Entre o porto e a história: revitalização urbana e novas historicidades no porto do Rio de Janeiro com vistas às Olimpíadas de 2016

Abstract

Based on the analysis of reports, documents and actions planned by the municipal government related to the Porto Maravilha project, we discuss the characteristics and urban processes of the port area, considering the relationship between spatiality and the historicity of the region. The article starts with a historical discussion about the relationship between the port and the city and in sequence, invests in a sociological analysis of the current project, its pretensions to create a break in the history of the metropolis, through the articulation of a discourse that links the port decay with the need for regeneration of the port to gain a reformulation of city as a whole. This pretension to establish a landmark break from the municipality of Rio de Janeiro also hides the continuities that this project establishes with other projects thought to the city. The article also discusses how the plan referred to redesign the port seeks to establish despite the historicity and spatiality of the region.