Gordon Price sends pix+words from the warm part of the globe, via Instagram. Other good stuff hangs out there too.
Here’s a segment of Ipanema (from the Barbie end of the beach, some would say) – and it’s probably not what you have in your head (either the image or the song) of what this world-famous Rio skyline should look like. Because most of it is only six or seven stories high, and there’s not a building that looks to be built in the 21st century. There’s got to be a story here about why that is.
Here’s a shot of Ipanema Beach looking south, with a few more highrise towers breaking the medium-rise wall facing the Atlantic. But not many, and not new. Nor will you find many highrises in the blocks behind, overlooking their front-row neighbours to capture the waterfront views. Where are the supertall condos typical of the hyper-active global real-estate market? Even a poor Brazilian economy wouldn’t stop those if they were permitted. So clearly they are not. How did such planning controls come into place? And how are they being maintained?
