Abstract
The rapid growth of Lisbon metropolitan area in the second half of the twentieth century gave rise to extensive residential suburbs usually subjected to a negative evaluation. The object of this study is the dominantly legal growth of one of these suburbs, Agualva-Cacém, between 1953 and 2001.
Twenty-one representative areas were selected and analysed in order to find out if built forms correspond to the dominant urban models of this period. The models present in recent urban growth and the transformations they were subjected to giving way to specific urban forms were identified. Types of development involved in urban growth were also identified and their built results were compared.
The built city appears to be diverse and fragmented. The distance between the city and the dominant models in its origin vary through time and depend on the type of development involved. There is a tendency for a hybrid use of these models, almost always with the resource of high densities of built area and a low proportion of public space. There has been no effective planning and the informal plans were hardly relevant, tending to serve as a justification for specific developments.
On the other side, the type of development turned to determine strongly its results. The proximity to models, informal plans and projects became lower as the level of administrative control weakened, from public development to private development with or without general project. The proportion of public space decreased and the built area increased in the same way, following a trend which has been growing in the last two decades. Changes in this trend will demand a strengthened effectiveness of the planning system able to act upon the legal but uncontrolled processes of urban growth.