Our design splits the site into 5 distinct but interconnected districts. Each offer a mix of housing and block typologies that distinguish the areas while ensuring consistent, all-season use. The Arts District leverages the industrial built form, highlighting artistic pursuits and encouraging exploration. The Tech District is connected to the transportation hub and will set a new standard for São Paulo by hosting both large anchor companies as well as smaller scale startups. The Education District synthesizes the various districts by using the ecological, agricultural, and design elements as learning opportunities. The Market District acts as the heart of the site, linking together the surrounding districts through its emphasis of food, music, and culture. The Agricultural district provides opportunities for urban agriculture and supports the needs of the local restaurants, and residents. 

We use the powerful confluence of the Pinheiros and Tietê Rivers as the foundation for our design. 

The new location of the river provides access to water - aiding and remediating the conflicting relationship between people and nature in a growing urban metropolis. The river will provide more than hydrological benefits. New educational experiences will be created for university students studying environment based programs, as well as innovative opportunities for the technology industry to develop products and systems regarding water quality. The river will create new agricultural areas so that residents living on the site can access locally grown food at their doorstep and learn about food production. These three pillars organize themselves around the river- its past, present, and future.

An introduction of a transportation hub will strengthen and establish new mobility connections. Residents of the new CEAGESP site will be able to move easily around the urban center without using their own private vehicle. Affordable fares and proximity will allow residents of Jaguare to access this transit as well, through a pedestrian and cyclist bridge that will connect the communities both literally and metaphorically. The University of São Paulo is located to the Southeast of the site, under 3 km away.  

Our transit grid and network has been specifically designed to allow for the incorporation of green infrastructure solutions. As transit systems require highly impermeable surface cover (including asphalt and concrete), this reduces natural water infiltration processes and generates rapid runoff during severe storm events. Green infrastructure interventions such as bioswale medians and the biofiltration wetland have been utilized to slow, cool, clean, and hold the contaminated stormwater before it reaches the water systems. Further, we have incorporated low impact development and permeable paving solutions into many of the shared spaces and public realm enhancements to promote the natural recharging of the groundwater table during rain events. Green infrastructure offers gentle landscape approaches that retain water, rather than allowing it to run off and cause severe property damage. It effectively absorbs and reduces the temperature of urban stormwater that has drained on top of heated impermeable pavement. Without cooling, warm stormwater has the potential to disrupt native species and fisheries (US EPA, 2016). Further, water retained through green infrastructure can be reused for agricultural irrigation and other commercial purposes.

Green infrastructure approaches protect natural water systems from urban contamination. Our proposed interventions collect contaminants including oil, metals, pesticides, and waste - naturally cleaning the untreated stormwater before it is discharged, released, or reused. The additional green spaces, including green infrastructure, that we have introduced to the site provides a plethora of additional benefits than solely managing stormwater. By ‘greening’ our streets, the community will benefit from better air quality, reduced urban heat island, increased property values, as well as better livability and aesthetic quality of their neighbourhood. We have placed consistent and strong emphasis on maintaining public green space, rather than private green space. This is highly important to successfully facilitate cross-sector collaboration and create harmonious coexistence at all scales. Centering around the river, we hope to maintain a balance between connecting and enhancing the existing park areas, as well as creating new and creative public green spaces for the entire community. 

Through a mix of housing typologies, the space will provide affordable student housing - an urgently present challenge within the region. Business and commercial opportunities will support residential and technological development, creating a new and interconnected urban centre at the entrance to the city. 

The process in which people and places come together is integral to the rationale and methodology of our design interventions. Each narrative illustrates a day in the life of the many diverse residents who interact with the space differently - communicating their personal experiences with transportation, the enhanced public realm, and the three fundamental sectors.

Gabriel arrives at the new transit hub, and grabs a quick coffee before walking the short distance to his office. He works at the tech headquarters focusing on cutting edge research on energy advancement to make the favela more energy efficient. After lunch, he attends a meeting in one the flexible workspaces located at the market. As a child, he used to go with his dad to work, who was one of the commercial truck drivers that used the site, and can recognize features of the building, but loves its new appearance and the diverse features it offers. After the meeting, he walks along the landscaped path adjacent to the river and can see his work in the distance. While he’s nostalgic for his dad, he loves the new site and the freshness of the remediated river. 

Luiz is a student who is studying agricultural production at the University of São Paulo and has classes on the main campus, located less than 3km away, as well as on the satellite campus found on the site. He lives in the new student residence as well, which makes it a short commute! In his free time, he loves biking along the river, which is slowly becoming clean and finds the bike routes within the site a nice addition. He can also easily get to the main campus. Currently, he is completing an internship at one of the start up companies recently moved into the site. During his day, he takes a sample of the river, to see the effectiveness of the remediation process. After work, he ends up at the market where he grabs dinner with a friend who has bussed into the site for the night. After dinner, they enjoy an impromptu live concert beside the building, before heading to one of the nightclubs to meet up with their other friends who took a rideshare to the bar. On their way they feel safe because of the residents using their balconies and the abundance of lighting.

Maria is a single mother. She moved to São Paulo from the countryside in the hopes of increased employment opportunities. With a new child, she found it hard to keep a job far away from home and did not feel like her skills were being used to the fullest. She is ecstatic at the revitalization of the CEAGESP site. The new bridge connecting her home to the site, is extremely accessible, which makes navigating a stroller easier, and in a short distance she can reach fresh produce and her work. After dropping her daughter off at volunteer day-care, with screened adults in charge, she goes to work on the urban farm, happy to put her years of rural farming to use. In addition to making good wages, Maria is also able to take advantage of classes held during lunch period, which are subsidized each week. She is learning to become computer literate. Overtime, she improves her skills and begins to learn how to code. These new found technological skills allows her more job possibilities, and she is happy that the transit is in place to move around the city. On the way home (with her child) she picks up some groceries and pushes her child home, satisfied with her full day.