The duality of the road landscape

Abstract

The article carries out a brief analysis of the road area, defining this term through the notion of limit which, seen from another perspective, can turn into a threshold - a very important concept in understanding the relationship between the road and the localities around it -, asserting, thus, the dual nature of the road and reviews the evolution of infrastructure and road facilities, from old (commercial) routes to contemporary high-speed road networks, focusing on the investigation of service spaces, with the aim of showing the fact that roads, through their endowments (or their absence) can act either as elements that separate different environments (urban - rural) and fragment the landscape, or as elements that facilitate connections, the interaction between urban - the road - and rural - the localities they cross - and local development through a fair reporting to the context. Also, the potential of the Japanese concept of road service stations - michinoeki - is explored, as a model for the transformation of current (non)road service spaces, from simple temporary stopping points into multifunctional centers - and even development poles - relevant at the local level, able to positively influence the perception, ambience and relationships between the infrastructure, the driver and the surrounding landscape - the depths of the territory -, supporting the local economy and regional culture - through the synthesis and integration of the local specificity - and thus emphasizing the importance of an integrated approach for the revitalization and sustainable development of predominantly rural areas. The study may be relevant to architects, urban planners and authorities, as it offers a different perspective on road infrastructure planning and development and proposes, by redefining road service spaces, a practical, viable and widely applicable solution to transform roads – especially the high-speed ones -, from passive barriers to permeable elements that participate in a real and active way in solving problems, development on a multitude of levels and social cohesion of the rural environment crossed.