From the «cortiços» to the «favelas» and apartment blocks - the modernisation of housing in Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

The article sketches a history of housing in modern times in Rio de Janeiro, taking as its starting point the insalubrious collective accommodation which appeared with the process of industrial urbanisation. By reviewing step by step the changes in urban space and housing, the article delineates a sequence of clearly defined architectural types, beginning with the «estalagens» (housing built around a common courtyard), «cortiços» (housing built off the street behind existing dwellings), «avenues» and «vilas». Development then moved upwards, with the emergence of apartment blocks. At the same time, shanty towns developed, manifesting the inequalities of urban areas. This historical review reveals how in the process of modernisation housing has been improved in terms of sanitation, space and construction, and how these improvements have been improved by the market and/or by the state. This process, however, has been accompanied by a strong element of social exclusion, preventing those on the lowest incomes from benefiting from progress. Ironically, these same improvements have been adopted consistently in the name of solving the housing problem, such as better hygiene, mass production and lower prices, but at the same time they move increasingly further away from the origin of modern housing - collective, unhealthy housing for the working class. This means that progress in housing standards, which began with housing for the working class, has ended up by developing standards for the middle class. Housing for the poorer classes stands in contrast to the process of modernisation. The historical study seeks to widen the horizons for discussion of the meanings of modernisation, particularly in urban modernisation and housing. It is an attempt to pose questions on housing and to combine these with a number of approaches to modernity.