Informal cities - the Favela |
Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
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Problem
What should the housing strategy of poor urban groups be in response to the inability of national governments to provide them with sufficient housing, deal with the mass influx of people into urban areas and include economic opportunities as part of a inclusionary plan for the city? |
Solution
Due to rural exodus, the people that have left rural areas of Brazil and moved to cities build informal and extra-legal settlements of subnormal agglomerations and self-built architectural structures and communities in order to have a place to live and an affordable livelihood. |
Description
The city of Sao Paulo is among the most active and advanced settings for the study of slums and, not surprisingly, in recent years they have become a crucial center of the international debate on policies for their redevelopment of architecture, design, urban planning, and international law. Since the landmark UN study on global urban settlements and after the huge population growth trends of the 20th century, the inhabitants of the global city, much of which live in informal communities, are now 11 million. Because both population is increasing and urbanization is becoming the major trend of development, programs to improve the living conditions in informal settlements are urgent. Now slums and other forms of informality have become a major phenomenon studied in economics, architecture, sociology and anthropology.
Although the new political consciousness in Urban Interventions includes a reflection of the fate of slums, the actual architectural and morphological characteristics of informal settlements in general remain largely unknown. Yet there is a potential socio-spatial quality in these complex structures that makes them an alternative to the traditional instruments and the normal procedures of city building. The approach is not to glamorize the Favela but to recognize that a distinct and unique culture has emerged in urban slums that the middle and upper class has not fully acknowledged. Their condition requires transgression, even if their subversion is through necessity rather than by design but they create community, connectedness and new architectural typologies of adhoc and resiliency. |
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The ability to build and renovate one structure requires little time because of the nature of their construction, yet shantytowns rarely just 'spring' up and are instead defined by settlements going back to the 19th century. While the structures themselves are highly temporary, the fabrication of the favela includes long-term urban processes which makes them difficult to regulate and unrealistic to remove.
██ ██ ██ Poor urban dwellers and their families Social: the agglomeration of structures and adhoc form creates dense areas of high social networks. Low-rise, high density development, Pedestrian orientation, High use of bicycles & public transportation, Organic architecture that evolves according to need, Intricate solidarity networks Informality Legitimizing urban informality as part of the city |
Benefits
Provides immediate housing to the city's poorest citizens. Established and developed with no outside or governmental regulation. Established and developed by individual residents (no centralized or outside ‘developers’). Continuously evolving based on culture and access to resources, jobs, knowledge, and the city. Incomparable cultural incubators Entrepreneurship of each household in building construction, with families investing time and resources in the materials and the design of their home |
Negatives
Crime and Drug ridden areas still define many favelas, including gang activity, drug trafficking, prostitution and shootings. People in favelas extreme poverty and deal with hardships of poor living conditions resulting in the lack of municipal services. Favela expansion creates serious environmental degradation in sensitives areas. Increasing Income Gap between the formal and informal city Romanticizing the poor |
- The architect is well positioned to become the advocate that designs the process, not the form. Design and Architecture should become instrumental to policy and government as a way to provide the framework, and not the actual building, extending what it means to be an architect and a global citizen.
- Local governments should recognize the inherent negative qualities of U.S. "ghettos," blighted neighborhoods, foods deserts, or even sprawled communities, but should spend more resources catalyzing on the qualities rarely recognized as agents of change. That is, while these urban areas are often times crime-ridden, low-income, or disinvested, they provide vibrant examples of community, culture, and an innovation of presence.
- The processes of informal production have an essential role in growing cities around the world, as rural to urban migration continues at a fast pace without the necessary availability of affordable housing. Provide informal infrastructural models that feed from guerrilla community gardening, appropriation of public space, mix-use spaces, and informal economies.
- As a consequence of the history of lack of regulation that defines informality, favelas are partly characterized by their strong flexibility. The capacity to adapt to a specific context differentiates them from formal housing which is planned and built following a rational project with specific targets for the buildings, such as number of residents or their exact integration to the city. Review building codes so that flexible, or special zoning is a viable solution to some urban issues like blight and economic development.
Links
http://www.abitare.it/en/city-urban-design/learning-from-favelas
http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/sustainable-design-lessons-from-slums
http://www.rioonwatch.org/?p=16678
http://www.abitare.it/it/habitat/urban-design/2012/07/06/learning-from-favelas/
http://u-tt.com/researchTeaching_SLUMLabMain.html
http://www.abitare.it/en/city-urban-design/learning-from-favelas
http://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/sustainable-design-lessons-from-slums
http://www.rioonwatch.org/?p=16678
http://www.abitare.it/it/habitat/urban-design/2012/07/06/learning-from-favelas/
http://u-tt.com/researchTeaching_SLUMLabMain.html