Los bordes de la ciudad metropolitana: apuntes para repensar la ciudad

Abstract

When we refer to metropolitan territory and try to define its constituent elements, we often rely on the three traditional categories of urban discipline: Urban Settlements; Infrastructure Networks; and the collection of Open Spaces However, there is a category of spaces that does not fall into any of these, and that includes them at the same time, they are the edges, the areas of contact between the urban and the rural domain In the first place, the article proposes that we recognize urban edges as a new project category that allows us to move away from the negative connotation of the term urban margin and to overcome the traditional town-country antithesis produced by the peri-urban concept. Secondly, this article shows the increasing concern about the sustainability of metropolitan areas placing emphasizing on one of the most sensitive border spaces in the metropolitan area: Agricultural Spaces. The hypothesis defended is that it is necessary to find more management tools for the protection of metropolitan biodiversity rather than to develop tools for legislative or regulatory control. The case of London is a good example of the positivist attitude that should make us rethink how we conceive our metropolitan environment.