Tag Archives: Sao Paulo

Mapping for Informal

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Corner regards the agency of mapping as speculation, critique and invention. By introducing terms and techniques about his understanding of maps, Corner develops the idea that formal expression does not evolve quick enough to be relevant as long as the informal settlement starts getting more demand and rights.

Conventionally, neutrality is one of the conventional characteristics of “mapping”. However, the position, orientation, and differences of focus in maps all indicate certain socio-political statement. In Corner’s opinion, the abstractness of the map already brings in a subjective position of the mapmaker. “The application of judgment, subjectively constituted, is precisely what makes a map more a project than a ‘mere’ empirical description.”(Corner, 223)

The subjectivity of mapping leads to the re-thinking of the perspective in mapping. Banham, mentioned by Corner, suggests more attention on the problem that some mappings “adopt a somewhat naïve and insular, even elitist, position.”(Corner, 226)
“ The implications of a world derived more from cultural invention than from a pre-formed ‘nature’ have barely begun to be explored.” (Corner, 223) The mapping for the Watery Void project discovers the potential and pushes the design into a level with reconciled metropolitan and local scale. (Franco, 85)

As Corner mentions in the essay, he discusses “mapping as an active agent of cultural intervention.” Mapping is more like a creative activity that is not only a simple mirror of the existing reality, but also the design process for disclosing new reality. Comparing to “tracing”, mapping is a process of discovering and adding new elements in design.

Another comparison of concepts in Corner’s article is “mapping” and “planning”. He uses Harvey’s idea of “utopia of form” vs. “utopia of process” explaining the difference between “mapping” and “planning”. According to Corner’s description, mapping is definitely more useful and suitable for informal settlement, as mapping entails searching in the existing milieu instead of top-down imposed idealized formal project. Corner believes that various hidden forces underlie the workings of a place, which makes the reality more complex. Mapping of Sao Paulo’s infrastructure should not only be considered as a “technical and functional artifact”; but instead, the interrelationships and interactions between the rising middle class, the new demands coming together, as well as the interest of both central and peripheral residence cannot be ignored any more. One main concept of the Watery Void project is to use and serve for these interrelationships that form the complexity of mapping. Water, more than a nature resource in planning, becomes one main element bridging favelas with formal sector of the city.

James Corner: Agency of Mapping
Franco de Mello: Filling Voids

Participatory Mapping

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As James Corner notes in his essay, The Agency of Mapping: Speculation, Critique and Invention, maps are often static expressions of an area that do not take any sort of change or time into account. In order for maps to become useful tools that can encourage change, they must begin to address the actual conditions within a location. While it is often easy to be reductive when mapping, it is far more valuable to dig deeper into the possibilities that a map can reveal (Corner 213).
Since mapping is never a neutral exercise, and it will always be seen through a particular lens, what is the most productive way to depict a given location, and how can designers question mapping conventions (Corner 221). In such a rapidly changing world, it is necessary to include time in almost any map that is meant to enable change (Corner 226). Additionally, representing a population on a cultural level, which can only be achieved with community participation, will provide an invaluable tool for any designer. There are numerous projects that demonstrate the success of community input in architectural and planning projects, and if mapping is supposedly what is generating these designs, it only makes sense that it would also be driven by local knowledge (Corner 241). By producing a “game board” map, as Corner refers to it, architects would be able to discuss a large variety of concepts proposed by any number of people using one single image as a base. Allowing it to be an open system with a factual base that can be altered depending on need, or desire would invariably create productive designs that consider the culture, and its future.
In places such as São Paulo, there is a desperate need to accurately, yet inventively record the conditions of the informal areas of the city. A simple, aerial view will not suffice, since it cannot accurately represent the character of any given neighborhood. Tracings from satellite images of favelas would simply appear as a jumbled mass of lines with no boundaries, and would not give any insight into the culture or atmosphere. In a location that is in a time sensitive situation regarding urban renewal as well as addressing the ever worsening flooding problems, an accurate and future oriented map is essential to create any new designs.
In the case of São Paulo’s flooding problem, it has become increasingly necessary to divert flood waters to reservoirs throughout the city’s periphery (Franco 2). In order to best decide where reservoirs and accompanying canals and widened streets, designers should create maps that address concerns in each specific neighborhood that will be effected. By doing so, this will allow architects to address specific concerns of the entire community, not simply a government official who has never even stepped foot in the favela before. Architectural interventions in informal settlements must take into account the vast variety that exists even from one neighborhood to another, in addition to the creation of accurate maps that take both the comments of the community as well as the physical and temporal aspects of the area.

James Corner: Agency of Mapping
Franco de Mello: Filling Voids

Urban Acupuncture Reiterated

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It’s really exciting to regularly see connections between the different readings that are done throughout this class. Particularly an overlap of ideas and thoughts regarding issues of informal and formal cities. One thing I have been particularly interested in since the beginning of our discussions has been what Urban Think Tank call, “Urban Acupuncture”. This term has come up a few times under this label, and has come up multiple times as a concept. It refers to the connection between the formal and the informal parts of the city. According to the Designing Inclusive Cities, the fact of the matter is that “We are not able to make services available as quickly as the growth.” (Smith 13) Informal cities exist. And they are often growing much faster than their formal counterparts. According to Cynthia Smith, Urban Think Tank, and many other thinkers, one of the best solutions is “hybrid solutions that bridge the formal and informal city.” (Smith 13) It’s often the case that entrepreneurship that has formed through the opportunities in the informal city become integrated with the formal city; showing that the two co-exist. A discussion that came up during class last week was how the architect contributes to the informal city – or if they do at all. At the end of this brief discussion, we began to realize that architects, of course, contribute to the formal city, which by it’s characteristics creates opportunities for the informal city to latch on. The motorbike taxis in Dakar are quintessential to the blurred line between the formal and the informal. These taxis are a form of cheap transport, and offer services to all types of people. Instead of getting rid of these ‘illegal’ services, the government decided to register them and provide signs to make them more distinguishable. This is the perfect example of the Urban Acupuncture, or the bridge between the formal and the informal.

According to Worlds Set Apart, Sao Paulo is a “city is made not only of opposed social and spatial worlds but also of clear distances between them.” (Caldeira 168) This creates an immediate donut-like diagram where the center is the ‘formal’ city made up of middle and upper class, and the surrounding area of the donut is the ‘informal’ city where the lower class are spreading to the periphery. A solution to this was often thought to be to expand the infrastructure of the city to the periphery and provide basic living necessities to the residents of the periphery. Such actions could have major impacts on the survival rate of new born children, lower crime rates, less drug use, less diseases, etc. Sao Paulo and the favelas is a great example of this. Jorge Mario Jaurequi is an architect who has had multiple Favela-Barrio projects which are designs to create a better sense of connection between the formal/informal and improve living standards. His projects, often simple interventions, are an example of what a big impact small scale changes can have. The connection between the formal and the informal is crucial, and it is almost a necessity that the two exist together. (Jaurequi 60) He values the importance of being able to recognize the ‘other’ – the 90% of the world’s population which is often ignored during design by design professionals. (Smith) Jaurequi encourages us to recognize the ‘other’ in order to insert more humanitarian designs into our lives.

Works Cited

Caldeira, Teresa. “Worlds Set Apart.” LSE Cities. N.p., n.d. Web. 03 Mar. 2013.

Jaurequi, Jorge M. “Articulating The Broken City and Society.” Architectural Design 81.3 (n.d.): 58-63. Print.

Smith, Cynthia E. Design with the Other 90%: Cities. New York: Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, 2011. Print.

Inclusive and Exclusive City

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There is no absolute division between formal and informal sectors within the city. Both Teresa Caldeira and Cynthia Smith believe that the informal settlement shouldn’t be homogenized and only represent poverty, violence, or slum. Instead, city itself is complex both socially and spatially. The heterogeneous informal sector has potential to contribute to city’s development when two sectors actually work together. It is the collaboration that brings life to the informal sector, which makes the informal sector become inclusive.

In the article “designing inclusive cities”, Smith provides several examples of collaboration across sectors to find solution to generate healthier and inclusive cities. Professionals, like architects and engineers, government and organizations all involve these successful projects of informal. The strategy of dealing with slums becomes benefitting for both sides instead of just clearing up the site and building formal sector on it. In solution “land sharing” in Bangkok, the architect makes private land shared with urban squatters, which creates commercial benefits for street front as well as legal tenure and housing for squatters. (Smith, 19) Similar practice that maximum the benefit for both sectors is “the Community Cooker” in Nairobi, Kenya. The whole process of the project solves the sanitation problems and saves money at the same time for the community. “Community members bring collected trash in exchange for use of the cooker, one hour or less to cook a meal, or twenty liters of hot water”. (Smith, 23) Dwellers’ life quality is improved with the effort of both community members and architects and other professionals.

The Community Cooker uses trash, collected by local youth for income, to power a neighborhood, cooking facility.

The income generating solution seems to be an efficient way to attract both sectors in practices of upgrading urban informal settlement. Smith mentioned merchants she met from the Kalarwe Market. They formed a micro-saving group that became like a market rather than a neighborhood. (Smith, 27) All segments of the city are brought together through these practices in order to form inclusive cities with the improvement of informal sector’s life.

On the other hand, Caldeira describes the exclusive situation of Sao Paulo in her article “Worlds set apart”. The high rate of violence becomes the inner force that makes the complex spatial separation of Sao Paulo. Physical dividers like fortified enclave and walls enlarge this gap between formal and informal sectors, with the addition of prejudice feeling formed within residents of the periphery themselves.

Smith, Cynthia E. Designing Inclusive Cities.
Caldeira, Teresa. Worlds Set Apart.