Mapping the urban form of coastal fishing towns in AlgarveOlhão and Vila Real de Santo António

Resumo

The paper examines the urban growth patterns of two coastal fishing towns in southern Portugal: Olhãoand Vila Real de Santo António. The goal is to investigate the relationship between the configurational andnetwork properties of the urban forms in order to identify generative or emergent patterns, understandingtheir particular urban morphology. The Space Syntax Theory, applied to the syntactical modelling of thesetowns, is used to understand the urban processes. Topological variables, such as connectivity, integrationand intelligibility, are calculated by DepthMap Software and the Theory of the “Deformed Wheel” is used torepresent the evolutionary trends and to identify generic rules. The study is developed by comparing thetwo urban networks in two moments of their evolution, first in the mid-20th century, which corresponds tothe historic core, and second corresponding to the present day. The main results demonstrate a contrast between the segregated network of Olhão's irregular historic centre and the integrated network of Vila Real de Santo António's regular historic centre, revealed by the value of integration variable. The urban expansion of these towns during the last decades decreased the value of integration and aggravated the intelligibility of the urban fabric. The application of syntactic approaches, with quantitative analysis, aims to complement the traditional procedures of the History of Urbanism, developing an operational method adaptable to the study of urban morphology.

Ficha do documento

Tipo

Artigo científico

Ano

2017

Instituição

Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Paraná - PUCPR

Fonte

urbe — Revista Brasileira de Gestão Urbana

Idioma

Português

Acesso

Não informado

Identificador

oai:ojs.periodicos.pucpr.br:article/22219

Palavras-chave

Urban morphology. Space syntax theory. Deformed wheel model. Coastal fishing towns. Algarve.