Claire Rigby takes us behind the televised spectacle and into the free and fluid world of the street party – Rio’s true Carnaval. Above: The outskirts of a bloco in Leblon, on Tuesday morning. By Claire Rigby From the world-class razzle-dazzle of the sambadrome to the endless, hedonistic celebration that takes place in its streets, Brazil(…)
Arquivo - Tag: urbanism
Brazil under construction
South America’s largest country is finally, hopefully, on its way to patching up its woefully lacking infrastructure. But fixing one problem sometimes means dealing with others. By Dom Phillips Living in Rio can at times feel like living on a construction site. Construction is all around: a new metro line, new highways, the whole decayed(…)
Watch the skies: São Paulo’s helicopter wars
In São Paulo, the true elite skip the streets, buzzing between the tops of the skyscrapers that dominate the city, and passing over the plebes stuck in traffic below. Restrictions have come up in last few years, but in the ongoing tussle over the skies, the heli-set is now striking back. Photography by Robert Bellamy, all rights reserved.(…)
Brazil vs. Argentina
A mostly pointless post in which I quickly and subjectively compare the two countries, and share some (slightly) juicy, but meaningless, gossip about glamorous Argentine President Cristina Kirchner. I just got back from Buenos Aires, and it has occurred to me to do a very quick post on the (very significant) differences between the two(…)
Street life and the megacity
Public scenes of teeming life are harder to find than you might expect in São Paulo, and some of the best examples are under fire By Claire Rigby The streets of São Paulo, for a city of almost 20 million, are far from teeming. Quite the opposite. Where other Latin American cities are characterized by(…)
São Paulo to finally get bicycles
São Paulo will install 300 bicycle stations, each with 100 units available for rental. The scheme is similar to those in Paris, London, and Rio de Janeiro. They will likely be free to use for the first hour or so, then incur charges after that. They’re sponsored by Brazilian bank Itaú. It’s a bit of(…)
