Skate Plaza Pontilhão
Rio de Janeiro is a highly socially fragmented city whose favelas are islands disrespected by the state and society in general. Over 130,000 people – out of the city’s 1.5 million favela residents – live in Maré, one of Rio’s largest favela complexes. Social exclusion, stigmatisation and daily human rights abuses by police, armed groups and military officers, are forms of social disrespect that Maré residents constantly suffer. Because of this abuse, low self-esteem is ingrained in many residents’ mentalities, and they are prevented from knowing their rights as citizens. It is difficult for many young people, growing up in such a dehumanising context, to fulfil their potential.
But with simple interventions young people can be encouraged to believe in themselves and in their abilities. The Coletivo Skate Maré, a grassroots skateboarding collective, proposes to construct a “skate plaza” in “Pontilhão”, the space under the viaduct of the Linha Amarela separating Baixa do Sapateiro and Morro do Timbau from Vila do Pinheiro. For the past six years the Coletivo has been using Pontilhão to support skateboarding in the community, including giving weekly free lessons to 20-40 youths on a football court and mini-ramp in Pontilhão. The collective also helps to occupy this space with music events and street art, making Pontilhão a socialising and neutral space where skaters and non-skaters of all ages from different favelas mix and make friends, crossing barriers imposed by criminal gangs. Skateboarding promotes a sense of belonging and dignity. A skate plaza would strengthen the Pontilhão as a space of respect, allowing young people to constructively enjoy this space on a permanent basis. According to Jean, a local 18-year-old skate pupil: “Ever since I started skateboarding four years ago I have grown to love Pontilhão. It’s where I have built friendships and felt free to be myself.”
Inés Alvarez-Gortari is an urban geographer with a master’s degree from the London School of Economics who lives in Rio. She works with public policy at the independent organisation Casa Fluminense and is part of Coletivo Skate Maré where she volunteers and is learning to skateboard herself.
Daniel Ribeiro Moraes is a resident of Maré and founding member of Coletivo Skate Maré. He runs Maré Skate Shop, an independent skateboard shop inside the favela, selling skateboard equipment to the community. Daniel organises voluntarily Coletivo Skate Maré’s free skateboard lessons every Saturday morning in the Pontilhão.
Lucas Ribeiro lives in Maré and is a founding member of Coletivo Skate Maré. He has obtained local funding for a project called Skate Without Borders Maré, designed to bring girls and boys together from Maré through skateboarding. Lucas is a keen photographer and also promotes cultural events at Pontilhão.
Nicole Tischler is a Master’s candidate in Architecture at the University of British Columbia and holds a Graphic Design degree from Lawrence Tech. She has professional experience as a graphic designer, social media coordinator, laser technician, and leather craftswoman. Nicole enjoys a classic serif, laser cutters and the urban scale.
Adam Yang holds a master’s degree in Urbanisation and Development from the London School of Economics. Currently, he is a graduate student and research assistant in the Department of Sociology at the University of British Columbia, where he researches topics in urban sociology and cultural sociology.
