ABSTRACT
This chapter explores Costa, Lucio Costa’s 1968 masterplan for Barra da Tijuca, Coast, as a geographically specific urban condition, and Clay, the artificiality of development on and in a fragile soil and considers Costa’s plan for projecting new planning strategies amongst contemporary ecological threats. Water levels will rise, land is soft and often sinking, and a fragile ecosystem is threatened. Curiously, when evaluating the architect’s masterplan envisioned 50 years ago, it seems capital accumulation has blocked productive features; thereby rendering a region incapable of fully embracing historical urban design recommendations which could significantly reduce planning failures of today.
