The urban form in the city of Tulcán, Carchi - Ecuador
Authors: Tapia Yolanda María , Vigil-de-Insausti Adolfo , Montaño María Dolores 
Published: July 2018

Yolanda Tapia¹, Adolfo Vigil de Insausti¹, María Dolores Montaño ² ¹ Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Valencia, UPV. Camino de Vera, s/n. 46022 Valencia, ²Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, PUCE. Av. 12 de Octubre 1076, Vicente Ramón Roca, Quito, Ecuador E-mail: yoly.tapiamora@gmail.com, advide@urb.upv.es, mdmontano@puce.edu.ec Keywords: Tulcán, Ecuador, urban, landscape, history Conference topics and scale: The Urban Form, “City and territory in the globalization age”   Tulcán, located north in Ecuador is the capital of the province of Carchi. It is a city especially commercial and agricultural whose urban morphology responds to historical, environmental and administrative circumstances, that is how, since 1851, the date on which the “cantonization” takes place begins the formation of the capital city with an urban structure formed in checkerboard that welcomes the traditional nucleus of the typical city of the ecuatorian highlands. With the development of this city, isolated neighborhoods are born out of the original urban fabric that expand in the territory, following the main road connections, eventually to fill the internal space with a morphology of contrasts, as each neighborhood or new occupations are structured individually without thinking of a city of integral formation. The longitudinal growth of the city was marked from its beginning by the river Bobo to the north-west and the river Tajamar to the south-east that keep the city within natural limits, which also provide certain environmental and landscape benefits, however in the the last few decades the city has had a significant growth that threatens an unattended and constantly expanding periphery to these environmental resources. We are facing a heterogeneous city, with problems and possibilities and attending to the idea that the city is an unfinished work, integral and sustainable urban regeneration is the basis for a reordering and a new urban approach. It is therefore proposed to study three strategic lines: the existing city, its internal circuits of connection and the adjacent nature. Establishing initial uses in the city, to occupy the predominant urban void and thus to activate the pubic space. Restructure mobility, which will strengthen the use of new peripheral road infrastructures to reduce motorized circuits in the interior, thus promoting the use of bicycles and the creation of pedestrian routes. Finally, environmental resources will again have the value of landscape and ecological wealth producing around the city a green infrastructure that contains growth and is the link of this with the countryside. References Beery, B. (1975) ‘Consecuencias humanas de la urbanización’, Madrid: Pirámide Hernández, A. (2001) ‘La ciudad estructurada’, en Boletín CF+S 15 Calidad de vida urbana: variedad, cohesión y medio ambiente. (http://habitat.aq.upm.es/boletin/n15/aaher.html) Huertas Nadal, D. (2012) ‘I making Heterotopías, laboratorio de estrategias urbanas’, Vitoria: Universidad Francisco Vitoria Lopez de Lucio, R. (2007) ‘Construir ciudad en la periferia’, Madrid: ETS Arquitectura (UPM) Urbanística y ordenación del territorio Solá-Morales, M. (1997) ‘Las formas del crecimiento urbano’, Barcelona:Universitat Politécnica de Catalunya