Reviewing Design References with Diagrams： A Metropolitan Performance Assessment Perspective

The announcement of major sporting events scheduled to take place in Rio de Janeiro in the coming years is now producing several radical urban transformations that are attracting the attention of renowned architects of the international circuit. All this is happening in a city where relevant architectural references have not been produced for a long while because of the prolonged economic crisis of the past. Despite these conditions, people were able to detect “invisible” design lessons to be learned in this city by sharing perceptual experiences with foreign observers who are, by definition, unaware of their preconceptions. This paper deals with the development of a strategy for re-presenting design references that are locally rooted and accessible for direct embodied experience. The strategy put forward a MPI （metropolitan performance index） drawn out from a bibliographical survey coupled with analytical spatial diagrams of different case-studies presented as a tour guide for the recognition of the architecture produced in Rio de Janeiro. It is believed that this strategy can favor the adoption of an eye attuned to contemporary theories especially interested in the spatial and programmatic concerns that today instigate the designer.

Is the Right to Mobility a Right to the City? Examining a Well-Accepted Planning Paradigm

In many countries mobility is one of the pillars of public policies for urban development.The“right to mobility”has been assimilated to the very concept of the“right to the city”put forward by Henri Lefebvre a half century ago.However,based on recent surveys,the present paper intends to show that a greater offer of mobility can have the opposite effect of increasing the economic dependence of poor peripheries,thus contributing to the phenomenon of socio-spatial segregation.To show this perverse effect of mobility,we use the results drawn out from case studies located in the Metropolitan Region of Rio de Janeiro,Brazil.In this context,the areas with the greatest mobility offer correspond to those that are now more dependent and emptied of employment and daily urban life.This greater accessibility has the effect of transforming these better served areas into dormitory peripheries.In contrast,other areas,with much less mobility offer,are able to avoid this direct competition with the city center.In conclusion,the paper proposes a necessary revision of the concept of mobility as a foundation for urban development which became even more pressing under the current COVID-19 crisis.