Bringing the city to the people. Urban and territorial regeneration challenges in the outskirts of Guimarães

Abstract

This paper aims to contribute with a new commitment to the concept of urban regeneration, which assumes diffuse/transgenic territories as new forms of city life, using the continuous (sub)urbanization we find in the outskirts of Guimarães as case study. Along the national roads N101, N105, N206 and N207 a set of clusters have emerged, slowly, linearly and apparently disconnected, establishing a set of extensions of the urban core. We believe that these are not mere links between different cities; they prolong urban life outside the recognizable limit of the urban form, although their appearance does not present itself according to the mental image we associate to a city. Therefore, we propose that the concept of urban regeneration should be applied to these territories, but it should be considered with a particular approach, different from traditional solutions: little improvements in the basic structure of these axes can help to bring the city to the people instead of bringing the people to the city.