Descontinuidade do espaço urbano. Um estudo à evolução da cidade moderna e proposta de intervenção em Vila Nova de Santo André

04/23/2025

This dissertation aims to analyse the causes, manifestations and consequences of discontinuity in urban fabrics, a common problem in the cities of industrialised society. The case study and object of intervention is the new town of Santo André, founded in the 1970s as part of the project for the Sines industrial complex. Considering technical advances as the driving force behind social transformations and, consequently, the organisation of space, the analysis ranges from the Industrial Revolution, the historical moment that gave rise to modern society, to the foundation of Santo André’s new town, whose context is characterised by car-centred mobility, Portuguese political and social transformations and global economic crisis. In Santo André, this discontinuity materialises through the motorway, the infrastructure leading to the industrial complex, which divides the city in two, expressing itself as a physical and morphological barrier. Due to its impact on the experience of the inhabitants and the unity of the urban environment, the motorway is the most incisive area for intervention. In an attempt to rehabilitate the road and integrate it into the urban fabric of Santo André, the proposal responds, simultaneously, to other city necessities, such as the transformation of several abandoned plots of land into an urban park, the construction of a cultural centre, a programme hitherto absent in the city, and housing blocks that constitute a morphological bridge between the two parts of the city while anticipating the needs arising from the planned expansion of the industrial complex.

Authors in the community:

• 

  T

  Tiago Baltazar Alves Afonso

  ist195729

Supervisors of this institution:

• 

  M

  Miguel Amado

  ist406061

civil-engineering - Civil engineering

por - Portuguese

Instituto Superior Técnico