| Summary: | In João Pessoa, the capital of the state of Paraíba (North East of Brazil), the processes of urban production are symptomatic of new power relations: the public authorities are struggling to establish themselves as major players in urban development. In this context, companies in the real estate sector find themselves in a position to negotiate or even change the rules of the game. The analysis of the transformations that took place in the Altiplano Cabo Branco neighbourhood over a decade (2007 - 2017) reflects this growing influence of the privately-owned groups in urban production. A complex regulatory framework, where three levels of competence are intertwined, leaves room for manoeuvre for the municipality of João Pessoa to change land-use planning policies. This flexibility is undoubtedly at the origin of strategies such as the privatisation of a public plaza in favour of a private company. As a result, there was a major break in spatial planning policies between 2005 and 2007, leading to the creation of a "priority densification zone" in the neighbourhood. This led to the verticalization of the built environment, the arrival of very wealthy social classes and a significant increase in land value. The resulting morphological structure reveals the fabrication of a stereotyped space, favouring a certain luxurious inter-self, where the security dimension remains very present.
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