Brazil is a country of city dwellers
undergoing radical transformation: over 85 per cent of the country s
citizens live in cities and over 40 per cent of the population live in
metropolises of more than a million people. Whereas previously urban
growth had been ad hoc, preparation for the FIFA World Cup in 12 cities
across the country in 2014, and for the upcoming Olympic and Paralympic
Games in Rio, changed all that. Several Brazilian cities have
proactively invested in infrastructure and the public realm. And a
number of projects by international starchitects have heightened
interest in Brazil from architects and urban practitioners abroad. The
failure of public authorities to meet their ambitious aspirations for
the sporting mega–events sparked a series of street protests across the
country under the banner of the right to the city , beginning in
2013. For Brazil, this was an entirely new phenomenon, one which has
unveiled the potential for bottom–up influences to effect urban change.
The focus of this issue, though, is on design projects that contribute a
strong sense of place to their respective cities, highlighting also the
integration of landscape design in urban planning and community
interventions that seek to address the enormous disparity between the
lives of the country s rich and poor.
Contributors:
Ricky Burdett, Thomas Deckker, Gabriel Duarte, Sergio Ekerman, Nanda
Eskes and André Vieira, Alexandre Hepner and Silvio Soares Macedo, Circe
Monteiro and Luiz Carvalho, Joana Carla Soares Gonçalves, Jaime Lerner,
Ana Luiza Nobre, Justin McGuirk, Francesco Perrotta–Bosch, Maria do
Rocio Rosário, Fernando Serapião, Guilherme Wisnik
Featured architects:
AECOM, Biselli Katchborian, Brasil Arquitetura, Santiago Calatrava,
Studio Arthur Casas, Diller Scofdio + Renfro, Herzog & de Meuron,
Vigliecca & Associados
