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chapter 1 2 Upgrading Squatter Settlements into City Neighborhoods The Favela-Bairro Program in Rio de Janeiro Cristiane Rose Duarte and Fernanda Magalhães Favela-Bairro is a program for upgrading favelas (squatter settlements) and irregular subdivisions run by the city of Rio de Janeiro. It is considered innovative as a public policy for low-income populations, particularly for its recognition of the social, cultural, and political importance of favelas in the city. The irregular subdivisions included in the program were ones that had initially been approved by the municipality but could not be regularized due to the absence of the minimum required infrastructure . One of the principal characteristics of the program, launched in 1994 by the city government, is to consider these agglomerations as part of the urban structure and to seek their integration into the existing official city. Many experts on housing policies in Brazil have observed that the Favela-Bairro program and the projects developed under its umbrella have shown themselves to be relatively efficient in promoting community development and in the integration of those informal settlements into the formal city. On one hand, Favela-Bairro has sought to improve the quality of urban space by means of infrastructure networks and public services like piped water, electricity and sewers, new streets, and community-use spaces such as playgrounds and recreation areas. On the other hand, the program promotes community development through educational and income-generating projects seeking the organization of local work cooperatives. Occasionally, the project includes construction of community buildings , such as day-care centers, and a limited number of residential buildings, in this case to relocate persons whose dwellings are in areas of risk such as on unstable hillsides or floodplains. 266 Special attention is given to architectural aspects and urban design, which is reflected in the multiple project solutions proposed by teams of architects and planners contracted by the city and chosen by competition to develop the projects for the different favelas targeted in the first phase of the program. In this article we shall discuss the Favela-Bairro program and its effects on its communities and the city as a whole, and we shall address the primary urban design aspects of some specific favela projects taken as examples. Favelas and Previous Housing Policies A favela, or land invasion, is an unauthorized group of self-built dwellings, often devoid of urban infrastructure and official streets, and basically occupied by lowincome populations.1 The favelados—residents of favelas—do not have legal property deeds to their homes. The name originated from Morro da Favela, a hill in downtown Rio de Janeiro where the first known land invasion was located.2 The name spread throughout Brazil and is now used generically to designate any illegal occupation with an irregular urban pattern and a lack of public utilities. Usually dwellings in favelas start as shacks and are improved by their residents over time, but most do not offer decent living conditions. Favelas are normally densely built up, and their population growth rates are higher than those of the formal city. They may be small, with only a handful of dwellings, but in large cities like Rio de Jan­ eiro they may hold thousands of residents. According to census data, in 2000 the largest favelas in Rio were Maré (which is really a complex of six different favelas) with almost seventy thousand people, and Morro do Alemão with more than fifty-six thousand. However, city estimates are almost 20 percent higher than these census estimates. The favela is a complex urban phenomenon that for more than a century has “developed its own typologies of form and use, consolidating itself definitively in the framework of great Brazilian cities” (Duarte 2004: 303). The majority of favela residents are among the lowest-income socioeconomic groups, and many live there simply because they do not have other options. Some choose life in a favela to be closer to work and to have urban comforts easily accessible . Others, even if they improve their income somewhat over time, prefer to remain in the favela for sentimental reasons and because of the social networks they have created there. On the other hand, there are those who reside in a favela because they profit from renting out a piece of their land; by building tenements and renting out rooms; or by leasing out illegal hookups to water and electricity networks or other illegal practices. Favelas have been the object of various government plans since the...

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