1st Edition
Urban Labyrinths Informal Settlements, Architecture, and Social Change in Latin America
Urban Labyrinths: Informal Settlements, Architecture, and Social Change in Latin America examines intervention initiatives in informal settlements in Latin American cities as social, spatial, architectural, and cultural processes.
From the mid-20th century to the present, Latin America and other regions in the Global South have experienced a remarkable demographic trend, with millions of people moving from rural areas to cities in search of work, healthcare, and education. Without other options, these migrants have created self-built settlements mostly located on the periphery of large metropolitan areas. While the initial reaction of governments was to eliminate these communities, since the 1990s, several Latin American cities began to advance new urban intervention approaches for improving quality of life. This book examines informal settlement interventions in five Latin American cities: Rio de Janeiro, Medellín, São Paulo, Buenos Aires, and Tijuana. It explores the Favela-Bairro Program in Rio de Janeiro during the 1990s which sought to improve living conditions and infrastructure in favelas. It investigates projects propelled by Social Urbanism in Medellín at the beginning of the 2000s, aimed at revitalizing marginalized areas by creating a public transportation network, constructing civic buildings, and creating public spaces. Furthermore, the book examines the long-term initiatives led by SEHAB in São Paulo, which simultaneously addresses favela upgrading works, water pollution remediation strategies, and environmental stewardship. It discusses current intervention initiatives being developed in informal settlements in Buenos Aires and Tijuana, exploring the urban design strategies that address complex challenges faced by these communities. Taken together, the Latin American architects, planners, landscape architects, researchers, and stakeholders involved in these projects confirm that urbanism, architecture, and landscape design can produce positive urban and social transformations for the most underprivileged.
This book will be of interest to students, researchers, and professionals in planning, urbanism, architecture, urban design, landscape architecture, urban geography, public policy, as well as other spatial design disciplines.
List of figures
Foreword: Francesco M. Orsini
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Migratory Waves
Right to the City?
Nomenclature
Addressing Informality
Published Antecedents
Structure of the Book
Chapter 1. Rio De Janeiro
Slavery. Brazil's Enduring Legacy
The Favela-Bairro Program
Jorge Jáuregui. ‘Everything had to be built’
Favela Intervention Tactics. Urbanism, Architecture, and Landscape Design
Design as an Agent of Social Change
A Preemptive Balance of the Favela-Bairro Program
Chapter 2. Medellín
Laying the Foundations
Sergio Fajardo's Citizen Commitment
Redefining Governance: Empresas Publicas de Medellin (EPM) and Empresa de Desarrollo Urbano (EDU)
Alejandro Echeverri and the Catalan Connection
PUI: Toward an Urban Design Strategy for Informal Neighborhoods
Case Study: PUI Nororiental
Case Study: UVA de la Cordialidad
Social Urbanism: Critiques and Recommendations
Chapter 3. São Paulo
A Distinctive Urban History
The 1980s: Brazil ‘Discovering’ its Favelas
The Antonico Creek Project in Favela Paraisópolis
Upgrading Favelas in ‘the Corner of Heaven’
Devising Favela-intervention Mechanisms
Women in Command
Post-occupation Concerns and Strategies
Chapter 4. Buenos Aires
The Persistence of the Urban Grid
The ‘Villas Miseria’ and the Policies of Eradication
Argentina Acknowledges the ‘Villas Miseria’
2001: The Conurbano as the Expression of a Country in Turmoil
Urbanism Approximating Informality: Flavio Janches in Villa Tranquila
Villa 31/ ABario Padre Carlos Mugica
On Housing, Civic Buildings, and Public Spaces
Reasons for Optimism for a Fractured Country
Chapter 5. Tijuana
When Illicitness Dictates Urban Growth
A Laboratory of Postmodernity
On Paradises, Border Walls, and Canyons
Los Laureles Canyon
Oscar Romo, Alter Terra, and the Poetics of Recycling
Cruz & Forman: Manufacturing Informality
Combining Formal and Informal Processes
Informality in Tijuana as a Differentiated Path
Chapter 6. Theoretical Considerations
Informal Cities
Informality in Art
Hélio Oiticica: Aspiring to a Large Labyrinth
The Esthetics of the Favela: Paola Berenstein
Debating Intervention Approaches
The Cathedrals of Our Time
Conclusions
Sustainability and Informality
Anticipating Informality
The Politics of Informality
Afterword: Zaida Muxí Martínez
Index
Biography
Pablo Meninato, PhD, is an architect, architectural critic, and educator. A native of Argentina, Meninato has practiced and taught architecture in Philadelphia, Buenos Aires, and Monterrey, Mexico. He is an Associate Professor at the Temple University Tyler School of Art and Architecture where he teaches history, theory, and urban design.
Gregory Marinic, PhD, is an Associate Professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Design, Architecture, Art, and Planning SAID and Director of URBANIA, a grant-funded research lab. His current field research is based in Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Lima, La Paz, and Guayaquil where it focuses on housing, urban design, informal settlements, and urban morphology.
