What city do we need? – Haroldo Pinheiro Villar de Queiroz, Brazilian Council of Architecture and Urbanism (CAU/BR)
Name
Haroldo Pinheiro Villar de Queiroz
Title
President
Main affiliation
Brazilian Council of Architecture and Urbanism (CAU/BR)
email
gabinete@caubr.org.br
Country
Brazil
Region
South America
Main themes
Urban Management
Sustainable Cities
Planning and Design
Mobility
Information and Monitoring
Governance
Title
What city do we need?
Focus
Contributions from the Brazilian architects for the future of the citites worldwide.
Issues which the lecture addresses
CAU/BR has been actively engaged in the debate which is taking place in Brazil about Habitat III, representing 140,000 registered architects. Our thesis is that Brazilian cities grew in an unsustainable way in recent decades. Some consequences of this unplanned growth are:
• The large number of cars and deficient public transportation;
• The shortage of infrastructure, particularly sewage;
• The unplanned occupation that affects water resources and causes environmental problems;
• Excessive verticalization and large gated communities that discourage social integration;
• Floods and landslides reveal the fragile relationship with the environment.
Short analysis of the above issues
The current panorama of Brazilian cities leads not only to financial losses but to enormous social costs: it takes lives, causes discomfort, deprives citizens of essential time, reduces productivity, and takes away the possibilities of a full, healthy, happy, and safe urban life.
This process is largely the result of the dismantling of urban planning that has taken place in Brazil in the last decades. Urban centers, which concentrate 85% of the Brazilian population and have huge social inequalities, do not have an efficient management system. Urban policies are fragmented and disconnected.
Propositions for addressing the issue
In this scenario, CAU/BR advocates the need to build a pact for the city, which is based on three fundamental pillars, which will be detailed in the lecture:
1) Larger scale: Metropolitan governance;
2) Scale of the city: the neighborhood, the street and the lot;
3) Constant assessment of planning goals in order to reorient and integrate urban policies.
Additional Reading Materials
http://www.caubr.gov.br/
http://www.caubr.gov.br/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/DPOBR_0058-11_2016.pdf
Conclusões preliminares do I Seminário de Política Urbana e Ambiental do CAU/BR
CPUA/CAU/BR participa do Seminário de Política Urbana na cidade de Macapá
