Caldas das Taipas a Densification Model: The vertical city in articulation between the rural, the dispersed and the diffuse

Álvaro Mendes

We live in a time when some cities or towns have to adapt to strong urban growth. By the conditions and offers of employment, quality of life and even population growth, cities are forced to grow. The dissertation/project work “Caldas das Taipas a Densification Model” comes with the intention of reflecting on the future urban development of Caldas das Taipas, a place that presents a lot of familiarity to me.

The municipal master plan defines the boundaries between the built, agricultural, forest and other subdivisions, but at the moment, construction land is increasingly scarce, and sometimes for this reason reaches high market values. We know that the genesis of Caldas das taipas is its strong connection to the river and agriculture, but, how are we going to grow without strongly compromising the agricultural subdivision of Caldas das Taipas?

Caldas das Taipas as a town that has a high potential for growth due to all its resources and strengths, is begins to be sought. With the appearance and future growth of the Ave Park research park, with the ecovia project and with the idea of creating a train line that joins Guimarães to Braga passing exactly here, a great population growth is estimated.

With all this, this project work aims to present a possible development solution for the village of Caldas das Taipas, but above all it intends to be a model that can be used in many other cases. In this work we will try to work on the concept of Vertical City and what are its benefits for cities.