Urban Transportation Hub
Integration through Transportation and Transit Links
Design Objectives:
- To create a transportation hub on the site in order to make the favela more accessible from the outside.
- Following with the previous objective, to create a public center that can attract not only people from the favela, but people from the city proper as well.
- To introduce energy efficient and low impact transportation systems.
Proposed Transportation Systems & Strategies:
- Introduction of Funicular Railways along the steep slopes of the favela. A funicular or incline railway can be called an elevator-railway hybrid since it combines the technology of both. In a funicular, two trams are connected to each other with a cable that runs through a puller at the top of the incline. The counterbalancing of the two cars (with one going uphill and the other downhill) minimizes the energy required operate the railway. Funiculars can be installed on the steeper slopes around the site – particularly on the northwest and east slopes of the site for a more direct access.
- Re-routing of the roads adjacent to the site for better accessibly for private and public vehicles [Via Projetada GR-01 and Via Projectada GR-02 in particular].
- Introduction of greener transportation alternatives (public and private).
- Biofuel
- Hybrid vehicles
- Electric vehicles
- Bicycles
Proposed Program:
The transportation hub on the site should also serve as a destination for the people in the city. Introducing a public park and marketplace, while providing parking space for visitors can be the first step in opening the favela to the city (which will hopefully lead to integration).
- Open-Air Market: The greenspace to the east of the site can be converted into farmland, and serve as the source of the goods sold in the marketplace. A funicular railway could give direct access from the farmland to the site.
- Community Park: Green roofs may be employed on the marketplace, which then could serve as a public park for the local residents and the visitors to the site.
- Housing units: For relocated families.
- Public Parking
Design Proposal[PDF format]
______________________________________________________________________
Comment:
Hi Joyce,
The mixed-use program for the hub is ambitious.
With regards to the community garden, please see the “Park Fiction” project in the comments to “Aquatic Pavilion”
I’ve been doing some research into transport systems of informal settlements around the world. Here are some links that might be interesting for you:
+ Sustainable transport in Pune an area with similar traffic situation to Grotoa.
+ Mumbai Urban Transport Project which has been widely praised by the World Bank.
One article in particular has the title “THE END OF TRAMWAYS” and had an interesting argument for abolishing this mode of transport – something to keep in mind perhaps, at this stage of your project:
“EXIT THE TRAMCAR
Horse-drawn tramcars had been running in Mumbai since 1874,. When the electric tramcar appeared for the first time in the city on 7th May 1907, it was given a warm welcome as a very modern mode of transport. When the bus arrived on the scene in 1926, the tram-car ceased to be modern; but this did not affect its usefulness. In fact it became quite important as the poor man’s transport’ and continued to be so till the Second World War. The years that followed brought dramatic changes in the life of the city. Its population started growing rapidly. The people wanted faster transport. the tramcar was, however, innnocent of the fast-changing environment and it continued to rumble up and down, in its 1907 manner. There was, of course, little scope for improvement. If anything, it moved at an even slower pace, thanks to the congestion on the roads. It found the crowds bothersome and the crowds found it a clumsy, lumbering impediment to the smooth flow of traffic. The poor thing had no place in this swift-changing city. It had to go. The city had already started thinking of quicker substitutes for it.”
The article provides several alternative modes of transport which might be something to explore:
(1) Aerial Ropeway,
(2) Underground Railway,
(3) Overhead Railway (Aerial Monorail), and
(4) Water Bus
I hope this is helpful for your project.
best
Miranda
