INFORMATION ABOUT BRAZIL

1. Rio de Janeiro is a large city of 11.7 million people situated on the south east coast of Brazil
in South America. It is the second largest city in Brazil (after São Paulo), and is the 39th
largest city in the world. It was the capital city of Brazil up until 1960, when it was replaced
by Brasilia.
Social challenges
Migration
Rio has experienced rapid growth in recent years because of rural to urban migration.
Huge numbers of people have moved from countryside areas into the city, mainly in search
of jobs. This has put a great deal of pressure on services and amenities.
Push factors (driving people away from the countryside) include:
 few job opportunities
 low wages
 difficult and unprofitable farming
 no land ownership
 lack of social amenities
 sense of isolation
 natural hazards, eg drought
Pull factors (attracting people into the city) include the perception of:
 job opportunities
 higher wages
 better schools and hospitals
 better housing and services (water, electricity, and sewage)
 better social life
 better transport and communications
Housing
Rapid growth of the city has led to a housing shortage. Most of the rural migrants begin
their life in Rio in shanty towns called 'favelas'. 19 per cent of the population live in around
600 of these shanty towns. They are found mainly on the edges of the city, on poor quality
land that is not suitable for urban development. People here are squatters, with no legal
rights to the land they occupy. They live in overcrowded conditions, often in home-made
shelters constructed from scavenged materials like timber, tarpaulins and corrugated iron.

2. The shanty towns have grown spontaneously with no planning, and so have no proper
roads, pavements or local services like hospitals. The largest shanty town is called Rocinha,
in the south of the city - overlooking the beaches and main tourist hotels.
Transport
With the country undergoing rapid development, car ownership has grown and the central
business district is very congestedwith high levels of air pollution. Mountains hem in the
city on the coastline, so traffic is confined to a limited number of routes. Buses and trams
provide public transport for the residents, and the city has two subway lines. Roads in the
favela areas are often just dirt tracks, and most people living here walk to their
destinations.
Education
There are few schools in the favelas.
Health care
There is a shortage of hospitals and clinics in the favelas, and high levels of illness and
disease prevail here.
Crime
High levels of crime, violence and drug abuse blight many of the favelas. Street crime is a
problem in the tourist areas, although pacification has recently started to improve crime
rates.
Economic challenges
 Poverty - there is a massive gap between rich and poor citizens in Rio. Many wealthy
people live close to the central business district - right next to the favelas.
 Employment - there are few job opportunities in the favelas. Poor transport systems
make it hard for residents in the favelas to travel to work. Many citizens of Rio work in
the informal job sector as street sellers, shoe shiners, etc.
Environmental challenges
 Urban sprawl - this is an issue as the city continues to grow rapidly, encroaching on
surrounding rural (countryside) areas.
 Pollution - from traffic congestion in the city centre, and from industrial zones. Litter is
an issue on the beaches.
 Waste disposal - a particular problem in the favelas, where there is no organised sewage
or waste recovery systems.
Social opportunities

3.  Ethnic and cultural diversity - providing a huge mix of different religions, foods and
customs. 51 per cent of Rio's population is white (including the largest Portuguese
population outside of Lisbon), 36 per cent is multi-racial, 12 per cent is black, 1 per cent
Asian, and 0.1 per cent Amerindian.
 Education - Rio has a number of universities and higher education institutions. It is the
second largest centre for research and development in the country.
 Community - the favelas demonstrate tremendous community spirit, co-operation and
recycling of materials.
 Culture - Rio is famous for its annual carnival, samba schools, and sporting events. The
Maracanas Stadium is one of the largest football stadiums in the world. The football
World Cup was hosted there in 2014, and the Olympic Games were held there in 2016.
Economic opportunities
 Industry - Rio is a major trading port, with important oil refining and ship-building
industries. The main exports from Rio are crude petroleum and semi-finished iron and
steel products. Headquarters of major industries are located here, including Petrobras
(energy company), Vale (mining company) and Grupo Globa (telecommunications).
Favelas create their own economies, and recent improvements have allowed shops and
restaurants to develop.
 Tourism - Rio is one of the most visited cities in the southern hemisphere. Major
attractions include the beaches (eg Copacabana and Ipanema), the statue of Christ the
Redeemer(on Corcovado peak), and Sugar Loaf Mountain.
 Sport - football is the national sport in Brazil, and major global sporting events take
place here.
Environmental opportunities
 Beaches - the iconic and crowded beaches of Copacabana, Ipanema and Leblon face the
Atlantic and are flanked by mountains in the background. This area, known as the
'Carioca' is listed as a World Heritage Site.
 Urban forests - the Tijuca National Park and White Rock Forests are two of the largest
urban forests in the world.
Sustainable strategies to improve the quality of life in the
favelas
In the 1990s, the Favela Bairro Project was set up to help improve life in the favelas and
upgrade them rather than demolish them, as has happened in other locations. This work
has been carried out with government funding to provide facilities like electricity, sewage
systems, rubbish collection and public transport.

4. Construction of a dwelling in the favela of Rocinha
 Self-help schemes have also been supported. Here, local residents are provided with
building materials like concrete blocks and cement in order to replace home-made
shelters with permanent dwellings. These are often three or four storeys high, and with
water, electricity and sewage systems installed.
 Legal rights such as granting the favela residents rights to own their own properties.
Low rents have also been offered.
 Transport systems have been extended to include the favelas to give residents the
opportunity to travel to work in the city centre and industrial areas.
 Law and order has been improved in the favelas by trying to rid these areas of crime and
drug abuse. Several large favelas have been improved in this way through federal
'Pacification Programmes'.
 New towns like Barra da Tijuca, built 20 kilometres along the coastline, have been built
to relocate some residents from city favelas.

5. Case Study – Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro is a city located on Brazil’s south-east coast. It is one of Brazil’s
largest settlements with a population of approximately 11.7 million people. The
population of Rio de Janeiro has grown for a number of reasons. Natural
Increase is one reason for its growth (this is when the birth rate is higher than
the death rate). The population has also grown as the result of urbanisation. The
has been caused by rural to urban migration. Millions of people have migrated
from Brazil’s rural areas to Rio de Janeiro. 65% of urban growth is a result of
migration. This is caused by a variety of push and pull factors.
The rapid growth of Rio de Janeiro’s population has led to a severe shortage of
housing. Millions of people have been forced to construct their own homes from
scrap materials such as wood, corrugated iron and metals. These areas of
temporary accommodation are known as favelas in Brazil. The conditions
associated with favelas are very poor. Often families have to share one tap, there
is no sewerage provision, disease is common and many people are unemployed.
Favelas are located on the edge of most major Brazilian cities. They are located
here for a number of reasons. Firstly, this is the only available land to build on
within the city limits. Secondly, industry is located on the edge of the cities. Many
people need jobs, therefore, they locate close to factories. Some of these
settlements maybe 40 or 50 km from the city centre (on the edge of the city),
along main roads and up very steep hillsides.

6. Rio de Janeiro
(A named city in an LEDC)
Location:
Situated around the huge natural harbour of Guanabara Bay in S. E.
Brazil.
Maps courtesy of www.theodora.com/maps used with permission
Growth:
Replaced by Brasilia as country's capital.
Replaced by São Paulo as country's largest city and centre of
industry and commerce.
But still a megacity.
Estimates suggest 6 million people live in Rio and 12 million in the
metropolitan region.
Rio has two sides:

7. 1. The beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema - backed by luxury
housing
2. The problems of rapid urban growth including favelas, traffic
and crime
Problems:
Housing: Estimated 1/2 million homeless street dwellers.
Over 1 million live in favelas (informal shanty settlements). 1 million
live in poor quality local authority housing. Over 600 favelas - the
largest are Rofinha and Morro de Alemao, each with a population of
100,000.
Most favelas in Rio built on hillsides too steep for normal
housing. People have to carry everything they need including water
into favelas.
Rain causes flash floods and mudslides which can destroy houses. In
1988 over 200 people died.
Crime: Favela's seen as areas linked with organised crime, violence
and drugs. Many well-off people moving out of city to places such as
Barra da Tijuca, which they see as safer.
Traffic: Mountains hem city in, so traffic channelled along limited
number of routes. Severe congestion, pollution and noise.
Pollution: Industrial haze and traffic fumes. Beaches also very
polluted. Huge amounts of waste and rubbish created. Favelas -
rubbish builds up, polluted water supplies, open sewers cause health
hazards.
Solutions:
Self-help schemes - Rocinha
Residents of Rocinha transformed favela into a small city.
Buildings upgraded to brick and tile.
Many lived here since favela developed in 1950's.
Set up own shops and small industries - the 'informal sector'.
Authorities now accepted the existence of favelas and added
electricity, paved and lit some streets and added water pipes.
Improvements restricted by steep hillside and high density of housing.

8. Favela Bairro Project:
City authorities set aside £200 million to improve 60 of the 600
favelas.
The plan include - replacing wood buildings and those built on
dangerous slopes with larger (5x4m) brick houses, widening streets,
laying pavements, laying water pipes and electricity cables, improving
sanitation, providing health and sports facilities, using local residents
as labour.
New town of Barra da Tijuca:
Wealthy residents of Rio looked for a safer place to live with more
space.
Nearest flat land 20KM along coast.
1970 4 lane motorway cut through mountains and on stilts over sea.
1995 New town of Barra had population of 130,000. Process of
counter-urbanisation.
Self contained city.
5 KM of shops, schools hospitals, offices, entertainment.
Spacious, luxurious accommodation. 3/4 of accommodation is in high-
rise apartments, protected by security guards.
Barra already has its own new favelas.

9. Contents
 1History
o 1.1Colonial period
o 1.2Portuguese court and imperial capital
o 1.3Republican period
 2Geography
o 2.1Parks
o 2.2Environment
o 2.3Climate
o 2.4City districts
o 2.5Central Zone
o 2.6South Zone
o 2.7North Zone
o 2.8West Zone
o 2.9Barra da Tijuca region
1

10. Historical Background of Rio de Janeiro
Rio de Janeiro became the colonial capital in 1763 and was the capital of
independent Brazil from 1822 until 1960, when the national capital was moved to
the new city of Brasília; the territory constituting the former Federal District was
converted into Guanabara state, which formed an enclave in Rio de Janeiro state.
Location Rio de Janeiro city
The city is located in the south east of Brazil at the South Atlantic Ocean, 220 mi
(355 km)east of São Paulo and 580 mi (930 km) south east of Brasília,
Brazil's capital.

11. Brasília was a planned city developed by Lúcio Costa, Oscar Niemeyer and Joaquim
Cardozo in 1956 in a scheme to move the capital from Rio de Janeiro to a more central
location. The landscape architect was Roberto Burle Marx.[6][7]
The city's design divides it into
numbered blocks as well as sectors for specified activities, such as the Hotel Sector, the
Banking Sector, and the Embassy Sector. Brasília was inscribed as a UNESCO World
Heritage Site in 1987 due to its modernist architecture and uniquely artistic urban
planning.[8]
It was named "City of Design" by UNESCO in October 2017 and has been part of
the Creative Cities Network since then.[9]

12. Costa was born in Toulon, France, the son of Brazilian parents.[3]
His father Joaquim Ribeiro
da Costa, from Salvador, Bahia, was a naval engineer, and his mother Alina Ferreira da Costa,

13. was from Manaus, Amazonas.[4]
He was educated at the Royal Grammar School,
Newcastle upon Tyne, England, and at the Collège National in Montreux, Switzerland, until
1916, he graduated as an architect in 1924 from the National School of Fine Arts in Rio de
Janeiro. After some early works in the eclectic manner, he adopted Modernism in 1929.
Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho (December 15, 1907 – December 5, 2012),
known as Oscar Niemeyer (BrazilianPortuguese: [ˈoskaʁ ni.eˈmajeʁ]), was a Brazilian architect
considered to be one of the key figures in the development of modern architecture. Niemeyer
was best known for his design of civic buildings for Brasília, a planned city that became
Brazil's capital in 1960, as well as his collaboration with other architects on the headquarters
of the United Nations in New York. His exploration of the aesthetic possibilities of reinforced
concrete was highly influential in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Both lauded and criticized for being a "sculptor of monuments",[1]
Niemeyer was hailed as a
great artist and one of the greatest architects of his generation by his supporters.[2]
He said
his architecture was strongly influenced by Le Corbusier, but in an interview, assured that
this "didn't prevent [his] architecture from going in a different direction".[3]
Niemeyer was
most famous for his use of abstract forms and curves and wrote in his memoirs:

17. Oscar Niemeyer, in full Oscar Niemeyer Soares Filho, (born
December 15, 1907, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil—died December
5, 2012, Rio de Janeiro), Brazilian architect, an early
exponent of modern architecture in Latin America,
particularly noted for his work on Brasília, the new capital
of Brazil.
Niemeyer studied architecture at the National School of Fine
Arts, Rio de Janeiro. Shortly before he graduated in 1934, he
entered the office of Lúcio Costa, a leader of the Modernist
movement in Brazilian architecture. He worked with Costa
from 1937 to 1943 on the design for the Ministry of
Education and Health building, considered by many to be
Brazil’s first masterpiece of modern architecture. The
design reveals the influence of the Swiss-born French
architect Le Corbusier, who was a consultant on the
construction. Niemeyer also worked with Costa on the plans
for the Brazilian Pavilion at the New York World’s Fair of
1939–40.
Niemeyer’s first solo project was the plan for a complex
within Pampulha, a new suburb of Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
Commissioned in 1941 by Juscelino Kubitschek de Oliveira,
then mayor of Belo Horizonte, the scheme included a
church, casino, dance hall, restaurant, yacht club, golf club,
and the mayor’s weekend retreat, all situated around an
artificial lake. The complex’s buildings are notable for their
free-flowing forms. One writer described the facade of the
church as resembling “the trajectory of a bouncing ball.” In

18. 1947 Niemeyer represented Brazil in the planning of
the United Nations buildings in New York City.
Chapel of São Francisco, designed by Oscar Niemeyer, in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
Loren McIntyre/Woodfin Camp & Associates
When in 1956 Kubitschek was elected president of Brazil, he
asked Niemeyer to design the new capital city of Brasília.
Niemeyer agreed to design the government buildings but
suggested a national competition for the master plan, a
competition subsequently won by his mentor, Lúcio Costa.
Niemeyer served as chief architect for NOVA-CAP, the
government building authority in Brasília, from 1956 to
1961. Among the Brasília buildings designed by Niemeyer
are the President’s Palace, the Brasília Palace Hotel, the
Ministry of Justice building, the presidential chapel, and the
cathedral. In 1961 Niemeyer returned to private practice and
for a time lived in Paris and Israel. In 1966 he designed an
urban area in Grasse, near Nice, France, and a building for
the French Communist Party in Paris. From 1968 he
lectured at the University of Rio de Janeiro.
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Niemeyer’s other architectural projects include the Ministry
of Defense building in Brasília in 1968 and Constantine
University (now Mentouri University) in

19. Constantine, Algeria, in 1969. In the mid-1980s he began
rethinking and renovating some of his former designs in
Brasília. He changed the shape of the exterior arches on the
Ministry of Justice building and replaced the windows of the
cathedral with stained-glass panels. He continued to design
new buildings, including the Museum of Contemporary Art
in Niterói, Brazil, which opened in 1996. Even after
celebrating his 100th birthday and despite criticism that his
newer work lacked the elegance of his earlier projects, in
2007 he began designing a cultural centre for Avilés, Spain,
where in 1989 he had received the Prince of Asturias Award
for the Arts. The building was inaugurated in 2011.
Niemeyer was the recipient of many other international
awards, including the Lenin Peace Prize in 1963, the Pritzker
Architecture Prize in 1988 (cowinner with Gordon
Bunshaft), and the Japan Art Association’s Praemium
Imperiale prize for architecture in 2004. The Oscar
Niemeyer Foundation, dedicated to architectural
preservation and research, was founded in 1988, and a new
headquarters designed by Niemeyer opened in Niterói in
2010.
Projects in the immense town plan included the Presidential Palace, Praça dos Três
Poderes, Civic Museum, the seats of 11 Ministries and the Cathedral, in addition to
500 social housing residences.
Returning to Rio following the inauguration of Brasilia (1960), he continued his
design career in his distinctive energetic yet balanced style far removed from
overblown functionalism. Examples of his work include Constantine University
Complex, Algeria (1968), Le Havre Cultural Center (1982), Latin American Cultural
Center, San Paolo (1992), Niteroi Contemporary Art Museum, Rio (1996) and
Curitiba Museum of Plastic Arts (2003), the largest in South America.
The designer himself reflected on his work saying, “I have always accepted and
respected all other schools of architecture, from the chill, structural features of
Mies van der Rohe to the imagination and delirium of Gaudi. I must design what
pleases me in a way that is naturally linked to my roots and home country."

21. Costa was born in Toulon, France, the son of Brazilian parents.[3]
His father Joaquim Ribeiro
da Costa, from Salvador, Bahia, was a naval engineer, and his mother Alina Ferreira da Costa,
was from Manaus, Amazonas.[4]
He was educated at the Royal Grammar School,
Newcastle upon Tyne, England, and at the Collège National in Montreux, Switzerland, until
1916, he graduated as an architect in 1924 from the National School of Fine Arts in Rio de
Janeiro. After some early works in the eclectic manner, he adopted Modernism in 1929.