José Luís Mourato CrespoSilva Jordão, João2025-05-272025-05-272024-05JORDÃO, João Luís Silva - Revolutionizing urban land management with the strategic use of empty spaces : the sliding-puzzle model as an innovative tool for augmenting the adaptability, height and density of urban centres. - Lisboa : FA, 2024 – Tese de doutoramento.http://hdl.handle.net/10400.5/101043Tese de doutoramento. Urbanismo. Universidade de Lisboa. Faculdade de Arquitetura. 2024The classic logic behind how we plan our cities, and the prevalent zoning codes in particular, are fit for times of slow technological and logistical transformation as well as fairly contained rates of urbanization and population growth. However, the 21st century has seen a continuation and reinforcement of important trends such as fast paced urbanization, fast-paced technological development as well as the need for the constant transformations of the urban fabric that these trends entail. With the strategic use of empty spaces, and more specifically by introducing quotas of empty space according to the predicted needs that a certain urban area has for growth, cities can scale-up their city centres thus absorbing population growth and reducing urban sprawl. As such, the insertion of quotas of empty space in central urban areas that are expected to have a population growth with ratios of empty space that are relative to the expected growth can be used to achieve specific housing capacity gains. In the area of housing specifically, specific occupancy growth rates within specific time frames can be achieved by starting with the corresponding amount of initial empty space and necessary target building height. The core methodology of this study uses virtual urban environments and consists of calculating how different percentages of empty space coupled with different target building heights will result in specific gains in housing capacity. The virtual environment is set at 1km squared with 100 housing blocks, each initially having three floors, and projects the housing occupancy gains that can be gained with 1%, 2%, 5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 25% initial empty space and target building heights of six, nine, twelve and fifteen floors. The insertion and maintenance of empty spaces which then operate as pivots used to target existing buildings for relocation, redevelopment and expansion via property swap arrangements can be the key that cities need to unlock greater capacity of adaptability and increase the probability of fulling their potential. Furthermore, this model for development and redevelopment which is hereby referred to as the Sliding Puzzle Model allows for the verticalization and scaling-up of city centres that are otherwise virtually impervious to fast-paced, centrally planned redevelopment initiatives. Finally, using empty spaces as pivots in such a manner opens the door for perpetual cycles of development and redevelopment which in turns brings opportunities but also unprecedented challenges, namely the possibility for the usurpation of this planning mechanism to fuel excessive, profit-driven urban construction, as well potentially fuelling overcrowding in city centres, which along with the potentially negative environmental impacts of perpetual cycles of urban redevelopment, require further research.engAdministração LocalAumento de EscalaDensificaçãoHabitaçãoVerticalizaçãoDensificationHousingLocal AdministrationScaling-UpVerticalizationdoctoral thesis101737130