Cities for New Times: Urban Design and Planning in the 21st Century

Abstract

The text presented here is the last written reflection produced by Jorge Wilheim, abruptly interrupted on November 29, 2013. It consists of the introduction and the final chapter of a book that has not been concluded, edited by Ivan Carlos Maglio. This is a self-questioning essay about the effectiveness of the Executive Plans (Planos Diretores - PD) as planning tools for Brazilian cities. Having elaborated dozens of PDs over more than sixty years, referenced and innovated from the experience of Curitiba (1964), the author wonders if the basic structure of these documents would actually contemplate: the needs of urban development and qualification; solutions to the transformations resulting from the globalization and instantaneous communication; for the containment of the destructive violence that emerges in the constantly expanding urban fabrics. Wilheim then takes up the basic feeling qualities that people living in the city desire: to feel sheltered, healthy, protected and free. These qualities would constitute the basis in the search for the "good city of the 21st century." He finds in the public spaces, in the footpaths and in the interstitial scales between one and the other, the conditions for the creation of significant places in the common citizen life. In its final part, the text describes the basis of the Urban Development Program (Programa de Desenvolvimento Urbano - ProdUrb), an instrument to guide municipal improvement activities, which should gradually replace the current Master Plans, and could be established by municipal law.