A reurbanização das áreas contíguas ao complexo urbanístico High Line (NY)

Abstract

The urban configuration of New York City is a result of the historical accumulation of the spatial, landscaped, social, economic and cultural transformations that it has been experiencing since its beginning. Today, the remaining layers are constantly modified in order to comply with the new concernes of the New Yorkers' social-economic spaces. The process of urbanization and the current re-urbanization represent, register and they are the result of the transformative character proper of this urbanism. A relevant aspect of those innovations are materialised on the contiguous areas of the urban complex of the High Line, located in Chelsea. It is conditioned by the adaptive reuse of the rails and its detailing in a linear park, which result in the modification of the landscape and the local diverse social practices. The representations and spatialisation of the urbanization and the experiences of the daily life of this localities engender them and are composed mainly by the materialisation of the architecture and urbanism which outline the urban mesh. The addition of the new collective use public spaces integrated to the consumer culture and the new character of the localities caracterize a new type of use of the island of Manhattan. This dissertation approach some reflections related to the processes of urbanization since the beginning of the urban configuration that resulted in the city of New York up until the current re-urbanizations of the remaining spaces. This study details the linear park of the High Line and its contagious area by means of the discussion around the landscape, the new social practices in the localities and the modifications registered by the urban typologies - the street, the park and the building - as from its substitution, preservation and adaptive reuse.