Curitiba Is the Brave New World

Posted by on June 02, 2006

Thumb through the latest issue of Wallpaper (June-July, 2006), and you'll find news of the latest fashions, hotels and collectibles. All very hip. But flip to the back of the book and you'll find a surprising feature on Curitiba, the Brazilian city that architect and former Mayor Jaime Lerner made famous.

With an inventive array to solutions for slums, transportation and recycling, Lerner remade the city into one that is the envy of urban planner everywhere.

I had an opportunity to hear Lerner again a couple of weeks ago at the kick off event of Chicago's Great Places and Spaces weekend. I never get tired of hearing his formula for urban success.

Jaime Lerner's five commandments of sustainability are:

1. Use the car less.
2. Separate the garbage.
3. Live closer to work or bring work closer to home.
4. Save more. Waste less.
5. Get multiple use out of everything.

He urges those who care about cities to move fast. Moving fast lets you avoid your own bureaucracy and your own insecurity. That's why he advocates "urban acupuncture." By focusing an idea, it creates a new energy.

There is no place, Lerner believes, that can't be transformed. And his experience in Curitiba provides the evidence.

(And if the photos in Wallpaper are any indication, the people there are very good looking. )