Urbanizing terrains

Abstract

Urban "sprawl"in the East Attica area of Athens has dramatically changed the former rural economy in a manner consistent with the urbanizing terrain's underlying properties: agricultural subdivisions, existing centres, transportation infrastructure and administrative management. A similar situation has been witnessed over the last 20 years on the periphery of other European metropolis that have consistently increased the amount of built space while population has seen only a modest rise. The decrease in residential density has created hybrid landscapes in areas identified as the"urban fringe" or"periphery". Supported by an isotropic distribution of infrastructure the properties of this urbanizing terrain affect the pattern of built space creating a spatial order that is neither entirely urban nor rural.In the first part the thesis examines the organizational effects of these properties in four European cities and the resulting built space of low-density development. Employing the potential to affect positive change through adjustment of these properties a design proposal is suggested for the East Attica region, to reconstitute its territorial order and re-form its permanent image in the public imagination of both local residents and the metropolis as a whole.