On a beautiful and warm Sunday morning in January, during the first weekend of the Sao Paulo Calling-project, Anna Dieztsch from DBBA, Joseph Grima from Abitare and me as the SEHAB urban planning coordinator came together to discuss together with the population the urban plan for São Francisco. It promised to get interesting: The podium discussion was led by myself, an urban planner with European background; Anna, a Brazilian architect, living and working for many years in New York, and Joseph Grima, an anglo-italian editor.
In 2010, SEHAB decided to elaborate an urban plan that would finally turn the punctual interventions by the public authorities of the last 30 years into a neighborhood. The plan was finalized within a six month period by the SEHAB urban design team, together with the team of Habi Leste (architects, engineers and social workers), responsible for the coordination of the slum-upgrading program in the Eastern part of the city, and with the participation of the local population and planning offices such as SMDU, SP Urbanismo, SP Trans, SVMA, amongst others. SEHAB is currently working on the implementation of the first phase of construction, together with Davis Brody Bond Aedes (DBBA).
The event ...
"Hospital! Hospital! "And" Labyrinth! Labyrinth! "These are two slogans that guide us. They are words shouted joyfully by children leading a lenghty parade of people in the ascents and declines of Sao Francisco, dressed in white t-shirts decorated with hand-painted red hearts, under a relentless sun. The parade is formed by the comunidade of São Francisco, a "favela" of 35,000 people east of Sao Paulo that Sehab - Secreteria Municipal de Habitação -is transforming into a "town". This is the first Jornada de Habitação from the exhibition "São Paulo Calling", curated by Stefano Boeri, that in the coming months will bring more days like this in different areas of the city. The walk takes a different path than the one established and previously negotiated, even in areas where perhaps we should not have appeared without due notice. This causes a certain tension but then it flows smoothly through to the end. people looked first surprised, then they listened and finally found themselves agreeing: for the inhabitants it would be very important for a hospital to be built in São Francisco, given that today it takes almost an hour to reach the nearest hospital. Here, today, the claim for the house ...