34  Porto: the breakthrough

The result of a student workshop, this study and design for an inner city area of Porto is based on principles that Peter de Bois has laid out in his STOA method. STOA is a design method based on oppositional concepts, of which the mental and the material are the most important. De Bois states that urban development and design cannot be seen separate from social and psychological considerations. These have direct influence on urban form. A claim STOA makes (in this case for Portugal and Porto, fig. 2) is that the main axes of spatial development alternate over time or between different scale levels. 

Fig. 3 highlights several morphological characteristics of the old inner city of Porto that put the study area (indicated in fig. 3, ed.) in perspective. Figs. 4 and 5 show the design proposal and how this is related to the morphology of the area.