because we have to take the internet everywhere, to the periphery and
to the center, to the middle class districts to universities and poor
neighborhoods also because of the necessity of exchanging ideas
between center and periphery. what you are going to do? isolate the
periphery? with an understand inclusion is one thing that is given to
all social sectors at the same time. (...) the inclusion has to have
this meaning, of contemporarity, concomitance, a new richness that is
going to be distributed at the same time, a symbolism, besided the
In this text urban researcher Prof. Dr. Maria da Silveira Lobo compiles some of the key facts about Megacity formation in Brasil, and reflects on event architecture and the spectacularisation of the City as well as on the role of NGOs. In November 2007 Ina Zwerger and Armin Medosch went to interview Maria for the forthcoming radio programme Brazil: Laboratory of the Future. Maria was so friendly to compile this text as a primer for our research. We thought that this text is an excellent resource, which should be made available to the public online.
Why whirlwind? 'Whirl', because we have been criss-crossing the country by plane, using the Brazil Pass, a special offer for visitors from abroad who want to visit different cities during a set period of time. But why 'wind', that is another question. Maybe it has to do with the air, that warm tropical air which received us in Rio de Janeiro with a variety of smells, from sweet flowers and other plant smells to the stench of open sewers in the Favela; wind, also because of the frequent tropical thunderstorms which we have encountered; and wind also because of ...
The Museum of Art in Pampulha, by Oscar Niemeyer. The national Brasilian architect was comissioned by Juscelino Kubitschek, then Mayor of Belo Horizonte, to build this and a few other buildings around an artificial lake where a new high quality suburb was created. At that point in time, what characterized Niemeyer compared to other modern architects, was the use of curves. The building works beautifully with the garden architecture of Max Burle.
