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**12**

*1Portugal 2USA* 

**Post-Industrial Land Transformation –**

**Catalysts for Urban Redevelopment** 

*1CIEO - Research Centre for Spatial and Organizational Dynamics* 

Luís Loures1 and Jon Burley2

*Michigan State University, East Lansing*

*University of Algarve, Faro* 

**An Approach to Sociocultural Aspects as** 

*2Landscape Architecture Program; School of Planning, Design, and Construction* 

The inheritance of idled, derelict and frequently abandoned post-industrial structures and sites we found nowadays in our landscapes is, arguably the result of human current and former land uses. One way or another, the present situation, enabled by technological innovation and structural economic change, is somehow based in human (ab)use of limited resources. As mentioned by Krinke, (2001, p.126) *"as the world moved from agriculture to industry, a mechanist view of the universe began to supplant the idea of an organic nature. A desire for "progress" and faith in technology implied that the earth was a place to extract resources and its "complementary" idea: that the earth could absorb anything humankind asked of it"*. However, the environmental and social consequences of such point of view enabled not only changes in society's values but also a different view, according to which the former production and

As landscapes became economically disadvantaged, environmentally degraded and socially distressed, several planners, designers and developers started to react to decline, both by looking for answers to the social and economic problems caused by former activities (Secchi, 2007) and by developing new methods and frameworks to transform them. In this scenario, it became increasingly acknowledged that previously developed land (*e.g.* post-industrial landscapes) constitute an undervalued asset towards urban redevelopment. This idea is supported by the six key challenges for producing a sustainable built environment presented by the European Council for Construction Research, Development and Innovation (2001): urban sprawl; redeveloping industrial sites; regenerating brownfield sites; sustainable construction; green space, and regenerating distressed neighborhoods. Somehow, all these challenges may be directly or indirectly connected with post-industrial

For this reason, all over the world, several regions and countries have begun to embrace the notion that post-industrial landscapes offer unique opportunities to the creation of renewed landscapes, viewing their value to society in a broad sense, recognizing that more than

**1. Introduction** 

consumption patterns were no longer acceptable.

land transformation processes.
