EDITORIAL COMMENT

The relation between cientific research and professional practice

PAPERS

The influence of urban form on intra-urban temperature
P. Drach and R. Emmanuel

{+}Abstract [PDF]Climate change, and its consequences, points out the need of developing strategies for mitigating problems related to urban overheating. This paper aims to examine the influence of urban form, here measured by the Sky View Factor (SVF), on intra-urban temperature in the city of Glasgow, UK, a naturally cold city. A set of 49 measurement points was selected in the city centre, and 31 campaigns, for data collection, were made during the spring and summer of 2013. In order to cover a large area of the city, within a relatively short period of time, the ‘traverse’ method was used on pre-determined routes. Temperature variation was visualized using the software ArcGIS. The results indicate that the maximum intra-urban temperature differences are strongly correlated with atmospheric stability, which suggests that atmospheric stability has a relevant effect on intra-urban temperature variation. The study also indicates, as expected, that the vegetation and the urban cover materials play an important role in influencing the local climate in cold cities. The knowledge on the influence of urban form on local temperature variation can be important in the development of strategies to deal with urban overheating.

The transformation of the urban form of São Paulo
P. Gonçalves and M. Guimarães

{+}Abstract [PDF]This paper aims to investigate the transformations in the urban tissues of São Paulo, Brazil, as well as the relationships established between buildings – with a focus on their location on plots – and the corresponding building legislation in force in each period of time. The study draws on the organization of historical and stylistic periods, covering in a chronological way, the main political, economic and social events in the urban history of São Paulo. The study intends to identify the changes framed by each of these events, starting from the period of Portuguese colonization of Brazil, moving then to the agricultural monocultures during the neocolonialism and the so-called neoclassic of the Empire, to the pre- and the industrialization phases in the Republic (eclecticism), and finally to the New Republic, when the ideals of the Modern Movement were established and promoted both in architecture and arts. The selected study area is the traditional neighbourhood of Mooca. Its strategic location and demographic diversification make it a crucial area to understand the main stages of transformation of the urban tissues of São Paulo. Mooca includes buildings representing the main building types identified in the study.

Between tradition and modernity: an open street block in the Avenidas Novas, Lisbon
P. Pinheiro

{+}Abstract [PDF]In Lisbon, there are few street blocks opening their interior space to the city. The existing open streets blocks were built around 1940, the year of the Exhibition of the Portuguese World, an event for the political promotion of the dictatorial regime that represented an inflection in a policy of modernity of the nation. This is an important year for portuguese architecture as it means the beginning of a new cycle after a decade of a relative opening of the regime to a number of works clearly referenced to the modern architecture that was being developed in Europe. In that year, 1940, architect Maurício Trindade Chagas designed the project for a housing block with a particular modern feature: its interior was accessible to public use, and the block could be crossed throughout a longitudinal axis designed for pedestrian traffic. This block stands in front of the so-called Casa da Moeda, a remarkable modern building clearly influenced by Dutch architecture. This paper characterizes the conceptual ambivalence of the project for the street block: the language of the Estado Novo and the modernity of the block type. The main events in the construction of the street block are framed in their time and the models for the design of this new block are identified.

VIEWPOINTS _[PDF]

Understanding the holon
A. Perdicoúlis

The urban forms of Mozambique: project, intervention and research
D. Viana and J. Laje

Morphological regions
V. Oliveira and C. Monteiro

REPORTS _{[PDF1] [PDF2]}

21st International Seminar on Urban Form
I. Morley

Morfologia Urbana e Progetto
V. Oliveira

Colloquium on Mediterranean Urban Studies
T. Ünlü

3.º Seminário Território e Cidades do Norte Atlântico Ibérico
D. Viana

Rede Lusófona de Morfologia Urbana (PNUM): 2013-14
V. Oliveira

BOOK REVIEWS _[PDF]

P. J. Larkham and M. P. Conzen (2014) Shapers of urban form
V. Oliveira

V. del Rio and W. Siembieda (2013) Desenho urbano contemporâneo no Brasil
S. A. P. Costa

NEWS

Urban Morphology
PNUM2015: Urban configuration and the challenges of urbanity
1st PNUM Workshop – Different approaches in the study of urban form