Penitentiary Library

 This was a library that was built on a old penitentiary site. They used the foundation of the old building for the new library.

The program within the space was divided up between the two floors. On the first floor, there was a kids section with computers and kids books. On the second floor was the adult section with movies, computers and books. The library was incredibly busy and seemed like it was a very successful project.

Sao Paulo Phone Booths

The phone booths on the streets of Sao Paulo vary in scale. 

Yay! More Favellas

 Here, we looked at the urban plan to remove some of the favella so that the city can install infrastructure for the people in the favella.

 Here we can see that this favella was different than the ones we visited in Rio de Janiero. They were much more developed and seemed to be a lot more developed. They were less like a favella and more like a poor part of the city.

 A slaughter house that had chickens. It didn't smell very good either.

 The architect told us that the removal of the families in the favellas was generally accepted. This graffiti was a protest to the removals. Loosely translated it mean "what about those of us here god damn it."

Here are some of the socialized housing that the removed families are forced to live in. There are fairly large humanitarian and political debates about how to properly handle the situation of the favellas. We got into a few discussions ourselves about the proper way to handle the situation.

StudioMK27

 On our way to StudioMK27 we made a quick stop at a book store.  We were there when the store opened and they turned the revolving book shelves to create the entrance.

 We gather in StudioMK27's meeting room, where later Marcio Kogan will show us pictures and projects from his life as an architect and film director.

The firm has 18 architects that are currently working on 60 projects of various scales.  They outsource people to do some tasks such as renderings and construction documents.  Each project  starts with numerous hand sketches and is well developed before they take it into autocad.

Mi Casa, a furniture store designed by StudioMK27.

concrete exterior and exposed cladding

 We continued on to a home designed by the firm...

 The firm designed their own profile and had it extruded specifically for 

the wood screens that line the exterior of the house.

We concluded the day on the rooftop of one of the tallest buildings in 

Sau Paulo while enjoying coffee and juice from this lounge that overlooked the city.

Praca Victor Civita - Open Museum for Sustainability

This museum is located at the site of a deactivated garbage incinerator. This project introduces new leisure area as well as an innovative approach to the revitalization of a contaminated urban area.

The boys getting their "pump on" on top of the recycled Brazilian hardwood sitting above the site,
supported by steel structure, to minimize contact with the contaminated soil. 

A venue is apart of this design and a great tool for promoting public use and
sustainable solutions.

It may seem like the plants aren't growing to well here, but lets hope
they were recently planted and just at their beginnings.

The diagrams are in portuguese, but we got the idea. 

Farm Retail Store

Farm is a retail store by French-Brazilian architects Triptyque, though originally it was designed as an office building.

The green walls  make this building stand out within its context.
 How perfect for a retail store, talk about "luring in the fish".

 The pipelines are celebrated on the exterior walls serving the whole building,
kind of like the blood veins of the building. 

The pipes allow for a misting system to water the plants from the pores
in which they are planted within the concrete facade. 

The retail itself, definitely was just as beautiful as the building, never once was
the focus on the views and surrounding buildings, but of the integrated plants
and extremely cute retail products. 

Subway Station



Rush hour in the subway station of the largest city
in South America was slightly crowded.

Cultural Center

The atrium space is centered around circulation between
 floors that are extremely flexible themselves.

A spiral staircase leads up to the almost football
 field length green roof for laying out and hanging out.

Many American singers come and perform at this
 center in the theater in the round.

Lina Bo Bardi

The SESC Pompeia cultural center in Sao Paulo is a project done by architect Lina Bo Bardi in 1977. It contains community theaters, gymnasiums, leisure areas, libraries and workshop spaces. The project includes a repurposed abandoned manufacturing building and a new modernist composition of additional buildings.