Urban Design and Spatial Equity: The Favvela-Bairro Programme Experience in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

During the last century, the motorized vehicles have been preponderant in the streets. However, the emergence of the debate about sustainability and its relation to the urban environment has influenced urban designers to rethink the role of the streets and their spatiality. Pedestrians and cyclists are gaining space not only for move to a specific destination, but also space in which to play and stay. Taking in consideration the formal structure of our cities, streets are critical to urban transformation and strategic to restructure the urban flows and the quality of urban life. This chapter aims to explore and discuss the shared spatiality as a design strategy to enhance street life and non motorized modes of transportation. This research is part of a project titled Bikeability – funded by the Danish Research Council. The overall purpose of the Bikeability project is to investigate and document relations between cycling motivation from different socio-demographic groups and distinct design characteristics related to the urban environment and the bike infrastructure. Under the umbrella of the Bikeability research project, this chapter describes the result of an in-depth case study of the urban transformation of a street in the core of Odense – Vestergade Vest. Firstly, this chapter presents the notion of shared use streets – including a brief historical context and a debate about its design characteristics and its role to enhance street life. Secondly, it is presented a creative and low budget design solution that transformed Vestergade Vest (located in the core of the Danish city of Odense). into a ludic and Shared-Use Space