City-quarry: the manipulation of matter in the urbanization of Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

This essay is part of a Final Undergraduate Paper and was used as a space not yet completely contaminated by the conventions of the contemporary occupation of the architect to circumscribe a series of questions formulated during graduation. The explored theme was the urban landscape resulting from a dialectical and inseparable relationship between humans and the natural and built environment. The analysis tool is the rock extraction industry and its construction technique, focusing on enslaved, degraded, or immigrant labor, which contributed strongly to the construction of the city of Rio de Janeiro and its population. The voids of countless deactivated quarries throughout the city are seen as possible receptacles of the memory of the social relations intrinsic to the formation and maintenance of cities. Therefore, these monumental voids, resulting from the symbolic transformation of topography into architecture, are configured as powerful spaces for the discussion of the role of the project and, consequently, the architect and urban planner’s occupation.