Transforming favelas into new neighborhoods

Introduction

The Metropolitan Region of the city of São Paulo, in southeastern Brazil, is a conurbated area, which has a population of 20.75 million inhabitants, of which 11.5 million live in the city of São Paulo, being among the 20 largest metropolitan regions of the world.

Many large metropolitan regions have in common immense challenges in providing their residents with material services such as housing, mobility, access to health and food, energy, waste management, green areas and other non-material services such as education, employment, aiming to increase the human development index, in addition to culture and public safety.

The challenges are heightened in the extensive areas occupied by precarious settlements, resulting from the city's unruly growth, especially since 1950, when the capital of São Paulo recorded high growth rates, with an annual increase of 5.58%.

Favelas, densely populated informal settlements characterized by precarious housing and poverty, are often located on land with steep slopes or on banks and even over watercourses, subjecting housing to landslides in the first situation and in the second, subjecting them to flooding and undermining, in addition to the contamination of these streams, rivers or lakes by sewage, resulting in health problems for residents caused by these conditions, in addition to the frequency of fires occurring in these agglomerations due to the proximity of housing, precarious materials with that are built (pieces of wood, cardboard, improvised and illegal electrical wiring).

In this sense, the Master Plan of the City of Sao Paulo defines the Special Zones of Social Interest (ZEIS) which are portions of the territory destined, predominantly, to decent housing for the low-income population through urban improvements, environmental recovery and regularization land ownership of precarious and irregular settlements, as well as the provision of new Social Interest Housing - HIS and Popular Market Housing - HMP. To this end, the city of São Paulo has an Information System that provides complete and updated information on the urban, environmental and social conditions of each of the city's precarious settlements.

The transformation of favelas into neighborhoods integrated into the city is an initiative of the Housing Secretariat of the City of São Paulo, which incorporates these aspects of integration and social improvement of these communities, exemplified below by the case of the urbanization of the Vila Nilo favela.

The Transformation of favelas into neighborhoods – The case of Vila Nilo Favela

The Vila Nilo favela emerged at the beginning of the 90s, spontaneously, without planning and without infrastructure, in the North Zone of the city of Sao Paulo, 546 households were registered, 55 of which were located in a risk area.

The urbanization project, initiated by intense social work with the community, was based on the following assumptions: removal of houses located in situations of geotechnical risk or on streams, rivers and drainage ditches; removal in areas with legal restrictions; guarantee of accessibility to all remaining residents; implementation of basic infrastructure; creation of spaces for collective use; implementation of new green areas and construction of new housing units for families removed from risk situations.

Among the social actions, there is the Environmental Awareness Action, enabling the population to care for and preserve the new green areas and squares implemented as part of the urban project.

The urban requalification of the entire territory was fundamental: the canalization of the drainage ditch, the composition of a road structure within the land interconnected to the network that circumscribes it, enabling vehicle traffic and garbage collection, the implementation of networks of water, sewage and electricity, the paving of streets and alleys with interlocking concrete blocks with a central drainage channel, and the integration of the favela with a vertical housing complex (5 floors) existing on the southern border of the favela.

Also parallel to the highway, a deceleration lane was built with ecological asphalt, providing new access to the neighborhood, eliminating the risks of accidents and being run over that were recurrent among residents of the area.

In addition, new urban equipment was implemented in the area, including a community center, squares, recycling center, leisure and sports areas. These facilities enabled its inhabitants to create a new relationship with the urbanized space.

Transforming favelas into new neighborhoods

Introduction

Sociospacial Inequality

The Transformation of favelas into neighborhoods – The case of Vila Nilo Favela

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