Architecture WORKS! Portfolio-blog Toon Stallaart (c)

IN_FORMAL SPACES - Towards Urbanity in the Peripheries of Rio de Janeiro: a Piecemeal Intervention

IN_FORMAL SPACES
Towards Urbanity in the Peripheries of Rio de Janeiro: a Piecemeal Intervention

Graduation Project
Explorelab, TU Delft

Bus station, libraray and auditorium in Madureira, Rio de Janeiro
Mentors: Sang Lee (A), Guus Westgeest (BT), Roberto Rocco (U)

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In_Formal Spaces: Perspectives on Urban Development

Thesis: 'In_formal Spaces - Perspectives on Urban Development in Rio de Janeiro'
PDF available here

Abstract

The purpose of this research is to understand the theoretical discours around rapid urbanization in Brazil, with particular regard for urban poverty. I investigate, what I have called ‘the paradox of urbanization’; the outcome of a process in which the qualitative impulses - improvements of urbanization, such as public infrastructure and facilities - are planned and implemented in central neighborhoods, while the quantitative rate of urbanization - the strongest growth of the city in terms of residents - takes place in the peripheries of the city. The paradox of urbanization is that qualitative urbanization does not follow the logic of quantitative urbanization.

In Rio de Janeiro the paradox of urbanization has resulted in a divided city, in which rich and poor neighborhoods are separated and exist as closed and partially autonomous communities. The prosperous central neighborhoods were facilitated with parks, pavements, and public buildings, while the peripheries were developed with private means: residents paved their own sidewalks, and companies provided collective buildings and facilities. Architectural artefacts in the poor peripheral neighborhoods were designed following significantly lower standards than in the prosperous neighborhoods. This culture relativist approach is what Ananya Roy called ‘the aesthetization of poverty’.

The modernist dichotomies in Rio de Janeiro - such as slum/formal neighborhood, hills/flat lands, and asphalt/dirt roads - were pushed to extremes when the city experienced its largest growth rates in the mid-20th Century. The priviliged central districts urbanized with public means, while the poor urban neighborhoods developed without planning on the edges of the city, and did not benifit from increasing prosperity of the city. Today, in the hyper-modernized city, these extremes still exist, but they are concealed in an ambiguous domain of private and public spaces; the role of the governement in the peripheral neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro is limited, and the public voids that have emerged in the peripheries are filled in by private parties; today’s spaces that are perceived as public spaces in Rio de Janeiro’s peripheries are shopping malls.

In response to the work of Ananya Roy, I propose a role for architects and planners that I shall indicate as ‘the aesthetization of urbanity’. I propose that architects and planners should create spaces for public functions, in which the architectural qualitity transcends the interest of a particular local community, and adopt the common norms of society as a standard for their representation. The aesthetization of urbanity is a response to community based, self-help projects: using similar architectural means in the peripheral zones as one would use in the centre, to give the peripheries a qualitative impulse beyond local interests, and make the peripheries an integral and established part of the city. The qualitative improvements in the peripheries should be of substantial architectural quality as a representation of state interest in the poor peripheries, should be in the interest of society as a whole and not only a local community, and should create opportunities for residents in the peripheries of the city through public means.

Scholars that have been of influence for me in this thesis include Ananya Roy, Nezar AlSayyad, Amartya Sen, Karl Popper, and Michel Foucault. The historical and site-specific knowledge derives from field-research and mapping, as well as publications by James Holston, Teresa Meade, Janice Perlman, Daniela Fabricius, Edisio Fernandes, Licia Valladares, Alfred Agache, Constantinos Doxiadis, John Turner, among others, and institutional reports and municipal resources.

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Peripheral Empowerment: Embracing Pubic Life in São Paulo's Peripheries: Urban SOS Competition

Urban SOS Student Competition organized by AECOM
Brief: ‘Find a site (building, open space, neighborhood) in São Paulo where responsible redevelopment will help bolster tourism and make the visitor experience a beneficial one. Design a destination – a place that will add to São Paulo’s luster, while still rooted in its vernacular qualities and will benefit local inhabitants.’

Location: Cantinho do Céu, São Paulo
Toon Stallaart and Jan van Ballegooijen (both M.Sc architecture candidates 2011, TU Delft)

July 2010 - Semi-finalist (200+ entries)

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Brazilian Modernism: architectural studies

Self-initiated investigation into Modernist architecture in Brazil. Pedregulho in Rio de Janeiro by Affonso Eduardo Reidy, and FAU-USP in São Paulo by Vilanova Artigas.

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Stadskantoor Rotterdam - Kossmann.deJong

Stadskantoor Rotterdam
Interior for the public services of the municipal hall, Rotterdam
Invited competition Mecanoo/Kossmann.deJong

Trainee at Kossmann.deJong in interior and exhibition architecture

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Back Bay Lost and Found - Urban Design in Mumbai

Design Studio at MIT
Toon Stallaart
September - December 2008
Professor: Nondita Correa-Mehrotra

Guest critics and reviewers: Dan Chen, Charles Correa, Bill McIlroy, Rahul Mehrotra, Deepti Nijhawan, Paul Paturzo, Jan Wampler

“’Look!’ Guatama points out, as we are driving the road from Bandra reclamation, ‘On one side there are villages, on the other side are buildings.’ The child has identified the slums for what they are: villages in the city. The visual Shock of Bombay is the shock of this juxtaposition.”
(Suketa Mehta, Maximum City)

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Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2003 - Geometric Modeling

MIT
Geometric Modeling
Course instructor: Takehiko Nagakura

Serpentine Gallery Pavilion 2003 by Oscar Niemeyer

Techniques used:

Modeling: Autocad, Rhino
Rendering: 3dsMAX with Mental Ray
Settings: Final Gather, Global Illumination
Rendered with Backburner on 2GB ram

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Interior (click image and drag to look around):

Exterior:

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SKVR: Cultural Center for Amatuer Arts - MSc1 Studio Interiors

M.Sc 1 Interiors
SKVR Cultural Center for Amateur Arts
Witte de Withstraat, Rotterdam

Mentors:
Manou Huijbregts (HP Architecten)
Ana Rocha (Rocha.Tombal)

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Freie Universität Berlin - Technical Studies

M.Sc 1 Technical Studies
Toon Stallaart & Mike Schäfer
Course Instructor: Pierre Jennen

Building analyzed:
Freie Universität Berlin
1963
Josic, Candilis & Woods

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Day Care Center Ypenburg - Pre-Master Studio

Day Care Center
Ypenburg, The Hague

TU Pre-master (HBO)
Mentors: Rupali Gupta, Geert Reitsma, John Si Iun Lai
Awarded 3rd prize pre-master studio projects (100+ students)

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“Nothing is more useful than to adopt the status of a child: a child can do whatever it likes, for it is innocent and inexperienced; it need not observe the rules of social behavior, for it has not yet entered a world ruled by form; it may show its feelings, whether they are appropriate or not.”
(Milan Kundera, Immortality)

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Boardwalk - Graduation Project Bachelor Program

Graduation Project: 'Boardwalk'
A Hiking Route Through Duijvenvoordse Polder
Randstad Metropolitan Area (municipalities of Leidschendam-Voorburg, Wassenaar, Voorschoten)
January - July 2007

Toon Stallaart & Simon Verduijn with 2by4-Architects
Honarable mention 'Bouwend Rijnmond' graduation prize

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