Priscila Lena Farias / Anna Calvera Marcos da Costa ... - Blucher

Design and the street
GEIGER, Noni / PhD / ESDI - UERJ / Brazil
Rio de Janeiro / Wall / Urban landscape / Intervention / Cultural
heritage
“Design and the street” aims to contribute to the widening of the
notion of the field of design, still viewed by many as an activity
that consists just in conceiving and inserting objects in the
world. Pointing towards the direction of its overlooked role as an
information agent, it intends to present an original and expanded
panorama of the field, where Rio de Janeiro is the site of action.
1. Introduction
This article aims to contribute to the widening of the notion of
the field of design that is still viewed by many as an activity that
consists just in conceiving, developing, producing and inserting
objects in the world.
It points towards the direction of its overlooked role as an information
agent, including the analysis and critics in design. Thus,
the article “Design and the street” intends to present an original
and expanded panorama of the field, having as its site of action
the scenario of the urban space of Rio de Janeiro.
The starting point of “Design and the street” lies on three individual
academic works of experimental nature developed by ESDI
- Escola Superior de Desenho Industrial 1 students as their final
course project. These highlighted projects, among many others
of interest, introduce new ways of approaching design to the
talent of Rio as a city of distinguished cultural heritage – local,
national and global – in its multiple aspects.
Since the beginning of its regular activities, in 1963, ESDI maintains
a curricular structure on a serial scheme, and one of its
pedagogical fundamentals implies on the engagement of the
student, throughout his last academical year (two semesters
comprised), on a design project of relevance, stated by himself.
Relevance meaning an effective contribution to the field of theoretical
and/ or practical research in Design.
We shall, though, make clear that “Design and the street” does
not put in perspective or addresses to a discussion about design
teaching methods, but, rather, to contextualizing the circumstances
where these projects took place. That also means that
our assumption is that the university, as an institution, must
1 ESDI [Superior School of Industrial Design]: established in December 1962, it is a
public school and free of tuition, considered the first institution in Brazil to offer a
design course of superior (university) level. Since 1975, it has been integrated to
the faculty units of UERJ - Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro [State University
of Rio de Janeiro], though remaining in the same address, in Lapa, downtown
Rio. The emphasis in this information concerns to our belief of the influence of its
location on the very mentality of the School. But this is another matter...
represent a fundamental agent that contributes to a society that
desires to install a public policy – or policies – that recognizes
the importance of its cultural heritage.
“Muro cotidiano” [Daily Wall], by Clarissa de Oliveira (2011);
“2011, Praça Mauá”, by Rafael de Vasconcelos Barboza (2011);
and “7” [Seven], by Guilherme Schneider (2001), feature unique
strategies of understanding and intervening in the urban space
of Rio de Janeiro.
2. Space/ time
Once it is the use that qualifies the space and the Earth
environment, there is only distance and, therefore “quantity”
(geophysics) to travel thanks to a movement (physical) more or
less durable, the fatigue of a path where the vacuum only exists
through the action intended to trespass it. (VIRILIO 1993: 118)
“Muro cotidiano” [Daily Wall] originates from the observation of
an urban space that belongs to the student daily journey, which
awareness was triggered by a proposed academic exercise
consisting in the description of certain aspects of her ride from
home to the university: ‘among several locations and boroughs
through which I fare daily, no doubt that Avenida Brasil 2 is the
most significant of all’.
Every day, more than 250 thousand vehicles of all sizes run
through this highway. People of all social classes, but mostly
C and D, commute towards Downtown and the South Zone of
the city, to work. In Geography, this movement could resemble
the pendulous movement: simple population flows that do not
actually correspond to migrations, since they are not accomplished
aiming at a final shift, being implied in the departure of
the individual the concrete perspective of his return to the place
of origin. In other words, every day, thousands of people travel
around 50 kilometers, the equivalent to one hour and a half to
three hours, depending on the traffic outflow, to arrive at their
work location and similarly to get back home.
According to Lynch, routes are, to many people, the predominant
elements in their image of the city. As they move through
avenues, streets, viaducts, railways, the other environmental
elements get organized and connected.
Paradoxically, it is the vision and experience of the same inhos-
2 Avenida [Avenue] Brasil is one of the most important urban sites in Rio de
Janeiro and the longest avenue in Brazil. It comprises 58 kilometers of extension
and crosses 27 boroughs of the city of Rio de Janeiro: São Cristóvão, Caju, Benfica,
Manguinhos, Bonsucesso, Ramos, Olaria, Penha, Cordovil, Vigário Geral, Parada de
Lucas, Jardim América, Irajá, Acari, Coelho Neto, Barros Filho, Guadalupe, Deodoro,
Ricardo de Albuquerque, Realengo, Padre Miguel, Bangu, Vila Kennedy, Santíssimo,
Campo Grande, Paciência and Santa Cruz.
Design Frontiers: Territiories, Concepts, Technologies / Proceedings of the 8th Conference of the International Committee for
Design History & Design Studies - ICDHS 2012 / São Paulo, Brazil / © 2012 Blucher / ISBN 978-85-212-0692-7