Stair park

The initial planner of the site now occupied by Paraisopolis must have been Dutch, not having thought about the hilly landscape on the site. The square kilometer, now home to approximately 100,000 people, was divided into blocks by a simple 100x200m grid of streets. Some of these grid lines however go up and down the hillside so steeply that they can never function as a street. Such was the case with one grid line that connected the area with the circumfering road network.
Recently the municipality transformed this to-steep-for-a-street space into a stair park. Parallel to a staircase there is a terraced park which enjoys great popularity amongst de Paraisopolian children.
Grid and public space are also the key elements in a proposal of the architect Hector Vigliecca for restructuring the entire favela Paraisopolis. His focus is on the inner space of the grid blocks, which is so densely built that any contact with the public domain is impossible. He proposes to open up this inner world and introduce new residential buildings that improve housing conditions and shape urban space in one. Since the buildings stretch from one block center to another they effectively open up the grid blocks towards the grid streets. The municipality first approved and then rejected the proposol. It would require too much demolishing. An understandable concern if Viglietti's plan were rigid. But it's a simple scheme that gets repeated in each block. Why not simply try it out in one block and see how the neighbourhood responds, see where it needs adaptation or leave it as one unique intervention.

One attempt to restructure Paraisopolis, seemingly simple, yet bold for the staircase ends right besides a series of luxurous residential towers. Another seemingly compex yet smart and potentially much more flexible than it appears.