In a much needed attempt to overcome one of the city’s biggest problems, the Rio city council has launched a massive new push to ‘urbanise’ all of the metropolitan area´s favelas, a term incorporating both slums and shantytowns, by 2020. Significantly, one of the initial aims of the project is to open up new, safe and accessible public spaces, such as parks and sport facilities, in light of short term requirements involving preparations for both the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics.
The ‘Morar Carioca’ (loosely: Living in Rio) program is the result of a partnership between the city council and the Rio chapter of the Architect´s Institute of Brazil and has an estimated budget of R$8 billion. The aim is to integrate the city´s 625 favelas with 100 residents or more into the urban structure, which would affect more than 260 thousand residencies.
In associated news, one of the first key works for the 2016 Olympics will soon get underway, with a public park to be built in the western part of the city. Proximate to the main Olympic site in the Barra district, the park will be set up for casual sport and leisure as well as major musical and cultural events, included the next Rock in Rio concert, scheduled for 2011.
As mentioned in a previous report, a group of Brazilian Sport Ministry and Rio 2016 decision makers will be travelling to Australia at the beginning of August to, amongst other things, examine high performance and community sporting facilities in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. Contact Austrade for further details.