Toupie or not toupie

TOUPIE OR NOT TOUPIE «cidade maravilhosa cheia de encantos mil, coracao de meu brasil». Caetano Veloso.Nowadays, Rio de Janeiro is the only metropolis whose skyline is natural. As high as any building, it let no chance to the urban design to compet with the 800m high landscape that surround it. Even if icons such as the famous Pão de Acucar or the Corcovado, one of the new wonder of the world, are obviously stunning, the most interesting aspect of this topographic situation is that the city is mixed with it. Both are living together in an unclassifiable relation. In some places the mountain is surrounding the city, in some other the city is surrounding the mountains. Sometimes the city climbs on top of the hill; sometimes the hills remain a virgin island in the city. The striking point today is that the skyline is no longer a beautiful postcard of an impenetrable wild nature, but a liveable landscape. What was the main essence of the city can’t be admired anymore, whereas it has another-far more interesting-quality, living in it! That is exactly what create the wonder of Rio. While moving in Rio, we can be stunned by the infinite range of possible landscapes. The city stuck between the forest and the ocean, catches the humid wind while the relief retains the clouds : an ever present fog floods the valleys and gives the city its magical sense. In this context, the quality of the public space is incontestable: its capacity to adapt uses, wonder and disgust are clearly mixed, and this mix assures its success. Is there any other place in the world able to do this? What if one day, cariocas people wake up and all the «natural» city disappeared? What if one day all the success of Rio became digested in one objet : the «toupie». It’s the french word for «spinning-top», and also a reference to the Tupi people, Brazilian figure of the anthropophagous movement. What if this landscape wouldn’t be liveable anymore while it was taken and protected in one jewellery case ? The nature and the mountains is condensed in a totem, holding the magic of the culture. Rio wouldn’t be the same success. The city will appears disgusting with his favela and his buildings, won’t it ? The two entities would intimidate each other without playing together. Worse, the accumulation of nature would create an overflow. And then, which one would be the wonder or the disgust? The building of the city or the threatening unbalanced rock ? All the wonder of Rio will be suspending on the city.The balance between wonder and disgust of Rio remains poised on a knife-edge. It remains on this permanent fighting between the city and the nature. Yes we have to preserve the landscape of Rio ! But we affirm that the best way to protect it, is to play permanently with it. Toupie or not Toupie ? That is the question. Our proposal is the way to affirm that if any of the two part of Rio is one day occulted, Rio would’nt be anymore.