1. CASE STUDY: Settlement redevelopment
in Rio de Janeiro

2. Improving a shanty town…
…what would you do?
Look at your cards and in groups of 3
decide what you would want to change.
You have to decide what to do over a 2
year period and you have 200 shanty
town points to spend each year.
Write your answer on the mini whiteboard

3. Housing in Rio
• Over one million people live in over 600 favelas in Rio de
Janeiro, for example Rochina.
• The houses are constructed from any materials available,
such as wood, corrugated iron and broken bricks.
• The accommodation lacks basic services such as running
water, sewage and electricity.
• The houses are often built on hillsides which means that,
when it rains, flash floods can cause landslides.
• Inhabitants of favelas have no legal right to the land on
which they live, which means that they can be evicted at
any time.
• Historically some favelas had been bulldozed to the ground
but now the government accept that they are here to stay.

4. Rochina Fact File
• Rochina is a large squatter settlement
(200,000 people) and now 90% of its
housing is made from brick and have
electricity, running water and sewage
systems.
• Residents work in one of the wealthy areas
near by, e.g. Ipanema and this gives them
money to help improve their homes.
• Rochina has an amazing number of services
now, its own radio station, clothes shop,
travel agents and school!

5. Rochina Favela Self Help Scheme
• Stage 1:
– This aimed to improve the buildings in the
favelas. The occupants were given paved
and formally named roads, water and
sewage pipelines, moved from areas of very
high risk (from landslides) to safer
locations and rivers were channelled to stop
them causing flooding in the favelas.

6. Rochina Favela Self Help Scheme
• Stage 2:
– The next stage was aimed at integrating
the favela dwellers into society by
generating employment, improving
education levels (e.g. ICT) and giving
residents credit so that they can buy their
own building materials to help improve their
homes.

7. Local Authority schemes: Barra
da Tijuca
Video (45.30 – 48 mins).
• Due to the mountainous relief and its coastal location
space has been at a premium for a long time in Rio. As a
result a new road – the Elevado do Joa – was built to
link the centre to a new suburb of Barra da Tijuca.
• Barra has grown from 2,500 in 1960 to now over
100,000! It has a huge number of services like car
mechanics, schools, hospitals and offices.
• It is mainly for the wealthy middle class who can afford
to commute to the centre of Rio for work each day. It
is a centre in its own right now and people do live and
work in this new settlement.

8. Map of Rio de Janerio
Rio CBD
Rochina
Urban
area
Elvado
do Joa
City grown
on flatter
land in-
between
mountains
Barra de
Tijuca
Atlantic
Ocean

9. Homework
• Question:
• Use a named example to describe how
problems of squatter settlements in the
poor world can be reduced. (6)

10. What is wrong with these
houses?