Designing urban: the Legacy of Rio 2016 Olympics in Barra da Tijuca.

Author(s)

Renata Latuf de Oliveira Sanchez

• Document type: Doctoral Thesis
• Press: São Paulo.
• Institution: Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo (FAU/SBI)
• Defense date: 2019-12-09

Examining board members

Leandro Silva Medrano; Jorge Bassani; Lauro Luiz Francisco Filho; Haroldo Gallo; Rachel Coutinho Marques da Silva

• Advisor: Leandro Silva Medrano

Abstract

In 2016, the city of Rio de Janeiro hosted one of the major sports events in the world, the XXXI Olympiad. While the impact of Olympic Games regarding urban and architectural transformations in their host cities has been widely discussed within different disciplines, the literature review on Olympic legacy points out a gap in urban design related studies; rather, legacy is often assessed in economic, political, environmental or macro-urban-planning terms. This PhD investigates the urban design strategies applied in two Olympic sites associated with Rio 2016 Games in the main Olympic cluster of Barra da Tijuca: the Olympic Park and the Athletes\' Village. The analyses evaluate how the sites\' legacies relate to the pre-existing surrounding urban realm and the city, by understanding urban design both as an act and a process of designing cities. The urban design of these spaces was assessed by using contemporary urban design trends and standards suggested by field specialists as well as by comparison with the best practice model of the London 2012 Olympic Park. The evaluation is supported by observational analyses in a sequence of field trips between 2015 and 2019, as well as by interviews with planners and architects. The analysis also includes: (i) the extent of public participation in the planning and design of the sites; (ii) the process of selecting urban design projects; (iii) the relationship between theories of urban design and the projects as delivered; (iv) the relationship between the projects and the urban fabric of the city; and, finally, (v) the roles and coordination of the public and private sectors in project implementation. The thesis of the research is that the modifications in the original legacy masterplan for Barra da Tijuca\'s Olympic Park have undermined the possibilities of an original Olympic legacy in terms of urban design in Brazil. Without an urban design local plan, the demands of developers and real estate agents have sacrificed many of the potential urban design legacies for the city of Rio, which highlights one of the main contradictions in the delivery of Olympic legacies - namely the balancing the needs of the event and \'public good\' with the commercial realities of project delivery. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 16/21367-8 - 2016 Olympic games: architecture and city built
• Grantee: Renata Latuf de Oliveira Sanchez
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate (Direct)