(Re)estruturação urbana em Teresina-PI

Abstract

The location pattern of commercial and service facilities has assumed an increasingly important role in the intraurban restructuring process of cities, especially those of large and medium size, as the decentralization of tertiary activities to other urban areas reorients flows and redefines urban centrality. In Teresina-PI, this displacement of commercial and service facilities to the Eastern Zone has triggered significant spatial changes, one of which was the restructuring of certain avenues, transforming them into important commercial and service corridors (CSCs) that represent new expressions of urban centrality.Based on this framework, the general objective of this research is to understand the urban restructuring process in Teresina and the formation of new expressions of centrality based on the new location pattern of tertiary activities in the Eastern Zone of the city. Thus, the theoretical and methodological foundation of the study is grounded in dialectics, as urban space in cities is a product of society and, therefore, a result of complex and contradictory processes.In line with the proposed objectives, the methodological procedures adopted were bibliographic research, documentary research, and field research; the latter was structured around three data collection instruments: interviews, questionnaires, and systematic observation. The spatial scope encompasses the main commercial and service corridors in the Eastern Zone of the city, which include the following avenues: Nossa Senhora de Fátima, Raul Lopes, Jóquei Clube, Homero Castelo Branco, Dom Severino, João XXIII, and Presidente Kennedy.Based on empirical analyses, it was found that tertiary activities occupy, on average, 70% of the buildings along these avenues, with a predominance of commercial facilities over service providers. The sole exception was Av. Nossa Senhora de Fátima, where the use for commercial and service purposes reached 90%, making this corridor the most saturated by commerce and, consequently, the one with the least potential for growth in this activity. It was also observed that the functions hosted by commercial and service forms are quite dynamic, revealing the absence of specialized corridors, although the corridor along Av. João XXIII has shown a tendency toward specialization. The forms assumed by commercial and service facilities within their respective corridors exhibit some similarities, but also differ, mainly regarding the size of the structures.Through this delineation, it was possible to determine that the new location pattern of commercial and service activities in the Eastern Zone of the city is mainly the result of the diseconomies observed in the city's central area, the "main center," compared to the advantages offered by the aforementioned zone, which emerged in this dialectical interface as a new spatial configuration. In this context, the expansion of modern retail, the spread of automobile use, and the increasing importance attributed to leisure and consumption collectively contributed to the restructuring of these avenues, transforming them into Commercial and Service Corridors (CSCs) that, in turn, represent new expressions of urban centrality, as they are spaces characterized by an intense daily flow of people.