ABSTRACT
Rio de Janeiro is a city known for its natural beauty juxtaposed with extreme social strife and economic inequalities. In formulating a strategy for regenerative interventions, the mounting urban problems of socioeconomic and environmental contradictions must be explored through a back-and-forth exercise of analysis and design based on the careful reading of the city’s natural and historic stratification (Bava 2007). Through conceptual rediscovery of the city’s hidden water lines and their functional potential, the design proposal presented in this paper shows, in a conceptual way, a particular approach to regeneration of a postindustrial site in the context of one of the largest (mega) cities in Latin America (Santandreu et al. 2002). It begins with a site interpretation which, at first sight, focuses on environmental aspects related to a very specific waterscape, addressing problems of urban surface drainage, storm overflows in tropical climates and water pollution. Moreover, it develops possible strategies for inclusive economic and social systems that will work within a binding urban structure. The mix between the proposed urban tissue, productive park and network of public and commercial spaces along the railway with designed water elements is a hypothesis on how the stratified urban condition of Rio de Janeiro can be bridged on social, economic and environmental levels using an integrated system that re-works engineered water infrastructures through design.
