Banca de DEFESA: FRITZ MIGUEL MORAIS MOURA

Uma banca de DEFESA de DOUTORADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : FRITZ MIGUEL MORAIS MOURA
DATE: 10/11/2025
TIME: 14:30
LOCAL: Sala 303 do PGTEC/UFRN
TITLE:

 

 

 

THE RAILWAY AND THE PHYSICAL SPATIAL OCCUPATION OF TERESINA (NORTHEAST/BRAZIL) BETWEEN 1922 AND 2003.

KEY WORDS:

  Transport Systems. Urban Morphology. Modernization. Urban Expansion. Piauí/Brazil

 

PAGES: 215
BIG AREA: Ciências Sociais Aplicadas
AREA: Arquitetura e Urbanismo
SUBÁREA: Fundamentos de Arquitetura e Urbanismo
SPECIALTY: História do Urbanismo
SUMMARY:

The introduction of the railway system, initiated in the 1920s, marked a milestone in the modernization of the capital of Piauí and represented a turning point in its urban expansion process. It disrupted the planned orthogonal grid, isolated areas north of the consolidated center, and redirected the city’s growth toward the southeast. The central focus lies in the question: how did the railway, while promoting regional integration and urban modernization, also produce fragmentation, discontinuity, and territorial inequality? The guiding hypothesis maintains that the railway, by breaking the original orthogonal layout, became a structuring vector for urban expansion toward the southeast, but also a segregating element responsible for spatial discontinuities and socioeconomic conflicts. It is further assumed that its later requalification, materialized in the implementation of the Pré-Metrô in the 1990s, maintained the same logic of functional integration and territorial exclusion, revealing the persistence of inequalities in the urban space. The research thus aims to understand the historical and morphological repercussions of the railway on the structure and occupation of the territory, considering its effects on the city’s form and urban dynamics. It investigates the impacts of the railway’s implementation on Teresina’s urban configuration, covering the period from 1922 to 2003. The methodology adopts a historical–geographical and morphological approach, combining documentary, cartographic, and empirical analyses. It is based on Groat and Wang (2013), who emphasize the coherence between methods and research strategies, and on Oliveira (2015), whose concept of urban morphology guides the reading of spatial forms and transformations. The study draws on iconographic records, historical documents, direct observations, and urban cartography, as well as the elaboration of “Conflict Maps,” as proposed by Acselrad and Coli (2008), used as an instrument to represent tensions and disputes over urban land use. The theoretical framework is grounded in authors who analyze modernization and the social production of urban space, such as Lefebvre (2001), Harvey (1996; 2006), Santos (2006), and Carlos (2007), who emphasize the dynamic and relational nature of space; Maricato (2000) and Villaça (2001), who associate modernization with capitalist rationalization and the reconfiguration of urban networks; and Rolnik (1995), Giddens (2008), Souza and Sousa (2019), and Fiorin (2017), who highlight the relationship between transportation, urban expansion, and socio-spatial inequality. The results indicate that the railway played an ambiguous role in the territorial formation of Teresina. Between the 1930s and 1950s, it was consolidated as an axis for freight and passenger transport, fostering industrial activities and regional integration. With the rise of road transportation between the 1950s and 1970s, its importance declined, culminating in the discontinuation of passenger services. The requalification of the railway layout in 1977, through the lowering of the track and the relocation of the maneuvering yard to a rural area, enabled the implementation of the intra-urban passenger system known as Pré-Metrô in the 1990s. This reaffirmed the structuring role of the railway but also the persistence of its socio-spatial contradictions. It is concluded that the railway functioned simultaneously as a vector of modernization and as an agent of urban fragmentation, acting as a technical, social, and symbolic infrastructure that redefined the territorial organization of Teresina. Its persistence in the contemporary urban fabric reveals both the continuity of inequalities and the potential for reinterpreting this space as an axis of mobility and urban requalification. The study thus contributes to a critical understanding of the railway as a structuring element of Teresina’s urban morphology and as an interpretative key to the relationship between technology, territory, and modernization.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Presidente - 347654 - ANGELA LUCIA DE ARAUJO FERREIRA
Interno - 1149450 - RUBENILSON BRASAO TEIXEIRA
Externa à Instituição - ALCÍLIA AFONSO DE ALBUQUERQUE E MELO - UFCG
Externa à Instituição - JULIANA LOPES ARAGÃO - UFPI
Externa à Instituição - NÍCIA BEZERRA FORMIGA LEITE - UFPI