Open Class 'Disputed futures. Two cases of urban restructuration and social recomposition: Bairro do Aleixo (Porto) and El Cabanyal (València)' by João Queirós and Aitor Varea Oro

November 16 (wednesday), 9.00 am, Room CCR1, Casa Cor de Rosa - FAUP

The first session of the Cycle of Open Classes – Urbanisation of Poverty: 'The social role of the architect'  will have the theme ‘Disputed futures. Two cases of urban restructuration and social recomposition: Bairro do Aleixo (Porto) and El Cabanyal (València)”, and will be presented by the sociologist João Queirós (ESE-IPP) and by the architect Aitor Varea Oro (Habitar Porto).

This class will take place on the 16th of November (wednesday), at 9.00 am, in the Room CCR1, at Casa Cor de Rosa (The Pink House) - FAUP.

It is usual to say that the urban space is a subject of dispute. It is also often considered that, as an object of dispute, the way the appropriation and enjoyment of urban space is materialized will be determined by the confrontation between the present antagonistic forces, in a fight that is likely to submit the most undercapitalized populations in favor of social groups with greater control over resources. However, urban conflicts often resist perception and explanation in these terms, proving that power relations are more complex, dynamic and multilateral than what a superficial glance may suggest. In this sense, it is worth analyzing such conflicts as social processes where the "dispute" takes place not only according to the present and future appropriation physical space, but also through the definition of their own "rules of the game" that raise and organize and by the definition of identifications and identities of the actors and institutions that are the protagonists.

In this class, we will try discuss urban conflict according to this approach, from the presentation and comparative study of two realities, an Atlantic and other Mediterranean, Porto and Valencia, the neighbourhoods of Aleixo and El Cabanyal, which we will use to discuss which tools may guide a practice of urban planning based on principles of social justice.

This class will be presented in English. Free entrance (limited to the capacity of the room).
Programme subject to changes.

João Queirós (Porto, 1982) is a sociologist. He graduated and obtained his PhD from the University of Porto. He is an integrated researcher at the Institute of Sociology of that institution and lecturer at the School of Education of the Polytechnic Institute of Porto, where he also collaborates with the INED - Centre for Research and Innovation in Education. His main areas of interest are social change and urban transformation, local and regional development, the State and social policies, housing and civil construction policies. He has published, amongst other contributions, the book "No Centro, à Margem. Sociologia das intervenções urbanísticas e habitacionais do Estado no centro histórico do Porto", based on his PhD thesis.

Aitor Varea Oro (València, 1981) is an architect by the Escola Tècnica Superior de Arquitetura de València (2009). His area of study is the relationship between the physical and social fabric in the degraded historical areas. He has worked in this area in collaboration with the populations, with government and academic institutions. His work, undertaken in both València and Porto, were the basis of his doctoral thesis "La arquitectura del territorio: los entramados sociales como herramienta de proyecto" (ETSAV, 2015). The results of this thesis are being implemented in the Programa Habitar (www.habitarporto.org) project, of which he is co-coordinator, and that aims to create a bridge between the creation of housing at a fair price, the creation of employment at local level, and the promotion of a more lively and inclusive territory.

This Open Classes cycle is coordinated by Professor Álvaro Domingues, the architect Ana Silva Fernandes and the MDT research group – 'Territory Morphologies and Dynamics' of CEAU-FAUP.

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Cycle of Open Classes - Urbanization of Poverty: 'The social role of the architect'