SELF-CONSTRUCTION AND LANDSCAPE: INFORMAL CITY AND URBAN SUBJECTS OF THE PE RIPHERY OF VICOSA

Abstract

The purpose of the present chapter is to analyze the concepts of self- construction and landscape, merging and relating them to the urban perip hery of Viçosa (MG). Through extensive literary and do cumentary research, the theoretical discussion starts from the notions of: a) self-construction as a constant practice, especially of the low-income population that starts to lift their residences through their own work, given the innumerable impositions fo und in the environment for the conquest of a home; and b) landscape not as a mere visual description of the reality under study, but as an in- depth perception of the cultural and human dimension involved in the mo dification o fan excluded territory. From these perspectives a hlend o fconcepts o f self constructio n and landscape was made through the case study of a neighborhood in the city called Nova Viçosa. Through direct observation and conversations with the residents, the field work showed that there is a close relationship between conservative-excluding urbanism and the segregatory develop ment o f' the neighborhood in question, which, when camouflaged and forgotten by State action, found in self-construction a possible alternative for obtaining housing, shelter. Moreover, because the resident-self-builder carries out works in a gradual and incessant way, it ends up impressing on the morphology of the place an eternally unfinished, constantly changing, self -constructed landsc ap e, graphing on the space where this person lives the strong expression of wishes and housing needs.