Paraisópolis Favela, São Paulo,Brazil: Urban Morphology through the British School

Abstract

Internationally associated with the Rio de Janeiro scene, favelas are typical features of the urban landscape in all main Brazilian cities, primarily in metropolitan areas. Favelas are the places where the poor are forced to gather to continue living in urban areas, in a process that increasingly pushes them towards the outskirts of the cities. Considering the São Paulo metropolis, the Paraisópolis favela has been mostly shaped by the dwellers’ individual actions, who built it and shaped it to what we see today. The buildings erected by public authorities on the borders of the community represent the main formal breach of continuity. Considering this formal discrepancy and the apparent homogeneity of the urban fabric in Paraisópolis, this article seeks to understand the complexity of the urban form in this favela, working in the theoretical field of urban morphology as presented by Costa and Netto (2014) and Oliveira (2016), as well as in the procedure developed by geographer Conzen (1960), who is considered the creator of the British School of urban morphology. Through the analysis proposed in this study, it has been realized that changes in urban form are consistent with the socioeconomic periods which overlap in today’s city. We have noticed a correlation between the Paraisópolis study, and a study carried out by Conzen (1960) in the city of Alnwick, in England. The database consisted of cartography and aerial photographs found in public planning agencies. These data were redrawn and georeferenced. Understanding favelas through morphological studies is no novelty; however, the accomplishment of this work has been to remain within the array of the most solid research studies.