Refunctionalisation of the Rio de Janeiro port´s area: the city as a commodity and her waterfront as its prime gateway

Abstract

Since the pioneering initiatives of the 1960s in the United States of America, projects of functional reconversion and socioeconomic redevelopment of seaport cities degraded areas have multiplied around the world. In a global context of redefinition of port / city interfaces, our text presents the urban operation “Porto Maravilha” of refunctionalisation of the Rio de Janeiro waterfront reflecting on the relationship between the local and the global scales dynamics of reproduction of generics urban objects and the production of singular amenities. In the competition among internacional cities to attract investments flows, events, tourists and goods, Brazil’s “company town” so bets concomitantly in dynamic homogenization of space and valuing urban, historic, cultural, scenic singularities to create competitive advantages. On the other hand, the relationship between the city and the port is not a subject of debate.