Curitiba - the pinnacle of excellent urban planning!

Wow, so Curitiba. It´s known as one of Brazil´s best cities for quality of life... and after spending one day here we are quickly learning why. I have always wanted to see Curitiba... I was inspired by a lecture I had during my uni days on examples of cities that have ´good´ planning. It was most interesting to me that a city classed as ´third world´could have transport systems as well as cultural and social programs which work better than a city in New Zealand, such as Auckland.

Here´s a geeky little background on the planning of Curitiba... Once the 1960s hit, Curitiba experienced similar challenges to many other cities around the world. The car became dominant, placing pressure on more roading infrastructure, and the population ballooned placing pressure on housing, social services and the general structure/urban fabric of the city. This brought about the ´Curitiba Master Plan´in 1965 which was proposed by a very popular guy (amongst Curitibans!) named Jamie Lerner, who later became mayor of Curitiba. Jamie proposed an improved and affordable transport system, preservation of the Historic Centre, reduction in traffic, and controls on urban sprawl. The interesting thing about this mayor was that he truely took control. There was no public consultation, he literally closed the city down over night and had construction crews working 24/7 until the city was transformed. The results, as far as I can see, are very positive!

So after a day of wandering around the city and taking it all in, here are my impressions of Curitiba.

The transport system - this is Curitiba´s pride and joy, and I can understand why. When it comes to getting around, the bus rules in Curitiba. Throughout the downtown area of the city are these glass tubes, where the buses stop. There is one flat fee, no matter where you are going in the city. There are many different types of buses, depending on your need and there are bus lanes everywhere.

Pedestrians rule - Some streets in the downtown area are purely for pedestrians. I was downtown around and lunchtime and it had a great vibe. Even though the weather was freezing, there were so many people about talking, sitting, walking, shopping... the way a public space should be enjoyed! I also noticed lots of measures for disabled people, which is a real first for South America as a whole. From what I have seen through the rest of Brazil, let´s just say I wouldn´t like to be disabled on some of the shocking cobbled, uneven roads and footpaths.

Social responsibility - One awesome program that I learnt about today was the ´Green Exchange Program´which basically gets the people living in favelas on the outskirts of the city to collect rubbish in and around their neighbourhood, and in exchange they recieve a bag of food and bus tickets. This program was motivated by the fact that the government could not afford to provide services to the favelas... so this was their solution.

Culture - this is the first city I have been to in Brazil which openly encourages theatre, the arts, music and learning. It seemed very prevalent with the number of independant galleries and small theatres around the place. I also noticed cool little antique shops, book shops and cute cafes. A nice European feel.

Environmental sensitivity - as a student and a professional planner, I have often wondered if the application of environmental sustainability principles to a city as a whole is achievable. Curitiba has shown that you only really need simple measures in place as well as ways to educate the people of the city on how to implement the ideas. There are parks all throughout the city - about 52 square metres of park space per person, to be exact! In the larger parks, sheep are let loose to graze which removes the need for expensive maintenance.

As you can see, very inspired by Curitiba indeed. Looking forward to more exploring tomorrow!

Brazil so far

Hi guys

Well I have decided to start documenting the big South American journey. I started a hand-written diary, but that lasted but one week... Lukas has been a bit better at writing things down! I have never written a blog before so hopefully this is interesting for anyone who decides to read it. At the very least, this can be a little motivation to keep a diary of my impressions of South America. The intention is for both Lukas and I to contribute to the blog. Where I can, I am going to be a little geeky by adding my impressions on the planning/urban design of citites, towns and spaces which we come across. Obviously, this is an interest that Lukas and I both share in our professions.

So here we are, finally, in South America. This trip has been a looong time in the making and I am so happy to finally be doing it! Travelling around South America for one year has always been a dream of mine. It all started when I was in high school, when I became good friends with some Brazillian exchange students who got me interested in the Brazillian lifestyle, the people, the language... which is when I decided I must go to South America, and for a good chunk of time. Since moving to Australia in 2009, Lukas and I made it our mission to get to South America within 2 years. So we saved and skimped... and now here we are!

The trip to South America was certainly eventful. Our first stop was Buenos Aires, Argentina where we stayed for 3 nights. Beforehand, I was so so sick! The moment we stepped off the plane in Auckland I got a terrible cold/flu. I think it was an accumulation of getting ready for the trip and moving away from Australia. The most awkward was when I threw up 4 times on the plane to Chile (our first stop). Do you know what it is like to be sick while travelling? Not fun - I can say that much!

We have been in Brazil now since 11 August 2011. How do I even begin to describe all the things we have seen and done in the past 5 weeks or so! I am not going to try and write about everything, but a few highlights which have stood out for me.

Sao Paulo

What a crazy city. This is where the adventure in Brazil began. I would describe it as a concrete jungle. For starters, there are 25 million inhabitants so you can imagine the number of high rises and highways that sprawl throughout the city. There is a massive gap between rich and poor. To give you an idea, to avoid rush hour and kidnappings, rich businessmen take helicopters to and from work. Still getting my head around this! It is a somewhat dangerous city so I was a little scared to say the least. But, Lukas and I were so fortunate to stay with my good friend from my Canadian exchange, Fabi. She took care of us so well! There is really something special about staying with a local, especially in a city like Sao Paulo.

Southern Coast

Between Sao Paulo and Rio de Janeiro we hugged the coastline while traveling with some French and Brazilian companions. We stopped off at a fantastic rustic beach house in Ubatuba, a quaint colonial village of Paraty, the subtropical island paradise of Ilha Grande and the hip upmarket beach town of Buzios. The scenery was stunning, especially the stretches where the rainforest-clad hills tumbled straight into the sea­­­ and where the palm trees gave the landscape a real tropical flavour.

Rio de Janiero

Another crazy city, but in quite an exquisite setting. One thing we did there that stood out for me was go to party in a favela. Yes, that's right - a favela! I was quite scared at first. But we were with abunch of locals who knew where we were going. Have to say it was amazing. The party was at a 'favela mansion' bought by an English guy. It was called 'The Maze'. Shows what you can do without a building consent! The house really was a maze, it was all over the show. It had an amazing view of Rio, caprihinas and a jazz/ska band playing. Walking through the favelas to get to the party was quite the experience. It's chaos but it works. The favela is it's own world. It has it's own network of alleys and shops and facilities. I wondered if perhaps the community works better in a favela that in other parts of the city.

Ouro Preto and Bahian Beaches

On our only venture seriously inland in the country we picked out Ouro Preto, a beautifully well preserved 18th C gold mining town set amongst the hills. Taking a stroll around the old town was quite special, churches and grand public buildings galore, no expense spared at the time and as attention steered away from the area after the gold rushes, the town is in an almost untouched state today.
Interested in keeping the beach theme going (partly in the interest of not blowing the budget!) we headed back out to the coast and covered the stretch up to Salvador over a few weeks, stopping in places with fantastic names like Arraial d’Ajuda, Trancoso, Porto Seguro, and Itacaré. Many days were spent lounging out under the palm trees with a picnic lunch and the daily treat of the odd piece of local delicacy like fresh tropical fruit, açaí (Amazonian berry blended with ice) and chilled coconut water. Salvador was an all together more intense and intruiging experience. The central part of town is another great example of a well preserved colonial centre and the African heritage of a large part of the population is evident in the music and dance, food and pace of life. It's also one of the more dangerous places to visit, so we needed to be alert constantly. The city is well worth a visit as it is quite unique for the continent.

The buses - well this is where it all happens! It seems every time we hop on a long distance bus, we get seated next to children who throw up everywhere. Seriously, it has happened 3 times! All sorts of people come on to the buses, and it seems we are usually the only backpackers. People sing, play their radios (very loud). The scenery out the window has been beautiful.... mountains, sunsets, the sea, paddoks. How do I describe it?!

Well that's all I am going to write for now. I am going to post some photos on Facebook soon so hopefully this will give a better visual explanation of what we have been experiencing here in Brazil.

Over and out for now.