The Alphaville within the Metropolitan Agglomeration of Curitiba

Abstract

This article aims to present the results of studies developed on socioeconomic reflexes of Complex Alphaville installation in Curitiba Metropolitan Agglomeration (CMA), which brought a new way of living and relating to the metropolis. Established in 2009 and 2010, these studies were  mainly based on information obtained through the application of interviews to people involved and also in statistics provided by organs of the State of Paraná and Pinhais and Colombo municipalities. Among the population involved, are highlight the contrasts and the game of interests between two groups with different socioeconomic profiles, the residents of horizontal gate condominiums (HGCs) of Alphaville, members of the middle/high and high classes, and the poorer, residents of the Village Zumbi dos Palmares. It seems that Alphaville Company made use of strategies of hallmark corporatism with the State to be able to install two unities, Alphaville Graciosa and Pinheiros, in an environmentally protected area of Pinhais, converted into a Territorial Unit of Planning. It also started to influence decisively the change of the village Zumbi spatiality, to trigger social and educational activities among the population marked by socioeconomic precariousness. It was also evidenced that Alphaville, while performing such actions, endorsed before anything preserving the status of its project and ensuring an excellent deal for those who decided to live or just to invest in their units installed in CMA. Among the results caused because of Alphaville Company influences in CMA, it is possible to highlight the intervention of the State of Paraná in Village Zumbi dos Palmares, through its housing Company (COHAPAR), with the implementation of Land Settlement Project, Urbanization and Socio environmental Development.