The purpose of this article is to rethink the industrial areas in decline for new housing places. The tendency of planning policies to focus on the building structure at the expense of ecological elements has led to the abandoning of several urban areas, such as the old industrial areas. This article presents an urban project for Covilhã (in Portugal), centered on the ecological element of the stream of Carpinteira. The project aims to promote the urban rehabilitation and the returning of citizens to this forgotten area, by integrating the ecological structure and the old industrial buildings together as landmarks for landscape urbanism. Objectives of this urban rehabilitation project as promoting the integration and enhancement of the building structure / ecological component: – To propose measures of urban design for old industrial buildings and for ecological component of the stream in order to promote a balance between these two components of the city; – To create a leisure area with a riverside walk in order to promote the integration and enhancement of the stream in the local context and throughout the city; – To create an ecological corridor to ensure the environmental balance of this area by integrating the ecological structure into the urban system; – To allow the rehabilitation of old industrial buildings and, above all, the buildings heritage that goes back to an industrial past, present in the collective imagination of the citizens, in order to promote new activities in the derelict industrial buildings and new housing places; In summary, this landscape urbanism proposal aims to qualify and improve the image of the city. Copyright © 2011 IAHS.
