Studio são paulo magazine eng hq

Studio São Paulo
Projects and reflections of a 5-day
pressure cooker design studio

Studio São Paulo
2
The proverbial egg for Studio São
Paulo was laid in the Netherlands,
amongst five offices in strategic
urban planning and design.
In the Netherlands they often
meet eachother in competition
entries where they dispute each
other for projects. The people
know eachother a bit and in fact
admire eachother often for their
inventivenes. Although from
different sizes and ages, the offices
share the ability to think though
the scales in strategic plans. The
neutral context of São Paulo
provided a great opportunity to get
to know eachother better.
All participating
offices had some
links to Brazil
and São Paulo
especially. Be it
professionally,
academically or
personally. With
this idea of close
collaboration and
open exchange of thoughts Studio
São Paulo started. We agreed that
the best way to really understand
the contemporary challenges for
any city is in a hands-on way. In
other words: collaborating to work
on actual questions.
Studio São Paulo
by Jaap Klaarenbeek
Jaap Klaarenbeek and Rogier van
den Berg visited São Paulo in
May 2011 to meet people from
various governmental institutions,
ministeries, universities,
developers and urban design
offices. Ultimately, three cases were
set up in collaboration with four of
São Paulo’s municipal departments:
SEHAB/COHAB, SP Urbanismo,
SMDU and the Secretario de Verde
e Meio Ambiente. Together the
cases on the historical center,
brownfields and peripheral ‘fundos
de vale’ give a broad insight in
the urban dynamics of Sao Paulo
today. Studio São Paulo worked on
all three cases with the ambition
to think together about integrated
planning strategies. For each of the
three typical cases Studio Sao Paulo
searched for specific solutions that
can be exemplary for approches
in other parts of the city, and
hopefully, maybe even translated to
enrich the Dutch practice.
Three formidable Paulistan offices
joined Studio São Paulo to complete
the team. With a high spirit of
collaboration and exchange Studio
São Paulo took off.
Early October 2011 five Dutch and three Paulistan urbanism offices
participated in Studio São Paulo. In a pressure cooker design studio
Studio São Paulo combined experience and creative urban thinking
of both sides of the Atlantic to generate inventive concepts for
several contemporary urban challenges in São Paulo in which social,
economical and ecological issues converge in spatial cases.
This booklet presents a concise report of Studio São Paulo, with an
introduction, presentations of the cases and personal reflections.
We agreed that the best way
to really understand the
contemporary challenges
for any city is in a hands-
on way. In other words: by
collaborative work on actual
questions.

Studio São Paulo
3
Content
Studio Sao Paulo 2
by Jaap Klaarenbeek
How to read (Summary) 4
by Jaap Klaarenbeek
NL meets São Paulo 6
Two changing urban planning paradigms
Three Cases for Studio São Paulo 8
Center, Brownfields, Periphery
Case 1: Innercity Rejuvenation 10
From individual buildings to urban thinking
Case 2: Brownfields; Heliopolis & Vila Carioca 14
From Housing to City
Case 3: Periphery and ‘fundos de vale’ 18
Pro-flow
Sao Paulo moving in the right direction 22
by Gert Urhahn
Making cities for people 24
by Ricardo Correa
Sticky as a Brigadeiro 25
By Kria Djoyoadhiningrat
Ordem e progresso 26
by Matthijs Bouw, Han Dijk, Bart Aptroot
São Paulo complete, sometimes forgotten 30
by Heidi Klein
São Paulo Downtown Re-occupation 32
by Renata Semin
On public value 34
by Bernardina Borra, Gert Urhahn,
Luis Pompeo, Tiago Oakley
Housing as a driver for good public space 38
by Rogier van den Berg
Screaming vacancy 40
by Bart Aptroot
A permananent Studio São Paulo? 42
by Jaap Klaarenbeek & Kria Djoyoadhiningrat
Colophon 46

Studio São Paulo
4
Studio São Paulo magazine introduces
the main drives and ideas behind Studio
São Paulo, presents the cases, draws
reflections and makes a proposition for a
continuous Studio São Paulo.
In a first article Jaap Klaarenbeek discusses
what we embarked for to learn from
São Paulo. This is followed by a short
introduction of the three cases and the
descriptions of the projects developed
during the five-day workshop.
The team for case 1 – the city centre -
proposes a placemaking strategy for
rehabilitationg of the city center, and advises
SEHAB/COHAB to use their powerfull tool of
buying and refurbishing houses, not on the
currently used basis of costs-effectiveness
of the individual refurbishments, but ‘think
more urban’ in the selection of where to
refurbish.
Working on the Petrobras site near favela
Heliopolis, the team for the second proposes
to preserve large part of the still empty
site as a park and to ‘make city, instead of
housing’. This way valorizing the green and
desifying the nearby Vila Carioca with social
housing integrate in the neigborhood.
The team working on case 3, the Jaçu-Rio
Verde valley, noticed that the Secretario’s
strategy to transform some of the clogged up
waterways into linear parks is very difficult
to execute. They are planned as a masterplan
but not phased in such a way. In their view
focus should be on the linear and not on
the parks, making networks. They propose
to create a planning logic that is phased in
interconnected sections. The surrounding
city adopts and creates these sections. The
network combines it.
The second part of the booklet complements
the projects with personal reflections and
experiences. First, Renata Semin presents
the ideas of her office Piratininga arquitetos
on how to apply the thoughts/strategies
generated during Studio São Paulo for the
entire central region. Gert Urhahn (Urhahn
Urban Design) reflects on being back in São
Paulo after 15 years, and makes a hopeful
comparison between positive urban change
in Amsterdam and São Paulo. Matthijs Bouw
(One Architecture) and Han Dijk (POSAD)
reflect on how current local, opportunistic
and short term projects can be thought such
that they will contribute to the long term
planning goals for the city. In a joint article
Urhahn Urban Design and 23sul arquitetos
dwell on how to create public value using
‘open development’ working cooperative and
user oriented.
Heidi Klein urban culture around the
Anhangabau valley. Rogier van den Berg
explains how housing guidelines can lead to
better and more accessible and secure public
space.
Kria Djoijoadhiningrat (Studio ROSA) takes
a lesson to the Netherlands from the ‘upside
down’ planning of the Paulistan bycicle
network. How ‘just doing’ can generate
a culture shift, responsibility and public
participation.
Ricardo Correa, director of TC Urbes,
makes a case for more international design
collaboration, as well as a general call to his
Brazilian colleagues for more collaborative
design that included users in the design
phase so as to get more consensus, mutual
understanding and better plans. Finally, Bart
Aptroot calls for crowd-sourcing and idea
competitions to generate good examples and
set positive change in motion.
The report concludes with a joint call for
Brazilian ‘makers of the city’. A call for a
continuous Studio São Paulo.
How to read (Summary)
by Jaap Klaarenbeek

Studio São Paulo
6
The Dutch have a long history
of urban planning and design.
Brazilians in turn do not have a
typical urban planning or urban
design culture. Yet, they do have
a lot of urban. Most of Brazils
city’s –and São Paulo expecially -
have gone though such an urban
explosion that the city continously
superceded almost every attempt
to planning or design. But times
are changing...
In the Netherlands the planning
frenzy of the 90’s and begin of the
21st century has come to a hold as a
combined result of a cultural shift in
thinking about planning and financial
downturn. VINEX-neighborhoods, the
large scale urban expansions of the
90’s, are receiving critiques for being
much too focussed on residential
purposes only. Post-war housing
neighborhoods, on their turn, are
asking for attention due to current
social problems. Their mono-functional
planning attracted a thin socio-
economical layer of society. Dutch
urban planners and designers are
searching how to create more diversity
and freedom of private companies and
individuals to build and use their plot
as they wish. To build more socially,
economically and
ecologically resilient cities.
At the same time budgets are
tightening and government is
withdrawing as the one and only
strongest agent in urban planning.
With smaller budgets the Dutch
planning practice is searching how to
generate wished effects with cheaper
and more focussed interventions.
Illustrative is the renaming of
the former ‘Ministry of Housing,
Spatial Planning and Environment’.
With its new name as ‘Ministry of
Infrastructure & Environment’ the
ministry has lost its direct reference to
the spatial dimension and will in the
future only focus on those spatial plans
essential to sustain the economical
carriers of the Netherlands (and those
themes that are considered as national
interest). A radical paradigm shift.
While the Dutch planning pratice is
weakening urban planning and design
in Brazil are on the rise.
NL meets São Paulo: two changing
urban planning paradigms
by Jaap Klaarenbeek
While the Dutch planning
pratice is weakening urban
planning and design in
Brazil are on the rise.

Studio São Paulo
7
Blessed with an economical tailwind
and a flattening populational growth,
popular and political conviction to
diminish the dire social differences in
São Paulo seem to have grown stronger
than ever in recent years. This hasn’t
resulted in the instant disappearance
of problems. Off course not. Challenges
remain big. But the current situation
at least allows the possibility to
take a breath and think. For the first
time in decades, maybe even since
a century, there are possiblities to
plan improvements instead of ad hoc
problem solving urban ‘planning’.
For whoever visits the city
concequences of the convitions to
improve the city are visible everywhere;
in- and outside of the planning offices.
The new Rodoanel, brand new metro
stations, a new centre in the east around
the new World Cup stadium, SEHAB’s
impressive urbanization and social
housing efforts, innercity rejuvenation
plans, participative planning
experiments, new bus corridors,
ambitious plans for parks and cycling
routes.
The ‘Plano Estrategico Director’,
the strategic masterplan of the city
binds together the most important
plans for the city’s future. During
the conversations in our preparation
visit we found that from the Dutch
perspective it was difficult to see the
city’s strategical masterplan as an
‘integrated plan’. Essentially, the plan is
a collection of juxtaposed partial
plans. The one plan laid over the other.
In practice – we understood – the
plan sometimes becomes a virtual
declaration of war between municipal
departments as social housing,
mobility and environmental projects
are planned on the same spot. Without
a matched/balanced vision. Result?
The bulldozer of the one department
literally driving into the bulldozer of the
other department. ‘São Paulo has a lot of
plans, but no vision’ we
heard from others.
During the various
preparational
conversations, we
were in fact slightly
requested to force
collaboration between
the departments during
the workshop to see if
we could make small
attempts to reach ‘real’
integrated plans. All in all, the call to
focus the Studio São Paulo workshop
on integrated planning essentially was
pushed forward during the meetings
with the Brazilians we spoke during
our preparation visit.
So, while Dutch are trying to escape
their self-created stranglehold of public
planning in seach for more freedom
of private initiatives and São Paulo is
alingning fragmented dreams, plans and
hard political targets to reach a more
effective and balanced urban planning
framework, we met in Studio São Paulo
to see what these worlds could learn
from each other.
During the various
preparational conversations,
we were slightly requested to
force collaboration between
departments during the
workshop to see if we could
make an attempt to make
‘real’ integrated plans.

1
2
Studio São Paulo
8
Case 1
Innercity Rejuvenation
The historical Center, focusses on new strategies
how to redifine Sao Paulo’s historical city center.
Although many subcenters have popped up during
recent decades, the historical center still is a very
strong centrality. It remains the strongest pole
for commerce and business. It is the cities major
transport hub and location of governmental
departments and institutes.
Yet, by many Paulistans the center is seen as a
dangerous place which is desolate at night. The
center hosts thousands of derilict and empty
buildings. Although it is well connected, it has
to cope with enormous problems of congestion.
There is a strong informal trade, while large scale
speculations impede large scale refurbishment and
facelift of the center. What is the ambition? What are
the currently applied projects and strategies? Are
they able to start the process of regeneration? Who
are the actors and what can be their role and benefit?
How can we bring back an all day accessible center
for all Paulistans?
Three cases for Studio São Paulo
by Jaap Klaarenbeek
Studio São Paulo selected three cases to work on during the
October 2011 workshop. Together the cases on the historical center,
brownfields and periphery give a broad insight in the urban dynamics
of Sao Paulo today. Studio São Paulo worked on all three cases with
the ambition to think together about integrated planning strategies.
For each of the three typical cases Studio Sao Paulo aimed to come to
specific spatial solutions that can be exemplary.
Case 2:
Brownfields – New Center
Large tracts of industrial zones that are
located strategically along the north-
south railway lines are coming available
for development. São Paulo has the
ambition to intensify these areas for
thousands of Paulistans to live. But how
to steer and stimulate this process? How
can this barrier sew the central and east
São Paulo together and can the area
become more than just a ‘collection of
profitable lots along the railway’. The
brownfields along the railway lines now
occupy strategic positions within the
urban field. They are potential

3
Studio São Paulo
9
Case 3:
Periphery - Fundos de Vale
The third case focusses on the integrated
development of a linear park in the vast
eastern periphery of São Paulo. The so
called ‘fundo de vales’, or translated
in English, the lower valleys, are
omnipresent in Sao Paulo. The valleys
pose important challenges all over
Sao Paulo. As the lowest points in the
landscape, they are the natural locations
for streams and rivers. Due to intensive
urbanization, many of these streams
have become the locations for (large
scale) infrastructure. At some places
the ‘fundos’ are not yet canalized and
beautifull nature is still to be found there,
but most other stretches are occupied by
dwellers that live in precarious housing
along polluted streams. This leads to
enormous problems during rainfall
when the water rises and the city’s
main infrastructure becomes clogged.
The ‘fundos’ could be attractive public
linear parks within the dense urban
pattern of São Paulo as the municipality
envisions them. But how to get there?
Rethinking their potential as integrated
arteries for green space, leisure and as a
public central area is central in this case.
Especially the definition of a strategy
on ‘how to get there’ seems important,
as making green seems largely a social
challenge.
subcentres between the innercity and
the periphery. We focus on the Petrobras
site. Located about eight kilometers
from the city center and close to Sao
Paulo’s biggest slum Heliopolis. What
will be the urban mix that could be
both be attractive for new investments
and citizens as well as provide an
additional urban quality and services to
neighbourhoods surrounding the site.
The brownfield condition could be a
testbed to test scale, connectivity and
new typologies as an example for other
brownfield operations.

Studio São Paulo
10
While São Paulo’s historical city
centre currently is predominantly
a CBD, it is still in the historical,
geographical and cultural heart of the
city. There are many public projects in
the city dealing with crime or vacant
buildings or heritage protection
or the quality of the public space,
showing a direct implementation of
political goals: less vacancy, more
social housing, safer public space.
In our workshop the focus was on a
project run by COHAB, whose aim
was to transform vacant buildings
into social housing. To be successful
in a relatively short time COHAB
aimed at those buildings that allowed
for the fastest and best manageable
transformation.
The pace and quantitative success
of COHAB deserve encouragement.
But it appears to be just that, an
immediate and concrete translation
of a political goal to the smallest
scale of a single building, without a
connection with the overall agenda:
to make the centre an inclusive city.
What the city centre needs is urban
thinking. An interaction between
structural, infrastructural, social and
economical issues which works on an
intermediate level, between politics
and concrete projects.
During the workshop we analyzed
the city centre to find possible sites
for a strategy that works on the
intermediate scale: a place making
strategy. After some data crunching
(building vacancy, networks,
employment, education facilities and
a fear map) we found two possible
areas that have the right mix: Avenida
Sao Joao and Praca da Sé. Given the
limited time we focused on the first.
In a process of exchanging local and
international examples, fact finding
and critical interrogation we defined
the following ingredients:
Add a serious amount of housing. The
COHAB program for transforming
vacant buildings into social housing
could be used as a tool for that.
But also use the opportunities that
From individual
buildings to
urban thinking
Case 1: Innercity
Rejuvenation
Project group
Matthijs Bouw
Bart Aptroot
Renata Semin
José Armenio Brito Cruz
Marlon Longo,
Heidi Klein
Assistance
Rodrigo Tanaka
Aline Friguereido

Studio São Paulo
11
Studio
SP
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Studio
SP
Mapping: important places in off-hours
Studio
SP
Two systems
8
¥ Walking through the city, the rate of underutilized buildings (also ofÞces) seems extreme: is there not simply too
much building mass (in relation to accessibility, parking, infrastructure, quality, etc.)?
¥ Can the CBD support mix?

Studio São Paulo
12
existing buildings offer. Loft spaces, roof
terraces, and mixed use buildings can
create a rich mix of housing to attract
the young professionals. More parking
will be required to facilitate the new
residents. Because even while public
transport in the centre is good, to reach
the rest of the city the car is still the
preferred way to go.
Make safe areas of manageable size and
shape and make a safe connection to
the nearby metro station. Improve the
square by linking it better with the plinth
program. Program the pedestrian area
with smaller and larger activities, for
example terraces on the pedestrian areas
during lunch and dinner time, festivals in
the connecting Parque Anhangabaú.
Introduce street management to get
the property and store owners actively
involved, sharing the responsibility
of a safe and lively street, getting the
right mix of program. Coalitions should
be built, for example between the
businesses in Sé and the stores, bars and
dining places along rua Sao Joao.
Finally, spread the word. Brand the
succes, let it expand to neighbouring
streets or leapfrog to other new hotspots
in the centre.
Studio
SP
30

Studio São Paulo
13
The current strategy
appear to be an
immediate and
concrete translation
of a political goal
to the smallest
scale of a single
building. without a
connection with the
overall agenda: to
make the centre an
inclusive city. What
the city centre needs
is urban thinking.

Studio São Paulo
14
Knowing that the destiny of the Petrobras
area is on its way to implementation, we
used it as an inspiration to think about a
new piece of the city. We looked at the area
as an experimental field for how to tackle
the urban fabric in Sao Paulo to become a
more sustainable “part” of the city that can
be stronger and more self-reliant based on
its inner structure and existing qualities.
The un-built space of Petrobras, clamped
in between Heliopolis and Vila Carioca
– a poor neighbourhood and a mixed
industrial and housing area- is included
within two apparently different Urban
Plans. On the one hand, the housing plan
of Heliopolis is in dire need to deliver
5000 new housing units as soon as
possible. And on the other hand the Urban
Operation Mooca-Vila Carioca that foresees
infrastructural improvements, programme
mix, densification, and an increase of public
transport along a commercial corridor.
Walking through the area we could feel how
Heliopolis is an improving neighbourhood,
with lively streets and a strong sense of
community. Awareness of people is rising,
and most probably their demands and
desires in a few generations will be far
evolved.
On the other side, Vila Carioca is already a
mixed use neighbourhood well connected
to the new metro station of Tamanduatei.
Its fabric is quite structured in a well
functioning grid of streets, with buildings
from one to a maximum of four storeys.
There are schools, some shops, community
facilities, several working places. The area
still has plenty of room to increase density
and optimize land use within the existing
structure. The common point between the
two areas – Heliopolis and Vila Carioca- is
the lack of urban spaces. The street is the
unique means of connection for cars, buses,
and people, as if they were of the same
nature. Collective space is sacrificed with
refuge only found in the accidental left over
places. Yet, the site of Petrobras conceals
behind its walls a valuable hilly green area.
All local evidences points towards a
potential osmosis of urban demand and
supply between the Urban Operation and
Heliopolis. After a quick sketch calculation
we figured out that filling out the gaps and
vacancies of Vila Carioca, the housing needs
of Helipolis could be accommodated within
its existing fabric.
When these ambitions are put within a
more integrated relationship - to create the
maximum of high quality spatial coherence,
public value, housing, working, recreation,
and other functions and you’ll get a fully
fledged piece of city.
As a starting point the public value of
Petrobas’ hill as a park connecting Helipolis,
Vila Carioca and the metro is of critical
importance for the future of both areas.
From Housing to City
Case study 2 brownfields: Petrobras
Petrobras´ hill is of
critical importance as a
park and connection
Case 2: Brownfields
Project group
Gert Urhahn
Bernardina Borra
Daniela Getlinger
Rogier van den Berg
Jaap Klaarenbeek
Luis Pompeo Martins
Tiago Oakley
Assistance
Andre Kwak
Vanessa Padia
Marcelo Rebelo
Fernando Gasperini

Studio São Paulo
16
Opening up a park and enhancing small interventions
in the adjacent areas would foster a social mix, create
a clear routing towards the metro, provide a mix of
housing on the edges and allocate public services.
Following this path could also help job creation in Vila
Carioca, as well as allow differentiation in housing
typologies along the edges of the park, or into empty
plots to be implemented in Vila Carioca. Eventually
this would increase the financial and urban value for
the land and of all the activities in the surroundings
areas.
The actions to be taken in Heliopolis are -of course to
relocate unsafe and unhealthy housing units, improve
infrastructure and open spaces, to then legalize
ground and housing properties.
Contemporary to this in Vila Carioca the task would
be to increase the density of working places and
warehouses - freeing up plots to build small services,
pocket spaces, new social and private housing while
fitting the existing into a maximum of four/five floors
along the streets, and ten in the interiors of the block.
Around the station a pole with a privately developed
mix of housing and offices could also help financing
the plan. The strip along the railway for industry could
be densified in use, and adapted as a flood barrier.
Additional room for housing could perhaps also be
found in the areas south-east of Petrobras. This could
lead to a diversified neighbourhood, not alienated
in condensed social housing monolithically built at
once, but grown in a more organic process taking the
positive aspects of how Heliopolis and Vila Carioca
did in their turn. It could further help to avoid future
social discontent -the likes of which have been seen
in the peripheries of European cities, see for instance
the ravages of the Banlieus in Paris, or the famous
no-go areas in cities like Naples. Socially mixed and
qualitative neighbourhoods as Cuidade Tiradentes
in Sao Paulo, or Jordans in Amsterdam should be
considered as paradigms to achieve.
This procedure would imply an open process in phases
were SP Municipality plays the initiator role for:
- establishing the park, perhaps in collaboration with
the private sector e.g SESC
- delineating its edges for social housing, and private
developers under certain conditions
- stimulate and guide land use optimization of Villa
Carioca.
The municipality - sehab- cohab- town planning-
should be the moderator between social interests,
the legal and still illegal owners of the land, private
developers, the local inhabitants and workers.
Fostering Public Value
collective green
+
services
financial value
clear routing
jobs creation
differentiation in housing
typologies
social mix
the motor

Studio São Paulo
17
Heliopolis
Relocate unsafe and unealthy housing units
Improve open spaces
Legalize ground and housing properties
from Housing
to
City
Vila Carioca
Densify working and warehouses
Social housing capacity c.a. 2000 units:
4floors along the streets
10 floors in the interior of the plot
create a pole around the station with private developments
use the strip along the railway for industry adapted as flood barrier
open up for small pocket spaces
Park
Attractive urban collective green + facilities
Connection from Heliopolis to the hub across Vila Carioca
Housing capacity on the edges:
c.a. 500 social housing units
c.a. 1000 middle class private developments
Additional social housing capacity for c.a. 2500 units

Studio São Paulo
18
Parque Linear Rio Verde: The
transformation of a valley in the densly
populated Eastern part of the Metropolis.
This project is directly related to the larger
challenges regarding the water problems
of Sao Paulo. In the rapid development of
the city, the most crucial infrastructural
connections are located directly next to or
right on top of the streams and rivers in the
lowest levels of the valleys. At these points
lots of informal housing is built, in the form
of favelas and structures, realised without
a building permit inside the flood areas.
The Secretario de Verde e Meio Ambiente
uses the strategy of so-called linear parks in
these areas. The goal is to thereby control
the water issues while creating valuable
public space at the same time.
Because the area is divided in many smaller
plots with complex situations of
ownership, the project is cut into segments
that are being realised one by one. This
segmentation could be an opportunity for
development, rather than an obstruction.
The project proposal of studio Sao Paulo
combines three strategies.
The first is to implement the linear
connection at the start of the project. This
area should serve as a connection for local
traffic of pedestrians and cyclist, separated
from the car infrastructure. A bicycle path
can be realised along the stream where
possible and if the area along the stream
is not accessible yet, the path should
have a temporary place along the road on
either side of the stream. This gives the
inhabitants a fast connection to the public
transport and the larger park and it makes
the vacant areas of the riverside accessible.
Obviously this leads to confrontation with
the pollution found there, but we believe
Pro-flow
Case study 3 periphery: Itaquera
Case 3: Periphery &
Fundos de Vale
Project group
Han Dijk
Emile Revier
Kria Djoyoadhiningrat
Daan Zandbelt
Laetitia Lemos
Ricardo Correa
Taissa Cruz
Assistance
Ana Bádue
Ramiro Levy

Studio São Paulo
19
1
2
3
The first step is to
implement the linear
connection at the start of
the project. This should
serve as a connection
for local traffic of
pedestrians and cyclists.

Studio São Paulo
20
that it could have the same effect as the
phrase “Tiraro o bode da sala”. Making
people aware of the situation is the first
step towards a change.
The second step is to create a sense of
ownership of the public space. Connections
from public facilities towards the river are
taken into account, embedding the linear
connection in the surrounding urban tissue.
In this way segments of the valley are linked
to public program surrounding it. Schools
could profit from playgrounds along the
river, hospitals and elderly housing will find
a pleasant outdoor space nearby. In this way
the local population will feel connected to
the scarce public space and the value will be
recognised by all, avoiding the risk of illegal
occupation.
In the actual transformation of the areas
that are occupied with buildings the third
strategy is applied. The aim is to turn the
buildings with their front towards the
river. The program that can remain in this
zone should be flood-proof and all terrains
should be laid out with soft permeable
surface. The implementation of a water
collector that follows the linear path of the
river can stop the pollution of the river and
eventually turn the area along the stream
into a sequence of strong public spaces.
“Tiraro o bode da sala”.
Making people aware of
the situation is the first
step towards a change.
The second step is to create a
sense of ownership of the public
space. Connections from public
facilities towards the river are
taken into account, embedding
the linear connection in the
surrounding urban tissue.

Studio São Paulo
21
Connect the different
sections like a necklace

Studio São Paulo
22
Being in Sao Paulo what strikes me
the most is to witness how Paulistanos
have begun to succeed in developing an
intense, positive energy for their city
within a quite short time frame. Ten years
after my first visit to Sao Paulo, the mood
and atmosphere seem to be completely
geared up, something I didn’t expect to see
so radically or so soon. There is optimism
and openness in this city and a clear will
to act and change.
To give just one example, the impressive
scale and quality jump in public resources is
for me one of the most relevant signs of the
city’s latest developments and endeavours.
It is clearly visible – the breaking down
of traffic congestion is something all
Paulistanos will be thankful for, but above
all it improves social integration and
accessibility for everybody.
Nevertheless, the change I have witnessed
with the biggest impact has been twofold.
Firstly the shift in attitude by the
Municipality towards the reality of the
poorer neighbourhoods, and secondly the
acceptance of uneasy realities as a starting
point for improvement guided by a strong
participatory processes.
Reality as a starting point sounds quite
obvious, but it is not. It is often ignored
because it takes time needs political
Moving in the right direction
by Gert Urhahn
courage to overcome. Take Amsterdam for
instance, the city where I live and work as
urban designer.
In 1973, the municipality of Amsterdam
had drawn up demolition lists for entire
neighbourhoods based upon the research
of the Town Planning Department, the
Department for Social Housing and the
Building Department. At the time the
typical working mode was based on
separation with little cooperation between
departments. Yet the general idea among
these experts was to knock down most of
the 19th century labour housing districts
–considered obsolete and inappropriate.
In its place they would have built brand
new housing blocks as they were already
doing in the new extended areas of the
city, designed according to the modernistic
philosophy and planning standards of the
time.
As soon as the first of the old quarters
had been broken down, students and
entrepreneurs began a strong resistance.
Eventually only one man - Jan Schaefer, the
alderman of the Municipality- stood against
the extensive demolitions: he dared to say
NO. Perhaps more surprisingly, he was able
to turn the perfectly organized machine for
redevelopment in a different direction.
Before starting as politician, he was a

Studio São Paulo
23
baker in one of the areas planned for
redevelopment. He understood, as few
other people did, what kind of ravage it
meant for the local residents and business
people of these communities. He had the
experience, the power and the will to
change, and the audacity to do it.
Nowadays, most of those areas are the best
beloved places to live and work in the city.
Looking back I am surprised that this
happened in a city like Amsterdam and so
recently as well. Now it seems to me like a
bad dream that ended happily, and I see a
similar a transition moment for Sao Paulo
too.
Parallel to the acceptance of reality as
such and the wish to operate within it, I
recognized the wake of another remarkable
turn: the positive tendency to start thinking
not only of city extensions but towards
transformation of the existing urban fabric.
Sao Paulo is a fast growing metropolis. After
a period of never ending extensions, the
need and consciousness for transformation
of the existing fabric is rising. It concerns at
the same time the consolidated centre and
new sub-centres, as well as favelas and the
industrial areas that have been metabolized
by the city.
Transformation of these existing structures
is by definition more complex, but as
a counterpart is more urban, more
differentiated and dense. Lastly but by no
means least the city becomes more deeply
sustainable - socially, economically, and
with regards to infrastructure.
The right direction is already very present
in the paulistan planning departments,
though the move from extension to
transformation is not
instrumentally ripe yet. The
potential to critically reverse
the balance lies under the
burden of bureaucratic and
technocratic constraints.
These constraints are only
strengthened by time pressures
to complete what are often
complex yet urgent demands.
Such required shifts imply
other ways of operating; not
only dealing with people
-inhabitants and entrepreneurs
but also the existing physical
and social structures.
Above all however it requires a more inter-
disciplinary approach. Little by little the
situation can be freed up for reflection. I
feel this closely as it is not so very long
ago that similar changes were needed that
provoked a radical turn to a new set of
priorities also in Amsterdam.
“Before starting as
politician, Jan Schaeffer
was a baker in one of
the areas planned for
redevelopment. He
understood, as few other
people did, what kind
of ravage it meant for
the local residents and
business people of these
communities.”

Studio São Paulo
24
Through the debate of concrete problems in
the city of São Paulo, Studio São Paulo made
it possible not only to come up with richer
solutions by combining different points of
view. The collaborative design and debat also
led to the understanding of the differences
of urban planning and public policies in both
countries.
A focus on the project is one of the main
Brazilian obstacles, where the legislation
treats in a general way and without a specific
plan for the real problematic situations
presented in each locality. There is an abysm
between the legislation and the project, which
provokes a difficult relationship leading to
many barriers towards realisation. It makes
evident that there is a lack of planning with
public participation in order to establish a
healthy relationship between legislation,
planning and project, and a lack of project
reflecting the needs of the local population.
Long term planning and the discussion
about public participation were pointed out
as two of the most prevalent difficulties of
elaborating projects with greater dynamism
in Holland. On the other hand, the closer
relation between project and plan allows
a greater dynamic in the improvement
of the laws concerning public space. As a
consequence, the projects have less legal
obstacles, allowing for greater agility in
the public discussion and therefore better
representing the needs of the population.
Case Study
The lower valley, is a problem treated in a
generic way by the municipal planning office,
without the specification of the diverse
difficulties of each locality and the relation
with its surroundings. We noticed that the
richness of the characteristics of our studied
site allows the city to return the water and to
its inhabitants, providing the relation with a
healthy public place for its local population
and not only a crossing point. The plan gives
trust to, and requires responsibility of, the
local residents and users, This way public
participation becomes concrete andhelps
to answer each section of the valley with a
specific and pracmatic solution. The project
is a wonderful example of how São Paulo’s
lower valleys can be tranformed to valueable
places in the city putting the local place and
place central.
Making cities for people
by Ricardo Correa

Studio São Paulo
25
Sao Paulo is the roaring engine of a
booming country. At the same time the cars
in the streets of Sao Paulo don’t get a lot
of chances to roar, especially during rush
hour. Sao Paulo traffic is as sticky as the
local chocolate speciality: the brigadeiro.
Our hostel was not so far from the Studio Sao
Paulo workshop at the Martinelli building
in the center and we also had the choice
between taxi and metro. So we were blessed
in two ways: we slept nearby and we could
avoid the road. As many Paulistans are
stuck choosing between their car and the
(relatively well organized) bus system, which
both have to stand in the same bee line.
As Dutch natives, we wondered what the city
would be like with bikes instead of cars. That
Sunday we got served already. The Brazilian
office TC Urbes is a pioneer at the front of
urban cycling and took us for a ride. Because
the workers stay at home or escape the city,
the streets are freed from traffic. Main roads
are partially closed off to created temporary
dedicated bike lanes. Getting on however,
meant not being able to get off for some time.
Those lanes were located at the middle of
the road, locked between the remaining cars.
A claustrophobic experience for the Dutch
cyclist. This seems to be typical, as the few
Sticky as a Brigadeiro
By Kria Djoyoadhiningrat
permanent bike paths resemble highways,
instead of the small scale bike paths we’re
used to. Where the Dutch system has small
scale, bottom up properties, the Brazilians
started thinking upside down.
Going along one of the nicer bike highways
along the river Pinheiros an intense odour
filled our lungs. We were unpleasantly
surprised. Why would anyone build such
a nice bike path along such a foul place?
We would certainly first have cleaned the
place out before exposing anyone to this
environmental disaster. Did they make a
mistake here? During the workshop we were
making the plans for the linear parks, that
always follow a river or stream. We found
out that this upside down planning may not
always be intentional, it has a unique positive
side effect. A sublime motivation to action is
triggered by the exposure to the evident open
quality of the river and the foul smell at the
same time. Many of the visitors of the park
and cyclists and runners using the bike path
rallied local politicians to address the various
sources of pollution around the city. Cleaning
is becoming an undeniable item on the
agenda. Hopefully the traffic will soon stop
being as sticky as a brigadeiro, and Paulistans
will only eat brigadeiros to fuel their
human powered vehicles.
Going along one of the
nicer bike highways
along the river Pinheiros
an intense odour filled
our lungs. We were
unpleasantly surprised.
Why would anyone build
such a nice bike path
along such a foul place?

Studio São Paulo
26
Ordem e progresso, it says on the
Brazilian flag. Order and progress. Brazil
is a proud democracy, where progress is
defined not only in technical development
and economic growth. It is clear that real
progress would be to fulfil the dream of
an egalitarian society. The fulfilment still
faces big challenges both in racial terms,
and in ownership terms.
It is exciting to see the political imperative
in much of the planning. Planning is an
instrument to create this equality, which
is one of the reasons so much is invested
in low-income housing. Shaping the living
environment of the city is the major focus of
the social agenda of politicians.
The reason for this focus on housing is a
logical one. It is in the house, and in the
regeneration of the street, that progress
becomes
palpable. The
house and the
street form the
community,
and the
community
elects the
politician. That is the second reason that it
is so exciting to work within this democratic
political context. In Brazil, it is the
relationship between the politician and his
or her constituency (and not the relationship
with Goldman Sachs, as, one might say, in
the rest of the world) that drive projects and
programs.
Politicians are ‘of the people’, povao. Lula, the
previous president, a prime example, based
his mandate exactly on his promise to strive
for equality. So does the current president,
Roussef. And on a smaller scale, as we saw in
Heliopolis, it was the local MP who was the
driving force behind the housing and slum
clearance projects.
We were excited to discover again the power
of this democratic imperative. We talked to
candidates for political office who wanted
us to help them with a planning strategy. We
were happy to see that when we discussed
the political dimension of other long term
planning interventions, such as the need for
inclusiveness in the downtown area, these
were met with approval. It was striking,
however, and that is the trap of this politically
motivated planning, that long term planning
issues where not foremost in the mind of
the politicians we met. Projects needed to
be concrete, involve the local community,
and focus on housing. The four year span of
elections was dominant in their thinking.
How, we asked ourselves, can concrete and
manageable projects be combined with long
term perspectives?
Two cases
COHAB/SEHAB is the secretary of housing
and has defined a strategy of creating social
housing in some of the many empty buildings
in the centre to draw new inhabitants into
this underoccupied part of the city.
At this moment the city centre is not an
inclusive city where people live in, work
in and visit, it is only a CBD. The context of
the projectcase is that the centre needs to
position itself in a city that is becoming poly-
Ordem e progresso
by One Architecture & POSAD
Brazil’s bureaucracy, as
we have discovered in
the Martinelli building,
likes to keep things
manageable.

Studio São Paulo
27
centric. It should generate the investment of
social and financial capital in the centre.
Within the case we stated that it is not
about filling the buildings, quantitatively
hardly effective in relation to the scale of the
centre, but about place making. By focussing
on core-areas in the centre the COHAB/
SEHAB initiative becomes part of a strategy
to build- up innercity identity. These areas
need (besides residents) parking, safety,
links to public transport and a local street
management. With smaller defined urban
generation projects we can focus on city
areas instead of buildings.
For the other case, the Linear Park, the
secretary of green space and environment
was the main driver and client. They have to
deal with a number of problems.
Their first problem is that the infrastructure
of Sao Paulo is built over or on top of
the rivers in the city. This means that in
case of flooding the traffic is completely
dysfunctional.
The second problem is that the hair veins
of the water system are clogged by pieces
of city, like cholesterol and fat in an obese
person. Illegal housing is built on, in and over
the riverbeds. This illegal city pollutes the
river from the source on.
Third is the lack of green spaces in the city
that can help to cool the urban fabric, but also
as a green space for people. We noticed that
the Secretario's strategy to transform some
of the clogged up waterways into linear parks
is very difficult to execute. They are planned
as a masterplan but not phased in such a way.
The created public spaces lack meaning or
users and get either undesirably fenced or
vandalized.
Instead, the focus should be on the linear
and not on the parks, making networks. The
neighbourhoods
should be connected
in a better way to
adopt a part of it
as their backyard.
Ownership should
be created. This
helps creating a
planning logic that
is phased in a lot of interconnected sections.
The surrounding city adopts and creates
these sections. The network combines it.
Progress: Integrate long term vision in
political vocabulary
Following Auguste Comte, the positivist
philosopher who was responsible for the
slogan on the flag, progress needs order. Next
to the democratic imperative stands a well-
organized, too organized, bureaucracy.
Brazil’s bureaucracy, as we have discovered
in the Martinelli building, likes to keep
things manageable. It needs to, because of
the bureaucratic complexity and because of
the political demands for concrete results
within the term. And maybe it wants to, to be
honest, for opportunities for fast and easy
results. This reduction of scope, complexity
and timescale results, as it does anywhere, in
suboptimal project definitions. Opportunity
reigns supreme.
How, we asked
ourselves, can concrete
and manageable projects
be combined with long
term perspectives?

Studio São Paulo
28
be integrated in political terms and in
political vocabulary. This way the long term
and the big scale can be safeguarded by a
Secretario. Most of the goals set are very
one-dimensional, and by overlooking the
connecting issues the cure can be worse than
the disease.
In the case of the Linear Parks for example,
when solving the water problem one should
be aware of building strong networks instead
of unused, fenced ‘public space’.
Likewise, in the case of the inner-city,
bringing and maintaining life to the city
requires complementary and necessary
centre facilities.
And in the case of the Petrobras, when
building social housing for favela’s one
should be aware of not destroying future
green places that form the last gold (or
breathing space) of the city.
Order: Integral needs local
The scale at which Sao Paulo is developing is
nothing less than awesome.
The city has, as has been shown earlier, done
200 years in 70. And the end of development
is not in sight, not demographically, but
also socially, culturally and economically.
With the biggest mineral reserves in the
The housing program for Centro of SEHAB/
COHAB, the introduction of more than 2000
new units in ‘underused’ properties, was
not linked to the development of the area
as a whole. The linear parks in the east
were not related to the urban development
around them. The slum clearance and
planned housing near Heliopolis of SEHAB/
COHAB was not linked to transit- and green
development by the urbanism and green
departments.
Progress is accommodated by order, we
found, but also hindered. The ‘Plano Director’
is an example of a plan that lacks a clear
vision on ‘progresso’ but mainly consists of
‘ordem’: the recording of a series of separate
projects.
There is a gap between the large scale level
of the governance in Sao Paulo and the
short term of the vision making. The scale is
massive: the whole German Sheppard (like
the Paulistans use to refer to the shape of the
municipal boundary on the map, resembling
the head of a dog) is their territory, but the
short timeframe of a political four years is the
basis for most visions.
The secretaries have to deal with a layer
cake of integrated problems (like water and
infrastructure and green) and these problems
have to be treated in a quick and dirty, hands-
on manner that fits in four years of politics.
The logical result is a planning policy based
on opportunism.
We feel that the long term vision should
Most of the goals set are very
one-dimensional, and by
overlooking the connecting
issues the cure can be worse
than the disease.

Studio São Paulo
29
world, including the offshore oil, and the
true ambition to let the entire (growing)
population actively participate in the country,
Brazil just might be the richest country in the
world in the (not so far) future.
This will mean that Sao Paulo will not just
double, but grow by a factor 10 in terms
of Gross Regional Product. Already the
investment programs are massive but, as can
be seen in the graph, mostly focused on the
‘four year projects’, dominated by housing.
The real question for Studio Sao Paulo,
therefore, is how local, opportunistic and
short term projects can be thought such that
they will contribute to the long term planning
goals for the city? And, maybe before that,
how can we help translate the democratic
goals strategically into long term planning
goals, into more than just the availability and
accessibility of housing?
There is a chance to use that opportunism,
that fast metabolism of the city and to
connect it not only to a larger agenda but
also to connect it to local stakeholders.
Opportunistic driven projects can be carried
out by a local organ like a neighbourhood, a
school or a church community. The people
in Sao Paulo can take responsibility to shape
their own living environment.
In the example of the Linear parks we show
that this helps to form better networks
and also to create ownership; feeling
responsibility and ‘at home’ in public space.
To ensure public space can perform better, it
are not the safety issues that matter most but
the connection of a
local heart to it.
In the case of the
inner-city local
entrepreneurs,
inhabitants and cultural institutions make or
break city life. Some is guidable top down by
regulation or for instance creation of parking
facilities, but most is powered locally and
needs local governance.
Operate on an intermediate scale level
Brazil knows, like in the Netherlands,
different authorities on different levels. All
have their separate responsibilities. We
believe that Sao Paulo should operate on
an intermediate scale. The large scale is not
an executable. It is the scale of directing
the market and organising structures and
networks.
On the scale of making projects the city
is king; it can move fast and steady. This
intermediate scale could help to organise
the more local parties to be the ‘client’, the
government restricts to the networks and
the market helps to facilitate the making of it,
only if the ‘client’ accepts a sort of ownership.
Large scale, short term and making projects
can become very closely related. Hereby
skipping the ownership and integrality of
the built projects. The use and development
of the public realm can take shape by
introducing the intermediate scale, local
integration of opportunism driven projects
and a guiding government.
We believe that Sao Paulo
should operate on an
intermediate scale. The large
scale is not an executable.
It is the scale of directing
the market and organising
structures and networks.

Studio São Paulo
30
São Paulo is complete in every spot, even
though sometimes left out. At least for me
as a stranger, born in Suriname, raised in
the western Netherlands.
I will illustrate this completeness, and
in the same time ‘forgottenness’, by the
crossing of avenida São João with vale
do Anhagabaú, a central spot in the
historical city center of São Paulo, where
the old and new town, Sé and República
are separated. A place that did something
to my heart maybe in the way Caetano
Veloso was moved by the crossing a little
further on avenida São João, crossing
Ipiranga.
A place where I maybe look unto like ‘the
giant stranger’ from the twins, overlooking
the valley from my working spot, on top
of the Martinelli building. I perceive the
movement from above, the way I believe
most Paulistans do.
A little anxious I take the elevator to the
ground level. Stepping out of the Martinelli
building, looking from behind the trees,
seeing first the police, standing next to
their truck, facing me. Facing only this
side, the side where most of the offices are
in function. The side with filled buildings
all day, until the afternoon, maybe 5-, 6- or
7pm. The time after which every street,
building and corner becomes empty,
abandoned, like the rest of the old (Sé)
en even the new town (República). But
aside from that, it’s around noon now,
when I cross the valley of Angabaú. The
valley is empty already, like an urban void,
even though planned, designed and built.
Behind the police truck there is a little
valley, better called a lower square, a place
people have to walk around, which forms a
barrier in the street. Something that stops
most Paulistans from taking this route.
São Paulo complete,
sometimes forgotten.
by Heidi Klein
In the song ‘Sampa’ Caetano Veloso sings that
something happens in his heart only when it
crosses Ipiranga and avenida São João.
‘The stranger’, ‘O estrangeiro’, was a street art project
between SESC, Prefeitura de São Paulo, Plasticien
Volant and Os Gêmeos, realized in 2009 for the ‘year of
France in Brazil’. It was recently painted over, 30 days
before demolishing of the building it was painted on.

Studio São Paulo
31
Behind the lower square, across from the
beautiful monumental ‘Prédio do Correio’,
a spot that the stranger cannot over look,
a place that the police is not facing. There
are the girls, soliciting. Just in front of ‘Bom
Pastor’, the evangelical bookshop, in the
mouth of avenida São João.
Across the street, across from the girls,
next to the ‘Prédio do Correio’ I change
my money in a lanchonete, to buy some
handmade earrings in the center of
avenida São João. Every day before
noon travelers from Peru, Colombia
and elsewhere spread their cloth to sell
handcrafts, made from forest seeds, pits
from acai, and other natural materials.
The lanchonete is regularly busy, selling
‘sucos, pão do queso and coxinha de
frango’, while the lady at the magazine
kiosk sells the daily news and some
homeless simply wander around. This is
the part of avenida São João were Google
street view leaves you behind. Where the
cars and busses have already bent away.
It is still tranquil, even though it is lunch
time. Some buildings are empty, also
during daytime. Even though it is just
across from galleria do Rock, and not too
far from the Martinelli building. Maybe not
in a big amount, but all comes together
in that little corner, or actually quite big
corner: the crossing of avenida São João
with vale do Anhagabaú, with on one site
the police, on the other side the girls,
the eating and drinking, the handcrafts
and all, with the disconnection in the
middle, in the shape of a little valley, or
better called lower square. Like I said
São Paulo is complete in every spot, even
though sometimes left out, or better said
disconnected.
I went away, just like ‘the stranger’ did,
maybe back to France. His building will be
demolished within this month, to make
place for something new, a bit more classy,
cultural maybe. One day this left out piece,
the crossing of avenida São João with vale
do Anhagabaú, will be reconnecting the
city parts, the old and new town, Sé and
República, in the way that viaduto do Chá
already does.

N
d
t.
o
s-
s-
nt
n
PROPOSED INTERVENTIONS
01 Promoting interventions in large lots in order to create conditions for
local neighborhood units, by encouraging mixed use, associated with
the provision of open spaces connected to pedestrian lanes. Those
interventions have the potential of recovering the industrial architectural
heritage and of generating large-scale social housing, as well as for the
real estate market.
02 Encouraging old buildings remodeling; existing structures retrofit;
creating new network of pedestrian connections with visual permeabil-
ity - those actions shall generate alternative uses at the ground floor
of the buildings and the use of the internal areas of the blocks, which
provide effective strategies to take advantage of the great number of
vacant buildings in the downtown area.
03 Creating situations that increase housing density in these areas,
increasing the number of public spaces, areas for services and trade at
the lower floors and visual permeability of pedestrian mobility; creating
points of implementation in non-motorized transport in order to recon-
nect the social relationship of formerly separate districts by the road
system interventions.
RESULTS
The result of those interventions shall possibly start the redevelopment
of the downtown area. Not as an isolated intervention, but committed
with other public policies for renewal, as the offer of employment for
income increasing, mobility improvement, qualification of water re-
sources and infrastructure, among others. The interventions focused in
housing, however, must content and integrate all the other prospects
for renewal, proposing:
• People occupation and buidings renovation in downtown Sao Paulo,
with the proposition of, at least, 30 000 new housing units, whether
social housing or real estate market.
• Creation of more economical opportunities for 100,000 people in the
region
• Rehabilitation of public open spaces
• Improvement of the mobility system for public transport and non-mo-
torized vehicles
schools
central area
health & care
social housing areas
subway
public spaces
urban train
highways & aveneus
bus stations
railroad
districts
0102
03
03 HIGHWAY SYSTEM
Studio São Paulo
32
We aim to demonstrate the key issues about the
transformation of São Paulo central region, with
the comprehension of the urban relations that
led to its degradation and of the opportunities
for intervention generated by this decline. The
proposal is shown in a diagram of sequent events,
seeking to clarify the generation of opportunities
within the central territory and the respective
required interventions. The goal is to recover this
important and dense area of the city, with regard
to people resettlement and to the most effective
use of the existing infrastructure, through a
system of interconnected interventions. Dealing
with the central area recovery as a strategy of
creating a place that people want to live in, work
in and visit. The territorial limits of the central
region in study considers the 12 main districts of
São Paulo city center, surrounding Republica and
Sé districts which are in the geographical center of
this region.
Urban relationship in transformation
01 The change of uses generated the
abandonment of the industrial activities and the
neglect of the high potential
land system already consolidated.
02 The economic centrality of this territory
shifted towards other regions resulted in the
discontinuation of investment in maintenance
and infrastructure expansion, which were
mandatory to urban development.
03 The build-up of sequent road system
interventions during the second half of the 20th
century, regardless the contemporary approach
to this system and the lack of alternatives of land
use, exhausted the possibilities of expansion and
renovation of the area, causing its decline.
São Paulo’s downtown re-occupation
by Renata Semin, José Armênio de Brito Cruz, Rafael Costa, Marlon Longo, Gustavo
Partezani and Ingrid Ori (Piratininga Arquitetos )
The goal should be to recover
the center as a place that
people want to live in, work
in and visit.
DOWNTOWN RE-OCCUPATION
to demonstrate the key issues about the transformation
entral region, with the comprehension of the urban rela-
its degradation and of the opportunities of intervention
is decline.
posal is shown in a diagram of sequent events, seeking
eneration of opportunities within the central territory and
equired interventions. The goal is to recover this impor-
area of the city, with regard to people resettlement and to
ve use of the existing infrastructure, through a system of
interventions. Dealing with the central area recovery as
eating a place where people want to live, work and visit.
mits of the central region in study considers the 12 main
Paulo city center, surrounding Republica and Sé districts
e geographical center of this region.
URBAN RELATIONSHIP IN TRANSFORMATION
01 The change of uses generated the abandonment of the industrial
activities and the neglect of the high potential
02 The economic centrality of this territory shifted towards other re-
gions resulted in the discontinuation of investment in maintenance and
infrastructure expansion, which were mandatory to urban development.
03 The build-up of sequent road system interventions during the sec-
ond half of the XX century, regardless the contemporary approach to
this system and the lack of alternatives of land use, exhausted the pos-
sibilities of expansion and renovation of the area, causing its decline.
GENERATION OF OPPORTUNITIES
01The industrial activity was designed with large lots and extensive
road system that are nowadays underused due to the shift of the indus-
trial activities and some services.
02 The low investment in maintenance and expansion of urban infra-
structure in this region resulted in a large vacant group of buildings
and sites, either of residential or commercial use, due to the movement
towards new centers created in the city.
03 The border lots, overlapped by the highway system, became urban
scars and were depreciated as real estate assets due to the urban
fabric disruption.
ARQUITETOS ASSOCIADOS
up: José Armênio de Brito Cruz, Rafael Costa, Marlon
ata Semin.
uction: Gustavo Partezani, Rafael Costa and Ingrid Ori
schools
central area
health & care
social housing areas
subway
public spaces
urban train
highways & aveneus
bus stations
railroad
districts
02
03
STRIAL
02 OLD CENTER 03 HIGHWAY SYSTEM
SÃO PAULO
DOWNTOWN RE-OCCUPATION
We aim to demonstrate the key issues about the transformation
of São Paulo central region, with the comprehension of the urban rela-
tions that led to its degradation and of the opportunities of intervention
generated by this decline.
The proposal is shown in a diagram of sequent events, seeking
to clarify the generation of opportunities within the central territory and
the respective required interventions. The goal is to recover this impor-
tant and dense area of the city, with regard to people resettlement and to
the most effective use of the existing infrastructure, through a system of
interconnected interventions. Dealing with the central area recovery as
a strategy of creating a place where people want to live, work and visit.
The territorial limits of the central region in study considers the 12 main
districts of São Paulo city center, surrounding Republica and Sé districts
which are in the geographical center of this region.
URBAN RELATIONSHIP IN TRANSFORMATION
01 The change of uses generated the abandonment of the industrial
activities and the neglect of the high potential
02 The economic centrality of this territory shifted towards other re-
gions resulted in the discontinuation of investment in maintenance and
infrastructure expansion, which were mandatory to urban development.
03 The build-up of sequent road system interventions during the sec-
ond half of the XX century, regardless the contemporary approach to
this system and the lack of alternatives of land use, exhausted the pos-
sibilities of expansion and renovation of the area, causing its decline.
GENERATION OF OPPORTUNITIES
01The industrial activity was designed with large lots and extensive
road system that are nowadays underused due to the shift of the indus-
trial activities and some services.
02 The low investment in maintenance and expansion of urban infra-
structure in this region resulted in a large vacant group of buildings
and sites, either of residential or commercial use, due to the movement
towards new centers created in the city.
03 The border lots, overlapped by the highway system, became urban
scars and were depreciated as real estate assets due to the urban
fabric disruption.
PIRATINNGA ARQUITETOS ASSOCIADOS
January, 2012
Workshop group: José Armênio de Brito Cruz, Rafael Costa, Marlon
Longo and Renata Semin.
Text and production: Gustavo Partezani, Rafael Costa and Ingrid Ori
schools
health & care
subway
urban train
bus stations
01 INDUSTRIAL
02 OLD CENTER 03 HIGHWAY SYSTEM

Studio São Paulo
33
Generation of opportunities
01The industrial activity was designed with large
lots and extensive road system that are nowadays
underused due to the shift of the industrial activities
and some services.
02 The low investment in maintenance and expansion
of urban infrastructure in this region resulted in a large
vacant group of buildings and sites, either of residential
or commercial use, due to the movement towards new
centers created in the city.
03 The border lots, overlapped by the highway system,
became urban scars and were depreciated as real estate
assets due to the urban fabric disruption.
Proposed interventions
01 Promoting interventions in large lots in order to
create conditions for local neighbourhood units, by
encouraging mixed use, associated with the provision
of open spaces connected to pedestrian lanes. Those
interventions have the potential of recovering the
industrial architectural heritage and of generating
large-scale social housing, as well as for the real estate
market.
02 Encouraging old buildings remodelling; existing
structures retrofit; creating new network of pedestrian
connections with visual permeability - those actions
shall generate alternative uses at the ground floor of the
buildings and the use of the internal areas of the blocks,
which provide effective strategies to take advantage of
the great number of vacant buildings in the downtown
area.
03 Creating situations that increase housing density
in these areas, increasing the number of public spaces,
areas for services and trade at the lower floors and
visual permeability of pedestrian mobility; creating
points of implementation in non-motorized transport
in order to reconnect the social relationship of formerly
separate districts by the road system interventions.
Results
The result of those interventions shall possibly start
the redevelopment of the downtown area. Not as an
isolated intervention, but committed with other public
policies for renewal, as the offer of employment for
income increasing, mobility improvement, qualification
of water resources and infrastructure, among others.
The interventions focused in housing, however, must
contain and integrate all the other prospects for
renewal, proposing:
• People occupation and buildings renovation in
downtown Sao Paulo, with the proposition of, at least,
30 000 new housing units, whether social housing or
real estate market.
• Creation of more economical opportunitiies for
100,000 people in the region
• Rehabilitation of public open spaces
• Improvement of the mobility system for public
transport and non-motorized vehicles
• Improvement of the urban landscape

Studio São Paulo
34
and here I begin I spin here the beguine I
respin and begin to release and realize life
begins not arrives at the end of a trip which
is why I begin to respin [...]
Haroldo de Campos, Galaxias 1984, and
here I begin
A fast growing metropolis as Sao Paulo
is hardly graspable, it is impossible to
get under total control. That is its raison
d’être, what makes it alive and vibrant
by getting written and rewritten every
day by its planners, its architects, the
municipality, its citizens, its visitors.
Acknowledging that not everything can
-and has to- be under control, is not a
defeat: it is an objective strategy to deal
with the actual complexity and break it
down in time and place in order to handle
it. Not all questions can be answered at
the same time, but they should be looked
at in an integral way, with open and
long term visions, and a clear hierarchy
of which are the real public values, at
neighborhood as well as at city scale.
Public value is a sustainable answer to
urban pressure, it is what is important for
us all on long term, and is specific to each
context and scale.
After many decades of expansion and
growth, the city of Sao Paulo is changing
attitude and tries to consolidate within
its boundaries. Besides all the positive
aspects of this, the only disadvantageous
consequence is that urban pressure is
threatening all remaining vacant spaces
establishing no solution of continuity in
the city. Urban vacancies -especially in
the case of Sao Paulo- are an asset to let
public value increase and develop. One
of the keys to fullfill growing pressure
and consolidate the city without forcedly
exploiting all remaining available land, is
working with density within the already
built fabric. An important detail of this is
On public value: towards a coherent
and more livable São Paulo
by Bernardina Borra, Gert Urhahn, Luis Pompeo and Tiago Oakley

Studio São Paulo
35
that Sao Paulo has the capacity to increase
its density within its inner structure, and
also to reach a balance between urban
open spaces and building matter, cause
people are craving not only for houses and
facilities, but for lively and safe collective
spaces, parks, and streets as well.
The spatial conditions that can endorse
public value to unfold in Sao Paulo, are
quite different from what is happening
in many western cities, and demand
for a specific approach. It has to take
into consideration long-term and more
complex and integrated urban strategies,
looking for continous flexibility to change
in time.
On the one hand the meaning of Paulistan
public values should be set under local
culture understanding, and how this
two can take place for the benefit of
the many, co-existing and collaborating
between municipality, private owners
and individuals mindset. However, on
the other hand, in order to create them,
some basic frameworks could be set
to tackle the complex specificity of Sao
Paulo’s metropolis: scale switch, open
developments and typologies, cooperation
and radical user-oriented procedures.
Scale switch
Zooming in and alternately zooming
out, so to say switching scale –desing
and thinking wise-, means embracing a
development process simultaneously at
the disposal of many initiators in various
locations and densify locally and regionally
the metropolitan context, including
neighbour cities in every sense. In Sao
Paulo the three scales of neighbourhood,
meso and regional are of crucial importance
to mediate the Metropolis vastness. It is
essential to map out local needs, relevant
players in renovation districts and the
prospects — or rather obstructions — they
face. A thorough examination of both social
conditions and urban context is a necessary
strategy for the urban planner and this
demands a sharp eye for detail.
Open developments and typologies
Density in building, urban functions, and
lifestyle are constantly changing factors,
especially in a fast growing economy like
the Paulistan one. That means that a city
district or quarter must be able to adapt
according to changes. The non-linear design
of a city ensures its vitality. Simultaneous
Zooming in and alternately
zooming out, so to say
switching scale, means
embracing a development
process simultaneously at the
disposal of many initiators in
various locations.

Studio São Paulo
36
supervision of project initiators, in varying
frequencies and directions, is of paramount
importance, it must be absolutely get
constantly tuned with the map indicating
a wide range of possibilities and specific
opportunities that come along with time
speed. To benefit from those changes is
important for informal settlements as well
as for established ones, making room for
organic growth, sustainability and collective
acceptance.
Specifically facing roaring growth and urgent
problematics two different kind of typolgical
approach can play a crucial support in open
developments in Sao Palo.
On the one hand high speed housing and
industrial sector in Sao Paulo is the starting
point and require specific fast and affordable
construction technics, suitable for
different contexts within different
fabric. Namely prefab, cascos, light
urbanisme could be among the
most used solutions for building
typologies.
On the other –even previous
to building ones- urban fabric
typologies can act as an urban methodology
to distill a grammar of the composition of
different parts of the city.
The latter one investigates qualities of
existing urban fabric and indicates the
qualitative integration of built an open
space, indicating as well the possibility for
which bulding typologies are most suitable
locally. By building into a consolidated
urban fabric, you’re already building in the
city in a seamless system.
If actual laws might make it more difficult,
especially to implement mixed use
buildings, merging public and private use,
such as a housing block with a school in
the ground floor, this should perhaphs
be reconsidered within the open process
development.
In the end open development for
densification strategies has not only
pure social and spatial public value
improvements, but consequently it also
generates real estate value of the land and
its surroundings.
Cooperation and user oriented
Defining and shared ambitions is a political
and practically efficient integration
process at all levels – between different
municipalities, within municipality
departments themselves, and between all
local stake holders- that must be developed
both publicly and expertly. It involves
collective investment, for example in
innovative energy infrastructure or water
quality, in order to conserve a city’s heritage
and ultimately it enhance its public values.
Acknowledgement of separate entities and
future values is a component of a producer’s
anticipatory and imaginative power.
Nature, water, landscape, accessibility,
heritage, architecture and all peculiar
features of Sao Paulo might combine to
create public values and inspire new forms
of utilisation. In anticipation of this future
vision, the planner works on developing
an area’s quality, unique character and
coherence, confident of the city user’s
resilience and conflict-resolving nature.
This can be either latent or new potentials,
up to the urban planner to find them out
with the help of the participants involved.
By building into a
consolidated urban
fabric, you’re already
building in the city in
a seamless system.

Studio São Paulo
37
Indeed in order to create public concern
and social responsibility to foster public
life –and safety for it- , participatory
structures must surpass participation itself,
and achieve social reliability. Sao Paulo is
already far ahead in citizens’ participation
than many other countries. Their energy,
creativity and investment capacity is bred
and consciously considered, conscious
that an individual owner will not succeed
on his own upgrading a certain area, but
collective efforts of several neighbours well
orchestrated can become critically effective
and structurally help changing.
Maybe other levels can be added on top
of the existing partcipatory procedures,
not only micro-financing or civic economy
solutions, but plenty of innovations can
already be among the people in place, from
top businesses through to deprived urban
districts. Long term planning could help
going deeper in the positive groove set
years ago by the Estatudo da Cuidade. It
could release official zoning and land use
laws, favouring a more flexible control,
could be one of the msot crucial factors to
involve active participation.
A more radical participation is in the
genealogy of history and develoment of
Brazilian citizenship, and the integration of
human experiences in transforming their
own neigbourhoods, is common acting.
Residents, associations, companies and
co-operatives should be given an active
role in urban renewal initiatives. Boosting
of endogenous investment capacity plays
a central role for integrated processes to
foster public value.

Studio São Paulo
38
In interviews on urbanism in São Paulo with
various people preparing Studio São Paulo in
April 2011 one main critique on the city was
prominent in every discussion: the lack of
good public space.
São Paulo is often being stigmatized for
being a ‘selva de concreto’, a concrete jungle.
When overlooking the city from the top of the
Martinelli building you would agree with this
metaphor, but as soon as you experience
the city at eye level in the streets you
become aware of a city full of public life.
Although the metropolis of São Paulo is
mainly car driven each Vila in the city
has a central area or prominent streets
where public life is present. Obvious
examples are the Rua Augusta in the
centre, the Rua Fidalga in Vila Madalena
but also Estrada das Lágrimas between
Heliopólis and Vila Bandeirantes is a
lively street, at least during a weekday. These
streets all have beside their central position in
the network of the city another essential basis
for their livelyness: a human scale, shops and
bars which are oriented towards the street
and a differentiated pattern of buildings along
it. The section of these streets allow cars, but
also pedestrians and bikers to make use of
this space.
One of the big assignments for the city in the
next decades is to house the rising middle
class. Exactly this could be a driving force for
the improvement of public space in the city.
Therefore urban design and patience should
become part of the planningproces.
The ambition to overcome the slums in São
Paulo within the next six political terms puts
pressure on the execution of housing plans.
Although often made with good intentions the
new housing typologies tend to be focussed
on the architecture which comprises mainly
apartment blocks. These blocks are infills of a
site rather than parts of a street or a pattern of
public spaces.
Although the wish for safety comes together
which each step on the social-economic
ladder, the isolation of housing projects
from their urban context will be a missed
opportunity for creating good public space.
Good public space itself will in the end be the
best way to guarantee safety to a certain level.
This short reflection is not necessarily a plea
for a ‘fenceless’ city but a plea to start thinking
about the (re)housing assignment in São Paulo
as a driver for making good public space at
least there where opportunities to add to a
logical pattern of public spaces are there. To
make this work the concept of the street is
essential.
A good street requires a human scale, more
entrances apart from only one and attractive
functions along it. The Avenida Paulista is a
good example how a street with large ‘gated’
buildings becomes attractive because of the
plinth of functions that it generates along the
sidewalk. Half a floor up and half a floor down
there are functions which have a performance
at the street.
In Vila Carioca where we had a short look
at during Studio São Paulo there is a great
potential to create attractive streets with
new housing typologies. In Vila Carioca the
relocation of large industrial sites creates
space for this strategy. But only when urban
design and patience will be incorporated
in the planning proces. Urban design to
distinguish the primairy routes from the
secondary ones and to offer new typologies
which create a front at the street. Patience
to give time to the industries to relocate and
to have different projects add up to the idea
of the street. The new metrostation in the
neighbourhood could be an attractive addition
to the public space of the neighbourhood as
long as there will be a proper urban design
which connects the station naturally to the
primairy routes within Vila Carioca. This is not
easy and requires trial and error in the design
proces. Urban design could not only improve
the pattern of streets and public spaces.
Urban design could also improve the way an
ensemble of housing in the second line, not
directly related to the street is configured.
To create a good street local authorities
should formulate some simple guidelines for
development just the way it has been done
in the sixties when the Avenida Paulista took
off. Guidelines which address attention to
Housing as a driver
for good public space
by Rogier van den Berg
São Paulo is often
being stigmatized
for being a concrete
jungle, but as soon
as you experience
the city at eye level
in the streets you
become aware of a
city full of public life.

Studio São Paulo
39
alignment, height and the perfomance of the
plinth or the walls along the street. With adding
to this the housing projects which are initiated
and constructed by SEHAB and COHAB a strong
basis for good public space is already there.
Not necessarely everywhere but at least at the
main routes of the neighbourhood. To make
these streets really attractive the design of the
public space itself and the way it is materialised
can only add to this. But the basis for good
public space primarely is the way architecture
relates to it and the way a pattern of public
space is constructed and maintained in the
neighbourhood.
You will not do this overnight. But there is a
great advantage in São Paulo. The city already
has a lot of potential good public space which
is naturally embedded in its context. An extra
impuls could be generated by having the
housing operation work in favour of this. I do
not believe that one could change the idea of
danger immediately. Fear has a ground in this
city. That’s clear.
That’s why a regulated ‘collective’ space
which has certain ‘opening hours’ should be
considered as a first step of place making.
Having these collective spaces connected to
shops and to public program like daycare,
schools and healthcare the space can gradually
grow into its role as being public and safe. The
way the ‘park’ at the Petrobras site has been
proposed in Studio São Paulo is making use of
this strategy over time.
To make new housing work in favor of a public
space strategy requires a slightly different
mindset in the great housing ambition of SEHAB
and COHAB. Without this there is a potential
danger that ambitious housing projects will be
responsible for a new generation of livability
problems within the city within twenty years.
In the Netherlands we have experienced this
ourselves with the postwar social housing
operation which only had good intentions too.
So far I am optimistic if that what is there
already will be cherised and if there will be a
more urbanistic approach to large scale housing
projects. In the end the Paulistans still love to
stroll on the streets and will keep demanding
good public space ever more.
A good street requires a
human scale, more entrances
apart from only one and
attractive functions along it.
To use housing as part of an public
space strategy requires a slightly
different mindset, but without this
there is a potential danger that
ambitious housing projects will be
responsible for a new generation
of livability problems within the
city within twenty years.

Studio São Paulo
40
Anyone who takes a walk through Sao
Paulo’s oldest neighbourhoud Sé on a
weekday during daytime will experience
a city that probably resembles something
between Lisbon and New York. Crowded
streets lined by European style monumental
buildings and skyscrapers. After closing
time of the shops and offices the streets are
dead. Nobody lives in Sé. At the same time
there are many empty buildings in Sé and
plenty of people who would want to live
closer to their jobs and shops
and even have the money
for it.
Bad city planning and clear
cutting facilities followed by
hyper inflation killed life in
the city center. The loss of
real estate value made the
old buildings too expensive
to maintain. Many tall
buildings became useless at
once when elevators failed,
leaving only the ground floor
in use. With the economic growth of the
last decade it appeared more attractive to
invest in new areas and ask the government
for new infrastructure than to do relatively
expensive refurbishing of outdated
buildings. Rumours of possible upgrading
projects, currently there are about 50
running in the city centre, put the brakes
on private investments. Property owners
prefer to wait and see if these upgradings
bring back some of the value lost in the
past decades. Moreover, there is a lot of
fragmented ownership.
A few years ago COHAB started a program
for transforming vacant buildings in the
centre into social housing. Transforming
old buildings is expensive but calculations
pointed out that it’s still 15% to 30%
cheaper than expanding the infrastructure
and facilities in new residential areas.
COHAB inventorised the vacant buildings
and made a selection based on simple
rules. Small is expensive, big creates
uncontrollable communities and tall makes
dependent on elevators. COHAB found
54 buildings, mostly hotels and offices,
together suitable for about 2500 residential
units for lower incomes.
The combination of Sao Paulo’s size
and congestion creates particular
circumstances. The clogged up transport
Screaming Vacancy
by Bart Aptoot (One Architecture)
After closing time
the streets are dead.
Nobody lives in Sé
while there are many
empty buildings and
plenty of people who
would want to live
closer to their jobs and
shops and even have
the money for it.

Studio São Paulo
41
network has resulted in extreme
specialization of businesses within
reasonable traveling time from their
suppliers or clients. The massive scale of
the city makes each of these specializations
grow out to neighbourhoods. The seemingly
endless series of wedding dress shops
in Brás is followed by an almost equally
impressive row of mannequin stores and a
sewing machine street. Even the improbable
combination of parking garage and interior
light store is repeated numerous times
within the street Consolaçao.
Entrepreneurs know the local conditions.
When these change their businesses are
adapted swiftly, inventively and initially
with low investments. The neighbourhood
network and the flexibility of the
entrepreneurs are valuable ingredients to
achieve fast changes in neighbourhoods.
Their limited investment capacity is a
drawback. Not every function and not every
intervention in existing buildings is possible
without considerable investments.
Vacancy in the heart of such a crowded
metropolis, which so much ingenuity and
flexibility and a fast growing economy, it
excites. A large group of Paulistans, the
many employees of the offices in Sé as
well as the well payed middle class and
particularly the youngest amongst them
wouldn’t want anything more than to give
up their daily two to three hour commute
time to live closer to their jobs, shops and
nightlife. There are
about 150 unused
buildings left on the
COHAB list, of which
one can only hope
that COHAB shares
it with investors
to address this
market of young
professionals. Add to
this the empty lots in
neighbouring district
Brás, on which more integral development
is possible. Living, working and leisure in
one neighborhood. That makes one long
immensely for crowd sourcing for ideas,
competitions for plans, setting a few good
examples in motion, connecting them and
putting the new spots in the spotlights. The
rest follows automatically.
The neighbourhood network
and the flexibility of the
entrepreneurs are valuable
ingredients to achieve fast
changes in neighbourhoods.
... it makes one long
immensely for crowd
sourcing for ideas and
competitions for plans. Set
a few good examples in
motion and put them in the
spotlights. The rest follows
automatically.

Studio São Paulo
42
Studio São Paulo has been a mutual
initiation into each other’s world of urban
planning and design. Brazilian urbanists
sat down with their Dutch colleagues
and government officials from several
departments. This unusual setting allowed
to put up a proverbial ladder up against the
trees of São Paulos concrete jungle and so as
to take a little distance from their usual job
and look at their project assignments from
the angle of their colleagues on the different
departments or from the international
perspective. Working together on the three
cases the Dutch
widened and
deepened their
understanding
of São Paulo’s
concrete
jungle and the challenges it faces for both
its inhabitants as well as its planning
professionals. During the five days of
discussions and design, the Paulistans
in turn got a feel of both the qualities
and pitfalls of our integrated and urban
planning tradition.
Besides fun and friendships, several results
will remain from the first session of Studio
Sao Paulo for its participants. First, valuable
insights have been translated into three
accessible projects. Second, the participants
take the experience into their professional
lives. Third, after the workshop some of the
participants recognized the mutual benefit
of knowledge from both sides of the ocean
and have started to explore the possibilities
of further collaboration. That’s all very nice,
but how does the city of São Paulo benefit
from this?
Creating ‘public value’
Although all three areas Studio São Paulo
worked on have their big issues to solve,
we found in each of them specific hidden
potentials and existing qualities which
we as urban designers can improve and
amplify. The main difficulty of all of the
three areas we worked on is that the
existing quality is under pressure.
The city of São Paulo is in the lift. That is
great. For every citizen in this city there is
potential to grow with this.
Therefore there is a large quest for new
housing. Bigger and better houses for a new
middle class in the city. But we should not
forget that with this growing prosperity
there will be an ever bigger demand on
quality. That quality is not only the quality
of the house, but also the quality of the
A continuous Studio São Paulo?By Kria Djoyoadhiningrat and Jaap Klaarenbeek
The main difficulty is to
create integrated plans for
public value under pressure
of the need for speed,

Studio São Paulo
43
city. That means to create good housing,
but also good parks, nice streets, places to
meet and accessibility to various modes
of transport. This is what we have defined
as the public value. The main difficulty
is to create integrated plans public value
under pressure of the need for speed,
quantities and short term interests in urban
development.
São Paulo is built by urban planners,
infrastructural engineers, architects and
its residents. Urban planners make zoning
and allotment plans, while architects
and inhabitants are typically inwardly
focussing on the architecture of the plot.
Big infrastructure bind the two together
and commonly create little urban value. It
is exactly on this in-between scale, the scale
between urban planning and architecture,
where ‘urban design’ can make a difference
to create public value.
If everybody is working in his own domain
it is impossible to create quality. Then the
transport hubs are on the wrong places,
potential green areas are destroyed,
while next to it there is enough space to
densify, etcetera. The Petrobras site next to
Heliopolis is a typical example. We found
out that by creating housing at the edges
together with a densification of Vila Carioca
it is absolutely not necessary destroy the
beautiful, hilly greenery. This could be a
park which will be of great public value for
the next decades to come.
As SEHAB
secretary
Ricardo
Perreira Leite
told in his
welcome about his recent visit to Paris:
‘Brazilians would be shocked by the small
size of the Parisian appartments. But if you
live in Paris, everything you need is very
close; supermarkets, cinema’s, museums
and parks to stroll, cycle of to have a
‘churrasco’. We have to create that same
urban quality in our cities’.
If you want to create quality, create good
public space and create public value, it is
necessary that various public institutions
work together to make integrated plans.
The resulting synergy of new partnerships
makes the project more effective and may
even be realised faster and cheaper.
As a result of our design thinking we
defined points of advice for making quality
If everybody is working
on his own domain it is
impossible to create quality.

Studio São Paulo
44
in the city of São Paulo:
1. Use the existing quality of a place. There is
a lot. Do not throw it away. You cannot find it
from behind a desk. Get there, research and
take this as a point of departure for a plan.
2. Create a complete life in the
neighbourhood. Each neightbourhood
should have good housing, schools, a park,
nice streets and access to public transport.
There is a lot of problems the metropolis
of São Paulo has to solve. But you can start
in the neighbourhood. One good street can
mean a lot!
3. Create public value. Places for everybody
that are attractive to all citizens to go to and
enjoy. It takes an effort in the beginning but
in the end will also has it’s economic spin
off.
4. Work together. Only with integrated
planning you can create quality public space
in a dense city of São Paulo.
5. Have a Permanent Studio São Paulo to
create a culture of integrated and innovative
urban design for the São Paulo.
A permanent Studio São Paulo
The first Studio São Paulo was a studio
where Dutch offices, Paulistan offices,
SEHAB, COHAB, Secretaria de Verde e Meio
Ambiente, SP Urbanismo and SMDU came
together to think and design together. With
only one Studio São Paulo you will not
change the city and therefore we proposed
to create a permanent Studio São Paulo.
We imagine a permanent Studio São Paulo
as an open platform that - in changing
compositions with both Brazilian as well as
foreign ‘makers of the city’ - organizes short
pressure cooker workshops that uses the
urban design project as a tool for discussion
and the discovery of new synergies and
public value. Studio São Paulo would be:
- A testbed where new ideas can be tested;
and, where both public- and private-sector
parties can address the subjects they think
that need to be put forward on a wide
platform;
A place where innovative ideas for making
quality in the city are developed together
with all responsible departments.;
- A place quick dry-run to discover and
We imagine a permanent Studio
São Paulo as an open platform
that organizes short pressure
cooker workshops with
Brazilian and foreign ‘makers of
the city’ while using the urban
design project as a tool for
discussion and the discovery of
new synergies and public value.

Studio São Paulo
45
gain mutual understading of the positions
of involved stakeholders and find possible
shared objectives and synergies;
- A place where municipal employees from
different departments are able to take a
little distance from their own projects, and
think out of the box about subjects that do
not directly make part of their daily work;
- A place where international professionals
can learn from São Paulo in a hands-on way,
while the city in its turn can tap into all
international expertise visiting the city so
as to even further expand and improve the
cities’ programs;
- A multidisciplinary machine for
constructive and fresh ideas about São
Paulo’s future;
- A place to develop thoughts and ideas
further to visions and plans.
As an independent platform a Permanent
Studio São Paulo can start putting synergies
and possible solutions on the agenda.
Who takes the lead?
As an independent platform
a Permanent Studio São
Paulo can start putting
synergies and possible
solutions on the agenda.
Who takes the lead?

Studio São Paulo
46
impresso em renova soft da
md Papéis 240g/m2 e 90g/m2
pela rr donnelley moore em
outubro de 2010.
a bicicleta e as cidades: como inserir a bicicleta na política
de mobilidade urbana / organização renato Boareto;
textos ricardo corrêa, Kamyla Borges da cunha,
renato Boareto – 2. ed. – são Paulo: instituto de
energia e meio ambiente, 2010.
83 p.: il. color.; 21 cm + cd-rOm
versão em português e inglês.
Publicado também em meio eletrônico.
inclui referências bibliográficas.
isBn 978-85-63187-02-4
1. Bicicletas - aspectos ambientais - Brasil.
2. ciclovias. 3. mobilidade urbana. i. Boareto, renato.
ii. corrêa, ricardo. iii. cunha, Kamyla Borges da. iv. título:
como inserir a bicicleta na política de mobilidade urbana.
cdU 656.18(81)
Participants
São Paulo
Ramiro Levy Secr. Verde e Meio Ambiente
Ana Laura Badue Secr. Verde e Meio Ambiente
Roselia Ikeda Secr. Verde e Meio Ambiente
Sun Alex Secr. Verde e Meio Ambiente
Tiago Oakley 23 sul arquitetos
Luis Pompeo 23 sul arquitetos
Ricardo Correa TC Urbes
Leticia Lemos TC Urbes
Taissa Cruz TC Urbes
Renata Semin Piratininga arquitetos
Jose Armenio de Brito Cruz Piratininga arquitetos
Marlon Longo Piratininga arquitetos
Rafael Giorgi Costa Piratininga arquitetos
Vanessa Padia SEHAB/Cohab
Aline Frigueiredo SEHAB/Cohab
Rodrigo Tanaka SEHAB/Cohab
Nathassia Salgado Arra SEHAB/Cohab
Marcelo Rebelo SEHAB/Cohab
Andre Kwak SP Urbanismo
Maria Teresa Grillo SMDU
Fernando Gasperini SMDU
Daniela Gerlinger independent
Netherlands
Gert Urhahn Urhahn Urban Design
Bernardina Borra Urhahn Urban Design
Rogier van den Berg Zandbelt & van den Berg
Heidi Klein Zandbelt & van den Berg
Daan Zandbelt Zandbelt & van den Berg
Matthijs Bouw One Architecture
Bart Aptroot One Architecture
Han Dijk POSAD
Emile Revier POSAD
Jaap Klaarenbeek Studio ROSA
Kria Djoijoadhiningrat Studio ROSA

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