Narchitecture and favelas a preponderance of informality
planning | rio de janeiro by kenan handzic
drug wars turf control
informal order unwritten laws slum upgrading
No one could ever claim complete formal control of Rio. This has been true over the centuries and includes autonomous quilombos – escaped-slave communities during times of slavery, unruly 19th century cortiços – tenements, and today’s de facto control in favelas by narcotraffickers and policia mineira or informal militias. Rio’s very organic and unorganised landscape contributes so much to its easy- going and spontaneous character. Even the largest urban tropical forest is geographically smack in the middle of metropolitan Rio. Whether one wanders the concrete jungle that makes up the formal and well-off parts of this city, the favelas or the urban forest, there is a sense that nature and wilderness embrace and engulf this city. It seems too great to succumb to the hand of man. This, and not Oscar Niemeyer’s famous architecture from early on in his career in Rio, nor its endless beaches, made me fall in love with this city. Rio’s chaos has a certain order to it. Cariocas or the locals certainly know the rules. They survive and thrive by them while visitors look on with curiosity and amazement. ‘Don’t enter favelas gringo !’ was repeated over and over with direct evidence of previous horrific experiences. These segregated areas are often compared to failed states and lawless enclaves. A portion of the Red Line Freeway go- ing to the airport from the city is known locally as the Gaza Strip. Many Cariocas spend their entire life living with a view to a favela but never venture up its hills. What a shame! but the reverse is also true. Some people in remote areas of the huge Complexo do Alemao favela have not left it in years. They live in a city within a city. When I commented to a favela community leader how claustrophobic it must feel for gang members to be trapped in their communities due to fear of being arrested in the formal city, he replied, ‘No, they have everything they could ever need or want in their favelas’.
I did venture into the favelas. What I found was the very definition of ‘community’ that we constantly strive to create here in sprawl- ing suburban Edmonton. They were so full of life, vibrant, neigh- bourly and intimate. Because the formal municipality wanted nothing to do with the favelas for a large part of their existence, they became convenient bases for the originally ideologically-left- ist drug dealers or the parallel power that emerged in the 1970s. I felt like a stranger roaming these areas, a feeling heightened by the local rule and parallel power of the narco gangs. Similar to Rio itself, Rio’s favelas are organic communities that contain steep hills, complex vistas, innumerable stairs, winding roads and pedestrian paths or, if located on a flat topography, con- necting pathways akin to mazes and medieval cities. This organic nature allows for easy control, surveillance and guerilla warfare: the perfect turf for both small and large drug gangs. Mature fave- las have little room for expansion due to natural barriers, oppos- ing drug factions and the environmental protection of the Tijuca Forest. When the police and other formal institutions do enter a favela, they rarely come out without a few bullets in their vehicles — that is in the rare occurrence when they enter these areas at all. Despite the arbitrary nature of drug gang control, favela residents appreci- ate it when the police and other drug gangs stay away, minimis- ing confrontation and all its negative consequences such as stray bullets and maimed bystanders. A favela has its own informal protection and rules; low-intensity conflict can be continually felt, seen in the media and heard as one walks through the formal city. There is a sense that the conflict will never end – it has become a part of Rio’s urban character.
14 On Site review 22: WAR
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