KARIN SCHWAMBACH arquitetura e urbanismo

The neighborhood of Bon Pastor was built in 1929 in order to provide houses for low income families that lived in an irregular situation. In the course of time the intervention of the residents changed and reinforced its identity, from a massive housing area to a peculiar place. The typology of one-story houses became unique in the urban context, once this structure was preserved and the rest of the city has slowly become more densified. The transformations in the urban scenario and the pressure for changes in this specific area disturbed the peaceful everyday life of this community.The urban structure is organized through parallel blocks, which contain 784 “casas baratas” (translating “affordable housing”).

The configuration of the blocks creates narrow streets between the houses that derived from the pedestrian scale of the 1920’s. The proposal arises as an alternative proposal, which tries to keep the community relationships that result among other factors from the unique urban morphology, as well as tries to maintain its strong identity of low rise buildings and integrated neighborhood. It consists to improve the existent urban fabric of the neighborhood, focus on the quality of life of the residents and achieve it through a participative process, two possibilities are offered:

A) Renovation of the “casas baratas” (A1 and A2)

B) Relocation in an apartment in a new building

The process is planed to happen in a participative way, with the input of wishes by the residents and the support of specialists that will treat individually the possibilities.