Urbs Adamantina: o estudo da morfologia urbana de Diamantina/MG e implicações na gestão de sua paisagem cultural

Abstract

The theme of the research is to verify how the adoption of urban morphology approaches can contribute to the effectiveness of urban management in a protected city, such as Diamantina (MG). The investigation is linked to the “Landscape and Environment” line of the Built Environment and Sustainable Heritage Postgraduate Program (PPG - ACPS) at the School of Architecture at the Federal University of Minas Gerais (UFMG). Therefore, its main objective is to introduce morphological issues into the assessment of the urban landscape of Diamantina. It is believed that management problems are associated with the absence of approaches that respect the dynamic aspects and morphological attributes of its cultural landscape. The city was the urban heritage chosen as the object of study, as it contains a peculiar landscape and robust preservationist legal apparatus. However, it is likely that traditional means would be insufficient to guarantee its effective conservation, requiring new subsidies for management. The method used for the study was based on a complete analysis of the city, including the adoption of geographic, historical, urban-morphological and sociopolitical contributions. This was feasible by structuring the research into analysis stages. It began with a bibliographic and conceptual review on the notions of “landscape”, “heritage” and “urban morphology”, whose evaluation was chronologically ordered, with international and Brazilian approaches to the themes. In addition, a study of the urban morphology of Diamantina was carried out, guided by Conzenian (1960) and Muratorian (1959) contributions. It is important to highlight that the research restricted the adoption of aspects of these contributions, in order to apply those relevant to the evolutionary study. In this sense, the city was considered in six morphological periods (from its morphogenesis, at the beginning of the 18th century, until 2022), in a multi-scale approach. Consolidating the analysis, a study of the threedimensional evolution of its urban landscape was also carried out. For this, a systematic study was necessary, along research and synthesis capacity, whose morphological analysis required interpretation of other bibliographic references, such as photographs and cartography. Through evolutionary analysis, the existing legal apparatus in the territory was apprehended, to interrelate with management strategies that touched on urban morphology contributions – in an effort to explain the evolution of these policies materialized in physical space. Therefore, the originality of the thesis would correspond to two strategies: the joint application of part of the concepts of the two schools of urban morphology and the three-dimensional study of the course of this form, in its political and urban landscape contexts. After analysing the transformation of Diamantina's cultural landscape, the research is concluded by elucidating the cause of some of the analytical problems found in it, in addition to generally pointing out possibilities for improving its management. The main result was the detection that problems linked to an effective and articulated preservationist management of Diamantina are derived from its non-interpretation as a cultural landscape, devoid of understanding of its urban course over physical support, throughout its history. The conclusion of this scientific investigation was possible through an interdisciplinary approach, contributing to discursive innovations in academia and propositions of strategies for the development of urban public policies.