Papers by Vicente del Rio
Focus, 2005
This paper was first presented in poster format at the 2004 annual conference of the Association ... more This paper was first presented in poster format at the 2004 annual conference of the Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning in Portland. It comments on the results of research conducted by the authors with the support of a Community Development Grant from Cal Poly´s CAED and the Orfalea College of Business. New Urbanism and Smart Growth are relatively new approaches to city planning and urban design that are designed to deal with the environmental problems, housing issues, and community well-being. The central principles of Smart Growth are that land uses should be mixed and higher densities and multi-family housing should be encouraged. New Urbanism includes the principles of Smart Growth, but adds that development should be visually tied together by the use of prescribed historic styles of architecture. Advocates of Smart Growth and New Urbanism make a number of claims about the value of this approach to planning. By encouraging mixed land-use and higher densities, urban sprawl should be reduced, which encourages sustainable development. Because people will be able to live near where they work, shop, and find entertainment, Smart Growth strategies should encourage walking and bicycle use, use of public transportation, and reduced use of automobiles. Because people will be living closer together and interact more with neighbors on the street and in commercial areas, Smart Growth should also encourage a heightened sense of community. New Urbanism advocates the use of consistent design themes, especially the use of historic design styles, to encourage increased sense of community due to stronger identification with one's local environment.
Focus, 2004
This paper resumes a research that concentrated in the effectiveness of residential urban design ... more This paper resumes a research that concentrated in the effectiveness of residential urban design in response to some of the key tenets of new urbanism. 2 Our original questions were: a) how this design truly reflects on the daily lives of the communities' residents; and b) how residents perceive it? To answer these questions, the research focused on (1) automobile dependency and ( ) sense of community, as the two major variables of new urbanism. In the broader context, with this research we hope to contribute to a better understanding of New Urbanism design and its influences in the life patterns, sense of community, and daily behavior of stakeholders, moreover, residents of new developments which have been built according to the New Urbanist agenda. We decided that a comparative study of a new urbanism development to a standard suburban development in the San Francisco Bay Area was the appropriate research method. Two case studies were adopted, both in California: The Crossings, a new urbanism development in Mountain View, and the Somerset, a suburban development in Sunnyvale. These two developments are similar to each other in terms of building age, starting home sale price, and residential demographics.
Focus, 2012
The CRP Department promoted a one-month summer international urban design program in Lisbon. Stud... more The CRP Department promoted a one-month summer international urban design program in Lisbon. Students learned about planning and design by visiting a series of great places and towns in Portugal, and by participating in an interdisciplinary studio project with students from a local university. Vicente del Rio, program coordinator, and Jenna Hahn, one of the participating students, write about this unique experience.
Focus, 2009
This article is a discussion of sustainability and contemporary Brazilian urbanism. Moving away f... more This article is a discussion of sustainability and contemporary Brazilian urbanism. Moving away from the modernist approach which was very destructive of existing contexts, urbanism in Brazil is now pluralistic, participatory, and contextual. This paper reflects in part the contents of Vicente del Rio's and William Siembieda's new book Contemporary Urbanism in Brazil: Beyond Brasilia. Sustainability is a subjective and complex concept, which has been amply utilized, but rarely, without a clear definition. On the one hand, definitions are not usually dependent on environmental performance, which has typically been the case when reflecting (not sure if reflecting" is the best word choice) desired levels of environmental quality such as air and water quality. On the other hand, the idea of sustainability seems to be suffering from having become fashionable and popular; although constantly used in many contexts, sustainability means different things to different people -and these meanings are deeply engraved in the political objectives of discourses. When we try to understand sustainability as a holistic concept, and particularly when we try to apply such a concept on an urban setting and relate it to development and urbanism, things get much more complicated.
Place-Making in California’s Central Valley: Redesigning the Avenue 12 Corridor, Madera County
Focus, 2011
Focus, 2005
In the Fall of 2004, CRP had visiting scholar Carlos Leite for post-doctoral studies, research an... more In the Fall of 2004, CRP had visiting scholar Carlos Leite for post-doctoral studies, research and teaching. He offered a course where students from city and regional planning, landscape architecture, and architecture, were able to study São Paulo, a global city with a population of 18 million people. Students were challenged into innovative projects for the sustainable redevelopment of a railroad brownfield in the high-density central city as an opportunity for positive territorial and social transformations.
Focus, 2007
In the summer of 2006, faculty Vicente del Rio and Umut Toker developed a series of community wor... more In the summer of 2006, faculty Vicente del Rio and Umut Toker developed a series of community workshops in Traver, Calif., towards a participatory concept plan envisioning local development and future growth. In this article they discuss the active involvement of the community and the successful results of this planning process.
Traditional Dwellings and Settlements Review, 1993
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The Modern Movement ideals of transformation and progress coincided with the national spirit and ... more The Modern Movement ideals of transformation and progress coincided with the national spirit and zeitgeist of the 1930s Estado Novo in Brazil. Despite a persistent conflict between distinct urbanist views a progressive approach of urbanism became eventually predominant. Its strong impact on urbanist manifestations reached its climax with the construction of BraSilia. This paper explores some negative aspects of the modern legacy in Brazilian urbanism, but by acknowledging that Modern Movement ideals helped to establish a great sense of social consciousness and promoted a common aim, also the creation of a particular identity is recognized. By strengthening local elements of identity the perverse aspects of contemporary globalized culture may effectively be attenuated; an excellent reason why we must not neglect our modern legacy. Certainly in Brazil, more that in many other countries, the only during the Estodo Novo in the 1930s that the Brazilian Modern Movement in architecture and urbanism has been Modern Movement would gain body and consistency, turning emblematic and left a significant legacy. Modern constructive into a national cultural paradigm, and starting to gather and plastic expressions already marked the Brazilian volume and density until its climax with the construction of panorama in the 1920s, when the ideological foundations of Brasilia. 1 Such a strong paradigm that, even if never fully the movement emerged and it started to be structured around realized, served generations of young architects, and its the European experiences of the inter-war period. But it was signs are still clear in every Brazilian city.2 Placeless landscope resulting from on urban renewal plan by Affonso Reidy for the Esplonada de Sonto Antonio, center of Rio de Janeiro. The area resulted from the demolishment of a historical and populated hill but the plan was too glandiase and detached from reality to ever be completed. Photo: V. del Rio. ,mo.mo_ 23 The Modern City Facing the Future
Perceived Livability and Sense of Community: Lessons for Designers from a Favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
ABSTRACT
A Influência Do Projecto Na Qualidade Do Lugar
Este artigo apresenta os resultados parciais da pesquisa PROJETO E QUALIDADE DO LUGAR: Avaliação ... more Este artigo apresenta os resultados parciais da pesquisa PROJETO E QUALIDADE DO LUGAR: Avaliação de Desempenho de Lugares na Cidade do Rio de Janeiro, relativos aos estudos de caso das áreas conhecidas como General Glicério e Parque Guinle 1. A partir de um quadro teórico e conceitual comum fundamentado em conceitos de sentido de lugar e de percepção e comportamento ambiental, além de uma metodologia com base nas dimensões de desempenho da forma urbana propos-tas por Kevin Lynch, a pesquisa procura avaliar o grau de correspondência entre a qualidade ambien-tal percebida por moradores e usuários com os atri-butos físico-espaciais oriundos dos projetos originais para as áreas. As descobertas e os resultados par-ciais têm demonstrado a validade da metodologia utilizada para a avaliação do projeto e do desempe-nho urbano, sugerindo uma relação direta entre a forma urbana definida pelos predicados do projeto original, a qualidade percebida e o reconhecimento dessas áreas como lugares esp...
RESEARCH BASED DESIGN: PARTICIPATORY PROGRAMMING FOR THE CAp SCHOOL, AT THE FEDERAL UNIVERSITY OF RIO DE JANEIRO
The adoption of participatory methods in the programming, design and evaluation of the built envi... more The adoption of participatory methods in the programming, design and evaluation of the built environment is of importance to the development of the architectural profession, and for the creation of buildings more responsive to the needs of users. This paper discusses the experience gained in a participatory design workshop at PROARQ-the Graduate Program in Architecture of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, coordinated by visiting professor Henry Sanoff. The case study – a design intervention strategy in a school managed by the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro for refurbishing the existing building or constructinga new one – permitted a participatory process in which teachers, parents, students and staff contributed effectively to the quality of the final proposals for increasing the building's performance, and consequently their level of satisfaction. Participatory design methods in shaping the school environment were explored, not only for their effectiveness in buil...
Anais do Projetar 2009
This paper discusses three of the main movements in contemporary urbanism in the US, and some of ... more This paper discusses three of the main movements in contemporary urbanism in the US, and some of their implications for Brazil: New Urbanism, Smart Growth, and LEED-ND (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design Neighborhood Development System). The first movement, born out of architecture, concentrates on the visual and physical dimensions and on sense of community. The second one, more encompassing, is meant to orient urban development through sustainable policies. The third one aims at orienting urban projects in the reduction of their environmental impacts, and is being developed by the United States Green Building Council (USGBC) from their criteria for architecture and construction which have been widely adopted by both public and private sectors, and are also used in Brazil. In the first part, we present the evolution and the basis of each movement. In the second part, we discuss the results of a research and the application of each movement’s criteria on two recent urban ...
Reclaiming City Image and Street Livability
Contemporary Urbanism in Brazil, 2008
Contemporary Urbanism in Brazil
URBAN DESIGN International, 2009
This paper is a contribution to the discussion on how to incorporate community participation into... more This paper is a contribution to the discussion on how to incorporate community participation into the urban design process within a pedagogical context. It is based on an outreach project by a class in the city planning graduate program at California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo. The project included an Internet survey to gather community input for a contentious riverfront site in Redding, CA. The responses permitted a study of perceptions, attitudes and expectations about the city and the project area, and an examination of design alternatives. The Internet survey provided 864 responses and generated a rich amount of information that was utilized in the programming and selection of design concepts for the project. The site's proprietors, the community and the media were in full support of the final project, which prompted the city council to appoint a special committee to oversee the advancement of specific policies and recommendations for the area's future development. The effectiveness of the method of public input and the successful project process suggest important pedagogical and professional implications.
Journal of Planning Education and Research, 2008
Adults are responsible for selecting and creating the environments where their children and youth... more Adults are responsible for selecting and creating the environments where their children and youth live, but it is not clear if these places contain the qualities that young people value. In this study, high school students from three communities were surveyed regarding their perceptions of where they live to determine whether indicators identified by previous research as qualities that youth value are present in those communities and perceived to be important. Although the results suggest the indicators are important to the adolescents, their communities lack a majority of them and this has contributed to low satisfaction ratings. Recommendations for better integrating adolescents into public participation processes are discussed along with implications for planning and design.
Journal of Planning Education and Research, 2004
Postmodernity and economic globalization incite countries, regions, and cities to compete for inv... more Postmodernity and economic globalization incite countries, regions, and cities to compete for investments, consumers, and resources. In aspiring for a new position in this global market, cities utilize new urban practices that lead them to rediscover and reinvent identities and traditions. In Rio de Janeiro, the mythical dimension of the South Zone is inseparably incorporated to its identity. In evaluating the history of the imagery linked to the beaches and the projects for the waterfront, one may observe a social construction of a reality that is marked by a continuous redesigning of symbols but also by a discontinuity in the history of urban interventions. Although tourism and marketing continually praise the waterfront as a fundamental factor in the image of the city, a continuous public management process never really existed. The city managers must understand the beaches, the waterfront, and development along the shoreline as important resources in a continuous process of soci...
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Papers by Vicente del Rio