The Urban Theater
Post by Marines Pocaterra [Proyectos Arqui 5] on Caracas
We all agree that urban interventions should be positive social actions that focus their benefits on low-income urban dwellers. There is a wide range of projects in this list: punctual upgrades in informal settlements, participatory projects, new infrastructure equipment, renovations, and so on and so forth.
Yet, as urbanists and urban activists, we will have to learn to sort out the ‘good’ interventions from the theatrical urban shows. This is particularly important, as various demagogical regimes have discovered a way to implement political control through the disguise of innocent urban interventions. Allow me to expand on the latter, as it is a scheme applied in my home country, Venezuela:
Governments begin by preaching ‘globally approved slogans’ on urban upgrading: empowerment of the people, participative projects, equal access to land, leadership in self-development and so on. However, this façade discourse quickly transforms into a prize contest where people are offered, not education, stability nor the power to make decisions; but instead, cheap trinkets ranging from participation on a share of ‘invaded’ land, to white line appliances, to cash, to positions of ‘power’ within the community.
Originally designed to transform dwellers into owners of their own future, provide responsible for their living conditions, support equality in citizenship and so much more; these types of interventions become a simple disguise for manipulation. Instead of strengthening Read More…
FAVELA CHIC :: Aerial Cable Cars & Gondolas
Metrocable in Santo Domingo, Medellin
The upgrading of ‘slums’ in Latin American cities attracts the global eye. Although governments, planners and architects have long intervened in informal settlements -or favelas- it is only recently that design and physical interventions have become central components. Following a long history of tabula rasa, public housing, self-help, and sites-and-services schemes, current approaches to favelas have evolved into strategies characterized as ‘urban acupuncture,’ aiming to minimize displacement and improve the conditions in the area by focusing on the aspects most absent in the settlement: infrastructure, public space, and public equipment. From libraries, to parks, to new facades and representations, waterfront renovations, and urban promenades, one of the most popular and recognized interventions today is the aerial cable car system, also known as Metrocable, or Teleferico depending on the context.
Metrocable in San Javier, Medellin
With much scrutiny and financial instability, Medellín, completed it’s first Metrocable in Santo Domingo in August 2004. The city now boast three Metrocable systems including Santo Domingo, the Metrocable San Javier, linking the Comuna 13 and inaugurated in 2008, and a tourist line inaugurated in 2010, which begins at the Santo Domingo station and extends into the National Park Arví (an investment of $50.500 millon for the city).
Caracas implemented it’s own Metrocable system in the barrio San Agustín, which began in January 2010.
In great means responding to the city’s preparation for the World Cup and the Olympics, attempting to upgrade and dress up favelas in the city for the great events, Rio de Janeiro completed its first cable car system earlier this year, 2011.
In Bogotá recent elections, the metrocable became a star players, included in the majority of the candidate’s agendas as a strategy to alleviate and address poverty in Colombia’s capital.
Metrocable San Javier, Medellin
Aiming to enhance the connectivity and permeability of marginalized settlements, aerial gondola systems have quite rapidly become the symbols of social change in cities, placing a strong emphasis on the image and representation. As these interventions become more prevalent, they require a scrutinizing and analytical lens.
DRAWING UP THE METROCABLE + PUI NORIENTAL (COMUNAS 1+2)
In 2010, I had the opportunity to conduct an entire year of field research, developing a comparative analysis with a focus on current ‘slum’ upgrading strategies in Latin America. During this time, I organized a series of cognitive mapping workshops with local residents in different settlements; in Medellín’s Northeastern settlements [Comunas 1 and 2], I worked with a local NGO, Convivamos. The mapping sessions aimed to measure the “socio-spatial integration” produced by the Metrocable, the Library of Spain and accompanying PUI interventions, based on a comparison of perceptions between local residents and inhabitants of other “formal” areas of the city.
Before diving into discussions on the results and observations, some quick context: Read More…
Resistance to Rio’s Celebrated Gondolas, Fetishizing the Teleferico
Intro Post by Tucker Landesman
Photo credit: Agustin Romero.
I’m not an architect. I’m not an urban planner, an engineer or a transport specialist. Rather, I study human behavior, and I come to FAVELissues and studies about geographic informality from a rather unique history of public health and community activism. When it comes to the topic of favelas (read generally as informal settlements), I am interested in the political power dynamics between community residents, state actors and other political players (private corporations or international organizations, for example). I research questions concerning citizenship and democracy, participation and resistance. What are the socio-political conditions necessary for successful and democratic integration? How can favela residents organize in order to exercise the greatest possible influence over what happens to their neighborhoods, homes and livelihoods? As Brazil assumes an increasingly prominent international profile, how does Rio de Janeiro emerge as a “global city” and cope with the fact that one-third of its residents live in informal slums and squatter settlements? These questions will be central to my blogs on FAVELissues.
The above questions were also present in my mind when I recently visited Complexo do Alemão, a “complex” of 13 conjoining favelas in the city of Rio de Janeiro (zona norte). The purpose of the visit was to see the new teleferico, a cable-propelled transit system (a Gondola), funded by the federal government at a cost of around R$210 million (roughly 120 million US dollars). Running at full capacity, the system can transport up to 30,000 people a day in 152 cable cars between 6 stations, a total distance of 3.5 kilometers. Below is a short video of the teleferico with interview with residents (portuguese w/o subtitles, sorry).
Gondolas (also called cable cars) have been the subject of praise on this blog and many others. Steven Dale, an urban planner and researcher, even created a website solely committed to cable-propelled transit around the world called The Gondola Project. This often over-looked form of public transport can be a cost-effective means to transport people and goods over tricky terrain (both mountainous and flat, as it turns out).
The teleferico in Complexo do Alemão is lauded as a highly visible public works project that will have immediate and long-lasting benefits to residents. In the mainstream media and urban planning circles alike, the attention has been almost exclusively positive both in the national and international press. The Read More…
Metrocable :: Medellin + Caracas
As the aerial cable car- or metrocable- is quickly gaining attention and traction, becoming one of the new paradigms in addressing urban informality, I wanted to share this short video of the 2 Metrocables in Medellin (with a focus on Santo Domingo), and the Metrocable in Caracas (Barrio San Agustin).
METROCABLES VIDEO:
** Special thanks to Maria Carrizosa for helping me with the photo stills composite.
Adriana Navarro Sertich
Lubaina Rangwala
Jennifer Renteria
Kirsten Larson
Proyectos Arqui5
Tucker Landesman
Namrata Kapoor
Paula Restrepo-Cadavid
Andrew Carman
Jose Antonio Ramirez
Fernando Luiz Lara
Bethany Opalach
