Sustainable

Living

Urban

Model

SPAE Edition Spring 2010

So Paulo Architecture Experiment

Conversations with:

Paulo Mendes da Rocha

Visionary Paulista

Milton Braga
Contemporary Paulista

Contributors

Urban-Think Tank Slum Lifting

SEHAB What are the Slums?
Andreas Rudolph Dopplemayr Ropeways
Zachary Aders 3 1/3 Points
Ligia Nobre / Kazuo Nakano On the Slab
Pedro Rivera 4 Steps
Teddy Cruz Returning Duchamps Urinal
Denise Hoffman Brandt Landscape Issues
Eric Rothstein Low Impact Development
Ian Pendleton Structuring Slum Lab
Christian Werthmann The Challenge
Marcos Rosa Microplanning
Frederic Levrat Scale
Maria Paola Sutto Report from Rome
Jorge Mario Juregi Worldization
Thomas Trebat The Outlook
SLUM Lab SPAE Studio Projects

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE PLANNING AND PRESERVATION

PREFEITURA DA CIDADE DE SO PAULO - SECRETARIA DE HABITACO

So Paulo Architecture Experiment

S.L.U.M. LAB
(Sustainable Living Urban Model)
A unique lab that works as a nomadic enterprise - bringing
planners, architects, and students from all areas of the globe
to work towards an understanding of the links between
architecture and poverty alleviation.

inha

rreg

o da M

Rio Cabuu

C
ui
aq
nd
Ma
go

ba

itu

rre

Pir

r i

Ce n
tr

nga

Ipira

He

rego

nc

ra
oF

is c o

Cr

Rio P
inheir
os

lipo

lis

Pa

Pi

va

Studio Projects SITE LIST

1 Paraispolis Christopher

z
Pa

B lv d

du

as

. da

The oldest slum in So Paulo has the potential to expand and systematize the existing
informal waste recycling process. P. 44

im

b-Mir

Gee

A favela mais antiga de So Paulo tem o potencial de crescer e criar um sistema de

coleta e reciclagem de lixo baseado no programa informal em uso . P. 44

aj
Gr a

ova
/N

ocaia

Rio Em

an

ad

ar r

rajus

rai

ric

ate

sp

oA

du

sE

Gli c

Ri

n
ma
Ta

ua

io

oR

go

ld

rre

na

P
o
au

S
l
Ca

al

er
Rio Itaqu

Crrego Tiquatira

o li s

s
r ai p

Rio Jac

o in h

Rio Tiet

S o

o
ing s

go

rre

reg

ra

sa

jus

ira
oP

*All images presented are property of the S.L.U.M LAB unless otherwise noted.

tos

u c a li p

D om

The S.L.U.M. Lab resides at the Columbia Graduate School of

Architecture Planning & Preservation.

2 So Francisco Stephanie Tung

This area can embrace the construction of a new highway in a way which serves the needs
of cars and the residents. P. 46

C
Em
b-

Gu
a

Esta rea pode receber a nova rodivia e construir uma parede hybrida ecolgica que
pode acomodar o uso de carros e pessoas. P. 46

Rio

3 Crrego Da Mina

Jacob Benyi
Housing sited on a floodway can be developed on higher ground in a parametric urban
plan. P. 48
Casas construdas em uma rea de enchente podem ser elevadas atravs de um plano
paramtrico urbano. P. 48

rande

Va

rgem G

4 Cocaia / Nova Graja

Jessica Helfand
Reservior-edge housing can be developed in a way which works symbiotically
with water and land. P. 50

Casas beira das represas podem se desenvolver de modo a aproveitar a agua e o

solo que os cerca. P. 50
s
Rio do

ivar

Cap

Monos

Rio

onos

Rio Capivari-M

* favela map, So Paulo

source: Secretaria Municipal de Habitao &

Secretaria Municipal de Planejamento, 2008

S.L.U.M. Lab

Columbia University Graduate School of Architecture, Planning &

Preservation
Alfredo Brillembourg & Hubert Klumpner, Directors, Editors
Zachary Aders, Publication Designer, Associate Editor
Melissa Ramos & Marja Byekirova, Translation & Assistant Editor

Columbia University GSAPP

Contributors:

Alfredo Brillembourg + Hubert Klumpner SLUM

LIFTING
SEHAB What are the Slums?
Andreas Rudolph Dopplemayr Ropeways
Zachary Aders 3 1/3 Points
Ligia Nobre / Kazuo Nakano On the Slab
Pedro Rivera / Nanda Eskes 4 Steps
Denise Hoffman Landscape List
Eric Rothstein Low Impact Development
Ian Pendleton Structuring Slum Lab
Christian Werthmann The Challenge
Marcos Rosa Micro Planning
Frederic Levrat Scale
Maria Paola Sutto Report from Rome
Jorge Mario Juregi Worldization
Teddy Cruz Returning Duchamps Urinal
Thomas Trebat The Outlook
Who Killed Copenhagen?
The Visionary Paulista Interview with Paulo Mendes da
Rocha
The Paulista Contemporary Interview with Milton Braga
GSAPP SPAE Studio

12
14
15
16
17
20
21
22
23
24
25
27
27
29
30
31
34
36
37
41

5 Vargem Grande

Jun Joung
Rural housing in a large crater can develop in a more sustainable
model, preserving land and opening up parkways. P. 52

Special Thanks

Uma habitao rural que se estabeleceu em uma antiga cratera

pode se transformar em um modelo de sustentabilidade e
preservar areas verdes para o lazer dos moradores. P. 52

Columbia GSAPP, Mark Wigley & David Hinkle, for

sponsoring studio travel to Brasil.

6 Pirajussara

SEHAB, Elisabete Frana, and Maria Teresa Deniz, for

generous support in the studio's travel in So Paulo.

Wendy Tsai
Housing along the edges of the river, which divides the
Municipality and State, can develop a transport network with
healthcare stations P. 54
Casas s bordas do rio, separando a capital da periferia, pode
desenvolver uma rede de transporte com acesso postos de sade
P. 54

7 Boulevard da Paz

Saranga Nakhooda
This topographically precarious settlement, once the most violent
area of the city, can develop terraced farming to resist land slides.
P. 56
Esta rea de topografia bem precria, que costumava ser a mais
violenta da cidade, pode desenvolver uma agricultura urbana para
previnir a eroso do solo P. 56

8 Moinho

Devin Lafo
This railway-bound favela in the city center could publicly connect
to the surrounding areas and condense housing. P. 58
Esta Favela delineada por vias frreas, pode ser conectada as reas
vizinhas e densificar sua rea de habitao. P. 58

9 Glicrio

Fausto Nunes
In the city center is an aggregation of cortio housing. A new
development plan can centralize commerce and housing to openup
park space. P. 60
No centro da cidade se encontra um aglomerado de cortios. Um
novo plano urbano pode centralizar o comrcio, a habitao e abrir
novos espaos para parques. P. 60

Center for Urbanism & Pedro Rivera for support and hosting
the Providencia workshop in Rio de Janiero.
Cover images: Front: Fabio Knoll, Back: George Brugmans

10 Eucaliptos

Andrew Yalcin
Water-edge housing can re-orient itself to avoid erosion and develop
public walkways. P. 62
Casas as bordas da gua podem ser orientadas para evitar eroso e criar
caminhos pblicos para pedestres P. 62

11 So Domingos Nicole Seekely

A favela-island sited in a middle class neighborhood has the potential to

develop itself into a community hub. P. 64
Uma favela-ilha que se encontra em uma vizinhana de classe mdia, tem
o potencial de se transformar em um centro comunitrio P. 64

12 Helipolis

Junhee Jung
The wealthiest favela in the city can form a new model of housing and
commerce in an adjacent strip of land bounded by a water treatment
plant. P. 66
A favela mais rica da cidade poderia estabelecer um novo modelo de
habitao e comrcio em um terreno de uma usina de tratamento de gua
adjacente favela. P. 66

Portuguese translations can be found in the back of the newspaper.

Photo: George Brugmans

So Paulo flooding, 2010

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

Cocaia / Nova Graja

Land Area: 234.680 m2
Year Established: 1975
Number of Dwellings: 2283
Distance to city center: 30 km
Elevation Change: 40 m

Photo:
Jessica Helfand
6
WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

Paraisopolis
Land Area: 787,786 m2
Estimated Built Area: 621,621 m2
Year Established: 1960
Estimated Population: >100,000
Distance to city center: 11.67 km
Elevation Change: 64 m

Photo:
Zachary Aders
8
WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

Moinho
Land Area: 143,457 m2
Estimated Built Area: 23,200 m2
Year Established: 2000
Estimated Population: over 3000
Distance to city center: 2.2 km
Elevation Change: Flat

Photo:
Fausto Nunes
10
WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

11

Alfredo Brillembourg + Hubert Klumpner

Towards a New Social Responsibility in

The Urban-Think Tank is a multiArchitecture
A slum is not merely an area of decrepit buildings. It
is a social fact.
Michael Harrington, The Other America
Today more than a billion people live in slums on
the fringeseconomic, social, and politicalof the
worlds mega-cities. Thus far, none of the large-scale
reforms and interventions has resulted in a more workable, broadly applicable, and just city model than the
one that has produced the asymmetries of the cities of
the global south. Approaches that involve large-scale,
rapid changethe razing of slums, relocation of populations, infusions of money for major public works
have generally failed, because a complex system such
as a city can only absorb so much change at one time.
Moreover, the challenge of change is less a function of
available funds or technical possibility than of philosophical and cultural changechange in lifestyle and
in expectation.
With the Sustainable Living Urban Model Laboratory (SLUM-Lab) toolbox, we propose a working
method for a new supportive architecture that empowers people at the margins of the global souths emerging cities and promotes sustainable development in the
slum areas.
The term toolbox reflects the evolution of our
practice, Urban-Think Tank (U-TT), in recent years;
the experience of teaching the SLUM Lab studio at Columbia Universitys Graduate School of Architecture;
and our collaboration with So Paulos social housing
agency (SEHAB). Our agenda in devising and applying the toolbox has two objectives:
We conceive this approach as a means of shifting
the emphasis of contemporary architecture and architectural education from the form-driven to the purpose-oriented, to reduce the disconnect between a design and its social impact. Rather than having a purely
artistic objective, architecture thus seeks to create
buildings from more efficient, locally-produced, industrial materials, assembled in a kit of parts. We envision

a viable, quick-fix urban ar- disciplinary design practice dedicated

lation, but are often not wide
chitecture that functions as to high-level research and design on
enough to be used for puba life-support agent for the a variety of subjects, concerned with
lic or private transportation.
perpetually changing city, to
The resulting lack of access to
contemporary architecture, urbanism.
the benefit of all cities and
inter-urban transit systems
The
philosophy
of
the
U-TT
is
to
deliver
cultures in urgent need of
deprives the residents of basolutions. It is, quite simply, innovative yet practical solutions through sic services, including emergency response, and makes it
activist architecture with the the combined skills of architects, civil
difficult to network the slum
potential to be a major force engineers, environmental planners,
for positive urban change.
landscape architects, and communication into the greater city.
At the same time, the fo- specialists.
Solutions:
cus of our practical and apA decentralized infraplied efforts is the informal
developments of the Latin American city, both because structure, built on the favelas existing resourcefulthis is where we have our own, strong roots, and be- ness and alternative supply models, is often more apcause we aim to move the Latin American city, with all propriate than typical centralized systems. In recent
its inequalities and potentials, to the center of a global years, Latin America has served as a testing ground
discussion of future and role of architecture. The desig- for new systems of urban transportation, such as Bonation of Rio de Janeiro as the site of the 2016 summer gotas Trans-Millennium bus system or Medellins and
Olympics gives our purpose new urgency: perhaps the Caracas Urban Cable Car systems, which can serve as
only truly global event that is not conflict-related, the development examples anywhere in the informal and
Olympics will draw attention to Latin America as never formal cities.
before; and while there will be the
inevitable feel-good coverage
by the news media, there is also
an opportunity for world-wide
education about the nature of the
southern mega-city, not only its
problems but its potential.
The first step in exploring and
deploying that potential is to ask
a great many questions, in person and on the ground.
a) New roads can structure new communities.
The informal does not yield information or knowledge
through traditional methods; satellite images are too Building new roadways and removing bottlenecks
broad, surveys cannot be conducted with any fidelity should be the first step in slum upgrading, as new
because slums are in a process of continuous transfor- construction requires access. Though infrastructure
mation. First-hand experience and exploration, such construction often requires the demolition of existing
as that we undertake with our students, is the best way buildings, thoughtful planning can create new, small
to give the next generation of architects a genuine un- communities organized around the new infrastructure,
derstanding of the 21st-century city. The lessons we layering road, public space, pre-fabricated housing, sohave taken from our work in South American thus far cial facilities, and new circulation in a gradient of pubcan already be implemented in the slums of Mumbai, lic/private relationships.
Kibera, and, for that matter, Caracas. By tackling probb) Networks can be distributed loosely. Where exlems at their roots and working with the public and private sectors, we can devise and implement projects for isting bus networks only connect the city and the favela, reinforcing the fragmentation of the latter, a new
real-world problem-solving.
Future generations will judge our success by the bus line, bootstrapped onto the city system, can create
applicability of our solutions and their capacity to im- a network of interconnections within the slum itself.
prove living conditions for everyone, everywhere. The
c) Modular stairs can be mass produced in favelas
challenge is waiting for us in the slum areas in the large
megacities of the southern hemisphere; it is waiting for and installed in numerous conditions. U-TTs moduus not only Sao Paulo, but also in Caracas, Mexico City, lar stair system is a repeatable, cost-effective upgrade
for pedestrian infrastructure that also provides trainJakarta, Mumbai, Lagos, and Johannesburg.
ing in metal-fabrication and creates work opportuniThe following are a few illustrations of our meth- ties for slum dwellers. The stairs are prefabricated and
ods of working and of the approaches and solutions we easily installed using a minimum of two foundation
have developed.[1] They are tested, practical, widely points. These stairs are especially useful for hilly terapplicable, and, above all, realizable not in some theo- rains whose passageways become rivers during heavy
seasonal rains.
retical future, but here and now.

Approaches that involve large-scale,

rapid change... have generally failed,
because a complex system such as a city
can only absorb so much change at one
time

1. Transportation and Infrastructure

Challenge:
A defining characteristic of informal urban areas
is the lack of infrastructure. The small alleyways of the
favela support a diverse street life and pedestrian circu-

12

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

d) An urban cable car system can link topographically distant points with minimal disturbance to the existing fabric. U-TTs Metrocable in Caracas links three
hillsides, not only connecting to the existing metro line
in the valley, but, more important, linking parts of the

barrio internally and making the upper reaches of the

barrio, previously difficult to access, newly desirable.
The system takes only a small footprint and is minimally invasive, but provides significant improvement
in mobility.

identified available space under an elevated highway

for the construction of a service building catering to
street children and placed a soccer field between the
underbelly of the highway and the roof of the street
childrens home.

2. Water
Challenge:
Potable water is a luxury in slum areas. In situations where water mains exist, the supply is often interrupted and expensive; it is the poor who pay the highest price for water. Sewage systems present problems
with respect to inclination and diameter and are difficult to install in an existing, densely built environment.
Though rainfall may be abundant, it is concentrated
over six months; the challenge is creating the means
for storing water for use in the dry season.

b) Roofscapes and vertical surfaces are underutilized. The fabric of the slum already lends itself to
rooftop greening at a local level; but as upgrading and
other new construction take place, there are opportunities for large-scale gardens and urban agriculture,
even for a continuous track of planting, bike paths,
and pedestrian circulation built on top of new housing. Connected roof gardens could also limit growth
beyond structurally safe heights.

Solutions:
a) Individual rainwater harvesting could prove to
be a cheap, easy solution to So Paulos water woes.
Dedicated, small-scale collection units can collect and
retain water for use by each household as grey water
during the dry season.

b) Common water tanks for storage are preferable

to draining water haphazardly into topographic basins.
We propose to link a series of rooftops with a common cistern surrounded by porous paving. The paving
mitigates run-off, while the urban wells collect, filter,
and distribute grey water to reduce household water
costs.
c) Dry toilets are a viable alternative to the construction of sewage systems, as they bypass the need
for black water pipes and sewage treatment plants and
manage waste locally. Although U-TT has built several
in the Caracas slums, our hope is that the system would
be approved by the Environmental Ministry and replicated on a very wide scale throughout the barrios.
3. Density and Verticality
Challenge:
Favelas are notoriously lacking in secure, welllighted and properly maintained public spaces, apart
from sports fields. Perpetual growth, the absence of
real streets, and low-rise high density are the issues:
Caracas, for example, has a density of 760 people per
hectare, as compared with only 550 in Manhattan.
Solution:
a) Close examination of existing practices and an
open mind reveal new spatial opportunities throughout the favelas. Giving these found spaces activity and purpose requires new stimulus: connections,
amenities, or rehabilitated surfaces. For example, we

c) Public parks can fill former risk areas to prevent

future building. The park can provide much-needed
public space, reinforce the soil and absorb runoff, and
act as a placeholder to stop infiltration of the favela
onto unstable land. productive parks, the community
can gain precious open space while simultaneously
avoiding future calamity. Equally important, public
gardens cultivate an appreciation for nature and pride
of place.
d) Absent the possibility of horizontal expansion
in the barrio, U-TT envisioned the Gimnasio Vertical as a several-story sports
venue with a running track,
volleyball court, basketball
court, indoor soccer field,
weight training facility, and
martial arts, gymnastics,
and dance studio, all with
ramp access for disabled
athletes; other features include lockers and sanitary
installations. The resulting
facility is a magnet fostering community, fitness, and
culture by creating a dense
social center. Following the
opening of the first Vertical ,
in the Santa Cruz del Este barrio in Caracas, crime in
the area dropped by 30 percent.
4.Understanding Slum Morphology
Challenge:
The dense footprint of a favela follows topographically based logic, significantly different from 19th- and
20th-century top/down urban planning. Slum morphologies thus require a completely new way of understanding the underlying logic.
Solution:
a) Slope is crucial to designing in informal settlements. Satellite maps and slope-intensity diagrams illustrate the dependence of the built fabric on the terrain, which drives development in particular directions,
giving the settlement a grain of depressions, peaks,
and ridgelines. Because each builder faces the same
challenges and can access the same materials, subsequent responses to a site tend to be uniform, following the local grain. The resulting fabric is composed
of thousands of individual structures, oriented along
topographic contours and forming linear clusters.
b) What is not apparent in the satellite image are
large tracts in geological risk areas. As favelas are
built in areas that challenge more formal developmentland with extreme slopes and weak soil integritythey are at risk from catastrophic and unpredictable events. Entire complexes of buildings can be lost
in a rainstorm. These risk-areas must be established,

by other technologies and on-the-ground investigations, to avoid their use for construction.
c) Informal morphologies are complex but consistent. The shape of buildings and blocks emerges from a
bottom-up process; houses, are gradually built up with
rectangular units, using available construction materials, usually reinforced masonry, blocks, and scrap metal. Overhangs cantilevered over passageways, multiple
levels, and bridging are common features. Slum morphology results from numerous small, individual decisions, rather than from planning. As density increases,
the slum dweller builds upward and outward to gain
area without inhibiting access.
d) Houses are knit together or built wall-to-wall,
creating residential quarters that swallow street space
and convert it into private access corridors. The prevailing culture privileges personal, qualitative space
over anonymous, quantitative space. Thoroughfares
are deliberately interrupted to reduce direct access and
privatize street space. We have found gated communities and private roads in slum areas, an urban typology
common to both formal and informal development
and enabled throughout South America the absence
of institutional control, lack of established formal layouts, autonomy of the individual units, and supremacy
of privately initiated arrangements over publicly regulated interventions. The result is a reduction of civic
spaces and circulation networks.
e) The resulting cellular structure of the informal
city has grown naturally and incrementally over
time. The outcome is typically a multi-focal pattern
defined by countless sub-centers of individual groups
of buildings, rather than by the rationale of a dominating street grid. Yet the morphological homogeneity of
that pattern allows for multiplicities of very distinctive
variations that merge together to form an architectural
unity.
5. Local Footprints / Efficiency
Challenge:
As we noted in the introduction, we are proposing an activist architecture that addresses not only the
physical, but the social and economic well-being of
slum-dwellers. This requires an understanding of the
favela-based economy, the community structure, and
the existing skill-set of the residents.
Solution:
a) The daily life of the favela lends itself to sustainable activities. An interconnected web of activities can
include housing alongside work, commerce, sport, and
even farming to create a dense, economically self-sustaining hub for a healthy community.
b) Urban agriculturelocal, small-scale, and diversepromotes healthy living, sustainable activities,
and new economic opportunities. It can encourage sociability and pride of ownership, mitigate against the
pull of the individuated, and remediate the effects of
pollution, erosion and runoff.
c) Pre-fabrication and modular design accommodate small-scale development while dramatically raising building quality. To that end, we have conceived
a kit-of-parts, whose assemblage mimics the ad hoc
nature of slum construction and whose component
materials must be cheap, capable of working on a small
footprint, and not easily removable. The latter is critical: slum construction is subject to intense salvaging,
and a kit that can be disassembled and sold for scrap
will meet a premature end. Components built in a factory measurably increase performance, enable future
upgrading, and improve safety.
*Slum Lifting, continued pg. 70

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

13

SEHAB, Municipality of So Paulo

Carlos Pellarin, Maria Ceclia Namur, Luiz

Henrique Girardi, Alonso Lopez, Felinto Cunha,
Ricardo Sampaio, Elisabete Frana, Maria Teresa
Diniz dos Santos, Tereza Beatriz Ribeiro Herling,
Vanessa Padi de Souza and Violta Saldanha
Kubrusly
The So Paulo citys slums are an urban phenomena
that must be considered as a real part of the city
structure, one of its morphological elements which
define the urban design, although informal.
The slums have two main characteristics when
compared to the legal city. First: their designs do
not obey any established urban rules and legislation.
The road system is not defined
previously to the housing
construction and the water and
sanitation infrastructure are
implemented after occupation
by dwellers. Second: the housing
units are built according to the
availability of empty spaces.
This process of occupation is
known, in general, as not allowed
occupation, either in public or
private land.
As a result of these two singular characteristics, the
slum, regarding its high complexity, scale and diversity
as an urban phenomena, has been studied starting
from some negative pre-concepts, which are sustained
by the idea of lack, privation and homogeneity, leading
towards a mistaken meaning when comparing the
slum and the ideal, classic and traditional pattern of a

desired city.
Besides the fact that the slums are not based in
any formal or legal hegemonic parameters, which the
Public sector and the real estate market have defined
as the official urban land use, the slums demolish
any certainties about the ideal urban standards: they
are the final representation of urban social iniquities,
poverty
continuous
growth
and
an
expressive social spatial
urban segregation; this
iniquity results from a
crude national income
concentration.
Facing this reality,
any design or upgrading
proposals to improve
these degraded areas,
which have high indexes
of social and health vulnerability and where a significant
parcel of the poorest population live, must take into
consideration that these settlements are located within
the real city.
This means to understand that each slum was built
as an answer to the social exclusion process and spatial
segregation, at the same time it is for its inhabitants,

a clear auto-protection alternative, regarding the huge

metropolitan growth. Formerly seen as reflex and
mirror of an uneven society, the actual recognized
slum social diversity appears nowadays as the key of
these urban problem solutions, as a whole.
What we think is important in this high-quality
association between Municipality of So Paulo Social

Facing this reality, any

design or upgrading
proposals to improve these
degraded areas... must
take into consideration
that these settlements are
located within the real city

14

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

Housing Department and the Columbia Slum Lab

students is to look for different approaches, which
start from the social spatial essentials of each slum, its
morphology, which must be understood as a reference
to define a decent house, provided with the conditions
needed for the good life, where they develop collective
experiences and where identities are constructed.
The principles that motivated the twelve labors
are based on a diverse city, one and plural, which
recognize the specific needs of each territory and its
residents, considering them as citizens who should
have their social rights guaranteed in the public policies
committed to their territories.

Andreas Rudolph

Our interest in co-operating with SLUM-Lab in

this years advanced architecture studio is our conviction that innovation today is happening in places
where questioning, experimenting and networking is
taking place naturally.
When thinking of public transport and traffic,
track vehicles and busses come to mind first. Ropeways
are traditionally related to transport in tourist areas.
But recent examples from our R/D work from Caracas,
Medellin and Rio de Janeiro in South America, North

Africa, Asia and Europe suggest the potential for this

high-performance means of urban transport system in
key locations. Every mode of transportation affects our
climate and by choosing the most appropriate solution
we make a choice for our common future, no matter be
it on a ski-slope in the Alps or in a Developing country
Mega-City.
Our focus goes especially to South America

..."soft" transportation
solutions can change the way
cities are thought today.
and in particular to Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro in
Brazil, where the high population numbers and level
of concentration in the favelas, along with the unique
topography and lack of public transportation, makes
alternative options to road-bound vehicles interesting.
Urban-Think Tank was already well known to us from
a prior system we had constructed, and the possibility
to work together on an academic platform with Columbia Universitys SLUM_Lab seemed a logical next
step. A workshop was held together under the direction
of Alfredo Brillembourg and Hubert Klumpner in Rio
de Janeiro along with city officials where it quickly became obvious that there are tremendous opportunities

Andreas Rudolph / together

with Martin Schffel are leading

In cities we have expeand challenges for this type of applirienced that ropeway systems,
cation. With the impending global the South America division of
funiculars, lightweight trains
cultural events about to take place, Doppelmayr Ropeways
along with other alternative
namely the 2014 Soccer Worldcup
and the 2016 Olympic Games, the issue of public trans- means of transportation are superior to automobile
portation can not only be viewed as a solution geared road-bound transportation. They allow for safe, contowards temporary events. Across the cities in South gestion free transportation, particularly in advanced
America with the exeption of Curitba/ Brazil, Bogota/ Mega-Cities with more than 3 million habitants. RopeColombia and most recently Medellin/ Colombia and ways, for instance, may serve as ideal corridor systems,
Caracas Venezuela the issue of public transportation relieve centers of population, and serve as additional
and connecting elements for already existing systems
in local public transport as well as close gaps. Suspended in the air they open a second or third layer of transportation above the ground-level. Thanks to the short
arrival frequency of the cabins (10 60 seconds) schedules are no longer necessary and pulsating traffic junctions, such as airports, subways and city and suburban
railways, park & ride facilities, shopping malls, parks
and sites of trade fairs with other traffic ways and/or
corresponding multi-storey car parks or parking sites
can be connected. As always we have to think about
how systems of transportation are interconnected, and
making adjustments to the speed and technology used
according to the cultural, social and economic realities
of a particular place. In this sense cable-cars can connect underground metro stations with populations on
steep hillsides in a integrated way. Not giving preference to one or the other but with an understanding of
the specific necessities on the ground.
In the search for solutions to built carbon
neutral cities, urban rope-way systems (by reducing
the ecological footprint) can provide solutions for the
construction of a new urban ecology that transcends
the modernist differences between transportation
and living quarters. The overlay and juxtaposition,
of soft transportation solutions can change the way
and pedestrian and bicycle traffic remains low on the cities are regarded today. This process might take anpublic agenda. Limited collective planning and coor- other 50 years, but we like to set up structures where
dination are two of the vices that make an integrated, we question the status quo. Working with Columbia
high performance, high quality, transportation scheme Universitys Slum-Lab, Brillembourg and Klumpner,
possible. Through such initiatives, studies show that along with their team of researchers, city officials and
participants learn about technical and political dimen- local stakeholders we have started to ask What if , and
sions of public transport decisions. The participants to transform ideas into powerful realities.
from the community feel empowered in their ability
Doppelmayr Seilbahnen GmbH is the leader in
to express their views regarding the existing problem, ropeway technology and manufactures worldwide
and come away with more trust of each other and local with sales and service locations in 29 countries. To
government officials. The consultation workshop ini- date, we have realized more than 13,800 installations in
tiative is part of a methodology to conceive new chan- 79 countries and on 7 continents. The company has a
nels of learning, sources of discovery for sponsoring strong focus on future innovation; last years world repartners and agencies. Lay participants contributed cord for the largest cable-distance of 3, 02 km in Whislocal knowledge while the highly motivated group of tler Mountain, USA and the greatest height difference
students gained confidence by finding the right ques- of 1,29 km in Vietnam. The Metro-Cable system in Cations to long standing problems that simply have not racas Venezuela, designed for a slum-area with 40.000
been addressed for decades. A number of conditions habitants, is scheduled to open on 14th of December
particular but not exclusive to the favelas make it obvi- of 2009. The later was the result of a collaboration beous that developing countries can have a very differ- tween Mr. Martin Schffel of Doppelmayr and Urbanent pattern of development to cities which invested in Think Tank developed for Odebrecht and C.A. Metro
transport systems in the 20th century, making them de Caracas.
close to ideal applicants for large scale mass transport
systems.
Transition towards basic transportation advantages:

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

15

Zachary Aders
for an Informal Architecture
Informal cities are rapidly growing in Latin
American metropolises, and are building populations
with great social and political strength. Brazils
financial capital of So Paulo has over 1500 favelas
(informal cities/slums), which are controlled by
legitimate models of self-driven economies. Within the
context of Latin American slums, So Paulos favelas
are wealthier and have less gang-related problems. In
October 2009, the Columbia University SLUM Lab

Zachary Aders, M.Arch Columbia, B.Arch,

was eventually invaded by Arizona State, is a designer at Urban in regularizing land tenure, a
citizens in the late 1990s.
Think Tank, and coordinating SLUM Lab complex and tedious process
This settlement is unique
often met with resistance.
and assistant teaching studio at Columbia
as every house is built of
In SLUM Lab, we analyze
wood, a less expensive and GSAPP, researching issues of slum these boundaries in terms
less permanent material urbanism.
of spatial and political
than the more regularlydivisions, mapping potential
seen red brick vernacular. This temporary condition zones of redefinition, and suggesting symbiotic links
exists because the inhabitants are aware that the city or between the formal and informal. As favelas grow in
population and become urbanized, new models of
ownership and self-sustainability must be proposed to
maintain established residents, preserving the vitality
of the existing demographic.
2. Material & Construction
One of the staples of Brazils informal housing
settlements are red cubes of housing, often perched on
un-zone-able hillsides, due to the economy and ease
of constructing with the inexpensive, relatively light
building materials of hollow brick and cast-in-place
concrete. Bricks and dry concrete bags can be easily
carted in the dense neighborhoods narrow alleyways

Moinho cuts through central So Paulo

studio visited and documented 12

favelas in So Paulo and 2 in Rio
de Janeiro. When considering local
issues of favela planning and design
strategies, there are three main points
to understand, that of land occupancy,
material construction, and access &
distribution of resources. In SLUM
Lab, we attempt to intensely analyze all
facets of these occupational attributes
without bias toward those who seek
control of the land or those who attempt
to maintain their informal habitation. Without bias or
dogma, SLUM Lab tries only to understand the systems
of urbanization in order to determine what does and
does not work.
1. Politics of Land Occupancy
Almost always on publicly owned land, informal

Entire neighborhoods appear

and disappear in less than a
decade
settlements are often constructed on the leftover
pieces of the city; pockets of space made obsolete by
precarious landscapes, ambiguity of ownership, and an
overall disconnection from the city, along with other
conditions that have led the land to be marginalized in
some way. Slums in So Paulo can be found occupying
land ranging from the wealthiest areas in the central
district to reservoir edges, to the forgotten-space
under elevated highways, and even to the inside a
millennia-old meteorite crater. Examining two of the
most centrally located slums shows clearly the range of
conditions and means of occupation.
On the least-developed end of the spectrum, the
most central favela in the city is Moinho. It has grown
around an abandoned mill on a railway-surrounded
urban island. The mill went bankrupt and the land

16

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

FAVELA

houses

PLANNED CITY
streets

streets

houses

street
energy
source

decentralized
non-linear

Common model of resource distribution

workers union could reclaim the site (currently there

are at least four lawsuits over ownership), ensuring the
removal of the settlement. Moinho is only one of many
different models of slums oriented on a temporary
existence, often in response to a specific policy. So
Paulo law states that if a person has occupied a site,
uninterrupted for five years, they are entitled to a
certain degree of ownership. This has often resulted in
legal settlements paid by the city to the squatters for
forced evacuations. The settlements that the city has
paid to-date amounts to a total cost of around twenty
nine hundred U.S. dollars [2]. This policy contributes to
cases of opportunistic growth settlements on sites that
are slated for upgrading projects by the municipality.
Entire neighborhoods appear and disappear in less
than a decade.
In another extreme, the favela of Paraispolis has
a history of permanent constructions in a municipally
planned street grid. The original property lines have
disappeared amid the ad-hoc expansion of family
homes and in-flux of a rural population; they are now
covered with expedient yet permanent constructions
and hastily connected infrastructural resources.
Workers constructing the Morumbi stadium initially
settled Paraisopolis in 1960, which became the anomaly
of the wealthiest district of central So Paulo. Opposite
the Moinho case, this is a top priority of the citys efforts

centralized
linear

via wheelbarrows, handcarts, or human arms. In the

mass housing aggregation, each structure is essentially
a poured-in-place autonomous concrete skeleton using
hollow bricks as the in-between fat, acting as negative
space in the floor and wrapping the outer skin. In the
floors, the blocks are used as spacers between the
concrete beams, which are connected by a top slab, all
poured on one plywood form-work, facilitating quick,
easy expandability. This almost Corbusian system
of floor, column, stair, and skin reflects the most
vernacular of structural design, and regards them as
necessary in the economical and easily-constructable
sense.
Studies on informal housing growth show a
relationship of improvisation between the expansion
of families and the claiming of limited airspace in
the neighborhood. This detail is possibly the most
significant difference between housing in the favela
and the formal city: Expandability. In the absence of
land tenure, space becomes the product of mediation
between neighbors, streets, and other public or black
market devices that structure life in the favela. How
can the formal city learn from this model of ambiguity
in zoning and possibly form more multivalent urban
spaces? How can the favela become more systematic in
occupation and commerce, establishing alliances that
prevent expropriation?

3 1/3 Points, continued

3. Resource Access & Distribution

Access to resources such as water, electricity, and
sewage egress varies from one settlement to the next.
Electricity is most often stolen, and distributed in the
rigging of gatos, or dense bundles of electrical wiring
connected to city-owned utility poles, delivering energy
to the mass aggregation. An interesting alternative
to formal energy distribution, the slum is a more
decentralized model, which allows each house to simply
connect to its neighbor for supply. In the case of water,
a web of PVC piping connects water basins on the roof
of each house to either a direct line from the city supply,
or a tower, usually located at the highest point of the
favela, using gravity to distribute water to the houses,
occasionally assisted by small pumps. Waste egress
remains the most difficult infrastructural problem of
informal settlements. With typical household garbage,
the solution is often to simply throw everything into
an abandoned site or pocket of space within the slum.
In more developed slums with road access, municipal
garbage trucks will collect on a regular basis, in some
cases more frequently than others. All too often, the
dense agglomerations of housing do not permit access
of garbage trucks, creating islands within the city
which are isolated from waste collection. Sewage egress
is equally problematic. As many favelas are remiss in
lacking systems of waste disposal, the city itself has
often too long neglected the collection of waste from
these areas. Realizing the clear need for action, the So
Paulo Municipality focuses on infrastructure as the first
step in upgrading. SLUM Lab continues to research
and propose new models of responsibly distributing,
using, and recollecting resources in ways that often use
informality as an advantage.
1/3. Role of the Designer
In SLUM Lab, we attempt to record, map, and
analyze these occupational attributes, with no
preconception or dogmatic impulse regarding the

SLUM Lab Student Chris Gee interviews a local worker in

Paraisopolis

more formal context in which they occupy. We attempt

to gain maximum understanding of local conditions
and issues from the both the points of residents and the
municipality. Trade-offs must be proposed and theories
tested, continually asking the question of what is the
mediation between the systems of the informal and
formal and what new approaches could be proposed.
How can the often more direct and efficient systems of
the informal begin to influence the formal city and vice
versa? As Latin American cities continue growing at
the current rate of urbanization, informal settlements
will continue to merge with the surrounding city. The
way in which the informal settlements and the city

dismantle the present marginalizing conditions will

largely decide the success of the integration of each
side into the other.
[1]
Distribuo das Favelas; Municipio de So Paulo, subprefeituras, e
distritos municipais, 2008, http://sempla.prefeitura.sp.gov.br/infocidade/
htmls/9_distribuicao_das_favelas_2008_516.html
[2]
Luta por Moradia. Favelas so novo alvo de higienizao em So
Paulo, Carta Maior, January 17, 2007, http://www.cartamaior.com.br/
templates/materiaMostrar.cfm?materia_id=13313

Ligia Nobre & Kazuo Nakano

The film The Place Speaks for Itself (2006), by the

Italian artist Paola Salerno, is made up of a one shot
sequence-plan of approximately twenty minutes, on
the top of the hill of one of the largest graveyards in
So Paulo in Jardim So Luiz neighborhood, located
in the Southern part of the city. Here there are gray
skies, mounts of red earth, and yellow and white
flowers in the lawn. By-passers stroll in slow, tired
steps, stunned. Hugs are exchanged and hands-inhands are matched. We see children running and
flying kites. In juxtaposition, we hear the voices of
three bros talking about the future of the youth, of the
social movements, the daily narratives of their families
and the many violent deaths in their lives. These are
now biographical and social times which no longer

family ties and housing, the slab is a constant semantic

and space reference. The horizontal surface is an
armored concrete of small dimensions; the slab spreads
out in territories of vast extensions of popular housing
and has direct implications upon the constitution and
experiences of the Paulistanian metropolis: ... he
stayed in my veranda and my mothers room has a
bit of a slab, he went up through there, like went up
through the roofing tile of the woman and escaped
Bro his tennis shoes were full of blood, like, they left
stains because it seems that he was shot in the leg and it
was like the print of the sole of the tennis shoe was left
all over the yard...... but my aunt who lives next door
was on her slab looking at him, she said that he knew
that crazy guy, that he lived on the back street, like he
jumped from the roofing tile of
the woman, he went there to talk
to the guy, called him, then like,
he gave him the car and he never
came back He was armed, my
aunt said that she saw, she saw like
when he entered through the slab
of her house On that day bro, oh not for me but
for my brother, cause, dude, it was oh bro
The filmThe Place Speaks for Itself is a part of So
Paulo: Between Utopia and Dream (2004 - 2007) a
project of the artist which articulates a series of images
and videos focusing on possible narratives, multiple
scales and experiences of the Paulistanian urban

Its within these territorializing standards

of popular housing... that we find a
common denominator: the slab.
correspond to the promises of progress from when
their parents (or grandmothers) had arrived in So
Paulo. Each generation has experienced the city and its
accesses in a completely distinct way.
With her video camera, Paola Salerno stands at
a distance from the youngsters and in the dialogue
that follows between them about their day-to-day life,

Ligia Nobre holds degrees from Mackenzie

University in So Paulo and the Architectural
Association in London. She is
currently a guest teacher at Mackenzie
University (So Paulo) and works as a
consultant at the Ministry of Culture
Kazuo Nakano holds degrees from the
University of So Paulo (FAU USP), and
the Institute for Housing and Urban
Development (Rotterdam). He works at the
NGO Polis Social Policies Studies, Training
and Advisory Institute - developing
research and coordinating consultancy on
participatory master plans in many
Brazilian cities
condition, and connecting microphenomenology
with macro social and political processes. Image
segments that articulate trajectories through the
metropolis, intercrossing three main secularterritorial
situations: the historical center (built in the fifties and
sixties); the horizontal condos on the suburb west of
the metropolis (which had appeared in the seventies
and had multiplied in the nineties, supported by the
speeches on violence, on fear and social status); and the
On the Slab, continued pg.18

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

17

On the Slab, cont.

peripheral urbanization of Jardim So Luiz in the

Southern zone. These series of images and voices are
capable of tracing connections (some destroyed or
truncated and others more fluent) between the social
spaces, territories, social nets and the biographical and
political times of the city. The Place Speaks for Itself
places us as spectators in the threshold of a meeting
between others [1], questioning us about the (im)
possibility of aesthetical practices and contemporary
policies.
: So Paulo s.a.

We are aware that the Fifties and Sixties were
marked by the developmentalism, industrialization and
modernization of the Brazilian peripheral capitalism
and by the demographic explosion and unprecedented
urban expansion in the country. Throughout these
decades, So Paulo became the political, cultural
and economic epicenter of Brazil as well as of the
symptomatic world-wide phenomenon of great

metropolises. So Paulos landscape went through a

rapid, intense transformation and current times seem
to mark a new moment of inflection still with little
foreseeable effects. The citys innumerous territories
were marked by inequalities between the low and high
income groups, each with distinct access to urban
areas, resources and public infrastructure, according to
the territorial-social location of the citizen. However,
the borders were tenuous and porous between the
territories and devices of the so-called global city' and
the excluded and poor places. There is a social woof
yet to be known which escapes from the categories and
models of social bi-partition.

In the Seventies and Eighties So Paulo was
the crucial scenario in the organization of the social
and political movements which contributed to the
long process of re-democratization of the Brazilian
society. An old settling and one of the most important
industrial poles of the Fordism city, district Jardim
So Luiz was distinguished by the prominent presence
of the social movements of its time, which came to
the public sphere articulated with the actions taken by
labor unions, labor workers performances, large strikes
with the supporting presence of the ecclesiastical
base communities (CEBs) of the Catholic Church.
The neighborhood began to grow on this period of
abundance of industrial jobs and of dissemination of the
idea of becoming a house owner, an idea that stemmed
from precarious and informal urban settlements.
As anthropologist James Houston highlights: the
illegality and the improvisation has been characteristic
of the way urban population of low income has been
creating spaces to occupy Brazilian cities, as well as for
most of the cities of the Third World[2].
In the Eighties, it was exactly through the temporality
of the household zoning of life, in its fights for housing,
for infrastructure and other aspects, i.e. for the right
to the city, that a new formulation of citizenship
began its constituency. In a long lasting regimen that is
built within the intersection between legal and illegal,

18

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

public and private, political and household, the social

urban movements have been playing today an essential
role in the creation of a new conception of urban
citizenship[3].
In the last decade, the landscape of outskirts
changed a lot, and they no longer correspond to the
images of rarefied occupation and desolation of
thirty years ago. There are completely new territorial
configurations, with large private investments, such
as supermarkets e shopping centers, as well as public,
such as hospitals, the Centers for Unified Education
(CEU) built by So Paulo city hall and the FDEs state
government schools. Specifically Jardim So Luiz
became one of the largest concentrations of slums
in the city, under the impact of the proximity to the
wealthy and claimed globalized territory of the
city of So Paulo: the place whereto flows of wealth
and poverty become tangential to each other time
after time, whether in the existing establishments for
consumption or in the mixing of regular with irregular
in which territories are created and the job connections,
subcontracting and underpaid works are made or even
in the precarious access to housing.
In the clash between ownership and illegal
occupancy the violence of the land conflicts irrupts in
these extreme points of the city [4]. In the acting out
urbanizations of the outskirts of the Southern zone
or of the extreme Eastern zone, the types of housing
and their location in the urban fabric - with intrinsic
variations of mobility and access implicate completely
distinct fields of possibilities and outcomes of life for
its residents. Its within these territorializing standards
of popular housing - the clandestine land division, the
urban land occupation or the slum quarters in advanced
state of urban consolidation - that we find a common
denominator: the slab as a constructive component
used as a roof of the constructions which also generate
small plateaus of an artificial topography used in
various ways including for the construction of more
rooms to the housings newly destined to receive the
extensive familiar arrangements that no longer remain
restricted to the core formed by parents and children.
The creation of the slab reveals a form of production of
the informal city that starts with an irregular access to
urban land and finishes with a peculiar way to gradually
construct the housings according to the variations of
family cycles and sociality.

located at large distances from the more consolidated

areas of the city, with better services, equipment,
infrastructures and jobs, there is an increasing demand
from the low income populations for these occupied

urban areas. These groups practically do not count

on legal channels to the urban land for their housing.
Without alternatives, they use the illegal channels that
restore informal processes of purchase and selling of
lots, construction of the housing and development
of activities that generate popular micro economies
in the original quarters of informal settlements.
The slow and long production and transformation
process of the territorial areas of big cities, known as
peripheral standard of urbanization, modeled after
the informal, segregated and precarious settlements,
occupied by self-built housings, discloses the back
cover of Developmentism in effect, mainly, between
the Fifties and Seventies supported by the ideology
of progress spread out by the image of Brazil as the
country of the future and of So Paulo as the countrys
locomotive. In this process, the private properties in the
housing projects - obtained at high cost and sacrifices
of the very workers, set at the edge of any social policy
- became rewards for the hard working and a pledge
for some security in an uncertain future, destitute of
any other social network protection. In this context,
workers become agents of the peripheral urbanization
of the city [5]. In the Eighties the economic crisis and
societal changes in the Brazilian industries as well as all
over Latin America - parallel to the re-democratization

On The Slab #1: Access To

The Land

Although the land
occupations
and
slum
quarters bear manifold
similarities to the ones of the
clandestine land divisions,
each of the procedures
and strategies of access to
the land are quite distinct
from one another. The
engagement into clandestine
land divisions in the outskirts
of the metropolis of So
Paulo has been the main
alternative access to land for
the low income population.
This alternative has carried
out a structuring role in the
expansion of big cities in its urban march. Due to its
importance to the Brazilian urbanization, this aspect was
already sufficiently studied by researchers of different
areas of expertise like Ermnia Maricato, Nabil Bonduki,
Raquel Rolnik, Suzana Pasternak, among others.

The informal production processes of urban
areas for popular housing define territories by intense
use and occupation as well as larger and larger
constructive and population densities. Although these
areas present different levels of precariousness and being

and political opening process - the dream of home

ownership melted down with the impoverishment of
all social groups causing a large increase in numbers
of persons living in slum quarters of the So Paulo
metropolis whether built on public or private areas.
On The Slab #2: Houses Constructed Gradually
The construction of the house through the hands of
the very tenants, with the help of friends, neighbors,

relatives and hired bricklayers, accommodates the

landscape into the ongoing unfinished state of the
urban settlements with its origins in the clandestine
land divisions, occupations or slum quarters. The

building process of this house is identical to the life

cycles of the families. And the construction and uses of
the slab follow these cycles as areas for verandas, spared
for new compartments or places for acquaintanceship
between whats household and whats the citys. This is
about a family achievement that demands many years
of work and financial investments. As a political and
household arrangement the slab is also an index of
whats next which awaits for the construction of a
new housing compartment. It serves as support for
expansions that might shelter families of the newlywed,
children or relatives of friends from out-of-town
perhaps in economic difficulties. Or it might even be
sold or rented, emerging as a complementary income
for its owners.
All these actions in course on the metropolitan
outskirts result in the ongoing increase in density of
the population and of buildings which restore new
cycles of urban informality. The signs of this process
are visible in the vertical increase and piling of the
houses. The self-motivated joint efforts are orderly
translations of those informal processes of selfbuilding of the popular housings within the scope of
public policies and of popular movements in advocacy
for housing. They can be considered as one of the most
significant political unfolding of movements emerged
in the big cities of Brazil. As pointed out by architect
Pedro Arantes, experiences of the joint efforts carried
through in the beginning of the Nineties and again
in 2000 in the Paulistanian quarters try to point out
the political, social and economic dimensions based
in collective values of the construction processes
of popular housings[6]. The thoroughness of this
collective dimension in the housing provision is yet to
be accomplished. It would be interesting to analyze how
the slab is, eventually, worked out in these projects and
housing projects carried out in joint efforts. Are they
treated as an architectural constructive arrangement
whose meanings surpass the mere function of covering
a construction? Future analyses shall be able to answer
this question in an adequate way.
On The Slab #3: Constitution Of MicroTerritories
In the houses, the slab is, generally, composed of simple
constructive systems. Formed with ceramic-stones
supported by small beams of concrete and recovered
with mortar of cement and sand, they support elements
as the water reservoir, asbestos roofing tiles to shelter
from rain and sun or support of parabolic antennas of

TV, among others things. On the slab, the clothesline

with drying clothes is omnipresent. The access to the
slab is generally through narrow stairs, controlled'
or not by the tenants. Its multiple uses are composed
by sociality, hospitalities,
reciprocal help, and
exchanges of experiences
and of information,
acquaintanceship, among
other actions. Often, the
slabs usefulness reaches
its peak on weekends.
On
these
occasions
the slab turns into the
place for family chats,
visiting with neighbors
and friends, chats about
haircuts and about that
memorable
barbecue
served with lots of beer
and about many other
things. In the ever more
crowded settlements, the
slab substitutes the old
backyards eliminated by
the increase in density
of these very settlements
causing, therefore the
building of new wings or smaller houses in the
backyard. Life in the slab is represented in the samba
compositions, in rap and hip hop. On the slab people
listen to music, play domino, play cards and even soccer.
They celebrate birthdays, marriages, anniversaries and
all types of parties. On New Years Eve people watch
the fireworks from their slab. The sociality factor on
the slab is composed by means of beauty shop visits in
which other people's life are talked about or sun baths
are taken in order to keep ones tanned skin. Children
and adolescents fly kites, dogs play around, women
chat, adolescents date Active and passive contacts
are established between the looks, the smells, the
sounds and bodies. To be on the slab might mean the
opening to horizon which contrasts with a landscape
squeezed between the cracks of the neighboring houses
and the open space of the small windows opened to
narrow corridors. The slabs do represent a horizon
with great openings
to the skies of potential
interactions between the
household and the city.
From blade of
sociality to blade of
control and watch[7],
the slabs place themselves
as almost-architecturalobjects in articulations
with household and
urban
dimensions
capable of producing an
entangled complex of
economic, legal, cultural
and
environmental
connections
in
the
metropolis.
In
the
extreme
case
of
associations for drug
trafficking, the slabs in
privileged position for
the visual control of the
territory serve as observation posts from which almost
absolute monitoring of circulation and accesses to the
dominated territories are established. In this in case,
negotiations are shortened by authoritarian impositions
which draw other diagrams of power relations
starting from the slabs whose multiple dimensions
and ambivalences pose us questions such as: which
architectures and societies do we want to build for our
acquaintanceship? Which index of whats next do
we want to activate in our daily practices towards the

future?
The slabs configure open fields to infinite
possibilities for shared narratives. In the fragment
of dialogue featured in the Paola Salerno movie and
previously cited in this text, the slab supports the
narrative of the escape of a wounded man who leaves
behind footprints of blood under the astonished
look of a woman. The slabs are potential fields to
hosting diverse types of narratives with creations or
destructions of life and woofs of relationships. It is our
responsibility to maximize creative narratives in the
big metropolitan slab.
[1] Joo Moreira Salles in an interview to Revista
Sexta-Feira (So Paulo, 2006) [2] Holston, James. Insurgent
Citizenship, Disjunctions of Democracy and Modernity in
Brazil. Princeton,
Princeton University Press, 2008. p. 313 [3] Caldeira,
Teresa and Holston, James. State and urban space in Brazil:
from the Modernist planning to the democratic interventions.
In Avritzer, Leonardo (org.) The Participation in So Paulo.
So Paulo, UNESP Publishing company, 2004. [4] Telles, Vera
da Silva and Cabanes, Robert. In the woofs of the city: urban
trajectories and its territories. So Paulo, Humanitas, 2006.
[5] Ibidem, Caldeira, Teresa and Holston, James (2004). [6]
Vide Arantes, Pedro Fiori. Reinventing the Building Site. In
Andreoli, Elisabetta & Forty, Adrian (editors) Brazil Modern
Architecture. London, Phaidon Press, 2004. Arantes, Pedro
Fiori. New architecture: Sergio Ferro, Flvio Imprio and
Rodrigo Lefvre -from Artigas to the joint efforts. So
Paulo: publishing Company 34, 2002. Pedro Arantes is also
one of the architects of the technical assistantship Plant
work centers for the inhabited environment established in
So Paulo in 1990: (www.usinactah.org.br). [7] Thanks to
Luciana Itikawa for her generous input.
All photos by Paola Salerno.

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

19

Pedro Rivera in Collaboration with Nanda Eskes

Density
Rio de Janeiro has been losing density since
the middle of the past century, which means less
inhabitants per square kilometer. The introduction
of the car has made it possible for citizens to cover
large distances in a short amount of time. As a
result, the city has sprawled and the necessary linear
infrastucture needed per inhabitant has increased
with subsequent rising costs for implementation and
maintenance. Not even the Olympic Games or PreSalt pre-oil drilling is going to be able to sustain this
process. The architect Richard Rogers, designer of
the Pompidou Center, suggests containment of urban
sprawl and densification as a solution to optimize
infrastructure. His prior work includes defining a ring
around London that limits its horizontal growth. The

Pedro Rivera is director of Rua Arquitetos

(www.rualab.com), has a master in
urbanism at Prourb UFRJ and teached at
Universidade Estcio de S from 2005negative images including
poor population to the
2009.
urban cancers or parasites.
pheriphery. In Rio, this
The public policies
distortion is partially
have begun to change in this regard: from violent
atenuated by geography, where the slums occupy the
eradication adopted in the 1960s to urbanzation
hills surrounding the city. In order to foster adequate
programs, such as Favela-Bairro, in the 1990s. A new
use of territory, public policies must promote places
direction is needed. The architectonic and urban
for low-income housing dispersed throughout the
standards of the favelas are inferior in comparison
entire city. Otherwise, while Barra da Tijuca [1]
to those of the rest of the city. High quality design
continues to grow, Rio das Pedras [2] slum will also.
interventions are necessary in order to compete
Transport
with those in the formal city. The city of Medelln, in
New technologies allow the world to
Colombia, promoted radical urban interventions and
communicate with ease, but inner-city travelling has
built huge public libraries, with international design
grown slower and slower. Transport within Rio de
standards, on top of the favelas hills. Rio de Janeiro
Janeiro is based on dissociated bus lines and private
cars. Individual transport by automobile is expensive, must do the same. In order for the formal city to
polluting and requires large surfaces of land dedicated transform its perception of the favelas it is necessary
for the formal city to identify qualities in the favelas
that can be related to.
[1] Barra da Tijuca is a middle class
neighbourhood with modernist regulations from late
60s
[2] Rio das Pedras is a large slum in Barra da
Tijuca with over 50,000 inhabitants.
All images: Rua Arquitetos: Pedro Rivera +
Pedrovora

city voids were mapped and its occupation stimulated.

Only after these spaces are filled, can a new perimeter
be estabilished.
Low-Income Housing
A fair city promotes a territory that allows for
conviviality between diferent social classes. Over
decades, the lack of consistent housing policies have
encouraged the development of informal settlements.
Nowadays this process is being reversed, with huge
investments from the federal government for lowincome housing. In Brazil, the properties located
close to the city center are expensive, specialy
those occupied by the middle class, pushing the

20

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

to vehicle accommodation. The lack of integration

between bus lines and mass transportation has
resulted in an inefficient system. Large distances must
be covered by mass transportation systems, including
trains, metros and BRT, which then connect with bus
lines, vans and cycleways. It is also necessary to link
transportation systems with the informal settlements,
where the topographic and urban situations make it
impossible to facilitate access with usual solutions.
In these unique cases, cablecars, funiculars and high
capacity elevators can be adopted.
Coexistence
Historically, the favelas have been associated with

Denise Hoffman-Brandt

. . . a landscape is not a natural feature of the environment

but a synthetic space; a man-made system of spaces
superimposed on the face of the land, functioning and
evolving not according to natural laws but to serve a
community for the collective character of the landscape
is one thing that all generations and all points of view have
agreed upon. A landscape is thus a space deliberately
created to speed up or slow down the process of nature.
John
Brinkerhoff
Jackson,
Discovering
the
Vernacular Landscape (Yale University Press 1984)
Environmental processes shape terrain. Social processes
determine the characteristics of territory. Landscape
is the merge of these two zones. The media of landscape
meaning the materials manipulated in landscape
architectural design are environmental and social
ecological systems. So Paulo Architecture Experiment
seeks to improve the lives of impoverished communities in
So Paolo through re-inventing the terrain and territorial
dynamics of ad hoc settlements. As such, SPAE seeks
to act in landscape. To aid in this ambitious goal, I offer
a list of landscape guidelines for testing and amplification.
Design Indeterminate
The urban landscape plan is played out rather than
prescribed; vital landscapes emerge from ongoing,
unpredictable acts of inhabitation co-existing with active

The global economy is in

need of greater demand
stimulus which Brazil can
certainly provide

Denise Hoffman Brandt is an associate

often arise from a short-term desire

alters climate cycles at the
professor at the City College of New
local and the global scale.
to appear managed. Messiness can
The urban landscape York School of Architecture, Landscape equal productivity. Establishing
plan can take on the Architecture and Urban Design, where feedback loops within infrastructural
challenge of restoring she leads graduate studios and seminars systems, i.e. waste and distribution
operational land cover in in urban landscape design.
infrastructure, builds operational
the city. We must establish
efficiency
across
city-systems.
performance standards for urban landscape while
maintaining the power of landscape experience. Design a Green Economy

Design Territory with Terrain Processes

Rethinking terrain as a thick, articulated membrane enables
overlapping functions. For example, solar farms would
Diversifying urban plant typologies (from street trees, occupy elevated strata supporting vertically integrated
foundation plantings and annual ornamental beds) to circulation based transfer facilities and terraced-slope
commensal soil-plant systems (such as endemic grassland, organic croplands to optimize land-based slum economies.
transitional shrub land and forest types) offers the advantage Implementation of altered land management practices
of activating soil building and carbon sequestration to accord with these complex regimes will require skilled
terrain processes across a
spectrum of effective time-frames.
Consideration of terrain timescales enables convergence with
urban infrastructure life-cycles.
Layered plantings interwoven
groundcover, low-shrub, highshrub, understory and canopy
trees maximize biomass,
amplifying both SOC and the
experiential intensity of urban
landscape. Replication of a natural
condition need not be a goal;
the objective is rather to refocus
the criteria for success away
from production of a simulated
bio-historic moment, toward
achieving a performance standard
for compelling urban design.

engagement in environmental processes. This defines

the current dynamics of the slums, and it will define the Design Land Management
future dynamics. Upgrading apparatus for living in So
Paolo will only be successful in so far as the apparatus can Maintenance regimes that seek to neutralize environmental
be co-opted by diverse constituents in unexpected ways. processes, in order to retain an image-based status quo,
must be replaced with temporally adjusted practices that
reveal life-cycle processes. Plant life-cycle and successional
Design New Infrastructures
conditions are not always neat, and maintenance mandates

labor. Skilling land-based labor instigates a larger territorial

improvement through creation of jobs in an emergent urban
land-based economy. Land projects must be linked to
education reform, and phasing has to accommodate human
lag-time for building land skill sets.

Designers must revamp urban infrastructure systems.

Mandates to assure existing infrastructures comply with locally
and globally meaningful environmental standards for storm
water management, waste management, energy inputs and
carbon storage, must be complemented by implementation
of new infrastructures that redress failures of the old
systems. Slum upgrade is landscape for new infrastructure.
Design Multi-valence
Initiatives must be systemically integrated yet opportunistic.
Apparatus that disperse across the city to latch-onto
existing physical structures, policy or funding mechanisms,
are going to be inherently more robust than stand-alone
projects. Contemporary urbanism demands multi-valence.
System design is not scenographic, it is diagrammatic it
must be represented in terms of how it works at multiple
scales, in confluence with multiple performance variables.
Design Carbon-Conscious
Land-use change accounts for 30% of atmospheric carbon
release. Carpet urbanization with hard, reflective surfaces

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

21

Eric Rothstein

Throughout the world, urban and urbanizing

communities like those inSao Pauloare faced with the
need to meet increasing demands onwater, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure. At the same time,
existing water infrastructure is aging and in need of
repair. While rehabilitation and construction of new
facilities is required to meet the challenges posed by
urbanization, population growth, climate change, and
a host of other factors, this work must be completed
in a cost-effective manner, within the additional fiscal
constraints of municipal governments.
Historically, urban environmental problems
were addressed with centralized, hard infrastructure
solutions, featuring end-of-pipe treatment works. Although the performance of these systems can yield
predictable results, the high costs, technical feasibility,
and public acceptance of such infrastructure in developed and developing watersheds can be challenging.

Consequently, communities are increasingly deferring

to source reduction or pollution prevention approaches to environmental problem solving. The philosophy behind this approach is that by reducing the
causes of environmental problems, the scale and cost
of the requisite remediation measures can be proportionately reduced. In the energy sector, one such strategy might involve an investigation into whether subsidized energy conservation measures might be used to
avoid constructing new power plants. In the context of
the urban watershed, a variety of low impact development (LID) measures can be used to reduce the need
for stormwater management infrastructure.
Low impact development (LID) is a relatively
new approach to stormwater management, commonly
implemented in a wide range of urban and urbanizing
watersheds. LID can be defined as a land development
and retrofit strategy that emphasizes the protection
and use of distributed interventions to reduce the volume and rate of stormwater runoff from a developed
landscape. It is achieved through the adoption of site
and infrastructure designs that sustain, or attempt to
replicate pre-development site hydrology in the postdevelopment condition. LID systems include redirected roof leaders, stormwater infiltration systems, rain

22

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

Eric Rothstein is managing partner and

Engineer at E Design Dynamics, and holds
an M.S. in Soil and Water Engineering /
Hydrology from Cornell University; B.S.
from University of Wisconsin, Madison.

gardens, rainwater harvesting and reuse systems, and

rooftop detention systems,
distributed throughout the
landscape. Some research
indicates that while the installation costs of LID options may be marginally more expensive than conventional stormwater infrastructure, the LID options are
more cost-effective on a per gallon basis for storing
stormwater in the landscape. LID approaches have the
capacity to lessen the energy impacts of large concen-

The global economy is in

need of greater demand
stimulus which Brazil can
certainly provide

trated volumes of runoff on

receiving waters as well as reduce the development footprint and long-term maintenance considerations for

end-of-pipe facilities.
The appropriateness of LID technologies must be
based on a thorough comparison of the cost-effectiveness of implementation of numerous micro-interventions distributed about some catchment or service
area with, or in combination with, more traditional,
centralized approaches to solving the same problem.
Specifically, by devising means of capturing rainwater
in the upper reaches of the watershed, the volume and
rate of runoff can be effectively reduced. This serves to
minimize many of the problems associated with runoff
further downstream (i.e. high velocities, soil erosion,
flashy urban streams, flooding, sewer discharges,
nonpoint source pollution.)
LID can be a critical component in further developmentsin So Paulo and should be consideredin all
future planning.

Ian Pendleton

Ian Pendleton PE, a Senior Engineer at

Robert Silman Associates in New
It has been my pleasure and good fortune to on, so foundations may be
delivery the precast materials.
York City, is a graduate of University of
Given the variables, it's a
provide structural engineering guidance to Columbia optimized and their costs
Texas
with
thirteen
years
of
University's S.L.U.M. Lab since 2008. S.L.U.M. Lab readily understood by all
good idea to develop two or
professional experience between Texas three structural alternatives
instructors and students are keenly aware that design concerned.
and New York
for social change is not just a subject for theoretical
for the superstructure early
debate. Socially responsible design is now essential
4. Address steep slopes
in conceptual development,
to the survival of humanity and its highest ideals. early on. Slum housing frequently existing on grades even one that might not seem the most attractive
Bottom-up, sustainable design must become as too steep to have been attractive to market-driven initially.
integral to architectural practice as sound mortar is development. Dealing with existing grades while
6. Consider the construction phase. The intensive
to the integrity of a masonry wall, if we are to face improving the slope stability involves close collaboration
the challenges ahead. The following 'structural kit
of parts' is organized loosely along the arc of design
development.
These suggestions are informed
equally by structural engineering principles and the
architect's team leadership role, as both are pertinent
to successful projects within and beyond the S.L.U.M.
Lab classroom.
1.Identify and realize the proposal's core objectives.
An architectural design may be structurally daring to
realize its goals, because technology and ingenuity can
meet new challenges. However, complex geometry
is most effective if underscored by a strong focus on
core architectural objectives. When a design decision
involving some compromise becomes unavoidable, the
core objectives will point the way ahead.
2. Research local market conditions and materials.
Early on, research of proposed site conditions should
include an evaluation of materials and labor availability
in the project vicinity, as readily available materials are
generally favorable. This is especially critical to the
success projects with limited funding, the case for most
bottom-up design interventions.
3. Determine site subgrade conditions early
on. Commission a geotechnical investigation of
subsurface conditions as early as possible. Ad-hoc
slum housing is usually built atop the discarded debris
and refuse of previous generations; consequently the
subgrade's ability to support new buildings or even
landscaping is often limited without deep foundations.
Because pile- and pier-supported foundations are quite
costly, it is important to understand the subgrade early

of the architect, a civil engineer charged designing site

drainage, the geotechnical engineer knowledgeable
of subsurface conditions, and the structural engineer
responsible for foundation and superstructure
design. The complexity of the foundations may have a
profound influence on the architect's vision and choice
of alternatives, so the collaboration should occur early
in design.
5.
Consider
structural alternatives
in terms of the project
specifics. Local site
conditions might favor
cast-in-place concrete
based on availability,
whereas another site
might have such weak
soild that foundation
costs drive a selection
of a comparably lighter
structural steel frame.
Low material costs
might favor precast
concrete floor planks,
except that the roads
in and out of the site
might be too narrow to

research of an intervention should consider the

transition zone between the 'before' and 'after'. Can a
large residential block be phased for the first segment
to house existing slum tenants before the next phase
proceeds? Will a substantial building or hardscape
installation have any effect on adjacencies? Are there
means to deliver materials to the site and a location to
store them? Will the installation require a crane, and if
so, is there a level area to place the crane?
7. Re-identify the proposal's core objectives
throughout the project, and realize them in the
end product. Mitigating the various structural
considerations, not to mention larger looming issues
such as funding and approval, can be a daunting
challenge. Returning to core principles of the design
can re-fuel those engines of creativity, collaboration
and persuasion so essential to an architect's leadership
and vision. And of course, you have your structural
engineer to assist you!

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

23

Christian Werthmann

Informal urbanism is the dominant mode of development in the fastest growing cities of the world.
Today, we live in an age where over 30% of our urban
world population lives in slums. It is projected that
half of our future urban growth will be informal,
increasing the current total of one billion slum dwellers to two billion by 2030. With the world in a major
recession, informal urbanism will likely expand even
faster than projected. Despite these facts, the majority
of design professionals do not work, and do not know
how to work, in these areas. Modern design education
will have failed if it does not prepare the next generation of designers for the challenge of informal urbanism.

Why should it not be possible

to leapfrog to an alternate
stage altogether?
As members of the design profession, we are
generally concerned with the question of how life in
informal cities can be improved through design. As
landscape architects, we are specifically interested
in the question of how life in informal cities can be
improved through the medium of landscape, as open
space is a rare and precious resource in informal
cities. The little public space that exists is in high
demand and is, in general, less developed than the
built environment. In So Paulo, favela dwellers are
quite capable of building their own houses, but there
is less facility with shaping the public space in front
of these houses. In favelas, it is not unusual to find
homes with nice interior finishes, satellite dishes, and
TV sets facing out onto dirt paths. The So Paulo
Social Housing Agency (HABISP), tare in the process
of filling this gap; they already have a great deal of
experience in transforming public space in favelas
through socially informed landscape interventions.
The numerous built examples of plazas, playgrounds,
and sports facilities in So Paulos favelas are living

24

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

Christian Werthmann, is an Associate

the meantime, So Paulo
proof of the power that landProfessor and Program Director of the
has run out of space for
scape architecture can have
in the informal city. Once the Landscape Architecture Department remote infrastructure and
opportunity is provided, civic at the Graduate School of Design in the exportation of problems
Harvard University. As a co-founder is not a viable solution
life actually does unfold in
these new outdoor spaces; one of the interdisciplinary research group anymore. The city has slowly
cannot always claim the same TransUrban,
Werthmann
critically begun to realize that, in its
for the city proper.
examines
built
experiments
in vast 8,000-square-kilometer
As much as these
territory, the distant is
sustainable urbanism.
new public projects do to
here, the remote is right in
advance civic life in the favela,
front of ones doorstep, and
one can also observe that there is much room left
somewhere else will be somebody elses backyard.
for improving the environmental problems of the
Given these circumstances, one wonders if upgrading
favela and the metropolis as a whole. As in the formal the informal city must always include the import of
city, the upgraded infrastructure in the informal
all of the problems of the formal city. One asks, why

city transports localized problems to remote areas

-- polluted surface water is piped, untreated, to oftendistant water bodies, causing more flooding and
pollution problems in other parts of the city; sewage
is pumped over long distances to far-away treatment
plants; garbage is transported to remote landfills. In

should it not be possible to leapfrog to an alternate

stage altogether?
Abandoning the practice of exporting
problems to other destinations means managing
them closer to their source. Transportation, energy,
erosion, water and waste will have to be managed in
the body of the city itself. The next real challenge for
designers working in favelas (and in the formal city)
is to develop open space systems that not only attend
to the outdoor experiential and recreational needs of
a population, but manage more infrastructure locally
in an environmentally beneficial way -- not because it
is politically correct, but because it is essential for the
survival of the metropolis.
This new type of infrastructure will unfold
in the public space of favelas, challenging landscape
architects to develop socially- and environmentallyeffective spaces in extremely dense conditions.
Leapfrogging will require rethinking the design
process; knowledge will have to expand, new
technologies will have to be tested, prototypes will
need to be built; an intense collaboration process
between a new generation of environmentally-literate
engineers, social workers and design professionals
must be staged. Academia has to contribute to this
process by taking a fresh look at the status quo
and providing the conceptual framework for the
first experiments towards the next stage of favela
upgrading.

Marcos Rosa

Micro-Planning
Experimentation is vital to grasping the everincreasing complexity of cities. It is a way to explore
alternative types of planning that are capable of absorbing what is simultaneously evolving and being
generated. Providing space and a place for encounter
demands an appreciation for the discovery of spatial
qualities and the reinterpretation of them. This bias

Experimentation is a vital
means of grasping the ever
increasing complexity of
cities
in reading establishes the city as a laboratory and field
for experimentation. New connections and strategic
networks guide local processes open to bottom up
tactics, localized experiences that are transformative
when coupled with new architectural operations. Urban creative practices search for new tools capable of
dealing with these emerging urban realities. The real
city - interpreted as a field for experimentation - is a
built space to be recognized and in which to act on the
ground.
URBAN CREATIVE PRACTICES is a project of
public interest that aims to reveal, document and share

knowledge. It organizes a network revealing innovative

modes of spatial organization and disseminates this
information so that it may be used in thinking about
and building the city. Micro-planning is the combination of documentation of micro-practices in So Paulo
with a series of essays. It situates the action of the micro-scale in terms of its social practices and collective
appropriations, calling attention to the importance of
bottom-up initiatives in the configuration of the urban landscape. A publication creates a platform for
different projects that explore the urban micro-scale.
The inexistence of any significant documentation for
this type of project in So Paulo highlights the fact that
these interventions remain unknown. We point to the
enormous potential of these projects to describe the
local scale and its urban tactics [1] as another way to
think about the city.
Community gardens provide an area of green in
an otherwise dry, red landscape in the far eastern periphery of the city; a playground and art center occupy

Marcos L. Rosa is a Brazilian

the core of a dense slum; a boxing architect and urban planner ations emerge as urgencies, disschool and gym installed under a (FAU USP, Brazil, 2004) currently carding the need for pre-design
viaduct provide athletic facilities on
simulation. Urban creative pracworking with Kristine Stiphany
a busy commuting route; a young
tices generate spaces of quality
artist stimulates the collective use (collective retrofit - winning that provide room for encounter.
of common space through his resi- project Alcoa innovation prize, Points of contact struggle against
dency in different slums; an open December 2009).
the void of quality collective
air cinema in an empty site brings
spaces.
cultural activities to a neighbourhood lacking in other
cultural facilities; sailing and art initiatives draw attenCommunity gardens green a dry, red landscape in
tion to a polluted river; a recycling program brings a the far eastern periphery of the city; a playground and
community together in an unattended neighborhood; art center occupies the core of a dense slum; a boxing
an overturned crate under a tree provides a space for school and gym installed under a viaduct that organize
sport facilities on a busy commuting route; a young
encounter along a creek in a densely-built area.
artist stimulates the collective use of common space
through his residency in different slums; an open air
cinema on an empty site brings cultural activities to a
Sampling
During the year of 2008, based on projects that neighborhood lacking of other cultural facilities; sailing
made application to the Deutsche Bank Urban Age and art initiatives draw attention to a polluted river; a
Award (DBUAA [2]), I investigated initiatives in So recycling program brings a community together in an
Paulo that manipulate urban space at the local scale as unattended neighborhood; an overturned crate under
a way to achieve improved urban environments. This a tree provides a space for encounter along a creek.
research enabled me to compile a range of case studies
projects of varying scale and type which demonstrated diverse, feasible ways of addressing their specificities. The situations that I encountered are spaces of
experiment: articulated spaces in which there is a cultural claim for an exerted life.[3]
Common Denominator | Urban Creative Practices
From the projects considered in 2008, we chose to
analyze those that happen in
open space and define fields
of action in the city. This
criteria points to the search
of spaces that demonstrate
ways of reorganization at the
local scale that reflect a new
attitude towards collective
life in the city at large - the
appropriation of space by
its users through proactive
responses where action and
proposition co-exist in a 1:1
scale.[4]
This publication searches for common points (a
common denominator) among the projects selected
from fieldwork. Projects are born from negotiation in
situ and from pre-existent realities. They propose the
reinterpretation, re-use and re-signification of these
realities. They operate as articulators, manipulating
present references.
We did not intend to simply catalog these projects,
but to investigate them, proposing possible readings
that would allow us to identify a field of action and a
tactic responsible for the re-codification of an existent
urban space. We attribute the strength of these projects
to the following relationship: the identification of local
potential and the articulation of necessary instruments
that allow the re-use and re-signification of specific
points. By doing this, we illustrate fields of opportunity
for action in So Paulo.
Urban Creative Practices
In the metropolitan region of So Paulo, these situ-

So Paulo
Why do these projects appear in So Paulo? What
do they have to do with its specific logic of space production? To what extent does this sampling of projects
(parallel to traditional / conventional / official planning practices) represent another possible way of city
making?
Self-organization is present in these projects,
where the population engages in collective practice.
This seems to be driven by a verifiable lack of quality spaces of coexistence on the human scale, an urban fact that is a result of decisions made during the
urbanization process of the city of So Paulo. These
same processes produced urban wastelands and residual spaces that, when interpreted as potential fields for
creative practices, represent a possibility of urban reMicro Planning, continued pg.26

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

25

Micro Planning, cont.

structuring that is committed to the scale of the user.

These thoughts translate into the notion of a city-playground, a collective space that is open to creation, action, and occupation the reinterpretation of a built
scenario to which new meaning is added.
Collective Network
The organization of a network from these fields
questions the potential and importance of micro plan-

ning to the construction of the urban environment.

Network urbanism? Or strategic micro interventions networked? Case studies demonstrate social networks of metropolitan reach - circuits of resistance to
the generic city that provide the city with micro-environments, nourishing the discussion around specificities. We identify micro-architectures that can superimpose functional ones, providing them with complexities
capable of inducing quality urban spaces.
These initiatives are often seen as fragile, isolated
acts engaged with the notion of responsibility towards
common space. We will identify and reflect upon strategies associated with selected projects. This approach
weaves a series of specific fields and tactics together
as a network of projects, cultivating a strategy of networked urban creative practices.

ticulated space for complex living processes.[8]

Hlio Oiticicas [9] definition of the artist as the
maker, anyone active and propositive in their environment, generously allows anyone to take a proposing
role in the environment they inhabit. According to this
definition, creators would be those working in collectivity, about collectiveness.[10]
To participate is to complete a proposed schema.
[11] Participating is taken as the key to define and understand urban space (in opposition to the notion of
transmission and reception separated). Collectiveness
- sharing the city - serves as a basis for re-thinking social matters in urbanistic terms: The city is our potential and we are its makers.[12]
Architecture might be defined in a wide, generous way, as an articulated space where cultural and
social life can unfold.[13] If we take architecture as a
discipline which is to respond to changing urban patterns, concentrating around space as a key element to
be worked within [14], specific urban fields are to be
exposed: the social production of space (Raum) and
a maneuvering repertoire of a contemporary urban
planning.
If we define architectural as a space open to intervention and if we understand the architect as everyone
active in his or her environment, we point at the possibility of another investigation of the city and to another
way of planning the urban. We accept the real city as
a product of political decisions, projects, and personal
and collective wishes and we believe there is, in this
city, enormous potential for re-organization, re-articulation, re-codification. Here, we demonstrate the task
of mapping fields where such ways of reorganization
take place and of identifying possible fields open to the
incorporation of new objects that stimulate exchange.
Finally, we show the need to understand and propose
mechanisms coherent to the identified fields and their
potentials. We call this task microplanning.
Microplanning. Urban creative Practices is a book
organized by Marcos L. Rosa for the Alfred Herrhausen
Gesellschaft (The International Forum of the Deutsche
Bank). In cooperation with Sophie Wolfrum, Urban
Land Scape research initiative, Technische Universitt
Mnchen. Booklauch in 2010.

Collective Architecture
This project envisions the dissolution of boundaries and the construction of new interdisciplinary
bridges, expanding traditional limits and reclaiming
a new role and positioning of the architect and urban
planner.
To talk about architecture, in these terms, means to
question the possibility of learning for this architecture
in light of new questions brought up by specific projects. Such positioning demands a new look at the definition of architecture as a socially shaped space.[5]
Culturally Shaped Space
A wide understanding of the meaning of architecture seems to interest us in order to make the architectural comprehendible.
The concrete space - that which plays a role in our
routines - is nothing without life; it will first be constituted through life praxis.[6] Architectural differs from
architecture in these terms: by accepting the exposure
of the discipline to subjective relationships with space
cannot be completely anticipated by the planning
practice.[7] Architecture is then understood as space
constructed and constituted from cultural and social
practices. Space not only for things and uses, but ar-

26

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

www.microplanning.net
[1] As defined by Michael de Certeau.
[2] The Deutsche Bank Urban Age Award (DBUAA) is an open competition for projects that are envisioned and organized through partnerships and cooperative practices. The DBUAA is organized by the Alfred
Herrhausen Society, the international forum of the Deutsche Bank, and is a
joint initiative with the Urban Age Conference, organized with the London
School of Economics.
[3] Subject developed by Sophie Wolfrum in Raum artikulieren, in:

Lederer, Arno (Org.) ach. Ansichten zur Architektur, n.21 Mai-juni 2006,
IoeB Universitaet Stuttgart.
[4] Collective action as proposed by Nicolas Bourriaud, in oposition
to the passive criticism, awaiting for changes: But is there such a thing as
a truly public space today? These fragile, isolated acts engage the notion of
responsibility: if there is a hole in the sidewalk, why does a city employee fill
it in, and not you and me? In: Bourriaud, Nicolas, Postproduction, 2002,
p. 80.
[5] Subject developed in: Wolfrum, Sophie, Raum artikulieren, in:
Lederer, Arno (Org.) ach. Ansichten zur Architektur, n.21 Mai-juni 2006,
IoeB Universitaet Stuttgart.
[6] ibidem, original: Der konkrete Raum, der in unserem Alltag eine
Rolle spielt, ist nichts dem Leben Aeusserliches sondern wird durch unsere
Lebenspraxis erst konstituiert.
[7] Janson, Alban/ Wolfrum, Sophie, Kapazitaet: Spielraum und Praegnanz 2006.
[8] ibidem: Architecture is culturally formed and designed space.
Space not only for the storage of things and traces, but articulated space for
the unfolding of living processes.
[9] Hlio Oiticica (193780) Tate Modern exhibition catalog. Hlio
Oiticica. The body of colour. Tate Modern. June 2007.)
[10] Lagnado, Lisette, No Amor e na Adversidade, in: Lagnado,
Lisette/ Pedrosa, Adriano (ed.). 27a. Bienal de So Paulo: Como Viver Junto. So Paulo: Fundao Bienal, 2006. 7 de outubro a 17 de dezembro de
2006. Pavilho da Bienal, Parque do Ibirapuera, So Paulo. Bilnge: portugus/ingls.
[11] Borriaud, Nicolas, Postproduction, 2002: 89.
[12] Maier, Julia/Rick, Matthias, Raumlaborberlin. Acting in Public,
2008: editorial
[13] ibidem
[14] In an epoch of space, architecture is vital. We need architecture
to shape our world. Original: In einer Epoche des Raumes ist Architektur
lebensnotwendig. Wir brauchen Architektur, um unsere Welt zu gestalten.
In Wolfrum, Sophie, Raum artikulieren, In Lederer, Arno (Org.) ach. Ansichten zur Architektur, n.21 Mai-juni 2006, IoeB Universitaet Stuttgart.

Frederic Levrat

Architecture is most often appreciated for its formal, material, technological or ecological qualities. We
rarely talk about the pure Scale of the project as a
strategical design parameter. Nevertheless, it is a strategy that has been used in architecture history, as well as
in some recent architecture book title such as S,M,L,
XL. The images of Superstudio of the late 1960s are
the most impressive and Rem Koolhaass work, from
his AA Thesis to his recent Ras Al Khaimah project,
are clearly a direct variation of the Italian avant guard
manifesto. It is a Scaleless architecture, where neither
form nor function can be recognized, only an infinite
and absolute scale of intervention.
Natalini wrote in 1971 if design is merely an inducement to consume, then we must reject design; if
architecture is merely the codifying of bourgeois model of ownership and society, then we must reject architecture; if architecture and town planning is merely the
formalization of present unjust social divisions, then

Frederic Levrat is an Adjunct Assistant

Professor of Architecture at Columbia
University. His awards include: New
York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship
in Architecture, 1996; Young Architects
Award, Architectural League of New York,
1997; European 5 winner, 1999. He received
his Dipl. Arch. from cole Polytechnique
Federale de Lausanne.

The absolute and

infinite scale of Itlian a
avant-garde totalitarian
projects was provocative
and certainly pushed
the traditional design
strategy to the breaking
point. Nevertheless, it
resonates with the strategy explored by Alfredo Brillembourg, Hubert Klumper and SEHAB, as we are experiencing today a somewhat similar reality, coming
from both end of the architectural and economical
spectrum.
On one side, we are confronted with incredible
concentration of abstract capital, generated by new
financial instrument and in its turn, generating enormous/scaleless projects. The example of some of Dubai
developments - and other new cities of the Middle
East are a clear example of mega projects managed
by a single design authority,
generating landscape and
building the size of the entire city of San Francisco. It
is entirely designed in one
year from the new iconic
shape of the land build into
the ocean to the doorknob
style and the bathroom
tiles - and entirely built in
five years, with billions of
debts and thousand of low
wage workers, all following the same precise plan.
GPS delivery of sand and
internet
customization
of the prototype, allows a
management where the satellite coordinates are more
important than the ground
point of view. The human
scale is completely erased by
the economic scale, where only abstract investments
and profits are the real users of the new construction.
New management and communications tools, as well
as new financial instrument have allowed such mega

...only abstract investments and profits

are the real users of the new construction

we must reject town planning and its citiesuntil all

design activities are aimed towards meeting primary
needs. Until then, design must disappear. We can live
without architecture

scale projects to emerge from the

sand.
On the other side, we have
proposals such as the SLUM Lab
studio at Columbia University
Graduate School of Architecture,
where the starting point is another type of almost a never ending
Scape. With the growth of the world population exploding, one could almost re-interpret the Superstudio
project as a never ending grid of favelas, shanty town
and spontaneous architecture, covering the territory as
an endless slumscape carpet.
We could make some easy parallels in scale between the Absolute Abstract Grid, and the Absolute
Human Settlement where the pixel has been changed
from a grid-line to a dot-residence. Nevertheless, the
real distinction between the two somewhat comparable images, lies in its scale of decision.
As much as the absolute grid represents the absolute power of a single dictatorial system, the absolute
spontaneous human settlement is the result of a complex and infinite number of small negotiations. The
extremely fine grain of the negotiations, between the
different neighbors, the local authorities and the larger
shared infrastructure (such as water and electricity) is
providing a complex scape that each student seems to
be investigating, looking for its highly qualified specificity. Finding the correct set of rules, extracting the
existing forces in play and looking for the exact scale
at which these compositions are being constructed, is a
very interesting project, running against the usual hierarchical power structure of the developer-architectclient, or the form production of the conventional architecture practice .

Maria Paola Sutto

Discovery of Crossroads
The Rome Forum proceedings will be available as Plunz, R., Sutto, M.P. (eds.): Urban Climate Change Crossroads, Ashgate Publishing,
forthcoming. Columbia University Earth Institute
Urban Design Lab
Given the growing urgency for addressing
climate change, there is a consensus that both
public and private sectors, in concert with the
scientific community, are being called upon to
collaborate with one another. This partnering is
being done to contribute to strategic thinking on
ways that are both specific in terms of adaptation,
and general in terms of the need to reflect on the

Maria Paola Sutto is the Earth

Institute Urban Design Lab
Urban Securities Coordinator.
A Biologist and Journalist by
training, her interest lays in a
shared area where different
disciplines
intersect:
from
ecological science to social
science, from economy, to art
and architecture.

vast implications of a shared common lens. In particular, cities are

being viewed in a different light.
Many fields that had not before
worked together are being asked
to expand their visions, and in
the quest for urban adaptation,
design is one of the integrators of
expertise. With the above agenda
as priority, some thirty European
and North American researchers
met to focus on the new interdisciplinary creative
process that is required for urban adaptation, to

view urban adaptation

as a new source of urban economies, and to
explore how new urban
industry can integrate
sustainability goals. For
this
Euro-American
exchange, the city of
Rome was chosen as a
natural crossroads, but

Report from Rome, continued pg.28

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

27

Report from Rome, cont.

with significant representation from other global

cities including New York and London. Participants included engineers, anthropologists, business and media
studies experts, philosophers, political scientists, urban designers, and climate scientists.
The discussion centered on creative, interdisciplinary, and investigative approaches to the challenges of
climate change in urban areas. Urban areas remain a
key focus because they are particularly vulnerable to
climate change and are simultaneously principal actors
in delivering reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.
Below is an indication of the more interesting points of
consensus within this unique dialogue:

1.) In approaching the adaptation question, cities must define themselves not only as geographical
entities, but as incubators of strong residential identity.
Cities need to be examined within the context of all of
their networked processes. Adaptation will follow social networks without necessarily being de-limited by
political boundaries. Urban identity must include the
neighborhood scale in order to fast-track implementation of adaptation decisions at the city scale.

2.) A crucial consideration is incorporation of

the health impacts of climate change for the whole
cycle of decision-making (co-factoring short, medium
and long term implications), while stressing the importance of achieving social, economic, and environmental benefits.

3.) A common language for intervention must

emerge around goals, methods and terminology. Urban institutions that until now have worked in isolated
modes must not perceive a more integrated approach
as an undue interference and loss of power within their
specialized realms.

4.) Environmental injustice must be mitigated

28

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

rather than exacerbated to avoid uneven physical dislocation and social turmoil. It is important to accept
the diversified knowledge
coming from all spheres
of the urban Lifeworld,
reaching beyond the scientific realm.

5.) Given the projected catastrophic social dimension of climate

change, the personal response is important.. This
factor engages the issue of
social adaptation, perhaps
best addressed through
understanding by doing,
whereby the process of taking action, either personal
or collective, is constantly
assessed and modified following results and discoveries.

6.) At the local urban scale, there is a significant task to be accomplished in passing from the
realm of public awareness
to personal behavior. On
the city-state level, we need
sufficient political leadership to clearly set forth
decisional parameters together with adequate implementation and monitoring. In this regard, the
re-emergence of the importance of city-state will
be a crucial complement to national and global climate
change initiatives.

7.) From a communication point of view, climate change parameters are well understood when the
discourse involves a visionary context that touches the
individual directly; entailing either new economic possibilities, or threatening public circumstances such as
increased illnesses due to temperature change or decreased food availability due to drought/flooding.

8.) Conscious public vigilance is crucial to

ensure that our collective memory retains a concept of
communication encompassing more than words. The

lack of communication transmits uncertainty, together

with the same message of skepticism as the deniers of
climate change.

9.) Climate change challenges that we come

to accept that economic, social and political makeup of cities are related and must be reflected in the
urban infrastructure that we take for granted: energy,
transportation, water, waste and food.

10.) The process establishing an appropriate

assessment and response system for evaluating climate
risk needs to be streamlined. Adaptation is still not fully
understood by the private sector as a mainstream risk.
Liabilities, as well, are not adequately acknowledged by
the information available in the public domain.

11.) It is important for cities to resist global business

consolidation trends that rely on the assumption of
never-ending global resources. It is also pivotal that the
tendency to accept double standards for developed
and soon to be developed countries is resisted; i.e.
de-paupering the latter of the same natural resources
that the developed countries are trying to preserve
for themselves. Ultimately, it is useful to acknowledge
the complexity of interaction between natural,
technological and human components in designing for
urban scale adaptation. This is a call to accelerate the
process of transformation of our society into one more
respectful of the resources we cherish. After all , who
would have imagined one year ago that our economic
miscalculations could have burned 45 percent of
accumulated global wealth in just 18 months?

The Rome Forum was launched as the first phase

of the Columbia University
Earth Institute Urban Design Lab's Urban
Securities Project; as a collaboration between the
Urban Climate Change Research Network (UCCRN),
the Fondazione Adriano Olivetti and the Camera di
Commercio Ambiente eTerritorio of Rome. The Urban
Securities Project is a collaborative project between
international researchers from diverse disciplines. Its
aim is to investigate ways through which urban areas are
responding to challenges of growth and globalization.
Deploying a series of multidisciplinary forums and
publications, Urban Securities will outline practical
solutions at the policy and community levels.

Jorge Mario Juregu

L'alliance de la ville et du concept jamais ne les

identifie mais elle joue de leur progressive symbiose:
planifier la ville, c'est la fois penser la pluralit mme
du rel et donner effectivit cette pense du pluriel;
c'est savoir et pouvoir articuler.
Michel de Certeau, (L'invention du quotidien)

In the Latin America continent, the last twenty

years have revealed a new phenomenon provoked by
a process that has two main components: on the one
hand, the confluence of an increasing interconnection
and dependence of the movements of capital (financial globalization), and, on the other, the substitution
of technologies originating from the transition of the
mechanical to the electronic age, affecting administration and management as well as the productive process. This phenomenon has its urban consequences. It
contributes to the geographic dispersion of economic
activities through the systemic integration that the interconnection of the economic activities generates, and
to the renovation and expansion of the central urban
functions. It stimulates the intensification of the social
exclusion of large sectors of the population, resulting in marginalization, violence and the destruction
of congenial living conditions. This is clearly manifested in the production of the broken city, between
the so-called formal (quarters) and the informal
(shantytowns) areas and the incontrollable sprawl.

This process of increasing integration at worldwide level is characterized by the formation of a global
network of interconnected megacities, forming a new
topography. It also creates a new condition of centrality. This is true at the macro (continental) as well as
the micro (the inner core of each urban structure)
level. On these two levels, we perceive the formation of

new geographies of centrality - a metropolitan network

of urban nodes on the one hand, and rhizomatous pattern of the city, on the other. Rhizomatous pattern, in
this sense, is a type of structuration that not implies
a sintetic relation between the elements; that refuse a
notion of hierarchical order; that possess a quality of
patchwork, a radical heterogeneity.
The specific task of urban articulation would be

Jorge Mario Juregui,

Therefore, it is necessary to
capable of to relate the physical Argentinian Architect, has been
rethink the complexity considerwith the social and cultural, reain Rio de Janeiro, Brazil since he
ing simultaneously the technical
soning simultaneously at the pragmatic level, the plastic level and the was 22. He has been involved in aspects and the economic, social
and ecological dimensions, but
conceptual level. This involves the urban development programs
also, the capacity to produce subchallenge of putting into practice in the brazilian favelas such
jectivity. In order to achive this,
the narrow link between high as Favela Bairro and Rioit is necessary to get involved,
culture and popular traditions, Cidade.
putting in the first plane the ethbetween the contribution and content of works at the worldwide level, and the specificity ical-aesthetical components, even if we are acting in
of local circumstances. For this reason, one of the prior a continuum, with every type of coercions (opinions,
conditions of a project is to know how to ask the right and functional, economic and social aspects) without
questions about the position and context specificities allowing oneself to be dominated by any of them. This
in the intervention area in terms of history, econom- aesthetic-ethical responsibility to live out the margin
ics, technical and the physical configuration process, as for maneuvering must be accurately estimated since
well as about social, cultural and productive relation- we are dealing with ethical questions.
Psychoanalysis will alert us in relation with ethics
ships. Places should be well asked.
It is also necessary to situate urban articulation when, facing the economic, political, social and culturproblems from the point of view of creating the con- al determinations, the projectional act must imply an
ditions for an effective and productive international ethical position that, in general terms, can be summacontribution, opposed to the globalization of the econ- rized as doing what it is necessary to be done, knowomy (which has become a one-way path, a globali- ing that this duty is not of moral or straight order. It is
tary question, a field of restrictions, pre-defined and a duty in which is putting in play permanently what is
mined), a worldization (universalization) of prob- beyond demand, that is, the desire in the projectual
lems (conceived as a field of chances providing plural act. Its not about trying to please anyone in a project
ways) capable of making possible a new description of as form of seduction or harmony, anyway this is not
the fundamental question.
ourselves and the problems.
Through urban articulation, and the general overUrban design operates as a multidimensional
cartography of subjectivity production (which has view of multiple disciplines, which involve formalizafaced a historical and collective confrontation with tion, the urbanist-architect can, in relation to the demodernity) where the cities function as immense sign and its intentions, direct to decisive bifurcations
machines of subjetivation, not only individually but for the democratic city. He must be capable of estabalso collectively in which what really counts is not lishing the inter-relations between the ethics (which
the infrastructural aspect, communications or jobs, involves principles), politics (which involves necessary
but rather, the capacity of redirecting our urban de- actions for materializing the principles) and aesthetics
(which always implies the defiance necessary to introduce what is new).
Conceived as a strategy of singularization, is the
result of the crossing between individual creativity supported by multidisciplinary interaction, and the multiple material and social coercion which it must bring
together, and, in this sense, the contributions for the
integration of the broken city could be substantial.

vir, either through material and immaterial means.

We know that buildings and spaces are capable of functioning as expressive machines, and that
this unleashes effective and cognitive impulses; that all
apprehension of existent, implies a recreation, a reinvention. Thus, constructed spaces are essentially production sense machines and make individual and collective subjectivity possible.

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

29

Teddy Cruz

One of the most important issues underlying our

research has been to produce new conceptions and interpretations of the informal. So far, I think, we continue to be seduced with the image of the informal,
and we are not translating its actual operative procedures. Instead of a fixed image, I see the informal as a
functional set of urban operations that allow the transgression of imposed political boundaries and top down
economic models. I see the informal not as a noun but
as a verb, which detonates traditional notions of site
specificity and context into a more complex system of
hidden socio-economic exchanges. I see the informal
as the urban unwanted, that which is left over after
the pristine presence of architecture with capital A
has been usurped and transformed into the tenuous
scaffold for social encounter. I see the informal as the
site of a new interpretation of community, citizenship
and praxis. This is the reason I am interested in the

We need to challenge our

reductive and limited ways of
working, by which we continue
seeing the world as a tabula
rasa on which to install the
autonomy of architecture
emergent urban configurations produced out of social
emergency, and the performatic role of individuals
constructing their own spaces.
We need to challenge our reductive and limited
ways of working, by which we continue seeing the
world as a tabula rasa on which to install the autonomy
of architecturewe need to reorient our gaze towards
the drama embedded in the reality of the every day and
in so doing engage the shifting socio-political and economic domains that have been ungraspable by design.
Or as artist Tania Bruguera said to me recently: It
is time to restore Duchamps urinal back to the
bathroom! We are in need of a more functional relationship between research, artistic intervention and the production
of the city.
One thing I am sure of: at
this moment when the economic
power of the privileged sites of
development has temporarily
collapsed, it is time to suggest
that it is in sites of scarcity not
of abundance- where the new
urban paradigms will emerge,
to construct new ideas about
infrastructure, housing and
density.
At a time when the institutions of urban planning need to
be re-defined, one particular topic that needs to be considered is
the value of social capital (peoples
participation) in urban development,
enhancing the role of communities in
producing housing. Housing configurations that enable the development and emergence of local economies and new forms of

30

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

Teddy Cruz work dwells at the border

sociability, allowing neigh- between San Diego, California andTijuana, ticipation into a multiple
borhoods to generate new
choice questionnaire for
Mexico, where he has been developing a
markets from the bottom
community revitalization, a
practice
and
pedagogy
that
emerge
out
up, within the community
process that is ultimately co(i.e., social and economic of the particularities of this bi-cultural opted by the politics of idenentrepreneurial efforts that territory and the integration of theoretical tity -In what style should we
are usually off the radar of research and design production.
build?. This is how new urconventional top down ecobanism developers hide the
nomic recipes), as well as to promote new models of true problems of these communities -namely sociofinancing to allow unconventional mixed uses. Also, economic inequalities- behind a multi-colored, fake
one pressing challenge in our time, primarily when the faade of difference. Furthermore, when for-profit deparadigm of private property has become unsustain- velopers come to disenfranchised communities to deable in conditions of poverty,
is the need to re-think existing conditions of property,
ownership. Re-defining affordability by amplifying the
value of social participation:
More than owning units,
dwellers, in collaboration
with community based, nonprofit agencies, can also coown the economic and social
infrastructure around them.
The point of the matter
here is that the social capital
and cultural economy embedded within these marginal
communities and neighborhoods that have been the
site of investigation for our
practice is never included in
the official process of urbanization and economic development. Community en- velop housing, they usually partner with NGOs only to
gagement in the theater of city re-development in the maximize tax credit points and secure subsidies, resultUnited States is always reduced to a symbolic gesture ing in symbolic partnerships that minimize the potenthat transforms social tial for communities to own their own housing stock.
p a r - This, in turn, points at the need for a more meaningful
interface with local non-profit organizations, to empower them to co-own the resources of development
and become the long-term choreographers of social and cultural programming for housing.
So, at the very base of this potential
reorganization of the normative protocols of conventional re-development
projects that in recent years have only
benefited hyper-privatization is the
need to produce counter tactics
of economic and cultural development by amplifying the interface with the social and political actors within these migrant
neighborhoods. In other words,
fundamental to the rethinking of
exclusionary political and economic frameworks is the translation of the social entrepreneurial
intelligence embedded in those local actors every day practices, capturing the hidden value (social and
economic) of their informal transactions across bottom up economies and
densities.
We need a critical re-contextualizing
of our different approaches and procedures.
Ultimately, it does not matter whether contem-

Returning Duchamp's Urinal, continued

porary architecture wraps itself with the latest morphogenetic skin, pseudo, neo-classical prop or LEEDcertified photovoltaic panels. If all of these approaches
continue to camouflage the most pressing problems of
urbanization today, without altering the exclusionary
policies constructing the socio-economic and political ground of our society, our profession will continue

to be subordinated to the visionless environments defined by the bottom-line urbanism of the developers
spreadsheet and the neo-conservative politics and economics of a hyper-individualistic ownership society.
No advances in urban planning can be made without
redefining what we mean by infrastructure, density,
mixed-use, and affordability. No meaningful advances
in housing design can be made without advances in
housing policy and economy. As architects, we can be

responsible for imagining counter-spatial procedures,

political, and economic structures that can produce
new modes of sociability and public culture.
Estudio Teddy Cruz
San Diego, California
December, 2009

Thomas Trebat

for Growth and Equity in Brazil in the

Wake of the Global Recession
The recently released U.S. unemployment numbers
for November suggest that the catastrophic rate of job
loss may be easing and that the worst of the Great Recession may truly be over, but it is unlikely that the U.S.
economy, the engine of global growth, will do more
than grow quite modestly in the years ahead. The rest
of the developed world, including Europe and Japan, is
unlikely to fare much better.
How alarming is this scenario of slow global recovery for Brazil and for Latin America? Is commoditydriven and foreign capital-dependent Brazil inevitably
being channeled into another lost half-decade because of the weak U.S. and external environment? Will

The global economy is in

need of greater demand
stimulus which Brazil can
certainly provide
the elusive goals of reducing poverty and inequality
remain unattainable with mounting social problems
throughout its major cities?
The answer to these questions is: not necessarily. The extent of Brazils vulnerability depends on a
number of factors, including how well its economy has
weathered the financial storm so far, the extent to which
Brazil can rely for stimulus upon local demand, and
the degree of political cohesion that has been formed
behind sound economic policies. In a larger sense, the
post-2010 recovery in Brazil (and in the rest of Latin
America as well) will depend upon the lessons learned
from the decline and fall of market fundamentalism,
in particular whether Latin American policy can get
the balance right between open markets and a strong
state. Not every economy is going to get it right, but
some will. I think that Brazil is among those economies that might and, if it does, Brazil could be headed
for an extended period of more socially inclusive economic growth.
In an article in O Estado de Sao Paulo, noted
economist Ilan Goldfajn suggests that Brazil could still
do relatively well in the post-2010 context of a global
economy marked by below-trend growth in the United
States.[1] The reasoning behind this is worth considering. I think he is right. The global economy is in
need of greater demand stimulus which Brazil can certainly provide. Moreover, Brazil has been, slowly but
steadily, doing its homework in terms of stabilizing its
economy, creating conditions for firms to grow, and,
yes, even doing a better job of educating its own population and boosting the incomes of its poorest citizens

in absolute terms and also Thomas J. Trebat is the Executive Director story where industrial proof the Center for Brazilian Studies at duction is already starting
relative to the rich.
to approach pre-crisis levels
Two sets of facts stand Columbia University.
thanks to an accelerated proout.
First, the world economy is in need of more con- cess of saving and investment. In turn, Chinese and
sumers of last resort for it is the disappearance of the broader Asian growth already is benefiting countries
U.S. consumer that is behind the deep GDP recession such as Brazil by building in a demand for its raw maand the huge increase in U.S. deficit spending, as Mar- terial exports which feed Chinese and Asian factories.
tin Wolf reminds us [2]. In a massive shift to pru- More importantly, consumption is growing in Brazil
dence, the private sector in the United States in the again in response to this export stimulus and other faclast two years has effected a 10.3% of GDP shift in the tors, including a government fiscal stimulus on the orbalance between its income and its spending. Fur- der of 3% of GDP. Brazil does have a global role to play
thermore, the de-leveraging process of the U.S. con- to compensate for the decline in the U.S. consumer. It
sumer has really just begun as measured in terms of is one of those larger surplus economies that can and
gross household debt to GDP which has fallen by only should increase domestic absorption (consumption
two percentage points in two years. The huge impulse and investment) and should contemplate switching
to global demand provided by the U.S. consumer is a to a deficit on current account after years of external
thing of the past. As this huge level of U.S. demand debt-induced preoccupation with generating surpluses
also attracted a floodtide of global investment, some of and accumulating international reserves.
this investment capital will be in search of new destinaIt may sound like tempting fate for a country such
tions outside of the United States. Brazil has the poten- as Brazil with too little savings and a long, sad histotial certainly to be one of these new destinations.
ry of external debt problems to consume and borrow
Second, global growth post-2010 is going to have more now from abroad, but such a pattern makes sense
to depend more on demand growth in the emerging for Brazil and for the global economy.
economies, especially the balance of payments surThe Outlook, continued p.32
plus economies. Of course, here we have the China

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

31

of the poor and the reduction of the Gini coefficient of

income inequality.
Social progress will remain quite slow in Brazil. It
could hardly be otherwise. Yet in terms of getting the
big issues right striking the right balance between
state and market and generating more inclusive economic growth Brazil is headed in the right direction.
This suggests that the stage is set in Brazil for creative
economic and social policies to have big payoffs.

Report from Rome, cont.

Why? Brazil has an enormous capacity to grow as

measured by a large domestic market with per capita
consumption still something like one-fourth of U.S.
levels. While it always struggles to accumulate savings,
Brazil has the potential to boost sustainably private and
public investment by 5-10 percentage points of its GDP
on a permanent basis. Moreover, Brazil has taken steps
in the last fifteen years to lower the risk of investment
for foreigners investing in its economy which is apparent in the still robust flows of foreign direct investment
it is receiving even in this crisis climate. (Consensus
estimates for 2009 foreign direct investment inflows to
Brazil are on the order of $25 billion.)
Other factors as well make Brazil a natural candidate to attract a larger share of global capital flows in
the future, a part of the massive flows that have been
directed at the United States in the past.
Brazil has emerged from the global debacle in relatively good shape. Consensus GDP growth estimates
for 2010 have risen to above 4.0% which would be a
fairly robust recovery indeed. (Growth is expected to
be close to zero in 2009.) The financial sector in Brazil
has withstood the global shock and is in a far better
position than in the past to extend credit to small businesses and consumers. International reserves remain
at levels in excess of $200 billion. Counter-cyclical policy has been effective in delivering stimulus. An active
debate in Brazil is raging about the multiple dangers
of increasing permanent government expenditures,
but, from afar, it is hard to criticize Brazils economic
management during the crisis. Yes, the overall ratio of
public sector debt to GDP has risen slightly more than
40%, and may rise some more, but the key component
of net external debt in percent of GDP is a negative
10%. Brazil, in other words, is in a favorable position
to finance a recovery in 2010 and beyond.
So to come back to the main argument, Brazil can
and should play a role in rebalancing world growth as
one of a larger number of emerging market consumers of last resort.
The interesting question is whether or not Brazil
is ready to do so in terms of economic structure and,
more broadly, in terms of the prevailing mindset among
elite groups. On both fronts, changes in longstanding
policies and ways of thinking are needed.
First, for Brazil to become a major recipient of global capital flows inevitably implies a long-term trend for
the exchange rate to appreciate; in fact, this process is
probably already underway. While currency appreciation is healthy in many respects, including by helping
hold down inflation, it could be seen as a big threat
to Brazils global manufacturing position. In a sense,
absent sea changes in the Brazilian business environment, sustained currency appreciation might require
that Brazil become less, rather than more, dependent
on agriculture and commodity exports, a development
bound to meet substantial political resistance from
powerful lobbies and constant pressures for government intervention, including capital controls.
Second, Brazil will need to re-examine the relationship with China and other emerging centers of
economic power and global finance. China is going to
be a huge source of infrastructure finance in the future;
already the largest banks in the world are Chinese, and
Chinese currency reserves are staggering. China needs
to diversify its international assets, diversify trade, and
secure access to commodities; Brazil needs a reliable
source of long-term finance to offset the diminished
flows from a weakened Wall Street. The logic of much
closer economic and financial relations, much beyond
what we have seen so far, between Brazil, China, and
emerging Asia seems compelling.
Third, more importantly, for Brazil to become a

32

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

[1] Brazil Global, O Estado de So Paulo, July 7,

2009.
[2] After the storm comes a hard climb, Financial
Times, July 14, 2009
[3] Wall Streets Toxic Message, Vanity Fair, July
2009.

major destination for global savings in the future will

require learning the right lessons from the global crisis. As Joseph Stiglitz reminds us, Brazil is one of those
emerging markets where a conviction exists that the
global economy has not treated it fairly, even though
it has done relatively well.[3] For many in Brazil, and
throughout Latin America, Wall Streets cherished ideals of free and unfettered markets are something to
run from, not embrace. Stiglitz is right in arguing that
the proper lesson from the current crisis is that what is
required for long-term economic success is a regime in
which the roles of market and government are in balance, not one in which excessive market intervention by
the state undermines markets and destroys incentives.
Brazil in many areas needs to improve the functioning
of markets, promote competition, curb the powers of
banks and other special interests, regulate intelligently,
and reduce the amazing number of obstacles to doing
business in the country.
It is in this realm of ideas that the most interesting
debates in Brazil are taking place. I would be confident
that Brazil will preserve the foundations of a market
economy even while strengthening many forms of government intervention, including government financing
of private companies, heretofore scorned in the United
States. But confidence is not complacency. A more affluent Brazil will need to get the balance between market and state right. Failure to do so would be a huge
lost opportunity for Brazil and a blow to hopes for
more balanced growth in global demand in the future.
Finally, all of this relates directly to issues of social equity. Looking at the enormous social problems
in Brazils megacities crime, informal employment,
and the housing deficit among them can easily lead
to pessimism about ever repaying what Brazilians
call the social debt. Yet some of the facts of recent
growth in Brazil argue against a sort of reflexive pessimism. Growth in the agricultural sector is diminishing internal migration pressures. Educational levels
are gradually improving in quantity and quality and
demographic factors are leading to greater per capita
expenditures per student. Specially designed income
support programs are behind the rise in the incomes

Boulevard da Paz
Land Area: 377,957 m2
Year Established: 1995
Number of Dwellings: 1209
Distance to city center: 40 km
Elevation Change: 45m

Photo: Stephanie Tung

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

33

Copenhagen Agenda For

Sustainable Cities,
10 Principles For Sustainable
City Governance:
1 Rediscover the city
2 Redefine city value
3 Involve everyday experts
4 Break down silos
5 Redistribute urban decision making
6 De-design urban planning
7 Promote corporate urban responsibility
8 Go global
9 Embrace chaos, crisis and change
10 Encourage passion in urban leadership

Global climate change confronts our cities
with massive challenges that radically question the
way we have planned, governed and used our cities so
far. Our cities have become the main driving force in
the global economy. Yet the creation of wealth has its
price. Almost 80% of all CO2 emissions are generated
from urban activities, which make cities the biggest
contributors to global warming. Today, most cities
are the product of a development process that favors
effectiveness, production and human consumption
over environmental needs. The frightening results of
this mind-set are becoming apparent to us today.

It is no longer possible
to overlook the fact that climate changes are affecting
the life of urban dwellers both locally and on a global
scale. Cities everywhere face a common dilemma:
how best to respond to environmental challenges
through a reduction in emissions while at the same
time remaining competitive in a globalized economy.
The answer is to be found in the development of the
sustainable city.
The Sustainable City

By nature, cities are environmentally friendly
because they concentrate populations, and reduce the
amount of energy needed for heating and transport of
goods and people. But so far we have not succeeded
in creating environmentally sustainable cities, as we
have failed to understand the complexity of the urban
challenges that we face. We have become used to thinking
and acting fragmentally: rather than consulting health
experts, geographers and anthropologists, city officials
have focused on the technical design of buildings and
urban areas. This has resulted in the construction of
cities that fail to meet the most basic needs necessary to
secure future livability.
Current
urban
development ignores the fact that we need cities to be
environmentally, socially and economically sustainable
at the same time. Climate change should not only to be

34

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

seen as an environmental issue, but as much an issue of

growing poverty, rising inequity and lack of education.
The need to understand cities from this interrelated
perspective is confirmed by the growing number
of problems caused by climate change, extensive
globalization and increasing urbanization happening
simultaneously. Besides putting great pressure on the
environment and public utilities, this development
leads to fewer resources, growing social discrepancy,
rising crime rates, lack of affordable housing and a
rise in chronic diseases to mention just some of the
challenges facing our cities on a global scale. These
challenges must be met within city borders.

As well as the city causing these challenges, we
need to look into how the city can solve them. Therefore,
we need to optimize and concentrate all our efforts into
developing and strengthening the sustainable city.

4.) Break down silos. Sustainable city planning

is inherently multidisciplinary. Therefore, old
administrative structures should be abandoned in
favour of innovative, cross-sector cooperation.
5.) Redistribute urban decision-making.

Environmental changes do not respect city borders.

Vertical cooperation between local, national and
international public institutions is crucial to sustainable
city planning.

6.) De-design urban planning. City planning

should be people centred, rather than design centred.

A city is a constantly evolving organism, and city
planning must take a broader perspective than the
design of individual buildings.

Copenhagen agenda for sustainable cities: Cities are

the convenient remedy to the inconvenient truth. John
Nordquist, Congress For the New Urbanism, Chicago
Copenhagen Agenda For Sustainable Cities 3, 25
September 2007

7.) Promote corporate urban responsibility.

To secure our urban future, we need quick
action. Thus, we have asked 50 of the worlds most
important urban experts to tell us what it is will take
to create sustainable cities. Representing all parts of
the world and from a wide range of disciplines, they
all agree to that to make cities sustainable we need
a radical change of mindset, new strategies, and
finally, but crucially new governance models to
support development and foster a new generation of
urban leadership.
These statements and
observations have been distilled into the following
10 principles for future sustainable governance,
aimed at existing as well as future urban residents,
academics, professionals and leaders all with the aim
of encouraging and strengthening the development of
sustainable cities:

8.) Go global.

1.) Rediscover the city. We need a radical change

of mindset: a city is much more than a consumption
exhaust. It must become a self-sustaining organism
complementary to nature, rather than hostile
opposition.
2.) Redefine city value. A sustainable city depends
on the attitude and behaviour of each urban individual
and user. We must encourage a sense of citizenship and
individual responsibility towards sustainable values
rather than plain consumerism.
3.) Involve everyday experts. Sustainable cities
are participatory cities. We must encourage user-driven
self-governance. Through new partnerships between
city users, a common understanding of the sustainable
city must be developed and initiatives agreed upon.

Sustainable cities and successful commerce are

interdependent. Companies must be considered
stakeholders and invited to participate in city planning
and assume responsibility for urban sustainability.

Climate change is a global

challenge. Global cooperation on the development of
environmental technologies is essential, and a joint
effort to solve the massive problems of the developing
worlds cities is urgently required.

9.) Embrace chaos, crisis and change.

A
sustainable city must be adaptable to unexpected
change. The ability to both fight current and future
climate change is crucial. Flexible governance and an
innovative mindset to overcome crisis is vital.

10.) Encourage passion in urban leadership.

More will be expected of urban leaders of the

future. They must be able to manage the complex
interconnection of new institutions and partnerships.
A mix of business management, political leadership
and creativity is demanded from the future generation
of urban leaders.

The crisis in climate change was not the issue at the UN summit at Copenhagen December 7, 2009. It was, instead, about political games which different groups are playing. These issues are not games to be played by our diplomats and bureaucrats. There
are not enough real experts on board. Institutes and professional experts must join forces in order to save Copenhagen.

Principle Contributors to the Copenhagen Agenda for Sustainable Cities:

Ann Ferebee, Founder, Institute for Urban Design, New York; Carol Coletta, CEO, CEOs for Cities,
Chicago; Chris Steins, Director, Urban Insight, Los Angeles; Craig Williams, Founder, Architects Without
Borders; David Harvey, Professor, Graduate Center, City University of New York; Fred Kent, President,
Project for Public Spaces, New York; Gil Penlosa, Director, Walk and Bike for Life, Ontario; Jennifer
Siegal, Founder, Office of Mobile Design, California; John Nordquist, President, Congress for the
New Urbanism, Chicago; John Peterson, Founder and Chairman, Public Architecture, San Francisco;
Julie Wagner, Brookings Metropolitan Policy Programme, Washington D.C.; Larry Beasley, Professor,
former Co-Director of Planning, City of Vancouver; Robert McNulty, President, Partners for Liveable
Communities, Washington D.C.; Timothy Beatley, Professor, Urban & Environmental Planning Faculty,
University of Virginia Andrew Boraine, CEO, Cape Town Partnership; Barbara Southworth, Director, City
Spatial Development, City of Cape Town; Fabio Todeschini, Professor, School of Architecture, Planning and
Geomatics, University of Cape Town; Jos Forjaz, Director, Faculty of Architecture and Physical Planning,
University Eduardo Mondlane, Maputo; Lars Reuterswrd, Director, UN-Habitat Global Division, Nairobi;
Omar Maani, Mayor, City of Amman; Alfredo Brillembourg, Founder, Urban-Think Tank, Caracas;
Enrique Penlosa, former Mayor of Bogota; Jaime Lerner, Architect and former Mayor of Curitiba
Charles Landry, Director, COMEDIA, United Kingdom; Chris Luebkeman, Director, ARUP Foresight
Innovation and Incubation, London; Colin Fudge, Director, WHO Collaborative Centre in Healthy Cities
and Urban Policy, Bristol; Dritan Shutina, Director, Co-Plan Institute for Habitat Development, Tirana;
Eric Britton, Founding Director, The Commons, Paris; George Ferguson, Architect and former President
of Royal Institute of British Architects, Bristol; Jan Gehl, Partner, Gehl Architects, Copenhagen; Joan
Busquets, Professor and former chief planner, The City of Barcelona; Leo van den Berg, Professor and
Director, European Institute for Comparative Urban Research, Rotterdam; Mats Olsson, former Director
of City Planning, City of Malm; Sir Peter Hall, Professor of Planning, University College London; Richard
Burdett, Professor, Cities Programme, London School of Economics; Stein Kolst, Head of Office, Oslo
Waterfront Planning Office; Winy Mass, Principal, MVRDV Architects, Rotterdam; Wolfgang Nowak,
Director, Alfred Herrhausen Gesellschaft, Berlin Anthony Capon, Professor, The Australian Health Policy
Institute, University of Sydney; Peter Newman, Director, Institute for Sustainability and Technology
Policy, Murdoch University, Perth; Rob Adams, Director, Design and Culture, City of Melbourne; Tim
Flannery, Chairman of Copenhagen Climate Council and Professor, Macquarie University, Sydney Haixiao
Pan, Director, Transportation Research Lab, Tongji University, Shanghai; John Keung, CEO, Ministry of
National Development, Singapore; Kiyoshi Kobayashi, Professor of Engineering, Kyoto University; Mee
Kam Ng, Professor, Centre of Urban Planning and Environmental Management, University of Hong Kong;
Noboru Harata, Professor, Department of Urban Engineering, University of Tokyo; Sheela Patel, Founding
Director, The Society for the Promotion of Area Resource Centers, Bombay; Somsook Boonyabancha,
Director, Community Organizations Development Institute, Bangkok; Sue-Ching Jou, Professor,
Department of Geography, National Taiwan University
WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

35

Conversation with Paulo Mendes da Rocha

Paulo Mendes da Rocha is a Brazilian architect

who has been honored with the Mies van der Rohe and
the Pritzker Prize. He graduated from the Universidade
Presbiteriana Mackenzie College of Architecture in
1954 and is known for having built a variety of notable
cultural buildings in So Paulo, including the Brazilian
Sculpture Museum and the Serra Dourada Stadium.
Many of his works have been constructed out of concrete and steel, and he is known as the unofficial dean
of Brazils Brutalist style. Here, Alfredo Brillembourg

of this catastrophe, and try to understand the logistics

of the geomorphological transformations such as many
cities in America, including those along the Pacific and
Atlantic coasts, have done as they strove for initial control of the seas. There are cities in Brazil, such as Santos, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador and Bahia, even the Prata
Basin, which were able to somewhat accomplish this
same transformation of the geography around them. It
is a very interesting issue regarding the capacity of architects. I do not believe in this as a professional since it

PMR: I believe it is true. I use sections of special

structures that already exist tectonically. I believe that
it is possible to extend the geography to offer an architecture experience, so that the geography becomes a
work of architecture.
AB: Do you believe that old cities will be abandoned and in their place new ones will be built due
to the high cost of retrofitting cities such as So Paulo
and Caracas? Do you believe we will reach the point of
China, where over 60 cities are currently under construction?
PMR: I do not know what will happen, but I do not
believe there are any signs showing that what is happening in China will ever happen in a similar fashion here.
The verticalized city has nothing to do with an absurd
agglomeration. A city is not simply an agglomeration
but it is a new way densifying the population. Historic
chaos, as we can experience in Paris, is not a disaster in
itself, but almost a desireable experience, like living in
the heart of the Marais, which is a sensuous chaos. It is
very interesting. A city, therefore, is not an agglomeration. Agglomerations are the doings of refugees; they
are not cities.
AB: Continuing on this topic, sustainability has
been spoken of quite often, which is a somewhat ambiguous concept. How would you define it? I tend to
believe that acceptance from the people is the most important aspect of good architecture.

conducts an in-depth interview regarding the life and is eminent to have questions regarding the humanistic
work of this fascinating individual.
issues of anthropology, linguistics, objective technologies and applicable sciences, including soil engineering
AB: Paulo, it is a pleasure to be with you here to- and materials behaviors, in order to accomplish such a
day in So Paulo. I would like to talk a little bit about feat. How is it possible to give considerable depth to all
the specific concepts surrounding the issues present in these chapters of knowledge?
South America, architecture, and nature.
AB: Peter Eisenman, who is one of my North
PMR: The first thing to acknowledge about Amer- American colleagues, said one cannot be an architect
ica is its multi-dimensional geography. Geography and without having a concept.
its influence on humanity is the driving force for the
creation of a new popular culture, and is the essence
PMR: I formally extend Peter Eisenmans reflecof our existence in the universe. We should therefore tion. If a person is not worthy, they will never be an
treat nature not just as a landscape or a phenomena, architect. It takes much courage to build. But architecbut count on it to transform our future, how we shape tural experiments are very interesting, such as the conthe world around us. To me, the city of the future will struction of a popular housing block in the city center,
need to embrace such transformations and work within which generated pedestrian traffic, commerce, the cinnatures constraints in order to achieve a more evolved ema and new houses, all appearing as if they were a
state, working within nature, as it should be.
new geography.
AB: You have mentioned that sometimes the architect has the potential to anticipate a catastrophe. Or in
other words, architects can predict what will happen,
and with their architectural piece, be able to help avoid
the catastrophe.
PMR: You can believe in such, but more as a discourse then an effective instrument. It is possible for
an architect to have an architectural piece based on the
speculation of nature. I, however, believe more in the
inclusive formation of the human conscience. The only
thing that can be done is to try to imagine some aspects

36

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

PMR: And what does sustainability mean? One

has to have a clear vision of it, and since now we can
imagine the extinction of the human kind, we should
be sustainable. To simply tack on some solar panels to
your roof is not enough. In a certain way, it is important
that a new conscience is formed, and that all decisions
are made with sustainability in mind. Chile, for an example, along with Brazil, Peru and Bolivia, have a joint
effort to create a connection from the Atlantic Ocean
to the Pacific Ocean, unifying the Amazon Basin using
a river as its connector through the Prata Basin. These
are the types of projects that should be pursued, which
demonstrate a clear way of altering nature in a way that
makes life better, not worse.
AB: In what way did So Paulo influence your architecture?

PMR: I believe we agree that the idea of being

influenced is a very conspicuous idea, since one is
influenced without being quite aware of it. For an architecture student, the theoretical kind, the city of Sao
Paulo inspires a contradiction of violence. Caracas represents an unbearable violence, because what you see
AB: You mentioned once that the union of the en- immediately outside the universitys door is opposite
gineer and the architect and between structure and ar- to everything you have learned. We already know how
much misery has increased lately, but it is one thing is
chitecture forms one entity.
to not know what a microbe is, and to not recognize the
PMR: Yes, it forms one. Because if you do not want plague that is killing us all, and another thing to know
very well what it is, and not be able to act while people
it [the construction] to fall, there must be this union.
around you are dying. We live in the
AB: Your architecture catches my attention, because it is discovered through the cut, the section. In
midst of desires and anguish, which is a new dia certain way, the volumes and the understanding of
the tri-dimensional special complexities can be found mension found in the human species.
through sections.

Visionary Paulista, cont.

AB: When I saw your museum, I was very startled

by the program you chose, which was a public square,
a public space partially enclosed, like an idea. And that
space converted the museum into a place that could
house anything. It reminds me a bit of the Villanueva
promenades, or even Linas, where all types of activity
take place. You see that the architectural piece can be
the pacemaker of a city, one that prolongs its life and
has the tendency to interrupt itself whenever there is
this type of speculation.
PMR: What can be sacred with the objective work
of architecture, such as the museum you mentioned,
is not the development of an inflexible program, of
an idea that dictates all behavior. The very opposite is
what is wanted; places are given zest through unpredictability. Architecture is not made to support a rigid
program. The program just has to exist as a pretext for
construction. The possibility of human unpredictability is to be activated though architecture. It is not fixed.
It is a process of breaking lose. That is why I think ar-

chitecture that is rather badly done is interesting.

AB: Interesting. This can sometimes be found in
certain cities, especially slums that were built without
any urban planning or regulations. It is a rather illicit
work, outside the norms. If an area has a certain uniformity in scale, urbanism, urban sensation, we are reminded a bit of the old construction of cities, right? If
the area is a speculative city that was designed outside
of these standards it is a city that is less urban and more
difficult to live in. I say this only in relationship to the
architectural language.
PMR: Well, you have already commented on this
adaptation, which could be described as a slum, such
as those in Venezuela or Brazil. The most important
manifestation of the urban process, the urban conscience in our cities, exists in the slums. This is really
very desirable.
AB: Which advice would you give to the new generations of architects that are forming in America?

PMR: I believe that a studious, worthy, young person would not follow my advice. By my description of
such a student I mean an individual that does not only
read architecture magazines, but reads about philosophy, linguistics, and is capable of interpreting the essence of mathematics and construction. Someone who
is an artist, a technician and a scientist all at once. The
world is changing so fast, that we [the professionals]
have to now ask for advice from them [the students].
Our experience is already configured on the basis of
technique and what has to be built. The ability to adapt
is fresher in the mind of a young architect than in the
mind of an old one. We are not afraid of a lack of experience, we can work together, but we tend to associate
the dynamic of us offering advice and them accepting
it attentively. This is not always the case. Growth in architecture is not found in the books. It is found in the
city.
AB: And that is a perfect ending.

Conversation with Milton Braga of MMBB

Milton Braga is a renowned Brazilian architect

who Mastered and Doctored from the School of Architecture and Urbanism at the University of Sao Paulo.
There he studied under the tutelage of Pritzker Prizewinner Paulo Mendes da Rocha and Joao Batista Vilanova Artigas, who are primarily associated with the
Paulista School of Brazilian architecture.
Alfredo Brillembourg, director of Urban-Think
Tank in Caracas and Sao Paulo and founder of S.L.U.M
Lab at Columbia University, discussed with Braga the
strong Brazilian style of architecture, studying under
the principal architects of So Paulo, and the concept
of building his own city.

Until then, I thought that most of So Paulo was like

AB: How do you describe where you live?
most world cities and that there were characteristics
that were common to the nature of cities, but now I
MB: I live in a place that has quality modern archi- know that this is not the case. The architecture of So
tecture and is home to perhaps one of the most modern Paulo is very tied to the city.
and best housing complexes in the world.
AB: How would you define So Paulo?
AB: The city in which an architect lives or the city
in which he establishes himself is very important to his
MB: Alexandre Alves Costa is a Portuguese archicareer. . .
tecture historian who is very familiar with Brazil who
wrote of So Paulo as something which is discovered
MB: I do not doubt this. I only began to better un- through alternate things. I think that So Paulo is not
derstand So Paulo after living for one year in London. generally thought of as being an attractive city. People
come here to work or for other reasons but they do not
come in search of the city itself. Costa says So Paulo is
an ugly, dirty place, but a city that one can learn to love.
He describes the city as an archipelago of points and
nobody knows how exactly they are organized This allows each individual to create the city they most desire
by choosing and linking the points they wish, which is
more or less what I do! I live here and work over there.
..
AB: The idea that you can build your own city is
a beautiful concept that can be applied to all the big
cities. . .
MB: Yes, but most of all to So Paulo because it is
a very fragmented city. There is a quality that emerges
of a city you have to assemble and that is not readymade..
AB: How do you view the great metropolis?

"My generation has less modern hope and this is because

we saw more and know more. But hope is more than just an
intellectual conclusion, it is also a sensibility a passion...
Passion is fundamental to an architect."

MB: The metropolis besides being an immense

uran spot encompasses spots of urbanized areas in the
periphery which have a connection to the greater city.
I would describe the So Paulo metropolis as extending around 80 kilometers by 40 kilometers. Mogi das
Cruzes would be one extreme to the East and Santana
do Parnaiba is near the other extreme to the West. And,
for example, Santos, the main harbor of So Paulo Region, which is only about 60 kilometers away is separatContemporary Paulista continued pg 38

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

37

Contemporary Paulista, cont.

ed from us by the Serra do Mar, a chain of mountains

800m about sea level. Even with this obstacle So Paulo
still maintains an intense relationship with Santos and
it forms part of the larger macro-metropolis.
AB: Getting more into the topic of architecture,
can you tell me about your architectural education?
MB: I studied in the 1980s at the Universidade de
So Paulo, which is the public university of So Paulo,
under Joao Batista Vilanova Artigas. Artigas was the
principal architect of So Paulo and was perhaps the
one who gave a Paulista or local character to the modern architecture of the city. This is the thinking of architecture that most strongly influenced So Paulo. . .
AB: More rude, more brutal?
MB: Yes, but that is not the best side of it. It is a
thinking that produces very powerful and very strong
buildings, both in terms of matearility and in terms of
signification. If you go to the university, for example,
the building of the school of architecture designed by
Artigas has been without maintenance for 40 years but
it still look good. The bridge we are looking at now is
certainly not delicate but in So Paulo it doesnt stand
out. It might look bad in a European city, it would definitely look monstrous, but here it does not. This is a
city that requires strong intervention. It is like the great
North American cities that are also so strong. This
character was first brought to the city by Artigas, for
better or for worse.
Artigas was rough to study under, as was Paulo
Mendes da Rocha. Their convictions and ideas were
very strong, almost to the point that we were cut-off
from forces of architecture outside Brazil. We had magazines and a library, of course, but we never discussed
the information that could be found there because we
were not encouraged to do so. Artigas was very political; he always had a political spectrum in his discourse.
He would ask us to consider what matters to the country. Artigas clearly considered outside influences to be
almost a type of imperialism, a kind of cultural and
economic domination, especially during the years of
dictatorships in Latin America. Things have changed a
lot. Today we value different things and we are encouraged to consider everything and not be isolated. When
I studied we were much more introspective.
AB: When was Artigas born?
MB: Artigas was born in 1915 and died in 1985.
Rocha is younger, he was born in 1928. Neither of them
were part of the Le Corbusier time in Brazil. When they
became architects Corbusier was already famous and
very far away from them, so they had no contact with
him. Quite the contrary, Artigas sometimes thought
that the influence of Corbusier and other foreigners
was something not to search for.
AB: Can you tell me more about Paulo Mendes da
Rocha?
MB: The work of Rocha is very important.. He is
one of the most ambitious architects today, and many
times he does not limit his projects by the difficulties
and the limitations of architecture. Rocha always begins his work thinking what is it that we really want to
do. Many times he starts his classes by saying that one
of the first things an architect has to do, before thinking
of the beauty, the uniquiness, the novelty, is to think of
how to avoid disaster.

38

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

AB: How does modern architecture differ from

So Paulo to Rio de Janeiro?
MB: The architecture in Rio is much lighter and
more delicate. Carioca design was very influenced by
Oscar Neimeiyer and Eduardo Reidy, but Reidys approach was closer to that of So Paulo, it was more
angular. There is a Brazilian writer that I really enjoy,
Guimares Rosa, who talked about how he had to write
the Portuguese language differently, more roughly, in
the Brazilian countryside he said once that he wanted his Portuguese more pedregoso, which means, to
make the portuguese more rocky, so he introduced
neologisms. I believe that this is like Paulista architecture and like that of Reidy, which was a little less
curved, less sensual, and more angular in Rio.
AB: Can we bring Braslia into the discourse?
MB: Braslia is interesting because it is not related
to our colonial history. It has been said many times that
through creating Braslia we could overcome our colonial past and affirm a Brazilian project for the future
of the country. Brazilian architecture is capable of important feats. I have traveled a lot and I still think that
Braslia is one of the most important architecture and
urban works of the 20th century.
AB: Regarding the style of architecture, would you
say that the Brazilian scale is large by nature?
MB: It is the largest I have known. Architects
here have to be strong overall in the sense of scale. The
trans-Amazon highway was invaded by the forest, so
to build a road in Amazonia you have to build a strong
road. In So Paulo it is more or less the same; in order
for the architecture to not be overtaken, eaten by the
city, you have to make things strong.
AB: What about the Brazilian scale of infrastructure?
MB: Infrastructure is grand in scale and at the
same time contemporary because it is constantly being
built. In So Paulo we have many poor zones lacking
infrastructure. We have a lot of the social equipment
(schools, health modules) necessary in these areas but
we dont have the infrastructure; there are not enough
side walks, public illumination, drainage systems, adequate transportation means, etc. The problem is that
many times these areas are overlooked by the government and by those who can assign money to the needed projects. What we need to do is invest money for the
city as a whole and not for particular groups of people.
Well-done infrastructure has an inherent sense of systemic logic that makes the distribution of resources
more democratic.
AB: So access to infrastructure democratizes the
city, would this be the right idea?
MB: It would at least be more exempt of the political agents of the city, but we are not there yet. Infrastructure many times permits us to return to the
modern dream. In Portuguese illusion is a bad word
because it implies a badly informed hope, something
that will not triumph. It is a better word in Spanish
because instead of false hope it describes a true hope.
The modern dream is beautiful for architecture but
it must not be a hope in the Portuguese sense of the
word, it should be a hope or illusion in the Spanish
sense. Infrastructure permits us to have this hope. We
have to transform it into an urbanizing instrument on
the grander scale which allows designers to face the

scale of the city without treating it like an ideal object

to be fully controlled a big mistake of the modern
urbanism - and also to transform it into an urbanizing
instrument through which we build urbanity and not
only a specific service.
AB: Tell me about your generation of architects.
MB: My generation has less modern hope and
this is because we saw more and know more, in a historic point of view, as a generation. But hope is more
than just an intellectual conclusion; it is also a sensibility. Rocha contaminated us with his hope and it is in all
modern Brazilian architecture.
AB: What can Brazil teach us?
MB: Brazil obliges us to thinking about what would
be interesting to do and less about what our conditions
tell us we should do. Rocha says we men are what we
want to be, we are a project of ourselves. The worst aspect of an architect is his own conformity; conformism
is equivalent to the absence of hope. Optimism and
passion is fundamental to an architect.

SLUMLAB magazine is published two-times yearly

(fall/winter, spring/summer) by SLUMLAB, GSAPP.

mac.com

If you would like more information or would like to

The Editors have attempted to trace and acknowledge all volunteer with SLUMLAB, please send an email to:
sources of images used in this magazine and apologize office@u-tt.com
for any errors and omissions.
Donations to SLUMLAB can be made at
Subscriptions should be addressed to:
http://surglobalthefilm.com/film.php
SLUMLAB Magazine
Graduate School of Architecture, Planning
and Preservation
Avery Hall 1172 Amsterdam Ave.
Columbia University
New York, NY 10027
Subscriptions shall be honored from the date of the
publication until supplies last.Subscriptions per year,
individual rates: U.S. and Possessions $10, Canada
and Mexico $15. Outside North America, postage not
included.
Advertising rates and sponsering information for
SLUMLAB Magazine, please email: urbanthinktank@

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

39

O Paulista Visionario
Entrevista, Paulo Mendes da Rocha
Paulo Mendes da Rocha um arquiteto Brasileiro que teve
a honra de receber o Prmio Pritzker e tambm o Prmio
Mies van der Rohe. Ele recebeu seu diploma da Escola de
Arquitetura da Universidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie em
1954 e conhecido por ter construdo uma variedade de edifcios culturais em So Paulo, incluindo o Museu de Esculturas Brasileiras e o Estdio Serra Dourada. Muitas de suas
obras foram feitas em concreto e ao, e ele conhecido como
o decano informal do estilo Brutalista Brasileiro.

AB: Paulo, um prazer estar contigo em So Paulo, gostaria
de falar um pouco sobre conceitos especficos na Amrica,
arquitetura e a natureza.

PMR: A primeira coisa que se sabe da Amrica
de sua geografia multidimensional. A influncia da geografia na humanidade a forca principal para a criao de uma
nova cultura popular; a essncia da nossa existncia aqui
na terra. Devemos tratar a natureza no somente como uma
paisagem ou um fenmeno, mais devemos acreditar que estas transformaes iro influenciar e modelar o nosso futuro. Para mim, a cidade do futuro ir aceitar todas estas
transformaes e iremos aprender a nos adaptar a natureza
de modo inteligente e criativo, atingindo um estado mais
evoludo.

AB: Voc disse que s vezes o arquiteto de certa
forma tem o potencial de antecipar uma catstrofe, ou seja,
prever o percurso das coisas, e com sua obra arquitetnica
pode ajudar a evitar certa catstrofe.

PMR: Voc pode acreditar nisso, mais como um
discurso do que um instrumento efetivo. possvel que um
arquiteto tenha uma obra que possa influenciar o uso e a
especulao da natureza, mais eu creio mais na formao de
uma conscincia inclusa em todas as camadas dos empreedi-mentos humanos. A nica coisa que se pode fazer de
imaginar alguns aspectos desta catstrofe e tentar entender
as logsticas do comportamento da geomorfologia ao seu ao
seu redor. Todas as cidades na costa da Amrica de maneira
geral sempre lutaram para ter o controle do mar, aprovestando seu lugar geografico privilegiado. Acabam tambm
transformando a geografia ao seu redor, como as cidades de
Santos, Rio de Janeiro, Salvador e Bahia, mesmo a Bacia da
Prata. Esta uma questo muito interessante quanto capacidade dos arquitetos.
Mais eu no creio nesta capacidade especficamente como
um profissional. natural para os arquitetos de considerarem questes humansticas de antropologia e lingstica,
tcnicas objetivas e tcnicas cientficas aplicveis como a
mecnica do solo e a re sistncia dos materiais. Como seria
possvel desenvolver com profundidade todos estes captulos de conhecimento?

AB: Dizia um colega norte americano Peter Eisenman que no se pode ser um arquiteto sem ter um conceito.

PMR: A rigor eu estendo esta reflexo de Peter
Eisenman. Se uma pessoa no digna, no seria nunca um
arquiteto. Tem que se ter muita coragem para construir.
Mais estes ensaios so muito interessantes. Como a realizao de uma habitao popular no centro de cidade, que
desenvolve o trfico de pedestres, o comrcio, o cinema, e
como um todo, surge como se fosse uma nova geografia.

AB: Voc disse certa vez que a unio doengenheiro
e do arquiteto, entre a estrutura e a arquitetura, forma uma
s.

PMR: Uma s. Por que se o edifcio no vai cair, a
arquitetura e a engenharia tm que ser uma s.

AB: Suas obras chamam muito minha
ateno, pois se descobrem atravs do corte, atravs da seco.
Os volumes de alguma forma e o entendimento da complexidade espacial tridimensional se descobrem em corte.

PMR: Creio que verdade. Eu uso as seces de estruturas especiais que j ex istem tectonicamente. Eu acredito que possvel projetar uma continuao desta geografia,
que se transforma em uma experincia arquitetural, uma

40

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

obra de arquitetura.

AB: Voc acredita que as cidades antigas, sero
abandonadas e em seu lugar iro se construir cidades novas
por causo do custo de um processo retro-ativo em cidades
como So Paulo e Caracas? Como na China, que onde hoje
tem mais de 60 cidades em construo?

PMR: Eu no sei o que vai acontecer, mais o que
se registra que no se vai fazer nada como se est fazendo
na China. A cidade verticalizada no tem nada a ver com
uma aglomerao absurda. Uma cidade no simplesmente
uma aglomerao, uma nova forma de densificar as pessoas. Um caos histrico, como se encontra em Paris, no
um desastre em si, mais uma experincia quase desejvel,
como viver nas ruas do Marais em num caos delicioso.
muito interessante. Acontece que neste discurso se percebe,
entre os outros motivos, que uma cidade densa no uma
aglomerao. Aglomerao um caso de contestao, o retiro dos refugiados. No uma cidade.

AB: Seguindo nesse mesmo tema, se fala muito da
cidade sustentvel, que um conceito ambguo. Como voc
o definiria? Eu acredito que o apoio das pessoas o aspecto
mais importante de uma boa arquitetura.

PMR: E o que quer dizer sustentvel? Tem que se
ter uma viso clara, e como j possvel imaginar a extino da existncia humana temos que ser sustentveis. No
podem existir somente aes isoladas, como painis solares.
A sustentabilidade deve ser levada em considerao em todas as nossas decises. Chile, por exemplo, o Brasil, Peru,
Bolvia tem um plano conjunto para uma travessia do Atlntico ao Pacfico, como se fosse unir a bacia amaznica com
um sistema de navegao fluvial atravs da Bacia da Prata.
Ento so estes os tipos de projeto de que precisamos, mostrando uma maneira ntida de tocar a natureza de uma forma
que a faa melhor, no pior.

AB: De que forma So Paulo influenciou suas obras
de arquitetura?

PMR: Acredito que ns concordamos que a idia
de ser influenciado muito conspcua. No se percebe exatamente como se est sendo influenciado. A cidade de So
Paulo, para um estudante de arquitetura este do terico,
inspira uma contradio na violncia. Caracas representa
uma violncia quase insuportvel, porque o que voc v da
porta da escola para fora, est em oposio a tudo que voc
aprendeu. J sabemos quanto que a misria aumentou ultimamente. Por que uma coisa voc no saber o que um
micrbio, o que esta peste que est nos matando todos.
A outra coisa voc saber muito bem o que e no poder
agir e a populao est a morrer. Portanto vivemos em meio
a desejos e angstias, que uma dimenso nova do gnero
humano.

AB: Quando eu vi a sua obra do museu, me chamou
muito a ateno que voc escolheu uma praa pblica como
o programa do museu; um espao pblico parcialmente
fechado como uma idia. Este espao ento converteu o museu em uma rea que poderia acolher qualquer tipo de espetculo. Recorda-me um pouco dos passeios fechados de Villanueva, ou as de Lina, onde ocorre todo tipo de atividades.
Voc v que a obra de arquitetura pode ser como um marca
passos para a cidade, uma que prolonga a vida da cidade e
tm a tendncia de se interromper quando esse tipo de especulao ocorre.

PMR: O que pode ser sacro em uma obra objetiva
de arquitetura como o museu do qual voc fala, a falta de
um programa inflexvel ou fechado, baseado em uma idia
que dita o comportamento do usurio. O que desejvel
exatamente o contrrio, o desencadeamento do imprevisvel, e esta a graa da vida humana. A arquitetura no
feita para sustentar um programa rgido. O programa tem
que existir somente como um pretexto para a construo. O
que se quer dizer que a possibilidade da imprevisibilidade
humana deve der exercitada atravs da arquitetura. No
fixo. um desencadeamento. Por isso so interessantes as

obras de arquitetura um tanto quanto mal feitas.

AB: Interessante. Isto pode ser encontrado s vezes
em cidade, especialmente nas favelas, que foram construdas
sem um regulamento urbano, sendo uma obra um pouco
ilcita, fora das normas. Se uma cidade tem uma certa uniformidade de escala, urbanizao, sensao urbana, recordam
um pouco a construo das cidades mais antigas, no acha?
Se uma cidade especulativa, projetada fora das normas do
conhecimento tradicional de uma cidade, acaba sendo uma
cidade menos urbana e mais difcil de se viver. Digo isso somente com relao linguagem arquitetnica.

PMR: Bom, voc j comentou sobre este tipo de
adaptao, no qual a favela um exemplo, seja na Venezuela
ou no Brasil. A maior manifestao do processo de urbanismo a conscincia urbana, que j existe nas favelas. Isto
muito desejvel.

AB: Que conselho voc poderia passar as novas geraes de arquitetos que se esto formando na Amrica?

PMR: Creio que um jovem estudioso a digno no
seguiria meus conselhos. Baseado em minha definio, este
estudante no l somente revistas de arquitetura, mais l tambm sobre filosofia, lingstica, e tambm tm a capacidade
de interpretar a essncia da matemtica e da construo. Algum que um artista, um tcnico e um cientista, tudo de
uma vez. O mundo esta mudando to rpido que somos ns
quem precisamos de conselhos dos jovens. Nossa experincia j est baseada na tcnica do que se deve fazer para construir e o que se deve construir. A habilidade de adaptao
est muito mais fresca na cabea de um jovem arquiteto do
que de um velho arquiteto. O que tememos no o problema
de falta de experincia, pois podemos trabalhar juntos. Mais
temos a mania de acreditar que somos ns quem damos os
conselhos e os jovens os escutam com muita ateno. No
sempre assim. Crescimento na arquitetura estar fora dos
livros; estar na cidade.

AB: um final perfeito.

O Paulista Contemporneo
Entrevista, Milton Braga
Milton Braga um renomado arquiteto brasileiro, recebeu seu mestrado e doutorado da Faculdade de Arquitetura e
Urbanismo da Universidade de So Paulo (FAU-USP). Estudou sob a instruo do arquiteto Paulo Mendes da Rocha,
que recebeu o premio Pritzker, e o arquiteto Joo Batista Vilanova Artigas, adjuntos da Escola Paulista de Arquitetura
Brasileira. Ele tambm um scio da firma MMBB, que foi
premiada pelo seu projeto do estacionamento subterrneo
da Praa Trianon no Brasil. Tem recentemente colaborado
com Paulo Mendes da Rocha em vrios projetos incluindo o
Poupatempo Itaquera e a restaurao da Oca.
Alfredo Brillembourg, diretor do Urban-Think Tank em
Caracas e So Paulo e tambm o fundador do S.L.U.M. Lab
na Columbia University em Nova Iorque, conversou com
Braga para discutir o forte estilo arquitetural brasileiro, sua
experincia estudando sob os principais arquitetos de So
Paulo e o conceito de construir sua prpria cidade.
AB: Como voc descreve o lugar aonde vive?
MB: Eu moro em um lugar que tem uma arquitetura
moderna de qualidade e tambm onde se tem um dos
maiores complexos residenciais modernos do mundo.
AB: A cidade na qual um arquiteto decide viver e se estabelecer muito importante para a sua carreira
MB: Sem dvidas. Comecei somente a entender So
Paulo melhor depois de morar um ano em Londres. At ento, pensava que a maioria de So Paulo era igual maioria
das cidades no mundo, tendo caractersticas que so comuns
a cidades por natureza. Mais agora, eu sei que este no o
caso. A arquitetura de So Paulo bem conectada a cidade.
AM: Como definiria So Paulo
MB: Alessandri Alvez Costa um arquiteto historiador
portugus que tem muita familiaridade com o Brasil, e escreveu que So Paulo tem algo que descoberto atravs de
meios alternativos. Eu penso que So Paulo em geral no
vista como uma cidade atraente. A pessoa vem pra c para
trabalhar ou por outras razoes, mais elas no vem em busca
da cidade em si. Costa diz que So Paulo um lugar feio e
sujo, mais uma cidade em que se aprende a amar. Ele descreve a cidade como um arquiplago de pontos e ningum
sabe como a cidade foi construda ou como se move entre
eles. Isso permite a cada individuo de criar a cidade que
querem mais, o que o que eu fao mais ou menos. Eu moro
aqui e trabalho l...
AB: A idia de que voc pode construir sua prpria cidade um conceito muito bonito que pode ser usado em
todas as cidades grandes...
MB: Sim, mais principalmente em So Paulo porque
uma cidade muito fragmentada. Existe uma qualidade que
emerge de uma cidade em que voc tem que montar o que
ainda no est pronto. Isto verdade em So Paulo porque
existem dois povoados que moram aqui, o municpio que
tem mais ou menos 10 milhes de pessoas e a grande So
Paulo, a metrpole, que agora tem uma populao de quase
20 milhes de pessoas.
AB: Como voc v a grande metrpole?
MB: A metrpole inclui reas urbanizadas que tem uma
conexo para a grande So Paulo. A grande So Paulo se estende em uma rea de 80 kilmetros por quarenta kilmetros. Mogi das Cruzes, que est no extremo Leste e Santana
do Paraba no extremo Oeste. A cidade de Santos est a 60
kilmetros de So Paulo mais separada por uma montanha
de 800m acima do nvel do mar. Apesar deste obstculo, So
Paulo ainda mantm um relacionamento forte com Santos,
que parte da macro-metropolis.
AB: Vamos falar um pouco mais sobre arquitetura. Podeme contar um pouco sobre sua educao arquitetural?
MB: Eu estudei nos anos 80 na Universidade de So
Paulo, que uma escola pblica em So Paulo, sob a instruo de Joo Batista Vilanova Artigas. Artigas era o arquiteto principal em So Paulo e foi ele que deu a So Paulo
a arquitetura moderna da cidade seu carter Paulista. Este

o estilo que mais influenciou So Paulo, e um estilo muito

forte.
AB: Mais brusco?
MB: Sim, mais este no e seu lado mais positivo. E um
estilo muito duradouro. Se voc for universidade, por exemplo, os prdios no tem tido nenhuma manuteno por
30 anos e ainda esto em plena forma. A ponte para a qual
estamos olhando agora monstruosa, mais em So Paulo
ela se encaixa. Talvez seria muito feia ou monstruosa em
uma cidade da Europa, mais aqui no. Esta uma cidade que
requer uma forte interveno. E como as grandes cidades
Norte Americanas, que tambm so fortes. Este foi o carter
trazido por Artigas, por bem ou por mal.
Foi difcil estudar sob Artigas e tambm Paulo Mendes da Rocha. Suas idias e convices eram muito fortes,
ao ponto de que quase se excluram das foras arquiteturais
fora do Brasil. Tnhamos revistas e uma biblioteca, claro,
mais nunca discutamos a informao que poderia ser l encontrada porque nunca fomos encorajados para discuti-lo.
Artigas era muito poltico; sempre tinha um espectro poltico em todos seus discursos. Ele nos pedia para perguntar o
que importava para o pas. Artigas claramente considerava
influencias internacionais como quase um tipo de imperialismo, um tipo de dominao cultural e econmica, especialmente durante os anos de ditadura da America Latina.
Tudo mudou muito. Hoje valorizamos coisas diferentes e
somos encorajados a considerar tudo e no ficarmos isolados. Quando estavamos estudando, ramos bem mais introspectivos.
AB: Quando Artigas nasceu?
MB: Artigas nasceu em 1915 e morreu em 1985. Rocha
era mais novo, nasceu em 1928. Nenhum deles se envolveu
com Le Corbusier quando estava no Brasil. Quando se tornaram arquitetos, Corbusier j era famoso e bem longe deles, ento no tiveram contato nenhum com eles. Bem pelo
contrrio, Artigas s vezes pensava que a influncia de Corbusier e outros estrangeiro no deveria ser cobiada.
AB: Pode-me dizer um pouco mais sobre Paulo Mendes
da Rocha?
MB: O trabalho de Rocha foi muito importante. Foi
feito com mais esperana que o trabalho de Artigas ou
qualquer um dos grandes mestres modernos. Ele um dos
arquitetos mais ambiciosos de hoje. Ele sempre comea seus
projetos pensando no que realmente queremos fazer, mais
s vezes ele no entende as dificuldades e as limitaes da
arquitetura. Muitas vezes ele comea suas aulas dizendo que
uma das primeiras coisas um arquiteto tem que fazer e evitar
desastre, mais em ser criativo, o fazer de coisas bonitas pode
s vezes levar ao desastre.
AB: Como a arquitetura moderna se diferencia entre
So Paulo e o Rio de Janeiro?
MB: A arquitetura do Rio muito mais leve e delicada.
O design Carioca teve muita influencia de Oscar Niemeyer e
(Affonso Reidy) Reidy, mais o estilo de Reidy era mais parecido com o estilo de So Paulo. Era um pouco mais angular. Tem um autor brasileiro que eu gosto muito, Guimares
Rosa, que disse que ele precisava escrever o Portugus de
modo diferente nas reas mais rurais, de forma mais grosseira, ento ele introduziu o neologismo. Eu acredito que este
exemplo e como a arquitetura Paulista, e como a arquitetura
de Reidy no Rio, que talvez no fosse to brusca, mais menos
curvada, menos sensual e mais angular.
AB: Podemos introduzir Braslia a conversa?
MB: Braslia interessante porque no tem relao
nenhuma a nossa historia colonial. Foi dito vrias vezes
que atravs da criao de Braslia poderamos sobrepujar o
nosso passado colonial e estabelecer a engenharia brasileira. A arquitetura brasileira capaz de grandes conquistas.
Eu viajei pelo mundo inteiro e acredito que Braslia uma
dos projetos mais importantes de arquitetura e urbanismo
do sculo vinte.
AB: A respeito de estilo de arquitetura, voc diria que a

escala Brasileira grande por natureza?

MB: a maior que eu conheo. O arquiteto aqui tem
que ser fortes em geral no sentido da escala. A rodovia que
atravessa o Amazonas foi invadida pela floresta, ento, para
construir uma estrada no Amazonas, voc tem que construir uma estrada muito forte. quase a mesma coisa em So
Paulo. Para que a arquitetura no seja engolida pela cidade,
voc tem que faz-la forte.
AB: E a escala da infra-estrutura brasileira?
MB: A infra-estrutura muito grande em escala, e tambm ao mesmo tempo contempornea, porque est constantemente sendo construda. Em So Paulo temos muitas reas pobres com uma grande falta de infra-estrutura;
no se tem caladas, iluminao nas ruas, etc. O problema
que vrias vezes, estes projetos no so considerados importantes pelo governo e aqueles que poderiam designar um
dinheiro para concretizar estes projetos. O que temos que
fazer investir dinheiro na cidade como um todo e no somente para um grupo especfico de pessoas. Uma estrutura
bem feita tem um senso de lgica sistmica que faz com que
a distribuio de recursos seja mais democrtica.
AB: Ento o acesso a infra-estrutura democratiza a cidade, correto?
MB: No mnimo, seria mais livre dos agentes polticos
da cidade, mais ainda no estamos l. A infra-estrutura nos
permite retornar ao sonho moderno. Em Portugus, a palavra iluso no uma boa palavra, pois significa uma idia
baseada em uma esperana mal informada, algo que nunca
ser completado. uma palavra melhor em espanhol porque
ao invs de uma idia falsa, descreve uma verdadeira esperana. O sonho moderno lindo para a arquitetura, mais no
pode ser uma esperana no sentido da palavra em Portugus, mais sim no sentido da palavra em Espanhol.
AB: E sobre a sua gerao de arquitetos?
MB: Minha gerao tem menos esperanas modernas, e isto porque vimos muita arquitetura que falhou
em So Paulo. Mais esperana mais do que somente uma
concluso intelectual, tambm uma sensibilidade uma
paixo. Rocha nos contaminou com seu estilo de esperana
e est presente em toda a arquitetura moderna brasileira.
AB: O que o Brasil pode nos ensinar?
MB: O Brasil nos fora a pensar mais no que seria interessante fazer e menos nas condies que nos dizem o
que temos que fazer. Rocha diz ns homens somos o que
queremos ser, somos um projeto de ns mesmos e temos
que fazer o melhor projeto que podemos. O pior aspecto
da arquitetura seu prprio conformismo; conformismo
equivalente a ausncia de esperana. Paixo fundamental
para o arquiteto.

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

41

Open Call for Activists in Architecture and Urbanism

RE-ACT LAB

Studio So Paulo

URBAN-THINK TANK and ANCB

at Aedes Network Campus in Berlin on 12-20 August 2010

The Aedes Network Campus Berlin (ANCB) is a think laboratory, geared to the application of space and design strategies. It
sees itself as both a networking node for its international university partners and a laboratory interface between the professional
world and the public. It serves as a platform for experimentation,
research and dialogue in the thematic field of the built environment and its opportunities for future development, and poses central questions about the responsibility of participating disciplines
to society, economy and environment.
One key activity of ANCB is the Re-act Lab:
The aim of the Re-act Lab annual conference and workshop programme is to focus attention and awareness on the challenges,
problems and opportunities encountered in the development of
both global centres and regional residential areas in developing
and newly industrializing countries.
A studio by Columbia University and Faculty of Architecture and
Urbanism of the University of So Paulo/Technical University Munich/Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of So
Paulo, So Paulo, with masters levels students from selected international universities, within the framework of the Re-act programme of Aedes Network Campus Berlin ANCB.

Studio Central Theme

The relationship between existing formal and informal urban realities in cities of the southern hemisphere, with So Paulo as a
case study.
It bases itself on both aspects: the steady growth of informal urban settlements and on the force of change triggered by planning
supported by the state. It intends to create visions beyond current trends in order to find long-term solutions that will transform
our cities. The studio will contain three main themes, the focus
and content on which all relate to overriding topics, that of the
relationship between concrete existing informal and formal urban
context.

1. Transport Infrastructure
2. Micro Infrastructure
3. Housing

Studio Directors: Alfredo Brillembourg & Hubert Klumpner

(Columbia University, N.Y.), Marcos L. Rosa (Urban Networks and Local Design - Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the University of So Paulo/Technical University Munich/Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the University
of So Paulo and Eduard Kgel, Institute of Outer European
Urbanism).
Location: ANCB, Pfefferberg, Christinenstrasse, Berlin
Date: 12-20 August 2010
Cooperating Partners: Alfred Herrhausen Society and Doppelmayr
9-12 Master Students from Columbia University, FAU University of So Paulo/Escola da Cidade, So Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, UCLA, Texas A&M, Oslo Architecture School, German
Universities and others.
COST: 300 (includes workshop and housing)
For more info, please contact urbanthinktank@mac.com
42

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

SLUMLAB

Brazil, along with China and India is the
most dynamic expanding economy of the globe. With
a population in excess of 180 million in Brazil it is
impossible to understand Latin American cities without
looking at the urbanizing corridor of So de Janeiro.
The two largest cities of the country So Paulo and Rio
de Janeiro with a combined population in excess of 26
million people are the number one economic region in
Latin America.

The recent discovery of the oil field Pre-Salt
and the discussion about the distribution of oil-wealth
raises once again new questions about the inequalities
inside Brazilian cities.
Despite the insistence of the Paulistas and the Cariocas
on the differences between their cities, Sao Paulos
multinationality and power versus Rios sensuality
and beauty, they are merging into one metropolitan
region.

Opposing binary categories diluted within
imprecise limits, diffuse borders, intertwined processes,
translucent and dialogic realities, dictatorship and
democracy; reason and feeling; art and science; real
and virtual; order and chaos; left and right; opulence
and poverty; but the formal city and informal city
cannot be further separated by such sharp dividing
lines. Both So Paulo and Rio have now realized their
common responsibility to address the inequality of an
asymmetric society on an architectural platform.

The broken city is not segregated but
constantly intermingles the opulent with the defenseless
along the river solar of the south Favelas of Vidigal
next to the Sheraton Hotel; Rocinha at the entrance to
the luxurious residences of San Conrado; Pavo near
Copacabana and Parispolis next to Morumbi with the
Governors Palace. These images represent the aesthetic
and symbolic, natural and architectonic values, which
make So Paulo and Rio iconographic throughout the
world.

A creative explosion in this friction zone, only
reminiscent of the 1960s, fuels fashion, film, design,
architecture and music.
STUDIO WORKS

The studio will question the dichotomy of
The Mega-City of the south separated in formal and
informal areas and look into the creation of possible
bridges, connectors and overlaps as the opportunities
for a new role for architecture as generator and inventive
power of new programs and processes. The Studio will
ask questions, create consciousness and debate how
to imagine new building typologies and readings of
cityness.
This Brazil Architecture Experiment will generate 10
to 15 test designs on existing sites in the So Paulo or
Rio Metropolitan Area.

The studio enjoys the support of the mayors
office in a project that will create the basis for a future
design initiatives involving architecture schools around
the world to participate in the design of innovative
projects that will address this question in industrial
waste land, inner city abandoned blocks, Islands, and
Ghettos. SPAE Project.

Both cities have extensively researched their
territory and been analyzed by the LSE Urban Age Teams
who have created a basic digital databank available to
the studio (www.urban-age.net) to speculate on new
ways of interpreting the DNA of Rio and So Paulo and
to assemble a new city to question the current condition

and propose catalytic site interventions along with the

creation of a working thesis that can include:
1. Democratize the city by making it accessible to all
citizens, by creating new and alternative interurban
transport systems.
2. Favor the connectivity of the urban structure as a
whole, addressing the divided city, especially but not
only in the areas of poverty.
3. Open up places in the existing urban fabric by

introducing spaces and buildings as urbanisticenvironmental re-articulators and re-qualifiers.

4. Create new centralities and empower the existing
ones as well as increasing the connectivity between
them.
5. Produce a drastic change in the image of the area
6. Produce cohesion by articulating heterogeneous
logics, unifying the city without homogenization.
etc.
1. INVESTIGATION

First the studio will break up into groups
and speculate on the realities of different alternative
technologies and strategies in Transportation,
Infrastructure, and Resources. The exploration
will encompass studying methodologies, materials,
construction techniques and commercial products to
propose complex products and methods to work in
both the developing and developed world.

The exploration will be conducted under the
premise that a particular socio- economic reality,
technology or strategy could successfully transform
the dived city in one urban field. i.e. Cable Car Systems,
Cell Phones, etc. The studio will build on the newly
generated relationship between the Earth Institute and
GSAPP along with So Paulo and Rio resources as an
interdisciplinary laboratory.
2. FAMILIARIZATION

In a second phase we will familiarize ourselves
with the living conditions in the cities of So Paulo or
Rio.

Both cities are slated for future upgrading
projects like a high-speed train, the current Olympic
Bid for 2016, large urban upgrading processes, etc.
This familiarization process will be supported by a
direct visit of Elisabete Frana director of SEHAB, So
Paulos municipal housing agency.

We will look critically at best-case practices
in Brazil. Throughout the semester designers of the
exhibited projects will be in class for presentations and
discussions. (Jaime Lerner, Jorge Mario Jauregui, Ciro

Pirondi, etc. have expressed their interest to join with

us). The Studio will also connect with representatives
of the industry and receive consulting from companies
producing Urban Cable car systems, etc.
3. APPLICATION

This phase is characterized by experimental
adaptation. In a workshop style environment, the
students will transfer potentially successful technologies,
strategies and principles to one of the sites in So Paulo
or Rio. Based on the actual conditions, the seminar
participants will develop proposals for buildings with
infrastructure upgrades concerning the research fields
of the investigation phase. The proposals can span
from detailed interventions like a new small-scale
infrastructure like a modular stair, to medium scale
ideas like a cultural center, or to large scale strategies
like interurban transport systems or the reorganization
of a waterfront with your building project.
Partners

The studio has the support of the Municipalities
of So Paulo and Rio de Janeiro.
Travel Plan

The entire studio traveled to Brazil, identifying
some of the concrete sites for architectural interventions
first hand.

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

43

Crrego da Mina
Land Area: 13,257 m2
Year Established: 1992
Number of Dwellings: 1209
Distance to city center: 33.3 km
Elevation Change: 46m

Eucaliptos
Land Area: 49,976 m2
Year Established: 1988
Number of Dwellings: 973
Distance to city center: 16.4 km

So Domingos

Elevation Change: 26m

Land Area: 7,623 m2

Year Established: 1972
Number of Dwellings: 300
Distance to city center: 17.3 km
Elevation Change: 18m

Moinho
Land Area: 143,457 m2
Estimated Built Area: 23,200 m2
Year Established: 2000
Estimated Population: over 3000
Distance to city center: 2.2 km
Elevation Change: Flat

Paraispolis
Land Area: 787,786 m2
Estimated Built Area: 621,621 m2
Year Established: 1960
Estimated Population: >100,000
Distance to city center: 11.67 km
Elevation Change: 64 m

Pirajussara
Land Area: 143,457 m2
Year Established: 1973
Number of Dwellings: 700
Distance to city center: 29.7 km
Elevation Change: 24m

Boulevard da Paz
Land Area: 377,957 m2
Year Established: 1995
Number of Dwellings: 1209
Distance to city center: 40 km
Elevation Change: 45m

Glicrio
Land Area: 240,000 m2
Year Established: 1800
Estimated Population: 10,000
Distance to city center: 0 km
Elevation Change: 30m

Helipolis
Land Area: 720,597 m2
Year Established: 1972

So Francisco

Number of Dwellings: 18,080

Land Area: 542,530 m2

Distance to city center: 8.6 km

Year Established: 1992

Elevation Change: 25m

Number of Dwellings: 4102

Distance to city center: 22 km
Elevation Change: 53m

Cocaia / Nova Graja

Vargem Grande

Land Area: 234.680 m2

Year Established: 1975
Number of Dwellings: 2283
Distance to city center: 30 km
Elevation Change: 40 m

Land Area: 2,774,887 m2

Year Established: 1989
Number of Dwellings: 8963
Distance to city center: 45 km
Elevation Change: 40m

Christopher Gee
The formal and informal actors working in
the Paraisopolis waste-collection industry are
burdened to maximum capacity within the existing system. Due to these shortcomings, the
process of recycling is only rarely undertaken.
Municipal Solid Waste recycles less than 1% of
recyclable materials , and while the informal network recycles 2672 tons per day, this is still only
19% of the total recycling potential for greaterSo
Paulo. The waste-pollution problem of Paraisopolis is growing due to the inefficiencies of these
systems. These inadequacies have led to both an
economic barrier, as the recyclable materials are
not profitted from, and a public barrier, as pollution impedes the development of the favela and
its integration into neighboring communities.
A common problem pertaining to both the
formal and informal waste-collection industry are
inadequate facilities allowing them to participate
in financially-viable recycling operations. Storage
space is limited in the favela and recyclers must
sell their product as soon as they fill their small
cache.
The strategy of this project is to create economic incentive to motivate all inhabitants, recycle-workers, and waste collection workers, to
participate in a more efficient system where all
parties increase substantial economic growth,
while remediating the environment and commu-

Collection of Prototype Nodes

Locations of
Dumpsters &
Middle Men

46

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

nity as a beneficial bi-product. The proprietor of

the economic incentive will take form as a Recycle
Bank system that receives and processes recycled
materials abundant in favellas into its most compact form for economically efficient storage and
transit, in which the participants are given the
choice to trade their material for immediate cash
on sale, or to store the material-value into the
bankto receive group revenues upon sale of
amassed material, or some combination thereof.
Components of the system will include:
1.) A decentralized collection network where
each node: pays residents to separate and deliver recycled material, has the ability of material processing and storage, and has capacity to
embed program that responds to habitation and
living. These use the typology of the storage silo
for its horizontal compactness that has an adaptable form that can pierce through several unique
favella conditions using a basic steel moment
frame structure, while its verticality allows it to
integrate with different levels of favella infrastructure: rooftop, mezzo, street, and underground.
Each node combines essential processes of recycling with infrastructure such as water towers, radio/wifi antennas, vertical connectors, and photo
voltaic cells, also combined with programs to
support the community like theaters, event spaces, recycle-mediatheques, live work, and vertical

farms.
2.) A material transit system that could include: a subterranean evacuation system that uses
a system of tubes and/or gravity-wheel conveyors to move pelletized plastic (via tubes) & baled
materials (via conveyors) that follow the natural gravity lines of water-infrastructure (natural,
drinking, & sewage), in addition to a truck collection system that will make use of new road infrastructure, or a gondola cable car system that could
move all materials and potentially people as well.
3.) A Recycle Bank that is a storage vault and
epicenter of the collection network, and has capacity to embed program that responds to support
the process of recycling in the community. This
center would be the collection hub that would
have full waste-processing capabilities: tipping
floor, manual sorting, mechanical sorting, and
material processing, with the addition of longterm storage silos and warehouses. Embedded
programs will include child care, postal boxes,
showers, workshops, and a community center.

Bi-Layer Roof

Pellet Storage Bank

Material Processing

A place to get paid, accrue

equity, clean the environment, &
participate in the community.

Program
& Circulation

Recycle Center
Recycle Bank

Agents Ambientals

These are the workers who straddle the formal/informal

collection that directly support the favella, working
during the day for the municipality, and continue
informally afterhours. This proposal was largely
informed through their pariticpation in extensive
interviews and was designed to support their benefit
as well as the favellas.

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

47

Stephanie Tung
The favela of So Francisco is facing a variety
of problems directly related to the community.
Housing program initiatives designed to improve
the living conditions for families in So Francisco
have been developed for decades. When residents
have been moved into the new vertical dwellings, however, problems have arisen, including
gentrification and the inability of residents to pay
their mortgages. Additionally, there are a lack of
commercial and public space within So Francisco. These failings and shortages have rendered

48

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

the area a bleak urban landscape. At present, the

construction of a new highway (Jacu-Pessego)
passing through So Francisco is set to have a tremendous impact on the existing community. This
projects two main focuses were to develop a new,
mixed housing typology and a response to the rethinking of the relationship between highways
and nearby communities.
A new housing typology has emerged as a result of this project. This model contains both the
efficiency of the top-down approach and the free-

dom and flexibility of the favela. These structures

will utilize simple pre-cast concrete frames that
allow for the aggregation of different forms and
the easy expansion of multi-purpose units. Space
for community gardens, laundry, shopping and
parking will also be incorporated into the buildings.
When rethinking the highway project there
are five main criteria that must to be addressed.
These include: 1.) Pollution reduction, 2.) Environmental management, 3.) Energy generation,
4.) Creation of community space, and 5.) Provision of job opporunities.
There are two main environmental issues
currently facing So Francisco: The possibility
of storm runoff from the future highway leading
to flooding (So Francisco is located at the tip of
So Paulos floodplane) and a local landfill that is
known to be releasing toxins. One proposed solution to both of these problems is the creation of
a man-made wetland. This will remediate runoff
and act as a sink to alleviate air pollution. It would
also prevent land-invasions in an area where individuals should not live due to high flood-risk and
toxin levels.
In addition to the man-made wetland is the
proposed design of a biowall constructed along
the highway. This biowall would absorb carbon
dioxide emitted from the highways automobiles
and feed it to micro-algae, which would then be
harvested and converted into biofuels. Remediated runoff from the wetland would also be recycled
to further stimulate algae-growth and facilitate
the growth of other floriculture on the biowall.
Community-space is easily obtained though
its incorporation underneath the highway construction; here exists the potential for community
program plug-ins and space for educational facilities, markets, and recreatio.

The lives of residents could hardly be improved by solely providing living

spaces.

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

49

Jacob Benyi

Crrego da Mina lies between two
morophologically dissimilar hills. The first is
tightly draped with two dense favelas: Recanto
da Paraiso and Recanto dos Humildes, which
are home to 28,000 people. The second hill is
unpopulated, save for two public schools sitting
atop its crest. These hills are bisected by a small
stream susceptible to flooding, Crrego do Mina,
which is lined with informal housing.

In addition to the threat of flooding, the
unpopulated hill on which the schools have been
built is also threatened, but by the likelihood

of informal development. Steps will have to be

taken in order to avoid both the loss of property
due to flooding and the potential invasion of the
hill. First, 580 at-risk structures must be removed
from the banks of Crrego da Mina. Second,
in order to preserve the hill to maintain its
ecology and provide open-space to the residents
of the communities it must, in some part, be
developed.

This project proposes the removal of the
homes along the Crrego do Mina in order to
facilitate the creation of a riverside park not at risk

of being harmed by flood-waters. The residents

displaced from this project would be moved to
the western side of the unpopulated hill, where
housing will be developed as modular clusters of
six units which adapt parametrically, responding
to the hillsides topography. As the hills contours
shift, the base module adjusts, adding levels,
or re-configuring courtyards and balconies to
provide an array of unique communities. The
construction will overlay with the cross-threaded
pathways currently connecting the existing favela
to the schools. The result will be over 175 clusters

A
D
B

A
E

D
A

C D

D
C

A - Existing Favela: Recantos do Paraso & dos

Humildes
B - Crrego do Mina - Linear Park
C - Housing Zone with Interwoven Public Spaces &
Paths
D - Public Zone with Schools & Football Fields
E - Open Preserve

B
basic module

6
5

a
modular transformations

50

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

lower units> <upper units

section a

section b

Typology #1

Module Config.

Modules: 1
Units: 10

Typology #2

Typology #3

Module Config.

Modules: 2
Units: 13
Circulation

Circulation

Green Space

Green Space

Density

Density

Slope

Slope

Module Config.

Typology #4

Module Config.

Modules: 2
Units: 20

Modules: 2
Units: 19
Circulation

Circulation

Green Space

Green Space

Density

Density

Slope

Slope

As the hills contours shift, the base module adjusts, adding levels, or re-configuring
courtyards and balconies to provide an array of unique communities.
of units, no two groups of which will be exactly
alike.

Additionally, public spaces will be developed
through the creation of two football fields joining
the schools at the hills crest. The Eastern portion
of the undeveloped hill will be designated a preserve
and remain undeveloped.

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

51

Jessica Helfand

The Billings Reservoir is an important
source of drinking water and has been a source
for hydro-electric energy. It is, however, highly
polluted as a result of city runoff being flushed
in from the Pinherios River and other smaller
rivers, a nearby landfill-leak, and other unnatural
sources. It also poses a flood-threat as the reservoir
occasionally swells up to 50 meters outside of
its normal boundary. The area surrounding the
Billings Reservoir is populated by favelas which
have often been damaged by flooding. The
proposed plan involves encouraging wetlands and
housing at precise locations which will restore and
preserve healthy water quality and quantity while
providing new, safe housing for the residents of
the favelas.

The topographic network of the site

indicates the precise location of the wetland and

specific points where housing in the flood-zone
should be removed and added in order to allow
the reservoirs water to flow naturally. In order
to facilitate the flow of water the project envisions
3 tiered pool wetland systems designed to be
situated in the natural drainage pathways leading
to the reservoir and ranging in depth from the
top of each catchment to the bottom of each
water basin. Water will filter through these pools
before reaching the reservoir, alowing pollutants
to be removed and providing an additional
holding capacity for flood-waters. Working in
conjunction with these pools, burm island
wetlands will function within the reservoir itself.
These islands will be made up of porous, floating
plant matter and biological life that naturally and

continuously filter and clean polluted reservoir

water. Both of these types of wetland function by
filtering harmful materials and defending against
floods as they provide the water with a slower and
more sinuous path.

The proposed housing design is deeply
linked to the natural topographic network and the
influence of light and water on the site. Housing
is elevated up to 15 feet above the ground in key
topographic points to allow for water to flow
naturally under buildings and through wetlands
to encourage its filtering before reaching the
reservoir. Elevated housing also maximizes the
preservation of green space below and between
the housing sites, which is unique in such a dense,
urban area. This added green space will act as
an ecological courtyard between the housing

tiered
pools
wetlands

water taxi
+ transit
hub
cable car
connection
public
parking
existing
favela

tiered
pools
wetlands

water-edge
housing

burm
islands
wetlands

tiered
pools
wetlands

existing
favela
recreation
+ ecological
preservation
zone

hill
housing

hill-edge
housing

street access +
parking below

hill housing prototype

52

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

hill-edge housing prototype

water-edge housing prototype

sites and can be used for recreation and wetlands.

The wetlands will also prevent further slum-growth,
thus encouraging the preservation of clean water and
nature in the midst of human development.

The housing itself will be made up of two
buildings with a total of 2300 units of social housing
of 50 square meters each to accomodate all of the
families currently living in the flood-zone. The raised
structural plan will allow waterfront housing
between 2-4 floors while still respecting the floodzone and hillsidehousing between 2-7 floors sloping
down the hill to the waterfront. These buildings will
incorporate North-facing terraces with waterfront

views and interior courtyards between housing units

in order to maximize exposure to natural light. Raised
platforms connecting the buildings will provide easyaccess from the street and down to the reservoir
space.

entrance to one unit

open recreation

4 floors

3 floors

private terraces

circulation to levels 2-4

ecological wetlands zone

2 floors of housing

reservoir

tiered pools wetlands

ramp

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

53

Jun Joung
Vargem Grande is a unique favela located
45km from the center of Sao Paulo, nearly placing
it in the Brazilian countryside. Further adding to
its interesting location is the topography on which
it has been built; it occupies an ancient crater near
two reservoirs: Reservoir Guarapiranga and Billings. Vargem Grande is a large favela of approximately 40,000 people. It was planned in precise
45m x 150m blocks, which provide the community with organized streets not commonly seen in

54

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

the favelas of Sao Paulo. There are, however, three

problems which deserve attention.
The first problem is the pollution of the neighboring reservoirs. This environmental-damage
is caused in great part because the favela has no
sewage system. Waste water from the area flows
down from the community and into the wetland,
which is at the center of the crater, and this polluted water then leaks into the reservoirs.
The second problem is a lack of formal infra-

structure. Although Vargem Grande has an organized street-system they are, for the most part,
unpaved. There is also a lack of means of transportation to the city, making commuting difficult.
This ties in to the third problem, which is an ab-

sence of local jobs. The majority of

the southern part of Sao Paulo to make a living, which is difficult considering the distance
they must travel (Where is the nearest train/bus
stop?).
The current infrastructure and economic situation of Vargem Grande must be addressed in
order to improve the living situation of the community. Goals which have been addressed include

turning the favela into an agricultural city. With

this aim in mind the community could retain its
natural, rural status, but the local economy would
be encouraged to grow, allowing for infrastructure and environmental projects to take place.
Residents commute to the southern part of
Sao Paulo to make a living, which is difficult considering the distance they must travel.
The current infrastructure and economic sit-

uation of Vargem Grande must be addressed in

order to improve the living situation of the community. Goals which have been addressed include
turning the favela into an agricultural city. With
this aim in mind the community should retain its
natural, rural status, but the local economy would
be encouraged to grow, allowing for infrastructure and environmental projects to take place.

The community should retain its natural, rural status, but the local economy
would be encouraged to grow allowing for infrastructure and environmental projects
to take place.

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

55

Wendy Tsai
The Pirajussara River, located at the western
edge of So Paulo bordering the city of Embu, is
a contaminated water source and a borderline between the two cities. The river itself has no positive presence in the lives of community-members;
it is filled with household trash, and is prone to
flooding in some areas of the favela.
Lacking convenient transportation options,
most inhabitants on both sides of the Pirajussara
spend a minimum of three hours commuting to
and from the city center daily for work. There are
roads on either side of the river which promote
congestion and many pedestrian bridges crosses
the river. Currently in-production are three river upgrading projects along the Pirajussara, but
none address pedestrian connections along or
across the water. In order to remediate the river

and improve life for inhabitants the project proposes four local intervention projects, or nodes,
designed to be completed in phases.
The first intervention point is to remove favelas which are invading natural space in order to
develop programs incorporating green as parkspace. The second is to remove one lane of traffic
from along one side of the river in order to eliminate redundant traffic and widen the riverbed. The
third point is to create general, shared cross-city
entrances from So Paulo to Embu, eliminating
the individual bridges. The fourth and final point
is to open up the congested favela fabric enclosing
the river, including the development of a cablecar system allowing for better transportation into
the favela.
All 4 projects and their connection strate-

gies incorporate the Riparian approach to widen

riverbeds with plant growth in order to reduce
flooding possibilities. The connection prototype
applicable to these nodes along the river is based
on first identifying the river condition, then with
the footprint of the selected site in mind, select
programmatic modules to provide for the neighborhood. Major nodes incorporating the cable
car station, the part of the loop that plugs back
into the larger transportation network of So Paulo will be built before the second and third nodes
are developed. This nodal intervention strategy is
repeatable throughout Brazil along sites of river
edges.

Problems Identified vs. Proposed Solution

Identified Nodes along the Pirajussara River

vs. Conceptual Bridging

Plaza Ramp Connector and Health Post

56

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

This nodal intervention strategy of connection can be integrated into the existing
transportation system of So Paulo and is applicable throughout Brazil along sites of
river edges.

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

57

Saranga Nakhooda
The topography of Boulevard da Paz is extremely steep, built on a series of poorly-connected hills and valleys that are inhabited by about
4,800 low-income residents. The site consists of
houses built illegally on government land in the
eastern portion of the site, and privately owned
residences toward the west. The goal of this project
is to create better physical and social connections
within the favela, as well as improve the economic
prospectus of the area, by building a network of
productive agricultural and public spaces.
The project begins begins with an educational
program to train the residents of the community
in hydroponic cultivation. This type of agriculture requires less than 25% of the land and 10%
of the water needed for traditional soil cultivation
and is ideal for cultivation in densely-populated
areas such as Boulevard da Paz. The faveladores,

once trained, would use these skills to grow their

own food using rainwater harvested from the
sites rooftops, and to grow profitable ornamental
plants within enclosed greenhouses.
A linear series of greenhouses (oriented for
optimal sunlight) and public programs will make
up the new pathways within the site, with pedestrian circulation on the roof level and connections to nodes of public rainwater filtration and
collection. Built as a series of ramping, low-cost,
concrete structures, the new passageways enable easy pedestrian access and transportation of
goods across the site, while also creating a boulevard for enhanced access between the informal
communities (toward the east) and formal communities (toward the west), public recreation and
social interaction.

Intermediate nodes
used for rainwater
filtration and collection

South facing zones used

for non-agricultural
community programs

58

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

Wide ramping path allows for easier access

between east and west sections of site (between
ormal and informal housing and creates
recreational space
Circulation path lined with sun-facing
hydroponic greenhouses toward east
and west

Terraced greenhouses ease access

across valley and to major road
networks

The goal of this project is to create better physical and social connections within
the favela, as well as improve the economic prospectus of the area, by building a network of productive agricultural and public spaces.

Rainwater is harvested from faveladores

rooftops for communal hydroponic agriculture
Water is filtered and stored in public tanks
located at nodes along new favela pathway
Greenhouses along the boulevard and down
the valley are connected by a series of ramps
enabling easy transportation of crops and
equipment

Terraced strips are planted

with marigolds, and designed
with sunny rocks and logs of
wood to attract inhabitation by
ladybugs, lizards and lizards to
control pests

Rainwater pipes
must be at least
4 in diameter to
avoid clogs - given
their size these
may start to form a
new infrastructure
for suspended
hydroponic growth

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

59

Devin Lafo

The Favela of Moinho is located at a split
between two railroad tracks in downtown So
Paulo, at the site of an abandoned flourmill that
closed its doors years ago. The result is a favela
bound on all sides by train tracks, in many areas
surrounded by 15 foot walls, with commuter trains
passing every 5 or 10 minutes. There is only one
point of access to the site, located underneath the
viaduct that passes over the train lines. Because
the land they have settled is owned by the train
company, Moinhos faveladores have resisted
investing too much money in the favela for fear of
being evicted. Consequently, the conditions of the
favela are extremely poor, with cheap building,
improvised utilities, and unsafe sanitation.

Moinho is only two kilometers from So
Paulos center, and the favelas downtown context
requires an urban analysis. At the time of Sao
Paulos coffee boom, the surrounding district of
Bom Retiro was the citys example of modernism,
with high architecture and high culture. Today,
the district still maintains several museums and
other cultural institutions, but Bom Retiro has
become seriously dilapidated.

60

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

Mostly used for industry and services,
the lack of formal residential communities has
deprived the area of the life it needs to support its
culture. Thousands of squatters have informally
taken over abandoned homes and drug use and
prostitution are a serious problem.

The current location and conditions of
the favela are not suitable for residential use, but
this land has the power to revitalize the entire
area by providing a new urban zone for the
entire city with recreational activities, markets,
and open park space. Moinho has the potential
to provide program spaces relating to cultural
activities currently located near the site, including
the underground fashion hub of So Paulo, a
burgeoning art scene, dance, and theater.

Of primary importance is the construction
of new housing for the faveladores. The new
homes should be built along the edge of Moihno,
but will remain connected to the site by elevated
pathways. In addition to the construction of
homes, Boracea, a nearby organization whose aim
is to give the homeless a form of income generation
by making crafts out of recycled materials, should

be introduced to residents of the site. Many of the

faveladores in Moinho collect recycled materials
to earn a living, but the skills taught by Boracea
could help faveladores create products to sell at
the craft market on site, essentially allowing the
faveladores to become business owners.

Following relocation and rehabilitation of
the citizens of Moinho, the complete revitalization
project consists of a series of arches that bridge over
the train lines and provide a frame for program
space, elevated walkways, views of So Paulo,
green parks, and protection from the elements. A
network of paths along the site connect the variety
of opened and closed spaces, while maintaining
continuity between its ends. The introduction of
these new programs will transform Moihno into
a thriving destination spot and generate capital in
an area that desperately needs it. New business
will open along the site to support the growing
number of visitors, and new residential buildings
will follow. Both residents and visitors will enjoy
and benefit from the new Moinho, an urban uplift
for Bom Retiro and the downtown center of So
Paulo.

The introduction of these new programs will transform Moihno into a thriving
destination spot and generate capital in an area that desperately needs it.

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

61

Fausto Nunes
From its beginning Glicrio has been both
at the center and at the periphery of the city at
the same time. Located in the heart of So Paulo,
the favela has a history of taking in the citys unwanted. While it was was originally located on
the edge of So Paulo, over time the citys population exploded and the metropolis came to encompass Glicrio, which kept its tradition of welcoming the unwanted.
Glicrio is currently physically detached from
the rest of So Paulo on the north side by a set of
buildings that do not allow penetration into the
favela, to the south by an elevated highway, and

to the east by the river, a busy highway, and an

unused park. The western side of the favela is the
best way to enter, but a 30 meter change in topography still discourages people from using it.

Glicrio has become a unique place in
So Paulo following 200 years of history. Whereas
the rest of the city has become segregated, one can
observe several classes of people living within this
small enclave. Homeless junkies to low middle
class are neighbors. Women prostitute themselves
just down the street form a school. A modern highrise building neighbors a dilapidated building
more than a century old. Court offices share

the street with Religious stores. This incredible

dichotomy of life makes and breaks Glicrio. It
provides a unique richness in the city, but at the
same time a sense of community is lost on all the
alternative points of view.

It would be wrong to demolish what is there and start

over, so a way must be found to build a New Glicerio.

A New secondary grid is formed by theorizing a new

way to move through Glicerio in a hopes that new
grid will fortify a sense of community.

By examining the vacant lots and examining the

existing building a precision demolition is proposed.
One that will preserve the history of Glicerio and at
the same time create a new history.

Historically significant building will be remodeled

and maintain their appearance. From the in-between
spaces the new Glicerio will rise.

62

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

This new area will provide a much needed greenspace

for the community. A garden that is links all building
together. This greenspace will the city to Glicerio and
reattach Glicerio to itself.

In order to maximize the FAR air-rights will be sold

from the building to be remodeled allowing the new
construction zones to go up further vertically.

Open air spaces will protect and allow light to go into

Glicerio. At the Elevated Park the parks will continue
and a secondary lobby for the new construction is
created.

24 Projects ranging in size and program would

ensure a diversity in building styles and yet having a
common link that will make them all work as one.

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

63

Andrew Yalcin
Eucaliptos, established in the early 1970s, is
located in a valley on the northern outskirts of
So Paulo. It is bordered on the north by parkland and hills to the east and west. Running
through the favela is a stream which is used by
the community as a sewer. This stream is prone to
flooding in several sections, leading the area to be
designated as a high-risk zone.
The proposed project focuses on the rehabilitation of the stream and the removal of atHEALTHY ECOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT
risk housing along its banks in order to avoid the
adverse affects that flooding
ealthy
ealthy have on the lives of

=H

citizens in Eucaliptos. First, the stream must be

widened in order to provide a larger permeable
surface for the moving water. Next, it is suggested
that a series of walls holding pools of the stream
at different elevations along the length of the site
be built in order to simulate the geomorphology
of healthy streams and allow the water to flow in
a more controlled manner. A public promenade
incorporating bridges from one side of the stream
to the other can then by built alongside the stream
for public-access. A sewage system incorporating
natural drainage fields will be laid beneath it, pro-

viding a much-needed public service to the community and which will discourage favela-dwellers
from using the stream to fill this purpose.

REFRAMING AND TREATMENT OF STREAM

STEPS TO
WATER

PLACE HOLDER FOR

FUTURE DEVELOPMENT

HOUSING
INFRASTRUCTURE

ONLY 240 UNITS TO GO....

BUT WHERE?

INFORMAL
BUILDING
WORKS

POOL/
RIFFLE
ealthy
ealthy
CYCLE
REFRAMING AND TREATMENT OF STREAM

HEALTHY ECOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT

=H

EXISTING
SITE LIMITS

HEALTHY ECOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT

HEALTHY ECOLOGICAL ENVIRONMENT

ealthy

=H

ealthy

ealthy

REFRAMING AND TREATMENT OF STREAM

EXISTING
CIRCULATION

HIGH RISK
ZONE

HOUSING UNITS
TO BE REMOVED ZONE OF
INTERVENTION
550

FLOOD ZONE
UNMANAGED EFFLUENT
SYSTEM

64

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

=H

ealthy

REFRAMING AND TREATMENT OF STREAM

UNITS
WIDEN STREAM
REMAINING TO ASSIST IN
496
REMEDIATION

ZONE OF INTERVENTION

CONTROL
STREAM FLOW
BY BRIDGING

CREATE
PUBLIC
PROMENADE
TO ENJOY
THE STREAM

Using the framing of the stream as a guide two typologies were created. LORESidential units connect to the stream by stepping and HI-RESidential are built
over time into a superstructure that is married to the landscape and provides water,
electricity, and sewage. Shops, living quarters, and rentable units are programmed
into housing.
housing units plug-in
to infrastructure

housing units
connected to
water

infrastructural
node over time
2nd level added

shops

infrastructural
node over time
3rd level added
more units
plug-in over
time

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

65

Nicole Seekely
The favela of Parque So Domingos is surrounded by middle-income neighborhoods and
is well-integrated into the overarching community. It is a very high-density favela but has ample
community space in the form of a large, underutilized soccer field and small sports court.
The main problems faced by Parque So Domingos are high-density housing as well as the
fact that houses along the southeast border of the
favela have been unknowingly constructed atop a
covered water canal and are thus in danger of collapse. The proposed project to remedy this situa-

tion, as well as to alieve some of the density in the

favela, has been designed in phases. It is estimated
that the community will be able to complete all
phases over the course of thirty years.
The first phases include the creation of an
apartment building over the sports court into
which residents currently living over the water canal can be relocated. This will allow for
the removal of the houses in the risk-zone. It is
suggested that the water canal be raised aboveground in order to discourage future building. In
later phases, there can be a reduction in the size

of the soccer field, allowing for further housing

expansion. Housing in particularly dense areas of
Parque So Domingos can be removed and their
residents relocated to the space recuperated from
this field. Insertion of small recreation areas in the
newly-opened favela will lead to better community circulation, making it more livable. In areas where sufficient housing can be removed new
versions of the sports court housing approach can
be adapted, leading to raised housing with open
space or room for retail below.

Plan System Diagrams

STORMWATER

OPEN SPACE

66

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

PATH

LEISURE

RETAIL

HOUSING

EXISTING CONDITIONS

19 NEW HOUSING UNITS

REMOVAL OF 28 UNITS
OVER WATER CANAL AND
RELOCATION TO NEW
HOUSING UNITS

FINAL REMOVAL OF UNITS

TO FURTHER DE-DENSIFY
AND ALLOW FOR
WETLAND AREAS AND
CIRCULATION,
RELOCATION TO NEW
HOUSING

Over the course of thirty years, the favela can be transformed from its current condition
to one that allows growth, healthy living, and offers more to the immediate and
surrounding community.

STRUCTURE OF
ADDITIONAL HOUSING
OVER FLEXIBLE PROGRAM
AREA

CONSTRUCTION OF UNITS,
ALLOWING FOR GROWTH
AND CONNECTION TO
RETAIL PASSAGE

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

67

Junhee Jung

Helipolis is the second largest slum in
Brazil and the largest of So Paulo. Due to its
proximity to the city center and long history,
Helipolis is also one of the richest favelas in
So Paulo. Previous urbanization projects have
been focused on extinguishing risk situations
and unhealthy conditions within the favela,
as well as on providing community space for
the 70,000 residents. Because of these efforts
Helipolis will soon be considered not as a
favela, but as a neighborhood. This is not to say
that the formal and informal parts of the city
are indistinguishable, but that these standard

definitions can no longer be applied in the case

of Helipolis. The last remaining distinction
separating Helipolis from the rest of the city is
the stigma that is associated with the area. The
proposed project works to break this physical and
psychological point of separation and outlines a
three phase development plan operating on three
different scales.

The first stage involves providing
improved street infrastructure into the center
of Helipolis, which will allow for improved
transportation. By incorporating the existing
rainwater and graywater system into phyto-

remediation the main street will also feature a strip

of green-space. The creation of a walking-city is
envisioned in the construction of this first phase,
with public parking available for each resident
away from the main street of the city, allowing for
purely pedestrian and public-transport traffic.

The second phase involves the removal of
housing in the most isolated block of the favela.
A sports-field and other social infrastructure
projects can be embedded in the newly-opened
space, inviting community-members and
outsiders into Helipolis.

The third and final phase constructs
an underground public parking lot for the

public public
linear park
cultural facilities
hydroponic living system
wetland living system

892m

770m

105m

1m
16

favela public
sports facility
community center
urban farm

residents of Helipolis as well as housing for the

relocated individuals from the second phase. Also
incorporated into this space will be a number of
public spaces, including a theatre and library. This
large construction will be developed in between
Helipolis and a current waste-water treatment
plant, which is an excellent entry-point into the
favela.

49 units

39 units
51 units

40 units

Total intervention

31 units

78 units

80 units

32,000

3780

7,500

943

6,200

6,200

75 units

137 units

92 units

241 units

30 units

community center/park
55,000sm
?

housing

total=943 units
55-80sm*943=80,000sm

sports/culture
eco-park
parking

40,000sm

total=14,000 units
25sm*6,200=155,000sm

68

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

Since the area of the site and the total area of evecuated blocks are same, there is no
change in total density. In order to incorporate the new structure with the existing
fabric of Helipolis, the housing unit is used as a brick creating the facade for the big
public space inside and reconstructing the existing topography.

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

69

SLUM LIFTING (continued)

Bringing it all together: Case Study in Community
Topography GROTAO
In collaboration with SEHAB, under the guidance of Elisabete Franca and Maria Teresa Diniz, and
with the community, lead by Gilson Rodrigues, we designed a topographically driven building with a multiuse program in the hilly favela of Paraispolis So Paulo. The project is significant both for its outcome and
for the opportunity to experiment and actively engage
with the local community, changing the typical perspective on development within informal settlements.
Within Paraispolis, the Groto area is one of
the steepest sites and thus subject to catastrophic events,
such as the 2008 mudslide that destroyed housing over
a 5000-square-meter area. The subsequent demolition
of the remaining housing units created open space in
the center of this dense favela and the opportunity for
implementing a new kind of design and development.
The scale of the project was determined by
the adjacent landscape, while the program was developed in concert with the community and geared toward education and production. Access, necessitated
for civil protection, is now available for public transit
and for the transportation of materials and equipment
to develop the site. The landscape designa public
green area and sports facilitiesis planned to house
the Groto Music Factory and Educational Center for
the Parisopolis Youth Orchestra, a community center
for music-related activities. The treatment of the rare
flat surface will stabilize the ground and provide areas for urban farming and recreation, turning Groto
into a natural arena, overlooking and focusing the urban landscape. This grand stair, with greenery and
civic programs, connects the lower and upper parts of
Paraispolis and allows for further densification.

70

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

The Groto project exemplifies a new, experimental approach to architecture and urban design
and development, one that uses retrofitting, stacking,
bootstrapping, consolidating, and reverse engineering. It reflects our strong advocacy for working within
the local community and for using the existing infrastructure, rather than an imposed plan, as the point of
departure. Such designs are urban acupuncture, interventions based on contextual assessments, with the
object of showing the client-community what is possible and what they can expect.
After more than a decade of studying various
favelas, interviewing residents, and testing and implementing new slum-upgrading concepts and solutions,
we now turn our efforts to a socially oriented, prt-porterarchitecture. Whether designing recreational
facilities, pedestrian bridges, or a multifunctional redevelopment, we promote architecture as an event
whose outcomes can only be realized with the active
participation of the inhabitants. Our concept of architecture manages pre-existing spacesbuilding over,
under, around and throughand creates new spheres
that assuage segregation. We strive to construct bridges
among cities stratified sectors and to eliminate contention at the crossroads by maximizing the potential of
the borders.
The slums of Latin America, as much as the
impoverished suburbs of North American and European cities, cast doubt on the traditional notion of city
growth as self-contained and rational, born of the logic
of the functional organization of space. Our experiences at U-TT and in Columbia Universitys SLUMLab have taught us otherwise and have persuaded us
that architects must be advocates for the users, agents
of change. But that change must be accomplished
thoughtfully and carefully, one step at a time, so as to

be viable and durable. We strive to bring cities together, to create a greater sense of individual responsibility to a stronger community. All the investigations we
made and solutions we propose are tested by one overarching question: are people better off than they were
before we arrived?
It is our hope, and our ambition, that everyone
in our cities will develop a consciousness of the cultural majority that will endure for generations. This is
the time to make a change for the people in So Paulo,
Rio de Janeiro, Mexico City and throughout the global
south. Carpe diem!

TRADUES
Sehab, O que so favelas?
As favelas da cidade de So Paulo se formaram atravs
de um fenmeno urbano de crescimento habitacional ilegal,
e hoje fazem parte da estrutura e morfologia da cidade. Apesar de informal, o estilo adiciona mais uma camada esttica
urbana cidade.
As favelas tem duas caractersticas principais em comparao cidade formal. A primeira sendo que sua formao no obedece nenhuma das regras urbana ou legislativas,
as ruas no so definidas antes da construo de casas e o
saneamento e o acesso gua so implementados depois
da construo das casas pelos moradores. A segunda caracterstica que as unidades habitacionais so construdas
de acordo com a existncia de qualquer lote vago. Este processo de ocupao de terra ilegal, no importando se a rea
pblica ou privada.
Como resultado dessas duas caractersticas e sua
complexidade, escala e diversidade que acompanham este
fenmeno urbano, a favela tem sido estudada inicialmente
por causa de suas qualidades e concepes negativas. Falta
de privao e consistncia com os a esttica habitacional existente, caracteriza a favela como uma formao nada tradicional, clssica ou desejvel.

Mesmo as favelas no sendo organizadas de modo formal ou homogneo, elas desafiam as convices do modelo
ideal urbano, que o mercado imobilirio e o setor privado
definem como o mtodo oficial de utilizao do solo urbano.
As favelas representam o clmax das desigualdades sociais
urbanas, o crescimento da pobreza e a segregao no planejamento urbano. Tudo isto o resultado da mal-distribuio
e concentrao da renda nas mos de poucos.
Encarando esta realidade, qualquer proposta de melhorias das favelas, que, tem um alto ndice de vulnerabilidade
e de pobreza, deve estar alerto ao fato de que as favelas esto
encravadas nas reas metropolitanas.
importante entender que as favelas foram construdas
como uma reao excluso social, sendo forados para a
periferia das cidades. Uma alternativa de auto-proteo ao
considerar o rpido crescimento urbano. As favelas costumavam ser vistas como o reflexo no espelho de uma sociedade
desigual, mais hoje em dia, apenas o reconhecimento desta
desigualdade pode ser a chave da soluo do problema.
O que ns achamos importante na parceria entre a SEHAB e os alunos do Slum Lab da Columbia University, a
busca de tticas, que nascem da essncia espacial de cada
favela, sua morfologia, e que deve ser entendida como

uma referncia casa ideal, providenciada com condies

necessrias para um estilo de vida decente, onde os habitantes podem dividir experincias e cultivar a sua identidade.
Os princpios que do a motivao para as doze propostas, so inspirados na diversidade da cidade, mais tambm
no conhecimento das necessidades especficas de cada territrio e seus residentes, que tambm merecem a garantia de
seus direitos sociais nas diretrizes de sua rea urbana.

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

71

Rudolph, Dopplemayr+SLUM Lab

Nosso interesse na colaborao com SLUM-Lab durante estes trs anos de estdio arquitetural avanado, baseado na convico que hoje em dia, inovao tecnolgica est
acontecendo em lugares que esto naturalmente em fase de
interrogao, explorao e colaborao.
Quando pensamos em transporte pblico e trfico,
eu geralmente penso primeiro em transporte de linha frrea ou no nibus. Transporte usando cabos, geralmente so
usada em reas tursticas. Mais estamos expandido o seu uso
como tem sido feito em Caracas, Medelln, Rio de Janeiro na
Amrica do Sul, mais tambm existe o potencial de crescer
como um meio de transporte pbico de alta performance
em reas centrais da frica do Norte, sia e Europa. Cada
tipo de meio de transporte afeta nosso clima, e ao escolher
a soluo mais apropriada, podemos fazer a melhor escolha
para o futuro, seja numa ladeira de esquiar nos Alpes ou
numa mega-cidade de um pas sub-desenvolvido.
Estamos nos concentrando na rea da Amrica do Sul,
particularmente So Paulo e o Rio de Janeiro. A alta densidade populacional nas favelas, a topografia e a falta de transporte pblico faz com que as opes de transporte sem o
uso de estrada sejam particularmente interessantes. J conhecamos a firma Urban-Think Tank atravs de um projeto
que construmos juntos, ento o prximo passo foi a nossa
colaborao com o SLUM Lab da Columbia University. Uma
aula prtica foi coordenada por Alfredo Brillembourg e Hubert Klumpner no Rio de Janeiro incluindo funcionrios municipais, e se manifestou rapidamente que teramos grandes
oportunidades, mais tambm que desafios, para este uso de
transporte. Com a chegada da Copa do Mundo de 2014 e
as Olimpadas de 2016, a questo de transporte pblico no
pode ser somente vista como uma soluo temporria. Nas
cidades da Amrica do Sul, com a exceo de Curitiba no
Brasil, Bogot na Colmbia, e mais recentemente, Medelln
na Colmbia e Caracas na Venezuela, a questo de transporte

Aders, 3 1/3 Pontos

Cidades informais esto crescendo rapidamente nas
metrpoles da Amrica Latina, formando povoados com
grandes foras sociais e polticas. A capital financeira do
Brasil, So Paulo tem mais de 1,500 favelas que so controladas por legtimos modelos econmicos auto-disciplinados.
Entre o contexto de favelas latino-americanas, as favelas em
So Paulo so mais ricas e tem menos problemas de violncia
de gangues. Em Outubro de 2009, o SLUM Lab da Columbia
University de Nova Iorque, visitou e documentos doze favelas em So Paulo e duas no Rio de Janeiro. Ao considerar
questes estratgicas de design e planejamento urbano, trs
questes principais devem ser consideradas: a ocupao de
terra, materiais de construo e o acesso`a distribuio de
recursos. No SLUM Lab, tentamos analisar cuidadosamente
os atributos dessas ocupaes de terra sem favorecer aqueles
que buscam controlar a terra ou aqueles que tentam manter
suas casas informais. A SLUM Lab tenta somente entender
os sistemas de urbanizao para determinar o que funciona
e o que no funciona.
1. Poltica da Ocupao de Terra
Quase sempre, em propriedades de terra pblica, habitaes informais so estabelecidas nas partes abandonadas
da cidade; pequenos terrenos esquecidos por um paisagismo precrio, posses de terra ambguas e no geral, reas
desconectadas da cidade, alm de outras condies que marginalizam estas reas. As favelas em So Paulo de um lado,
se encontram em reas centrais muito ricas, mais tambm
nas margens de represas, na periferia, debaixo de pontes e
rodovias ou at em antigas crateras. Ao comparar as favelas
se percebe a grande discrepncia entre as condies e as caractersticas de cada ocupao de terra.
A favela menos desenvolvida, a favela do Moinho,
a favela mais perto do centro que analisamos. Ela cresceu
em volta de um moinho abandonado, cercada por trilhos
de trem. O moinho foi a falncia e a propriedade comeou

72

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

pblico, vias de pedestre e bicicleta, no tem prioridade na

agenda pblica. Uma coletiva limitada e coordenada so
duas das necessidades vitais para se formar um esquema de
transporte pblico de alta-performance, qualidade e bem integrado. Atravs dessas iniciativas, estudos mostram que os
participantes aprendem sobre dimenses tcnicas e pblicas
baseadas nas decises de transporte pblico.
Os participantes da comunidade sentem o poder na
sua habilidade de expressar suas opinies dos problemas atuais, confiando um pouco mais na comunidade entre si e
nos funcionrios do governo. A iniciativa do workshop de
conceber mais canais de aprendizado, fontes de descobertas
para patrocinadores e agncias. Participantes ativos trazem
um conhecimento local e os estudantes entusiasmados ganharam confiana ao acharam as perguntas certas para problemas que no tem sido discutidos em dcadas. Uma srie de
condies particulares nas favelas, no somente exclusivas,
fazem com que entendamos que pases em desenvolvimento
tem uma progresso de desenvolvimento diferente das cidades que investiram em transporte pblico no sculo XX,
fazendo com que sua candidatura seja ideal para a implementao de transporte pblico em grande escala.
Transio para as vantagens de transporte bsico:
Em nossa experincia, o sistema cabos, trens leves
acompanhados de outros mtodos alternativos de transporte so superiores mtodos utilizando ruas ou estradas.
Eles permitem um transporte seguro, sem congestionamentos, especialmente em cidades de mais de 3 milhes de habitantes. Transporte cabo, por exemplo, pode ser utilizado
como sistema de corredores, centros de descanso, e tambm
como um sistema secundrio de conexes ao sistema de
transporte existente. Suspensos no ar, eles formam uma segunda ou terceira camada de transporte. Graas ao sistema
funicular, a freqncia em que as cabines vm de 10-60
segundos. Horrios programados no so mais necessrios,
e pontos de encontro entre sistemas de transporte pode ser
conectados, tal como aeroportos, metros, linhas frreas, es-

tacionamentos com acesso a transporte pblico, shopping

centers, parques e reas de assemblias com outros mtodos
de transporte e garagens com vrios andares. Como sempre, temos que pensar na inter-conectividade dos meios de
transporte, adaptar a velocidade e a tecnologia s realidades
culturais, sociais e econmicas da cidade em questo. Com
isto em mente, os carrinhos podem ser ligados s estaes
de metro subterrneo onde a populao em volta mora em
morros ngremes, de modo integrado e com um entendimento das necessidades especificas da populao.
Na busca de solues para construir cidades neutras
em carbono, sistemas a cabo diminuem o impacto no meio
ambiente e pode providenciar solues para a construo
de novas ecologias urbanas, que superam as diferenas do
modernismo entre transporte e meios de vida. A sobreposio e justaposio de solues macias de transporte
pode mudar o jeito em que as cidades so planejadas hoje
em dia. Mesmo que este processo demore mais 50 anos, gostaramos de estabelecer estruturas onde o status quo possa
ser questionado. Trabalhando com o SLUM Lab da Columbia University, Brillembourg e Klumpner e o seu time de
pesquisa, funcionrios pblicos e contribuintes, temos que
pensar nas possibilidades para transformar idias em atos
grandes impactos.

a ser invadida no fim dos anos 90. Este povoado tem caractersticas nicas porque cada casa construda em madeira, uma material mais barato e menos permanente do que
tijolos. Essa construo temporria uma conseqncia do
medo que eles tem da propriedade ser retomada pelos proprietrios (atualmente existem quatro processos judiciais a
respeito da posse deste terreno), que prometer remover todos os habitantes. Moinho apenas uma das favelas que vive
um uma realidade temporria, frequentemente em resposta
a uma poltica especifica. A lei de So Paulo dita que se algum ocupa um terreno por mais de cinco anos, ela tem, de
certa forma, o direito a posse de terra. Como conseqncia
o municpio normalmente financia um acordo judicial para
forar o despejo. Os acordos que o municpio teve de financiar at agora tem um total de 2,900 dlares americanos [2].
Essa poltica contribui para o aumento dos acordo para terrenos em que a cidade tem planos de implementar novos
projetos de construo. Vizinhanas inteiras aparecem e desaparecem em menos de uma dcada.
Por outro lado, a favela Paraispolis tem uma historia
de construes permanentes em um bairro com ruas planejadas pela prefeitura. Os limites da propriedade desapareceram durante a expanso das casas e a migrao de pessoas
de reas rurais; o terreno agora est coberto de construes
permanentes e uma forte conexo infra-estrutural. Trabalhadores que construram o estdio do Morumbi em 1960
se estabeleceram em Parasopolis que ficou conhecido como
uma rara exceo na rea mais rica do centro de So Paulo.
Este caso, em oposio ao caso do Moinho, uma principal
prioridade municipal de regularizar a propriedade, um longo processo cheio de oposies. No SLUM Lab, analisamos
estas fronteiras em termos de divisas espaciais e polticas,
mapeando zonas com o potencial de serem redefinidas, sugerindo ligaes simblicas entre o informal e o formal. A
populao das favelas cresce e se torna urbanizadas, novos
modelos de propriedade e sustentabilidade tem que ser propostas para manter os habitantes j estabelecidos na rea,

preservando a vitalidade da demografia.

2. Materiais e Construo
O carter principal dos povoamentos informais no
Brasil um conjunto habitacional de cubos vermelhos, frequentemente estabelecidas em reas sem zoneamento como
morros. A construo de casas geralmente rpida e vivel
devido a economia local e a habilidade de construir usando
materiais de baixo custo e de fcil transporte como os blocos
de concreto e sacos de cimento. Estes so facilmente transportados em ruas ngremes e estreitas usando carrinhos de
mo ou ate mesmo carregando-os a mo. Entre o agregado
de casas, cada edifcio uma estrutura autnoma usando
blocos de concreto como uma camada adiposa, delineado
o espao interior e oferecendo tambm uma camada exterior. No cho, os blocos so usados para espaar as vigas de
concreto, que esto conectadas a laje ao topo, usando uma
forma de madeira para adicionar o concreto, permitindo
uma expanso rpida e fcil. Este sistema, estilo quase a Le
Corbusier, de cho, coluna, escada e pele, reflete o design
estrutural mais verncula, e faz com que a construo de casas seja vivel dentro de acordo com a realidade econmica
do bairro.
Estudos sobre o crescimento de habitao informal
mostram uma relao de improvisao entre a expanso de
famlias e a posse de espao limitado nas vizinhanas. Este
detalhe possivelmente a maior diference entre a habitao
nas favelas e na cidade formal: Expanso. Na ausncia de
terra, espao se torna um processo de mediao entre vizinhos, ruas e outro espaos pblicos, ou at estratagemas do
mercado negro que estruturam a vida nas favelas. Como a
cidade formal pode aprender com este modelo ambguo de
zoneamento e a formao espontnea de espaos urbanos?
Como a favela pode se transformar mais sistemtica nas
reas de ocupao e comrcio, estabelecendo alianas que
previnem expropriao?
3. Acesso a Recursos e Distribuio
Acesso a recursos como gua, eletricidade e saneamento

bsico varia em cada favela. Eletricidade frequentemente

roubada e distribuda atravs dos gatos, que so maos
densos de cordas eltricas conectadas a postes eltricos municipais. Como um modelo alternativo a distribuio formal de energia eltrica, a favela um modelo mais descentralizado, que permite cada casa de se conectar ao vizinho
para obter eletricidade. No caso da gua, uma rede de canos
conecta as caixas de gua diretamente a fonte municipal de
gua, ou uma torre de gua, geralmente localizada no ponto
mais alto da favela, usando a forca gravitacional e pequenas
bombas para distribuir a gua. A falta de Saneamento bsico
e encanamento um dos maiores problemas nas favelas. O
lixo domiciliar simplesmente acumulado em um lixo ou
qualquer espao vazio na favela. Em favelas com acesso a
ruas, os lixeiros municipais coletam o lixo nas favelas, mais a
freqncia varia em cada favela. Em favelas muito densas, os
caminhes de lixo no tem acesso ao lixo, criando ilhas no
meio da cidade em que o lixo no coletado. O escoamento
de esgoto tambm um grande problema. Varias favelas

Nobre / Nakano, Na Laje

: na laje, nossa arquitetura em construo
Em O lugar fala por ele (2006), filme da artista italiana
Paola Salerno, num plano-seqncia nico de aproximadamente vinte minutos, no alto do morro de um dos maiores
cemitrios de So Paulo no Jardim So Luiz, localizado na
zona sul da cidade, identificamos ao longe os territrios imbricados de conjuntos habitacionais dos anos oitenta e favelas recentes. Cu cinza, montes vermelhos de terra, flores
amarelas e brancas no gramado. Transeuntes atravessam em
passos lentos, cansados, atordoados. Seguem abraos e mos
dadas. Vemos crianas correndo e empinando pipas. Em justaposio, ouvimos as vozes de trs manos conversando sobre o futuro dos jovens, os movimentos sociais, as narrativas
de suas famlias e as tantas mortes violentas cotidianas em
suas vidas. So tempos biogrficos e sociais que j no correspondem mais s promessas de progresso da poca em que
seus pais (ou avs) chegaram em So Paulo. So geraes
cujas experincias da cidade e acessos so completamente
distintos, e que tm o desafio de construir novos campos de
potencialidades. Paola Salerno est com a cmera distante
dos adolescentes, e no dilogo que se segue entre eles sobre
seus cotidianos, laos familiares e moradias, a laje referncia espacial e semntica constante. Superfcie horizontal de
concreto armado de pequenas dimenses, a laje disseminase nos territrios de vastas extenses das moradias populares, com implicaes diretas na constituio e vivncias da
metrpole paulistana:
... ele ficou na minha varanda e... o quarto da minha
me tem um pedacinho de laje ai subiu para l, tipo subiu na
telha da mulher e passou... Mano, ele tava com o tnis cheio
de sangue, tipo ficou a marca do sapato porque parece que
ele tinha pego um tiro na perna e ficou tipo com a marca
do tnis tipo assim no quintal todo...... mas a minha tia que
mora ao lado ficou na
Ligia Nobre e Kazuo Nakano
laje olhando, ela falou tipo que conhecia o maluco, ele
morava na rua detrs, tipo ele pulou a telha da mulher, foi l
no cara, chamou o cara l ai tipo o cara deu o carro para ele
ai ele nunca mais voltou...Ele tava armado, minha tia falou
que ela viu, ela viu tipo quando ele entrou l pela laje dela...
Naquele dia mano,oh... no por mim mas pelo meu irmo,
porque, bicho, ficou manos oh...
Entre 2004 e 2006, Paola Salerno residiu vrias vezes
em So Paulo para participar do projeto So Paulo S.A.
convite da EXO experimental org., plataforma cultural sem
fins lucrativos criada e dirigida por Ligia Nobre e Ccile
Zoonens em So Paulo entre 2002 e 2007. A EXO se props
problematizar inseres, dinmicas e representaes da
metrpole contempornea e de seus habitantes. A obra O
lugar fala por ele faz parte de So Paulo: entre utopia e sonho
(2004 - 2007)- projeto da artista que articula uma srie de
imagens e vdeos focando em possveis narrativas, mltiplas escalas e experincias da condio urbana paulistana,

no tem um sistema de saneamento bsico e este problema

tem sido ignorado pelo municpio. Mais o municpio de So
Paulo tem tido como prioridade a implementao de sistemas de saneamento como o primeiro passo na melhora da
infra-estrutura nas favelas. SLUM Lab continua a pesquisar
e propor novos modelos para distribuir, usar e coletar recursos, usando a atitude informal da favela para sua prpria
vantagem.
0.5. O Papel do Designer
No SLUM Lab, ns tentamos documentar, mapear e
analisar esses atributos ocupacionais sem preconceitos ou
impulsos dogmticos em respeito ao contexto formal em que
eles ocupam. Tentamos entender ao mximo as condies
locais e problemas de pontos de vista dos moradores e da
prefeitura. Trocas de favores devem ser propostas e teorias
testadas, sempre perguntando qual o equilbrio entre os
sistemas formais e informais e qual estratgias podem ser
propostas. Como o sistema informal, que mais eficiente e
direto influenciar o sistema formal e vice versa? Enquanto

o crescimento das cidades latino-americanas continuam

proporcionais a velocidade da urbanizao, povoados informais iro se infiltrar nas cidades vizinhas. O sucesso com o
qual as reas informais e a cidade desmantela as condies
marginais das favelas ir definir o nvel de sucesso com o
qual cada lado se integra um com o outro.

conectando micro-fenomenologias com macro processos

sociais e polticos. Segmentos de imagens que articulam trajetrias atravs da metrpole, entrecruzando trs principais
situaes territoriais- temporais: o centro histrico (anos
cinqenta e sessenta); os condomnios horizontais no subrbio oeste da metrpole (que surgiram nos anos setenta e se
multiplicaram na dcada de noventa, calcados em discursos
sobre a violncia, o medo e o status social); e a urbanizao
perifrica do Jardim So Luiz na zona sul. Essas sries de
imagens e de vozes so capazes de traar conexes (algumas
destrudas, truncadas e outras mais fludas) entre os espaos, os territrios, as redes sociais, os tempos biogrficos e
tempos polticos da cidade. O lugar fala por ele nos coloca
como espectadores no limiar do encontro entre outros1,
questionando-nos sobre a (im)possibilidade das prticas estticas e polticas contemporneas.
: So Paulo S.A.
Sabemos que as dcadas de cinqenta e sessenta foram
marcadas pelo desenvolvimentismo, industrializao e modernizao do capitalismo perifrico brasileiro e pela exploso
demogrfica e expanso urbana indita no pas. Nessas dcadas, So Paulo passou a ser epicentro econmico, poltico
e cultural do Brasil e sintomtica do fenmeno mundial das
grandes metrpoles. Suas paisagens urbanas tm passado
por transformaes aceleradas e intensas, e os tempos atuais parecem marcar um novo momento de inflexo com
efeitos ainda pouco previsveis. Seus vrios territrios esto
marcados por desigualdades entre os grupos de baixa e alta
renda, com padres distintos de acesso aos espaos urbanos,
recursos e infra-estrutura pblica, conforme as situaes
scio-territoriais do sujeito. Porm, as fronteiras so tnues
e porosas entre os territrios e artefatos da chamada 'cidade
global' e os lugares dos 'pobres' e 'excludos'. H um entramado social ainda a conhecer e que escapa s categorias e
modelos de dualizao social. O lugar [Jardim So Luiz] fala
por ele e aponta para alguns desses entramados scio-territoriais localizados nas fronteiras entre uma rea industrial
fordista, uma apregoada cidade global dos
anos recentes (Avenida Berrini e Marginal Pinheiros) e
favelas constitudas nos espaos sobrantes.
Nos anos setenta e oitenta, So Paulo foi cenrio crucial na organizao dos movimentos polticos e sociais que
contriburam para o longo processo de redemocratizao
da sociedade brasileira. Assentamento antigo e um dos principais plos industriais da cidade fordista, o distrito Jardim
So Luiz destacou-se pela presena proeminente dos movimentos sociais dessa poca, que se manifestavam na esfera
pblica articulados com as aes sindicais, atuaes operrias, grandes greves e a presena ativa das comunidades
eclesiais de base (CEBs) da Igreja Catlica. O bairro comeou
a crescer nesse perodo de abundncia de empregos industriais e de disseminao da casa prpria, adquirida na maioria
das vezes em assentamentos urbanos precrios e informais.
Como o antroplogo James Houston ressalta: a ilegalidade
e a improvisao tm caracterizado a forma como a popu-

lao urbana de baixa renda vem produzindo os espaos

que ocupam nas cidades brasileiras, assim como na maior
parte das cidades do Terceiro Mundo2. Nos anos oitenta,
foi justamente na temporalidade da zona domstica da vida,
nas lutas pela moradia, por infra-estrutura e outros aspectos, i.e. pelo direito cidade, que uma nova formulao de
cidadania passou a se constituir. Num regime de longa data
que se constri na interseo entre legal e ilegal, pblico e
privado, poltico e domstico, os movimentos sociais urbanos tm desempenhado atualmente, papel essencial de formao de uma nova concepo de cidadania urbana3.
Na ltima dcada, as paisagens das periferias mudaram
muito, e j no correspondem s imagens de ocupao rarefeita e desolao de trinta anos atrs. So configuraes
territoriais completamente novas, com grandes equipamentos privados, como supermercados e shopping centers, e
pblicos, como hospitais, os Centros de Educao Unificada
(CEUs) construdos pela prefeitura paulistana e as escolas
FDEs do governo estadual. Particularmente, o Jardim So
Luiz se transformou em um dos maiores pontos de concentrao de favelas da cidade, sob o impacto da proximidade do
territrio rico e dito globalizado de So Paulo. Lugar onde
os fluxos de riqueza e pobreza se tangenciam o tempo todo,
seja nos equipamentos de consumo existentes na regio, seja
na mistura do regular com o irregular de que so feitos os
territrios e os circuitos de empregos, subcontratao e trabalho precrio, seja ainda nas formas de acesso moradia.
Na tangncia entre a posse e a propriedade, ocorre a violncia dos conflitos de terra nesses pontos extremos da cidade4.
Nas urbanizaes em ato das periferias da zona sul ou da
extrema zona leste, as formas de moradia e sua localizao
no tecido urbano - com intrnsecas variaes de mobilidade
e acesso - implicam campos de possibilidades e conseqncias de vida completamente distintas para seus habitantes.
E em meio a esses padres de territorializao da moradia popular - o loteamento clandestino, a ocupao de
terra urbana ou a favela em estgio
avanado de consolidao urbana - que encontramos
um denominador comum: a laje como componente construtivo utilizado na cobertura das edificaes que tambm
conformam pequenos plats de uma topografia artificial utilizados de diversas formas, com vrias duraes, inclusive
para a construo de novos cmodos e novas moradias destinadas a acolher os arranjos familiares extensivos que no
se restringem mais aos ncleos formados por pais e filhos. A
produo das lajes se insere numa forma de produo da cidade informal que comea com um jeito irregular de acesso
terra urbana e termina com um modo prprio de construir gradativamente as moradias conforme as variaes dos
ciclos familiares e de sociabilidades.
na laje #1 : acesso terra
Apesar das ocupaes de terras e favelas resultarem em
espacialidades muitas vezes semelhantes s dos loteamentos clandestinos, os procedimentos e estratgias de acesso
terra so bastante distintos. A abertura dos loteamentos

[1] Distribuo das Favelas; Municipio de So Paulo,

subprefeituras, e distritos municipais, 2008, http://sempla.
prefeitura.sp.gov.br/infocidade/htmls/9_distribuicao_das_
favelas_2008_516.html
[2] Luta por Moradia. Favelas so novo alvo de
higienizao em So Paulo, Carta Maior, January 17, 2007,
http://www.cartamaior.com.br/templates/materiaMostrar.
cfm?materia_id=13313

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

73

clandestinos tem sido a principal alternativa de acesso a terra por parte da populao de baixa renda nas periferias da
metrpole de So Paulo. Essa alternativa tem exercido papel
estruturador na expanso da mancha urbana das grandes cidades. Pela sua importncia na urbanizao brasileira, esse
aspecto j foi bastante estudado por pesquisadores de diferentes reas do conhecimento como Ermnia Maricato, Nabil
Bonduki, Raquel Rolnik, Suzana Pasternak, entre outros.
Os processos informais de produo das terras urbanas
para as moradias populares definem territrios com uso e
ocupao intensa e densidades populacionais e construtivas
cada vez maiores. Apesar desses territrios apresentarem
diferentes nveis de precariedade e estarem localizados a
grandes distncias em relao s reas mais consolidadas da
cidade, com melhor oferta de servios, equipamentos, infraestruturas e empregos urbanos, h demandas crescentes por
essas terras urbanas ocupadas predominantemente pelas
populaes de baixa renda. Esses grupos praticamente no
contam com canais legais de acesso terra urbana para as
suas moradias. Sem alternativas, utilizam os canais ilegais
que instauram processos informais de compra e venda de
lotes, construo das moradias e desenvolvimento de atividades que geram micro economias populares nos bairros
originrios de assentamentos informais.
Esse processo lento e longo de produo e transformao dos espaos territoriais das grandes cidades, conhecido
como padro perifrico de urbanizao, calcado nos assentamentos precrios, segregados e informais ocupados
por moradias autoconstrudas, revela a contra-face do
desenvolvimentismo vigente, principalmente, no perodo
entre as dcadas de cinqenta e setenta, apoiado na ideologia do progresso disseminada na imagem do Brasil como o
pas do futuro e de So Paulo como a locomotiva do pas.
Nesse processo, as propriedades habitacionais conseguidas
com muito custo e sacrifcios dos prprios trabalhadores,
margem de qualquer poltica pblica, colocam-se como
recompensa de trabalho duro e como garantia de alguma
segurana num futuro incerto, destitudo de qualquer rede
de proteo social.
Nesse contexto, os trabalhadores entram diretamente
como agentes da urbanizao perifrica da cidade5. Com
a crise econmica e mudanas societrias no Brasil e em
toda Amrica Latina nos anos oitenta, paralelo ao processo
de abertura poltica e redemocratizao, o sonho da casa
prpria se desmanchou com o empobrecimento dos grupos sociais ocasionando o grande aumento no nmero de
pessoas vivendo em favelas na metrpole de So Paulo construdas em terras pblicas ou privadas.
na laje #2: casas construdas gradativamente
A construo da casa pelos prprios moradores, com
ajuda de amigos, vizinhos, parentes e pedreiros contratados,
conforma as paisagens em permanente estado de inacabamento dos assentamentos urbanos originrios de loteamentos clandestinos, ocupaes ou favelas. O processo de
construo dessa casa identifica-se com os ciclos de vida das
famlias. E a construo e usos das lajes acompanham esses
ciclos como espaos de varandas, reservas para novos compartimentos ou locais de convivncia entre o domstico e a
cidade.
Trata-se de uma conquista familiar que exige vrios
anos de trabalho e investimentos financeiros. Dispositivo poltico e domstico, a laje tambm o que espera a
construo de um novo compartimento habitacional - um
ndice do depois. Ela pode servir como suporte para uma
nova construo que poder abrigar a famlia dos filhos re-

Rivera / Eskes, 4 Passos

Rio 2016, 2030, 2050
O anncio dos Jogos Olmpicos coloca o desenvolvimento urbano da cidade no foco do debate. Nossa cidade
est no seu limite, precisamos repens-la e reinvent-la. Que
Rio de Janeiro desejamos?
consenso que seja uma cidade mais verde, mais justa,

74

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

cm-casados ou parentes e amigos vindos de outras cidades,

talvez com problemas econmicos. Ou poder ser vendida
ou alugada, constituindo uma fonte de renda complementar
para os proprietrios do imvel. Todas essas aes em curso
na periferia metropolitana resultam em adensamentos construtivos e populacionais crescentes que instauram novos
ciclos de informalidade urbana. Os sinais desse processo so
visveis na verticalizao e amontoamento das casas.
Os mutires autogeridos so tradues ordenadas, no
mbito das polticas pblicas e de aes dos movimentos
populares de luta por moradia, daqueles processos informais
de autoconstruo das moradias populares. Podem ser
considerados como um dos mais expressivos desdobramentos polticos desses movimentos que emergiram nas grandes
cidades brasileiras. Como aponta o arquiteto Pedro Arantes,
as experincias de canteiros de obras dos mutires realizadas
no incio dos anos noventa e novamente nos anos 2000 em
bairros paulistanos procuram situar as dimenses polticas,
sociais e econmicas baseadas em valores coletivos nos processos de produo das moradias populares6. A radicalizao dessa dimenso coletiva na proviso habitacional ainda
est para ser efetivada. Seria interessante analisar como as
lajes so, eventualmente, trabalhadas nesses projetos e obras
habitacionais executadas em mutiro. Ser que so tratadas
como um dispositivo construtivo e arquitetnico cujos sentidos extrapolam a mera funo de cobrir uma edificao?
Anlises futuras podero responder essa pergunta de modo
adequado.
na laje #3: constituio de micro-territrios
Nas casas, as lajes so, geralmente, compostas de sistemas construtivos simples. Formadas com lajotas cermicas
apoiadas em vigotas de concreto e recobertas com argamassa de cimento e areia, sustentam elementos como a caixa
d'gua, telhas de cimento amianto para abrigar da chuva e
do sol ou antena parablica de TV, entre outras coisas. Nas
lajes, o varal armado com roupa estendida onipresente. O
acesso geralmente por escadas estreitas, controlado ou
no pelos moradores. Seus mltiplos usos so constitudos a
partir de sociabilidades, hospitalidades, ajuda mtua, trocas
de experincias, intercmbio de informaes, convivncias,
entre outras aes.
Muitas vezes, suas funes so potencializadas ao mximo nos finais de semana. Nesses momentos, a laje tornase o lugar das conversas com a famlia, vizinhos e amigos,
do corte de cabelo, do famoso churrasco regado a muita
cerveja e de inmeras outras possibilidades. Nos assentamentos cada vez mais densos, as lajes substituem os antigos
quintais eliminados com o adensamento dos assentamentos
provocados pela construo dos puxadinhos ou das casas de
fundo. A vida nas lajes aparece representada nos sambas, rap
e hip hop. Nas lajes as pessoas fazem msica, jogam domin, cartas ou mesmo futebol. Comemoram aniversrios e
casamentos, fazem todo tipo de festas. Nos finais de cada
ano, da laje que se assiste a queima de fogos de artifcio. H
sociabilidades nas lajes que se constituem por meio dos encontros de salo de beleza em que se comenta a vida alheia
ou se toma banho de sol para manter o bronzeado. Crianas
empinam pipa, os cachorros brincam, as mulheres conversam, os adolescentes namoram. Constituem-se contatos ativos e passivos, dentre olhares, cheiros, sons e corpos. Estar
na laje pode significar a abertura para horizontes abertos
que contrastam com paisagens espremidas nas frestas das
casas vizinhas e nos vos das pequenas janelas abertas para
corredores estreitos. As lajes representam horizontes com
grandes aberturas para o cu e interaes potenciais entre

o domstico e a cidade.
De lmina de sociabilidade lmina de controle e
vigia7, as lajes se colocam como quase-objetos arquitetnicos articuladores das dimenses domsticas e urbanas
capazes de engendrar um complexo emaranhado de conexes polticas, econmicas, jurdicas, culturais e ambientais
da metrpole. No caso extremo das redes do narcotrfico,
as lajes com posio privilegiada para o domnio visual do
territrio, servem como postos de observao a partir dos
quais instauram-se regimes de vigilncia quase absoluta da
circulao e de acessos aos territrios dominados. Nesse
caso, as negociaes so abreviadas por imposies autoritrias que desenham outros diagramas das relaes de poder
a partir das lajes cujas dimenses mltiplas e ambivalncias
nos interpelam com indagaes do tipo: quais arquiteturas
e sociedades ns queremos construir para nossa convivncia? Quais ndices do depois ns queremos ativar em nossas prticas cotidianas direcionadas para o futuro? As lajes
configuram campos abertos com possibilidades infinitas
para narrativas compartilhadas. No fragmento de dilogo
apresentado no filme de Paola Salerno citado no incio desse
texto, a laje suporta a narrativa da fuga de um homem
ferido que deixa pegadas de sangue sob o olhar perplexo de uma mulher. As lajes so campos potenciais que
podem hospedar diversos tipos de narrativas com criaes
ou destituies de vida e entramados de relaes. nossa responsabilidade potencializar narrativas criativas na grande
laje metropolitana.

mais participativa. Mas para definir quais formas os compromissos constantes no dossier olmpico vo assumir em
sua materializao na cidade, necessrio haver um amplo
debate na sociedade sobre a arquitetura e o urbanismo.
A cidade a extenso de nossas casas, nossa residncia
coletiva. Para se ter uma cidade satisfatria, necessrio que
seus habitantes sejam capazes de participar do debate sobre
arquitetura e urbanismo. Porque so estes cidados quem
vai cobrar dos polticos planejadores quais solues mais
adequadas a seu bem estar.

Mesmo com seus inmeros problemas, o Rio de Janeiro sempre foi uma cidade posicionada mundialmente com
relao ao projeto urbano, tivemos Pereira Passos, Agache,
Lucio Costa, e o Favela-Bairro. O poder pblico tem o dever estimular a boa arquitetura. So os edifcios pblicos e
as intervenes urbanas que devem estabelecer o patamar
de qualidade desejado, que naturalmente ser seguido pelos cidados e investidores privados. Existem diversos meios
de promover a qualidade dos projetos, como seminrios e
workshops, mas talvez o mais importante seja estimular a

1 Joo Moreira Salles em entrevista Revista Sexta Feira (So Paulo,

2006)
2 Holston, James. Insurgent Citizenship, Disjunctions of Democracy
and Modernity in Brazil. Princeton, Princeton University Press, 2008. p.
313
3 Caldeira, Teresa e Holston, James. Estado e espao urbano no Brasil: do planejamento modernista s intervenes democrticas. In Avritzer,
Leonardo (org.) A Participao em So Paulo. So Paulo, Editora Unesp,
2004.
4 Telles, Vera da Silva e Cabanes, Robert. Nas tramas da cidade: trajetrias urbanas e seus territrios. So Paulo, Humanitas, 2006.
5 Ibidem, Caldeira, Teresa e Holston, James (2004).
6 Vide Arantes, Pedro Fiori Reinventing the Building Site. in Andreoli,
Elisabetta & Forty, Adrian (editors) Brazil Modern Architecture. Londres,
Phaidon Press, 2004. Arantes, Pedro Fiori. Arquitetura nova: Srgio Ferro,
Flvio Imprio e Rodrigo Lefvre de Artigas aos mutires. So Paulo: Editora 34, 2002.
7 Agradecimentos Luciana Itikawa pela generosa leitura e dilogo.

competio pelas melhores propostas atravs de concursos

pblicos de arquitetura e urbanismo.
O legado das Olimpadas uma grande oportunidade
de transformarmos esta cidade. Quanto mais transparente
for este processo, melhor ser esta transformao
4 passos para uma cidade mais sustentvel
densidade
Sustentabilidade o grande desafio das cidades contemporneas. Desde meados do sculo passado, o Rio vem
perdendo densidade, ou seja nmero de habitantes por
quilmetro quadrado. O automvel permitiu aos cidados
cumprirem grandes distncias em pouco tempo. Com isto a
cidade se espalhou e os quilmetros lineares de infra-estrutura necessrios por habitante cresceram, assim como seus
custos de implantao e manuteno. No h Olimpada ou
explorao de petrleo na camada do Pr-Sal capaz de sustentar este processo.
habitao popular
Uma cidade justa promove o convvio entre as diferentes classes sociais no seu territrio. Durante dcadas, a
inexistncia de polticas pblicas consistentes de habitao
colaborou para o desenvolvimento das habitaes informais.
Atualmente este processo est sendo revertido, com grandes
investimentos do Governo Federal no financiamento de moradia de baixa renda. Ocorre que os terrenos centrais da cidade tem um custo elevado, especialmente aqueles prximos

Hoffman, Landscape List

...uma paisagem no uma caracterstica natural do
ambiente, mais uma rea sinttica, um sistema de espaos
sobrepostos pelo homem na face do solo, que no se comporta ou desenvolve de acordo com leis naturais, mais existe
somente para atender uma comunidade j que o carter
coletivo da paisagem a nica coisa em que todas as geraes e opinies tem estado de acordo. Uma paisagem, desta
maneira, uma espao criado com o propsito fazer a natureza progredir mais rpido ou mais devagar.
John Brinkerhoff Jackson, Discovering the Vernacular
Landscape (Descobrindo a Paisagem Verncula) (Yale University Press 1984)
Processos ambientais do forma ao terreno. O andamento social determina as caractersticas da rea. Paisagismo a fuso destas duas zonas significando que os
materiais manipulados no design paisagstico arquitetural
so sistemas ecolgicos ambientais e sociais. O Experimento
Arquitetural So Paulo busca melhorar a vida das comunidades empobrecidas de So Paulo atravs da reinveno do
terreno e da dinmica territorial de reas especificas. Como
tal, SPAE pretende atuar em paisagismo. Para ajudar neste
objetivo ambicioso, os ofereo um lista de diretrizes para
serem experimentadas e ampliadas.
* Crie o indeterminado
O plano de paisagem urbana no prescrevido, mais realizado aceitando o acaso; Paisagens vitais emergem de atos
de habitao contnuos e imprevisveis, sempre convivendo
com os processos ambientais. Isto define a dinmica atual e
futura das favelas. Melhorando os mecanismos de vida em
So Paulo ter sucesso somente se estes so escolhido por
diversas pessoas, e de modo inesperado.
* Crie uma nova infra-estrutura
Os designers devem reformar os sistemas urbanos de
infra-estrutura. As infra-estruturas existentes devem estar
de acordo com importantes padres ambientais locais e

Rothstein, Desenvolvimento de
Baixo Impacto
Por todo o mundo, comunidades urbanas e em processo de urbanizao, como em So Paulo, encaram o aumento
da necessidade de infra-estrutura para gua, esgoto e guas
pluviais. Ao mesmo tempo, as infra-estruturas existentes
esto se desgastando e precisam ser renovadas. Enquanto a
reabilitao e construo de novas instalaes necessria

s areas ocupadas pela classe mdia, o que expulsa as populaes de baixa renda para sua periferia. No Rio, a geografia
corrige parcialmente este desequilbrio atravs da ocupao
irregular dos morro pelas favelas. Para que isto ocorra de
maneira saudvel, necessrio uma poltica pblica que garanta territrios para habitao formal de baixa renda em
toda a cidade.
transporte
As novas tecnologias fazem o mundo se comunicar
mais rpido, mas o deslocamento em nossa cidade cada
dia mais lento. O transporte no Rio de Janeiro baseado em
linhas de nibus desarticuladas e no automvel particular. O
transporte individual por automvel caro e poluente, alm
de exigir grandes superfcies para acomodao e fluidez da
frota: a cada novo recorde na produo das indstrias automobilsticas nossas cidades se tornam um pouco piores.
A falta de intregrao entre as linhas de nibus e sua competio com sistemas de massa de trem, metr e barcas tornam o sistema pouco eficiente.
Uma cidade sustentvel tem que promover uma infraestrutura onde os sistemas de transportes so integrados
atravs de diferentes escalas. As grandes distncias devem
ser percorridas por sistemas de transporte de massa, como
trem, metr ou os nibus com calha exclusiva, articulados
com linhas locais de nibus comuns e vans ou ciclovias.
Alm disso, preciso interligar o sistema s reas informais

da cidade, cuja constituio topogrfica e urbana impede o

acesso pelos sistemas tradicionais. Nestes casos, solues alternativas como funiculares, telefricos, elevadores devem
ser adotadas.
coexistncia
Historicamente as favelas foram associadas a imagens
negativas, como cnceres ou parasitas urbanos. Aos poucos
as polticas pblicas se transformaram e evoluiram, desde
erradicao dos anos 60 at os projetos de urbanizao,
como o Favela-Bairro.
preciso estabelecer um novo patamar. Os padres arquitetnicos e urbanos adotados nas favelas so inferiores
queles da cidade formal. preciso intervenes de alta
qualidade, capazes de concorrer com aquelas da cidade formal. A cidade de Medelln, na Colmbia, promoveu transformae urbanas radicais e construiu grandes bibliotecas
pblicas, com arquitetura de padro internacional, no topo
das favelas. O Rio precisa fazer o mesmo. preciso que a cidade formal enxergue qualidades na favela que mudem sua
percepo sobre estes espaos.

globais de gesto de guas pluviais, gesto de resduos, uso

de energia eltrica e armazenamento de carbono, acompanhadas de infra-estruturas novas que compensam as falhas
dos sistemas antigos. A melhoria das favelas o paisagismo
de uma nova infra-estrutura.
* Crie Multi-Valncia
Iniciativas devem ser sistematicamente bem integradas,
mais permitir oportunidade. Os mecanismos podem ser
usados em varias reas da cidade, sendo integrados estruturas, polticas ou mecanismos originais sero, em si, mais
robustos que os
projetos independentes. O urbanismo contemporneo
demanda multi-valncia. O design de sistemas no e cenogrfico, mais sim diagramtico ele deve ser representado
em termos de como o projeto funciona, em escalas mltiplas
e em conjunto com uma grande variao de desempenho.
* Crie com o carbono em mente
Somente a ocupao de terrenos cria 30% do escape de
carbono na atmosfera. Uma estrutura urbana, usando superfcies duras e reflexivas, altera os ciclos climticos numa
escala local e global. O plano de paisagismo urbano deve
tomar o desafio de restaurar uma cobertura trrea til. Temos que estabelecer diretrizes para o paisagismo urbano enquanto mantemos o poder da experincia paisagstica.
* Crie o territrio com o processo do terreno
Diversificando a tipologia das plantas urbanas (desde as
rvores das ruas, plantas bsicas e ornamentais) usando sistemas de planta-solo compatveis (como as gramas endmicas,
arbustos de transio ou tipos florestais), oferece a vantagem
de ativar uma acumulao de terra e absorver o carbono da
atmosfera processos do terreno atravs de um variedade
de perodos de tempo efetivos. Esta considerao permite a
convergncia destes perodos de tempo com ciclos de vida
da infra-estrutura urbana. Plantaes em camadas gramas
intercaladas, pequenos arbustos, grandes arbustos, rvores
altas e baixas maximizam a massa biolgica, ampliando
ambos o carbono orgnico do solo e a intensidade experimental da paisagem urbana. O objetivo no uma rplica

da condio natural, mais sim, de se concentrar no critrio

para o sucesso longe da simulao de um momento histrico biolgico e trabalhar para estabelecer diretrizes para um
design urbano convincente.
* Crie uma gesto do solo
Os regimes de manuteno que tentam neutralizar os
processos do meio-ambiente, com o propsito de manter
uma imagem de prestgio, devem ser substitudas por prticas temporrias que revelam o andamento do ciclo da vida.
O ciclo de uma planta e suas condies seguintes, no esto sempre organizadas, e necessidades de manuteno,
com freqncia, pede que por um curto prazo possam ser
manuseadas. Uma baguna pode resultar em produtividade.
Estabelecendo uma reaes cclicas dentro dos sistemas de
infra-estrutura, como por exemplo, distribuio de resduos
e infra-estrutura, constri uma eficincia operacional que
funciona de um lado para o outro dentro dos sistemas das
cidades.
* Crie ume economia verde
Ao pensar que o solo uma membrana grossa e articulada, permitimos a sobreposio de varias funes. Por
exemplo, fazendas solares costumavam ser no topo de estruturas bem altas, dando suporte a estruturas de circulao
verticais inter-ligando prdios e plantaes orgnicas, tirando o maior proveito possvel do terreno. Este regimento
complexo, baseado na implementao de prticas alternativas de uso do terreno, necessitar de uma mo-de-obra
especializada para ser implementado. O treinamento de
trabalhadores suscita uma melhora mais significativa do terreno e tambm cria empregos em uma economia emergente
baseada na economia do terreno. Projetos trreos devero
estar ligados uma reforma educacional, e cada fase do desenvolvimento deve acomodar a comunidade entre perodos
intermedirios de aprendizado.

para encarar os problemas de urbanizao, crescimento populacional, mudanas climticas e muitos outros fatores, este
trabalho deve ser completado de modo econmico, permanecendo dentro dos limites fiscais do governo municipal.
Historicamente, os problemas ambientais urbanos
eram abordados com solues centralizadas e rgidas, implementando processos de tratamentos somente no fim da
linha. Mesmo que o desempenho deste sistemas pode ter
resultados previsveis, o alto custo, viabilidade tcnica, e

aceitao pblica destas reservas de gua existentes ou em

desenvolvimento, pode apresentar um grande desafio. Consequentemente, as comunidades esto, com mais freqncia, se concentrando na reduo na fonte ou preveno
de poluio para resolver problemas ambientais. A filosofia
por trs desta ttica, que ao diminuir as causas dos problemas ambientais, a escala e o custo da necessrias medidas
de remediao podem ser proporcionalmente reduzidas. No
setor de energia , uma estratgia pode incluir uma investiga-

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

75

o analisando se um subsdio para conservar energia pode

ser utilizado para evitar a construo de novas usinas. No
contexto da reserva de gua urbana, uma variedade de desenvolvimentos de baixo impacto podem ser utilizadas para
reduzir a necessidade de uma infra-estrutura para a gesto
de guas pluviais.
Desenvolvimento de Baixo Impacto (DBI) uma prtica para a gesto de guas pluviais relativamente nova, normalmente implementada em reservas de gua j urbanas ou
em processo de urbanizao. DBI tambm pode ser definido
como um desenvolvimento urbano e uma estratgia de reforma, que se concentra na proteo e uso de intervenes
distribudas, para reduzir o volume e a velocidade do fluxo
da gua pluvial da paisagem projetada. Este objetivo alcanado atravs da adoo do terreno e projetos de infra-estrutura que sustentam, ou ao menos tentam fazer uma replica

Pendleton, Estruturando o
SLUM Lab
Tem sido minha sorte e prazer em providenciar conselhos de engenharia estrutural para o SLUM Lab da Columbia
University desde 2008. Os instrutores e alunos do SLUM Lab
esto bem atentos ao fato de que design para mudar a sociedade no somente um debate de teoria. Design socialmente
responsvel essencial para a sobrevivncia da humanidade
e seus ideais mais altos. Se estamos preparados para encarar o desafio de criar cidades sustentveis, que se estruturam
economicamente de baixo para cima, este deve ser o foco
principal de toda a nossa prtica. Segue abaixo um kit de
peas de estrutura que frouxamente organizado ao lado
do processo do desenvolvimento do design. Essas sugestes
so consistentes com os princpios de engenharia estrutural
e o papel do arquiteto como o lder do projeto, como ambos
so necessrios para o sucesso dos projetos dentro e fora do
estdio SLUM Lab.
1. Identifique e note os objetivos principais da sua proposta. Um design arquitetnico pode ser estruturalmente
ousado mantendo seus objetivos em mente, j que a tecnologia e ingenuidade hoje em dia podem alcanar novos desafios. No entanto, uma geometria complexa mais eficiente
quando sublinhada por objetivos arquiteturais significativos.
Quando uma deciso pede um sacrifcio inevitvel qualquer,
os objetivos principais lidaro o caminho em frente.
2. Pesquise as condies do mercado local e os materiais de construo disponveis. Desde o incio, a proposta
baseada na pesquisa das reas a serem construdas, devem
incluir uma avaliao dos materiais e trabalhadores locais
disponveis, j que esta disponibilidade favorvel. Isto
muito importante para o sucesso de projetos com um oramento baixo, sendo o caso da maioria dos projetos desta

Werthmann, O Desafio
O urbanismo informal o modelo de desenvolvimento
mais comum nas cidades que mais crescem no mundo. Hoje,
vivemos numa era onde 30% da populao urbana mora em
favelas. E previsto que a metade do crescimento urbano futuro ser informal, aumentando o nmero atual de um bilho de moradores em favelas para dois bilhes em 2030. O
mundo estando numa recesso, o urbanismo informal ir expandir ainda mais rpido do que esta projeo. Apesar deste
fato, a maioria dos profissionais em design no trabalha, e
nem sabe trabalhar nessas reas. A educao moderna em
design ter falhado se no preparar esta prxima gerao de
designers para o desafio de urbanismo informal.
Como membros desta profisso em design, estamos
geralmente preocupados com a questo de como a vida nas
cidades informais pode ser melhorada atravs de design.
Como paisagistas, estamos principalmente interessados na
questo de como a vida nas cidades informais podem ser
melhoradas atravs de paisagismo, principalmente quando
reas vagas so recursos raros e preciosos na cidade informal. O pouco de espao que existe est em alta demanda e
em piores condies do que o ambiente construdo. Em So

76

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

de sistemas de hidrologia pr-desenvolvidos num contexto

ps-desenvolvido.
Os sistemas de BDI incluem telhados com calhas, sistemas de infiltrao, jardins de chuva, coleta de gua e sistemas
de reutilizao desta gua, sistemas de armazenamento de
gua, distribudas na paisagem. Estudos indicam que o custo
de instalao de um sistema de BDI pode ser um pouco mais
caro que os sistema convencional, mais o sistema de BDI
mais rentvel em uma base por galo no armazenamento
de guas pluviais. As tticas d so BDI tem a capacidade de
diminuir o impacto de energia de grandes fluxos de guas
entrando no sistema, e tambm diminuir a pegada do projeto e consideraes de manuteno a longo prazo para as
estruturas no fim da linha.
Para se saber se a tecnologia do BDI adequada, deve
ser feita uma analises meticulosa da rentabilidade de sua

implementao, comparando varias intervenes pequenas distribudas ao redor do reservatrio, ou a opo de ser
utilizado em conjunto com sistemas mais tradicionais, centralizados pra resolver o mesmo problema. Ao criar novos
mtodos para se coletar guas pluviais, nos receptores mais
altos do reservatrio, o volume e fluxo da gua podem ser
efetivamente reduzidos. Este ttica serve para diminuir os
problemas relacionados com o escoamento da gua para
reas mais baixas. (Ex: altas velocidades, eroso do solo, formao de riachos urbanos, enchentes, corrimento do esgoto,
fontes de poluio)
BDI pode ser um componente muito importante no
desenvolvimento de So Paulo e deve ser considerado em
todos planejamentos futuros.

natureza.
3. Determine as condies do terreno desde cedo.
Mande fazer uma investigao geotcnica das condies do
sub-solo o mais cedo possvel. As casas em favelas so geralmente construdas em cima de materiais descartados por geraes anteriores. Por este motivo, o sub-solo no tem a habilidade de fornecer uma base slida para novas estruturas.
A construes de estruturas como as do per so caras ento
importante entender as condies do sub-solo o mais cedo
possvel, para que os alicerces possam ser os mais eficientes
de acordo com custo.
4. Concentre-se em ladeiras ngremes desde cedo.
Geralmente ladeiras ngremes no atraem o desenvolvimento por construtores focados no mercado imobilirio. Favelas ento crescem nesta rea. Para lidar com esta condio
acentuada, importante uma colaborao forte entre o arquiteto, o engenheiro civil, que responsvel por projetar
o escoamento do terreno, o engenheiro geotcnico, que
conhece bem diversas condies do subsolo, e o engenheiro
estrutural, responsvel pela fundao e a estrutura principal do design. A complexidade dos alicerces podem ter uma
influencia profunda na viso do arquiteto e suas escolhas de
alternativas. Portanto, a colaborao deve comear cedo no
processo do design.
5. Considere estruturas alternativas especficos para
o projeto. Condies locais do terreno indicam se melhor
construir a base de concreto no local da construo ou, se o
solo fraco, a alternativa seria de construir em ao. Outro
fato a ser considerado se o material mais barato consistente com o acesso ao site. Por exemplo, a utilizao de
blocos pr-fabricado de concreto para o cho de um prdio
pode ser a opo mais barata, mais ser possvel entregar
estes blocos em um local com ruas muito estreitas? Baseado
nas variveis, uma boa idia ter duas ou trs alternativas

de estruturas para a estrutura principal no incio do desenvolvimento conceitual, mesmo que as alternativas no sejam
as mais atraentes primeira vista.
6. Pense na fase da construo. Uma pesquisa bem
feita deve levar em considerao as zonas de transio entre
as fases antes e depois. possvel que um bloco residencial
grande que est abrigando os habitantes da favela seja construdo antes que a prxima fase possa comear? Este prdio
ir dificultar a construo adjacente? possvel entregar e
guardar materiais no site? A construo precisar de um
guindaste e, se for este o caso existe uma rea plana onde o
guindaste possa ficar?
7. Re-identifique os objetivos da proposta durante o
andamento do projeto e note-os ao fim do projeto. Mitigar
as varias consideraes estruturais, alm das outras questes
de oramento e aprovao do governo, podem ser grandes
desafios. Relembrar os princpios fundamentais do design
podem abastecer os motores criativos, os de colaborao e
de convico, to essenciais para a liderana e viso de um
arquiteto. E no se esquea de que voc tem seu engenheiro
estrutural para te ajudar!

Paulo, os moradores das favelas so completamente capazes

de construir suas prprias casas, mais existe mais dificuldade
para delinear um espao pblico em frente dessas casas.
Nas favelas, comum achar casas com o interior bem
acabado, antenas de TV digital e televises em frente uma
estrada de terra. A HABISP est caminho de compensar
esta falta; tendo uma experincia vasta em transformar espaos pblicos em favelas, atravs da interveno de um
paisagismo socialmente informado. Os exemplos inmeros
de praas, parques e complexos de esporte em So Paulo so
um grande exemplo do poder que a arquitetura de paisagens
tem na cidade informal. Assim que a oportunidade existe,
a vida cvica se desenvolve nesses novos espaos; ningum
pode dizer o mesmo sobre o poder da cidade prpria.
evidente que esses projetos pblicos ajudam no avano
da vida cvica na favela, mais deve-se notar que existem muitas melhorias ambientais ainda serem feitas na metrpole.
Como na cidade formal, a infra-estrutura melhorada na
cidade informal transpe problemas locais para reas mais
remotas gua poluda, sem ser tratada, encanada e distribuda para reas mais distantes, causando mais enchentes
e problemas de poluio em outras partes da cidade. O esgoto bombeado percorrendo longas distancias para plantas
de tratamento; o lixo transportado para depsitos de lixo

remotos. No entanto, So Paulo no tem mais espao para

estruturas remotas e a exportao de problemas no mais
uma soluo vivel. A cidade tem aos poucos percebido que,
em seu vasto territrio de 8,000 quilmetros quadrados,
o longe aqui e o remoto est bem na frente da casa de
algum e que outro lugar ser o quintal do outro. Sendo
estas as circunstncias, de se imaginar se a melhoria da
cidade informal tem de sempre importar os problemas da cidade formal. Se pergunta se possvel simplesmente avanar
para uma fase alternativa de uma s vez; de modo figurativo,
pular a carnia.
Ao abandonar a prtica de exportar os problemas para
outros destinos, significa que teremos que lidar com estes
problemas mais perto de sua origem. Transporte, energia,
eroso, gua e lixo tem que ser tratados dentro da cidade.
O prximo desafio para designers trabalhando nas favelas
(e tambm nas cidades formais) de no s desenvolver espaos abertos em que as pessoas possam desfrutar o ar livre
e a recreao, mais tambm administrar as infra-estruturas
locais de modo beneficial ao meio ambiente no s porque
politicamente correto, mais porque essencial para a sobrevivncia da metrpole.
Esse novo tipo de infra-estrutura ir se manifestar nos
espaos pblicos das favelas, desafiando os paisagistas a

desenvolver espaos benficos para a sociedade e o meioambiente dentro de condies de alta densidade. Para alcanar a fase alternativa, ser necessrio re-pensar o processo
de design; nosso conhecimento ter de expandir, novas
tecnologias tero de ser testadas, prottipos tero de ser
construdos; um forte processo de colaborao entre novas

Rosa, Microplanejamento
MICROPLANEJAMENTO. PRTICAS URBANAS
CRIATIVAS um projeto de interesse pblico que tem
como objetivo produzir conhecimento revelar, documentar e dividir. Pretende-se organizar uma rede, revelar formas
de organizao espaciais inovadoras e disseminar essa informao aos agentes e s partes envolvidas no pensamento e
na construo da cidade.
Microplanejamento combina a documentao de microprticas em So Paulo com uma srie de ensaios que oferecem uma viso possvel do que chamamos de microplanejamento. O livro situa a ao na microescala com base em
prticas sociais e apropriaes coletivas, chamando ateno
para a importncia de iniciativas bottom-up (de baixo para
cima) na configurao da paisagem urbana. O livro pretende
criar uma plataforma que exponha os diferentes projetos
como formas de pensar a microescala urbana. A inexistncia de registro abrangente de projetos dessa natureza em So
Paulo explica seu carter de invisibilidade o desconhecimento de tais intervenes. Apontamos para o enorme potencial desses projetos, que indicam a escala local e as tticas
urbanas (como definido por de Certeau) como uma (outra)
forma de pensar a cidade.
MICROPLANEJAMENTO
Experimentao uma forma vital de abordar a complexidade crescente das cidades, procura de novos tipos de
planejamento alternativo, capazes de absorver o que emerge
e gerado pelos meios urbanos. Providenciar espao para
isto o lugar do encontro demanda uma valorizao da
descoberta de qualidades do espao, alm de sua reinterpretao. Esse vis de leitura elege a cidade como um laboratrio e campo de experimentao. Novas conexes e redes
estratgicas focam processos locais abertos a tticas bottom
up (de baixo para cima), experincias localizadas que carregam consigo a inteno da mudana dos locais a partir de
novas operaes arquitetnicas. As prticas urbanas coletivas buscam por novas ferramentas capazes de lidar com
estas realidades urbanas emergentes. A cidade real interpretada como campo para experimentao um espao
construdo a ser revelado, passvel de ao local.
COLETA DE AMOSTRAS (SAMPLING)
Em 2008, com base na plataforma criada pelo Deutsche
Bank Urban Age Award (DBUAA[1]), tivemos a chance de
mapear em So Paulo projetos e iniciativas que manipulavam
espaos com o objetivo de gerar qualidade urbana e ambientes melhores para se viver, na escala local. Como resultado
dessa pesquisa, pudemos compilar uma ampla amostragem
de projetos de naturezas diferentes, que, em sua heterogeneidade, parecem demonstrar formas de negociao de suas
especificidades territoriais. Situaes desenvolvidas desses
exemplos so espaos de experimentao, espaos articulados onde existe uma reivindicao para uma vida sociocultural exercida.[2]
DENOMINADOR COMUM | Prticas urbanas criativas
Dos projetos coletados em 2008, escolhemos para anlise aqueles que ocupam espaos abertos e determinam campos de ao na cidade. Esse critrio aponta para a busca por
espaos que mostrem formas de reorganizao na escala local e reflitam uma nova atitude com relao vida coletiva
no meio urbano a apropriao do espao por seus moradores atravs de uma resposta (pr)ativa, a ao e proposio
em escala 1:1 [3].
Esta publicao procura identificar pontos comuns
(um denominador comum) entre os projetos selecionados

geraes de engenheiros ambientais, assistentes sociais, e

profissionais na rea de design tem que ser organizado. O
mundo acadmico ter de contribuir ao processo atravs de
uma nova anlise do status-quo e tambm providenciando
uma quadro conceitual para os primeiros experimentos em
direo a nova fase no processa de melhorias nas favelas.
do trabalho de campo. A partir da negociao em terrenos
e realidades preexistentes, nascem projetos que propem a
sua interpretao, uso e ressignificao. Eles operam como
articuladores, manipulando as referncias presentes.
No pretendemos simplesmente catalogar os projetos,
mas investig-los, propondo uma leitura possvel aplicada
a cada um deles que nos permita identificar um campo de
ao e uma ttica, responsveis pela recodificao de um
espao urbano existente. Atribui-se a fora desses projetos
seguinte relao: a identificao de potencial local e a articulao de instrumentos necessrios e disponveis que permitem o reso e a ressignificao de pontos especficos. Pretendemos com isso indicar campos de oportunidade para a
ao em So Paulo.
PRTICAS URBANAS CRIATIVAS
Na Regio Metropolitana de So Paulo, essas situaes
aparecem como urgncias, descartando a necessidade de
simulao prvia. As prticas urbanas criativas organizam
lugares para o encontro pontos de contato que resistem
desertificao de espaos coletivos de qualidade.
Jardins comunitrios esverdeiam a paisagem de tijolos
vermelhos no extremo leste da cidade; um parquinho e um
centro de artes ocupam o centro de uma densa favela; uma
escola de boxe e academia de ginstica instalada sob um
viaduto oferecem atividades esportivas na rota de percurso
dirio; um jovem artista estimula o uso coletivo do espao
comum atravs de sua residncia em diferentes favelas; um
cinema a cu aberto em terreno vazio leva atividades culturais a uma vizinhana isolada; navegao e iniciativas de
arte chamam ateno para um rio poludo; um programa de
reciclagem une uma comunidade carente de infraestrutura
bsica; um banco improvisado sob uma rvore serve de lugar para o encontro beira de um crrego.
SO PAULO
Por que esses projetos aparecem em So Paulo? O que
eles tm a ver com as lgicas prprias de construo do espao dessa cidade? Em que medida essa rede de projetos
(paralela ao circuito tradicional, convencional, do planejamento oficial) representa outra forma possvel de se fazer
cidade?
A auto-organizao verificada nos projetos o envolvimento da populao que caracteriza prticas urbanas
criativas parece ser impulsionada pela falta de espaos de
coexistncia com qualidade na escala humana, do usurio
resultado de escolhas tomadas no processo de urbanizao
da cidade de So Paulo. Curiosamente, esse mesmo processo
produziu espaos urbanos desperdiados, vazios, subutilizados, residuais que, quando interpretados como campos com
potencial para a prtica criativa, representam uma possibilidade de reestruturao urbana comprometida com a escala
local. Esses pensamentos se traduzem na cidade aberta
brincadeira e experimentao, no espao aberto criao, ao coletiva e ocupao a reinterpretao de um
cenrio construdo ao qual novo significado adicionado.
REDE COLETIVA
Pretendemos organizar uma rede a partir desses campos
para questionar o potencial e a importncia do microplanejamento na construo do ambiente urbano.
Urbanismo em rede? Ou microintervenes estrategicamente conectadas? Os casos estudados indicam uma rede
social urbana de alcance metropolitanto circuitos de resistncia cidade genrica que organizam microambientes
na cidade, nutrindo a discusso das especificidades e dos lugares urbanos. Identificamos microarquiteturas sobrepostas
a estruturas modernas monofuncionais, anexando a elas as
complexidades capazes de induzir espaos urbanos de qualidade.

Frequentemente vistos como atos isolados e frgeis engajados com a noo de responsabilidade sobre o espao
comum, pretendemos identificar e refletir sobre as estrattias associadas aos projetos selecionados. Essa abordagem
situa uma srie de campos especficos e tticas em conjunto,
como uma rede de projetos, apontando para uma estratgia
de prticas urbanas criativas em rede.
COLETIVIDADE ARQUITETNICA
Esse projeto visa quebra de limites e construo de
novas pontes interdisciplinares, expandindo os limites tradicionais e reivindicando novo papel e reposicionamento do
arquiteto e planejador urbano.
Falar de arquitetura, nesses termos, significa questionar a possibilidade do aprendizado para a disciplina, luz
das novas questes trazidas pelos projetos mencionados.
Tal posicionamento demanda um novo olhar e uma nova
definio de arquitetura enquanto espao construdo culturalmente.[4]

ESPAOS MOLDADOS CULTURALMENTE

Um entendimento abrangente do significado de arquitetura parece-nos interessar para que se compreenda o arquitetnico.
O espao concreto importante em nossas rotinas
no nada sem a vida; ele ser constitudo somente atravs
da prtica da vida[5]. O arquitetnico difere da arquitetura
nestes termos: aceitando o desdobramento da disciplina
para relaes travadas no espao que no podem ser completamente antecipadas pela prtica do planejamento. Dessa
forma, a arquitetura entendida como um espao construdo e constitudo a partir de prticas sociais e culturais[6] .
Falamos de um espao no apenas disponibilizado para coisas e usos, mas de um espao articulado para processos de
vida mais complexos.[7]
Hlio Oiticica[8] define o artista como aquele que faz,
qualquer pessoa ativa e propositiva em seu ambiente. Essa
definio generosamente permite que qualquer indivduo
assuma papis proativos em seus espaos urbanos. Segundo
tal definio, criadores seriam aqueles que trabalham coletivamente, tratando da coletividade.[9]
Participar completar um esquema proposto.[10]
Tomamos participao como a chave para definir e entender
o espao urbano (em oposio noo de transmisso e recepo separadas). Coletividade viver junto na cidade
serve como uma base para se repensar questes sociais em
termos urbansticos: a cidade nosso potencial, e ns somos seus construtores.[11]
A arquitetura pode ser definida em um nvel mais
amplo, como espao articulado, no qual a vida cultural e
social podem se desdobrar[12]. Se entendermos a arquitetura como uma disciplina capaz de reagir em relao aos
padres urbanos (em constante mudana), concentrandose no espao como elemento chave para se trabalhar[13],
poderemos revelar campos urbanos especficos a partir da
produo social do espao (Raum) e um repertrio coerente
s necessidades de planejamento urbano de nosso tempo.
Se definimos o arquitetnico como um espao aberto
interveno e, se entendemos o arquiteto como todo aquele
que age em seu ambiente, apontamos para a possibilidade
de uma outra investigao da cidade e para outra forma de
se planejar o urbano. Aceitamos a cidade real, como um
produto de decises polticas, projetos e vontades coletivas e pessoais e acreditamos existir nessa cidade enorme
potencial para reorganizao, rearticulao, recodificao.
Indicamos a tarefa de mapear os campos onde tais formas
de reorganizao acontecem, de identificar novos campos
com abertura e capacidade para receber novos objetos que
estimulem relaes e, por fim, apontamos para a necessi-

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

77

dade de entender e propor mecanismos coerentes aos campos e potencial identificados. Chamamos essa tarefa de microplanejamento.
Microplanejamento. Prticas Urbanas Criativas um
livro organizado por Marcos L. Rosa para a Alfred Herrhausen Society (the International Frum of the Deutsche
Bank. Em cooperao com Sophie Wolfrum, do Urban land
scape research institute, Universidade Tcnica de Munique.
Lanamento: 2010.
www.microplanning.net
[1] O Deutsche Bank Urban Age Award (DBUAA) um prmio conferido a projetos que se organizam atravs de parcerias e prticas cooperativas em busca de um ambiente urbano melhor. O DBUAA organizado
pela Alfred Herrhausen Society - O frum internacional do Deutsche Bank
- e uma iniciativa associada Conferncia Urban Age, organizada com a
London School of Economics.
[2] Tema desenvolvido em: Wolfrum, Sophie, Raum artikulieren, in:
Lederer, Arno (org.) ach. Ansichten zur Architektur, n. 21 Mai-Juni 2006,
IoeB Universitaet Stuttgart.
[3] Ao coletiva no sentido proposto por Nicolas Bourriaud, em
oposio crtica passiva, a espera de mudanas: Mas existe algo verdadeiramente considerado espao pblico hoje em dia? Estes atos frgeis e isolados engajam a noo de responsabilidade: se existe um buraco na calada,
por que um funcionrio da prefeitura o preenche, e no voc ou eu? in:
Bourriaud, Nicolas, Postproduction, 2002, p. 80.
[4] Tema desenvolvido em: Wolfrum, Sophie, Raum artikulieren, in:
Lederer, Arno (Org.) ach. Ansichten zur Architektur, n. 21 Mai-Juni 2006,
IoeB Universitaet Stuttgart.
[5] ibidem Or.: Der konkrete Raum, der in unserem Alltag eine Rolle
spielt, ist nichts dem Leben Aeusserliches sondern wird durch unsere Lebenspraxis erst konstituiert.
[6] Janson, Alban/ Wolfrum, Sophie, Kapazitaet: Spielraum und Praegnanz 2006.
[7] idem, original:Architecture is culturally formed and designed
space. Space not only for the storage of things and traces, but articulated
space for the unfolding of living processes.
[8] Hlio Oiticica (19371980) foi um artista brasileiro. Ele criou trabalhos chamados Parangols que consistiam em camadas de tecidos, pls-

tico e outras superfcies com o objetivo de ser vestidas como fantasias e

experimentados como esculturas mveis. Os parangols so descritos como
ambientes penetrveis e pinturas habitaveis capas, tendas e baners desenhados para ser vestidos ou habitados enquanto se movimenta ao ritmo
do samba. Catlogo da exposio, Tate Modern. Hlio Oiticica. The body
of colour. Tate Modern. Junho 2007.
[9] Lagnado, Lisette, No amor e na adversidade, in: Lagnado, Lisette/
Pedrosa, Adriano (ed.). 27a. Bienal de So Paulo: Como viver junto. So
Paulo: Fundao Bienal, 2006. 7 de outubro a 17 de dezembro de 2006. Pavilho da Bienal, Parque do Ibirapuera, So Paulo.
[10] Borriaud, Nicolas, Postproduction, 2002: 89.
[11] Maier, Julia/Rick, Matthias, Raumlaborberlin. Acting in Public,
2008: editorial.
[12] idem.
[13] Em uma era do espao, arquitetura torna-se vital. Precisamos de
arquitetura para moldar o mundo em que vivemos. Original: In einer Epoche des Raumes ist Architektur lebensnotwendig. Wir brauchen Architektur, um unsere Welt zu gestalten. In Wolfrum, Sophie, Raum artikulieren,
In Lederer, Arno (Oorg.) ach. Ansichten zur Architektur, n. 21 Mai-Juni
2006, IoeB Universitaet Stuttgart.
[14] As defined by Michael de Certeau.
[15] The Deutsche Bank Urban Age Award (DBUAA) is an open competition for projects that are envisioned and organized through partnerships and cooperative practices. The DBUAA is organized by the Alfred
Herrhausen Society, the international forum of the Deutsche Bank, and is a
joint initiative with the Urban Age Conference, organized with the London
School of Economics.
[16] Subject developed by Sophie Wolfrum in Raum artikulieren, in:
Lederer, Arno (Org.) ach. Ansichten zur Architektur, n.21 Mai-juni 2006,
IoeB Universitaet Stuttgart.
[17] Collective action as proposed by Nicolas Bourriaud, in oposition
to the passive criticism, awaiting for changes: But is there such a thing as
a truly public space today? These fragile, isolated acts engage the notion of
responsibility: if there is a hole in the sidewalk, why does a city employee fill
it in, and not you and me? In: Bourriaud, Nicolas, Postproduction, 2002,
p. 80.
[18] Subject developed in: Wolfrum, Sophie, Raum artikulieren, in:
Lederer, Arno (Org.) ach. Ansichten zur Architektur, n.21 Mai-juni 2006,
IoeB Universitaet Stuttgart.
[19] ibidem, original: Der konkrete Raum, der in unserem Alltag
eine Rolle spielt, ist nichts dem Leben Aeusserliches sondern wird durch
unsere Lebenspraxis erst konstituiert.
[20] Janson, Alban/ Wolfrum, Sophie, Kapazitaet: Spielraum und
Praegnanz 2006.
[21] ibidem: Architecture is culturally formed and designed space.
Space not only for the storage of things and traces, but articulated space for

Levrat, Scale
Com mais freqncia, a arquitetura mais valorizada
por suas qualidades formais, materiais, tecnolgicas ou
ecolgicas. Raramente discutimos a escala do projeto como
um parmetro estratgico de design. Contudo, uma estratgia que tem sido utilizada na histria da arquitetura e tambm em alguns ttulos recentes de livros, como S,M,L,XL
(P,M,G,XG). As imagens to Superstdio dos ltimos anos
60 so as mais impressionantes e o trabalho deRem Koolhaas, desde sua tese AA at seu projeto mais recente, o Ra
Ak Khaimah, so claramente uma variao do manifesto
avant-guarde italiano. uma arquitetura sem escala, onde
nem forma ou funo podem ser reconhecidas, e somente
uma infinita e absoluta escala de interveno.
Em 1971 Natalini escreveu ...se design somente um
incentivo para o consumo, ento, devemos rejeitar design; se
arquitetura simplesmente a codificao do modelo burgus,
de propriedade e sociedade, temos que rejeitar a arquitetura;
Se a arquitetura e o planejamento de cidades so somente
a formalizao da diviso e separao social, ento, temos
que rejeitar as cidades e seus respectivos planejamentos urbanos...at que todas as atividades de design sejam focadas
na satisfao de necessidades bsicas. At ento, design deve
desaparecer. Ns podemos viver sem arquitetura...
A escala absoluta e infinita do projeto totalitrio da
avant-guarde Italiana provocative e certamente avanou a
estratgia de design tradicional a ponto de quebrar. Todavia,
ela ressoa em estratgias exploradas por Alfredo Brillembourg, Hubert Klumper e a SEHAB. Estamos vivendo hoje
em uma realidade parecida, que abrange dois extremos da
arquitetura e da economia
De um lado, lidamos com uma concentrao incrvel
de capital abstrato, gerado por novos instrumentos financeiros e, por sua vez, gerando projetos enormes sem um escala especfica. O exemplo de alguns desenvolvimentos em
Dubai e outras cidades do Oriente Mdio, so um exemplo
explcito de mega-projetos projetados por uma s autoridade de design, gerando o paisagismo e a construo de uma
rea do tamanho de So Francisco em um ano, desde a nova
formao icnica do solo encravado no oceano ao estilo da

78

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

maaneta da porta e o azulejo dos banheiros e dai ento,

construdo em cinco anos, com bilhes em dvidas, milhares
de trabalhadores de baixa renda, todos seguindo o um plano
especfico. Entrega de areia via GPS, prottipos feitos sobre
encomenda via internet; essa atitude gera uma gerncia que
valoriza mais as coordenadas do satlite do que o atual ponto de vista trrea da obra. A escala humana completamente
apagada pela escala econmica, onde investimentos abstratos e lucros so os verdadeiros usurios da nova construo.
A nova gerncia e seus mtodos de comunicao, assim
como os novos instrumentos financeiros, permitiram esse
projeto de mega-escala emergir da areia.
Do outro lado, temos as propostas do estdio SLUM Lab
da escola de graduao de arquitetura da Columbia University, onde o ponte de origem eterno. Com o crescimento da
populao do mundo explodindo, pode-se re-interpretar o
projeto de superstdio com o crescimento sem fim de favelas, cidades informais e arquitetura espontnea, completamente cobrindo o territrio num carpete de favelas.
Podemos facilmente definir escalas paralelas entre uma
Grade Absoluta e Abstrata e uma Povoao Absoluta Humana, onde o pxel foi transformado de uma rede de linhas para
uma s residncia. Todavia, a diferena real entre esses dois,
um tanto comparvel visualmente, pode ser encontrado na
escala de sua deciso.
Tanto quanto a grade absoluta representa o poder absoluto de um s sistema de ditadura, o povoamento humano
absolutamente espontneo o resultado de um nmero complexo e infinito de pequenas negociaes. O gro fino dessas
negociaes, entre as diferentes vizinhanas, as autoridades
locais e as infra-estruturas compartilhadas (como a gua e a
eletricidade) est providenciando uma paisagem complexa
que cada estudante parece estar investigando e procurando
as qualidades especificas de cada situao. Achando o conjunto de regras correto, extraindo as foras existentes em
jogo e procurando a escala exata em que estas composies
sero construdas, um projeto muito interessante, que vai
contra a corrente da hierarquia de poder tradicional do construtor-arquiteto-cliente, ou a prtica exclusivamente esttica da profisso arquitetural.

the unfolding of living processes.

[22] Hlio Oiticica (193780) was a Brazilian artist. He created works
called Parangols which consisted layers of fabric, plastic and matting intended to be worn like costumes but experienced as mobile sculptures.
These are described as penetrable environments and habitable paintings capes, tents and banners designed to be worn or inhabited while moving to
the rhythm of samba. Tate Modern exhibition catalog. Hlio Oiticica. The
body of colour. Tate Modern. June 2007.)
[23] Lagnado, Lisette, No Amor e na Adversidade, in: Lagnado,
Lisette/ Pedrosa, Adriano (ed.). 27a. Bienal de So Paulo: Como Viver Junto. So Paulo: Fundao Bienal, 2006. 7 de outubro a 17 de dezembro de
2006. Pavilho da Bienal, Parque do Ibirapuera, So Paulo. Bilnge: portugus/ingls.
[24] Borriaud, Nicolas, Postproduction, 2002: 89.
[25] Maier, Julia/Rick, Matthias, Raumlaborberlin. Acting in Public,
2008: editorial
[26] ibidem
[27] In an epoch of space, architecture is vital. We need architecture
to shape our world. Original: In einer Epoche des Raumes ist Architektur
lebensnotwendig. Wir brauchen Architektur, um unsere Welt zu gestalten.
In Wolfrum, Sophie, Raum artikulieren, In Lederer, Arno (Org.) ach. Ansichten zur Architektur, n.21 Mai-juni 2006, IoeB Universitaet Stuttgart.

Sutto, Reportando de Roma

Dada a urgncia de se falar sobre mudanas climticas,
existe um consenso em que ambos setores, o pblico e o
privado, junto comunidade cientfica, esto sendo chamados para colaborar um com o outro. Esta parceria est sendo
feita para se estabelecer um pensamento estratgico especfico em termos de adaptao, e generalizado em termos de
necessidade de refletir sobre as consequncias de uma viso
coletiva. Em particular, cidades esto sendo vistas de modo
diferente. Muitas disciplinas nunca trabalharam juntas antes,
mais agora, tero que ampliar suas vises em busca de tcnicas de adaptao urbana; o ramo de design a disciplina
que une todas as disciplinas. Com adaptao urbana em
mente, trinta pesquisadores de vrias disciplinas de pases
europeus e norte americanos se reuniram para desenvolver
um processo criativo necessrio para que a adaptao urbana seja tambm uma fonte de novas economias urbanas,
e para analisar como a nova indstria urbana pode incluir
prticas sustentveis em seus planos. Para esta troca EuroAmericana, a cidade de Roma foi escolhida para servir como
uma zona neutra, mais com uma representao significativa
de Nova Iorque e Londres. Engenheiros, antropologistas,
empresrios, experts em mdia, filsofos, cientista polticos,
designers urbanos e cientistas climticos participaram desta
conferncia.
A discusso concentrou-se em abordar assuntos de mudanas climticas em reas urbanas de modo criativo, interdisciplinrio e investigativo. reas urbanas esto em foco
porque elas so particularmente vulnerveis mudanas
climticas e so tambm so as principais responsveis na
reduo de emisso de gazes que contribuem ao efeito estufa. Indicados abaixo so os temas de interesse em comum
dos participantes:
1. Ao abordar a questo de adaptao, as cidades devem
se identificar no somente como entidades geogrficas, mais
tambm como incubadoras de uma forte identidade residencial. As cidades tem que ser examinadas dentro do contexto
de suas conexes. Adaptao ir proceder redes sociais sem
que sejam independentes de demarcaes polticas. A identidade urbana deve incluir a escala das vizinhanas para que
a implementao das adaptaes possam ser introduzidas
escala da cidade com mais rapidez.
2. Mudanas climticas tambm iro afetar a sade da
populao. muito importante manter este fato em mente,
analisar conseqncias de curto, mdio ou longo prazo antes de formalizar as decises de interferncia em qualquer
rea. Apesar do projeto sem centrado em mudanas urbanas, tambm uma prioridade atingir benefcios sociais,
econmicos e ambientais.
3. Uma linguagem em comum para a interveno tem

Jauregui, Articulao
Social e Urbana
"L'alliance de la ville et du concept jamais ne les identifie mais elle joue de leur progressive symbiose: planifier la
ville, c'est la fois penser la pluralit mme du rel et donner
effectivit cette pense du pluriel; c'est savoir et pouvoir
articuler."
Michel de Certeau, L'invention du quotidien
Mega-cidades, Excluso e Mundalizao
No continente Latino-Americano, os ltimos vinte anos
tem revelado um novo fenmeno provocado por um processo que tem dois componentes: de um lado, a confluncia de uma inter-conectividade e dependncia crescente do
movimento fiscal (globalizao financeira), e do outro lado,
a substituio das tecnologias mecnicas por tecnologias
eletrnicas, afetando a administrao, a gerncia, e tambm
o processo produtivo. Este fenmeno tem suas conseqncias urbanas, contribuindo para a disperso geogrfica das
atividades econmicas atravs da integrao sistemtica que
a inter-conexo das atividades econmicas gerencia, e tambm a renovao e expanso das funes do centro urbano.
Este fenmeno simula as intensificaes da excluso social
dos maiores setores da populao, resultando na marginal-

que emergir a partir de objetivos em comum, mtodos e

terminologia. Instituies que tem trabalhados at agora
de modo isolado no devem pensar que ao integrar-se com
outras indstrias iro perder ou diminuir sua influncia em
suas devidas reas de especialidade.
4. Injustias ambientais devem ser atenuados ao invs de exacerbados para se evitar um deslocamento fsico
desigual e um tumulto social. importante aceitar uma variedade de conhecimento vindo de vrias esferas do mundo
urbano, capaz de influenciar mais reas do que somente o
ramo cientfico.
5. Dadas as dimenses catastrficas sociais projetadas
baseada nas mudanas climticas, cada reao importante.
Este fator inclui as questes de adaptao social, talvez abordadas de modo mais eficiente usando a filosofia de compreenso atravs de experincia, em que o processo de ao,
pessoal ou coletivo, est constantemente se transformando
baseado em novos resultados e descobertas.
6. Em uma escala local urbana, uma tarefa muito importante de fazer com que a conscincia pblica afete o
comportamento pessoal de cada cidado. No nvel de cidade-estado, precisamos de uma liderana poltica para implementar os parmetros escolhidos em conjunto com uma
monitorao adequada. Neste sentido, a nova importncia
da cidade-estado ser trivial para complementar as iniciativas de mudanas climticas nacionais e globais.
7. De um ponto de vista de comunicao, os parmetros
de mudanas climticas devem ser bem entendidos principalmente quando o tema aborda um contexto visionrio que
afeta pessoas individualmente; incluindo novas possibilidades econmicas, ou ameaando circunstncias pblicas
como o aumento de doenas devido mudanas de temperatura ou a falta de comida devido enchentes ou secas.
8. A conscincia de vigilncia pblica crucial para garantir que nossa memria coletiva retenha o conceito de comunicao alm do uso de palavras. A falta de comunicao
transmite uma falta de confiana, junto a mesma mensagem
de ceticismo, como os que negam mudanas climticas.
9. Os desafios econmicos, sociais e polticos que aceitamos devido a mudanas climticas so diretamente relacionadas reforma das cidades e deve se refletir a respeito
da infra-estrutura urbana que ns no damos valor: energia,
transporte, gua, lixo e comida.
10. O processo de avaliao e reao s mudanas
climticas devem ser agilizado o mximo possvel. A necessidade de adaptao ainda no completamente vista
pelo setor privado como um risco corrente. Responsabilidades tambm no so bem divulgadas atravs da informao disponvel ao pblico.
11. importante que as cidades resistam a tendncias de uma consolidao global de empresas, que depen-

dem na presuno de que os recursos globais nunca iro

acabar. Tambm importante resistir tendncia de aceitar
o padro duplo de desenvolvido e em desenvolvimento.
Ex.: enriquecendo paises desenvolvidos com recursos que
os paises em desenvolvimento esto tentando preservar. No
final, til reconhecer a complexidade das interaes entre
o natural, tecnolgico e os componentes humanos ao projetar adaptaes da escala urbana. Isto pede uma acelerao
do processo de transformao da nossa sociedade em mais
um recurso. Apesar de tudo, quem poderia imaginar que um
ano atrs, nossos erros nos clculos econmicos poderiam
eliminar 45 por cento da riqueza global em 18 meses?
26 de Julho de 2009
O Frum Romano foi lanado como a primeira fase
do projeto do Laboratrio de Valores Urbanos do Instituto
de Design do Solo Urbano da Columbia Univesity; formado com a colaborao da Rede de Pesquisas de Mudanas
Climticas Urbanas (Urban Climate Change Research Network - UCCRN), a Fundao Adriano Olivetti e a Cmara
de comercio do Ambiente e Territrio de Roma. O projeto
de Valores Urbanos uma colaborao entre pesquisadores
internacionais de vrias disciplinas. Seu objetivo de investigar meios pelos quais as reas urbanas esto reagindo a
desafios relacionados a crescimento urbano e globalizao.
Ao dispor uma srie de fruns e publicaes de vrias disciplinas, Valores Urbanos ir delinear solues prticas nas
reas polticas e comunitrias.

izao, violncia e destruio de boas condies de vida. Isto

claramente manifestado na produo da cidade quebrada,
entre as reas formais (bairros) e as informais (favelas), e
tambm o crescimento urbano incontrolvel.
O processo de promover a integrao mundial caracterizada pela formao de uma rede global de vrias
metrpoles, formando uma nova topografia. Tambm se
cria uma nova condio de centralizao. Isto verdade na
escala macro (continental) tanto quanto na escala micro
(o ncleo de cada estrutura urbana). Nestas duas escalas,
ns percebemos a formao dessa nova geografia centralizada uma rede metropolitana de ndulos por um lado,
e por outro lado uma configurao rizomtica da cidade,
neste sentido, um tipo de estruturao que no significa
um relacionamento sinttico entre elementos; que rejeita a
noo da hierarquia; que possui uma qualidade retalhada,
uma qualidade heterognea radical.
A tarefa de articulao urbana teria a possibilidade
de relacionar o meio fsico com o meio social e cultural,
pensando simultaneamente no nvel pragmtico, o meio
plstico e o meio conceitual. Isso inclui o desafio de colocar em prtica um delicado vnculo entre a alta cultura e
as tradies populares, entre a contribuio e sustncia de
obras no nvel mundial, e as circunstncias especficas de
cada projeto. Por este motivo, uma das condies primrias

de um projeto de saber a pergunta certa sobre a posio

e o contexto especfico da interveno na rea em termos
de histria, economia, o processo de configurao tcnico
e fsico, e tambm o relacionamento produtivo social e cultural. Os lugares devem ser bem interrogados.
Tambm necessrio situar problemas de articulao
urbana do ponto de vista de como criar condies para uma
contribuio internacional eficaz e produtiva, ao contrrio
de uma economia global (que se transformou numa estrada
de via nica, questo globalitria, um campo de restries,
pr-definidas e exploradas), uma mundalizao.
Design Urbano funciona como uma cartografia de
produo subjetiva multi-dimensional (que tem confrontado um coletivo histrico com a modernidade) onde as cidades funcionam como mquinas imensas de subjetividade,
no s individualmente, mais coletivamente, em que o mais
importante no so os aspectos da infra-estrutura, comunicao ou empregos, mais a capacidade de redirecionar nosso
dever urbano, atravs de meios materiais e imateriais.
Ns sabemos que prdios e espaos so capazes de funcionar como mquinas expressivas, e que isso desencadeia
impulsos cognitivos; que toda a apreenso do existente, significa uma re-inveno e re-criao do existente. Desta maneira, os espaos construdos so essencialmente mquinas
sensoriais, tornando possvel a subjetividade individual e

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

79

coletiva.
Portanto, necessrio re-pensar na complexidade ao
considerar os aspectos tcnicos e as dimenses econmicas,
sociais e ecolgicas, mais tambm, pensar na capacidade de
produzir subjetividade. Para que isso possa ser alcanado,
necessrio evoluir dando prioridade para os componentes
tnico-esttico, mesmo se estamos agindo de modo contnuo, com todo tipo de coeres (opinies e aspectos prticos,
econmicos e sociais) sem deixar que nenhum desse aspectos tenha mais fora que o outro. Essa responsabilidade tnica-esttica de viver fora dos limites, deve ser estimada com
preciso j que estamos lidando com questes tnicas.
A psicanlise ir nos alertar a respeito a tnica quando
encararmos determinaes econmicas, scio-polticas e
culturais, o ato de projeo devem insinuar uma posio t-

nica que, em termos generalizados, pode ser resumido como

fazendo o que tem de ser feito. Sabendo que isto no um
dever moral de ordem exata. um dever que est permanentemente valorizando o que est alm da demanda, ou seja, o
desejo do ato projetista. A meta no agradar qualquer um
com o projeto de modo sedutivo ou harmonioso, mais de
qualquer forma, essa no uma pergunta fundamental.
Atravs de uma articulao urbana, e uma idia bsica
de vrias disciplinas que abrangem o ato de formalizao,
o arquiteto-urbanista pode, em relao ao design e suas intenes, escolher as bifurcaes importante em uma cidade
democrtica. Ele deve ser capaz de estabelecer uma relao
interna entre tnica (que inclui princpio), poltica (que inclui a necessidade de solidificar estes princpios) e esttica
(que implica a garra de implementar o que novo).

Concebido como uma estratgia de singularidade, o

resultado da interseco entre a criatividade sustentada pela
interao multi-disciplinar, e as mltiplas coeres materiais e sociais que deve ser unificadas, e, neste sentido, a contribuio integrao da cidade quebrada pode ser substancial.

Cruz, Devolvendo o Mictrio de

Duchamp ao Banheiro

novos negcios de baixo para cima entre a comunidade e

promover novos e inovadores modelos financeiros. Outro
desafio moderno a necessidade de reavaliar as condies
existentes de pobreza e propriedade, principalmente desde
que o paradigma de propriedade privada se tornou menos
vivel em condies de pobreza. Redefinir a acessibilidade
em conjunto com o valor de participao social: alm de
possuir unidades habitacionais, habitantes, em colaborao com organizaes comunitrias e sociais, tambm podem conjuntamente ser um proprietrio da infra-estrutura
econmica e social ao seu redor.
O ponto principal que o capital social e a economia cultural incorporada nessas comunidades e vizinhanas marginais que estamos estudando, nunca so includas no processo oficial de urbanizao e desenvolvimento
econmico da cidade. Participao pblica no teatro de melhorias urbanas nos Estados Unidos so sempre reduzidas
a um gesto simblico que transforma participao social
num questionrio de mltipla escolha. Ao fim o projeto
definido pela poltica de identidade: em que estilo devemos
construir? E assim que os problemas destas comunidades,
principalmente desigualdades socioeconmicas, so escondidas atrs de uma fachada de tpicos diferentes. Alem do
mais, quando construtores focados no lucro do projeto so
contratados para desenvolver estas comunidades, eles criam
uma parceria com organizaes sem fins lucrativos simplesmente para aumentar os pontos de crditos fiscais e garantir
subsdios, resultado em parcerias simblicas que diminuem
o potencial das comunidades serem proprietrios de suas
prprias casas. Em retorno, demonstra a necessidade de um
relacionamento mais genuno entre organizaes sem fins
lucrativos para fortalec-los a conjuntamente possuir meios
de desenvolvimento e de se estabelecerem permanentemente como coordenadores de programas sociais e culturais
de habitao.
A necessidade mais bsica desta re-organizao hipottica dos protocolos e convenes de desenvolvimento de
novos projetos que, em anos recentes, tem somente beneficiado a hiper-privatizao, de ampliar o relacionamento
entre os atores polticos e sociais entre as vizinhanas que
dividem uma fronteira para produzir contra-tticas de desenvolvimento econmico e cultural. Em outras palavras,
fundamental para a reconsiderao da estrutura poltica e
econmica, e a traduo da inteligncia empresarial incor-

porada no dia-a-dia desses atores locais, capturando a idia

oculta (social e econmica) das tranformaes informais
atravs de economias que crescem de baixo para cima e suas
densidades.
Precisamos de uma re-contextualizao crtica das nossas estratgias e procedimentos. No final das contas, no importa se a arquitetura contempornea se embrulha com uma
camada morphogentica, pseudo, neo-clssica ou se usam
painis fotovoltaicos certificadas pelo LEED. Se todas estas estratgias continuam a camuflar os problemas urbanos
mais importantes de hoje, sem alterar as polticas exclusivas que constroem a base de nossa sociedade, nosso profisso continuar a ser subordinada pelos espaos sem viso
definidas pelo planilha bsica do construtor e a poltica e
economia neo-conservadora de uma sociedade hiper-individualista. Avanos em planejamento urbano no podero
ser feitos sem antes que se redefina o que queremos dizer
quando falamos de infra-estrutura, densidade, uso misto e
acessibilidade financeira. Avanos significativos em habitao tambm no podem ser feitos sem avanos na area de
habitao e economia. Como arquitetos, podemos ser responsveis por imaginar procedimentos contra-espaciais,
polticos e de estrutura econmica que pode produzir mais
modelos de sociabilidade e cultura pblica.
Estdio Teddy Cruz
San Diego, California
Dezembro, 2009

progresso por causa da economia fraca dos Estados Unidos

e do exterior? Ser que as metas esquivas de diminuir a pobreza e desigualdade permanecem impossveis com a acumulao de problemas sociais nas suas maiores cidades?
A resposta para estas perguntas : no necessariamente.
A dimenso da vulnerabilidade Brasileira depende em vrios
fatores, incluindo o sucesso do pas em at agora lidar com
a tempestade financeira, a dimenso em que o Brasil pode
depender em estmulos da demanda local e o nvel de coeso
poltica baseado em fortes diretrizes econmicas.
Em um sentido mais amplo, o recuperao ps 2010 no
Brasil (e no resto da Amrica Latina) ir depender nas lies
aprendidas com o declnio e a queda do mercado fundamentalista, em particular se a poltica pode se equilibrar
entre mercados livre e um estado forte. No toda as econo-

mias iro acertar de primeira, mais algumas iro. Eu acho

que o Brasil uma das economias que ir, e se este for o caso,
o Brasil pode estar se preparando para um longo perodo de
crescimento econmico socialmente inclusivo.
Em um artigo do Estado de So Paulo, o respeitado
economista Ian Goldfajn sugere que o Brasil ainda pode ter
sucesso no contexto pos-2010 em uma economia global marcada por crescimentos abaixo do normal nos Estados Unidos. [1] Vale a pena considerar a razo em questo. Acredito
que ele esta certo. A economia global est precisando de
mais incentivo, que com certeza o Brasil pode providenciar.
Alm do mais, o Brasil devagar mais diligentemente, sempre
esteve estudando as possibilidades de estabilizar a economia, criar condies para as empresas de crescer, melhorar
a educao da populao e aumentar os salrios dos mais

Uma dos temas ocultos mais importantes da nossa

pesquisa tem sido produzir novos meios de conceituar e
interpretar o informal. Atualmente, acho que continuamos
a ser seduzidos pela imagem do informal, e no estamos
traduzindo esta imagem em termos de procedimentos operacionais. Ao invs de ser visto como uma imagem fixa, eu
penso o informal a ser uma coletnea de operaes urbanas
funcionais que desafiam um modelo imposto por barreiras
polticas e econmicas. Eu vejo o informal no como um
pronome, mais um verbo, que significa ir alm de noes de
local e contexto tradicional para um sistema mais complexo
de trocas socioeconmicas ocultas. Eu vejo o informal como
o urbano indesejvel, aps ser comparada arquitetura formal suprema que se transformou num sistema delicado de
encontros sociais. Eu vejo o informal como a nova interpretao de uma comunidade, cidadania e prxis. Esta a razo
pela qual estou interessado nestas configuraes urbanas
que emergem da necessidade social, e o papel que indivduos tm em construir seus prprios espaos.
Temos que ir alm dos nossos mtodos limitados de trabalhar e pensar, aceitando somente a autonomia da arquitetura como a base de desenvolvimento urbano...temos que
reorientar nosso olhar fixo para o drama presente na realidade diria e incorporar as mudanas socioeconmicas que
nunca so respeitadas em design. Ou, como a artista Tnia
Bruguera me disse recentemente: Est na hora de colocar
o mictrio de Duchamp de volta ao banheiro. necessrio
um relacionamento mais prtico entre pesquisa, interveno
artstica e o desenvolvimento da cidade.
De uma coisa estou certo: no momento em que o poder
econmico dos poucos privilegiados temporariamente desmoronar, em tempos de falta, no abundncia, em que os
paradigmas urbanos iro emergir para construir novas idias de infra-estrutura, habitao e densidade.
No momento em que as instituies de planejamento
urbano tem de ser redefinidas, o valor da participao
pblica um tema muito importante a ser considerado, e
pode acentuar a funo das comunidades na produo de
habitao. Configuraes de habitao que facilitam o desenvolvimento e crescimento de economias locais, novas
formas de interao social, permitindo vizinhanas a gerar

Trebat, A Perspectiva
Sete de Dezembro de 2009
O nmero mais recente de desempregados nos Estados
Unidos em Novembro, sugere que a perda catastrfica de
empregos est diminuindo e que a pior de todas as grandes
recesses est chegando ao fim, mais a economia Americana, a motor do crescimento global, ir crescer somente de
forma modesta nos prximos anos. O resto do mundo desenvolvido, incluindo a Europa e o Japo, tambm no iro
se recuperar muito rpido.
Quo alarmante este cenrio, a recuperao global
devagar, para o Brasil e a Amrica Latina? Ser que o Brasil,
sendo um pas que consome demasiadamente e que depende
do capital estrangeiro, ter que perder mais meia dcada de

80

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

pobres, no s em termos absolutos, mais tambm em relao aos ricos.

Dois fatos prevalecem:
Primeiro, a economia global precisa de mais consumidores de ltimo caso, pois a perca dos consumidores
americano que esta por detrs da grande recesso do PIB e
o aumento de dficit baseado nos gastos dos Estados Unidos, como nos relembra Martin Wolf [2]. Ao se concentrar
em uma atitude mais prudente, o setor privado dos Estado
Unidos, nos ltimos dois anos, tem afetado uma mudana
de 10.3% do PIB no equilbrio entre sua renda e seus gastos.
Alm disso o processo de tentar diminuir a influncia do
consumidor Americano, tem iniciado somente em termos
de medir a dvida bruta por famlia ao PIB, que tem somente
cado dois por cento em dois anos. O grande impulso da demanda global providenciada pelo consumidor americano
uma coisa do passado. Esse nvel de demanda dos Estados Unidos tambm atraiu uma nova leva de investimento
global, em que parte deste investimento estar procurando
novos destinos fora dos Estado Unidos. O Brasil tem o potencial de ser uma destas novas destinaes.
Segundo, o crescimento global ps-2010 ter que depender mais na demanda de crescimento das economias
emergentes, especialmente o equilbrio dos pagamentos das
economias em supervit. provvel que a produo industrial da China est alcanando um nvel de pr-crise, graas
a seu processo rpido de economias e investimentos. Por
sua vez, o crescimento da China e a sia maior j est beneficiando pases como o Brasil, com a criao de uma demanda de matria bruta que favorece as fbricas da China
e da sia. Outro fator importante o crescimento do consumo no Brasil, em resposta esta exportao de incentivo
entre outros fatores, incluindo incentivo fiscal de 3% do PIB.
O Brasil agora tem um papel global a desempenhar para
compensar o declnio do consumidor Americano. O Brasil
uma desta economias em supervit que deve aumentar a
absoro domstica (consumo e investimento) e deve pensar na idia de transformar sua conta atual para um dficit,
depois de anos de preocupaes com a dvida externa, gerar
supervit e acumular reservas internacionais.
Parece ser um destino tentador para um pais como o
Brasil, com uma poupana pequena e um longo e triste passado de dvida externa, de consumir e emprestar mais dinheiro de agora em diante, mais este padro faz sentido para
o Brasil e para a economia global.
Porqu? O Brasil tem uma capacidade imensa de crescer
baseado no seu grande mercado domstico e seu consumo
per capita, mais em comparao aos Estados Unidos, consome somente um quarto do consumo Americano. Mesmo
tendo uma dificuldade de acumular uma poupana, o Brasil
tem o potencial de estimular investimentos privados e pblicos por 5-10 por cento de seu PIB de modo permanente.
Alm disso, tem se concentrado em diminuir o risco de investimento para estrangeiros em sua economia, o que obvio baseado no fluxo de investimento estrangeiro o pas est

recebendo, mesmo nesse clima de crise. (O consenso avalia

que o fluxo de novos investimentos ser de $25 bilhes)
Outros fatores fazem com que o Brasil seja um candidato natural para atrair uma grande poro do fluxo de capital
no futuro, a mesma parte que no passado foi direcionada aos
Estado Unidos.
O Brasil emergiu da crise global em relativamente
boa forma. O consenso do crescimento do PIB estima que
para 2010, h um aumento de mais de 4%, o que seria sem
dvida, uma recuperao bem robusta. (Crescimento est
estimado de ser quase zero em 2009.) O setor financeiro
no Brasil resistiu ao choque global e est em uma posio
bem melhor do que no passado, para estender o crdito a
pequenas empresas e consumidores. Reservas internacionais permanecem com um excesso de $200 bilhes de dlares.
Estimulo tem sido gerado com a inverso dos seus ciclos
polticos. Um debate ativo no Brasil est protestando contra
os perigos de permanentemente aumentar os gastos do governo, mais difcil criticar o gerncia econmica do Brasil
durante a crise. Sim, o fator geral da dvida do setor publico
em comparao ao PIB aumentou um pouco mais de 40%,
e talvez ir aumentar um pouco mais, mais o componente
principal da dvida lquida externa da porcentagem do PIB
de menos 10%. Brasil, em outras palavras, est em uma
posio favorvel para a recuperao financeira em 2010 e
no futuro.
De volta ao ponto principal, o Brasil pode e deve assumir
o papel de re-equilibrar o crescimento do mundo como um
dos consumidores de ltimo caso mais importantes.
A questo interessante se o Brasil est pronto para assumir este cargo em termos de estrutura econmica e tambm, em termos de prevalecer entre grupos de elite. Em ambos casos mudanas na poltica e no modo de pensar so
necessrias.
Primeiro, para o Brasil se transformar em uma dos
maiores recipientes do capital global, ser necessria a valorizao de longo prazo da taxa de cmbio; na verdade, este
processo j est acontecendo. Enquanto a valorizao da
moeda saudvel de vrias maneiras, incluindo a estabilizao da inflao, pode ser uma ameaa para o papel global da
manufatura no Brasil. De certo modo, a ausncia de mudanas no ambiente empresarial brasileiro, a valorizao estvel
da moeda, pode requerer que o Brasil se transforme mais
do que menos, dependendo na agricultura e exportao de
mercadorias, um desenvolvimento preso a enfrentar grande
resistncia poltica de grupos de interesses e presso constante da interveno do governo, incluindo o controle de
capitais governamentais.
Segundo, o Brasil ter que reavaliar sua relao com
a China e outros centros de poder econmico e finanas
globais emergentes. A China ser uma grande fonte de financiamento de novas infra-estruturas no futuro; os maiores
bancos do mundo j so os da China, e as reservas de divisas
chinesas so surpreendentes. A China precisa diversificar
seus bens internacionais, comrcio e garantir acesso a mer-

cadorias; O Brasil precisa de uma fonte financeira confivel,

de longo prazo, para compensar o fluxo enfraquecido do
Wall Street. A lgica de ter relaes econmicas e financeiras
mais fortes do que ns temos visto at agora, entre o Brasil e
a China, e a sia emergente parece ser convincente.
Nestas idias se encontram os debates mais interessantes
no Brasil. Eu tenho confiana de que o Brasil ir preservar
a base de seu mercado econmico enquanto ele fortalece
os tipos de interveno do governo, incluindo o financiamento de companhias privadas, ridicularizadas nos Estados
Unidos. Mais confiana no complacncia. Um Brasil mais
rico ter que achar o equilbrio perfeito entre o mercado e
o estado. Se caso o Brasil fracassar significar uma oportunidade perdida para o Brasil e uma esperana em vo de um
crescimento mais equilibrado de uma demanda global.
Finalmente, tudo isso est relacionado a questes de
capital social. A anlise dos problemas das mega-cidades no
Brasil crime, empregos informais e o dficit de habitao
pode nos deixar pessimistas com relao ao pagamento da
dvida social no Brasil. Mesmo assim, alguns dos fatores de
crescimento no Brasil discute contra um tipo de pessimismo
reflexivo. Crescimento no setor agrrio tem diminudo a migrao interna. Os nveis de educao esto gradualmente
melhorando em quantidade e qualidade, e fatores demogrficos esto resultando em maiores gastos por capita por estudante. Programas especiais para a gerao de trabalho esto
influenciando o aumento dos salrios dos pobres e a reduo
do coeficiente geral de desigualdade salarial.
O progresso social ir permanecer devagar no Brasil.
No poderia ser de outro jeito. Mais em termos de concertar os maiores problemas acertando o equilbrio entre o
estado e o mercado, e gerando um crescimento econmico
mais inclusivo Brasil est no caminho certo. Isso sugere
que o palco est pronto no Brasil para se desenvolver uma
economia e poltica criativa que ir resultar em grandes recompensas.
[1] Brasil Global, O Estado de So Paulo, 7 de Julho
de 2009
[2] Depois da tempestade vem a grande subida, Financial Times, 14 de Julho de 2009
[3] A mensagem txica de Wall Street, Vanity Fair,
Julho de 2009

riquezas tem seu preo. Quase 80% de todas as emisses de CO2 so produzidas por atividades urbanas,
fazendo com que as cidades sejam os maiores contribuintes ao aquecimento global. Hoje, a maioria das
cidades so resultado de um processo que favorece
a eficincia, produo e o consumo humano acima
de necessidades ambientais. Esta mentalidade tem
conseqncias assustadoras, que so bem bvias para
ns. No podemos continuar a ignorar o fato de que
o aquecimento global est afetando a vida das pessoas
que moram em cidades em uma escala local e global.
Cidades em todo o globo encaram um dilema: como
lidar com estes desafios ambientais atravs de uma
reduo de emisses de gases mais permanecer competitivos em uma economia global. A resposta deve
ser encontrada no processo de desenvolvimento da
cidade sustentvel.
Por natureza, cidades so benficas para o
meio ambiente porque elas concentram uma popula-

o, reduzem a quantidade de energia necessria para

aquecer e transportar bens e pessoas. Mais at agora,
no tivemos o sucesso de criar cidades sustentveis,
e ns falhamos em entender a complexidade dos
desafios urbanos que enfrentamos. Estamos acostumados em pensar de modo fragmentado. Ao invs
de consultar especialistas em sade, gegrafos e antroplogos, os servidores pblicos tem se concentrado
no desenho de edifcios e reas urbanas. Isto resultou
na construo de cidades que falham em providenciar
bens bsicos necessrios e garantir uma boa qualidade
de vida no futuro. Novos desenvolvimentos urbanos
ignoram o fato de que precisamos que as cidades sejam economicamente, ambientalmente e socialmente
sustentveis ao mesmo tempo. Mudana climtica no
pode ser vistas somente como um problema ambiental, mais tambm como um problema que influencia
o aumento da pobreza, desigualdade e a falta de educao. A necessidade de entender cidades com uma

Copenhagen
1. Re-descobrir a cidade
2. Re-definir os valores da cidade
3. Envolver os experts
4. Quebrar o sigilo
5. Redistribuir as decises urbanas
6. Ds-desenhar o planejamento urbano
7. Promover a responsabilidade incorporada
urbana
8. Ter uma atitude global
9. No resistir ao caos, a crise e as mudanas ao
nosso redor
10. Encorajar nimo em uma liderana urbana
Nossas cidade esto enfrentando a mudana
climtica global com grandes desafios, radicalmente
questionando o modo em que temos planejado, governado e usado as nossas cidades at agora. As cidades
se transformaram nas foras mais importantes que
influenciam nossa economia global. Mais a gerao de

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

81

perspectiva bem inter-relacionada confirmada pelo

aumento de problemas urbanos acontecendo paralelamente s mudanas climticas, uma globalizao extensa e um aumento urbano desorganizado. Tudo isso
acaba pressionando o meio-ambiente e suas utilidades
pblicas. Este processo causa a falta de recursos,
maiores discrepncias sociais, o aumento do crime,
falta de habitaes sociais, e o aumento de doenas
crnicas estas so s alguns dos desafios encarando
nossas cidades em uma escala global.

GSAPP SPAE Studio

Brasil, acompanhado da China e da ndia, tem a economia crescente mais dinmica do mundo. Com uma populao em excesso de 180 milhes de pessoas no Brasil,
impossvel de entender as cidades Latino Americanas sem
estudar o corredor urbano de So de Janeiro. As duas
maiores cidades dos estados de Rio de Janeiro e So Paulo,
com uma populao total em excesso de 26 milhes de habitantes, a economia predominante da Amrica Latina.
A descoberta mais recente da reserva de leo Pr Salt
e o debate sobre a distribuio das riquezas do petrleo,
mais uma vez, abrange a questo da desigualdade nas cidades brasileiras.
Apesar dos Paulistas e dos Cariocas insistir nas diferenas entre suas cidades, a multi-nacionalidade e poder de
So Paulo, versus a sensualidade e beleza do Rio, eles esto
sendo fundidas em uma grande regio metropolitana.
Categorias binrias em oposio, diludas com limites
indecisos, bordas difusas, processos interligados, realidades
translcidas e ambguas, democracia e ditadura; razo e sentimento; arte e cincia; real e virtual; ordem e caos; esquerda
e direita; opulncia e pobreza; mais a cidade formal e a informal no podem mais ser separadas por linhas divisrias.
So Paulo e o Rio perceberam que ambos tem a responsabilidades em comum de se concentrar na desigualdade das
assimetrias sociais e na plataforma arquitetnica.
A cidade quebrada no segregada, mais est sempre misturando o opulento com os indefesos ao longo do
rio solar do sul as favelas do Vidigal ao lado do Hotel
Sheraton; Rocinha na entrada do condomnio So Conrado;
Pavo perto de Copacabana e Paraispolis, perto do bairro
Morumbi onde esta o Palcio dos Governadores. Estas imagens representam a esttica e a simbologia, valores naturais
e arquiteturais, que fazem So Paulo e o Rio iconogrficos
pelo mundo inteiro. Uma exploso criativa nessa zona de
frico, relembrada somente dos anos 60, deu incentivo
moda, filme, design, arquitetura e msica.
Projetos do Estdio
O estdio ir interrogar a dicotomia da Mega-Cidade
do sul, separada em reas formais e informais, e investiga as
possibilidades de criar vnculos, conectores, interseces, e
as novas possibilidades da arquitetura de gerar e inventar
novos programas e processos para alcanar este objetivo. O
estdio ira pr em dvida, criar conscincia e debater como
imaginar novas tipologias e leituras das caractersticas dessas cidades.
Este exerccio de arquitetura no Brasil, ir gerar 10 a 15
projetos experimentais existentes nas reas metropolitanas
de So Paulo e do Rio.
Os estdios tem o apoio da cmara municipal em um
grande projeto que ir criar uma base para projetos futuros
e incentivar escolas de arquitetura pelo mundo inteiro a
participar desta iniciativa para propor projetos inovadores
que iro pr em questo os tpicos importantes como os de

82

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

resduos industriais, quadras abandonadas, ilhas e guetos.

Projeto do SPAE.
Ambas cidades tiveram seu territrio meticulosamente
analisado pela LSE Urban Age Teams que criaram um
banco de dados digital disponvel para o estdio (www.
urban-age.net) para especular novos meios de interpretar
o DNA do Rio e de So Paulo e para montar uma nova
cidade, pondo em questo as condies atuais e propondo
intervenes que podem ser implementadas rapidamente
em conjunto a criao de uma tese com as seguintes prioridades:

Este processo e familiarizao receber o apoio da visita

de Elisabete Frana, diretora do SEHAB, agncia de habitao municipal de So Paulo. Iremos analisar casos de
sucesso no Brasil. Ao decorrer do semestre, designers dos
projetos em exibio, estaro na sala de aula para apresentaes e discusses. (Jaime Lerner, Jorge Mario Jauregui,
Ciro Pirondi, etc., tem o interesse de trabalhar conosco).
O estdio tambm ira se relacionar com representantes da
indstria e receber consultoria de empresas produzindo
telefricos urbanos, etc.
3. IMPLEMENTAO

1. Fazer com que a cidade seja democratizada, sendo

accessvel a todos atravs da criao de sistemas de transporte alternativos interurbanos.
2. Favorecer a conectividade da estrutura urbana como
um todo, colocando em foco a cidade dividida, especialmente, mais no exclusivamente, em reas mais pobres.
3. Introduzir espaos e prdios que agem como rearticuladores e re-qualificadores do ambiente urbano,
abrindo novos espaos na cidade.
4. Criar novas centralidades e dar poder as que j existem, e tambm aumentar a conectividade entre elas.
5. Drasticamente melhorar a imagem de uma rea.
6. Produzir coeses atravs da articulao de lgicas
heterogneas, unificando a cidade sem a homogeneizar.
1. INVESTIGAO
Primeiro, o estdio vai se dividir em grupos para se
informar sobre a existncia de tecnologias alternativas e
estratgias em transporte, infra-estrutura e recursos. Esta
explorao ir incluir o estudo de metodologias, materiais,
mtodos de construo e produtos comerciais para propor
mtodos complexos para se trabalhar no mundo em desenvolvimento e no desenvolvido tambm.
Esta pesquisa ser conduzida sabendo-se que uma
realidade scio-econmica, tecnologia ou estratgia especifica poderia transformar a cidade dividida em uma rea
unificada. Ex.: telefricos como meios de transporte, celulares, etc. O estdio ira se desenvolver com base no novo
relacionamento entre o Earth Institute e GSAPP e tambm
os recursos oferecidos pelas cidade de So Paulo e do Rio
de Janeiro, todos trabalhando juntos como um laboratrio
inter-disciplinar.
2. FAMILIARIZAO
Na segunda fase, ns vamos nos familiarizar com as
condies existentes das cidades do Rio e So Paulo. As
duas cidades esto se preparando para desenvolver projetos como um trem de alta velocidade, a candidatura para
as Olimpadas de 2016, grandes reformas urbanas, etc.

Esta fase caracterizada pela adaptao experimental.

Em um ambiente de workshop, os alunos tero a oportunidade de transferir tecnologias, estratgias e princpios
para um dos sites em So Paulo ou no Rio. Baseado nas
condies atuais, e a concluso da fase de pesquisa e investigao, os participantes do seminrio iro desenvolver propostas para a construo ou reforma de infra-estruturas. As
propostas podem variar entre infra-estruturas de pequenaescala, como uma escada modular, ou um centro cultural,
ou uma estratgia de grande escala como um sistema interurbano de transporte pblico, ou a reorganizao da costa
litornea incluindo um novo projeto de construo.
Parceiros
O estdio tem o apoio das municipalidade de So
Paulo e do Rio de Janeiro.
Plano de Viagem
O estdio inteiro viajou para o Brasil, identificando
reas onde intervenes arquiteturais so realmente
necessrias.

Projetos do Estdio
Paraispolis, Chris Gee
Paraispolis tem um grande potencial de fortalecer sua
economia local e melhorar a sua paisagem se investir na indstria de reciclagem. O problema persistente do lixo o
resultado da falta de educao sobre o assunto nas favelas e
tambm a falta de coletores de lixo municipais na rea. Mesmo se houvesse um esforo para educar a populao e contratar mais coletores, no seria o suficiente para resolver o
problema sem um fator de incentivo econmico, um agente
social e a participao da comunidade. Teria de existir um
esforo conjunto com a participao dos moradores das
favelas e das prefeituras para criar um sistema consistente
de coleta seletiva de lixo e a remoo do lixo. Programas de
relevncia socioeconmica sero incorporados com uma arquitetura abrigando programas que providenciam um valor
de retorno alto, incentivo para a reciclagem e espaos para a
comunidade participar nessas atividades.
O Problema
Os catadores (coletores de lixo informais) e os lixeiros
(formais) trabalhando na rea de Paraispolis no esto
dando conta da gesto de resduos com o sistema existente.
Por causa desta limitao, raramente se recicla. A gesto de
Resduos em So Paulo recicla menos de 1% dos materiais
reciclveis em Paraispolis. A coleta de lixo informal na
Grande So Paulo arrecada diariamente 2,672 toneladas de
materiais reciclveis por dia, mais ainda somente 19% do
que poderia ser reciclado. A acumulao do lixo, e consequentemente da poluio urbana, est crescendo, expondo a
ineficincia deste sistema. A poluio visual resulta em uma
barreira fsica e econmica entre as outras vizinhanas, que
no querem ser associadas aos bairros mais pobres. Os materiais desperdiados poderiam muito bem ser aproveitados,

circulando um pouco de dinheiro para as favelas e a comunidade participando no processo de reciclagem.

Um problema comum de ambas as indstrias de coleta
de lixo, as formais e as informais, que eles no tm postos
de entrega, centros de triagem, reas de armazenamento,
postos de troca ou at usinas de compostagem adequados. O
funcionamento destes postos garantiria um sistema rentvel
e vivel.
A Estratgia
Criar uma estratgia econmica que mobiliza todos os
habitantes, recicladores e coletores de lixo para participar
em um sistema mais eficiente. O responsvel pelo incentivo
econmico ir agir como um banco de reciclagem, que recebe e recicla os materiais em abundncia nas favelas, armazenando estes materiais de forma mais compacta possvel e
transportando-os de modo eficiente. Os participantes tm a
opo de trocar seu material reciclvel por dinheiro ou de
guardar seu material no banco para receber uma porcentagem da renda coletiva dos materiais processados. Os componentes do sistema sero:
1.) A descentralizao da rede de coleta em que vrios
centros de triagem pagam a comunidade local para trazer e
separar os materiais a serem reciclados. Este ndulo teria a
capacidade de processar e armazenar o material reciclado.
Estes lugares teriam o formato de um silo por ser vertical
e compacto, e ter a habilidade de se adaptar a quaisquer
condies de terreno na favela. Usando somente uma estrutura de ao, poderia ser integrar a infra-estruturas diferentes
na favela: tetos, terraos, a rua e tambm reas subterrneas.
Cada ndulo combina um processo essencial de reciclagem
conectando-se a infra-estruturas existentes, como torres de
gua, antenas de rdio ou internet, conectores verticais ou
painis solares. Tambm abriga programas para a comuni-

dade dentro e ao seu redor, como palcos para teatro, casas de

eventos, midiatecas de reciclagem e fazendas verticais.
2.) Um sistema de transporte de materiais que pode
incluir: um sistema de evacuao subterrneo utilizando
um sistema de tubos ou uma correia transportadora que
aproveita as linhas de gua para delinear a sua trajetria, e
tambm o uso de caminhes que utilizaro novas infra-estruturas virias, ou um sistema de telefrico para transportar o material reciclado assim como moradores.
3.) Um banco central de reciclagem com grande capacidade de armazenamento e coleta, e tambm a incorporao
de programas comunitrios que apiam os esforos de reciclagem da comunidade. Este centro teria a capacidade total
de reciclagem e gesto dos resduos, incluindo a separao
mecnica e manual de materiais, a reciclagem de materiais, e
tambm o armazenamento de silos de longo prazo. Creches,
correios, chuveiros, workshops e um centro comunitrio seriam incorporados a esta grande estrutura.

Agentes Ambientais
Agentes ambientais so as pessoas que trabalham formalmente durante o dia para a prefeitura, mais, continuam
de modo informal, a apoiar os programas das favelas. Esta
proposta baseada na existncia destes agentes ambientais
que foram descobertos atravs de vrias entrevistas, declarando que o trabalho extra beneficia a todos nas favelas e
tambm a eles mesmos.

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

83

So Francisco, Stephanie Tung

A favela de So Francisco encara uma variedade de
problemas em sua comunidade. Apesar da implementao
de programas de habitao, desenhadas para melhorar as
condies de vida das famlias de So Francisco, quando as
famlias se mudam para seus novos apartamentos, novos
problemas de manifestam, como a gentrificacao e a dificuldade dos moradores tem em pagar o novo aluguel. Existe
tambm uma falta de espaos comerciais e pblicos. Estes
problemas tm dado ao bairro uma paisagem urbana sombria. Ainda por cima, existe uma nova Rodovia, a JacuPssego, que ir passar bem no meio da favela So Francisco,
tendo um grande impacto na comunidade ao seu redor. Este
projeto tem dois focos, de desenvolver uma tipologia nova
de habitao e de pensar em novas maneiras de desenvolver
uma relao entre as rodovias e as comunidades a sua volta.
Atravs de entrevistas e pesquisas sobre o crescimento desta vizinhana, o histrico dos projetos propostos no
passado foram analisadas; desde a Favela do Mutiro at os
projetos em Singapura. O resultado desta pesquisa a pro-

posta de uma nova tipologia, que preserva a eficincia do

modelo 'de cima para baixo' mais mantm a liberdade e a
flexibilidade da favela. Os novos apartamentos iro utilizar
um sistema bem simples de painis de concreto pr-fabricados, permitindo vrias opes de configurao e fcil expanso. Espaos comunitrios tambm sero incorporados
e podero ser utilizados como jardins comunitrios, lavanderias, reas comerciais e estacionamentos.
Existem cinco critrios que devem ser analisados ao repensar o projeto da rodovia: Estes so 1.) Reduo da Poluio, 2.) Gerncia Ambiental, 3.) Gerao de Energia, 4.)
Criao de um espao comunitrio e 5.) Novas oportunidades de trabalho
Existem duas questes ambientais em So Francisco
no momento. A possibilidade de vazamento de guas de
enchentes na nova rodovia (So Francisco est em uma
rea de enchentes) e um lixo que est causando o escape
de gases txicos ao seu redor. Uma das solues propostas
a criao de um pntano artificial. Esta soluo ir remediar

o escoamento e agir como um reservatrio com um sistema

de drenagem para aliviar a poluio do ar. Tambm ir prevenir a invaso de reas vizinhas, j que a rea no deve ser
ocupada devido a este alto risco de enchentes.
Alm do pntano artificial, outra soluo o desenho de
uma parede biolgica construda ao longo da rodovia. Esta
parede biolgica ir absorver o Dixido de Carbono produzido pelos carros na rodovia e dar de comer as micro-algas
transformando o dixido de carbono em um combustvel
biolgico. O escoamento direcionado ao pantanal, tambm
seria processado e reciclado para simular o crescimento de
algas e facilitar a vida de outras plantas da parede biolgica.
Outras funes sero facilmente incorporadas debaixo
da rodovia gerando espaos para programas educacionais,
feiras e reas recreativas.

uma rea de lazer, parte do morro deve receber um projeto

cultural ou de recreao.
Este projeto tem como proposta a remoo das casas
as margens do crrego para que um parque a suas margens
possa ser construdo. Os habitantes deslocados sero colocados em novos apartamentos no morro vazio. O apartamento
ser formado de grupos de seis unidades que se formam
parametricamente, se adaptando as curvaturas da topografia. A orientao e configurao das casas ir ento variar
com a topografia do morro, oferecendo espaos habitacionais nicos, mais se mantendo coerente com a estrutura maior
do edifcio, respeitando a tipologia original da favela e sendo
susceptvel a mudanas futuras. A nova construo ir se sobrepor nas calcadas indo para as escolas e os pontos de inter-

seco iro se transformar em espaos pblicos, tranando

os espaos pblicos e privados. No fim, o morro ter mais de
175 grupos de espaos pblicos e habitaes, cada um tendo
suas prprias caractersticas. Alm disso, sero construdos
dois campos de futebol entre as escolas no topo do morro e
um bar. A parte Leste do morro ser preservada.

Estes sistemas iro filtrar as impurezas da gua e prevenir

enchentes ao providenciar um escoamento mais gentil e espaado.
A topografia do terreno tem influenciado a grande
parte do design. Outros desenhos foram inspirados pela luz
solar: no hemisfrio sul, terraos com face ao norte com vistas da represa e ptios ao ar livre no interior; gua: os prdios
residenciais foram elevados em pontos topogrficos significantes para permitir a correnteza natural da gua se seguir
seu curso por debaixo dos prdios, atravessando o pntano
para que o processo de filtrao comece antes que a gua
se despeje na represa. reas verdes+gua: os edifcios foram
tambm elevados para providenciar um espao ecolgico entre os dois prdios residenciais principais, e tambm preservar o mximo de rea verde em uma rea urbana. A rea
preservada debaixo dos edifcios pode ser usada como reas
recreativas ou pntanos; acesso pblico. Os prdios elevados
convidam os pedestres para visitar os apartamentos e os reservatrios verdes; comunidade: vistas da represa no sero
bloqueadas das casas atrs do novo apartamento e tambm
da comunidade a sua volta; recreao e eco-preservao: a

topografia poder acomodar parques, acesso ao transporte

fluvial, a preveno de novas construes de favelas, a purificao da gua e a natureza de ser preservada; Densidade
Habitacional: O complexo de habitao ter 2,300 unidades
com cinqenta metros quadrados cada, acomodando todas
as famlias morando na beira da represa. O plano estrutural
elevado ir permitir uma vista da gua entre 2-4 andares,
respeitando ainda a zona de enchente e as casas no morro.
Estes prdios tero terraos na fachada norte com vistas para
a represa e ptios interiores entre cada unidade de habitao
para maximizar a entrada de luz natural. Plataformas elevadas iro providenciar um acesso mais fcil a rua e as bacias
de reserva de gua.

o especial.
O primeiro o problema da poluio das represas,
causada pela falta de saneamento bsico das casas. A gua
residual escoa das casas ate o pntano, que se encontra no
centro da cratera, e do pntano, escoa ate as represas.
O segundo problema a falta de infra-estrutura formal.
Mesmo que Vargem Grande tenha um sistema de ruas organizado, a maioria das ruas no so pavimentadas, ento o
sistema de transporte publico no muito confivel. O terceiro problema a falta de empregos nas reas vizinhas. A

maioria dos habitantes viaja para o sul de so Paulo para trabalhar, o que os leva muito tempo. A infra-estrutura atual e
a situao econmica de Vargem grande tm que ser levada
em considerao para que as condies de vida locais possam ser melhoradas. As metas do projeto so de transformar
a favela em uma cidade agricultora. Assim, a comunidade
pode manter suas caractersticas rurais, mais a economia local ter um estimulo para crescer, permitindo o desenvolvimento de projetos ambientais.

Crrego da Mina, Jacob Benyi

O Crrego do Mina se encontra entre dois morros de
topografias bem diferentes. O primeiro morro est coberto
por duas favelas bem densas: o Recanto do Paraso e o Recanto dos Humildes, em que mora 28,000 habitantes. O segundo morro no habitado, exceto por duas escolas pblicas no topo. Esses morros so separados por um crrego, e
as suas margens se encontram casas que correm o risco de
serem inundadas em perodos de chuva. Alm do risco de
inundao, o morro sem residncias pode ser invadido por
mais favelas. importante prevenir a perca desta propriedade por meio de invaso ou inundao. Primeiramente, as
casas com alto risco de inundao devem ser retiradas das
margens do crrego. No total, 580 casas teriam de ser retiradas. Depois, para que se preserve o segundo morro como

Cocia-Graja, Jessica Helfand

A represa hidroeltrica uma fonte muito importante
de gua e energia. No entanto ela est extremamente poluda
por causa do escoamento das guas sujas do Rio Pinheiros,
outros rios menores e um lixo s margens da represa. Tambm existe um risco de inundao quando o nvel da represa
sobe mais de 50 metros acima do nvel normal. A favela est
construda as margens da represa que, com frequncia, tem
sido danificada por enchentes.
A rede topogrfica do terreno indica o local especfico
do pntano e as reas em que as casas devem ser retiradas
para que a gua da represa possa escoar naturalmente. Para
que o fluxo da gua possa ser facilitado, o projeto tem como
uma soluo uma sistema usando trs veias de drenagem
direcionadas a represa, variando em profundidade, desde o
topo do coletor de gua ao fundo da bacia. A gua ir ser
filtrada por estas bacias antes de alcanar a reserva principal, removendo resduos slidos e criando mais uma barreira capaz de controlar as guas de enchentes. Usando estas
bacias preliminares, ilhas artificiais e pntanos iro agir entre a represa. Estas sero filtros biolgicos, feitos de plantas que naturalmente limpam as guas poludas da reserva.

Vargem Grande, Jun Joung

Vargem Grande uma favela que se encontra a 45 km
do centro de So Paulo, quase na parte rural da cidade. A
favela se formou em cima de uma antiga cratera e perto da
Represa de Guarapiranga e Billings. A populao da favela
de 40, 000 habitantes. Ela for planejada de modo que todas as quadras so exatamente 45mx150m. A favela ento
bem mais organizada que outras favelas em so Paulo, sendo
possvel ter endereos e acesso a todas as casas. Entretanto
existem trs problemas principais que merecem uma aten-

84

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

Pirajussara, Wendy Tsai

O rio Pirajussara um rio poludo que se encontra na
divisa da cidade de So Paulo e Embu. O rio no tem nenhum impacto positivo na vizinhana, est cheio de lixo e
tem a tendncia de alagar em certas partes.
A favela tambm sofre com a falta de transporte pblico
eficiente por estar na periferia da capital. Leva mais ou menos trs horas para ir e voltar do centro da cidade todos os
dias. As ruas em volta da favela esto sempre congestionadas. Os pedestres atravessam as ruas e o rio atravs de varias

Bvd. da Paz, Saranga Nakhooda

O objetivo deste projeto de fortalecer a classe-baixa
morando nas favelas atravs da implementao da agricultura urbana, com fins de gerar comida para a comunidade
e de lucrar com suas vendas. Outro objetivo de facilitar a
mobilidade social para os habitantes da favela de Boulevard
da Paz. Esta proposta procura um meio pelo qual se possam
criar melhores conexes fsicas e sociais dentro da favela
atravs de uma rede de espaos agrcolas e sociais.
Por causa da falta de espao para se cultivar plantaes
e coletar guas pluviais, ser necessrio um sistema muito
eficiente, mais barato, de uma tecnologia hidropnica, que
requer somente 25% da rea de uma plantao normal e
somente 10% da gua. Precedentes de projetos parecidos
tiveram muito sucesso em vrios pases como a Colmbia, Venezuela, Peru, Cuba, Zimbbue, Senegal e a ndia.
importante saber que na maioria dos casos os programas
foram implementados pela Organizao da Alimentao e
Agricultura das Naes Unidas (FAO) em colaborao com
autoridades governamentais locais - mais o foco no foi so-

pontes de pedestres. Atualmente, existem trs projetos para

a melhoria das condies deste cenrio, mais nenhum dos
projetos tem como foco as vias pedestres. Com a melhoria
de vida dos habitantes em mente, sero proposta quatro
projetos de interveno para serem completadas em fases
consecutivas.
O primeiro projeto ser a remoo das favelas que esto
na rea verde da comunidade. Este espao ser ento utilizado como um parque. O segundo projeto ir remover uma
das ruas ao longo do rio para que possa acomodar as guas

elevadas durante enchentes. O terceiro projeto de criar

uma entrada para a cidade. Como previamente dito, existem
muitas individuais sobre o rio, a proposta de substitu-las
com plataformas em cada lado. O ltimo projeto de achar
um meio em que mais espaos comunitrios possam ser incorporados as margens to rio.

mente em comida, baseado no fato de que se houver uma

produo de produtos de alto valor, problemas de roubo
talvez emirjam.
Em contraste com a estratgia de agricultura de baixo
valor promovido pelo FAO, esta proposta ir incorporar a
produo de baixo custo, mais tambm uma produo de
alto-custo para gerar uma renda adicional para os agricultores. Plantaes de alimentos so menos sensveis a mudanas de temperatura e podem ser cultivada ao ar livre. A cultivao de plantas ornamentais mais caras, como orqudeas,
violetas, lilases, begnias ou cravos, seriam feitas em estufas
fechadas e protegidas contra roubo e tambm das mudanas
de temperatura que podem afetar seu crescimento.
O bairro do Boulevard da Paz, habitado por 4,800 pessoas, tem uma topografia muito ngreme e mal conectada. A
favela est no lado leste da montanha, que propriedade do
governo e no lado oeste, se encontram casas privadas. O objetivo deste projeto de criar melhores laos sociais dentro
da favela e tambm melhorar a possibilidade de criar uma
rede de espaos pblicos e reas agrcolas.

O projeto inicia com um programa educacional para

treinar os habitantes em cultivaes hidropnicas. Apos
serem treinados, os moradores podem cultivar sua prpria
comida usando guas da chuva coletadas de seus prprios
telhados e cultivar plantas mais lucrativas nas estufas.
Uma serie linear de estufas (orientadas de acordo com
o posicionamento solar) e programas pblicos, sero ligados
por novos caminhos de pedestres no nvel do telhado com
acesso a reas de coleta e filtrao da gua da chuva. Construda como uma serie de estruturas de concreto, os novos
caminhos iro ajudar no transporte de bens na vizinhana, e
criar um calado para um melhor acesso entre as elas.

As condies atuais da favela no so prprias para o

uso residencial, mais a rea pode se revitalizara se providenciar uma nova zona urbana para a cidade, oferecendo atividades recreativas, reas para feiras e espaos abertos para
parques recreativos. O Moinho tem o potencial de providenciar espaos para programas culturais ao redor do terreno, incluindo o centro da moda em So Paulo, uma zona
de arte, dana e teatro.
Mais o projeto mais importante de construir novas
casas para os habitantes. As novas casas devem ser construdas nas bordas do Moinho, mais permanecero conectadas
a rea atravs de passarelas elevadas. Alm desta construo,
Boracea, uma organizao local que d aos desabrigados um
meio pelo qual eles podem trabalhar com projetos artesanais de materiais reciclados, deve ser expandido para os
moradores da favela. Muitos dos habitantes do Moinho coletam materiais reciclados como um meio de trabalho. O
programa do Boracea pode ajud-los a desenvolver uma habilidade de fazer produtos que podem ser vendidos na feira
local, ajudando-os a terem um negcio prprio.
Aps o deslocamento e reabilitao dos moradores
do Moinho, o projeto de revitalizao completo consiste
em uma sria de arcos que atravessam os trilhos do trem

e providenciam uma estrutura para espaos programados,

passarelas, vistas da cidade, reas verdes e proteo da chuva, sol, enchentes, etc. Uma rede de caminhos ao decorrer
do terreno conecta uma variedade de espaos fechados e abertos, enquanto mantm continuidade entre as duas pontas
do terreno. A incorporao deste programa transformar
o Moinho em uma rea turstica com o potencial de gerar
o dinheiro que precisa. Novas empresas iro ser inauguradas ao longo do terreno para se aproveitar do novo fluxo de
visitantes e as novas reas de habitao. Ambos habitantes
e visitantes iro aproveitar um novo Moinho, uma atrao
urbana para a rea do Bom Retiro e o centro de So Paulo.

Moinho, Devin Lafo

A favela do moinho se encontra no meio de duas linhas
frreas no centro de So Paulo em um terreno de um antigo
moinho de trigo que fechou dois anos atrs. A favela est
cercada de paredes de 5 metros de altura, com trens passando a cada 5-10 minutos. Existe somente uma rea de
acesso ao site, embaixo do viaduto em que os trens passam.
Porque terreno ainda propriedade da companhia de trem,
no se investiu muito na favela, pois se tem medo de serem
expulsos a qualquer minuto. Por isso, as condies so extremamente precrias, com casas baratas, conexes eltricas
improvisadas e falta de saneamento bsico.
Moinho se encontra apenas dois quilmetros do centro
de So Paulo, uma rea com bem menos favelas. No tempo
em que a indstria cafeeira cresceu bastante em So Paulo, a
rea vizinha do Bom Retiro era o grande exemplo de modernismo, com alta arquitetura e alta cultura. Hoje, esta rea
ainda tem vrios museus e ou trs instituies culturais, mas
Bom Retiro se encontra dilapidada. Usada mais frequentemente para a indstria e servios, a falta uma apoio da comunidade de fortalecer a cultura local. Milhares de cortios
se formaram em estruturas abandonadas na rea, e problemas de drogas e prostituio so bem srios.

Eucaliptos, Andrew Yalcin

A favela do Eucaliptos, estabelecida nos anos 70, se encontra em um vale na periferia norte de So Paulo. Existe
um parque ao norte da favela e montanhas nos lados Leste e
Oeste. No meio da favela existe um crrego que utilizado
como um esgoto, que tem a tendncia de inundar em varias
reas durante perodos de chuva. Portanto a rea considerada uma zone de alto risco.
O projeto prope a reabilitao do crrego e a remoo
de casas de alto risco a beira do crrego para evitar o risco
de inundao. Primeiro, o crrego deve ser alargado para
acomodar a gua das enchentes e a correnteza. Em seguida,
proposta que uma srie de pequenos reservatrios de gua,
colocados em alturas diferentes para simular a geomorfolo-

gia de um crrego saudvel e permitir que a gua corra de

forma controlada. Uma caminhada ao longo do crrego seria construda, incorporando pontes para o acesso de pedestres. Um sistema de saneamento bsico tambm ser implementado debaixo das reservas de gua, dentro do crrego,
deixando a parte de cima limpa.

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

85

So Domingos, Nicole Seekely

A favela Parque So Domingo se encontra no meio de
um bairro de classe-mdia, bem integrada a comunidade a
sua volta. A favela bem densa, mais tem dois espaos abertos, um campo de futebol e uma pequena quadra de esportes.
O problema principal do Parque So Domingo que
nas reas de alta densidade que foi construda em cima de
um canal de gua, esto em perigo de cair. O projeto tem

como objetivo aliviar as reas de alta densidade da favela,

e poder ser completado ao decorrer de trinta anos pelos
prprios membros da favela.
A primeira fase inclui a construo de apartamento na
rea onde a quadra de esportes se encontra para se colocar
os habitantes que moram em cima do canal. Assim, as casas
na zona de perigo podem ser removidas. sugerido que o
canal seja elevado para que novas construes sejam evitadas. No futuro, o campo de futebol pode ser reduzido para
que mais apartamentos possam ser construdos. Habitantes

em reas de alta densidade podem ento ser deslocados para

estes novos apartamentos. Novas reas verdes sero integradas a favela que agora se encontra menos densa, melhorando
a circulao e a qualidade de vida. Em reas em que muitas
casas possam ser removidas, novas aplicaes da estratgia usada podem ser implementadas, onde na parte trrea
destes apartamentos, comercio e espaos pblicos podem
ser criados.

A primeira fase ir reformar as ruas centrais de Helipolis, melhorando o transporte pblico. Ao incorporar o
sistema existente de coleta de gua, a rua principal tambm
ter uma faixa de rea verde. A criao de uma cidade para
pedestres a viso desta primeira fase da construo, com
estacionamento disponvel para cada morador longe da rua
principal.
A segunda fase ir remover as casas na rea mais distante da favela. Uma quadra de esportes e outras infra-estruturas sociais iro atuar como um centro atrativo para as
pessoas fora da favela, para que uma interao social possa
comear a se desenvolver.
A terceira fase constri um estacionamento subterr-

neo para os moradores de Helipolis e tambm apartamentos para os moradores deslocados durante a segunda fase.
Centros comunitrios, espaos pblicos como um teatro e
uma biblioteca. Este grande projeto ser construdo entre
Helipolis e a usina de tratamento de gua, que uma rea
excelente para uma entrada mais atraente a favela.

Heliopolis, Junhee Jung

Helipolis a segunda maior favela do Brasil e a maior
de So Paulo. Por causa de sua longa historia e sua proximidade ao centro de So Paulo, Helipolis uma das favelas mais ricas de So Paulo. Projetos anteriores na favela se
concentraram em reduzir os riscos de sade e providenciar
espaos comunitrios para os 70,000 residentes. Por causa
disso, em breve, Helipolis ser considerada um bairro ao
invs de uma favela. No que a favela no possa ser distinguida da vizinhana ao seu redor, mais os parmetros informais no podem mais ser associados Helipolis. A ltima
distino nada mais que o sigma que a rea contm. O projeto prope uma quebra desta barreira fsica e psicolgica e
traa um projeto em trs fases de desenvolvimento.

86

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

Slum Lifting, Urban Think Tank

Melhorando a Favela: Caixa de Ferramentas Informal
para uma Nova Arquitetura
A favela no somente uma rea caracterizada por
prdios decrpitos. Ela um fato social Michael Harrinton, The Other Amrica (A Outra Amrica)
Hoje, mais de um bilho de pessoas moram em favelas
nas margens - econmico, social e poltico - nas megacidades do mundo. Mais at agora, nenhuma das reformas
de grande escala ou impacto resultaram em um modelo de
cidade justo, vivel ou abrangente, com exceo das cidades
que produziram as desigualdades das cidades do hemisfrio
sul. As estratgias que implementaram mudanas bruscas
como a eliminao de favelas, deslocamento de habitantes,
infuso de dinheiro para grandes obras pblicas, tm, no
geral, fracassaram porque a cidade, que um sistema complexo, no pode absorver muitas mudanas de uma s vez.
Alm do mais, o desafio de melhorias menos dependente
na disponibilidade de dinheiro ou tecnologia, e mais dependente numa mudana de cultura e filosofia, de mudanas de estilo de vida e expectativa.
Em colaborao com o Sustainable Living Urban
Model Laboratory (SLUM-Lab) toolbox ou a caixa de
ferramentas do Laboratrio do Modelo Urbano de Vida
Sustentvel, propomos um mtodo de trabalho para uma
arquitetura que apia dar poder as pessoas que moram
nas cidades emergentes do sul do globo, promovendo o
desenvolvimento de design sustentvel nas reas faveladas.
O termo caixa de ferramentas reflete a evoluo nestes
ltimos anos da nossa prtica, Urban Think-Tank (U-TT);
a experincia ao ensinar o estdio SLUM Lab no curso de
mestrado de arquitetura na Columbia University; e tambm nossa colaborao com a agncia Paulista de habitao
social (SEHAB).
Concebemos este enfoque como um meio de redirecionar a nfase da arquitetura contempornea e da
educao arquitetural da esttica escultural para projetos
com propsitos; para diminuir a brecha entre o design e
seu impacto social. Ao invs da arquitetura ser puramente
artstica e objetiva, ela busca criar prdios usando materiais mais eficientes, produzidos regionalmente, materiais
industriais, organizados em um kit. Ns temos como uma
viso, uma soluo urbana e arquitetural rpida e vivel que
funciona como um agente de suporte de vida para a cidade
eternamente mutvel, beneficiando todas as cidades e culturas com uma necessidade urgente de solues. uma
arquitetura ativista bem simples com o potencial de ser
uma grande fora para uma mudana urbana positiva.
Ao mesmo tempo, o foco de nossos esforos prticos
implementados o desenvolvimento informal da cidade
Latino Americana, ambos porque so onde se encontram
nossas razes mais fortes, e porque queremos transpor a
cidade Latino Americana, com todas as suas desigualdades
e potencial para o centro da discusso global sobre o futuro
do papel da arquitetura. A designao do Rio de Janeiro
como o anfitrio das Olimpadas de vero de 2016, doa
nosso propsito uma nova urgncia: talvez o nico evento
global que no baseado em conflito, as Olimpadas daro
ateno Amrica Latina como nunca; e mesmo tendo
a inevitvel propaganda positiva criada pela mdia, tambm existe uma oportunidade para a educao mundial
respeito da origem da mega-cidade concentrando-se no
somente em seus problemas, mas seus potenciais.
O primeiro passo para explorar e instalar esse potencial de perguntar grandes perguntas em pessoa e no local.
O informal no d informao ou conhecimento atravs de
mtodos tradicionais; imagens de satlites so muito generalizadas, os estudos no podem ser conduzidos com muita
fidelidade porque as favelas esto sempre se transformando.
A experincia de primeira mo e explorao, como as que
ns fazemos com nossos alunos, a melhor maneira de dar
nova gerao de arquitetos uma compreenso da cidade
do sculo XXI. As lies que levamos conosco do nosso
trabalho na Amrica Latina at agora j podem sem implementadas nas favelas de Mumbai, Kibera e, neste caso,
Caracas. Ao encarar os problemas pela raiz e em trabalhar
com os setores pblico e privado, podemos criar e imple-

mentar projetos para resolver problemas no mundo real.

Geraes futuras iro julgar nosso sucesso baseado
na implementao de nossas solues e sua capacidade
de melhorar as condies de vida para todos em todos
os lugares. O desafio nos aguarda nas reas faveladas nas
mega-cidades do hemisfrio do sul; nos aguarda no s So
Paulo, mais tambm Caracas, Cidade do Mxico, Jacarta,
Mumbai, Lagos e Joanesburgo.
A seguir, ilustramos nossos mtodos de trabalho, estratgias e solues que desenvolvemos. [1] Estes no so
somente possveis em um futuro teortico, mais possveis
presentemente; provamos que so mtodos realistas, prticos, que podem ser usados em vrias situaes.
Juntando tudo: Exemplo em Groto, uma comunidade
topogrfica.
Em colaborao com SEHAB, sob a orientao de Elisabete Franca, Maria Teresa Diniz, e a comunidade, liderada
por Gilson Rodrigues, desenhamos um prdio inspirado
pela topografia, com um programa de multiuso na favela
de Paraispolis em So Paulo, que tem uma topografia bem
acentuada. O projeto tem grande importncia por causa
do seu resultado, mais tambm devido a oportunidade de
experimentao e o envolvimento da comunidade local,
mudando a perspectiva tpica sobre o desenvolvimento de
estabelecimentos em reas informais
A escala do projeto foi determinada pela paisagem
adjacente, enquanto o programa foi desenvolvido junto
a comunidade se concentrando na educao e produo.
Acesso, uma conseqncia da necessidade de proteo
civil, agora disponvel para o desenvolvimento de transporte pblico e o transporte de materiais de construo
e equipamento necessrio para se iniciar as melhorias do
terreno. O design paisagstico uma rea verde e uma
quadra de esportes est projetada para hospedar a Fbrica
da Msica no Groto e o Centro Educacional para a orquestra de jovens de Paraispolis, um centro comunitrio
para atividades relacionadas a msica. O tratamento do
terreno ir estabilizar o solo e providenciar uma rea para
a agricultura urbana e a recreao, transformando Groto
em uma arena natural, ignorando o contexto urbano, mais
ao mesmo tempo reagindo a paisagem urbana. Esta grande
escada, com reas verdes e programas cvicos, liga as reas
mais altas as reas mais baixas de Paraispolis e permite
mais uma camada de densificao.
O projeto no Groto exemplifica uma estratgia experimental da arquitetura, design e desenvolvimento urbano,
usando tcnicas retroativas, empilhagem, construes autosuficientes, consolidando e usando uma engenharia inversa.
Isto reflete nossa paixo em trabalhar com a comunidade
local e de usar a infra-estrutura existente, ao invs da impor
um novo plano como um ponto de partida. Os projetos
so como uma acupuntura urbana, baseando as intervenes no entendimento de um contexto, com o objetivo de
mostrar a comunidade-cliente o que possvel e o que se
pode esperar de um projeto.
Depois de mais de uma dcada estudando vrias fave-

las, entrevistando moradores, testando e implementando

novos conceitos e solues de melhorias para as favelas,
agora podemos verter nossos esforos para uma arquitetura
prt--porter social. Mesmo se desenharmos espaos
recreativos, pontes para pedestres ou um programa multifuncional, temos que promovemos a arquitetura como
um evento de quais resultados s podem ser alcanados
com a participao ativa dos moradores. Nosso conceito de
arquitetura se aproveita de espaos existentes - construindo
sobre, sob, em volta e dentro e cria novas esferas que
aliviam a segregao. Ns queremos construir pontes entre
as cidades estratificadas e eliminar a frico em cruzamentos atravs da maximizao do potencial das fronteiras.
As favelas da Amrica do Sul, tanto quanto nos subrbios empobrecidos da Amrica do Norte e nas cidades
Europias, criam dvidas sobre a noo tradicional sobre o
crescimento de uma cidade como uma organizao contida
e racional, nascida da lgica da organizao funcional do
espao. Nossa experincia na U-TT e no S.L.U.M. Lab da
Columbia University, nos ensinou o contrrio, nos convencendo de que arquitetos devem ser agentes para mudana
para seus usurios. Mais esta mudana deve ser conquistada de maneira cuidadosa e metdica, um passo de cada
vez, para que seja vivel e duradoura. Ns nos dedicamos
a unificao das cidades, de criam um senso mais forte de
responsabilidade individual para construirmos uma comunidade mais forte. Para todas as investigaes e propostas
feitas se foi perguntado: a vida das pessoas esta melhor do
que quando chegamos?
nossa esperana e, nossa ambio, que todos em nossas cidade possam desenvolver uma conscincia cultural
mais abrangente que ir persistir durante vrias geraes.
Est na hora de melhorias para o povo das cidades de So
Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Cidade do Mxico e de todo o sul
global. Carpe diem!
[1] Uma anlise mais completa sobre o relacionamento
da condio humana e o meio ambiente construdo pode
ser encontrado em nosso livro: Brillembourg, Alfredo and
Hubert Klumpner, ed. Informal City: SLUM LAB Paraispolis. So Paulo: Prefeitura da Cidade de So Paulo, 2008.

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG

87

88

WWW.SLUMLAB.ORG