New settlement for squatters for the regeneration of the centre of San Paolo

The project aims at an innovative, urban and social redevelopment of the area in front of the central station of Sao Paulo, in the Luz district. The main goal is to respond to the precarious housing in the city center, creating a replicable model that solves the architectural degradation and housing demand by providing social and cultural services.

The union of the theme of precarious housing with the functional program of the Sesc aims to the generation of a "rotational model": it is assumed to redevelop a squatting having an empty lot available in which to build temporary housing, according to the new model of the Sesc. During the works, the squatters may be employed in the Sesc which will also offer them accommodation. Thus, a "loop" of transfers and transformation is triggered which, repeated, could solve the housing and social difficulties in the historic center. The idea is to start by identifying an underutilized site, in this case the Luz metro station square, on which to start the redevelopment project by exploiting important pre-existences: the entrance and exit to the underground of the homonymous station and a 18th century building: “Casa da Luz”. For the latter, a recovery intervention has been defined in order to refunctionalize the internal spaces, adapting it to the new building destination for health and rehabilitation facility. Considering also the limitations imposed by the underground passage of the metro, the site is thus divided into 4 sectors from which 4 buildings arise, one existing, and three new ones, and are arranged on a complex articulation of the public space that is defined on two levels. The first level is mainly for public use and defines the layout of the subway routes. There are the accesses to the outdoor sports equipment and the health center. The second level connects the existing squatting via a ramp system with the internal and external lowewered space of the cultural building. These jumps have two purposes: the connection between public and private functions, that is, the cultural sphere with the residential one, and the management of rainwater disposal. In fact, the square and the ramp system are characterized by superficial cuts that conceal a system of channels that serve to direct rainwater into a tank below the underground square. The collected water is distributed in the existing canals, but in the event of heavy rains, the square itself would become a container turning into a body of water.