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.

Role of the Architect in Development

Program Sketches

My search for a program is narrowing down, as might have been evident in my rant on the public market of Bage. The idea of a workers villa, or co-op, still is on the top of the priorities. The development of the village patterns around a raison d'etre is what I must develop more in depth.

The Pentagon's New Map

In my search for world maps and the global situation of development, I came about Thomas P.M. Barnett's The Pentagon's New Map. In his web site http://www.thomaspmbarnett.com/, he talks about the risks of Brazil and Argentina:

3) BRAZIL AND ARGENTINA Both on the bubble between the Gap and the Functioning Core. Both played the globalization game to hilt in nineties and both feel abused now. The danger of falling off the wagon and going self-destructively leftist or rightist is very real. • No military threats to speak of, except against their own democracies (the return of the generals). • South American alliance MERCOSUR tries to carve out its own reality while Washington pushes Free Trade of Americas, but we may have to settle for agreements with Chile or for pulling only Chile into bigger NAFTA. Will Brazil and Argentina force themselves to be left out and then resent it? • Amazon a large ungovernable area for Brazil, plus all that environmental damage continues to pile up. Will the world eventually care enough to step in?

Here is his map (by William McNulty), that delineates the "functioning core" and "non-integrated gap" zones of the world.



In reference to the Amazon, he fact that a country cannot manage its own territory is insulting, regardless of the fact that the administration of the Amazon really is out of control. The way he presents it is reminiscent of the fiasco from about seven years ago when a textbook mapped the Amazon as an international zone. Help is of course welcome, but in non military or territorial means.

The first question referring to the Mercosul, FTA, and NAFTA is valid. South America is divided into two drifting pieces, the leftist underdeveloped northwest and the more developed south. Columbia is an exception in the northwest, so much so that it has negociated with NAFTA more than any other country in South America. Peru is perhaps the country I've seen the most micro-investment headway.

Taking the "non-intergrated gap" map from Barnett's book and coupling it with general regions of high productivity in the continent, the Pampas is evidently the shaft of land that seems to be linking the two "functioning cores" of South America. Considering the richness of the location of the Fronteira (Brazil-Uruguay border region), it is impossible to assume that no development will occur in this region, and it is obviously lacking proper administration since it is sitting between the richest zones of the continent.

Get to Know a State

The diagram below generally maps out the land uses and reasons for being of the different regions of the southern half of the state of Rio Grande do Sul. The dark black border is the boundary between Uruguay and Brazil.




Below is a scale comparison of the state of Rio Grande do Sul overlaid on the Bos-Wash megalopolis. The state is large enough to capture Richmond to New York City to Pittsburg to Buffalo and everything in between.




Here is another scale comparison encompassing most of the major Italian cities.

Targets of Development

This is a set of diagrams translated from Victor Pelli's book Habitar, Participar, Pertenecer. They compare two strategies in creating targets for development in socioeconomic levels, primarily in developing countries. I am interested in developing the second proposal as an alternative to the singular target convention of the first diagram.


The incremental approach is more adapt to my architectural and tectonic goals of my thesis. The possibility of individuals gradually and independently improving their living conditions is the ultimate target for my research.