Favela-Bairro

Respect for preexisting environmental and cultural conditions would be the founding principle of Favela-Bairro. It is associated with the understanding that favelas do not constitute a problem due to ethnic, religious, or cultural specificities, and that they are not a temporary phenomenon, but rather embedded in the peculiar process of Brazilian development. From an urbanistic standpoint, favelas present a wide morphological variety, as does the formal city. Implanting a single model would not be desirable; on the contrary, the path to follow would be to make explicit an urban structure that emerges from the settlement itself and that can be conceived in agreement with the residents themselves. This structure should seek the broadest possible interconnection with the structures of the surrounding neighborhoods, in order to create an interdependent urban network.