CIDADES, Comunidades e Territórios

Editorial 47

How do we design an habitat? Influence and implications of urban design in territorial, social, economic and environmental sustainability

Playgrounds as meeting places: Post-war experimentations and contemporary perspectives on the design of in-between areas in residential complexes

Abstract Contemporary urban development has marginalised outdoor play areas, which still function as meeting places because they occupy a physical and socio-cultural dimension of in-betweenness. The text aims at revisiting the centrality of playgrounds in housing complexes, arguing that such areas should gain visibility in the contemporary discourse on public housing. This idea is underpinned by an examination of experimental projects carried out in the 1950s-70s by Lady Allen of Hurtwood, Riccardo Dalisi, Aldo van Eyck, and Group Ludic. They tested early forms of participatory design and community empowerment assuming the role of “aesthetic operators”. What can we learn from post-war playground projects? Building on their radical methodologies, we will discuss the fleeting nature of such experiments, how neglected neighbourhoods benefitted from playgrounds as meeting places, and contemporary perspectives that link children's leisure space design with Living Lab ecosystems. Today, the artistic research of Céline Condorelli and Assemble collective shows how the playground is an essential tool for the imagination of the city of tomorrow.

Towards La Charte de l’Habitat: Jane Drew pioneering a ‘more humane architecture’ in Chandigarh

Abstract In the post-war 1950s, the severe housing crisis triggered crucial reforms within the architectural field. The Modern Movement’s old guard, revisiting previous principles and tools, was questioned by an uprising avant-garde pursuing a more humane architecture. The C.I.A.M.s witnessed new paradigms towards housing and city, particularly the Aix-en-Provence Congress, entitled La Charte de l’Habitat. Despite this scission, bridges prevailed. Although being co-authored by the ‘elders’, Chandigarh’s masterplan, especially its inceptive Sector 22 layout, was planned by Jane Drew as a habitat. Containing the major daily programs, the coexistence of functions within the ecosystem challenged La Charte d'Athènes-based discourses. For the lowest ranks, Drew excelled, designing Peons’ Villages: humane microhabitats, communities combining housing, infrastructure, leisure, and green spaces near the collective equipment, transport, and communications networks serving Sector 22 macrohabitat. Indeed, notwithstanding a solid modernist affiliation, Drew was already pioneering a ground-breaking anthropological approach to design since working in West Africa. Attentive to the local culture and focused on future users’ practical needs and spiritual aspirations, Drew led participatory methodologies that superseded functionalism, notably preceding and framing later debates towards “habitat”. Based on the consultation of Drew’s unpublished archives and on my field trip to Chandigarh, I aim to highpoint Drew’s socially engaged discourses, suggesting her innovative contribution to a redirection within Modernism, framed by the discussion around the concept of “habitat”. The goal of the paper is to position a new light on Drew’s still-overlooked legacy, especially in her sensibly envisioned Chandigarh habitats, sharing how lively and preserved they are, seven decades later.

Contentions of affordability in the habitat planning of a new town: a case of Navi Mumbai, India

Abstract The onus of re-constructing a diverse socio-spatial and economically-prepared urban framework in the design of greenfield cities rests on the foresight of a Master Plan document. The conceptualisations in the making of a ‘brand-new city’ are challenged with its subsequent realisation. Often, urbanisation doesn’t tread its planned course, and contentious dualities of planned vs unplanned persists. In Navi Mumbai, five decades later, small-scale slum-settlements emerge as landscapes of dispossession and inevitable gentrification creating urban ruptures within the city morphology. Navi Mumbai was an expression of India’s euphoria as a newly independent nation, exemplified by pragmatic city planning. However, five decades later, the emergence of planning disruptions continues to indicate inadequacies. The paper examines the spatial logics of habitation under changing economic conditions and built-in spatial inequalities. It initiates a discourse on the type of environments planned cities foster towards residents from lower economic and social backgrounds. The key research questions addressed are: How do master plans further socio-economic segregations? What was the impact of neoliberal changes on affordable housing? Points of critique: Navi Mumbai’s reliance on ‘Euro-American’ visions and Fordist planning present several delinkages with adjacent industrial districts, indigenous farming settlements and sensitive ecological edges. The analysis conferred that affordable housing schemes became an unequal instrument of social cohesion, in light of built-in inequities. The Development Plan of Navi Mumbai excluded its original inhabitations- agricultural and fishing villages, a characteristic adopted by several development plans in contemporary Indian cities. Close examination of mechanisms of ‘incrementality’, as a hall-mark of affordable housing projects, suggests disconnections between designer’s vision and dweller’s aspirations.

Habitação de interesse social na produção do habitat rural em territórios de reforma agrária no oeste do estado de São Paulo, Brasil

Resumo No campo teórico e prático aplicado ao ordenamento do território, o rural tem sido associado a uma conceção genérica de espaço vazio, inútil ou como resíduo dos diferentes processos imobiliários. Desta forma, a produção do habitat rural é quase sempre reduzida a medidas parciais, descontínuas e claramente dependentes em termos políticos e económicos da dimensão urbana. Este artigo apresenta alguns resultados de uma pesquisa realizada em três assentamentos de reforma agrária no estado de São Paulo, Brasil, território caracterizado pela intensificação da luta pela terra e suas condições precárias, marcadas pela falta de infraestrutura, serviços, apoio à produção e habitação. Ou seja, camponeses que enfrentam permanentemente duas lutas, em primeiro lugar, lutam para ocupar a terra e depois lutam para permanecer nela. Pretendemos demonstrar a relevância da habitação social na produção do habitat rural nos territórios da reforma agrária brasileira, a partir dos processos e contradições inerentes à sua implementação. Do ponto de vista teórico-metodológico, este trabalho aponta que a construção crítica é realizada a partir do objeto, sustentada por categorias de análise complementares ao estudo de campo. Torna-se fundamental situar a questão da habitação social rural num outro patamar de reflexão, entendida como um ‘fenómeno sócio-espacial’, que integra simultaneamente a produção dos ambientes construídos, a questão da terra, os processos tecnológicos e produtivos, o trabalho e a participação da comunidade.

Abstract In the theoretical and practical field applied to land use planning, the rural has been associated with a generic conception of empty, useless space or as residue of the different real estate processes. In this way, the production of the rural habitat is almost always reduced to partial, discontinuous measures and clearly dependent in political and economic terms on the urban dimension. This article presents some results of a research carried out in three agrarian reform settlements in the state of São Paulo, a territory characterized by the intensification of the struggle for land and its precarious conditions, marked by the lack of infrastructure, services, support for production and housing. In other words, peasants who permanently face two struggles: initially, they fight to occupy the land and later they fight to remain on it. We intend to demonstrate the relevance of social housing in the production of rural habitat in Brazilian agrarian reform territories, based on the processes and contradictions inherent to its implementation. From a theoretical-methodological point of view, this work points out that the critical construction is carried out from the object, supported by categories of analysis complementary to the study in the field. It becomes essential to situate the question of rural social housing at another level of reflection, understood as a ‘socio-spatial phenomenon’, which simultaneously integrates the production of built environments, the question of land, technological and productive processes, work and effective participation of the community.

An indigenous horticultural project in Rio de Janeiro as a gap in formal urban space: the case of the Dja Guata Porã Garden

Abstract This paper proposes the problematization of generic and mass-produced forms of architecture through the oppositional relationship with indigenous self-constructed spaces. Starting from an ethnographic study about an unique indigenous horticulture project in the center of Rio de Janeiro, The Dja Guata Porã Garden, we demonstrate the effort to build a territory that organizes itself based on multispecies relationships. The project is contrasted with the formal urban space where it takes place, within a housing complex “Minha Casa, Minha Vida”, the largest public housing policy in Brazil, where the architecture is designed with generic spaces that cannot be modified according to the residents. From this spatial contrast, we propose that this indigenous horticulture project, with pedagogical purposes, is a gap in the formal urban space.

Entre o doméstico e o urbano. Os sistemas de transição como espaço para um habitar colectivo

Resumo O espaço público é a estrutura, o esqueleto espacial da cidade (Sòla-Morales, 1997). É o lugar de partilha, de encontro do colectivo (Gehl, 1971), da liberdade democrática; é o espaço que sedimenta o habitat urbano. Ainda assim, é no espaço limite entre público e privado que se estabelecem algumas tensões espaciais que configuram o modo como vivemos a cidade. A habitação comum é, por outro lado, a matéria construída que dá, silenciosamente, corpo à estrutura da cidade, face ao protagonismo do espaço público (Monteys, 2013; Serpa, 2015). É sobre os espaços in between que tendências actuais de pensamento arquitectónico reflectem sobre o valor da ambiguidade espacial enquanto produtora de porosidades que reconfiguram os limites e os modos de apropriação e permanência no espaço público e privado (Monteys, 2010), recuperando a memória conceptual da planta de Roma de Nolli (1748). Os espaços de transição surgem como complemento, por um lado ao espaço público reinterpretando reflexões teóricas apontadas no Movimento Moderno e pelo grupo Team 10 na década de 1960 (Hertzberger, 1991), por outro lado ao espaço privado, como prolongamento da casa, redefinindo os limites da domesticidade (PLOT 50, 2019). O artigo procura, então, reflectir sobre a relevância dos espaços de transição em edifícios habitacionais colectivos e como estes podem contribuir para a construção de sistemas de continuidade espacial entre o urbano e o doméstico. Tendo como enquadramento Portugal e os casos desenvolvidos em projectos de investigação como “Tipologia Edificada” e “Entre Habitação e Cidade”, pretende-se decompor morfologicamente os sistemas de permanência e distribuição (Boettger, 2014) de edifícios de habitação, interpretando-os como um limiar espesso onde se habita (Van Eyck, 1962). Procura-se abrir o debate na produção arquitectónica sobre a importância destes sistemas como dispositivos de transição, mas também, enquanto estruturas de articulação e dilatação do espaço público (Schmid, 2019) e doméstico que activam o habitat, tornando-o mais integrado e contínuo.

Abstract Public space is the structure, the spatial frame of the city (Sòla-Morales, 1997). It is the place of sharing, of collective meeting (Gehl, 1971), of democratic freedom; it is the space that sediments the urban habitat. Even so, it is in the limit space between public and private that some spatial tensions are established that shape the way we live in the city. Common housing is, on the other hand, the built matter that silently embodies the structure of the city, given the protagonism of public space (Monteys, 2013; Serpa, 2015). It is on spaces in between that current trends in architectural thought reflect on the value of spatial ambiguity as a producer of porosities that reconfigure the limits and modes of appropriation and permanence in public and private space (Monteys, 2010), recovering the conceptual memory of Nolli’s plan of Rome (1748). The transition spaces appear as a complement, on the one hand to the public space, reinterpreting theoretical reflections pointed out in the Modern Movement and by the Team 10 group in the 1960s (Hertzberger, 1991), on the other hand to the private space, as an extension of the house, redefining the limits of domesticity (PLOT 50, 2019). The article therefore seeks to reflect on the relevance of transition spaces in collective housing buildings and how they can contribute to the construction of systems of spatial continuity between the urban and the domestic. Taking Portugal as a framework and the cases developed in research projects such as “Building Typology” and “Between Housing and the City”, it is intended to morphologically decompose the permanence and distribution systems (Boettger, 2014) of residential buildings, interpreting them as a thick threshold where one inhabits (Van Eyck, 1962). The aim is to open the debate in architectural production on the importance of these systems as transition devices, but also as articulation structures and expansion of public (Schmid, 2019) and domestic space that activate the habitat, making it more integrated and continuous.

A produção de cidade e o direito a habitá-la. Uma conversa em dois momentos com Ermínia Maricato

Recensão de Cities and Affordable Housing: Planning, Design and Policy Nexus

Reforma Administrativa das Freguesias Portuguesas 2013. Reflexões a partir do caso do Algarve

Resumo O artigo discute a reforma territorial das freguesias portuguesas em 2013 inserida no acordo de resgate do Fundo Monetário Internacional, Banco Central Europeu e Comissão Europeia (Troika) ao Estado português, na sequência da crise da dívida soberana. Tem como objetivos: (i) enquadrar a reforma das freguesias em Portugal nas tendências de reorganização ao nível local em países europeus nas últimas décadas; (ii) situar a agregação à escala nacional, integrando-a na Reforma da Administração Local do XIX Governo (2011-2015); (iii) analisar, a partir do Algarve, as mudanças no exercício das suas competências, na prestação de serviços à população e na relação com o município; (iv) discutir os resultados alcançados. A metodologia apoia-se na revisão da literatura sobre reformas territoriais locais em países europeus, na leitura crítica do processo nacional, estando a abordagem empírica alicerçada na perspetiva dos eleitos, a partir de entrevistas semiestruturadas a todos os presidentes das juntas das freguesias agregadas no Algarve. O processo de agregação top down aplicado no país desencadeou na região uma reação de partilha e colaboração entre freguesias, atenuando tensões e fraturas entre comunidades (mas, noutras situações, expondo cisões ou fraturas antigas). O novo mapa está assimilado, mas subsistem críticas e já ocorreram duas reversões.

Abstract This paper discusses the territorial reform in Portuguese parishes in 2013 following the bailout from the International Monetary Fund, the European Central Bank and the European Commission (Troika). The purpose of this paper is (i) to frame the reform of the parishes in Portugal in the trends of reorganization at the local level in European countries in recent decades; (ii) to situate the aggregation at the national scale, integrating it in the Reform of Local Administration of the XIX Government (2011-2015); (iii) to analyze, from the Algarve, the changes in the exercise of its powers, in the provision of services to the population and in the relationship with the municipality; (iv) to discuss the results achieved. The methodology is based on the literature review on local territorial reforms in European countries, on the critical reading of the national process, and the empirical approach is based on the perspective of the elected representatives, based on semi-structured interviews with all the mayors of the aggregated parish councils in the Algarve. The top-down aggregation process applied in the country triggered in the region a reaction of sharing and collaboration between parishes, reducing tensions and fractures between communities (but, in other situations, exposing old divisions or fractures). The new map is assimilated, but criticism remains and two reversals have already occurred.

Desafios ao planeamento dos territórios suburbanos: o planeamento do desenvolvimento territorial na Amadora

Resumo As transformações nos processos e padrões de suburbanização em áreas metropolitanas têm sido objeto de estudo associadas aos desafios ao planeamento urbano. O objetivo principal do artigo é abordar os desafios ao planeamento dos territórios suburbanos respondendo a tendências globais em termos dos padrões de urbanização e a uma crise dos sistemas de regulação e de planeamento. A abordagem é apoiada nos debates sobre a urbanização planetária e a condição suburbana como objeto de estudo aplicando o conceito de planeamento do desenvolvimento territorial (“place-based planning”). A discussão contribuiu para a construção de um quadro analítico da evolução do território do município da Amadora na área metropolitana de Lisboa nas suas dimensões urbanísticas e do planeamento. A análise desta área suburbana diversificada e complexa ilustra a utilidade e as possibilidades de uma abordagem orientada para um planeamento do desenvolvimento territorial.

Abstract Transformations in processes and patterns of suburbanization in metropolitan areas have been the subject of study associated with challenges to urban planning. The main objective of the article is to address the challenges of planning suburban territories responding to global trends in terms of urbanization patterns and to a crisis in the regulatory and planning systems. The approach is supported by debates on planetary urbanization and the suburban condition as an object of study applying the concept of territorial development planning (“place-based planning”). The discussion contributed to the construction of an analytical framework of the evolution of the territory of the municipality of Amadora in the Lisbon metropolitan area in its urban and planning dimensions. The analysis of this diverse and complex suburban area illustrates the usefulness and possibilities of an oriented approach to territorial development planning.

Mobilidade internacional por motivos de estudo: fluxos e distribuição de estudantes da CPLP no ensino superior e território português

Resumo O estudo analisa o posicionamento de Portugal nos fluxos de mobilidade internacional por motivos de estudo, num processo que se constrói e consolida, sobretudo, no âmbito dos acordos de cooperação da CPLP. O objetivo é identificar os perfis e características dos estudantes estrangeiros que frequentam o ensino superior em Portugal, sobretudo os provenientes de países da CPLP, detalhar os fluxos e as proveniências, bem como a sua distribuição pelas instituições de ensino superior e pelo território nacional, discutindo os potenciais benefícios da sua integração para as diferentes tipologias de instituições/territórios. O estudo recorre a dados oficiais de natureza censitária produzidos pela DGEEC, relativos a 2012-2021. A análise demonstra a presença crescente de estudantes internacionais nas IES portuguesas, num processo facilitado pela alteração do quadro institucional no âmbito dos acordos de cooperação. No elenco de razões para a adesão das IES a essa tendência, assinalam-se quer as possibilidades de captação de novos recursos financeiros através das prestações de propinas, quer elementos simbólicos de prestígio das IES nos rankings nacionais e internacionais, além do potencial de dinamismo e inovação que resulta da confluência no campus das IES de estudantes com referenciais de experiência e orientações culturais diferenciadas. No artigo evidencia-se também a relevância da procura internacional para o reforço da oferta de ensino superior hoje em funcionamento nas diferentes áreas de educação e ciclos de estudo, incluindo nas regiões com menor capacidade de atração de estudantes nacionais.

Abstract The study analyses the positioning of Portugal in the international mobility flows for study purposes, in a process built and consolidated mainly in the scope of the CPLP cooperation agreements. The aim is to identify the profile and characteristics of foreign students attending higher education in Portugal, especially those coming from CPLP countries, to detail the flows and origins, as well as their distribution across higher education institutions and the national territory, discussing the potential benefits of their integration for the different types of institutions/territories. The study is based on official census data produced by DGEEC for the years 2012-2021. The analysis shows the adherence of Portuguese Higher Education Institutions (HEI) to the recruitment of international students, a process facilitated by the change in the institutional framework under the cooperation agreements. In the list of reasons for this adhesion, it is pointed out both the possibilities of attracting new financial resources through the payment of tuition fees, as well as symbolic elements of prestige of the HEI in the national and international rankings, besides the potential for dynamism and innovation that results from the confluence on the HEI campus of students with differentiated references of experience and cultural orientations. The article also highlights the relevance of international demand to strengthen the supply of higher education currently in operation in the different areas of education and study cycles, including in regions with less capacity to attract national students.

The potential of integrated transport modes: modelling the combined use of bicycles and train in Lisbon, Portugal

Abstract Many capital cities are expanding bicycle lanes or investing in public bike-sharing systems to make cycling mobility a viable transport solution within urban areas. While bicycles are fit for short-distance trips (<15 minutes), their attractiveness declines for longer trips (Ton et al., 2020; Handy et al., 2014; Jäppinen et al., 2013). So, it is opportune to estimate to what extent the accessibility can be increased when intermodal solutions are available. In this paper, a quantitative analysis of different mobility scenarios is conducted. The aim is to evaluate how time travel and accessibility to amenities by bike, can be improved if public transportation such, as the train, is considered. The analysis uses open data and detailed GIS-based network analysis to examine the spatial relationship between transport opportunities, travel time and amenities access in Lisbon, Portugal. Three mobility scenarios are considered: in the first scenario, short-distance trips by bike from home are evaluated (15- minute travel). Then, to evaluate the contribution in time travel of potential modal shift (bike and train) vs individual car, second and third scenarios are presented considering longer distance travels within the city of Lisbon, during peak hours. Results suggest that for longer trips, the combined use of bicycle and train infrastructure can be a faster or more convenient alternative to individual car use. Also, multimodal cycling can expand riders’ area of influence and thus increase the accessibility to opportunities. So, people living near train stations can beneficiate from a “potential” proximity to a diversity of amenities that are geographically more distant. In Lisbon, 34% of the population live within the 10-minute bicycle catchment areas around the 8 train stations from Cintura Line and can thus benefit from this combination of transport modes. City planners can use this methodology to prioritize spaces where investing in accessibility can have the largest impact in terms of improving connections between homes and destinations. This methodology, developed and tested in Lisbon, can be applied in other cities to support planning interventions regarding sustainable transport alternatives.

Representação da paisagem em painéis azulejares nas estações e apeadeiros de comboio da Área Metropolitana do Porto e envolvente

Resumo As paragens de comboios na rede ferroviária portuguesa são uma referência patrimonial do país. A sua arquitetura é um convite em muitas cidades e povoações não só para efetuar uma viagem, como também para a compreensão do território onde se localizam. Muitos destes espaços podem ser a primeira paragem de uma visita turística, mas também um espaço de reflexão para compreender a evolução do contexto geográfico próximo e, também, daquele que fica mais longe. Nesta proposta metodológica oferece-se uma leitura onde as paisagens e os elementos culturais representados nos seus painéis de azulejos são identificados, catalogados e interpretados desde a perspetiva e compreensão da arquitetura ferroviária e dos desenhos e formas de expressão artística usados para a representação das paisagens portuguesas. Para esta investigação foi usada a rede de comboios urbanos da cidade do Porto devido à quantidade e variedade de elementos para o seu estudo.

Abstract Train stops on the Portuguese state network are a reference to the country's heritage. Their architecture is an invitation in many cities and towns not only to make a journey, but also to understand the territory and the cities where they are located. Many of these spaces can be the first stop of a tourist visit and a space of reflection to understand the evolution of the nearby geographical space and of the one further away. This methodological proposal offers a reading where the landscapes and cultural elements represented in their tile panels are identified, catalogued and interpreted from the perspective and understanding of railway architecture and the designs and forms of artistic expression used for the representation of Portuguese landscapes. For this research, the urban train network of the city of Porto (Portugal) was used due to its quantity and variety of elements for its study.

Recensão de Os territórios na Era das Redes: Cultura digital, ação coletiva e bens comuns