Creative Curitiba - the urban design of Curitiba, Brazil

Architectural Review, The, May, 1999 by Lucien Kroll

Run-down quarters

Rehabilitation of the run-down areas started by adding the public services which they lacked, paving the streets and in particular working with the communities adjoining the favelas or shacks; their opinion was requested on all the projects. It was found that in shaky economics, shanty towns are a possible response to the immense influx of people without resources. It is surely better to improve them rather than to ignore or demolish them. Often, furthermore, the new constructions proposed in place of slums are violently rejected by the inhabitants. We must admit that our distaste for this approach is not economic but cultural. Town planning based on rational considerations alone is completely unsympathetic, in contrast to planning which originates in popular instincts regarding space and the urban image. This is a fundamental criticism, based on experience, of the alienation of Modernism. Which is the more reasonable approach?

Since lorries on the road system cannot reach the paths in the favelas, the slum dwellers are 'paid' for their rubbish, ie they sort the rubbish from the town and are repaid with vegetables, fruit, bus tickets and so on (green exchange). This is much less expensive than hunting for inaccessible clandestine waste dumps in the favelas. None of this, of course, is very visible.

Most Brazilian politicians begin their career as fabulous celebrities and end up barricaded behind the doors of their mansions, in fear of violence, the press or their rivals. Lerner walks peacefully in his town; he says the only people who ask him to stop are autograph-hunters.

Take the bus

Towns with roaring traffic but no budget should, Lerner advises, quickly forget luxury underground stations. He prefers to bring back the tram, which had been discontinued almost everywhere, and refurbish the bus. 'If properly laid out, a bus system can be almost as efficient as an underground railway' he says. It is also much less expensive: about a million dollars a kilometre for buses, 10 million dollars a kilometre for trams, and 100 million for an underground. Integrated transport is the crowning success of Curitiba, which any other town could imitate immediately - ie harmonizing the various routes and the various mass transport vehicles. For about 20 US cents, a passenger can change to any bus (express or local) and reach practically any place in the town. 'The trick in changeover is to integrate the various forms of transport, from buses to boats, to the underground and the bicycle' says Lerner.

On their own ground, buses are regular and fast, with express routes and a good network of ring-roads in the suburbs. Things are going so well that when I was there, taxis were complaining of having no work (why spend so much if the bus is so efficient?) Stations in the form of tubular shelters have been set up at the bus stops. Travellers have already punched their tickets when they pour into the bus through wide sliding doors, and at the same time others leave on a level with the street, as in an underground railway. This speeds up the process (30 seconds instead of a few minutes). The widened bus doors are exactly adjusted to the doors of the stop.