Abstract
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The research proposes an investigation into the process of polarization
in Porto Alegre by confrontating its logic of allocation of competitive
activities and the evolution of the configurational structure of
the city. It carrys out an study of the displacement of retail land
use cores through the history. This historical analysis will be
checked against the synchronic process of growth and improvement
of the public spaces grid - the network of circulation channels
- trying to uncover its syntatic structure in some historical key-moments
by means of Space Syntax tools.
Space Syntax suppositions are clear about the relations between
urban form and the allocation of non-residential activities, when
declares that its configurational properties - specially the "integration"
value - are measures of spatial differentiation, favouring some
portions of space in accessibility and potential of generating social
interfaces and, consequently, making them more attractive for retail
land uses. The configurational hierarchy generated by the grid layout
corresponds - in some way - to functional, movement or land value
hierarchies. In that sense, we can say that the attractors distribution
- understanding, here, attractors as structures or sets of structures
containing competitive activities such as specialized shops, offices
or services - is influenced by the configurational priorities defined
by the urban grid.
Hence, if we can describe the city´s polarization system in
some significant periods of its evolution by identifying the most
"loaded" areas and, simultaneously, plot the integration
ranking of the urban grid at the same periods, we will be able to
quantify the correspondence between the two fenomena. More than
this, we could measure the spatial hierarchy and attractors allocation
coherence. This could allow us to classify Porto Alegre in some
category of "obedience" to the configurational proprieties.
Fig 1&2: Two syntatic maps developed by professor Décio Rigatti, one
displaying the global integration (top), and the other with a radius
limited to 5 steps (bottom), in order to show local cores.
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