New old issues?

[Re]visiting John F. C. Turner’s theories on the “informal city” in Brazil

Abstract

In the last five years, we have seen the production of a significant set of researches that try to rescue, re-evaluate and reinterpret the current relevance of the theories of the English architect John F. C. Turner developed between the decades of 1960 and 1970. The purpose of this article is threefold. First, we are interested in analyzing Turner's contributions to the debate on the "informal city" from a series of texts published by him between 1963 and 1976. Second, we try to reconstruct and understand the possible repercussions of the Turner’s ideology in Brazil during his visit to the country in 1968. Finally, we focus on the later resonances of Turner in Brazil based on the contributions of Carlos Nelson, and more recently, on the Latin American scale, on the projects for popular housing elaborated by Elemental. The [re]view of John Turner’s theories initiated 50 years ago are still in force with regard to the problem of social housing, to the idea of housing linked not only to urban equipment, but also to the better development of the activities of the residents, to society’s need for participatory processes, and to the need to look at the potential of the informal city.