Planning cities - where others fear to tread

This is Oscar Niemeyer's Museum in Curitiba - one of Brazil's other great architects.

When most people talk about Brazil, they think of places like Rio, Sao Paulo and rainforests. For me it's somewhere entirely different - the city of Curitiba. Curitiba is an 'anomaly' because it's a city in South America (i.e. a place classed by many in the west to still be the developing world), that's held up as an example from which western cities can learn. In urban design terms, Curitiba broke new ground - and that is mostly down to the man known as the God-father of the city, and three times mayor Jamie Lerner.

Lerner is an architect, who through the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s held the position of mayor several times, and used his power to radically alter the urban form of the city. The most radical step was the pedestrianisation of massive portions of the city - completed, in moves worthy of a revolution - overnight, much to the surprise of car drivers. Lerner had a plan though, and that was to make the bus system a really viable alternative to the car, which was duly achieved by the implementation of a world-class system, which runs both in concentric rings around the city, and crosses through it, is simply coded by colour to identify routes, and uses cylindrical 'tubes' as bus stops. The buses themselves can hold up to 300 people. The whole system has the feel of a tramway - much favoured in Europe - but done at a fraction of the cost.

Passengers getting off the bus in Curitiba. Note the 'bus stop' design.

But the impact was much greater than just putting in a load of buses. Lerner is a real city visionary - he understands the importance and the need to be sustainable, but uses that as reasons to make things work better:

"A sustainable city is the one that integrates housing, work and leisure, while preserving its history and investing in public transportation."

He practices what he calls "Urban Accupuncture", a wonderful phrase that he explains as:

"My intention is to encourage people to understand their city, to plan their city. However, sometimes for determinate problems it is necessary to 'stick some needles' of good local [government] action that can create new energy, which is the principle of accupunture."

By doing this, he has turned Curitiba into not only one of the greenest, but one of the 'best' cities in the world - a place where every other city, leader and planner can learn lessons.

His latest interview, in Planeta Sustentavel has been translated by Treehugger, and gives more insight into his thinking... read it here.

Images:
Neiymeyer - Cristiane Sousa on Flickr via Creative Commons license, 
Curitiba Bus - Thomas Hobbs on Flickr via Creative Commons license.

Posted by Joseph Simpson on 20th November 2007

Comments

[robb]

Curitiba is definitely an awe-inspiring model for cities everywhere. The city of los angeles actually hired Jamie Lerner as a consultant when developing their BRT system. here are pics from my trip there (ha, that one of the neimeyer museum really gets me!)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/23991004@N00/sets/72057594086641281/

[Thomas Locke Hobbs]

All of Curitiba's planning doesn't save them from being a boring city. Give me the vitality and excitement of Sao Paulo any day of the week [preferably Saturday]