[In]formal Interchange

Brief: AA Diploma 02 08/09 – The Choreography of Flow

Tutors: Anne Save de Beaurecueil & Franklin Lee

Technical Tutors: Adam Davis (Foster+Partners), Sandro Trubertini (BDP)

The Novo Rio Bus Terminal in Rio de Janeiro’s Portuaria region is located at a vulnerable point along the Northern axis of the city with access from the Via Perimetral along the city’s coastline. My project is to speculate how a hybrid architectural infrastructure could alleviate the environmental, transport and cultural bottleneck that currently occurs at this key junction, as mediator for the myriad of cultural, economical, transport, circulatory and environmentl flows converging at this point.

Currently the city is considering a generic ‘modern’ proposal that neglects the flows of informal economies and events that inhabit the infrastructural contexts, both along the highway and station. Deriving from Italian NeoRealism, the rising Brazilian cinema of the last 10 years, with films like City of God and recently Linha de Passe, focuses in the vivid depiction of the economic and infrastructural divides. Observing the informal economy and culture depicted in Central Station and occuring within the site, the project aspires to reconsider the role of cultural inhabitation in a building subject to informal occupancies.

Responding to the new ventilatory, acoustical and shading micro environments generated by the new Bus Terminal’s footprint and porous structure, the terminal is capable to further accommodate the surge of passenger and degrees of occupancy throughout the year.

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