Border Comparisons

Here are aerials of different dry-land border cities . The first three are cities along the Brazil-Uruguay border. All these cities have grown around the border, just as many cities grow along a main axis. I have arranged them from most to least "border-developed".

Rivera is the best known free trade zone in the Gaucho border. Its main source of income has been the tax-free shopping, so much so that after going into a Uruguayan cafe for a soda, the owner said, "Gracias, buenas compras!"












Xuí is the southernmost city in Brazil. It is the final stop before Uruguay for those traveling along the Atlantic coast of Brazil. Much like Rivera, it has developed along its major commercial avenue that sits on the Brazil-Uruguay border. The Avenue is the center of their own free trade zone.











Aceguá is also on the border between Brazil and Uruguay, about sixty kilometers south of Bagé. It did not have a free trade zone and has been very underdeveloped in its urban quarters. Its most successful developments are actually many miles outside the urban zone in the form of co-ops and horse farms. In 2007 the free trade zone was announced in the city and there is speculation that the city will turn into another shopping area for Brazilian Gauchos. So far, it is a distribution point for smuggled produce into Uruguay.











Just for the sake of comparison, here is Tijuana. The severe cut between the US and Mexico is such a stark contrast with the seamless border between Brazil and Uruguay that one must wonder how this "fronteira" has not been exploited more thoroughly yet.

Mundus Mound

These were my boards for submission into the ACSA Steel Competition for 2008. It was in the spring semester of 2008 that I became interested in regionalist and incremental approaches to architecture thanks to my studio with Prof. Bennett and my seminar with Prof. Bechhoeffer.































Months later I have been finding images in Brazil of similar cases of what I proposed a year ago. This is the Edifício São Vito in São Paulo, Brazil:

Interview at CEASA

An interview with Amurim, a "carregador ambulante" or freelance carrier. He transports goods from trucks or loading docks to the market building and from the market building to the buyer's truck. I caught him at the end of the work day and he gave me his thoughts on how to improve the CEASA.


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Interview with "Velho"

An interview with "Velho", the general store owner at Colonia Nova, the co-op just north of Aceguá. It was difficult to find someone to talk there, since they always claimed either to be too ignorant to be worthy of documenting or to not know anything worth mentioning. It takes a few minutes for them to warm up to you, often without a camera, so for this interview I hid my camera while chatting.


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How I put myself in danger and didn't even know

In Google-ing for Aceguá, I found a news article - perhaps the only news ever coming from Aceguá- that happened on the same day that I was there taking pictures and video and being interrogated by the look-outs. Turns out the same contraband group that I caught on camera was caught some miles down the highway with over five tons of contraband Brazilian fruits and vegetables. It looks like I should stay away from Aceguá for a little while, or at least go in a different car, so that they don't blame me for their capture...

Here is the original news feed:

Uruguai apreende contrabando brasileiro de frutas e verduras

2008/12/26

MONTEVIDÉU (AFP) — Funcionários da Alfândega uruguaia apreenderam nesta sexta-feira mais de cinco toneladas de frutas e verduras produzidas no Brasil e que entraram ilegalmente no Uruguai, informaram autoridades.

A apreensão ocorreu na região da fronteira com o Brasil, entre as cidades de Melo e Aceguá, a cerca de 400 km de Montevidéu.

No total, foram apreendidos 5.400 quilos de batatas, cenouras, mangas, mamões e bananas, acondicionados em caixas sem identificação do produtor ou importador, como determina a legislação uruguaia.

Segundo a Alfândega, o contrabando entrava no Uruguai transportado por motos, do território brasileiro, e era distribuído entre diversos varejistas.

and translated:

Uruguay captures contraband of Brazilian fruits and vegetables

2008/12/26

MONTEVIDEO (AFP) — Uruguayan customs workers apprehended this Friday more than five tons of fruits and vegetables produced in Brazil and illegally entered into Uruguay, inform authorities.

The apprehension occurred in the frontier region with Brazil, between the cities of Melo and Aceguá, about 400 km from Montevideo.

In total, there were 5,400 kg of potatoes, carrots, mangoes, melons, and bananas in boxes with no identity of producer or importer, as is required by Uruguayan legislature.

According to customs, the contraband entered Uruguay by motorcycles, from the Brazilian territory, and were distributed to diverse vendors.

Change

I was there.

Images of the CEASA

I took far far too long to decide to visit this place. Two weeks into my trip and documenting too many things I will never use, I found my pot of gold. The CEASA-RS is the "Central de Abastecimento do Rio Grande do Sul", an agricultural supply center. Farmers and sellers from the entire state drive to this complex between Porto Alegre and CANOAS to sell their produce at wholesale quantities. Local markets and restaurants all buy their supplies here directly from the planters. The complex within its 6 working hours circulates over 40,000 people every day. There were plans to double the complex but the land needed has yet to be purchased. The chaotic scene is the best proof of the success of the CEASA. It is the only major center in the state, although there are two micro-CEASAs in Pelotas and Caxias do Sul. Centers like these in smaller scales could maximize the distribution capabilities of the producers in the state, especially in places lacking strong trade organization like in the Pampas.



In the administrative building I also found old pictures of what the distribution centers looked like before the CEASA and a few pictures from the CEASA's construction.

Images of IAPI and Vila dos Comerciarios

The Instituto de Aposentadorias e Pensões dos Industriários (IAPI) was built in 1936 during the "Estado Novo", headed by Getulio Vargas with similar ideals as the "New Deal". There are IAPI's in several Brazilian cities, all built as "cidades jardins", much like garden cities in the United States such as Greenbelt, MD. The IAPI is now a neighborhood in Porto Alegre since it has been surrounded by development.

The most striking difference between IAPI and Greenbelt is the preservation of the place. Architects in Brazil are constantly enfuriated by the "discharacterization" of planned towns, they complain about the modifications to the buildings, the landscapes, and the building uses. On the other hand, the inhabiting of these places and gradual modifications and marks left by its residents adds an incredible amount of character and physical layers of history. My impression of IAPI is that even an iron-fist home-owner's association could not have prevented the incremental changes of the neighborhood.



An aerial photo of the IAPI

Mercado Publico in Porto Alegre

The Mercado Publico in Porto Alegre is one of the best known in Brazil, particularly for its revitalization in the 1980s. It is still considered the best place to purchase fish in the country and is the anchor to one of the busiest public squares in the city. Around it, overflow produce sellers have set up shop near the bus stops and paved plazas. The market is my favorite place in Porto Alegre, reminiscent of the city's origins as a port and trade post while incorporating the gaucho lifestyle and modern downtown atmosphere. It is colorful, alive, and infinitely rich in photographic potential.



A block from the market is a building that has been abandoned since it was under construction. It is over 15 stories tall and in the heart of downtown but was never completed so it has been taken over by squatters. They have installed windows, power, television antennas, clotheslines, stores, and all the spontaneous parts of most favelas inside the building's skeleton. Here are a few pictures:

Images of Rio Grande

The city of Rio Grande is in the souteast tip of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. It is home to the second largest port in Brazil, behind Santos. It has just been given an enormous investment by the government to expand the superport. With the speculated tripling of the port, the housing market in the city has boomed, although in the very lowest class of dwellings. The city contrasts a rich tradition of colonial and eclectic Portuguese architecture with the gritty industrialized superport development. Here are images from the downtown area, the housing projects in the outskirts, and the summer beach town next door.

Images of Aceguá

Aceguá is the city I intend on using as my project site. It has lived off its position on the Brazilian-Uruguay border and has recently been granted a free trade zone. I was surprised to find that the city had not changed much since the first time I passed through three years ago. I was also surprised to find an elaborate, albeit meager, contraband operation dealing Brazilian produce into Uruguay. My cameras called attention to the popcorn vendor, who happened to be a look-out, and he eventually interrogated me about my presence there. I played the dumb tourist, but still left rather fast with all my incriminating photage.

On the way back to Bagé, we passed through a German colony between the two cities called Colonia Nova. It was established as a cooperative in the 1950s by German immigrants producing dairy goods. I will post more information on the co-op later.

Images of Santana do Livramento and Rivera

Pictures from the border city of Santana do Livramento, Brazil, and Rivera, Uruguay. Essentially the city has developed along its border driven by a free trade zone. The dividing avenue is a site for informal shops and a variety of goods, generally aimed at the lower class. The streets off that avenue house several duty free shops aimed at the middle and upper classes.

Images of Bagé

A slideshow of my explorations in Bagé on Christmas day. It is the city in the Pampas that I am most familiar with and a short(ish) distance from the border sites I am researching.