PARALLEL WORLDS LECTURE SERIES 2009

Lecture 3: 18-02-0919:30-20:30 Room C

Jaap Klaarenbeek (CCUC) Informal São Paulo

Informal practices

Setup:

-Theoretic background- Layers of Informality- Mapping Informal São Paulo

- Informal PracticesInside the favelaOutside the favela

Its use of, and the effect on, urban spaces

Informal Practices Its use of, and the effect on, urban spaces

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Informal Practices Its use of, and the effect on, urban spaces

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Informal Practices Its use of, and the effect on, urban spaces

Informal Practices Its use of, and the effect on, urban spaces

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Informal Practices Its use of, and the effect on, urban spaces

Informal Practices Its use of, and the effect on, urban spaces

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Characteristics of the Formal

1. Definitions

2. Categorizations

3. Distinctions

4. Relations

Formal - InformalSome Complications in Western Philosophical thought thought

1. Recurring problem: objects are conceptualized as stabile, boundedand based through means of denial.

2. Tension to result in binary structure with a first term (superior/positivity) and second term (inferior / negativity).

3. Result: a relation of opposition and exclusion – instead of similarity, conformity and fusion between the two mode in the dualism.

Moreover: in this way of treating subjects, the story gets a normative narrative of ‘developement’and ‘progress’.

Formal - InformalIts use of, and the effect on, urban spaces

1. That the informal is inseparable from the formal

2. That the relation between formal and informal is differently understood in different academic fields.

3. That the informal does not have a static definition.

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The Slum / ‘Favela’Embodiment of the ‘Informal City’

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Formal contra InformalPolarized dichotomy

Urban ContextInformal city growth

1. Informal Economy Informal Processes

3. Informally Built Environments Informal Use

2. Informal Politics & Social Relations Informal Production

Urban ContextInformal city growth

1. Informal Economy Informal Processes

3. Informally Built Environments Informal Use

2. Informal Politics & Social Relations Informal Production

Working Definitions

Informally Built Environments Unclear Land-Ownership, Self-Management Construction, Building without Plans, Ad-hoc Problemsolving Architecture

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Informally Built Environments Unclear Land-Ownership, Self-Management Construction, Building without Plans, Ad-hoc Problemsolving Architecture

Informal Politics & Social RelationsAbsence of Government, Self-Organized Initiatives, Relations of Trust

Informal EconomyUnregistered Jobs, No Tax Payment, Little Income Certainty, No Access to Social Safety Net, Unstable Working Conditions. Informal Jobs both Inside and Outside of favelas

Urban ContextInformal city growth

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Urban ContextInformal city growth

- 11 mln inhabitants-1.500 sqkm- 870 sqkm urbanized- 1/3 illegally occupied- home to 2,5m inhabitants- 1,9mln live in favelas- more than 2000 favelas- 65% favelas on protected land- peripheral growth

- 130.000 roads- 6 mln cars- 60 km metro lines- 26 km of cycle tracks (20 in parks)- +/- 1.000 private helicopters- 260 landing pads (compare NY:16)

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Urban Context‘A question of formal or informal has until recently never been much of a question. Things just happened’.

- 1900: Allotment of Chacara’s Coffee boom & Skyrocketing expansion- ‘Profit was a certainty’- Uncoordinated informal expansion

- 1970’s: Grileiros- Organized groups invaded and allotted land to raise financial profits.

Urban Context‘the projects by the municipality carried out were always lagging far behind. There has never been any planning, only ad-hoc problem solving. What they did was basically sewing and stitching fragments of urban tissue’.

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In fact, the whole growth of the city has been uncontrolled.

- 11 mln inhabitants-1.500 sqkm- 870 sqkm urbanized- 1/3 illegally occupied- home to 2,5mln inhabitants- 1,9mln live in favelas- more than 2000 favelas- 65% favelas on protected land

- 130.000 roads- 6 mln cars- 60 km metro lines- 26 km of cycle tracks (20 in parks)- +/- 1.000 private helicopters- 260 landing pads (compare NY:16)

Urban Context

Population living in favelas: - 1957: 8.500 shacks-1972: 1,2%- 1997: 18,9%

Focus on Informal SettlementsInformal city growth

1. Favorable political climate (social federal government)

3. Economical situation (energy autonomous, strong agriculture)

2. Normalized urban growth

4. Strength of popular movements (democracy & rising income)

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Unclear Land-Ownership, Self-Management Construction, Building without Plans, Ad-hoc Problemsolving Architecture

Focus on Informal Settlements

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Also many of the residences of the elite are located on locations where it is forbidden to construct.

Focus on Informal Settlements

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Collective actions are undertaken by elites to close streets. This has become a common phenomenon.

Focus on Informal Settlements

Focus on Informal SettlementsChanging Understanding

- Favela often understood as image of contra-modernity or a phenomenon that is goes with the stage of ‘transitory-urbanism’, a phase in the development of the city from a pre-modern to a modern society.

In modernization times the favelas were commonly seen as ‘cancerous sores on the beautiful body of the city’. ‘It was assumed that the dwellers in precarious shacks were precarious themselves, and that comparing their condition with the surrounding opulence would turn them into angry revolutionaries’. ‘Such was the nightmare/ fear of the Right and the daydream

of the Left.’.

Refutation of the ‘Marginality Thesis’- A multitude of studies reveals that the majority of informal employment is conducted by formal businesses undertaking a portion of their trade on an off-the-books basis;- That those in formal employment undertake more informal employment than those excluded from the formal sphere;- And that lower-income areas conduct less informal employment than more affluent localities.

Marginiality Thesis:The ‘Marginality Thesis’ holds that informal employment is concentrated amongst marginalized populations, whether these be poor nations, deprived localities and regions, the unemployed or illegal immigrants.

Marginality Thesis

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Focus on Informal SettlementsChanging Understanding

- Favela often understood as image of contra-modernity or a phenomenon that is goes with the stage of ‘transitory-urbanism’, a phase in the development of the city from a pre-modern to a modern society.

- Recent understanding that favela’s are not pre-modern nor transitory. They are here to stay. - They have to be understood as just another urban typology. (just like: CBD, garden city, historical center, edge city, gated enclave, etc)

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Focus on Informal SettlementsFirst problem: lack of information

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Mapping the Informal CityInformal city growth

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Mapping the Informal City

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Mapping the Informal City- Produced on the basis of Google Earth- Common critique: Hardly based on locally gathered information

Informal Economy Informal Processes

Informally Built Environments Informal Use

Informal Politics & Social Relations Informal Production

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habitation construction infrastructure

Informally Built Environments Unclear Land-Ownership, Self-Management Construction, Building without Plans, Ad-hoc Problemsolving Architecture

Informally Built Environments Self-management construction: Building without plans, no end goal, limited resources, no tools, consolidation, flexible.

Paraisópolis example:- 64,16 of the housholds has fresh water-21,66 has sewerage- 18,5 has official electricity- house value approx: R$30.000,-.

Factsheet: Infrastructure- 51,1% has fresh water supply- 16,8% has sewerage- 18,5 %has official electricity connection- average house value approximately R$30.000

- Whereas the street sides of the blocks are generally in well constructed state and are connected to urban infrastructure, theinsides of the blocks are highly complex, accessibility difficult and dangerous, and infrastructure precarious.

Outside - Inside

Informally Built Environments Infrastructure: ‘Gatos’, not because economical necessity but pure lack

Informally Built Environments Public Space

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Informally Built Environments Reamins probelematic. Yet, consolidation seems to be assured already. Communities have their own regulations and registers.

Informal Politics & Social RelationsAbsence of Public Authority solved by Self-Organization: Protection, Collective initiatives (food, services, mail, telephone, infrastructure), Political voice, Planning(!).

Culture - 95% never visited a cinema, theater or museum- no house for culture, square or cinema

Informal Politics & Social RelationsSelf-Organization: Protection, Political voice, Collective initiatives (food, services, mail, telephone, infrastructure)

Paraisópolis Powerlifting

Gilson Clemente, owner of GCA Gym and GCA Powerlifting Coach has informally developed a program to attract young Paraisópolis residents to powerlifting. The program’s rationale is based on protecting young people at risk by:

1. engaging them in disciplined, goal oriented activity;2. improving self-esteem through coach and team-mate

support, as well as competition reward;3. introducing healthy lifestyle guidelines in a positive manner;4. keeping them away from dangerous environments;5. building a socially supportive network;6. stimulating commitment to further formal education.

Informal Politics & Social RelationsRecent trend: ‘NGO-istation’ for increased access to financial support and political voice. Bottom-up formalization. Authorities are reluctant in cooperation.

Informal Politics & Social RelationsMutirão: Communal design and build projects. Adoptation by formal housing programmes. Currently on hold.

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Informal EconomySelf-sustaining markets in larger communities. As diverese as the formal economy.

Solicitors Office

CD shopBakery

Supermarket

Church

Construction Company

Building Materials

Youth Fashion ClothingVideo Rental & CD Shop

Restaurant

Bar

Clothing

Pizzeria & Delivery

Furniture Shop

Pharmacy

BarButcherHairdresser & Nail Stylist

Pet Shop

LAN-house

Paraisópolis- 5.000 commercial establishments- Strong ‘Shopkeepers Union’

Informal EconomyIncreasing coordination through assemblies, recognized by formalcompanies. Yet, often not by the formal authorities.

Informal practices beyond the borders of the ‘favela’

1. Occupations (buildings and spaces)

2. Comerce

3. Transport (goods & people)

(Temporary) occupation, Transformation, Singular Events, Non-spatial transformations

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Temporary Occupations Informal Economy. Temporary but repetitive occupation. Street peddlers. Form integrated networks.

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Continuous Occupation Derilict spaces. Living, Camelôs, NGO’s (Coopamare),

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Nilson Garrido Boxing AcademyBoxing school under derelict viaduct in Central São Paulo

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Nilson Garrido Boxing AcademyBoxing school under derelict viaduct in Central São Paulo

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Nilson Garrido Boxing AcademyCar tires as boxing bags, constructed a boxing ring from scrap material that he found and used other materials to make rudimentary fitness machines/apparel

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A German photographer that visited São Paulo, managed to win a sub-category of the World Press Photo in 2007 with a series of photos shot at the boxing school of Garrido

Nilson Garrido Boxing Academy

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The many car passengers that passed under the viaduct were surprised by what they saw, while the thousands of cars that passed over the viaduct didn’t note anything of what was going on.

Nilson Garrido Boxing Academy

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Host of the international Mercosul boxing tournament 2007 Nilson Garrido Boxing Academy

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The boxing academy became the starting point for a Phd dissertation and broad discussions about the use of derelict urban spaces in central São Paulo. Plans were made for several locations.

Nilson Garrido Boxing Academy

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Continuous Occupation20.000 empty buildings. Heavily organized. Enforcing rights to citizenship.

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Minhocão – The Great earthworm - Awarded as the verall winner of the ‘Most ugly construction of São Paulo’

Temporary Transformations

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Awarded as the verall winner of the ‘Most ugly construction of São Paulo’

Temporary Transformations

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On Sundays opened for public as a 3,5km linear ‘park’.

Temporary Transformations

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‘Beco do Grafite’ – Grafity Alley, Functions as open air atelier & art expo.

Non-spatial Transformations

Jaap KlaarenbeekUrban Detectives+31(6)43757809

j.klaarenbeek@urbandetectives.com

Thanks for your attention!