South of the Cultural Corridor: housing and heritage in the central area of Rio de Janeiro, 1980s

ABSTRACT This paper discusses the history of heritage-making in downtown Rio de Janeiro, and the relations between culture, social subjects and housing in the context of the late 1970s and 1980s Cultural Corridor project. Based on an understanding that local appropriations and social subjects were one of the key conceptual elements of cultural heritage during this period, we question how the subject was articulated, studied and put into practice in downtown Rio de Janeiro during those years. The central role of the arguments for culture and of the cultural uses of the city in the downtown revitalization project are discussed, as are the contradictions posed by the absence of a housing discourse in such plans. We look mainly at the Cultural Corridor project and the study titled “Living spaces south of the Cultural Corridor,” linking them to actions by other cultural heritage actors in the region. We examine how the much discussed and coveted relation between housing and heritage - one of the pillars of heritage thinking from the 1960s onwards - took shape within the context of heritage practices in downtown Rio de Janeiro.

摘要 本论文探讨了里约热内卢市中心的遗产塑造历程，以及20世纪70年代末至80年代文化走廊（Cultural Corridor）项目背景下，文化、社会主体与住房之间的关联。基于当时本土文化适配与社会主体是该时期文化遗产核心概念要素之一的认知，我们探讨了彼时里约热内卢市中心的社会主体是如何被阐释、研究并付诸实践的。本文论述了文化论证与城市文化利用在市中心复兴项目中的核心作用，同时也探讨了此类规划中缺失住房话语所引发的矛盾。本研究主要聚焦文化走廊项目与题为《文化走廊南侧生活空间》的研究，并将其与该区域其他文化遗产行动者的相关举措相结合进行分析。本文考察了住房与遗产之间这一自20世纪60年代起便成为遗产保护思想核心支柱之一、长期备受热议与推崇的关系，是如何在里约热内卢市中心的遗产保护实践中得以成型的。