Workshop Program

 Objective

The city of Covilhã has the particularity to be a landscape of change. It is in a process of urban transformation and expansion. The rural area of study, in the valley, between the river Zêzere and the railway, has the potentiality to become a transition prototype towards a new sustainable and ecological rural-urban model of growth. How to create a new sustainable productive landscape taking advantage of the potentialities of this economical transformative power that the city has? In this new vision it is necessary to bet for the experimentation in order to introduce a new alternative rural-urban culture. Agriculture is modernizing and becoming more technological, but at the same time agriculture is part of the cultural heritage and identity of this territory. The market is asking not for quantity but quality in the production of local goods. At the same time biological food gardens can bring cohesion to the urban dwellers. It can be the purpose of a healthy activity for the old people, therapy for the marginal groups and an educative platform in sustainable and ecological habits for the new generations. This new prototype of sustainable growth creates a multifunctional landscape with the development of new housing areas, public institutions, facilities, industry, and the integration of knowledge, education, culture, heritage, the natural and the rural environment.

Themes

Economy: Covilhã is offering a platform for the settlement and expansion of new research centres and technology enterprises. Connected to the attraction magnet of the University of Beira Interior, emergent industrial clusters appear such us bioscience, biotechnology, multimedia, tourism, and health. The city can become a reference node in the network of cities that produce knowledge (Eindhoven, Grenoble, Bangalore, etc). Covilhã can also be a reference node in the global network as a prototype for a sustainable and ecological way of life. Its industry can adapt to an ecological model, of local production of food and energy with a neutral CO² footprint, and a responsible management and waste recycling. 

The innovation relies on the careful adaption of renewable energies and ecological technologies to the particularities of its landscape.The city has the exceptional particularity to have in the valley, between its feet and Zêzere river an airport. This airport has the huge potential to grow in the future, and such development will have a territorial impact in all the region of Cova da Beira. 

Society: A sustainable model of urban growth requires social participation. It includes processes and activities that involve the self-maintenance and self-organization of the space, which help to increase social awareness on the preservation of the environment and a healthy way of life. This new model includes the introduction of housing areas for elderly, students and families. All these different social groups collaborate with each other in the maintenance and organization of rural-educational activities, food and energy production.

Culture: This area is also an important cultural landscape for the inhabitants of the city. It is the end destination of the Wool Route that arrives, up hill stream, to the historical factories of Covilhã. This historical path that crosses the valley should be enhanced as part of the landscape heritage. The valley becomes also a cultural park, and a platform for education, leisure and sports. 

Environment: The water streams are important ecological corridors that should be preserved and recovered because from them depend the quality of the river Zêzere. It is important to study how, once they arrive to the valley, they maintain their ecological values. Their landscape features should be preserved in order to recover their fringes and recuperate a humid area. These streams are also part of the heritage and the cultural landscape of Covilhã conselho, because all the historical factories are located in their fringes.