Our next Social Housing Revival series case study looks at the development of a series of favelas in São Paulo by Brazilian studio Boldarini Arquitetura e Urbanismo that take a new approach to informal settlements by prioritising social, communal spaces.
Beginning in 2008 and still ongoing, this project seeks to address the issues of displacement and forced eviction that plague Brazil's unplanned neighbourhoods by going beyond structural or infrastructural improvements.
Boldarini Arquitectura e Urbanismo was tasked by the municipality of São Paulo with upgrading the area. Photo by Daniel Ducci. Top photo by Fabio Knoll
Named Cantinho do Céu ? "A Place in Heaven" ? the complex is comprised of three informal neighbourhoods bordering São Paulo's Billings Reservoir. The area grew in the 1970s when developers illegally sold the land to those who could not afford to live in central São Paulo, and today it is home to some 70,000 people.
Despite the launch of the ambitious Minha Casa, Minha Vida (My House, My Life) social-housing programme in 2009, informal settlements like these continue to fulfil a vital need for affordable housing for millions of Brazilians.
Before: the neighbourhoods had lacked any proper sanitation and were at severe risk of flooding. Photo by Fabio Knoll
A lack of land rights mean favela communities are vulnerable to eviction and so many fight for regularisation but this also risks increasing the threat of gentrification and drawing these sett...