Morphological analysis of horizontal residential agglomerations within the Metropolitan Region of Campinas

Abstract

This paper analyses the horizontal gated communities in the Metropolitan Region of Campinas in the state of São Paulo. It evaluates the existing morphological patterns in the territory, quantifying their distribution among municipalities and reasoning about established interactions with main streets and green areas. It first contextualizes the origins of these communities from a legislative perspective. It then maps all closed housing agglomerations and describes their morphological patterns in terms of variations in size, characteristics of construction and of how they interfere in the street system and landscape. After this classification, it was possible to analyze, through maps and graphs, the distribution of these morphological patterns and their relationship with main streets and environmental preservation areas. The results reveal that, among the seven different patterns identified, it predominates the one characterized by constructions conceived with formal intention to set up private gated communities. Regarding the relationship between streets and green areas, the maps point out that most of these residential patterns occur in the peripheral areas of cities and along streets. In addition, it also reveals the presence of protected green areas inside gated communities, being the municipalities of Campinas, Paulínia, Valinhos and Vinhedo the largest examples of this phenomenon.