Posts Tagged: brazil

22
Jan

2015

Cable Car Photo of the Week: Pão de Açúcar

Pão de Açúcar cable car in Rio. Image by Flickr user Jon Kristian Bernhardsen. (Creative commons.)

Pão de Açúcar cable car in Rio. Image by Flickr user Jon Kristian Bernhardsen. (Creative commons.)

Photographer:
Photo by Flickr user Jon Kristian Bernhardsen.

About:
A perennial favourite of the Gondola Project, the Pão de Açúcar (or Sugarloaf) cable car in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil was included in the Daily Mail‘s 10 most breathtaking gondola rides in the world back in October. This image is a good indicator of why it made the cut.

Every Thursday, the Gondola Project team will select stunning captures of CPT lines. We hope this will continue to bring more attention to the technology and provide visually impactful examples of cable car systems worldwide. If you’d like to submit or nominate a picture for our “Photo of the Week”, we’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment below or send us an email at gondola@creativeurbanprojects.com.



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Photo of the Week
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13
Feb

2012

Boxing and Highway Viaducts – Ad-Hoc Urbanism

An underground boxing ring in Sao Paulo, Brazil. A unique human layer that brings into perspective the beauty (and tragedy) that sometimes exist in many developing cities. Image by Nacho Doce.

In the past, we’ve discussed the implications of creating aesthetically-pleasing elevated infrastructure (recall the Ranstadrail and Most Beautiful Elevated Transport Infrastructure). While these examples exemplify the capabilities of planned transit infrastructure, I believe informal uses (and their spinoff effects) may deserve a little more attention.

One of the most inspiring case studies that I’ve come across is Sao Paulo’s underground boxing gym, located beneath the Alcantara Machado viaduct. This training academy was started by a former boxer, Nilson Garrido, as an attempt to help disadvantaged youth. Although Garrido’s pupils train with rudimentary equipment (tires, rocks, plastic containers), their dedication to the sport and their tenacity appears relentless.

Training facility located adjacent to highway overpass in Sao Paulo. Image by Nacho Doce.

I think this type of ad-hoc urbanism is a testament to human ingenuity and adaptability — one that is often unaccounted for and ignored by modern North American city-building principles. In other words, it begs the question: How many unique uses of urban space are lost when planners and decision-makers are confined to stagnant and outdated zoning laws?

For more photos, click here.



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Infrastructure / Urban Planning & Design
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