NEWS

COMPETITIONS

30 November, 2011

Competition Renova SP of the municipality of Sao Paulo in Brazil

The first and the second prize won the MAS in Urban Design of the ETH University of Zurich in the competition Renova SP of the municipality of Sao Paulo in Brazil, in collaboration with the Brazilian architectural office of Marcelo de Oliveira Montoro.

Greek version

The awarded project presented in the exhibition Architecture Biannual São Paulo.

Below a description of the projects:

View of the multi-level buildings in the steep areas.

First prize
Area Cabuçu de Baixo 5

Cabuçu de Baixo 5 is a part of the greater district of Brasilândia - located in the North of São Paulo. Spontaneously built in the hilly landscape, the area faces high risk of landslides, lack of proper infrastructure, inadequate network of roads and public spaces that consequences informally and densely inhabited slope areas to be hardly accessible. With the proposal of integrating a new access street as well as retaining wall system against landslides, 50% to 100% of the units all around the slope have to be removed and a new network of green spaces will be introduced. From the most steep and risky areas inhabitants are relocated to the high rise residential buildings, working as structures for reinforcing slope and serving as public circulation at the areas in some cases with the height difference of 9 meters. New centralities, indicated with the new punctual vertical housing, on the ground level serves with public facilities for the whole neighborhood.

On the lower part of Cabucu de Baixo 5, highly polluted creek area is in an urgent need to be controlled with underground sewage system and treated as a green linear park for a greater part of Brasilandia. 30% to 100% relocated units in the neighboring and the most dense areas are proposed to be replaced with new social housing projects, forming perimetric linear residence with a parallel intention to introduce public squares, commercial activities, public facilities all along the creek and the main roads.

An open air dump as preserved area ZEPAM 03 in the south of Cabucu de Baixo 5, is at a focus to be converted to the green zone with sport fields for public events in the north side and the rest green park with intension in some years, when the soil is purified from toxins enough, to be used for farming. New streets and public space network in the south of the dump are implemented to serve as a new residential area for the nearby relocations.

Presentation panels of the first prize

Second prize
Area Ponte Baixa 4

The (Brazilian) modernist slab has helped creating a city of walls and fences with vast public spaces and no streetscapes. The (European) courtyard block forms urban streets and protected open spaces, but is regarded as alien. Can we create the new Brazilian Block? The empty ZEIS site is developed as a new, mixed-use and mixed-income city quarter connecting the Favela and adjacent areas, providing social housing, developer projects as well as public facilities for the surroundings. The open, ambiguous Brazilian Blocks, formed around the existing natural landscape, provide permeable, yet protected open spaces that serve as an "inhabited park" for the whole area; at the same time, the blocks create dense, urban streetscapes and allow to integrate adjacent urban structures. Terraced houses on the slopes connect the areas and work as a spatial continuation of the park while providing Brazilian ways of living, allowing outdoor community life through a public access system.

Conceptual diagram of the Brazilian Blocks, 3d representation of the urban plan and views of the4 different areas of the proposal