Hidden streamlets and their remnants in urban spaces: the affluents of Mandaqui

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to contextualize as testimonies of the original geomorphological characteristics of the site watercourses of the stream Mandaqui basin, channeled and buffered along the urban consolidation of São Paulo north. Such contextualization, however, shows up revealing not only of natural elements as historically denied landscape, but also various affective relationships established between man and water. The experience of the spaces associated with tributaries of Mandaqui thus demonstrates the possibility of resuming the awareness of the existence of small streams buffered in São Paulo. Through traces, hidden streams creep to the surface. Bit by bit the look of those in such spaces is inevitably conducted between alleys and narrow streets, to walk the path carved by the waters. These, though set apart from the surface, demonstrate through its traces the impossibility of human interventions completely erase certain traits of
primitive nature. The work which follows this article includes case studies on the right bank of Tietê, carried out under the research on the Hidden Streams, coordinated by Prof. Dr. Vladimir Bartalini at the Laboratory of Landscape, Art and Culture, at Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of São Paulo University.