Mapping Brazil - Architecture: Architecture and the City

Property market: Hiring of architects
São Paulo city has become the target of a new trend in the property market: buildings designed by known architects. This, it should be explained, in a country where most designs are produced in-house by the developers, replicating existing models without considering the interaction of the building with the surrounding area or concerns about implementation.

Idea!Zarvos entered the market in the late 2000s with the novel idea of hiring renowned architects to design residential and commercial buildings. They have so far worked with a number of Brazilian architects, including Isay Weinfeld, GrupoSP, Andrade Morettin, Gui Mattos, Nitsche Arquitetos, Triptyque and FGMF.

In 2013, Idea!Zarvos held a workshop for Dutch and Brazilian professionals that resulted in a partnership between Brazilian Andrade Morettin and Dutch MVRDV for a multi-purpose building that has yet to be launched.

Huma is a developer that has recently entered the property market with three designs for residential buildings by well-known firms, including Brazilian UNA and Spanish Fermín Vasquez. Moby Incorporadora, also a newcomer, has launched three developments, still under construction, one of which was designed by Eduardo de Almeida and Cesar Shundi.

Another innovative project in São Paulo promoted by JHSF is a new residential building, Vitra, designed by guest architect, Daniel Libeskind.

No other city in Brazil has projects of this kind. However, some architects are starting to take their own initiative, buying up land, designing and erecting buildings, and selling the properties in the same way as a developer. These are obviously few and far between, but are important in that they serve a promising new niche market.

The architects that have developed their own designs for buildings are Carlos Eduardo Comas (Edifício CGB, Porto Alegre), Carlos Alberto Maciel, from Arquitetos Associados (Estúdios Capelinha, Belo Horizonte), and Carlos Teixeira, from Vazio S/A (Montevideu 285, Belo Horizonte).

Architects and the self-made city
It is often said that in times of crisis there are always golden opportunities for innovation. In a country where government involvement in public spaces is limited, associations, cooperatives, start-ups and NGOs are starting to think up their own ways of revitalising derelict or little-used public spaces. Many of these projects also count on the active involvement of architects.

2015 saw the establishment of an urban start-up for the co-creation of public spaces, CrowdPlaces. The idea is to facilitate projects for the revitalisation of squares using online co-creation tools to enable the full participation of local residents throughout the decision-making process. The first project, Praças.com, is looking for collaborators to transform a square in the Brooklin district of São Paulo that has fallen into disuse.

Meanwhile, São Paulo-based A Batata Precisa de Você (literally “The Potato Needs You”), a local residents’ association whose members include architect Laura Sobral, has been holding regular events in Largo da Batata (“Potato Square”), a historic venue in the city, since January 2014. They want to showcase the potential of the space for social activities and test different occupation options, and are calling for permanent facilities to be introduced to make the square a more attractive meeting place for the local residents.

Another group making waves in São Paulo is Rios e Ruas, an initiative headed by urbanist José Bueno, geographer Luiz de Campos Jr and biologist Juliana Gatti. It aims to raise awareness amongst the São Paulo public as to the importance of the city’s rivers – most of which have been channelled under the city’s streets – and to contribute to discussions about the use of public spaces and the development of the city.

In Rio de Janeiro, Praça Tiradentes, a square in the centre of the city, plays host to Tiradentes Cultural on the first Saturday of every month, organised by cultural institutions from the vicinity. In a common bid to revitalise the whole area both socially and urbanistically, local companies have joined forces to attract more involvement of public entities, raise the profile of their work and hold joint events.

One of the organisations involved in Tiradentes Cultural is Studio-X, run by the Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation from Columbia University, devoted to exploring the future of cities. Since it opened its Rio office in March 2011, it has made a name for itself as a hub of research and debate about architecture and urban planning.

Property speculation and reaction of civic movements
Civil construction has enjoyed a boom period in recent years, although it has dropped off somewhat in 2014 and 2015. Since 2008, property prices have risen – in some cases more than doubled – driven to a large extent by easier access to mortgages. With this, developers have invested in new residential buildings, gated condominiums and commercial compounds, and property speculation has been rife. Hoardings are a common sight in the most affluent parts of cities, normally to fence off old houses that have been knocked down to make way for new developments.

However, two developments are mired in litigation, and all because the local people are resisting developers’ plans for strategic areas of their cities – São Paulo and Recife – which could be turned into parks.

In Recife, the Ocupe Estelita (“Occupy Estelita”) movement has taken over the premises of a disused railway sold off below its market value by the local authority to a joint venture of developers. The official plans for the space, called Novo Recife, include high-rise commercial and residential buildings; all the local people want is more public leisure options.

In São Paulo, Parque Augusta is an organisation that is fighting to have a park built on a piece of land in the centre of São Paulo where some native Atlantic Forest tree species grow. Two construction companies have bought the land, where they plan to erect four high-rise buildings. Members of the movement have occupied the space to prevent anything from being demolished and any trees from being cut down. They are actively involved in petitioning the local authority to have the area disappropriated.

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