It took a pandemic of the magnitude of COVID-19 to hit cities for many to start rethinking the role of the architect and urban planner in mitigating the effects of this, which was not even the first and, certainly, will not be the last health tragedy that humanity will witness , perhaps in that same generation.
On that occasion in February 2020, the annual problems of January rains were still being overcome, at levels “above expected”, as is always justified by national authorities, which had devastated several cities in Rio de Janeiro, among others throughout Brazil, leaving several families homeless, in addition to irreparable loss of human life.
And it was precisely on February 26th, Ash Wednesday, that the first case of coronavirus contamination was announced in Brazil. Remember that?
Why remember this now? Because, once again, we urban planners are witnessing that our work is not serving the population as it should. Whether for political, and/or economic, and/or administrative reasons, and/or all together, our technique is not doing its part; or you are trying, but losing this battle badly.
The urbanization of Brazilian society, as in other countries, has been constituted, on the one hand, by principles of modernization, but, at the same time, it recreates delays, as the characteristics of urban Brazil impose challenging tasks, which architects and urban planners do not even have always found a place to speak, or are not prepared to face it.
It is always worth remembering that, in 1940, the urban population was 26.3% of the total, and today, we reach 85% of a population that has increased tenfold! This means that urban settlements were expanded to house more than 150 million people and few cities planned for this: not only carrying out a large movement of urban construction necessary for residential settlement, work, health , supply, etc., of this new population, but which has been mainly concerned with doing so in an equitable manner to the various income brackets of society, distributing benefits of urban mobility infrastructure to the outskirts and also taking care of the preservation of the environment .
At the end of April, beginning of May 2024, we are witnessing and crying the tragedy of Rio Grande do Sul. Despite all the numerologies of excess rainfall, because, in fact, we are going through a global climate crisis, I emphasize that the most acute crisis is the lack of management, which has been dragging on for some time and prevents more robust urban investments in combating and prevention of accidents caused by “forces of nature”.
Less impermeable, greener cities, occupation on firm soils, more sustainable architecture, reuse of water, investment in clean energy, infrastructure distributed in a network, are measures that do not prevent ongoing catastrophes, but prevent a large part, minimizing their effects. .
Experts say that the biggest problem we face in government actions is no longer the lack of prevention but rather the lack of acceptance that these types of “atypical” phenomena will be increasingly frequent. The planet’s average temperatures have been increasing for almost a decade, so there are no surprises – there is denial.
But, just as in 2020, when the headlines of Rio’s carnival overcame the tragedy that struck the flooded cities and opened the doors to the pandemic, now, to calm the Brazilian heart and give “peace” to negligent politicians, we have a most exciting subject in the spotlight, dividing the media: the show of the divine Madonna in Rio de Janeiro, this Saturday – when the first lady, who is not made of iron, will come to watch her here, live.
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