Fissuras urbanas em Belo Horizonte (Brasil)

Abstract

In physics, fissures - or cracks - appear under two circumstances: a forceful collision provoking a split; or the incompatibility in the encounter of two distinct materialities. In urbanism cracks are found for example when two or more different systems violently clash such as urbanization and geography, market interests and social needs, state and civil society interaction. Alternatively, fissures are found in a more soft, but constant, parallel and oppositional move between two distinct rationalities: industry and labour, land use and economy, state and people, rich and poor, etc. The metaphor of fissures will therefore be used here to identify and describe both physical and social aspects of the urban realm. Through a spatialized reading on the historiography of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, this paper seeks the identification of urban fissures aiming at finding new scales and methods for urban design and actions in latin-american urban contexts.