Ruination and built environment regeneration in the 21st-century metropolis: the case of Lisbon

Abstract

Ruins and derelict spaces are ubiquitous presences in contemporary cities. Probably because they are seen as undesirable and anomalous elements, scarce attention has been paid to them in urban studies. A theory of modern urban ruin is attempted in this paper. Using the Lisboa metropolitan area (Portugal) as case study, it is argued that dereliction and ruinification are part of the mutability of urban forms imposed by progress. The acceleration of time in modernity, by making the obsolescence of objects easier and faster, intensifies those processes. Dereliction and ruinification tend to occur more suddenly and randomly, breaking into the urban space in a chaotic and fractal geography, which reaches both central and peripheral areas. Finally, it is demonstrated that urban regeneration policies are favoring reinvestment in central areas, albeit selectively, and that a trend of ruins shifting to periphery is under way.