Brazilian Architect Shows in the US How to Make Slums Home

Brazilian Jorge Mário Jáuregui, an architect and urban designer who has been working in the favelas or shanty towns of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, for the last 10 years, will discuss the Favela-Bairro Project during a Friday, February 3 lecture at Woodbury University.

The free program will begin at 6 p.m. in the Design Center at Woodbury University, 7500 Glenoaks Boulevard., Burbank, in the Greater Los Angeles area.

Jáuregui and his team have had incredible success in navigating these waters, with completed community projects in seven of the favelas, and several more underway. 

The initiatives include construction of daycare facilities, community laundry areas, street and walkway improvements, soccer fields, community meeting centers, etc.  They are creating this new city after the people are already there.

Jáuregui’s work, the Favela-Bairro Project, has been recognized with a number of awards, including Harvard University’s Veronica Rudge Green Prize in Urban Design in 2000.  A book, The Favela-Bairro Project, edited by Rodolfo Machado, was published in 2003.

The favelas of Rio have existed for over 100 years, established by freed slaves, the indigent poor, refugees, and other cast-offs of society.  Today, a staggering 1.3 million people live in the favelas, fully one-quarter of the city’s population. 

As opposed to most other urban shanty towns, the favelas exist directly within the city, not on the periphery.  They command some of the most beautiful hillside sites overlooking the bay, a powerful contrast to the harsh conditions within.

Over the decades, the city has alternately ignored or tried to remove the favelas and their inhabitants, to no avail.  The city finally decided in the early 1990s to work to bring the favelas into the mainstream of urban life, finding ways to convert them into bairros, or neighborhoods. 

This is a highly complex process, both in the physical work necessary to provide infrastructure, and more importantly in the communication, negotiation, and involvement of the residents themselves.

Woodbury University – www.woodbury.edu

Jorge Jáuregui – www.jauregui.arq.br

Tags:

You May Also Like

An Ambitious Brazilian Program to Recycle 5,000 Computers a Year

Around 500 machines, including computers, printers, monitors, and other equipment, were delivered recently to ...

Let the Sun Shine

CDs or Books by Keyword, Title or Author By Brazzil Magazine ITAMARACÁ Only 50 ...

Brazil’s New Temporary Measure Casts Fear on Market

Published yesterday, October 22, in the Diário Oficial (Federal Official Gazette), the Temporary Measure ...

Brazilian Sorcerer Paulo Coelho Gets Hero Welcome in Egypt

A crowd got together at the Al Sakia El-Sawi Cultural Center, located by the ...

Voices Rise Against “Gaza Wall” Around Rio Favela, in Brazil

Environmentalists, human rights activists and residents of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, are opposing plans ...

Ahmadinejad Is on His Way to Brazil. Rio Protests, Lula Defends

About 1,000 people gathered this Sunday morning in Ipanema beach, in Rio de Janeiro, ...

Brazil’s US$ 42 Bi Surplus Not Enough to Pay US$ 71 Bi Interest on Debt

Last year the Brazilian government saved US$ 42.279 billion (93.505 billion reais), equivalent to ...

Mud and Chaos in Brazilian Music

Brazil’s Mangue Beat musical movement shows us that the dividing line between the public ...

120 Ministers of Environment in Brazil for Biodiversity Conference

Some 6,000 representatives from more than 190 countries will begin discussions on alternatives for ...

Crê Ser condominium in Bahia, Brazil

From Shacks to Homes a Brazilian Community Teaches There’s No Impossible

The streets off Praça Viva Gente were blanketed with grayish-green igneous rock. Well manicured ...