Cidade, entornos e três praças: formas e vidas urbanas no Corredor Cultural de Mossoró - RN

Abstract

This dissertation investigates centrality, form and uses, focusing on three squares of the Professor Antônio Gonzaga Chimbinho Cultural Corridor, in Mossoró (RN). Studies relate location and form in public spaces with diverse intensities and people, underlying spatial patterns and activities that favour social and microeconomic life. The Cultural Corridor – with nine squares – is publicized as “the city’s cultural heart”, while existing studies describe it as having segmented uses. It has not yet been studied, specifically, relations between form and uses at the Corridor, and at different sections of this space. This research investigates the hypothesis that the Cultural Corridor is used by diverse people, related with its central location in the city, and that there are different sections, with different relations between urban form and vitality. The Cultural Corredor centrality was investigated via space syntax, and three squares were selected to relate urban form (land uses, buildings) of the immediate and walkable surroundings, with urban vitality. Urban vitality was investigated by intensity (with behaviour mapping) and diversity of uses (questionnaire survey). Results confirm the Cultural Corridor as very integrated in the city and used by diverse people, varying between the squares, related to varying uses. The least accessible square attracted less people and variety of groups, with less surrounding addresses. The other squares, more central, had more frequenters, however, with different gender and temporal proportions. Results advance in understanding complexities of a Cultural Corridor that does not seem segmented, rather representing many types of urban lives.