The city center and the city as a center: urban design and economic insertion

3º São Paulo – London – Beijing Symposium 2012

Proposed to the debate: - The urban environmental issue

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The connection between urban development, urban design and development model

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Present research aiming at developing urban designparameters based on high density and socio-environmental quality

Thus, the debate begins to assess what may be the environment in cities.

Cities are one of the most significant creations of civilization, but as well represent one of the most striking forms of appropriation and transformation of nature, even considered its complete antagonism

Environmental disasters in the local and global scale, are perceived as a consequence of inadequate treatment of nature, but little connection is made from this and the standards set by the consumer society.

Considering all this, it may be assumed that for Brazilian metropolises the urban environmental issue takes two foci: 1. The conflict between nature and urban settlements, observed in the urban fringes and environmentally sensitive areas and 2. The social conflict within the urban area and particularly in the more central areas. “two faces of the same coin”

Approximately 50% of the Brazilian population lives on 1% of the territory

The urban environmental matter have to follow it’s own dynamics and not the transposition of the thought or the reasoning applied to the rest of the territory

Rio Tietê Rio Pinheiros Rio Tietê Represa Billings Represa Guarapiranga Rio Tietê

Assentamento, Lixão e Represa

esgoto declividade acentuada córrego

ausência de infra estrutura

Áreas de risco e erosão

60 km 30 km

Cidade de 70 anos: entre 1940 e 2010 cresceu 18 milhões de habitantes Crescimento 2000-2010 de 0,97% ao ano: 190 mil hab/ano

It is necessary to observe the center of Sao Paulo within the condition of the centrality of the metropolitan economy in the Brazilian context, along with the peripheral condition that represents in the global economic game.

From the 70's the center has been popularized. From the 90’s it was set a political and symbolic sense connecting the concentration of public transport and the streets with great movement of people and street vendors, to the idea of ​​"degradation" and the need of “revitalization” of the area.

The proposed urban projects from then aim to bring activities of the upper tertiary sector and more wealthy people to central areas, seeking to reconfigure them for the global pattern of economic activity.

The project skids for years because of its structural contradiction. The center as “a place of all” is unwanted by activities that seek differentiation and take themselves as exclusive.

The upper tertiary sector internationalized will only seek that space if it is entirely reconfigured. And, if it will be entirely reconfigured it will lose its historical and symbolic dimension as center what is its major value.

Rua 25 de Março

Rua José Paulino Rua Paula Souza

Rua São Caetano Rua Santa Ifigênia

Rua do Gasômetro

Av. Paulista Av. Faria Lima

Av. Berrini

Av. Berrini

Present research aims at developing urban designparameters based on high density and socio-environmental quality. The goal is to associate the advancement of knowledge in the fields of urban planning and design to the technology of the buil environment

Major public investments in derelict areas in central São Paulo result in transfers of public resources to higher income social and economic setor.

The project takes the principle that it is possible to qualify this areas in a different way, by the investment of public resources in promoting social housing. The use of this land should be maximized, hence the proposal to increase density – but for that there are technical and social limits.

The methodology designed in the project is a combination of methods from various fields related to the production of the built environment. It takes as central axis the concept of adequate housing (UM-Habitat) expressed trough human requirements in relation to housing conditions.

The notion of human requirements comes from the studies of confort for buildings (ISO 6241 – Performance Standards in Building – 1984) and the Brazilian NBR 15575 – Performance of Housing Buildings up to 5 floors – 2008)

Developped by LABHAB and LABAUT, the requirements have been associated to environmental and socio-urban variables in order to take into account both the physical qualities related to environmental comfort and socio-urban qualities related to social confort. To each variable it has been displayed a requirement which attendance can be evaluated by an appropriate criteria. A table, was designed to present all this

Laboratório de Habitação e Assentamentos Humanos FAUUSP www.fau.usp.br/labhab Maria Lucia Refinetti Martins [email protected]