The first planting of the pilot roof was produced by the hands of students from the local public schools. With 25 students from Escola Municipal Almirante Tamandaré and 25 students from Escola Municipal Prefeito Djalma Maranhão. The initiative was the embryo of the RUA (Arts Urban Reform) project, as the initiative also had the participation of the collective cultural actors of Vidigal, of the workers of the Kombis, alternative transport of the favela, with graffiti artists from all four corners of the city, it had the participation of “Vidigal: Narrativas de Memórias” by teacher and heritage specialist Bárbara Nascimento and with the unprecedented partnership between rappers and samba composers from the community.

All in the same direction.

All like bricks that sprout art.

Everyone together ascended the “Living Monuments of Vidigal as a Heritage of Rio”, giving birth to the 1st public transportation stop equipped with a green roof in the city of Rio and the first “Gallery” of “living” urban art in Brazil. The law number 6.555, OF APRIL 25 2019 made the space a part of the city’s heritage, with the curating support of the Vidigal residents’ association, founded in 1967, and idealization by the live organic cuisine chef Maria das Graças Prazeres Sabatier, an activist for home and community gardens, and the architect and urban planner Guto Graciano.

The ecological roof of Vidigal was the cornerstone for the creation of bill number 1162/2019 about green roofs on the new buildings in the city of Rio, where the rapporteurs visited, along with PUC-RIO landscaping teachers Cecilia Herzog and Pierre-André Martin, and botanical biologist Bruno Rezende Silva, director of the Bromeliarium in Rio de Janeiro’s Botanical Garden.