Conceptual Model for the Sustainable Rehabilitation of Medium-Size Inner Cities in Europe: Coimbra, Portugal

This paper analyzes the causes of the depopulation of urban centers in European medium-size cities, and presents a conceptual model to address this problem, considering that integrated rehabilitation is necessary to attract new inhabitants, based on the retrofitting of buildings from a sustainable point of view, by developing the concept of a new model of city management based in the generation of subsectors in each city quarter and erecting multipurpose infrastructure buildings that provide the sustainable requirements of that population sector. To illustrate its application to European medium-size cities, the model is applied to the city center of Coimbra, Portugal, including a critical characterization of the current situation, identifying the sociocultural and functional requirements for these neighborhoods, highlighting the feasibility of the conceptual model.