{"id":17816,"date":"2014-09-20T09:00:34","date_gmt":"2014-09-20T12:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=17816"},"modified":"2016-11-30T19:57:57","modified_gmt":"2016-11-30T22:57:57","slug":"greenbuilding-brasil-conference-introduces-leed-up-favelas-as-models-of-urban-sustainability","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=17816","title":{"rendered":"Greenbuilding Brasil Conference Introduces LEED-UP: Favelas as Models of Urban Sustainability"},"content":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas\"\"<\/em><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Vale Encantado<\/a>, a favela in the heart of the Tijuca forest, part of the\u00a0largest urban forest system in the world in the middle of the municipality of Rio de Janeiro, was used as a case study to demonstrate favelas’ potential as models of sustainable development<\/a>\u00a0during the international sustainable building conference\u00a0GreenBuilding Brasil<\/a>, held in S\u00e3o Paulo from August 5-7. The example of Vale Encantado was used to illustrate the potential vocation for\u00a0sustainability among favelas and of sustainably upgrading informal settlements worldwide. It was also the focus of a collaborative solution-mapping charrette among participants.<\/p>\n

In their presentation about Vale Encantado, architect Luis Felipe Vasconcellos, from RVBA Architects<\/a>, city planner\u00a0Theresa Williamson<\/a>, from Catalytic Communities<\/a>, and community organizer\u00a0Ot\u00e1vio Barros<\/a>, President of\u00a0the Vale Encantado Cooperative<\/a>\u00a0listed and described the sustainability principles naturally present in favela\u00a0communities\u00a0and explored how LEED<\/a> (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) methodologies can contribute to upgrading them in both a sustainable<\/a>\u00a0and participatory<\/a> way.<\/p>\n

LEED\u00a0is the most widely respected set of rating systems to green the design, construction and maintenance of buildings and neighborhoods. Eliot Allen, from Criterion Planners<\/a>\u00a0in Portland, has led global efforts to apply LEED standards to neighborhoods<\/a>\u00a0and is a co-creator of the now-recognized\u00a0LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND<\/a>) rating system. It was Allen\u00a0who\u00a0initiated the idea of promoting the sustainability of informal settlements<\/a>\u00a0through LEED, by introducing the idea of creating a rating system for sustainable participatory upgrading of informal settlements, which he coined\u00a0LEED-UP (LEED for Upgrading Informal Settlements).<\/p>\n

During her presentation, Williamson explained why\u00a0favelas in Rio de Janeiro should be looked at as a source of inspiration for sustainable practices despite the\u00a0stigma<\/a>\u00a0that exists around these settlements. The stigma associated with favelas is manifest in its four frequent English translations<\/a>: \u201cslum<\/a>\u201d which conveys the idea of absolute precariousness\u00a0and misery; \u201cshanty town,\u201d which evokes a haphazard agglomeration of improvised wooden shacks; \u201csquatter community,\u201d which stigmatizes residents for the initial occupation process by which they settled; or \u201cghetto,\u201d which implies\u00a0they are\u00a0isolated and marginalized, and wanting “out” of such communities. These terms, by encouraging stigma, render the development of these communities more difficult.<\/p>\n

They do not reflect the reality of Rio\u2019s favelas, where\u00a0the vast majority of homes are\u00a0made of brick, concrete and reinforced steel,\u00a0several stories high<\/a>. They are built through a process learnt over generations, as Rio de Janeiro was the birthplace of the first favela<\/a>\u00a0in Brazil 117 years ago. Thus, today these communities are for the most part consolidated, and many are highly functional environments. Today the city has around a thousand individual favelas. Due to\u00a0the one attribute common to all favelas–a lack of regulation<\/a>–they have evolved organically, and thus are all unique. The variety of experiences in just Rio’s\u00a0favelas is tremendous, Williamson explains, more so\u00a0when we scale up to informal settlements worldwide.\u00a0They suffer from insufficient or low quality public services like\u00a0sanitation<\/a>\u00a0and infrastructure, but in what residents can achieve on their own, they exemplify human ingenuity. Favelas are dynamic, creative and entrepreneurial places.<\/p>\n

Urban planners have been working to emulate qualities<\/a> that already exist in the favelas for decades. Favelas are low-rise \/ high-density<\/a> environments, pedestrian and cyclist oriented, with a high use of public transportation<\/a>. Favelas promote mixed use (homes above shops, for example) and historically guarantee short distances from residence to workplace. They are built through collective action<\/a> and grow organically<\/a>: their architecture evolves according to needs. Favelas are also a\u00a0place for\u00a0intricate solidarity networks and a vibrant cultural production<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Otavio<\/a>
\nVale Encantado<\/a>, which appropriately translates to\u00a0Enchanted Valley in English, is a small community in the middle of the Tijuca forest. Barros described its\u00a0long history<\/a>\u00a0whereby it has been\u00a0intrinsically linked to the forest and thus developed an interest in ecology. This interest is manifest in the cooperative of the entrepreneurial community, which organizes eco-walks<\/a>\u00a0in the forest and showcases the local gastronomy<\/a>, including the famous \u201cjacalhau,\u201d their version of the famous Portuguese cod, onion and potato dish using locally picked jackfruit instead of cod. An important source\u00a0of Vale Encantado\u2019s food comes from the community\u2019s plants; they are currently recovering a garden area to produce more healthy food.<\/p>\n

It is also piloting\u00a0technical initiatives that encourage the favela\u2019s environmental sustainability: a solar panel and a biodigester<\/a> that reuses organic waste to provide gas for cooking and fertilizer for the community\u2019s plants.<\/p>\n

Vale Encantado is a great pilot community to become a sustainable favela model<\/a>: it already has a vocation for this and its small size make\u00a0achieving the status of the “first sustainable favela” mid-term\u00a0viable. Given the right information and tools, it is ready\u00a0to\u00a0experiment\u00a0local strategies<\/a>\u00a0that larger favelas could apply in the future.<\/p>\n

\"Vale<\/p>\n

Vale Encantado, like all favelas, suffers from a lack of infrastructure and public services.\u00a0Historically, Rio’s favelas\u00a0look to change this through petitioning government to meet these needs. However, even in communities where public services are eventually provided, the quality of such services is universally low and maintenance problematic.\u00a0This not to mention that those services that are provided are part of the formal system, a system that–in a city where sewerage is pumped raw<\/a> into the ocean, whether collected in favelas or the formal city–is often unsustainable.<\/p>\n

It was thus explained at\u00a0the\u00a0conference how LEED-UP (LEED for Upgrading Informal Settlements)\u00a0could upgrade favelas–providing those missing public services–in a high-quality, community-led, and sustainable way. Job creation is also intrinsic to the LEED-UP model.<\/p>\n

As designed by Allen, LEED-UP is led\u00a0by the community, with community leaders and interested residents beginning the process by identifying their priorities among those listed (housing, energy and communications, sanitation, food, common spaces, education and healthcare, solid waste, access and mobility, restoration and resilience, and water). Once priorities are defined through a participatory process, technical partners help select and adapt LEED strategies to meet these most pressing needs. They are then analyzed to see which solutions offer the greatest potential of job creation, and actions that can be taken are identified. Finally, LEED partners that can help secure the desired investments are recruited.<\/p>\n

\"LEED-UP\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Following the presentation,\u00a0GreenBuilding conference participants were invited to participate in a dynamic charrette around tables, with detailed maps and diagnostics of the community, and to act as consultants, drawing on their knowledge of LEED methodologies and technologies. International green building professionals discussed possible solutions and new ideas for\u00a0sanitation, energy, telecommunications and leisure areas, by drawing on practices elsewhere that could be adapted to the Vale Encantado context.<\/p>\n

They suggested creating a \u201cliving machine<\/a>,\u201d where natural processes and plants would clean wastewater. Rio de Janeiro has serious sewage treatment problems<\/a>, and Vale Encantado could be an example in this domain.<\/p>\n

They suggested a zip line and rope canopy course\u00a0in the forest of Vale Encantado, a leisure space different from conventional urban playgrounds that would be unique to the community and work with its natural qualities<\/a> rather than promote urban children’s infrastructure less appropriate to\u00a0the location.<\/p>\n

Suggestions were also made\u00a0for better drainage, solid waste collection and energy generation systems.<\/p>\n

In the discussion that followed, it was discovered that\u00a0the community\u00a0was already working towards\u00a0implementing several of the project\u00a0suggestions, with the charrette both offering new ideas and confirming the residents’ current path.<\/p>\n

Francisca Rojas, Urban Development and Housing Specialist at the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) in Buenos Aires, participated\u00a0in the charrette. She summarized the session which she said brought her to the conference:<\/p>\n

“The potential exists to improve quality of life in informal settlements through the introduction of more environmentally conscious, low-impact development strategies, such as green infrastructure<\/a>\u00a0and urban agriculture<\/a>, which can improve a site\u2019s resilience in the face of natural hazards like flooding<\/a> and landslides<\/a>. A great opportunity exists to rethink urban upgrading programs where conventional infrastructure, like street paving and drainage systems, can be modified to incorporate more sustainable interventions that work with natural systems like permeable paving<\/a>, bioswales<\/a>, rain gardens<\/a>, etc. This will require a paradigm shift<\/a> in the conventional upgrading model, where interventions are tailored to local conditions and residents participate actively in both the design and maintenance of the green infrastructure systems.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Rojas explained that at the IDB,\u00a0“the conversation is beginning to shift towards considering green urban development strategies in urban upgrading programs, with the hopes of carrying out pilot projects” to begin testing some of those ideas.<\/p>\n

\"Otavio<\/a><\/p>\n

Williamson hopes this conference is the beginning of a conversation that sparks “an increasing recognition of the role of informal settlements in a sustainable urbanization model worldwide” and a dialogue on “how to integrate these communities by leapfrogging past big infrastructure programs<\/a>\u00a0to community-scale, employment-generating and empowering programs with a dramatically reduced environmental footprint.”<\/p>\n

In 2050 a third of humanity<\/a> is expected to live in informal settlements: population growth will take place in the favelas of the world, rather than in rural areas or formal parts of the city over the coming decades.<\/p>\n

Many of Rio de Janeiro\u2019s favelas have a long\u00a0history and are well developed; there is a lot of potential for starting sustainable strategies in a place like Vale Encantado and using them as an example in Rio and\u00a0across the\u00a0world.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Clique aqui para Portugu\u00eas Vale Encantado, a favela in the heart of the Tijuca forest, part of the\u00a0largest urban forest system in the world in the middle of the municipality of Rio de Janeiro, was […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":50,"featured_media":17860,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1288,1271,1282,329,452,1365,1329],"tags":[1361,950,756,258,474,342,857,223,182,188,359,755,1383,1417,1454,1832,37,152,1403,471,489,514],"writer":[1182],"translator":[],"illustrator":[],"photographer":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17816","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-highlight","8":"category-favelaqualities","9":"category-research-analysis","10":"category-solutions","11":"category-rio20","12":"category-whats-a-favela-2","13":"category-by-international-observers","14":"tag-endfavelastigma","15":"tag-biodigester","16":"tag-community-organizing","17":"tag-community-solution","18":"tag-environment","19":"tag-favela-architecture","20":"tag-favela-design","21":"tag-favela-as-a-model","22":"tag-government-neglect","23":"tag-history","24":"tag-informality","25":"tag-infrastructure","26":"tag-land-use","27":"tag-leapfrog-development","28":"tag-leed","29":"tag-leed-up","30":"tag-north-zone","31":"tag-participation","32":"tag-solution","33":"tag-sustainability","34":"tag-tijuca-forest","35":"tag-vale-encantado","36":"writer-jessica-goodenough"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/50"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=17816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17860"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17816"},{"taxonomy":"writer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fwriter&post=17816"},{"taxonomy":"translator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftranslator&post=17816"},{"taxonomy":"illustrator","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fillustrator&post=17816"},{"taxonomy":"photographer","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fphotographer&post=17816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}