#curitibology

#curitibology

PREFACE: Spanning across borders, cultures, regimes, ideologies, prejudices, stereotypes, expectations, and disciplines, architecture becomes the utmost exploratory art – the art of living and the art of building.

Architecture captures current events in society, celebrates technological advances, and helps to resolve urban conflict one site at a time.

My education, experience, and interests span across the diverse geographies and cultures of the entire American continent recognizing exemplary precedents and unprecedented potential. While the most urbanized of any developing region, the Americas are still relatively undiscovered and will pose boundless design potential and planning problems through which architecture will be the mediator, once again reaffirming how it plays the role as the art of living and the art of building. Latin America’s development alone will change how the world sees architecture and urban design. And I want to be part of it.

The easiest way to help change the world is simply to change how one sees it. Architectural design can change how people perceive and interact within their world and in the world, helping to transform site into sight.

#curitibology by david polk

#brasil #flag #governorspalace #cloudy #curitiba #parana

#curitiba #urbanization #brasil #sunset #oi #panoramic #tower

INTRODUCTION: As a former architecture student at the University of Utah, I quickly began to realize the far-reaching effects of architecture and design at the beginning of my education. I have since begun my Master’s in Architecture at Virginia Tech’s Washington Alexandria Architecture Center with an emphasis on Urban Design in an attempt to branch out into a broader field and to grasp the complexities of how societies build. This photo journal marks my exploration as an architectural student not only of Curitiba, Brazil, but also the realm of Urban Ecology. Stephen Goldsmith’s rigorous course on Green Communities simply exposes the beauty in the natural and built environment and how the two can come together creating a poetic dialectic. His approach to urban ecology and the course appropriately investigates Curitiba’s progressive approach to sustainable urbanization.

My approach to the photo journal embraces bias, ignorance, and filters. Our complex societies across the globe have been dramatically altered by technology and social media. The sense of ownership and privacy have completely changed. My focus is how we perceive our environments through the filter of technology. Nowadays, we experience almost any given environment through technology. I argue that technology cannot ever replace any actual experience or travel, but has changed how we learn about a place. Used to, if I wanted to experience the Eiffel Tower, I would have to read about it or visit a museum that had paintings and drawings of it. Then as tourism and travel became more accessible, I could eventually travel to go see it in person. As technology advanced, I might even be able to adjust my camera to capture a moment. Then, cameras became so efficient and small that they merged with cellular technology into a singular device. The advanced technology of cameras in cell phones paired with the boom of social media has now permanently altered how we experience our natural and built environments. Google Images allows me to be immediately taken to remote parts of the planet to see detail only a few have ever actually experienced in person. Twitter, Facebook, and Instrgram have allowed me to share my experiences immediately with friends, family, and strangers and also take part in theirs.

We begin to forget the Eiffel Tower and begin to experience it through a screen in our hands. We miss out on the real thing because we want the next best selfie as the architecture becomes just another backdrop. Or we attempt to capture its beauty artistically by adding a filter, which makes the moment look 10 times better (or worse) than it actually was in reality. We are always connected. Sometimes, we even have to take specific trips to remote areas to consciously disconnect by force. We travel to great distances where technology has not quite reached to escape our technologically injected world. As pathetic as our method of experiencing place has become, it can be quite telling. Susan Sontag has referred to photography as the art of lying. The ubiquity of social media imaging is paradoxically the most deceptive and the most telling.

This book embraces the bias, ignorance, and filters that any given person might apply through technology and social media. This project has taken on an Instagram-like format. Through the forced square format and filters, I hope to poetically expose the layers of complexity that constitute the unique community of Curitiba. “A city has to be a mixture of functions, income levels, and age groups. The more you mix these elements, the more human, the safer, the healthier the city will be.�

- Jaime Lerner

#curitibology #layers #architecture #design #rhythm #apartments #spanishplaza #housing #highrise

Layer (n.) \ˈlÄ -É™r a. an amount of something that is spread over an area. b. a covering piece of material or a part that lies over or under another

#architecture #design #rhythm #shadow

#architecture #design #rhythm #relfection #oscarniemeyer

#city #powerlines #filter #layers #citylife #curitiba

#curitibology As we began our journey to explore and dissect the layers of the city, we coined the phrase “curitibology” as the designator of our purpose. curitiba + ecology = curitibology. While the concept of Urban Ecology was new to me, the term in itself designates the relation of layering. Layering of social influences. Layering of environmental influences. Layering of economic influences.

Language. Culture. Infrastructure. Collaboration. Rhythm. History. Character. Some layers are hidden. Some undiscovered. And some still mysterious and clandestine. Layers of conflict. War. Politics. Layers of problems and potential. Layers of people and nationalities. Spanish. Portuguese. Japanese. Polish. Italian. English.

German. The layers of contributing cultures creates a rich aggregate that give Curitiba unique strength and resilience. The product of layering creates a little something for everyone.

It attests to the complexity of urbanity. It actually attests to the complexity of humanity. It attests to complexity and its contrapositive. Complexity and Contra(diction/positive). Complexity and Complexity. Society is simply complex and is bound to stay that way. Even within the two weeks I spent there I experienced layers of human interaction. Layers of relationships. Strangers to friends. Friends to lovers. The overlapping of layers and super imposition of simultaneous layering creates elegiac variety.

The informality of Latin America generates an environment of candidness – more than just transparency.

Therein lies its beauty. It leaves everything exposed. It is not in the smooth skin but the open pores and wrinkles that shows strength and resilience and wisdom. Nothing to hide. The cards are on the table corruption and all.

#urbanframe #empty #history #layers

#pedestrianstreet #narrow #cobblestone

#abandoned #building #construction #shell

#blurredlines #architecture #nature #street

#architecture #design #rhythm #spiral #stairs

#architecture #design #rhythm #layers

“A great building must begin with the immeasurable, must go through measurable means when it is being designed, and in the end must be unmeasurable.�

- Louis I. Kahn

#governorspalace #sexy #spiral #stairs

#oscayniemeyer #eye #architecture #art

#art #culturalcenter #architecture

#urbanity #layers #figure #ground #city

#architecture#history#shell #potential#filter

#architecture #vs #nature #stories

#design #repurposed #adaptive #reuse

#city #figure #ground #layers #rhythm

#hotel #city #urbanism #revitalize

#telephone #poles #sustainable #design

#urbanevolution #shoe #graveyard #art #installation #decay #city #center #voice

#details #rebar #grate #drain #design

#powerlines #connected #informal

#bike #smile #propoganda #movement

#powerlines #disconnected #cutoff

#details #water #texture #character #story

#details #custom #wood #craft #carpentry

#nature #stairs #terrace #recycle #gogreen

#ARCHITECTURE The informality stems from a strong sense of community. Their community stems from a deep sense of ownership. Although the street-front might maintain a common street wall, each parcel is custom. Each is personalized. Each has evolved. Some have survived. Others simply stand as shells – as testaments and memories of what once was. But surprisingly, the majority of the city is occupied. The conglomeration and eclectic grouping of buildings shows progress layered throughout time. #DETAILS The architecture shows layers of vernacular. The layering effect is a product of natural evolution of the city.

And it’s seen through the details - custom details that were products of specific solutions.

The United States has lost that along the way somehow. Advancements in technology, widespread use of cheap, mass-produced materials, ubiquitous and codified construction methods, has all removed the true detail in architecture. Detailing is now far too expensive in the U.S. because it is no longer common. While in Curitiba, it’s not too hard to find a custom detail. And I mean more than a generally accepted vernacular.

Even our vernacular styles have become more an aesthetic and false. Architectural lies.

And it comes from the lack of distinct culture in the United States, especially when compared to the distinctly vibrant culture of Curitiba. Our individual architectural styles are often less expressive and suppressed by what the local deed restricts, the neighbors look up/down upon, and what is seen on HGTV or Dwell. This expression in not Curitiba’s doing. It’s the people’s doing. The city simply serves as the canvas backdrop by which the citizens transform informally and candidly.

#urbanlegend #famous #ruadeflores #tan #fakebake #really ?

#brasilbbq #meat #food #nomnomnom #ithinkiamgoingtodie #fire

#handbook #todayisaverygoodday #details #happy #shopping

#creeping #relfection #planning #conversating #groupie

#ruadeflores #lively #street #urban #activity #art #craft #festival

#ruadeflores #lively #street #urban #activity #art #craft #festival #protest #moms #babies #balloons

“The soul of a city – the strength that makes it breathe, exist, and progress – resides in each one of its citizens.”

- Jaime Lerner

#PEOPLE The layering of people, or interaction of people is one of the most significant contributions to the city. It is not an additive process or a simple direct relation, but much more than the sum of its parts, its impact exponentially immeasurable. Each person counts. Each person contributes. Architecture plays a role in bringing people together.

#ruadeflores #pedestrian #street #nocars #onlypeople #shopping

#plazaosorio #international #festival #arts #crafts #food #people #forest #plaza #city #curitiba

“What will differentiate the good city of the future will be its capacity to reconcile its citizens with nature.�

- Jaime Lerner

#payphone #callyourgirlfriend #robyn #itstimeyouhadthetalk #thisthinghasacover

#passeiopublico #park #people #life #sunny #day #itwassupposedtoraintoday #friends #cards

“The measure of any great civilization is its cities and a measure of a city’s greatness is to be found in the quality of its public spaces, its parks and squares.”

– John Ruskin

#favelas #astorres #figure #ground #mixed #layers #informal #vs #formal #different #people #same #city #curitiba

#pride #brasil #attitude #selfesteem #dignity #museum #favela

“Designing a dream city is easy. Rebuilding a living one takes imagination.�

- Jane Jacobs

#borders #boundaries #favelas #disconnect #gloomy

#favelas #resilience #power #community #figure #ground #samecity

#FAVELAS Layers of progressive reform, policy, activism, and service are reaching much further than can be seen or contained by borders and boundaries. The favelas of Curitiba benefit from and suffer from the same types of layering as any other part of the city. The only difference is the combination of those layers. Although looked down upon, the favelas didn’t have a weaker community, in fact, I felt as if their community was closer and stronger in their collective effort to survive and fight for more rights and safety for their neighborhood.

The favela As Torres showed strength in community through its rich culture and people: community center, library, enrichment groups, museum, community leaders etc. Typcial componets that you would expect to see in any integral community in the United States.

#passeiopublico #park #whatcanidohere ? #amIreallyinthecity ?

#alcalde #tree #forest #layers #environment #manandnature

#botanicalgradens #amIreallyinthecity ? #sunny #layers #breathe #architecture #nature #blurredlines #beautiful #sustainable

#NATURE #PARKS #PLAZA With nearly 17 square meters of green space and parks per inhabitant, the natural environment has always been a driving force behind the built environment. Policy makers and developers all sought to preserve these spaces but make them available for public use. The layering of respect and reserve juxtaposed with accessibility and occupation is paradoxical. Yet, the citizens take care of their parks. Even the forests of Curitiba are layered. The city consists of the Atlantic Rain Forest and the taller pines. The overlap of the two creates a visual layer of nature throughout the city.

Both nature and the city are in movement. Nothing is still. The relationship between the two is always being redefined. The city and nature are simply different species growing at different rates with different activities.

UNILIVRE is an environmental university that helps to educate educators about the environment and how to nurture and preserve it. The organization itself is part of an urban renewal project - but not renewing the built environment. It helps to heal an old mining site. It has cured the scar on the land to become a beautiful park. And it’s not the only one around the city.

I also admire Curitiba’s approach to nature. The local leaders understand the complexity of the city and the complexity of nature and the conjunction of the two. In all the talking about layering, their approach to the conjunction is their strongest suit. It’s about bringing it together. It’s about bringing people together. It’s about bringing resources together.

Curitiba early on understood the true interdependence of people and nature. It’s a personal relationship. It’s part of our natural identity. So each of us must take part in the way nature is incorporated in our cities. They took the “both and” approach, not “either or”.

The process of layering adds meaning. It adds meaning through commitment, through compromise, and contribution. The conjuncture of the parks is also a conjuncture of people. The architecture brings them together. El Paseo Publico, Praca Tiradentes, and A Rua de Flores all bring people together. It increases contact between people and provides opportunity to meet someone new as well as run into a old friend.

RECYCLING & TRASH The same concern for nature paired with an attitude of ownership and responsibility inspired one of the most efficient recycling programs in the world. Progressive design thinking on a business, political, economic and ecological level turned trash into jobs. It turned it into incentives. It turned it into new products. Literally Curitiba has transformed its trash into treasure.

#plazatiradentes#layers#showcase#history#sidewalk#reflection

#architecture #nature #growth #membrane

#park #pathlesstravelled #icantbelievethisisinthecity

#recycle #trashthatsnottrash #museum #trash #treasure

#unilivre #jungle #architecture #mine #repurpose #nature #park

#nature #architecture #jaimelerner #frame #layers

#recycle #trash #colors #separate #whichiswhichagain ?

#recycle #trash #sorting #busybees #somuchtrash #awe

#old #trainstation #thestation #shopping #adaptive #reuse #light #shadow #architecture #rhythm

“Vision is the art of seeing the invisible.�

- Jonathan Swift

#democratas #curitiba #brasilnights #samba #dancing #singing #front row #vip #wedontspeakportuguese #creeperseats

#concert #live #music #lights #fog #people #musichall

#municipal #market #food #fresh #ohsomanyoptions #cantdecide #iwantitall

#SHOPPING #ENTERTAINMENT #ARTS #CULTURE For being a city of more than 1.5 million inhabitants, I was impressed with the implementation and integration of their leisure activities; most of the venues that housed shopping centers, festivals, art shows, and entertainment were actually either shared spaces or repurposed spaces. Many of the festivals and markets overtook plazas at night or on the weekends. Artists occupied the sidewalks. Markets took old warehouses and activated them with busy commerce. Many of the bars and clubs inhabited repurposed spaces. Very few of the shopping centers were newly built structures specifically dedicated to shopping – much like the typical American shopping mall experience. Instead, commerce is pushed out onto the streets and the city full of activity and healthy hustle and bustle.

#ukranianplaza #brasiliannights #international #food #life #crowd

#saturdaymarket #huge #busy #crafts #art #food #sunny #curitiba

#market #birdseyeview #hostel #well #historicpass #curitiba

#art #history #public #mural #colors #curitiba #historicpass

#street #activity #morning #openingforbusiness #sidewalk #bar

#arts #crafts #festival #plazaosorio #curitiba #city #forest #green

“The voyage of discovery lies not in finding new landscapes, but in having new eyes.�

- Marcel Proust

#bus #publictransport #curitiba #crowded

#curitiba #URBS #BRT #tube #busstation #fast #perspective

#tubes #BRT #publictransport

#park #foottraffic #complexity #slowdown

#bus #publictransit #crowed #nomoreseats

#layers #handicapped #forgotten

#TRANSPORATION Curitiba has long been praised for its approach to transit through its Bus Rapid Transit system. And it is quite impressive. The south axis of the BRT alone carries 260,000 passengers a day (30,000 during peak hours) at 71 km/hr. The complex system layers different line types, buses and capacities to give variety to routes, times, and frequency of riders. Bus capacity ranges from 60 to 260 depending on the route. URBS development has now integrated their transportation system to include 28 cities in the metro area and 13 municipalities.

It also factors in the demographic layers of riders giving elderly, disabled persons, and students discounted fairs. As revolutionary and fore-ward thinking as it was when constructed, the system has now been pushed to its limits. In fact, URBS has focused too long on the BRT and neglected the mix and layering of alternative methods of transit. The bike has been forgotten. Sadly, the recent efforts that have been made are too little too late. The BRT has become oversaturated and is bursting at the seams. It’s more of a race. Everything moves so fast that management has lost sight and their efforts to speed things up have actually begun to decrease efficiency.

Through my experience with the BRT, I always felt overly rushed and a few steps behind. I never actually saw a clear map to help me know where to go. The efficiency of the system was useless and even intimidating to me at times because I didn’t know how to tap into it as a transport resource. As a simple, first step. I would implement better signage and maps at the stations for those whom are unfamiliar, especially tourists. As a designer I truly believe that good design doesn’t necessarily need signage, but there are cases in which signage cannot be replaced. The BRT is one of them.

While it is difficult to reprioritize the layering of transportation and to sculpt a living and developing city, transportation should be of utmost importance, or literally things will come to a halt.

#rollinghillsofcity #traffic #bus #zzzzzzz

#swerve #traffic #notgoinganywhere

#BRT #superfast #sofastitsscary #whereto ?

#madeit #curitiba #homesweethome

#layers #underground #parking #no #space

#cars #pause #rain #sofast #toomany

#curitiba #traffic #attention #signs #what ?

#relaxing #traffic #oknowimbored #cars

#traffic #roadrage #itsfunnyfromuphere #bus

“To achieve great results, two things are needed: a plan and not quite enough time.”

– Leonard Bernstein

#CARS As Curitiba has become more populated, there is no room for bikes and no room for cars. There is neither parking in the city nor sufficient infrastructure to support the current car growth. Curitiba has more cars per capita than any other city in Brazil. For the 1.7 million people in the metro area, there are 1.2 million cars.

Curitiba in a way is retracting the fame and effects it built for itself for its approach and implementation of the BRT system.

I feel like my experience in Curitiba differed a little from that of the other students attending the Green Communities Seminar. I arrived a day and a half earlier and stayed four days later. While traveling by my own accord, I actually had to use a car quite often. Upon my arrival I spent time with some family friends that are native to Curitiba. I went straight to their home from the airport via taxi. The traffic and road construction into the city of Curitiba was horrible. The congestion was atypical from what I expected especially for not even having entered the city yet. In what litte Portuguese/Spanish/English that we spoke, the taxi driver explained to me how taxi drivers and bus drivers had the worst jobs in the world. He detested being on the road in Curitiba.

Once I arrived at my host home I was warmly welcomed and treated like at home. Minha casa é sua casa.

After a quick meal and a rest. They wanted to show me around town – of course by car. As we zipped by the buildings speeding along side other automobiles on the traffic corridor, I got glimpses of the city in warp speed, except for the occasional traffic light that allowed me to soak in the details of the city. I didn’t mind the experience, as this is the experience of most American cities. We visited many shopping malls including the newly finished Patio Batel, and many of the city’s plazas. While discussing my upcoming program, I mentioned that we were going to study the transit system of Curitiba and, I was shocked by the driver’s response: “I hear the transit system is great here; but I have never stepped foot on a bus here.”

Taken back, that comment resonated with me during the course of my stay. While outsiders praise Curitiba for their transport, what do the insiders do and say? After spending a few days in Curitiba, I made a few friends with which I stayed with the last few days. Likewise I found the same thing occurring. The majority of our travel was done by car. If not in their personal car, by taxi. Day. Night. Near. Far. My experience travelling in the student group studying was skewed from the experience of the normal citizen of Curitiba.

With the recent growth of luxury car sales, the numbers only tell us that cars will become a bigger problem that must be dealt with immediately. It seems as if the automobile is slowly taking over the city again, except that it can’t. So the cars simply congest the city. Streets are not wide enough or fast enough. Parking garages are not large enough or frequent enough and therefore not cheap enough. Injecting more cars into Curitiba is like trying to hammer a screw. It might be possible, but it won’t be pretty. Cities are for people and not for

cars, as they should be. But this is not an engineering problem. It is a political problem, a business problem, and a design problem. It is about priorities and layers and the reallocation of space and program rather than reinventing the wheel.

I have to admit that when I first arrived in Curitiba, Brazil, I felt somewhat let down. After all of the hype, I was disappointed. But I misjudged. My prejudice, first impression changed as I discovered each new layer of the city, peeled it back and saw what it had to offer and how it related to the larger urban fabric. When I uncovered each new component of the city and its conjunctions I fell in love. Curitiba simply has a different way of looking at it problems, a different approach to its solutions. #COMPLEX & COMPLICATED Sometimes the solution to a complex problem is not complicated at all but fundamentally simple.

Understanding layers changes how we approach integration of the many components of a city. Is it tying in something new? Or simply making connections to that which already exists? Layering of ecological realms requires society to think holistically about what urbanism means. How do we define the conjuncture between Old and New? In and Out? Before and After? Public and Private? The richness of Curitiba’s culture lies in a deep understanding that complexity is not also complicated. They simply do. Just like Jaime Lerner has shown time and again. They do. That effort and initiative allows them to get astounding results.

“Behind every big transformation there is a small transformation. Simple elements that are easily implemented are the seeds of a more complex system in the future.”

- Jaime Lerner Resources: Lerner, Jaime. 2010. “Reviving Cities”. What We See. p. 184-191.

Jacobs, Jane. 2011. Death and Life of Great American Cities.

COHAPAR, 2013. Piraquara PAC Guartituba.

NCPC . Monumental Core Framework Plan IPPUC, 2013. IPPUC Presentation URBS, 2013. URBS Presentation