Think about the relation person-space, person-city. Supposedly, people should walk freely through the city1, but the urban environment hinders you to usufruct of the spaces. The urban model does not favour the interactions that should happen.
The city of São Paulo, an important economic centre in Brazil, endured an accelerated and unbridled industrial growth, that resulted in an unplanned urban occupation and in an uncontrolled expansion process.
The urban expansion has exceeded the bounds of the river. The economic relations established before (sand, fishing) were dislocated along with the boundaries of the city. The river that used to delimitate this space, became a supporting at this scenario. By loosing its economical potential, it kept itself just as a receiver of the matter rejected by society.
The progress imposed transformations in mobility. The newcomer automobilist industry deflected on the need to build several highways, which represented the speed in the city’s growth. The highway Marginal Pinheiros became an icon of that progress. The implementation of that expressway created an immigration barrier [2], one needs to go through several obstacles to reach the other side of the frontier.
The relation between the society and the river has vanished. The difficulty to access hinders the social interaction with the river and its putrefaction is a result of its abandonment. This idleness generates inappropriate spaces3, the river turns itself into a non-place. Inasmuch as we search this non-place and give it a value of use4, the place re-signifies, doesn’t turn into a precise location, but into a place of practice and use, a half-place. We can turn the river into a half-place by intervening on it, by casting looks and provocations. (CARERI, 2013)
[1] In 1933, the assembly of CIAM (International Congresses of Modern Architecture) produced the document Charter of Athens, which became the first normative international act to discuss the safeguard and restoration of monuments. In this document, the architect Le Corbusier defends the free walking of the pedestrian, without the interference of buildings. (BENEVOLO, 2006)
[2] In comparison with the immigration on airports, in which the passengers need to run through several physical obstacles to cross the frontier between territories.
[3] The emptying of the urban spaces, not only generate social monotony, as the urban degradation. It is necessary to instigate the working and mobility of the city, to attract life and urban security. (JACOBS, 1961)
[4] At the beginning of the 20th century, the jurist, philosopher and historian Alois Riegl reveals “the simultaneous and contradictory exigencies of the values that a historical monument cumulated through the centuries”. For the first time, were defined differences between monument and historical monument, adding to the values, that can be divide in two categories: recollection and contemporaneity. The value of recollection is related with memory, with the time that has passed and its history, with its ancientness. The value of contemporaneity is related with values that, in some way, acquire adaptation through time: artistic value, and value of use. (CHOAY, 1925)