Regenerate Cities Through Unfolded Theory: Holistic Approach to Urban Landscape

Abstract

This article is based on the “Unfolding” theory (Almeida, 2022), a potential model for regenerating the city, focused on the case study “Oporto Subway.” Such infrastructure has reshaped the territory through the “dematerialization” method, applied in the underground.

The city of Oporto was confined to its natural limits (Douro River and Atlantic Ocean) and built (peripheral cities), but needed to expand beyond borders, without hurting its identity. It was an urgent need.

The absence of an infrastructure capable of moving between the several nodes of the metropolitan area and the scarcity of virgin territories able to absorb such needs, represents one of the problems present in our territories.

Through the implantation of the subway in the metropolitan area, it was possible to connect the city to several centralities. With such infrastructure, designed at different levels in the territory, it was possible for Oporto to gain a new breath and another dynamic. The city regenerated itself and continues to transform silently, without damaging its history.

Cities are transformed, centralities and metropolises are generated, and simultaneously “wasteland places” (Solà-Morales, 2002, p.104) appear, “disaggregated” from the territory mesh (Koolhaas, 2011, p.19).

The “Unfolded” theory aims to connect all the elements that design the city, and appeals to history, contemporaneity, infrastructures, and natural landscapes.

It reforms the application strategy, and shapes the “inputs” according to the study case. It crosses subjects such as art and technique, through a social perspective, able to refute the issues, originating flexible models that regenerate the city(ies).