Environmental Protection Areas and Urban Heritage in Rio de Janeiro:structuring a policy

• Grant number: 23/17513-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Effective date (Start): June 01, 2024
• Effective date (End): May 31, 2026
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Architecture and Town Planning - Fundamentals of Architecture and Urbanism
• Principal Investigator: Flávia Brito Do Nascimento
• Grantee: Bruna Bacetti Sousa
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo (FAU). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The research aims to study the urban heritage of the city of Rio de Janeiro and its municipal cultural preservation policy in the 1980s. The main objective of this study will be to investigate the structuring of the Environmental Protection Area (APA) Sagas, which encompasses the protection of the port neighborhoods of Saúde, Gamboa, and Santo Cristo, as well as a portion of downtown. This area is a direct result of the debates and actions of the Sagas Project. Developed between 1983 and 1986, this project was an innovative experience of cooperation between public institutions and civil society to ensure the protection of urban areas in the port zone from large demolitions that characterized the processes of metropolitanization at that time. The experience of constructing the APA Sagas is paradigmatic, as it established legislation based on both cultural preservation norms and territorial planning, aiming to reconcile conservation and urban transformation with the maintenance of the populations residing in central areas and the protection of traditional local uses. The APA Sagas solidifies its prominent position in the trajectory of structuring Rio de Janeiro's urban preservation policy by laying the groundwork for the establishment of another unprecedented urban protection device in the country: the Cultural Environment Protection Area (APAC), integrated into the Decennial Master Plan of the City of Rio de Janeiro in 1992. The intention here is to reflect on the municipal urban preservation policy in Rio de Janeiro from primary sources, such as inventories and dossiers, decrees, and municipal laws, as well as interviews with individuals involved in the processes. This reflection covers the period from the development of the APA Sagas in the 1980s to the emergence of the APAC in 1992.