2010 Covilhã International Workshop

The rural and natural environment is transformed into a machinery landscape, an empty desert, depopulated except for industrial agriculture exploitations, or solar and wind power plants that supply the growing demands of cities. In order to achieve a sustainable territory, a new rural-urban model of growth is required. This new model transforms the space into a multifunctional landscape, where food and energy production, leisure, culture, history, knowledge, industry, tourism, and nature, interact with each other in a symbiosis of the built and natural environment, the urban development and the countryside.

 

Local production and the survival of the local economy (primary and secondary sector) maintain the cultural identity of the rural territory. A specific cultural landscape should not be at risk when connected to global networks. In order to achieve a sustainable territory, a structural transformation of the rural-urban way of life is needed, where cities live from part of their local resources and the countryside interacts with the demands of the urban territory. A clear long term strategy should start with real proposals and participatory processes. The  present workshop aims to design a prototype for a new sustainable rural-urban model of growth for the city of Covilhã, in Portugal.