Understanding the genesis of form in Brazilian informal settlements: Towards a grammar-based approach for planning favela-like settlements in steep terrains in Rio de Janeiro
The lack of housing is a worldwide problem. According to United Nations data, 900 million people live in informal settlements and this number is estimated to double by 2025. In Brazil it is estimated that 6 percent of the national population (11 million people) live in informal settlements, called favelas. In cities like Rio de Janeiro this number can go up to 20 percent (1.3 million people).
The spontaneous occupation of land within the limits of the city of Rio de Janeiro by favelas creates a dense settlement model guided by an economy of resources.
The goal of this research is to develop a shape grammar-based approach to the planning of affordable housing settlements, based on the model of favelas, developing rules to replicate their positive characteristics but avoid their flaws. Santa Marta, an iconic favela in Rio, is used as a case study. The research encompasses the following steps: literature review; data collection and modeling of the case study; generating the grammar-based analytical computational model; assessing the case study; revising the analytical model to propose a synthetic computational model to generate favela-like settlements; and validating this model.
Results from this research include the development of a shape grammar to explain the settlement process of favelas in steep terrains and a set of rules to illustrate how favela-like settlements could be planned. In addition, the study contributes to the theory of shape grammars by extending Knight’s theory of grammatical transformations to create the synthetic grammar from the analytical one.
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