Over the last six weeks uncube has featured each episode of the new documentary series Rebel Architecture, produced by Al Jazeera English. We have been following these portraits of architects pushing the boundaries of the profession, working at the edges of legality to directly improve living conditions and affect change. This week leaves us with the final episode, in which we accompany the producers to Rio de Janeiro to meet Ricardo de Oliveira, an untrained yet highly accomplished architect who's built over a hundred houses in his community, the city's largest favela of Rocinha.
The documentary also traces the counterpart story of master planner Luis Carlos Toledo, whose plan for the city (so far mostly stuck in the pipelines due to poor policy making) helped focus international attention on the situation. In this final episode we dive into the informal arteries of the favela and experience first-hand what it means to live – and be an architect – in Rocinha.
- Leigh Theodore Vlassis
This is Al Jazeera’s final episode in the Rebel Architecture series – at least for now, as we definitely hope they will produce a second season of this astonishing series. For further details and links to previous episodes, please revisit our blog section, where you can read about and watch all six episodes.
Watch Episode 6: “The Pedreiro and the Master Planner”, directed by May Abdalla, below: