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Abstract

The boundary element of lots of residential multifamily buildings in the neighborhood of Boa Viagem in Recife, Pernambuco-BR, which occupies a prominent position in the composition of the city, presents itself with great distinction when comparing the treatment of the back with the treatment of the front facade, with visual permeability, given its setting in the other facades, which are usually only walls with no visual permeability between the public and the private space. The growing size of these lots and, thus, also the growing problem of its consequences for the urbanity of the city, encouraged this work, which consists in the parametric model of walls defined by cobogós, typical hollow elements of the region. This work is possible and supported by the analysis of configuration consequences of the limits of lots of residential buildings for urban space, with the aid of the Space Syntax theory and methodology, which analyzes the relationship between the layout configuration of a particular system of open spaces in various scales of operation, and social relations related to it, specifically the movement of people in the space to be worked. The analysis of organizations and syntactic-spatial measures is here linked to the architectural design work, supporting the decisions. This article is about analysis of how syntactic methodology has helped the work in architecture and city planning area, more specifically when the primary objective is the improvement and stimulation of urban life in cities, stimulating alternatives for various settings on the permeability visual of these walls, looking for animate the urban space without disturbing the use of private space, and encourage the improvement of urban life in Recife.

Introduction

The monotony and lack of permeability presented in the walls of the boundaries of residential buildings (image 01), between the area of the lots and the sidewalks, leads us to conclude the need to study what can be done to alleviate this current hostile character and its quantity increasingly crescent in the streets of the city. Against this background, this paper aims to analyze the consequence of setting the limits of lots of residential buildings for urban space, with the help of the theory and methodology of space syntax, through analysis especially focused on isovistas and, from this study, seek alternative of various shapes for ensure visual permeability of these walls, looking for animate the urban space without disturbing the use of private space and encourage the improvement of urban life in Recife.

Thus, the specific objectives of this paper are to analyze, by Space Syntax methodology, which would mean, in terms of spatial configuration for social life, different variations in the definition of those limits, possibiliting or restricting the visual permeability through the walls of residential buildings in the Boa Viagem neighborhood belonging to Recife, Pernambuco/Brazil. After that, join these studies and definitions - performed with the aid of syntactic spatial working methods - to parametric modeling system for defining hollow walls. This work is carried out in order to allow control of its variations: according to wishes of viewing restrictions of persons in private areas of residential building by passersby in the surrounding urban space to this, and also according to the possibility of variation of the standard of the mesh that defines the hollow elements of the resulting wall.

Method

The first stage of this work is based on a literature and theoretical study about the subject, related to methodologies and work that is supported by the space syntax. This study will build on work done in space syntax and jobs that had support of this theory and methodology to be justified. One such example is the doctoral thesis from the University of Brasilia held by Antonio Cavalcante, completed in 2009, who received the title "A Arquitetura da cidade e os transportes: o caso dos congestionamentos em Fortaleza - Ceará" (image 02), and which produced a systemic methodology for the analysis of congestion in urban road networks, and the identified relationships of its variables such as the vehicular flow, qualification and quantification of travel generators centers,with space syntax variables. Other works have studied the spatial syntax mainly as support and justification of its proposals, such as the dissertation in Urban Development Robson Canuto master da Silva, entitled Urbanismo Paramétrico: parametrizando urbanidade (image 03), held at the Federal University of Pernambuco, and finalized in 2010 where he suggests that the configuration parameters of space, analyzed in space syntax, could also be aggregated in the development of parametric urban design process for an urban area with more vitality, as well as the revitalization project of Trafalgar Square in London held by Foster and Partners architectural firm (image 04), where the aid of space syntax for the project came with the analysis of pedestrian flows and, from it, the development of a pedestrian movement model, enabling the identification of director plan of problems in the area.

This beginning is of utmost importance for later application of these studies (image 05), with regard to the second stage, which will be applied work methods of space syntax analysis to the threshold settings of buildings and their syntactic consequences in the city. Also it will be defined in the grasshopper the geometry base (image 06) for the design of a hollow wall in accordance with possibilities or restrictions of viewing of private area by the passerby in the public space, parametric definition that should be linked to the syntactic-spatial analysis previously performed.

Results

This work seeks to stimulate the search for variations in the design configuration of the limits of residential buildings in the city, and thus mitigate the urban environment that has presented itself increasingly hostile manner in Recife. Therefore, aims to develop a proposal to promote the permeability of the residential buildings lot boundaries and stimulates the release of their areas to viewing by citizens transiting the sidewalk, expanding the view power of pedestrians to animate the experience of the city, and contributing to the improvement of urban life, whereas the physical reality of the border of the buildings, its configuration, is related to the social life of the city.

Discussion

The theory and methodology regarding the Space Syntax is an excellent tool for analysis of social effects from the configurational definitions of space. Through it is possible to correlate the configuration of existing space or designed with likely forms of use (natural movement, accessibility, distribution of land use, transport movement, among others). Thus, it can be concluded that the space syntax contributes to the possibility of syntax analysis with highest possible accuracy of the configuration of architectural plans which make up the city, in view of the possible measured as the inhibition or stimulation of social use of space city in question, with the ultimate goal of stimulating interventions that seek encouragement and improvement of urban life in cities.

The methodology based on the theory of space syntax, in isolat­­­ion, is not able to allow development of projects, since it does not produce results, which allows actually is the analyze of the layout of open spaces systems, allowing a view the conformational spaces system quickly and based on mathematical calculations. For these reasons, the syntactic methodology needs to be linked to a working method that allows their use to assist in project definition. With this in mind, one can conclude that it is interesting, for the best possible use of the potential of this method, the space syntax related to processes with definitions also the most accurate as possible, based and justified mathematically, and also that might be be changed quickly, easily and efficiently. In other words, it's interesting to work with a project design method that allows for continuous analysis of the possible consequences of his social and spatial terms based on space syntax, according to various variations may be made, from the design stage to the project definition. In this way, one can also conclude that the syntactic elements used in the analysis of projects may also contribute to configuration of buildings, also if analyze it in their relationship with the city, in order to promote urbanity.

Space Syntax, Visual Permeability, Urbanity, Parametric Modeling