Intense Week

Monday morning, a place called Cantinho do Céu, just an optimist name for what we called until that moment “favela”. Near Bilings reservoir, an artificial lake, and surrounding this place, an (in) formal area, a place where people bought some lot and without any infrastructure build their houses, self made house most of it.
The municipality is doing now what they call “urbanization”, paving the streets, sewage system, street lights and etc, giving them some minimal conditions of life, and surrounding the lake, there´s a project for a big public space, a park for the people.
Life is going on in this place, some children playing in the streets, people walking around, the corner´s bar open, an integration of neighbors, like a small city inside the city. Most of people works 2 or 3 hours far away by bus, but there are some that have little comercial points , where they sell the most necessary things.
Although the needs, people are really proud of their places, they work hard, brick by brick, so for them their houses is just like a little piece of heaven (cantinho do céu), and who are we to put their houses down, self made houses, with no technical support, but with strong symbolism for them. How does it feels to put you away from your house and put you inside a typological plan, that does mean anything, with 10 other blocks of apartments with no self identity.
All they have are they identity, how can we take them the only thing they have?
The contrasts, the huge shopping mall… the fake fans, the fake tree smell, the fake building, the fake green plants… An artificial place for flesh and bone people.
Fake -bright - flowers ou true -wilted- flowers?

Tuesday… Paraisópolis, again, a really positive name… The streets full of cars, people, a crowed place! So we take a tour from inside, and the landscape changes, the more inside you go, more it changes… The self made construction, the stairs, each one with their own design, but with the same materials, it get me to think if it´s their path to heaven (paraísopolis – city of heaven), the higher you go, near you get.
Cidade Tiradentes shows the sense of community… how it works and give them a meaning, and something to fight for. The project is really heavy, that kind of stamps that the municipality do, but it got a meaning when the people who lives in the place worked hard to build that. This bring them the sense of identity, a sentimental value more important that this money value. Just sorry for the fences…
Wednesday afternoon… Alphaville, an island totally apart of the city. An artificial world, with fake architecture. Jails.
Viglieca lecture… “Search for hypotheses besides the design”
Thursday… Lecture at Sehab, intenses discussion about the projects. They are searching ways, understanding that the municipality have to deal with many problems… But do they discuss the projects, architectural theorys? Sometimes it seems they are fifty years behind the contempopary discussions. Although from Cingapura and the destruction of hundred houses they are going forward, searching news ways... The project of apartments... it led me to think... if they don´t create a private feeling in the place - as they tried , will the residents build fences around it?
Cortiços. Human beings living with no minimal conditions, no water, no bathrooms, no private spaces. 5, 8, 9 years in this condition, it is something unimaginable… So far they get used to it, and stop fighting for...