Experimentations in urban voids: Transdisciplinary spatial practices in terrain vague spaces

Abstract

In a world with an increasing urban population and rapid urbanization processes, cities will have to face important challenges, achieving goals for more democratic, greener cities, through the creation of new practices in urban design and decision-making. This paper is combining the potential of two ongoing PhD projects - one researching Terrain Vague, the other transdisciplinary approaches for urban public spaces development – and how together they can contribute to the research on regenerative practices and ecological transition in architecture and urbanism. The expectant and informal nature of Terrain Vague spaces allows the experimentation of transdisciplinary methodologies for urban development and new spatial typologies for public spaces. Over the past two decades, emerging and innovative projects have been observed in Terrain Vague spaces, which aim to preserve the essence of these areas. Mapping and analysing urban practices in which ecological aspects take on a prominent role is crucial, as they can serve as experimental examples, offering lessons and strategies that can be generalized and implemented in the broader context of the urban ecological transition. The paper is outlying an analysis framework for transdisciplinary projects in Terrain Vague spaces and structured in five parts: (1) Introduction; (2) Theoretical background; (3) Towards an analysis framework; (4) Conclusions. The output of the paper, an analysis framework, is developed with criteria derived from the literature review and an ongoing comparative study of two cases, chosen in the Portuguese context, with different funding and temporal and spatial scales. The paper disseminates the initial phases of the development of the analysis framework, exposing the selection criteria for the cases, the criteria for the parameters of analysis, combining quantitative and qualitative data, and a first approach to a graphical representation of the analysis.