Rio de Janeiro (RUA Arquitetos and MAS Urban Design)
Despite the rise of the middle class in Brazil's burgeoning economies, Rio still suffers from a challenging topography of wealth and class, with favelas juxtaposed near high-rises and a growing population looking for more. RUA Arquitetos and MAS Urban Design's proposal for intervention doesn't ignore this instinct for improvement. The groups dreamed up Veranda Products, a line of do-it-yourself construction kits aiming to make sustainable design more compelling. They even half jokingly, suggested a telenovela that would showcase the products at work.
While the items they designed, such as a hanging garden or add-in balcony, seem like small additions, at a larger scale, the team feels like they could reshape the environment.
"Instead of imposing, lets create products that are convincing," says Leonard Striech from MAS Urban Design. "Consider consumer behaviors and think about products that would make life better."
The sketch above shows these easy-to-assemble kits at work, such as the Papaya Umbrella, a playful rainwater collection system (seen at bottom left). Favelas suffer from infrastructure problems, according to Pedro Evora of RUA Arquitetos. These Veranda Products are meant to promote better possiblities for urban life.
"Any person can download and build these products by themselves," says Evora. "The idea is to promote a space for ideas. Almost a third of the city was built informally, built by the people. This is part of the culture."
Image courtesy of RUA Arquitetos and MAS Urban Design, ETH Zurich.
The urban fabric that is our collective future is busting at the seams. As megacities from New York to Mumbai swell at speeds beyond current infrastructure and development plans, cities need smart solutions for sustainable expansion. With its new exhibition, "Uneven Growth," MoMA is helping expose the dangers of unstable and inequitable development.
A dozen teams of architects from across the globe were paired up and asked to examine resource challenges and economic inequality in six major metropolises: Mumbai, New York, Hong Kong, Rio de Janeiro, Lagos, and Istanbul. The project sought tactical, small-scale, and strategic solutions that could steer growth towards more empowering ends, a response to critiques of top-down planning and design gentrification.
According to curator Pedro Gadanho, these DIY solutions are tools for empowering social and economic relationships in an era of more limited resources.
"These cities are too complex to 'solve' in the traditional sense," he says. "With the last two to three decades of growing inequality, some of the optimism that urban living will change your life is gone. 'Uneven Growth' takes inspiration from small actions and scenarios, tactical solutions that don't impose."
Dwell spoke with teams representing all six cities to learn about the problems they saw and the solutions they propose.
