Rio de Janeiro central area: cultural heritage, social participation and urban politics (1970-2000)

• Grant number: 14/05513-9
• Support Opportunities: Regular Research Grants
• Start date: February 01, 2015
• End date: January 31, 2017
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Architecture and Town Planning - Fundamentals of Architecture and Urbanism
• Principal Investigator: Flávia Brito Do Nascimento
• Grantee: Flávia Brito Do Nascimento
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo (FAU). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

This research aims to study the heritage-making and urban preservation processes in the downtown area of Rio de Janeiro, from its early inception in the 1970s until the 2000s, when the valuation process of cultural heritage became the focus of urban intervention projects. It proposes to observe the debates and practices of preservation in Rio's downtown, contributing to a long-term understanding of the preservation processes in Brazil. Based on a history of the ideas, concepts and actions around the issue of heritage, the project seeks to comprehend the role played by Rio de Janeiro in national policies and how the close presence of Iphan technicians, based in the city, worked to meet the demands of the metropolis. We will attempt to understand how new agents form civil society and from municipal and state levels of public administration were inserted into this process, as they provided new conceptual parameters which turned Rio into a pioneering city in dealing with the subjects of urban pre-existence and valuation of built spaces. Using several sources, such as periodical publications (newspapers and magazines), interviews, maps, field surveys, processes of listing buildings in registers of historical places and assessments of project approval procedures, we will attempt to re-create a social history of the city's cultural heritage in its downtown area. (AU)