CIDADE BOA ESPERANÇA: A MASTERPLAN FOR A SELF-MANAGED PROJECT IN THE OUTSKIRTS OF SÃO PAULO

CIDADE BOA ESPERANÇA

A MASTERPLAN FOR A SELF-MANAGED PROJECT IN THE OUTSKIRTS OF SÃO PAULO

CIDADE BOA ESPERANÇA

A MASTERPLAN FOR A SELF-MANAGED PROJECT IN THE OUTSKIRTS OF SÃO PAULO

POLITECNICO DI MILANO SCUOLA DI ARCHITETTURA URBANISTICA INGEGNERIA DELLE COSTRUZIONI CORSO DI LAUREA_ARCHITETTURA RELATORE_CAMILLO MAGNI ANDREA LIGATO 2018 2019

CONTENTS a_LIST OF ABBREVIATION b_GLOSSARY 0. ABSTRACT

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1. THE CITY THAT NEVER ENDS: a urban history of São Paulo

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2. SÓ HÁ VITÓRIA COM A LUTA!: birth of the self-management proposal 2.1 FIRST SOCIAL BATTLES 2.2 THE URUGUAYAN CASE 2.3 THE LAB-HAB EXPERIENCE 2.4 NEW DEFINITION OF MUTIRÃO AND SELF-MANAGEMENT 2.5 A BRIEF ANALISYS ON THE 80s’ DEBATES

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3. CASE STUDIES

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COPROMO MUTIRÃO PAULO FREIRE CONJUNTO FLORESTAN FERNANDES AND JOSÉ MARIA AMARAL

50 57 64 76 79

86 102 122

4. PARQUE BOA ESPERANÇA: Introduction of the site

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5. MEET THE MUTIRANTES: questionnaire

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6. CIDADE BOA ESPERANÇA: the strategy and the

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masterplan

BIBLIOGRAPHY INDEX OF IMAGES

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TABLES 1a. CASE STUDY 1_COPROMO 1b. CASE STUDY 2_MUTIRÃO PAULO FREIRE 1c. CASE STUDY 3_CONJUNTO FLORESTAN FERNANDES AND JOSÉ MARIA AMARAL 1d. CASE STUDY 4_MUTIRÃO 26 DE JULHO 2a. CONTEXT ANALYSIS_PARQUE BOA ESPERANÇA 2b. CONTEXT ANALYSIS_PARQUE BOA ESPERANÇA 3. CONTEXT ANALYSIS_THE BLOCK 4a. MASTERPLAN_CIDADE BOA ESPERANÇA 4b. STRATEGY_CIDADE BOA ESPERANÇA 4c. MASTERPLAN_CIDADE BOA ESPERANÇA

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS MST: Movimentos dos Trabalhadores sem Terra UMM: União dos Movimentos de Moradia / United Housing Movements UNMP: União Nacional por Moradia Popular / National Union for Social Housing COHAB-SP: Companhia Metropolitana de Habitação de São Paulo/ Metropolitan Housing Company of São Paulo CDHU: Companhia de Desenvolvimento Habitacional e Urbano do Estado de Sao Paulo/ Urban and Housing Developing company of the State of Sao Paulo LABHAB: Laboratório de Habitação / Housing Laboratory PT: Partidos dos Trabalhadores / Workers Party PMDB: Partido do Movimento Democrático Brasileiro / Brazilian Democratic Movement Party BNH: Banco Nacional de Habitação / National Housing Bank FUCVAM: Federación Uruguaya de Cooperativas de Vivienda por Ayuda Mutua / Uruguayan Federation of Mutual-help Housing Cooperatives

CEB: Comunidade Eclesial de Base / Ecclesiastic Base Community

GLOSSARY PARTICIPATION: participation is a key word in the field of self-management project. It can be clearly defined as a collective work to achieve a result that would not be reached singularly; what is important to underline though, is perfectly expressed by Usina CTHA with the statement “The knowledge can not be transmitted, but it has to be collectively built”.

This sentence highlights the necessity of moving one step further over the common definition and add that the participation is effective when the people involved go beyond their original condition by developing new knowledge which are at the base of the expected result. The word participation suggest as well that those who take part in the collective activity will be the beneficiaries of its result.

MUTIRÃO: common Brazilian term that express a collective mutual-help work. Initially used to name the mutual help activities among the farmers, it later gain a wider meaning, ranging from the collective mobilisation to the self-construction. As it will be explained in this dissertation, the term Mutirão varied across the years, and it will continue varying in order to re-organize itself as the political, economical and social circumstances change.

ASSESSORIA TÉCNICA: Non-governamental organisation of architects, urbanists, and social workers that offers support to the movements by providing technical assistance. The assessoria técnica fosters social activities of and with the mutirão members to later develop a participatory design and help them managing the construction, furthermore it supports the popular movements in the bureaucratic processes like the search for financing or the acquisition of land.

DENSITY: Density is intended in this Dissertation both as density of population and built density, the first is expressed as inhabitants/hectares, while the latter is expressed as Floor Area Ratio [m2/m2].

Density is a unit measure and a tool to define different urban phenomena and architectural spaces. At the same time, is a design tool that joins a quantitative and qualitative approach, “It suggest life styles which are at the base of our habitat” (Reale, 2008).

Jane Jacobs moved the focus of density on the social connotations, arguing that a proper density can promote dynamic economy and culture, a dense networks of social relations and un-planned meeting, which make density a guarantee of democracy (Jacobs, 1961). The A+T team, identify in the interaction of Agents, Fluxes and Territory the base of density, while warning on the risk of confusing density with speculation, as Mike Davis do in its “Planet of Slum” writing about Hong Kong (Davis, 2006). To conclude it can be said that density defines the form of the city, and hence its success.

OCCUPATION: in the common language of the movements, occupation is usually considered as a collective and organized act, intended to supply at a lack of housing or land. Of course it refer as well to the political act of occupy an institutional building during manifestations.

The members of the movement give instead a different meaning and value to the word “Invasion”. This is seen as a more individual act of someone invading a building or a plot of land to then sell or rent plot of this property to people in need. While occupation is an accepted tools, the movements totally reject the Invasion, which is a speculative action with no guarantees, since it act in a space that is not owned by who sells it.

FAVELA: precarious settlement that rises up after a spontaneous occupation and with previous organization, with no previous definition of allotment nor of streets; in public or private areas with no sufficient infrastructure where the houses are predominately self-built with an high grade of precariousness, by low-income family in vulnerability status (from Habitasampa website).

GLOSSARY IRREGULAR ALLOTMENT: settlement which rise up with no consent by the public institution. Usually inhabited by the low-income population, it suffer of different kind of disconformity in several terms, like: largeness of the streets, minimum dimension of the plots, largeness of the sidewalks, and urban infrastructure in general. It is visible for its urban environment with an high grade of built density, lack of green and of free spaces and common spaces (from Habitasampa website).

NÚCLEO: urbanized favela with basic infrastructure (water system, sewer system, drain system, garbage collection, public lightning and road paving) predominantly implanted (from Geosampa website). The definition given in the Habitasampa website is slightly different instead, here núcleo is intended to have complete infrastructure, but not legal regulariztion yet.

CORTIÇO: the Brazilian word for a building whose rooms are separately rented serving as a whole house for a low-income family; hygienic facilities are shared among the dwellers. The cortiço is technically called “habitações coletivas precárias de aluguel” (Collective precarious rented housing). Cortiços exist in large cities such as São Paulo, Salvador, Rio de Janeiro and Recife. They originated in São Paulo during the late 1700s, and continue to exist mainly in old buildings in the central and older parts of the cities.

BRAZIL Territory: 8.514.877 km2 Population: 207.798.843 inh.

Density: 23 inh/km2

STATE OF SÃO PAULO Territory: 248.209,4 km2 Population: 44.040.000 inh.

Density: 177,43 inh/km2 SÃO PAULO METROPOLITAN REGION Territory: 7.946,8 km2 Population: 21.391.624 inh.

Density: 2.691,8 inh/km2

SĂƒO PAULO Territory: 1.521,11 km2 Population: 12.106.920 inh.

Density: 7.959,27 inh/km2

ZONA LESTE (EAST REGION) Territory: 298,8 km2 Population: 3.620.494 inh.

Density: 12.116,8 inh/km2

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ABSTRACT

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The title of this dissertation, Cidade Boa Esperança: a masterplan for a self-managed project in the outskirts of Saþ Paulo, was born from the name of the area in which the project is settled, Parque Boa Esperança.

The word Parque is substituted with Cidade, city, because a concrete demand for a residential low cost architecture project is here expanded in a settlement strategy of urban proportions.

The commitment is the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra Leste 1 (Workers with no land movement), referring to a part of the East region of Sao Paulo (East 1). The demand is for a self-managed residential project of low budget, which is being implemented by the movement itself together with a group of students and professors of the Escola da Cidade, a faculty of architecture located in the centre of Sao Paulo, where I studied in my exchange program.

Self-management is the key word to understand this kind of projects and the claim of the members of the Movement. They belong in fact to the low class of the city and due to their economical condition they are neglected by the formal house market; the Self-management is therefore an anti-capitalistic answer to the lack of adequate dwelling through the implementation of architectural projects which are entirely lead by the members of the movement with the support of a group of technicians like architects, lawyers and sociologist and which is financed by public fund dedicated the social housing field.

In the dissertation I take the need of the Movement to develop a work independent from the official one. I first study the urban evolution of the city of Sao Paulo, focusing on the periphery and the network of segregation and discrimination that forced the working class to reside in the outskirts of the this metropolis.

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Then I analyse the birth of the self-management proposal and the association that fight for the right of dwelling, underlining their demands and their claims towards a political class that have always been hostile to them.

Then I pass to examine some case studies of realized self-managed project, understanding the process and how those claims materialized themselves architecturally, in term of urban, architectural and constructive strategies. A similar approach is dedicated to the context in which the project is settled, moving to a wide scale to the typical block that characterised the outskirts of Sao Paulo.

After the aforementioned analysis, the several meetings with the members of the Movement and their answer to a questionnaire, the participation to manifestations and lectures related to the social housing in different institutional offices of Sao Paulo, some criticalities are underlined.

The majority of the project implemented with the self-management process appears unbalanced towards the architectural aspect, disadvantaging the approach.

This fact easily lead to buildings that are typologically isolated in respect to the context and that seem to ignore the existing urban fabric. The isolation is physical as well, since most of the projects are surrounded by fences and wall that make the complexes gated communities, weakening the Movements’ claims and denying the possibility of improving the condition of the neighbouring area. These results are caused both by modifications of the original project by the future dwellers, showing a possible gap between them and the technicians, and by the long duration of the 19

process, often complicated by the bureaucracy, which make the group lose faith in their same claims and goals.

For what regards the analysed site, all the plot are intended to be used for social housing projects, and some of these projects are carried on by social movements, but again the lack of a uniform design and the irregular relationship among the different groups do not allow for an integration of the projects among them and with the surrounding context.

Another threat for the self-management process come instead from the diminishing of available land in the city of Sao Paulo and the subsequent rise of the land’s cost. This issue is endangering one aspect strictly linked with self-management, which is self-construction. If, on one hand, the result can be a re-thinking of the self-management process itself, on the other hand its deeper meaning of mutual help stands still in the activities of social team-building that are replacing the construction. If the land price can arguably be identified as the main cause of the self-construction/mutirão fall, it can be reasonably said that the movements themselves lost part of the force they had in the 1980s and 1990s as well as the new generations of architects that are not fully inheriting the task begun by their older collegues. Politics, economic and cultural circumstances, together with not efficient housing program, fostered all this condition with no doubt, but in spite of all the difficulties, the fight for the right to the house is still alive.

This dissertation finally aims to overcome this criticalities, renovating the possibility for the future dwellers to directly participate in the construction, by fostering the integration both of the project itself with the city, and of the community with the neighbours through a big public park, by suggesting a mixture of function instead of the unique presence of housing units.

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To conclude this introduction, I must thank Ângela for the great help and will in guiding me in the vast and complicated field of the social movements; Evaniza for having shared with me her knowledge and some of her experience in the militancy in the MST; all the members of the Commissão Parque Boa Esperança for having welcomed me in the team; Usina and Ambiente Arquitetura for their precious information and Professor Camillo Magni for the patience and the support given after my return from Brazil.

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THE CITY THAT NEVER ENDS A URBAN HISTORY OF SAO PAULO

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The foundation of Sao Paulo dates back to the 5th of January 1554, when a little group of religious built a college on the top of a hill in search of a safe place where to stay and evangelise the indigenous. It was not an easy accessible place, it was far from the sea and with the mountains of the Serra do Mar as an additional barrier. At that time Brazil was still a Portuguese colony, it gained the independence in September 1822. Sao Paulo remained a small town with no importance until the half of the XIX century, when the coffee’s cultivations expanded towards the settlement.

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1_Bottom image: a representaion of the city of São Paulo in 1810; the Historic Triangle still saw a little expansion since its foundation. The map is turn with the north on the left.

2_In the following page: map of São Paulo in 1897. The highlighted area is again the Historic Triangle.

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3_Map elaborated in 1943 by the Tramway Company of SĂŁo Paulo, showing the road system of the city.

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In the 1867 the Sao Paulo Railway was opened, linking the inner region of Sao Paulo with Santos and its harbour; in the following years, others railways were inaugurated, including the one connecting Sao Paulo to Rio de Janeiro in 1877. The railway system and the coffee plantation paved the way for the expansion of the city, together with the Abolition of the Slavery in 1888 (the last Country in the Western World) and a strong immigration. While in 1867, before the railway was implanted, the population was about 26 thousands inhabitants, in 1890 it already reached 65 thousands, and it almost duplicate in the successive three years; more than half of the population was composed by foreigners. At the beginning of the XX century, the census almost rose to 240 thousands inhabitants. Some urbanistic intervention joined the growth, creating condition for future expansions, mostly towards north and east, and envisioning the transformation of the city, which was already the capital of the homonym State, in a residential and business district.

At the high rate of demographic growth did not correspond an adequate urban expansion, fact that inevitably lead to an high density condition and, subsequently, to epidemics. Already in this period, the Municipal laws and the hygienist State policies were committed thus to expulse the low class population from the central area and to prevent cortiços.

Low classes were intended by the urbanistic program as something to keep away from the city; the plan was committed to attract from abroad a new working class, whiter and “more civilised” (SOMEKH, CAMPOS 2008)1, pure from socialistic or anarchist ambition, and definitely intended to inhabits peripheral settlements.

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1_SOMEKH,Nadia & CAMPOS,Candido Malta (2008) “A cidade que não pode parar: Planos urbanísticos de São Paulo no Séc. XX” São Paulo, Editora Mack Pesquisa.

2_For a definition of Two cities coexisted: the official one, including the cortiço, look at the GLOScentre and rich residential neighbourhood expanding SARY. towards south-west, for which the urban plan was addressed and the worker class city, growing at the east 3_NAKANO, Anderof the centre, in the neighbourhood of Mooca, Bras son Kazuo (2002), “4 and Belém. The worker dwellings were implanted COHABs da zona Leste next to the industry they served, as a healthy alterna- de São Paulo: Território, poder e segregação” tive, both in medical and moral terms, to the density Dissertação de Mestrado at the Faculty of Archiand promiscuity of cortiços2. tecture and Urbanism at The transformation occurring in the city and the reUSP, São Paulo. Oriented construction of the original built environment as part by Marta Dora Grostein. of a process of “Europeanisation” financed by the coffee industry, inevitably fostered an exclusionary and divisive Estate Market that segregate the working class and obliged it to turn towards the rented room as the only affordable solution. Simultaneously the Job Market constituted itself exploiting the working class; the whole process acted as a territorial fight where the network of spatial relationships corresponded to the network of social relationships between the assets and the job (NAKANO, 2002)3.

During the first half of the 1900, Sao Paulo addressed its urban plans mostly to the design of the road system. The Plano de Avenidas (Avenues’ Plan) envisioned the expansion of the city through a radial-perimetral scheme of road spreading itself starting from the centre; the plan was conceived as an ambitious and totalitarian approach in the style of the European Cities, mainly inspired by the theoretical scheme of the French urbanism. The plan was seen as capable of solve problems like transportation, capable of remodelling the expansion of the city, implementing the green areas. The plan ended being partly applied and thus with no great success, what was clear instead was that the city was living an uncontrolled expansion, both horizontal and vertical. Worst fate occurred to the Plano Light: highly criticized and 35

thus not implemented, it was intended to continue on an urban plan guided by the development of the road system. It opened a discussion on the transportation that continued for the whole half of the century: a pre-metro project, not implemented as well; whether or not undermine the monopoly over the public transportation. It made clear the direction envisioned by the Municipality on which kind of transport system should have been preferred: cars and buses should have been chosen over trams and trains, thus enhancing the road system once again, serving and being influenced by the flourish car industry of the city.

In the following years, the Municipalities was lacking the financing to control the fast and deregulated growth of the city, only partial or palliative solutions were implemented, and they often ended being 36

A favela in the Guaianazes district, East region.

influenced by local and private interests. The urban chaos became an excuse to not elaborate an appropriate policy on public transportation. Furthermore, the alliance between the populist government of the city and the private expansionist interests was becoming more and more solid, turning the search for a technic rationality and a proper zooning even harder.

In 1950 Sao Paulo tried to move towards a more modern and pragmatic urban plan by contacting the American engineer and lawyer Robert Moses, that had already worked for the city of New York. The Sao Paulo described by the Relatรณrio Moses (Moses Report), was a city full of difficulties and deficiency; the report avoided the greatness and ambitiousness of the Plano de Avenidas and envisioned a more realistic approach.

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It expressed the need for an efficient zooning, but again it failed to properly propose a solution, being too stuck in previous plans and blocked by populistic policies; anyway, the kind of zooning suggested by Moses was a north-American inspired zooning, fostering the spatial segregation and the estate interest.

Thus, the unregulated expansion of the city was still not seen as a problem itself, although it is in that very years that the peripheries consolidated themselves, fostered by the joined forces of irregular allotment, self-construction and car transportation, then reaching the adjacent municipalities (Otero 2009)3. Furthermore, the distance between the technicians and the politicians appeared unfillable.

The following Plano UrbanĂ­stico BĂĄsico (PUB, Basic Urbanistic Plan) of 1968, had its most famous result in the approval of the zooning law, that was substituted only in 2004. As has been highlighted in the description of the previous plan, here again it envisioned 38

A view towards the hill of Centro Velho (Old Centre).

protectionist measures towards the high class against the poorer. Most part of the city was in fact classified as Z3, vaguely defined and regulated as a mixture zone with no given information about its characteristics. This kind of zooning fostered the irregular and often illegal growth and expansion of peripheral neighbourhoods of low rise houses, joined by speculation processes that rose the value of the areas in which high rise buildings were allowed. This uncontrolled urbanization was (and still is) the driving cause of the process of housing production in Sao Paulo. In the process took part several social elements involved in a game of cooperation-contrast of political and economical interests.

Already in the years of PUB was possible to see one of the main changes in the modern Sao Paulo. A shift in the socioeconomic geographies in the so-called Vetor Suloeste (South-West Vector) that would have continued until the half of the 1990s, when the last 39

expansions were inaugurated. Those new economic 4_A view of the area Sรฃo hubs saw the proliferation of a great and well working south-west Paulo. In the lower infrastructure and tall office buildings with their glass part is visible the faรงades, accompanied by large rich neighbourhoods Ibirapuera Park, desiby Otรกvio Auguinspired by the model of the Garden City. These new gned sto Teixeira Mendes, areas were supposed as a possibility to create new following a concept

by Burle Marx, and polarities out of the centre, trying to free the oldest Oscar Niemeyer. part of the city from the intense traffic and density.

Above the park the The new area, together with the centre, ended to Jardins neighbourhoods can be recognibe called the Expanded Centre: as the name itself zed for the massive explain, the new hubs failed in creating new polaripresence of trees and ties and ended to make the original one stronger and vegetation. bigger; the move of the companies was not followed by new residential projects capable to attend the different classes of the population inside the Vetor Suloeste, which remained an exclusive of the rich paulistanos. Furthermore, it escaped from the Zona Leste (East Zone), the poorest and most populated of the city, making the commuting even harder for those who live there. Few other areas were improved in the last thirty years out of the mentioned vector as socioeconomic, commercial and leisure district, but still the gap remains too deep to bring to successful results.

After the PUB, the plans succeeded one after the other, with no great differences from what have been told so far. The various tries to improve the situation always failed to involve the whole city and to present adequate solutions; little improvement were made, like taking in count the real city, with its favelas, irregular allotments and cortiรงos, or involving the population in the discussion. One thing that has to be highlighted though is the institution of the ZEIS: the Zonas Especias de Interesse Social (Special Zone of Social Interest) that will be discussed later together with the housing policies.

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5_Social housing in As the chapter shows, several urban plans were CIdade Tiradentes, a produced along the history of Sao Paulo; many of commuter district in them were flawless proposal, with very high quality the east fringe of SĂŁo Paulo. ideas, many times the word inovador (innovator) is associated to the different plans in the book A cidade que nĂŁo pode parar. When it was time for the plans to be applied, they always encountered oppositions, amendments or modifications that ended reducing its effectiveness on the real city. The liberalism and capitalistic interest always fostered (and still does) the lasseiz-faire in the peripheral areas, that moved further and further from the centre. Thus the urban interventions concentrated themselves in the oldest part of the city, until the economic facilities shifted towards south-west and so did the effective attention of the plan and those who were in power. The challenge of the housing and the regulation of the soil occupation, although being fundamental issues in the modern cities, remain ignored for almost the whole XX century; in Sao Paulo, as in the whole Brazil, the private interest, the unequal society and the juridical-institutional practice, deeply based on the concept of private property, steal the priority to these preoccupations (SOMEKH, CAMPOS 2008).

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Map of São Paulo, the Centre and the Zona Leste are highlited.

FAVELAS NÚCLEOS IRREGULAR ALLOTMENTS

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What has been produced instead is the result of the social struggles; the forces that took part of it are of course highly imbalanced. Dwelling is the field in which the difference of the forces involved is better shown. Those who won the fight have the best access to the benefits of the urban life: infrastructures, sanitation, good education and health facilities, leisure facilities, culture and consume, as well as high quality public space(NAKANO, 2002).

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SÓ HÁ VITÓRIA COM A LUTA! BIRTH OF THE SELF-MANAGEMENT PROPOSAL

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2.1 FIRST SOCIAL BATTLES It is possible to date back to the ‘40s the birth of the 1_Christian movements involved in social and posocial movements in the city of Sao Paulo. In this pe- litical concerns and that riod the country faced a democratization process of identify themselves with liberation theology. the post-war period and the legalization of the Brazilian Communist Party (PCB), who largely contributed to group the populations of the peripheries and to the birth of a conscience of claiming for the access to urban facilities. The newspaper linked to the party used to daily report the condition of the peripheral neighbourhood and the work of the party itself, claiming again that it was expected to be a Government’s task.

On the 1st of April 1964, with the military coup and the instauration of the Mlitary Regime, the urban battles had to re-organize themselves. The church, in particular the Comunidades Eclesiais de Base (CEB)1 gain an important role supplying at the lack of possibility for a political opposition and fostering for community actions, role that it maintains until nowadays.

The denunciations were addressed to discrimination towards the popular housing in the peripheries and favelas, and the following lack of found; this battle for the rights reached a more wide range of theme and the movements began to understood that it was time to organize themselves directly and autonomously, becoming themselves political characters.

The end of the ‘70s and the beginning of the ’80s mark a decline for the Military Regime: in the month of October 1978 the Ato Institucional Número Cinco (Institutional Act Number Five) was revoked, establishing an end to the absolute power of the Military Government and the re-formation of the Legislative Power, while in February 1979 the Amnesty Law open up for a re-democratization and a parties reform. With the election of 1982 the political structure is re-organi52

zed and City/State Councillors and Federal Deputies 1_The Brazilian Army front of the are elected with the support or the Social Movements, in Congresso Nacional allowing to re-think their relationship with the Conin Brasilia gresso Nacional and the Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT Worker Party). In this sense, the new line of action of the movements dedicated itself to participate into the public management, trying to achieve a more wide range of action and new form of mobilization and participation, by possibly formulating new programs of alternative public policies. The proposal of Self-management, AutogestĂŁo in Portuguese, appears here as an essential instrument to re-build the democracy. The fields of application of this suggestion were different and range from the Health policies to ecological themes, from bill about land property in favelas to the participation in the discussion for the Municipal funding. The latter especially created a demand for an alternative to the capitalistic system. The most important and evident application of the self-management is however the construction of social housing complexes by MutirĂŁo regime. The mutirĂŁo is a collective mutual-help work process, and is the most common way for the social movements, divided in Entidades (entities), to act in the social housing fields.

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Despite of the easing of tension in the Military Regime, the economic crisis was hitting hard the Country and the austerities measures were unable to react to the GDP fall; Brazil entered in a period of both stagnation and inflation. It is easy to realize that under a Military conservative Regime and a deep crisis period, the housing policies were not the priority, and the ones activated by the Federal Government were highly criticized by the population, especially by the low income class. The Banco Nacional de Habitação (BNH)2 was completely rejected for its financing system that used to exclude the lower income classes, and for the numerous frauds that occurred. From the 1979 to the 1982 the BNH activated in Sao Paulo the PROMORAR program to attend the population from 0 to 3 times the minimum wage3 (family income until 2.172 R$): criticized for the few housing units produced, less than five thousands in Sao Paulo; for their terrible quality, structural problems were in fact very common and used to appear early after the end of the works. Moreover, these houses characterized itself by the absurd dimensions of just 23 m2 (Bonduki, 1992)4. The BNH was not the only institution to provide house complexes, and was not the only to be criticized: the Sao Paulo’s section of Companhia Metropolitana de Habitação was blamed for the high cost of its buildings, that was reflected in high prices, prohibitive for low income population or unemployed.

Furthermore, the production was minimum in respect to the necessity, causing queue of nearly three hundred-thousand families. This context fed again the battles of the movements for fair housing policies, manifesting itself in two different way of action: the first one was a direct action, committed to occupy5 the vacant and unused plot, while the second was addressed to mobilizations and pressure in order to obtain funds for building housing complex.

It is inside this context that the movements were 54

2_It was a public institution created in 1964, few months after the instauration of the Regime, committed to finance and realize real estate development

3_The minimum wage is used as an indication to divide the lowest income population in three categories. The range 1 category includes families with income from 0 to 3 times the minimum wage, until 2.172 R$ (approximately 550-600 €). Range 2 spans from 3 to 6 times the minimum wage, between 2.172 and 4.344 R$ (1.240 €), while Range 3 includes families’ income from 6 to 10, between 4.344 to 7.240 R$ (2.050 €)

4_BONDUKI, Nabil G. “Habitação e autogestão: construindo territórios de utopia”, Rio de Janeiro, FASE, 1992

5_For a definition of OCCUPATION, see the Glossary

growing up and strengthen their battle and theirs demands until the firsts self-management proposals appeared: recklessly, not planned and not uniformly. The credit for this first success in Brazil belongs especially to two groups, located in two different part of the city of Sao Paulo.

6_For a definition of CORTIÇO, see the Glossary

In the South region, the discussion rose among the squatters of Fazenda Itupu, in the end of 1981. They were the firsts to re-thought the claims not just as demanding to the Prefeitura (Municipality) to build new complex, but to ask for a real housing program, self-compiled by the movements, that should involves all the aspect that inform a social housing project: the typology of housing, the dimension of the single unit, the building process, the amount of the funding and the cost for the work, just to name a few. The discussion, initially developed internally to the movement at Fazenda Itupu, led to the necessity to invite technicians from different fields. Among them, a great role has been played by the Laboratório de Habitação (Housing laboratory), that will be discussed later.

In the same year in the Vila Maria’s region, Centre-East of Sao Paulo, the cortiços’6 dwellers were pushing the Municipality for having access to a Housing program, with no good result, since the PROMORAR program was only addressed to the favelas’ population. The negative answer led the group to discuss an alternative and then to contact the engineer Guilherme Coelho, who had recently returned from Uruguay, were he had the chance to know the Cooperativas de Vivienda por Ayuda Mutua, and was in search of the opportunity to recreate something similar in Sao Paulo. He showed first a movie about the housing complex built by the Uruguayan cooperatives and the process they undertake. The excitement was high and the movement started to draft a housing program adapting the Uruguayan experience 55

to the Brazilian reality, advised by Coelho. This attempt gain popularity between the other movements spread all over the city, including the ones in the South area, the Laboratório de Habitação and even the low classes in Sao Bernardo do Campo, a town of the Metropolitan area of Sao Paulo. The first proposal soon appeared impossible, since the Brazilian law of that time did not allowed the formation of self-management housing cooperatives (neither do the current laws); nevertheless they succeed in going on with the

COMPARATIVE COST OF SOME PROMORAR’S PROJECT FROM THE 1980s V.Maria 1 (1980 V. Maria 3 (1981) Fernão Dias (1981) São Luiz (1982) Rio Claro (1982) Sapopemba (1982) Parada (1983)

NUMBER OF HOUSING UNITS

290

23

158

23

418

23

703

24

930

24

1112

25,8

907

22

AVERAGE VALUE

23,95

TOTAL NUMBER OF UNITS

4518

Promorar V. Nova Cachoerinha (1984)

333

56

DIMENSION OF THE HOUSING UNITS [m2]

46,3

process, aiming to realize a project that could have generate important repercussions in the social housing panorama, and then pave the way for changes in legislation. Thanks to the support of Guilherme Coelho, the movement of Vila Maria, around four hundreds families, successfully absorbed the concept of the self-management, being able in 1982, to elaborate a complete proposal to present to the Municipality and to finally obtain a plot in Vila Nova Cachoerinha, again after a great political pressure.

2_Table from Bonduki’s “Habitação e autogestão: construindo territórios de utopia”

COST OF THE HOUSING UNIT (COST/m2) [R$]

COST OF INFRASTRUCTURE PER UNIT [R$]

TOTAL COST

180,4 (7,83)

118,8

299,2

297 (12,89)

188,5

485,5

278,3 (21,08)

102,9

381,2

274,7 (11,42)

172,6

447,3

286,7 (11,92)

257,3

544

292,7 (11,32)

311

603,7

286,8 (12,75)

265,2

552

279,08 (11,65)

240,5

519,6

256,58 (5,54)

259,89

516,5 57

2.2 THE URUGUAYAN CASE In the first half of the XX century, a set of reforms led 3_Bulevar Artigas housing complex, in Uruguay to be the most advanced country in the Montevideo South America, acting in the political, economical and social fields, as well as a welfare program. In the 50’s the GDP was above the highest in the world, since the country was the biggest exporter of products linked to the cattle breading. This success fostered enormously the urbanization in Uruguay, supported by a slow demographic growth; both fact were precocious in respect to the rest of Latin America. At the beginning of the century, the 30% of Uruguayans were living in Montevideo, while in the 1970 the percentage of people living in urban areas rose up until the 80%. The doubling of the population in urban areas between the 1920 and 1960 was joined by the quadruplicating of the building stock; starting from that moment, the demographic growth lost its outburst, while it increased in Brazil. The early development of the Uruguay met the crisis when the surrounding countries entered in competition with it, inflation and unemployment rose and the life conditions of the workers worsened drastically, resulting between the end of the 50’s and the beginning of the 70’s in internal struggles and urban guerrillas, only stopped in 1973 with a military coup.

It was in this context that the Cooperativas de Vivienda por Ayuda Mutua (Mutual-help Housing Cooperatives) started to operate, in 1966. Two years after, the cooperatives gained an important role taking part in dialogue with the technic and political institutions, and proclaiming with them the Lei Nacional de Vivienda, which still represent a mark in the Uruguayan urbanization. Among some similarities with others laws or programs in other Latin American countries, including Brazil, the absolute news lay in the 10th Chapter.

59

It created a legal and credit framework for the cooperatives, equalising the Cooperativas de Vivienda por Ayuda Mutua with the Cooperativas de Vivienda por Ahorro Previo (Ahorro Previo means “previous saving”). The firsts are similar to the Brazilian Mutirões, for the relationship of mutual-help the members institute among them, while are legally different, since in Brazil the mutirões are not allowed to establish themselves as cooperatives. Ayuda Mutua implies the organization and the solidary use of the work capacity of the single member instead of an economic availability. These are consumer cooperatives of direct production, they can only provide housing for their associates, since the latter are the ones that take in count the construction of their own houses. The cooperative promote the creation of a contractor, in order to subordinate the interest of the consumer to the interest of the producer, which allow them to have direct contact with the financing State strategies and the housing management.

The “Ahorro Previo” are cooperatives in which the mutual-help is replaced by a mutual saving. The members are able to collect a certain amount of money to be used in addition to the financing from the housing fund: in practical terms, this saving allow them to fully or partially avoid the need for self-construction, being able to hire a building contractor. With the new law, the ayuda mutua gained the status of “not monetized investment” which can substitute the ahorro previo and contribute to the realization of the project together with the financing from the housing fund. The Cooperativa de Vivienda por Ayuda Mutua is considered by the Lei Nacional de Vivienda as a juridical figure of housing producer, not linked with the construction industry, which allows the members to have access to a new option of housing credit. The cooperative become then a workforce union instead of a 60

consumer union, able to officialise the state funding, 7_For a definition of ASSESSORIA TÉCNICA, see obtain plots of land, buy materials, hire an Assessoria the Glossary Técnica7 and eventually a specialized workmanship.

Moreover, the law ask to guarantee the principles 8_BARAVELLI, José E. of cooperativism: democratic and equalitarian ma(2006) “O cooperativismo nagement of the fund, eventually redistributing the Uruguaio na habitação exceeding; constitution of a general assembly to plan social de São Paulo: das cooperativas FUCVAM á the process, with a vote for every member, with no Associaçao de Moradia distinctions. To understand the importance of the Lei Unidos de Vila NOva Cachoerinha” Nacional de Vivienda, in 1975 half of the demands Dissertação de Mestrado for the Architecture and for financing at the Banco Hipotecário del Uruguay Urbanism Post-graduation came from cooperatives, the 70% of those demands program at FAU/USP. São was addressed to mutual-help cooperatives(Baravelli, Paulo.

2006)8.

Housing has been the first field in which the cooperativism succeeded in influence the power of the Uruguayan State. It was to maintain this role that the FUCVAM was created, becoming an institution as important as the Lei Nacional de Vivienda.

FUCVAM is the Spanish acronym for Federación Uruguaya de Cooperativas de Vivienda por Ayuda Mutua (Uruguayan Federation of Mutual-help Housing Cooperatives), and actually represent a national association with no juridical or institutional function. Its importance always laid out of the legal field and belonged to its capability to gather the cooperatives, nowadays more than three hundreds, in a proportion capable of contrast the Power and the industry of construction, in addition to allow a more global and complete view to the housing problem for the singles cooperatives.

FUCVAM increasingly became a mark for the organization of the cooperatives, always starting from their communitarian bond, tied in the informal work. This role is replicated even in the international field, where the Federation commit itself in strengthen the network of social housing movements across Latin-America, as well as groups from European Countries where the 61

cooperativism have a long tradition, such as the Nederland and Sweden. In addition to being an example for the MutirĂľes in Sao Paulo, the FUCVAM still maintain a lively contact with the Brazilian UniĂŁo de Movimentos por Moradia (UMM, Housing Movements Union).

FUCVAM also operate in a more practical field: already in the Seventies it organized a centralized system of acquisition, loan and maintenance of tools and equipment for construction, together with the purchase of basic materials at economic prices and the organization of a little industry for the production of pre-fabricated elements to be used by the cooperatives. During the Military Regime from 1973 to 1985 however, the Uruguayan Country dismantled this collective production organized by the FUCVAM, and diminished as well its others task, in the name of the war at the collective property. In those years the FUCVAM became one of the main actors in the fight against the conservative power, especially when the Government try to create a law to oblige the cooperatives to abandon the collective regime and move to 62

4_A project that integrates commercial activities at the ground floor with apartmens in the upper floors

an individual property system with individual housing financing. The FUCVAM react taking advantage of the plebiscitaciĂłn, an instrument of direct democracy provided by the Uruguayan constitution, demanding to collect at least five hundred thousand signatures.

The numbers was highly exceeded and the Federation acquire even more support and a stronger identity, being then recognized in the whole Uruguayan society once the Military regime was defeated.

5_Housing complex built by the COVITEL cooperative

The collective property is indeed the most peculiar characteristic of the Uruguayan cooperatives, and the main difference with the Brazilian MutirĂŁo.

The property of the housing units belongs to the housing cooperative from the moment it end the construction of the complex, in contrast with the market’s common behaviour of fragment individually the ownership of the units. It means that the juridical figure created to obtain financing and carry on the construction is not dismantled with its conclusion, but it works to keep its members together not only to secure the maintenance of the housing complex itself(Baravelli 2006).

63

It is not unusual for these housing cooperatives to go on with the claims and furthermore obtain the permission to build communitarian services such as schools or clinic, usually ceded for public use, fulfilling the Lei Nacional de Vivienda, that aim to “provide housing’s complementary services”.

The collective property of course ask the cooperatives’ members for some duties. The individuals are not “owners” but “users”, with an undefined duration of use, and whose inheritance imply as well a passage of the rights and duties linked to the housing unit. For instance, those who inherit an house/apartment have to join the cooperative. This rule avoid the renting of the unit, because the members of the housing complex, gathered in an assembly, are the only ones that can allow the transfer of the right of use. Another article of the Lei deal with the topic of the transmission in case of abandon of the cooperative: the dweller will have to justify his retire to the rest of the members, and in case of approval, he will be able to receive back part of the amount he invested in the cooperative. Abandon the house/apartment means abandon the cooperative; the members will then select a new family, among those who apply for the vacancy, to substitute the leaving one, which will replace the investment of the previous family with her investment. The characteristic of the cooperative are therefore preserved. The investment is partially returned since the Lei introduce a tax of 10% to contribute to a Socials Funds: one of them, called the Fondo de Socorro (Aid Fund), became the main actor in the low default and the low rate of abandon of the cooperatives from the dwellers. It cover the sum owed by a family that find itself temporarily unable to pay, due to unemployment or serious illness or other reason accepted by the cooperative. It works as a community assurance, that act more efficiently than a welfare 64

program since the interest rate payment and the financing amortization are taken in count by the cooperative itself; the goal is to always save the dwellers from losing their home for economical reason.

65

2.3 THE LAB-HAB EXPERIENCE The Laboratório de Habitação was born at the beginning of the 1982, in the Faculty of Architecture at the Fine Arts Academy in Sao Paulo, by initiative of some professors and students. It was an innovative proposal that aimed to implement the teaching by complementing it with advising activities for the communities, together with research, under the tutorship of the professors even outside of the lesson time. The laboratory and its goals were a completely news in the architectural teaching in Brazil, especially in a private school, where formality did not foster this grade of involvement between students and professors. The main goal of the Lab-Hab was to technical advising those sectors of the population that are usually far from taking advantage of architects, both for their cost and for the not recognized role of professionals in the construction process. Nabil Bonduki9, who was among the professors founders of this initiative, explained the lack of trust by blaming the architects for their elitist nature, affirming then the very different approach that has been a reference for the Lab-Hab, and the aim to create and inspire a new practice; to participate contributing with the specificity of architect’s know-how, in a more wide process involving social and political discussion, to create instruments for an alternative development. The new introduced, after the experiences of various members, was that the advising task could have been effective only by sharing the work process with the social movements; even because attitudes like welfarism, paternalism or volunteering were rejected by the Lab-Hab. The task was not limited to the architectural project, that spread from urbanism to construction, but follow the ones aforementioned for the movements, especially the elaboration of housing policies proposals.

66

6_The Commissão The Lab-Hab had the knowledge to deal with the Boa communication between the technicians of the Mu- Parque Esperança gathered nicipality and the population, moreover to help them at the project side to explain the design to better understand the mechanism behind the some of the future housing policies in the cities and in Brazil. They also to dwellers had to face with the cost of the project and the limited founds that were designated by the Government; chose the best technologies, again for a matter of cost and in order to make the movements able to join the constructions; they had the possibility to know the life, the problems, the injustice and even the joy of the dwellers they worked with. Bonduki repeated many times along the narration how much the Lab-Hab was important for the population that was fighting for their right to a home, underlining how their knowledge as architects and technicians gave them a certain amount of power in the local Politic. Political involvement was unavoidable, that is why the movements understood how much was important to have their own Assessoria TÊcnica, not linked with the Power (Bonduki, 1992).

67

Despite of their hard task and the wide range of their Every Entidade its project at work, the members of the Lab-Hab did not forget their shows the celebration of the original goal: it was an university activity, founded 30 years of the MST Leste 1 by professors and researcher. Research because it always had an experimental character, didactical because it was a strict collaboration with the students and at the same time it was an attempt to develop a new didactic method. The work on the projects alternated itself with moment for theorization.

While the Lab-Hab was growing and its work was acquiring notoriety, and considering it was the only permanent Assessoria Técnica acting in the field of architecture and urbanism in Sao Paulo, it could no more serve all the demand it received. This fact strengthened even more the importance of the group, underlining once more its necessity and the lack in the city of others agency that could have replicate the experience.

On the 24th of March 1986, the Laboratório de Habitação concluded its experience, closed by the 68

direction of the Fine Arts Academy, by literally locking the classroom where the group used to work; the professors were fired one by one. Bonduki could not help but to criticized the fact, arguing that once again it was a demonstration of the inability of the private faculties to accept democratic and innovative experiences.

Members of different movements protest against the deletion of the 2018 financing for the social housing

The repercussion of the Laboratório de Habitação has been, with no doubt, very important, despite of the short period of activity. Other Universities in the State created similar group, like the Universidade Católica de Santos, the Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Campinas and the Universidade Estadual de Campinas. The role of Assessoria Técnica gained as well a new status: in 1987 it was recognized by the Union of the Sao Paulo State’s Architects, who created a Commissão de Assessoria aos Movimentos de Moradia (Advising Commission for the Housing Movements) to foster and promote this practice.

69

2.4 NEW DEFINITION OF MUTIRĂƒO AND SELF-MANAGEMENT Vila Nova Cachoerinha and Fazenda Itaipu were a mark for the social battle in the city of Sao Paulo, besides of being a reference for the process and the project, they helped create a new identity for the movements involved in this claim.

First of all, the new actors were not necessarily dwellers of favelas or squatters, but people living in rented houses or cortiços. These new characters aimed to find a definitive solution, in terms of own a plot and have the possibility to build their own houses. The search for the property moved then from individual to collective.

The second feature is that the claims were no more addressed to simple improvements in the housing, in the urban structure, in the social facilities etc. They asked instead for a new housing solution, for a housing complex capable of host all of those that would have joined the process; it was clear for them that all the program that did not involve a full participation of the futures dwellers hardly created a sense of identity, of membership. The Movimentos de Luta pela Moradia could instead, and still can, pave the way for a stable organization, gathering the future dwellers from the very beginning of the process, and continuing their work even after the construction end: those who obtain a house use to instruct and sustain the new members on new claims and on how to develop new housing project, always strengthening the group.

The third features is the one that define the political connotations of the movements. They gain the knowledge for ask to the State a Housing Program, developed starting from the movements itself and 71

then discussed with the Government and the pre-set institution, that is effectively enter and participating in the public policies.

As anticipated, the main suggestion and support for this approach was the CEB, as a religious institution, and the PT and the PMDB, in a minor way, on the proper political side. The leaders of the movements understood the importance of knowing the laws, the urbanistic rights, besides their experience in self-construction. The main features of the movements’ proposal are: constitution of organizations to represent the organized communities, with the task of promote manage all the steps of the housing enterprise; the acquisition of plot of land by the city government, intended to be ceded then to the entities, using federal financing; acquisition of appropriate financing, according to the members’ rental, in order to buy construction material sufficient for a 40 m2 house; total or partial self-construction involving work force from the community; financing in order to realize adequate infrastructure; the exclusivity of the community in the choice and purchase of the material as well as other equipment; creation of a trusted Technical team (the aforementioned Assessoria Técnica), autonomous from the Prefeitura, to assist the community in the elaboration of the project, in the work organization and in taking contacts with the public institution.

The last feature represent the fourth characteristic of the new movements’ identity. As Nabil Bonduki affirms, the participation in the whole process of Assessoria Técnica was essential for the movements to understood and suggest the self-management idea, as well as to propose alternative programs in the field of housing policies. Bonduki continues arguing that the movements are clearly not able to lead with every aspect of the housing enterprise, and in fact some of 72

them include the need for an Assessoria TĂŠcnica as a priority in their claims, urging for a percentage of the financing addressed to the equipe involved (Bonduki, 1992).

In 1983, the PMDB acquire the government of both the City and the State of Sao Paulo. During the campaign, the topic of Housing was presented as a priority for the Party, together with the theme of participation and decentralization, all issues dear to the movements. The new Secretaries of Housing and Social Welfare even participate to the inauguration of the project Vila Nova Cachoerinha, arguing the new complex should have been a model for the Administration to replicate in the near future. The speech was early forgotten by the Administration, who preferred to implement its housing policies and to attend the claims of the movements, again with delays and insufficiently, without opening to the possibilities for self-managed developments, but instead allowing mutirĂľes without losing its control on it. Only after many battles, some movements succeed in enter in the process; what they gained was to establish that the future dwellers of an housing complex should have been pre-determined, in order to check the work of the Administration. On the other hand, the Administration and COHAB created a bureaucratic system to complicate the work of the movements and to limit as much as they could their possibilities. After the premature death of Guilherme Coelho, even the Movement of Vila Nova Cachoerinha had to surrender to the COHAB, and they lost their Assessoria TĂŠcnica.

The Administration acted here to create hostility inside the movement itself and between the movement and the professionals.

73

The first semester of the 1984 mark an important fact in the history of the social movements. Until this period in fact, the relationship between the different movements was very weak, just few informal meetings happened along their battles, but no permanent partnership or confrontation. The “I Encontro dos Movimentos de Moradia – por um cooperativismo de ajuda mútua e autogestão” (1st Meeting of the Housing Movements – for a mutual-help and self-managed cooperativism) embrace the task of start the discussion among the various movements oriented towards a self-management perspective; the meeting was suggested and launched by the Assessorias, who also committed itself to lead the formation of the communities’ leaders. The meeting was characterized by a general euphoria and was addressed mainly to know the different experiences; a representative of the Uruguaian cooperativism joined the meeting being again an opportunity to show the example of the nearby country. Some instances and claims were formalized, among them the most interesting were: creation of a Coordination Group to articulate the future claims, that actually ended being very precarious; an advice that each movement should have constitute itself as a Communitarian Association, in order to gain a legal being and receive funds to be autonomously managed; creation of an “exchange program” among the movements; claim of a fund to professionalize at list a member for each group; creation of a common guidelines on housing policies claims.

On the other hand, the groups were not yet completely mature in the political aspect to reach a concrete result in term of mutual-help and self-management.

The lack of experience as well contributed to the failure, since most of the movements had not being able yet to conclude a complete housing enterprise.

The second meeting, held in November of 1985, 74

show the growth of the movements and their political The mutirantes wait in line to sign their knowledge. The debate was this time really profipresence after a meetable and deep, and the participant really explored ting. The participation is fundamental in the the meaning of their claims, of self-management of the Mutirão, and mutirão, whose meanings stopped to appear as work and those who miss ambiguous definitions and became real instruments the reunions lose to work with. Pros and cons appeared as the partici- position in the witing pant were discussing: almost everyone complained list about “overwork”, the fatigue in the construction on the week-end had to be summed up with the tiredness of the job during the rest of the week; the women used to blame the men of machismo; hierarchy used to flourish as the work plan was organized, replicating the logic of abuse of power that the movements always rejected. The importance of self-management and mutirão was once again reaffirmed, but at the same time the participant suggested to claims for a financing in order to partially cover the manpower, and commitment to a more democratic behaviour in 75

the construction site were taken. A Coordination of Communitarian Association was elected to consolidate the organization that born after the Meeting. Starting form the following year, the Coordination actively embraced its role as articulator of the claims and manifestation, as well as representing the movements in the relations with the Housing Secretary, negotiating plots of land and financing. It used to publish bulletins and similar publications, it committed in realizing and distributing videos about the claims carried on by the movements, in continuing the debate on defining theoretically the MutirĂŁo and the self-management.

The stability and the activity of the Coordination was seen in those years as a guarantee for the future of the social battle in Sao Paulo, especially addressing its work in the spread of the self-management instances and its line of action towards those movements where the claims were still disorganized and not oriented to the autogestĂŁo.

Meanwhile, the Military Regime was setting down and the Congresso Nacional was approving a set of laws to put an end to the Dictatorship; in November the National Assembly was constituted to provide Brazil of a new constitution, which was promulgated then in October of 1988.

76

6_A crowd climb the Congresso Nacional to celebrate the end of the Military regime

77

2.5 A BRIEF ANALISYS ON THE 80s’ DEBATES The eighties, as we have seen, were characterized by a need of define and review the instances the movements were claiming; almost all the aspect of the housing policies were debated. The mechanism of financing, the sources of the financing, the social (or antisocial) investments, the relationships between the movements themselves and the others institutions, the production process, the technologies, the dimension of the complexes and their architectonic/ urbanistic projects, the form of property, the role of the members, the centralization of the decisions and even the necessity of an Housing Bank. Starting from the reflexions of Nabil Bonduki, it is possible to analyse some of those aforementioned instance.

The own house The housing movements of the eighties formed themselves with a clear goal: obtain a house, an own house, and they never changed their mind about this claim. Neither they wanted to come to a compromise when the topic was the typology; movements were fighting for single-family house, since their reference for apartment was the one in COHAB complexes, which were, and still are, characterized by very low quality projects. On the other hand, architects and technicians, for its different background and know-how in respect of the movements, tried to suggest different, more progressive and more social-advanced options such as housing complex, verticalization and property forms not necessarily related to the private one. They used to criticized the own house sustaining it was a perpetration of a conservative character, and a way to turn the worker into a low-class owner10, a defender of the status quo and of the political and economical system. The worker was then intended to 78

10_ The reference for this critic is partially due to the lesson of Engels in the 1872 thesis “The Housing Question”, where the own house is described as “petty bourgeois” and overdue in respect of the advanced “modern proletariat”

become less involved in the manifestation and in the claiming, condemned by the Institutions, moreover he could have turned to fear the social revolution. These preoccupations of the architects were fostered by the recent history of Brazil, where the Political class always pushed for the private property, seen as a way of control. The BNH, since the very beginning in 1964, assumed the single-family own house as the only possibility to access the public financing, following the Military Regime will.

Bonduki react to the problem at the different level than the aforementioned proposals. While those architects were debating between the own house and other forms of property, orientated towards the example of Uruguay, Bonduki moved and therefore simplified the comparison towards a struggle between the own house and the rent house, which seem to take little space in the movements’ discussion so far.

He argued that the aspiration for the own house was justified and it is not at all a result of the propaganda, but it is a starting condition for the workers to reach a better quality life. The claim for urban improvement, once became effective, could lead to an higher cost of the life and of the housing rent, which could be not sustainable for the families discussed in this dissertation. The own house, he continued, give more stability to the family, allow it to root itself in the place and then guarantee special attention and cares in order to better maintain the complex once it is realized; moreover it represent a permanent good for the family, even in more difficult period or when the family incomes could get lower, as in the time of retirement or unemployment (Bonduki, 1992).

The house was discussed not only for its form of property, but even for its typology, theme that ended to be more polemical. The firsts projects developed in 79

the mutirão process only produced single family houses, with no more than two floors. The possibility of realize taller buildings was not discussed at that time by the movements, the self-construction of course played its role in being a limit, altogether with a lack of appropriates tools and equipment; on the other hand, the project developed in those same years in Uruguay showed that housing complex of excellent quality and taller buildings were possible. Independently from the effective capacity of the mutirão, it has to be said that the members used to strongly reject typologies different from the single house. One of the main reasons lays in the culture of the worker class to expand or modify their home, according to necessities like the increase in the number of the family, the marriage of a child and the consequently need for expansion, which is not possible with an apartments.

The self-construction and its role in the mutirão One of the main reasons of the success of FUCVAM’s cooperatives is that the Uruguay is a Country devoted to self-construction: in a Nation where cooperativism is part of the culture and is taught in schools, it is easy to find people inclined to build its own house, eventually helped by relatives or friends.

This condition can be just partially applied to the Brazilian self-construction, since it usually implies a certain amount of illegal activities related to the State control on the urban land: the precariousness in the connection with the public infrastructure, the total neglect of the law related to the building site and the construction and the juridical status of the plot. Entire neighbourhoods are built in this way in the whole Brazil, and inside them a flourish market of buying, selling and renting happens out of a legal register.

Already in the seventies it was clear how big was the contribution of this process in the urban sprawl, 81

process that was described as a “marvellous formula 11_ KOWARICK, Lúcio “A espoliação urbana”. Rio which capitalism made explode to lower down the de Janeiro, Paz e Terra, 1979 cost of the workforce, allowing an accumulation of 11 increasingly deteriorated salaries”(Kowarick, 1979) .

Francisco de Oliveira described in a similar way 12_OLIVEIRA, Francisco the mutirão and hence the self-construction, talking de “A economia brasileiabout overwork and fostering of the capitalism expan- ra: crítica á razão dualista”. In: Novos Estudos sion(Oliveira, 1972)12. Nevertheless, the Brazilian Cebrap, n°2; Cebrap, São self-construction is an unavoidable condition and the Paulo, 1972 informal market generated here end to be the only possible for the lows income classes.

Both the Uruguayan cooperatives and the Brazilian mutirões escape from this logic since they act inside a legal frame. The plot of land is acquired legally and is connected to the infrastructure, the market is a inner market and is addressed only to the members of the movements that join the process from the very beginning and work only for themselves. The alienation from the final product is totally avoided. The self-construction is therefore embraced in its positive side and become a collective process of construction, avoiding possible individual feelings and hence improving its productivity rationalising materials, equipment and work itself. Even though the mutirão means for the members to abandon some of the individual liberties they could have working alone, the economic question definitively make it a better solution. The work can be divided according to the abilities of the members, it become easier to hire tools and machines, it is possible to reduce waste and even to produce prefabricated elements.

To conclude this analysis, is necessary to highlight another aspect that legitimate the mutirão and the self-construction and contrast with the accuse of overwork; legitimation that appears mainly from the studies of Benjamin Nahoum13 about the Coopera82

13_NAHOUM, Benjamin.

“De la autoconstrucción individual a las cooperativas pioneiras”. In : Nahoum Benjamin (org.)

Las cooperativas de vivenda por ayuda mutua uruguayas. Sevilla/Montevideo: Junta de Andalucia/Intendencia Municipal de Montevideo. 1999

tivas de Vivienda por Ayuda Mutua. Nahum firstly refer to the self-management as the main cause of the legitimation, since it allows for the members a better exploitation of their forces, while the search for a home through the formal market would demand for them a longer period of work than the time they invest in the mutual-help work. Consequently, he argue that the mutual-help work during the week-ends and festivities is not interchangeable with an extension of the working day and hence with the possibility of pay a building company with the extra earn. The time invested in the self-construction allow the movements to reach a quality and a quantity that can’t be reached by the formal market; the mutual help become indeed the solution to obtain something which is better than what is offered by the market, and that is why it can’t be compare to the overwork.

The challenge of self-management As it has been affirmed yet, the most important and difficult instance to implement in the mutirão process is the self-management. Even though the mutirão is an efficient method to make housing feasible, it does not represent an emancipation from the institutional power and hence a popular organization.

Shared strategies of action, only possible with a good level of organization, inside the singles movements and among them, are necessary in a country like Brazil. Here improvements in social policies, especially the ones related to housing, are almost completely linked to claims and manifestations, which brought and still bring financing and attention to this matter; the movements, gathered in unions and divided in entities, are then a necessity for those who lack an adequate house. This issue partially answer to those who used to define the popular organization as a mere manipulation to mobilise the masses. Moreover, the mutual-help and the self-management, together 83

with the voluntary participation, guarantee the not exploitation of the housing demands.

The big limit to the development of the self-management practice resides in in the lack of this tradition in Brazil as well as the lack of incentives and legislation.

The Government should indeed create conditions for self-management to spread, open for the possibility of the movements to constitute themselves as autonomous housing cooperatives, institutes favourable financing and regularize independents Assessorias TĂŠcnicas. This last point is fundamental since an Assessoria would guarantee for the movement a high degree of independence from the public institution, would foster a stronger initiative spirit and control over the process. To solve these issues would mean to redefine the wholes housing policies in the entire Country, as it happened in Uruguay with the Lei Nacional de Vivienda.

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CASE STUDIES

3

CASE STUDY 1

COPROMO

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LOCATION: Jardim Piratininga, Osasco SP GOAL OF THE PROJECT: architecture, urbanism and landscape project for a complex of 50 five stories buildings NUMBER OF HOUSING UNITS: 1000 DENSITY [inh/ha]: 740,7 (the result is obtained assuming that each housing units host a family of four members)

WORK: self-managed process, the construction work was both developed by the members of the Association and a building company BUILDING SYSTEM: self-bearing clay block and independent metallic structure stairs ORGANIZATION: Associação por Moradia de Osasco ASSESSORIA TÉCNICA: Usina_ support for the creation of the Association; counseling in the development of the project; support for the financing process; support for the process of land regulation and property; organization of the construction and work management; supporting to the mutirao work for the first 160 units FINANCING: Land_ceded by the Municipality of Osasco; Project_paid directly by the families; Construction_work 320 units were self-financed by a group of families, 680 financed by the CDHU TIME PERIOD: 1990_creation of the Association; 1991/1992_negotiation/project; 1992-1998_construction

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STRATEGY: TOWERS IN THE PARK CLUSTERS HIERARCHY OF PUBLIC/PRIVATE SPACES The project is settled in a context of regular and mostly identical plots, occupied by single low houses, that forms blocks differently organized and with different orientations. The choice of the materials and the constructive technics highly contributed to inform the shape of the buildings, which led to the design of a cluster replicated in the project area. The cluster includes a green area and was intended to create a HIERARCHY OF PUBLIC and PRIVATE SPACES, where the dwellers and the neighbours could have freely moved and hence experienced the greenery isolated from the streets; on the other hand, the car accesses and the parking space were clearly defined. This suggestion was neglected by the realization of a wall to enclose the area.

CRITICALITES The wall made the project a gated communities, modifying the hierarchy proposed by the assessoria. The choice of the tower as building typology led to a much higher density in terms of inhabitants, when confronted to the typical peripheral blocks, but present a similar floor area ratio.

The space that is gained with the use of the towers lacks of a clear organization and quality, and does not offer an adequate amount of collective facilities and a mixture of function that could have benefitted the dwellers and the neighbours

BUILDING STRATEGY: STRUCTURAL SCHEME BASED ON THE BLOCK’S DIMENSION METAL STAIRCASE

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The story of the Copromo started in Osasco, in the 1990. Usina was developing a project for the Terra é Nossa Association, and during the construction work, the leaders of the Association promoted a register of families in need for a home, in order to create a new group that could have started a new association and hence a new project. Those families lately met each other and aspired to organize themselves in a cooperative – here is where the name COPROMO born, “Cooperativa Pró Moradia de Osasco”- but they inevitably failed, for the Brazilian laws created an hostile condition for the cooperatives. While the name remained, the families constituted themselves as an Association.

The families occupied then a plot of unused land beside the Terra é Nossa project, which then they legally obtained after some years of claiming. The plot spanned for about 54.000 m2, which was enough to host one thousand families.

The project started in 1991, Usina was working in that very same period at Cazuza, another self-managed mutirao project that became a forerunner in the field, for being the first project developed by a popular movement involving multi-stories building instead of houses.

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Municipal borders of Sao Paulo and Osasco, aereal view of Osasco. The red dot shows the location of COPROMO

2_Southward view of the complex, in the time of conclusion of the work

3/4_Views of the site during the construction

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Constructive scheme of the COPROMO project

Usina imported this idea, altogether with the self-bea- 1_ARANTES Pedro Fiori, afterword by Roberto ring clay block system, and added independent me- Schwarz (2002) “Arquitetallic structure stairs: the latter allowed to improve the tura Nova: Sérgio Ferro, Flávio Império e Rodrigo safety during the work and at the same times it serves Lefèvre, de Artigas aos as plumb line and support to elevate the materials to mutirões”, Sao Paulo, SP; Editora 34. the top floors. Last but not the least, it avoided delay The quotation is freely translated by the autor. for it substitute concrete stairs. The architect Pedro Fiori Arantes, member of Usina, used to defend this system for it shows “the movements and their architects were no longer willing to simply reproduce precariousness, but instead they concentrated their forces in search for modern solution, using the contemporary technics as much as they can”1.

It has to be underlined then that the members of the movement, during the construction, have been capable of reproducing the metallic stairs that were initially purchased and assembled by a specialized company, confirming what Arantes argued in his book.

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The housing units were the base for the design process: starting with the smaller constructive item, the brick, the architects define the modulation to create a plan divided in four modules. Four square of 3,75 m per side arranged around a circulation square of 1,25 m; the result is an apartment with two bedrooms, a kitchen, a living room, a bathroom and a service space, for a total dimension of 54 m2. The geometry of the apartments allowed the architect to join them around a central distribution stair, four per each floor.

In 1992, while the CDHU was lingering the negotiation for the financing, a group of 300 families decided to self-financing their houses, giving the possibility to start the construction. Only two years later the CDHU would have released the first fee of the financing, while the second was released in 1996.

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5_The metallic stairs, placed after the realization of the foundations

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The Copromo plot is located near to the meeting point of two big road, and hence is well connected to the highway to Sao Paulo. It is not far from the city centre of Osasco, a well served area then, with schools, hospitals exc. At the time of the construction, an ancient arm of the Tieté river used to flow along the nort-east side of the plot; nowadays this segment of the river is completely covered by a road.

The block also hosts a public hospital and a school, in a plot that was part of the COPROMO area and that used to host the Community centre of the complex, the first built object and lately dismantled by the municipality. Another social housing complex, developed by the municipality, occupies a tiny triangular plot on the east corner of the block; this project, which rise up to four stories, is absolutely not comparable with the COPROMO in terms of quality nor in terms of implantation. The block is surrounded by residential neighbourhoods of mainly low rise single houses facing tiny roads. Some of the houses still show signs of precariousness, others show the proves of a recent vertical expansion, that in some cases rise up to four stories. Tall buildings are rare in the area, and the three big roads that define the triangular form of the block give “breath”, in term of space, to the Copromo buildings.

The masterplan shows a complex of 50 paired buildings, located in such a way to adapt to the sloped plot, with a difference in height of approximately 10 meters, and in order to create neighbouring units of 80 o 160 families. The repetition of the buildings in many shifted positions give the complex a great expressivity, which can be perceived both in the complex as a whole and in its different agglomerates; the spaces in between were conceived as one of the strength point in the project from the very beginning.

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Masterplan 1:2000

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The way the buildings bend, how they pair themselves and then mirror create a series of inner spaces with different grade of privacy, a hierarchy of public space that starts in the surrounding roads and fades in the staircases that give access to the apartment.

2_CRUZ Leandro De Sousa (2013) “Utopia e Pragmatismo em cinco propostas de habitação de interesse social no Brasil (1992 – 2012)” Dissertação de Mestrado for the Architecture and Urbanism Post-graduation program at the FAUFBA, Salvador. Oriented by Ana Fernandes.

The original design imagined a completely open complex, with three access for the cars that would have linked the streets to the inner parking lot, so the paved area of the project would have not prevailed 3_NAVAZINAS Vladimir on the green public area, becoming semi-public in (2007) “Arquitetura posbetween the buildings. Furthermore, the dwellers sível: Os espaços comuns na habitação de interrese would have been able to directly walk inside the social em São Paulo” complex from any point of the street and easily reach Dissertação de Mestrado their building. The central area was addressed to host for the Post-graduation program at the Faculty of communitarian and commercial facilities, together Architecture and Urbanism at USP, São Paulo. with public services, that would have donate to the Oriented by João Sette project an outward orientation and a greater imporWhitaker Ferreira. tance in the neighbourhood (Cruz, 2013)2.

The result present instead some variations made by the dwellers themselves: first of all, the construction of a perimeter wall isolate the buildings from the neighbourhood, denying the intention of the Usina, and creating residual areas all along the perimeter; another wall was erected, dividing the complex in two separated community, that later developed different common rules and different attitudes towards the inner space and towards the neighbours (Navazinas, 2007)3.

Nowadays a fence at the bottom of the staircase can be observed in some buildings, contributing to the individualistic orientation that the original project tried to avoid; furthermore it reduces the possibilities and the freedom that Usina intended for the complex.

The parking lot system suggested by the project was not implemented, and the majority of the inner space 100

Plan of the housing unit 1:100

Typical floor plan 1:200

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Axonometry of the Cluster

Section of the Cluster 1:500

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4_A CondomĂ­nio Fechado was paved in order to allow the cars to park almost (Walled Community) everywhere in the plot and easily access all the bu- is a form of residential ildings; the central area ended to host a square with community or housing estate containing strictly some sport facilities, while the other facilities foreseen controlled entrances for pedestrians, bicycles,

by Usina were not realized. The Community centre and automobiles, and lost its vocation as well, since it was built in the most often characterized by inner part of the plot and it was addressed only to the a closed perimeter of walls and fences (from COPROMO dwellers.

Wikipedia).

The differences between the project and its realization show the struggles between the designers and the members of the movement, changing the original intention of a project fully integrated in the urban fabric to a form of condominio fechado4 that replicates the habitat criticized by the movements themselves. The demands for a quick solution to a fundamental need ended contrasting with the demands of a wider answer to the problems of the city.

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Buildings

Semi-public/private space

Public space

Communitarian facilities

Semi-public space

Car related space

CASE STUDY 2

MUTIRÃO PAULO FREIRE

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LOCATION: Cidade Tiradentes, Sao Paulo, SP GOAL OF THE PROJECT: architecture, urbanism and landscape project; design of the foundations, structure and infrastructure for a complex of 5 buildings NUMBER OF HOUSING UNITS: 100 DENSITY [inh/ha]: 1.333 (the result is obtained assuming that each housing units host a family of four members)

WORK: self-managed process, the construction work was both developed by the members of the Association and a building company BUILDING SYSTEM: metallic structure and stairs, clay block walls and partitions ORGANIZATION: Associação Paulo Freire, affiliated to the MST Leste 1, part of União dos Movimentos de Moradia (UMM) ASSESSORIA TÉCNICA: Usina_ counseling in the development of the project; support for the financing process together with the Municipality of Sao Paulo; organization of the construction and work management; supporting to the mutirao work and to the post-occupation management FINANCING: Municipality of Sao Paulo through the COHAB Self-management Mutirões Program TIME PERIOD: 1998, creation of the Association; 1999/2001, negotiation; 2002/2003, project; 2003-2010, construction

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STRATEGY:

LINEAR BUILDINGS CONNECTED BY SUSPENDED APARTMENTS The project is located in an region that present a great variety of buildings and typology, many realized in the recent years, during and after the construction of the Paulo Freire complex. The project is part of a block of three plots, all long and narrow, with the same orientation, derived from the steepness of the ground. The first plot host a linear building of seven floor, and replicates others older buildings LOCATED in the proximity. The remaining plots host the Paulo Freire complex and another social housing complex, built approximately in the same period. The typology follow the needs to host 100 family despite the small dimension of the plot and its steepness, which informed the orientation and the drawing. In order to reach the goal and at the same time provide a reasonable external collective area, some apartments are suspended as bridges connecting the first with the second row of buildings.

This solution was made possible by the use of the metallic structure.

CRITICALITIES The Paulo Freire’s features make it unique among the self-managed projects, but determine as well an higher cost if compared with commons Mutirão development; due to the structure itself and to the fact that it demands a more specialized building company and denies the participation of the future dwellers in the construction. For these reasons, the model of Paulo Freire and the use of metallic structure is hardly replicable in this kind of project and it needs to be carefully analysed and proposed to the Mutirantes for them are not usually accustomed to it, both in terms of construction and in terms of the concept of open plan and flexibility that it may introduce

BUILDING STRATEGY: STEEL STRUCTURE WITH NON-BEARING WALLS AND PARTITION

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The Association for Communitarian Construction Paulo Freire was created in 1998 by an assembly of about 100 families, all affiliated to the MST Leste 1 and UMM; it was named after a famous Brazilian philosopher, sociologist and educator who fought to improve the level of the education of the urban poors, his aims was to include the concept of liberation in the everyday educational practice. The Association obtained its first plot of land in 1999, after a long process of claims, manifestations and occupations. The area involved in the project is part of a district called Cidade Tiradentes, on the very east of Sao Paulo.

COHAB and CDHU joined to buy the whole area of Cidade Tiradentes at the beginning of the 1970s, and in the 1975 the first social housing projects funded

by COHAB was concluded. In the following decade, over 40.000 social housing units were built, in a very standardized project, again by COHAB (OTERO, 2009)5; the choice was intended to be the solution for the high rate of housing deficit for the low-income population (ROLNIK 2011)6. The total area occupied by these units amount to 1.200 hectares circa, being the largest social housing complex in Latin America.

5_OTERO Estevam Vanale (2009), “As possibilidades e os limites da reabilitação de conjutos habitacionais em São Paulo” Dissertação de Mestrado at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism at USP, São Paulo.

Oriented by Maria Lúcia Refinetti Martins.

6_ROLNIK Raquel (2011) “Democracy on the Edge: Limits and Possibilities in the Implementation of an Urban Reform Agenda in Brazil” Internationl Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Volume 35.2, 2011, pp. 239-255

The city of Sao Paulo, divided in Subprefeituras, with the localization of Mutirão Paulo Freire, in the Subprefeituras of Cidade Tiradentes

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7_Instituto Brasileiro de Cidade Tiradentes faces ever growing problems Geografia e Estatística, is related to the lack of mixing in the dwellers’ social the Brazilian agency for statistic informations, enclasses, in the ever growing rates of density, that vironmental informations, raised from 6 in 1980 to 127 persons per hectare in cartography, geography 2000, almost doubling the average of Sao Paulo, whi- and geodetic. ch varies from 56 to 69 persons per hectare (IBGE)7.

Furthermore, the whole district lacks of public facilities, commercial spaces and a good system of public transportation, resulting in a dormitory neighbourhood isolated from the city centre and in which every complex is again isolated from the others (OTERO, 2009). The original plot appears unavailable since the very beginning, since it was already occupied by an irregular allotment and occupations that use to rapidly spread in the area; to get rid of the problem, the municipality assign another plot to the Association, not far away to the previous one, but smaller and steeper.

Here again the risk of invasion was high, and obliged the Association to meet and discuss with the leaders of the neighbouring occupations to reach an agreement and ask the respect of the property.

For this second plot the Municipality suggested again a Cingapura style complex, with a project for one hundred apartment of 42 m2 and bad orientations.

The task of Usina became more complex then, they had to convince the members of the Association to start a long process of self-management, participation and design, in order to obtain a better result than the solution proposed by the Municipality: the interaction between the architects and the future dwellers was fundamental and led to the proposal of four different housing units, of approximately 56 m2, green areas and a community centre. The favourable economic conditions of Brazil in that years, and the specificity of the plot led Usina to adopt a metallic structure for the whole project: the solution allowed to get rid of the steepness of the ground for the 111

possibility of a great span, allowed to hang some apartments and free the ground for creating collective areas and diminishing the shading.

The structure allowed to increase the number of the floor, some buildings in fact rose up to the 7th floor, hence obtain a good number of apartments despite the small dimension of the plot; the problem of accessibility was solved placing the entrance at an intermediate level, solution that also avoided the need for elevators. Even the plan of the housing unit took advantage from the metallic structure: the free plan allowed for a wider discussion with the future dwellers, which were able, with limitation, to arrange the internal partition of their apartment according to their needs.

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2_The typical social housing buildings of Cidade Tiradentes

The structure demanded for a more specialized workers, but reduced the time of construction, and made the site safer both for the specialized workers and for the members of the Association. What the metallic stairs did at Copromo was improved here at Paulo Freire by the whole structure, and certainly represented a greater news. The metallic structure led as well to new problems, and to new obstacles, mainly bureaucratics, which delayed the start of the construction to 2003. During the construction instead, the group had to face the deterioration of the steel and the theft of the materials, for them were more valuable than the ones that were commonly used. Furthermore, delays in the financing by the Municipality of Sao Paulo, led by different parties along those years, forced the Association to stop the work several times, 113

discouraging many of the members to the point that some families left the process. The work was only concluded in 2010.

The plot is a sort of narrow trapezoid with is major side oriented on the north-east/south-west axe. It is not easy to understand the project at a glance, for its geography and the complicated solution adopted by Usina to overcome the issues of the design process.

The five building are joined in two separated mirrored blocks, following the direction of the plot in order to offer the best orientation possible, with its major faรงade exposed north-west. A first belt of the plot serves as parking lot, a second one is placed among the buildings and serves as common space, although fragmented by terracing designed in order to deal with the steepness. This stripe is not interrupted by 3_View on the inner the buildings, since some apartments are elevated courtyard 4_The metallic thanks to the metallic structure. The third stripe is a structure during the narrow path that connect two little squares, the first construction. one is placed between the two blocks and host the

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Paulo Freire’s masterplan and context 1:2000

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stairs to connect the different levels, the second one is placed in a corner of the plot and host the community centre and the water tower. The sequence of paths, stairs, squares, green and views highly contributes to the good quality of the Paulo Freire complex’s common space, despite of its dimension and its density.

In MutirĂŁo Paulo Freire, Usina and mutirantes experimented for the first time with the possibility of the free plan. Only the bathroom and the kitchen sink were intended as fixed elements, enabling the families to adapt the internal configuration according to their needs. Usina proposed four different typologies of housing units, and for each typology design a possible layout, which was accepted by almost all the dwellers; only few families demanded for a different drawing, showing that the concepts of flexibility and open plans are probably not very interesting or familiar to the movements.

The metallic structure allowed Usina to escape from a rigid drawing like the one seen for the COPROMO: in this project all the four housing units show the predominancy of the common space over the dormitories; the kitchen and the living room share an unique space without partition, of more than a half of the whole unit.

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5_The South-west facade during the construction

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Typical floor plan 1:200

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Section 1:200

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The four different housing units 1:100

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Sectioned axonometry

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6/7/8/9_Different views on the inner courtyard 10_The Paulo Freire buildings in the time of construction, in the foreground can be seen another social housing project been built in the same period

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CASE STUDY 3

CONJUNTO FLORESTAN FERNANDES E JOSÉ MARIA AMARAL

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LOCATION: Cidade Tiradentes, Sao Paulo, SP GOAL OF THE PROJECT: architecture, urbanism and landscape project for a complex of 8 buildings NUMBER OF HOUSING UNITS: 396 DENSITY [inh/ha]: 880 (the result is obtained assuming that each housing units host a family of four members)

WORK: self-managed process, the construction work was developed by some building companies of the area, the members of the Association give a little contribution to the work BUILDING SYSTEM: concrete structure, self-bearing concrete masonry ORGANIZATION: Associação Florestan Fernandes and Associação José Maria Amaral, both affiliated to the Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra Leste 1 (MST Leste 1), which is part of the União dos Movimentos de Moradia (UMM) ASSESSORIA TÉCNICA: Ambiente Arquitetura_counseling in the development of the project; organization of the construction and work management; supporting to the mutirao work and activities FINANCING: autonomous and federal funds, the latter are part of the Minha Casa Minha Vida-Entidades Program TIME PERIOD: 2005 – 2015 (inauguration). The project is not concluded yet

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STRATEGY:

VERTICALIZATION AS THE ANSWER TO THE GROWTH OF THE LAND’S COST The project is located in Cidade Tiradentes, a district of the periphery that famously hosts the highest number of social housing complex in the city, mainly realized in the ’80s by the Municipality and the State of São Paulo, resulting in a whole area in the dormitory town style.

The analysed project clearly differentiates itself from the surrounding, composed of both typical low rise blocks and the standard COHAB social housing complex. The result of the cost issue is a masterplan of five towers. The floors present no difference, as the housing units, and since the plot is enclosed by walls, there is no needs to differentiate the ground floor; furthermore, the collective space reside in two little building facing the street, so the towers only offer residential spaces.

The project reach a an higher density both in terms of F.A.R. and inh/ha than the typical block, while its F.A.R is slightly lower than the one of the neighbouring COHAB complex.

CRITICALITIES The projects certainly represent a news for the social movements. While it responds the cost necessities it alienates the future dwellers from the construction for the complexity that is introduced by the verticalization, although the Assessorias Técnicas claim that self-construction is still necessary to reduce the cost and making units of approximately 60 m2 feasible. The verticalization bring as well a big gap with the common social housing projects developed in Brazil and with what mutirantes were used to. Most of them in fact lived its entire life in the self-built houses that fill the periphery, and this can lead many of them to be reluctant with this kind of development.

BUILDING STRATEGY: CONCRETE STRUCTURE WITH SELF-BEARING WALLS AND PARTITION 131

The story of the mutirões Florestan Fernandes and José Maria Amaral begins in 2004, when the MST Leste 1 was looking for a new plot of land to start a project, in the wake of the optimism brought by the policies of Lula, the president elected in 2002, chief of the Workers Party. In 2003 he founded the Ministry of Cities to support the urban planning and the land policies of the municipalities, with the aim of improve housing, sanitation and mobility. This Ministry revealed itself as a new important speaker for the movements, and to satisfy their claim about funding it opened the Programa Crédito Solidário (PCS, Solidary Credit Program).

The high expectations would have lately turned to frustration, since only 158 projects were launched for execution out 2759 proposal from the whole Country.

8_MOREIRA Fernanda Accioly “O lugar da autogestão no Governo Lula” Dissertação de Mestrado at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism at USP, São Paulo. Oriented

by Reginaldo Nunes Ronconi.

One of the main issues of the PCS that the movements had to face, including the MST Leste 1, was that an approved project was necessary to obtain funds and hence to buy a plot of land (MOREIRA 2009)8. It means that the movements continuously lived in a state of uncertainty in the wait for approval, for the risk to lose the land and hence the project.

The city of Sao Paulo, divided in Subprefeituras, with the localization of Mutirões Florestan Fernandes and José Maria Amaral, in the Subprefeituras of Cidade Tiradentes

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This situation complicated the search for a terrain by 9_AQUINO Carlos Roberto Filadelfo de “A luta the MST Leste 1: the solution came from another case está no sangue: Família, política e movimentos occurred in the West Zone of Sao Paulo, where the de moradia em São families of another movement were obliged to pay a Paulo” Dissertação de fixed amount of money every month in order to supply Doutorado at the Faculty of Philosophy, Letters the need of approval of funding. and Human sciences at Leste 1 succeeded in apply the same strategy, and received as well some external help from the Catholic church and an NGO supporting housing production: a well located land in Cidade Tiradentes was then purchased in April 2010: it was the first time in the history of Mutirão projects that an association was able to previously buy its terrain. Part of the monthly collected money was used also to pay Ambiente Arquitetura, the assessoria técnica contacted by the Leste 1 to work on the design. The first step was to build two wooden houses to host two families that would have prevent invasions of the empty plot and theft of the storage materials; the final design for the whole residential complex was approved instead only three years after the purchase of the land, and thus the funds were released and the construction work began (AQUINO 2015)9. At that time, the Programa Crédito Solidário was already been replaced by Minha Casa Minha Vida, for which the two Associations applied.

Again, as it happens for the Mutirão Paulo Freire, the problems and delays had altered the original spirit and the original group of families, as many abandoned along the construction while others joined in.

The design was developed by Ambiente Arquitetura together with the future dwellers, through some “exercises” of understanding the space, discussion of the cost etc…

USP, São Paulo. Oriented

by Ana Claudia Duarte Rocha Marques.

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The project is divided into two almost mirrored part, with eight towers that varies from 8 to 15 floors, according to the slope of the land that goes down northwards. Four circulations blocks provides access to two tower each, these blocks lean against one tower on one side, while they have footbridges on the other to reach the second tower; together with the circulation core, the blocks host some common spaces at each floors. The towers have a narrow rectangular shape, and they are placed in parallel with the road, thus the wider faรงade faces the north, slightly turning towards west. The centre of the plot is occupied by two internal roads, almost parallel, not crossing nor touching each other. Each ones has its own access, and leads to the bottom of the slope and presents the parking lots on their side.

In between the roads, at the entrance of the complex, Ambiente placed the community centre and a day care centre that was supposed to serve the whole neighbourhood. However, the high sense of private and an overwhelming demand for security are not a prerogative of the rich class, but they are always present in the social movements as well; thus the good intention of Ambiente had not the support of the dwellers that, despite the construction has not been 2_The building used as Community centre and daycare centre.

3_In the following page, two of the towers, linked by the footbridges

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Masterplan 1:2000

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concluded yet, have already provided the entrances with gates and fences to privatize the whole plot, including the day care centre.

All the 396 apartment present the same layout, with no variation, and they provide the families with 58 m2, making them the biggest of the case studies that are analysed here, furthermore, they are fully accessible.

They are also characterized by a private terrace, which is quite unique in the Brazilian social housing; the terraces always face north, in order to get the best insolation and to ensure more privacy.

4_View of part of the towers. In the background the Municipality’s social housing can be seen

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Plan of the housing unit. 1:100

Residential buildings Car related space Communitarian facilities

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Typical floor plan of three towers, linked by the footbridges.

1:200

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The living room and the dining room merge in a unique space, reaching up a good dimension, which can be compared with the one at Paulo Freire; the kitchen is separated instead, but it has a good amount of space as well; the bedrooms do not distinguish themselves from other project, presenting a common dimension for this kind of apartment. The laundry room has here a big window, but a masonry shaft is used as a filter with the exterior.

Since the complex reached an height that has never been seen before in a MutirĂŁo project, Ambiente had to design a concrete structure, again never been used by the mutirĂľes, filled with self-bearing concrete masonry. Clearly, the self-construction was impossible here, because of the concrete structure, the altitude of the buildings and the inexperience of the mutirantes: some little building companies were designated for the whole work, stimulating the local economy.

The future dwellers only assisted the professionals by arranging and allocating the building materials or taking care of the areas intended to host vegetation.

The project faces southward a stripe of social housing building implemented by the municipality, all placed perpendicular to the road and with distances of few metres among them. On the north side take place small-scale houses that reach an height of three floor maximum, the whole area is mainly residential, with little commercial spaces placed on the ground floor of the owners’ houses.

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The Florestan Fernandes and José Maria Amaral complex shows a direction which is becoming more and more common among the mutirão projects: the diminishing of the self-construction’s importance inside the Movimentos de luta pela moradia; the land available is becoming indeed more and more rare in the city of Sao Paulo, and thus more expensive, high rise building are becoming the solution even for social housing.

Taller building demands for professionals, not only for their skills, in which mutirantes are clearly lacking, but mainly for the possibility of a contractor to guarantee more security to its workers. Building company are not an option anymore, although the Assessorias Técnicas claim that self-construction is still necessary to reduce the cost and making units of approximately 60 m2 feasible.

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Section 1:500

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Section 1:500

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PARQUE BOA ESPERANÇA INTRODUCTION TO THE SITE

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ZONA LESTE Territory: 298,8 km2 Population: 3.620.494 inh.

Density: 12.116,8 inh/km2 150

SĂƒO MATEUS Territory: 45,8 km2 Population: 426.794 inh.

Density: 9.319inh/km2 151

The site of Parque Boa Esperanรงa 1:10.000

Aerial view 1:10.000

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As it appeared clear in the chapter about the urban The Commissão ParBoa Esperança history of São Paulo, the Zona Leste has rarely been que visits the site the focus of urbanistic plan, urban researches or other kinds of work that could have analysed its condition, its urban fabric or its expansion, despite being the house of 3.620.494 inhabitants (2008 census), which corresponds to 32% circa of the whole population of Sao Paulo. It is an area whose imaginary recall instead to the precariousness of the dwellings, the high rates of poorness and criminality; furthermore, it is commonly described as a “distant” region from the city centre, which is not completely true since its territory span from the Tamanduatei river, one of the border of the Historic Triangle, till the east Municipal limit, fact that can give an additional idea of its perception.

Inside the academic field, the trend has been slightly 156

inverted in the last ten years approximately, when a bunch of professionals has implemented dissertations about this region in the wake of a new consciousness rose after projects like Cidade Tiradentes and the attention gained by the popular movements.

The whole zone, including the area analysed, is the result of joint forces from the State and the capitalistic interests of few private investors. Their work reveal itself in the direct production of housing and few other public facilities and services, which rarely are able to attend the demand. Besides this action, Nakano highlight a less obvious one: the commitment of the State in study the periphery and develop data and social information which are not necessarily intended to produce positive actions by the institutions. What he argue is that the goal of this analysis is to create visions and social representations to affect and strike the collective imaginary, far from being neutral and innocent, and that can eventually orient future actions.

Chronicles about violence and murders, for instance, lead to the social and territorial stigmatization of places in the periphery and have strong repercussion on the population, for them orient the action and opinion of police, institution, NGOs and of course society (NAKANO 2002).

Parque Boa Esperança The area of Parque Boa Esperança is located on the south-west fringes of São Paulo, in the Iguatemi district, part of the Sub-Prefeitura of São Mateus, in the macro area called Leste 1 (Est 1). The Região Leste 1 is an administrative area including four Sub-Prefeituras; according to the 2000 census, it has a population of 1.552.070 inhabitants and an average income pro capita of 875,90 Reais. The area, mainly residential and commercial, is living a development process of urbanization, verticalization, regularization of the risk areas, canalization of its streams and river.

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The district of Iguatemi is approximately 24 km away 1_To compare some datas, the Sé Subprefeitufrom the centre of Sao Paulo and it takes almost two ra, that correspond to the centre of the city, has a hours for commuting using the public transportadensity of 16.454 inh/km , 2 tion. It has an area of 19,6 km and a population of while the densest region 127.662 inhabitants (2010 census), the average den- is Itaim Paulista, in the extreme east, with 17.195 sity is 6.513 inh/km2 1, which is the lower in the whole inh/km .

Sub-Prefeitura. The latter has instead a dimension of 45,8 km2 and a population of 422.199 inhabitants.

It was a region of fazendas and sitios2 in the middle 2_The difference between the two terms is not of the 1800, only a century later the land would have very clear and they may been divided in plots and sold, fact that marked the have different regional meanings. Both terms can birth of the Sao Mateus district. For what regards the be translated by the way area of Iguatemi, it remained a land of smallholdings as Smallholding, Farm or Ranch, but in the Brazilian until the ends of the 1960s; the first few allotmenconnotation they are often conceived as a second ts were open in the 1965, and the trend increased home in the countryside, later in the 1970s. Its original population consisted for leisure and activities of migrants from the Brazilian north-west, Spain and linked to the farming which are not necessarily Japan, mostly employed in the industries of the area the main occupation of of Mooca, Ipiranga and the ABC Paulista3. Already in the owners. the 1950s, the dwellers started to build a collective conscience about the status of the region and orgaABC Region (sonized themselves to claim improvements to the Mu- 3_The metimes ABCD) is an innicipality. The whole sub-prefeitura present a strong dustrial region part of the area of São residential predominance, mainly constituted by low metropolitan Paulo, located south-east rise low standard houses; the commercial activities of the capital. Its names origin form the main are the main economical facilities, ranging from the takes cities that constitute it, family conducted shop, often placed at the ground Santo André, São Bernardo Campo and São floor of the owner house, in what used to be the ga- do Caetano do Sul (eventualrage, to the big stores placed on the main roads. An ly even Diadema). The reis particularly known industrial area is present as well, located in the centre gion for the great number of of the Sub-prefeitura, not far from the project plot. Sao companies, nationals and especially Mateus, as part of the periphery, is no immune from internationals, car manufactories. It is the irregular and illegal growth that have been descri- the birthplace of the labour union movement that bed in the first chapter. A big amount of its territory fought the dictatorship in is identified as Irregular allotment; some favelas are the 1970s and 1980s, the dos Trabalhapresent as well and some of them have already been Partidos dores was founded here classified as Núcleo, thus have been partially or com- as well. pletely regularized by the municipality4.

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4_For a definition of Núcloes, see the glossary

Even though the analysed area is not directly interested by the big housing complex of Cidade Tiradentes, it has to be said that they are less than 10 km 5_The caption has been away, fact that affected the development of Parque translated by the author Boa Esperança. The expansion in the whole Iguatemi district boosted in the 1970s, the very same period in which the State started to acquire the land in Cidade Tiradentes; this land was not in the proximity of the urbanized limit, but was separated from it in order to expand the control over the territory, give accessibility to a part of this territory that was previously inaccessible and foster the speculation and the illegal/irregular urbanization on the land in between. As Nakano intentionally highlight “the absence of control by the Public Power must never be confused as an absence of the Public Power in the process of territory production in the São Paulo periphery” (NAKANO 2002)5.

What is argued here, is the recognized leading role of the irregularity and illegality as the urbanization tool in the periphery of the city.

The result of this process lead to the rise of an urban fabric completely lacking of infrastructure, not connected to the water and sewer system, with no public illumination, with no official and paved roads. Even when some of these roads were then implemented by the institutions, they rarely appeared in the public register, which complicated the future interventions for improvements. What is described here is not an exclusive of the irregular allotment, the housing complex produced by the State used to being stuck in this condition as well. The delay of the Institution in taking care for the basic services fostered the gain of those who speculated over this portion of land, since they intercepted the value produced by the land itself, and by the water, electricity and sewer infrastructures. The sense of a tardy Institution, not capable of previously plan but attempting to solve

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the problems only later is still strong and in some way 6_GeoSampa is a web platform that gathers justified. For instance, the assessorias técnicas that maps and georeferenced are designing in the plots of Parque Boa Esperança datas about the city of São Paulo are asked by the Municipality to conceive a storage system for the cooking gas since the Municipality will provide the area with a gas network only in a following moment. The precariousness is still common nowadays, in this area as in the whole periphery.

Irregularity is even more common. What strikes looking at websites like GeoSampa6, is the amount and dimension of this phenomenon. The favelas are widely diffuse almost all over the city, with the exception of the central region; they occupy those area left empty by the formal city: for the steepness of the terrain, for the law that would not allow to build there, for the environmental risk that can occur in that areas, or simply because they are left empty with no function. For their nature of occupy empty and unwanted spots, favelas mostly remain delimited in a small area, with the exception of Paraisópolis and Heliópolis (the major favelas of the city), although a great density can be reached.

The number and dimension of irregular allotments is indeed impressive, several district of São Paulo originated almost completely starting from these illegal occupations of the land, and the phenomenon is so diffuse and consolidated that is no longer possible, or it is very hard, to distinguish an irregular neighbourhood from a regular one. Many of this area have been regularized or eventually formally accepted by the presence of institutional buildings like schools, even though the first step came, most of the time, from the dwellers themselves, that joined together and claimed for services from the Municipality. Again São Mateus is no exception: there are several favelas, and the majority host more than four hundred houses (GEOSAMPA); differently from other Sub-prefeituras, here it is possible to find as well a relevant presence 160

Map of SĂŁo Paulo, the Centre and the Zona Leste are highlited.

Favela NĂşcleo Irregular allotment

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7_Centro Educacional of núcleos (urbanized favelas), that give hope for Unificado, is a public future improvements; the irregular allotments are here facility in the field of very present too, and they spread themselves in the education, instituted by the Municipal Secretary whole administrative area, especially the district of of Education of São Paulo for the periphery of the Iguatemi. city. They host schools of The urban fabric of Parque Boa Esperança is mainly different grade together composed by self-built houses, that barely reaches with cinema/theatre, sport facilities, swimming pool three floors, both in the regular and irregular and library allotments; a Cohab complex in the proximity of the plot is the only exception for what regards the height, but still it does not exceed too much, for it can’t rise above 10 metres without having an elevator (which is always avoided in State/Municipality financed housing). The area is cut by a long empty strip that create a secure zone for the high voltage line that span for almost the whole sub-prefeitura. The built environment is nowadays quite consolidate, the aerial views of the recent years show almost no modification or new developments, both regular or irregular. The only news in this term is the opening of highway Jacu Pêssego between 2010 and 2011, part of a larger system of express roads that cut the whole Zona Leste in the north-south direction. Although the area is far from the centre, this road system and the busses that can be taken from the main road, make it well linked with the centre itself and thus with the others part of the city. The commute remain a problem, since a consistent part of the peripheral population is forced to move everyday for the main job hubs hosted in the Expanded Centre, and the alternatives are still few.

Dwellings is the predominant function in the area, a good amount of commercial facilities is present as well and it takes place along the main road. Adjacent to the plot there is a primary school, while on the opposite side of the high tension line, there is a CEU (Unified Educational Centre)7 that provides cultural facilities that otherwise would lack. The area is served with a good amount of schools of various grades,

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both public and private, sports facilities are well represented too, while health facilities are the ones that are mainly lacking in the proximity of the plot.

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SERVICES STREET MARKET POLICE STATION HEALTHCARE CENTRE SPORT CENTRE COMMUNITY SPORT CLUB THEATRE LIBRARY SUB-PREFEITURA OFFICES POST OFFICE EMPLOYMENT OFFICE SOCIAL CARE CENTRE CEU PUBLIC KINDERGARTEN ELEMENTARY PUBLIC SCHOOL PRIVATE SCHOOL 1 km AREA

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MEET THE MUTIRANTES QUESTIONNAIRE

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1. Name: Cássia 2. Age: 30 3. Education level: Graduate 4. Where do you come from? São Paulo 5. If you are not from Sao Paulo, how long have you been living here?

6. Number of components in your family? 6 7. Do you have a car? Yes 8. Do you have a job? If you do, which is the duration of your daywork?

Yes, 25 hours per week 9. How do you reach your job place? How long does it takes? Public transports (metro and bus), it takes 1 hour 10. How much is the car important for you? How much space does it deserve itself in an mutirão’s housing project? I don’t perceive the car as a very important thing right now, I think car should not be the priority in a housing project 11. What is leisure according to you? What your idea about leisure could imply in spatial terms? Leisure means to spend some times for me, without any kind of obligation or need to worries for schedules. I like to join cultural activities in space of conviviality 12. What is security according to you? How much is it important? How would it become effective in a mutirão’s housing project, according to you? I think is a space that do not generate any kind of risk. I think is relevant for security to know the community in the neighbourhood, meet it and create link with it. this should be the priority, together with the prevention of accidents inside the complex 168

13. Do you have sons? If you do, how old is/are he/she/they? No 14. In which region/neighbourhood do you live? Neighbourhood Artur Alvim, East region 15. Which is the property status of your house/apartment (are you an owner, do you have a rent contract, are you living in a borrowed unit, do you share your home with someone which is not part of your family)? I live with my parents in an house ceded by my grandmother 16. How many rooms does it have? 4 rooms and a bathroom 17. Which is its dimension approximately? 60 m2 18. What do you like more of your home?_ 19. Which is the space in your home that you consider “affective”? And which is the “technical”? The living room is the affective space, while the kitchen and the bathroom are more technical 20. Which is the activity in your home that is most important, according to you? Rest 21. Which is the most important space in your home? The living room 22. Which are, if exists, the activities of your daily life that could be done in a collective space?_ 23. Which are the collective shared space that should not lack in a mutirão’s housing project? Leisure space for children, a big space, covered and outdoor, for cultural activities 24. Do you think that an housing complex by mutirao should offer various typologies of apartment , trying to suit different families, or it should provide just one kind of apartment?_

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25. How the collective space for the community to gathering should be?

Usually the collective space is addressed to assemblies, but it can vary according to the community 26. A mutirão’s housing project should embed some spaces to share with those who are not dwelling in it? If it should, what should these open to the public spaces be? Yes, it should embed spaces with an independent access, and they should host cultural activities, a community library, a kindergarten and commercial activities 27. Should these spaces prioritize the making of a earn for the housing project? It would be good, but it shouldn’t be the priority 28. How much is green and vegetation important in a mutirão’s housing project? It is very important, construction nowadays does not care with the landscape project, while in a self-management project it is always considered as a priority by the involved families 29. How many families, approximately, should Parque Boa Esperança accommodate? I think it should accommodate around 250 families 30. How should the conformation of the project be (towers,row buildings…)? Towers, but it depends on the possibility of atteding the social and environmental demands 31. How many floors should the buildings have? 12 32. Should the construction’s quickness be prioritized or would you prefer save money accepting a longer construction period? I prefer to save money even if it means to have a longer construction times

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33. What the word “flexibility” means for you (when related to interior space)? Do you think it would be an interesting feature for an house/ apartament? I think flexibility means the possibility to change the position of furniture in the different home space 34. A specialized work can imply less manual work and hence a less weary work, but on the other hand it could end as less inclusive since it demands for more skills. What do you think about it? Since the topic is self-management housing project I don’t think that specialized work could reach the essence of construction 35. A metallic structure is a more expensive solution than a masonry structure, on the other hands it allows for a faster construction, a manual work reduction and an high flexibility degree of the interiors.

Masonry structure is as well a common solution in the mutirão’s housing project: it allows for a rationalize of the construction, but without reaching the same level of the metallic structure, and is a cheaper solution. It demands for a longer period of construction and more manual work, less specialized and do not allow for flexibility. Which of the two solution do you consider more interesting? Which features of the two materials do you find more interesting? I think the masonry structure is preferable

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1. Name: Teodoro 2. Age: 31 3. Education level: SUPERIOR INCOMPLETO???

4. Where do you come from? São Paulo 5. If you are not from Sao Paulo, how long have you been living here?

6. Number of components in your family? 5 7. Do you have a car? No 8. Do you have a job? If you do, which is the duration of your daywork?

Yes, 44 hours per week 9. How do you reach your job place? How long does it takes? I go by bus, it takes about 50 minutes 10. How much is the car important for you? How much space does it deserve itself in an mutirão’s housing project? It would be very important because I have a little children. The complex should provides 1 place for each apartment 11. What is leisure according to you? What your idea about leisure could imply in spatial terms? Leisure is when I can distract my self form the everyday life 12. What is security according to you? How much is it important? How would it become effective in a mutirão’s housing project, according to you? It is very important, it should imply security cameras to discourage illegal activities 13. Do you have sons? If you do, how old is/are he/she/they? Yes, two children, 12 years old and 10 month old

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14. In which region/neighbourhood do you live? Cidade Tiradentes, East region 15. Which is the property status of your house/apartment (are you an owner, do you have a rent contract, are you living in a borrowed unit, do you share your home with someone which is not part of your family)? I live in a rented apartment 16. How many rooms does it have? 4 rooms 17. Which is its dimension approximately? 55 m2 18. What do you like more of your home? The living room 19. Which is the space in your home that you consider “affective”? And which is the “technical”? The living room is the affective space 20. Which is the activity in your home that is most important, according to you? Watching the television 21. Which is the most important space in your home? The living room 22. Which are, if exists, the activities of your daily life that could be done in a collective space? Using the pc 23. Which are the collective shared space that should not lack in a mutirão’s housing project? A spot for doing barbecue 24. Do you think that an housing complex by mutirao should offer various typologies of apartment , trying to suit different families, or it should provide just one kind of apartment? Yes 25. How the collective space for the community to gathering should be?

Big enough to host everyone from the complex

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26. A mutirão’s housing project should embed some spaces to share with those who are not dwelling in it? If it should, what should these open to the public spaces be? Yes, everyone could help the community 27. Should these spaces prioritize the making of a earn for the housing project? Yes 28. How much is green and vegetation important in a mutirão’s housing project? It is very important, very important, it cleans the air and enhance the interaction with nature 29. How many families, approximately, should Parque Boa Esperança accommodate? I think it should accommodate 400 families 30. How should the conformation of the project be (towers,row buildings…)? Towers 31. How many floors should the buildings have? 21 32. Should the construction’s quickness be prioritized or would you prefer save money accepting a longer construction period? I think it should be good try to join what is useful with something more comfortable, but without increasing the duration 33. What the word “flexibility” means for you (when related to interior space)? Do you think it would be an interesting feature for an house/ apartament? I think it could be interesting 34. A specialized work can imply less manual work and hence a less weary work, but on the other hand it could end as less inclusive since it demands for more skills. What do you think about it? I think a more technical work could be interesting in case it would low down costs, at the same time it should be preceded by some classes to avoid exclusion and make the members able to participate

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35. A metallic structure is a more expensive solution than a masonry structure, on the other hands it allows for a faster construction, a manual work reduction and an high flexibility degree of the interiors.

Masonry structure is as well a common solution in the mutirão’s housing project: it allows for a rationalize of the construction, but without reaching the same level of the metallic structure, and is a cheaper solution. It demands for a longer period of construction and more manual work, less specialized and do not allow for flexibility. Which of the two solution do you consider more interesting? Which features of the two materials do you find more interesting? I think the masonry structure is preferable since metallic structure demands for a different kind of construction which not everyone would agree to pay for

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1. Name: Alessandro 2. Age: 44 3. Education level: Middle school 4. Where do you come from? São Paulo 5. If you are not from Sao Paulo, how long have you been living here?

6. Number of components in your family? 4 7. Do you have a car? No 8. Do you have a job? If you do, which is the duration of your daywork?

No 9. How do you reach your job place? How long does it takes? _ 10. How much is the car important for you? How much space does it deserve itself in an mutirão’s housing project? It is important. The complex should provides 1 place for each apartment 11. What is leisure according to you? What your idea about leisure could imply in spatial terms? Leisure is relaxing with my family 12. What is security according to you? How much is it important? How would it become effective in a mutirão’s housing project, according to you? I think is a priority and it shouldbe enhanced by the contacts between the future dwellers 13. Do you have sons? If you do, how old is/are he/she/they? Yes, two children, of 12 and 15 years 14. In which region/neighbourhood do you live? São Mateus, East region

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15. Which is the property status of your house/apartment (are you an owner, do you have a rent contract, are you living in a borrowed unit, do you share your home with someone which is not part of your family)?_ 16. How many rooms does it have? 4 rooms 17. Which is its dimension approximately? 70 m2 18. What do you like more of your home? I like everything of my house 19. Which is the space in your home that you consider “affective”? And which is the “technical”?_ 20. Which is the activity in your home that is most important, according to you?_ 21. Which is the most important space in your home? The kitchen 22. Which are, if exists, the activities of your daily life that could be done in a collective space? Partying 23. Which are the collective shared space that should not lack in a mutirão’s housing project? A community centre 24. Do you think that an housing complex by mutirao should offer various typologies of apartment , trying to suit different families, or it should provide just one kind of apartment? I think they should vary 25. How the collective space for the community to gathering should be?

It should be an outdoor squa 26. A mutirão’s housing project should embed some spaces to share with those who are not dwelling in it? If it should, what should these open to the public spaces be? Yes, it should embed some commercial spaces

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27. Should these spaces prioritize the making of a earn for the housing project? Yes 28. How much is green and vegetation important in a mutirão’s housing project? It is very important 29. How many families, approximately, should Parque Boa Esperança accommodate? I think it should accommodate 300 families 30. How should the conformation of the project be (towers,row buildings…)?_ 31. How many floors should the buildings have? 10 32. Should the construction’s quickness be prioritized or would you prefer save money accepting a longer construction period? Save money and accept a longer period of construction 33. What the word “flexibility” means for you (when related to interior space)? Do you think it would be an interesting feature for an house/ apartament? I think it could be interesting 34. A specialized work can imply less manual work and hence a less weary work, but on the other hand it could end as less inclusive since it demands for more skills. What do you think about it?_ 35. A metallic structure is a more expensive solution than a masonry structure, on the other hands it allows for a faster construction, a manual work reduction and an high flexibility degree of the interiors.

Masonry structure is as well a common solution in the mutirão’s housing project: it allows for a rationalize of the construction, but without reaching the same level of the metallic structure, and is a cheaper solution. It demands for a longer period of construction and more manual work, less specialized and do not allow for flexibility. Which of the two solution do you consider more interesting? Which features of the two materials do you find more interesting? I don’t know

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1_MVRDV “FARMAX: The design process began with a questionnaire in EXCURSIONS ON DENorder to understand the ideas, the necessities of the SITY” Rotterdam, nai010 publishers, 1998 “future dwellers”, their vision on various theme that may sound familiar for those who are involved in the fields of architecture or the study of the cities, and themes that concern everyday life like the commuting or the security. At the same time, the aim was to collect a series of input that would have direct the development of the project. The questionnaire is as well an attempt to established a relation between this work, and thus me, and the group of members of the MST Leste 1 that are involved in the official design that is being developed by Escola da Cidade. The involvement of the mutirantes is again an attempt to recreate the bottom-up approach hardly claimed by the movements themselves and by the assessorias técnicas and hence an attempt to link my work to the reality of basic necessities, concrete problems, the specificity of a place; as MVRDV wrote in their FARMAX “It is impossible to create a Tabula Rasa. The more we take the world as it is, the greater our chance of changing it”1. Although I am not as ambitious as MVRDV, I became aware form the very first meeting with the movement of the importance of participation as a tool for both the designer to develop a good project, and most of all for the members themselves for becoming aware of their condition, the exploitation they face everyday and the way to overcome them.

The social work entered the housing theme already during the military regime, but here was envisioned as a tool to expand the control over the poor classes. The aim was to help them accepting and make them adapting to the intervention offered by the government, or to overcome the traumas of the forced relocation that often occurred in those years.

Another task of the social workers was to select the families that would have attended the Governmental 179

programs; this conservatory conception of the social 2_DIAS, Cleonice dos Santos “Trabalho social e work short last for the employed workers themselves movimentos de morareacted to it, not committed to foster this distortion of dia: um estudo sobre a trajetória da assessoria the theme by the dictatorship (Dias, 2016)2. Lately the técnica Ambiente Arquitetura e da União dos social work affirmed itself as a fundamental field to Movimentos de Moradia support the claim of self-management: teaching the de São Paulo” 2016, Disfuture dwellers how to build a wall was not enough, it sertação de Mestrado em Serviço Social, PUC-SP, was necessary for them to understand the value and São Paulo the meaning of their work and to be aware of the relations between them and the wider social and politics process they were involved. The statement standing 3_USINA CTAH, “Usina: entre o projeto e o canteiat the base of this social work is Producing dwellings ro” 2015, Edições Aurora, means producing city (USINA)3. Of course there was São Paulo as well the necessity to understand and to know these members, their economic situation, their job situation, 4_Evaniza Rodrigues is their family and their origins. one of the leader and most active member of

MST Leste 1, she Nowadays the social movements are able to develop the is heading the group of part of the task initially carried on by the social wor- mutirantes developing project of Parque kers. As Evaniza Rodrigues4 explained me during an the Boa Esperança and is interview, this role is fulfilled by the Grupos de Origem has obtained a Phd at the Faculty of Archi(Origin’s Groups): these groups are the ones that tecture and Urbanism, welcome the new members and introduce them to the University of São Paulo the dissertation “A political, social and city’s issue, and prepared them with Estratégia Fundiária dos movimentos populares na for an active militancy in the movements and then produção autogestionária to join an Entidades for starting a self-management da moradia” project of housing production. What she highlighted is that the most deeply rooted conviction in the population that the Grupos de Origem has to fight, is that of the house seen as a product of the market which can only be reached with stronger commitment to the job and in saving money, instead of a fundamental right that should be guaranteed by the institutions.

For this questionnaire, I prepared 35 questions oriented firstly to understand who the members are, then which is their vision on some theme which are part of the everyday life and which I thought were crucial 180

for them and what their ideas could imply in spatial/ architectural terms; the last question were addressed to understand their ideas about some technical issue.

The group of people involved were the members of the MST Leste 1, both those who joined the project of Parque Boa Esperança and the ones who are part of others entidades; the average age of the interviewees is slightly lower the 40 years old and one third of them are graduated or are currently enrolled in an university, which would have been really rare 10 years ago; this fact appear even more useful considering that the mutirantes often choose to study topics inherent to their militancy in the popular movement, as is the case for Evaniza. Approximately, two third of the interviewees are from São Paulo, but those who have others origins are living there since a long time; one third are men, while the others two third are women.

This fact is very common in the mutiroes, I had the possibility to perceive it by myself in the various meeting of the Leste 1 that I attended, as well as in the visit an in the interview I made at Barra do Jacaré site, in the north region of São Paulo, and again as many used to repeat to me too: the women are the ones who really take care of attending the meetings as well as the work in the construction site during the week-end.

The average dimension of the family of the people involved is of 4,5 members, this means that most of the families would not meet a sufficient space in most of the realized mutiroes projects, since they usually provide two bedrooms, one with a double bed and the other with two beds.

Ten of the 32 persons interviewed own a car, and somesuggested that the housing complex should provide one parking space for each family, which actually is rare, if not completely absent, in this kind of project for it would occupy a big part of the plot and the pos181

sibility of having an underground parking lot is denied by the high cost that it would imply.

Another delicate issue in the mutirão projects is security: as seen in the case studies, the need for security often led the dwellers to heavily modify the original projects, substituting the assessorias’ proposal of openness and public spaces with fences and controlled gates.The question: What is security according to you? How much is it important? How would it become effective in a mutirão’s housing project? Generate different answer and approach to the problem. As it is predictable, everyone agreed in identifying security as essential, but then the proposals were diverging like “I think it is essential, but that does not mean the housing complex should become a prison for its dwellers” and “It is important, I think the housing complex should be closed by fences, with security guards”. While the second answer is part of a minority among the results I collected with the questionnaire, already in the meeting I attended while at Escola da Cidade I perceived that this kind of approach is more common than the acceptance of an open plot. The trend that emerged from the previous question appears again when I asked: A mutirão’s housing project should embed some spaces to share with those who are not dwelling in it? If it should, what should these open to the public spaces be? While the suggestion were many, most of the mutirantes agreed to open the housing complex to non-dwellers, which can be fundamental to avoid the sense of isolation that is often produced when the projects close themselves in fences.

A great importance was given to the exterior space and to the presence of vegetation, while the last questions, more addressed to technical issues, generates a bit of confusion and ambiguity among the 182

mutirantes, and show a general inexperience in the field of construction, which initially left me surprised.

As I later discussed with Kaya Lazarini and Wagner Germano of Usina, I found out that is common for the members of social movements not to have any kind of experience in the field of constructions, since the project they face with the mutirĂŁo represent their first approach with it, and they only learn during the process itself. If on one side, the movement can have a deep experience as a whole, for its long period of activity and many process successfully concluded, each new project start from a new group of people.

The professors and students of Escola da Cidade meet a group of members of the MST Leste 1 in a terrain that is going to host a new social housing complex

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CIDADE BOA ESPERANÇA THE STRATEGY AND THE MASTERPLAN

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LOCATION: PARQUE BOA ESPERANÇA, SÃO MATEUS DISTANCE FROM CITY CENTRE_24,4 KM HEIGHT_FROM 790 TO 826M A.S.L. AREA: 49.052 m2 NUMBER OF HOUSING UNITS: 963_houses:260/apartments:703 NUMBER OF INHABITANS: 3852 (the result is obtained

assuming that each housing units host a family of four members)

DENSITY [INH/HA]: 785,3 FLOOR AREA RATIO: 1,46 PLOT 1: AREA_5.735,7 m2 NUMBER OF HOUSING UNITS_97 NUMBER OF INHABITANTS_388 DENSITY_676,5 inh/ha FLOOR AREA RATIO_1,28 PLOT 2: AREA_7.563,9 m2 NUMBER OF HOUSING UNITS_117 NUMBER OF INHABITANTS_468 DENSITY_618,7 inh/ha FLOOR AREA RATIO_1,18 PLOT 3: AREA_9.884,3 m2 NUMBER OF HOUSING UNITS_137 NUMBER OF INHABITANTS_548 DENSITY_554,4 inh/ha FLOOR AREA RATIO_1,05 PLOT 4: AREA_9.825,1 m2 NUMBER OF HOUSING UNITS_181 NUMBER OF INHABITANTS_724 DENSITY_736,9 inh/ha FLOOR AREA RATIO_1,36

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PLOT 5: AREA_7.235,7 m2 NUMBER OF HOUSING UNITS_151 NUMBER OF INHABITANTS_604 DENSITY_834,8 inh/ha FLOOR AREA RATIO_1,48 PLOT 6: AREA_3.786 m2 NUMBER OF HOUSING UNITS_96 NUMBER OF INHABITANTS_384 DENSITY_1.014,3 inh/ha FLOOR AREA RATIO_1,97 PLOT 7: AREA_5.021,1 m2 NUMBER OF HOUSING UNITS_184 NUMBER OF INHABITANTS_736 DENSITY_1.465,8 inh/ha FLOOR AREA RATIO_2,67 WORK: THE CONSTRUCTION IS INTENDED TO BE DEVELOPED BY A BUILDING COMPANY OF THE AREA AND THE MEMBERS OF THE MUTIRÃO BUILDING SYSTEM: CONCRETE STRUCTURE, SELF-BEARING CONCRETE MASONRY GREEN AREA: 15.176 m2_31% OF THE TOTAL AREA INDOOR COLLECTIVE SPACE: 4.325 m2_9% OF THE TOTAL AREA PARKING AREA: 99 PARKING PLOTS_4%OF THE TOTAL AREA

1 7

2

3

4

5

6 187

DOUBLE TIPOLOGY: LOW RISE TERRACED HOUSES AND TOWERS. THE LATTERS BALANCE THE REDUCED NUMBER OF HOUSING UNITS OF THE HOUSES AND LEAVE FREE SPACE FOR A PUBLIC PARK.

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THE ARRANGEMENT OF THE ANALISED BLOCK IS ORGANIZED AND REDUCED IN THREE ROWS, ALLOWING FOR A HIGHER NUMBER OF HOUSING UNITS AND SEMI-PUBLIC SPACES IN BETWEEN THE ROWS. AN UNIQUE HOUSING UNIT IS REPLICATED IN ORDER TO SIMPLIFY AND RATIONALISE THE CONSTRUCTION.

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TWO STRUCTURAL SYSTEM ARE SUGGESTED: TERRACED HOUSES_STRUCTURAL LOAD BEARING BLOCKS, THAT ALLOW THE FUTURE DWELLERS TO JOIN THE CONSTRUCTION AND REDUCE THE COSTS TOWER_CONCRETE STRUCTURE OF PILLAR AND PRE-FAB SLAB.

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PUBLIC/COMMERCIAL

SEMI-PUBLIC

PRIVATE/RESIDENTIAL

DIFFERENT FUNCTIONS ARE HOSTED IN EACH PLOT: TERRACED HOUSES_EXCLUSIVELY HOST THE RESIDENTIAL FUNCTION. TOWER_RESIDENTIAL IN THE UPPER FLOORS, IT HOST COLLECTIVE SPACES, COMMERCIAL FACILITIES AND TECHNICAL SPACES IN THE GROUND FLOOR.

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1 2 2 1

1_PARKING LOT

2_INNER COURTYARD

DIFFERENT RELATIONSHIP WITH THE STREET: TERRACED HOUSES_THEY FACE THE STREETS WITH PARKING LOTS THAT ACT AS A FILTER, THE CENTRAL ROWS FACE THE INNER PATHS. TOWER_THE FACILITIES HOSTED AT THE GROUND FLOOR MAKE IT PERMEABLE AND MAKE IT ACT AS A SOCIAL ATTRACTOR.

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PROJECT’S PLOTS ORIGINAL PLOTS MAIN TRAFFIC FLOWS SECONDARY TRAFFIC FLOWS NEW ROADS EXISTING ROADS

RE-ARRANGEMENT OF THE ROAD AND THE PLOTS: A NEW ROAD SYSTEM IS SUGGESTED, WITH A NEW HIERARCHY THAT DIFFERENTIATES THE INNER ROADS MAINLY USED BY THE FUTURE DWELLERS AND THE MAIN ROADS CONNECTING THE AREA WITH THE EXISTING CONTEXT. THE PLOTS ARE SLIGHTLY ENLARGED AND IN SOME CASE JOINED, ACCORDING TO THE NEW ROAD SYSTEM AND THE IMPLANT OF THE BUILDINGS.

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Masterplan 1:2000

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BIBLIOGRAPHY AMARAL, Ângela de Arruda Camargo Habitação na Cidade de São Paulo, in Observatório dos Direitos do Cidadão,acompanhamento e análise das políticas públicas da cidade de São Paulo, Instituto Pólis/PUC-SP, 2002 AQUINO, Carlos A luta está no sangue: fanília, política e movimentos de moradia em São Paulo Dissertação apresentada ao Programa de Pós-graduação

em Antropologia Social do Departamento de Antropologia da Faculdade de filosofia, letras e ciências humanas da USP para a obtenção do título de Doutor em Antropologia Social. São Paulo, 2015

BARAVELLI, José O cooperativismo Uruguaio na habitação social de São Paulo, Dissertação apresentada à Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da Universidade de São Paulo FAUUSP para a obtenção de título de mestre. São Paulo, 2006 BONDUKI, Nabil Georges Habitação e autogestão: construindo territórios de utopia, Rio de Janeiro, FASE, 1992 CRUZ, Leandro de Sousa Utopia e pragatismo em cinco propostas de habitação de interesse social no Brasil (1992-2012) Dissertação apresentada à Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da FAU-UFBA para a obtenção de título de mestre. Salvador, 2013

DAVIS, Mike Planet of Slums, Verso, London/New York, 2006 DIAS, Cleonice dos Santos Trabalho social e movimentos de moradia: um estudo sobre a trajetória da assessoria técnica Ambiente Arquitetura e da União dos Movimentos de Moradia de São Paulo Dissertação de Mestrado em

Serviço Social, PUC-SP, São Paulo 2016

MAGNI, Camillo Osservare l’abitare informale con prefazione di Alberto Ferlenga, Maggioli, Santancargelo di Romagna , 2015

MVRDV, FARMAX: excursions on density Rotterdam, nai010 publishers, 1998

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KOHARA, Luiz Tozuki As contribuições dos Movimentos de Moradia do centro para as políticas habitacionais e para o desenvolvimento urbano do centro da cidade de São Paulo Relatório científico final para o programa de

Pós-doutorado, Fundação de Amparo à pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo, FAU-USP, São Paulo, 2013

NAKANO, Anderson K. 4 COHABs da zona leste de São Paulo: território, poder e segregação, Dissertação apresentada à Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da Universidade de São Paulo - FAUUSP para a obtenção de título de mestre.

São Paulo, 2002

NAVAZINAS, Vladimir Arquitetura possível: os espaços comuns na habitação de interesse social em São Paulo Dissertação apresentada à Faculdade

de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da Universidade de São Paulo FAUUSP para a obtenção de título de mestre. São Paulo, 2007

PETRELLA, Guilherme M. Das fronteiras do conjunto ao conjunto das fronteiras, Dissertação apresentada à Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da Universidade de São Paulo FAUUSP para a obtenção de título de mestre. São Paulo, 2009 POMPÉIA, Roberto Alfredo Os Laboratórios de Habotação no ensino da Arquitetura, Tese apresentda ao curso de Pós-Gradiação da FAU-USP, São Paulo, 1992

REALE, Luca, Densità città residenza: tecniche di densificazione e strategie anti-sprawl Gangemi, Roma, 2008 RODRIGUES, Evaniza L. A Estratégia Fundiária dos movimentos populares na produção autogestionária da moradia, Dissertação apresentada à Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo da Universidade de São Paulo FAUUSP para a obtenção de título de mestre. São Paulo, 2013

USINA CTAH, Usina: entre o projeto e o canteiro organização Ícaro Vilaça e Paula Constante, Edições Aurora, São Paulo, 2015

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BIBLIOGRAPHY AMBIENTE ARQUITETURA http://ambientearquitetura.com/ AUTOGESTÃO E MORADIA http://autogestao.unmp.org.br/ HABITASAMPA http://www.habitasampa.inf.br/ PINI, Gabriela Acesso autogestão https://www.acessoautogestao.com/

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INDEX OF IMAGES 1. THE CITY THAT NEVER ENDS 1_J. Domingues dos Santos F.: Planta da Imperial Cidade de São Paulo (1841) 2_Planta geral da capital de Sao Paulo 1897 http://www.arquiamigos.org.br/info/info20/i-1897.htm 3_ 4_ Sao Paulo, south-west area https://bit.ly/2uxNXCv 5_ Cidade Tiradentes http://www.saopaulobairros.com.br/cidade-tiradentes/

2. SÓ HÁ VITÓRIA COM A LUTA! 1_ Arquivo Nacional Brasileiro: Tanques e veículos do Exército em frente do Congresso Nacional 2_TABLE_ Comparative cost of Promorar’s projects from the 1980s: from BONDUKI, Nabil G. “Habitação e autogestão: construindo territórios de utopia”, Rio de Janeiro, FASE, 1992. Pag. 38

3_ Federico Kulekdjian: Complejo Habitacional Bulevar Artigas. Montevideo 4_ Diego Nicolas Perez Moreira https://bit.ly/2RHhf97 5_ USINA ctah: picture of the COVITEL housing complex in Montevideo .

6_ Célio Azevedo - Agência Senado: Manifestantes sobem na cúpula da Câmara no dia da votação 7_Ambiente Arquitetura: assembleia José Maria Amaral

3. CASE STUDIES COPROMO 1-5_USINA ctah: construction of Copromo MUTIRÃO PAULO FREIRE 1,3,4,5,6,7,10_USINA ctah: Mutirão Paulo Freire 2_Social housing complexes in Cidade Tiradentes https://bit.ly/2L1jVMb 8,9_ Carol Godefroid https://bit.ly/2SvQqEI CONJUNTO FLORESTAN FERNANDES AND JOSÉ MARIA AMARAL

1_courtesy of Ambiente Arquitetura 2_picture taken from the facebook page of Nabil Bonduki 3_ Ass. Hab. do Bem Viver de Taboão da Serra. https://bit.ly/2zPaWJz 4_ unknown author https://bit.ly/2Sx04Hm

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