Revisiting the past in order to forecast the future. Reflections by Jaime Ferrater in Urban Territory Planning

Abstract

Through his lecture on Territorial Planning, Jaime Ferrater  invites   us   to   reflect   on   different questions about the way to approach urban development as an urban territorial planning, as something extensive, avoiding, in Ferrater's own words, that no territory should be populated or used beyond its natural capacity for recovery. This entails an occupation of the territory without excessive differences in population density, avoiding the overcrowding of large cities, which are subject, on the other hand, to ambitious Urban Development Action Projects (PAUs), with a sectorised programme linked by rapid transit routes, subjecting the urban territory to the service of the automobile, forgetting the design on a human scale and undervaluing the character of the neighborhood, understood as a juxtaposition of uses and services necessary for daily life and accessible   within   walking   distance,   which   forms   a   greater   social   cohesion   and   a   more sustainable environment

Keywords: urban territory, human scale, neighborhood, sustainability.