MOTOTAXI URBANISM
Rio de Janiero, Brasil. / UIA Competition Entry 2020
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Team
Daniel Kaldas
Adham Mohamed
Abdelaziz El-Gendy
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Master Plan + Urban Design + Architectural Design + Research.
While reading on Rio de Janeiro and the area of Complexo da Maré, the public transportation services using motorcycles, the so-called mototaxis caught our attention for bridging the gap between the existing legal infrastructure and means of transportation, and the somehow inaccessible areas inside the favelas.
Mototaxi Urbanism engages in utilizing, remodeling and reprogramming; it attempts to enlarge and upscale activities that can be associated with and actually found at and in the vicinity of the various mototaxis stops.
Missing functions are introduced in compact multifunctional structures that enlarge the mototaxi stops with mechanic and tuning shops, funk carioca cafés and other related use in their ground floors, and activities perched on top, conceived as independent structures, on existing rooftops or inside abandoned warehouses, providing access through a system of wide ramps and stairs, upgrading current pedestrian bridges at Avenida Brasil to moto-bridges serving as well the crossing by mototaxi.
The proposed interventions at and around the mototaxi stops are divided into two main types. There are the multifunctional passage buildings at prime locations with on a daily basis large numbers of people passing by and through, set as stacked public spaces allowing for different activities, programmatically integrating with the existing political observatories and cultural non-governmental institutions at Maré. The second building type offers specific uses to the area.
