The favelas of Rio de Janeiro and the council estates of south London seem worlds apart, but the construction of a mini-city at the Southbank Centre, built in collaboration with young people from Lambeth, has brought them together to reveal the shared problems and ambitions of young people in both communities.
The Stockwell Park estate, in Lambeth, is a dense complex of low-rise apartment blocks, built around courtyards and littered with small stairwells and obscure corners. While physically it has little in common with Pereira da Silva's vertiginous, ad hoc housing, cobbled together in central Rio from brick, tiles and corrugated iron, it faces the same major problems as that shantytown: gun violence and drugs.
Darren Miller, who is helping to build the Southbank model, says growing up on the estate was rough: "I was in and out of prison from the age of 14 to about 20 … It got a bit violent – it turned to guns. People were getting killed left, right and centre. I didn't want to end up dead, or end up killing anyone."
It is the pervading negative image that the London participants of the Morrinho project on the Southbank are eager to challenge. The project first began 12 years ago in Rio by favela resident Cilan Souza de Oliveira and a friend who constructed a mini hillside favela complete with houses, bars and shops made of hollowed-out bricks. Replicas have been constructed and exhibited in Berlin, Vienna, Barcelona and Venice. In building their own mini favela-cum-council-estate at the Southbank Centre, Liam Joseph, a 20-year-old construction student from Lambeth, says: "We want Brixton and Stockwell to be shown not as the evil place that it's known as."
At the foot of Waterloo Bridge, 45 tonnes of sand and 4,000 bricks have been laid in place and the two groups from south London and Brazil have put the finishing touches to two mounds.
On one hill, a sign saying "Friendship grows like a tree" in Portuguese is signed by members of the crew, but it's difficult to avoid the contrast of the ominous building perched on another hill and bearing the words "Brixton prison".
The process and opportunity for expression has had a deep impact on the individuals involved. Two of the 11 Lambeth participants, including Joseph, who have impressed everyone with their drive and enthusiasm, have been given paid, two-week positions as design assistants by the Southbank Centre, where the installation is being exhibited.
Mayra Jucá from Viva Rio, an NGO working with young people to tackle poverty in Brazil, sees this as a successful message of involvement: "If you give young people the tools and space, they can bring surprising projects like Morrinho. It's art, it's politics, it's a way of talking about a sad situation, and it's full of joy and fun.
"I hope everyone who visits the work in London reflects on giving visibility and respect to young people, especially from poor communities."
Her sentiment is echoed by Joseph, who says: "I want people to think that young people from Brixton have come here and done something positive."
• Project Morrinho is at the Southbank Centre until 5 September as part of Festival Brazil (southbankcentre.co.uk/brazil).
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