Space Management : Favelas of Brazil, and Slums of India
In partial fulfilment for the requirements of the award of the degree of
Bachelor of Design
PSD
Under the guidance of Ishita Shah
By
Gauri Kulkarni
Srishti Institute of Art, Design and Technology
23rd October, 2018
Introduction
Many countries in this world are developing and heading towards the status of ‘Developed’. How do we determine what is developed and what is not? We live in a country where 104 million people are currently residing in slums. South Africa, Pakistan, Brazil Mexico are a few other countries facing similar issues. These 104 million people need to be made a part of the development process. That is the only way forward. These settlements are inhabited by people who have an income below the poverty line. Mainly they comprise of
immigrants, refugees, and bandits.
I grew up in Pune a city which is truly a blend of the modern and the traditional. We do have India’s largest golf course. There is also Shaniwar Wada which is of a great historical importance. It is still a major attraction for tourists. Our country is dealing with a mass population crisis and housing issues in urban areas. A small section of the people lives a luxurious lifestyle and the vast majority still struggles for basic amenities such as food,
clothing, and shelter. We have smart cities coming up, our airports are now of international standards yet we lack a consistent plan for affordable urban housing. Different cities have different names for slum colonies such as ‘Chawls’,’Zhopad pattis’,’bastis’,’ilaka’ and it goes on. These are temporary hutments occupied by the migrant workers. And the municipalities consider them illegal so they often get demolished. People can’t afford even a
small permanent house with basic amenities such as running water, sanitation, and electricity. These ‘Bastis’ however have evolved over the last fifty years. There are slum lords who sell water, electricity and the system keeps on moving. It’s a world which appears incomprehensible from the outside but it’s become a tiny comfortable microcosm on the inside. The police, the corporation is bribed at regular intervals and ‘life goes on’ I was working in Brazil for three months and I did have an opportunity to see the ‘favelas’. Suddenly I was able to understand the similarities between the housing patterns of the urban poor in both countries. I will be addressing and determining the similar connections between our systems, and lifestyles. I also hope to come up with solutions to improve the lifestyle for these residents.
What are ‘Chawls’?
India is a largely recognised country, amongst the fastest economy and creating histories for Numerous metropolitan urban areas (e. G. Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore,Hyderabad, Delhi Also Chennai). Since last two decades, relocation from towns; furthermore little towns will metropolitan regions need to be expanded enormously for India. This prompts the debasement of urban Ecological nature and also maintainable advancement particularly in the metropolitan urban communities.
The problems faced by the people living in the urban areas of India have become major concerns for the government. Slums are considered to be the major issue within many urban areas; particularly problems related to transportation, population, health and safety. Slums have risen dramatically since 1947. There were main two reasons for slum development.
One is Partition of India and the other is Industrial revolution .Before 1950 slums were predominantly found around the mills, factories etc. They were mostly industrial employees in one area tenements. Health and Services provisions to these areas rose as main issues.Instead of going farther, the density of the slums started growing in and around the cities. From 1950 to1968 the number of slums enlarged to eighteen, in the 1970s that they had an enormous surge and by 1980 slum dwellers were
1/2 the complete city's population.The National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), India, a slum as a “Compact settlement with a collection of poorly built tenements, mostly of temporary nature, crowded together usually
with inadequate sanitary and drinking water facilities in unhygienic conditions” (NSSO 2003 Pg 6).Also, there are two kinds of slums: notified and non-notified. 2
What are the Favelas?
Latin American countries such as Brazil also has a fair number of people living in Favelas. Cities like Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte have large number of Favelas in most of the city corners. Rio has long lured visitors to its splashy seaside resorts and colourful communities, from
Copacabana to Ipanema. These two beaches rests at the base of few famous favelas. Initially the term ‘favela’ came from the thorny, bushy plant which grew on northeast region on the hills of Rio. Mount favela is also mentioned in this book written by Euclides da Cunha (Brazil’s Civil War of 1897) , who described during the civil war, Soldiers had camped on a hill where this thorny
favela plant grew, and made temporary housing out of make shift materials.
When some of the soldiers returned to Rio, they settled into forested hillsides that ringed the city, waiting to be granted land they were promised by their government. Their living conditions were temporary and gave a reminder of the ‘favela’ hills. The term ‘favela’ got stuck to it alongside. There are unspoken rules of how to construct houses in a Favela. The people in favela have two main problems, lack of space to build more houses and the money that will be needed to build these houses. Interesting facts about the Favelas is that the houses are developed by the owner himself over the period of time. A house is built over the following generations in a Favela, which makes it affordable for the favela residents. ‘Constructing a roof with tiles is not a sign
of wealth here — rather, it means that there’s not enough money to continue constructing the house’, explains Manoe Ruhe, a Dutch urban planner who has lived in the favela for the last six months.3
This research shows that Favelas are no more a housing problem, rather its the solution for crushed spaces like slums and Favelas. Since past 10 years, favelas like - Vidigal, Rocinha, Paraisopolis ,Primavera and Santa Marta have been evaluated on the structural improvements and have been initiated in the past 10 years. As a result these favelas are have evolved into stable communities rather than being makeshift communities.4 Why is its important to discuss the patterns between slums in India and Favelas of Brazil?
Favelas, slums, shanty-towns all are the result of mass population explosion in our countries, from rural to urban, from town to cities, from villages to big cities, Its a need of living right now. People migrating in metropolitan cities have grow exponentially as the demand for IT and Silicon valleys continue to grow. When these people migrating, the space requirements for the city space also starts gets in a higher demand, due to which migrants find themselves out of resources and houses, or even to find jobs.
Mumbai is India’s largest city. It is 11th on the 2012 population estimation with the numerical of 20.5 million. According to a New York Times article from 2011, about 60% of that number have seBled in the makeshift dwellings that now occupy lucraCve land for Mumbai's developers.5 Aer a thorough research online, I found some really good arCcles and events. I came across an event Conducted from the Sir JJ College of Architecture, from Mumbai. Government sent a few of these students to Sao Paulo, Brazil to study the Favela -Paraisòpolis. The Outcome was a extremely successful Urbanists believe that it is better to de 6 velop and add effective housing conditions to a slum rather than destroy it completely. Proposing housing solutions in the Favelas of Brasil can be an attempt on reorganising the Favela and the living conditions. It is possible to come up with solutions through understanding the day to day lives and experiences of living in a Favela. It can be
possible to come up with solutions for housing policy based on these communities. Instead of trying to make the conditions better and imposing notch solutions which fail later on because of the lack in understanding the issue it self. Providing technical help, building materials and loans to favela communities : a few challenges that are encountered by the
locals is the challenge of transporting building materials up from the steep slopes of favelas.
a) Lack of technical expertise : People in favela lack the knowledge of the right building
measures and technical aspects needed to build a concrete housing, because of which a lot
of residents build the same house multiple times due to lacking of an foundation.
b) Learning from High effective high participation programs such as ‘Minha Casa Minha Vida’ : The new housing policies should specify the guranteed mechanism and extensive population, inspired from the self build housing projects that associate with Minha Casa Minha Vida entidades program, it contributes to up to date examples in Rio of full citizen
control over the planning process. Discussing the building patterns of the houses in Favela and looking at a few plans In the 1980s and early 1990s, public policy shifted from wipeout to preservation and upgrading of the favelas. The "Favela-Bairro" program, launched in 1993, wanted to enhance
living standards for the favelados (Pamuk and Cavallieri 1998). The program provided basic sanitation services and social services, connected favelas to the formal urban community through a series of street connections and public areas and legalised legal right (Pamuk and Cavallieri 1998).
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It is observed and is quite common within the boundaries of favela, the families try to hire out the floors to their extended families or relatives, this keeps the housing property within the family which proves as a boon for the favela inhabitants . Homes facing the front of the street often use the bottom floor for industrial income. The building materials used for these houses should meet 3 major criteria: low price, lightweight (enough to be carried on men's room backs), and tiny enough to fit through the thin streets of the favela. As a result, all the house areas are designed accordingly; concrete
pillars area unit used for the structure; floors area unit made up of floor beams and slabs; and also the roof is sort of continuously sheet metal.
Some families build it by hiring craftsmen, particularly for the additional technical tasks
- like casting slabs or putting a flat solid roof. However several have built their own homes
with the assistance of friends at World Health Organisation where they lend a hand on the
weekends. typically they conjointly barter —Eg: Eduardo purchased the tiles for the facade
of a friend’s house in exchange for windows, that his friend can install.
And whereas there aren't any official rules of construction, there's a law of mutualrespect.
Initiatives taken by the countries to Address the challenges by Slums and Favelas India, Brazil and South Africa have actively taken steps in addressing the challenges upraised by urbanism. In early 2012 a virtual debate took place discussing the series on financing slum upgrading throughout these countries. All these three countries face common patterns which need measures taken , some problems are such as development
patterns, economic patterns, social and political challenges and geographical topographic spaces. Whilst Brazil is a greatly urbanised country. It still has 44 million people living in make shift houses and temporary utilities. But since brazil has been approaching and addressing to the issues of favela since a considerate period of time, therefore it can share many lessons of what worked well with favelas and what didn’t. Brazil as a country is still
struggling with the extreme inequality between the higher and lower classes.
India is one of the fastest economy with rapid growth in urbanisation, with a
competitive urban population, although the urban development level is lower than average. Facing a lot of challenges in the government sector and the framework on service levels in the bigger cities, it has successfully formulated groundbreaking Urbanising policies in the last few years. But still leaves 93 million people living in the slums like Dharavi. Assumption is that the number of people living in slums will probably increase by 2 times by 2040.
Addressing the Challenge
“ Brazil : Investments from PAC-Favela for upgrading slums totals to $11.5 billion in 2007-2010. The governments ‘Minha casa Minha vida’, or ‘My house, My life’ program built 1 million new houses between 2009 and 2010. The government plans to invest about $64 billion in housing and slum upgrading , targeting the construction of 2 million new houses, 60% of which will be low-income families India : the government is embarking on phase 2 of a major national initiative to improve urban living conditions. It seeks to consolidate the impacts of the national urban flagship program – JNNURM targeting urban poverty, infrastructure, and local government
policies, and has recently announced a new national flagship program - “Rajiv Awas Yojana” or RAY for the Urban Poor. RAY aims at supporting states to provide security of tenure to slum dwellers, and finance city-wide slum free strategies.
Concluding Statement
Coming to a better understanding on how life sustains in these poverty areas around the world. What changes do they go through while doing so, and how can new changes make a difference in the development of the countries keeping the public as our subject. Studies indicate that a Favela and Slum shares a lot of similar characteristics with regards to the space management, resources, political issues etc. Collaborating and implementing the Favela ways of ‘developing by own’ may give the makeshift communities
of Mumbai a stable housing options and can be successful converting it into the Stable communities. Adapting to the needs of the space and adjusting for the resources can be managed under the right design solutions, whereas community information exchange can be a primary medium of developing our counties too. Alongside, the living conditions and right to facilities can also be implemented for better water, hygiene, sanitation and overall health of the slums, as poverty tourism is starting to get into the trend now. Poverty tourism, if carried in the right way and with experts who are locals as well, can benefit the residents of a favela and slums. “ As the urbanists from India say ‘ Construction workers and slum dwellers will teach planners, architects and politicians some of their techniques. We want to reverse the traditional hierarchy of public authority and show that we have things to learn as
professionals,’ said the director of Urban.” This year, t 9 he Indian organisation took students from the prestigious college Sir JJ College of Architecture, from Mumbai, to Brazil, where they spent time observing the techniques developed by masons in Brazilian favelas. The exhibition was held on 9th April 2012, after this collaboration, the barriers between the
shanty towns like favelas and space crumbled slums do have a lot in common, and together if the problems are solved one at a time, there is a hope to see a much better view in Favelas and Slums encouraging the countries to join hands and also develop as a whole, for a better
future and solve the challenges by creating a better urban space for living.
9Ali Milans, “Urbanists from India Want to Import ‘brazilian Way’ to the Slums of Mumbai,”
Annotated Bibliography
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2)Brazilian Favela and Indian Slums: PROGRAMMES AND GOVERNMENT
INTERVENTIONSQueens
University Belfast. “Brazilian Favelas and Indian Slums: a Comparative Perspective
On Programmes and Government Interventions.” July 05, 2016. https://pure.qub.ac.uk/portal/
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3)Dharavi vs. Rocinha -
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6)A critical analysis of slum tours:
Comparing the existing offer in South Africa, Brazil, India and Kenya
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8)Why We Should Call them Favelas
Catcomm. “Why We Should Call Them Favelas.” May 19, 2015. http://catcomm.org/callthem-
favelas/.
9)What Is a Favela? Five Things to Know About Rio's So-Called Shantytowns
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11)Poverty Tourism: Exploring the Slums of India, Brazil and South Africa
Kendle, Amanda. “Poverty Tourism: Exploring the Slums of India, Brazil and South Africa.”
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Videos
Inside Rio’s Favelas, the City's Neglected Neighborhoods
Ezra Klien. “Inside Rio’s Favelas, the City's Neglected Neighborhoods.” Sermon, Vidigal
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Wild Rio
Documentary, Free. “Wild Rio.” Sermon, Rio De Janeiro, Rio de Janiero, 01 August 2016.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niMiR4qSY5Y&frags=pl%2Cwn.
Slum Tourism in Mumbai and Rio de Janeiro.
English, DW. “Slum Tourism in Mumbai and Rio de Janeiro.” Sermon, Mumbai, Rio De
Janeiro, Maharashtra, Rio de Janeiro, May 18, 2015. https://www.youtube.com/watch?
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Favela Wars: Life in Brazil's Urban Killzone.
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Paulo, March 08,2012. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqO3qCgyFJ0.
Images -
Image 1
Source - Dharavi Vs Rochina Gambin, Angel. "Dharavi vs. Rocinha." Digital image. ISSU.
September 24, 2016. Accessed October 23, 2018. https://issuu.com/angelgambin/docs/
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Images 2-8 (Favela Space Management)
Source - “Case Study: The Unspoken Rules of Favela Construction." Digital image. Arch
Daily. August 3, 2014. Accessed October 23, 2018. https://www.archdaily.com/531253/casestudy-
the-unspoken-rules-of-favela-construction.
