Expectant territories and urban instruments: the case of Urban Operation Água Branca ¹

Abstract

The paper discusses the consequences of production restructuring processes upon urban planning, focusing in São Paulo, a city marked by a retraction of industrial activities since the late 1970s. We tackle the consequences of changes in production processes upon urban planning by looking at urbanistic instruments, namely the instrument of urban operations, specifically the Urban Operation Água Branca. The operation is analyzed in terms of its effectivity in promoting the territorial reorganization of industrial areas present in the different design strategies envisioned for the large industrial vacant plots that, however, never materialized. Furthermore, this paper looks at the materialization of the urban operation by mapping the plots employed under its guidelines and the real estate developments it produced, critically evaluating the real restructuring consequences of this operation.

Keywords:
urban operations; urban instruments; urban restructuring; urban projects