Santander Student Project by Freddy Hedberg

SANTANDER STUDENT PROJECT

ABSTRACT Music is found in every culture around the world and can be found in public open spaces in many cities. This project will explore sensory experiences in Brazilian culture in the form of music in urban areas and will attempt to answer the following question: How music is expressed in public open spaces in the Brazilian cities of Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba, Porto Alegre and Pelotas? There was a large variety of music being present in open spaces in each city, but for this project they have been narrowed down to five. The five chosen examples show a variety in the methods of bringing music into urban areas. The first is a small speaker in a crowded market hanging on an electric pole; the second is a group of entertainers in a square; the third shows the use of a piano in a busy covered market; the fourth is the use of open space for a samba band; and the fifth is the use of speakers in the front of shops. With these findings, we can relate them back to how music is present in Brazilian culture and how it brings people together. This interaction between people in open spaces creates either a direct or indirect sensory experience through musical entertainment. Henceforth, these examples were compared with cases generally found in Europe. The result from comparing the Brazilian and European ways of cultural expression is that they are pretty much similar as they both try and increase the interest of passersby as well as creating a positive sensory experience. But it has been seen that Brazilian crowds usually participate more than European crowds in performances by entertainers. There is also a greater chance of hearing music being played in Brazilian markets compared to the ones in Europe. The last outcome of this comparison was that there is a flexibility and more relaxed attitude towards where performers were allowed to be located.

CONTENTS PAGE Abstract

Contents Page

Introduction

Part 1: The B.U.D.S. Experience

About The Brazil Urban Design Study

Financing

Lessons

Part 2: The Project

The Student Project

Findings

Analysis

Conclusion

INTRODUCTION The Brazil Urban Design Study (referred to as B.U.D.S.) is a project in which a group of students travelled to Brazil to work with the University of Pelotas. By working with students from Brazil on urban design, a connection was created from Oxford to Pelotas. This is the second time the study has been performed as it only runs every two years. The Oxford Brookes students had to organise the trip by themselves and raise enough money to help pay for flights and accommodation. Thanks to sponsorship from Santander, the B.U.D.S. team were able to visit Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba, Porto Alegre and Pelotas. On the sidelines of our urban design study with the university, we each had to work on our own individual project for Santander. In this report, the Santander project will explore sensory experiences that are found in Brazilian culture in the form of music in urban areas. The research question for this project is to investigate how music is expressed in public open spaces in the Brazilian cities we visited. The aim of the project is to see if there are any similarities and/or differences between Brazilian and European ways of having music performed in open spaces as well as investigating how the design of open spaces support cultural expression such as music. The report will be split into two parts; the first of which will talk about the B.U.D.S. experience which will explain the urban design study in greater detail as well as the financing aspect and, in addition, some of the things the group learned from this experience. The second part will be the Santander project in which there will be a brief introduction of the project, followed by the findings, an analysis and a conclusion that will sum up what has been learnt from the project.

PART 1

THE B.U.D.S.EXPERIENCE

ABOUT THE BRAZIL URBAN DESIGN STUDY The Brazil Urban Design Study (B.U.D.S.) is a study formed with a group of students from the Town Planning Department at Oxford Brookes University, the goal was to travel to Brazil in order to experience and learn how the planning system is similar and yet also different to the one we are familiar with in the UK. This year (2015), the B.U.D.S. team was formed of nine students from Oxford Brookes University from various academic years; some were second and third year undergraduates, some were postgraduates, and some were PhD students. The fact that this was such a diverse group in terms of age, ethnic background and the level of study at the University increased the positive experience of B.U.D.S. as each member of the team contributed to each others learning during the study. This trip required us to be very proactive and to learn how to be flexible. We started planning months in advanced before the due date; we had to decide our itinerary within Brazil in order to establish what we wanted to see, experience and learn from the country’s various cities. We decided that our first port-of-call would be Rio de Janeiro. From there, we would move onto Curitiba, and then to Porto Alegre, to finally arrive in Pelotas. Our general south bound route enable us to spend a couple of days in each city so that we could see various sites and talk to many Brazilian planning departments/authorities. These included AECOM in Rio de Janeiro, Institute of Research and Urban Planning of Curitiba (IPPUC) & Urbanização de Curitiba S. A. (URBS) in Curitiba, and finally Prefeitura Municipal de Pelotas in Pelotas. They provided the team with a vast amount of insight to the planning system in Brazil as well as the various challenges they come across (these being either physical, social or political obstacles). The experience of this study was a phenomenal one. The team was abroad for sixteen days in which they were surrounded by the Brazilian culture and lifestyle. None of us (except our lecturer) had ever visited Brazil, so we experienced a whole different culture to the one we are used to. We all felt there was a huge difference seeing wonders such as Christ the Redeemer in real life than viewing a picture of it on the internet. That was one of the key aspects of the experience: how our five senses responded to what was around us. We saw things we had never seen before, we smelt and tasted all kinds of new food and drinks and we experienced the vitality of each city from conversations in Portuguese to music playing in a covered marketplace. It was a very different environment to what the team was use to back in the UK. Sharing this new discovery of the Brazilian culture was beyond comparison, and that’s what made B.U.D.S. such an experience.

FINANCING As a group we managed to finance ourselves with the help of others. Thanks to Santander, we managed to receive a sum of money to put towards the trip as each member who applied had to also do an independent study alongside B.U.D.S. We also received another sum of money from Alumini which we added to our collective account. We also managed to hold a successful cake sale at the University to raise more funds for the trip. We had different cakes from different nationalities ranging from matcha tiramisu to banana loaves. For future reference to any B.U.D.S. members, do more than one cake sale as it is a very good way of raising money. Thank you to everyone who contributed to help fund this study. Through this funding we were able to see and experience many things. We managed to go to one of Rio de Janeiro’s favela called Rocinha in which we had a tour. As planners, we were able to find sense in Rocinha’s chaos of streets and housing. Some of us even had the opportunity to play a couple of games of football with the children living in the favela. That was truly an unforgettable experience as we were able to play a worldwide game with a group of children even though we did not know how to communicate in Portuguese. That moment was probably one of my personal highlights of the trip. As mentioned in the previous section, we had the opportunity to go to a couple of planning related talks in three cities. We were able to receive a deep understanding and insight into how the planning system in Brazil works as well as seeing how it varies form city to city.

This funding also helped us to spend an interesting week in Pelotas, in which we worked with local students at Universidade Federal de Pelotas (UFPel). During the workshops, the most important message learnt as future town planners was that whenever working on a project outside your home country there will be challenges and culture barriers which one cannot foresee when studying/preparing the case back home. Thanks to the funding by our sponsors, we were able to learn and experience a spectrum of various urban design qualities as well as cultural attitudes towards the cities we live in.

LESSONS The team learned many lessons during this study. From small ones such as how to say thank you in Portuguese (obrigado/a), that most dogs in Brazil are strays, Brazilian people are so incredibly nice, that coconut water is the best form of hydration and is found everywhere, and to hold on to something when entering any form of bus transportation. To bigger and more skill based ones such as learning what the saying â&#x20AC;&#x153;patience is virtueâ&#x20AC;? means when working in a group, to always being flexible when it comes to travelling, and to understanding and adapting to another culture which one is not familiar with. Coming back from Brazil has improved and matured every team member in terms of being a planner and in terms of how we see the world. The main lesson that was the centre of focus on this trip was working with other people from another country. The B.U.D.S. members divided up to form four groups in which both Brazilian and UK students would work on a study area in Pelotas to create something called design codes. These are detailed regulations for houses, plot and block sizes, street widths and so on. Every group member had different opinions, ideas and skills that would help illustrate what the final design codes would look like. On the final day of the workshop, each group presented their design codes for the case study area; the results were very interesting as most groups approached the task in a similar way. The ideas were both different and also similar in different areas depending on how detailed one would look; but the general feel and themes of the area were the same. The UK team learnt a lot from this workshop in terms of how to work with a group in a different country and deliver a final product at acceptable standards, as well as seeing how a different countryâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s culture impacts the urban design qualities the Brazilian students wanted in their design codes. Three team members (including myself) used the workshop results for one of our module assignments. They played a big part in showing how creating a set of design codes in the UK and then applying them in a different country (Brazil) can be quite challenging. We set up a website to show our project/assignment through the use of the online software Wix, which has now become the official website for the Brazil Urban Design Study. It can be seen at the following link: http://fredrickhedberg.wix.com/buds-website

PART 2

THE PROJECT

THE STUDENT PROJECT Most B.U.D.S. members had to carry out a side project whilst on the trip for Santander. We all applied as a group but we still had to carry out our own individual projects throughout the duration of the trip. Each applicant had to submit a rationale for the proposed project to Santander and then had to carry it out whilst doing the urban design study. In my case, my topic of research for the Santander project is to explore sensory experiences which are found in Brazilian culture in the form of music in urban areas. The term ‘sensory experiences’ in urban design refers to any sensations relating to our physical senses (sight, sound, taste, smell and touch) to an urban environment. For example, if one is located in an open public market one would experience the sight of the stalls, the smell of any food on display or being cooked, and the sound of people talking. The other two senses depend on the activity one is doing in the market. Nevertheless, these sensory experiences can give a person a positive or a negative attitude towards the market they are visiting. Thus, this is what is of interest to this project, how the use of open spaces in Brazil’s urban areas can generate a sensory experience through sound with the use of music. In order to investigate Brazil’s sensory experiences, I will first look at the findings found on the trip which are five examples of musical presence in open spaces in the four cities of Rio de Janeiro, Curitiba, Porto Alegre and Pelotas. After the findings, I will discuss what they mean to the Brazilian culture as well as seeing if there are any comparisons or differences between European forms of musical sensory experiences. The conclusion will discuss how can the design of open spaces support cultural expression such as music.

FINDINGS There were countless examples of music being played in open spaces in the cities we visited, but here are five which stood out the most. The first was found at the beginning of the trip on 28 March 2015 in Rio de Janeiro when the team took a tour in one of Brazil’s most famous favelas, Rocinha. In this favela, houses were stacked upon each other and people were going on with their daily lives through this labyrinth of passageways. In this chaotic urban environment there was some sense in it such as having main roads going through the favela as access routes going in and out; or having one address (usually a shop) for numerous residents mail to be delivered. It was very interesting seeing how people lived in such a densely populated area. At one point we managed to get to a small open market in the midst of all the self-made buildings. It was busy with people selling and buying goods, but above the noises of the people one could here music. The music came from a small speaker on a wire post looking over the area. This speaker gave the small market a lively atmosphere to the people trading in the open space. What is quite interesting about this example is that there wasn’t really any space in the area to set up bigger speakers or any room for performers, but they managed to find a small place which takes up hardly any space at all to give people entering the urban area a sensory experience. This made passersby more interested in staying and looking at what was for sale, generally, they were in a positive mood. The second example of a sensory experience using music was discovered when we arrived in Curitiba on 1 April 2015. The city of Curitiba is renowned for its strategic and well functioning public transportation. On our way to Urbanização de Curitiba S. A. (URBS) we passed a big square in the city where school children were gathered around seven street performers. These performers engaged with the crowd by playing a game of tag, hopscotch and skipping rope. They used stilts to further demonstrate their acrobatics; and by using instruments they were able to create music in which the performers and the school children would join in singing. The street performers managed to create a sensory experience in this open space through the use of the crowd and their instruments. The reason for why they created music in an open space was for entertainment purposes which, in turn, made people passing by interested in what was going on. With people gathering around and observing, the square became a leisure activity for people in an urban environment.

By 2 April 2015, the B.U.D.S. team was busy discovering the city of Porto Alegre. We were walking down Praça Pereira Parobéwhen and we came across Porto Alegre Public Market which is a huge covered market full of people and different shops selling various products. As the team ventured through the crowd, in the centre of everything was a piano and a man playing it. With everyone minding their own business, one could hear the beautiful sound of the music the piano was creating. This piano gave the chance for people in the covered market to play an instrument in public and to express themselves in a public space. This created a sensory experience for people moving through the market as they also heard music being played whilst they were shopping. This enhanced peoples experience when they pass through the covered market and even invited/ enticed them to play. The final two examples of music being used in open spaces for sensory experiences were both found in the city of Pelotas. On the 7 April 2015, after a long day working with the Brazilian University, UFPel, we attended a samba evening at Mercado Central in the city centre. There was an open space with a small stage supporting five musicians playing live music. There was enough room to have a dance floor for people to dance some samba as well as enough room for tables for people to drink and eat. Throughout the night, people got up and danced to the music whilst others conversed between each other. All the B.U.D.S. members and the friends we made at the university were dancing on the sidelines as the night went on. This is one of the great examples of how music in an open space can create a positive atmosphere for people in that area; everyone was happy that evening and interacting with each other. This is probably the only example where the plaza was designed so that it could support a band to play for a small crowd. The final example for this project was found on the 10 April 2015 in Pelotas as some of the B.U.D.S. team members were venturing down some of the city’s busiest high streets. There were many stores that were selling various goods; some had speakers playing music and were placed in the section A of their shop (the section closest to the street). This made the speakers send the sound they produced out onto the street rather than inside the shop they were in. Even though the speakers were not located in the open space, there was music in the urban area which passersby would hear, thus helping to creating a sensory experience. The idea behind this is probably because the shop owners wanted to draw in customers; not only was this achieved but it also created a pleasant atmosphere to the surrounding open area.

ANALYSIS From the findings found throughout the urban design trip, it can be clearly seen that music is common in not only the Brazilian lifestyle but also in their cities. It is interesting to see that music in open spaces is very important to the Brazilian culture as it is a form of gathering. People come together and cluster around music being played in open spaces whether it is directly (like the street performers in Curitiba) or indirectly (such as the markets in Rio and Porto Alegre). This large grouping of people in a public space creates interactions between each other and thus becomes a form of social distraction. The fusion of people from music is a huge part in the Brazilian culture as it can be seen with the Rio de Janeiro carnivals. Having it present on a day to day basis in different parts of cities in Brazil is in fact a form of leisure to the public as well as entertainment, which in turn makes people happy and want to participate (such as the samba musicians in Pelotas). With this said, it is fair to say that Brazil is a very musical country and that it’s people love to interact with each other in public areas through the use of sensory experiences. If we were to compare music being performed in open spaces from Brazil and European countries, on a social level they achieve the same goal. In both parts of the world, having music being performed in public areas increases the interest of pedestrians passing through that area. Although looking at the response of people observing musical performance, Brazilians tend to participate more in the performance than people from Europe. If we were to look at the presence of music in open spaces where markets are located, generally there are hardly any instruments being played in European countries; whilst in Brazil there is a greater chance of hearing a song from a speaker

due to the presence of musical sound which enhances the sensory experience of the pedestrian. Another difference between these two parts of the world, is that in European countries, there tends to be a set area where performers can go to entertain crowds. However, in Brazil there isnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t this restriction of special spaces for entertainers, moreover there is an open, relaxed and free approach that invites entertainers to seek out and use bigger areas such as squares to perform. Fortunately, in both parts of the world, the presence of musical performances in open spaces in urban areas creates a more pleasant sensory experience for passersby.

CONCLUSION From what we have discovered, Brazilian culture is heavily influenced by music and can be seen in the public domain in open spaces in various cities. When there is hardly any space to set up a proper music system, they still find small ways to include music in their sensory experience as was seen in Rio de Janeiroâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s favela Rocinha's market. By including a small speaker on an electric pole above the crowd, the music added to the positive atmosphere of the market. In Curitiba, big open spaces such as squares were used by live performers to entertain crowds through chanting and instruments, thus creating their own music with the people watching them. In Porto Alegre, a piano was placed in the centre of a more spacious covered market located in the centre of the city. This encouraged people to play their musical instrument and create their own music, which then contributed to everybody elseâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sensory experience of the market. Finally, in the city of Pelotas there where two examples of music being expressed in public open spaces. The first was a samba event in the evening where a small square in another covered market was used for a five man band in which they played live music so that people were able to join in and dance. The last example was the use of speakers in front sections of shops (section A) from which music would be directed out onto the street. This not only created a sensory experience in the shop but also on the high streets of Pelotas and generated a positive atmosphere for people. Looking at both Brazilian and European ways of musical performances in open spaces, they both seek the same goal which is to create a better and positive sensory experience for people in that area. Due to rules and regulations, the European approach is more restrictive resulting in less music in public open spaces, whilst the Brazilian approach encourages music in public places. If one looks at how we can design open spaces to support cultural expressions such as music, then the example of the samba band in Pelotas would be the answer. Designing open spaces to accommodate for cultural expression is vital for peoples sensory experience; it enables performers to come to open spaces and entertain people who pass through the area. In addition to the design, adding instruments to the open space (such as Porto Alegre) in which any member of the public can use would further enhance and support cultural expression. The Brazilian government could regulate allocate spaces in open areas for cultural expressions, such as in London where painted circles on the ground are used by entertainers to perform in. This project has been a very interesting one and what can be taken away from this experience is that both parts of the globe can learn from each other in order to bring more cultural expression in open spaces to enhance peoples sensory experiences.