Os outros Rios de Janeiro. Estudo sociológico sobre o imaginário dos arquitetos no contexto de preparação dos Jogos Olímpicos de 2016

Abstract

Considering the arrangements for the 2016 Olympic Games, where part of the physical space of the city of Rio de Janeiro is redesigned by architectural and urban interventions, this study is concerned with the performance of a very specific character: the architect. More specifically, I explore the conception of architects about the city within the above-mentioned context, bringing to light images of past, present and future of this city. The theoretical purpose herein is to sociologically understand the (Lefebvrean) imaginary of architects about Rio, seeking evidence of the social basis underlying the representations mediated by such imaginary. For that purpose, the architectural and urban designs that won the Porto Olímpico Contest (Concurso Porto Olímpico) and the Olympic Golf Course Clubhouse Contest (Concurso Sede do Campo Olímpico de Golfe) are subject to a document analysis. In addition, their respective authors and co-authors were also interviewed. As a result, such approach enabled discovering an imaginary that seems to be sustained either by images of empirically existing spaces (neighborhoods and public sites of Rio and foreign cities) or images that do not find their places in the empirically existing world. This imaginary revealed representations of the city that can be associated with two dimensions of the social life of these architects: their life experience in Rio de Janeiro and other cities, and their academic background. Theoretically guided by the concepts of Henri Lefebvre on the production of space and its representations, this study aims to extend the interpretative possibilities of the conceptual framework of the French sociologist, while giving voice to architects in Brazilian urban studies, a field where such subjects are rarely seen as protagonists.