First a shining capital, then a depressed city, it is now undergoing renewal thanks to its unique assets, from the ubiquity of nature within its urban fabric to its cultural and social wealth. Washington Fajardo, who is in charge of urban planning and heritage at the municipality of Rio, analyzes the history and prospects of his city, including its impediments, but also its strategies to bolster attractiveness. He offers details on the novel private-public partnership system required for these projects as well as on the ongoing outreach efforts that are carried out in order to reinvent an urban policy for the city.
Washington Fajardo is an architect and urban planner. He is a special advisor for urban issues at the Rio de Janeiro city hall, and president of the Rio World Heritage Institute. Roberto Cabot is a painter, sculptor and musician. Roberto Cabot : As we are entering the era of the hyperdense megalopolis, we are questioning the future of cities conceived according to classical planning models.
Given this context of profound change, what makes Rio an attractive proposition? Washington Fajardo : There clearly is a phenomenon of urban densification at play. The demographic density in Rio de Janeiro is the same as it was during its heyday at the beginning of the nineteenth century. In the sβan important period for Rio as it lost is status as a national capital and because this postwar period saw the emergence of the neighborhood of Barra da Tijuca and the rise of the automobileβwe stopped adopting any policies and conceiving Rio as a phenomenon of European origin, and fully embraced the model of American modernity.
Nevertheless, Rio de Janeiro has some unique characteristics linked to our history which shed light on our urban condition in the twentieth century. In a way, we are reconnecting with the nineteenth century, when cities invented public space as a reaction to the Industrial Revolution. Rio de Janeiro has some interesting assets but it needs to revisit the model which focuses on the notion of enjoyment in the city.
The granite peaks, the tunnelsβall these bottlenecks for spatial fluidity naturally lead to the fragmentation of the urban fabric. This is a problem. The expansion of the urban fabric sets in motion some economic processes. Rio has thus been more highly exposed than other cities to the negative consequences of this global paradigm shift. Roberto Cabot : Brazil has recently experienced violent protest movements, particularly so in Rio de Janeiro. These protests are rooted in the issue of urban mobility.
