+ TRAVESSAS TAMANDUATEÍ [Speculative Project]

SÃO PAULO, BRAZIL / 2018

Reimagining São Paulo’s Tamanduateí Industrial Crescent

Collaboration
Leticia Palazzi Perez, Kirsten Larsen, Nathan Brigmon, Joanna Corbett, Jason Sowell

INTERDISCIPLINARY DESIGN COLLABORATION | POSTINDUSTRIAL URBAN CORRIDORS | HOUSING

Infill Scenarios, Tamanduateí Corridor addresses the risk of displacement in informal settlements adjacent to São Paulo’s transit redevelopment zones. In response, this project proposes strategic infill of vacant parcels using Minha Casa Minha Vida (MCMV) housing—reworking a program often criticized for peripheral siting to instead support integrated, equitable urban growth. The scenarios guide public, private, and community actors in prioritizing inclusive redevelopment along the corridor.

We tested MCMV housing models infill in one of São Paulo’s five major development districts, the Operação Urbana Consorciada Bairros do Tamanduateí (OUCBT, Lei 723/2015), a 4,000-acre strategic planning zone in São Paulo’s eastern industrial crescent. Within the OUCBT, 14% of the land is designated as Zonas Especiais de Interesse Social (ZEIS, Zones of Special Social Interest), which are designed to transfer the surplus gained in wealthy development districts to poor ones. To aid in the distribution of urban resources, we categorized these ZEIS into majority housing or ecological programs, based on vulnerability to flooding. 

Drawing on an engagement process (September – December, 2015) led by Kristine Stiphany with residents and leaders of the Heliópolis favela, the team developed four design principles, which guided eight transversal development corridors, or travessas, that divide the OUCBT into smaller neighborhoods. Keeping this neighborhood sense in mind, each travessa was programmed relative to the assets and opportunities that should be delivered via the ZEIS, rather than the default of only housing or large-scale infrastructure that governments tend to build out. 

By interweaving small travessas into a large corridor and using MCMV housing to infill redevelop a constellation of sites, the project presents a broad framework for communities, governments, and private actors to co-synthesize small urbanistic actions into comprehensive plans for important urban areas.