A reafirmação do bairro:um estudo geo-histórico do bairro do Alecrim na cidade de Natal-RN

By the end of the 21st Century, economy globalization trends to show a velocity process through which market being expanded characterized by an intense going on of the internationalization of finance, after that marginalizing the periphery of the social spaces. It is clear to see that this process occurred in those less developed countries happens in an accentuated way just because income distribution that is so regressive and also because the insufficient enclosing of the social programs, we find this situation in a big part of Brazilian cities. The marginalizing social economical process observed in Natal, a city located in the east coast part of Northeast region in Brazil and that owns a population upper to 778 thousand in habitants is nearly linked to the extension of goods and services commerce. The installation of new urban activities in the city pointed out tourist activity as the greater impulsive thing in the phenomenon promotion, most of them aiming to promote Natal to the national and international scenery. It privilege strongly in the South zone with economical implementations such as shopping s centers, supermarkets, and home buildings condominiums leading to a loss of functionality of some traditional district located in central areas of the city. Notwithstanding, some spaces, for instance Alecrim district officially created in 1911, has notably resisted to the expansion of the urban process pointed out in Natal in the last years. So that this put Alecrim District as a district with originally characteristics reaffirmed along the historical process form old times. The predominance of some residential characteristics such as the incidence of some villages and a concentration of a big and confuse popular commerce distributed along streets puts Alecrim District as a resistant space in Natal. The same way analyze Alecrim District under the prism of Historic Geography because we understand this way it accomplishes a fundamental role in the theoretical methodological development of our work, just when we analyze the time as a variant in our object of study. It is still inside this theoretical field that we carry out a brief reviewing about quarter/district definition, under the optic from several registered and scientific resources taken into account along this work, because we understand that it was necessary to think this important spatial unit especially to know exactly what we are referring to as a district and so we can reaffirm Alecrim as an important and traditional district to Natal and it has been resisting to spatial transformation verified in the last years in Natal city. To give support to our reflection we used methodological tools related to inhabitants lifestyles knowledge and also the study of Alecrim District as a space that promote a certain centrality in Natal as some indicators to keep original characteristics in the district in Natal

Natal qual é a sua cara?: análise do perfil edilício da avenida Eng. Roberto Freire (Natal/RN) à luz da acessibilidade

This study focuses on the building ensemble of Avenida Roberto Freire, a main road in Natal, Brazil, as a material expression of the confluence of various factors among which the following may be emphasized: high level of accessibility due to urban spatial re-structuring and the growth of the real estate market, in view of the increasing number of consumers, who arrived in Natal within the last decades. The intense urban modification process that has been going on in Natal since at least the 1980s, has engendered the formation of long axial lines which express the expansion dynamics and some of the forces subjacent to it. Avenida Roberto Freire has been an iconic example of an urban thoroughfare where architecture becomes primarily a communication support that can be perceived by fast moving passers-by, what brings it close to the venturian concept of strip (Venturi at al, 1972). The building types that line the road not only respond to the dynamics in process but also contribute to intensify it, as they house a variety of uses which attract people and generate more movement. The dynamics is further strengthened by the action of the real estate business which benefits from the increase of highly accessible locations, and from the private and public investments and incentives to tourism that aim to insert this city into the globalized world. Although the intention of reconstituting part of the history of density increase on this avenue in a diachronical perspective was attempted within the limits of the available references and documentation, the central contribution of this study is to understand the relations between topological accessibility and the typological nature of the building ensemble. By observing the synchronic morphological frame resulting from the spatial configuration analysis pertinent to this avenue (cf. Hillier and Hanson,1984) and the inventory and classification of the building ensemble there existing, this study aims to understand how architecture responds to accessibility in view of the real estate pressure, boosted by a cosmopolitanizing process brought about by the continuous flow of foreign and Brazilian arrivals as visitors, temporary or permanent residents

Natal qual é a sua cara?: análise do perfil edilício da avenida Eng. Roberto Freire (Natal/RN) à luz da acessibilidade

This study focuses on the building ensemble of Avenida Roberto Freire, a main road in Natal, Brazil, as a material expression of the confluence of various factors among which the following may be emphasized: high level of accessibility due to urban spatial re-structuring and the growth of the real estate market, in view of the increasing number of consumers, who arrived in Natal within the last decades. The intense urban modification process that has been going on in Natal since at least the 1980s, has engendered the formation of long axial lines which express the expansion dynamics and some of the forces subjacent to it. Avenida Roberto Freire has been an iconic example of an urban thoroughfare where architecture becomes primarily a communication support that can be perceived by fast moving passers-by, what brings it close to the venturian concept of strip (Venturi at al, 1972). The building types that line the road not only respond to the dynamics in process but also contribute to intensify it, as they house a variety of uses which attract people and generate more movement. The dynamics is further strengthened by the action of the real estate business which benefits from the increase of highly accessible locations, and from the private and public investments and incentives to tourism that aim to insert this city into the globalized world. Although the intention of reconstituting part of the history of density increase on this avenue in a diachronical perspective was attempted within the limits of the available references and documentation, the central contribution of this study is to understand the relations between topological accessibility and the typological nature of the building ensemble. By observing the synchronic morphological frame resulting from the spatial configuration analysis pertinent to this avenue (cf. Hillier and Hanson,1984) and the inventory and classification of the building ensemble there existing, this study aims to understand how architecture responds to accessibility in view of the real estate pressure, boosted by a cosmopolitanizing process brought about by the continuous flow of foreign and Brazilian arrivals as visitors, temporary or permanent residents

O Litoral e a metrópole dinâmica imobiliária, turismo e expansão urbana na região metropolitana de Natal-RN

The metropolitan regions of Northeast Brazil are being gradually included in a scenario of international investments, which are motivated by the restructuring of both touristic and real-estate sectors. The new capital, real-estate developers and space configurations that result from this process indicate the need for the creation and implementation of public tools which should, at least, allow the mitigation of the urban impacts and environmental losses resulting from this situation. The effects on landscape and on the socio-spatial configuration result from the intensification caused by the dynamism of the "real estate-tourism" sector. There is a regional integration as an expression of the urban expansion of the metropolitan area of Natal. This study investigates the uniqueness of the restructuring and territorial integration of coastal areas and the strategies of the circuit of capital accumulation formed by linking the real estate to tourism. It is intended to increase the understanding about the strategies of tourism, real estate and public policy agents involved in this territorial reconfiguration and in the fund-raising needed for the investments, to understand the existing social and environmental effects and their future trends and also to understand the forms of spatial production as results from the practices of approaching the land transformation and the tourism valorization of the landscape, in a synchronous manner, first in the Northeast region and, as a focal study, in the Metropolitan Area of Natal. Likewise, it is intended to apprehend the current processes of metropolization of the eastern coast of Rio Grande do Norte, in addition to indicate its physical-territorial transformation and the types of projects/developments promoted by the market in the recent period. Based upon analysis undertaken for the Metropolitan Region of Natal RN, this piece of work presents some considerations on possible legal instruments that can be adjusted to the municipalities which are experiencing the impact of this peculiar and recent phenomenon in the region, caused by the arrival of the real estate-touristic capital. It is also intended to point out basic proposals to the forms of public intervention, in a speculative way, starting from a Metropolitan Planning project within a medium and long term

Configurando a cidade contemporânea em Natal : os processos espaciais em Ponta Negra

This dissertation is about the spatial configuration in Natal and processes in the Ponta Negra neighborhood today. Ponta Negra has undergone a number of critical social and spatial changes due to tourism development after the 1990s. It is of special interest to consider the intensification of real estate investment after 2000, when the new airport terminal, located in the neighboring municipality of Parnamirim, was in use. Ponta Negra is the place where most tourists go to, so attracting considerable public investments. New agents of transformation have produced change in the neighborhood as well. The present study aims at analysing the spatial processes in this part of the city. Here, the spatial configuration that resulted from extended real estate investments, both public and private, in recent years, is analysed in detail. The study identifies the multually differentiated, however internally homogenous areas. The concepts of production of space, contemporanean urban development and spatial dynamics are discussed. The research is based on document analysis and field work. Results were plotted to maps and tables. A detailed analysis of the spatial processes in the Ponta Negra neighborhood is undertaken as a conclusion, considering the contemporanean global scenario

Entre serras e sertões A(s) (trans)formaç(ões) de centralidade(s) da Região Metropolitana do Cariri/CE

This study reviews the spatial configuration from the road network of an urban compound formed by the cities of Crato, Juazeiro do Norte and Barbalha (the Crajubar - core of the Cariri metropolitan region, in the State of Ceará, Brazil), in order to establish nexus (or relations) between different levels of accessibility and the formation/ transformation and specialization of centralities in local and metropolitan scales. Stemming from the Social Logic of Space theoretical and operational apparatus, the study explores modeling possibilities (with axial lines, segments and lines of continuity) which is then confronted to empirical observations concerning movement flows and land use, within a Geographic Information System database. At different scales of analysis, the results suggest evidences of continuity were found in the permanence of intra-urban centres and sub-centres within each town, whereas evidences of change pointed out to the formation of a new centrality of metropolitan magnitude in the neighbourhood referred to as the Triângulo, in the municipality of Juazeiro, where high levels of topological accessibility coincides with the appearance of new business buildings as well as with the emergence of urban equipment of a scale more adequate to meet a regional demand

As praças públicas de Natal/RN no âmbito dos problemas socioambientais urbanos

This paper presents the public square as a subsystem of the city for the potential integration of elements 'natural' and built environment. But sometimes the suitability of projects and the social processes involved are not compatible and favorable to their real functions in urban space. The city of Natal, with a population of 803,739 inhabitants has 253 public parks not uniformly distributed in the urban area, but mostly in central areas and their absence in some peripheral neighborhoods. In this sense, the objective of this paper is to analyze the quality and spatiality of the city's public squares within the urban socio-environmental problems. For this, use of simple random sampling to define the sample and the proportional allocation of districts, totaling 168 squares to be raised. We prepared a form to collect data on the field that includes aspects of leisure, infrastructure and environment. For each square sampled was calculated Square Quality Index (PQI), then calculating the average per IQP neighborhood. The rates found were crossed with census data and Municipal Public Administration by neighborhood, using multivariate analysis. We generated maps, charts and tables, considered appropriate to each question format, focused comparison. The public square appears as an indicator of environmental challenges present in intra-urban spaces of the city. Their spatial distribution is not consistent demand population, both by disposition and by how much. In terms of quality are characterized by different levels of inadequacy and degradation aspects of leisure, environmental and infrastructure, often causing disfigurement, abandonment and improper occupation in such spaces. Multivariate analysis point to a central concentration and their problems in certain administrative units, not only as regards the public squares, but also to aspects of education, income, and other violence, perpetuating the problem. The various levels of inadequacy and degradation of public squares have been more blatant in the poorest neighborhoods of the city, pointing to a structural pattern associated with the intrinsic characteristics of the neighborhood and the socioeconomic profile of the local population. These are problems of social and environmental dimensions, threaded in and influenced the political, economic and broader social process of transformation of the city and the urban. Based on an uneven process in which space necessarily reflect the contradictions inherent in the active forces and interests. Thus evidencing the importance of managing the necessary public effectively engaged with the problems that are present there, in order to equate them, without being prioritized certain areas of the city at the expense of others

Uso e ocupação do solo e a transformação da paisagem na faixa litorânea da Via Costeira, município de Natal/RN

The coastal area of the city of Natal due to its location and natural potentialities has been an area where we have experienced big changes in its environment, at the expense of several forms of use and human occupation. On the coast of Via Costeira beach the process of use and land occupation was structured at the end of 1970s and early 1980s, as a result of the government policy which has developmental essence, based on the settlement of plenty big enterprises by the Parque das Dunas/Via Costeira Project. This project was created to install in Natal, capital of the state, infrastructure equipment on this stretch of coastline consisted of dune fields and many parts of ecosystems which have high natural relevance and fragility that used to present a semi-isolation in the urban city, for the development of tourist activities, which is considered as a viable economic solution capable of setting right serious socioeconomic problems that had persisted there. According to what was said so far, this study aimed to analyze the forms of use and land occupation besides the change of the landscape along the Via Costeira coast in the city of Natal/RN. These changes often take place without considering the complexity and fragility of natural ecosystems involved. The geoenvironmental study was based on the geosystemic theory, thus It was possible to analyze the human interventions in the superficial aspects of landscapes holistically. The practical procedures were contemplated with literature searches, followed by field work where were fulfilled the recognition and general characterization of the area in order to investigate and analyze the main types of land occupation and its use that have taken place there since big buildings began to come out, being supported by the legislation whose laws are about protection and conservation of coastal natural resources. The research also includes the identification and evaluation of the main types of negative impacts caused due to different forms of use that induce environmental and social conflicts nearby this shore. Thus, It was carried out a spatial and multitemporal analysis from orthophotos, aerial photographs and others taken during the field work besides satellite images too. The information which is taken out from these instruments was used to draw maps related to land occupation, spatial impacts and other thematic maps. We worked on a hypothesis that the implementation of mega enterprises on Via Costeira and many different forms of intensified use by human actions, has not considered the natural aspects and restrictions of use in this area, these ones would be the main factors that brought on the suppression and degradation in this environment and consequently the transformation of the natural landscape.

O Litoral e a metrópole dinâmica imobiliária, turismo e expansão urbana na região metropolitana de Natal-RN

The metropolitan regions of Northeast Brazil are being gradually included in a scenario of international investments, which are motivated by the restructuring of both touristic and real-estate sectors. The new capital, real-estate developers and space configurations that result from this process indicate the need for the creation and implementation of public tools which should, at least, allow the mitigation of the urban impacts and environmental losses resulting from this situation. The effects on landscape and on the socio-spatial configuration result from the intensification caused by the dynamism of the "real estate-tourism" sector. There is a regional integration as an expression of the urban expansion of the metropolitan area of Natal. This study investigates the uniqueness of the restructuring and territorial integration of coastal areas and the strategies of the circuit of capital accumulation formed by linking the real estate to tourism. It is intended to increase the understanding about the strategies of tourism, real estate and public policy agents involved in this territorial reconfiguration and in the fund-raising needed for the investments, to understand the existing social and environmental effects and their future trends and also to understand the forms of spatial production as results from the practices of approaching the land transformation and the tourism valorization of the landscape, in a synchronous manner, first in the Northeast region and, as a focal study, in the Metropolitan Area of Natal. Likewise, it is intended to apprehend the current processes of metropolization of the eastern coast of Rio Grande do Norte, in addition to indicate its physical-territorial transformation and the types of projects/developments promoted by the market in the recent period. Based upon analysis undertaken for the Metropolitan Region of Natal RN, this piece of work presents some considerations on possible legal instruments that can be adjusted to the municipalities which are experiencing the impact of this peculiar and recent phenomenon in the region, caused by the arrival of the real estate-touristic capital. It is also intended to point out basic proposals to the forms of public intervention, in a speculative way, starting from a Metropolitan Planning project within a medium and long term

Configurando a cidade contemporânea em Natal : os processos espaciais em Ponta Negra

This dissertation is about the spatial configuration in Natal and processes in the Ponta Negra neighborhood today. Ponta Negra has undergone a number of critical social and spatial changes due to tourism development after the 1990s. It is of special interest to consider the intensification of real estate investment after 2000, when the new airport terminal, located in the neighboring municipality of Parnamirim, was in use. Ponta Negra is the place where most tourists go to, so attracting considerable public investments. New agents of transformation have produced change in the neighborhood as well. The present study aims at analysing the spatial processes in this part of the city. Here, the spatial configuration that resulted from extended real estate investments, both public and private, in recent years, is analysed in detail. The study identifies the multually differentiated, however internally homogenous areas. The concepts of production of space, contemporanean urban development and spatial dynamics are discussed. The research is based on document analysis and field work. Results were plotted to maps and tables. A detailed analysis of the spatial processes in the Ponta Negra neighborhood is undertaken as a conclusion, considering the contemporanean global scenario

Entre serras e sertões A(s) (trans)formaç(ões) de centralidade(s) da Região Metropolitana do Cariri/CE

This study reviews the spatial configuration from the road network of an urban compound formed by the cities of Crato, Juazeiro do Norte and Barbalha (the Crajubar - core of the Cariri metropolitan region, in the State of Ceará, Brazil), in order to establish nexus (or relations) between different levels of accessibility and the formation/ transformation and specialization of centralities in local and metropolitan scales. Stemming from the Social Logic of Space theoretical and operational apparatus, the study explores modeling possibilities (with axial lines, segments and lines of continuity) which is then confronted to empirical observations concerning movement flows and land use, within a Geographic Information System database. At different scales of analysis, the results suggest evidences of continuity were found in the permanence of intra-urban centres and sub-centres within each town, whereas evidences of change pointed out to the formation of a new centrality of metropolitan magnitude in the neighbourhood referred to as the Triângulo, in the municipality of Juazeiro, where high levels of topological accessibility coincides with the appearance of new business buildings as well as with the emergence of urban equipment of a scale more adequate to meet a regional demand