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The City Shape and its Natural Context
Título Evento
Proceedings 1st Euro-Mediterranean Regional Conference - Traditional Mediterranean Architecture. Present and Future, Rehabimed
Ano (publicação definitiva)
2007
Língua
Inglês
País
Espanha
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Abstract/Resumo
The subject of the present work is the study of the relationship
between the city’s shape and its natural context. The ‘design’ of cities
over a territory doesn’t happen independently of its natural context.
The surface of the land has already its own form which determines the
pattern of many cities. The climate characteristics also suggest different
sites and forms of occupation.
As a result of these constrains, man has made beautiful and sustainable
urban landscapes over the time, especially those non-planned cities,
called organic, generated, vernacular, spontaneous or geomorphic.
Many of them, like the Mediterranean cities, have so strongly accepted
the natural features, that it is possible to identify urban patterns
according to its natural environment.
The study of the urban form is associated to the idea of rational
planning and the production of a model. The territory, as the base for
our activities, has been seen many times as an element which generates
irregularity to the urban form.
The objective of the proposed paper is to show the relationship
between the structural quality of the Portuguese traditional cities
and its natural context. Starting from this point we try to explain the
genesis and growth of urban forms, especially those called organic or
geomorphic.
Agradecimentos/Acknowledgements
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Palavras-chave
Natural context, urban form, Azores, site, climate