Urban viaducts

Thinking about urban viaduct areas and their use as housing in Brazilian cities
Alfio Conti and Margarete Maria Araujo Silva
Architect and Urbanist, Master in Architecture Escola de Arquitetura da Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais – EAUFMG, Professor at Department of Architecture and Urbanism of Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais – DAU/PUCMinas Marco Antonio Souza Borges Netto, Lawyer, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais – PUCMinas, consulting. Margarete Maria Araujo Silva, Architect, master in Civil and Urban Engineering – Escola Politécnica da Universidade de São Paulo – EPUSP, Professor at Department of Architecture and Urbanism of Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais – DAU/PUCMinas Address: Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Minas Gerais –PUC Minas Department of Architecture and Urbanism – DAU Escritório de Integração - EI Av. Dom José Gaspar, 500 – Building n°3 30535-610 – Belo Horizonte – Minas Gerais e-mail: [e-mail] [e-mail] Keywords: housing policy, viaduct, informality, homeless 1 ABSTRACT This text is based on the fact that the viaduct areas constitute nowadays the shelter and the income source of one parcel of the urban population of great Brazilian cities. It is intended, at first, to trace a picture of habitation situation in contemporary Brazil, regarding matters related to local production and its reach. Next, through an investigation about the characteristics of local habitation demand and its impacts over urban, it is intended to approach a very important aspect that hasn’t been deeply researched, which is the destination to be given to these people, considering the incapability of the government to reduce the rural-to-urban migration and the process

of social and economic exclusion, mainly in the urban area occupied by the poorer people, under the viaducts. Having some experiences nurtured for over an year of work as starters, such as those along the homeless communities,