Expansão do espaço urbano no Rio de Janeiro

Resumo

The author begins this study with a brief survey of the evolution of the Rio de Janeiro townscape. The author begins this study with a brief survey of the evolution of the Rio de Janeiro townscape. The following chapter deals with an analysis of the way in which the urban setting has been contrived as a result of adaptation to the various features of the natural environment. In this analysis, the author shows how hills, valleys, marshes, mangrove swamps and mountains have been conquered to allow an increase in the built-up area which has generally been obtained by reclamation, drainage, dredging rivers and cutting tunnels, dumping fill in hollows and leveling elevations. In the next chapter, a study is made of the various forms of growth which have given Rio de Janeiro the irregular outline that characterizes the city as it is today. There are few cases in which greater uniformity has been secured to the townscape by subdividing the land into building lots, notwithstanding the absence of an overall plan. The urban development was at first haphazard, but the final result is a compact structure, with gaps only in the areas where the natural conditions have prevented or hampered occupation. The third part of this work examines recent expansion in the urban center of Rio de Janeiro and adjoining quarters, Which has gone forward not only by filling up the areas that had hitherto remained vacant, e. g. the hilly regions and marshy lowlands, but also by an increase in the number of storeys where land values stand at a premium in view of the fact that the proximity of the mountains stands in the way of further building on the level. The last chapter reviews the expansion that has spread of late to the suburban zone of the city corresponding to the whole vast residential and industrial area that began to stretch outwards from the railway lines at the end of the last century. Here two forms of growth are to be distinguished: first the filling of the empty spaces in the nearby suburbs, known as suburban quarters, and later the progress of urbanization on the outskirts of the built-up area, and the merging of what were once isolated housing areas. The highways, which at first played only a minor role in the development of the urban area, are nowadays an important factor in the expansion of the city of Rio de Janeiro. The author goes on to show that, in spite of the recency of suburban expansion it has proceeded along different lines from that of the more central quarters of town, and the extension of the outskirts differs from either of the foregoing.