Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Client
São Paulo Urbanismo
Team
Axel Bohlemark
Brazil has a proud architectural history. In the David Sim
1970s its largest city São Paulo was at the Eveline Petcu
forefront of visionary urban planning, with car-free Helle Søholt
zones and places where people could sit, relax and Serafima Kolyada
enjoy the city. But with the end of the dictatorship Sofie Kvist
in the 1980s, city planning ceased to function. The Solvejg Reigstad
river that had once run through the main square of
Vale do Anhangabaú had been driven into a tunnel Location
to build a highway, and as in so many BRIC nations
rapid development had resulted in random urban
sprawl.
In November 2012 the people of São Paulo elected Fernando Haddad as their new mayor.
On taking office one of his first initiatives was to set the ambitious goal of rejuvenating a
city that no longer functioned for its people. Gehl Architects was commissioned to
facilitate a dialogue process to develop the concept design for Anhangabaú Square and Date
best practice projects in neighbouring downtown areas. 2013–14
Gehl Architects conducted a series of workshops with city agencies, local universities
and a whole series of NGOs and community representatives. In April 2003 we got
everyone – from the head of city planning to the local mayor’s office – around the same
table and on board to identify the problems and potential of their city.
At Street Level
In addition to this knowledge sharing, we also provide cities with surveying and mapping
methods to improve public space and public life. Being at street level is at the heart of
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our approach to design development, and just 3 months later we returned to São Paulo
to do the first Public Space/Public Life survey. Talking to people and watching how and
where they move gave us an on-site basis for defining the qualities we were aiming for.
The resulting design of Anhangabaú Square is based on 4 goals: to improve access,
create smaller human-scale spaces, make a more flexible city space for big events and
everyday life, and activate the edges of the square by opening its building facades.
Engagement process
Piloting Change
Different elements and strategies of this concept design have been incorporated in 4
carefully designed pilot projects to give the people of the city the chance to experience
change on a 1:1 scale. Their reactions and responses can then feed directly into the
design of more permanent projects. ‘Before-and-after’ surveys of pilot projects provide a
way to evaluate and measure the effects of change. In our work in cities worldwide this
measure-test-refine method has proven key to the long-term process of creating
sustainable urban design. It also creates a sense of ownership, engaging local people in
political decision making and building a foundation for commitment to future change.
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downtown’s historical museum square, is transformed from being yet another parking
lot into a playground with places to learn and play for school children and families. The
pilot project at Avenida São João includes temporary bike tracks, priority bus lanes and
good crossings to test out different ways to improve mobility in the city. And the final
project, on the bustling shopping street Rua 25 de Março, closes the area to traffic and
uses colourful road surfaces to designate different areas, including newly designed
places to sit and rest.
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To address the large-scale issues facing the city and its people, both the pilot projects
and design of Anhangabaú Square need to be embedded in an overall strategy for the
entire downtown area – a masterplan with people in mind. In the meantime, they can
help people see what their city can become and envision the historic downtown of São
Paulo as lively, safe and attractive to people. Something that can be a source of local
inspiration, but also a global precedent for the rapidly developing and expanding cities of
the new world economy.
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