{"id":30968,"date":"2016-08-03T18:44:11","date_gmt":"2016-08-03T21:44:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rioonwatch.org\/?p=30968"},"modified":"2018-12-28T13:15:01","modified_gmt":"2018-12-28T16:15:01","slug":"asa-branca-wins-the-gold-is-a-rio-favela-greener-than-the-leed-certified-olympic-village","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/rioonwatch.org\/?p=30968","title":{"rendered":"Asa Branca Wins the Gold! Is a Rio Favela Greener Than the LEED-Certified Olympic Village?"},"content":{"rendered":"

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

The Olympic Games<\/a> in Rio de Janeiro are almost upon us, yet the city\u2019s lack of preparedness continues to provide international media with an endless feed of concerning stories. The most recent infrastructure debacle over poorly constructed rooms in the Olympic\u00a0Village has resulted in the Australian Olympic Committee<\/a>\u00a0deeming the village inadequate and \u201cuninhabitable\u201d<\/a> due to safety and health concerns made apparent in their inspection.<\/p>\n

This is incredibly problematic, in part because the Village made history as the first development in Brazil<\/a>\u00a0to receive the Green Building Council\u2019s LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED-ND) certification<\/a>. The certification was\u00a0awarded<\/a> for the Village’s supposedly sustainably planned post-Olympic transition into\u00a0an elite neighborhood named Ilha Pura<\/a>, or “Pure Island,” located in the upscale\u00a0neighborhood of Barra da Tijuca<\/a>. This certification holds weight on a global scale and is meant to be a yardstick for sustainability<\/a> and green building<\/a>, and yet Ilha Pura has more than missed the mark. What is especially interesting and ironic, however, is that recent analysis by the authors of this article finds one of Rio’s nearby favelas scores 28% higher than the Olympic Village on the same LEED rating tool for green neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

This striking result gets to a core issue of the New Urban Agenda<\/a> to be debated at the United Nations’ Habitat III conference later this year: how to create sustainable human settlements for all. An estimated one billion people live in informal communities\u00a0worldwide, and that number is growing rapidly.<\/p>\n

Some of that growth is happening just a short walk from the 2016 Olympic Park in a small\u00a0favela called Asa Branca<\/a>.\u00a0While the world celebrates the Olympics, Asa Branca will celebrate 35 years of struggle and endurance in Rio\u2019s West Zone<\/a>. Favelas\u00a0are often stereotyped<\/a>\u00a0as chaotic and hazardous liabilities. But a closer examination reveals considerable merit in the organic and responsive environments<\/a> built by residents. Compact, mixed-use buildings and pedestrian-oriented circulation networks engender the kind of vibrant, street-level cultural life<\/a> and low carbon footprint that are hallmarks of green urbanism.<\/p>\n

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

The concept of unplanned\u00a0communities as models of sustainability<\/a> emerged after the 1996 Habitat II agenda called for adequate shelter and sustainable settlements for all. Practitioners and urban scholars like John Turner, author of\u00a0Housing by People<\/em><\/a>, Theresa Williamson, executive director of\u00a0Catalytic Communities<\/a>, and Justin McGuirk, author of\u00a0Radical Cities<\/a>,<\/em>\u00a0have recognized that so-called “slums” are not deformities in the urban fabric, but are integral and important contributors to sustainability. These and other researchers see the mix of physical qualities, social vitality, and economic resourcefulness in communities like favelas that can produce transformative neighborhoods. As McGuirk asks in Radical Cities<\/em>, \u201cWhen will we come to terms with the fact that favelas are not a problem of urbanity, but the solution?\u201d<\/p>\n

To illustrate this point, we applied the LEED<\/a> for Neighborhood Development rating system to Asa Branca. LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) is a family of sustainability rating tools owned and trademarked by the U.S. Green Building Council, including LEED for Neighborhood Development (LEED ND). To judge sustainability, LEED ND combines the principles and practices of smart growth, new urbanism, and green construction into 44 measures worth a total of 110 points.<\/p>\n

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

For a baseline of formal urbanism, we selected the LEED ND certified 2016 Olympic Village. Situated on 180 acres, Ilha Pura contains<\/a> 3,604 new apartment dwellings for about 8,000 residents in 31 buildings averaging 18 stories in height, with supporting commercial and recreation amenities. On the LEED neighborhood sustainability scale, Ilha Pura scored 47 points<\/a> and earned an official LEED ND Certification. 40 is the minimum number of points needed to reach a “Certified” ranking (40-49 points), with higher scores meriting Silver, Gold, or Platinum rankings.<\/p>\n

\"LEED<\/a>A half mile north of Ilha Pura, Asa Branca also has 8,000 residents, but they live in 1,800 dwellings in single and multi-family buildings that range up to four stories in height, on a 27-acre site. 98\u00a0small businesses in the favela serve residents\u2019 daily needs. Using the LEED ND yardstick, Asa Branca scores a Gold ranking with 60 points, an impressive 28% higher than Ilha Pura.<\/p>\n

How does informal urbanism<\/a> so markedly outperform state-of-the-art formality? The ND scorecard reveals that Asa Branca can\u2019t match Ilha Pura in the green construction and innovation categories because of the latter\u2019s advantages in financing those premium practices. But Asa Branca has nearly double the scores of Ilha Pura when location and neighborhood quality are tallied, including these highlights:<\/p>\n