Life at the center: the methodological experience of Brongo do Pau Miúdo

Abstract

The paper presents a critical and propositional analysis of actions to transform the urban landscape, based on records of work in Brongo do Pau Miúdo, in Salvador, carried out in the 1980s by a team coordinated by the architect Sylvio Sawaya. In 2018, we carried out a field visit, after resuming reading and representation methods developed by the architect's team, aimed at apprehending and synthesizing the coexistence pacts and use of the territory in order to incorporate them into the act of designing. We used as a method the review of the material produced by the team, in addition to exploring social cartography and anthropological reading as a complementary tool for urban intervention. We have organized it into three parts: i) a contextualization of the process in the 1980s; ii) an analysis of collective processes in planning and designing urban intervention in popular territories; and, iii) a reflection on dwelling as a form of political resistance. Finally, we point out that the principles and methods of urban intervention closer to the daily practice of the residents seem to point to alternatives to the exclusionary development model, which neutralizes and hides singularities and conflicts inherent to the territories.

Keywords:
Urban intervention; Participatory Processes; Collective Construction of the City; Urban Project; Social Cartography