Plot size provides an effective critique of the comprehensive redevelopment projects of the post-war period: the widespread land-parcelling of areas of city to form new districts and estates. The history of their failure has been written many times, but frequently the failure is described in purely spatial or aesthetic terms. What is not frequently discussed is the change in plot size inherent in such projects, the shifting of land from multiple ownership to single ownership, and the massive all-in-one destruction and site preparation that it entails.
'Plotting' is an essay by David Knight and Cristina Monteiro first published in the Portuguese art and architecture journal Punkto, Issue 2 of which is about 'Destruction'. The essay is about urban change in relation to plot size, particularly in relation to the current 'rehabilitation' of the city of Porto.
