Under and over: location, uses and discontinuities in a centrally located neighbourhood in João Pessoa city reflecting current urban planning effects

Abstract

This paper compares spatial configuration, built form and uses at Tambauzinho and Tambaú areas, in João Pessoa, Brazil. Although it is located between the old city centre and its expansion towards the coast, Tambauzinho presents little urban vitality, different from the expected in a central location, and to what happens in Tambaú. Understanding cities as problems in organized complexity, and that space configures fields of potential movement and encounters, physical attributes work together to facilitate urban vitality. The potential movement to and through places at various scales (according to space syntax framework) were analysed for the city and the areas and compared with built form and uses. Both areas' urban grid present high potential movement; however at Tambauzinho, local physical attributes and a highway crossing the neighbourhood hinder more legibility and walkability, interrupting local flows and visual and physical connections at street level, with poor qualities of sidewalks. Limited urban vitality in Tambauzinho is underlined by non-residential uses mostly concentrating at the areas’ northern periphery, whereas at Tambaú, they spread more throughout the area. Problems at Tambauzinho express a mainly vehicular oriented urban planning; understanding negative consequences aims to build knowledge, alleviating problems and re-directing future interventions.