Entre rios e a cidade: os flutuantes de Tapauá no Amazonas

Abstract

This work seeks to understand the production of the urban space between 1991 and 2015 of a small city in the Brazilian Amazon, called Tapauá, located in the channel of the Purus to the south of the State of Amazonas, from the specificity of a neighborhood on the water , A cluster of 332 floating houses that serve as dwellings and in sporadic cases. The floating is the synonym of resistance found by the population for the right to the city, fruit of the cultural expression, represented not only by the dwelling, but by the daily of the field that is "transported" to the city, endowed with practices that are urban As a place of action, but which are rural as labor practices developed in the river and forest. The neighborhood disperses in front of the city, in the purus river and contains forms that are structured in past times with residues of the indigenous culture that are markedly found in the production of the space and the forms of dwelling. The floating houses give meaning to the production of the space over the waters that is integrated to the city by the social relations that are established in the rural / urban interface. From the review of the literature on past populations, "occupation" and the creation of cities in the Purus valley, field research was conducted in two stages: February, August and September 2016, with application of 84 forms In the floating dwellings, to measure the living conditions, the social relations of production from the construction of the dwelling, to the means of living related to fishing, agriculture and extractivism. From the quantitative and qualitative research it can be inferred that the growth of the urban space runs through the conventional molds of other cities due to the specificities of the place: a city surrounded by rivers and forest, which causes the population to relate to nature and To encourage different spatial practices that interfere with the way the city is produced and expressed in the ways of living, working, caring for the body and spirit. The research also showed that the population residing in the neighborhood comes from riverside communities, and due to the impossibility of staying in the countryside comes to the city in search of basic services such as health, education and access to social programs. When arriving to the city, does not have access to urban land and as the river was not reached by the statute of the private property, to live on the waters appears like viable alternative of dwelling. This new living space does not substantially change the way of life in the city, but it strengthens and redefines the experiences that occur in relation to the city.