BRAZILKA
by Emanuela Colombo
portfolio special mention call 'URBANAUTICA INSTITUTE AWARDS 2020', 2020
Category: Representations of Space, Architecture, and Conflicts
Zaliakalnis district, Kaunas city.
During the period between the two world wars (1918-1939) the poor of the city or those who came from the countryside in search of fortune, began to build their shacks on the sides of the hill where Zaliakalnis rises, in the more uncomfortable and less accessible place of all the district, therefore cheaper. The area was extremely poor and remembered the Brazilian and Argentine favelas. It seems that for this reason the locals began to use these nicknames to refer to the area. Over the years, passing through the Soviet period and arriving to nowadays, the Brazilka and Argentinka areas have become increasingly sought after by the rich of the city for its proximity to the center, the beautiful view and the green that still dominates the district . The huts were replaced by increasingly dignified houses, up to the large super-modern villas that are now becoming very common in the neighborhood. Remains in inhabitants’s of Kaunas memory the awareness that once those areas were extremely poor, the names Brazilka and Argentinka, which here more than elsewhere sound exotic and legendary, and some hut still standing (probably not for a long time).