Project Name: Aveiro – Urban Expansion
Location: Aveiro, Portugal
Category: Academic
Project Team: Carlos Dias
Project Year: 2013

The city of Aveiro is located in the center of Portugal. It is the second city with the largest number of inhabitants within the area. It stands out as a major urban center, harbor, railway and tourist target. The proposal illustrates the design for the area named “City of Emptiness” which lies between the consolidated city and the eastern developed city.

The project area is bounded on the north by the “Vouguinha” railway, the “Forca” neighborhood on the south, the N109 freeway on the east and at the west by the northern railway line and the train station.
This place is strongly marked by the presence of these edges which act as a barrier creating this empty island within the city of Aveiro. However, it presents great opportunities for expansion and transition from the consolidated city towards the peri-urban zone by extending the avenue “Dr. Vasco Branco” and connecting to the “Dr. Lourenço Peixinho” boulevard, one of the main structural axes of this city.

In order to make this proposed urban expansion happen is necessary to consider all aspects necessary for the growth of a sustainable city. It’s not just about increasing the number of dwellings. This urban plan aims to increase the attractiveness so that the quality of life, microclimate, job opportunities, recreation and proximity to services may be improved.
The concept aims to stitch the empty city to the consolidated city and thus create a new urban center with a new identity. The answer for a sustainable city is densification + greenification.

Therefore, it is intended that pedestrian or bicycle circulation is privileged rather than car usage. The densification and mix of uses generates proximity to services, low power consumption, low cost public transport, non-constructions in the landscape, allowing the expansion of agriculture, less demolitions and further transformations.

The strategic position of the built environment in relation to the winds, green infrastructure and water, becomes an important instrument in microclimate moderation. It is based on this concept that this proposal takes shape.