Felipe Chaves Gonzalez

Urban Transformations & Sustainability: Planning Complex Cities

Socio-ecological strategic plan for Planning Area 4 in Rio de Janeiro

Permeable borders - Addressing multidimensional conflicts between polarized communities in Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro is a ’Broken City’ (Ventura, 1994): rapid urbanization, wealth concentration, market-oriented development, governmental neglect and socio-spatial segregation have been compounding the societal discrepancies in the city. These processes have been producing multidimensional borders: ideological, spatial, economic, ecological and institutional. Operating as fragments, borders and in-between zones, they define the conditions of fragmentation in Rio de Janeiro.

The research proposes the co-production of space as a strategic approach to create places of potentiality: enhancing ecological capacity, empowering communities and supporting their self-development. This is triggered by activating the fragments, permeating the borders and connecting the in-between zones.

The proposal, as an open project, unfolds transformative opportunities for alternative urban development. Defined by independent, yet supplementary, socio-ecological strategies, the design showcases actions that increase the integration and adaptive capacity of local communities. The flexibility of the strategies augments the resilience of the actions against temporal uncertainties: ecological, political or socio-economic.

More information