Before Satellites: Favelas as Self-Organising Systems: Rio de Janeiro and So Paulo

Favelas are informal urban developments that occupy vacant private and public land. They are the creative efforts to build selfhelp housing of people who can only bank on their own initiative. In Brazil, favelas house between 20 and 40 per cent of the population of the countrys major cities. They are the result of the failure of the national governments housing programme, and were generally ignored by central government as they had no legal basis in landownership. The Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto considers the political and social isolation of the favelas as a form of legal apartheid, and central government the greatest enemy of the migrants. To cope with this situation, favela migrants organised themselves to provide water and electricity, as well as to treat sewage in septic tanks. In addition to continually improving their own homes, inhabitants created social organisations with youth and sports programmes. Small-scale entrepreneurs provided services such as barber shops, a radio station or cafs in their homes, while many inhabitants raised poultry for food in cages on building roofs or in yards. More recently, these self-organising groups reached out to the pioneering city of Rio Prefecture to analyse their demands and initiatives. As a result, the prefecture, and architect Lcia Petersen, organised the Favela Bairro Programme, sponsoring competitions for the larger structures required in the favelas, and attracting the attention of socially conscious architects. The Harvard Graduate School of Design awarded the 2001 Veronica Rudge Green Prize in Urban Design to Jorge Mario Juregui for his work in different favelas in and around Rio de Janeiro. Also, in So Paulo, architect Renata Semin helped the Favela Helipolis community association articulate its programmes and build a sports club and cultural centre in 19992000. The urbanisation of favelas is politically essential because it has a direct effect on the ground, improving inhabitants lives and granting them a place in the city structure. This means the incorporation of the invisible 20 to 40 per cent of Brazilian urban inhabitants and their social organisations within the larger political economy. The exemplary Brazilian national City Statute 10.257 (Estatuto da Cidade) will normalise the legal status of the favelas by granting the inhabitants ownership of the land under their house plots and compensating the previous owners. In addition, the plan will introduce basic infrastructure (water and sewerage) and social services (health care and so on). For the favela dwellers, the Estatuto da Cidade forms the constitutional basis for their recognition as citizens, and rewards their prolonged struggle for an active role in city politics. Examples of these self-organising groups projects are illustrated here, along with photographs from our book FavelaMetropolis (Birkhuser, 2004). Architects played a variety of roles in support of self-organising community groups not all of which sought legal recognition, as some groups still prefer to retain their independence.

Favela Helipolis radio station, So Paulo, Brazil Joo Miranda, president of the self-organised community association UNAS, and radio-station staff. The station is a nucleus of favela activity.

Favela Parque Royal, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil Self-built housing along the seafront, with electrical supply meters.

Renata Semin, Piratininqa Arquitetos Associados, Favela Helipolis sports and cultural centre, So Paulo, Brazil, 19992000 The architects designed and realised the sports and cultural centre for the UNAS community association within its favela context.

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Elisabeth Blum + Peter Neitzke

Paulo Bastos, Favela de Jardim Imbuias, So Paulo, Brazil, 1996 An open stream before intervention from the architect, and after with high banks to prevent flooding.

Paulo Bastos, Favela Jardim Floresta, So Paulo, Brazil, 19968 Renovated side roads, stairs and ramps for pushcarts.

Archi 5 Arquitetos Associados, Favela Parque Royal, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, 19957 A barber shop in a residential building with shops and services.

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