Construir a Cidade Continuada: Processos e Imaginários

Abstract

How to act, today, in the contexts of extensive urbanization, given the loss of the model, the disbelief in the rule and the absence of an idea of whole? This thesis starts by acknowledging the lack of appropriate planning tools to act in the extensive urbanization contexts, which are the majority, not only in size but also in residents and jobs. We argue that this lack of tools is mainly due to a mismatch between, on the one hand, the analysis, assessment and intervention apparatuses established by the architecture and urbanism disciplines, and, on the other hand, the heterogeneity of urban contexts and the real conditions for their transformation. Using the diffuse urbanization of the Ave Valley (NW of Portugal) as a laboratory, the thesis aims at better understanding this mismatch and contributing to the development of more appropriate and operative municipal planning practices. This is done in two domains: The first relates to the spatial planning culture and framework, still indebted to the modernist doctrine, which has shown to be unable to steer the most common urbanization processes, which are mainly the result of the successive addition of autonomous private developments. The thesis seeks alternative practices, no longer based on determining the form of the whole, but on a daily urban management capable of guiding the integration of each new fragment into the whole, ensuring its participation in the construction of a broader and more coherent system. The second relates to the urban models that dominate the disciplinary culture, which are alien to the extensive urbanization scenarios. The search is for new ways of seeing the territories, less dependent on predetermined models and more able to recognize endogenous values and resources. We argue for the promotion of a broad and inclusive discussion about the landscapes, supporting the collective construction of new spatial imaginaries, which are necessary to mobilize and coordinate the multiple actors involved in the territories' transformation. In the end, the reflections and proposals presented along the thesis are reframed in light of the most recent changes in our socioeconomic context, aiming to point useful paths - for both planning and research practices - in view of the challenges that lie ahead.