Centralities and Housing in Metropolitan Rio de Janeiro

During the last decade, the metropolitan city of Rio experimented a big territorial expansion and a huge demographic increasing, now with 12 million citizens. The territorial expansion continues strongly, based on the car driven model and the occupation of non-inhabited areas, each day more inaccessible, by the real estate stimulation. The central areas fall apart. However, they still offer exclusive activities and services, which maintain their importance. The study of the centralities map of Rio de Janeiro is relevant to understand the urban contemporary dynamics. Housing, the city’s fabric major component, needs to be analyzed together with services and public transportation opportunities to accomplish its function. This talk aims to reflect about the centralities structure and the housing character in the Rio’s metropolitan city.

Fabiana Izaga Izaga teaches at the School of Architecture and Urbanism from the Federal University of Rio (FAU-UFRJ). She also serves as a researcher at the Urban Post-Graduation Program (PROURB) at the same University. Her focus is on urban mobility, design teaching and the urban history of Rio de Janeiro. Izaga is the general-secretary of the National Direction from Brazil’s Architects Institute (IAB-BR).

Nanda Eskes Eskes received her undergrad degree at EAPB, in France. She is partner at Atelier77, an architecture practice, co-founder of Instituto Casa, and professor at Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio). She was responsible for the coordination of Cidade das Artes’s construction, equipament designed by Christian de Portzamparc in Rio de Janeiro. Among her projects are the Santa Cruz Community Center, which was exhibited in the last São Paulo Biennial, and Selo de Qualidade Urbana of the Fundação Vale, which was selected for the Brazilian Pavilion at Venice Biennial of 2016

Maria Paula Albernaz Albernaz is an architect graduated at the School of Architecture and Urbanism from the Federal University of Rio (FAU-UFRJ) (1976). She owns a master degree in Urban and Regional Planning at UFRJ (1985) and a Ph.D. in Geography at UFRJ (2007). Albernaz teaches at FAU-UFRJ and she serves as a researcher at PROURB. Her focus is structure, morphology and design of the urban space.