URBAN MORPHOLOGY AND CITY STRUCTURING: ASPECTS ABOUT MEDIUM-SIZED CITIES IN THE STATE OF SÃO PAULO

Abstract

The changes observed in the territorial configuration of cities over the last few decades, especially with regard to characteristics such as dispersion and discontinuity, have highlighted the importance of studying urban form and urban morphology. Furthermore, in addition to large cities and metropolises, it is important to note that many smaller urban centers have undergone major changes over the past few years. It is from these considerations that this text approaches the analysis of urban form and urban morphology, emphasizing a set of medium-sized cities in the state of São Paulo that, although located outside the metropolitan context, present significant changes in their territorial configurations in the last decades. For this, bibliographic research on the topic was carried out, as well as data and information survey on the studied territory. The results obtained show that the logics and the interests inherent to the space production process have contributed to the constitution of urban forms associated with an increasingly complex structure in terms of content, uses and territorial configuration, even considering medium-sized cities from different regional contexts. This is due to the fact that, especially in recent decades, strong trends towards dispersion through urban areas that have become increasingly distant and discontinuous in relation to the main center, as well as transformations linked to social and spatial differentiation, have been observed.