In equatorial Recife, hiding from the direct sun is not only a
physical necessity, but also a cultural one.
While boulevards and squares are bleached into uninhabitable
redundancy,
where there is shadow in the city, there is conversation, life and
opportunity.
Usable - and therefore shaded - public spaces are entirely lacking in
the blighted favela community of Pilar, a shantytown which nestles
between monumental factories in the historic port area of the city.
Yet it is in deprived areas such as this that the social benefits of
public space
can have their strongest and most diverse impact.
During a recent collaborative workshop in Brazil, our group focused on
this forgotten aspect of favela development, proposing a simple method
for flexible public space provision at the mouth of Pilar.
Our intention was to stimulate more activity at the socially exclusive
edges of the favela, giving a place for people to rest, collect and
mix.
For less than £50 and with four hours unskilled labour, the canopy was
erected. No site survey was made nor were any plans drawn. Merely
through a process of negotiation with and between neighbours, were
fixing points found on roofs, water tanks, shop fronts, telegraph
poles, and a form for the canopy materialised. All materials used were
cheap, locally made, and widely available.
During the process of construction, we were quickly joined by local
people offering help, ladders, stools, and even music to aid the work.
As the amount of shadow increased, so did the passers by who chose to
walk under it.
Groups of children paused there to talk with friends on the way back
from school and factory workers ate their lunch under its shelter.
We were expecting to see the canopy disappear overnight, but through
the unanticipated levels of interaction, and inhabitation, a powerful
sense of local ownership over the space emerged which has now enabled
the project’s continuation.
Several days after construction, a fixing which had failed during the
night was found miraculously repaired the next morning. We responded to
this by providing residents with a set of tools and spare parts to
enable maintenance and adaptation of the structure as local needs
change. This has already occurred twice within a month.
Still, sipping caiperinhas on Bom Jesus, 500 metres out of the favela
the luminescent membrane hijacks the horizon.
It acts as a landmark, giving the hidden favela a much needed identity
within and connectivity to a city which would rather ignore it.
The hope is that such spaces can be empowering to local people; they
engender notions of pride, ownership, and provide the facility for
assembly, a right which all communities surely need.
Due to the positive attention we received in Brazil, and demand from
the residents of Favela Do Pilar, we are now developing the project’s
next stage:
A kit of parts which can be sent by mail to Pilar, enabling neighbours
to negotiate and cooperatively produce spaces of their own.
We currently are searching for partner organisations in Brazil or
elsewhere who might be able to help us make this happen.
Inclusive edge is an ongoing project which was begun in April 2006.

With less than £50...
12 x 1.5 metres Lycra (yellow)
20 steel eyelets
150 metres 1.5mm steel cable
1 pack cable ties
34 steel cable grips
6mm spanner - gift from cable shop
1 ladder - borrowed from favela
2 stools - borrowed from favela
+
4 hours unskilled labour