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Vacant land in the city: potential functional, ecological and aesthetic roles in the urban landscape
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Orientador(es)
Resumo(s)
The growth of contemporary cities has been accompanied by the appearance of forgotten and abandoned
spaces, as well as derelict structures that are part of a broad category of neglected and unoccupied spaces
within cities. This situation which arises for economic reasons, property speculation, and the consequent
expansion of the suburbs has become an important topic, as can be seen from the international bibliographical
review about the “reuse” of vacant land and derelict structures in cities.
Traditionally urban planning dealt with growth which was the centre of attention. Modern urban planning arose
in the 19th century associated with the need to find suitable housing for a growing urban population, and it
retained this function over almost the entire 20th century. Although during that period there were some ruins
that urban planners had to cope with, such destruction was occasional and scattered, linked to cataclysms or
other exceptional circumstances.
In the final quarter of the 20th century urban planners were faced with situations that had been unknown in the
lives of cities. Suddenly they found that not only the central areas of agglomerations but also entire urban
regions were losing residents and businesses instead of growing.
These “perforated/random” abandoned or vacant spaces are a potential challenge when it comes to assigning
them new “functions”. Most of these spaces house ecological formations. Some are the remnants of gardens
or derelict green structures that survive over time and very often also perform a social role, but usually
underperform.
This study seeks to raise awareness of the aesthetic, functional and ecological qualities that these abandoned
spaces can bring to a city and discuss ways of integrating them into the urban landscape that go beyond the
conventional urban restoration models but rather represent alternative intervention solutions that may be
applied permanently or temporarily. The refurbishing or reorganising of these spaces will strength the urban
ecological structure in addition to providing green spaces and so contribute to the promotion and preservation
of biodiversity, urban resilience and risk mitigation.
The study presented here is part of the NoVOID Project – “Ruins and vacant lands in Portuguese cities:
exploring hidden life in urban derelicts and alternative planning proposals for the perforated city”, funded by the
FCT and which is based on the identifying and classifying of the main vacant and derelict urban spaces (ruined
buildings and public places, vacant plots and abandoned or suspended projects) and assigning them an
occupation in line with the new trends and sensitivities of architecture, landscape architecture and other
specialist fields. The project, based on genuine situations in the Portuguese cities of Lisbon and Barreiro,
seeks to contribute to sustainable urban and landscape proposals, of a temporary or permanent nature, that
enhance their potential functional, ecological and aesthetic role and, in some cases, are an alternative to the
conventional models of urban landscape restoration.
Descrição
Palavras-chave
Naturalism Urban restoration Vacant land Lisbon Barreiro Portugal
Contexto Educativo
Citação
Soares, A. L., Azambuja, S. T., Brito-Henriques, E., Simões, A. R. (2017). Vacant land in the city: potential functional, ecological and aesthetic roles in the urban landscape. Comunicação apresentada à ECLAS Conference 2017, Universidade de Greenwich, Greenwich