Os equipamentos culturais na transformação do espaço público da cidade contemporânea

Abstract

In the 90s, there are new urban policies, which tend to value the culture, leading to the cities to assert itself as cultural "brands". To achieve that, they contributed the redesign and organization of international events which promotes the (re)definition of urban image, bringing prestige and media coverage to the cities and encouraging the construction of cultural equipments. Thus, the present study focuses on the role that cultural equipments play in the transformation of the public space of the contemporary city. In contemporary times, the restructuring and revitalization of the city reaches its peak with the construction of equipment dedicated to culture, viewed as sociocultural values generators, being able to renew the its image, establishing itself as architectural landmarks. The public space generated by them, establish the connection with the network of urban public spaces and rehabilitate the needs of the environment, improving urban infrastructures. Therefore, the public gaines a new meaning with the introduction of the collective equipment, which tends to improve the quality of public space and to justify its prolonged occupation. Due to the cultural, architectural and urban planning changes in recent decades, in the second part of the work, will be state the Portuguese context and will be analysed three interventions proposed in three different circumstances where the cultural equipments were able to generate public space and foster economic, cultural and social urban areas are implanted. The case studies are: Casa da Música, Rem Koolhaas (1999-2005) - in the context of Porto 2001 -; Platform of Arts and Creativity, Pitágoras Arquitectos (2011-2012) - under the Guimarães 2012 -; Cultural Centre in Castelo Branco, Josep Lluís Mateo (2007-2013) - under the Polis Programme.