Parque de Educação Ambiental Professor Mello Barreto

Name	Parque de Educação Ambiental Professor Mello Barreto by Architect Fernando Chacel
Place	Rio de Janeiro, Barra da Tijuca
Country	Brazil
Topic	Revitalisation of an illegal residential occupation area to a city park
Author(s)	Juliana Aschwanden-Vilaça
Completion	Please enter the date of completion
Client	Please enter the client
Project costs	Please enter the costs (if known)
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Rationale: Why is this case study interesting?

• The project shows how a natural and protected area that suffered the impact of an illegal occupation can be restored through the called “ecogenesis”.

According his friend and botanic Luiz Emygdio de Mello Filho ”the idea of ecogenesis as the main purpose of man’s creation of substitute ecosystems for degraded or lost ecosystems as result of human interventions stems from the 40’s. It was proposed by team members of the National Museum and has perfectly adjusted to the country’s socioenvironmental reality. It is therefore essential that these anthropic substitute ecosystems, through different from the original ones, maintain, preserve and convey to the future the values they once sustained so that they may endure in the environment reality.”

• The Architect Fernando Chacel, that was Burle Marx's trainee in the 50's and today is one of the most important Landscape Architect in Brazil, with more than 50 years of experience, is author of this project.

Author's perspective

• What theoretical or professional perspective do you bring to the case study?

Description

• Rio de Janeiro is the second biggest city of Brazil, with more than 6 million people in an area of 1200 km2. The Professor Mello Barreto Nature Education Park is located in Barra da Tijuca, around the Jacarepagua Lagoon.

The park was financed through a local community (Acibarra) that wanted to recuperate the degraded area and guarantee the protection of the Lagoon-Margin Protection Belt.

Fernando Chacel, one of the greatest Landscape Architect of Brazil, made the project during around three months.

Landscape and/or urban context

• Biogeography, cultural features, overall character, history and dynamics

Situated on a peninsula around the Jacarepagua Lagoon, surrounded by the Atlantic Rainforest of Rio de Janeiro, the area is in the Tijuca Lagoon-Margin Protection Belt, covered by a good-sized mangrove before it was illegally occupied.

The Park is an answer to the recuperation of the mangrove ecosystem into the Lagoon-Margin Protection Belt. The whole landfill that landed the mangroves during the years of destruction was used to build the park, that is situated in a higher level.

Illustration: Map; sketches; short descriptive analyses

Cultural/social/political context

• Brief explanation of culture, political economy, legal framework

Around thirty years ago, this area, that is twenty times bigger than Rio downtown, was empty and with a difficult access. Just in the 70's, when the access was improved, big undertake companies began to buy lands for a very low price to build for the rich people. At the same time the poor population that worked on the construction, built their "favelas" around, what contributed too for the destruction of the ecosystem, through the trash they threw into the lagoon.

During the construction of the big luxurious buildings around the lagoon, the mangroves were landed. The ecosystem was almost totally destroyed. Although the area is regarded as permanently preserved area by the Brazilian Constituition, the government didn't interfere. After some years, the area got value and the “favelas” turned inconvenient for the rich population and for the traders. The simply removal of this population would be against the human rights. But the permanent accusation of ecological degradation “helped” them to accuse the “favelas” as the responsible for the destruction, what served as an excuse to remove them.

To avoid the forced removal of this poor population, a local community (Acibarra), leaded by a lawyer, started a project of environmental education for the people about the importance of the mangrove ecosystem for the fauna and for the human life quality. The community could convince the population to move back their constructions from the Lagoon-Margin Protection Belt and to replant the local vegetation. Despite all efforts during two years and the new mentality, the government and the builders didn’t care and decided to move the “favelas” away through violence. In 1994 was all the “favelas” completely remoed. The local community and the government dislocated the population to a new popular houses complex nearby, specially built to shelter them.

Once the area was reclaimed for the public domain, the municipal government and private enterprise again joined forces to recuperate the Lagoon-Margin Protection Belt, under the supervision of the Municipal Environmental Protection Agency. Today, the Professor Mello Barreto Nature Education Park occupies this area.

Illustration: Bullet points, image, background notes

History

• How did the area/project/plan at the focus of the case study evolve?

Illustration: Table or time line

Spatial analysis of area/project/plan

• The park is situated in the Lagoon-Margin Protection Belt around the Jacarepagua Lagoon, along one kilometre of a seven kilometres area that involves the Via Parque.

• The project process involved:

1. Recuperation of the mangrove forest.

2. Recreation of a substitution ecosystem.

3. Restructuration of the mangrove forest and the restinga vegetation (vegetation of a salty and sandy land near by the sea) with native flora.

4. Education through the park – the visitors can appreciate and learn about the Atlantic vegetation along the park ways.

5. The park excludes any intensive use, like sport courts – the idea is to rest, to appreciate the nature along the ways and to learn with it.

Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

Core Questions Working Group Nature Conservation / Water

What is the evolution of the urban relation between humans and nature?

Date? Architect maybe from Government?

The project shows how a natural and protected area that suffered the impact of an illegal occupation can be restored through the called “ecogenesis”. It is therefore essential that these anthropic substitute ecosystems, through different from the original ones, maintain, preserve and convey to the future the values they once sustained so that they may endure in the environment reality

Analysis of program/function

• What are the main functional characteristics?
• How have they been expressed or incorporated?

Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

Analysis of design/planning process

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• Were there any important consultations/collaborations?

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Analysis of use/users

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• Is the use changing? Are there any issues?

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Future development directions

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• Are there any future goals?

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Peer reviews or critique

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• What were their main evaluations?

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Points of success and limitations

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References

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