A Imagem do Subúrbio: forma e uso na criação da imagem de Rio de Loba, Viseu

Abstract

The suburbs remain as ignored urban spaces when it comes to the study of the city, as if they did not exist beyond the complexity of road junctions and seemingly uncontrolled expansion. The term is regularly held as pejorative and even removed from the vocabulary of urban planning. There seems to be little interest in understanding how people live in the suburbs, how they use their public space, and what is the image people create of them. Viseu's suburbs present numerous situations of interest to address as to how people use its public space. By focusing on a populous area of these suburbs - Rio de Loba - it is possible to approach the life that exists in the suburban public space on a deeper level and understand how its form shapes these uses. Supported by authors who approach this theory of image and use of the city, by the study of the recent urban development of Viseu, and also by a careful methodology (using cartography, photography and collection of testimonies in fieldwork), an observation device of Rio de Loba is developed. From the analysis of these suburbs of Viseu, the cul-de-sac takes shape as a synthesis of a greater mode of suburban development where the main characteristics of this type of city territory can be observed.