URBAN REHABILITATION PLANNING

II

THE READING OF
THE URBAN IMAGE

LEITURA
DA IMAGEM URBANA
LUZ VALENTE-PEREIRA
EDIO DE AUTOR

NDICE
Abstract - Rsum - Resumo
PREFACE
Chapter I - METHODOLOGY
Objectives 8
Method 10

Chapter II READING THE IMAGE AND PLANNIG URBAN REHABILITATION

Planning Methodology Summary Table15
Planning Methodology Part I Summary Table16

Chapter III PREPARATION FOR READING AND COMPLEMENTARY

STUDIES
The Area as Part of Urban Context 18
Morphology of the Landscape20
History of the Evolution of the Urban Fabric
 21
Socio/Economic Characterization of the Population22
The Area and its Surrounding 23
Image Reading Guide of an Urban Area31
Reading Method 31
Reading Record 32

Chapter IV - READING, INTERPRETATION AND ASSESSING THE IMAGE OF

AN URBAN AREA
Composition and Morpho-Typological Structure 36
The Basis of Formation of the Urban Fabric36
The Occupation of the Ground36
The Urban Fabric.39
The Urban Space55
The Built-up Area 78
General Characterization of the Buildings81
Typology of the Buildings and Households90
The Historical and Artistic Heritage 97
Composition and Active Structure 99
Housing, Equipment, Public Administration and Economic Activities 102
Traffic, Transports, Parking, Loading and Unloading, Pedestrian Circulation 107
Urban Living  111
Composition and Social Structure 118

Composition and Meaningful Structure124

Synthesis of the Composition and Urban Structures129
Urban Furniture, Lettering, Vegetation and Animals 131
Urban Character 135
Urban Dynamics 140
Results of the Image Reading145

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

147

Abstract - Rsum - Resumo

The Reading of the Urban Image
It describes a method for reading the image of an Urban Area that allows starting its
knowledge, with the aim of carrying out its overall assessment and criticism, the diagnosis
of problems and opportunities that it presents and preparing proposals for intervention which
achieve its physical rehabilitation and socio-economic development and the communitys
cultural territorialised therein.
This method develops the initial step of a methodology for planning the rehabilitation of
urban areas. That methodology is described in the already published ebook Reabilitao
Urbana -Volume I - Conceitos Gerais e Metodologia de Planeamento by the same author.

Lecture de lImage Urbaine

On prsente une mthode de lecture de limage dun morceau de ville lequel permet
dobtenir un dbut de connaissance globale et critique du tissu urbain en question, proceder
au diagnostique des problmes et des potentialits et a llaboration des hypothses
dintervention pour le rhabiliter et appuyer le dveloppement socio-conomique et culturelle
de la communaut quy est instale.
La mthode quon dcrit dveloppe la partie initiale dune mthodologie de planification de
la rhabilitation urbaine publie dans le ebook Reabilitao Urbana - Volume I - Conceitos
Gerais e Metodologia de Planeamento de la mme auteur.

Leitura da Imagem Urbana

Descreve-se um mtodo de leitura da imagem de uma rea Urbana que permite iniciar
o conhecimento desta, com o objectivo de proceder sua avaliao global e crtica, ao
diagnstico dos problemas e potencialidades que apresenta, e elaborao de propostas de
interveno que efectivem a sua reabilitao fsica e o desenvolvimento socio-econmico e
cultural da comunidade nela territorializada.
O mtodo que se apresenta desenvolve o passo inicial duma metodologia de planeamento
da reabilitao de reas urbanas apresentado no ebook j publicado Reabilitao Urbana
Volume I - Conceitos Gerais e Metodologia de Planeamento da mesma autora.

PREFACE

n this publication we introduce a method of reading the image of an Urban Area which
was considered appropriate to start its knowledge in order to accomplish its comprehensive
and critical assessment, pursue to a preliminary diagnosis of its problems and potentials and
develop intervention hypotheses to bring about its physical and environmental rehabilitation
and community development territorialized in it (Valente Pereira, 1991).
The reading method, hereinafter exposed, is an expeditious procedure to form an overall
idea of the characteristics of the urban area to be rehabilitated, its problems and potential,
to exercise the search for solutions to present for discussion with the different social agents
and provide for the necessary means and resources to organize the studies and actions that
will allow starting and continuing the tasks of rehabilitating the Area and organizing its
current management.
The work resulting from the reading must be presented to politicians and municipal
technicians and other formal agents for discussion and decision before its enlarged and
public discussion.
The completion of the image reading of the Area is additionally fundamental to define
and guide, integrating the sectoral studies necessary for a more objective and thorough
knowledge, the studies that will develop throughout the planning process according to the
information requirements that will progressively be evident. (Valente-Pereira, 1986).
We are mainly looking, through the present study, to pass a set of perspectives and proposals
on how we consider more comprehensive and expeditious to grab a part of the city in order
to understand its living and changing presence, to be encouraged to assess it, to wonder
about what does or does not respond to the requirements of ways and means of living in it,
and in this way, cause and enhance intervention hypotheses.
Our intention is not to ignore the complexity of the urban environment and find a way of
working that allows capturing it in broad outline, understand it in its essential aspects and
to create the necessary familiarity with the environment in which the work will be done.
The syntheses to accomplish should translate this understanding of the Area, which facilitates
the development of creative and integrated proposals.
The registration of the peculiarities and characteristic details of the Area reinforces the
possibility of building rehabilitation and expressing solutions that respect and enhance the
character of the urban fabric in question.
The development of the planning for the rehabilitation of an Urban Area is a complex
process that requires taking into account an intricate web of procedures; the use of knowledge,
methods and diversified sources of information; communication, cooperation and action of
multiple social agents. This fact determines it necessary to obtain, from the beginning, an
understanding of the Area and its potential for transformation, global and accessible to
various stakeholders, in order to serve as a common basis from which the various studies
and actions will be organized which will progressively adjust, correct and deepen the initial

knowledge resulting from the reading of the Area.

It was therefore considered essential to define the issues that allow capturing and assessing
the structural and most significant features and the peculiarities of an Urban Area, as well
as to illustrate how to treat and relate them to inform and interpret the various contents that
constitute it. These serve to build the foundation for the study and intervention, anchoring
them in the specificity of the observed reality, overcoming preconceptions and standardized
solutions and giving birth, from their own local conditions and characteristics, to the chances
of transformation and ways of achieving them.
The proposed method is intended to be open, i.e., the different categories of analysis are
given as an example, since the formulation of more detailed or broad categories is admitted,
depending either on the size, the complexity and other characteristics of the Area in that
study, or on the understanding that the responsible technicians have of the elements that
define the urban fabric.
Considering the framework of the image reading in the Planning Methodology of Urban
Areas Rehabilitation, previously developed (Valente Pereira 1991), in the present study we
include, a summary table of the referred methodology and also an indication of the studies
needed to prepare and support the image reading, in Chapter III of this publication. Issues
concerning relations with its surrounding also stand out in that chapter. The study of this
aspect allows overcoming an approach that, even unintentionally, tends to view the bounded
area like a universe confined and autonomous in it, with the consequent distortions, both in
terms of the interpretation of the present reality, and in terms of the intervention proposals.
The opportunity we have been given by the Municipality of Loures of participating in
the Plan for the Protection of the Old Centre of Sacavm(1), from the beginning and at
consultancy level, to the coordination of the Plan has put the applicability of the method to
a real case to the test.
The collaboration of two grantees of the National Board of Scientific and Technological
Research (JNICT) has allowed for sectoral studies to be carried out in the fields of landscape
architecture (2) and sociology(3) to support the image reading and depth of the respective
topics.
NOTE - The reading records selected to exemplify the urban image reading were based on
the documentation that I was delivered by the Plan to Safeguard the Old Sacavm Centre
(1) Plano de Salvaguarda do Ncleo Antigo de Sacavm, coordinated by Architect Maria Joo Gonalves, Urban Planning
Division, City Council of Loures, 1989-1993.
(2) FERREIRA, Maria Isabel CAETANO - Contribuio da Anlise Paisagstica para o Planeamento da Reabilitao
de reas Urbanas - Estudo de Caso - Madragoa/Lapa e Benfica. Lisboa, LNEC, 1991.
Planeamento do Desenvolvimento Scio-Urbanstico de reas Urbanas
1 Parte- Contribuio da Anlise Paisagstica no Planeamento do Desenvolvimento Scio-Urbanstico de reas
Urbanas. Lisboa, LNEC, 1989.
2 Parte- ndices de Qualidade Ambiental. Lisboa, LNEC,1990.
(3) ANTUNES, A.A. ROSA - Contribuio para a Definio das Necessidades Sociais a Nvel do Quotidiano numa
rea Urbana,
1 Parte - Prticas Sociais Quotidianas e Apropriao Social do Espao, Lisboa, LNEC, 1989
2 Parte - Utilizao e Apropriao de reas Urbanas, Lisboa, LNEC, 1990

team, during the elaboration of the referred plan, which was supported, in its initial phase,
on the image reading methodology that we present. We have added some examples of the
reading, carried out at LNEC (1), of the delimited areas in Madragoa/Lapa and Benfica
(Lisbon) to show how different interpretation of that reading can be.
Hopefully, it thereby enables readers to have a better understanding of the meaning and
scope of the reading proposals presented.

(1) Architects Jos Manuel Santos, Francisco Serdoura e Maria Isabel Brito.

Chapter I - METHODOLOGY
Objectives

he image reading of an Urban Area(1) is a method of knowing the urban environment

at this scale, and it aims to its assessment and to the creative elaboration of solutions
to rehabilitate it by socially, economically and culturally developing the population
territorialized in it and qualifying its space.

Through the referred reading, one tries to obtain, in an expeditious manner, direct and
individualized, a comprehensive, interpretive and critical portrait of the Area that allows
identifying the ideas of a city, which expresses the problems that affect it, the potential it
offers and to outline objectives, policies, strategies and hypothesis of action to rehabilitate
and guide its transformation.
It is a basic concern of this approach to the knowledge of an area to assimilate it in its
entirety and dynamics, understand it both present and alive, interpret and assess it and get
from it, suggestions regarding solutions and necessary actions to achieve its qualification
and socio-urban development.
One observes the urban image in order to:
Identify the aspects that characterize it as a specific urban environment;
Understand how these relate to each other and how they translate the processes of
formation and urban transformation, either the spatial ones and the ways of living;
Understand what urban quality and own nature represented in it;
Identify where action is needed to solve whatever the problem is and what features and
dynamics the area owns, in order to build the transformation solutions and actions.
The image reading of the Urban Area should allow the significant and rapid sketch of
the present situation and its dynamics and creating the critical perspective that raises the
simultaneous construction of guidelines and proposals for rehabilitation actions and urban
transformation.
It is a personalized reading, which is essentially sustained in the experience already gained
by the technician (as such and as urbanite) and which is essential for the latter to build his
own perception of the Area, to integrate himself within the reality as it is presented, to be
touched and penetrated by it, clarifying his ability to understand and assess what he sees,
building his own convictions, stimulators of the definition of intervention actions.
The subjectivity, no comprehensiveness and quick observation make it susceptible to errors,
which can be huge blunders, raise unanswered questions or with poor response. We consider
that, given the listed advantages, these defects are minor and can easily be overcome in
(1) The method used is based on the proposed by ALLAN B. JACOBS and LESLIE GOULD and which is described in
the document Observing and Interpreting the Urban Environment. Case Study: Naglee Park, San Jos, California, Institute of Urban and Regional Development, University of California, Berkeley, WP372, 1982.

during further work and through the use of information and more rigorous analysis methods.(1)
Perceive and question reality in the presence aims, in addition to interpreting and evaluating
it, at trying to find suitable answers to what should be done to rehabilitate and guide the
transformation of the Urban Area.
Knowledge and assessment, diagnosis and proposal are integral parts of the reading of
the Area mutually arousing each other for better understanding and more responsiveness to
the observation objectives.
The whole cycle of the study must be traversed as a result of the latter, exercising purposeful
capacity in parallel with the analysis, interpretation and assessment.
It is intended, through this initial exercise, besides getting an overall understanding of the
Area and its potential for transformation, that it will serve as a common basis for discussion
and construction of the planning process of its rehabilitation, overcoming the difficulties
of current methods of analysis that send the construction of the solutions to a subsequent
stage, separating them.
The common basis of information that the reading provides will have to be understandable
to the various formal and informal social agents implicated and allow proceeding to the
integration of their knowledge and requirements without losing but rather, correcting and
enhancing a common vision and objectives of the Area and ways of its rehabilitation.
Summarizing, when reading the image of the Area, one attempts to:
Get a comprehensive, interpretive and critical portrait of the Area by setting its structural
and most significant features;
Define and locate the existing problems and potential of the Area;
Capture the urban character of the Area and the elements which express it;
Understand the ongoing dynamics of transformation in the Area;
Establish, according to the interpretation and evaluation of the results of image reading,
hypotheses concerning objectives, policies, strategies, solutions and intervention actions
for its rehabilitation.
The work resulting from that reading serves as a common basis to start discussions and
studies that will deepen the knowledge of the Area and will establish its planning process/
rehabilitation action. It is, consequently, essential the information to integrate different
disciplinary contributions and to start, in a participatory and concerted manner between the
different social agents, the process of intervention.

(1) In the reading method that was the basis for the development of our work, A. B. JACOBS considers that the risks of
error are reduced by:
The multiplication of the number of observers and the confrontation and discussion of individual observation
results;
Test results obtained by means of the handling and other statistical information gathered however;
The discussion of the results with knowledgeable interlocutors of observed reality.

Method

he image reading is done by direct observation. To do it, it is necessary to go through

the Urban Area, see and, simultaneously, question what we see, try to relate, interpret
and assess observations (form an opinion about what is good and what is wrong) and map
them.
While reading, comments and questions arisen by the observation, should also be registered,
as well as to set out the aspects considered important to change (problems) and those which,
for being very characteristic or outstanding should be maintained and may even contribute
to building proposals for intervention (potential).
It is important to take note of the issues that will require clarifying in future studies because
they create doubts or need confirmation or further development.
The observation is performed by interpreting the spatial configuration of the Urban Area,
its structure and nature, ways of use and territorial appropriation by the population and
activities, environments and general resulting images.
Sets of observations must be interlinked in order to perceive the social structure of the
space and the uses in it; morphotypologic characteristics of the Area and the links that it
establishes with its surroundings; the processes of formation and occupation of the urban
fabric; dynamics of the recent transformation of the area and the evolution tendencies it
reveals; models and urban values underlying them; problems and their possible solutions;
the potential and its exploitation.
Who, where, how, what, when, to wh o m and for what; it is right or it is wrong, are the
questions to formulate regarding the observations that will be performed, and which stimulate
the ability to see and interpret what you see, to give overall intelligibility and reading, to
identify and integrate the different components of the urban system, to exercise creative
imagination needed to design solutions.
By reading the image of the Area general perception should arise, of its urban structure,
social, spatial and usage characteristics, ways of appropriation of space by people and
activities.
The characteristics of the Urban Area define it as a place of urban life, unlike any other and
differentiated in its parts, with form and own history, the diversity of activities and social
interactions that give it life. It matters to identify the invariants of the Area that have
provided it a place to stay, its character or the absence of its own presence, of structuring
rules that give it the right order and firm its personality.
As already stated, the reading objectives aim to get a comprehensive, interpretive and
critical portrait of the area, the quick and meaningful sketch of the present situation and
its dynamics towards creative elaboration of rehabilitation solutions and transformation
guidance of the area . These objectives are only achievable if, during the observation, the

morphological analysis(1) is enhanced, while complementing it with the social, cultural and
functional, present and perceptible contents.

The morphological analysis till requires understanding the functional and social characteristics
that organized the representative forms of the past and that possibly remain maladapted to new
contents, and the transformation dynamics visible in the physical and environmental changes
caused by new uses, different social status of users and new cultural values.
The information resulting from the reading should be mapped, labeled and illustrated (through
photographs, sketches or video records) in order to translate, clearly and spatially, the results
of the observation exercise.
The issue of registration of information is extremely important since it indicates and
expresses the perceived fundamental elements that reflect the city at that location and that
are the basis of project design intervention.
The exercise of reading the urban image, done in this way, does match observation and
design (because the language that explains the observation is similar to the one that works
out the design of the intervention proposals) and connects the analysis and synthesis of
the characteristics of the Area with the building up of solution hypotheses (due to the
fact that interpreting and assessing what exists presupposes the building of agglutinating
relationships, developing ideas that reflect what is thought to be a good city and view
them in the spaces under analysis).
To achieve this goal, it is recommended that, for each important aspect for analysis, the
procedure is such as to, besides identifying its characteristics, make it possible to assess it
indicating the problems and the potential that such characteristics reveal and the intervention
proposals which are believed to be able to solve the problems and enhance the identified
potential.
These proposals are only hypotheses arising from the analyzed issue considered and, it may
be the case, as a result of the study, that they are not appropriate due, for example, to the
priority of resolution of other issues whose solution is incompatible with those.
The importance of its formulation lies in the register of proposals as they arise, in order
that, in the final summary, they are made compatible and selected or reworked, and in
fact that it compels to the exercise of constant connection between analysis, diagnosis and
elaboration of proposals.
It is still useful, as we have already said, to register, following the analysis, the studies
that would be important to develop, in a later stage of the work, for a better clarification
of the addressed issues and the topics of the extended discussion to point out, given its
importance to establish fundamental options regarding the guiding concept of the city of
solutions to be proposed (e.g., the place that the car takes up in public space versus the
importance of the pedestrian; choices regarding the spatial structure of land, the degree of
conservation/recovery of the built up, the desirability of introducing new constructions/
buildings of modern architectural features in the old urban fabric).
(1) The morphological analysis allows us to understand the logic of the design and appropriation of the urban fabric,
define its structure, the regularities or rules and the differences and particularities that it presents, and detect the current
and exceptional typologies of buildings and the urban space.

The direct observation of the image of the Area should be done separately by two or more
observers. Multiplying the number of observers enriches the reading and the independence
of their respective comments and it is fundamental to control deviations resulting from
excesses of subjectivity and observation failures, by comparing and discussing the results.
The comparison of the readings carried out by the different observers, is a first test of the
performed observations and allows evidencing and assessing ideas of the city underlying
each reading.
If conflicting interpretations arise, they will be correctible, by observing aspects that created
differences of interpretation again, looking to adjust them or, if this is not possible, to
overcome them by using more objective methods of knowledge or accepting the diversity
of opinions as real and enriching.
The doubts, gaps and inaccuracies of reading are addressed, throughout the work and
whenever required, by performing technical and specialized studies.
The reading of the urban image should be performed by observers who possess an extensive
knowledge of urban issues and of its morphological expression over the time of formation
of the urban fabric.
Although it matters to encourage diversity and originality of the reading of the different
observers, for greater descriptive and interpretive richness of the Area, the previous
elaboration of a comprehensive observation guide is considered important which, although
not limiting, enables clarifying what is intended and establishes a common platform by
pointing out the key issues that reading must cover in order to meet the needs of the study,
and how to proceed with the registration of the observations.
The comprehensive reading guide should be discussed by the planning team of the
rehabilitation of the area. This discussion even allows adapting perspectives, working
objectives and methodology of approaching it to the case study and to the concerns of the
team.
The image reading of the Area is all the more necessary as larger and more complex this one
is. If the area has reduced dimensions, the reading can be replaced by a systematic survey of
characteristics. In this case it is essential to proceed with a reading with greater detail of the
extended territorial unity and surrounding Area in order to understand and assess its urban
structure which is only readable if, in the analysis, the defined boundaries for rehabilitation
intervention are overcome. These are questions that will have to be solved, casa by a case,
depending on the greater or lesser morphological autonomy of the intervention area.
It is essential to find a unit of observation and analysis that enables understanding the
morphological structure of the urban fabric and its organizational logic, even if the territory
of observation has to be extended beyond the set up intervention perimeter and, eventually,
propose new limits for the planning area of the rehabilitation.

Chapter II READING THE IMAGE AND PLANNIG

URBAN REHABILITATION

he method of reading the image was developed, as mentioned in the introduction, to

serve as an instrument for a proposal of methodology for planning the rehabilitation of
urban areas that we have drafted and is published.(1)

The reading of the image is, according to referred method, the first step of the technical
team to know and assess the Urban Area and its transformation dynamics and build the
first chances of intervention. It is the essential stage of the preparation of the technical
team in order to face dialogue with other social agents involved in rehabilitation organizing
the planning in itself, which takes place in terms of planning/action, namely, planning and
intervening, developing studies according to the decision-making based on priorities on,
and to comply with them.
(1) VALENTE-PEREIRA, L. - Metodologia de Planeamento da Reabilitao de reas Urbanas, Lisboa, LNEC, 1991
Reabilitao Urbana - Volume I - Questes Gerais e Metodologia de Planeamento da Reabilitao., eBook 2013

In order that the reader may know the broad outlines of the methodology presented, without
resorting to the referred publications, we present, next, the overall table that summarizes
the different phases of the method and the table regarding task 1 of the respective phase 1,
which fits the image reading of the Area, the chosen methodology to characterize the Area.
This information enables forming an idea of inserting the image reading on the proposed
planning methodology.
The image reading is a method that can be used to meet other objectives, such as, a preparatory
study of an architectural project or a new urbanization to integrate in an existing fabric.

Planning Methodology Summary Table

COMMUNICATION
AND PUBLIC
DISCUSSION

TECHNICAL / POLITICAL. PREPARATION PROPOSAL

FOR PRELIMINARY PLANNING AND PROGRAMMING
PUBLIC INFORMATION

PHASES

ASSIGNMENTS

1 Formation of a technical

Technical team of local

planning and Parishes.

2 Adjustment and agreement

Technical team of local

planning, Parishes, municipal
technicians and politicians.

opinion about the Area and its

rehabilitation.

at the municipal level of the

work done in 1. First decision

making.

3 - Adjust and consultation at

RESULTS

Characterization and
diagnosis.
Alternative proposals for
planning.
Precautionary measures
Identifying agents, media,
resources and tools, for the
realization of the intervention.
Public information.
Technical/political proposal
of preliminary planning and
programming.

Technical team of local

planning, Parishes, technicians
regional/central level. Second
and responsible at municipal
decision making.
and central/regional level.
4 - Preliminary definition of Technical team of local
the planning and programming planning.
of rehabilitation of the Area.

Establishment of dialogue and

technical/political agreement
at different levels.

5- Organization of public

Local perspective on the

area and their rehabilitation,
bottlenecks, local development
dynamics, conflicts and
consensus.

communication. Preparation
of necessary materials for
presentation.

The different social agents that

are considered appropriate
after completion of the
previous phase.

6 Accomplishment of

communication and public

discussion of the preliminary
planning and programming.

7-

PLANNING AND
PRELIMINARY
PROGRAMMING

PARTICIPANTS

Final version of
preliminary planning and
programming.

8-Preparation of tools for

planning and management.

9- Definition of planning

implementation.

Decision on the actions to be

implemented in the short term.

Opening the ownership and

responsibility of local agents
and the general population.
Technical team of local
planning.

Formulation of the preliminary

planning.

Agents directly involved

in the implementation and
management of rehabilitation
according to their areas of
action.

Preparation of continuous
planning action.
Implementation and current
management of the urban
renewal area.

Chosen according to the

established network of agents
and the dynamics initiated by
action itself.

Organized, self-controlled
and instrumented dynamic of
development and qualification
of the territory throughout
time.

10-Planning and scheduling of

PLANNING
AND ACTION

the actions in the short term.

11- Continuous planning

through evaluation of
rehabilitation actions
performed, successively
decided and from current
management.

Planning Methodology Part I Summary Table

INFORMATION AND
COMMUNICATION

THE URBAN AREA AND HIS REHABILITATION

THE URBAN AREA AS

PART OF THE URBAN
AGGLOMERATE

TEMAS

ASSIGNMENTS

General characterization of the Urban Agglomerate and its transformation dynamic.

Identification of objectives, policies and transformation strategies - General and sectorial.
Definition and assessment of the relationship of Urban Area with its surroundings. Potential,
problems and proposals for amendments.
Identification and characterization of social actors and political / administrative and financial
organization capable of intervention.
Assessment of the main instruments of urban planning and management applicable to the
urban regeneration.
Characterization and assessment of the Area and its transformation dynamic. Problems,
potential and elements for the construction of proposals for intervention.
Establishment of precautionary measures.

Preparation of proposals for intervention and priority intervention to be carried out in short
term.
Identification and characterization of formal and informal social agents to involve in the
following stages per type of intervention.
Identification of the means, methods, procedures and tools necessary to continue the study,
organization and rehabilitation implementation.
Identification of the means, methods, procedures and tools necessary to continue the study,
organization and rehabilitation implementation.
Dissemination to the local media of the information obtained through the study and
organization of cultural animation actions.

Establishment of a public service station.

Chapter III PREPARATION FOR READING AND

COMPLEMENTARY STUDIES

efore starting the image reading of an Urban Area, and in order not to take the risk
of considering it as an isolate territory, it is necessary to carry out studies and data
collections that allow knowing the area as part of the urban context and interpreting the
characteristics of that belonging.
There is information about the area, not acquired by reading the image and which is essential,
including preparing and interpreting the image reading. We refer the studies that enable
knowing the:
General morphology of the landscape;
History of the evolution of the urban fabric;
Dynamics of the urban transformation;
Socio-economic characteristics of the population of the Area.
The whole urban fabric is covered and read continuously, which enables knowing the
relationship of the Area with its surroundings in order not to create unintended discontinuities
to sew fabric and uses sequences, routes and images.
The observation of the Area mapping and its Surroundings gives us an idea of the general
topographical and morpho-typological features, the barriers and fabric continuities that
mark the relationships between its parts and the environment.
These data are important to easy orientation on the ground and to organize and interpret the
reading during the observation. Knowledge of toponymy, to check and complete during the
reading, helps identifying the locations which the observations refer to, and their historical
meanings.
The reading of the image should be done by two technicians, who know the Area, if possible,
and supported by a Reading Guide of the Image of the Area which will serve as a common
basis of support.
To complement the reading of the image it is still necessary to do interviews with local
councilors, technicians and other social agents who know the area well and its dynamics and
may provide information to enrich its knowledge and have opinions regarding the prospects
of its transformation. It is further desirable to develop investigative journalism to improve
the information with the experience lived in the area (whose methods of anthropology
approach is not always feasible, since it is time consuming and expensive) and to arouse the
interest of the public.
The elements of the planning team who are not busy with reading the image will however
undertake the following tasks:
Gather the material as it is available on the Area, including the existing urban infrastructure
and services (cleaning, streets repairing, lighting and green areas maintenance, fire

hydrants and organization to fight fires, replacement and repairing street furniture,) and
create a database of particular interest for planning and management.
Get the graphical cadaster of the Area. If this does not exist, its elaboration will have to
be done as well as seeking to ensure its permanent maintenance through the organization
of the current urban Area management.
Get updated mapping and aerial photographs of the Area, start collecting the cartography
produced over time, whether of the Area or the Urban Settlement, an initial protracting
map of the Area and the record of the administrative units which it belongs to (parishes,
districts, areas of jurisdiction of the Public Security Police, Firemen, zip code,). The
scales 1/25000 for the Urban Settlement, and 1/10000 - 1/5000 as a basis for the reading
of the Area are generally suitable.
Carry out survey plans, programs and existing commitments, actions and projects in
progress and to perform in a short term in the Area and their responsible agents. This
information has the utmost interest in order to assess the dynamics of transformation that
the area is subject to.
Develop sectorial studies that are considered essential to test and (or) add information
obtained throughout the reading.

The Area as Part of Urban Context

he characterization of the area as part of the context to which it belongs corresponds

to a task that develops regardless of the reading, being deepened along the planning
process and discussed with the higher levels of planning, according to the requirements of
the process running itself.
Sometimes, the response to the changes needed for the rehabilitation of the area creates
needs for information and assistance beyond its scope, which can even be raised from the
bottom up (Area for Urban Settlement) during the planning process.
The information that we consider necessary to obtain before you start reading and in order
to characterize the context of the area, aims to realize the situation of the Area in it, the
urban roles it plays and will come to play as part of the whole which it is part of..
This information regards:
Situations of the Urban Settlement Area, the Municipality and the Region;
General landscape morphology of the Urban Settlement;
Major steps in the historical evolution of urban land use and demographic and socioeconomic development of the Settlement, the Municipality and the Region
Major axes of urban, municipal, and regional accessibility;

General population distribution and uses of urban, municipal and regional soil; major
urban centres and their hierarchy;
Major urban areas for reasons of centrality, historical, tourist, social prestige, marginality,
etc. of the Settlement, the City and the Region;
General guidelines regarding the objectives, policies, strategies and proposals for
planning of urban settlement and its parts;
Major projects of urbanization and public works to be implemented in short and
medium term, existing and approved plans, urban conditions and commitments and other
indications which identify the main lines of the dynamics of transformation taking place
in the urban context and impact in the area.
This information must be provided by the planning bodies of the Urban Settlement, the
Municipality and the Region. At this stage of the work, it is only needed to get it in general
terms and in order to be able to situate comparatively the characteristics of the Area, interpret
the results of observation and structure appropriate intervention hypothesis to respond the
demands and dynamics of the context in which the area is situated and which they will be
reflected in.
Letters and captioned schemes and its respective interpretative schemes record the synthesis
of information collected and the characterization of the area arising from them.
These first interpretative summaries of the context are still very useful as a basis for
organizing guidance to specific studies to develop, as necessary, for further studies of the
latter.
It should also be noted that, depending on the area under study, the context which enables
framing it will be more or less broadened as well as the importance of studies to develop.
The centre of a capital city, for example, must be thought of in the light of national and
international issues; a residential area situated within the settlement may waive the insertion
at municipal level.

Morphology of the Landscape

good understanding of the morphology of the landscape of the Area is essential to

interpret and assess the structure of the urbanization of the Area, uncover basic
morphological problems and see how the natural potential were seized or wasted.
Madragoa/Lapa(Lisboa)

LINES OF CREST AND CENTERS OF DISTRIBUTION

VALLEY LINES AND MEETING CENTERS
A B C D

CENTERS OF DISTRIBUTION

1 2 3 4 5 6 MEETING CENTERS

At this early stage, the participation of landscape architecture is essential as an auxiliary

reading and interpretation instrument and to establish the necessary link, throughout the
process and among architecture technicians about the sites, with each other and with other
specialists.
From the analysis of the morphology of the landscape, whose development is presented in
detail in the work done in the case studies(1)we have retained, as required for direct support
of reading, the definition of the topographic platforms, of the structural lines of the
(1) FERREIRA, I. CAETANO -Contribuio da Anlise Paisagstica para o Planeamento da Reabilitao de reas Urbanas - Estudos de Caso: Madragoa / Lapa e Benfica. Lisboa, LNEC, 1991.

landscape and slopes, as well as three-dimensional representation of the terrain, which

allows getting a comprehensive view of the latter.
The synthesis of this information leads to the definition of the morphological units of the
landscape and its forms of articulation, which enables characterizing and evaluating the
potential of urban essential features of the general morphology of the landscape and guide
the interpretation and evaluation of its urbanization.

History of the Evolution of the Urban Fabric

Madragoa/Lapa

RESPECTED CREST LINE MARKS

NON RESPECTED CREST LINES MARKS
VALLEY LINES
DISTRIBUTION CENTRES
MEETING CENTRES

URBANIZATION PREVIOUS TO EARTHQUAKE

POMBAL PLAN
XVIII/XIX CENTURIES
XIX/XX CENTURIES
THE 20s
THE 30/40s
THE 60/70s

he study of the history of the urban fabric evolution is, as mentioned in a previous
work(1), fundamental for understanding urban morphology, for the interpretation of the
rhythm and the mode of development.
We thus realize the reason for certain land uses and their forms of expression (typology,
morphology), the degree of consolidation or transformation that the current situation
presents, the trends and fixing elements of the urban fabric, certain characteristics of the
urban image and how the collective memory assimilates it.
The knowledge of historical evolution is important to judge the persistence of certain uses,
the ability of urban forms to adapt to change, the direction of the evolution of the social
appropriation of the territory and to identify the basic rules of spatial planning (spatial

(1) VALENTE PEREIRA, L. - Mtodo de Apoio Tcnico Aco de Desenvolvimento Scio/urbanstico de reas Urbanas de Interveno., Lisboa, LNEC, 1986 - Vol. II,. (7 e 27 a 30).

constants maintained throughout the variation in time).

In the referred work, themes to develop in the study of the historical evolution are indicated:
Identification of the steps of formation, filling and growth of the urban fabric;
transformation of its parceling, road layout and construction; fundamental morphological
characterization and main typologies of each step; significant events, elements, agents
and structuring processes of this evolution;
General characteristics and evolution of the social fabric and ownership of the Area, by
the population and the activities;
Main ideas and city models which governed the different urbanization stages of the
Area.
The summary to be done should aim to portray characteristics steps without extending the
description of facts, and give particular emphasis to the understanding of what the area is
at present; of the processes that, when acting on it, have formed it, such as presented; the
urban potential that it reveals; the own rules and constants that define its way to remain and
change.
Understand the role that the area was performing over time and why, within the Urban
Settlement, which forms have expressed that role, the key ideas that guided that expression,
the type of population that successively appropriated the area and the basic characteristics
of their social status and the way of life in their relation with the space is a valuable aid to
understanding the present reality and the building of its qualification and development.
For immediate support for the image reading, it will be sufficient to indicate the major stages
of formation and development of the urban fabric, by specializing them; the essential
morphological characteristics of each stage and city models underlying them.
It is important to judge the degree of consolidation of the different parts of the fabric
indicating those which, over time, have been more susceptible to transformation pressures
and are, therefore, more vivid or fragile and those that remained more or less intact, the
most dead or solid areas.
Further in the work, it may be necessary to develop studies to know the history of the
buildings in detail, spaces, uses, values and
customs of the population.

Socio/Economic Characterization of the Population

he method of reading the image gives, in an inaccurate way and subject to coarse
mistakes, an idea of the socio-economic characteristics of the population that resides in
the Area, works in it or frequents it for any other reason.
To control this information, making it more accurate and reliable, it is necessary to develop,
in parallel, the study of the available statistical data, which should be analyzed, based on
the block as a reference.

The characteristics to highlight for minimally achieving economic and social characterization
of the resident population relate to age, family composition and situation towards the
activity, distinguishing those active and inactive, categories and occupations.
This study will have to be developed throughout the work, both through the analysis of
various statistical information (voter registration, data derived from the health, social
security, education, police sectors,) or from direct surveys determined in accordance with
the information needs that arise, along with the definition of issues of priority resolution.

The Area and its Surrounding

hrough this reading, one seeks to ascertain how the Area is perceived from its exterior,
to what extent it is distinguished or merges with its surroundings, which morphological
and use relations it establishes with it, how are its borders characterized and which formal
consistency they have, in order to be able to conclude whether it is necessary to intervene
in these aspects and, if so, build proposals for intervention.
Madragoa/Lapa

Benfica

PHYSICAL BARRIERS

WELL DEFINE LIMITS

PERIPHERAL BOUNDERY

POORLY DEFINE LIMITS

COTINUITY IN URBAN FABRIC

MAIN POINTS OF ENTRY IN THE AREA
CARS AND PEDESTRIANS
PEDESTRIAMS ONLY

GATEWAYS
ENTRIES ROUTES
VISUAL BARRIER
FIXED BARRIER

CONTINUITY IN THE URBAN FABRIC

FIXED AND VISUAL BARRIER

It therefore matters to verify:

How the Area is presented, as we approach it, coming from its exterior;
Which are the morphological and use relationships it establishes with the environment,
assessing their quality and suitability; which are the forms of access to its interior and
which formal consistency their borders present, i.e. whether or not these bound the
discontinuities of fabric, including to assess the interest of enhancing or blurring them,
through the rehabilitation intervention, closing or opening the Area to its exterior, to
enhance rapid changes in urban character or the dilute through the treatment of peripheral
areas, such as transitional areas.
It is still necessary to form an opinion on how the Area is integrated in the urban landscape
of the settlement, which is its visibility when viewed from the outside, more or less distant,
in order to conclude whether or not there is need to control its image, not only from the
internal point of view of the area, but also through its contribution to the citys image. This
is an important qualification of the referred image and that does not often receive attention
when making the study of the transformation of urban areas.
The approach to the area is done by: .
Performing the entry routes existing in the Area and observing the mode that this is
exposed, when viewed from the outside: enlarged view over the area or impossibility to
uncover it, when viewed from a distance;
Walking the peripheral line and checking forms of access to the Area: through confined
spaces between buildings, marking gateways, or through open spaces forming entry
areas;
Traversing the surrounding connection fabric the with the Area, that is, the range
delimiting / distinguishing the interior of the Area from its surroundings;
Observing the morphological and usage continuities and discontinuities which link /
separate the Area of its surroundings;
Observing the area from distant points and analyzing its contribution to the overall
image of the city.
This set of observations should enable assessing the way the relations of the area with
its surroundings present themselves, indicating the necessary interventions to solve any
morphological and usage problems, correct formal and/ or functional disconnections
prevailing in its border and defining the measures to be taken to enhance the contribution of
the Area to the image of the Urban Settlement.
This question, which is usually not considered, is of major importance if the Area is part of
the panoramic perspective of the Urban Settlement, thus contributing to the composition of
its silhouette and color.
The way the Area participates in the image of the city, which it is integrated in, must be
reported and discussed at its planning level and this can be an important condition of the
volumetry, color and of other characteristics of the image of the Area.

PLAN TO SAFEGUARD OF THE OLD CENTRE OF

SACAVM
1. READING APPROACH TO THE AREA
1.1 MORPHOLOGICAL AND IMAGE RELATIONS

The Area

The Entries in the Area

Image Relations (Cut E/O)

Image Relations (Cut N/S)

ANALYSIS

EAST
The Area is at a higher height of land than the surroundings, surrounded by very
tall buildings that function as visual and sometimes physical barrier, creating
discontinuities.
The passage of the Area to the surroundings is done through doors, specific
hierarchical entry/exit points.
The image contrast between one side of the border and the other is violent /
aggressive.
The morphological relations and image are confused and conflicting, but there
is however, a well-marked border consisting of buildings whose characteristics
(excessive height, different architectural language and without quality) transform
them into barriers and still manage problems of morphological discontinuity,
siege and crush.

WEST
The Area is at a lower elevation and is surrounded by open areas, not yet built
(north and south) and that perception does not however exist, in terms of image.
In the eastern edge, the boundary is established again by much higher buildings,
creating strong discontinuities at morphological level.
The gateways to the surroundings are made in a no perceptible form, i.e., there are
no points / places that may be considered as entries / exits.
PROBLEMS

EAST - morphological discontinuities (shape, scale, architecture and image; absence of

guiding elements of visual and morphological relationship with its surroundings).
WEST - some discontinuities (shape, scale, architecture and visual); is not noticeable
compared to existing open spaces.
POTENTIAL

EAST - the existence of situations of gateways in connection with the environment,

allowing for urban intervention in affirming this quality.
WEST - existence of free building spaces.
PROPOSALS

EAST- intervening in order to more clearly define the gateways to connect to the
environment.
WEST - preserving open construction space, creating green areas which establish direct
connection with the Area, both visually and in terms of usage, and that value the approach
to the area.
In general, and across the area:
To emphasize the connection with the surrounding through the location of economic
continuous activities;
To reference the Area through simple elements: for example, perceptible green
structure, taking care of the views / perceptions of the area, creating referencing
landmarks.

SAFEGUARD PLAN OF THE OLD CENTRE OF

SACAVM
1. READING APPROACH TO THE AREA
1.2 STUDY OF THE ENTRIES - OLIVAL SIDE STREET

ANALYSIS

This access through the Olival side street - seems to be little used.
It is a route where recent buildings predominate, jumbled, interrupted to the left by a
small set hemmed between rear of precarious, old and one-floor buildings.
The street turns to the left, leaving only then to see ahead of us a part of the Framarte
block.
Absence of sidewalks.
PROBLEMS

Pedestrian / vehicle conflict.

Different scales and
languages.
Weak presence of the old area.
POTENTIAL

The following are important in defining the space: The left turn which cuts the route, the
wall of the cemetery and the small EPAL building at the beginning of the street, as well

as the hammed set between rears.

PROPOSALS

Demolition of primitive buildings located to the left (tents transformed into brick houses)
and redefinition of the urban design of this area.
Mind the interaction with the surrounding urban fabric.
Create public urban space that makes the connection to a possible pedestrian circuit link
to the existing aqueduct.

SAFEGUARD PLAN OF THE OLD CENTRE OF

SACAVM
1. READING APPROACH TO THE AREA
1.3 USE RELATIONSHIPS

Intensity Use Relations with the Environment

ANALYSIS

There are strong and good usage relations with the surroundings, particularly at 3 levels:
Economic activities in the main routes connecting the surrounding areas, the
most important one is the main axis of Direita Street extending to the surroundings
through the Maria Luisa Braamcamp Street.
Pedestrian Circulation - in virtually all individual connections with the surroundings
and mostly longitudinally, from end to end of the area.
Circulao automvel - em trnsito de travessia incidindo em duas zonas da rea
The most intense relations are concentrated in two zones of the Area: Direita Street and
the central axis of nonlinear public spaces.
The way that the Area establishes relations with the surroundings and with the village,
in general, gives it a central character.
PROBLEMS

At the level of pedestrian and vehicles circulation, there are conflicting problems derived
from the size of the traffic routes that are not large enough to allow both activities.
There are no use relations with the surrounding area in a significant zone, the one in
which the Area borders with free pieces of land.
The use connections with the surrounding at North, due to economic activities, are the
weakest.

POTENCIAL

There is a usage connection with the surroundings, which is generally strong. And there
is the fact that the main axis which is Direita Street/Maria Luisa Braamcamp Street
matches the pedestrian circulation with the economic activities.
The existence of a uniform and continuous set of 3 squares that is central, either in
relation to the Area or in relation to the Village.
PROPOSALS

Maintain, qualify and strengthen the central character of the Area in relation to its
surroundings.
Limit / reduce the importance of vehicles circulation:
Limit the crossing of the center by cars;
Reduce the burden of road traffic at West.
Qualify and strengthen the connections with the surrounding areas through the treatment
of linear urban spaces.
Directing and prioritizing the interconnecting circuits with the surroundings through,
namely, defining:
The points of entry and exit;
Pavement;
Lighting, also using its intensity and color.
Define how to make most comfortable pedestrian circulation.
Strengthen links to use in terms of economic activities and, if possible, by opening this
new route connecting fronts.
Intervene in surrounding open areas, creating an equipped green structure that provides
strong connections of use to the area.

Image Reading Guide of an Urban Area

e try to obtain in an expeditious (1), direct and personalized way, a global, dynamic
and critical portrait of the Area, which allows us building an idea of its formation,
structure, characteristics and transformation dynamics, identifying problems affecting it, the
potential it offers and outlining objectives, policies, strategies and intervention hypotheses
to guide the rehabilitation and construction of its transformation over time.

Before performing direct observation of the Area, it is considered necessary that technicians,
chosen for this task, know the general characteristics of the following elements:
Situation and key relationships of the Area with the whole urban set which it belongs
to (city / municipality / region) that characterizes it as part of this referred set and the
transformation dynamic that it is subject to via this belonging;
Topographic maps of the Area to understand the general characteristics of the land
topography, the type of organization and structure of the urban fabric (urban fabric, road
hierarchy, different parts and urban axes, urban typologies and of current and exceptional
buildings, ... ), particularly relevant aspects of the urban fabric and other observations
that are considered of interest to extract from the maps to guide the reading;
Toponymy of the Area;
The general features of the historical evolution of the urban fabric of the area.
Doing some street interviews and with privileged interlocutors, the record of urban noises,
or other types of obtaining information on site, are excellent auxiliaries for reading the
image.
Each observer must create their own way of approaching the area, trying not to lose sight of
the objectives to be achieved and the time available.

Reading Method

he reading of the image is done through direct observation of the Area in its many
aspects. We propose that the following steps are taken:

Go through the entire Area (if possible, by car) and form a general idea of its urban
structure, of the parts and main axes that define the spatial distribution of activities, types
of people, buildings and other relevant general characteristics, and elaborate below, a
chart reflecting the overall structure, the very relevant characteristics detected and that
can also be useful to establish a roadmap of observation;
Observe the near surroundings of the Area and how this relates to the ways of approaching

(1) The time needed to carry out observation depends on its complexity rather than on the dimension of the Area and,
especially, on the experience of the observer. It is considered, based on case studies and other performed applications, that
an averagely experienced observer spends 4 to 8 weeks to perform the observations. Subsequent visits are generally required to answer questions and obtain additional information during the record and analysis of the information obtained.

the Area and the features of the borders;

Organize, according to the perceived overall structure, walking tours that allow detailed
visiting of the Area and observing, while doing them: people and activities in spaces;
public and semi-public space, its configuration and expression in three dimensions; the
buildings, their typological expression and social appropriation of space;
Interrogate and assess what is seen as we observe, relate done observations in order to
be able to define, interpret, mapping and assess the characteristics of the Area regarding
to:
General Morphology of the urban landscape;
Relations of the Area with its surroundings - entries and barriers, morphological
continuities and discontinuities, functional and imaging of the urban fabric,
approach perspectives, relationships of usage and so on.
Composition and structure of the Area - people and social relationships, its values
and urban meanings; the social fabric and its distribution in space; activities
and cash flows; organization, expression, and urban space appropriation and
the meaning of activities and places; urban spaces and the building, its morphotypological characteristics; organization and expression characteristics; urban
events. The parts, axes, urban landmarks and notable details, urban furniture and
the Lettering, plant and animal species present;
Area transformation dynamic: demographic and economic forces at work,
expressed through visible changes of the building, the urban space, equipment
and infrastructure, the activities and the type of population;
Meanings and urban values, environmental features and elements that define the
character of the area.

Reading Record

t is essential that the observations done on site are translated into annotated charts in order
to referenciate the spaces where the observed characteristics are situated, specifying
the locations to which they relate, whether it is one street corner, a part of the Area, a set of
blocks , a building, a street, a portion of it, or any other place.

The notes on the maps should translate faithfully the location of the performed observation
If spatial contours are inaccurate, that inaccuracy must be indicated using, for example, the
dashed dash instead of continuous, the stain instead of the contour, etc..
Annotation in the maps is recommended of the observations in a systematic way and as
they occur, so that there is no loss of information, even if it does not seem relevant to the
reading objectives.
Upon doing the desk work of recording the analysis in chips and the interpretation of
the observation, it is important to have at our disposal, not only the set of records of the

characteristics of the Area, but also of the ideas that occurred during the reading regarding
the problems, potential , solutions and study themes that need to be developed immediately,
because they correspond to fundamental information to interpret the reading and that this
one cannot obtain (e.g. data on population characteristics, easily available in the censuses,
the public transport routes, information on the historical development of the Area ...)
Photographic documentation, in video or sketches should also be clearly referenced in
maps and organized so as to be easily identified and consulted during the desk work.

Chapter IV - READING, INTERPRETATION AND

ASSESSING THE IMAGE OF AN URBAN AREA

he image reading, as a means to convey knowledge, respecting the goals of the work,
the interpretation and assessment of an Urban Area, must be formulated based on an
analytical framework that establishes the characteristics considered to translate the observed
reality and its transformation dynamic.

We intend a broad portrait, we would say almost a caricature, to the extent that a good caricature
clearly defines the caricatured with great economy of means and clearly accentuating the
essential features and the significant details that express it.
Our proposal of analytical framework concerns the following aspects:
Composition and structure of the Area, resulting in the synthesis of information relating
to:
Composition and morpho-typological structure;
Composition and active structure;
Composition and social structure;
Composition and meaningful structure;
Urban furniture and lettering, plant and animal species;
Urban character;
Urban dynamics.
The synthesis of information that elucidates these items will enable knowing in its essential
aspects, the Area and its transformation dynamic and proceeding to its interpretation,
detecting the main problems and potentialities of the Area and thus obtaining the information
that contributes to the construction of alternative possible solutions hypotheses of the first
and of exploration of the second, i.e., defining actions that lead to the rehabilitation of the
Area.

Composition and Morpho-Typological Structure

nder this heading, it is intended to gather the information needed to characterize and
interpret the urban space in three dimensions (or even four, i.e., including the time of
routes in it and the consequences in their perception), understand how it is organized and
what features define it as a constitutive element of the Area.
To accomplish these goals, we have organized the information in order to be able to know,
interpret and assess:
The bases of formation of the urban fabric.
The occupation of the ground.
The urban fabric.
The urban space.
The buit-up area .

The Basis of Formation of the Urban Fabric

he passage of a rural to an urban place is done by interpreting the rural landscape in the
light of the idea of the city that existed at the time of that conversion and according to
the corresponding way of urban production.

The structural elements of the urban fabric are defined based on the morphology of the
landscape of the place and the historical evolution of the composition of its fabric marking,
reinforcing or undoing urban outlines and the existing division of property according to the
successive demands of urbanizations and the city concepts

that gave it information.

The assessment of how urbanization has been done and the elements that mark it, of the
ability to properly master the morphology of the local landscape and to sew the successive
interventions is an essential step to guide the definition of proposals to develop in order to
maintain and establish the existing structure, to remedy it, or to define it, if the fabric is
unstructured or maladapted to the morphology of the place.

The Occupation of the Ground

n this section, we refer the quantitative information that is deemed appropriate to define
the general occupancies of the ground of different types of uses (built-up ground, public
space and private outdoor space) which will assess densities and types of occupation and
ground availability.
These indices should be determined per areas that have morphological homogeneity
characteristics, especially if the Area presents very distinct parts, and assessed by comparing

them with the corresponding average values of the Settlement, with the recommended
national and international values and
limit values existing in the Area.
If it is considered relevant, at this stage, the indices referred to other ground uses and more
detailed than those indicated, will be calculated.

SAFEGUARD PLAN OF THE OLD CENTRE OF

SACAVM
1. COMPOSITION AND MORPHO-TYPOLOGIC STRUCTURE
1.1 THE OCCUPATION OF THE GROUND

The Urban Fabric.

he analysis of the urban fabric, i.e. of the geometry drawn on the ground by the sequence
of public and private spaces (either they are occupied or not by the buildings) is one
of the most striking and permanent features of the urban fabric and most significant of its
usage potential and formal expression, its readability and penetrability.
The urban fabric denotes the way of understanding the place, its topography, scenic
potential and climatic characteristics, drainage and ventilation requirements, conditioning
or elasticity to adapt to different types and forms of group building; marks the interpretation
each time had/has of the requirements regarding accessibility, ways of movement and urban

residence, to the resolution needs of the building and private open space and hierarchy and
meaning of places.
To analyze, interpret and assess the urban fabric it was considered necessary to observe:
The designs and their dominant orientations, revealing the position of the fabric on the
ground, the building elements of its geometry, of the continuities and discontinuities of
the fabric;
The geometry drawn by the fabric, indicating the diversity or homogeneity of the
fabric, its configuration by unit or differentiated parts, the articulation or disarticulation
existing between the parts, the formal / positional hierarchy of the elements that make it,
the constraints affecting the definition of the division of property;
The framework formed by linear public spaces (spaces characterized by the marked
accentuation of the size of the axis corresponding to the length, forming channel spaces).
This framework defines the possibility of irrigation of the fabric, of orientation changes
of routes and the type of accessibility created. How the linear public spaces position
themselves, relate and rank within the Area and extend or interrupt beyond it, allows
understanding the structure it translates:
The mode of urbanization of the place in terms of internal and external accessibility;
The different attractiveness regarding the location of the activities;
The definition of calm and internalized areas or areas open to the outside and
points or axes of internal convergence;
Sequences and disruption of route of the different road hierarchies;
The adaptability that it provides to the deployment of different types of urban
buildings.
Through the analysis of this feature, it is possible to assess the coherence and
appropriateness of the urban design to meet a clear, structured urban settlement
and adapted to the topography and its use potential.
The design of the framework can present itself unstructured or, though revealing a
structure, define accessibilities and hierarchies that are not fulfilled on the ground
due to the design of the pathways that embody it (it is the case of some urban
designs in Madragoa) or have a semi-destroyed structure, due to interventions
that, closed within their own logic, forgot to meet the structure defined in previous
rural or urban occupations (as it is the case of Benfica). The fabric, depending on
its design, may or may not, provide for a wide range of uses without changing
itself and without restricting them.
The structure of the nonlinear relationship public spaces (spaces characterized by
little difference in size between its various axes). The structure of the relationship of
these spaces shows how they were interpreted:
The demands of the public stay,
The concentration or dispersion of these spaces in the fabric,

Its hierarchy,
Its importance or marginalization in defining or strengthening the structure of the
urban fabric,
The ordering elements of its positioning and formal development.
The analysis of this structure allows assessing the balance that the distribution
of nonlinear public spaces has in the fabric and decide whether or not there is
the need to create, extend, delete, or define the hierarchy of this type of spaces.
The hierarchy of non-linear public areas, stay areas, refers its importance, not only
regarding the Area but for the whole city, or at national and even international level(1)
and has mostly to do with the excellence of the architectural treatment, but historical
issues, usage, size and positioning in the tissue are also important.
The purpose of this analysis thus encompasses, not only the perspective of local usage,
but also aspects of meaning and form in general urban context, if the Area under study,
or any space in it, have importance at this level.
For proper knowledge and strengthening of the propositional capacity regarding urban
space, we consider essential giving to non-linear public spaces (stay) the same relevance
that has been given to linear public spaces (circulation) in terms of their study and
resolution, even defining structuring hierarchies of their use and meaning..
The interpretation and evaluation of urban fabric is a key step to understanding and
assessing the Area, to diagnose the consistency and the potential of an urban fabric, proceed
with the verification of its suitability to the ground and build solutions to correct deviations
and deficiencies of the existing stroke or, assuming the absence of an ordering structure,
proceed to its creation giving coherence and legibility to the urban fabric.

(1) As an example, Terreiro do Pao, (Lisbon) and Praa de So Marcos, (Venice) are herein referred as having clear
importance, both at national and international level, respectively.

COMPOSITON AND MORPHO-TYPOLOGICAL STRUCTURE

The Urban Fabric
Orientation of the urban design, types of fabric and their articulation
LISBOA (Madragoa /Lapa)

MADRAGOA/LAPA (LISBOA)

Madragoa/Lapa (Lisboa)

CHARACTERIZATION

The urban fabric is oriented according to the main lines of terrain relief and presents a
reticulated of routes, sometimes dense, scarce squares and plazas located in the peripheral
perimeter of the area.
It forms an irregular grid that is organized by being supported by linear peripheral
developments.
It is characterized by having large blocks that interrupt design continuities, due to the
narrowness and weak hierarchical road.
Does not establish continuity relations with the surrounding tissue and S. W
Arranges-forming sets of similar blocks, grouped together and which define different
areas about the potential use and occupation of land.
It is a fabric that closes itself to the outside.
POTENCIAL

Structured, readable, well-watered fabric, facilitating the change of orientation of the

routes, defining various areas despite their overall unity.
Rather varied dimension of the blocks.
Fabric that is closed to the outside providing a peaceful and secluded setting in the heart
of the city.
The orientation of the fabric enhances the visual enjoyment of the river.
PROBLEMS

Discontinuities by mismatch of the square grids, multiple crossings, narrowness and

variation of the profiles of the routes, barriers along wide ranges of fabric and poor
penetration in relation with the outside.
INTERVENTION HYPOTHESES

Keep the characteristics of the fabric and its impenetrability, preventing the installation
of usages that are incompatible with it
or
Perform deep changes to facilitate crossings N/S and E/W and the penetrability of the
fabric and provide new usages.
TOPICS OF DISCUSSION

Advantages and disadvantages of the weak hierarchy of the routes, of interiority and opening
to the outside of the fabric. Suitability of this type of fabric to the installation of economic
activities, interests and possibilities of their adaptation to ensure the circulation and the
parking.

STUDIES TO DEVELOP

Comparative study of identical urban fabrics and different times, checking its variation and
that of the of the types of use, shapes and densities of the terrain occupation that they accept.

COMPOSITON AND MORPHO-TYPOLOGICAL STRUCTURE

The Urban Fabric
Orientation of the urban design, types of fabric and their articulation
LISBOA (Benfica)

Benfica (Lisboa)

CHARACTERIZATION

The urban fabric develops supported on a central axis oriented E/W coinciding with the
valley and which the linear developments N and S are perpendicularly supported in.
This structure is partially destroyed due to the implementation of housing developments
that organized ignoring it and occupying large open and irregular blocks penetrated by
local access roads with dead ends and where the buildings are arranged as separate units.
The unstructured fabric is emphasized with the existence of large areas including
farmlands, expectant lands, parks, sets of isolated buildings and a cemetery.
POTENCIAL

The valley and the roads crossing N/S mark a clear structure, adapted to the terrain,
which should be exploited in order to organize the fabric.
The existence of expectant land and numerous spaces between, formally undefined, can
be used to sew fabrics and structure the urban fabric.
PROBLEMS

Fabric with strong discontinuities and uncertainties and it looks divided. There is lack
of structural elements that grab the changes of this type of fabric. The central structure
(E/W ax and perpendicular roads) is interrupted and incomplete.
The fabric establishes weak relationships with the surrounding given the existence of
barriers (E and W), large areas of land with little or no public pervasiveness of hightraffic roads and partly elevated.
The special connection that the valley establishes with the periphery and center of Lisbon
is poorly explored.
INTERVENTION HYPOTHESES

Strengthen the basic structure of the preexisting fabric and redefine ordering elements
with particular attention to the transition areas between the types of fabric and those of
relationship of urbanizations with each other and with the referred structure.
Enhance and clarify relationships with the surroundings (N/NE and through the valley).
Solve the usage and occupation of the interstitial spaces and the expectant ones.
Solve the circulation problems and superimpose a green fabric that may be a structural
alternative.
DISCUSSION AND STUDY THEMES

Types and functions of the existing urban fabric (circulatory scheme versus organizing
element of construction and urban design).
Solutions that enable the structuring of a fragmented urban fabric.

SAFEGUARD PLAN OF THE OLD CENTRE OF

SACAVM
2. COMPOSITION AND MORPHO-TYPOLOGIC STRUCTURE
2.3 URBAN FABRIC
A) GUIDELINES AND TYPES OF FABRIC AND ITS ARTICULATION

ORGANIC FABRIC
LINEAR FABRIC
AXIS AND ARTICULATION

ANALYSIS

Two types of urban fabric are identified: LINEAR and ORGANIC.

These fabrics articulate themselves through an axis of urban spaces formed by the set of
squares 5 de Outubro, Pedro Jos Gomes and 1 de Maio.
The linear fabric is East/West oriented and the organic one is situated in the North/East/
South quadrant.
PROBLEMS

LINEAR URBAN FABRIC in the border areas: the morphologic relationships with the
surrounding area are poorly defined.
ORGANIC URBAN FABRIC creates labyrinthine circuits and with no sense of
direction advisor and allows poor legibility of urban space; it is not attractive for the
implementation of economic activities or equipment by the conditioning of readability,
size and circulation that it imposes; it generates residential areas with sanitation problems,
lighting and ventilation.

POTENCIAL

LINEAR URBAN FABRIC has a strong sense of direction and hierarchy, provides good
legibility of the urban space, with good accessibility, allowing different uses in terms of
the buildings: economic activities, housing, equipment.
ORGANIC URBAN FABRIC provides diversity of public spaces in terms of type, size
and diversity of routes.
PROPOSALS

Keep the types of fabric and its articulation.

Complete the built-up areas (west blocks) for better definition of the linear fabric.
Effecting occasional interventions in the organic fabric to solve health problems.

SAFEGUARD PLAN OF THE OLD CENTRE OF

SACAVM
2. COMPOSITION AND MORPHO-TYPOLOGIC STRUCTURE
B) DISTRIBUTING NETWORK OF LINEAR SPACES

The Area in Sacavm fabric

Distributing framework of linear spaces

CONNECTING ROUTES TO THE OUTSIDE

GENERAL DISTRIBUTION ROUTES
LOCAL ACCESS ROUTES
WALKING PATHS

ANALYSIS

The distributing framework of linear urban spaces was analyzed in the context of the
urban settlement and under 4 categories: the routes connecting to the outside, the overall
distribution routes, local access roads and footpaths.
The Area is crossed by general distribution routes connected to the external road network,
with particular focus on Central and West zones.
The central zone has a ring road of local access routes whose interior is connected
by a set of footpaths. The central role of the area is confirmed in relation to the urban
agglomeration.
PROBLEMS

The accessibility arising from the fact that the Area is traversed by important general
distribution routes connected to the outside is not accomplished in what regards road
traffic due to its excessive load compared to the structure/size of the roads.
Excessive road traffic.
POTENCIAL

Central role of the Area in relation to the urban agglomerate.

Good accessibility and coverage, due to the varied type of distribution networks: central,

connection to the outside, local and pedestrian.

Existence of a large number of pedestrian pathways.
PROPOSALS

Keep and enhance the distribution network, the quality of its structure, which allows
organizing sequential routes through different spaces
Keep the sequential structure.
Upgrade the existing hierarchy.
Broaden the 5 de Outubro Square and accentuate its role in the hierarchy of the distribution
network, emphasizing its central organizing function.

SAFEGUARD PLAN OF THE OLD CENTRE OF

SACAVM
2. COMPOSITION AND MORPHO-TYPOLOGIC STRUCTURE
2.3 URBAN FABRIC
C) DISTRIBUTING NETWORK OF NONLINEAR SPACES

Non Linear Public Spaces

Organization of Public Spaces

ANALYSIS

Hierarchically there are 3 categories: the central set formed by three wider squares, of
which 5 de Outubro Square is the most important, the significant enlargement of the routes
along the longitudinal axis, and the small squares and small significant enlargements of
routes, that focus on the organic fabric.
There is a clear hierarchy of nonlinear urban public spaces:
Central Zone, 1st order (2) formed by a succession of squares corresponding to a
sub-group of hierarchies as follows: firstly, 5 de Outubro Square, secondly 1 de
Maio Square and thirdly, Jos Pedro Gomes Junior Square.
West Zone, 2nd order (1) formed by a succession of enlargements of pathways of
roughly equal importance where the no. 1 of Almirante de Reis street assumes the
most significant role.
East Zone, 3rd order (3) consists of a set of small squares whose importance
between each other is equivalent.
PROBLEMS

There are no problems regarding the distribution framework of nonlinear public spaces
but, with the exception of those located in the organic nucleus (East), all spaces are
crossed by car traffic in a disorderly manner and very high frequency.
POTENCIAL

This distribution network is hierarchical, organized, structured, is sufficient and covers

the entire area

PROPOSALS

Conserve and enhance the distribution framework, the quality of its structure, which
allows the organization of sequential pathways through different spaces.
Keep the sequential structure.
Upgrade the existing hierarchy.
Broaden the 5 de Outubro Square and accentuate its role as the main framework hierarchy
and emphasize its central organizing function.

SAFEGUARD PLAN OF THE OLD CENTRE OF

SACAVM
2. COMPOSITION AND MORPHOTYPOLOGICAL STRUCTURE
2.3. URBAN FABRIC SYNTHESIS

LINEAR URBAN NETWORK

ORGANIC URBAN FABRIC
GERAL DISTRIBUTION NETWORK
LOCAL DISTRIBUTION NETWORK
NON LINEAR PUBLIC SPACES
REDE DE LIGAO AO EXTERIOR

SYNTHESIS

The Area is formed by two types of fabric that develop oriented W/E clearly identifiable
(organic or linear) and which articulate themselves through a set of 3 nonlinear public
urban spaces in succession, forming a vertical NW/SE axis.
It is an urban fabric well irrigated by nonlinear public roads and spaces, whose distribution
frameworks are hierarchized, complete and varied.
PROPOSALS

Keep the two types of urban fabric and its articulation, which is achieved through nonlinear urban public spaces.
Fill with buildings the Southern area of the linear urban area in order to close off/ build
rectangular closed blocks, rectangular type.
Assess the possibility and the interest of opening a one-way street in the back South of

the linear urban fabric blocks in order to close off / keep street fronts and keep the car
centrality creating alternatives to the existing road circulation.
Reinforce and enhance the articulation of the urban fabrics of the Area with the surrounding
urban frameworks, in order to accentuate the character of the city center.

The Urban Space

he set of public spaces are organized sequentially, irrigating the territory. Its relationship
structure, the urban fabric, shows how the urban appropriation of the place was done
and how were the relationships with its enlarged exterior established.

In addition to the urban fabric, support web and organization of the urban fabric formed
by the public spaces, the urban space also includes outer spaces whose formal definition /
poisoning in the fabric defines them as semi-public and private spaces.
These designations refer, in this text, to morphologic characteristics rather than to the
property status (which does not incidentally include semi-public spaces).

The private urban space owes its status to its formal inaccessibility (closed by construction)
whereas the semipublic is classified as such because, though formally accessible, since the
built area does not close it off, the way how the access expresses itself formally creates
doubts on whether in enters in it unconditionally, shows the concern in connecting it to a
restricted group of users, to close / hide it in order to give it a certain privacy that enables
presupposing particular usage and appropriation rules.
Public, semi-public and private urban spaces, form the urban space, and are integral
categories that organize the analysis of the urban space as an object in itself, as architectural
space, as a concrete, individual and multidimensional form, defined to answer to the
needs of collective and individual usage in the broad sense of ownership, enjoyment and
representation.
On a first approach, it will be our concern to group the urban spaces according to their
marked physical characteristics of their possibilities of usage, which point to the definition
of different typologies.
It will matter grouping the linear public spaces according to the characteristics of its
transversal profile in three dimensions, which indicates the type of circulation it allows
and points out the characteristics of the channel space that it defines.
The nonlinear public spaces will be classified according to the type of pavement and
whether or not there is urban furniture adequate to the urban stay, these characteristics
marking usage intentions and also the issues related to its dimension and urban hierarchy.
Different designations related to its landscape design/use (garden, park, market garden,
vacant land) will stand out in what regards non paved and mixed spaces.
The analysis of the activities in the public space will allow posterior conclusion about the
adequacy or inadequacy of the latter to those and also about the need for intervention in one
or in the other in order to have a good urban balance.
As to semi-public outer spaces, the survey conducted in the case studies (Madragoa/Lapa
and Benfica - Lisbon) enabled identifying courtyards and villas, designations taken from
toponymy and which have great formal diversity and have the common feature of being
situated in the inside of the blocks by directly accessing the public road through spaces of
entry in hallway jammed into the building. These spaces allow public access to buildings
that would otherwise be directly inaccessible, as they are located inside the blocks.
The outer private spaces should be grouped with identical goal: facilitate the understanding
of the variety of typologies represented for further assessment of the adequacy of forms to
the existing usages and the consequent need to change any of them in case there are major
imbalances that must be corrected by the intervention of rehabilitation.
In the case studies referred to, the outer private spaces can be grouped into the following
types: garden/yard, lobby, patio and campus that fit various public administration
buildings still emerging an agricultural property in Benfica.
The typological definition of outer spaces is an understudied topic. The current designations
that we have adopted point out different typologies, with ambiguities and inaccuracies, and
evidence the practical need to refer the form and usage of places in typological terms.

From the case studies we have done, we have withdrawn the classifications that we indicated
which we consider helpful for the understanding and morphological assessment of the Area
to which they relate. They are only valid as exemplification. In each analyzed new case
it will be necessary to determine which classification best fits the type of fabric and the
objectives of its knowledge and assessment, proceeding to the respective definitions.
The urban space is, as we have said, to be observed and analyzed as architectural space, i.e,
as a formally defined space in three dimensions, as internal space bounded by the pavement,
faades or green curtains, mountains, sea and sky, where activities and behaviors happen,
which contains/carries out urban life, which produces feelings and emotions and conveys
meanings.
One of the essential aspects of reading the urban image regards the concern to observe and
analyze the urban space as an object in itself, inhabited and with its own shape, not only
considered as an organizing/distributing framework of the urban activities. Its shape
should not be the result of the sum of spatial answers single defined in accordance with
each project of buildings and their outer arrangements, but rather be the object of the design
itself in the urban fabric set, in order to enable the study and definition of a coherent image
of the spatial sequences that go through the Area, which may be subject to discussion and
serve as a working basis for the different designers who will make it real through their
projects.
In view of the analysis of the urban space as an architectural object, a data page must be
prepared for the record of information that is considered necessary to characterize and
assess it in order to define and inform the rehabilitation project and urban qualification that
it should be subject to. It is an analysis that requires proceeding to a first delimitation of the
sections in the urban continuum that the public space forms.
That outlining must be done in such a way as to define:
The sections of the homogeneous spaces, that is to say, those that, due to its formal and
functioning definition, its unity, diversity or in definition of its urban character should be
unities subject to the same urban rules;
The sections of interfaces that perform or should perform the connections between
spaces of different urban character and that may require the intervention of a project in
order to perform the referred connections;
The places or sections where it would matter to do any changes of urban character
to break the monotony, define urban milestones or/and create structuring elements of an
amorphous or uncharacteristic urban image, perform demolitions to sanitize or give way
to other uses not taken into account in the existing fabric...
The delimitation and characterization of sections in the urban continuum formed by the
public space express, operationally to the project: the image reading of the area, interpreting
it; reveal the basis of the guiding criteria for its conservation, structuring and reconstruction
and prepare the definition of the rehabilitated/qualified image, that is to say, the realization,
within the space of each defined section, of the program and urban regulations that will
give information to the projects of physical intervention.

It is, therefore, a work that should be undertaken in the final stages of reading, analysis
and interpretation of the urban image but that matters preparing early and completing
successively and in a more or less complete and accurate way, depending on the scope and
priorities of intervention that will be established, in accordance with the existing political
decisions, financial availability and the achievement potential.

SAFEGUARD PLAN OF THE OLD CENTRE OF

SACAVM
2. COMPOSITION AND MORPHO TYPOLOGICAL STRUCTURE
2.4 THE URBAN SPACES
A) LINEAR URBAN PUBLIC SPACES

SIDE STREETS
STREETS
STREETS OF CONFRONTATION

ANALYSIS

After analyzing the linear urban spaces we are brought to the conclusion that there are
three types of them, depending on the profile and relationship between them and the
height of the buildings that define its street faade and the activities that they enable
doing.
The meeting and social interaction places are situated in the two main axes of the Area:
STREETS linear spaces whose relationship between the profile and the height
of the adjacent buildings is balanced and that, generally, allow traffic circulation,
only in one direction, but compromising the comfort of the pedestrian circulation;
STREETS OF CONFRONTATION - linear spaces on the periphery of the Area
which we highlight because it is found that the relation between profile and height
of adjacent buildings is unbalanced, either by excessive buildings height or the
difference of height between the two street fronts:
SIDE STREETS - particularly narrow linear spaces, which only allow pedestrian
traffic, and whose heights of buildings that confine them are significantly balanced.
The main types of linear urban public spaces are organized in the urban fabric clearly
and, naturally, linked to the types of urban fabric: the side streets focus on the organic
fabric, the streets on the linear fabric and the streets of confrontation on the limits
of the Area, in the areas of juxtaposition with the modern urban fabric.

CONCLUSIONS

It is necessary to intervene in the streets of confrontation in order to balance between the

image and the surrounding area It is necessary to remove the traffic of certain streets in
order to favor the pedestrian circulation.
It is not possible to provide the linear urban public spaces of the Area with a green
structure of trees.
In the streets where it is necessary to keep car traffic, sidewalks with curbs should not
be implemented, but rather different types of flooring should be adopted, always valuing
the pedestrian comfort.

SAFEGUARD PLAN OF THE OLD CENTRE OF

SACAVM
2. COMPOSITION AND MORPHO-TYPOLOGICAL STRUCTURE
2.4 THE URBAN SPACES
A) LINEAR PUBLIC URBAN SPACES
THE STREETS

ANALYSIS

Pedestrian and vehicles circulation urban spaces.

Spaces that favor the implementation of economic activities.
Balanced spaces that favor comfort to the pedestrian.
PROBLEMS

Of the pedestrian/vehicle conflict due to the dimension of the profile.

Of the discomfort due to the inexistence of sidewalks.
Of cleaning (deficient) and of garbage collection (that requires garbage containers).
Of insufficient public lighting.
Of the access of certain type of vehicles: firefighters, garbage and cleaning.
POTENCIAL

Directional quality.
Formal quality of a large number of buildings faades.
Favors walks and casual meeting.
Favors the implementation of economic activities.

PROPOSALS

Remove the car traffic or limiting it to one direction only.

Arrange pavement, without sidewalks, and use differentiation of materials.
Intervene in the existing built up, improving the quality.

SAFEGUARD PLAN OF THE OLD CENTRE OF

SACAVM
2. COMPOSITION AND MORPHO-TYPOLOGICAL STRUCTURE
2.4. URBAN SPACES
A) LINEAR PUBLIC URBAN SPACES
THE STREETS OF CONFRONTATION

ANALYSIS

They are spaces whose profiles are very unbalanced, with street fronts that are also
unbalanced, either in terms of volumes, or of formal language.
They act as the limit of the Ancient Centre.
They, generally, allow pedestrian and vehicle circulation.
Emphasis was placed on this group of linear urban public spaces of the other
streets, as they mark the boundary between the two urban fabrics - the new
and the old.
PROBLEMS

Volumetric and formal imbalance between the two sides of the urban space.
Excessive intensity of the traffic.
Conflict pedestrian/vehicle due to reduced dimension of the profile or absence of
sidewalks.
Insufficient public lighting.
Discomfort for pedestrian circulation and activities connected to the stay.
POTENCIAL

They could enable establishing the transition between the old and modern fabric, if they

were not completely built.

PROPOSALS

Implementation of the road plan to ordain and qualify the uses and urban spaces.
Ordain or remove the car parking on the streets.
Create comfortable dimensions for pedestrian circulation and stay.
Insert green structure when the profile allows it.

SAFEGUARD PLAN OF THE OLD CENTRE OF

SACAVM
2. COMPOSITION AND MORPHO-TYPOLOGICAL STRUCTURE
2.4 URBAN SPACES
B) NONLINEAR PUBLIC URBAN SPACES
JOS JOAQUIM RODRIGUES SQUARE

CHARACTERIZATION

Little space of well-defined and regular shape, situated on an elevation above the road
Quadrangular clenched space, with only one side open to a linear public side space
whose access is done by ladder.
This setting and the relationship it establishes with the linear public space give it a semipublic character.
It does not have equipment that promotes and enables activities of stay.
TYPOLOGY: non-linear urban public space.
ACTIVITIES: housing, tertiary (office), car traffic (peripheral) and pedestrian circulation
(crossing), parking (peripheral).
PAVEMENT: Portuguese sidewalk.

COLORS OF THE FAADES: white and dark red.

LETTERING: undefined, disorganized.
DETAILS: fountain located in the center and surrounded by 4 flowerbeds, access stairs
to the buildings, tile panel.

SAFEGUARD PLAN OF THE ANCIENT CENTRE OF

SACAVM
2. COMPOSITION AND MORPHO-TYPOLOGICAL STRUCTURE
2.4 URBAN SPACES
B) NONLINEAR PUBLIC URBAN SPACES
JOS JOAQUIM RODRIGUES SQUARE

Interconnection with urban spaces

and entrance to the buildings

Activities of Traffic and Parking

(Location / number of parking places and
traffic routes of vehicles)

Urban Furniture

Crossing and Meeting Activities

1 lighting lamp, waste containers,

1 pole of public electricity

(Meeting and socializing points, pedestrian

circulation axes))

SAFEGUARD PLAN OF THE OLD CENTRE OF

SACAVM
2. COMPOSITION AND MORPHO-TYPOLOGICAL STRUCTURE
2.4 URBAN SPACES
B) NONLINEAR PUBLIC URBAN SPACES
JOS JOAQUIM RODRIGUES SQUARE

HISTORICAL NOTE

The square J. J. Rodrigues is composed North the buildings adjacent to the set of Side
Street Travessa das Prioras, not later than century XVIII. The building has two floors
with uniform spans, having in the faade of the western body, facing south, a French
window with wrought-iron balcony. Building of stone windowsill and frame moldings
in the spans. (1)
East is located the building of workers housing dated 1902 with running gallery in

the back, currently made of concrete and, primitively, of wrought-iron (traces of it still
remain). (2).
South of the Square there is a warehouse - 30/40 years (3) - adjacent to the XIX century
portal that led to the former Quinta da Vitria (4).
West of the Trigueiros Martel street and the South of the side street - Prioras side street
is located a large new building of square (5) plan.

SAFEGUARD PLAN OF THE OLD CENTRE OF

SACAVM
2. COMPOSITON AND MORPHO-TIPOLOGICAL STRUCTURE
2.4 THE URBAN SPACES
B) NONLINEAR PUBLIC URBAN SPACES
JOS JOAQUIM RODRIGUES SQUARE
PROBLEMS

The boundary road has an intense traffic flow.

The boundary zone to the square serves as car parking, making pedestrian access more
difficult.
Lack of street furniture for living and leisure activities.
Public lighting is very poor.
There are too close garbage bins, causing bad environment.
POTENCIAL

Semi-public character, which differentiates it from other non-linear urban public spaces
Suitability for activities of stay and public recreation.
Scale of the built-up set.
Rural character of the built set.
Building of workers housing, of the beginning of the century that is considered an
interesting heritage.
PROPOSALS

Inert activities of stay and recreation by: arrangements of urban space and equipment:
trees/shade
Improve the connection with the front urban space after organizing the traffic flow,
keeping the semi-private character, but not the existing wall.
Reinforcing the importance of the Travessa das Prioras by articulating with this area..
Buildings:
Keep the residential function;
Keep the existing economic activities;
Consider new space usage of tavern - possible disco;
Keep the volumetry of the buildings;
Restore the buildings

SAFEGUARD PLAN OF THE OLD CENTRE OF

SACAVM
2. COMPOSITION AND MORPHO-TIPOLOGICAL STRUCTURE
2.4 THE URBAN SPACES
B) NONLINEAR PUBLIC URBAN SPACES
JOS JOAQUIM RODRIGUES SQUARE

SAFEGUARD PLAN OF THE OLD CENTRE OF

SACAVM
2. COMPOSITION AND MORPHO-TIPOLOGICAL STRUCTURE
2.4 THE URBAN SPACES
C) NONLINEAR PRIVATE URBAN SPACES

123

ARCHEOLOGICAL STRUCTURES TO INVESTIGATE

A
B

ASSOCIATED BACKYARDS

BLOCKS TO COMPLETE

ASSOCIATED BACKYARDS OF GREAT DIMENSION

.COLECTIVE PRIVATE SPACES TO ORGANIZE

AIR SHAFT

GREEN STRUCTURES TO CREATE

ANALYSIS

There are 3 types of outer private spaces related to the type of set of buildings:
AIR SHAFT - tight, enclosed spaces, located within blocks of small size
ASSOCIATED BACKYARDS - located at the rear of the buildings that make up
the blocks in band or/and within average size blocks.
ASSOCIATED BACKYARDS OF GREAT DIMENSION located in buildings
in band (old farms).
It should be noted the existence of an Arab tank in an air shaft at the back of N. S. da
Sade Church.
PROBLEMS

Problems have been detected corresponding to the three different types found:
AIR SHAFT - health problems.
ASSOCIATED Backyards - tendency to its occupation with buildings. Over

occupation of its area and subsequent health problems.

ASSOCIATED BACKYARDS OF LARGE DIMENSION- in some situations
there was its occupation following recent interventions in the urban centre.
Lack of cadastral survey.
POTENTIAL

The existence of large backyards and its connection to unbuilt open spaces, former
agricultural lands belonging to farms.
Existence of backyards with dimension that makes them capable of being transformed
into private collective space.
PROPOSALS

Survey of the occupation of backyards.

Study of the archeological structures in the area of the medieval tower and its surrounding
area.
Study/assessment of the need to free private outdoor spaces wrongly occupied with
storage rooms, lofts, etc. ..
Study of outer spaces, which can be made collective private ones.
Study of the reuse of large backyards to complete not built fronts and to close blocks.
Study of the playground front of the Preparatory School. Prepare a cadastral letter and
create mechanisms for its permanent updating.

SAFEGUARD PLAN OF THE OLD CENTRE OF

SACAVM
2. COMPOSITION AND MORPHO-TYPOLOGICAL STRUCTURE
2.4 THE URBAN SPACES
SYNTHESIS

HERARCHY OF NON LINEAR URBAN PUBLIC SPACES

1
2
3
PEDESTRIAN CIRCULATION
CAR TRAFFIC
OUTER COLLECTIVE SPACES

CONCLUSION

The Area is well irrigated with linear public spaces that we have classified in 3 types:
streets, streets of confrontation and side streets. Generally they reveal problems of conflict
of circulations, have little aptitude for car traffic and implementation of green structures,
due to the size of their profiles
The Area has good coverage and variety of nonlinear public urban spaces, hierarchical
and that present 3 typologies: squares, significant enlargements of the streets and small
squares, with good potential for the installation of economic and living activities, urban
leisure and pleasure.

Private outdoor spaces also exist in 3 types: the air shaft and associated small and medium
size backyards. They have problems of inadequate physical occupation, but may allow
their conversion into collective spaces for private or semi-public use.
PROPOSALS

Maintain the general character of urban spaces as well as their hierarchy.

Strengthen and qualify the existing uses as well as introducing new ones.
Resolving incompatibilities of uses (stay and pedestrians circulation).
Qualify urban spaces by paving them, introduction of street furniture, rehabilitation
or renovation of faades, street lighting renewal, redevelopment and upgrading of
advertising.

COMPOSITION AND MORPHO-TYPOLOGICAL STRUCTURE

LISBOA (Benfica)

Non-urbanized areas
Areas in process of urbanization

Northern and central fringes

Station centre
Multiple nonlinear spaces
resulting of the
urbanization model

Urbanization Model
Routes
Buildings
Hill

The Built-up Area

he built-up area is presented to the reader of the urban image through the exposed
faades, which form the defining walls of the urban space that was analyzed in the
previous heading.
The faades are, from this point-of-view, integral part of the do urban space considered as
architectural multidimensional space and not only, as the physical planning considered it, a
space in two dimensions, organizing circulation and implementation of the built-up area or
what is left of it, in order to, at best, be landscaped.
When studying the built up area, in particular, in the reading of the urban image, we are
looking for, based on observation of the faades, detecting the general characteristics of its
composition and conservation conditions, to point out the problems and potentials that will

enable characterizing the general needs of rehabilitation intervention in the build-up area.
The possibility to perform this analysis through the urban reading presupposes that whoever
performs it previously possesses the knowledge needed to recognize, through the observation
of the faades and with a reduced margin of error, the general construction and typological
characteristics of the buildings.
It consequently requires deep knowledge of architectural and construction history, because
each period proposes different constructive, organizational and aesthetic expression, both
for the current architecture, and for special programs and reveals them in the expression of
the faades, the resolution of accesses, in the ways of grouping and layout of buildings as
well as in its volumetry.
The image reading of the built up area, itself as the subject of analysis and intervention,
takes place in such a way as to allow identifying the characteristics of the area in relation to:
Periods and types of buildings, state of preservation and general volumetry.
Current and exceptional building typologies, ways of grouping them and the aggregation
of housing buildings.
Historical and artistic patrimony.
The indicated information is collected in such a way as to enable:
Detecting and delimiting degraded areas and different apparent degrees of degradation.
Obtaining information regarding the typological variety of the present buildings in the
Area and their spatial distribution, in order to define characteristic areas according to the
types of buildings that make them.
Identifying the typologies of the present buildings in order to interpret how the built up
area contributes to the definition of the usage and urban character and be the guide for
the choice of buildings that represent those varieties in order to proceed to surveying the
characteristics of its spatial and construction organization.
This information is important to clarify the usage capacity they offer, taking into
account the present demands of the ways of living and the constructive problems
that it will be necessary to face towards its rehabilitation and preservation, without
performing an exhaustive survey of the built up area, a time consuming, costly
operation and of little use, in this phase of the work which is identification and
general location of problems, types of solutions and strategies for action, for
general discussion and interest groups and for political decision. Throughout the
work and, as intervention options are taken and the consequent establishment of
means of study and action, the necessary surveys to obtain accurate and detailed
information of the building will be defined and made and which allows proceeding
to the projects design, reinventing solutions or reconstituting the primitive fabric.
Getting elements for defining the overall costs and strategy for the rehabilitation of the
built up area, according to its preservation condition, historical, artistic and cultural
importance, the means available and the prospect of rehabilitation that will be adopted.
This should be clearly explained and justified, indicating the options regarding the

importance given to the requirements of restoration or renovation, full or partial, of the

building. The perspective to be adopted on the degree and criteria for conservation of
the built up area should arise as a result of a reasoned debate, which has not been done
and that would clarify to what extent and why the existing image should be kept, or
reinterpret it and give it the expression of the present, linking new and old, or create a
new image for the existing fabric.

General Characterization of the Buildings

he information regarding the built up area is collected in such a way as to distinguish

and bound areas, wholly or mainly composed of buildings of the same period, or that
have a similar mixture of buildings from various construction periods, which means that
they were being built and/or reconstructed over the same periods, as well as the areas,
according to their degree of degradation/conservation and the dominant volumetries.
The identification, into areas, of significant sets of buildings mixtures according to the
construction periods, or the built up sets that were built in the same period and, sometimes
corresponding to a single project, is a valuable auxiliary to support the indication, into areas,
of the present building typologies and of the predictable state of preservation/degradation
of the construction.
The volumetry of the built up area is also described, in general terms, by distinguishing
the volumetric characteristics of the parts of the area, i.e., indicating the dominance of the
number of floors that differentiates them from each other, emphasizing their homogeneity
in this aspect or pointing out areas that are characterized by diversity of volumetry of the
buildings that compose them.
The period of construction, volumetry and state of preservation are characteristics that relate
themselves and allow defining distinct and homogeneous parts of the Area, from a multitude
of other aspects which lead to the identification of the problems that affect them and of the
applicable solutions. It is, therefore, an analysis of the utmost importance to interpret the

composition and morpho-typological structure of the Area, define and frame the necessary
surveys and studies to understand the present buildings in detail, define the requirements of
their rehabilitation and their usage possibilities, when related to the active structure.

SAFEGUARD PLAN OF THE OLD CENTRE OF

SACAVM
2. COMPOSITION AND MORPHO-TYPOLOGICAL STRUCTURE
2.5 THE BUILT-UP AREA
A) CONSTRUCTION PERIODS

ANALYSIS

The Old Centre has its origin in the XVI century.

In the first period considered: XVI-XVII and XVII-XVIII centuries and that mainly
focuses on the XVII century and on a building tradition that lasts throughout the 1st
half of the XVIII century, 5 de Outubro Square, through buildings scattered around that
structure it, and Direita Street, through remaining scattered buildings, can distinguish
themselves. There are also buildings of this period on the edge of the Centre. There are
in Direita Street (West, closer to Lisbon) buildings built by the aristocracy: the Farms
and Direita Street (East, near the Square) and other buildings, simpler. The buildings and
oldest traces (Torre and other medieval remains) are located in the Square and to the East
of it, allowing us to understand the growth of Sacavm, from the Square towards Direita
Street, in an East/West axis.
In the XVIII century (2nd half) and XIX century (1st half), in Direita Street (West), the
Farms still go on being built (buildings belonging to the aristocracy) and other houses
are built or rebuilt (East). The Square is better defined with the building and, most likely,
with the rebuilding of almost all the West block, keeping the same previous lots. The
buildings on the edge of the Centre increase (Republican School Centre, Ricardo Antonio
Street, Market block). In the nineteenth century (2nd half) Direita Street is occasionally
built probably on other buildings and keeping, almost always, the early lots. Isolated
buildings are built around the Centre, some of them of square layout. The Church in 5 de
Outubro Square emerges as a rebuilding of an earlier chapel.
In the XIX century (late) and XX century (early) the three large blocks of workers
housing are built. The 5 de Outubro Square changes remarkably with the construction
of the biggest block. A small building separates the 5 de Outubro Square from the Pedro
Jos Gomes Jr. Square. Also of this period, there are less meaningful constructions in
Direita Street, unless in the block where the Planning Office is installed (which could
have been cut by a side street or small square). There are other buildings in blocks
situated on the edge of the Centre.
In the XX century (twenties and particularly thirties) little is built on Direita Street and
nothing is built on the Square. The block east of the square suffers a deep transformation
(the block tower and big V shape block) and the Terreirinho Square.
In the XX century (forties/fifties) and, basically, in the sixties/seventies large buildings
are built retreated in relation with the alignment of the street as well as on the west side
of the Almirante Reis side street. Continuous buildings in Terreirinho Square deprive
it from its characteristics. Almost the entire block of GNR is built up (forties/fifties) as
well as buildings scattered throughout the Centre: example, the Council/Market and the
building of the household appliances.
CONCLUSIONS

Regarding the analysis of the impact of construction periods of buildings in the urban
fabric we found that:

The Area is characterized, from this point of view, by the diversity of periods in
the construction of buildings;
The incidence of the various periods of construction presents a fine structure given
that they blend into the fabric, although the presence of buildings is substantial in
the 2nd half of the eighteenth, nineteenth and twentieth centuries;
The Area has undergone interventions over time thus showing the potential and
dynamics of a living centre.
POTENCIAL

The diversity of buildings of different construction periods.

Cultural value of the built up area.
PROBLEMS

Diversity of construction systems which will bring problems to the rehabilitation.

PROPOSAL

Keep the existing diversity

Keep, if possible, the original construction technic of each building.

SAFEGUARD PLAN OF THE ANCIENT CENTRE OF

SACAVM
COMPOSITON AND MORPHOTYPOLOGICAL STRUCTURE
2.5 THE BUILT UP AREA
B) STATE OF PRESERVATION

ANALYSIS

Of the 219 existing buildings, 103 (47%) are in an outer and inner state of preservation
considered REASONABLE, 70% are in BAD state and 46 (21%) are in an outer and
inner state of preservation designated as GOOD.
The built up area is composed by 525 fractions of land which include 392 (74,6%)
households, 80 (15,2%) commercial establishments/shops, 14 (2,6%) restaurants/bars,
13 (2,4%) services/offices,4 (0,7%) recreational societies and 24 (4,5%) fractions of
land designated as miscellaneous.
Of the 392 households, 123 (31,4%) are in an outer and inner state of preservation
considered BAD, 157 (40%) are in a REASONABLE state and 112 (28,4%) are in an
outer and inner state of preservation designated as GOOD.
The highest number of households in poor condition is located on block 048 (26) and
represents 23,2% of the households. It is also on this block that the largest number of
buildings in a bad state is located (18) which represent 20%. In block 035 is located
the highest number of buildings in reasonable state (52 - 33,1%), as well as the highest
number of buildings in good state (33 - 32%).
Block 035 has 10 buildings in good state (22% which is a relatively high percentage. In

block 042 is located the highest number of households in good state,) which represent
41,5% of the households classified as good.
CLASSIFICATION CRITERIA OF THE STATE OF CONSERVATION OF THE BUILT UP AREA

GOOD - There are no structural defects at first sight (cracking of the structure, breakdown
of materials, and there are no structural abnormalities whatsoever or only in a small
percentage, (presence of moisture, degradation and aging of materials, cracks in the
plaster...)
REASONABLE - There are no serious structural deficiencies, but they show a large
percentage of non-structural abnormalities
BAD - Presents serious deficiencies at structural level together with large non-structural
abnormalities.

SAFEGUARD PLAN OF THE ANCIENT CENTRE OF

SACAVM
COMPOSITON AND MORPHOTYPOLOGICAL STRUCTURE
2.5 THE BUILT UP AREA
C) VOLUMETRY

ANALYSIS

In the area, the buildings have a predominant volumetry of two floors, followed by one
of only one floor. There are buildings of three floors integrated on the continuous built
up.
The buildings of 4 floors and more exist occasionally, introducing, in terms of image,
discontinuities with strong presence.
In terms of location in the urban fabric there is:
The presence of volumetries of 1 floor on the periphery of the central zone;
The volumetric concentration of 3 floors, adjacent to the central set of three
nonlinear urban public spaces;
The volumetric 4 and more floors arise in the east and west extremes and significant
enlargement of the pathways along the central axis. To highlight the impact of the
presence of the 10 storey building to the west of the area, either from within or
from outside the area;
The rest of the urban fabric features a built up area with a volumetry of 2 floors.
PROBLEMS

Existence of volumetric discontinuity of the build-up area.

Existence of very significant volumetric asymmetries when the transversal profiles

formed by sets of buildings and public spaces are considered, especially in the case of
confrontation streets.
POTENTIAL

Possibility of volumetric increase aiming to resolve discontinuities and make the set of
the built up area and urban spaces more harmonious.
PROPOSALS

Allow the increase of the floors towards harmonization and densification.

Define the places and increase rules of the built up area.

Typology of the Buildings and Households

he localized identification of the typological variety of the buildings of the Area, along
with the reading that was done in the previous paragraph allows us knowing and assessing,
the buildings in general terms, and helps guiding the choice of representative buildings of
this variety of types in order to proceed to the detailed survey of the characteristics of their
spatial and constructive organization.
This information has, as we afore stated, the interest of clarifying the usage capacity
that buildings offer over current living requirements, economic activities and the type of
construction problems and image that will be necessary to face for their rehabilitation or
conservation, without performing an exhaustive survey of all the buildup area.
The identification and characterization, per areas, of the forms of grouping the buildings is
still an important information for the characterization of the morpho typological Area and
to consider how to perform physical rehabilitation.
The grouping method of households in residential buildings, of easy perception by
observing the accesses, alerts to the issues of sharing and management of semi-private
spaces of buildings, of relationships/confrontations of neighborhood that they provide, of

the opportunities of transformation they offer, by typological junction or by division of

existing households, as these present themselves excessively tight or wide, of the irrigation
of urban space by the multiplication of accesses or the spacing of these, with repercussions
in the dispersion or concentration of entries and exits and the consequent differentiation of
access routes.

SAFEGUARD PLAN OF THE OLD CENTRE OF

SACAVM
2. COMPOSITION AND MORPHO-TYLOLOGICAL STRUCTURE
2.5 THE BUILT-UP AREA
H) GROUP OF BUILDINGS

Small Dimension Blocks

AMedium Dimension Blocks

Semi-Detached Buildings

PROBLEMS

Problems have been detected corresponding to the three different typologies found:
SMALL SIZE BLOCKS - no backyard spaces, too small dimension of some lots,
causing problems related with housing conditions and inadequate occupation of
the building
MEDIUM SIZE BLOCKS - intensifying transformation of area and the small size

of some batches led to over-occupancy spaces for playgrounds and consequent

health problems. There are also frequent inappropriate uses of the buildings;
BUILDINGS IN BAND - in some situations there is the destruction of areas of
terracesRelated with recent interventions - Jos Augusto Braamcamp Street /
Almirante de Reis Street, North .
POTENCIAL

Regarding SMALL SIZE BLOCKS:

The character they give to public space;
The possibility of being transformed into closed blocks;
The size of the block enables global intervention.
Regarding the MEDIUM SIZE BLOCKS:
The existence of public parks that can provide interventions towards its
transformation into private open spaces for use of communities;
The size of the lots provides a good relationship with the public space
Regarding the BUILDINGS IN BAND:
The existence of larger backyard spaces;
The connections with the open unbuilt spaces, former agricultural terrains belonging to
farms which allow closing off the urban fabric.
PROPOSALS

1 - North Block of 5 de Outubro Square- its reformulation is proposed with land holdings
in order to build a 3-storey building (ground floor, shops, services and / or housing)
and create a public space for continuity to 5 de Outubro Square. As an alternative, the
reconstruction of the building of the Oliveirinha Side Street with reformulation of the

adjacent construction must be evaluated.

2 - West Block of 5 de Outubro Square - the opening of a side street through the interior
of the backyard is proposed, in order to establish the connection with Joo de Deus Street
and Almirante Reis Side Street.
3 - South Block of Jos Augusto Braamcamp Street, cornering with Jos Pedro Loureno
Street- close off of the block is proposed with formation of street fronts and redesign of
its interior space.
4 - Corner Block of the Streets Jos Augusto Braamcamp and Trigueiros Martel replotting and opening of a passage to allow connection with the small square at the rear.

SAFEGUARD PLAN OF THE OLD CENTRE OF

SACAVM
2. COMPOSITION AND MORPHOTYPOLOGICAL STRUCTURE
2.5 THE BUILT-UP AREA
G ) HOUSEHOLD GROUPING

The traditional system of grouping of households in the Old Centre of Sacavm is

characterized by its rural character, detached buildings, sometimes houses with small
walled yard, single-story or two-story or with a store and urban primitive character
wooden floor: aligned along the streets, sketching blocks in band (1). Each building
represents one or two households (one per floor). It is a popular architecture of building
tradition previous to the earthquake.
Buildings of petit bourgeois nature (urban). Most of them, also detached. On the ground
floor is situated the store for commerce and housing is on the upper floors. They are
mostly from the 2nd half century of the XIX century and early XX century. Each building
of this type corresponds to one household. Examples: the building of the grocery store
(Direita Street) and the building of the Planning Office (2).
Buildings (blocks) of the working class housing with gallery or yard in the rear, allowing
access to the households: small housing modules, built to group large numbers of families.

They are contemporary to many workers villages existing in Sacavm, but outside the
Old Centre. There is also the working class housing building in band, whose access to
the tight modules is done by stairs (3 in the block) with households on either side (left
and right) (3). They are also buildings from the late XIX century - beginning of the XX
century.
The housing building - century XIX (2nd half) with several floors, staircase dividing the
households into left and right. Each floor has two households.
In the 30s, the century XX, the distribution of 4 households per floor is newly introduced
(egg modern building of Direita Street (5) until the income apartment buildings of the
6Os / 70s with 5 or more floors with multiple households per floor (6).
Farms, small palaces and buildings with architectural quality, built by a family and
their staff (currently divided into several households). As an example: The Braancamp
Palace, the farm Quinta do Alexandre, the block Quarteiro do Sr. Matos, the VilaClara Private School building or the Prioras assembly.

The Historical and Artistic Heritage

he observation of the faades allows proceeding to a first identification of the buildings

of interest within the Area itself, which should include the list of classified heritage,
because it has national or municipal value.
The heritage mapping, distinguishing its different levels of interest, gives a meaningful
measure of the importance of the Area, from this point of view, and is an important aid to
define the criteria for intervention as to the requirements of conservation / restoration and
possibilities of renewal / replacement of buildings on different parts of the Area.
This heritage assessment, in order to contribute to the definition of guidelines on the criteria

for rehabilitation of different parts of the Area, should cover buildings, elements and details
of the buildings and even the blocks, places, enclosed public spaces, plant species, green
areas, and street furniture.
The study and assessment of the area from the point of view of history, art and culture, which
must be developed from the beginning of the work, should be deepened as the intervention
decisions and to detail the information necessary to carry out their current rehabilitation and
urban heritage management.
The extended discussion on value of the heritage area will set the perspective on preservation
or renovation and decision about its use.

Composition and Active Structure

he reading of the activities of the Area is spatialized in order to allow realizing how these
appropriate the space, which active structure they define in it, what kinds of activities
are present and how they blend together or specialize, depending on the places.
It is also important to point out the type of functional units present (small, medium or large
units) and check:
If they take the ground floor, extend to the first floors or to all the buildings.
Their target type of clients.
The area of influence they have.
The antiquity or modernity of the operating system they reveal.
The active structure should include not only economic activities, but all activities of daily
life, including the housing, those who gather in the equipment (studying, taking care of the
health, caring for the elderly and children, cultural activities) and those that develop within
the public space, either circulating or staying.
The simultaneous presence of all the activities allows defining:
The areas or axes of animation and tranquility or disinterest in the urban space.

Assess the good or faulty fabric irrigation;

The excessive pressure in relation to spatial characteristics or the desertification of the
existing spaces;
The mono or multi functionality of the different parts and axes of the area.
The assessment of the active structure should be made regarding the characteristics of the
existing fabric, the needs of the residents, the requirements of the installed operating activities
and also to the Urban Settlement to serve the general population, drawing conclusions on
whether or not there is the need to proceed with the introduction, expansion or reconversion
of activities, specifying the places where action is needed for proper functioning of the
whole fabric, respecting their characteristics and giving the population the resolution of
their everyday life in a safe environment and with urban way of life.
The profound imbalances that exist in the implementation of activities are known, which
cause the existence of dormitories and, at the opposite pole, areas of almost exclusively
implementation of economic activities with known and serious drawbacks both local and
affecting vast surrounding areas due to circulation flows, the accumulation of parking and
the imbalance of use in relation with the day and the evening, the weekdays and the weekend.
It was already mentioned, upon the study of the insertion of the Urban Area in the Urban
Settlement, that one of the issues to consider regards the predictions or decisions relating to
the implementation of activities at the scale of the Urban Settlement to know the changes in
the study Area will tend to suffer through them.
When assessing the active structure of the Area it is essential to take into account and discuss
the impact resulting from the referred decisions, that may introduce profound changes in the
composition and structure, not only of the existing activities but, and as a consequence, of
the different urban characteristics, in general.
In order to perform quality control of the space and ways of living, it is essential to master
the location of activities guiding them to places where they not only have good working
conditions as they will contribute to enhancing the urban efficiency and the environment.
The establishment of clear criteria for the location of activities and the creation of conditions
to make them be respected is a basic condition of balance and urban quality and one of the
factors that define the ways of living and their organization in the everyday urban space/
time.
Controlling the location of activities is hampered by differences in land value that causes,
due to the advantages of operation and image offered by its concentration, lack of planning
detail that covers the territory and contains sufficiently detailed information on land use and
includes the mechanisms for their discussion and ongoing assessment allowing, including
in this way, application flexibility without prejudice to the firmness of the objectives of
urban quality intended to achieve.
This discussion and evaluation would simultaneously feed the successively awareness /
problem solving related to the ways of living and its dependence on the orientation of
economic development and operation of power structures linked to it.

To know, interpret, assess, and proceed to the extended discussion of the composition and
location structure of the of activities in the territory at local level is an important contribution
to clarifying and being able to solve a key issue of the urban life quality.
The existence of a soil policy that contradicts the harmful effects of the market operation,
supported by a detailed planning and effective marketing; the creation of incentives, penalties
and effective surveillance; the development of reasoning that elucidates the advantages of
proposed locations for the activities, makes public opinion aware and guides it in order
that it discusses and monitors the distribution of land uses in a favorable manner to the
harmonious urban functions are measures that help regulating this essential issue.
The organization of local traders and owners to monitor their difficulties and transformation
demands, the search for viable solutions in terms of usages and that are, simultaneously,
viable and economically profitable, can contribute positively to maintaining the balance of
usages and promote local development.
In order to proceed to the reading and interpretation of the active structure, the following
activity groups were defined:
Housing, equipment, public administration and economic activities, standing out among
these commerce , services and industry;
Traffic, transports, parking, loading and unloading and pedestrian circulation;
Stay, leisure, socializing, culture, exchange and expression of marginality in the urban
space.
The observation of activities must take place, day and night, weekdays and weekends as there
are, depending on these periods, significant changes in their functioning, with important
implications in the use of urban space and buildings.
The summary of the information obtained shows the formation and active structure of the
Area. Its interpretation and evaluation can detect the problems and potential of existing
urban usages, develop proposals for intervention and initiate the development of regulatory
strategies and negotiation of space usages.
These strategies have to take the needs of the resident population, location of the activities
at the Urban Settlement level, and the operation of the activities.
The participation of the social agents, in general and per interest groups, in the organization
of urban activities, ownership and rehabilitation of spaces is, as we have stated, a major
factor of study strategies and action, in this domain.
Although the installation or disappearance of economic activities does not depend on public
responsibilities, it is essential to consider monitoring and support to urban activities as a
local planning task.

Housing, Equipment, Public Administration and Economic Activities

he spatial distribution of activities is done by distinguishing them per areas, axes or

other settings that reflect their storage in the territory. Since the activities are mixed
differently in space, the details of their zoning refer to the exclusive or dominant presence
of the activities in analysis and their concentration or dispersal in the marked areas/axes.

We therefore have, with respect to housing, exclusively residential areas, of housing, and
other activities with no housing.
In what regards to equipment, and in the perspective of highlighting the features of interest
to form a concrete and operational idea of the Area, we were brought to point out, in the
case studies conducted for testing the method, the equipment per types and according to
their inclusion in the fabric or located within large lots, in a dispersed or continuous form,
as well as naming the equipment whose coverage markedly exceeded the scope of the Area.
As for economic activities, the indication of their spatial distribution should distinguish
trade, services and industry, signalling specific activities deemed of interest to highlight
(egg, a hypermarket, a major shopping centre, ...) and the indication on the fact that they are
concentrated or dispersed in the marked areas.
Regarding public administration, the facilities according to their belonging to central or
local services will stand out
.The synthesis of this information corresponds to a map where the presence and the
distribution of this set of activities within the Area is marked, which allows forming an idea
about the characteristics of the Area, regarding:
Possible shortages or excesses of activities.
Mono or poly-functionality.
Degree and method of irrigation of the fabric depending on the activities.
Status of spots and axes of activities concentration.
Continuities and discontinuities that are established in relation to the surroundings.
The assessment done allows identifying the problems, the potential and defining the locations
and activities whose study is a priority for the deepening of the information gathered, and that
would matter triggering immediately, given the importance of the usages in the definition
and quality of the urban environment, its complexity and the inadequacy of the method of
image reading for getting information beyond a first idea about the type of activities present
and how they appropriate the territory.

SAFEGUARD PLAN OF THE OLD CENTRE OF

SACAVM
3. COMPOSITION AND ACTIVE STRUCTURE
3.1 HOUSING, EQUIPMENT, ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES
A) HOUSING

INTERPRETING DIAGRAMS

GREATER INTENSITY OF THE HOUSING ACTIVITY

PROPOSAL OF RESIDENTIAL ACTIVITY

LESSER INTENSITY OF THE HOUSING ACTIVITY

PROBLEMS

One may conclude that it is possible to reside in the Area with few living conditions due
to the conservation state of the buildings and dwellings, the size of the households and
the lack of basic equipment.
To reside in this area also has problems of environmental quality due to the levels of
pollution caused by the industries established in the surrounding area.
The buildings and the households are, in general, in reasonable condition, although
with an already strong presence of degradation. There are a significant number of vacant
homes (25).

PROPOSALS

Keep the T1 and T2 typologies to secure and attract young people as well as not to
provide the expulsion of the elderly population.
Introduce T3 and T4 typologies through expansions of the built up area and addition of
small typologies in order to provide, both the permanence of already installed families,
and to secure others that one wants to attract.
Provide the households of good living conditions.
Maintain the residential function throughout the whole Area and exclusively reserve for
this activity, and in a first stage, the area of the organic fabric.

SAFEGUARD PLAN OF THE OLD CENTRE OF

SACAVM
3 COMPOSITION AND ACTIVE STRUCTURE
3.1 HOUSING, EQUIPMENT, ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES
E) SYNTHESIS

BUILDINGS TO RECONVERT INTO EQUIPMENT

COLLECTIVE EQUIPMENT TO REVITALIZE
COMMERCIAL FRONTS

SYNTHESIS

The dwelling function is distributed throughout the urban fabric of the Area, focusing
on its periphery with few living conditions in general.
The existing equipment is local, predominating recreational and sporting societies
whose structures are under-used. It is in the Area that the Parish and the GNR have its
headquarters.
The economic activities focus on the main axes of the Area, are diverse and have a
strong presence. They serve the whole settlement and surrounding areas.
PROPOSALS

Maintain the residential function with the existing typologies (T1 and T2) and introduce
typologies T3 and T4, providing all households with good living conditions.
Introduce strong central nature equipment, in particular those of cultural nature with day
and night operation.
Revitalize the existing equipment.

Maintain and increase the attractiveness of the Area by increasing, diversifying and
qualifying economic activities, both in service, and in space and preserving traditional
trade, if possible.
Create the expansion of economic activities of tentacle-like form throughout the urban
agglomeration.
Maintain the location of the Parish Council, assessing its expansion, and find an alternative
location for the GNR Station.

Traffic, Transports, Parking, Loading and Unloading, Pedestrian

Circulation

he reading of these activities is guided by already exposed concerns when describing,

the characterization of the composition and active structure, in general, and it pursues
identical objectives.
Regarding the circulation places, the spatial location is done by standing out:
The traffic directions for public and private transport.
The careers and terminals of the existing public transport.
Points and axes of higher traffic intensity and conflict relating to the car circulation and
of the latter with the pedestrian.
The spatial solutions to perform the loading and unloading, the places where these are
prohibited and the areas and / or axes where there are no problems.
The parking by indicating, per areas, the solutions and general anomalies found, as
well as other issues that will be observed through the reading, and which are deemed of
relevant importance to address the activities referred to under this heading.
A summarizing letter prepares the identification of problems and potential of the Area, on
these activities, and the corresponding solution hypothesis.

The specialized studies that will need to be developed for better information and to structure
the solutions, often exceed the territorial scope and powers of intervention in urban areas,
especially if there are major changes to be made.
It is, however, essential to have an analysis report on the specific needs of the Area and look
for ways of their satisfaction. Traffic, transport and the infrastructures are the issues that
most emphasize the need to relate scales of intervention and make compromises between
social agents, acting at different levels.

SAFEGUARD PLAN OF THE OLD CENTRE OF

SACAVM
3 COMPOSITION ANDA ACTIVE STRUCTURE
3.2 TRAFFIC ANDA PUBLIC TRANSPORTS, PARKING, LOADONGS AND
UNLOADINGS

PARKING TO CREATE DUE TO NEW REAL ESTATES

UNDERGROUND PARKING
CAR TRAFFIC ROUTES
EXCLUSIVE PEDESTRIAN CIRCULATION
LOADINGS AND UNLOADINGS
TP

PUBLIC TRANSPORT

SYNTHESIS

The whole Area has car traffic, providing that the streets profiles allow it, which generates
permanent conflicts between cars and pedestrians.
Currently no public transport circulate in the Area, what has happened until 1990/91, with
links to Moscavide and Unhos and with location of a bus stop in 1 de Maio Square. The
withdrawal of this career was reflected in the decrease of pedestrian crossing circulation,
which came to produce a fall in economic activities.
The total parking 213 places focuses on all kinds of urban space with very negative
consequences for all activities related to it, because it is conflicting with activities of
living and urban leisure and pedestrian circulation, considering the scale of profiles of

the routes and the size of the remaining public spaces.

The loading and unloading are practiced anywhere and anytime.
The pavements of the Area are, in general, in poor condition, the profiles of the streets
are narrow and sidewalks are insufficient.
PROPOSALS

Remove the traffic from the Area only keeping three roads with car traffic.
Reduce the sense and the circulation in the West zone, by creating a roundabout of local
traffic and connection to the outside in EN10 National Road 10), resulting from new
connections generated by the new CRIL node.
Remove the parking surface Area of reordering the existing bags in the surrounding,
creating two underground car parks (in 5 de Outubro Square and opposite the Baroque
Palace).
Find that new real estates, to locate in the surrounding area, create parking areas to serve
them.

Urban Living

he reading of the multiple activities that take place in the public space (leisure, socializing,
cultural activities and exchange) in addition to circulation referred to in the previous
paragraph, complete the information corresponding to urban activities.
These activities must develop themselves and the places where they occur must be pointed.
This information is essential to acknowledge the range of opportunities for social connection
and ownership that the urban space offers, including the one related to the marginal population,
and the locations chosen for its implementation.
The importance of this acknowledgement for the understanding of the urban space
recommends the preparation of specific studies, of sociological and anthropological nature
on the subject.
It also matters to consider the differences in usage during periods of the day and night, the
weekly and seasonal variations and the exceptional events linked to parties, sports, cultural,
religious, and political activities and others.

SAFEGUARD PLAN OF THE OLD CENTRE OF

SACAVM
3. COMPOSITION AND ACTIVE STRUCTURE
3.3 URBAN LIVING, LEISURE AND SOCIALIZING

EXCHANGE
ACTIVE RECREATION
MEWETING AND SOCIALIZING

CHARACTERIZATION

In the Area there are meeting, socializing, exchange and active recreation activities, but
the activities of urban stay and leisure do not occur.
Meeting and socializing places occur on the two main axes of the Area:
J.A. Braamcamp Street / Almirante Reis Street, former Direita Street) (transverse
axis);
5 de Outubro Square / Pedro G. Junior Square / 1 de Maio Square (vertical axis).
These activities are mainly practiced in nonlinear urban spaces (squares and linear
extensions of urban spaces).
They are fundamentally connected to two types of activities:
Car and pedestrian circulation;
Commerce and food services.
In the absence of proper public spaces, the active recreation asset is reduced to the one
that is practiced by the child population and occurs in areas that offer more security.
The exchange places occur in areas of high pedestrian crossing, concentrating on the
vertical axis formed by the three squares.

PROBLEMS

These activities are practiced in strongly constrained way due to:

Lack of public spaces prepared for the development of these activities in;
Over occupation of the public space;
Traffic and parking pushing these activities to areas adjacent to the citys street
fronts.
Lack of support street furniture.
POTENCIAL

The desire for this type of activity is very high, either because of the alternatives found
by residents or by the number of places where they occur:
The existence of a significant number of public spaces which testifies the abilities for
the development of such activities.
Good distribution of these spaces through the urban fabric of the Area.

PROPOSALS

To give public urban spaces back to the pedestrian through the implementation of the
general road plan.
Star by solving the parking problem with the creation of parking.

URBAN STAY
STAY, MEETING AND SOCIALIZING ASSOCIATED TO
RESTAURATION SERVICES
MEETING, SOCIALIZING, STAY,
SHOWS AND RECREATION

Arrangement of these spaces, taking into account the prevailing activities and their
availabilities.
Creating living places and childrens recreation.
Introduction of other type of activities of cultural nature.
Incentives for the appropriation of urban space (see weekends without traffic).
Create attractiveness, covering the centre / Sacavm / region.

SAFEGUARD PLAN OF THE OLD CENTRE OF

SACAVM
3. COMPOSITION AND ACTIVE STRUCTURE
3.4 SYNTHESIS

PUBLIC ADMINISTRATION
CENTRAL
LOCAL
EQUIPMENT
INTEGRATED IN SPECIFIC BUILDING
INTEGRATED IN BUILT-UP AREA
ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES
MEETING AND SOCIALIZING

SYNTHESIS

The type and way activities are organized in the urban fabric creating incidence, concentration
or dispersion areas, and its diversity allow concluding:
The centre of the area consists of the set of three nonlinear urban spaces - 5 de Outubro
Square, Jos Pedro Gomes Junior Square and 1 de Maio Square - and the old section
of Direita Street, now called Almirante de Reis Street and Maria Luisa Braamcamp
Street. Here the economic activities (trade and services), public administration and some
equipment are concentrated. These spaces also provide activities related to gathering,
socializing and recreation. West and East of this zone, areas are developed of more
residential nature.
Residing in this Area, means, in General residing with little habitability given the state
of conservation of buildings and dwellings, due to the size of the households and the lack
of basic equipment.
There is an excessive load of traffic and parking, inadequate to the capacity to use public

spaces and that reflects into permanent pedestrian-car conflict and in the limitation of the
practices related to urban living. The readiness for the practice of this type of activities is
notorious which are practiced with intensity even without any support in terms of urban
furniture or arrangement of public spaces. Loading and unloading are made throughout
the area without any limitation of time.
In terms of public administration there are shortages - Public Safety Police (PSP), Notary
Office, etc. The creation of the future Administrative Centre, following the creation of
the Municipality of Sacavm, should favour the bonds.
In terms of transport, until recently there were two careers that crossed the area in 1 de
Maio Square - links to Unhos and Moscavide - the latter having been diverted, which is
considered incorrect because it induced pedestrian circuits crossing of the old town.
PROPOSALS

ECONOMIC ACTIVITIES
PEDESTRIAN AREAS
URBAN STAY
ESPLANADES
CENTRES OF CULTURAL ACTIVITIES
ATTRACTING INTERESTS AND SITTING UP NEW
ACTIVITIES

Maintain the downtown character of the Area relatively to the urban agglomeration of
Sacavm.
Ensure that future expansion of the centre (the Area) is done in tentacle-like manner
in order to irrigate the urban fabric of Sacavm and that the installation of economic
activities is targeted.
Assess the possibility of the future administrative centre, which will appear following
the possible creation of the Municipality of Sacavm, in the former Tableware (china)
Factory, given the location of the latter in the continuity of a structural axis of the Area
and the Village and given its proximity to the future intermodal interface.

Keep the concentration of economic activities, trade and services, without significant
detriment of the residential activity: the ground floors of buildings located in the two main
structural axis of the Area may be occupied with economic activities. Admittedly, even in
the case of buildings that may suffer increased build ability, and only from the volumetry
of three floors, the transformation of use of the first floor for installation of economic
service type activities, always ensuring the residential occupation and seeking animation
generating activities are set in the ground floors and avoiding night desertification.
Encourage the qualification of economic activities.
Urgently implement the Road Remodelling Plan.
Encourage the implementation of cultural nature activities of private and public initiative.
Intervene in the most significant buildings of the Area - Republican School Centre,
Baroque Palace, Alexandre Farm, Medieval Tower - allocating them to new cultural
usages and local and regional interest.
Proceed to the arrangement of public spaces in order to provide practical activities
related to urban residence.
Maintain the existing residential activity and types of households.

Composition and Social Structure

hrough the image reading of the Area it is our concern to form a spatialized knowledge
of the characteristics of the installed settled population or who come from abroad to use
the Area, in terms of the dominant social groups that form it and where they are located.
The characteristics that we will try to identify are those regarding the presence of different
socio-economic and age groups, also being needed to build an idea about the existence of
inactive people and of high-risk and marginal groups.
The more stratified and spatially segregated the population is the clearest and, therefore,
less subject to errors will be the results of the image reading. Anyway, they will necessarily
be defective, although they are only intended for introducing the most important aspects
regarding the population in order to interpret the urban space in terms of the usage, ownership
and existing sociability and pointing out the requirements for the organization of social
work interventions.
Rightly or wrongly interpreted, peoples characteristics and their relations with the space
are implicit in reading and assessing the urban environment and are fundamental basis of
that assessment.
We therefore considered it necessary to make the effort of reading the human geography
linked to uses perceived to even investigate the relationship between certain types of quality,
animation and urban picturesque and the presence of specific social groups that usually the
rehabilitation action tends to turn or expel, if not immediately, at medium-term, even if you
try to avoid it.
In short, the composition and social structure of the Area is based on spatialized information,

regarding to its population (settled in the built-up area and coming from abroad), indicating
the socio-economic, age, active and inactive groups, risk groups and marginal ones.
The interest of this information is to essentially support the interpretation, according to the
different social groups present, of the ownership of the Area and sociability in the public
space, basic aspects to evaluating urban quality and to define the need, priority and type of
sociological and anthropological studies to develop thereafter.
It may be useful to acquire sensitivity as to the human landscape of the Area, make a
photographic collection of different types of people, when performing their activities.
Doing interviews with interlocutors who know the population well (Parish, Social Security,
Health, Police, long-time inhabitants, ...) is important in this stage of the work.

SAFEGUARD PLAN OF THE OLD CENTREOF

SACAVM
4. COMPOSITION AND SOCIAL STRUCTURE
4.2 SOCIABILITY EXPRESSION IN THE SPACE
Space Usage at Night

GRATER INTENSITY OF USE

Daytime Appropriation of the Space by Age Groups

ADULTS
YOUNG PEOPLE
ELDERLY

CHARACTERIZATION

It is in the Area that and the most important social events of the community take place.

It is in 5 de Outbro Square that parties, rallies and political meetings take place,
processions leave, entertainment shows are happening, as well as cultural initiatives,
etc. It is a meeting and trade point;
It is the centre of the village and the area.
It is the set of the three nonlinear urban spaces (vertical axis) and in the insertion area
with the transverse axis (former Direita Street and M. Luisa Braamcamp Street) that the
several social expressions take place, as indicated in the map.
In terms of social events, the Area acts as a village with its parties - Alentejo Week, of
the Longa, Our Lady of Health, attesting to the existence of immigrant communities
across the country and the habits of meeting and socializing in the evening. People know
each other; greet each other, stop and talk. They have good or bad relationship with the
neighbours and express this relationship.
There busier days, Tuesdays and Fridays and during the day, early morning and late
afternoon are the periods of greater activity - arrival and departure of the population
working outside.
Daytime Sociability in the Space Activities

MEETING
SOCIALIZING
EXCHANGE

The meeting places have greater or lesser number of people depending on the time of day.
The use of the spaces at night is fundamentally linked to the catering services, to some
communities and situations of marginality. This is mainly due to poor street lighting and
to the small number of places open at night and the lack of permanent cultural activities
PROBLEMS

All expressions of sociability are practiced without any support from the viewpoint of
urban furniture and comfort.
Parking and traffic.
Existence of marginality

Marginality in the Space

BEGGARY
DELINQUENCY
OTHER MARGINALITY

POTENCIAL

The maintenance of cultural traditions of the migrated population.

The existence of diverse expressions of sociability, due to the size of the Area, its scale,
the specific conditions for habitability and also the type of the settled population, its
origin and predominant age groups: elderly, pensioners and those belonging to the same
economic level.
The use of the area by non-resident population.
Holding parties.
Public Space Day - April 21, 1992

The existence of diverse expressions of sociability, nowadays designed to the older

POSTERS, ADS
FAADE IN SCREEN
EXHIBITION PLACES
ESPLANADES
GREEN AND GARDEN BENCHES

population, whose origin dates go back to the era of industrialization (XIX / XX centuries)

namely cultural, sports, recreational, amusement activities with particular expression in

Recreational Associations.
Also noteworthy is the existence of a strong social solidarity expressed in a Cooperative
of Credit and Consumption formed in 1900.Festivities of Our Lady of Health and
Procession Route
Locally there is a whole range of groups and services that, through their activity,
contribute to the prevention and attempt to solve social problems. 8 associations (Youth
Club, Youth House, Scouts ...), churches, schools, special education teachers, teachers,
Life Project (Projecto Vida) , Regional Social Security Centre, Health Centre, Taipas
Care Centre, Job Centre, Institute of Social Welfare, Nest (Ninho), Centre for the
Study and Prevention of Drugs, Hospitals. Youth Institute, Institute of Child Support.
Festivities of Nossa Senhora da Sade and Procession Route

PARTY LOCATION
PROCESSION ROUTE

PROPOSALS

Remove the traffic and arrange the public space.

Qualify initiatives and festivities.
Create attractiveness covering Sacavm and the region.
Match the expressions of sociability, namely the existence of communities with strong
traditions in order to resuming an important role in Sacavm.
Support Actions to Youth.
Support Actions to families at risk.
Promotion of leisure and culture areas.
Revitalization of social, cultural and leisure facilities.

Composition and Meaningful Structure

nce the Area is analyzed according to the main elements that compose it (people,
activities and spaces) it is now our intention to define, interpret and evaluate its
meaningful aspects, that is to say, those that are especially recorded by the memory of users
when recalling the Area and that make it distinct from the others.
Aspects that mark the characteristics, through which users describe the image and appreciate
it, are meaningful:
They allow remembering and identifying places.
Define the readability of the fabric marking points, axes and reference areas.
Symbolize collective or personal events.
They express the mental map of the area.
A reading of the kind proposed by Kevin Lynch, the collection of the maps designed for
tourists and for the general population, the study of mental maps of a significant sample of
users, the commentary to the survey to places that stand out as references by the observer and
by the population and other methods allow identifying the significant structure of the Area,
map it, assess it, identify the geographic range that it reaches (local meaning or beyond the
boundaries of the Area) and draw conclusions about the need to qualify the Area, in case it

is deprived of urban meanings, or they have negative connotations.

At this stage of the work, the significant structure of the Area only expresses the interpretation
of maps prepared for the orientation / tourism development of the city, regarding the Area,
and the marking of areas, paths or landmarks perceived as being of special interest for the
observer (s).
This exercise is essential to do the synthesisof the global image observed, highlighting the
important references of that memory and finding their explanatory grounds.
The registration of the composition and significant structure is important in deciding whether
to undertake specialized studies and, if so, to provide the basis for their programming.Such
structure and, broadly, the aspects related to urban meanings remain poorly understood,
despite their importance for the adaptation and urban appropriation and consequent
identification, esteem and pride of the people in their own territory.
We consider it of utmost importance to develop this line of approach of reading the urban
environment, given the potential it offers for its qualitative assessment and for the construction
of intervention proposals.
It is also important to note that the demand of identification and justification of urban
meanings requires broad participation of the population and can, in this way and if well
explored, be a key driver of interest and understanding through the community and of
mobilization to assume and perform the rehabilitation of the Area.
As a first guidance, we indicate the following issues to try and elucidate:
System of readability and orientation, axes, points, routes and reference areas.
Landmarks.
Sightseeing.
Representations and marks left on the image by the history of everyday, past and current
history.

SAFEGUARD PLAN OF THE OLD CENTRE OF

SACAVM
5. COMPOSITION AND MEANINGFUL STRUCTURE

THE ROADS
THE NODES
THE REFERENCE POINTS

Meaningful Elements

ANALYSIS

The whole Area is significant in relation with the urban settlement it is included in
(Sacavm).
Within it there are urban stretches and significant elements, that is to say, homogeneous
areas consisting of public spaces and buildings that are distinguishable and elements that
stand out for their functional importance or their image.
Urban Streches

The Area has 6 urban streches (see picture) that provide different urban environments.
These differences reflect the fundamental characteristics of the morpho-typological
structure of the Area and they can be grouped into four major groups: areas 1 and 2,
corresponding to the linear fabric and built up area, grouped into bands and blocks of

3, corresponding to the
up surroundings; area 4,

medium-sized structured along the axis of Direita Street; area

central axis of nonlinear urban public spaces and its built

corresponding to the area of organic fabric and built up area, grouped into small blocks
and areas 5 and 6 correspond to adjacent zones to the Area and whose image already
clearly reflects the blend of old and new buildings.

THE BOUNDARIES
THE BLOCKS

LINEAR URBAN FABRIC

CENTRAL AXIS OF NON LINEAR PUBLIC SPACES
ORGANIC URBAN FABRIC
NEIGHBOURING ZONES OF THE AREA (TRANSITION ZONES)

1 - CAPELA DE N SRA DA SADE

2 - COOPERATIVA SACAVONENSE
3 - MERCADO/JUNTA DE FREGUESIA
4 - PALCIO BARROCO5
5 - EDIFCIO MUITO ALTO

POTENCIAL

Existence of a rather clear and isolated image from the remaining surrounding fabric.

PROPOSALS

Maintain the diversity of urban environments;

Reinforce the fundamental E/W and N/S axes.
Reinforce the unity of all three squares.

Synthesis of the Composition and Urban Structures

ased on the analyzes conducted, the summary of the basic aspects that stood out to
characterize the structure of the Area, in order to meet the objectives of the image
reading: to define, in broad terms, the current picture of the area, interpret it and assess
it; identify and locate the problems, the potential and relevant characteristics, providing the
construction of hypotheses that will lead to the rehabilitation of the Area and will guide its
transformation and the development of the population settled in it.
The urban rehabilitation is an action of territorial and social change, which is not only
limited to just improve what exists. It triggers immediate or medium term movements of
population expulsion and its activities, entry of new usages and social groups, of changing
the urban image, by introducing new buildings and spaces and / or valorizing those already
existing.
The rehabilitation of the Area can produce an emptying the transforms it in an urban museum
give it a refreshed or even excessive urban life. Do not intervene leads to ongoing physical
and social degradation, or in other words, the non intervention also causes transformations.
The assessment of the Area and the construction of intervention hypotheses presupposes
the non-deterministic response to the issues concerning the type of urban space and the
ways of living that occur in it and that it will tend to be held after the interventions that are
presented, still as hypotheses:
Which population is fixed and which is floating?
Which activities occur in the built space and outer space?
What kind of society, natural and built environment, conditioning or freedom in face of
the inherited presences that form the area?
Which is the spatial / formal definition of the domains of public and private ownership?
Which are the quality requirements and how concretely do they express themselves?
What mobility does the rehabilitated space provide and through what means of circulation?
Issues that inform the different ideas or concepts of city and that will serve as the standard
evaluator of the existing fabric and guidance for the construction of the proposed interventions
depends on the investment on:
Heterogeneity or social homogeneity;
Multi or mono functionality;
Breadth or containment of the spaces;
Privatization or the passage to public domain of outer space areas;
Conservation, creative elaboration or aggressive assertion of the expression of the
present in the urban image;
Relative importance of the private car, public transport and the pedestrian.
The diverse city is a concept of urban quality obtained by the presence of different urban

and successive patterns harmoniously combined in space.

This concept of good city allows a complete rehabilitation that respects the different
stretches or urban areas built in different periods, but requires the effort to create and
manage a socially diverse residence offer in each of the different types of fabric to allow
the settlement between urban characteristics and preferences of theses population groups
who like them and want to live in them.
The freedom of choice of the place of residence that existed, although with constraints,
given the diversity of socio-economic opportunities that each urban area and even each
building offered, is a value to retrieve or we will run up against, with regard to the large
majority of the population with the imbalances between their preferences as to the type and
location of the place of residence and the stretch of the city where he had to go and live,
with the resulting blunders and general malaise that such mistakes cause and the consequent
worsening of problems of social segregation and its set of social difficulties and spatial
organization.
At this stage, the building exercise of intervention hypothesis that materialize, in the study
area, the different patterns of urban quality deemed appropriate is important, in order to
expand the range of opportunities for the different population sections, not to multiply
ghettos and to provide a naturally integrative fabric by the diversity of opportunities it
offers.
It is essential that the knowledge synthesis gained about the Area clearly transmit, the
idea (s) of city that is (are) expressed therein and that the assessment is done by explaining
which are the ideas of good city wanted to be applied in different parts of the fabric, if
the option taken is to diversify them.
The discussion of the intervention hypotheses to be held following the planning process of
rehabilitation Area, will thus have concrete bases to take effect.
The social actors involved in the rehabilitation process should be aware of the different
living standards/urban image proposed as an alternative to perform the rehabilitation, or
they will not consciously be able to participate in the critical evaluation of the present city,
in the definition and construction of concrete options of social development and territorial
qualification.

Urban Furniture, Lettering, Vegetation and Animals

he information on street furniture, the lettering and plants and animals species living
in the urban space of the Area is important for the formulation of the rules to be
respected in the design and use of outer spaces, regarding these aspects and differently for
the different urban stretches.
Therefore, the survey and indication of the distribution of these existing species in the Area
and should be done and pointed out:
Its characterization according the type of tasks;
The variety of design types of the first ones and characteristics of the second ones;
They way they are organized per areas or mingled in the same spaces.
These informations are important to undertake an assessment of their possible lack or excess,
functional adequacy and formal quality.

The amount of advertising that invades us, its increasing aggressiveness, its inadequacy in
the urban image and the generally misleading information that it conveys requires rethinking
beyond the scope of rehabilitation of an area, but it would be important to know, discuss and
rehearse types of responses at this level.
Activities and the furniture of urban space are closely interrelated and should be studied
in parallel, either to meet the identified needs, or to provide the discovery of new usages of
the space.
Account should be taken, with regard to furniture and lettering, to its response to the
following:
Lighting;
Stay, culture and leisure activities;
Capacity of information and guidance;
Services to the community: transport, telephone, street cleaning;
Security.
Another major issue for urban quality relates to the presence of plant and animal species,
with the weight of the green in relation to the built up, with different expressions and
functions that the urban vegetation can take and play in environmental qualification and
bringing the city to nature, without undoing the mineral character that the city offers, and
that is one of its characteristics.
The lack of contact with the natural environment is increasingly felt and causes phenomena
like having a second home, multiplication of tourist facilities and mass exits from the city
on weekends and holidays and even the abandonment of the city by those who do not need
it to solve their everyday work.
The excellence of the city is threatened, and its humanization is presented as a problem of
environment survival, not only the urban but also the rural, increasingly affected by the
invasion of temporary urban escapees and without the culture of the land.

SAFEGUARD PLAN OF THE OLD CENTRE OF

SACAVM
7. URBAN FURNITURE AND LETTERING

ANALYSIS

The existing street furniture in the area consists of:

Street lighting columns;
Garbage containers;
Paper Bins;
Traffic signals;
Mail marks;
Protector marks.
There are various kinds of lettering.
The Municipality of Loures has a specific regulation for advertising in enclosed areas
like Old Centres, yet rules should be established which are more integrated under the
rules of the present Plan.
PROBLEMS

Great shortage in terms of urban furniture.

Poor street lighting - the work of strengthening the framework at the East zone of the
Area, the West part missing.
Existence of garbage containers and problems in the collection of solid waste.
Excessive advertising charge and inexistence of rules.
Tendency for the placing of awnings in disorderly manner.
PROPOSALS

Creation of a line of furniture adapted to the needs of the Old Zone.

Definition of lettering, type of advertising platforms and rules for the placement of
awnings.
Limited release of a tender for the street furniture and lettering.
Placement of suitable lamps.
Awareness campaign for traders to create incentives to replace advertising.
Creation of common advertising spaces.

Urban Character

he whole urban intervention, as we have repeatedly stated, corresponds to a transformation,

physical, social, economic and environmental changes, to greater or lesser extent and
seeking: to maintain and improve what exists, because its quality is recognized or to change
it because it does not comply the urban requirements. Either in one case as in the other, it is
necessary to define the particular expression of the place in presence.
Each place has its own expression, recognizable and identifiable per periods, urban styles,
cultural values and financial means that governed its construction expression.
The climate and topography, ways of living that they serve and other multiple factors give
it a specific character, accentuate this own expression.
The rehabilitation intervention, whether it preserves the character of the Area or changes it,

requires identifying the characteristics that particularly define it, as they are expressed, which
are the urban design solutions, which programs, which color and form dominances, which
bright / dark, which spatial alignments and cuttings, which visual relationships between
nearby and distant spaces between them are established.
This image analysis to identify the urban character is of great importance to enable defining
the type of urban solutions that adjust to what already exists and serve as a basis for the
elaboration of standards of urban design, that is, of the indications that the planning should
provide to designers and promoters who will interpret and implement the aforementioned
proposals: the projects of buildings and outdoor spaces to integrate in the Area whose
character one wants to preserve or those that have to be built to give to an urban fabric of
poor quality, or amorphous, its own character and value.
What does it mean to integrate a new proposal in an existing environment? Which
characteristics have to be respected? How to act so that the new does not deviate or damage,
but rather potentiates the kind of quality of the existing image? What indications can the
study of the image provide so as to grab a space to complete it, to give it the shape / urban
look that it performs as a part of that place? Where and how to demand a new project to
delete itself in the built up set or that it takes the initiative to solve a failed or amorphous
image set? What fails in an urban image?
The study of the urban character of an Area, of the whole or the variety and sequence of its
different parts, according to image impositions, should try to respond to such concerns.
The reading of the urban image, as shown, is an attempt that has to be made, at planning
level, as an essential contribution to the study and control of urban design, to give content
to the city architecture, in order to be able, as Barnet, J. indicated, to draw the city without
drawing their buildings, to interest the architecture on this scale of formal intervention
lost in zoning plans, the juxtaposition of urban settlements and author buildings, whose
character is controlled, most of the times, by the goal to create an image that publicly affirms
and advertises this one and its customers.
These questions are open. It urges studying them in order to give them content and establish
appropriate procedures for the elaboration, discussion and application control standards of
urban design and landscape in general.
It is necessary to recreate an aesthetic culture of the environment generally internalized
and save for special situations and for urban landmarks, the natural works, the claims of
modernity defying consensual aesthetic, image shocks sometimes so necessary for learning
new languages.
To get information about the urban character, it will be necessary to try and analyse the
following issues:
Type of formal solutions regarding:
Sequences of public spaces;
Sequences of faades;
Significant details.

Color Palette.
Human Environment.
Environment of installed and movement activities.
Sound and light environment.
Vegetation and type of landscaping.

SAFEGUARD PLAN OF THE OLD CENTRE OF

SACAVM
8. URBAN CHARACTER

ANALYSIS

The Area has a well-defined character that comes from its clear and organized urban
structure, accentuated by the fact of entering a territory that has opposite characteristics.
It is an Area where the human scale dominates, low volumetries, which from the formal
point of view, shows a dominance of flat faades with balcony doors on the 1st floor and
doors and windows on the ground floor.
It is also characterized by the diversity of colours and periods of construction of its
buildings, which however, formally maintain a rural character, which means little
typological diversity of faades and gives the Area an image of uniformity.
From the point of view of activities and social aspects, there is also a matching diversity
throughout the Area, giving it a homogeneous character.

Urban Dynamics

he analyses resulting from the reading of the image, that we have previously indicated,
are intended to record, interpret, and assess the Area in terms of getting its portrait at the
time of the observation. The revealing aspects of the dynamics of the ongoing transformation
in the Area have not yet been explored.

The reading of the image allows perceiving recently made changes and those that are ongoing
in the urban space, the built up area, the activities and the type of settled and floating
population, that is to say, to obtain information about the dynamics mentioned.
This is essential to assess whether the area is in decline, loss of vitality, or whether, on the
contrary, it is attractive and subject to pressures of renovation.
The verification of the existence and type of restauration or replacement works of real estate
and landscaping, the characteristics of modernity or traditionalism of trading activities
and services installed and still in installation process, of observable socio-economic and
age contrasts in the population allows obtaining an idea about the existence and meaning
of the ongoing transformations in the Area.
This information, which should be spatialized, references the existing or non-existing

dynamic, regarding the whole Area or its parts.

In this way eventual transformation trends are perceived, the development or decline of the
Area is assessed, as well as the parts and axes of stagnation and development.
It is essential to complement this information to the collection, with the municipal services,
of existing applications for licensing of projects and works in progress, undertaken by
private entities, with public responsibility and the movement regarding the installation of
commercial activities, services and offices and the residents loss or increase.
The information produced by the press through the advertisements regarding the purchase
and sale of households and real estate (buildings), establishments trespassing, rental proposals
and other information as those related to changes in employment, changes in the prices of
land and other economic indicators, are an important contribution to know and assess the
ongoing transformation trends .
The mapping of the obtained information allows clarifying the geography of urban
development trends of the Area, interpret and assess the advantages and disadvantages of
such evolution and the interest of investors for the different parts of the fabric.
The intervention hypothesis are thus defined in terms of the effort that will be needed to
boost or hold social agents in action in the Area and to assess the medium-term impact,
either of the ongoing process of change, or the rehabilitation measures to be taken in
order to guide it.

SAFEGUARD PLAN OF THE OLD CENTRE OF

SACAVM
URBAN DYNAMICS

FOLLOW UP IMPROVEMENT WORKS,

ELABORATION OF PROJECTS DEALING WITH TENANTS COMPLAINTS,
CONTACT WITH OWNERS.

CHARACTERIZATION

The general evolution tendency of the resident population, with regard to the dynamics
of transformation, is regression, which is explained by its aging and its non-replacement,
due to poor living conditions and no transmission of leases, which implies the nonpermanence of young people and eventually because they prefer searching for other
places with better urban image.
There are already faint signs of transformation and awakening of a dynamic, by the
owners and investors towards rehabilitation of existing buildings:
resident owners;
non-resident owners interested in renewal when they have sets of buildings;
investors who are buying, transforming and selling, and express interest in
continuing their activities;
investors for new buildings on the fringes of the Area (for example, Alexandre
Farm (Quinta do Alexandre) and Poas Farm (Quinta das Poas), with housing
and trade and services and trade, respectively).
The population looks for the technical support of the Planning Office to do work or to
get information about future supports and about what will be the future of this area.
In all qualification situations, we can see that:

The buildings that have had improvements qualify housing conditions and public
space;
Economic activities that settle qualify its spaces, products and services, reflected
in public space and inducing other activities.
As to economic activities, and after a period of decline until 1990, this sector is the
liveliest in the Area, with greater dynamic in the sense of transformation, growth and
qualification.
There are activities that have disappeared (the tailor, the old coffee) and are replaced by
others, already linked to new needs and tastes (bread shop).
There is qualification of spaces, maintaining the same type of activities.
There is the reopening of old spaces closed for long, for the setting up of new activities.
The pressure is very significant for the transformation of traditional uses into economic
activities towards outsourcing. It is primarily, but not only, located in the principal axes
of economic activity.
This transformation dynamic to the level of the built up area will generate changes in
terms of the resident and user population:
The one that is already announced will be reflected, above all, in the users, since
the projects are on the periphery of the Area;
The Area is an important meeting point and a crossing zone, in particular by
non-residents;
There are some cases of residents who already manifest tendency to leave the Area
if they are compensated by the owners;
The Area is crossed by flows of Preparatory and Secondary Schools young people,
by flows of collective transport users, whose stops are on National Road 10 and by the
customers of economic activities installed here.
There are also situations of residents who acquired the households where they live in;
From the analysis of the maps, we find that:
There are areas of greater dynamism, for example, the central area formed by the
axis of nonlinear public spaces and the of Direita and Maria Luisa Braamcamp
Streets, and even the area around the intersection of Streets Trigueiros Martel,
Jos Augusto Braamcamp and Prioras Side Street;
This dynamism is linked to economic activities - improvement of spaces and
trespasses, and to collectivities - maintenance and improvement works, and
housing, predominantly for owners.
The establishment of a municipal office generated expectations and dynamics in the
resident population, expectations that have been fed through the provision of a public
service of the urban management, monitoring of works and preparation of projects
and, in collaboration with the Local Councils, organizing and following up requests for
materials;

It is necessary to take advantage and encourage this dynamic, raised through incentives
to
The rehabilitation of buildings;
The qualification of activities.

Results of the Image Reading

he knowledge and diagnostic of the Area, in terms of what exists and of the dynamics of
its own transformation and the set of formulated intervention hypotheses allow preparing
a summary document that highlights alternative proposals for:
Objectives, policies and general strategies of rehabilitation of the Area;
General hypothesis of intervention that serve them;
Rehabilitation operations that organize, in concrete actions, compliance with the
intervention hypothesis in what regards the short and medium term.
It is essential to the operation of the work done, that the final product of the analysis is the
definition of informed rehabilitation operations in order to:
Enable the development of general cost estimates and implementation deadlines;
Get the bases that allow developing the programming of the respective implementation
projects;
Define financial and organizational means to make available and to capture in order to
perform them;
Identify the social agents who will be involved in operations;
Serve as a basis for public discussion.
It is still essential to make a proposal or alternative proposals for the organizational and
technical structure, and of financing the support process of physical rehabilitation and
dynamical development of the Area.
The planning action cannot be reduced to the approval of a plan that is quickly outdated and
to a current management that follows the old routines.
We recall that the work of reading the image, despite leading to the definition of the
rehabilitation operations, is far from completing the technical information for planning, as
it corresponds to a first technical proposal that serves to cause and support the discussion
between the different social agents, formal and informal, phases that are followed in the
planning methodology draft and which aim at settling ideas and actions between them, as
well as the establishment of consensus and commitment of fulfilment and verification of
the interest, capacity and availability of accomplishment means.
It is important to emphasize once again that the reading of the urban image, as we describe it,
is a tool for technical preparation of the team to be able to support, from a methodological,
technical and organizational point of view the planning/action process and not to replace it,
offering the ultimate solution and for all problems, supposedly ready to be applied, despite
the non-verification of its compliance with the wishes and possibilities of social agents or,
what is more current, listing the recommendations without the worry of checking whether
they are viable without presenting the solutions and operations that fulfil them.
The planning would be then emptied, and would abdicate of the educational development
that the continuing planning process, participated and solidified in time, implements.

The presentation of the study and the proposals should be made in non-academic manner
and guided by the concern to make their content easy and quickly understandable to social
agents.
The lack of time that the referred agents normally have and its not necessary technical
preparation require great clarity and simplicity of exposition, quick perception of what
is specifically recommended, at what cost, when and through which human, technical and
logistical means.
The requirements for reporting and public discussion of the work done, reinforce the
need for its clarity as well as the presentation of the concrete operating ways proposed
and the indication of interventions that occurred may, in fact, be fulfilled in short term,
because there is political will, the availability of funds was assessed and the technical and
management capabilities for its realization exist.
Lisbon, March 1989

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