As disputas da preservação: a morfologia de fronteiras e processos limiares em áreas de operação urbana no Centro do Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

The thesis discusses the morphology resulting from the interaction between preservation action and city planning in urban operation areas, seeking to identify the contributions of urban management of cultural heritage in the fragmentation or integration of urban fabrics in areas of morphological ruptures in the Center of Rio de Janeiro, with a special focus on the Esplanada do Castelo. From the point of view of the theoretical-methodological framework perspective, in order to morphologically characterize the rupture areas, the thesis incorporates the metaphor of the notions of border and threshold introduced by Walter Benjamin in association with the concepts and categories of analysis formulated by authors in the field of urban morphology, primarily , those from the English School, Michael Conzen, Karl Kropf and Jeremy Whitehand. The analysis is applied in two complementary procedural dimensions, both aiming to translate the language of urban forms into the categories proposed on the scale of the Conzenian urban plan. The first aims to understand the process of formation of the area of the city where the analysis is established in the two moments before and after rupture in time/space: the demolition of Morro do Castelo. This analysis is developed through consultation of primary cartographic and iconographic documents and widely disseminated bibliography, as well from experiencing the location. The second scale of analysis concerns the understanding of another sectoral process established in the study area, intercepting the previously characterized macro formation process: the action of preservation on urban space. The analysis of this dimension is carried out by understanding the motivations that supported the decision-making actions of the agents of the federal heritage body, in light of the studies undertaken by Whitehand, and by translating the forms resulting from these decisions into the urban form of the area.