In-between-cities landscape

Contemporary transformations of the urban-rural interface

Abstract

Due to the new logics of territorial extension and its intervening dynamics, it is particularly during the last decades of the twentieth century that there was a sharp increase of the metropolisation process generating a profound transformation of the urban-rural interface traditional structures. A rupture of the boundaries between the traditional city and the large countryside extensions surrounding it is identified. This results from the transformation of boundaries into a new in-between cities -or intermediate- landscape which has the dual condition of preserving both urban and rural characteristics. Starting from a bibliographical review of the state of the art dealing with the accelerated metamorphosis of the in-between cities landscape in metropolitan areas, the Metropolitan Region of Rosario is analysed. Our study is focused on three territorial areas of this region which embody contemporary processes of metropolisation. Critical thinking about the transformations of our territories and their ongoing processes gives rise to new perspectives that may allow the development of new tools for action enabling to intervene in contemporary landscapes.