The Economist, “Brazil Takes Off,” Aug.-Jan. 2010 (via archdaily; harvardgsd)

‘In the August-July 2010 edition of The Economist, Bjarke Ingels and Paul Nakazawa examined Brazil’s potential to undergo a “new urban revolution” with the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics Games. With these two major events being hosted by the same country, Brazil will need to implement long term strategies for properly equipping the areas. Yet, the real solution lies in the country’s “improvements for the large local population rather than merely servicing the temporary needs of the global tourists and the world press.”’

“The Graduate School of Design vs. Business School Studio aims to combine the creative experimentation of the designers with the rigorous number crunching of the economists to evolve practical ideas that are both socially, environmentally and economically profitable. Focusing on the problems and potentials of Rio de Janeiro the studio will aim at generating ideas for how the imminent investments for the 2014 World Cup and the subsequent 2016 Olympic Games can be placed to catalyze long term improvements for the the large local population rather than merely servicing the temporary needs of the global tourists and the world press. The world traditionally views public and private interests as opposites. The interests of the global capital and the local population are seen as mutually exclusive. However admirable and necessary philanthropy is, it will never be the long term answer to a big problem. It is a temporary relief or a short term fix, because it is dependent on injecting energy into a system without triggering a self propelling process. If we have an interest in social issues we need to design business models that improve the living conditions of the poor as a byproduct of a profitable process. We need to design eco systems – systems of both economy and ecology - that operate like urban perpetual motion engines – in dependant of charity but rather processes triggered by investment. With the global attention and massive investment for the two upcoming mega events fueled by the roaring Brazilian economy,  Rio is at a strategic moment to seize the situation and envision a millennium upgrade of its urban infrastructure. What if we could come up with ideas where profitable real estate development and improved living conditions for the favellas might be two sides of the same coin. What if the temporary swell in hotel capacity for the games would trigger better living conditions in the long term. With the creation of Brasilia, Brazil has previously proven its capacity to pursue big ideas for order and progress. But rather than a tabula rasa where pure principles are projected on a clean canvas, we propose an evolutionary model that interprets and intervenes in the existing conditions of  Rio’s urban landscape to breed new hybrids between the interests of profit and the interest of the people.”