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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
One of the main features of Mediterranean landscapes, particularly in limestone
areas, is the terraced land frame, usually supported by dry stone walls. In addition to the
scenic aspects and landscape identity, network compartmentalization established by
terraces, property division walls, pathways and traditional paths, shapes ecological
corridors that frame the different human activities. It is a structure whose conservation is
particularly important in areas of intense human impact, or rapid transformation, such as the
urban-tourist spaces of the Algarve, where the hills displayed by such structures form the
background scenario. In order to put in value their importance for landscape conservation and
evolution, this presentation will focus on the interrelated ecological, aesthetic, symbolic, socioeconomic
and political aspects that influence the spatial distribution and image of the terraces.
Of course, the values that local people can assign to their landscapes will be determinant, but
specially at the Algarve, the role of tourists as outsiders must be seriously take into account.
We then argue that the future of the dry stone walls structure must be prospected into the
diversity of possible solutions about landscape development as the living part of a whole unit
that includes the densest urbanized areas with less ecological functions. We call such unit the
urban-touristic region of Algarve, inspired on two utopic references: the ‘urban regions’ and
the ‘Agroplia’. It means that we try to use landscape as an instrument of knowledge and
acknowledgement –democratic governance– of regional spaces.
Description
Keywords
Terraces Landscape Urban region Conservation Barrocal Algarve
Citation
Bragança, C., & Gonçalves, M. (2016). Building the landscape. Rehabilitation and renewal of traditional mediterranean structures. In 41th IAHS World Congress on Housing.