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chapter 9 Urban Design, Planning, and the Politics of Development in Curitiba Clara Irazábal Over the past several decades, Curitiba, Brazil, has been referred to as an environmentally sustainable “model city” and as a remarkable example of both a successful urban planning process and a large array of urban design projects that are attractive, innovative, functional, cost-effective, and replicable. This chapter examines urban design and planning projects and processes in Curitiba since the 1960s, and shows many reasons why the city deserves praise: an effective and continuous planning process has guaranteed efficiency in public transit, historic and cultural preservation, a revitalized and pedestrian-friendly downtown, effective environmental programs, and a series of urban design and architectural catalyst projects. This chapter also discusses some political and institutional factors that have facilitated the development of Curitiba’s planning process, and some current urban governance and planning problems the city is facing. Curitiba’s planning process has been shaped by the accommodation of diverse interests around a political project, the media dissemination of a particular city image, and the permeation of material gains to the lower income classes. Conversely, some factors that are challenging the city’s governance model and threaten to subvert the future of planning processes include increases in urban problems and inequalities across the municipalities of the metropolitan region, deficiencies of institutional structure and coordination at the level of metropolitan planning and governance, and inadequate responses to the increasing challenges to government and planning institutions from citizens demanding greater accountability and participation. I argue that the institution of more effective citizen involvement in Curitiba’s decision making is the way to relegitimize and continue the 202 processes of urban design and planning that had such a brilliant start in the 1960s and a commendable implementation record from the 1970s to the early 1990s. Planning and Urban Design in Curitiba Curitiba has a six-decade-long history of formal urban design and planning.1 It started with the Agache Plan in 1943, designed by the French urbanist Alfred Agache, when Curitiba had 120,000 inhabitants.2 Through the restructuring of the street network, this plan established guidelines for concentric growth of the city and provisions for land-use zoning, sanitation measures, distribution of open spaces, and allocation of areas for urban expansion. The plan also proposed the construction of cultural and government buildings and centers, one of which—the Civic Center, housing local, state, and federal public agencies—was constructed beginning in 1952 and was designed according to the tenets of modern architecture. Curitiba’s population reached 180,000 inhabitants at an annual growth rate of more than 7 percent in 1950—more than what the Agache Plan had anticipated. To address this massive growth, Curitiba’s first zoning act was passed in 1953 and the first mass-transit system plan in 1955. By 1960, the population had doubled to 361,309 inhabitants, and the rapidity of urban growth increased the need for its management . This growth, together with the planning and building of Brasília as the new capital city of Brazil in the late 1950s and early 1960s, created a renewed impetus for the fields of urban design and physical planning in Curitiba as means to direct growth and achieve progress and modernization. Curitiba continued a process of significant growth through the 1960s, maintaining one of the highest growth rates in Brazil— an average of 5.36 percent a year—demanding more urban planning.3 In the 1960s, the Agache Plan remained only partially implemented and required updates and adjustments. In 1965, the municipality of Curitiba opened a public competition for a new plano diretor (master plan) and selected a planning firm from São Paulo led by architectplanner Jorge Wilheim.4 Developed in conjunction with city officials and elite groups, the plan was approved in 1966. By this time, Curitiba had almost 470,000 inhabitants and an annual growth rate of 5.6 percent. Unlike the Agache Plan, which was based on concentric circles, the plano diretor envisioned urban growth occurring in radiating axes outward from the city center and employed integrated public transportation and mixed land-use principles (fig. 9.1). Other pillars of the plan were management of growth, promotion of industry, and improvement of the environment and quality of life in the city. The plano diretor called for major physical interventions in the city, including a Urban Design, Planning, and the Politics of Development in Curitiba 203 [3.129.45.92] Project MUSE...

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