Reabilitação de espaço urbano e afetividade: estudo de Psicologia Ambiental com moradores de área contemplada pelo Plano de Reabilitação Habitacional do centro histórico de Fortaleza-CE

Abstract

This article deals with Affectivity and the rehabilitation of urban space, based on the feelings and emotions of residents from the Historic Center of Fortaleza, Ceará, who live in the vicinity of the Riacho Pajeú (a creek). The data used in this study was gathered from a database for the research entitled “Affectivity study of residents from Downtown Fortaleza in relation to the Housing Rehabilitation Plan for the Downtown Area”. From an interdisciplinary perspective, we started off by discussing urban intervention concepts for the downtown area of Fortaleza contained in the Saboya Ribeiro plan (1947), the Hélio Modesto plan (1963) and the Housing Rehabilitation Plan for the Downtown Area (2009). Then, from the standpoint of Environmental Psychology, we worked with the concepts of Affectivity and appropriation of space. These constructs, developed by Social Psychology and Environmental Psychology, respectively, supplied us with the elements to understand the construction processes for the meanings resulting from the person-environment relationship. Ideas to renovate the downtown area of Fortaleza began to emerge in the mid 1960s when the phenomena of urban expansion and disorder literally foreshadowed the explosion of the city’s social and urban structure in the fol- lowing decades. The collection and analysis of the data was based on instruments that generate Affective Maps, a method developed by Bomfim (2010) which enabled us to capture the feelings and emotions of the study subjects in their day-to-day relationship with the urban environment. The results of the person-environment interaction study, with a focus on Affectivity, raised issues related to the feelings and emotions of residents living in the vicinity of the Riacho Pajeú, which indicate the need for interdisciplinary research which includes Environmental Psychology, especially in the urban planning diagnosis stage.