Curitiba
Sustainable Urban Living:
Although Curitiba has 2 million people it is very different from how it does things. Curitiba was one of the first places to do citywide recycling. Its principle architect put in the strategy that people matter more to a city than economics, believing changes on a small scale are more effective in the over all, an example of this is changing a small street into a walking mall. A key aspect to the city is its special recycling system. Also the way the parks are set up it works to keep slums from developing and they prevent flooding. The advanced transit system is a huge part of the sustainable urban living, with the bus system, Curitiba is able to cut down on traffic and transport up to five thousand passengers per bus a day. I believe this is a key way to live in a city sustainably. I also believe if New York City tried this transit system it would greatly improve the cities impact as well as using the same parks system. If these were implemented the “Big Apple” would greatly influence the world. Curitiba is a city to be modeled after.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r4sumpEqnlY
The Smartest City:
Curitiba was once a problem with pollution and traffic, until their mayor decided to change things. An example of this is how they changed areas into parks, and the parks worked as ways to deal with drainage and flooding. Compare to the other video about Curitiba, this video is a discussion about how Curitiba has changed using technology and gambling with new concepts. Similarly to previously stated, if the Curitiba “project” could be used in other cities around the world the outcome could yield improvements that would solve many problems major cities face, however certain aspects could not be applied.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i2nOHTc4qDM
TED Talk:
The video discusses how a city can be remade in only three years. Discussing the idea urban model being a turtle (shows the example of a turtles shell being a city), meaning people should live closer together instead of an individual commuting to and from work, instead people should follow the pattern of the people of Curitiba with methods of transit using the bus and tube system. Stressing it is not the type of car or bus, it’s the fossil fuels that cause pollution, and to improve this the concepts need to be fixed, and the education needs to be improved to improve the problem. Teaching children is a great way to improve the environment because you teach children, and the children teach their parents, then the parts are the ones who improve things, (a.e. recycling). Which in my opinion is all great ideas regarding the innovative ideas of Curitiba and their methods of being a sustainable city.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=haKh9mCk3xk
Reflections:
January 8-9:
Curitiba is the capital of the Brasilian state of Perana, Curitiba was governed by Jaime Lerner. Jaime single handedly changed Curitiba into the sustainable city it is today. When in Curitiba the group stayed in a hotel located in the outskirts of the city. Once the group went into the city we took a bus tour, which took us to several different parks located around Curitiba (the parks which were made to assist in the cities problem with runoff, and flooding). In these parks we saw the river system the was used to roughly filter the runoff water before it goes through proper treatment in the water treatment plants, this allows time and resources to be saved through the natural filtration of the water. In these parks the grass is not cut with conventional methods such as lawn mowers, instead animals such as the habaneras can be seen consuming the fields of grass, maintaining its appropriate length.
On the bus tour the group was also able to see the famed Curitiba bus system, which works by people loading into the tube (after paying) and waiting for the bus, the buses are made to hold more people than average buses, and come much more frequently than most bus systems. This allows the city to cut down on traffic, as well as cutting down on pollutants from vehicles.
In the city we stopped at a walking mall covered by a glass building. This walking mall is open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. Several of these malls are in the city, as well as streets closed to cars made only for pedestrians.
The final destination of the bus tour was the Botanical Gardens of Curitiba. The significance of the botanical gardens is that they contain every plant species native to Brasil.
When returning to the hotel we attended an authentic Truskeria, which is a type of Brasilian steak house where they continuously bring you many different kinds of food.
Pictures:
1: The truskeria
2: Repurposing of tube bus system
3:Walking mall
4: In use tube bus system
5: The loading of bus via the tubes
6: The river system/animals consuming/cutting the grass
7: The botanical gardens
8: The park waterway system, with the city in the background