The rebirth of cities inside the territorial system of public spaces in the Portugueses northwest

Abstract

A reading of the extensively urbanized territory of the Portuguese northwest Atlantic shore that moves away from those that are based on hierarchy and zoning strategies or in the center-periphery and urban-rural dichotomies. The territory will be stated through its system of public spaces that, in their spatial, formal, typological and functional diversity, are distinct from, the much more typified, public spaces of the canonical city. New public spaces, where the effects convoke several scales of the territory and give visibility to build form natural forms and productive systems. It is aimed to recognize the low operability of a public space concept that is stuck behind the traditional boundaries of the city and contribute to renewed territorial collective image and emphasize its growing equity. A system of public spaces that reveal new “consistencies” and links in a territory that, somehow, will continuing being fractured, diverse and with many unforeseeable and unexpected transformations.