulating, building rules and graphic part of the plan. The rules of regulating contain the
concept of urban development of characteristic zones and entities, urban and other conditions
for regulating, building and developing public areas and infrastructure network, measures for
protection of natural, cultural values, energy efficiency, standards of accessibility etc. The
building rules contain the type and use of structures that can be erected in specific zones,
permitted urban parameters, maximum building height as well as conditions for forming a
 1645

buildable plot, positioning of buildings on the plot, building other structures on the same
building plot and providing the access to plots and parking lots. The graphic part of the plan
shows the planned use, regulation and leveling, infrastructural systems, protection of the
environment, natural and cultural goods etc. It is done on notarized underlays – cadaster-
topographic, cadastral or topographic maps or on updated ortho-photo underlays.
The building procedure starts with the request for issuing the location permit which contains
the information on the possibilities and limitations for building on the given plot. The
information is excerpted from the detailed regulation plan for the subject area – if it exists.
However, since the city territory is not completely covered by detailed regulation plans, the Law
enables the issuing of location permits based on the planning documentation of higher degree,
such as the Master Plan of Belgrade 2021. Although it is defined as a comprehensive strategic
document, it contains the regulatory elements that enable the issuing of location permits for
those parts of the city that do not have detailed regulation plans (Fig. 1) 287 . Besides, the
comparative analysis of the planning guidelines from the Master Plan of Belgrade 2021 and the
Detailed Regulation Plans for several entities in the inner city centre show that legally binding
elements – maximum permitted values of urban parameters – have not been reconsidered while
developing more detailed planning documentation in order to adjust it to the specific context of
the subject area. The domination of economic interests of private investors always dictate the
attaining of maximum building capacity on the plot (Nikovic et al., 2012). The most common
situation is that the maximum permitted values of urban parameters are directly and uncritically
transferred from the Master Plan to Detailed Regulation plan. Thus, the rules of regulating and
building rules defined in the Master Plan of Belgrade 2021 often directly influence the resulting
urban and physical structure. Therefore, it is important to question its morphological dimension,
considering the exposed objectives, priorities and planning recommendations. It is also possible
to assess its influence on the built environment in view of the period when it was adopted.

Morphological dimension of Master Plan of Belgrade 2021

Master Plan of Belgrade 2021 which is still in effect was adopted in 2003. Its development was
explained by the needs of a new social system which “develops gradually and requires a new
plan that directs its urban development”. The earlier urban plans were qualified as static because
they didn’t provide the answer to the dynamic planning process where the priorities needed to
be continuously re-evaluated. It is also emphasized that from the period of the 80-ies of the 20th
century the loss of control over urban development occurred. It was manifested through
different informal and illegal building activities which were taking place not only in the
outskirts but in the central zone as well.
The content analysis of the Master Plan of Belgrade 2021 points out the goals that refer to
the improvement of quality of the built environment. The urban development of Belgrade is
targeted towards achieving the etiquettes such as “urbanistically regulated city”, “city of
complex memories”, “city of unified appearance”, “connected and accessible city”. The relevant
chapters which are further analyzed in order to find the elaboration of these objectives are as

287
Total area covered by the Master Plan of Belgrade 2021 is 77602 ha, where 84% of that is urban
buildable land – 65185,7ha. Fig. 1 shows the scope of detailed regulation plans where: plans addopted by
2003 include the area of 12986,4 ha, which amounts to 19,9% of urban buildable land. Plans adopted after
2003 include the area of 5502,9 ha which amounts to 8,4 % of urban buildable land. That leads to the fact
that about 71,7% of the urban buildable land area is not covered with detailed regulation plans, with the
notion that for one part of this area obligation for developing detailed regulation plans is set out by the
Master Plan. Additional attention should be payed to the fact that the areas ’not covered’ by the plans are
not continuous, they appear as gaps that need to be „filled-in“ and are present in all parts of the city
including the most attractive central locations. That additionally calls upon typological approach to
zoning and defining the urban rules according to analyses of the existing urban form.
1646

follows: “Boundaries of the Plan, Spatial Entities and Zones”, “Protection of Space”, “Spatial
Zones and Urban Entities with Same Building Rules”, “Urban instruments for implementation
of the plan” and “Rules for Building and Renewal”.

Figure 1. The urban buildable land of the Master Plan of Belgrade 2021 with the areas
covered by Detailed Regulation Plans.

The remainder of this paper examines how existing morphological criteria in the Master Plan
of Belgrade 2021 correspond to the underlined urban morphology issues: the question of
boundaries and scale of plan units, key concept – block or tissue and the way of defining the
urban regulations. For each of these questions, we firstly describe the relevant elements from the
plan, secondly we comment on these elements in terms of existence or absence of its
morphological dimension, and finally give the recommendations for its adjustment to urban
morphology.

Issue of boundary and scale – character and homogeneity

According to the Master Plan of Belgrade 2021, the encompassed territory of Belgrade is
divided into 4 spatial zones: Central, Middle, Outer and Edge, that are further split into 57 urban
entities. For each entity or group of similar entities spatial distribution and scope, as well as a
short summary of characteristics, potentials and role of the entity in the city are given. The
program elements are not methodologically treated in the same way in all entities, but are rather
given in the scale of general recommendations for group of entities up to detailed guidelines for
specific location. It is emphasized that the main operational purpose of this part of Master Plan
is to provide a kind of program reminder for the key developmental issues in specific parts of
the city in order to preserve its identity. At the same time, based on the graphic part of the plan
entitled “Spatial Zones and Urban Entities with Same Building Rules“ it can be assumed that
these urban entities should correspond to the definition of the Conzen’s ’plan unit’ (ISUF
Glossary), i.e. they should be a part of urban areas with homogenous morphological
characteristics and distinctive character in comparison to the surroundings. Besides, the division
of the plan’s territory into spatial zones and urban entities (Fig.2), can lead to the conclusion
that the urban development of Belgrade went on continuously through concentric expansion of
 1647

its urban and physical structure from the center towards the outskirts. However, examining of
both of these assumptions ends up with its denial.

Figure 2. The territory encompassed by the Master Plan of Belgrade 2021 and its division
into spatial zones and urban entities.

Figure 3. The relation of administrative and plan boundaries to the morphologically

homogeneous entities.
1648

Firstly, based on the projection of boundaries in the ortho-photo images as well as via direct
observation, it can be noticed that within designated urban entities there are elements of urban
and physical structure with heterogeneous morphological characteristics, and that the boundary
between the urban entities is frequently cutting through morphologically homogenous areas
(Fig.3). One of the explanations of this situation can be found in the plan itself, where it says
that the boundaries are partly following the administrative borders of municipalities due to the
use of data that are processed at the level of their statistical circles. It is denoted that therefore
boundaries can be the subject of future changes.
Secondly, opposed to the assumption of continuous development and concentric expansion
of the urban territory, Belgrade’s urban development can be described as a set of fragmented
interventions, the part of which is evidently aimed towards bypassing the legislation and
planning guidelines. Due to illegal construction, the city has for years expanded beyond its
limits, for the purpose of building in the cheaper zone, while the central parts remained
undeveloped and neglected (Stojanović, 2008.)
The Master Plan of Belgrade 2021 defines urban areas, buildings and conditions that cannot
be subject to changes – defined as fixed elements and permanent values of the city. However,
this part of the plan has a descriptive character and given recommendations are not obligatory.
The protected areas are displayed in the graphic part entitled “Permanent Goods” - not in the
main body of the plan but within the documentation basis and are not linked with the
abovementioned division to urban entities for which specific building rules are defined.
It can be stated that the division into spatial zones and urban entities, for which the same
building rules are applied within the Master Plan of Belgrade 2021, should be reconsidered and
upgraded with the urban morphological approach. The boundaries of the urban entities should
be generated based on the morphological analysis of the subject area. The scope of the bounded
area, i.e. its scale, should be determined by the extent of urban and physical structure with
homogenious morphological characteristics, which give the specific character to the urban
entity. Also, there is a need for establishing the relationship between the goals of urban design
and aspects of physical structure, in which Hall’s investigation on the physical manifestation of
the planning objectives can be helpful (Hall, 2008).

Key concept – block or tissue

Within the Master Plan of Belgrade 2021 the notions of „tissue“ and the application of
morphological criteria can be found in the chapter entitled “Typology of the Residential Tissue”
where it is explained that the “types of residential tissue – blocks, included in this MP, are
defined on the basis of the morphological criteria”. Accordingly, the planning guidelines for
residential use are given on the ground of the following typologies: compact urban blocks, open
urban blocks, individual housing blocks, suburban housing blocks and mixed urban blocks. The
plan uses the term “residential tissue” for all plots and buildings that are intended for residential
use with accompanying public facilities. Since the residential use covers almost 50% of the land
intended for building, it can be concluded that proposed typological approach has considerable
impact on urban and physical structure of Belgrade.
If the established plan typology of residential tissue is compared to the existing built
environment in Belgrade, one can notice numerous flaws and incoherencies between the terms
and methods used in the plan with their meaning and application in the urban morphology
discourse. The plan shows the tendency to link the planning guidelines with the typology of
urban and physical structure, suggesting the type of block as the key concept. However, the
proposed typology is too general, based on few characteristics of block structure - the way of
grouping and the type of building within a block. Some important block characteristics as
elements of typology are avoided. For example, according to recent morphological studies, the
shape and the form of block indicate the possibilities of urban development (Siksna, 1997), so it
is very important to make a distinction between compact blocks in various parts of the Central
Zone of the Master Plan. There are important differences between small square blocks in the
 1649

inner city centre and huge elongated rectangular compact blocks on Savska Padina (Perovic,
2008). According to the plan, they both belong to the same type of compact blocks in the central
zone intended for residential use. However, their morphogenesis and the existing physical
structure differ significantly and require different approach to planning. Also, similar conclusion
has been reached when comparing open blocks in New Belgrade to open blocks in the Middle
and Outer zone of the Master Plan. This kind of approach to forming the block typology, that
doesn’t sufficiently take into account the diversities between different parts of the city, leads to
the conclusion that the real typological approach to zoning in the plan is absent. The terms such
as “morphological criteria” and “tissue” are used in an inconsistent manner. This terminological
inconsistency is additionaly emphasized by using terms “housing” and “apartment” in
accordance to the Habitat Agenda, which has completely different theoretical background.
Morphological criteria in area descriptions and development prescriptions, as well as the
used terminology can have proper purpose if they are used in accordance to the urban
morphological approach and its methods and concepts. The term of “tissue” should not be
linked to the use but to the specific urban entity and its physical characteristics that reflect the
homogenous structure of blocks. Also, when defining the typology of blocks it is necessary to
conduct a detailed morphological analysis that should result in producing the data on various
developmental and physical characteristics of blocks. It is especially important to take into
consideration the morphogenesis of blocks, shape and size of blocks, position in wider city
entities, topography, etc.

Urban planning regulation

In accordance with the common legislative practice in Serbia, the Master Plan of Belgrade 2021
uses quantitative indicators for determining the building capacity – the Occupancy Index (OI)
and the Construction Index (CI) of a lot/block. The permitted values are assigned to specific
locations based on the planned use, the position within the city area whether in the central zone
or outside the central zone, and in the case of residential use, depending on the type of block.
Other guiding indicators for detailed plan elaboration include: population density, employment
density, users’ density, the ratio between Gross Unfolded Bulding Floor Area (GUBFA) and
commercial use, normatives for open and green areas per inhabitant or per block area.
Apart from determined urban indicators, parameters and regulative elements, in chapters
referring to building rules, the Master Plan provides recommendations that are directly linked to
the possibilities of energy efficiency, the use of alternative sources of energy, formation of
highly standard urban spaces in terms of hygiene and ambiance, establishment of the system of
green areas etc. However, these recommendations are not obligatory requirements to be met in
designing procedures, as is the case with the permitted values of the OI and CI. Planning
guidelines which refer to the elements of urban and phyisical structure directly connected with
qualitative properties of urban space, especially spatially-experiential and visually-aesthetics
aspects which are crucial for the city of “complex memories”, “unified appearance” etc. are not
a decisive factor for the implementation.
The absence of morphological criteria when conceiving the boundaries and typologies of
urban and physical structure leads to the application of general rules in the settlements of
different character. The application of the Rulebook on General Rules for Land Plotting,
Regulation and Building is obligatory only if required by the planning document based on
which the location permit is issued. In other words, modification and adjustment of these rules
to the specific location is possible in accordance with the conclusions made based on the
analysis of the location possibilities during the planning process, reconciliated with the higher
level planning documentation. It is necessary to improve the regulation in terms of obligation to
respect the specific planning and designing context, i.e. examining the effects of application of
general rules on a specific planning area. Within the planning documents, there is an open
possibility for including the elements which are not legally binding but can be used to the
benefit of the good professional results in practice (Oliveira, 2006). This primarily pertains to
1650

the the integrated graphic analysis (McCormack, 2013), through which different solutions of
spatial arrangement can be examined and valued. In that way, the insufficiently analyzed
solutions, based on overgeneralized or partial approach or one-sided interests can be alleviated,
which consequently improves the quality of the built environment.

Conclusions

Theoretical solutions to the problems of relating the qualities of urban form to the planning
practice in Belgrade which can be found in urbomorphological discourse of ISUF, have already
been recognized in scientific investigations in the field of urbanism in Serbia (Djokic, 2007,
2009). Additionally, it is necessary to bring closer the formerly consolidated knowledge of
urban morphology to the professionals in practice. By applying urban morphological methods
and concepts to plans, its morphological dimension can be achieved. In the case of the Master
Plan of Belgrade 2021 it implies the connection of the promoted goals of character preservation
and the identity of urban areas, to typological approach to zoning (Kropf’s definition). The
special emphasis is given to the recommendations for improving the Master Plan of Belgrade
2021 in accordance with urbomorphological concepts which refers to defining the following:
the identification of area boundaries, since the existing division of territory does not recognize
the morphologically homogeneous areas in which unified building rules are applied; the key
concept, since the proposed typology of residential tissue is too general and does not include
important morphological characteristics of the area as the elements of the typology; the building
rules, which are explicitly defined in the Plan, in the form of quantitative indicators that mostly
influence building procedures.
In addition, urban morphology glossary should be accepted in order to use precise and
consistent terminology in planning documents as well as in theory, thus improving the
correspondence between theory and practice. Prior to introducing the morphological dimension
into the planning documentation of Belgrade and real form-based approach, which can be a
long-term process, urban morphology theory can contribute to improving planning practice
through raising awareness with regard to the importance of interrelating the various scales of
professional activities – planning, designing and building, as well as the possibilities that can be
achieved by the existing planning documents. Firstly, there is a proposal to introduce plan
elements that are not legally binding but contribute to foreseeing the effects of the
implementation of planning guidelines in the subject area. Secondly, through education it is
possible to affect the procedures for adopting plans and obtaining building permits to include
the elements which are not obligatory, but are related to the quality of space that is planned and
built. In these activities, the coordinative role of the professionals, i.e. of urban morphologists,
is recognized, in terms of predicting future development, through coordination of planning
guidelines and rules in plans of various scales.

References

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 1651

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1652

Future urban changes through design guidance: new

principles

Marichela Sepe
IRISS - National Research Council, DiARC – University of Naples Federico II, Italy.
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. The urban condition we are experiencing today shows many changes in terms of the rhythms
and exploitation of the city, the modalities of living, working, moving around, and the opportunities for
enjoying leisure. The emergence of new typologies of place and changes in the patterns of usage for the
existing typologies have given rise to whole new cityscapes: striking juxtapositions and fragmentariness
seem to predominate in the wholesale dispersion with which subjects, things and habits coexist,
characterised by boundaries which are transparent and yet at times unbreachable. The identity of a
place, often at risk due to globalization process and rapid urban changes, expresses a harmonious
balance between variant and invariant components, people and urban events, which are intrinsically
linked by a reciprocal relationship that makes a specific place unique and recognizable. At the same time,
public space is a topic which is increasingly assuming a new emblemtic role in contemporary city and
many design codes are arising accordingly. Based on these considerations, this work aims to illustrate
the "12 principles for place identity enhancement", which were created from a reasoned set of blueprints
for the various experiments carried out using the PlaceMaker method of urban analysis and design. The
paper describes those principles and the evolution of some of these principles in the Charter of Public
Space which was adopted during the II Biennal of Public Space, which was held in Rome in May 2013.
The Charter includes both specific principles for place identity safeguarding and enhancement and for
public space creation.

Key Words: place identity, urban landscape, public space, urban principles

Introduction

The emergence of new typologies of place and changes in the patterns of usage for the existing
typologies have given rise to whole new cityscapes: striking juxtapositions and fragmentariness
seem to predominate in the wholesale dispersion with which subjects, things and habits coexist,
characterised by boundaries which are transparent and yet at times unbreachable.
The contemporary city is the place not only of complexity but also of simultaneity and
instability, which give rise to situations of mutation and transitoriness. These are often
predominantly motivated by economic gain, to the detriment of place identity which becomes
increasingly hybrid, compromised or unrecognisable.
The lengthy periods of time required for the perception of the city Kevin Lynch talks about
have been altered by the acceleration of the new urban rhythms. Nonetheless it still seems true
that: "City design is therefore a temporal art, but it can rarely use the controlled and limited
sequences of other temporal arts like music. On different occasions and for different people, the
sequences are reversed, interrupted, abandoned, cut across. It is seen in all lights and all
weathers. At every instant, there is more than the eye can see, more than the ear can hear, a
setting or a view waiting to be explored. Nothing is experience by itself, but always in relation
to its surroundings, the sequences of events leading up to it, the memory of past experiences".
(Lynch, 1960)
Undoubtedly the people and their activities are as important as the "stationary physical
parts", and we are part of the scenario together with the other protagonists. "We are not simply
observers of this spectacle, but ourselves a part of it, on the stage with the other participants.
Most often, our perception of the city is not sustained, but rather partial, fragmentary, mixed
 1653

with concerns. Nearly every sense is in operation, and the image is the composite of them all."
(Lynch, 1960)
Placemaking, in the sense of "the art of making places for people” - to paraphrase the
definition given by the Cabe and Detr Ministerial Guide "By design: urban design in the
planning system" - "includes the way places work and such matters as community safety, as
well as how they look. It concerns the connections between people and places, movement and
urban form, nature and the built fabric, and the processes for ensuring successful villages, towns
and cities".
The city thus becomes the outcome of complex intersections created by a number of
operators who modify the system for different reasons. It becomes necessary to identify a
microsystem within the macrosystem of the city able to make the urban variants intelligible:
place is at once porous and resistant, a receptor for complex interactions.
Accordingly, places are termed “places” and not just “spaces” when they are endowed with
identity (Hague, Jenkins,2005).
Such identity is related to the urban fabric and a series of morphological, natural, historical
and cultural invariants. These invariants are closely interrelated to the life of the city and its
inhabitants, and also to the perception the latter have of that place. At the same time, colours,
materials, smells and sounds become an inseparable part of any one spot in the city, and thus
emotional components of the urban image.
The identity of a place expresses a harmonious balance between variant and invariant
components, people and urban events, which are intrinsically linked by a reciprocal relationship
that makes a specific place unique and recognizable. At the same time, globalization and
technological development have contributed to accelerating the rates of change and
transforming spaces in the contemporary city. The end result is that cities, places, itineraries,
customs and behavioural patterns have all come to resemble one another, contributing to an
increasing urban identity crisis.
The sustainability of any place depends on a number of factors which contribute to its
liveability, quality and identity (Vale, Warner, 2001; Butina Watson, Bentley, 2007; Cullen,
1961; Jacobs, 1961; Rose, 1995; Osmond, 2010).
Urban, cultural and historical poles of attraction, increasingly bear the imprint of
globalization, conveying messages which have developed in an uncontrolled manner and are
aimed at conveying their users’ patterns of thought and action. The presence of a dense mixture
of contrasting elements and perceptions can detract from the image of a city (Carter, Donald,
Squires, 1993, Christensen, 1999; Castells,1997; Nasar, 1998; Appleyard, 1981; Whyte, 1980;
Urry, 1995). Furthermore, especially in pedestrian-intensive areas and in public spaces, it can
contribute to creating urban decline and a chaotic atmosphere, including increased episodes of
street crime. In order to draft an urban project focusing on the conservation, reconstruction and
enhancement of place identity in such areas, which are often especially representative of their
respective cities, we need methods of analysis and design able to identify, represent and design
the urban elements that make up contemporary cities (Carmona, Heath, Oc, Tiesdell, 2010;
Oliveira, 2013; Banerjee,Loukaitou-Sideris, 2010; Gospodini, 2004; Gehl, 2001).
Based on these considerations, this work aims to illustrate the "12 principles for place
identity enhancement", which were created from a reasoned set of blueprints for the various
experiments carried out with the PlaceMaker method (Sepe, 2006a; 2013). PlaceMaker
comprises eight phases – five of analysis and three of design – and a Phase 0 that consists in
constructing the grid required for the operations which are to be implemented later. This method
assembles, elaborates and reconstructs the data deriving from surveys based on physical
reconnaissance, sensory perceptions, graphical elaboration, photographic and video records, and
sets this data against that provided by an overview of expectations, an analysis based on
traditional cartography and two questionnaires administered to local inhabitants. The main
products are two final complex maps, one first of analysis and one of design, which represent
the place identity and project interventions in order both to establish a dialogue with local
people and support planners and administrators in the sustainable urban construction and
1654

transformation. The paper describes in section 2 and 3 respectively the method and those
principles, designed as checklists for urban projects with place identity at the core. Furthermore,
in section 4, it shows the evolution of some of these principles in the Charter of Public Space
(Garau, Lancerin, Sepe; 2013) which was adopted during the II Biennal of Public Space
(www.biennalespaziopubblico.it). The Charter, composed by 6 parts devoted to public space -
definition, typologies, creation, obstacles, maintenance, management, and enjoyment - includes
both specific principles for place identity safeguarding and enhancement and for public space
creation. Following the Charter adoption, practical codes are in development in order to realize
a Global Toolkit for public space. Section 5 draws the conclusions.

The PlaceMaker Method

The PlaceMaker method, used for the 12 principles construction, comprises eight phases. The
first phase of PlaceMaker is devoted to anticipatory analysis aimed at primary investigation of
places; after the preliminary choice of the city and of the part(s) to be analyzed, the ideas about
that particular area can be described using any type of instrument or tool of expression, using
the information known prior to the first inspection. These notes can be represented in different
ways and the result of this phase will be a map of the emerging ideas.
The second phase is that of the five surveys. The first, the denominative one, consists in
collecting data regarding constructed elements (presence of monuments, buildings, etc.), natural
elements (presence of urban green areas, trees, animals etc.), transportation mode (presence or
transit of cars, buses etc.), people (presence of tourists, residents, etc.).The localization of all
these elements and the kind and amount, expressed as a low, medium or high percentage, are
indicated. As well as the denominative data base there is a cognitive one which constitutes a
kind of flexible input, where it is possible to insert elements which are not decided previously,
but deduced during inspection.
The second survey is perceptive; a survey is carried out of the smell, sound, taste, touch and
visual sensations, and of the global perception, focusing on the localization, type, amount
(present in low, medium, high percentage) and quality (non-influential, pleasant, annoying. The
survey of the amount and quality of the data, the three options regarding, respectively, the
percentage of presence and the feelings induced, are intended to summarise the processing of
data that can however be extended during collection.
The next survey is graphical: it consists in sketching the places; the sketches will represent
the area in question according to a visual-perceptive standpoint and will be supported by
annotations where necessary. This operation constitutes a preliminary study for the construction
of the graphical symbols for the complex map. Photographic and video surveys of the whole
study area are carried out, taking care to record facts rather than an interpretation of the places.
The product of the five surveys is a map visualizing the results obtained from the different
surveys.
The third phase involves the analysis of traditional cartography of the selected sites in the
city. The types of maps used in this phase derive from different disciplines and depend on the
nature of the place; the study is carried out at the urban scale, in order to identify the
characteristic elements and their relationships with that particular area, and at the areal scale, in
order to identify the relationships between the site and the whole city. The result of this phase is
a map identifying the components required for the site description that can be found only
through a traditional planimetric reading.
The fourth phase is that of the questionnaire administered to visitors to the area in order to
gain an idea of the place as perceived by those who are not involved in the study and are not
specialists in related fields, but only perceive the site as users, at various levels: the inhabitant,
the passer-by, the tourist. The questionnaire consists of questions asked on the basis of images
of the area or an inspection visit with the interviewee. The information deduced from the
 1655

questionnaire is transferred onto a map that, like the previous ones, will constitute the basis for
the construction of the complex map.
The fifth phase is that of assembling the collected information. In this phase, we test the
maps produced, the congruence of the various collected data, and choose the useful elements to
construct the final map. The recorded data represent the basis for the construction of the
graphical system of symbols to represent the elements of the urban landscape and the
elaboration of the complex map of analysis (Sepe, 2006a).
We then have three design phases. The sixth phase is devoted to surveying identity resources
in the study area. During this phase, the complex map of analysis drawn up with the PlaceMaker
method is used as a basis to detect the resources available for the project.
The sixth phase is realized through three measures. The first is the identification of the
identity potential, namely of the elements of the complex map which characterize the area in
question in order to recognize those which may assume a focal role in the project. In this
respect, both the comprehensive presence of a specific type of element (e.g. how many points of
visual perceptions are present) and the quantity is measured for each of them (e.g. such an
element is assigned a certain size of symbol depending on its visual importance: namely
medium size=presence of a given element in a medium percentage). Then there is the second
action where the identity problems are highlighted. The activities are devoted to observing
places in the complex map with the presence of unsustainable elements and annoying points of
perception. With the aim of identifying these places the relationship among the different
elements in the map need to be observed. An element may be sustainable in itself, for example a
shop which sells typical products; but the presence of several of them may create a site with a
concentration of businesses which is unsustainable with respect to place identity. The goal is to
understand the impact of people, things and activities and relative issues. The third action is the
survey of identity qualities.
The actions to be performed here involve noting places within the complex map of analysis
with the presence of sustainable elements and points of pleasant perception. The elements which
contribute to defining that sustainable place or perception will need to be analyzed. In this case
the aim is again to detect the impact of people, things and activities and relative relationships
which are sustainable for identity of places. The product is a synthesis derived from interpreting
the complex map of analysis where the identity resources available for the project are
represented: a sort of map of intents, the first step for the construction of the complex map for
the identity project in question.
The seventh phase is the survey of the identity resources by users of places, locals, passers-
by and tourists. A questionnaire designed to elicit information emerged from the previous phase
will be administered. The questions aim to ascertain whether the data observed until now are
consistent with aspirations, desires and thoughts of the users of the area in question and to
collect further suggestions and proposals.The product of this phase is the fourth partial map
which will represent the identity resources from the perspective of users of places and/or
privileged actors.
The eighth and last phase consists in the overlay of data collected during the previous four
phases and identification of the project proposals. In this phase we identify the places around
which the project hypothesis to be conducted to enhance the identity resources are focused and
the relative interventions. The products of this phase are a suitable system of symbols which
represent the project activities and the construction of the complex map for the identity project.
This map is the last step in the planning process, where the information contained in the
complex map of analysis, after being filtered and transformed into resources, gives rise to
proposals for the construction and enhancement of a sustainable place identity (Sepe, 2013).
The method has been experimented in urban sites in Europe - Barcelona, Helsinki, London,
Berlin, Lisbon, Paris, Wien, Rome -, Asia - Kobe, Beijing, Xian -, and USA - Boston, San
Francisco, Los Angeles - (Sepe, 2010; 2006b; 2009). The main users targeted by the method are
urban designers and planners, and administrators, while a simplified form of the complex maps
is designed for local, citizens, place users and visitors.
1656

As regards administrators and city planners, PlaceMaker enables them to understand the
potentials and problems relating to any given place, and how the place itself is perceived by its
users and residents. This flexible method may be used for different analysis and design
purposes, such as: to redefine the identity and image of a place or a public space (e.g. historical
identity, commercial identity, identity following post-seismic reconstruction etc…), to assess -
and then design - the compatibility of any activity with its identity or again, if the aim is to
restore traditional businesses, to gauge whether such recovery is still in line with current
demands (e.g. in case of urban regeneration process). Thus, the data contained in the complex
maps may be used to create active indices and reference parameters for gauging project
sustainability, such as quality of life or pollution thresholds, or sustainability of identity,
through assessment of the elements making up urban identity from the viewpoint of
sustainability.
As to the citizens, PlaceMaker will enable them to garner a deeper understanding of their
city’s identity, feel stronger ties to it, hence protect and safeguard it or play a proactive role by
proposing improvements to administrators or participating in planning choices.
Lastly, tourists and place users will find the map a tool providing an insight into the city and
its public spaces that goes beyond mere identification of major landmarks and captures the
complexity of a place identity, including its tangible and intangible elements, both permanent
and temporary.
In order to study the urban identity of sites and identify new elements and places, the areas
selected for the experiments and which were used for the 12 principles construction are mostly
of historical importance and at all events highly representative of the city and of its
transformations, alterations and redesign themes.

12 principles for place identity enhancement

The case studies gave rise to 12 principles for place identity enhancement, created from a
reasoned set of blueprints for the various experiments carried out using the PlaceMaker method
(Gehl, 2010; Jones, Marshall, Boujenko, 2008; Sepe, 2012).
1. Identity resources of a place have to be protected and enhanced so as to give the place in
question a distinctive character.
In order to counter the standardization of places which tends to make sites increasingly
similar to one another, it becomes ever more necessary to protect identity resources. A site
should have elements which make it unique and recognizable. In order to be sustainable, an
urban project must be integrated with the identity of places.
2. Place identity has to be determined with ad hoc methods.
Place identity is a complex concept that requires identification of the various factors and
elements which make up a place. There are many such elements forming place identity,
increasingly compromised by the acceleration of urban change and globalization. In order to
make identification as thorough as possible, ad hoc methods have to be used both to detect such
complexity and specify guidelines for design.
3. Attention to context is to be understood from a social, environmental and urban
perspective.
The context of a place has characteristics not only related to its architecture, urban form and
culture, but also to the people who live there, and its environment, understood as natural
resources. For sustainability in its broadest sense, respect of all these components is required.
4. The maintenance of buildings, roads and public spaces should be programmed.
Roads and public spaces have to be maintained in the same way as buildings. Programmed
maintenance should be performed periodically in order to ensure constant quality of public
spaces as well as buildings within.
5. Places should perform functions which do not cause intensive use that can damage site
quality.
 1657

Monofunctional uses can cause damage to place identity. An example of this is the case of
pedestrian thoroughfares of historical importance, used only for business. Combined uses of
places should be aimed for, provided they do not compromise place identity.
6. Local businesses should be enhanced.
The intensive use of sites by mass tourism leads to businesses that result in rapid
consumption of places at the expense of their culture. It is instead necessary to promote local
businesses to ensure residents put down roots where they live.
7. Users of a site should be questioned about place identity during both the survey and
design phases, taking different needs into account.
Site users, the prime recipients of urban transformation projects, should be interviewed at
various stages in the transformation process of an area, with particular attention to the identity
of the place in question. The project will thus be more likely to succeed since various needs will
have been taken into consideration.
8. Place identity should be monitored periodically.
Given the great acceleration of the rate of urban change, it is important that place identity be
periodically monitored in order to understand evolution and change in time and prevent identity
being compromised.
9. Vehicle use in areas with heavy pedestrian throughput should be avoided or slowed down.
In emblematic thoroughfares, public spaces and historical centres the use of private vehicles
is an annoyance factor. In this respect, in such places vehicle speed should be slowed down with
appropriate traffic calming measures, or private vehicles should be banned altogether. The use
of bicycles and dedicated lanes should where possible be encouraged.
10. The safety of users is paramount.
The users of streets and public spaces in general need to be protected. In this respect,
projects should ensure safety both as regards possible collisions with vehicles, with appropriate
separation between the different types of flows, and as regards possible criminal acts,
encouraging mixed uses of the places in question during the different times of the day.
11. Proper enjoyment of the physical characteristics and natural beauty of the place should
be considered a priority.
We need to create places which foster the enjoyment of the elements that make up the
history and culture of the place through projects which stimulate knowledge and sustainable
use. By the same token, it is necessary to promote the enjoyment of all natural resources which
are part of that place.
12. Respect for place identity should be considered a sine qua non within the framework of a
project’s quality requirements.
Respect for place identity lends quality to a project. Place identity should thus become an
essential aspect of urban planning tools so that it becomes a fundamental requisite for project
sustainability.

The charter of public space

The Charter (Garau, Lancerin, Sepe, 2003), which was adopted - as mentioned in the
introduction - during the II Biennal of Public Space, which was held in Rome in May 2013
(www.biennalespaziopubblico.it), is composed by 6 parts devoted to public space, namely: I.
Definition of Public Space; II. Typologies of Public Space; III. Creation of Public Space; IV.
Management of Public Space; V. Enjoyment of Public Space; VI. Obstacles to the Creation,
Management and Enjoyment of Public Space.
The main criteria this document is based on are that a) it is useful to formulate a clear and
comprehensive definition of public space, b) that public space should be regarded as a public
good, c) that the Charter should contain reasonable and shared principles with regard to the
conception, the design, the realization, the management and the enjoyment.
1658

The principles which were before described were used as a contribution for the creation of
some principles of the Charter, including those which follow.

Definition of Public Space

Public spaces consist of open environments (e.g. streets, sidewalks, squares, gardens, parks) and
in sheltered spaces created without a profit motive and for everyone’s enjoyment (e.g. public
libraries, museums and eco-museums). Both kinds of places, by virtue of possessing a clear
identity, can be defined as “places”.
Public spaces, whenever safeguards of natural or historical beauty allow, must be made
accessible without barriers to the motorial, sensorially and intellectively handicapped.

Typologies of public space

It is opportune to distinguish public spaces in: a) spaces that have a prevalently functional
character; b) spaces that presuppose or favour individual or atomized uses; c) spaces that, by
mixing of functions, form, meaning and especially in the connection between the built/non-
built, have the prevalent role of aggregation and social.

Public spaces:

b) Host activities of the market and make accessible commercial activities in fixed premises,
public venues and other services (collective and not, public and private), in which the socio-
economic dimension of the city is always expressed.
c) Offer precious opportunities for recreation, physical exercise and regeneration for all (parks,
gardens, public sports facilities);
e) Are places of individual and collective memory, in which the identity of the people is
mirrored and finds sustenance, growing in the knowledge that it is part of the community;
g) Are an integral and meaningful part of the urban architecture and landscape, with a
determinant role in the overall image of the city;

Management of Public Space

Reducing private automobile traffic in cities is a primary condition for improving environmental
conditions, enhancing public spaces and making them more liveable.
In terms of the area they cover, streets, squares, sidewalks constitute the overwhelming portion
of the urban space used by the public. It is therefore important for their use to be disciplined to
reconcile the different functions they are to perform, granting priority to pedestrian and non-
motorized mobility.
It is important to adopt policies that encourage the permanence of artisans and neighbourhood
shops, which contribute to the quality of life and to the animation and vivacity of daily-use
public spaces.

V. Enjoyment of Public Spaces

41. All citizens, regardless of their role, are users of public space. All of them have the right to
access and enjoy it in complete freedom, within the rules of civic coexistence. In cities ever
more complex and diverse, this requires democratic processes, dialogue and regard for diversity.
44. The enjoyment of public space is a fundamental ingredient for determining and applying
indicators of the quality of public space, to be employed throughout the entire creation-
management-enjoyment cycle.

VI. Constraints on the Creation, Management and Enjoyment of Good Public Spaces
 1659

48. The following can be considered constraints on the creation, management and enjoyment of
good public spaces:
a. The commoditisation of urban sociality (such as the proliferation of specialized facilities for
shopping and leisure, private sports facilities, etc.);

Conclusion

The paper presented the 12 principles for place identity enhancement, which were created from
a reasoned set of blueprints for the various experiments carried out using PlaceMaker method
for the analysis and design of the contemporary urban landscape. The PlaceMaker method
derived from the need to identify the elements and places that are the components of
contemporary identity, many of which do not figure in traditional cartography, and to identify
principles for their planning and enhancement. The flexibility of the PlaceMaker method
enables it to be used in widely varying contexts and for a range of objectives. The investigation
protocol can serve as a guide to be adapted and reinforced at some points, according to the
characteristics of the place and the intended purposes.
The innovative aspect of this method consists, on one hand, in the integration of different
modalities and instruments for obtaining the information required to render objective and
measurable even those elements which are subjective and ephemeral, and on the other hand in
exploiting the complexity of the data obtained to construct the planning guidelines.
Accordingly, the purpose of the 12 principles is to provide urban planning guidelines for the
construction and enhancement of sustainable place identity. The concept of identity is
interpreted in line with the definition of Kevin Lynch who refers this concept to the set of
characteristics which make a place unique and recognizable.
Although the concept is intended as a set of characteristics in a positive sense, it is also
possible that these features are not sustainable or are not consonant with the history and culture
of the place itself. Indeed, the set of characteristics may consist, for example, of the shops
whose furniture disfigures the ground floors of buildings and prevents appreciation of an urban
thoroughfare, but which make that location recognizable. A further example might be the set of
elements in a public space which makes that place distinctive but which people in that
neighbourhood do not use since it fails to give them a sense of belonging.
The 12 principles aim to provide a check list which a project has to satisfy in order to
enhance the identity of the place in question, making sure, however, that place identity is
sustainable and is not used for the sole purpose of rapid consumption of intangible heritage. The
principles should not be considered static, but dynamic, in keeping with the increasingly rapid
rates of change in a place that continually lead to expanding the scope of the concept. These
principles in their present form may thus be constantly updated to allow not only for changes in
the contemporary city but also for new procedures and requirements in site design.
The principles were used as a contribution for the creation of some principles of the Charter
of Public Space which were described in the Charter section of this paper. The whole Charter is
composed by 50 principles. The Charter is now in course of further development and
transformation in a Global Public Space Toolkit by Un-Habitat and INU, the Italian Planning
Urban Planning Institute.
The paper, with the description of both principles, had the final aim to demonstrate the
importance of the use of scientific approach to the creation of urban design guidance. Public
spaces are a topic which is increasingly assuming a new important role in contemporary city and
many design codes are arising accordingly. It is important approaching it with both care and
rigorous method in order to obtain suitable and sustainable results able to tackle at the same
time the challenges offered by globalization and different kinds of crisis.
1660

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 1661

Density, urban form and quality of life

Charlotte Baurin1, Guillaume Raymondon1, Igor Andersen2, Sara Dias2

1
Région Morges, townships ‘association, Switzerland, Vaud,
2
Urbaplan, Lausanne, Switzerland. E-mails: [email protected],
[email protected], [email protected], [email protected].

Abstract. Within the political context of Switzerland, the contemporary debate on urban morphology has
to become central to the implantation of state-wide policy that focuses on the limitation of urban sprawl.
This is particularly emphasised because the legal framework focuses primarily on landscape protection
rather than on urban development strategy. In fact, if urban sprawl has been a real threat for
Switzerland’s small territory and attractive natural landscape since the 80’s (DFI, 2009), the corollary
urban densification within already urbanised areas is threatened by a rejection by the citizens, through
legal referendums, primarily triggered by an misunderstanding of the morphological consequences of
density targets. In particular, citizens frequently overlap “densification” with “towers”. A central
challenge to the public planners of the township’s association of Morges is then to establish a public
communication strategy on the importance of the densification of urban cores, focusing in particular on
the relation between density, urban morphology and urban quality. In collaboration with a private
consultant office, a comparative analysis on density, urban form and quality of life relying on local case
studies has been made, completed with numerous participatory actions aimed at shifting the focus from
legal density targets to a shared discussion and debate on the qualitative attributes of neighbourhoods.
Local workshops, exhibitions, a website, a booklet and local newspapers publications are among the
supports of this communication campaign for decoding the quality and versatility of swiss urban forms.
Once the foundation has been laid, we expect to achieve a horizontal dialogue with citizens and
developers about the quality of their neighbourhoods in a day-to-day basis and avoiding density numbers
and misperceptions. Our practical experience, methodology and results achieved so far with this process
are described as well as our ambitions on how the project can evolve and constitute a bridge between
theoretical and participatory urban morphology research.

Key Words: density; public participation; quality of life; urban form; urban practice.

Density, Urban Form and quality of Life

As it has been highlighted by the recent modification of the federal law on land use planning
(federal vote of March 3, 2013), densification has been for many years one of the main
objectives of the land use planning policies in Switzerland. Formalized as a constitutional
principle since 1969, the concept of densification has since then progressively been
implemented in the many laws and processes regulating land use.
Being one of the pillars of the federal policy on agglomerations, it has served as one of the
guiding principles of the Lausanne-Morges Agglomeration Comprehensive Plan (PALM),
within which Region Morges (RM) is one of the districts. Indeed, within the urban growth
boundary that has been defined through the PALM, a minimal density of 100 hab. or empl./ha
(residents+jobs/ha), equivalent to an FAR of 0,625, has been defined for all future planning.
That minimal density is raised to 200 residents+jobs/ha, or a FAR of 1,25, within the
boundaries of the strategic areas of the plan.
However, despite having been accepted by the majority of Swiss citizens, mainly on the
grounds of protecting the landscape, densification is not well understood, and even fought at the
local level: diminishing quality of life, destruction of the last remaining city open spaces,
increase of pollution, land speculation, or abandonment of the suburban ideal of the countryside
villa, the concentration on the development within the perimeter of the agglomerations, heavily
1662

promoted at the federal and state level, has been made difficult to implement because of regular
opposition by local stakeholders groups and citizens.
It is then critical to the success of the planning policies that the notion of densification is well
understood if one wants to curb the lack of housing availability, and to manage the population
growth in Switzerland while implementing the overarching goals of protecting the landscape
and managing resources. This is particularly true in Switzerland, where a unique participatory
democratic process allows the population to participate directly to the public legal and
regulatory process, and in particular on matters of urban planning and design, through the ability
to organize referendums. Within the perimeter of the PALM, many projects have suffered from
a lack of understanding of basic notions regarding density, in particular as it had a tendency to
associate a specific urban form to density targets, or to associate the debate on density with a
debate on highrise buildings. That confusing and relatively sterile debate had the corollary effect
that the themes of urban quality and experience have singularly been missing from the
conversation. Thankfully, the notion that density is necessarily associated with a loss of quality
or with specific urban forms is misguided, and quite to the opposite, densification can be a
powerful tool to increase the quality of urban life and experience.
Through a series of examples and a review of the basic planning literature, Region Morges
aimed to show through a carefully managed public outreach program that densification is not
only a necessity but also an opportunity to debate on the multiple environmental and urban
qualities that can be achieved at the 200 residents+jobs/ha target that has been defined at the
regulatory level.

What would Region Morges have become if…

The first action of Region Morges was to create powerful images to create surprise, interest and
discussion with the population. It was also a way to highlight the correlation between landscape
protection, one of the primary goals of the popular vote of March 3, 2013, and its counterpart,
the densification of the urban centers. Different development scenarios for the Region Morges
have been devised in order to be compared to the current situation:
The first scenario illustrates what the Region could have become if the current population
would have been accommodated in a typical suburban sprawl development pattern (single-use
residential areas, and office parks along the highway exits) ;
The second scenario illustrates what the Region could have looked like if the current
population would have been accommodated in a typical traditional urban pattern, as it can be
seen in the historic core of the city of Morges (FAR 3): a contiguous and mixed-use urban
pattern, organised along narrow streets, with a typical building height of 3,5 stories.
Extremely realistic city maps were drawn to illustrate each of the scenarios. They were
posted on the website of Region Morges, and pubished in the local press to announce an
exhibition on density and quality of life.
Apart from the "shock" generated by the comparison of the illustrative plans, the results of
this exercise where also quite telling. The built environment of the Region Morges occupies
today 925 ha. However, if at the beginning of the century, the logic of dense urban development
had continued, the built environment would only span on 7 times less space, which would mean
that a very significant area would have been preserved from urban development, and could have
been used for leisure, recreation or more conservation and agricultural production. If instead we
all chose to live in villas, we would be dealing with and area increase of 60%. The current
situation is therefore much closer to the suburban model than to the traditionnal pattern of the
city of Morges.
 1663

Figure 1. Urban footprint of Region Morges. To the left, the current situation, in the
centre, the first scenario (suburban pattern), and to the right, the second scenario
(traditional urban pattern).

Why should we densify?

Once the discussion had started, it was necessary to formalize with more specific arguments
what were the planning benefits of densification. Densification is seen today as a necessity to
preserve the landscape and natural resources, but the corollary densification of the urban cores,
contrary to the popular belief, can also benefit from the resulting intensification.

Preserving the environment and the landscape: a well understood concept

The popular vote for the new federal law on land use planning was a clear sign that the Swiss
people wanted to protect the landscape. It was however necessary to explain is more formal
terms why it would be so.

Landscape under stress

The landscape is a fundamental element of the identity of a place or region. Including both
"natural" components such as the topography and subtle articulation of wooded area, rivers and
agricultural components, and "historic" and cultural components such as old farms, villages or
cities, the landscape of a region shapes its inhabitants who are very sensitive to the preservation
of its characteristics.
Urban sprawl, i.e. the dissemination of buildings over a wide area, causes significant land
consumption for the construction of housing and infrastructure at the expense of natural,
agricultural and viticultural areas. This rapid transformation of the landscape erases the legacy
of the past and fundamentally negates the perception of the landscape by the inhabitants of the
area.
Although primarily an emotional concept, the landscape has a great influence on the
individual and collective perception of quality of life. It is therefore necessary to take it into
account in order to preserve the area's identity .

Biodiversity under stress

One of the leading causes of biodiversity loss comes from the fragmentation of natural habitats,
i.e. interruptions between connected ecosystems. Biodiversity is important to humans because it
1664

guarantees the resilience of our environment. The more animals and plants living in the same
environment are numerous and diverse, the more they will be able to withstand external events
such as pollution, temperature change or natural disasters. Less diverse environment, once under
extreme situations, degrade very quickly and recover a balanced state only after many years.
The construction of a dispersed urban pattern requires the construction of an extensive road
infrastructure that often consists of an insurmountable barrier for most species. Subsystems that
once evolved in synergy now find themselves completely dissociated. They become favorable to
only a small number of specifically adapted plants and animals while most of the others will
disappear gradually. The construction of a dispersed urban habitat is one of the key factors
causing the general impoverishment of biodiversity.

Figure 2. Landscape fragmentation and species probability of survival. Transportation

networks cause an increasing partition of the large biodiversity reserves (source : Figure
modified by Jaeger and Holderegger, 2005/ OFS).

Figure 3. Transportation networks decrease the continuity of biodiversity networks.

Land use conflicts

Historically, agriculture was the key factor that enabled the development of cities. The fields on
the outskirts of the city produced foodstuffs needed to feed the urban population. Even today,
any agglomeration automatically require some agricultural land to feed its population. Although
today, due to the phenomenon of globalization, the Swiss cities are more dependent on foreign
goods for their livelihood, local agriculture is nonetheless highly significant both for its
production of local goods, and to guarantee the long term maintenance of natural areas.
Causing a decrease in available agricultural land, urban sprawl reduces the viability of farms
and thus contributes to the progressive dismantling of an essential profession, both for the
survival of cities and for the maintenance of the environmental framework.
 1665

Figure 4. Land use changes in Switzerland (regions of Grisons and Tessin non included)
(source: OFS).

Infrastructure costs and mobility

By encouraging the use of private vehicles to meet the mobility needs, a more dispersed habitat
causes an increase of cars on the roads, which leads to congestion and air pollution in and
around the agglomerations .
When the housing units are highly scattered, the establishment of an attractive and efficient
network of public transport is indeed not possible. Because of that, the only alternative to get to
work or to carry out any activity is to use the individual car, thereby increasing the number of
vehicles on the road, kilometers traveled and air pollution.

Densification to improve public transportation

By encouraging the use of private vehicles to meet the mobility needs, a more dispersed habitat
causes an increase of cars on the roads, which leads to congestion and air pollution in and
around the agglomerations .
When the housing units are highly scattered, the establishment of an attractive and efficient
network of public transport is indeed not possible. Because of that, the only alternative to get to
work or to carry out any activity is to use the individual car, thereby increasing the number of
vehicles on the road, kilometers traveled and air pollution.

Costs optimization

In addition to the environmental problems it generates, urban sprawl requires the construction of
a large transportation and infrastructure network to connect all habitations. By limiting urban
sprawl, densification reduces the cost of construction and maintenance of such networks for
both public authorities and individuals.
If the democratization of the automobile and the improvement of transportation networks
have fundamentally changed the way of life since the beginning of the century by reducing the
time required for travel, it has also allowed to expand the settlements further and further away
from the workplace, allowing to benefit from a certain quality of life, or from advantageous
fiscal conditions, in the countryside while mantainig his workplace in large urban centers.
1666

This pattern generates nevertheless many problems as the expansion, construction and
maintenance of kilometers of roads, pipelines or electric network needed to connect the most
remote hamlets weight increasingly on finances public authorities. The latter, in high demand in
many areas such as health, social or education, often have no other choice but to reduce their
benefits or to borrow at the expense of future generations.

Figure 5. Long-term marginal costs of different urban developpment forms (source :

ECOPLAN, ODT).

Figure 6. Average costs of infrastructure of different urban forms (source : ECOPLAN

ODT)

Mobility is, like telecommunications, one of the foundations of our current ways of life.
Every day we go through dozens, hundreds of kilometers to get us on our workplace, our leisure
activities, to visit friends, to discover new places or even for the sake of travel. The feeling of
freedom that provides the ability to move without being limited by the distance is undeniably an
important element of quality of life. But whatever the system of transport, mobility also has both
financial and time implications.
Suburban sprawl, where most of the population lives far from his workplace every day,
generates important commuting costs, both in terms of car ownership, and in terms of time spent
in traffic, that weigh heavily on the household budget. In addition to the visible costs such as the
costs necessary for the construction and maintenance of infrastructure or for fuel used during
travel, road transport also generate many nuisances that result in hidden costs to the community.
Road accidents, damage to health due to pollution and environmental damage are some
examples of costs directly related to the transportation system and supported by public finances.
Each year these nuisances generate several billion francs in externalized costs borne by society.
 1667

Figure 7. External costs of road and rail transportation in 2009 (source : ARE)

Density is not contradictory to quality of life

Finally, the most widthspread misconception remains the supposed antinomy between density
and quality of life. To the opporsite, Region Morges wished to demonstrate that the
densification was a unique way to fulfill the diversity of lifestyles and expectations of the
population for their housing choices.
By limiting distances and offering a diverse and efficient transportation system, densification
allows to freely choose the most appropriate transportation mode according to its needs, as well
as an easy access to a wide variety of goods and services. It thus promotes the autonomy and
independence of people who do not have a motor vehicle and offer a choice to everyone.

A lack of transportation choices

Mobility needs in the periphery make the acquisition, maintenance and use of a private vehicle
almost indispensable. Indeed, a low density urban environment severely limits the opportunities
to build a network of efficient public transport, and the relatively large distances between the
points interests discourage the biking or the walking patterns.

A lack of local commercial or services offering

Suburban developments makes it hard for small businesses local services to survive. As most
potential customers must necessarily drive to get to shops because of long distances, they
generally prefer to go directly to larger shopping centers, destroying any chance of survival of a
more diverse commercial ecosystem. The range of choices becomes monocultural and of
average quality.

A lack of cultural and public amenities

Access to services and public amenities such as schools, nurseries, postal services, playgrounds,
sports facilities, hospitals, theaters and cinemas most often requires, due to distance, to dispose
of a motorized vehicle. This configuration limits the autonomy of people do not have a vehicle,
like children, adolescents and older people in particular.
1668

Figure 8. Average distance to the nearest local service in 2001 (source : OFS, 2006 –
Services to the population : accessibility 1998-2001)

Density and urban forms

These basic clarifications on the concept of density helped to initiate a shift in the debate on
more specific subjects than the usual discussion on the supposed mertits of particular FAR or
human densities, to initiate a more productive conversation on the qualities of particular
neighborhoods.
The densification targets that have been defined in the comprehensive planning tools for
Region Morges will in fact leave a very wide choice as to the form of neighborhoods to achieve.
Many examples from Morges Region demonstrate the possibility of relatively dense
neighborhoods, perfectly in line with the density targets, that are recoginzed as highly
qualitative by the inhabitants of the region.

Where and how will we densify?

Identification of target zones for densification: the “compact perimeter” and the “strategic sites”

In order to promote the densification process, the Lausanne-Morges Agglomeration

Comprehensive Plan (PALM) has targeted the excpected population growth of the region within
the "compact perimeter", and area consisting of 26 municipalities including, within Region
Morges, the municipalities of Denges, Echichens, Echandens Lonay, Lully, Morges, and
Préverenges Tolochenaz.
The objective is to accomodate, within this perimeter, 69,000 new residents and 43,000
potential new jobs by 2030. This means that the "compact perimeter" will welcome 83% of new
residents and 94% of new jobs of the whole agglomeration. Within this perimeter, some areas
with major strengths such as good accessibility by public transport, have been identified as
"strategic development sites". Because of their many advantages, strategic sites are considered a
priority for the densification.
Region Morges region includes two strategic sites:
- The site H1 that spans on the municipalities of Denges, Lonay, Morges et Préverenges;
- The site H2 that spans on the municipalities of Morges et Tolochenaz.
By themselves, these two "strategic sites" have sufficient potential to accommodate between
10,800 and 12,200 people and jobs.

Density target

The legally required density targets are measured in terms of people and jobs per hectare
(habitants+jobs/h). For simplification, it considers that a person who works at a place generates
 1669

the same travel needs, and therefore the same road infrastructure and public transport network,
than a resident.
Minimum densities required are based on some typical densities observed today in the Region:
-100 residents jobs per hectare (residents+jobs/ha) within the "compact perimeter", which
corresponds today to zones of low to medium density;
-200 residents jobs per hectare (residents+jobs/ha) within the "strategic sites", which
corresponds today to zones of medium to high density;
The objectives are thus to promote a low to medium density within the compact perimeter and a
greater density within the strategic development sites.

Figure 9. Compact perimeter and strategic sites of Region Morges.

Analysis of 25 existing urban forms

The legally required density targets defined by the PALM only marginally restrict the choice of
neighborhood shape and form. Indeed, of the 25 urban forms analyzed:
- Only 6 do not meet the minimal density targets (less than 100 /ha)
- 12 are dense enough to meet the minimal requirements of the "compact perimeter" (between
100 and 200 residents+jobs/ha)
- 7 are dense enough to meet the minimal requirements of the "strategic sites (200
residents+jobs/ha and above)
Thus, contrary to a common public complaint, the density targets of the PALM do not
necessarily equate to something that is foreign to what already exists within the existing built
environment.
In other words, even if these are only examples, they illustrate the wide range allowed by the
density targets, both in the neighborhood patterns, and in terms of building heights.

Relationship between density and building height

A higher density does not necessarily mean building towers! Among the seven examples with
the highest density, the average number of stories varies significantly (between 3.4 and 10.7
floors). Also, a low density does not necessarily mean more green spaces.
1670

Figure 10. Twelve urban blocks reaching the target density for the “compact perimeter”.

Figure 11. Average number of floors by urban block and density (residents+jobs/ha).

Figure 12. Several possibilities of urban typologies with the target of 200 residents+jobs
/ha.
 1671

Relationship between density and quality of life

The density does not necessarily impact on the quality of life! Other factors linked with the
climate, or the spatial or personal understanding of the environment play a more important role
in the perception of quality.

Quality of life within an urban environment

Although the perception of a neighborhood is unique to each individual, planning has an

extremely important role for the establishment of the framework conditions affecting the quality
of life.

What is quality of life?

The quality of life is undeniably a subjective notion. It depends heavily on personal and cultural
representations of each individual, their history and their relationship with their surroundings.
However, because of the direct impact on the shaping of the territory, urban planning has a
structuring effect that strongly influences our perception of our environment. A reflection on the
multiple ways of percieving urban quality therefore seems essential to enable the realization of
favorable developments, not as a dogmatic pursuit of goals to align and standardize behavior,
but rather to understand the expression of the diversity of lifestyles in contemporary society.
Through an understanding of the different activities that we practice daily in the city, and by
structuring the issues at stake at the neighborhood and at the regional level, urban planning and
design work helps to promote a qualitative densification for the benefit of the entire population.
Some of the key categories allowing an understanding of the neighborhood qualities are
described below.

Figure 13. Exemple of quality analysis of a high density city block.

1672

Consider multiple uses of the public spaces

In a dense environment, a wide variety of activities can potentially happen in the public spaces
and should be taken into account when defining the characteristics of these spaces.
Public spaces, in contrast to the private areas, must offer every individual an opportunity to
make its own activities without encroaching on the activities of others. Depending on the
specific objectives of the neighborhood development, it will be necessary to consider the
various possible uses and to integrate them into the space design.
A street, for example, should not be just considered as an axis of movement, but also as a living
space where a number of activities can happen. Depending on its location and its relationship
with adjacent neighborhoods, a street may be dedicated mainly to vehicles, or instead multiple
uses such as walking, shopping, meeting, relaxation or to host events.

Adapt design to environmental conditions

Access to sunlight contributes greatly to our quality of life, which does not prevent us to enjoy
some shade during the summer months. Whether wind, rain, temperature, or noise, the built and
natural environment may alternatively provide a shelter or a welcome release to take advantage
of climatic and seasonal conditions. The inclusion of these criteria in the process of
development can result in the creation of environments that are comfortable in all seasons and
that will be naturally welcoming to public uses.

Care for the transitions between spaces

The proximity between private and public spaces, between spaces dedicated to relaxation and
activity, or between spaces dedicated to circulation and playground areas, can be a source of
many conflicts that must be managed by more or less rigid urban transitions.
Although often considered as a default solution, strict separation such as walls, car parks or
hedges are not always best suited. They are indeed a response that prevents any opportunity for
dialogue and relationship to happen between the different areas constitutive of the urban realm.

Encourage local services and amenities

The development of a complex and differentiated society like ours offers the opportunity to
enjoy a multitude of goods and services. The possibility of having, near his house, a playground,
a nursery, a school or a grocery store, can be extremely convenient for residents. Other types of
activities, such as specialty shops, stadiums, theaters or other large infrastructure should instead
be located close to the urban centers to ensure access for all residents.

Facilitate the permeability of neighbourhoods and the freedom of movement

The ability to easily navigate in a dense environment is fundamental to preserving the feeling of
freedom. Pedestrian paths and bike should be part of all built environments as they help to
promote a public perception of space. The creation of "permeable" neighborhoods, in the sense
that they can easily be passed through on foot or bike, is important to promote a high quality of
life for both residents and for bystanders.
On the opposite, because of the pollution they generate, motor vehicles should be kept away
from some residential areas and concentrated on main thoroughfares.

Remember the visual delight

The visual quality of a building, a neighborhood or a natural landscape is a matter of personal

perception. However, urban planning and design can help create a delightful environment, by
 1673

taking into account different aspects, such as the harmony of the architectural composition or
the visual transitions between spaces, or the staging of landscape vistas.
The landscape vistas in particular, because of the specific views they frame, reinforce the sense
of belonging to the region in which we live and work, while the architectural composition and
character defines the atmosphere of a neighborhood and promotes the emergence of a certain
mindset.

Confrontation of the analysis -dialog with the local residents and population

To complete this analysis of the quality of life in urban areas, it was also necessary to confront
this technical approach to the sensible experience of the residents of the area and of the studied
neighborhoods.

An open discussion with the residents

In partnership with the local press during two months, one neighborhood a week was put "under
the microscope" in an dedicated article. These articles synthesized the analysis that had been
made by Regin Morges and its consultant Urbaplan, and completed it with interviews of actual
residents. The selected neighborhoods were all representative of a density equal to or above the
target density of the regional comprehensive plan (PLAM), yet none of remarks of the
inhabitants were about the height or the percieved density of buildings. All were talking about
the proximity to public transport, shops, entertainment, views, public spaces, vegetation, etc.
These interviews confirmed that the analysis of neighborhoods using a qualitative approach was
more appropriate and closer to what the residents felt than a debate on abstract figures and
density ratios. In addition, we found that the opinion of the inhabitants were generally very close
to the sensible appreciation of the neighborhoods made by the professionals, regardless of the
density.

The general public reactions

The last step of the process concluded with a public exhibition on "density and quality of life" in
Region Morges. In addition to the three land use scenarios, and the description of the planning
advantages of density from a public policy point of view, six contrasting density neighborhoods
were presented, illustrating various shapes and densities:
- One single-family villas neighborhood in Lonay, with one-storey high buildings surrounded
by a private garden. Average density: 36 residents+jobs /ha.
- One neighborhood composed of six single-standing buildings, 3 storey-high with attic,
scattered on a vast open and landscaped garden. Located in St Prex. Average density: 157
residents+jobs /ha
- The traditional village center of Tolochenaz. Comprised of 2,5 storey-high contiguous
buildings lined up along a central narrow street. Average density: 161 residents+jobs /ha
- The "Uttins" neighborhood in Préverenges, with a density of 210 residents+jobs /ha. Based
on a village structure, it is characterized by buildings of 3 stories + attic. Organized around a
large communal space, it is generously landscaped. The architecture is characterized by
fairly homogeneous buildings, articulated through changes of shapes and opening of vistas
towards the surrounding agricultural area.
- The "Pre-Maudry" neighborhood in Morges, with a density of 227 residents+jobs /ha. Given
the height of buildings (8 floors) this density is interestingly low. This is due to the
generosity of the large outdoor spaces open to the farmland. The architecture is very simple
and the landscape echoes the great scenery surrounding the neighborhood: lake view and
farmland.
- The historic center of Morges, the most dense area of Region Morges at 475 residents+jobs
/ha. The buildings are 3 floors + attic and are contiguously aligned along narrow streets. The
1674

larger shopping street that crosses the middle of the neighborhood, the immediate proximity
of the banks of the lake and of a large sports park make this an extremely pleasant
neighborhood.
Visitors were invited to comment on neighborhoods with post-it. None of the comments
showed a lack of appreciation of the denser neighborhoods. Quite to the contrary, the most
positive opinions have often been given on the densest neighborhoods: the Uttins neighborhood
and the historic center of Morges, both being praised for their friendly atmosphere, close to
shops and services and the size of communal spaces. Onthe other end, the least dense
neighborhood left an impression of sadness.
If it is not possible to conclude at this stage that denser neighborhoods are the most popular,
it has nevertheless been shown that a shifting of the debate from the hard numbers of density, to
the qualitative elements of a neighborhood while explaining in simple terms theoverarching
goals of the urban densification policy, allows a much more nuanced and positive debate on the
subject.

Figure 14. Six city blocks chosen for quality analysis and residents interview.

References

Bader, A., Hürzeler, C. (2012) ‘Coûts externs 2005-2009. Calcul des coûts externs des transports routier
et ferroviaire en Suisse’, l’Office fédéral du développement territorial ARE, Berne.
Département fédéral de l’environnement, des transports, de l’énergie et de la communication DETEC
(2003) ‘Faits et elements clés du développement territorial’, Dossier n°78. Office fédéral du
développement territorial ARE, Berne.
Département fédéral de l’environnement, des transports, de l’énergie et de la communication DETEC
(2000) ‘Les coûts des infrastructures augmentent avec la dispersion des constructions’, Dossier n°4.
Office fédéral du développement territorial ARE, Berne.
Département fédéral de justice et police DFJP (2000) ‘La surface d’habitat et d’infrastructure de la Suisse
continue de s’accroître d’un mètre carré par seconde’, Dossier n°1. Office fédéral du développement
territorial ARE, Berne.
Département fédéral de l’intérieur DFI (2011) ‘Le compte des transports – Année 2005’, Office fédéral de
la statistique OFS, Neuchâtel.
Département fédéral de l’intérieur DFI (2009) ‘Statistique suisse de la superficie, Etat et evolution du
paysage en Suisse’, Office fédéral de la statistique OFS - Espace et environnement n° 898-1100,
Neuchâtel.
 1675

Jaeger, J., Bertiller, R., Schwick, C. (2007) ‘Morcellement du paysage en Suisse. Analyse du
morcellement 1885-2002 et implications pour la planification du traffic et l’aménagement du territoire.’,
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l’environnement OFEV, Saint-Gall: 16-18.
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vie dans l’espace urbain’, Office fédéral du développement territorial ARE, Berne.
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l’environnement OFEV, Saint-Gall: 3.
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OFS, Neuchâtel.
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l’environnement OFEV, Berne.
Schnorr, K., Altwegg, D. (2010) ‘Mobilité et transports 2010’, Office fédéral de la statistique OFS -
Espace et environnement n° 1131-1000, Neuchâtel.
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tendances. Bases des principes directeurs Nature et Paysage de l’OFEFP’, Cahier de l’environnement de
l’OFEFP n° 352, Bern
1676

Study on relationship between urban morphology and

policy in China

Caixia Gao, Wowo Ding

School of Architecture and Urban Planning, Nanjing University, Hankou Road 22,
Nanjing 210093, Jiangsu, China. E-mail: [email protected], [email protected]

Abstract. Urban form might be described as the result of numerous shaping processes in varying social
layers at a given place through time, especially from the power of internal and external economic
development and urban policy control. Moreover, urban policy plays very important role particular in
China in terms the proprietorship of the land. Therefore, the morphological description is indicative of
the different academic disciplines that engage in urban morphology, surely should include the urban
policy. Focusing on urban policy in China our project has investigated in urban policy in the State level,
provincial level, city management and the coding of the site. At the same time the research explore the
policies and regulations which impact of urban form generating process and clarify the correlation of
policies and urban forms. Three classifications were made according to the intervention of urban form:
directly affect, indirect impact and no impact. Finally, through cases study this paper demonstrated how
urban policy intervention the physical urban form and the process, which has shown that study reveals
the impact of policies on the specific physical structure of the form, the results has significance for
specification revision of urban policy and urban design.

Key Words: Urban policy, urban morphology, correlation, intervention

Introduction

Urban form might be described as the result of numerous shaping processes in varying social
layers at a given place through time, especially from the power of internal and external
economic development and urban policy control the role of economic power to urban form is
not transferred by people's motivation, but policy guidance is the main factor that people can
directly manipulate the urban construction, moreover urban policy plays very important role
particular in China in terms the proprietorship of the land. Therefore, the morphological
description is indicative of the different academic disciplines that engage in urban morphology,
surely should include the urban policy. In the process of rapid urbanization, China's urban
policy have very important impact to the control of urban physical spatial form, at the same time
of resolving city functions and safety problems, which also affect the generating progress of
urban morphology and bring the urban form issues of blocks integration lower, street interface
chaos, urban space organization disordered and urban fabric blurred, such as urban fabric of
Nanjing is yet chaos, and not as the clear urban fabric of Manhattan (Figure1, Figure2).
So, in this paper, we have investigated in China urban policy in State level, provincial level,
city management and the coding of the site, while through cases study, analyzed the correlation
between urban morphology and the policy regulation of land use, building layout, urban space
and other aspects. This paper demonstrated how urban policy intervention the physical urban
form and the process, which has shown that study reveals the impact of policies on the specific
physical structure of the form, the results has significance for specification revision of urban
policy and urban design.
 1677

Figure1. Aerial map of Nanjing.

Figure 2. Aerial map of Manhattan.

Elements of policy controlling to urban spatial morphology

M.R.G.Conzen considered that the town plan is the complex of three plan elements: streets/
street-system, plots/street-blocks, buildings/their block-plans (M.R.G.Conzen,1960). The
majority of morphological studies have focused on the street network pattern, the plot pattern
and the building pattern or typology (Kropf, 2011), through controlling to urban land use, streets
interface, and buildings layout, the urban policy and regulations can directly or indirectly
influence the quality of urban space and shape urban fabric form, which reflects the urban space
character of street spatial outline, visual variety, and spatial typologies. For example, in
American, the urban development are controlled by using zoning codes and in combination with
other laws, local government have divided the land under their jurisdiction to different plots,
and determined the nature of each plot and the use of conditional permitted mixed-use, while
introducing the idea of urban design, they have determined the controlling indicators of
architecture and environment in aspects of physical form of land development, such as ratio
floor area, ratio of open space, building density, building height and concession, and using
legislation as the legal basis for the control of urban development. zoning codes of American,
from its generation to implementation to present, from the protection of private property rights
to protect public health and safety, which have achieved great results for controlling urban
design and shaping urban morphology, and get promoted in many countries and regions.
(Tongji, 2011) Such as, Manhattan's regular street grid and relentless orthogonal plat of
hundreds of rectangular blocks and the relationship of street and buildings height, and building
1678

out of plot, which is generated by urban codes（Marshall, 2011) . Another, in Hong Kong,
urban land exploration has been controlled by planning control combining with regulatory
controls, through using district plans of legal and non-legal plans, the local government have
divided the land to different use, and mainly controlled to the land exploration intensity by
controlling to ratio floor area, plot coverage, buildings height along the street, open space and
other aspects, which also get great progress and results. (Tongji, 2011) So, urban codes are
important, they can significantly shape the character of our urban areas for better or worse (Ben-
Joseph, 2005). According to urban coding and planning practice of New York, French, Kyoto,
Edinburgh, and other examples, Stephen Marshall summaries that the content of urban codes
mainly focus on regulation of physical components, coded elements and relationships among
them. He proposes the purpose of codes has three broad categories: first is utilitarian purpose,
concerning issues to do with health and safety, second is to do with the nature of the urban
fabric, third is to do with social order ends.（Marshall, 2011) So, we think that policy and
regulations mainly control urban physical space from the elements of composition and
relationships among them (Figure 3).

Figure 3. elements of urban policy controlling to urban spatial morphology.

Relevant research status

In relevant research results of urban spatial form controlling, the experts and scholars mainly
study the control of urban physical spatial form and city planning from the perspective of
history development, geographical context, urban policy and culture heritage. Such as the paper,
'Coding in the French Planning System: From Building Line to Morphological Zoning', mainly
studied three core elements of coding in the French planning system---zoning plan, regulations,
 1679

mechanism for administering building permits in accordance with the plan and regulations, for
exploring the place of coding within the historical development of French planning system and
for examining more recent developments of the system that incorporate typhomorphological
analysis to make the coding more responsive to local and regional character (Kropf, 2011).
Another as the paper, 'How Codes Shaped Development in the United States, and Why They
Should Be Changed', it mainly proposed zoning codes, and proposed that in the United States
almost all development takes place in accordance with zoning codes, but go far beyond
establishing land-use zones to determine how much can be built, where it can be built, and what
form development may take--including building height, placement, and total floor area, in the
majority of jurisdictions these codes are the most effective planning instruments and the zoning
codes define permissible future development for most US communities (Barnett, 2011). Others
papers as: 'the Controlling Urban Code of Enlightenment Scotland', 'Machizukuri and Urban
Codes in Historical and Contemporary Kyoto', 'Coding as 'Bottom-Up' Planning: Developing a
New African Urbanism', and so on. Although these research influence the urban design
decision-taking more or less, the current research has not reached an effective level. (McKean,
2011; Baba, 2011)
In China, the relevant academic research has been rarely, only has few research findings.
Such as the paper, "Prescribing the Ideal City: Building Codes and Planning Principles in
Beijing", interpreted the Chinese building codes in context of design, with a focus on the
relationships between architecture and planning within Beijing's history. It casing in traditional
courtyard house and imperial buildings, casing in Zhou dynasty city planning, Dadu--Great
Captial of Yuan and Forbidden City in the Ming city planning, analyzed the building codes
controlling to building size and total floor area of buildings, and controlling to configurations
and materials and decorations of building components, analyzed traditional planning principles
of streets and city plan pattern. This paper proposed that various studies on Beijing have been
published during the past twenty years across a range of disciplines, but what has not been well
understood is its planning practice from the perspective of codes(Guo, 2011). More further
research finding is the research, 'Nanjing urban morphological study and planning control
policy', mainly study the control path and strategy of planning policy to urban form, from the
buildings dimension, buildings setback distance, separation of buildings, buildings facade and
other ways(Ding, 2007). Other related studies, such as An approach for simulating street spatial
patterns(Ding, Tong, 2011) ； Density, height limitation, and plot pattern: quantitative
description of the residential plots in Nanjing China (Zhang, Ding, 2012); Urban Plot
Characteristics Study: Casing Center District in Nanjing, China (Zhang, Ding, 2012) These
research results have get great progress in controlling and shaping urban space form, but which
have very few in the controlling effectiveness of urban physical spatial form. So, the body of
Chinese codes was large, a systematic study of building codes has not been attempted , and has
yet to be fully researched(Guo, 2011). Just under the inspiration of these research results, we are
writing this paper.

Investigation of relevant urban policy in China

In China, the specialized urban policy and regulations of controlling urban physical space have
no yet, which have some only involved in the related regulations of city planning and
administration, from the perspective of rank permissions, the policy related with urban planning
and administration mainly include in three levels: laws, regulations, rules and standards, we
have completely investigated these urban policy from State level, provincial level, city
management and the coding of the site, in these, about the survey of provincial level regulations
and local city rules, we have investigated the regulations of Jiangsu province and Nanjing which
are related with case analysis of this paper. First, by using the statistical approach, we have
collected policy of city planning and administration, according to the intervention of urban
1680

form, we have made three classifications: directly affect, indirect impact and no impact, and
statistics the policy regulations of every classification (Table 1, Table 2). Second, with method
of mapping (Gauthier, 2006; Ding, 2011), according to the clauses of these relevant regulations
directly and indirectly, we have again made two classifications: mandatory clauses and guidance
clauses, so which have constituted four quadrants of mapping----directly affect and mandatory,
directly affect and guiding , indirect impact and mandatory, indirect impact and guiding (Figure
4).
According to our statistics of policy, as Figure4 and Figure 5 shown, we conclude that:
First, there are two categories in the policy regulations directly related with urban
morphology: the first is Mandatory clauses, which mainly are mandatory provisions of urban
land use, buildings position and relevant quantitative indicators, such as building density, floor
area ratio, ratio of green land, distance between buildings, distance of buildings back road and
river and land boundaries. The second is guiding clauses: which major are guiding regulations
of urban space, such as street interface processing, building height, building facades, green,
advertising and other aspects. But in these policy regulations, which have been lack in the
provisions to plot use nature and exploitation intensity, urban public space, and the area of
building back road boundaries.
The indirectly relevant policy provisions of urban morphology, mainly are the regulations
about urban planning preparation and approval, each construction certificate approval and
issuance, protecting arable land and basic farmland, protecting ecology environment, focusing
on sustainable development, remediation city appearance and harmony with urban
circumstance.(L-IRNUPO-2007,L-NURPO-2012,P-UGMO-2003,P-URPO-2010,P-OAMM-
2010, P-HCTVPO-2010, C-UGO-1992,C-UGPIR-1994, C-IRLAL-1999, C-RWROUP-1999,
C-CAMCDPCT-2011) These indirectly relevant urban policy has also related with city image,
and also could play a certain macro guiding role to urban land use and building positions, but
because of their guiding regulations, and operability no strong, which could not control urban
form and resolve urban quality.
Second, the ratio between the policies amount of affecting urban form and total amount of
city planning policies is 59.6%. In addition According to our statistics to 99 major policies of
affecting urban form, in their policy clauses, the ratio of direct correlation is 18.6%, indirect
impact is 30.2%. From the results, we find that in the urban planning policy of national level,
provincial level and Nanjing city, actually the policy regulations related with urban land use,
building layout and urban space have been more.
Third, in the directly correlation policy clauses, percentage of mandatory clauses is 7.2%,
and ratio of guiding clauses is 11.4%. From this, in China's city planning policy, the mandatory
regulations of directly affecting urban form are little, such as land use scale, controlling
indicators of land exploration intensity, land divisions and indicators of buildings position
determining, which mainly been involved in the policy files of province and local city. And
most clauses regulation related with urban land use and urban space are guiding, which have
mainly been appear in urban policy of three level, especially the national level policy clauses
have been basically all guiding regulations, and in these clauses of national level, about the
provision of rigid indicators, which all be explained to be carried out by combining with urban
planning and management technical regulations.
 1681

Mandatory regulations of affecting to urban spatial morphology

6 rules

Guiding regulations of affecting to urban spatial morphology

4 ordinances 5 rules 5 ordinances
land use: land scale, land nature, land classification, indicators land use: land scale, land nature, land classification, indicators Land use: urban land layout, urban function Land use: urban land layout, urban function zoning and
of land exploration intensity ---22 clauses of land exploration intensity ---13 clauses zoning and urban style----13clauses urban style----7 clauses
building layout----12 clauses building layout----5 clauses Urban space of street interface, building Facades, Urban space of street interface, building Facades, building
Others--3 clauses Others--5 clauses building style----17 clauses style----14 clauses
Advertisement---3 clauses Others—5 clauses Advertisement---6 clauses Others—18 clauses
Nanjing
Jiangsu
5 ordinances 4 rules 8 ordinances
3 rules
land use: land scale, land nature, land classification, indicators Land use: urban land layout, urban function Land use: urban land layout, urban function zoning and
land use: land scale, land nature, land classification, indicators
of land exploration intensity ---11 clauses zoning and urban style----5 clauses urban style----17 clauses
of land exploration intensity ---6 clauses
building layout----2 clauses Urban space of street interface, building Facades, Urban space of street interface, building Facades, building
building layout----3 clauses
Others--12 clauses building style----2 clauses style----19 clauses
Others--6 clauses
Advertisement---6 clauses Others—4 clauses Advertisement---5 clauses Others—51 clauses

State

17 rules and standards 8 ordinances + 10laws 15 rules and standards 10 ordinances

land use: land scale, land nature, land classification, indicators land use: land scale, land nature, land classification, indicators Land use: urban land layout, urban function Land use: urban land layout, urban function zoning and
of land exploration intensity ---38clauses of land exploration intensity ---30 clauses zoning and urban style----12 clauses urban style----46 clauses
building layout----4 clauses building layout----2 clauses Urban space of street interface, building Facades, Urban space of street interface, building Facades, building
Others--30 clauses Others--26 clauses building style----9 clauses style----16 clauses
Advertisement---3 clauses Others—37 clauses Advertisement---4 clauses Others—93 clauses

Urban policy of directly correlation with urban morphology

Urban policy of indirectly correlation with urban morphology
4 rules 3 ordinances 6 rules 4 ordinances
Preparation and approval of urban planning, Preparation and approval of urban planning, protecting arable land and basic farmland, protecting arable land and basic farmland,
approval and issuance of construction certificate, approval and issuance of construction certificate, protecting ecology environment, focusing on protecting ecology environment, focusing on
land owned-ship and others land owned-ship and others sustainable development, remediation city sustainable development, remediation city
----22 clauses ----22 clauses appearance, harmony with circumstance and appearance, harmony with circumstance and
others---52 clauses others---43 clauses
Nanjing
Jiangsu
3 ordinances 1 rules 7 ordinances
Preparation and approval of urban planning, protecting arable land and basic farmland, protecting arable land and basic farmland,
approval and issuance of construction certificate, protecting ecology environment, focusing on protecting ecology environment, focusing on
land owned-ship and others sustainable development, remediation city sustainable development, remediation city
----14 clauses appearance, harmony with circumstance and appearance, harmony with circumstance and
others---14 clauses others---83 clauses

State

9 rules and standards 9 ordinances + 9 laws 18 rules and standards 12 ordinances + 14 laws
Preparation and approval of urban planning, Preparation and approval of urban planning, protecting arable land and basic farmland, protecting arable land and basic farmland,
approval and issuance of construction certificate, approval and issuance of construction certificate, protecting ecology environment, focusing on protecting ecology environment, focusing on
land owned-ship and others land owned-ship and others sustainable development, remediation city sustainable development, remediation city
----38 clauses ----84 clauses appearance, harmony with circumstance and appearance, harmony with circumstance and
others---95 clauses others---225 clauses

Figure 4 mapping of urban policy investigation

Figure 4. Mapping of urban policy investigation.

Figure 5. result of urban policy investigation of China.

1682

Table 1. Urban policy documents amount of urban planning and construction

management

Laws Regulations Rules and Standards

State China 29 29 108

Jiangsu Province Jiangsu 19 9
Local City Nanjing 6 8

Total 29 54 125

The Whole Total 208

Table 2 Urban policy documents amount of affecting urban physical spatial morphology

Laws Regulations Rules and Standards

State China 16 16 60
Jiangsu Province Jiangsu 11 7
Local City Nanjing 6 8
Total 16 33 75

The Whole Total 124

Correlation between urban morphology and regulations of land use

In the policies directly related with urban form in China, the regulations of land use mainly
include in three aspects: the first is mandatory rules of land use scale, land nature, land
classification and compatibility of construction land nature, cultivated land transfer non-
cultivated land, agricultural land transfer to construction land and plots division, for example, in
our policy statistics results of Nanjing city, twenty-two clauses in six rules have these
mandatory provisions (L-NUPO-1990, L-IRNUPO-2007, L-NURPO-2012, P-TR-2011),
although these regulations have rigid requirement to land use, but have not regulations of
quantitative indicators, which all to be pointed out to determine in relevant regulatory detailed
planning and relevant planning conditions. Such as, Nanjing urban and rural planning ordinance
stipulate: 'Construction land should properly and compatible use land in accordance with the
principles of intensively using land. The proper construction scope and compatibility
requirements of urban land use should be clearly specified in the controlling detailed planning
and determined in planning conditions.' (L-NURPO-2012) Which is very probably to lead to
irregular of every construction plot fabric, because each controlling detailed planning has no
uniform policy basis of reference. The second is guiding rules of urban land layout, urban
function zoning. And the third is controlling indicators regulations of land exploration intensity,
such as ratio floor area, buildings density, green ratio and other indicators. In our policy
statistics, six clauses in four local rules have these provisions of indicators, such as the
regulations of 'Buildings layout must comply with relevant planning and management technical
regulations about building density, floor area ratio, distance between buildings, building height,
distance of buildings back roads, rivers and railways' (L-NUPO-1990), 'Urban construction
should be reasonable control of building capacity. The construction projects of providing public
open space for city, could appropriately increase their buildings capacity, and the specific
indicators should refer to relevant technical regulations of urban planning.' (L-IRNUPO-2007),
'provisions of up limits and low limits controlling approach of building density, floor area ratio
and other indicators in residential land, commercial land, and other types of land' 'controlling
 1683

indicators regulations about building base area, building density, floor area ratio and its
calculating' (P-CDPG-2012) .
In addition, about the provisions of plots, in China, only the rules of a few local city of more
developed economies, such as Jiangsu, Guangzhou, Fujian and other provinces, which have the
rules of plots division size and the smallest land unit controlled, but have no provisions about
plots exploration intensity, relationship between plots geometric shapes and buildings, land
subdivision, and other relevant quantitative indicators. While other local city regulations, such
as Ningxia, Gansu, which have not covered related provisions about plots use.
Then, in China, the land exploration intensity through indicators controlling is how to affect
the urban physical spatial morphology, so we have selected 99 building cases in old city of
Nanjing, and statistics breakthrough of up limits requirements of floor area ratio and buildings
density, to analyze its relationship with urban spatial morphology. As Figure 6 shown:

Figure 6. correlation analysis between urban morphology and floor area ratio, buildings
density.

Experiment results: 27 indicators of floor area ratio are exceeded, 12 indicators of building
density exceeded, and the other comply with policy regulation, which shows that floor area and
building density have controlled to the construction amount of land exploration and buildings
capacity, and they are effective measures of controlling urban land construction, so also they
have certain affect to urban spatial form. In addition, the floor area ratio more higher, the
building density is lower, which indicates that the developers comply with the regulation of The
implementing rules of Nanjing urban planning: 'the projects of providing public open space for
the city, may be appropriate to increase their building capacity', except following the indicators
regulation. Thus, although this amount of urban land construction have been controlled, but
building height and floor areas could be exceeded, and could affect urban spatial morphology.

Correlation between urban morphology and regulations of buildings layout

The regulations of building layout mainly include in distance of buildings back roads and river,
distance of buildings back land boundaries, distance between buildings and. Here, we mainly
analyze the impact of buildings retreating road and distance between buildings.

Correlation analysis between urban form and distance between buildings

Now, China's policy regulations related with distance between buildings, which are mainly
involved in the regulation of residential buildings spacing. Mainly in the province and local city
policy, which have the policy regulations of sunshine spacing factor, sunshine spacing
calculation of residential buildings, minimum distance between residential building gables,
1684

minimum distance of layout north and south between residential and non-residential building,
and other minimum distance between non-residential buildings. Another, which also have clear
regulations about buildings distance of low-rise residential, multi-residential and high-rise
residential. (L-IRNUPO-2007,P-TR-2011) These local regulations about sunshine spacing and
sunshine standards, directly refer the national rules, "urban residential area planning and design
specifications" (GB50180), such as Big Chill date not less than two hours, the winter solstice
not less than one hour. Then, the regulation of distance between building is how to affect urban
form, so, in old city and east city of Nanjing, we have selected two residential cases, to compare
between practical residential plan and planning plan of complying with regulations, as Figure 7
shown.
Experiment results: The residential planof complying with policy regulation is almost
consistent with practical plan fabric morphology, and the residential spatial fabric form appears
out neat and clear mechanism features. From this phenomenon, we conclude that these two
residential were built with following the policy regulation of distance between buildings, the
policy provision have controlled to buildings position in residential, and controlled to urban
spatial quality and urban form. However, we have also seen that Ruijin residential of Nanjing,
built in 1985, only have ground parking, which would inevitably affect urban spatial land use
and spatial quality more or less. And Huayang residential of Nanjing, built in 2000, using
underground parking, which has very little interference to urban spatial use and urban form.

Figure 7. correlation analysis between urban form and regulations of distance among
buildings.

Correlation analysis between urban form and buildings back roads

In elements of measuring geometry relationship among the architectural groups, distance is

most important, which directly affects the image and scale of groups space. About the
provisions of distance of buildings back roads, which are clearly defined in the local
 1685

regulations. Case as Nanjing, through investigating urban policy over the past years, we find
that the policy of Nanjing's concession streets first appeared in 1928, from 1928 to now, there
are three transferring stages: 1928 to 1977--no concession and construction along roads line,
1978 to 1987-- unified concession along roads red line, 1995 to 2007--different concession of
different building heights, as shown in Table 3. In these three stages, after analyzing the policy
clauses of past several years in Nanjing, we discover that each rules of buildings back roads has
all some change, although from beginning they all try to solute road traffic and safety issues at
that time, but which affected the cityscape. Because of different regulations of different years,
making different generations buildings standing on the same street, so the urban street interface
has become very complex, which have caused great impact to urban morphology. Here, we
have selected a 946 meters long street from Zhujiang station to Xin jiekou station on Zhongshan
Road of Nanjing, to analyze. As Figure 8 shown:

Figure 8. correlation analysis between urban form and distance of buildings back road.
1686

Table 3. From 1928 to now，statistics of policy rules and cases of buildings back roads in
Nanjing.
First stage (1928- Second stage Third stage
1977) (1978-1987) (1985-2007)
construction along Unified concession along Different concession of different building
roads line roads red line heights

Year 1928-1977 1978 1987 1995 1998 2004 2007

Measures of Implementi Regulation Impleme Impleme Impleme Impleme

retreating house ng rules of s of nting nting nting nting
and relaxing streets Nanjing Nanjing rules of rules of rules of rules of
of Nanjing architectur urban Nanjing Nanjing Nanjing Nanjing
Name of city(1928) es planning urban urban urban urban
Policy rules Buildings rules of manageme and planning planning planning planning
Nanjing(1935) nt manageme ordinanc ordinanc ordinanc ordinanc
Buildings measures(1 nt(1987), e(1995), e(1995), e(1995), e(1995),
management rules 978), No No 24 No 31 No 35 No 37 No 42
of Nanjing(1948) 18

Concession of No concession 2.5meters 1.5 meters 1.5—15 3—25 4—25 4—25

comply with meters meters meters meters
rules
Cases amount 9 4 6 7 14 17 16
of building
Conforming to 8 4 5 5 12 13 13
policy
regulation
Not 1 0 1 2 2 4 3
Conforming to
policy
regulation

Ratio between cases amount of conforming to policy and total statistics cases amount: 82.2%

Experiments results:The present status of Zhongshan Street interface is in accordance with

the policy regulations of buildings retreating roads. In addition, according to our investigation to
73 cases buildings built differently times (Table 3), 82.2% buildings have been in accordance
with the policy regulation of retreating streets. Distance of each different time building
retreating roads is satisfied with the policy regulation at that time, the construction more later,
the distance of buildings retreating roads id larger, and buildings built before 1978 are
construction along the roads. Several buildings built in 2010, such as Kairun Hotel, which
retreating the road is more than 15 meters corresponding with policy regulations.
Although the formation of Nanjing Zhongshan street interface is carried out in accordance
with policy regulation of buildings concession streets, but from the experiment results, we have
seen that the whole Zhongshan street interface shows discontinuous and irregular fabric features
。So, in China, the relevant policy have controlled the buildings position and affected the urban
spatial form, but can't controlled urban streets spatial quality, and its controlling role is
ineffective to urban spatial quality.
Third, reasons of causing these status: Changing of different years policies, and the
regulation of buildings retreating street belongs to enforced clauses, with higher operational,
which made different times buildings standing on a same road, finally forming the status of
street interface irregular. In addition, the larger public buildings built after 2007, have retreated
the roads more larger distance, on the base of complying with regulations. So, except
conforming the regulations of buildings retreating road, they are also complying with other
regulation for concession, such as the rules states: 'Urban construction should be reasonable
control of building capacity. The construction projects of providing public open space for city,
 1687

could appropriately increase their buildings capacity, and the specific indicators should refer to
relevant technical regulations of urban planning.' (L-IRNUPO-2007) , while the developers have
provided public space in their projects construction, they also have get more floors and improve
ratio floor area, and get more economic effect.

Figure 9. Land use in the redline area of buildings back road.

Another, On Zhongshan street, the redline area left by buildings retreating road, also become
a problem, the status chaos (Figure 9), in the red zone, because of the difference ownership
between sidewalks and concession area, the same street space are often divided into discrete
space by paving or other aspects.
In addition, provisions of all kinds of boundaries mainly include in the regulations of roads,
rivers, heritage conservation, green, construction control lines and other boundaries. Such as,
No 7.1 of "Jiangsu controlling detailed planning guidelines" (2012) , has clear controlling
requirements to the position, width, concession distance and protection distance of urban red
lines, yellow lines, blue lines, purple lines and green lines. In national policy regulations, such
as "Urban green line management measures", "Urban blue line management approach", "Urban
yellow line management approach", "Urban purple line management approach", "Historical and
cultural relics protection planning requirements ", and other policies, which also have the
controlling requirements to boundaries of green, rivers, historical and cultural blocks and land
use, but lack of quantitative indicators.

Correlation between urban form and urban space

In urban policy, the regulations about urban space, mainly include in the provisions of urban
spatial organization, urban style and local characteristics, public space, street facades and
buildings height, building style and color, urban design of city center and important functions
plots, outdoor advertising, historical and cultural districts protection, and other aspects. For
example, in our policy investigation of Jiangsu province, nineteen clauses in eight ordinances
1688

are guiding regulations of urban space, and in these regulations, which have been lack of
relevant indicators of controlling urban space. (C-UGO-1992, C-AL-1995,C-URPL-2008, L-
NUPO-1990, L-MONA-1998, L-IRNUPO-2007, L-NURPO-2012, P-UCAESMO-2004, P-
OAMM-2010, P-HCTVPO-2010, C-UAESO-1992). Then, these guiding regulations how to
affect urban physical spatial form, from the aspects of street facades and buildings height,
building facades and advertisement, we mainly analyze their influence to urban form.
First, the analysis of street facades and buildings height, in relevant local policy, which have
the regulations of buildings concession roads according to street width and building height
along streets. Such as the prescribe 'The buildings on both sides of the road which width is
more than 30 meters or less than 30 meters, must retreat road redline corresponding distance
according to buildings height over 24 meters or less than 24 meters (L-IRNUPO-2007). In
accordance with this clause regulation, we have drawn out experimental model of street spatial
interface, finally find, the road more wider and the building more higher, the distance of
building back roads is more larger. So, various types of buildings on both sides of urban roads,
because of their different heights, they retreat roads inconsistent distance, which makes urban
street spatial interface becoming no uniform (Figure 10, Figure11).
Second, the impact analysis of building facades regulations: No 54 of "Implementing rules of
Nanjing urban planning ordinance" states that 'Strictly controlling to the residential construction
on both sides of the major road, and where construction should handle street facades well, shall
not impede the urban landscape.' (L-IRNUPO-2007) Another, No 57 states that 'Prohibited to
set unidirectional retreat floors in north of multi-storey residential and high-rise residential, in
order to meet the building spacing concession requirements.' From these two clauses
regulations, the provision purpose of No 54 is to improve building facades along the street, but
existing two issues: first, lack of the definition limitation of "the major road" , limiting the
definition whether according to road width, or traffic flow. Second, " handle street facades well"
is a relatively vague concept, no operability. According to "Nanjing controlling detailed
planning", in the old city of Nanjing, planning public construction land 1195 hectares, which
included in commercial land 447 hectares and road land 759 hectares(Ding, 2007) . If
complying with this provision, both sides of roads are all used for commercial development, the
construction is far more than current required, so No 54 is difficult to be implemented. To
control the street facades better, it may need more operational policy. Moreover, the regulation
'Prohibited to set unidirectional retreat floors in north' of No 57, is almost impossible, because
of sunshine under the premise of the old city land increasingly tense (Figure 12).

Figure 10. Zhongshan street spatial interface from Zhujiang station to Xin jiekou
station.
 1689

Third, the influence analysis of advertisement setting: In relevant urban policy, the
regulations about advertisement setting mainly are guiding clauses, and no enforced regulation,
also no controlling indicators. For example, No 58 of "The implementing rules of Nanjing urban
planning ordinance"（2007）states that 'Outdoor advertisement setting and signs facility should
be suitably located, proportion coordination, style and scale harmony with the surrounding
environment' , we known this clause has no operational quantitative indicators.

Figure 11. buildings of different height back roads.

Ashihara Yoshinobu proposed that advertisement of side street is the main problem affecting
the facade. When sidewalk is less than 3 meters, building facades are obscured by advertising;
when sidewalk greater than 11.5 meters, street is a haven for walkers. According to Nanjing city
policy of buildings back roads, the minimum distance of buildings retreating road red line is 6
meters, plus the sidewalk, a distance of 11 meters is not difficult, but advertising of Nanjing is
still chaos, also affected the street interface morphology. Then, whether advertising could be
controlled? We think that urban policy can control advertising sizes, but advertising content is
difficult to control (Figure 12), this may be the main reason of advertising not to be resolved on
urban streets. In addition, if unifying advertising form and style, and harmony with surrounding
environment, which will lose the effect of advertisement catching people's eye. If advertising
isn't able to attract people's attention, it also can be counted as a real advertisement?

Figure 12. Retreating floors of building; advertisement along street

Conclusion and Discussion

In this paper, through investigation of urban policy directly or indirectly related with urban
physical spatial form, we find that China's relevant policies related with urban spatial form
1690

actually have been more: which mainly include in mandatory regulations of urban land use and
building layout, and guiding provisions of urban space. And through the correlation analysis, we
concluded that the mandatory regulations have played the controlling role to land development
intensity and buildings location, and have the important impact role to urban physical space
shaping, but which have not controlled to quality of urban spatial form. Among them, the
regulation of playing important role is quantitative indicators, such as building density, floor
area ratio, distance between buildings, distance of buildings concession and other indicators.
The mandatory provisions have controlled the land exploration intensity and building location,
and affect urban space organization, but not control and resolve the quality of urban physical
spatial form. So, China's city yet remains the urban form problems of blocks integration lower,
street interface chaos, urban space organization disordered and urban fabric form blurred.
Through experiments, we think that the main reasons of making these urban form problems
mainly have:
First, the indicators regulation, such as building density, floor area ratio, green ratio, distance
between buildings, distance of buildings concession and other indicators, is mandatory clauses
provision, with a very high operational and implementation efforts. From top to bottom, which
could be get consistently implementation, but it is this implementation and policy changes over
the past years, different periods buildings retreat street inconsistent distances, these buildings
stand on the same street, finally making the street interface chaos and greatly affecting the urban
spatial morphology. So, in the improvement of urban landscape and safety and urban functions,
adding more elements of urban form controlling may be important,
Second, the policy regulation about urban space of street interface relationship handling,
advertising and other aspects, is the most important urban spatial form requirement, however,
these regulations only are guiding requirement, no mandatory and no operability, which have
not play the controlling role to urban spatial morphology. So, we consider that in these guiding
rules, adding quantitative indicators may be help to control urban physical spatial morphology
better.
Third, in the relevant urban policy, lack of the follow regulations: No controlling provision
about area and angle after buildings retreating road red line; No special and required drawings
in programs approval and experts evaluating, which weakening the seriousness of planning
approval and experts assessment; Lack of the regulation of architectural surroundings and plots
subdivision, which making architect didn't have a high reference as guiding in the design
process, so that each single building only based on their own form and developing interest,
finally causing urban spatial form chaos.
So, it is completely impossible that only relying on urban policies to control urban physical
spatial, it could also need to consider other factors, this may be the our research work in
subsequent studies.

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank the supporting of the Scientific Research Foundation of Graduate School of
Jiangsu Province (Program No. CXZZ13_0056), and Special Research Found for the Doctoral Program of
Higher Education (Program No. 20120091110055).

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implementing rules of Nanjing urban planning ordinance(L-IRNUPO-2007), Nanjing (in Chinese).
The People's Government of Nanjing. (2007) The compile and approval work guideline for planning
management of Nanjing planning bureau(L-CAWGPM-2007), Nanjing (in Chinese).
The People's Government of Jiangsu province. (2010) The urban design compile guideline of Jiangsu
province(P-UDCG-2010), Nanjing (in Chinese).
The People's Government of Jiangsu province. (2010) The outdoor advertising management measures of
Jiangsu province(P-OAMM-2010), Nanjing (in Chinese).
1692

The People's Government of Jiangsu province. (2011) Technical regulations of Jiangsu urban planning
and management(P-TR-2011), Nanjing (in Chinese).
The People's Government of Jiangsu province. (2012) Jiangsu controlling detailed planning guidelines(P-
CDPG-2012), Nanjing (in Chinese).
The standing committee of Nanjing municipal People's Congress. (1990) Nanjing urban planning
ordinance(L-NUPO-1990), Nanjing (in Chinese).
The standing committee of Nanjing municipal People's Congress. (1998) The management ordinances of
city appearance of Nanjing(L-MONA-1998), Nanjing (in Chinese).
The standing committee of Nanjing municipal People's Congress. (2012) The urban and rural planning
ordinance of Nanjing(L-NURPO-2012), Nanjing (in Chinese).
The standing committee of Jiangsu province People's Congress. (2003) Urban greening ordinances of
Jiangsu province(P-UGMO-2003), Nanjing (in Chinese).
The standing committee of Jiangsu province People's Congress. (2004) Regulations of urban city
appearance and environmental sanitation of Jiangsu province(P-UCAESMO-2004), Nanjing (in
Chinese).
The standing committee of Jiangsu province People's Congress. (2010) Regulations of historical and
cultural city, town and village protection of Jiangsu province(P-HCTVPO-2010), Nanjing (in Chinese).
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ordinances of Jiangsu province(P-URPO-2010), Nanjing (in Chinese).
The standing committee of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China. (1990)
Urban planning laws of the People's Republic of China(C-UPL-1990), Beijing (in Chinese).
The standing committee of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China. (1995) The
advertisement law of the People's Republic of China(C-AL-1995), Beijing (in Chinese).
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land administration law of the People's Republic of China(C-LAL-2004), Beijing (in Chinese).
The standing committee of the National People's Congress of the People's Republic of China. (2008)
Urban and rural planning law of the People's Republic of China(C-URPL-2008), Beijing (in Chinese).
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fire law of the People's Republic of China(C-FL-2009), Beijing (in Chinese).
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Republic of China(C-UGO-1992), Beijing (in Chinese).
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People's Republic of China(C-URMO-1996), Beijing (in Chinese).
 1693

A subtropical urban taxonomy: the tension of research

informing practice

Peter Richards
QUT - Queensland University of Technology.
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. Urban Morphology provides an important framework of analysis for understanding growth
and change in cities. For the urban design and architecture practitioner however, urban morphology
research only provides part of an approach. The task is often to plan for, or design much larger, taller
and coarser grained buildings. The demands in new projects with planning efficiencies for lifts, larger
floor plates for working and retail make footprints much larger. Accommodating car parking and service
vehicles, often above ground, adds complexity to the lower levels of buildings, urban interfaces and
public realm. The urban challenge is to fit these projects into existing, usually finer grained blocks,
places and buildings. These factors combine to make traditional building types inappropriate for new
projects and the sole repetition of traditional urban patterns is not possible. These issues are of a
particular challenge for Brisbane, which is a city in search of a subtropical urbanism as a new world
city, two aspirations of government visioning for the city. But new buildings can contribute to the city and
have good urban manners. Using Brisbane as a case study, this paper proposes a method of creating an
urban taxonomy of new urban building and places types that respect the existing city. This work reflects
upon recent practice and also draws inspiration from the Form Based Codes movement in the USA,
which has a strong emphasis on the essential building types needed to create good urban places. The
taxonomy is ongoing research that would benefit form the scrutiny of urban morphology researchers.

Key Words: Subtropical, taxonomy, new urban building types.

Introduction

Urban Morphology provides an important framework of analysis for understanding growth and
change in cities. For the urban design and architecture practitioner however, urban morphology
research only provides part of an approach. The task is often to plan for, or design much larger,
taller and coarser grained buildings. The demands in new projects with planning efficiencies for
lifts, larger floor plates for working and retail make footprints much larger. Accommodating car
parking and service vehicles, often above ground, adds complexity to the lower levels of
buildings, urban interfaces and public realm. The urban challenge is to fit these projects into
existing, usually finer grained blocks, places and buildings. These factors combine to make
traditional building types inappropriate for new projects and the sole repetition of traditional
urban patterns is not possible. These issues are of a particular challenge for Brisbane, which is a
city in search of a subtropical urbanism as a new world city, two aspirations of government
visioning for the city.
But new buildings can contribute to the city and have good urban manners. Using the desired
Brisbane as a case study, this paper proposes a method of creating an urban taxonomy of new
urban building and places types that are a response to the regulatory and policy environment,
some market preferences while respecting the existing city. This work draws upon recent
research and practice, and the form-based codes movement in the USA, which has a strong
emphasis on the essential building types needed to create good urban places.
There is an essential tension in the way that urban morphology research can inform practice.
Urban morphology forensically examines urban patterns of blocks, streets and building types
that have occurred throughout history and charts a rich and nuanced retrospective of how a
1694

place has come to be. For the practitioner with an interest in urban morphology, this research is
fascinating, but it does not necessarily inform what to do next.
Mostly, the task of what to do next is to design different, larger and taller building types that
respond to current community and client expectations. These expectations are codified in the
higher densities encouraged in town planning schemes and are defined by the construction
systems, buildability and design requirements of the construction industry controlled by the
Building Code of Australia. In addition, market and client preferences have a major influence of
design choices. The practitioner’s observation is that this approach may have always been the
situation. A pragmatic opportunism influences what we do next. When historical buildings were
built as new, they were, most likely, not informed by detailed urban morphology research
(partly as the study emerged after the second world war) but by the needs of the day and the
conventions of design and construction.
A desire for these larger and taller buildings, the advent of new materials and construction
systems like steel and concrete and of course lifts have transformed historic city patterns and
continue to do so. However, these buildings did not necessarily destroy the urban fabric, but
added another layer to the urban pattern. These buildings still had an urban character and form
and contributed well to the urban environment, by doing simple things such as aligning building
fronts to streets and filling available frontages. Entries were visible and accessible from streets
and in more built up areas a variety of ground floor uses with individual entrances in shop fronts
activated streets. Facades had depth and detail, windows and walls were often vertically
proportioned and horizontal mouldings broke up the vertical scale. A strong human scale was
evident. These attributes are the obvious urban conditions and for a practitioner committed to
urbanism, can be readily applied to buildings designed for current needs.

The framework

This paper proposes a framework for an urban taxonomy. Taxonomies are not focused upon
uniqueness, but how elements with common characteristics comprise and combine to form
identifiable urban patterns. At its core is a range of residential, commercial and mixed-use
building types of varying densities that emerge from the current regulatory environment and
market preferences. In essence, the types will be a response to the pragmatics of everyday
architectural and urban design practice. The essential requirements of the Building Code of
Australia, Queensland Planning Policies and town planning schemes that shape design
responses are determined. Market preferences that influence the form of development include
recognised industry preferences and examples of good practice often as response to the
regulatory framework.
Urban blocks are seen as a fundamental ingredient of urbanism. The resultant building types
of varying scales and intensities aggregate to form the urban block types. These blocks help
define the resultant street patterns and are grouped to make settlement forms of various densities
and land-use mixes. These types address the specific issues and opportunities of Brisbane City
on the eastern seaboard of Australia, a city of 1million people in a region of 3 million growing
to 4 million over the next 25 years. With its latitude of 27.5 º south of the equator, the resultant
urbanism is subtropical reflecting the climate of this region. This work will suggest a taxonomy
for a contemporary subtropical urbanism, one that can integrate with traditional urban patterns.
The taxonomy should also include other attributes that make up the urban fabric, such as
street types, open spaces, types of plazas, parks and gardens as well as arcades and courtyards
within developments. This part of the taxonomy remains underdeveloped. The framework of the
taxonomy is described in figure 1.
 1695

Figure 1. Taxonomy framework.

Town planning: Queensland planning policies

Town Planning regulates land-uses and determines design controls for the resultant preferred
development forms for specific locations. In Queensland, town planning schemes are shaped by
the Queensland Planning Policy (QPP) framework, which recommends a series of standard
zones. (DSDIP, 2013) To achieve consistency throughout the state, the zones have specific
colours for each, to be used in planning schemes. The QPP classifies types by both land use and
density. Two groups of zones, the residential types and the centres types, strongly influence the
resultant urban form.
The residential zones are; rural, low, low medium, medium and high and can include
character housing as separate zone. They are coloured in a range of pinks to darker reds. The
range of high density is 8-15 storeys, medium density, up to 5, low medium, 2-3, low density
and character residential is 1 to 2. The centres zones, from the highest to the lowest, are;
principal, major, district, local and neighbourhood. Other primary zones include and industrial
uses and community uses that range across all densities. The land-uses with their preferred
colours have been arranged in a table with a cross section of built form demonstrating their
approximate density. (Figure 2)

Residential Uses

Low density residential provides for predominantly dwelling houses on a range of lot sizes. This
development form reflects and enhances the existing low-density scale and character of the area
with a maximum building height of 1-2 storeys. Some small-scale non-residential uses that
provide local work places and complement local residential amenity can be included.
Low-medium density residential is 2-3 storeys and has a broader mix of dwelling types
including dwellings, row houses, small secondary houses and duplexes, villas and small scale
multiple dwellings. This development form can include apartments, residential care facility or
retirement facility and can be supported by community uses and small-scale services and
facilities that cater for local residents. This density facilitates urban consolidation in
predominantly residential areas with multiple dwellings and short-term accommodation for
visitors encouraged clustered around or near centres and transport nodes. Development provides
a high level of amenity and is reflective of the surrounding character of the area.
1696

Medium density development provides for multiple dwellings up to 5 storeys and can
include aged care or retirement facilities, hostels, hospitals and short-term accommodation.
These uses are clustered around or near centres and transport nodes thus facilitating urban
consolidation. A diverse range of community facilities, transport options, employment nodes
and commercial and retail hubs support this zone. High density residential provides for higher
density multiple dwellings with similar types with medium density, but 8-15 storeys in height.
Development provides for high density multiple dwellings in locations clustered around or near
centres and transport nodes. Local plans may specify the ultimately heights.
Character residential is sensitive infill of a similar scale and character as well as preserving
existing dwellings. The QPP residential Zones are shown in cross section in figure 3.

Figure 2. QPP standard zones by type and density.

Figure 3. Queensland Planning Policy Residential zone definitions by type.

 1697

Centres zones are mixed-use, usually with retail or commercial ground floor uses with
residential or offices above. Centres are classified as five types, based upon density and uses
including varying increments and sizes of retail. They are coloured as a range of blues. From the
largest to the smallest these are Principal, Major, District, Local and Neighbourhood.
The Principal centre is the central business district or city centre and has the widest range
and highest order of retail, commercial, administrative, community, cultural and entertainment
activities. Residential development, short-term accommodation and tourist accommodation is
provided at an appropriate scale and integrates with and enhances the fabric of the centre.
Service industry uses may be located in the zone. Public open space areas such as malls, plazas,
parks and gardens are provided.
Major centres are the next order centres with a mix of uses and activities. It includes
concentrations of higher order retail, commercial, offices, residential, administrative and health
services, community, cultural and entertainment facilities and other uses capable of servicing a
sub-region in the planning scheme area. A broad range of higher order retail, commercial,
administrative, community, cultural and entertainment activities is provided. Residential
development, short-term accommodation and tourist accommodation is provided at an
appropriate scale and integrates with and enhances the fabric of the centre. Service industries
may be located in the zone. Public open space areas such as malls, plazas, parks and gardens are
provided. Maximum building heights are usually specified by the more detailed neighbourhood
plans, but 5 to 8 storeys are typical.
District Centres include a concentration of land uses including retail, commercial,
residential, offices, administrative and health services, community, small-scale entertainment
and recreational facilities capable of servicing a district. Local centres are smaller again, with
limited range of retail, commercial and community activities to service local needs.
Neighbourhood Centres are the smallest and contain the least mix of land uses to service
residential neighbourhoods. It includes small-scale convenience shopping, professional offices,
community services and other uses that directly support the immediate community with
development up to 3 storeys. Figure 4 represents the scales of the various centres zones in cross
section.

Figure 4. Queensland Planning Policy Centre zone definitions by type.

Building Code of Australia

Like all building codes, the Building Code of Australia (BCA) regulates fire resistance,
construction methods, access and egress, health and amenity, which includes day lighting, and
1698

more recently energy efficiency. Requirements change based on use, height, and in some cases
floor area. (Australian Building Codes Board, 2014) The BCA utilizes a form of taxonomy and
classifies buildings into 10 types. Classes one to four are residential with lower densities the
lower numbers. Class five is office and six is retail. Class seven buildings are warehouses and
car parks with laboratories and factories class 8. Public buildings are class nine and non-
habitable outbuildings are class ten. There are additional requirements for mixed class buildings
where the different classifications are located together, either side by side or above. Fire safety,
access and egress are a primary determent of building form and are influenced by the type and
height of the building. A key issue is the number, one or more, and types, of escape stairs and
whether these stairs are fire enclosed or open.
Offices, Class 5, do not need a lift when up to 3 storeys and the upper floors are less than
200 square metres per level. This is a small footprint a little larger than a house. These buildings
do not need to fire enclosed fire stairs either enabling a single open stair. Above 3 storeys and
upper floors greater than 200 square metres, lifts are required. At this height, fire stairs need to
be fire enclosed, making it a service space and not appropriate for the primary public access in
the building. If there is a lift and single stair in an office, each part of a floor needs to be no
more than 20 metres from the stair, which limits the floor plate to about 1000 square metres.
Larger floor plates usually require 2 or more stairs, which need to be a minimum of 9 metres
and a maximum of 60 metre separation. These dimensions will enable larger floor plates of up
to 2000 square metres or more.

Residential Buildings

In residential buildings up to 3 storeys with at least one residence on the floor of access, lifts are
not required and the fire escape stairs can be open. Above 3 storeys, fire escape stairs need to be
fire enclosed, so lifts are usually provided, while not specifically required under the building
code. Residential buildings higher than 3 storeys, but below 25 metres to the uppermost floor
level, (8 to 9 floors high) can have a single fire enclosed escape stair that is not pressurised. In
this case, entrances to each apartment must be 6 metres from the stair entry, limiting the number
of apartments per floor to around 5 or 6 or 500 square metres or so. Above 25 metres to the
uppermost floor level, two fire stairs are needed and they need to be pressurised and the overall
building sprinkled. This significantly adds to cost in Australia.
Like in Class 5 offices, the two fire stairs need to have a minimum of 9 meters separation but
a maximum 45 metre between stairs. Entries to apartments are 6 metres from a choice of two
directions to the fire stairs. (BCA Part D1.4). The 45 meter separation suggests a maximum
footprint of closer to 1,000 to 1,200 square metres. If there is a 3 meter setback for walls along
side boundaries, additional fire safety is not needed. At this distance, windows can be
incorporated, but it is the town plan that normally determines these setbacks. The Building Code
determines the nature of the fire safety and the resultant construction systems. Where balcony
access is incorporated in apartment buildings, apartments can obtain light and ventilation from
the balcony if there is a 1.5m sill or fire protection to windows.

Cost effective design, market preferences and good practice

The building code requirements can influence design outcomes with certain thresholds for
design efficiencies and therefore cost which shape the form of buildings in Queensland. There is
a desire to maximize the number of apartments per level while minimising the number of stair
and lifts. Apartment buildings below 9 storeys can have a single fire stair and lift with around 5
or 6 apartments per level. Privacy is a strong consideration in higher density design. Different
apartments facing each other should have a separation between 18 metres and 24 metres to
enable privacy in higher densities. This dimension is the scale of a street, but can be applied
 1699

across rear and side boundaries. Building forms should be shaped and site sizes chosen to
enable these privacy issues to be addressed while still addressing streets and public spaces.
The apartment configuration is recommended as balcony access with small internal
courtyards. This enables cross ventilation and locating a habitable room adjacent to the balcony.
This can make apartments two rooms wide, not three rooms, making more efficient plans.
Larger apartments are usually located on the ends of buildings where there are two external
walls for rooms. Side setbacks of 3 meters enables natural ventilation without fire protection.
In office buildings, there is a commercial imperative for larger floor plates of 2,000 square
metres, especially for ‘A’ grade office space (Destravis, 2013). This potentially can create very
deep plans. Day lighting is an important design requirement for all buildings to create better
quality internal spaces and better energy efficiency. Good practice office design recommends
that 16 metres building depth wall to wall with 12 metres. A desired floor plate efficiency of
core to net rentable area is around 85%. (Destravis, 2013)
Car parking is a major contributor to development costs. Higher densities are now more
easily achievable as there is a trend for lower car parking rates in urban areas where good public
transport is available and cycling and walking is encouraged. Basements are expensive to
construct and there is pressure to locate car parking above ground. The above ground
requirement presents a number of challenges. Dwellings can be separated from the street thus
reducing casual surveillance, unless the parking is sleeved by street fronting apartments. In
order to naturally ventilate and light car parking, the three metre setbacks would apply. These
responses make sites larger with a depth closer to 35 metres.

Form Based Codes

The form based codes movement in the USA has made a significant contribution to the
regulation of future urban form. (Parolek, 2013) A form based code frames urban regulation
with a morphological approach utilising building types as the primary structuring element of the
code, not land-uses which are the primary focus of town planning schemes. A prominent feature
of the form-based code is identifying the range of building types proposed in the place. These
types are shown in the code in a line from the least dense to the densest. (City of Santa Ana,
2010). This taxonomy has become a characteristic of the form based codes approach.

Next Generation Planning

The Next Generation Planning (CoMSEQ, 2011) by the South East Queensland Council of
Mayors is a policy guideline based on extensive research of local settlement patterns and forms.
It utilised in part an urban morphology approach. CoMSEQ is the peak body of all local
councils in South East Queensland and the project was conducted with a number of them.
Examples of good urbanism identified by the local councils, were measured and recorded with
drawings and photographs. Conclusions were made about preferred building types, streets lot
sizes and settlement forms that had created these desirable urban places. Underpinning the work
was an objective to better define smart growth for South East Queensland.
The NGP proposed a series of urban place types, conceived as neighbourhoods scaled upon a
five-minute walkable catchments of 400m diameter. The neighbourhoods had centres, which
generally accord with the centres types described in the QPP. The place model was drawn as a
cross section from the lowest to the highest intensity. This graphic was inspired by the new
urbanist transect developed by the United States urban design firm Duany Plater-Zyberk.
(Duany, 2009) The places were: P1, Rural places; P2, Rural townships; P3, Next generation
suburban neighbourhoods; P4, Urban neighbourhoods; P5, Centres of activity and P6; Central
Business Districts. (Figure 6) The contribution made by the NGP was the idea that each of the
centres should be conceived as a neighbourhood, so would have relatively specific arrangements
of zones around them within the neighbourhood catchment. Major centres would have higher
1700

density housing nearer the centre with medium towards the edges. Local centres would have
low to medium density close by but be predominantly low density. Ranges of community uses
of varying scales were distributed in these centres. The land uses were taken from the standard
zones from the QPP. The NPG also developed indicative plans for two of these neighbourhood
types (Figure 7) (CoMSEQ, 2011).

Figure 5. Building types Santa Ana Transit Renaissance Form Based Code.

Figure 6 SEQ Place Model.

 1701

Figure 7. SEQ place types, urban neighbourhoods, next generation suburban

neighbourhoods.

Subtropical Design

The philosophy that design can primarily respond to the qualities of place, climate and culture is
strong in South East Queensland. A Centre for Subtropical Design was established by the
Queensland University of Technology (QUT) and the Brisbane City Council in 2003. The
centre has undertaken research into many aspects of subtropical design principles, building
types and development forms. Openness and relationship to landscape are two key subtropical
design qualities advocated by the centre. Other principles include respect for good orientation,
topography, the integration of landscape, opportunities for outdoor living with a strong
connection of inside to the outside. Edges between inside and outside are blurred with transition
spaces that incorporate verandahs, terraces and courts. Inside spaces can have the character of
outdoor spaces and outdoor spaces have the character and enclosure of inside spaces. (Kennedy,
2011)
Subtropical design principles focus on building forms that enable cross ventilation with a
priority for narrower buildings and appropriate orientation with the longer sides facing north.
Many of these qualities could be interpreted as non-urban and this is one of the challenges in
achieving more subtropical design responses in an urban context. In order to enable ventilation
within and around dwellings and day lighting, there is a preference for free standing buildings
and balcony access apartments.
Detached building aggregating to form an urbanism is a characteristic of subtropical
Brisbane. While the city centre has many attached buildings, outside of the city centre much of
the city fabric comprises groupings of detached buildings with narrow side and frontage
setbacks with larger rear gardens. This includes commercial and retail buildings along main
streets. Their primary outlook is front and back irrespective of orientation. These buildings still
form streetscapes with urban character, but enable vegetated front gardens and glimpsed views
between buildings to green vegetated areas behind. Paddington remains a good exemplar of
these patterns, with the main street curving with the ridgeline topography and the grid of
residential streets in a relatively orthogonal grid in the valleys. (Figure 5) This characteristic
has informed the development of the building types for the taxonomy.
1702

Figure 8. Aerial, overview and detailed view of Paddington, Brisbane, Nearmap, 2014.

The Taxonomy

The taxonomy is framed as series of elements from the more specific scale of buildings to lots,
blocks, streets and open spaces to the way these elements combine to form settlement types
defined by a 400 metre five minute walk, a neighbourhood scaled urbanism. The settlement
types also include the suite of public buildings that provide community focal places and the
collective life of the community, but these are not yet described.
The range of building types are not dissimilar to the form based codes array of building types
and are described in a series of tables. (Figures 9,10,) There are two types completed, offices
and residential/mixed-use. They are arranged from the smallest to the largest, the least dense to
the highest density. Plans at the same relative scale are shown. Both tables suggest resultant site
sizes to accommodate these buildings. Yellow is used as the colour for useable space, beige for
walkways and balconies, darker orange for lifts and stairs and paler orange for service areas,
plant rooms etc. Each higher density is coloured as a darker grey tone.

Figure 9. Office building types taxonomy.

Figure 10. Residential building types taxonomy.

 1703

These various building types and densities can be arranged for living, working and mixed-
use. Three neighbourhood types are proposed and these are taken form the middle range of the
Next Generation Planning document. (CoMSEQ, 2011) The place types are P4, P5 and P6 and
for this taxonomy, P4, the Next Generation Suburban Neighbourhood, is just called Suburban.
P4, Suburban neighbourhoods, comprise predominately individual dwellings with a small
amount of attached housing around a small centre with locally focused community facilities. P5,
Urban neighbourhoods, are higher density, walkable, mixed-use neighbourhoods. Their centres
are strong community focal places and include mixes of retail, employment and community
uses. Housing is generally attached. Urban neighbourhoods can incorporate universities and
hospitals. P6, Activity centres, are the primary urban focal places in settlements. Densities and
land use mix are high. Significant employment is provided and regional scaled civic, cultural
and community uses are included.
Natural and rural areas, the rural townships and the CBD are not included as these do not
form significant parts of newer urban areas, where activity centres are the highest order centre.
Each neighbourhood type is drawn in cross section with the relative heights of buildings shown.
The higher the density, the darker the grey colour. A table has been prepared summarising the
residential, centres types, which are commercial and residential mixed use buildings from the
lowest to the highest density. The neighbourhood types are located above the development
intensities. Suburban neighbourhoods are at the lower end. Activity Centres are at the higher
end and urban neighbourhoods are in between.

Figure 11. Settlement types form and density, suburban neighbourhoods, urban
neighbourhoods, activity centre.

Utilising the approach of the form based codes array of building types, the building types
from figures 9 and 10 are arranged as a series of seven generic urban blocks in the form of a
figure / ground drawing. The blocks are arranged from the highest density to lowest density and
show the transition of building types across the blocks along block edges. The same types face
each other across streets, so the transitions are made at the rear of blocks. The highest density
blocks have the largest buildings, big footplate offices and high density housing. The lowest
comprise predominantly detached housing. Street trees are included as this is a strong
 1704

characteristic of subtropical urbanism. The block sizes are all around 150 metres long and
between 60 to 75 or 80 metres wide for the larger commercial blocks. (Figure 12)

Taxonomy of Urbanism: PLACES MODEL

A framework to identify the range of building types, categorized by use, fr om the least dense to the densest that aggr egate to form urban places.

Figure 12. Settlement types, suburban neighbourhoods, urban neighbourhoods, activity The Taxonomy
c reflet s current lifestyle aspirations and contemporary functional requirements for development considering
i the efficent use of lifts,
integrating car parking, larger format r etail and work places. This means that traditional building types often not r eplicated, but as an urbanism, the
traditional city patterns and urban forms are respected. Within each building type, there may be sub types e.g. for a corner with a two street frontage
and a mid block type with one street frontage or sites of varying frontages. The taxonomy is a strategic framework to inform design r esponses.

centre. These building types of varying densities fr om lower to higher combine to form Place Types. These elements of settlements ar e scaled

Taxonomy of Urbanism: PLACES MODEL

PLACE TYPES
The settlement or place types then comprise arrangements of these urban blocks within the
A framework to identify the range of building types, categorized by use, fr om the least dense to the densest that aggr egate to form urban places.
The Taxonomy
c reflet s current lifestyle aspirations and contemporary functional requirements for development considering
i the efficent use of lifts,
integrating car parking, larger format r etail and work places. This means that traditional building types often not r eplicated, but as an urbanism, the
traditional city patterns and urban forms are respected. Within each building type, there may be sub types e.g. for a corner with a two street frontage

walkable catchment. The generic blocks have been adapted to respond to each of the and a mid block type with one street frontage or sites of varying frontages. The taxonomy is a strategic framework to inform design r esponses.

Suburban Neighbourhoods
These building types of varying densities fr om lower to higher combine to form Place Types. These elements of settlements ar e scaled

neighbourhoods utilising the approach for streets and land-use transitions in the generic blocks. Comprising predominately individual dwellings with a small amount of attached housing ar ound a
small centre with locally focused community facilities.

Taxonomy of Urbanism: PLACES MODEL

Plazas and parks
Taxonomy are also
of Urbanism: included
SETTLEMENT in these
TYPES FIGUREfigure
GROUNDground diagrams to elevate their importance in
PLACE TYPES
A framework to identify the range of building types, categorized by use, fr om the least dense to the densest that aggr egate to form urban places.

a subtropical urban context. This suggests an enrichment of the Nolli figure ground drawing
The Taxonomy
c reflet s current lifestyle aspirations and contemporary functional requirements for development considering
i the efficent use of lifts,
integrating car parking, larger format r etail and work places. This means that traditional building types often not r eplicated, but as an urbanism, the
traditional city patterns and urban forms are respected. Within each building type, there may be sub types e.g. for a corner with a two street frontage
and a mid block type with one street frontage or sites of varying frontages. The taxonomy is a strategic framework to inform design r esponses.
Suburban Neighbourhoods
including both built form and a coloured landscape.
These building types of varying densities fr om lower to higher combine to form Place Types. These elements of settlements ar e scaled
Comprising predominately individual dwellings with a small amount of attached
small centre with locally focused community facilities.
Urban Neighbourhoods
housing ar oundarae higher density, walkable, mixed-use neighbourhoods. Their centr es
Urban neighbourhoods
are strong, community focal places and include a mix of r etail, employment and community uses.
Housing is generally attached. Urban neighbourhoods can incorporate universities and hospitals.

PLACE TYPES

Suburban Neighbourhoods Urban Neighbourhoods Activity Centres

Comprising predominately individual dwellings with a small amount of attached housing ar ound a Urban neighbourhoods ar e higher density, walkable, mixed-use neighbourhoods. Their centr es Activity centres are the primary urban
a focal places in settlements. Densities and land use mix ar e
small centre with locally focused community facilities. are strong, community focal places and include a mix of r etail, employment and community uses. high. Significnt emp l oyme nt is pr ovided and regional scaled civic, cultural and community use is
Housing is generally attached. Urban neighbourhoods can incorporate universities and hospitals. included.

This Taxonomy of Urbanism has been developed by Peter Richar ds, Director of Deicke Richar ds and Professor of Design at QUT based upon work in Next Generation Planning (Council of Mayors SEQ 2011)

Urban Neighbourhoods Activity Centres

Urban neighbourhoods ar e higher density, walkable, mixed-use neighbourhoods. Their centr es Activity centres are the primary urban
a focal places in settlements. Densities and land use mix ar e
are strong, community focal places and include a mix of r etail, employment and community uses. high. Significnt emp l oyme nt is pr ovided and regional scaled civic, cultural and community use is
Housing is generally attached. Urban neighbourhoods can incorporate universities and hospitals. included.

This Taxonomy of Urbanism has been developed by Peter Richar ds, Director of Deicke Richar ds and Professor of Design at QUT based upon work in Next Generation Planning (Council of Mayors SEQ 2011)

Activity Centres
E
M
A
N
R
U
O
Y

Activity centres are the primary urban

a focal places in settlements. Densities and land use mix ar e
high. Significnt emp l oyme nt is pr ovided and regional scaled civic, cultural and community use is
included.

This Taxonomy of Urbanism has been developed by Peter Richar ds, Director of Deicke Richar ds and Professor of Design at QUT based upon work in Next Generation Planning (Council of Mayors SEQ 2011)

Figure 13. Settlement types, suburban neighbourhoods, urban neighbourhoods, activity

centre.

01 A PROJECT TITLE Project Location PAGE DESCRIPTION MONTH, DD YYYY

 1705

Conclusions

This paper has attempted to represent for the first time a broad range of urban thinking yet
remains an incomplete and ongoing piece of work as a taxonomy of urbanism. The research
process has combined the local policy and regulatory framework of practice with observations
of the Brisbane urban context. This resultant urbanism can represent a settlement form particular
to this subtropical pace, hence a (subtropical) urban taxonomy.
Some gaps still remain. Street and open space types characteristic of subtropical places have
not been identified and described. The building types identified presently do not entirely
correspond with the types in the blocks. The regular block structure and street grid does not take
into account site features drainage lines, topography or views so would need to be adapted as
required.
Despite these issues, the ambition of the research was to combine the elements incorporated
as a way to describe urban places. The aim is to continue to locate and make relevant the
philosophies of urban morphology within contemporary architectural and design practice.

References

Australian Building Codes Board (2014) National Construction Series, Building Code of Australia,
Volume 1
City of Santa Ana (2010) Santa Ana Renaissance Transit Zoning Code, City of Santa Ana.
Department of State Development, Infrastructure and Planning. (2013) Queensland Planning Provisions
Version 3.0, DSDIP.
Duany, A , Lydon, M and Speck, J (2009) The Smart Growth Manual, McGraw-Hill.
Kennedy, R. (2011) Subtropical Design in South-East Queensland A Handbook for Planners, Developers
and Decision Makers. Centre for Subtropical Design.
Parolek, D. (2008) Form Based Codes, John Wiley and Sons, New Jersey.
Council of Mayors South East Queensland. (2011) Next Generation Planning, CoMSEQ, Brisbane.
1706

Shaping the city. Public space in the (re)construction of

Portuguese contemporary city. The case of the Porto
metropolitan area waterfront

Rodrigo Coelho
CEAU (Centro de Estudos de Arquitectura e Urbanismo), Faculdade de Arquitectura da
Universidade do Porto,Via Panorâmica S/N, 4150-755 Porto Portugal.
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. Due to the fragmented and discontinuous spread of urbanization, the Portuguese and
European cities have seen over the past four decades their urban condition profoundly changed, resulting
in the mangling and mutation of the urban landscape around the main urban centres, and in the
weakening of the role of public space in structuring new urban expansions. Considering this background,
and given the lack of consistent models or paradigms to intervene and design (or plan) the city today, will
seek to question if, and how, is it possible continue to confer a “shape” to contemporary City from public
space, particularly in its more recent and less consolidated parts (questioning also the nature of that
hypothetic ‘shape’). We will seek to highlight the role that the project of public space can (still) play in
building the ‘shape of the contemporary city’, recognizing it as a system of spaces with urbanisitic,
formal and functional qualities, able to provide meaning and identity to the urban space, and able to
restructure and support the growth of the city. Based on this understanding, we will defend (as an
hypothesis), the need to consider the project of public space from the concept of urban fragment
(recovering the importance of the urban project as the most consistent and appropriate way to approach
an intervene in the city), seeking to recognize and systematize (using as case-study recent portuguese
public space interventions), the purposes, the methodological principles, and the key architectural and
urbanistic criteria which may recover the strategic importance of public space project in defining the
‘shape of the Contemporary city’.

Key Words: contemporary city, urban design, public space project, urban waterfront

Introduction

Due to the expansion and fragmentation of cities, especially over the twentieth century, the
relevant fact we consider important to remark, is the progressive and unstoppable process of
disaggregation (both physical and conceptual) between the concepts of city and public space
that, until the nineteenth century, were permanently interconnected (if we consider the public
space as the one that condensed organically the political, economical and social space).
On the other hand, due to the fragmented and discontinuous spread of urbanization, the
Portuguese and European cities have seen over the past four decades their urban condition
profoundly changed, resulting in the standardization and disruption of public spaces and urban
landscape around the main urban centres.
Taking into account this situation, the general question that this paper will seek to address is
the extent to which it becomes possible to confer an exceptional character to urban public space
in a time where urban societies seem to claim more individualized, more specialized and more
enlarged forms of public space.
How can we design and build these exceptional public spaces in these parts of the city?
And to what extent are these singular public spaces relevant to the shape, growth and
consolidation of the city of the future, such as structuring components of possible systems of
public space in more distended and enlarged urban contexts?
 1707

(Re) Shaping the limits: the rediscovery of urban waterfronts as exceptional “public
spaces”

It is in this context that we consider key the interventions in the waterfronts, as well as, a
reflection on public space projects that materialize these urban operations, and which in recent
decades have been developed, particularly in the European context.
We are particularly interested in the examples where we can recognize the architectural and
urbanistic attributes able to value these significant and memorable urban spaces, in the sense
that they may rescue a collective dimension within a broader metropolitan reality; but we are
also interested in those examples and projects which, by considering the geography in its
physical concrete dimension, allow the natural elements to project, once again, as an integral
part of the development and structuring of the city (rebalancing simultaneously the relationship
between man and its natural environment).
The first and possibly the most important problem that arises in these cases to the public
space’s project will be the ability of intervening in these places (usually of great environmental
value) taking into account morphological, urban and geographical characteristics.
The relationship with the natural and geographical elements tends, therefore, to assert itself
as the central problem, which, from our point of view, should precede and influence the choices
about the character of the program of uses of these public spaces. As Carlos Martí reminds us, if
there is something permanent in the city, it is the presence of places, which by being “deeply
urban”, simultaneously reveal a “strong bond” with geography .
The second topic, which we think is vital in the design of the “singular public space”, it is
the recognition of these spaces as "significant and strategic voids", open to collective
appropriation, whose main attribute should be recognized in their urbanistic, landscape and
spatial qualities.
Furthermore, the third key issue we consider critical to consider in urban waterfronts public
space design, it is the ability of these urban projects to operate deep changes in strategic sectors
of the city, trying to “shape” and “structure” the city (being aware that is impossible to control
the shape of the city globally, but on the other hand we can not give up giving a shape and a
structure to the city), while giving answers to the problems and concerns that each society poses
particularly to public space.

The Porto Metropolitan Area Waterfront: a case Study

With respect to its waterfront, the Porto Metropolitan Area coastline has undergone, especially
in the last four decades, a growing urban pressure, due mainly to migration from the interior
lands to the coast of the country, that began in the 50s and 60s, and have become more critical
in the years 70 and 80.
These dynamics have transformed these sectors in urban areas with considerable use
conflicts, leading to a disqualified and uncontrolled growth, namely on rural pre-existing
meshes. In the case of Metropolitan Port this occupation took place, initially, especially with the
construction of single family houses (in many cases with a illegal genesis) and more recently
with the construction of multi-family dwellings and / or gated communities, supported by
relatively poor infrastructures, resulting in the saturation of the use of the waterfront,
increasingly pressured by the real estate market.
As a result of this occupation, the urbanization process of the coast has quickly reached a
critical stage, that one can see reflected either in terms of the poor quality of roads, public
spaces, and urban fabrics, either on the dilapidation of natural resources and landscapes:
pollution and degradation of beaches and water lines, destruction of the primary dune, illegal
occupations, anarchic parking, etc..
Similarly to numerous port and coastal cities, this cycle of abandonment and degradation
also suffered, in the case of AMP a reversal in the 1990s (albeit with a few decades of delay
1708

compared to the first European and American similar examples), which can be proven by the
authorities recognition of the potential redevelopment of waterfronts.
In the case of the Porto riverfront, this redevelopment also followed the logic of
requalification of major European examples - implementing special projects to develop these
strategic areas. That is, taking advantage of exceptional urban renewal programs in order to
streamline and enhance the convergence between the financial effort and the political will.
We are referring to the projects and exceptional interventions which not only were crucial to
the successful regeneration of key urban sectors, but also become relevant by the project
methodologies, and by the (strategic) design options adopted for the materialization of the
public space, enhancing a consistent development, and a key role in the structuring of some
important urban coastline sections.
These interventions, were mostly carried out (or at least completed) under the Polis Program
(National Program for Urban Rehabilitation and Environmental Improvement of Cities,
launched in 1999 by the Portuguese government), and took place in the three major
municipalities that constitute the Greater Porto Area (being in the case of Porto and Matosinhos
physically articulated, and constituting in the case of Gaia an “hinge intervention” which
articulates the river front and the sea front).
In line with the premises and strategic objectives adopted by the Polis Program, it was
adopted as a fundamental principle of the Polis Program intervention methodology, the
elaboration of detailed or urbanization plans, in order to promote, systematically, the technical
integration of urbanistic, environmental and design of public space design aspects.
In the specific case the seafront of Porto Metropolitan Area (AMP), the richness and interest
of the projects developed under the Program Polis is strongly marked by the intention and
consciousness of valuing waterfronts, as an urban and architectural theme, able to contribute to
the transformation and consolidation of the shape of the contemporary city, giving it a structure
and a global shape (albeit resulting from different urban materials, and different
processes/dynamics of city construction).
However, it is perhaps this diversity of shapes and designs, guided by a common purpose -
“make city” - (understanding simultaneously the context in which the urban project operates,
and understanding the specific and structuring role that interventions on public space can induce
in each specific intervention) which makes the analysis of the Porto Metropolitan Seafront even
more rich and stimulating.
We do not intend to make here an exhaustive description of the projects and works
undertaken. We are, above all, interested in explaining the extent to which a correct (pre)
definition of certain purposes, and the adoption of specific urban design criteria, and specific
forms for the public space of each intervention, were key in the overall success of interventions;
as we also believe it is important to demonstrate to what extent the coordinated and
comprehensive conception of these projects was essential to provide a structure and a form to
the metropolitan city, being equally sensitive to the specific contexts and geographies of the
places where these interventions took place, and responding simultaneously to the dynamics and
uses that society claims to public space.
Moreover, will seek to analyse these interventions, and their contribution to a critical review
and analysis of the public space project in exceptional areas, as well as a reflection on the
definition of the form and content of public space within the more unstable current city;
particularly with regard to the ability to create and claim (simultaneously) principles of order,
diversity and vitality of urban public space from the renewed consideration of the relations
between geography, infrastructure, topography and pre-existence.
In fact, the three interventions to be analysed tackle a difficult and demanding balance
between factors of different nature, which is embodied in a coherent synthesis “built form” that
does not deny or hide the many roots that "emerge" on the surface of a reality that the authors -
use as a matter of project.
From this confrontation and compromise with the existing urban realities (territories without
very clear rules), the interventions that were held on urban public spaces thus result in
 1709

consistent proposals, able to boost (in the medium and long term) important changes, assuming
the construction of the city (and of the public space) with clear urban intentions, through precise
and (re)founder gestures, able to exalt the qualities of the sites.

References

Bruttomesso, Rinio. “Revitalización urbana de la línea de costa como bisagra del planeamiento costero”,
in El Espacio Litoral (Alfaya, Luciano; Muñoz, Patricia ed). COAC (Colexio Oficial de Arquitectos de
Galicia), 2008, p. 38-53
Borja, Jordi. “Agua y Ciudad, o el espacio público pasado por agua”, in El Espacio Litoral (Alfaya,
Luciano; Muñoz, Patricia ed.), COAC (Colexio Oficial de Arquitectos de Galicia), 2008, p.84-99
Casariego, Joaquin R. Waterfronts de Nuevo: Transformationes en Frentes Urbanas de Agua. Las Palmas:
Ayuntamiento de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Concejaria de Urbanismo, 1999.
Donato, Emilio. “Ciudades-puerto y sus frentes marítimos e fluviales” in La Arquitectura del Espacio
Público : Formas del Passado, Formas del Presente. Sevilha: Junta de Andalucia – Consejería de Obras
Públicas y Transportes e Triennale di Milano, 1999, p. 72-77.
Ezquiaga, José Maria, “Experiencia y proyecto de la cuidad. Reflexiones sobre la obra teorica de Manuel
de Solà-Morales Rubiò”. Geometria. Nº14, (1992), p. 77-84.
Grande, Nuno. ”Espaço Público em Waterfronts: Entre o Design e o Desígnio Urbano” in O espaço
público e a interdisciplinaridade (Pedro Brandão, A. Remesar ed.). Lisboa: CPD, 2000, pag.119-123.
Martí, Carlos. “Lugares Públicos en la Naturaleza” in La Cimbra y el Arco. Barcelona: Fundación Caja de
Arquitectos, 2005.
Meyer, Han. City and Port : urban planning as a cultural venture in London, Barcelona, New York, and
Rotterdam : changing relations between public urban space and large-scale infrastruture. Ultrech:
International Books, 1999.
Portas, Nuno. Considerações sobre Transformações Recentes em Frentes de Água, Prémio Sir Patrick
Abercrombie, Prize UIA 2005 (Ana Vaz Milheiro, João Afonso ed.). Lisboa: Ordem dos Arquitectos,
2006. p 88-93
Portas, Nuno. [Critica do Urbanismo] “O desenho urbano em situações de costa”, Sociedade e território.
Nº 13 (1991), pg. 91-94.
Portas, N.; Domingues, A.; Cabral, J. (2003), “Políticas Urbanas : Tendências, Estratégias E
Oportunidades”, FCG, Lisboa.
Solà-Morales, Manuel. De cosas urbanas. Barcelona: Gustavo Gili, 2008, p. 146-214.
Manuel de Solá : Designing cities – Quaderni di Lotus nº23, Electa, Milano, 1999
Passeio Atlântico. Lisboa: Gabinete coordenador do Programa Polis, Ministério do ambiente e do
Ordenamento do território, 2002
1ª Mostra Municipal de Urbanismo da Câmara Municipal do Porto. Porto: Câmara Municipal do Porto,
1997
Viver o Porto, Programa Polis, Plano Estratégico da Frente Marítima da Cidade do Porto, Ministério das
Obras Públicas e Ordenamento do Território, Porto 2001, 2000
Viver o Porto, Programa Polis, Plano Estratégico (2000), Ministério das Obras Públicas e Ordenamento
do Território, Porto 2001, Porto, Portugal.
Viver Matosinhos, Programa Polis, Plano Estratégico (2000), Ministério das Obras Públicas e
Ordenamento do Território, Lisboa, Portugal.
Viver Vila Nova de Gaia, Programa Polis, Plano Estratégico (2000), Ministério das Obras Públicas e
Ordenamento do Território, Lisboa, Portugal.
Archinews Nº 03 . 10 Anos de intervenção urbanística e arqitectónica na cidade do Porto (Janeiro –
Fevererio de 2005).
1710

Empty vacant. Redefining interior’s block voids in Guimarães

João Martins Dias1, Rita Ochoa2, Maria Candela Suarez3

1
Universidade da Beira Interior - UBI, 2CIES.IUL/UBI, 3CITCEM.UP.
E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. This paper aims to analyse how urban form can influence the configuration of a project, based
on the thesis "Vazios devolutos – reinterpretações arquitectónicas em quarteirões do centro da cidade de
Guimarães", held at the Master Degree in Architecture from the University of Beira Interior. From a
methodology strongly based on the contact with the territory, through both insightful observation in situ
and their respective experiences, as a rigorous analysis of urban morphology, later graphically
systematized, were carried into space: dubbed the "central block”. It was also investigated the current
needs of the space, upon which was developed a subversion draft of the interior structure thereof. After
parallel analysis of current shortcomings in the city, a program based on two fundamental assumptions
was built: i) increased parking lot space and; ii) the introduction of public green space in the urban
environment. The urban analysis will determine the resolution of the project, whether by the underground
floor (parking), that after a "cleaning" of vacant buildings inside the block, it presents itself as a negative
of the new configuration limit, transposed to a new level; either by the ground floor (public green space),
which sees in all its new extension a green flooring, occasionally marked by "carpets" of different
materials originated in the new areas of trade perimeter of existing buildings on the block, as conjugates
the memory of old servitude pathways.

Key Words: Guimarães, historic center, block, empty vacant, architectural reinterpretation

Introduction

One cannot propose an intervention on an historic city as Guimarães without having in account:
its people, its (mostly) urban heritage preservation, about preserving the identity and the
patrimonial authenticity, or the continuity of essential long-term continuities or even on the
vernacular architecture. It is also important to be able to deal with the integration of new ways
of thinking, new opportunities.
The responsible agencies for developing urban strategies on Guimarães historic city center
rehabilitation defended the ban on demolition over concrete, safeguarding the city image, and
“forcing us” to [re]think today intervention in the area.
The characteristic protection of the intramural area on which the Guimarães historic city
center is in, is translated to the way the streets and the buildings around appear. The block’s
backyards and the urban voids of this tight and special urban fabric are not exception, presented
then closed upon themselves, surrounded by secular national heritage and punctually on vacant
state.
This paper has as main objective the study of the distribution and of the configuration of the
sets formed by blocks and their intrinsic “empty vacant”, in Guimarães historical center, as well
as a proposal of an architectural reinterpretation of a specific block.

Urban morphology: the block

The object of study – the block – is the main element on the reflection around the reading and
understanding of city’s image. It as an element that can generate and be generated by the urban
fabric. Costa (2013: 123) points out its importance in “the local implementation of certain
 1711

model of society, in the design of lifestyles, and in the conformation of the space and of the
architecture that builds the city”.
In order to understand how the city blocks appeared in our cities, and influenced its urban
fabric, it was explored a theoretical framework, on “urban morphology. The block” theme was
carried on, through: 1) individual/comparative analysis and studies; 2) case studies in different
cities.
The first analysis aimed the block as a morphological element of the city: a) the generic
definitions of the block itself; b) setting its morphological elements; c) and its typological
evolution.

The morphological elements of the block

Assuming that architecture is what gives form to cities, and following theoretical urbanism
planners, the morphological elements of the block are (Lamas, 2011): a) the street; b) the
façade; c) the building; d) the backyard (Figure 1).

Figure 1. Morphological elements of the block: street, façade, building, backyard (author’s
scheme).

Typological evolution of the block

In order to understand the contemporary blocks, we used a typological evolution of it, as an

understanding tool. So, we chose 6 types, that represents the major changes through time: the
greek block, the roman block, the medieval block, the renaissance block, the industrial block
and the vertical/modernist block (Figure 2).
The morphological evolution of the block over time was either associated with its urban
evolution, or with the urgent need to rebuild the city.

Figure 2. Typological evolution of the block (author’s scheme).

When it comes to issues of permeability, geometry, public/private, and the use of the limit
perimeter area and its interior, the configuration of different types of block and its interior space
is a literal response to the needs of the time. Although it is a complementary space, the backyard
plays a peripheral extension of buildings, without liability to the public space. The intervention
in an area with these characteristics must be taken as a new way.

Case studies

This part of the investigation consists on the identification and the interpretation of a set of case
studies, which in their nature include a physical occupation of the block where the interventions
1712

have a subversion of the regular structure of the interior of the block. The four examples were
chosen according criteria of differentiation in the settlement of the block itself, including its
permeability.
This analysis does not aim to make a complete presentation of the project but make known
types of intervention of this type of sets, adopting a graphic and abstract analytical model.
In order to arrange these examples, an identity characterization (a keyword) was created, for
each one. This analysis has in account key points such as ‘densification’, ‘flow’ and
‘permeability’ of each case.

“Preservation”

Figure 3. Quarteirão Império, Block conversion, Chiado, Lisboa,Portugal, Arch. Gonçalo

Byrne.

Figure 4. Graphical representation of Quarteirão Império (author’s photographs and

scheme).
 1713

Figure 5. Rue des Suisses, Housing + Offices + Parking, Paris, France, Arch. Herzog & de
Meuron.

Figure 6. Graphical representation of Rue des Suisses (author’s photographs and shceme).
“WEB”.

Figure 7. FÜNF HÖFE, Block conversion, Theatinerstraße, Munchie,

Alemanha, Arch. Herzog & de Meuron.
1714

Figure 8. Graphical representation of Fünf Höfe (author’s photographs and scheme).

Figure 9. Library, eldery and public space, Block conversion, Barrio Sant Antoni,
Barcelona, Spain, Arch. RCR.

Figure 10. Graphical representation of RCR library (author’s photographs and scheme).
Guimarães urban development
 1715

The intervention in a pre-existence requires an attitude of preservation. The preservation of

cultural and historical heritage of a city retains the longevity of the memory of the local people
and the actions and interventions in this, are what shape it and keep it “alive”, through time.
The study of Guimarães’ urban evolution is intended to help in conducting a clearer thought
and action.
Mattoso (2002) identifies 6 different stages on the evolution of the city (Figure 7): 1) the
“Bipolarization” (950-1279); 2) the “Gothic union” (1279-1498); 3) the “Renaissance,
Mannerist and Baroque Requalification” (1496-1750); 4) The “Rococo, Pombalin and
Neoclassical Reform” (1750-1863); 5) the “Eclecticism and Industrial expansion” (1853-1926);
6) the “Modern-monumental magnification and renewal” (1926-1974).

Figure 11. Urban development of Guimarães (author’s scheme).

The contemporary city

Since 1985, and as a response to the management of the recovery process from the historic
center, Guimarães has a municipal office responsible for this task (a.k.a. GTL).
Along with the recovery process, the objective of maintaining the resident population and the
preservation/restoration of the authenticity of the ways to intervene in the heritage, make part of
the scope of GTL. It was intended that operations undertaken by GTL had an exemplary
character, thus constituting pedagogical instruments and incentives to private enterprise in the
rehabilitation of the historic center.
1716

The GTL, through both internal and central government financing, has structured a set of
action that, in addition to the buildings, also focuses on public spaces as a method to induce
private capital investment in buildings of those areas.
According to the City Council, while maintaining a specific character of the different epochs
of the evolution of the city readable in various architectures, registration matrices and new
designs of public spaces, interventions in public spaces gives them greater dignity also through
the introduction of new infrastructure structures.
Through the rehabilitation of public spaces, squares and wide streets are returned to the city
and to its inhabitants and visitors, that with the continued growth of the city had turned into
chaotic parking spaces. Currently, 90% of intramural public spaces are already rehabilitated,
mainly areas for pedestrians, motorized pathways and streets with side parking areas. These
actions constitute a valuable contribution for the authenticity that has maintained/replaced but
also to reinstate the historic city as a cultural meeting place with self-identity.
But Guimarães city council also reports all the current problems in the city, in order to show
their future intentions and to improve inhabitants’ quality lifetime.
Two of them that captured our attention, due not only to high priority need of action: the lack
of public green spaces in the city, as well as the lack of parking spaces.

Intervention – proposal for new green public urban space and parking lot inside a block

The last part of this paper aims to present a practical response to the problems previously
reported in the city of Guimarães. The methodology for this part lays in the characterization of
the site, through a morphological analysis of the object of study, the presentation of its current
status and then the presentation of the intervention developed.
The project-oriented approach as a result of the combination of the initial phase of
theoretical research of the evolution of the block, with the analysis of four case studies; the
urban development of Guimarães; and the account of the current problems of the urban fabric
(lack of green space and parking).
This consists in the development of a strategy for rehabilitation of block voids that pretends
to be a plan to revitalize these spaces, applied at an early stage to a single block, and should be
understood as a starting point and help for future analysis or proposal development. This
strategy is intended to be extended and applied to other city blocks.
As mentioned before, the city of Guimarães suffered a major investment in infrastructure
level on time of industrial reform (1850-1900) and therefore a large and disproportionate growth
to its peripheral area.
The peripheral expansion relieved not only the city center traffic, but also, with the
construction of new public use equipment, the city center importance, that lately started being
uninhabited, started decreasing.
Guimarães is also characterized by a strong investment in traditional trading and has
gradually suffer from this problem, manifesting itself not only by the abandonment of
inhabitants of the historic center, but also of traders disgusted with the lack of movement and
high rates rental of their stores.
The programmatic objective of the intervention enshrined as fundamental points of
intervention: 1) the cleansing and revitalizing the 'core' of the block; 2) recovery and increase of
green areas; 3) systematic urban rehabilitation unit; 4) improving relations with the traditional
trade; 5) the introduction of parking lot space; 6) to be a future recovery booster of existing
buildings with architectural interest and value.

The “Central Block”

The block that was chosen to be intervened (Figure 12) is located in the central area of the city,
in the parish of São Paio, develops in approximately 2.48 ha and is bounded by the following
arteries: Rua de Santo António; Largo Navarros de Andrade; Rua Gil Vicente; Rua Paio Galvão
 1717

and Largo do Toural. The criteria used to select the block to be operated upon were the location
- this is close to the historic center, where parking supply is considerably less; and its
configuration - by its size, its uses and permeability. Also in relation to location, the proximity
to the historic center gains importance when reflected on the issue of parking and green spaces.

Figure 12. Aerial view of “central block” (author’s scheme).

Starting from one of the main objectives of this work, the development of an intervention
strategy in a set of blocks, with detail of an architectural reinterpretation proposal on a specific
block, the survey and characterization of the object are tailored to the scale of detail that this
intervention reaches.
Thus, and on an assumed plastic shed, natural photographic surveys of each street,
supplemented with information about the current uses of the buildings will be presented (Figure
13). With these analysis we intend to essentially realize the current configuration of streets and
buildings (forming the block).

Figure 13. Example of urban form analysis (author’s scheme).

The retaining of the analyses of streets bounding the block, and applied to the question of the
block configuration, is essentially the size of the object in question, to be sufficient to
accommodate a car park and generous public green space. Also documented in street analysis, is
the fact that the entire ground floor of the block is occupied by buildings for the services and /
1718

or trade, but also occasionally by vacant buildings. The fact that the object in question has old
servitude paths in its interior, was also a configuration criterion for the choose. Openings are
“tunnels” that tear ground floor buildings, in order to access its interior and to enjoy these
shortcuts (even if you have to “break in” some private properties).

Current situation

The “central” block consists of 68 buildings. Apart from these, there is an amalgam of others,
which were built by the owners of the first ones - sheds, outbuildings, factories (now made car
garages), warehouses and paths of servitude - sometimes as an extension of own home, or as
support for other activities (Figure 14).

Figure 14. Layers of constructions on “central” block (author’s scheme).

As demonstrated above, the 'central' block is permeable, to the extent that there are now
ways of public servitude which are understood as shortcuts between streets opposite the block.
In addition to the permeability question, are the constructions on old backyards (which can be
difficult to access by other inhabitants) that will be shown below (Figure 15).

Figure 15. Example of access tunnels to the blocks’ interior (author’s photographs).
 1719

Cleaning

The first step after an analysis of the block and of its elements, towards the intervention, the
main objective was to building the 'core'/void of the same. Considering first the nature of them -
the fact that they were built in ancient spaces, or appropriations by the perimeter buildings - and
later its uses, it was decided (by the author), the total demolition of the same (Figure 16).
Since hennery, to vehicles garages, or even a factory quenched with approximately 2000m2 area
of deployment, these buildings are strongly characterized by a poor state of repair.

Figure 16. Axonometric representation of final block cleansing (author’s drawing).

Proposal

The proposed revitalization for the block is, as previously stated, the resolution of problems of
the current urban fabric. The configuration and location of the studied block, along with the
introduction of the new program, allows not only to reclaim unused spaces; it also aims to
improve the day-to-day lives of residents / visitors; the enhancement of the existing public
space; and a better relationship with traditional commerce (via their ennoblement, or the
strengthening of its symbolism and historical identity).
The constructive concept basis of the project shall take the cleaning done in the 'core' of the
block and transpose it to the new underground car park. Through this step, the interior facades
of buildings are delimiters, while defining identity to the new space, with only adjustments in
nonsense situations (Figure 17).

Figure 17. Ground level and underground level configuration (author’s drawings).

This action of extending interior façade walls’ base lines few meters below ground bring the
block to the park, although underground and away from all outside movement, has its limits in
an urban form common in the city of Guimarães – the irregularity of an urban front.
Admittedly, and as a further attempt to return old living spaces to the block’s interior, the
natural slope of the ground floor terrain was also transposed (distance parallel) to the floor of
the new parking lot. This decision facilitates access to the park because all the ramps have the
same slope, since the height inside the park is the same regardless of the dimension of the street
outside we meet up.
1720

The block’s permeability, previously marked by informal access, now becomes a key point
in the project. The old tunnels have now been improved, allowing not only direct pedestrian
access to the interior of the block, as they are ramps to the underground floor.
As mentioned before, one of the criteria for choosing this particular block was due to the fact
that the entire ground floor is occupied by buildings devoted to commerce / services. This
applies now in the proposal stage, to the extent that, by making the 'core' of the low block
accessible to all, being totally clean, allows all buildings of this type to gain a second front for
the public space. In the case of these spaces are buildings dedicated to commerce, the new front
opening allows a new area available for opening terraces, which in all cases is not possible for
the outdoor street. These buildings are now referred to as "carpet-buildings".
The ground floor urban treatment consisted on pavement processing, green landscape,
permeable entries and vertical access boxes to the car park. Also in relation to commerce-
dedicated buildings, these were chosen as the subject of another of the main concepts of the
project – “the carpet-buildings”. As the natural unfolding of a carpet after its acquisition, from
the back (interior façades of the block) of these buildings, a different pavement arises, guided by
the limits of each building, until the building on the interior block opposite façade. This space is
essentially reserved for the placement of these terraced buildings (Figure 18).

Figure 18. Urbanistic treatment of ground floor (author’s drawing).

The used materials intend to continue the identity and the memory of the ones used
originally around the block. We are faced with three different types of materials: cobblestone,
screed and lawn.
On the ground floor level, almost all of the area, resort to the use of gardens, that are being
cut by the 'carpets', initially 'unfold' of the rear of the buildings in cobblestone, changing to
screed, when in turn, these intersect the openings for natural underground lightning on slab
(Figure 19).

Figure 19. Openings for underground natural lightning (author’s drawings).

 1721

The slab dividing the two levels work as a dual structure: a first that connects from the block's
buildings and stops in tears and a second (larger) to complete the entire interior of the “core” of
the block. Both work as green roofs, planned to drain away rainwater (Figure 20).

Figure 20. Final ground floor solution (author’s drawing).

Conclusion

With the developed proposal, we had shown how urban form can influence the configuration of
a project. This proposal also raised important issues related to the experience of contemporary
cities, including the appropriations and the uses to which its inhabitants make of urban spaces.
The abandonment of the historic centres by their users, situation that belongs to a cycle
connoted with political, social and demographic change, causes morphological structures, their
heritage, their identity and its people, to be forgotten and only recorded in the memory of those
who lived them.
In the case of a city such as Guimarães, which has agencies responsible for developing
strategies for the historic center; and for which interest has been shown (first with the
appointment of Cultural Heritage by UNESCO ®, then with the European Capital of Culture,
and more recently with the European Capital of Sport), as well as investment, this process has to
be caught and new solutions created.
One of the solutions addressed in this paper involves the raw analysis to places that lost their
identity over time, either through lack of interest, or a wrong appropriation. This results in
problems that need to be clogged, in order to give back its initial strength.
The specific case here focused, in which a void of a completely uncharacteristic block,
became not only a driver of change in the surrounding, as returned strong past development
factors, helped us to realize how a city dweller can respond to a series of reported problems,
turning it into a future high interest practical application.

References

Costa, J. P. (2013) ‘O quarteirão. Elemento experimental no desenho da cidade contemporânea’, in Dias

Coelho, C. (coord.) Os elementos urbanos. Cadernos de Morfologia Urbana. Estudos da cidade
portuguesa, Vol. 1 (Argumentum, Lisboa) 122-143.
Lamas, J. M R. G. (2011) ‘Morfologia Urbana e Desenho da Cidade’. (Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian,
Lisboa).
Mattoso, J. et al (2002) ‘Guimarães Património Cultural da Humanidade’ (Câmara Municipal de
Guimarães-GTL, Guimarães).
1722

Reviving the heart of a historical metropolis: Comparative

study between different urban forms in downtown Cairo,
Egypt

Kareem Adel Ismail

School of Architecture and Planning, National Institute of Creative Arts and Industries
University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand. E-mail: [email protected].

Abstract. In a historical Metropolis like Cairo, where 20 million people live in a city with more than
1000 years of history, many social, economic and environmental problems arise, threatening the
historical heritage and the unique urban form that the city have. Downtown Cairo area including Tahrir,
Attaba and Opera squares as well garden city area are clear example of this dilemma; these squares and
surrounding areas located in the heart of Cairo have suffered from continuous deterioration through the
last three decades, with a wide range of complex problems ranging from spread of informal markets,
traffic congestion, and most significantly loss of cultural historical values. Through this paper,
researcher investigates the existing challenges and issues facing these areas, comparing between its
urban form patterns, usage and its effect on the heart of the historical city. The collected data about the
current conditions and resident’s problems were partly gathered through survey, site visits, and visits to
responsible authorities. Data analysis showed that the difference between urban forms between areas is
also related to socio-economic and functional aspects. Those aspects raise the need for an integrated
urban design proposal which connect between these different urban patterns to solve the congested
downtown area problems, with consideration to the continuous radical changes to the function of these
areas due to socio-political circumstances. In conclusion, the researcher relate between these areas
through integrated urban design trying partly to solve part of the main problems facing downtown area
and preserving its rich cultural and historical heritage.

Key Words: Downtown Cairo, Tahrir Square, integrated urban design, historical conservation.

Introduction

The city is the peak of human civilization and the optimal model to represent the human
settlement, and any nation’s civilization could be measured by their protection of history and the
renaissance of their cities.
Cairo is a clear model for this statement, it is not only the capital of Egypt and centre of
government, but also considered the biggest metropolitan centre in the middle east, with more
than 16 million inhabitants (Egyptian statistics agency, 2006). In addition Cairo is considered as
well as a major centre for trade located in the bottom of Nile river delta as shown in figure (1)
and also as a well-known tourist destination where wonders of the Egyptian Civilization
throughout all its different ages exist.
Cairo as a city with over one thousand years of civilization since its establishment in the
reign of the Fatimid state has passed through several changes. One of the most important of
these changes is the developments made by Khedive Ismail ruler of Egypt in the late nineteenth
century when he wanted to turn Cairo to be Paris of the east, inspired by his French education
and preparing the city to be with European flavour to host the opening ceremony of Suez Canal
in 1869. The Khedive constructed downtown area including Attaba square, Khedival opera
house, Opera square and Azbakiyya Garden with lots of iconic buildings designed by famous
Italian and French architects (Aga Khan Trust for Culture, 2004).
 1723

Figure 1. Map of Cairo location within Egypt. Source: University of Texas Library (2013).

Since that date in 1869, the importance of Attaba and Opera area has increased rapidly
specifically during 1940s, when it became the real cultural heart of Cairo with the presence of
the opera house, national theatre, cultural cafe and cinemas all in one place, surrounded by
Islamic monuments from the east and Khedival downtown from the west. During 1940’s, Tahrir
square (known in that time as al-ismaelia square) was constructed as a place to memorize
Khedive Ismail.But it became more important as Tahrir Square was the focal point of political
change in Egypt in the last three years through 25th January revolution and its continuous waves,
plus that Garden city area constructed around the same time was initially designed to be a place
for foreigner diplomats with lots of villas and circular shaped streets
Therefore, focus of this paper will be on Downtown Area highlighted, Attaba /Opera squares
area highlighted in green and Tahrir/ Garden City area highlighted in blue as shown in map (2).
Furthermore, Cairo overall have passed under some massive changes during the past fifty years,
but specifically downtown including Tahrir square, Attaba/Opera and garden city areas has
suffered from continuous deterioration of the heritage buildings and the urban form.
That deterioration of the urban form is mainly caused by absence of integrated management
of the site, spread of informal markets, traffic congestion pressure and the continuous crisis of
the Egyptian economy in the last 20 years.
The paper starts with explanation of used methodology, the theoretical framework followed
by morphological analysis of the selected sites in Downtown Cairo area, then comparison
between the urban patterns of the sites based on literature review and finally reviewing of the
urban renovation projects in the area and ways to integrate between them.

Methodology

A comprehensive methodology is adopted to investigate the existing issues in the area,

comparing the urban forms of the different sites leading to formulation of integrated design
solutions based on existing and future urban renovation projects. The methodology is based on
usage of multiple sources of evidence which are a) fieldwork- survey with different users in
Attaba and Opera area including residents; b) observation of the sites current conditions; c)
semi-structured interviews with officials from different agencies responsible of the area to get
data and their views about the study area situation like (traffic department, antiquities council,
1724

Cairo governorate, etc.); d) different documents from literature about Downtown Cairo
development.
Putting into consideration that paper is focusing on Downtown area through reviewing of the
revitalization of Khedival Cairo project made by al-ismaelia Company, as wellOld Islamic
Attaba andCairo
Opera squares as it was the study are for a design competition won by the author early 2011.
However Garden city area analysis is totally based on aerial maps.

Figure 2. Map showing the case study sites. Source: Map edited by author, extracted from
Google Earth (2014).

Morphological analysis of urban pattern for case study sites (Downtown, Attaba / Opera
squares, Garden city)

As mentioned by Batty (2008) urban morphology is described as the patterns of urban structure
based on the way activities are ordered with respect to their location, based on that definition
Downtown Cairo sites with its urban systems is an interesting area for analysis. Mainly because
of the different patterns that exist in these areas and how they are connected together. The
analysis focus will be on a) Socio-economic changes in the sites, b) Traffic and pedestrian
movements, c) Land use and urban pattern and how all of these layers effect on the urban form.

Downtown (wust el balad)

Since its establishment in the 70’s of the nineteenth century by Khedive Ismail, Downtown area
gained increasing importance from begin the only downtown of historical Cairo where people
need to pay to cross Kasr El-Nile bridge to reach it, designed like Paris with roads and wide
pedestrian walkways, to be by in the beginning of 21st century one of many downtowns in
metropolitan Cairo and centre of government, trade (place of stock market) and vibrant informal
markets (Jean-luc.1993).

History

The area with its 160 years history, have gone through many phases which could be explained
as follows; a) Construction “attraction of uses” which was during 1870’s till World War I,
where the elite families and foreign diplomats owned most of the houses in the area specially
after British occupation of Egypt in 1882. These foreigners and other residents try to imitate the
European life style through urbanisation within the area which increased significantly between
1874 in figure (3) in comparison with status in 1896 in figure (4).
 1725

Figure 3. Downtown map in 1874.

Figure 4. Downtown map in 1896.

Second stage between 1919 till end of royal era in 1952 which could be called b) Booming
stage, affected by 1919 revolution and reforms in first elected government in 1924, accessibility
of the common Egyptians to the area increased as well the economic activities in Downtown,
that trend continues till it reached a peak point during World War II, with European
immigrating to Egypt, specially Cairo and Alexandria escaping from war, where the Egyptian
Kingdom in that time was a safe paradise with stable strong economy for their businesses,
where the uses enriched the urban pattern (Jean-luc.1993).
These factors plus innovation of cinema made Downtown centre of entertainment with lots
of shops, cinemas and became vibrant centre of culture and shopping destination for elite after
1952 revolution against the royal family and departure of King Farouk. Downtown under
revolution rule faced some major changes in its socio-economic structure of residents, where
Europeans begin to the leave the area and Egypt, scared from political change and socialism
1726

laws adaptation by new government replaced by army officers near to power circles and rich
Egyptian families (Janet Abu-Lughod, 2004).
Furthermore, because of increase in population, rising economic crisis and government
desire to build new urban centres for Cairo, uses changed with in governmental organisations
and commercial activities, which turn by time and due to weak administration to be informal
markets destroying the heritage building.

Figure 5. Map of case study areas in 1874.

Socio-Economic conditions

These historical changes and increase in population as shown in map (6), affected number of
households and type of jobs in the area, where commercial activities had huge increase with
more technical jobs. The thing that increased the area users (shop owners, residents, street
vendors, tourists), and based on Zakaria, M & Institute For International Urban Development
(2010) several issues for users raised as shown in table (1), effecting the urban form and
pedestrian experience.

Figure 6. Population increase in Downtown area from 1960- 2006.

 1727

Table 1. Users perception of problems and preferable solutions in Downtown area.

User category Main problems Needs and preferable solutions

The street vendors occupying The restoration of historical buildings
the area, no recreational Transfer of street markets outside the area
Residents
places, high traffic Give priority for reusing of public spaces rather
congestion than commercial activities.
No stable place for street Design markets that have permanent place for
Vendors and vendors, negatively affecting street vendors, free the facades of the main stores
Merchants the big stores from any additions or constraints.
Crowded pedestrian ways, Transferring street vendors outside the walkways
Passengers Street vendors destroying the and squares, usage of more traffic signs and
pedestrian experience renovation of historical buildings
No services either in Redesign of walkways, preservation of the
Tourists and accommodation or cultural/ historical sites. Improving the
others transportation, plus no care transportation and controlling the informal
for cultural sites. markets occupying pedestrian walkways

Transportation and pedestrian movement

The traffic movement in downtown area is depending on five main routes for pedestrian and
vehicular traffic and where most activities which are 26th July, AbdElkahikSarwat, TalaetHarb,
Kasr El Nile, Mohamed Sabri streets highlighted in blue in figure (7). Where traffic using
Downtown area to transfer from Tahrir square to Islamic Cairo, Attaba / Opera either through
roads or underground metro (Zakaria, M & Institute For International Urban Development,
2010) Although of the radial grid of streets, but the rapid increase of traffic volume is obstructed
by informal markets and affected the heritage buildings, which create a major traffic congestion
problem.

Figure 7. Downtown pedestrian and transportation routes map.

1728

Land use and urban pattern

The land uses is totally related to urban form, figure (8) show the spread of commercial uses,
hotels, banks, cinemas and governmental offices around the main routes previously mentioned.
It could be observed through figure (9), the main routes highlighted in blue with around 9
meters width, secondary routes in yellow with around 6 meters width and how both of them
connect between main squares (red circles) and minor intersections (blue circles). This radial
grid divided the area into four main precincts, with minor differences in uses, block sizes and
walkways.

Figure 8. Map of Downtown land uses.

Figure 9. Map showing Downtown urban pattern.

Source: map edited by author, extracted from Google Earth (2014).
 1729

Attaba& Opera Square

History

Opera square was constructed during the khedival era where the opera house was constructed in
1869 to memorize the international ceremony of Suez Canal official opening. After a while in
1891, the square changed by transferring Ibrahim Pasha Statue from Attaba to the centre of the
new square, in front of opera house to make a landmark of the square in the end of khedival
Cairo, Due to the square importance, a hotel named “New hotel” was constructed in front of
Azbakiyyah Garden. The square as part of down town so it develop more and more services
were constructed nearby it like Attaba telephone central in 1962 and it became important culture
transportation space in 1960’s (El-Messri, N.,2004).
Attaba square is considered the oldest commercial square in Cairo, since establishment of
Azbakiyyah area around the Baraket El-Feill (occupied the area in the Mumluk period). In the
Khedive era, a palace was constructed called (Attaba El-Khadria) as a part of modernization
plan for Cairo. There were two streets in 1860’s one from the north of the square (Attaba Street)
and one form the east (Moskhi Street), Then Abd El-Aziz street opened in 1869, followed by
Mohamed Ali street in 1875, Prince Farouk (now El-Gheish street) in 1927 and lastly Al-Azhar
street in 1930 (El-Messri, N.,2004).
Then the square was formed since then with its present shape, and its importance increased
rapidly due to some factors, as follows: The existence of unplanned popular markets (El-Moskhi
market) as a commercial potential point between El-Gheish and Moskhi streets, The square
being the main centre of transportation trams in beginning of 20th century (as it was the main
transportation mean that contact Cairo area with each other through Attaba central station),
Destruction of Mixed Court main building which create free space for the square formation as it
is now. Existence of many important culture cafes like (Mattatya, Khedive, glass...Etc) where
famous great Egyptian authors and writers use it, Existence of many important buildings around
the square like Fire station, Cairo Post office, parliament hotel and historical buildings between
Mohamed Ali and Al-Azhar Street, existence of some culture icons like Azbakiyyah Theatre
(now known as national theatre).
a) Socio-Economic conditions
The socio-economic structure of the area is totally related to the land uses and type of economic
activities happening within the area. As shown in Figure 10 based on survey made by the author
team, the main activities are entertainment followed by commercial and business, with variety
of activities enriching the urban pattern. When related to user classification also shown in
Figure 10 show that passengers and street vendors are dominating the area with conflict of
interest with residents as shown in table 2 and different set of problems (Ismail, K,2012).

Figure 10. Showing main activities and user classifications in Attaba /Opera square area.
1730

Table 2. Users perception of problems and preferable solutions in Attaba/ Opera squares

User category Main problems Needs and preferable solutions

The street vendors occupying Restoration of houses, transferring street vendors to
Residents the area, no recreational planned markets, and adequate transportation,
places, high traffic congestion reusing of public parks and design walkways.
No stable place for presenting Designed markets that have permanent place for
Vendors and goods, main stores are street vendors and free the facades of the main stores
Merchants negatively affected by street from any additions or constraints
vendors
No safe pedestrian ways and Designed walkways connecting between bus, metro
no efficient connection and taxi stations in relation with Azibkyyia garden,
Passengers
between different and the two main squares
transportation means.
No services either in Adequate transportation services, usage of abounded
Tourists and accommodation or hotels, improved services and re design of the
others transportation, plus no care for cultural/ historical sites.
cultural sites.

Transportation and pedestrian movement

The transportation congestion in the study area is clearer in points at the end of Downtown and
start of Alazhar tunnel as shown in figure (11). The street network in Attaba and opera square is
complex, where public, private transportation are mixed with pedestrian walkways creating high
level of congestion. The transportation network include as well the underground metro station
and lines, and an overfly bridge which connects downtown with Islamic Cairo.

Figure 11. Map of Attaba/Opera transportation routes.

Land use and urban pattern

As for land uses, as shown in figure (12), there is a mixture of commercial and residential uses.
Beside those uses, there are around 15 listed buildings and cultural buildings as the national
theatre; as well, two-multi story parking buildings exist instead of the burned opera house. The
 1731

Azzbakyyia park size and location create potential for development of the area to integrate
between the main green space and surroundings urban blocks. The reuse of some commercial
buildings for the favour of cultural aspect will regain its importance within Cairo fabric.

Figure 12. Map of Attaba/Opera area land uses.

As for the urban pattern as shown in map 13 the urban blocks highlighted in red around the
squares still retain its original pattern. However, the rest of the area highlighted in yellow have
changed to narrow width and irregular structure of streets that effect on the pedestrian
experience and size of urban blocks.

Figure 13. Map showing Attaba /Operaurban pattern.

Source: Map edited by author, extracted from Google Earth (2014).

Garden City and Tahrir Square

Garden City was originally designed in 1906 like an English garden suburb to increase security
and privacy for its residents. But since then Garden city area has not seen major changes in its
urban structure since its establishment that is clear when comparing the urban pattern of the area
1732

in 1904 shown in figure (14) and the current structure shown in figure (15).The circular wide
streets dominate the pattern, enriching the pedestrian experience but decreasing the permeability
and legibility of the area especially for external users.

Figure 14. Map showing Garden city plan in 1904.

Figure 15. Map showing Garden city urban pattern. Source: map edited by author,
extracted from Google Earth (2014).

. The location on the banks of river Nile made it place for elite Egyptian families’ villas the
area and for foreign embassies and diplomats due to the privacy that the urban pattern provide
for the residents and amount of green space, with controlled linkage with Downtown and Tahrir
square through Nile Corniche and Kasr el Nile streets (Attia, S. , 2011).
. Tahrir square in the other hand, have changes its function through its history since its
establishment in end of 19th century, from being a beautiful plaza in royal Egypt as shown in
figure (16) to be a vibrant public space where millions of Egyptians use as a modern (Agora)
arena for political change as shown in figure (17).
. That purpose was clear in 25th January revolution were the square was a mini city within
the heart of Cairo, redefining the space and usage of public places.
.
Comparative Study

SWOT analysis was made for the case study area which is shown in table (3); also the areas
suffer from common problems which are as follows: high traffic congestion as the study area
 1733

sites are the centre of government, major trade hub and active political arena; deterioration of
the urban fabric due to lack of integrated management and development pressures; increase of
informal markets and uses, pollution, destruction of the historical parks and lack of green space
areas; demolition of the historical listed buildings and significant cultural sites; rapid change in
the socio-economic structure which reflects on the land uses and requires modification on the
patterns.

.
.
. Figure 16. Photo showing Tahrir square in 1940’s.
.

.
.
.
Figure 17. Photo showing Tahrir square usage as a modern political agora.
.
Table 3. SWOT analysis of the case study areas

Example of the urban blocks

Area Streets Urban Fabric Location relationship
with streets (Urban Pattern)
Proximity to the
The circular The concentric grid
Garden City &Tahrir Square

Nile River, as well

structure of the of the area has
to the governmental
streets, decrease the helped to increase
offices, kept the
permeability and the privacy and
character of the area
legibility of the area. development of
and its socio-
residential activity.
economic structure.
Effects negatively
The current uses
the accessibility of The pattern allowed
(embassies) have
the users to some spaces for wide
helped the isolation
places, but allow a walkways and
of the area from all
different pedestrian sufficient green
surroundings.
experience for users areas.
1734

The radial grid

The linear structure The location as a
allows more
of streets increases transitional point
opportunities for
the permeability of between Tahrir
increase in buildings
the area and square and Islamic
heights/ changes in
legibility of the kept the area as a
wust el balad
Downtown

uses and enriches

historical buildings. vibrant downtown.
the commercial
activities.
This structure Cinemas and uses
effects positively on increased rapidly the
The design allowed
the accessibility usage of the area, as
space for walkways,
to/from the area, well the political
open spaces, but less
enrich pedestrian events happening in
space for green
experience of the Egypt.
areas.
users.

The irregular shape

The location at the
of streets decreases The irregular grid
end Downtown and
the permeability of allowed the spread
Islamic Cairo gives
the area, where of informal markets
Opera &Attaba Square

more importance to
urban blocks are and effect on the
the area.
totally irregular in socio-economic
shape. commercial
Moskhi markets and
structure of the area.
other commercial
That effects on the
activities, dominate
accessibility and The street itself
the area above the
turned lots of the converted to be
cultural activities
streets to informal walkway with no
(national theatre),
pedestrian alleys open spaces or
with lots of traffic
and create lots of green areas with the
congestion and
traffic congestion urban pattern.
informal markets.
problems.
.
b) Integrated Projects (Way Forward)

The Revitalization of Khedival Cairo

The goal of this project is to restore the cultural character of Downtown area, through
restoration of the historical buildings and redesign of the walkaways in the area to improve the
pedestrian accessibility. These project master plan shown in figure (18), is mainly depending on
turning some routes within Downtown area to be pedestrian only, improving main public spaces
within the area like spaces shown in figures (19, 20) including Opera square. The project
management and funding is through cooperation between private sector and governmental
authorities, aiming towards the preservation of its valuable building stock and restoring its
environmental quality.
 1735

Figure 18. Master plan for revitalization of Khedival Cairo project.

The following four categories of interventions have been selected based on report by Al-
Ismailia for Real Estate Investments (Zakaria, M & Institute For International Urban
Development, 2011):
1. Improving the pedestrian circulation network by- widening selected sidewalks and
restoring segments of the through block pedestrian passages;
2. Preserving and restoring the facades of historic structures that have suffered from
deterioration;
3. Restoring and maintaining the quality of the Area’s many late nineteenth and early
twentieth century landmark buildings, preservation of the urban pattern;
4. Regeneration of the area economics through presentation of the housing stock and
development of the tourism activity (hotels and iconic character of the area).

Figure 19. Photos showing space in from to Cairo high court now and proposed future
design.
1736

Figure 20. Photos showing Opera square now and proposed future design.

Figure 21. Aerial perspective of proposed connection between Giza governorate and
Downtown area. Source of photos (19, 21, 21) Attia, S (2011) the revitalization of Khedival
Cairo, The Winning prize 2001 AC & AECOM

Attaba and Opera Squares “Heart of the Heart”

"Heart of the heart” is the proposed project theme which arises from the fact that Attaba area is
considered the heart of Cairo, which is the heart of Egypt. While the main attention was to
preserve the area and design the new opera house, it was more important to form an integrated
sustainable vision for the area development, which includes both built environment and
residents, not only preserving the past through restoration of the historical buildings, enriching
the urban form and redesign the area, but also developing the quality of life for residents of the
area.
As shown in figure (22), the concept is designed to address the area’s problems, and that is
through creation of four centres within the three main roads. The location of each centre is
integrated with the uses in the surrounding areas, so the transportation centre is related to the
Attaba metro station and in proximity to Ramses main train station and nearby Downtown area.

Figure 22. The project main concept.

 1737

Furthermore, the commercial centre include accommodating all street vendors using all free
land and replacing deteriorated buildings in the north east point in well-designed markets to be
as an extension of the Islamic Cairo markets, the business centre is considered as an extension
of the business downtown area. The integrated transportation solution shown in figure (23) tries
to create alternative routes for vehicular traffic outside the area.

Figure 23. Proposed integrated transportation plan.

And create two main pedestrian plazas (Opera /Attaba), the master plan shown in figure 24,
clearly present the proposed development of a complex chain of regulated markets, that is
through replacement and refurbishment of some ruined buildings adjacent to the area, and usage
of some land-use space to create a developed market to accommodate the wholesale Moskhi
market in a civilized manner that preserves the rights of these merchants (Ismail, K, 2012).

Figure 24. The project master plan.

The Azzbakyyia garden is redesigned in its original size after elimination of all buildings, all
keeping the national theatre and the book market to be as a cultural park with an open space
theatre in the North West side. The two squares are connected through pedestrian walkways;
and the proposed urban patterns as shown in figure (25) are designed to reflect the new
1738

character of the squares which is shown in figure (26) the aerial project perspective (Ismail, K,
2012).

Figure 25. Map showing proposed urban pattern.

Figure 26. Aerial perspective of the proposed design of Attaba/Opera square.

Tahrir square and Garden city future plans

The importance of the square have led many designers to reflect the vibrant character of the
place through preserving the public open space and increase pedestrian accessibility to the area
as shown in figure 27. However, some other examples focused on increasing the green space to
be supporting spaces for the buildings around the square as shown in figure 28. But till now, no
concrete competition or plan was made to redesign the square (ICARCH gallery, 2011).
 1739

Figure 27. Map showing proposed plan for Tahrir Square.

As for Garden city area, the unique design and existing land uses, has inspired the authorities
and local non-governmental organisations to have minimal intervention in changing the area,
but rather trying to preserve that unique pattern and connect it with the surrounding
neighbourhoods. However, the continuously changing political situation have stooped all efforts
to develop the area heritage sites, with evolving threats on the historical listed buildings
(ICARCH gallery, 2011)

Figure 28. Another example of proposed plan for Tahrir Square.

.
.
Conclusion

The structure of downtown Cairo is really complex, populations increase, economic situation
and socio-political circumstances add to that complexity. Also that urban form of these complex
sites needs to be related to the socio-economic aspects of the residents, which should be
included in any future integrated approach that tries to create sustainable, vibrant, and dynamic
centre (heart) for the capital. Such centre that emphasis on the need of residents to a safe
pedestrian environment with more efficient public transportation patterns. In the same time, the
transportation main problems must be solved through elimination of the conflict points between
1740

pedestrian and vehicle movements, integrating them instead through pedestrian pathways that
are connected to public and private transportation points.

References

Aga Khan Trust for Culture (2004).Cairo, Revitalising a historic metropolis. Umberto Allemandi& C.,
Turin.
Attia, S (2011) “Revitalization of Downtown as center for social democracy and sustainable growth”,
(http://www.ecocitybuilders.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Attia-including.pdf) accessed 30 April
2014
Batty, M (2008) “Cities as Complex Systems: Scaling, Interactions, Networks, Dynamics and Urban
Morphologies”in the Encyclopedia of Complexity & System Science, Springer, Berlin, DE,
forthcoming
El-Messri, N. (2004).A changing perception of public gardens, in “Cairo, Revitalising a historic
metropolis report.Umberto Allemandi& C., Turin.
Egyptian statistics agency (2006).Egypt total population census results. El-Ameriya print, Cairo.
General organization of Physical Planning (GOPP) (2006).”Study about green spaces in Cairo”. El-
Ameriya print, Cairo.
ICARCH gallery (2011) “international architectural competitions”
(http://tahrircompetition.wordpress.com/category/uncategorized/) accessed 10 April 2014"
Ismail, K (2012) “Reviving the Heart of a historical metropolis: Case study of Ataba and Opera Square
design, Cairo, Egypt” in ICBEDC conference, South Australia University, Adelaide, Australia
Janet Abu-Lughod, J. (2004). “Cairo, an Islamic metropolis”. Umberto Allemandi& C., Turin.
Jean-luc, A .(1993), "Maps of Cairo and the Development of the City at the End of the 19th Century.” In
Environmental Design: Journal of the Islamic Environmental Design Research Centre 1-2, edited by
AttiloPetruccioli, 82-91. Rome: Dell’ocaEditore,
Raafat, S. (1998), “A Retrospective PART I” (http://www.egy.com/landmarks/gardencity/gdncity01.html)
accessed 25 May 2014
University of Texas Library (2013) ”Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection”;
(http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/cia13/egypt_sm_2013.gif) accessed10 May 2014
Zakaria, M & Institute For International Urban Development (2010) “Atlas of revitalization Strategies for
Areas in Khedivial Cairo” made for Al-Ismailia for Real Estate Investments, (http://al-ismaelia.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/01/Urban-Planning.pdf) accessed in 22 April 2014
Zakaria, M & Institute For International Urban Development (2011) “Revitalization Strategies for Areas
in Khedivial Cairo” made for Al-Ismailia for Real Estate Investments, (http://al-ismaelia.com/wp-
content/uploads/2014/01/Assessment-Report.pdf) accessed in 25 April 2014
 1741

Urban design guideline for upgrading environmental quality

of Niasar; emphasis on morphological dimension

Sara Amini Lari, Nima Kabiri Dehkordi

Art University of Isfahan, Tehran, Iran. E- mails: [email protected],
[email protected].

Abstract. Urban design is a kind of process to meliorate environmental quality and it is trying to make
desirable place for people. Considering that environmental factors are not measurable directly; so,
finding the quality of dimensions, it is necessary to introduce this. Therefore, in this paper firstly, using
descriptive-analytical approach and documentary studies, it will provide a framework for investigating of
environmental quality with their dimensions. Then, regarding to the morphological aspect is the most
tangible and enduring aspect to review other dimensions such as visual, social, temporal, functional and
etc, has been paid to exploring the historic city Niasar (one of the historic city of Iran) with gathering
data through using observations.
Thus, recognizing and extracting the unique features of the city texture and applying knowledge of urban
design, it will be presented some guidelines to improve the environmental quality and create better place
for Residents.

Key Words: Urban design Guideline, Environmental Quality, Morphology, Niasar

Introduction

Today, Iran’s cities with inefficient and non-responsive development to the needs of
contemporary people from one hand and the loss of natural identity and Organic skeleton of the
city on the other hand have been lots of problem, This issue has caused to make a fundamental
change in its shape and form That does not have any consistency with traditional context. Niasar
city with several thousand years old which is breathing in heart of the central desert not an
exception as well and requires some exploration in its original concepts and features in addition
to meet the quality requirements of modern city.
According to the urban designing purpose which is promoting environmental desirable
qualities, “urban design guidelines”, introduced as a proper tool to guide the development in
these textures. Designing guideline is an accurate guidance document that determines the way
on implementation of development program vastly according to the urban strategies of local
authorities or other related organizations and most of the time attention to preserve the local
distinctiveness” (CABE 2000); Therefore, it is necessary to take an appropriate approach to
formulate. Hence, the current article is going to investigate the existing documents related to the
issue and has been extracted the effective factors in urban morphology from commentator’s
point of view through the library based study by the assumption that one of the designer’s
techniques for identifying the unique characteristics of every city’s texture is its morphological
analysis to gain the proper pattern for morphological analysis of Niasar and in continue will
identify the urban Insufficiency by field impressions and observations made in the city and
finally take a small step to improve the of urban desirable quality with offering Urban Design
Guidelines.
1742

Urban Design; Meanings, Its Quality & opinions

Urban design is a relatively new term that during recent years has passed various approaches
from birth to maturity. The evolution in provided definitions of urban design during last four
decades shows that (Table 1) in earl of 20th century, theorists of this profession, considered
more the aesthetic aspects and the area appearances of urban and usually, and frequently the
processes leading to the production of urban areas were ignored.

Table 1. Some definitions of urban design (source: the authors)

Theorists Definition of urban design

Gutheim Urban design is part of urban planning dealing with the aesthetics and
1963 determines the order and form of urban.
Lynch The main objective of urban design, to improve the quality of the physical
1974 environment of people and then people's quality of life through it
Urban design is a tool for "environmental quality management". Although
Michael comprehensive plans and land use plans are an important part of urban planning
Southworth 1989 but without a strong urban design, there is no guarantee that land use plan be
able to maintain or improve environmental quality.
Urban design is something beyond mere aesthetics of the urban environment or
Calthorpe artistic establishment of its elements. Urban design deals with creating and
1993 maintaining urban places in which the response to ecological issues, economic
prosperity and social life are combined in an appropriate manner.
Urban design is a complicated art, since should simultaneously seek to achieve a
set of goals, from providing shelter for activities to create a sense of place,
Jon Lang
technological enhancement of the built environment, health of financial and
1994
biological environment. Hence urban design as the art of creating relationships
between elements of the set, is the concern for several professions

From the 70s of A.D onwards, theorists such as Jan Gehl (1971, pp.143-146), by adding the
concept of activity to definitions of urban design introduced place as the common factor in all
essential activities, community and voluntary. Gehl believed that most of activities other than
necessary activities are accomplished only when an appropriate area is provided for them. Based
on this view, quality of place plays an important role. This attitude has led to the emergence of a
concept under the title of public realm in urban design: which brought place-making approach.
This approach seeks to promote more the sustainability of public places with a certain identity,
in accordance with the needs and desires of human and social activities in local communities,
poses “Quality” as one of the core concepts of urban design. In other word, nowadays the
ultimate goal of urban design is to improve environmental qualities, and what leads to
achievement is comprehensive understanding of the qualities depend on good urban design
which in most urban contexts have been analyzed (Table 2).
Since the quality design of a place, is inevitable about responding to various dimension of
that place, it’s possible to define the constructive components of quality parallel to the
constructive Component of place. So by using the model of sustainable place (Golkar, 2000)
that is derived from place model of Punter, Constructive components of urban designing
qualities are set in three groups of Functional Experimental-aesthetic and environmental.
Therefore, qualities associated with each contrastive components of place can be stated briefly
according to the table 3-
 1743

Table 2. Good urban design qualities (source: the authors)

Connoisseurs Qualities of good Urban Design

Vitality - Meaning - Compliance - Access - Control
Lynch
Permeability - Variety - Legibility - Flexibility - Visual adaptability - Perceptual
Bentley
richness - Personalization - Energy - Ecosystem
Jacobs Mixed use - Permeability - flexibility.
Life capability - identity - access to opportunities, imagination and enjoyment -
Appleyard
Meaning and authenticity - Social and public life - inclusiveness
Use and social mixing - human scale - Pedestrian-oriented - legibility - adaptability -
Tibbalds
visual pleasure
Communication - restriction - Edge continuity - axis control - spatial
Trancik
Communication
Personality - cohesion - restriction - Ease of movement - legibility - adaptability -
CABE
Variety

Figure 1. Components of a place making (source: Golkar, 2000).

Table 3. Effective qualities in introduced components (source: the authors).

Type of place components Environmental qualities

Compatibility with nature
Safety
Environmental component
The environment cleanliness
Energy Efficiency
Readability
Visual proportions
Experimental – aesthetic component Sensory richness
Identity and sense of place
Belonging color
Permeability
Variety
Inclusiveness
Functional component Climatic comfort
Safety
Adaptability
Flexibility
1744

Principles of urban morphology, opinions and elements

Urban morphology includes variety of definitions such as urban design. For instance,
MadaniPour introduce urban morphology as a systematic study of form, shape, map, structure
and functions of artifact context of the cities, the origin and mode of evolution of these contexts
over time; while according to Hillier, urban morphology is the study of social forms that have
been developed in the physical layer of a city or conversely, on how the physical form produce
or reproduce social forms (Hillier, 1985). In fact, although urban morphology is focused on the
study of city as a physical environment, but also implicitly establishes a link between spatial
and material elements of the city and social and economic forces which shapes it (Moudon,
2000). Understanding the Importance of urban morphology for city designers aid them to
acquire knowledge and to recognize local patterns of development and the process of change
(Carmona, 2003).
Although there are different approaches in relation to the study of urban form, but two main
approaches can be introduced in the field of urban geography and architecture. Hence, in order
to develop a comprehensive framework to study Niasar urban form, the ideas of theorists in the
field of geography from the viewpoint of Conzen, Caniggia, Kropf are examined, and then we
examine field of urban architecture from the perspective of Sitte and Moughtin, cullen, Colin
Rowe, Transic and Lynch.

Conzen point of view

Morphology of the German school as an organized field in geography began to get formed, and
developed by Conzen theories; he sought to explain the current structure of a city with its
historical development, he expressed urban form in three aspects of city map, city context and
land use (conzen, 1960). According to his view with the growth of the city, blocks and lands
patterns, through building accumulation, setbacks of buildings and transformation of land parts
pattern change adaptively and increasingly. Thus, he considers a morphologic period as a
representation of a stage in city development that creates distinct forms with social-economical
needs of society for cultural vision. From this perspective, he categorized morphologic areas
into three groups of organic morphologic, morphology of interventions and morphologies in
transition.

Caniggia point of view

Italian school of urban morphology which has founded since 1950 by Muratori, and continued
by Caniggia with the aim of understanding the built form through the study of historical
processes (Koster, 2001). According to him, a kind is recognized by specific morphologic
combinations that rule internal organizing and its relations with structures and nearby spaces. In
other words, type of usage has not any effect on kind and typology is determined in a specific
scale by the features of elements belonged to smaller scale which exist in the same environment.
Therefore, for each period of expansion of the city, there is a kind of base housing unit which
represents culture, religion, law, technology and economic status of the time period (Mir
Moqtadaei, 2006).

Karl Kropf point of view

Karl Kropf, made relation between the concept of Conzen urban morphology with city context
of Italian school and expressed the concept of urban form in seven levels including 1-whole city
2-urban parts (blocks and streets) 3-pieces; 4-buildings; 5-rooms and spaces; 6-building’s
structure such as walls and roofs; 7-raw and construction materials. From this perspective,
describing a context with all its details is meant to describe its components and how they are
 1745

organizing and the features are used to describe such components are: position, outline and its
internal arrangement.

Sitte and Moughtin point of view

Sitte and Moughtin perspective in relation to the study of urban form is aesthetic. They believe
in intuitive analysis method and the relationships based on the walking observer for the urban
form (Collins, 1986). For this reason, Sitte have studied the characterization of the old cities of
Europe Aesthetics emphasizing the importance of public green spaces, squares and streets in the
form of a city (Tavalaee, 2000). For this reason, they study the squares by checking the relation
between square with buildings and monuments, considering the openness of square, surrounded
space, size and form of square and spatial relations of the squares; and consider the streets by
analysis of proportionality between the length and width of the street, constituent structures of
the body of the street, perspective and how to end street to Monuments. Also about green places
he considers decorative plants in order to study the rate of creating pleasant and favorable
contrast between artificial arts and freedom nature form (Tavalaee, 2000). Also Moughtin
classified based on the ideas of Camillo sitte of streets, boulevards, squares and public parks
with and the defining features of the in public domains, and also for analysis of urban aesthetics
he listed their discipline, unity, harmony, balance, symmetry, scale, appropriateness, rhythm,
contrast and harmony.

Cullen point of view

Cullen knows the possibility of surveying the form of a city through discovering the relations
and arrangements of the elements. According to him, space in plan and section contains
different senses; in fact, he believes urban landscape as an integral element of the study, and for
this reason, he introduced three factors of optics (Serial vision), Place (the reaction of individual
towards situations like near/far, here/there and …) and Content (Color, context, type and …).
According to Gosling, Cullen’s idea regarding to changing of the centrality of the histrionics
into concentration on the common observer and his findings from environment, he added some
words to design the concepts such as wall face, street face and floor face (Gosling, 1996).
Pakzad considers Cullen, coherence, being trapped, identity, balance, unity, visibility,
confidence, complexity, connectivity, proximity, memorabilia, openness, Adornment and
incitement to explore as the features of favorable urban form (Pakzad, 2007). Bentley believes
that Cullen considers the appropriateness of relative isolation by a subtle expression, and tries
by designing of a visual structure to give clarity and character to the city. In a simple
conclusion, according to Cullen view, the main function of city is social unity; Based on this,
city should be open and accessible for public and this is possible only through linking
significant and population attractive points, maintaining important element and attractive views,
keeping hierarchy between old and new, public and private domain, by constructing family of
buildings and places.

Colin Rowe point of view

Another key tool for analysis of city form is figure-ground diagram, which Cullen was one of its
first fans (Zekavat and Farshad, 2011). In an urban environment, buildings form the shape and
environment forms the ground. Urban areas come to eye when their surroundings were
surrounded by joint or nearby buildings. If the distance between buildings become more the
buildings will be departed; in this view, it is not possible to create a positive phase, and the
relation between figure and ground disappears. To avoid such a thing, the buildings and areas
should have equal value in urban studies and the quarrel between piles and areas or form-floor
turn into cohesion, coexistence and complementarity in urban design (Zekavat and Farshad,
2011)
1746

Roger Trancik point of view

Trancik perspective about the way of city investigation and its physical intervention comprises
three Major theories:
1- Figure-ground theory that it related to two-dimensional Analysis of plan and consider six
types of grid, angular, curvilinear, Curvilinear, Radial Concentric, Axial and organic for relation
of Mass - Space in Traditional city.(Golkar, 2009)
2- Linkage theory that discuss about linking lines Connection Including sidewalks, open
linear spaces and ...; and indicate 3 general form of compositional, mega, and group form for
Spatial relationships of urban elements.
3- Place theory which is based on understanding of Cultural and human characteristics of
physical space.

Lynch and Radwin point of view

Lynch assumes the Figure of the City as a text that must be able to read it or return the
readability to it. He introduced six criteria of types and species the elements, quantity of
elements, density, texture, central structures and overall distribution of space with Radwin in
1958 to collect and analysis of city form.

Proposed framework of the research

As it mentioned before, the main goal of urban planning is improving the environmental
qualities through the constructive dimension of place. According to the issue these mentioned
has been investigated in urban morphological studies with different excretion ,it can be claimed
that, morphology as the most tangible and enduring aspects, provides the possibility of adopting
coherent approach to identify the unique characteristics of environment and using them in
creating better places for people.

Figure 2. The relationship of urban morphology and urban planning (source: the authors).

So, this paper studies the city in three scales of macro, middle and micro by urban
morphological technique in a way that is coming continue:

A: Macro scale

This level by investigation of urban background in three section of back ground, middle ground
and fore ground has studied the Spatial arrangement and interactions of natural and artificial
environments and tries to determine the mode of changing the morphologic areas in addition to
the identifying the morphological areas by study of main structure and the way of urban
development in different eras.
 1747

B: middle scale

In this level, studying super-blocks that are made by segmentation of city’s body by main streets
is taking to consideration. To this, after classification of super-blocks based on their shape,
morphological areas and major applicability of their manufacture, the study about the way of
super-block’s connection, morphology of the most important remained public spaces and the
amount of influences of each one.
In fact, this level of studies is sealing with finding responses to qualities like Legibility of
environment (by examining the basic structure of the city and placement of key elements),
permeability and security through the exploration of the super-blocks, the number of domestic
routes), Variety (distribution of land uses), local identity and harmony with nature (through
checking the super block shapes and how they interact with their natural substrate).

C: Micro scale

This step of studies is dealing with block’s morphology in their pathways, pattern’s parts and
location of establishment. So, by the studying, the way of combination of mass and space in
each urban block, Shape of the Surrounding passages, Pattern of each block’s constructive parts,
trend of change and the extent of its comp ability with the place of establishment, passages and
open space, safety of environment will be investigated; and in the next steps, by evaluating the
block’s dimension, existence of visual indicators or activities or variety of uses on that, qualities
such permeability, legibility and Variety will be study. In a step, by evaluating the place of
establishment in pieces and used materials in construction’s pattern and qualities like climate
comfortably, local identity and ecological compatibility will be study.

Morphological study of Niasar

According to what brought in previous, the morphological study of Niasar has been done in
three parts. But from the limitation of writing on one hand, and because of the paper’s
emphasize on improving the public arena’s quality on the other hand, two Scales of macro and
middle will be analyzed in this part.

Macro-scale

Niasar is located in Isfahan Province and The western part of Kashan and has been formed
completely affected by natural substrate.
As is evident in the pictures below it can be say that the physics of this city is ended to
mountain and from the other direction is ended to gardens and Plains.
Therefore, the main structure of the city can be divided into two natural and artificial parts in
which Mountains, gardens, waterfalls and surrounded greenery spaces, the main elements of
natural structure, and two north-south streets of Valiasr and Montazeri, 10 Existing districts
with Chaleqab tower, the holy area of Chartaghi, Safaviyeh Kooshk, and collection of halls
form the main elements of artificial structure of city.
Evaluating the map of historical evolution of the city shows that, it started to shape into two
waterfalls as Confluence of natural and man-made environment in North–South slope. So, many
religious signs and symbols constructed on the top of the waterfall and dominant morphological
is organic. Gradually, by new developments and expansion of the city morphology of
intervention have emerged and change the form of the development of the city from central to
linear form. The southern and north-eastern part of the city in new areas transitional
morphology has begun to appear. This significant cause uneven distribution of mass
1748

construction and gradually will take out the shape of the city from the visual and functional
balance.

Figure 3. Final pattern of urban morphological analysis (source: the authors).

 1749

Figure 4. Geographical location of Niasar.

Location of strategic view

Figure 5. The investigation of urban ground in macro-scale (source: the authors).

1- Chaleqab

3- Chartaghi

2-
Waterfall

Figure 6. The main structure of the city, mixing nature and man-made (source: the
authors).
1750

Figure 7. Form of urban development

Figure 8. Accumulations of urban indicators in heights (source: the authors).

The middle scale

As mentioned earlier, the main elements which are analyzed in this section include:
- Urban super-blocks that are made by main pathways and old pathways of city as well
(discriminant gardens of green area that change their essence to the main streets in development
process.
- Squares and Nodes that have been created in interaction with main streets
As it’s shown in following maps, the structure of main pathways of Niasar has been made by a
three parallel streets, that their morphology is different from pattern of organic pathways within
super-blocks. Mentioned passageways divided city to main super-block that characteristic of
each of them has been given in following table separately.

Organic
passageway

New passageway

Figure 9. Formation of super-blocks and Morphology of their pathways (source: the

authors).
 1751

Table 4. Investigating the morphological of super-block and their qualities (source: the
authors)

Block number
5 4 3 2 1
Super block Geometric Geometric Geometric Geometric Geometric
form regular Irregular regular regular regular
Blocks form Irregular Irregular Irregular Irregular Regular
Number of
6 10 12 11 5
Block
Super block
dimension 450*2400 800*1700 500*1000 1270*1460 460*1460
(meter)
Agriculture – Commercial
Dominant uses Agriculture Agriculture Agriculture
residential – residential

Figure and
ground diagram
for each Super-
block

Morphology of
most of the
squares

Curvilinear Organic Organic Curvilinear Axial

Pathways’
Morphology
the

legibility average Good Good Weak Weak

Permeabil
Weak Good Good Weak Weak
ity
responses
environmental qualities

Functional
average Good Good Weak Weak
Variety
Intuitive
Weak Good Good average average
richness
of

Compatibi
lity with Weak average average average average
Level

nature
Safety Weak Good Good Weak average
1752

Conclusions & providing urban design guidelines

According to what has been mentioned above, with change in the form of super blocks during
development of Niasar city, and consequently with change in the quantity and form of blocks
and their internal routs, their environmental qualities have been changed. Therefore, to analyze
the form of the city based on the provided model, it is proposed that future developments to
promote environmental qualities should be implemented based on the compatible forms and
ground. So, morphologic oriented urban design guidelines should be done with respect to the
following table.
At the end, in order to get sustainable place through increase in the environmental qualities,
all of the urban dimensions should be analyzed; and Morphology as the main aspect in
sustainable analysis is the beginning of this process.

Table 5. Providing morphological Urban Design Guidelines for Niasar (source: the
authors)

Morphological
Scale Purpose Objectives Guidelines Qualities
Factors

Using natural slope of the ground for Slope direction Natural

surface water’s disposal. & Topography harmony
Sustainability based on the preservation of urban historical and natural character

Shaping blocks according to micro-

Natural
climate, wind, and Penetration level of Ground
harmony
sun and ground’s feature.
-
Preservatio
n of natural Use of local and ecological materials Environmental Natural
features resistant to rainfall and radiation friendly harmony
and
strengtheni
Macro Scale

ng their City
Avoiding checkered segmentation,
impact on character
attention to ground’s pattern and Main Structure
the physical and
existing natural complications
structure of Identity
the city New construction should be guided in
ways that prevents the creation of Figure and
- To Sense of
formless spaces, incomprehensible, ground
regulate the Place
without specific form and edges in diagram
spatial remaining space,
structure
Maintaining and strengthening
memorable agents such as paths, Main Structure Identity
buildings, squares

City
Avoid excessive physical development character
Ground
of urban green zones Natural
harmony
 1753

Variety
Creating cultural – athletic center in Functional and
functional section of the city and dominance and Safety
neighbors distribution and
legibility

Safety
In new developments must be avoided Figure and
and
to creating the deadlock that makes the ground
permeab
Communication systems introverted diagram
ility

Classification
Create various blocks into the internal
of block in Variety
- Increase development in order to create
term of shape and
the different types of buildings and their
the major of legibility
participatin uses
manufacture
g and
encouragin
Continuing of vitality and social life

g the
pedestrian- Morphology of
Prediction of pause spaces ,and Safety