Landslide

Two cities coexist in the same territory. Two dissimilar strategies and growth logics, most of the time in tension. The pavement – formal city – and the favela – informal city – are part of a fragmented reality, a conflictive present. While real estate logics value the shore lands, low-income cariocas finds their alternative on the high lands of “morros” and its surroundings. Pavement and favela expand simultaneously, finding their own borders on topography or on their counterpart. Thus, slums like Rocinha and Vidigal, present four characteristic mutation processes: expansion, densification, explosion and re-densification/amplification. Expansion: the process of reaching a border. Densification: the increase of population and built-up area. Explosion: the redefinition of his borders, as a result of maximum saturation. Re-densification/amplification: the refilling of the conquered areas. The informal mutates to survive; adapts and generate new opportunity spaces. Within this context, we wonder: In which possible ways can this process happen? How advantageous is the vertical growth of the favelas? How to build a historically denied link between the favela and the sea? We aim to throw back the implicit violence of ignoring a historical settlement by assuming the balance between favela and formal city in their shore lands. Rio ought to admit the Difference and equilibrate his territory. The informal must reach the sea.