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.

KEYWORDS:
Corredor Cultural; Urban heritage; Preservation politics; Rio de Janeiro; Social housing