Soft Mobility as an Urban Design Solution for Water Fronts

Abstract

Soft mobility is on the top of the agenda as a strategy for cities liveability. It refers to non-motorized transportation solutions in order to promote the human mobility. In this domain pedestrian and bicycle paths have a pivotal interest on behalf of urban design solutions. This paper presents an urban design project focused on soft mobility solutions having as case study a Portuguese city. The area called Train Station surroundings in São Pedro do Sul, makes the link in between the urban fabric and the Vouga river banks. This city is very well-known because of its thermal baths, known since the Roman times. The presented urban design project is a result of the agreement in between the University team, on behalf of the Urban Planning Unit of the Master Degree in Architecture at the University of Beira Interior in Covilhã and the Municipal authority of São Pedro do Sul. The students were organized in several international groups (including people from Portugal, Greece, Brazil, Slovakia, Lithuania and Poland) in order to propose their urban design projects, ensuring the continuity of the urban fabric with the water front. The city hall has organized a competition and has offered four prizes (1st, 2nd and 2 honour awards) for the best projects, which was an extra motivation for students. Regarding the presented solution, the conclusions show that the main strategy was to propose an urban system of soft mobility pathways for pedestrians and bicycles, in order to connect the main natural element in the case study area which is the river with the city. This soft mobility system is connecting places such as the existing low density housing neighbourhoods or the most relevant historical and cultural landmark, the nineteen-century train station building.