Geographical Information Systems (GISs) in architecture were initially limited to regional and urban development applications. Over recent years its potential has been recognized and its use has evolved to address urban planning and architectural heritage management subjects. Nevertheless, evidence shows that its use in architecture teaching is scarce and uneven. Directive 2007/2/EC, establishing the infrastructure for spatial information in the European Community (EU), is, in this way, an opportunity to develop a greater knowledge and application of GIS in the framework of higher education. In architecture, this can be achieved by problem solving based on real case scenarios, which can benefit from GIS-based techniques and analysis capabilities. In this paper, the authors aim to present a review of the use of GIS in teaching and research in architecture to assess its level in different European programmes. Experiences from three European universities (University of Seville, Spain, University of Beira Interior, Portugal, and Technical University of Crete, Greece), which are among the few in their respective countries that promote the inclusion of GIS in architectural education, particularly in the fields of urban and regional planning and architectural heritage, are compared and framed within the European scenario. The paper concludes with a reflection on the three universities’ practice compared to the leading European architecture programmes listed in the main international university rankings. Main trends of future evolution on the use of GIS in architecture teaching are also presented.

This article seeks to analyse the reciprocal influence between the post-war urban planning policies and the development of residential neighbourhoods in Lelystad between 1965 and 1990. This city has been designed ‘from scratch’ as the urban centre of the IJsselmeer Polders, the largest land reclamation project of the Netherlands. Lelystad’s neighbourhood development will be described and contextualised in the Dutch New Towns planning policy (1960–1985), which intended to avoid increasing congestion in the most densely populated area in the Netherlands: the Randstad. Lelystad is seen as a significant case. This New Town exemplifies the evolution in urban planning in The Netherlands in the second half of the twentieth century. Cornelis van Eesteren, who had presided over the CIAM (Congrès Internationaux d’Architecture Moderne) from 1930 to 1947, was responsible for the urban design in 1964, based on the principles of the Modern city and the functionalist design of residential neighbourhoods. However, Van Eesteren was dismissed, and his plan was modified. The successive urban plans, elaborated by the IJsselmeer Polders Development Authority (a public body for the development of the polders), adopted a technical and practical approach, and later moved to functionally integrated neighbourhoods, based on more organic ‘Woonerf’ theories. The research investigates the relationship between the general and the particular by studying the socioeconomic and political context that conditioned the Dutch New Towns and the specific urban and architectural characteristics of a selection of residential ensembles in Lelystad’s neighbourhoods. Furthermore, the research seeks to illustrate the relevance and the influence of both urban planning policies and the effective design of residential configurations.

The primary objective of this paper is to approach the use of the 3D Geographic Information Systems (3D GIS), as an instrumental tool that allows us to deal efficiently with the extensive amount of information that characterises a large part of the research carried out in the field of Urbanism and Regional Planning. Specifically, the study focuses on medium-sized cities in Andalusia, the most populous and the second largest region in Spain. The Andalusian urban system is substantially characterised by the historical importance of this type of cities within its territorial organisation, which dates back to more than two thousand years, and whose potential as sustainable and balanced stands out. In particular, it is intended to address features related to urban characterisation as medium-sized cities that have been declared as heritage sites, as well as, the integration of the cultural heritage into urban development planning as an active strategy by the cultural administration of the regional and local governments. In detail, this paper will analyse data relating to the development experienced, their characterisation through urban indicators or the evolution and traceability of their protection. In this sense, the use of 3D GIS will not only allow the efficient recording and the graphical representation of a significant amount of data resulting from the quantitative and qualitative analysis carried out but also model them using the third dimension to facilitate a cross analysis among the cities under study. Definitely, the aim is to demonstrate the suitability use of this technology in this type of scientific research.

El articulo reflexiona sobre el valor patrimonial de las formas urbanas del siglo XX y su aportación a la sostenibilidad como nueva vía de relacionarse con la Tierra. El proceso de antropización del territorio configura la identidad de cada comunidad y deviene en estructuras culturales que como sociedad se acuerda que son Patrimonio. Para ello se efectúa un recorrido por experiencias internacionales y nacionales (WHL y DOCOMOMO) para centrarse en Andalucía. Se tiene en cuenta la referencia a la cultura en el marco de los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible, a fin de “redoblar los esfuerzos para proteger y salvaguardar el patrimonio cultural y natural del mundo” (ODS 11.4). El estudio concluye con el carácter transversal de la cultura, como contribución directa en la consecución de los ODS, empleando determinadas formas urbanas consideradas como patrimonio urbano contemporáneo y sostenible.

This paper aims to present a review contribution to the history of the reform and renewal in the Portuguese Cistercian monasteries, throughout nine centuries of cultural and architectural history, but focusing on the new uses on former monasteries. The monastic Orders had a vital importance, both temporal and spatial, in the development of the urban fabric of cities. It must be considered that the transformation and development of the territory have been responsible for isolated buildings and settlements which have gradually been absorbed by the expansion of the urban fabric. The Cistercian Order played a remarkable role in the affirmation of Portugal (1143) and had an unquestionable position, since the medieval period, in the construction of a significant part of the Portuguese culture. The first Cistercian monasteries appeared in Portugal, in the 12th century, far from the urban context. Portuguese Cistercian monasteries became worthy examples of the European Cistercian architecture, although, over the time, they have been adapted, enlarged and transformed according to the styles of each epoch. The disappearance of the religious Orders, in 1834, and the successive owners adapted the monastic buildings to new uses. The monasteries have provided the contemporary city, especially from the 19th and 20th centuries, with expectant spaces or new fields of experimentation as diverse as rehabilitation, reuse, renovation and conversion. These are new spaces which adapt to new situations and new uses, thus updating themselves, so that the values of the present can be included and integrated into its history. Therefore, this paper aims to discuss, in which way the ideals and the realities of these monastic buildings and related urban spaces are divergent, but also a factor of city growth and cultural development.

This paper presents the urban vulnerability assessment as a complementary resource in heritage preservation policies, through the analysis of the thirty-nine medium-sized cities that have been listed as Historical Ensemble in Andalusia (Spain). The research seeks to make a sequential approach that addresses, from the general –the conceptual framework on urban vulnerability and the characterization of the analysis sample– to the particular –the analysis of the socio-economic, socio-demographic or residential vulnerability applied to the intermediate scale which has not been in-deep studied yet–. For this, it proposes to adopt the methodology implemented by the Spanish Ministry of Development in the Atlas of Urban Vulnerability, providing a territorial lecture of the results. The study concludes that medium-sized cities do not present a level of vulnerability lower to the largest ones but detecting specific urban weaknesses that should be addressed to improve the response of these cities to heritage preservation.