IN_FORMAL SPACES

Abstract

In this work I investigate, what I have called ‘the paradox of urbanization’, through the case of Rio de Janeiro. The paradox of urbanization is a process in which the qualitative impulses - improvements of urbanization, such as public infrastructure and facilities - are planned and implemented in central neighborhoods, while the quantitative rate of urbanization - the strongest growth of the city in terms of residents - takes place in the peripheries of the city. In Rio de Janeiro the paradox of urbanization has resulted in a divided city, in which rich and poor neighborhoods are separated, and exist as closed and partially autonomous communities. The prosperous central neighborhoods were facilitated with parks, pavements, and public buildings, while the peripheries were developed with private means: residents paved their own sidewalks, and companies provided collective buildings and facilities. Based on the work of Ananya Roy, I propose a role for architects and planners that I shall indicate as ‘the aesthetization of urbanity’. I propose that architects and planners should create spaces for public functions, with a substantial urban qualitity that transcends the interest of a particular community, and adopt the common norms of society as a standard for their representation. The aesthetization of urbanity is a response to community based, self-help projects: using similar architectural means in the peripheral zones as one would use in the centre, to give the peripheries a qualitative impulse that trancends local interests, and make the peripheries an integral and established part of the city. The qualitative improvements in the peripheries should be of substantial architectural quality as a mean of representation of state interest in the poor peripheries, should be in the interest of society as a whole and not only a local community, and should create opportunities for residents in the peripheries of the city through public means.