Planted towns and territorial organization: the morphology of a settlement process in Brazil

Abstract

The settlement forms that have developed in the northern region of Paraná State in Brazil reflect to a major degree the systematic colonization of that country. The British contribution to this process was responsible not only for the planning ideas employed, but also for a comprehensive layout of roads, a railway line, and small rural plots and planted towns. The uniformity of the organization of the territory, the unity of its formative process, the interaction between artefacts and nature, the ridge-settling system, and the regularities in the town pattern underlie the character of the landscape. Urban morphology provides a powerful means of interpreting this form of territorial occupation and the dynamics of its recent development.