SOCIAL HOUSING
S Ã O
P A U L O ,
B R A Z I L
INSTRUCTOR: Kristine Stiphany, PhD
This mixed-use project is designed on a disconnected site that is surrounded by several main transportation routes in the center of the industrial Tamanduatei corridor in São Paulo, Brazil. The site currently contains factory ruins, but has been re-designed to hold a school, a recreation center, social housing, and an outdoor market space. The design of this site was driven by a parametric research analysis of two similar-in-type housing projects – Quinta da Malagueira [Alvaro Siza, 1977; Malagueira, Portugal] and Caraíba [Joaquim Guedes, 1976; Caraíba, Brazil]. The analysis resulted in two discoveries: user intervention, through the informal settlements, creates a more structured organization than the formal city. As a result, the residual spaces created by user intervention act as the framework for the urban environment. The outcome of these two findings is a sense of screening through densities within the urban fabric. These research discoveries translated into the design of the mixed-use project. The site needed to become more socially connected due to its prime location within the corridor. Therefore, the residual spaces surrounding the site become appropriated as a social screen to better connect the local with its context, and in turn, the rest of the city. These spaces serve as public services as well as economic opportunities for the new housing program. The southern street is extended to create pedestrian access to the train station lined with market spaces, the north and west street become a linear park to service the residents and students, and the space under the viaducts becomes commercial spaces to serve the public. Programmatically, the screening can be found through the circulation and organization of the units. Physically, the screening is found through the building organization and at the entry of each unit which serves as a threshold between public and private space.
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