Credits: Graphics from Biomaterial Housing In Latin America And The Caribbean Report, 2023.
Daniel Ibañez, Mariano Gomez Luque, Michael Salka, Ana Gallego

Urban Design in the age of Planetary Urbanisation, the Climate Crisis and Big Data:

Today, urban design finds itself facing evermore complex and serious challenges in cities, and urban designers and planners have the undeniable responsibility to answer these challenges. What’s more, what the future holds is more and more uncertain. This brings forth the urgency to equip young urban designers with methodologies that can adapt to these constantly evolving conditions, and an evermore complex network of information, enabling designers to respond and design within planetary boundaries. 

The complexities of designing for all humans, rather than a select subset, and for just humans, rather than the planet, are increasingly evident in a world shaped by rapid urbanisation, socio-economic inequality, and the climate crisis. These issues are particularly pronounced in urban settings, where design choices influence behaviour, social equity, and resilience to global challenges. The question of who we are designing for is, at its core, a question of inclusivity and representation in the data and tools designers use. This limitation is compounded by the fact that existing data is often biassed, reflecting only certain demographics, perspectives or behaviours while overlooking others (Kitchin, 2014). 

The integration of local and remote data collection methods, such as direct user surveys, GPS movement tracking, and behavioural analytics, provides a more holistic view of urban life (Townsend, 2013). These tools enable designers to understand not just aggregate behaviours, but the nuanced differences within specific demographics, fostering environments that are accessible and welcoming to all.

Within this context, the X-Urban Design Studio proposes to enable the design of territorial and Urban spatial justice through the implementation of data driven design processes. The context of exploration takes the city of Rio de Janeiro as its testbed, in the occasion of the reviewing of its PDUI, 10 years after its actuation, with the opportunity to shape the drivers, through evidence based and data driven processes, from both a critical and creative perspective, for the next 10 years of Rio de Janeiro’s Urban development.

Rio de Janeiro, “a cidade maravilha”:

Rio de Janeiro, located in southeastern Brazil, is one of the country’s most iconic cities and a cultural symbol recognized worldwide. Located between the mountains and the Atlantic Ocean, its breathtaking landscapes include landmarks like Cristo Redentor (Christ the Redeemer), and the famous beaches of Copacabana and Ipanema. Beyond its scenery, Rio is well-known for its rich cultural heritage, vibrant music and dance scenes, apart from globally renowned events such as Carnival, which attracts millions of tourists every year.

Despite its captivating features, Rio de Janeiro and its metropolitan region face significant challenges that affect its urban and social fabric. Socio-spatial inequalities are severe, with sharp contrasts between wealthy regions and underdeveloped ones, such as the well-known “Favelas”. Urban mobility is marked by constant traffic congestion and inefficient public transport systems, while housing shortages and insufficient sanitation infrastructure further aggravate the existing disparities. On the other hand, environmental degradation in areas, such as the Guanabara Bay, presents an ongoing challenge to ecology and sustainability, as well as to public health. Considering the challenges faced by the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro, a holistic proposal of urban planning strategies is essential to ensure equitable high-quality cities, and foster sustainable urban growth in the age of climate crisis. 

Credits: PDUI Executive Report, Guanabara Bay Sketch, Paulo Kawahara

The PDUI:

The Strategic Plan for Integrated Urban Development (PDUI) for the Rio de Janeiro Metropolitan Region was an initiative designed to address these challenges and create a more inclusive, sustainable, and efficient metropolis. Developed between 2015 and 2018, the PDUI emphasized governance, socio-territorial cohesion, and urban reconfiguration. Its vision centred on reducing inequalities by promoting balanced access to services, infrastructure, and opportunities across the region, fostering polycentric development, and improving the quality of life for all residents. Key strategies included enhancing transportation networks, addressing housing and sanitation deficits, and revitalizing natural resources like Guanabara Bay.

The plan’s implementation was guided by a collaborative governance framework that involved the region’s 21 municipalities and integrated public, private, and civil society stakeholders. It set a roadmap with priorities such as promoting compact and sustainable urban growth, fostering economic diversification, and creating a resilient and cohesive urban environment. It meant to collect data, to review the genealogies of the territory, to establish guidelines and, finally, to put threats and potentialities in order, going through a long stage of diagnosis, a more creative one to imagine the futures of the territory, and finally a more interactive stage for this set of ideas in order to fulfil the ultimate goal: to be useful to society (quote by Willy Müller).

Credits: PDUI map, RMRJ Strategic Plan

However, in spite of the Plan’s good intentions, the region still suffers from the problems it identified – for instance, significant socio-spatial inequalities, inefficient transportation systems and traffic congestions, inadequate housing and infrastructure, as well as environmental degradation and ecological risks. Reviewing the Strategic Plan for Integrated Urban Development represents a unique opportunity to “model” the metropolis in the image and likeness of its desires, potentialities and possibilities, and address its pressing issues.

Collective Design Intelligence for Rio de Janeiro:

Through the revision of Rio de Janeiro’s Integrated Urban Development Plan (PDUI), we aim to harness the power of Collective Intelligence to foster spatial justice across multiple dimensions of urban design. We conceptualize the “machine” as the systems enabling the movement of people and goods (mobility justice and infrastructural justice), the “interspecies” as the emphasis in incorporating more-than-human perspectives (ecological justice) and the “crowd” as the pursuit of inclusive and equitable communities (social justice). Intertwined across these four axes of spatial justice is the integration of productive justice, as the capacity to provide for oneself in the economic realm, a driving component of Urban Planning in today’s day and age, and which we identify as a critical component in Rio de Janeiro’s urban, social and ecological context.

Credits: Graphics from Biomaterial Housing In Latin America And The Caribbean Report, 2023.
Daniel Ibañez, Mariano Gomez Luque, Michael Salka, Ana Gallego

Learning Objectives

At course completion the student will:

• Be capable to download, manage and analyse spatial data on the neighbourhood scale.
• Understand the basics of qualitative and quantitative data collection and analysis.
• Understand the basic concepts of urban governance and spatial equality.
• Understand the basic concepts of climate change adaptation and mitigation and inclusive urban design.
• Be capable of critically analysing urban planning tools.
• Be capable to design a real-situation urban project or proposal, managing both quantitative and qualitative data that supports it.
• Be capable to combine design, indicators, and citizen or ecology-centred processes to support an urban transformation proposal and narrative.
• Be capable of developing a complete creative and critical urban plan and design, as well as strategic directives to support this