by Lara Isa Costa Ferreira e Flávia Tadim Massimetti
Abstract
This essay-article-manifesto is a denunciation-homage-reclamation. A denunciation of the structures that mark Brazilian society, more specifically the region of São Paulo, and materialize in violence, in the cities and in the homes of Brazilian women who live in slums, especially black and brown women. Homage to the women who daily and historically fight and have fought for the transformation of these spaces into fair territories with dignity for all people. And vindication for the need for the recognition of the historical work of these women, but also more and others, representative of all classes and races, especially those who are most affected by territorial inequalities, to occupy spaces of power, of technical, theoretical and practical recognition.
Keywords
Architects; Slums; slum interventions.
Presentation
Before answering the question posed, it is relevant to elucidate to the reader what we mean and where we are talking about when we refer to "slum interventions".
We are two cis white women, post-graduation researchers at FAUUSP (São Paulo School of Architecture and Urbanism) with distinct experiences in university extension, training, and urbanization projects in precarious settlements, as it is "defined" in the context where we work, in the region of São Paulo, Brazil.
We use the word favela as a concept that encompasses many different places, but which in common have the lack of some physical aspect that limits or negatively conditions the life of the dwelling community, be it the lack of some infrastructure: water supply, basic sanitation, electricity, among others; be it the precariousness of the constructions, or the excess of demographic density per size of the housing unit, or some risk that threatens the life of its population - landslide, flooding, contamination, eviction, etc. Most of the time, these places we are talking about bring together more than one of these characteristics.
Favela, as we use it here, is a concept of political dispute located in the region of São Paulo, but common to many places in Brazil, where the naming assumes regional identity.
We understand the limitation of the word favela use. Still, we reinforce its use to dispute a historical struggle for the right to its urbanization. A fight mobilized by the population living in territories marked by the country's structural inequality, poverty, often by indifference or even criminalization. The inhabitants of these places have always demanded better living conditions. And, since the democratization of Brazil[1], they have conquered, together with other people who work in the theoretical and/or practical field of urbanism, legislations, public programs, and projects that seek to promote and guarantee the right to the city and decent housing for all.
Where are the women in the favelas?
Within the exclusionary and unequal system in which we live, it is mainly on women that the weight of the housing and urban precariousness falls. In Brazil, the majority of the population is low-income families. And it is in the slums of São Paulo - and other territories of similar precariousness in the rest of the country - that the lowest income and worst living conditions are concentrated. In favelas, class and race markers intersect. They are places where the majority of the population is black or brown-skinned, an inheritance from the colonialist and racist culture that continues to this day and determines and limits the access of some people to social structures, cultural and also territorial.
It is also in this group that one finds a majority of single-parent families, where the woman, usually a mother, is the head of the family. Even in families consisting of two parents, it is usually the women responsible for reproductive work ( which is not considered productive, that is, not suitable for paid), such as caring for children, the elderly, or sick family members. It is women who are mainly responsible for preparing meals, taking care of the house, taking children to school or the doctor. They are also the most affected by the precariousness of housing, the lack or insecurity of water supply, the instability of electricity, the difficulty of access to schools and daycare centers, health clinics, job vacancies, or safe transportation. They are also the women who suffer the most from domestic violence, which is often aggravated by other situations of vulnerability.
It is, therefore, no surprise when many of these women are formal or informal leaders of communities that fight for the right to the city and decent housing. Women are protagonists in the interventions in their homes but also in their communities, in the mobilization of physical actions such as housing and urban improvements as social ones such as the fight for day-care centers, health, culture, etc.
Women like Carmen Silva (Movimento Sem-Teto do Centro - MSTC [2]), Evaniza Rodrigues (Movimento Sem Terra - Leste 1 [3]), or Cleide Alves (UNAS Heliópolis e Região [4]), to name just a few of the leaders of the best known movements or neighborhood associations in São Paulo. They are responsible for many of the complaints, struggles, and achievements of the populations they are part of and represent.
It is also no surprise that social movements and neighborhood organizations have a large female composition. However, if it is for women that the burden of urban injustices is hardest, it is for the same reasons that they have difficulty staying active in a constant and present political struggle. The contribution of all women in any political role, with greater or lesser recognition, is therefore impressive.
... and in [technical] interventions in favelas?
Recognizing urban injustices and the contribution of women in the struggles against them as the structural basis of our reflection, we now propose to turn the focus of the argument to slum interventions through the lens of architecture and urbanism.
Dear reader, do you know any reference work or architectural or urban project of intervention in slums? And if so, do you know its authorship?
In architecture and urbanism training, it is suggested to the student when proposing that they should initially look for reference projects with similar programs, where it is possible to learn or understand what other people or teams have already learned and accumulated before risking an answer. Such references are hard to find when we talk about slum urbanization projects. Maybe because these projects are not very photogenic or photographable. And if you do a quick search on slum urbanization projects, the best-known ones are those that included some building as a transportation structure, a public service such as a school or a library, or housing buildings, that to their image manage to "stick" the name of their authorship.
We know that slum interventions with a better positive impact are those that manage to reconcile social issues, eliminate risks, and guarantee permanence and adequate housing for their population, i.e., those that, at the end of the intervention, guarantee access to all the physical infrastructure and services necessary for community and individual development. More than physical interventions, slum interventions are complex political interventions.
In Brazil, there is a significant fight for these interventions to be carried out by the public power. After all, the structural inequalities of the country are assumed as the population's accountability but headed by the rulers in office (municipal, state, and federal). This conception is not defended by everyone in the same way, and perhaps, because of this, a large part of the population still suffers from housing and urban precariousness, and their associated stigmatizations.
In the Metropolitan Region of São Paulo, we found some women who are our references; they headed and materialized processes of this nature. In the city of São Paulo, during the administration of Mayor Luiza Erundina (1989-1992), when Erminia Maricato was Municipal Secretary of Housing, interventions were carried out throughout the city to prevent the risk of slope collapse, but also to ensure access to basic sanitation and water supply. It is also from this administration the Construction Program by Mutirão and Self-Management, where technical groups were hired to work with social movements to ensure the proper construction of Social Interest Housing (HIS) for the population that needed it most. In Santo André, another municipality in the region, with Rosana Denaldi at the head of the municipal office (2003-2007), the Santo André Mais Igual Program became a reference program for slum intervention. More than acting on physical issues, the program proposed income generation services, and integration of the communities with the region and with municipal services.
In addition to these and other women who stood out as public managers, we find many others, from the first interventions in favelas, to work in public technical teams, either as architects or engineers. Women are also the majority of service and social assistance workers, an essential technical participation in interventions of this nature.
Since the first struggles for Urban Reform [5], women have been highlighted in the denunciation and fight for better living conditions. We can also mention the contribution of women in research and training centers throughout the country. In LabHab [6] and LabCidade [7] of FAUUSP, in Lepur [8] of UFABC, in Praxis [9], Indisciplinar [10], and MOM [11] of EAU-UFMG, in IPPUR/UFRJ, in the Observatório das Metrópoles [12], among many others, women are founders, coordinators, or references in fundamental themes such as social and public housing production, slum urbanization, popular housing, advisory and technical assistance, participation and popular self-management. In Brazil, many women are responsible for the training, specialization, and production of technical and critical social and urban knowledge.
We are not interested in reinforcing the importance given to protagonists, not least because we have built the argument that slum interventions are complex and collective processes. All engineering and infrastructure projects are as or more relevant in slum interventions, so the social work and monitoring, and by correspondence, the professionals that perform them. As architects in slum urbanization projects, we have the privilege of dialoguing with all disciplines, seeking complementarity and compatibility of all interests.
In this role, we identify the work of some women architects and designers. In Rio de Janeiro, the architect Vera Tângari stands out for her contributions in the Cantagalo and Pavão-Pavãozinho projects (Favela Bairro Program - 1999-2003) and in the Rocinha Socio-Spatial Plan (2007-2008), with the MPS associates office [13]. The work of the ArquiTraço office [14], founded and coordinated by three women, accounts for many experiences in slum urbanization, such as the Babilônia and Chapéu Mangueira project (2011-2015). In São Paulo, the offices Base Urbana [15] with the Favela do Sapé project (2010-2014), and Transversal [16] with the Jardim Japão project (Renova SP, 2011-2019) and different urbanization projects for the municipality of São Bernardo do Campo, are firms coordinated mostly by women.
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Women's participation also takes place in technical consultancies, professional groups that are different from private architecture offices because they are part of an interdisciplinary work field, also in the defense and realization of rights, in works built with the participation of communities in all stages of the project, and without profit. In many cases, the consultants are intermediaries in the relations with the public authorities and foster critical, political, and social debates with their interlocutors. In São Paulo, architects Marina Barrio Pereira and Maria Rita de Sá Brasil Horigoshi, with more than 10 years of experience with Peabiru TCA [17], have actively participated in the slum urbanization projects developed by the organization. In the current political scenario of extinction of resources and intervention programs in slums, the architects and other colleagues have acted in dialogue with peripheral communities in claiming the right to permanence and urban improvements, as in Jardim da União (2016) and Anchieta (2019) in the south zone, and Jardim Helian (2020), in the east zone. At the CTAH Usina [18], we mention architects Beatriz Tone and Heloisa Diniz de Rezende, who were ahead of Mutirão Paulo Freire (1999-2010), also recognized by the strong participation of the residents, from design to construction.
Even in these spaces where we notice the presence of women and that seek a horizontal organization, gender inequalities cross daily practices. The construction site, for example, is not perceived as a place for women, who often have their knowledge and presence questioned, diminished, or ignored. The architect of the CTAH Plant, Kaya Lazarini comments that even with space to discuss these dynamics internally, they can do little to break them (USINA, 2015).
*****
The women we present are only some of those who are active among us and, illustrate a universe of many others not mentioned here. We recognize in them the references of militant, social, and political commitment to territories and populations. However, it is not enough to be a woman to have a progressive practice. Many of us still reproduce the dominant thinking, in general, oppressive and violent. We also need to discuss the challenges and limits of this action.
In our master's research, starting from militant clippings and based on Paulo Freire's thought, we observed the abstention of protagonism in women. When interviewing female architects, the differences appear in their speeches. In the architects' discourses, the use of the "I" prevails. Despite recognizing the collective character of the works, it is possible to identify the emphasis on the individual subject. However, in the architects' reports, the "we" stands out, emphasizing the collective and communal practice of their work. In these interviews, we can see how the patriarchal and unequal structures that guide society are present in the field of architecture and urbanism, even in structures with progressive positions.
When discussing where professionals are in slum interventions, we need to remember that the unequal and excluding system discussed above is also reflected in the access to education and the labor market, requiring reflection on class, race, and gender identity.
Of the female architects and urban planners who intervene in slums, how many do you know who live in slums? How many are black? And indigenous? And transsexuals?
If we know that the populations living in slums are those with lower social income, mostly black and brown people, and with a lower level of education, it is urgent to fight for more affirmative policies for access to education. If we recognize that women slum dwellers are already protagonist agents of change and interventions in the communities where they live, it is essential that they occupy more and more spaces and that their knowledge is recognized in all areas.
Although not specifically about interventions in slums, we would like to highlight the Brazilian initiatives promoted by black architects such as the Coletiva Terra Preta Cidade [19] and the Projeto Arquitetas Negras [20], emphasizing the need, besides ensuring the occupation of spaces, to build and disseminate narratives that represent all people with justice and equality.
What if interventions in favelas were feminist?
In a scenario of a feminist world, hypothetically similar to the one described by writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman, in the novel Land of Women (2018), talking about interventions in slums would not even make sense because, in this context, there would be no place for inequalities and injustices. In radical feminist logic, people would live in community and cooperation, as opposed to the competitive logic in which we are all inserted. Life would be lived in communion and respect with the environment, and there would be no room for the materialization of situations of housing and urban injustice, just as social, racial, gender identity, sexual, class, or any other type of injustice would be unthinkable.
However, within the context in which we live, the fight for fairer living conditions for all people must be daily and fierce. That is the breaches of the capitalist, patriarchal, macho, and racist logic in which we are inserted, we occupy all the spaces that are (and are not) allowed to us. In the communities, in the public power, in the academy, in all technical areas, from architecture to engineering, and in social work, in mobilization and political sensitization, to question these same logics and together build other possibilities of existence. A place where the fight for the right to the city and decent housing for all, everyone, is for its maintenance since it would be accessible to all people without exception.
Notas
[1] - Brazil lived through a civil-military dictatorship that began with a military coup in 1964 and lasted until 1985. The whole period of struggle for the end of the dictatorship through the construction and approval of the Constitution in 1988 is called democratization. Many people and social movements argue that democracy will not be fully achieved until there is historical reparation of the violence and institutional and structural transformations, referring not only to the period of dictatorship but to the entire construction of the Brazilian State since the Portuguese occupation.
[4] - https://www.unas.org.br/
[5] - The debate on Urban Reform in Brazil, in the sense of creating and fighting for fair, inclusive, and democratic cities, began in the 1960s, within the discussion for basic reforms proposed by President João Goulart (1961-1964). The dictatorship repressed these discussions, but they resurfaced and endorsed the debate for democratization in the 1980s. In 1987 the National Forum for Urban Reform was founded, which nationally articulates popular and social movements, NGOs, class associations, and research institutions to fight for the right to the city, modifying the process of social and spatial segregation. More information at https://forumreformaurbana.org.br.
[8] - http://lepur.com.br/
[11] - http://www.mom.arq.ufmg.br/
[15] - https://baseurbana.arq.br/
Referências
Cardoso, A. L., Denaldi, R., (org.) (2018). Urbanização de favelas no Brasil: um balanço preliminar do PAC. Letra Capital, Rio de Janeiro.
Federici, S. (2017). Calibã e a Bruxa. Editora Elefante, São Paulo.
Ferreira, L. I. C. (2017). Arquitetos militantes em urbanização de favelas: uma exploração a partir de casos de São Paulo e do Rio de Janeiro. Dissertação de Mestrado, Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo. doi:10.11606/D.16.2018.tde-27062017-150239. Recuperado em 2021-01-16, de www.teses.usp.br
Ferreira, L., Oliveira, P., Iacovini, V., (org.) (2019). Dimensões do Intervir em Favelas: desafios e perspectivas. Peabiru TCA / Coletivo LabLaje, São Paulo. Disponível em https://www.lablaje.org/dimensoes-do-intervir-1
Gilman, C. P. (2018). Terra das mulheres. Rosa dos Tempos, São Paulo.
Jesus, C. M. de (2014). Quarto de despejo: diário de uma favelada. Ática, São Paulo.
Massimetti, F. T. (no prelo). A influência do pensamento de Paulo Freire na politização da prática de arquitetos e urbanistas populares. Dissertação de Mestrado, Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo, Universidade de São Paulo, São Paulo.
Usina (2015). Arquitetura como prática política - 25 anos de experiência da Usina. (62m08s). Disponível em https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgrnvEhKFSw
Authors: Lara Isa Costa Ferreira, urban architect, PhD student at FAUUSP, Porto, Portugal.
Flávia Tadim Massimetti, urban architect, masters student at FAUUSP, São Paulo, Brazil.
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