The Brief

WHAT?

How can urban design principles be used to improve the quality of social housing settlements in Brazil.

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HOW?

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BUDS 2019 is engaged in a collaborative research between Oxford Brookes University and Federal University of Rio de Janeiro which focuses on developing a methodological approach for the application of urban design principles to social housing projects such as the MCMV (My House My Life) in Brazil. The research was developed during 2018 by Dr. Maria Lucia Pecly (UFRJ), Dr. Laura Novo de Azevedo (OBU) and Dr. Ramin Keivani (OBU) to adress the historical disengagement between social housing delivery and urban quality in socual housing projects in Brazil. BUDS 2019 will engage in the testing of principles.

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WHERE?

The testing will use a disused site at the port area of Rio de Janeiro, city centre. The site is well provided with infrastructure and well connect with the city. It requires local government to deliver social housing in order to have access to development funds.

The site has a large abandoned concrete structure which was built to attend a mandatory requirement from the Olympic Games 2016 to provide social housing in the port area of the city of Rio de Janeiro. The area received a large amount of investment  for  the development of the Master Plan and the building of 10.000 units of social housing in the city centre. The typology proposed was a high rise building with 50 floors to accommodate  the social housing demand. The project has been completely abandoned.

The port area is one of the oldest parts of the city, with a Portuguese heritage with small plots and buildings of an average of three storeys high and mixed use - retail on the grounds floor plus two residential floors above.